The Witchcraft Delusion in New England: Its Rise, Progress, and Termination, (Vol 1 of 3)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Good Witches performed wonderful Cures, according to the Belief of those Days. Even Burton⁶ says, "they can effect such Cures, the maine Question is whether it be lawful in a desperate Case, to crave their Help, or ask a Wizard's Advice. 'Tis a common Practice of some Men to go first to a Witch, and then to a Physitian. If one cannot help the other shall." And Paracelsus declared, "that it mattered not whether a sick Person were helped by God or Devil, so that he were eased." Some, however, demurred to this, and affirmed that it was better to die than be cured by a Witch or a Sorcerer.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Succession of James to the Throne of Elizabeth served but to propagate the Contagion; for no sooner had he reached this Country, than his Dæmonologie reappeared from an English Press, being printed in London, in 1603, in Quarto, and with a Preface to the Reader, which commences by informing him of the "fearfull abounding at this Time in this Country, of these detestable Slaves of the Devel, the Witches, or Enchanters;"¹⁴ a Declaration which, during the Course of the same Year, was accompanied by a new Statute against Witches, one Clause of which enacts, that, "Any one that shall use, practice, or exercise any Invocation or Conjuration of any evill or wicked Spirit, or consult, covenant with, entertaine or employ, feede or reward, any evill or wicked Spirit, to or for any Intent or 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 other Part of any dead Person, to be employed or used in any Manner of Witchcraft, Sorcery, Charme, or Enchantment; or shall use, practice, or exercise any Witchcraft, Enchantment, Charme, or Sorcery, whereby any Person shall be killed, destroyed, wasted, consumed, pined, or lamed, in his or her Body, or any Part thereof, such Offenders, duly and lawfully convicted and attainted, shall suffer Death."

This Act was not repealed until the Year 1736. (ix Geo. II.)

We cannot wonder if Measures such as those, which stamped the already existing Superstitions with the renewed Authority of the Law, and with the Influence of regal Argument and Authority, should render a Belief in the Existence of Witchcraft almost universal; Fashion and Interest on the one Hand, and Ignorance and Fear on the other, mutually contributing, by concealing and banishing Doubt, to disseminate Error, and preclude Detection.

Who those were who, at this Period, had the Misfortune to be branded with the Appellation of Witches; what Deeds were imputed to them, and what was the Nature of their supposed Compact with the Devil, are Questions which will be most satisfactorily answered in the Words of Reginald Scot, whose Book is not only extremely scarce, but highly curious and entertaining; and two or three Chapters from this copious Treasury of Superstition, with a very few Comments from other Sources, will exhaust this Part of the Subject.

"The Sort of such as are said to be Witches," writes Scot, "are Women which be commonly old, lame, bleare-eied, pale, fowle, and full of Wrinkles; poore, sullen, Superstitious, and Papists; or such as know no Religion; in whose drousie Minds the Divell hath gotten 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 thereof. They are leane and deformed, shewing Melancholie in their Faces, to the Horror of all that see them. They are doting, Scolds, mad, develish, 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 some Times 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 Reelefe; 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, Promotion, Welth, Worship, Pleasure, Honor, Knowledge, Learning, or any other Benefit whatsoever.

"It falleth out many Times, that neither their Necessities, nor their Expectation is answered or served, in those Places where they beg or borrowe; but ratheir Kindness is by their Neighbors reproved. And further, in Tract of Time the Witch weareth odious and tedious to her Neighbors; and they againe are despised and despited of hir; so as sometimes she curseth one, and sometimes another; and that from the Maister of the House, his Wife, Children, Cattell, &c. to the little Pig that lieth in the Stie. Thus in Processe of Time they have all displeased hir, and she hath wished evil Luck unto them all; perhaps with Curses and Imprecations made in Forme. Doubtless (at Length) some of hir Neighbors die, or falle sicke; or some of their Children are visited with Diseases that ver them strangelie: as Apoplexies, Epilepsies, Convulsions, hot Fevers, Wormes, &c. Which by ignorant Parents are supposed to be the Vengeance of Witches. Yea and their Opinions and Conceits are confirmed and maintained by unskilfull Physicians: according to the common Saieng; Inscitiæ Pallium Maleficium et Incantatio, Witchcraft and Inchantment is the Cloke of Ignorance: whereas indeed evill Humors, and not strange Words, Witches, or Spirits are the Causes of such Diseases. Also some of their Cattell perish, either by Disease or Mischance. Then they, upon whom such Adversities fall, weighing the Fame that goeth upon this Woman (hir Words, Displeasure, and Curses meeting so justly with their Misfortune) doo not onlie conceive, but are resolved, that all their Mishaps are brought to passe by hir onelie Means.

