Still, the old belief lingered on,
its life flickering up from time to time in those parts of France
most under ecclesiastical control, until in these last years of
the nineteenth century a blow has been given it by the researches
of Charcot and his compeers which will probably soon extinguish
it. One evidence of Satanic intercourse with mankind especially,
on which for many generations theologians had laid peculiar
stress, and for which they had condemned scores of little girls
and hundreds of old women to a most cruel death, was found to be
nothing more than one of the many results of hysteria.[[125]]
In England the same warfare went on. John Locke had asserted
the truth, but the theological view continued to control public
opinion. Most prominent among those who exercised great power in
its behalf was John Wesley, and the strength and beauty of his
character made his influence in this respect all the more
unfortunate. The same servitude to the mere letter of Scripture
which led him to declare that "to give up witchcraft is to give
up the Bible," controlled him in regard to insanity.
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