Evidence of the appearance of the devil was various and
contradictory. Some at the _Domdaniel_, the place of assemblage,
had a vision of a hideous wild he-goat upon a large gilded
throne; others of a man twisted and disfigured by Tartarean
torture; of a gentleman in black with a sword, booted and
spurred; to others he seemed as some shapeless indistinct object,
as that of the trunk of a tree, or some huge rock or stone. They
proceeded to their meetings riding on spits, pitchforks,
broom-sticks: being entertained on their arrival in the approved
style, and indulging in the usual licence. Deputies from witchdom
attended from all parts, even from Scotland. When reproached by
some of his slaves for failing to come to the rescue in the
torture-chamber or at the stake, their lord replied by causing
illusory fires to be lit, bidding the doubters walk through the
harmless flames, promising not more inconvenience in the bonfires
of their persecutors. Lycanthropic criminals were also brought up
who had prowled about and devastated the sheepfolds. Espaignol
and De l'Ancre were provided with two professional Matthew
Hopkinses: one a surgeon for examining the 'marks' (generally
here discovered in the left eye, like a frog's foot) in the men
and older women; the other a girl of seventeen, for the younger
of her sex. Many of the priests were executed; several made their
escape from the country. Besides the work before mentioned, De
l'Ancre published a treatise under the title of 'L'Incredulite et
Mescreance du Sortilege pleinement convaincue,' 1622. The
expiration of the term of the Bordeaux commission brought the
proceedings to a close, and fortunately saved a number of the
condemned.
In Spain, the land of Torquemada and Ximenes, which had long ago
fanatically expelled the Jews and recently its old Moorish
conquerors from its soil, the unceasing activity of the
Inquisition during 140 years must have extorted innumerable
confessions and proofs of diabolic conspiracies and heresy.
Antonio Llorente, the historian of the Inquisition, to whose rare
opportunities of obtaining information we are indebted for some
instructive revelations, has exposed a large number of the
previously silent and dark transactions of the Holy Office. But
the demonological ideas of the Southern Church and people are
profusely displayed in the copious dramatic literature of the
Spaniards, whose theatre was at one time nearly as popular, if
not as influential, as the Church.
The dramas of the celebrated Lope de Vega and of Calderon in
particular, are filled with demons as well as angels[122]--a
sort of religious compensation to the Church for the moral
deficiencies of a licentious stage, or rather licentious public.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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