"The Witch on the other Side expecting hir Neighbors Mischances, and seeing Things sometimes come to passe according to hir Wishes, Curses, and Incantations (for Bodin himself confesseth, that not above two in a hundred of their Witchings or Wishings take effect) being called before a Justice, by due Examination of the Circumstances is driven to see hir Imprecations and Desires, and hir Neighbors Harmes and Losses to concurre, and as it were to take effect: and so confesseth that she (as a Goddes) hath brought such Things to passe. Wherein, not onelie she, but the Accuser, and also the Justice are fowlie deceived and abused; as being thorough hir Confession and other Circumstances persuaded (to the Injury of Gods Glorie) that she hath doone, or can doo that which is proper onelie to God himselfe.

"Another Sort of Witches there are, which be absolutelie Cooseners: These take upon them, either for Glorie, Fame, or Gaine, to doo any Thing, which God or the Divell can doo: either for fortelling Things to come, bewraieng of Secrets, curing of Maladies, or working of Miracles."¹⁵

To this Chapter from Scot, which we have given entire, may be added the admirable Description of the Abode of a Witch from the Pen of Spenser, who as Warton hath observed, copied from living Objects, and had probably been struck with seeing such a Cottage, in which a Witch was supposed to live:

 
"There is a gloomy hollow Glen she found
A little Cottage built of Sticks and Reeds
In homely wise, and walled with Sods around;
In which a Witch did dwell, in loathly Weedes.
And wilful Want, all carelesse of her Needes
So choosing solitarie to abide
Far from all Neighbours, that her divilish Deeds
And hellish Arts from People she might hide,
And hurt far off unknowne whomever she enviede."¹⁶
 

This very striking Picture forever fixed the Character of the Habitation allotted to a Witch; thus in a singularly curious Tract, entitled, "Round about our Coal-Fire," published about the Close of the seventeenth Century, and which details, in a pleasing Manner, the Tradition of the olden Time, as a Source of Christmas Amusement, it is said that "a Witch must be a hagged old Woman, living in a little rotten Cottage, under a Hill, by a Wood-side, and must be frequently spinning at the Door: she must have a black Cat, two or three Broom-sticks, an Imp or two, and two or three diabolical Teats to suckle her Imps."

Of the wonderful Feats which the various Kinds of Witches were supposed capable of performing, Scott has favored us with the following succinct Enumeration. There are three Sorts of Witches he tells us, "one Sort can hurt and not helpe, the second can helpe and not hurt, the third can both helpe and hurt. Among the hurtfull Witches there is one Sort more beastlie than any Kind of Beasts, saving Wolves: for these usually devour and eate young Children and Infants of their owne Kind. These be they that raise Haile, Tempests, and hurtfull Weather; as Lightning, Thunder, &c. These be they that procure Barrennesse in Man, Woman and Beast. These can throwe Children in Waters, as they walk with their Mothers, and not be seene. These can make Horses kicke, till they cast their Riders. These can pass from Place to Place in the Aire invisible. These can so alter the Mind of Judges, that they can have no Power to hurt them. These can procure to themselves and to others, Taciturnitie and Insensibilitie in their Torments. These can bring trembling to the Hands, and strike Terror into the Minds of them that apprehend them. These can manifest unto others, Things hidden and lost, and foreshow Things to come; and see them as though they were present. These can alter Men's Minds to inordinate Love or Hate. These can kill whom they list with Lightning and Thunder. These can take away Man's Courage. These can make a Woman miscarrie in Childbirth, and destroie the Child in the Mother's Wombe, without any sensible Means either inwardlie or outwardlie applied. These can with their Looks kill either Man or Beast.

