Lives of the Necromancers

Lives of the Necromancers by William Godwin is an account of the most eminent persons in successive ages who have claimed for themselves, or to whom has been imputed by others, the exercise of magical power. The preface says the main purpose of the book is to exhibit a fair delineation of the credulity of the human mind. The text says augury has its foundation in observing the flight of birds, the sounds they utter, their motions whether sluggish or animated.

The text says divination has been principally employed in inspecting the entrails of beasts offered for sacrifice, and from their appearance drawing omens of the good or ill success of the enterprises in which we are about to engage. The text says Robert Guiscard, a Norman chieftain, drove the Germans out of Rome. Under the heading Dorothy Mateley, the writer says a story dated about this period, though it does not strictly belong to the subject of necromancy or dealings with the devil, seems well to deserve to be inserted in the work.