The first English Statute4 dealing5 directly with witches appears to be the thirty-third of Henry VIII (1541) which brought into the list of felonies persons “devising or practising conjurations, witchcraftes, sorcerie or inchantments or the digging up of corpses,” and depriving such of the benefit of clergy8. It was however repealed9 by I Edward VI Cap. 12, and again by I Mary (in its first section.). Queen Elizabeth, however, passed another Act (5 Elizabeth Cap. 16) practically repeating that of her father, which had been in abeyance10 for more than thirty years. The Statute of Elizabeth is exceedingly interesting in that it states the condition of the law at that time. The opening words leave no misunderstanding:
“Whereas at this day there is no ordinary nor condigne punishment provided against the wicked offences of conjurations148 or invocations of evil spirits, or of sorceries, inchantments, charmes or witchcraftes, which be practised to the obstruction12 of the persons and goods of the Queene’s subjects, or for other lewd13 purposes. Be it enacted14 that if any person or persons after the first day of June next coming, shall use practice, or exercise any invocations, or conjurations, of evill or wicked spirits, to or for any intent or purpose, or else if any person or persons after the said first day of June shall use, practice or exercise any witchcraft7, enchantment15, charme or sorcerie, whereby any person shall happen to be killed or destroied, that then as well every such offendour or offendours in invocations, or conjurations, as is aforesayde, their aydours and counsellors, as also everie such offendour or offendours in that Witchcrafte, enchantment, charme or sorcerie whereby the death of any person doth ensue, their ayders and counsellors, being of eyther of the sayde offences lawfully16 convicted and attainted, shall suffer paines of death, as a felon6 or felons17, and shall lose the privilege and benefit of Clergy and sanctuary,” &c.
In this act lesser18 penalties are imposed for using any form of witchcraft or sorcery, for inducing to any persons harm, or to “provoke any person to unlawfull love or to hurt or destroy any person in his or her bodye, member or goods,” or for the discovery or recovery of treasure. From that time down to the first quarter of the eighteenth century, when the law practically died out, witchcraft had its place in the category of legal offences. The law was finally repealed by an Act in the tenth year of George II. The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were the time of witch-fever, and in that period, especially in its earlier days when the belief149 had become epidemic19, it was ruthless and destructive. It is said that in Genoa five hundred persons were burned within three months in the year 1515, and a thousand in the diocese of Como in a year. Round numbers in such matters are to be distrusted, as we find they seldom bear investigation20; but there is little doubt that in France and Germany vast numbers suffered and perished. Even in more prosaic21 and less emotional England there were many thousands of judicial22 murders in this wise. It is asserted that within two centuries they totalled thirty thousand.
It is startling to find such a weird23 and impossible credulity actually rooted in the Statute book of one’s own country, and that there are records of judges charging juries to convict. Sir Matthew Hale, a great lawyer, a judge of the Common Pleas in 1654, and Lord Chief Justice in 1671, was a firm believer in witchcraft. He was a grave and pious24 man, and all his life was an ardent25 student of theology as well as of law. And yet in 1664 he sentenced women to be burned as witches. In 1716 a mother and daughter—the latter only nine years of age—were hanged in Huntingdon. In Scotland the last case of a woman being condemned26 as a witch occurred at Dornoch in 1722.
It is no easy task in these days, which are rationalistic, iconoclastic27 and enquiring28, to understand how the commonalty not only believed in witchcraft but acted on that belief. Probably the most tolerant150 view we can take, is that both reason and enquiry are essential and rudimentary principles of human nature. Every person of normal faculties29 likes to know and understand the reasons of things; and inquisitiveness31 is not posterior to the period of maternal32 alimentation. If we seek for a cause we are bound to find one—even if it be wrong. Omne ignotum pro11 magnifico has a wide if not always a generous meaning; and when fear is founded on, if not inspired by ignorance, that unthinking ferocity which is one of our birthrights from Adam is apt to carry us further than we ever meant to go. In an age more clear-seeing than our own and less selfish we shall not think so poorly of primitive33 emotions as we are at present apt to. On the contrary we shall begin to understand that in times when primitivity holds sway, we are most in touch with the loftiest things we are capable of understanding, and our judgment34, being complex, is most exact. Indeed in this branch of the subject persons used to call to aid a special exercise of our natural forces—the ?sthetic. When witchcraft was a belief, the common idea was that that noxious35 power was almost entirely36 held by the old and ugly. The young, fresh, and beautiful, were seldom accepted as witches save by the novelty-loving few or those of sensual nature. This was perhaps fortunate—if the keeping down of the population in this wise was necessary; it is easier as well as safer to murder the uncomely than those of greater151 charm. In any case there was no compunction about obliterating37 the former class. The general feeling was much the same as that in our own time which in sporting circles calls for the destruction of vermin.
