N00531:65
Cases of conscience concerning evil spirits personating men, witchcrafts, infallible proofs of guilt in…
Cases of conscience concerning evil spirits personating men, witchcrafts, infallible proofs of guilt in such as are accused with that crime. All considered according to the Scriptures, history, experience, and the judgment of many learned men. / By Increase Mather, president of Harvard College, at Cambridge, and teacher of a church at Boston in New-England. ; [Six lines of quotations]
Boston printed, : and sold by Benjamin Harris at the London Coffee-House., 1693
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Mr. Serjeant Keeling, did not think that sufficient to Convict the Prisoners, for admitting that the Children were in Truth Bewitched, yet (saith he) it cannot be applied to the Prisoners upon the Imagination only of the Parties Afflicted. For if that might be allowed, no Person whatsoever can be in safety, for perhaps they might fancy another Person who might altogether be innocent in such matters. To avoid this Scruple it was privately desired by the Judge, that some Gentlemen there in Court, would attend one of the distempered Persons in the farther part of the Hall, whilst she was in her Fits, and then to send for one of the Witches to try what would happen, which they did accordingly. One of them was conveyed from the Barr, and brought to the Afflicted Maid. They put an Apron before her Eyes, and then another person (not the Witch) touched her, which produced the same Effect, as the Touch of the Witch did in the Court. Whereupon ⟨p. 45⟩the Gentlemen returned much unsatisfied. Bodin (s)relates that a Witch who was tried at Nantes, was commanded by the Judges to touch a bewitched person, a thing often practised by the Judges of Germany in the Imperial Chamber. The Witch was extremely unwilling, but being Compelled by the Judges, she cried out, I am undone; and as soon as ever she touched the Afflicted person, the Witch fell down dead, and the other recovered. That horrid Witch of Salisbury, Ann Bodenbam (t)who had been Servant to the Notorious Conjurer Dr. Lamb, could not bear the sight of one that was Bewitched by her. As soon as ever she saw the Afflicted Person, she ran about shrieking, and crying, and roaring, after an Hideous manner, that the Devil would Tear her in pieces, if that Person came near her. And whilst the Witch was in such Torment, the Bewitched was at case, By these things we see that the Laws and Customs of the Kingdom of Darkness are not always and in all places the same.
Mr. S•rjeant Keeling, did not think that sufficient to Convict the Prisoners, for admitting that the Children were in Truth Bewitched, yet (saith he) it cannot be applyed to the Prisoners upon the Imagination only of the Parties Afflicted. For if that might be allowed, no Person whatsoever can be in safety, for perhaps they might fancy another Person who might altogether be innocent in such matters. To avoid this Scruple it was privately desired by the Judge, that some Gentlemen there in Court, would attend one of the distmpered Persons in the farther part of the Hall, whilst she was in her Fitts, and then to send for one of the Witches to try what would happen, which they did accordingly. One of them was convey'd from the Barr, and brought to the Afflicted Maid. They put an Apron before her Eyes, and then another person (not the Witch) touched her, which produced the same Effect, as the Touch of the Witch did in the Court. Whereupon