A contemporary narrative of the proceedings against Dame Alice Kyteler, prosecuted for sorcery in 1324, by Richard de Ledrede, bishop of Ossory / edited by Thomas Wright.

Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A contemporary narrative of the proceedings against Dame Alice Kyteler, prosecuted for sorcery in 1324, by Richard de Ledrede, bishop of Ossory / edited by Thomas Wright. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    in the directions for priests in the management of their parishes, &c., which are found in old manuscripts. In an English tract of this kind, among the enumeration of various offences, we have the following passage :—* Also alle that knoweth eresye, conjuracyons, nygramancye, enchaunttementes, wychecraftes, other any other false byleve asen the feyth of holycherche, bote hy dystrwye hyt by here power, and alle that beth y-ordeyned to en- quere therof, hyf they leve here swte and suffre hem. * And a Latin tract on penitence and confession in the same MS. gives us rather a curious enumeration of the different forms of conjuration then in use. Early in the following century, A.D. 1406, we find the king, Henry IV. giving directions to the bishop of Norwich to search for and arrest witches and sorcerers of different kinds who were then reported to be very numerous in his diocese, and to convert them from their evil ways or bring them speedily to punishment. In the following reign these prosecutions appear * MS. Burney, in Mus. Brit. No. 356, p. 100. T Recurrens igitur poenitens ad primum mandatum, quod est, nom adorabis deos alienos, et sollicite videat in semetipso si transgressus est illud, videlicet si cultum soli Deo debitum dsmoniis vel alii creaturze exhibuerit, scilicet faciendo prewstigia, id est, recurrendo ad conjurationes, sicut solebat fieri pro furto, in gladio, vel in pelvi, sive in ' speculo, vel in scriptis inclusis luto impositis in aqua benedicta, et similia, vel recur- rendo ad auguria, id est, divinares, vel sortilegium fecerit, vel sorciarias pro talibus con- sulerit, sive daemonibus sacrificaverit, sicut faciunt miseri et fatui pro mulieribus quas amant, et similiter e contrario. MS. Burney, No. 356, p. 63. The glass is a well known instrument of conjuration, and the basin is alluded to in old ballads. i Rot. Pat. 7 Hen. IV. printed in the Foedera, tom. iv. pt. i. p. 93. De sortilegis capiendis. Rex venerabili in Christo patri P. eadem gratia episcopo Lincolniensi, salutem. Quia datum est nobis intelligi, quod quamplures sortilegi, magici, incantatores, nigro- mantici, divinitores, arioli, et phitones infra dioecesim vestram existunt, qui diversa horribilia et detestabilia indies perpetrant, et quamplures de populo nostro, infra dioe- cesim predictam, suis maleficis artibus perverti et diffamari faciunt dampnabiliter et inique, in populi nostri commotionem, et sancte matris ecclesive scandalum, ac fidei catholicze subversionem manifestam, unde quamplurima incommoda et inconvenientia infra dioecesim prsedictam ante hec tempora evenerunt, et majora, quod absit, evenire formidantur infra breve, nisi de remedio oportuno per potestatem regiam celerius ordi- netur, nos, hujusmodi incommodis et inconvenientiis obviare, ac fidem catholicam (cujus sumus et esse volumus defensores) impugnantes, juxta eorum demerita, puniri et quantum ad nos attinet castigari volentes, assignavimus vos ad omnes et singulos hujusmodi sortilegos, magicos, incantatores, nigromanticos, divinitores, ariolos, et