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Reginald Scot (or Scott) ( – 9 October 1599) was an Englishman and
Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house ...
, the author of '' The Discoverie of Witchcraft'', which was published in 1584. It was written against the belief in witches, to show that
witchcraft Witchcraft traditionally means the use of magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually women who were believed to have u ...
did not exist. Part of its content exposes how (apparently miraculous) feats of magic were done, and the book is often deemed the first textbook on conjuring.


Life

He was son of Richard Scot, second son of
Sir John Scott John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon, (4 June 1751 – 13 January 1838) was a British barrister and politician. He served as Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain between 1801 and 1806 and again between 1807 and 1827. Background and education Eldon ...
(died 1533) of
Scots Hall Scot's Hall (or Scott's Hall) was a country house in Smeeth, between Ashford and Folkestone in southeast England. It was the property of a gentry family, the Scotts. The first known resident was Sir John Scott (born 1436), who married Caroline ...
in Smeeth, near Ashford in
Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
. His mother was Mary, daughter of George Whetenall, sheriff of Kent in 1527. His father died before 1544, and his mother remarried Fulk Onslow, clerk of the parliament; dying on 8 October 1582, she was buried in the church of
Hatfield, Hertfordshire Hatfield is a town and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England, in the borough of Welwyn Hatfield. It had a population of 29,616 in 2001, and 39,201 at the 2011 Census. The settlement is of Saxon origin. Hatfield House, home of the Marquess o ...
. Reginald or Reynold (as he signed his name in accordance with contemporary practice) was born about 1538. When about seventeen, Scot entered Hart Hall, Oxford, but left the university without a degree. 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. His time was mainly passed as an active country gentleman, managing property which he inherited from his kinsfolk about Smeeth and
Brabourne Brabourne is a village and civil parish in the Ashford district of Kent, England. The village centre is east of Ashford Ashford may refer to: Places Australia *Ashford, New South Wales *Ashford, South Australia *Electoral district of Ash ...
, or directing the business affairs of his first cousin, Sir Thomas Scot, 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) A lathe ( Old English ''lǽð'', Latin ''lestus'') formed an administrative country subdivision of the county of Kent, in England, from the Anglo-Saxon period until it fell out of use in the early twentieth century. Etymologically, the word '' ...
of Shepway in 1586 and 1587, 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 1588–89 as member for
New Romney New Romney is a market town in Kent, England, on the edge of Romney Marsh, an area of flat, rich agricultural land reclaimed from the sea after the harbour began to silt up. New Romney, one of the original Cinque Ports, was once a sea port, ...
, and he was probably a justice of the peace. 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. Scot made his own will (drawing it with his own hand) on 15 September 1599. 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 Romney Marsh is a sparsely populated wetland area in the counties of Kent and East Sussex in the south-east of England. It covers about . The Marsh has been in use for centuries, though its inhabitants commonly suffered from malaria until the ...
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."


Doctrine and espoused belief

In the ''Discoverie'', Scot aligns himself with Reformed Protestantism, quoting
John Calvin John Calvin (; frm, Jehan Cauvin; french: link=no, Jean Calvin ; 10 July 150927 May 1564) was a French theologian, pastor and reformer in Geneva during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system ...
more than a dozen times. Calvin in turn was echoing the skepticism toward superstitions of early English reformer
John Wycliffe John Wycliffe (; also spelled Wyclif, Wickliffe, and other variants; 1328 – 31 December 1384) was an English scholastic philosopher, theologian, biblical translator, reformer, Catholic priest, and a seminary professor at the University o ...
. 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..." This doctrine was also aligned with the tenth-century ''
Canon Episcopi The title canon ''Episcopi'' (or ''capitulum Episcopi'') is conventionally given to a certain passage found in medieval canon law. The text possibly originates in an early 10th-century penitential, recorded by Regino of Prüm; it was included ...
'' and Scot quotes from it. 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. The latter belief in the power of witches, and an intense phobia toward them, was associated by Scot with the book ''
Malleus Maleficarum The ''Malleus Maleficarum'', usually translated as the ''Hammer of Witches'', is the best known treatise on witchcraft. It was written by the German Catholic clergyman Heinrich Kramer (under his Latinized name ''Henricus Institor'') and firs ...
'' by the German inquisitor
Heinrich Kramer Heinrich Kramer ( 1430 – 1505, aged 74-75), also known under the Latinized name Henricus Institor, was a German churchman and inquisitor. With his widely distributed book '' Malleus Maleficarum'' (1487), which describes witchcraft and endors ...
, and upon this book Scot focuses the most criticism, and lumps others aligned with the same view of witchcraft: "...from whom eanBodin and all the other writers... do receive their light..." A late twentieth-century historian argues that Scot was likely influenced by, and perhaps a member of, the Family of Love.David Wootton, Reginald Scot/ Abraham Fleming/ The Family of Love, ''Languages of Witchcraft'', ed. Stuart Clark. (New York, 2001) pp. 119–138. 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 Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
, 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

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.


References

Attribution *


Further reading


Brinsley Nicholson, in an introduction to an 1886 printing of ''Discoverie'', thoroughly traces the biography and publication record of Reginald Scot.
Other publications: * * Leland L. Estes ''Reginald Scot and His "Discoverie of Witchcraft": Religion and Science in the Opposition to the European Witch Craze'', Church History, Vol. 52, No. 4 (Dec. 1983), pp. 444–456. * Philip C. Almond. ''England's First Demonologist: Reginald Scot and 'The Discoverie of Witchcraft. (London: 2011)


External links

*
1584 edition of ''Discoverie''

1886 edition of Discoverie, with introduction and notes by Brinsley Nicholson


* ttp://www.esotericarchives.com/solomon/scot16.htm 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 th

in the Rare Book and Special Collection Division at the
Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The librar ...

A Perfite Platforme of a Hoppe Garden
From th

in the Rare Book and Special Collection Division at the
Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The librar ...

Scot's discovery of witchcraft
From th

in the Rare Book and Special Collection Division at the
Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The librar ...
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Scot, Reginald 1530s births 1599 deaths English MPs 1589 English non-fiction writers Witchcraft in England Demonologists English sceptics Historians of magic 16th-century English writers 16th-century male writers English male non-fiction writers English agriculturalists Critics of witch hunting