Birmingham.
_Praying to the Devil_ (Vol. v., p. 273.).--Bishop Hall, in his _Cases
of Conscience_ (Decade iii. Case 2. Lond. 1654), alludes to the fact of
Satanic compacts, as indeed do many others of our old divines. The
master work on the subject is, I believe, that entitled _Disquisitiones
Magicæ_ by Martinus Delrio. Let me particularly refer your correspondent
R. S. F. to Lib. ii. of said volume, Quæst. 4. pp. 99., &c., and to Lib.
v. sect. xvi. pp. 759., &c. (_Coloniæ Agrippinæ_, 1633, 4to.)
In turning over the leaves fortuitously, I stumbled upon the name of
Catherine de Medicis, and perhaps in a connexion that will render the
legend of the steel box not incredible:
"Sic ille ipse, Bodino non ignotus, faciebat Italus Parisiis, tam
carus Catharinæ Mediceæ, qui chirothecis, globulis, vel pulveribus
suave fragrantibus, alios solo necabat odore illæsus ipse, et hoc
pacto à se interfectam Navarræ Reginam Albretham, veneni vi per
nares in cerebrum penetrante, gloriabatur. Vera causa est, hæc ex
pacto fieri per dæmonem," &c.--Lib. iii. pars i. quæst. 3. sect.
2. p. 394.