"Others doo write, that they can pull downe the Moone and the Starres. Some write that with wishing they can send Needles into the Livers of their Enemies. Some that they can transferre Corne in the Blade from one Place to another. Some, that they can cure Diseases supernaturallie, flie in the Aire, and danse with Divels. Some write, that they can play the Part of Succubus, and contract themselves to Incubus. Some saie they can transubstantiate themselves and others, and take the Forms and Shapes of Asses, Woolves, Ferrets, Cowes, Asses, Horses, Hogs, &c. Some say they can keepe Divels and Spirits in the Likenesse of Todes and Cats.

They can raise Spirits (as others affirme), drie up Springs, turn the Course of running Waters, inhibit the same, and staie both Day and Night, changing the one into the other. They can go in and out at Awger Holes, and saile in an Egge Shell, a Cockle or Muscle Shell, through and under the tempestuous Seas. They can bring Soules out of the Graves. They can teare Snakes in Pieces. They can also bring to pass, that Churne 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."¹⁷

The only material Accession which the royal James has made to this curious Catalogue of the Deeds of Witchcraft, consists in informing us, that these aged and decrepid Slaves of Satan, "make Picture of Waxe and Clay, that by the roasting thereof, the Persons that they bear the Name of, may be continually melted or dried away by continuall Sicknesse;"¹⁸ and his Mode of explaining how the Devil performs this Marvel, is a notable Instance both of his Ingenuity and his Eloquence. This Deed, he says, "is verie possible to their Master to performe; for although that Instrument of Waxe have no Vertue in that Turne doing, yet may he not very well, even by the same Measure, that his conjured Slaves melt that Waxe at the Fire, may be not, I say, at these same Times, subtily, as a Spirit, so weaken and scatter the Spirits of Life of the Patient, as may make him on the one Part, for Faintnesse, to sweat out the Humour of his Bodie, and on the other Part, for the not Concurrence of these Spirits, which causes his Digestion, so debilitate his stomache that this Humour radicall continually, sweating out on the one Part, and no newe good sucke being put in the Place thereof, for Lacke of Digestion on the other, he at last shall vanish away, even as his Picture will doe at the Fire? And that knavish and cunning Workman, by troubling him onely at sometimes, makes a Proportion, so neere betwixt the working of the one and the other, that both shall end as it were at one Time."¹⁹

It remains to notice the Nature of the Compact or Bargain, which Witches were believed to enter into with their Seducer, and the Species of Homage which they were compelled to pay him; and here again we must have Recourse to Scot, not only as the most compressed, but as the most authentic Detailer of this strange Credulity of his Times. "The Order of their Bargaine or profession," says he, "is double; the one solemne and publike; the other secret and private. That which is called solemne or publike, is where Witches come together at certaine Assemblies, at the Times prefixed, and doo not onelie see the Divell in visible Forme; but confer and talke familiarlie with him. In which Conference the Divell exhorteth them to observe their Fidelitie unto him, promising them long Life and Prosperitie. Then the Witches assembled, commanded a new Disciple (whom they call a Novice) unto him: and if the Divell find that young Witch apt and forward in the Renunciation of christian Faith, in despising anie of the seven Sacraments, in treading upon Crosses, in spetting at the Time of the Elevation, in breaking their Fast on fasting Daies, and fasting on Sundaies: then the Devill giveth foorth his Hand, and the Novice joining Hand in Hand with him, promiseth to observe and keepe all the Divels Commandments.

