The Devil Cult in Britain and America E-Book

John Ashton

• Herausgeber: John Ashton
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

The belief in a good and evil influence has existed from the earliest ages, in every nation having a religion. The Egyptians had their Typho, the Assyrians their Ti-a-mat (the Serpent), the Hebrews their Beelzebub, or Prince of Flies,[1] and the Scandinavians their Loki. And many religions teach that the evil influence has a stronger hold upon mankind than the good influence—so great, indeed, as to nullify it in a large degree. Christianity especially teaches this: ‘Enter ye by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many be they that enter in thereby. For narrow is the gate, and straitened the way, that leadeth unto life, and few be they that find it.’ This doctrine of the great power of the Devil, or evil influence over man, is preached from every pulpit, under every form of Christianity, throughout the world; and although at the present time it is only confined to the greater moral power of the Devil over man, at an earlier period it was an article of belief that he was able to exercise a greater physical power.

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John Ashton

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Table of contents

PREFACE

CHAPTER I.

Universal Belief in the Personality of the Devil, as portrayed by the British Artist—Arguments in Favour of his Personality—Ballad—‘Terrible and Seasonable Warning to Young Men.’

CHAPTER II.

‘Strange and True News from Westmoreland’—‘The Politic Wife’—‘How the Devill, though subtle, was guld by a Scold’—‘The Devil’s Oak’—Raising the Devil—Arguments in Favour of Devils—The Numbers of Devils.

CHAPTER III.

‘The Just Devil of Woodstock’—Metrical Version—Presumed Genuine History of ‘The Just Devil of Woodstock.’

CHAPTER IV.

CHAPTER V.

‘The Dæmon of Burton’—‘Strange and Wonderful News from Yowel, in Surrey’—The Story of Mrs. Jermin—A Case at Welton—‘The Relation of James Sherring.’

CHAPTER VI.

A Demon in Gilbert Campbell’s Family—Case of Sir William York—Case of Ian Smagge—Disturbances at Stockwell.

CHAPTER VII.

Possession by, and casting out, Devils—The Church and Exorcisms—Earlier Exorcists—‘The Strange and Grievous Vexation by the Devil of 7 Persons in Lancashire.’

CHAPTER VIII.

James I. on Possession—The Vexation of Alexander Nyndge—‘Wonderful News from Buckinghamshire’—Sale of a Devil.

CHAPTER IX.

The Witch of Endor—The ‘Mulier Malefica’ of Berkeley—Northern Witches.

CHAPTER X.

The Legal Witch—James I. on Witches—Reginald Scot on Witches—Addison on Witches.

CHAPTER XI.

How a Witch was made—Her Compact with the Devil—Hell Broth—Homage and Feasting—The Witches’ Sabbat.

CHAPTER XII.

Familiar Spirits—Matthew Hopkins, the ‘Witch-finder’—Prince Rupert’s dog Boy—Unguents used for transporting Witches from Place to Place—Their Festivities at the Sabbat.

CHAPTER XIII.

Waxen Figures—Witches change into Animals—Witch Marks—Testimony against Witches—Tests for, and Examination of, Witches.

CHAPTER XIV.

Legislation against Witches—Punishment—Last Executions for Witchcraft—Inability to weep and sink—Modern Cases of Witchcraft.

CHAPTER XV.

Commencement of Witchcraft in England—Dame Eleanor Cobham—Jane Shore—Lord Huntingford—Cases from the Calendars of State Papers—Earliest Printed Case, that of John Walsh—Elizabeth Stile—Three Witches tried at Chelmsford—Witches of St. Osyth—Witches of Warboys—Witches of Northamptonshire.

CHAPTER XVI.

The Lancashire Witches—Janet Preston—Margaret and Philip Flower—Anne Baker, Joane Willimot, and Ellen Greene—Elizabeth Sawyer—Mary Smith—Joan Williford, Joan Cariden, and Jane Hott.

CHAPTER XVII.

Confessions of Witches executed in Essex—The Witches of Huntingdon—‘Wonderfull News from the North’—Trial of Six Witches at Maidstone—Trial of Four Witches at Worcester—A Lancashire Witch tried at Worcester—A Tewkesbury Witch.

CHAPTER XVIII.

A Case of Vomiting Stones, etc., at Evesham—Anne Bodenham—Julian Cox—Elizabeth Styles—Rose Cullender and Amy Duny.

