July 1892 - The Emma Hardinge Britten Archive

Historical Sp£ritual£sm.
either give her meat or lodging, and that all men would
beat her, and hound dogs at her, and that therefore she
desired to be out of the world." Whereupon she wept
most bitterly, and, upon her knees, called God to witness
to what she said.
A wretch, named Matthew Hopkins, rendered himself
infamously conspicuous in the prosecutions for witchcraft
that took place in the counties of Essex, Sussex, Norfolk,
and Huntingdon, in England, in the seventeenth century.
The title he assumed indicates the part he acted, it was'
"Witch-finder-general." He travelled from place to
place; his expenses were paid; and he required, in
addition, regular fees for the discovery of a witch.
Besides pricking the body to find the witch-mark, he
compelled the wretched and decrepit victims of his cruel
practices to sit in a painful posture, on an elevated stool,
with their limbs crossed; and, if they persevered in
refusing to confess, he would prolong their torture, in
some cases, to more than twenty-four hours. He would
prevent their going to sleep, and drag them about barefoot
over the rough ground, thus overcoming them with
extreme weariness and pain; but his favourite method
was to tie the thumb of the right hand close to the great
toe of the left foot, and draw them through a river or
pond; if they floated, as they would be likely to do, while
their heavier limbs were thus sustained and up borne by
the rope, it was considered as conclusive proof of their
guilt. This monster was encouraged and sanctioned by
the Government; and he procured the death, in one year
and in one county, of more than three times as many as
suffered in Salem during the whole period of the delusion.
But it was not against individuals alone that the insane
charges of witchcraft were directed, whole communities
were, under the same abominable pretence, put to death
by the orders of the Popes, and under the exterminating
force of the bulls issued by Papal authority.