Part 2

In James's Book he lays down Rules for determining who were Witches, and great Numbers were executed in Pursuance of those Rules. No sooner was that benighted King seated upon the English Throne, but the following Statute was passed: "If any Person or Persons shall use, practice, or exercise any Invocation, or Conjuration of any evil and wicked Spirit, or shall consult, covenant with, entertain, employ, feed or reward any evil and wicked Spirit, to or for any Intent and Purpose: or take up any dead Man, Woman or Child, out of his, her or their Grave, or any other Place where the dead Body resteth, or the Skin, Bone or any Part of the dead Person, to be employed or used in any Manner of Witchcraft, Sorcery, Charm, or Inchantment; or shall use, practice or exercise any Witchcraft; or shall use, practice or exercise any Witchcraft, Inchantment, Charm or Sorcery, whereby any Person shall be killed, destroyed, wasted, consumed, pined or lamed in his or her Body, or any Part thereof; that then every such Offender or Offenders, their Aiders, Abettors, and Counsellors, being of any the said Offenders duly and lawfully convicted and attainted, shall suffer Pains of Death as a Felon or Felons."

This Law does not materially differ from that enacted in the fifth Year of Elizabeth; yet there is a Clause in the older one, declaring that, "If any Person shall take upon him by Witchcraft, Inchantment, Charm or Sorcery, to tell or declare in what Place any Treasure of Gold or Silver should or might be found or hid in the Earth, or other secret Places, or where Goods, or Things lost or stolen should be found or be come: Or to the Intent to provoke any Person to unlawful Love, or whereby any Cattle or Goods of any Person shall be destroyed, wasted or impaired; or to destroy or hurt any Person in his, or her Body, though the same be not effected, &c. a Year's Imprisonment, and Pillory, &c. and the second Conviction, Death."

In the early Laws of Massachusetts, adopted in 1641, Witchcraft is thus briefly dealt with: "If any Man or Woman be a Witch (that is hath or consulteth with a familiar Spirit) they shall be put to Death." These Laws were called _The Body of Liberties_, and were drawn up by the famous Minister of Boston, John Cotton. He made them conform to the Bible, and Passages of Scripture stand against each Law in the Margin. Against this is found, Deut. xiii, 6, 10--xvii, 2, 6. Ex. xxii, 20.

In Plymouth Colony as late as 1671, nearly the same Law was enacted. It differed only by saying, "If any Christian (so called) be a Witch," &c.

If Sir Robert Filmer had seen our Laws, he would, perhaps, have indulged in a few Observations upon them. The Plymouth People seem to have looked a little farther than the learned Minister of Boston, as appears by the Proviso thrown in, that a _Christian_ could not be a Witch. Of course the Judges were to determine the Point of Christian or no Christian, assuming that a Christian Judge could not err or be mistaken.

One of the Advocates of Witchcraft having asserted that a Person cannot make the necessary Contract with the Devil to become a Witch, without renouncing God and Baptism, "it will follow," says Filmer, "that none can be Witches but such as have first been Christians. And what shall be said then of all those idolatrous Nations, of Lapland, Finland, and divers Parts of Africa, and many other heathenish Nations, which Travellers report to be full of Witches? And indeed, what Need or Benefit can the Devil gain by contracting with those Idolators, who are surer his own than any Covenant can make them?"

Witchcraft, as formerly believed in, was the Art of working Wonders or Miracles, and some of its Expounders asserted, that the Power of effecting Wonders does not flow from the Skill of the Witch, but is derived wholly from the Devil, whom the Witch has Command over, by Virtue of a Contract. Whereupon Sir Robert Filmer sensibly remarks, "that the Devil is really the Worker of the Wonder, and the Witch but the Counsellor, Persuader or Commander of it, and only accessory before the Fact, and the Devil only Principal. Now the Difficulty will be, how the Accessory can be duly and lawfully convicted and attainted according as the Statute requires, unless the Devil, who is the Principle, be first convicted, or at least, outlawed; which cannot be, because the Devil can never be lawfully summoned according to the Rules of our Common Law."

