The xx. Chapter.
Who are privileged from witches, what bodies are aptest to be bewitched, or to be witches, why women are rather witches than men, and what they are.
OW if you will know who and what persons are privileged from witches, you must understand, that they be even suchMal. malef. par. 2. quæ. 1. cap. 1. as cannot be bewitched. In the number of whome first be the in/quisitors,278. and such as exercise publike justice upon them. Howbeit,** Whereof looke more in a little booke set foorth in print. a justice in Essex, whome for diverse respects I have left unnamed, not long since thought he was bewitched, in the verie instant whiles he examined the witch; so as his leg was broken therby, &c: which either was false, or else this rule untrue, or both rather injurious unto Gods providence. Secondlie, such as observe dulie the rites and ceremonies of holie church, and worship them with reverence, through the sprinkling of holie water, and receiving consecrated salt, by the lawfull use of candles hallowed on Candelmas daie, and greene leaves consecrated on Palme sundaie (which things they saie the/200. church useth for the qualifieng of the divels power) are preserved from witchcraft. Thirdlie, some are preserved by their good angels, which attend and wait upon them.
But I maie not omit here the reasons, which they bring, to prove what bodies are the more apt and effectuall to execute the art of fascination. And that is, first they saie the force of celestiall bodies, which indifferentlie communicate their vertues unto men, beasts, trees, stones, &c. But this gift and naturall influence of fascination maie be increased in man, according to his affections and perturbations; as thorough anger, feare, love, hate, &c. For by hate (saith Vairus)L. Vair. lib. de fascin. 1. c. 12. entereth a fierie inflammation into the eie of man, which being violentlie sent out by beams and streames, &c: infect and bewitch those bodies against whome they are opposed. And therefore he saith (in the favour of women) that that is the cause why women are oftener found to be witches than men. For (saith he) they have such an unbrideled force of furie and concupiscence naturallie, that by no meanes it is possible for them to temper or moderate the same. So Much like the eiebiting witches, of whom we have elswhere spoken. as upon everie trifling occasion, they (like brute beasts) fix their furious eies upon the partie whom they bewitch. Hereby it commeth to passe, that whereas women having a mervellous fickle nature, what greefe so ever happeneth unto them, immediatlie all peaceablenes of mind departeth; and they are so troubled with evill humors, that out go their venomous exhalations, ingendred thorough their ilfavoured diet, and increased by meanes of their pernicious excrements, which they expell. Women are also (saith he) monethlie filled full of superfluous humors, and with them/279. the melancholike bloud boileth; whereof spring vapors, and are carried up, and conveied through the nosethrels and mouth, &c: to the bewitching of whatsoever it meeteth. For they belch up a certeine breath, wherewith they bewitch whomsoever they list. And of all other women,Who are most likelie to bewitch, and to be bewitched. leane, hollow eied, old, beetlebrowed women (saith he) are the most infectious. Marie he saith, that hot, subtill, and thin bodies are most subject to be bewitched, if they be moist, and all they generallie, whose veines, pipes, and passages of their bodies are open. And finallie he saith, that all beautifull things whatsoever, are soone subject to be bewitched; as namelie goodlie yoongmen, faire women, such as are naturallie borne to be rich, goodlie beasts, faire horsses, ranke corne, beutifull trees, &c. Yea a freend of his told him, that he saw one with his eie breake a pretious stone in peeces. And all this he telleth as soberlie, as though it were true. And if it were true, honest women maie be witches, in despight of all inquisitors: neither can anie avoid being a witch, except shee locke hir selfe up in a chamber.