The White Pine news. [volume] (Treasure City, Nev.) 1868-1906, 1888-10-20
FAITH IN WITCHCRAFT.
4 CHAPTER OF HISTORY AsToUNo-
ING TO MODERN NOTIONS.

Jus Oh tue A1GAuhA01n u sho ObOU Ohs
TImes"-what an English Newspaper
says-Penalties inflicted by Church and
state-The Puritans
AZ Christmas time, according to Shake
speafe or Marcel1us, NO witch has power to
charm, 30 hallowed and so gracious is the
time There is perhaps no chapter Of history
more painful or more astounding to our
modern notions than that devoted to witch
craft The delusion was not like one of those
sudden outbreaks of fanaticism which spring
up, nobody knows how. and die away as sud
denly; 1t was regarded as a lasting evil to be
punished With the severest penalties of the
church and of the state. And for the most
part the people who persisted under this reign
of terror were women They we're gener-
ally old and ugly, and had familiar spirits to
do their errands; but sometimes young and
fair women suffered on the rack and at the
stake under the terrible imputation of witch
craft
To be accused of this crime was in most
cases to be condemned for it; and. indeed,
there seemed little chance Of an escape, for
the tests to which accused persons were put
IN order to try their innocence generally
proved mortal To throw an old woman
into the water, and, II she sinks. to save her
character at the expense of her life, is hardly
Kind to the old woman. Almost any cause
sufficed as a reason for burning old women.
Two, for example, we're burned at Constance
as the supposed authors of great storm, and
another for destroying ship at sea by means
Of spells. They were never burnt. we be-
lieve. without confession; but then it was
the custom to torture them till they did con-
fess
One notable form of witchcraft. which has
been admirably turned to poetic account by
Rossetti, was to form a waxen image of some
person obnoxious to the witch, and as this
image was gradually melted by the fire, SO it
was supposed would the victims life fade
away OF this form of sorcery Eleanor
Gotham. wife Of Duke Humphrey, was &C
cused. and Hollingshed relates that she was
condemned to do open penance in the city of
London, and afterward to suffer perpetual
Imprisonment In the Isle of Man A kind Of
sorcery similar to that for which Eleanor
Gotham suffered led to the execution, in
1918, of two women in Lincoln. who were
siid to have bewitched Lord Rose to death
by burying his glove; and las that glove did
rot and waste, so did the liver of the said
lord rot and waste"
In the Fifteenth century Pope Innocent
VIII issued bull against witchcraft EN-
towering inquisitors to seek for witches and
to turn them, and the agreeable vocation
must have been pursued with zest. for one
in,,ulsitor burned forty one witches in one
year, and another burned 100 1t is stated
that tens of thousands of victims have suf
fere,i for this imaginary crime In the do
cese of Como i,000 were burned in year at
the beginning of the Sixteenth century, and
at the same time 500 persisted in Geneva in
three months The belief in witchcraft and
the intolerable crueties caused by this belief
were not confined to the papal church. In
the Seventeenth century the Puritans in.
New England hanged number Of persons as
we'll a. two dogs for this imaginary crime.
and for two years Hopkins. the switch
finder" drovea fiourishing trade In Essex.
In 3O0 years 80, 600 witches are said to have
been destroyed in England. and as recently.
as l7l0. when the town was enjoying the wit
and satire Of the "Queen Anne men," a
woman and her child years of age were
hanged at Huntingdon Addison, with a
mind that wavered between superstition and
good sense, said he could not forbear believ.
ing "in such commerce with evil spirits as
that which we express by the name of witch
craft" while, at the same time, be could
'sgive no credit to any particular modern in
stance Of it.n This conclusion is quoted by
Blackstone In the fourth volume of his
Commentaries"
Scotland, which Is regarded as an enlight-
ened part Of the empire, held with the ut
most tenacity its faith in witchcraft. The
Scotch, a vigorous people, put their hands
20 the work heartily 1t was easy to find.
victims, since, as we have said already, they
were tortured until they confessed Take
one instance out ofythousands Isabel Craw-
ford, after the minister bad made earnest
prayers TO God for opening her closed heart,
was tortured with iron bars laid upon her.
bare shins, her feet being in the stocks. For
a time she bore the torture admirably. though
about thirty stone of iron were laid on her.
legs, but In moving the bars to another part
of her shins she broke out into horrible cries,
and confessed to intercourse with the devil
She was condemned, of course, and at the
place of execution openly denied her former
confession It Is calculated that 1000 per-
sons were burned in Scotland In the last
forty years Of the Sixteenth century
A century later a witch epidemic broke
out in the village Of Mohra, in Sweden A
number of children were said to be be-
witched and familiar with the devil who
was described as wearing a gray coat, red
ax.A e4<zolrfnou rad rd nj hs~l