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Editor: Samuel G. Drake

Transcriber's Note.

A list of the changes made can be found at the end of the book.

Woodward's Historical Series.

ITS RISE, PROGRESS, AND TERMINATION, AS EXHIBITED BY Dr. COTTON MATHER,

IN THREE VOLUMES.

No. 103

EDITION IN THIS SIZE 280 COPIES.

MUNSELL, PRINTER.

TO MY MORE THAN BROTHER, HARLOW ROYS, WHO AT ALL TIMES ALIKE IN PROSPERITY AND ADVERSITY HAS STOOD MY FRIEND, WHO WHEN MY STEPS SEEMED RAPIDLY DESCENDING INTO THE "DARK VALLEY" AND "THE RIVER" WITH THE "BOATMAN PALE" WERE CLOSE BEFORE ME, CHEERED ME BY HIS PRESENCE AND HELD ME BACK BY THE GRASP OF HIS STRONG HAND, WARM WITH LIFE AND LOVE, IN TOKEN OF AN AFFECTION WHICH STRONG AT FIRST, AS YEARS PASS AND WE GROW OLDER GROWS MORE INTENSE, I DEDICATE THESE VOLUMES.

PREFATORY.

Very few Copies of the original Edition are known to be in Existence. I have never owned one, and am indebted to my Friend, GEORGE BRINLEY, Esq., for the Use of his Copy. While this Preface was in the Hands of the Printer, my Publisher, Mr. WOODWARD, has had the rare Fortune to obtain a very good one.

Witch Books, as they were called, of the Father Land, must have been common among the People of New England, as will be seen by a Comparison of the Trials of Witches in both Countries. This Comparison shows that the accused in this Country were well acquainted with the ridiculous Nonsense of what had been and was passing at Witch Trials in England. The same Cant and Incoherency are visible at every Step. Insomuch, that the Frivolity, Shallow-mindedness and Falsity were so apparent, that they remind one of the childish Nursery Tales of Youth, and excite the most profound Wonder how they could have ever been viewed as Matter for serious Consideration by any Persons having any Pretensions to common Sense.

The original Records of the Court Proceedings against those accused of Witchcraft were never fully given to the Public, until about two Years ago, Mr. W. Elliot Woodward, of Roxbury, caused a complete Transcript to be made of the whole, and printed them in two Volumes, small Quarto, uniform with this Undertaking. Those, with the present Volumes, will put the Student of New England History in Possession of nearly all the Materials existing upon this deeply interesting, though humiliating, and in some respects, revolting Subject.

INTRODUCTORY.

AS a Belief in Witchcraft is not entirely exploded, it may be interesting to examine a few of the early Definitions of it.

Kersey defines a Witch, an old Hag, or Woman that deals with Familiar Spirits; and a Wizard "a Sorceror, or Inchanter; a Cunning Man," &c., as before.

Dr. Ogilvie closes his Definition with one Extract from Shakespeare:

"He hath a Witchcraft Over the King in's Tongue."

It cannot be denied that the Existence of Witchcraft is as fully taught in the Bible as Slavery. The Light of Science has extinguished the one, while the other yet struggles against Fate. To urge the Authority of the Bible, that Slavery is a divine Institution, and therefore should be sustained, is just as reasonable as it would be to urge the Existence of Witches; and were there as many Interests at Stake in keeping alive Witchcraft, it would find as many Advocates, doubtless, as Slavery.

At first, Voices against Witchcraft were faint and few. Such was the Bewilderment of the human Mind in early Ages that Men hardly dared to think in Opposition to the Superstitions of the Multitude. Yet there were always some who doubted the delegated Power of the Devil, though they were not often lavish enough of their own Safety to let their Disbelief be known. Still, there are, no Doubt, some "dark Corners of the Earth" where it would not be entirely safe for one to declare publicly that there is no such Matter as Witchcraft. Nor is this so much to be wondered at, when, at the present Day, and in a Portion of our own Country, a Man cannot speak against Slavery, but at the Peril of his Life. This is no new Aspect growing out of the present Rebellion, but it has been thus many Years.

