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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sense_n	witch_n	word_n	world_n	12	3	4.0984	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62397	The discovery of witchcraft proving that the compacts and contracts of witches with devils and all infernal spirits or familiars are but erroneous novelties and imaginary conceptions : also discovering, how far their power extendeth in killing, tormenting, consuming, or curing the bodies of men, women, children, or animals by charms, philtres, periapts, pentacles, curses, and conjurations : wherein likewise the unchristian practices and inhumane dealings of searchers and witch-tryers upon aged, melancholly, and superstitious people, in extorting confessions by terrors and tortures, and in devising false marks and symptoms, are notably detected ... : in sixteen books / by Reginald Scot ... ; whereunto is added an excellent Discourse of the nature and substance of devils and spirits, in two books : the first by the aforesaid author, the second now added in this third edition ... conducing to the compleating of the whole work, with nine chapters at the beginning of the fifteenth [sic] book of The discovery.; Discoverie of witchcraft	Scot, Reginald, 1538?-1599.; Scot, Reginald, 1538?-1599. Discourse concerning the nature and substance of devils and spirits.	1665 (1665)	Wing S945A; ESTC R20054	529,066	395

Oracles whereby indeed all good learning and honest arts are overthrown For these that most advance their power and maintain the skill of these Witches understand no part thereof and yet being many times wise in other matters are made fools by the most fools in the world Me thinks these Magical Physitians deal in the Common-wealth much like as a certain kind of Cynical people do in the Church whose severe sayings are accompted among some such Oracles as may not be doubted of who in stead of learning and authority which they make contemptible do feed the people with their own devices and imaginations which they prefer before all other Divinity and labouring to erect a Church according to their own fansies wherein all order is condemned and only their Magical words and curious directions advanced they would utterly overthrow the true Church And even as these inchanting Paracelsians abuse the people leading them from the true order of Physick to their Charms so do these other I say disswade from hearkning to learning and obedience and whisper in mens ears to teach them their Fryer-like traditions And of this sect the chief author at this time is one Brown a fugitive a meet cover for such a cup as heretofore the Anabaptists the Arrians and the Franciscan Fryers Truly not only nature being the foundation of all perfection but also Scripture being the Mistress and director thereof and of all Christianity is beautified with knowledge and learning For as nature without discipline doth naturally incline unto vanities and as it were suck up errors so doth the word or rather the letter of the Scripture without understanding not only make us devoure errors but yieldeth us up to death and destruction and therefore Paul saith he was not a Minister of the letter but of the spirit Thus have I been bold to deliver unto the world and to you those simple notes reasons and arguments which I have devised or collected out of other Authors which I hope shall be hurtful to none but to my self great comfort if it may pass with good liking and acceptation If it fall out otherwise I should think my pains ill imployed For truly in mine opinion whosoever shall perform any thing or attain to any knowledge or whosoever should travel throughout all the Nations of the world or if it were possible should peep into the heavens the consolation or admiration thereof were nothing pleasant unto him unless he had liberty to impart his knowledge to his friends Wherein because I have made special choice of you I hope you will read it or at the least lay it up in your study with your other Books among which there is none dedicated to any with more good will And so long as you have it it shall be unto you upon adventure of my life a certain Amulet Periapt Circle Charm c. to defend you from all Inchantments Your loving Friend REGINALD SCOT To the READERS TO you that are wise and discreet few words may suffice for such a one judgeth not at the first sight nor Reproveth by hearsay but patiently heareth and thereby increaseth in understanding which patience bringeth forth experience whereby true judgement is directed I shall not need therefore to make any further suite to you but that it would please you to read my Book without the prejudice of time or former conceit and having obtained this at your hands I submit my self unto your censure But to make a solemn suit to you that are partial Readers desiring you to set aside partiality to take in good part my writing and with indifferent eyes to look upon my Book were labour lost and time ill imployed For I should no more prevail herein then if a hundred years since I should have intreated your predecessors to believe that Robin Good-fellow that great and ancient Bull-begger had been but a cosening Merchant and no Devil indeed If I should go to a Papist and say I pray you believe my writings wherein I will prove all Popish Charms Conjurations Exorcisms Benedictions and Curses not only to be ridiculous and of none effect but also to be impious and contrary to God's Word I should as hardly therein win favour at their hands as herein obtain credit at yours Nevertheless I doubt not but to use the matter so that as well the Massemonger for his part as the Witchmonger for his shall both be ashamed of their Professions But Robin Good-fellow ceaseth now to be much feared and Popery is sufficiently discovered Nevertheless Witches Charms and Conjurors Cosenages are yet though effectual Yea the Gentiles have espyed the fraud of their cosening Oracles and our cold Prophets and Inchanters make us fools still to the shame of us all but specially of Papists who conjure every thing and thereby bring to pass nothing They say to their Candles I conjure you to endure for ever and yet they last not a Pater Noster while the longer They conjure water to be wholesome both for body and soul but the body we see is never the better for it nor the soul any whit reformed by it And therefore I marvel that when they see their own Conjurations confuted and brought to nought or at the least void of effect that they of all other will yet give such credit countenance and authority to the vain cosenages of Witches and Conjurors as though their Charms and Conjurations could produce more apparent certain and better effects then their own But my request unto all you that read my Book shall be no more but that it would please you to conferr my words with your own sense and experience and also with the Word of God If you finde your selves resolved and satisfied or rather reformed and qualified in any one point or opinion that heretofore you held contrary to truth in a matter hitherto undecided and never yet looked into I pray you take that for advantage and suspending your judgement stay the sentence of condemnation against me and consider of the rest at your further leisure If this may not suffice for to perswade you it cannot prevail to annoy you and then that which is written without offence may be overpassed without any grief And although mine assertion be somewhat differing from the old inveterate opinion which I confess hath many gray hairs whereby mine adversaries have gained more authority then reason towards the maintenance of their presumptions and old wives fables yet shall it fully agree with God's glory and with his holy Word And albeit there be hold taken by mine Adversaries of certain few words or sentences in the Scripture that make a shew for them yet when the whole course thereof maketh against them and impugneth the same yea and also their own places rightly understood do nothing at all relieve them I trust their glorious title and argument of Antiquity will appear as stale and corrupt as the Apothecaries Drugs or Grocers Spice which the longer they be preserved the

