1 Alex. IV. c. 8, § 4, de Haer. v. 2 in 6.

2 Joh. XXII. Const. 13, Super, 12 Aug. 1325. Petra, t. iv. p. 45 seq. Eymeric, Direct. P. ii. q. 43, n. 9.

3 E.g. Synods of Grado, 1296, c. 23; of Salamanca, 1335, c. 15; of Prague, 1349, c. 56 (Hefele, vi. pp. 335, 561, 598).

Friedberg (1.c. p. 93, No. 3, 5, 8, 9) quotes English codes of law and the decrees of French parliaments. Görres (Mystik, iv. ii. p. 513 seq.) gives other references. Charles V. reënacted the punishment of burning for witches and sorcerers who bring evil upon others. Engel, Coll. Jur. Can. 1. v. tit. 21, § 3, n. 17 fin. It is certain that in individual instances many crimes were committed by witches and sorcerers. Monstrelet, Chron. a. 1459, 1460; Du Plessis, t. i. P. ii. p. 418, c. 2.

Magic was held to be a crime mixti fori. Reiffenstuel, in 1. v. Decret. tit. 21, n. 18. Schmalzgrueber, in h.l. n. 51, with references to earlier authors; also Van Espen, Jur. Eccl. Univ. P. iii. tit. 4, c. iii. n. 49-54. Land-law of the Sachsenspiegel, b. ii. art. 13, § 7.

Phillips, Vermischte Schriften, iii. p. 193.

8 L. v-ix. Cod. ix. 18. Cf. Basil. 1. lx. c. xxxix. n. 21; Leo, Sap. Const. 65 (Migne, cvii. 565).

In the Decretals of Gregory IX. only three passages stand under the title in question: the first belongs to the penitentiale of Theodore of Canterbury; the second (of Alexander III.) refers to the inspectio astrolabii for the discovery of theft; the third (of Honorius III.) forbids the election of bishops by lot (1. v. Decret. tit. 21, de Sortil.). Canonists treat of these matters under this title.

10 Const. Summis desiderantes, Bull. Rom. iii. iii. p. 291.

11 Phillips, Lehrbuch des K.R. § 204, p. 602, iii. Alexander VI. (c. un. de Malef. et Incant. v. 12 in Sept.), Leo X. (Const. Honestis petentium, 1521, Bull. Rom. 1.c. p. 499), and Hadrian VI. (ad Inquis. Com. 20 Juli 1522; Hard. Conc. ix. pp. 1907-1910) used their authority to repress the evil of sorcerers, especially in Lombardy. The Popes,' says Görres (1.c. p. 651 seq.) were bound to take cognisance of a matter so important, so deeply rooted in the people, and in which the people believed, and therefore they sent out inquisitors. This Bull of Innocent was designed merely for the protection within the limits of their jurisdiction of the courts established in the Rhine lands, where the evil was freshly spreading; it confirmed their authority to arrest, punish, or reclaim from evil courses; permitting them especially for the better exercise of the latter duty to expound the Word of God to the people in any parish church within their jurisdiction as often as it should be necessary, and to have recourse to all measures their opinion judged conducive to the instruction of the people. Any sins they may through weakness have fallen into, by going too far or not far enough, cannot be justified by the orders they received. Far rather should this case be held as proof that the Popes' conduct was throughout directed to moderate and soothe, and that whilst paying due regard to the spirit of the time they always endeavoured to use the insight they had acquired to introduce a better state of things.'

12 Cautio criminalis s. de processibus contra sagas, Rintel, 1631, Francof. 1632. Dub. xxviii. shows how much strict judges mistrusted even confessors.

13 Spee's chief opponent was the Protestant jurist Benedict Carpzov. This question is fully treated in the Historisch Polit. Blättern, vol. lxviii. H. 5, 6, to which we must here refer. The stanch Protestant M. Schröckh (K.G. seit der Reform. vol. vii. p. 326) observes with regard to Spee: 'It is an honour to Catholic Germany that even in the earlier years of this same seventeenth century, that is, long before Protestants had begun to think of the reformation of this superstition, a courageous friend of truth had entered the lists against it.' Schröckh takes note also of some later Italian writings to the same purport, as well as of the disputes which broke out in Bavaria in 1766.

14 Vide also Görres, 1.c. p. 652 seq.

15 Histor. Polit. Bl. 1.c. Schröckh, 1.c. p. 336, put it at 1780.

16 Menzel, 1.c. vol. v. p. 90; viii. p. 59 seq. Illgen's Zeitschr. für Histor. Theol. 1841, p. 181 seq. Döllinger, Die Reformation, ii. p. 418.

