A Guide to Grand-jury Men, Book 2 · Chapter 8
CHAP. VIII. That there are such as be called good Witches, and how they …y be knowne.
AS in Gods Church there be good and bad; So in this kingdome of Satan, there are good and bad Witches.
These good for white Witches are commonly called blessers, healers, cunning wise men; or women (for there are of both sex…s) but of this kind, many men.
These hauehave a spirit also, as one Ioane Willimor acknowledged,In the Discourse of Wichcr…ft, against the E. of …uil. children. and are in league with the Diuell, as well as the bad and black Witches be.
By their spirit they learne, who are bad Witches, and where they dwell, who are strucken, forespoken, and bewitched, and by them they learne how those doe, whom they vndertake to amend; for the spirit is sent vntounto their patients from them; all which the foresaid Ione VVillimot acknowledged before Authority in her examination.
The profession of these Witches is, for the most part, to heale and cure such as bee taken, blasted, strucken, forespoken, as they vse to speake, and bewitched: all which cures they doe by their compact with the Deuill.
But though these Witches be almost all healing Witches, and cannot doe to man, or beast any hurt, except they procure some other to doe it, yet we may finde, that some of these sometimes hauehave the double facultie, both to blesse, and to curse, to hurt, and to heale, as it is probable Balaam had, at the least in Balaks imagination, Numb. 22.6. For he ascribeth to him the power of blessing & cursing, as had a famous Witch, one Hartley in Lancash…re, and a woman Witch; of both which, Master Cooper in his Mysterie of Witchcraft doth make mention. But, I say, for the most part, I finde them curing Witches; some more obscure, and some more notable then others, as was the Sorcerer Simon Magus, who be witched the people so,Act. 8. as they verily supposed that he did that hee did, by the power of God. when the Text telleth vsus, …hat it was by Sorce…ie, and …o by the power of the Diuell.
Their reward is for their curing, what people commonly wil giuegive them; some take more, some take but a little, often nothing, and some may not take anything at all, as some hauehave professed, that if they should take any thing they could doe no good; of such an one Bodin maketh mention, which went …ll in patched and ragged cloathes. Heere also the Diuell will imitate Christ,In Damon…. lib. 3. cap. 2. who said Freely ye receiue, freely giuegive.
The good Witches (vntruely so called) may be sundry wayes knowne.
I. From the qualitie of the party, one commonly very ignorant of religion,Deut. 18. an oberue… of times, of good & bad dayes, of good and bad lucke, very superstitious in many things not induring willingly such as …care God, and such as delight in his Word. They are also fantastically proud, as Simon Magus was, who boasted much o… …imselfe, as these doe of their gift and power; as those in Spaine, which call themselues Salutadorres.
II. By his or her vnwillingnesse to conferre, either with godly and learned Diuines, of their Faith & good prayers, by which they professe to do such cures, or with godly and learned Physicians, about such …edicines as they prescribe to procure health: both which they auoid, lest their works of darknesse should come to light, and they be discouered to bee Witches.
III. By their priuate and secret whisperings, mumblings and muttering… with a low voice, … was the manner of Witches to doe in old time, Isa. 8.19. & 29.4.
IV. By professing to bee able to helpe such as bee bewitched and forespoken:Bodin. in Dem. l. 3. c. 1. &c. 20. P…lo Iudeus. for the supernaturall worke of the diuell, as in case of be…itching, cā …ot be cured (as learned men affirme) by any natural meanes: this Witches hauehave confessed also, and therefore must be by a league betweene the Diuel and the Witch.
V. By the meanes which they doe vse to helpe such as come to them for helpe: as See Del…io, Lab. 3. cap. …. & ….By onelyonly touching the party: Bodinus giueth instances, who thus cured the Ague & Toothach. 2. By saying certaine prayers, as Anne Baker did,Leicestershire Witches. and Ioane Willimot: which be Popish set prayers many of them; as so many Creeds,B…di…,e 3.c..5 Aue-Maries and Pater-nosters, as a Witch confessed to me. 3. By Charmes and Spels, absurd, barbarous and ridiculous forms of words, and such like meanes, which hauehave no power from naturall working, nor from the ordinance of God, and therefore must needs be from the Diuell.
