sion; the
power of the witch organization, of which he was the Chief, was broken by
the death of its leaders. He had made a strong bid for power, he failed,
fled the country, and finally died in poverty at Naples. There George
Sandys the traveller heard of him: 'Here a certaine _Calabrian_ hearing
that I was an _English_ man, came to me, and would needs perswade me that I
had insight in magicke: for that Earle _Bothel_ was my countryman, who
liues at _Naples_, and is in those parts famous for suspected
negromancie.'[154]

The Devil being actually a human being, the letter of introduction to him,
given by a man-witch to a would-be proselyte, becomes quite credible. It is
worth quoting verbatim:

'Monseigneur, d'autant qu'il me faut retirer de la Religion des
Chrestiens, afin que ie multiplie vostre party, duquel estant, il est
raisonnable que ie vous glorifie et assemble tant de gens que ie
pourray, ie vous enuoye ce porteur pour estre du nombre: c'est
pourquoy ie vous prie de l'aider en ses amours.'

Satan's reply to the novice shows a distinctly human trace of temper:

'Vous autres Chrestiens vous estes perfides et obstinez: Quand vous
auez quelque violent desir, vous vous departez de vostre maistre, et
auez recours a moy: mais quand vostre desir est accompli, vous me
tournez le dos comme a vn ennemi, et vous en retournez a vostre Dieu,
lequel estant benin et clement, vous pardonne et recoit volontiers.
Mais fay moy vne promesse escrite et signee de ta main, par laquelle
tu renonces volontairement ton Christ et ton Baptesme, et me promets
que tu adhereras et seras auec moy iusqu'au iour du iugement; et apres
iceluy tu te delecteras encore auec moy de souffrir les peines
eternelles, et i'accompliray ton desir.'[155]

4. _As an Animal_

[Illustration]

In many religions the disguising of the principal personage--whether god or
priest--as an animal is well known. The custom is very ancient--such
disguised human beings are found even among the palaeolithic drawings in
France; and on a slate palette belonging to the late pre-dynastic period of
Egypt there is a representation of a man disguised as a jackal and playing
on a pipe.[156] The ritual disguise as an animal is condemned, with great
particularity, as devilish, in the _Liber Poenitentialis_ of Theodore of
the seventh century (see _supra_, p. 21), showing that it continued in
force aft