"This doone, the Divell beginneth to be more bold with hir, telling her plainlie, that all this will not serve his Turne: and therefore requireth Homage at hir Hands: yea he also telleth hir, that she must grant him both hir Bodie and Soule to be tormented in everlasting Fire; which she yeeldeth unto. Then he chargeth hir to procure as manie Men, Women and Children also, as she can, to enter into this Societie. Then he teacheth them to make Ointments of the Bowels and Members of Children, whereby they ride in the Aire, and accomplish all their Desires. So as if there be anie Children unbaptized, or not garded by the Signe of the Crosse, or Orisons; then the Witches may and do catche them from their Mother's Sides in the Night, or out of their Cradles, or otherwise kill them with their Ceremonies; and after Buriall steale them out of their Graves, and seeth them in a Caldron, until their Flesh be made potable. Of the thickest whereof they make Ointments, whereby they ride in the Aire; but the thinner Potion they put into Flaggons, whereof whosoever drinketh, observing certain Ceremonies, immediatelie becometh a Maister or rather a Mistresse in that Practice and Facultie.

"Their Homage with their Oth and Bargaine is received for a certeine Terme of Yeares; sometimes forever. Sometimes it consisteth in the Deniall of the whole Faith, sometimes in Part. And this is doone either by Oth, Protestation of Words, or by Obligation in writing, sometimes sealed with Wax, sometimes signed with Blood, sometimes by kissing the Divel's bare Buttocks.

"You must also understand, that after they have delicatelie banketted with the Divell and the Ladie of the Fairies; and have eaten up a fat Oxe, and emptied a Butt of Malmesie, and a Binne of Bread at some noble Man's House, in the Dead of the Night, nothing is missed of all this in the Morning. For the Ladie Sibylla, Minerva, or Diana, with a golden Rod striketh the Vessel and the Binne, and they are fully replenished againe." After mentioning that the Bullock is restored in the same magical Manner, he states it as an "infallible Rule, that everie Fortnight, or at least everie Month, each Witch must kill one Child at the least for hir Part." He also relates from Bodin, that "at these magicall Assemblies, the Witches never faile to dance, and whiles they sing and danse, everie one hath a broome in hir Hand, and holdeth it up aloft."²⁰

To these Circumstances attending the Meetings of this unhallowed Sisterhood, King James adds, that Satan, in Order that "hee may the more vively counterfeit and scorne God, oft Times makes his Slaves to conveene in those very Places, which are destinate and ordained for the conveening of the Servants of God (I meane by Churches): – further, Witches oft times confesse, not only his conveening in the Church with them, but his occupying of the Pulpit."²¹ For this Piece of Information James seems to have been indebted to the Confessions of Agnis Tompson; but he also relates, that the Devil, as soon as he has induced his Votaries to renounce their God and Baptism, "gives them his Marke upon some secret Place of their Bodie, which remaines soare unhealed, whilest his next Meeting with them, and thereafter ever insensible, however it be nipped or pricked by any;" a Seal of Destinction which, he tells us at the Close of his Treatise, is of great Use in detecting them on their Trial, as "the finding of their Marke, and the trying the Insensiblenes thereof," was considered as a positive Proof of their Craft. His Majesty, however, proceeds to mention another Mode of ascertaining their Guilt, terminating the Paragraph in a Manner not very flattering to his female Subjects, or very expressive of his own Gallantry. "The other is," he tells us, "their fleeting on the Water: for as in a secret Murther, if the dead Carkase bee at any Time thereafter handled by the Murtherer, it will gush out of Blood, as if the Blood were crying to the Heaven for Revenge of the Murtherer, God having appointed that secret supernaturall Signe, for Triall of that secret unnaturall Crime, so it appears that God hath appointed (for a supernaturall Signe of the monstrous Impietie of Witches) that the Water shall refuse to receive them in her Bosome, that have shaken off them the sacred Water of Baptisme, and wilfully refused the Benefite thereof: No, not so much as their Eyes are able to shed Teares (threaten and torture them as you please) while first they repent (God not permitting them to dissemble their Obstinacie in so horrible a Crime) albeit the Women-kind especially, be able otherwayes to shed Teares at every light Occasion when they will, yea, although it were dissembling like the Crocodiles."²²