VI. By the remedies which these prescribe vntounto others to doe, to hauehave helpe, as*Our late reuere…d Dioćelan B. L…kes, worthy of eternall memory said, this was a note of Witch if not a counte…feit. one or two medicines for all diseases, impossible in nature to bee a…aileable in so great varietie, and therefore do no good, and are prescribed onelyonly to couer their diabolicall practice and Witchery. So to prescribe medicines made of such things, as are abhorring to nature, of which Bodin maketh mention.Bodin Daemo…o. lib …. cap. 2. & 5. See Sc…t of Witchcraft, for Charmes, Amul…, and other things, b. 12. c. 9.14 18. Delrio lib. …. c. 4.9.3, 4 His Treatise of Wi…cher. pa. 53.64.66 See Bodin. Demo. l.3. cap. … To prescribe Charmes, popish prayers, popish superstitions, and very Witcheries themselues, as to hang Amulets about the necke, and certaine pieces of holy Scripture, to goe and scratch the suspected, to burne some of his or her haire, or some part of the beast bewitched, to pricke a needle or bodkin vnderunder the stoole where the Witch sitteth, to make a Witch-cake of Bakers meale, and the bewitched parties V…ine: see for this and some others the like vanities, in Master Roberts practices, vnbesitting reasonable men, and …ober Christians.
VII. By their foreknowledge to tell who those be that come to them, why, and for whom they come. Thus could the Witch of Endor tell, that he tha… came disguised,2. Sam. 28. was Saul. Thu… could hee that made the Witchcake, tel the party which came to him to helpe his wife, of whom Master Roberts doth write. That such are Witches, Bodinus bringeth instances out of Flanders,Lib. 3. D…mo. cap. 5. Portugall, France. To tel also who are bewitched, and how, and who are Witches, and where their marke is; these be Witches: for all these things they know by their spirit, as Ioane Willimot the Leicestershire Witch did confesse; part hereof in her first, & part in her second examination, before seuerall Iustices. For this foreknowledge Physicians hauehave not by their Art, neither hauehave these ignorant persons this by diuine inspiration, and therefore by compact with the Diuell.
VIII. By shewing the suspected in a Glasse,Giff…dia his try all of Witchcraft, Fernel. l. 1 c. 11. … abdit rer… causas. Reade Pater de L… de spectris transl. by Zach. la…, …. 12. pa. 12…. as hee that made the Witch-cake did, before mentioned, who shewed the Witch Mary Smith in a Glasse. Fernelius speaketh of such a Witch, whom he, as himselfe saith, saw. This is an vndoubted marke of a Witch, as one Master Edmunds of Cambridge told me, who was one that for a time professed to helpe men to goods or money stolne, who was once by the heads of the Vniuersitie questioned, as he confessed to mee, when hee had better learned Christ, and giuen ouer his practice that way. He told mee two things (besides many others, in a whole afternoones discourse at Castlehiningham in Essex) neuer to bee forgotten. 1. That by his Art he could find out him that stole frō another, but not for himselfe. 2. That the ground of this Art was not so certa ine, but that hee might mistake, and so peraduenture accuse an honest man, in stead of the offender, and therefore gaue it ouer, albeit he said hee might hauehave made two hundred pound per annum of his skill.
IX. By paines and like torment comming vponupon this good Witch, which is vponupon the bewitched. Conference I had once with a suspected healing Witch, a man miserable poore, and of an horrid countenance, of whom I asking how hee knew a man or beast to be bewitched, hee told mee by two things. First, by his trouble in saying his prayers for the bewitched, which then he could hardly remember, and much adoe he had to make an end of them; which prayers were so many Creeds, so many Aue-Maries, so many Pater nosters. Secondly, by the paine which would seaze on himselfe as soone as he began his prayers, the very same which was vponupon the bewitched. This skill hee learned of a woman, which taught him a secret, but what that ground of this Witchcraft was, that could I by no meanes procure him to reueale. Some know who are bewitched, as before I shewed, by their spirit, & some by some Witchery means, of which Bodinus maketh mention, and of many vaine people yet put in practice,Lib. 3. cap. 11. when they suspect a party; for which they deserued to be punished, if they had their desert.
X. Lastly, by requiring Faith of such as come vntounto them: Physicians expect it not, neither dare any truely fearing God, rob thus God of his honour (who curseth such as trust in man) and yet these VVitches professe, that they cannot heale such as doe not beleeue in them.Lib. 3. c. 1. & 2. This Bodinus sheweth by examples three or foure, whereof one Healer came to a Bishop, and willed him to trust in him to cure him, and this was in the hearing of Bodinus himselfe, there in the Chamber, and one Doctor Faber, a learned Physician. Thus may these, falsely so named good VVitches, be discouered.