ABSTRACT
This chapter talks about King James VI of Scotland, a highly educated ruler, wrote a treatise on witchcraft in 1597 that was widely circulated not only in Scotland but also in England. The king takes a hard line regarding the punishment of offenders, including those who counsel witches. The only exception he allows is that of children who have not reached the age of reason. James urges the appropriate caution of judicial authorities in adjudicating witchcraft cases, lest the innocent suffer, but the seriousness of the crime leads him to permit the testimony of children, wives, and confessing witches. He also allows the use of spectral evidence, the pricking of witches to detect the Devil's mark, and the swimming of witches. In approving this last provision, which was used mainly by local communities in an extra-judicial manner, James was taking a position with which few of his contemporaries, even the avid witch-hunter Jean Bodin, agreed.
