The discovery of witchcraft proving that the compacts and contracts of witches with devils and all infernal spirits or familiars are but erroneous novelties and imaginary conceptions : also discovering, how far their power extendeth in killing, tormenting, consuming, or curing the bodies of men, women, children, or animals by charms, philtres, periapts, pentacles, curses, and conjurations : wherein likewise the unchristian practices and inhumane dealings of searchers and witch-tryers upon aged, melancholly, and superstitious people, in extorting confessions by terrors and tortures, and in devising false marks and symptoms, are notably detected ... : in sixteen books / by Reginald Scot ... ; whereunto is added an excellent Discourse of the nature and substance of devils and spirits, in two books : the first by the aforesaid author, the second now added in this third edition ... conducing to the compleating of the whole work, with nine chapters at the beginning of the fifteenth [sic] book of The discovery.
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Title
The discovery of witchcraft proving that the compacts and contracts of witches with devils and all infernal spirits or familiars are but erroneous novelties and imaginary conceptions : also discovering, how far their power extendeth in killing, tormenting, consuming, or curing the bodies of men, women, children, or animals by charms, philtres, periapts, pentacles, curses, and conjurations : wherein likewise the unchristian practices and inhumane dealings of searchers and witch-tryers upon aged, melancholly, and superstitious people, in extorting confessions by terrors and tortures, and in devising false marks and symptoms, are notably detected ... : in sixteen books / by Reginald Scot ... ; whereunto is added an excellent Discourse of the nature and substance of devils and spirits, in two books : the first by the aforesaid author, the second now added in this third edition ... conducing to the compleating of the whole work, with nine chapters at the beginning of the fifteenth [sic] book of The discovery.
Author
Scot, Reginald, 1538?-1599.
Publication
London :: Printed for Andrew Clark ...,
1665.
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Subject terms
Witchcraft.
Magic.
Demonology.
Link to this Item
http://name.umdl.umich.edu/A62397.0001.001
Cite this Item
"The discovery of witchcraft proving that the compacts and contracts of witches with devils and all infernal spirits or familiars are but erroneous novelties and imaginary conceptions : also discovering, how far their power extendeth in killing, tormenting, consuming, or curing the bodies of men, women, children, or animals by charms, philtres, periapts, pentacles, curses, and conjurations : wherein likewise the unchristian practices and inhumane dealings of searchers and witch-tryers upon aged, melancholly, and superstitious people, in extorting confessions by terrors and tortures, and in devising false marks and symptoms, are notably detected ... : in sixteen books / by Reginald Scot ... ; whereunto is added an excellent Discourse of the nature and substance of devils and spirits, in two books : the first by the aforesaid author, the second now added in this third edition ... conducing to the compleating of the whole work, with nine chapters at the beginning of the fifteenth [sic] book of The discovery." In the digital collection Early English Books Online. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/A62397.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed June 13, 2024.
Pages
CHAP. IV.
What strange things are brought to pass by Natural Magick.
THE dayly use and practice of medicine taketh away all admiration of the wonderful effects of the same. Many other things of less weight, being more secret and rare, seem more miraculous: As for example, (if it be true, that I. Bap. Neap. and many other Writers do constantly affirm) Tye a wild Bull to a Fig-tree, and he will be presently tame; or hang an old Cock thereupon, and he will immediately be tender; as also the feathers of an Eagle consume all other feathers, if they be intermedled together. Wherein it may not be denyed, but Nature sheweth herself a proper Work-woman. But it seemeth impossible, that a little fish being but half a foot long,* 1.1 called Remora or Remiligo, or of some Echenis, stayeth a mighty Ship with all her load and tack∣ling, and being also undersail. And yet it is affirmed by so many and so grave Authors, that I dare not deny it; specially, because I see as strange effects of Nature otherwise: as the property of the Loadstone, whick is so beneficial to the Mariner; and of Rheubarb, which only medleth with Choler, and purgeth neither flegm nor melancholy, and is as beneficial to the Physitian, as the other to the Mariner.
Notes
* 1.1
Pompanatius lib. de incant. cap. 3.
J. Wierius de lamiis. Jasp. Peucer. H. Car∣dan. &c.