452 SORCERY AND OCCULT ARTS. that he had attempted the life of Benedict XI. by magic arts, and although this failed of proof, he confessed under torture that a book of necromancy found in his chest belonged to him, and that certain marginal notes in it were in his own handwriting. In this he could not have been alone among his brethren, for in the general chapter of the Franciscans in 1312 a statute was adopt- ed forbidding, under penalty of excommunication and prison, any member of the Order from possessing such books, and dabbling in alchemy, necromancy, divination, incantation, or the invocation of demons.* The growing importance of sorcery in popular belief received a powerful impetus from John XXII., who in so many ways exercised on his age an influence so deplorable. As one of the most learned theologians of the day, he had full convictions of the reality of all the marvels claimed for magic, and his own ex- perience led him to entertain a lively dread of them. The cir- cumstances of his election were such as to render probable the existence of conspiracies for his removal, and he lent a ready ear to suowstions concerning them. His barbarity towards the un- fortunate Hugues, Bishop of Cahors, has been already alluded to ? and before the first year of his reign was out he had another group of criminals to dispose of. In 1317 we find him issuing a commission to Gaillard, Bishop of Beggio, and several assessors to try a barber-surgeon named Jean d'Amant and sundry clerks of the Sacred Palace on the charge of attempting his life. Under the
- Differend de Boniface VIII. et de Ph. le Bel, Preuves, 103.— Rymer, Feed.
II. 931-4.— Joann. S. Victor. Vit. Clement. V. (Muratori S. R. I. III. n. 457).— Grandes Chroniques V. 217-20, 291.— Guill. Nangiac, Contin. ann. 1315, 1325.— MSS. Bib. Nat., fonds latin, No. 4270 fol. 37-8, 144-5. Enguerrand de Marigny had been all-powerful under Philippe le Bel, con- trolling the papal as well as the royal court, and his marvellous rise from ob- scurity led to the popular impression that he must be a skilful necromancer — "Ce fu cil qui fist cardonnaux, Et si le pape tint en ses las, Qui de petits clers fist prelats — — Si orent mainte gent creance Que ce par art de nigromance Fait, qu'en ce monde faisoit."' — Godefroi de Paris, v. 6620-9.
