[568] Prieriat. Lib. III. c. 3.—Mall. Maleficar. P. III. Q. xii.
[569] Mall. Maleficar. P. III. Q. x., xi., xxxv.—Prieriat Lib. III. c. 3.
[570] P. Vayra, Le Streghe nel Canavese, op. cit. pp. 658-715.
[571] It will be remembered (Vol. II. p. 158) that by this time in France, Vaudois and Vaudoisie had become the designation of all deviations from faith, and was especially applied to sorcery. Hence is derived the word Voodooism, descriptive of the negro sorcery of the French colonies, transmitted to the United States through Louisiana.
[572] There was some debate whether the evidence of a witch as to those whom she had seen in the Sabbat was to be received, but it was settled in favor of the faith by the unanswerable argument that otherwise the principal means of detecting witches would be lost. If the accused alleged that the devil had caused an apparition resembling him to be present, he was to be required to prove the fact, which was not easy (Jaquerii Flagell. Hæret. Fascinar. c. 26).—Bernardo di Como (de Strigiis, c. 13, 14) says that the mere accusation of being seen in the Sabbat is not sufficient to justify arrest, as the individual may be personated by a demon, but it has to be reinforced by “conjectures and presumptions,” which, of course, were never lacking.
[573] MSS. Bib. Roy. de Bruxelles, No. 11209.
[574] This was, doubtless, in commutation for confiscation, and reveals the object of the whole affair. To estimate the magnitude of the fines, it may be mentioned that de Beauffort’s annual revenue was estimated at five hundred livres. The richest citizens of Arras who were arrested were said to be worth from four hundred to five hundred livres a year.
[575] The belief in the imminent advent of Antichrist was as strong in the fifteenth century as in its predecessors. In 1445 the University of Paris was astonished by a young Spaniard, about twenty years of age, who came there and overcame the most learned schoolmen and theologians in disputation. He appeared equally at home in all branches of learning, including medicine and law; he was matchless with the sword, and played ravishingly on all instruments of music. After confounding Paris, he went to the Duke of Burgundy, at Ghent, and thence passed into Germany. The doctors of the University pondered over the apparition, and finally concluded that he was Antichrist, who, it was well known, would possess all arts and sciences by the secret aid of Satan, and would be a good Christian until he attained the age of twenty-eight (Chron. de Mathieu de Coussy, ch. VIII.). The wonderful stranger was Fernando de Cordoba, who settled in the papal court, and wrote several books, which have been forgotten. See Nich. Anton. Biblioth. Hispan. Lib. x. cap. xiii. No. 734-9.
[576] The Chronicler of Arras tells us that at this time there was no enforcement of the laws in Arras; every one did as he pleased, and no one was punished but the friendless. His statement is borne out by the cases of homicide and other crimes which he relates, and of which no notice was taken (Mém. de Jacques du Clercq, Liv. IV. ch. 22, 24, 40, 41). Yet vigorous search was made for the author of this pasquinade, and Jacotin Maupetit was arrested by an usher-at-arms of the duke on the charge of writing it. He adroitly slipped out of his doublet, and sought asylum in three successive churches, finally succeeding in getting to Paris, where he constituted himself a prisoner of the Parlement, and returned to Arras free, to find that, meanwhile, his property had been confiscated and sold. (Ibid. ch. 24.)
[577] The details of this case have, fortunately, been preserved for us in the Mémoires de Jacques du Clercq, Livre IV., with the decree of Parlement in the appendix. Mathieu de Coussy (Chronique ch. 129) and Cornelius Zantfliet (Martene, Ampl. Coll. V. 501) also give brief accounts. Some details omitted by du Clercq are to be found in the learned sketch of Duverger, “La Vauderie dans les États de Philippe le Bon,” Arras, 1885, which, it is to be hoped, will be followed by the more elaborate work promised by the author.