The White Pine news. [volume] (Treasure City, Nev.) 1868-1906, 1889-10-12
FAITH IN WITCHCRAFT.
a CHAPTER OF HISTORY ASToUND-
ING TO MODERN NOTIONS.

Times"- What an English Newspaper
says-Penalties Inflicted by Church and
state-The Puritans
At Christmas time. according to Shake
speare or Marcellus nc witch has power to
charm, so hallowed and so gracious Is the
time. There Is perhaps no chapter of history
more painful OF 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 IL 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 perished under this reign
Of terror were women They were gener
ally old and ugly and bad familiar spirits to
10 their errands bnt sometimes young and
fair wefnen suffered on the rack and at the
s+aso under the terrible imputation OF witch
craft
To ha accused IF tbis crime was In most
cates 10 he condemned fof II and. indeed
there eaeHaa Hfels chance of 60 ezeape, for
the tosae r. aHiah accused persons were put
u orja q - their Innocence generally
proved mortal TO throw an old woman
into Gle aIel and il she sinks. 10 save her
character ii the expense Of ter life hardly
l8d = fhe cd woman Almost any cause
aIf1ca8 e q reason for burning Old women
rwo. fof example. wore hurued at Constance
az fhe mnp6aaa authors Of q GREAT storm, and
nollsf for destroying snip at sea by means
1f peis They we're never burnt We be
love. without confession tut then II was
The custom 10 torture them TIL they did con
-ass
One notable form Of witohcraft, which has
eoo admirably turned 60 poetic account by
Gossftti. .as t. form 4 waxen image OF some
usi-sou obnoxious 20 the witch, end as this
MAGE was gradually melted by the fire. SO Il
,ls supposed would the victims life fade
away Of this form Of sorcery Eleanor
oldham wife OF Duke Humphrey was
-,t~,ri and iloliingshed relates that she 80.
oulenined to do open Ienance in the city OF
lundon and afterward to suffer perpetual
ipriscnment In the Isle OF Man A kind OF
t,rrcry similar to that for which Eleanor
uilham suffered led TO the execution, IN
us. OF two women In Lincoln, who were
ald to have bewitched Lord Rose to death
=, Gurying his glove, and las that glove did
N and waste, so did the liver of the said
prd rot and waste
In the Fifteenth century Pope Innocent
4 II iSstied a bull against witchcraft, EN-
nwering nquisitors to seek for witches and
n hurn them, and the agreeable vocation
prt have been pursued with zest, for one
u ,ulsitor burned forty one witches In one
ear and another burned 100 Il Is stated
nat tens OF thousands OF victims have suf
l,~l for this imaginary crime. In the dio
~. of Como 1000 were burned in year at
T.. beginning of the Sixteenth century, and
It the same time 800 perished in Geneva In
hrr. months The belief in witehcraft and
he intolerable cruelties caused by this BELIEF
we're not confined to the papal church In
he Seventeenth century the Puritans in,
New England hanged number OF persons as
we'll as two dogs for this imaginary crime.
aud for two years Hopkins, the witch
hnier" drove fourishing trade In Essex
Ia 40 years SC, 900 witches are said to have
is-en destroyed in England. and as recently.
A. l7l6, 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
mind that wavereh between superstition and
good sense said he could not forLear believ
ing in such commerce with evil spirits as
that which we express 10y the 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-
ened part of the empire, held with the ut
most tenacity its faith in witchcraft The
Scotch, vigorous people, put their hands
to the work heartily II was easy to find
victims, since, as we have SAID already, they
were tortured until they confessed. Take
one instance ont of thousands Isabel Craw
ford. after the minister had made earnest
prayers to God Tor 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
IF 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
onfession 1t is calculated that 1000 per
rons were burned in Scotland in the last
- - -