Part 9

It is written in the life of one Bruno, that a doctor of great note for learning and godliness, being dead, was brought to the church to be buried; and while they were in their popish devotions, and came to these words, _Responde de mihi_, the corps arose in the bier, and with an extremely terrible voice cried out, _Justo Die judicio accusatus sum_, “I am accused at the just judgement of God.” At which voice the people ran all out affrighted. On the morrow, when they came again to perform the obsequies, to the like words as before, the corpse arose again, and cried with a hideous voice, _Justo Die condemnatus sum_. “I am judged at the righteous judgement of God.” Whereupon the people ran away amazed. The third day almost all the city came together; and when they came to the same words as before, the corps rose again, and cried with a more doleful noise than before, _Justo Dei judicio condemnatus sum_. “I am condemned at the righteous judgment of God.” The consideration whereof, that a man reputed so upright, should yet by his own confession, be damned, caused Bruno and the rest of his companions to enter into the strict order of Carthusians. The author and relator makes this use of it: “If the voice of the dead man could affright them unto superstition, should not the warning of God affright unto true doctrine?”

XXIV.—_Some drunkards destroyed by the devil._

This hath been published in a sermon by a godly minister; but I must insert it here in its own proper place. On the 8th of February, saith my author, in the year 1578, a company of drunkards, whose names are recorded as followeth, Adam Gibbons, George Keepel, John Keysel, Peter Horsdroff, John Warner, Simon Heamkers, Jacob Hermons, and Hermon Frow. These eight drunkards, in contempt of the blessed sabbath, agreed to go to the tavern on the Lord’s day to be merry; and coming to the house of Anthony Hodge, an honest godly man, they called for burnt wine, sack, claret, and what not. The good man refusing to give them any, advised them to go to the church to hear the word of God; but they all, save Adam Gibbons, refused, saying they loathed that exercise. Whereupon the host departed; who being gone to church, they began to curse and ban, wishing he might break his neck ere he returned; and wishing the devil might break their own necks, if they went from hence till they had some wine.

Whereupon the devil, in the likeness of a youngman, appeared unto them, bringing in his hand a flagon of wine, and so drank unto them, saying, “Good fellows be merry, you shall have wine enough; you seem to be lusty lads, and I hope you will pay me well; who answering said, “They would either pay him or engage their neck for it. Yea, rather than fail, their bodies and souls.” Thus these men continued drinking and swilling so long, till they could hardly see one another. At last the devil, their host, told them, that now they must pay for all, at which their hearts waxed cold. But the devil bid them be of good cheer, for now they must drink fire and brimstone with him in the pit of hell for ever. At which the devil brake their necks asunder and destroyed them. Thus ended these drunkards their days; and this, by the way, may serve for a document to all drunkards for ever; and to persuade folk that the Lord has the devil for his executioner, when he pleases to execute his vengeance upon great sinners.

XXV.—_Touching one William Barton, a Warlock._

About thirty years ago, more or less, there was one William Barton apprehended for witchcraft. His confession was, first, that if he had twenty sons, he would advise them to shun the lust of uncleanness. “For,” said he, “I never saw a beautiful woman, maid, or wife, but I coveted them, which was the only cause that brought me to be the devil’s vassal. One day, going from my own house in Kirkliston to the Queen’s Ferry, I overtook, in Denny Muir, a young gentlewoman, as to appearance, beautiful and comely. I drew near to her, but she shunned my company; and when I insisted, she became angry and very nice. Said I, since we are both going one way, be pleased to accept of a convoy: at last, after much entreaty, she grew better natured; and at length we came to that familiarity, that she suffered me to embrace her, and to do that which Christian ears ought not to hear of. At this time I parted with her very joyfully. The next night she appeared to him in that very same place; and after that which should not be named, he became sensible that it was the devil. Here he renounced his baptism, and gave up himself to her service, and she called him her beloved, and gave him the new name of John Baptist, and received the mark. She likewise bestowed £15 Scots in name of tocher, and so parted.—When he had gone a little way off, she calls him back, and gave him a mark piece in good and sufficient money, which she had him spend at the Ferry, and desired him to keep entire and whole the £15, which he declared was real and true money. He confessed, that they never met together but they played their pranks. After this confession, he begged liberty to sleep a little, which the judges granted to him. When he had sleeped a short time, he awakened with a great laughter. The judges enquired the reason; he replied, being seriously urged, That the devil had come to him, and rebuked him with anger, and threatened him most furiously that he confessed, and bade him deny all, for he should be his warrant.——After this he turned obdured, and would never, to his dying hour, acknowledge any thing, for the devil had persuaded him, even from his first engaging, That no man should take his life; which promise he firmly believed to the very last. When they told him in the prison-house, that the fire was built, and the stake was up, and the executioner coming to bring him forth, he answered, he cared not for that; for, said he, “I shall not die this day.” But the executioner got presently orders to lead him forth; and he stepping in at the prison door, was in an instant shot to death, as they say, and never stirred again. In this strait, they appointed the executioner’s wife to strangle him, which she did willingly, a reward being promised to her. When the warlock heard this, that a woman was to put him to death, “O,” says he, “how hath the devil deceived me? Let none ever trust his promises.” All this was done at Kirkliston, before famous witnesses. The executioner’s name was Andrew Martin, and his wife’s name Margaret Hamilton, who, when her husband died, clapped her hands, and cried often, “Dool, for his parting, my dear Andrew Martin.” This Barton’s wife had been likewise taken with him, who declared, that she never knew him to be a warlock before; and he likewise declared, that he never knew her to have been a witch before. She confessed that malice against one of her neighbours moved her to engage in the devil’s service. She renounced her baptism, and did prostrate her body to the foul spirit, and received his mark, and got a new name from him; and was called Margaratus. She was asked, if ever she had any pleasure in his company? “Never much,” says she, “but one night going a dancing upon Pentlandhills, he went before us in the likeness of a rough tanny dog, playing on a pair of pipes; the spring he played, says she, was, “The silly bit kitchen gar cast it a pickle, and it will grow meikle. And coming down the hill, when we had done, which was the best sport, he carried the candle in his bottom, under his tail, which played ay wig wag, wig-wag.” She was burned with her husband.

