(259) For Carpzov and his successors, see authorities already given.
The best account of James's share in the extortion of confessions may
be found in the collection of Curious Tracts published at Edinburgh in
1820. See also King James's own Demonologie, and Pitcairn's Criminal
Trials of Scotland, vol. i, part ii, pp. 213-223. For Casaubon, see his
Credulity and Incredulity in Things Natural, pp. 66, 67. For Glanvil,
More, Casaubon, Baxter, Wesley, and others named, see Lecky, as above.
As to Increase Mather, in his sermons, already cited, on The Voice
of God in Stormy Winds, Boston, 1704, he says: "when there are great
tempests, the Angels oftentimes have a Hand therein.. .. Yea, and
sometimes, by Divine Permission, Evil Angels have a Hand in such Storms
and Tempests as are very hurtful to Men on the Earth." Yet "for the most
part, such Storms are sent by the Providence of God as a Sign of His
Displeasure for the Sins of Men," and sometimes "as Prognosticks and
terrible Warnings of Great Judgements not far off." From the height
of his erudition Mather thus rebukes the timid voice of scientific
scepticism: "There are some who would be esteemed the Wits of the World,
that ridicule those as Superstitious and Weak Persons, which look upon
Dreadful Tempests as Prodromous of other Judgements. Nevertheless,
the most Learned and Judicious Writers, not only of the Gentiles, but
amongst Christians, have Embraced such a Persuasion; their Sentiments
therein being Confirmed by the Experience of many Ages." For another
curious turn given to this theory, with reference to sanitary science,
see Deodat Lawson's famous sermon at Salem, in 1692, on Christ's
Fidelity a Shield against Satan's Malignity, p. 21 of the second
edition. For Cotton Mather, see his biography by Barrett Wendell, pp.
91, 92; also the chapter on Diabolism and Hysteria in this work. For
Fromundus, see his Meteorologica (London, 1656), lib. iii, c. 9, and
lib. ii, c. 3. For Schott, see his Physica Curiosa (edition of Wurzburg,
1667), p. 1249. For Father Vincent of Berg, see his Enchiridium
quadripartitum (Cologne, 1743). Besides benedictions and exorcisms for
all emergencies, it contains full directions for the manufacture of
Agnes Dei, and of another sacred panacea called "Heiligthum," not less
effective against evil powers,—gives formulae to be worn for protection
against the devil,—suggests a list of signs by which diabolical
possession may be recognised, and prescribes the question to be asked by
priests in the examination of witches. For Wesley, see his Journal for
1768. The whole citation is given in Lecky.
IV. FRANKLIN'S LIGHTNING-ROD.
But in the midst of these efforts by Catholics like Father Vincent and by Protestants like John Wesley to save the old sacred theory, it received its death-blow. In 1752 Franklin made his experiments with the kite on the banks of the Schuylkill; and, at the moment when he drew the electric spark from the cloud, the whole tremendous fabric of theological meteorology reared by the fathers, the popes, the medieval doctors, and the long line of great theologians, Catholic and Protestant, collapsed; the "Prince of the Power of the Air" tumbled from his seat; the great doctrine which had so long afflicted the earth was prostrated forever.
The experiment of Franklin was repeated in various parts of Europe, but, at first, the Church seemed careful to take no notice of it. The old church formulas against the Prince of the Power of the Air were still used, but the theological theory, especially in the Protestant Church, began to grow milder. Four years after Franklin's discovery Pastor Karl Koken, member of the Consistory and official preacher to the City Council of Hildesheim, was moved by a great hailstorm to preach and publish a sermon on The Revelation of God in Weather. Of "the Prince of the Power of the Air" he says nothing; the theory of diabolical agency he throws overboard altogether; his whole attempt is to save the older and more harmless theory, that the storm is the voice of God. He insists that, since Christ told Nicodemus that men "know not whence the wind cometh," it can not be of mere natural origin, but is sent directly by God himself, as David intimates in the Psalm, "out of His secret places." As to the hailstorm, he lays great stress upon the plague of hail sent by the Almighty upon Egypt, and clinches all by insisting that God showed at Mount Sinai his purpose to startle the body before impressing the conscience.
While the theory of diabolical agency in storms was thus drooping and dying, very shrewd efforts were made at compromise. The first of these attempts we have already noted, in the effort to explain the efficacy of bells in storms by their simple use in stirring the faithful to prayer, and in the concession made by sundry theologians, and even by the great Lord Bacon himself, that church bells might, under the sanction of Providence, disperse storms by agitating the air. This gained ground somewhat, though it was resisted by one eminent Church authority, who answered shrewdly that, in that case, cannon would be even more pious instruments. Still another argument used in trying to save this part of the theological theory was that the bells were consecrated instruments for this purpose, "like the horns at whose blowing the walls of Jericho fell."(260)
(260) For Koken, see his Offenbarung Gottes in Wetter, Hildesheim,
c1756; and for the answer to Bacon, see Gretser's De Benedictionibus,
lib. ii, cap. 46.
But these compromises were of little avail. In 1766 Father Sterzinger attacked the very groundwork of the whole diabolic theory. He was, of course, bitterly assailed, insulted, and hated; but the Church thought it best not to condemn him. More and more the "Prince of the Power of the Air" retreated before the lightning-rod of Franklin. The older Church, while clinging to the old theory, was finally obliged to confess the supremacy of Franklin's theory practically; for his lightning-rod did what exorcisms, and holy water, and processions, and the Agnus Dei, and the ringing of church bells, and the rack, and the burning of witches, had failed to do. This was clearly seen, even by the poorest peasants in eastern France, when they observed that the grand spire of Strasburg Cathedral, which neither the sacredness of the place, nor the bells within it, nor the holy water and relics beneath it, could protect from frequent injuries by lightning, was once and for all protected by Franklin's rod. Then came into the minds of multitudes the answer to the question which had so long exercised the leading theologians of Europe and America, namely, "Why should the Almighty strike his own consecrated temples, or suffer Satan to strike them?"
Yet even this practical solution of the question was not received without opposition.
In America the earthquake of 1755 was widely ascribed, especially in Massachusetts, to Franklin's rod. The Rev. Thomas Prince, pastor of the Old South Church, published a sermon on the subject, and in the appendix expressed the opinion that the frequency of earthquakes may be due to the erection of "iron points invented by the sagacious Mr. Franklin." He goes on to argue that "in Boston are more erected than anywhere else in New England, and Boston seems to be more dreadfully shaken. Oh! there is no getting out of the mighty hand of God."