Reginald Scot's Apologia

Article written by Erim Asa

The Discoverie of Witchcraft is one of the most important works in illusionist literature, and artists of the impossible often remind us of this. However, it's too often forgotten that this writing is driven by an interest in another kind of magic. For this reason, here is an article based on the work of Thibaut Rioult, offering a different perspective on this demystification of witchcraft.

Refuting the supernatural

In 1584, Reginald Scot, a Calvinist English politician, published The Discoverie of Witchcraft. The work is a journey in sixteen books which, step by step, demonstrates that, apart from divine manifestations, supernatural phenomena do not exist. Thus, The Discoverie of Witchcraft became Scot's political tool to put an end to the persecution of those accused of witchcraft and other diabolical magic.

This attempt by the politician fits perfectly with the Calvinist Protestant tradition's logic of removing all intermediaries between men and God. However, Scot distinguishes himself from his predecessors: where others merely questioned the legitimacy of witchcraft accusations, Scot went further. He attacked the very subject of these trials. He questioned the existence of supernatural phenomena.

According to him, only God can be the source of miracles. Therefore, if a miracle or supernatural phenomenon has a non-divine origin, it can only be an illusion. To demonstrate his hypothesis, Scot developed his analysis and sought the very essence of magic (in the occult and religious sense of the term). He attributed a psychological nature to this magic. Supernatural phenomena would thus be natural phenomena accompanied by the right rhetoric.

Affirming illusion

In the process of de-demonizing project of The Discoverie of Witchcraft, books XII and XIII discuss "juggling". The term juggling is used here as a translation for the terms "juggling" and "legerdemain" aptly employed by Scot. An interesting choice, the author asserts by these words the fabricated nature of the art he studies. Indeed, even in the context of the time, Scot does not doubt that a minimally educated person knows that the phenomena presented by jugglers are nothing more than tricks, illusions.

Surprisingly, this non-reality of the simulated magic of jugglers is what justifies the discussion of juggling in a de-demonization argument. Scot compares the two magics by stating that even simulated, the effects of juggling are still more real than those claimed of magic (in the religious and occult sense of the term). Indeed, where witches only verbalize magical phenomena, jugglers, at least, materialize them. However, let us remember, these jugglers, now considered the only true magicians, are merely illusionists. Thus, what credibility remains for witchcraft?

And should there still be skeptics about the fabricated aspect of juggling tricks, then comes the thirteenth book of The Discoverie of Witchcraft, the famous treatise on juggling to which illusionists so often refer.

Writing for Posterity

It is not for nothing that The Discoverie of Witchcraft is considered one of "the two sacred monsters of classical illusionography." However, one must not be mistaken.

Scot’s work is not so considered because it was the first writing on illusionism. From the beginning of the 16th century, descriptions of tricks could be found in scholarly literature and hawker magazines. Further back in time, around the 14th century, Les jeux de nature du roi Salomon provided the first known explanations of illusionist tricks in French.

Nor is it considered so because it was the first book dedicated to illusionism. Published in 1584, The Discoverie of Witchcraft was preceded by a few months by Prévost’s La première partie des subtiles et plaisantes inventions, which appeared earlier the same year.

If Scot's treatise marked illusionist literature, it is because its content was largely unprecedented. Many of the tricks described by the author were revealed for the first time. Scot notably explained coin tricks, cup and ball tricks, card tricks, and even an ancient version of the "blow book." He also revealed how to simulate a decapitation and how to seemingly stab a knife through the arm. Moreover, Scot did not stop there. Curiously, he went beyond simply revealing tricks and also provided some insights into the psychological dimensions and staging necessary for juggling.

All of this makes The Discoverie of Witchcraft a pioneering work, and its intellectual heirs did not fail to understand its significance. In 1612, almost all of the tricks in Samuel Rid's book The Art of Jugling or Legerdemain were copied from The Discoverie of Witchcraft. The same goes for half of the tricks in the pamphlet The Anatomie of Legerdemain by Hocus Pocus Junior, published in 1634. In another vein, Scot's work even served as a literary source for Shakespeare's Macbeth. Paradoxically, for an argument denying the existence of magic, The Discoverie of Witchcraft even served as a grimoire of witchcraft...

To conclude, let's look at The Discoverie of Witchcraft from a contemporary perspective. It seems that this almost mythical book offers an interesting reflection on the links between magic and illusionism. Thus, Scot finds himself at the heart of a stimulating debate in our time. Centuries later, this mysterious relationship is at the core of the development of new currents in illusionism such as mentalism, bizarre magic, fantastic illusionism, new magic, and (neo)illusionism…

Sources

Leduc, A., & Rioult, T. (2021). Les Jeux de nature du roi Salomon : édition des mss. Français 4516 et NAF 4046 (Paris, BnF). Arcana Naturae, 2, 175-198.

Rioult, T. (2018). Illusion du surnaturel et illusionnistes à la renaissance. (Thèse de doctorat publiée par l’auteur). École Normale Supérieure. Paris.

Rioult, T. (2022). Reginald Scot’s The Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584) – Renaissance Magic. In K. Rein (Eds.), Magic: A Companion. Peter Lang.

Scot, R. (1584). The Discoverie of Witchcraft. William Brome. London.