By the middle of the eighteenth century belief in diabolic
possession had practically disappeared from all enlightened
countries, and during the nineteenth century it has lost its hold
even in regions where the medieval spirit continues strongest.
Throughout the Middle Ages, as we have seen, Satan was a leading
personage in the miracle-plays, but in 1810 the Bavarian
Government refused to allow the Passion Play at Ober-Ammergau if
Satan was permitted to take any part in it; in spite of heroic
efforts to maintain the old belief, even the childlike faith of
the Tyrolese had arrived at a point which made a representation
of Satan simply a thing to provoke laughter.
Very significant also was the trial which took place at
Wemding, in southern Germany, in 1892. A boy had become
hysterical, and the Capuchin Father Aurelian tried to exorcise
him, and charged a peasant's wife, Frau Herz, with bewitching
him, on evidence that would have cost the woman her life at any
time during the seventeenth century.
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