DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9841#0243
224 DEATHS VOIl WITCHCRAFT IN GREAT BRITAIN, [cHAP.
which appointed " the pains of death" as the punish-
ment of enchantments and witchcraft. Even Sir Paul
Ricaut, when writing, near the end of the seventeenth
century, of similar Greek superstitions, adds, that the
instances mentioned were told "with as much variety
as we do the tales of witches and enchantments, of which
it is observed in conversation, that scarce one story is
ended before another begins of like wonder100.1'
In Great Britain it is undoubted that not only hun-
dreds but thousands of unhappy victims, of both sexes,
suffered a cruel death for this imaginary crime. Unfor-
tunately for the interests of humanity, the clergy were
not supposed, with us, to be in exclusive possession of
the art of witchcraft, as they are now in Greece: and,
since they generally shared in the superstition of the
day, they contributed, in no slight degree, to increase
the popular violence and cruelty. For the imaginary
power which, if wielded, as it is in Greece, by those
who are expressly set apart for the service of heaven,
would have been regarded as derived from God, became,
when in lay hands, a gift of the Devil: and the well-
known text, " thou shalt not suffer a witch to live,1'
was of course, considered, in that age, both as a proof
of the reality of the crime, and an incitement to exter-
minate all those whom the miserable wretches called
witch-finders might accuse of having committed it101.
The royal demonologist, James, expressly lays down,
100 Ricadt, The present State of the Greek Church, p. 278.
101 In Scotland, especially, the superstition of the clergy made them
encourage the witch prosecutions, and approve of the invariable torture by
which they were accompanied, and of the death by burning, in which they
ordinarily ended: see Sir Walter Scott, Letters on Demonology and
Witchcraft, Letter ix. p. 304. foil.: " These venerable persons entertained,
with good faith, the general erroneous belief respecting witchcraft, regarding
it indeed as a crime which affected their own order more nearly than others in
the state, since, especially called to the service of Heaven, they were pecu-
liarly bound to oppose the incursions of Satan." Sir Walter Scott observes,
at p. 317, that the English sectarians in Cromwell's time beheld with horror
and disgust "a practice so inconsistent with their own humane principles
of universal toleration."
which appointed " the pains of death" as the punish-
ment of enchantments and witchcraft. Even Sir Paul
Ricaut, when writing, near the end of the seventeenth
century, of similar Greek superstitions, adds, that the
instances mentioned were told "with as much variety
as we do the tales of witches and enchantments, of which
it is observed in conversation, that scarce one story is
ended before another begins of like wonder100.1'
In Great Britain it is undoubted that not only hun-
dreds but thousands of unhappy victims, of both sexes,
suffered a cruel death for this imaginary crime. Unfor-
tunately for the interests of humanity, the clergy were
not supposed, with us, to be in exclusive possession of
the art of witchcraft, as they are now in Greece: and,
since they generally shared in the superstition of the
day, they contributed, in no slight degree, to increase
the popular violence and cruelty. For the imaginary
power which, if wielded, as it is in Greece, by those
who are expressly set apart for the service of heaven,
would have been regarded as derived from God, became,
when in lay hands, a gift of the Devil: and the well-
known text, " thou shalt not suffer a witch to live,1'
was of course, considered, in that age, both as a proof
of the reality of the crime, and an incitement to exter-
minate all those whom the miserable wretches called
witch-finders might accuse of having committed it101.
The royal demonologist, James, expressly lays down,
100 Ricadt, The present State of the Greek Church, p. 278.
101 In Scotland, especially, the superstition of the clergy made them
encourage the witch prosecutions, and approve of the invariable torture by
which they were accompanied, and of the death by burning, in which they
ordinarily ended: see Sir Walter Scott, Letters on Demonology and
Witchcraft, Letter ix. p. 304. foil.: " These venerable persons entertained,
with good faith, the general erroneous belief respecting witchcraft, regarding
it indeed as a crime which affected their own order more nearly than others in
the state, since, especially called to the service of Heaven, they were pecu-
liarly bound to oppose the incursions of Satan." Sir Walter Scott observes,
at p. 317, that the English sectarians in Cromwell's time beheld with horror
and disgust "a practice so inconsistent with their own humane principles
of universal toleration."