The impulse thus given to childish fear and hatred against the
investigation of nature was felt for centuries; more and more
chemistry came to be known as one of the "seven devilish arts."
Thus began a long series of demonstrations against magic from
the centre of Christendom. In 1437, and again in 1445, Pope
Eugene IV issued bulls exhorting inquisitors to be more diligent
in searching out and delivering over to punishment magicians and
witches who produced bad weather, the result being that
persecution received a fearful impulse. But the worst came forty
years later still, when, in 1484, there came the yet more
terrible bull of Pope Innocent VIII, known as _Summis
Desiderantes_, which let inquisitors loose upon Germany, with
Sprenger at their head, armed with the _Witch-Hammer_, the fearful
manual _Malleus Maleficarum_, to torture and destroy men and women
by tens of thousands for sorcery and magic. Similar bulls were
issued in 1504 by Julius II, and in 1523 by Adrian VI.
The system of repression thus begun lasted for hundreds of
years.
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