Indeed, in Scotland, a refinement of
cruelty was practised in the persecution of witches; the innocent
relations of a suspected criminal were tortured in her presence, in the
hope of extorting confession from her, in order to put an end to their
sufferings, after similar means had been used without effect on herself.
Even children of seven years of age were sometimes tortured in the
presence of their mothers for this design. In 1751, at Trigg, in
Hertfordshire, two harmless old people above seventy years of age, being
suspected of bewitching a publican, named Butterfield, a vast concourse
of people assembled for the purpose of ducking them, and the poor
wretches were seized, and "stripped naked by the mob, their thumbs tied
to their toes, and then dragged two miles and thrown into a muddy
stream;" the woman expired under the hands of her persecutors, but her
husband, though seriously injured, escaped with his life. One of the
ringleaders of this atrocious outrage, was tried and hung for the
offence.
The delusion respecting witches was greatly increased in the first
instance by a Bull issued by Pope Innocent III. in 1484, to the
inquisitors at Almaine, "exhorting them to discover, and empowering them
to destroy, all such as were guilty of witchcraft." The fraternity of
Witchfinders arose in consequence, and they seem to have been imbued
with the genuine spirit of inquisitors, delighting in hunting out and
dragging to the torture the innocent and harmless.
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