lations and dispels the thunder; but
the moral effect is the more certain, because by the sound the faithful
are stirred to pour forth their prayers, by which they win from God the
turning away of the thunderbolt." Here we see in this branch of thought,
as in so many others, at the close of the seventeenth century, the dawn
of rationalism. Father De Angelis now keeps demoniacal influence in
the background. Little, indeed, is said of the efficiency of bells in
putting to flight the legions of Satan: the wise professor is evidently
preparing for that inevitable compromise which we see in the history of
every science when it is clear that it can no longer be suppressed by
ecclesiastical fulminations.(248)

(247) See Binsfeld, De Confessionbus Malef., pp. 308-314, edition of
1623.

(248) For De Angelis, see his Lectiones Meteorol., p. 75.

III. THE AGENCY OF WITCHES.

But, while this comparatively harmless doctrine of thwarting the powers
of the air by fetiches and bell-ringing was developed, there were
evolved another theory, and a series of practices sanctioned by the
Church, which must forever be considered as among the most fearful
calamities in human history. Indeed, few errors have ever cost so much
shedding of innocent blood over such wide territory and during so many
generations. Out of the old doctrine--pagan and Christian--of evil
agency in atmospheric phenomena was evolved the belief that certain men,
women, and children may secure infernal aid to produce whirlwinds, hail,
frosts, floods, and the like.

As early as the ninth century one great churchman, Agobard, Archbishop
of Lyons, struck a heavy blow at this superstition. His work, Against
the Absurd Opinion of the Vulgar touching Hail and Thunder, shows him
to have been one of the most devoted apostles of right reason whom human
history has known. By argument and ridicule, and at times by a
lofty eloquence, he attempted to breast this tide. One passage is of
historical significance. He declares: "The wretched world lies now under
the tyranny of foolishness; things are believed by Christians of
such absurdity as no one ever could aforetime induce the heathen to
believe."(249)

(249) For a very interesting statement of Agobard's position and
work, with citations from his Liber contra insulsam vulgi opinionem
de grandine et tonitruis, see Poole, Illustrations of the History of
Mediaeval Thought, pp. 40 et seq. The works of Agob