part in the history of Witchcraft, and, especially in Spain, until the

nineteenth century at least, there were prosecutions, not so much for the observance of Hebrew ceremonies as is often suggested and supposed, but for the practice of the dark and hideous traditions of Hebrew magic. Closely connected with these ancient sorceries are those ritual murders, of which a learned Premonstratensian Canon of Wilthin, Adrian Kembter, writing in 1745, was able to enumerate no less than two-and-fifty,[37] the latest of these having taken place in 1650, when at Cadan in Bohemia, Matthias, a lad of four years old, was killed by certain rabbis with seven wounds. In many cases the evidence is quite conclusive that the body, and especially the blood of the victim, was used for magical purposes. Thus with reference to little S. Hugh of Lincoln, after various very striking details, the chronicler has: “Et cum exspirasset puer, deposuerunt corpus de cruce, et nescitur qua ratione, euiscerarunt corpusculum; dicitur autem, quod ad magicas artes exercendas.” In 1261 at Forcheim in Bavaria the blood of a murdered boy was used to sprinkle certain thresholds and doors. In 1285 at Munich a witch was convicted of selling Christian children to the Jews, who carefully preserved the blood in curious vessels for secret rites. In 1494 at Tyrnau twelve vampires were executed for having opened the veins of a boy whom they had snared, and having drunk his warm blood thence whilst he was yet alive. A deed of peculiar horror was discovered at Szydlow in 1597 when the victim was put to death in exquisite tortures, the blood and several members of the body being partaken of by the murderers. In almost every case the blood was carefully collected, there can be no doubt for magical purposes, the underlying idea being the precept of the Mosaic law: Anima enim omnis carnis in sanguine est:[38] For the life of all flesh is in the blood thereof. NOTES TO CHAPTER V [1] _Khartummim._ The same word is used to describe the magicians whom Pharaoh summoned to interpret his dream, _Genesis_ xli. 8, where the Vulgate has _coniectores_. _Exodus_ viii. 11, the Vulgate reads: “Uocauit autem Pharao sapientes et maleficos.” [2] It is perhaps worth mentioning that even the most modernistic commentators assign the history of Balaam to the oldest document of the Hexateuch, that they call the Jehovistic. [3] In his commentary on the ninth chapter of the prophet Osee (Hosea), S. Jerome says: “Ingressi [sunt] ad Beel-Phegor, idolum Moabitarum quem nos PRIAPUM possumus appelare.” And Rufinus on the same prophet has: “Beel-Phegor figuram Priapi dixerunt tenere.” (They entered in unto Beel-Phegor, the idol of the Moabites, whom we may identify with PRIAPUS.... Beel-Phegor is said to have had the same shape as Priapus.) [4] Balaam hariolus a Domino mittitur ut decipiat Balac filium Beor. _In Ezechielem_, IV. xiv. Migne, _Patres Latini_, XXV. p. 118. (Baalam, a soothsayer, is sent by God to deceive Balac, son of Beor.) [5] Balaam fuisse prophetam non Dei, sed diaboli constat.... Fuit ipse magus, et dæmonis alloquium quærebat, eumque consulere. [6] The word is usually found with _yidde ’onim_ (from _yada_, “to know,”) and they are generally considered to be identical in meaning. But W. R. Smith, _Journ. Phil._, XIV. 127, makes the following distinction: Yidde ’oni is a familiar spirit, one known to him who calls it up; the ’ôbh is any spirit who may be invoked by a spell and forced to answer questions. [7] _Divination, et la science des présages_, Paris, 1875. p. 161 ff. [8] _History of the People of Israel_, 3 vols., London, 1888-91. I. p. 347. [9] Cf. Ovid, _Metamorphoseon_, IV, 412-3, of bats: Conatæque loqui, minimam pro corpore uocem Emittunt; peraguntque leues stridore querelas. [10] Josephus says that Samuel told the witch it was Saul. [11] Migne, _Patres Græci_, LXXX. p. 589. [12] Plerique putant Saulem signum accepisse de terra et de profundo inferni quando Samuelem per incantationes et artes magicas uisus est suscitasse. Migne, _Patres Latini_, XXIV. p. 106. [13] ... inspirantur diabolico spiritu. Has autem dicunt Hebræi maleficis artibus eruditas per necromantias et pythicum spiritum qualis fuit illa quæ uisa est suscitare animam Samuelis. _Idem_, XXV. p. 