THE REVIVAL OF SCIENCE 115 



every class of society. What improvement 

 there was in the seventeenth century, and it is 

 extremely doubtful if there was much, was 

 largely due to the advent of James I and the 

 later rise of puritanism, associated as they 

 were with the most cruel and most inhuman 

 torture of sorcerers. When the alchemist and 

 the astrologer ran the risk of suffering as a 

 sorcerer or a warlock, he paused before pub- 

 licly embarking on that trade. 



Under the Tudors, the laws against witch- 

 craft were milder than those of other coun- 

 tries, but, under James I, these laws were 

 repealed and he himself took — as he had done 

 before in Scotland — an active part in this cruel 

 and senseless persecution. During the first 

 eighty years of the seventeenth century, no less 

 than 70,000 men and women are said to have 

 been executed for alleged offences under the 

 new act. The king even wrote a book on 

 demonology, attacking the more sensible and 

 reasonable views of Scot and Wier. It must 

 be remembered, however, that, in these times, 

 the generality of learned and able men be- 

 lieved in the maleficent effects of sorcery and 



