Witch, Warlock, and Magician

‘And further she confesseth and saith, that she never did know, or saw any Devils, nor any other Visions, as formerly by her hath been alleged and informed.

‘Also she confesseth and saith, that she was not thrown or cast upon the hen-ruff and hay-mow in the barn, but that she went up upon the Mow herself by the wall-side.

‘Being further demanded whether she ever was at the Church, she saith, she was not, but promised hereafter to go to the Church, and that very willingly.’

The three accused were also examined, and declared their belief that Grace Sowerbutts had been trained by the priest to accuse them of witchcraft, because they ‘would not be dissuaded from the Church.’

‘These examinations being taken, they were brought into the Court, and there openly in the presence of this great audience published and declared to the jury of life and death; and thereupon the gentlemen of their jury required to consider of them. For although they stood upon their Trial, for matter of fact of witchcraft, murther, and much more of the like nature: yet in respect all their accusations did appear to be practice, they were now to consider of them and to acquit them. Thus were these poor innocent creatures, by the great care and pains of this honourable Judge, delivered from the danger of this conspiracy; this bloody practice of the Priest laid open: of whose fact I may lawfully say, Etiam si ego tacuero clamabunt lapides.

‘These are but ordinary with Priests and Jesuits: no respect of blood, kindred, or friendship can move them to forbear their conspiracies; for when he had laboured treacherously to seduce and convert them, and yet could do no good, then devised he this means.

‘God of His great mercy deliver us all from them and their damnable conspiracies: and when any of his Majesty’s subjects, so free and innocent as these, shall come in question, grant them as honourable a trial, as reverend and worthy a judge to sit in judgment upon them, and in the end as speedy a deliverance.

‘And for that which I have heard of them, seen with my eyes, and taken pains to read of them, my humble prayer shall be to God Almighty, Vt convertantur ne pereant. Aut confundantur ne noceant.’[43 - Potts, ‘Wonderful Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster’ (1613).]

I pass on to a remarkable trial for witchcraft which took place at Taunton Assizes in August, 1626, one Edward Ball and Joan Greedie being charged with having practised upon a certain Edward Dinham.

It seems that the complainant, when under the witch-spell, possessed no fewer than three voices – namely, his own natural voice, and two artificial voices, of which one was shrill and pleasant, the other deadly and hollow. These two voices belonged respectively to the good and evil spirits which alternately prevailed over him. As it is said that they spoke without any movement of the lips or tongue, it is probable the man was a natural ventriloquist, and made use of his gift to imperil the lives of Ball and Greedie, against whom he may have entertained a hostile feeling. He gave the following specimen of the conversation which took place between him and his spirits:

Good Spirit. How comes this man to be thus tormented?

Bad Spirit. He is bewitched.

Good. Who hath done it?

Bad. That I may not tell.

Good. Aske him agayne.

Dinham. Come, come, prithee, tell me who hath bewitched me.

Bad. A woman in greene cloathes and a black hatt, with a large poll; and a man in a gray suite, with blue stockings.

Good. But where are they?

Bad. She is at her house, and hee is at a taverne in Yeohall [Youghal] in Ireland.

Good. But what are their names?

Bad. Nay, that I will not tell.

Good. Then tell half of their names.

Bad. The one is Johan, and the other Edward.

Good. Nowe tell me the other half.

Bad. That I may not.

Good. Aske him agayne.

Dinham. Come, come, prithee, tell me the other half.

Bad. The one is Greedie, and the other Ball.

This information having been obtained, a messenger is sent to a certain house, where the unfortunate Joan is straightway arrested. The conversation, if this absurd rigmarole can be so called, was afterwards resumed, the man conveniently going into one of his ‘fits’ for the purpose:

Good. But are these witches?

Bad. Yes; that they are.

Good. Howe came they to bee soe?

Bad. By discent.

Good. But howe by discent?

Bad. From the grandmother to the mother, and from the mother to the children.

Good. But howe aree they soe?

Bad. They aree bound to us, and wee to them.

Good. Lett mee see the bond.

Bad. Thou shalt not.

Good. Lett mee see it, and if I like I will seale alsoe.

Bad. Thou shalt, if thou wilt not reveale the contentes thereof.

Good. I will not.

As usual, the Good Spirit gets its way, and the bond is produced, drawing from the Good Spirit an exclamation of anguish: ‘Alas! oh, pittifull, pittifull, pittifull! What? eight seales, bloody seales – four dead, and four alive? Ah, miserable!’

Dinham. Come, come, prithee, tell me, Why did they bewitch me?

Bad. Because thou didst call Johane Greedie witche.

Dinham. Why, is shee not a witche?

Bad. Yes; but thou shouldest not have said soe.

Good. But why did Ball bewitche him?

Bad. Because Greedie was not stronge enough.

A messenger is now sent after Ball; but on reaching his hiding-place, he finds that the poor man has just escaped, and he meets with people who had seen his flight. Dinham and his voices then join in a discourse, from which it appears that before they bewitched Dinham they had been guilty of various ‘evil practices,’ and had compassed the death of, at least, one of their victims. Six days afterwards Dinham has another ‘fit,’ and a second unsuccessful effort is made to track and arrest Ball. Disgusted with this failure, the Good Spirit strenuously opposes the Evil Spirit in his resolve to secure Dinham’s soul: