Reginald Scot | |
|---|---|
 Portrait of a Gentleman, possibly Reginald Scott, 1581 | |
| Born | c. 1537 |
| Died | 9 October 1599 (aged 61–62) |
| Resting place | St Mary the Virgin's church, Brabourne 51°08′09″N 1°00′20″E / 51.1357°N 1.00549°E |
| Alma mater | Hart Hall, Oxford |
| Occupations |
|
| Known for | The Discoverie of Witchcraft |
| Spouses | Jane Cobbe
(m. 1568, died)
|
| Children | with Jane:
|
| Parents |
|
| Relatives | Sir Thomas Scott (cousin) |
| Family | Scott |
Reginald Scot or Scott (c. 1537 – 9 October 1599) of Smeeth and Aldington, Kent, was an English politician and author who wrote The Discoverie of Witchcraft, which was published in 1584. It was written against the belief in witches, to show that witchcraft did not exist. Part of its content exposes how (apparently miraculous) feats of magic were done,[1][2] and the book is deemed the first work, in English, "to present a detailed description of sleight of hand and conjuring."[3]
Life
He was the 1st son of Richard Scott, son of Sir John Scott (d. 1533) of Scots Hall in Smeeth, near Ashford in Kent.[1] His mother was Mary Whetenall (d. 1582), daughter of George Whetenall of Hextall’s Place, East Peckham,[1]. His father died before 1544, and his mother remarried Fulk Onslow, clerk of the parliament; dying on 8 October 1582,[2] she was buried in the church of Hatfield, Hertfordshire. Reginald or Reynold (as he signed his name in accordance with contemporary practice) was born about 1537.[1]
When about eighteen, Scot entered Hart Hall, Oxford,[1][4] but left the university without a degree.[2][5] His writings show some knowledge of law, but he is not known to have joined any inn of court. Marrying in 1568, he seems to have spent the rest of his life in his native county.[6] His time was mainly passed as an active country gentleman, managing property which he inherited from his kinsfolk about Smeeth and Brabourne, or directing the business affairs of his first cousin, Sir Thomas Scott, who proved a generous patron, and in whose house of Scots Hall he often stayed. He was collector of subsidies for the lathe (county subdivision) of Shepway in 1586 and 1587,[1] and he was perhaps the Reginald Scot who acted in 1588 as a captain of untrained foot-soldiers at the county muster. He was returned to the parliament of 1589 as member for New Romney, "but there is no evidence to support the suggestion" that he was a justice of the peace (JP).[1][2] He describes himself as "esquire" in the title-page of his Discoverie, and is elsewhere designated "armiger".
Scot married at Brabourne, on 11 October 1568, Jane Cobbe of Cobbes Place, in the parish of Aldington. By her he had a daughter Elizabeth, who married Sackville Turnor of Tablehurt, Sussex. Subsequently, Scot married a second wife, a widow named Alice Collyar, who had a daughter called Mary by her former husband.[1]
Scot made his own will (drawing it with his own hand) on 15 September 1599.[1][6][7] He died at Smeeth on 9 October following, and was probably buried in the church of St. Mary the Virgin, Brabourne, with his first wife Jane. His small properties about Brabourne, Aldington, and Romney Marsh he left to his widow. The last words of his will run: "Great is the trouble my poor wife hath had with me, and small is the comfort she hath received at my hands, whom if I had not matched withal I had not died worth one groat."[2]
Doctrine and espoused belief
In the Discoverie, Scot aligns himself with Reformed Protestantism, quoting John Calvin more than a dozen times. Calvin in turn was echoing the skepticism toward superstitions of early English reformer John Wycliffe.[8] Scot expresses what is often called the Providential view in stating that "it is neither a witch, nor devil, but glorious God that maketh the thunder...God maketh the blustering tempests and whirlwinds..."[9] This doctrine was also aligned with the tenth-century Canon Episcopi and Scot quotes from it.[10] In the last half of the sixteenth century, an active theological debate continued from various pulpits throughout Europe – Calvinist, Lutheran, and Roman Catholic – between those who supported the skeptical Episcopi/Providential tradition and those who believed that witches could obtain real supernatural powers through an agreement or pact with the devil.[11] The latter belief in the power of witches, and an intense phobia toward them, was associated by Scot with the book Malleus Maleficarum by the German inquisitor Heinrich Kramer, and upon this book Scot focuses the most criticism, and lumps others aligned with the same view of witchcraft: "...from whom [Jean] Bodin and all the other writers... do receive their light..."[12]
A late twentieth-century historian argues that Scot was likely to have been influenced by, and perhaps was a member of, the Family of Love.[13] An intriguing clue to this theory is the name Abraham Fleming written backwards (Gnimelf Maharba) in Scot's lengthy bibliography in the front pages of the Discoverie.
