45 6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



by which God in divers ways worketk good to mortals ; who stir up 

 winds, gather vapors, form clouds, and condense them into hail. . . . 

 I exorcise ye, . . . that ye relinquish the work ye have begun, dis- 

 solve the hail, scatter the clouds, disperse the vapors, and restrain the 

 winds.' " The rubric goes on to order that then there shall be a great 

 fire kindled in an open place, and that over it the sign of the cross 

 shall be made, and the one hundred and fourteenth Psalm chanted, 

 while malodorous substances, among them sulphur and asafoetida, 

 shall be cast into the flames. The purpose seems to have been liter- 

 ally to " smoke out " Satan.* 



Manuals of exorcisms became important some bulky quartos, others 

 hand-books. Noteworthy among the latter is one by the Italian priest 

 Locatelli, entitled " Exorcisms most Powerful and Efficacious for the 

 Dispelling of Aerial Tempests, whether raised by Demons at their own 

 Instance or at the Beck of some Servant of the Devil." f 



The Jesuit Gretser, in his famous book on " Benedictions and Male- 

 dictions," devotes a chapter to this subject, dismisses summarily the 

 skepticism that questions the power of devils over the elements, and 

 adduces the story of Job as conclusive.]; 



Nor was this theory of exorcism by any means confined to the elder 

 Church. Luther vehemently upheld it, and prescribed especially the 

 first chapter of St. John's gospel as of unfailing efficacy against thun- 

 der and lightning, declaring that he had often found the mere sign 

 of the cross, with the text, " The word was made flesh," sufficient to 

 put storms to flight.** 



From the beginning of the middle ages until long after the Ref- 

 ormation, the chronicles give ample illustration of the successful use 

 of such exorcisms. So strong was the belief in them that it forced 

 itself into minds comparatively rational, and found utterance in trea- 

 tises of much importance. 



But, since exorcisms were found at times ineffectual, other means 

 were sought, and especially Fetiches of various sorts. One of the earli- 

 est of these appeared when Pope Alexander I, in the second century, 

 ordained that holy-water should be kept in churches and bedchambers 

 to drive away devils. || Another safeguard was found in relics, and 



* See Polidorus Valerius, "Practica cxoreistarum " ; also the "Thesaurus exorcismo- 

 rum" (Cologne, 1626), 158-162. 



\ That is, " Exorcismi," etc. A " corrected " second edition vras printed at Laybach, 

 1680, in 24mo, to which is appended another manual of " Preces et conjuratiories contra 

 aereas tempestates, omnibus sacerdotibus utiles et necessaria," printed at the monastery 

 of Kempten (in Bavaria) in 1667. The latter bears as epigraph the passage from the 

 gospels describing Christ's stilling of the winds. 



\ See Gretser, " De benedictionibus et maledictionibus," lib. ii, c. 4S. 



* See Gretser, as above. 



H " Instituit ut aqua quam sanctam appellamus sale admixta interpositis sacris ora- 

 tionibus et in templis et in cubiculis ad fugandos daemones retineretur." Platina, " Vitae 

 Pontif.," s. v. Alexander (108-117 a. d.). 



