The 'Discoverie of Witchcraft,' published 1584--Wier's 'De
Praestigiis Daemonum, &c.'--Naude--Jean Bodin--His 'De la
Demonomanie des Sorciers,' published at Paris, 1580--His
authority--Nider--Witch-case at Warboys--Evidence adduced at
the Trial--Remarkable as being the origin of the institution
of an Annual Sermon at Huntingdon.
Three years after this affair, Dr. Reginald Scot published his
'Discoverie of Witchcraft, proving that common opinions of
witches contracting with devils, spirits, or their familiars, and
their power to kill, torment, and consume the bodies of men,
women, and children, or other creatures, by disease, or
otherwise, their flying in the air, &c., to be but imaginary,
erroneous conceptions and novelties: wherein also the lewd,
unchristian, practices of witchmongers upon aged, melancholy,
ignorant, and superstitious people, in extorting confessions by
inhuman terrors and tortures, is notably detected.'[99]
[99] The edition referred to is that of 1654. The author is
commemorated by Hallam in terms of high praise--'A solid and
learned person, beyond almost all the English of that
age.'--_Introduction to the Literature of Europe in the
Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries._
This work is divided into sixteen books, with a treatise affixed
upon devils and spirits, in thirty-four chapters. It contains an
infinity of quotations from or references to the writings of
those whom the author terms _witch-mongers_; and several chapters
are devoted to a descriptive catalogue of the charms in repute
and diabolical rites of the most extravagant sort. On the
accession of James I., whose 'Demonologie' was in direct
opposition to the 'Discoverie,' it was condemned as monstrously
heretical; as many copies as could be collected being solemnly
committed to the flames. This meritorious and curious production
is therefore now scarce.
Prefixed is a dedicatory epistle, addressed to the Right
Worshipful, his loving friend, Mr. Dr. Coldwell, Dean of
Rochester, and Mr. Dr. Readman, Archdeacon of Canterbury, in
which the author appealingly expostulates, 'O Master Archdeacon,
is it not pity that that which is said to be done with the
almighty power of the Most High God, and by our Saviour his only
Son Jesus Christ our Lord, should be referred to a baggage old
woman's nod or wish? Good sir, is it not one manifest kind of
idolatry for them that labour and are laden to come unto witches
to be refreshed? If witches could help whom they are said to have
made sick, I see no reason but remedy might as well be required
at their hands as a purse demanded of him that hath stolen it.
But truly it is manifest idolatry to ask that of a creature
which none can give but the Creator. The papist hath some colour
of Scripture to maintain his idol of bread, but no Jesuitical
distinction can cover the witchmongers' idolatry in this behalf.
Alas! I am ashamed and sorry to see how many die that, being said
to be bewitched, only seek for magical cures whom wholesome diet
and good medicine would have recovered.'[100] An utterance of
courage and common sense equally rare and useless. Reginald Scot,
perhaps the boldest of the early impugners of witchcraft, was yet
convinced apparently of the reality of ghostly apparitions.
[100] Writing in an age when the _magical_ powers of steam
and electricity were yet undiscovered, it might be a
forcible argument to put--'Good Mr. Dean, is it possible for
a man to break his fast with you at Rochester, and to dine
that day in Durham with Master Dr. Matthew?'
Johannes Wierus, physician to the Duke of Cleves, and a disciple
of the well-known Cornelius Agrippa (himself accused of devotion
to the black art), in 1563 created considerable sensation by an
attack upon the common opinions, without questioning however the
principles, of the superstition in his 'De Praestigiis Daemonum
Incantationibus et Veneficiis.' His common sense is not so clear
as that of the Englishman. Another name, memorable among the
advocates of Reason and Humanity, is Gabriel Naude. He was
born at Paris in 1600; he practised as a physician of great
reputation, and was librarian successively to Cardinals Richelieu
and Mazarin, and to Queen Christina of Sweden. His book 'Apologie
pour les Grands Hommes accuses de Magie,' published in Paris in
1625, was received with great indignation by the Church. Some
others, both on the Continent and in England, at intervals by
their protests served to prove that a few sparks of reason, hard
to be discovered in the thick darkness of superstition, remained
unextinguished; but they availed not to stem the torrent of
increasing violence and volume.