Few Men dared to speak boldly against the Existence of Witchcraft before the Year 1700. Though they disbelieved in it they were afraid to attack it. They began by endeavouring to show the Insufficiency of the Evidence relied upon in particular Cases. In this Way, Frauds were detected and exposed, and the Eyes of Judges were opened.

Among the early and successful Combatants of Witchcraft in England was Sir Robert Filmer. This Gentleman, though he out-went Machiavel himself in Arguments to uphold Despotism, yet he entered a pretty effectual Demurrer against the Prerogative of the Devil, as attempted to be manifested in the Persons of aged Matrons. Lancashire was distinguished above all other Counties in England in Sir Robert's Time for its Production of Witches; but when his native County, Kent, was scourged by the imaginary Arts of Satan, he thought it Time to make a public Declaration of his Views in Regard to the Nature of the Evidence made Use of for the Conviction of Witches. He therefore prepared a Treatise which he entitled "An Advertisement to the Jury-men of England, touching Witches," printed in 1680, but whether it was ever printed before does not appear from this Impression. In this Work he criticises the Productions of some of the prominent Authors in Favor of Witchcraft with much Ability.

To the Assertion that Witches act under a Contract with the Devil, Mr. Filmer observes, "That the Agreement between the Witch and the Devil they call a Covenant, and yet neither of the Parties are any Way bound to perform their Part; and the Devil, without Doubt, notwithstanding all his Craft, hath far the worst Part of the Bargain. The Bargain runs thus in Master Perkins's Work: 'The Witch as a Slave binds herself by Vow to believe in the Devil, and to give him either Body, or Soul, or both, under his Hand-writing, or some Part of his Blood. The Devil promiseth to be ready at his Vassal's Command, to appear in the Likeness of any Creature, to consult and to aid him for the procuring of Pleasure, Honor, Wealth, or Preferment; to go for him, to carry him any whither, and to do any Command.' Whereby we see the Devil is not to have Benefit of his Bargain till the Death of the Witch. In the Meantime, he is to appear always at the Witche's Command, to go for him , to carry him any whither, and to do any Command; which argues the Devil to be the Witche's Slave, and not the Witch the Devil's Slave. And though it be true which Delrio affirmeth, 'That the Devil is at Liberty to perform or break his Compact, for that no Man can compel him to keep his Promise;' yet on the other Side, it is as possible for the Witch to frustrate the Devil's Contract, if he or she have so much Grace as to repent; the which there may be good Cause to do, if the Devil be found not to perform his Promise. Besides, a Witch may many Times require that to be done by the Devil, which God permits not the Devil to do; thus against his Will the Devil may lose his Credit, and give Occasion of Repentance, though he endeavor to the utmost of his Power to bring to pass whatsoever he hath promised; and so fail of the Benefit of his Bargain, though he have the Hand-writing, or some Part of the Blood of the Witch for his Security, or the Solemnity before Witnesses, as Delrio imagineth."

Thus much is given to show in what Manner the Advocates of Witchcraft were combatted, without denying the actual Existence of it. It was as much as could be safely advanced in the seventeenth Century. To have come out boldly, and denied the Thing altogether, would have been to proclaim a Disbelief of the Teachings of the Bible; and this would have defeated the very Object sought to be attained. It has, beyond Question, occurred to all thinking Men in every Age, that Witches and Devils could not have a Being without God's Permission; that if they did or do exist, it is his Pleasure that they should; that, therefore, if God wished to destroy such Miscreants he would do it by making War on them himself, instead of compelling Mankind to fight them blindfolded for all Eternity, or during the World's Existence.

The Reader will hardly desire any more from such a royal Source; but even royal Nonsense may sometimes be Necessary upon historical Points, and we must listen to their incoherent Jargon, however much we hold them in Contempt. It was during the Reign of this King that New England began to be settled, and the Settlers were his Subjects, and with them came the Superstitions common to the People of England.

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

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.

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 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.

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 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 Daemonologie, 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."

Good Witches performed wonderful Cures, according to the Belief of those Days. Even Burton 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.

"Commer 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!

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