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Hopkins, Matthew: Called the witchfinder;
flourished in 1640. Of him Godv.in says, "Nothing can
place the credulity of the English nation on the subject
of witchcraft in a more striking point of view, than the
history of Matthew Hopkins, who, in a pamphlet published
in 1647 in his own vindication, assumes to himself the
surname of the Witch-fiader. He fell by accident, in his
native country of Suffolk, into contact with one or two
reputed witches, and, being a man of an observing turn and
an ingenious invention, struck out for himself a trade,
which brought him such moderate returns as sufficed to
maintain him, and at the same time gratified his ambition
by making him a terror to many, and the object of
admiration and gratitude to more, who felt themselves
indebted to him for ridding them of secret and intestine
enemies, against whom, as long as they proceeded in ways
that left no footsteps behind, they felt they had no
possibility of guarding themselves."
After two or three successful experiments, Hopkins engaged
in a regular tour of the countries of Norfolk, Suffolk,
Essex and Huntingdonshire. He united to him two
confederates, a man named John Stern, and a woman whose
name has not been handed down to us. They visited every
town in their route that invited them, and secured to them
the moderate remuneration of twenty shillings and their
expenses, leaving what was more than this to the
spontaneous gratitude of those who should deem themselves
indebted to the exertions of Hopkins and his party. By
this expedient they secured to themselves a favourable
reception and a set of credulous persons who would listen
to their dictates as so many oracles. Being three of them,
they were enabled to play the game into one another's
hands, and were sufficiently strong to overawe all timid
and irresolute opposition. In every town to which they
came, they inquired for reputed witches, and having taken
them into custody, were secure for the most part of a
certain number of zealous abettors, and took care that
they should have a clear stage for their experiments. They
overawed their helpless victims with a certain air of
authority, as if they had received a commission from
heaven for the discovery of misdeeds. They assailed the
poor creatures with a multitude of questions constructed
in the most artful manner. They stripped them naked, in
search for the devil's marks in different parts of their
bodies, which they ascertained by running pins to the head
into those parts, that, if they were genuine marks, would
prove themselves such by their insensibility. They swam
their victims in rivers and ponds, it being an undoubted
fact, that, if the persons accused were true witches the
water, which was the symbol of admission into the
Christian Church, would not receive them into its bosom.
If the persons examined continued obstinate, they seated
them in constrained and uneasy attitudes, occasionally
binding them with cords, and compelling them to remain so
without food or sleep for twenty-four hours. They walked
them up and down the room, two taking them under each arm,
till they dropped down with fatigue. They carefully swept
the room in which the experiment was made, that they might
keep away spiders and flies, which were supposed to be
devils or their imps in that disguise.
The most plentiful inquisition of Hopkins and his
confederates was in the years 1644, 1645, and 1646. At
length there were so many persons committed to prison upon
suspicion of witchcraft, that the government was compelled
to take in hand the affair. The rural magistrates before
whom Hopkins and his confederates brought their victims,
were obliged, willingly or unwillingly, to commit them for
trial. A commission was granted to the earl of Warwick and
others to hold a session of jail-deli very against them
for Essex at Chelmsford. Lord Warwick was at this time the
most popular nobleman in England. He was appointed by the
parliament lord high admiral during the civil war. He was
much courted by the independent clergy, was shrewd,
penetrating and active, and exhibited
a singular mixture of pious demeanour with a vein of
facetiousness and jocularity. With him was sent Dr. Calamy,
the most eminent divine of the period of the Commonwealth,
to see (says Baxter) that no fraud was committed, or wrong
done to the parties accused. It may well be doubted,
however, whether the presence of this clergyman did not
operate unfavourably to the persons suspected. He preached
before the judges. It may readily be believed, considering
the temper of the times, that he insisted much upon the
horrible nature of the sin of witchcraft, which could
expect no pardon, either in the world or the world to
come.
He sat on the bench with the judges, and participated in
their deliberations. In the result of this inquisition
sixteen persons were hanged at Yarmouth in Norfolk,
fifteen at Chelmsford, and sixty at various places in the
county of Suffolk. Whitlocke in his Memorials of English
Affairs, under the date of 1649, speaks of many witches
being apprehended about Newcastle, upon the information of
a person whom he calls the Witch-finder, who, as his
experiments were nearly the same, though he is not named,
we may reasonably suppose to be Hopkins; and in the
following year about Boston in Lincolnshire. In 1652 and
1653 the same author speaks of women in Scotland, who were
put to incredible torture to extort from them a confession
of what their adversaries imputed to them.
The fate of Hopkins was such as might be expected in
similar cases. The multitude are at first impressed with
horror at the monstrous charges that are advanced. They
are seized, as by contagion, with terror at the mischiefs
which seem to impend over them, and from which no
innocence and no precaution appear to afford them
sufficient protection. They hasten, as with an unanimous
effort, to avenge themselves upon these malignant enemies,
whom God and man alike combine to expel from society. But,
after a time, they begin to reflect, and to apprehend that
they have acted with too much precipitation, that they
have been led on with uncertain appearances. They see one
victim led to the gallows after another, without stint or
limitation. They see one dying with the most solemn
asseverations of innocence, and another confessing
apparently she knows not what, what is put into her mouth
by her relentless persecutors. They see these victims old,
crazy and impotent, harassed beyond endurance by the
ingenious cruelties that are practised against them. They
were first urged on by implacable hostility and fury, to
be satisfied with nothing but blood. But humanity and
remorse also have their turn. Dissatisfied with
themselves, they are glad to point their resentment
against another. The man that at first they hailed as a
public benefactor, they presently come to regard with
jealous eyes, and begin to consider as a cunning imposter,
dealing in cool blood with the lives of his
fellow-creatures for a paltry gain, and, still more
horrible, for the lure of a perishable and shortlived
fame. The multitude, we are told, after a few seasons,
rose upon Hopkins and resolved to subject him to one of
his own criterions. They dragged him to a pond and threw
him into the water for a witch. It seems he floated on the
surface, as a witch ought to do. They then pursued him
with hootings and revilings, and drove him for ever into
that obscurity and ignominy which he had amply merited.
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