individuals fitted to take advantage from them, and having a character
suited to the seasons which raise them into notice and action; just as a
blight on any tree or vegetable calls to life a peculiar insect to feed
upon and enjoy the decay which it has produced. A monster like Hopkins
could only have existed during the confusion of civil dissension. He was
perhaps a native of Manningtree, in Essex; at any rate, he resided there
in the year 1644, when an epidemic outcry of witchcraft arose in that
town. Upon this occasion he had made himself busy, and, affecting more
zeal and knowledge than other men, learned his trade of a witchfinder,
as he pretends, from experiment. He was afterwards permitted to perform
it as a legal profession, and moved from one place to another, with an
assistant named Sterne, and a female. In his defence against an
accusation of fleecing the country, he declares his regular charge was
twenty shillings a town, including charges of living and journeying
thither and back again with his assistants. He also affirms that he went
nowhere unless called and invited. His principal mode of discovery was
to strip the accused persons naked, and thrust pins into various parts
of their body, to discover the witch's mark, which was supposed to be
inflicted by the devil as a sign of his sovereignty, and at which she
was also said to suckle her imps. He also practised and stoutly defended
the trial by swimming, when the suspected person was wrapped in a sheet,
having the great toes and thumbs tied together, and so dragged through a
pond or river. If she sank, it was received in favour of the accused;
but if the body floated (which must have occurred ten times for once, if
it was placed with care on the surface of the water), the accused was
condemned, on the principle of King James, who, in treating of this mode
of trial, lays down that, as witches have renounced their baptism, so it
is just that the element through which the holy rite is enforced should
reject them, which is a figure of speech, and no argument. It was
Hopkins's custom to keep the poor wretches waking, in order to prevent
them from having encouragement from the devil, and, doubiless, to put
infirm, terrified, overwatched persons in the next state to absolute
madness; and for the same purpose they were dragged about by their
keepers till extreme weariness and the pain of blistered feet might form
additional inducements to confession. Hopkins confesses these last
practices of keeping the accused persons waking, and forcing them to
walk for the same purpose, had been originally used by him. But as his
tract is a professed answer to charges of cruelty and oppression, he
affirms that both practices were then disused, and that they had not of
late been resorted to.
The boast of the English nation is a manly independence and
common-sense, which will not long permit the license of tyranny or
oppression on the meanest and most obscure sufferers. Many clergymen and
gentlemen made head against the practices of this cruel oppressor of the
defenceless, and it required courage to do so when such an unscrupulous
villain had so much interest.
Mr. Gaul, a clergyman, of Houghton, in Huntingdonshire, had the courage
to appear in print on the weaker side; and Hopkins, in consequence,
assumed the assurance to write to some functionaries of the place the
following letter, which is an admirable medley of impudence, bullying,
and cowardice:--
"My service to your worship presented.--I have this day received a
letter to come to a town called Great Houghton to search for
evil-disposed persons called witches (though I hear your minister is far
against us, through ignorance). I intend to come, God willing, the
sooner to hear his singular judgment in the behalf of such parties. I
have known a minister in Suffolk as much against this discovery in a
pulpit, and forced to recant it by the Committee[58] in the same place.
I much marvel such evil men should have any (much more any of the
clergy, who should daily speak terror to convince such offenders) stand
up to take their parts against such as are complainants for the king,
and sufferers themselves, with their families and estates. I intend to
give your town a visit suddenly. I will come to Kimbolton this week, and
it will be ten to one but I will come to your town first; but I would
certainly know before whether your town affords many sticklers for such
cattle, or is willing to give and allow us good welcome and
entertainment, as others where I have been, else I shall waive your
shire (not as yet beginning in any part of it myself), and betake me to
such places where I do and may punish (not only) without control, but
with thanks and recompense. So I humbly take my leave, and rest your
servant to be commanded,
"MATTHEW HOPKINS."
[Footnote 58: Of Parliament.]
