[552] Burchardi Decret. XIX. 5.—Johann. Saresberiens. Polycrat. II. xvii.—Grimm, Teut. Mythol. III. 1059.—Rapp, Die Hexenprocesse und ihre Gegner aus Tyrol, Innsbruck, 1874, p. 146.—P. Vayra, Le Streghe nel Canavese (Curiosità di Storia Subalpina, 1874, pp. 229, 234-5).—Bernardi Comensis de Strigiis c. 8.
A development of this belief is seen in the feat, referred to in the preceding chapter, of Zyto, the magician of the Emperor Wenceslas, who swallowed a rival conjurer and discharged him alive in a vessel of water.
Yet concurrently with this the belief existed in the absolute eating of children. Peter of Berne told Nider that in his district thirteen were thus despatched in a short time, and he learned from a captured witch that they were killed in their cradles with incantations, dug up after burial, and boiled in a caldron. The magic unguent was made out of the flesh, while the soup had the power of winning over to the sect of Devil-worshippers whoever partook of it.—Nider Formicar. Lib. V. c. iii.
[553] Mall. Malef. P. II. Q. i. c. 13; P. III. Q. xxxiv.
[554] Mall. Malef. P. I. Q. xii., xv.
[555] In England, where torture was illegal, the growth of witchcraft was much slower. When the craze came an efficient substitute for torture was found in “pricking” or thrusting long needles in every part of the victim’s body in search of the insensible spot which was a characteristic of the witch.
[556] Ripoll III. 193.—Pegnæ Append. ad Eymeric. pp. 83, 84, 85, 99, 105.—Approbat. Univ. Coloniens. in Mall. Malef.
For an official selection of papal bulls on the subject see Lib. Sept. Decret. Lib. V. Tit. xii.
[557] Bernardi Comens. de Strigiis c. 14.—Mall. Maleficar. P. II. Q. i., ii.—P. Vayra, Le Streghe nel Canavese, op. cit. p. 230.—Artic. Univers. Paris. No. 5.—Concil. Lingonens, ann. 1403 c. 4.—Prieriat de Strigimag. Lib. II. c. 10.—Bodini Magor. Dæmonoman. p. 288.
[558] Prieriat. Lib. III. c. 3.—Mall. Malef. P. II. Q. ii.