The displaying of supposed witchcraft : $b Wherein is affirmed that there are many sorts of deceivers and impostors, and divers persons under a passive delusion of melancholy and fancy. But that there is a corporeal league made betwixt the devil and the witch, or that he sucks on the witches body, has carnal copulation, or that witches are turned into cats, dogs, raise tempests, or the like, is utterly denied and disproved. Wherein also is handled, the existence of angels and spirits, the truth Webster, John
Religion
The displaying of supposed witchcraft : $b Wherein is affirmed that there are many sorts of deceivers and impostors, and divers persons under a passive delusion of melancholy and fancy. But that there is a corporeal league made betwixt the devil and the witch, or that he sucks on the witches body, has carnal copulation, or that witches are turned into cats, dogs, raise tempests, or the like, is utterly denied and disproved. Wherein also is handled, the existence of angels and spirits, the truth
Webster, John
Witchcraft; Witchcraft -- Early works to 1800
3. Sometimes Fascination is taken for some kind of Incantation, that by
virtue of Words or Charms doth perform some strange things; but
concerning this there is such incertainty of the opinions of the
Learned, some flatly denying that Words or Charms have in them any
natural efficacy at all; others as strongly affirming it, that of this
point it is very difficult to make a clear determination: and therefore
we shall say but this of it here, that the Angelical Doctor did conclude
well in this particular, in these words: “_Ad sciendum autem quid sit
fascinatio, sciendum est quòd secundùm glossam fascinatio propriè
dicitur ludificatio sensus, quæ per artes magicas fieri consuevit, puta,
cum hominem facit aspectibus aliorum apparere leonem, vel cornutum, &
hujusmodi_.”
Having been thus large in considering the names and denomination given
to those persons that are esteemed Witches, and finding them to be so
improper, impertinent, various, and uncertain, let us now proceed to the
notion and acceptation of Witchcraft and Witches, to try if in that we
can find any more certainty or consonancy, and herein we shall produce
some of the chief descriptions that are given of them by several
Authors; for to quote all would be tedious and superfluous. Those that
are or may be accounted Witches we rank in these two orders.
1. Those that were and are active deceivers, and are both by practice
and purpose notorious Impostors, though they shadow their delusive and
cheating knaveries under divers and various pretences; some pretending
to do their Feats by Astrology (which is a general Cheat as it is
commonly used) some by a pretended gift from God, when they are
notoriously drunken, debauched, and blasphemous persons, such as of very
late years was the Cobler that lived upon _Ellill_ Moor, named
_Richmond_, and divers others that I could name, but that in modesty I
would spare their reputations: some by pretending skill in Natural
Magick, when indeed they can hardly read English truly; some by
pretending a familiar Spirit, as one _Thomas Bolton_ near
_Knaresborough_ in _Yorkshire_, when indeed and in truth they have no
other Familiar but their own Spirit of lying and deceiving: some by
pretending to reveal things in Crystal-glasses or Beryls, as was well
known to be pretended by Doctor _Lamb_, and divers others that I have
known. And some by pretending to conjure and call up Devils, or the
Spirits of men departed; and some by many other ways and means that are
not necessary to be named here; for errour and deceit have a numerous
train of Followers and Disciples. And the existence of such kind of
Witches as these (if you will needs call them by that name, and not by
their proper titles, which are, that they truly are Deceivers, Cheaters,
Couseners, and Impostors) I willingly acknowledge, as having been, and
are to be found in all ages, and these sorts are also acknowledged by
_Wierus_, Mr. _Scot_, _Johannes Lazarus Gutierius_, _Tobias Tandlerus_,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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