DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT.
199
to convict of any other crime, the aspersion itself was gradually considered with increase of terror, as spread-
So early as ing wider and becoming more contagious. the year 1398, the University of Paris, in laying down rules for the judicial prosecuting of witches, express their regret that the crime
was growing more frequent
than in any former age.
The more
severe enquiries
and frequent punishments, by which the judges endeavoured to check the progress of this impious practice,
seem
to
have increased the disease
;
as, indeed,
it
has
been always remarked, that those morbid affections of mind which depend on the imagination are sure to be-
come more common, in proportion as public attention fastened on stories connected with their display.
is
In the same century, schisms, arising from different The causes, greatly alarmed the Church of Rome. universal spirit of enquiry which was now afloat, taking a different direction in different countries, had, in almost
of them, stirred up a sceptical dissatisfaction with the dogmas of the church, such views being rendered all
more
credible to the poorer classes through the corrupmanners among the clergy, too many of whom, wealth and ease had caused to neglect that course of
tion of
In morality which best recommends religious doctrine. almost every nation in Europe, there lurked, in the
crowded sects
or the wild solitude of the country, agreed chiefly in their animosity to the
cities,
who
supremacy of Rome, and their desire to cast off her domination. The Waldenses and Albigenses were parties existing in great
France.
numbers through the south ot
The Romanists became
extremely desirous to