.
Here their lord and master was expecting them in the shape of a
goat with the face of a man and the tail of an ape. Homage was
first done by his new vassals offering up their soul or some part
of the body; afterwards in adoration kissing him on the back--the
accustomed salutation.[72] Next followed the different signs and
ceremonies of the infernal vassalage, in particular treading and
spitting upon the cross. Then to eating and drinking; after which
the guests joined in acts of indescribable debauchery, when the
devil took the form alternately of either sex. Dismissal was
given by a mock sermon, forbidding to go to church, hear mass, or
touch holy water. All these acts indicate schismatic offences
which yet for the most part are the characteristics of the
sabbaths in later Protestant witchcraft, excepting that the
wicked apostates are there usually _papistical_ instead of
_protestant_. During nearly two years Arras was subjected to the
arbitrary examinations and tortures of the inquisitors; and
an appeal to the Parliament of Paris could alone stop the
proceedings, 1461. The chance of acquittal by the verdict of the
public was little: it was still less by the sentence of judicial
tribunals.

[72] The 'Osculum in tergo' seems to be an indispensable
part of the Homagium or _Diabolagium_.

PART III.

MODERN FAITH.

CHAPTER I.

The Bull of Innocent VIII.--A new Incentive to the vigorous
Prosecution of Witchcraft--The 'Malleus Maleficarum'--Its
Criminal Code--Numerous Executions at the Commencement of
the Sixteenth Century--Examination of Christian
Demonology--Various Opinions of the Nature of
Demons--General Belief in the Intercourse of Demons and
other non-human Beings with Mankind.

Perhaps the most memorable epoch in the annals of witchcraft is
the date of the promulgation of the bull of Pope Innocent VIII.,
when its prosecution was formally sanctioned, enforced, and
developed in the most explicit manner by the highest authority in
the Church. It was in the year 1484 that Innocent VIII. issued
his famous bull directed especially against the crime in Germany,
whose inquisitors were empowered to seek out and burn the
malefactors _pro strigiatus haeresi_. The bull was as follows:
'Innocent, Bishop, servant of the servants of God, in order to
the future memorial of the matter.... In truth it has come to our
ears, not without immense trouble and grief to ourse