The history of witchcraft and demonologySummers, Montague
History
The history of witchcraft and demonology
Summers, Montague
Demonology; Demonology -- History; Witchcraft; Witchcraft -- History
genius of the first order, dominating, like a pyramid, antiquity and the
succeeding ages”[33]; Blessed Albertus Magnus, the “Universal Doctor”
of encyclopædic knowledge; S. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor Angelicus, one of
the profoundest intellects the world has ever seen; the Seraphic S.
Bonaventura, most loving of mystics; Popes not a few, Alexander IV, the
friend of the Franciscans, prudent, kindly, deeply religious, “assiduous
in prayer and strict in abstinence”[34]; John XXII, “a man of serious
character, of austere and simple habits, broadly cultivated”[35];
Benedict XII, a pious Cistercian monk, most learned in theology; Innocent
VIII, a magnificent prelate, scholar and diplomatist; Gregory XV, an
expert in canon and civil law, most just and merciful of pontiffs,
brilliantly talented. We have the names of learned men, such as Gerson,
Chancellor of Notre-Dame and of the University of Paris, “justly regarded
as one of the master intellects of his age”[36]; James Sprenger, O.P.,
who for all his etymological errors was a scholar of vast attainments;
Jean Bodin, “one of the chief founders of political philosophy and
political history”[36]; Erasmus; Bishop Jewell, of Salisbury, “one
of the ablest and most authoritative expounders of the true genius and
teaching of the reformed Church of England”[37]; the gallant Raleigh;
Lord Bacon; Sir Edward Coke; Cardinal Mazarin; the illustrious Boyle;
Cudworth, “perhaps the most profound of all the great scholars who
have adorned the English Church”[36]; Selden; Henry More; Sir Thomas
Browne; Joseph Glanvill, who “has been surpassed in genius by few of his
successors”[36]; Meric Casaubon, the learned Prebendary of Canterbury;
Sir Matthew Hale; Sir George Mackenzie; William Blackstone; and many
another divine, lawyer, scholar, of lesser note. It is inconceivable
that all these, mistaken as they might be in some details, should have
been wholly deluded and beguiled. The learned Sinistrari in his _De
Dæmonialitate_,[38] upon the authoritative sentence of Francesco-Maria
Guazzo, an Ambrosian, (_Compendium Maleficarum_, Liber I. 7), writes:
“Primo, ineunt pactum expressum cum Dæmone aut alio Mago seu Malefico
uicem Dæmonis gerente, et testibus præsentibus de seruitio diabolico
suscipiendo: Dæmon uero uice uersa honores, diuitias, et carnales
delectationes illis pollicetur.” (Firstly, the Novices have to conclude
with the Demon, or some other Wizard or Magician acting in the Demon’s
place, an express compact by which, in the presence of witnesses, they
enlist in the Demon’s service, he giving them in exchange his pledge for
honours, riches, and carnal pleasures.)
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