CHAPTER XIX.

The Case of Mary Hill of Beckington—The Confession of Alice Huson—Florence Newton of Youghal—Temperance Lloyd (or Floyd), Mary Trembles, and Susannah Edwards.

CHAPTER XX.

Elizabeth Horner—Pardons for Witchcraft—A Witch taken in London—Sarah Mordike—An Impostor convicted—Case of Jane Wenham—The Last Witch hanged in England.

CHAPTER XXI.

Scotch Witches—Bessie Dunlop—Alesoun Peirson—Dr. John Fian—The Devil a Preacher—Examination of Agnes Sampson—Confession of Issobel Gowdie.

CHAPTER XXII.

Early Witchcraft in Scotland—Lady Glamys—Bessie Dunlop—Lady Foulis—Numerous Cases.

CHAPTER XXIII.

Witchcraft in America—In Illinois: Moreau and Emmanuel—In Virginia: Case of Grace Sherwood—In Pennsylvania: Two Swedish Women—In South Carolina—In Connecticut: Many Cases—In Massachusetts: Margaret Jones; Mary Parsons; Ann Hibbins; Other Cases.

CHAPTER XXIV.

Cotton and Increase Mather—The Case of Goodwin’s Daughter—That of Mr. Philip Smith—The Story of the Salem Witchcrafts—List of Victims—Release of Suspects—Reversal of Attainder, and Compensation.

Footnotes

PREFACE

To my thinking, all modern English books on the Devil and his works are unsatisfactory. They all run in the same groove, give the same cases of witchcraft.I have also tried to give a succinct account of demonology and witchcraft in England and America, by adducing authorities not usually given, and by a painstaking research into old cases, carefully taking everything from original sources, and bringing to light very many cases never before republished.The frontispiece is supposed to be the only specimen of Satanic caligraphy in existence, and is taken from the ‘Introductio in Chaldaicam Linguam,’ etc., by Albonesi (Pavia, 1532). The author says that by the conjuration of Ludovico Spoletano the Devil was called up, and adjured to write a legible and clear answer to a question asked him. Some invisible power took the pen, which seemed suspended in the air, and rapidly wrote what is facsimiled. The writing was given to Albonesi (who, however, confesses that no one can decipher it), and his chief printer reproduced it very accurately. I am told by experts that in some of the characters may be found a trace of Amharic, a language spoken in its purity in the province of Amhara (Ethiopia), and which, according to a legend, was the primeval language spoken in Eden.

CHAPTER I.

Universal Belief in the Personality of the Devil, as portrayed by the British Artist—Arguments in Favour of his Personality—Ballad—‘Terrible and Seasonable Warning to Young Men.’

