D. HACK TUKE, M.D., LL.D., London.

G. H. WHITE, Esq., Torquay.
WALTER G. WHITTINGHAM, Esq., London.
W. WILSON, Esq., Berwick-on-Tweed.
A. J. YOUNG, Esq., Edinburgh.




DEDICATION.

————

►To the Memory◄
OF
H.R.H. PRINCE LEOPOLD, DUKE OF ALBANY,
UNTIMELY TAKEN FROM US,
THIS WORK OF AN ELIZABETHAN ENGLISHMAN,
AND OF A KINDRED SPIRIT,
WHOSE HONESTY, INTELLIGENCE, AND COMPASSION
FOUGHT AGAINST THE CRUEL SUPERSTITION
AND IGNORANCE OF HIS AGE,
IS,
BY ROYAL PERMISSION AND WITH REGRETFUL ESTEEM,
DEDICATED BY
THE EDITOR.




PREFACE.

————

This reprint is not a facsimile of the edition of 1584, for that was in
black letter, and its page smaller and of quarto size. Being also for
modern readers, and for use, the _i_ of the original has become, where
necessary, the _j_ of the second edition; the _u_ and _v_ have been
altered according to modern usage, that is, generally interchanged;
while the short _s_ replaces the _ſ_. Such modernisations render it
more readable by the historical and philosophical student, by the
man of science, and by the psychological physician, willing to learn
all that may instruct himself and benefit others. Neither would this
reprint have been undertaken, unless the work itself had appeared to
my friend and fellow-student, W. T. Gairdner, M.D., LL.D., Professor
of Medicine in the University of Glasgow,—and led by him—to myself and
others, worthy on the above-mentioned grounds, of being reproduced, and
as being both in matter and style a valuable English classic.

While, however, it is not a facsimile, yet, excepting such variations
as are above noticed, and allowing for the few and trifling errors from
which no copy can expect to be free, not even a photographic one, as
experts in these matters well know, this will, I believe, be found a
correct reprint. Every proof has been thrice, and sometimes oftener,
read over with the original by myself, and these efforts have been
well supplemented by the intelligence and care of its printers. Even
the word-errors of the original, where not in its list of errata, have
been retained, though the true or conjectural readings have been given
in the margin, or in two or three instances in the Notings at the end.
Except also in two instances, where for necessity’s sake alterations
have been introduced within []s, and the original given in the margin,
the old punctuation has been retained, it being, as a rule, very good,
while any slight slips are readily observed, and do not affect the
sense. For such other differences as are due to the black letter, and
for others like these, I would refer the print-studying reader to the
Introduction.

In the biographical portion of this Introduction, besides a supposition
or two of my own, which from his writings seem to me highly probable,
there have been given notices of his pedigree, age, and marriages,
matters hitherto unknown or misstated, and for which I would at once
record my indebtedness to Edmund Ward Oliver, Esq. This gentleman
having taken an interest in investigating these questions, and being a
perfect stranger to me, wrote and offered the results of his inquiries
so soon as he had learnt that I was engaged with this reprint, and has
since most obligingly answered the various questions that I have had
occasion to put to him. A copy of Scot’s Will has been also for the
first time published, and some Notes and a Glossary added. Were I to
have imitated the learned editors of former days, I should have added,
not some, but exhaustive notes on every point, gathered from every
known and unknown source; but I have confined myself to explanation, or
to making a few remarks on the text, giving also the author’s agreement
with, or obligations to Wier, so far as I knew them, and Shakespeare’s
and Middleton’s obligations to himself; my reason for not entering into
greater details being that I am no student of the pseudo-science of
witchcraft, but a student only of what is useful, and true, and good.

It would be unseemly, especially after mentioning Mr. Oliver’s name,
were I to close this without acknowledging the kind assistance of
my well-known friend, James Gairdner, Esq., of the Public Record
Office; of my Shakespearian friends, W. Aldis Wright, LL.D., and P.
A. Daniel, Esq.; of that given me by the Very Reverend Father W. H.
Eyre, lately Superior of Stonyhurst; by Mrs. Amelia Green; as also by
Prof. W. W. Skeat, and Dr. J. A. H. Murray, in my Glossary; though all
were, and personally are, strangers; as are Miss Kath. P. Woolrych,
Oare Vicarage, Kent, and Miss Ayscough, of Brabourne Vicarage; and
especially that given me by my other Shakespearian friends, the Rev.
W. H. Harrison, of St. Anne’s, South Lambeth, and W. G. Stone, Esq.
My best thanks are also due to Mr. J. J. Jervis for the use, for the
printer, of a partially incomplete copy of the first edition; to the
University of Glasgow for the loan, for my own use, for the greater
part of a year, of another copy of this first edition; and for the
use for the same period of a copy of the third edition to my Alma
Mater of Edinburgh, endeared to me by the teachings, remembrances, and
kindnesses of Sir William Hamilton, Allan Thomson, Christison, Traill,
Jamieson, that most sagacious of surgeons and teachers, Syme, and the
ever-to-be-revered physician and man, W. Pulteney Alison.

BR. NICHOLSON.

————————————


ERRATA.

_The pagings, as usual, are those of the first edition._

P. 20, heading, ch. ii, “_inquistors_”, read “_inquisitors_”.
P. 92, l. 5, 6, “Ulyffes” (bis), read “Ulysses”.
P. 169, l. 9, “obsevation”, read “observation”.
P. 192, l. 3, “εσιαν”, read “εστιαν”.
P. 334, l. 2, from end, “three,” read “three;”.
P. 347, l. 6, from end, “left it”, read “left in”.
P. 522, l. 6, from end, “_Silyllæ_”, read “_Sibyllæ_”.




INTRODUCTION.

————

Except that they add the names of some who have opposed his views, or
some such trifling matters, all the writers of biographical notices
of Scot have drawn their information from the account given of him in
Wood’s _Athenæ Oxon._ Nor, indeed, until lately, unless original search
had been made, were other sources available. Hence I, in the first
place, give his words verbatim from the edition of 1691.

“_Reynolde Scot_, a younger Son of Sir _John Scot_ of
_Scots-hall_, near to _Smeeth_ in _Kent_, by his Wife, Daughter
of _Reynolde Pimp_ of Pimps-court Knight, was born in that
County, and at about 17 years of age was sent to _Oxon_,
particularly, as it seems, to _Hart_ hall, where several of
his Country-men and name studied in the latter end of K. _Hen.
8._ and in the Reign of _Ed. 6. &c._ Afterwards he retired to
his native Country without the honour of a degree, and settled
at _Smeeth_, where he found great incouragement in his studies
from his kinsman Sir _Thos. Scot_. About which time taking to
him a Wife, he gave himself up solely to solid reading, to
the perusing of obscure authors that had by the generality of
Scholars been neglected, and at times of leisure to husbandry
and gardening, as it may partly appear from these books
following.

“A perfect platform of a Hop-garden, and necessary instructions
for the making and maintenance thereof, with notes and rules
for reformation of all abuses, &c. _Lond._ 1576. qu. the 2.
edit. as it seems.

“The discovery of Witchcraft; wherein the leud dealing of
Witches, and Witchmongers is notably detected, the knavery of
Conjurers, the impiety of Inchantors, the folly of Southsayers,
&c. With many other things are opened, which have long been
hidden, howbeit very necessary to be known. _Lond._ 1584. qu.
in 16 books.

“Discourse upon Devils and Spirits.—In this, and the former,
both printed together, it plainly appears that the author was
very well versed in many choice books, and that his search into
them was so profound, that nothing slip’d his Pen that might
make for his purpose. Further also in the said _Discovery_ and
_Discourse_, though he holds that Witches are not such that
were in his time and before, commonly executed for Witches; or
that Witches were, or are not; yet they, which were written
for the instruction of all Judges and Justices of that age,
(being the first of that nature that were published in the
Mother tongue,) did for a time make great impressions in the
Magistracy and Clergy, tho afterwards condemned by _James_
King of _Scots_ (the same who succeeded Qu. _Elizabeth_ in the
Monarchy of _England_) in his Preface to _Dæmonology_, printed
under his Name at _Edinburgh_ in 1597. qu. and by several
others since, among whom was _Rich. Bernard_ of _Batcomb_,
in his Epist. Ded. before his _Guide to Grand Jury-men_, &c.
Lond. 1627. in oct. What else our author _Scot_ hath written,
I cannot yet tell, nor anything else of him, only but that he
dyed in _Sept._ or _Oct._ in fifteen hundred ninety and nine,
and was buried among his Ancestors in the Church at _Smeeth_
before-mentioned.

“In the time of the said _Reynold Scot_ and before, have been
conversant among the Muses in _Hart_ hall, the _Sackviles_
of _Sussex_, the _Colepepers_ of _Kent_ and _Sussex_, the
_Sedlies_ of _Kent_, and the _Scots_ before mentioned, with
others of inferiour note of the said Counties.”


_Notes added in Bliss’s Reprint._

“7. The learned author in his _Discovery_ is as vehement
against Popery as against witchcraft, and quite indecent in his
abuse of the saints of the Romish church.”—COLE. [His indecency
being for the most part a narrative of, and obvious reflections
on, their indecency. And this I say understanding the sense in
which he uses the word.]

“8. See a full account of this curious book, as Mr. Oldys calls
it, in his _British Librarian_, p. 213. All the copies of the
first edit. 1584, that could be found were burnt by order of
K. James I. an author on the other side of the question.”—Vid.
_Hist. Dictionary_, sub voce “Scot”.

[“REGINALDUS SCOTUS, _Anglus_, _tractatum de Incantamentis_
scripsit, in quo plerasque traditiones de Magia Melancholiæ, &
morbis variis, aut artibus histrionicis adscribit.”] “Hunc in
Anglia publica auctoritate combustum, sibi autem nunquam fuisse
visum refert Thomasius de crimine magiæ § 3.”—Vide [J. V.]
Vogt., _Cat. Libr. rar._, p. 617 [1713].

“Liber in folio scriptus Anglica lingua a Reginaldo Scoto in
quo plurima occurrunt contra magiæ existentiam argumenta. Est
ille etiam in Belgicam linguam conversus: sed plenior editio
est ultima Anglica.”—_Morhof._, ii, 459.

[Then a short note on the three editions.]

In 1874 there were privately printed, _Memorials of the Scot Family_,
by Jas. Renat Scott, Esq., and from them I extract the following tables:

Rich. Scott==Mary Whetenhall.
|
+---------+-------------+------------+-------------------+-+
| | | | |
Reginald Richard _ancestor of the Edward==May, d. of [2 d.]
author. Scotts of Shrewsbury | John Warren.
and elsewhere._ |
+----------------------------------------+
|
_À quo_ the Scotts of Glemsford Suffolk _and afterwards of
Ohio and Massachusetts in America_.

Reg. Scott, b. 1541,==Alice Cobbe, d. of Th. Cobbe of Cobbes
mar. 11 Oct. 1568, | Place, Aldington, Kent.
died Oct. 1599. |
+---------+-----+
| |
Collyar==Marie. Elizabeth==Sackville Turnor of Tablehurst,
Sussex.

But as the first part of the ancestry given in this book is not
supported by anything beyond possibility and legend, so this latter
portion is incorrect in various particulars. Instead, however, of
taking each inaccuracy item by item, it will be simpler to give a
consecutive account of such facts as to his ancestry, and as to
Reginald Scott himself, as can be proved by documentary evidence or
rendered probable by deductions therefrom.

John Philipot, Rouge Dragon and Somerset Herald, who died in 1645,
set forth the pleasant and picturesque, but slightly supported origin
of the family. I say pleasant, because the Scotts in the times of
Elizabeth, James, and Charles, were a family of large possessions,
wealth, and influence, influence so great that it is said that
Elizabeth refused the request made by Lord Buckhurst, or the Earl of
Leicester, that Sir Thomas Scott should be ennobled, saying that he
had already more influence in Kent than she had. She seems also to
have had from this, or from some other reason, a personal dislike to
them, for in her Progress in 1573, she having passed three days at
his father-in-law’s, Sir John Baker, of Sissinghurst Castle, declined
to visit Scotts-hall, saying she wished to proceed to her own house,
though on her way thither she had to pass Sir Thomas’s gates. In his
_Villare Cantianum_, p. 313, Philipot has these words: “_Scotts-hall_,
which is now and hath been for divers Descents the Inheritance of
eminent Gentlemen of that Sirname, whom I dare aver upon probable
Grounds were originally called _Balioll_. _William Balioll_, second
brother to _Alexander de Balioll_, frequently writ his Name _William
de Balioll le Scot_, and it is probable, that upon the Tragedy of
_John_, Earl of _Atholl_, who was made prisoner by _Edward_ the first,
and barbarously executed, in the year 1307. (whilst he endeavoured
more nobly than successfully to defend the gasping Liberty of Scotland
against the Eruption of that Prince;) this Family to decline the Fury
of that Monarch, who was a man of violent passions, altered the name
of _Balioll_ to that of their Extraction and Country, and assumed for
the future the Name of _Scot_. That the Sirname of this Family was
originally _Balioll_, I farther upon these Reasons assert. First, the
ancient Arms of Balioll Colledge in Oxford, which was founded by _John
Balioll_, and dedicated to St. Katharine was a Katherin-Wheele, being
still part of the paternal Coat of this Family. Secondly, _David de
Strabogie_, who was Son and Heir to the unfortunate Earl above-said,
astonished with an Example of so much Terror, altered his name from
_Balioll_ to Strabogie, which was a Signory which accrued to him the
Right of his Wife, who was Daughter and Heir to _John Comin_, Earl of
Badzenoth and Strabogie, and by this Name King _Edward_ the second,
omitting that of _Balioll_ restored _Chilham-castle_ to him for Life,
in the fifteenth year of his reign. Thirdly, the Earls of _Buccleugh_,
and the Barons of Burley in Scotland, who derive themselves originally
from _Balioll_, are known at this instant by no other Sirname, but
Scot, and bear with some inconsiderable Difference, those very Arms
which are at present the paternal Coat of the Family of _Scots-hall_.”

This tradition excluded, we find that Sir William Scot of Braberne, now
Brabourne, in Kent, is the first of whom we have historical mention.
He was knighted in 1336, when the Black Prince was created Duke of
Cornwall, and died in 1350: a brass to his memory, being in Weever’s
time (1631), the first of the memorials of the Scot family in Brabourne
church. According to Philipot, this Sir William was the same with Sir
William Scot, then Chief Justice of England; but if Mr. Foss be right
in stating that this latter died in 1346, the year of the Black Death,
this view cannot be upheld.

Another Sir William, apparently a grandson of the above, acquired
through his mother the manor of Combe in Brabourne, and through his
first wife and her relations—modes of increase in which the family seem
to have been fortunate—that of Orlestone, as well as other places;
and in 1420 he built Scotshall, in the manor of Hall in Smeeth, and
was in 1428 sheriff of the county, and in 1430 knight of the shire in
parliament. He died 1433. Scotshall, from time to time enlarged or
rebuilt, and especially so by Sir Edward Scot, in the reign of Charles
I, became the family seat for twelve generations. Evelyn, under date
August 2, 1663, records his visit to it (soon after the young knight’s
marriage), and calls it “a right noble seate, uniformely built, with
a handsome gallery. It stands in a park well stor’d, the land fat and
good. We were exceedingly feasted by the young knight, and in his
pretty chapell heard an excellent sermon by his chaplaine.” It was
sold, with the remaining possessions of the family, at the close of the
last century, and destroyed in 1808. Some undulations in a field on the
north side of the road from Ashford to Hythe, about half a mile to the
east of Smeeth church, alone mark its site.

The son of this second Sir William, named Sir John, being connected
with the Woodvilles, and therefore with the wife of Edward IV, and
being a staunch Yorkist, and apparently a man of intelligence, was
employed in special embassies to Charles, Duke of Burgundy, especially
in 1467, when he went to treat of the marriage of the king’s sister
with the duke. He had also various other and more substantial favours
conferred upon him from time to time, from 1461 onwards, including that
of Chilham Castle for life, as somewhat oddly, and I think wrongly,
noted in the extract from Philipot. He died in 1485, and probably
intestate, as no will is recorded.

To him succeeded his son, the third Sir William in this account, and
he dying in 1524, was succeeded by his son, a second Sir John. This
last, by his marriage with Anne, daughter of Reginald Pympe, had three
sons, and died on the 7th October 1533. The eldest, William, followed
his father on the 5th June 1536, and leaving no offspring, his next
brother, Sir Reginald, took his place. Of the third brother, Richard,
the father of our Reginald, I shall speak presently. Meanwhile,
returning to the main line, I would say that Sir Reginald, dying on
the 16th October 1554, was succeeded by his son, Sir Thomas, the
“cousin” to whom Reginald was much indebted, and one of the four to
whom he dedicated his _Witchcraft_. He was, in his day, a man of note,
intelligence, and action. Finding his estate in debt, he yet kept one
hundred at his table, was most hospitable, and died owing nothing,
though, of course, to provide for the younger of his very numerous
progeny, various portions of his estate were by his will sold after
his death. He was deputy-lieutenant of his county, sheriff of Kent in
1576, knight of the shire for the Parliaments of 13 and 28 Elizabeth,
chief of the Kentish forces at Northbourne Downs, where they were
assembled to repel any landing from the Armada; and it may be added,
as showing his promptness, readiness, and decision, that 4,000 of
these were there, equipped for the field, the day after he received
his orders from the Privy Council. He was one of the Commissioners to
report on the advisability of improving the breed of horses in this
country, and either before or after this, is said to have published a
book on the subject. He was a Commissioner for draining and improving
Romney Marsh, and afterwards Superintendent of the improvements of
Dover harbour. Various letters to and from him in reference to Dover
harbour, as well as to the Kentish forces, are to be found in the
State Calendars. Having been the parent of seventeen children by his
first wife, Emmeline Kempe, a relative by maternal descent, he died
on the 30th December 1594, and Ashford parish offered to pay the
expenses of his funeral if only they were allowed to bury him in their
church. Most of these facts are noted in the following verses, which
I give, chiefly because there are some probabilities that they were
by Reginald. A copy of them seems to have been found among the family
papers, in his handwriting. That he made some of the verse translations
given in his _Witchcraft_ is extremely probable, from the want in these
cases of marginal references to the translator’s name; hence a second
probability. The verses themselves render it likely that they were
one of those memorial elegies then affixed επι ταϕον by affectionate
friends and relatives, and not what we now call an epitaph; and the
third verse clearly shows that they were written at least some little
time after Sir Thomas’s decease, and therefore were not improbably
written to be affixed to the handsome tomb erected over his remains.
Hence a third probability; but beyond the accumulated force of these we
cannot go.

_Epitaph on Sir Thomas Scott, as given in the “Memorials of the Scott
Family”, and also in Pick’s “Collection of Curious Pieces in the
World”, vol. 3._

Here lyes Sir Thomas Scott by name;
Oh happie Kempe that bore him!
Sir Raynold, with four knights of fame,
Lyv’d lyneally before him.

His wieves were Baker, Heyman, Beere;
His love to them unfayned.
He lyved nyne and fiftie yeare,
And seventeen soules he gayned.

His first wief bore them every one;
The world might not have myst her![*]
She was a very paragon
The Lady Buckherst’s syster.

His widow lyves in sober sort,
No matron more discreeter;
She still reteiynes a good report,
And is a great housekeeper.

He (being called to special place)
Did what might best behove him.
The Queen of England gave him grace,
The King of Heav’n did love him.

His men and tenants wail’d the daye,
His Kinne and countrie[†] cryed;
Both young and old in Kent may saye,
Woe worth the day he dyed.

He made his porter shut his gate
To sycophants and briebors,
And ope it wide to great estates,
And also to his neighbours.

His House was rightly termed Hall
Whose bred and beefe was redie;
It was a very hospitall
And refuge for the needie.

From whence he never stept aside,
In winter nor in summer;
In Christmas time he did provide
Good cheer for every comer.

When any service shold be doun,
He lyked not to lyngar;
The rich would ride, the poor wold runn,
If he held up his fingar.

He kept tall men, he rydd great hors,
He did write most finely;
He used fewe words, but cold discours
Both wysely and dyvinely.

His lyving meane,[‡] his charges greate,
His daughters well bestowed;
Although that he were left in debt,
In fine he nothing owed.

But dyed in rich and happie state,
Beloved of man and woman
And (what is yeate much more than that)
He was envied[§] of no man.

In justice he did much excell,
In law he never wrangled:
He loved rellygion wondrous well,
But he was not new-fangled.

Let Romney Marsh and Dover saye;
Ask Norborne camp at leyseur;
If he were woont to make delaye
To doe his countrie pleasure.

But Ashford’s proffer passeth all—
It was both rare and gentle;
They would have pay’d his funerall
T’ have toomb’d him in their temple.

[*] Though a paragon, she lived, he would say, a quiet, retired life,
obedient and loving to her husband.

[†] “Countrie”, seems not unlikely to be used here, as in the
_Discoverie_ not unfrequently, and twice in Wood’s notice just given,
and, as then, for county.

[‡] “Meane”, that is, moderate, midway between the very rich and the
poor.

[§] “Envied”, most probably in its then frequent sense of hated.

Before returning to Richard and Reginald, we may conclude this short
notice of their ancestors by mentioning the very probable circumstance
that the former were, by the female line, descendants of John Gower,
the poet, as explained in the following table:

Sir John Pashell==Elizabeth, d. of Richard Wydeville, sister of Earl
| Rivers, aunt of Edward IV’s wife.
+---------+
|
John Pashell,==1. Ludovic (Lowys), d. of Th. Gower, ob.
ob. _circa_ 1472. | _circa_ 1458.
+-------------+------------+
| |
William, Elizabeth, or Isabel,==Reg. Pympe.
ob. _ante_ 1485, _s.p._ ob. _ante_ 1485. |
+------------------------------------+
|
Anne = Sir John Scot, father of Richard Scot.

The Pashells, or Pashleys, were descended from Sir Edmund de Passelege,
a Baron of the Exchequer, who purchased a manor in Smeeth in 1319; he
died 1327. The family resided at Iden, Sussex; and the house there,
and the manor in Smeeth, devolved on the Scots, Anne Pympe being
her father’s only child. It is true that John Gower, the poet, does
not mention any children in his extant will, but he was probably
seventy-eight when he died; and, what is more to the purpose, his
published will was probably only his testament, the will or declaration
of uses of the land being commonly at that time a separate instrument.
Th. Gower, of Clapham, given above as the father of Lowys, was probably
the son or grandson of John Gower (see Sir Harris Nicolas in _The
Retrosp. Rev._, 2 Ser., ii, 103-17). Also Gower the poet is known to
have had property in Southwark; and Th. Gower, of Clapham, refers in
his will (1458) to his tenement called The Falcon, in Southwark, near
the hospital; and in Manning and Bray’s _Surrey_, iii, 623, there is
noticed a deed of conveyance dated 22nd November 1506, of part of the
site of St. Thomas’s Hospital, in Southwark, made by John Scot, of
Iden, and Anne his wife, daughter and heir of John Pashley, who was
cousin and heir of John Gower. It may be added as curious that Sir
Robert Gower, who is believed to have been uncle to the poet, was
buried in Brabourne church in 1349; his monument, now destroyed, being
noticed in Weever.

