attempts by their wicked arts upon the lives of innocent men, and
drawing others by magical potions (philtra et pharmaca) to commit
misdemeanours. They are further charged with disturbing the elements,
raising tempests, and practising abominable arts. The Council of
Laodicea (343-381. _Can_. 36) condemned them. The Council of Ancyra
forbade the use of medicine to work mischief. St. Basil's canons
condemned witchcraft. The fourth Council of Carthage censured
enchantment.[26] John of Salisbury tells of their feasts, to which they
took unbaptized children. William of Auverne describes the charms and
incantations which they used to turn a cane into a horse. William of
Malmesbury gives an account of two old women who transformed the
travellers who passed their door into horses, swine or other animals
which they sold. From some of the old Teuton laws we learn that it was
believed that witches could take a man's heart out of his body and fill
the cavity with straw or wood so that he would go on living.

One of the famous witchcraft trials was that of the Lady Alice
Kyteler,[27] whose high rank could not save her from the accusation. It
was claimed that she used the ceremonies of the church, but with some
wicked changes. She extinguished the candles with the exclamation, "Fi!
Fi! Fi! Amen!" She was also accused of securing the love of her
husbands, who left much property to her, by magic charms. These claims
were typical of the accusations against witches in the trials which took
place.

By the sixteenth century, the cumulative notion of witches had
penetrated both cultivated and uncultivated classes, and was embodied in
a great and increasing literature. "No comprehensive work on theology,
philosophy, history, law, medicine, or natural science could wholly
ignore it," says Burr, "and to lighter literature it afforded the most
telling illustrations for the pulpit, the most absorbing gossip for the
news-letter, the most edifying tales for the fireside."[28]

As a result of this belief in the diabolic power of woman, judicial
murder of helpless women became an institution, which is thus
characterized by Sumner: "After the refined torture of the body and
nameless mental sufferings, women were executed in the most cruel
manner. These facts are so monstrous that all other aberrations of the
human race are small in comparison.... He who studies the witch trials
believes himself transferred into the midst of a race which has
smoth