The passages are given in the paper, Luther über das Zauberwesen, Histor. Polit. Bl. 1861 (vol. xlvii. pp. 890-918).

§ 19.

Huber tells us that the superstition of the Popes, the Inquisition, and the so-called Witchcraft Bull of Innocent VIII., raised trials for witchcraft to gigantic proportions. To disprove his statement we have but to glance at the German Synod of 7991 against sorcerers and witches, at the massacre of witches in Germany in 1074, which Gregory VII. rebuked, and at the schismatic Greeks, who also believed in sorcery and witchcraft. The treatise of Psellus3 is anterior to all similar works in western countries on the same subject. The Greeks had an institution quite similar to the Inquisition of the Latins; the principle was the same, although burning was not universally in use as the punishment. In the year 1338 a certain George Tzerentzes in Constantinople was accused of magic; and when confession had been obtained, he was sentenced to severe ecclesiastical penance; his relations were to keep strict watch over him, and if he relapsed, he was to be excommunicated and severely punished.4 The Patriarch John XIV. issued a pastoral to his clergy expressly against incantations and magic, which had again gained much ground; and he gave orders that the clergy should go about in the town to make minute investigations after such sorcerers and seducers, and that every one should assist them in their search. He likewise ordered the civil authorities to render assistance in this God-pleasing7 work to the spiritual

inquisitors, who in each quarter of the town should institute minute investigations after sorcerers, that the guilty might be punished as they deserved. The Patriarch Kallistus published a charge to the people when a sorceress and soothsayer, Amarantine, who had long remained concealed, was converted of her own free will, and went to do penance in a convent; he admonished those whom she had corrupted to imitate her repentance, and insured to her a prebend from the emperor (1351).9 The trial of two sorcerers was likewise undertaken. 10 In January 1365 a monk Isaias was dismissed for having given a fee to a sorcerer for the recovery of a sum of money lost by the monk Hilarion.11 On the 12th May 1371 a synodal decree was published against sorcery.12 A monk Phudules was accused of originating the disorder, especially of attracting women, who for love of him abandoned their husbands and children. He repented, and admitted having received books upon sorcery from a physician Syropulos.13 Strict trials were instituted upon this monk, as well as upon Syropulos and a certain Gabrielopulos; they were banished from Constantinople and from the empire; a priest John Paradeisos, corrupted by Syropulos, a monk Joasaph, and a 'papas' James were deposed. In May 1371 three priests abjured sorcery with other errors. 14 On April 22, 1372, a priest Stylian Clidas was excommunicated for having used sorcery.15 In May 1383 the monk Theodosius Phudules was made to promise before the Patriarch Nilus that he would never more employ magic.16 It is certain that the superstition was not less strong amongst the Greeks than amongst the Latins, and was wider spread;17 they were forced to be content with punishing its more glaring excesses. Balsamon frequently mentions punishments ordained by Synods for sorcerers and witches ;18 the belief in their existence and that they deserved punishment were the same as in the West: the proportion of the punishment was not always the same; all were not put to death as the magician Paulinus was in the sixth century. 19 I was justified therefore in inquiring: Were the Popes responsible for the introduction of witchcraft amongst the schismatic Greeks ?' when Janus asserted that all witchcraft was either directly or indirectly a

product of the belief in the irrefragable authority of the Pope. This indictment concerning witchcraft is one of those which, as De Maistre 20 observes, must be fastened either upon the whole human race or upon no one at all. The Popes were not ahead of other men either in issuing penal decrees against sorcerers or witches, nor in sentencing individual delinquents. They were the children of their age, and acted accordingly. We know now how much is purely natural which even the most enlightened men of their age formerly accounted supernatural. In the Middle Ages the crime of magic occupied a large share of the attention of the learned. 21 No Christian can assert diabolic influences upon mankind to be absolutely impossible, nay that they are possible is shown by Scripture and tradition;22 therefore the error was not one of principle; it existed only in the manner of treating particular manifestations, and for this subordinates only are responsible. Huber makes it a strong point that the patriarchs of the East laid no claim to be God's infallible vicegerents. We reply, that the question of the judicial persecution of witches has no connection with the infallibility of the teaching office; and Pichler shows that the Byzantine patriarchs undoubtedly did make this claim. The pre rogative of infallibility is plainly asserted in an epistle of the Patriarch Isaias (1323-1333);23 and we find the Byzantines claiming for their Church the prerogatives of the Church of Rome.24 They call the Church of Constantinople the Mystical Sion, the Mother of all Churches, the New Jerusalem,'25 ‹ the Author of Faith,"26 the sublime resting-place, whence issue the fountains of pure doctrine that flow over the whole earth.27 Their patriarchs give themselves amongst other titles those of Universal Teacher of all Christians and Vicar of Christ. 28

There is sufficient proof that the Popes had very little to do with the persecution of witches, and did not instigate or excite them; but on the contrary, as Görres says, 'acted always with leniency and moderation.' Had they delighted in the opportunity, the codes of canon law would not have treated the subject so sparingly, and Papal decrees would have afforded a far richer prey to modern critics. Laws and their application are

two widely different things in the administration of justice, whether civil or ecclesiastical.