On p. 500, Scot speaks of “his kinseman M. Deering”, Edw. Dering the
divine, a writer on theological subjects and chaplain to her Majesty;
but in what way they were kin I have been unable to discover.[*]

[*] My mother being a Dering, a daughter of the Thomas that was drowned
in the West Indies, when trying to reach his vessel H.M.S. _Circe_,
induces me to add, through the courtesy of Sir Edw. C. Dering, that a
portrait of this worthy is still to be seen at Surrenden Dering, and
that a family tradition has it, that preaching before her Majesty,
he had the boldness to tell her, “that she had no more controul over
her passions than an untamed heifer.” He was speedily unfrocked, and
is said to have emigrated to America, where an Edw. Dering is at this
moment the head of that branch, and a large landowner in Maine.

Returning now to Reginald’s father, Richard, the youngest of the three
sons of that Sir John who died in 1533, we find that he married Mary,
daughter of Geo. Whetenall, whose father was sheriff of Kent in 1527,
and whose family had lived for three centuries at Hextall’s Place,
near Maidstone. She survived her husband; and being remarried to Fulke
Onslow, Clerk of the Parliaments, died before him, 8th October 1582,
and was buried, as he afterwards was, in Hatfield church, Herts, where
a brass to their memory is fixed in the north wall of the chancel. Of
Richard himself nothing more is known. He probably died young, and
certainly before December 1554, his death being mentioned in the will
of his brother Sir Reginald, who died on the 16th of that month. In
this will, failing his own issue—a lapse which did not occur—he left
his real estate “unto Rainolde Scotte, son and heire of my brother
Richard Scotte, dec^{d}”, and Rainolde’s issue failing, it was devised
to a more distant branch. Hence, contrary to the table given on page
_xi_, from “The Memorials”, “Rainolde” was either the only son of
Richard, or the only son then living. The same conclusion follows from
the Inquis. post mortem of Lady Wynifred Rainsfoord, taken the 20th
March 1575/6, where Sir Thomas Scot and his brothers are said to be
co-heirs with Reynold of the lands held by her in gavelkind, the sons
having one moiety, and Reynold the other.

This Inquisition also gives Reynold’s then age as thirty-eight or more,
the words “et amplius” being, as was, usually at least, done in these
documents, attached to all the other ages mentioned. Hence he was born
in or before 1538 (not in 1541), and as, according to Wood, he entered
Hart Hall, Oxford, when about seventeen, he entered it _circa_ 1555;
the intention that he should do so having been probably entertained
by Sir Reginald, his uncle, who died 16th December 1554, and his
expenses borne by his cousin, Sir Thomas. I say probably, because we
have seen that, failing his own issue, he was named by Sir Reginald as
the next heir to the estate, and also because we know nothing of the
circumstances in which his widowed mother was left, nor as yet of the
date at which she was re-married to Onslow.

On the 11th of October he married Jane—not, as stated in “The
Memorials”, Alice—Cobbe, the daughter of an old yeoman family long
resident at Cobbe’s Place, in the adjoining parish of Aldington. The
entry in the Registers of Brabourne is—

“M[*] Reignold Scott and Jane Cobbe
were maryed the xi^{th} of October 1658.”

[*] To this upper portion of the “M” is added a character which may
make it “Mr.” or “Married”; but I have not myself yet seen the entry.

The only issue of this marriage, the only issue (that at least
survived) of both his marriages—for the Maria in the table of “The
Memorials” was the daughter of his second wife by her first husband—was
Elizabeth, afterwards married to Sackville Turnor; and the only issue
of that marriage, prior at least to Reynold’s death in 1599, was
Cicely. Elizabeth’s birth must have been in or before 1574, for in the
Inquis. post mortem of Reg. Scot generosus in 1602, she is said to be
“28 et amplius”. The Holy Maid of Kent (mentioned by Scot, p. 26) was
servant to one of her maternal progenitors, probably to her grandfather.

In this year, 1574, was also published the first issue of his brain,
his tractate on _The Hoppe-Garden_, the first work, I believe, in which
not only was the culture of the hop in England advocated, both as
having been successfully tried by him, and as against its importation
from Poppering, in Flanders, where its mode of culture, etc., was
endeavoured to be kept secret; but the whole subject of its growth,
culture, drying, and preservation was gone into in a practical manner,
and further explained by woodcuts. And here it may be worth noting that
in this year Reynold was necessarily absent so far from London that the
publisher inserted this apologetic note: “Forasmuch as M. Scot could
not be present at the printing of this his Booke, whereby I might have
used his advise in the correction of the same, and especiallie of the
Figures and Portratures conteyned therein, whereof he delivered unto me
such notes as I being unskilfull in the matter, could not so thoroughly
conceyve, nor so perfectly expresse as ... the Author, or you ... the
Reader might in all poyntes be satisfied [etc., etc.].” In the second
edition, however, in 1576, it was: “Now newly corrected and augmented,”
the augmentations increasing the book from fifty-three pages, exclusive
of the epilogue, to sixty, and the corrections including one added and
one emended engraving. As a matter of curiosity, and as showing that
neither the publisher nor the author expected a second edition, it
may be added that though only two years had elapsed, some at least of
the wood engravings required to be re-cut in almost exact facsimile.
A third edition was issued in 1578, and from these we can date the
commencement of the hop harvests in Kent.

In 1575 he succeeded to one moiety of such part of Lady Winifred
Rainsford’s estate as was held in gavelkind. Possibly, indeed, we may
place his enjoyment of it earlier, for Lady Rainsford was declared
insane; and to this, by the way, I am not disinclined to attribute
Reynold’s prolonged absence from London in 1572, the attendance of some
one of the family being required, and he, being older than the sons of
Sir Thomas, and of a junior branch, and a man of business, having been
chosen or requested to go. And I think we may place his loss of that
estate between this date and that of 1584, the date of the publication
of the _Witchcraft_. At least, in this _Discoverie_ occur two passages
which, taken together, seem to point to this. In his dedication to
Sir Th. Scot he says: _A_ vi, “My foot being [not, having been] under
your table, my hand in your dish, or rather in your pursse”—and, _A_
viii: “If they will allow men knowledge and give them no leave to
use it, men were much better be without it than have it; ... it is,
as ... to put a candle under a bushell: or as to have a ship, and to
let hir lie alwaies in the docke: which thing how profitable it is, I
can saie somewhat by experience.” Though it may be said that Reynold
was a man of business, and, as appears from his writings, a man of
decision and of unusual intelligence, still circumstances may combine
to bring disaster as a shipowner on such a one, and more especially if
he be new to the business. That he did in some way lose his “moiety”
is shown by the words of his will, for, speaking of his second wife,
he says, “whome yf I had not matched w^{th} all I had not dyed worth
one groate.” Not, improbably, I think, it was to the time of his first
marriage, or to his widowership, or to both, that Wood more especially
refers when he speaks of his giving himself up to solid reading, etc.

When his first wife died and when he re-married is as yet unknown to
us. But this latter could hardly have taken place until the latter
end, at earliest, of 1584, since in that year he, as already quoted,
describes himself as, “having his foot under your [Sir Th. Scot’s]
table”, etc., or in other words, as being a dependant not worth one
groat. Nor do we know more of this second wife beyond these slight
particulars that we gather from Reynold’s will: that her Christian name
was Alice—given in “The Memorials” instead of Jane, to Cobbe, the first
wife—that she was a widow with a daughter by her former husband; and
that she had some land, either in her own right or derived from her
former husband. That she was a widow at the time of her remarriage is
shown by Reynold’s bequest of “six poundes thirteene shillings foure
pence to my daughter in Lawe Marie Collyar for apparell [? mourning]
desiring that her mother’s hand be not anie thinge the shorter towards
her in that respect.” Whether Collyar were this daughter’s maiden name,
and therefore the name of her mother’s first husband, or whether it
were the name of her own husband, is doubtful, though from the words
just quoted I rather incline to this second supposition, and that the
husband was not a man of much means. With regard to what I have said
as to the mother’s possession of property, it has been suggested to me
by one of good judgment, and a solicitor, that Reynold’s expression
as to not dying worth a groat was merely an excuse for leaving the
bulk of his property to his wife; as also that these concluding words
of the will, and the resistance of probate to it made by Elizabeth,
his daughter by his first wife, indicate the existence of family
differences, probably attributable to this second marriage having been
entered into with one of a social rank inferior to his own. I cannot,
however, deduce this latter supposition from anything we know, neither
can I thus interpret the last words of his will, nor believe him guilty
of such a perversion of the truth. Reading his will attentively, I
think we find that Scot, with his usual fine sense of justice, gives
all the lands in “Aldington, Ruckinge, and Sellinge”, which had become
his by his marriage with Alice, “to her and _to her_ [not to his]
heires”, while he only gives his lands in Romney Marsh and his lease
of Brabourne Rectory to her for _her life_, and then the lease at
least, which had come to him “from his Cozen Charles”, to his daughter
Elizabeth. Reading the last words of his will verbatim, I think it
consistent with justice to hold, that though he may have obtained these
lands in Romney Marsh through the use of what had been his wife’s
former property, but was during his marriage his own, he was entitled
to leave them to his wife only for her life, they then proceeding not,
as did the others, to her heirs, but to his. I strongly suspect, also,
that his casual omission of any directions as to whom these Romney
Marsh lands were to go after her death was the real cause of the
probate of the will being resisted by his daughter Elizabeth, so as to
definitely raise this point.

Reserving all notice of his _Witchcraft_ till I speak of it under
its bibliography, I would say that we know little more of his life.
The Rev. Jos. Hunter, in his _Chorus Vatum_, states that he was “a
Collector of subsidies to Q. Elizabeth in 15..., for the county of
Kent.” Urged to inquiry by this, my friend, Jas. Gairdner, Esq., kindly
examined for me the Exchequer documents in the Public Record Offices,
and it appears from them that he was collector of subsidies for the
lathe of Shepway in the years 28 and 29 of Elizabeth (1586–87). It may
be added that, as appears from a previous document, 125/299, in the
same class of papers, that Sir Reynold Scot and other Commissioners for
the collection in the lathe of Shepway, of the first payment of the
subsidy granted by the Parliament, 37 Henry VIII, had appointed a high
Collector. Thus we learn the mode of his appointment; and on looking
through the lists we find that many such were “generosi”, though the
payment was but small. For Scot, forty shillings was deducted from the
incomings; and this not as a percentage, but as salary.

From the same documents we find that he is twice designated “armiger”,
a word agreeing with his 1584 title-page, “by Reginald Scot, Esquire”,
though in the editions of his _Hoppe Garden_ his name alone is given.
This was for myself an important find; but it will suffice here to say
that it confirms Hunter’s supposition that this esquireship was due to
his having been made a justice of the peace, though as to the date it
can only as yet be said that this dignity was probably granted between
1578 and 1584.

In an _Accompt of Sir Th. Heanage, knight, Treasurer at Warr_, in the
Public Record Offices, and printed by J. Renat Scott in the _Arch.
Canti._, vol. xi, p. 388, we find the following entries:

“S^r Thomas Scott knighte Collonel generall of the footemen in
Kent for his Entertainment at xiij^s iiij^d p^r diem for xxij
dayes begonne the xxix^{th} of Julye and endinge the xix of
Auguste the summe of xiiij^{li} xiij^s iiij^d.”

• • • • •

“Reinalde Scotte Trench mayster for his Enterteinment at iiij^s
p^r diem, and due to him for the same tyme iiij^{li} viij^s.”

• • • • •

“S^r Thomas Scott knighte for Thenterteynem^t of lxiij Wachemen
& Garders appointed to watche & warde at Dongenesse for xxij
dayes begonne [etc., as above] at viij the pece p^r diem
xlvi^{li} iiij^s.”

From the Muster-roll taken on the 25th Jan. 1587–8, and now in the
possession of Mr. Oliver, it appears that the county had then furnished
8,201 footmen and 711 horsemen, and that Sir Thomas was captain
of the 309 trained foot raised in the lathe of Shepway, with four
hundreds of the lathe of Scraye and Romney Marsh. Hence his office
as Colonel-General was not given him—indeed, this is shown by the
_Accompt_—until the men had been assembled in camp on the 29th July.
In like manner the Muster-roll gives Sir Jas. Hales as Captain of the
Lances; but in the pay list Th. Scott (a son of Sir Thomas) is Captain
both of the Light Horse and Lances. With regard to “Reinalde”, who,
under the name of Reginald, appears in the Muster-roll as one of the
thirteen captains over 1,499 untrained foot, Mr. J. Renat Scott, in a
note, states that he was a son of Sir Thomas Scott; but though sons of
Sir Thomas were also captains, this assertion is a guess, unsupported
by any known evidence.

He made his will on the 15th September 1599, and died twenty-four days
thereafter, on the 9th October. Some say that he was either taken ill
at Smeeth or died there, probably misinterpreting the words of his
will; some also say that he was buried there; while some think that
he was buried by the side of and close to Sir Thomas Scott’s tomb in
Brabourne church; but all these, like the supposition of Philipot in
his Kent Notes, _Harl. MS._ 3917, fol. 78_a_, that he erected that
tomb, are mere guessings, and as such we leave them.

To the few particulars thus gathered together we are obliged, with the
exception of two small points, one probable, and the other, I think,
certain, to confine ourselves. The first or probable point is, that as
his name appears five times as a witness to family business documents
between 1566 and 1594, his signature appearing in this last year in
Sir Thomas’s will, he must have kept up familiar intercourse with the
latter, and was not improbably, in some measure at least, his man of
business, and possibly his steward. The second point, which also goes
to confirm this first one, as also to confirm the belief that he was
made a justice of the peace, as being a person whose attainments, if
not his position, would render him useful in such a post, is one to
which I was independently led by his writings, and which is, I find,
borne out by almost contemporary testimony.

He who in his _Hoppe Garden_ showed such practical thought and
foresight, and in his _Witchcraft_ such independence of thought, was
not a man, especially when married and a father, to live in dependence
on a cousin. The wording, as well as the tone of his writings, agree
with this. We find in them traces of legal study, a habit of putting
things, as it were, in a forensic form, and noteworthy and not
unfrequent references to legal axioms or dicta, quoted generally in
their original Latin. The Dedication before his _Hoppe Garden_, and
the first before his _Witchcraft_, are to men of high legal rank,
judges, in fact, to whom he acknowledges his obligations. Referring
the reader to these, and to the ambiguous sentence in the latter
commencing “Finally” (sig. _A_ ii), I would also give the words in
the latter, where he says, _A._ v: “But I protest the contrarie, and by
these presents I renounce all protection”; and in the former the legal
phraseology is carried on throughout in—“and be it also knowne to all
men by these presentes that your acceptance hereof shall not be any
wyse prejudiciall unto you, for I delyver it as an Obligation, wherein
I acknowledge my selfe to stande further bounde unto you, without
that, that I meane to receyve your courtesie herein, as a release of
my further duties which I owe,” A. iii. v. And in B. v.: “neither
reproove me because by these presents I give notice thereof.” So also
he would seem to have been an attendant at the assizes; and if we look
to the story, told at page 5, of Marg. Simons, we find that he was not
only present at the trial, but busied himself actively in the matter,
talking to the vicar, the accuser, about it, advertising the poor woman
as to a certain accusation, he “being desirous to heare what she could
saie for hir selfe”, and inquiring into the truth of her explanation by
the relation of divers honest men of that parish. In like manner, his
Will is written “w^{th} myne owne hande” twenty-five days before his
death; and, on inquiring from a lawyer, I find that it is drawn up in
due legal form, and by one who had had a legal training. Lastly, Thomas
Ady, M.A., in _A Candle in the Dark_, 1656, alias, _A Perfect Discovery
of Witches_, 1661, a book, like Scot’s, against the reality of
witchcraft, distinctly tells us, p. 87, that Scot “was a student in the
laws and learned in the _Roman_ Laws”, the latter being exactly what
such a man would be if he had turned towards the law as a profession.
These considerations appear to me conclusive, even though it be added
as an argument _per contra_ that his name has not been found among
the rolls of the Temple, Inner or Middle, or in those of Lincoln’s or
Gray’s Inn.

And in taking leave of this portion of my subject, I cannot but
reiterate the obligations both the reader and the literary world
generally are under to Mr. Edmund Ward Oliver. The suppositions as
to the cause of Scot’s loss of his moiety of the estates of Lady
Winnifred Rainsford—not, it is believed, a large sum—and as to his
law-studentship, based as they are on facts stated by Scot or derived
from his writings, and those of Th. Ady, are my own; while in one
or two instances I have put forth opinions not quite in accord with
that gentleman’s. But nearly all the biographical facts regarding Scot
himself and his marriages, in contradistinction to the supposed facts
hitherto set forth, are due to the intelligent research of Mr. Oliver,
and are not unfrequently stated in his own words.

The following table will bring into one view the pedigree of Reginald
Scot given in the previous pages:

[The 2nd] Sir William Scott,[*] d. 1433.==
|
+---------------------------------+
Sir John Scott, d. 1485.==
|
+------------------+
|
Sir William Scott, d. 1524.==
|
+--------------------+
|
Sir John Scott, d. 7 Oct. 1533.==Anne, d. of Reginald Pympe.
|
+-----------------+-------+---------+
| | |
Wm. Scott, Sir Reginald Scott, Richd. Scott.==Mary Whetenall.
d. _s. p._ 5 June d. 16 Dec. 1554. |
1536. | |
+----------------+ +---------+
| |
Sir Th. Scot, (1) Jane Cobbe.==Reginald Scott.==(2) Alice [Collyar?].
d. 30 Dec. 1594. |
Elizabeth.==Sackville Turnor.
|
Cicely.

[*] It is noteworthy that, notwithstanding the memorial inscription
to the first Sir William, Reginald, or whoever was the author of
the verses to Sir Thomas, only traces the pedigree to this fourth
knight after Sir Reginald. Either then the first Sir William was then
accounted somewhat mythical, or not being a knight of fame, he was not
recognised as the same with Sir William Scott, the Chief Justice of
England.

————————————

WILL OF RAYNOLD SCOT.

_Extracted from the copy, not the original, in the Principal Registry
of the Probate, Divorce, and Admiralty Division of the High Court
of Justice._

S In the Prerogative Court of Canterbury.

In the Name of God Amen. I Raynolde Scott in the Countie of
Kent gent beinge of the Parish of Smeth Doe make and ordaine
and w^{th} myne owne hande doe write this my Last will and
Testament on Saturdaye the fyfteenth of September Anno Dñi
a thousand fyve hundred nyntie nyne and in the fortie one
yeare of the raigne of o^r soveraigne Ladie Queene Elizabeth
Fyrst I bequeath my Sowle to Almightie god and my body to be
buryed as yt shall seeme good to Alice my wiefe whome I make
and ordaine to be myne onely Executrix Item I bequeath to my
sayde wief All my goods and chattells plate housholde stuffe
Juelles and Chaynes with all my leases and goods moveable and
vnmoveable savinge such as I shall by this my Will other Wise
dispose of Item I (for the trust I repose in M^{r.} Edwarde
Hall of Ashforde and of my neighbou^r Raynolde Keale of Smeeth
in countie aforesaide doe make them two the overseers to this
my Last will and gyve to eyther of the_m_ for theire paines and
trouble w^{ch} they ar like to sustaine herebye fyve poundes
Item I bequeath to S^r John Scott my lease of the banke or
pond at Aldinge Item I bequeath to my graund childe Cisley
Turno^r tenne poundes to buy her a little Chaine It_e_m I gyve
to my daughter in Lawe Marie Collyar six poundes thirteene
shillings foure pence to be paide unto her within one quarter
after my decease, to be bestowed in app_ar_ell upon her selfe
as she shall seeme good nether would I have her mothers hand
anie thinge the shorter towardes her in that respect Item I
give to my daughter Turno^r the Covenant that I have of my
Cozen Charles Scott touchinge the renuinge of my lease when his
grace doth renne [_read_ renue] his lease of Braborne Rectorie
provided that my meaninge is, that my said wief shall enioye
the full tearme that I nowe possesse and howsoever yt shalbe
renued my daughter shall have the only renuinge which shalbe in
effecte after the whole tearme w^{ch} I holde now be expired
so as by any meane [intervening] renuinge my saide wief be not
defeated of my true meaninge towardes her Item I do bequeath to
my saied wief and to her heires for ever All my Landes Lyinge
in Aldington and now in thoccupac_i_on of John Pollard and
all my Landes in Ruckinge in thoccupac_i_on of —— Diggons and
all my Landes in Sellenge in the occupac_i_on of —— Coakar All
which Landes lye in the s̶a̶y̶d̶e̶ sayde[*] Countie of Kent
Item I gyve and bequeath to my said wief all my other Landes
in Rumney Marshe or els where in the said countye duringe her
naturall lief[†] Item I doe gyve to my Servante Moyll Smyth the
some of twentie shillinges yearelie duringe his n_atur_all Life
to be paide out of all my Landes halfe yearelie and that for
defaulte of payment yt shalbe Lawfull for him to distraine And
so I ende desyreinge the worlde to iudge the best hereof and of
the consyderac_i_ons for greate is the trouble my poore wief hath
had with me, and small is the comforte she hath receyved at my
handes whome yf I had not matched w^{th} all I had not dyed
worth one groate.—
Ray: Scott.

[*] _Sic_, first at end of line.

[†] _Sic_, to be paide _is interlined above_ this.

By a short notice following the copy of the will, it was proved
on the 22nd November 1599. There is also a document setting forth
that Alicia Scott, relicta, and Elizabetha Turnor, als Scott, filia
naturalis et legitima, had disputed, before certain functionaries named
regarding the will, and that probate was granted as aforesaid on the
22nd November 1599. But as the cause or subject of the dispute is not
mentioned, this, like the short notice, is not given.

————————————

ABSTRACT OF INQUIS. POST MORTEM, 18 ELIZ. P. 1, No. 84.

_Inquisition taken at Maidstone on the death of Lady Wynifred
Rainsfoord, 30 March, 18 Eliz. [1575-6]._

She was seised of the Manors of Nettlested and Hiltes with
appurtenances in E. and W. Peckham, Brenchley, W. Barmling,
Merewood, Marden; also of the Manor of Pympe with appurtenances in
Yaulding, Marden, and Brenchley. Also various other lands, some
of which, called Stockenbury, Motelands, and Souchefields, are in
Brenchley.

She died 17 Oct. last, at Chelmsford in Essex.

Th. Scott, kt., is her next heir, viz., son and heir of Reginalde
Scotte, kt., sonne and heir of Anne Scotte, wife of John Scotte,
kt., daughter and heir of Reginald Pympe, brother of John Pympe,
father of said Lady Winifred.

