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For Reginald Scot, in the eighth chapter of Discoverie of Witchcraft, alludes to the passage in question in the following terms: "Cardanus writeth that the cause of such credulitie consisteth in three points: to wit in the imagination of the melancholike, in the constancie of them that are corrupt therewith, and in the deceipt of the Judges; who being inquisitors themselves against heretikes and witches, did both accuse and condemne them, having for their labour the spoile of their goods.
That his book was read painstakingly by every later writer on the subject, that it shortly became the great support of one party in the controversy, that King James deemed it worth while to write an answer, and that on his accession to the throne he almost certainly ordered the book to be burned by the common hangman, these are better evidence than absolutely contemporary notices to show that the Discoverie exerted an influence.
Walter Raghly, nowe Knight, before the comynge home of his twoo barkes, and is devided into XXI chapiters, the titles whereof followe in the nexte leafe. Chap. I. The Western Planting. That this Westerne discoverie will be greately for thinlargemente of the gospell of Christe, whereunto the princes of the Refourmed Religion are chefely bounde, amongeste whome her Majestie ys principall.
His reading had covered the whole field of superstition. He had not, however, borrowed enough from them to impair in any serious way the value of his own original contribution. In respect to law, Scot was less a student than a man of experience. The Discoverie, however, bristled with references which indicated a legal way of thinking. He was almost certainly a man who had used the law.
That is, very probably, Alice Norrington, the mother of Mildred. Discoverie of Witchcraft, 130. Ibid., 132. Discoverie of Witchcraft, 258, 259. The spot she chose for concealing the token of guilt had been previously searched. For another see Discoverie of Witchcraft, 132-133. In his prefatory epistle "to the Readers."
Ibid., 66-67. See ibid., ch. VI. Cotta speaks of the case as six years earlier. Ibid., 62, 66. A Short Discoverie, 70. Triall of Witchcraft, 83-84. A Short Discoverie, 51-53. Triall of Witchcraft, 70. Roberts's explanation of the proneness of women to witchcraft deserves mention in passing.
With the coming of Reginald Scott there arose a certain scepticism throughout Europe, which was later echoed in America. Scott wrote a monumental work entitled The Discoverie of Witchcraft, in which he bitterly attacked the credulity of the people, and showed himself entirely incredulous of any of the alleged phenomena.
Whether the judges were taking their cue from the privy council or whether some of them were feeling the same reaction against the cruelty of the prosecutions, it is certain that there was a considerable nullifying of the force of the belief. We shall see in the chapter on Reginald Scot that his Discoverie of Witchcraft was said to have "affected the magistracy and the clergy."
The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the countie of Lancaster. With the Arraignement and Triall of Nineteene notorious Witches, at the Assizes and generall Gaole deliverie, holden at the Castle of Lancaster, upon Munday, the seventeenth of August last, 1612.
One John Stubbs had his right hand cut off for protesting against the proposed marriage of Queen Elizabeth with the Duke of Anjou, which bold act he committed in his work entitled Discoverie of a Gaping Gulf whereinto England is like to be swallowed by another French marriage, if the Lord forbid not the banes by letting her Majestie see the sin and punishment thereof . Hallam states that the book was far from being a libel on the Virgin Queen, but that it was written with great affection.
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