There were many indications by which sorcerers were known to the "witch-finders," as they were called in England, in the time of James I. The bad shepherd was said to have affixed certain marks, the existence of which was conclusive of the quality of the bearer. But all were not marked alike, the stigmata being conferred only on those whom he doubted; the others were left sans tache. These marks it was difficult to discover, being generally placed in such parts of the body as would evade an ordinary examination. Aubert de Poictiers, an advocate of parliament, stated that he was present at the examination of a sorcerer at Château Thierry, who was marked on the right shoulder, and the following day the devil had effaced the sign. The sort of mark which was affixed was like the impression of a hare's-foot; and the spot on which it was made became insensible to pain, as was always tried, by piercing to the bone! "Du Pibrac, the chancellor of the king of Navarre, doubting the experiment, caused it to be tried before him by means of a redhot needle, without any sign of pain being exhibited. When the needle was applied to any other part, the patient gave evident tokens of suffering." This was pleasant amusement for a chancellor! The patient in this case had certainly some connexion with the black art, for he was a blacksmith. The powers which were granted to sorcerers and witches seem principally to have had relation to those accidents of the weather which, in the infancy of meteorological science, passed current for supernatural demonstrations. The connexion between witches and the wind has existed in all countries, but more particularly in wild and mountainous regions, where storms are more frequent, and superstition more prevalent. The celebrated personages who figure in Macbeth were not the creations of the poet's brain, but a transcript of some real sorcerers, who flourished in Germany in the fifteenth century, and whose power over storms and tempests was illimitable. They were the disciples of one Stasus, a famous sorcerer of Berne, and their names were Hoppo and Stadlin,--a coincidence which, connected with their peculiar calling, can scarcely be accidental, and leaves little room for doubting that Shakspeare had heard or read of these identical worthies. The supposed control over the "skyey influences," possessed by the sorcerers, was in many instances a dangerous power. In the year 1488, a violent storm arose in the diocese of Constance, with hail, thunder, and lightning, destroying all the produce of the fields and gardens for four leagues round. The country people attributed it to the sorcerers; and two women were taken up, named Anne de Mindelen and Agnes. They at first denied the charge, but being put to the question, at length confessed that they had each, unknown to the other, gone out into the fields with a small quantity of water, and had dug a hole and poured water into it at noon; "stirring it about," adds the report, "with certain words not desirable to be made known," and invoking the devil. When this ceremony had been performed, they returned home, and the storm began. On this confession they were burnt alive. Another sorceress at Constance, irritated at not being invited to a village fete, invoked the devil to the same effect; but, for want of common water, was compelled to resort to Gulliver's expedient for obtaining it. The storm came on; and the peasants seized upon this old lady, accused her of interrupting their sports, and declared that they had seen her flying through the air in the midst of the storm. She also was burnt alive! It sometimes happened that a less equivocal agency was employed; in which, however, the self-delusion of the accused had as much to do with the case as the cruel credulity of the judge. One Robert Olive-a prototype, apparently, of our modern Swing-being accused of sorcery, confessed, at Falaise, in Normandy (where he was burnt in 1456), that the devil instigated him to set fire to several houses at different periods, and also to kill two little children, besides cattle and other animals. Olive was himself a native of Lyons; but he asserted that the fiend, whom he called Chrysopolos, was in the habit of transporting him through the air to the place where the mischief was to be wrought! It is a pity his services were not made available to carry him back again : but these spirits of air were very uncertain in their obedience. At times the demon was held in perfect control; but the custody in which he was kept was dangerous. Like the ginns of Oriental fable, the familiars of sorcerers were self into the Rhone, where he disappeared. But, perhaps, the most singular feature of sorcery--and it was one of the best attested was the belief in ly canthropy, or the power of self-transformation, by assuming the shape of a wolf. It was a superstition of great antiquity, traces of which we find in the writings of Virgil, Ovid, Pliny, Herodotus, Strabo, Varro, and a crowd of