Thomas Scotte, kt., Charles Scott, Henry Scotte, George Scotte, and
William Scotte [brothers of the first-named Thomas Scotte, kt.],
and Reginald Scotte, are coheirs of the lands held in gavelkind.
One moiety thereof descends to Thomas, Charles, etc. [as named
above], sons and coheirs of Reginalde Scotte, kt., son and heir
of Anne Scotte; and the other moiety to Reginald, son and heir of
Richard Scotte, junior, son of the said Anne.

Thomas miles is 39 et amplius, Charles 34 [etc.], Henry 32 [etc.],
George 30 [etc.], William 22 [etc.], and Reginald 38 years of age
et amplius.

The exact words regarding the co-heirs are: “descendebant et de
jure descendere debent præfato Thomæ Scotte militi, Carolo Scott,
Henrico Scotte, Georgio Scotte et Will’o Scotte, fratribus dicti
Thomæ Scotte militis et Reginaldo Scotte, consanguineo prædicti
Thomæ Scotte militis, ut consanguineis et coheredibus prædictæ
dominæ Winifridæ eo quod prædictæ terræ ... ultimo recitata sunt de
natura de gavelkind.” This disproves the assertion of Mr. J. Renat
Scott in _Arch. Cant._, xi, 388, and repeated in his genealogy of
the Scott family, that the Reginald Scott mentioned in the former
as receiving pay among those appointed in 1587-8 was “a son of Sir
Thomas”.

————————————

ABSTRACT OF INQUIS. P.M., 45 ELIZ., PARS. 1, No. 71.

_Inquisition taken at Maidstone, 2 Dec. [1602], after the death of
Reginald Scot, generosus._

He was seised of a tenement and 20 acres of land called
Graynecourtte, held of Th. Scott, Esq., as of his manor of
Brabourne, a tenement called Essex, and 20 acres of land in two
parcels in Allington [Aldington], held of Edw. Hall, as of his
manor of Pawlson. One parcel of land called Haythorne field,
containing 20 acres in Bonington, held of the Queen in capite, and
a tenement and one parcel of land lying in Barefield, containing
two acres in Brabourne, tenure unknown, and one acre in Brabourne
and 5 acres in Brabourne, and two parcels in Smeeth, and 30 acres
of marsh called Gatesleaf, in Newchurch, held of Martin Barneham,
Esq., as of his manor of Bylsyngton.

He died 9 Oct., 41 Eliz. [1599], at Smeeth.

Elizabeth, wife of Sackville Turner, gent., is his daughter and
next heir, and was 28 years of age and more at his death.

Alice, his widow, has received the rents since his death.

[Elizabeth was the next heir to his own property, but that which
was his own through his wife Alice, he specially devised “to her
and to _her_ heirs”.]

————————————


_The Cause and History of the Work._—That is, what induced Scot to
write it, and why did he set it forth as he did? inquiries which
involve, among other matters, a short notice of the position then and
previously held by witchcraft in England. His _Hoppe-garden_ shows him
to us as a man of intelligence, foresighted and reflective of thought,
and desirous of improving the state of his country and countrymen. It
shows him also as one who could not only seize a thought and commend
it to others, but as one who had perseveringly put his idea into
practice, found it feasible, and then so learnt the processes necessary
for growing the plant, and preparing its catkins and storing them for
use, that a priori one would suppose that he had done what he did not,
namely, visited Holland and learnt the processes on the spot. The same
qualities are seen in his _Witchcraft_, as is also his independence of
thought. No sooner had his suspicions been aroused than he proceeded,
as shown by the work and its references, to investigate the matter
thoroughly and perseveringly. To this also he was encouraged, or rather
led, by yet other two qualities, his straightforwardness or honesty of
purpose, and his compassion, for these taught him that he was engaged
in a righteous work, that of rescuing feeble and ignorant, though it
may be too pretentious and shrewish, old women from false charges and a
violent death, and in a noble work in endeavouring to stem the torrent
of superstition and cruelty which was then beginning to overflow the
land.

Nor was this the result in any way of a mind sceptically inclined.
His book shows that he accepted the opinions of his day, unless he
had been led to inquire into them, and either re-receive them as
facts or discard them. Led doubtless by his academic training, it is
abundantly clear that he had inquired into the grounds of his belief
in the Established Church, and into the additions that had been made
to its faith in the course of illiterate ages by the Popish Church.
He had read Plotina, who taught him that the so-called vicars of
Christ and his vice-gerents on earth were often devils incarnate and
standard-bearers of vice, and that the system which did now and again
produce a St. Francis d’Assis—all reverence to his name—produced
also the congeners of Loyola, and Loyola himself, whose followers,
while assuming to themselves the holy name of Socii Jesu, made that
name famous and infamous, and their tenets execrated throughout the
civilised world. But he accepted with some doubting, having, as he
thought, great authority for it and no means of investigation, the
story of the Remora; and accepted without doubting the beliefs that
the bone of a carp’s head, and none other, staunched blood, the value
of the unicorn’s horn, and the like, and—notwithstanding his disbelief
in astrology—that seed-time and springing were governed by the waxing
and waning of the moon. He also believed that precious stones owed
their origin to the influences of the heavenly bodies; and besides his
credulous beliefs as to certain waters, narrated at the commencement,
he in the next chapter gives the absurdly wonderful virtues of these
stones, some, as he says, believed in by him, “though many things most
false are added”.

How then came he to inquire into and write so strongly against
witchcraft? Before the time of the eighth Henry, sorcerers were dealt
with by the ecclesiastical law, which punished them as heretics.
Moreover, their supposed offences against the person seem, chiefly
at least, to have been taken notice of when they were supposed to
interfere with high or state matters or persons, as in the cases of
Joan of Arc or Dame Eleanor Cobham. But in Henry’s time, probably
through the extension of continental ideas, aided, it may be, by a
desire to restrain the ecclesiastical power, c. 8 of the thirty-third
year of his reign was passed. By this it was enacted, that witches,
etc., who destroyed their neighbours, and made pictures [images] of
them for magical purposes, or for the same purposes made crowns,
swords, and the like, or pulled down crosses, or declared where things
lost or stolen were become, should suffer death and loss of lands and
goods, as felons, and lose the privileges of clergy and sanctuary.
Afterwards, by 1 Edw. I, c. 12, this and other offences first made
felonies in Henry’s time were no longer to be accounted such. Thirdly,
in the fifth year of Elizabeth, Parliament, by its twelfth chapter,
enacted, that whereas many have practised sorceries to the destruction
of people and their goods, those that cause death shall suffer as was
declared by 33 Henry VIII, c. 8, except that their wives and heirs
shall not have their rights affected by such attainder. But that when
a person was only injured, or their goods or cattle destroyed, the
offenders should for the first offence suffer a year’s imprisonment,
and once a quarter be exposed in the pillory in a market town for six
hours, and there confess their offences; and for the second offence
suffer death as felons, with the exceptions before rehearsed. While
any who seek treasure, or would bring about unlawful love, or hurt
anyone in his body or goods, should for a first offence be imprisoned
and suffer as before, and for a second be imprisoned for life and
forfeit his goods and cattle. This, so far as humanity is concerned,
is a distinct advance on Henry’s enactment, though an apparent going
back from that of Edward. Perhaps, as before, it arose from a desire
to remove the offences from the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical
law, which would have burnt them, nor, as evidenced by its little
results, does it seem to have been made through any mania or scare in
the matter. This came on later, when, as we are told by Brian Darcie
in 1582, at what time, under pie-crust promises of favour, he was
endeavouring to get women to confess, and then be hanged,—“there is a
man of great learning and knowledge come over lately into our Queenes
Majestie, which hath advertised her what a companie and numbers of
Witches be within Englande: whereupon I and other of her Justices have
received Commission for the apprehending of as many as are within these
limites.” Alas, this man of great learning and knowledge seems to have
been none other than that otherwise light of the English Church, the
great, good, and pious Bishop Jewel, who, having returned from a forced
residence abroad, was speedily promoted by her Majesty, and in a sermon
preached before her, in 1572, brought in the subject as follows:—

“Heere perhaps some man will replie, that witches, and conjurers often
times chase away one Divell by the meane of another. Possible it is so;
but that is wrought, not by power, but by Collusion of the Divels. For
one Divell, the better to attaine his purpose, will give place, and
make as though he stood in awe of another Divell. And by the way to
touch but a word or two of this matter for that the horrible using of
your poore subjects inforceth thereunto. It may please your Grace to
understand, that this kind of people, I meenes witches and sorcerers,
within these few last yeeres, are marvellously increased within this
your Grace’s realme. These eies have seene most evident and manifest
marks of their wickednesse. Your Grace’s subjects pine away even unto
the death, their collour fadeth, their flesh rotteth, their speech is
benummed, their senses are bereft.”

“Wherefore, your poore subjects most humble petition unto your
Highnesse, is, that the lawes touching such malefactours, may be put in
due execution. For the shole of them is great, their doings horrible,
their malice intollerable, the examples most miserable. And I pray God,
they never practise further, then upon the subject. But this only by
the way, these be the scholers of Beelzebub the chief captaine of the
Divels.”

The plantings of the Queen in the commissions of her Justices thus
instigated and encouraged, produced an abundant crop. According to
the Dedications of Scot, Sir Roger Manwood, Lord Chief Baron of the
Exchequer, had had “in these causes such experience”, _A_ ii. v., while
Sir Thomas Scot, as Justice of the Peace, had also had “manie poore
old women convented before him for ... witchcraft”, _A._ vi. Various
booklets also, presently to be spoken of more at large, excited still
more the imaginations of a credulous people, and it had been supposed,
before Scot wrote, as will be seen on p. 473, and in my note on that
page, that the Queen’s person had been aimed at in that way.

It thus appears that though Scot may have been brought up in a
traditional but little-regarded belief in witchcraft, he, when he was
at least thirty-four, was not only unprepared, but startled, to witness
and take part in this new departure from justice and mercy. Witchcraft,
chiefly looked on as useful in discovering things lost, or in bringing
a wished-for sweetheart to return the love of the seeker, or in curing
ailments simple or grievous, became feared, reviled, and sought out:
sought out by Commission of the Queen, sought out by the people as a
great and fearful evil rapidly overspreading the land, and able and
willing, like the Plague and Black Death, to count its victims by
thousands, and from the cottage to the throne itself. He, a man both
intelligent and compassionate, sees poor, old, decrepit creatures eking
out a miserable livelihood by begging an occasional dole from their
better off neighbours; ill-tempered by age and condition, and therefore
abusive when refused such dole, or on slighter causes, sometimes
perhaps through old knowledge or superstition, but probably more often
for the sake of gain, pretending to be wise above what is known; he
sees these accused of selling their souls for the sake of such a
position in the world, he hears them accused sometimes of foul, more
frequently of unlikely, crimes and acts, nay, such as an unprejudiced
common sense must laugh at, while the evidence is nearly always so
faulty that, were the accusation a different one, it would be at once
turned inside out and thrown aside. Unfortunately, too, some of these
old women being more or less mad, and others driven through fear on the
one hand, or through promised favour on the other, confess themselves
capable of doing these things, though any man of sense and observation
could detect their state or motives. Luckily, too, he had had close to
him, and in his wife’s family, the known and talked-of imposture of the
Holy Maid of Kent; and in his own time and close to his own door, the
case of the Pythonist of Westwell, at first carried out triumphantly,
and then, on her own confession and her re-acted acts, branded as an
impostor, like the Holy Maid. The Dutchman, too, at Maidstone, after
being set forth as a worker of miracles and an exorcist, was found to
be a rogue; and “manie other such miracles had beene latelie printed,
whereof diverse had beene bewraied.” He had taken part also—apparently
as one engaged for the defence—in that piece of folly called the trial
of Margaret Simons, and knew the history of Ade Davie, and of her
restoration to sanity without exorcism, hanging, or burning.

Is it not natural that his suspicions, and more than suspicions,
should have been aroused, and that he should have been thus led to
take up the whole subject seriously? One who had given himself up, as
Wood says, to reading and thought as well as to healthy and useful
exercise, must have sought for and obtained books on either side of
the subject, and in especial the known book of Wier; and thoughtful
reading of these, and meditation must have led him to extend his views,
and gather them into a harmonious and consistent whole. Meanwhile,
however, the bloodthirsty superstition daily increased, and there were
published first, the mad book or books of Richard Gallis—spoken of in
pp. 132-3—of the witches at Windsor, now, I believe, unfortunately
lost, where, among other things, he narrates how, at a Sabbath meeting,
he had a hand-to-hand encounter with the devil, and wounded him so
sore that he stank of brimstone; and in 1582, there took place the
wholesale condemnation of the poor old women of St. Osees, thirteen
I believe of whom were hanged. There had been no such condemnation
before in England. It is not unlikely that he himself witnessed their
condemnation—see pp. xxv-vi. So unusual was it, that—as I cannot but
believe on other evidence, as stated in my noting on Macbeth—a ballad
was written on it, which became very commonly known, and was remembered
as late as 1606. This same unusual breadth of punishment also created
so much attention that Justice Brian Darcie thought it worth while to
set forth in print, not the trial, but the depositions taken before
him, and thus inform a too ignorant public that he and he alone was the
primary cause of such a purification.

These facts, and especially this last, aroused, I believe, Scot’s
compassion and indignation, and made both find vent in printed words.
And besides these likelihoods, including that of date, there are two
at first sight seemingly contradictory facts, which made themselves
manifest to me when I first carefully read the book, and before I
had formed any opinion on their causes, and which are on this view
reconciled. These facts are, that while the plan which he has adopted,
and his facts and conclusions, seem to have been deliberately sought
out, thought over, and canvassed, there are evidences throughout of
a feverous haste of composition, such feverous haste as the above
spoken of emotions would excite in a man like Scot, who had witnessed
so horrible and so bloody a perversion of justice. The proof of the
first fact I leave to be observed by the intelligent reader; but while
the second must also be observed by him, it is needful, to the full
exposition of my argument, that I should collect in one view most at
least of the details. This haste is evidenced in some of his corrected
errata, but more in those that he did not correct. Thus we have,
on p. 174, a curious slip, by which Pharaoh becomes a Persian, and
Nebuchadnezzar takes Pharaoh’s place as an Egyptian king, for other
parts of the book prove conclusively that this was an unintentional
lapsus, and one a second time overlooked when the book was re-read
before the title-page and the preliminary leaves were set up. Similar
are his errors as to Haias and Sedaias, for at one time he speaks of
Rabbi Sedaias Haias, repeating it also at the last when he gives his
“forren authors” consulted, and between these speaks of them as two
persons, as they were. More especially would I call attention to his
blunders as to Argerius Ferrerius. He quotes him—yet he is always
Ferr_a_rius—five times in his text, twice in his table of contents, and
once in his “authors used”. So in his translation from him, the “s” of
“verbis” being indistinct in some copies, he read the word as “verbi”,
and thereby translated the sentence into such unmistakable nonsense
that this alone should have shown him his error. So, also, we have the
senseless, because careless, rendering of the sword in hand passage,
p. 257; and with these may be classed his adoption of T. R.’s curious
mistranslations from Wier’s _Pseudomonarchia_, or from another copy of
the _Empto. Salomonis_, for a moment’s consideration would have shown
him their absurdity, and led him to turn to Wier. In p. 19 also, we
find “infants” where, as stated in my note, all the editions of the
_Mal. Malef._ in the British Museum have “infames”; and this, though a
slip of memory, betokens, when taken with the rest, overhaste. These
slips, in an ordinary writer, would lead to another conclusion, but not
in this case, where we have evidence of both ordinary and recondite
knowledge, of conclusions tried by actual experiment, of a quick and
intelligent perception, and of what may be called, in a good sense,
a ready and acute subtlety in refuting or retorting allegations or
objections.

Our author’s indebtedness to Cornelius Agrippa and to Wier has, in a
great measure, been anticipated in what has been said; but a few words
may here be added. Casually coming across their books when he became a
reader of out-of-the-way works, he did not become a follower of theirs,
and then write a book, as the disciples of Pythagoras wrote books to
expound and hand down the doctrines of their master. Wier had written
a book against witchcraft, and a clear and comprehensive book. But
while Scot certainly followed Wier in point of time, and as certainly
was much indebted to him for the perfecting of his book, yet, as I
have said, Scot seems to have taken up his belief against the reality
of witchcraft from what he in his own experience had witnessed; and
my view, that he was then led to read Wier and Cornelius Agrippa, and
the writers on the other side, seems to me confirmed by what we find
as to his indebtedness to Wier. The “Notings on Wier” show that, while
he copied him in some other instances, he borrowed from him mainly
a long list of illustrations, some of which even he may have drawn
independently from the same sources as did Wier.

_Bibliography._—We do not find an entry of Scot’s _Hoppe-garden_ in the
Stationers’ Registers, because the entries about 1574 are wanting. But
why do we not find so large and important a book as the _Witchcraft_
of 1584 so entered, the writer being of a family of no mean repute,
and the head of his house, Sir Th. Scot, being in those days a man
of some mark? The answer, after what has been said, is simple. He
upheld and defended a heresy, the existence and diabolical powers and
practices of witches being believed in and guarded against, by the
Queen, the bishops, and the people. Hence the reply of the Stationers’
Company would most certainly have been—the same as in more trifling
cases—“provided he shall get the bishop of London his alowance to
yt”, words which, under the circumstances, would have been a refusal,
and a refusal which, had any steps been taken against him after its
publication, would have told against him. Hence he resolved to print
it, taking all the blame and responsibility on his own shoulders, no
stationer’s name being connected with it, and the name of the printer
appearing only at the end of the book, without date or place of
address—“Imprinted at London by | _William Brome_.” And here, by the
way, it may be mentioned that though called in catalogues a quarto, its
signatures are in eights. As before stated, both Thomas Ady and Anthony
à Wood tell us that it “did for a time make great impressions on the
Magistracy and Clergy”, and that it did so generally is shown by the
appearance of Webster’s, Ady’s, and other books on the same side, and
those of Gifford, Perkins, and others, on the other, including King
James, who, in 1597, issued his _Dæmonologie_ specially against it.
Whether Elizabeth or the authorities under her took any notice of it is
doubtful, for, as I have said, he was still an Esquire in 1587; and the
last words of his will, “for greate is the trouble my poor wief hath
had with me, and small is the comforte she hath receyved at my hands”,
and his designation of himself as “gent.”, point rather to a voluntary
surrender of his office, through weakness and ill-health, than to a
dismissal.

But zeal for the truth, as he believed it, combined with his fears for
himself, for he believed that he had been the object of witchcraft and
of the machinations of the evil powers more than once, though luckily
in vain, led the royal author on the other side to cause Scot’s book to
be burned by the common hangman; and, as is also said by Cole, not one
copy alone, as significant of its character, and of its being a _liber
prohibitus_ in the eyes of this Protestant Pope, but as many as could
be laid hands upon. While, too, I have as yet found no direct proof
of this latter statement, it is perhaps in some degree confirmatory
of it, that no copies of the book exist in the library of St. Paul’s
Cathedral, nor in that of Lambeth Palace, nor in that of Sion College.
To the same cause is most likely due the exceedingly neat copy of
various chapters, and parts of chapters, contained in the Sloane MS.,
ff. 2189, in the British Museum, its date according to the experts
there being _circa_ 1620. At one time I had suspected that these
extracts had been made with the intent of writing a book either for or
against the truth of witchcraft; but the methodical neatness of all but
the first two or three pages, the manner in which the typographical
form of the book is followed, the consecutive, though broken manner, in
which the extracts follow one another, the absence of any word or any
sign of remark or comment throughout, now cause me to hold that it was
a copy made by or for one who took such portions as he wished from a
book otherwise inaccessible.

Turning back to this burning, I would say also that I have not come
across any English contemporary, or even early statement as to it, much
less as to its date. Perhaps, however, without much fear of error, we
may suppose it to have been done immediately after the Act against
witches, passed in the first year of James’s reign. By it the Act 5
Eliz. was repealed, and any conjuration, etc., of an evil spirit was
made a crime punishable by death as a felon, the culprit losing all
benefit of clergy and sanctuary. The finding of treasure by magical
means, provoking to unlawful love, or destroying of cattle, was for
the first offence to bring with it imprisonment for one year, standing
in the pillory once a quarter for six hours, and confessing his crime,
as in the Act repealed; and for the second offence death as a felon,
though the dowry and the heirship were not attainted. This Act itself
shows how strong were James’s convictions in the matter, as does the
publication in London of his _Dæmonologie_ in the same year, it being
entered on the Stationers’ Registers on the 3rd April 1603. Scot’s book
was therefore against James’s belief, and the esteem in which it was
held against his own powers as a reasoner and author. While, however,
so far as I can find, we owe the knowledge of this burning to a German
source, its extreme likelihood is corroborated by what I have said,
that James’s belief in witchcraft was with him an undoubted Article of
Faith, and by the fact that various books, known and unknown, were at
different times publicly burnt during his reign, though no official
records of these burnings have been preserved.

Cole, as quoted in Bliss’s edition of the _Athen. Oxon._, gives the
account as made by Thomasius de crimine magiæ, a book which I believe
does not exist. There is a Thesis inaugaralis de crimine magiæ
submitted in 1701 by Johan Reiche to the Regia Academia Fredericiana
... præside D. Christiano Thomasio. But Reiche refers to an earlier
writer—“Gisberti Voetii | Theologiæ in Acad. Ultrajectina Professoris
| Selectarum | Disputationum | Theologicarum, | Pars Tertia. | ... |
Ultrajecti, | Ex Officina Johannis à Waesberge, | Anno CIↃ IↃ C LIX, |”
which says, p. 564:

“... _Reginaldus Scot_ nobilis Anglus magiæ crimen aperte negavit, & ex
professo oppugnavit, omnes ejus mirabiles effectus aut ad melancoliam,
aliosve naturales morbos, aut ad artem, industriam, & agilitatem
hominum figmentis & præstigiis suis illudentium, aut ad stolidas
imaginationes, dictorum magorum, aut ad vanas nugas & fictiones
eorundem magorum referens. Ejus _liber_ tit. _Discoverie of Withcraft_
[_sic_] in Anglia combustus est; quem nominatim etiam perstringit
Sereniss. Magnæ Briantniæ [_sic_] _Rex Jacobus in Dæmonologia_, eumque
tangit diffusissimæ eruditionis Theologus _Johannes Raynoldus, in cens.
lib. Apocryph. tom._ 2 _prælect._ 169. In eundem, sed innominatum
calamum strinxit eximius & subacti judicii Theologus, _Guilelm.
Perkinsus in tractatu de Bascanologia_. _Pars libri_ istius _Reginaldi
Scot elenctica_ (nam reliqua in editione Anglicana conjurationes
continebat,) in Belgicum idioma translata est, ante annos aliquot Lugd.
Batav. per Thomam Basson: ex illius libri lectione, seu fonte perenni,
non pauci ab illo tempore docti & indocti in Belgio fluctuare, & de
Magia σκεωτικιζειν ac λιβερτινιζειν (ut Libertinis & Semilibertinis
infesta est patria nostra) quin eo ignorantiæ sæpe prolabi, ut non
iniquè illis applicari potuerit, quod Sereniss. _Rex Jacobus in
Dæmonologiâ_ subdito suo Reginaldo Scot: _esse quasi novos Sadduccæos_:
cum omnes diabolorum operationes & apparitiones suaviter exibilant:
tanquam anicularum, aut superstitionis meticulosæ phantasmata ac
sabellas. Sunt & alii, sed pessimi magiæ patroni, qui ad Deum & divina
charismata seu gratias gratis datas, aut ad angelos bonos, operationes
magicas referunt.”

