" page 29.] "had several
times given orders that all necromancers, astrologers, and witches
should be driven from his states; but as the number of criminals
augmented daily, he found it necessary at last to resort to severer
measures. In consequence, he published several edicts, which may be
found at length in the 'Capitulaire de Baluse.' By these, every sort of
magic, enchantment, and witchcraft was forbidden; and the punishment of
death decreed against those who in any way evoked the devil--compounded
love-philters--afflicted either man or woman with barrenness--troubled
the atmosphere--excited tempests--destroyed the fruits of the
earth--dried up the milk of cows, or tormented their fellow-creatures
with sores and diseases. All persons found guilty of exercising these
execrable arts, were to be executed immediately upon conviction, that
the earth might be rid of the burthen and curse of their presence; and
those even who consulted them might also be punished with death." [M.
Michaud, in his "History of the Crusades," M. Guinguene, in his
"Literary History of Italy," and some other critics, have objected to
Tasso's poem, that he has attributed to the Crusaders a belief in
magic, which did not exist at that time. If these critics had referred
to the Edicts of Charlemagne, they would have seen that Tasso was
right, and that a disposition too eager to spy out imperfections in a
great work was leading themselves into error.]

After this time, prosecutions for witchcraft are continually mentioned,
especially by the French historians. It was a crime imputed with so
much ease, and repelled with so much difficulty, that the powerful,
whenever they wanted to ruin the weak, and could fix no other
imputation upon them, had only to accuse them of witchcraft to ensure
their destruction. Instances, in which this crime was made the pretext
for the most violent persecution, both of individuals and of
communities, whose real offences were purely political or religious,
must be familiar to every reader. The extermination of the Stedinger,
in 1234; of the Templars, from 1307 to 1313; the execution of Joan of
Arc, in 1429; and the unhappy scenes of Arras, in 1459; are the most
prominent. The first of these is perhaps the least known, but is not
among the least remarkable. The following account, from Dr. Kortum's
interesting history ["Entstehungsgeschichte der freistadlischen Bunde
im Mittelalter, von Dr. F. Kortum." 1827.] of the republi