Scot's Discovery of vvitchcraft proving the common opinions of witches contracting with divels, spirits, or familiars ... to be but imaginary, erronious conceptions and novelties : wherein also, the lewde unchristian all written and published in anno 1584, by Reginald Scot, Esquire.

CHAP. XVII.

Sundry sorts of charms tending to diverse purposes, and first, cer∣tain charms to make taciturnity in tortures.

IMparibus meritis tria* 1.1 Pendont corpora ramis, Dismas & Gestas, In medio est divina potestas, Dismas damnatur, Gestas ad astra levatur:

Three bodies on a bough do hang,* 1.2 For merits of inequality, Dismas and Gestas, in the midst The power of the divinity. Dismas is damn'd, but Gestas lif∣ted up above the starres on high.

Also this:* 1.3 Eructavit cor meum verbum bonum: veritatem nun quam di••am regi. Otherwise: As the milk of our lady was lussious to our Lord Jesus Christ; so let this torture or rope be pleasant to mine armes and mem∣bers. Otherwise; Iesus autem transiens per medium illorum ibat. O∣therwise; You shall not breake a bone of him.

Counter-charms against these and all other witchcrafts, in the say∣ing also whereof witches are vexed, &c.

ERuctavit cor meum verbum bonum,* 1.4 dicam cuncta opera mea regi. Otherwise: Domine labia mea aperies, & os meum annunci∣abit veritatem. Otherwise: Contere brachia iniqui rei, & lin∣gua maligna subvertet ur.

A charm for the choine cough.

TAke three sips of a chalice, when the priest hath said masse, and swal∣low it down with good devotion, &c.

For corporall or spiritual rest.

In nomine patris, up and downe, Et filii & spiritus sancti upon my crowne, Crux Christi upon my brest, Sweet lady send me eternal rest.

Charmes to find out a theefe.

* 1.5THe meanes how to find out a theefe, is thus: Turne your face to the east, and make a crosse upon christall with oile alive, and un∣der the crosse write these two words (Saint Helen.) Then a child that is innocent, and a chaste virgine borne in true wedlock, and not base be∣gotten, of the age of ten yeares, must take the christall in his hand, and behind his back, kneeling on thy knees, thou must devoutly and reve∣rently say over this prayer thrice: I beseech thee my lady S. Helen, mo∣ther of king Constantine, which diddest find the crosse whereupon Christ died: by that thy holy devotion, and invention of the crosse, and by the same crosse, and by the joy which thou conceivedst at the finding thereof, and by the love which thou bearest to thy sonne Constantine, and by the great goodnesse which thou doest alwaies use, that thou shew me in this christall, whatsoever I aske or desire to know; Amen. And when the child seeth the angel in the christal, demand what you will, and the angel will make answer thereunto. Memorandum, that this be done just at the sunne-rising, when the weather is faire and cleer.

Cardanus derideth these and such like fables; and setteth downe his judgement therein accordingly,* 1.6 in the sixteenth booke De rerum ver. These conjurors and coseners forsooth will shew you in a glasse the theefe that hath stolne any thing from you, and this is their order. They take a glasse-viall full of holy water, and set it upon a lin∣nen cloth, which hath been purified, not onely by washing, but by sa∣crifice, &c. On the mouth of the viall or urinall, two olive-leaves must be laid acrosse, with a little conjuration said over it, by a child; to wit thus: Angele bone, angele candide, per tuam sanctitatem, meam{que} virginite∣••em, ostende mihi furem: with ••hree Pater noste••s, three Aves, and be∣twixt either of them a * 1.7crosse made with the naile of the thombe upon the mouth of the viall; and then shall be seen angels ascending and de∣scending as it were motes in the sunne-beames. The theefe all this while shall suffer great torments, and his face shall be seen plainly, even as plainly I beleeve as the man in the moone. For in truth, there are toies artificially conveyed into glasse, which will make the water bubble, and devises to make images appeare in the bubbles, as also there be artifici∣al glasses, which will shew unto you that shall looke thereinto, many i∣mages of divers formes, and some so small and curious, as they shall in favour resemble whomsoever you think upon. Looke in John Bap. Neap▪ for the confection of such glasses. The subtilties hereof are so de••ected, and the mysteries of the glasses so common now, and their

cosenage so well knowne, &c. that I need not stand upon the particular confutation hereof. Cardanus in the place before cited reporteth, how he tried with children these and divers circumstances the whole illusion, and found it to be plaine knavery and cosenage.

Another way to find out a theefe that ahht stolne any thing from you.

