Leckie, in his admirable chapter on Witchcraft, gives a
little more credit to the enlightenment of the Church of England in
this matter than it would seem fairly to deserve. More and Glanvil
were faithful sons of the Church; and if the persecution of witches
was especially rife during the ascendency of the Puritans, it was
because they happened to be in power while there was a reaction
against Sadducism. All the convictions were under the statute of
James I., who was no Puritan. After the restoration, the reaction was
the other way, and Hobbism became the fashion. It is more
philosophical to say that the age believes this and that, than that
the particular men who live in it do so.
[115] I have no means of ascertaining whether he did or not. He was
more probably charged with it by the inquisitors. Mr. Leckie seems to
write of him only upon hearsay, for he calls him Peter "of Apono,"
apparently translating a French translation of the Latin "Aponus."
The only book attributed to him that I have ever seen is itself a
kind of manual of magic.
[116] "With the names and surnames," says Bodin, indignantly, "of
seventy-two princes, and of seven million four hundred and five
thousand nine hundred and twenty-six devils, _errors excepted_.
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