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against it is as old as the laws of the Twelve Tables, 

 while one title, or book, of the Code of Justinian is 

 entirely devoted to it. We find laws against witch- 

 craft in the English codes before the Conquest, and 

 there were frequent proceedings against it in the 

 ecclesiastical courts for some five hundred years after 

 that epoch. Fresh laws were made on the subject 

 by Henry VIII., Elizabeth, and James I., and pro- 

 ceedings under these laws were so numerous that in 

 the three years 1645-6-7 between two and three 

 hundred people are said to have been indicted for 

 witchcraft in Suffolk and Essex alone ; more than 

 half of whom were convicted. In England trials for 

 witchcraft continued till 1712, the last being that of 

 Jane Wenham, who was convicted but not executed. 

 The mass of evidence offered in proof of witchcraft 

 at all these trials must have been enormous, and 

 much of it would be certainly be given in good 

 faith; it was sufficient to obtain the condemnation 

 and death of thousands of prisoners, yet no one now 

 imagines that it is true for us. Some of those who 

 were accused of witchcraft doubtless believed them- 

 selves to be gifted with magic powers, and there 

 would occasionally be evidence of the incantations 

 whereby such prisoners had frightened their neigh- 

 bours ; but this was not deemed necessary for the 

 conviction of the accused ; all that was required was 

 evidence of the effects which they were supposed 

 to have caused by other than natural means. 