Works
About hops cultivation
In 1574 he published his Perfect Platform of a Hop-garden, and necessary instructions for the making and maintenance thereof, with Notes and Rules for Reformation of all Abuses. The work, which is dedicated to Serjeant William Lovelace of Bethersden in Kent, is the first practical treatise on hop culture in England; the processes are illustrated by woodcuts. Scot, according to a statement of the printer, was out of London while the work was going through the press. A second edition appeared in 1576, and a third in 1578.
About witchcraft and magic
His work on witchcraft was The Discoverie of Witchcraft, wherein the Lewde dealing of Witches and Witchmongers is notablie detected, in sixteen books … whereunto is added a Treatise upon the Nature and Substance of Spirits and Devils, 1584. Scot enumerates 212 authors whose works in Latin he had consulted, and twenty-three authors who wrote in English. He studied the superstitions respecting witchcraft in courts of law in country districts, where the prosecution of witches was constant, and in village life, where the belief in witchcraft flourished. He set himself to prove that the belief in witchcraft and magic was rejected alike by reason and religion, and that spiritualistic manifestations were either wilful impostures or illusions due to mental disturbance in the observers. The book also includes several chapters describing conjuring and sleight of hand tricks in detail.[14]
Notes
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Hasler 1981.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Wootton 2004.
- ↑ Copperfield, Wiseman & Britland 2021, p. 10.
- ↑ Foster 1891.
- ↑ Scott 1876, p. 188.
- 1 2 Scott 1876, p. 190.
- ↑ Brinsley 1886, pp. xxvii–xxviii.
- ↑ Wycliffe 1842, p. 92.
- ↑ Scot 1584, p. 2.
- ↑ Scot 1584, pp. 65–66, 97.
- ↑ Midelfort 2021, pp. 56–66, see also Midelfort 1971, pp. 266–278.
- ↑ Scot 1584, pp. 9, 11, 19, 77, 78. ff..
- ↑ Wootton, Scot & Fleming 2001, pp. 119–138.
- ↑ Copperfield, Wiseman & Britland 2021, pp. 9, 10, 52.
References
- Copperfield, David; Wiseman, Richard; Britland, David (2021). David Copperfield's History of Magic. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-9821-1291-2. OCLC 1236259508.
- Foster, Joseph, ed. (1891). "Scadden-Sheyne". Alumni Oxonienses 1500-1714. Oxford: Oxford University Press – via British History Online.
- Hasler, P. W., ed. (1981). "Scott, Reginald (c.1537-99), of Smeeth and Aldington, Kent". The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1558-1603. Archived from the original on 26 December 2024 – via History of Parliament Online.
