A History of Witchcraft in England from 1558 to 1718 Part 21

[36] _Ibid._, 127-130.

[37] _Ibid._, ch. VIII, 134.

[38] _Ibid._, 135.

[39] See p. 118. This _Treatise_ was first published in 1655. Four years later, in 1659, he published _A True and faithful Relation of what pa.s.sed ... between Dr. John Dee, ... and some spirits_. In the preface to this he announced his intention of writing the work which he later published as _Of Credulity and Incredulity_.

[40] In pa.s.sing we must mention Richard Farnworth, who in 1655 issued a pamphlet called _Witchcraft Cast out from the Religious Seed and Israel of G.o.d_. Farnworth was a Quaker, and wrote merely to warn his brethren against magic and sorcery. He never questioned for a moment the facts of witchcraft and sorcery, nor the Devil's share in them. As for the witches, they were doomed everlastingly to the lake of fire.

[41] _Daemonologie and Theologie. The first, the Malady ..., The Second, The Remedy_ (London, 1650).

[42] _Ibid._, 42.

[43] _Ibid._, 16.

[44] See the Introduction to the _Advertis.e.m.e.nt_.

[45] Filmer noted further that the Septuagint translates the Hebrew word for witch as "an Apothecary, a Druggister, one that compounds poysons."

[46] London, 1656.

[47] In Ady's second edition, _A Perfect Discovery of Witches_ (1661), 134, Gaule's book having meanwhile come into his hands, he speaks of Gaule as "much inclining to the Truth" and yet swayed by traditions and the authority of the learned. He adds, "Mr. Gaule, if this work of mine shall come to your hand, as yours hath come to mine, be not angry with me for writing G.o.d's Truth."

[48] "... few men or women being tied hand and feet together can sink quite away till they be drowned" (_Candle in the Dark_, 100); "... very few people in the World are without privie Marks" (_Ibid._, 127).

[49] _Ibid._, 129.

[50] In giving "The Reason of the Book" he wrote, "The Grand Errour of these latter Ages is ascribing power to Witches."

[51] See a recent discussion of a nearly related topic by Professor Elmer Stoll in the _Publications_ of the Modern Language a.s.sociation, XXII, 201-233. Of the att.i.tude of the English dramatists before Shakespeare something may be learned from Mr. L. W. Cushman's _The Devil and the Vice in the English Dramatic Literature before Shakespeare_ (Halle, 1900).

[52] About 1622 or soon after.

[53] See, for instance, Mr. W. S. Johnson's introduction to his edition of _The Devil is an a.s.s_ (New York, 1905).

[54] 1634. This play was written, of course, in cooperation with Brome; see above, pp. 158-160. For other expressions of Heywood's opinions on witchcraft see his _Hierarchie of the Blessed Angels_, 598, and his [Greek: GYNAIKEION]: _or Nine Books of Various History concerning Women_ (London, 1624), lib. viii, 399, 407, etc.

[55] Act I, scene 1.

[56] In another part of the same scene: "They that thinke so dreame,"

_i. e._ they who believe in witchcraft.

[57] First published in 1621--I use, however, s.h.i.+lleto's ed. of London, 1893, which follows that of 1651-1652; see pt. I, sect. II, memb. I, sub-sect. 3.

[58] James Howell, _Familiar Letters_, II, 548.

[59] His _Advice to a Son_, first published in 1656-1658, went through edition after edition. It is very entertaining. His strongly enforced advice not to marry made a sensation among young Oxford men.

[60] _Works of Francis...o...b..rne_ (London, 1673), 551-553.

[61] _Works of Bacon_ (ed. Spedding, London, 1857-1858), II, 642-643.

[62] "The ointment that witches use is reported to be made of the fat of children digged out of their graves; of the juices of smallage, wolf-bane, and cinque-foil, mingled with the meal of fine wheat; but I suppose that the soporiferous medicines are likest to do it." See _Sylva Sylvarum_, cent. X, 975, in _Works_, ed. Spedding, II, 664. But even this pa.s.sage shows Bacon a skeptic. His suggestion that the soporiferous medicines are likest to do it means that he thinks the delusions of witches subjective and produced by drugs. For other references to the subject see _Works_, II, 658, 660; VII, 738.

[63] _De Argumentis_, bk. II, ch. II, in _Works_, IV, 296; see also _ibid._, III, 490.

[64] _Advancement of Learning_, bk. II; _ibid._, III, 490.

[65] _Works_, IV, 400-401.

[66] _Ibid._, IV, 296.

[67] Selden, _Table Talk_ (London, 1689). The book is supposed to have been written during the last twenty years of Selden's life, that is, between 1634 and 1654.

[68] Selden, _Table Talk_, _s. v._ "Witches."

[69] Nor did Selden believe in possessions. See his essay on Devils in the _Table Talk_.

[70] See article on Hobbes in _Dict. Nat. Biog._

[71] See, for example, Bishop Burnet's _History of his Own Time_ (Oxford, 1823), I, 172, 322-323.

[72] _Leviathan_ (1651), 7. See also his _Dialogue of the Common Laws of England_, in _Works_ (ed. of London, 1750), 626: "But I desire not to discourse of that subject; for, though without doubt there is some great Wickedness signified by those Crimes, yet have I ever found myself too dull to conceive the nature of them, or how the Devil hath power to do many things which Witches have been accused of." See also his chapter on Daemonology in the _Leviathan_, in _Works_, 384.

[73] He continues, "Some doe maintaine (but how wisely let the wiser judge) that all Witchcraft spoken of either by holy writers, or testified by other writers to have beene among the heathen or in later daies, hath beene and is no more but either meere Cousinage [he had been reading Scot], or Collusion, so that in the opinion of those men, the Devill hath never done, nor can do anything by Witches." _The Witches of Northamptons.h.i.+re, ..._ A 4.

[74] Potts, _The Wonderfull Discoverie ..._, X 4 verso.

[75] Fairfax, _A Discourse of Witchcraft_ (Philobiblon Soc.), 12.

[76] _Ibid._, 20.

[77] One notable instance must be mentioned. "H. F.," the narrator of the Ess.e.x affair of 1645 (_A true and exact Relation_) not only recognized the strong position of those who doubted, but was by no means extreme himself. "I doubt not," he wrote, "but these things may seeme as incredible unto some, as they are matter of admiration unto others....

The greatest doubt and question will be, whether it be in the power of the Devil to perform such asportation and locall translation of the bodies of Witches.... And whether these supernaturall works, which are above the power of man to do, and proper only to Spirits, whether they are reall or only imaginary and fained." The writer concludes that the Devil has power to dispose and transport bodies, but, as to changing them into animals, he thinks these are "but jugling trans.m.u.tations."

[78] _The most true and wonderfull Narration of two women bewitched in Yorks.h.i.+re; ..._ (1658).

[79] "Relation of a Memorable Piece of Witchcraft at Welton near Daventry," in Glanvill, _Sadducismus Triumphatus_ (London, 1681), pt.

ii, 263-268.

[80] See above, pp. 179-180, for an expression about the persecution in 1645.

[81] _Mercurius Democritus_, February 8-15, 1654.

[82] 1648. This must be distinguished from _The Divels Delusion ..._, 1649, (see above, ch. IX, note 8), which deals with two witches executed at St. Alban's.

[83] The truth is that the newspapers, pamphlets, etc., were full of such stories. And they were believed by many intelligent men. He who runs through Whitelocke's _Memorials_ may read that the man was exceeding superst.i.tious. Whether it be the report of the horseman seen in the air or the stories of witches at Berwick, Whitelocke was equally interested. While he was merely recording the reports of others, there is not a sign of skepticism.