Page:Witchcraft In Christian Countries.pdf/7

Rh grinning jaws which were raked from among the fiery ashes of the stake to the cold earth of the grave!

Witchcraft is now frequently referred to jocularly; and few men or women whose attention has not been specially directed to the subject have any idea of its ghastliness, cruelty, and horror. If witch prosecutions had been perpetrated by only one sect or faction of the Christian Church, we should have known more about the matter, for the sect that had abstained from such prosecutions would now, ever and anon, rake it up to throw discredit upon the history of the other faction. But nothing of this kind can be done. Catholic and Protestant were alike guilty. What else could be expected of a faith the incidents of whose origin were attested by signs, prodigies, and miracles? That supernatural powers were granted to the early proselytes of the Christian Church no Christian denies. But, according to a judicious modern Christian writer, "the Fathers of the Faith are not strictly agreed at what period the miraculous power was withdrawn from the Church; but few Protestants are disposed to bring it down beneath the accession of Constantine, when the Christian religion was fully established in supremacy." The Church of Rome, however, maintains that miraculous intercourse with the supernatural world still obtains; and the belief in the recent miracles at Lourdes or Knock and the most recent spirit-rapping demonstration are not by any means outside the credence of the Church. Accordingly, in this affair of witchcraft, the Protestant saucepan has not been able, as is its wont, to cry "black" at the Catholic kettle. As early as the year 1398 the University of Paris propounded rules for the judicial prosecution of witches, and lamented the terrible spread of sorcery among the people. With intense rigour and cruelty the judges and executioners set about extirpating the diabolical malady. But wherever the fires of death burnt hottest there did witches most increase and multiply. In the morbid state of the imagination, engendered by merciless persecution and cruelty, many were not only accused of witchcraft, but actually imagined themselves to be witches. This sort of phenomenon is observable wherever public feeling, especially among the illiterate, reaches a high state of excitement. It can readily be understood with what