A HISTORY OF LEICESTERSHIRE believe such things may be. 176 And it may be noted that many of the Puritan divines who would have been readiest to deny the value of any appeal to the spirits of the good, firmly believed that evil spirits might be invoked to some purpose. 178 In June, 1616, nine women were hanged at Leicester for bewitching a boy at Husbands Bosworth ; they were formally tried before the high sheriff, and grave men like Alderman Robert Heyrick entirely approved the sentence. 177 Six more victims would have been added later but for the intervention of King James, who himself detected the imposture of the child who was said to be bewitched. 178 In spite of the disgrace of two of the justices who acted on this occasion, there was another witchcraft trial in 1618, issuing in the execution of two more women at Lincoln. In this case the poor creatures were not merely the victims of the malice or folly of others ; they themselves confessed that they were in league with the devil, and that they had indeed caused the death of Henry Lord Ros, and attempted the life of his brother and sister by magical arts. Three other Leicestershire women were examined at this time by Sir Henry Hastings and a learned doctor of divinity, 179 and made similar statements. They had sold their souls to the devil in exchange for certain occult powers to help and to hurt, and they possessed familiar spirits in the shape of cats, dogs, and rats, who assisted them in their designs. 180 In 1626 the vicar of All Saints, Leicester, was presented before the ecclesiastical court at Leicester for refusing to wear the surplice, for baptizing without the cross, and for administering the holy communion to some parishioners without requiring them to kneel. 181 He acknowledged his offence, but appealed to Bishop Williams, who let the matter pass and took no pro- ceedings. This case was afterwards brought forward with many others to show that the bishop, and Pregion his registrar, had shown great favour to Puritans in this county 182 : and it was the beginning of the long-continued difficulties between the bishop and Sir John Lambe, as official for the arch- deaconry of Leicester. Many of the points alleged in the accusation brought forward in 1627 by the officers of the ecclesiastical courts were denied by the bishop : but in the light of later evidence it is impossible to doubt that unauthorized fasts and preachings were popular in the county, whether favoured by him or no. Meetings for the exposition of Scripture, not preceded by any office from the Book of Common Prayer, and sometimes conducted by unlicensed ministers and laymen, were said to have taken place at Broughton Astley, Easton, Loughborough, Burrough on the Hill, Croft, Thornton, Wigston, and Leicester. Lady Herrick's chaplain at Woodhouse was a frequent preacher at unauthorized fasts : and one of these gatherings 74 Anatomy of Melancholy, pt. i, sec. I, m. I, sub-sec. 3. 76 Notable illustrations of this curious fact may be found in the history of the Puritan colonies of New England. As^ late as 1692 there was a great witchcraft case at Salem, Massachusetts; upwards of loo persons were imprisoned on suspicion, and nineteen actually hanged. 7 Nichols, Leu. ii, 471, prints the letters of Robert Heyrick on this subject. The women were had up before the mayor, justices, and the astute ' Docktor Lambe.' See also Hist. AfSS. Com. Rep. xii. (u), 422. 78 Cal.S.P. Dam. 1611-18, p. 121. 79 Dr. Fleming, rector of Bottesford in this county, a good and pious parish priest, who founded in 1620 an almshouse for four poor widows. 80 Nichols, Leie.ii, 69-72, where the depositions of the women are given in full. There is a curious note of pride in their confessions. They fully believed in their own powers. 11 S.P. Dom. Chas. I, Ivii, 83. >< Ibid. Ixxxv, 99. 378
