an tied and
bound by authority and the traditions of antiquity, and such a daring
assailant of the schools and of Aristotle as Doctor Joseph Glanvil. The
conclusions of Cardan as to certain obscure phenomena recently cited show
that, in matters lying beyond sensual cognition, he kept an open mind. In
summing up the case of the woman said to have been cured by the
incantations of Josephus Niger, he says that she must have been cured
either by the power of the imagination, or by the agency of the demons.
Here he anticipates the arguments which Glanvil sets forth in _Sadducismus
Triumphatus_. Writing on the belief in witchcraft Glanvil says, "We have
the attestation of thousands of eye and ear witnesses, and these not of
the easily-deceivable vulgar only, but of wise and grave discerners; and
that when no interest could oblige them to agree together in a common Lye.
I say, we have the light of all these circumstances to confirm us in the
belief of things done by persons of despicable power and knowledge, beyond
the reach of Art and ordinary Nature. Standing public Records have been
kept of these well-attested Relations, and Epochas made of those unwonted
events. Laws in many Nations have been enacted against those vile
practices; those amongst the Jews and our own are notorious; such cases
have often been determined near us by wise and reverend Judges, upon clear
and convictive Evidence; and thousands of our own Nation have suffered
death for their vile compacts with Apostate spirits. All these I might
largely prove in their particular instances, but that 'tis not needful
since these did deny the being of Witches, so it was not out of ignorance
of these heads of Argument, of which probably they have heard a thousand
times; but from an apprehension that such a belief is absurd, and the
things impossible. And upon these presumptions they condemn all
demonstrations of this nature, and are hardened against conviction. And I
think those that can believe all Histories and Romances; That all the
wiser would have agreed together to juggle mankind into a common belief of
ungrounded fables, that the sound senses of multitudes together may
deceive them, and Laws are built upon Chimeras; That the greatest and
wisest Judges have been Murderers, and the sagest persons Fools, or
designing Impostors; I say those that can believe this heap of
absurdities, are either more credulous than those whose credulity they
reprehend; or else have some