be an Inchanter yea a principal Inchanter which title being given him in divers places of that story he never seemed to refuse or dislike but rather intreateth for the pardon and qualification of the rigor towards other Inchanters which were meer coseners indeed as appeareth in the second Chapter of Daniel where you may see that the King espyed their fetches Sometimes such are called Conjurers as being but Rogues and lewd people would use the name of Jesus to work miracles whereby though they being faithless could work nothing yet is their practice condemned by the name of Conjuration Sometimes Juglers are called Witches Sometimes also they are called Sorcerers that impugne the Gospel of Christ and seduce others with violent perswasions Sometimes a Murtherer with poyson is called a Witch Sometimes they are so termed by the very signification of their names as Elymas which signifies a Sorcerer Sometimes because they study curious and vain arts Sometimes it is taken for wounding or grieving of the heart Yea the very word Magus which is Latin for a Magician is translated a Witch and yet it was heretofore alwayes taken in the good part And at this day it is indifferent to say in the English tongue She is a Witch or She is a wise Woman Sometimes observers of Dreams sometimes Soothsayers sometimes the observers of the flying of fowls of the meeting of toads the falling of salt c. are called Witches Sometimes he or she is called a Witch that take upon them either for gain or glory to do miracles and yet can do nothing Sometimes they are called Witches in common speech that are old lame curst or melancholike as a nick name But as for our old Women that are said to hurt children with their eyes or Lambs with their looks or that pull down the Moon out of heaven or make so foolish a bargain or do such homage to the Devil you shall not read in the Bible of any such Witches or of any such actions imputed to them BOOK VI. CHAP. I. The exposition of this Hebrew word Chasaph wherein is answered the Objection contained in Exod. 22. to wit Thou shalt not suffer a Witch to live and of Simon Magus Acts 8. CHasaph being an Hebrew word is latined Veneficium and is in English Poysoning or Witchcraft if you will so have it The Hebrew sentence written in Exod. 22. is by the 70 Interpreters translated thus into Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in Latin is Veneficos sive Veneficas non retinebitis in vita in English You shall not suffer any Poysoners or as it is translated Witches to live The which sentence Josephus an Hebrew born and a man of great estimation learning and fame interpreteth in this wise Let none of the children of Israel have any poyson that is deadly or prepared to any hurtful use If any be apprehended with such stuffe let him be put to death and suffer that which he meant to do to them for whom he prepared it The Rabbins exposition agreeth herewithal Lex Cornelia differeth not from the sense to wit that he must suffer death which either maketh selleth or hath any poyson to the intent to kill any man This word is found in these places following Exod. 22.18 Deut. 18.10 2 Sam. 9.22 Dan. 2.2 2 Chron. 33.6 Esay 47.9 12. Malach. 3.5 Jerem. 27.10 Mich. 5.2 Nah. 3.4 bis Howbeit in all our English translations Chasaph is translated Witchcraft And because I will avoid prolixity and contention both at once I will admit that Veneficae were such Witches as with their poysons did much hurt among the children of Israel and I will not deny that there remain such unto this day bewitching men and making them believe that by vertue of words and certain Ceremonies they bring to pass such mischiefs and intoxications as they indeed accomplish by poysons And this abuse in cosenage of people together with the taking of Gods name in vain in many places of the Scripture is reproved especially by the name of Witchcraft even where no poysons are According to the sense which St. Paul used to the Galathians in these words where he sheweth plainly that the true signification of Witchcraft is cosenage O ye foolish Galathians saith he who hath be witched you to wit cosened or abused you making you believe a thing which is neither so nor so Whereby he meaneth not to ask of them who hath with Charmes c. or with poysons deprived them of their health life cattel or children c. but whom hath abused or cosened them to make them believe lyes This phrase is also used by Job 15. But that we may be throughly resolved of the true meaning of this phrase used by Paul Gal. 3. let us examine the description of a notable Witch called Simon Magus made by St. Luke There was saith he in the City of Samaria a certain man called Simon which used Witchcraft and bewitched the people of Samaria saying that he himself was some great man I demand in what other thing here do we see any Witchcraft than that he abused the people making them believe he could work miracles whereas in truth he could do no such thing as manifestly may appear in the 13 and 19 ver of the same chap. where he wondered at the miracles wrought by the Apostles and would have purchased with mony the power of the holy Ghost to work wonders It will be said the people had reason to believe him because it is written That he of long time had bewitched them with Sorceries But let the bewitched Galathians be a warning both to the bewitched Samaritans and to all other that are cosened or bewitched through false Doctrine or Legierdemain least while they attend to such fables and lyes they be brought into ignorance and so in time be led with them away from God And finally let us all abandon such Witches and Coseners as with Simon Magus set themselves in the place of God boasting that they can do miracles expound dreams foretel things to come raise the dead c. which are the works of the holy Ghost who only seacheth the heart and reins and only worketh great wonders which are now stayed and accomplished in Christ in whom who so steadfastly believeth shall not need to be by such means resolved or confirmed in his Doctrine and Gospel And as for the unfaithful they shall have none other miracle shewed unto them but the sign of Jonas the Prophet And therefore I say whatsoever they be that with Simon Magus take upon them to work such Wonders by Soothsaying Sorcery or Witchcraft are but lyers deceivers and coseners according to Syrachs saying Sorcery Witchcraft Soothsaying and Dreams are but vanity and the Law shall be fulfilled without such lies God commanded the people That they should not regard them that wrought with Spirits nor Soothsayers for the estimation that was attributed to them offended God CHAP. II.

