Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 53.djvu/44

32 Additional examples of tins kind might be cited, but those already given suffice to show that after the conversion of the Bavarians and other German tribes to Christianity in the eighth century, the belief in witchcraft was regarded by the clergy in general as a remnant of paganism, which it was their duty to eradicate by catechetical instruction or by the imposition of ecclesiastical penance, but not to punish as a crime. Indeed, the annals of Bavaria during the middle ages, so far as they have been preserved, do not furnish a single well-authenticated instance of the institution of judicial proceedings against wizards or witches either by the Church or the State. Even in the above-mentioned case of mob violence at Freising in 1090, the women, who suffered death, were objects of compassion to the clergy, who looked upon them as the unfortunate victims of popular frenzy, innocently slain by a sudden outburst and aberration of the repressed forces of ancestral superstition; and this view of witchcraft seems to have been the prevailing one in the metropolitan and diocesan synods of Bavaria as late as the sixteenth century. From this standpoint it was perfectly natural for the Synod of Regensburg in 1512 to treat of heresy and sortilege in the same decree, and to condemn, together with schismatics, all vain superstitions, soothsayings, sorceries, and evil arts of witches, "who address infamous prayers to the altars of idols and, deluded by Satan, imagine that they can thereby attain good things and ward off evil" In order to extirpate "this pestilential brood" it was enjoined that every one addicted to such practices, whether cleric or layman, should be sent to the bishop or his vicar to make confession and receive absolution; but if the said person did not, within nine days, heed the admonitions of his spiritual guardian and renounce his errors, he should be excommunicated. Similar measures were taken by the provincial synod of Salzburg in 1569, with an additional injunction calling upon all who had any knowledge of "familiarities, conventions, pacts, or confederations with the devil" to report them to the bishop or his official. The informers were also assured that they would have nothing to fear, inasmuch as their names would be kept secret. Here we have the beginning of that system of espionage, anonymous denunciation, and private inquisition which played so prominent a part in the subsequent history of witchcraft by making every man