It will thus be seen that the profession of witchcraft, if occasionally lucrative38, was nevertheless always accompanied with danger and execration39. This was natural enough since the belief which made witchcraft dangerous was based on fear. It is not too much to say that in every case, professed40 witchcraft was an expression of fraudulent intent. Such pity, therefore, as the subject allows of must be confined to the guiltless victims who, despite blameless life, were tried by passion, judged by frenzy42, and executed by remorseless desperation. There could be no such thing as quantitative43 analysis of guilt41 with regard to the practice of witchcraft: any kind of playing with the subject was a proof of some kind of wrongful intent, and was to be judged with Draconian44 severity. Doubtless it was a very simple way of dealing with evils, much resembling the medical philosophy of the Chinese. The whole logic45 of it can be reduced to a sorites. Any change from the normal is the work of the devil—or a devil as the case may be. Find out the normal residence of that especial devil—which is in some human being. Destroy the devil’s dwelling46. You get rid of the devil. It is pure savagery47 of the most primitive kind. And152 it is capable of expansion, for logic is a fertile plant, and when its premises49 are wrong it has the fecundity50 of a weed. Before even a savage48 can have time to breathe, his logic is piling so fast on him that he is smothered51. If a human being is a devil then the club which destroys him or her is an incarnation of good, and so a god to be worshipped in some form—or at any rate to be regarded with esteem52, like a sword, or a legal wig53, or a stethoscope, or a paint-brush, or a shovel54, or a compass, or a drinking-vessel, or a pen. If all the necessary conditions of life and sanity55 and comfort were on so primitive a base, what an easy world it would be to live in!
One benefit there was in witchcraft, though it was not recognised officially as such at the time. It created a new industry—a whole crop of industries. It is of the nature of belief that it encourages belief—not always of exactly the same kind—but of some form which intelligence can turn into profit. We cannot find any good in the new industry—grapes do not grow on thorns nor figs56 on thistles. The sum of human happiness was in no sense augmented57; but at least a good deal of money or money’s worth changed hands; which, after all, is as much as most of the great financiers can point to as the result of long and strenuous58 success. In the organisation59 of this form of crime there were many classes, of varying risks and of benefits in inverse60 ratio to them. For the ordinary rule of153 finance holds even here: large interest means bad security. First there were the adventurers themselves who took the great risks of life and its collaterals—esteem, happiness, &c. The money obtained by this class was usually secured by fraudulent sales of worthless goods or by the simple old financial device of blackmail61. Then there were those who were in reality merely parasites62 on the pleasing calling—those timorous63 souls who let “‘I dare not’ wait upon ‘I would’ like the poor cat i’ the adage64.” These were altogether in a poorer way of trade than their bolder brothers and sisters. They lacked courage, and sometimes even sufficient malice65 for the proper doing of their work; with the result that success seldom attended them at all, and never heartily66. But at any rate they could not complain of inadequate67 punishment; whenever religious zeal68 flamed up they were generally prominent victims. They can in reality only be regarded as specimens69 of parasitic70 growth. Then there came the class known in French criminal circles as agents provocateurs, whose business was not only to further ostensible71 crime but to work up the opposition72 against it. Either branch of their art would probably be inadequate; but by linking their services they managed to eke73 out a livelihood74. Lastly there was the lowest grade of all, the Witch-finder—a loathly calling, comparable only to the class or guild75 of “paraskistae” or “rippers” in the ritual of the Mummy industry of ancient Egypt.
154 Of these classes we may I think consider some choice specimens—so far as we may fittingly investigate the personnel of a by-gone industry. Of the main body, that of Wizards and Witches or those pretending to the cult30, let us take Doctor Dee and Madame Voisin, and Sir Edward Kelley and Mother Damnable—thus representing the method of the procession of the unclean animals from the Ark. Of the class of Witchfinders one example will probably be as much as we can stand, and we will naturally take the one who obtained fame in his calling—namely Matthew Hopkins, who stands forth76 like Satan, “by merit raised to that bad eminence77.”
