ith them, from time to
time, men and children. On the Catholic side sufficient warrant for
this work was found in the bull of Pope Innocent VIII, and the bishops'
palaces of south Germany became shambles,--the lordly prelates of
Salzburg, Wurzburg, and Bamberg taking the lead in this butchery.

In north Germany Protestantism was just as conscientiously cruel. It
based its theory and practice toward witches directly upon the Bible,
and above all on the great text which has cost the lives of so many
myriads of innocent men, women, and children, "Thou shalt not suffer a
witch to live." Naturally the Protestant authorities strove to show that
Protestantism was no less orthodox in this respect than Catholicism; and
such theological jurists as Carpzov, Damhouder, and Calov did their work
thoroughly. An eminent authority on this subject estimates the number of
victims thus sacrificed during that century in Germany alone at over a
hundred thousand.

Among the methods of this witch activity especially credited in central
and southern Europe was the anointing of city walls and pavements with
a diabolical unguent causing pestilence. In 1530 Michael Caddo was
executed with fearful tortures for thus besmearing the pavements of
Geneva. But far more dreadful was the torturing to death of a large body
of people at Milan, in the following century, for producing the plague
by anointing the walls; and a little later similar punishments for the
same crime were administered in Toulouse and other cities. The case in
Milan may be briefly summarized as showing the ideas on sanitary science
of all classes, from highest to lowest, in the seventeenth century. That
city was then under the control of Spain; and, its authorities having
received notice from the Spanish Government that certain persons
suspected of witchcraft had recently left Madrid, and had perhaps gone
to Milan to anoint the walls, this communication was dwelt upon in the
pulpits as another evidence of that Satanic malice which the Church
alone had the means of resisting, and the people were thus excited and
put upon the alert. One morning, in the year 1630, an old woman, looking
out of her window, saw a man walking along the street and wiping his
fingers upon the walls; she immediately called the attention of another
old woman, and they agreed that this man must be one of the diabolical
anointers. It was perfectly evident to a person under ordinary
conditions that this unfortunate