ancient authors; and, like most of the pagan superstitions, it was elevated in their mythology to the rank of a divine worship, sacrifice being offered at the shrine of Jupiter Lycæus. According to these authors, those who ate of this sacrifice were immediately metamorphosed into wolves; and M. Varro considers it indubitable that Demetrius Parrhasienus was so changed after having eaten of the liver of a child thus sacrificed. Ovid has adduced Lycaon as an example of lycanthropy; and Virgil, speaking of the transformation of Maris, ob Pliny, moreover, is of opinion that this * We ourselves remember to have heard of a certain colonel of artillery, a few years ago, at that time quartered in Gibraltar, who was possessed with a similar mania. He imagined that the devil, though invisible, was always present with him, constantly onnoving him by his conversation · to which he would frequently during the interval. It does not appear whether this transformation was looked upon as a punishment or a species of gratification, but the change seems often to have been involuntary. A similar tradition to the above is narrated by Herodotus, whose account forms the basis of many of the stories which have been told of the lycanthropists. Gaspar Peucerus, the son-in-law of Melancthon, appears to have profited by his classical studies, for he expresses himself perfectly convinced of the fact of these transformations from the many credible accounts which had been given him (as well as those which he had read) of occurrences in Livonia. "It is the custom there, towards the end of December, for a weasel to go the round to the dwellings of all the sorcerers of the country, and to summon them to appear by a particular day in a certain place; if they fail to attend, they are flogged by the devil with iron rods, the marks of which punishment remain for ever. They are commanded by a captain, who marches at their head, and they muster in great numbers, amounting to some thousands; in the course of their journey they cross a broad river, after having forded which they are all metamorphosed into wolves, and commence their ravages on men and flocks, doing incalculable mischief. In twelve days' time they return by the same river, and once more assume their human shape."* as When the great writers of antiquity, and many of the shining lights amongst the moderns, adopted these wild stories, and affirmed them to be convincing and worthy of belief, it is only natural that they should become a popular branch of witchcraft. We accordingly find that lycanthropists were plenty as blackberries." It was in the north of Europe chiefly that this superstition took deepest root, amidst the wide plains and extensive forests, where countless flocks of real wolves abounded; and, for the same cause, the belief was adopted in the woody and mountainous parts of Germany and France. The wolf was the scourge of the country, and at a period when every thing was deemed possible to the sorcerers, whose delight it was said to be to inflict injury on their fellowmen, no form could have been devised so terrific, and at the same time so popular as that which was already substantially an object of apprehension. The celebrated case of Gilles Garnier, a notorious loup-garou, who was executed at Dôle in the year 1574, has been so frequently mentioned, that we shall contine ourselves to other illustrations. Wierius,† for instance, details, at great length, a famous process which took place at Besançon in the month of December 1571, before Jean Borin, an inquisitor. The lycanthropists were Pierre Burgot and Michel Verdun, who confessed that they had renounced the worship of God and sworn to serve the devil. Michel conducted Pierre to a place called Chastel Charlon, where each, armed with a green wax-candle, which cast a dim, blue light, performed dances and sacrifices in honour of the devil. They then, having anointed themselves, were turned into wolves, and were endowed with incredible swiftness, and could at liberty resume their usual shape. They confessed, also, that in their quality of wolf, they had killed and eaten many young children. Another loup-garou is said to have been wounded at a wolf-hunt by an arrow in the thigh, and was afterwards found with the arrow still sticking there! These absurdities would be incredible, were it not for the confession and execution which invariably followed, as if the sufferers were weary of life and anxious to get up a case against themselves in the most obnoxious manner possible. In Job Fincel's Book of Merveilles, it is related that a lycanthropist existed at Padua, famous in all times for its magic, whose swiftness of foot was incredible; but that, being pursued by men on horseback, he was finally caught; and his wolf's paws being cut off, he found on resuming his human shape (which was witnessed, of course), that he was minus both hands and feet-an awkward situation even for a magician. Instances might be multiplied, but it is