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| The first page of Scot's very long work. |
Things could not have
gone better today. I finished my reading of Scot’s work, though it required me
to forgo most of my sleeping and eating for the past few days. I was able to
isolate several points of contention that I could use to try and convince
father to change his mind. When I entered father’s office with a small book of
my own that I had written out my points in, I attempted to do so more properly
than last time so as not to raise his ire. He was sitting in almost the exact
same position, with only his different clothes indicating that he had moved
since I saw him last. My brother was there as well, but even his presence could
not deter me from making my argument to our father. After I waited patiently
for a few minutes, father eventually finished whatever it was that he was
working on this time and looked up at me.
“I am glad to see that
you have recovered some of your sense of decorum since the last time you
stormed in here. Now what can I help you with; I am a busy man.”
“Father, I know that you
and I have disagreed on many things over the years, but I have always felt you
to be a fair and just man. This has always been a quality that has always given
me cause to admire and respect you. I wish to ask that you listen to some of
the arguments that I have here about the injustice that I feel is being brought
upon our neighbors, in order to ensure that your reputation for being a noble
person remains unimpeachable.” I knew that the best way to get my father to
listen was to appeal to both his sense of honour and vanity.
“Very well my son,” my
father said after a moment of silence. “I suppose that I can give you some time
to put that education of your to use.”
I began to relate to my
father what I had recently read, most of which had been from the works of
Reginald Scot. I started with the arguments that Scot made which argued not
only that there was no biblical basis to the idea of witchcraft, but also how
inherently wrong it was to attribute the power to do such deeds to witches. How
could these women, these mortals, have the power to do things that are solely
in the domain of God? Plagues and pestilence cannot be done by someone simply
by uttering oaths. I tapped into some English demonologists, who claimed that these women were just
the instruments of Satan, and then challenged that by say that even if these
acts were done through the women by Satan, no God fearing people should have
anything to fear, for it is God who allows Satan to have any power. I then
turned back to Scot’s work, and argued that many of the different crimes that
these women were being accused of under the blanket of witchcraft could be, and
should be, prosecuted on the basis of laws already in force. If we are to blame
these crimes on our neighbors, let us charge them with crimes that fall within
our realm, rather than that of magic and demons. I finished by using philosophy
and science in the same way that Scot did to establish the impossibility of the
deeds that were being blamed upon these women, in which he stated that “no
reason can be yielded for a thing so far beyond all reason.” My father, though
a stoic man, seemed to be troubled. He had been so sure that the course of
action he had taken was valid and proper, but my arguments had made him
question that. He sent my brother and I away so that he could think upon what I
had told him, and I knew that I had at least raised a doubt in his mind that
would not allow him to send the women to be tried for such crimes. I was
gleeful as my brother and I walked to our rooms, but as I glanced back at my
brother when I went into my room, I received such a glare of malice and hatred
that I almost believed him to be a different person. Regardless, I shall sleep
now, to try and catch up on what I have lacked in the past few days. Hopefully
I will be able to see Mary tomorrow, provided my father does what is right.
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