A more copious list can be given of the champions of orthodoxy
and demonolatry; of whom it is sufficient to enumerate the more
notorious names--Sprenger, Nider, Bodin, Del Rio, James VI.,
Glanvil, who compiled or composed elaborate treatises on the
subject; besides whom a cloud of witnesses expressly or
incidentally proclaimed the undoubted genuineness of all the
acts, phenomena, and circumstances of the diabolic worship;
loudly and fiercely denouncing the 'damnable infidelity' of the
dissenters--a proof in itself of their own complicity. Jean
Bodin, a French lawyer, and author of the esteemed treatise 'De
la Republique,' was one of the greatest authorities on the
orthodox side. His publication 'De la Demonomanie des Sorciers'
appeared in Paris in the year 1580: an undertaking prompted by
his having witnessed some of the daily occurring trials. Instead
of being convinced of their folly, he was or affected to be,
certain of their truth, setting himself gravely to the task of
publishing to the world his own observations and convictions.
One of the most surprising facts in the whole history of
witchcraft is the insensibility or indifference of even men of
science, and therefore observation, to the obvious origin of the
greatest part of the confessions elicited; confession of such a
kind as could be the product only of torture, madness, or some
other equally obvious cause. Bodin himself, however, sufficiently
explains the fact and exposes the secret. 'The trial of this
offence,' he enunciates, 'must not be conducted like other
crimes. Whoever adheres to the ordinary course of justice
perverts the spirit of the law both divine and human. He who is
accused of sorcery should _never_ be acquitted unless the malice
of the prosecutor be clearer than the sun; for it is so difficult
to bring full proof of this secret crime, that out of a million
of witches _not one would be convicted if the usual course were
followed_.'[101] He speaks of an old woman sentenced to the stake
after confessing to having been transported to the sabbath in a
state of insensibility. Her judges, anxious to know how this was
effected, released her from her fetters, when she rubbed herself
on the different parts of her body with a prepared unguent and
soon became insensible, stiff, and apparently dead. Having
remained in that condition for five hours, the witch as suddenly
revived, relating to the trembling inquisitors a number of
extraordinary things proving she must have been _spiritually_
transported to distant places.[102] An earlier advocate of the
orthodox cause was a Swiss friar, Nider, who wrote a work
entitled 'Formicarium' (_Ant-Hill_) on the various sins against
religion. One section is employed in the consideration of
sorcery. Nider was one of the inquisitors who distinguished
themselves by their successful zeal in the beginning of the
century.
[101] Yet the lawyer who enunciated such a maxim as this has
been celebrated for an unusual liberality of sentiment in
religious and political matters, as well as for his
learning. Dugald Stewart commends 'the liberal and moderate
views of this philosophical politician,' as shown in the
treatise _De la Republique_, and states that he knows of 'no
political writer of the same date whose extensive, and
various, and discriminating reading appears to me to have
contributed more to facilitate and to guide the researches
of his successors, or whose references to ancient learning
have been more frequently transcribed without
acknowledgment.'--Bayle considered him 'one of the ablest
men that appeared in France during the sixteenth
century.'--_Dissertation First_ in the _Encyclopaedia
Britannica_. Hallam (_Introduction to the Literature of
Europe_) occupies several of his pages in the review of
Bodin's writings. Jean Bodin, however, on the authority of
his friend De Thou, did not escape suspicion himself of
being heretical.
[102] In witchcraft (as in the sacramental mystery) it was a
subject for much doubt and dispute whether there might not be
simply a _spiritual_ (without a _real corporeal_) presence at
the sabbath. Each one decided according to the degree of his
orthodoxy.