114. [14] Migne, _Patres Græci_, XLV. pp. 107-14. [15] Δαίμονες γαρ ἦσαν οἱ κατασχηματίζουτες ὲαυτοὺς εἰς τὸ τοῦ Σαμουὴλ πρόσωπον. _Idem_, XXX. p. 497. [16] Et credo quia [spiritus immundi] mendacio possunt; nec enim pythonico tunc spiritui minus liciut animam Samuelis effingere. (_De Anima_, LVII.) Migne, _Patres Latini_, II. p. 749. [17] Ἀλλὰ γέγραπται, ὁτὶ ἔγνω Σαουλ ὅτι Σαμουὴλ ἔστι. [18] ἐπεὶ οὐ δύναται ψευδέσθαι ἡ Γραφη. τὰ δε ῥήματα τῆς Γραφῆς ἐστὶν· Καὶ εἶδεν ἡ γυνὴ τὸν Σαμουήλ. (_In librum Regum._ Homilia II.) Migne, _Patres Græci_, XII. p. 1013. [19] καὶ ὅτι μένουσιν αὶ ψυχαὶ, ἀπέδειξα ὑμῖν ἐκ τοῦ καὶ τὴν Σαμουὴλ ψυχὴν κληθῆναι ὑπὸ τῆς ἐγγαστριμμύθου, ὡς ἠξίωσιν ὁ Σαουλ. (_In I. Regum._ XXVIII.) _Idem_, XII. [20] Samuel post mortem, secundum Scripturæ Testimonium futura non tacuit. _I. Regum._ XXVIII. 17 _et seq._ (_In Lucam._ I. 33.) Migne, _Patres Latini_. XV. p. 1547. [21] Imago Samuelis mortui Saul regi uera prænuntiauit. _Idem_, XXXIV. p. 52. And _De Cura_, XL. p. 606. [22] Nam Samuel propheta defunctus uiuo Sauli etiam regi futura prædixit. [23] Whiston’s translation. Ed. 1825. Vol. I, p. 263. [24] So _1 Kings_ (_Samuel_) xv. 23: “Because it is like the sin of witchcraft, to rebel.” Heresy and rebellion are fundamentally the same. [25] Schrader, _Die Keilenscheiften und das alte Testament_, Giessen, 2nd ed., 1883. [26] ... raconta ses rapts d’enfants, ses hideuses tactiques, ses stimulations infernales, ses meurtres impétueux, ses implacables viols; obsédé par la vision des ses victimes, il décrivit leurs agonies ralenties ou hâtées, leurs appels et leurs râles; il avoua s’être vautré dans les élastiques tiédeurs des intestins; il confessa qu’il avait arraché des cœurs par des plaies élargies, ouvertes, telles que des fruits mûrs. _Là-Bas_, J. K. Huysmans, c. xviii. [27] Healey’s translation, 1610. [28] _De Magia_, XLVII. [29] _The Primitive Inhabitants of Scandinavia_, Sven Nilsson. 3rd edition. 1868. p. 241. [30] The original title is κατὰ πασῶν αἱρέσεων ἔλεγχος. A Refutation of all Heresies. The first book had long been known; books IV-X, which had been discovered a short time previously, were first published in 1851 (Oxford) by Miller as the work of Origen, but edited by Duncker and Schneidewin as by Hippolitus, eight years later, Göttingen, 1859. The first chapters of the Fourth, and the whole of the Second and Third Books are still missing. [31] Theocritus, II. 121. Κρατὶ δ’ ἔχων λεύκαν Ἡρακλέος ἱερὸν ἔρνος. Vergil. _Eclogue_ VIII, 61: Populus Alcidæ gratissima. _Æneid_, VIII, 276: Herculea bicolor quem populus umbra.... [32] Pliny (_Historia Naturalis_, XV. 86) says walnuts were thrown, and it appears from an inscription that this custom prevailed on birthdays as well as at weddings. But originally, at any rate, chestnuts were also used. In time the meaning became obscured, and as nuts were used in all kinds of games they merely became synonymous with playthings. [33] The play is referred to in 1520 as _Messer Nicia_, and the first edition printed at Florence _circa_ 1524 has the title _The Comedy of Callimaco and Lucrezia_, but the Prologue definitely gives the name _La Mandragola_ (_The Mandrake_), and this is used in all later editions. The story has been imitated by La Fontaine; the play itself (which is still acted in Italy) has been repeatedly translated, at least six times into French and five times into German, but as yet no English version has been published. [34] _De Legibus Hebræorum ritualibus earumque rationibus_, 2 vols., Tubingæ, 1732. [35] Not later than A.D. 200. They were well known to Commodian, who wrote about A.D. 250. [36] This is, of course, the view of the Fathers, and even later theological writers (e.g. Alfred Edersheim, Delitzsch, Rev. Walter Scott) accept this literal truth. [37] In his book _Acta pro Ueritate Martyrii corporis, & cultus publici B. Andreæ Rinnensis_, Innsbruck, 1745. Blessed Andrew, a child, was killed at Rinn in the Tyrol, 12 July, 1462. A systematic investigation would, no doubt, wellnigh double the number of instances recorded by Kembter, and there are 15 for the eighteenth, 39 for the nineteenth century. In 1913 Mendil Beiliss was tried upon the charge of ritually murdering a Russian lad, Yushinsky. [38] Leviticus xvii. 14.