And he is excommunicate."
Elizabeth Dobson was presented in 1600 as "a slaunderer who saide to
Thomas Gibson that he was a Mainesworne ladd /"
To call anyone "mansworn" was evidently a very serious offence, for in
1527 the Newcastle-on-Tyne corporation of weavers decreed that any member
of the corporation who should call his brother "mansworn" should incur a
forfeit of 6s. 8d. "without forgiveness." To _manswear_ comes from the
Anglo-Saxon _manswerian_ meaning to swear falsely or to perjure oneself.
Among the men of note of this period mention must be made of Ralph Dodmer
son of Henry Dodmer of Pickering who was a mercer and Lord Mayor of London
in 1521.[1]
[Footnote 1: Thomas Fuller's "Worthies."]
The visitation book shows that it was no uncommon thing to accuse a woman
of being a scold in these times and the following written in 1602[1]
throws a lurid light on the methods for removing the effects of a witch's
malice.
[Footnote 1: The original is stuck in Calvert's MS. Book of Folklore.]
"To cure an ill caste by any Witch putt upon any childe be y^t y^e evil
eye, an overglent, spreeking, an ill birth touche or of a spittle boult
but do as here given & alle shalle be overcome letting no evil rest upon
y^m Take a childe so ill held & strike y^t seven times on y^e face & like
upon y^e navel with y^e heart of a blacke cat then roast y^e heart & give
of y^t to eat seven nights at bed meale & y^t shalle be well butt y^e cat
must be seven years olde & y^e seventh dropped at birth otherwise y^t
shalle faile to overcome any Witch spell soever ill worked y^e blood from
such an heart laid to any witches dorepost or thrown over nighte upon her
dorestep will cause a sore & great paine in her belly.
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