c. to conclude otherwise The clouds are called the pillars of Gods tents Gods chariots and his pavillions And if it be so what Witch or Devil can make masteries thereof S. Augustine saith Non est putandum istis transgressoribus angelis servire hanc rerum visibilium materiem sed soli Deo We must not think that these visible things are at the commandement of the Angels that fell but are obedient to the only God Finally If Witches could accomplish these things what needed it seem so strange to the people when Christ by miracle commanded both seas and winds c. For it is written Who is this for both wind and sea obey him CHAP. II. The inconvenience growing by mens Credulity herein with a reproof of some Church-men which are inclined to the common conceived opinion of Witches Omnipotencie and familiar example thereof BUt the world is now so bewitched and over-run with this fond error that even where a man should seek comfort and counsel there shall he be sent in case of necessity from God to the Devil and from the Physitian to the cosening Witch who will not stick to take upon her by words to heal the lame which was proper only to Christ and to them whom he assisted with his divine power yea with her familiar and charms she will take upon her to cure the blind though in the tenth of S. John's Gospel it be written that the Devil cannot open the eyes of the blind And they attain such credit as I have heard to my grief some of the ministery affirm that they have had in their Parish at one instant 17 or 18 Witches meaning such as could work Miracles supernaturally Whereby they manifested as well their infidelity and ignorance in conceiving Gods Word as their negligence and error in instructing their flocks For they themselves might understand and also teach their parishioners that God only worketh great wonders and that it is he which sendeth such punishments to the wicked and such trials to the Elect according to the saying of the Prophet Haggai I smote you with blasting and mildew and with hail in all the labours of your hands and yet you turned not unto me saith the Lord. And therefore saith the same Prophet in another place You have sowen much and bring in little And both in Joel and Leviticus the like phrases and proofs are used and made But more shall be said of this hereafter S. Paul fore-saw the blindness and obstinancy both of these blind shepherds and also of their scabbed sheep when he said They will not suffer wholesome doctrine but having their ears itching shall get them a heap of Teachers after their own lusts and shall turn their ears from the Truth and shall be given to fables And in the latter time some shall depart from the Faith and shall give heed to Spirits of Errors and Doctrins of Devils which speak lies as Witches and Conjurers do but cast thou away such prophane and old wives fables In which sense Basil saith Who so giveth heed to Inchanters harkeneth to a fabulous and frivilous thing But I will rehearse an example whereof I my self am not only Oculatus testis but have examined the cause and am to justifie the truth of my report not because I would disgrace the Ministers that are godly but to confirm my former assertion that this absurd error is grown into the place which should be able to expel all such ridiculous folly and impiety At the Assizes holden at Rochester Anno 1581. one Margaret Simons the wife of John Simons of Brenchly in Kent was arraigned for witchcraft at the instigation and complaint of divers fond and malicious persons and specially by the means of one John Ferral Vicar of that Parish with whom I talked about that matter and found him both fondly assorted in the cause and enviously bent towards her and which is worse as unable to make a good account of his faith as she whom he accused That which he for his part laid to the poor womans charge was this His son being an ungracious boy and prentise to one Robert Scotchford clothier dwelling in that Parish of Brenchly passed on a day by her house at whom by chance her little Dog barked Which thing the boy taking in evil part drew his knife and pursued him therewith even to her door whom she rebuked with some such words as the boy disdained and yet nevertheless would not be perswaded to depart in a long time At the last he returned to his Masters house and within five or six days fell sick Then was called to mind the fray betwixt the Dog and the Boy insomuch as the Vicar who thought himself so priviledged as he little mistrusted that God would visit his children with sickness did so calculate as he found partly through his own judgement and partly as he himself told me by the relation of other Witches that his said son was by her bewitched Yea he also told me that this his son being as it were past all cure received perfect health at the hands of another Witch He proceeded yet further against her affirming that alwayes in his Parish-Church when he desired to read most plainly his voyce so failed him as he could scant be heard at all Which he could impute he said to nothing else but to her inchantment When I advertised the poor woman hereof as being desirous to hear what she could say for her self she told me that in very deed his voyce did much fail him specially when he trained himself to speak lowdest Howbeit she said that at all times his voyce was hoarse and low 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 hoarseness as divers of our neighbours in this Parish not long since doubted that he had the French-Pox and in that respect utterly refused to communicate with him until such time as being thereunto injoyned by M.D. Lewen the ordinary he had brought from London a certificate under the hands of two Physitians that his hoarseness proceeded from a disease in the lungs Which certificate he published in the Church in the presence of the whole Congregation and by this means he was cured or rather excused of the shame of his disease And this I know to be true by the relation of divers honest men of that Parish And truly if one of the Jury had not been wiser than the other she had been condemned thereupon and upon other as ridiculous matters as this For the name of a Witch is so odious and her power so feared among the common people that if the honestest body living chance to be arraigned thereupon she shall hardly escape condemnation CHAP. III. Who they be that are called Witches with a manifest Declaration of the cause that moveth men so commonly to think and Witches themselves to believe that they can

from one place to another Some that they can cure Diseases supernaturally flie in the Air and dance with Devils Some write that they can play the part of Succubus and contract themselves to Incubus and so young Prophets are upon them begotten c. Some say they can transubstantiate themselves and others and take the forms and shapes of Asses Wolves Ferrets Cows Apes Horses Dogs c. Some say they can keep Devils and Spirits in the likeness of Todes and Cats They can raise spirits as others affirm dry up Springs turn the course of running waters inhibit the Sun and stay both day and night changing the one into the other They can go in and out at awger-holes and sail in an Egge-shel a Cockle or Muscel-shel through and under the tempestuous Seas They can go invisible and deprive men of their Privities and otherwise of the act and use of Venery They can bring souls out of graves They can tear Snakes in pieces with words and with looks kill Lambs But in this case a man may say that Miranda canunt sed non credenda Poetae They can also bring to pass that Chern as long as you list your Butter will not come especially if either the Maids have eaten up the Cream or the good-wife have sold the Butter before in the market