{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_29412/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_29412","id":"gutenberg_29412","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29412","summary":null,"tags":["Apparitions","Category: History - Early Modern (c. 1450-1750)","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Demonology","Spirits"],"text":"Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Stephanie Eason and the\nOnline Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net\n(This book was produced from scanned images of public\ndomain material from the Google Print project.)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n THE\n PHANTOM WORLD:\n THE HISTORY\n AND\n PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITS, APPARITIONS,\n &c. &c.\n\n\n FROM THE FRENCH OF AUGUSTINE CALMET.\n\n\n WITH A PREFACE AND NOTES\n BY THE\n REV. HENRY CHRISTMAS, M.A., F.R.S., F.S.A., LIBRARIAN AND SECRETARY OF\n SION COLLEGE.\n\n\nQuemadmodum multa fieri non posse, priusquam facta sunt, judicantur;\nita multa quoque, quae antiquitus facta, quia nos ea non vidimus, neque\nratione assequimur, ex iis esse, quae fieri non potuerunt, judicamus.\nQuae certe summa insipientia est.--PLIN. _Hist. Nat._ lib. vii. c. 1.\n\n\n\n TWO VOLUMES IN ONE.\n\n PHILADELPHIA:\n A. HART, LATE CAREY & HART.\n 1850.\n\n\n\n\n PHILADELPHIA:\n T. K. AND P. G. COLLINS, PRINTERS.\n\n\n\n\n TO\n HENRY JAMES SLACK, ESQ., F.G.S.\n &c. &c. &c.\n\n\n\n MY DEAR HENRY--\n\nI inscribe these volumes with your name to record a friendship which\nhas lasted from our infancy, tain____________ suspicion, and darkened\nby no shadow.\n\nSo long as eminent talents can challenge admiration, varied and\nextensive acquirements command respect, and unfeigned virtues ensure\nesteem and regard, so long will you have no common claim to them all;\nand none will pay the tribute more gladly than your affectionate\n\n Friend and Cousin,\n HENRY CHRISTMAS.\n\n SION COLLEGE, _March, 1850._\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.\n\n\nAmong the many phases presented by human credulity, few are more\ninteresting than those which regard the realities of the invisible\nworld. If the opinions which have been held on this subject were\nwritten and gathered together they would form hundreds of volumes--if\nthey were arranged and digested they would form a few, but most\nimportant. It is not merely because there is in almost every human\nerror a substratum of truth, and that the more important the subject\nthe more important the substratum, but because the investigation will\ngive almost a history of human aberrations, that this otherwise\nunpromising topic assumes so high an interest. The superstitions of\nevery age, for no age is free from them, will present the popular\nmodes of thinking in an intelligible and easily accessible form, and\nmay be taken as a means of gauging (if the expression be permitted)\nthe philosophical and metaphysical capacities of the period. In this\nlight, the volumes here presented to the reader will be found of great\nvalue, for they give a picture of the popular mind at a time or great\ninterest, and furnish a clue to many difficulties in the ecclesiastical\naffairs of that era. In the time of Calmet, cases of demoniacal\npossession, and instances of returns from the world of spirits, were\nreputed to be of no uncommon occurrence. The church was continually\ncalled on to exert her powers of exorcism; and the instances gathered\nby Calmet, and related in this work, may be taken as fair specimens of\nthe rest. It is then, first, as a storehouse of facts, or reputed\nfacts, that Calmet compiled the work now in the reader's hands--as the\nfoundation on which to rear what superstructure of system they pleased;\nand secondly, as a means of giving his own opinions, in a detached and\ndesultory way, as the subjects came under his notice. The value of the\nfirst will consist in their _evidence_--and of this the reader will be\nas capable of judging as the compiler; that of the second will depend\non their truth--and of this, too, we are as well, and in some respects\nbetter, able to judge than Calmet himself. Those accustomed to require\nrigid evidence will be but ill satisfied with the greater part of that\nwhich will be found in this work; simple assertion for the most part\nsuffices--often first made long after the facts, or supposed facts,\nrelated, and not unfrequently far off from the places where they were\nalleged to have taken place. But these cases are often the _best_\nauthenticated, for in the more modern ones there is frequently such an\nevident mistake in the whole nature of the case, that all the\nspiritual deductions made from it fall to the ground.\n\nNot a few instances of so-called demoniacal possession are capable of\nbeing resolved into cataleptic trance, a state not unlike that\nproduced by mesmerism, and in which many of the same phenomena seem\nnaturally to display themselves; the well-known instance of the young\nservant girl, related by Coleridge, who, though ignorant and uneducated,\ncould during her sleep-walking discourse learnedly in rabbinical\nHebrew, would furnish a case in point. The circumstance of her old\nmaster having been in the habit of walking about the house at night,\nreading from rabbinical books aloud and in a declamatory manner; the\nimpression made by the strange sounds upon her youthful imagination;\ntheir accurate retention by a memory, which, however, could only\nreproduce them in an abnormal condition--all teach us many most\ninteresting psychological facts, which, had this young girl fallen\ninto other hands, would have been useless in a philosophical point of\nview, and would have been only used to establish the doctrine of\ndiabolical possession and ecclesiastical exorcism. We should have been\ntold how skilled was the fallen angel in rabbinical traditions, and\nhow wholesome a terror he entertained of the Jesuits, the Capuchins,\nor the _Fratres Minimi_, as the case might be. Not a few of the most\nremarkable cases of supposed _modern_ possession are to be accounted\nfor by involuntary or natural mesmerism. Indeed the same view seems to\nbe taken by a popular minister of the church (Mr. Mac Niel), in our\nown day, viz., that mesmerism and diabolical possession are frequently\nidentical. Our difference with him is that we should consider the\ncases called by the two names as all natural, and he would consider\nthem as all supernatural. And here, to avoid misconception, or rather\nmisinterpretation, let me at once observe, that I speak thus of\n_modern_ and _recorded_ cases only, accepting _literally_ all related\nin the New Testament, and not presuming to say that similar cases\n_might_ not occur now. Calmet, however, may be supposed to have\ncollected all the most remarkable of modern times, and I am compelled\nto say I believe not one of them. But when we pass from the evidence\nof truth, in which they are so wanting, to the evidence of fraud and\ncollusion by which many are so characterized, we shall have less wonder\nat the general spread of infidelity in times somewhat later, on all\nsubjects not susceptible of ocular demonstration. Where a system\nclaimed to be received as a whole, or not at all, it is hardly to be\nwondered at that when some portion was manifestly wrong, its own\nrequirements should be complied with, and the whole rejected. The\nsystem which required an implicit belief in such absurdities as those\nrelated in these volumes, and placed them on a level with the most\nawful verities of religion, might indeed make some interested use of\nthem in an age of comparative darkness, but certainly contained within\nitself the seeds of destruction, and which could not fail to germinate\nas soon as light fell upon them. The state of Calmet's own mind, as\nrevealed in this book, is curious and interesting. The belief _of the\nintellect_ in much which he relates is evidently gone, the belief _of\nthe will_ but partially remains. There is a painful sense of\nuncertainty as to whether certain things _ought_ not to be received\nmore fully than he felt himself able to receive them, and he gladly\nfollows in many cases the example of Herodotus of old, merely relating\nstories without comment, save by stating that they had not fallen\nunder his own observation.\n\nThe time, indeed, had hardly come to assert freedom of belief on\nsubjects such as these. Theology embraced philosophy, and the Holy\nInquisition defended the orthodoxy of both; and if the investigators\nof Calmet's day were permitted to hold, with some limitation, the\nCopernican theory, it was far otherwise with regard to the world of\nspirits, and its connection with our own. The rotundity of the earth\naffected neither shrines nor exorcisms; metaphysical truth might do\nboth one and the other; and the cry of \"Great is Diana of the\nEphesians,\" was not raised in the capital of Asia Minor, till the\n\"craft by which we get our wealth\" was proved to be in danger.\n\nReflections such as these are painfully forced on us by the evident\nfraud exhibited by many of the actors in the scenes of exorcism\nnarrated by Calmet, the vile purposes to which the services of the\nchurch were turned, and the recklessness with which the supposed or\npretended evil, and equally pretended remedy, were used for political\nintrigue or state oppression.\n\nIndependent of these conclusions, there is something lamentable in a\nstate of the public mind, which was so little prone to examination as\nto receive such a mass of superstition without sifting the wheat, for\nsuch there undoubtedly is, from the chaff. Calmet's work contains\nenough, had we the minor circumstances in each case preserved, to set\nat rest many philosophic doubts, and to illustrate many physical\nfacts; and to those who desire to know what was believed by our\nChristian forefathers, and why it was believed, the compilation is\nabsolutely invaluable. Calmet was a man of naturally cool, calm\njudgment, possessed of singular learning, and was pious and truthful.\nA short sketch of his life will not, perhaps, be unacceptable to the\nreader.\n\nAugustine Calmet was born in the year 1672, at a village near\nCommerci, in Lorraine. He early gave proofs of aptitude for study, and\nan opportunity was speedily offered of devoting himself to a life of\nlearning. In his sixteenth year he became a Benedictine of the\nCongregation of St. Vannes, and prosecuted his theological and such\nphilosophical studies as the time allowed with great success. He was\nsoon appointed to teach the younger portion of the community, and gave\nin this employment such decided satisfaction to his superiors, that he\nwas soon marked for preferment. His chief study was the Scriptures;\nand in the twenty-second year of his age, a period unusually early, in\nan age when all benefices and beneficial employments were matters of\nsale, he was appointed to be sub-prior of the monastery of Munster, in\nAlsace, where he presided over an academy. This academy consisted of\nten or twelve monks, and its object was the investigation of\nScripture. Calmet was not idle in his new position; besides\ncommunicating so much valuable information as to make his pupils the\nbest biblical scholars of the country, he made extensive collections\nfor his Commentary on the Old and New Testaments, and for his still\nmore celebrated work, the History of the Bible. These materials he\nsubsequently digested and arranged. The Commentary, a work of immense\nvalue, was published in separate volumes from 1707 to 1716. His labors\nattracted renewed and increased attention, and the offer of a\nbishopric was made to him, which he unhesitatingly declined.\n\nIn 1718, he was elected to the abbacy of St. Leopold, in Nancy; and\nten years afterwards, to that of Senones, where he spent the remainder\nof his days. His writings are numerous--two have been already\nmentioned--and so great was the popularity attained by his\nCommentaries, that they have been translated into no fewer than six\nlanguages within ten years. It exhibits a favorable aspect of the\nauthor's mind, and gives a very high idea of his erudition. One cause\nwhich tended greatly to its universal acceptability, was its singular\nfreedom from sectarian bitterness. Protestants as well as Romanists\nmay use it with equal satisfaction; and accordingly, it is considered\na work of standard authority in England as much as on the continent.\n\nIn addition to these Commentaries, and his History of the Bible, and\nFragments, (the best edition of which latter work in English, is by\nIsaac Taylor,) he wrote the \"Ecclesiastical and Civil History of\nLorraine;\" \"A Catalogue of the Writers of Lorraine;\" \"Universal\nHistory, Sacred and Profane;\" a small collection of Reveries; and a\nwork entitled, \"A Literal, Moral, and Historical Commentary on the\nRule of St. Benedict,\" a work which is full of curious information on\nancient customs, particularly ecclesiastical. He is among the few,\nalso, who have written on ancient music. He lived to a good old age;\nand died regretted and much respected in 1757.\n\nOf all his works, the one presented here to the reader, is perhaps the\nmost popular; it went rapidly through many editions, and received from\nthe author's hand continual corrections and additions. To say that it\nis characterized by uniform judgment, would be to give it a praise\nsomewhat different as well as somewhat greater than that which it\nmerits. It is a vast repertory of legends, more or less probable; some\nof which have very little foundation--and some which Calmet himself\nwould have done well to omit, though _now_, as a picture of the belief\nentertained in that day, they greatly add to the value of the book.\nFor the same reasons which have caused the retention of these\npassages, no alterations have been made in the citations from\nScripture, which being translations from the Vulgate, necessarily\ndiffer in phraseology from the version in use among ourselves. The\napocryphal books too are quoted, and the story of Bel and the Dragon\nreferred to as a part of the prophecy of Daniel; but what is of\nconsequence to observe, is, that _doctrines_ are founded on these\ntranslations, and on those very points in which they differ from our\nown.\n\nIf the history of popery, and especially that form and development of\nit exhibited in the monastic orders, be ever written, this work will\nbe of the greatest importance:--it will show the means by which\ndominion was obtained over the minds of the ignorant; how the most\nsacred mysteries were perverted; and frauds, which can hardly be\ntermed pious, used to support institutions which can scarcely be\ncalled religious. That the spirits of the dead should be permitted to\nreturn to earth, under circumstances the most grotesque, to support\nthe doctrines of masses for the dead, purgatory and propitiatory\npenance; that demons should be exorcised to give testimony to the\nmerits of rival orders of monks and friars; that relics, many of them\nsupposititious, and many of the most disgusting and blasphemous\ncharacter, should have power to affect the eternal state of the\ndeparted; and that _all_ saints, angels, demons, and the ghosts of the\ndeparted, should support, with great variations indeed, the corrupt\ndealings of a corrupt priesthood--form a creed worthy of the darkest\nand most unworthy days of heathenism.\n\nThere is, however, one excuse, or rather palliation, for the\nsuperstition of that time. In periods of great public depravity--and\nfew epochs have been more depraved than that in which Calmet\nlived--Satan has great power. With a ruler like the regent Duke of\nOrleans, with a Church governor like Cardinal Dubois, it would appear\nthat the civil and ecclesiastical authority of France had sold itself,\nlike Ahab of old, to work wickedness; or, as the apostle says, \"to\nwork all uncleanness with greediness.\" In an age so characterized, it\ndoes not seem at all improbable that portentous events should from\ntime to time occur; that the servants of the devil should be\nstrengthened together with their master; that many should be given\nover to strong delusions and to believe a lie; and that the evil part\nof the invisible world should be permitted to ally itself more closely\nwith the men of an age so congenial. Real cases of demoniacal\npossession might, perhaps, be met with, and though scarcely amenable\nto the exorcisms of a clergy so corrupt as that of France in that day,\nthey would yet justify a belief in the reality of those cases got up\nfor the sake of filthy lucre, personal ambition, or private revenge.\nIf the public mind was prepared for a belief in such cases, there were\nnot wanting men to turn it to profitable account; and the quiet\nstudent who believed the efficacy of the means used, and was scarcely\naware of the wickedness of the age in which he lived, might easily be\ninduced to credit the tales told him of demons expelled by the power\nof a church, to which in the beginning an authority to do so had\nundoubtedly been given, and whose awful corruptions were to him at\nleast greatly veiled.\n\nCalmet was a man of great integrity and considerable acumen, but he\npassed an innocent and exemplary life in studious seclusion; he mixed\nlittle with the world at large, resided remote \"from courts, and\ncamps, and strife of war or peace;\" and there appears occasionally in\nhis writings a kind of nervous apprehension lest the dogmas of the\nchurch to which he was pledged should be less capable than he could\nwish of satisfactory investigation. When he meets with tales like\nthose of the vampires or vroucolacas, which concern only what he\nconsidered a heretical church, and with which, therefore, he might\ndeal according to his own will--apply to them the ordinary rules of\nevidence, and treat them as mundane affairs--there he is\nclear-sighted, critical and acute, and accordingly he discusses the\nmatter philosophically and logically, and concludes without fear of\nsinning against the church, that the whole is delusion. When, on the\nother hand, he has to deal with cases of demoniacal possession, in\ncountries under the rule of the Roman hierarchy, he contents himself\nwith the decisions of the scholastic divines and the opinions of the\nfathers, and makes frequent references to the decrees of various\nprovincial parliaments. The effects of such a state of mind upon\nscientific and especially metaphysical investigation, may be easily\nimagined, and are to be traced more or less distinctly in every page\nof the work before us.\n\nTo conclude: books like this--the \"Disquisitiones Magicae\" of Delrio,\nthe \"Demonomanie\" of Bodin, the \"Malleus Maleficarum\" of Sprengel, and\nthe like, are at no time to be regarded merely as subjects of\namusement; they have their philosophical value; they have a still\ngreater historical value; and they show how far even upright minds may\nbe warped by imperfect education, and slavish deference to authority.\n\nThe edition here followed is that of 1751, which contains the latest\ncorrections of the author, and several additional pieces, which are\nall included in the present volumes.\n\n SION COLLEGE, LONDON WALL,\n _April, 1850._\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n PAGE\n\nPREFACE xv\n\nCHAPTER\n\nI. The Appearance of Good Angels proved by the Books of the\n Old Testament 37\n\nII. The Appearance of Good Angels proved by the Books of the\n New Testament 38\n\nIII. Under what form have Good Angels appeared? 41\n\nIV. Opinions of the Jews, Christians, Mahometans, and Oriental\n Nations, concerning the Apparitions of Good Angels 44\n\nV. Opinion of the Greeks and Romans on the Apparitions of\n Good Genii 47\n\nVI. The Apparition of Bad Angels proved by the Holy\n Scriptures--Under what Form they have appeared 50\n\nVII. Of Magic 57\n\nVIII. Objections to the Reality of Magic 61\n\nIX. Reply to the Objections 63\n\nX. Examination of the Affair of Hocque, Magician 67\n\nXI. Magic of the Egyptians and Chaldeans 70\n\nXII. Magic among the Greeks and Romans 73\n\nXIII. Examples which prove the Reality of Magic 75\n\nXIV. Effects of Magic according to the Poets 81\n\nXV. Of the Pagan Oracles 83\n\nXVI. The Certainty of the Event predicted, is not always a\n proof that the Prediction comes from God 86\n\nXVII. Reasons which lead us to believe that the greater part\n of the Ancient Oracles were only Impositions of the\n Priests and Priestesses, who feigned that they were\n inspired by God 89\n\nXVIII. On Sorcerers and Sorceresses, or Witches 93\n\nXIX. Instances of Sorcerers and Witches being, as they said,\n transported to the Sabbath 98\n\nXX. Story of Louis Gaufredi and Magdalen de la Palud, owned\n by themselves to be a Sorcerer and Sorceress 102\n\nXXI. Reasons which prove the Possibility of Sorcerers and\n Witches being transported to the Sabbath 106\n\nXXII. Continuation of the same Subject 111\n\nXXIII. Obsession and Possession of the Devil 114\n\nXXIV. The Truth and Reality of Possession and Obsession by\n the Devil proved from Scripture 117\n\nXXV. Examples of Real Possessions caused by the Devil 119\n\nXXVI. Continuation of the same Subject 123\n\nXXVII. Objections against the Obsessions and Possessions of\n the Demon--Reply to the Objections 128\n\nXXVIII. Continuation of Objections against Possessions, and\n some Replies to those Objections 132\n\nXXIX. Of Familiar Spirits 138\n\nXXX. Some other Examples of Elves 142\n\nXXXI. Spirits that keep Watch over Treasure 149\n\nXXXII. Other instances of Hidden Treasures, which were guarded\n by Good or Bad Spirits 153\n\nXXXIII. Spectres which appear, and predict things unknown and\n to come 156\n\nXXXIV. Other Apparitions of Spectres 159\n\nXXXV. Examination of the Apparition of a pretended Spectre 163\n\nXXXVI. Of Spectres which haunt Houses 165\n\nXXXVII. Other Instances of Spectres which haunt certain Houses 170\n\nXXXVIII. Prodigious effects of Imagination in those Men or\n Women who believe they hold Intercourse with the\n Demon 172\n\nXXXIX. Return and Apparitions of Souls after the Death of the\n Body, proved from Scripture 176\n\nXL. Apparitions of Spirits proved from History 180\n\nXLI. More Instances of Apparitions 185\n\nXLII. On the Apparitions of Spirits who imprint their Hands\n on Clothes or on Wood 190\n\nXLIII. Opinions of the Jews, Greeks, and Latins, concerning\n the Dead who are left unburied 195\n\nXLIV. Examination of what is required or revealed to the Living\n by the Dead who return to Earth 201\n\nXLV. Apparitions of Men still alive, to other living Men,\n absent, and very distant from each other 204\n\nXLVI. Arguments concerning Apparitions 216\n\nXLVII. Objections against Apparitions, and Replies to those\n Objections 221\n\nXLVIII. Some other Objections and Replies 224\n\nXLIX. The Secrets of Physics and Chemistry taken for\n supernatural things 229\n\nL. Conclusion of the Treatise on Apparitions 232\n\nLI. Way of explaining Apparitions 235\n\nLII. The difficulty of explaining the manner in which\n Apparitions make their appearance, whatever system may\n be proposed on the subject 237\n\n\n\nDISSERTATION ON THE GHOSTS WHO RETURN TO EARTH BODILY, THE\nEXCOMMUNICATED, THE OUPIRES OR VAMPIRES, VROUCOLACAS, ETC. 241\n\nPREFACE 243\n\nCHAPTER\n\nI. The Resurrection of a Dead Person is the Work of God only 247\n\nII. Revival of Persons who were not really Dead 249\n\nIII. Resurrection of a Man who had been buried Three Years,\n resuscitated by St. Stanislaus 251\n\nIV. Can a Man really Dead appear in his own Body? 253\n\nV. Revival or Apparition of a Girl who had been Dead some\n Months 256\n\nVI. A Woman taken Alive from her Tomb 259\n\nVII. Revenans, or Vampires of Moravia 260\n\nVIII. Dead Persons in Hungary who suck the Blood of the Living 262\n\nIX. Narrative of a Vampire from the Jewish Letters, Letter 137 263\n\nX. Other Instances of Revenans.--Continuation of the \"Gleaner\" 264\n\nXI. Argument of the Author of the Jewish Letters, concerning\n Revenans 266\n\nXII. Continuation of the argument of the Dutch Gleaner 270\n\nXIII. Narrative from the \"Mercure Gallant\" of 1693 and 1694\n on Revenans 272\n\nXIV. Conjectures of the \"Glaneur de Hollandais\" 273\n\nXV. Another Letter on Ghosts 276\n\nXVI. Pretended Vestiges of Vampirism in Antiquity 278\n\nXVII. Ghosts in Northern Countries 282\n\nXVIII. Ghosts in England 283\n\nXIX. Ghosts in Peru 284\n\nXX. Ghosts in Lapland 285\n\nXXI. Return of a Man who had been Dead some Months 285\n\nXXII. Excommunicated Persons who went out of Churches 289\n\nXXIII. Some Instances of the Excommunicated being rejected or\n cast out of Consecrated Ground 291\n\nXXIV. Instance of an Excommunicated Martyr being cast out of\n the Ground 292\n\nXXV. A Man cast out of the Church for having refused to pay\n Tithes 293\n\nXXVI. Instances of Persons who have given Signs of Life after\n their Death, and have withdrawn themselves respectfully\n to make room for more worthy Persons 294\n\nXXVII. People who perform Pilgrimage after Death 296\n\nXXVIII. Reasoning upon the Excommunicated who go out of\n Churches 297\n\nXXIX. Do the Excommunicated rot in the Earth? 300\n\nXXX. Instances to show that the Excommunicated do not rot, and\n that they appear to the Living 301\n\nXXXI. Instances of these Returns to Earth of the Excommunicated 302\n\nXXXII. A Vroucolacan exhumed in the presence of M. de\n Tournefort 304\n\nXXXIII. Has the Demon power to kill, and then to restore to\n Life? 308\n\nXXXIV. Examination of the Opinion that the Demon can restore\n Animation to a Dead Body 310\n\nXXXV. Instances of Phantoms which have appeared to the Living\n and given many Signs of Life 313\n\nXXXVI. Devoting People to Death, practised by the Heathens 314\n\nXXXVII. Instances of dooming to Death among Christians 317\n\nXXXVIII. Instances of Persons who have promised to give each\n other News of themselves from the other World 321\n\nXXXIX. Extracts from the Political Works of the Abbe de St.\n Pierre 325\n\nXL. Divers Systems to explain Ghosts 331\n\nXLI. Divers Instances of Persons being Buried Alive 333\n\nXLII. Instances of Drowned Persons who have come back to Life\n and Health 335\n\nXLIII. Instances of Women thought Dead who came to Life again 337\n\nXLIV. Can these Instances be applied to the Hungarian Revenans? 339\n\nXLV. Dead People who chew in their Graves and devour their own\n Flesh 340\n\nXLVI. Singular Example of a Hungarian Revenant 341\n\nXLVII. Argument on this matter 343\n\nXLVIII. Are the Vampires or Revenans really Dead? 344\n\nXLIX. Instance of a Man named Curma being sent back to this\n World 351\n\nL. Instances of Persons who fall into Ecstatic Trances when\n they will, and remain senseless 354\n\nLI. Application of such Instances to Vampires 356\n\nLII. Examination of the Opinion that the Demon fascinates the\n Eyes of those to whom Vampires appear 360\n\nLIII. Instances of Resuscitated Persons who relate what they\n saw in the other World 361\n\nLIV. The Traditions of the Pagans on the other Life, are\n derived from the Hebrews and Egyptians 364\n\nLV. Instances of Christians being Resuscitated and sent back\n to this World.--Vision of Vetinus, a Monk of Augia 366\n\nLVI. Vision of Bertholdas, related by Hincmar, Archbishop of\n Rheims 368\n\nLVII. Vision of St. Fursius 369\n\nLVIII. Vision of a Protestant of York, and others 371\n\nLIX. Conclusion of this Dissertation 374\n\nLX. Moral Impossibility that Ghosts can come out of their Tombs 376\n\nLXI. What is related of the Bodies of the Excommunicated who\n walk out of Churches, is subject to very great\n Difficulties (in Belief and Explanation) 378\n\nLXII. Remarks on the Dissertation, concerning the Spirit which\n came to St. Maur des Fosses 380\n\nLXIII. Dissertation of an Anonymous Writer on what should be\n thought of the Appearance of Spirits, on Occasion of\n the Adventure at St. Maur, in 1706 387\n\n Letter of the Marquis Maffei on Magic 407\n\n Letter of the Reverend Father Dom Calmet, to M. Debure 440\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE.\n\n\nThe great number of authors who have written upon the apparitions of\nangels, demons, and disembodied souls is not unknown to me; and I do\nnot presume sufficiently on my own capacity to believe that I shall\nsucceed better in it than they have done, and that I shall enhance\ntheir knowledge and their discoveries. I am perfectly sensible that I\nexpose myself to criticism, and perhaps to the mockery of many\nreaders, who regard this matter as done with, and decried in the minds\nof philosophers, learned men, and many theologians. I must not reckon\neither on the approbation of the people, whose want of discernment\nprevents their being competent judges of this same. My aim is not to\nfoment superstition, nor to feed the vain curiosity of visionaries,\nand those who believe without examination everything that is related\nto them as soon as they find therein anything marvelous and\nsupernatural. I write only for reasonable and unprejudiced minds,\nwhich examine things seriously and coolly; I speak only for those who\nassent even to known truth but after mature reflection, who know how\nto doubt of what is uncertain, to suspend their judgment on what is\ndoubtful, and to deny what is manifestly false.\n\nAs for pretended freethinkers, who reject everything to distinguish\nthemselves, and to place themselves above the common herd, I leave\nthem in their elevated sphere; they will think of this work as they\nmay consider proper, and as it is not calculated for them, apparently\nthey will not take the trouble to read it.\n\nI undertook it for my own information, and to form to myself a just\nidea of all that is said on the apparitions of angels, of the demon,\nand of disembodied souls. I wished to see how far that matter was\ncertain or uncertain, true or false, known or unknown, clear or\nobscure.\n\nIn this great number of facts which I have collected I have endeavored\nto make a choice, and not to heap together too great a multitude of\nthem, for fear that in the too numerous examples the doubtful might\nnot harm the certain, and in wishing to prove too much I might prove\nabsolutely nothing. There will, even amongst those I have cited, be\nfound some which will not easily be credited by many readers, and I\nallow them to regard them as not related.\n\nI beg those readers, nevertheless, to discern justly amongst these\nfacts and instances; after which they can with me form their\nopinion--affirm, deny, or remain in doubt.\n\nFrom the respect which every man owes to truth, and the veneration\nwhich a Christian and a priest owes to religion, it appeared to me\nvery important to undeceive people respecting the opinion which they\nhave of apparitions, if they believe them all to be true; or to\ninstruct them and show them the truth and reality of a great number,\nif they think them all false. It is always shameful to be deceived;\n_____________________and in regard to religion, to believe on light\ngrounds, to remain wilfully in doubt, or to maintain oneself without\nany reason in superstition and illusion; it is already much to know\nhow to doubt wisely, and not to form a decided opinion beyond what one\nreally knows.\n\nI never had any idea of treating profoundly the matter of apparitions;\nI have treated of it, as it were, by chance, and occasionally. My\nfirst and principal object was to discourse of the vampires of\nHungary. In collecting my materials on that subject, I found many\nthings concerning apparitions; the great number of these embarrassed\nthis treatise on vampires. I detached some of them, and thus have\ncomposed this treatise on apparitions: there still remains a large\nnumber of them, which I might have separated for the better\narrangement of this treatise. Many persons here have taken the\naccessory for the principal, and have paid more attention to the first\npart than to the second, which was, however, the first and the\nprincipal in my design. For I own I have always been much struck with\nwhat was related of the vampires or ghosts of Hungary, Moravia, and\nPoland; of the vroucolacas of Greece; and of the excommunicated, who\nare said not to rot. I thought I ought to bestow on it all the\nattention in my power; and I have deemed it right to treat on this\nsubject in a particular dissertation. After having deeply studied it,\nand obtaining as much information as I was able, I found little\nsolidity and certainty on the subject; which, joined to the opinion of\nsome prudent and respectable persons whom I consulted, had induced me\nto give up my design entirely, and to renounce laboring on a subject\nwhich is so contradictory, and embraces so much uncertainty.\n\nBut looking at the matter in another point of view, I resumed my pen,\ndecided upon undeceiving the public, if I found that what was said of\nit was absolutely false; showing that what is uttered on this subject\nis uncertain, and that one ought to be very reserved in pronouncing on\nthese vampires, which have made so much noise in the world for a\ncertain time, and still divide opinions at this day, even in the\ncountries which are the scene of their pretended return, and where\nthey appear; or to show that what has been said and written on this\nsubject is not destitute of probability, and that the subject of the\nreturn of vampires is worthy the attention of the curious and the\nlearned, and deserves to be seriously studied, to have the facts\nrelated of it examined, and the causes, circumstances, and means\nsounded deeply.\n\nI am then about to examine this question as a historian, philosopher,\nand theologian. As a historian, I shall endeavor to discover the truth\nof the facts; as a philosopher, I shall examine the causes and\ncircumstances; lastly, the knowledge or light of theology will cause\nme to deduce consequences as relating to religion. Thus I do not write\nin the hope of convincing freethinkers and pyrrhonians, who will not\nallow the existence of ghosts or vampires, nor even of the apparitions\nof angels, demons, and spirits; nor to intimidate those weak and\ncredulous, by relating to them extraordinary stories of apparitions. I\ndo not reckon either on curing the superstitious of their errors, nor\nthe people of their prepossessions; not even on correcting the abuses\nwhich arise from this unenlightened belief, nor of doing away all the\ndoubts which may be formed on apparitions; still less do I pretend to\nerect myself as a judge and censor of the works and sentiments of\nothers, nor to distinguish myself, make myself a name, or divert\nmyself, by spreading abroad dangerous doubts upon a subject which\nconcerns religion, and from which they might make wrong deductions\nagainst the certainty of the Scriptures, and against the unshaken\ndogmas of our creed. I shall treat it as solidly and gravely as it\nmerits; and I pray God to give me that knowledge which is necessary to\ndo it successfully.\n\nI exhort my reader to distinguish between the facts related, and the\nmanner in which they happened. The fact may be certain, and the way in\nwhich it occurred unknown. Scripture relates certain apparitions of\nangels and disembodied souls; these instances are indubitable and\nfound in the revelations of the holy books; but the manner in which\nGod operated the resurrections, or in which he permitted these\napparitions to take place, is hidden among his secrets. It is\nallowable for us to examine them, to seek out the circumstances, and\npropound some conjectures on the manner in which it all came to pass;\nbut it would be rash to decide upon a matter which God has not thought\nproper to reveal to us. I say as much in proportion, concerning the\nstories related by sensible, contemporary, and judicious authors, who\nsimply relate the facts without entering into the examination of the\ncircumstances, of which, perhaps, they themselves were not well\ninformed.\n\nIt has already been objected to me, that I cited poets and authors of\nlittle credit, in support of a thing so grave and so disputed as the\napparition of spirits: such authorities, they say, are more calculated\nto cast a doubt on apparitions, than to establish the truth of them.\n\nBut I cite those authors as witnesses of the opinions of nations; and\nI count it not a small thing in the extreme license of opinions, which\nat this day predominates in the world, amongst those even who make a\nprofession of Christianity, to be able to show that the ancient Greeks\nand Romans thought that souls were immortal, that they subsisted after\nthe death of the body, and that there was another life, in which they\nreceived the reward of their good actions, or the chastisement of\ntheir crimes.\n\nThose sentiments which we read in the poets, are also repeated in the\nfathers of the church, and the pagan and Christian historians; but as\nthey did not pretend to think them weighty, nor to approve them in\nrepeating them, it must not be imputed to me either, that I have any\nintention of authorizing. For instance, what I have related of the\nmanes, or lares; of the evocation of souls after the death of the\nbody; of the avidity of these souls to suck the blood of the immolated\nanimals, of the shape of the soul separated from the body, of the\ninquietude of souls which have no rest until their bodies are under\nground; of those superstitious statues of wax which are devoted and\nconsecrated under the name of certain persons whom the magicians\npretended to kill by burning and stabbing their effigies of wax; of\nthe transportation of wizards and witches through the air, and of\ntheir assemblies of the Sabbath; all those things are related both in\nthe works of the philosophers and pagan historians, as well as in the\npoets.\n\nI know the value of one and the other, and I esteem them as they\ndeserve; but I think that in treating this matter, it is important to\nmake known to our readers the ancient superstitions, the vulgar or\ncommon opinions, and the prejudices of nations, to be able to refute\nthem, and bring back the figures to truths, by freeing them from what\npoesy had added for the embellishment of the poem, and the amusement\nof the reader.\n\nMoreover, I generally repeat this kind of thing, only when it is\napropos of certain facts avowed by historians, and by other grave and\nrational authors; and sometimes rather as an ornament of the\ndiscourse, or to enliven the matter, than to derive thence certain\nproofs and consequences necessary for the dogma, or to certify the\nfacts and give weight to my recital.\n\nI know how little we must depend on what Lucian says on this subject;\nhe only speaks of it to make game of it. Philostratus, Jamblicus, and\nsome others, do not merit more consideration; therefore I quote them\nonly to refute them, or to show how far idle and ridiculous credulity\nhas been carried on these matters, which were laughed at by the most\nsensible among the heathens themselves.\n\nThe consequences which I deduce from all these stories, and these\npoetical fictions, and the manner in which I speak of them in the\ncourse of this dissertation, sufficiently vouch that esteem, and give\nas true and certain only what is so in fact; and that I do not wish to\nimpose on my reader, by relating many things which I myself regard as\nfalse, or as doubtful, or even as fabulous. But that ought to be\nprejudicial to the dogma of the immortality of the soul, and to that\nof another life, not to the truth of certain apparitions related in\nScripture, or proved elsewhere by good testimony.\n\nThe first edition of this work having been printed in my absence, and\nupon an incorrect copy, several misprints have occurred, and even\nexpressions and phrases displeasing and interrupted. I have tried to\nremedy this in a second edition, and to cast light on those passages\nwhich they noticed as demanding explanation, and correcting what might\noffend scrupulous readers, and prevent the bad consequences which\nmight be derived from what I had said. I have even done more in this\nthird edition. I have retrenched several passages; others I have\nsuppressed; I have profited by the advice which has been given me; and\nI have replied to the objections which have been made.\n\nPeople have complained that I took no part, and did not come to a\ndecision on several difficulties which I propose, and that I leave my\nreader in uncertainty.\n\nI make but little defence against this reproach; I should require more\njustification if I decided without a perfect knowledge of causes, for\none side of the question, at the risk of embracing an error, and of\nfalling into a still greater impropriety. There is wisdom in\nsuspending one's judgment till we have succeeded in finding the very\ntruth.\n\nI have also been told, that certain persons have made a joke of some\nfacts which I have related. If I have related them as certain, and\nthey afford just cause for pleasantry, let the condemnation pass; but\nif I cited them as fabulous and false, they present no subject for\npleasantry; _Falsum non est de ratione faceti._\n\nThere are certain persons who delight in jesting on the most serious\nthings, and who spare nothing, either sacred or profane. The histories\nof the Old and New Testament, the most sacred ceremonies of our\nreligion, the lives of the most respectable saints, are not safe from\ntheir dull, tasteless pleasantry.\n\nI have been reproached for having related several false histories,\nseveral doubtful facts, and several fabulous events. This is true; but\nI give them for what they are. I have declared several times, that I\ndid not vouch for their truth, that I repeated them to show how false\nand ridiculous they were, and to deprive them of the credit they might\nhave with the people; and if I had gone at length into their\nrefutation, I thought it right to let my reader have the pleasure of\nrefuting them, supposing him to possess enough good sense and\nself-sufficiency, to form his own judgment upon them, and feel the\nsame contempt for such stories that I do myself. It is doing too much\nhonor to certain things to refute them seriously.\n\nBut another objection, and a much more serious one, is said to be,\nwhat I say of the illusions of the demon, leading some persons to\ndoubt of the truth of the apparitions related in Scripture, as well as\nof the others suspected of falsehood.\n\nI answer, that the consequences deduced from principles are not right,\nexcept when things are equal, and the subjects and circumstances the\nsame; without that there can be no application of principles. The\nfacts to which my reasoning applies are related by authors of small\nauthority, by ordinary or common-place historians, bearing no\ncharacter which deserves a belief of anything superhuman. I can,\nwithout attacking their person or their merit, advance that they may\nhave been badly informed, prepossessed, and mistaken; that the spirit\nof seduction may have been of the party; that the senses, the\nimagination, and superstition, may have made them take that for truth,\nwhich was only seeming.\n\nBut, in regard to the apparitions related in the Holy Scriptures, they\nborrow their infallible authority from the sacred and inspired authors\nwho wrote them; they are verified by the events which followed them,\nby the execution or fulfilment of predictions made many ages\npreceding; and which could neither be done, nor foreseen, nor\nperformed, either by the human mind, or by the strength of man, not\neven by the angel of darkness.\n\nI am but little concerned at the opinion passed on myself and my\nintentions in the publication of this treatise. Some have thought that\nI did it to destroy the popular and common idea of apparitions, and to\nmake it appear ridiculous; and I acknowledge that those who read this\nwork attentively and without prejudice, will remark in it more\narguments for doubting what the people believe on this point, than\nthey will find to favor the contrary opinion. If I have treated this\nsubject seriously, it is only in what regards those facts in which\nreligion and the truth of Scripture is interested; those which are\nindifferent I have left to the censure of sensible people, and the\ncriticism of the learned and of philosophical minds.\n\nI declare that I consider as true all the apparitions related in the\nsacred books of the Old and New Testament; without pretending,\nhowever, that it is not allowable to explain them, and reduce them to\na natural and likely sense, by retrenching what is too marvelous about\nthem, which might rebut enlightened persons. I think on that point I\nmay apply the principle of St. Paul;[1] \"the letter killeth, and the\nSpirit giveth life.\"\n\nAs to the other apparitions and visions related in Christian, Jewish,\nor heathen authors, I do my best to discern amongst them, and I exhort\nmy readers to do the same; but I blame and disapprove the outrageous\ncriticism of those who deny everything, and make difficulties of\neverything, in order to distinguish themselves by their pretended\nstrength of mind, and to authorize themselves to deny everything, and\nto dispute the most certain facts, and in general all that savors of\nthe marvelous, and which appears above the ordinary laws of nature.\nSt. Paul permits us to examine and prove everything: _Omnia probate_;\nbut he desires us to hold fast that which is good and true: _quod\nbonum est tenete_.[2]\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[1] 2 Cor. iii. 16.\n\n[2] 1 Thess. v. 21.\n\n\n\n\nADVERTISEMENT.\n\n\nEvery body talks of apparitions of angels and demons, and of souls\nseparated from the body. The reality of these apparitions is\nconsidered as certain by many persons, while others deride them and\ntreat them as altogether visionary.\n\nI have determined to examine this matter, just to see what certitude\nthere can be on this point; and I shall divide this Dissertation into\nfour parts. In the first, I shall speak of good angels; in the second,\nof the appearance of bad angels; in the third, of the apparitions of\nsouls of the dead; and in the fourth, of the appearance of living men\nto others living, absent, distant, and this unknown to those who\nappear. I shall occasionally add something on magic, wizards, and\nwitches; on the Sabbath, oracles, and obsession and possession by\ndemons.\n\n\n\n\nTHE PHANTOM WORLD.\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\nTHE APPEARANCE OF GOOD ANGELS PROVED BY THE BOOKS OF THE OLD\nTESTAMENT.\n\n\nThe apparitions or appearances of good angels are frequently mentioned\nin the books of the Old Testament. He who was stationed at the\nentrance of the terrestrial Paradise[3] was a cherub, armed with a\nflaming sword; those who appeared to Abraham, and who promised that he\nshould have a son;[4] those who appeared to Lot, and predicted to him\nthe ruin of Sodom, and other guilty cities;[5] he who spoke to Hagar\nin the desert,[6] and commanded her to return to the dwelling of\nAbraham, and to remain submissive to Sarah, her mistress; those who\nappeared to Jacob, on his journey into Mesopotamia, ascending and\ndescending the mysterious ladder;[7] he who taught him how to cause\nhis sheep to bring forth young differently marked;[8] he who wrestled\nwith Jacob on his return from Mesopotamia,[9]--were angels of light,\nand benevolent ones; the same as he who spoke with Moses from the\nburning bush on Horeb,[10] and who gave him the tables of the law on\nMount Sinai. That Angel who takes generally the name of GOD, and\nacts in his name, and with his authority;[11] who served as a guide to\nthe Hebrews in the desert, hidden during the day in a dark cloud, and\nshining during the night; he who spoke to Balaam, and threatened to\nkill his she-ass;[12] he, lastly, who contended with Satan for the\nbody of Moses;[13]--all these angels were without doubt good angels.\n\nWe must think the same of him who presented himself armed to Joshua on\nthe plain of Jericho,[14] and who declared himself head of the army of\nthe Lord; it is believed, with reason, that it was the angel Michael.\nHe who showed himself to the wife of Manoah,[15] the father of Samson,\nand afterwards to Manoah himself. He who announced to Gideon that he\nshould deliver Israel from the power of the Midianites.[16] The angel\nGabriel, who appeared to Daniel, at Babylon;[17] and Raphael who\nconducted the young Tobias to Rages, in Media.[18]\n\nThe prophecy of the Prophet Zechariah is full of visions of\nangels.[19] In the books of the Old Testament the throne of the Lord\nis described as resting on cherubim; and the God of Israel is\nrepresented as having before his throne[20] seven principal angels,\nalways ready to execute his orders, and four cherubim singing his\npraises, and adoring his sovereign holiness; the whole making a sort\nof allusion to what they saw in the court of the ancient Persian\nkings,[21] where there were seven principal officers who saw his face,\napproached his person, and were called the eyes and ears of the king.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[3] Gen. iii. 24.\n\n[4] Gen. xviii. 1-3.\n\n[5] Gen. xix.\n\n[6] Gen. xxi. 17.\n\n[7] Gen. xxviii. 12.\n\n[8] Gen. xxxi. 10, 11.\n\n[9] Gen. xxxii.\n\n[10] Exod. iii. 6, 7.\n\n[11] Exod. iii. iv.\n\n[12] Numb. xxii. xxiii.\n\n[13] Jude 9.\n\n[14] Josh. v. 13.\n\n[15] Judges xiii.\n\n[16] Judges vi. vii.\n\n[17] Dan. viii. 16; ix. 21.\n\n[18] Tobit v.\n\n[19] Zech. v. 9, 10, 11, &c.\n\n[20] Psalm xvii. 10; lxxix. 2, &c.\n\n[21] Tobit xii. Zech. iv. 10. Rev. i. 4.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\nTHE APPEARANCE OF GOOD ANGELS PROVED BY THE BOOKS OF THE NEW\nTESTAMENT.\n\n\nThe books of the New Testament are in the same manner full of facts\nwhich prove the apparition of good angels. The angel Gabriel appeared\nto Zachariah the father of John the Baptist, and predicted to him the\nfuture birth of the Forerunner.[22] The Jews, who saw Zachariah come\nout of the temple, after having remained within it a longer time than\nusual, having remarked that he was struck dumb, had no doubt but that\nhe had seen some apparition of an angel. The same Gabriel announced to\nMary the future birth of the Messiah.[23] When Jesus was born in\nBethlehem, the angel of the Lord appeared to the shepherds in the\nnight,[24] and declared to them that the Saviour of the world was born\nat Bethlehem. There is every reason to believe that the star which\nappeared to the Magi in the East, and which led them straight to\nJerusalem, and thence to Bethlehem, was directed by a good angel.[25]\nSt. Joseph was warned by a celestial spirit to retire into Egypt, with\nthe mother and the infant Christ, for fear that Jesus should fall into\nthe hands of Herod, and be involved in the massacre of the Innocents.\nThe same angel informed Joseph of the death of King Herod, and told\nhim to return to the land of Israel.\n\nAfter the temptation of Jesus Christ in the wilderness, angels came\nand brought him food.[26] The demon tempter said to Jesus Christ that\nGod had commanded his angels to lead him, and to prevent him from\nstumbling against a stone; which is taken from the 92d Psalm, and\nproves the belief of the Jews on the article of guardian angels. The\nSaviour confirms the same truth when he says that the angels of\nchildren constantly behold the face of the celestial Father.[27] At\nthe last judgment, the good angels will separate the just,[28] and\nlead them to the kingdom of heaven, while they will precipitate the\nwicked into eternal fire.\n\nAt the agony of Jesus Christ in the garden of Olives, an angel\ndescended from heaven to console him.[29] After his resurrection,\nangels appeared to the holy women who had come to his tomb to embalm\nhim.[30] In the Acts of the Apostles, they appeared to the apostles as\nsoon as Jesus had ascended into heaven; and the angel of the Lord came\nand opened the doors of the prison where the apostles were confined,\nand set them at liberty.[31] In the same book, St. Stephen tells us\nthat the law was given to Moses by the ministration of angels;[32]\nconsequently, those were angels who appeared on Sinai and Horeb, and\nwho spoke to him in the name of God, as his ambassadors, and as\ninvested with his authority; also, the same Moses, speaking of the\nangel of the Lord, who was to introduce Israel into the Promised Land,\nsays that \"the name of God is in him.\"[33] St. Peter, being in prison,\nis delivered from thence by an angel,[34] who conducted him the length\nof a street, and disappeared. St. Peter, knocking at the door of the\nhouse in which his brethren were, they could not believe that it was\nhe; they thought that it was his angel who knocked and spoke. St.\nPaul, instructed in the school of the Pharisees, thought as they did\non the subject of angels; he believed in their existence, in\nopposition to the Sadducees,[35] and supposed that they could appear.\nWhen this apostle, having been arrested by the Romans, related to the\npeople how he had been overthrown at Damascus, the Pharisees, who were\npresent, replied to those who exclaimed against him--\"How do we know,\nif an angel or a spirit hath not spoken to him?\" St. Luke says that a\nMacedonian (apparently the angel of Macedonia) appeared to St. Paul,\nand begged him to come and announce the Gospel in that country.\n\nSt. John, in the Apocalypse, speaks of the seven angels who presided\nover the churches in Asia. I know that these seven angels are the\nbishops of these churches, but the ecclesiastical tradition will have\nit that every church has its tutelary angel. In the same book, the\nApocalypse, are related divers appearances of angels. All Christian\nantiquity has recognized them; the synagogue also has recognized them;\nso that it may be affirmed that nothing is more certain than the\nexistence of good angels and their apparitions.\n\nI place in the number of apparitions, not only those of good or bad\nangels, and the spirits of the dead who show themselves to the living,\nbut also those of the living who show themselves to the angels or\nsouls of the dead; whether these apparitions are seen in dreams, or\nduring sleep, or awaking; whether they manifest themselves to all\nthose who are present, or only to the persons to whom God judges\nproper to manifest them. For instance, in the Apocalypse,[36] St. John\nsaw the four animals, and the four-and-twenty elders, who were clothed\nin white garments and wore crowns of gold upon their heads, and were\nseated on thrones around that of the Almighty, who prostrated\nthemselves before the throne of the Eternal, and cast their crowns at\nhis feet.\n\nAnd, elsewhere: \"I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the\nworld,[37] who held back the four winds and prevented them from\nblowing on the earth; then I saw another angel, who rose on the side\nof the east, and who cried out to the four angels who had orders to\nhurt the earth, Do no harm to the earth, or the sea, or the trees,\nuntil we have impressed a sign on the foreheads of the servants of\nGod. And I heard that the number of those who received this sign (or\nmark) was a hundred and forty-four thousand. Afterwards I saw an\ninnumerable multitude of all nations, tribes, people, and languages,\nstanding before the throne of the Most High, arrayed in white\ngarments, and having palms in their hands.\"\n\nAnd in the same book[38] St. John says, after having described the\nmajesty of the throne of God, and the adoration paid to him by the\nangels and saints prostrate before him, one of the elders said to\nhim,--\"Those whom you see covered with white robes, are those who have\nsuffered great trials and afflictions, and have washed their robes in\nthe blood of the Lamb; for which reason they stand before the throne\nof God, and will do so night and day in his temple; and He who is\nseated on the throne will reign over them, and the angel which is in\nthe midst of the throne will conduct them to the fountains of living\nwater.\" And, again,[39] \"I saw under the altar of God the souls of\nthose who have been put to death for defending the Word of God, and\nfor the testimony which they have rendered; they cried with a loud\nvoice, saying, When, O Lord, wilt thou not avenge our blood upon those\nwho are on the earth?\" &c.\n\nAll these apparitions, and several others similar to them, which might\nbe related as being derived from the holy books as well as from\nauthentic histories, are true apparitions, although neither the angels\nnor the martyrs spoken of in the Apocalypse came and presented\nthemselves to St. John; but, on the contrary, this apostle was\ntransported in spirit to heaven, to see there what we have just\nrelated. These are apparitions which may be called passive on the part\nof the angels and holy martyrs, and active on the part of the holy\napostle who saw them.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[22] Luke i. 10-12, &c.\n\n[23] Luke i. 26, 27, &c.\n\n[24] Luke ii. 9, 10.\n\n[25] Matt. ii. 13, 14, 20.\n\n[26] Matt. iv. 6, 11.\n\n[27] Matt. xviii. 16.\n\n[28] Matt. xiii. 45, 46.\n\n[29] Luke xxii. 43.\n\n[30] Matt. xxviii. John.\n\n[31] Acts v. 19.\n\n[32] Acts vii. 30, 35.\n\n[33] Exod. xxiii. 21.\n\n[34] Acts xii. 8, 9.\n\n[35] Rom. i. 18. 1 Cor. iv. 9; vi. 3; xii. 7. Gal. iii. 19. Acts xvi.\n9; xxiii. 9. Rev. i. 11.\n\n[36] Rev. iv. 4, 10.\n\n[37] Rev. vii. 1-3, 9, &c.\n\n[38] Rev. vii. 13, 14.\n\n[39] Rev. vi. 9, 10.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\nUNDER WHAT FORM HAVE GOOD ANGELS APPEARED?\n\n\nThe most usual form in which good angels appear, both in the Old\nTestament and the New, is the human form. It was in that shape they\nshowed themselves to Abraham, Lot, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Manoah the\nfather of Samson, to David, Tobit, the Prophets; and in the New\nTestament they appeared in the same form to the Holy Virgin, to\nZachariah the father of John the Baptist, to Jesus Christ after his\nfast of forty days, and to him again in his agony in the Garden of\nOlives. They showed themselves in the same form to the holy women\nafter the resurrection of the Saviour. The one who appeared to\nJoshua[40] on the plain of Jericho appeared apparently in the guise of\na warrior, since Joshua asks him, \"Art thou for us, or for our\nadversaries?\"\n\nSometimes they hide themselves under some form which has resemblance\nto the human shape, like him who appeared to Moses in the burning\nbush,[41] and who led the Israelites in the desert in the form of a\ncloud, dense and dark during the day, but luminous at night.[42] The\nPsalmist tells us that God makes his angels serve as a piercing wind\nand a burning fire, to execute his orders.[43]\n\nThe cherubim, so often spoken of in the Scriptures, and who are\ndescribed as serving for a throne to the majesty of God, were\nhieroglyphical figures, something like the sphinx of the Egyptians;\nthose which are described in Ezekiel[44] are like animals composed of\nthe figure of a man, having the wings of an eagle, the feet of an ox;\ntheir heads were composed of the face of a man, an ox, a lion, and an\neagle, two of their wings were spread towards their fellows, and two\nothers covered their body; they were brilliant as burning coals, as\nlighted lamps, as the fiery heavens when they send forth the\nlightning's flash--they were terrible to look upon.\n\nThe one who appeared to Daniel[45] was different from those we have\njust described; he was in the shape of a man, covered with a linen\ngarment, and round his loins a girdle of very fine gold; his body was\nshining as a chrysolite, his face as a flash of lightning; his eyes\ndarted fire like a lamp; his arms and all the lower part of his body\nwas like brass melted in the furnace; his voice was loud as that of a\nmultitude of people.\n\nSt. John, in the Apocalypse,[46] saw around the throne of the Most\nHigh four animals, which doubtless were four angels; they were covered\nwith eyes before and behind. The first resembled a lion, the second an\nox, the third had the form of a man, and the fourth was like an eagle\nwith outspread wings; each of them had six wings, and they never\nceased to cry night and day, \"Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who\nwas, and is, and is to come.\"\n\nThe angel who was placed at the entrance of the terrestrial paradise\nwas armed with a shining sword,[47] as well as the one who appeared to\nBalaam,[48] and who threatened, or was near killing both himself and\nhis ass; and so, apparently, was the one who showed himself to Joshua\nin the plain of Jericho,[49] and the angel who appeared to David,\nready to smite all Israel. The angel Raphael guided the young Tobias\nto Rages under the human form of a traveler.[50] The angel who was\nseen by the holy woman at the sepulchre of the Saviour, who overthrew\nthe large stone which closed the mouth of the tomb, and who was seated\nupon it, had a countenance which shone like lightning, and garments\nwhite as snow.[51]\n\nIn the Acts of the Apostles,[52] the angel who extricated them from\nprison, and told them to go boldly and preach Jesus Christ in the\ntemple, also appeared to them in a human form. The manner in which he\ndelivered them from the dungeon is quite miraculous; for the chief\npriests having commanded that they should appear before them, those\nwho were sent found the prison securely closed, the guards wide awake;\nbut having caused the doors to be opened, they found the dungeon\nempty. How could an angel without opening, or any fracture of the\ndoors, thus extricate men from prison without either the guards or the\njailer perceiving anything of the matter? The thing is beyond any\nknown powers of nature; but it is no more impossible than to see our\nSaviour, after his resurrection, invested with flesh and bones, as he\nhimself says, come forth from his sepulchre, without opening it, and\nwithout breaking the seals,[53] enter the chamber wherein were the\napostles without opening the doors,[54] and speak to the disciples\ngoing to Emmaus without making himself known to them; then, after\nhaving opened their eyes, disappear and become invisible.[55] During\nthe forty days that he remained upon earth till his ascension, he\ndrank and ate with them, he spoke to them, he appeared to them; but he\nshowed himself only to those witnesses who were pre-ordained by the\neternal Father to bear testimony to his resurrection.\n\nThe angel who appeared to the centurion Cornelius, a pagan, but\nfearing God, answered his questions, and discovered to him unknown\nthings, which things came to pass.\n\nSometimes the angels, without assuming any visible shape, give proofs\nof their presence by intelligible voices, by inspirations, by sensible\neffects, by dreams, or by revelations of things unknown, whether\nfuture or past. Sometimes by striking with blindness, or infusing a\nspirit of uncertainty or stupidity in the minds of those whom God\nwills should feel the effects of his wrath; for instance, it is said\nin the Scriptures that the Israelites heard no distinct speech, and\nbeheld no form on Horeb when God spoke to Moses and gave him the\nLaw.[56]\n\nThe angel who might have killed Balaam's ass was not at first\nperceived by the prophet;[57] Daniel was the only one who beheld the\nangel Gabriel, who revealed to him the mystery of the great empires\nwhich were to succeed each other.[58]\n\nWhen the Lord spoke for the first time to Samuel, and predicted to him\nthe evils which he would inflict on the family of the high-priest Eli,\nthe young prophet saw no visible form; he only heard a voice, which he\nat first mistook for that of the high-priest Eli, not being yet\naccustomed to distinguish the voice of God from that of a man.\n\nThe angels who guided Lot and his family from Sodom and Gomorrah were\nat first perceived under a human form by the inhabitants of the city;\nbut afterwards these same angels struck the men with blindness, and\nthus prevented them from finding the door of Lot's house, into which\nthey would have entered by force.\n\nThus, then, angels do not always appear under a visible or sensible\nform, nor in a figure uniformly the same; but they give proofs of\ntheir presence by an infinity of different ways--by inspirations, by\nvoices, by prodigies, by miraculous effects, by predictions of the\nfuture, and other things hidden and impenetrable to the human mind.\n\nSt. Cyprian relates that an African bishop, falling ill during the\npersecution, earnestly requested to have the viaticum administered to\nhim; at the same time he saw, as it were, a young man, with a majestic\nair, and shining with such extraordinary lustre that the eyes of\nmortals could not have beheld him without terror; nevertheless, the\nbishop was not alarmed. This angel said to him, angrily, and in a\nmenacing tone, \"You fear to suffer. You do not wish to leave this\nworld. What would you have me do for you?\" (or \"What can I do for\nyou?\") The good bishop comprehended that these words alike regarded\nhim and the other Christians who feared persecution and death. The\nbishop talked to them, encouraged them, and exhorted them to arm\nthemselves with patience to support the tortures with which they were\nthreatened. He received the communion, and died in peace. We shall\nfind in different histories an infinite number of other apparitions of\nangels under a human form.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[40] Josh. v. 29.\n\n[41] Exod. iii. 3, 44.\n\n[42] Exod. xiii. xiv.\n\n[43] Psalm civ. 4.\n\n[44] Ezek. i. 4, 6.\n\n[45] Dan. x. 5.\n\n[46] Rev. iv. 7, 8.\n\n[47] Gen. iii. 24.\n\n[48] Numb. xxii. 22, 23.\n\n[49] 1 Chron. xxi. 16.\n\n[50] Tobit v. 5.\n\n[51] Matt. xxviii. 3.\n\n[52] Acts ii.\n\n[53] Matt. xxviii. 1, 2.\n\n[54] John xix. 20.\n\n[55] Luke xxiii. 15-17, &c.\n\n[56] Deut. iv. 15.\n\n[57] Numb. xii. 22, 23.\n\n[58] Dan. x. 7, 8.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\nOPINIONS OF THE JEWS, CHRISTIANS, MAHOMETANS, AND ORIENTAL NATIONS\nCONCERNING THE APPARITIONS OF GOOD ANGELS.\n\n\nAfter what we have just related from the books of the Old and New\nTestament, it cannot be disavowed that the Jews in general, the\napostles, the Christians, and their disciples have commonly believed\nin the apparitions of good angels. The Sadducees, who denied the\nexistence and the apparition of angels, were commonly considered by\nthe Jews as heretics, and as supporting an erroneous doctrine. Jesus\nChrist refutes them in the Gospel. The Jews of our days believe\nliterally what is related in the Old Testament, concerning the angels\nwho appeared to Abraham, Lot, and other patriarchs. It was the belief\nof the Pharisees and of the apostles in the time of our Saviour, as\nmay be seen by the writings of the apostles and by the whole of the\nGospel.\n\nThe Mahometans believe, as do the Jews and Christians, that good\nangels appear to men sometimes under a human form; that they appeared\nto Abraham and Lot; that they punished the inhabitants of Sodom; that\nthe archangel Gabriel appeared to Mahomet, and revealed to him all\nthat is laid down in his Koran: that the genii are of a middle nature,\nbetween man and angel;[59] that they eat, drink, beget children; that\nthey die, and can foresee things to come. In consequence of this\nprinciple or idea, they believe that there are male and female genii;\nthat the males, whom the Persians call by the name of _Dives_, are\nbad, very ugly, and mischievous, making war against the _Peris_, who\nare the females. The Rabbis will have it that these genii were born of\nAdam alone, without any concurrence of his wife Eve, or of any other\nwoman, and that they are what we call _ignis fatuii_ (or wandering\nlights).\n\nThe antiquity of these opinions touching the corporality of angels\nappears in several _old_ writers, who, deceived by the apocryphal book\nwhich passes under the name of the _Book of Enoch_, have explained of\nthe angels what is said in Genesis,[60] \"_That the children of God,\nhaving seen the daughters of men, fell in love with their beauty,\nwedded them, and begot giants of them._\" Several of the ancient\nFathers[61] have adopted this opinion, which is now given up by\neverybody, with the exception of some new writers, who desire to\nrevive the idea of the corporality of angels, demons, and souls--an\nopinion which is absolutely incompatible with that of the Catholic\nchurch, which holds that angels are of a nature entirely distinct from\nmatter.\n\nI acknowledge that, according to their system, the affair of\napparitions could be more easily explained; it is easier to conceive\nthat a corporeal substance should appear, and render itself visible to\nour eyes, than a substance purely spiritual; but this is not the place\nto reason on a philosophical question, on which different hypotheses\ncould be freely grounded, and to choose that which should explain\nthese appearances in the most plausible manner, even though it answer\nin the most satisfactory manner the question asked, and the objections\nformed against the facts, and against the proposed manner of stating\nthem.\n\nThe question is resolved, and the matter decided. The church and the\nCatholic schools hold that angels, demons, and reasonable souls, are\ndisengaged from all matter; the same church and the same school hold\nit as certain that good and bad angels, and souls separated from the\nbody, sometimes appear by the will and with the permission of God:\nthere we must stop; as to the manner of explaining these apparitions,\nwe must, without losing sight of the certain principle of the\nimmateriality of these substances, explain them according to the\nanalogy of the Christian and Catholic faith, acknowledged sincerely\nthat in this matter there are certain depths which we cannot sound,\nand confine our mind and information within the limits of that\nobedience which we owe to the authority of the church, that can\nneither err nor deceive us.\n\nThe apparitions of good angels and of guardian angels are frequently\nmentioned in the Old as in the New Testament. When the Apostle St.\nPeter had left the prison by the assistance of an angel, and went and\nknocked at the door where the brethren were, they believed that it was\nhis angel and not himself who knocked.[62] And when Cornelius the\nCenturion prayed to God in his own house, an angel (apparently his\ngood angel) appeared to him, and told him to send and fetch Peter, who\nwas then at Joppa.[63]\n\nSt. Paul desires that at church no woman should appear among them\nwithout her face being veiled, because of the angels;[64] doubtless\nfrom respect to the good angels who presided in these assemblies. The\nsame St. Paul reassures those who were with him in danger of almost\ninevitable shipwreck, by telling them that his angel had appeared to\nhim[65] and assured him that they should arrive safe at the end of\ntheir voyage.\n\nIn the Old Testament, we likewise read of several apparitions of\nangels, which can hardly be explained but as of guardian angels; for\ninstance, the one who appeared to Hagar in the wilderness, and\ncommanded her to return and submit herself to Sarah her mistress;[66]\nand the angel who appeared to Abraham, as he was about to immolate\nIsaac his son, and told him that God was satisfied with his\nobedience;[67] and when the same Abraham sent his servant Eleazer into\nMesopotamia, to ask for a wife for his son Isaac, he told him that the\nGod of heaven, who had promised to give him the land of Canaan, would\nsend his angel[68] to dispose all things according to his wishes.\nExamples of similar apparitions of tutelary angels, derived from the\nOld Testament, might here be multiplied, but the circumstance does not\nrequire a greater number of proofs.\n\nUnder the new dispensation, the apparitions of good angels, of\nguardian spirits, are not less frequent in most authentic stories;\nthere are few saints to whom God has not granted similar favors: we\nmay cite, in particular, St. Frances, a Roman lady of the sixteenth\ncentury, who saw her guardian angel, and he talked to her, instructed\nher, and corrected her.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[59] D'Herbelot, Bibl. Orient. _Perith. Dives_, 785. Idem, 243, p. 85.\n\n[60] Gen. vi. 2.\n\n[61] Joseph. Antiq. lib. i. c. 4. Philo, De Gigantibus. Justin. Apol.\nTurtul. de Anima. _Vide_ Commentatores in Gen. iv.\n\n[62] Acts xii. 15.\n\n[63] Acts x. 2, 3.\n\n[64] 1 Cor. xi. 10.\n\n[65] Acts xxvii. 21, 22.\n\n[66] Gen. xvi. 9.\n\n[67] Gen. xxii. 11, 17.\n\n[68] Gen. xxiv. 7.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\nOPINION OF THE GREEKS AND ROMANS ON THE APPARITIONS OF GOOD GENII.\n\n\nJamblichus, a disciple of Porphyry,[69] has treated the matter of\ngenii and their apparition more profoundly than any other author of\nantiquity. It would seem, to hear him discourse, that he knew both the\ngenii and their qualities, and that he had with them the most intimate\nand continual converse. He affirms that our eyes are delighted by the\nappearance of the gods, that the apparitions of the archangels are\nterrible; those of angels are milder; but when demons and heroes\nappear, they inspire terror; the archontes, who preside over this\nworld, cause at the same time an impression of grief and fear. The\napparition of souls is not quite so disagreeable as that of heroes. In\nthe appearance of the gods there is order and mildness, confusion and\ndisorder in that of demons, and tumult in that of the archontes.\n\nWhen the gods show themselves, it seems as if the heavens, the sun and\nmoon, were all about to be annihilated; one would think that the earth\ncould not support their presence. On the appearance of an archangel,\nthere is an earthquake in every part of the world; it is preceded by a\nstronger light than that which accompanies the apparition of the\nangels; at the appearance of a demon it is less strong, and diminishes\nstill more when it is a hero who shows himself.