In this Manner Witchcraft was successfully assailed, because it was a Species of reasoning that did not directly interfere with the Superstitions and Prejudices of the People. But the March of Mind amongst the Masses was slow, and Trials for Witchcraft continued in England for twenty Years after Sir Robert Filmer wrote.

For one hundred Years, 1580 to 1680, in Germany alone, 1,000 Persons a Year, on an Average, were, upon good Authority, said to have suffered Death for the imaginary Crime of Witchcraft. Executions in that Country began to abate about 1694; the last Execution, being of a poor Nun, in 1749. And it may be remarked in this Connection, that immediately after the miserable James published his Work on Witchcraft, 600 Persons were put to a cruel Death for being Witches.

"Thou shalt not suffer a Witch to live," is a Command, and it was once considered as much to be regarded as any other Command in the Bible. That there were Witches in the World was as plain, and as much to be believed, as that there were Spirits of any Kind whatever. Whoever believed in the Immortality of the Soul, believed in the Immortality of bad Souls as well as good. Soul is another Word for Spirit; hence good Spirits and bad Spirits. Witches were bad Spirits, but whether they originated _in_ Mankind, or whether they were sent there to take Possession of the human Body, and to exclude a better Tenant, has not been satisfactorily settled by Psychologists and Metaphysicians. But one Thing seems to be well established, and that is, that quite as many bad Spirits find Habitations in the Sons and Daughters of these Days, as at any former Period. Fortunately it was found out, at length, that destroying the Tenement of a bad Spirit, did not destroy that Spirit. But this was not thought of until Thousands had been put to Death.

It will doubtless be said by many, that if ever there were Witches in the World, there are Witches now. This Point it is not intended to argue. There were always those who denied the Existence of Witches; or, what amounted to the same Thing, they would never allow that there was sufficient Evidence produced to prove that _Craft_ against any who were accused of it. Persons who thus question all Court Proceedings, where Witchcraft was attempted to be detected, were regarded as unfit for good Society, and unworthy of its Protection.

Those who were for "ridding the Land" of Witches, thought those who questioned the Legality of their Proceedings, were, at least, Infidels, in the most obnoxious Sense, and they were generally treated as such, and were to be shunned by Society. Thus it fared with MR. ROBERT CALEF, who, during the Prosecutions and Executions of the People accused in Massachusetts, as will be seen in the Progress of the present Work.

It is scarcely conceivable by even the partially enlightened of the present Age, that only one hundred and fifty Years ago our Ancestors were, in some respects, so slightly removed from Barbarity and heathen Darkness. Superstition will give Way only to mental Culture; but there may be considerable mental Culture, and also much Superstition; for Persons may be educated in many Things when those very Things are founded in Error. Certain Premises are taken for granted, because no Data exist, or at least insufficient Data, to investigate them and the Foundations on which they rest. This is still the Case, but it was more so in Times past.

Barbarous Nations, as the Aborigines of any Country, are Slaves to the same Kind of Superstition as that which caused the Executions for Witchcraft by the Governments of Old and New England. Even many of those who opposed the Prosecutions for that imaginary Crime, were not free from the same Superstitions with the Advocates of it. They believed in Witchcraft, and only argued the Want of Evidence against it. This gave them a decided Disadvantage, because the Evidence was, in many Cases, apparently so overwhelming; insomuch, that "the learned Baxter" wrote to Dr. Increase Mather, declaring, "The Evidence is so convincing, that he must be a very obdurate Sadducee who will not believe it." Hence if there were some Persons who did not believe the strange and unnatural Things alleged to have been performed by Persons charged with Witchcraft they were treated as "obdurate Sadducees," whose Unbelief was only a Pretence. Times have so much changed, that it is not necessary to make the Admissions which the Opposers of Witchcraft formerly made. Then, to deny the Existence of it was precisely the same as to deny that the Bible was a Revelation from God. Therefore, as was before observed, those who opposed the Prosecutions for Witchcraft, labored under a great Disadvantage. The Belief in it being nearly universal, the solitary Individual who dared to stem so popular a Torrent, now looked upon clearly as a Delusion, had nothing to expect on all Hands, but Obloquy, Derision and Contempt.

