Female influence in early France—Velleda slandered by Chateaubriand—_Berthe au grand pied_—The fairy Melusine—Saint Clothilde—The sorceress Fredegonde—The story of Klodswinthe—Fredegonde and Clovis—Further concerning her history 232 CHAPTER III THE SALIC LAWS AGAINST SORCERERS Laws attributed to Pharamond—Explanation of a Talmudic passage by Rabbi Jechiel—Belief in the immortality of the soul among the Jews—An ecclesiastical council on sorcery—The rise of Mohammed—The religious history of Charles Martel—The Reign of Pepin the Short—The Kabalist Zedekias—His fables concerning elementary spirits—An epidemic of visions 238 CHAPTER IV LEGENDS OF THE REIGN OF CHARLEMAGNE Charlemagne a prince of faerie—Charlemagne and Roland—The enchanted sword and magic horn—The _Enchiridion_ of Leo III—The tradition therein—The pantacles—The Sabbath—The Free Judges—Their foundation and purpose—Power of this Tribunal—The fate of Frederick of Brunswick—Code of the Free Judges—Laws of Charlemagne—Knight errantry—The cultus of the Blessed Virgin 246 CHAPTER V MAGICIANS The pope and empire—The penalty of excommunication—Further concerning Rabbi Jechiel—The automaton of Albertus Magnus—Albertus and St. Thomas Aquinas—The legend of the automaton interpreted—Scholasticism and Aristotelian philosophy—The philosophical stone and the quintessence 256 CHAPTER VI SOME FAMOUS PROSECUTIONS The great religious orders and their power—The Knights Templar—Their origin—Their secret design—The Christian sect of Johannites—Their profanation of the history of Christ—Pontiffs of the Johannite sect—The Johannites and the Templars—Further concerning Templar secret doctrine—Development of the chivalry—Their projects discovered—Their suppression—The case of Joan of Arc—The history of Gilles de Laval 264 CHAPTER VII SUPERSTITIONS RELATING TO THE DEVIL Apparitions of Satan—Possessions—A philosophy of superstitions—The crime of Black Magic—Pathological states—The soul of the world—Modern phenomena—Fourier and M. de Mirville—Baron de Guldenstubbé 281 BOOK V _THE ADEPTS AND THE PRIESTHOOD_ CHAPTER I PRIESTS AND POPES ACCUSED OF MAGIC