# An Examen of Witches/Chapter 55

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Chapter LV.
Of the Power and Virtue of the Cross against Demons and their Subjects.
As s to the Cross, history tells us that a certain Gregory, Bishop of Langres, and one Albinus, Bishop of Anjou, used to drive devils from the bodies of the possessed by this sign. Greg. Turo. in vit. patr. c. 7. Vincent, III. 243.It was the same weapon that the hermits of times past and other Saints used to fight devils. So did St. Antony and St. Margaret; and with the sign of the Cross St. Justina drove away the two demons sent to her by St. Cyprian, when he was yet addicted to sorcery, to attempt her virginity. Lib. 1. To. 2. contr. hæres.Similarly Epiphanius tells that a Christian lady at the Baths of Gadara in Judæa freed herself by means of this healing sign from the ​enchantments of those who were persecuting her. We read also of several who, when they have found themselves either by accident or out of curiosity at the Sabbat, have made the sign of the Cross, whereupon everything, devils, dishes and persons, has vanished.
But let us take the far stranger example of Julian the Apostate. This renegade met one day in a temple of idols with several devils who were conspiring for the ruin of the whole human race. He was frightened by the sight of such an assembly and, in imitation of the Christians, made the sign of the Cross; thereupon all the devils at once vanished, saying of Julian that he was an empty vessel, but that he was protected by the sign of the Cross with which he had armed himself.
A similar thing happened about forty years ago when the Bernese held the bailiwick of Gex under a certain Charcot, who was of the so-called reformed religion. This man was attacked one night in the Wood of Rat by a number of cats, against which he defended himself with a sword; but finding that his sword was no protection, he made the sign of the Cross, upon which all the cats vanished. The Bailiff, a Bernese named Augustin de Lutherno, hearing of this sent for Charcot, who confirmed the story which had been told to him; and the Bailiff then said to him that, if he found the sign of the Cross of such benefit, he ought always to make use of it in the future. I have this story from the Lord of Pongny, a gentleman of the land of Gex, and a man of honour.
Only nine months ago Antoine Gentil of the country of Vaux, also a Bernese subject and of ​the same religion as Charcot, in the same way drove off the Devil with the sign of the Cross. He was taking a large quantity of cheeses by water to Lyons, and they were submerged by a storm which suddenly arose. In despair over this loss, Gentil wandered about until, as he was passing a wood, he met a big black man who said that, if he would give himself to him he would recover his cheeses for him and make him rich again. Gentil asked him who he was, and he answered that he was the Devil. Thereupon Gentil made the sign of the Cross, and the big black man at once disappeared. Afterwards, when he was asked why he had made the sign of the Cross, seeing that he was a Huguenot and that there is nothing which the heretics more hate than the Cross, he answered that in a case of necessity it was good to use all possible means of protection. I know this from those who went with him to Lyons. There was also one Joseph who, although not a Christian, cast out devils from those who were possessed by means of the Cross; and this caused him to embrace Christianity.
In short demons can never bear the sign of the Cross without trembling all over. Besides those which I have just related, we have a good instance of this in Caron’s “Antichrist Unmasked,” which I shall here quote. “When the matter was thus confirmed” (he is speaking of a child who was found to be possessed), “I went one day into the house where the child was; and on my entry, there came up to me a Huguenot girl about eighteen years old holding a little silver Cross, who signed to me to take notice of what she would do. The child was all bunched up in ​bed, with his nose pressed against his knees, well covered up and with his back to us, so that it was impossible for him to see us; and the Huguenot girl began to apply the Cross to his shoulders. Upon this the child suddenly twisted and stretched himself out, grimacing and crying out against us. Then he put himself back into the bed as he was before. I then took the Cross; but I could never come within two fingers’ breadth of the possessed but that he immediately rose up and twisted himself about as before. I tried several times on that and the following days.” So says Caron; but this is no more strange than that which I saw happen in the case of Rollande du Vernois, Chap. 53.which I have already related.
Further, witches never have a Cross on their rosaries, or if they have, it is defective; and, as I have before remarked, he who says the Mass at the Sabbat has no Cross on his cope. Witches always have great difficulty also in making the sign of the Cross; this was the case with Antide Colas, chiefly when she was in church. And if they are carefully watched when they sign themselves, it will be seen that they never make the complete sign of the Cross, and that they are hardly able to place their right hand in the position we are accustomed to use when we make the sign of the Cross. This need not appear strange, when we consider that the Devil makes them swear and vow very solemnly to put no faith in the Cross, Mall. malef. II. 1. 2.but rather to trample it always underfoot, as we are told by Sprenger. L. unic. cum suo nigro nemin. licer. Sign. Salvacto Christ.By such behaviour they act in direct opposition to the Edicts of the Emperors Theodosius and Valentinian, which forbade under heavy penalty anyone even to carve or paint the Cross on the ​hum. vel in silic. vel in marmor. aut insculp. aut ping.ground, saying that it was the sign of the Saviour, so that no one should walk upon it or soil it.
It can therefore easily be understood that the Devil holds the Cross in great abhorrence. So true is this that the first artifice which he uses is to have the Crosses destroyed, as they have been in several places in the New World, and especially in the realm of Quabacondono, who forbade his subjects to wear the Cross on pain of death; and he was not even content to banish it from his land, but wished his Edicts to have effect on the sea also, so that the people were compelled to destroy the Crosses on the banderoles of their ships. Antichrist also brands his subjects with his mark upon the brow or the hand, so that none may make the sign of the Cross on his brow. A dog, seeing the stick with which it has been beaten, at once cries out and runs away: in the same fashion the Devil fears the power of the Cross, which he well felt when Jesus Christ felled him to the ground with it; so that, on seeing it, he quickly takes to flight. Further, it is obvious that the Cross has this power not only ex opere operantis, but also ex opere operato, as the Theologians say; since even when it is used by heretics, the Devil is put to flight by them.
And for this reason the Holy Fathers, knowing very well that this sign is one of the greatest flails of the Devil, exhort us to protect ourselves with it in all our actions so that Satan may never have any power against us. St. Greg. lib. 1. Dial. c. 3. St. Jerome in Ep. ad Eustoch.I shall quote the words of Tertullian, one of the most ancient of the Fathers. He says: “We sign ourselves with the Cross on the forehead at every step, at every coming in and going out, when we rise up, at the ​Tertull. de Coron. milit. c. 3.bath, at the table, in public, in our chamber, on sitting down, in short to whatever side we turn and wherever we go we shall sign ourselves with this sign.” De Incarn. Dom. & salv. eius advers.St. Gregory, St. Jerome, St. John Chrysostom, St. Cyril and Theodoret teach us the same. St. Athanasius also has written that at the sign of the Cross all magic arts vanish, and witchcraft is without virtue or power: “Let him who wishes to prove this hereafter make the sign of the Cross and invoke the name of Jesus Christ when the demons are doing their utmost to impose upon his belief with their impostures and deceits and magic miracles, and he will see how, merely through fear of this sign and this Name, the Demons will flee away, their magic answers will be silenced, and their sorceries numbed and dead.” In Exod. c. 15. homil. 6.Origen says as much in one place.
Euseb. in vita Constant.Finally, Constantine the Great (for I wish to finish this chapter with him), having proved in warfare how great was the power and virtue of this Sign, had the following words inscribed on a Cross which he caused to be set up in Rome to the right of his statue: “This is the Sign of Salvation.”