"As late as 1815, Belgium was disgraced by a witch trial; and guilt was
established by the water ordeal." "In 1836, the populace of Hela, near
Dantzic, twice plunged into the sea a woman reputed to be a sorceress;
and as the miserable creature persisted in rising to the surface, she
was pronounced guilty, and beaten to death."

"It was believed that the bodies of devils are not like those of men and
animals, cast in an unchangeable mould. It was thought they were like
clouds, refined and subtle matter, capable of assuming any form and
penetrating into any orifice. The horrible tortures they endured
in their place of punishment rendered them extremely sensitive to
suffering, and they continually sought a temperate and somewhat moist
warmth in order to allay their pangs. It was for this reason they so
frequently entered into men and women."

The devil could transport men, at his will, through the air. He could
beget children; and Martin Luther himself had come in contact with one
of these children. He recommended the mother to throw the child into the
river, in order to free their house from the presence of a devil.

It was believed that the devil could transform people into any shape he
pleased.

Whoever denied these things was denounced as an infidel. All the
believers in witchcraft confidently appealed to the bible. Their mouths
were filled with passages demonstrating the existence of witches and
their power over human beings. By the bible they proved that innumerable
evil spirits were ranging over the world endeavoring to ruin mankind;
that these spirits possessed a power and wisdom far transcending the
limits of human faculties; that they delighted in every misfortune that
could befall the world; that their malice was superhuman. That they
caused tempests was proved by the action of the devil toward Job; by the
passage in the book of Revelation describing the four angels who held
the four winds, and to whom it was given to afflict the earth. They
believed the devil could carry persons hundreds of miles, in a few
seconds, through the air. They believed this, because they knew that
Christ had been carried by the devil in the same manner and placed on a
pinnacle of the temple. "The prophet Habakkuk had been transported by a
spirit from Judea to Babylon; and Philip, the evangelist, had been the
object of a similar miracle; and in the same way Saint Paul had been
carried in the body into the third heaven."

"In those