GO to the sea-side, and gather as many pebles as you suspect persons for that matter; carry them home, & throw them into the fire, & bury them under the threshold, where the parties are like to come over. There let them lie three dayes, and then before sun rising take them away. Then set a porrenger full of water in a circle, wherein must be made crosses every way, as many as can stand in it; upon the which must be written; Christ o∣vercometh, Christ reigneth, Christ commandeth. The porrenger also must be signed with a crosse, and a form of conjuration must be pronounced. Then each stone must be thrown into the water, in the name of the suspected. And when you put in the stone of him that is guilty, the stone will make the water boile, as though glowing iron were put thereinto. Which is a meere knack of legierdemaine, and to be accomplished divers waies.

To put out the theeves eye.

Reade the seven psalmes with the Letany, and then must be said a horrible prayer to Christ, and God the father, with a curse against the theefe. Then in the middest of the step of your foote, on the ground where you stand, make a circle like an eye, and write thereabout certain barbarous names, and drive with a coopers hammer, or addes into the middest thereof a brazen naile consecrated, saying: Iustus es Domine, et justa judicia tua. Then the thiefe shall be bewraied by his crying out.

Another way to find out a thiefe.

STick a paire of sheeres in the rind of a sive, and let two persons set the top of each of their forefingers upon the upper part of the sheeres, holding it with the sive up from the ground steddily,* 1.8 and aske Peter and Paul whether A. B. or C. hath stolne the thing lost, and at the nomina∣tion of the guilty person, the sive will turne round. This is a great pra∣ctise in all countries, and indeed a very bable. For with the beating of the pulse some cause of that motion ariseth, some other cause by slight of the fingers, some other by the wind gathered in the ••ive to be staid, &c. at the pleasure of the holders. Some cause may be the imagination, which upon conceit at the naming of the party altereth the common course of the pulse. As may well be conceived by a ring held steddily by a thred betwixt the finger and the thombe, over or rather in a goblet or glasse; which within short space will strike against the side thereof so many strokes as the holder thinketh it a clocke, and then will stay: the which who so proveth shall find true.

A Charme to find out or spoile a theefe.

OF th••s matter, concerning the apprehension of theeves by w••••ds, I will ci••e one charme, called S. Adelberts curse; being both for

length of words sufficient to wery the reader, and for substantiall stuffe comprehending all that appertaineth unto blasphemous speech or cursing, allowed in the church of Rome, as an excommunication and inchant∣ment.

Saint Adelberts curse or charme against theeves.

BY the authority of the omnipotent Father, the Sonne, and the ho∣ly ghost, and by the holy virgine Mary mother of our Lord Jesu Christ, and the holy angels and archangels, and S. Michael, and S. John Baptist, and in the behalfe of S. Peter the apostle, and the risidue of the apostles, and of S. Stephen, and of all the martyrs, of S. Sylvester, and of S. Adelbert, and all the confessors, and S. Alegand, and all the holy virgins, and of all the saints in heaven and earth, unto whom there is given power to bind and loose: we do excommunicate, damne, curse, and bind with the knots and bands of excommunication, and we do se∣gregate from the bounds and lists of our holy mother the church, all those theeves, sacrilegious persons, ravenous catchers, doers, counsellers, coadjutors, male or female, that have committed this theft or mischiefe, or have usurped any part thereof to their owne use. Let their share be with Dathan and Abiran,* 1.9 whom the earth swallowed up for their such and pride, and let them have part with Iudas that betrayed Christ, Amen▪ and with Pontius Pilat, and with them that said to the Lord, Depart from us, we will not understand thy wayes; let their children be made orphanes. Cursed be they in the field, in the grove, in the woods, in their houses, barnes, chambers, and beds, and cursed be they in the court, in the way, in the towne, in the castle, in the water, in the church, in the churchyard, in the tribunall place, in battell, in their a∣bode, in the market place, in their talke, in silence, in eating, in watch∣ing, in sleeping, in drinking, in feeling, in sitting, in kneeling, in stand∣ing, in lying, in idlenesse, in all their worke, in their body and soule, in their five wits, and in every place. Cursed be the fruit of their womb••, and cursed be the fruit of their lands, and cursed be all that they ha••e. Cursed be their heads, their mouthes, their nostrels, their noses, their lips, their jawes, their teeth, their eyes and eye-lids, their braines, the roofe of their mouthes, their tongues, their throats, their breast, their hearts, their bellies, their livers, all their bowels, and their stomach.

