Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-07-14
FAITH IN TITCHCRAFT.
A CHAPTER or HISTORY ASTOUND-
ING TO MODERN NOTIONS.

ING TO MODERN NOTIONS.
One OF the Decisions cf the Good Old
Times"-What an English Newspape,
| says-Penxltses Inflicted by Church and
state-The Puritzna
AT Christmas time, according to Shake
speare or Marcelius no witch has power t1
charm, so halowed and so gracious is the
time There is perhaps no chapter Of history
! more painful or more astounding to ouf
| 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, end die away as sud-
denly; it was regarded IS 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 were gener>
ally old and ugly, and had familiar spirits to
| do their errands; bnt sometimes young and
! fair women suffered on tho 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. if she sinks. to save her
character at the expense of her life, is hardly
kind to the old woman Almost any cause
5ufticed as reason for burning old women.
Two for example, were burned at Constance
es the supposed authors Of a great storm, and
Shiy t1yyrr
Of spells. They were never burnt, we be-
Eeve, without confession but then 1t 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
Cobham, wife Of Duke Humphrey. was &C
cused, and Hoilingsted 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
1913, OF two women in Lincoln, who were
said to have bewitched Lord Rose to death
by bu1ying his glove; and ''as 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 a bull against witchcraft, en-
towering inquisitors to seek for witches and
to burn them, and the agreeable vocation
must have been pursued with u zest, for one
inIuisitor burned forty ore witches in one
year, and another burned 100 1t Is stated
that tens Of thousands Of victims have suf-
fered for this imaginary crina In the do
cese of Como GOO were burned In O 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 crrelties 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
well as two dogs for this imaginary crime;
and for two years Hopkins, the switch
finder" drove fourishing trade in Essex
In 200 years 5000 witches are said to have
been destroyed in England, and as recently
as ZIG, 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 iii such commerce with evil spirits as
that which We express by tho name of witch
craft" while, at the same time, he could
give no credit TO any particular modern in
stance of it." This conclusion is quoted by
Blackstone In the fourth volume Of his
commentaries"
Scotland. which is regarded as an enlight-
ered part Of the empire, held with the Ut
most tenacity its faith il witchcraft. The
Scotch, vigorous people, put their hands
to the work heartily IL was easy to find
victims, since. as we have said already, they
were tortured until they confessed. Take
ONO instance out Of thousands. Isabel Craw-
ford, after the minister had made earnest
prayers to God for opening her closed heart,
was tortured With iron bars laid upon Der
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 1t is calculated that 1900 per-
forty years of the Sixteenth century.
A century later a witch endemic broke
out in the village OF Mora, IN Sweden A
number of children were said to be be-
witched and familiar with the devil, who
was described wearing a gray coat, red
and blue stockings, a red heard and high
crowned hat. The witches kept this exacting
parsonage supplied with children, and II
they did not procure him good many 'they
had no peace or quiet for him" The poor
wretches were doomed to have no more
peace or quiet in this world Seventy We're
condemned to death, twenty-three were
burned in a single fire at Mohra.
1t is noteworthy that a belief in this fright
FIJI superstition, which destroyed more inno-
cent persons than the so called Holy Office
was held by men Of great intellectual power
by Erasmus, Bacon and the judicious
Hooker, by Sir Edward Coke, Sir Thomas
Browne, Baxter and Sir Matthew Hale
Illustrated London News.