[10] St. Gregory of Nyassa, a canonized saint, the only theologian to whom the church (except St. John) has ever allowed the title of “The Divine,” was a member of that council, aiding in the preparation of the Nicene Creed. It is a significant fact that a great number of public women, “an immense number,” congregated at Nice during the sessions of this council.
[11] In Guernsey a mother and her two daughters were brought to the stake; one of the latter, a married woman with child, was delivered in the midst of her torments, and the infant, just rescued, was tossed back into the flames by a priest with the cry, “One heretic the less.”
[12] “Old writers declared that women have been more addicted to these devilish arts than men, was manifest by ‘many grave authors,’ among whom Diodorus, Sindas, Pliny and St. Augustine were mentioned. Quintillian declared theft more prevalent among men, but witchcraft especially a sin of women.”
[13] Lea.—Superstition and Force.
[14] Certain forms of ordeal, such as the ordinary ones of fire and water, seem to have owed their origin to the trials passed by the candidate for admission into the ancient mysteries, as Lea has also conjectured. During the mysteries of Isis, the candidate was compelled to descend into dark dungeons of unknown depth, to cross bars of red-hot iron, to plunge into a rapid stream at seeming hazard of life, to hang suspended in mid-air while the entrance into other mysteries confronted the candidate with howling wild beasts and frightful serpents. All who passed the ancient ordeals in safety, were regarded as holy and acceptable to the Deity, but not so under Christian ordeal, its intention being conviction of the accused. Those who proved their innocence by carrying red-hot iron uninjured for three paces and the court was thus forced to acquit, or who passed through other forms of torture without confession were still regarded with suspicion as having been aided by Satan, and the sparing of their lives was to the scandal of the faithful.
[15] Woman was represented as the door of hell, as the mother of all human ill. She should be ashamed at the very thought she is a woman. She should live in continual penance on account of the curses she has brought upon the world. She should be especially ashamed of her beauty, for it is the most potent instrument of the demon.—Hist. European Morals, Vol. 2, p. 358.
[16] Witchcraft was supposed to have power of subverting religion.—Montesquieu.
[17] The question why the immense majority of those who were accused should be women, early attracted attention; it was answered by the inherent wickedness of the sex, which had its influence in pre-disposing men to believe in witches, and also in producing the extreme callousness with which the sufferings of the victims were contemplated.—Rationalism in Europe 1, 88.
[18] 18 mo. An unusually small size for that period.
[19] (Witch Hammer.)