The discoverie of witchcraft ... Being a reprint of the first edition published in 1584 / by Reginald Scot ; Edited with explanatory notes, glossary and introduction by Brinsley Nicholson.

  • Scot Reginald, 1538?-1599.
Date:
1886
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The discoverie of witchcraft ... Being a reprint of the first edition published in 1584 / by Reginald Scot ; Edited with explanatory notes, glossary and introduction by Brinsley Nicholson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    him, speciallie when he strained himselfe to speake lowdest. How beit, she said that at all times his voice was hoarse and lowe : which thing I perceived to be true. But sir, said she, you shall understand, that this our vicar is diseased with such a kind of hoarsenesse, as divers of our neighbors in this parish, not long since, doubted that he had the French pox ; & in that respect utterly refused to communi- cate with him: untill such time as (being therunto injoined by M. D. Lewen the Ordinarie) he had brought fr5 London a certificat, under the hands of two physicians, that his hoarsenes proceeded from a disease in the lungs. Which certificat he published in the church, in the presence of the whole congregation : and by this meanes hee was cured, or rather excused of the shame of his disease. And this I knowe to be true by the relation of divers honest men of that parish. And truelie, if one of the Jurie had not beene wiser than the other, she had beene condemned thereupon, and upon other as ridiculous matters as this. For the name of a witch is so odious, and hir power so feared among the common people, that if the honestest bodie living chance to be arraigned therupon, she shall hardlie escape condem- nation./ The third Chapter. 7. 5. Who they be that are called witches, with a manifest declaration of the cause that mooveth men so commonlie to thijike, and witches themselves to beleeve that they can hurt children, cattell, Qr'c. with words and imaginations: and of coosening witches. NE sort of such as are said to bee witches, are women which be commonly old, lame, bleare-eied, pale, fowle, and full of wrinkles ; poore, sullen, superstitious, and papists; or such as knowe no religion : in whose drousie minds the divell hath goten a fine seat; so as, what mischeefe, mischance, calamitie, or slaughter is brought to passe, they are easilie persuaded the same is doone by themselves; inprinting in their minds an earnest and constant imagination Cardan, devar. hereof. They are leane and deformed, shewing melancholic in their faces, to the horror of all that see them. They are doting, scolds, mad, divelish; and not much differing from them that are thought to be possessed with spirits ; so firme and stedfast in their opinions, as whosoever shall onelie have respect to the constancie of their words uttered, would easilie beleeve they were true indeed. These miserable wretches are so odious unto all their neighbors, and so feared, as few dare offend them, or denie them anie thing they aske : whereby they take upon them ; yea, and sometimes thinke, that they can doo such things as are beyond the abilitie of humane