WITNESS
677
WITNESS
provinces. Striking examples are given by Janssen.
In Osnabrilck, in 1583, 121 persons were burned in
three montlis. At WolfenbUttel in 1593 as many as
ten witches were often burned in one day. It w-as not
until 1563 that any effective resistance to the per-
secution began to be offered. This came first from a
Protestant of Cleues, John Weyer, and other protests
were shortly afterwards published in the same sense
by Ewich and \\'itekind. On the other hand, Jean
Bodin, a French Protestant lawyer, replied to Weyer
in 15S0 with much asperity, and in 1.589 the CathoUc
Bishop Binsfeld and Father Delrio, a Jesuit, \^Toteon
the same side, though Delrio wished to mitigate the
severity of the witch trials and denounced the excessive
use of torture. Bodin's book was answered amongst
others by the Englishman Reginald Scott in his "Dis-
coverie of Witchcraft" (1584J, but this answer was
ordered to be burned by James I, who replied to it
in his, "Dajmonologie".
Perhaps the most effective protest on the side of humanity and enlightenment was offered by the Jesuit Friedrich von Spec (q. v.), who in 1631 published his "Cautio criminaUs" and who fought against the craze by every means in his power. This cruel persecution seems to have ex-tended to all parts of the world. In the sixteenth century there were ca.sesin which witches were condemned by lay tribunals and burned inthe immedi- ate neighbourhood of Rome. Pope Grcgorj' XV, how- ever, in his Constitution, "Omnipotentis" (1623), rec- ommended a milder procedure, and in 1657 an Instruc- tion of the Inquisition brought effective remonstrances tobearupon the crueltj' showTi in these prosecutions. England and Scotland, of course, were by no means exempt from the same epidemic of cruelty, though witches were not usually bvuTied. As to the number of executions in Great Britain it seems impossible to form any safe estimate. One statement declares that 30,000, another that 3000, were hanged in England dur- ing the rule of the Parhament (Note-stein, op. dt. infra, p. 194). Stearne the witchfinder boasted that he per- sonally knew of 200 executions. HoweU, writing in 1648, says that within the compass of two years near upon 300 witches were arraigned, and the major part executed, in Essex and Suffolk only (ibid., 195). In Scotland there is the same lack of statistics. A careful article by Legge in the "Scottish Re\iew" (Oct., 1891) estimates that during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries "3400 persons perished ". Forasmall popu- lation such as that of Scotland, this number is enor- mous, but manj' authorities, though confessedly only guessing, have given a much higher estimate. Even America was not exempt from this plague. The well- known Cotton Mather, in his "Wonders of the In- visible World" (1693), gives an account of 19 exe- cutions of witches in Xew England, where one poor creature was pressed to death. In modern times, con- siderable attention has been given to the subject by Hexham and others. At the end of the seven- teenth centur)' the persecution almost everj'where be- gan to slacken, and early in the eighteenth it practi- cally ceased . Tort ure was abolished in Prussia in 1 754, in Bavaria in 1807, in Hanover in 1822. The last trial for witchcraft in Germany was in 1749 at WUrz- burg, but in Switzerland a girl was executed for this offence in the Protestant Canton of Glarus in 1783. There seems to be no evidence to support the allega- tion sometimes made that women su,spected of witch- craft were formally tried and put to death in Mexico late in the nineteenth century (see Stimmen aua Maria-Laach, XXXII, 1887, p." 378).
The question of the reality of witchcraft is one upon which it is not ea.sy to pass aconfident judgment. In the face of Holy Scripture and the teaching of the Fath- ers and theologians the .abstract po.ssibilityof apaci with the Devil and of a di.abolical interference in human affairs can hardly be denied, but no one can read the literature of the subject without realizing the awful
cruelties to which this belief led and without being
convinced that in 99 cases out of 100 the allegations
rest upon nothing better than pure delusion. The
most bewildering circumstance is the fact that in a
large number of witch prosecutions the confessions of
the victims, often involving all kinds of satanistic
horrors, have been made spontaneously and appar-
entlj' without threat or fear of torture. Also the full
admission of guilt seems constantly to have been con-
firmed on the scaffold when the poor sufferer had
nothing to gain or lose by the confession. One can
only record the fact as a psychological problem, and
point out that the same tendency seems to manifest
itself in other similar cases. The most remarkable in-
stance, perhaps, is one mentioned by St . Agobard in the
ninth century (P. L., CIV, 158). A certain Grimaldus,
Duke of Beneventum, was accused, in the panic en-
gendered by a plague that was destroying all the cattle,
of sending men out with poisoned dust to spread in-
fection among the flocks and herds. The.se men, when
arrested and questioned, persisted, says Agobard, in
affirming their guilt, though the absurdity w.as patent.