From all which, Nothing is easier to be discerned than this--wherever Ignorance is the greatest, there Superstition prevails most; that therefore it follows of course, that Ignorance and Superstition are the Parents of Witchcraft.

It never occurred to Believers in Witchcraft, it would seem, that if Witches really existed, a Prosecution against them could no more reach them than it would the Air in a Bubble or the Breath which they breathed; for if they possessed the Power claimed for them, they also had the Power to abandon the Bodies they possessed the Moment it was decided to punish them in such Bodies; and thus disconcert all Attempts to obstruct their Craft.

The Advocates of Witchcraft affirm that it is by Virtue of a League with the Devil that the Witch is enabled to carry on her Operations; and that the Devil, God's great Enemy, is allowed to commission Witches, that they may also counteract his (God's) Purposes by ensnaring Souls, as though the Devil had not Power enough to do the whole Mischief himself; and thus in a sneakingly indirect Way make a Cats-paw of some demented old Woman, or other simple Person.

In the midst of the Proceedings against the People charged with being Witches, and while several Jails were crowded with those unfortunate Persons, a very serious Question arose, which, of itself, was calculated to cause the most violent of the Prosecutors to stay their bloody Hands, and to ask themselves, what they had been doing? and if, after all, there was not a Possibility that they had been guilty of shedding innocent Blood? The Question was a very simple and natural one, namely, Is it not possible for a Witch to appear in the Shape of an innocent Person? As soon as this Question was started, there was quite a Shock in the Community, and the Men accounted the wisest in the Land stood still for a Time, and looked inquiringly upon one another. As long as the afflicted Persons accused only the Poor and Friendless, Nothing appears to have been thought of the Possibility that such Persons could be innocent of the Charges preferred against them. But, when at length, Persons considered of unblemished Lives, standing among the first in the Community, came to be accused, then the Case wore a different Aspect; then it was that the before mentioned important Question came up. This Question divided the People, and from that Division Safety resulted. In this Instance, the common Order of Things was reversed; Safety came from a Division, and not from Union. Hence a new Proverb is derived--In Union there may be Error, while Division may elicit the Truth.

The People, thus brought to a Stand, had a little Time for reflection. This, some improved to the Advantage of themselves, while others improved it for the Advantage of the Public. Some had been so strenuous in their Efforts to convict accused Persons, that it was now very difficult for them, even to suspend their Efforts without giving their Opponents an immediate Advantage over them; that even though the Judges of the Courts who tried the accused, had been guided mainly by "Mr. Perkins's Rules for the Discovery of Witches," on a careful Inspection of those Rules at this Day, it is difficult to see how Convictions were forced out of them.

Nevertheless, strong Ground having been taken that Witches existed, and Persons reputed Witches having been prosecuted with the utmost Rigor, and unrelenting Perseverance for a long Time, the chief Agents in these bloody Proceedings, firm in their Convictions that they had done righteously, deemed it incumbent upon themselves to keep the People to the same Opinions. This was the Origin of this unfortunate Book, "_The Wonders of the Invisible World_;" the chief Part, or perhaps all of which, was composed while above one hundred poor People in and about Salem and Boston were suffering a wretched imprisonment in the filthy and barbarous Jails of those Days, to which Jails and Prisons of our Days are in Comparison, Palaces. It was doubtless no sooner determined that the Proceedings against the Witches should be given to the World, than the Person was designated who should perform that Service. And from the very opening of that Work it is at once discovered, that it was intended as a "Defence" of what had been already done, as well as to urge a Continuance of those Proceedings, "until the Land was fully purged of the Demons which infested it."

For a long Period, the Publication of Books detailing the Doings and Prosecutions of Witches seems to have extended rather than abridged the Belief in Witchcraft. This may be accounted for in Part from the Consideration that the Teachers of the People were themselves groveling in the Mire of Superstition. A more particular Reference to some of the Works best known somewhat more than two Centuries ago shall here follow.

