the story about Bishop Sylvanus.--Lecky, Rationalism in
Europe, i. 79.]

[Footnote 2: Hazlitt, Shakspere Library, part ii. vol. i. p. 264.]

It is amusing to notice, too, that when assuming the clerical garb, the
devil carefully considered the religious creed of the person to whom he
intended to make himself known. The Catholic accounts of him show him
generally assuming the form of a Protestant parson;[1] whilst to those
of the reformed creed he invariably appeared in the habit of a Catholic
priest. In the semblance of a friar the devil is reported (by a
Protestant) to have preached, upon a time, "a verie Catholic sermon;"[2]
so good, indeed, that a priest who was a listener could find no fault
with the doctrine--a stronger basis of fact than one would have imagined
for Shakspere's saying, "The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose."

[Footnote 1: Harsnet, p. 101.]

[Footnote 2: Scot, p. 481.]

50. It is not surprising that of human forms, that of a negro or Moor
should be considered a favourite one with evil spirits.[1] Iago makes
allusion to this when inciting Brabantio to search for his daughter.[2]
The power of coming in the likeness of humanity generally is referred to
somewhat cynically in "Timon of Athens,"[3] thus--

"_Varro's Servant._ What is a whoremaster, fool?

"_Fool._ A fool in good clothes, and something like thee. 'Tis a spirit:
sometime 't appears like a lord; sometime like a lawyer; sometime like a
philosopher with two stones more than 's artificial one: he is very
often like a knight; and, generally, in all shapes that man goes up and
down in, from fourscore to thirteen, this spirit walks in."

[Footnote 1: Scot, p. 89.]

[Footnote 2: Othello, I. i. 91.]

[Footnote 3: II. ii. 113.]

"All shapes that man goes up and down in" seem indeed to have been at
the devils' control. So entirely was this the case, that to Constance
even the fair Blanche was none other than the devil tempting Louis "in
likeness of a new uptrimmed bride;"[1] and perhaps not without a certain
prophetic feeling of the fitness of things, as it may possibly seem to
some of our more warlike politicians, evil spirits have been known to
appear as Russians.[2]

[Footnote 1: King John, III. i. 209.]

[Footnote 2: Harsnet, p. 139.]

51. But all the "shapes that man goes up and down in" did not suffice.
The forms of the whole of the animal kingdom seem to have been at the
devils' disposal; and, not content with these, t