It narrates that
Margaret Pryor, of Long Stanton, indicted, on the 28th July, 1659, the widow
Morlin, a Quaker lady, for having, on the 29th November, 1657, took her out of
bed from her husband in the night, put a bridle in her mouth, and transformed
her into a bay mare, and with a Quaker, William Allen, rode upon her to Maidenly
House, a distance of four miles; that they made her fast to the latch of the
door, while she saw them partake of a feast of mutton, rabbits, and lamb [lamb
in November!]; that they shone like angels, and talked of doctrine, and that
she knew some of the guests; that her feet were a little sore, but not her
hands, nor was she dirty. In examining her, the judge elicited that she made no
mention of the story for a year and three-quarters, and that her deposition
then was that some evil spirit changed her into a bay-horse; that her hands and
feet were lamentably bruised, and changed as black as a coal; that she had her
chemise on, which was all bloody, from her sides being rent and torn with the
spurs.
All this was unknown
to her husband; nor had she accounted for her chemise so strangely fitting a
horse or mare. It was proved that the complainant had received money for
bringing the charge and pretended to have burnt some of her hair with
elder-bark, as a counter-charm to prevent it happening again. The judge summed
up with observing that it was a mere dream or phantasy, and that the
complainant was the sorceress, by practicing incantations in burning her hair
and bark. The jury found a verdict of—not guilty; and thus two innocent persons
were saved by an enlightened judge from an ignominious death. It is almost
incredible that, even after the trial, priests and magistrates who had promoted
the prosecution professed to believe that the charge was true. This singular
narrative, in defense of the poor persecuted Quakeress, is signed James
Blackley, an alderman, George Whitehead, and three others. No one can believe
that John Bunyan gave credit to such a tale, or mentioned it to the injury of
the parties accused. His reply was, that these slanders were devised by the
devil and his instruments—'God knows that I am innocent.' The probability is,
that the pamphlet called Strange News from Cambridge had been sent to him, and
that he gave it to some Quaker to answer.
Considering the almost universal belief in witchcraft in those days—that Baxter, Cotton Mather, Clarke, and many of our most eminent divines, believed in it—and that Bunyan received the Scriptures in our authorized translation with the deepest reverence, it becomes an interesting inquiry how far he believed in witchcraft, possessions, incantations, and charms. He was persuaded that Satan could appear to mankind in the shape of animals, and in the human form. Had anyone doubted the possibility of these appearances, he would at that time have been called an atheist and an unbeliever in the existence of God and of separate spirits. Thus he argues, that 'If sin can make one who was sometimes a glorious angel in heaven now so to abuse himself as to become, to appearance, as a filthy frog, a toad, a rat, a cat, a fly, a mouse, or a dog, to serve its ends upon a poor mortal, that it might gull them of everlasting life, no marvel if the soul is so beguiled as to sell itself from God and all good for so poor a nothing as a momentary pleasure.'
When speaking of the impropriety of excluding a pious
person from the Lord's table, because of a difference of opinion as to water
baptism, he says, 'Do you more to the openly profane—yea, to all wizards and
witches in the land?' In quoting Isaiah 13, he, taught by the Puritan version,
puts the key in the margin—'Wild beasts of the desert shall be there and their
houses shall be full of doleful creatures. And owls shall dwell there, and
satyrs [that is, the hobgoblins, or devils] shall dance there.' He gave no
credence to the appearance of departed spirits, except in the hour of death;
and then, while between time and eternity, he thought that in some rare cases
spiritual sight was given to see objects otherwise invisible.
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