Page:The history of Witchcraft and demonology.djvu/67

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THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT

51 It is true that S. Augustine does not bring a charge of depravity against the Manichæans, but they veiled their vices with the greatest caution, and S. Augustine was simply a catechumen, one of the Auditors, who would have known nothing of these esoteric abominations.

52 Extra ciuitatis educti muros in quodam tuguriolo copioso igne accenso . . . cremati sunt. Gesta synodi Aurelianensis. Arnould. L’Inquisition. (Paris, 1869). VI. p. 46.

53 Sed antequam ad conflictum ueniamus, de cibo illo, qui cœlestis ab illis dicebatur, quali arte conficiebatur, nescientibus demonstrare curabo. Congregabantur si quidem certis noctibus in domo denominata, singuli lucernas tenentes in manibus, ad instar letaniæ demonum nomina declamabant, donec subito Dæmonem in similitudine cuiuslibet bestiolæ inter eos uiderent descendere. Qui statim, ut uisibilis ille uidebatur uisio, omnibus extinctis luminaribus, quamprimum quisque poterat, mulierem, quæ ad manum sibi ueniebat, ad abutendum arripiebat, sine peccati respectu, et utrum mater, aut soror, aut monacha haberetur, pro sanctitate et religione eius concubitus ab illis æstimabatur; ex quo spurcissimo concubitu infans generatus, octaua die in medio eorum copioso igne accenso probabatur per ignem more antiquorum Paganorum; et sic in igne cremabatur. Cuius cinis tanta ueneratione colligebatur atque custodiebatur, ut Christiana religiositas Corpus Christi custodire solet, ægris dandum de hoc sæculo exituris ad uiaticum. Inerat enim tanta uis diabolicæ fraudis in ipso cinere ut quicumque de præfata hæresi imbutus fuisset, et de eodem cinere quamuis sumendo parum prælibauisset, uix unquam postea de eodem heresi gressum mentis ad uiam ueritatis dirigere ualeret. De qua re parum dixisse sufficiat, ut Christicolæ caueant se ab hoc nefario opere, non ut studeant sectando imitari. Schmidt. Histoire et doctrine des Cathares ou Albigeois. Paris. 1849. I. p. 31.

54 G. R. Kinloch. Reliquiæ Antiquæ Scoticæ. Edinburgh, 1848.

55 Adhémar de Chabannes. (A monk of Angoulême.) Chronicon, Recueil des historicus, vol. X. p. 163.

56 Fabré Palaprat. Recherches Historiques sur les Templiers, Paris, 1835.

57 Cambridge University Press, 1925.

58 The Philosopher, July–August, 1924.

59 The Philosopher, January–March, 1925. The Albigenses, pp. 20–25. The whole article, which is written with extraordinary restraint, should be read.

60 He is the author of Éléments d’Astrologie; Un disciple de Cl. de Saint-Martin, Dutoit-Membrini; Premiers Éléments d’Occultisme; La petite Église anticoncordataire, son histoire, son état actuel; J. K. Huysmans et le Satanisme; Huysmans, Occultiste et Magicien.

61 In Uerrem. IV. 43.

62 H. Th. Pyl, Die griechischen Rundbauten, 1861, pp. 67, sqq.

63 Plutarch, Theseus 36; Cimon 8.

64 Pausanias is the chief authority on this point. See Rohde Psyche, I. p. 161.

65 Clarendon Press, 1921.

66 The Witch-Cult in Western Europe, p. 16. It is true that the Brethren of the Free Spirit, anarchists, who vaunted the Adamite heresy, in the Thirteenth century, went to the stake with pæans of joy. But they were probably drugged. J. L. Mosheim, Ecclesiastical History. London. 1819. III. p. 278. sqq. The Adamites were a licentious sect who called their church Paradise and worshipped in a state of stark nudity. They were Gnostics and claimed complete emancipation from the moral law. They lived in shameful communism. Bohemian Adamites existed as late as 1849. In Russia the teleschi, a branch of the sect known as the “Divine Men,” performed their religious rites in a state of nature, following the example, as they asserted, of Adam and Eve in Paradise. These assemblies were wont to end in promiscuous debauchery.

67 Idem. p. 161.

68 Witch-Cult in Western Europe, p. 161.

69 Additional Notices of Major Weir and his Sister; Sinclar’s Satan’s Invisible World. (Reprint. 1875)