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1 offender | |
n.冒犯者,违反者,犯罪者 | |
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2 alleged | |
a.被指控的,嫌疑的 | |
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3 etiquette | |
n.礼仪,礼节;规矩 | |
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4 statute | |
n.成文法,法令,法规;章程,规则,条例 | |
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5 dealing | |
n.经商方法,待人态度 | |
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6 felon | |
n.重罪犯;adj.残忍的 | |
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7 witchcraft | |
n.魔法,巫术 | |
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8 clergy | |
n.[总称]牧师,神职人员 | |
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9 repealed | |
撤销,废除( repeal的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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10 abeyance | |
n.搁置,缓办,中止,产权未定 | |
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11 pro | |
n.赞成,赞成的意见,赞成者 | |
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12 obstruction | |
n.阻塞,堵塞;障碍物 | |
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13 lewd | |
adj.淫荡的 | |
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14 enacted | |
制定(法律),通过(法案)( enact的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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15 enchantment | |
n.迷惑,妖术,魅力 | |
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16 lawfully | |
adv.守法地,合法地;合理地 | |
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17 felons | |
n.重罪犯( felon的名词复数 );瘭疽;甲沟炎;指头脓炎 | |
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18 lesser | |
adj.次要的,较小的;adv.较小地,较少地 | |
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19 epidemic | |
n.流行病;盛行;adj.流行性的,流传极广的 | |
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20 investigation | |
n.调查,调查研究 | |
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21 prosaic | |
adj.单调的,无趣的 | |
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22 judicial | |
adj.司法的,法庭的,审判的,明断的,公正的 | |
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23 weird | |
adj.古怪的,离奇的;怪诞的,神秘而可怕的 | |
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24 pious | |
adj.虔诚的;道貌岸然的 | |
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25 ardent | |
adj.热情的,热烈的,强烈的,烈性的 | |
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26 condemned | |
adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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27 iconoclastic | |
adj.偶像破坏的,打破旧习的 | |
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28 enquiring | |
a.爱打听的,显得好奇的 | |
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29 faculties | |
n.能力( faculty的名词复数 );全体教职员;技巧;院 | |
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30 cult | |
n.异教,邪教;时尚,狂热的崇拜 | |
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31 inquisitiveness | |
好奇,求知欲 | |
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32 maternal | |
adj.母亲的,母亲般的,母系的,母方的 | |
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33 primitive | |
adj.原始的;简单的;n.原(始)人,原始事物 | |
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34 judgment | |
n.审判;判断力,识别力,看法,意见 | |
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35 noxious | |
adj.有害的,有毒的;使道德败坏的,讨厌的 | |
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36 entirely | |
ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地 | |
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37 obliterating | |
v.除去( obliterate的现在分词 );涂去;擦掉;彻底破坏或毁灭 | |
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38 lucrative | |
adj.赚钱的,可获利的 | |
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39 execration | |
n.诅咒,念咒,憎恶 | |
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40 professed | |
公开声称的,伪称的,已立誓信教的 | |
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41 guilt | |
n.犯罪;内疚;过失,罪责 | |
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42 frenzy | |
n.疯狂,狂热,极度的激动 | |
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43 quantitative | |
adj.数量的,定量的 | |
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44 draconian | |
adj.严苛的;苛刻的;严酷的;龙一样的 | |
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45 logic | |
n.逻辑(学);逻辑性 | |
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46 dwelling | |
n.住宅,住所,寓所 | |
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47 savagery | |
n.野性 | |
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48 savage | |
adj.野蛮的;凶恶的,残暴的;n.未开化的人 | |
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49 premises | |
n.建筑物,房屋 | |
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50 fecundity | |
n.生产力;丰富 | |
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51 smothered | |
(使)窒息, (使)透不过气( smother的过去式和过去分词 ); 覆盖; 忍住; 抑制 | |
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52 esteem | |
n.尊敬,尊重;vt.尊重,敬重;把…看作 | |
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53 wig | |
n.假发 | |
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54 shovel | |
n.铁锨,铲子,一铲之量;v.铲,铲出 | |
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55 sanity | |
n.心智健全,神智正常,判断正确 | |
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56 figs | |
figures 数字,图形,外形 | |
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57 Augmented | |
adj.增音的 动词augment的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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58 strenuous | |
adj.奋发的,使劲的;紧张的;热烈的,狂热的 | |
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59 organisation | |
n.组织,安排,团体,有机休 | |
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60 inverse | |
adj.相反的,倒转的,反转的;n.相反之物;v.倒转 | |
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61 blackmail | |
n.讹诈,敲诈,勒索,胁迫,恫吓 | |
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62 parasites | |
寄生物( parasite的名词复数 ); 靠他人为生的人; 诸虫 | |
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63 timorous | |
adj.胆怯的,胆小的 | |
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64 adage | |
n.格言,古训 | |
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65 malice | |
n.恶意,怨恨,蓄意;[律]预谋 | |
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66 heartily | |
adv.衷心地,诚恳地,十分,很 | |
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67 inadequate | |
adj.(for,to)不充足的,不适当的 | |
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68 zeal | |
n.热心,热情,热忱 | |
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69 specimens | |
n.样品( specimen的名词复数 );范例;(化验的)抽样;某种类型的人 | |
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70 parasitic | |
adj.寄生的 | |
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71 ostensible | |
adj.(指理由)表面的,假装的 | |
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72 opposition | |
n.反对,敌对 | |
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73 eke | |
v.勉强度日,节约使用 | |
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74 livelihood | |
n.生计,谋生之道 | |
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75 guild | |
n.行会,同业公会,协会 | |
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76 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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77 eminence | |
n.卓越,显赫;高地,高处;名家 | |
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