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Th e Holy See became aware of the potential evangelising role of the Maltese in Ottoman lands at least from the mid-sixteenth century. Th is had much to do with Malta's geographical proximity to North Africa, coupled with the ability of the Maltese to speak a native Semitic language, believed to be close to Arabic, while at the same time being fervently Catholic Christians. Malta was singled out for this role mainly because the majority of Levantine Christian communities, then largely under Ottoman rule, were known to speak some form of Arabic. Th e combination of these factors appeared to be an excellent combination of circumstances to the Catholic Church authorities in Rome who believed that Malta was ideally suited for the teaching of Arabic. In Rome there was a general belief that the establishment of a school of Arabic in Malta, would help make the Catholic Church more accessible to the Christians of the Levant. However, despite continuous eff orts, throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, by the Holy Congregation of Propaganda Fide, the teaching of Arabic never really took off in Malta. Under British colonial administration, in the early nineteenth century, Arabic remained on the list of subjects taught at the University of Malta and was later introduced at the Lyceum and the Valletta Government School. Th e British colonial authorities may even have encouraged its teaching and for a brief time, in the mid-nineteenth century, the well known Lebanese scholar Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq, was lecturer of Arabic at Valletta. Th e end of Arabic teaching during World War One coincided with the emergence of the belief, pushed by Lord Gerald Strickland, that the Maltese descended from the Phoenicians. It was believed that the Maltese had preserved ancient Phoenician, rather than Arabic, over the millennia. By associating the Maltese with the ancient Phoenicians Strickland was simply saying that the Maltese might have had Semitic origins but that did not mean they were Arabs.

This book presents a handful of texts, all written in the 1430s around the arc of the western Alps, that helped to strengthen the negative efficacy of maleficium, or harmful magic. The texts uphold the generally held belief that these wicked people could meet as members of organized heretical sects or as agents of a sinister conspiracy to undermine Christian society.In this book, the translator gives a version in English of five primary texts from the mid-fifteenth century. Each work is preceded by an introduction that serves as an examination of the relative text within the framework of the evolving perceptions on witchcraft in Europe. The introductory discussion of the texts evaluates key features of witchcraft trials in the fifteenth century. First, Bailey highlights the fact that the Christian authorities associated most magic forms with demonic power. So, witches were perceived as agents of an evil conspiracy. This concept had been developing since the thirteenth century and may be found in the inquisitorial legal structures, which emerged to root out heresies. Second, by the early fifteenth century, many theologians used testimony obtained mainly from threatened or tortured witches to prove the physical reality of demonic actions. The sources collected in this book and published in chronological order reveal this concept in its nascent stages.The first text is a brief report of the Valais witch trials compiled by the Swiss chronicler Hans Fründ. These trials led to the execution of hundreds and may have launched witch-hunting in Europe. The second is a short treatise by Claude Tholosan, the Dauphinois chief magistrate of the region. Bailey indicates that Tholosan's main concern was to justify secular over ecclesiastical jurisdiction. The third text, The Errors of the Gazarii, is ascribed to an Inquisitor. It highlights the diabolical horrors of witchcraft and witches' assemblies, which Bailey tends to link to the Aosta trials. The fourth is mostly extracted from Johannes Nider's Anthill and deemed to be a long moralizing treatise of the theologian monk. Finally, the last translated text, The Vauderie of Lyon, was possibly written by a Dominican Inquisitor hailing from the same order as the friar Nider. It describes the dire actions of witches around Lyon in France and links conspiratorial witchcraft directly to horrific practices considered abhorrent to the REVIEWS 1353

In the early seventeenth century it became customary for knights of Malta who committed crimes to appeal to the tribunal of the Apostolic Chamber (Audentia Camera) in Rome. The Grand Masters of the Order of St John in Malta blamed this practice on the advent of the Apostolic Visitor and Roman Inquisitor in 1574 and saw its activities as a direct infringement of their authority over members of the Order and their subjects in Malta. Therefore on occasions successive Grand Masters found ways to "protest" with the Holy See claiming that the activities of the Apostolic Chamber were a threat to their rule, but the Grand Masters could not go beyond protesting because the Order of St John was above all a Catholic religious institution and the Pope in Rome was its ultimate head.

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