\n\nThe apparitions of the gods are very luminous; those of angels and\narchangels less so; those of demons are dark, but less dark than those\nof heroes. The archontes, who preside over the brightest things in\nthis world, are luminous; but those which are occupied only with what\nis material, are dark. When souls appear, they resemble a shade. He\ncontinues his description of these apparitions, and enters into\ntiresome details on the subject; one would say, to hear him, that that\nthere was a most intimate and habitual connection between the gods,\nthe angels, the demons, and the souls separated from the body, and\nhimself. But all this is only the work of his imagination; he knew no\nmore than any other concerning a matter which is above the reach of\nman's understanding. He had never seen any apparitions of gods or\nheroes, or archontes; unless we say that there are veritable demons\nwhich sometimes appear to men. But to discern them one from the other,\nas Jamblichus pretends to do, is mere illusion.\n\nThe Greeks and Romans, like the Hebrews and Christians, acknowledged\ntwo sorts of genii, some good and beneficent, the others bad, and\ncausing evil. The ancients even believed that every one of us received\nat our birth a good and an evil genius; the former procured us\nhappiness and prosperity, the latter engaged us in unfortunate\nenterprises, inspired us with unruly desires, and cast us into the\nworst misfortunes. They assigned genii, not only to every person, but\nalso to every house, every city, and every province.[70] These genii\nare considered as good, beneficent,[71] and worthy of the worship of\nthose who invoke them. They were represented sometimes under the form\nof a serpent, sometimes as a child or a youth. Flowers, incense,\ncakes, and wine were offered to them.[72] Men swore by the names of\nthe genii.[73] It was a great crime to perjure one's self after having\nsworn by the genius of the emperor, says Tertullian;[74] _Citius apud\nvos per omnes Deos, quam per unicum Genium Caesaris perjuratur._\n\nWe often see on medals the inscription, GENIO POPULI ROMANI; and\nwhen the Romans landed in a country, they failed not to salute and\nadore its genius, and to offer him sacrifices.[75] In short, there was\nneither kingdom, nor province, nor town, nor house, nor door, nor\nedifice, whether public or private, which had not its genius.[76]\n\nWe have seen above what Jamblichus informs us concerning apparitions\nof the gods, genii, good and bad angels, heroes, and the archontes who\npreside over the government of the world.\n\nHomer, the most ancient of Greek writers, and the most celebrated\ntheologian of Paganism, relates several apparitions both of gods and\nheroes, and also of the dead. In the Odyssey,[77] he represents\nUlysses going to consult the sorcerer Tiresias; and this diviner\nhaving prepared a grave or trench full of blood to evoke the manes,\nUlysses draws his sword to prevent them from coming to drink this\nblood, for which they thirst; but which they were not allowed to taste\nbefore they had answered the questions put to them. They believed also\nthat the souls of the dead could not rest, and that they wandered\naround their dead bodies so long as the corpse remained uninhumed.\n\nEven after they were interred, food was offered them; above everything\nhoney was given, as if leaving their tomb they came to taste what was\noffered them.[78] They were persuaded that the demons loved the smoke\nof sacrifices, melody, the blood of victims, and intercourse with\nwomen; that they were attached for a time to certain spots and certain\nedifices which they infested. They believed that souls separated from\nthe gross and terrestrial body, preserved after death one more subtile\nand elastic, having the form of that they had quitted; that these\nbodies were luminous, and like the stars; that they retained an\ninclination for those things which they had loved during their life on\nearth, and that often they appeared gliding around their tombs.\n\nTo bring back all this to the matter here treated of, that is to say,\nto the appearance of good angels, we may note, that in the same manner\nthat we attach to the apparitions of good angels the idea of tutelary\nspirits of kingdoms, provinces, and nations, and of each of us in\nparticular--as, for instance, the Prince of the kingdom of Persia, or\nthe angel of that nation, who resisted the archangel Gabriel during\ntwenty-one days, as we read in Daniel;[79] the angel of Macedonia, who\nappeared to St. Paul,[80] and of whom we have spoken before; the\narchangel St. Michael, who is considered as the chief of the people of\nGod and the armies of Israel;[81] and the guardian angels deputed by\nGod to guide us and guard us all the days of our life--so we may say\nthat the Greeks and Romans, being Gentiles, believed that certain\nsorts of spirits, which they imagined were good and beneficent,\nprotected their kingdoms, provinces, towns, and private houses.\n\nThey paid them a superstitious and idolatrous worship, as to domestic\ndivinities; they invoked them, offered them a kind of sacrifice and\nofferings of incense, cakes, honey, and wine, &c.--but not bloody\nsacrifices.[82]\n\nThe Platonicians taught that carnal and voluptuous men could not see\ntheir genii, because their mind was not sufficiently pure, nor enough\ndisengaged from sensual things; but that men who were wise, moderate,\nand temperate, and who applied themselves to serious and sublime\nsubjects, could see them; as Socrates, for instance, who had his\nfamiliar genius, whom he consulted, to whose advice he listened, and\nwhom he beheld, at least with the eyes of the mind.\n\nIf the oracles of Greece and other countries are reckoned in the\nnumber of apparitions of bad spirits, we may also recollect the good\nspirits who have announced things to come, and have assisted the\nprophets and inspired persons, whether in the Old Testament or the\nNew. The angel Gabriel was sent to Daniel[83] to instruct him\nconcerning the vision of the four great monarchies, and the\naccomplishment of the seventy weeks, which were to put an end to the\ncaptivity. The prophet Zechariah says expressly that _the angel who\nappeared unto him_[84] revealed to him what he must say--he repeats it\nin five or six places; St. John, in the Apocalypse,[85] says the same\nthing, that God had sent his angel to inspire him with what he was to\nsay to the Churches. Elsewhere[86] he again makes mention of the angel\nwho talked with him, and who took in his presence the dimensions of\nthe heavenly Jerusalem. And again, St. Paul in his Epistle to the\nHebrews,[87] \"If what has been predicted by the angels may pass for\ncertain.\"\n\nFrom all we have just said, it results that the apparitions of good\nangels are not only possible, but also very real; that they have often\nappeared, and under diverse forms; that the Hebrews, Christians,\nMahometans, Greeks, and Romans have believed in them; that when they\nhave not sensibly appeared, they have given proofs of their presence\nin several different ways. We shall examine elsewhere how we can\nexplain the kind of apparition, whether of good or bad angels, or\nsouls separated from the body.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[69] Jamblic. lib. ii. cap. 3 & 5.\n\n[70]\n \"Quod te per Genium, dextramque Deosque Penates,\n Obsecro et obtestor.\"--_Horat._ lib. i. Epist. 7. 94.\n\n ----\"Dum cunctis supplex advolveris aris,\n Ei mitem Genium Domini praesentis adoras.\"\n _Stac._ lib. v. Syl. I. 73.\n\n\n[71] Antiquitee expliquee, tom. i.\n\n[72] Perseus, Satire ii.\n\n[73] Senec. Epist. 12.\n\n[74] Tertull. Apol. c. 23.\n\n[75]\n \"Troja vale, rapimur, clamant; dant oscula terrae\n Troades.\"--_Ovid. Metam._, lib. xiii. 421.\n\n[76]\n \"Quamquam cur Genium Romae, mihi fingitis unum?\n Cum portis, domibus; thermis, stabulis soleatis,\n Assignare suos Genios?\"--_Prudent. contra Symmach._\n\n[77] Odyss. XI. sub. fin. _Vid._ Horat. lib. i. Satire 7, &c.\n\n[78] Virgil. AEneid. I. 6. August. Serm. 15. de SS. et Quaest. 5. in\nDeut. i. 5 c. 43. _Vide_ Spencer, de Leg. Hebraeor. Ritual.\n\n[79] Dan. x. 13.\n\n[80] Acts xvi. 9.\n\n[81] Josh. v. 13. Dan. x. 13, 21; xii. 1. Judg. v. 6. Rev. xii. 7\n\n[82] _Forsitan quis quaerat, quid causae sit, ut merum fundendum sit\ngenio_, non hostiam faciendam putaverint.... _Scilicet ut die natali\nmunus_ annale genio solverent, manum a coede ac sanguine\nabstinerent.--Censorin. de Die Natali, c. 2. Vide Taffin de Anno\nSaecul.\n\n[83] Dan. viii. 16; ix. 21.\n\n[84] Zech. i. 10, 13, 14, 19; ii. 3, 4; iv. 1, 4, 5; v. 5, 10.\n\n[85] Rev. i. 1.\n\n[86] Rev. x. 8, 9, &c.; xi. 1, 2, 3, &c.\n\n[87] Heb. ii. 2.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\nTHE APPARITION OF BAD ANGELS PROVED BY THE HOLY SCRIPTURES--UNDER WHAT\nFORM THEY HAVE APPEARED.\n\n\nThe books of the Old and New Testament, together with sacred and\nprofane history, are full of relations of the apparition of bad\nspirits. The first, the most famous, and the most fatal apparition of\nSatan, is that of the appearance of this evil spirit to Eve, the first\nwoman,[88] in the form of a serpent, which animal served as the\ninstrument of that seducing demon in order to deceive her and induce\nher to sin. Since that time he has always chosen to appear under that\nform rather than any other; so in Scripture he is often termed _the\nOld Serpent_;[89] and it is said that the infernal dragon fought\nagainst the woman who figured or represented the church; that the\narchangel St. Michael vanquished him and cast him down from heaven. He\nhas often appeared to the servants of God in the form of a dragon, and\nhe has caused himself to be adored by unbelievers in this form, in a\ngreat number of places: at Babylon, for instance, they worshiped a\nliving dragon,[90] which Daniel killed by making it swallow a ball or\nbolus, composed of ingredients of a mortally poisonous nature. The\nserpent was consecrated to Apollo, the god of physic and of oracles;\nand the pagans had a sort of divination by means of serpents, which\nthey called _Ophiomantia_.\n\nThe Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans worshiped serpents, and regarded\nthem as divine.[91] They brought to Rome the serpent of Epidaurus, to\nwhich they paid divine honors. The Egyptians considered vipers as\ndivinities.[92] The Israelites adored the brazen serpent elevated by\nMoses in the desert,[93] and which was in after times broken in pieces\nby the holy king Hezekiah.[94]\n\nSt. Augustine[95] assures us that the Manichaeans regarded the serpent\nas the Christ, and said that this animal had opened the eyes of Adam\nand Eve by the bad counsel which he gave them. We almost always see\nthe form of the serpent in the magical figures[96] _Akraxas_ and\n_Abrachadabra_, which were held in veneration among the Basilidian\nheretics, who, like the Manichaeans, acknowledge two principles in all\nthings--the one good, the other bad; _Abraxas_ in Hebrew signifies\n_that bad principle_, or the father of evil; _ab-ra-achad-ab-ra_, _the\nfather of evil_, _the sole father of evil_, or the only bad\nprinciple.\n\nSt. Augustine[97] remarks that no animal has been more subject to the\neffects of enchantment and magic than the serpent, as if to punish him\nfor having seduced the first woman by his imposture.\n\nHowever, the demon has usually assumed the human form when he would\ntempt mankind; it was thus that he appeared to Jesus Christ in the\ndesert;[98] that he tempted him and told him to change the stones into\nbread that he might satisfy his hunger; that he transported him, the\nSaviour, to the highest pinnacle of the temple, and showed him all the\nkingdoms of the world, and offered him the enjoyment of them.\n\nThe angel who wrestled with Jacob at Peniel,[99] on his return from\nhis journey into Mesopotamia, was a bad angel, according to some\nancient writers; others, as Severus Sulpicius[100] and some Rabbis,\nhave thought that it was the angel of Esau, who had come to combat\nwith Jacob; but the greater number believe that it was a good angel.\nAnd would Jacob have asked him for his blessing had he deemed him a\nbad angel? But however that fact may be taken, it is not doubtful that\nthe demon has appeared in a human form.\n\nSeveral stories, both ancient and modern, are related which inform us\nthat the demon has appeared to those whom he wished to seduce, or who\nhave been so unhappy as to invoke his aid, or make a compact with him,\nas a man taller than the common stature, dressed in black, and with a\nrough ungracious manner; making a thousand fine promises to those to\nwhom he appeared, but which promises were always deceitful, and never\nfollowed by a real effect. I can even believe that they beheld what\nexisted only in their own confused and deranged ideas.\n\nAt Molsheim,[101] in the chapel of St. Ignatius in the Jesuits'\nchurch, may be seen a celebrated inscription, which contains the\nhistory of a young German gentleman, named Michael Louis, of the house\nof Boubenhoren, who, having been sent by his parents when very young\nto the court of the Duke of Lorraine, to learn the French language,\nlost all his money at cards: reduced to despair, he resolved to give\nhimself to the demon, if that bad spirit would or could give him some\ngood money; for he doubted that he would only furnish him with\ncounterfeit and bad coin. As he was meditating on this idea, suddenly\nhe beheld before him a youth of his own age, well made, well dressed,\nwho, having asked him the cause of his uneasiness, presented him with\na handful of money, and told him to try if it was good. He desired him\nto meet him at that place the next day.\n\nMichael returned to his companions, who were still at play, and not\nonly regained all the money he had lost, but won all that of his\ncompanions. Then he went in search of his demon, who asked as his\nreward three drops of his blood, which he received in an acorn-cup;\nafter which, presenting a pen to Michael, he desired him to write what\nhe should dictate. He then dictated some unknown words, which he made\nhim write on two different bits of paper,[102] one of which remained\nin the possession of the demon, the other was inserted in Michael's\narm, at the same place whence the demon had drawn the blood. And the\ndemon said to him, \"I engage myself to serve you during seven years,\nafter which you will unreservedly belong to me.\"\n\nThe young man consented to this, though with a feeling of horror; and\nthe demon never failed to appear to him day and night under various\nforms, and taught him many unknown and curious things, but which\nalways tended to evil. The fatal termination of the seven years was\napproaching, and the young man was then about twenty years old. He\nreturned to his father's house, when the demon to whom he had given\nhimself inspired him with the idea of poisoning his father and mother,\nof setting fire to their chateau, and then killing himself. He tried\nto commit all these crimes, but God did not allow him to succeed in\nthese attempts. The gun with which he wished to kill himself missed\nfire twice, and the poison did not take effect on his father and\nmother.\n\nMore and more uneasy, he revealed to some of his father's domestics\nthe miserable state in which he found himself, and entreated them to\nprocure him some succor. At the same time the demon seized him, and\nbent his body back, so that he was near breaking his bones. His\nmother, who had adopted the heresy of Suenfeld, and had induced her\nson to follow it also, not finding in her sect any help against the\ndemon that possessed or obseded him, was constrained to place him in\nthe hands of some monks. But he soon withdrew from them and retired to\nIslade, from whence he was brought back to Molsheim by his brother, a\ncanon of Wurzburg, who put him again into the hands of fathers of the\nsociety. Then it was that the demon made still more violent efforts\nagainst him, appearing to him in the form of ferocious animals. One\nday, amongst others, the demon, wearing the form of a hairy savage,\nthrew on the ground a schedule, or compact, different from the true\none which he had extorted from the young man, to try by means of this\nfalse appearance to withdraw him from the hands of those who kept him,\nand prevent his making his general confession. At last they fixed on\nthe 20th of October, 1603, as the day for being in the Chapel of St.\nIgnatius, and to cause to be brought the true schedule containing the\ncompact made with the demon. The young man there made profession of\nthe Catholic and orthodox faith, renounced the demon, and received the\nholy sacrament. Then, uttering horrible cries, he said he saw as it\nwere two he-goats of immeasurable size, which, holding up their\nforefeet (standing on their hindlegs), held between their claws, each\none separately, one of the schedules or agreements. But as soon as the\nexorcisms were begun, and the priests invoked the name of St.\nIgnatius, the two he-goats fled away, and there came from the left arm\nor hand of the young man, almost without pain, and without leaving any\nscar, the compact, which fell at the feet of the exorcist.\n\nThere now wanted only the second compact, which had remained in the\npower of the demon. They recommenced their exorcisms, and invoked St.\nIgnatius, and promised to say a mass in honor of the saint; at the\nsame moment there appeared a tall stork, deformed and badly made, who\nlet fall the second schedule from his beak, and they found it on the\naltar.\n\nThe pope, Paul V., caused information of the truth of these facts to\nbe taken by the commissionary-deputies, M. Adam, Suffragan of\nStrasburg, and George, Abbot of Altorf, who were juridically\ninterrogated, and who affirmed that the deliverance of this young man\nwas principally due, after God, to the intercession of St. Ignatius.\n\nThe same story is related rather more at length in Bartoli's Life of\nSt. Ignatius Loyola.\n\nMelancthon owns[103] that he has seen several spectres, and conversed\nwith them several times; and Jerome Cardan affirms that his father,\nFassius Cardanus, saw demons whenever he pleased, apparently in a\nhuman form. Bad spirits sometimes appear also under the figure of a\nlion, a dog, or a cat, or some other animal--as a bull, a horse, or a\nraven; for the pretended sorcerers and sorceresses relate that at the\n(witches') Sabbath he is seen under several different forms of men,\nanimals, and birds; whether he takes the shape of these animals, or\nwhether he makes use of the animals themselves as instruments to\ndeceive or harm, or whether he simply affects the senses and\nimagination of those whom he has fascinated and who give themselves to\nhim; for in all the appearances of the demon we must always be on our\nguard, and mistrust his stratagems and malice. St. Peter[104] tells us\nthat Satan is always roaming round about us, like a roaring lion,\nseeking whom he may devour. And St. Paul, in more places than\none,[105] warns us to mistrust the snares of the devil, and to hold\nourselves on our guard against him.\n\nSulpicius Severus,[106] in the life of St. Martin, relates a few\nexamples of persons who were deceived by apparitions of the demon, who\ntransformed himself into an angel of light. A young man of very high\nrank, and who was afterwards elevated to the priesthood, having\ndevoted himself to God in a monastery, imagined that he held converse\nwith angels; and as they would not believe him, he said that the\nfollowing night God would give him a white robe, with which he would\nappear amongst them. In fact, at midnight the monastery was shaken as\nwith an earthquake, the cell of the young man was all brilliant with\nlight, and they heard a noise like that of many persons going to and\nfro, and speaking.\n\nAfter that, coming forth from his cell, he showed to the brothers (of\nthe convent) the tunic with which he was clothed: it was made of a\nstuff of admirable whiteness, shining as purple, and so\nextraordinarily fine in texture that they had never seen anything like\nit, and could not tell from what substance it was woven.\n\nThey passed the rest of the night in singing psalms of thanksgiving,\nand in the morning they wished to conduct him to St. Martin. He\nresisted as much as he could, saying that he had been expressly\nforbidden to appear in his presence. As they were pressing him to\ncome, the tunic vanished, which led every one present to suppose that\nthe whole thing was an illusion of the demon.\n\nAnother solitary suffered himself to be persuaded that he was Eli;\nanother that he was St. John the Evangelist. One day, the demon wished\nto mislead St. Martin himself, appearing to him, having on a royal\nrobe, wearing on his head a rich diadem, ornamented with gold and\nprecious stones, golden sandals, and all the apparel of a great\nprince. Addressing himself to Martin, he said to him, \"Acknowledge me,\nMartin; I am Jesus Christ, who, wishing to descend to earth, have\nresolved to manifest myself to thee first of all.\" St. Martin remained\nsilent at first, fearing some snare; and the phantom having repeated\nto him that he was the Christ, Martin replied: \"My Lord Jesus Christ\ndid not say that he should come clothed in purple and decked with\ndiamonds. I shall not acknowledge him unless he appears in that same\nform in which he suffered death, and unless I see the marks of his\ncross and passion.\"\n\nAt these words the demon disappeared; and Sulpicius Severus affirms\nthat he relates this as he heard it from the mouth of St. Martin\nhimself. A little before this, he says that Satan showed himself to\nhim sometimes under the form of Jupiter, or Mercury, or Venus, or\nMinerva; and sometimes he was to reproach Martin greatly because, by\nbaptism, he had converted and regenerated so many great sinners. But\nthe saint despised him, drove him away by the sign of the cross, and\nanswered him that baptism and repentance effaced all sins in those who\nwere sincere converts.\n\nAll this proves the malice, envy, and fraud of the devil against the\nsaints, on the one side; and on the other, the weakness and\nuselessness of his efforts against the true servants of God, and that\nit is but too true he often appears in a visible form.\n\nIn the histories of the saints we sometimes see that he hides himself\nunder the form of a woman, to tempt pious hermits and lead them into\nevil; sometimes in the form of a traveler, a priest, a monk, or an\n_angel of light_,[107] to mislead simple minded people, and cause them\nto err; for everything suits his purpose, provided he can exercise his\nmalice and hatred against men.\n\nWhen Satan appeared before the Lord in the midst of his holy angels,\nand asked permission of God to tempt Job,[108] and try his patience\nthrough everything that was dearest to that holy man, he doubtless\npresented himself in his natural state, simply as a spirit, but full\nof rage against the saints, and in all the deformity of his sin and\nrebellion.\n\nBut when he says, in the Books of Kings, _that he will be a lying\nspirit in the mouth of false prophets_,[109] and that God allows him\nto put in force his ill-will, we must not imagine that he shows\nhimself corporeally to the eyes of the false prophets of King Ahab; he\nonly inspired the falsehood in their minds--they believed it, and\npersuaded the king of the same. Amongst the visible appearances of\nSatan may be placed mortalities, wars, tempests, public and private\ncalamities, which God sends upon nations, provinces, cities, and\nfamilies, whom the Almighty causes to feel the terrible effects of his\nwrath and just vengeance. Thus the exterminating angel kills the\nfirst-born of the Egyptians.[110] The same angel strikes with death\nthe inhabitants of the guilty cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.[111] He\ndoes the same with Onan, who committed an abominable action.[112] _The\nwicked man seeks only division and quarrels_, says the sage; _and the\ncruel angel shall be sent against him_.[113] And the Psalmist,\nspeaking of the plagues which the Lord inflicted upon Egypt, says that\nhe sent evil angels among them.\n\nWhen David, in a spirit of vanity, caused his people to be numbered,\nGod showed him an angel hovering over Jerusalem, ready to smite and\ndestroy it. I do not say decidedly whether it was a good or a bad\nangel, since it is certain that sometimes the Lord employs good angels\nto execute his vengeance against the wicked. But it is thought that it\nwas the devil who slew eighty-five thousand men of the army of\nSennacherib. And in the Apocalypse, those are also evil angels who\npour out on the earth the phials of wrath, and caused all the scourges\nset down in that holy book.\n\nWe shall also place amongst the appearances and works of Satan false\nChrists, false prophets, Pagan oracles, magicians, sorcerers, and\nsorceresses, those who are inspired by the spirit of Python, the\nobsession and possession of demons, those who pretend to predict the\nfuture, and whose predictions are sometimes fulfilled; those who make\ncompacts with the devil to discover treasures and enrich themselves;\nthose who make use of charms; evocations by means of magic;\nenchantment; the being devoted to death by a vow; the deceptions of\nidolatrous priests, who feigned that their gods ate and drank and had\ncommerce with women--all these can only be the work of Satan, and must\nbe ranked with what the Scripture calls _the depths of Satan_.[114] We\nshall say something on this subject in the course of the treatise.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[88] Gen. iii. 1, 23.\n\n[89] Rev. xii. 9.\n\n[90] Bel and the Dragon.\n\n[91] Wisd. xi. 16.\n\n[92] Elian. Hist. Animal.\n\n[93] Numb. xxi. 2 Kings xviii. 4.\n\n[94] On this subject, see a work of profound learning, and as\ninteresting as profound, on \"The Worship of the Serpent,\" by the Rev.\nJohn Bathurst Deane, M. A. F. S. A.\n\n[95] Aug. tom. viii. pp. 28, 284.\n\n[96] _Ab-racha_, pater _mali_, or pater _malus_.\n\n[97] August. de Gen. ad Lit. 1. ii. c. 18.\n\n[98] Matt. iv. 9, 10, &c.\n\n[99] Gen. xxxii. 24, 25.\n\n[100] Sever. Sulpit. Hist. Sac.\n\n[101] A small city or town of the Electorate of Cologne, situated on a\nriver of the same name.\n\n[102] There were in all ten letters, the greater part of them Greek,\nbut which formed no (apparent) sense. They were to be seen at\nMolsheim, in the tablet which bore a representation of this miracle.\n\n[103] Lib. de Anima.\n\n[104] 1 Pet. iii. 8.\n\n[105] Eph. vi. 11. 1 Tim. iii. 7.\n\n[106] Sulpit. Sever. Vit. St. Martin, b. xv.\n\n[107] 2 Cor. xi. 14.\n\n[108] Job i. 6-8.\n\n[109] 1 Kings xxii. 21.\n\n[110] Exod. ix. 6.\n\n[111] Gen. xviii. 13, 14.\n\n[112] Gen. xxxviii.\n\n[113] Prov. xvii. 11.\n\n[114] Rev. ii. 24.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\nOF MAGIC.\n\n\nMany persons regard magic, magicians, witchcraft, and charms as fables\nand illusions, the effects of imagination in weak minds, who,\nfoolishly persuaded of the excessive power possessed by the devil,\nattribute to him a thousand things which are purely natural, but the\nphysical reasons for which are unknown to them, or which are the\neffects of the art of certain charlatans, who make a trade of imposing\non the simple and ignorant. These opinions are supported by the\nauthority of the principal parliaments of the kingdom, who acknowledge\nneither magicians nor sorcerers, and who never punish those accused of\nmagic, or sorcery, unless they are convicted also of some other\ncrimes. As, in short, the more they punish and seek out magicians and\nsorcerers, the more they abound in a country; and, on the contrary,\nexperience proves that in places where nobody believes in them, none\nare to be found, the most efficacious means of uprooting this fancy is\nto despise and neglect it.\n\nIt is said that magicians and sorcerers themselves, when they fall\ninto the hands of judges and inquisitors, are often the first to\nmaintain that magic and sorcery are merely imaginary, and the effect\nof popular prejudices and errors. Upon that footing, Satan would\ndestroy himself, and overthrow his own empire, if he were thus to\ndecry magic, of which he is himself the author and support. If the\nmagicians really, and of their own good will, independently of the\ndemon, make this declaration, they betray themselves most lightly, and\ndo not make their cause better; since the judges, notwithstanding\ntheir disavowal, prosecute them, and always punish them without mercy,\nbeing well persuaded that it is only the fear of execution and the\nhope of remaining unpunished which makes them say so.\n\nBut would it not rather be a stratagem of the evil spirit,[115] who\nendeavors to render the reality of magic doubtful, to save from\npunishment those who are accused of it, and to impose on the judges,\nand make them believe that magicians are only madmen and\nhypochondriacs, worthy rather of compassion than chastisement? We must\nthen return to the deep examination of the question, and prove that\nmagic is not a chimera, neither has it aught to do with reason. We can\nneither rest on a sure foundation, nor derive any certain argument for\nor against the reality of magic, either from the opinion of pretended\n_esprits forts_, who deny because they think proper to do so, and\nbecause the proofs of the contrary do not appear to them sufficiently\nclear or demonstrative; nor from the declaration of the demon, of\nmagicians and sorcerers, who maintain that magic and sorcery are only\nthe effects of a disturbed imagination; nor from minds foolishly and\nvainly prejudiced on the subject, that these declarations are produced\nsimply by the fear of punishment; nor by the subtilty of the malignant\nspirit, who wishes to mask his play, and cast dust in the eyes of the\njudges and witnesses, by making them believe that what they regard\nwith so much horror, and what they so vigorously prosecute, is\nanything but a punishable crime, or at least a crime deserving of\npunishment.\n\nWe must then prove the reality of magic by the Holy Scriptures, by the\nauthority of the Church, and by the testimony of the most grave and\nsensible writers; and, lastly, show that it is not true that the most\nfamous parliaments acknowledge neither sorcerers nor magicians.\n\nThe teraphim which Rachael, the wife of Jacob, brought away secretly\nfrom the house of Laban, her father,[116] were doubtless superstitious\nfigures, to which Laban's family paid a worship, very like that which\nthe Romans rendered to their household gods, _Penates_ and _Lares_,\nand whom they consulted on future events. Joshua[117] says very\ndistinctly that Terah, the father of Abraham, adored strange gods in\nMesopotamia. And in the prophets Hosea and Zechariah,[118] the Seventy\ntranslate _teraphim_ by the word _oracles_. Zechariah and Ezekiel[119]\nshow that the Chaldeans and the Hebrews consulted these _teraphim_ to\nlearn future events.\n\nOthers believe that they were talismans or preservatives; everybody\nagrees as to their being superstitious figures (or idols) which were\nconsulted in order to find out things unknown, or that were to come to\npass.\n\nThe patriarch Joseph, speaking to his own brethren according to the\nidea which they had of him in Egypt, says to them:[120] \"Know ye not\nthat in all the land there is not a man who equals me in the art of\ndivining and predicting things to come?\" And the officer of the same\nJoseph, having found in Benjamin's sack Joseph's cup which he had\npurposely hidden in it, says to them:[121] \"It is the cup of which my\nmaster makes use to discover hidden things.\"\n\nBy the secret of their art, the magicians of Pharaoh imitated the true\nmiracles of Moses; but not being able like him to produce gnats\n(English version _lice_), they were constrained to own that the finger\nof God was in what Moses had hitherto achieved.[122]\n\nAfter the departure of the Hebrews from Egypt, God expressly forbids\nhis people to practice any sort of magic or divination.[123] He\ncondemns to death magicians, and those who make use of charms.\n\nBalaam, the diviner, being invited by Balak, the king, to come and\ndevote the Israelites to destruction, God put blessings into his mouth\ninstead of curses;[124] and this bad prophet, amongst the blessings\nwhich he bestows on Israel, says there is among them neither augury,\nnor divination, nor magic.\n\nIn the time of the Judges, the Idol of Micah was consulted as a kind\nof oracle.[125] Gideon made, in his house and his city, an Ephod,\naccompanied by a superstitious image, which was for his family, and to\nall the people, the occasion of scandal and ruin.[126]\n\nThe Israelites went sometimes to consult Beelzebub, god of Ekron,[127]\nto know if they should recover from their sickness. The history of the\nevocation of Samuel by the witch of Endor[128] is well known. I am\naware that some difficulties are raised concerning this history. I\nshall deduce nothing from it here, except that this woman passed for a\nwitch, that Saul esteemed her such, and that this prince had\nexterminated the magicians in his own states, or, at least, that he\ndid not permit them to exercise their art.\n\nManasses, king of Judah,[129] is blamed for having introduced idolatry\ninto his kingdom, and particularly for having allowed there diviners,\naruspices, and those who predicted things to come. King Josiah, on the\ncontrary, destroyed all these superstitions.[130]\n\nThe prophet Isaiah, who lived at the same time, says that they wished\nto persuade the Jews then in captivity at Babylon to address\nthemselves, as did other nations, to diviners and magicians; but they\nought to reject these pernicious counsels, and leave those\nabominations to the Gentiles, who knew not the Lord. Daniel[131]\nspeaks of the magicians, or workers of magic among the Chaldeans, and\nof those amongst them who interpreted dreams, and predicted things to\ncome.\n\nIn the New Testament, the Jews accused Jesus Christ of casting out\ndevils in the name of Beelzebub, the prince of the devils;[132] but he\nrefutes them by saying, that being come to destroy the empire of\nBeelzebub, it was not to be believed that Beelzebub would work\nmiracles to destroy his own power or kingdom.[133] St. Luke speaks of\nSimon the sorcerer, who had for a long time bewitched the inhabitants\nof Samaria with his sorceries; and also of a certain Bar-Jesus of\nPaphos, who professed sorcery, and boasted he could predict future\nevents.[134] St. Paul, when at Ephesus, caused a number of books of\nmagic to be burned.[135] Lastly, the Psalmist,[136] and the author of\nthe Book of Ecclesiasticus,[137] speak of charms with which they\nenchanted serpents.\n\nIn the Acts of the Apostles,[138] the young girl of the town of\nPhilippi, who was a Pythoness, for several successive days rendered\ntestimony to Paul and Silas, saying that they were \"_the servants of\nthe Most High, and that they announced to men the way of salvation_.\"\nWas it the devil who inspired her with these words, to destroy the\nfruit of the preaching of the Apostles, by making the people believe\nthat they acted in concert with the spirit of evil? Or was it the\nSpirit of God which put these words into the mouth of this young girl,\nas he put into the mouth of Balaam prophecies concerning the Messiah?\nThere is reason to believe that she spoke through the inspiration of\nthe evil spirit, since St. Paul imposed silence on her, and expelled\nthe spirit of Python, by which she had been possessed, and which had\ninspired the predictions she uttered, and the knowledge of hidden\nthings. In what way soever we may explain it, it will always follow\nthat magic is not a chimera, that this maiden was possessed by an evil\nspirit, and that she predicted and revealed things hidden and to come,\nand brought her _masters considerable gain by soothsaying_; for those\nwho consulted her would, doubtless, not have been so foolish as to pay\nfor these predictions, had they not experienced the truth of them by\ntheir success and by the event.\n\nFrom all this united testimony, it results that magic, enchantments,\nsorcery, divination, the interpretation of dreams, auguries, oracles,\nand the magical figures which announced things to come, are very real,\nsince they are so severely condemned by God, and that He wills that\nthose who practice them should be punished with death.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[115] _Vide_ Bodin Preface.\n\n[116] Gen. xxxi. 19.\n\n[117] Josh. xxiv. 2-4.\n\n[118] Hosea ii. 4, &c. Zech. v. 2.\n\n[119] Zech. x. 2. Ezek. xxi. 21.\n\n[120] Gen. xliv. 15.\n\n[121] Gen. xliv. 5.\n\n[122] Exod. vii. 10-12. Exod. viii. 19.\n\n[123] Exod. xxii. 18.\n\n[124] Numb. xxii., xxiii.\n\n[125] Judg. xvii. 1, 2.\n\n[126] Judg. viii. 27.\n\n[127] 2 Kings i. 2, 2.\n\n[128] 1 Sam. xxviii. 7, _et seq._\n\n[129] 2 Kings xxi. 16.\n\n[130] 2 Kings xxii. 24.\n\n[131] Dan. iv. 6, 7.\n\n[132] Matt. x. 25; xii. 24, 25.\n\n[133] Luke xi. 15, 18, 19.\n\n[134] Acts viii. 11; xiii. 6.\n\n[135] Acts xix. 19.\n\n[136] Psalm lvii.\n\n[137] Ecclus. xii. 13.\n\n[138] Acts xvi. 16, 17.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\nOBJECTIONS TO THE REALITY OF MAGIC.\n\n\nI shall not fail to be told that all these testimonies from Scripture\ndo not prove the reality of magic, sorcery, divination, and the rest;\nbut only that the Hebrews and Egyptians--I mean the common people\namong them--believe that there were people who had intercourse with\nthe Divinity, or with good and bad angels, to predict the future,\nexplain dreams, devote their enemies to the direst misfortunes, cause\nmaladies, raise storms, and call forth the souls of the dead; if there\nwas any reality in all this, it was not in the things themselves, but\nin their imaginations and prepossessions.\n\nMoses and Joseph were regarded by the Egyptians as great magicians.\nRachel, it appears, believed that the teraphim of her father Laban\nwere capable of giving her information concerning things hidden and to\ncome. The Israelites might consult the idol of Micha, and Beelzebub\nthe god of Ekron; but the sensible and enlightened people of those\ndays, like similar persons in our own, considered all this as the\nsport and knavery of pretended magicians, who derived much emolument\nfrom maintaining these prejudices among the people.\n\nMoses most wisely ordained the penalty of death against those persons\nwho abused the simplicity of the ignorant to enrich themselves at\ntheir expense, and turned away the people from the worship of the true\nGod, in order to keep up among them such practices as were\nsuperstitious and contrary to true religion.\n\nBesides, it was necessary to good order, the interests of the\ncommonwealth and of true piety, to repress those abuses which are in\nopposition to them, and to punish with extreme severity those who draw\naway the people from the true and legitimate worship due to God, lead\nthem to worship the devil, and place their confidence in the creature,\nin prejudice to the right of the Creator; inspiring them with vain\nterrors where there is nothing to fear, and maintaining their minds in\nthe most dangerous errors. If, amongst an infinite number of false\npredictions, or vain interpretations of dreams, some of them are\nfulfilled, either this is occasioned by chance or it is the work of\nthe devil, who is often permitted by God to deceive those whose\nfoolishness and impiety lead them to address themselves to him and\nplace their confidence in him, all which the wise lawgiver, animated\nby the Divine Spirit, justly repressed by the most rigorous\npunishment.\n\nAll histories and experience on this subject demonstrate that those\nwho make use of the art of magic, charms, and spells, only employ\ntheir art, their secret, and their power to corrupt and mislead; for\ncrime and vice; thus they cannot be too carefully sought out, or too\nseverely punished.\n\nWe may add that what is often taken for black or diabolical magic is\nnothing but natural magic, or art and cleverness on the part of those\nwho perform things which appear above the force of nature. How many\nmarvelous effects are related of the divining rod, sympathetic powder,\nphosphoric lights, and mathematical secrets! How much knavery is now\nwell known in the priests of idols, and in those of Babylon, who made\nthe people believe that the god Bel drank and ate; that a large living\ndragon was a divinity; that the god Anubis desired to have certain\nwomen, who were thus deceived by the priests; that the ox Apis gave\nout oracles, and that the serpent of Alexander of Abonotiche knew the\nsickness, and gave remedies to the patient without opening the billet\nwhich contained a description of the illness! We may possibly speak\nmore fully on this subject hereafter.\n\nIn short, the most judicious and most celebrated Parliaments have\nrecognized neither magicians nor sorcerers; at least, they have not\ncondemned them to death unless they were convicted of other crimes,\nsuch as theft, bad practices, poisoning, or criminal seduction--for\ninstance, in the affair of Gofredi, a priest of Marseilles, who was\ncondemned by the Parliament of Aix to be torn with hot pincers, and\nburnt alive. The heads of that company, in the account which they\nrender to the chancellor of this their sentence, testify that this\ncure was in truth accused of sorcery, but that he had been condemned\nto the flames as guilty, and convicted of spiritual incest with his\npenitent, Madelaine de la Palu. From all this it is concluded that\nthere is no reality in what is called magic.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX.\n\nREPLY TO THE OBJECTIONS.\n\n\nIn answer to these, I allow that there is indeed very often a great\ndeal of illusion, prepossession, and imagination in all that is termed\nmagic and sorcery; and sometimes the devil by false appearances\ncombines with them to deceive the simple; but oftener, without the\nevil spirit being any otherwise a party to it, wicked, corrupt, and\ninterested men, artful and deceptive, abuse the simplicity both of men\nand women, so far as to persuade them that they possess supernatural\nsecrets for interpreting dreams and foretelling things to come, for\ncuring maladies, and discovering secrets unknown to any one. I can\neasily agree to all that. All kinds of histories are full of facts\nwhich demonstrate what I have just said. The devil has a thousand\nthings imputed to him in which he has no share; they give him the\nhonor of predictions, revelations, secrets, and discoveries, which are\nby no means the effect of his power, or penetration; as in the same\nmanner he is accused of having caused all sorts of evils, tempests,\nand maladies, which are purely the effect of natural but unknown\ncauses.\n\nIt is very true that there are really many persons who are persuaded\nof the power of the devil, of his influence over an infinite number of\nthings, and of the effects which they attribute to him; that they have\nconsulted him to learn future events, or to discover hidden things;\nthat they have addressed themselves to him for success in their\nprojects, for money, or favor, or to enjoy their criminal pleasures.\nAll this is very real. Magic, then, is not a simple chimera, since so\nmany persons are infatuated with the power of charms and convicted of\nholding commerce with the devil, to procure a number of effects which\npass for supernatural. Now it is the folly, the vain credulity, the\nprepossession of such people that the law of God interdicts, that\nMoses condemns to death, and that the Christian Church punishes by its\ncensures, and which the secular judges repress with the greatest\nrigor. If in all these things there was nothing but a diseased\nimagination, weakness of the brain, or popular prejudices, would they\nbe treated with so much severity? Do we put to death hypochondriacs,\nmaniacs, or those who imagine themselves ill? No; they are treated\nwith compassion, and every effort is made to cure them. But in the\nother case it is impiety, or superstition, or vice in those who\nconsult, or believe they consult, the devil, and place their\nconfidence in him, against which the laws are put in force and ordain\nchastisement.\n\nEven if we could deny and contest the reality of augurs, diviners, and\nmagicians, and look on all these kind of persons as seducers, who\nabuse the simplicity of those who betake themselves to them, could we\ndeny the reality of the magicians of Pharaoh, that of Simon, of\nBar-Jesus, of the Pythoness of the Acts of the Apostles? Did not the\nfirst-mentioned perform many wonders before Pharaoh? Did not Simon the\nmagician rise into the air by means of the devil? Did not St. Paul\nimpose silence on the Pythoness of the city of Philippi in\nMacedonia?[139] Will it be said that there was any collusion between\nSt. Paul and the Pythoness? Nothing of the kind can be maintained by\nany reasonable argument.\n\nA small volume was published at Paris, in 1732, by a new author, who\nconceals himself under the two initials M. D.; it is entitled,\n_Treatise on Magic, Witchcraft, Possessions, Obsessions and Charms; in\nwhich their truth and reality are demonstrated_. He shows that he\nbelieves there are magicians; he shows by Scripture, both in the Old\nand New Testament, and by the authority of the ancient fathers, some\npassages from whose works are cited in that of Father Debrio, entitled\n_Disquisitiones Magicae_. He proves it by the rituals of all the\ndioceses, and by the examinations which are found in the printed\n\"Hours,\" wherein they suppose the existence of sorcerers and\nmagicians.\n\nThe civil laws of the emperors, whether pagan or Christian, those of\nthe kings of France, both ancient and modern, jurisconsult,\nphysicians, historians both sacred and profane, concur in maintaining\nthis truth. In all kinds of writers we may remark an infinity of\nstories of magic, spells and sorcery. The Parliaments of France, and\nthe tribunals of justice in other nations, have recognized magicians,\nthe pernicious effects of their art, and condemned them personally to\nthe most rigorous punishments.\n\nHe relates at full length[140] the remonstrances made to King Louis\nXIV., in 1670, by the Parliament at Rouen, to prove to that monarch\nthat it was not only the Parliament of Rouen, but also all the other\nParliaments of the kingdom, which followed the same rules of\njurisprudence in what concerns magic and sorcery; that they\nacknowledged the existence of such things and condemn them. This\nauthor cites several facts, and several sentences given on this matter\nin the Parliaments of Paris, Aix, Toulouse, Rennes, Dijon, &c. &c.;\nand it was upon these remonstrances that the same king, in 1682, made\nhis declaration concerning the punishment of various crimes, and in\nparticular of sorcery, diviners or soothsayers, magicians, and similar\ncrimes.\n\nHe also cites the treaty of M. de la Marre, commissary at the\n_chatelet_ of Paris, who speaks largely of magic, and proves its\nreality, origin, progress, and effects. Would it be possible that the\nsacred authors, laws divine and human, the greatest men of antiquity,\njurisconsults, the most enlightened historians, bishops in their\ncouncils, the Church in her decisions, her practices and prayers,\nshould have conspired to deceive us, and to condemn those who practice\nmagic, sorcery, spells, and crimes of the same nature, to death, and\nthe most rigorous punishments, if they were merely illusive, and the\neffect only of a diseased and prejudiced imagination? Father le Brun,\nof the Oratoire, who has written so well upon the subject of\nsuperstitions, substantiates the fact that the Parliament of Paris\nrecognizes that there are sorcerers, and that it punishes them\nseverely when they are convicted. He proves it by a decree issued in\n1601 against some inhabitants of Campagne accused of witchcraft. The\ndecree wills that they shall be sent to the Conciergerie by the\nsubaltern judges on pain of being deprived of their charge. It\nsupposes that they must be rigorously punished, but it desires that\nthe proceedings against them for their discovery and punishment may be\nexact and regular.\n\nM. Servin, advocate-general and councillor of state, fully proves from\nthe Old and New Testament, from tradition, laws and history, that\nthere are diviners, enchanters, and sorcerers, and refutes those who\nwould maintain the contrary. He shows that magicians and those who\nmake use of charms, ought to be punished and held in execration; but\nhe adds that no punishment must be inflicted till after certain and\nevident proofs have been obtained; and this is what must be strictly\nattended to by the Parliament of Paris, for fear of punishing madmen\nfor guilty persons, and taking illusions for realities.\n\nThe Parliament leaves it to the Church to inflict excommunication,\nboth on men and women who have recourse to charms, and who believe\nthey go in the night to nocturnal assemblies, there to pay homage to\nthe devil. The Capitularies of the kings[141] recommend the pastors to\ninstruct the faithful on the subject of what is termed the Sabbath; at\nany rate they do not command that these persons should receive\ncorporeal punishment, but only that they should be undeceived and\nprevented from misleading others in the same manner.\n\nAnd there the Parliament stops, so long as the case goes no farther\nthan simply misleading; but when it goes so far as to injure others,\nthe kings have often commanded the judges to punish these persons with\nfines and banishment. The Ordonnances of Charles VIII. in 1490, and of\nCharles IX. in the States of Orleans in 1560, express themselves\nformally on this point, and they were renewed by King Louis XIV. in\n1682. The third article of these Ordonnances bears, that if it should\nhappen \"_there were persons to be found wicked enough to add impiety\nand sacrilege to superstition, those who shall be convicted of these\ncrimes shall be punished with death_.\"\n\nWhen, therefore, it is evident that some person has inflicted injury\non his neighbor by malpractices, the Parliament punishes them\nrigorously, even to the pain of death, conformably to the ancient\nCapitularies of the kingdom,[142] and the royal Ordonnances. Bodin,\nwho wrote in 1680, has collected a great number of decrees, to which\nmay be added those which the reverend Father le Brun reports, given\nsince that time.\n\nHe afterwards relates a remarkable instance of a man named Hocque, who\nwas condemned to the galleys, the 2d of September, 1687, by sentence\nof the High Court of Justice at Passy, for having made use of\nmalpractices towards animals, and having thus killed a great number in\nChampagne. Hocque died suddenly, miserably, and in despair, after\nhaving discovered, when drunken with wine, to a person named Beatrice,\nthe secret which he made use of to kill the cattle; he was not\nignorant that the demon would cause his death to revenge the discovery\nwhich he had made of this spell.\n\nSome of the accomplices of this wretched man were condemned to the\ngalleys by divers decrees; others were condemned to be hanged and\nburnt, by order of the Baille of Passy, the 26th of October, 1691,\nwhich sentence was confirmed by decree of the Parliament of Paris, the\n18th of December, 1691. From all which we deduce that the Parliament\nof Paris acknowledges that the spells by which people do injury to\ntheir neighbors ought to be rigorously punished; that the devil has\nvery extensive power, which he too often exercises over men and\nanimals, and that he would exercise it oftener, and with greater\nextension and fury, if he were not limited and hindered by the power\nof God, and that of good angels, who set bounds to his malice. St Paul\nwarns us[143] to put on the armor of God, to be able to resist the\nsnares of the devil: for, adds he, \"we have not to war against flesh\nand blood: but against princes and powers, against the bad spirits who\ngovern this dark world, against the spirits of malice who reign in the\nair.\"\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[139] Acts xvi. 10.\n\n[140] Page 31, _et seq._\n\n[141] Capitular. R. xiii de Sortilegiis et Sorciariis, 2 col. 36.\n\n[142] Capitular. in 872, x. 2. col. 230.\n\n[143] Eph. vi. 12.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X.\n\nEXAMINATION OF THE AFFAIR OF HOCQUE, MAGICIAN.\n\n\nMonsieur de St. Andre, consulting physician in ordinary to the king,\nin his sixth letter[144] against magic, maintains that in the affair\nof Hocque which has been mentioned, there was neither magic, nor\nsorcery, nor any operation of the demon; that the venomous drug which\nHocque placed in the stables, and by means of which he caused the\ndeath of the cattle stalled therein, was nothing but a poisonous\ncompound, which, by its smell and the diffusion of its particles,\npoisoned the animals and caused their death; it required only for\nthese drugs to be taken away for the cattle to be safe, or else to\nkeep the cattle from the stable in which the poison was placed. The\ndifficulty laid in discovering where these poisonous drugs were\nhidden; the shepherds, who were the authors of the mischief, taking\nall sorts of precautions to conceal them, knowing that their lives\nwere in danger if they should be discovered.\n\nHe further remarks that these _gogues_ or poisoned drugs lose their\neffects after a certain time, unless they are renewed or watered with\nsomething to revive them and make them ferment again. If the devil had\nany share in this mischief, the drug would always possess the same\nvirtue, and it would not be necessary to renew it and refresh it to\nrestore it to its pristine power.\n\nIn all this, M. de St. Andre supposes that if the demon had any power\nto deprive animals of their lives, or to cause them fatal maladies, he\ncould do so independently of secondary causes; which will not be\neasily granted him by those who hold that God alone can give life and\ndeath by an absolute power, independently of all secondary causes and\nof any natural agent. The demon might have revealed to Hocque the\ncomposition of this fatal and poisonous drug--he might have taught him\nits dangerous effects, after which the venom acts in a natural way; it\nrecovers and resumes its pristine strength when it is watered; it acts\nonly at a certain distance, and according to the reach of the\ncorpuscles which exhale from it. All these effects have nothing\nsupernatural in them, nor which ought to be attributed to the demon;\nbut it is credible enough that he inspired Hocque with the pernicious\ndesign to make use of a dangerous drug, which the wretched man knew\nhow to make up, or the composition of which was revealed to him by the\nevil spirit.\n\nM. de St. Andre continues, and says that there is nothing in the death\nof Hocque which ought to be attributed to the demon; it is, says he, a\npurely natural effect, which can proceed from no other cause than the\nvenomous effluvia which came from the poisonous drug when it was taken\nup, and which were carried towards the malefactor by those which\nproceeded from his own body while he was preparing it, and placing it\nin the ground, which remained there and were preserved in that spot,\nso that none of them had been dissipated.\n\nThese effluvia proceeding from the person of Hocque, then finding\nthemselves liberated, returned to whence they originated, and drew\nwith them the most malignant and corrosive particles of the charge or\ndrug, which acted on the body of this shepherd as they did on those of\nthe animals who smelled them. He confirms what he has just said, by\nthe example of sympathetic powder which acts upon the body of a\nwounded person, by the immersion of small particles of the blood, or\nthe pus of the wounded man upon whom it is applied, which particles\ndraw with them the spirit of the drugs of which it (the powder) is\ncomposed, and carry them to the wound.\n\nBut the more I reflect on this pretended evaporation of the venomous\neffluvia emanating from the poisoned drug, hidden at Passy en Brie,\nsix leagues from Paris, which are supposed to come straight to Hocque,\nshut up at la Tournelle, borne by the animal effluvia proceeding from\nthis malefactor's body at the time he made up the poisonous drug and\nput it in the ground, so long before the dangerous composition was\ndiscovered; the more I reflect on the possibility of these\nevaporations the less I am persuaded of them. I could wish to have\nproofs of this system, and not instances of the very doubtful and very\nuncertain effects of sympathetic powder, which can have no place in\nthe case in question. It is proving the obscure by the obscure, and\nthe uncertain by the uncertain; and even were we to admit generally\nsome effects of the sympathetic powder, they could not be applicable\nhere; the distance between the places is too great, and the time too\nlong; and what sympathy can be found between this shepherd's poisonous\ndrug and his person for it to be able to return to him who is\nimprisoned at Paris, when the _gogue_ is discovered at Passy?\n\nThe account composed and printed on this event bears, that the fumes\nof the wine which Hocque had drank having evaporated, and he\nreflecting on what Beatrice had made him do, began to agitate himself,\nhowled, and complained most strangely, saying that Beatrice had taken\nhim by surprise, that it would occasion his death, and that he must\ndie the instant that _Bras-de-fer_--another shepherd, to whom Beatrice\nhad persuaded Hocque to write word to take off the poisoned drug which\nhe had scattered on the ground at Passy--should take away the dose. He\nattacked Beatrice, whom he wanted to strangle; and even excited the\nother felons who were with him in prison and condemned to the galleys,\nto maltreat her, through the pity they felt for the despair of Hocque,\nwho, at the time the dose was taken off the land, had died in a\nmoment, in strange convulsions, and agitating himself like one\npossessed.\n\nM. de St. Andre would again explain all this by supposing Hocque's\nimagination being struck with the idea of his dying, which he was\npersuaded would happen at the time they carried away the poison, had a\ngreat deal to do with his sufferings and death. How many people have\nbeen known to die at the time they had fancied they should, when\nstruck with the idea of their approaching death. The despair and\nagitation of Hocque had disturbed the mass of his blood, altered the\nhumors, deranged the motion of the effluvia, and rendered them much\nsusceptible of the actions of the vapors proceeding from the poisonous\ncomposition.\n\nM. de St. Andre adds that, if the devil had any share in this kind of\nmischievous spell, it could only be in consequence of some compact,\neither expressed or tacit, that as soon as the poison should be taken\nup, he who had put it there should die immediately. Now, what\nlikelihood is there that the person who should make this compact with\nthe devil should have made use of such a stipulation, which would\nexpose him to a cruel and inevitable death?\n\n1. We may reply that fright can cause death; but that it is not\npossible for it to produce it at a given time, nor can he who falls\ninto a paroxysm of grief say that he shall die at such a moment; the\nmoment of death is not in the power of man in similar circumstances.\n\n2. That so corrupt a character as Hocque, a man who, without\nprovocation, and to gratify his ill-will, kills an infinite number of\nanimals, and causes great damage to innocent persons, is capable of\nthe greatest excess, may give himself up to the evil spirit, by\nimplicated or explicit compacts, and engage, on pain of losing his\nlife, never to take off the charge he had thrown upon a village. He\nbelieved he should risk nothing by this stipulation, since he was free\nto take it away or to leave it, and it was not probable that he should\never lightly thus expose himself to certain death. That the demon had\nsome share in this virtue of the poisonous composition is very likely,\nwhen we consider the circumstances of its operations, and those of the\ndeath and despair of Hocque. This death is the just penalty of his\ncrimes, and of his confidence in the exterminating angel to whom he\nhad yielded himself.\n\nIt is true that impostors, weak minds, heated imaginations, ignorant\nand superstitious persons have been found who have taken for black\nmagic, and operations of the demon, what was quite natural, and the\neffect of some subtilty of philosophy or mathematics, or even an\nillusion of the senses, or a secret which deceives the eye and the\nsenses. But to conclude from thence that there is no magic at all, and\nthat all that is said about it is pure prejudice, ignorance, and\nsuperstition, is to conclude what is general from what is particular,\nand to deny what is true and certain, because it is not easy to\ndistinguish what is true from what is false, and because men will not\ntake the trouble to examine into causes. It is far easier to deny\neverything than to enter upon a serious examination of facts and\ncircumstances.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[144] M. de St. Andre, Letter VI. on the subject of Magic, &c.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI.\n\nMAGIC OF THE EGYPTIANS AND CHALDEANS.\n\n\nAll pagan antiquity speaks of magic and magicians, of magical\noperations, and of superstitious, curious, and diabolical books.\nHistorians, poets, and orators are full of things which relate to this\nmatter: some believe in it, others deny it; some laugh at it, others\nremain in uncertainty and doubt. Are they bad spirits, or deceitful\nmen, impostors and charlatans, who, by the subtilties of their art,\nmake the ignorant believe that certain natural effects are produced by\nsupernatural causes? That is the point on which men differ. But in\ngeneral the name of magic and magician is now taken in these days in\nan odious sense, for an art which produces marvelous effects, that\nappear above the common course of nature, and that by the operation of\nthe bad spirit.\n\nThe author of the celebrated book of Enoch, which had so great a\nvogue, and has been cited by some ancient writers[145] as inspired\nScripture, says that the eleventh of the watchers, or of those angels\nwho were in love with women, was called Pharmacius, or Pharmachus;\nthat he taught men, before the flood, enchantments, spells, magic\narts, and remedies against enchantments. St. Clement, of Alexandria,\nin his recognitions, says that Ham, the son of Noah, received that art\nfrom heaven, and taught it to Misraim, his son, the father of the\nEgyptians.\n\nIn the Scripture, the name of _Mage_ or _Magus_ is never used in a\ngood sense as signifying philosophers who studied astronomy, and were\nversed in divine and supernatural things, except in speaking of the\nMagi who came to adore Jesus Christ at Bethlehem.[146] Everywhere else\nthe Scriptures condemn and abhor magic and magicians.[147] They\nseverely forbid the Hebrews to consult such persons and things. They\nspeak with abhorrence of _Simon and of Elymas_, well-known magicians,\nin the Acts of the Apostles;[148] and of the magicians of Pharaoh, who\ncounterfeited by their illusions the true miracles of Moses. It seems\nlikely that the Israelites had taken the habit in Egypt, where they\nthen were, of consulting such persons, since Moses forbids them in so\nmany different places, and so severely, either to listen to them or to\nplace confidence in their predictions.\n\nThe Chevalier Marsham shows very clearly that the school for magic\namong the Egyptians is the most ancient ever known in the world; that\nfrom thence it spread amongst the Chaldeans, the Babylonians, the\nGreeks and Persians. St. Paul informs us that Jannes and Jambres,\nfamous magicians of the time of Pharaoh, resisted Moses. Pliny\nremarks, that anciently, there was no science more renowned, or more\nin honor, than that of magic: _Summam litterarum claritatem gloriamque\nex ea scientia antiquitus et pene semper petitam._\n\nPorphyry[149] says that King Darius, son of Hystaspes, had so high an\nidea of the art of magic that he caused to be engraved on the\nmausoleum of his father Hystaspes, \"_That he had been the chief and\nthe master of the Magi of Persia_.\"\n\nThe embassy that Balak, King of the Moabites, sent to Balaam the son\nof Beor, who dwelt in the mountains of the East, towards Persia and\nChaldea,[150] to entreat him to come and curse and devote to death the\nIsraelites who threatened to invade his country, shows the antiquity\nof magic, and of the magical superstitions of that country. For will\nit be said that these maledictions and inflictions were the effect of\nthe inspiration of the good Spirit, or the work of good angels? I\nacknowledge that Balaam was inspired by God in the blessings which he\ngave to the people of the Lord, and in the prediction which he made of\nthe coming of the Messiah; but we must acknowledge, also, the extreme\ncorruption of his heart, his avarice, and all that he would have been\ncapable of doing, if God had permitted him to follow his bad\ninclination and the inspiration of the evil spirit.\n\nDiodorus of Sicily,[151] on the tradition of the Egyptians, says that\nthe Chaldeans who dwelt at Babylon and in Babylonia were a kind of\ncolony of the Egyptians, and that it was from these last that the\nsages, or Magi of Babylon, learned the astronomy which gave such\ncelebrity.\n\nWe see, in Ezekiel,[152] the King of Babylon, marching against his\nenemies at the head of his army, stop short where two roads meet, and\nmingle the darts, to know by magic art, and the flight of these\narrows, which road he must take. In the ancients, this manner of\nconsulting the demon by divining wands is known--the Greeks call it\n_Rhabdomanteia_.\n\nThe prophet Daniel speaks more than once of the magicians of Babylon.\nKing Nebuchadnezzar, having been frightened in a dream, sent for the\nMagi, or magicians, diviners, aruspices, and Chaldeans, to interpret\nthe dream he had had.\n\nKing Belshazzar in the same manner convoked the magicians, Chaldeans,\nand aruspices of the country, to explain to him the meaning of these\nwords which he saw written on the wall: _Mene_, _Tekel_, _Perez_. All\nthis indicates the habit of the Babylonians to exercise magic art, and\nconsult magicians, and that this pernicious art was held in high\nrepute among them. We read in the same prophet of the trickery made\nuse of by the priests to deceive the people, and make them believe\nthat their gods lived, ate, drank, spoke, and revealed to them hidden\nthings.\n\nI have already mentioned the Magi who came to adore Jesus Christ;\nthere is no doubt that they came from Chaldea or the neighboring\ncountry, but differing from those of whom we have just spoken, by\ntheir piety, and having studied the true religion.\n\nWe read in books of travels that superstition, magic, and fascinations\nare still very common in the East, both among the fire-worshipers\ndescended from the ancient Chaldeans, and among the Persians,\nsectaries of Mohammed. St. Chrysostom had sent into Persia a holy\nbishop, named Maruthas, to have the care of the Christians who were in\nthat country; the King Isdegerde having discovered him, treated him\nwith much consideration. The Magi, who adore and keep up the perpetual\nfire, which is regarded by the Persians as their principal divinity,\nwere jealous at this, and concealed underground an apostate, who,\nknowing that the king was to come and pay his adoration to the\n(sacred) fire, was to cry out from the depth of his cavern that the\nking must be deprived of his throne because he esteemed the Christian\npriest as a friend of the gods. The king was alarmed at this, and\nwished to send Maruthas away; but the latter discovered to him the\nimposture of the priests; he caused the ground to be turned up where\nthe man's voice had been heard, and there they found him from whom it\nproceeded.\n\nThis example, and those of the Babylonish priests spoken of by Daniel,\nand that of some others, who, to satisfy their irregular passions,\npretended that their God required the company of certain women, proved\nthat what is usually taken for the effect of the black art is only\nproduced by the knavishness of priests, magicians, diviners, and all\nkinds of persons who impose on the simplicity and credulity of the\npeople; I do not deny that the devil sometimes takes part in it, but\nmore rarely than is imagined.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[145] Apud Syncell.\n\n[146] Matt. iii. 1, 7, 36.\n\n[147] Lev. xix. 31; xx.\n\n[148] Acts viii. 9; xiii. 8.\n\n[149] Porph. de Abstinent. lib. iv. Sec. 16. Vid. et Ammian. Marcell.\nlib. xxiii.\n\n[150] Numb. xxiii. 1-3.\n\n[151] Diodor. Sicul. lib. i. p. 5.\n\n[152] Ezek. xxi. 21.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII.\n\nMAGIC AMONG THE GREEKS AND ROMANS.\n\n\nThe Greeks have always boasted that they received the art of magic\nfrom the Persians, or the Bactrians. They affirm that Zoroaster\ncommunicated it to them; but when we wish to know the exact time at\nwhich Zoroaster lived, and when he taught them these pernicious\nsecrets, they wander widely from the truth, and even from probability;\nsome placing Zoroaster 600 years before the expedition of Xerxes into\nGreece, which happened in the year of the world 3523, and before Jesus\nChrist 477; others 500 years before the Trojan war; others 5000 years\nbefore that famous war; others 6000 years before that great event.\nSome believe that Zoroaster is the same as Ham, the son of Noah.\nLastly, others maintain that there were several Zoroasters. What\nappears indubitably true is, that the worship of a plurality of gods,\nas also magic, superstition, and oracles, came from the Egyptians and\nChaldeans, or Persians, to the Greeks, and from the Greeks to the\nLatins.\n\nFrom the time of Homer,[153] magic was quite common among the Greeks.\nThat poet speaks of the cure of wounds, and of blood staunched by the\nsecrets of magic, and by enchantment. St. Paul, when at Ephesus,\ncaused to be burned there books of magic and curious secrets, the\nvalue of which amounted to the sum of 50,000 pieces of silver.[154] We\nhave before said a few words concerning Simon the magician, and the\nmagician Elymas, known in the Acts of the Apostles.[155] Pindar\nsays[156] that the centaur Chiron cured several enchantments. When\nthey say that Orpheus rescued from hell his wife Eurydice, who had\ndied from the bite of a serpent, they simply mean that he cured her by\nthe power of charms.[157] The poets have employed magic verses to make\nthemselves beloved, and they have taught them to others for the same\npurpose; they may be seen in Theocritus, Catullus, and Virgil.\nTheophrastus affirms that there are magical verses which cure\nsciatica. Cato mentions (or repeats) some against luxations.[158]\nVarro admits that there are some powerful against the gout.\n\nThe sacred books testify that enchanters have the secret of putting\nserpents to sleep, and of charming them, so that they can never either\nbite again or cause any more harm.[159] The crocodile, that terrible\nanimal, fears even the smell and voice of the Tentyriens.[160] Job,\nspeaking of the leviathan, which we believe to be the crocodile, says,\n\"Shall the enchanter destroy it?\"[161] And in Ecclesiasticus, \"Who\nwill pity the enchanter that has been bitten by the serpent?\"[162]\n\nEverybody knows what is related of the Marsi, people of Italy, and of\nthe Psyllae, who possessed the secret of charming serpents. One would\nsay, says St. Augustine,[163] that these animals understand the\nlanguages of the Marsi, so obedient are they to their orders; we see\nthem come out of their caverns as soon as the Marsian has spoken. All\nthis can only be done, says the same father, by the power of the\nmalignant spirit, whom God permits to exercise this empire over\nvenomous reptiles, above all, the serpent, as if to punish him for\nwhat he did to the first woman. In fact, it may be remarked that no\nanimal is more exposed to charms, and the effects of magic art, than\nthe serpent.\n\nThe laws of the Twelve Tables forbid the charming of a neighbor's\ncrops, _qui fruges excantasset_. Valerius Flaccus quotes authors who\naffirm that when the Romans were about to besiege a town, they\nemployed their priests to evoke the divinity who presided over it,\npromising him a temple in Rome, either like the one dedicated to him\nin the besieged place, or on a rather larger scale, and that the\nproper worship should be paid to him. Pliny says that the memory of\nthese evocations is preserved among the priests.\n\nIf that which we have just related, and what we read in ancient and\nmodern writers, is at all real, and produces the effects attributed to\nit, it cannot be doubted that there is something supernatural in it,\nand that the devil has a great share in the matter.\n\nThe Abbot Trithemius speaks of a sorceress who, by means of certain\nbeverages, changed a young Burgundian into a beast.\n\nEverybody knows the fable of Circe, who changed the soldiers or\ncompanions of Ulysses into swine. We know also the fable of the Golden\nAss, by Apuleius, which contains the account of a man metamorphosed\ninto an ass. I bring forward these things merely as what they are,\nthat is to say, simply poetic fictions.\n\nBut it is very credible that these fictions are not destitute of some\nfoundation, like many other fables, which contain not only a hidden\nand moral sense, but which have also some relation to an event really\nhistorical: for instance, what is said of the Golden Fleece carried\naway by Jason; of the Wooden Horse, made use of to surprise the city\nof Troy; the Twelve Labors of Hercules; the metamorphoses related by\nOvid. All fabulous as those things appear in the poets, they have,\nnevertheless, their historical truth. And thus the pagan poets and\nhistorians have travestied and disguised the stories of the Old\nTestament, and have attributed to Bacchus, Jupiter, Saturn, Apollo,\nand Hercules, what is related of Noah, Moses, Aaron, Samson, and\nJonah, &c.\n\nOrigen, writing against Celsus, supposes the reality of magic, and\nsays that the Magi who came to adore Jesus Christ at Bethlehem,\nwishing to perform their accustomed operations, not being able to\nsucceed, a superior power preventing the effect and imposing silence\non the demon, they sought out the cause, and beheld at the same time a\ndivine sign in the heavens, whence they concluded that it was the\nBeing spoken of by Balaam, and that the new King whose birth he had\npredicted, was born in Judea, and immediately they resolved to go and\nseek him. Origen believes that magicians, according to the rules of\ntheir art, often foretell the future, and that their predictions are\nfollowed by the event, unless the power of God, or that of the angels,\nprevents the effect of their conjurations, and puts them to\nsilence.