Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 3.djvu/450

 434 SORCERY AND OCCULT ARTS. that when the Inquisition was organized it was for a considerable time restrained from jurisdiction over this class of offences. In 1248 the Council of Valence, while prescribing to inquisitors the course to be pursued with heretics, directs sorcerers to be delivered to the bishops, to be imprisoned or otherwise punished. In various councils, moreover, during the next sixty years the matter is al- luded to, showing that it was constantly becoming an object of increased solicitude, but the penalty threatened is only excommu- nication. In that of Treves, for instance, in 1310, which is very full in its description of the forbidden arts, all parish priests are ordered to prohibit them ; but the penalty proposed for disobedi- ence is only withdrawal of the sacraments, to be followed, in case of continued obduracy, by excommunication and other remedies of the law administered bv the Ordinaries ; thus manifesting a leni- ency almost inexplicable. That the Church, indeed, was disposed to be more rational than the people, is visible in a case occurring in 1279 at Ruffach, in Alsace, when a Dominican nun was accused of having baptized a waxen image after the fashion of those who desired either to destroy an enemy or to win a lover. The peas- ants carried her to a field and would have burned her, had she not been rescued by the friars.* Yet, as the Inquisition perfected its organization and grew conscious of its strength, it naturally sought to extend its sphere of activity, and in 1257 the question was put to Alexander IY. whether it ought not to take cognizance of divination and sorcery. In his bull. Quod super nonnullis, which was repeatedly reissued by his successors, Alexander replied that inquisitors are not to be diverted from their duties by other occupations, and are to leave such offenders to their regular judges, unless there is manifest heresy involved, and this rule, at the end of the century, was em- bodied in the canon law by Boniface VIII. The Inquisition being ann. 1248 (Martene Ampl. Coll. YII. 1377).— C. Mogunt. ann. 1261 c. 30 (Hart- zeim III. 604).— C. Xugaroliens. ann. 1290 c. 4 (Hard. VII. 1161).— C. Baiocens. ann. 1300 c. 63 (lb. VII. 1234). — C. Treverens. ann. 1310 c. 79-84 (Martene Thesaur. IV. 257-8).— C. Palentin. ann. 1322 c. 24 (Hard. VII. 1480).— C. Sal- manticens. ann. 1335 c. 15 (lb. VII. 1973-4).— Annal. Domin. Colniariens. ann. 1279 (Urstisii II. 16).
 * Concil. Valentin, ann. 1248 c. 12 (Harduin. VII. 427). — C. Cenomanens.