A Guide to Grand-Jury Men

rdf:langString A Guide to Grand-Jury Men

rdf:langString A Gvide to Grand-Jury Men

rdf:langString A Gvide to Grand-Jury Men

rdf:langString Cover page of the second edition

rdf:langString Early Modern English English

rdf:langString Print

rdf:langString First Edition: 1627

rdf:langString Second Edition: 1629

rdf:langString A Guide to Grand-Jury Men — in full, A Guide to Grand Jury Men, Divided in two books. In the first, is the Author's best advice to them what to do, before they bring in a Billa vera in cases of Witchcraft, with a Christian Direction to such as are too much given upon every cross to think themselves bewitched. In the Second, is a Treatise touching Witches good and bad, how they may be known, evicted, condemned, with many particulars tending thereunto was first published in 1627 and written by a puritan clergyman named Richard Bernard. The work is a collection of two dissertations on the legal aspects of witchcraft and how those participating in the trials may be deceived by deceit and counterfeited accounts. It further elaborates on how many natural ills can be taken as bewitchment. Bernard gives advice on how to determine an actual account of witchcraft from that of a false accusation and even more, the signs one should seek to determine if a man is truly bewitched or suffering from a natural sickness. The dissertation was written to help reform the laws on witchcraft, to educate the men commissioned to seek out, investigate and prosecute instances of witchcraft, and as a guide to witchfinding with a combination of scientific analysis and theological understanding that was not previously used. Previously, the Justices of Peace did not always expect direct evidence, and seeing that the works of witches were works of darkness, there were often no witnesses present with them to accuse them.