Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 3.djvu/452

 436 SORCERY AND OCCULT ARTS. exegesis, were heretical, and so were spells and charms to cure dis- ease, the gathering of herbs while kneeling, face to the east, and repeating the Paternoster, and all the other devices which fraud and superstition had imposed on popular credulity. Alchemy was one of the sept ars demoni'als, for the aid of Satan was necessary to the transmutation of metals, and the Philosopher's Stone was only to be obtained by spells and charms ; although Roger Bacon, in his zeal for practical science, assumes that both objects could be obtained by purely natural means, and that human life could be prolonged for several centuries."* In 1328 the Inquisition of Car- cassonne condemned the Art of St. George, through which buried treasure was sought by spreading oil on a finger-nail with certain conjurations, and making a } T oung child look upon it and tell what he saw. Then there was the Xotory Art, communicated by God to Solomon, and transmitted through Apollonius of Tyana, which taught the power of the Names and Words of God, and operated through prayers and formulas consisting of unknown polysylla- bles, by which all knowledge, memory, eloquence, and virtue can be obtained in the space of a month — a harmless delusion enough, which Roger Bacon pronounces to be one of the figments of the magicians, but Thomas Aquinas and Ciruelo prove that it operates in. c. 42, 43. — Th. Aquin. Sumin. Sec. Sec. xc. 2 ; xcv. 4 — Johann. Saresberiens. Polycrat. c. xxviii.— Bern. Basin de Artibus Magiae, conclus. iii.-ix. — Prieriat. de Strigimagar. Lib. in. c. 1.— Eyrneric. pp. 342, 443.— Alonso de Spina, For- talic. Fidei. fol. 51, 284.— Revelat. S. Brigittae Lib. vn. c. 28.— Archidiac. Gloss, super c. accusatus § sane (Eyrneric. 202). — Rogeri Bacon Op. Tert. c. xii. ; Epist. de Secret. Operibus Artis c. vi., vii., ix.-xi. When, in 1473, some Carmelites of Bologna asserted that it was not heretical to obtain responses from demons, Sixtus IV. promptly ordered an investigation, and directed the results to be transmitted to him under seal. — Pegnae Append, ad Eyrneric. p. 82. Bernardo di Como draws the nice distinction that it is not heretical to invoke the devil to obtain the illicit love of a woman, for the function of Satan is that of a tempter. — Bernardi Comens. Lucerna Inquisit. s. v. Dcemones, No. 2. In 1471 the arts of printing and alchemy were coupled together as reprehen- sible by the Observantine Franciscans, and their practice was forbidden under pain of disgrace and removal. Friar John Neyseeser disobeyed this rule, and " apostatized '' to the Conventual branch of the Order, which was less rigid. — Chron. Glassberger a nn. 1471.
 * Archives de l'Inq. de Care. (Doat, XXVII. 7).— Bern. Guidon. Practica, P.