There is one thing remarkable in the story, that he bestowed so much money upon the warlock, which proved good and sufficient coin. ’Tis seldom he is so liberal. But surely he would be more liberal, if the Lord would suffer him to steal, or make use of treasures lying hid in the ground, or in the bottom of the sea. If this liberty were granted, he might deceive the most part of men and women in the world with his gifts. The next relation shall be in confirmation of this.

XXVI.—_A wonderful and strange accident which fell out at Lyons in France._

A Lieutenant of a guard, called Jaquette, having supped one night in a rich merchant’s house, was passing home, and by the way, said, “I wonder what I have eaten and drunken at the merchant’s house: for I find myself so hot, that if I met with the devil’s dame this night, I could not forbear using of her.” Hereupon, a little after, he overtook a gentlewoman masked, whom he would needs usher home to her lodging, but discharged all his company except two. She brought him, to his apprehension, to a low house hard by the city wall, where there were only two rooms. After he had enjoyed her, he desired her, that, according to the custom of French Gentlemen, his two comrades might partake of the same pleasure; so she admitted them one after another. And when all was done, as they sat together, she told them, “If they knew well who she was, none of them would have ventured upon her.” Thereupon she whistled three times, and all evanished. The next morning the two comrades that had gone with Lieutenant Jaquette were found dead under the city wall, among the ordure and excrements, and Jaquette himself a little way off half dead; who was taken up, and coming to himself again, confessed all this, and presently died. This may verify the preceding relation.

XXVII.—_A Marvellous Prank played by the Devil at Hamelen, a Town in Germany._

This city was annoyed with rats and mice. It happened that a pied-coated piper came thither, who covenanted with the chief burghers for such a reward, if he could free them from the said vermin; nor would he demand it for a twelvemonth and a day after. The agreement being made, he began to play on the pipes, and all the rats and mice followed him to a great loch hard by, where they all perished; so that the town was infested no more. At the end of the year, the piper returned for his reward, the burghers put him off with slighting and neglect, offering him some small matter, which he refused. And staying some days in town, on a Sunday morning, at high mass, when most people were at church, he fell to play his pipes, and their children up and down followed him out of the town, to a great hill not far off, which rent in two, and let him and the children in, and so closed up again. This happened about two hundred and fifty years since. And in that town, they date their bills and bonds, and other instruments in law to this day, from the year of the going out of their children; besides, there is a great pillar of stone, erected at the foot of the said hill, where this story is engraven.

