“But alas that teares should be thought sufficient to excuse or condemn in so great a cause, and so weightie a triall!  I am sure that the worst sort of the children of Israel wept bitterlie; yea, if there were any witches at all in Israel, they wept.  For it is written, that all the children of Israel wept.  Finallie, if there be any witches in hell, I am sure they weepe; for there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.  But God knoweth many an honest matron cannot sometimes in the heaviness of her heart shed teares; the which oftentimes are more readie and common with crafty queans and strumpets than with sober women.  For we read of two kinds of teares in a woman’s eie; the one of true greefe, and the other of deceipt.  And it is written, that ‘Dediscere flere foeminam est mendacium;’ which argueth that they lie, which saie that wicked women cannot weepe.  But let these tormentors take heed, that the teares in this case which runne down the widowe’s cheeks, with their crie, spoken of by Jesus Sirach, be not heard above.  But, lo, what learned, godlie and lawful meanes these Popish Inquisitors have invented for the triall of true or false teares:—­

’I conjure thee, by the amorous tears which Jesus Christ, our Saviour, shed upon the crosse for the salvation of the world; and by the most earnest and burning teares of his mother, the most glorious Virgine Marie, sprinkled upon his wounds late in the evening; and by all the teares which everie saint and elect vessell of God hath poured out heere in the world, and from whose eies he hath wiped awaie all teares,—­that, if thou be without fault, thou maist poure downe teares aboundantlie; and, if thou be guiltie, that thou weep in no wise.  In the name of the Father, of the Sonne, and of the Holie Ghost.  Amen.’

     “The more you conjure, the lesse she weepeth.”

A distinction was made between black and white witches.  The former were those who had leagued with Satan for the purpose of doing injury to others, while the latter class was composed of such persons as had resorted to the arts and charms of divination and sorcery in order to protect themselves and others from diabolical influence.  They were both considered as highly, if not equally, criminal.  Fuller, in his “Profane State,” thus speaks of them:  “Better is it to lap one’s pottage like a dog, than to eat it mannerly, with a spoon of the Devil’s giving.  Black witches hurt and do mischief; but, in deeds of darkness, there is no difference of colors.  The white and the black are both guilty alike in compounding with the Devil.”  White witches pretended to extract their power from the mysterious virtues of certain plants.  The following form of charmed words was used in plucking them:—­

    “Hail to thee, holy herb,
      Growing in the ground;
    On the Mount of Calvarie,
      First wert thou found;
    Thou art good for many a grief,
      And healest many a wound: 
    In the name of sweet Jesu,
      I lift thee from the ground.”