A prevalent kind of sorcery was that of lycanthropy, as it was
called, a prejudice derived, it seems, in part from the
Pythagorean metempsychosis. A few cases will illustrate the
nature of this stupendous transformation. That it is mostly
found to take place in France and in the southern districts, the
country of wolves, that still make their ravages there, is a fact
easily intelligible; and if the devil can enter into swine, he
can also, in the opinion of the demonologists, as easily enter
into wolves. At Dole, in 1573, a loup-garou, or wehr-wolf
(man-wolf), was accused of devastating the country and devouring
little children. The indictment was read by Henri Camus, doctor
of laws and counsellor of the king, to the effect that the
accused, Gilles Garnier, had killed a girl twelve years of age,
having torn her to pieces, partly with his teeth, and partly with
his wolf's paws; that having dragged the body into the forest, he
there devoured the larger portion, reserving the remainder for
his wife; also that, by reason of injuries inflicted in a similar
way on another young girl, the loup-garou had occasioned her
death; also that he had devoured a boy of thirteen, tearing him
limb by limb; that he displayed the same unnatural propensities
even in his own proper shape. Fifty persons were found to bear
witness; and he was put to the rack, which elicited an unreserved
confession. He was then brought back into court, when Dr. Camus,
in the name of the Parliament of Dole, pronounced the following
sentence: 'Seeing that Gilles Garnier has, by the testimony of
credible witnesses and by his own spontaneous confession, been
proved guilty of the abominable crimes of lycanthropy and
witchcraft, this court condemns him, the said Grilles, to be
this day taken in a cart from this spot to the place of
execution, accompanied by the executioner, where he, by the said
executioner, shall be tied to a stake and burned alive, and that
his ashes be then scattered to the winds. The court further
condemns him, the said Gilles, to the costs of this prosecution.
Given at Dole this 18th day of January, 1573.' Five years later a
man named Jacques Rollet was burned alive in the Place de Greve
for the same crime, having been tried and condemned by the
Parliament of Paris.[119]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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