The belief in a good and evil influence has existed from the earliest ages, in every nation having a religion. The Egyptians had their Typho, the Assyrians their Ti-a-mat (the Serpent), the Hebrews their Beelzebub, or Prince of Flies,[1] and the Scandinavians their Loki. And many religions teach that the evil influence has a stronger hold upon mankind than the good influence—so great, indeed, as to nullify it in a large degree. Christianity especially teaches this: ‘Enter ye by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many be they that enter in thereby. For narrow is the gate, and straitened the way, that leadeth unto life, and few be they that find it.’ This doctrine of the great power of the Devil, or evil influence over man, is preached from every pulpit, under every form of Christianity, throughout the world; and although at the present time it is only confined to the greater moral power of the Devil over man, at an earlier period it was an article of belief that he was able to exercise a greater physical power.This was coincident with a belief in his personality; and it is only in modern times that that personality takes an alluring form. In the olden days the Devil was always depicted as ugly and repulsive as the artist could represent him, and yet he could have learned a great deal from the modern Chinese and Japanese. The ‘great God Pan,’ although he was dead, was resuscitated in order to furnish a type for ‘the Prince of Darkness’; and, accordingly, he was portrayed with horns, tail and cloven feet, making him an animal, according to a mot attributed to Cuvier, ‘graminivorous, and decidedly ruminant’; while, to complete his classical ensemble, he was invested with the forked sceptre of Pluto, only supplemented with another tine.The British artist thus depicted him, but occasionally he drew him as a ‘fearful wild fowl’ of a totally different type—yet always as hideous as his imagination could conceive, or his pencil execute.That the Devil could show himself to man, in a tangible form, was, for many centuries, an article of firm belief, but, when it came to be argued out logically, it was difficult of proof. The only evidence that could be adduced which could carry conviction was from the Bible, which, of course, was taken as the ipsissima verba of God, and, on that, the old writers based all their proof. One of the most lucid of them, Gyfford or Gifford, writing in the sixteenth century, evidently feels this difficulty. Trying to prove that ‘Diuels can appeare in a bodily shape, and use speeche and conference with men,’ he says:[2]‘Our Saviour Christ saith that a spirite hath neither flesh nor bones. A spirite hath a substance, but yet such as is invisible, whereupon it must needes be graunted, that Diuels in their owne nature have no bodilye shape, nor visible forme; moreover, it is against the truth, and against pietie to believe that Diuels can create, or make bodies, or change one body into another, for those things are proper to God. It followeth, therefore, that whensoever they appeare in a visible forme, it is no more but an apparition and counterfeit shewe of a bodie, unless a body be at any time lent them.’And further on he thus speaks of the incarnation of Satan, as recorded in the Bible.‘The Deuill did speake unto Eua out of the Serpent. A thing manifest to proue that Deuils can speake, unlesse we imagine that age hath made him forgetfull and tongue tyde. Some holde that there was no visible Serpent before Eua, but an invisible thing described after that manner, that we might be capable thereof.... But to let those goe, this is the chiefe and principall, for the matter which I have undertaken, to shewe euen by the very storye that there was not onely the Deuill, but, also, a very corporall beaste. If this question bee demaunded did Eua knowe there was anye Deuill, or any wicked reprobate Angels. What man of knowledge will say that she did? She did not as yet knowe good and euill. She knewe not the authour of euill. When the Lorde sayde unto hir, What is this which thou hast done? she answereth by and by, The serpent deceiued me. Shee saw there was one which had deceiued hir, shee nameth him a serpent; whence had she that name for the deuill whome shee had not imagined to bee? It is plaine that she speaketh of a thing which had, before this, receiued his name.‘It is yet more euident by that she sayth, yonder serpent, or that serpent, for she noteth him out as pointing to a thing visible: for she useth the demonstratiue particle He in the Hebrew language, which seuereth him from other. Anie man of a sound mind may easilie see that Eua nameth and pointeth at a visible beast, which was nombred among the beastes of the fielde.’The Devil seems, with the exception of his entering into persons, not to have used his power of appearing corporeally until people became too holy for him to put up with, and many are the records in the Lives of the Saints of his appearance to these detestably good people—St. Anthony, to wit. Of course he always came off baffled and beaten, and, in the case of St. Dunstan, suffered acute bodily pain, his nose being pinched by the goldsmith-saint’s red-hot tongs. Yet even that did not deter him from again becoming visible, until, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries of our era, he became absolutely familiar on this earth.But, according to all the records that we possess, his mission no longer was to seduce the saints from their allegiance, and, having become more democratic, he mixed familiarly with the people, under different guises. Of course, his object was to secure the reversion of their souls at their decease, his bait usually being the promise of wealth in this life, or the gratification of some passion.He found many victims, but yet he met with failures—two of which are recorded here.A NEW BALLAD.SHEWING THE GREAT MISERY SUSTAINED BY A POORE MAN IN ESSEX, HIS WIFE AND CHILDREN, WITH OTHER STRANGE THINGS DONE BY THE DEVILL.A poore Essex manthat was in great distresse,Most bitterly made his complaint,in griefe and heavinesse:Through scarcity and want,he was oppressed sore,He could not find his children bread,he was so extreme poore.His silly Wife, God wot,being lately brought to bed,With her poore Infants at her bresthad neither drinke nor bread.A wofull lying inwas this, the Lord doth