The Swiss witches, like the old Italian larvae and most of the
sisterhood, display extraordinary affection for the blood of
new-born unbaptized infants; and it is a great desideratum to
kill them before the preventive rite has been irrevocably
administered; for the bodies of unbaptized children were almost
indispensable in the witches' preparations. Soon as buried their
corpses are dug out of their graves and carried away to the place
of assembly, where they are boiled down for the fat for making
the ointments.[103] The liquid in which they are boiled is
carefully preserved; and the person who tastes it is immediately
initiated into all the mysteries of sorcery. A witch, judicially
examined by the papal commission which compiled the 'Malleus,'
gives evidence of the prevalence of this practice: 'We lie in
wait for children. These are often found dead by their parents;
and the simple people believe that they have themselves overlain
them, or that they died from natural causes; but it is we who
have destroyed them. We steal them out of the grave, and boil
them with lime till all the flesh is loosed from the bones and is
reduced to one mass. We make of the firm part an ointment, and
fill a bottle with the fluid; and whoever drinks with due
ceremonies of this belongs to our league, and is already capable
of bewitching.' 'Finger of birth-strangled babe' is one of the
ingredients of that widely-collected composition of the Macbeth
witches.
[103] A practice not entirely out of repute at the present
day if we may credit a statement in the _Courrier du Havre_
(as quoted in _The Times_ newspaper, Nov. 7, 1864), that
recently the corpse of an old woman was dug up for the
purpose of obtaining the fat, &c., as a preventive charm
against witchcraft, by a person living in the neighbourhood
of Havre.
The case at Warboys, which, connected with a family of some
distinction, occasioned unusual interest, was tried in the year
1593. The village of Warboys, or Warbois, is situated in the
neighbourhood of Huntingdon. One of the most influential of
the inhabitants was a gentleman of respectability, Robert
Throgmorton, who was on friendly terms with the Cromwells of
Hitchinbrook, and the lord of the manor, Sir Henry Cromwell.
Three criminals--old Samuel, his wife, and Agnes Samuel their
daughter, were tried and condemned by Mr. Justice Fenner for
bewitching Mr. Throgmorton's five children, seven servants, the
Lady Cromwell, and others. The father and daughter maintained
their innocence to the last; the old woman confessed. A fact
which makes this affair more remarkable is, that with the forty
pounds escheated to him, as lord of the manor, out of the
property of the convicts, Sir Samuel Cromwell founded an annual
sermon or lecture upon the sin of witchcraft, to be preached at
their town every Lady-day, by a Doctor or Bachelor of Divinity of
Queen's College, Cambridge; the sum of forty pounds being
entrusted to the Mayor and Aldermen of Huntingdon, for a
rent-charge of forty shillings yearly to be paid to the select
preacher. This lecture, says Dr. Francis Hutchison, is continued
to this day--1718.
Four years previously to this important trial, Jane Throgmorton,
a girl ten years of age, was first suddenly attacked with strange
convulsive fits, which continued daily, and even several times in
the day, without intermission. One day, soon after the first
seizure, Mother Samuel coming into the Throgmortons' house,
seated herself as customary in a chimney-corner near the child,
who was just recovering from one of her fits. The girl no sooner
noticed her than she began to cry out, pointing to the old woman,
'Did you ever see one more like a witch than she is? Take off her
black-thumbed cap, for I cannot abide to look at her.' The
illness becoming worse, they sent to Cambridge to consult Dr.
Barrow, an experienced physician in that town; but he could
discover no natural disease. A month later, the other children
were similarly seized, and persuaded of Mother Samuel's guilt.
The parents' increasing suspicions, entertained by the doctors,
were confirmed when the servants were also attacked. About the
middle of March, 1590, Lady Cromwell arrived on a visit to the
Throgmortons; and being much affected at the sufferings of the
patients, sent for the suspected person, whom she charged with
being the malicious cause. Finding all entreaty of no avail in
extorting an admission of guilt, Lady Cromwell suddenly and
unexpectedly cut off a lock of the witch's hair (a powerful
counter-charm), at the same time secretly placing it in Mrs.
Throgmorton's hands, desiring her to burn it. Indignant, the
accused addressed the lady, 'Madam, why do you use me thus? I
never did you any harm _as yet_'--words afterwards recollected.
'That night,' says the narrative, 'my lady Cromwell was suddenly
troubled in her sleep by a cat which Mother S. had sent her,
which offered to pluck the skin and flesh off her bones and arms.
