Witch

By drawing the blood of a witch you deprive her of her power of sorcery. Glanvil says that when Jane Brooks, the demon of Tedworth, bewitched a boy, his father scratched her face and drew blood, whereupon the boy instantly exclaimed that he was well.

“Blood will I draw on thee; thou art a witch.”

Shakespeare: 1 Henry VI., i. 5.

Hammer for Witches (Malleus Maleficarum). A treatise drawn up by Heinrich Institor and Jacob Sprenger, systematising the whole doctrine of witchcraft, laying down a regular form of trial, and a course of examination. Innocent VIII. issued the celebrated bull Summis Desiderantes in 1484, directing inquisitors and others to put to death all practisers of witchcraft and other diabolical arts.

⁂ Dr. Sprenger computes that as many as nine millions of persons have suffered death for witchcraft since the bull of Innocent. (Life of Mohammed.) As late as 1705 two women were executed at Northampton for witchcraft.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.