ces bears, that if it should
happen "_there were persons to be found wicked enough to add impiety
and sacrilege to superstition, those who shall be convicted of these
crimes shall be punished with death_."

When, therefore, it is evident that some person has inflicted injury
on his neighbor by malpractices, the Parliament punishes them
rigorously, even to the pain of death, conformably to the ancient
Capitularies of the kingdom,[142] and the royal Ordonnances. Bodin,
who wrote in 1680, has collected a great number of decrees, to which
may be added those which the reverend Father le Brun reports, given
since that time.

He afterwards relates a remarkable instance of a man named Hocque, who
was condemned to the galleys, the 2d of September, 1687, by sentence
of the High Court of Justice at Passy, for having made use of
malpractices towards animals, and having thus killed a great number in
Champagne. Hocque died suddenly, miserably, and in despair, after
having discovered, when drunken with wine, to a person named Beatrice,
the secret which he made use of to kill the cattle; he was not
ignorant that the demon would cause his death to revenge the discovery
which he had made of this spell.

Some of the accomplices of this wretched man were condemned to the
galleys by divers decrees; others were condemned to be hanged and
burnt, by order of the Baille of Passy, the 26th of October, 1691,
which sentence was confirmed by decree of the Parliament of Paris, the
18th of December, 1691. From all which we deduce that the Parliament
of Paris acknowledges that the spells by which people do injury to
their neighbors ought to be rigorously punished; that the devil has
very extensive power, which he too often exercises over men and
animals, and that he would exercise it oftener, and with greater
extension and fury, if he were not limited and hindered by the power
of God, and that of good angels, who set bounds to his malice. St Paul
warns us[143] to put on the armor of God, to be able to resist the
snares of the devil: for, adds he, "we have not to war against flesh
and blood: but against princes and powers, against the bad spirits who
govern this dark world, against the spirits of malice who reign in the
air."

Footnotes:

[139] Acts xvi. 10.

[140] Page 31, _et seq._

[141] Capitular. R. xiii de Sortilegiis et Sorciariis, 2 col. 36.

[142] Capitular. in 872, x. 2. col. 230.

[143] Eph. vi. 12.

CHAPTER X.

EXAM