The Discovery of Witchcraft

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To the R E A D E R S.

Isaiah 11. Proverbs 1.

To those of you who are wise and discreet, a few words may be enough. Such a person does not judge at first sight, nor condemn based on hearsay, but listens patiently and thereby grows in understanding. This patience produces experience, by which true judgment is guided. Therefore, I do not need to make any further appeal to you, except to ask that you please read my book without the prejudices of the past or prior misconceptions. Having requested this of you, I submit myself to your judgment.

But to make a solemn appeal to those of you who are biased readers—asking you to set aside partiality, to receive my writing well, and to look upon my book with impartial eyes—would be wasted effort and time poorly spent. For I would no more succeed in this than if, a hundred years ago, I had tried to persuade your ancestors that Robin Good-fellowA mischievous sprite or hobgoblin from English folklore, also known as Puck., that famous and ancient bogeymanoriginal: Bull-begger; a form of scarecrow or terrifying object used to frighten children., was merely a deceiving merchantoriginal: cosening Merchant and not actually a devil at all.

If I were to go to a Catholicoriginal: Papist and say, "I pray you, believe my writings," in which I will prove all Catholic charms, conjurations, exorcisms, blessings, and curses to be not only ridiculous and ineffective but also ungodly and contrary to God’s Word, I would have as much difficulty winning their favor as I will have gaining credit from you here. Nevertheless, I do not doubt that I will handle the subject in such a way that both the Mass-mongeroriginal: Massemonger; a derogatory term for someone who supports or performs the Roman Catholic Mass. and the Witch-mongeroriginal: Witchmonger; Scot's term for those who credulously believe in and prosecute witches. will be ashamed of their professions.

But Robin Good-fellow is no longer feared much, and the errors of Catholicismoriginal: Popery have been sufficiently exposed. Nevertheless, witches' charms and conjurers' deceptions are still thought to be effective. Indeed, even the Pagansoriginal: Gentiles saw through the fraud of their deceiving oracles, yet our own uninspired prophets and enchanters still make fools of us, to the shame of us all—but especially of the Catholics, who conjure everything and yet achieve nothing. They say to their candles, "I conjure you to last forever," yet they do not burn even a Lord’s Prayeroriginal: Pater Noster longer than usual. They conjure water to be healthy for both body and soul, but we see the body is never the better for it, nor the soul in any way reformed by it. Therefore, I wonder why—when they see their own rituals proven false and brought to nothing, or at least lacking any effect—they, above all others, still give such credit, support, and authority to the empty deceptions of witches and conjurers, as if their charms and rituals could produce more obvious, certain, and better results than their own.

But my request to all of you who read my book is only this: that you would please compare my words with your own reason and experience, and also with the Word of God. If you find yourself convinced and satisfied—or rather, corrected and better informed—on any single point or opinion that you previously held contrary to the truth in a matter that was undecided or never before examined, I ask you to take that as a benefit. Please suspend your judgment, hold back any sentence of condemnation against me, and consider the rest of the book at your further leisure. If this is not enough to persuade you, it cannot do much to annoy you; and then, that which was written without intending offense may be passed over without any resentment.

And although my claim differs somewhat from the old, deep-seated opinion—which I admit is "gray-haired" with age, giving my opponents more authority than reason in maintaining their assumptions and "old wives' tales"—it will fully agree with God’s glory and his holy Word. And although my opponents cling to a few specific words or sentences in Scripture that seem to support them, the entire context of the Bible works against them and refutes them. Even their own chosen passages, when rightly understood, do not support them at all. I trust their boastful claim of antiquity will appear as stale and decayed as an apothecary’s drugs or a grocer’s spices, which, the longer they are kept,