The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-08-05

' 0f all the gross ana nOrrlDie super etitions which have found lodgement in the human mind. one of the most terrible and tragic was the witchcraft delusipn. One must now go far afieid, into savage lands or into the obscure corners of civilization where the sun of science has not yet cast its rays. to find believers in this foul excres- cence of fanaticism, yet 1t was not so very long ago that witchcraft was an accepted part of religious faith.
 This Sunday marks the 180th anni- versary of the abolition of witchcraft by the Parliament of England, and in consequence of the sixth of August. 1736, deserves to be marked as red letter day in the history of the mental progress of mankind. The law pass ed by the British Parliament was the final blow to the insane superstition which had so long held sway in Eng land and Scotland and in the Eng fish colonies of the New World. It is true that the delusfon had already lost it's power over the imagination. and the law merely took official recog- hilton of mental transformation which was already an accomplished fact. In repeating the old laws against witches. the Parliament en- ] acted . new statute making 1t a crime punishable by whipping in a pillory and . year in prison for any person to pose as a witch or to make accusations of witchcraft or. wizardry against otherA
 In nearly all countries where witch- !. craft flourished the clergy were the i leaders in the propagation of the de- 1 lusion. All who denied the existence of witches were branded as ''infidels'' ! and ':atheists." and many of the brave { mon who combatted the delusion were executed and their bodies desscrated ! and buried in unhallowed ground
 Thou shalt not suffer witch to 1ive,, Exodus xii. 1S) was the Btb- { Heal authority which for centuries fir i Cd the Christians of the world to un- holy seal In the persecution of the 2 innocent and helpless. The bigoted mind of the church brought to it's aid tlas strong arm of the state in seeking out and punishing by torture and | death those accused of an impossible ,rcrims. Poor and defenseless old women, who by their sex and their i years and their poverty were best en- ; titled to protection. were the favor aite victims. but when witch hunt was on sex, age, color. position and wealth were disregarded. The high and the low. the rich and the poor. males and females. young and olds- even children-were consigned to the flames lighted by an incredible fam aticism.
 It is impossible to estimate the number of those killed during the cepturies in which this superstition was prevalent. Catholics and Protes- Etanfs, vied with each other in support I ing the law set forth in Exodus. Tn 1884 Pope Innocent VIII. issued 3 bull against witchcraft which set
 autos de fe flaming over Europe Earlier in the same century similar outbursts of fanaticism, without the papa1 sanction, had caused the death
 of thousands including among them
 the immortal heroine of France. Joan of Arc. who was burned at Rouen
 as a witch. Just how many "witches' were put to death in France and Italy
 following the papal bull cannot be 4 known. but the inquisitor of single II district in ItalH boasted of having
 burned nearly q thousand women in the course of . few years. Tn Geneva
 over 500 "witches'' were sent to the . stakes in . single year. 1515. Five
 years later. thousands of accused per. sons were purneQ In France, and to- ward the close dR the sixteenth cen
 tury 300 were put to death in L.or-
 rsine. At Wurxburg. Bavaria 157 fpersons. young and old. learned and Ignorant. were burned between 1627 and 1929. These are but isolated in.
 stances and hundreds of similar case. ecould Dc cited.
 F Tn England the statute makins bwitchcraft punishable with death wa, passed in 1641. and witches were tmade the subject of further provisiou | during the reigns of Queen Elizabeth
 and James I. During the century twhen the superstition was at 1t, lheight about 30,000 persons were kill. cd in England, and about 10000 in
 Scotland. About the last outburst of
 the frenzy in England occurred Jus, two centuries ago, in 1716,. when g
 Nrs. Hicks and her daughter, aged
 nine, were hanged at Huntingdon. The
 1ast sufferer in Scotland was at Dur. j poch in 1722.
 .. @ Tn New England the Puritan set. ntlars put into effect the old English
 flaws against witchcraft. but 1t wa, knf.