The sensible and courageous Mr. Gaul describes the tortures employed by
this fellow as equal to any practised in the Inquisition. "Having taken
the suspected witch, she is placed in the middle of a room, upon a stool
or table, cross-legged, or in some other uneasy posture, to which, if
she submits not, she is then bound with cords; there she is watched and
kept without meat or sleep for four-and-twenty hours, for, they say,
they shall within that time see her imp come and suck. A little hole is
likewise made in the door for the imps to come in at; and lest they
should come in some less discernible shape, they that watch are taught
to be ever and anon sweeping the room, and if they see any spiders or
flies, to kill them; and if they cannot kill them, they may be sure they
are their imps."
If torture of this kind was applied to the Reverend Mr. Lewis, whose
death is too slightly announced by Mr. Baxter, we can conceive him, or
any man, to have indeed become so weary of his life as to acknowledge
that, by means of his imps, he sunk a vessel, without any purpose of
gratification to be procured to himself by such iniquity. But in another
cause a judge would have demanded some proof of the _corpus delecti_,
some evidence of a vessel being lost at the period, whence coming and
whither bound; in short, something to establish that the whole story was
not the idle imagination of a man who might have been entirely deranged,
and certainly was so at the time he made the admission. John Lewis was
presented to the vicarage of Brandiston, near Framlington, in Suffolk,
6th May, 1596, where he lived about fifty years, till executed as a
wizard on such evidence as we have seen. Notwithstanding the story of
his alleged confession, he defended himself courageously at his trial,
and was probably condemned rather as a royalist and malignant than for
any other cause. He showed at the execution considerable energy, and to
secure that the funeral service of the church should be said over his
body, he read it aloud for himself while on the road to the gibbet.
We have seen that in 1647 Hopkins's tone became lowered, and he began to
disavow some of the cruelties he had formerly practised. About the same
time a miserable old woman had fallen into the cruel hands of this
miscreant near Hoxne, a village in Suffolk, and had confessed all the
usual enormities, after being without food or rest a sufficient time.
"Her imp," she said, "was called Nan." A gentleman in the neighbourhood,
whose widow survived to authenticate the story, was so indignant that he
went to the house, took the woman out of such inhuman hands, dismissed
the witchfinders, and after due food and rest the poor old woman could
recollect nothing of the confession, but that she gave a favourite
pullet the name of Nan. For this Dr. Hutchison may be referred to, who
quotes a letter from the relict of the humane gentleman.
In the year 1645 a Commission of Parliament was sent down, comprehending
two clergymen in esteem with the leading party, one of whom, Mr.
Fairclough of Kellar, preached before the rest on the subject of
witchcraft; and after this appearance of enquiry the inquisitions and
executions went on as before. But the popular indignation was so
strongly excited against Hopkins, that some gentlemen seized on him, and
put him to his own favourite experiment of swimming, on which, as he
happened to float, he stood convicted of witchcraft, and so the country
was rid of him. Whether he was drowned outright or not does not exactly
appear, but he has had the honour to be commemorated by the author of
Hudibras:--
"Hath not this present Parliament
A leiger to the devil sent,
Fully empower'd to treat about
Finding revolted witches out?
And has he not within a year
Hang'd threescore of them in one shire?
Some only for not being drown'd,
And some for sitting above ground
Whole days and nights upon their breeches,
And feeling pain, were hang'd for witches.
And some for putting knavish tricks
Upon green geese or turkey chicks;
Or pigs that suddenly deceased
Of griefs unnatural, as he guess'd,
Who proved himself at length a witch,
And made a rod for his own breech." [59]
[Footnote 59: "Hudibras," part ii. canto 3.]
The understanding reader will easily conceive that this alteration of
the current in favour of those who disapproved of witch-prosecutions,
must have received encouragement from some quarter of weight and
influence; yet it may sound strangely enough that this spirit of lenity
should have been the result of the peculiar principles of those
sectarians of all denominations, classed in general as Independents,
who, though they had originally courted the Presbyterians as the more
numerous and prevailing party, had at length shaken themselves loose of
that connexion, and finally combated with and overcome them. The
Independents were distinguished by the wildest license in their
religious tenets, mixed with much that was nonsensical and mystical.
