| | so privileged, as he little mistrusted that God would visit his children with |
| | sicknes) did so calculate; as he found, partlie through his owne judgement, and |
| | partlie (as he himselfe told me) by the relation of other witches, that his said |
| | sonne was by hir bewitched. Yea, he also told me, that this his sonne (being as |
| | it were past all cure) received perfect health at the hands of another witch. |
| | He proceeded yet further against hir, affirming, that alwaies in his parish |
| | church, when he desired to read most plainelie, his voice so failed him, as he |
| | could scant be heard at all. Which hee could impute, he said, to nothing else, |
| | but to hir inchantment. When I advertised* the poore woman hereof, as being |
| | desirous to heare what she could saie for hir selfe; she told me, that in verie |
| | deed his voice did much faile him, speciallie when he strained himselfe to speake |
| | lowdest. How beit, she said that at all times his voice was hoarse and lowe: |
| | which thing I perceived to be true. But sir, said she, you shall understand, that |
| | this our vicar is diseased with such a kind of hoarsenesse, as divers of our |
| | neighbors in this parish, not long since, doubted* that he had the French pox; |
| | & in that respect utterly refused to communicate* with him: untill such time as |
| | (being therunto injoined by M. D. Lewen the Ordinarie) he had brought frõ |
| | London a certificat, under the hands of two physicians, that his hoarsenes pro- |
| | ceeded from a disease in the lungs. Which certificat he published in the church, |
| | in the presence of the whole congregation: and by this meanes hee was cured, |
| | or rather excused of the shame of his disease. And this I knowe to be true by |
| | the relation of divers honest men of that parish. And truelie, if one of the jurie |
| | had not beene wiser than the other, she had beene condemned thereupon, and |
| | upon other as ridiculous matters as this. For the name of a witch is so odious, |
| | and hir power so feared among the common people, that if the honestest bodie |
| | living chance to be arraigned therupon, she shall hardlie escape condemnation. |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | CHAPTER III. |
| | |
| | Who they be that are called witches, with a manifest declaration of the cause that mooveth |
| | men so commonlie to thinke, and witches themselves to beleere that they can hurt |
| | children, cattell, &c. with words and imaginations: and of coosening witches. |
| | |
| |
ONE sort of such as are said to bee witches, are women which be com- |
| |
monly old, lame, bleare-eied, pale, fowle, and full of wrinkles; poore, |
| |
sullen, superstitious, and papists*; or such as knowe no religion: in whose |
| |
drousie minds the divell hath goten a fine seat; so as, what mischeefe, mischance, |
| |
calamitie, or slaughter is brought to passe, they are easilie persuaded the same |
| |
is doone by themselves; imprinting in their minds an earnest and constant |
| |
imagination hereof. They are leane and deformed, shewing melancholie in |
Cardan. de var. | |
their faces, to the horror of all that see them. They are doting, scolds, mad, |
rerum. | |
divelish; and not much differing from them that are thought to be possessed |
| |
with spirits; so firme and stedfast in their opinions, as whosoever shall onelie |
| |
have respect to the constancie of their words uttered, would easilie beleeve they |
| |
were true indeed. |
| |
These miserable wretches are so odious unto all their neighbors, and so |
| |
feared, as few dare offend them, or denie them anie thing they aske: whereby |
| |
they take upon them; yea, and sometimes thinke, that they can doo such things |
| |
as are beyond the abilitie of humane nature. These go from house to house, and |
| |
from doore to doore for a pot full of milke, yest, drinke, pottage, or some such |
| |
releefe; without the which they could hardlie live: neither obtaining for their |
| |
service and paines, nor by their art, nor yet at the divels hands (with whome |
| |
they are said to make a perfect and visible bargaine) either beautie, monie,
|
| 4 | |