[Footnote 1:  One copy of this reprint bears the name of W. Wright, another that of Thomas Nelson.  The full title is—­

“Newes from Scotland,

“Declaring the damnable life of Doctor Fian, a notable Sorcerer, who was burned at Edenborough in Januarie last, 1591; which Doctor was Register to the Deuill, that sundrie times preached at North Barricke kirke to a number of notorious witches; with the true examinations of the said Doctor and witches as they uttered them in the presence of the Scottish king:  Discouering how they pretended to bewitch and drowne his Majestie in the sea, comming from Denmarke, with such other wonderfull matters, as the like hath not bin heard at anie time.

“Published according to the Scottish copie.

“Printed for William Wright.”]

[Footnote 2:  These events are referred to in an existing letter by the notorious Thos.  Phelippes to Thos.  Barnes, Cal.  State Papers (May 21, 1591), 1591-4, p. 38.]

[Footnote 3:  Such as Paddock, Graymalkin, and Harpier.]

[Footnote 4:  “Liver of blaspheming Jew,” etc.—­Macbeth, IV. i. 26.]

[Footnote 5: 

    “I will drain him dry as hay;
    Sleep shall neither night nor day
    Hang upon his pent-house lid;
    He shall live a man forbid: 
    Weary se’nnights, nine times nine,
    Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine.”

Macbeth, I. iii. 18-23.]

[Footnote 6:  The excitement about the details of the witch trials would culminate in 1592.  Harsnet’s book would be read by Shakspere in 1603.]

106.  There is one other mode of temptation which was adopted by the evil spirits, implicated to a great extent with the traditions of witchcraft, but nevertheless more suitably handled as a separate subject, which is of so gross and revolting a nature that it should willingly be passed over in silence, were it not for the fact that the belief in it was, as Scot says, “so stronglie and universallie received” in the times of Elizabeth and James.

From the very earliest period of the Christian era the affection of one sex for the other was considered to be under the special control of the devil.  Marriage was to be tolerated; but celibacy was the state most conducive to the near intercourse with heaven that was so dearly sought after.  This opinion was doubtless generated by the tendency of the early Christian leaders to hold up the events of the life rather than the teachings of the sacred Founder of the sect as the one rule of conduct to be received by His followers.  To have been the recipients of the stigmata was a far greater evidence of holiness and favour with Heaven than the quiet and unnoted daily practice of those virtues upon which Christ pronounced His blessing; and in less improbable matters they did not scruple, in their enthusiasm, to attempt to establish a rule of life in direct contradiction to the laws of that universe of which they professed