to further the
plans of his favorite, Carr, was too willing to have the marriage
annulled and brought great pressure to bear upon the members of the
court. Archbishop Abbot from the beginning of the trial showed himself
unfavorable to the petition of the countess, and James deemed it
necessary to resolve his doubts on the general grounds of the
divorce.[22] On the matter of witchcraft in particular the king wrote:
"for as sure as God is, there be Devils, and some Devils must have some
power, and their power is in this world.... That the Devil's power is
not so universal against us, that I freely confess; but that it is
utterly restrained _quoad nos_, how was then a minister of Geneva
bewitched to death, and were the witches daily punished by our law. If
they can harm none but the papists, we are too charitable for avenging
of them only." This was James's opinion in 1613, and it is worthy of
note that he was much less certain of his ground and much more on the
defensive about witchcraft than the author of the _Daemonologie_ had
been. It can hardly be doubted that he had already been affected by the
more liberal views of the ecclesiastics who surrounded him. Archbishop
Bancroft, who had waged through his chaplain the war on the exorcists,
was not long dead. That chaplain was now Bishop of Chichester and soon
to become Archbishop of York. It would be strange if James had not been
affected to some degree by their opinions. Moreover, by this time he had
begun his career as a discoverer of impostors.

The change in the king's position must, however, not be overrated. He
maintained his belief in witches and seemed somewhat apprehensive lest
others should doubt it. Archbishop Abbot, whom he was trying to win over
to the divorce, would not have denied James's theories, but he was
exceedingly cautious in his own use of the term _maleficium_. Abbot was
wholly familiar with the history of the Anglican attitude towards
exorcism. There can be little doubt that he was in sympathy with the
policy of his predecessor. It is therefore interesting to read his
carefully worded statement as to the alleged bewitchment of the Earl of
Essex. In his speech defending his refusal and that of three colleagues
to assent to the divorce, he wrote: "One of my lords (my lord of
Winchester) hath avowed it, that he dislikes that _maleficium_; that he
hath read Del Rio, the Jesuit, writing upon that argument, and doth hold
him an idle and fabulous fellow..