Irish Witchcraft and DemonologySeymour, St. John D. (St. John Drelincourt)
History
Irish Witchcraft and Demonology
Seymour, St. John D. (St. John Drelincourt)
Demonology; Witchcraft -- Ireland
We have the following on the testimony of the Rev. George Creighton,
minister of Virginia, co. Cavan. He tells us that "divers women brought to
his House a young woman, almost naked, to whom a Rogue came upon the way,
these women being present, and required her to give him her mony, or else
he would kill her, and so drew his sword; her answer was, You cannot kill
me unless God give you leave, and His will be done. Thereupon the Rogue
thrust three times at her naked body with his drawn sword, and never
pierced her skin; whereat he being, as it seems, much confounded, went
away and left her." A like story comes from the other side: "At the taking
of the Newry a rebel being appointed to be shot upon the bridge, and
stripped stark-naked, notwithstanding the musketeer stood within two
yards of him, and shot him in the middle of the back, yet the bullet
entered not, nor did him any more hurt than leave a little black spot
behind it. This many hundreds were eye-witnesses of. Divers of the like
have I confidently been assured of, who have been provided of diabolical
charms."[28] Similar tales of persons bearing charmed lives could no doubt
be culled from the records of every war that has been fought on this
planet of ours since History began.
The ease with which the accidental or unusual was transformed into the
miraculous at this period is shown by the following. A Dr. Tate and his
wife and children were flying to Dublin from the insurgents. On their way
they were wandering over commons covered with snow, without any food. The
wife was carrying a sucking child, John, and having no milk to give it she
was about to lay it down in despair, when suddenly "on the Brow of a Bank
she found a Suck-bottle with sweet milk in it, no Footsteps appearing in
the snow of any that should bring it thither, and far from any
Habitation; which preserved the child's life, who after became a Blessing
to the Church." The Dr. Tate mentioned above was evidently the Rev.
Faithful Tate, D.D., father of Nahum Tate of "Tate and Brady" fame.[29]
On the night of Sunday, the 8th of May 1642, a terrific storm of hail and
rain came upon the English soldiers, which of course they attributed to
other than the correct source. "All the tents were in a thrice blown over.
It was not possible for any match to keep fire, or any sojor to handle his
musket or yet to stand. Yea, severalls of them dyed that night of meere
cold. Our sojors, and some of our officers too (who suppose that no thing
which is more than ordinarie can be the product of nature), attributed
this hurrikan to _the divilish skill of some Irish witches_."[30]
Apparently the English were not as wise in their generation as the
inhabitants of Constance in Switzerland were on the occasion of a similar
ebullition of the elements. The latter went out, found a witch,
_persuaded_ her to confess herself the guilty author of the storm, and
then burnt her--by which time, no doubt, the wind had subsided!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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