[164]\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[153] Homer, Iliad, IV.\n\n[154] Acts xix. 19.\n\n[155] Acts viii. 9; xiii. 8.\n\n[156] Pind. Od. iv.\n\n[157] Plin. I. 28.\n\n[158] Cato de Rerustic. c. 160.\n\n[159] Psalm lvii. Jer. vii. 17. Eccles. x. 11.\n\n[160] Plin. lib. viii. c. 50.\n\n[161] Job xl. 25.\n\n[162] Ecclus. xii. 13.\n\n \"Frigidus in pratis cantando rumpitur anguis.\"--_Virgil_, Ecl. viii.\n\n \"Vipereas rumpo verbis et carmine fauces.\"--_Ovid._\n\n[163] Plin. lib. xxviii.\n\n[164] The fables of Jason and many others of the same class are said\nby Fortuitus Comes to have a reference to alchemy.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII.\n\nEXAMPLES WHICH PROVE THE REALITY OF MAGIC.\n\n\nSt. Augustine[165] remarks that not only the poets, but the historians\neven, relate that Diomede, of whom the Greeks have made a divinity,\nhad not the happiness to return to his country with the other princes\nwho had been at the siege of Troy; that his companions were changed\ninto birds, and that these birds have their dwelling in the environs\nof the Temple of Diomede, which is situated near Mount Garganos; that\nthese birds caress the Greeks who come to visit this temple, but fly\nat and peck the strangers who arrive there.\n\nVarro, the most learned of Romans, to render this more credible,\nrelates what everybody knows about Circe, who changed the companions\nof Ulysses into beasts; and what is said of the Arcadians, who, after\nhaving drawn lots, swam over a certain lake, after which they were\nmetamorphosed into wolves, and ran about in the forests like other\nwolves. If during the time of their transmutation they did not eat\nhuman flesh, at the end of nine years they repassed the same lake, and\nresumed their former shape.\n\nThe same Varro relates of a certain Demenotas that, having tasted the\nflesh of a child which the Arcadians had immolated to their god Lycaea,\nhe had also been changed into a wolf, and ten years after he had\nresumed his natural form, had appeared at the Olympic games, and won\nthe prize for pugilism.\n\nSt. Augustine testifies that in his time many believed that these\ntransformations still took place, and some persons even affirmed that\nthey had experienced them in their own persons. He adds that, when in\nItaly, he was told that certain women gave cheese to strangers who\nlodged at their houses, when these strangers were immediately changed\ninto beasts of burden, without losing their reason, and carried the\nloads which were placed upon them; after which they returned to their\nformer state. He says, moreover, that a certain man, named\nPraestantius, related that his father, having eaten of this magic\ncheese, remained lying in bed, without any one being able to awaken\nhim for several days, when he awoke, and said that he had been changed\ninto a horse, and had carried victuals to the army; and the thing was\nfound to be true, although it appeared to him to be only a dream.\n\nSt. Augustine, reasoning on all this, says that either these things\nare false, or else so extraordinary that we cannot give faith to them.\nIt is not to be doubted that God, by his almighty power, can do\nanything that he thinks proper, but that the devil, who is of a\nspiritual nature, can do nothing without the permission of God, whose\ndecrees are always just; that the demon can neither change the nature\nof the spirit, or the body of a man, to transform him into a beast;\nbut that he can only act upon the fancy or imagination of a man, and\npersuade him that he is what he is not, or that he appears to others\ndifferent from what he is; or that he remains in a deep sleep, and\nbelieves during that slumber that he is bearing loads which the devil\ncarries for him; or that he (the devil) fascinates the eyes of those\nwho believe they see them borne by animals, or by men metamorphosed\ninto animals.\n\nIf we consider it only a change arising from fancy or imagination, as\nit happens in the disorder called lycanthropy, in which a man believes\nhimself changed into a wolf, or into any other animal, as\nNebuchadnezzar, who believed himself changed into an ox, and acted for\nseven years as if he had really been metamorphosed into that animal,\nthere would be nothing in that more marvelous than what we see in\nhypochondriacs, who persuade themselves that they are kings, generals,\npopes, and cardinals; that they are snow, glass, pottery, &c. Like him\nwho, being alone at the theatre, believed that he beheld there actors\nand admirable representations; or the man who imagined that all the\nvessels which arrived at the port of Pireus, near Athens, belonged to\nhim; or, in short, what we see every day in dreams, and which appear\nto us very real during our sleep. In all this, it is needless to have\nrecourse to the devil, or to magic, fascination, or illusion; there\nis nothing above the natural order of things. But that, by means of\ncertain beverages, certain herbs, and certain kinds of food, a person\nmay disturb the imagination, and persuade another that he is a wolf, a\nhorse, or an ass, appears more difficult of explanation, although we\nare aware that plants, herbs, and medicaments possess great power over\nthe bodies of men, and are capable of deranging the brain,\nconstitution, and imagination. We have but too many examples of such\nthings.\n\nAnother circumstance which, if true, deserves much reflection, is that\nof Apollonius of Tyana, who, being at Ephesus during a great plague\nwhich desolated the city, promised the Ephesians to cause the pest to\ncease the very day on which he was speaking to them, and which was\nthat of his second arrival in their town. He assembled them at the\ntheatre, and ordered them to stone to death a poor old man, covered\nwith rags, who asked alms. \"Strike,\" cried he, \"that enemy of the\ngods! heap stones upon him.\" They could not make up their minds to do\nso, for he excited their pity, and asked mercy in the most touching\nmanner. But Apollonius pressed it so much, that at last they slew him,\nand amassed over him an immense heap of stones. A little while after\nhe told them to take away these stones, and they would see what sort\nof an animal they had killed. They found only a great dog, and were\nconvinced that this old man was only a phantom who had fascinated\ntheir eyes, and caused the pestilence in their town.\n\nWe here see five remarkable things:--1st. The demon who causes the\nplague in Ephesus; 2d. This same demon, who, instead of a dog, causes\nthe appearance of a man; 3d. The fascination of the senses of the\nEphesians, who believe that they behold a man instead of a dog; 4th.\nThe proof of the magic of Apollonius, who discovers the cause of this\npestilence; 5th. And who makes it cease at the given time.\n\nAEneas Sylvius Picolomini, who was afterwards Pope by the name of Pius\nII., writes, in his History of Bohemia, that a woman predicted to a\nsoldier of King Wratislaus, that the army of that prince would be cut\nin pieces by the Duke of Bohemia, and that, if this soldier wished to\navoid death, he must kill the first person he should meet on the road,\ncut off their ears, and put them in his pocket; that with the sword he\nhad used to pierce them he must trace on the ground a cross between\nhis horse's legs; that he must kiss it, and then take flight. All this\nthe young soldier performed. Wratislaus gave battle, lost it, and was\nkilled. The young soldier escaped; but on entering his house, he found\nthat it was his wife whom he had killed and run his sword through, and\nwhose ears he had cut off.\n\nThis woman was, then, strangely disguised and metamorphosed, since\nher husband could not recognize her, and she did not make herself\nknown to him in such perilous circumstances, when her life was in\ndanger. These two were, then, apparently magicians; both she who made\nthe prediction, and the other on whom it was exercised. God permits,\non this occasion, three great evils. The first magician counsels the\nmurder of an innocent person; the young man commits it on his own wife\nwithout knowing her; and the latter dies in a state of condemnation,\nsince by the secrets of magic she had rendered it impossible to\nrecognize her.\n\nA butcher's wife of the town of Jena, in the duchy of Wiemar in\nThuringia,[166] having refused to let an old woman have a calf's head\nfor which she offered very little, the old woman went away grumbling\nand muttering. A little time after this the butcher's wife felt\nviolent pains in her head. As the cause of this malady was unknown to\nthe cleverest physicians, they could find no remedy for it; from time\nto time a substance like brains came from this woman's left ear, and\nat first it was supposed to be her own brain. But as she suspected\nthat old woman of having cast a spell upon her on account of the\ncalf's head, they examined the thing more minutely, and they saw that\nthese were calf's brains; and what strengthened this opinion was that\nsplinters of calf's-head bones came out with the brains. This disorder\ncontinued some time; at last the butcher's wife was perfectly cured.\nThis happened in 1685. M. Hoffman, who relates this story in his\ndissertation _on the Power of the Demon over Bodies_, printed in 1736,\nsays that the woman was perhaps still alive.\n\nOne day they brought to St. Macarius the Egyptian, a virtuous woman\nwho had been transformed into a mare by the pernicious arts of a\nmagician. Her husband, and all those who saw her, thought that she\nreally was changed into a mare. This woman remained three days and\nthree nights without tasting any food, proper either for man or horse.\nThey showed her to the priests of the place, who could apply no\nremedy.\n\nThen they led her to the cell of St. Macarius, to whom God had\nrevealed that she was to come; his disciples wanted to send her back,\nthinking that it was a mare. They informed the saint of her arrival,\nand the subject of her journey. \"He said to them, You are downright\nanimals yourselves, thinking you see what is not; that woman is not\nchanged, but your eyes are fascinated. At the same time he sprinkled\nholy water on the woman's head, and all present beheld her in her\nformer state. He gave her something to eat, and sent her away safe and\nsound with her husband. As he sent her away the saint said to her, Do\nnot keep from church, for this has happened to you for having been\nfive weeks without taking the sacrament of our Lord, or attending\ndivine service.\"\n\nSt. Hilarion, much in the same manner, cured by virtue of holy water a\nyoung girl, whom a magician had rendered most violently amorous of a\nyoung man. The demon who possessed her cried aloud to St. Hilarion,\n\"You make me endure the most cruel torments, for I cannot come out\ntill the young man who caused me to enter shall unloose me, for I am\nenchained under the threshold of the door by a band of copper covered\nwith magical characters, and by the tow which envelops it.\" Then St.\nHilarion said to him, \"Truly your power is very great, to suffer\nyourself to be bound by a bit of copper and a little thread;\" at the\nsame time, without permitting these things to be taken from under the\nthreshold of the door, he chased away the demon and cured the girl.\n\nIn the same place, St. Jerome relates that one Italicus, a citizen of\nGaza and a Christian, who brought up horses for the games in the\ncircus, had a pagan antagonist who hindered and held back the horses\nof Italicus in their course, and gave most extraordinary celerity to\nhis own. Italicus came to St. Hilarion, and told him the subject he\nhad for uneasiness. The saint laughed and said to him, \"Would it not\nbe better to give the value of your horses to the poor rather than\nemploy them in such exercises?\" \"I cannot do as I please,\" said\nItalicus; \"it is a public employment which I fill, because I cannot\nhelp it, and as a Christian I cannot employ malpractices against those\nused against me.\" The brothers, who were present, interceded for him;\nand St. Hilarion gave him the earthen vessel out of which he drank,\nfilled it with water, and told him to sprinkle his horses with it.\nItalicus not only sprinkled his horses with this water, but likewise\nhis stable and chariot all over; and the next day the horses and\nchariot of this rival were left far behind his own; which caused the\npeople to shout in the theatre, \"Marnas is vanished--Jesus Christ is\nvictorious!\" And this victory of Italicus produced the conversion of\nseveral persons at Gaza.\n\nWill it be said that this is only the effect of imagination,\nprepossession, or the trickery of a clever charlatan? How can you\npersuade fifty people that a woman who is present before their eyes\ncan be changed into a mare, supposing that she has retained her own\nnatural shape? How was it that the soldier mentioned by AEneas Sylvius\ndid not recognize his wife, whom he pierced with his sword, and whose\nears he cut off? How did Apollonius of Tyana persuade the Ephesians to\nkill a man, who really was only a dog? How did he know that this dog,\nor this man, was the cause of the pestilence which afflicted Ephesus?\nIt is then very credible that the evil spirit often acts on bodies, on\nthe air, the earth, and on animals, and produces effects which appear\nabove the power of man.\n\nIt is said that in Lapland they have a school for magic, and that\nfathers send their children to it, being persuaded that magic is\nnecessary to them, that they may avoid falling into the snares of\ntheir enemies, who are themselves great magicians. They make the\nfamiliar demons, whose services they command, pass as an inheritance\nto their children, that they may make use of them to overcome the\ndemons of other families who are adverse to their own. They often make\nuse of a certain kind of drum for their magical operations; for\ninstance, if they wish to know what is passing in a foreign country,\none amongst them beats this drum, placing upon it at the part where\nthe image of the sun is represented, a quantity of pewter rings\nattached together with a chain of the same metal; then they strike the\ndrum with a forked hammer made of bone, so that these rings move; at\nthe same time they sing distinctly a song, called by the Laplanders\n_Jonk_; and all those of their nation who are present, men and women,\nadd their own songs, expressing from time to time the name of the\nplace whence they desire to have news.\n\nThe Laplander having beaten the drum for some time, places it on his\nhead in a certain manner, and falls down directly motionless on the\nground, and without any sign of life. All the men and all the women\ncontinue singing, till he revives; if they cease to sing, the man\ndies, which happens also if any one tries to awaken him by touching\nhis hand or his foot. They even keep the flies from him, which by\ntheir humming might awaken him and bring him back to life.\n\nWhen he is recovered he replies to the questions they ask him\nconcerning the place he has been at. Sometimes he does not awake for\nfour-and-twenty hours, sometimes more, sometimes less, according to\nthe distance he has gone; and in confirmation of what he says, and of\nthe distance he has been, he brings back from the place he has been\nsent to the token demanded of him, a knife, a ring, shoes, or some\nother object.[167]\n\nThese same Laplanders make use also of this drum to learn the cause of\nany malady, or to deprive their enemies of their life or their\nstrength. Moreover, amongst them are certain magicians, who keep in a\nkind of leathern game-bag magic flies, which they let loose from time\nto time against their enemies or against their cattle, or simply to\nraise tempests and hurricanes. They have also a sort of dart which\nthey hurl into the air, and which causes the death of any one it falls\nupon. They have also a sort of little ball called _tyre_, almost\nround, which they send in the same way against their enemies to\ndestroy them; and if by ill luck this ball should hit on its way some\nother person, or some animal, it will inevitably cause its death.\n\nWho can be persuaded that the Laplanders who sell fair winds, raise\nstorms, relate what passes in distant places, where they go, as they\nsay, in the spirit, and bring back things which they have found\nthere--who can persuade themselves that all this is done without the\naid of magic? It has been said that in the circumstance of Apollonius\nof Tyana, they contrived to send away the man all squalid and\ndeformed, and put in his place a dog which was stoned, or else they\nsubstituted a dead dog. All which would require a vast deal of\npreparation, and would be very difficult to execute in sight of all\nthe people: it would, perhaps, be better to deny the fact altogether,\nwhich certainly does appear very fabulous, than to have recourse to\nsuch explanations.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[165] Aug. de Civit. Dei, lib. xviii. c. 16-18.\n\n[166] Frederici Hoffman, de Diaboli Potentia in Corpora, p. 382.\n\n[167] See John Schesser, _Laponia_, printed at Frankfort in 4to. an.\n1673, chap. xi. entitled, _De sacris Magicis et Magia Laponia_, p.\n119, and following.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV.\n\nEFFECTS OF MAGIC ACCORDING TO THE POETS.\n\n\nWere we to believe what is said by the poets concerning the effects of\nmagic, and what the magicians boast of being able to perform by their\nspells, nothing would be more marvelous than their art, and we should\nbe obliged to acknowledge that the power of the demon was greatly\nshown thereby. Pliny[168] relates that Appian evoked the spirit of\nHomer, to learn from him which was his country, and who were his\nparents. Philostratus says[169] that Apollonius of Tyana went to the\ntomb of Achilles, evoked his manes, and implored them to cause the\nfigure of that hero to appear to him; the tomb trembled, and\nafterwards he beheld a young man, who at first appeared about five\ncubits, or seven feet and a half high--after which, the phantom\ndilated to twelve cubits, and appeared of a singular beauty.\nApollonius asked him some frivolous questions, and as the young man\njested indecently with him, he comprehended that he was possessed by a\ndemon; this demon he expelled, and cured the young man. But all this\nis fabulous.\n\nLactantius,[170] refuting the philosophers Democritus, Epicurus, and\nDicearchus, who denied the immortality of the soul, says they would\nnot dare to maintain their opinion before a magician, who, by the\npower of his art, and by his spells, possessed the secret of bringing\nsouls from Hades, of making them appear, speak, and foretell the\nfuture, and give certain signs of their presence.\n\nSt. Augustine,[171] always circumspect in his decisions, dare not\npronounce whether magicians possess the power of evoking the spirits\nof saints by the might of their enchantments. But Tertullian[172] is\nbolder, and maintains that no magical art has power to bring the souls\nof the saints from their rest; but that all the necromancers can do is\nto call forth some phantoms with a borrowed shape, which fascinate the\neyes, and make those who are present believe that to be a reality\nwhich is only appearance. In the same place he quotes Heraclius, who\nsays that the Nasamones, people of Africa, pass the night by the tombs\nof their near relations to receive oracles from the latter; and that\nthe Celts, or Gauls, do the same thing in the mausoleums of great men,\nas related by Nicander.\n\nLucan says[173] that the magicians, by their spells, cause thunder in\nthe skies unknown to Jupiter; that they tear the moon from her sphere,\nand precipitate her to earth; that they disturb the course of nature,\nprolong the nights, and shorten the days; that the universe is\nobedient to their voice, and that the world is chilled as it were when\nthey speak and command.[174] They were so well persuaded that the\nmagicians possessed power to make the moon come down from the sky, and\nthey so truly believed that she was evoked by magic art whenever she\nwas eclipsed, that they made a great noise by striking on copper\nvessels, to prevent the voice which pronounced enchantments from\nreaching her.[175]\n\nThese popular opinions and poetical fictions deserve no credit, but\nthey show the force of prejudice.[176] It is affirmed that, even at\nthis day, the Persians think they are assisting the moon when eclipsed\nby striking violently on brazen vessels, and making a great uproar.\n\nOvid[177] attributes to the enchantments of magic the evocation of the\ninfernal powers, and their dismissal back to hell; storms, tempests,\nand the return of fine weather. They attributed to it the power of\nchanging men into beasts by means of certain herbs, the virtues of\nwhich are known to them.[178]\n\nVirgil[179] speaks of serpents put to sleep and enchanted by the\nmagicians. And Tibullus says that he has seen the enchantress bring\ndown the stars from heaven, and turn aside the thunderbolt ready to\nfall upon the earth--and that she has opened the ground and made the\ndead come forth from their tombs.\n\nAs this matter allows of poetical ornaments, the poets have vied with\neach other in endeavoring to adorn their pages with them, not that\nthey were convinced there was any truth in what they said; they were\nthe first to laugh at it when an opportunity presented itself, as well\nas the gravest and wisest men of antiquity. But neither princes nor\npriests took much pains to undeceive the people, or to destroy their\nprejudices on those subjects. The Pagan religion allowed them, nay,\nauthorized them, and part of its practices were founded on similar\nsuperstitions.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[168] Plin. lib. iii. c. 2.\n\n[169] Philost. Vit. Apollon.\n\n[170] Lactant. lib. vi. Divin. Instit. c. 13.\n\n[171] Aug. ad Simplic.\n\n[172] Tertull. de Anima, c. 57.\n\n[173] Lucan. Pharsal. lib. vi. 450, _et seq._\n\n[174]\n \"Cessavere vices rerum, dilataque longa,\n Haesit nocte dies; legi non paruit aether;\n Torpuit et praeceps audito carmine mundus;\n Et tonat ignaro coelum Jove.\"\n\n[175]\n \"Cantat et e curro tentat deducere Lunam\n Et faceret, si non aera repulsa sonent.\"\n _Tibull._ lib. i. Eleg. ix. 21.\n\n[176] Pietro della Valle, Voyage.\n\n[177]\n \".... Obscurum verborum ambage nervorum\n Ter novies carmen magico demurmurat ore.\n Jam ciet infernas magico stridore catervas,\n Jam jubet aspersum lacte referre pedem.\n Cum libet, haec tristi depellit nubila coelo;\n Cum libet, aestivo provocat orbe nives.\"\n _Ovid. Metamorph._ 14.\n\n[178]\n \"Nais nam ut cantu, nimiumque potentibus herbis\n Verterit in tacitos juvenilia corpora pisces.\"\n\n[179]\n \"Vipereo generi et graviter spirantibus hydris\n Spargere qui somnos cantuque manque solebat,\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XV.\n\nOF THE PAGAN ORACLES.\n\n\nIf it were well proved that the oracles of pagan antiquity were the\nwork of the evil spirit, we could give more real and palpable proofs\nof the apparition of the demon among men than these boasted oracles,\nwhich were given in almost every country in the world, among the\nnations which passed for the wisest and most enlightened, as the\nEgyptians, Chaldeans, Persians, Syrians, even the Hebrews, Greeks, and\nRomans. Even the most barbarous people were not without their oracles.\n\nIn the pagan religion there was nothing esteemed more honorable, or\nmore complacently boasted of.\n\nIn all their great undertakings they had recourse to the oracle; by\nthat was decided the most important affairs between town and town, or\nprovince and province. The manner in which the oracles were rendered\nwas not everywhere the same. It is said[180] the bull Apis, whose\nworship was anciently established in Egypt, gave out his oracles on\nhis receiving food from the hand of him who consulted. If he received\nit, say they, it was considered a good omen; if he refused it, this\nwas a bad augury. When this animal appeared in public, he was\naccompanied by a troop of children, who sang hymns in his honor; after\nwhich these boys were filled with sacred enthusiasm, and began to\npredict future events. If the bull went quietly into his lodge, it was\na happy sign;[181] if he came out, it was the contrary. Such was the\nblindness of the Egyptians.\n\nThere were other oracles also in Egypt:[182] as those of Mercury,\nApollo, Hercules, Diana, Minerva, Jupiter Ammon, &c., which last was\nconsulted by Alexander the Great. But Herodotus remarks that in his\ntime there were neither priests nor priestesses who uttered oracles.\nThey were derived from certain presages, which they drew by chance, or\nfrom the movements of the statues of the gods, or from the first voice\nwhich they heard after having consulted. Pausanias says[183] that he\nwho consults whispers in the ear of Mercury what he requires to know,\nthen he stops his ears, goes out of the temple, and the first words\nwhich he hears from the first person he meets are held as the answer\nof the god.\n\nThe Greeks acknowledge that they received from the Egyptians both the\nnames of their gods and their most ancient oracles; amongst others\nthat of Dodona, which was already much resorted to in the time of\nHomer,[184] and which came from the oracle of Jupiter of Thebes: for\nthe Egyptian priests related that two priestesses of that god had been\ncarried off by Phoenician merchants, who had sold them, one into\nLibya and the other into Greece.[185] Those of Dodona related that two\nblack doves had flown from Thebes of Egypt--that the one which had\nstopped at Dodona had perched upon a beech-tree, and had declared in an\narticulate voice that the gods willed that an oracle of Jupiter should\nbe established in this place; and that the other, having flown into\nLybia, had there formed or founded the oracle of Jupiter Ammon. These\norigins are certainly very frivolous and very fabulous. The Oracle of\nDelphi is more recent and more celebrated. Phemonoe was the first\npriestess of Delphi, and began in the time of Acrisius, twenty-seven\nyears before Orpheus, Musaeus, and Linus. She is said to have been the\ninventress of hexameters.\n\nBut I think I can remark vestiges of oracles in Egypt, from the time\nof the patriarch Joseph, and from the time of Moses. The Hebrews had\ndwelt for 215 years in Egypt, and having multiplied there exceedingly,\nhad begun to form a separate people and a sort of republic. They had\nimbibed a taste for the ceremonies, the superstitions, the customs,\nand the idolatry of the Egyptians.\n\nJoseph was considered the cleverest diviner and the greatest expounder\nof dreams in Egypt. They believed that he derived his oracles from the\ninspection of the liquor which he poured into his cup. Moses, to cure\nthe Hebrews of their leaning to the idolatry and superstitions of\nEgypt, prescribed to them laws and ceremonies which favored his\ndesign; the first, diametrically opposite to those of the Egyptians;\nthe second, bearing some resemblance to theirs in appearance, but\ndiffering both in their aim and circumstances.\n\nFor instance, the Egyptians were accustomed to consult diviners,\nmagicians, interpreters of dreams, and augurs; all which things are\nforbidden to the Hebrews by Moses, on pain of rigorous punishment; but\nin order that they might have no room to complain that their religion\ndid not furnish them with the means of discovering future events and\nhidden things, God, with condescension worthy of reverential\nadmiration, granted them the _Urim and Thummim_, or the Doctrine and\nthe Truth, with which the high-priest was invested according to the\nritual in the principal ceremonies of religion, and by means of which\nhe rendered oracles, and discovered the will of the Most High. When\nthe ark of the covenant and the tabernacle were constructed, the Lord,\nconsulted by Moses,[186] gave out his replies from between the two\ncherubim which were placed upon the mercy-seat above the ark. All\nwhich seems to insinuate that, from the time of the patriarch Joseph,\nthere had been oracles and diviners in Egypt, and that the Hebrews\nconsulted them.\n\nGod promised his people to raise up a prophet[187] among them, who\nshould declare to them his will: in fact, we see in almost all ages\namong them, prophets inspired by God; and the true prophets reproached\nthem vehemently for their impiety, when instead of coming to the\nprophets of the Lord, they went to consult strange oracles,[188] and\ndivinities equally powerless and unreal.\n\nWe have spoken before of the teraphim of Laban, of the idols or\npretended oracles of Micah and Gideon. King Saul, who, apparently by\nthe advice of Samuel, had exterminated diviners and magicians from the\nland of Israel, desired in the last war to consult the Lord, who would\nnot reply to him. He then afterwards addressed himself to a witch, who\npromised him she would evoke Samuel for him. She did, or feigned to do\nso, for the thing offers many difficulties, into which we shall not\nenter here.\n\nThe same Saul having consulted the Lord on another occasion, to know\nwhether he must pursue the Philistines whom he had just defeated, God\nrefused also to reply to him,[189] because his son Jonathan had tasted\nsome honey, not knowing that the king had forbidden his army to taste\nanything whatever before his enemies were entirely overthrown.\n\nThe silence of the Lord on certain occasions, and his refusal to\nanswer sometimes when He was consulted, are an evident proof that He\nusually replied, and that they were certain of receiving instructions\nfrom Him, unless they raised an obstacle to it by some action which\nwas displeasing to Him.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[180] Plin. lib. viii. c. 48.\n\n[181] Herodot. lib. ix.\n\n[182] _Vide_ Joan. Marsham, Saec. iv. pp. 62, 63.\n\n[183] Pausan. lib. vii. p. 141.\n\n[184] Homer, Iliad, xii. 2, 235.\n\n[185] Herodot. lib. ii. c. 52, 55.\n\n[186] Exod. xxv. 22.\n\n[187] Deut. xviii. 13.\n\n[188] 2 Kings i. 2, 3, 16, &c.\n\n[189] 1 Sam. xiv. 24.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVI.\n\nTHE CERTAINTY OF THE EVENT PREDICTED IS NOT ALWAYS A PROOF THAT THE\nPREDICTION COMES FROM GOD.\n\n\nMoses had foreseen that so untractable and superstitious a people as\nthe Israelites would not rest satisfied with the reasonable, pious,\nand supernatural means which he had procured them for discovering\nfuture events, by giving them prophets and the oracle of the\nhigh-priest. He knew that there would arise among them false prophets\nand seducers, who would endeavor by their illusions and magical\nsecrets to mislead them into error; whence it was that he said to\nthem:[190] \"If there should arise among you a prophet, or any one who\nboasts of having had a dream, and he foretells a wonder, or anything\nwhich surpasses the ordinary power of man, and what he predicts shall\nhappen; and after that he shall say unto you, Come, let us go and\nserve the strange gods, which you have not known; you shall not\nhearken unto him, because the Lord your God will prove you, to see\nwhether you love Him with all your heart and with all your\nsoul.\"\n\nCertainly, nothing is more likely to mislead us than to see what has\nbeen foretold by any one come to pass.\n\n\"Show the things that are to come,\" says Isaiah,[191] \"that we may\nknow that ye are gods. Let them come, let them foretell what is to\nhappen, and what has been done of old, and we will believe in them,\"\n&c. _Idoneum testimonium divinationis_, says Turtullian,[192] _veritas\ndivinationis_. And St. Jerome,[193] _Confitentur magi, confitentur\narioli, et omnis scientia saecularis litteraturae, praeescientiam\nfuturorum non esse hominum, sed Dei_.\n\nNevertheless, we have just seen that Moses acknowledges that false\nprophets can predict things which will happen. And the Saviour warns\nus in the Gospel that at the end of the world several false prophets\nwill arise, who will seduce many[194]--\"They shall shew great signs\nand wonders, insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive\neven the elect.\" It is not, then, precisely either the successful\nissue of the event which decides in favor of the false prophet--nor\nthe default of the predictions made by true prophets which proves that\nthey are not sent by God.\n\nJonah was sent to foretell the destruction of Nineveh,[195] which did\nnot come to pass; and many other threats of the prophets were not put\ninto execution, because God, moved by the repentance of the sinful,\nrevoked or commuted his former sentence. The repentance of the\nNinevites guarantied them against the last misfortune.\n\nIsaiah had distinctly foretold to King Hezekiah[196] that he would not\nrecover from his illness: \"Set thine house in order, for thou shalt\ndie, and not live.\" Nevertheless, God, moved with the prayer of this\nprince, revoked the sentence of death; and before the prophet had left\nthe court of the king's house, God commanded him to return and tell\nthe king that God would add yet fifteen years to his life.\n\nMoses assigns the mark of a true prophet to be, when he leads us to\nGod and his worship--and the mark of a false prophet is, when he\nwithdraws us from the Lord, and inclines us to superstition and\nidolatry. Balaam was a true prophet, inspired by God, who foretold\nthings which were followed up by the event; but his morals were very\ncorrupt, and he was extremely self-interested. He did everything he\ncould to deserve the recompense promised him by the king of Moab, and\nto curse and immolate Israel.[197] God did not permit him to do so; he\nput into his mouth blessings instead of curses; he did not induce the\nIsraelites to forsake the Lord; but he advised the Moabites to seduce\nthe people of God, and cause them to commit fornication, and to worship\nthe idols of the country, and by that means to irritate God against\nthem, and draw upon them the effects of his vengeance. Moses caused the\nchiefs among the people, who had consented to this crime, to be hung;\nand caused to perish the Midianites who had led the Hebrews into it.\nAnd lastly, Balaam, who was the first cause of this evil, was also\npunished with death.[198]\n\nIn all the predictions of diviners or oracles, when they are followed\nby fulfilment, we can hardly disavow that the evil spirit intervenes,\nand discovers the future to those who consult him. St. Augustine, in\nhis book _de Divinatione Daemonum_,[199] or of predictions made by the\nevil spirit, when they are fulfilled, supposes that the demons are of\nan aerial nature, and much more subtile than bodies in general;\ninsomuch that they surpass beyond comparison the lightness both of men\nand the swiftest animals, and even the flight of birds, which enables\nthem to announce things that are passing in very distant places, and\nbeyond the common reach of men. Moreover, as they are not subject to\ndeath as we are, they have acquired infinitely more experience than\neven those who possess the most among mankind, and are the most\nattentive to what happens in the world. By that means they can\nsometimes predict things to come, announce several things at a\ndistance, and do some wonderful things; which has often led mortals to\npay them divine honors, believing them to be of a nature much more\nexcellent than their own.\n\nBut when we reflect seriously on what the demons predict, we may\nremark that often they announce nothing but what they are to do\nthemselves.[200] For God permits them, sometimes, to cause maladies,\ncorrupt the air, and produce in it qualities of an infectious nature,\nand to incline the wicked to persecute the worthy. They perform these\noperations in a hidden manner, by resources unknown to mortals, and\nproportionate to the subtilty of their own nature. They can announce\nwhat they have foreseen must happen by certain natural tokens unknown\nto men, like as a physician foresees by the secret of his art the\nsymptoms and the consequences of a malady which no one else can. Thus,\nthe demon, who knows our constitution and the secret tendency of our\nhumors, can foretell the maladies which are the consequences of them.\nHe can also discover our thoughts and our secret wishes by certain\nexternal motions, and by certain expressions we let fall by chance,\nwhence he infers that men would do or undertake certain things\nconsequent upon these thoughts or inclinations.\n\nBut his predictions are far from being comparable with those revealed\nto us by God, through his angels, or the prophets; these are always\ncertain and infallible, because they have for their principle God, who\nis truth; while the predictions of the demons are often deceitful,\nbecause the arrangements on which they are founded can be changed and\nderanged, when they least expect it, by unforeseen and unexpected\ncircumstances, or by the authority of superior powers overthrowing the\nfirst plans, or by a peculiar disposition of Providence, who sets\nbounds to the power of the prince of darkness. Sometimes, also, demons\npurposely deceive those who have the weakness to place confidence in\nthem. But, usually, they throw the fault upon those who have taken on\nthemselves to interpret their discourses and predictions.\n\nSo says St. Augustine;[201] and although we do not quite agree with\nhim, but hold the opinion that souls, angels and demons are disengaged\nfrom all matter or substance, still we can apply his reasoning to evil\nspirits, even upon the supposition that they are immaterial--and own\nthat sometimes they can predict the future, and that their predictions\nmay be fulfilled; but that is not a proof of their being sent by God,\nor inspired by his Spirit. Even were they to work miracles, we must\nanathematize them as soon as they turn us from the worship of the true\nGod, or incline us to irregular lives.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[190] Deut. xiii. 1, 2.\n\n[191] Isaiah xli. 22, 23.\n\n[192] Tertull. Apolog. c. 20.\n\n[193] Hieronym. in Dan.\n\n[194] Matt. xxiv. 11, 24.\n\n[195] Jonah i. 2.\n\n[196] Kings xx. 1. Isai. xxxviii. 1.\n\n[197] Numb. xxii. xxiii. xxiv.\n\n[198] Numb. xxxi. 8.\n\n[199] Aug. de Divinat. Daemon. c. 3, pp. 507, 508, _et seq._\n\n[200] Idem. c. 5.\n\n[201] S. August. in his Retract. lib. ii. c. 30, owns that he advanced\nthis too lightly.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVII.\n\nREASONS WHICH LEAD US TO BELIEVE THAT THE GREATER PART OF THE ANCIENT\nORACLES WERE ONLY IMPOSITIONS OF THE PRIESTS AND PRIESTESSES, WHO\nFEIGNED THAT THEY WERE INSPIRED BY GOD.\n\n\nIf it is true, as has been thought by many, both among the ancients\nand the moderns, that the oracles of pagan antiquity were only\nillusions and deceptions on the part of the priests and priestesses,\nwho said that they were possessed by the spirit of Python, and filled\nwith the inspiration of Apollo, who discovered to them internally\nthings hidden and past, or present and future, I must not place them\nhere in the rank of evil spirits. The devil has no other share in the\nmatter than he has always in the crimes of men, and in that multitude\nof sins which cupidity, ambition, interest, and self-love produce in\nthe world; the demon being always ready to seize an occasion to\nmislead us, and draw us into irregularity and error, employing all\nour passions to lead us into these snares. If what he has foretold is\nfollowed by fulfilment, either by chance, or because he has foreseen\ncertain circumstances unknown to men, he takes to himself all the\ncredit of it, and makes use of it to gain our confidence and\nconciliate credit for his predictions; if the thing is doubtful, and\nhe knows not what the issue of it will be, the demon, the priest, or\npriestess will pronounce an equivocal oracle, in order that at all\nevents they may appear to have spoken true.\n\nThe ancient legislators of Greece, the most skillful politicians, and\ngenerals of armies, dexterously made use of the prepossession of the\npeople in favor of oracles, to persuade them what they had concerted\nwas approved of by the gods, and announced by the oracle. These things\nand these oracles were often followed by success, not because the\noracle had predicted or ordained it, but because the enterprise being\nwell concerted and well conducted, and the soldiers also perfectly\npersuaded that God was on their side, fought with more than ordinary\nvalor. Sometimes they gained over the priestess by the aid of\npresents, and thus disposed her to give favorable replies. Demosthenes\nharanguing at Athens against Philip, King of Macedon, said that the\npriestess of Delphi _Philipized_, and only pronounced oracles\nconformable to the inclinations, advantage, and interest of that\nprince.\n\nPorphyry, the greatest enemy of the Christian name,[202] makes no\ndifficulty of owning that these oracles were dictated by the spirit of\nfalsehood, and that the demons are the true authors of enchantments,\nphiltres, and spells; that they fascinate or deceive the eyes by the\nspectres and phantoms which they cause to appear; that they\nambitiously desire to pass for gods; that their aerial and spiritual\nbodies are nourished by the smell and smoke of the blood and fat of\nthe animals which are immolated to them; and that the office of\nuttering oracles replete with falsehood, equivocation, and deceit has\ndevolved upon them. At the head of these demons he places _Hecate and\nSerapis_. Jamblichus, another pagan author, speaks of them in the same\nmanner, and with as much contempt.\n\nThe ancient fathers who lived so near the times when these oracles\nexisted, several of whom had forsaken paganism and embraced\nChristianity, and who consequently knew more about the oracles than we\ncan, speak of them as things invented, governed, and maintained by the\ndemons. The most sensible among the heathens do not speak of them\notherwise, but also they confess that often the malice, imposition,\nservility and interest of the priests had great share in the matter,\nand that they abused the simplicity, credulity and prepossessions of\nthe people.\n\nPlutarch says,[203] that a governor of Cilicia having sent to consult\nthe oracle of Mopsus, as he was going to Malle in the same country,\nthe man who carried the billet fell asleep in the temple, where he saw\nin a dream a handsome looking man, who said to him the single word\n_black_. He carried this reply to the governor, whose mysterious\nquestion he knew nothing about. Those who heard this answer laughed at\nit, not knowing what was in the billet: but the governor having opened\nit showed them these words written in it; _shall I immolate to thee a\nblack ox or a white one?_ and that the oracle had thus answered his\nquestion without opening the note. But who can answer for their not\nhaving deceived the bearer of the billet in this case, as did\nAlexander of Abonotiche, a town of Paphlagonia, in Asia Minor. This\nman had the art to persuade the people of his country that he had with\nhim the god Esculapius, in the shape of a tame serpent, who pronounced\noracles, and replied to the consultations addressed to him on divers\ndiseases without opening the billets they placed on the altar of the\ntemple of this pretended divinity; after which, without opening them,\nthey found the next morning the reply written below. All the trick\nconsisted in the seal being raised artfully by a heated needle, and\nthen replaced after having written the reply at the bottom of the\nnote, in an obscure and enigmatical style, after the manner of other\noracles. At other times he used mastic, which being yet soft, took the\nimpression of the seal, then when that was hardened he put on another\nseal with the same impression. He received about ten sols (five pence)\nper billet, and this game lasted all his life, which was a long one;\nfor he died at the age of seventy, being struck by lightning, near the\nend of the second century of the Christian era: all which may be found\nmore at length in the book of Lucian, entitled _Pseudo Manes_, or _the\nfalse Diviner_. The priest of the oracle of Mopsus could by the same\nsecret open the billet of the governor who consulted him, and showing\nhimself during the night to the messenger, declared to him the\nabove-mentioned reply.\n\nMacrobius[204] relates that the Emperor Trajan, to prove the oracle of\nHeliopolis in Phoenicia, sent him a well-sealed letter in which\nnothing was written; the oracle commanded that a blank letter should\nalso be sent to the emperor. The priests of the oracle were much\nsurprised at this, not knowing the reason of it. Another time the same\nemperor sent to consult this same oracle to know whether he should\nreturn safe from his expedition against the Parthians. The oracle\ncommanded that they should send him some branches of a knotted vine,\nwhich was sacred in his temple. Neither the emperor nor any one else\ncould guess what that meant; but his body, or rather his bones, having\nbeen brought to Rome after his death, which happened during his journey,\nit was supposed that the oracle had intended to predict his death, and\ndesignate his fleshless bones, which somewhat resemble the branches of a\nvine.\n\nIt is easy to explain this quite otherwise. If he had returned\nvictorious, the vine being the source of wine which rejoices the heart\nof man, and is agreeable to both gods and men, would have typified his\nvictory--and if the expedition had proved fruitless, the wood of the\nvine, which is useless for any kind of work, and only good for burning\nas firewood, might in that case signify the inutility of this\nexpedition. It is allowed that the artifice, malice, and inventions of\nthe heathen priests had much to do with the oracles; but are we to\ninfer from this that the demon had no part in the matter?\n\nWe must allow that as by degrees the light of the Gospel was spread in\nthe world, the reign of the demon, ignorance, corruption of morals,\nand crime, diminished. The priests who pretended to predict, by the\ninspiration of the evil spirit, things concealed from mortal\nknowledge, or who misled the people by their illusions and impostures,\nwere obliged to confess that the Christians imposed silence on them,\neither by the empire they exercised over the devil, or else by\ndiscovering the malice and knavishness of the priests, which the\npeople had not dared to sound, from a blind respect which they had for\nthis mystery of iniquity.\n\nIf in our days any one would deny that in former times there were\noracles which were rendered by the inspiration of the demon, we might\nconvince him of it by what is still practiced in Lapland, and by what\nmissionaries[205] relate, that in India the demon reveals things\nhidden and to come, not by the mouth of idols, but by that of the\npriests, who are present when they interrogate either the statues or\nthe demon. And they remark that there the demon becomes mute and\npowerless, in proportion as the light of the Gospel is spread among\nthese nations. Thus then the silence of the oracles may be\nattributed--1. To a superhuman cause, which is the power of Jesus\nChrist, and the publication of the Gospel. 2. Mankind are become less\nsuperstitious, and bolder in searching out the cause of these\npretended revelations. 3. To their having become less credulous, as\nCicero says.[206] 4. Because princes have imposed silence on the\noracles, fearing that they might inspire the nation with rebellious\nprinciples. For which reason, Lucan says, that princes feared to\ndiscover the future.[207]\n\nStrabo[208] conjectures that the Romans neglected them because they\nhad the Sibylline books, and their auspices (aruspices, or\nharuspices), which stood them instead of oracles. M. Vandale\ndemonstrates that some remains of the oracles might yet be seen under\nthe Christian emperors. It was then only in process of time that\noracles were entirely abolished; and it may be boldly asserted that\nsometimes the evil spirit revealed the future, and inspired the\nministers of false gods, by permission of the Almighty, who wished to\npunish the confidence of the infidels in their idols. It would be\ngoing too far, if we affirmed that all that was said of the oracles\nwas only the effect of the artifices or the malice of the priests, who\nalways imposed on the credulity of mankind. Read on this subject the\nlearned reply of Father Balthus to the treatises of MM. Vandale and\nFontenelle.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[202] Porphr. apud Euseb. de Praepar. Evang. lib, iv. c. 5, 6.\n\n[203] Plutarch, de Defectu Oracul. p. 434.\n\n[204] Macrob. Saturnal. lib. i. c. 23.\n\n[205] Lettres edifiantes, tom. x.\n\n[206] Cicero, de Divinat. lib. ii. c. 57.\n\n[207]\n \"Reges timent futura\n Et superos vetant loqui.\"\n _Lucan_, Pharsal. lib. v. p. 112.\n\n[208] Strabo, lib. xvii.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVIII.\n\nON SORCERERS AND SORCERESSES, OR WITCHES.\n\n\nThe empire of the devil nowhere shines forth with more lustre than in\nwhat is related of the Sabbath (witches' sabbath or assembly), where\nhe receives the homage of those of both sexes who have abandoned\nthemselves to him. It is there, the wizards and witches say, that he\nexercises the greatest authority, and appears in a visible form, but\nalways hideous, misshapen, and terrible; always during the night in\nout-of-the-way places, and arrayed in a manner more gloomy than gay,\nrather sad and dull, than majestic and brilliant. If they pay their\nadoration in that place to the prince of darkness, he shows himself\nthere in a despicable posture, and in a base, contemptible and hideous\nform; if people eat there, the viands of the feast are dirty, insipid,\nand destitute of solidity and substance--they neither satisfy the\nappetite, nor please the palate; if they dance there, it is without\norder, without skill, without propriety.\n\nTo endeavor to give a description of the infernal sabbath, is to aim\nat describing what has no existence and never has existed, except in\nthe craving and deluded imagination of sorcerers and sorceresses: the\npaintings we have of it are conceived after the reveries of those who\nfancy they have been transported through the air to the sabbath, both\nin body and soul.\n\nPeople are carried thither, say they, sitting on a broom-stick,\nsometimes on the clouds or on a he-goat. Neither the place, the time,\nnor the day when they assemble is fixed. It is sometimes in a lonely\nforest, sometimes in a desert, usually on the Wednesday or the\nThursday night; the most solemn of all is that of the eve of St. John\nthe Baptist: they there distribute to every sorcerer the ointment with\nwhich he must anoint himself when he desires to go to the sabbath, and\nthe spell-powder he must make use of in his magic operations. They\nmust all appear together in this general assembly, and he who is\nabsent is severely ill-used both in word and deed. As to the private\nmeetings, the demon is more indulgent to those who are absent for some\nparticular reason.\n\nAs to the ointment with which they anoint themselves, some authors,\namongst others, John Baptista Porta, and John Wierius,[209] boast that\nthey know the composition. Amongst other ingredients there are many\nnarcotic drugs, which cause those who make use of it to fall into a\nprofound slumber, during which they imagine that they are carried to\nthe sabbath up the chimney, at the top of which they find a tall black\nman,[210] with horns, who transports them where they wish to go, and\nafterwards brings them back again by the same chimney. The accounts\ngiven by these people, and the description which they give of their\nassemblies, are wanting in unity and uniformity.\n\nThe demon, their chief, appears there, either in the shape of a\nhe-goat, or as a great black dog, or as an immense raven; he is seated\non an elevated throne, and receives there the homage of those present\nin a way which decency does not allow us to describe. In this\nnocturnal assembly they sing, they dance, they abandon themselves to\nthe most shameful disorder; they sit down to table, and indulge in\ngood cheer; while at the same time they see on the table neither knife\nnor fork, salt nor oil; they find the viands devoid of savor, and quit\nthe table without their hunger being satisfied.\n\nOne would imagine that the attraction of a better fortune, and a wish\nto enrich themselves, drew thither men and women. The devil never\nfails to make them magnificent promises, at least the sorcerers say\nso, and believe it, deceived, without doubt, by their imagination; but\nexperience shows us that these people are always ragged, despised, and\nwretched, and usually end their lives in a violent and dishonorable\nmanner.\n\nWhen they are admitted for the first time to the sabbath, the demon\ninscribes their name and surname on his register, which he makes them\nsign; then he makes them forswear cream and baptism, makes them\nrenounce Jesus Christ and his church; and, to give them a distinctive\ncharacter and make them known for his own, he imprints on their bodies\na certain mark with the nail of the little finger of one of his hands;\nthis mark, or character, thus impressed, renders the part insensible to\npain. They even pretend that he impresses this character in three\ndifferent parts of the body, and at three different times. The demon\ndoes not impress these characters, say they, before the person has\nattained the age of twenty-five.\n\nBut none of these things deserve the least attention. There may happen\nto be in the body of a man, or a woman, some benumbed part, either\nfrom illness, or the effect of remedies, or drugs, or even naturally;\nbut that is no proof that the devil has anything to do with it. There\nare even persons accused of magic and sorcery, on whom no part thus\ncharacterized has been found, nor yet insensible to the touch, however\nexact the search. Others have declared that the devil has never made\nany such marks upon them. Consult on this matter the second letter of\nM. de St. Andre, Physician to the King, in which he well develops what\nhas been said about these characters of sorcerers.\n\nThe word sabbath, taken in the above sense, is not to be found in\nancient writers; neither the Hebrews nor the Egyptians, the Greeks nor\nthe Latins have known it.\n\nThe thing itself, I mean the _sabbath_ taken in the sense of a\nnocturnal assembly of persons devoted to the devil, is not remarked in\nantiquity, although magicians, sorcerers, and witches are spoken of\noften enough--that is to say, people who boasted that they exercised a\nkind of power over the devil, and by his means, over animals, the air,\nthe stars, and the lives and fortunes of men.\n\nHorace[211] makes use of the word _coticia_ to indicate the nocturnal\nmeetings of the magicians--_Tu riseris coticia_; which he derives from\n_Cotys_, or _Cotto_, Goddess of Vice, who presided in the assemblies\nwhich were held at night, and where the Bacchantes gave themselves up\nto all sorts of dissolute pleasures; but this is very different from\nthe witches' sabbath.\n\nOthers derive this term from _Sabbatius_, which is an epithet given to\nthe god Bacchus, whose nocturnal festivals were celebrated in\ndebauchery. Arnobius and Julius Firmicus Maternus inform us that in\nthese festivals they slipped a golden serpent into the bosoms of the\ninitiated, and drew it downwards; but this etymology is too\nfar-fetched: the people who gave the name of _sabbath_ to the\nassemblies of the sorcerers wished apparently to compare them in\nderision to those of the Jews, and to what they practiced in their\nsynagogues on sabbath days.\n\nThe most ancient monument in which I have been able to remark any\nexpress mention of the nocturnal assemblies of the sorcerers is in the\nCapitularies,[212] wherein it is said that women led away by the\nillusions of the demons, say that they go in the night with the\ngoddess Diana and an infinite number of other women, borne through the\nair on different animals, that they go in a few hours a great\ndistance, and obey Diana as their queen. It was, therefore, to the\ngoddess Diana, or the Moon, and not to Lucifer, that they paid homage.\nThe Germans call witches' dances what we call the sabbath. They say\nthat these people assemble on Mount Bructere.\n\nThe famous Agobard,[213] Archbishop of Lyons, who lived under the\nEmperor Louis the Debonair, wrote a treatise against certain\nsuperstitious persons in his time, who believed that storms, hail, and\nthunder were caused by certain sorcerers whom they called tempesters\n(_tempestarios_, or storm-brewers), who raised the rain in the air,\ncaused storms and thunder, and brought sterility upon the earth. They\ncalled these extraordinary rains _aura lavatitia_, as if to indicate\nthat they were raised by magic power. In this place the people still\ncall these violent rains _alvace_. There were even persons\nsufficiently prejudiced to boast that they knew of _tempetiers_, who\nhad to conduct the tempests where they choose, and to turn them aside\nwhen they pleased. Agobard interrogated some of them, but they were\nobliged to own that they had not been present at the things they\nrelated.\n\nAgobard maintains that this is the work of God alone; that in truth,\nthe saints, with the help of God, have often performed similar\nprodigies; but that neither the devil nor sorcerers can do anything\nlike it. He remarks that there were among his people superstitious\npersons who would pay very punctually what they called _canonicum_,\nwhich was a sort of tribute which they offered to these\ntempest-brewers (_tempetiers_), that they might not hurt them, while\nthey refused the tithe to the priest and alms to the widow, orphan,\nand other indigent persons.\n\nHe adds that he had of late found people sufficiently foolish enough\nto spread a report that Grimaldus, Duke of Benevento, had sent persons\ninto France, carrying certain powders which they had scattered over\nthe fields, mountains, meadows, and springs, and had thus caused the\ndeath of an immense number of animals. Several of these persons were\ntaken up, and they owned that they carried such powders about with\nthem and though they made them suffer various tortures, they could not\nforce them to retract what they had said.\n\nOthers affirmed that there was a certain country named Mangonia,\nwhere there were vessels which were borne through the air and took\naway the productions; that certain wizards had cut down trees to carry\nthem to their country. He says, moreover, that one day three men and a\nwoman were presented to him, who, they said, had fallen from these\nships which floated in the air. They were kept some days in\nconfinement, and at last having been confronted with their accusers,\nthe latter were obliged, after contesting the matter, and making\nseveral depositions, to avow that they knew nothing certain concerning\ntheir being carried away, or of their pretended fall from the ship in\nthe sky.\n\nCharlemagne[214] in his Capitularies, and the authors of his time,\nspeak also of these wizard tempest-brewers, enchanters, &c., and\ncommanded that they should be reprimanded and severely chastised.\n\nPope Gregory IX.[215] in a letter addressed to the Archbishop of\nMayence, the Bishop of Hildesheim, and Doctor Conrad, in 1234, thus\nrelates the abominations of which they accused the heretic\n_Stadingians_. \"When they receive,\" says he, \"a novice, and when he\nenters their assemblies for the first time, he sees an enormous toad,\nas big as a goose, or bigger. Some kiss it on the mouth, some kiss it\nbehind. Then the novice meets a pale man with very black eyes, and so\nthin that he is only skin and bones. He kisses him, and feels that he\nis cold as ice. After this kiss, the novice easily forgets the\nCatholic faith; afterwards they hold a feast together, after which a\nblack cat comes down behind a statue, which usually stands in the room\nwhere they assemble.\n\n\"The novice first of all kisses the cat on the back, then he who\npresides over the assembly, and the others who are worthy of it. The\nimperfect receive only a kiss from the master; they promise obedience;\nafter which they extinguish the lights, and commit all sorts of\ndisorders. They receive every year, at Easter, the Lord's Body, and\ncarry it in their mouth to their own houses, when they cast it away.\nThey believe in Lucifer, and say that the Master of Heaven has\nunjustly and fraudulently thrown him into hell. They believe also that\nLucifer is the creator of celestial things, that will re-enter into\nglory after having thrown down his adversary, and that through him\nthey will gain eternal bliss.\" This letter bears date the 13th of\nJune, 1233.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[209] Joan. Vier. lib. ii. c. 7.\n\n[210] A remarkably fine print on this subject was published at Paris\nsome years ago; if we remember right, it was suppressed.\n\n[211] Horat. Epodon. xviii. 4.\n\n[212] \"Quaedam sceleratae mulieres daemonum illusionibus et\nphantasmatibus seductae, credunt se et profitentur nocturnis horis cum\nDiana Paganorum dea et innumera multitudine mulierum equitare super\nquasdam bestias et multa terrarum spalia intempestae noctis silentio\npertransire ejusque jussionibus veluti dominae obedire.\"--Baluz.\nCapitular. fragment. c. 13. Vide et Capitul. Herardi, Episc. Turon.\n\n[213] Agobard de Grandine.\n\n[214] Vide Baluzii in Agobard. pp. 68, 69.\n\n[215] Fleury, Hist. Eccles. tom. xvii. p. 53, ann. 1234.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIX.\n\nINSTANCES OF SORCERERS AND WITCHES BEING, AS THEY SAID, TRANSPORTED TO\nTHE SABBATH.\n\n\nAll that is said about witches going to the sabbath is treated as a\nfable, and we have several examples which prove that they do not stir\nfrom their bed or their chamber. It is true that some of them anoint\nthemselves with a certain grease or unguent, which makes them sleepy,\nand renders them insensible; and during this swoon they fancy that\nthey go to the sabbath, and there see and hear what every one says is\nthere seen and heard.\n\nWe read, in the book entitled _Malleus Maleficorum_, or the _Hammer of\nthe Sorcerers_, that a woman who was in the hands of the Inquisitors\nassured them that she repaired really and bodily whither she would,\nand that even were she shut up in prison and strictly guarded, and let\nthe place be ever so far off.\n\nThe Inquisitors ordered her to go to a certain place, to speak to\ncertain persons, and bring back news of them; she promised to obey,\nand was directly locked up in a chamber, where she lay down, extended\nas if dead; they went into the room, and moved her; but she remained\nmotionless, and without the least sensation, so that when they put a\nlighted candle to her foot and burnt it she did not feel it. A little\nafter, she came to herself, and gave an account of the commission they\nhad given her, saying she had had a great deal of trouble to go that\nroad. They asked her what was the matter with her foot; she said it\nhurt her very much since her return, and knew not whence it came.\n\nThen the Inquisitors declared to her what had happened; that she had\nnot stirred from her place, and that the pain in her foot was caused\nby the application of a lighted candle during her pretended absence.\nThe thing having been verified, she acknowledged her folly, asked\npardon, and promised never to fall into it again.\n\nOther historians relate[216] that, by means of certain drugs with\nwhich both wizards and witches anoint themselves, they are really and\ncorporally transported to the sabbath. Torquemada relates, on the\nauthority of Paul Grilland, that a husband suspecting his wife of being\na witch, desired to know if she went to the sabbath, and how she managed\nto transport herself thither. He watched her so narrowly, that he saw\nher one day anoint herself with a certain unguent, and then take the\nform of a bird and fly away, and he saw her no more till the next\nmorning, when he found her by his side. He questioned her very much,\nwithout making her own anything; at last he told her what he had himself\nseen, and by dint of beating her with a stick, he constrained her to\ntell him her secret, and to take him with her to the sabbath.\n\nArrived at this place, he sat down to table with the others; but as\nall the viands which were on the table were very insipid, he asked for\nsome salt; they were some time before they brought any; at last,\nseeing a salt-cellar, he said--\"God be praised, there is some salt at\nlast!\" At the same instant, he heard a very great noise, all the\ncompany disappeared, and he found himself alone and naked in a field\namong the mountains. He went forward and found some shepherds; he\nlearned that he was more than three leagues from his dwelling. He\nreturned thither as he could, and, having related the circumstance to\nthe Inquisitors, they caused the woman and several others, her\naccomplices, to be taken up and chastised as they deserved.\n\nThe same author relates that a woman, returning from the sabbath and\nbeing carried through the air by the evil spirit, heard in the morning\nthe bell for the _Angelus_. The devil let her go immediately, and she\nfell into a quickset hedge on the bank of a river; her hair fell\ndisheveled over her neck and shoulders. She perceived a young lad who\nafter much entreaty came and took her out and conducted her to the\nnext village, where her house was situated; it required most pressing\nand repeated questions on the part of the lad, before she would tell\nhim truly what had happened to her; she made him presents, and begged\nhim to say nothing about it, nevertheless the circumstance got spread\nabroad.\n\nIf we could depend on the truth of these stories, and an infinite\nnumber of similar ones, which books are full of, we might believe that\nsometimes sorcerers are carried bodily to the sabbath; but on\ncomparing these stories with others which prove that they go thither\nonly in mind and imagination, we may say boldly, that what is related\nof wizards and witches who go or think they go to the sabbath, is\nusually only illusion on the part of the devil, and seduction on the\npart of those of both sexes who fancy they fly and travel, while they\nin reality do not stir from their places. The spirit of malice and\nfalsehood being mixed up in this foolish prepossession, they confirm\nthemselves in their follies and engage others in the same impiety; for\nSatan has a thousand ways of deceiving mankind and of retaining them\nin error. Magic, impiety, enchantments, are often the effects of a\ndiseased imagination. It rarely happens that these kind of people do\nnot fall into every excess of licentiousness, irreligion, and theft,\nand into the most outrageous consequences of hatred to their\nneighbors.\n\nSome have believed that demons took the form of the sorcerers and\nsorceresses who were supposed to be at the sabbath, and that they\nmaintained the simple creatures in their foolish belief, by appearing\nto them sometimes in the shape of those persons who were reputed\nwitches, while they themselves were quietly asleep in their beds. But\nthis belief contains difficulties as great, or perhaps greater, than\nthe opinion we would combat. It is far from easy to understand that\nthe demon takes the form of pretended sorcerers and witches, that he\nappears under this shape, that he eats, drinks, and travels, and does\nother actions to make simpletons believe that sorcerers go to the\nsabbath. What advantage does the devil derive from making idiots\nbelieve these things, or maintaining them in such an error?\nNevertheless it is related[217] that St. Germain, Bishop of Auxerre,\ntraveling one day, and passing through a village in his diocese, after\nhaving taken some refreshment there, remarked that they were preparing\na great supper, and laying out the table anew; he asked if they\nexpected company, and they told him it was for those good women who go\nby night. St. Germain well understood what was meant, and resolved to\nwatch to see the end of this adventure.\n\nSome time after he beheld a multitude of demons who came in the form\nof men and women, and sat down to table in his presence. St. Germain\nforbade them to withdraw, and calling the people of the house, he\nasked them if they knew those persons: they replied, that they were\nsuch and such among their neighbors: \"Go,\" said he, \"and see if they\nare in their houses:\" they went, and found them asleep in their beds.\nThe saint conjured the demons, and obliged them to declare that it is\nthus they mislead mortals, and make them believe that there are\nsorcerers and witches who go by night to the sabbath; they obeyed, and\ndisappeared, greatly confused.\n\nThis history may be read in old manuscripts, and is to be found in\nJacques de Varasse, Pierre de Noels, in St. Antonine, and in old\nBreviaries of Auxerre, as well printed, as manuscript. I by no means\nguarantee the truth of this story; I think it is absolutely\napocryphal; but it proves that those who wrote and copied it believed\nthat these nocturnal journeys of sorcerers and witches to the sabbath,\nwere mere illusions of the demon. In fact, it is hardly possible to\nexplain all that is said of sorcerers and witches going to the\nsabbath, without having recourse to the ministry of the demon; to which\nwe must add a disturbed imagination, with a mind misled, and foolishly\nprepossessed, and, if you will, a few drugs which affect the brain,\nexcite the humors, and produce dreams relative to impressions already\nin their minds.\n\nIn John Baptist Porta Cardan, and elsewhere, may be found the\ncomposition of those ointments with which witches are said to anoint\nthemselves, to be able to transport themselves to the sabbath; but the\nonly real effect they produce is to send them to sleep, disturb their\nimagination, and make them believe they are going long journeys, while\nthey remain profoundly sleeping in their beds.\n\nThe fathers of the council of Paris, of the year 829, confess that\nmagicians, wizards, and people of that kind, are the ministers and\ninstruments of the demon in the exercise of their diabolical art; that\nthey trouble the minds of certain persons by beverages calculated to\ninspire impure love; that they are persuaded they can disturb the sky,\nexcite tempests, send hail, predict the future, ruin and destroy the\nfruit, and take away the milk of cattle belonging to one person, in\norder to give it to cattle the property of another.\n\nThe bishops conclude that all the rigor of the laws enacted by princes\nagainst such persons ought to be put in force against them, and so\nmuch the more justly, that it is evident they yield themselves up to\nthe service of the devil.\n\nSpranger, in the _Malleus Maleficorum_, relates, that in Suabia, a\npeasant who was walking in his fields with his little girl, a child\nabout eight years of age, complained of the drought, saying, \"Alas!\nwhen will God give us some rain?\" Immediately the little girl told him\nthat she could bring him some down whenever he wished it. He\nanswered,--\"And who has taught you that secret?\" \"My mother,\" said\nshe, \"who has strictly forbidden me to tell any body of it.\"\n\n\"And what did she do to give you this power?\"\n\n\"She took me to a master, who comes to me as many times as I call\nhim.\"\n\n\"And have you seen this master?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" said she, \"I have often seen men come to my mother's house; she\nhas devoted me to one of them.\"\n\nAfter this dialogue, the father asked her how she could do to make it\nrain upon his field only. She asked but for a little water; he led her\nto a neighboring brook, and the girl having called the water in the\nname of him to whom she had been devoted by her mother, they beheld\ndirectly abundance of rain falling on the peasant's field.\n\nThe father, convinced that his wife was a sorceress, accused her\nbefore the judges, who condemned her to be burnt. The daughter was\nbaptized and vowed to God, but she then lost the power of making it\nrain at her will.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[216] Alphons. a Castro ex Petro Grilland. Tract. de Haeresib.\n\n[217] Bolland, 5 Jul. p. 287.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XX.\n\nSTORY OF LOUIS GAUFREDI AND MAGDALEN DE LA PALUD, OWNED BY THEMSELVES\nTO BE A SORCERER AND SORCERESS.\n\n\nThis is an unheard-of example; a man and woman who declared themselves\nto be a sorcerer and sorceress. Louis Gaufredi, Cure of the parish of\nAccouls, at Marseilles,[218] was accused of magic, and arrested at the\nbeginning of the year 1611. Christopher Gaufredi, his uncle, of\nPourrieres, in the neighborhood of Beauversas, sent him, six months\nbefore he (Christopher) died, a little paper book, in 16mo., with six\nleaves written upon; at the bottom of every leaf were two verses in\nFrench, and in the other parts were characters or ciphers, which\ncontained magical mysteries. Louis Gaufredi at first thought very\nlittle of this book, and kept it for five years.\n\nAt the end of that time, having read the French verses, the devil\npresented himself under a human shape, and by no means deformed, and\ntold him that he was come to fulfil all his wishes, if he would give\n_him_ credit for all his good works. Gaufredi agreed to the condition.\nHe asked of the demon that he might enjoy a great reputation for\nwisdom and virtue among persons of probity, and that he might inspire\nwith love all the women and young girls he pleased, by simply\nbreathing upon them.