ncy of evil spirits. It included the whole system of
paganism, explained all its prodigies, and gave a fearful significance
to all its legends. When the Church obtained the direction of the civil
power, she soon modified or abandoned the tolerant maxims she had
formerly inculcated; and in the course of a few years, restrictive laws
were enacted, both against Jews and heretics." (_Lecky._)

Constantine, after his conversion to Christianity, enacted laws against
the magicians. These were made more rigid under Constantius, his son,
but suspended under Julian. These persecutions were renewed by
Valentinian, spasmodically carried on to a slight extent, and then
lapsed. During the period that elapsed between the sixth and thirteenth
centuries the executions for sorcery were comparatively rare.

It is to be borne in mind, then, that magic as existing in pagan Rome
was part of the religious conceptions of the Romans. The oracle as well
as the various demons, which to them signified what the word "angel"
signifies to us now, formed an elaborate system of mythology and
idolatry. The early Christians coming into contact with these
conceptions, at first found an insurmountable difficulty in spreading
their beliefs among the rural inhabitants of the Roman empire.
Polytheism was dominant while their monotheism was as yet a persecuted
belief. The road of least resistance was compromise, and so this vast
system of polytheism was perverted, while seemingly accepted into their
beliefs, by making these "angels," "demons," as we now understand the
word. Since the early Christians were dominated by a belief in constant
Satanic presence, these demons were said to be the "Hosts of Satan." It
was firmly believed that the arch-fiend (Satan) was forever hovering
about the Christians, but it was also believed that the sign of the
cross, or a few drops of holy water, or the name of Mary, could put him
to an immediate and ignominious flight.

"In the twelfth century, however, the subject passed into an entirely
new phase. The conception of a witch, as we now conceive it, that is to
say of a woman who had entered into a deliberate compact with Satan, who
was endowed with the power of working miracles whenever she pleased, and
who was continually transported through the air to the Sabbath, where
she paid her homage to the Evil One--first appeared. The panic created
by the belief at first advanced slowly, but after a time with a
fearfully accelerate