How we cite our quotes: (Book.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
"Oh!" she stuttered, in a tone of anguish, covering her face with both her fair hands. "She is a sorceress!" All the while a voice cried bitterly in the depth of her heart—"She is a rival!" She sank fainting to the floor. (VII.I.118)
This is a perfect example of how the characters in the novel use sorcery as an excuse to hate on people they just don't like—usually for totally unrelated reasons. We're not saying that Fleur-de-Lis doesn't actually believe that Esmeralda is a sorceress, but we are saying that her accusations are motivated by a deeper desire to eliminate Esmeralda as a competitor for Phœbus's affection. Unfortunately, she's not alone in using accusations of witchcraft as an excuse to mask another desire: Frollo does the same thing.
Quote #5
"Pure magic, Master Jacques!" he exclaimed. "Emen-Hétan—that is the cry of the witches on their arrival at their Sabbath meetings. Per ipsum, et cum ipso, et in ipso—that is the command that chains down the devil in hell. Hax, pax, max—that belongs to medicine, a remedy for the bite of rabid dogs." (VII.V.13)
If only rabies could be cured with a chant. This passage shows us where Frollo falls on the superstitious scale: pretty high up there. As readers, we're supposed to see his earnestness as ignorance, but we're also supposed to get a sense of what sort of guy we're dealing with. Hint: a hot mess (except not actually hot). Frollo takes this stuff seriously, and he's part of a society that also takes it seriously. That means that rather than being some crazy guy muttering spells to himself up in a tower, he's able to wield some major clout when it comes to the justice system. Yeah. We smell trouble brewing.
Quote #6
"The specter, the goat, and all that, look very much like sorcery," said Gringoire to a neighbor. "Oh yes, and the withered leaf," added another. "No doubt," observed a third, "it was a witch working with the goblin-monk to rob the officer." Gringoire himself could scarcely help thinking that there was some probability in the conjecture. (VIII.I.30)
It's important to recognize that this scene is meant to be funny. It's partly because we have seen how the whole affair with the leaf actually went down, but it's also partly because everyone is so willing to see sorcery as an explanation for everything.