| Libri IV. priores. His accessit Epistolarum et Consultationum | | medicar. Lib. I. Ulm. 1628. 4to. Epistol. p. 374. | | | | [243] _Jo. Bodin._ Method. historic. Amstelod. 1650. 12mo, Ch. V. | | p. 99.—Idem, de Republica. Francofurt. 1591. 8vo. Lib. V. Ch. I. p. | | 789. | | | | [244] A very remarkable case, illustrative in part of this | | observation, where, however, not the person who was supposed to be | | the subject of the demoniacal malady, but its alleged authors, were | | punished, is thus reported by Dr. Watt of Glasgow:—“It occurred | | at Bargarran, in Renfrewshire, in 1696. The patient’s name was | | Christian Shaw, a girl of eleven years of age. She is described | | as having had violent fits of leaping, dancing, running, crying, | | fainting, &c., but the whole narrative is mixed up with so much | | credulity and superstition, that it is impossible to separate truth | | from fiction. These strange fits continued from August, 1696, | | till the end of March in the year following, when the patient | | recovered.” An account of the whole was published at Edinburgh, | | in 1698, entitled, “A true Narrative of the Sufferings of a Young | | Girl, who was strangely molested by evil spirits, and their | | instruments, in the West, collected from authentic testimonies.” | | | | The whole being ascribed to witchcraft, the clergy were most active | | on the occasion. Besides occasional days of humiliation, two solemn | | fasts were observed throughout the whole bounds of the Presbytery, | | and a number of clergymen and elders were appointed in rotation, to | | be constantly on the spot. So far the matter was well enough. But | | such was the superstition of the age, that a memorial was presented | | to his Majesty’s most honourable Privy Council, and on the 19th | | of January, 1697, a warrant was issued, setting forth “that there | | were pregnant grounds of suspicion of witchcraft in Renfrewshire, | | especially from the afflicted and extraordinary condition of | | Christian Shaw, daughter of John Shaw, of Bargarran.” A commission | | was therefore granted to Alexander Lord Blantyre, Sir John Maxwell, | | Sir John Shaw, and five others, together with the sheriff of the | | county, to inquire into the matter, and report. This commission is | | signed by eleven privy councillors, consisting of some of the first | | noblemen and gentlemen in the kingdom. | | | | The report of the commissioners having fully confirmed the |