[215] Ibid., pp. 152 et seq., 341 et seq.; de Spina, in vol. ii, p. 502.
[216] Sprenger, pp. 141 et seq., 296-301, 360 et seq.; De Pythonicis mulieribus, in vol. ii, pp. 65 et seq.
[217] Sprenger, p. 310; De Pythonicis mulieribus, in vol. ii, p. 75.
[218] See Sprenger, p. 581. Cf. Lea, vol. iii, p. 508.
[219] A very effective play based upon this idea is that of H. Wiers-Jenssen, of which the English version is The Witch, by John Masefield.
[220] It was so decided by Gregory XI, when the right of the French inquisition in the matter was challenged. Papal commissions issued to inquisitors early in the fifteenth century specifically enumerate sorcery and witchcraft among offences with which they are to deal.
[221] See Sprenger, pp. 492-3. Innocent VIII gave a great impetus to persecution of witches in 1485 by his bull, Summis desiderantes, in which all the malignant powers of the witch were enumerated. It was this bull that gave authority to Jacob Sprenger, the author of Malleus Maleficarum. It was supplemented by others of a similar character issued by Julius II and Alexander VI.
[222] Sprenger, pp. 172-82.
[223] See Lecky, op. cit., vol. i, p. 3; Michelet, op. cit., p. 10.
[224] Malleorum—tomi duo, vol. ii, p. 520.