\n\nLucifer promised him all this in writing, and Gaufredi very soon saw\nthe perfect accomplishment of his designs. He inspired with love a\nyoung lady named Magdalen, the daughter of a gentleman whose name was\nMandole de la Palud. This girl was only nine years old, when Gaufredi,\non pretence of devotion and spirituality, gave her to understand that,\nas her spiritual father, he had a right to dispose of her, and\npersuaded her to give herself to the devil; and some years afterwards,\nhe obliged her to give a schedule, signed with her own blood, to the\ndevil, to deliver herself up to him still more. It is even said that\nhe made her give from that time seven or eight other schedules.\n\nAfter that, he breathed upon her, inspired her with a violent passion\nfor himself, and took advantage of her; he gave her a familiar demon,\nwho served her and followed her everywhere. One day he transported her\nto the witches' sabbath, held on a high mountain near Marseilles; she\nsaw there people of all nations, and in particular Gaufredi, who held\nthere a distinguished rank, and who caused characters to be impressed\nor stamped on her head and in several other parts of her body. This girl\nafterwards became a nun of the order of St. Ursula, and passed for being\npossessed by the devil.\n\nGaufredi also inspired several other women with an irregular passion,\nby breathing on them; and this diabolical power lasted for six years.\nFor at last they found out that he was a sorcerer and magician; and\nMademoiselle de Mandole having been arrested by the Inquisition, and\ninterrogated by father Michael Jacobin, owned a great part of what we\nhave just told, and during the exorcisms discovered several other\nthings. She was then nineteen years of age.\n\nAll this made Gaufredi known to the Parliament of Provence. They\narrested him; and proceedings against him commenced February, 1611.\nThey heard in particular the deposition of Magdalen de la Palud, who\ngave a complete history of the magic of Gaufredi, and the abominations\nhe had committed with her. That for the last fourteen years he had\nbeen a magician, and head of the magicians; and if he had been taken\nby the justiciary power, the devil would have carried him body and\nsoul to hell.\n\nGaufredi had voluntarily gone to prison; and from the first\nexamination which he underwent, he denied everything and represented\nhimself as an upright man. But from the depositions made against him,\nit was shown that his heart was very corrupted, and that he had\nseduced Mademoiselle de Mandole, and other women whom he confessed.\nThis young lady was heard juridically the 21st of February, and gave\nthe history of her seduction, of Gaufredi's magic, and of the sabbath\nwhither he had caused her to be transported several times.\n\nSome time after this, being confronted with Gaufredi, she owned that\nhe was a worthy man, and that all which had been reported against him\nwas imaginary, and retracted all she herself had avowed. Gaufredi on\nhis part acknowledged his illicit connection with her, denied all the\nrest, and maintained that it was the devil, by whom she was possessed,\nthat had suggested to her all she had said. He owned that, having\nresolved to reform his life, Lucifer had appeared to him, and\nthreatened him with many misfortunes; that in fact he had experienced\nseveral; that he had burnt the magic book in which he had placed the\nschedules of Mademoiselle de la Palud and his own, which he had made\nwith the devil; but that when he afterwards looked for them, he was\nmuch astonished not to find them. He spoke at length concerning the\nsabbath, and said there was, near the town of Nice, a magician, who\nhad all sorts of garments ready for the use of the sorcerers; that on\nthe day of the sabbath, there is a bell weighing a hundred pounds,\nfour ells in width, and with a clapper of wood, which made the sound\ndull and lugubrious. He related several horrors, impieties, and\nabominations which were committed at the sabbath. He repeated the\nschedule which Lucifer had given him, by which he bound himself to\ncast a spell on those women who should be to his taste.\n\nAfter this exposition of the things related above, the\nattorney-general drew his conclusions: As the said Gaufredi had been\nconvicted of having divers marks in several parts of his body, where\nif pricked he has felt no pain, neither has any blood come; that he\nhas been illicitly connected with Magdalen de la Palud, both at church\nand in her own house, both by day and by night, by letters in which\nwere amorous or love characters, invisible to any other but herself;\nthat he had induced her to renounce her God and her Church--and that\nshe had received on her body several diabolical characters; that he\nhas owned himself to be a sorcerer and a magician; that he had kept by\nhim a book of magic, and had made use of it to conjure and invoke the\nevil spirit; that he has been with the said Magdalen to the sabbath,\nwhere he had committed an infinite number of scandalous, impious and\nabominable actions, such as having worshiped Lucifer:--for these\ncauses, the said attorney-general requires that the said Gaufredi be\ndeclared attainted and convicted of the circumstances imputed to him,\nand as reparation of them, that he be previously degraded from sacred\norders by the Lord Bishop of Marseilles, his diocesan, and afterwards\ncondemned to make honorable amends one audience day, having his head\nand feet bare, a cord about his neck, and holding a lighted taper in\nhis hands--to ask pardon of God, the king, and the court of\njustice--then, to be delivered into the hands of the executioner of\nthe high court of law, to be taken to all the chief places and\ncross-roads of this city of Aix, and torn with red-hot pincers in all\nparts of his body; and after that, in the _Place des Jacobins_, burned\nalive, and his ashes scattered to the wind; and before being executed,\nlet the question be applied to him, and let him be tormented as\ngrievously as can be devised, in order to extract from him the names\nof his other accomplices. Deliberated the 18th of April, 1611, and the\ndecree in conformity given the 29th of April, 1611.\n\nThe same Gaufredi having undergone the question ordinary and\nextraordinary, declared that he had seen at the sabbath no person of\nhis acquaintance except Mademoiselle de Mandole; that he had seen\nthere also certain monks of certain orders, which he did not name,\nneither did he know the names of the monks. That the devil anointed\nthe heads of the sorcerers with certain unguents, which quite effaced\nevery thing from their memory.\n\nNotwithstanding this decree of the Parliament of Provence, many people\nbelieved that Gaufredi was a sorcerer only in imagination; and the\nauthor from whom we derive this history says, that there are some\nparliaments, amongst others the Parliament of Paris, which do not\npunish sorcerers when no other crimes are combined with magic; and\nthat experience has proved that, in not punishing sorcerers, but\nsimply treating them as madmen, it has been seen in time that they\nwere no longer sorcerers, because they no longer fed their imagination\nwith these ideas; while in those places where sorcerers were burnt,\nthey saw nothing else, because everybody was strengthened in this\nprejudice. That is what this writer says.\n\nBut we cannot conclude from thence that God does not sometimes permit\nthe demon to exercise his power over men, and lead them to the excess\nof malice and impiety, and shed darkness over their minds and\ncorruption in their hearts, which hurry them into an abyss of disorder\nand misfortune. The demon tempted Job[219] by the permission of God.\nThe messenger of Satan and the thorn in the flesh wearied St.\nPaul;[220] he asked to be delivered from them; but he was told that\nthe grace of God would enable him to resist his enemies, and that\nvirtue was strengthened by infirmities and trials. Satan took\npossession of the heart of Judas, and led him to betray Jesus Christ\nhis Master to the Jews his enemies.[221] The Lord wishing to warn his\ndisciples against the impostors who would appear after his ascension,\nsays that, by God's permission, these impostors would work such\nmiracles as might mislead the very elect themselves,[222] were it\npossible. He tells them elsewhere,[223] that Satan has asked\npermission of God to sift them as wheat, but that He has prayed for\nthem that their faith may be steadfast.\n\nThus then with permission from God, the devil can lead men to commit\nsuch excesses as we have just seen in Mademoiselle de la Palud and in\nthe priest Louis Gaufredi, perhaps even so far as really to take them\nthrough the air to unknown spots, and to what is called the witches'\nsabbath; or, without really conducting them thither, so strike their\nimagination and mislead their senses, that they think they move, see,\nand hear, when they do not stir from their places, see no object and\nhear no sound.\n\nObserve, also, that the Parliament of Aix did not pass any sentence\nagainst even that young girl, it being their custom to inflict no\nother punishment on those who suffered themselves to be seduced and\ndishonored than the shame with which they were loaded ever after. In\nregard to the cure Gaufredi, in the account which they render to the\nchancellor of the sentence given by them, they say that this cure was\nin truth accused of sorcery; but that he had been condemned to the\nflames, as being arraigned and convicted of spiritual incest with\nMagdalen de la Palud, his penitent.[224]\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[218] Causes Celebres, tom. vi. p. 192.\n\n[219] Job i. 12, 13, 22.\n\n[220] 2 Cor. xii. 7, 8.\n\n[221] John xiii. 2.\n\n[222] Matt. xxiv. 5.\n\n[223] Luke xxi.\n\n[224] The attentive reader of this horrible narrative will hardly fail\nto conclude that Gaufredi's fault was chiefly his seduction of\nMademoiselle de la Palud, and that the rest was the effect of a heated\nimagination. The absurd proportions of the \"_Sabbath_\" bell will be\nsufficient to show this. If the bell were metallic, it would have\nweighed many tons, and a _wooden_ bell of such dimensions, even were\nit capable of sounding, would weigh many hundred weight.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXI.\n\nREASONS WHICH PROVE THE POSSIBILITY OF SORCERERS AND WITCHES BEING\nTRANSPORTED TO THE SABBATH.\n\n\nAll that has just been said is more fitted to prove that the going of\nsorcerers and witches to the sabbath is only an illusion and a\nderanged imagination on the part of these persons, and malice and\ndeceit on that of the devil, who misleads them, and persuades them to\nyield themselves to him, and renounce true religion, by the lure of\nvain promises that he will enrich them, load them with honors,\npleasures, and prosperity, rather than to convince us of the reality\nof the corporeal transportation of these persons to what they call the\nsabbath.\n\nHere are some arguments and examples which seem to prove, at least,\nthat the transportation of sorcerers to the sabbath is not impossible;\nfor the impossibility of this transportation is one of the strongest\nobjections which is made to the opinion that supposes it.\n\nThere is no difficulty in believing that God may allow the demon to\nmislead men, and carry them on to every excess of irregularity, error,\nand impiety; and that he may also permit him to perform some things\nwhich to us appear astonishing, and even miraculous; whether the devil\nachieves them by natural power, or by the supernatural concurrence of\nGod, who employs the evil spirit to punish his creature, who has\nwillingly forsaken Him to yield himself up to his enemy. The prophet\nEzekiel was transported through the air from Chaldea, where he was a\ncaptive, to Judea, and into the temple of the Lord, where he saw the\nabominations which the Israelites committed in that holy place; and\nthence he was brought back again to Chaldea by the ministration of\nangels, as we shall relate in another chapter.\n\nWe know by the Gospel that the devil carried our Saviour to the\nhighest point of the temple at Jerusalem.[225] We know also that the\nprophet Habakkuk[226] was transported from Judea to Babylon, to carry\nfood to Daniel in the lion's den. St. Paul informs us that he was\ncarried up to the third heaven, and that he heard ineffable things;\nbut he owns that he does not know whether it was in the body or only\nin the spirit. He therefore doubted not the possibility of a man's\nbeing transported in body and soul through the air. The deacon St.\nPhilip was transported from the road from Gaza to Azotus in a very\nlittle time by the Spirit of God.[227] We learn by ecclesiastical\nhistory, that Simon the magician was carried by the demon up into the\nair, whence he was precipitated, through the prayers of St. Peter.\nJohn the Deacon,[228] author of the life of St. Gregory the Great,\nrelates that one Farold having introduced into the monastery of St.\nAndrew, at Rome, some women who led disorderly lives, in order to\ndivert himself there with them, and offer insult to the monks, that\nsame night Farold having occasion to go out, was suddenly seized and\ncarried up into the air by demons, who held him there suspended by his\nhair, without his being able to open his mouth to utter a cry, till\nthe hour of matins, when Pope St. Gregory, the founder and protector\nof that monastery, appeared to him, reproached him for his profanation\nof that holy place, and foretold that he would die within the\nyear--which did happen.\n\nI have been told by a magistrate, as incapable of being deceived by\nillusions as of imposing any such on other people,[229] that on the\n16th of October, 1716, a carpenter, who inhabited a village near Bar,\nin Alsace, called Heiligenstein, was found at five o'clock in the\nmorning in the garret of a cooper at Bar. This cooper having gone up\nto fetch the wood for his trade that he might want to use during the\nday, and having opened the door, which was fastened with a bolt _on\nthe outside_, perceived a man lying at full length upon his stomach,\nand fast asleep. He recognized him, and having asked him what he did\nthere, the carpenter in the greatest surprise told him he knew neither\nby what means, nor by whom, he had been taken to that place.\n\nThe cooper not believing this, told him that assuredly he was come\nthither to rob him, and had him taken before the magistrate of Bar,\nwho having interrogated him concerning the circumstance just spoken\nof, he related to him with great simplicity, that, having set off\nabout four o'clock in the morning to come from Heiligenstein to\nBar--there being but a quarter of an hour's distance between those two\nplaces--he saw on a sudden, in a place covered with verdure and grass,\na magnificent feast, brightly illuminated, where a number of persons\nwere highly enjoying themselves with a sumptuous repast and by dancing;\nthat two women of his acquaintance, inhabitants of Bar, having asked him\nto join the company, he sat down to table and partook of the good cheer,\nfor a quarter of an hour at the most; after that, one of the guests\nhaving cried out \"_Cito, Cito_,\" he found himself carried away gently\nto the cooper's garret, without knowing how he had been transported there.\n\nThis is what he declared in presence of the magistrate. The most\nsingular circumstance of this history is, that hardly had the\ncarpenter deposed what we read, than those two women of Bar who had\ninvited him to join their feast hung themselves, each in her own\nhouse.\n\nThe superior magistrates, fearing to carry things so far as to\ncompromise perhaps half the inhabitants of Bar, judged prudently that\nthey had better not inquire further; they treated the carpenter as a\nvisionary, and the two women who hung themselves were considered as\nlunatics; thus the thing was hushed up, and the matter ended.\n\nIf this is what they call the witches' sabbath, neither the carpenter,\nnor the two women, nor apparently the other guests at the festival,\nhad need to come mounted on a demon; they were too near their own\ndwellings to have recourse to superhuman means in order to have\nthemselves transported to the place of meeting. We are not informed\nhow these guests repaired to this feast, nor how they returned each\none to their home; the spot was so near the town, that they could\neasily go and return without any extraneous assistance.\n\nBut if secrecy was necessary, and they feared discovery, it is very\nprobable that the demon transported them to their homes through the\nair before it was day, as he had transported the carpenter to the\ncooper's garret. Whatever turn may be given to this event, it is\ncertainly difficult not to recognize a manifest work of the evil\nspirit in the transportation of the carpenter through the air, who\nfinds himself, without being aware of it, in a well-fastened garret.\nThe women who hung themselves, showed clearly that they feared\nsomething still worse from the law, had they been convicted of magic\nand witchcraft. And had not their accomplices also, whose names must\nhave been declared, as much to fear?\n\nWilliam de Neubridge relates another story, which bears some\nresemblance to the preceding. A peasant having heard, one night as he\nwas passing near a tomb, a melodious concert of different voices, drew\nnear, and finding the door open, put in his head, and saw in the\nmiddle a grand feast, well lighted, and a well-covered table, round\nwhich were men and women making merry. One of the attendants having\nperceived him, presented him with a cup filled with liquor; he took\nit, and having spilled the liquor, he fled with the cup to the first\nvillage, where he stopped. If our carpenter had done the same, instead\nof amusing himself at the feast of the witches of Bar, he would have\nspared himself much uneasiness.\n\nWe have in history several instances of persons full of religion and\npiety, who, in the fervor of their orisons, have been taken up into\nthe air, and remained there for some time. We have known a good monk,\nwho rises sometimes from the ground, and remains suspended without\nwishing it, without seeking to do so, especially on seeing some\ndevotional image, or on hearing some devout prayer, such as \"_Gloria\nin excelsis Deo_.\" I know a nun to whom it has often happened in spite\nof herself to see herself thus raised up in the air to a certain\ndistance from the earth; it was neither from choice, nor from any wish\nto distinguish herself, since she was truly confused at it. Was it by\nthe ministration of angels, or by the artifice of the seducing spirit,\nwho wished to inspire her with sentiments of vanity and pride? Or was\nit the natural effect of Divine love, or fervor of devotion in these\npersons?\n\nI do not observe that the ancient fathers of the desert, who were so\nspiritual, so fervent, and so great in prayer, experienced similar\necstasies. These risings up in the air are more common among our new\nsaints, as we may see in the Life[230] of St. Philip of Neri, where\nthey relate his ecstasies and his elevations from earth into the air,\nsometimes to the height of several yards, and almost to the ceiling of\nhis room, and this quite involuntarily. He tried in vain to hide it\nfrom the knowledge of those present, for fear of attracting their\nadmiration, and feeling in it some vain complacency. The writers who\ngive us these particulars do not say what was the cause, whether these\necstatic elevations from the ground were produced by the fervor of the\nHoly Spirit, or by the ministry of good angels, or by a miraculous\nfavor of God, who desired thus to do honor to his servants in the eyes\nof men. God had moreover favored the same St. Philip de Neri, by\npermitting him to see the celestial spirits and even the demons, and\nto discover the state of holy spirits, by supernatural knowledge.\n\nSt. John Columbino, teacher of the Jesuits, made use of St. Catherine\nColumbine,[231] a maiden of extraordinary virtue, for the\nestablishment of nuns of his order. It is related of her, that\nsometimes she remained in a trance, and raised up two yards from the\nground, motionless, speechless, and insensible.\n\nThe same thing is said of St. Ignatius de Loyola,[232] who remained\nentranced by God, and raised up from the ground to the height of two\nfeet, while his body shone like light. He has been seen to remain in\na trance insensible, and almost without respiration, for eight days\ntogether.\n\nSt. Robert de Palentin[233] rose also from the ground, sometimes to\nthe height of a foot and a half, to the great astonishment of his\ndisciples and assistants. We see similar trances and elevations in the\nLife of St. Bernard Ptolomei, teacher of the congregation of Notre\nDame of Mount Olivet;[234] of St. Philip Benitas, of the order of\nServites; of St. Cajetanus, founder of the Theatins;[235] of St.\nAlbert of Sicily, confessor, who, during his prayers, rose three\ncubits from the ground; and lastly of St. Dominic, the founder of the\norder of Preaching Brothers.[236]\n\nIt is related of St. Christina,[237] Virgin at S. Tron, that being\nconsidered dead, and carried into the church in her coffin, as they\nwere performing for her the usual service, she arose suddenly, and\nwent as high as the beams of the church, as lightly as a bird. Being\nreturned into the house with her sisters, she related to them that she\nhad been led first to purgatory, and thence to hell, and lastly to\nparadise, where God had given her the choice of remaining there, or of\nreturning to this world and doing penance for the souls she had seen\nin purgatory. She chose the latter, and was brought back to her body\nby the holy angels. From that time she could not bear the effluvia of\nthe human body, and rose up into trees and on the highest towers with\nincredible lightness, there to watch and pray. She was so light in\nrunning that she outran the swiftest dogs. Her parents tried in vain\nall they could do to stop her, even to loading her with chains, but\nshe always escaped from them. So many other almost incredible things\nare related of this saint, that I dare not repeat them here.\n\nM. Nicole, in his letters, speaks of a nun named Seraphina, who, in\nher ecstasies, rose from the ground with so much impetuosity that five\nor six of the sisters could hardly hold her down.\n\nThis doctor, reasoning on the fact,[238] says, that it proves nothing\nat all for Sister Seraphina; but the thing well verified proves God\nand the devil--that is to say, the whole of religion; that the\ncircumstance being proved, is of very great consequence to religion;\nthat the world is full of certain persons who believe only what cannot\nbe doubted; that the great heresy of the world is no longer Calvinism\nand Lutheranism, but atheism. There are all sorts of atheists--some\nreal, others pretended; some determined, others vacillating, and\nothers tempted to be so. We ought not to neglect this kind of people;\nthe grace of God is all-powerful; we must not despair of bringing them\nback by good arguments, and by solid and convincing proofs. Now, if\nthese facts are certain, we must conclude that there is a God, or bad\nangels who imitate the works of God, and perform by themselves or\ntheir subordinates works capable of deceiving even the elect.\n\nOne of the oldest instances I remark of persons thus raised from the\nground without any one touching them, is that of St. Dunstan,\nArchbishop of Canterbury, who died in 988, and who, a little time\nbefore his death, as he was going up stairs to his apartment,\naccompanied by several persons, was observed to rise from the ground;\nand as all present were astonished at the circumstance, he took\noccasion to speak of his approaching death.[239]\n\nTrithemius, speaking of St. Elizabeth, Abbess of Schonau, in the\ndiocese of Treves, says that sometimes she was in an ecstatic trance,\nso that she would remain motionless and breathless during a long time.\nIn these intervals, she learned, by revelation and by the intercourse\nshe had with blessed spirits, admirable things; and when she revived,\nshe would discourse divinely, sometimes in German, her native\nlanguage, sometimes in Latin, though she had no knowledge of that\nlanguage. Trithemius did not doubt her sincerity and the truth of her\ndiscourse. She died in 1165.\n\nSt. Richard, Abbot of S. Vanne de Verdun, appeared in 1036 elevated\nfrom the ground while he was saying mass in presence of the Duke\nGalizon, his sons, and a great number of lords and soldiers.\n\nIn the last century, the reverend Father Dominic Carme Dechaux, was\nraised from the ground before the King of Spain, the queen, and all\nthe court, so that they had only to blow upon his body to move it\nabout like a soap-bubble.[240]\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[225] Matt. iv. 5.\n\n[226] Dan. xiv. 33, 34. Douay Version.\n\n[227] Acts viii. 40.\n\n[228] Joan. Diacon. Vit. Gregor. Mag.\n\n[229] Lettre de M. G. P. R., 5th October, 1746.\n\n[230] On the 26th of May, of the Bollandists, c. xx. n. 356, 357.\n\n[231] Acta S. J. Bolland. 3 Jul. p. 95.\n\n[232] Ibid. 31 Jul. pp. 432, 663.\n\n[233] Acta S. J. Bolland, 21 Aug. pp. 469, 481.\n\n[234] Ibid. 18 Aug. p. 503.\n\n[235] Ibid. 17 Aug. p. 255.\n\n[236] Ibid. 4 Aug. p. 405.\n\n[237] Vita S. Christina. 24 Jul. Bolland. pp. 652, 653.\n\n[238] Nicole, tom. i. Letters, pp. 203, 205. Letter xlv.\n\n[239] Vita Sancti Dunstani, xi. 42.\n\n[240] It is worthy of remark, that in the cases which Calmet refers to\nof persons in his own time, and of his own acquaintance, being thus\nraised from the ground, he in no instance states himself to have been\na witness of the wonder.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXII.\n\nCONTINUATION OF THE SAME SUBJECT.\n\n\nWe cannot reasonably dispute the truth of these ecstatic trances, the\nelevations of the body of some saints to a certain distance from the\nground, since these circumstances are supported by so many witnesses.\nTo apply this to the matter we here treat of, might it not be said\nthat sorcerers and witches, by the operation of the demon, and with\nGod's permission, by the help of a lively and subtile temperament, are\nrendered light and rise into the air, where their heated imagination\nand prepossessed mind lead them to believe that they have done, seen,\nand heard, what has no reality except in their own brain?\n\nI shall be told that the parallel I make between the actions of\nsaints, which can only be attributed to angels and the operation of\nthe Holy Spirit, or to the fervor of their charity and devotion, with\nwhat happens to wizards and witches, is injurious and odious. I know\nhow to make a proper distinction between them: do not the books of the\nOld and New Testament place in parallel lines the true miracles of\nMoses with those of the magicians of Pharaoh; those of antichrist and\nhis subordinates with those of the saints and apostles; and does not\nSt. Paul inform us that the angel of darkness often transforms himself\ninto an angel of light?\n\nIn the first edition of this work, we spoke very fully of certain\npersons, who boast of having what they call \"the garter,\" and by that\nmeans are able to perform with extraordinary quickness, in a very few\nhours, what would naturally take them several days journeying. Almost\nincredible things are related on that subject; nevertheless, the\ndetails are so circumstantial, that it is hardly possible there should\nnot be some foundation for them; and the demon may transport these\npeople in a forced and violent manner which causes them a fatigue\nsimilar to what they would have suffered, had they really performed\nthe journey with more than ordinary rapidity.\n\nFor instance, the two circumstances related by Torquemada: the first\nof a poor scholar of his acquaintance, a clever man, who at last rose\nto be physician to Charles V.; when studying at Guadaloupe, was\ninvited by a traveler who wore the garb of a monk, and to whom he had\nrendered some little service, to mount up behind him on his horse,\nwhich seemed a sorry animal and much tired; he got up and rode all\nnight, without perceiving that he went at an extraordinary pace, but\nin the morning he found himself near the city of Granada; the young\nman went into the town, but the conductor passed onwards.\n\nAnother time, the father of a young man, known to the same Torquemada,\nand the young man himself, were going together to Granada, and passing\nthrough the village of Almeda, met a man on horseback like themselves\nand going the same way; after having traveled two or three leagues\ntogether, they halted, and the cavalier spread his cloak on the grass,\nso that there was no crease in the mantle; they all placed what\nprovisions they had with them on this extended cloak, and let their\nhorses graze. They drank and ate very leisurely, and having told\ntheir servants to bring their horses, the cavalier said to them,\n\"Gentlemen, do not hurry, you will reach the town early\"--at the same\ntime he showed them Granada, at not a quarter of an hour's distance\nfrom thence.\n\nSomething equally marvelous is said of a canon of the cathedral of\nBeauvais. The chapter of that church had been charged for a long time\nto acquit itself of a certain personal duty to the Church of Rome; the\ncanons having chosen one of their brethren to repair to Rome for this\npurpose, the canon deferred his departure from day to day, and set off\nafter matins on Christmas day--arrived that same day at Rome,\nacquitted himself there of his commission, and came back from thence\nwith the same dispatch, bringing with him the original of the bond,\nwhich obliged the canons to send one of their body to make this\noffering in person. However fabulous and incredible this story may\nappear, it is asserted that there are authentic proofs of it in the\narchives of the cathedral; and that upon the tomb of the canon in\nquestion may still be seen the figures of demons engraved at the four\ncorners in memory of this event. They even affirm that the celebrated\nFather Mabillon saw the authentic voucher.\n\nNow, if this circumstance and the others like it are not absolutely\nfabulous, we cannot deny that they are the effects of magic, and the\nwork of the evil spirit.\n\nPeter, the venerable Abbot of Cluny,[241] relates so extraordinary a\nthing which happened in his time, that I should not repeat it here,\nhad it not been seen by the whole town of Macon. The count of that\ntown, a very violent man, exercised a kind of tyranny over the\necclesiastics, and against whatever belonged to them, without\ntroubling himself either to conceal his violence, or to find a\npretext for it; he carried it on with a high hand and gloried in it.\nOne day, when he was sitting in his palace in company with several\nnobles and others, they beheld an unknown person enter on horseback,\nwho advanced to the count and desired him to follow him. The count\nrose and followed him, and having reached the door, he found there a\nhorse ready caparisoned; he mounts it, and is immediately carried up\ninto the air, crying out, in a terrible tone to those who were\npresent, \"Here, help me!\" All the town ran out at the noise, but they\nsoon lost sight of him; and no doubt was entertained that the devil\nhad flown away with him to be the companion of his tortures, and to\nbear the pain of his excesses and his violence.\n\nIt is, then, not absolutely impossible that a person may be raised\ninto the air and transported to some very high and distant place, by\norder or by permission of God, by good or evil spirits; but we must\nown that the thing is of rare occurrence, and that in all that is\nrelated of sorcerers and witches, and their assemblings at the\nwitches' sabbath, there is an infinity of stories, which are false,\nabsurd, ridiculous, and even destitute of probability. M. Remi,\nattorney-general of Lorraine, author of a celebrated work entitled\n_Demonology_, who tried a great number of sorcerers and sorceresses,\nwith which Lorraine was then infested, produces hardly any proof\nwhence we can infer the truth and reality of witchcraft, and of\nwizards and witches being transported to the sabbath.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[241] Petrus Venerab. lib. ii. de Miraculis, c. 1, p. 1299.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXIII.\n\nOBSESSION AND POSSESSION OF THE DEVIL.\n\n\nIt is with reason that obsessions and possessions of the devil are\nplaced in the rank of apparitions of the evil spirit among men. We\ncall it _obsession_ when the demon acts externally against the person\nwhom he besets, and _possession_ when he acts internally, agitates\nthem, excites their ill humor, makes them utter blasphemy, speak\ntongues they have never learnt, discovers to them unknown secrets, and\ninspires them with the knowledge of the obscurest things in philosophy\nor theology. Saul was agitated and possessed by the evil spirit,[242]\nwho at intervals excited his melancholy humor, and awakened his\nanimosity and jealousy against David, or who, on occasion of the\nnatural movement or impulsion of these dark moods, seized him,\nagitated him, and disturbed from his usual tenor of mind. Those whom\nthe Gospel speaks of as being possessed,[243] and who cried aloud that\nJesus was the Christ, and that he was come to torment them before the\ntime, that he was the Son of God, are instances of possession. But the\ndemon Asmodeus, who beset Sara, the daughter of Raguel,[244] and who\nkilled her first seven husbands; those spoken of in the Gospel, who\nwere simply struck with maladies or incommodities which were thought\nto be incurable; those whom the Scripture sometimes calls _lunatics_,\nwho foamed at the mouth, who were convulsed, who fled the presence of\nmankind, who were violent and dangerous, so that they were obliged to\nbe chained to prevent them from striking and maltreating other people;\nthese kinds of persons were simply beset, or obseded by the devil.\n\nOpinions are much divided on the matter of obsessions and possessions\nof the devil. The hardened Jews, and the ancient enemies of the\nChristian religion, convinced by the evidence of the miracles which\nthey saw worked by Jesus Christ, by his apostles, and by Christians,\ndared neither dispute their truth nor their reality; but they\nattributed them to magic, to the prince of the devils, or to the\nvirtue of certain herbs, or of certain natural secrets.\n\nSt. Justin,[245] Tertullian, Lactantius, St. Cyprian, Minutius, and\nthe other fathers of the first ages of the church, speak of the power\nwhich the Christian exorcists exercised over the possessed, so\nconfidently and so freely, that we can doubt neither the certainty nor\nthe evidence of the thing. They call upon their adversaries to bear\nwitness, and pique themselves on making the experiment in their\npresence, and of forcing to come out of the bodies of the possessed,\nto declare their names, and acknowledge that those they adore in the\npagan temples are but devils.\n\nSome opposed to the true miracles of the Saviour those of their false\ngods, their magicians, and their heroes of paganism, such as those of\nEsculapius, and the famous Apollonius of Tyana. The pretended\nfreethinkers dispute them in our days upon philosophical principles;\nthey attribute them to a diseased imagination, the prejudices of\neducation, and hidden springs of the constitution; they reduce the\nexpressions of Scripture to hyperbole; they maintain that Jesus Christ\ncondescended to the understanding of the people, and their\nprepossessions or prejudices; that demons being purely spiritual\nsubstances could not by themselves act immediately upon bodies; and\nthat it is not at all probable God should work miracles to allow of\ntheir doing so.\n\nIf we examine closely those who have passed for being possessed, we\nshall not perhaps find one amongst them, whose mind had not been\nderanged by some accident, or whose body was not attacked by some\ninfirmity either known or hidden, which had caused some ferment in the\nblood or the brain, and which, joined to prejudice, or fear, had given\nrise to what was termed in their case obsession or possession.\n\nThe possession of King Saul is easily explained by supposing that he\nwas naturally an atrabilarian, and that in his fits of melancholy he\nappeared mad, or furious; therefore they sought no other remedy for\nhis illness than music, and the sound of instruments proper to enliven\nor calm him. Several of the obsessions and possessions noted in the\nNew Testament were simple maladies, or fantastic fancies, which made\nit believed that such persons were possessed by the devil. The\nignorance of the people maintained this prejudice, and their being\ntotally unacquainted with physics and medicine served to strengthen\nsuch ideas.\n\nIn one it was a sombre and melancholy temper, in another the blood was\ntoo fevered and heated; here the bowels were burnt up with heat, there\na concentration of diseased humor, which suffocated the patient, as it\nhappens with those subject to epilepsy and hypochondria, who fancy\nthemselves gods, kings, cats, dogs, and oxen. There were others, who,\ndisturbed at the remembrance of their crimes, fell into a kind of\ndespair, and into fits of remorse, which irritated their mind and\nconstitution, and made them believe that the devil pursued and beset\nthem. Such, apparently, were those women who followed Jesus Christ,\nand who had been delivered by him from the unclean spirits that\npossessed them, and partly so Mary Magdalen, from whom he expelled\nseven devils. The Scripture often speaks of the spirit of impurity, of\nthe spirit of falsehood, of the spirit of jealousy; it is not\nnecessary to have recourse to a particular demon to excite these\npassions in us; St. James[246] tells us that we are enough tempted by\nour own concupiscence, which leads us to evil, without seeking after\nexternal causes.\n\nThe Jews attributed the greater part of their maladies to the demon:\nthey were persuaded that they were a punishment for some crime either\nknown or unrevealed. Jesus Christ and his apostles wisely supposed\nthese prejudices, without wishing to attack them openly and reform the\nold opinions of the Jews; they cured the diseases, and chased away the\nevil spirits who caused them, or who were said to cause them. The real\nand essential effect was the cure of the patient; no other thing was\nrequired to confirm the mission of Jesus Christ, his divinity, and the\ntruth of the doctrine which he preached. Whether he expelled the\ndemon, or not, is not essentially necessary to his first design; it is\ncertain that he cured the patient either by expelling the devil, if it\nbe true that this evil spirit caused the malady, or by replacing the\ninward springs and humors in their regular and natural state, which is\nalways miraculous, and proves the Divinity of the Saviour.\n\nAlthough the Jews were sufficiently credulous concerning the\noperations of the evil spirit, they at the same time believed that in\ngeneral the demons who tormented certain persons were nothing else\nthan the souls of some wretches, who, fearing to repair to the place\ndestined for them, took possession of the body of some mortal whom\nthey tormented and endeavored to deprive of life.[247]\n\nJosephus the historian[248] relates that Solomon composed some charms\nagainst maladies, and some formulae of exorcism to expel evil spirits.\nHe says, besides, that a Jew named Eleazar cured in the presence of\nVespasian some possessed persons by applying under their nose a ring,\nin which was enchased a root, pointed out by that prince. They\npronounced the name of Solomon with a certain prayer, and an exorcism;\ndirectly, the person possessed fell on the ground, and the devil left\nhim. The generality of common people among the Jews had not the least\ndoubt that Beelzebub, prince of the devils, had the power to expel\nother demons, for they said that Jesus Christ only expelled them in\nthe name of Beelzebub.[249] We read in history that sometimes the\npagans expelled demons; and the physicians boast of being able to cure\nsome possessed persons, as they cure hypochondriacs, and imaginary\ndisorders.\n\nThese are the most plausible things that are said against the reality\nof the possessions and obsessions of the devil.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[242] 1 Sam. xvi. 23.\n\n[243] Matt. viii. 16; x. 11; xviii. 28.\n\n[244] Tob. iii. 8.\n\n[245] Justin. Dialog. cum supplem. Tertull. de Corona Militis, c. 11;\nand Apolog. c. 23; Cyp. ad Demetriam, &c.; Minutius, in Octavio, &c.\n\n[246] James i. 14.\n\n[247] Joseph. Antiq. lib. vii. c. 25.\n\n[248] Ibid. lib. viii. c. 2.\n\n[249] Matt. xii. 24.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXIV.\n\nTHE TRUTH AND REALITY OF POSSESSION AND OBSESSION BY THE DEVIL PROVED\nFROM SCRIPTURE.\n\n\nBut the possibility, the verity and reality of the obsessions and\npossessions of the devil are indubitable, and proved by the Scripture\nand by the authority of the Church, the Fathers, the Jews, and the\npagans. Jesus Christ and the apostles believed this truth, and taught\nit publicly. The Saviour gives us a proof of his mission that he cures\nthe possessed; he refutes the Pharisees, who asserted that he expelled\nthe demons only in the name of Beelzebub; and maintains that he expels\nthem by the virtue of God.[250] He speaks to the demons; he threatens\nthem, and puts them to silence. Are these equivocal marks of the\nreality of obsessions? The apostles do the same, as did the early\nChristians their disciples. All this was done before the eyes of the\nheathen, who could not deny it, but who eluded the force and evidence\nof these things, by attributing this power to other demons, or to\ncertain divinities, more powerful than ordinary demons; as if the\nkingdom of Satan were divided, and the evil spirit could act against\nhimself, or as if there were any collusion between Jesus Christ and\nthe demons whose empire he had just destroyed.\n\nThe seventy disciples on their return from their mission came to Jesus\nChrist[251] to give him an account of it, and tell him that the demons\nthemselves are obedient to them. After his resurrection,[252] the\nSaviour promises to his apostles that they shall work miracles in his\nname, _that they shall cast out devils_, and receive the gift of\ntongues. All which was literally fulfilled.\n\nThe exorcisms used at all times in the Church against the demons are\nanother proof of the reality of possessions; they show that at all\ntimes the Church and her ministers have believed them to be true and\nreal, since they have always practiced these exorcisms. The ancient\nfathers defied the heathen to produce a demoniac before the\nChristians; they pride themselves on curing them, and expelling the\ndemon. The Jewish exorcists employed even the name of Jesus Christ to\ncure demoniacs;[253] they found it efficacious in producing this\neffect; it is true that sometimes they employed the name of Solomon,\nand some charms said to have been invented by that prince, or roots\nand herbs to which they attributed the same virtues, like as a clever\nphysician by the secret of his art can cure a hypochondriac or a\nmaniac, or a man strongly persuaded that he is possessed by the devil,\nor as a wise confessor will restore the mind of a person disturbed by\nremorse, and agitated by the reflection of his sins, or the fear of\nhell. But we are speaking now of real possessions and obsessions which\nare cured only by the power of God, by the name of Jesus Christ, and\nby exorcisms. The son of Sceva, the Jewish priest,[254] having\nundertaken to expel a devil in the name of Jesus Christ, whom Paul\npreached, the demoniac threw himself upon him, and would have\nstrangled him, saying that he knew Jesus Christ, and Paul, but that\nfor him, he feared him not. We must then distinguish well between\npossessions and possessions, exorcists and exorcists. There may be\nfound demoniacs who counterfeit the possessed, to excite compassion\nand obtain alms. There may even be exorcists who abuse the name and\npower of Jesus Christ to deceive the ignorant; and how do I know that\nthere are not even impostors to be found, who would place pretended\npossessed persons in the way, in order to pretend to cure them, and\nthus gain a reputation?\n\nI do not enter into longer details on this matter; I have treated it\nformerly in a particular dissertation on the subject, printed apart\nwith other dissertations on Scripture, and I have therein replied to\nthe objections which were raised on this subject.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[250] Luke viii. 21.\n\n[251] Luke x. 17.\n\n[252] Mark xvi. 27.\n\n[253] Mark ix. 36-38. Acts xi. 14.\n\n[254] Acts xix. 14.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXV.\n\nEXAMPLES OF REAL POSSESSIONS CAUSED BY THE DEVIL.\n\n\nWe must now report some of the most famous instances of the possession\nand obsession of the demon. Every body is talking at this time of the\npossession (by the devil) of the nuns of Loudun, on which such\ndifferent opinions were given, both at the time and since. Martha\nBroissier, daughter of a weaver of Romorantin,[255] made as much noise\nin her time; but Charles Miron, Bishop of Orleans, discovered the\nfraud, by making her drink holy water as common water; by making them\npresent to her a key wrapped up in red silk, which was said to be a\npiece of the true cross; and in reciting some lines from Virgil, which\nMartha Broissier's demon took for exorcisms, agitating her very much\nat the approach of the hidden key, and at the recital of the verses\nfrom Virgil. Henri de Gondi, Cardinal Bishop of Paris, had her\nexamined by five of the faculty; three were of opinion that there was\na great deal of imposture and a little disease. The parliament took\nnotice of the affair, and nominated eleven physicians, who reported\nunanimously that there was nothing demoniacal in this matter.\n\nIn the reign of Charles IX.[256] or a little before, a young woman of\nthe town of Vervins, fifteen or sixteen years of age, named Nicola\nAubry, had different apparitions of a spectre, who called itself her\ngrandfather, and asked her for masses and prayers for the repose of\nhis soul.[257] Very soon after, she was transported to different\nplaces by this spectre, and sometimes even was carried out of sight,\nand from the midst of those who watched over her.\n\nThen, they had no longer any doubt that it was the devil, which they\nhad a great deal of trouble to make her believe. The Bishop of Laon\ngave his power (of attorney) for conjuring the spirit, and commanded\nthem to see that the proces-verbaux were exactly drawn up by the\nnotaries nominated for that purpose. The exorcisms lasted more than\nthree months, and only serve to prove more and more the fact of the\npossession. The poor sufferer was torn from the hands of nine or ten\nmen, who could hardly retain their hold of her; and on the last day of\nthe exorcisms sixteen could not succeed in so doing. She had been\nlying on the ground, when she stood upright and stiff as a statue,\nwithout those who held her being able to prevent it. She spoke divers\nlanguages, revealed the most secret things, announced others at the\nmoment they were being done, although at a great distance; she\ndiscovered to many the secret of their conscience, uttered at once\nthree different voices, or tones, and spoke with her tongue hanging\nhalf a foot out of her mouth. After some exorcisms had been made at\nVervins, they took her to Laon, where the bishop undertook her. He had\na scaffolding erected for this purpose in the cathedral. Such immense\nnumbers of people went there, that they saw in the church ten or\ntwelve thousand persons at a time; some even came from foreign\ncountries. Consequently, France could not be less curious; so the\nprinces and great people, and those who could not come there\nthemselves, sent persons who might inform them of what passed. The\nPope's nuncios, the parliamentary deputies, and those of the\nuniversity were present.\n\nThe devil, forced by the exorcisms, rendered such testimony to the\ntruth of the Catholic religion, and, above all, to the reality of the\nholy eucharist, and at the same time to the falsity of Calvinism, that\nthe irritated Calvinists no longer kept within bounds. From the time\nthe exorcisms were made at Vervins, they wanted to kill the possessed,\nwith the priest who exorcised her, in a journey they made her take to\nNotre Dame de Liesse. At Laon, it was still worse; as they were the\nstrongest in numbers there, a revolt was more than once apprehended.\nThey so intimidated the bishop and the magistrates, that they took\ndown the scaffold, and did not have the general procession usually\nmade before exorcisms. The devil became prouder thereupon, insulted\nthe bishop, and laughed at him. On the other hand, the Calvinists\nhaving obtained the suppression of the procession, and that she should\nbe put in prison to be more nearly examined, Carlier, a Calvinist\ndoctor, suddenly drew from his pocket something which was averred to\nbe a most violent poison, which he threw into her mouth, and she kept\nit on her stomach whilst the convulsion lasted, but she threw it up of\nherself when she came to her senses.\n\nAll these experiments decided them on recommencing the processions,\nand the scaffold was replaced. Then the outraged Calvinists conceived\nthe idea of a writing from M. de Montmorency, forbidding the\ncontinuation of the exorcisms, and enjoining the king's officers to be\nvigilant. Thus they abstained a second time from the procession, and\nagain the devil triumphed at it. Nevertheless, he discovered to the\nbishop the trick of this suppositious writing, named those who had\ntaken part in it, and declared that he had again gained time by this\nobedience of the bishop to the will of man rather than that of God.\nBesides that, the devil had already protested publicly that it was\nagainst his own will that he remained in the body of this woman; that\nhe had entered there by the order of God; that it was to convert the\nCalvinists or to harden them, and that he was very unfortunate in\nbeing obliged to act and speak against himself.\n\nThe chapter then represented to the bishop that it would be proper to\nmake the processions and the conjurations twice a-day, to excite still\nmore the devotion of the people. The prelate acquiesced in it, and\neverything was done with the greatest _eclat_, and in the most\northodox manner. The devil declared again more than once that he had\ngained time; once because the bishop had not confessed himself;\nanother time because he was not fasting; and lastly, because it was\nrequisite that the chapter and all the dignitaries should be present,\nas well as the court of justice and the king's officers, in order that\nthere might be sufficient testimony; that he was forced to warn the\nbishop thus of his duty, and that accursed was the hour when he\nentered into the body of this person; at the same time, he uttered a\nthousand imprecations against the church, the bishop, and the clergy.\n\nThus, at the last day of possession, everybody being assembled in the\nafternoon, the bishop began the last conjurations, when many\nextraordinary things took place; amongst others, the bishop desiring\nto put the holy eucharist near the lips of this poor woman, the devil\nin some way seized hold of his arm, and at the same moment raised this\nwoman up, as it were, out of the hands of sixteen men who were holding\nher. But at last, after much resistance, he came out, and left her\nperfectly cured, and thoroughly sensible of the goodness of God. The\n_Te Deum_ was sung to the sound of all the bells in the town; nothing\nwas heard among the Catholics but acclamations of joy, and many of the\nCalvinists were converted, whose descendants still dwell in the town.\nFlorimond de Raimond, counselor of the parliament of Bordeaux, had the\nhappiness to be of the number, and has written the history of it. For\nnine days they made the procession, to return thanks to God; and they\nfounded a perpetual mass, which is celebrated every year on the 8th of\nFebruary, and they represented this story in _bas-relief_ round the\nchoir, where it may be seen at this day.\n\nIn short, God, as if to put the finishing stroke to so important a\nwork, permitted that the Prince of Conde, who had just left the\nCatholic religion, should be misled on this subject by those of his\nnew communion. He sent for the poor woman, and also the Canon\nd'Espinois, who had never forsaken her during all the time of the\nexorcisms. He interrogated them separately, and at several different\ntimes, and made every effort, not to discover if they had practiced\nany artifice, but to find out if there was any in the whole affair. He\nwent so far as to offer the canon very high situations if he would\nchange his religion. But what can you obtain in favor of heresy from\nsensible and upright people, to whom God has thus manifested the power\nof his church? All the efforts of the prince were useless; the\nfirmness of the canon, and the simplicity of the poor woman, only\nserved to prove to him still more the certainty of the event which\ndispleased him, and he sent them both home.\n\nYet a return of ill-will caused him to have this woman again arrested,\nand he kept her in one of his prisons until her father and mother\nhaving entreated an inquiry into this injustice to King Charles IX.,\nshe was set at liberty by order of his majesty.[258]\n\nAn event of such importance, and so carefully attested, both on the\npart of the bishop and the chapter, and on that of the magistrates,\nand even by the violence of the Calvinistic party, ought not to be\nburied in silence. King Charles IX., on making his entry into Laon\nsome time after, desired to be informed about it by the dean of the\ncathedral, who had been an ocular witness of the affair. His majesty\ncommanded him to give publicity to the story, and it was then printed,\nfirst in French, then in Latin, Spanish, Italian, and German, with the\napprobation of the Sorbonne, supported by the rescripts of Pope Pius\nV. and Gregory XIII. his successor. And they made after that a pretty\nexact abridgment of it, by order of the Bishop of Laon, printed under\nthe title of _Le Triomphe du S. Sacrament sur le Diable_.\n\nThese are facts which have all the authenticity that can be desired,\nand such as a man of honor cannot with any good-breeding affect to\ndoubt, since he could not after that consider any facts as certain\nwithout being in shameful contradiction with himself.[259]\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[255] Jean de Lorres, sur l'an 1599. Thuan. Hist. l. xii.\n\n[256] Charles IX. died in 1574.\n\n[257] This story is taken from a book entitled \"Examen et Discussion\nCritique de l'Histoire des Diables de Loudun, &c., par M. de la\nMenardaye.\" A Paris, chez de Bure l'Aine, 1749.\n\n[258] Tresor et entiere Histoire de la Victime du Corps de Dieu,\npresentee au Pape, au Roi, au Chancelier de France, au Premier\nPresident. A Paris, 4to. chez Chesnau. 1578.\n\n[259] This account is one of the many in which the theory of\npossession was made use of to impugn the Protestant faith. The\nsimplicity and credulity of Calmet are very remarkable.--EDITOR.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXVI.\n\nCONTINUATION OF THE SAME SUBJECT.\n\n\nThere was in Lorraine, about the year 1620, a woman, possessed (by the\ndevil), who made a great noise in the country, but whose case is much\nless known among foreigners. I mean Mademoiselle Elizabeth de\nRanfaing, the story of whose possession was written and printed at\nNancy, in 1622, by M. Pichard, a doctor of medicine, and physician in\nordinary to their highnesses of Lorraine. Mademoiselle de Ranfaing was\na very virtuous person, through whose agency God established a kind of\norder of nuns _of the Refuge_, the principal object of which is to\nwithdraw from profligacy the girls or women who have fallen into\nlibertinism. M. Pichard's work was approved by doctors of theology,\nand authorized by M. de Porcelets, Bishop of Toul, and in an assembly\nof learned men whom he sent for to examine the case, and the reality\nof the possession. It was ardently attacked and loudly denied by a\nmonk of the Minimite order, named Claude Pithoy, who had the temerity\nto say that he would pray to God to send the devil into himself, in\ncase the woman whom they were exorcising at Nancy was possessed; and\nagain, that God was not God if he did not command the devil to seize\nhis body, if the woman they exorcised at Nancy was really possessed.\n\nM. Pichard refutes him fully; but he remarks that persons who are weak\nminded, or of a dull and melancholy character, heavy, taciturn,\nstupid, and who are naturally disposed to frighten and disturb\nthemselves, are apt to fancy that they see the devil, that they speak\nto him, and even that they are possessed by him; above all, if they\nare in places where others are possessed, whom they see, and with whom\nthey converse. He adds that, thirteen or fourteen years ago, he\nremarked at Nancy a great number of this kind, and with the help of\nGod he cured them. He says the same thing of atrabilarians, and women\nwho suffer from _furor uterine_, who sometimes do such things and\nutter such cries, that any one would believe they were possessed.\n\nMademoiselle Ranfaing having become a widow in 1617, was sought in\nmarriage by a physician named Poviot. As she would not listen to his\naddresses, he first of all gave her philtres to make her love him,\nwhich occasioned strange derangements in her health. At last he gave\nher some magical medicaments (for he was afterwards known to be a\nmagician, and burnt as such by a judicial sentence). The physicians\ncould not relieve her, and were quite at fault with her extraordinary\nmaladies. After having tried all sorts of remedies, they were obliged\nto have recourse to exorcisms.\n\nNow these are the principal symptoms which made it believed that\nMademoiselle Ranfaing was really possessed. They began to exorcise her\nthe 2d September, 1619, in the town of Remiremont, whence she was\ntransferred to Nancy; there she was visited and interrogated by\nseveral clever physicians, who, after having minutely examined the\nsymptoms of what happened to her, declared that the casualties they\nhad remarked in her had no relation at all with the ordinary course of\nknown maladies, and could only be the result of diabolical possession.\n\nAfter which, by order of M. de Porcelets, Bishop of Toul, they\nnominated for the exorcists M. Viardin, a doctor of divinity,\ncounselor of state of the Duke of Lorraine, a Jesuit and Capuchin.\nAlmost all the monks in Nancy, the said lord bishop, the Bishop of\nTripoli, suffragan of Strasburg, M. de Sancy, formerly ambassador from\nthe most Christian king at Constantinople, and then priest of the\n_Oratoire_, Charles de Lorraine, Bishop of Verdun; two doctors of the\nSorbonne sent on purpose to be present at the exorcisms, often\nexorcised her in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, and she always replied\npertinently to them, she who could hardly read Latin.\n\nThey report the certificate given by M. Nicolas de Harley, very well\nskilled in the Hebrew tongue, who avowed that Mademoiselle Ranfaing\nwas really possessed, and had answered him from the movement of his\nlips alone, without his having pronounced any words, and had given\nseveral proofs of her possession. The Sieur Garnier, a doctor of the\nSorbonne, having also given her several commands in Hebrew, she\nreplied pertinently, but in French, saying that the compact was made\nthat he should speak only in the usual tongue. The demon added, \"Is it\nnot enough that I show thee that I understand what thou sayest?\" The\nsame M. Garnier, speaking to him in Greek, inadvertently put one case\nfor another; the possessed, or rather the devil, said to him, \"_Thou\nhast committed an error._\" The doctor said to him in Greek, \"Point out\nmy fault;\" the devil replied, \"_Let it suffice thee that I point out\nan error; I shall tell thee no more concerning it._\" The doctor\ntelling him in Greek to hold his tongue, he answered, \"Thou commandest\nme to hold my tongue, and I will not do so.\"\n\nM. Midot Ecolatre de Toul said to him in the same language, \"Sit\ndown;\" he replied, \"I will not sit down.\" M. Midot said to him\nmoreover in Greek, \"Sit down on the ground and obey;\" but as the demon\nwas going to throw the possessed by force on the ground, he said to\nhim in the same tongue, \"Do it gently;\" he did so. He said in Greek,\n\"Put out the right foot;\" he extended it; he said also in the same\nlanguage, \"Cause her knees to be cold,\" the woman replied that she\nfelt them very cold.\n\nThe Sieur Mince, a doctor of the Sorbonne, holding a cross in his\nhand, the devil whispered to him in Greek, \"Give me the cross,\" which\nwas heard by some persons who were near him. M. Mince desired to make\nthe devil repeat the same sentence; he answered, \"I will not repeat it\nall in Greek;\" but he simply said in French, \"Give me,\" and in Greek,\n\"the cross.\"\n\nThe Reverend Father Albert, Capuchin, having ordered him in Greek to\nmake the sign of the cross seven times with his tongue, in honor of\nthe seven joys of the Virgin, he made the sign of the cross three\ntimes with his tongue, and then twice with his nose; but the holy man\ntold him anew to make the sign of the cross seven times with his\ntongue; he did so; and having been commanded in the same language to\nkiss the feet of the Lord Bishop of Toul, he prostrated himself and\nkissed his feet.\n\nThe same father having observed that the demon wished to overturn the\n_Benitier_, or basin of holy water which was there, he ordered him to\ntake the holy water and not spill it, and he obeyed. The Father\ncommanded him to give marks of the possession; he answered, \"The\npossession is sufficiently known;\" he added in Greek, \"I command thee\nto carry some holy water to the governor of the town.\" The demon\nreplied, \"It is not customary to exorcise in that tongue.\" The father\nanswered in Latin, \"It is not for thee to impose laws on us; but the\nchurch has power to command thee in whatever language she may think\nproper.\"\n\nThen the demon took the basin of holy water and carried it to the\nkeeper of the Capuchins, to the Duke Eric of Lorraine, to the Counts\nof Brionne, Remonville, la Vaux, and other lords.\n\nThe physician, M. Pichard, having told him in a sentence, partly\nHebrew, and partly Greek, to cure the head and eyes of the possessed\nwoman; hardly had he finished speaking the last words, when the demon\nreplied: \"Faith, we are not the cause of it; her brain is naturally\nmoist: that proceeds from her natural constitution;\" then M. Pichard\nsaid to the assembly, \"Take notice, gentlemen, that he replies to\nGreek and Hebrew at the same time.\" \"Yes,\" replied the demon, \"you\ndiscover the pot of roses, and the secret; I will answer you no more.\"\nThere were several questions and replies in foreign languages, which\nshowed that he understood them very well.\n\nM. Viardin having asked him in Latin, \"Ubi censebaris quando mane\noriebaris?\" He replied, \"Between the seraphim.\" They said to him, \"Pro\nsigno exhibe nobis patibulum fratris Cephae;\" the devil extended his\narms in the form of a St. Andrew's cross. They said to him, \"Applica\ncarpum carpo;\" he did so, placing the wrist of one hand over the\nother; then, \"Admove tarsum tarso et metatarsum metatarso;\" he crossed\nhis feet and raised them one upon the other. Then afterwards he said,\n\"Excita in calcaneo qualitatem congregantem heterogenea;\" the\npossessed said she felt her heel cold; after which, \"Repraesenta nobis\nlabarum Venetorum;\" he made the figure of the cross. Afterwards they\nsaid, \"Exhibe nobis videntum Deum bene precantem nepotibus ex\nsalvatore Egypti;\" he crossed his arms as did Jacob on giving his\nblessing to the sons of Joseph; and then, \"Exhibe crucem\nconterebrantem stipiti,\" he represented the cross of St. Peter. The\nexorcist having by mistake said, \"Per eum qui adversus te praeliavit,\"\nthe demon did not give him time to correct himself; he said to him, \"O\nthe ass! instead of _praeliatus est_.\" He was spoken to in Italian and\nGerman, and he always answered accordingly.\n\nThey said to him one day, \"Sume encolpium ejus qui hodie functus est\nofficio illius de quo cecinit Psaltes: pro patribus tuis nati sunt\ntibi filii;\" he went directly and took the cross hanging round the\nneck and resting on the breast of the Prince Eric de Lorraine, who\nthat same day had filled the office of bishop in giving orders,\nbecause the Bishop of Toul was indisposed. He discovered secret\nthoughts, and heard words that were said in the ear of some persons\nwhich he was not possibly near enough to overhear, and declared that\nhe had known the mental prayer that a good priest had made before the\nholy sacrament.\n\nHere is a trait still more extraordinary. They said to the demon,\nspeaking Latin and Italian in the same sentence: \"Adi scholastrum\nseniorem et osculare ejus pedes, la cui scarpa ha piu di sugaro;\" that\nvery moment he went and kissed the foot of the Sieur Juillet, ecolatre\nof St. George, the Elder of M. Viardin, ecolatre of the Primitiale. M.\nJuillet's right foot was shorter than the left, which obliged him to\nwear a shoe with a cork heel (or raised by a piece of cork, called in\nItalian _sugaro_).\n\nThey proposed to him very difficult questions concerning the Trinity,\nthe Incarnation, the holy sacrament of the altar, the grace of God,\nfree will, the manner in which angels and demons know the thoughts of\nmen, &c., and he replied with much clearness and precision. She\ndiscovered things unknown to everybody, and revealed to certain\npersons, but secretly and in private, some sins of which they had been\nguilty.\n\nThe demon did not obey the voice only of the exorcists; he obeyed even\nwhen they simply moved their lips, or held their hand, or a\nhandkerchief, or a book upon the mouth. A Calvinist having one day\nmingled secretly in the crowd, the exorcist, who was warned of it,\ncommanded the demon to go and kiss his feet; he went immediately,\nrushing through the crowd.\n\nAn Englishman having come from curiosity to the exorcist, the devil\ntold him several particulars relating to his country and religion. He\nwas a Puritan; and the Englishman owned that everything he had said\nwas true. The same Englishman said to him in his language, \"As a proof\nof thy possession, tell me the name of my master who formerly taught\nme embroidery;\" he replied, \"William.\" They commanded him to recite\nthe _Ave Maria_; he said to a Huguenot gentleman who was present, \"Do\nyou say it, if you know it; for they don't say it amongst your\npeople.\" M. Pichard relates several unknown and hidden things which\nthe demon revealed, and that he performed several feats which it is\nnot possible for any person, however agile and supple he may be, to\nachieve by natural strength or power; such as crawling on the ground\nwithout making use of hands or feet, appearing to have the hair\nstanding erect like serpents.\n\nAfter all the details concerning the exorcisms, marks of possession,\nquestions and answers of the possessed, M. Pichard reports the\nauthentic testimony of the theologians, physicians, of the bishops\nEric of Lorraine, and Charles of Lorraine, Bishop of Verdun, of\nseveral monks of every order, who attest the said possession to be\nreal and veritable; and lastly, a letter from the Rev. Father Cotton,\na Jesuit, who certifies the same thing. The said letter bears date the\n5th of June, 1621, and is in reply to the one which the Prince Eric of\nLorraine had written to him.\n\nI have omitted a great many particulars related in the recital of the\nexorcisms, and the proofs of the possession of Mademoiselle de\nRanfaing. I think I have said enough to convince any persons who are\nsincere and unprejudiced that her possession is as certain as these\nthings can be. The affair occurred at Nancy, the capital of Lorraine,\nin the presence of a great number of enlightened persons, two of whom\nwere of the house of Lorraine, both bishops, and well informed; in\npresence and by the orders of my Lord de Porcelets, Bishop of Toul, a\nmost enlightened man, and of distinguished merit; of two doctors of\nthe Sorbonne, called thither expressly to judge of the reality of the\npossession; in presence of people of the so-called Reformed religion,\nand much on their guard against things of this kind. It has been seen\nhow far Father Pithoy carried his temerity against the possession in\nquestion; he has been reprimanded by his diocesan and his superiors,\nwho have imposed silence on him.\n\nMademoiselle de Ranfaing is known to be personally a woman of\nextraordinary virtue, prudence, and merit. No reason can be imagined\nfor her feigning a possession which has pained her in a thousand ways.\nThe consequence of this terrible trial has been the establishment of a\nkind of religious order, from which the church has received much\nedification, and from which God has providentially derived glory.\n\nM. Nicolas de Harlay Sancy and M. Viardin are persons highly to be\nrespected both for their personal merit, their talent, and the high\noffices they have filled; the first having been French ambassador at\nConstantinople, and the other resident of the good Duke Henry at the\nCourt of Rome; so that I do not think I could have given an instance\nmore fit to convince you of there being real and veritable possessions\nthan this of Mademoiselle de Ranfaing.\n\nI do not relate that of the nuns of Loudun, on which such various\nopinions have been given, the reality of which was doubted at the very\ntime, and is very problematical to this day. Those who are curious to\nknow the history of that affair will find it very well detailed in a\nbook I have already cited, entitled, \"Examen et Discussion Critique de\nl'Histoire des Diables de Loudun, &c., par M. de la Menardaye,\" a\nParis, chez de Bure Aine, 1749.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXVII.\n\nOBJECTIONS AGAINST THE OBSESSIONS AND POSSESSIONS OF THE DEMON--REPLY\nTO THE OBJECTIONS.\n\n\nSeveral objections may be raised against the obsessions and\npossessions of demons; nothing is subject to greater difficulties than\nthis matter, but Providence constantly and uniformly permits the\nclearest and most certain truths of religion to remain enveloped in\nsome degree of obscurity; that facts the best averred and the most\nindubitable should be subject to doubts and contradictions; that the\nmost evident miracles should be disputed by some incredulous persons\non account of circumstances which appear to them doubtful and\ndisputable.\n\nAll religion has its lights and shadows; God has permitted it to be so\nin order that the just may have somewhat to exercise their faith in\nbelieving, and the impious and incredulous persist in their wilful\nimpiety and incredulity. The greatest mysteries of Christianity are to\nthe one subjects of scandal, and to the others means of salvation;\nthe one regarding the mystery of the cross as folly, and the others as\nthe work of sublimest wisdom, and of the most admirable power of God.\nPharaoh hardened his heart when he saw the wonders wrought by Moses;\nbut the magicians of Egypt were at last obliged to recognize in them\nthe hand of God. The Hebrews on sight of these wonders take confidence\nin Moses and Aaron, and yield themselves to their guidance, without\nfearing the dangers to which they may be exposed.\n\nWe have already remarked that the demon often seems to act against his\nown interest, and destroy his own empire, by saying that everything\nwhich is related of the return of spirits, the obsessions and\npossessions of the demon, of spells, magic, and sorcery, are only\ntales wherewith to frighten children; that they all have no existence\nexcept in weak and prejudiced minds. How can it serve the demon to\nmaintain this, and destroy the general opinion of nations on all these\nthings? If in all there is only falsehood and illusion, what does he\ngain by undeceiving people? and if there is any truth in them, why\ndecry his own work, and take away the credit of his subordinates and\nhis own operations?\n\nJesus Christ in the Gospel refutes those who said that he expelled\ndevils in the name of Beelzebub;[260] he maintains that the accusation\nis unfounded, because it was incredible that Satan should destroy his\nown work and his own empire. The reasoning is doubtless solid and\nconclusive, above all to the Jews, who thought that Jesus Christ did\nnot differ from other exorcists who expelled demons, unless it was\nthat he commanded the prince of devils, while the others commanded\nonly the subaltern demons. Now, on this supposition, the prince of the\ndemons could not expel his subalterns without destroying his own\nempire, without decrying himself, and without ruining the reputation\nof those who only acted by his orders.\n\nIt may be objected to this argument, that Jesus Christ supposed, as\ndid the Jews, that the demons whom he expelled really possessed those\nwhom he cured, in whatever manner he might cure them; and consequently\nthat the empire of the demons subsisted, both in Beelzebub, the prince\nof the demons, and in the other demons who were subordinate to him,\nand who obeyed his orders; thus, his empire was not entirely\ndestroyed, supposing that Jesus Christ expelled them in the name of\nBeelzebub; that subordination, on the contrary, supposed that power or\nempire of the prince of the demons, and strengthened it.\n\nBut Jesus Christ not only expelled demons by his own authority,\nwithout ever making mention of Beelzebub; he expelled them in spite of\nthemselves, and sometimes they loudly complained that he was come to\ntorment them before the time.[261] There was neither collusion between\nhim and them, nor subordination similar to that which might be\nsupposed to exist between Beelzebub and the other demons.