ghten or harm
innocent people.

The precaution of driving a stake through the body did not always
prove effectual, if countless tales related of ghosts being seen in
the vicinity of such unhallowed burying-grounds be true. Surprise need
not be expressed at such superstition prevailing in a country where
faith in witchcraft still lingers, and in which, at no very remote
time, the statutes against witches were in full force. The State and
the Church believed in the existence of demons and witches.

Luther's opinions on the subject of the agency and operations of evil
spirits may be inferred from his _Colloquia_. "Many devils," he says,
"are in woods, in waters, in wildernesses, and in dark poolly places,
ready to hurt and prejudice people; some are in the thick black
clouds, which cause hail, lightnings, and thunderings, and which
poison the air, the pastures, and grounds."

In a conversation on witchcraft, Luther said he had no compassion on
witches: he would burn every one of them. He reminded the people,
that, according to the old law, the priests threw the first stones at
such malefactors. Luther said his mother had undergone infinite
annoyance from one of her neighbours who was a witch. This witch could
throw a charm upon a child, which would make it cry itself to death. A
pastor having punished the witch for some of her wicked tricks, she
cast a spell on him by means of some earth he had walked upon. The
good man fell sick of a malady, which no remedy could remove, and
shortly thereafter died. Luther was satisfied the devil, through his
prophets, could, and did, foretell future events; that he (the devil)
was so skilled that he could cause death even by the leaf of a tree;
that he had more boxes and pots full of poison, wherewith he destroyed
men, than all the apothecaries in the world had of healing medicine.
The devil, Luther thought, was so crafty that he could deceive our
senses. He caused one to think he saw something he saw not, and to
hear thunder or a trumpet he heard not. Men, he argued, were possessed
by the devil, corporeally and spiritually. Those whom he possessed
corporeally were mad people.

CHAPTER XXXI.

Belief and Teaching of the Roman Catholic
Church--Instructions to Ecclesiastics in reference to
Demons--Swedenborg's Intercourse with Spirits--Marcus
Brutus and his Evil Genius--Cassius and Julius Caesar's
Ghost at Philippi--Phantom Soldiers and
Hors