Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 3.djvu/472

 456 SORCERY AND OCCULT ARTS. of toads and his own blood and saliva, as a sacrifice to Satan. He would then place the image under the threshold of the woman, and if she did not yield to him she would be tormented by a demon. In three cases this had succeeded ; in the other two it would have done so, had he not been suddenly sent by his supe- riors to another station. On one occasion he pricked an image in the belly, when it bled. After the images had done their work he would cast them into the river and sacrifice a butterfly to the demon, whose presence would be manifested by a breath of air. He was condemned to perpetual imprisonment on bread and water, with chains on hands and feet, in the Carmelite convent of Toulouse ; out of respect to the Order he was not subjected to the ceremony of degradation, and the sentence was rendered privately in the episcopal palace of Pamiers. One peculiar feature of the sentence is the apprehension expressed lest the officials of the convent should allow him to escape.* The trade of the magician received a further advertisement in the story current at this time about Frederic of Austria. When, after his defeat at Muhldorf in 1322, by Louis of Bavaria, he lay a prisoner in the stronghold of Trausnitz, his brother Leopold sought the services of an expert necromancer, who promised to release the captive through the aid of the devil. In response to his invo- cation, Satan came in the guise of a pilgrim, and readily promised to bring Frederic to them if he would agree to follow him ; but when he appeared to Frederic and told him to get into a bag which he carried around his neck and he would bring him to his brother in safety, Frederic asked him who he was. k> Never mind who I am," he replied : " Will you leave your prison, as I tell you ?" Then a great fear fell upon Frederic ; he crossed himself and the devil disappeared.f Even to distant Ireland the persecution of sorcery was brought in 1325 by that zealous Franciscan, Richard Ledrede, Bishop of Ossory. The Lady Alice Kyteler of Kilkenny had had four hus- bands, and their testamentary dispositions not suiting her children by the last three, the most efficient means of breaking their wills was to accuse her of having killed them by sorcery, after bewitch- t Matt. Neoburg. (Alb. Argentorat.) ann. 1323 (Urstisii II. 123).— Chronik des Jacob v. Konigshofen (Chroniken der deutschen Stadte, VII. 467).
 * Archives de l'lnq. de Carcassonne (Doat, XXVTL 150).