Most powerful of all was the pentacle, of which Scot’s _Discovery_ (Ap. II, p. 533, 4) furnishes an elaborate description. This figure was used by the Pythagorean school as their seal, and is equivalent to the pentagram or five-pointed star (see _CD._). Dekker (_Wks._ 2. 200) connects it with the Periapt as a ‘potent charm,’ and Marlowe speaks of it in _Hero and Leander_, _Wks._ 3. 45: A rich disparent pentacle she wears, Drawn full of circles and strange characters. It will be remembered that the inscription of a pentagram on the threshold prevents the escape of Mephistopheles in Goethe’s _Faust_. The editors explain its potency as due to the fact that it is resolvable into three triangles, and is thus a triple sign of the Trinity. Cunningham says that the pentacle ‘when delineated upon the body of a man was supposed to point out the five wounds of the Saviour.’ W. J. Thoms (_Anecdotes_, Camden Soc., 1839, p. 97) speaks of its presence in the western window of the southern aisle of Westminster Abbey, an indication that the monks were versed in occult science. =1. 2. 21 If they be not.= Gifford refers to Chrysippus, _De Divinatione,_ Lib. 1. § 71: ‘This is the very syllogism by which that acute philosopher triumphantly proved the reality of augury.’ =1. 2. 22 Why, are there lawes against ’hem?= It was found necessary in 1541 to pass an act (33 Hen. VIII. c. 8) by which--‘it shall be felony to practise, or cause to be practised conjuration, witchcrafte, enchantment, or sorcery, to get money: or to consume any person in his body, members or goods; or to provoke any person to unlawful love; or for the despight of Christ, or lucre of money, to pull down any cross; or to declare where goods stolen be.’ Another law was passed 1 Edward VI. c. 12 (1547). 5 Elizabeth. c. 16 (1562) gives the ‘several penalties of conjuration, or invocation of wicked spirits, and witchcraft, enchantment, charm or sorcery.’ Under Jas. I, anno secundo (vulgo primo), c. 12, still another law was passed, whereby the second offense was declared a felony. The former act of Elizabeth was repealed. This act of James was not repealed until 9 George II. c. 5. _Social England_, p. 270, quotes from Ms. Lansdowne, 2. Art. 26, a deposition from William Wicherley, conjurer, in which he places the number of conjurers in England in 1549 above five hundred. A good idea of the character of the more disreputable type of conjurer can be got from Beaumont and Fletcher’s _Fair Maid of the Inn_. See especially Act 5, Sc. 2. =1. 2. 26 circles.= The magic circle is one of the things most frequently mentioned among the arts of the conjurer. Scot (_Discovery_, p. 476) has a long satirical passage on the subject, in which he enjoins the conjurer to draw a double circle with his own blood, to divide the circle into seven parts and to set at each division a ‘candle lighted in a brazen candlestick.’