15. The Sabbath Of The Sorcerersi

The treatise of Bodin is profoundly Machiavellian and strikes at the heart of the institutions and persons it appears to defend. It would be difficult to conceive without reading it his vast mass of sanguinary and hideous histories, acts of revolting superstition, sentences and executions of stupid ferocity. “Burn all!” the inquisitors seemed to cry. “God will distinguish His own!” Poor fools, hysterical women and idiots were accordingly sacrificed without mercy for the crime of Magic, while, at the same time, great criminals eluded this infamous and sanguinary justice. Bodin gives us to understand as much by recounting such anecdotes as that which he connects with the death of Charles Ix. It is an almost unknown abomination, and one which has not, so far as we are aware, tempted the skill of any romancer, even at periods of the most feverish and deplorable literature. Attacked by a disease of which no physician could discover the cause or explain the frightful symptoms, King Charles IX was dying. The Queen-Mother, who ruled him entirely and had everything to lose under another reign - the Queen-Mother, who has been suspected as author of the disease, even against her own interests, because hidden devices and undeclared interests have been attributed always to her who was capable of anything - consulted her astrologers and then had recourse to the foulest form of Magic, the ORACLE Of THE BLEEDING Head, for the sufferer's condition grew worse and more desperate daily. The infernal operation was performed in the following way. Aa child was selected, of beautiful appearance and innocent manners; he was prepared for his first communion by the almoner of the palace. When the day or rather night of the sacrifice arrived, a monk, an apostate Jacobin, given over to the occult works of Black Magic, celebrated a Mass of the Devil at midnight in the sick-room, in the presence only of Catherine de Medicis and her trusted confidants. It was offered before the image of the demon, having a crucifix upside down under its feet and the sorcerer consecrated two hosts, one black and one white. The white was given to the child, who was brought in clothed as for baptism, and was murdered on the steps of the altar immediately after his communion. His head, cut by one blow from the body, was set palpitating upon the great black host which covered the bottom of the paten, and then transported to a table where mysterious lamps were burning. The exorcism began, an oracle was besought of the demon, and an answer by the mouth of the head to a secret question which the King dared not make aloud and had confided to no one. a strange and feeble voice, which had nothing human about it, was heard presently in the poor little martyr's head, saying in Latin: Vim patior -“I suffer violence”. At this reply, which doubtless announced to the sick man that hell no longer protected him, a horrible trembling seized the monarch, his arms stiffened and he cried in a hoarse voice: “Away with that head! Away with that head!” and so continued screaming till he gave up the ghost. His attendants, who were not in the confidence of this frightful mystery, believed that he was pursued by the phantom of Coligny and that he saw the head of the illustrious admiral. That which tormented the dying man was not, however, a remorse but the hopeless terror of an anticipated Hell. This darksome magical legend of Bodin recalls the abominable practices and deserved fate of Gilles de Laval, Lord of Retz, who passed from asceticism to Black Magic and offered the most revolting sacrifices to conciliate the favour of Satan.