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THE DARK SIDE OF CHRISTIAN HISTORY
that Protestants most fervently rebelled. "The Papists," wrote Calvin, "pretend there is a magical force in the sacraments, independent of efficacious faith..."54 The Calvinist James Calfhill proclaimed that "the vilest witches and sorcerers of the earth" were ...the priests that consecrate crosses and ashes, water and salt, oil and cream, boughs and bones, stocks and stones; that christen bells that hang in the steeple; that conjure worms that creep in the field; that give St. John's Gospel to hang about men's necks...55 Protestants attacked sacraments such as confirmation as nothing ...but plain sorcery, devilry, witchcraft, juggling, legerdemain, and all that naught is. The bishop mumbleth a few Latin words over the child, charmeth him, crosseth him, smeareth him with stinking popish oil, and tieth a linen brand about the child's neck and sendeth him home...56 "The sacraments," wrote John Canne in 1634, "were not ordained by God to be used... as charms and sorceries."57 Magic not only attested to what reformers believed was a false understanding of God, it also interfered with the new method of indicating social rank. Pre-reformational society had designated a man's rank either by his position within the Church hierarchy or by his status as a noble or fighter. But as the Church hierarchy and the role of nobility declined, financial 7.5 This caricature of the Pope mocked the sacramental nature of the Catholic Church and was popular among Protestants in England, Holland and Germany for over a century. Articles used in Catholic worship compose the figure: the hat is a church-bell decorated with holy-water brushes, the mouth an open wine flagon, the eye a chalice covered by the holy wafer, the cheek a plate used in the communion service, the shoulder the mass-book.