Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 3.djvu/427

 THE LOMBARD LAWS. 411 died in 584, Mummolus, the royal favorite, whom Fredegonda dis- liked, was accused of having caused it by incantations. Thereupon she seized some women of Paris, and by scourging and torture forced them to confess themselves sorceresses who had caused nu- merous deaths, including that of Thierry, whose soul was accepted in place of that of Mummolus. Some of these poor wretches were simply put to death, others she burned, and others she broke on the wheel. Chilperic then caused Mummolus to be tortured by suspension with his arms tied behind his back, but he only con- fessed to having obtained from the women philtres and ointments to secure the favor of the king and queen. Unluckily he said to the executioner on being taken down, " Tell the king that I feel no ill from what has been done." On hearing this Chilperic ex- claimed, " Is he really a sorcerer that this does not hurt him V and had him stretched on a rack and scourged with leathern thongs till the executioners were exhausted. Mummolus finally begged his life of Fredegonda, but was stripped of his possessions and sent in a wagon to his native city, Bordeaux, where he died on his ar- rival. Cases like this throw light on the beliefs of the period, but not upon its judicial routine.* The Lombards in Italy fell to a greater degree under Eoman influence, and towards the close of their domination adopted gen- eral laws of some severity against the practice of sorcery, irrespec- tive of the injury committed. The sorcerer was to be sold as a slave beyond the province, and the price received was divided be- tween the judge and other officials, according to their respective merits in the prosecution : if through bribes or pity the judge re- fused to condemn, he was mulcted in his whole wer-gild, or the amount of his blood-money, and half as much if he neglected to discover a sorcerer who was found out by another. The penalty for consulting a sorcerer, or for not informing on him, or for per- forming incantations, was half the wer-gild of the offender. At the same time the grosser superstitions were rejected, and Rotharis forbade putting sorceresses to death, under the popular belief that they could devour men internally.f In the long anarchy which accompanied the fall of the Mero- t L. Langobard. n. xxxviii. 1. 2 (Liutprand).— i. ii. 9 (Rotharis).
 * Greg. Turon. Hist. Frauc. v. 40 ; vn. 35.