This method commended itself even to the
judgment of so thoughtful and kindly a personage as Sir Thomas
More, and as late as the sixteenth century. But if the disease
continued, as it naturally would after such treatment, the
authorities frequently felt justified in driving out the demons
by torture.[[110]]
Interesting monuments of this idea, so fruitful in evil,
still exist. In the great cities of central Europe, "witch
towers," where witches and demoniacs were tortured, and "fool
towers," where the more gentle lunatics were imprisoned, may
still be seen.
In the cathedrals we still see this idea fossilized. Devils
and imps, struck into stone, clamber upon towers, prowl under
cornices, peer out from bosses of foliage, perch upon capitals,
nestle under benches, flame in windows. Above the great main
entrance, the most common of all representations still shows
Satan and his imps scowling, jeering, grinning, while taking
possession of the souls of men and scourging them with serpents,
or driving them with tridents, or dragging them with chains into
the flaming mouth of hell.
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