ith,
denying their baptism, showing contempt for the sacraments, in
particular for that of the Eucharist, treading crosses under
foot, and taking the devil as their lord.[93] How many suffered
for the crime during the thirty or forty years following upon the
bull of 1484, it is difficult exactly to ascertain: that some
thousands perished is certain, on the testimony of the judges
themselves. The often-quoted words of Florimond, author of a work
'On Antichrist,' as given by Del Rio the Jesuit ('De Magia'), are
not hyperbolical. 'All those,' says he, 'who have afforded us
some signs of the approach of antichrist agree that the increase
of sorcery and witchcraft is to distinguish the melancholy period
of his advent; and was ever age so afflicted with them as ours?
The seats destined for criminals before our judicatories are
blackened with persons accused of this guilt. There are not
judges enough to try enough. Our dungeons are gorged with them.
No day passes that we do not render our tribunals bloody by the
dooms we pronounce, or in which we do not return to our homes
discountenanced and terrified at the horrible contents of the
confessions which it has been our duty to hear. And the devil is
accounted so good a master that we cannot commit so great a
number of his slaves to the flames but what there shall arise
from their ashes a number sufficient to supply their place.'

[93] Francis Hutchison's _Historical Essay concerning
Witchcraft_, chap. xiv.; the author quotes Barthol. de
Spina, _de Strigibus_.

It is within neither the design nor the limits of these pages to
repeat all the witch-cases, which might fill several volumes; it
is sufficient for the purpose to sketch a few of the most
notorious and prominent, and to notice the most remarkable
characteristics of the creed.

Maximilian I., Emperor of Germany, protected the inquisitorial
executioners from the indignant vengeance of the inhabitants of
the districts of Southern Germany, which would have been soon
almost depopulated by an unsparing massacre and a ferocious zeal:
while Sigismund, Prince of the Tyrol, is said to have been
inclined to soften the severity of a persecution he was totally
unable, if he had been disposed, to prevent. Ulric Molitor,
under the auspices of this prince, however, published a treatise
in Switzerland ('De Pythonicis Mulieribus') in the form of a
dialogue, in which Sigismund, Molitor, and a citizen of Constance
are the interlo