The Open court . Friedrich Spee von The Jesuit author of Catitio Criminalis. Ardent abolitionist of witch prosecution. (After an old oil painting.) the means of unscrupulous men who used the verdict of witch trib-unals as a convenient instrument to satisfy their passions of hatredand revenge. It is true that the Roman Catholic Church inaugu- 1 Born 1591 or 1595, and died 1635 ; he joined the Jesuits 1610 or 1615, was professor of philos-ophy and morals at Cologne, and wrote his Cantio Critninalis in Franconia when his pastoralduties brought him in frequent contact with wizards and
The Open court . Friedrich Spee von The Jesuit author of Catitio Criminalis. Ardent abolitionist of witch prosecution. (After an old oil painting.) the means of unscrupulous men who used the verdict of witch trib-unals as a convenient instrument to satisfy their passions of hatredand revenge. It is true that the Roman Catholic Church inaugu- 1 Born 1591 or 1595, and died 1635 ; he joined the Jesuits 1610 or 1615, was professor of philos-ophy and morals at Cologne, and wrote his Cantio Critninalis in Franconia when his pastoralduties brought him in frequent contact with wizards and witches whom he had to prepare fordeath. He takes high rank as a poet of Church hymns which appeared under the title Trutz-nachtigall. 242 THE OPEN LJu^h t^M^ J UmAAuf. Christian Thomasius, (Born 1655, died 1728.)Professor of Law at the University of Halle, who succeeded in the abolition of witch prose-cution. (After an old oil painting.) IS THE CHURCH RESPONSIBLE FOR THE INQUISITION? 243 rated and continued the prosecution of heretics, wizards, andwitches officially through its popes, but it is also true that the Prot-estants did not hesitate to follow their example^ and the arm of theworldly powers was ready to serve as an instrument of religiousfanaticism. Even our own country witnessed scenes which nowmake us blush to think what crimes our ancestors committed in thesuperstitious conviction of increasing the glory of God. Nor mustwe forget that among the abolitionists of heresy trials and witchprosecutions there were clergymen like Bekker, a Presbyterian,and Spee, a Jesuit, who took a prominent part. We become lenient judges if we learn to understand the spiritof the past and trace its superstitions to their various causes, as
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade188, booksubjectreligion, bookyear1887
