36 The Soverane Herbe 



sons of both sexes, even the priests and clerks, both 

 secular and regular, forgetting that decorum which is 

 due to their rank, take tobacco everywhere, princi- 

 pally in the churches of the town and diocese of 

 Seville. . . . We interdict and forbid, all generally 

 and each in particular, persons of either sex, seculars, 

 ecclesiastics, every religious order, and all those form- 

 ing a portion of any religious institution whatsoever, 

 to take tobacco in the future in the porches or in- 

 teriors of the churches, whether by chewing, smoking, 

 or inhaling it in the form of powder — in short, to use 

 it in any shape or form whatsoever.' 



The Empress Elizabeth backed up this Bull by 

 ordering the beadles to confiscate the snuff-boxes of 

 persons entering churches. In Transylvania the pro- 

 perty of any person growing tobacco was confiscated, 

 and the penalty for smoking the plant was a fine 

 varying from three to two hundred florins. 



English sailors took tobacco into Sweden, Russia, 

 and Turkey. The Dutch and Portuguese carried it 

 into Asia, reaching India in 1599, Java two years 

 later, and China — despite the native tradition — soon 

 afterwards. From Turkey tobacco spread into 

 Persia and Egypt. In the despotic Orient it fared 

 worse with takers of tobacco than in Europe. In 

 1634 the Greek Church forbade the use of tobacco, in 

 any shape or form, to its adherents. To give this 

 command the force of a Divine injunction a tradition 

 was manufactured, and it was solemnly preached 

 that it was with the fumes of tobacco that the devil 

 intoxicated Noah. In Russia the temporal power 

 supported and enforced the spiritual condemnation 