- Midelfort, H. C. Erik (2021). Witch Hunting in Southwestern Germany, 1562-1684: The Social and Intellectual Foundations. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. doi:10.1515/9780804766470. ISBN 9780804766470. OCLC 1286806586.(subscription required)
- Midelfort, H. C. (1 December 1971). "Witchcraft and Religion in Sixteenth Century Germany: The Formation and Consequences of an Orthodoxy". Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte - Archive for Reformation History. 62: 266–278. doi:10.14315/arg-1971-jg12. PMID 11631590.(subscription required)
- Scot, Reginald (1584). The Discouerie of Witchcraft: Wherein the Lewde Dealing of Witches and Witchmongers is Notablie Detected, the Knauerie of Coniurors, the Impietie of Inchantors, the Follie of Soothsaiers, the Impudent Falshood of Cousenors, the Infidelitie of Atheists, the Pestilent Practices of Pythonists, the Curiositie of Figure Casters, the Vanitie of Dreamers, the Beggerlie Art of Alcumystrie, the Abhomination of Idolatrie, the Horrible Art of Poisoning, the Vertue and Power of Naturall Magike, and All the Conueiances of Legierdemaine and Iuggling Are Deciphered: And Many Other Things Opened, Which Have Long Lien Hidden, Howbeit Verie Necessarie to Be Knowne. : Heerevnto Is Added a Treatise Vpon the Nature and Substance of Spirits and Diuels, & C. London: William Brome. OCLC 1042977817.
- Scott, James Renat (1876). Memorials of the Family of Scott, of Scot's-Hall, In the County of Kent. With an Appendix of Illustrative Documents. London: J. R. Scott, Clevelands, Walthamstow, E. pp. 188–190. OCLC 1048814514.
- Wootton, D.; Scot, Reginald; Fleming, Abraham (2001). "The Family of Love". In Clark, S. (ed.). Languages of Witchcraft. London: Palgrave. pp. 119–138. doi:10.1007/978-0-333-98529-8_7. ISBN 978-0-333-79349-7.
- Wootton, David (2004). "Scott [Scot], Reginald (d. 1599)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/24905. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
- Wycliffe, John; Todd, James Henthorn (1842). An Apology for Lollard Doctrines, Attributed to Wicliffe. Now first printed from a Manuscript in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin. Works of the Camden Society. Vol. 20. With an Introduction and Notes by James Henthorn Todd. London: Printed for the Camden Society by John Bowyer Nichols and Son. OCLC 3317538.
Further reading
Brinsley Nicholson, in an introduction to an 1886 printing of Discoverie, thoroughly traces the biography and publication record of Reginald Scot:
- Scot, Reginald (1886). Nicholson, Brinsley (ed.). The Discoverie of Witchcraft. With Explanatory Notes, Glossary, and Introduction by Brinsley Nicholson. London: Elliot Stock. pp. x-xlvii. OCLC 320359564.
Other publications
- Haight, Anne Lyon; Grannis, Chandler B. (1978). Banned Books, 387 B.C. to 1978 A.D.. Updated and enlarged by Chandler B. Grannis. With an Opening Essay by Charles Rembar (4th ed.). New York: R. R. Bowker. ISBN 0-8352-1078-2. OCLC 1147724535.
- Estes, Leland L.; Scot, Reginald (December 1983). "Reginald Scot and His "Discoverie of Witchcraft": Religion and Science in the Opposition to the European Witch Craze". Church History. 52 (4): 444–456. doi:10.2307/3165565. JSTOR 3165565.
- Almond, Philip C. (2011). England's First Demonologist: Reginald Scot and 'The Discoverie of Witchcraft'. London: I.B. Tauris. doi:10.5040/9780755621583. ISBN 978-0-7556-2158-3. OCLC 759150478.(subscription required)
Attribution
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Scott, Reginald". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
External links
- 1584 edition of Discoverie
- 1886 edition of Discoverie, with introduction and notes by Brinsley Nicholson
- Excerpts from books I and XV of The Discovery of Witchcraft from history.hanover.edu
- Full text of book XV from the Esoteric Archives
- James I vs Reginald Scot, or the history of an auto-da-fé
- 1876 Genealogy of Scott Family by James Renat Scott
- The Discouerie of Witchcraft From the McManus-Young Collection in the Rare Book and Special Collection Division at the Library of Congress
- A Perfite Platforme of a Hoppe Garden From the English Printing Collection in the Rare Book and Special Collection Division at the Library of Congress
- Scot's discovery of witchcraft From the McManus-Young Collection in the Rare Book and Special Collection Division at the Library of Congress
- Hutchinson, John (1892). . Men of Kent and Kentishmen (Subscription ed.). Canterbury: Cross & Jackman. p. 119-120.