Dr. W. N. du Rieu, Librarian of the University of Leyden, kindly
informs me, that a translation into Dutch, “omitting some formulæ
of malediction and other matters which would more interest English
readers,” was made and edited by Th. Basson, an English stationer
living at Leyden in 12mo in 1609. It was undertaken at the instigation
of the professors of law and history, and its dedication, dated 10th
January 1609, was to the Curators of the University, and to the
burgomasters of Leyden. A second and corrected edition, published by
his son, G. Basson, was also printed at Leyden in 1637, though the
dedication is dated 8th May 1637, Amsterdam.

Though in various of the notes the passages have been spoken of, yet to
call attention to the matter, and in the hope that others may be more
successful, I would add that I have not discovered the principle on
which he went, nor his authorities, for his Scripture readings. In his
Latin quotations he generally quotes the Vulgate, twice or thrice Beza,
or Beza varied, while at other times he goes by some other translation,
or possibly makes it himself. So his long English quotation, p. 284,
is not taken from Wycliffe’s, Tyndale’s, Cranmer’s, Coverdale’s,
Matthews’, or from the Genevan, Bishops’, or Rheims versions, though
more like the Genevan, while, curiously enough, it precedes the one of
1611 by one or two verbal coincidences. Hence, I believe that he varied
the Genevan version according to his own views and taste, and am the
more inclined to this in that the passage is not in Italics, the then
type and mark of quotations, but in Romans.

Notwithstanding, however, the decree that had gone forth, and,
notwithstanding the strange Sadducean assertion, not argument, set
forth by James, and followed by John Rainolds, D.D., in his work on the
Apocrypha (_tom._ ii, 1032), and by Gisbert Voet, the book’s inherent
excellency, as reported by Ady, and as evidenced by the notices of
it in the various books on either side that afterwards came forth,
and in part, perhaps, through that decree itself, called for its
reproduction; and in 1651 it was issued with a new title-page, though
naturally it was again not entered on the Stationers’ Registers. This
time it was really—as evidenced by the signatures—a quarto. The text
was one and the same with that printed off by Richard Cotes; but
there were three issues, and three slightly different title-pages.
The first bears—LONDON | Printed by _Richard Cotes_. 1651. The second
has—_Printed by_ R. C. _and are to be sold by_ Giles Calvert, _dwelling
at the | Black Spread-Eagle at the West-end of_ Pauls. 1651. And except
for these final words, separated on both title-pages by a line from the
rest, both are word for word, and even to the misprint “superstions”
identical. The explanation, in all probability, if not certainty, being
that my “first” one was the first issue, when the publisher thought
it more prudent to withhold his name; the other, a second issue of
copies still called for, when, finding no ill results, he had become
bolder. The third has below the line spoken of: _London_ | Printed
by E. [not R.] Cotes and are to be sold by Thomas Williams at the |
Bible in _Little Britain_ 1654. In this “SCOTS” is printed without the
apostrophe, “men”, “women”, and “children”, as also “treatise”, have
capital initials; on both occasions it has “Devils”, not “Divels”;
and the last line but one above the dividing line ends “De-” not
“Divels”, and “superstions” is rightly printed “superstitions”. These
variations in the title-page, and the exact conformity of the text as
to the various peculiarities of the letters, words, and sizes of the
punctuation, show that Williams had come into possession of Calvert’s
remainder, or of his set-up type, and had issued these sheets,
prefixing a new title-page of his own, printed by E. Cotes.

There is not the slightest evidence of a copy of the 1584 edition
having been prepared for the press, beyond the new title-page, and on
two occasions the translation of Latin, that Scot had not—as he had
done in similar instances—translated. The Latin-named ingredients on
p. 184 are Englished, and I have thus been enabled to give them in my
notings with the more probability that they are correct. The second
instance is, as stated in my margin, on p. 416. Two or three press
errors are corrected, one of them not a certain emendation, and all
within the competency of an ordinary compositor or reader; but no
others, not even that of “increase” for “incense”, p. 446, while fresh
errors, indicative of a careless “reader”, are made.

What has been thus said as to the character of this second reprint,
goes to prove that it was a publisher’s venture based upon the demand
for the book, and, therefore, for gain, and one which he carried out
spite of its having been burnt, and placed among the “prohibited
books”. In like manner, and for the like purpose, and as before,
without entry in the Stationers’ Registers, there was brought out
the third, and so-called folio edition of 1665, though the sheets
are in sixes. All but the title-page, which, curiously enough, was
again re-written, though still bearing, like the second, the words,
“By Reginald Scot Esquire”; it is a careless reprint of that second,
with all its errors, and new ones superadded. But as a novelty and
inducement to buy, nine chapters, commencing the fifteenth book, and a
second book of the “Discourse on Devils and Spirits”, were added by an
anonymous author. Who this anonymity was, I have uselessly spent some
little time in inquiring, time that might have been better employed,
even had I found him. But it goes to prove that these additions were
merely made for novelty’s sake, and its glamour and gain, in that
the writer was a believer in, and not improbably, from his minute
directions, as well as from his reticence, a practiser of witchcraft,
or of what he thought to be witchcraft. He also, and I give this as one
possible clue, was a strong believer in the perishable Astral spirit
of a man, as well as of Astral spirits in general, and much of his
“Discourse” is taken up with remarks on these.

I may here add, as showing the carelessness with which these second and
third editions were edited, a note of the errata marked in the first
and not corrected in them.

75, 21. “We,” so the second; in the third the (,) is rightly placed
after “years”. A correction that could have been made by the least
intelligent of “readers”.

168, 31. “Earth _read_ firmament.” Not corrected.

247, 29. “Write _add_ it.” Not corrected.

269, 16. “If there be masses _delete_ If.” Retained, but the second
attempts to correct by inserting “no” before “masses”, and the third
follows suit, though it is as nonsensical as before.

463, 16. “Their business _read_ that business.” Not corrected.

Beyond these, the limited edition now printed is the only other known
to me. As stated in the preface, it is a reprint of the first edition,
with some slight alterations in the lettering, but not in the spelling.
Besides the few errata that have been found and recorded, the small
heading on its left hand pages up to p. 24 is “Chap. —”, like that on
the right hand, instead of being “1 or 2 Booke”. So also in
the earlier pages, the marginal references, though correct, are not
printed line for line with the original. The pictorial initial letters
of the first chapter of each book occupy in the original almost a
third of the page. The first word of a chapter has only its first two
letters—including its pictorial letter—in capitals, but the remainder,
as well as the rest of the first line, is in larger type than the
rest. The original being also in black letter was enabled to use both
Romans and Italics as variants, whereas the reprint could only use
Italics. The rule of the original is, however, in general very simple.
“The — Chapter”, the contents of the chapter and proper names are in
Romans; “The — Booke” and quotations in Italics; the translations of
quotations in Romans. Wherever there can be any doubt the type of the
original is marked in the margin, as are occasional uses by the author
of [] to distinguish them from the editor’s use of the same. It may be
added that “The — Chapter”, and the contents of the chapter, have been
transposed. The V like arrangement of the lines at the end of a chapter
have not been followed, but been imitated according to the spirit in
which they were employed; for, after an investigation made for the
purpose, it was found that they do not indicate a division of the text
or matter, but were simply compositors’ devices to fill up a page when
that page either ended a book, or when its blank space did not allow
of the commencement of a new chapter. Similarly, on one page, a (∵)
was added to complete the page. And, in like manner, if there was still
space at the end of a book, an engraving was inserted. I would add
that all the page references that I make are to the pages of the 1584
edition.

I had collected for an appendix various grammatical peculiarities of
the age; but they increased the number of pages, and therefore the
price of the book, without, as seemed to me, sufficient cause, more
especially as the reader can readily consult Dr. Abbot’s _Shakesperian
Grammar_, as well as notices in other books. One point, however, ought
to be attended to. Though an educated and University man, accustomed to
Latin and Greek, he, like all of his time, followed the then frequent
habit of using singular verbs after plural nominatives not immediately
preceding them. A close examination of these, both in Scot and Greene,
another literate and Utriusque Academiæ in Artibus Magister; and one
notable one in Ben Jonson, who elsewhere, so far as I know, avoids this
error; as well as those in Shakespeare and others, have shown me that
they cannot be explained as is sought in Dr. Abbot’s _Shakesperian
Grammar_, § 333, where the form of the verb is held to be a remnant of
the northern early English third person plural in “s”. The instances
alone of the auxiliary verbs so used set this theory aside, and show
that the custom was due to carelessness, habit, the remoteness or after
position of the true nominatives, and to the nearness of another word,
sometimes even to a transposed objective; or of a “that” or “which”
that had the look of a singular, or in the case of a double nominative,
to both words being considered as implying one thought, as indeed they
often did, being merely synonyms. Our Elizabethan ancestors would
have said: “Pity and compassion moves me,” because they held pity
and compassion were one and the same; and the habit of using Saxon
and Latin, or other synonyms, led them to use the same construction
when the meanings were but allied. This seems to me the more likely
explanation: but the reader may prefer this—that our ancestors took the
phrase to be elliptical, and that the verb really employed after both
substantives was to be understood after the first and before the “and”.

_Contemporary Notices of Scot._—Of strictly contemporary notices, I
know of but two. In Nash’s _Four Letters Confuted_, 1593, he asks, ed.
Grosart, ii, 252: “How is the _Supplication_ a diabolicall Discourse,
otherwise than as it intreats of the diverse natures and properties
of Divels and spirits? in that far fetcht sense may the famous
_defensative against supposed Prophecies_, and _the Discoverie of
Witchcraft_ be called notorious Diabolicall discourses, as well as the
_Supplication_, for they also intreate of the illusions and sundrie
operations of spirits.” The second is in Gabriel Harvey’s _Pierce’s
Supererogation_, 1593, ed. Grosart, ii, 291: “Scottes discoovery of
Witchcraft, dismasketh sundry egregious impostures, and in certaine
principall Chapters, & speciall passages, hitteth the nayle on the head
with a witnesse: howsoever I could have wished, [G. H. is nothing if
he be not quasi-critical and emending] he had either dealt somewhat
more curteously with Monsieur Bodine, or cōfuted him somewhat more
effectually.”

Of course, various of the after-writers on witchcraft, whichever
side they took, either spoke of him explicitly, or alluded to him;
Webster, Wagstaffe, Ady, and others, on the same side as Scot, and
Meric Casaubon, Cotta, etc., ending with Glanvil on the other. But
these, the really curious in such matters may be left to search out
for themselves. Only I would like to mention John Deacon’s and John
Walker’s _Dialogicall Discourses of ... Devils_ [etc.], 1601, both
because they, being clergymen, had the boldness—besides adding new
arguments of their own, and though their wording is somewhat less
decided than their own evident belief—out of three explanations of the
case of the Witch of Endor which they set before the reader, to plainly
prefer Scot’s view of her ventriloquism, both naming him in the text,
and giving the reference to his page in their margin; and secondly,
because so far as a hasty look enables one to give an opinion, they
spoke more rationally on magical and other points than one would at
that date expect. They also quote the opinion of Hippocrates on magical
cures, as given by Scot, p. 450, and show that they take it, though
not literally, from him, and not from Hippocrates directly, by giving
a reference to Scot in the margin. Afterwards they published in 1603,
a second large work, _A summarie_[?] _answer to John Darrell_, the
first work having been also suggested by the same impostor, and his
setting forth of himself as a caster out of devils.

I have said on p. _xxii_ that the discovery of Scot’s name in the
Subsidy Rolls for 1586 and 1587 with the affix of “Armiger” was for me
an important find. And now I would explain that it was so, inasmuch
as it set my mind at rest as to the oneness of the Raynold of the
_Hoppe-garden_ with the Reginald Scot Esquire, of the _Witchcraft_.
Aware that Reynold and Reginald were variants of one name, used of
and by the same person, the following facts hindered me for a long
time from accepting the common belief that the Raynold and Reginald
of these two works were one and the same. First, the author of the
_Hoppe-garden_ in each of his signatures to the editions of 1574-6-8,
three in each, appears as Raynold. In the marriage entry, in the
pay-account of the Kent forces, in the Muster-roll, and in the Will,
it is also Raynold. But in 1584, throughout the _Witchcraft_, that is,
four times in all, the name appears as Reginald. Secondly, in the Will
of 1599, in accordance with the want of any title on the title-page
of the _Hoppe-garden_, he describes himself as “gent”, and in the
Inquisitio p. m., though he is called Reginald, the document being in
Latin, he is, as in his Will, “generosus”. But in the title-page of
the _Witchcraft_, he is Reginald Scot Esquire. The finding no evidence
of the separate existence of a Raynold and a Reginald, the frequent
references to the Scriptures in the _Witchcraft_, and the very frequent
references to the Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, in the “Address to the
Reader” of the _Hoppe-garden_, the use in both works, as already
quoted, of certain legal phrases, and the occurrence in the prefatory
part of the _Hoppe-garden_ of “with the licour (or rather the lucre)”,
and “condemne the man, or rather the mynde”, a trick of language not
unfrequently repeated in the _Discoverie_, a trick resulting from his
love of irony, shook my doubts. But there were still, the want of any
title after the name in the _Hoppe-garden_, the “gent” of the Will,
and the “generosus” of the Inquisitio, as against the “Esquire” of the
_Discoverie_. First, however, Hunter’s suggestion, that his esquireship
was due to his having been appointed a Justice of the Peace, and then
the discovery of armiger after his name, have removed all reasonable
doubts; and to turn our belief to a positive certainty, it only remains
to discover that he was a Justice of the Peace.

Possibly the reader may now expect some pages on Scot’s style as a
writer, and on his claim—his claim, yet not one made by himself—to be
considered an English classic. But, besides that, I am not “greatly
æsthetic”, and besides having expressed my opinions in more than
one place in this Introduction, I think that any reader, with any
appreciation of style, and of the manner in which an argument ought to
be carried out, can come to but one conclusion. Such belief, I may add,
is strengthened by this, that most writers whom I have consulted are
of this opinion: and I would conclude with three quotations, chiefly
regarding the way in which he carried out his argument. The Rev. Jos.
Hunter, in his MS. _Chorus Vatum_, ch. v, says: “In fact, I had no
notion of the admirable character of this book till I read it this
September 1839. It is one of the few instances in which a bold spirit
opposes himself to the popular belief, and seeks to throw protection
over a class of the defenceless. In my opinion, he ought to stand very
prominent in any catalogue of Persons who have been public benefactors.”

“To answer his argument was wholly impossible, and though the
publication of his book did not put an end to the notion which
continued very prevalent for a century afterwards [though we know from
Ady that it greatly checked the belief for a time], yet it had, I have
no doubt, much to do with the silent and gradual extinction of it.”

So D’Israeli, in his _Amenities of Literature_, has these words: “A
single volume sent forth from the privacy of a retired student, by its
silent influence may mark an epoch in the history of the human mind.”

“Such a volume was _The Discoverie of Witchcraft_, by Reginald Scot,
a singular work, which may justly claim the honour in this country of
opening that glorious career which is dear to humanity and fatal to
imposture.”

Thirdly, Professor W. T. Gairdner, M.D. and LL.D., thus speaks, in his
address on “Insanity: Modern Views as to its Nature and Treatment”,
read before the Glasgow Medico-Chirurgical Society: “But I cannot
leave it [witchcraft] ... without expressing, more strongly than even
Mr. Lecky does, the unqualified admiration and surprise which arise
in the mind on finding that in 1584 ... there was at least one man in
England ... who could scan the whole field of demonology, and all its
terrible results in history, with an eye as clear from superstition,
and a judgment as sound and unwavering in its opposition to abuses, as
that of Mr. Lecky himself. There is only one book, so far as I know, in
any language, written in the sixteenth or even the seventeenth century,
that merits this praise: and it is a book which, notwithstanding its
wide human interest, its great and solid learning, and a charming
English style that makes it most readable, even at the present day,
has never been reprinted for two hundred years, and is therefore
extremely inaccessible to most readers. Reginald Scot’s _Discoverie of
Witchcraft_ ... stands brightly out amid the darkness of its own and
the succeeding age, as a perfectly unique example of sagacity amounting
to genius.” He adds: “Nothing, however, is more evident than that Scot,
however indebted to Wier (and both of them, probably, to Cornelius
Agrippa ...), was far in advance of either in the clearness of his
views and the unwavering steadiness of his leanings to the side of
humanity and justice.”

————————————


NOTE.—_The italic numerals in the side margins denote the
pages of the first, the ordinary numbers those of the second
edition._




The diſcouerie
of witchcraft,
Wherein the lewde dealing of witches
_and witchmongers is notablie detected, the_
knauerie of coniurors, the impietie of inchan-
_tors, the follie of ſoothſaiers, the impudent falſ_-
hood of couſenors, the infidelitie of atheiſts,
_the peſtilent practiſes of Pythoniſts, the_
curioſitie of figurecaſters, the va-
_nitie of dreamers, the begger_-
lie art of Alcu-
myſtrie,

The abhomination of idolatrie, the hor-
_rible art of poiſoning, the vertue and power of_
naturall magike, and all the conueiances
_of Legierdemaine and iuggling are deciphered:_
and many other things opened, which
_haue long lien hidden, howbeit_
verie neceſſarie to
be knowne.

Heerevnto is added a treatiſe vpon the
_nature and ſubſtance of ſpirits and diuels_,
&c: all latelie written
_by Reginald Scot_
Eſquire.

1. Iohn. 4, 1.
_Beleeue not euerie ſpirit, but trie the ſpirits, whether they are
of God; for manie falſe prophets are gone
out into the world, &c._

1584


+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
|**********************************************************************|
|*+------------------------------------------------------------------+*|
|*| SCOT’S |*|
|*| Diſcovery of VVitchcraft: |*|
|*| |*|
|*| PROVING |*|
|*| The common opinions of Witches con- |*|
|*| tracting with Divels, Spirits, or Familiars; and |*|
|*| their power to kill, torment, and conſume the bodies of |*|
|*| men women, and children, or other creatures by diſeaſes |*|
|*| or otherwiſe; their flying in the Air, &c. To be but imaginary |*|
|*| Erronious conceptions and novelties; |*|
|*| |*|
|*| WHEREIN ALSO, |*|
|*| |*|
|*| The lewde unchriſtian practiſes of Witchmongers, upon aged, |*|
|*| melancholy, ignorant, and ſuperſtious people in extorting con- |*|
|*| feſſions, by inhumane terrors and tortures is notably detected. |*|
|*| |*|
|*| { The knavery and confederacy of Conjurors. |*|
|*| { The impious blaſphemy of Inchanters. |*|
|*| { The impoſture of Soothſayers, and Infidelity of Atheiſts. |*|
|*| { The deluſion of Pythoniſts, Figure-caſters, Aſtrologers, |*|
|*| ALSO { and vanity of Dreamers. |*|
|*| { The fruitleſſe beggerly art of Alchimiſtry. |*|
|*| { The horrible art of Poiſoning and all the tricks and |*|
|*| { conveyances of juggling and Liegerdemain are fully |*|
|*| { deciphered. |*|
|*| |*|
|*| With many other things opened that have long lain hidden: |*|
|*| though very neceſſary to be known for the undeceiving of |*|
|*| Judges, Juſtices, and Juries, and for the preſervation |*|
|*| of poor, aged, deformed, ignorant people; frequently |*|
|*| taken, arraigned, condemned and executed for Witches, |*|
|*| when according to a right underſtanding, and a good |*|
|*| conſcience, Phyſick, Food, and neceſſaries should |*|
|*| be adminiſtred to them. |*|
|*| |*|
|*| Whereunto is added, a treatiſe upon the nature, and ſubſtance |*|
|*| of Spirits and Divels, &c. all written and publiſhed in |*|
|*| _Anno_ 1584. by _Reginald Scot_, Eſquire. |*|
|*| ---------------------------------------------------------------- |*|
|*| _LONDON_, |*|
|*| Printed by _Richard Cotes_. 1651. |*|
|*+------------------------------------------------------------------+*|
|**********************************************************************|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+


Size, Fol., 10¼ in. × 6⅛.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
|+--------------------------------------------------------------------+|
|| 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. ||
|| ||
|| And the Knavery of _Juglers_, _Conjurers_, _Charmers_, ||
|| _Soothſayers_, _Figure⸗Caſters_, _Dreamers_, _Alchymiſts_ and ||
|| _Philterers_; with many other things that have long ||
|| lain hidden, fully Opened and Deciphered. ||
|| ||
|| _ALL WHICH_ ||
|| Are very neceſſary to be known for the undeceiving of _Judges_, ||
|| _Juſtices_, and _Jurors_, before they paſs Sentence upon Poor, ||
|| Miſerable and Ignorant People; who are frequenly Arraigned, ||
|| Condemned, and Executed for _Witches_ and _Wizzards_. ||
|| ||
|| _IN SIXTEEN BOOKS._ ||
|| ------------------------------------------------------------------ ||
|| _By_ REGINALD SCOT _Eſquire_. ||
|| ------------------------------------------------------------------ ||
|| 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_, as Succedaneous to the _former_, ||
|| and conducing to the compleating of the _Whole Work_: ||
|| With _Nine Chapters_ at the beginning of the _Fifteenth.[*] Book_ ||
|| of the _D I S C O V E R Y_. ||
|| ------------------------------------------------------------------ ||
|| _LONDON_: ||
|| Printed for _A. Clark_, and are to be ſold by _Dixy Page_ at the ||
|| _Turks-Head_ in _Cornhill_ near the _Royall Exchange_, 1665. ||
|+--------------------------------------------------------------------+|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+

[*] [_Sic._]




The Epistle

_To the Honorable, mine especiall good_
Lord, Sir Roger Manwood Knight, Lord
_cheefe Baron of hir Majesties Court_
of the Eschequer.


Insomuch as I know that your Lordship is by nature whollie inclined,
and in purpose earnestly bent to releeve the poore, and that not
onlie with hospitalitie and almes, but by diverse other devises and
waies tending to their comfort, having (as it were) framed and set
your selfe to the helpe and maintenance of their estate; as appeareth
by your charge and travell in that behalfe. Whereas also you have a
speciall care for the supporting of their right, and redressing of
their wrongs, as neither despising their calamitie, nor yet forgetting
their complaint, seeking all meanes for their amendement, and for the
reformation of their disorders, even as a verie father to the poore.
Finallie, for that I am a poore member of that commonwelth, where
your Lordship is a principall person; I thought this my travell, in
the behalfe of the poore, the aged, and the simple, might be verie
fitlie commended unto you: for a weake house requireth a strong staie.
In which respect I give God thanks, that hath raised up unto me so
mightie a freend for them as your Lordship is, who in our lawes have
such knowledge, in government such discretion, in these causes such
experience, and in the commonwealth such authoritie; and neverthelesse
vouchsafe to descend to the consideration of these base and inferior
matters, which minister more care and trouble, than worldlie estimation.

