Saturday 24 November 1666

Up, and to the office, where we sat all the morning. At noon rose and to my closet, and finished my report to my Lord Treasurer of our Tangier wants, and then with Sir J. Minnes by coach to Stepney to the Trinity House, where it is kept again now since the burning of their other house in London. And here a great many met at Sir Thomas Allen’s feast, of his being made an Elder Brother; but he is sick, and so could not be there. Here was much good company, and very merry; but the discourse of Scotland, it seems, is confirmed, and that they are 4000 of them in armes, and do declare for King and Covenant, which is very ill news. I pray God deliver us from the ill consequences we may justly fear from it. Here was a good venison pasty or two and other good victuals; but towards the latter end of the dinner I rose, and without taking leave went away from the table, and got Sir J. Minnes’ coach and away home, and thence with my report to my Lord Treasurer’s, where I did deliver it to Sir Philip Warwicke for my Lord, who was busy, my report for him to consider against to-morrow’s council. Sir Philip Warwicke, I find, is full of trouble in his mind to see how things go, and what our wants are; and so I have no delight to trouble him with discourse, though I honour the man with all my heart, and I think him to be a very able and right honest man. So away home again, and there to my office to write my letters very late, and then home to supper, and then to read the late printed discourse of witches by a member of Gresham College, —[For belief in witches. D.W.]— and then to bed; the discourse being well writ, in good stile, but methinks not very convincing. This day Mr. Martin is come to tell me his wife is brought to bed of a girle, and I promised to christen it next Sunday.

19 Annotations

First Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

Broderick to Ormond
Written from: London

Date: 24 November 1666

Describes the measures taken by the King and Council for the defence of the Scottish Border ...

Could tell his Grace "a pleasant tale of my Lady Denham's retreat, to my Lord of Bristol's house in S. Martin's Lane; but my Lord is come from his new house in no very good humour, being strangely impatient of removing thither, which is impossible these three months".

http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/s…

****
Arlington to Ormond
Written from: Whitehall

Date: 24 November 1666

Gives an account of the defensive arrangements ordered by the King, on occasion of the insurrectionary movements, in the western parts of Scotland.

http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/s…

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"the late printed discourse of witches by a member of Gresham College"

L&M say this is Robert Glanvill's "Philosophical Considerations Touching the Being of Witches and Witchcraft" (1666), addressed to Robert Hunt, a Justice of the Peace active from the 1650s against witches in Somerset (where Glanvill had his living at Frome)" which underwent several modifications. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jose…

Pepys retained a copy of *Sadducismus Triumphatus: Or, full and plain Evidence concerning Witches and Apparitions.* (1681)

CGS  •  Link

Daily depress

Vicars,preachers must pay their share to help pay the bill for more cheese and crackers.

Resolved, &c. That the Clergy be rated in the Poll Bill for their Titles and Dignities

Calling a Howard a catholic, a bunch of damned lyes.
[ H o C:
Priests and Jesuits.]

JWB  •  Link

Don't believe in witches?
Joseph Glanvill wrote:"And for mathematical science, he that doubts their certainty hath need of a dose of hellebore." Kurt Goedel, developer of the "Incompletness Theorem", developed in later life a fear of being poisoned and starved himself to death.

For a discussion of Glanvill, witchcraft & Science goto: http://books.google.com/books?id=…

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"to the Trinity House, where it is kept again now since the burning of their other house in London. And here a great many met at Sir Thomas Allen’s feast, of his being made an Elder Brother"

Elder Brother of Trinity House

See Pauline's annote: "Orginally a seamen’s guild at Deptford, charged primarily with religious and charitable duties, it became from 1514 onward by virtue of a series of charters and statutes a public authority which provided the means of safe navigation, particularly in the Thames. Its main responsibilities in the river were for lights, beacons and buoys, for the licensing of pilots and watermen, and for the clearing of the navigable channels (the spoil being sold as ballast). This last duty was until 1663 shared with the city, and its licensing of watermen with the Waterman’s Company. In 1566 its authority over lights was extended to the whole kingdom. In addition it acted as a minor maritime court under the aegis of the Admiralty. Its members, mostly Thames masters and pilots, had since 1604 been divided into Elder Brethern, the executive authority, and Younger Brethren, the elective authority: corresponding, respectively, to the court and liverymen of the a city company." http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…

Jesse  •  Link

"but methinks not very convincing"

Compare Glanvill, the 'scientific' witch hunter with the somewhat more recent William James, http://tinyurl.com/ylejcpw . (Thanks for the above link.)

Michael Robinson  •  Link

“the late printed discourse of witches by a member of Gresham College”

Glanvill, Joseph, 1636-1680.
Some philosophical considerations touching the being of witches and witchcraft. Written in a letter to the much honour’d Robert Hunt Esq; By J.G. a member of the Royal Society.
London : printed by E. C[otes]. for James Collins at the Kings-head in Westminster-Hall, 1667.
4to.,; [2], 62, [2] p. ; with a final advertisement leaf.

Wing (CD-ROM, 1996), G832

Contra the L&M footnote (1972) the ESTC database, and the latest revision of Wing, note no edition dated 1666 and only one dated 1667, not two.
There were two editions of 'A blow at modern sadducism ...' issued in 1668; in the second of these, "... The fourth edition corrected and inlarged." the text of 'Some philosophical considerations...' is included and has separate dated title page on leaf B6r, however the pagination of the volume is continuous. For additional details see the various full entries and additional 'General Notes' in the individual ESTC database files.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

*Leaps in the dark* By John Waller linked to by JWB (thanks) shows that Glanvill et al. in the Royal Society were bent upon collecting unimpeachable testimonies to the appearance (empirical evidence!) of apparitions of various types, including spirits (ghosts), witches, etc.

