Thomas Browne, Matthew Hale, Sir George Mackenzie, and many
others, most of whom had heard the evidence at first hand. The sceptics
were Weyer, pupil of the occultist Cornelius Agrippa; Reginald Scot, a
Kentish country squire; Filmer, whose name was a byword for political
bigotry; Wagstaffe, who went mad from drink; and Webster, a fanatical
preacher.[2] The sceptics, with the exception of Weyer, appear to have had
little or no first-hand evidence; their only weapon was an appeal to common
sense and sentiment combined; their only method was a flat denial of every
statement which appeared to point to supernatural powers. They could not
disprove the statements; they could not explain them without opposing the
accepted religious beliefs of their time, and so weakening their cause by
exposing themselves to the serious charge of atheism; therefore they denied
evidence which in the case of any other accusation would have been accepted
as proof.

The evidence which I now bring forward is taken entirely from contemporary
sources, i.e. the legal records of the trials, pamphlets giving accounts of
individual witches, and the works of Inquisitors and other writers. I have
omitted the opinions of the authors, and have examined only the recorded
facts, without however including the stories of ghosts and other 'occult'
phenomena with which all the commentators confuse the subject. I have also,
for the reason given below, omitted all reference to charms and spells when
performed by one witch alone, and have confined myself to those statements
only which show the beliefs, organization, and ritual of a hitherto
unrecognized cult.

In order to clear the ground I make a sharp distinction between Operative
Witchcraft and Ritual Witchcraft. Under Operative Witchcraft I class all
charms and spells, whether used by a professed witch or by a professed
Christian, whether intended for good or for evil, for killing or for
curing. Such charms and spells are common to every nation and country, and
are practised by the priests and people of every religion. They are part of
the common heritage of the human race and are therefore of no practical
value in the study of any one particular cult.

Ritual Witchcraft--or, as I propose to call it, the Dianic cult--embraces
the religious beliefs and ritual of the people known in late mediaeval
times as 'Witches'. The evidence proves that underlying the Christian
religion was a cult practised by many classes of