And in somuch as your Lordship knoweth, or rather exerciseth the office
of a judge, whose part it is to heare with courtesie, and to determine
with equitie; it cannot but be apparent unto you, that when punishment
exceedeth the fault, it is rather to be thought vengeance than
correction. In which respect I knowe you spend more time and travell in
the conversion and reformation, than in the subversion & confusion of
offenders, as being well pleased to augment your owne private paines,
to the end you may diminish their publike smart. For in truth, that
commonwealth remaineth in wofull state, where fetters and halters beare
more swaie than mercie and due compassion.

Howbeit, it is naturall to unnaturall people, and peculiar unto
witchmongers, to pursue the poore, to accuse the simple, and to kill
the innocent; supplieng in rigor and malice towards others, that which
they themselves want in proofe and discretion, or the other in offense
or occasion. But as a cruell hart and an honest mind doo seldome meete
and feed togither in a dish; so a discreet and mercifull magistrate,
and a happie commonwealth cannot be separated asunder. How much then
are we bound to God, who hath given us a Queene, that of justice is not
only the very perfect image & paterne; but also of mercie & clemencie
(under God) the meere fountaine & bodie it selfe? In somuch as they
which hunt most after bloud in these daies, have least authoritie to
shed it. Moreover, sith I see that in cases where lenitie might be
noisome, & punishment wholesome to the commonwealth; there no respect
of person can move you, no authoritie can abash you, no feare, no
threts can daunt you in performing the dutie of justice.

In that respect againe I find your Lordship a fit person, to judge and
looke upon this present treatise. Wherein I will bring before you, as
it were to the barre, two sorts of most arrogant and wicked people, the
first challenging to themselves, the second attributing unto others,
that power which onelie apperteineth to God,[a] who onelie is the
Creator of all things,[b] who onelie searcheth the heart and reines,
who onelie[c] knoweth our imaginations and thoughts, who onelie[d]
openeth all secrets, who[e] onelie worketh great wonders, who onelie
hath power[f] to raise up & cast downe; who onelie maketh thunder,
lightning, raine, tempests, and restraineth them at his pleasure; who
onelie[g] sendeth life and death, sicknesse & health, wealth and wo;
who neither giveth nor lendeth his[h] glorie to anie creature.

♦[a] Apoc. 4, 11.♦

♦[b] Rom. 8.
Acts. 5.
Apoc. 2.♦

♦[c] Luke. 16.♦

♦[d] Dan. 2. & 28, & 47.♦

♦[e] Psalm. 72. & 136.
Jer. 5.♦

♦[f] Job, 5. & 36
Sam. 12.
1. Reg. 8.
2. Reg. 3.
Isaie. 5.
Zach. 10. & 14.
Amos. 4. 7.♦

♦[g] Job. 1.♦

♦[h] Isaie. 42, 8.♦

And therefore, that which greeveth me to the bottome of my hart,
is, that these witchmongers cannot be content, to wrest out of Gods
hand his almightie power, and keepe it themselves, or leave it with
a witch: but that, when by drift of argument they are made to laie
downe the bucklers, they yeeld them up to the divell, or at the least
praie aid of him, as though the raines of all mens lives and actions
were committed into his hand; and that he sat at the sterne, to guide
and direct the course of the whole world, imputing unto him power and
abilitie inough to doo as great things, and as strange miracles as ever
Christ did.

But the doctors of this supernaturall doctrine saie somtimes, that
the witch doth all these things by vertue of hir charmes; sometimes
that a spirituall, sometimes that a corporall divell doth accomplish
it; sometimes they saie that the divell doth but make the witch
beleeve she doth that which he himselfe hath wrought; sometimes that
the divell seemeth to doo that by compulsion, which he doth most
willinglie. Finallie, the writers hereupon are so eloquent, and full
of varietie; that sometimes they write that the divell dooth all this
by Gods permission onelie; sometimes by his licence, somtimes by his
appointment: so as (in effect and truth) not the divell, but the high
and mightie king of kings, and Lord of hosts, even God himselfe, should
this waie be made obedient and servile to obeie and performe the will
& commandement of a malicious old witch, and miraculouslie to answere
hir appetite, as well in everie trifling vanitie, as in most horrible
executions; as the revenger of a doting old womans imagined wrongs, to
the destruction of manie innocent children, and as a supporter of hir
passions, to the undoing of manie a poore soule. And I see not, but a
witch may as well inchant, when she will; as a lier may lie when he
list: and so should we possesse nothing, but by a witches licence and
permission.

And now forsooth it is brought to this point, that all divels, which
were woont to be spirituall, may at their pleasure become corporall,
and so shew themselves familiarlie to witches and conjurors, and to
none other, and by them onlie may be made tame, and kept in a box,
&c. So as a malicious old woman may command hir divell to plague hir
neighbor: and he is afflicted in manner and forme as she desireth. But
then commeth another witch, and she biddeth hir divell helpe, and he
healeth the same partie. So as they make it a kingdome divided in it
selfe, and therefore I trust it will not long endure, but will shortlie
be overthrowne, according to the words of our Savior, _Omne regnum in
se divisum desolabitur_, Everie kingdome divided in it selfe shalbe
desolate.

And although some saie that the divell is the witches instrument, to
bring hir purposes and practises to passe: yet others saie that she is
his instrument, to execute his pleasure in anie thing, and therefore
to be executed. But then (me thinks) she should be injuriouslie dealt
withall, and put to death for anothers offense: for actions are not
judged by instrumentall causes; neither dooth the end and purpose
of that which is done, depend upon the meane instrument. Finallie,
if the witch doo it not, why should the witch die for it? But they
saie that witches are persuaded, and thinke, that they doo indeed
those mischeefs; and have a will to performe that which the divell
committeth: and that therefore they are worthie to die. By which reason
everie one should be executed, that wisheth evill to his neighbor,
&c. But if the will should be punished by man, according to the
offense against God, we should be driven by thousands at once to the
slaughterhouse or butcherie. For whosoever loatheth correction shall
die. And who should escape execution, if this lothsomnesse (I saie)
should extend to death by the civill lawes. Also the reward of sinne is
death. Howbeit, everie one that sinneth, is not to be put to death by
the magistrate. But (my Lord) it shalbe proved in my booke, and your
Lordship shall trie it to be true, as well here at home in your native
countrie, as also abrode in your severall circuits, that (besides
them that be _Venificæ_, which are plaine poisoners) there will be
found among our witches onelie two sorts; the one sort being such by
imputation, as so thought of by others (and these are abused, and not
abusors) the other by acceptation, as being willing so to be accompted
(and these be meere cousenors.)

♦Proverb. 5.♦

Calvine treating of these magicians, calleth them cousenors, saieng
that they use their juggling knacks onelie to amase or abuse the
people; or else for fame: but he might rather have said for gaine.
Erastus himselfe, being a principall writer in the behalfe of witches
omnipotencie, is forced to confesse, that these Greeke words, μαγία,
μαγγαγία, φαρμακία, are most commonlie put for illusion, false packing,
cousenage, fraud, knaverie and deceipt: and is further driven to saie,
that in ancient time, the learned were not so blockish, as not to see
that the promises of magicians and inchanters were false, and nothing
else but knaverie, cousenage, and old wives fables; and yet defendeth
he their flieng in the aire, their transferring of corne or grasse from
one feeld to another, &c.

♦_Instit. lib. 5. ca. 8. sect. 6._♦

♦_Item upon Deut. cap. 18._♦

♦_Lib. de lamiis, pag. 5._♦

But as Erastus disagreeth herein with himselfe and his freends: so is
there no agreement among anie of those writers, but onlie in cruelties,
absurdities, and impossibilities. And these (my Lord) that fall into so
manifest contradictions, and into such absurd asseverations, are not
of the inferior sort of writers; neither are they all papists, but men
of such accompt, as whose names give more credit to their cause, than
their writings. In whose behalfe I am sorie, and partlie for reverence
suppresse their fondest errors and fowlest absurdities; dealing
speciallie with them that most contend in crueltie,[a] whose feete are
swift to shed bloud, striving (as [b]Jesus the sonne of Sirach saith)
and hasting (as [c]Salomon the sonne of David saith) to powre out the
bloud of the innocent; whose heat against these poore wretches cannot
be allaied with anie other liquor than bloud. And therfore I feare that
[d]under their wings will be found the bloud of the soules of the
poore, at that daie, when the Lord shall saie; [e]Depart from me ye
bloudthirstie men.

♦[a] Isaie. 59, 7.
Rom. 3, 15.♦

♦[b] Eccl. 27, 5.♦

♦[c] Prov. 1, 16.♦

♦[d] Jer. 2, 34.♦

♦[e] Ps. 139, 15.
Esai. 33, 15.♦

And bicause I know your Lordship will take no counsell against innocent
bloud, but rather suppresse them that seeke to embrue their hands
therein; I have made choise to open their case unto you, and to laie
their miserable calamitie before your feete: following herein the
advise of that learned man Brentius, who saith; _Si quis admonuerit
magistratum, ne in miseras illas mulierculas sæviat, eum ego arbitror
divinitùs excitatum_; that is, If anie admonish the magistrate not
to deale too hardlie with these miserable wretches, that are called
witches, I thinke him a good instrument raised up for this purpose by
God himselfe.

♦_In epistola ad Jo. Wier._♦

But it will perchance be said by witchmongers; to wit, by such as
attribute to witches the power which apperteineth to God onelie, that
I have made choise of your Lordship to be a patrone to this my booke;
bicause I think you favour mine opinions, and by that meanes may the
more freelie publish anie error or conceipt of mine owne, which should
rather be warranted by your Lordships authoritie, than by the word of
God, or by sufficient argument. But I protest the contrarie, and by
these presents I renounce all protection, and despise all freendship
that might serve to helpe towards the suppressing or supplanting of
truth: knowing also that your Lordship is farre from allowing anie
injurie done unto man; much more an enimie to them that go about to
dishonor God, or to embezill the title of his immortall glorie. But
bicause I know you to be perspicuous, and able to see downe into the
depth and bottome of causes, and are not to be carried awaie with the
vaine persuasion or superstition either of man, custome, time, or
multitude, but mooved with the authoritie of truth onlie: I crave your
countenance herein, even so farre foorth, and no further, than the lawe
of God, the lawe of nature, the lawe of this land, and the rule of
reason shall require. Neither doo I treat for these poore people anie
otherwise, but so, as with one hand you may sustaine the good, and with
the other suppresse the evill: wherein you shalbe thought a father to
orphans, an advocate to widowes, a guide to the blind, a staie to the
lame, a comfort & countenance to the honest, a scourge and terror to
the wicked.

Thus farre I have beene bold to use your Lordships patience, being
offended with my selfe, that I could not in brevitie utter such
matter as I have delivered amplie: whereby (I confesse) occasion of
tediousnes might be ministred, were it not that your great gravitie
joined with your singular constancie in reading and judging be means
of the contrarie. And I wish even with all my hart, that I could make
people conceive the substance of my writing, and not to misconstrue
anie part of my meaning. Then doubtles would I persuade my selfe, that
the companie of witchmongers, &c: being once decreased, the number also
of witches, &c: would soone be diminished. But true be the words of the
Poet,[*]

_Haudquaquam poteris sortirier omnia solus,
Námque aliis divi bello pollere dederunt,
Huic saltandi artem, voce huic cytharáque canendi:
Rursum alii inseruit sagax in pectore magnus
Jupiter ingenium, &c._

♦[*] [Homer.]♦

And therefore as doubtfull to prevaile by persuading, though I have
reason and common sense on my side; I rest upon earnest wishing;
namelie, to all people an absolute trust in God the creator, and not
in creatures, which is to make flesh our arme: that God may have his
due honor, which by the undutifulnes of manie is turned into dishonor,
and lesse cause of offense and errour given by common received evill
example. And to your Lordship I wish, as increase of honour, so
continuance of good health, and happie daies.

Your Lordships to be commanded

_Reginald Scot_.




_To the right worshipfull Sir
Thomas Scot Knight, &c._

[Rom. and Ital. of this reversed from original.]


Sir, I see among other malefactors manie poore old women convented
before you for working of miracles, other wise called witchcraft,
and therefore I thought you also a meet person to whom I might
cōmend my booke. And here I have occasion to speake of your sincere
administration of justice, and of your dexteritie, discretion, charge,
and travell emploied in that behalfe, wherof I am oculatus testis.
Howbeit I had rather refer the reader to common fame, and their owne
eies and eares to be satisfied; than to send them to a Stationers
shop, where manie times lies are vendible, and truth contemptible. For
I being of your house, of your name, & of your bloud; my foot being
under your table, my hand in your dish, or rather in your pursse, might
bee thought to flatter you in that, wherein (I knowe) I should rather
offend you than please you. And what need I currie favour with my most
assured friend? And if I should onelie publish those vertues (though
they be manie) which give me speciall occasion to exhibit this my
travell unto you, I should doo as a painter, that describeth the foot
of a notable personage, and leaveth all the best features in his bodie
untouched.

I therefore (at this time) doo onelie desire you to consider of my
report, concerning the evidence that is commonlie brought before you
against them. See first whether the evidence be not frivolous, &
whether the proofs brought against them be not incredible, consisting
of ghesses, presumptions, & impossibilities contrarie to reason,
scripture, and nature. See also what persons complaine upon them,
whether they be not of the basest, the unwisest, & most faithles kind
of people. Also may it please you to waie what accusations and crimes
they laie to their charge, namelie: She was at my house of late, she
would have had a pot of milke, she departed in a chafe bicause she
had it not, she railed, she curssed, she mumbled and whispered, and
finallie she said she would be even with me: and soone after my child,
my cow, my sow, or my pullet died, or was strangelie taken. Naie (if it
please your Worship) I have further proofe: I was with a wise woman,
and she told me I had an ill neighbour, & that she would come to my
house yer it were long, and so did she; and that she had a marke above
hir waste, & so had she: and God forgive me, my stomach hath gone
against hir a great while. Hir mother before hir was counted a witch,
she hath beene beaten and scratched by the face till bloud was drawne
upon hir, bicause she hath beene suspected, & afterwards some of those
persons were said to amend. These are the certeinties that I heare in
their evidences.

Note also how easilie they may be brought to confesse that which
they never did, nor lieth in the power of man to doo: and then see
whether I have cause to write as I doo. Further, if you shall see that
infidelitie, poperie, and manie other manifest heresies be backed and
shouldered, and their professors animated and hartened, by yeelding
to creatures such infinit power as is wrested out of Gods hand, and
attributed to witches: finallie, if you shall perceive that I have
faithfullie and trulie delivered and set downe the condition and
state of the witch, and also of the witchmonger, and have confuted by
reason and lawe, and by the word of God it selfe, all mine adversaries
objections and arguments: then let me have your countenance against
them that maliciouslie oppose themselves against me.

My greatest adversaries are yoong ignorance and old custome. For what
follie soever tract of time hath fostered, it is so superstitiouslie
pursued of some, as though no error could be acquainted with custome.
But if the lawe of nations would joine with such custome, to the
maintenance of ignorance, and to the suppressing of knowledge; the
civilest countrie in the world would soone become barbarous, &c. For
as knowledge and time discovereth errors, so dooth superstition and
ignorance in time breed them. And concerning the opinions of such, as
wish that ignorance should rather be mainteined, than knowledge busilie
searched for, bicause thereby offense may grow: I answer, that we are
commanded by Christ himselfe to search for knowledge: for it is the
kings honour (as Salomon saith) to search out a thing.

♦John. 5.♦

♦Prov. 15, 1.♦

Aristotle said to Alexander, that a mind well furnished was more
beautifull than a bodie richlie araied. What can be more odious to
man, or offensive to God, than ignorance: for through ignorance the
Jewes did put Christ to death. Which ignorance whosoever forsaketh, is
promised life everlasting: and therfore among Christians it should be
abhorred above all other things. For even as when we wrestle in the
darke, we tumble in the mire, &c: so when we see not the truth, we
wallow in errors. A blind man may seeke long in the rishes yer he find
a needle; and as soone is a doubt discussed by ignorance. Finallie,
truth is no sooner found out in ignorance, than a sweet savor in a
dunghill. And if they will allow men knowledge, and give them no leave
to use it, men were much better be without it than have it. For it is,
as to have a tallent, and to hide it under the earth; or to put a
candle under a bushell: or as to have a ship, & to let hir lie alwaies
in the docke: which thing how profitable it is, I can saie somewhat by
experience.

♦Acts. 3.
Proverbs. 9.♦

♦Matth. 25.
Matth. 5.
Luke. 8.♦

But hereof I need saie no more, for everie man seeth that none can
be happie who knoweth not what felicitie meaneth. For what availeth
it to have riches, and not to have the use thereof? Trulie the
heathen herein deserved more commendation than manie christians, for
they spared no paine, no cost, nor travell to atteine to knowledge.
Pythagoras travelled from Thamus to Aegypt, and afterwards into Crete
and Lacedæmonia: and Plato out of Athens into Italie and Aegypt, and
all to find out hidden secrets and knowledge: which when a man hath,
he seemeth to be separated from mortalitie. For pretious stones, and
all other creatures of what value soever, are but counterfeits to
this jewell: they are mortall, corruptible, and inconstant; this is
immortall, pure and certeine. Wherfore if I have searched and found
out any good thing, that ignorance and time hath smothered, the same I
commend unto you: to whom though I owe all that I have, yet am I bold
to make other partakers with you in this poore gift.

_Your loving cousen_,
Reg. Scot.




To the right worshipfull his loving friends,
_Maister Doctor Coldwell Deane of Ro-_
chester, and Maister Doctor Read-
_man Archdeacon of Can-
turburie, &c._

[Rom. and Ital. reversed; the italics of original smaller than
in that to Sir Th. Scot.]


Having found out two such civill Magistrates, as for direction of
judgement, and for ordering matters concerning justice in this common
wealth (in my poore opinion) are verie singular persons, who (I hope)
will accept of my good will, and examine my booke by their experience,
as unto whom the matter therin conteined dooth greatlie apperteine: I
have now againe considered of two other points: namelie, divinitie and
philosophie, whereupon the groundworke of my booke is laid. Wherein
although I know them to be verie sufficientlie informed, yet dooth
not the judgement and censure of those causes so properlie apperteine
to them as unto you, whose fame therein hath gotten preeminence above
all others that I know of your callings: and in that respect I am bold
to joine you with them, being all good neighbours togither in this
commonwelth, and loving friends unto me. I doo not present this unto
you, bicause it is meet for you; but for that you are meet for it
(I meane) to judge upon it, to defend it, and if need be to correct
it; knowing that you have learned of that grave counseller Cato, not
to shame or discountenance any bodie. For if I thought you as readie,
as able, to disgrace me for mine insufficiencie; I should not have
beene hastie (knowing your learning) to have written unto you: but if I
should be abashed to write to you, I should shew my selfe ignorant of
your courtesie.

I knowe mine owne weakenesse, which if it have beene able to mainteine
this argument, the cause is the stronger. Eloquent words may please the
eares, but sufficient matter persuadeth the hart. So as, if I exhibit
wholsome drinke (thought it be small) in a treene[*] dish with a
faithfull hand, I hope it will bee as well accepted, as strong wine
offered in a silver bowle with a flattering heart. And surelie it is a
point of as great liberalitie to receive a small thing thankefullie,
as to give and distribute great and costlie gifts bountifullie: for
there is more supplied with courteous answers than with rich rewards.
The tyrant Dionysius was not so hated for his tyrannie, as for his
churlish and strange behaviour. Among the poore Israelites sacrifices,
God was satisfied with the tenth part of an Ephah of flower, so as it
were fine and good. Christ liked well of the poore widowes mite, Lewis
of France accepted a rape root of clownish Conan, Cyrus vouchsafed to
drinke a cup of cold water out of the hand of poore Sinætes_:_ and so
it may please you to accept this simple booke at my hands, which I
faithfullie exhibit unto you, not knowing your opinions to meet with
mine, but knowing your learning and judgement to be able as well to
correct me where I speake herein unskilfullie, as others when they
speake hereof maliciouslie.

♦[*] [= wooden]♦

Some be such dogs as they will barke at my writings, whether I
mainteine or refute this argument: as Diogenes snarled both at the
Rhodians and at the Lacedæmonians: at the one, bicause they were
brave; at the other, bicause they were not brave. Homer himselfe
could not avoid reprochfull speaches. I am sure that they which never
studied to learne anie good thing, will studie to find faults hereat.
I for my part feare not these wars, nor all the adversaries I have;
were it not for certeine cowards, who (I knowe) will come behind my
backe and bite me.

But now to the matter. My question is not (as manie fondlie suppose)
whether there be witches or naie: but whether they can doo such
miraculous works as are imputed unto them. Good Maister Deane, is
it possible for a man to breake his fast with you at Rochester, and
to dine that day at Durham with Maister Doctor Matthew; or can
your enimie maime you, when the Ocean sea is betwixt you? What reall
communitie is betwixt a spirit and a bodie? May a spirituall bodie
become temporall at his pleasure? Or may a carnall bodie become
invisible? Is it likelie that the lives of all Princes, magistrates,
& subjects, should depend upon the will, or rather upon the wish of a
poore malicious doting old foole; and that power exempted from the
wise, the rich, the learned, the godlie, &c? Finallie, is it possible
for man or woman to do anie of those miracles expressed in my booke,
& so constantlie reported by great clarks? If you saie, no; then
am I satisfied. If you saie that God, absolutelie, or by meanes can
accomplish all those, and manie more, I go with you. But witches may
well saie they can doo these things, howbeit they cannot shew how they
doo them. If I for my part should saie I could doo those things, my
verie adversaries would saie that I lied.

O Maister Archdeacon, is it not pitie, that that which is said to be
doone with the almightie power of the most high God, and by our saviour
his onelie sonne Jesus Christ our Lord, shouldbe referred to a baggage
old womans nod or wish, &c? Good Sir, is it not one manifest kind of
Idolatrie, for them that labor and are laden, to come unto witches to
be refreshed? If witches could helpe whom they are said to have made
sicke, I see no reason, but remedie might as well be required at their
hands, as a pursse demanded of him that hath stolne it. But trulie it
is manifold idolatrie, to aske that of a creature, which none can give
but the Creator. The papist hath some colour of scripture to mainteine
his idoll of bread, but no Jesuiticall distinction can cover the
witchmongers idolatrie in this behalfe. Alas, I am sorie and ashamed
to see how manie die, that being said to be bewitched, onelie seeke
for magicall cures, whom wholsome diet and good medicines would have
recovered. I dare assure you both, that there would be none of these
cousening kind of witches, did not witchmongers mainteine them, followe
them, and beleeve in them and their oracles: whereby indeed all good
learning and honest arts are overthrowne. For these that most advance
their power, and mainteine the skill of these witches, understand no
part thereof: and yet being manie times wise in other matters, are made
fooles by the most fooles in the world.