Janssen-Pastor, Gfsr/i. iies tieutschen Volkcs. VIII, tr. XVI (Freiburg. 1!)0S); Dief-enbach in Wetzer und Welte, Kirrhen- leTikon, 3. V. Hexenprozcs-^; Soldan-Heppe, Gesch. der Hexen- prozessm (2 vols., Stuttgart, ISSO) ; GoRREs. Mj/slik, IV (Ratisbon, 1S42) ; DuHR, SIfUung d. Jcsuitrn in d. dctUschen H cxenprozessen (Freiburg. 1900); Paulus, Hexenuahn u. Hexeii,rrozess in 16 Jahrh, (Frt?iburg. 1910); Hansen, Zauberwahn, etc. in M. A. (Munich. 1900); Idem. QucHen und Unlersuchungen (Berlin, 1901); DE Catzons. La magie en France (4 vols.. Paris. 1909); Lea, Hist, of the Inquisition. II (New York, 1900); BfRR in Pnprrx af the Amer. Hist. Soc, IV (New York, 1894), 237-r,(;; Rutzi.fr, Hexmprozesse in Bayem (.Stuttgart, 1896); Notestkin, History of Witchcrnfl in England (Wa.shington. 1911); Kitthfiii;e, Kates on Wilrhrrafl (Worepster, M.isa,, 1907); TiMfSur. I., urands jimra de la sorrelleri, (Paris, 190(1'; FF,Knrs<.N, lhhh,:,,r.i,,h,r.,l Xnles on the \V,t,-l,rr,ifl L,lrral„rr „f .'<,;,ll,t„d (KrUnhuTflU. 1S!)71 Masson, La sorcellrru an tiW ,u.-l. I'.iris 1904.; Vvi-I'ii --i~ «,»,;„.- graphie dr la s..r,, ;;,-,, I- - 1900) ; Pooi.E, .--.
(Boston, isi.iii; 1 •• , t ^njlauhe u. Zaui.
1908); Gf.k.mi, I ir.Vr;, (I.nnHnri
His'.ofKah,,, W ■ ..: , U,„t..n. lsf,7 . :, . ,
on the II t ' •■: - <J-b5j ;
Tatlor. 7 •■<■ ■. 1647-
1697 (N. V ', T , Falter.
e(c. (2 vol- . Iv r_.i!, _ , . ..._' _. , ■.. Gegner
in Tyrol i Innsbruck. l>.7i.; Bam:. Xvrtkc Ucxiformularer (Christiania, 1902). HERBERT THrRSTON.
Witness, one who is present, bears testimony, fur- nishes evidence or proof. Witnes.ses are employed in various ecclesiastical matters, as in civil, in proof of a statement, fact, or contract. According to various circumstances .a witness is one who is personally pres- ent and sees some act or occurrence and can bear testi- mony thereto; one who on request or in behalf of a party subscribes his name to an instrument to attest the genuineness of its execution; one who gives testi- mony on the trial of a cause, appearing before a court, judge, or other official to be examined under oath. The espousals of Catholics ("Netemere") tobe binding must be in writing, signed by the contracting parties and ordinarily by two witnesses, or by a pastor or ordinary', each within his own territory, as sole wit- ness, in case either or both parties are unable for any cause to wTite, an additional witness is necessary. CathoHcs are incapable of entering into Lawful wedlock (" Xe temere") except in the presence of a parish priest, or ordinarj', or other priest duly dele- gated, and two witnesses. Though not necessarj' for vahdity of the act, the Church desires in both cases that these witnes-ses be Catholics (S. O., 19 Aug., 1891). Witnesses of a marriage sign no ecclesiastical document, though they may be called upon by the state to attest by their own hand certain civil records. Sponsors at baptism and confirmation are not prop- erly witne.s.sFs; they assist for other purposes (see Relationship). A canonical precept, when em- ploycfi, must be delivered in the presence of the vicar general or two others as witne.s,se8 (Cum magnopere, VII). Ecclesiastical documents are attested or wit- nes-sed as circumstances require, e. g., by the chan- cellor, clerk of the court, prothonotary apostolic.
