ABSTRACT
As judge at the trial, Sir Matthew Hale inevitably played a pivotal role-likely the pivotal role-in judicially elbowing the jury toward its verdict of guilty. We have noted the striking power that judges of the time possessed to indicate to jurors how they felt about the case being tried before them. We also have seen the words with which Hale charged the jury, his emphasis that witchcraft was unquestionably real: the Bible had so decreed and, besides, witchcraft was condemned by laws in all nations. We have also seen Hale’s kindness to John Bunyan’s widow and his more merciful approach, contrasted to Keeling’s behavior, toward some miscreants. How are we to reconcile such sterling qualities of intellect and feeling with the part that Hale played at Bury St. Edmunds? A much closer look at the man and his beliefs is in order.
