Le Sourcier- The Dowser

Dowsing is a form of divination to locate water (as well as metals, ores, etc.) usually conducted using a Y-shaped twig or two L-shaped rods (“dowsing or divining rods”). 

The practice was banned by the Catholic church. Even Luther agreed with the ban. He saw dowsing as a form of occultism (1568). An epigram by Samuel Sheppard, from Epigrams theological, philosophical, and romantick (1651) decries: 

Some Sorcerers do boast they have a Rod,
Gather’d with Vowes and Sacrifice,
And (borne about) will strangely nod
To hidden Treasure where it lies;
Mankind is (sure) that Rod divine,
For to the Wealthiest (ever) they incline.— Virgula divina

The Jesuit Gaspar Schott called the practice “superstitious or rather satanic” (1662). Despite all this, dowsing was practiced and often abused. In Southern France in the 17th century it was used, supposedly to track criminals and heretics, so much so that the Inquisition of 1701 decreed that it was forbidden to use dowsing for purposes of justice.