Citing from the Apocalypse, he points to the four
angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back
the winds and preventing their doing great damage to mortals;
and he dwells especially upon the fact that the devil is called
by the apostle a "prince of the power of the air." He then goes
on to cite the great fathers of the Church--Clement, Jerome,
Augustine, and Thomas Aquinas.[340]
This doctrine was spread not only in ponderous treatises, but in
light literature and by popular illustrations. In the _Compendium
Maleficarum_ of the Italian monk Guacci, perhaps the most amusing
book in the whole literature of witchcraft, we may see the
witch, _in propria persona_, riding the diabolic goat through the
clouds while the storm rages around and beneath her; and we may
read a rich collection of anecdotes, largely contemporary, which
establish the required doctrine beyond question.
The first and most natural means taken against this work of
Satan in the air was prayer; and various petitions are to be
found scattered through the Christian liturgies--some very
beautiful and touching.
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