know,God keep all honest vertuous wivesfrom feeling of such woe.My Husband deare, she said,for want of food I die,Some succour doe for me provide,to ease my misery.The man with many a teare,most pittiously replyde,We have no means to buy us bread;with that, the Children cry’d.They came about him round,upon his coat they hung:And pittiously they made their mone,their little hands they wrung.Be still, my boyes, said he,And I’le goe to the Wood,And bring some Acornes for to rost,and you shall have some food.Forth went the Wofull Man,a Cord he tooke with him,Wherewith to bind the broken wood,that he should homewards bring:And by the way as he went,met Farmers two or three,Desiring them for Christ his sake,to helpe his misery.Oh lend to me (he said)one loafe of Barley-bread,One pint of milke for my poore wife,in Child-bed almost dead:Thinke on my extreme need,to lend me have no doubt,I have no money for to pay,but I will worke it out.But they in churlish sort,did one by one reply,We have already lent you morethan we can well come by.This answere strooke his heartas cold as any stone;Unto the Wood from thence he went,with many a grievous groane.Where at the length (behold)a tall man did him meetAnd cole-black were his garments allfrom head unto his feet.Thou wretched man, said he,why dost thou weep so sore?What is the cause thou mak’st this mone,tell me, and sigh no more.Alas, good Sir (he said)the lacke of some reliefe,For my poore wife and children small,’tis cause of all my griefe.They lie all like to starve,for want of bread (saith he);Good Sir, vouchsafe therefore to giveone peny unto me.Hereby this wretched mancommitted wondrous evill,He beg’d an almes, and did not knowhe ask’t it of the Devill.But straight the hellish Fiend,to him reply’d againe,An odious sinner art thou thenthat dost such want sustaine.Alack (the poore man said)this thing for truth I know,That Job was just, yet never Manendured greater woe.The godly oft doe want,and need doth pinch them sore,Yet God will not forsake them quite,but doth their states restore.If thou so faithfull bee,why goest thou begging then?Thou shalt be fed as Daniel waswithin the Lyon’s den.If thus thou doe abide,the Ravens shall bring thee food,As they unto Elias didthat wandred in the Wood.Mocke not a wofull man,good Sir, the poore man said,Redouble not my sorrows so,that are upon me laid.But, rather, doe extendunto my need, and giveOne peny for to buy some bread,my Children poore may live.With that he opened straightthe fairest purse in sightThat ever mortal eye beheld,fild up with crownes full bright.Unto the wofull manthe same he wholly gave,Who very earnestly did praythat Christ his life might save.Well, (quoth the damn’d Spirit)goe, ease thy Children’s sorrow,And, if thou wantest anything,come, meet me here to-morrow.Then home the poore man went,with cheerfull heart and mind,And comforted his woful wifewith words that were most kind.Take Comfort, Wife, he said,I have a purse of Gold,Now given by a Gentleman,most faire for to behold.And thinking for to pullhis purse from bosome out,He found nothing but Oken leaves,bound in a filthy Clout.Which, when he did behold,with sorrowe pale and wan,In desperate sort to seeke the purse,unto the Wood he ran,Supposing in his mind,that he had lost it there;He could not tell then what to think,he was ’twixt hope and feare.He had no sooner comeinto the shady Grove,The Devil met with him againe,as he in fancy strove.What seek’st thou here? he said,the purse (quoth he) you gave,Thus Fortune she hath crossed me,and then the Devill saidWhere didst thou put the Purse?tell me, and do not lye,Within my bosome, said the man,where no man did come nigh.Looke there againe, (quoth he)then said the Man, I shall,And found his bosome full of Toads,as thicke as they could crawle.The poore man at this sight,to speak had not the power,See (q’d the Devill) vengeance dothpursue thee every hour.Goe, cursed wretch, (quoth he)and rid away thy life,But murther first thy children young,and miserable Wife.The poore man, raging mad,ran home incontinent,Intending for to kill them all,but God did him prevent.For why, the chiefest manthat in the Parish dwelt,With meat and money thither came,which liberally he dealt.Who, seeing the poore mancome home in such a rage,Was faine to bind him in his bed,his fury to asswage.Where long he lay full sicke,still crying for his Gold,But, being well, this whole discoursehe to his neighbours told.From all temptations,Lord, keep both Great and Small,And let no man, O heavenly God,for want of succour fall.But put their speciall trustin God for evermore,Who will, no doubt, from miseryeach faithfull man restore.‘A TERRIBLE AND SEASONABLE WARNING TO YOUNG MEN.‘Being a very particular and True Relation of one Abraham Joiner, a young man about 17 or 18 Years of Age, living in Shakesby’s Walks in Shadwell, being a Ballast Man by Profession, who, on Saturday Night last, pick’d up a leud Woman, and spent what money he had about him in Treating her, saying afterwards, if she wou’d have any more he must go to the Devil for it, and, slipping out of her Company, he went to the Cock and Lyon in King Street, the Devil appear’d to him, and gave him a Pistole, telling him he shou’d never want for Money, appointing to meet him the next Night, at the World’s End at Stepney; Also how his Brother persuaded him to throw the Money away, which he did; but was suddenly taken in a very strange manner, so that they were fain to send for the Reverend Mr. Constable and other Ministers to pray with him; he appearing now to be very Penitent; with an Account of the Prayers and Expressions he makes use of under his Affliction, and the Prayers that were made for him, to free him from this violent Temptation.‘The Truth of which is sufficiently attested in the Neighbourhood, he lying now at his Mother’s house,’ etc.Stepney seems to have been a favourite haunt of the Devil, for there is a tract published at Edinburgh, 1721, entitled ‘A timely Warning to Rash and Disobedient Children. Being a strange and wonderful Relation of a young Gentleman in the Parish of Stepheny, in the Suburbs of London, that sold himself to the Devil for 12 Years, to have the Power of being revenged on his Father and Mother, and how, his Time being expired, he lay in a sad and deplorable Condition, to the Amazement of all Spectators.’

