to search his toong, under which was founde two
pinnes thrust up into the heade, whereupon the
witches did say, now is the charme stinted, and
shewed that these charmed pins were the cause he could
not confesse any thing; then was he immediately
released of the bootes, brought before the King,
his confession was taken, and his own hand willingly
set thereunto.... But this Doctor, notwithstanding
that his owne confession appeareth remaining
in recorde under his owne hande-writing, and the same
thereunto fixed in the presence of the King’s
majestie, and sundrie of his councell, yet did
he utterly denie the same. Whereupon the
Kinges majestie, perceiving his stubbourne wilfulnesse,
conceived and imagined that in the time of his
absence hee had entered into newe conference and league
with the devill, his master, and that hee had beene
agayne newly marked, for the which he was narrowly
searched; but it coulde not in anie wice be founde;
yet, for more tryall of him to make him confesse,
hee was commaunded to have a most straunge torment,
which was done in this manner following:
His nailes upon all his fingers were riven and pulled
off with an instrument called in Scottish a turkas,
which in England wee call a payre of pincers,
and under everie nayle there was thrust in two
needles over, even up to the heads; at all which
tormentes notwithstanding the Doctor never shronke
anie whit, neither woulde he then confesse it
the sooner for all the tortures inflicted upon him.
Then was hee, with all convenient speed, by commandement,
convaied againe to the torment of the bootes, wherein
he continued a long time, and did abide so many blowes
in them, that the legges were crusht and beaten together
as small as might bee, and the bones and flesh so
bruised that the blood and marrow spouted forth
in great abundance, whereby they were made unserviceable
for ever; and notwithstanding all those grievous
paines and cruell torments, hee would not confess
anie thing; so deeply had the devill entered
into his heart, that hee utterly denied all that
which he had before avouched, and would saie nothing
thereunto but this, that what he had done and sayde
before, was onely done and sayde for fear of paynes
which he had endured. After this horrible
treatment the wretched man was strangled and
burnt.
The following list gives a few—and only a few—of the direful results to which this widespread superstition led. The instances are chiefly taken from Dr. Reville’s History of the Devil, and Haydn’s well-known Dictionary of Dates:—
At Toulouse a noble lady, fifty-six years of age, named Angela de Labarete, was the first who was burnt as a sorceress, in which special quality she formed part of the great auto-da-fe which took place in that city in the year 1275; at Carcasonne, from 1320 to 1350, more than four hundred executions for witchcraft are on record; in 1309 many Templars were burnt at Paris for witchcraft; Joan of Arc was burnt