Whereof I have had some trial although there may be true and natural causes to hinder the common course thereof as for example Put a little Sope or Sugar into your Chern of Cream and there will never come any Butter chern as long as you list But M. Mal. saith that there is not so little a Village where many women are not that bewitch infect and kill kine and dry up the Mik alledging for the strengthening of that assertion the saying of the Apostle Nunquid Deo cura est de Bobus doth God take any care of Oxen CHAP. V. A Confutation of the common conceiued Opinion of Witches and Witchcraft and how detestable a sin it is to repair to them for counsel or other help in time of affliction BUt whatsoever is reported or conceived of such manner of Witchcrafts I dare avow to be false and fabulous cosenage dotage and poysoning excepted neither is there any mention made of these kind of Witches in the Bible If Christ had known them he would not have pretermitted to inveigh against their presumption in taking upon them his Office as to heal and cure diseases and to work such miraculous and supernatural things as whereby he himself was specially known believed and published to be God his actions and cures consisting in order and effect according to the power by our Witchmongers imputed to Witches Howbeit if there be any in these dayes afflicted in such strange sort as Christs cures and patients are described in the New Testament to have been we fly from trusting in God to trusting in Witches who do not only in their cosening art take on them the office of Christ in this behalf but use his very phrase of speech to such Idolaters as come to seek divine assistance at their hands saying Go thy wayes thy son or thy daughter c. shall do well and be whole It will not suffice to disswade a Witchmonger from his credulity that he seeth the sequel and event to fall out many times contrary to their assertion but in such case to his greater condemnation he seeketh further to Witches of greater fame If all fail he will rather think he came in an hour too late than that he went a mile too far Truly I for my part cannot perceive what it is to goe a whoring after strange gods if this be not He that looketh upon his neighbours wife and lusteth after her hath committed adultery And truly he that in heart and by argument maintained the sacrifice of the Mass to be propitiatory for the quick and the dead is an Idolater as also he that alloweth and commendeth creeping to the cross and such like Idolatrous actions although he bend not his corporall knees In like manner I say he that attributeth to a witch such divine power as duly and only appertaineth unto GOD which all Witchmongers do is in heart a blasphemer an Idolater and full of gross impiety although he neither go nor send to her for assistance CHAP. VI. A further confutation of Witches miraculous and omnipotent power by invincible reasons and authorities with disswasions from such fond credulity IF Witches could do any such miraculous things as these and other which are imputed to them they might do them again and again at any time or place or at any mans desire for the devil is as strong at one time as at another as busie by day as by night and ready enough to do all mischief and careth not whom he abuseth And insomuch as it is confessed by the most part of Witchmongers themselves that he knoweth not the cogitation of mans heart he should me thinks sometimes appear unto honest and credible persons in such gross and corporal form as it is said he doth unto Witches which you shall never hear to be justified by one sufficient witness For the devil indeed entreth into the mind and that way seeketh mans confusion The art alwayes presupposeth the power so as if they say they can do this or that they must shew how and by what means they do it as neither the Witches nor the Witchmongers are able to do For to every action is required the faculty and ability of the agent or doer the aptness of the patient or subject and a convenient and possible application Now the Witches are mortal and their power dependeth upon the analogy and consonancy of their minds and bodies but with their minds they can but will and understand and with their bodies they can do no more but as the bounds and ends of terrene sense will suffer and therefore their power extended not to do such miracles as surmounteth their own sense and the understanding of others which are wiser than they so as here wanteth the vertue and power of the efficient And in reason there can be no more vertue in the thing caused than in the cause or that which proceedeth of or from the benefit of the cause And we see that ignorant and impotent women or Witches are the causes of incantations and charms wherein we shall perceive there is none effect if we will credit our own experience and sense unabused the rules of Philosophy or the Word of God For alas What an unapt instrument is a toothless old impotent and unwieldy woman to flie in the air Truely the Devil little needs such instruments to bring his purposes to pass It is strange that we should suppose that such persons can work such feats and it is more strange that we will imagine that to be possible to be done by a witch which to nature and sense is impossible specially when our neighbours life dependeth upon our

credulity therein and when we may see the defect of ability which alwayes is an impediment both to the act and also to the presumption thereof And because there is nothing possible in law that in nature is impossible therefore the judge doth not attend or regard what the accused man saith or yet would do but what is proved to have been committed and naturally falleth in mans power and will to do For the law saith that to will a thing impossible is a sign of a mad-man or of a fool upon whom no sentence or judgement taketh hold Furthermore what Jury will condemn or what Judge will give sentence or judgement against one for killing a man at Berwick when they themselves and many other saw that man at London that very day wherein the murther was committed yea though the party confess himself guilty therein and twenty witnesses depose the same But in this case also I say the Judge is not to weigh their testimony which is weakened by Law and the Judges authority is to supply the imperfection of the case and to maintain the right and equity of the same Seeing therefore that some other things might naturally be the occasion and cause of such calamities as witches are supposed to bring let not us that profess the Gospel and knowledge of Christ be bewitched to believe that they do such things as are in nature impossible and in sense and reason incredible If they say it is done through the Devils help who can work miracles why doe not theeves bring their business to pass miraculously with whom the Devil is as conversant as with the other Such mischiefs as are imputed to witches happen where no witches are yea and continue when witches are hanged and burnt why then should we attribute such effect to that cause which being taken away happeneth nevertheless CHAP. VII By what means the name of Witches becometh so famous and how diversly people be opinioned concerning them and their actions SUrely the natural power of man or woman cannot be so inlarged as to do any thing beyond the power and vertue given and ingraffed by God But it is the will and mind of man which is vitiated and depraved by the devil neither doth God permit any more than that which the natural order appointed by him doth require Which natural order is nothing else but the ordinary power of God powred into every creature according to his state and condition But hereof more shall be said in the title of witches confessions