Lancashire continued the home of such beliefs, and in the middle of King William’s reign, a place in that county called Surrey became powerfully agitated by the case of a lad, who stood upon his head, danced upon his knees, scrambled about on all fours, barked like a dog, talked shreds of Latin, ran into the water, and told things at a distance—all, it was said, the result of selling his soul to the Devil, in hopes of thereby becoming a first-rate dancer. The neighbours treated it as a real possession, and so did certain Presbyterian ministers, who appointed days of fasting and prayer on the youth’s behalf, and continued them weekly for a twelvemonth. Folks from the country flocked in to see and hear the marvels going on, and made themselves merry at the expense of the fruitless intercessors; they, in their turn, laid their want of success at the door of the boy’s family, saying the witches were in league with Satan, and therefore supplication could not avail. The supposed demoniac named three Popish priests as likely to cure him—a circumstance which led the discomfited Presbyterians to say that the Devil had more mind to let the Popish priests have “the credit of casting him out, because his ends would be better served by Popery than by them.”
The Episcopal Clergy in the neighbourhood stood aloof from this stupid credulity. That the boy had been given to tricks from his early days was shown by witnesses; and collusions with his sister in pretended intercourse with the spirit-world were also proved. Foolish and wretched creatures now began to trade upon what had been a genuine belief, and their conduct, whilst it showed that sincerity was parting company with superstition, helped to undermine faith in all such things.
SUPERSTITION.
In London, similar but still more disgusting exhibitions were made by people pretending to be possessed; and in one case a miserable woman, through an accusation for witchcraft, had her hair torn off her head, and after being kicked and trampled on, was thrown into a horse-pond. A new result followed: instead of the supposed witch being punished, the pretended victim was. All sorts of pretences were shown up, and pretenders suffered the punishment they deserved, whilst poor old crones, bent double with age, escaped the river, the gallows, and the stake. Between 1640 and 1680, many unhappy creatures were punished for witchcraft. Between 1680 and 1691, three were hanged at Exeter, the last instance of capital punishment inflicted in England for this offence; three were imprisoned in Somersetshire; and several in other counties were ducked in horse-ponds.
An accused widow, really insane, died in Beccles Gaol; another, represented as having black and white imps, which turned out to be a white lock of wool in a basket, throwing a deep shadow, was acquitted. Afterwards, acquittals became common; indeed, I find no more convictions in England during the reign of William III.; on the other hand, I notice cases of people put in the pillory for pretending to be possessed.[434] Very much of this change must be ascribed to the course pursued by Lord Chief Justice Holt. The wise and humane Sir Matthew Hale had retained through life a belief in the black act. His wisdom and humanity did not prove sufficient to penetrate to the delusion which from boyhood lay all around him; but Sir John Holt came into the world at a later period, and when he reached manhood, old prejudices had less power, the atmosphere of superstition was less dense; his shrewdness led him to see the falsehood of the theory, and to him belongs the honour of having swept the dust and dirt of the whole business clean out of English courts for ever.
The merit of Sir John Holt is all the greater in that a belief in bewitchment kept ground in many religious minds; and it was still common in other lands to punish people accused of the offence. One of the last books Baxter wrote contained notices of diabolical agencies, which he pressed upon atheists, sadducees, and infidels, with a view to their conversion. Many of the stories were communicated by such men as the Duke of Lauderdale, Lord Broghill, Dr. Daniel Williams, and the Rev. Thomas Evelyn, of Dublin, the last two being by no means persons of a superstitious turn. Making allowance for incorrect information, clever imposture, and the operation of natural causes, we find mentioned some things which must be referred to the operation of occult influences, never yet explained. The idea that there are no mysteries, evil as well as good, in the universe, is quite as much a prejudice, as the idea current in the days of Baxter; and the words which Shakespeare puts into the lips of Hamlet are profoundly wise—
“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in our[435] philosophy.”
Yet to make use of such stories as Baxter tells for religious purposes is vain. “If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.” His book no doubt proved to be labour lost, but he had plenty of people still to keep him in countenance. Samuel Wesley wrote in defence of the doctrine,[436] and in Scotland witch finding went on with vigour. In 1697 no less than twenty-eight people were accused, and seven of them were executed.[437] Nineteen were hanged within sixteen months (1692–3) in New England; eight more were condemned; one hundred and fifty were imprisoned; above two hundred were accused, of whom many fled the country to save their lives.[438]
SUPERSTITION.
One piece of superstition maintained by English Sovereigns received a vigorous check, but not a death-blow. I have described the ceremony of touching for the “king’s evil,” so ostentatiously revived by Charles II. His brother perpetuated the practice. The pecuniary benefit of submitting to the operation, no doubt, made it very popular, since it cost £10,000 a year for silver coins to be hung round the necks of patients. When, at the close of Lent, crowds besieged his doors, William exclaimed, “It is a silly superstition; give the poor creatures some money, and send them away.” Once only could he be prevailed upon to touch a suppliant, when he added, “God give you better health, and more sense.” There were not wanting some to reproach the King as cruel and impious, for refusing to exercise a Divine gift; but the Jacobites turned his conduct to account by saying, he did not dare to pretend to a power which only belonged to the Lord’s anointed.