NARRATIVES OF SORCERY AND MAGIC, From the most Authentic Sources. BY THOMAS WRIGHT, M. A., F. S. A., CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF FRANCE, KARY REDFIELD, CLINTON HALL, NEW YORK. 1852. st ΤΟ LORD LONDESBOROUGH. MY LORD: The interest which your lordship has always taken in historical studies, has encouraged me to offer to you this volume of what may be truly considered as the dark features of history. It appears to me that these are features on which sometimes at least we ought to dwell, and which it has been too much the fashion with historical writers to conceal from view, and I am not sure if we are not at this moment suffering from the results of that concealment. It is true that if, in tracing the history of declining Rome, we pass gently over the crimes of a Caligula or a Commodus, if we show the bright side of the history of the middle ages and hide their viciousness and brutality, if we tell the story of Romanism without its arrogance, its persecutions, and its massacres, or if we attempt to trace the progress of society from darkness to light, without entering into the details of those strange hallucinations which have at times disfigured and impeded it—such as are related in the following narratives in acting thus we spare the reader much that is horrible and revolting to his better feelings, but at the same time time we destroy the moral and utility of history itself. If I mistake not, the history presented in this volume furnishes more than any other, an example of the manner in which the public mind may, under particular circumstances, be acted upon by erroneous views. The paganism of our forefathers, instead of being eradicated by papal Rome, was preserved as a useful instrument of power, and fostered until it grew into a monster far more fearful and degrading than the original from which it sprung, and infinitely more cruel in its influence. It is the object of the following detached histories to exhibit the character and forms under which, at various different periods, the superstitions of sorcery and magic affected the progress, or interfered with the peace of society. At first they appeared as the mere, almost unobserved, fables of the vulgar-then they were seized upon as an arm of the ecclesiastical power, to crush those who dared to question the spiritual doctrines, or oppose the temporal power of the papal church. From this time sorcery makes its appearance more frequently in history, until it gained that hold on the minds of all classes which led to the fearful persecutions of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It is no part of the design of this volume to enter into a disquisition on what have been termed the occult sciences, nor do I pretend to give a regular history of witchcraft. I have merely attempted to show the influence which superstition once exercised on the history of the world, by a few narratives taken from the annals of past ages, of events which seemed to place it in its strongest and clearest light. For these sketches, thrown together somewhat hastily, and gathered from a field of research which has always had great attractions for me, I venture to claim from your lordship an indulgence which will be the more valued from the appreciation which I know that these studies have aways received from you; and I have only to hope for the same indulgence from the public at large. I have the honor to be, my lord, with sincere respect, Your lordship's very faithful servant, |