d rapidity. Thousands of victims were sometimes
burnt alive in a few years. Every country in Europe was stricken with
the wildest fever. Hundreds of the ablest judges were selected for the
extirpation of this crime. A vast literature was created on the subject,
and it was not until a considerable portion of the eighteenth century
had passed away that the executions finally ceased. The vast majority of
those accused of witchcraft were women, and again the Bible furnished
the authority for the belief that women were inherently wicked. That
the Fathers of the Church believed this is exemplified by the statement
of Chrysostom in which he said that women were a 'necessary evil, a
natural temptation, a desirable calamity, a domestic peril, a deadly
fascination, and a painted ill.'" (_Lecky._)

At this period the conception of a witch is radically different from
that which was prevalent in the era prior to this one. The popular
belief of the witchcraft ages, a belief sanctioned by most of the
learned men of the time, was that the earth swarmed with millions upon
millions of demons. They multiplied by reproduction in the usual way, by
the accession of the souls of wicked men, of women dying in childbirth,
of children still-born, of men killed in duels. The air was filled with
them, and one was always in danger of inspiring them with the air, of
swallowing them in food and drink. Most Christian writers and legendists
said that there were so many of them they could not be counted, but
Wierus took a census of them and reported that there were only 7,505,926
divided into seventy-two companies, each commanded by a captain or
prince. They could make themselves hideous, or beautiful, as suited
their purposes, and assume any shape. While capable of appearing at any
time, they preferred the night between Friday and Saturday. Any human
being who gave up to them his immortal soul could command their services
for a certain time. Occasionally general conferences took place, at the
pleasure of Satan, which were attended by all the demons and all the
witches.

"These 'sabbaths' were held on the Brocken or other high mountain. Upon
the spot where they met, nothing would ever grow afterwards, as their
hot feet burnt all the fecundity out of the soil. In France, England,
and the American Colonies, it was supposed that witches made their trips
on broomsticks; in Spain and Italy it was believed that they twirled on
the back of the Devil himself,