Me thinks these magicall physicians deale in the commonwelth, much
like as a certeine kind of Cynicall people doo in the church, whose
severe saiengs are accompted among some such oracles, as may not
be doubted of; who in stead of learning and authoritie (which they
make contemptible) doo feed the people with their owne devises and
imaginations, which they prefer before all other divinitie: and
labouring to erect a church according to their owne fansies, wherein
all order is condemned, and onelie their magicall words and curious
directions advanced, they would utterlie overthrowe the true Church.
And even as these inchanting Paracelsians abuse the people, leading
them from the true order of physicke to their charmes: so doo these
other (I saie) dissuade from hearkening to learning and obedience, and
whisper in mens eares to teach them their frierlike traditions. And of
this sect the cheefe author at this time is one Browne, a fugitive,
a meet cover for such a cup: as heretofore the Anabaptists, the
Arrians,[*] and the Franciscane friers.

♦[*] [Arians]♦

Trulie not onlie nature, being the foundation of all perfection; but
also scripture, being the mistresse and director thereof, and of all
christianitie, is beautified with knowledge and learning. For as nature
without discipline dooth naturallie incline unto vanities, and as it
were sucke up errors: so doth the word, or rather the letter of the
scripture, without understanding, not onlie make us devoure errors, but
yeeldeth us up to death & destruction: & therefore Paule saith he was
not a minister of the letter, but of the spirit.

♦Rom. 2, 27.
2. Cor. 3, 6.♦

Thus have I beene 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 hurtfull to none, but to my
selfe great comfort, if it may passe with good liking and acceptation.
If it fall out otherwise, I should thinke my paines ill imploied. For
trulie, in mine opinion, whosoever shall performe any thing, or atteine
to anie knowledge; or whosoever should travell throughout all the
nations of the world, or (if it were possible) should peepe into the
heavens, the consolation or admiration thereof were nothing pleasant
unto him, unles he had libertie to impart his knowledge to his friends.
Wherein bicause I have made speciall choise of you, I hope you will
read it, or at the least laie it up in your studie with your other
bookes, 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 certeine amulet, periapt, circle, charme, &c: to defend you
from all inchantments.

_Your loving friend_
Reg. Scot.




To the Readers.


To you that are wise & discreete few words may suffice: for such
a one judgeth not at the first sight, nor reprooveth by heresaie;
but patientlie heareth, and thereby increaseth in understanding:
which patience bringeth foorth experience, whereby true judgement is
directed. I shall not need therefore to make anie further sute to you,
but that it would please you to read my booke, without the prejudice
of time, or former conceipt: and having obteined this at your hands, I
submit my selfe unto your censure. But to make a solemne sute to you
that are parciall readers, desiring you to set aside parcialitie, to
take in good part my writing, and with indifferent eies to looke upon
my booke, were labour lost, and time ill imploied. For I should no more
prevaile herein, than if a hundred yeares since I should have intreated
your predecessors to beleeve, that Robin goodfellowe, that great and
ancient bulbegger, had beene but a cousening merchant, and no divell
indeed.

♦Isai. 11.
Prover. 1.♦

If I should go to a papist, and saie; I praie you beleeve my writings,
wherein I will proove all popish charmes, conjurations, exorcismes,
benedictions and cursses, not onelie to be ridiculous, and of none
effect, but also to be impious and contrarie to Gods word: I should as
hardlie therein win favour at their hands, as herein obteine credit at
yours. Neverthelesse, I doubt not, but to use the matter so, that as
well the massemoonger for his part, as the witchmoonger for his, shall
both be ashamed of their professions.

But Robin goodfellowe ceaseth now to be much feared, and poperie is
sufficientlie discovered. Nevertheles, witches charms, and conjurors
cousenages are yet thought effectuall. Yea the Gentiles have espied the
fraud of their cousening oracles, and our cold prophets and inchanters
make us fooles still, to the shame of us all, but speciallie of
papists, who conjure everie thing, and thereby bring to passe nothing.
They saie 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 bodie and soule: but the bodie (we see) is never the
better for it, nor the soule anie whit reformed by it. And therefore
I mervell, that when they see their owne conjurations confuted and
brought to naught, or at the least void of effect, that they (of all
other) will yet give such credit, countenance, and authoritie to the
vaine cousenages of witches and conjurors; as though their charmes and
conjurations could produce more apparent, certeine, and better effects
than their owne.

But my request unto all you that read my booke shall be no more, but
that it would please you to conferre my words with your owne sense and
experience, and also with the word of God. If you find your selves
resolved and satisfied, or rather reformed and qualified in anie one
point or opinion, that heretofore you held contrarie to truth, in a
matter hitherto undecided, and never yet looked into; I praie you take
that for advantage: and suspending your judgement, staie the sentence
of condemnation against me, and consider of the rest, at your further
leasure. If this may not suffice to persuade you, it cannot prevaile
to annoy you: and then, that which is written without offense, may be
overpassed without anie greefe.

And although mine assertion, be somewhat differing from the old
inveterat opinion, which I confesse hath manie graie heares, whereby
mine adversaries have gained more authoritie than reason, towards the
maintenance of their presumptions and old wives fables: yet shall it
fullie agree with Gods glorie, and with his holie word. And albeit
there be hold taken by mine adversaries of certeine few words or
sentences in the scripture that maketh a shew for them: yet when the
whole course thereof maketh against them, and impugneth the same, yea
and also their owne places rightlie understood doo nothing at all
releeve them: I trust their glorious title and argument of antiquitie
will appeare as stale and corrupt as the apothecaries drugs, or grocers
spice, which the longer they be preserved, the woorsse they are. And
till you have perused my booke, ponder this in your mind, to wit, that
_Sagæ_, _Thessalæ_, _Striges_, _Lamiæ_ (which words and none other
being in use do properlie signifie our witches) are not once found
written in the old or new testament; and that Christ himselfe in his
gospell never mentioned the name of a witch. And that neither he, nor
Moses ever spake anie one word of the witches bargaine with the divell,
their hagging, their riding in the aire, their transferring of corne or
grasse from one feeld to another, their hurting of children or cattell
with words or charmes, their bewitching of butter, cheese, ale, &c:
nor yet their transubstantiation; insomuch as the writers hereupon are
not ashamed to say, that it is not absurd to affirme that there were
no witches in Jobs time. The reason is, that if there had beene such
witches then in beeing, Job would have said he had beene bewitched. But
indeed men tooke no heed in those daies to this doctrine of divels;
to wit, to these fables of witchcraft, which Peter saith shall be much
regarded and hearkened unto in the latter daies.

♦_Mal. malef. par. 2. quæ. 2._♦

♦1. Pet. 4. 1.♦

Howbeit, how ancient so ever this barbarous conceipt of witches
omnipotencie is, truth must not be measured by time: for everie old
opinion is not sound. Veritie is not impaired, how long so ever it be
suppressed; but is to be searched out, in how darke a corner so ever it
lie hidden: for it is not like a cup of ale, that may be broched too
rathe. Finallie, time bewraieth old errors, & discovereth new matters
of truth. Danæus himselfe saith, that this question hitherto hath never
beene handled; nor the scriptures concerning this matter have never
beene expounded. To prove the antiquitie of the cause, to confirme
the opinion of the ignorant, to inforce mine adversaries arguments,
to aggravate the punishments, & to accomplish the confusiō of these
old women, is added the vanitie and wickednes of them, which are
called witches, the arrogancie of those which take upon them to worke
wonders, the desire that people have to hearken to such miraculous
matters, unto whome most commonlie an impossibilitie is more credible
than a veritie; the ignorance of naturall causes, the ancient and
universall hate conceived against the name of a witch; their ilfavoured
faces, their spitefull words, their cursses and imprecations, their
charmes made in ryme, and their beggerie; the feare of manie foolish
folke, the opinion of some that are wise, the want of Robin goodfellowe
and the fairies, which were woont to mainteine chat, and the common
peoples talke in this behalfe; the authoritie of the inquisitors,
the learning, cunning, consent, and estimation of writers herein,
the false translations and fond interpretations used, speciallie by
papists; and manie other like causes. All which toies take such hold
upon mens fansies, as whereby they are lead and entised awaie from the
consideration of true respects, to the condemnation of that which they
know not.

♦_Danæus in suo prologo._♦

♦_B._ iii. v.♦

Howbeit, I will (by Gods grace) in this my booke, so apparentlie
decipher and confute these cavils, and all other their objections;
as everie witchmoonger shall be abashed, and all good men thereby
satisfied. In the meane time, I would wish them to know that if neither
the estimation of Gods omnipotencie, nor the tenor of his word, nor the
doubtfulnes or rather the impossibilitie of the case, nor the small
proofes brought against them, nor the rigor executed upon them, nor the
pitie that should be in a christian heart, nor yet their simplicitie,
impotencie, or age may suffice to suppresse the rage or rigor wherewith
they are oppressed; yet the consideration of their sex or kind ought
to moove some mitigatiō of their punishment. For if nature (as Plinie
reporteth) have taught a lion not to deale so roughlie with a woman as
with a man, bicause she is in bodie the weaker vessell, and in hart
more inclined to pitie (which Jeremie in his lamentations seemeth to
confirme) what should a man doo in this case, for whome a woman was
created as an helpe and comfort unto him? In so much as, even in the
lawe of nature, it is a greater offense to slea a woman than a man:
not bicause a man is not the more excellent creature, but bicause a
woman is the weaker vessell. And therefore among all modest and honest
persons it is thought a shame to offer violence or injurie to a woman:
in which respect Virgil saith, _Nullum memorabile nomen fæminea in
pæna est_.

♦Lam. Jer. 3. & 4. cap. verse. 10.
1. Cor 11. 9.
Ibid. vers. 7.
Ge. 2. 22. 18.
_Arist. lib. problem. 2. 9._♦

♦_Vir. Georg._♦

God that knoweth my heart is witnes, and you that read my booke shall
see, that my drift and purpose in this enterprise tendeth onelie to
these respects. First, that the glorie and power of God be not so
abridged and abased, as to be thrust into the hand or lip of a lewd old
woman: whereby the worke of the Creator should be attributed to the
power of a creature. Secondlie, that the religion of the gospell may be
seene to stand without such peevish trumperie. Thirdlie, that lawfull
favour and christian compassion be rather used towards these poore
soules, than rigor and extremitie. Bicause they, which are commonlie
accused of witchcraft, are the least sufficient of all other persons
to speake for themselves; as having the most base and simple education
of all others; the extremitie of their age giving them leave to dote,
their povertie to beg, their wrongs to chide and threaten (as being
void of anie other waie of revenge) their humor melancholicall to be
full of imaginations, from whence cheefelie proceedeth the vanitie of
their confessions; as that they can transforme themselves and others
into apes, owles, asses, dogs, cats, &c: that they can flie in the
aire, kill children with charmes, hinder the comming of butter, &c.

And for so much as the mightie helpe themselves together, and the
poore widowes crie, though it reach to heaven, is scarse heard here
upon earth: I thought good (according to my poore abilitie) to make
intercession, that some part of common rigor, and some points of hastie
judgement may be advised upon. For the world is now at that stay (as
Brentius in a most godlie sermon in these words affirmeth) that even
as when the heathen persecuted the christians, if anie were accused
to beleeve in Christ, the common people cried _Ad leonem_: so now, if
anie woman, be she never so honest, be accused of witchcraft, they crie
_Ad ignem_. What difference is betweene the rash dealing of unskilfull
people, and the grave counsell of more discreet and learned persons,
may appeare by a tale of Danæus his owne telling; wherein he opposeth
the rashnes of a few townesmen, to the counsell of a whole senate,
preferring the follie of the one, before the wisdome of the other.

♦Eccl[us.] 35, 15.♦

At Orleance on Loyre (saith he) there was a manwitch, not only taken
and accused, but also convicted and condemned for witchcraft, who
appealed from thence to the high court of Paris. Which accusation the
senate sawe insufficient, and would not allow, but laughed thereat,
lightlie regarding it; and in the end sent him home (saith he) as
accused of a frivolous matter. And yet for all that, the magistrats of
Orleance were so bold with him, as to hang him up within short time
after, for the same or the verie like offense. In which example is to
be seene the nature, and as it were the disease of this cause: wherein
(I saie) the simpler and undiscreeter sort are alwaies more hastie &
furious in judgements, than men of better reputation and knowledge.
Nevertheles, Eunichius saith, that these three things; to wit, what is
to be thought of witches, what their incantations can doo, and whether
their punishment should extend to death, are to be well considered.
And I would (saith he) they were as well knowne, as they are rashlie
beleeved, both of the learned, and unlearned. And further he saith,
that almost all divines, physicians and lawyers, who should best know
these matters, satisfieng themselves with old custome, have given too
much credit to these fables, and too rash and unjust sentence of death
upon witches. But when a man pondereth (saith he) that in times past,
all that swarved from the church of Rome were judged heretikes; it is
the lesse marvell, though in this matter they be blind and ignorant.

And surelie, if the scripture had beene longer suppressed, more absurd
fables would have sproong up, and beene beleeved. Which credulitie
though it is to be derided with laughter; yet this their crueltie is
to be lamented with teares. For (God knoweth) manie of these poore
wretches had more need to be releeved than chastised; and more meete
were a preacher to admonish them, than a gailor to keepe them; and
a physician more necessarie to helpe them, than an executioner or
tormentor to hang or burne them. For proofe and due triall hereof, I
will requite Danæus his tale of a manwitch (as he termeth him) with
another witch of the same sex or gender.

Cardanus from the mouth of his owne father reporteth, that one Barnard,
a poore servant, being in wit verie simple and rude, but in his service
verie necessarie and diligent (and in that respect deerelie beloved of
his maister) professing the art of witchcraft, could in no wise be
dissuaded from that profession, persuading himselfe that he knew all
things, and could bring anie matter to passe; bicause certeine countrie
people resorted to him for helpe and counsell, as supposing by his owne
talke, that he could doo somewhat. At length he was condemned to be
burned: which torment he seemed more willing to suffer, than to loose
his estimation in that behalfe. But his maister having compassion
upon him, and being himselfe in his princes favor, perceiving his
conceipt to proceed of melancholie, obteined respit of execution for
twentie daies. In which time (saith he) his maister bountifullie fed
him with good fat meat, and with foure egs at a meale, as also with
sweet wine: which diet was best for so grosse and weake a bodie. And
being recovered so in strength, that the humor was suppressed, he was
easilie woone from his absurd and dangerous opinions, and from all his
fond imaginations: and confessing his error and follie, from the which
before no man could remoove him by anie persuasions, having his pardon,
he lived long a good member of the church, whome otherwise the crueltie
of judgement should have cast awaie and destroied.

♦_Lib. 15. cap. 18. de varietatib. rerum._♦

This historie is more credible than Sprengers fables, or Bodins bables,
which reach not so far to the extolling of witches omnipotencie, as to
the derogating of Gods glorie. For if it be true, which they affirme,
that our life and death lieth in the hand of a witch; then is it false,
that God maketh us live or die, or that by him we have our being, our
terme of life appointed, and our daies numbred. But surelie their
charmes can no more reach to the hurting or killing of men or women,
than their imaginations can extend to the stealing and carrieng awaie
of horsses & mares. Neither hath God given remedies to sicknes or
greefes, by words or charmes, but by hearbs and medicines; which he
himselfe hath created upon earth, and given men knowledge of the same;
that he might be glorified, for that therewith he dooth vouchsafe that
the maladies of men and cattell should be cured, &c. And if there be
no affliction nor calamitie, but is brought to passe by him, then let
us defie the divell, renounce all his works, and not so much as once
thinke or dreame upon this supernaturall power of witches; neither let
us prosecute them with such despight, whome our fansie condemneth,
and our reason acquiteth: our evidence against them consisting in
impossibilities, our proofes in unwritten verities, and our whole
proceedings in doubts and difficulties.

♦Amos. 3. 6.
La. Jer. 3. 38.
Isai. 45. 9.
Rom. 9. 20.♦

Now bicause I mislike the extreame crueltie used against some of these
sillie soules (whome a simple advocate having audience and justice
might deliver out of the hands of the inquisitors themselves) it will
be said, that I denie anie punishment at all to be due to anie witch
whatsoever. Naie, bicause I bewraie the follie and impietie of them,
which attribute unto witches the power of God: these witchmoongers
will report, that I denie there are anie witches at all: and yet
behold (saie they) how often is this word [Witch][*] mentioned in the
scriptures? Even as if an idolater should saie in the behalfe of images
and idols, to them which denie their power and godhead, and inveigh
against the reverence doone unto them; How dare you denie the power of
images, seeing their names are so often repeated in the scriptures? But
truelie I denie not that there are witches or images: but I detest the
idolatrous opinions conceived of them; referring that to Gods worke and
ordinance, which they impute to the power and malice of witches; and
attributing that honour to God, which they ascribe to idols. But as
for those that in verie deed are either witches or conjurors, let them
hardlie suffer such punishment as to their fault is agreeable, and as
by the grave judgement of lawe is provided.

♦[*] [] in text.♦

_Places amended by the author, and to be read as followeth. The
first number standeth for the page, the second for the line._

46. 16. except you.
51. 9. one Saddocke.
75. 21. that we of
110. 21. as Elimas.
112. 10. is reproved.
119. 16. one Necus.
126. 12. Magus as.
138. 2. the hart.
144. 25. in hir closet at Endor, or in.
168. 31. the firmament.
187. 16. reallie finished.
192. put out the first line of the page.
247. 29. write it.
257. 32. an image.
269. 16. there be masses.
333. 14. evenlie severed.
363. 26. for bellowes.
366. 27. his leman.
438. 29. exercise the.
450. 1. that it is.
463. 19. [*]that businesse.
471. 19. cōteineth nothing.
472. 11. I did deferre.
491. 6. so difficult.
491. 27. begat another.
503. 9. of all the.
519. 7. the Hevites.
542. 30. their reproch.

[Corrected in this 4th edition. The numbers of the 3rd line in
original, _i.e._, from 438, are smaller.]

♦[*] [16]♦




The forren authors used in this Booke.

Ælianus.
Aetius.
Albertus Crantzius.
Albertus Magnus.
Albumazar.
Alcoranum Franciscanorum.
Alexander Trallianus.
Algerus.
Ambrosius.
Andradias.
Andræas Gartnerus.
Andræas Massius.
Antonius Sabellicus.
Apollonius Tyanæus.
Appianus.
Apuleius.
Archelaus.
Argerius Ferrarius.[*]
Aristoteles.
Arnoldus de villa nova.
Artemidorus.
Athanasius.
Averroës.
Augustinus episcopus Hip.
Augustinus Niphus.
Avicennas.
Aulus Gellius.
Barnardinus de bustis.
Bartholomæus Anglicus.
Berosus Anianus.
Bodinus.
Bordinus.
Brentius.
Calvinus.
Camerarius.
Campanus.
Cardanus pater.
Cardanus filius.
Carolus Gallus.
Cassander.
Cato.
Chrysostome.
Cicero.
Clemens.
Cornelius Agrippa.
Cornelius Nepos.
Cornelius Tacitus.
Cyrillus.
Danæus.
Demetrius.
Democritus.
Didymus.
Diodorus Siculus.
Dionysius Areopagita.
Dioscorides.
Diurius.
Dodonæus.
Durandus.
Empedocles.
Ephesius.
Erasmus Roterodamus.
Erasmus Sarcerius.
Erastus.
Eudoxus.
Eusebius Cæsariensis.
Fernelius.
Franciscus Petrarcha.
Fuchsius.
Galenus.
Garropius.
Gelasius.
Gemma Phrysius.
Georgius Pictorius.
Gofridus.
Goschalcus Boll.
Gratianus.
Gregorius.
Grillandus.
Guido Bonatus.
Gulielmus de sancto Clodoaldo.
Gulielmus Parisiensis.
Hemingius.
Heraclides.
Hermes Trismegistus.
Hieronymus.
Hilarius.
Hippocrates.
Homerus.
Horatius.
Hostiensis.
Hovinus.
Hyperius.
Jacobus de Chusa Carthusianus.
Iamblichus.
Jaso Pratensis.
Innocentius. 8. Papa.
Johannes Anglicus.
Johannes Baptista Neapolitanus.
Johannes Cassianus.
Johannes Montiregius.
Johannes Rivius.
Josephus ben Gorion.
Josias Simlerus.
Isidorus.
Isigonus.
Juba.
Julius Maternus.
Justinus Martyr.
Lactantius.
Lavaterus.
Laurentius Ananias.
Laurentius a villavicentio.
Leo II. Pontifex.
Lex Salicarum.
Lex 12. Tabularum.
Legenda aurea.
Legenda longa Coloniæ.
Leonardus Vairus.
Livius.
Lucanus.
Lucretius.
Ludovicus Cælius.
Lutherus.
Macrobius.
Magna Charta.
Malleus Maleficarum.
Manlius.
Marbacchius.
Marbodeus Gallus.
Marsilius Ficinus.
Martinus de Arles.
Mattheolus.
Melancthonus.
Memphradorus.
Michael Andræas.
Musculus.
Nauclerus.
Nicephorus.
Nicholaus 5. Papa.
Nider.
Olaus Gothus.
Origines.
Ovidius.
Panormitanus.
Paulus Aegineta.
Paulus Marsus.
Persius.
Petrus de Appona.
Petrus Lombardus.
Petrus Martyr.
Peucer.
Philarchus.
Philastrius Brixiensis.
Philodotus.
Philo Judæus.
Pirkmairus.
Platina.
Plato.
Plinius.
Plotinus.
Plutarchus.
Polydorus Virgilius.
Pomœrium sermonum quadragesimalium.
Pompanatius.
Pontificale.
Ponzivibius.
Porphyrius.
Proclus.
Propertius.
Psellus.
Ptolomeus.
Pythagoras.
Quintilianus.
Rabbi Abraham.
Rabbi ben Ezra.
Rabbi David Kimhi.
Rabbi Josuah ben Levi.
Rabbi Isaach Natar.
Rabbi Levi.
Rabbi Moses.
Rabbi Sedaias Haias.
Robertus Carocullus.
Rupertus.
Sabinus.
Sadoletus.
Savanorola.
Scotus.
Seneca.
Septuaginta interpretes.
Serapio.
Socrates.
Solinus.
Speculum exemplorum.
Strabo.
Sulpitius Severus.
Synesius.
Tatianus.
Tertullianus.
Thomas Aquinas.
Themistius.
Theodoretus.
Theodorus Bizantius.
Theophrastus.
Thucidides.
Tibullus.
Tremelius.
Valerius Maximus.
Varro.
Vegetius.
Vincentius.
Virgilius.
Vitellius.
Wierus.
Xanthus historiographus.

