Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1850-1854, 1850-08-09
BY C.. CLEMENT.
wiTCHCRAFr.
FnxrnAer- FROM ooMBE's CONSTITUTION or MANI

convicted OF withcrait, or of dealings with Sa
tan; and form of process for the trial was reg
ularly laid down by wretch by the name q
Sprenger, whomthe Pope had placed at the heat
OF a commission of fire and sword The sue.
ceedng lopes, Alexander VI. and even Leo x
lent their aid in accelerating the course of his
Incorporating engine. So far, however, were
the commissions from being attended with bene.
fclal consequences, that their only effect was to
render the evil of every day more formidable
tii at last If we are to believe the testimony OF
contemporary historians, Europe was little bet
ter than large suburb OF Pandemonum. One
| half OF the population was either bewitching OF
/ bewitched. About the year 1915 500 witches
were executed in Geneva in three months. A
thousand were executed in one year in the do
cese of Como; and they went on burning atthe
rate Of 100 per annum for some time after. In
Lorraine, from 1880 to 1895, Remigins boasts
of having burned 900. In France, the multitude
of executions about l 500 is incredible One his
torian calls it ''an almost infinite number of sor-
cerers'
! Germany was so fertile soil for the super
natural, that, from the publication of Innocent's
bull to the suppression Of persecution for witch
craft, the number of victims could not be less
than 00,000 In the town of Wurtzbarg alone,
IN the course of two years-16 27-29-there
were twenty-nine acts of confiagration, and more
than l57 persons burnt; including not only old
women, but even. children as Young as nine
years. In Ilindheim, from $50 to 1864, TWEEN
tleth part of the whole population was consum-
ed. O,her places furn he'd their full compliment;
and so familiarzed was the public with these
atrocious scenes, that It relished and gloried in
| them; singing the events of them to popular airs,
and representing them in hideous engravings.
! aS4-ay boj,, -
the clergy preached solemn discourses, called
''Witch-sermons, upon occasion of every sacri-
| tice-the effect of which was, of course, to in
| spire with fresh zeal to collect fuel for another
England was not free from the same madness
Three thousand victims We're executed during
/ the reign of the Long Parliament alone; and it
is meancholy spectacle to find man like Sir
Matthew Hale condemning wretches to destru c.
ton on evidence which child would now be
| disposed to laugh at. A better order of things
commenced with the Chief-Justicesbpo Holt,
in consequence of whose firm charge to the iu-
ry on one of these trials, verdict Of not guilty
almost the first then ON record in a trial for
witchcraft-was found. In about ten other tri-
ais by Holt, from 1894 to l7OI, the result was
the same. Yet, in l7l6,a Mrs. Hicks, and her
daughter aged nine, were hanged at Huntingdon
! Tor selling their souls to the DEVIL and raising
storm by pulling off their stockings and making
lather OF soap! With this crowning atrocty,
the catalogue OF murders in England closes, the
penal statutes witchcrait being repealed in 1886,
and the pretended exercise OF such arts being
punished in future by imprisonment and pillo-
ry
Darlington, in his observations on the statute
of ooh Henry VI, does not hesitate to estimate
the number of individuals put to death in Eng
land, onthc charge Of witchcrait at 1000!
Scotland, too, must bear her share of the bloc
dy stain of these abomnable doiags. Till tie
Reformation, little or no regard was paid to this
subject; but soon after that event, raging thirst
for destruction took possession of the nation
In 1868, an act Of Parliament was passed. enact
ing the punishment of death against witches and
consutors with witches. The consequences OF
this authoritative recognition of the creed Of
Withcraft became Immediately obvious in the
reign of james VI, which followed Witchcratt
became the all-engrossing topic OF the day; and
1t was the ordinary accusation res0Tted TO, when
ever it was the object of one individual to rum
another. A numbr of the trials are reported in
Mr. Piicairl's recent and valuable publication
of the records OF the Court OF Justcary. The
first ease is in I572, of which no particulars are
given, except the name of the unfortunate wo-
man, and the doom-''cOnUict and 6grm.' Ihir-
ty. i've trials are recorded subsequently, to the
end of James reign, in all of which the horrid
result is the same. The trials proceed, in the
course OF years, and the coulusions are obtained
by torture with thumb-screWs and boots, and
prcking with sharp INSTRUMENTS; while sLrang
! ngs and burnings follow of course. The scene
darkens towards the close of the reign OF Charles
! |, with the increasing dominion OF the puritans
| in 1910, the General Assembly passed an ACT,
that all ministers should take particular note Of
| witches and channers, and that the commissions
ers should recommend to the supreme judiCature
| the unsparng application OF the laws against
| them. In 1913, alter setting forth the increase
| OF the crime, they recommended the granting OF
a standing commission from the Priyy Council
of justiciary, TO ''0hy understanding gentlemen
or magistrates" to apprehend, try, and execute
justice against delinquents. BY the urgency of
the General Assembly, who resumed the subject
in l644, l645, and 1919, an act of Parliament
was passed in the last named year, confirming
and extending the statute of Queen Mary, pass
ed in 1868. As was TO beeXpected, convictions,
which had been fewer since Jamess time, IN
crease, and the cases are more horrible. Thlr-
ty trials appear on record between l649 and
| 1860, in which there seems to have been only
one acquittal while at one western circuit, in
! 1859, seventeen persons were convicted and
burnt for the imputed crime. Numerous, how
ever, as are the cases In tn records OF Justcla-
ry, these afford most inadequate idea of the ex-
tent to which this pest prevailed over the coun-
try; for the Privy Council was in the habit of
granting commissions to resident gentlemen and
ministers, to examine, ard alterward to try and
execute, witches all over Scotland and so nu-
merous were these commissions, that one author
| expresses his establishment at the number found
in the registers. Under these commissions,
multtudes were burnt in every part of the king
dom.
1t is matter of history, that, in cases of this
kind, the clergy displayed the most Incorporate
zeal. 1t was before them that the wretches
were first brought for examinaton,-in most ca
ses after preparatory course of solitary conine-
ment, cod famine, want of sleep, or actual tor
ture. On some occasions, the clergy themselves
actually performed the part of the prickers, and
inserted long Plus into the flesh Of the witches,
in order to try their sensiblity aud in all cases,
labored with the most persevering Investigations
to obtain from the accused confusion which
might afterwafd be used against them on their
trial. and which, in more than one instance. FORM
ed, although reracted, the sole evidence on
/ which the conviction took place.
After 1862. the violence of the mania in Scot