One Thomas Cooper published in 1617, a Work of this Title, "The Mystery of Witchcraft. Discouering, the Truth, Nature, Occasions, Growth and Power thereof. Together with the Detection and Punishment of the same. As also, the Seuerall Stratagems of Sathan, ensnaring the poore Soule by this desperate Practize of annoying the Bodie: with the seueral Vses thereof to the Church of Christ. Very necessary for the redeeming of these atheisticall and secure Times."

This Author dedicated his Work to the "Maior and Corporation of the Ancient Citie of Chester," &c., in which Dedication we find the following, which, throwing some Light on the reverend Dealer in Darkness, is extracted. He commences, "Diuers, and verie weighty haue been the Motiues (right Worshipfull) to induce mee to the Dedication of these my Labors in this kinde vnto your Worships.

"The first is, because my first Calling from the Vniversitie, to employ my Ministrie for the Edification of the Saints, was by the Gouernors of your famous Citie, to succeed that painefull and profitable Teacher, Maister Harrison, who was thence called by the King's most Excellent Maiestie, to be one of the sixe Teachers to those barren and needfull Places of the Country of Lancashire. And therefore, hauing both kind intertainment among you; and by some of you being furthered to a more settled Pastorall Charge in that Countie, I could not but leave some Memoriall of my Thankefulnesse vnto you herein.

"Secondly, my free Admission to that Pastorall Charge, together with the singular Providence of God, in directing my Ministrie for the informing and reforming of that ignorant People, who never before enioyed any constant Ministrie, as also his admirable Protection and Deliuerance of me from vnreasonable Men, that vsed all their Force and Cunning to hinder the Proceedings of the Gospel of Christ."

These Extracts are made because they give a Glimpse of the Life and Character of an Author, second only to King James as a Cultivator of Witchcraft. His Book is a small Duodecimo of 368 Pages, in the Close of which he says, "to the wise and humble Reader, I am not ashamed to acknowledge, that which thou canst not but discerne; that I have borrowed most of my Grounds from his Maiesties Dæmonologie, Mr. Perkins, Mr. Gifford, and others." And this truly may be added, "the Blind were led by the Blind," in the fullest Sense of the Maxim. Master Cooper further remarks upon the Labors of his royal Predecessor and others in these Words, "they have waded before mee heerein, to confirme the Authoritie thereof, against the Atheisme of these evill Dayes: that so each might have the perfect Honour of their owne Paines."[4]

In his second Chapter he says, "it is proued that there haue beene, are, and shall be Witches to the World's End: both by sound Testimony, 1st, from the Word; 2d, from Antiquity; 3d, from pregnant Reasons, and so such Obiections answered, as seeme to contradict this Truth."

This most singularly superstitious Writer says there were good Witches as well as bad ones; that these good Witches are called the _unbinding_ ones; because they undo what the bad Witch does, and yet is allowed to do good Offices with the Consent of the Devil.[5]

Good Witches performed wonderful Cures, according to the Belief of those Days. Even Burton[6] says, "they can effect such Cures, the maine Question is whether it be lawful in a desperate Case, to crave their Help, or ask a Wizard's Advice. 'Tis a common Practice of some Men to go first to a Witch, and then to a Physitian. If one cannot help the other shall." And Paracelsus declared, "that it mattered not whether a sick Person were helped by God or Devil, so that he were eased." Some, however, demurred to this, and affirmed that it was better to die than be cured by a Witch or a Sorcerer.

Further to illustrate the Subject, I shall have Recourse to Mr. Nathan Drake's _Shakespeare, and his Times_. That chief of Expounders of the "Immortal Bard," having had occasion to review the Subject of Witchcraft, and having made so clear and valuable an Analysis of it in his Examination of the Witches of Shakespeare, as is nowhere else to be found, I am, as will be the Readers of this Introduction, I apprehend, fortunate in being able to avail myself of the Labors of that eminent Scholar and able Antiquary.