CHAPTER II.

‘Strange and True News from Westmoreland’—‘The Politic Wife’—‘How the Devill, though subtle, was guld by a Scold’—‘The Devil’s Oak’—Raising the Devil—Arguments in Favour of Devils—The Numbers of Devils.

In the foregoing examples we have seen the Devil in human form, and properly apparelled, but occasionally he showed himself in his supposed proper shape—when, of course, his intentions were at once perceived; and on one occasion we find him called upon by an Angel, to execute justice on a bad man. It is inSTRANGE AND TRUE NEWS FROM WESTMORELAND.In the old days the Devil was used as a butt at which people shot their little arrows of wit. In the miracle plays, when introduced, he filled the part of the pantaloon in our pantomimes, and was accompanied by a ‘Vice,’ who played practical jokes with him, slapping him with his wooden sword, jumping on his back, etc.; and in the carvings of our abbeys and cathedrals, especially in the Miserere seats in the choir, he was frequently depicted in comic situations, as also in the illuminations of manuscripts. He was often written about as being sadly deficient in brains, and many are the instances recorded of him being outwitted by a shrewd human being, as we may see by the following ballad.THE POLITIC WIFE;or, The Devil outwitted by a Woman.There is‘A Pleasant new Ballad you here may beholdHow the Devill, though subtle, was guld by a Scold.’The story of this ballad is, that the Devil, being much amused with this scolding wife, went to fetch her. Taking the form of a horse, he called upon her husband, and told him to set her on his back. This was easily accomplished by telling her to lead the horse to the stable, which she refused to do.‘Goe leade, sir Knave, quoth she,and wherefore not, Goe ride?She took the Devill by the reines,and up she goes astride.’And once on the Devil, she rode him; she kicked him, beat him, slit his ears, and kept him galloping all through Hell, until he could go no longer, when he concluded to take her home again to her husband.‘Here, take her (quoth the Devill)to keep her here be bold,For Hell would not be troubledwith such an earthly scold.When I come home, I mayto all my fellowes tell,I lost my labour and my bloud,to bring a scold to Hell.’In another ballad, called ‘The Devil’s Oak,’ he is made out to be a very poor thing; the last verse says:‘That shall be try’d, the Devil then he cry’d,then up the Devil he did start,Then the Tinker threw his staff about,and he made the Devil to smart:There against a gate, he did break his pate,and both his horns he broke;And ever since that time, I will make up my rhime,it was called “The Devil’s Oak.”’But popular belief credited to certain men the power of being able to produce the Devil in a visible form, and these were called necromancers, sorcerers, magicians, etc. Of them Roger Bacon was said to have been one, and Johann Faust, whom Goethe has immortalized, and whose idealism is such a favourite on the lyric stage. But Johann Faust was not at all the Faust of Goethe. He was the son of poor parents, and born at Knittlingen, in Würtemberg, at the end of the fifteenth century. He was educated at the University of Cracow, thanks to a legacy left him by an uncle, and he seems to have been nothing better than a common cheat, called by Melancthon ‘an abominable beast, a sewer of many devils,’ and by Conrad Muth, who was a friend both of Melancthon and Luther, ‘a braggart and a fool who affects magic.’ However, he was very popular in England, and not only did Marlowe write a play about him, but there are many so-called lives of him in English, especially among the chap-books—in which he is fully credited with the power of producing the Devil in a tangible form by means of his magic art.But the spirits supposed to be raised by these magicians were not always maleficent; they were more demons than devils. It will therefore be as well if we quote a competent and learned authority on the subject of devils.Says Gyfford: ‘The Devils being the principall agents, and chiefe practisers in witchcrafts and sorceryes, it is much to the purpose to descrybe them and set them forth whereby wee shall bee the better instructed to see what he is able to do, in what maner, and to what ende and purpose. At the beginning (as God’s word doth teach us) they were created holy Angels, full of power and glory. They sinned, they were cast down from heauen, they were utterly depriued of glory, and preserued for iudgement. This therefore, and this change of theirs, did not destroy nor take away their former faculties; but utterly corrupt, peruert, and depraue the same: the essence of spirits