46 On Popular Illuftons. 



fufficient fample of the ingenuity of doftor 

 Wierus(H). He was very anxious to prove that 

 Agrippa's dog was not a demon, but a natural 

 dog, called Mon-fieur* : this ftrengthened the 

 imputation call on him by his adverfaries, of 

 forcery. 



Bodinus, a French lawyer of eminence, who 

 had alTifted at feveral trials of witches, wrote 

 againft Wierus, in his Demonomania. He urged 

 the concurrent teftimonies of fufficient witnefles, 

 and the confeflions of the witches themfelves, to 

 eftablifh the exiftence of forcery. Wierus owned 

 that the unhappy perfons belieyed themfelves to 

 be guilty of the crimes alleged againft them, 

 but that they were deceived by the devil. But 

 what do you make of the witches' meetings, cried 

 Bodinus ? The witches, replied his antagonift, 

 are atrabilious. This explanation was fo un- 

 fatisfadory that Wierus paffed for a magician, 

 whom the devil had furnifhed with fpecious 

 arguments, to fave others from puniffiment. 

 Lerchemer, Godelmann, Ewichius, Ewaldus, and 

 fome others followed him, notwithftanding this 

 ftigma ; but they were oppofed by men of more 

 acutenefs and confiftency than themfelves ; by 

 Remigius, who had condemned feveral hundreds 

 of forcerers to the flames, Delrio, whofe book 

 is a compkte Corpus Magias, Cujas, Eraftus, 



* De Magis Infamib. p. in. 



Scribonius, 



