[Footnote 74: Villani (l. x. c. 68 - 71, in Muratori,
Script. tom. xiii. p. 641 - 645) relates this law, and the
whole transaction, with much less abhorrence than the
prudent Muratori. Any one conversant with the darker ages
must have observed how much the sense (I mean the nonsense)
of superstition is fluctuating and inconsistent.]