166 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



possession of the devil in hell. As for myself, I have the au- 

 thority of two bishops." 



It was formerly held by both Catholics and Protestants that 

 unbaptized children were in the power of the devil, and the 

 Catholic ritual still prescribes the following formula of exorcism, 

 to be used before baptism : " I exorcise thee, unclean spirit, in the 

 name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, that thou 

 departest and goest forth from this servant of God ; for he who 

 walked on the sea, and extended his right hand to the sinking 

 Peter, commands thee, O damned one ! Therefore, accursed devil, 

 know thy doom, and give honor to the living and true God, give 

 honor to Jesus Christ and to the Holy Ghost, and go out of this 

 servant of God, whom God and our Lord Jesus Christ have 

 deigned to call by his grace and mercy to the fountain of baptism. 

 [Here the priest makes the sign of the cross on the child's fore- 

 head with his thumb.] And this sign of the cross which we place 

 on his forehead, thou accursed devil shalt never dare to violate." 



It is stated on good authority that ninety- nine out of one hun- 

 dred of the peasants in Wernding and the adjacent country be- 

 lieve in witchcraft, and are wont to attribute murrain and maras- 

 mus and all kinds of pestilence to this cause. To their minds epi- 

 demiology finds its simple and satisfactory solution in demonology. 

 It is also an interesting fact illustrating the local persistence of 

 superstition that the people of this region were notorious three 

 centuries ago for the zeal and cruelty with which they persecuted 

 and prosecuted witches. Thirty-five old crones were burned as 

 witches in Nordlingen between 1590 and 1594, and equal ardor was 

 shown in Neuburg and other towns on the Danube. One " witch," 

 Maria Holl, was put to the torture fifty-six times without extorting 

 a confession, and escaped further racking only through the inter- 

 vention of Ulm, her native city. Had the woman Herz lived in 

 those times she would have been unquestionably the food of 

 fagots. She has the reputation of being an estimable person, and 

 her husband has brought a suit for slander before the court at 

 Anspach. 



The author of the pamphlet in which Father Aurelian's report 

 is embodied does not maintain that Michael Zilk was actually 

 possessed ; on the contrary, he is inclined to think that Father 

 Aurelian may have been deceived. What he strenuously insists 

 upon, however, is the reality of demoniacal possession, which, he 

 affirms, can not be questioned by any Catholic or Protestant or 

 Jew who believes in the truth of his Holy Scriptures. " It is an 

 incontestable fact, confirmed by the traditions of all nations of 

 ancient and modern times, by the unequivocal testimony of the 

 Old and New Testaments, and by the teaching and practice of the 

 Catholic Church." The criterion, quod semper, quod ubique, quod 



