Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 3.djvu/470

 454 SORCERY AND OCCULT ARTS. for decision, and the inquisitors were commanded to undertake no new cases without a special papal mandate. Whatever may have been the motive of this last prohibition, it was not allowed to take effect in France. We have seen how the royal power about this time was commencing to exercise control over the Inquisition, and we shall see how, at the close of his life, John XXII. was ac cused of heresy as to the Beatific Vision, and was roundly threat- ened by Philippe de Yalois. It was probably an incident of this quarrel that led the king, in 1334, to assume that the jurisdiction of the Inquisition over idolators, sorcerers, and heretics had been conferred by the crown, and to order his seneschals to see that no one should interfere with them in its exercise. This royal rescript seems to have been forgotten with the circumstances which called it forth, for in 1374 the Inquisitor of France applied to Gregory XI. to ask whether he should take cognizance of sorcery, and Greg- ory replied with instructions to prosecute such cases vigorously.* The necessary result of all this bustling legislation was to strengthen the popular confidence in sorcery and to multiply its practice. In Bernard Gui's book of sentences rendered in the In- quisition of Toulouse from 1309 to 1323, there are no cases of sorcery, but we meet with several, tried in 1320 and 1321 in the episcopal Inquisition of Pamiers, and the fragmentary records of Carcassonne in 1328 and 1329 show quite a number of convic- tions. Inquisitors, moreover, commenced to insert a clause re- nouncing sorcery in all abjurations administered to repentant heretics, so that in case they should become addicted to it they could be promptly burned for relapse.f Under the influence of this efficient advertisement the trade of the sorcerer flourished. In 1323 a remarkable case attracted much attention in Paris. The dogs of some shepherds, passing a cross-roads near Chateau-Landon, commenced scratching at a cer- tain spot and could not be driven off. The men's suspicions were aroused, and they informed the authorities, who, on digging, found 1327, No. 45.— Mag. Bull. Roman. I. 205.— Ripoll II. 192. — Arch, cles Freres Pr§cheurs de Toulouse (Doat, XXXIV. 181).— Arch, de l'lnq. de Care. (Doat, XXXV. 89).— Vaissette, IV. Pr. 23.— Raynald. ami. 1374, No. 13. t Molinier, Etudes de quelques MSS. des Bibliotheques d'ltalie, Paris, 1887, pp. 102-3.— Doat, XXVII. 7 sqq., 140, 156, 177, 192 ; XXVIII. 161.
 * Raynald. aim. 1317, No. 52-4; aim. 1318, No. 57; aim. 1320, No. 51 ; aim.