lairds and ministers in their districts, armed with due power from the
privy council, tried and condemned old women after the most summary
fashion. Those who still clung to the ancient faith of Rome were the
severest sufferers, as it was thought, after the disclosures of the fierce
enmity borne by the devil towards a Protestant king and his Protestant
wife, that all the Catholics were leagued with the powers of evil to work
woe on the realm of Scotland. Upon a very moderate calculation, it is
presumed that from the passing of the act of Queen Mary till the accession
of James to the throne of England, a period of thirty-nine years, the
average number of executions for witchcraft in Scotland was two hundred
annually, or upwards of seventeen thousand altogether. For the first nine
years the number was not one quarter so great; but towards the years 1590
to 1593, the number must have been more than four hundred. The case last
cited was one of an extraordinary character. The general aspect of the
trials will be better seen from that of Isabel Gowdie, which, as it would
be both wearisome and disgusting to go through them all, is given as a
fair specimen, although it took place at a date somewhat later than the
reign of James. This woman, wearied of her life by the persecutions of her
neighbours, voluntarily gave herself up to justice, and made a confession,
embodying the whole witch-creed of the period. She was undoubtedly a
monomaniac of the most extraordinary kind. She said that she deserved to
be stretched upon an iron rack, and that her crimes could never be atoned
for, even if she were to be drawn asunder by wild horses. She named a long
list of her associates, including nearly fifty women and a few warlocks.
They dug up the graves of unchristened infants, whose limbs were
serviceable in their enchantments. When they wanted to destroy the crops
of an enemy, they yoked toads to his plough, and on the following night
Satan himself ploughed the land with his team, and blasted it for the
season. The witches had power to assume almost any shape; but they
generally chose either that of a cat or a hare, oftenest the latter.
Isabel said, that on one occasion, when she was in this disguise, she was
sore pressed by a pack of hounds, and had a very narrow escape with her
life. She reached her own door at last, feeling the hot breath of the
pursuing dogs at her haunches. She managed, however, to hide herself
behind a chest, and got time to pronounce the magic words that could alone
restore her to her proper shape. They were:
"Hare! hare!
God send thee care!
I am in a hare's likeness now;
But I shall be a woman e'en now!
Hare! hare!
God send thee care!"
If witches, when in this shape, were bitten by the dogs, they always
retained the marks in their human form; but she had never heard that any
witch had been bitten to death. When the devil appointed any general
meeting of the witches, the custom was that they should proceed through
the air mounted on broomsticks, or on corn or bean-straws, pronouncing as
they went:
"Horse and pattock, horse and go,
Horse and pellats, ho! ho! ho!"
They generally left behind them a broom or a three-legged stool, which,
when placed in their beds and duly charmed, assumed the human shape till
their return. This was done that the neighbours might not know when they
were absent.
She added that the devil furnished his favourite witches with servant imps
to attend upon them. These imps were called, "The Roaring Lion," "Thief of
Hell," "Wait-upon-Herself," "Ranting Roarer," "Care-for-Naught," &c., and
were known by their liveries, which were generally yellow, sad-dun,
sea-green, pea-green, or grass-green. Satan never called the witches by
the names they had received at baptism; neither were they allowed, in his
presence, so to designate each other. Such a breach of the infernal
etiquette assuredly drew down his most severe displeasure. But as some
designation was necessary, he re-baptised them in their own blood by the
names of "Able-and-Stout," "Over-the-dike-with-it," "Raise-the-wind,"
"Pickle-nearest-the-wind," "Batter-them-down-Maggy," "Blow-Kale," and such
like. The devil himself was not very particular what name they called him,
so that it was not "Black John." If any witch was unthinking enough to
utter these words, he would rush out upon her and beat and buffet her
unmercifully, or tear her flesh with a wool-card. Other names he did not
care about; and once gave instructions to a noted warlock that whenever he
wanted his aid, he was to strike the ground three times and exclaim, "Rise
up, foul thief!"
[Illustration: SIR G. MACKENZIE.]
