s and wizards again. On the
other hand, Catherine of Medici, surrounded as she was by astrologers
and magicians, would have protected the latter. Their numbers
increased amain. The wizard Trois-Echelles, who was tried in the reign
of Charles IX., reckons them at a hundred thousand, declaring all
France to be one Witch.

Agrippa and others affirm, that all science is contained in magic. In
white magic undoubtedly. But the fears of fools and their fanatic
rage, put little difference between them. In spite of Wyer, in spite
of those true philosophers, Light and Toleration, a strong reaction
towards darkness set in from a quarter whence it was least expected.
Our magistrates, who for nearly a century, had shown themselves
enlightened and fair-dealing, now threw themselves into the Spanish
Catholicon[81] and the fury of the Leaguists,[82] until they waxed
more priest-like than the priests themselves. While scouting the
Inquisition from France, they matched, and well-nigh eclipsed it by
their own deeds: the Parliament of Toulouse alone sending four hundred
human bodies at one time to the stake. Think of the horror, the black
smoke of all that flesh, of the frightful melting and bubbling of the
fat amidst those piercing shrieks and yells! So accursed, so sickening
a sight had not been seen, since the Albigenses were broiled and
roasted.

[81] Catholicon, or purgative panacea: _i. e._ the
Inquisition.--TRANS.

[82] The wars of the Catholic League against Henry of Navarre
began in 1576.--TRANS.

But this is all too little for Bodin, lawyer of Angers, and a violent
adversary to Wyer. He begins by saying that the wizards in Europe are
numerous enough to match Xerxes' army of eighteen hundred thousand
men. Then, like Caligula, he utters a prayer, that these two millions
might be gathered together, so as he, Bodin, could sentence and burn
them all at one stroke.

* * * * *

The new rivalry makes matters worse. The gentry of the Law begin to
say that the priest, being too often connected with the wizard, is no
longer a safe judge. In fact, for a moment, the lawyers seem to be yet
more trustworthy. In Spain, the Jesuit pleader, Del Rio; in Lorraine,
Remy (1596); Boguet (1602) on the Jura; Leloyer (1605) in Anjou; are
all matchless persecutors, who would have made Torquemada[83] himself
die of envy.

[83] The infamous Spanish Inquisitor, who died at the close
of the fift