remayned, and not onely, but also power and understanding, such as is in the Angels: ye heavenly Angels are very mighty and strong, far above all earthly creatures in the whole world. The infernall Angels are, for their strength called principalityes and powers: those blessed ones applye all their might to set up and aduaunce the glory of God, to defend and succour his children: the deuils bend all their force against God, agaynst his glory, his truth and his people. And this is done with such fiercenes, rage and cruelty, that the holy ghost paynteth them out under the figure of a great red or fiery dragon, and roaring lyon, in very deed anything comparable to them. He hath such power and autority indeede, that hee is called the God of the world. His Kingdome is bound and inclosed within certayne limits, for he is ye prince but of darknes; but yet within his sayd dominion (which is in ignorance of God) he exerciseth a mighty tyranny, our Saviour compareth him to a strong man armed which kepeth his castle.‘And what shall we saie for the wisedome and understanding of Angels, which was giuen them in their creation, was it not far aboue that which men can reach unto? When they became diuels (euen those reprobate angels) their understanding was not taken awaie, but turned into malicious craft and subtiltie. He neuer doth any thing but of an euill purpose, and yet he can set such a colour, that the Apostle saith he doth change himselfe into the likenesse of an angell of light. For the same cause he is called the old serpent, he was subtill at the beginning, but he is now growne much more subtill by long experience, and continuall practise, he hath searched out and knoweth all the waies that may be to deceiue. So that, if God should not chaine him up, as it is set forth, Revel. 20, his power and subtiltie ioined together would overcome and seduce the whole world.‘There be great multitudes of infernall spirits, as the holy scriptures doe euerie where shew, but yet they doe so ioine together in one, that they be called the divell in the singular number. They doe all ioine together (as our Saviour teacheth) to uphold one kingdome. For though they cannot loue one another indeede, yet the hatred they beare against God, is as a band that doth tye them together. The holie angels are ministring spirits, sent foorth for their sakes which shall inherit the promise. They haue no bodilie shape of themselues, but to set foorth their speedinesse, the scripture applieth itselfe unto our rude capacitie, and painteth them out with wings.‘When they are to rescue and succour the seruants of God, they can straight waie from the high heauens, which are thousands of thousands of miles distant from the earth, bee present with them. Such quicknesse is also in the diuels; for their nature being spirituall, and not loden with any heauie matter as our bodies are, doth afford unto them such a nimblenes as we cannot conceiue. By this, they flie through the world over sea and land, and espie out al aduantages and occasions to doe euill.’[3]Indeed, ‘there be great multitudes of infernall spirits,’ if we can believe so eminent an authority upon the subject as Reginald Scott, who gives ‘An inuentarie of the names, shapes, powers, gouernement, and effects of diuels and spirits, of their seuerall segniories and degrees: a strange discourse woorth the reading.‘Their first and principall King (which is of the power of the east) is called Baëll; who, when he is conjured up, appeareth with three heads; the first, like a tode; the second, like a man; the third, like a cat. He speaketh with a hoarse voice, he maketh a man go invisible, he hath under his obedience and rule sixtie and six legions of divels.’[4]All the other diabolical chiefs are described at the same length, but I only give their names, and the number of legions they command.‘Note that a legion is 6666, and now by multiplication count how manie legions doo arise out of euerie particular,’Or a grand total of 14,198,580 devils, not including their commanders.How many of these fall to the share of England? I know not, but they were very active in the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, especially in the seventeenth. They seem to us, nowadays, to have frittered away their energies in attending on witches, in entering into divers persons and tormenting them, and in making senseless uproars and playing practical jokes. Let us take about half a dozen of these latter. Say, for argument sake, that they are not very abstruse or intellectual reading; at all events, they are as good as the modern stories of spiritual manifestations, and are as trustworthy.