1 Others might be cited until the Synod of Magdeburg, 1390, c. 45 (Hefele, vi. p. 837), which decreed severe punishments against sorcerers. For examples of sorcery in the time of the Carolingians, vide Dümmler, Ostfränkische Geschichte, ii. p. 673, n. 79; i. 466, 329.

2 Neander, Kirchengeschichte, ii. p. 380, n. 3; Greg. VII. Ep. 21. For passages from the Fathers, vide Gratian, c. xxvi. q. 5; also apud Görres, Mystik, iii. p. 44 seq. Cf. Greg. M. 1. xi. Ep. 33; Jaffé, n. 1403, c. viii. c. et q. cit. As to Scripture, besides Levit. xx. 27, who has not heard of the history of the Witch of Endor, of the controversies concerning the spiritus pythonicus, and the possessed in the New Testament?

* Psellus, de Daemonum Energia (Migne, PP. gr. t. cxlv. p. 819 seq.), treats (c. vii.) of the appearances of demons amongst men; c. xi. p. 844, of the possession of the latter by the former; c. xiii. p. 849, of the entering of demons into men and animals; c. xv. p. 833, of a possessed person at Elason who prophesied many things, and whom he himself brought to Constantinople; c. xix. p. 864, of the apparition of demons at births, &c. Cf. Blastare's Synt. Alphab. Lit. M. c. i. (Migne, l.c. p. 1 seq.).

Acta Patriarchatus Cpl. ed. Müller et Miklosich, t. i. doc. 79, 80, pp. 180-182. Migne, PP. gr. t. clii. p. 1224 seq.

Acta, t. i. doc. 85, pp. 184-187.
Acta, t. i. doc. 86, pp. 188-190.

Migne, 1.c. p. 1228 seq.
Migne, p. 1230.

* Cf. the prop. Migne, p. 1231: Ποῖον γὰρ ἂν ἕτερον ἔργον ὑπὲρ τῆς δόξης εἴη κ.τ.λ.

* Migne, p. 1229: ὥστε περιέναι αὐτοὺς καὶ ἀκριβῆ ζήτησιν ποιεῖσθαι ἐν ἑκάστῃ γειτονίᾳ τῆς βασιλευούσης ταύτης τῶν πόλεων. The inquisitors are ordered ζητῆσαι, the magicians καὶ εὑρεῖν καὶ εἰς μέσον ἑλκύσαι καὶ ταῖς πρεπούσαις ὑποβαλλεῖν κακώσεσι καὶ κολάσεσι, p. 1231 D. Acta, t. i. doc. 134, 137, pp. 301 seq. 317 seq. seq. 1320.

Migne, l.c. pp. 1303

10 Acta, t. i. doc. 153, pp. 342, 344. Migne, p. 1338 seq. Unfortunately the important conclusion of the document is wanting.

11 Acta, 1.c. doc. 228, pp. 488, 489.

12 Ib. doc. 292, pp. 541-550. Migne, 1.c. p. 1431 seq.

13 Chrys. hom. 38, in Act. mentions books of magic (Migne, Opp. Chrys.

ix. p. 275).

14 Acta, t. i. doc. 305, p. 560.

15 Ib. doc. 331, pp. 594, 595.

16 Ib. t. ii. doc. 377, pp. 84, 85.

17 I adduced numerous proofs in my work on Photius, vol. i. pp. 605, 609; ii. pp. 261, 263; iii. pp. 133, 674, 837, 839 seq.

18 Theodor. Balsam. in Can. Trull. 61, p. 720 seq.; in Basil. can. 83, i. p. 720 seq.; ii. p. 801.

19 Theophyl. Simocatta, 1. i. c. xi. pp. 56, 57.

20 De Maistre, Lettres sur l'Inquisition Espagnole, lettre ii. p. 53. 21 Raban. Maurus, de Praestigiis Magor. (cf. c. 5, c. xxvi. q. 5). Joh. Saresbur. Polycrat. 1. i. c. ix. seq. p. 406 seq.; l. ii. c. xxviii. p. 472 seq.