Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 3.djvu/286

 270 POLITICAL HERESY. — THE STATE. times we hear that instruction was given that they should not believe in Christ, that he was a false prophet, that he suffered for his own sins, but more frequently that the only reason alleged was that such was the Rule of the Order. * It was the same with the idol which has so greatly exercised the imagination of commen- tators. Some witnesses swore that it was produced whenever a neophyte was received, and that its adoration was a part of the ceremony ; others that it was only exhibited and worshipped in the secrecy of chapters ; by far the greater number, however, had never seen it or heard of it. Of those who professed to have seen it, scarce two described it alike, within the limits suggested by the articles of accusation, which spoke of it as a head. Sometimes it is black, sometimes white, sometimes with black hair, and some- times white and black mixed, and again with a long white beard. Some witnesses saw its neck and shoulders covered with gold ; one declared that it was a demon {Maufe) on which no one could look without trembling ; another that it had for eyes carbuncles which lighted up the room ; another that it had two faces ; another three faces ; another four legs, two behind and two before, and yet an- other said it was a statue with three heads. On one occasion it is a picture, on another a painting on a plaque, on another a small fe- male figure which the preceptor draws from under his garments, and on another the statue of a boy, a cubit in height, sedulously concealed in the treasury of the preceptory. According to the tes- timony of one witness it degenerated into a calf. Sometimes it is called the Saviour, and sometimes Bafomet or Maguineth — corrup- tions of Mahomet — and is worshipped as Allah. Sometimes it is God, creating all things, causing the trees to bloom and the grass to germinate, and then again it is a friend of God who can approach him and intercede for the suppliant. Sometimes it gives responses, and sometimes it is accompanied or replaced by the devil in the form of a black or gray cat or raven, who occasionally answers the questions addressed to him, the performance winding up, like the witches' Sabbat, with the introduction of demons in the form of beautiful women, f t Proems, L 190, 207, 399, 502, 597; II. 193, 203, 212, 279. 300, 313, 315, 363, 384.— Du Puy, pp. 105-6.— Raynouard, pp. 246-8, 279-83, 293.— Bini, pp. 465,
 * Procfcs, I. 206-7, 294, 411, 426, 464, 533 ; II. 31, 128, 242, 366.