The existence of witches was formerly a part of the creed of the good people of Lynn, as well as of the rest of their countrymen. It was not a mere mental error, which would have made it, at least in a great measure, harmless, but it was a practical error of a most horrid nature, for it issued in the persecution and murder of not a few wretched, friendless, and innocent beings, who were no more in league with satan and the powers of darkness than their persecutors and judges, or even half so much. These legal murders were once very common in this country, even since the reformation: so that many hundreds, if not thousands of them have been perpetrated under the sanction of our protestant government, and in the sacred name of justice, and of our sovereign lord the king. This town, as was before observed, is among the places where this innocent blood has been spilt, and where the names of law, justice, and royalty, have been shamefully prostituted to justify those foul and murderous deeds. We shall now proceed to give a sketch of the part which our townsmen of other times appear to have taken in this detestable business. SECTION I. _A sketch of the history of the prosecution and murder of divers poor harmless creatures_, _falsely denominated witches_, _at Lynn_, _in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries_. Before the reformation, and since in popish countries, the cognizance of reputed _witches_, and suppression of what is called _witchcraft_, pertained to the _inquisitors_. _Luiz de Paramo_, a Spanish inquisitor, who wrote a most curious book in defence of the holy office, {720} declares that in the course of 150 years, (from 1485, if we are not mistaken) the inquisition had _burnt_ 30,000 _witches_, which he evidently thought a most meritorious deed, for which the pious actors were entitled to the gratitude and veneration of posterity, and himself, who had been very active in the same way, to the praise of having deserved well of his country and of all Christendom. After the reformation, the business, in these kingdoms, was taken up by such zealous protestants (conformists and nonconformists) whose spirit pretty much resembled that of the Spanish Inquisitors, and who appear to have been equally unchristianlike. Their zeal against what they called witchcraft was unbounded; and whenever they could fix that stigma upon any one, he could have little chance of escaping with his life. This country has therefore been highly infamous for the punishments inflicted, and the barbarities exercised upon those hapless beings whom our ignorant, superstitious, and savage ancestors used to brand with the odious names of _witches_ and _wizards_. We might well be called to blush for those execrable deeds of our forefathers, if there were not others belonging to ourselves which no less loudly call for blushing.