This belief was not confined to the
ignorant, but was equally accepted by the educated and by the Church.
Measures were taken to frustrate the devil, and the faithful were
recommended to make search for those who had compacted with his Satanic
Majesty, and laws were enacted for the punishment of the compacters when
found. The faithful, under the belief that they were fighting the battle
of the Lord, brought numbers of poor wretches to trial, many of whom,
strangely enough, believed themselves guilty of the crime imputed to
them. After trial and conviction, they were put to death. The belief
that the devil could and did invest men and women with supernatural
powers affected all social relations, for everything strange and
unaccountable--and, in a non-scientific age, we can readily conceive how
almost everything would be brought into this category--was ascribed to
this cause, and each suspected his or her neighbour; even the truest
friendship was sometimes broken through this suspicion. The laws against
witchcraft in this country were abrogated last century, but the
abrogation of the law could not be expected to work any sudden change in
the belief of the people; at most, the alteration only paved the way for
the gradual departure of the superstition, and since the abrogation of
the law the belief has been decaying, but still in many parts of the
country it lingers on till the present time, instances of which appear
every now and again in the newspapers of the day.
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