“ It was considered an act of blasphemy for a layman to pronounce the tetragrammaton. This avoidance of the original name was due on the one hand to reverence and on the other to fear lest the name be desecrated by heathens. Partly in consequence of this mystery and partly in accord with widespread superstitions, the tetragrammaton figures in magical formulae from the time of the Gnostics, and on amulets. Many a medieval miracle-worker was supposed to derive his competence from his knowledge of the secret of the Name. ”