Читать книгу The Discovery of Witchcraft. Facts, Fiction & Conspiracy Theories Behind the Medieval Witch Hunt онлайн

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Presumptions, whereby witches are condemned.

Item, if the child of a woman that is suspected to be a witch, be lacking or gone from hir; it is to be presumed, that she hath sacrificed it to the divell: except she can proove the negative or contrarie.

Item, though in other persons, certeine points of their confessions may be thought erronious, and imputed to error: yet (in witches causes) all oversights, imperfections, and escapes must/26. be adjudged impious and malicious, and tend to hir confusion and condemnation.

Item, though a theefe be not said in lawe to be infamous in any other matter than in theft; yet a witch defamed of witchcraft is said to be defiled with all maner of faults and infamies universallie, though she were not condemned; but (as I said) defamed with the name of a witch. For rumors and reports are sufficient (saith Bodin) to condemne a witch.

Item,¹¹⁰ if any man, woman, or child doo saie, that such a one is a witch; it is a most vehement suspicion (saith Bodin) and sufficient to bring hir to the racke: though in all other cases it be directlie against lawe.