The Witchcraft Delusion in New England: Its Rise, Progress, and Termination, (Vol. 1 of 3)Mather, Cotton
History
The Witchcraft Delusion in New England: Its Rise, Progress, and Termination, (Vol. 1 of 3)
Mather, Cotton
Witchcraft -- New England
'The Last Night my Daughter _Ann_, was grievously Tormented by Witches,
Threatning that she should be _Pressed_ to Death, before _Giles
Cory_. But thro' the Goodness of a Gracious God, she had at last a
little Respite. Whereupon there appeared unto her (she said) a man
in a Winding Sheet, who told her that _Giles Cory_ had Murdered him,
by _Pressing_ him to Death with his Feet; but that the Devil there
appeared unto him, and Covenanted with him, and promised him, _He
should not be Hanged_. The Apparition said, God Hardned his heart; that
he should not hearken to the Advice of the Court, and so Dy an easy
Death; because as it said, _It must be done to him as he has done to
me_. The Apparition also said, That _Giles Cory_, was carry'd to the
Court for this, and that the Jury had found the Murder, and that her
Father knew the man, and the thing was done before she was born. Now
Sir, This is not a little strange to us; that no body should Remember
these things, all the while that _Giles Cory_ was in Prison, and so
often before the Court. For all people now Remember very well, (and the
Records of the Court also mention it,) That about Seventeen Years ago,
_Giles Cory_ kept a man in his House, that was almost a Natural Fool:
which Man Dy'd suddenly. A Jury was impannel'd upon him, among whom was
Dr. _Zerobbabel Endicot;_[201] who found the man bruised to Death, and
having clodders of Blood about his Heart. The Jury whereof several are
yet alive brought in the man Murdered; but as if some Enchantment had
hindred the Prosecution of the Matter, the Court Proceeded not against
[48] _Giles Cory_, tho' it cost him a great deal of Mony to get off.
Thus the Story,'
_THE Reverend and Worthy Author, having at the Direction of His_
EXCELLENCY _the Governour, so far Obliged the Publick, as to give some
Account of the Sufferings brought upon the Countrey by_ Witchcraft;
_and of the Tryals which have passed upon several Executed for the
Same:_
_Upon Perusal thereof, We find the Matters of Fact and Evidence, Truly
reported. And a Prospect given, of the_ Methods of Conviction, _used in
the Proceedings of the Court at_ Salem.
Boston Octob. 11. 1692.
William Stoughton
Samuel Sewall.
BUT is _New-England_, the only Christian Countrey, that hath undergone
such Diabolical Molestations? No, there are other Good people, that
have in this way been harassed; but none in circumstances more like to
_Ours_, than the people of God, in _Sweedland_. The story is a very
Famous one; and it comes to Speak English by the Acute Pen of the
Excellent and Renowned Dr. _Horneck_.[202] I shall only single out a
few of the more Memorable passages therein Occurring; and where it
agrees with what happened among ourselves, my Reader shall understand,
by my inserting a Word of every such thing in ==Black Letter==.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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