The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1884-05-10
WITCHCRAFT.

In 1883, Innocent VIII issued his
famous bull, in which he set forth
the growing danger to which ths
church was exposed from the mac
hinaiions of witches. 'rNOt only
he said, "did these deny their faith,
and profane the services of the
church. but they exercise the most
bsneful Influences over mems daily
lives. They blighted the harvest
they destroyed men by magic arts
or by dreadful and loathsome dis
eases; they stirred up destructive
tempssts; and, finally from the un-
natural union of the fends
and witches a rage of malig-
nant monsters was ever on
the increase. The witch ma
MIA now grew rapidly to it's height.
A class of persons called witch find-
rers sprang up and displayed ex-
traordinsry zeal in bringing de-
linquents to justice. No rank or
station was secure from their at
tacks. The Duchess Of Gloucester
was punished for the offense by
Henry vi. Queen Elizabeth and
the Duchess of Bedford were ar.
ra'gDed on it by Richard III. Sew
eral Peere sses in Scotland and the
Marechale d'Ancre in France, were
few of those indicted for the of
fense. But in this, as in all other
popular infatuations, the vast mass
OF victims were the poor and help
less. In some of the German towns
there were annually burnt two, three
CT four hundred-the total of each
years victims in the entire country
reaching many thousande. In
France and Switzerland almost as
many periShed-the accused being
so numerous that new courts had
continually to be opened and new
judges appointed to try the ever in
cressing crowd Of offenders. In
England, where the evil lid not at
tain such grave dimensions, the
average is said to have been about
five hundred every year. In Scot
land the madness ran considerably
higher. Some one, generally a wo.
man, and most frequently old wo>
man, had been seen to be looking
hard at sn OK or pig. If the OK or
the pig CHANGED to be seized by any
malady, the old woman was
charged with having bewitcbed
it. If she ihad scolded
any child for jeering or making
faces at her, and the child soon
after had measles or scarlet fever,
1t was the old woman's malediction
that caused the malady. Nay, the
mere fact of being old and ugly, or
an object of dislike to anyone, was
held to be sufficient ground for all |
leging a charge of witchcratt, and
for causing the offending party to
be brought before a magistrate.
Once in the witch finders custody,
there was little hope of escape. For
there really was no other hope of
escape than the least painful form
of death that could be obtained. AS
is was assumed that the witch was
capable of making things appear
the exact opposite OF what they
really were, the better case she
made out of her innocence,
the greater was her real guilt. Some
PiedmOntese women were accused
before the archbishop of the pros
vince Of having attended a witch
dance, at which the Evil One was
present on the Friday previous.
Their husbands stood forward and
swore positively that at the time
when their wives were charged with
dancing in Satsn's company, many
miles away, they were at home.
This, one would have thought,
was an ananswerable abb. But
the archbishop lucidly pointed out
that this only proved the disbolieal
cunning OF the witches, who, by
their arts, had centrived to peace
the exact licensees of themselves
in the midst of the family, whie
the real women were far away, cele-
brating their abominable orgies.
The husbands were unable to dis
prove this, and the poor women
were condemned and burnt acc0rd~
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