Discovery of Witches: The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of LancasterPotts, Thomas, active 1612-1618
History
Discovery of Witches: The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster
Potts, Thomas, active 1612-1618
Preston, Jennet, -1612; Witchcraft -- England -- Lancashire
[Footnote 85: Until. That is, many previous trials had been made of
other persons suspected, or of those who were near neighbours, perhaps
living at enmity with the deceased, who had voluntarily offered
themselves to this solemn ordeal, or had been called upon thus
publicly to attest their innocence of his blood.]
[Footnote 86: Holding the lyke-wake.]
[Footnote 87: Can be proved, by testimony or probation.]
[Footnote 88: The large collar which goes about a draught-horse's
neck.]
Z _a_. "_Master Leonard Lister._"] This Leonard Lister was the brother
of Master Thomas Lister, for whose murder Jennet Preston was indicted;
and married Ann, daughter of ---- Loftus, of Coverham Abbey, county of
York.
Z 2 _a_. "_His Lordship commanded the Iurie to obserue the particular
circumstances._"] The judge in this case was Altham, who seems even to
have been more superstitious, bigotted, and narrow-minded than his
brother in commission, Bromley. Fenner, who tried the witches of
Warbois, and Archer, before whom the trial of Julian Cox took place,
are the only judges I can meet with, quite on a level with this
learned baron in grovelling absurdity, upon whom "Jennet Preston would
lay heavy at the time of his death," whether she had so lain upon Mr.
Thomas Lister or not, if bigotry, habit, and custom did not render him
seared and callous to conscience and pity.
Z 3 _b_ 1. "_Take example by this Gentlemen to prosecute these hellish
Furies to their end._"] It is marvellous that Potts does not, like
Delrio, recommend the rack to be applied to witches "in moderation,
and according to the regulations of Pope Pius the Third, and so as not
to cripple the criminal for life." Not that this learned Jesuit is
much averse to simple dislocations occasioned by the rack. These, he
thinks, cannot be avoided in the press of business. He is rather
opposed, though in this he speaks doubtfully and with submission to
authority, to those tortures which fracture the bones or lacerate the
tendons. Verily, the Catholic and the Protestant author might have
shaken hands; they were, beyond dispute, _poene Gemelli_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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