Howbeit you shall understand that few or none are throughly perswaded resolved or satisfied that witches can indeed accomplish all these impossibilities but some one is bewitched in one point and some are cosened in another untill in fine all these impossibilities and many more are by several persons affirmed to be true And this I have also noted that when any one is cosened with a cosening toye of witch-craft and maketh report thereof accordingly verifying a matter most impossible and false as it were upon his own knowledge as being overtaken with some kind of illusion or other which illusions are right inchantments even the self-same man will deride the like proceeding out of another mans mouth as a fabulous matter unworthy of credit It is also to be wondered how men that have seen some part of witches cosenages detected and see also therein the impossibility of their own presumptions and the folly and falshood of the witches confessions will not suspect but remain unsatisfied or rather obstinately defend the residue of witches supernatural actions like as when a jugler hath discovered the slight and illusion of his principal feats one would fondly continue to think that his other petty juggling knacks of legierdemain are done by the help of a familiar and according to the folly of some Papists who seeing and confessing the Popes absurd Religion in the erection and maintenance of Idolatry and Superstition specially in Images Pardons and Reliques of Saints will yet persevere to think that the rest of his doctrine and trumpery is holy and good Finally many maintain and cry out for the execution of witches that particularly believe never a whit of that which is imputed unto them if they be therein privately dealt withall and substantially opposed and tryed in argument CHAP. VIII Causes that move as well Witches themselves as others to think that they can work impossibilities with answers to certain objections where also their punishment by Law is touched CArdanus writeth that the cause of such credulity consisteth in three points to wit in the imagination of the melancholick in the constancy of them that are corrupt therewith and in the deceit of the Judges who being inquisitors themselves against hereticks and witches did both accuse and condemn them having for their labour the spoil of their goods So as these inquisitors added many fables hereunto lest they should seem to have done injury to the poor wretches in condemning and executing them for none offence But sithence saith he the springing up of Luthers sect these Priests have tended more diligently upon the execution of them because more wealth is to be caught from them insomuch as now they deal so loosly with witches through distrust of gains that all is seen to be malice folly or avarice that hath been practised against them And whosoever shall search into this cause or read the chief writers hereupon shall find his words true It will be objected that we here in England are not now directed by the Popes Laws and so by consequence our witches not troubled or convented by the Inquisitors Haereticae pravitatis I answer that in times past here in England as in other nations this order of discipline hath been in force and use although now some part of the old rigour be qualified by two several Statutes made in the first of Elizabeth and 33 of Henry the eight Nevertheless the estimation of the omnipotency of their words or charmes seemeth in those statutes to be somewhat maintained as a matter hitherto generally received and not yet so looked into as that it is refuted and decided But how wisely soever the Parliament-house hath dealt therein or how mercifully soever the Prince beholdeth the cause if a poor old woman supposed to be a Witch be by the Civil or Canon Law convented I doubt some Canon will be found in force not only to give scope to the tormentor but also to the hangman to exercise their offices upon her And most certain it is that in what point soever any of these extremities which I shall rehearse unto you be mitigated it is through the goodness of the Queens Majesty and her excellent Magistrates placed amongst us For as touching the opinion of our Writers therein in our age yea in our Countrey you shall see it doth not only agree with foreign cruelty but surmounteth it far If you read a foolish Pamphlet dedicated to the Lord Darcy by W.W.

use such circumstances even in these very actions as to make these assemblies conventicles ceremonies c. when he hath already bought their bodies and bargained for their souls Or what reason had he to make them kill so many Infants by whom he rather loseth than gaineth any thing because they are so far as either he or we know in better case than we of riper years by reason of their innocency Well if she be not past children then stealeth he seed away as hath been said from some wicked man being about that lecherous business and therewith getteth young Witches upon the old And note that they affirm That this business is better accomplished with seed thus gathered than that which is shed in Dreams through superfluity of humors because that is gathered from the virtue of the seed generative And if it be said That the seed will wax cold by the way and so lose his natural heat and consequently the vertue M. Mal. Danaeus and the rest do answer That the Devil can so carry it as no heat shall go from it c. Furthermore old Witches are sworn to procure as many young Virgins for Incubus as they can whereby in time they grow to be excellent bawds but in this case the Priest playeth Incubus For you should find that confession to a Priest and namely this word Benedicit driveth Incubus away when Ave Maries crosses and all other Charmes fail CHAP. III. Of the Devils visible and invisible dealing with Witches in the way of Lechery BUt as touching the Devils visible or invisible execution of Lechery it is written that to such Witches as before have made a visible league with the Priest the Devil I should say there is no necessity that Incubus should appear invisible marry to the standers-by he is for the most part invisible For proof hereof James Sprenger and Institor affirm That many times Witches are seen in the fields and woods prostituting themselves uncovered and naked up to the navil wagging and moving their members in every part according to the disposition of one being about that act of concupiscence and yet nothing seen of the beholders upon her saving that after such a convenient time as is required about such a piece of work a black vapor of the length and bigness of a man hath been seen as it were to depart from her and to ascend from that place Nevertheless many times the husband seeth Incubus making him cuckhold in the likeness of a man and sometimes striketh off his head with his sword but because the body is nothing but air it closeth together again so as although the good-wife be sometimes hurt thereby yet she maketh him believe he is mad or possessed and that he doth he knoweth not what For she hath more pleasure and delight they say with Incubus that way than with any mortal man whereby you may perceive that Spirits are palpable CHAP. IV. That the power of Generation is both outwardly and inwardly impeached by Witches and of divers that had their genitals taken from them by Witches and by the same means again restored THey also affirm That the virtue of Generation is impeached by Witches both inwardly and outwardly for intrinsecally they repress the courage and they stop the passage of the mans seed so as it may not descend to the vessels of generation also they hurt extrinsecally with images hearbs c. And to prove this true you shall hear certain stories out of M. Mal. worthy to be noted