he evil. A decree was passed that all witches and
consulters with witches should be punished with death; and not only those,
but fortune-tellers and conjurors of every kind. The parliament of Rouen
took up the same question in the following year, and decreed that the
possession of a _grimoire_, or book of spells, was sufficient evidence of
witchcraft, and that all persons on whom such books were found should be
burned alive. Three councils were held in different parts of France in the
year 1583, all in relation to the same subject. The parliament of
Bourdeaux issued strict injunctions to all curates and clergy whatever to
use redoubled efforts to root out the crime of witchcraft. The parliament
of Tours was equally peremptory, and feared the judgments of an offended
God if all these dealers with the devil were not swept from the face of
the land. The parliament of Rheims was particularly severe against the
_noueurs d'aiguillette_, or "tyers of the knot"--people of both sexes who
took pleasure in preventing the consummation of marriage, that they might
counteract the command of God to our first parents to increase and
multiply. This parliament held it to be sinful to wear amulets to preserve
from witchcraft; and that this practice might not be continued within its
jurisdiction, drew up a form of exorcism, which would more effectually
defeat the agents of the devil, and put them to flight.

A case of witchcraft, which created a great sensation in its day, occurred
in 1588, at a village in the mountains of Auvergne, about two leagues from
Apchon. A gentleman of that place being at his window, there passed a
friend of his who had been out hunting, and who was then returning to his
own house. The gentleman asked his friend what sport he had had; upon
which the latter informed him that he had been attacked in the plain by a
large and savage wolf, which he had shot at without wounding, and that he
had then drawn out his hunting-knife and cut off the animal's fore-paw as
it sprang upon his neck to devour him. The huntsman upon this put his hand
into his bag to pull out the paw, but was shocked to find that it was a
woman's hand, with a wedding-ring on the finger. The gentleman immediately
recognised his wife's ring, "which," says the indictment against her,
"made him begin to suspect some evil of her." He immediately went in
search of her, and found her sitting by the fire in the kitchen, with her
arm hidden underneath her apron.