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Macrinus had persuaded Caesar to send for the exorciser, to test his arts. Immediately after the performance, however late it might be, the Magian was to be admitted to his presence. Serapion thanked the prefect, and then whispered to him, "I have had a second revelation." "Not here!" exclaimed Macrinus, uneasily, and, leading away his handsome little son, he turned toward the entrance.
The Church could not have influenced the world as she has done, had she been nothing more than a healer of diseases and an exorciser of demons. Clearly the Church has had an argument to present to men which even her Master could not use. He could not point, except indefinitely, to the cross, its flowing blood, its testimony to a love which the cold waters of death could not staunch.
Would the symbolical acts, burning of effigies, loosening of knots, and the like, have the desired effect? Upon the success of the priest in performing this function of prognostication everything depended, both for himself and for the petitioner. The natural and indeed necessary complement to the priest as exorciser is the priest as the forecaster of the future.
Accompanying these threats, the actions indicated were symbolically performed by the exorciser on effigies of the witches made, in this case, of bitumen covered with pitch. Corresponding again to the potions prepared by the witches, the priests prepared draughts compounded of various weeds and herbs that were given to the victim, or concoctions that were poured over his body.
The manifold duties of the priesthood would tend towards a differentiation of the priests into various classes. The priest, as exorciser, would become distinct from the priest as the inspector of omens; and the latter different again from the pronouncer of oracles.
I laugh at your exorcists!" returned the soldier; "my name is Grand-Ferre, and I've got here a better exorciser than any of you can show."
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