schools. Need was there of a worthy son of the
schools, a good disputant, of a man well skilled in the _Sum_,[71]
grounded firm in his St. Thomas, able at any moment to quote texts.
All this Sprenger certainly was: and best of all, he was a fool.

[71] A mediaeval text-book on theology.--TRANS.

* * * * *

"It has been often said that _diabolus_ comes from _dia_, 'two,' and
_bolus_, 'a pill or ball,' because devouring alike soul and body, he
makes but one pill, one mouthful of the two. But"--he goes on to say
with the gravity of _Sganarelle_--"in Greek etymology _diabolus_ means
'shut up in a house of bondage,' or rather 'flowing down' (Teufel?),
that is to say, falling, because he fell from heaven."

Whence comes the word sorcery (_malefice_)? From _maleficiendo_, which
means _male de fide sentiendo_.[72] A curious etymology, but one that
will hold a great deal. Once trace a resemblance between witchcraft
and evil opinions, and every wizard becomes a heretic, every doubter a
wizard. All who think wrongly can be burnt for wizards. This was done
at Arras; and they long to establish the same rule, little by little,
everywhere else.

[72] "Thinking ill of the faith."--TRANS.

Herein lies the once sure merit of Sprenger. A fool, but a fearless
one, he boldly lays down the most unwelcome theses. Others would have
striven to shirk, to explain away, to diminish, the objections that
might be made. Not he, however. From the first page he puts plainly
forward, one by one, the natural manifest reasons for not believing in
the Satanic miracles. To these he coldly adds: "_They are but so many
heretical mistakes_." And without stopping to refute those reasons, he
copies you out the adverse passages found in the Bible, St. Thomas, in
books of legends, in the canonists, and the scholiasts. Having first
shown you the right interpretation, he grinds it to powder by dint of
authority.

He sits down satisfied, calm as a conqueror; seeming to say, "Well,
what say you now? Will you dare use your reason again? Go and doubt
away then; doubt, for instance, that the Devil delights in setting
himself between wife and husband, although the Church and all the
canonists repeatedly admit this reason for a divorce!"

Of a truth this is unanswerable: nobody will breathe so much as a
whisper in reply. Since Sprenger heads his handbook for judges by
declaring the slightest doubt _heretical_, the judge stan