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
villainous 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 showed, 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 "Witchfinder 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
recompence." The authorities of Houghton were not much alarmed at his
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."
It is consoling to think that this impostor perished in his own snare.
Mr. Gaul's exposure and his own rapacity weakened his influence among
the magistrates; and the populace, who began to find that not even the
most virtuous and innocent were secure from his persecution, looked
upon him with undisguised aversion. He was beset by a mob, at a village
in Suffolk, and accused of being himself a wizard. An old reproach was
brought against him, that he had, by means of sorcery, cheated the
devil out of a certain memorandum-book, in which he, Satan, had entered
the names of all the witches in England. "Thus," said the populace,
"you find out witches, not by God's aid, but by the devil's." In vain
he denied his guilt. The populace longed to put him to his own test. He
was speedily stripped, and his thumbs and toes tied together. He was
then placed in a blanket, and cast into a pond. Some say that he
floated; and that he was taken out, tried, and executed upon no other
proof of his guilt. Others assert that he was drowned. This much is
positive, that there was an end of him. As no judicial entry of his
trial and execution is to be found in any register, it appears most
probable that he expired by the hands of the mob. Butler has
immortalized this scamp in the following lines of his "Hudibras:"--
"Hath not this present Parliament
A lieger 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."
In Scotland also witch-finding became a trade. They were known under
the designation of "common prickers," and, like Hopkins, received a fee
for each witch they discovered. At the trial of Janet Peaston, in 1646,
the magistrates of Dalkeith "caused John Kincaid, of Tranent, the
common pricker, to exercise his craft upon her. He found two marks of
the devil's making; for she could not feel the pin when it was put into
either of the said marks, nor did the marks bleed when the pin was
taken out again. When she was asked where she thought the pins were put
in her, she pointed to a part of her body distant from the real place.
They were pins of three inches in length." [Pitcairn's "Records of
Justiciary."]
These common prickers became at last so numerous, that they were
considered nuisances. The judges refused to take their evidence, and in
1678 the privy council of Scotland condescended to hear the complaint
of an honest woman, who had been indecently exposed by one of them, and
expressed their opinion that common prickers were common cheats.
But such an opinion was not formed in high places before hundreds of
innocent persons had fallen victims. The Parliaments had encouraged the
delusion both in England and Scotland; and, by arming these fellows
with a sort of authority, had in a manner forced the magistrates and
ministers to receive their evidence. The fate of one poor old
gentleman, who fell a victim to the arts of Hopkins in 1646, deserves
to be recorded. Mr. Louis, a venerable clergyman, upwards of seventy
years of age, and who had been rector of Framlingham, in Suffolk, for
fifty years, excited suspicion that he was a wizard. Being a violent
royalist, he was likely to meet with no sympathy at that time; and even
his own parishioners, whom he had served so long and so faithfully,
turned their backs upon him as soon as he was accused. Placed under the
hands of Hopkins, who knew so well how to bring the refractory to
confession, the old man, the light of whose intellect had become
somewhat dimmed from age, confessed that he was a wizard. He said he
had two imps, that continually excited him to do evil; and that one
day, when he was walking on the sea-coast, one of them prompted him to
express a wish that a ship, whose sails were just visible in the
distance, might sink. He consented, and saw the vessel sink before his
eyes. He was, upon this confession, tried and condemned. On his trial
the flame of reason burned up as brightly as ever. He denied all that
had been alleged against him, and cross-examined Hopkins with great
tact and severity. After his condemnation, he begged that the funeral
service of the church might be read for him. The request was refused,
and he repeated it for himself from memory, as he was led to the
scaffold.
A poor woman in Scotland was executed upon evidence even less strong
than this. John Bain, a common pricker, swore that, as he passed her
door, he heard her talking to the devil. She said in defence, that it
was a foolish practice she had of talking to herself, and several of
her neighbours corroborated her statement; but the evidence of the
pricker was received. He swore that none ever talked to themselves who
were not witches. The devil's mark being found upon her, the additional
testimony of her guilt was deemed conclusive, and she was "convict and
brynt."
From the year 1652 to 1682, these trials diminished annually in number,
and acquittals were by no means so rare as they had been. To doubt in
witchcraft was no longer dangerous. Before country justices,
condemnations on the most absurd evidence still continued, but when the
judges of the land had to charge the jury, they took a more humane and
philosophical view. By degrees, the educated classes (comprised, in
those days, within very narrow limits), openly expressed their unbelief
of modern witchcraft, although they were not bold enough to deny its
existence altogether. Between them and the believers in the old
doctrine fierce arguments ensued, and the sceptics were designated
Sadducees. To convince them, the learned and Reverend Joseph Glanvil
wrote his well-known work, "Sadducismus Triumphatus," and "The
Collection of Relations;" the first part intended as a philosophical
inquiry into witchcraft, and the power of the devil "to assume a mortal
shape;" the latter containing what he considered a multitude of
well-authenticated modern instances.
But though progress was made, it was slow. In 1664, the venerable Sir
Matthew Hale condemned two women, named Amy Duny and Rose Cullender, to
the stake at St. Edmondsbury, upon evidence the most ridiculous. These
two old women, whose ugliness gave their neighbours the first idea that
they were witches, went to a shop to purchase herrings, and were
refused. Indignant at the prejudice against them, they were not sparing
of their abuse. Shortly afterward, the daughter of the herring-dealer
fell sick, and a cry was raised that she was bewitched by the old women
who had been refused the herrings. This girl was subject to epileptic
fits. To discover the guilt of Amy Duny and Rose Cullender, the girl's
eyes were blinded closely with a shawl, and the witches were commanded
to touch her. They did so, and she was immediately seized with a fit.