The Play of Macbeth is founded on a Species of Superstition that, during the Life-time of Shakespeare, prevailed in England and Scotland, in a Degree until then unknown. In the 33d Year of Henry VIII, was enacted a Statute which adjudged all Witchcraft and Sorcery to be Felony without the Benefit of Clergy; but at the Commencement of the Reign of Elizabeth, the Evil seems to have been greatly on the Increase, for Bishop Jewel, preaching before the Queen, in 1558, tells her, "It may please your Grace to understand that Witches and Sorcerers within these few last Years are marvelously increased within your Grace's Realm. Your Grace's Subjects pine away, even unto the Death, their Colour fadeth, their Flesh rotteth, their Speech is benumbed, their Senses are bereft, I pray God they may never practice further then upon the Subject."[7] How prevalent the Delusion had become, in the Year 1584, we have the most ample Testimony in the ingenious Work of Reginald Scot, entitled "The Discoverie of Witchcraft," which was written as the sensible and humane Author has informed us, "in behalfe of the Poore, the Aged, and the Simple,"[8] and it reflects singular Discredit on the Age in which it was produced, that a Detection so complete, both with regard to Argument and Fact, should have failed in effecting its Purpose. But the Infatuation had seized all Ranks, with an Influence which rivaled that resulting from an Article of religious Faith, and Scot begins his Work with the Observation, that "the Fables of Witchcraft have taken so fast hold and deepe Root in the Heart of Man, that fewe or none can, now adaies, with Patience indure the Hand and Correction of God. For if any Adversitie, Greefe, Sicknesse, Losse of Children, Corne, Cattell, or Libertie happen unto them; by and by they exclaime uppon Witches;--insomuch as a Clap of Thunder, or a Gale of Wind is no sooner heard, but either they run to ring Bells, or crie out to burne Witches;"[9] and in his second Chapter, he declares, "I have heard to my greefe some of the Minesterie affirme, that they have had in their Parish at one Instant xvij or xviij Witches: meaning such as could work Miracles supernaturallie,"[10] a Declaration which, in a subsequent Part of his Book, he more particularly applies, when he informs us, that xvij or xviij were condemned at once at St. Osees in the County of Essex, being a whole Parish, though of no great Quantitie."[11]

The Mischief, however, was but in Progress, and received a rapid Acceleration from the Publication of the _Dæmonologie_ of King James, at Edinburgh, in the Year 1597. The Origin of this very curious Treatise was probably laid in the royal Mind, in Consequence of the supposed Detection of a Conspiracy of 200 Witches with Dr. Fian, "Register to the Devil," at their Head, to bewitch and drown His Majesty, on his Return from Denmark, in 1590. James attended the Examination of these poor Wretches with the most eager Curiosity, and the most willing Credulity; and, when Agnis Tompson confessed, that she, with other Witches, to the Number just mentioned, went altogether by Sea, each one in her Riddle, or Sieve, with Flagons of Wine, making merry and drinking by the Way, to the Kirk of North Berwick, in Lothian, where, when they had landed, they took Hands and danced, singing all with one Voice:

"Commer [Gossip] go ye before, commer goe ye Gif ye will not go before, commer let me."

And "that Geilis Duncane did go before them, playing said Reel on a Jew's Trump." James sent for Duncane, and listened with Delight to his Performance of the Witches' Reel on the Jews-harp!

On Agnis, however, asserting, that the Devil had met them at the Kirk, His Majesty could not avoid expressing some Doubts; when, taking him aside, she "declared unto him the very Words which had passed between him and his Queen on the first Night of their Marriage, with their Answer each to other; whereat the King wondered greatly, and swore by the living God, that he believed all the Devils in Hell could not have discovered the same."[12]

That the Particulars elicited from the Confessions of these unfortunate Beings, which, it is said, "made the King in a wonderful Admiration," formed the Basis of the _Dæmonologie_, may be therefore readily admitted. It is also to be deplored, that, weak and absurd as this Production now appears to us, its Effect on the Age of its Birth, and a Century afterwards, were extensive and melancholy in the extreme. It contributed, indeed, more than any other Work on the Subject, to rivet the Fetters of Credulity; and scarcely had a twelve month elapsed from its Publication, before its Result was visible in the Destruction in Scotland, of not less than 600 human Beings at once, for this imaginary Crime![13]