158-162.
Manuals of exorcisms became important--some bulky quartos, others handbooks.

Noteworthy among the latter is one by the Italian priest Locatelli, entitled Exorcisms most Powerful and Efficacious for the Dispelling of Aerial Tempests, whether raised by Demons at their own Instance or at the Beck of some Servant of the Devil.( 227) (227) That is, Exorcismi, etc.

A "corrected" second edition was printed at Laybach, 1680, in 24mo, to which is appended another manual of Preces et conjurationes contra aereas tempestates, omnibus sacerdotibus utiles et necessaria, printed at the monastery of Kempten (in Bavaria) in 1667.
The latter bears as epigraph the passage from the gospels describing Christ's stilling of the winds.
The Jesuit Gretser, in his famous book on Benedictions and Maledictions, devotes a chapter to this subject, dismissing summarily the scepticism that questions the power of devils over the elements, and adducing the story of Job as conclusive.( 228) (228) See Gretser, De benedictionibus et maledictionibus, lib.

ii, c.
48.
Nor was this theory of exorcism by any means confined to the elder Church.

Luther vehemently upheld it, and prescribed especially the first chapter of St.John's gospel as of unfailing efficacy against thunder and lightning, declaring that he had often found the mere sign of the cross, with the text, "The word was made flesh," sufficient to put storms to flight.( 229) (229) So, at least, says Gretser (in his De ben.