No More Learning

Wks. _ 3. 367.

[80] _Muse's Looking Glass_, _O. Pl. _ 9. 180 (cited by Gifford).

[81] _Works_, 1641, reprinted by the Spenser Society.

[82] _Character Writings_, ed. Morley, p. 350.

[83] See p. xix.


3. _Witchcraft_

Witchcraft in Jonson's time was not an outworn belief, but a living
issue.
It is remarkable that the persecutions which followed upon this
terrible delusion were comparatively infrequent during the Middle
Ages, and reached their maximum only in the seventeenth century.

The first English Act against witchcraft after the Norman Conquest was
passed in 1541 (33 Hen. VIII. c. 8). This Act, which was of a general
nature, and directed against various kinds of sorceries, was followed
by another in 1562 (5 Eliz. c. 16). At the accession of James I. in
1603 was passed 1 Jac. I. c. 12, which continued law for more than a
century.

During this entire period charges of witchcraft were frequent. In
Scotland they were especially numerous, upwards of fifty being recorded
during the years 1596-7. [84] The trial of Anne Turner in 1615, in
which charges of witchcraft were joined with those of poisoning,
especially attracted the attention of Jonson.