♦[*] [Ferre-]♦

¶ _These English._

Barnabe Googe.
Beehive of the Romish church.
Edward Deering.
Geffrey Chaucer.
Giles Alley.
Gnimelf Maharba [Abraham Fleming].
Henrie Haward.
John Bale.
John Fox.
John Malborne.
John Record.
Primer after Yorke use.
Richard Gallis.
Roger Bacon.
Testament printed at Rhemes.
T. E. a nameles author. 467.
Thomas Hilles.
Thomas Lupton.
Thomas Moore Knight.
Thomas Phaer.
T. R. a nameles author. 393.
William Lambard.
W. W. a nameles author. 542.


[These Contents in original end the book as do our Indices.]




The summe of everie chapter conteined
_in the sixteene bookes of this discoverie,_
with the discourse of divels and
_spirits annexed thereunto._


¶ _The first Booke._

An impeachment of witches power in meteors and elementarie bodies,
tending to the rebuke of such as attribute too much unto them. Pag. 1.

The inconvenience growing by mens credulitie herein, with a reproofe of
some churchmen, which are inclined to the common conceived opinion of
witches omnipotencie, and a familiar example thereof. pag. 4.

Who they be that are called witches, with a manifest declaration of the
cause that mooveth men so commonlie to thinke, & witches themselves
to beleeve that they can hurt children, cattell, &c. with words and
imaginations: and of coosening witches. pag. 7.

What miraculous actions are imputed to witches by witchmongers,
papists, and poets. pag. 9.

A confutation of the common conceived opinion of witches and
witchcraft, and how detestable a sinne it is to repaire to them for
counsell or helpe in time of affliction. pag. 11.

A further confutation of witches miraculous and omnipotent power, by
invincible reasons and authorities, with dissuasions from such fond
credulitie. pag. 12.

By what meanes the name of witches becommeth so famous, & how diverslie
people be opinioned concerning them and their actions. pa. 14.

Causes that moove as well witches themselves as others to thinke that
they can worke impossibilities, with answers to certeine objections:
where also their punishment by law is touched. pag. 16.

A conclusion of the first booke, wherein is foreshewed the tyrannicall
crueltie of witchmongers and inquisitors, with a request to the reader
to peruse the same. pag. 17.


¶ _The second Booke._

What testimonies and witnesses are allowed to give evidence against
reputed witches, by the report and allowance of the inquisitors
themselves, & such as are speciall writers herein. Pag. 19.

The order of examination of witches by the inquisitors. pag. 20.

Matters of evidence against witches. pag. 22.

Confessions of witches, whereby they are condemned. pag. 24.

Presumptions, whereby witches are condemned. pag. 25.

Particular interogatories used by the inquisitors against witches. pa.
27.

The inquisitors triall of weeping by conjuration. pag. 29.

Certeine cautions against witches, and of their tortures to procure
confession. pag. 29.

The 15. crimes laid to the charge of witches, by witchmongers;
speciallie by Bodin, in Demonomania. 32.

A refutation of the former surmised crimes patched togither by Bodin,
and the onelie waie to escape the inquisitors hands. pag. 34.

The opinion of Cornelius Agrippa concerning witches, of his pleading
for a poore woman accused of witchcraft, and how he convinced the
inquisitors. pag. 35.

What the feare of death and feeling of torments may force one to doo,
and that it is no marvell though witches condemne themselves by their
owne confessions so tyrannicallie extorted. pag. 37.


¶ _The third Booke._

The witches bargaine with the divell, according to M. Mal. Bodin,
Nider, Daneus, Psellus, Erastus, Hemingius, Cumanus, Aquinas,
Bartholomeus Spineus, &c. Pag. 40.

The order of the witches homage done (as it is written by lewd
inquisitors and peevish witchmoongers) to the divell in person;
of their songs and danses, and namelie of La volta, and of other
ceremonies, also of their excourses. pag. 41.

How witches are summoned to appeere before the divell, of their riding
in the aire, of their accompts, of their conference with the divell, of
his supplies, and their conference, of their farewell and sacrifices:
according to Daneus, Psellus, &c. p. 43.

That there can no real league be made with the divell the first author
of the league, and the weake proofes of the adversaries for the same.
pag. 44.

Of the private league, a notable tale of Bodins concerning a French
ladie, with a confutation. pag. 46.

A disproofe of their assemblies, and of their bargaine pag. 47.

A confutation of the objection concerning witches confessions. pag. 49.

What follie it were for witches to enter into such desperate perill,
and to endure such intolerable tortures for no gaine or commoditie,
and how it comes to passe that witches are overthrowne by their
confessions. 51.

How melancholie abuseth old women, and of the effects thereof by
sundrie examples. pag. 52.

That voluntarie confessions may be untrulie made, to the undooing of
the confessors, and of the strange operation of melancholie, prooved by
a familiar and late example. pag. 55.

The strange and divers effects of melancholie, and how the same
humor abounding in witches, or rather old women, filleth them full
of mervellous imaginations, & that their confessions are not to be
credited. p. 57.

A confutation of witches confessions, especiallie concerning their
league. pag. 59.

A confutation of witches confessions, concerning making of tempests and
raine: of the naturall cause of raine, and that witches or divels have
no power to doo such things. pag. 60.

What would ensue, if witches confessions or witchmōgers opinions were
true, concerning the effects of witchcraft, inchantments, &c. pag. 63.

Examples of forren nations, who in their warres used the assistance of
witches; of eybiting witches in Ireland, of two archers that shot with
familiars. pag. 64.

Authorities condemning the fantasticall confessions of witches, and how
a popish doctor taketh upon him to disproove the same. pag. 65.

Witchmongers reasons, to proove that witches can worke wonders, Bodins
tale of a Friseland preest transported, that imaginations proceeding of
melancholie doo cause illusions. pag. 67.

That the confession of witches is insufficient in civill and common law
to take awaie life. What the sounder divines, and decrees of councels
determine in this case. pag. 68.

Of foure capitall crimes objected against witches, all fullie answered
& confuted as frivolous. pag. 70.

A request to such readers as loath to heare or read filthie & bawdie
matters (which of necessitie are here to be inserted) to passe over
eight chapters. pag. 72.


¶ _The fourth Booke._

Of witchmoongers opinions concerning evill spirits, how they frame
themselves in more excellent sort than God made us. Pag. 73.

Of bawdie Incubus and Succubus, and whether the action of venerie may
be performed betweene witches and divels and when witches first yeelded
to Incubus. pag. 74.

Of the divels visible and invisible dealing with witches in the waie of
lecherie. pag. 76.

That the power of generation is both outwardlie and inwardlie impeached
by witches, and of divers that had their genitals taken from them by
witches, and by the same means againe restored. pag. 77.

Of bishop Sylvanus his leacherie opened & covered againe, how maids
having yellow haire are most combred with Incubus, how maried men are
bewitched to use other mens wives, and to refuse their owne. pag. 79.

How to procure the dissolving of bewitched love, also to enforce a man
(how proper so ever he be) to love an old hag: and of a bawdie tricke
of a priest in Gelderland. pag. 80.

Of divers saincts and holie persons, which were exceeding bawdie and
lecherous, and by certeine miraculous meanes became chast. pag. 81.

Certeine popish and magicall cures, for them that are bewitched in
their privities. p. 82.

A strange cure doone to one that was molested with Incubus. pag. 83.

A confutation of all the former follies touching Incubus, which by
examples and proofes of like stuffe is shewed to be flat knaverie,
wherein the carnall copulation with spirits is overthrowne. pag. 85.

That Incubus is a naturall disease, with remedies for the same, besides
magicall cures herewithall expressed. pag. 86.

The censure of G. Chaucer, upon the knaverie of Incubus. pag. 88.


¶ _The fift Booke._

Of transformations, ridiculous examples brought by the adversaries for
the confirmation of their foolish doctrine. Pag. 89.

Absurd reasons brought by Bodin, & such others, for confirmation of
transformations. pag. 93.

Of a man turned into an asse, and returned againe into a man by one of
Bodins witches: S. Augustines opinion thereof. cap. 94.

A summarie of the former fable, with a refutation thereof, after due
examination of the same. pag. 97.

That the bodie of a man cannot be turned into the bodie of a beast by a
witch, is prooved by strong reasons, scriptures, and authorities.
pag. 99.

The witchmongers objections concerning Nabuchadnez-zar answered, &
their errour concerning Lycanthropia confuted. pag. 101.

A speciall objection answered concerning transportations, with the
consent of diverse writers thereupon. pag. 103.

The witchmongers objection concerning the historie of Job answered.
pag. 105.

What severall sortes of witches are mentioned in the scriptures, & how
the word witch is there applied. pag. 109.


¶ _The sixt Booke._

The exposition of this Hebrue word Chasaph, wherin is answered the
objection conteined in Exodus 22. to wit: Thou shalt not suffer a
witch to live, and of Simon Magus. Acts 8. pag. 111.

The place of Deuteronomie expounded, wherein are recited all kind of
witches; also their opinions confuted, which hold that they can worke
worke[*] such miracles as are imputed unto them. pag. 113.

That women have used poisoning in all ages more than men, & of the
inconvenience of poisoning pag. 116.

Of divers poisoning practises, otherwise called veneficia, committed in
Italie, Genua, Millen, Wittenberge, also how they were discovered and
executed. pag. 119.

A great objection answered concerning this kind of witchcraft called
Veneficium. pag. 120.

In what kind of confections that witchcraft, which is called
Veneficium, consisteth: of love cups, and the same confuted by poets.
pag. 121.

It is prooved by more credible writers, that love cups rather ingender
death through venome, than love by art: and with what toies they
destroie cattell, and procure love. p. 123.

John Bodin triumphing against J. Wier is overtaken with false greeke &
false interpretation thereof. p. 125.

♦[*] [_sic_]♦


¶ _The seventh Booke._

Of the Hebrue woord Ob, what it signifieth where it is found, of
Pythonisses called Ventriloque, who they be, & what their practises
are, experience and examples thereof shewed. Pag. 126.

How the lewd practise of the Pythonist of Westwell came to light, and
by whome she was examined; and that all hir diabolicall speach was
but ventriloquie and plaine cousenage, which is prooved by hir owne
confession. pag. 130.

Bodins stuffe concerning the Pythonist of Endor, with a true storie of
a counterfeit Dutchman. pag. 132.

Of the great oracle of Apollo the Pythonist, and how men of all sorts
have beene deceived, and that even the apostles have mistaken the
nature of spirits, with an unanswerable argument, that spirits can
take no shapes. pag. 133.

Why Apollo was called Pytho wherof those witches were called
Pythonists: Gregorie his letter to the divell. pag. 136.

Apollo, who was called Pytho, compared to the Rood of grace: Gregories
letter to the divell cōfuted. p. 137.

How diverse great clarkes and good authors have beene abused in
this matter of spirits through false reports, and by means of their
credulitie have published lies, which are confuted by Aristotle and
the scriptures. pag. 138.

Of the witch of Endor, and whether she accomplished the raising of
Samuel trulie, or by deceipt: the opinion of some divines hereupon.
p. 139.

That Samuel was not raised indeed, and how Bodin and all papists dote
herin, and that soules cannot be raised by witchcraft. pag. 140.

That neither the divell nor Samuel was raised, but that it was a meere
cousenage, according to the guise of our Pythonists. pag. 142.

The objection of the witchmongers concerning this place fullie
answered, and what circumstances are to be considered for the
understanding of this storie, which is plainelie opened from the
beginning of the 28. chapt. of the 1. Samuel, to the 12. verse.
pag. 143.

The 12. 13. & 14. verses of 1. Sam. 28. expounded: wherein is shewed
that Saule was cousened and abused by the witch, & that Samuel was not
raised, is prooved by the witches owne talke. pag. 146.

The residue of 1. Sam. 28. expounded: wherein is declared how
cunninglie this witch brought Saule resolutelie to beleeve that she
raised Samuel, what words are used to colour the cousenage, & how all
might also be wrought by ventriloquie. p. 148.

Opinions of some learned men, that Samuel was indeed raised, not by the
witches art or power, but by the speciall miracle of God, that there
are no such visions in these our daies, and that our witches cannot
doo the like. pag. 151.

Of vaine apparitions, how people have beene brought to feare bugs,
which is partlie reformed by preaching of the gospel, the true effect
of Christes miracles. pag. 152.

Witches miracles cōpared to Christs, that God is the creator of al
things, of Apollo, and of his names and portraiture. pag. 154.


¶ _The eight Booke._

That miracles are ceased. 156.

That the gift of prophesie is ceased. Pag. 158.

That Oracles are ceased. pag. 160.

A tale written by manie grave authors, and beleeved by manie wise men
of the divels death. An other storie written by papists, and beleeved
of all catholikes, approoving the divels honestie, conscience, and
courtesie. pag. 162.

The judgments of the ancient fathers touching oracles, and their
abolishment, and that they be now transferred from Delphos to Rome.
p. 164.

Where and wherein couseners, witches, and preests were woont to give
oracles, and to worke their feats. pag. 165.


¶ _The ninth Booke._

The Hebrue word Kasam expounded, and how farre a Christian may
conjecture of things to come. Pag. 167.

Proofes by the old and new testament, that certaine observations of the
weather are lawfull. pag. 168.

That certeine observations are indifferent, certeine ridiculous, and
certeine impious, whence that cunning is derived of Apollo, and of
Aruspices. pag. 169.

The predictions of soothsaiers & lewd preests, the prognostications of
astronomers and physicians allowable, divine prophesies holie and
good. pag. 171.

The diversitie of true prophets, of Urim, and of the propheticall use
of the twelve pretious stones conteined therein, of the divine voice
called Eccho. pag. 172.

Of prophesies conditionall: whereof the prophesies in the old testament
dee[*] intreat, and by whom they were published; witchmongers answers
to the objections against witches supernaturall actions. pag. 173.

What were the miracles expressed in the old testament, and what are
they in the new testament: and that we are not now to looke for anie
more miracles. pag. 175.

♦[*] [doe]♦


¶ _The tenth Booke._

The interpretation of the Hebrue word Onen, of the vanitie of dreames,
and divinations thereupon. Pag. 177.

Of divine, naturall, & casuall dreames, with the differing causes and
effects. pag. 178.

The opinion of divers old writers touching dreames, and how they varie
in noting the causes therof. p. 179.

Against interpretors of dreames, of the ordinarie cause of dreames,
Hemingius his opinion of diabolicall dreames, the interpretation of
dreames ceased. pag. 180.

That neither witches, nor anie other, can either by words or herbs,
thrust into the mind of a sleeping man, what cogitations or dreames
they list; and whence magicall dreames come. pag. 181.

How men have beene bewitched, cousened or abused by dreames to dig and
search for monie. pag. 182.

The art & order to be used in digging for monie, revealed by dreames,
how to procure pleasant dreames, of morning and midnight dreames.
p. 183.

Sundrie receipts & ointments, made and used for the transportation of
witches, and other miraculous effects: an instance thereof reported
and credited by some that are learned. pag. 184.

A confutation of the former follies, as well cōcerning ointments,
dreams, &c. as also of the assemblie of witches, and of their
consultations and bankets at sundrie places, and all in dreames.
pag. 185.

That most part of prophesies in the old testament were revealed in
dreams, that we are not now to looke for such revelations, of some
who have drempt of that which hath come to passe, that dreames proove
contrarie, Nebuchadnez zars[*] rule to know a true expositor of
dreames. pag. 187.

♦[*] [_sic_]♦


¶ _The eleventh Booke._

The Hebrue word Nahas expounded, of the art of augurie, who invented
it, how slovenlie a science it is: the multitude of sacrifices and
sacrificers of the heathen, and the causes thereof. Pag. 189.

Of the Jewes sacrifice to Moloch, a discourse thereupon, and of
Purgatorie. pag. 190.

The Cambals[*] crueltie, of popish sacrifices exceeding in tyrannie
the Jewes or Gentiles. pag. 191.

The superstition of the heathen about the element of fier, and how it
grew in such reverence among them, of their corruptions, and that
they had some inkling of the godlie fathers dooings in that behalfe.
pag. 191.

Of the Romane sacrifices, of the estimation they had of augurie, of the
lawe of the twelve tables. pag. 192.

Colleges of augurors, their office, their number, the signification
of augurie, that the practisers of that art were couseners, their
profession, their places of exercise, their apparell, their
superstition. pag. 193.

The times and seasons to exercise augurie, the maner and order thereof,
of the ceremonies thereunto belonging. pag. 195.

Upon what signes and tokens augurors did prognosticate, observations
touching the inward and outward parts of beasts, with notes of beasts
behaviour in the slaughterhouse. pag. 196.

A confutation of augurie, Plato his reverend opinion thereof, of
contrarie events, & false predictions. p. 196.

The cousening art of sortilege or lotarie, practiced especiallie by
Aegyptian vagabonds, of allowed lots, of Pythagoras his lot, &c.
pag. 197.

Of the Cabalisticall art, consisting of traditions and unwritten
verities learned without booke, and of the division thereof. cap. 198.

When, how, and in what sort sacrifices were first ordained, and how
they were prophaned, and how the pope corrupteth the sacraments of
Christ. pag. 200.

Of the objects whereupon the augurors used to prognosticate, with
certeine cautions and notes. pag. 201.

The division of augurie, persons admittable into the colleges of
augurie, of their superstition. pag. 202.

Of the common peoples fond and superstitious collections and
observations. pag. 203.

How old writers varie about the matter, the maner, and the meanes,
whereby things augurificall are mooved. pag. 205.

How ridiculous an art augurie is, how Cato mocked it, Aristotles
reason against it, fond collections of augurors, who allowed, and who
disallowed it. pag. 206.

Fond distinctions of the heathen writers, concerning augurie. pag. 208.

Of naturall and casuall augurie, the one allowed,and the other
disallowed. pag. 208.

A confutation of casual augurie which is meere witchcraft, and upon
what uncerteintie those divinations are grounded. pag. 209.

That figure-casters are witches, the uncerteintie of their art, and of
their contradictions, Cornelius Agrippas sentence against judiciall
astrologie. pag. 210.

The subtiltie of astrologers to mainteine the credit of their art, why
they remaine in credit, certeine impieties conteined in astrologers
assertions. pag. 212.

Who have power to drive awaie divels with their onelie presence, who
shall receive of God whatsoever they aske in praier, who shall obteine
everlasting life by meanes of constellations, as nativitie-casters
affirme. pag. 214.

♦[*] [_sic_]♦


¶ _The twelfe Booke._

The Hebrue word Habar expounded, where also the supposed secret force
of charmes and inchantments is shewed, and the efficacie of words is
diverse waies declared. Pag. 216.

What is forbidden in scriptures concerning witchcraft, of the operation
of words, the superstition of the Cabalists and papists, who createth
substances, to imitate God in some cases is presumption, words of
sanctification. pag. 217.

What effect & offense witches charmes bring, how unapt witches are, and
how unlikelie to worke those things which they are thought to doo,
what would follow if those things were true which are laid to their
charge. pag. 218.

Why God forbad the practise of witchcraft, the absurditie of the law of
the twelve tables, whereupon their estimation in miraculous actions is
grounded, of their woonderous works. pag. 220.

An instance of one arreigned upon the law of the twelve tables, whereby
the said law is prooved ridiculous, of two witches that could doo
woonders. pag. 221.

Lawes provided for the punishment of such witches as worke miracles,
whereof some are mentioned, and of certeine popish lawes published
against them. pag. 222.

Poetical authorities commonlie alledged by witchmongers, for the
proofe of witches miraculous actions, and for confirmation of their
supernaturall power. pag. 223.

Poetrie and poperie compared in inchantments, popish witchmongers have
more advantage herein than protestants. pag. 229.

Popish periapts, amulets & charmes, agnus Dei, a wastcote of proofe, a
charme for the falling evill, a writing brought to S. Leo from heaven
by an angell, the vertues of S. Saviors epistle, a charme against
theeves, a writing found in Christs wounds, of the crosse, &c.
pag. 230.

¶ A charme against shot, or a wastcote of proofe. Against the falling
evill, p. 231. A popish periapt or charme, which must never be said,
but carried about one, against theeves. Another amulet, pag. 233. A
papisticall charme. A charme found in the canon of the masse. Other
papisticall charmes. pag. 234. A charme of the holie crosse. pag. 235.
A charme taken out of the Primer. pag. 236.

How to make holie water, and the vertues thereof, S. Rufins charme,
of the wearing & bearing of the name of Jesus, that the sacrament of
confession & the eucharist is of as much efficacie as other charmes,
and magnified by L. Vairus. pag. 237.

Of the noble balme used by Moses, apishlie counterfeited in the church
of Rome. pag. 238.

The opinion of Ferrarius touching charmes, periapts, appensions,
amulets, &c. Of Homericall medicines, of constant opinion, and the
effects thereof. pag. 239.

Of the effects of amulets, the drift of Argerius Ferrarius in the
commendation of charmes, &c: foure sorts of Homericall medicines, and
the choice thereof; of imagination. pag. 241.

Choice of charmes against the falling evill, the biting of a mad dog,
the stinging of a scorpion, the toothach, for a woman in travell, for
the kings evill, to get a thorne out of any member, or a bone out of
ones throte, charmes to be said fasting, or at the gathering of
hearbs, for sore eies, to open locks, against spirits, for the bots
in a horsse, and speciallie for the Duke of Albas horsse, for sowre
wines, &c. pag. 242.

¶ For the falling evill. pa. 242. Against the biting of a mad dog. pag.
243. Against the biting of a scorpion. Against the toothach. A charme
to release a woman in travell. To heale the Kings or Queenes evill, or
anie other sorenesse in the throte. A charme read in the Romish
church, upon saint Blazes daie, that will fetch a thorne out of anie
place of ones bodie, a bone out of the throte, &c: Lect. 3. pag. 244.
A charme for the headach. A charme to be said ech morning by a witch
fasting, or at least before she go abroad. Another charme that witches
use at the gathering of their medicinable hearbs. An old womans
charme, wherwith she did much good in the countrie, and grew famous
thereby. pag. 245. Another like charme. A charme to open locks. A
charme to drive awaie spirits that haunt anie house. pag. 246. A
prettie charme or conclusion for one possessed. Another for the same
purpose. Another to the same effect. Another charme or witchcraft for
the same. pag. 247. A charme for the bots in a horsse. pag. 248. A
charme against vineger. pa. 249.

The inchanting of serpents & snakes, objections answered concerning the
same; fond reasons whie charmes take effect therein, Mahomets pigeon,
miracles wrought by an Asse at Memphis in Aegypt, popish charmes
against serpents, of miracle-workers, the taming of snakes, Bodins lie
of snakes. pag. 249.

Charmes to carrie water in a sive, to know what is spoken of us behind
our backs, for bleare eies, to make seeds to growe well, of images
made of wax, to be rid of a witch, to hang hir up, notable authorities
against waxen images, a storie bewraieng the knaverie of waxen images.
pag. 256.