The struggle betwixt the cat and the lady was so great in her bed
that night, and she made so terrible a noise, that she waked her
bedfellow Mrs. C.' Whether, 'as some sager' might think, it was a
nightmare (a sort of incubus which terrified the disordered
imagination of the ancients), or some more substantial object
that disturbed the rest of the lady, it is not important to
decide; but next day Lady Cromwell was laid up with an incurable
illness. Holding out obstinately against all threats and
promises, the reputed witch was at length induced to pronounce an
exorcism, when the afflicted were immediately for the time
dispossessed. 'Next day being Christmas-eve and the Sabbath, Dr.
Donington [vicar of the parish] chose his text of repentance out
of the _Psalms_, and communicating her confession to the
assembly, directed his discourse chiefly to that purpose
to comfort a penitent heart that it might affect her. All
sermon-time Mother S. wept and lamented, and was frequently so
loud in her passions, that she drew the eyes of the congregation
upon her.' On the morrow, greatly to the disappointment of the
neighbours, she contradicted her former confession, declaring it
was extracted by surprise at finding her exorcism had relieved
the child, unconscious of what she was saying.
The case was afterwards carried before the Bishop of Lincoln. Now
greatly alarmed, the old woman made a fresh announcement that she
was really a witch; that she owned several spirits (of the nine
may be enumerated the fantastic names of Pluck, Hardname, Catch,
Smack, Blew), one of whom was used to appear in the shape of a
chicken, and suck her chin. The mother and daughters were, upon
this voluntary admission, committed to Huntingdon gaol. Of the
possessed Jane Throgmorton seems to have been most familiar with
the demons.[104]
[104] The following ravings of epilepsy, or of whatever was
the disorder of the girl, are part of the evidence of Dr.
Donington, clergyman in the town, and were narrated and
could be received as grave evidence in a court of justice.
They will serve as a specimen of the rest. The girl and the
spirit known as _Catch_ are engaged in the little by-play.
'After supper, as soon as her parents were risen, she fell
into the same fit again as before, and then became
senseless, and in a little time, opening her mouth, she
said, "Will this hold for ever? I hope it will be better one
day. From whence come you now, Catch, limping? I hope you
have met with your match." Catch answered that Smack and he
had been fighting, and that Smack had broken his leg. Said
she, "That Smack is a shrewd fellow; methinks I would I
could see him. Pluck came last night with his head broke,
and now you have broken your leg. I hope he will break both
your necks before he hath done with you." Catch answered
that he would be even with him before he had done. Then,
said she, "Put forth your other leg, and let me see if I can
break that," having a stick in her hand. The spirit told her
she could not hit him. "Can I not hit you?" said she; "let
me try." Then the spirit put forth his leg, and she lifted
up the stick easily, and suddenly struck the ground.... So
she seemed divers times to strike at the spirit; but he
leaped over the stick, as she said, like a Jackanapes. So
after many such tricks the spirit went away, and she came
out of her fit, continuing all that night and the next day
very sick and full of pain in her legs.'
The sessions at Huntingdon began April 4, 1593, when the three
Samuels were arraigned; and the above charges, with much more of
the same sort, were repeated: the indictments specifying the
particular offences against the children and servants of the
Throgmortons, and the 'bewitching unto death' of the lady
Cromwell. The grand jury found a true bill immediately, and they
were put upon their trial in court. After a mass of nonsense had
been gone through, 'the judge, justices, and jury said the case
was apparent, and their consciences were well satisfied that the
said witches were guilty, and deserved death.' When sentence of
death was pronounced, the old woman, sixty years of age, pleaded,
in arrest of judgment, that she was with child--a pleading which
produced only a derisive shout of laughter in court. Husband and
daughter asserted their innocence to the last. All three were
hanged. From the moment of execution, we are assured, Robert
Throgmorton's children were permanently freed from all their
sufferings. Such, briefly, are the circumstances of a witch case
that resulted in the sending to the gallows three harmless
wretches, and in the founding an annual sermon which perpetuated
the memory of an iniquitous act and of an impossible crime. The
sermon, it may be presumed, like other similar surviving
institutions, was preserved in the eighteenth century more for
the benefit of the select preacher than for that of the people.