Abstract
JAMES DEVICE'S statement must be taken in its context. If the Host had been required merely for the purpose of a charm, he would scarcely have been instructed to hand it over to “a Thing” which he thought would have torn him to pieces when he failed. It is, therefore, legitimate to infer something more vital to the witches' organisation. As Boguet only a few years before had had the Witches' Sabbath and the Satanic Mass under investigation, and Gauffridi's case was raising the same issue, a reference to that ritual becomes still more probable, though whether due to the witness's own knowledge or to the suggestion of his examiners remains an open question. On the Continent the existence of the Satanic ritual had been recognised for centuries.
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[Letters to Editor]. Nature 124, 693 (1929). https://doi.org/10.1038/124693c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/124693c0
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