Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 3.djvu/448

 432 SORCERY AND OCCULT ARTS. In German legislation the Treuga Henrici, about 1224, contains the earliest reference to sorcery, classing it with heresy and leaving the punishment to the discretion of the judge ; but the Kayser- Recht, the Sachsische "Weichbild, and the Eichstich Landrecht contain no allusion to it. In the Sachsenspiegel it is curtly in- cluded with heresy and poisoning as punishable with burning, and there is the same provision in the Schwabenspiegel, while in a later recension of the latter the subject is developed by providing that whoever, man or woman, practises sorcery or invokes the devil by words or otherwise, shall be burned or exposed to a harsher death at the discretion of the judge, for he has renounced Christ and given himself to Satan. In this it is evident that the spiritual offence is alone kept in view, without regard to evil at- tempted or performed, and it would further seem that the matter was within the competence of the secular courts. The earliest legislation of the Prussian marches, about 1310, specifies for sor- cerers the loss of an ear, branding on the cheek, exile, or heavy fines, but says nothing of capital punishment. Among the Norse- men the temper of legislation on the subject is to be found in the Jarnsida, compiled in 1258 by Hako Hakonsen for his Icelandic subjects, and the almost identical Leges Gulathingenses, issued by Huillard-Breholles, Introd. pp. dxxv., dxxx. — Assises de Jerusalem, Baisse Court c. 271 (Ed. Kausler, Stuttgart, 1839).— Mag. Bull. Rom. I. 91. ' Frederic's reputation is indicated in the lines — " Amisit astrologos et magos e t vates. Beelzebub et Astaroth, proprios penates Tenebrarum consulens per quos potestates Spreverat Ecclesiam et mundi magnates." (Huillard-Breholles, 1. c). And Michael Scot, to succeeding generations, was not the philosopher, but the magician — " Michele Scotto fu, che veramente Delle magiche frode seppe il giuoco "—(Inferno, xx.) whose wonders are commemorated in the " Lay of the Last Minstrel" — " In these fair climes it was my lot To meet the wondrous Michael Scott, A wizard of such dreaded fame That when in Salamanca's cave Him listed his magic wand to wave. The bells would ring in Notre Dame."