‘Item, the iudges must seeme to put on a pittifull countenance and to moue them; saieing that It was not they, but the diuell that committed the murther, and that he compelled them to doo it; and must make them beleeue that they think them to be innocents.
‘Item. if they will not confesse nothing upon the racke or torture; their apparell must be changed, and euerie haire in their bodie must be shauen off with a sharpe razor.
‘Item, if they have charmes for taciturnitie, so as they feele not the common tortures, and therefore confesse nothing; then some sharpe instrument must be thrust betwixt euerie naile of their fingers and toes; which (as Bodin saith) was King Childebert’s devise, and is, to this daie, of all others the most effectuall. For by meanes of that extreme paine, they will (saith he) confesse anie thing.
‘Item. Paulus Grillandus, being an old doer in these matters, wisheth that when witches sleepe, and feele no paine upon the torture, Domine labia mea aperies should be said, and so, (saith he) both the tormentt will be felt, and the truth will be uttered.
‘Item. Bodin saith, that at the time of examination there should be a semblance of a great a doo, to the terrifieing of the witch; and that a number of instruments, gieues,36 manacles, ropes, halters, fetters &c. be prepared, brought foorth, and laid before the examinate; and, also, that some be procured to make a most horrible and lamentable crie, in the place of torture, as though he or she were upon the racke, or in the tormentor’s hands: so as the examinate may heare it whiles she is examined, before she hir selfe be brought into the prison; and perhaps (saith he) she will by this meanes, confesse the matter.
‘Item. there must be subborned some craftie spie, that may seeme to be a prisoner with hir in the like case; who, perhaps, may, in Conference, undermine hir, and so bewraie and discouer hir.
‘Item. if she will not yet confesse, she must be told that she is detected, and accused by other of hir companions; although in truth there be no such matter; and so, perhaps, she will confesse, the rather to be reuenged upon hir aduersaries and accusers.
‘If an old woman threaten or touch one, being in health, who dieth shortly after; or else is infected with the leprosie, apoplexie, or anie strange disease; it is (saith Bodin) a permanent fact, and such an euidence, as condemnation or death must insue, without further proofe; if anie bodie haue mistrusted hir, or said before that she was a witch.
‘Item. if anie come in, or depart out, of the chamber or house, the doores being shut; it is an apparent and sufficient euidence to a Witches Condemnation, without further triall:
‘Item, if a woman bewitch anie bodies eies, she is to be executed without further proofe.
‘Item. if anie inchant or bewitch men’s beasts, or come, or flie in the aire, or make a dog speake, or cut off anie man’s members, and unite them againe to men or children’s bodies; it is sufficient proofe to condemnation.
‘Item. presumptions and coniectures are sufficient proofes against witches.
‘Item. if three witnesses doo but saie, Such a woman is a witch: then it is a cleere case that she is to be executed with death. Which matter Bodin saith is not onelie certeine by the canon and civill lawes, but by the opinion of pope Innocent, the wisest pope, (as he saith) that ever was.
‘Item. the complaint of anie one man of credit is sufficient to bring a poore woman to the racke or pullie.
‘Item. a condemned or infamous person’s testimonie is good and allowable in matters of witchcraft.
‘Item a witch is not to be deliuered, though she endure all the tortures, and confesse nothing; as all other are in anie criminall cases.
‘Item, though the depositions of manie women at one instant are disabled, as insufficient in lawe; bicause of the imbecillitie and frailtie of their nature or sex: yet, in this matter, one woman, though she be a partie, either accuser or accused, and be also infamous and impudent (for such are Bodin’s words) yea, and alreadie condemned; she may, neverthelesse serue to accuse and condemne a witch.
‘Item, a witness uncited, and offering himselfe in this case, is to be heard, and in none other.
‘Item, a Capitall enimie (if the enimitie be pretended to grow by meanes of witchcraft) may obiect against a witch; and none exception is to be had or made against him.
‘Item, although the proofe of periurie may put back a witnesse in other causes; yet in this, a periured person is a good and a lawfull witnesse.
‘Item, the proctors and advocates in this case are compelled to be witnesses against their clients, as in none other case they are to be constrained thereunto.
‘Item, none can giue euidence against witches, touching their assemblies, but witches onelie; bicause, (as Bodin saith) none other can do it.’
Thus we see that the poor witch had everything against her, which will account in a great way for those marvellous confessions we read of, when the poor, weary, baited and tortured woman would confess to anything to get a few hours’ respite from pain, well knowing that execution would follow, whether she confessed or no. In fact, no other hypothesis is possible, when we read of the extraordinary matters to which these poor women confessed.
Chapter XIV.
Legislation against Witches—Punishment—Last Executions for Witchcraft—Inability to weep and sink—Modern Cases of Witchcraft.
There has not been much legislation against witches in England, the Acts simply keeping in force. It is said that Athelstane in 928 made witchcraft a capital crime, but our ‘statutes at large’ give 33 Henry VIII., cap. 8 (1541), as the first Act really touching witchcraft, as coming within the ken of this book. Next comes 5 Elizabeth, cap. 16 (1562), and then 1 James I., cap. 12 (1604), previously substantially quoted. This was the law of the land until it was abolished in 1736, 9 George II., cap. 5, which did away with capital punishment for witchcraft, and the present law on the subject dates from 1822, 3 George IV., where the word ‘witchcraft’ certainly disappears, and only ‘All Persons pretending to be Gipsies: all Persons pretending to tell Fortunes, or using any subtle Craft, Means, or Device, by Palmistry, or other wise, to deceive or impose upon any of His Majestys subjects,’ shall be adjudged ‘Common Rogues and Vagabonds,’ and sentenced as such.
Formerly the poor wretches were burned, a fearful fate, as Scot says, quoting Bodin. ‘Item, if a woman confesse freelie herein, before question37 be made; and yet afterward denie it; she is neuerthelesse to be burned.’ Possibly the last case of burning for witchcraft is one I shall record later on, at Bury St. Edmunds, in 1644; but the same year one Alice Hudson was burned at York for receiving small sums of money from the Devil.38
The last case of burning in Scotland was in Sutherland, in 1722, and the last in Ireland at Glarus, a servant being burnt as a witch in 1786. Probably the last burning for witchcraft, in any so-called civilized country, is the following, taken from the Steamer Edition of the Panama Star and Herald of June 5, 1871: ‘According to the Porvenir of Callao (Peru), 29th ult., a woman has been burnt in the public square of a town in the province of Guavina, about thirty-four leagues from the port of Iquique, for being a witch. This punishment, worthy of the flourishing days of the Spanish Inquisition, was ordered by the Lieutenant-Governor and Judge of the Province.’
Hutchinson, a very careful writer, whose ‘Historical Essay concerning Witchcraft,’ etc., was first published in 1718, and the second edition in 1720, says, referring to a case we shall hear of anon: