Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 3.djvu/428

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412 SORCERY AND OCCULT ARTS. vingians, all respect for the Church, its precepts and ooservances, was well-nigh lost throughout the Frankish kingdoms. One of the incidents of reconstruction, as the Carlovingian dynasty slowly emerged, and as St. Boniface, under papal authority, sought to re- store the Church, was the suppression of Bishop Adalbert, who taught the invocation of the angels Uriel, Baguel, Tubuel, Inias, Tubuas, Sabaoc, and Simiel. Adalbert was venerated as a saint. and the clippings of his nails and hair were treasured as relics. Repeated condemnations at home had no effect on this false wor- ship of angels, and Pope Zachary held, in 745, a synod in Rome which declared it to be a worship of demons, as the only angels whose names are known are Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael. Yet this superstition took so firm a hold upon the people that it was long before it could be eradicated ; indeed, it seems to be alluded to, even in the middle of the tenth century, by Atto of Vercelli.* When such was the condition of the Church, no suppression of sorcerv was to be looked for. Among the instructions to Boniface and his fellow-missionaries was the eradication of all pagan observances, including divination, sorcery, and cognate superstitions. As the Church became reor- ganized, councils were held in 742 and 743, in which Church and State united in prohibiting them, although only a moderate fine was threatened, but the ecclesiastical jurisdiction over such offences was established by ordering the bishops to make yearly visitations of their sees to suppress paganism and the forbidden arts. Boniface, however, complained to Zachary that when the Frank or German visited Rome he saw there, openly practised, the things which they were laboriously endeavoring to suppress at home. The first of January was celebrated with pagan dances ; women wore amulets and ligatures, and publicly offered them for sale. The pope could only reply that these things had long ago been prohibited, but as they had broken out afresh he had forbidden them again — but we may be assured without success. f

  • Concil. Suessionens. arm. 744.— Zachar. PP. Epist. 9, 10. — Bonifacii Epist.

lvii. — Synod. Roman, ann. 745 (Bouifacii Opp. in. 10). — Carol. Mag. Capit. Aquisgr. ann. 789 c. 16. — Capit. Herardi Archiep. Turon. ann. 838 c. 3 (Baluz. Capitular. I. 677).— Atton. Vercell. Capitular, c. 48. f Gregor. PP. II. Capit. data legatis in Bavariam, c. 8, 9. — Concil. German. I