Upon this confession many persons were executed. So strong was the popular
feeling, that no one once accused of witchcraft was acquitted; at least
acquittals did not average one in a hundred trials. Witch-finding, or
witch-pricking, became a trade, and a set of mercenary vagabonds roamed
about the country provided with long pins to run into the flesh of
supposed criminals. It was no unusual thing then, nor is it now, that in
aged persons there should be some spot on the body totally devoid of
feeling. It was the object of the witch-pricker to discover this spot, and
the unhappy wight who did not bleed when pricked upon it was doomed to the
death. If not immediately cast into prison, her life was rendered
miserable by the persecution of her neighbours. It is recorded of many
poor women, that the annoyances they endured in this way were so
excessive, that they preferred death. Sir George Mackenzie, the Lord
Advocate, at the time when witch trials were so frequent, and himself a
devout believer in the crime, relates, in his _Criminal Law_, first
published in 1678, some remarkable instances of it. He says, "I went, when
I was a justice-depute, to examine some women who had confessed
judicially; and one of them, who was a silly creature, told me, under
secrecy, that she had not confessed because she was guilty, but being a
poor creature, who wrought for her meat, and being defamed for a witch,
she knew she should starve, for no person thereafter would either give her
meat or lodging, and that all men would beat her and set dogs at her, and
that, therefore, she desired to be out of the world; whereupon she wept
most bitterly, and upon her knees called God to witness to what she said."
Sir George, though not wholly elevated above the prejudices of his age
upon this subject, was clear-sighted enough to see the danger to society
of the undue encouragement given to the witch prosecutions. He was
convinced that three-fourths of them were unjust and unfounded. He says,
in the work already quoted, that the persons who were in general accused
of this crime were poor ignorant men and women who did not understand the
nature of the accusation, and who mistook their own superstitious fears
for witchcraft. One poor wretch, a weaver, confessed that he was a
warlock, and, being asked why, he replied, because "he had seen the devil
dancing, like a fly, about the candle!" A simple woman, who, because she
was called a witch, believed that she was, asked the judge upon the bench
whether a person might be a witch and not know it? Sir George adds, that
all the supposed criminals were subjected to severe torture in prison from
their gaolers, who thought they did God good service by vexing and
tormenting them; "and I know," says this humane and enlightened
magistrate, "that this usage was the ground of all their confession; and
albeit, the poor miscreants cannot prove this usage, the actors in it
being the only witnesses; yet the judge should be jealous of it, as that
which did at first elicit the confession, and for fear of which they dare
not retract it." Another author,[31] also a firm believer in witchcraft,
gives a still more lamentable instance of a woman who preferred execution
as a witch to live on under the imputation. This woman, who knew that
three others were to be strangled and burned on an early day, sent for the
minister of the parish, and confessed that she had sold her soul to Satan.
"Whereupon being called before the judges, she was condemned to die with
the rest. Being carried forth to the place of execution, she remained
silent during the first, second, and third prayer, and then, perceiving
that there remained no more but to rise and go to the stake, she lifted up
her body, and, with a loud voice, cried out, 'Now all you that see me this
day, know that I am now to die as a witch, by my own confession; and I
free all men, especially the ministers and magistrates, of the guilt of my
blood. I take it wholly upon myself. My blood be upon my own head. And, as
I must make answer to the God of heaven presently, I declare I am as free
of witchcraft as any child. But, being delated by a malicious woman, and
put in prison under the name of a witch, disowned by my husband and
friends, and seeing no ground of hope of ever coming out again, I made up
that confession to destroy my own life, being weary of it, and choosing
rather to die than to live.'" As a proof of the singular obstinacy and
blindness of the believers in witches, it may be stated that the minister
who relates this story only saw in the dying speech of the unhappy woman
an additional proof that she was a witch. True, indeed is it, that "none
are so blind as those who will not see."
[31] _Satan's Invisible World Discovered_, by the Rev. G.
Sinclair.
It is time, however, to return to James VI., who is fairly entitled to
share with Pope Innocent, Sprenger, Bodinus, and Matthew Hopkins the glory
or the odium of being at the same time a chief enemy and chief encourager
of witchcraft. Towards the close of the sixteenth century, many learned
men, both on the continent and in the isles of Britain, had endeavoured to
disabuse the public mind on this subject. The most celebrated were Wierus,
in Germany; Pietro d'Apone, in Italy; and Reginald Scot, in England. Their
works excited the attention of the zealous James, who, mindful of the
involuntary compliment which his merits had extorted from the devil, was
ambitious to deserve it by still continuing "his greatest enemie." In the
year 1597, he published in Edinburgh his famous treatise on Demonology.
