Grampian Club > Scotland, social and domestic

262 Scotland, Social and Domestic.
The cruel butcheries perpetrated under the accusation
of witchcraft form one of the most revolting chapters in
modern history. The duty of immolating those charged
with the supposed crime was undertaken by Catholics
and Protestants with equal zeal. Bulls against witch-
craft were issued by Pope Innocent VIII. in 1484,
Julius II. in 1504, and Adrian VI. in 1523. Pro-
vincial councils asserted the existence of sorcery, and
anathematised those who resorted to it. Learned
churchmen composed works, maintaining that death was
the proper punishment of witchcraft, and those laymen
who, in their writings, held similar opinions, dedicated
them to the ecclesiastical dignitaries.
o
The Reformers increased rather than abated the
rigour formerly exercised by the Church for the sup-
pression of witchcraft. Luther would have no compassion
on those who practised the arts of sorcery. " I would,"
he said, "burn them all." An outburst of persecution
against witches and wizards attended the Preformation
in England. Lord Bacon, who fearlessly assailed the
philosophy of the schools, remained a firm believer in
witchcraft. The pious Sir Matthew Hale pronounced
sentence of death against persons accused of sorcery.
In charging a jury in 1664, he said, he "did not in the
least doubt there are witches, first, because the Scrip-
tures affirmed it, and, secondly, because the wisdom of
all nations, particularly of our own, provided laws against
witchcraft, which implied their belief of such a crime."
The first public statute in Scotland against witchcraft
was passed in June, 1563, by the ninth Parliament of
Queen Mary. In this Act it is ordained, " that na maner
of person nor persons of quhat-sum-ever estaite, degree,
or condition they be of, take upon hand in onie times