For sometimes the afflicted Person is made sick, (instead of being made whole) by the Touch of the Accused; sometimes the Power of Imagination is such, as that the Touch of a Person innocent and not accused shall have the same effect. It is related in the Account of the Tryals of Witches at _Bury_ in _Suffolk_ 1664, during the time[67] of the Tryal, there were some Experiments made with the Persons afflicted, by bringing the accused to touch them, and it was observed that by the least Touch of one of the supposed Witches, they that were in their Fits, to all mens Apprehension wholly deprived of all Sense and Understandings, would suddenly shriek out and open their Hands.
Mr. Serjeant _Keeling_ did not think that sufficient to Convict the Prisoners, for admitting that the Children were in truth Bewitched, yet (saith he) it cannot be applyed to the Prisoners upon the Imagination only of the Parties afflicted; for if that might be allowed, no Person whatsoever can be in safety, for perhaps they might fancy another Person who might altogether be innocent in such matters: To avoid this Scruple it was privately desired by the Judge, that some Gentlemen there in Court would attend one of the distempered Persons in the farther part of the Hall, whilst she was in her Fits, and then to send for one of the Witches to try what would happen, which they did accordingly. One of them was conveyed from the Bar, and brought to the Afflicted Maid. They put an Apron before her Eyes, and then another person (not the Witch) touched her, which produced the same effect, as the Touch of the Witch did in the Court. Whereupon the Gentlemen returned much unsatisfied. _Bodin_[68] relates, that a Witch who was Tryed at _Nants_, was commanded by the Judges to touch a Bewitched person, a thing often practised by the Judges of _Germany_ in the _Imperial Chamber_. The Witch was extreamly unwilling, but being Compelled by the Judges, she cryed out, _I am undone;_ and as soon as ever she touched the Afflicted person, the Witch fell down dead, and the other recovered. That horrid Witch of _Salisbury_, _Ann Bodenham_[69] who had been Servant to the Notorious Conjurer Dr. _Lamb_, could not bear the sight of one that was Bewitched by her. As soon as ever she saw the Afflicted Person, she ran about shrieking, and crying, and roaring after an hideous manner, that the Devil would tear her in pieces, if that person came near her. And whilst the Witch was in such Torment, the Bewitched was at ease. By these things we see, that the Laws and Customs of the Kingdom of darkness, are not always and in all places the same.