Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/660

620 WITCHCRAFT graver forms of witchcraft constituted HERESY (q.v. and jurisdiction over such offences was claimed by the church courts to a comparatively late date. 1 This authorization of belief in witchcraft was based partly on well-known texts of the Mosaic law especially Exodus xxii. 18, partly on peculiar constructions of other parts of Scripture, such as 1 Cor. xi. 10, where the words "because of the angels " were supposed to prove the reality of the class of demons called incubi. 2 What kinds of witchcraft were heresy was a question learnedly discussed by Farinaccius and other writers on criminal law. The practical effect of this mode of regarding witchcraft was that, although according to the better opinion the offence was in itself the subject of both secular and ecclesiastical cognizance, in fact it was on the continent of Europe seldom punished by the secular power, except as the mere executive of ecclesiastical sentences. The earliest ecclesiastical decree appears to have been that of Ancyra, 315 A.D., condemning soothsayers to five years penance. In canon law the Decretum subjected them to excommunication as idolaters and enemies of Christ, and the bishop was to take all means in his power to put down the practice of divination. 3 The Decretals contained, among others, the provision that a priest seeking to recover stolen goods by inspection of an astrolabe might be suspended from his office and benefice. 4 In the 14th century John XXII. published a bull against witchcraft. In the 15th a vigorous crusade was begun by the bull " Summis desiderantes affectibus " of Innocent VIII. in 1484. Under the authority of this bull Sprenger and Kramer (Latinized into " Institor ") were appointed inquisitors, and five years later they published the famous work Malleus Malejicarum or Hexenhammer, the great text-book on procedure in witchcraft cases, especially in Germany. 5 The third part of the work deals with the practice at length. One or two of the more interesting points of practice deserve a brief notice. Witnesses incompetent in ordinary cases were on account of the gravity of the offence admissible on a charge of witchcraft against but not for the accused. An alleged witch was to be conjured by the tears of our Saviour and of our Lady and the saints to weep, which she could not do if she were guilty. The authors explain that witch craft is more natural to women than to men, on account of the inherent wickedness of their hearts. In the Roman and Greek Churches the form of EXORCISM (q.v.) still survives, 6 and was acknowledged by the Church of England as lately as 1603. The 72d canon of that year forbade attempts by the clergy at casting out devils by fasting and prayer unless by special licence from the bishop. No such canon appears among the Irish canons of 1634. On one occasion in 1612 punishment of the exorcised demons was attempted. The bishop of Beauvais, in a document which Garinet has preserved, pronounced sentence of excommunication against five such demons. 7 England. As in other countries, ecclesiastical law claimed cognizance of witchcraft as a crime against God. The Penitentials of Archbishops Theodore and Egbert and 1 The name of one form of heresy (vauderie) came in time to denote a particular kind of witchcraft. 2 A reference to the incubus as a matter of common knowledge occurs in the prologue to Chaucer s Wife of Bath s Tale. 3 Pt. ii. caus. xxvi. qu. 5. 4 Bk. v. c. 21 (De Sortilegiis). 5 The practice was also regulated by instructions promulgated by the Inquisition. A code of such instructions framed in 1657 will be found in the later editions of Cautio Criminalis (see below). 6 The extraordinary minuteness of detail by which the practice of exorcism was regulated, even in the last century, appears from a curious little Portuguese book by Brognolo, Methodo de exorcizar expelindo Demonios (Coimbra, 1727). 7 For the Roman and ancient church law, see Smith s Diet, of Antiquities, s.vv. "Magica," " Mathematici," and Diet, of Chr. Antiq., s.v. "Magic." the Confessional of Egbert are full of condemnations of magic divinations, diabolical incantations, love-philtres, &c. An exception is made in favour of incantation by a priest by means of the Lord s prayer or the creed. The practice of magic by women is set out in the same document with minute and disgusting detail. After the Conquest, commissions were from time to time issued empowering bishops to search for sorcerers. A form of such a commission to the bishop of Lincoln in 1406 is given by Rymer. 8 The ecclesiastical courts punished by penance and fine up to 1542. 9 For graver punishments the secular power acted as executive. Many persons guilty of sorcery were, according to Sir Edward Coke, 10 burned by the king s writ de h&retico comburendo after condemnation in the ecclesiastical courts. The secular courts dealt with witchcraft from a A ery early period. It was an indictable offence at common law and later by statute, though apparently not a felony until the Act of Henry VIII. The earliest trial recorded in England was in a secular court. In 1324 several persons were appealed before the coroners of the king s household, and the record, certifying acquittal by a jury, was then brought up by writ of certiorari. 11 In proceedings against a woman the doctrine of coercion by the husband (see WOMEX) did not apply. A distinc tion, more curious than important, was drawn between conjurers, witches, and sorcerers. Conjurers by force of magic words endeavoured to raise the devil and compel him to execute their commands. Witches by way of friendly conference bargained with an evil spirit that he should do what they desired of him. Sorcerers or charmers, by the use of superstitious forms of words or by means of images or other representations of persons or things, produced strange effects above the ordinary course of nature. Legislation on the subject began in the pre-Conquest codes. Thus the laws of Ethelred banished witches, soothsayers, and magicians. The laws of Canute included love-witchcraft under heathendom. It was evi dently regarded as a survival of paganism. The first Act after the Conquest was passed in 1541 (33 Hen. VIII. c. 8), which dealt with a somewhat remarkable mixture of offences. It declared felony without benefit of clergy various kinds of sorceries, discovery of hidden treasure, destruction of a neighbour s person or goods, making images and pictures of men, women, children, angels, devils, beasts, and fowls, and pulling down crosses. The Act having been repealed at the accession of Edward VI., another Act on similar lines but distinguishing different grades of witchcraft was passed in 1562. By this Act, 5 Eliz. c. 16, conjuration and invocation of evil spirits, and the practice of sorceries, enchantments, charms, and witchcrafts, whereby death ensued, were made felonies without benefit of clergy and punishable with death. If only bodily harm ensued, the punishment for a first offence was a year s imprisonment and the pillory, and for a second death. If the practice was to discover hidden treasure or to provoke to unlawful love, the punishment for a first offence was the same as in the last case, for a second imprisonment for life and forfeiture of goods. At the accession of James I., perhaps in compliment to the king s position as an expert and specialist in the matter, was passed 1 Jac. I. c. 12, which continued law for more than a century. The strange verbiage of the most im portant section of the Act is worth quoting in full. " If any person or persons shall use, practise, or exercise any 8 Fcedera, vol. vii. p. 427. 9 See Hale, Ecclesiastical Precedents, cited in Stephen, Hist, of the Criminal Law, vol. ii. p. 410. 10 3 Inst., 44. 11 Parliamentary Writs (Record Commission edition), vol. ii. div.

i. p. 403.