sufficient only to advert to a few more. Peter Marmor, who has written a treatise on sorcery, declares that he has To the curious in lycanthropy, we recommend the perusal of Mr. Algernon Herbert's Letter in the preface to Sir Frederick Madden's edition of William and the Were Wolf; also the " Lay of Bisclaveret," by Marie de France, in Miss Costello's Specimens of the Early Poetry of France. a frequently witnessed these changes of men into wolves in Savoy ; and Henry of Cologne, in his work, De Lamiis, considers the fact indisputable. Ulrick le Meusnier asserts, also, his similar conviction, and states that he saw lycanthropist at Constance, who was accused and convicted on his own confession. In fact, the loups-garoux became at length such a nuisance, that regular crusades were made (if not preached) against them; and it is on record that, in the year 1572, Sultan Solyman turned out a number of troops to chase them from Constantinople, and got rid of about one hundred and fifty in the battue. But But transformations were not limited to the shape of wolves; there were other animals who were also in request. Cornelius Agrippa tells us that when St. Augustine was in Italy, he learned that certain women existed there who, by means of a peculiar kind of cheese (a Welsh receipt, we imagine), changed men into beasts, and made them work and carry burthens for them, and when their labour was over, they were restored to their former shape. William, archbishop of Tyre, has a story of a more amusing description: the most reverend father affirms that a sorceress of Cyprus changed a young English soldier into an ass; and when he sought to enter the vessel where his comrades were, he was driven away by blows, and returned to the dwelling of the sorceress, who reaped the benefit of his labour for three years; till one day, preceding the old lady, the ass knelt down in a church and made signs, which seemed to indicate powers beyond the asinine capacity. This excited suspicion, and she was taken The same mode of transformation is 109), we are told that, "in a certain One instance more, and we have done. The famous witches of Vernon, whose trial occurred in 1561, were accused of frequenting an old castle in the neighbourhood in the semblance of cats. A party of men, who intended to pass the night there, were assailed by the feline multitude; one of the men was killed, and the others a good deal hurt, but not without having inflicted divers wounds on the cats, who were afterwards recognised by the marks. These old ladies, however, fortunately escaped; a circumstance at which Bodin, who seems quite convinced of the metamorphosis, wonders extremely :"Et d'autant que cela sembloit incroyable, la poursuite fut delaissée !” vances. : Our chapter now draws to a conclusion, though we have ample means for discussing the subject at greater length, through divers other superstitious obserWe reserve them for a future occasion, expressing ourselves to those who may doubt the credibility of the narrations which we have brought forward, in the words of the learned and trusting Bodin, whose reasoning in favour of the possibility of transformation is thus conveyed :— 66 Or, si nous confessions que les hommes ont bien la puissance de faire porter des roses à un cerisier, des pommes à un chou, et changer le fer en acier, et la forme d'argent en or, et faire mille sortes de pierres artificielles qui combattent les pierres naturelles, doit on trouver estrange si Sathan change la figure d'un corps en un THE CHURCH. "Have respect unto the covenant; for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty."-Psalm lxxiv. 20. 86 Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned, and avoid them."-Romans, xvi. 17. "I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk: eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved."— Song of Solomon, v. 1. WHEN on the banks of Jordan's flood Young Israel came with pious grace, He saw the Saviour of the world advance, And meek as unweaned child; And whilst beneath the lambent wave He bent, From martyrdom to martyrdom, Through the grand magnate of the line, To the last Christian sufferer's doom, Rising to God in light from whom it came; As Heaven's eternal page, Pure, undefiled, unsoiled by plague or blood, That Church, the citadel of our faith, hath stood. Havoc and wrath, the curse, the spell, Before her on his grunsel fell, Limbs lopt and carcass maimed,* And the unhallowed triple crown infamed; She like a cresset blazed, True daughter of her God, she raised Her radiant temple, shadowless of guilt, Clothed with His love, and on His Rock of Ages built. The thunder scars upon her brow, Are thunder wounds of hellish hate, Yet proudly looks she in her state, The type of many a martyr's vow. Serenely great she stands, Like an archangel with uplifted hands, Bidding the tumults cease, War tremble into peace, And the true word and love of God be given The love of God which lifteth all mankind to heaven. |