They disowned even the title of a regular clergy, and allowed the
preaching of any one who could draw together a congregation that would
support him, or who was willing, without recompense, to minister to the
spiritual necessities of his hearers. Although such laxity of discipline
afforded scope to the wildest enthusiasm, and room for all possible
varieties of doctrine, it had, on the other hand, this inestimable
recommendation, that it contributed to a degree of general toleration
which was at that time unknown to any other Christian establishment. The
very genius of a religion which admitted of the subdivision of sects _ad
infinitum_, excluded a legal prosecution of any one of these for heresy
or apostasy. If there had even existed a sect of Manichæans, who made it
their practice to adore the Evil Principle, it may be doubted whether
the other sectaries would have accounted them absolute outcasts from the
pale of the church; and, fortunately, the same sentiment induced them to
regard with horror the prosecutions against witchcraft. Thus the
Independents, when, under Cromwell, they attained a supremacy over the
Presbyterians, who to a certain point had been their allies, were
disposed to counteract the violence of such proceedings under pretence
of witchcraft, as had been driven forward by the wretched Hopkins, in
Essex, Norfolk, and Suffolk, for three or four years previous to 1647.
The return of Charles II. to his crown and kingdom, served in some
measure to restrain the general and wholesale manner in which the laws
against witchcraft had been administered during the warmth of the Civil
War. The statute of the 1st of King James, nevertheless, yet subsisted;
nor is it in the least likely, considering the character of the prince,
that he, to save the lives of a few old men or women, would have run the
risk of incurring the odium of encouraging or sparing a crime still held
in horror by a great part of his subjects. The statute, however, was
generally administered by wise and skilful judges, and the accused had
such a chance of escape as the rigour of the absurd law permitted.
Nonsense, it is too obvious, remained in some cases predominant. In the
year 1663 an old dame, named Julian Coxe, was convicted chiefly on the
evidence of a huntsman, who declared on his oath, that he laid his
greyhounds on a hare, and coming up to the spot where he saw them mouth
her, there he found, on the other side of a bush, Julian Coxe lying
panting and breathless, in such a manner as to convince him that she had
been the creature which afforded him the course. The unhappy woman was
executed on this evidence.
Two years afterwards (1664), it is with regret we must quote the
venerable and devout Sir Matthew Hales, as presiding at a trial, in
consequence of which Amy Dunny and Rose Callender were hanged at Saint
Edmondsbury. But no man, unless very peculiarly circumstanced, can
extricate himself from the prejudices of his nation and age. The
evidence against the accused was laid, 1st, on the effect of spells used
by ignorant persons to counteract the supposed witchcraft; the use of
which was, under the statute of James I., as criminal as the act of
sorcery which such counter-charms were meant to neutralize, 2ndly, The
two old women, refused even the privilege of purchasing some herrings,
having expressed themselves with angry impatience, a child of the
herring-merchant fell ill in conseqence. 3rdly, A cart was driven
against the miserable cottage of Amy Dunny. She scolded, of course; and
shortly after the cart--(what a good driver will scarce
comprehend)--stuck fast in a gate, where its wheels touched neither of
the posts, and yet was moved easily forward on one of the posts (by
which it was _not_ impeded) being cut down. 4thly, One of the afflicted
girls being closely muffled, went suddenly into a fit upon being touched
by one of the supposed witches. But upon another trial it was found that
the person so blindfolded fell into the same rage at the touch of an
unsuspected person. What perhaps sealed the fate of the accused was the
evidence of the celebrated Sir Thomas Browne, "that the fits were
natural, but heightened by the power of the devil co-operating with the
malice of witches;"--a strange opinion, certainly, from the author of a
treatise on "Vulgar Errors!"[60]
[Footnote 60: See the account of Sir T. Browne in No. XIV. of the
"Family Library" ("Lives of British Physicians"), p. 60.]
