ints were the
same in France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Spain, and the far North of
Europe.

The early annals of France abound with stories of supposed sorcery, but it
was not until the time of Charlemagne that the crime acquired any great
importance. "This monarch," says M. Jules Garinet,[24] "had several times
given orders that all necromancers, astrologers, and witches should be
driven from his states; but as the number of criminals augmented daily, he
found it necessary at last to resort to severer measures. In consequence,
he published several edicts, which may be found at length in the
_Capitulaire de Baluse_. By these, every sort of magic, enchantment, and
witchcraft was forbidden; and the punishment of death decreed against
those who in any way evoked the devil, compounded love-philters, afflicted
either man or woman with barrenness, troubled the atmosphere, excited
tempests, destroyed the fruits of the earth, dried up the milk of cows, or
tormented their fellow-creatures with sores and diseases. All persons
found guilty of exercising these execrable arts were to be executed
immediately upon conviction, that the earth might be rid of the burden and
curse of their presence; and those even who consulted them might also be
punished with death."[25]

[24] _Histoire de la Magie en France_. Rois de la seconde race,
p. 29.

[25] M. Michaud, in his _History of the Crusades_, M. Guinguene,
in his _Literary History of Italy_, and some other critics,
have objected to Tasso's poem, that he has attributed to the
Crusaders a belief in magic, which did not exist at that
time. If these critics had referred to the edicts of
Charlemagne, they would have seen that Tasso was right, and
that a disposition too eager to spy out imperfections in a
great work was leading themselves into error.

After this time, prosecutions for witchcraft are continually mentioned,
especially by the French historians. It was a crime imputed
with so much ease, and repelled with so much difficulty, that the
powerful, whenever they wanted to ruin the weak, and could fix no
other imputation upon them, had only to accuse them of witchcraft
to ensure their destruction. Instances in which this crime was made
the pretext for the most violent persecution, both of individuals and
of communities, whose real offences were purely political or religious,
must be familiar to ever