464 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



against any possible error, issued a bull exhorting the inquisitors of 

 heresy and witchcraft to use greater diligence against the human 

 agents of the Prince of Darkness, and especially against those who 

 have the power to produce bad weather. In 1445 Pope Eugene re- 

 turned again to the charge, and again issued instructions and com- 

 mands infallibly committing the Church to the doctrine.* But a 

 greater than Eugene followed and stamped the idea yet more deeply 

 into the mind of the Church. On the 7th of December, 1484, Pope 

 Innocent VIII sent forth his bull " Summis Desiderantes." Of all 

 documents ever issued from Rome, imperial or papal, this has doubt- 

 less, first and last, cost the greatest shedding of innocent blood. Yet 

 no document was ever more clearly dictated by conscience. Inspired 

 by the scriptural command, " Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live," 

 Pope Innocent exhorted the clergy of Germany to leave no means un- 

 tried to detect sorcerers, and especially those who by evil weather 

 destroy vineyards, gardens, meadows, and growing crops.f These 

 precepts were based upon various texts of Scripture, especially upon 

 the famous statement in the book of Job ; and, to carry them out, 

 witch-finding inquisitors were authorized by the Pope to scour Europe, 

 especially Germany, and a manual was prepared for their use, the 

 " Witch-Hammer," Malleus Malejlcarum. In this manual, which 

 was revered for centuries, both in Catholic and Protestant countries, 

 as almost divinely inspired, the doctrine of Satanic agency in atmos- 

 pheric phenomena was further developed, and various means of de- 

 tecting and punishing it were dwelt upon. J 



With the application of torture to thousands of women, in accord 

 ance with the precepts laid down in this work, it was not difficult to 

 extract masses of proof for this " sacred theory " of meteorology. The 

 poor creatures, writhing on the rack, held in horror by those who had 

 been nearest and dearest to them, anxious only for death to relieve 

 their sufferings, confessed to anything and everything that would 

 satisfy the inquisitors and judges. All that was needed was that the 

 inquisitors should ask leading questions * and suggest satisfactory 

 answers: the prisoners, to shorten the torture, were sure sooner or later 

 to give the answer required, even though they knew that this would 



* See Raynaldus, " Annales Eccl.," 1437, 1445. 



f The Latin text of the bull may be found in the Malleus about to be described, in 

 Binsfeld's " De Confcssionibus," cited below, or in Roskoff 's " Geschichte des Teufels " 

 (Leipsic, 1869), i, 222-225. 



\ There is, so far as I know, no good analysis, in any English book, of the con- 

 tents of the " Witch-Hammer " ; but such may be found in Roskoff's " Geschichte des 

 Teufels," or in Soldan's " Geschichte der Hexenprozesse." Its first dated edition is that 

 of 1489. It was, happily, never translated into any modern tonpue. 



* For still extant lists of such questions, see the "Zeitschrift fur deutschen Cultur- 

 geschichte " for 1858, pp. 522-528, or Diefenbach, ''Der Hcxenwahn in Deutschland," 

 pp. 15-17. Father Vincent of Berg (in his "Enchiridium ") gives a similar list for use 

 by priests in the confession of the accused. 



