Did this butchery in the name of their Moloch-god prevent these treasure-hunters from resorting to the black art themselves? Not in the least; for in no class were such consulters of “familiar” spirits more numerous than among the clergy during the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries. True, there were some Catholic priests among the victims, but though these were generally accused of having “been led into practices too dreadful to be described,” it was not so. In the twenty-nine burnings above catalogued we find the names of _twelve vicars_, _four_ canons, and two doctors of divinity _burnt alive_. But we have only to turn to such works as were published at the time to assure ourselves that each popish priest executed was accused of “damnable heresy,” _i.e._, a tendency to reformation--a crime more heinous far than sorcery. We refer those who would learn how the Catholic clergy united duty with pleasure in the matter of exorcisms, revenge, and treasure-hunting, to volume II., chapter i., of W. Howitt’s _History of the Supernatural_. “In the book called _Pneumatologia Occulta et Vera_, all the forms of adjuration and conjuration were laid down,” says this veteran writer. He then proceeds to give a long description of the favorite _modus operandi_. The _Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie_ of the late Eliphas Levi, treated with so much abuse and contempt by des Mousseaux, tells nothing of the weird ceremonies and practices but what was practiced legally and with the tacit if not open consent of the Church, by the priests of the middle ages. The exorcist-priest entered a circle at midnight; he was clad in a new surplice, and had a consecrated band hanging from the neck, covered with sacred characters. He wore on the head a tall pointed cap, on the front of which was written in Hebrew the holy word, Tetragrammaton--the ineffable name. It was written with a new pen dipped in the blood of a white dove. What the exorcists most yearned after, was to release miserable spirits _which haunt spots where hidden treasures lie_. The exorcist sprinkles the circle with the blood of a black lamb and a white pigeon. The priest had to adjure the evil spirits of hell--Acheront, Magoth, Asmodei, Beelzebub, Belial, and all the damned souls, in the mighty names of Jehovah, Adonay, Elohah, and Sabaioth, which latter was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who dwelt in the Urim and Thummim. When the damned souls flung in the face of the exorcist that he was a sinner, and could not get the treasure from them, the priest-sorcerer had to reply that “all his sins were washed out in the blood of Christ,[92] and he bid them depart as cursed ghosts and damned flies.” When the exorcist dislodged them at last, the poor soul was “comforted in the name of the Saviour, and _consigned to the care of good angels_,” who were less powerful, we must think, than the exorcising Catholic worthies, “and the rescued treasure, of course, was secured for the Church.”