confesse and detect others; and for the contrairie, there may be threatnings and violence practised and used.
‘Item. the little children of witches, which will not confesse, must be attached; who (if they be craftilie handled saith Bodin) will confesse against their owne mothers.
‘Item. witches must be examined as suddenlie, and as unawares as is possible; the which will so amaze them, that they will confesse anything, supposing the diuell hath forsaken them; whereas, if they should first be committed to prison, the diuell would tamper with them, and informe them what to doo.
‘Item. the inquisitor, iudge, or examiner, must begin with small matters first.
‘Item. they must be examined whether their parents were witches or no; for witches (as these Doctors suppose) came by propagation. And Bodin setteth downe this principle in witchcraft, to wit, Si saga sit mater, sic etiam est filia: howbeit the lawe forbiddeth it Ob sanguinis reuerentiam.
‘Item. the examiner must looke stedfastlie upon their eies: for they cannot looke directlie upon a man’s face, (as Bodin affirmeth in one place, although in another he saith, that they kill and destroie both men and beasts by their lookes).
‘Item. she must be examined of all accusations, presumptions and faults, at one instant: least sathan should afterwards dissuade hir from confession.
‘Item. a witch may not be put in prison alone, least the diuell dissuade her from confession, through promises of her indemnitie. For (saith Bodin) some that haue been in the gaole haue proued to flie awaie, as they were woont to doo when they met with Diana and Minerua &c., and so brake their owne necks against the stone walles.
‘Item. if anie denie hir owne confession made without torture, she is neuerthelesse by that confession to be condemned, as in anie other crime.
‘Item, the iudges must seeme to put on a pittifull countenance and to moue them; saieing that It was not they, but the diuell that committed the murther, and that he compelled them to doo it; and must make them beleeue that they think them to be innocents.
‘Item. if they will not confesse nothing upon the racke or torture; their apparell must be changed, and euerie haire in their bodie must be shauen off with a sharpe razor.
‘Item, if they have charmes for taciturnitie, so as they feele not the common tortures, and therefore confesse nothing; then some sharpe instrument must be thrust betwixt euerie naile of their fingers and toes; which (as Bodin saith) was King Childebert’s devise, and is, to this daie, of all others the most effectuall. For by meanes of that extreme paine, they will (saith he) confesse anie thing.
‘Item. Paulus Grillandus, being an old doer in these matters, wisheth that when witches sleepe, and feele no paine upon the torture, Domine labia mea aperies should be said, and so, (saith he) both the tormentt will be felt, and the truth will be uttered.
‘Item. Bodin saith, that at the time of examination there should be a semblance of a great a doo, to the terrifieing of the witch; and that a number of instruments, gieues,36 manacles, ropes, halters, fetters &c. be prepared, brought foorth, and laid before the examinate; and, also, that some be procured to make a most horrible and lamentable crie, in the place of torture, as though he or she were upon the racke, or in the tormentor’s hands: so as the examinate may heare it whiles she is examined, before she hir selfe be brought into the prison; and perhaps (saith he) she will by this meanes, confesse the matter.
‘Item. there must be subborned some craftie spie, that may seeme to be a prisoner with hir in the like case; who, perhaps, may, in Conference, undermine hir, and so bewraie and discouer hir.
‘Item. if she will not yet confesse, she must be told that she is detected, and accused by other of hir companions; although in truth there be no such matter; and so, perhaps, she will confesse, the rather to be reuenged upon hir aduersaries and accusers.
‘If an old woman threaten or touch one, being in health, who dieth shortly after; or else is infected with the leprosie, apoplexie, or anie strange disease; it is (saith Bodin) a permanent fact, and such an euidence, as condemnation or death must insue, without further proofe; if anie bodie haue mistrusted hir, or said before that she was a witch.
‘Item. if anie come in, or depart out, of the chamber or house, the doores being shut; it is an apparent and sufficient euidence to a Witches Condemnation, without further triall:
‘Item, if a woman bewitch anie bodies eies, she is to be executed without further proofe.
‘Item. if anie inchant or bewitch men’s beasts, or come, or flie in the aire, or make a dog speake, or cut off anie man’s members, and unite them againe to men or children’s bodies; it is sufficient proofe to condemnation.
‘Item. presumptions and coniectures are sufficient proofes against witches.
‘Item. if three witnesses doo but saie, Such a woman is a witch: then it is a cleere case that she is to be executed with death. Which matter Bodin saith is not onelie certeine by the canon and civill lawes, but by the opinion of pope Innocent, the wisest pope, (as he saith) that ever was.
‘Item. the complaint of anie one man of credit is sufficient to bring a poore woman to the racke or pullie.
‘Item. a condemned or infamous person’s testimonie is good and allowable in matters of witchcraft.
‘Item a witch is not to be deliuered, though she endure all the tortures, and confesse nothing; as all other are in anie criminall cases.
‘Item, though the depositions of manie women at one instant are disabled, as insufficient in lawe; bicause of the imbecillitie and frailtie of their nature or sex: yet, in this matter, one woman, though she be a partie, either accuser or accused, and be also infamous and impudent (for such are Bodin’s words) yea, and alreadie condemned; she may, neverthelesse serue to accuse and condemne a witch.
‘Item, a witness uncited, and offering himselfe in this case, is to be heard, and in none other.
‘Item, a Capitall enimie (if the enimitie be pretended to grow by meanes of witchcraft) may obiect against a witch; and none exception is to be had or made against him.
‘Item, although the proofe of periurie may put back a witnesse in other causes; yet in this, a periured person is a good and a lawfull witnesse.
‘Item, the proctors and advocates in this case are compelled to be witnesses against their clients, as in none other case they are to be constrained thereunto.
‘Item, none can giue euidence against witches, touching their assemblies, but witches onelie; bicause, (as Bodin saith) none other can do it.’
Thus we see that the poor witch had everything against her, which will account in a great way for those marvellous confessions we read of, when the poor, weary, baited and tortured woman would confess to anything to get a few hours’ respite from pain, well knowing that execution would follow, whether she confessed or no. In fact, no other hypothesis is possible, when we read of the extraordinary matters to which these poor women confessed.
Chapter XIV.
