" Jehu answered, "What peace, so long as the harlotries of your mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many?
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Cotton Mather, a minister of Boston's North Church was a prolific publisher of pamphlets, including some that expressed his belief in witchcraft. In his book Memorable Providences Relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions (1689), Mather describes his "oracular observations" and how "stupendous witchcraft" had affected the children of Boston mason John Goodwin.Mather, Cotton. Memorable Providences, Relating to Witchcraft and Possessions.
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Upon hearing that the woman had been interviewed, Hopkins wrote a letterGaskill 2005: p. 220 to a contact asking whether he would be given a "good welcome". Gaule hearing of this letter wrote his publication Select Cases of Conscience touching Witches and Witchcrafts; London, (1646)dedicated to Colonel Walton of the House of Commonsand began a programme of Sunday sermons to suppress witch-hunting.Gaskill 2005: p.
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George Gifford (author of A Discourse of the Subtle Practices of Devils by Witches and Sorcerers (1587) and A Dialogue Concerning Witches and Witchcrafts (1593) is more gently treated, as having more "spirit of truth" in him than many of his (clerical) profession). The scholar and librarian George Lincoln Burr called A Candle in the Dark "one of the bravest and most rational of the early protests".
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A Dialogue Concerning Witches and Witchcrafts was a book written by George Gifford and published in 1593. It 'is notable for its attention to the ministerial challenges posed by witch belief as well as for its entertaining dialogue designed to appeal to a wide audience'. Gifford told the story of many alleged witches, including Feats, a reputed sorcerer in Elizabethan London, whose familiar spirit was a black dog named Bomelius.Devil Dogs, p.
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Davies 2003. p. 05. For the following few decades, the magical practices of the cunning folk remained legal, despite opposition from certain religious authorities. It was a time of great religious upheaval in the country as Edward's successor, his sister Mary I, reintroduced Roman Catholicism, before Anglicanism was once again reimposed under Elizabeth I. In 1563, after the return of power to the Anglican Church of England, a bill was passed by parliament designed to illegalise "Conjurations, Enchantments and Witchcrafts", again being aimed at both the alleged witches and the cunning folk.
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In 1562, early in her reign, Elizabeth passed a law in the form of An Act Against Conjurations, Enchantments and Witchcrafts (5 Eliz. I c. 16). This demanded the death penalty, but only where harm had been caused; lesser offences were punishable by a term of imprisonment. The Act provided that anyone who should "use, practise, or exercise any Witchcraft, Enchantment, Charm, or Sorcery, whereby any person shall happen to be killed or destroyed", was guilty of a felony without benefit of clergy, and was to be put to death.
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An Act Against Conjurations, Enchantments and Witchcrafts (5 Eliz. I c. 16) was passed early in the reign of Elizabeth I. It was in some respects more merciful towards those found guilty of witchcraft than its predecessor, demanding the death penalty only where harm had been caused; lesser offences were punishable by a term of imprisonment. The Act provided that anyone who should "use, practise, or exercise any Witchcraft, Enchantment, Charm, or Sorcery, whereby any person shall happen to be killed or destroyed", was guilty of a felony without benefit of clergy, and was to be put to death.
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According to the New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia: Execution of alleged witches in Central Europe, 1587 The King James Version uses the words "witch", "witchcraft", and "witchcrafts" to translate the Masoretic kāsháf () and (qésem);; ; ; ; ; these same English terms are used to translate pharmakeia in the Greek New Testament. Verses such as and ("Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live") thus provided scriptural justification for Christian witch hunters in the early modern period (see Christian views on magic). The precise meaning of the Hebrew , usually translated as "witch" or "sorceress", is uncertain. In the Septuagint, it was translated as pharmakeía or pharmakous.
