ates that one night Incubus invaded a certain lady's bedroom.
Indignant at so unusual, or at least disguised, an apparition,
the lady cried out loudly until the guests of the house came and
found it under the bed in the likeness of the bishop; 'which holy
man,' adds Scot, 'was much defamed thereby.' Another tradition or
legend seems to reflect upon the chastity of the greatest saint
of the Middle Ages.[90] The superhuman oppression of Incubus is
still remembered in the proverbial language of the present day.
The horrors of the infernal compacts and leagues, as exhibited in
the fates of wizards or magicians at the last hour, formed one of
the most popular scenes on the theatrical stage. Christopher
Marlow, in 'The Life and Death of Dr. Faustus,' and Robert
Greene, in 'Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay,' in the Elizabethan
age, dramatised the common, conception of the Compact.

[89] See the fourth book of the _Discoverie_.

[90] 'It is written in the legend of St. Bernard,' we are
told, 'that a pretty wench that had the use of Incubus his
body by the space of six or seven years in Aquitania (being
belike weary of him for that he waxed old), would needs go to
St. Bernard another while. But Incubus told her if she would
so forsake him, he would be revenged upon her. But befal what
would, she went to St. Bernard, who took her his staff and
bad her lay it in the bed beside her. And, indeed, the devil,
fearing the staff or that St. Bernard lay there himself,
durst not approach into her chamber that night. What he did
afterwards I am uncertain.' This story will not appear so
evidential to the reader as Scot seems to infer it to be. If
any credit is to be given to the strong insinuations of
Protestant divines of the sixteenth century, the 'holy bishop
Sylvanus' is not the only example among the earlier saints of
the frailty of human nature.

CHAPTER II.

Three Sorts of Witches--Various Modes of Witchcraft--Manner
of Witch-Travelling--The Sabbaths--Anathemas of the Popes
against the Crime--Bull of Adrian VI.--Cotemporary Testimony
to the Severity of the Persecutions--Necessary Triumph of
the Orthodox Party--Germany most subject to the
Superstition--Acts of Parliament of Henry against
Witchcraft--Elizabeth Barton--The Act of 1562--Executions
under Queen Elizabeth's Government--Case of Witchcraft
narrated by Reginald Scot.

The ceremonies of