Editing Spectral evidence (section)

==Bury St Edmunds witch trial==
At the [[Bury St Edmunds witch trials|Bury St Edmunds witch trial]] of 1662, charges of witchcraft were brought against Amy Denny and Rose Cullender, two elderly residents of [[Lowestoft]], [[Suffolk]], England. The trial acquired lasting significance (chiefly due to the involvement of [[Matthew Hale (jurist)|Matthew Hale]], "one of the greatest legal figures" of the 17th century),{{sfn|Notestein|1911|page=262}} and became an important precedent for the admissibility of spectral evidence. A published report of the trial, titled ''A Tryal of Witches at the Assizes Held at Bury St. Edmunds'', was consulted by magistrates presiding over the [[Salem witch trials]], thirty years later.{{sfn|Notestein|1911|pages=261, 264}}{{sfn|Geis|Bunn|1997|page=7}}

The suspected witches, Amy Denny and Rose Cullender, were accused of bewitching several of their neighbours' children. The alleged victims were reported to be suffering from fits, lameness, and temporary speech loss, and were often said to have been seen coughing up pins.{{sfn|Seth|1969|pages=107–112}} The evidence which tied these afflictions to Denny and Cullender was the testimony of the children that they had often been threatened by apparitions of these women. For instance, Samuel Pacy made the following statement concerning his two daughters:{{sfn|Clark|1838|page=11}}

{{quote|In their fits they would cry out, There stands Amy Duny, or Rose Cullender; and sometimes in one place and sometimes in another, running with great violence to the place where they fancied them to stand, striking at them as if they were present; they would appear to them sometimes spinning, and sometimes reeling, or in other postures, deriding or threatning<!--sic--> them.}}

Not everybody present at the trial accepted this evidence unquestioningly. Three [[Serjeant-at-Law|Serjeants-at-Law]], among them [[John Kelynge]], raised an objection (although the trial report appears to have been altered, to attribute this objection to Kelynge alone).{{sfn|Geis|Bunn|1997|pages=78–79}} According to the report:{{sfn|Clark|1838|page=16}}

{{quote|Mr. Serjeant Keeling seemed much unsatisfied with it [the evidence], and thought it not sufficient to Convict the Prisoners: for admitting that the Children were in Truth Bewitched, yet said he, it can never be applyed to the Prisoners, upon the Imagination only of the Parties Afflicted; For if that might be allowed, no person whatsoever can be in safety, for perhaps they might fancy another person, who might altogether be innocent in such matters.}}

The judge, Hale, may have taken this point into consideration when he remarked to the jury that they had two questions to consider: "First, Whether or no these Children were Bewitched? Secondly, Whether the Prisoners at the Bar were Guilty of it?"{{sfn|Geis|Bunn|1997|page=101}}{{sfn|Clark|1838|page=20}} Nevertheless, the jury found Denny and Cullender guilty of thirteen of the fourteen charges brought against them, and they were sentenced to death by hanging.{{sfn|Geis|Bunn|1997|pages=104–105}}