ide of human character than that which pretended to secure the
happiness or accomplish the ruin, to prolong the life or hasten the
death, of the objects of private love or hatred. While systematically
practising upon the credulity of his dupes, the professed master of this
ill-omened art frequently resorted to assassination by poison or dagger
in the accomplishment of his schemes. Sorcery by means of waxen images
was particularly in vogue. Thus, the Queen of Navarre, the sister of
Francis the First, in her singular collection of tales, the
"Heptameron," gives a circumstantial account of the mode in which her
own life was sought by this species of witchcraft.[83] Five puppets had
been provided: three, representing enemies (the queen being one of the
number), had their arms hanging down; the other two, representing
persons whose favor was desired, had them raised aloft. With certain
cabalistic words and occult rites the puppets were next secretly hidden
beneath an altar whereon the mass was celebrated, and the mysterious
"sacrifice" was believed to complete the efficacy of the charm. It was
no new superstition imported from abroad, but one that had existed in
France for centuries.[84]

[Sidenote: Reverence for relics.]

The French were behind no other nation in reverence for relics of saints
and for pictures and images representing them. In the partial list,
compiled by a contemporary, of the curiosities of this nature scattered
through Christendom,[85] the majority of the relics mentioned are
selected from the immense treasures laid up in the thousands of
cathedrals, parish churches, and abbeys within the domains of the "Very
Christian King." In one place the hair of the blessed Virgin was
carefully preserved; in another the sword of the archangel Michael, or
the entire body of St. Dionysius. It was true that the Pope had by
solemn bull, about a century before, declared, in the presence of the
French ambassador, that the entire body of this last-named saint was in
the possession of the inhabitants of Ratisbon; but, had any one been so
rash as to affirm at Saint Denis, near Paris, that the veritable remains
were not there, he would certainly have been stoned.[86] At Notre-Dame
de l'Ile, above Lyons, no little account was made of the _twelve combs_
of the apostles![87]

The reflecting man who found, by a comparison of the treasures of
different churches within his own personal observation, that some of the
pretended rel