THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
in the bull Sunimis desiderantes of Innocent VIII. issued in 14S4 commanding the clergy to assist in hunting out and punishing witches, and giving papal authority to belief in succubi, incubi, and other horrible figments of the diseased imagination (text of the bull is in Reich, Documents, pp. 200-201; cf. further, Schaff, Christian Church, v. 1, pp. 879 sqq., and 2, pp. 514 sqq.). And with equal force it has made use of the State, from the time of Hammurabi (q.v., II., 2) to the Salic Law (xix. 2; Eng. transl. in F. A. Ogg, Source Book, p. 64, New York, 1908), and even much later (see Ordeal, § 9) . It reestablished the pestiferous distinction between white magic and black, a distinction which seems to have existed in all grades of civilization. Its deadliest power, perhaps, is that by which it acquires influence over the commonest affairs of everyday life, stifling initiative, stagnating thought, poisoning the intellect, and subjecting activities to the imagined effects of chance happenings with which they have no relation.
The statement just made may be exemplified by reference to the list of current superstitions educed by the inductive study of the subject by Dresslar in the work already cited. The study was conducted upon the basis of questions submitted 7. Present to students of normal schools (there- Super- fore adults or adolescents) in California
stitions. in the twentieth century. Things with which superstitions were connected were named as follows: salt, bread and butter, tea and coffee, plants and fruit; fire, lightning, rainbow, the moon, the stars; babies, birds, owls, peacocks and their feathers, chickens, cats, dogs, cows, sheep, swine, horses, rabbits, rats, frogs and toads, fish, crickets, spiders, snakes, lizards, turtles, wolves, bees, dragon flies; chairs and tables, clocks, mirrors, spoons, knives and forks, pointed instruments, pins, hairpins, combs, umbrellas (mostly unlucky), candles, matches, tea-kettle, brooms, dishcloths, handkerchiefs, gardening tools, ladders, horseshoes, hay; days of the week and various festivals or fasts, especially Hallowe'en, birthdays; various numbers, counting, laughing, singing, crying; starting on a journey and turning back, two persons simultaneously saying the same thing, passing in at one door and out at another, walking on opposite sides of a post, stepping on cracks, sneezing, crossing hands while shaking hands, use of windows as exits, stumbling; itching of palm, eye, nose, ear, or foot; warts, moles; various articles of dress, shoes, precious stones, amulets and charms, rings, money; wish bones; death and funerals, dreams, spiritisms, weddings, and initials. Of course, even this long list is most incomplete and might be expanded indefinitely. The practical significance of the beliefs registered in connection with these various beliefs or actions is that activities and procedure are supposed to be governed by them — action is indicated or inhibited affording as the " sign " is favorable or unfavorable. A slavery with respect to action is thus shown which ought to be anomalous in enlightened Christendom, and yet is manifested as current.
A graver fact than the preceding is involved in the slavery of thought which is a consequence; of
the attention paid to " signs " and " omens." The function of the Church as an educator and the large field which is here opened bring the 8. Present subject in this aspect into view with Conse- relation to religious duty. Knowledge quences. of the actual work of the Church warrants the statement that not sufficient attention is paid to this side of the Church's paideutic mission. The preoccupation of the mind by such superstitious faiths can but retard the acceptance not merely of scientific but of religious truth. The very springs of healthy mental and spiritual perception are poisoned while such trivialities are permitted to control the sources of action. That such effects are very far-reaching, even to the control in a measure of business concerns of immense importance, is shown by the fact that some great corporations engaged in transoceanic transportation avoid Friday as a day of sailing, this custom being undoubtedly due in considerable part to the outworn sailors' superstition as to the misfortune which surely awaits the voyagers who set out on that day. And another consequence which is not paltry is that by such beliefs imposture is encouraged, while hosts of quacks in medicine, palmists, fortune-tellers, and " wizards " flourish on the credulity of the ignorant and deluded, at the same time that these beliefs are spread because the cunning and ambiguous pronouncements of the impostors are interpreted as wisdom by the victims and new strength is furnished to superstitious growths. Of the results in loss of life in more backward communities such as Russia and even Ireland, of sacrifices and cruelties practised even in the latter part of the nineteenth century and indeed in the city of New York itself, there is not space here to treat. How terrible the current beliefs and the almost contemporary consequences are may be discovered from the accounts in the Popular Science Monthly for 1898-99, pp. 207-218, of murders, e.g., of helpless infants supposed to be fairy changelings in the last part of the nineteenth century. And if at such a period events can occur such as are there recounted, the imagination must fail to portray what has happened in the darker ages of human history. It is therefore no argument for the perpetuation of superstition that some fruits of good have resulted from its existence, such as those adduced by J. G. Frazer (in Psyche's Task, ut sup.). Examination of savage and barbarous life reveals that, for instance, the institution of taboo, g. Contri- founded essentially upon superstition, butions to has entrenched respect for certain Develop- forms of government, especially those ment. of a monarchical type, and in this way has contributed to the development of the body politic and consequently to society at large. By this means the will of the individual has within certain lines been subjected to what is recognized as a common good, a basis for a partially altruistic practise; has been laid, and the exercise of self-denial has been fostered. In a similar way respect for private property has been enforced under fear of penalty impending from supernatural powers. In certain stages of development the suggestion and protection of the rights of ownership were