The mob, as it always is, was orthodox. It was dangerous to
doubt, it might be fatal to deny. In 1453 Guillaume de Lure was burned at
Poitiers on his own confession of a compact with Satan, by which he
agreed "to preach and did preach that everything told of sorcerers was
mere fable, and that it was cruelly done to condemn them to death." This
contract was found among his papers signed "with the Devil's own claw,"
as Howell says speaking of a similar case. It is not to be wondered at
that the earlier doubters were cautious. There was literally a reign of
terror, and during such _regimes_ men are commonly found more eager to be
informers and accusers than of counsel for the defence. Peter of Abano is
reckoned among the earliest unbelievers who declared himself openly.[115]
Chaucer was certainly a sceptic, as appears by the opening of the Wife of
Bath's Tale. Wierus, a German physician, was the first to undertake
(1563) a refutation of the facts and assumptions on which the
prosecutions for witchcraft were based. His explanation of the phenomena
is mainly physiological. Mr. Leckie hardly states his position correctly,
in saying, "that he never dreamed of restricting the sphere of the
supernatural." Wierus went as far as he dared.
Pages:
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198