DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70302#0186
162
ACCOUNT OF REPUTED WITCHES, &C.
their rules for judging witches, say that the crime was
more common in that age than it had been before.
1455. Several women were burned for witches in
Savoy.
1483. Richard III., commonly called Crookback,
having murdered the kinsmen of the queen dowager, and
imprisoned his nephews who were heirs to the crown,
(and whom he afterwards caused to be assassinated,) pre-
tended in the privy council that the queen and Jane
Shore had made his arm wither and consume by sorcery,
at the same time stripping it that they might see it. It
was however well known that his arm had been in that
state for a considerable time.
The same year Richard attainted for sorcery several
persons who supported the line of Lancaster, as the
Countess of Richmond, mother of Henry VII; Morton,
afterwards archbishop of Canterbury ; Dr. Lewis, William
Knevit, and Thomas Nandyck, of Cambridge, called the
conjuror. Nandyck was taken and condemned, but his
life was saved by the Parliament.
1484. The belief of witches and their power was now
so firmly established, that Pope Innocent VIII. directed
a very superstitious bull to the inquisitors, empowering
them to discover and burn all persons who practised
witchcraft. The substance of this bull is as follows :
“It is come to our ears, that great numbers of both
sexes are not afraid to abuse their own bodies with devils
that serve to both sexes ; and with their enchantments,
charms and sorceries, to vex and afflict man and beast
with inward and outward pains and tortures. They ren-
der men and women impotent for generation ; they de-
stroy the births of women, and the increase of cattle:
they blast the corn of the ground, the grapes of the
vines, the fruit of the trees, and the grass and herbs of
the fields, &c. Therefore with the authority apostolic,
we
ACCOUNT OF REPUTED WITCHES, &C.
their rules for judging witches, say that the crime was
more common in that age than it had been before.
1455. Several women were burned for witches in
Savoy.
1483. Richard III., commonly called Crookback,
having murdered the kinsmen of the queen dowager, and
imprisoned his nephews who were heirs to the crown,
(and whom he afterwards caused to be assassinated,) pre-
tended in the privy council that the queen and Jane
Shore had made his arm wither and consume by sorcery,
at the same time stripping it that they might see it. It
was however well known that his arm had been in that
state for a considerable time.
The same year Richard attainted for sorcery several
persons who supported the line of Lancaster, as the
Countess of Richmond, mother of Henry VII; Morton,
afterwards archbishop of Canterbury ; Dr. Lewis, William
Knevit, and Thomas Nandyck, of Cambridge, called the
conjuror. Nandyck was taken and condemned, but his
life was saved by the Parliament.
1484. The belief of witches and their power was now
so firmly established, that Pope Innocent VIII. directed
a very superstitious bull to the inquisitors, empowering
them to discover and burn all persons who practised
witchcraft. The substance of this bull is as follows :
“It is come to our ears, that great numbers of both
sexes are not afraid to abuse their own bodies with devils
that serve to both sexes ; and with their enchantments,
charms and sorceries, to vex and afflict man and beast
with inward and outward pains and tortures. They ren-
der men and women impotent for generation ; they de-
stroy the births of women, and the increase of cattle:
they blast the corn of the ground, the grapes of the
vines, the fruit of the trees, and the grass and herbs of
the fields, &c. Therefore with the authority apostolic,
we