resented more difficulty. The history of Nebuchadnezzar and the
conversion of Lot's wife were, it is true, eagerly alleged in support of
its possibility; but it was impossible to forget that St. Augustine
appeared to regard lycanthropy as a fable, and a canon of the Council of
Ancyra had emphatically condemned the belief. On the other hand, that
belief has been very widely diffused among the ancients. It had been
accepted by many of the greatest and most orthodox theologians, by the
inquisitors who were commissioned by the popes, and by the law courts of
most countries. The evidence on which it rested was very curious and
definite. If the witch was wounded in the form of an animal, she
retained that wound in her human form, and hundreds of such cases were
alleged before tribunals. Sometimes the hunter, having severed the paw
of his assailant, retained it as a trophy; but, when he opened his bag,
he discovered in it only a bleeding hand, which he recognized as the
hand of his wife.

A French judge named Boguet, at the end of the sixteenth century,
devoted himself especially to the subject and burnt multitudes of
lycanthropes. He wrote a book about them and drew up a code in which he
permitted ordinary witches to be strangled before they were burnt, but
excepted lycanthropes who were to be burnt alive.

Now let us examine on what authority the popes and afterwards the
reformers so rigorously persecuted the "witches." Both the Old and the
New Testaments are riddled with references to witches, wizards, and
devils. For example, this passage from Exodus XXII 18, "Thou shalt not
suffer a witch to live."

From Matthew VIII 28-32, "There met him two possessed with devils coming
out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that
way. And, behold, they cried out, saying, 'What have we to do with thee,
Jesus, Son of God? Art thou come hither to torment us before the time?'
And there was a good way off from them a herd of many swine feeding. So
the devils besought him, saying, 'If thou cast us out, suffer us to go
away into the herd of swine. And he said unto them, 'Go!' And when they
were come out, they went into the herd of swine. And behold, the whole
herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea and perished
in the waters."

The Old Testament, therefore, definitely commands its adherents to kill,
and the New Testament gives a brilliant example of its chief magician,
Jesus, exorcising devils f