witches have been discovered and brought to their just punishment by means of a child: and in this the glory of God is made manifest, so that we may well say here, with His Royal Prophet: “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou hast ordained strength because of Thine enemies, that Thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.” In the following Examen we shall see that several other children have been the instrument by which not a few have been creditably judged guilty of this crime; and that one even, no more than twelve years old, convicted his own father of it, so unassailably that the matter was thought no less strange than pitiable. But let us return to the points of Françoise Secretain’s confession.
Chapter V.
Whether it be Possible for One to send
Demons into the Body of Another.
Françoise Secretain confessed in the first place that she had wished five devils on Loyse Maillat; and in the first chapter we have told of the means she used to this end. But it is no easy matter to determine whether a person has the power to send demons into the body of another: Wier, de praestig. III. 16.
Bodin.there are those who have considered it not to be possible, and it is even said that formerly some maintained this opinion before Pope Paul IV.