Its design may be gathered from the following passage in the introduction:
"The fearful abounding," says the king, "at this time and in this country
of these detestable slaves of the devil, the witches or enchanters, hath
moved me, beloved reader, to despatch in post this following treatise of
mine, not in any wise, as I protest, to serve for a show of mine own
learning and ingene [ingenuity], but only (moved of conscience) to press
thereby, so far as I can, to resolve the doubting hearts of many, both
that such assaults of Satan are most certainly practised, and that the
instrument thereof merits most severely to be punished, against the
damnable opinions of two, principally in our age; whereof the one called
Scot, an Englishman, is not ashamed in public print to deny that there can
be such thing as witchcraft, and so maintains the old error of the
Sadducees in denying of spirits. The other, called Wierus, a German
physician, sets out a public apology for all these crafts-folks, whereby
procuring for them impunity, he plainly betrays himself to have been one
of that profession." In other parts of this treatise, which the author had
put into the form of a dialogue, to "make it more pleasant and facile," he
says: "Witches ought to be put to death, according to the law of God, the
civil and imperial law, and the municipal law of all Christian nations:
yea, to spare the life, and not strike whom God bids strike and so
severely punish in so odious a treason against God, is not only unlawful,
but doubtless as great a sin in the magistrate as was Saul's sparing
Agag." He says also that the crime is so abominable, that it may be proved
by evidence which would not be received against any other
offenders,--young children, who knew not the nature of an oath, and
persons of an infamous character, being sufficient witnesses against them;
but lest the innocent should be accused of a crime so difficult to be
acquitted of, he recommends that in all cases the ordeal should be
resorted to. He says, "Two good helps may be used: the one is the finding
of their mark, and the trying the insensibleness thereof; the other is
their floating on the water,--for, as in a secret murther, if the dead
carcass be at any time thereafter handled by the murtherer, it will gush
out of blood, as if the blood were crying to Heaven for revenge of the
murtherer (God having appointed that secret supernatural sign for trial of
that secret unnatural crime), so that it appears that God hath appointed
(for a supernatural sign of the monstrous impiety of witches) that the
water shall refuse to receive them in her bosom that have shaken off them
the sacred water of baptism, and wilfully refused the benefit
thereof;--no, not so much as their eyes are able to shed tears (threaten
and torture them as you please), while first they repent (God not
permitting them to dissemble their obstinacy in so horrible a crime);
albeit, the womenkind especially, be able otherwise to shed tears at every
light occasion when they will, yea, although it were dissembling like the
crocodiles."
[Illustration: PIETRO D'APONE.]
When such doctrines as these were openly promulgated by the highest
authority in the realm, and who, in promulgating them, flattered, but did
not force the public opinion, it is not surprising that the sad delusion
should have increased and multiplied until the race of wizards and witches
replenished the earth. The reputation which he lost by being afraid of a
naked sword, he more than regained by his courage in combating the devil.
The Kirk shewed itself a most zealous coadjutor, especially during those
halcyon days when it was not at issue with the king upon other matters of
doctrine and prerogative.
On his accession to the throne of England in 1603, James came amongst a
people who had heard with admiration of his glorious deeds against the
witches. He himself left no part of his ancient prejudices behind him; and
his advent was the signal for the persecution to burst forth in England
with a fury equal to that in Scotland. It had languished a little during
the latter years of the reign of Elizabeth; but the very first parliament
of King James brought forward the subject. James was flattered by their
promptitude, and the act passed in 1604. On the second reading in the
House of Lords, the bill passed into a committee, in which were twelve
bishops. By it was enacted, "That if any person shall use, practise, or
exercise any conjuration of any wicked or evil spirit, or shall consult,
covenant with, or feed any such spirit, the first offence to be
imprisonment for a year, and standing in the pillory once a quarter; the
second offence to be death."
