er
death that shee is not gylty." _Discourse_, G 4-G 4 verso. And so,
Gifford explains, the Devil is pleased, for he has put innocent people
into danger, he has caused witnesses to forswear themselves and jurymen
to render false verdicts.

[38] But his views were warmly seconded by Henry Holland, who in 1590
issued at Cambridge _A Treatise against Witchcraft_. Holland, however,
was chiefly interested in warning "Masters and Fathers of families that
they may learn the best meanes to purge their houses of all unclean
spirits." It goes without saying that he found himself at variance with
Scot, who, he declared, reduced witchcraft to a "cozening or poisoning
art." In the Scriptures he found the evidence that witches have a real
"confederacie with Satan himself," but he was frank to admit that the
proof of bargains of the sort in his own time could not be given.

CHAPTER IV.

THE EXORCISTS.

In the narrative of English witchcraft the story of the exorcists is a
side-issue. Yet their performances were so closely connected with the
operations of the Devil and of his agents that they cannot be left out
of account in any adequate statement of the subject. And it is
impossible to understand the strength and weakness of the superstition
without a comprehension of the role that the would-be agents for
expelling evil spirits played. That the reign which had seen pass in
procession the bands of conjurers and witches should close with the
exorcists was to be expected. It was their part to complete the cycle of
superstition. If miracles of magic were possible, if conjurers could use
a supernatural power of some sort to assist them in performing wonders,
there was nothing very remarkable about creatures who wrought harm to
their fellows through the agency of evil spirits. And if witches could
send evil spirits to do harm, it followed that those spirits could be
expelled or exorcised by divine assistance. If by prayer to the Devil
demons could be commanded to enter human beings, they could be driven
out by prayer to God. The processes of reasoning were perfectly clear;
and they were easily accepted because they found adequate confirmation
in the New Testament. The gospels were full of narratives of men
possessed with evil spirits who had been freed by the invocation of God.
Of these stories no doubt the most quoted and the one most effective in
moulding opinion was the account of the dispossessed devils who had
entered into