N00531:87
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.
5. This pretended Gift of Immersibility attending Witches is a most fallible deceitful thing. For many a Witch has sunk under the water. G•delmannus (h)giveth an account of six notorious and ⟨p. 57⟩clearly convicted Witches, that when they were brought to their vulgar Probation, sunk down under the water like other persons; Althusius affirms the like concerning others in the (i)Bohemian History it is related that Uratslaus the King of Bohemia, extirpated Witches out of his Kingdom, some of which he delivered to the Axe, others of them to the Fire, and others of t•em […] caused to be Drowned. If Witches are imme•sible, how came they to dye by drowning in Bohemia? Besides, it has sometimes been known that persons who have floated on the water when the Hangman has made the Experiment on them, have sunk down like a Stone, when others have made the Trial.
5. This pretended Gift of Immersibility attending Witches is a most fallible deceitful thing. For many a Witch has sunk under the water. G•delmannus (h)giveth an account of six notorious and ⟨p. 57⟩clearly convicted Witches, that when they were brought to their vulgar Probation, sunk down under the water like other persons; Althusius affirms the like concerning others in the (i)Bohemian History it is related that Uratslaus the King of Bohemia, extirpated Witches out of his Kingdom, some of which he delivered to the Ax, others of them to the Fire, and others of t•em 〈…〉 caused to be Drowned. If Witches are imme•sible, how came they to dye by drowning in Bohemia? Besides, it has sometimes been known that persons who have floated on the water when the Hangman has made the Experiment on them, have sunk down like a Stone, when others have made the Trial.