\n\nThe Lord pursued them, not only in expelling them from bodies, but\nalso in overthrowing their bad maxims, by establishing doctrines and\nmaxims quite contrary to their own; he made war upon every vice,\nerror, and falsehood; he attacked the demon face to face, everywhere,\nunflinchingly; thus, it cannot be said that he spared him, or was in\ncollusion with him. If the devil will sometimes pass off as chimeras\nand illusions all that is said of apparitions, obsessions and\npossessions, magic and sorcery; and if he appears so absolutely to\noverthrow his reign, even so far as to deny the most marked and\npalpable effects of his own power and presence, and impute them to the\nweakness of mind of men and their foolish prejudices; in all this he\ncan only gain advantage for himself: for, if he can persuade people of\nthe truth of what he advances, his power will only be more solidly\nconfirmed by it, since it will no longer be attacked, and he will be\nleft to enjoy his conquests in peace, and the ecclesiastical and\nsecular powers interested in repressing the effects of his malice and\ncruelty will no longer take the trouble to make war upon him, and\ncaution or put the nations on their guard against his stratagems and\nambuscades. It will close the mouth of parliaments, and stay the hand\nof judges and powers; and the simple people will become the sport of\nthe demon, who will not cease continuing to tempt, persecute, corrupt,\ndeceive, and cause the perdition of those who shall no longer mistrust\nhis snares and his malice. The world will relapse into the same state\nas when under paganism, given up to error, to the most shameful\npassions, and will even deny or doubt those truths which shall be the\nbest attested, and the most necessary to our salvation.\n\nMoses in the Old Testament well foresaw that the evil spirit would set\nevery spring to work, to lead the Israelites into error and unruly\nconduct; he foresaw that in the midst of the chosen people he would\ninstigate seducers, who would predict to them the hidden future, which\npredictions would come true and be followed up. He always forbids\ntheir listening to any prophet or diviners who wished to mislead them\nto impiety or idolatry.\n\nTertullian, speaking of the delusions performed by demons, and the\nforesight they have of certain events, says,[262] that being spiritual\nin their nature, they find themselves in a moment in any place they\nmay wish, and announce at a distance what they have seen and heard.\nAll this is attributed to the Divinity, because neither the cause nor\nthe manner is known; often, also, they boast of causing events, which\nthey do but announce; and it is true that often they are themselves\nthe authors of the evils they predict, but never of any good.\nSometimes they make use of the knowledge they have derived from the\npredictions of the prophets respecting the designs of God, and they\nutter them as coming from themselves. As they are spread abroad in the\nair, they see in the clouds what must happen, and thus foretell the\nrain which they were aware of before it had been felt upon earth. As\nto maladies, if they cure them, it is because they have occasioned\nthem; they prescribe remedies which produce effect, and it is believed\nthat they have cured maladies simply because they have not continued\nthem. _Quia desinunt laedere, curasse credentur._\n\nThe demon can then foresee the future and what is hidden, and discover\nthem by means of his votaries; he can also doubtlessly do wonderful\nthings which surpass the usual and known powers of nature; but it is\nnever done except to deceive us, and lead us into disorder and\nimpiety. And even should he wear the semblance of leading to virtue\nand practising those things which are praiseworthy and useful to\nsalvation, it would only be to win the confidence of such as would\nlisten to his suggestions, to make them afterward fall into\nmisfortune, and engage them in some sin of presumption or vanity: for\nas he is a spirit of malice and lies, it little imports to him by what\nmeans he surprises us, and establishes his reign among us.\n\nBut he is very far from always foreseeing the future, or succeeding\nalways in misleading us; God has set bounds to his malice. He often\ndeceives himself, and often makes use of disguise and perversion, that\nhe may not appear to be ignorant of what he is ignorant of, or he will\nappear unwilling to do what God will not allow him to do; his power is\nalways bounded, and his knowledge limited. Often, also, he will\nmislead and deceive through malice, because he is the father of\nfalsehood. He deceives men, and rejoices when he sees them doing\nwrong; but not to lose his credit amongst those who consult him\ndirectly or indirectly, he lays the fault on those who undertake to\ninterpret his words, or the equivocal signs which he has given. For\ninstance, if he is consulted whether to begin an enterprise, or give\nbattle, or set off on a journey, if the thing succeeds, he takes all\nthe glory and merit to himself; if it does not succeed, he imputes it\nto the men who have not well understood the sense of his oracle, or to\nthe aruspices, who have made mistakes in consulting the entrails of\nthe immolated animals, or the flight of birds, &c.\n\nWe must not, then, be surprised to find so many contradictions,\ndoubts, and difficulties, in the matter of apparitions, angels,\ndemons, and spirits. Man naturally loves to distinguish himself from\nthe common herd, and rise above the opinions of the people; it is a\nsort of fashion not to suffer one's self to be drawn along by the\ntorrent, and to desire to sound and examine everything. We know that\nthere is an infinity of prejudices, errors, vulgar opinions, false\nmiracles, illusions, and seductions in the world; we know that many\nthings are attributed to the devil which are purely natural, or that a\nthousand apocryphal stories are related. It is then right to hold\none's self on one's guard, in order not to be deceived. It is very\nimportant for religion to distinguish between true and false miracles,\ncertain or uncertain events, and works wrought by the hand of God,\nfrom those which are the work of the seducing spirit.\n\nIn all that he does, the demon mixes up a great many illusions amid\nsome truths, in order that the difficulty of discerning the true from\nthe false may make mankind take the side which pleases them most, and\nthat the incredulous may always have some points to maintain them in\ntheir incredulity. Although the apparitions of spirits, angels, and\ndemons, and their operations, may not, perhaps, always be miraculous,\nnevertheless, as the greater part appear above the common course of\nnature, many of the persons of whom we have just spoken, without\ngiving themselves the trouble to examine the things, and seek for the\ncauses of them, the authors, and the circumstances, boldly take upon\nthemselves to deny them all. It is the shortest way, but neither the\nmost sensible nor the most rational; for in what is said on this\nsubject, there are effects which can be reasonably attributed to the\nAlmighty power of God alone, who acts immediately, or makes secondary\ncauses act to his glory, for the advancement of religion, and the\nmanifestation of the truth; and other effects there are, which bear\nvisibly the character of illusion, impiety, and seduction, and in\nwhich it would seem that, instead of the finger of God, we can observe\nonly the marks of the spirit of deceit and falsehood.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[260] Matt. xii. 24-27. Luke xi. 15-18.\n\n[261] Matt. viii. 29.\n\n[262] Tertullian does not say so much in the passage cited; on the\ncontrary, he affirms that we are ignorant of their nature: _substantia\nignoratur_.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXVIII.\n\nCONTINUATION OF OBJECTIONS AGAINST POSSESSIONS, AND SOME REPLIES TO\nTHOSE OBJECTIONS.\n\n\nWe read in works, published and printed, composed by Catholic authors\nof our days,[263] that it is proved by reason, that possessions of the\ndemon are naturally impossible, and that it is not true, in regard to\nourselves and our ideas, that the demon can have any natural power\nover the corporeal world; that as soon as we admit in the created\nwills a power to act upon bodies, and to move them, it is impossible\nto set bounds to it, and that this power is truly infinite.\n\nThey maintain that the demon can act upon our souls simply by means of\nsuggestion; that it is impossible the demon should be the physical\ncause of the least external effect; that all the Scripture tells us of\nthe snares and stratagems of Satan signifies nothing more than the\ntemptations of the flesh and concupiscence; and that to seduce us, the\ndemon requires only mental suggestions. His is a moral, not a physical\npower; in a word, _that the demon can do neither good nor harm; that\nhis might is nought_; that we do not know if God has given to any\nother spirit than the soul of man the power to move the body; that, on\nthe contrary, we ought to presume that the wisdom of God has willed\nthat pure spirits should have no commerce with the body; they maintain\nmoreover that the pagans never knew what we call bad angels and\ndemons.\n\nAll these propositions are certainly contrary to Scripture, to the\nopinions of the Fathers, and to the tradition of the Catholic Church.\nBut these gentlemen do not trouble themselves about that; they affirm\nthat the sacred writers have often expressed themselves according to\nthe opinions of their time, whether because the necessity of making\nthemselves understood forced them to conform to it, or that they\nthemselves had adopted those opinions. There is, say they, more\nlikelihood that several infirmities which the Scripture has ascribed\nto the demon had simply a natural cause; that in these places the\nsacred authors have spoken according to vulgar opinions; the error of\nthis language is of no importance.\n\nThe prophets of Saul, and Saul himself, were never what are properly\ntermed Prophets; they might be attacked with those (fits) which the\npagans call _sacred_. You must be asleep when you read, not to see\nthat the temptation of Eve is only an allegory. It is the same with\nthe permission given by God to Satan to tempt Job. Why wish to explain\nthe whole book of Job literally, and as a true history, since its\nbeginning is only a fiction? It is anything but certain that Jesus\nChrist was transported by the demon to the highest pinnacle of the\ntemple.\n\nThe Fathers were prepossessed on one side by the reigning ideas of the\nphilosophy of Pythagoras and Plato on the influences of mean\nintelligences, and on the other hand by the language of the holy\nbooks, which to conform to popular opinions often ascribed to the\ndemon effects which were purely natural. We must then return to the\ndoctrine of reason to decide on the submission which we ought to pay\nto the authority of the Scriptures and the Fathers concerning the\npower of the demons.\n\nThe uniform method of the Holy Fathers in the interpretations of the\nOld Testament is human opinion, whence one can appeal to the tribunal\nof reason. They go so far as to say that the sacred authors were\ninformed of the Metempsychosis, as the author of the Book of Wisdom,\nchap. viii. 19, 20: \"I was an innocent child, and I received a good\nspirit; and as I was already good, I entered into an uncorrupted\nbody.\"\n\nPersons of this temper will certainly not read this work of ours, or,\nif they do read it, it will be with contempt or pity. I do not think\nit necessary to refute those paradoxes here; the Bishop of Senez has\ndone it with his usual erudition and zeal, in a long letter printed at\nUtrecht in 1736. I do not deny that the sacred writers may sometimes\nhave spoken in a popular manner, and in accordance with the prejudice\nof the people. But it is carrying things too far to reduce the power\nof the demon to being able to act upon us only by means of suggestion;\nand it is a presumption unworthy of a philosopher to decide on the\npower of spirits over bodies, having no knowledge, either by\nrevelation or by reason, of the extent of the power of angels and\ndemons over matter and human bodies. We may exceed due measure by\ngranting them excessive power, as well as in not according them\nenough. But it is of infinite importance to Religion to discern justly\nbetween what is natural, or supernatural, in the operations of angels\nand demons, that the simple may not be left in error, nor the wicked\ntriumph over the truth, and make a bad use of their own wit and\nknowledge, to render doubtful what is certain, and deceiving both\nthemselves and others by ascribing to chance or illusion of the\nsenses, or a vain prepossession of the mind, what is said of the\napparitions of angels, demons, and deceased persons; since it is\ncertain that several of these apparitions are quite true, although\nthere may be a great number of others that are very uncertain, and\neven manifestly false.\n\nI shall therefore make no difficulty in owning that even miracles, at\nleast things that appear such, the prediction of future events,\nmovements of the body which appear beyond the usual powers of nature,\nto speak and understand foreign languages unknown before, to penetrate\nthe thoughts, discover concealed things, to be raised up, and\ntransported in a moment from one place to another, to announce truths,\nlead a good life externally, preach Jesus Christ, decry magic and\nsorcery, make an outward profession of virtue; I readily own that all\nthese things may not prove invincibly that all who perform them are\nsent by God, or that these operations are real miracles; yet we cannot\nreasonably suppose the demon to be mixed up in them by God's\npermission, or that the demons or the angels do not act upon those\npersons who perform prodigies, and foretell things to come, or who can\npenetrate the thoughts of the heart, or that God himself does not\nproduce these effects by the immediate action of his justice or his\nmight.\n\nThe examples which have been cited, or which may be cited hereafter,\nwill never prove that man can of himself penetrate the sentiments of\nanother, or discover his secret thoughts. The wonders worked by the\nmagicians of Pharaoh were only illusion; they appeared, however, to be\ntrue miracles, and passed for such in the eyes of the King of Egypt\nand all his court. Balaam, the son of Beor, was a true Prophet,\nalthough a man whose morals were very corrupt.\n\nPomponatius writes that the wife of Francis Maigret, savetier of\nMantua, spoke divers languages, and was cured by Calderon, a\nphysician, famous in his time, who gave her a potion of Hellebore.\nErasmus says also[264] that he had seen an Italian, a native of\nSpoletta, who spoke German very well, although he had never been in\nGermany; they gave him a medicine which caused him to eject a quantity\nof worms, and he was cured so as not to speak German any more.\n\nLe Loyer, in his _Book of Spectres_,[265] avows that all those things\nappear to him much to be doubted. He rather believes Fernel, one of\nthe gravest physicians of his age, who maintains[266] that there is\nnot such power in medicine, and brings forward as an instance the\nhistory of a young gentleman, the son of a Knight of the Order, who\nbeing seized upon by the demon, could be cured neither by potions, by\nmedicines, nor by diet (_i. e._ fasting), but who was cured by the\nconjurations and exorcisms of the church.\n\nAs to the reality of the return of souls, or spirits, and their\napparitions, the Sorbonne, the most celebrated school of theology in\nFrance, has always believed that the spirits of the defunct returned\nsometimes, either by the order and power of God, or by his permission.\nThe Sorbonne confessed this in its decisions of the year 1518, and\nstill more positively the 23d of January, 1724. _Nos respondemus\nvestrae petitioni animas defunctorum divinitus, seu divina virtute,\nordinatione aut permissione interdum ad vivas redire exploratum esse._\nSeveral jurisconsults and several sovereign companies have decreed\nthat the apparition of a deceased person in a house could suffice to\nbreak up the lease. We may count it for much, to have proved to\ncertain persons that there is a God whose providence extends over all\nthings past, present, and to come; that there is another life, that\nthere are good and bad spirits, rewards for good works, and\npunishments after this life for sins; that Jesus Christ has ruined the\npower of Satan; that he exercised in himself, in his apostles, and\ncontinues to exercise in the ministers of his church, an absolute\nempire over the infernal powers; that the devil is now chained; he may\nbark and threaten, but he can bite only those who approach him, and\nvoluntarily give themselves up to him.\n\nWe have seen in these parts a woman who followed a band of mountebanks\nand jugglers, who stretched out her legs in such an extraordinary\nmanner, and raised up her feet to her head, before and behind, with as\nmuch suppleness as if she had neither nerves nor joints. There was\nnothing supernatural in all that; she had exercised herself from\nextreme youth in these movements, and had contracted the habit of\nperforming them.\n\nSt. Augustine[267] speaks of a soothsayer whom he had known at\nCarthage, an illiterate man, who could discover the secrets of the\nheart, and replied to those who consulted him on secret and unknown\naffairs. He had himself made an experiment on him, and took to witness\nSt. Alypius, Licentius, and Trygnius, his interlocutors, in his\ndialogue against the Academicians. They, like him, had consulted\nAlbicerius, and had admired the certainty of his replies. He gives us\nan instance--a spoon which had been lost. They told him that some one\nhad lost something; and he instantly, without hesitation, replied that\nsuch a thing was lost, that such a one had taken it, and had hid it in\nsuch a place, which was found to be quite true.\n\nThey sent him a certain quantity of pieces of silver; he who was\ncharged to carry them had taken away some of them. He made the person\nreturn them, and perceived the theft before the money had been shown\nto him. St. Augustine was present. A learned and distinguished man,\nnamed Flaccianus, wishing to buy a field, consulted the soothsayer,\nwho declared to him the name of the land, which was very\nextraordinary, and gave him all the details of the affair in question.\nA young student, wishing to prove Albicerius, begged of him to declare\nto him what he was thinking of; he told him he was thinking of a verse\nof Virgil; and, as he then asked him which verse it was, the diviner\nrepeated it instantly, though he had never studied the Latin language.\n\nThis Albicerius was a scoundrel, as St. Augustine says, who calls him\n_flagitiosum hominem_. The knowledge which he had of hidden things was\nnot, doubtless, a gift of heaven, any more than the Pythonic spirit\nwhich animated that maid in the Acts of the Apostles whom St. Paul\nobliged to keep silence.[268] It was then the work of the evil spirit.\n\nThe gift of tongues, the knowledge of the future, and power to divine\nthe thoughts of others, are always adduced, and with reason, as solid\nproofs of the presence and inspiration of the Holy Spirit; but if the\ndemon can sometimes perform the same things, he does it to mislead and\ninduce sin, or simply to render true prophecies doubtful; but never to\nlead to truth, the fear and love of God, and the edification of those\naround. God may allow such corrupt men as Balaam, and such rascals as\nAlbicerius, to have some knowledge of the future, and secret things,\nand even of the hidden thoughts of men; but he never permits their\ncriminality to remain unrevealed to the end, and so become a\nstumbling-block for simple or worthy people. The malice of these\nhypocritical and corrupt men will be made manifest sooner or later by\nsome means; their malice and depravity will be found out, by which it\nwill be judged, either that they are inspired only by the evil spirit,\nor that the Holy Spirit makes use of their agency to foretell some\ntruth, as he prophesied by Balaam, and by Caiphas. Their morals and\ntheir conduct will throw discredit on them, and oblige us to be\ncareful in discerning between their true predictions and their bad\nexample. We have seen hypocrites who died with the reputation of being\nworthy people, and who at bottom were scoundrels--as for instance,\nthat cure, the director of the nuns of Louviers, whose possession was\nso much talked of.\n\nJesus Christ, in the Gospel, tells us to be on our guard against\nwolves in sheep's clothing; and, elsewhere, he tells us that there\nwill be false Christs and false prophets, who will prophesy in his\nname, and perform wonders capable of deceiving the very elect\nthemselves, were it possible. But he refers us to their works to\ndistinguish them.\n\nTo apply all these things to the possessed nuns of Loudun, and to\nMademoiselle de Ranfaing, even to that girl whose hypocrisy was\nunmasked by Mademoiselle Acarie, I appeal to their works, and their\nconduct both before and after.\n\n * * * * *\n\nGod will not allow those who sincerely seek the truth to be deceived.\n\nA juggler will guess which card you have touched, or even simply\nthought of; but it is known that there is nothing supernatural in\nthat, and that it is done by the combination of the cards according to\nmathematical rules. We have seen a deaf man who understood what they\nwished to say to him by simply observing the motion of the lips of\nthose who spoke. There is nothing more miraculous in this than in two\npersons conversing together by signs upon which they have agreed.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[263] See the letter of the Bishop of Senez, printed at Utrecht, in\n1736, and the works that he therein cites and refutes.\n\n[264] Erasm. Orat. de laudibus Medicinae.\n\n[265] Le Loyer, lib. de Spec. cap. ii. p. 288.\n\n[266] Fernel, de abditis Rerum Causis, lib. ii. c. 26.\n\n[267] August. contra Academic. lib. ii. art. 17, 18.\n\n[268] Acts xvi. 16.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXIX.\n\nOF FAMILIAR SPIRITS.\n\n\nIf all that is related of spirits which are perceived in houses, in\nthe cavities of mountains, and in mines, is certain, we cannot disavow\nthat they also must be placed in the rank of apparitions of the evil\nspirit; for, although they usually do neither wrong nor violence to\nany one, unless they are irritated or receive abusive words;\nnevertheless we do not read that they lead to the love or fear of God,\nto prayer, piety, or acts of devotion; it is known, on the contrary,\nthat they show a distaste to those things, so that we shall place them\nin earnest among the spirits of darkness.\n\nI do not find that the ancient Hebrews knew anything of what we call\n_esprits follets_, or familiar spirits, which infest houses, or attach\nthemselves to certain persons, to serve them, watch over and warn\nthem, and guard them from danger; such as the demon of Socrates, who\nwarned him to avoid certain misfortunes. Some other examples are also\nrelated of persons who said they had similar genii attached to their\npersons.\n\nThe Jews and Christians confess that every one of us has his good\nangel, who guides him from his early youth.[269] Several of the\nancients have thought that we have also our evil angel, who leads us\ninto error. The Psalmist[270] says distinctly that God has commanded\nhis angels to guide us in all our ways. But this is not what we\nunderstand here under the name of _esprits follets_.\n\nThe prophets in some places speak of _fauns_, or _hairy men_, or\n_satyrs_, who have some resemblance to our elves.\n\nIsaiah,[271] speaking of the state to which Babylon shall be reduced\nafter her destruction, says that the ostriches shall make it their\ndwelling, and that the hairy men, _pilosi_, the satyrs, and goats,\nshall dance there. And elsewhere the same prophet says,[272]\n_Occurrent daemonia onocentauris et pilosus clamabit alter ad alterum_,\nby which clever interpreters understand spectres which appear in the\nshape of goats. Jeremiah calls them _fauns_--the dragons with the\nfauns, which feed upon figs. But this is not the place for us to go\nmore fully into the signification of the terms of the original; it\nsuffices for us to show that in the Scripture, at least in the\nVulgate, are found the names of _lamiae_, _fauns_, and _satyrs_, which\nhave some resemblance to _esprits follets_.\n\nCassian,[273] who had studied deeply the lives of the fathers of the\ndesert, and who had been much with the hermits or anchorites of Egypt,\nspeaking of divers sorts of demons, mentions some which they commonly\ncalled _fauns_ or _satyrs_, which the pagans regard as kinds of\ndivinities of the fields or groves, who delighted, not so much in\ntormenting or doing harm to mankind, as in deceiving and fatiguing\nthem, diverting themselves at their expense, and sporting with their\nsimplicity.[274]\n\nPliny[275] the younger had a freed-man named Marcus, a man of letters,\nwho slept in the same bed with his brother, who was younger than\nhimself. It seemed to him that he saw a person sitting on the same\nbed, who was cutting off his hair from the crown of his head. When he\nawoke, he found his head shorn of hair, and his hair thrown on the\nground in the middle of the chamber. A little time after, the same\nthing happened to a youth who slept with several others at a school.\nThis one saw two men dressed in white come in at the window, who cut\noff his hair as he slept, and then went out by the same window: on\nawaking, he found his hair scattered about on the floor. To what can\nthese things be attributed, if not to an elf?\n\nPlotinus,[276] a Platonic philosopher, had, it is said, a familiar\ndemon, who obeyed him from the moment he called him, and was superior\nin his nature to the common genii; he was of the order of gods, and\nPlotinus paid continual attention to this divine guardian. This it was\nwhich led him to undertake a work on the demon which belongs to each\nof us in particular. He endeavors to explain the difference between\nthe genii which watch over men.\n\nTrithemius, in his Chronicon Hirsauginse,[277] under the year 1130,\nrelates that in the diocese of Hildesheim, in Saxony, they saw for\nsome time a spirit which they called in German _heidekind_, as if they\nwould say _rural genius_, _heide_ signifying vast country, _kind_,\nchild (or boy). He appeared sometimes in one form, sometimes in\nanother; and sometimes, without appearing at all, he did several\nthings by which he proved both his presence and his power. He chose\nsometimes to give very important advice to those in power; and often\nhe has been seen in the bishop's kitchen, helping the cooks and doing\nsundry jobs.\n\nA young scullion, who had grown familiar with him, having offered him\nsome insults, he warned the head cook of it, who made light of it, or\nthought nothing about it; but the spirit avenged himself cruelly. This\nyouth having fallen asleep in the kitchen, the spirit stifled him,\ntore him to pieces, and roasted him. He carried his fury still further\nagainst the officers of the kitchen, and the other officers of the\nprince. The thing went on to such a point that they were obliged to\nproceed against him by (ecclesiastical) censures, and to constrain him\nby exorcisms to go out of the country.\n\nI think I may put amongst the number of elves the spirits which are\nseen, they say, in mines and mountain caves. They appear clad like the\nminers, run here and there, appear in haste as if to work and seek the\nveins of mineral ore, lay it in heaps, draw it out, turning the wheel\nof the crane; they seem to be very busy helping the workmen, and at\nthe same time they do nothing at all.\n\nThese spirits are not mischievous, unless they are insulted and\nlaughed at; for then they fall into an ill humor, and throw things at\nthose who offend them. One of these genii, who had been addressed in\ninjurious terms by a miner, twisted his neck and placed his head the\nhind part before. The miner did not die, but remained all his life\nwith his neck twisted and awry.\n\nGeorge Agricola,[278] who has treated very learnedly on mines, metals,\nand the manner of extracting them from the bowels of the earth,\nmentions two or three sorts of spirits which appear in mines. Some are\nvery small, and resemble dwarfs or pygmies; the others are like old\nmen dressed like miners, having their shirts tucked up, and a leathern\napron round their loins; others perform, or seem to perform, what they\nsee others do, are very gay, do no harm to any one, but from all their\nlabors nothing real results.\n\nIn other mines are seen dangerous spirits, who ill-use the workmen,\nhunt them away, and sometimes kill them, and thus constrain them to\nforsake mines which are very rich and abundant. For instance, at\nAnneberg, in a mine called Crown of Rose, a spirit in the shape of a\nspirited, snorting horse, killed twelve miners, and obliged those who\nworked the mine to abandon the undertaking, though it brought them in\na great deal. In another mine, called St. Gregory, in Siveberg, there\nappeared a spirit whose head was covered with a black hood, and he\nseized a miner, raised him up to a considerable height, then let him\nfall, and hurt him extremely.\n\nOlaus Magnus[279] says that, in Sweden and other northern countries,\nthey saw formerly familiar spirits, which, under the form of men or\nwomen, waited on certain persons. He speaks of certain nymphs dwelling\nin caverns and in the depths of the forest, who announce things to\ncome; some are good, others bad; they appear and speak to those who\nconsult them. Travelers and shepherds also often see during the night\ndivers phantoms which burn the spot where they appear, so that\nhenceforward neither grass nor verdure are seen there.\n\nHe says that the people of Finland, before their conversion to\nChristianity, sold the winds to sailors, giving them a string with\nthree knots, and warning them that by untying the first knot they\nwould have a gentle and favorable wind, at the second knot a stronger\nwind, and at the third knot a violent and dangerous gale. He says,\nmoreover, that the Bothnians, striking on an anvil hard blows with a\nhammer, upon a frog or a serpent of brass, fall down in a swoon, and\nduring this swoon they learn what passes in very distant places.\n\nBut all those things have more relation to magic than to familiar\nspirits; and if what is said about them be true, it must be ascribed\nto the evil spirit.\n\nThe same Olaus Magnus[280] says that in mines, above all in silver\nmines, from which great profit may be expected, six sorts of demons\nmay be seen, who under divers forms labor at breaking the rocks,\ndrawing the buckets, and turning the wheels; who sometimes burst into\nlaughter, and play different tricks; all of which are merely to\ndeceive the miners, whom they crush under the rocks, or expose to the\nmost imminent dangers, to make them utter blasphemy, and swear and\ncurse. Several very rich mines have been obliged to be disused through\nfear of these dangerous spirits.\n\nNotwithstanding all that we have just related, I doubt very much if\nthere are any spirits in mountain caves or in mines. I have\ninterrogated on the subject people of the trade and miners by\nprofession, of whom there is a great number in our mountains, the\nVosges, who have assured me that all which is related on that point is\nfabulous; that if sometimes they see these elves or grotesque figures,\nit must be attributed to a heated and prepossessed imagination; or\nelse that the circumstance is so rare that it ought not to be repeated\nas something usual or common.\n\nA new \"Traveler in the Northern Countries,\" printed at Amsterdam, in\n1708, says that the people of Iceland are almost all conjurers or\nsorcerers; that they have familiar demons, whom they call _troles_,\nwho wait upon them as servants, and warn them of the accidents or\nillnesses which are to happen to them; they awake them to go a-fishing\nwhen the season is favorable, and if they go for that purpose without\nthe advice of these genii, they do not succeed. There are some persons\namong these people who evoke the dead, and make them appear to those\nwho wish to consult them: they also conjure up the appearance of the\nabsent far from the spot where they dwell.\n\nFather Vadingue relates, after an old manuscript legend, that a lady\nnamed Lupa had had during thirteen years a familiar demon, who served\nher as a waiting-woman, and led her into many secret irregularities,\nand induced her to treat her servants with inhumanity. God gave her\ngrace to see her fault, and to do penance for it, by the intercession\nof St. Francois d'Assise and St. Anthony of Padua, to whom she had\nalways felt particular devotion.\n\nCardan speaks of a bearded demon of Niphus, who gave him lessons of\nphilosophy.\n\nAgrippa had a demon who waited upon him in the shape of a dog. This\ndog, says Paulus Jovius, seeing his master about to expire, threw\nhimself into the Rhone.\n\nMuch is said of certain spirits[281] which are kept confined in rings,\nthat are bought, sold, or exchanged. They speak also of a crystal\nring, in which the demon represented the objects desired to be seen.\n\nSome also speak highly of those enchanted mirrors,[282] in which\nchildren see the face of a robber who is sought for; others will see\nit in their nails; all which can only be diabolical illusions.\n\nLe Loyer relates[283] that when he was studying the law at Thoulouse,\nhe was lodged near a house where an elf never ceased all the night to\ndraw water from the well, making the pulley creak all the while; at\nother times, he seemed to drag something heavy up the stairs; but he\nvery rarely entered the rooms, and then he made but little noise.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[269] Matt. xviii. 10.\n\n[270] Psalm xc. 11.\n\n[271] Isai. xiii. 22. Pilosi saltabunt ibi.\n\n[272] Isai. xxxiv. 15.\n\n[273] Cassian, Collat. vii. c. 23.\n\n[274] \"Quos seductores et joculatores esse manifestum est, cum\nnequaquam tormentis eorum, quos praetereuntes potuerint decipere,\noblectentur, sed de risu tantum modo et illusione contenti, fatigare\npotius, studeant, quam nocere.\"\n\n[275] Plin. i. 7. Epist. 27, suiv.\n\n[276] Life of Plotin. art. x.\n\n[277] Chron. Hirsaug. ad ann. 1130.\n\n[278] Geo. Agricola, de Mineral. Subterran. p. 504.\n\n[279] Olaus Mag. lib. iii. Hist. 5, 9-14.\n\n[280] Olaus Mag. lib. vi. c. 9.\n\n[281] Le Loyer, p. 474.\n\n[282] Ibid. liv. ii. p. 258.\n\n[283] Ibid, p. 550.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXX.\n\nSOME OTHER EXAMPLES OF ELVES.\n\n\nOn the 25th of August, 1746, I received a letter from a very worthy\nman, the cure of the parish of Walsche, a village situated in the\nmountains of Vosges, in the county of Dabo, or Dasburg, in Lower\nAlsatia, Diocese of Metz. In this letter, he tells me that the 10th of\nJune, 1740, at eight o'clock in the morning, he being in his kitchen,\nwith his niece and the servant, he saw on a sudden an iron pot that\nwas placed on the ground turn round three or four times, without its\nbeing set in motion by any one. A moment after, a stone, weighing\nabout a pound, was thrown from the next room into the same kitchen, in\npresence of the same persons, without their seeing the hand which\nthrew it. The next day, at nine o'clock in the morning, some panes of\nglass were broken, and through these panes were thrown some stones,\nwith what appeared to them supernatural dexterity. The spirit never\nhurt anybody, and never did anything in the night time, but always\nduring the day. The cure employed the prayers marked out in the ritual\nto bless his house, and thenceforth the genius broke no more panes of\nglass; but he continued to throw stones at the cure's people, without\nhurting them, however. If they fetched water from the fountain, he\nthrew stones into the bucket; and afterwards he began to serve in the\nkitchen. One day, as the servant was planting some cabbages in the\ngarden, he pulled them up as fast as she planted them, and laid them\nin a heap. It was in vain that she stormed, threatened, and swore in\nthe German style; the genius continued to play his tricks.\n\nOne day, when a bed in the garden had been dug and prepared, the spade\nwas found thrust two feet deep into the ground, without any trace\nbeing seen of him who had thus stuck it in; but they observed that on\nthe spade was a riband, and by the spade were two pieces of two soles,\nwhich the girl had locked up the evening before in a little box.\nSometimes he took pleasure in displacing the earthenware and pewter,\nand putting it either all round the kitchen, or in the porch, or even\nin the cemetery, and always in broad daylight. One day he filled an\niron pot with wild herbs, bran, and leaves of trees, and, having put\nsome water in it, carried it to the ally or walk in the garden;\nanother time he suspended it to the pot-hook over the fire. The\nservant having broken two eggs into a little dish for the cure's\nsupper, the genius broke two more into it in his presence, the maid\nhaving merely turned to get some salt. The cure having gone to say\nmass, on his return found all his earthenware, furniture, linen,\nbread, milk, and other things scattered about over the house.\n\nSometimes the spirit would form circles on the paved floor, at one\ntime with stones, at another with corn or leaves, and in a moment,\nbefore the eyes of all present, all was overturned and deranged. Tired\nwith these games, the cure sent for the mayor of the place, and told\nhim he was resolved to quit the parsonage house. Whilst this was\npassing, the cure's niece came in, and told them that the genius had\ntorn up the cabbages in the garden, and had put some money in a hole\nin the ground. They went there, and found things exactly as she had\nsaid. They picked up the money, which what the cure had put away in a\nplace not locked up; and in a moment after they found it anew, with\nsome liards, two by two, scattered about the kitchen.\n\nThe agents of the Count de Linange being arrived at Walsche, went to\nthe cure's house, and persuaded him that it was all the effect of a\nspell; they told him to take two pistols, and fire them off at the\nplace where he might observe there were any movements. The genius at\nthe same moment threw out of the pocket of one of these officers two\npieces of silver; and from that time he was no longer perceived in the\nhouse.\n\nThe circumstances of two pistols terminating the scenes with which the\nelf had disturbed the good cure, made him believe that this tormenting\nimp was no other than a certain bad parishioner, whom the cure had\nbeen obliged to send away from his parish, and who to revenge himself\nhad done all that we have related. If that be the case, he had\nrendered himself invisible, or he had had credit enough to send in his\nstead a familiar genius who puzzled the cure for some weeks; for, if\nhe were not bodily in this house, what had he to fear from any pistol\nshot which might have been fired at him? And if he was there bodily,\nhow could he render himself invisible?\n\nI have been told several times that a monk of the Cistercian order had\na familiar genius who attended upon him, arranged his chamber, and\nprepared everything ready for him when he was coming back from the\ncountry. They were so accustomed to this, that they expected him home\nby these signs, and he always arrived. It is affirmed of another monk\nof the same order that he had a familiar spirit, who warned him, not\nonly of what passed in the house, but also of what happened out of it;\nand one day he was awakened three times, and warned that some monks\nwere quarreling, and were ready to come to blows; he ran to the spot,\nand put an end to the dispute.\n\nSt. Sulpicius Severus[284] relates that St. Martin often had\nconversations with the Holy Virgin, and other saints, and even with\nthe demons and false gods of paganism; he talked with them, and\nlearned from them many secret things. One day, when a council was\nbeing held at Nimes, where he had not thought proper to be present,\nbut the decisions of which he desired to know, being in a boat with\nSt. Sulpicius, but apart from others, as usual with him, an angel\nappeared, and informed him what had passed in this assembly of\nbishops. Inquiry was made as to the day and hour when the council was\nheld, and it was found to be at the same hour at which the angel had\nappeared to Martin.\n\nWe have been told several times that a young ecclesiastic, in a\nseminary at Paris, had a genius who waited upon him, and arranged his\nroom and his clothes. One day, when the superior was passing by the\nchamber of the seminarist, he heard him talking with some one; he\nentered, and asked who he was conversing with. The youth affirmed that\nthere was no one in his room, and, in fact, the superior could neither\nsee nor discover any one there. Nevertheless, as he had heard their\nconversation, the young man owned that for some years he had been\nattended by a familiar genius, who rendered him every service that a\ndomestic could have done, and had promised him great advantages in\nthe ecclesiastical profession. The superior pressed him to give some\nproofs of what he said. He ordered the genius to set a chair for the\nsuperior; the genius obeyed. Information of this was sent to the\narchbishop, who did not think proper to give it publicity. The young\nclerk was sent away, and this singular adventure was buried in\nsilence.\n\nBodin[285] speaks of a person of his acquaintance who was still living\nat the time he wrote, which was in 1588. This person had a familiar\nwho from the age of thirty-seven had given him good advice respecting\nhis conduct, sometimes to correct his faults, sometimes to make him\npractice virtue, or to assist him; resolving the difficulties which he\nmight find in reading holy books, or giving him good counsel upon his\nown affairs. He usually rapped at his door at three or four o'clock in\nthe morning to awaken him; and as that person mistrusted all these\nthings, fearing that it might be an evil angel, the spirit showed\nhimself in broad day, striking gently on a glass bowl, and then upon a\nbench. When he desired to do anything good and useful, the spirit\ntouched his right ear; but if it was anything wrong and dangerous, he\ntouched his left ear; so that from that time nothing occurred to him\nof which he was not warned beforehand. Sometimes he heard his voice;\nand one day, when he found his life in imminent danger, he saw his\ngenius, under the form of a child of extraordinary beauty, who saved\nhim from it.\n\nWilliam, Bishop of Paris,[286] says that he knew a rope-dancer who had\na familiar spirit which played and joked with him, and prevented him\nfrom sleeping, throwing something against the wall, dragging off the\nbed-clothes, or pulling him about when he was in bed. We know by the\naccount of a very sensible person that it has happened to him in the\nopen country, and in the day time, to feel his cloak and boots pulled\nat, and his hat thrown down; then he heard the bursts of laughter and\nthe voice of a person deceased and well known to him, who seemed to\nrejoice at it.\n\nThe discovery of things hidden or unknown, which is made in dreams, or\notherwise, can hardly be ascribed to anything but to familiar spirits.\nA man who did not know a word of Greek came to M. de Saumaise, senior,\na counselor of the Parliament of Dijon, and showed him these words,\nwhich he had heard in the night, as he slept, and which he wrote down\nin French characters on awaking: \"_Apithi ouc osphraine ten sen\napsychian_.\" He asked him what that meant. M. de Saumaise told him it\nmeant, \"Save yourself; do you not perceive the death with which you\nare threatened?\" Upon this hint, the man removed, and left his house,\nwhich fell down the following night.[287]\n\nThe same story is related, with a little difference, by another\nauthor, who says that the circumstance happened at Paris;[288] that\nthe genius spoke in Syriac, and that M. de Saumaise being consulted,\nreplied, \"Go out of your house, for it will fall in ruins to-day, at\nnine o'clock in the evening.\" It is but too much the custom in\nreciting stories of this kind to add a few circumstances by way of\nembellishment.\n\nGassendi, in the Life of M. Peiresch, relates that M. Peiresch, going\none day to Nismes, with one of his friends, named M. Rainier, the\nlatter, having heard Peiresch talking in his sleep in the night, waked\nhim, and asked him what he said. Peiresch answered him, \"I dreamed\nthat, being at Nismes, a jeweler had offered me a medal of Julius\nCaesar, for which he asked four crowns, and as I was going to count him\ndown his money, you waked me, to my great regret.\" They arrived at\nNismes, and going about the town, Peiresch recognized the goldsmith\nwhom he had seen in his dream; and on his asking him if he had nothing\ncurious, the goldsmith told him he had a gold medal, or coin, of\nJulius Caesar. Peiresch asked him how much he esteemed it worth; he\nreplied, four crowns. Peiresch paid them, and was delighted to see his\ndream so happily accomplished.\n\nHere is a dream much more singular than the preceding, although a\nlittle in the same style.[289] A learned man of Dijon, after having\nwearied himself all day with an important passage in a Greek poet,\nwithout being able to comprehend it at all, went to bed thinking of\nthis difficulty. During his sleep, his genius transported him in\nspirit to Stockholm, introduced him into the palace of Queen\nChristina, conducted him into the library, and showed him a small\nvolume, which was precisely what he sought. He opened it, read in it\nten or twelve Greek verses, which absolutely cleared up the difficulty\nwhich had so long beset him; he awoke, and wrote down the verses he\nhad seen at Stockholm. On the morrow, he wrote to M. Descartes, who\nwas then in Sweden, and begged of him to look in such a place, and in\nsuch a _division_ of the library, if the book, of which he sent him\nthe description, were there, and if the Greek verses which he sent him\nwere to be read in it.\n\nM. Descartes replied that he had found the book in question; and also\nthe verses he had sent were in the place he pointed out; that one of\nhis friends had promised him a copy of that work, and he would send it\nhim by the first opportunity.\n\nWe have already said something of the spirit, or familiar genius of\nSocrates, which prevented him from doing certain things, but did not\nlead him to do others. It is asserted[290] that, after the defeat of\nthe Athenian army, commanded by Laches, Socrates, flying like the\nothers, with this Athenian general, and being arrived at a spot where\nseveral roads met, Socrates would not follow the road taken by the\nother fugitives; and when they asked him the reason, he replied,\nbecause his genius drew him away from it. The event justified his\nforesight. All those who had taken the other road were either killed\nor made prisoners by the enemy's cavalry.\n\nIt is doubtful whether the elves, of which so many things are related,\nare good or bad spirits; for the faith of the church admits nothing\nbetween these two kinds of genii. Every genius is either good or bad;\nbut as there are in heaven many mansions, as the Gospel says,[291] and\nas there are among the blessed, various degrees of glory, differing\nfrom each other, so we may believe that there are in hell various\ndegrees of pain and punishment for the damned and the demons.\n\nBut are they not rather magicians, who render themselves invisible,\nand divert themselves in disquieting the living? Why do they attach\nthemselves to certain spots, and certain persons, rather than to\nothers? Why do they make themselves perceptible only during a certain\ntime, and that sometimes a short space?\n\nI could willingly conclude that what is said of them is mere fancy and\nprejudice; but their reality has been so often experienced by the\ndiscourse they have held, and the actions they have performed in the\npresence of many wise and enlightened persons, that I cannot persuade\nmyself that among the great number of stories related of them there\nare not at least some of them true.\n\nIt may be remarked that these elves never lead one to anything good,\nto prayer, or piety, to the love of God, or to godly and serious\nactions. If they do no other harm, they leave hurtful doubts about the\npunishments of the damned, on the efficacy of prayer and exorcisms; if\nthey hurt not those men or animals which are found on the spot where\nthey may be perceived, it is because God sets bounds to their malice\nand power. The demon has a thousand ways of deceiving us. All those to\nwhom these genii attach themselves have a horror of them, mistrust and\nfear them; and it rarely happens that these familiar demons do not\nlead them to a dangerous end, unless they deliver themselves from them\nby grave acts of religion and penance.\n\nThere is the story of a spirit, \"which,\" says he who wrote it to me,\n\"I no more doubt the truth of than if I had been a witness of it.\"\nCount Despilliers, the father, being a young man, and captain of\ncuirassiers, was in winter quarters in Flanders. One of his men came\nto him one day to beg that he would change his landlord, saying that\nevery night there came into his bed-room a spirit, which would not\nallow him to sleep. The Count Despilliers sent him away, and laughed\nat his simplicity. Some days after, the same horseman came back and\nmade the same request to him; the only reply of the captain would\nhave been a volley of blows with a stick, had not the soldier avoided\nthem by a prompt flight. At last, he returned a third time to the\ncharge, and protested to his captain that he could bear it no longer,\nand should be obliged to desert if his lodgings were not changed.\nDespilliers, who knew the soldier to be brave and reasonable, said to\nhim, with an oath, \"I will go this night and sleep with you, and see\nwhat is the matter.\"\n\nAt ten o'clock in the evening, the captain repaired to his soldier's\nlodging, and having laid his pistols ready primed upon the table, he\nlay down in his clothes, his sword by his side, with his soldier, in a\nbed without curtains. About midnight he heard something which came\ninto the room, and in a moment turned the bed upside down, covering\nthe captain and the soldier with the mattress and paillasse.\nDespilliers had great trouble to disengage himself and find again his\nsword and pistols, and he returned home much confounded. The\nhorse-soldier had a new lodging the very next day, and slept quietly\nin the house of his new host.\n\nM. Despilliers related this adventure to any one who would listen to\nit. He was an intrepid man, who had never known what it was to fall\nback before danger. He died field-marshal of the armies of the Emperor\nCharles VI. and governor of the fortress of Segedin. His son has\nconfirmed this adventure to me within a short time, as having heard it\nfrom his father.\n\nThe person who writes to me adds: \"I doubt not that spirits sometimes\nreturn; but I have found myself in a great many places which it was\nsaid they haunted. I have even tried several times to see them, but I\nhave never seen any. I found myself once with more than four thousand\npersons, who all said they saw the spirit; I was the only one in the\nassembly who saw nothing.\" So writes me a very worthy officer, this\nyear, 1745, in the same letter wherein he relates the affair of M.\nDespilliers.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[284] St. Sulpit. Sever. Dialog. ii. c. 14, 15.\n\n[285] Bodin Demonomania, lib. ii. c. 2.\n\n[286] Guillelm. Paris, 2 Part. quaest. 2, c. 8.\n\n[287] Grot. Epist. Part. ii. Ep. 405.\n\n[288] They affirm that it happened at Dijon, in the family of the MM.\nSurmin, in which a constant tradition has perpetuated the memory of\nthe circumstance.\n\n[289] Continuation of the Count de Gabalis, at the Hague, 1708, p. 55.\n\n[290] Cicero, de Divinat. lib. i.\n\n[291] John xiv. 2.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXI.\n\nSPIRITS THAT KEEP WATCH OVER TREASURE.\n\n\nEverybody acknowledges that there is an infinity of riches buried in\nthe earth, or lost under the waters by shipwrecks; they fancy that the\ndemon, whom they look upon as the god of riches, the god _Mammon_, the\nPluto of the pagans, is the depositary, or at least the guardian, of\nthese treasures. He said to Jesus Christ,[292] when he tempted him in\nthe wilderness, showing to him all the kingdoms of the earth, and\ntheir glory: \"All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall\ndown and worship me.\" We know also that the ancients very often\ninterred vast treasures in the tombs of the dead; either that the dead\nmight make use of them in the other world, or that their souls might\nkeep guard over them in those gloomy places. Job seems to make\nallusion to this ancient custom, when he says,[293] \"Would to God I\nhad never been born: I should now sleep with the kings and great ones\nof the earth, who built themselves solitary places; like unto those\nwho seek for treasure, and are rejoiced when they find a tomb;\"\ndoubtless because they hope to find great riches therein.\n\nThere were very precious things in the tomb of Cyrus. Semiramis caused\nto be engraved on her own mausoleum that it contained great riches.\nJosephus[294] relates that Solomon placed great treasures in the tomb\nof David his father; and that the High-Priest Hyrcanus, being besieged\nin Jerusalem by King Antiochus, took thence three thousand talents. He\nsays, moreover, that years after, Herod the Great having caused this\ntomb to be searched, took from it large sums. We see several laws\nagainst those who violate sepulchres to take out of them the precious\nthings they contain. The Emperor Marcianus[295] forbade that riches\nshould be hidden in tombs. If such things have been placed in the\nmausoleums of worthy and holy persons, and if they have been\ndiscovered through the revelation of the good spirits of persons who\ndied in the faith and grace of God, we cannot conclude from those\nthings that all hidden treasures are in the power of the demon, and\nthat he alone knows anything of them; the good angels know of them;\nand the saints may be much more faithful guardians of them than the\ndemons, who usually have no power to enrich, or to deliver from the\nhorrors of poverty, from punishment and death itself, those who yield\nthemselves to them in order to receive some reward from them.\n\nMelancthon relates[296] that the demon informed a priest where a\ntreasure was hid; the priest, accompanied by one of his friends, went\nto the spot indicated; they saw there a black dog lying on a chest.\nThe priest, having entered to take out the treasure, was crushed and\nsmothered under the ruins of the cavern.\n\nM. Remy[297], in his Demonology, speaks of several persons whose\ncauses he had heard in his quality of Lieutenant-General of Lorraine,\nat the time when that country swarmed with wizards and witches; those\namongst them who believed they had received money from the demon,\nfound nothing in their purses but bits of broken pots, coals, or\nleaves of trees, or other things equally vile and contemptible.\n\nThe Reverend Father Abram, a Jesuit, in his manuscript History of the\nUniversity of Pont a Mousson, reports that a youth of good family, but\nsmall fortune, placed himself at first to serve in the army among the\nvalets and serving men: from thence his parents sent him to school,\nbut not liking the subjection which study requires, he quitted the\nschool and returned to his former kind of life. On his way he met a\nman dressed in a silk coat, but ill-looking, dark, and hideous, who\nasked him where he was going to, and why he looked so sad: \"I am able\nto set you at your ease,\" said this man to him, \"if you will give\nyourself to me.\"\n\nThe young man, believing that he wished to engage him as a servant,\nasked for time to reflect upon it; but beginning to mistrust the\nmagnificent promises which he made him, he looked at him more\nnarrowly, and having remarked that his left foot was divided like that\nof an ox, he was seized with affright, made the sign of the cross, and\ncalled on the name of Jesus, when the spectre directly disappeared.\n\nThree days after, the same figure appeared to him again, and asked him\nif he had made up his mind; the young man replied that he did not want\na master. The spectre said to him, \"Where are you going?\" \"I am going\nto such a town,\" replied he. At that moment the demon threw at his\nfeet a purse which chinked, and which he found filled with thirty or\nforty Flemish crowns, amongst which were about twelve which appeared\nto be gold, newly coined, and as if from the stamps of the coiner. In\nthe same purse was a powder, which the spectre said was of a very\nsubtile quality.\n\nAt the same time, he gave him abominable counsels to satisfy the most\nshameful passions; and exhorted him to renounce the use of holy water,\nand the adoration of the host--which he called in derision that little\ncake. The boy was horrified at these proposals, and made the sign of\nthe cross on his heart; and at the same time he felt himself thrown\nroughly down on the ground, where he remained for half an hour, half\ndead. Having got up again, he returned home to his mother, did\npenance, and changed his conduct. The pieces of money which looked\nlike gold and newly coined, having been put in the fire, were found to\nbe only of copper.\n\nI relate this instance to show that the demon seeks only to deceive\nand corrupt even those to whom he makes the most specious promises,\nand to whom he seems to give great riches.\n\nSome years ago, two monks, both of them well informed and prudent men,\nconsulted me upon a circumstance which occurred at Orbe, a village of\nAlsatia, near the Abbey of Pairis. Two men of that place told them\nthat they had seen come out of the ground a small box or casket, which\nthey supposed was full of money, and having a wish to lay hold of it,\nit had retreated from them and hidden itself again under ground. This\nhappened to them more than once.\n\nTheophanes, a celebrated and grave Greek historiographer, under the\nyear of our era 408, relates that Cabades, King of Persia, being\ninformed that between the Indian country and Persia there was a castle\ncalled Zubdadeyer, which contained a great quantity of gold, silver,\nand precious stones, resolved to make himself master of it; but these\ntreasures were guarded by demons, who would not permit any one to\napproach it. He employed some of the magi and some Jews who were with\nhim to conjure and exorcise them; but their efforts were useless. The\nking bethought himself of the God of the Christians--prayed to him,\nand sent for the bishop who was at the head of the Christian church in\nPersia, and begged of him to use his efforts to obtain for him these\ntreasures, and to expel the demons by whom they were guarded. The\nprelate offered the holy sacrifice, participated in it, and going to\nthe spot, drove away the demons who were guardians of these riches,\nand put the king in peaceable possession of the castle.\n\nRelating this story to a man of some rank,[298] he told me, that in\nthe Isle of Malta, two knights having hired a slave, who boasted that\nhe possessed the secret of evoking demons, and forcing them to\ndiscover the most hidden secrets, they led him into an old castle,\nwhere it was thought that treasures were concealed. The slave\nperformed his evocations, and at last the demon opened a rock whence\nissued a coffer. The slave would have taken hold of it, but the coffer\nwent back into the rock. This occurred more than once; and the slave,\nafter vain efforts, came and told the knights what had happened to\nhim; but he was so much exhausted that he had need of some\nrestorative; they gave him refreshment, and when he had returned they\nafter a while heard a noise. They went into the cave with a light, to\nsee what had happened, and they found the slave lying dead, and all\nhis flesh full of cuts as of a penknife, in form of a cross; he was so\ncovered with them that there was not room to place a finger where he\nwas not thus marked. The knights carried him to the shore, and threw\nhim into the sea with a great stone hung round his neck. We could name\nthese persons and note the dates, were it necessary.\n\nThe same person related to us, at that same time, that about ninety\nyears before, an old woman of Malta was warned by a genius that there\nwas a great deal of treasure in her cellar, belonging to a knight of\nhigh consideration, and desired her to give him information of it; she\nwent to his abode, but could not obtain an audience. The following\nnight the same genius returned, and gave her the same command; and as\nshe refused to obey, he abused her, and again sent her on the same\nerrand. The next day she returned to seek this lord, and told the\ndomestics that she would not go away until she had spoken to the\nmaster. She related what had happened to her; and the knight resolved\nto go to her dwelling, accompanied by people with the proper\ninstruments for digging; they dug, and very shortly there sprung up\nsuch a quantity of water from the spot where they inserted their\npickaxes that they were obliged to give up the undertaking.\n\nThe knight confessed to the Inquisitor what he had done, and received\nabsolution for it; but he was obliged to inscribe the fact we have\nrecounted in the Registers of the Inquisition.\n\nAbout sixty years after, the canons of the Cathedral of Malta, wishing\nfor a wider space before their church, bought some houses which it was\nnecessary to pull down, and amongst others that which had belonged to\nthat old woman. As they were digging there, they found the treasure,\nconsisting of a good many gold pieces of the value of a ducat, bearing\nthe effigy of the Emperor Justinian the First. The Grand Master of the\nOrder of Malta affirmed that the treasure belonged to him as sovereign\nof the isle; the canons contested the point. The affair was carried to\nRome; the grand master gained his suit, and the gold was brought to\nhim, amounting in value to about sixty thousand ducats; but he gave\nthem up to the cathedral.\n\nSome time afterwards, the knight of whom we have spoken, who was then\nvery aged, remembered what had happened to himself, and asserted that\nthe treasure ought to belong to him; he made them lead him to the\nspot, recognized the cellar where he had formerly been, and pointed\nout in the Register of the Inquisition what had been written therein\nsixty years before. They did not permit him to recover the treasure;\nbut it was a proof that the demon knew of and kept watch over this\nmoney. The person who told me this story has in his possession three\nor four of these gold pieces, having bought them of the canons.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[292] Matt. iv. 8.\n\n[293] Job iii. 13, 14, 22.\n\n[294] Joseph. Ant. lib. xiii.\n\n[295] Martian. lib. iv.\n\n[296] Le Loyer, liv. ii. p. 495.\n\n[297] Remy, Demonol. c. iv. Ann. 1605.\n\n[298] M. le Chevalier Guiot de Marre.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXII.\n\nOTHER INSTANCES OF HIDDEN TREASURES WHICH WERE GUARDED BY GOOD OR BAD\nSPIRITS.\n\n\nWe read in a new work that a man, Honore Mirable, having found in a\ngarden near Marseilles a treasure consisting of several Portuguese\npieces of gold, from the indication given him by a spectre, which\nappeared to him at eleven o'clock at night, near the _Bastide_, or\ncountry house called _du Paret_, he made the discovery of it in\npresence of the woman who farmed the land of this _Bastide_, and the\nfarm-servant named Bernard. When he first perceived the treasure\nburied in the earth, and wrapt up in a bundle of old linen, he was\nafraid to touch it, for fear it should be poisoned and cause his\ndeath. He raised it by means of a hook made of a branch of the almond\ntree, and carried it into his room, where he undid it without any\nwitness, and found in it a great deal of gold; to satisfy the wishes\nof the spirit who had appeared to him, he caused some masses to be\nsaid for him. He revealed his good fortune to a countryman of his,\nnamed Anquier, who lent him forty livres, and gave him a note by which\nhe acknowledged he owed him twenty thousand livres and receipted the\npayment of the forty livres lent; this note bore date the 27th\nSeptember, 1726.\n\nSome time after, Mirable asked Anquier to pay the note. Anquier denied\neverything. A great lawsuit ensued; informations were taken and\nperquisitions held in Anquier's house; sentence was given on the 10th\nof September, 1727, importing that Anquier should be arrested, and\nhave the question applied to him. An appeal was made to the Parliament\nof Aix. Anquier's note was declared a forgery. Bernard, who was said\nto have been present at the discovery of the treasure, was not cited\nat all; the other witnesses only deposed from hearsay; Magdalen\nCaillot alone, who was present, acknowledged having seen the packet\nwrapped round with linen, and had heard a ringing as of pieces of gold\nor silver, and had seen one of them, a piece about as large as a piece\nof two liards.\n\nThe Parliament of Aix issued its decree the 17th of February, 1728, by\nwhich it ordained that Bernard, farming servant at the _Bastide du\nParet_, should be heard; he was heard on different days, and deposed\nthat he had seen neither treasure, nor rags, nor gold pieces. Then\ncame another decree of the 2d of June, 1728, which ordered that the\nattorney-general should proceed by way of ecclesiastical censures on\nthe facts resulting from these proceedings.\n\nThe indictment was published, fifty-three witnesses were heard;\nanother sentence of the 18th of February, 1729, discharged Anquier\nfrom the courts and the lawsuit; condemned Mirable to the galleys to\nperpetuity after having previously undergone the question; and Caillot\nwas to pay a fine of ten francs. Such was the end of this grand\nlawsuit. If we examine narrowly these stories of spectres who watch\nover treasures, we shall doubtless find, as here, a great deal of\nsuperstition, deception, and fancy.\n\nDelrio relates some instances of people who have been put to death, or\nwho have perished miserably as they searched for hidden treasures. In\nall this we may perceive the spirit of lying and seduction on the part\nof the demon, bounds set to his power, and his malice arrested by the\nwill of God; the impiety of man, his avarice, his idle curiosity, the\nconfidence which he places in the angel of darkness, by the loss of\nhis wealth, his life, and his soul.\n\nJohn Wierus, in his work entitled \"_De Praestigiis Daemonum_,\" printed\nat Basle in 1577, relates that in his time, 1430, the demon revealed\nto a certain priest at Nuremberg some treasures hidden in a cavern\nnear the town, and enclosed in a crystal vase. The priest took one of\nhis friends with him as a companion; they began to dig up the ground\nin the spot designated, and they discovered in a subterranean cavern a\nkind of chest, near which a black dog was lying; the priest eagerly\nadvanced to seize the treasure, but hardly had he entered the cavern,\nthan it fell in, crushed the priest, and was filled up with earth as\nbefore.\n\nThe following is extracted from a letter, written from Kirchheim,\nJanuary 1st, 1747, to M. Schopfflein, Professor of History and\nEloquence at Strasburg. \"It is now more than a year ago that M.\nCavallari, first musician of my serene master, and by birth a\nVenetian, desired to have the ground dug up at Rothenkirchen, a league\nfrom hence, and which was formerly a renowned abbey, and was destroyed\nin the time of the Reformation. The opportunity was afforded him by an\napparition, which showed itself more than once at noonday to the wife\nof the Censier of Rothenkirchen, and above all, on the 7th of May for\ntwo succeeding years. She swears, and can make oath, that she has seen\na venerable priest in pontifical garments embroidered with gold, who\nthrew before her a great heap of stones; and although she is a\nLutheran, and consequently not very credulous in things of that kind,\nshe thinks nevertheless that if she had had the presence of mind to\nput down a handkerchief or an apron, all the stones would have become\nmoney.\n\n\"M. Cavallari then asked leave to dig there, which was the more\nreadily granted, because the tithe or tenth part of the treasure is\ndue to the sovereign. He was treated as a visionary, and the matter of\ntreasure was regarded as an unheard-of thing. In the mean time, he\nlaughed at the anticipated ridicule, and asked me if I would go halves\nwith him. I did not hesitate a moment to accept this offer; but I was\nmuch surprised to find there were some little earthen pots full of\ngold pieces, all these pieces finer than the ducats of the fourteenth\nand fifteenth century generally are. I have had for my share 666,\nfound at three different times. There are some of the Archbishops of\nMayence, Treves, and Cologne, of the towns of Oppenheim, Baccarat,\nBingen, and Coblentz; there are some also of the Palatine Rupert, of\nFrederic, Burgrave of Nuremberg, some few of Wenceslaus, and one of\nthe Emperor Charles IV., &c.\"\n\nThis shows that not only the demons, but also the saints, are\nsometimes guardians of treasure; unless you will say that the devil\nhad taken the shape of the prelate. But what could it avail the demon\nto give the treasure to these gentlemen, who did not ask him for it,\nand scarcely troubled themselves about him? I have seen two of these\npieces in the hands of M. Schopfflein.\n\nThe story we have just related is repeated, with a little difference,\nin a printed paper, announcing a lottery of pieces found at\nRothenkirchen, in the province of Nassau, not far from Donnersberg.\nThey say in this, that the value of these pieces is twelve livres ten\nsols, French money. The lottery was to be publicly drawn the first of\nFebruary, 1750. Every ticket cost six livres of French money. I repeat\nthese details only to prove the truth of the circumstance.\n\nWe may add to the preceding what is related by Bartholinus in his book\non the cause of the contempt of death shown by the ancient Danes,\n(lib. ii. c. 2.) He relates that the riches concealed in the tombs of\nthe great men of that country were guarded by the shades of those to\nwhom they belonged, and that these shades or these demons spread\nterror in the souls of those who wished to take away those treasures,\neither by pouring forth a deluge of water, or by flames which they\ncaused to appear around the monuments which enclosed those bodies and\nthose treasures.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXIII.\n\nSPECTRES WHICH APPEAR, AND PREDICT THINGS UNKNOWN AND TO COME.\n\n\nBoth in ancient and modern writers, we find an infinite number of\nstories of spectres. We have not the least doubt that their\napparitions are the work of the demon, if they are real. Now, it\ncannot be denied that there is a great deal of illusion and falsehood\nin all that is related by them. We shall distinguish two sorts of\nspectres: those which appear to mankind to hurt or deceive them, or to\nannounce things to come, fortunate or unfortunate as circumstances may\noccur; the other spectres infest certain houses, of which they have\nmade themselves masters, and where they are seen and heard. We shall\ntreat of the latter in another chapter; and show that the greater\nnumber of these spectres and apparitions may be suspected of\nfalsehood.\n\nPliny the younger, writing to his friend Sura on the subject of\napparitions, testifies that he is much inclined to believe them true;\nand the reason he gives, is what happened to Quintus Curtius Rufus,\nwho, having gone into Africa in the train of the quaestor or treasurer\nfor the Romans, walking one day towards evening under a portico, saw a\nwoman of uncommon height and beauty, who told him that she was Africa,\nand assured him that he would one day return into that same country as\nproconsul. This promise inspired him with high hopes; and by his\nintrigues, and help of friends, whom he had bribed, he obtained the\nquaestorship, and afterwards was praetor, through the favor of the\nEmperor Tiberius.\n\nThis dignity having veiled the obscurity and baseness of his birth, he\nwas sent proconsul to Africa, where he died, after having obtained the\nhonors of the triumph. It is said that, on his return to Africa, the\nsame person who had predicted his future grandeur appeared to him\nagain at the moment of his landing at Carthage.\n\nThese predictions, so precise, and so exactly followed up, made Pliny\nthe younger believe that predictions of this kind are never made in\nvain. The story of Curtius Rufus was written by Tacitus, long enough\nbefore Pliny's time, and he might have taken it from Tacitus.\n\nAfter the fatal death of Caligula, who was massacred in his palace, he\nwas buried half burnt in his own gardens. The princesses, his sisters,\non their return from exile, had his remains burnt with ceremony, and\nhonorably inhumed; but it was averred that before this was done, those\nwho had to watch over the gardens and the palace had every night been\ndisturbed by phantoms and frightful noises.\n\nThe following instance is so extraordinary that I should not repeat it\nif the account were not attested by more than one writer, and also\npreserved in the public monuments of a considerable town of Upper\nSaxony: this town is Hamelin, in the principality of Kalenberg, at the\nconfluence of the rivers Hamel and Weser.\n\nIn the year 1384, this town was infested by such a prodigious\nmultitude of rats that they ravaged all the corn which was laid up in\nthe granaries; everything was employed that art and experience could\ninvent to chase them away, and whatever is usually employed against\nthis kind of animals. At that time there came to the town an unknown\nperson, of taller stature than ordinary, dressed in a robe of divers\ncolors, who engaged to deliver them from that scourge for a certain\nrecompense, which was agreed upon.