[46] Inderwick, Interregnum, 188-189.
[47] Cal. St. P., Dom., 1650, 159.
[48] There are several secondary accounts of this affair. See F. Legge in Scottish Review, XVIII, 267. But a most important primary source is a letter from Clarke to Speaker Lenthall, published by the Scottish History Society in its volume on Scotland and the Commonwealth (Edinburgh, 1895), 367-369. See also a tract in Brit. Mus. Thomason collection, Two Terrible Sea Fights (London, 1652). See, too, the words of Thomas Ady, A Candle in the Dark, 105.
[49] Cal. St. P., Dom., 1658-1659, 169.
[50] When the council of state, however, in 1652 had issued an act of general pardon, witchcraft had been specifically reserved, along with murder, treason, piracy, etc. Cal. St. P., Dom., 1651-1652, 106.
[51] Inderwick, Interregnum, 231.
CHAPTER X.
The Literature of Witchcraft from 1603 to 1660.
No small part of our story has been devoted to the writings of Scot, Gifford, Harsnett, and King James. It is impossible to understand the significance of the prosecutions without some acquaintance with the course of opinion on the subject. In this chapter we shall go back as far as the opening of the reign of James and follow up to the end of the Commonwealth the special discussions of witchcraft, as well as some of the more interesting incidental references. It will be recalled that James's Dæmonologie had come out several years before its author ascended the English throne. With the coming of the Scottish king to Westminster the work was republished at London. But, while James by virtue of his position was easily first among those who were writing on the subject, he by no means occupied the stage alone. Not less than four other men gained a hearing within the reign and for that reason deserve consideration. They were Perkins, Cotta, Roberts, and Cooper.