ABSTRACT
This extract is a version of the lost pamphlet The Examination and Confession of a notorious Witch named Mother Arnold from A World of Wonders. A Masse of Murthers. A Covie of Cosonages (1595).
In 1574 or 1575 a pamphlet entitled The Examination and Confession of a notorious Witch named Mother Arnold, alias Whitecote, alias Glastonbury at the Assize of Burnt wood in July 1574; who was hanged for Witchcraft at Barking, was published. It was a topical account of Cecilia (or Cecily) Glasenberye, who has already been mentioned in A true and just Recorde (1582) and The Apprehension and confession of three notorious Witches (1589). She was tried at Brentwood on 19 July 1574. We know that she was ‘mother Arnold’ because on her indictments the name ‘Arnolde’ has been written and then scratched out. Some documentation of her trial survives, but it only mentions one of the cases described in the pamphlet, that of William Newman. The original pamphlet may have been compiled from informations, or paraphrases of them, about events which never came to trial. Clearly gossip might also play a part in constructing Mother Arnold’s story. Over the subsequent centuries, the original account of the case was lost completely and remains so – presumably all copies of it were destroyed.