\n\nThen he drew from his sleeve a flute, at the sound of which all the\nrats came out of their holes and followed him; he led them straight to\nthe river, into which they ran and were drowned. On his return he\nasked for the promised reward, which was refused him, apparently on\naccount of the facility with which he had exterminated the rats. The\nnext day, which was a fete day, he chose the moment when the elder\ninhabitants of the burgh were at church, and by means of another flute\nwhich he began to play, all the boys in the town above the age of\nfourteen, to the number of a hundred and thirty, assembled around him:\nhe led them to the neighboring mountain, named Kopfelberg, under which\nis a sewer for the town, and where criminals are executed; these boys\ndisappeared and were never seen afterwards.\n\nA young girl, who had followed at a distance, was witness of the\nmatter, and brought the news of it to the town.\n\nThey still show a hollow in this mountain, where they say that he made\nthe boys go in. At the corner of this opening is an inscription, which\nis so old that it cannot now be deciphered; but the story is\nrepresented on the panes of the church windows; and it is said, that\nin the public deeds of this town it is still the custom to put the\ndates in this manner--_Done in the year ----, after the disappearance\nof our children._[299]\n\nIf this recital is not wholly fabulous, as it seems to be, we can only\nregard this man as a spectre and an evil genius, who, by God's\npermission, punished the bad faith of the burghers in the persons of\ntheir children, although innocent of their parents' fault. It might\nbe, that a man could have some natural secret to draw the rats\ntogether and precipitate them into the river; but only diabolical\nmalice would cause so many innocent children to perish, out of revenge\non their fathers.\n\nJulius Caesar[300] having entered Italy, and wishing to pass the\nRubicon, perceived a man of more than ordinary stature, who began to\nwhistle. Several soldiers having run to listen to him, this spectre\nseized the trumpet of one of them, and began to sound the alarm, and\nto pass the river. Caesar at that moment, without further deliberation,\nsaid, \"Let us go where the presages of the gods and the injustice of\nour enemies call upon us to advance.\"\n\nThe Emperor Trajan[301] was extricated from the town of Antioch by a\nphantom, which made him go out at a widow, in the midst of that\nterrible earthquake which overthrew almost all the town. The\nphilosopher Simonides[302] was warned by a spectre that his house was\nabout to fall; he went out of it directly, and soon after it fell\ndown.\n\nThe Emperor Julian, the apostate, told his friends that at the time\nwhen his troops were pressing him to accept the empire, being at\nParis, he saw during the night a spectre in the form of a woman, as\nthe genius of an empire is depicted, who presented herself to remain\nwith him; but she gave him notice that it would be only for a short\ntime. The same emperor related, moreover, that writing in his tent a\nlittle before his death, his familiar genius appeared to him, leaving\nthe tent with a sad and afflicted air. Shortly before the death of the\nEmperor Constans, the same Julian had a vision in the night, of a\nluminous phantom, who pronounced and repeated to him, more than once,\nfour Greek verses, importing that when Jupiter should be in the sign\nof the water-pot, or Aquarius, and Saturn in the 25th degree of the\nVirgin, Constans would end his life in Asia in a shocking manner.\n\nThe same Emperor Julian takes Jupiter[303] to witness that he has\noften seen Esculapius, who cured him of his sicknesses.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[299] See Vagenseil _Opera liborum Juvenil._ tom. ii. p. 295, the\nGeography of Hubner, and the Geographical Dictionary of la Martiniere,\nunder the name Hamelen.\n\n[300] Sueton. in Jul. Caesar.\n\n[301] Dio. Cassius. lib. lxviii.\n\n[302] Diogen. Laert. in Simon. Valer. Maxim. lib. xxiii.\n\n[303] Julian, apud Cyrill. Alex.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXIV.\n\nOTHER APPARITIONS OF SPECTRES.\n\n\nPlutarch, whose gravity and wisdom are well known, often speaks of\nspectres and apparitions. He says, for instance, that at the famous\nbattle of Marathon against the Persians, several soldiers saw the\nphantom of Thesus, who fought for the Greeks against the enemy.\n\nThe same Plutarch, in the life of Sylla, says that that general saw in\nhis sleep the goddess whom the Romans worshiped according to the rites\nof the Cappadocians (who were fire-worshipers), whether it might be\nBellona or Minerva, or the moon. This divinity presented herself\nbefore Sylla, and put into his hand a kind of thunderbolt, telling him\nto launch it against his enemies, whom she named to him one after the\nother; at the same time that he struck them, he saw them fall and\nexpire at his feet. There is reason to believe that this same goddess\nwas Minerva, to whom, as to Jupiter Paganism attributes the right to\nhurl the thunderbolt; or rather that it was a demon.\n\nPausanias, general of the Lacedemonians,[304] having inadvertently\nkilled Cleonice, a daughter of one of the first families of Byzantium,\nwas tormented night and day by the ghost of that maiden, who left him\nno repose, repeating to him angrily a heroic verse, the sense of which\nwas, _Go before the tribunal of justice, which punishes crime and\nawaits thee. Insolence is in the end fatal to mortals_.\n\nPausanias, always disturbed by this image, which followed him\neverywhere, retired to Heraclea in Elis, where there was a temple\nserved by priests who were magicians, called _Psychagogues_, that is\nto say, who profess to evoke the souls of the dead. There Pausanias,\nafter having offered the customary libations and funeral effusions,\ncalled upon the spirit of Cleonice, and conjured her to renounce her\nanger against him. Cleonice at last appeared, and told him that very\nsoon, when he should be arrived at Sparta, he would be freed from his\nwoes, wishing apparently by these mysterious words to indicate that\ndeath which awaited him there.\n\nWe see there the custom of evocations of the dead distinctly pointed\nout, and solemnly practiced in a temple consecrated to these\nceremonies; that demonstrates at least the belief and custom of the\nGreeks. And if Cleonice really appeared to Pausanias and announced his\napproaching death, can we deny that the evil spirit, or the spirit of\nCleonice, is the author of this prediction, unless indeed it were a\ntrick of the priests, which is likely enough, and as the ambiguous\nreply given to Pausanias seems to insinuate.\n\nPausanias the historian[305] writes that, 400 years after the battle\nof Marathon, every night a noise was heard there of the neighing of\nhorses, and cries like those of soldiers exciting themselves to\ncombat. Plutarch speaks also of spectres which were seen, and\nfrightful howlings that were heard in some public baths, where they\nhad put to death several citizens of Chaeronea, his native place; they\nhad even been obliged to shut up these baths, which did not prevent\nthose who lived near from continuing to hear great noises, and seeing\nfrom time to time spectres.\n\nDion the philosopher, the disciple of Plato, and general of the\nSyracusans, being one day seated, towards the evening, very full of\nthought, in the portico of his house, heard a great noise, then\nperceived a terrible spectre of a woman of monstrous height, who\nresembled one of the furies, as they are depicted in tragedies; there\nwas still daylight, and she began to sweep the house. Dion, quite\nalarmed, sent to beg his friends to come and see him, and stay with\nhim all night; but this woman appeared no more. A short time\nafterwards, his son threw himself down from the top of the house, and\nhe himself was assassinated by conspirators.\n\nMarcus Brutus, one of the murderers of Julius Caesar, being in his tent\nduring a night which was not very dark, towards the third hour of the\nnight, beheld a monstrous and terrific figure enter. \"Who art thou? a\nman or a God? and why comest thou here?\" The spectre answered, \"I am\nthine evil genius. Thou shalt see me at Philippi!\" Brutus replied\nundauntedly, \"I will meet thee there.\" And on going out, he went and\nrelated the circumstance to Cassius, who being of the sect of\nEpicurus, and a disbeliever in that kind of apparition, told him that\nit was mere imagination; that there were no genii or other kind of\nspirits which could appear unto men, and that even did they appear,\nthey would have neither the human form nor the human voice, and could\ndo nothing to harm us. Although Brutus was a little reassured by this\nreasoning, still it did not remove all his uneasiness.\n\nBut the same Cassius, in the campaign of Philippi, and in the midst of\nthe combat, saw Julius Caesar, whom he had assassinated, who came up to\nhim at full gallop: which frightened him so much that at last he threw\nhimself upon his own sword. Cassius of Parma, a different person from\nhim of whom we have spoken above, saw an evil genius, who came into\nhis tent, and declared to him his approaching death.\n\nDrusus, when making war on the Germans (Allemani) during the time of\nAugustus, desiring to cross the Elbe, in order to penetrate farther\ninto the country, was prevented from so doing by a woman of taller\nstature than common, who appeared to him and said, \"Drusus, whither\nwilt thou go? wilt thou never be satisfied? Thy end is near--go back\nfrom hence.\" He retraced his steps, and died before he reached the\nRhine, which he desired to recross.\n\nSt. Gregory of Nicea, in the Life of St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, says\nthat, during a great plague which ravaged the city of Neocesarea,\nspectres were seen in open day, who entered houses, into which they\ncarried certain death.\n\nAfter the famous sedition which happened at Antioch, in the time of\nthe Emperor Theodosius, they beheld a kind of fury running about the\ntown, with a whip, which she lashed about like a coachman who hastens\non his horses.\n\nSt. Martin, Bishop of Tours, being at Treves, entered a house, where\nhe found a spectre which frightened him at first. Martin commanded him\nto leave the body which he possessed: instead of going out (of the\nplace), he entered the body of another man who was in the same\ndwelling; and throwing himself upon those who were there, began to\nattack and bite them. Martin threw himself across his way, put his\nfingers in his mouth, and defied him to bite him. The demoniac\nretreated, as if a bar of red-hot iron had been placed in his mouth,\nand at last the demon went out of the body of the possessed, not by\nthe mouth but behind.\n\nJohn, Bishop of Atria, who lived in the sixth century, in speaking of\nthe great plague which happened under the Emperor Justinian, and which\nis mentioned by almost all the historians of that time, says that they\nsaw boats of brass, containing black men without heads, which sailed\nupon the sea, and went towards the places where the plague was\nbeginning its ravages; that this infection having depopulated a town\nof Egypt, so that there remained only seven men and a boy ten years of\nage, these persons, wishing to get away from the town with a great\ndeal of money, fell down dead suddenly.\n\nThe boy fled without carrying anything with him, but at the gate of\nthe town he was stopped by a spectre, who dragged him, in spite of his\nresistance, into the house where the seven dead men were. Some time\nafter, the steward of a rich man having entered therein, to take away\nsome furniture belonging to his master, who had gone to reside in the\ncountry, was warned by the same boy to go away--but he died suddenly.\nThe servants who had accompanied the steward ran away, and carried the\nnews of all this to their master.\n\nThe same Bishop John relates that he was at Constantinople during a\nvery great plague, which carried off ten, twelve, fifteen, and sixteen\nthousand persons a-day, so that they reckon that two hundred thousand\npersons died of this malady--he says, that during this time demons\nwere seen running from house to house, wearing the habits of\necclesiastics or monks, and who caused the death of those whom they\nmet therein.\n\nThe death of Carlostadt was accompanied by frightful circumstances,\naccording to the ministers of Basle, his colleagues, who bore witness\nto it at the time. They[306] relate, that at the last sermon which\nCarlostadt preached in the temple of Basle, a tall black man came and\nseated himself near the consul. The preacher perceived him, and\nappeared disconcerted at it. When he left the pulpit, he asked who\nthat stranger was who had taken his seat next to the chief magistrate;\nno one had seen him but himself. When he went home, he heard more news\nof the spectre. The black man had been there, and had caught up by the\nhair the youngest and most tenderly loved of his children. After he\nhad thus raised the child from the ground, he appeared disposed to\nthrow him down so as to break his head; but he contented himself with\nordering the boy to warn his father that in three days he should\nreturn, and he must hold himself in readiness. The child having\nrepeated to his father what had been said to him, Carlostadt was\nterrified. He went to bed in alarm, and in three days he expired.\nThese apparitions of the demon's, by Luther's own avowal, were pretty\nfrequent, in the case of the first reformers.\n\nThese instances of the apparitions of spectres might be multiplied to\ninfinity; but if we undertook to criticise them, there is hardly one\nof them very certain, or proof against a serious and profound\nexamination. Here follows one, which I relate on purpose because it\nhas some singular features, and its falsehood has at last been\nacknowledged.[307]\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[304] Plutarch in Cimone.\n\n[305] Pausanias, lib. i. c. 324.\n\n[306] Moshovius, p. 22.\n\n[307] See the following chapter.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXV.\n\nEXAMINATION OF THE APPARITION OF A PRETENDED SPECTRE.\n\n\nBusiness[308] having led the Count d'Alais[309] to Marseilles, a most\nextraordinary adventure happened to him there: he desired Neure to\nwrite to our philosopher (Gassendi) to know what he thought of it;\nwhich he did in these words: the count and countess being come to\nMarseilles, saw, as they were lying in bed, a luminous spectre; they\nwere both wide awake. In order to be sure that it was not some\nillusion, they called their valets de chambre; but no sooner had\nthese appeared with their flambeaux, than the spectre disappeared.\nThey had all the openings and cracks which they found in the chamber\nstopped up, and then went to bed again; but hardly had the valets de\nchambre retired than it appeared again.\n\nIts light was less shining than that of the sun; but it was brighter\nthan that of the moon. Sometimes this spectre was of an angular form,\nsometimes a circle, and sometimes an oval. It was easy to read a\nletter by the light it gave; it often changed its place, and sometimes\nappeared on the count's bed. It had, as it were, a kind of little\nbucklers, above which were characters imprinted. Nevertheless, nothing\ncould be more agreeable to the sight; so that instead of alarming, it\ngave pleasure. It appeared every night whilst the count stayed at\nMarseilles. This prince, having once cast his hands upon it, to see if\nit was not something attached to the bed curtain, the spectre\ndisappeared that night, and reappeared the next.\n\nGassendi being consulted upon this circumstance, replied on the 13th\nof the same month. He says, in the first place, that he knows not what\nto think of this vision. He does not deny that this spectre might be\nsent from God to tell them something. What renders this idea probable\nis the great piety of them both, and that this spectre had nothing\nfrightful in it, but quite the contrary. What deserves our attention\nstill more is this, that if God had sent it, he would have made known\nwhy he sent it. God does not jest; and since it cannot be understood\nwhat is to be hoped or feared, followed up or avoided, it is clear\nthat this spectre cannot come from him; otherwise his conduct would be\nless praiseworthy than that of a father, or a prince, or a worthy, or\neven a prudent man, who, being informed of somewhat which greatly\nconcerned those in subjection to them, would not content themselves\nwith warning them enigmatically.\n\nIf this spectre is anything natural, nothing is more difficult than to\ndiscover it, or even to find any conjecture which may explain it.\nAlthough I am well persuaded of my ignorance, I will venture to give\nmy idea. Might it not be advanced that this light has appeared because\nthe eye of the count was internally affected, or because it was so\nexternally? The eye may be so internally in two ways. First, if the\neye was affected in the same manner as that of the Emperor Tiberius\nalways was when he awoke in the night and opened his eyes; a light\nproceeded from them, by means of which he could discern objects in the\ndark by looking fixedly at them. I have known the same thing happen to\na lady of rank. Secondly, if his eyes were disposed in a certain\nmanner, as it happens to myself when I awake: if I open my eyes, they\nperceive rays of light though there has been none. No one can deny\nthat some flash may dart from our eyes which represents objects to\nus--which objects are reflected in our eyes, and leave their traces\nthere. It is known that animals which prowl by night have a piercing\nsight, to enable them to discern their prey and carry it off; that the\nanimal spirit which is in the eye, and which may be shed from it, is\nof the nature of fire, and consequently lucid. It may happen that the\neyes being closed during sleep, this spirit heated by the eyelids\nbecomes inflamed, and sets some faculty in motion, as the imagination.\nFor, does it not happen that wood of different kinds, and fish bones,\nproduce some light when their heat is excited by putrefaction? Why\nthen may not the heat excited in this confined spirit produce some\nlight? He proves afterwards that imagination alone may do it.\n\nThe Count d'Alais having returned to Marseilles, and being lodged in\nthe same apartment, the same spectre appeared to him again. Neure\nwrote to Gassendi that they had observed that this spectre penetrated\ninto the chamber by the wainscot; which obliged Gassendi to write to\nthe count to examine the thing more attentively; and notwithstanding\nthis discovery, he dare not yet decide upon it. He contents himself\nwith encouraging the count, and telling him that if this apparition is\nfrom God, he will not allow him to remain long in expectation, and\nwill soon make known his will to him; and also, if this vision does\nnot come from him, he will not permit it to continue, and will soon\ndiscover that it proceeds from a natural cause. Nothing more is said\nof this spectre any where.\n\nThree years afterwards, the Countess d'Alais avowed ingenuously to the\ncount that she herself had caused this farce to be played by one of\nher women, because she did not like to reside at Marseilles; that her\nwoman was under the bed, and that she from time to time caused a\nphosphoric light to appear. The Count d'Alais related this himself to\nM. Puger of Lyons, who told it, about thirty-five years ago, to M.\nFalconet, a medical doctor of the Royal Academy of Belle-Lettres, from\nwhom I learnt it. Gassendi, when consulted seriously by the count,\nanswered like a man who had no doubt of the truth of this apparition;\nso true it is that the greater number of these extraordinary facts\nrequire to be very carefully examined before any opinion can be passed\nupon them.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[308] Vie de Gassendi, tom. i. p. 258.\n\n[309] Alais is a town in Lower Languedoc, the lords of which bear the\ntitle of prince, since this town has passed into the House of\nAngouleme and De Conty.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXVI.\n\nOF SPECTRES WHICH HAUNT HOUSES.\n\n\nThere are several kinds of spectres or ghosts which haunt certain\nhouses, make noises, appear there, and disturb those who live in them:\nsome are sprites, or elves, which divert themselves by troubling the\nquiet of those who dwell there; others are spectres or ghosts of the\ndead, who molest the living until they have received sepulture: some\nof them, as it is said, make the place their purgatory; others show\nthemselves or make themselves heard, because they have been put to\ndeath in that place, and ask that their death may be avenged, or that\ntheir bodies may be buried. So many stories are related concerning\nthose things that now they are not cared for, and nobody will believe\nany of them. In fact, when these pretended apparitions are thoroughly\nexamined into, it is easy to discover their falsehood and illusion.\n\nNow, it is a tenant who wishes to decry the house in which he resides,\nto hinder others from coming who would like to take his place; then a\nband of coiners have taken possession of a dwelling, whose interest it\nis to keep their secret from being found out; or a farmer who desires\nto retain his farm, and wishes to prevent others from coming to offer\nmore for it; in this place it will be cats or owls, or even rats,\nwhich by making a noise frighten the master and domestics, as it\nhappened some years ago at Mosheim, where large rats amused themselves\nin the night by moving and setting in motion the machines with which\nthe women bruise hemp and flax. An honest man who related it to me,\ndesiring to behold the thing nearer, mounted up to the garret armed\nwith two pistols, with his servant armed in the same manner. After a\nmoment of silence, they saw the rats begin their game; they let fire\nupon them, killed two, and dispersed the rest. The circumstance was\nreported in the country and served as an excellent joke.\n\nI am about to relate some of these spectral apparitions upon which the\nreader will pronounce judgment for himself. Pliny[310] the younger\nsays that there was a very handsome mansion at Athens which was\nforsaken on account of a spectre which haunted it. The philosopher\nAthenodorus, having arrived in the city, and seeing a board which\ninformed the public that this house was to be sold at a very low\nprice, bought it and went to sleep there with his people. As he was\nbusy reading and writing during the night, he heard on a sudden a\ngreat noise, as if of chains being dragged along, and perceived at the\nsame time something like a frightful old man loaded with iron chains,\nwho drew near to him. Athenodorus continuing to write, the spectre\nmade him a sign to follow him; the philosopher in his turn made signs\nto him to wait, and continued to write; at last he took his light and\nfollowed the spectre, who conducted him into the court of the house,\nthen sank into the ground and disappeared.\n\nAthenodorus, without being frightened, tore up some of the grass to\nmark the spot, and on leaving it, went to rest in his room. The next\nday he informed the magistrates of what had happened; they came to the\nhouse and searched the spot he designated, and there found the bones\nof a human body loaded with chains. They caused him to be properly\nburied, and the dwelling house remained quiet.\n\nLucian[311] relates a very similar story. There was, says he, a house\nat Corinth which had belonged to one Eubatides, in the quarter named\nCranaues: a man named Arignotes undertook to pass the night there,\nwithout troubling himself about a spectre which was said to haunt it.\nHe furnished himself with certain magic books of the Egyptians to\nconjure the spectre. Having gone into the house at night with a light,\nhe began to read quietly in the court. The spectre appeared in a\nlittle while, taking sometimes the shape of a dog, then that of a\nbull, and then that of a lion. Arignotes very composedly began to\npronounce certain magical invocations, which he read in his books, and\nby their power forced the spectre into a corner of the court, where he\nsank into the earth and disappeared.\n\nThe next day Arignotes sent for Eubatides, the master of the house,\nand having had the ground dug up where the phantom had disappeared,\nthey found a skeleton, which they had properly interred, and from that\ntime nothing more was seen or heard.\n\nIt is Lucian, that is to say, the man in the world the least credulous\nconcerning things of this kind, who makes Arignotes relate this event.\nIn the same passage he says that Democritus, who believed in neither\nangels, nor demons, nor spirits, having shut himself up in a tomb\nwithout the city of Athens, where he was writing and studying, a party\nof young men, who wanted to frighten him, covered themselves with\nblack garments, as the dead are represented, and having taken hideous\ndisguises, came in the night, shrieking and jumping around the place\nwhere he was; he let them do what they liked, and without at all\ndisturbing himself, coolly told them to have done with their jesting.\n\nI know not if the historian who wrote the life of St. Germain\nl'Auxerrois[312] had in his eye the stories we have just related, and\nif he did not wish to ornament the life of the saint by a recital very\nmuch like them. The saint traveling one day through his diocese, was\nobliged to pass the night with his clerks in a house forsaken long\nbefore on account of the spirits which haunted it. The clerk who read\nto him during the night saw on a sudden a spectre, which alarmed him\nat first; but having awakened the holy bishop, the latter commanded\nthe spectre in the name of Jesus Christ to declare to him who he was,\nand what he wanted. The phantom told him that he and his companion had\nbeen guilty of several crimes; that having died and been interred in\nthat house, they disturbed those who lodged there until the burial\nrites should have been accorded them. St. Germain commanded him to\npoint out where their bodies were buried, and the spectre led him\nthither. The next day he assembled the people in the neighborhood;\nthey sought amongst the ruins of the building where the brambles had\nbeen disturbed, and they found the bones of two men thrown in a heap\ntogether, and also loaded with chains; they were buried, prayers were\nsaid for them, and they returned no more.\n\nIf these men were wretches dead in crime and impenitence, all this can\nbe attributed only to the artifice of the devil, to show the living\nthat the reprobate take pains to procure rest for their bodies by\ngetting them interred, and to their souls by getting them prayed for.\nBut if these two men were Christians who had expiated their crimes by\nrepentance, and who died in communion with the church, God might\npermit them to appear, to ask for clerical sepulture and those prayers\nwhich the church is accustomed to say for the repose of defunct\npersons who die while yet some slight fault remains to be expiated.\n\nHere is a fact of the same kind as those which precede, but which is\nattended by circumstances which may render it more credible. It is\nrelated by Antonio Torquemada, in his work entitled _Flores Curiosas_,\nprinted at Salamanca in 1570. He says that a little before his own\ntime, a young man named Vasquez de Ayola, being gone to Bologna with\ntwo of his companions to study the law there, and not having found\nsuch a lodging in the town as they wished to have, lodged themselves\nin a large and handsome house, which was abandoned by everybody,\nbecause it was haunted by a spectre which frightened away all those\nwho wished to live in it; they laughed at such discourse, and took up\ntheir abode there.\n\nAt the end of a month, as Ayola was sitting up alone in his chamber,\nand his companions sleeping quietly in their beds, he heard at a\ndistance a noise as of several chains dragged along upon the ground,\nand the noise advanced towards him by the great staircase; he\nrecommended himself to God, made the sign of the cross, took a shield\nand sword, and having his taper in his hand, he saw the door opened by\na terrific spectre that was nothing but bones, but loaded with chains.\nAyola conjured him, and asked him what he wished for; the phantom\nsigned to him to follow, and he did so; but as he went down the\nstairs, his light blew out; he went back to light it, and then\nfollowed the spirit, which led him along a court where there was a\nwell. Ayola feared that he might throw him into it, and stopped short.\nThe spectre beckoned to him to continue to follow him; they entered\nthe garden, where the phantom disappeared. Ayola tore up some handfuls\nof grass upon the spot, and returning to the house, related to his\ncompanions what had happened. In the morning he gave notice of this\ncircumstance to the Principals of Bologna.\n\nThey came to reconnoitre the spot, and had it dug up; they found there\na fleshless body, but loaded with chains. They inquired who it could\nbe, but nothing certain could be discovered, and the bones were\ninterred with suitable obsequies, and from that time the house was\nnever disquieted by such visits. Torquemada asserts that in his time\nthere were still living at Bologna and in Spain some who had been\nwitnesses of the fact; and that on his return to his own country,\nAyola was invested with a high office, and that his son, before this\nnarration was written, was President in a good city of the kingdom (of\nSpain).\n\nPlautus, still more ancient than either Lucian or Pliny, composed a\ncomedy entitled \"Mostellaria,\" or \"Monstellaria,\" a name derived from\n\"Monstrum,\" or \"Monstellum,\" from a monster, a spectre, which was said\nto appear in a certain house, and which on that account had been\ndeserted. We agree that the foundation of this comedy is only a fable,\nbut we may deduce from it the antiquity of this idea among the Greeks\nand Romans.\n\nThe poet[313] makes this pretended spirit say that, having been\nassassinated about sixty years before by a perfidious comrade who had\ntaken his money, he had been secretly interred in that house; that the\ngod of Hades would not receive him on the other side of Acheron, as he\nhad died prematurely; for which reason he was obliged to remain in\nthat house of which he had taken possession.\n\n \"Haec mihi dedita habitatio;\n Nam me Acherontem recipere noluit,\n Quia praemature vita careo.\"\n\n\nThe pagans, who had the simplicity to believe that the Lamiae and evil\nspirits disquieted those who dwelt in certain houses and certain\nrooms, and who slept in certain beds, conjured them by magic verses,\nand pretended to drive them away by fumigations composed of sulphur\nand other stinking drugs, and certain herbs mixed with sea water.\nOvid, speaking of Medea, that celebrated magician, says[314]--\n\n \"Terque senem flamma, ter aqua, ter sulphure lustrat.\"\n\nAnd elsewhere he adds eggs:--\n\n \"Adveniat quae lustret anus lectumque locumque,\n Deferat et tremula sulphur et ova manu.\"\n\n\nIn addition to this they adduce the instance of the archangel\nRaphael,[315] who drove away the devil Asmodeus from the chamber of\nSarah by the smell of the liver of a fish which he burnt upon the\nfire. But the instance of Raphael ought not to be placed along with\nthe superstitious ceremonies of magicians, which were laughed at by\nthe pagans themselves; if they had any power, it could only be by the\noperation of the demon with the permission of God; whilst what is told\nof the archangel Raphael is certainly the work of a good spirit, sent\nby God to cure Sarah the daughter of Raguel, who was as much\ndistinguished by her piety as the magicians are degraded by their\nmalice and superstition.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[310] Plin. junior, Epist. ad Suram. lib. vii. cap. 27.\n\n[311] In Philo pseud. p. 840.\n\n[312] Bolland, 31 Jul. p. 211.\n\n[313] Plaut. Mostell. act. ii. v. 67.\n\n[314] Vide Joan. Vier. de Curat. Malific. c. 215.\n\n[315] Tob. viii.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXVII.\n\nOTHER INSTANCES OF SPECTRES WHICH HAUNT CERTAIN HOUSES.\n\n\nFather Pierre Thyree,[316] a Jesuit, relates an infinite number of\nanecdotes of houses haunted by ghosts, spirits, and demons; for\ninstance, that of a tribune, named Hesperius, whose house was infested\nby a demon who tormented the domestics and animals, and who was driven\naway, says St. Augustin,[317] by a good priest of Hippo, who offered\ntherein the divine sacrifice of the body of our Lord.\n\nSt. Germain,[318] Bishop of Capua, taking a bath in one particular\nquarter of the town, found there Paschaus, a deacon of the Roman\nChurch, who had been dead some time, and who began to wait upon him,\ntelling him that he underwent his purgatory in that place for having\nfavored the party of Laurentius the anti-pope, against Pope Symachus.\n\nSt. Gregory of Nicea, in the life of St. Gregory of Neocaesarea, says\nthat a deacon of this holy bishop, having gone into a bath where no\none dared go after a certain hour in the evening, because all those\nwho had entered there had been put to death, beheld spectres of all\nkinds, which threatened him in a thousand ways, but he got rid of them\nby crossing himself and invoking the name of Jesus.\n\nAlexander ab Alexandro,[319] a learned Neapolitan lawyer of the\nfifteenth century, says that all the world knows that there are a\nnumber of houses at Rome so much out of repute on account of the\nghosts which appear in them every night that nobody dares to inhabit\nthem. Nicholas Tuba, his friend, a man well known for his probity and\nveracity, who came once with some of his comrades to try if all that\nwas said of those houses was true, would pass the night in one of them\nwith Alexander. As they were together, wide awake, and with plenty of\nlight, they beheld a horrible spectre, which frightened them so much\nby its terrific voice and the great noise which it made, that they\nhardly knew what they did, nor what they said; \"and by degrees, as we\napproached,\" says he, \"with the light, the phantom retreated; at last,\nafter having thrown all the house into confusion, it disappeared\nentirely.\"\n\nI might also relate here the spectre noticed by Father Sinson the\nJesuit, which he saw, and to which he spoke at Pont-a-Mousson, in the\ncloister belonging to those fathers; but I shall content myself with\nthe instance which is reported in the _Causes Celebres_,[320] and\nwhich may serve to undeceive those who too lightly give credit to\nstories of this kind.\n\nAt the Chateau d' Arsillier, in Picardy, on certain days of the year,\ntowards November, they saw flames and a horrible smoke proceeding\nthence. Cries and frightful howlings were heard. The bailiff, or\nfarmer of the chateau, had got accustomed to this uproar, because he\nhimself caused it. All the village talked of it, and everybody told\nhis own story thereupon. The gentleman to whom the chateau belonged,\nmistrusting some contrivance, came there near All-saints' day with two\ngentlemen his friends, resolved to pursue the spirit, and fire upon it\nwith a brace of good pistols. A few days after they arrived, they\nheard a great noise above the room where the owner of the chateau\nslept; his two friends went up thither, holding a pistol in one hand\nand a candle in the other; and a sort of black phantom with horns and\na tail presented itself, and began to gambol about before them.\n\nOne of them fired off his pistol; the spectre, instead of falling,\nturns and skips before him: the gentleman tries to seize it, but the\nspirit escapes by the back staircase; the gentleman follows it, but\nloses sight of it, and after several turnings, the spectre throws\nitself into a granary, and disappears at the moment its pursuer\nreckoned on seizing and stopping it. A light was brought, and it was\nremarked that where the spectre had disappeared there was a trapdoor,\nwhich had been bolted after it entered; they forced open the trap,\nand found the pretended spirit. He owned all his artifices, and that\nwhat had rendered him proof against the pistol shot was buffalo's hide\ntightly fitted to his body.\n\nCardinal de Retz,[321] in his Memoirs, relates very agreeably the\nalarm which seized himself and those with him on meeting a company of\nblack Augustine friars, who came to bathe in the river by night, and\nwhom they took for a troop of quite another description.\n\nA physician, in a dissertation which he has given on spirits or\nghosts, says that a maid servant in the Rue St. Victor, who had gone\ndown into the cellar, came back very much frightened, saying she had\nseen a spectre standing upright between two barrels. Some persons who\nwere bolder went down, and saw the same thing. It was a dead body,\nwhich had fallen from a cart coming from the Hotel-Dieu. It had slid\ndown by the cellar window (or grating), and had remained standing\nbetween two casks. All these collective facts, instead of confirming\none another, and establishing the reality of those ghosts which appear\nin certain houses, and keep away those who would willingly dwell in\nthem, are only calculated, on the contrary, to render such stories in\ngeneral very doubtful; for on what account should those people who\nhave been buried and turned to dust for a long time find themselves\nable to walk about with their chains? How do they drag them? How do\nthey speak? What do they want? Is it sepulture? Are they not interred?\nIf they are heathens and reprobates, they have nothing to do with\nprayers. If they are good people, who died in a state of grace, they\nmay require prayers to take them out of purgatory; but can that be\nsaid of the spectres spoken of by Pliny and Lucian? It is the devil,\nwho sports with the simplicity of men? Is it not ascribing to him most\nexcessive power, by making him the author of all these apparitions,\nwhich we conceive he cannot cause without the permission of God? And\nwe can still less imagine that God will concur in the deceptions and\nillusions of the demon. There is then reason to believe that all the\napparitions of this kind, and all these stories, are false, and must\nbe absolutely rejected, as more fit to keep up the superstition and\nidle credulity of the people than to edify and instruct them.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[316] Thyraei Demoniaci cum locis infestis.\n\n[317] S. Aug. de Civ. lib. xxii. 8.\n\n[318] S. Greg. Mag. Dial. cap. 39.\n\n[319] Alexander ab Alexandro, lib. v. 23.\n\n[320] Causes Celebres, tom. xi. p. 374.\n\n[321] Mem. de Cardinal de Retz, tom. i. pp. 43, 44\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXVIII.\n\nPRODIGIOUS EFFECTS OF IMAGINATION IN THOSE MEN OR WOMEN WHO BELIEVE\nTHEY HOLD INTERCOURSE WITH THE DEMON.\n\n\nAs soon as we admit it as a principle that angels and demons are\npurely spiritual substances, we must consider, not only as chimerical\nbut also as impossible, all personal intercourse between a demon and a\nman, or a woman, and consequently regard as the effect of a depraved\nor deranged imagination all that is related of demons, whether incubi\nor succubi, and of the _ephialtes_ of which such strange tales are\ntold.\n\nThe author of the Book of Enoch, which is cited by the fathers, and\nregarded as canonical Scripture by some ancient writers, has taken\noccasion, from these words of Moses,[322] \"The children of God, seeing\nthe daughters of men, who were of extraordinary beauty, took them for\nwives, and begat the giants of them,\" of setting forth that the\nangels, smitten with love for the daughters of men, wedded them, and\nhad by them children, which are those giants so famous in\nantiquity.[323] Some of the ancient fathers have thought that this\nirregular love of the angels was the cause of their fall, and that\ntill then they had remained in the just and due subordination which\nthey owed to their Creator.\n\nIt appears from Josephus that the Jews of his day seriously\nbelieved[324] that the angels were subject to these weaknesses like\nmen. St. Justin Martyr[325] thought that the demons were the fruit of\nthis commerce of the angels with the daughters of men.\n\nBut these ideas are now almost entirely given up, especially since the\nbelief in the spirituality of angels and demons has been adopted.\nCommentators and the fathers have generally explained the passage in\nGenesis which we have quoted as relating to the children of Seth, to\nwhom the Scripture gives the name of _children of God_, to distinguish\nthem from the sons of Cain, who were the fathers of those here called\n_the daughters of men_. The race of Seth having then formed alliances\nwith the race of Cain, by means of those marriages before alluded to,\nthere proceeded from these unions powerful, violent, and impious men,\nwho drew down upon the earth the terrible effects of God's wrath,\nwhich burst forth at the universal deluge.\n\nThus, then, these marriages between the _children of God_ and the\n_daughters of men_ have no relation to the question we are here\ntreating; what we have to examine is--if the demon can have personal\ncommerce with man or woman, and if what is said on that subject can be\nconnected with the apparitions of evil spirits amongst mankind, which\nis the principal object of this dissertation.\n\nI will give some instances of those persons who have believed that\nthey held such intercourse with the demon. Torquemada relates, in a\ndetailed manner, what happened in his time, and to his knowledge, in\nthe town of Cagliari, in Sardinia, to a young lady, who suffered\nherself to be corrupted by the demon; and having been arrested by the\nInquisition, she suffered the penalty of the flames, in the mad hope\nthat her pretended lover would come and deliver her.\n\nIn the same place he speaks of a young girl who was sought in marriage\nby a gentleman of good family; when the devil assumed the form of this\nyoung man, associated with the young lady for several months, made her\npromises of marriage, and took advantage of her. She was only\nundeceived when the young lord who sought her in marriage informed her\nthat he was absent from town, and more than fifty leagues off, the day\nthat the promise in question had been given, and that he never had the\nslightest knowledge of it. The young girl, thus disabused, retired\ninto a convent, and did penance for her double crime.\n\nWe read in the life of St. Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux,[326] that a\nwoman of Nantes, in Brittany, saw, or thought she saw the demon every\nnight, even when lying by her husband. She remained six years in this\nstate; at the end of that period, having her disorderly life in\nhorror, she confessed herself to a priest, and by his advice began to\nperform several acts of piety, as much to obtain pardon for her crime\nas to deliver herself from her abominable lover. But when the husband\nof this woman was informed of the circumstance, he left her, and would\nnever see her again.\n\nThis unhappy woman was informed by the devil himself that St. Bernard\nwould soon come to Nantes, but she must mind not to speak to him, for\nthis abbot could by no means assist her; and if she did speak to him,\nit would be a great misfortune to her; and that from being her lover,\nhe who warned her of it would become her most ardent persecutor.\n\nThe saint reassured this woman, and desired her to make the sign of\nthe cross on herself on going to bed, and to place next her in the bed\nthe staff which he gave her. \"If the demon comes,\" said he, \"let him\ndo what he can.\" The demon came; but, without daring to approach the\nbed, he threatened the woman greatly, and told her that after the\ndeparture of St. Bernard he would come again to torment her.\n\nOn the following Sunday, St. Bernard repaired to the Cathedral church,\nwith the Bishop of Nantes and the Bishop of Chartres, and having\ncaused lighted tapers to be given to all the people, who had assembled\nin a great crowd, the saint, after having publicly related the\nabominable action of the demon, exorcised and anathematized the evil\nspirit, and forbade him, by the authority of Jesus Christ, ever again\nto approach that woman, or any other. Everybody extinguished their\ntapers, and the power of the demon was annihilated.\n\nThis example and the two preceding ones, related in so circumstantial\na manner, might make us believe that there is some reality in what is\nsaid of demons incubi and succubi; but if we deeply examine the facts,\nwe shall find that an imagination strongly possessed, and violent\nprejudice, may produce all that we have just repeated.\n\nSt. Bernard begins by curing the woman's mind, by giving her a stick,\nwhich she was to place by her side in the bed. This staff sufficed for\nthe first impression; but to dispose her for a complete cure, he\nexorcises the demon, and then anathematizes him, with all the _eclat_\nhe possibly could: the bishops are assembled in the cathedral, the\npeople repair thither in crowds; the circumstance is recounted in\npompous terms; the evil spirit is threatened; the tapers are\nextinguished--all of them striking ceremonies: the woman is moved by\nthem, and her imagination is restored to a healthy tone.\n\nJerome Cardan[327] relates two singular examples of the power of\nimagination in this way; he had them from Francis Pico de Mirandola.\n\"I know,\" says the latter, \"a priest, seventy-five years of age, who\nlived with a pretended woman, whom he called Hermeline, with whom he\nslept, conversed, and conducted in the streets as if she had been his\nwife. He alone saw her, or thought he saw her, so that he was looked\nupon as a man who had lost his senses. This priest was named Benedict\nBeina. He had been arrested by the Inquisition, and punished for his\ncrimes; for he owned that in the sacrifice of the mass he did not\npronounce the sacramental words, that he had given the consecrated\nwafer to women to make use of in sorcery, and that he had sucked the\nblood of children. He avowed all this while undergoing the question.\n\nAnother, named Pineto, held converse with a demon, whom he kept as his\nwife, and with whom he had intercourse for more than forty years. This\nman was still living in the time of Pico de Mirandola.\n\nDevotion and spirituality, when too contracted and carried to excess,\nhave also their derangements of imagination. Persons so affected often\nbelieve they see, hear, and feel, what passes only in their brain, and\nwhich takes all its reality from their prejudices and self-love. This\nis less mistrusted, because the object of it is holy and pious; but\nerror and excess, even in matters of devotion, are subject to very\ngreat inconveniences, and it is very important to undeceive all those\nwho give way to this kind of mental derangement.\n\nFor instance, we have seen persons eminent for their devotion, who\nbelieved they saw the Holy Virgin, St. Joseph, the Saviour, and their\nguardian angel, who spoke to them, conversed with them, touched the\nwounds of the Lord, and tasted the blood which flowed from his side\nand his wounds. Others thought they were in company with the Holy\nVirgin and the Infant Jesus, who spoke to them and conversed with\nthem; in idea, however, and without reality.\n\nIn order to cure the two ecclesiastics of whom we have spoken, gentler\nand perhaps more efficacious means might have been made use of than\nthose employed by the tribunal of the Inquisition. Every day\nhypochondriacs, or maniacs, with fevered imaginations, diseased\nbrains, or with the viscera too much heated, are cured by simple and\nnatural remedies, either by cooling the blood, and creating a\ndiversion in the humors thereof, or by striking the imagination\nthrough some new device, or by giving so much exercise of body and\nmind to those who are afflicted with such maladies of the brain that\nthey may have something else to do or to think of, than to nourish\nsuch fancies, and strengthen them by reflections daily recurring, and\nhaving always the same end and object.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[322] Gen. vi. 1, 2.\n\n[323] Athenagorus and Clem. Alex. lib. iii. & v. Strom. & lib. ii.\nPedagog.\n\n[324] Joseph. Antiq. lib. i. c. 4.\n\n[325] Justin. Apolog. utroque.\n\n[326] Vita St. Bernard, tom. i. lib. 20.\n\n[327] Cardan, de Variet. lib. xv. c. lxxx. p. 290.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXIX.\n\nRETURN AND APPARITIONS OF SOULS AFTER THE DEATH OF THE BODY, PROVED\nFROM SCRIPTURE.\n\n\nThe dogma of the immortality of the soul, and of its existence after\nits separation from the body which it once animated, being taken for\nindubitable, and Jesus Christ having invincibly established it against\nthe Sadducees, the return of souls and their apparition to the\nliving, by the command or permission of God, can no longer appear so\nincredible, nor even so difficult.\n\nIt was a known and received truth among the Jews in the time of our\nSaviour; he assumed it as certain, and never pronounced a word which\ncould give any one reason to think that he disapproved of, or\ncondemned it; he only warned us that in common apparitions spirits\nhave neither flesh nor bones, as he had himself after his\nresurrection. If St. Thomas doubted of the reality of the resurrection\nof his Master, and the truth of his appearance, it was because he was\naware that those who suppose they see apparitions of spirits are\nsubject to illusion; and that one strongly prepossessed will often\nbelieve he beholds what he does not see, and hear that which he hears\nnot; and even had Jesus Christ appeared to his apostles, that would\nnot prove that he was resuscitated, since a spirit can appear, while\nits body is in the tomb and even corrupted or reduced to dust and\nashes.\n\nThe apostles doubted not of the possibility of the apparition of\nspirits: when they saw the Saviour coming towards them, walking upon\nthe waves of the Lake of Gennesareth,[328] they at first believed that\nit was a phantom.\n\nAfter St. Peter had left the prison by the aid of an angel, and came\nand knocked at the door of the house where the brethren were\nassembled, the servant whom they sent to open it, hearing Peter's\nvoice, thought it was his spirit, or an angel[329] who had assumed his\nform and voice. The wicked rich man, being in the flames of hell,\nbegged of Abraham to send Lazarus to earth, to warn his brothers[330]\nnot to expose themselves to the danger of falling like him in the\nextreme of misery: he believed, without doubt, that souls could return\nto earth, make themselves visible, and speak to the living.\n\nIn the transfiguration of Jesus Christ, Moses, who had been dead for\nages, appeared on Mount Tabor with Elias, conversing with Jesus Christ\nthen transfigured.[331] After the resurrection of the Saviour, several\npersons, who had long been dead, arose from their graves, went into\nJerusalem and appeared unto many.[332]\n\nIn the Old Testament, King Saul addresses himself to the witch of\nEndor, to beg of her to evoke for him the soul of Samuel;[333] that\nprophet appeared and spoke to Saul. I know that considerable\ndifficulties and objections have been formed as to this evocation and\nthis apparition of Samuel. But whether he appeared or not--whether the\nPythoness did really evoke him, or only deluded Saul with a false\nappearance--I deduce from it that Saul and those with him were\npersuaded that the spirits of the dead could appear to the living, and\nreveal to them things unknown to men.\n\nSt. Augustine, in reply to Simplicius, who had proposed to him his\ndifficulties respecting the truth of this apparition, says at\nfirst,[334] that it is no more difficult to understand that the demon\ncould evoke Samuel by the help of a witch than it is to comprehend how\nthat Satan could speak to God, and tempt the holy man Job, and ask\npermission to tempt the apostles; or that he could transport Jesus\nChrist himself to the highest pinnacle of the Temple of Jerusalem.\n\nWe may believe also that God, by a particular dispensation of his\nwill, may have permitted the demon to evoke Samuel, and make him\nappear before Saul, to announce to him what was to happen to him, not\nby virtue of magic, not by the power of the demon alone, but solely\nbecause God willed it, and ordained it thus to be.\n\nHe adds that it may be advanced that it is not Samuel who appears to\nSaul, but a phantom, formed by the illusive power of the demon, and by\nthe force of magic; and that the Scripture, in giving the name of\nSamuel to this phantom, has made use of ordinary language, which gives\nthe name of things themselves to that which is but their image or\nrepresentation in painting or in sculpture.\n\nIf it should be asked how this phantom could discover the future, and\npredict to Saul his approaching death, we may likewise ask how the\ndemon could know Jesus Christ for God alone, while the Jews knew him\nnot, and the girl possessed with a spirit of divination, spoken of in\nthe Acts of the Apostles,[335] could bear witness to the apostles, and\nundertake to become their advocate in rendering good testimony to\ntheir mission.\n\nLastly, St. Augustine concludes by saying that he does not think\nhimself sufficiently enlightened to decide whether the demon can, or\ncannot, by means of magical enchantments, evoke a soul after the death\nof the body, so that it may appear and become visible in a corporeal\nform, which may be recognized, and capable of speaking and revealing\nthe hidden future. And if this potency be not accorded to magic and\nthe demon, we must conclude that all which is related of this\napparition of Samuel to Saul is an illusion and a false apparition\nmade by the demon to deceive men.\n\nIn the books of the Maccabees,[336] the High-Priest Onias, who had\nbeen dead several years before that time, appeared to Judas Maccabaeus,\nin the attitude of a man whose hands were outspread, and who was\npraying for the people of the Lord: at the same time the Prophet\nJeremiah, long since dead, appeared to the same Maccabaeus; and Onias\nsaid to him, \"Behold that holy man, who is the protector and friend of\nhis brethren; it is he who prays continually for the Lord's people,\nand for the holy city of Jerusalem.\" So saying, he put into the hands\nof Judas a golden sword, saying to him, \"Receive this sword as a gift\nfrom heaven, by means of which you shall destroy the enemies of my\npeople Israel.\"\n\nIn the same second book of the Maccabees,[337] it is related that in\nthe thickest of the battle fought by Timotheus, general of the armies\nof Syria, against Judas Maccabaeus, they saw five men as if descended\nfrom heaven, mounted on horses with golden bridles, who were at the\nhead of the army of the Jews, two of them on each side of Judas\nMaccabaeus, the chief captain of the army of the Lord; they shielded\nhim with their arms, and launched against the enemy such fiery darts\nand thunderbolts that they were blinded and mortally afraid and\nterrified.\n\nThese five armed horsemen, these combatants for Israel, are apparently\nno other than Mattathias, the father of Judas Maccabaeus,[338] and\nfour of his sons, who were already dead; there yet remained of his\nseven sons but Judas Maccabaeus, Jonathan, and Simon. We may also\nunderstand it as five angels, who were sent by God to the assistance\nof the Maccabees. In whatever way we regard it, these are not doubtful\napparitions, both on account of the certainty of the book in which\nthey are related, and the testimony of a whole army by which they\nwere seen.\n\nWhence I conclude, that the Hebrews had no doubt that the spirits of\nthe dead could return to earth, that they did return in fact, and that\nthey discovered to the living things beyond our natural knowledge.\nMoses expressly forbids the Israelites to consult the dead.[339] But\nthese apparitions did not show themselves in solid and material\nbodies; the Saviour assures us of it when he says, \"Spirits have\nneither flesh nor bones.\" It was often only an aerial figure which\nstruck the senses and the imagination, like the images which we see in\nsleep, or that we firmly believe we hear and see. The inhabitants of\nSodom were struck with a species of blindness,[340] which prevented\nthem from seeing the door of Lot's house, into which the angels had\nentered. The soldiers who sought for Elisha were in the same way\nblinded in some sort,[341] although they spoke to him they were\nseeking for, who led them into Samaria without their perceiving him.\nThe two disciples who went on Easter-day to Emmaus, in company with\nJesus Christ their Master, did not recognize him till the breaking of\nthe bread.[342]\n\nThus, the apparitions of spirits to mankind are not always in a\ncorporeal form, palpable and real; but God, who ordains or permits\nthem, often causes the persons to whom these apparitions appear, to\nbehold, in a dream or otherwise, those spirits which speak to, warn,\nor threaten them; who makes them see things as if present, which in\nreality are not before their eyes, but only in their imagination;\nwhich does not prove these visions and warnings not to be sent from\nGod, who, by himself, or by the ministration of his angels, or by\nsouls disengaged from the body, inspired the minds of men with what he\njudges proper for them to know, whether in a dream, or by external\nsigns, or by words, or else by certain impressions made on their\nsenses, or in their imagination, in the absence of every external\nobject.\n\nIf the apparitions of the souls of the dead were things in nature and\nof their own choice, there would be few persons who would not come\nback to visit the things or the persons which have been dear to them\nduring this life. St. Augustine says it of his mother, St.\nMonica,[343] who had so tender and constant an affection for him, and\nwho, while she lived, followed him and sought him by sea and land.\nThe bad rich man would not have failed, either, to come in person to\nhis brethren and relations to inform them of the wretched condition in\nwhich he found himself in hell. It is a pure favor of the mercy or the\npower of God, and which he grants to very few persons, to make their\nappearance after death; for which reason we should be very much on our\nguard against all that is said, and all that we find written on the\nsubject in books.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[328] Matt. vi. 16. Mark vi. 43.\n\n[329] Acts xii. 13, 14.\n\n[330] Luke xxi. 14, 15.\n\n[331] Luke ix. 32.\n\n[332] Matt. xxvii. 34.\n\n[333] 1 Sam. xxviii. 7, ad finem.\n\n[334] Augustin de Diversis Quaest. ad Simplicium, Quaest. cxi.\n\n[335] Acts xxvi. 17.\n\n[336] Macc. x. 29.\n\n[337] 2 Macc. x. 29.\n\n[338] 1 Macc. xi. 1.\n\n[339] Deut. xviii. 11.\n\n[340] Gen. xix. 11.\n\n[341] 2 Kings vi. 19.\n\n[342] Luke xxvi. 16.\n\n[343] Aug. de Cura gerenda pro Mortuis, c. xiii.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XL.\n\nAPPARITIONS OF SPIRITS PROVED FROM HISTORY.\n\n\nSt. Augustine[344] acknowledges that the dead have often appeared to\nthe living, have revealed to them the spot where their body remained\nunburied, and have shown them that where they wished to be interred.\nHe says, moreover, that a noise was often heard in churches where the\ndead were inhumed, and that dead persons have been seen often to enter\nthe houses wherein they dwelt before their decease.\n\nWe read that in the Council of Elvira,[345] which was held about the\nyear 300, it was forbidden to light tapers in the cemeteries, that the\nsouls of the saints might not be disturbed. The night after the death\nof Julian the Apostate, St. Basil[346] had a vision in which he\nfancied he saw the martyr, St. Mercurius, who received an order from\nGod to go and kill Julian. A little time afterwards the same saint\nMercurius returned and cried out, \"Lord, Julian is pierced and wounded\nto death, as thou commandedst me.\" In the morning St. Basil announced\nthis news to the people.\n\nSt. Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, who suffered martyrdom in 107,[347]\nappeared to his disciples, embracing them, and standing near them; and\nas they persevered in praying with still greater fervor, they saw him\ncrowned with glory, as if in perspiration, coming from a great combat,\nenvironed with light.\n\nAfter the death of St. Ambrose, which happened on Easter Eve, the same\nnight in which they baptized neophytes, several newly baptized\nchildren saw the holy bishop,[348] and pointed him out to their\nparents, who could not see him because their eyes were not\npurified--at least says St. Paulinus, a disciple of the saint, and who\nwrote his life.\n\nHe adds that on the day of his death the saint appeared to several\nholy persons dwelling in the East, praying with them and giving them\nthe imposition of hands; they wrote to Milan, and it was found, on\ncomparing the dates, that this occurred on the very day he died. These\nletters were still preserved in the time of Paulinus, who wrote all\nthese things. This holy bishop was also seen several times after his\ndeath praying in the Ambrosian church at Milan, which he promised\nduring his life that he would often visit. During the siege of Milan,\nSt. Ambrose appeared to a man of that same city, and promised that the\nnext day succor would arrive, which happened accordingly. A blind man\nhaving learnt in a vision that the bodies of the holy martyrs Sicineus\nand Alexander would come by sea to Milan, and that Bishop Ambrose was\ngoing to meet them, he prayed the same bishop to restore him to sight,\nin a dream. Ambrose replied; \"Go to Milan; come and meet my brethren;\nthey will arrive on such a day, and they will restore you to sight.\"\nThe blind man went to Milan, where he had never been before, touched\nthe shrine of the holy martyrs, and recovered his eyesight. He himself\nrelated the circumstance to Paulinus.\n\nThe lives of the saints are full of apparitions of deceased persons;\nand if they were collected, large volumes might be filled. St.\nAmbrose, of whom we have just spoken, discovered after a miraculous\nfashion the bodies of St. Gervasius and St. Protasius,[349] and those\nof St. Nazairius and St. Celsus.\n\nEvodius, Bishop of Upsal in Africa,[350] a great friend of St.\nAugustine, was well persuaded of the reality of apparitions of the\ndead, from his own experience, and he relates several instances of\nsuch things which happened in his own time; as that of a good widow to\nwhom a deacon appeared who had been dead for four years. He was\naccompanied by several of the servants of God, of both sexes, who were\npreparing a palace of extraordinary beauty. This widow asked him for\nwhom they were making these preparations; he replied that it was for\nthe youth who died the preceding day. At the same time, a venerable\nold man, who was in the same palace, commanded two young men, arrayed\nin white, to take the deceased young man out of his grave and conduct\nhim to this place. As soon as he had left the grave, fresh roses and\nrose-beds sprang up; and the young man appeared to a monk, and told\nhim that God had received him into the number of his elect, and had\nsent him to fetch his father, who in fact died four days after of slow\nfever.\n\nEvodius asks himself diverse questions on this recital: If the soul on\nquitting its (mortal) body does not retain a certain subtile body,\nwith which it appears, and by means of which it is transported from\none spot to another? If the angels even have not a certain kind of\nbody?--for if they are incorporeal, how can they be counted? And if\nSamuel appeared to Saul, how could it take place if Samuel had no\nmembers? He adds, \"I remember well that Profuturus, Privatus and\nServitus, whom I had known in the monastery here, appeared to me, and\ntalked with me after their decease; and what they told me, happened.\nWas it their soul which appeared to me, or was it some other spirit\nwhich assumed their form?\" He concludes from this that the soul is not\nabsolutely bodiless, since God alone is incorporeal.[351]\n\nSt. Augustine, who was consulted on this matter by Evodius, does not\nthink that the soul, after the death of the body, is clothed with any\nmaterial substantial form; but he confesses that it is very difficult\nto explain how an infinite number of things are done, which pass in\nour minds, as well in our sleep as when we are awake, in which we seem\nto see, feel, and discourse, and do things which it would appear could\nbe done only by the body, although it is certain that nothing bodily\noccurs. And how can we explain things so unknown, and so far beyond\nanything that we experience every day, since we cannot explain even\nwhat daily experience shows us.[352] Evodius adds that several persons\nafter their decease have been going and coming in their houses as\nbefore, both day and night; and that in churches where the dead were\nburied, they often heard a noise in the night as of persons praying\naloud.\n\nSt. Augustine, to whom Evodius writes all this, acknowledges that\nthere is a great distinction to be made between true and false\nvisions, and that he could wish he had some sure means of discerning\nthem correctly. The same saint relates on this occasion a remarkable\nstory, which has much connection with the matter we are treating upon.\nA physician named Gennadius, a great friend of St. Augustine's, and\nwell known at Carthage for his great talent and his kindness to the\npoor, doubted whether there was another life. One day he saw, in a\ndream, a young man who said to him, \"Follow me;\" he followed him in\nspirit, and found himself in a city, where, on his right hand, he\nheard most admirable melody; he did not remember what he heard on his\nleft.\n\nAnother time he saw the same young man, who said to him, \"Do you know\nme?\" \"Very well,\" answered he. \"And whence comes it that you know me?\"\nHe related to him what he had showed him in the city whither he had\nled him. The young man added, \"Was it in a dream, or awake, that you\nsaw all that?\" \"In a dream?\" he replied. The young man then asked,\n\"Where is your body now?\" \"In my bed,\" said he. \"Do you know that now\nyou see nothing with the eyes of your body?\" \"I know it,\" answered he.\n\"Well, then, with what eyes do you behold me?\" As he hesitated, and\nknew not what to reply, the young man said to him, \"In the same way\nthat you see and hear me now that your eyes are shut, and your senses\nasleep; thus after death you will live, you will see, you will hear,\nbut with eyes of the spirit; so doubt not that there is another life\nafter the present one.\"\n\nThe great St. Anthony, one day when he was wide awake, saw the soul of\nthe hermit St. Ammon being carried into heaven in the midst of choirs\nof angels. Now, St. Ammon died that same day, at five days' journey\nfrom thence, in the desert of Nitria. The same St. Anthony saw also\nthe soul of St. Paul Hermitus ascending to heaven surrounded by choirs\nof angels and prophets. St. Benedict beheld the spirit of St. Germain,\nBishop of Capua, at the moment of his decease, who was carried into\nheaven by angels. The same saint saw the soul of his sister, St.\nScholastica, rising to heaven in the form of a dove. We might multiply\nsuch instances without end. They are true apparitions of souls\nseparated from their bodies.\n\nSt. Sulpicius Severus, being at some distance from the city of Tours,\nand ignorant of what was passing there, fell one morning into a light\nslumber; as he slept he beheld St. Martin, who appeared to him in a\nwhite garment, his countenance shining, his eyes sparkling, his hair\nof a purple color; it was, nevertheless, very easy to recognise him by\nhis air and his face. St. Martin showed himself to him with a smiling\ncountenance, and holding in his hand the book which St. Sulpicius\nSeverus had composed upon his life. Sulpicius threw himself at his\nfeet, embraced his knees, and implored his benediction, which the\nsaint bestowed upon him. All this passed in a vision; and as St.\nMartin rose into the air, Sulpicius Severus saw still in the spirit\nthe priest Clarus, a disciple of the saint, who went the same way and\nrose towards heaven. At that moment Sulpicius awoke, and a lad who\nserved him, on entering, told him that two monks who were just arrived\nfrom Tours, had brought word that St. Martin was dead.\n\nThe Baron de Coussey, an old and respectable magistrate, has related\nto me more than once that, being at more than sixty leagues from the\ntown where his mother died the night she breathed her last, he was\nawakened by the barking of a dog which laid at the foot of his bed;\nand at the same moment he perceived the head of his mother environed\nby a great light, who, entering by the window into his chamber, spoke\nto him distinctly, and announced to him various things concerning the\nstate of his affairs.\n\nSt. Chrysostom, in his exile,[353] and the night preceding his death,\nsaw the martyr St. Basilicus, who said to him--\"Courage, brother John;\nto-morrow we shall be together.\" The same thing was foretold to a\npriest who lived in the same place. St. Basilicus said to him,\n\"Prepare a place for my brother John; for, behold, he is coming.\"\n\nThe discovery of the body of St. Stephen, the first martyr, is very\ncelebrated in the Church; this occurred in the year 415. St. Gamaliel,\nwho had been the master of St. Paul before his conversion, appeared to\na priest named Lucius, who slept in the baptistery of the Church at\nJerusalem to guard the sacred vases, and told him that his own body\nand that of St. Stephen the proto-martyr were interred at\nCaphargamala, in the suburb named Dilagabis; that the body of his son\nnamed Abibas, and that of Nicodemus, reposed in the same spot. Lucius\nhad the same vision three times following, with an interval of a few\ndays between. John, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, who was then at the\nCouncil of Dioscopolis, repaired to the spot, made the discovery and\ntranslation of the relics, which were transported to Jerusalem, and a\ngreat number of miracles were performed there.\n\nLicinius, being in his tent,[354] thinking of the battle he was to\nfight on the morrow, saw an angel, who dictated to him a form of\nprayer which he made his soldiers learn by heart, and by means of\nwhich he gained the victory over the Emperor Maximian.\n\nMascezel, general of the Roman troops which Stilicho sent into Africa\nagainst Gildas, prepared himself for this war, in imitation of\nTheodosius the Great, by prayer and the intervention of the servants\nof God. He took with him in his vessel some monks, whose only\noccupation during the voyage was to pray, fast, and sing psalms.\nGildas had an army of seventy thousand men; Mascezel had but five\nthousand, and did not think he could without rashness attempt to\ncompete with an enemy so powerful and so far superior in the number of\nhis forces. As he was pondering uneasily on these things, St. Ambrose,\nwho died the year before, appeared to him by night, holding a staff in\nhis hand, and struck the ground three times, crying, \"Here, here,\nhere!\" Mascezel understood that the saint promised him the victory in\nthat same spot three days after. In fact, the third day he marched\nupon the enemy, offering peace to the first whom he met; but an ensign\nhaving replied to him very arrogantly, he gave him a severe blow with\nhis sword upon his arm, which made his standard swerve; those who were\nafar off thought that he was yielding, and that he lowered his\nstandard in sign of submission, and they hastened to do the same.\nPaulinus, who wrote the life of St. Ambrose, assures us that he had\nthese particulars from the lips of Mascezel himself; and Orosius heard\nthem from those who had been eye-witnesses of the fact.\n\nThe persecutors having inflicted martyrdom on seven Christian\nvirgins,[355] one of them appeared the following night to St.\nTheodosius of Ancyra, and revealed to him the spot where herself and\nher companions had been thrown into the lake, each one with a stone\ntied around her neck. As Theodosius and his people were occupied in\nsearching for their bodies, a voice from heaven warned Theodosius to\nbe on his guard against the traitor, meaning to indicate Polycronius,\nwho betrayed Theodosius, and was the occasion of his being arrested\nand martyred.\n\nSt. Potamienna,[356] a Christian virgin who suffered martyrdom at\nAlexandria, appeared after her death to several persons, and was the\ncause of their conversion to Christianity. She appeared in particular\nto a soldier named Basilidus, who, as he was conducting her to the\nplace of execution, had protected her from the insults of the\npopulace. This soldier, encouraged by Potamienna, who in a vision\nplaced a garland upon his head, was baptized, and received the crown\nof martyrdom.\n\nSt. Gregory Thaumaturgus, Bishop of Neocaesarea in Pontus, being\ngreatly occupied with certain theological difficulties, raised by\nheretics concerning the mysteries of religion, and having passed great\npart of the night in studying those matters, saw a venerable old man\nenter his room, having by his side a lady of august and divine form;\nhe comprehended that these were the Holy Virgin and St. John the\nEvangelist. The Virgin exhorted St. John to instruct the bishop, and\ndissipate his embarrassment, by explaining clearly to him the mystery\nof the Trinity and the Divinity of the Verb or Word. He did so, and\nSt. Gregory wrote it down instantly. It is the doctrine which he left\nto his church, and which they have to this very day.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[344] Aug. de Cura gerend. pro Mortuis, c. x.\n\n[345] Concil. Eliber, auno circiter 300.\n\n[346] Amplilo. vita S. Basil. and Chronic. Alex. p. 692.\n\n[347] Acta sincera Mart. pp. 11, 22. Edit. 1713.\n\n[348] Paulin. vit. S. Ambros. n. 47, 48.\n\n[349] Ambros. Epist. 22, p. 874; vid. notes, ibid.\n\n[350] Evod. Upsal. apud Aug. Epist. clviii. Idem, Aug. Epist. clix.\n\n[351] \"Animan igitur omni corpore carere omnino non posse, illud, ut\nputo, ostendit quia Deus solus omni corpore semper caret.\"\n\n[352] \"Quid se praecipitat de rarissimis aut inexpertis quasi definitam\nferre sententiam, cum quotidiana et continua non solvat?\"\n\n[353] Palladius, Dialog, de Vita Chrysost. c. xi.\n\n[354] Lactant. de Mort. Persec. c. 46.