Dr. Turner, in his history of the Anglo-Saxons, says that they had laws against sorcerers and witches, but that they did not punish them with death.  There was an English statute against witchcraft, in the reign of Henry VIII., and another in that of Elizabeth.

Up to this time, however, the legislation of parliament on the subject was merciful and judicious:  for it did not attach to the guilt of witchcraft the punishment of death, unless it had been used to destroy life; that is, unless it had become murder.

On the demise of Elizabeth, James of Scotland ascended the throne.  His pedantic and eccentric character is well known.  He had an early and decided inclination towards abstruse or mysterious speculations.  Before he had reached his twentieth year, he undertook to accomplish what only the most sanguine and profound theologians have ever dared to attempt:  he expounded the Book of Revelation.  When he was about twenty-five years of age, he published a work on the “Doctrine of Devils and Witchcraft.”  Not long after, he succeeded to the British crown.  It may easily be imagined that the subject of demonology soon became a fashionable and prevailing topic of conversation in the royal saloons and throughout the nation.  It served as a medium through which obsequious courtiers could convey their flattery to the ears of their accomplished and learned sovereign.  His Majesty’s book was reprinted and extensively circulated.  It was of course praised and recommended in all quarters.

The parliament, actuated by a base desire to compliment the vain and superstitious king, enacted a new and much more severe statute against witchcraft, in the very first year of his reign.  It was under this law that so many persons here and in England were deprived of their lives.  The blood of hundreds of innocent persons was thus unrighteously shed.  It was a fearful price which these servile lawgivers paid for the favor of their prince.

But this was not the only mischief brought about by courtly deference to the prejudices of King James.  It was under his direction that our present translation of the Scriptures was made.  To please His Royal Majesty, and to strengthen the arguments in his work on demonology, the word “witch” was used to represent expressions in the original Hebrew, that conveyed an entirely different idea; and it was freely inserted in the headings of the chapters.[B] A person having “a familiar spirit” was a favorite description of a witch in the king’s book.  The translators, forgetful of their high and solemn function, endeavored to establish this definition by inserting it into their version.  Accordingly, they introduced it in several places; in the eleventh verse of the eighteenth chapter of Deuteronomy, for instance, “a consulter with familiar spirits.”  There is no word in the Hebrew which corresponds with “familiar.”  And this is the important, the essential word in the definition.  It conveys