Upon this evidence they were sent to prison. The girl was afterwards
touched by an indifferent person, and the force of her imagination was
so great, that, thinking it was again the witches, she fell down in a
violent fit as before. This, however, was not received in favour of the
accused.
The following extract, from the published reports of the trial, will
show the sort of evidence which was received:--
"Samuel Pacey, of Leystoff, (a good, sober man,) being sworn, said
that, on Thursday the 10th of October last, his younger daughter,
Deborah, about nine years old, was suddenly taken so lame that she
could not stand on her legs, and so continued till the 17th of the same
month, when the child desired to be carried to a bank on the east side
of the house, looking towards the sea; and, while she was sitting
there, Amy Duny came to this examinant's house to buy some herrings,
but was denied. Then she came twice more, but, being as often denied,
she went away discontented and grumbling. At this instant of time, the
child was taken with terrible fits, complaining of a pain in her
stomach, as if she was pricked with pins, shrieking out with a voice
like a whelp, and thus continued till the 30th of the same month. This
examinant further saith, that Amy Duny, having long had the reputation
of a witch, and his child having, in the intervals of her fits,
constantly cried out on her, as the cause of her disorder, saying, that
the said Amy did appear to her and fright her, he himself did suspect
the said Amy to be a witch, and charged her with being the cause of his
child's illness, and set her in the stocks. Two days after, his
daughter Elizabeth was taken with such strange fits, that they could
not force open her mouth without a tap; and the younger child being in
the same condition, they used to her the same remedy. Both children
grievously complained that Amy Duny and another woman, whose habit and
looks they described, did appear to them, and torment them, and would
cry out, 'There stands Amy Duny! There stands Rose Cullender!' the
other person who afflicted them. Their fits were not alike. Sometimes
they were lame on the right side; sometimes on the left; and sometimes
so sore, that they could not bear to be touched. Sometimes they were
perfectly well in other respects, but they could not hear; at other
times, they could not see. Sometimes they lost their speech for one,
two, and once for eight, days together. At times they had swooning
fits, and, when they could speak, were taken with a fit of coughing,
and vomited phlegm and crooked pins; and once a great twopenny nail,
with above forty pins; which nail he, the examinant, saw vomited up,
with many of the pins. The nail and pins were produced in the court.
Thus the children continued for two months, during which time the
examinant often made them read in the New Testament, and observed, when
they came to the words Lord Jesus, or Christ, they could not pronounce
them, but fell into a fit. When they came to the word Satan, or devil,
they would point, and say, 'This bites, but makes me speak right well.'
Finding his children thus tormented without hopes of recovery, he sent
them to his sister, Margaret Arnold, at Yarmouth, being willing to try
whether change of air would help them.
"Margaret Arnold was the next witness. Being sworn, she said, that
about the 30th of November, Elizabeth and Deborah Pacey came to her
house, with her brother, who told her what had happened, and that he
thought his children bewitched. She, this examinant, did not much
regard it, supposing the children had played tricks, and put the pins
into their mouths themselves. She, therefore, took all the pins from
their clothes, sewing them with thread instead of pinning them. But,
notwithstanding, they raised, at times, at least thirty pins, in her
presence, and had terrible fits; in which fits they would cry out upon
Amy Duny and Rose Cullender, saying, that they saw them and heard them
threatening, as before; that they saw things, like mice, running about
the house; and one of them catched one, and threw it into the fire,
which made a noise, like a rat. Another time the younger child, being
out of doors, a thing like a bee would have forced itself into her
mouth, at which the child ran screaming into the house, and before this
examinant could come at her, fell into a fit, and vomited a twopenny
nail, with a broad head. After that, this examinant asked the child how
she came by this nail, when she answered, 'The bee brought the nail,
and forced it into my mouth.' At other times, the eldest child told
this examinant that she saw flies bring her crooked pins. She would
then fall into a fit, and vomit such pins. One time the said child said
she saw a mouse, and crept under the table to look for it; and
afterwards, the child seemed to put something into her apron, saying,
'She had caught it.' She then ran to the fire, and threw it in, on
which there did appear to this examinant something like a flash of
gunpowder, although she does own she saw nothing in the child's hand.
Once the child, being speechless, but otherwise very sensible, ran up
and down the house, crying, 'Hush! hush!' as if she had seen poultry;
but this examinant saw nothing. At last the child catched at something,
and threw it into the fire. Afterwards, when the child could speak,
this examinant asked her what she saw at the time? She answered, that
she saw a duck. Another time the youngest child said, after a fit, that
Amy Duny had been with her, and tempted her to drown herself, or cut
her throat, or otherwise destroy herself. Another time they both cried
out upon Amy Duny and Rose Cullender, saying, 'Why don't you come
yourselves? Why do you send your imps to torment us?'"
The celebrated Sir Thomas Brown, the author of "Vulgar Errors," was
also examined as a witness upon the trial. Being desired to give his
opinion of the three persons in court, he said, he was clearly of
opinion that they were bewitched. He said, there had lately been a
discovery of witches in Denmark, who used the same way of tormenting
persons, by conveying crooked pins, needles, and nails into their
bodies. That he thought, in such cases, the devil acted upon human
bodies by natural means, namely, by exciting and stirring up the
superabundant humours, he did afflict them in a more surprising manner
by the same diseases their bodies were usually subject to; that these
fits might be natural, only raised to a great degree by the subtlety of
the devil, co-operating with the malice of these witches.