y the clemency of the prince, the
proper death by burning alive was remitted to the milder sentence
of beheading, and afterwards burning the corpse to ashes: for no
vestige of such an accursed criminal should be permitted to
remain after death. When a young girl Maria Renata had been
seduced to witchcraft by a military officer, and was accustomed
to attend the witch-assemblies. In the convent she practised her
infernal arts in bewitching her sister-nuns.[162] About the same
time a nun in the south of France was subjected to the barbarous
imputation and treatment of a witch: Father Girard, discovering
that his mistress had some extraordinary scrofulous marks,
conceived the idea of proclaiming to the world that she was
possessed of the _stigmata_--impressions of the marks of the
nails and spear on the crucified Lord, believed to be reproduced
on the persons of those who, like the celebrated St. Francis,
most nearly assimilated their lives to His. The Jesuits eagerly
embraced an opportunity of producing a miracle which might
confound their Jansenist rivals, whose sensational miracles were
threatening to eclipse their own.[163] Sir Walter Scott states
that the last judicial sentence of death for witchcraft in
Scotland was executed in 1722, when Captain David Ross, sheriff
of Sutherland, condemned a woman to the stake. As for illegal
persecution, M. Garinet ('Histoire de la Magie en France') gives
a list of upwards of twenty instances occurring in France between
the years 1805 and 1818. In the latter year three tribunals were
occupied with the trials of the murderers.

[162] Ennemoser relates the history of this witch from 'The
Christian address at the burning of Maria Renata, of the
convent of Unterzell, who was burnt on June 21, 1749, which
address was delivered to a numerous multitude, and
afterwards printed by command of the authorities.' The
preacher earnestly insisted upon the divine sanction and
obligation of the Mosaic law, 'Thou shalt not suffer a witch
to live,' which was taken as the text; and upon the fact
that, so far from being abolished by Christianity, it was
made more imperative by the Christian Church.

[163] The victim of the pleasure, and afterwards of the
ambition, of Father Girard, is known as La Cadiere. She was a
native of Toulon, and when young had witnessed the
destructive effects of the plague which devastated that city
in 1720. Amidst the confusion of society she