d muttering the spells
which were supposed to raise the evil one. When religion and law alike
recognized the crime, it is no wonder that the weak in reason and the
strong in imagination, especially when they were of a nervous
temperament, fancied themselves endued with the terrible powers of
which all the world was speaking. The belief of their neighbours did
not lag behind their own, and execution was the speedy consequence.

As the fear of witchcraft increased, the Catholic clergy strove to fix
the imputation of it upon those religious sects, the pioneers of the
Reformation, who began about this time to be formidable to the Church
of Rome. If a charge of heresy could not ensure their destruction, that
of sorcery and witchcraft never failed. In the year 1459, a devoted
congregation of the Waldenses, at Arras, who used to repair at night to
worship God in their own manner in solitary places, fell victims to an
accusation of sorcery. It was rumored in Arras that in the desert
places to which they retired, the devil appeared before them in human
form, and read from a large book his laws and ordinances, to which they
all promised obedience; that he then distributed money and food among
them, to bind them to his service, which done, they gave themselves up
to every species of lewdness and debauchery. Upon these rumours,
several creditable persons in Arras were seized and imprisoned,
together with a number of decrepit and idiotic old women. The rack,
that convenient instrument for making the accused confess anything, was
of course put in requisition. Monstrelet, in his Chronicle, says that
they were tortured until some of them admitted the truth of the whole
accusations, and said besides, that they had seen and recognized, in
their nocturnal assemblies, many persons of rank; many prelates,
seigneurs, governors of bailliages, and mayors of cities, being such
names as the examiners had themselves suggested to the victims. Several
who had been thus informed against, were thrown into prison, and so
horribly tortured, that reason fled, and, in their ravings of pain,
they also confessed their midnight meetings with the devil, and the
oaths they had taken to serve him. Upon these confessions judgment was
pronounced: the poor old women, as usual in such cases, were hanged and
burned in the market-place; the more wealthy delinquents were allowed
to escape, upon payment of large sums. It was soon after universally
recognized that th