place.

"Des Hermies certainly has some curious items," he murmured, opening a
very old book. Here's a treatise written centuries ago to suit my case
exactly. _Manuale exorcismorum_. Well, I'll be damned! It's a Plantin.
And what does this manual have to recommend in the treatment of the
possessed?

"Hmmm. Contains some quaint counter-spells. Here are some for
energumens, for the bewitched; here are some against love-philtres and
against the plague; against spells cast on comestibles; some, even, to
keep butter and milk sweet. That isn't odd. The Devil entered into
everything in the good old days. And what can this be?" In his hand he
held two little volumes with crimson edges, bound in fawn-coloured calf.
He opened them and looked at the title, _The anatomy of the mass_, by
Pierre du Moulin, dated, Geneva, 1624. "Might prove interesting." He
went to warm his feet, and hastily skimmed through one of the volumes.
"Why!" he said, "it's mighty good."

On the page which he was reading was a discussion of the priesthood. The
author affirmed that none might exercise the functions of the priesthood
if he was not sound in body, or if any of his members had been
amputated, and asking apropos of this, if a castrated man could be
ordained a priest, he answered his own question, "No, unless he carries
upon him, reduced to powder, the parts which are wanting." He added,
however, that Cardinal Tolet did not admit this interpretation, which
nevertheless had been universally adopted.

Durtal, amused, read on. Now du Moulin was debating with himself the
point whether it was necessary to interdict abbes ravaged by lechery.
And in answer he cited himself the melancholy glose of Canon Maximianus,
who, in his Distinction 81, sighs, "It is commonly said that none ought
to be deposed from his charge for fornication, in view of the fact that
few can be found exempt from this vice."

"Why! You here?" said Des Hermies, entering. "What are you reading? _The
anatomy of the mass?_ Oh, it's a poor thing, for Protestants. I am just
about distracted. Oh, my friend, what brutes those people are," and like
a man with a great weight on his chest he unburdened himself.

"Yes, I have just come from a consultation with those whom the journals
characterize as 'princes of science.' For a quarter of an hour I have
had to listen to the most contradictory opinions. On one point, however,
all agreed: that my patient was a dead man. Finally they compromised