XXVIII.—_A relation of the strange Witchcraft discovered in the village of Monra in Swedeland._

The news of this witchcraft coming to the king’s ear, his Majesty was pleased to appoint commissioners, some of the clergy, and some of the laity, to make a journey to the town aforesaid, and to examine the whole business; and accordingly the examination was ordered to be on the 13th of August; and the commissioners met on the 12th instant, in the said village, at the parson’s house, to whom both the minister and several people of fashion, complained with tears in their eyes, of the miserable condition they were in; and therefore begged of them to think of some way, whereby they might be delivered from that calamity. They gave the commissioners very strange instances of the devil’s tyranny among them; how by the help of witches, he had drawn some hundreds of children to him, and made them subject to his power; how he hath been seen to go in a visible shape through the country, and appeared daily to the people; how he had wrought upon the poorer sort, by presenting them with meat and drink, and this way allured them to himself, with other circumstances to be mentioned hereafter. The inhabitants of the village added, with great lamentations, That though their children had told all, and themselves had sought God very earnestly by prayer, yet they were carried away by him. And therefore begged of the lords commissioners to root out this hellish crew, that they might regain their former rest and quietness; and the rather because the children, which used to be carried away in the country or district of Elsdale, since some witches had been burnt there, remained unmolested.—That day, _i. e._ the 13th of August, being the last humiliation day instituted by authority for the removing of this judgment, the commissioners went to church, where there appeared a considerable assembly both of young and old. The children could read most of them, and sing psalms, and so could the women, though not with any great zeal and fervour. There were preached two sermons that day, in which the miserable case of those people that suffered themselves to be deluded by the devil, was laid open; and these sermons were at last concluded with very fervent prayers.—The public worship being over, all the people of the town were called together in the parson’s house, near three thousand of them. Silence being commanded, the king’s commission was read publicly in the hearing of them all, and they were charged, under very great penalties, to conceal nothing of what they knew, and to say nothing but truth; those especially who were guilty, that the children might be delivered from the clutches of the devil. They all promised obedience; the guilty feignedly, but the guiltless weeping and crying bitterly.

