This means of escape has been relied upon, with greater or less faith, from those days to these.

Various medieval saints and reformers, and devoted men in all centuries, from St.Giles to John Wesley, have used it with results claimed to be miraculous.

Whatever theory any thinking man may hold in the matter, he will certainly not venture a reproachful word: such prayers have been in all ages a natural outcome of the mind of man in trouble.( 225) (225) For Guacci, see his Compendium Maleficarum (Milan, 1608).

For the cases of St.Giles, John Wesley, and others stilling the tempests, see Brewer, Dictionary of Miracles, s.v.

Prayer.
But against the "power of the air" were used other means of a very different character and tendency, and foremost among these was exorcism.
In an exorcism widely used and ascribed to Pope Gregory XIII, the formula is given: "I, a priest of Christ,...