Elizabethan Demonology | Page 2

mistaken for devils. 33.
Credulousness of people. "To make one danse naked." A parson's proof
of transubstantiation. 34. But the Elizabethans had strong common
sense nevertheless. People do wrong if they set them down as fools. If

we had not learned to be wiser than they, we should have to be
ashamed of ourselves. We shall learn nothing from them if we don't try
to understand them.
III.
35. The three heads. 36. (I.) Classification of devils. Greater and lesser
devils. Good and bad angels. 37. Another classification, not popular. 38.
Names of greater devils. Horribly uncouth. The number of them.
Shakspere's devils. 39. (II.) Form of devils of the greater. 40. Of the
lesser. The horns, goggle eyes, and tail. Scot's carnal-mindedness. He
gets his book burnt, and written against by James I. 41. Spenser's
idol-devil. 42. Dramatists' satire of popular opinion. 43. Favourite form
for appearing in when conjured. Devils in Macbeth. 44. Powers of
devils. 45. Catholic belief in devil's power to create bodies. 46.
Reformers deny this, but admit that he deceives people into believing
that he can do so, either by getting hold of a dead body, and restoring
animation. 47. Or by means of illusion. 48. The common people stuck
to the Catholic doctrine. Devils appear in likeness of an ordinary
human being. 49. Even a living one, which was sometimes awkward.
"The Troublesome Raigne of King John." They like to appear as priests
or parsons. The devil quoting Scripture. 50. Other human shapes. 51.
Animals. Ariel. 52. Puck. 53. "The Witch of Edmonton." The devil on
the stage. Flies. Urban Grandier. Sir M. Hale. 54. Devils as angels. As
Christ. 55. As dead friend. Reformers denied the possibility of ghosts,
and said the appearances so called were devils. James I. and his opinion.
56. The common people believed in the ghosts. Bishop Pilkington's
troubles. 57. The two theories. Illustrated in "Julius Caesar,"
"Macbeth." 58. And "Hamlet." 59. This explains an apparent
inconsistency in "Hamlet." 60. Possession and obsession. Again the
Catholics and Protestants differ. 61. But the common people believe in
possession. 62. Ignorance on the subject of mental disease. The
exorcists. 63. John Cotta on possession. What the "learned physicion"
knew. 64. What was manifest to the vulgar view. Will Sommers. "The
Devil is an Ass." 65. Harsnet's "Declaration," and "King Lear." 66. The
Babington conspiracy. 67. Weston, alias Edmonds. His exorcisms.
Mainy. The basis of Harsnet's statements. 69. The devils in "Lear." 70.
Edgar and Mainy. Mainy's loose morals. 71. The devils tempt with
knives and halters. 72. Mainy's seven devils: Pride, Covetousness,

Luxury, Envy, Wrath, Gluttony, Sloth. The Nightingale business. 73.
Treatment of the possessed: confinement, flagellation. 74. Dr Pinch.
Nicknames. 75. Other methods. That of "Elias and Pawle". The holy
chair, sack and oil, brimstone. 76. Firing out. 77. Bodily diseases the
work of the devil. Bishop Hooper on hygiene. 78. But devils couldn't
kill people unless they renounced God. 79. Witchcraft. 80. People
now-a-days can't sympathize with the witch persecutors, because they
don't believe in the devil. Satan is a mere theory now. 81. But they
believed in him once, and therefore killed people that were suspected of
having to do with him. 82. And we don't sympathize with the
persecuted witches, although we make a great fuss about the sufferings
of the Reformers. 83. The witches in Macbeth. Some take them to be
Norns. 84. Gervinus. His opinion. 85. Mr. F.G. Fleay. His opinion. 86.
Evidence. Simon Forman's note. 87. Holinshed's account. 88. Criticism.
89. It is said that the appearance and powers of the sisters are not those
of witches. 90. It is going to be shown that they are. 91. A third piece of
criticism. 92. Objections. 93. Contemporary descriptions of witches.
Scot, Harsnet. Witches' beards. 94. Have Norns chappy fingers, skinny
lips, and beards? 95. Powers of witches "looking into the seeds of
time." Bessie Roy, how she looked into them. 96. Meaning of first
scene of "Macbeth." 97. Witches power to vanish. Ointments for the
purpose. Scot's instance of their efficacy. 98. "Weird sisters." 99. Other
evidence. 100. Why Shakspere chose witches. Command over elements.
101. Peculiar to Scotch trials of 1590-91. 102. Earlier case of Bessie
Dunlop--a poor, starved, half daft creature. "Thom Reid," and how he
tempted her. Her canny Scotch prudence. Poor Bessie gets burnt for all
that. 103. Reason for peculiarity of trials of 1590. James II. comes from
Denmark to Scotland. The witches raise a storm at the instigation of the
devil. How the trials were conducted. 104. John Fian. Raising a mist.
Toad-omen. Ship sinking. 105. Sieve-sailing. Excitement south of the
Border. The "Daemonologie." Statute of James against witchcraft. 106.
The origin of the incubus and succubus. 107. Mooncalves. 108.
Division of opinion amongst Reformers regarding devils. Giordano
Bruno.