But the torch of science was now fairly lighted, and gleamed in more
than one kingdom of the world, shooting its rays on every side, and
catching at all means which were calculated to increase the
illumination. The Royal Society, which had taken its rise at Oxford from
a private association who met in Dr. Wilkin's chambers about the year
1652, was, the year after the Restoration, incorporated by royal
charter, and began to publish their Transactions, and give a new and
more rational character to the pursuits of philosophy.
In France, where the mere will of the government could accomplish
greater changes, the consequence of an enlarged spirit of scientific
discovery was, that a decisive stop was put to the witch-prosecutions
which had heretofore been as common in that kingdom as in England. About
the year 1672 there was a general arrest of very many shepherds and
others in Normandy, and the Parliament of Rouen prepared to proceed in
the investigation with the usual severity. But an order, or _arret_,
from the king (Louis XIV.), with advice of his council, commanding all
these unfortunate persons to be set at liberty and protected, had the
most salutary effects all over the kingdom. The French Academy of
Sciences was also founded; and, in imitation, a society of learned
Germans established a similar institution at Leipsic. Prejudices,
however old, were overawed and controlled--much was accounted for on
natural principles that had hitherto been imputed to spiritual
agency--everything seemed to promise that farther access to the secrets
of nature might be opened to those who should prosecute their studies
experimentally and by analysis--and the mass of ancient opinions which
overwhelmed the dark subject of which we treat began to be derided and
rejected by men of sense and education.
In many cases the prey was now snatched from the spoiler. A pragmatical
justice of peace in Somersetshire commenced a course of enquiry after
offenders against the statute of James I., and had he been allowed to
proceed, Mr. Hunt might have gained a name as renowned for witch-finding
as that of Mr. Hopkins; but his researches were stopped from higher
authority--the lives of the poor people arrested (twelve in number) were
saved, and the country remained at quiet, though the supposed witches
were suffered to live. The examinations attest some curious particulars,
which may be found in _Sadducismus Triumphatus_: for among the usual
string of froward, fanciful, or, as they were called, afflicted
children, brought forward to club their startings, starings, and
screamings, there appeared also certain remarkable confessions of the
accused, from which we learn that the Somerset Satan enlisted his
witches, like a wily recruiting sergeant, with one shilling in hand and
twelve in promises; that when the party of weird-sisters passed to the
witch-meeting they used the magic words, _Thout, tout, throughout, and
about_; and that when they departed they exclaimed, _Rentum, Tormentum_!
We are further informed that his Infernal Highness, on his departure,
leaves a smell, and that (in nursery-maid's phrase) not a pretty one,
behind him. Concerning this fact we have a curious exposition by Mr.
Glanville. "This,"--according to that respectable authority, "seems to
imply the reality of the business, those ascititious particles which he
held together in his sensible shape being loosened at the vanishing, and
so offending the nostrils by their floating and diffusing themselves in
the open air."[61] How much are we bound to regret that Mr. Justice
Hunt's discovery "of this hellish kind of witches," in itself so clear
and plain, and containing such valuable information, should have been
smothered by meeting with opposition and discouragement from some then
in authority!
[Footnote 61: Glanville's "Collection of Relations."]
Lord Keeper Guildford was also a stifler of the proceedings against
witches. Indeed, we may generally remark, during the latter part of the
seventeenth century, that where the judges were men of education and
courage, sharing in the information of the times, they were careful to
check the precipitate ignorance and prejudice of the juries, by giving
them a more precise idea of the indifferent value of confessions by the
accused themselves, and of testimony derived from the pretended visions
of those supposed to be bewitched. Where, on the contrary, judges shared
with the vulgar in their ideas of such fascination, or were contented to
leave the evidence with the jury, fearful to withstand the general cry
too common on such occasions, a verdict of guilty often followed.