Cursed be their navels, their spleenes, their bladder. Cursed be their thighes, their legs, their feet, their toes, their necks, their shoul∣ders. Cursed be their backs, cursed be their armes, cursed be their elbowes, cursed be their hands, and their fingers, cursed be both the nails of their hands and feet; cursed be their ribbs and their genitals, and their knees, cursed be their flesh, cursed be their bones, cursed be their bloud, cursed be the skin of their bodies, cursed be the marrows in their bones, cursed be they from the crown of the head, to the sole of the foot: and whatsoever is betwixt the same, be it accursed', that is to say, their five senses; to wit, their seeing, their hearing, their smelling, their tasting and their feeling. Cursed be they in the holy crosse, in the passion of Christ, with his five wounds, with the effusi∣on

of his bloud, and by the milk of the Virgine Mary. I conjure thee Lu∣cifer, with all thy Souldiers, by the * 1.10 Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, with the humanity and nativity of Christ, with the vertue of all Saints, that thou rest not day nor night, till thou bringest them to de∣struction, either by drowning or hanging, or that they be devoured by wild beasts, or burnt, or slain by their enemies, or hated of all men living. And as our Lord hath given authority to Peter the Apostle, and his successors, (whose place we occupy, and to us (though unworthy) that whatsoever we bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever we loose on earth, shall be loose in heaven, so we ac∣cordingly, if they will not amend, do shut from them the gates of hea∣ven, and deny unto them Christian burial, so as they shall be buried in asses leaze. Furthermore, curssed be the ground wherein they are bu∣ried, let them be confounded in the last day of Judgement, let them have no conversation among Christians, nor be houseled at the hour of death, let them be made as dust before the face of the wind: and as Lucifer was expelled out of heaven, and Adam and Eve out of paradise; so let them be expelled from the daylight.* 1.11 Also let them be joyned with those, to whom the Lord saith at the Judgement, Go ye curssed into everlasting fire, which is prepared for the devill and his angels, where the worme shall not die, nor the fire be quenched. And as the candle, which is throwne out of my hand here, is put out: so let their works and their soul be quenched in the stench of hell fire, except they restore that which they have stolne, by such a day: and let every one say, Amen. After this must be sung * 1.12 In media vita in morte sumus, &c.

This terrible curse with bell, book, and candle added thereunto, must needs work wonders: howbeit among theeves it is not much weigh∣ed, among wise and true men it is not well liked, to them that are rob∣bed it bringeth small releef: the priests stomach may well be eased, but the goods stolne will never the sooner be restored. Hereby is bewrayed both the malice and folly of popish doctrine, whose uncha••itable impie∣tie is so impudently published, and in such order uttered, as every sen∣tence (if opportunity served) might be proved both heretical and diabo∣lical. But I will answer this cruel curse with another curse far more mild and civil, performed by as honest a man (I dare say) as he that made the other, whereof mention was lately made.

So it was, that a certain Sir John, with some of his company, once went abroad a jetting, and in a moon-light evening robbed a millers weire and stole all his eeles. The poor miller made his mone to Sir John him∣self, who willed him to be quiet; for he would so curse the theef, and all his confederates, with bell, book and candel, that they should have small joy of their fish. And therefore the next sunday, Sir John got him to the pulpit, with his surplisse on his back, and his stole about his neck,* 1.13 and pronounced these words following in the audience of the people.

All you that have stolne the millers eeles, Laudate Dominum de coelis, And all they that have consented thereto,

Benedicamus Domino. Lo (saith he) there is savoe for your eeles my masters.

Another inchantment.

CErtaine priests use the hundred and eight psalm as an inchantment or charm, or at the leastwise saying, that against whomsoever they pronounce it, they cannot live one whole year at the uttermost.

Notes

• * 1.1

  This charme seemeth to al∣lude to Christ crucified be∣tween the two theeves.
• * 1.2

  Englished by Ab. Fleming.
• * 1.3

  Psalme 44. Luke 4. John 19.
• * 1.4

  Psalme 44. Scripture pro∣perly applied.
• * 1.5

  O most won∣derful vertue hidden in the letters of S. Helens holy name!
• * 1.6

  Card. lib. 16. de var. rer. cap. 93.
• * 1.7

  For if the crosse be for∣gotten all is not worth a pudding.
• * 1.8

  These be meere toies to mocke apes, and have in them no commen∣dable devise.
• * 1.9

  This is not to do good to our enemies, nor to pray for them that hurt and hate us; as Christ exhorteth.
• * 1.10

  Thus they make the ho∣ly trinity to bear a part in their exorcism or else it is no bargaine.
• * 1.11

  Matthew 15.
• * 1.12

  That is, In the midst of life we are in death, &c.
• * 1.13

  A curse for theft.