Even historical personages did not escape the melancholy fate of being possessed by the devil. The belief in this continued beyond the Thirty years' war. In the last century the compact which the Duke of Luxemburg, the opponent of Prince William of Orange, had made with the devil, was imparted to the public with all kinds of details and comments; and it is characteristic of that fastidious period, that the Duke imposed upon the devil, among other conditions, that he should only appear to him under an agreeable, not in a terrible form.[68] Following the examples given in the Bible, the new Church treated more kindly those that were possessed. Luther and his followers assumed that these, through sins which might be forgiven, and sometimes through small errors, had fallen into the power of the devil, and that it was a duty and a merit in believers to drive out the evil spirit by prayers and adjurations. It was not all lunatics or epileptic persons who were considered to be possessed of the devil, but as he was supposed to be at work everywhere, they often had the satisfaction of finding him. The most wonderful indications of his activity were watched with credulous zeal. Weak-minded women principally were impressed with the belief that they were tormented by the devil; and it was the natural result of this imagination that in their sickly condition they expressed the most violent repugnance against ecclesiastics, and the pious ceremonies with which they were favoured. But how far preconceived opinions can confuse the senses, not only of the sick, but also of the healthy, and falsify the witness of their own eyes and ears, we discover with astonishment in numerous accounts of eye-witnesses, who are fully worthy of credit, but who perceive and believe in the most impossible things in those possessed. To mention a very absurd instance supposed to have happened in the time of Luther, at Frankfort on the Oder; a maiden who had always been weak in mind was possessed by Satan in the following way: "When the suspected maid seized any one by the coat or beard, or otherwise, she always found money instead in her hand, which she instantly put into her mouth, crunched, and at last swallowed. This money one could only get out of her hand by force. In the same way she everywhere found needles. Sometimes she handed over to the people who stood around her this devil's money, which she had caught from the walls, tables, benches, stones, and ground. It was good coin, groschen and pfennige, but there were some bad red ones among it." This extraordinary occurrence is related in a pamphlet by Dr. Andreas Ebert, an ecclesiastic; and his account is confirmed by Theodore Duerrkragen, the president of the city council. Luther, as with hundreds of other critical questions, was asked his opinion about this: he was distrustful, desired to know whether it was good money; and at last advised that the maiden should be sedulously taken to church and prayers made for her to God.