334 The Honey-Makers 



The sorceress' own life was bound up in this image, and 

 when it was melted before a slow fire she disappeared at 

 the same time. 



The sacred candles were stolen from the churches for 

 the unholy purposes of magic, as were also the consecrated 

 wafers and the bones of the dead, both of which were con- 

 ceived to possess exceptional power in witchcraft. 



Against these sacrilegious misdemeanors the church in- 

 terfered with all its power, and Pope Gregory IX. issued in 

 1233 a special bull wherein every one implicated in these 

 magic arts was threatened with eternal damnation, and 

 others did the same. 



The " Ackersegen " or blessing of the field seems to be 

 the result of a mixture of pagan and mediaeval superstitions. 

 We know the Greeks and Latins made offerings to the 

 deities of the fields and orchards and that upon these oc- 

 casions a trench was often dug and into it poured meal, 

 milk, honey and wine or mead. 



Even during the middle ages a similar custom was fol- 

 lowed in some places when at the ploughing of the fields 

 sacrificial rites were observed in which milk, meal and 

 honey were offered. 



There was later a special ceremony devised for those 

 fields supposed to have been blighted by magic. 



From the four corners of the field sods must be cut ; oil, 

 honey, the milk of all cattle, the boughs of all trees, par- 

 ticularly of oaks and beeches, all herbs excepting burdocks, 

 must be laid upon the sods and sprinkled with holy water. 

 The sods must then be taken to the church, the green side 

 turned towards the altar, and four masses read over them. 

 They must then be returned to the field before sunset, a 

 blessing pronounced over them, unknown seeds bought of a 

 mendicant placed upon the plough, another blessing pro- 

 nounced and the first furrow ploughed. All kinds of flour 