\n\n[355] Acta sincera Martyr. passion. S. Theodos. M. pp. 343, 344.\n\n[356] Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. vi. c. 8.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XLI.\n\nMORE INSTANCES OF APPARITIONS.\n\n\nPeter the Venerable, Abbot of Cluny, relates that a good priest named\nStephen, having received the confession of a lord named Guy, who was\nmortally wounded in a combat, this lord appeared to him completely\narmed some time after his death, and begged of him to tell his brother\nAnselm to restore an ox which he Guy had taken from a peasant, whom he\nnamed, and repair the damage which he had done to a village which did\nnot belong to him, and which he had taxed with undue charges; that he\nhad forgotten to declare these two sins in his last confession, and\nthat he was cruelly tormented for it. \"And as assurance of the truth\nof what I tell you,\" added he, \"when you return home, you will find\nthat you have been robbed of the money you intended for your expenses\nin going to St. Jacques.\" The cure, on his return to his house, found\nhis money gone, but could not acquit himself of his commission,\nbecause Anselm was absent. A few days after, Guy appeared to him\nagain, and reproached him for having neglected to perform what he had\nasked of him. The cure excused himself on account of the absence of\nAnselm; and at length went to him and told him what he was charged to\ndo. Anselm answered him harshly that he was not obliged to do penance\nfor his brother's sins.\n\nThe dead man appeared a third time, and implored the cure to assist\nhim in this extremity; he did so, and restored the value of the ox;\nbut as the rest exceeded his power, he gave alms, and recommended Guy\nto the worthy people of his acquaintance; and he appeared no more.\n\nRicher, a monk of Senones,[357] speaks of a spirit which returned in\nhis time, in the town of Epinal, about the year 1212, in the house of\na burgess named Hugh de la Cour, and who, from Christmas to Midsummer,\ndid a variety of things in that same house, in sight of everybody.\nThey could hear him speak, they could see all he did, but nobody could\nsee him. He said he belonged to Clexenteine, a village seven leagues\nfrom Epinal; and what is also remarkable is that, during the six\nmonths he was heard about the house, he did no harm to any one. One\nday, Hugh having ordered his domestic to saddle his horse, and the\nvalet being busy about something else, deferred doing it, when the\nspirit did his work, to the great astonishment of all the household.\nAnother time, when Hugh was absent, the spirit asked Stephen, the\nson-in-law of Hugh, for a penny, to make an offering of it to St.\nGoeric, the patron saint of Epinal. Stephen presented him with an old\ndenier of Provence; but the spirit refused it, saying he would have a\ngood denier of Thoulouse. Stephen placed on the threshold of the door\na Thoulousian denier, which disappeared immediately; and the following\nnight, a noise, as of a man who was walking therein, was heard in the\nchurch of St. Goeric.\n\nAnother time, Hugh having bought some fish to make his family a\nrepast, the spirit transported the fish to the garden which was behind\nthe house, put half of it on a tile (_scandula_), and the rest in a\nmortar, where it was found again. Another time, Hugh desiring to be\nbled, told his daughter to get ready some bandages. Immediately the\nspirit went into another room, and fetched a new shirt, which he tore\nup into several bandages, presented them to the master of the house,\nand told him to choose the best. Another day, the servant having\nspread out some linen in the garden to dry, the spirit carried it all\nup stairs, and folded them more neatly than the cleverest laundress\ncould have done.\n\nA man named Guy de la Torre,[358] who died at Verona in 1306, at the\nend of eight days spoke to his wife and the neighbors of both sexes,\nto the prior of the Dominicians, and to the professor of theology, who\nasked him several questions in theology, to which he replied very\npertinently. He declared that he was in purgatory for certain\nunexpatiated sins. They asked him how he possibly could speak, not\nhaving the organs of the voice; he replied that souls separated from\nthe body have the faculty of forming for themselves instruments of the\nair capable of pronouncing words; he added that the fire of hell acted\nupon spirits, not by its natural virtue, but by the power of God, of\nwhich that fire is the instrument.\n\nHere follows another remarkable instance of an apparition, related by\nM. d'Aubigne. \"I affirm upon the word of the king[359] the second\nprodigy, as being one of the three stories which he reiterated to us,\nhis hair standing on end at the time, as we could perceive. This one\nis, that the queen having gone to bed at an earlier hour than usual,\nand there being present at her _coucher_, amongst other persons of\nnote, the king of Navarre,[360] the Archbishop of Lyons, the Ladies de\nRetz, de Lignerolles, and de Sauve, two of whom have since confirmed\nthis conversation. As she was hastening to bid them good night, she\nthrew herself with a start upon her bolster, put her hands before her\nface, and crying out violently, she called to her assistance those who\nwere present, wishing to show them, at the foot of the bed, the\nCardinal (de Lorraine), who extended his hand towards her; she cried\nout several times, 'M. the Cardinal, I have nothing to do with you.'\nThe King of Navarre at the same time sent out one of his gentlemen,\nwho brought back word that he had expired at that same moment.\"\n\nI take from Sully's Memoirs,[361] which have just been reprinted in\nbetter order than they were before, another singular fact, which may\nbe related with these. We still endeavor to find out what can be the\nnature of that illusion, seen so often and by the eyes of so many\npersons in the Forest of Fontainebleau; it was a phantom surrounded by\na pack of hounds, whose cries were heard, while they might be seen at\na distance, but all disappeared if any one approached.\n\nThe note of M. d'Ecluse, editor of these Memoirs, enters into longer\ndetails. He observes that M. de Perefixe makes mention of this\nphantom; and he makes him say, with a hoarse voice, one of these three\nsentences: Do you expect me? or, Do you hear me? or, Amend yourself.\n\"And they believe,\" says he, \"that these were sports of sorcerers, or\nof the malignant spirit.\" The Journal of Henry IV., and the Septenary\nChronicle, speak of them also, and even assert that this phenomenon\nalarmed Henry IV. and his courtiers very much. And Peter Matthew says\nsomething of it in his History of France, tom. ii. p. 68. Bongars\nspeaks of it as others do,[362] and asserts that it was a hunter who\nhad been killed in this forest in the time of Francis I. But now we\nhear no more of this spectre, though there is still a road in this\nforest which retains the name of the _Grand Veneur_, in memory, it is\nsaid, of this visionary scene.\n\nA Chronicle of Metz,[363] under the date of the year 1330, relates the\napparition of a spirit at Lagni sur Marne, six leagues from Paris. It\nwas a good lady, who after her death spoke to more than twenty\npeople--her father, sister, daughter, and son-in-law, and to her other\nfriends--asking them to have said for her particular masses, as being\nmore efficacious than the common mass. As they feared it might be an\nevil spirit, they read to it the beginning of the Gospel of St. John;\nand they made it say the _Pater_, _credo_, and _confiteor_. She said\nshe had beside her two angels, one bad and one good; and that the good\nangel revealed to her what she ought to say. They asked her if they\nshould go and fetch the Holy Sacrament from the altar. She replied it\nwas with them, for her father, who was present, and several others\namong them, had received it on Christmas day, which was the Tuesday\nbefore.\n\nFather Taillepied, a Cordelier, and professor of theology at\nRouen,[364] who composed a book expressly on the subject of\napparitions, which was printed at Rouen in 1600, says that one of his\nfraternity with whom he was acquainted, named Brother Gabriel,\nappeared to several monks of the convent at Nice, and begged of them\nto satisfy the demand of a shopkeeper at Marseilles, of whom he had\ntaken a coat he had not paid for. On being asked why he made so much\nnoise, he replied that it was not himself, but a bad spirit who wished\nto appear instead of him, and prevent him from declaring the cause of\nhis torment.\n\nI have been told by two canons of St. Diez, in our neighborhood, that\nthree months after the death of M. Henri, canon of St. Diez, of their\nbrotherhood, the canon to whom the house devolved, going with one of\nhis brethren, at two o'clock in the afternoon, to look at the said\nhouse, and see what alterations it might suit him to make in it, they\nwent into the kitchen, and both of them saw in the next room, which\nwas large and very light, a tall ecclesiastic of the same height and\nfigure as the defunct canon, who, turning towards them, looked them in\nthe face for two minutes, then crossed the said room, and went up a\nlittle dark staircase which led to the garret.\n\nThese two gentlemen, being much frightened, left the house instantly,\nand related the adventure to some of the brotherhood, who were of\nopinion that they ought to return and see if there was not some one\nhidden in the house; they went, they sought, they looked everywhere,\nwithout finding any one.\n\nWe read in the History of the Bishops of Mans,[365] that in the time\nof Bishop Hugh, who lived in 1135, they heard, in the house of Provost\nNicholas, a spirit who alarmed the neighbors and those who lived in\nthe house, by uproar and frightful noises, as if he had thrown\nenormous stones against the walls, with a force which shook the roof,\nwalls, and ceilings; he transported the dishes and the plates from one\nplace to another, without their seeing the hand which moved them. This\ngenius lighted a candle, though very far from the fire. Sometimes,\nwhen the meat was placed on the table, he would scatter bran, ashes,\nor soot, to prevent them from touching any of it. Amica, the wife of\nthe Provost Nicholas, having prepared some thread to be made into\ncloth, the spirit twisted and raveled it in such a way that all who\nsaw it could not sufficiently admire the manner in which it was done.\n\nPriests were called in, who sprinkled holy water everywhere, and\ndesired all those who were there to make the sign of the cross.\nTowards the first and second night, they heard as it were the voice of\na young girl, who, with sighs that seemed drawn from the bottom of her\nheart, said, in a lamentable and sobbing voice, that her name was\nGarnier; and addressing itself to the provost, said, \"Alas! whence do\nI come? from what distant country, through how many storms, dangers,\nthrough snow, cold, fire, and bad weather, have I arrived at this\nplace! I have not received power to harm any one--but prepare\nyourselves with the sign of the cross against a band of evil spirits,\nwho are here only to do you harm; have a mass of the Holy Ghost said\nfor me, and a mass for those defunct; and you, my dear sister-in-law,\ngive some clothes to the poor, for me.\"\n\nThey asked this spirit several questions on things past and to come,\nto which it replied very pertinently; it explained even the salvation\nand damnation of several persons; but it would not enter into any\nargument, nor yet into conference with learned men, who were sent by\nthe Bishop of Mans; this last circumstance is very remarkable, and\ncasts some suspicion on this apparition.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[357] Richer Senon. in Chronic. m. (Hoc non exstat in impresso).\n\n[358] Herman Contraet. Chronic. p. 1006.\n\n[359] D'Aubigne, Hist. Univ. lib. ii. c. 12. Ap. 1574.\n\n[360] Henry IV.\n\n[361] Mem. de Sully, in 4to. tom. i. liv. x. p. 562, note 26. Or Edit.\nin 12mo. tom. iii. p. 321, note 26.\n\n[362] Bongars, Epist. ad Camerarium.\n\n[363] Chronic. Metens. Anno, 1330.\n\n[364] Taillepied, Traite de l'Apparition des Esprits, c. xv. p. 173.\n\n[365] Anecdote Mabill, p. 320. Edition in fol.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XLII.\n\nON THE APPARITIONS OF SPIRITS WHO IMPRINT THEIR HANDS ON CLOTHES OR ON\nWOOD.\n\n\nWithin a short time, a work composed by a Father Premontre, of the\nAbbey of Toussaints, in the Black Forest, has been communicated to me.\nHis work is in manuscript, and entitled, \"Umbra Humberti, hoc est\nhistoria memorabilis D. Humberti Birkii, mira post mortem apparitione,\nper A. G. N.\"\n\nThis Humbert Birck was a burgess of note, in the town of Oppenheim,\nand master of a country house called Berenbach; he died in the month\nof November, 1620, a few days before the feast of St. Martin. On the\nSaturday which followed his funeral, they began to hear certain noises\nin the house where he had lived with his first wife; for at the time\nof his death he had married again.\n\nThe master of this house, suspecting that it was his brother-in-law\nwho haunted it, said to him, \"If you are Humbert, my brother-in-law,\nstrike three times against the wall.\" At the same time, they heard\nthree strokes only, for ordinarily he struck several times. Sometimes,\nalso, he was heard at the fountain where they went for water, and he\nfrightened all the neighborhood; he did not always utter articulate\nsounds, but he would knock repeatedly, make a noise, or a groan, or a\nshrill whistle, or sounds as a person in lamentation; all this lasted\nfor six months, and then it suddenly ceased. At the end of a year he\nmade himself heard more loudly than ever. The master of the house, and\nhis domestics, the boldest amongst them, at last asked him what he\nwished for, and in what they could help him? He replied, but in a\nhoarse, low tone, \"Let the cure come here next Saturday with my\nchildren.\" The cure being indisposed, could not go thither on the\nappointed day; but he went on the Monday following, accompanied by a\ngood many people.\n\nHumbert received notice of this, and he answered in a very\nintelligible manner. They asked him if he required any masses to be\nsaid? He asked for three. Then they wished to know if alms should be\ngiven in his name? He said, \"I wish them to give eight measures of\ncorn to the poor, and that my widow may give something to all my\nchildren.\" He afterwards ordered that what had been badly distributed\nin his succession, which amounted to about twenty florins, should be\nset aside. They asked why he infested that house rather than another?\nHe answered that he was forced to it by conjuration and maledictions.\nHad he received the sacraments of the Church? \"I received them from\nthe cure, your predecessor.\" He was made to say the _Pater_ and the\n_Ave_; he recited them with difficulty, saying that he was prevented\nby an evil spirit, who would not let him tell the cure many other\nthings.\n\nThe cure, who was named Premontre, of the abbey of Toussaints, came to\nthe monastery on Tuesday the 12th of January, 1621, in order to take\nthe opinion of the Superior on this singular affair; they let him have\nthree monks to help him with their counsels. They all repaired to the\nhouse wherein Humbert continued his importunity; for nothing that he\nhad requested had as yet been executed. A great number of those who\nlived near were assembled in the house. The master of it told Humbert\nto rap against the wall; he knocked very gently: then the master\ndesired him to go and fetch a stone and knock louder; he deferred a\nlittle, as if he had been to pick up a stone, and gave a stronger blow\nupon the wall: the master whispered in his neighbor's ear as softly as\nhe could that he should rap seven times, and directly he rapped seven\ntimes. He always showed great respect to the priests, and did not\nreply to them so boldly as to the laity; and when he was asked\nwhy--\"It is,\" said he, \"because they have with them the Holy\nSacrament.\" However, they had it no otherwise than because they had\nsaid mass that day. The next day the three masses which he had\nrequired were said, and all was disposed for a pilgrimage, which he\nhad specified in the last conversation they had with him; and they\npromised to give alms for him the first day possible. From that time\nHumbert haunted them no more.\n\nThe same monk, Premontre, relates that on the 9th of September, 1625,\na man named John Steinlin died at a place called Altheim, in the\ndiocese of Constance. Steinlin was a man in easy circumstances, and a\ncommon-councilman of his town. Some days after his death he appeared\nduring the night to a tailor, named Simon Bauh, in the form of a man\nsurrounded by a sombre flame, like that of lighted sulphur, going and\ncoming in his own house, but without speaking. Bauh, who was\ndisquieted by this sight, resolved to ask him what he could do to\nserve him. He found an opportunity to do so the 17th of November in\nthe same year, 1625; for, as he was reposing at night near his stove,\na little after eleven o'clock, he beheld this spectre environed by\nfire like sulphur, who came into his room, going and coming, shutting\nand opening the windows. The tailor asked him what he desired. He\nreplied, in a hoarse, interrupted voice, that he could help very much,\nif he would; \"but,\" added he, \"do not promise me to do so, if you are\nnot resolved to execute your promises.\" \"I will execute them, if they\nare not beyond my power,\" replied he.\n\n\"I wish, then,\" replied the spirit, \"that you would cause a mass to be\nsaid in the chapel of the Virgin at Rotembourg; I made a vow to that\nintent during my life, and I have not acquitted myself of it.\nMoreover, you must have two masses said at Altheim, the one of the\nDefunct and the other of the Virgin; and as I did not always pay my\nservants exactly, I wish that a quarter of corn should be distributed\nto the poor.\" Simon promised to satisfy him on all these points. The\nspectre held out his hand, as if to ensure his promise; but Simon,\nfearing that some harm might happen to himself, tendered him the board\nwhich come to hand, and the spectre having touched it, left the print\nof his hand with the four fingers and thumb, as if fire had been\nthere, and had left a pretty deep impression. After that, he vanished\nwith so much noise that it was heard three houses off.\n\nI related in the first edition of this dissertation on the return of\nspirits, an adventure which happened at Fontenoy on the Moselle, where\nit was affirmed that a spirit had in the same manner made the\nimpression of its hand on a handkerchief, and had left the impress of\nthe hand and of the palm well marked. The handkerchief is in the hands\nof one Casmar, a constable living at Toul, who received it from his\nuncle, the cure of Fontenoy; but, on a careful investigation of the\nthing, it was found that a young blacksmith, who courted a young girl\nto whom the handkerchief belonged, had forged an iron hand to print it\non the handkerchief, and persuade people of the reality of the\napparition.\n\nAt St. Avold, a town of German Lorraine, in the house of the cure,\nnamed M. Royer de Monelos, there was something very similar which\nappears to have been performed by a servant girl, sixteen years of\nage, who heard and saw, as she said, a woman who made a great noise in\nthe house; but she was the only person who saw and heard her, although\nothers heard also the noise which was made in the house. They saw also\nthe young servant, as it were, pushed, dragged, and struck by the\nspirit, but never saw it, nor yet heard his voice. This contrivance\nbegan on the night of the 31st of January, 1694, and finished about\nthe end of February the same year. The cure conjured the spirit in\nGerman and French. He made no reply to the exorcisms in French but\nsighs; and as they terminated the German exorcism, saying, \"Let every\nspirit praise the Lord,\" the girl said that the spirit had said, \"And\nme also;\" but she alone heard it.\n\nSome monks of the abbey were requested to come also and exorcise the\nspirit. They came, and with them some burgesses of note of St. Avold;\nand neither before nor after the exorcisms did they see or hear\nanything, except that the servant girl seemed to be pushed violently,\nand the doors were roughly knocked at. By dint of exorcisms they\nforced the spirit, or rather the servant who alone heard and saw it,\nto declare that she was neither maid nor wife; that she was called\nClaire Margaret Henri; that a hundred and fifty years ago she had died\nat the age of twenty, after having lived servant at the cure of St.\nAvold's first of all for eight years, and that she had died at\nGuenviller of grief and regret for having killed her own child. At\nlast, the servant maintaining that she was not a good spirit, she said\nto her, \"Give me hold of your petticoat (or skirt).\" She would do no\nsuch thing; at the same time the spirit said to her, \"Look at your\npetticoat; my mark is upon it.\" She looked and saw upon her skirt the\nfive fingers of the hand so distinctly that it did not appear possible\nfor any living creature to have marked them better. This affair lasted\nabout two months; and at this day, at St. Avold, as in all the\ncountry, they talk of the spirit of St. Avold as of a game played by\nthat girl, in concert, doubtless, with some persons who wished to\ndivert themselves by puzzling the good cure with his sisters, and all\nthose who fell into the trap. They printed at Cusson's, at Nancy, in\n1718, a relation of this event, which at first gained credence with a\nnumber of people, but who were quite undeceived in the end.\n\nI shall add to this story that which is related by Philip\nMelancthon,[366] whose testimony in this matter ought not to be\ndoubted. He says that his aunt having lost her husband when she was\nenceinte and near her time, she saw one day, towards evening, two\npersons come into her house; one of them wore the form of her deceased\nhusband, the other that of a tall Franciscan. At first she was\nfrightened, but her husband reassured her, and told her that he had\nimportant things to communicate to her; at the same time he begged the\nFranciscan to pass into the next room, whilst he imparted his wishes\nto his wife. Then he begged of her to have some masses said for the\nrelief of his soul, and tried to persuade her to give her hand without\nfear; as she was unwilling to give it, he assured her she would feel\nno pain. She gave him her hand, and her hand felt no pain when she\nwithdrew it, but was so blackened that it remained discolored all her\nlife. After that, the husband called in the Franciscan; they went out,\nand disappeared. Melancthon believes that these were two spectres; he\nadds that he knows several similar instances related by persons worthy\nof credit.\n\nIf these two men were only spectres, having neither flesh nor bones,\nhow could one of them imprint a black color on the hand of this widow?\nHow could he who appeared to the tailor Bauh imprint his hand on the\nboard which he presented to him? If they were evil genii, why did they\nask for masses and order restitution? Does Satan destroy his own\nempire, and does he inspire the living with the idea of doing good\nactions and of fearing the pains which the sins of the wicked are\npunished by God?\n\nBut on looking at the affair in another light, may not the demon in\nthis kind of apparitions, by which he asks for masses and prayers,\nintend to foment superstition, by making the living believe that\nmasses and prayers made for them after their death would free them\nfrom the pains of hell, even if they died in habitual crime and\nimpenitence? Several instances are cited of rascals who have appeared\nafter their death, asking for prayers like the bad rich man, and to\nwhom prayers and masses can be of no avail from the unhappy state in\nwhich they died. Thus, in all this, Satan seeks to establish his\nkingdom, and not to destroy it or diminish it.\n\nWe shall speak hereafter, in the Dissertation on Vampires, of\napparitions of dead persons who have been seen, and acted like living\nones in their own bodies.\n\nThe same Melancthon relates that a monk came one day and rapped loudly\nat the door of Luther's dwelling, asking to speak to him; he entered\nand said, \"I entertained some popish errors upon which I shall be very\nglad to confer with you.\" \"Speak,\" said Luther. He at first proposed\nto him several syllogisms, to which he easily replied; he then\nproposed others, that were more difficult. Luther, being annoyed,\nanswered him hastily, \"Go, you embarrass me; I have something else to\ndo just now besides answering you.\" However, he rose and replied to\nhis arguments. At the same time, having remarked that the pretended\nmonk had hands like the claws of a bird, he said to him, \"Art not thou\nhe of whom it is said, in Genesis, 'He who shall be born of woman\nshall break the head of the serpent?'\" The demon added, \"But _thou_\nshalt engulf them all.\" At these words the confused demon retired\nangrily and with much fracas; he left the room infested with a very\nbad smell, which was perceptible for some days.\n\nLuther, who assumes so much the _esprit fort_, and inveighs with so\nmuch warmth against private masses wherein they pray for the souls of\nthe defunct,[367] maintains boldly that all the apparitions of spirits\nwhich we read in the lives of the saints, and who ask for masses for\nthe repose of their souls, are only illusions of Satan, who appears to\ndeceive the simple, and inspire them with useless confidence in the\nsacrifice of the mass. Whence he concludes that it is better at once\nto deny absolutely that there is any purgatory.\n\nHe, then, did not deny either apparitions or the operations of the\ndevil; and he maintained that Ecolampadius died under the blows of the\ndevil,[368] whose efforts he could not rebut; and, speaking of\nhimself, he affirms that awaking once with a start in the middle of\nthe night, the devil appeared, to argue against him, when he was\nseized with moral terror. The arguments of the demon were so pressing\nthat they left him no repose of mind; the sound of his powerful voice,\nhis overwhelming manner of disputing when the question and the reply\nwere perceived at once, left him no breathing time. He says again that\nthe devil can kill and strangle, and without doing all that, press a\nman so home by his arguments that it is enough to kill one; \"as I,\"\nsays he, \"have experienced several times.\" After such avowals, what\ncan we think of the doctrine of this chief of the innovators?\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[366] Philipp. Melancth. Theolog. c. i. Oper. fol. 326, 327.\n\n[367] Martin Luther, de Abroganda Missa Privata, part. ii.\n\n[368] Ibid. tom. vii. 226.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XLIII.\n\nOPINIONS OF THE JEWS, GREEKS, AND LATINS CONCERNING THE DEAD WHO ARE\nLEFT UNBURIED.\n\n\nThe ancient Hebrews, as well as the greater number of other nations,\nwere very careful in burying their dead. That appears from all\nhistory; we see in the Scripture how much attention the patriarchs\npaid in that respect to themselves and those belonging to them; we\nknow what praises are bestowed on the holy man Tobit, whose principal\ndevotion consisted in giving sepulture to the dead.\n\nJosephus the historian[369] says that the Jews refused burial only to\nthose who committed suicide. Moses commanded them[370] to give\nsepulture the same day and before sunset to any who were executed and\nhanged on a tree; \"because,\" says he, \"he who is hung upon the tree is\naccursed of God; you will take care not to pollute the land which the\nLord your God has given you.\" That was practiced in regard to our\nSaviour, who was taken down from the cross the same day that he had\nbeen crucified, and a few hours after his death.\n\nHomer,[371] speaking of the inhumanity of Achilles, who dragged the\nbody of Hector after his car, says that he dishonored and outraged the\nearth by this barbarous conduct. The Rabbis write that the soul is not\nreceived into heaven until the gross body is interred, and entirely\nconsumed. They believe, moreover, that after death the souls of the\nwicked are clothed with a kind of covering with which they accustom\nthemselves to suffer the torments which are their due; and that the\nsouls of the just are invested with a resplendent body and a luminous\ngarment, with which they accustom themselves to the glory which awaits\nthem.\n\nOrigen[372] acknowledges that Plato, in his Dialogue of the Soul,\nadvances that the images and shades of the dead appeared sometimes\nnear their tombs. Origen concludes from that, that those shades and\nthose images must be produced by some cause; and that cause, according\nto him, can only be that the soul of the dead is invested with a\nsubtile body like that of light, on which they are borne as in a car,\nwhere they appear to the living. Celsus maintained that the\napparitions of Jesus Christ after his resurrection were only the\neffects of an imagination smitten and prepossessed, which formed to\nitself the object of its illusions according to its wishes. Origen\nrefutes this solidly by the recital of the evangelists, of the\nappearance of our Saviour to Thomas, who would not believe it was\ntruly our Saviour until he had seen and touched his wounds; it was\nnot, then, purely the effect of his imagination.\n\nThe same Origen,[373] and Theophylact after him, assert that the Jews\nand pagans believe that the soul remained for some time near the body\nit had formerly animated; and that it is to destroy that futile\nopinion that Jesus Christ, when he would resuscitate Lazarus, cries\nwith a loud voice, \"Lazarus, come forth;\" as if he would call from a\ndistance the soul of this man who had been dead three days.\n\nTertullian places the angels in the category of extension,[374] in\nwhich he places God himself, and maintains that the soul is corporeal.\nOrigen believes also that the soul is material, and has a form;[375]\nan opinion which he may have taken from Plato. Arnobius, Lactantius,\nSt. Hilary, several of the ancient fathers, and some theologians, have\nbeen of the same opinion; and Grotius is displeased with those who\nhave absolutely spiritualized the angels, demons and souls separated\nfrom the body.\n\nThe Jews of our days[376] believe that after the body of a man is\ninterred, his spirit goes and comes, and departs from the spot where\nit is destined to visit his body, and to know what passes around him;\nthat it is wandering during a whole year after the death of the body,\nand that it was during that year of delay that the Pythoness of Endor\nevoked the soul of Samuel, after which time the evocation would have\nhad no power over his spirit.\n\nThe pagans thought much in the same manner upon it. Lucan introduces\nPompey, who consults a witch, and commands her to evoke the soul of a\ndead man to reveal to him what success he would meet with in his war\nagainst Caesar; the poet makes this woman say, \"Shade, obey my spells,\nfor I evoke not a soul from gloomy Tartarus, but one which hath gone\ndown thither a little while since, and which is still at the gate of\nhell.\"[377]\n\nThe Egyptians[378] believed that when the spirit of an animal is\nseparated from its body by violence, it does not go to a distance, but\nremains near it. It is the same with the soul of a man who has died a\nviolent death; it remains near the body--nothing can make it go away;\nit is retained there by sympathy; several have been seen sighing near\ntheir bodies which were interred. The magicians abuse their power over\nsuch in their incantations; they force them to obey, when they are\nmasters of the dead body, or even part of it. Frequent experience\ntaught them that there is a secret virtue in the body, which draws\ntowards it the spirit which has once inhabited it; wherefore those who\nwish to receive or become the receptacles of the spirits of such\nanimals as know the future, eat the principle parts of them, as the\nhearts of crows, moles, or hawks. The spirit of these creatures enters\ninto them at the moment they eat this food, and makes them give out\noracles like divinities.\n\nThe Egyptians believed[379] that when the spirit of a beast is\ndelivered from its body, it is rational and predicts the future, gives\noracles, and is capable of all that the soul of man can do when\ndisengaged from the body--for which reason they abstained from eating\nthe flesh of animals, and worshiped the gods in the form of beasts.\n\nAt Rome and at Metz there were colleges of priests consecrated to the\nservice of the manes,[380] lares, images, shades, spectres, Erebus,\nAvernus or hell, under the protection of the god Sylvanus; which\ndemonstrates that the Latins and the Gauls recognized the return of\nsouls and their apparition, and considered them as divinities to whom\nsacrifices should be offered to appease them and prevent them from\ndoing harm. Nicander confirms the same thing, when he says that the\nCelts or the Gauls watched near the tombs of their great men to derive\nfrom them knowledge concerning the future.\n\nThe ancient northern nations were fully persuaded that the spectres\nwhich sometimes appear are no other than the souls of persons lately\ndeceased, and in their country they knew no remedy so proper to put a\nstop to this kind of apparition as to cut off the head of the dead\nperson, or to impale him, or pierce him through the body with a stake,\nor to burn it, as is now practiced at this day in Hungary and Moravia\nwith regard to vampires.\n\nThe Greeks, who had derived their religion and theology from the\nEgyptians and Orientals, and the Latins, who took it from the Greeks,\nbelieved that the souls of the dead sometimes appeared to the living;\nthat the necromancers evoked them, and thus obtained answers\nconcerning the future, and instructions relating to the time present.\nHomer, the greatest theologian, and perhaps the most curious of the\nGrecian writers, relates several apparitions, both of gods and heroes,\nand of men after their death.\n\nIn the Odyssey,[381] Ulysses goes to consult the diviner Tyresias; and\nthis sorcerer having prepared a grave full of blood to evoke the\nmanes, Ulysses draws his sword, and prevents them from coming to drink\nthis blood, for which they appear to thirst, and of which they would\nnot permit them to taste before they had replied to what was asked of\nthem; they (the Greeks and Latins) believed also that souls were not\nat rest, and that they wandered around the corpses, so long as they\nremained uninhumed.[382] When they gave burial to a body, they called\nthat _animam condere_,[383] to cover the soul, put it under the earth\nand shelter it. They called it with a loud voice, and offered it\nlibations of milk and blood. They also called that ceremony, hiding\nthe shades,[384] sending them with their body under ground.\n\nThe sybil, speaking to AEneas, shows him the manes or shades wandering\non the banks of the Acheron; and tells him that they are souls of\npersons who have not received sepulture, and who wander about for a\nhundred years.[385]\n\nThe philosopher Sallust[386] speaks of the apparitions of the dead\naround their tombs in dark bodies; he tries to prove thereby the dogma\nof the metempsychosis.\n\nHere is a singular instance of a dead man, who refuses the rite of\nburial, acknowledging himself unworthy of it. Agathias relates[387]\nthat some pagan philosophers, not being able to relish the dogma of\nthe unity of a God, resolved to go from Constantinople to the court of\nChosroes, King of Persia, who was spoken of as a humane prince, and\none who loved learning. Simplicius of Silicia, Eulamius the Phrygian,\nProtanus the Lydian, Hermenes and Philogenes of Phoenicia, and\nIsidorus of Gaza, repaired then to the court of Chosroes, and were\nwell received there; but they soon perceived that that country was\nmuch more corrupt than Greece, and they resolved to return to\nConstantinople, where Justinian then reigned.\n\nAs they were on their way, they found an unburied corpse, took pity on\nit, and had it put in the ground by their own servants. The following\nnight this man appeared to one of them, and told him not to inter him,\nwho was not worthy of receiving sepulture; for the earth abhorred one\nwho had defiled his own mother. The next day they found the same\ncorpse cast out of the ground, and they comprehended that it was\ndefiled by incest, which rendered it unworthy of the honor of\nreceiving burial, although such crimes were known in Persia, and did\nnot excite the same horror there as in other countries.\n\nThe Greeks and Latins believed that the souls of the dead came and\ntasted what was presented on their tombs, especially honey and wine;\nthat the demons loved the smoke and odor of sacrifices, melody, the\nblood of victims, commerce with women; that they were attached for a\ntime to certain spots or to certain edifices, which they haunted, and\nwhere they appeared; that souls separated from their terrestrial body,\nretained after death a subtile one, flexible, aerial, which preserved\nthe form of that they once had animated during their life; that they\nhaunted those who had done them wrong and whom they hated. Thus Virgil\ndescribes Dido, in a rage, threatening to haunt the perfidious\nAEneas.[388]\n\nWhen the spirit of Patroclus appeared to Achilles,[389] it had his\nvoice, his shape, his eyes, his garments, but not his palpable body.\nWhen Ulysses went down to the infernal regions, he saw there the\ndivine Hercules,[390] that is to say, says Homer, his likeness; for he\nhimself is with the immortal gods, seated at their feast. AEneas\nrecognized his wife Creuesa, who appeared to him in her usual form,\nonly taller and more majestic.[391]\n\nWe might cite a quantity of passages from the ancient poets, even from\nthe fathers of the church, who believed that spirits often appeared to\nthe living. Tertullian[392] believes that the soul is corporeal, and\nthat it has a certain figure. He appeals to the experience of those to\nwhom the ghosts of dead persons have appeared, and who have seen them\nsensibly, corporeally, and palpably, although of an aerial color and\nconsistency. He defines the soul[393] a breath sent from God,\nimmortal, and having body and form. Speaking of the fictions of the\npoets, who have asserted that souls were not at rest while their\nbodies remain uninterred, he says all this is invented only to inspire\nthe living with that care which they ought to take for the burial of\nthe dead, and to take away from the relations of the dead the sight of\nan object which would only uselessly augment their grief, if they kept\nit too long in their houses; _ut instantia funeris et honor corporum\nservetur et moeror affectuum temperetur_.\n\nSt. Irenaeus[394] teaches, as a doctrine received from the Lord, that\nsouls not only subsist after the death of the body--without however\npassing from one body into another, as those will have it who admit\nthe metempsychosis--but that they retain the form and remain near this\nbody, as faithful guardians of it, and remember naught of what they\nhave done or not done in this life. These fathers believed, then, in\nthe return of souls, their apparition, and their attachment to their\nbody; but we do not adopt their opinion on the corporeality of souls;\nwe are persuaded that they can appear with God's permission,\nindependently of all matter and of any corporeal substance which may\nbelong to them.\n\nAs to the opinion of the soul being in a state of unrest while its\nbody is not interred, that it remains for some time near the tomb of\nthe body, and appears there in a bodily form; those are opinions which\nhave no solid foundation, either in Scripture or in the traditions of\nthe Church, which teach us that directly after death the soul is\npresented before the judgment-seat of God, and is there destined to\nthe place that its good or bad actions have deserved.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[369] Joseph Bell. Jud. lib. iii c. 25.\n\n[370] Deut. xxi. 23.\n\n[371] Homer, Iliad, XXIV.\n\n[372] Origenes contra Celsum, p. 97.\n\n[373] Origenes in Joan. ix. &c. Theophylac. ibid.\n\n[374] Tertull. lib. de Anima.\n\n[375] Origenes contra Cels. lib. ii.\n\n[376] Bereseith Rabbae. c. 22. Vide Menasse de Resurrect. Mort.\n\n[377]\n \"Parete precanti\n Non in Tartareo latitantem poscimus antro,\n Assuetamque diu tenebris; modo luce fugata\n Descendentem animam primo pallentis hiatu\n Haeret adhuc orci.\"\n _Lucan, Pharsal._ 16.\n\n[378] Porphyr. de Abstin. lib. ii. art. 47.\n\n[379] Demet. lib. iv. art. 10.\n\n[380] Gruter, p. lxiii. Mauric. Hist. de Metz, preface, p. 15.\n\n[381] Homer, Odyss. sub finem. Horat. lib. i. satyr. 8. Aug. de Civit.\nDei, lib. vii. c. 35. Clem. Alex. Paedag. lib. ii. c. 1. Prudent.\nlib. iv. contra Symmach. Tertull. de Anim. Lactantius, lib. iii.\n\n[382] Virgil, AEn. iii. 150, _et seq._\n\n \"Propterea jacet exanimum tibi corpus amici,\n Heu nescis! totamque incestat funere classem.\n Sedibus hunc refer ante suis et conde sepulcre.\"\n\n[383]\n \"Animamque sepulchro\n Condimus, et magna supremum voce ciemus.\"\n\n[384]\n \"Romulus ut tumulo fraternas condidit umbras,\n Et male veloci justa soluta Remo.\"\n\n[385]\n \"Haec omnis, quam cernis, inops inhumataque turba est.\n Centum errant annos, volitantque haec littora circum.\"\n\n[386] Sallust. Philos. c. 19, 20.\n\n[387] Stolust. lib. ii. de Bella Persico, sub fin.\n\n[388]\n \"Sequar atris ignibus absens;\n Et cum frigida mors animae subduxerit artus,\n Omnibus umbra lecis adero: dubis, improbe, poenas.\"\n\n[389] Homer, Iliad, XXIII.\n\n[390] Ibid. Odyss. V.\n\n[391]\n \"Infelix simulacrum etque ipsius umbra Creuesae\n Visa mihi ante oculos, et nota major imago.\" _Virgil, AEneid_ I.\n\n[392] Tertull. de Anim.\n\n[393] Ibid.\n\n[394] Iren. lib. ii. c. 34.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XLIV.\n\nEXAMINATION OF WHAT IS REQUIRED OR REVEALED TO THE LIVING BY THE DEAD\nWHO RETURN TO EARTH.\n\n\nThe apparitions which are seen are those of good angels, or of demons,\nor the spirits of the dead, or of living persons to others still\nliving.\n\nGood angels usually bring only good news, and announce nothing but\nwhat is fortunate; or if they do announce any future misfortunes, it\nis to persuade men to prevent them, or turn them aside by repentance,\nor to profit by the evils which God sends them by exercising their\npatience, and showing submission to his orders.\n\nBad angels generally foretell only misfortune; wars, the effect of the\nwrath of God on nations; and often even they execute the evils, and\ndirect the wars and public calamities which desolate kingdoms,\nprovinces, cities, and families. The spectres whose appearance to\nBrutus, Cassius, and Julian the Apostate we have related, are only\nbearers of the fatal orders of the wrath of God. If they sometimes\npromise any prosperity to those to whom they appear, it is only for\nthe present time, never for eternity, nor for the glory of God, nor\nfor the eternal salvation of those to whom they speak. It only extends\nto a temporal fortune, always of short duration, and very often\ndeceitful.\n\nThe souls of the defunct, if these be Christians, ask very often that\nthe sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ should be offered,\naccording to the observation of St. Gregory the Great;[395] and, as\nexperience shows, there is hardly any apparition of a Christian that\ndoes not ask for masses, pilgrimages, restitutions, or that alms\nshould be distributed, or that they would satisfy those to whom the\ndeceased died indebted. They also often give salutary advice for the\nsalvation or correction of the morals, or good regulation of families.\nThey reveal the state in which certain persons find themselves in the\nother world, in order to relieve their pain, or to put the living on\ntheir guard, that the like misfortune may not befall them. They talk\nof hell, paradise, purgatory, angels, demons, of the Supreme Judge, of\nthe rigor of his judgments, of the goodness he exercises towards the\njust, and the rewards with which he crowns their good works.\n\nBut we must greatly mistrust those apparitions which ask for masses,\npilgrimages and restitution. St. Paul warns us that the demon often\ntransforms himself into an angel of light;[396] and St. John[397]\nwarns us to distrust the \"depths of Satan,\" his illusions, and\ndeceitful appearances; that spirit of malice and falsehood is found\namong the true prophets to put into the mouth of the false prophets\nfalsehood and error. He makes a wrong use of the text of the\nScriptures, of the most sacred ceremonies, even of the sacraments and\nprayers of the church, to seduce the simple, and win their confidence,\nto share as much as in him lies the glory which is due to the Almighty\nalone, and to appropriate it to himself. How many false miracles has\nhe not wrought? How many times has he foretold future events? What\ncures has he not operated? How many holy actions has he not counseled?\nHow many enterprises, praiseworthy in appearance, has he not inspired,\nin order to draw the faithful into his snare?\n\nBoden, in his Demonology,[398] cites more than one instance of demons\nwho have requested prayers, and have even placed themselves in the\nposture of persons praying over a grave, to point out that the dead\npersons wanted prayers. Sometimes it will be the demon in the shape of\na wretch dead in crime, who will come and ask for masses, to show that\nhis soul is in purgatory, and has need of prayers, although it may be\ncertain that he finally died impenitent, and that prayers are useless\nfor his salvation. All this is only a stratagem of a demon, who seeks\nto inspire the wicked with foolish and dangerous confidence in their\nbeing saved, notwithstanding their criminal life and their\nimpenitence; and that they can obtain salvation by means of a few\nprayers, and a few alms, which shall be made after their death; not\nregarding that these good works can be useful only to those who died\nin a state of grace, although stained by some venial fault, since the\nScripture informs us[399] that nothing impure will enter the kingdom\nof heaven.\n\nIt is believed that the reprobate can sometimes return to earth by\npermission, as persons dead in idolatry, and consequently in sin, and\nexcluded from the kingdom of God, have been seen to come to life\nagain, be converted, and receive baptism. St. Martin was as yet only\nthe simple abbot of his monastery of Liguge,[400] when, in his\nabsence, a catechumen who had placed himself under his discipline to\nbe instructed in the truths of the Christian religion died without\nhaving been baptized. He had been three days deceased when the saint\narrived. He sent everybody away, prayed over the dead man,\nresuscitated him, and administered to him the baptismal rite.\n\nThis catechumen related that he had been led before the tribunal of\nthe Supreme Judge, who had condemned him to descend into the darkness\nwith an infinity of other persons condemned like himself; but that two\nangels having represented to the Judge that it was this man for whom\nSt. Martin interceded, God commanded the two angels to bring him back\nto earth, and restore him to Martin. This is an instance which proves\nwhat I have just said, that the reprobate can return to life, do\npenance, and receive baptism.\n\nBut as to what some have affirmed of the salvation of Falconila,\nprocured by St. Thecla, of that of Trajan, saved by the prayers of St.\nGregory, pope, and of some others who died heathens, this is all\nentirely contrary to the faith of the church and to the holy\nScripture, which teach us that without faith it is impossible to\nplease God, and that he who believes not and has not received baptism\nis already judged and condemned. Thus the opinions of those who accord\nsalvation to Plato, Aristotle, Seneca, &c., because it may appear to\nthem that they lived in a praiseworthy manner, according to the rules\nof a merely human and philosophical morality, must be considered as\nrash, erroneous, false, and dangerous.\n\nPhilip, Chancellor of the Church of Paris, maintained that it was\npermitted to one man to hold a plurality of benefices. Being on his\ndeath-bed, he was visited by William, Bishop of Paris, who died in\n1248. This prelate urged the chancellor to give up all his benefices\nsave one only; he refused, saying that he wished to try if the holding\na plurality of livings was so wrong as it was said to be; and in this\ndisposition of mind he died in 1237.\n\nSome days after his decease, Bishop William, or Guillaume, praying by\nnight, after matins, in his cathedral, beheld before him the hideous\nand frightful figure of a man. He made the sign of the cross, and said\nto him, \"If you are sent by God, speak.\" He spoke, and said: \"I am\nthat wretched chancellor, and have been condemned to eternal\npunishment.\" The bishop having asked him the cause, he replied, \"I am\ncondemned, first, for not having distributed the superfluity of my\nbenefices; secondly, for having maintained that it was allowable to\nhold several at once; thirdly, for having remained for several days in\nthe guilt of incontinence.\"\n\nThe story was often preached by Bishop William to his clerks. It is\nrelated by the Bishop Albertus Magnus, who was a cotemporary, in his\nbook on the sacraments; by William Durand, Bishop of Mande, in his\nbook _De Modo celebrandi Concilia_; and in Thomas de Cantimpre, in his\nwork _Des Abeilles_. He believed, then, that God sometimes permitted\nthe reprobate to appear to the living.\n\nHere is an instance of the apparition of a man and woman who were in a\nstate of reprobation. The Prince of Ratzivil,[401] in his Journey to\nJerusalem, relates that when in Egypt he bought two mummies, had them\npacked up, and secretly as possible conveyed on board his vessel, so\nthat only himself and his two servants were aware of it; the Turks\nmaking a great difficulty of allowing mummies to be carried away,\nbecause they fancy that the Christians make use of them for magical\noperations. When they were at sea, there arose at sundry times such a\nviolent tempest that the pilot despaired of saving the vessel. A good\nPolish priest, of the suite of the Prince de Ratzivil, recited the\nprayers suitable to the circumstance; but he was tormented, he said,\nby two hideous black spectres, a man and a woman, who were on each\nside of him, and threatened to take away his life. It was thought at\nfirst that terror disturbed his mind.\n\nA calm coming on, he appeared tranquil; but very soon, the storm\nbeginning again, he was more tormented than before, and was only\ndelivered from these haunting spectres when the two mummies, which he\nhad not seen, were thrown into the sea, and neither himself nor the\npilot knew of their being in the ship. I will not deny the fact, which\nis related by a prince incapable of desiring to impose on any one. But\nhow many reflections may we make on this event! Were they the souls of\nthese two pagans, or two demons who assumed their form? What interest\ncould the demon have in not permitting these bodies to come under the\npower of the Christians?\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[395] Greg. Mag. lib. iv. Dialog. c. 55.\n\n[396] Cor. xi. 14.\n\n[397] Rev. xxi. 14.\n\n[398] Bodin, Daemon. tom. iii. c. 6.\n\n[399] Rev. xxi. 27.\n\n[400] Sulpit. Sever. Vita St. Martin. c. 5.\n\n[401] Ratzivil, Peregrin, Jerosol. p. 218.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XLV.\n\nAPPARITIONS OF MEN STILL ALIVE, TO OTHER LIVING MEN, ABSENT, AND VERY\nDISTANT FROM EACH OTHER.\n\n\nWe find in all history, both sacred and profane, ancient and modern,\nan infinite number of examples of the apparition of persons alive to\nother living persons. The prophet Ezekiel says of himself,[402] \"I was\nseated in my house, in the midst of the elders of my people, when on a\nsudden a hand, which came from a figure shining like fire, seized me\nby the hair; and the spirit transported me between heaven and earth,\nand took me to Jerusalem, where he placed me near the inner gate,\nwhich looks towards the north, where I saw the idol of jealousy\"\n(apparently Adonis), \"and I there remarked the majesty of the Lord, as\nI had seen it in the field; he showed me the idol of jealousy, to\nwhich the Israelites burned incense; and the angel of the Lord said to\nme: Thou seest the abominations which the children of Israel commit,\nin turning away from my sanctuary; thou shalt see still greater.\n\n\"And having pierced the wall of the temple, I saw figures of reptiles\nand animals, the abominations and idols of the house of Israel, and\nseventy men of the elders of Israel, who were standing before these\nfigures, each one bearing a censer in his hand; after that the angel\nsaid to me, Thou shalt see yet something yet more abominable; and he\nshowed me women who were mourning for Adonis. Lastly, having\nintroduced me into the inner court of the temple, I saw twenty men\nbetween the vestibule and the altar, who turned their back upon the\ntemple of the Lord, and stood with their faces to the _east_, and paid\nadoration to the rising sun.\"\n\nHere we may remark two things; first, that Ezekiel is transported from\nChaldaea to Jerusalem, through the air between heaven and earth by the\nhand of an angel; which proves the possibility of transporting a\nliving man through the air to a very great distance from the place\nwhere he was.\n\nThe second is, the vision or apparition of those prevaricators who\ncommit even within the temple the greatest abominations, the most\ncontrary to the majesty of God, the sanctity of the spot, and the law\nof the Lord. After all these things, the same angel brings back\nEzekiel into Chaldaea; but it was not until after God had showed him\nthe vengeance he intended to exercise upon the Israelites.\n\nIt will, perhaps, be said that all this passed only in a vision; that\nEzekiel thought that he was transported to Jerusalem and afterwards\nbrought back again to Babylon; and that what he saw in the temple he\nsaw only by revelation. I reply, that the text of this prophet\nindicates a real removal, and that he was transported by the hair of\nhis head between heaven and earth. He was brought back from Jerusalem\nin the same way.\n\nI do not deny that the thing might have passed in a vision, and that\nEzekiel might have seen in spirit what was passing in the temple of\nJerusalem. But I shall still deduce from it a consequence which is\nfavorable to my design, that is, the possibility of a living man being\ncarried through the air to a very great distance from the place he was\nin, or at least that a living man can imagine strongly that he is\nbeing carried from one place to another, although this transportation\nmay be only imaginary and in a dream or vision, as they pretend it\nhappens in the transportation of sorcerers to the witches' sabbath.\n\nIn short, there are true appearances of the living to others who are\nalso alive. How is this done? The thing is not difficult to explain in\nfollowing the recital of the prophet, who is transferred from Chaldaea\ninto Judea in his own body by the ministration of angels; but the\napparitions related in St. Augustine and in other authors are not of\nthe same kind: the two persons who see and converse with each other go\nnot from their places; and the one who appears knows nothing of what\nis passing in regard to him to whom he appears, and to whom he\nexplains several things of which he did not even think at that moment.\n\nIn the third book of Kings, Obadiah, steward of king Ahab, having met\nthe prophet Elijah, who had for some time kept himself concealed,\ntells him that king Ahab had him sought for everywhere, and that not\nhaving been able to discover him anywhere, had gone himself to seek\nhim out. Elijah desired him to go and tell the king that Elijah had\nappeared; but Obadiah replied, \"See to what you expose me; for if I go\nand announce to Ahab that I have spoken to you, the spirit of God will\ntransport you into some unknown place, and the king, not finding you,\nwill put me to death.\"\n\nThere again is an instance which proves the possibility of the\ntransportation of a living man to a very distant spot. The same\nprophet, being on Mount Carmel, was seized by the Spirit of God, which\ntransported him thence to Jezreel in very little time, not through the\nair, but by making him walk and run with a promptitude that was quite\nextraordinary.\n\nIn the Gospel, Elias[403] appeared with Moses on Mount Tabor, at the\ntransfiguration of the Saviour. Moses had long been dead; but the\nChurch believes that Elijah (or Elias) is still living. In the Acts of\nthe Apostles,[404] Annanias appeared to St. Paul, and put his hands on\nhim in a vision before he arrived at his house in Damascus.\n\nTwo men of the court of the Emperor Valens, wishing to discover by the\naid of magical secrets who would succeed that emperor,[405] caused a\ntable of laurel-wood to be made into a tripod, on which they placed a\nbasin made of divers metals. On the border of this basin were\nengraved, at some distance from each other, the twenty-four letters of\nthe Greek alphabet. A magician with certain ceremonies approached the\nbasin, and holding in his hand a ring suspended by a thread, suffered\nit at intervals to fall upon the letters of the alphabet whilst they\nwere rapidly turning the table; the ring falling on the different\nletters formed obscure and enigmatical verses like those pronounced by\nthe oracle of Delphi.\n\nAt last they asked what was the name of him who should succeed to the\nEmperor Valens? The ring touched the four letters [Greek: THEOD],\nwhich they interpreted of Theodosius, the second secretary of the\nEmperor Valens. Theodosius was arrested, interrogated, convicted, and\nput to death; and with him all the culprits or accomplices in this\noperation; search was made for all the books of magic, and a great\nnumber were burnt. The great Theodosius, of whom they thought not at\nall, and who was at a great distance from the court, was the person\ndesignated by these letters. In 379, he was declared Augustus by the\nEmperor Gratian, and in coming to Constantinople in 380, he had a\ndream, in which it seemed to him that Melitus, Bishop of Antioch, whom\nhe had never seen, and knew only by reputation, invested him with the\nimperial mantle and placed the diadem on his head.\n\nThey were then assembling the Eastern bishops to hold the Council of\nConstantinople. Theodosius begged that Melitus might not be pointed\nout to him, saying that he should recognize him by the signs he had\nseen in his dream. In fact, he distinguished him amongst all the other\nbishops, embraced him, kissed his hands, and looked upon him ever\nafter as his father. This was a distinct apparition of a living\nman.[406]\n\nSt. Augustine relates[407] that a certain man saw, in the night before\nhe slept, a philosopher, who was known to him, enter his house, and\nwho explained to him some of Plato's opinions which he would not\nexplain to him before. This apparition of the Platonician was merely\nfantastic; for the person to whom he had appeared having asked him why\nhe would not explain to him at his house what he had come to explain\nto him when at home, the philosopher replied, \"I did not do so, but I\ndreamt I did so.\" Here, then, are two persons both alive, one of whom,\nin his sleep and dreaming, speaks to another who is wide awake, and\nsees him only in imagination.\n\nThe same St. Augustine[408] acknowledges in the presence of his people\nthat he had appeared to two persons who had never seen him, and knew\nhim only by reputation, and that he advised them to come to Hippo, to\nbe there cured by the merit of the martyr St. Stephen:--they came\nthere, and recovered their health.\n\nEvodius, teaching rhetoric at Carthage,[409] and finding himself\npuzzled concerning the sense of a passage in the books of the Rhetoric\nof Cicero, which he was to explain the next day to his scholars, was\nmuch disquieted when he went to bed, and could hardly get to sleep.\nDuring his sleep he fancied he saw St. Augustine, who was then at\nMilan, a great way from Carthage, who was not thinking of him at all,\nand was apparently sleeping very quietly in his bed at Milan, who came\nto him and explained the passage in question. St. Augustine avows that\nhe does not know how it happens; but in whatever way it may occur, it\nis very possible for us to see in a dream a dead person as we see a\nliving one, without either one or the other knowing how, when, or\nwhere, these images are formed in our mind. It is also possible that a\ndead man may appear to the living without being aware of it, and\ndiscover to them secrets and hidden things, the result of which\nreveals their truth and reality. When a living man appears in a dream\nto another man, we do not say that his body or his spirit have\nappeared, but simply that such a one has appeared to him. Why can we\nnot say that the dead appear without body and without soul, but simply\nthat their form presents itself to the mind and imagination of the\nliving person?\n\nSt. Augustine, in the book which he has composed on the care which we\nought to take of the dead,[410] says that a holy monk, named John,\nappeared to a pious woman, who ardently desired to see him. The\nsaintly doctor reasons a great deal on this apparition;--whether this\nsolitary foresaw what would happen to him; if he went in spirit to\nthis woman; if it is his angel or his spirit in his bodily form which\nappeared to her in her sleep, as we behold in our dreams absent\npersons who are known to us. We should be able to speak to the monk\nhimself, to know from himself how that occurred, if by the power of\nGod, or by his permission; for there is little appearance that he did\nit by any natural power.\n\nIt is said that St. Simeon Stylites[411] appeared to his disciple St.\nDaniel, who had undertaken the journey to Jerusalem, where he would\nhave to suffer much for Jesus Christ's sake. St. Benedict[412] had\npromised to comply with the request of some architects, who had begged\nhim to come and show them how he wished them to build a certain\nmonastery; the saint did not go to them bodily, but he went thither in\nspirit, and gave them the plan and design of the house which they were\nto construct. These men did not comprehend that it was what he had\npromised them, and came to him again to ask what were his intentions\nrelative to this edifice: he said to them, \"I have explained it to you\nin a dream; you can follow the plan which you have seen.\"\n\nThe Caesar Bardas, who had so mightily contributed to the deposition of\nSt. Ignatius, patriarch of Constantinople, had a vision, which he thus\nrelated to Philothes his friend. \"I thought I was that night going in\nprocession to the high church with the Emperor Michael. When we had\nentered and were near the ambe, there appeared two eunuchs of the\nchamber, with a cruel and ferocious mien, one of whom, having bound\nthe emperor, dragged him out of the choir on the right side; the other\ndragged me in the same manner to the left. Then I saw on a sudden an\nold man seated on the throne of the sanctuary. He resembled the image\nof St. Peter, and two terrific men were standing near him, who looked\nlike provosts. I beheld, at the knees of St. Peter, St. Ignatius\nweeping, and crying aloud, 'You have the keys of the kingdom of\nheaven; if you know the injustice which has been done me, console my\nafflicted old age.'\n\n\"St. Peter replied, 'Point out the man who has used you ill.'\nIgnatius, turning round, pointed to me, saying, 'That is he who has\ndone me most wrong.' St. Peter made a sign to the one at his right,\nand placing in his hand a short sword, he said to him aloud, 'Take\nBardas, the enemy of God, and cut him in pieces before the vestibule.'\nAs they were leading me to death, I saw that he said to the emperor,\nholding up his hand in a threatening manner, 'Wait, unnatural son!'\nafter which I saw them cut me absolutely in pieces.\"\n\nThis took place in 866. The year following, in the month of April, the\nemperor having set out to attack the Isle of Crete, was made so\nsuspicious of Bardas, that he resolved to get rid of him. He\naccompanied the Emperor Michael in this expedition. Bardas, seeing the\nmurderers enter the emperor's tent, sword in hand, threw himself at\nhis feet to ask his pardon; but they dragged him out, cut him in\npieces, and in derision carried some of his members about at the end\nof a pike. This happened the 29th of April, 867.\n\nRoger, Count of Calabria and Sicily, besieging the town of Capua, one\nnamed Sergius, a Greek by birth, to whom he had given the command of\n200 men, having suffered himself to be bribed, formed the design of\nbetraying him, and of delivering the army of the count to the Prince\nof Capua, during the night. It was on the 1st of March that he was to\nexecute his intention. St. Bruno, who then dwelt in the Desert of\nSquilantia, appeared to Count Roger, and told him to fly to arms\npromptly, if he would not be oppressed by his enemies. The count\nstarts from his sleep, commands his people to mount their horses and\nsee what is going on in the camp. They met the men belonging to\nSergius, with the Prince of Capua, who having perceived them retired\npromptly into the town; those of Count Roger took 162 of them, from\nwhom they learned all the secret of the treason. Roger went, on the\n29th of July following, to Squilantia, and having related to Bruno\nwhat had happened to him, the saint said to him, \"It was not I who\nwarned you; it was the angel of God, who is near princes in time of\nwar.\" Thus Count Roger relates the affair himself, in a privilege\ngranted to St. Bruno.\n\nA monk[413] named Fidus, a disciple of St. Euthymius, a celebrated\nabbot in Palestine, having been sent by Martyrius, the patriarch of\nJerusalem, on an important mission concerning the affairs of the\nchurch, embarked at Joppa, and was shipwrecked the following night; he\nsupported himself above water for some time by clinging to a piece of\nwood, which he found by chance. Then he invoked the help of St.\nEuthymius, who appeared to him walking on the sea, and who said to\nhim, \"Know that this voyage is not pleasing to God, and will be of no\nutility to the mother of the Churches, that is to say, to Jerusalem.\nReturn to him who sent you, and tell him from me not to be uneasy at\nthe separation of the schismatics--union will take place ere long; for\nyou, you must go to my laurel grove, and you must build there a\nmonastery.\"\n\nHaving said this, he enveloped Fidus in his mantle, and Fidus found\nhimself immediately at Jerusalem, and in his house, without knowing\nhow he came there; he related it all to the Patriarch Martyrius, who\nremembered the prediction of St. Euthymius concerning the building in\nthe laurel grove a monastery.\n\nQueen Margaret, in her memoirs, asserts that God protects the great in\na particular manner, and that he lets them know, either in dreams or\notherwise, what is to happen to them. \"As Queen Catherine de Medicis,\nmy mother,\" says she, \"who the night before that unhappy day dreamt\nshe saw the king, Henry II., my father, wounded in the eye, as it\nreally happened; when she awoke she several times implored the king\nnot to tilt that day.\n\n\"The same queen being dangerously ill at Metz, and having around her\nbed the king (Charles IX.), my sister, and brother of Lorraine, and\nmany ladies and princesses, she cried out as if she had seen the\nbattle of Jarnac fought: 'See how they fly! my son has the victory! Do\nyou see the Prince of Conde dead in that hedge?' All those who were\npresent fancied she was dreaming; but the night after, M. de Losse\nbrought her the news. 'I knew it well,' said she; 'did I not behold it\nthe day before yesterday?'\"\n\nThe Duchess Philippa, of Gueldres, wife of the Duke of Lorraine, Rene\nII., being a nun at St. Claire du Pont-a-Mousson, saw during her\norisons the unfortunate battle of Pavia. She cried out suddenly, \"Ah!\nmy sisters, my dear sisters, for the love of God, say your prayers; my\nson De Lambesc is dead, and the king (Francis I.) my cousin is made\nprisoner.\" Some days after, news of this famous event, which happened\nthe day on which the duchess had seen it, was received at Nancy.\nCertainly, neither the young Prince de Lambesc nor the king Francis I.\nhad any knowledge of this revelation, and they took no part in it. It\nwas, then, neither their spirit nor their phantoms which appeared to\nthe princess; it was apparently their angel, or God himself, who by\nhis power struck her imagination, and represented to her what was\npassing at that moment.\n\nMezeray affirms that he had often heard people of quality relate that\nthe duke (Charles the Third) of Lorraine, who was at Paris when King\nHenry II. was wounded with the splinter of a lance, of which he died,\ntold the circumstance often of a lady who lodged in his hotel having\nseen in a dream, very distinctly, that the king had been struck and\nbrought to the ground by a blow from a lance.\n\nTo these instances of the apparition of living persons to other living\npersons in their sleep, we may add an infinite number of other\ninstances of apparitions of angels and holy personages, or even of\ndead persons, to the living when asleep, to give them instructions,\nwarn them of dangers which menace them, inspire them with salutary\ncounsel relative to their salvation, or to give them aid; thick\nvolumes might be composed on such matters. I shall content myself with\nrelating here some examples of those apparitions drawn from profane\nauthors.\n\nXerxes, king of Persia, when deliberating in council whether he should\ncarry the war into Greece, was strongly dissuaded from it by\nArtabanes, his paternal uncle. Xerxes took offence at this liberty,\nand uttered some very disobliging words to him. The following night he\nreflected seriously on the arguments of Artabanes, and changed his\nresolution. When he was asleep, he saw in a dream a man of\nextraordinary size and beauty, who said to him, \"You have then\nrenounced your intention of making war on the Greeks, although you\nhave already given orders to the Persian chiefs to assemble your army.\nYou have not done well to change your resolve, even should no one be\nof your opinion. Go forward; believe me. Follow your first design.\"\nHaving said this, the vision disappeared. The next day he again\nassembled his council, and without speaking of his dream, he testified\nhis regret for what he said in his rage the preceding day to his uncle\nArtabanes, and declared that he had renounced his design of making war\nupon the Greeks. Those who composed the council, transported with joy,\nprostrated themselves before him, and congratulated him upon it.\n\nThe following night he had a second time the same vision, and the same\nphantom said to him, \"Son of Darius, thou hast then abandoned thy\ndesign of declaring war against the Greeks, regardless of what I said\nto thee. Know that if thou dost not instantly undertake this\nexpedition, thou wilt soon be reduced to a situation as low as that in\nwhich thou now findest thyself elevated.\" The king directly rose from\nhis bed, and sent in all haste for Artabanes, to whom he related the\ntwo dreams which he had had two nights consecutively. He added, \"I\npray you to put on my royal ornaments, sit down on my throne, and then\nlie down in my bed. If the phantom which appeared to me appears to you\nalso, I shall believe that the thing is ordained by the decrees of the\ngods, and I shall yield to their commands.\"\n\nArtabanes would in vain have excused himself from putting on the royal\nornaments, sitting on the king's throne, and lying down in his bed,\nalleging that all those things would be useless if the gods had\nresolved to let him know their will; that it would even be more likely\nto exasperate the gods, as if he desired to deceive them by external\nappearances. As for the rest, dreams in themselves deserve no\nattention, and usually they are only the consequences and\nrepresentations of what is most strongly in the mind when awake.\n\nXerxes did not yield to his arguments, and Artabanes did what the king\ndesired, persuaded that if the same thing should occur more than once,\nit would be a proof of the will of the gods, of the reality of the\nvision, and the truth of the dream. He then laid down in the king's\nbed, and the same phantom appeared to him, and said, \"It is you, then,\nwho prevent Xerxes from executing his resolve and accomplishing what\nis decreed by fate. I have already declared to the king what he has to\nfear if he disobeys my orders.\" At the same time it appeared to\nArtabanes that the spectre would burn his eyes with a red-hot iron. He\ndirectly sprang from the couch, and related to Xerxes what had\nappeared to him and what had been said to him, adding, \"I now\nabsolutely change my opinion, since it pleases the gods that we should\nmake war, and that the Greeks be threatened with great misfortunes;\ngive your orders and dispose everything for this war:\"--which was\nexecuted immediately.\n\nThe terrible consequences of this war, which was so fatal to Persia,\nand at last caused the overthrow of that famous monarchy, leads us to\njudge that this apparition, if a true one, was announced by an evil\nspirit, hostile to that monarchy, sent by God to dispose things for\nevents predicted by the prophets, and the succession of great empires\npredestined by the decrees of the Almighty.