A young Priest at Mespurge in the Diocess of Constance was Bewitched so as he had no power to occupy any other or mo women than one and to be delivered out or that thraldom sought to flie into another Countrey where he might use that Priestly occupation more freely but all in vain for evermore he was brought as far backward by night as he went forward in the day before sometimes by land sometimes in the air as though he flew And if this be not true I am sure that James Sprenger doth lie For the further confirmation of our belief in Incubus M. Mal. citeth a story of a notable matter executed at Ravenspurge as true and as cleanly as the rest A young man lying with a wench in that Town saith he was fain to leave his instruments of Venery behind him by means of that prestigious art of Witchcraft so as in that place nothing could be seen or felt but his plain body This young man was willed by another Witch to go to her whom he suspected and by fair or foul means to require her help who soon after meeting with her intreated her fair but that was in vain and therefore he caught her by the throat and with a towel strangled her saying Restore me my tool or thou shalt die for it so as she being swoln and black in the face and through his boisterous handling ready to die said Let me go and I will help thee and whilest he was losing the towel she put her hand into his Cod-piece and touched the place saying Now hast thou they desire and even at that instant he felt himself restored Item A reverend Father for his life holiness and knowledge notorious being a fryer of the order and company of Spire reported that a young man at strift made lamentable moan unto him for the like loss but his gravity suffered him not to believe lightly any such reports and therefore made the young man untruss his cod-piece-point and saw the complaint to be true and just Whereupon he advised or rather enjoyned the youth to go to the Witch whom he suspected and with flattering words to intreat her to be so good unto him as to restore him his instrument which by that means he obtained and soon after returned to shew himself thankful and told the holy father of his good success in that behalf but he so believed him as he would needs be Oculatus testis and made him pull down his Breeches and so was satisfied of the truth and certainty thereof Another young man being in that very taking went to a Witch for the restitution thereof who brought him to a tree where she shewed him a nest and bad him climb up and take it And being in the top of the tree he took out a mighty great one and shewed the same to her asking her if he might not have the same Nay quoth she that is our Parish Priests tool but take any other which thou wilt And it is there affirmed That some have found 20 and some 30 of them in one nest being there preserved with provender as it were at the rack and manger with this note wherein there is no contradiction for all must be true that is written against Witches that if a Witch deprive one of his Privities it is done only by prestigious means so as the senses are but illuded Marry by the Devil it is really taken away and in like

they said we A man and his child said he What were their names said we The childs name was Edward said he What more then Edward said we Edward Ager said he What was the mans name said we Richard said he What more said we Richard Ager said he Where dwelt the man and the child said we At Dig at Dig said he This Richard Agar of Dig was a Gentleman of forty pounds land by the year a very honest man but would often say he was bewitched and languished long before he dyed Whom else hast thou killed for her said we Woltons wife said he Where did she dwel In Westwell said he What else hast thou done for her said we What she would have me said he What is that said we To fetch her meat drink and corn said he Where hadst thou it said we In every house said he Name the houses said we At Petmans at Farmes at Millens at Fullers and in every house After this we commanded Satan in the name of Jesus Christ to depart from her and never to trouble her any more nor any man else Then he said He would go he would go but he went not Then we commanded him as before with some more words Then he said I go I go and so he departed Then said the maid He is gone Lord have mercy upon me for he would have killed me And then we kneeled down and gave God thanks with the maiden praying that God would keep her from Satans power and assist her with his grace And noting this in a piece of paper we departed Satans voice did differ much from the maids voice and all that he spake was in his own name Subscribed thus Witnesses to this that heard and saw this whole matter as followeth Roger Newman Vicar of Westwell John Brainford Vicar of Kenington Thomas Taylor Henry Taylors Wife John Taylor Thomas Frenchborne Wife William Spooner John Frenchborne and his wife CHAP. II. How the lewd practice of the Pythonist of Westwell came to light and by whom she was examined and that all her Diabolical speech was but Ventriloquie and plain cousenage which is proved by her own confession IT is written That in the latter dayes there shall be shewed strange illusions c. insomuch as if it were possible the very elect shall be deceived Howbeit St. Paul saith There shall be lying and false Wonders Nevertheless this sentence and such like have been often laid in my dish and are urged by divers writers to approve the miraculous working of Witches whereof I will treat more largely in another place Howbeit by the way I must confess that I take that sentence to be spoken of Antichrist to wit the Pope who miraculously contrary to Nature Philosophy and all Divinity being of birth and calling base in learning gross in valure beauty or activity most commonly a very lubber hath placed himself in the most lofty and delicate seat putting almost all Christian Princes heads not only under his girdle but under his foot c. Surely the tragedy of this Pythonist is not inferiour to a thousand stories which will hardly be blotted out of the memory and credit either of the common people or else of the learned How hardly will this story suffer discredit having testimony of such authority How could Mother Alice escape condemnation and hanging being arraigned upon this evidence when a poor Woman hath been cast away upon a cosening Oracle or rather a false lye devised by Feats the Jugler through the malicious instigation of some of her adversaries But how cunningly soever this last cited Certificate be penned or what shew soever it carryeth of truth and plain dealing there may be found contained therein matter enough to detect the cosening knavery thereof and yet divers have been deeply deceived therewith and can hardly be removed from the credit thereof and without great disdain cannot endure to hear the reproof thereof And know you this by the way that heretofore Robin Goodfellow and Hobgoblin were as terrible and also as credible to the people as Hags and Witches be now and in time to come a Witch will be as much derided and condemned and as plainly perceived as the illusion and knavery of Robin Goodfellow And in truth they that maintain walking spirits with their transformation c. have no reason to deny Robin Goodfellow upon whom there have gone as many and as credible tales as upon Witches saving that it hath not pleased the translators of the Bible to call Spirits by the name of Robin Goodfellow as they have termed Diviners Soothsayers Prisoners and Coseners by the name of Witches But to make short work with the confutation of this bastardly queans enterprise and cosenage you shall undestand that upon the bruit of her divinity and miraculous trances she was convented before