These sermons in stones preceded the printed book; they were
a sculptured Bible, which preceded Luther's pictorial Bible.[[111]]
Satan and his imps were among the principal personages in
every popular drama, and "Hell's Mouth" was a piece of stage
scenery constantly brought into requisition. A miracle-play
without a full display of the diabolic element in it would have
stood a fair chance of being pelted from the stage.[[111b]]
Not only the popular art but the popular legends embodied
these ideas. The chroniclers delighted in them; the _Lives of the
Saints_ abounded in them; sermons enforced them from every pulpit.
What wonder, then, that men and women had vivid dreams of Satanic
influence, that dread of it was like dread of the plague, and
that this terror spread the disease enormously, until we hear of
convents, villages, and even large districts, ravaged by
epidemics of diabolical possession![[112]]
And this terror naturally bred not only active cruelty
toward those supposed to be possessed, but indifference to the
sufferings of those acknowledged to be lunatics.
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