e passers by, even when nobody had passed by. They were
burnt. Some girls, who swore they had given themselves to the Devil,
were found to be maidens still. They, too, were burnt. Several seemed
in a great hurry, as if they wanted to be burnt. Sometimes it happened
from raging madness, sometimes from despair. An Englishwoman being led
to the stake, said to the people, "Do not blame my judges. I wanted to
put an end to my own self. My parents kept aloof from me in their
dread. My husband had disowned me. I could not have lived on without
disgrace. I longed for death, and so I told a lie."

The first words of open toleration against silly Sprenger, his
frightful Handbook, and his Inquisitors, were spoken by Molitor, a
lawyer of Constance. He made this sensible remark, that the
confessions of witches should not be taken seriously, because it was
the very Father of Lies who spoke by their mouths. He laughed at the
miracles of Satan, affirming them to be all illusory. In an indirect
way, such jesters as Hutten and Erasmus dealt violent blows at the
Inquisition, through their satires on the Dominican idiots. Cardan[78]
said, straightforwardly, "In order to obtain forfeit property, the
same persons acted as accusers and judges, and invented a thousand
stories in proof."

[78] A famous Italian physician, who lived through the
greater part of the sixteenth century.--TRANS.

That apostle of toleration, Chatillon, who maintained against
Catholics and Protestants both, that heretics should not be burnt,
though he said nothing about wizards, put men of sense in a better
way. Agrippa,[79] Lavatier, above all, Wyer[80]] the illustrious
physician of Cleves, rightly said that if those wretched witches were
the Devil's plaything, we must lay the blame on the Devil, not on
them; must cure, instead of burning them. Some physicians of Paris
soon pushed incredulity so far as to maintain that the possessed and
the witches were simply knaves. This was going too far. Most of them
were sufferers under the sway of an illusion.

[79] Cornelius Agrippa, of Cologne, born in 1486, sometime
Secretary of the Emperor Maximilian, and author of two works
famous in their day, _Vanity of the Sciences_, and _Occult
Philosophy_.--TRANS.

[80] A friend of Sir Philip Sydney, who sent for him when
dying.--TRANS.

The dark reign of Henry II. and Diana of Poitiers ends the season of
toleration. Under Diana, they burn heretic