M. Thomas Wotton of Bocton Malherbe a man of great worship and wisdom and for deciding and ordering of matters in this Common-wealth of rare and singular dexterity through whose discreet handling of the matter with the assistance and aid of M. George Darrel Esq being also a right good and discreet Justice of the same limit the fraud was found and the cosenage confessed and she received condigne punishment Neither was her confession won according to the form of the Spanish Inquisition to wit through extremity of tortures nor yet by guile or flattery nor by presumptions but through wise and perfect tryal of every circumstance the illusion was manifestly disclosed not so I say as Witches are commonly convinced and condemned to wit through malicious accusations by guesses presumptions and extorted confessions contrary to sense and possibility and for such actions as they can shew no tryal nor example before the wise either by direct or indirect means but after her due tryal she shewed her feats illusions and trances with the residue of all her miraculous works in the presence of divers Gentlemen and Gentlewomen of great worship and credit at Bocton Malherbe in the house of the said Mr. Wotton Now compare this wench with the Witch of Endor and you shall see that both the cosenages may be done by one art CHAP. III. Bodins stuffe concerning the Pythonist of Endor with a true story of a counterfeit Dutch-man UPon the like tales both Bodin built his doctrin calling them Atheists that will not believe him adding to this kind of Witchcraft the miraculous works of divers maidens that would spue pins clowts c. as one Agnes Brigs and Rachel Pinder of London did till the miracles were detected and they set to open penance Others he citeth of that sort the which were bound by Devils with garters or some such like stuffe to posts c. with knots that could not be undone which is an Aegyptians jugling or cosening feat And of such foolish lyes joyned with bawdy tales his whole book consisteth wherein I warrant you there are no fewer then two hundred fables and as many impossibilities And

as one that of late hath written against Prophesies saith It is no marvel that when the familiars that speak in trunks were repelled from their harbour for fear of discovery the blocks almighty lost their senses for these are all gone now and their knavery is espyed so as they can no longer abuse the world with such bables But whereas these great Doctors suppose that the cause of their dispatch was the coming of Christ if they mean that the Devil dyed so soon as He was born or that then he gave over his occupation they are deceived For the Popish Church hath made a continual practice hereof partly for their own private profit lucre and gain and partly to be had in estimation of the World and in admiration among the simple But indeed men that have learned Christ and been conversant in his Word have discovered and shaken off the vanity and abomination hereof But if those Doctors had lived till this day they would have said and written that Oracles had ceased or rather been driven out of England in the time of King Henry the Eight and of Queen Elizabeth his Daughter who have done so much in that behalf as at this hour they are not only all gone but forgotten here in this English Nation where they swarmed as thick as they did in Boeotia or in any other place in the world But the credit they had depended not upon their desert but upon the credulity of others Now therefore I will conclude and make an end of this matter with the opinion and saying of the Prophet Vain is the answer of Idols For they have eyes and see not ears and hear not mouths and speak not c. and Let them shew what is to come and I will say they are gods indeed BOOK IX CHAP. I. The Hebrew word Kasam expounded and how far a Christian may conjecture of things to come KAsam as John Wierius upon his own knowledge affirmeth and upon the word of Andraeas Masius reporteth differeth little in signification from the former word Ob betokening Viticinari which is To Prophesie and is most commonly taken in evill part as in Deut. 18. Jerem. 27. c. howbeit sometime in good part as in Isa 3.2 To foretell things to come upon probable conjectures so as therein we reach no further then becometh humane capacity is not in mine opinion unlawful but rather a commendable manifestation of Wisdome and Judgement the good gifts and noble blessings of GOD for the which we ought to be thankful as also to yield due honour and prayse unto him for the noble order which he hath appointed in nature praying him to lighten our hearts with the beams of his wisdome that we may more and more profit in the true knowledge of the workmanship of his hands But some are so nice that they condemn generally all sorts of Divinations denying those things that in nature have manifest causes and are so framed as they foreshew things to come and in that shew admonish us of things after to insue exhibiting signs of unknown and future matters to be judged upon by the order law and course of nature proposed unto us by God And some on the other side are so bewitched with folly as they attribute to creatures that estimation which rightly and truly appertaineth to God the Creator of all things affirming That the publick and private destinies of all humane matters and whatsoever a man would know of things come or gone is manifested to us in the heavens so as by the Stars and Planets all things might be known These would also that nothing should be taken in hand or gone about without the favourable aspect of the Planets By which and other the like devices they deprave and prophane the ancient and commendable observations of our fore-fathers as did Colebrasus who taught That all mans life was governed by the seven Planets and yet a Christian and condemned for Heresie But let us so far forth embrace and allow this Philosophy and Prophesying as the Word of God giveth us leave and commendeth the same unto us CHAP. II. Proofes by the old and new Testament that certain observations of the Weather are lawful WHen God by his Word and Wisdom had made the Heavens and placed the Stars in the firmament he said Let them be for signs and for seasons and for dayes and years When he created the rainbow in the clouds he said it should be for a sign and token unto us Which we find true not only of the flood past but also of the showres to come And therefore according to Jesus Sirachs advice Let us behold it and prayse him that made it The Prophet David saith The heavens declare the glory of God and the earth sheweth his handy work day unto day uttereth the same and night unto night teacheth knowledge It is also written That by the commandement of the the holy one the Stars are placed and continue in their order and fail not in their watch It should appear that Christ himself did not altogether neglect the course and order of the heavens in that he said When you see a cloud rise out of the west straightway you say a showre cometh and so it is And when you see the southwinde blow you say it will be hot and so it cometh to pass Again When it is evening you say fair weather for the skie is red and in the morning you say today shall be a tempest for the skie is red and lowring Wherein as he noteth that these things do truly come to pass according to ancient observation and to the rule Astronomical so doth he also by other words following admonish us that in attending too much to those observations we neglect not specially to follow our Christian Vocation The Physician is commended unto as and allowed in the Scriptures but so to put trust in him as to neglect and distrust God is severely forbidden and reproved Surely it is most necessary for us to know and observe divers rules Astological otherwise we could not with opportunity dispatch our ordinary affairs And yet Lactantius condemneth and recounteth it among the number of Witchcrafts from whose censure Calvin doth not much vary The poor husbandman perceiveth that the increase of the Moon maketh Plants and living creatures fruitful so as in the Full Moon they are in best strength decaying in the wane and in the conjunction do utterly wither and fade Which when by observation use and practice they have once learned they distribute their business accordingly as their times and seasons to sow to plant to prune to let their Cattel blood to cut c. CHAP. III. That certain observations are indifferent certain ridiculous and certain impious whence that cunning is derived of Apollo and of Aruspices I Know not whether to disallow or discommend the curious observation used by our elders who conjectured upon

