12 Contemporary Evolution. 



the mediaeval theocracy and of the purely Christian 

 monarchy the epoch, that is, of Innocent III. and of St. 

 Louis the spirit of paganism was far enough from being 

 extinct, as is evidenced to us by a multitude of local 

 superstitions, by such institutions as the fete des fous, 

 and by the wide-spread belief in, and practice of, magic 

 rites. Nay, already it showed signs of returning strength 

 and activity in the poetry of Provence, the legend of 

 Heloise and Abelard, and various kindred phenomena, 

 constituting what has been well termed* the " Mediaeval 

 Renaissance." 



To this very day, according to some writers, the Baal 

 fires of Phoenicia live in the Norwegian bonfires of St. 

 John's Eve. 



The talismans against the evil eye, so common in 

 Naples, are almost as expressive of paganism as the for- 

 bidden emblems, sold as late as i/gof in the neighbour- 

 hood of the rocky mound with its old round church 

 dedicated to SS. Cosmo e Damiano. 



"Even recently an oak copse at Loch Siant, in the Isle 

 of Skye, was held so sacred that no person would venture 

 to cut the smallest branch from it." The pilgrims at St. 

 Fillan's well in 1791, "walked or were carried deasil 

 (sunwise) round the well. They also threw each a white 



* By Walter H. Pater, Fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford, in 

 his "Studies in the History of the Renaissance." 

 f To Sir Richard Colt Hoare. 