I cannot think of a more credible witness than the inarticulate Pup Dog's spontaneous and repeated utterance:
"Poltergeists make up the principal type of spontaneous material manifestation."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pogo…

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"...then to read the late printed discourse of witches by a member of Gresham College, —[For belief in witches. D.W.]— and then to bed; the discourse being well writ, in good stile, but methinks not very convincing."

Well...As Bugs Bunny would say...And Sam would probably agree...Aren't they all witches inside?

CS  •  Link

To Curious in Newcastle, according to my reading of Claire Tomalin's Pepys biography, he was fairly certain he was shooting blanks, a suspicion for which he had abundant evidence. Although this might have been frustrating for his marriage (he wanted children), it was probably a great convenience for his other activities. She mentions the possibility that some of the "godchildren" might have been his, but she doesn't seem to entertain it seriously. The finality of this depends upon how authoritatively one views Tomalin's research... so far I have no reason to disbelieve her.

Andrew Hamilton  •  Link

scientific witch hunters

Brings to mind the scene in Roman Polanski's Fearless Vampire Killers when Polanski is cornered by a Jewish innkeeper/vampire. Polanski holds up a cross to ward off attack, to which the innkeeper replies, "Oy haf you got the wrong vampire."

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"Glanvill et al. in the Royal Society were bent upon collecting unimpeachable testimonies to the appearance (empirical evidence!) of apparitions of various types, including spirits (ghosts), witches, etc."

William F. Burns argues that the Royal Society and their correspondents were 'A kind of philosophy-office': Restoration and the regulation of prodigies in chapter 2 of *An age of wonders: prodigies, politics, and providence in England, 1657-1727* By William E. Burns (2002) http://short.to/16agj

Scroll down to the table of contents, click on chapter 2's title for an interesting read. The tactic of the RS was not to deny "unusual events," but to take them out of the hands of religio-political "prodigy-mongers" and spread oil on the civic waters. This was done by inserting the the prodigious or amazing between the natural and the supernatural.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

To be more precise, the prodigious is the unusual in nature, but it seems to violate the regularity to which nature conforms.

Second Reading

Paul Lazest  •  Link

" then to read the late printed discourse of witches by a member of Gresham College, —and then to bed; the discourse being well writ, in good stile, but methinks not very convincing".

Pepys seems not at all a believer in ghosts based on this entry. Twenty six years hence witches were being burned in Salem. From this can we conclude that the Brits were a good deal saner when it comes to witch hunting?

Terry Foreman  •  Link

An age of wonders: prodigies, politics, and providence in England, 1657-1727

Monstrous births, rains of blood, apparitions of battles in the sky--people in early modern England found all of these events to carry important religious and political meanings. In "An Age of Wonders. "William Burns explores the process by which these events became religiously and politically insignificant in the Restoration period. Manchester University Press, (2002) Updated link:
https://books.google.com/books?id…

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"they are 4000 of them in armes, and do declare for King and Covenant"

The rebels (whose numbers are here greatly exaggerated) renewed the Covenant of 1638 at Limerick, in Clydesdale, declaring their loyalty to the King and their enmity to nothing but episcopacy. (L&M note)

In 1637, Scotland was in a state of turmoil. King Charles I and William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, met with a reverse in their efforts to impose a new liturgy on the Scots. The new liturgy had been devised by a panel of Scottish bishops, including Archbishop Spottiswoode of St. Andrews, but a riot against its use was orchestrated in St Giles' Cathedral, Edinburgh, ostensibly started by Jenny Geddes. Fearing further measures on the part of the King, it occurred to Archibald Johnston (Lord Warriston) to revive the Negative Confession of 1581 in a form suited to the times. Together with the cooperation of Alexander Henderson, this National Covenant (as it was called) was finalized in early 1638.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cov…

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Human beings love conspiracy theories, especially if we see a way to take advantage of them. However awful Britain's history is on witchcraft, it is nothing compared to Germany's. I just spent a sobering hour reading a list of the people burned there between 1588 and 1653.

In 2020 the United States has a President who has been crying "witchcraft" whenever something adverse happened to him for 4 years, and last week called our female VP candidate a "monster". And it appears inevitable that Congress will have some QAnon believers in their midst next year.

It's frightening to think how easy and fast it is to slip into this mindset -- yes, each time it is manifested differently, but when coupled with a pandemic economic depression, who knows how the greed, fear and grief will express itself.

After all, from 1982 - 1994 courts around the world sent preschool teachers to prison for (amongst other sexual things) killing wild animals at kindergarten schools in non-existent basements because they chose to believe toddlers ... although the evidence was sketchy at best.

The list of German witches:
http://www.anton-praetorius.de/do…

The preschool scandals of the 1990's:
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/fr…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day…

Qanon candidates:
https://www.startribune.com/6-gop…

I'm not even going to mention the mindset that led to the holocaust.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

The point I was trying to make, but forgot to explicitly say, is that we shouldn't feel too superior to the people of the 17th century. Human beings have this defective brain that likes to feel better than, even if it has to invent the reasons for the illusion; this flaw historically has led us to all sorts of nasty consequences.

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