We are informed by Roger North that a case of this kind happened at the
assizes in Exeter, where his brother, the Lord Chief Justice, did not
interfere with the crown trials, and the other judge left for execution
a poor old woman, condemned, as usual, on her own confession, and on the
testimony of a neighbour, who deponed that he saw a cat jump into the
accused person's cottage window at twilight, one evening, and that he
verily believed the said cat to be the devil; on which precious
testimony the poor wretch was accordingly hanged. On another occasion,
about the same time, the passions of the great and little vulgar were so
much excited by the aquittal of an aged village dame, whom the judge had
taken some pains to rescue, that Sir John Long, a man of rank and
fortune, came to the judge in the greatest perplexity, requesting that
the hag might not be permitted to return to her miserable cottage on his
estates, since all his tenants had in that case threatened to leave him.
In compassion to a gentleman who apprehended ruin from a cause so
whimsical, the dangerous old woman was appointed to be kept by the town
where she was acquitted, at the rate of half-a-crown a week, paid by the
parish to which she belonged. But behold! in the period betwixt the two
assizes Sir John Long and his farmers had mustered courage enough to
petition that this witch should be sent back to them in all her terrors,
because they could support her among them at a shilling a week cheaper
than they were obliged to pay to the town for her maintenance. In a
subsequent trial before Lord Chief Justice North himself, that judge
detected one of those practices which, it is to be feared, were too
common at the time, when witnesses found their advantage in feigning
themselves bewitched. A woman, supposed to be the victim of the male
sorcerer at the bar, vomited pins in quantities, and those straight,
differing from the crooked pins usually produced at such times, and less
easily concealed in the mouth. The judge, however, discovered, by
cross-examining a candid witness, that in counterfeiting her fits of
convulsion the woman sunk her head on her breast, so as to take up with
her lips the pins which she had placed ready in her stomacher. The man
was acquitted, of course. A frightful old hag, who was present,
distinguished herself so much by her benedictions on the judge, that he
asked the cause of the peculiar interest which she took in the
acquittal. "Twenty years ago," said the poor woman, "they would have
hanged me for a witch, but could not; and now, but for your lordship,
they would have murdered my innocent son."[62]
[Footnote 62: Roger North's "Life of Lord-Keeper Guilford."]
Such scenes happened frequently on the assizes, while country gentlemen,
like the excellent Sir Roger de Coverley, retained a private share in
the terror with which their tenants, servants, and retainers regarded
some old Moll White, who put the hounds at fault and ravaged the fields
with hail and hurricanes. Sir John Reresby, after an account of a poor
woman tried for a witch at York in 1686 and acquitted, as he thought,
very properly, proceeds to tell us that, notwithstanding, the sentinel
upon the jail where she was confined avowed "that he saw a scroll of
paper creep from under the prison-door, and then change itself first
into a monkey and then into a turkey, which the under-keeper confirmed.
This," says Sir John, "I have heard from the mouth of both, and now
leave it to be believed or disbelieved as the reader may be
inclined."[63] We may see that Reresby, a statesman and a soldier, had
not as yet "plucked the old woman out of his heart." Even Addison
himself ventured no farther in his incredulity respecting this crime
than to contend that although witchcraft might and did exist, there was
no such thing as a modern instance competently proved.
[Footnote 63: "Memoirs of Sir John Reresby," p. 237.]
As late as 1682 three unhappy women named Susan Edwards, Mary Trembles,
and Temperance Lloyd were hanged at Exeter for witchcraft, and, as
usual, on their own confession. This is believed to be the last
execution of the kind in England under form of judicial sentence. But
the ancient superstition, so interesting to vulgar credulity, like
sediment clearing itself from water, sunk down in a deeper shade upon
the ignorant and lowest classes of society in proportion as the higher
regions were purified from its influence. The populace, including the
ignorant of every class, were more enraged against witches when their
passions were once excited in proportion to the lenity exercised towards
the objects of their indignation by those who administered the laws.
Several cases occurred in which the mob, impressed with a conviction of
the guilt of some destitute old creatures, took the law into their own
hands, and proceeding upon such evidence as Hopkins would have had
recourse to, at once, in their own apprehension, ascertained their
criminality and administered the deserved punishment.