Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 3.djvu/484

 468 SORCERY AND OCCULT ARTS. Chester. Her secretary, Roger, was hanged, drawn, and quartered, and Margery was burned — the whole affair being political. A similar endeavor to take political advantage of the belief in sor- cery occurred in 1461, in connection with the marriage of Edward IV. and Elizabeth "Woodville, when his constancy to her was at- tributed to the magic arts of her mother, Jacquette, widow of the Regent Bedford in first marriage. Jacquette did not wait to be attacked, but turned upon her accusers, Thomas Wake and John Daunger, who had talked about her using leaden images of the king and queen, and had shown one of them broken in two and wired together. They disclaimed responsibility, and endeavored to shift the burden each on the other; but in 1483 Richard III. did not fail to make the most of the matter, and in the act for the settlement of the crown described Edward's " pretensed mar- riage'' as brought about by "sorcerie and witchcraft committed by the said Elizabeth and her moder, Jacquette duchesse of Bed- ford." Thus England was gradually prepared to share in the hor- rors of the witchcraft delusions.* Perhaps the most remarkable trial for sorcery on record is that of the Marechal de Rais, in 1440, which has long ranked as a cause celebre. although it is only of late that the publication of the records has enabled it to be properly understood. The popular belief at the time is indicated bv Monstrelet, who tells us that the marshal was accustomed to put to death pregnant women and children in order with their blood to write the conjurations which secured him wealth and honors ; Jean Chartier alludes to his putting chil- dren to death and performing strange things contrary to the faith to attain his ends, and in the next century Gaguin speaks of his slaying children in order with their blood to divine the future. f Curious as is the case in many aspects, perhaps its chief interest lies in the psychological study which it affords as an illustration of the extreme development of the current ecclesiastical teaching with regard to the remission of sins. In the France of the fifteenth centurv there was no career more XI. 851. t Monstrelet, II. 248.— Jean Chartier, Hist, de Charles VII. ann. 1440 (Ed. Godefroy, p. 106). — Rob. Gaguin. Hist. Franc. Lib. x. c. 3.
 * Wright, Daine Kyteler, pp. ix., xv.-xx.— Ryiner, Feed. VIII. 427; X. 505;