34, 314.
In the sixteenth century the Protestant Reformation gave new force to witchcraft persecutions in Germany, the new Church endeavouring to show that in zeal and power she exceeded the old.

But in France influential opinion seemed not so favourable to these forms of diabolical influence, especially after the publication of Montaigne's Essays, in 1580, had spread a sceptical atmosphere over many leading minds.
In 1588 occurred in France a case which indicates the growth of this sceptical tendency even in the higher regions of the french Church, In that year Martha Brossier, a country girl, was, it was claimed, possessed of the devil.

The young woman was to all appearance under direct Satanic influence.

She roamed about, begging that the demon might be cast out of her, and her imprecations and blasphemies brought consternation wherever she went.

Myth-making began on a large scale; stories grew and sped.