unt and bleak Border country the traveller overtaken
by night may feel a disquieting awe even in these days when the rising
moon is no longer a lamp to guide enemies to the attack. Four hundred
years ago, when it lay blood-stained and scarred with a thousand
fights, bearing no crops to be fired, no homesteads to be sacked, we
need not wonder if teams of demons swept down in the darkness and
drove through and through the trembling ranks.

Again, in 1552 Melanchthon writes thus to a friend: 'In some cases no
doubt the causes of madness and derangement are purely physical; but
it is also quite certain that at times men's bodies are entered by
devils who produce frenzies prognosticating things to come. Twelve
years ago there was a woman in Saxony who had no learning of books,
and yet, when she was vexed by a devil, after her paroxysms uttered
Greek and Latin prophecies of the war that should be there. In Italy,
too, I am told there was a woman, also quite unlearned, who during one
of her devilish torments was asked what is the best line of Virgil,
and replied, "Learn justice and to reverence the gods "'.[32] In this
second case it would seem that the Devil scarcely knew his own
business.

[32] _Aen._ 6. 620.

Sudden death descending upon the wicked was a judgement of heaven,
letting loose the powers of hell; and if the face of the corpse
chanced to turn black, there was never any doubt but that Satan had
flown off with the soul. Suspicions and accusations of witchcraft were
rife; and an old woman had to be careful of the reputation of her cat.
Wanderers among the mountains saw dragons; in the forests elves peeped
at the woodmen from behind the trees, and fairies danced beneath the
moon in the open places. The world had not been sufficiently explored
for the absence of contrary experience to carry much weight; and the
means for the dissemination of news were quite inadequate. In
consequence men had not learnt to doubt the evidence of their senses
and to regard things as too strange to be true. It was felt that
anything might happen; and as a result almost everything did happen.

For example, in 1500 there was an outbreak of crosses in two villages
not far from Sponheim; and next year the same thing happened at Liege.
They appeared on any clothing that was light enough of hue; coloured
crosses that no washing or treatment could remove. Men opened their
coats to find crosses on their shirts: a woman would look down at