affirighted with monstrous appearances and Ideas represented continually to their imaginations And there is not any loathsome taste in the Kingdome of this World either Animal Vegetative or Mineral which they are at any time void of being continually pestered and suffocated with filthy fumes and smoaks of hellish fruits as of Sulphurean stinks and abominations 42. Neither are the other Sences of the Touch and Smell behind in participation of the like Torments which their own iniquities do perpetually excite and create unto them besides they are ever vexing one another and if any be in the same misery with whom they had acquaintance here on eath the very Magical knowledge and perceivance or remembrance thereof doth beyond utterance or conception most miserably afflict and macerate their Souls and all their Sences 43. For the nature of their habitation is such that their torment is exceedingly aggravated thereby because the extremity of the four Elements is there converted into a whole Principle of wrath and vexation The excess of cold and heat drought and moisture are continually raging amongst them by intercourse Neither is there any light or lustre to be seen within their Courts but that which comes from their fiery Eyes as a deadly glance or glimmering being sudden fiery flashes and sparkling as the enkindling of Gunpowder or Aurum fulminans for a similitude 44. And as every kinde of Being feeds upon somewhat of its own nature property and element whither it be Plant Animal or Metalline kinde so the Devils are neither destitute of meat drink nor cloathing according to their own Kingdom and quality having fruits springing and growing before them of hellish sour and poysonous natures which are real and palpable unto them and not imaginary or typical though to us magical and invisible neither is this to be wondered at if we consider the nature of Man's Soul In Media Natura for if it feed not upon the internal and substantial Word which is the very Bread of Life it self it must of necessity ruminate on something else viz. the fruits of Iniquity which it takes in and drinketh up as the Oxe drinks water so that to the soul the sin becomes palpable glutting and satiuting yea so substantial unto the Soul as Dirt or Ink upon fair white Linnen is to our external Eyes neither can the Soul be freed from these spots till the water above the Firmament wash them away 45. Also in respect of the Astral source they are not destitute of food when they bring themselves into the same for the gas of the air and blas of the water is their nourishment while they stay here as is before alledged These influences of the air and water they take into their Limbus and convert into their own poysonous natures as of sweet and wholsome herbs the filthy Toads and other venemous Beasts do make their poyson converting them into a nature like themselves And on the contrary the poysonous herbs are converted into good and wholesome nourishment by other cleanly Beasts 46. And as the Infernal Troops are considered in respect of the four Elements they have a distinct and peculiar tone or language which they exercise and speak one amongst one another as mortals do But they have utterly lost the dignity of their sounds according to the eternal nature And are likewise totally corrupted in their pronouncing or Dialect since they fell from their first caelestial glory so that their speech is harsh doleful and terrible like the fruits they feed upon and the life they dwell in Which depravation is very apparent in the Kingdom of this World in the divided Languages of every Region according to the Constellation under which they are situated The true and magical Language of nature being hid from all the Countreys of the earth 47. But when they appear in the outward Elements they do many times express themselves in Irish Welch Latine or Russian which are the Languages most affected by them to answer unto Conjurations or Compacts So that if any Magician who is ignorant of these aforesaid Languages do at any time Raise or Exorcise such Spirits he must be mindful to confine them to his mother tongue least their gibberish prove altogether unintelligible for as every thing appears in what it most affecteth or is addicted to even so the Spirits have their distinct affections passions and postures both in word habit shape and gesture so that the Magician must be wary in Exorcizing with them that he confine them to a different place posture shape and language to answer their intentions without impediment 48. For they are very variable and unconstant in their dealings with mankind nor will they stand to any thing that hath not bound them by the obligations of Words Characters and Imprecations except the skill of the Exorcist be such that he is able to confine them into a Magical Triad which hath the certain force of obliging or compelling them to utter truth and nothing false in all their Answers or Informations But with such miserable men and women as they have made Covenants and Indentures for body soul and works with such I say they keep no faith nor are they lyable to their commands but on the contrary have them hampered and subjected to their will and power till they have terminated their lives in their destruction 49. Yet have not any of the most potent Princes in the Hellish Power the least ability to destroy the least of the sons of men without the consent of the mind and senses of the Soul for until the will of the Soul be opened unto him his threatnings sleights and stratagems are without any power or force as the nerves of a dead man Although naturally every evil Spirit boasteth as if all the world were at its command and every Soul were subject to its authority and beck with the Goods or Possessions of the external World 50. When any evil Spirit is raised up by Conjurations without League or Compact these Spirits so raised are exceeding fraudulent and deceitful as stubborn servants that do their Masters will by constraint and not by any natural act of obedience unto his Commands But with such as they have compacted they are frequent and officious imploying them as Agents for the destruction of others and their substance and being marryed unto such they are even become one with them being incorporated into them so that they are nothing different from incarnate Devils save that the spark of divine Light which was the gift of God unto repentance is not totally eradicated until the body fall away 51. From such as Covenant with these unconstant Spirits do they daily obtain Fumigations Odours and Offerings or Sacrifices of Blood Fire Wine Ointments Incense Fruits Excrements Herbs Gums Minerals and other Ingredients by which from a Magical cause they have more influence and authority over the bewitched party to insinuate into their affection peircing