o try His own people,[36]
permits the Evil One to do harm.[37]

Gifford of course never made the impression that Scot had made.[38] But
he represented the more conservative position and was the first in a
long line of writers who deprecated persecution while they accepted the
current view as to witchcraft; and therefore he furnishes a standard by
which to measure Scot, who had nothing of the conservative about him.
Scot had many readers and exerted a strong influence even upon those who
disagreed with him; but he had few or none to follow in his steps. It
was not until nearly a century later that there came upon the scene a
man who dared to speak as Scot had spoken. Few men have been so far
ahead of their time.

[1] Where George Gifford, who wrote a little later on the subject, was
also a student.

[2] _Discoverie of Witchcraft_, Nicholson ed., introd., xxxv.

[3] That at least a part of it was written in 1583 appears from his own
words, where he speaks of the treatise of Leonardus Vairus on
fascination as "now this present yeare 1583 newlie published," _ibid._,
124.

[4] Elizabeth Barton (1506-1534) suffered from a nervous derangement
which developed into a religious mania. She was taught by some monks,
and then professed to be in communion with the Virgin Mary and performed
miracles at stated times. She denounced Henry VIII's divorce and gained
wide recognition as a champion of the queen and the Catholic church. She
was granted interviews by Archbishop Warham, by Thomas More, and by
Wolsey. She was finally induced by Cranmer to make confession, was
compelled publicly to repeat her confession in various places, and was
then executed; see _Dict. Nat. Biog._

[5] Illegitimate child.

[6] That is, very probably, Alice Norrington, the mother of Mildred.

[7] _Discoverie of Witchcraft_, 130.

[8] _Ibid._, 132.

[9] See _The discloysing of a late counterfeyted possession by the devyl
in two maydens within the Citie of London_; see also Holinshed,
_Chronicles_, ed. of 1807-1808, IV, 325, and John Stow, _Annals ... of
England_ (London, 1615), 678.

[10] _Discoverie of Witchcraft_, 258, 259.

[11] The spot she chose for concealing the token of guilt had been
previously searched.

[12] For another see _Discoverie of Witchcraft_, 132-133.

[13] In his prefatory epistle "to the Readers."

[14] An incidental reference to Weyer in "W. W.'s" account of the
_Witches taken at St. Oses_ is interesting: "... whom a