of this toleration the same curse had now come upon Europe which the
prophet Samuel had denounced against Saul for showing mercy to the
enemies of Jehovah.

It is but just to say that various popes and kings exerted themselves to
check these cruelties. Although the argument of Samuel to Saul was used
with frightful effect two hundred years later by a most conscientious
pope in spurring on the rulers of France to extirpate the Huguenots, the
papacy in the fourteenth century stood for mercy to the Jews. But
even this intervention was long without effect; the tide of popular
superstition had become too strong to be curbed even by the spiritual
and temporal powers.(386)

(386) See Wellhausen, article Israel, in the Encyclopaedia Britannica,
ninth edition; also the reprint of it in his History of Israel, London,
1885, p. 546. On the general subject of the demoniacal epidemics, see
Isensee, Geschichte der Medicin, vol. i, pp. 260 et seq.; also Hecker's
essay. As to the history of Saul, as a curious landmark in the general
development of the subject, see The Case of Saul, showing that his
Disorder was a Real Spiritual Possession, by Granville Sharp, London,
1807, passim. As to the citation of Saul's case by the reigning Pope to
spur on the French kings against the Huguenots, I hope to give a list of
authorities in a future chapter on The Church and International Law. For
the general subject, with interesting details, see Laurent, Etudes sur
l'Histoire de l'Humanities. See also Maury, La Magie et l'Astrologie
dans l'Antiquite et au Moyen Age.

Against this overwhelming current science for many generations could
do nothing. Throughout the whole of the fifteenth century physicians
appeared to shun the whole matter. Occasionally some more thoughtful
man ventured to ascribe some phase of the disease to natural causes;
but this was an unpopular doctrine, and evidently dangerous to those who
developed it.

Yet, in the beginning of the sixteenth century, cases of "possession" on
a large scale began to be brought within the scope of medical research,
and the man who led in this evolution of medical science was Paracelsus.
He it was who first bade modern Europe think for a moment upon the idea
that these diseases are inflicted neither by saints nor demons, and that
the "dancing possession" is simply a form of disease, of which the cure
may be effected by proper remedies and regimen.

Paracelsus appears to have escaped any