He had [he said] spared the lives of certain young children and merely ordered them to be scourged naked three times round the place where their parents were burning [instead of having them bled to death in a bath of tepid water]. He is convinced that this was wrong, and that they will all grow up into witches and sorcerers. . . . He hopes his sinful clemency will not become a precedent—a fear which was quite unnecessary, for scores of children under twelve were burnt for witchcraft; and the one plea which even then respited the most atrocious murderess did not always avail a witch, since it was believed that her future child, if not the actual offspring of the devil, would infallibly belong to his kingdom.2

2Withington, E.T.n/an/an/an/a, "Dr. John Weyer and the Witch Mania," in Singer, , 1: 200 (Oxford University Press. By permission).