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

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Is it not natural that his suspicions, and more than suspicions, should have been aroused, and that he should have been thus led to take up the whole subject seriously? One who had given himself up, as Wood says, to reading and thought as well as to healthy and useful exercise, must have sought for and obtained books on either side of the subject, and in especial the known book of Wier; and thoughtful reading of these, and meditation must have led him to extend his views, and gather them into a harmonious and consistent whole. Meanwhile, however, the bloodthirsty superstition daily increased, and there were published first, the mad book or books of Richard Gallis—spoken of in pp. 132–3—of the witches at Windsor, now, I believe, unfortunately lost, where, among other things, he narrates how, at a Sabbath meeting, he had a hand-to-hand encounter with the devil, and wounded him so sore that he stank of brimstone; and in 1582, there took place the wholesale condemnation of the poor old women of St. Osees, thirteen I believe of whom were hanged. There had been no such condemnation before in England. It is not unlikely that he himself witnessed their condemnation—see ssss1. So unusual was it, that—as I cannot but believe on other evidence, as stated in my noting on Macbeth—a ballad was written on it, which became very commonly known, and was remembered as late as 1606. This same unusual breadth of punishment also created so much attention that Justice Brian Darcie thought it worth while to set forth in print, not the trial, but the depositions taken before him, and thus inform a too ignorant public that he and he alone was the primary cause of such a purification.