learned
Phisitian is not ashamed to avouche innocent, and the Judges that
denounce sentence of death against them no better than hangmen."

[15] _E. g., Discoverie of Witchcraft_, 5.

[16] _Ibid._, 466-469.

[17] _Ibid._, 5-6.

[18] _Ibid._, 15: "Howbeit you shall understand that few or none are
throughlie persuaded, resolved, or satisfied, that witches can indeed
accomplish all these impossibilities; but some one is bewitched in one
point, and some is coosened in another, untill in fine, all these
impossibilities, and manie mo, are by severall persons affirmed to be
true."

[19] _Discoverie_, 472.

[20] _Ibid._, 7-8.

[21] _Ibid._, 8.

[22] It was one of the points made by "witchmongers" that the existence
of laws against witches proved there were witches. This argument was
used by Sir Matthew Hale as late as 1664. Scot says on that point: "Yet
I confesse, the customes and lawes almost of all nations doo declare,
that all these miraculous works ... were attributed to the power of
witches. The which lawes, with the executions and judicials thereupon,
and the witches confessions, have beguiled almost the whole world."
_Ibid._, 220.

[23] _Discoverie_, 471, 472.

[24] _Ibid._, 512.

[25] _Ibid._, 303.

[26] Thomas Nash in his _Four Letters Confuted_ (London, 1593) refers to
it in a non-committal way as a work treating of "the diverse natures and
properties of Divels and Spirits." Gabriel Harvey's _Pierces
Supererogation_ (London, 1593), has the following mention of it:
"Scottes discoovery of Witchcraft dismasketh sundry egregious
impostures, and in certaine principall chapters, and special passages,
hitteth the nayle on the head with a witnesse; howsoever I could have
wished he had either dealt somewhat more curteously with Monsieur
Bodine, or confuted him somewhat more effectually." Professor Burr
informs me that there is in the British Museum (Harleian MSS. 2302) an
incomplete and unpublished reply to Scot. Its handwriting shows it
contemporary or nearly so. It is a series of "Reasons" why witches
should be believed in--the MS. in its present state beginning with the
"5th Reason" and breaking off in the midst of the 108th.

[27] See Nicholson's opinion on this, pp. xxxvii-xxxix of his
introduction to Scot's book.

[28] George Gifford was a Church of England clergyman whose Puritan
sympathies at length compelled him to identify himself publicly with the
non-conformist movement in 1584. For two years