The minor punishment seems but rarely to have been inflicted. Every record
that has been preserved mentions that the witches were hanged and burned,
or burned, without the previous strangling, "alive and quick." During the
whole of James's reign, amid the civil wars of his successor, the sway of
the Long Parliament, the usurpation of Cromwell, and the reign of Charles
II., there was no abatement of the persecution. If at any time it raged
with less virulence, it was when Cromwell and the Independents were
masters. Dr. Zachary Grey, the editor of an edition of "Hudibras," informs
us, in a note to that work, that he himself perused a list of three
thousand witches who were executed in the time of the Long Parliament
alone. During the first eighty years of the seventeenth century, the
number executed has been estimated at five hundred annually, making the
frightful total of forty thousand. Some of these cases deserve to be
cited. The great majority resemble closely those already mentioned; but
two or three of them let in a new light upon the popular superstition.
Every one has heard of the "Lancashire witches," a phrase now used to
compliment the ladies of that county for their bewitching beauty; but it
is not every one who has heard the story in which it originated. A
villanous boy, named Robinson, was the chief actor in the tragedy. He
confessed many years afterwards that he had been suborned by his father
and other persons to give false evidence against the unhappy witches whom
he brought to the stake. The time of this famous trial was about the year
1634. This boy Robinson, whose father was a wood-cutter, residing on the
borders of Pendle Forest, in Lancashire, spread abroad many rumours
against one Mother Dickenson, whom he accused of being a witch. These
rumours coming to the ears of the local magistracy, the boy was sent for
and strictly examined. He told the following extraordinary story without
hesitation or prevarication, and apparently in so open and honest a
manner, that no one who heard him doubted the truth of it. He said, that
as he was roaming about in one of the glades of the forest, amusing
himself by gathering blackberries, he saw two greyhounds before him, which
he thought at the time belonged to some gentleman of the neighbourhood.
Being fond of sport, he proposed to have a course; and a hare being
started, he incited the hounds to run. Neither of them would stir. Angry
at the beasts, he seized hold of a switch, with which he was about to
punish them, when one of them suddenly started up in the form of a woman,
and the other of a little boy. He at once recognised the woman to be the
witch Mother Dickenson. She offered him some money to induce him to sell
his soul to the devil; but he refused. Upon this she took a bridle out of
her pocket, and shaking it over the head of the other little boy, he was
instantly turned into a horse. Mother Dickenson then seized him in her
arms, sprang upon the horse, and placing him before her, rode with the
swiftness of the wind over forests, fields, bogs, and rivers, until they
came to a large barn. The witch alighted at the door, and, taking him by
the hand, led him inside. There he saw seven old women pulling at seven
halters which hung from the roof. As they pulled, large pieces of meat,
lumps of butter, loaves of bread, basins of milk, hot puddings, black
puddings, and other rural dainties, fell from the halters on to the floor.
While engaged in this charm, they made such ugly faces, and looked so
fiendish, that he was quite frightened. After they had pulled in this
manner enough for an ample feast, they set-to, and shewed, whatever might
be said of the way in which their supper was procured, that their
epicurism was a little more refined than that of the Scottish witches,
who, according to Gellie Duncan's confession, feasted upon dead men's
flesh in the old kirk of Berwick. The boy added, that as soon as supper
was ready, many other witches came to partake of it, several of whom he
named.
In consequence of this story, many persons were arrested, and the boy
Robinson was led about from church to church, in order that he might point
out to the officers by whom he was accompanied the hags he had seen in the
barn. Altogether, about twenty persons were thrown into prison; eight of
them were condemned to die, including Mother Dickenson, upon this evidence
alone, and executed accordingly. Among the wretches who concocted this
notable story, not one was ever brought to justice for his perjury; and
Robinson, the father, gained considerable sums by threatening persons who
were rich enough to buy off exposure.
