That such different nations should have had the same
idea of fixing the purification by fire on St.
John's Day is a remarkable coincidence, which
perhaps can be accounted for only by its analogy to
baptism.

[62] Beckmann makes many other observations on this
well-known circumstance. The priest named is the
same who is still known in the nursery tales of
children as the _Knecht Ruprecht_.

[63] _Dass dir Sanct Veitstanz ankomme_ ("May you be
seized with St. Vitus' dance").

[64] "This proceeding was, however, no invention of his,
but an imitation of a usual mode of enchantment by
means of wax figures (_peri cunculas_). The witches
made a wax image of the person who was to be
bewitched; and in order to torment him, they stuck
it full of pins, or melted it before the fire. The
books on magic, of the Middle Ages, are full of such
things; though the reader who may wish to obtain
information on this subject need not go so far back.
Only eighty years since, the learned and celebrated
Storch, of the school of Stahl, published a treatise
on witchcraft, worthy of the fourteenth
century."--_Treatise on the Diseases of Children._

[65] Some authorities give twenty-nine.

[66] Selden, in his _Table Talk_, says: "There was once,
I am sure, a parliamentary pope. Pope Urban was made
pope in England by act of parliament, against Pope
Clement: the act is not in the _Book of Statutes_,
either because he that compiled the book would not
have the name of the Pope there, or else he would
not let it appear that they meddled with any such
thing; but it is upon the rolls."

[67] A groat equalled fourpence, or eight cents.

[68] In Walsingham may be seen a long account of the
death of the Archbishop, page 250. His head was
carried in triumph through the streets on the point
of a lance, and fixed on London bridge. That it
might be the better known, the hat or bonnet worn by
him was nailed to the skull.

[69] When Tresilian, one of the judges, tried the
insurgents at St. Alban's, he impanelled three
juries of twelve men each. The first was ordered to