Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1897-03-18


The Y. P. S. C. E. of the Congrega.
tional church will give an April Foo
Social on the evening of April LIST.
WITcHcRAFT.
It F1ourished From the Earliest Time,
to h Seventeenth Century.
In his lecture on "Witchcraft al
Salem and Elsewhere" Professo,
John Fiske begins by citing an in.
stance which occurred in Normandy
In 1870, when Louis XVI granted
1eniency to a number of persons
convicted by the parliament Of Nor.
mandy of the crime of witchcraft.
A remonstrance was sent to the
crown by the parliament, supplicat.
ing his majesty to reflect upon the
guilt of these persons, whose crime
was the greatest men can commit
both as an ofense against the glory
of God and a menace against the
goods and even lives of their fellow
men.
Louis was too we'll versed in the
etiquette Of the highest court to re-
verse his decision, and the offenders
escaped death, but the incident
serves to show the attitude Of the
leaders Of that time toward the sup
posed crime.
Belief in wttohcraft," said the
lecturer, twas shared by the whole
human race from the earliest times
down to the seventeenth century.
Tribes Of people have been found
living In a state of extreme barba-
rism, and 1t Is believed by travellers
that they were utterly without ideas
of religion; still even among these
there was q strong belief in the su-
pernatural in human form. Accord
Ing to the pagan idea, the first aseo-
citation Of death and all evil was
with some similar agency. They
had no conception Of natural de-
cease all death was murder
through some superhuman power.
This belief in witchcraft was deep-
~ rooted and accepted by all with
out question.
This belief now is entirely ex-
tinct among educated people. What
has, then, caused this changeG 1t is
not argument. A powerful cause
has been at work, and it is the gi-
gantio development of physical sci
enoe since the days Of Newton and
Desoartes. This new force eupplant.
ed superstition in the minds Of the
people just as clover will choke out
weeds"
Relating to evidence, Mr.. Fiske
narrated several instances which
showed the power Of the belief In
the old world long before the IA
nous Salem witchcraft in the new.
One of the first recorded was the
trial of two old women in England
for bewitching six girls and an in
FAINT boy. The child being ill, the
mother suspected it to be a victim
of witchcraft, the most natural sup
position at that time. She consulted
a country physician, who advised
her to hang the child's crib blanket
up during the day, and if she found
anything strange about it to throw
it in the fire. She did so, and when
she looked at the blanket found a
frog on 1t. When thrown In the fire,
1t blazed suddenly, then vanished
with a queer noise. At the same
hour one Of the old women sitting
before her fire had her face scorch-
ed, which Immediately aroused sus-
pioion against her. About the same
time the other children were seized
with pains, causing commissions and
other such symptoms of evil prac-
tice, upon which the two old women
suspected were tried, convicted and
hanged.
During the middle ages the ex-
ecutions for witchcraft were numer.
GUS. The last sentences of death for
witchcraft occurred in England in
1712, In Scotland in 1929, In Ger
many in 174s and in Spain in 1881.
In this country the first accused
of witchcraft was Margaret Jones
at Charlestown, who aroused suspi-
cion by her opposition to the usual
forms of medicinal practice, such as
bleeding and leeches, and who eff
fected remedies through the means
of simple herbs.
Professor Fiske concluded by sum
ming up the probable reason for the
Salem horror, which he traced, not
as some historians do, to a deliber-
ate plot, but rather to the influence
of superstitious excitement on the
minds OF children and hysterical
women, causing a sort of morbid
nervousness, which was in reality
an abnormal mental state.
with this period the belief In
witchcraft vanished. It marks the
gulf which separates our time Of
civilization from the dark days Of
superstition. 1t gives us some dim
idea Of what the terrors must have
hoo~ ~,hn- AL. Il