Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 3.djvu/439

 TOLERATION BY THE CHURCH. 423 to look into the polished basin, after due conjurations and the use of the holy chrism. John could see nothing, and was relieved from further service of the kind, but his comrade discerned shad- owy forms and thus was a more useful subject. Thus the forbid- den arts flourished with but slender repression, and in this period of virtual toleration they worked little evil, save perhaps an occa- sional case of poisoning in a love-potion.* It might be expected that this toleration would cease as the human mind awakened and in its gropings began to cultivate with increased assiduity the occult sciences, in the endeavor to penetrate the secrets of nature ; as scholastic theology developed itself into a system which sought to frame a theory of the uni- verse; as the revived study of the Roman law brought again into view the imperial edicts against sorcery, and as the spiritual courts became effectively organized for their enforcement. Yet the development of persecution was wonderfully slow. The Church had a real and a dangerous enemy to combat in the threat- ening growth of heresy, and had little thought to bestow on a matter which did not endanger the power and privileges of the hierarchy. An occasional council, like those of Rouen in 1189 and of Paris in 1212, denounced the practitioners of magic, but there w r as no defined penalty, and only excommunication was threatened against them. Yet there w r as a popular idea that, like heresy, burning was the appropriate punishment, as in the case, about the same period, of a young cleric of Soest named Hermann, who, when vainly tempted by an unchaste woman, was accused by her of magic arts, was condemned and burned. In the flames he sang the Ave Maria until silenced by a blazing stick thrust into his mouth by a kinsman of the accuser; but his innocence shone No. 6-10.— C. 1 Extra, xlv. 3.— C. 2 Extra, v. 21.— Johan. Saresberiens. Polycrat. c. xxviii. Catoptromaucy was a practice duly handed down from classical times. Didius Julianus, during his short reign, found time to obtain foreknowledge of his own downfall and the succession of Septimius Severus, by means of a boy who with bandaged eyes looked into a mirror after proper spells had been muttered over him (m Spartiani Did. Julian. 7), and Hippolytus of Porto gives us in full detail the ingenious frauds by which this and similar feats were accomplished (Refut. omn. Haeres. iv. 15, 28-40).
 * Wibaldi Epist. 157 (Martene Ampl. Coll. II. 352).— Baron. Annal. ann. 1181,