On the 14th of August, the commissioners met again, consulting how they might withstand this dangerous flood. After long deliberation, an order also coming from his Majesty, they resolved to execute such as the matter of fact could be proven upon. Examination being made, there were no less than threescore and ten in the village aforesaid, three-and-twenty of which confessing their crimes, were condemned to die; one pretending she was with child, and the rest denying and pleading not guilty, were sent to Fahluna, where most of them were afterwards executed.—Fifteen children, who likewise confessed that they were engaged in this witchery, died as the rest; thirty-six of them between 9 and 16 years of age, who had been less guilty, were forced to run the gantlop. Twenty more, who had no great inclination, yet had been seduced to those hellish enterprizes, because they were very young, were condemned to be lashed with rods upon their hands for three Sundays together at the church door; and the aforesaid thirty-six were also doomed to be lashed this way once a-week for a whole year together. The number of the seduced children were about three hundred.—On the 25th of August, execution was done upon the notoriously guilty; the day being bright and glorious, and the sun shining, and some thousands of people being present at the spectacle. The order and method observed in the examination was thus:—First, The commissioners and neighbouring justices went to prayer; this done, the witches, who had most of them children with them, which they had either seduced, or attempted to seduce, some 7 years of age, nay, from 4 to 16 years, were set before them. Some of the children complained lamentably of the misery and mischief they were forced sometimes to suffer off the devil and the witches.—The children being asked, Whether they were sure that they were at any time carried away by the devil? They all declared they were, begging of the commissioners, that they might be freed from that intolerable slavery.—Hereupon the witches themselves were asked, Whether the confessions of these children were true? and admonished to confess the truth, that they might turn away from the devil unto the living God. At first, most of them did very stiffly, and without shedding the least tear, deny it, though much against their will and inclination. After this the children were examined every one by themselves, to see whether their confession did agree or not; and the commissioners found that all of them, except some very little ones, who could not tell all the circumstances, did punctually agree in their confession of particulars.—In the mean while, the commissioners that were of the clergy, examined the witches, but could not bring them to any confession, all continuing stedfast in their denials, till at last some of them burst out into tears, and their confession agreed with what the children said; and they expressed their abhorrence of the fact, and begged pardon. Adding, that the devil, whom they called Locyta, had stopped the mouths of some of them, so loath was he to part with his prey, and had stopped the ears of others. And being now gone from them, they could no longer conceal it; for they had now perceived his treachery.—The confession which the witches made in Elsdale to the judges there, agreed with the confession they made at Monra; and the chief things they confessed consisted in these three points; First, Whither they used to go. Secondly, What kind of place it was they went to, called by them Blockula, where there the witches and the devil used to meet. Thirdly, What evil and mischief they had either done, or designed there.—First, Of their journey to Blockula. The contents of their confession.——We of the province of Elsdale, do confess, that we used to go to a gravel-pit, which lies hard by a cross-way, and there we put on a vest over our heads, and then danced round, and after this ran to the cross-way, and called the devil thrice, first with a still voice, the second time somewhat louder, and the third time very loud with these words, “Antecessor, come and carry us to Blockula.” Whereupon immediately he used to appear, but in different habits; but for the most part, we saw him in a grey coat and red and blue stockings. He had a red beard, a high crowned hat, with linen of divers colours wrapt about it, and long garters upon his stockings. It is very remarkable, that the devil never appears to the witches with a sword at his side. Then he asked us, Whether we would serve him with soul and body? If we were content to do so, he set us on a beast which he hath there ready, and carried us over churches and high walls; and after all, we came to a green meadow where Blockula lies. We must procure some scrapings of altars, and filings of church clocks, and then he gave us a horn, with salve in it, wherewith we do anoint ourselves, and a saddle, with a hammer, and a wooden nail, thereby to fix the saddle; whereupon we call upon the devil, and away we go.—Those that were of the town of Monra made in a manner the same declaration. Being asked, Whether they were sure of a real personal transportation, and whether they were awake when it was done? They all answered in the affirmative; and that the devil sometimes laid something down in the place that was very like them. But one of them confessed, that he did only take away her strength, and her body lay still upon the ground; yet sometimes he took away her body with him.—Being asked how they could go with their bodies through chimnies, and broken panes of glass? They said, That the devil did first remove all that might hinder them in their flight, and so they had room enough to go.—Others were asked, How they were able to carry so many children with them? They answered, That when the children were asleep, they came into the chamber and laid hold of the children, which straightway did awake, and asked them, Whether they would go to a feast with them? To which some answered, Yes; others, No; yet they were all forced to go. They only gave the children a shirt, a coat, and doublet, which was either red or blue; and so they set them upon a beast of the devil’s providing, and then they rode away.—The children confessed the same thing; and some added, that because they had very fine clothes put upon them, they were very willing to go.—Some of the children concealed it from their parents, but others discovered it to them presently. The witches declared moreover, that till of late they had never power to carry away children, but only this year and the last; and the devil did at that time force them to it: That heretofore it was sufficient to carry but one of their children, or a stranger’s child with them, which happened seldom; but now he did plague them and whip them, if they did not procure him many children, insomuch that they had no peace nor quiet for him: And whereas that formerly one journey a week would serve their turn from their own town to the place aforesaid, now they were forced to run to other towns and places for children; and that they brought with them, some 15, some 16 children every night.—For the journey, they said, they made use of all sorts of instruments, of beasts, and of men, of spits and posts, according as they had opportunity. If they ride upon goats, and have many children with them, that all may have room, they stick a spit into the backside of the goat, and then are anointed with the aforesaid ointment. What the manner of their journey is, God alone knows. This much was made out, that if the children did at any time name the names of those, either men or women, that had been with them, or had carried them away, they were again carried by force, either to Blockula or the cross-way, and there beaten, insomuch that some of them died of it; and this some of the witches confessed; and added, that now they were exceedingly troubled and tortured in their minds for it. The children thus used looked mighty black, wan and beaten. The marks of the whips the judges could not perceive on them, except on one boy, who had some wounds and holes in his back, that were given him with thorns; but the witches said, they would quickly vanish.

After this usage, the children are exceeding weak; and if any be carried over night, they cannot recover themselves the next day, and they often fall into fits; the coming of which, they know by an extraordinary paleness that seizes on the children: and when a fit comes upon them, they lean upon their mother’s arms, who sits up with them, sometimes all night, and when they observe the paleness, shake the children, but to no purpose.—They observe further, that their children’s breasts grow cold at such times, and they take sometimes a burning candle, and stick it in their hair, which yet is not burned by it. They swoon upon this paleness; which swoon lasteth sometimes half an hour, sometimes an hour, sometimes two hours; and when the children come to themselves again, they mourn and lament, and groan most miserably, and beg to be eased. This the old men declared upon oath before the judges, and called the inhabitants of the town to witness as persons that had most of them experience of the strange symptoms of their children.—A little girl of Elsdale confessed, that naming the name of Jesus, as she was carried away, she fell suddenly upon the ground, and got a great hole in her side, which the devil presently healed up again, and away he carried her. And to this day, the girl confessed, she had exceeding great pain in her side. Another boy confessed, too, that one day he was carried away with his mistress; and to perform the journey, he took his father’s horse out of the meadow, where it was feeding, and upon his return, she let the horse go in her own. The next morning the boy’s father sought for the horse, and not finding it, gave it over for lost; but the boy told him the whole story, and so the father fetcht the horse back again, and this one of the witches confessed.