The Wonders of the Invisible World: Being an Account of the Tryals of Several Witches Lately Executed in New-England, to which is added A Farther Account of the Tryals of the New-England WitchesMather, Cotton
History
The Wonders of the Invisible World: Being an Account of the Tryals of Several Witches Lately Executed in New-England, to which is added A Farther Account of the Tryals of the New-England Witches
Mather, Cotton
Witchcraft -- New England -- Early works to 1800
are a people that cannot be drowned.
3. _As for that which concerns the Bewitched Persons being recovered out
of their Agonies by the Touch of the suspected Party, it is various and
fallible._
For sometimes the afflicted Person is made sick, (instead of being made
whole) by the Touch of the Accused; sometimes the Power of Imagination
is such, as that the Touch of a Person innocent and not accused shall
have the same effect. It is related in the Account of the Tryals of
Witches at _Bury_ in _Suffolk_ 1664, during the time[67] of the Tryal,
there were some Experiments made with the Persons afflicted, by bringing
the accused to touch them, and it was observed that by the least Touch
of one of the supposed Witches, they that were in their Fits, to all
mens Apprehension wholly deprived of all Sense and Understandings, would
suddenly shriek out and open their Hands.
Mr. Serjeant _Keeling_ did not think that sufficient to Convict the
Prisoners, for admitting that the Children were in truth Bewitched, yet
(saith he) it cannot be applyed to the Prisoners upon the Imagination
only of the Parties afflicted; for if that might be allowed, no Person
whatsoever can be in safety, for perhaps they might fancy another Person
who might altogether be innocent in such matters: To avoid this Scruple
it was privately desired by the Judge, that some Gentlemen there in
Court would attend one of the distempered Persons in the farther part of
the Hall, whilst she was in her Fits, and then to send for one of the
Witches to try what would happen, which they did accordingly. One of
them was conveyed from the Bar, and brought to the Afflicted Maid. They
put an Apron before her Eyes, and then another person (not the Witch)
touched her, which produced the same effect, as the Touch of the Witch
did in the Court. Whereupon the Gentlemen returned much unsatisfied.
_Bodin_[68] relates, that a Witch who was Tryed at _Nants_, was
commanded by the Judges to touch a Bewitched person, a thing often
practised by the Judges of _Germany_ in the _Imperial Chamber_. The
Witch was extreamly unwilling, but being Compelled by the Judges, she
cryed out, _I am undone;_ and as soon as ever she touched the Afflicted
person, the Witch fell down dead, and the other recovered. That horrid
Witch of _Salisbury_, _Ann Bodenham_[69] who had been Servant to the
Notorious Conjurer Dr. _Lamb_, could not bear the sight of one that was
Bewitched by her. As soon as ever she saw the Afflicted Person, she ran
about shrieking, and crying, and roaring after an hideous manner, that
the Devil would tear her in pieces, if that person came near her. And
whilst the Witch was in such Torment, the Bewitched was at ease. By
these things we see, that the Laws and Customs of the Kingdom of
darkness, are not always and in all places the same.
And it is good for men to concern themselves with them as little as may
be.
I think there is weight in Dr. _Cotta's_[70] Argument, _viz._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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