ets; but they were never thus favoured unless
they had done an extraordinary number of evil deeds since
the last period of meeting. After the feast, they began
dancing again; but such as had no relish for any more
exercise in that way, amused themselves by mocking the holy
sacrament of baptism. For this purpose the toads were again
called up, and sprinkled with filthy water, the devil making
the sign of the cross, and all the witches calling
out--[some gibberish]. When the devil wished to be
particularly amused, he made the witches strip off their
clothes and dance before him, each with a cat tied round her
neck, and another dangling from her body in form of a tail.
When the cock crew they all disappeared, and the sabbath was
ended. This is a summary of the belief that prevailed for
many centuries nearly all over Europe, and which is far from
eradicated even at this day.'--_Memoirs of Extraordinary
Popular Delusions_, by C. Mackay.

A mock sermon often concludes the night's proceedings, the
ordinary salutation of the _osculum in tergo_ being first given.
But these circumstances are innocent compared with the obscene
practices when the lights are put out; indiscriminate debauchery
being then the order of the night. A new rite of baptism
initiated the neophyte into his new service: the candidate being
signed with the sign of the devil on that part of the body least
observable, and submitting at the same time to the first act of
criminal compliance, to be often repeated. On these occasions the
demon presents himself in the form of either sex, according to
that of his slaves. It was elicited from a witch examined at a
trial that, from the period of her servitude, the devil had had
intercourse with her _ut viri cum f[oe]minis solent_, excepting
only in one remarkable particular.

During the pontificate of Julius II.--the first decade of the
sixteenth century--a set of sorceresses was discovered in large
numbers: a dispute between the civil and ecclesiastical
authorities averted their otherwise certain destruction. The
successors of Innocent VIII. repeated his anathemas. Alexander
VI., Leo X., and Adrian VI. appointed special commissioners for
hunting up sorcerers and heretics. In 1523, Adrian issued a bull
against _Haeresis Strigiatus_ with power to excommunicate all who
opposed those engaged in the inquisition. He characterises the
obnoxious class as a sect deviating from the Catholic fa