MIDDLE-AGE SPIRITUALISM. 361 



be examined to see if they bore deviPs marks. The absence of such 

 marks, however, did not prove innocence. 



With the fullest directions as to the ways and means to be adopted 

 for the ensnaring of witches this dreadful book concludes. The effect 

 of the fires kindled by the bull of Pope Innocent was felt far into 

 the eighteenth century. The victims were counted by millions. Says 

 an author of the seventeenth century, " When they had commenced 

 in one place to burn wdtches, more w^ere found in proportion as they 

 were burned " ; and it is also stated that in certain communities in 

 Germany and France all the women were sent to the stake ; and in 

 many instances princes and potentates were forced, from fear of seeing 

 their subjects exterminated, to stay by authoritative command the 

 madness of the inquisitors. 



No age was exempt. Children were brought to the stake with their 

 mothers. A gloomy presentiment pervaded the community when the 

 proclamation on the church-doors announced the arrival of the inquisi- 

 tor. Work in the shops and fields ceased ; and the person who had 

 an open enemy, or suspected secret envy, knew beforehand that he was 

 lost. And the arch-fiend was the agent and instigator of all this mad- 

 ness. " He was in the castle of the knight, the palaces of the mighty, 

 the libraries of the learned, on every page of the Bible, in the churches, 

 in the halls of justice, in the lawyer's chambers, in the laboratories 

 of physicians and naturalists, in cottages, farm-yards, stalls, every- 

 where." 



The popular literature of this period consisted of legends of saints 

 and stories about the devil. There were imps, giants, trolls, forest 

 spirits, elves, and hobgoblins on the earth ; nicks, river-sprites in the 

 water, fiends in the air, and salaiuanders in the fire. There were mon- 

 sters such as dragons, griflins, were-wolves, witch-kind, Thor's-swine, 

 and supernatural beings derived from the human world, but of dimmer 

 outlines than the preceding. 



Among these last was the mandragora, which was supposed to 

 reveal to its possessor hidden things and future events, and to secure 

 the friendship of all men. The root of the mandragora, or mandrake, 

 often divides into two parts, and thus presents a rude resemblance to 

 a human figure. It was believed that this plant could not be found 

 except below the gallows where a pure youth had been hanged. 

 When torn from the soil it was said to sigh, shriek, and moan so 

 piteously that it caused whoever heard it to die. To find this plant it 

 must be sought before sunrise Friday morning. The person seeking 

 it should carefully fill his ears with cotton, wax, or pitch, and take 

 with him a black dog, without a single white hair. The sign of the 

 cross was to be made three times over the mandragora, then the soil was 

 to be carefully removed, so that it was attached only by its fine root- 

 lets. It was then tied by a string to the tail of a dog, who was at- 

 tracted forward by a piece of bread. The dog pulled the plant from 



