4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



pie and cogent — the dart which pierced the breast of Israel at that 

 time was winged and pointed from its own sacred books : the 

 Biblical argument was the same used in various ages to promote 

 persecution, and this was that the wrath of the Almighty was 

 stirred against those who tolerated his enemies, and that because 

 of this toleration the same curse had now come upon Europe 

 which the prophet Samuel had denounced against Saul for show- 

 ing mercy to the enemies of Jehovah. 



It is but just to say that various popes and kings exerted 

 themselves to check these cruelties. Although the argument of 

 Samuel to Saul was used with frightful effect two hundred years 

 later by a most conscientious pope to spur on the rulers of France 

 in extirpating the Huguenots, the papacy in the fourteenth cent- 

 ury stood for mercy to the Jews. But even this intervention 

 was long without effect ; the tide of popular superstition had be- 

 come too strong to be curbed even by the spiritual and temporal 

 powers.* 



Against this overwhelming current science for many genera- 

 tions could do nothing. Throughout the whole of the fifteenth 

 century physicians appeared to shun the whole matter. Occasion- 

 ally some more thoughtful man ventured to ascribe some phase 

 of the disease to natural causes, but this was an unpopular doc- 

 trine, and evidently dangerous to those who developed it. 



Yet, in the beginning of the sixteenth century, cases of " pos- 

 session " on a large scale began to be brought within the scope of 

 medical research ; and the man who led in this evolution of medi- 

 cal science was Paracelsus. He it was who first made modern 

 Europe listen for a moment to the idea that these diseases are 

 inflicted neither by saints nor demons, and that the "dancing 

 possession " is simply a form of disease, of which the cure may 

 be effected by proper remedies and regimen. 



Paracelsus appears to have escaped any serious interference — 

 it took some time, perhaps, for the theological leaders to under- 

 stand that he had " let a new idea loose upon the planet " ; but 

 they soon understood it, and their course was simple. For about 

 fifty years the new idea was well kept under, but in 1561 another 

 physician, John Wier, of Cleves, having revived it, he was ruined 

 and narrowly escaped with his life. 



* See Wellhausen, article "Israel," in the "Encyclopaedia Britannica," ninth edition; 

 also the reprint of it in the " History of Israel," London, 1885, p. 546. On the general 

 subject of the demoniacal epidemics, see Isensee, " Geschichte der Medicin," vol. i, pp. 260 

 el seq. ; also Hecker's essay. As to the history of Saul, as a curious landmark in the general 

 development of the subject, see " The Case of Saul, showing that his Disorder was a Real 

 Spiritual Possession," by Granville Sharp, London, 1807, passim. As to the citation of 

 Saul's case by the reigning pope to spur on the French kings against the Huguenots, I 

 shall give a line of authorities in my chapter on "The Church and International Law." See 

 also Maury, " La Magie et 1' Astrologie dans l'Antiquite et au Moyen Age." 