Among the ill-weeds which flourished amid the long dissensions of the
civil war, Matthew Hopkins, the witch-finder, stands eminent in his
sphere. This vulgar fellow resided, in the year 1644, at the town of
Manningtree, in Essex, and made himself very conspicuous in discovering
the devil's marks upon several unhappy witches. The credit he gained by
his skill in this instance seems to have inspired him to renewed
exertions. In the course of a very short time, whenever a witch was spoken
of in Essex, Matthew Hopkins was sure to be present, aiding the judges
with his knowledge of "such cattle," as he called them. As his reputation
increased, he assumed the title of "Witch-finder General," and travelled
through the counties of Norfolk, Essex, Huntingdon, and Sussex, for the
sole purpose of finding out witches. In one year he brought sixty poor
creatures to the stake. The test he commonly adopted was that of swimming,
so highly recommended by King James in his _Demonologie_. The hands and
feet of the suspected persons were tied together crosswise, the thumb of
the right hand to the toe of the left foot, and _vice versa_. They were
then wrapped up in a large sheet or blanket, and laid upon their backs in
a pond or river. If they sank, their friends and relatives had the poor
consolation of knowing they were innocent; but there was an end of them:
if they floated, which, when laid carefully on the water, was generally
the case, there was also an end of them; for they were deemed guilty of
witchcraft, and burned accordingly.
Another test was to make them repeat the Lord's prayer and creed. It was
affirmed that no witch could do so correctly. If she missed a word, or
even pronounced one incoherently, which in her trepidation it was most
probable she would, she was accounted guilty. It was thought that witches
could not weep more than three tears, and those only from the left eye.
Thus the conscious innocence of many persons, which gave them fortitude to
bear unmerited torture without flinching, was construed by their
unmerciful tormentors into proofs of guilt. In some districts the test
resorted to was to weigh the culprit against the church Bible. If the
suspected witch proved heavier than the Bible, she was set at liberty.
This mode was far too humane for the witch-finders by profession. Hopkins
always maintained that the most legitimate modes were pricking and
swimming.
Hopkins used to travel through his counties like a man of consideration,
attended by his two assistants, always putting up at the chief inn of the
place, and always at the cost of the authorities. His charges were twenty
shillings a town, his expenses of living while there, and his carriage
thither and back. This he claimed whether he found witches or not. If he
found any, he claimed twenty shillings a head in addition when they were
brought to execution. For about three years he carried on this infamous
trade, success making him so insolent and rapacious that high and low
became his enemies. The Rev. Mr. Gaul, a clergyman of Houghton, in
Huntingdonshire, wrote a pamphlet impugning his pretensions, and accusing
him of being a common nuisance. Hopkins replied in an angry letter to the
functionaries of Houghton, stating his intention to visit their town; but
desiring to know whether it afforded many such sticklers for witchcraft as
Mr. Gaul, and whether they were willing to receive and entertain him with
the customary hospitality, if he so far honoured them. He added, by way of
threat, that in case he did not receive a satisfactory reply, "he would
waive their shire altogether, and betake himself to such places where he
might do and punish, not only without control, but with thanks and
recompense." The authorities of Houghton were not much alarmed at this
awful threat of letting them alone. They very wisely took no notice either
of him or his letter.
Mr. Gaul describes in his pamphlet one of the modes employed by Hopkins,
which was sure to swell his revenues very considerably. It was a proof
even more atrocious than the swimming. He says, that the "Witch-finder
General" used to take the suspected witch and place her in the middle of a
room, upon a stool or table, cross-legged, or in some other uneasy
posture. If she refused to sit in this manner, she was bound with strong
cords. Hopkins then placed persons to watch her for four-and-twenty hours,
during which time she was to be kept without meat or drink. It was
supposed that one of her imps would come during that interval and suck her
blood. As the imp might come in the shape of a wasp, a moth, a fly, or
other insect, a hole was made in the door or window to let it enter. The
watchers were ordered to keep a sharp look out, and endeavour to kill any
insect that appeared in the room. If any fly escaped, and they could not
kill it, the woman was guilty; the fly was her imp, and she was sentenced
to be burned, and twenty shillings went into the pockets of Master
Hopkins. In this manner he made one old woman confess, because four flies
had appeared in the room, that she was attended by four imps, named
"Ilemazar," "Pye-wackett," "Peck-in-the-crown," and "Grizel-Greedigut."
[Illustration: MATTHEW HOPKINS.[32]]