"The news of this witchcraft coming to the king's ear, his Majesty was pleased to appoint commissioners, some of the clergy and some of the laity, to make a journey to the town above mentioned to examine the whole business. The commissioners met on the 12th of August at the parson's house, and to them the minister and several people of fashion complained, with tears in their eyes, of the miserable condition they were in, and therefore begged of them to think of some way whereby they might be delivered from that calamity. They gave the commissioners very strange instances of the devil's tyranny among them: how, by the help of witches, he had drawn some hundreds of children to him, and made them subject to his power; how he hath been seen to go in a visible shape through the country, and appeared daily to the people; how he had wrought upon the poorer sort, by presenting them with meat and drink, and this way allured them to himself; with other circumstances to be mentioned hereafter. They therefore begged of the Lords Commissioners to root out this hellish crew, that they might regain their former rest and quietness; and the rather, because the children, which used to be carried away in the country or district of Esdaile, since some witches had been burnt there, remained unmolested.
"Examination being made, there were discovered no less than three-score and ten witches in the village aforesaid; three-and-twenty of which, freely confessing their crimes, were condemned to die; the rest, one pretending she was with child, and the others denying, and pleading not guilty, were sent to Faluna, where most of them were afterwards executed.
"Fifteen children, which likewise confessed they were engaged in this witchery, died as the rest; six-and-thirty of them, between nine and sixteen years, who had been less guilty, were forced to run the gauntlet: twenty more, who had no great inclination, yet had been seduced to these hellish enterprises, because they were very young, were condemned to be lashed with rods upon their hands for three Sundays together, at the church door; and the aforesaid six-and-thirty were also doomed to be lashed this way once a week for a whole year together. The number of seduced children was about three hundred, etc. The above narrative is taken out of the public register, where all this, with more circumstances, is related."—Glanville, p. 494.
"At Stockholm, in the year 1676, a young woman accused her mother of being a witch, and swore positively that she had carried her away at night; whereupon both the judges and ministers of the town exhorted the old woman to confession and repentance. But she stiffly denied the allegations, pleaded innocence; and though they burnt another witch before her face, and lighted the fire she was to burn in before her, yet she still justified herself, and continued to do so till the last; and remaining obstinate, was burnt. A fortnight or three weeks after, her daughter, who had accused her, came to the judges in open court (weeping and howling), confessed that she had accused her mother falsely, out of a spleen she had against her for not gratifying her in a thing she desired, and had charged her with a crime of which she was perfectly innocent. Hereupon the judges gave orders for her immediate execution."—Horneck's Introduction to a Narrative of Witchcraft, etc.—Glanville, p. 481.
These are the horrid effects of credulity. For the dreadful devastations made among the human race by superstition, we may read the history of the Inquisition. Among myriads of examples, I was much struck by the following:—
"Along with the Jews that were to be burnt at an auto-da-fe, there was a girl not seventeen years of age, who, standing on that side where the queen sat, petitioned for mercy. She was wonderfully pretty; and looking at the queen, while her eyes streamed with tears, in a most pathetic tone of voice exclaimed, 'Will not the presence of my sovereign make an alteration in my fate? Consider how short a period I have lived, and that I suffer for adherence to a religion which I imbibed with my mother's milk. Mercy! mercy! mercy!' The queen turned away her eyes,—was evidently moved by compassion, but—durst not ask the holy fathers for even a respite."—M. d'Aunoy, p. 66.
What unlimited power! A queen dares not intercede for the pardon of a young girl, guilty of no other crime than adhering to the faith of her ancestors!
One of the most shocking circumstances that attend these consecrated murders, is the indulgences which the Roman pontiffs have attached to the executioners. Those who lead the poor condemned wretches to the fire, and throw them into the flames, gain indulgences for one hundred years. They who content themselves with only seeing them executed, obtain fifty. What horror! The most detestable crimes, the most unnatural cruelties, are made a means of obtaining pardons from the God of mercy!
[131] Whitfield's Hymns, p. 130.
[132] See Mr. Burke's pamphlet on the French Revolution.