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Writing anonymously to conceal his dissent, he published a short tract entitled "Some Miscellany Observations On our present Debates respecting Witchcrafts, in a Dialogue Between S. & B." The authors were listed as "P. E. and J. A." (Philip English and John Alden), but the work is generally attributed to Willard. In it, two characters, S (Salem) and B (Boston), discuss the way the proceedings were being conducted, with "B" urging caution about the use of testimony from the afflicted and the confessors, stating, "whatever comes from them is to be suspected; and it is dangerous using or crediting them too far".Some Miscellany , etext.lib.virginia.
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The trial was held on 19 August 1612 before Sir Edward Bromley, a judge seeking promotion to a circuit nearer London, and who might therefore have been keen to impress King James, the head of the judiciary. Before the trial began, Bromley ordered the release of five of the eight defendants from Samlesbury, with a warning about their future conduct. The remainder – Jane Southworth, Jennet Bierley, and Ellen Bierley – were accused of using "diverse devillish and wicked Arts, called Witchcrafts, Inchauntments, Charmes, and Sorceries, in and upon one Grace Sowerbutts", to which they pleaded not guilty. Fourteen-year-old Grace was the chief prosecution witness.
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First page of "Some Miscellany Observations On our present Debates respecting Witchcrafts, in a Dialogue Between S. & B.", attributed to Samuel Willard The most famous primary source about the trials is Cotton Mather's Wonders of the Invisible World: Being an Account of the Tryals of Several Witches, Lately Executed in New-England, printed in October 1692. This text had a tortured path to publication. Initially conceived as a promotion of the trials and a triumphant celebration of Mather's leadership, Mather had to rewrite the text and disclaim personal involvement as suspicion about spectral evidence started to build. Regardless, it was published in both Boston and London, with an introductory letter of endorsement by William Stoughton, the Chief Magistrate.
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Increase Mather became an opponent of spectral evidence, though not until after the Salem hangings had taken place, and not on the basis that it was false testimony by witnesses, but that it might be a deception by demons. He published Cases of Conscience Concerning Evil Spirits Personating Men, Witchcrafts, infallible Proofs of Guilt in such as are accused with that Crime., in which he argued that "It were better that ten suspected witches should escape, than that one innocent person should be condemned". Concurrent with the trials in Salem, spectral evidence was also used in a trial in colonial Rhode Island where Thomas Cornell, Jr., son of Thomas Cornell, was convicted of matricide in the death of his mother, Rebecca.
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Gifford wrote some twenty-two published works. These include a translation of William Fulke's Praelections vpon the sacred and holy Reuelation of S. Iohn (1573; STC:11443); A briefe discourse of certaine points of the religion which is among the common sort of Christians, which may bee termed the countrie diunitie (1581; STC:11845), which was his most popular work; A dialogue betweene a Papist and a Protestant (1582; STC:11849); and two works on witchcraft, A discourse of the subtill practises of deuilles by witches and sorcerers (1587; STC:11852) and A Dialogue Concerning Witches and Witchcrafts (1593; STC:11850). It is the last work for which he is best known. Gifford was a moderate in the witchcraft debate, although he still believed in the existence of witches, and that they should be severely punished.
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Ady suggests the book Daemonologie attributed to King James was ghostwritten by the Bishop of Winchester. He also disagrees strongly with Thomas Cooper ("a bloody persecutor of the poor"), author of the book The Mystery of Witchcraft (1617) and with William Perkins's Discourse of the Damned Art of Witchcraft (1608), calling it "a collection of mingled notions" from Jean Bodin, Bartolommeo Spina, and "other popish blood suckers" who wrote "great volumes of horrible lies and impossibilities." Perkins was a very distinguished puritan divine: Ady ingeniously suggests that this posthumously published work by the great man was erroneously put into print, and was actually Perkins' notes for a refutation of witchcraft belief. Ady also corrects John Gaule (author of Select Cases of Conscience touching Witches and Witchcrafts (1646), making a personal exhortation to the cleric to renounce his errors, and Mysmatia, the Mag-astromancer (1652)).
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