¶ A charme teaching how to hurt whom you list with images of wax, &c.
pag. 257.

Sundrie sorts of charmes tending to diverse purposes, and first,
certeine charmes to make taciturnitie in tortures. pag. 259.

¶ Counter charmes against these and all other witchcrafts, in the
saieng also whereof witches are vexed, &c. A charme for the choine
cough. For corporall or spirituall rest. Charmes to find out a theefe.
pag. 260. Another waie to find out a theefe that hath stolne any
thing from you. pag. 261. To put out the theeves eie. Another waie to
find out a theefe. pag. 262. A charme to find out or spoile a theefe.
S. Adelberts cursse or charme against theeves. pag. 263. Another
inchantment. pag. 266.

A charme or experiment to find out a witch. pag. 266.

¶ To spoile a theefe, a witch, or any other enimie, and to be delivered
from the evill. pag. 269. A notable charme or medicine to pull out
an arrowhead, or any such thing that sticketh in the flesh or bones,
and cannot otherwise be had out. Charmes against a quotidian ague.
For all maner of agues intermittant. Periapts, characters, &c: for
agues, and to cure all diseases, and to deliver from all evill. p.
270. More charmes for agues. pag. 271. For a bloudie fluxe, or rather
an issue of bloud. Cures commensed and finished by witchcraft, pa.
273. Another witchcraft or knaverie, practised by the same surgion.
pag. 275. Another experiment for one bewitched. Otherwise. A knacke to
know whether you be bewitched, or no, &c. pag. 276.

That one witchcraft may lawfullie meete with another. pag. 277.

Who are privileged from witches, what bodies are aptest to be
bewitched, or to be witches, why women are rather witches than men,
and what they are. pag. 277.

What miracles witchmongers report to have been done by witches words
&c: contradictions of witchmongers among themselves, how beasts are
cured hereby, of bewitched butter, a charme against witches, & a
counter charme, the effect of charmes and words prooved by L. Vairus
to be woonderfull. pag. 279.

¶ A charme to find hir that bewitched your kine. Another, for all
that have bewitched any kind of cattell. p. 281. A speciall charme to
preserve all cattell from witchcraft. pag. 282.

Lawfull charmes, rather medicinable cures for diseased cattell. The
charme of charmes, and the power thereof. pag. 283.

¶ The charme of charmes. Otherwise. pag. 284.

A confutation of the force and vertue falselie ascribed to charmes
and amulets, by the authorities of ancient writers, both divines and
physicians. pag. 285.


¶ _The xiii. Booke._

The signification of the Hebrue word Hartumim, where it is found
written in the scriptures, and how it is diverslie translated: whereby
the objection of Pharaos magicians is afterward answered in this
booke; also of naturall magicke not evill in it selfe. Pag. 287.

How the philosophers in times past travelled for the knowledge of
naturall magicke, of Salomons knowledge therein, who is to be called
a naturall magician, a distinctiō therof, and why it is condemned for
witchcraft. pag. 288.

What secrets doo lie hidden, and what is taught in naturall magicke,
how Gods glorie is magnified therein, and that it is nothing but the
worke of nature. pag. 290.

What strange things are brought to passe by naturall magicke. pag. 291.

The incredible operation of waters, both standing and running; of wels,
lakes, rivers, and of their woonderfull effects. pag. 292.

The vertues and qualities of sundrie pretious stones, of cousening
Lapidaries, &c. pag. 293.

Whence the pretious stones receive their operations, how curious
Magicians use them, and of their seales. pag. 297.

The sympathie and antipathie of naturall and elementarie bodies
declared by diverse examples of beasts, birds, plants, &c. pag. 301.

The former matter prooved by manie examples of the living and the dead.
pag. 303.

The bewitching venome conteined in the bodie of an harlot, how hir eie,
hir toong, hir beautie and behavior bewitcheth some men: of bones and
hornes yeelding great vertue. pag. 304.

Two notorious woonders and yet not marvelled at. pag. 305.

Of illusions, confederacies, and legierdemaine, and how they may be
well or ill used. pag. 307.

Of private confederacie, and of Brandons pigeon. pag. 308.

Of publike confederacie, and whereof it consisteth. pag. 309.

How men have beene abused with words of equivocation, with sundrie
examples thereof. pag. 309.

How some are abused with naturall magike, and sundrie examples therof
when illusion is added thereunto, of Jacobs pied sheepe, and of a
blacke Moore. pag. 311.

The opinion of witchmongers, that divels can create bodies, & of
Pharaos magicians. pag. 312.

How to produce or make monsters by art magike, and why Pharaos
magicians could not make lice. pa. 313.

That great matters may be wrought by this art, when princes esteeme
and mainteine it: of divers woonderfull experiments, and of strange
conclusions in glasses, of the art perspective, &c. pag. 315.

A comparison betwixt Pharaos magicians and our witches, and how their
cunning consisted in juggling knacks. pag. 317.

That the serpents and frogs were trulie presented, and the water
poisoned indeed by Jannes and Jambres, of false prophets, and of their
miracles, of Balams asse. pag. 318.

The art of juggling discovered, and in what points it dooth
principallie consist. pag. 321.

Of the ball, and the manner of legierdemaine therwith, also notable
feats with one or diverse balles. pag. 322.

¶ To make a little ball swell in your hand till it be verie great.
p. 323. To consume (or rather to conveie) one or manie balles into
nothing. pag. 324. How to rap a wag upon the knuckles. pag. 324.

Of conveiance of monie. pag. 324.

¶ To conveie monie out of one of your hands into the other by
legierdemaine. pag. 325. To convert or transubstantiate monie into
counters, or counters into monie. pag. 325. To put one testor into
one hand, and an other into the other hand, and with words to bring
them togither. pag. 325. To put one testor into a strangers hand, and
another into your owne, and to conveie both into the strangers hand
with words. pag. 326. How to doo the same or the like feat otherwise.
pa. 326. To throwe a peece of monie awaie, and to find it againe where
you list. pag. 326. With words to make a groat or a testor to leape
out of a pot, or to run alongst upon a table. pag. 327. To make a
groat or a testor to sinke through a table, and to vanish out of a
handkercher verie strangelie. pag. 327.

A notable tricke to transforme a counter to a groat. pag. 328.

An excellent feat, to make a two penie peece lie plaine in the palme of
your hand, and to be passed from thence when you list. pag. 329.

¶ To conveie a testor out of ones hand that holdeth it fast. pag. 329.
To throwe a peece of monie into a deepe pond, and to fetch it againe
from whence you list. pag. 330.

To conveie one shilling being in one hand into an other, holding your
armes abroad like a rood. pag. 330. How to rap a wag on the knuckles.
pag. 330.

To transforme anie one small thing into anie other forme by folding of
paper. pag. 331.

Of cards, with good cautions how to avoid cousenage therein: speciall
rules to conveie and handle the cards, and the maner and order how to
accomplish all difficult and strange things wrought by cards.
pag. 331.

¶ How to deliver out foure aces, and to convert them into foure knaves.
pag. 333. How to tell one what card he seeth in the bottome, when the
same card is shuffled into the stocke. pag. 334. An other waie to doo
the same, having your selfe indeed never seene the card. pag. 334. To
tell one without confederacie what card he thinketh. pag. 334.

How to tell what card anie man thinketh, how to conveie the same into
a kernell of a nut or cheristone, &c: and the same againe into ones
pocket: how to make one drawe the same or anie card you list, and all
under one devise. pag. 335.

Of fast or loose, how to knit a hard knot upon a handkercher, and to
undoo the same with words. p. 336.

¶ A notable feat of fast or loose, namelie, to pull three beadstones
from off a cord, while you hold fast the ends thereof, without
remooving of your hand. pag. 337.

Juggling knacks by confederacie, and how to know whether one cast
crosse or pile by the ringing. pag. 338.

¶ To make a shoale of goslings drawe a timber log. pag. 338. To make
a pot or anie such thing standing fast on the cupboord, to fall downe
thense by vertue of words. pag. 338. To[*] one danse naked. pag. 339.
To transforme or alter the colour of ones cap or hat. pag. 339. How to
tell where a stollen horsse is become. pag. 339.

Boxes to alter one graine into another, or to consume the graine or
come to nothing. pag. 340.

¶ How to conveie (with words or charmes) the corne conteined in one
boxe into an other. pag. 340. Of an other boxe to convert wheat into
flower with words, &c. pag. 341. Of diverse petie juggling knacks.
pag. 341.

To burne a thred, and to make it whole againe with the ashes thereof.
pag. 341.

¶ To cut a lace asunder in the middest, and to make it whole againe.
pag. 342. How to pull laces innumerable out of your mouth, of what
colour or length you list, and never anie thing seene to be therein.
pag. 343.

How to make a booke, wherein you shall shew everie leafe therein to be
white, blacke, blew, red, yellow, greene, &c. pag. 343.

Desperate or dangerous juggling knacks, wherin the simple are made to
thinke, that a seelie juggler with words can hurt and helpe, kill and
revive anie creature at his pleasure: and first to kill anie kind of
pullen, and to give it life againe. pag. 346.

¶ To eate a knife, and to fetch it out of anie other place. pag. 346.
To thrust a bodkin into your head without hurt. pag. 347. To thrust a
bodkin through your toong, and a knife through your arme: a pittiful
sight, without hurt or danger. pag. 347. To thrust a peece of lead
into one eie, and to drive it about (with a sticke) betweene the skin
and flesh of the forehead, untill it be brought to the other eie, and
there thrust out. pag. 348. To cut halfe your nose asunder, and to
heale it againe presentlie without anie salve. pag. 348.

To put a ring through your cheeke. pag. 348. To cut off ones head, and
to laie it in a platter, &c: which the juglers call the decollation
of John Baptist. pag. 349. To thrust a dagger or bodkin in your guts
verie strangelie, and to recover immediatlie. pag. 350. To draw a cord
through your nose, mouth or hand, so sensiblie as it is wonderfull to
see. pag. 351.

The conclusion wherein the reader is referred to certeine patterns of
instruments wherewith diverse feats here specified are to be executed.
pag. 351.

♦[*] [make]♦


¶_The xiiii. Booke._

Of the art of Alcumysterie, of their woords of art and devises to
bleare mens eies, and to procure credit to their profession. Pag. 353.

The Alcumysters drift, the Chanons yeomans tale, of alcumystical stones
and waters. pag. 355.

Of a yeoman of the countrie cousened by an Alcumyst. pag. 357.

A certeine king abused by an Alcumyst, and of the kings foole a pretie
jest. pag. 360.

A notable storie written by Erasmus of two Alcumysts, also of longation
and curtation. pag. 361.

The opinion of diverse learned men touching the follie of Alcumystrie.
pag. 368.

That vaine and deceitfull hope is a great cause why men are seduced by
this alluring art, and that there labours therein are bootelesse, &c.
pag. 371.

A continuation of the former matter, with a conclusion of the same.
p. 372.


¶ _The xv. Booke._

The exposition of Iidoni, and where it is found, whereby the whole art
of conjuration is deciphered. Pag. 376.

An inventarie of the names, shapes, powers, governement, and effects
of divels and spirits, of their severall segniorities and degrees: a
strange discourse woorth the reading. p. 377.

The houres wherein principall divels may be bound; to wit, raised and
restrained from dooing of hurt. p. 393.

The forme of adjuring or citing of the spirits aforesaid to arise &
appeare. page. 393.

A confutation of the manifold vanities conteined in the precedent
chapters, speciallie of commanding of divels. pag. 396.

The names of the planets, their characters, togither with the twelve
signes of the zodiake, their dispositions, aspects, and government,
with other observations. pag. 397.

¶ The twelve signes of the zodiake, their characters and denominations,
&c. pag. 397. Their dispositions or inclinations. 397. The disposition
of the planets. pag. 398. The aspects of the planets. 398. How the
daie is divided or distinguished. 398. The division of the daie, and
the planetarie regiment. pag. 399. The division of the night, and the
planetarie regiment. pag. 399.

The characters of the angels of the seven daies, with their names: of
figures, seales and periapts. pag. 400.

An experiment of the dead. pag. 401.

A licence for Sibylia to go and come by at all times. pag. 407.

To know of treasure hidden in the earth. pag. 408.

¶ This is the waie to go invisible by these three sisters of fairies.
408.

An experiment of Citrael, &c: _angeli diei dominici_. pag. 410.

¶ The seven angels of the seven daies, with the praier called _Regina
linguæ_. pag. 410.

How to inclose a spirit in a christall stone. pag. 411.

A figure or type proportionall, shewing what forme must be observed and
kept, in making the figure whereby the former secret of inclosing a
spirit in christall is to be accomplished, &c. pag. 414.

An experiment of Bealphares. pag. 415.

¶ The twoo and twentieth Psalme. pag. 416.

This psalme also following, being the fiftie one psalme, must be said
three times over, &c. pag. 416.

To bind the spirit Bealphares, and to lose him againe. pag. 418.

¶ A licence for the spirit to depart. pag. 419. A type or figure of the
circle for the maister and his fellowes to sit in, shewing how & after
what fashion it should be made. pag. 420.

The making of the holie water. pag. 421.

¶ To the water saie also as followeth. pag. 421. Then take the salt in
thy hand, and saie putting it into the water, making in the maner of a
crosse. pag. 421. Then sprinkle upon anie thing, and saie as
followeth. pag. 422.

To make a spirit to appeare in a christall. pag. 422.

An experiment of the dead. pag. 423.

¶ Now the Pater noster, Ave, and Credo must be said, and then the
praier immediatlie following. p. 425.

A bond to bind him to thee, and to thy N. as followeth. pag. 425.

¶ This bōd as followeth, is to call him into your christall stone, or
glasse, &c. pag. 428. Then being appeared, saie these words following.
pag. 429. A licence to depart. pag. 429.

When to talke with spirits, and to have true answers to find out a
theefe. pag. 430.

¶ To speake with spirits. pag. 430.

A confutation of conjuration, especiallie of the raising, binding and
dismissing of the divell, of going invisible and other lewd practises.
pag. 430.

A comparison betweene popish exorcists and other conjurors, a popish
conjuration published by a great doctor of the Romish church, his
rules and cautions. pag. 433.

A late experiment, or cousening conjuration practised at Orleance by
the Franciscane Friers, how it was detected, and the judgement against
the authors of that comedie. pag. 435.

Who may be conjurors in the Romish church besides priests, a ridiculous
definition of superstition, what words are to be used and not used in
exorcismes, rebaptisme allowed, it is lawfull to conjure any thing,
differences betweene holie water and conjuration. pag. 438.

The seven reasons why some are not rid of the divell with all their
popish conjurations, why there were no cōjurors in the primitive
church, and why the divell is not so soone cast out of the bewitched
as of the possessed. pag. 441.

Other grosse absurdities of witchmongers in this matter of
conjurations. pag. 443.

Certaine conjurations taken out of the pontificall and out of the
missall. pag. 444.

¶ A conjuration written in the masse booke. Fol. 1. pag. 445. Oremus.
pag. 445.

That popish priests leave nothing unconjured, a forme of exorcisme for
incense. pag. 446.

The rules and lawes of popish Exorcists and other conjurors all one,
with a confutation of their whole power, how S. Martine conjured the
divell. pag. 447.

That it is a shame for papists to beleeve other conjurors dooings,
their owne being of so litle force, Hippocrates his opinion herein.
pag. 450.

How conjurors have beguiled witches, what bookes they carie about
to procure credit to their art, wicked assertions against Moses and
Joseph. pag. 451.

All magicall arts confuted by an argument concerning Nero, what
Cornelius Agrippa and Carolus Gallus have left written therof, and
prooved by experience. pag. 452.

Of Salomons conjurations, and of the opinion conceived of his cunning
and practise therein. pag. 454.

Lessons read in all churches, where the pope hath authoritie, on Saint
Margarets daie, translated into English word for word. pag. 455.

A delicate storie of a Lombard, who by saint Margarets example would
needs fight with a reall divell. pag. 457.

The storie of S. Margaret prooved to be both ridiculous and impious in
everie point. pag. 459.

A pleasant miracle wrought by a popish preest. pag. 460.

The former miracle confuted, with a strange storie of S. Lucie.
pag. 461.

Of visions, noises, apparitions, and imagined sounds, and of other
illusions, of wandering soules: with a confutation thereof. pag. 461.

Cardanus opinion of strange noises, how counterfet visions grow to be
credited, of popish appeerances, of pope Boniface. pag. 464.

Of the noise or sound of eccho, of one that narrowlie escaped drowning
thereby &c. pag. 465.

Of Theurgie, with a confutation therof, a letter sent to me concerning
these matters. pag. 466.

¶ The copie of a letter sent unto me R. S. by T. E. Maister of art, and
practiser both of physicke, and also in times past, of certeine vaine
sciences; now condemned to die for the same: wherein he openeth the
truth touching these deceits. pag. 467.


¶ _The xvi. Booke._

A conclusion, in maner of an epilog, repeating manie of the former
absurdities of witchmongers conceipts, confutations thereof, and of
the authoritie of James Sprenger and Henry Institor inquisitors and
compilers of M. Mal. Pa. 470.

By what meanes the common people have beene made beleeve in the
miraculous works of witches, a definition of witchcraft, and a
description thereof. pag. 471.

Reasons to proove that words and characters are but bables, and that
witches cannot doo such things as the multitude supposeth they can,
their greatest woonders prooved trifles, of a yoong gentleman
cousened. pag. 473.

Of one that was so bewitched that he could read no scriptures but
canonicall, of a divell that could speake no Latine, a proofe that
witchcraft is flat cousenage. pag. 476.

Of the divination by the sive & sheeres, and by the booke and key,
Hemingius his opinion thereof confuted, a bable to know what is a
clocke, of certeine jugling knacks, manifold reasons for the
overthrowe of witches and conjurors, and their cousenages, of the
divels transformations, of _Ferrum candens, &c._ pag. 477.

How the divell preached good doctrine in the shape of a preest, how
he was discovered, and that it is a shame (after confutation of the
greater witchcrafts) for anie man to give credit to the lesser points
thereof. pag. 481.

A conclusion against witchcraft, in maner and forme of an Induction.
pag. 483.

Of naturall witchcraft or fascination. pag. 484.

Of inchanting or bewitching eies. pag. 485.

Of naturall witchcraft for love, &c. pag. 487.

• • • • •

A discourse upon divels and spirits, and first of philosophers
opinions, also the maner of their reasoning hereupon, and the same
confuted. Pag. 489.

Mine owne opinion concerning this argument, to the disproofe of some
writers hereupon. pag. 491.

The opinion of Psellus touching spirits, of their severall orders, and
a confutation of his errors therein. pag. 492.

More absurd assertions of Psellus and such others, concerning the
actions and passions of spirits, his definition of them, and of his
experience therein. pag. 495.

The opinion of Fascius Cardanus touching spirits, and of his familiar
divell. pag. 497.

The opinion of Plato concerning spirits, divels and angels, what
sacrifices they like best, what they feare, and of Socrates his
familiar divell. pag. 498.

Platos nine orders of spirits and angels, Dionysius his division
thereof not much differing from the same, all disprooved by learned
divines. pag. 500.

The commensement of divels fondlie gathered out of the 14. of Isaie, of
Lucifer and of his fall, the Cabalists the Thalmudists and Schoolemens
opinions of the creation of angels. pag. 501.

Of the cōtention betweene the Greeke and Latine church touching
the fall of angels, the variance among papists themselves herein, a
conflict betweene Michael and Lucifer. pag. 503.

Where the battell betweene Michael and Lucifer was fought, how long it
continued, and of their power, how fondlie papists and infidels write
of them, and how reverentlie Christians ought to thinke of them.
p. 504.

Whether they became divels which being angels kept not their vocation,
in Jude and Peter; of the fond opinions of the Rabbins touching
spirits and bugs, with a confutation thereof. pag. 506.

That the divels assaults are spirituall and not temporall, and how
grosselie some understand those parts of the scripture. pag. 508.

The equivocation of this word spirit, how diverslie it is taken in the
scriptures, where (by the waie) is taught that the scripture is not
alwaies literallie to be interpreted, nor yet allegoricallie to be
understood. pa. 509.

That it pleased God to manifest the power of his sonne and not of
witches by miracles. pag. 512.

Of the possessed with devils. pag. 513.

That we being not throughlie informed of the nature of divels and
spirits, must satisfie our selves with that which is dilivered us
in the scriptures touching the same, how this word divell is to be
understood both in the singular & plurall number, of the spirit of God
and the spirit of the divell, of tame spirits, of Ahab. pag. 514.

Whether spirits and soules can assume bodies, and of their creation and
substance, wherein writers doo extreamelie contend and varie.
pag. 516.

Certeine popish reasons concerning spirits made of aier, of daie divels
and night divels, and why the divell loveth no salt in his meate.
pag. 517.

That such divels as are mentioned in the scriptures, have in their
names their nature and qualities expressed, with instances thereof.
pag. 518.

Diverse names of the divell, whereby his nature and disposition is
manifested. pag. 520.

That the idols or gods of the Gentiles are divels, their diverse
names, and in what affaires their labours and authorities are
emploied, wherein also the blind superstition of the heathen people is
discovered. pag. 521.

Of the Romans cheefe gods called _Dii selecti_, and of other heathen
gods, their names and offices. pag. 523.

Of diverse gods in diverse countries. pag. 525.

Of popish provinciall gods, a comparison betweene them and heathen
gods, of physicall gods, and of what occupation everie popish god is.
pag. 526.

A comparison betweene the heathen and papists, touching their excuses
for idolatrie. pag. 529.

The conceipt of the heathen and the papists all one in idolatrie, of
the councell of Trent, a notable storie of a hangman arraigned after
he was dead and buried, &c. pag. 530.

A confutation of the fable of the hangman, of manie other feined and
ridiculous tales and apparitions, with a reproofe thereof. pag. 532.

A confutation of Johannes Laurentius, and of manie others, mainteining
these fained and ridiculous tales and apparitions, & what driveth them
awaie; of Moses and Helias appearance in Mount Thabor. pag. 534.

A confutation of assuming of bodies, and of the serpent that seduced
Eve. pag. 536.

The objection concerning the divels assuming of the serpents bodie
answered. pag. 537.

Of the cursse rehearsed Genes. 3. and that place rightlie expounded,
John Calvines opinion of the divell. pag. 539.

Mine owne opinion and resolution of the nature of spirits, and of the
divell, with his properties. pag. 540.

Against fond witchmongers, and their opinions concerning corporall
divels. pag. 542.

A conclusion wherin the Spirit of spirits is described, by the
illumination of which spirit all spirits are to be tried: with a
confutation of the Pneutomachi[*] flatlie denieng the divinitie of
this Spirit. pag. 543.

♦[*] [Pneuma-]♦

_FINIS._

¶ Imprinted at London by
_William Brome_.

❦

[These Contents in original end the book as do our Indices.]


APPENDIX I.

[_Ch. 1 to 9 affixed to the 15th Book in Ed. 1665._]

CHAP. Page.