\n\nCicero remarks that two Arcadians, who were traveling together,\narrived at Megara, a city of Greece, situated between Athens and\nCorinth. One of them, who could claim hospitality in the town, was\nlodged at a friend's, and the other at an inn. After supper, he who\nwas at a friend's house retired to rest. In his sleep, it seemed to\nhim that the man whom he had left at the inn appeared to him, and\nimplored his help, because the innkeeper wanted to kill him. He arose\ndirectly, much alarmed at this dream, but having reassured himself,\nand fallen asleep again, the other again appeared to him, and told him\nthat since he had not had the kindness to aid him, at least he must\nnot leave his death unpunished; that the innkeeper, after having\nkilled him, had hidden his body in a wagon, and covered it over with\ndung, and that he must not fail to be the next morning at the opening\nof the city gate, before the wagon went forth. Struck with this new\ndream, he went early in the morning to the city gate, saw the wagon,\nand asked the driver what he had got under the manure. The carter took\nflight directly, the body was extricated from the wagon, and the\ninnkeeper arrested and punished.\n\nCicero relates also some other instances of similar apparitions which\noccurred in sleep; one is of Sophocles, the other of Simonides. The\nformer saw Hercules in a dream, who told him the name of a robber who\nhad taken a golden patera from his temple. Sophocles neglected this\nnotice, as an effect of disturbed sleep; but Hercules appeared to him\na second time, and repeated to him the same thing, which induced\nSophocles to denounce the robber, who was convicted by the Areopagus,\nand from that time the temple was dedicated to Hercules the Revealer.\n\nThe dream or apparition of Simonides was more useful to himself\npersonally. He was on the point of embarking, when he found on the\nshore the corpse of an unknown person, as yet without sepulture.\nSimonides had him interred, from humanity. The next night the dead man\nappeared to Simonides, and, through gratitude, counseled him not to\nembark in the vessel then riding in the harbor, because he would be\nshipwrecked if he did. Simonides believed him, and a few days after,\nhe heard of the wreck of the vessel in which he was to have embarked.\n\nJohn Pico de la Mirandola assures us in his treatise, _De Auro_, that\na man, who was not rich, finding himself reduced to the last\nextremity, and without any resources either to pay his debts or\nprocure nourishment for a numerous family in a time of scarcity,\novercome with grief and uneasiness, fell asleep. At the same time, one\nof the blessed appeared to him in a dream, taught him by some\nenigmatical words the means of making gold, and pointed out to him at\nthe same moment the water he must make use of to succeed in it. On his\nawaking, he took some of that water, and made gold of it, in small\nquantity, indeed, but enough to maintain his family. He made some\ntwice with iron, and three times with orpiment. \"He has convinced me\nby my own eyes,\" says Pico de la Mirandola, \"that the means of making\ngold artificially is not a falsehood, but a true art.\"\n\nHere is another sort of apparition of one living man to another, which\nis so much the more singular, because it proves at once the might of\nspells, and that a magician can render himself invisible to several\npersons, while he discovers himself to one man alone. The fact is\ntaken from the Treatise on Superstitions, of the reverend father Le\nBrun,[414] and is characterized by all which can render it\nincontestible. On Friday, the first day of May, 1705, about five\no'clock in the evening, Denis Misanger de la Richardiere, eighteen\nyears of age, was attacked with an extraordinary malady, which began\nby a sort of lethargy. They gave him every assistance that medicine\nand surgery could afford. He fell afterwards into a kind of furor or\nconvulsion, and they were obliged to hold him, and have five or six\npersons to keep watch over him, for fear that he should throw himself\nout of the windows, or break his head against the wall. The emetic\nwhich they gave him made him throw up a quantity of bile, and for four\nor five days he remained pretty quiet.\n\nAt the end of the month of May, they sent him into the country to take\nthe air; and some other circumstances occurred, so unusual, that they\njudged he must be bewitched. And what confirmed this conjecture was\nthat he never had any fever, and retained all his strength,\nnotwithstanding all the pains and violent remedies which he had been\nmade to take. They asked him if he had not had some dispute with a\nshepherd, or some other person suspected of sorcery or malpractices.\n\nHe declared that on the 18th of April preceding, when he was going\nthrough the village of Noysi on horseback for a ride, his horse\nstopped short in the midst of the _Rue Feret_, opposite the chapel,\nand he could not make him go forward, though he touched him several\ntimes with the spur. There was a shepherd standing leaning against the\nchapel, with his crook in his hand, and two black dogs at his side.\nThis man said to him, \"Sir, I advise you to return home, for your\nhorse will not go forward.\" The young La Richardiere, continuing to\nspur his horse, said to the shepherd, \"I do not understand what you\nsay.\" The shepherd replied, in a low tone, \"I will make you\nunderstand.\" In effect, the young man was obliged to get down from his\nhorse, and lead it back by the bridle to his father's dwelling in the\nsame village. Then the shepherd cast a spell upon him, which was to\ntake effect on the 1st of May, as was afterwards known.\n\nDuring this malady, they caused several masses to be said in different\nplaces, especially at St. Maur des Fosses, at St. Amable, and at St.\nEsprit. Young La Richardiere was present at some of these masses\nwhich were said at St. Maur; but he declared that he should not be\ncured till Friday, the 26th of June, on his return from St. Maur. On\nentering his chamber, the key of which he had in his pocket, he found\nthere that shepherd, seated in his arm-chair, with his crook, and his\ntwo black dogs. He was the only person who saw him; none other in the\nhouse could perceive him. He said even that this man was called Damis,\nalthough he did not remember that any one had before this revealed his\nname to him. He beheld him all that day, and all the succeeding night.\nTowards six o'clock in the evening, as he felt his usual sufferings,\nhe fell on the ground, exclaiming that the shepherd was upon him, and\ncrushing him; at the same time he drew his knife, and aimed five blows\nat the shepherd's face, of which he retained the marks. The invalid\ntold those who were watching over him that he was going to be very\nfaint at five different times, and begged of them to help him, and\nmove him violently. The thing happened as he had predicted.\n\nOn Friday, the 26th of June, M. de la Richardiere, having gone to the\nmass at St. Maur, asserted that he should be cured on that day. After\nmass, the priest put the stole upon his head and recited the Gospel of\nSt. John, during which prayer the young man saw St. Maur standing, and\nthe unhappy shepherd at his left, with his face bleeding from the five\nknife-wounds which he had given him. At that moment, the youth cried\nout, unintentionally, \"A miracle! a miracle!\" and asserted that he was\ncured, as in fact he was.\n\nOn the 29th of June, the same M. de la Richardiere returned to Noysi,\nand amused himself with shooting. As he was shooting in the vineyards,\nthe shepherd presented himself before him; he hit him on the head with\nthe butt-end of his gun. The shepherd cried out, \"Sir, you are killing\nme!\" and fled. The next day, this man presented himself again before\nhim, and asked his pardon, saying, \"I am called Damis; it was I who\ncast a spell over you which was to have lasted a year. By the aid of\nmasses and prayers which have been said for you, you have been cured\nat the end of eight weeks. But the charm has fallen back upon myself,\nand I can be cured of it only by a miracle. I implore you then to pray\nfor me.\"\n\nDuring all these reports, the _mare chausee_ had set off in pursuit of\nthe shepherd; but he escaped them, having killed his two dogs and\nthrown away his crook. On Sunday, the 13th of September, he came to M.\nde la Richardiere, and related to him his adventure; that after having\npassed twenty years without approaching the sacraments, God had given\nhim grace to confess himself at Troyes; and that after divers delays\nhe had been admitted to the holy communion. Eight days after, M. de la\nRichardiere received a letter from a woman who said she was a relation\nof the shepherd's, informing him of his death, and begging him to\ncause a requiem mass to be said for him, which was done.\n\nHow many difficulties may we make about this story! How could this\nwretched shepherd cast the spell without touching the person? How\ncould he introduce himself into young M. de la Richardiere's chamber\nwithout either opening or forcing the door? How could he render\nhimself visible to him alone, whilst none other beheld him? Can one\ndoubt of his corporeal presence, since he received five cuts from a\nknife in his face, of which he afterwards bore the marks, when, by the\nmerit of the holy mass and the intercession of the saints, the spell\nwas taken off? How could St. Maur appear to him in his Benedictine\nhabit, having the wizard on his left hand? If the circumstance is\ncertain, as it appears, who shall explain the manner in which all\npassed or took place?\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[402] Ezek. viii. 1, 2, &c.\n\n[403] Matt. xvii. 3.\n\n[404] Acts ix. 10.\n\n[405] Acts ix. 2.\n\n[406] Ammian. Marcell. lib. xix. Sozomen. lib. vi. c. 35.\n\n[407] Aug. lib. viii. de Civit. c. 18.\n\n[408] Aug. Serm. cxxiii. pp. 1277, 1278.\n\n[409] Aug. de cura gerenda pro Mortuis, c. 11, 12.\n\n[410] Aug. de cura gerend. pro Mort. c. xxvii. p. 529.\n\n[411] Vita Daniel Stylit. xi. Decemb.\n\n[412] Gregor. lib. ii. Dialog. c. xxii.\n\n[413] Vita Sancti Euthym. pp. 86, 87.\n\n[414] Le Brun, Traite des Superstit. tom. i. pp. 281, 282, et seq.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XLVI.\n\nARGUMENTS CONCERNING APPARITIONS.\n\n\nAfter having spoken at some length upon apparitions, and after having\nestablished the truth of them, as far as it has been possible for us\nto do so, from the authority of the Scripture, from examples, and by\narguments, we must now exercise our judgment on the causes, means, and\nreasons for these apparitions, and reply to the objections which may\nbe made to destroy the reality of them, or at least to raise doubts on\nthe subject.\n\nWe have supposed that apparitions were the work of angels, demons, or\nsouls of the defunct; we do not talk of the appearance of God himself;\nhis will, his operations, his power, are above our reach; we\nacknowledge that he can do all that he wills to do, that his will is\nall-powerful, and that he places himself, when he chooses, above the\nlaws which he has made. As to the apparitions of the living to others\nalso living, they are of a different nature from what we propose to\nexamine in this place; we shall not fail to speak of them hereafter.\n\nWhatever system we may follow on the nature of angels, or demons, or\nsouls separated from the body; whether we consider them as purely\nspiritual substances, as the Christian church at this day holds;\nwhether we give them an aerial body, subtile, and invisible, as many\nhave taught; it appears almost as difficult to render palpable,\nperceptible, and thick a subtile and aerial body, as it is to condense\nthe air, and make it seem like a solid and perceptible body; as, when\nthe angels appeared to Abraham and Lot, the angel Raphael to Tobias,\nwhom he conducted into Mesopotamia; or when the demon appeared to\nJesus Christ, and led him to a high mountain, and on the pinnacle of\nthe Temple at Jerusalem; or when Moses appeared with Elias on Mount\nTabor: for those apparitions are certain from Scripture.\n\nIf you will say that these apparitions were seen only in the\nimagination and mind of those who saw, or believed they saw angels,\ndemons, or souls separated from the body, as it happens every day in\nour sleep, and sometimes when awake, if we are strongly occupied with\ncertain objects, or struck with certain things which we desire\nardently or fear exceedingly--as when Ajax, thinking he saw Ulysses\nand Agamemnon, or Menelaues, threw himself upon some animals, which he\nkilled, thinking he was killing those two men his enemies, and whom he\nwas dying with the desire to wreak his vengeance upon--on this\nsupposition, the apparition will not be less difficult to explain.\nThere was neither prepossession nor disturbed imagination, nor any\npreceding emotion, which led Abraham to figure to himself that he saw\nthree persons, to whom he gave hospitality, to whom he spoke, who\npromised him the birth of a son, of which he was scarcely thinking at\nthat time. The three apostles who saw Moses conversing with Jesus\nChrist on Mount Tabor were not prepared for that appearance; there was\nno emotion of fear, love, revenge, ambition, or any other passion\nwhich struck their imagination, to dispose them to see Moses; as\nneither was there in Abraham, when he perceived the three angels who\nappeared to him.\n\nOften in our sleep we see, or we believe we see, what has struck our\nattention very much when awake; sometimes we represent to ourselves in\nsleep things of which we have never thought, which even are repugnant\nto us, and which present themselves to our mind in spite of ourselves.\nNone bethink themselves of seeking the causes of these kinds of\nrepresentations; they are attributed to chance, or to some disposition\nof the humors of the blood or of the brain, or even of the way in\nwhich the body is placed in bed; but nothing like that is applicable\nto the apparitions of angels, demons, or spirits, when these\napparitions are accompanied and followed by converse, predictions and\nreal effects preceded and predicted by those which appear.\n\nIf we have recourse to a pretended fascination of the eyes or the\nother senses, which sometimes make us believe that we see and hear\nwhat we do not, or that we neither see nor hear what is passing before\nour eyes, or which strikes our ears; as when the soldiers sent to\narrest Elisha spoke to him and saw him before they recognized him, or\nwhen the inhabitants of Sodom could not discover Lot's door, although\nit was before their eyes, or when the disciples of Emmaus knew not\nthat it was Jesus Christ who accompanied them and expounded the\nScriptures; they opened their eyes and knew him _only by the breaking\nof bread_.\n\nThat fascination of the senses which makes us believe that we see what\nwe do not see, or that suspension of the exercise and natural\nfunctions of our senses which prevents us from seeing and recognizing\nwhat is passing before our eyes, is all of it hardly less miraculous\nthan to condense the air, or rarefy it, or give solidity and\nconsistence to what is purely spiritual and disengaged from matter.\n\nFrom all this, it follows that no apparition can take place without a\nsort of miracle, and without a concurrence, both extraordinary and\nsupernatural, of the power of God who commands, or causes, or permits\nan angel, or a demon, or a disembodied soul to appear, act, speak,\nwalk, and perform other functions which belong only to an organized\nbody.\n\nI shall be told that it is useless to recur to the miraculous and the\nsupernatural, if we have acknowledged in spiritual substances a\nnatural power of showing themselves, whether by condensing the air, or\nby producing a massive and palpable body, or in raising up some dead\nbody, to which these spirits give life and motion for a certain time.\n\nI own it all; but I dare maintain that that is not possible either to\nangel or demon, nor to any spiritual substance whatsoever. The soul\ncan produce in herself thoughts, will, and wishes; she can give her\nimpulsion to the movements of her body, and repress its sallies and\nagitations; but how does she do that? Philosophy can hardly explain\nit, but by saying that by virtue of the union between herself and the\nbody, God, by an effect of his wisdom, has given her power to act upon\nthe humors, its organs, and impress them with certain movements; but\nthere is reason to believe that the soul performs all that only as an\noccasional cause, and that it is God as the first, necessary,\nimmediate, and essential cause, which produces all the movements of\nthe body that are made in a natural way.\n\nNeither angel nor demon has more privilege in this respect over matter\nthan the soul of man has over its own body. They can neither modify\nmatter, change it, nor impress it with action and motion, save by the\npower of God, and with his concurrence both necessary and immediate;\nour knowledge does not permit us to judge otherwise; there is no\nphysical proportion between the spirit and the body; those two\nsubstances cannot act mutually and immediately one upon the other;\nthey can act only occasionally, by determining the first cause, in\nvirtue of the laws which wisdom has judged it proper to prescribe to\nherself for the reciprocal action of the creatures upon each other, to\ngive them being, to preserve it, and perpetuate movement in the mass\nof matter which composes the universe, in himself giving life to\nspiritual substances, and permitting them with his concurrence, as the\nFirst Cause, to act, the body on the soul, and the soul on the body,\none on the other, as secondary causes.\n\nPorphyry, when consulted by Anebo, an Egyptian priest, if those who\nforetell the future and perform prodigies have more powerful souls, or\nwhether they receive power from some strange spirit, replies that,\naccording to appearance, all these things are done by means of certain\nevil spirits that are naturally knavish, and take all sorts of shapes,\nand do everything that one sees happen, whether good or evil; but that\nin the end they never lead men to what is truly good.\n\nSt. Augustine,[415] who cites this passage of Porphyry, lays much\nstress on his testimony, and says that every extraordinary thing which\nis done by certain tones of the voice, by figures or phantoms, is\nusually the work of the demon, who sports with the credulity and\nblindness of men; that everything marvellous which is transacted in\nnature, and has no relation to the worship of the true God, ought to\npass for an illusion of the devil. The most ancient Fathers of the\nChurch, Minutius Felix, Arnobius, St. Cyprian, attribute equally all\nthese kinds of extraordinary effects to the evil spirit.\n\nTertullian[416] had no doubt that the apparitions which are produced\nby magic, and by the evocation of souls, which, forced by\nenchantments, come out, say they, from the depth of hell (or Hades),\nare but pure illusions of the demon, who causes to appear to those\npresent a fantastical form, which fascinates the eyes of those who\nthink they see what they see not; \"which is not more difficult for the\ndemon,\" says he, \"than to seduce and blind the souls which he leads\ninto sin. Pharaoh thought he saw real serpents produced by his\nmagicians: it was mere illusion. The truth of Moses devoured the\nfalsehood of these impostors.\"\n\nIs it more easy to cause the fascination of the eyes of Pharaoh and\nhis servants than to produce serpents, and can it be done without\nGod's concurring thereto? And how can we reconcile this concurrence\nwith the wisdom, independence, and truth of God? Has the devil in this\nrespect a greater power than an angel and a disembodied soul? And if\nonce we open the door to this fascination, everything which appears\nsupernatural and miraculous will become uncertain and doubtful. It\nwill be said that the wonders related in the Old and New Testament are\nin this respect, in regard both to those who are witnesses of them,\nand those to whom they happened, only illusions and fascinations: and\nwhither may not these premises lead? It leads us to doubt everything,\nto deny everything; to believe that God in concert with the devil\nleads us into error, and fascinates our eyes and other senses, to make\nus believe that we see, hear, and know what is neither present to our\neyes, nor known to our mind, nor supported by our reasoning power,\nsince by that the principles of reasoning are overthrown.\n\nWe must, then, have recourse to the solid and unshaken principles of\nreligion, which teach us--\n\n1. That angels, demons, and souls disembodied are pure spirit, free\nfrom all matter.\n\n2. That it is only by the order or permission of God that spiritual\nsubstances can appear to men, and seem to them to be true and tangible\nbodies, in which and by which they perform what they are seen to do.\n\n3. That to make these bodies appear, and make them act, speak, walk,\neat, &c, they must produce tangible bodies, either by condensing the\nair or substituting other terrestrial, solid bodies, capable of\nperforming the functions we speak of.\n\n4. That the way in which this production and apparition of a\nperceptible body is achieved is absolutely unknown to us; that we have\nno proof that spiritual substances have a natural power of producing\nthis kind of change when it pleases them, and that they cannot produce\nthem independently of God.\n\n5. That although there may be often a great deal of illusion,\nprepossession, and imagination in what is related of the operations\nand apparitions of angels, demons, and disembodied souls, there is\nstill some reality in many of these things; and we cannot reasonably\ndoubt of them all, and still less deny them all.\n\n6. That there are apparitions which bear about them the character and\nproof of truth, from the quality of him who relates them; from the\ncircumstances which accompany them; from the events following those\napparitions that announce things to come; which perform things\nimpossible to the natural strength of man, and too much in opposition\nto the interest of the demon, and his malicious and deceitful\ncharacter, for us to be able to suspect him to be the author or\ncontriver of them. In short, these apparitions are certified by the\nbelief, the prayers, and the practice of the church, which recognizes\nthem, and supposes their reality.\n\n7. That although what appears miraculous is not so always, we must at\nleast usually perceive in it _some_ illusion and operation of the\ndemon; consequently, that the demon can, with the permission of God,\ndo many things which surpass our knowledge, and the natural power\nwhich we suppose him to have.\n\n8. That those who wish to explain them by fascination of the eyes and\nother senses, do not resolve the difficulty, and throw themselves into\nstill greater embarrassment than those who admit simply that\napparitions appear by the order or the permission of God.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[415] Aug. de Civit. Dei, lib. x. c. 11, 12.\n\n[416] Tertull. de Anima, c. 57.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XLVII.\n\nOBJECTIONS AGAINST APPARITIONS, AND REPLIES TO THOSE OBJECTIONS.\n\n\nThe greatest objection that can be raised against the apparitions of\nangels, demons, and disembodied souls, takes its rise in the nature of\nthese substances, which being purely spiritual, cannot appear with\nevident, solid, and palpable bodies, nor perform those functions which\nbelong only to matter, and living or animated bodies.\n\nFor, either spiritual substances are united to the bodies which appear\nor not. If they are not united to them, how can they move them, and\ncause them to act, walk, speak, reason, and eat? If they are united to\nthem, then they form but one individual; and how can they separate\nthemselves from them, after being united to them? Do they take them\nand leave them at will, as we lay aside a habit or a mask? That would\nbe to suppose that they are at liberty to appear or disappear, which\nis not the case, since all apparitions are solely by the order or\npermission of God. Are those bodies which appear only instruments\nwhich the angels, demons, or souls make use of to affright, warn,\nchastise, or instruct the person or persons to whom they appear? This\nis, in fact, the most rational thing that can be said concerning these\napparitions; the exorcisms of the church fall directly on the agent\nand cause of these apparitions, and not on the phantom which appears,\nnor on the first author, which is God, who orders and permits it.\n\nAnother objection, both very common and very striking, is that which\nis drawn from the multitude of false stories and ridiculous reports\nwhich are spread amongst the people, of the apparitions of spirits,\ndemons, and elves, of possessions and obsessions.\n\nIt must be owned that, out of a hundred of these pretended\nappearances, hardly two will be found to be true. The ancients are not\nmore to be credited on that point than the moderns, since they were,\nat least, equally as credulous as people are in our own age, or rather\nthey were more credulous than we are at this day.\n\nI grant that the foolish credulity of the people, and the love of\neverything that seems marvelous and extraordinary, have produced an\ninfinite number of false histories on the subject we are now treating\nof. There are here two dangers to avoid: a too great credulity, and an\nexcessive difficulty in believing what is above the ordinary course of\nnature; as likewise, we must not conclude what is general from what is\nparticular, or make a general case of a particular one, nor say that\nall is false because some stories are so; also, we must not assert\nthat such a particular history is a mere invention, because there are\nmany stories of this latter kind. It is allowable to examine, prove,\nand select; we must never form our judgment but with knowledge of the\ncase; a story may be false in many of its circumstances (as related),\nbut true in its foundation.\n\nThe history of the deluge, and that of the passage across the Red Sea,\nare certain in themselves, and in the simple and natural recital given\nof them by Moses. The profane historians, and some Hebrew writers, and\neven Christians, have added some embellishment which must militate\nagainst the story in itself. Josephus the historian has much\nembellished the history of Moses; Christian authors have added much to\nthat of Josephus; the Mahometans have altered several points of the\nsacred history of the Old and New Testament. Must we, on this account,\nconsider these histories as problematical? The life of St. Gregory\nThaumaturgus is full of miracles, as are also those of St. Martin and\nSt. Bernard. St. Augustine relates several miraculous cures worked by\nthe relics of St. Stephen. Many extraordinary things are related in\nthe life of St. Ambrose. Why not give faith to them after the\ntestimony of these great men, and that of their disciples, who had\nlived with them, and had been witnesses of a good part of what they\nrelate?\n\nIt is not permitted us to dispute the truth of the apparitions noted\nin the Old and New Testament; but we may be permitted to explain them.\nFor instance, it is said that the Lord appeared to Abraham in the\nvalley of Mamre;[417] that he entered Abraham's tent, and that he\npromised him the birth of a son; also, it is allowed that he received\nthree angels, who went from thence to Sodom. St. Paul[418] notices it\nexpressly in his Epistle to the Hebrews; _angelis hospitio receptis_.\nIt is also said that the Lord appeared unto Moses, and gave him the\nlaw; and St. Stephen, in the Acts,[419] informs us that it was an\nangel who spoke to him from the burning bush, and on Mount Horeb; and\nSt. Paul, writing to the Galatians, says, that the law was given by\nangels.[420]\n\nSometimes, the name of angel of the Lord is taken for a prophet, a man\nfilled with his Spirit, and deputed by him. It is certain that the\nHebrew _malae_ and the Greek _angelos_ bear the same signification as\nour _envoy_. For instance, at the beginning of the Book of\nJudges,[421] it is said that there came an angel of the Lord from\nGilgal to the place of tears (or Bochim), and that he there reproved\nthe Israelites for their infidelity and ingratitude. The ablest\ncommentators[422] think that this _angel of the Lord_ is no other than\nPhineas, or the then high priest, or rather a prophet, sent expressly\nto the people assembled at Gilgal.\n\nIn the Scripture, the prophets are sometimes styled angels of the\nLord.[423] \"Here is what saith the envoy of the Lord, amongst the\nenvoys of the Lord,\" says Haggai, speaking of himself.\n\nThe prophet Malachi, the last of the lesser prophets, says that \"the\nLord will send his angel, who will prepare the way before his\nface.\"[424] This angel is St. John the Baptist, who prepares the way\nfor Jesus Christ, who is himself styled the Angel of the Lord--\"And\nsoon the Lord whom ye demand, and the so much desired Angel of the\nLord, will come into his temple.\" This same Saviour is designated by\nMoses under the name of a prophet:[425] \"The Lord will raise up in the\nmidst of your nation, a prophet like myself.\" The name of angel is\ngiven to the prophet Nathan, who reproved David for his sin. I do not\npretend, by these testimonies, to deny that the angels have often\nappeared to men; but I infer from them that sometimes these angels\nwere only prophets or other persons, raised up and sent by God to his\npeople.\n\nAs to apparitions of the demon, it is well to observe that in\nScripture the greater part of public calamities and maladies are\nattributed to evil spirits; for example, it is said that Satan\ninspired David[426] with the idea of numbering his people; but in\nanother place it is simply said that the anger of the Lord was\ninflamed[427] against Israel, and led David to cause his subjects to\nbe numbered. There are several other passages in the Holy Books, where\nthey relate what the demon said and what he did, in a popular manner,\nby the figure termed prosopopoeia; for instance, the conversation\nbetween Satan and the first woman,[428] and the discourse which the\ndemon holds in company with the good angels before the Lord, when he\ntalks to him of Job,[429] and obtains permission to tempt and afflict\nhim. In the New Testament, it appears that the Jews attributed to the\nmalice of the demon and to his possession almost all the maladies with\nwhich they were afflicted. In St. Luke,[430] the woman who was bent\nand could not raise herself up, and had suffered this for eighteen\nyears, \"had,\" says the evangelist, \"a spirit of infirmity;\" and Jesus\nChrist, after having healed her, says \"that Satan held her bound for\neighteen years;\" and in another place, it is said that a lunatic or\nepileptic person was possessed by the demon. It is clear, from what is\nsaid by St. Matthew and St. Luke,[431] that he was attacked by\nepilepsy. The Saviour cured him of this evil malady, and by that means\ntook from the demon the opportunity of tormenting him still more; as\nDavid, by dissipating with the sound of his harp the sombre melancholy\nof Saul, delivered him from the evil spirit, who abused the power of\nthose inclinations which he found in him, to awaken his jealousy\nagainst David. All this means, that we often ascribed to the demon\nthings of which he is not guilty, and that we must not lightly adopt\nall the prejudices of the people, nor take literally all that is\nrelated of the works of Satan.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[417] Gen. xviii. 10.\n\n[418] Heb. xiii. 2.\n\n[419] Acts vii. 30, 33.\n\n[420] Gal. iii.\n\n[421] Judges ii. 1.\n\n[422] Vide commentar. in Judic. ii.\n\n[423] Hagg. i. 13.\n\n[424] Malac. iii. 1.\n\n[425] Deut. xviii. 18.\n\n[426] Chron. xxi. 1.\n\n[427] 2 Sam. xxiv. 1.\n\n[428] Gen. iii. 2, 3.\n\n[429] Job i. 7-9.\n\n[430] Luke xiii. 16.\n\n[431] Matt. xvii. 14. Luke ix. 37.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XLVIII.\n\nSOME OTHER OBJECTIONS AND REPLIES.\n\n\nIn order to combat the apparitions of angels, demons, and disembodied\nsouls, we still bring forward the effects of a prepossessed fancy,\nstruck with an idea, and of a weak and timid mind, which imagine they\nsee and hear what subsists only in idea; we advert to the inventions\nof the malignant spirits, who like to make sport of and to delude us;\nwe call to our assistance the artifices of the charlatans, who do so\nmany things which pass for supernatural in the eyes of the ignorant.\nPhilosophers, by means of certain glasses, and what are called magic\nlanterns, by optical secrets, sympathetic powders, by their\nphosphorus, and lately by means of the electrical machine, show us an\ninfinite number of things which the simpletons take for magic, because\nthey know not how they are produced.\n\nEyes that are diseased do not see things as others see them, or else\nbehold them differently. A drunken man will see objects double; to one\nwho has the jaundice, they will appear yellow; in the obscurity,\npeople fancy they see a spectre, when they see only the trunk of a\ntree.\n\nA mountebank will appear to eat a sword; another will vomit coals or\npebbles; one will drink wine and send it out again at his forehead;\nanother will cut off his companion's head, and put it on again. You\nwill think you see a chicken dragging a beam. The mountebank will\nswallow fire and vomit it forth, he will draw blood from fruit, he\nwill send from his mouth strings of iron nails, he will put a sword on\nhis stomach and press it strongly, and instead of running into him, it\nwill bend back to the hilt; another will run a sword through his body\nwithout wounding himself; you will sometimes see a child without a\nhead, then a head without a child, and all of them alive. That appears\nvery wonderful; nevertheless, if it were known how all those things\nare done, people would only laugh, and be surprised that they could\nwonder at and admire such things.\n\nWhat has not been said for and against the divining-rod of Jacques\nAimar? Scripture proves to us the antiquity of divination by the\ndivining-rod, in the instance of Nebuchadnezzar,[432] and in what is\nsaid of the prophet Hosea.[433] Fable speaks of the wonders wrought by\nthe golden rod of Mercury. The Gauls and Germans also used the rod for\ndivination; and there is reason to believe that often God permitted\nthat the rods should make known by their movements what was to happen;\nfor that reason they were consulted. Every body knows the secret of\nCirce's wand, which changed men into beasts. I do not compare it with\nthe rod of Moses, by means of which God worked so many miracles in\nEgypt; but we may compare it with those of the magicians of Pharaoh,\nwhich produced so many marvelous effects.\n\nAlbertus Magnus relates that there had been seen in Germany two\nbrothers, one of whom passing near a door securely locked, and\npresenting his left side, would cause it to open of itself; the other\nbrother had the same virtue in the right side. St. Augustine says that\nthere are men[434] who move their two ears one after another, or both\ntogether, without moving their heads; others, without moving it also,\nmake all the skin of their head with the hair thereon come down over\ntheir forehead, and put it back as it was before; some imitate so\nperfectly the voices of animals, that it is almost impossible not to\nmistake them. We have seen men speak from the hollow of the stomach,\nand make themselves heard as if speaking from a distance, although\nthey were close by. Others swallow an incredible quantity of different\nthings, and by tightening their stomachs ever so little, throw up\nwhole, as from a bag, whatever they please. Last year, in Alsatia,\nthere was seen and heard a German who played on two French horns at\nonce, and gave airs in two parts, the first and the second, at the\nsame time. Who can explain to us the secret of intermitting fevers, of\nthe flux and reflux of the sea, and the cause of many effects which\nare certainly all natural?\n\nGalen relates[435] that a physician named Theophilus, having fallen\nill, fancied that he saw near his bed a great number of musicians,\nwhose noise split his head and augmented his illness. He cried out\nincessantly for them to send those people away. Having recovered his\nhealth and good sense, he perfectly well remembered all that had been\nsaid to him; but he could not get those players on musical instruments\nout of his head, and he affirmed that they tired him to death.\n\nIn 1629, Desbordes, valet-de-chambre of Charles IV., Duke of Lorraine,\nwas accused of having hastened the death of the Princess Christina of\nSalms, wife of Duke Francis II., and mother of the Duke Charles IV.,\nand of having inflicted maladies on different persons, which maladies\nthe doctors attribute to evil spells. Charles IV. had conceived\nviolent suspicions against Desbordes, since one day when in a\nhunting-party this valet-de-chambre had served a grand dinner to the\nduke and his company, without any other preparation than having to\nopen a box with three shelves; and to wind up the wonders, he had\nordered three robbers, who were dead and hung to a gibbet, to come\ndown from it, and come and make their bow to the duke, and then to go\nback and resume their place at the gallows. It was said, moreover,\nthat on another occasion he had commanded the personages in a piece of\ntapestry to detach themselves from it, and to come and present\nthemselves in the middle of the room.\n\nCharles IV. was not very credulous; nevertheless, he allowed Desbordes\nto be tried. He was, it is said, convicted of magic, and condemned to\nthe flames; but I have since been assured[436] that he made his\nescape; and some years after, on presenting himself before the duke,\nand clearing himself, he demanded the restitution of his property,\nwhich had been confiscated; but he recovered only a very small part of\nit. Since the adventure of Desbordes, the partisans of Charles IV.\nwished to cast a doubt on the validity of the baptism of the Duchess\nNichola, his wife, because she had been baptized by Lavallee, Chantre\nde St. George, a friend of Desbordes, and like him convicted of\nseveral crimes, which drew upon him similar condemnation. From a doubt\nof the baptism of the duchess, they wished to infer the invalidity of\nher marriage with Charles, which was then the grand business of\nCharles IV.\n\nFather Delrio, a Jesuit, says that the magician called Trois-Echelles,\nby his enchantments, detached in the presence of King Charles IX. the\nrings or links of a collar of the Order of the King, worn by some\nknights who were at a great distance from him; he made them come into\nhis hand, and after that replaced them, without the collar appearing\nderanged.\n\nJohn Faust Cudlingen, a German, was requested, in a company of gay\npeople, to perform in their presence some tricks of his trade; he\npromised to show them a vine loaded with grapes, ripe and ready to\ngather. They thought, as it was then the month of December, he could\nnot execute his promise. He strongly recommended them not to stir\nfrom their places, and not to lift up their hands to cut the grapes,\nunless by his express order. The vine appeared directly, covered with\nleaves and loaded with grapes, to the great astonishment of all\npresent; every one took up his knife, awaiting the order of Cudlingen\nto cut some grapes; but after having kept them for some time in that\nexpectation, he suddenly caused the vine and the grapes to disappear:\nthen every one found himself armed with his knife and holding his\nneighbor's nose with one hand, so that if they had cut off a bunch\nwithout the order of Cudlingen, they would have cut off one another's\nnoses.\n\nWe have seen in these parts a horse which appeared gifted with wit and\ndiscernment, and to understand what his master said. All the secret\nconsisted in the horse's having been taught to observe certain motions\nof his master; and from these motions he was led to do certain things\nto which he was accustomed, and to go to certain persons, which he\nwould never have done but for the sign or motion which he saw his\nmaster make.\n\nA hundred other similar facts might be cited, which might pass for\nmagical operations, if we did not know that they are simple\ncontrivances and tricks of art, performed by persons well exercised in\nsuch things. It may be that sometimes people have ascribed to magic\nand the evil spirit operations like those we have just related, and\nthat what have been taken for the spirits of deceased persons were\noften arranged on purpose by young people to frighten passers-by. They\nwill cover themselves with white or black, and show themselves in a\ncemetery in the posture of persons requesting prayers; after that they\nwill be the first to exclaim that they have seen a spirit: at other\ntimes it will be pick-pockets, or young men, who will hide their\namorous intrigues, or their thefts and knavish tricks, under this\ndisguise.\n\nSometimes a widow, or heirs, from interested motives, will publicly\ndeclare that the deceased husband appears in his house, and is in\ntorment; that he has asked or commanded such and such things, or such\nand such restitutions. I own that this may happen, and does happen\nsometimes; but it does not follow that spirits never return. The\nreturn of souls is infinitely more rare than the common people\nbelieve; I say the same of pretended magical operations and\napparitions of the demon.\n\nIt is remarked that the greater the ignorance which prevails in a\ncountry, the more superstition reigns there; and that the spirit of\ndarkness there exercises greater power, in proportion as the nations\nwe plunged in irregularity, and into deeper moral darkness. Louis\nVivez[437] testifies that, in the newly-discovered countries in\nAmerica, nothing is more common than to see spirits which appear at\nnoonday, not only in the country, but in towns and villages, speaking,\ncommanding, sometimes even striking men. Olaues Magnus, Archbishop of\nUpsal, who has written on the antiquities of the northern nations,\nobserves that in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Finmark, and Lapland, they\nfrequently see spectres or spirits, which do many wonderful things;\nthat there are even some amongst them who serve as domestics to men,\nand take the horses and other cattle to pasture.\n\nThe Laplanders, even at this day, as well those who have remained in\nidolatry as those who have embraced Christianity, believe the\napparition of the manes or ghosts, and offer them a kind of sacrifice.\nI believe that prepossession, and the prejudices of childhood, have\nmuch more to do with this belief than reason and experience. In\neffect, among the Tartars, where barbarism and ignorance reign as much\nas in any country in the world, they talk neither of spirits nor of\napparitions, no more than among the Mahometans, although they admit\nthe apparitions of angels made to Abraham and the patriarchs, and that\nof the Archangel Gabriel to Mahomet himself.\n\nThe Abyssinians, a very rude and ignorant people, believe neither in\nsorcerers, nor spells, nor magicians; they say that it is giving too\nmuch power to the demon, and by that they fall into the error of the\nManichaeans, who admit two principles, the one of good, which is God,\nand the other of evil, which is the devil. The Minister Becker, in his\nwork entitled \"The Enchanted World,\" (Le Monde Enchante,) laughs at\napparitions of spirits and evil angels, and ridicules all that is said\nof the effects of magic: he maintains that to believe in magic is\ncontrary to Scripture and religion.\n\nBut whence comes it, then, that the Scriptures forbid us to consult\nmagicians, and that they make mention of Simon the magician, of\nElymas, another magician, and of the works of Satan? What will become\nof the apparitions of angels, so well noted in the Old and New\nTestaments? What will become of the apparitions of Onias to Judas\nMaccabeus, and of the devil to Jesus Christ himself, after his fast of\nforty days? What will be said of the apparition of Moses at the\ntransfiguration of the Saviour; and an infinity of other appearances\nmade to all kinds of persons, and related by wise, grave, and\nenlightened authors? Are the apparitions of devils and spirits more\ndifficult to explain and conceive than those of angels, which we\ncannot rationally dispute without overthrowing the entire Scriptures,\nand practices and belief of the churches?\n\nDoes not the apostle tell us that the angel of darkness transforms\nhimself into an angel of light? Is not the absolute renunciation of\nall belief in apparitions assaulting Christianity in its most sacred\nauthority, in the belief of another life, of a church still subsisting\nin another world, of rewards for good actions, and of punishments for\nbad ones; the utility of prayers for the dead, and the efficacy of\nexorcisms? We must then in these matters keep the medium between\nexcessive credulity and extreme incredulity; we must be prudent,\nmoderate, and enlightened; we must, according to the advice of St.\nPaul, test everything, examine everything, yield only to evidence and\nknown truth.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[432] Ezek. xxi. 21.\n\n[433] Hosea iv. 12.\n\n[434] Aug. lib. xiv. de Civit. Dei, c. 24.\n\n[435] Galen. de Differ. Sympt.\n\n[436] By M. Fransquin Chanoine de Taul.\n\n[437] Ludov. Vives, lib. i. de Veritate Fidei, p. 540.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XLIX.\n\nTHE SECRETS OF PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY TAKEN FOR SUPERNATURAL THINGS.\n\n\nIt is possible to allege against my reasoning the secrets of physics\nand chemistry, which produce an infinity of wonderful effects, and\nappear beyond the power of natural agency. We have the composition of\na phosphorus, with which they write; the characters do not appear by\ndaylight, but in the dark we see them shine; with this phosphorus,\nfigures can be traced which would surprise and even alarm during the\nnight, as has been done more than once, apparently to cause\nmaliciously useless fright. _La poudre ardente_ is another phosphorus,\nwhich, provided it is exposed to the air, sheds a light both by night\nand by day. How many people have been frightened by those little worms\nwhich are found in certain kinds of rotten wood, and which give a\nbrilliant flame by night.\n\nWe have the daily experience of an infinite number of things, all of\nthem natural, which appear above the ordinary course of nature,[438]\nbut which have nothing miraculous in them, and ought not to be\nattributed to angels or demons; for instance, teeth and noses taken\nfrom other persons, and applied to those who have lost similar parts;\nof this we find many instances in authors. These teeth and noses fall\noff directly when the person from whom they were taken dies, however\ngreat the distance between these two persons may be.\n\nThe presentiments experienced by certain persons of what happens to\ntheir relations and friends, and even of their own death, are not at\nall miraculous. There are many instances of persons who are in the\nhabit of feeling these presentiments, and who in the night, even when\nasleep, will say that such a thing has happened, or is about to\nhappen; that such messengers are coming, and will announce to them\nsuch and such things.\n\nThere are dogs that have the sense of smelling so keen that they scent\nfrom a good distance the approach of any person who has done them good\nor harm. This has been proved many times, and can only proceed from\nthe diversity of organs in those animals, some of which have the scent\nmuch keener than others, and upon which the spirits which exhale from\nother bodies act more quickly and at a greater distance than in\nothers. Certain persons have such an acute sense of hearing that they\ncan hear what is whispered even in another chamber, of which the door\nis well closed. They cite as an example of this, a certain Marie\nBucaille, to whom it was thought that her guardian angel discovered\nwhat was said at a great distance from her.\n\nOthers have the smell so keen that they distinguish by the odor all\nthe men and animals they have ever seen, and scent their approach a\nlong way off. Blind persons pretty often possess this faculty, as well\nas that of discerning the color of different stuffs by the touch, from\nhorse-hair to playing-cards.\n\nOthers discern by the taste everything that composes a ragout, better\nthan the most expert cook could do. Others possess so piercing a sight\nthat at the first glance they can distinguish the most confused and\ndistant objects, and remark the least change which takes place in\nthem.\n\nThere are both men and women who, without intending to hurt, do a\ngreat deal of harm to children, and all the tender and delicate\nanimals which they look at attentively, or which they touch. This\nhappens particularly in hot countries; and many examples might be\ncited of it; from which arises what both ancients and moderns call\nfascination (or the evil eye); hence the precautions which were taken\nagainst these effects by amulets and preservatives, which were\nsuspended to children's necks.\n\nThere have been known to be men from whose eyes there proceeded such\nvenomous spirits that they did harm to everybody or thing they looked\nat, even to the breast of nurses, which they caused to dry up--to\nplants, flowers, the leaves of trees, which were seen to wither and\nfall off. They dare not enter any place till they had warned the\npeople beforehand to send away the children and nurses, new-born\nanimals, and, generally speaking, everything which they could infect\nby their breath or their looks.\n\nWe should laugh, and with reason, at those who, to explain all these\nsingular effects, should have recourse to charms, spells, to the\noperations of demons, or of good angels. The evaporation of\ncorpuscles, or atoms, or the insensible perspiration of the bodies\nwhich produce all these effects, suffice to account for it. We have\nrecourse neither to miracles, nor to superior causes, above all when\nthese effects are produced near, and at a short distance; but when the\ndistance is great, the exhalation of the spirits, or essence, and of\ninsensible corpuscles, does not equally satisfy us, no more than when\nwe meet with things and effects which go beyond the known force of\nnature, such as foretelling future events, speaking unknown languages,\n_i. e._, languages unknown to the speaker, to be in such ecstasy that\nthe person is beyond earthly feeling, to rise up from the ground, and\nremain so a long time.\n\nThe chemists demonstrate that the ____________________ or a sort of\nrestoration or resurrection of animals, insects, and plants, is\npossible and natural. When the ashes of a plant are placed in a phial,\nthese ashes rise, and arrange themselves as much as they can in the\nform which was first impressed on them by the Author of Nature.\n\nFather Schol, a Jesuit, affirms that he has often seen a rose which\nwas made to arise from its ashes every time they wished to see it\ndone, by means of a little heat.\n\nThe secret of a mineral water has been found by means of which a dead\nplant which has its root can be made green again, and brought to the\nsame state as if it were growing in the ground. Digby asserts that he\nhas drawn from dead animals, which were beaten and bruised in a\nmortar, the representation of these animals, or other animals of the\nsame species.\n\nDuchesne, a famous chemist, relates that a physician of Cracow\npreserved in phials the ashes of almost every kind of plant, so that\nwhen any one from curiosity desired to see, for instance, a rose in\nthese phials, he took that in which the ashes of the rose-bush were\npreserved, and placing it over a lighted candle, as soon as it felt a\nlittle warmth, they saw the ashes stir and rise like a little dark\ncloud, and, after some movements, they represented a rose as beautiful\nand fresh as if newly gathered from the rose-tree.\n\nGaffard assures us that M. de Cleves, a celebrated chemist, showed\nevery day plants drawn from their own ashes. David Vanderbroch affirms\nthat the blood of animals contains the idea of their species as well\nas their seed; he relates on this subject the experiment of M.\nBorelli, who asserts that the human blood, when warm, is still full of\nits spirits or sulphurs, acid and volatile, and that, being excited in\ncemeteries and in places where great battles are fought by some heat\nin the ground, the phantoms or ideas of the persons who are there\ninterred are seen to rise; that we should see them as well by day as\nby night, were it not for the excess of light which prevents us even\nfrom seeing the stars. He adds that by this means we might behold the\nidea, and represent by a lawful and natural necromancy the figure or\nphantom of all the great men of antiquity, our friends and our\nancestors, provided we possess their ashes.\n\nThese are the most plausible objections intended to destroy or obviate\nall that is said of the apparitions of spirits. Whence some conclude\nthat these are either very natural phenomena and exhalations produced\nby the heat of the earth imbued with blood and the volatile spirit of\nthe dead, above all, those dead by violence; or that they are the\nconsequences of a stricken and prepossessed fancy, or simply illusions\nof the mind, or sports of persons who like to divert themselves by the\npanics into which they terrify others; or, lastly, movements produced\nnaturally by men, rats, monkeys, and other animals; for it is true\nthat the oftener we examine into what have been taken for apparitions,\nnothing is found that is real, extraordinary, or supernatural; but to\nconclude from thence that all the apparitions and operations\nattributed to angels, spirits or souls, and demons are chimerical, is\ncarrying things to excess; it is to conclude that we mistake always,\nbecause we mistake often.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[438] M. de S. Andre, Lett. iii. sur les Malefices.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER L.\n\nCONCLUSION OF THE TREATISE ON APPARITIONS.\n\n\nAfter having made this exposition of my opinion concerning the\napparitions of angels, demons, souls of the dead, and even of one\nliving person to another, and having spoken of magic, of oracles, of\nobsessions and possessions of the demon; of sprites and familiar\nspirits; of sorcerers and witches; of spectres which predict the\nfuture; of those which haunt houses--after having stated the\nobjections which are made against apparitions, and having replied to\nthem in as weighty a manner as I possibly could, I think I may\nconclude that although this matter labors still under very great\ndifficulties, as much respecting the foundation of the thing--I mean\nas regards the truth and reality of apparitions in general--as for the\nway in which they are made, still we cannot reasonably disallow that\nthere may be true apparitions of all the kinds of which we have\nspoken, and that there may be also a great number very disputable, and\nsome others which are manifestly the work of knavery, of\nmaliciousness, of the art of charlatans, and flexibility of those who\nplay sleight of hand tricks.\n\nI acknowledge, moreover, that imagination, prepossession, simplicity,\nsuperstition, excess of credulity, and weakness of mind have given\nrise to several stories which are related; that ignorance of pure\nphilosophy has caused to be taken for miraculous effects, and black\nmagic, what is the simple effect of white magic, and the secrets of a\nphilosophy hidden from the ignorant and common herd of men. Moreover,\nI confess that I see insurmountable difficulties in explaining the\nmanner or properties of apparitions, whether we admit with several\nancients that angels, demons, and disembodied souls have a sort of\nsubtile transparent body of the nature of air, whether we believe them\npurely spiritual and disengaged from all matter, visible, gross, or\nsubtile.\n\nI lay down as a principle that to explain the affair of apparitions,\nand to give on this subject any certain rules, we should--\n\n1st. Know perfectly the nature of spirits, angels and souls, and\ndemons. We should know whether souls by nature are so spiritualized\nthat they have no longer any relation to matter; or if they have,\nagain, any alliance with an aerial, subtile, invisible body, which\nthey still govern after death; or whether they exert any power over\nthe body they once animated, to impel it to certain movements, as the\nsoul which animates us gives to our bodies such impulsions as she\nthinks proper; or whether the soul determines simply by its will, as\noccasional or secondary cause, the first cause, which is God, to put\nin motion the machine which it once animated.\n\n2d. If after death the soul still retains that power over its own\nbody, or over others; for instance, over the air and other elements.\n\n3d. If angels and demons have respectively the same power over\nsublunary bodies--for instance, to thicken air, inflame it, produce in\nit clouds and storms; to make phantoms appear in it; to spoil or\npreserve fruits and crops; to cause animals to perish, produce\nmaladies, excite tempests and shipwrecks at sea; or even to fascinate\nthe eyes and deceive the other senses.\n\n4th. If they can do all these things naturally, and by their own\nvirtue, as often as they think proper; or if there must be a\nparticular order, or at least permission from God, for them to do what\nwe have just said.\n\n5th. Lastly, we should know exactly what power is possessed by these\nsubstances which we suppose to be purely spiritual, and how far the\npower of the angels, demons, and souls separated from their gross\nbodies, extends, in regard to the apparitions, operations and\nmovements attributed to them. For whilst we are ignorant of the power\nwhich the Creator has given or left to disembodied souls, or to\ndemons, we can in no way define what is miraculous, or prescribe the\njust bound to which may extend, or within which may be limited, the\nnatural operations of spirits, angels, and demons.\n\nIf we accord the demon the faculty of fascinating our eyes when it\npleases him, or of disposing the air so as to form the appearance of a\nphantom, or phenomenon; or of restoring movement to a body which is\ndead but not entirely corrupted; or of disturbing the living by ill\ndreams, or terrific representations, we should no longer admire many\nthings which we admire at present, nor regard as miracles certain\ncures and certain apparitions, if they are only the natural effects of\nthe power of souls, angels and demons.\n\nIf a man invested with his body produced such effects of himself, we\nshould say with reason that they are supernatural operations, because\nthey exceed the known ordinary and natural power of the living man;\nbut if a man held commerce with a spirit, an angel, or a demon, whom\nby virtue of some compact, explicit or implicit, he commanded to\nperform certain things which would be above his natural powers, but\nnot beyond the powers of the spirit whom he commanded, would the\neffect resulting from it be miraculous or supernatural? No, without\ndoubt, supposing that the spirit which produced the result did nothing\nthat was above his natural powers and faculties.\n\nBut would it be a miracle if a man had anything to do with an angel or\na demon, and that he should make an explicit and implicit compact with\nthem, to oblige them on certain conditions, and with certain\nceremonies, to produce effects which would appear externally, and in\nour minds, to be beyond the power of man? For instance, in the\noperations of certain magicians who boast of having an explicit\ncompact with the devil, and who by this means raise tempests, or go\nwith extraordinary haste when they walk, or cause the death of\nanimals, and to men incurable maladies; or who enchant arms; or in\nother operations, as in the use of the divining rod, and in certain\nremedies against the maladies of men and horses, which having no\nnatural proportion to these maladies do not fail to cure them,\nalthough those who use these remedies protest that they have never\nthought of contracting any alliance with the devil.\n\nTo reply to this question, the difficulty always recurs to know if\nthere is between living and mortal man a proportion or natural\nrelation, which renders him capable of contracting an alliance with\nthe angel or the demon, by virtue of which these spirits obey him and\nexert, under his empire over them, by virtue of the preceding compact,\na power which is natural to them; for if in all that there is nothing\nbeyond the ordinary force of nature, either on the side of man, or on\nthat of angels and demons, there is nothing miraculous in one or the\nother; neither is there either in God's permitting secondary causes to\nact according to their natural faculties, of which he is nevertheless\nalways the principle, and the absolute master, to limit, stop,\nsuspend, extend, or augment them, according to his good pleasure.\n\nBut as we know not, and it seems even impossible that we should know\nby the light of reason, the nature and natural extent of the power of\nangels, demons, and disembodied souls, it seems that it would be rash\nto decide in this matter, as deriving consequences of causes by their\neffects, or effects by causes. For instance, to say that souls,\ndemons, and angels have sometimes appeared to men--_then_ they have\nnaturally the faculty of returning and appearing, is a bold and rash\nproposition. For it is very possible that angels and demons appear\nonly by the particular will of God, and not in consequence of his\ngeneral will, and by virtue of his natural and physical concurrence\nwith his creatures.\n\nIn the first case, these apparitions are miraculous, as being above\nthe natural power of the agents in question; in the second case, there\nis nothing supernatural in them except the permission which God rarely\ngrants to souls to return, to angels and demons to appear, and to\nproduce the effects of which we have spoken.\n\nAccording to these principles we may advance without temerity--\n\n1st. That angels and demons have often appeared unto men, that souls\nseparated from the body have often returned, and that both the one and\nthe other may do the same thing again.\n\n2d. That the manner of these apparitions, and of these returns to\nearth, is perfectly unknown, and given up by God to the discussions\nand researches of mankind.\n\n3d. That there is some likelihood that these kinds of apparitions are\nnot absolutely miraculous on the part of the good and evil angels, but\nthat God allows them sometimes to take place, for reasons the\nknowledge of which is reserved to himself alone.\n\n4th. That no certain rule on this point can be given, nor any\ndemonstrative argument formed, for want of knowing perfectly the\nnature and extent of the power of the spiritual beings in question.\n\n5th. That we should reason upon those apparitions which appear in\ndreams otherwise than upon those which appear when we are awake;\ndifferently also upon apparitions wearing solid bodies, speaking,\nwalking, eating and drinking, and those which seem like a shade, or a\nnebulous and aerial body.\n\n6th. Thus it would be rash to lay down principles, and raise uniform\narguments, and all these things in common, every species of apparition\ndemanding its own particular explanation.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LI.\n\nWAY OF EXPLAINING APPARITIONS.\n\n\nApparitions in dreams, for instance, that of the angel[439] who told\nSt. Joseph to carry the infant Jesus into Egypt because King Herod\nwished to put him to death; there are two things appertaining to this\napparition--the first is, the impression made on the mind of St.\nJoseph that an angel appeared to him; the second is, the prediction or\nrevelation of the ill-will of Herod. Both these are above the ordinary\npowers of our nature, but we know not if they be above the power of\nangels; it is certain that it could not have been done except by the\nwill and command of God.\n\nThe apparitions of a spirit, or of an angel and a demon, which show\nthemselves clothed in an apparent body, and only as a shadow or a\nphantom, as that of the angel who showed himself to Manoah the father\nof Samson, and vanished with the smoke of the sacrifice, and of him\nwho extricated St. Peter from prison, and disappeared in the same way\nafter having conducted him the length of a street; the bodies which\nthese angels assumed, and which we suppose to have been only apparent\nand aerial, present great difficulties; for either those bodies were\ntheir own, or they were assumed or borrowed.\n\nIf those forms were their own, and we suppose with several ancient and\nsome new writers that angels, demons, and even human souls have a kind\nof subtile, transparent, and aerial body, the difficulty lies in\nknowing how they can condense the transparent body, and render it\nvisible when it was before invisible; for if it was always and\nnaturally evident to the senses and visible, there would be another\nkind of continual miracle to render it invisible, and hide it from our\nsight; and if of its nature it is invisible, what might can render it\nvisible? On whatever side we regard this object it seems equally\nmiraculous, whether to make evident to the senses that which is purely\nspiritual, or to render invisible that which in its nature is palpable\nand corporeal.\n\nThe ancient fathers of the church, who gave to angels subtile bodies\nof an airy nature, explained, according to their principles, more\neasily the predictions made by the demons, and the wonderful\noperations which they cause in the air, in the elements, in our\nbodies, and which are far beyond what the cleverest and the most\nlearned men can know, predict, and perform. They likewise conceived\nmore easily that evil angels can cause maladies, render the air impure\nand contagious, that they inspire the wicked with wrong thoughts and\nunjust desires, that they can penetrate our thoughts and wishes, that\nthey foresee tempests and changes in the air, and derangements in the\nseasons; all that can be explained with much more facility on the\nhypothesis that demons have bodies composed of very fine and subtile\nair.\n\nSt. Augustine[440] had written that they could also discover what is\npassing in our mind, and at the bottom of our heart, not only by our\nwords, but also by certain signs and movements, which escape from the\nmost circumspect; but reflecting on what he had advanced in this\npassage, he retracted, and owned that he had spoken too affirmatively\nupon a subject but little known, and that the manner in which the evil\nangels penetrate our thoughts is a very hidden thing, and very\ndifficult for men to discover and explain; thus he preferred\nsuspending his judgment upon it, and remaining in doubt.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[439] Matt. ii. 13,14.\n\n[440] S. Aug. lib. ii. retract. c. 30.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LII.\n\nTHE DIFFICULTY OF EXPLAINING THE MANNER IN WHICH APPARITIONS MAKE\nTHEIR APPEARANCE, WHATEVER SYSTEM MAY BE PROPOSED ON THE SUBJECT.\n\n\nThe difficulty is much greater, if we suppose that these spirits are\nabsolutely disengaged from any kind of matter; for how can they\nassemble about them a certain quantity of matter, clothe themselves\nwith it, give it a human form, which can be discerned; is capable of\nacting, speaking, conversing, eating and drinking, as did the angels\nwho appeared to Abraham,[441] and the one who appeared to the young\nTobias,[442] and conducted him to Rages! Is all that accomplished by\nthe natural power of these spirits? Has God bestowed on them this\npower in creating them, and has he engaged himself by virtue of his\nnatural laws, and by a consequence of his acting intimately and\nessentially on the creature, in his quality of Creator, to impress on\noccasion at the will of these spirits certain motions in the air, and\nin the bodies which they would move, condense, and cause to act, in\nthe same manner proportionally that he has willed by virtue of the\nunion of the soul with a living body, that that soul should impress on\nthat body motions proportioned to its own will, although, naturally,\nthere is no natural proportion between matter and spirit, and,\naccording to the laws of physics, the one cannot act upon the other,\nunless the first cause, the Creator, has chosen to subject himself to\ncreate this movement, and to produce these effects at the will of man,\nmovements which without that would pass for superhuman (supernatural).\n\nOr shall we say, with some new philosophers,[443] that although we may\nhave ideas of matter and thought, perhaps we shall never be capable of\nknowing whether a being purely material thinks or not, because it is\nimpossible for us to discover by the contemplative powers of our own\nminds without revelation, if God has not given to some collections of\nmatter, disposed as he thinks proper, the power to perceive and to\nthink, or whether he has joined and united to the matter thus\narranged, an immaterial substance which thinks? Now in relation to our\nnotions, it is not less easy for us to conceive that God can add to\nour idea of matter the faculty of thinking, since we know not in what\nthought consists, and to what species of substance that Almighty being\nhas judged proper to grant this faculty, which could exist in no\ncreated being except by virtue of the goodness and the will of the\nCreator.\n\nThis system certainly embraces great absurdities, and greater to my\nmind than those it would fain avoid. We conceive clearly that matter\nis divisible, and capable of motion; but we do not conceive that it is\ncapable of thought, nor that thought can consist of a certain\nconfiguration or a certain motion of matter. And even could thought\ndepend on an arrangement, or on a certain subtility, or on a certain\nmotion of matter, as soon as that arrangement should be disturbed, or\nthe motion interrupted, or this heap of subtile matter dispersed,\nthought would cease to be produced, and consequently that which\nconstitutes man, or the reasoning animal, would no longer subsist;\nthus all the economy of our religion, all our hopes of a future life,\nall our fears of eternal punishment would vanish; even the principles\nof our philosophy would be overthrown.\n\nGod forbid that we should wish to set bounds to the almighty power of\nGod; but that all-powerful Being having given us as a rule of our\nknowledge the clearness of the ideas which we form of everything, and\nnot being permitted to affirm that which we know but indistinctly, it\nfollows that we ought not to assert that thought can be attributed to\nmatter. If the thing were known to us through revelation, and taught\nby the authority of the Scriptures, then we might impose silence on\nhuman reason, and make captive our judgment in obedience to faith; but\nit is owned that the thing is not at all revealed; neither is it\ndemonstrated, either by its cause, or by its effects. It must, then,\nbe considered as a simple system, invented to do away certain\ndifficulties which result from the opinion opposed to it.\n\nIf the difficulty of explaining how the soul acts upon our bodies\nappears so great, how can we comprehend that the soul itself should be\nmaterial and extended? In the latter case will it act upon itself, and\ngive itself the impulsion to think, or will this movement or impulsion\nbe thought itself, or will it produce thought? Will this thinking\nmatter think on always, or only at times; and when it has ceased to\nthink, who will make it think anew? Will it be God, will it be itself?\nCan so simple an agent as the soul act upon itself, and reproduce it\nin some sort by thinking, after it has ceased to think?\n\nMy reader will say that I leave him here embarrassed, and that instead\nof giving him any light on the subject of the apparition of spirits, I\ncast doubt and uncertainty on the subject. I own it; but I better like\nto doubt prudently, than to affirm that which I know not. And if I\nhold by what my religion teaches me concerning the nature of souls,\nangels, and demons, I shall say that being purely spiritual, it is\nimpossible that they should appear clothed with a body except through\na miracle; always in the supposition that God has not created them\nnaturally capable of these operations, with subordination to his\nsovereignly powerful will, which but rarely allows them to use this\nfaculty of showing themselves corporeally to mortals.\n\nIf sometimes angels have eaten, spoken, acted, walked, like men, it\nwas not from any need they had to drink or eat to sustain themselves\nand to be able to live, but to execute the designs of God, whose will\nit was that they should appear to men acting, drinking, and eating, as\nthe angel Raphael observes,[444]--\"When I was staying with you, I was\nthere by the will of God; I seemed to you to eat and drink, but for my\npart I make use of an invisible nourishment which is unknown to men.\"\n\nIt is true that we know not what may be the food of angels who are\nsubstances which are purely spiritual, nor what became of that food\nwhich Raphael and the angels that Abraham entertained in his tent,\ntook, or seemed to take, in the company of men. But there are so many\nother things in nature which are unknown and incomprehensible to us,\nthat we may very well console ourselves for not knowing how it is that\nthe apparitions of angels, demons, and disembodied souls are made to\nappear.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[441] Gen. xviii.\n\n[442] Tob. xii. 19.\n\n[443] M. Lock. de Intellectu Human. lib. iv. c. 3.\n\n[444] Tob. xii. 18, 19.\n\n\n\n\nDISSERTATION\n\nON THE GHOSTS WHO RETURN TO EARTH BODILY,\nTHE EXCOMMUNICATED,\nTHE OUPIRES OR VAMPIRES, VROUCOLACAS, ETC.\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE.\n\n\nEvery age, every nation, every country has its prejudices, its\nmaladies, its customs, its inclinations, which characterize them, and\nwhich pass away, and succeed to one another; often that which has\nappeared admirable at one time, becomes pitiful and ridiculous at\nanother. We have seen that in some ages all was turned towards a\ncertain kind of devotion, of studies and of exercises. It is known\nthat, for more than one century, the prevailing taste of Europe was\nthe journey to Jerusalem. Kings, princes, nobles, bishops,\necclesiastics, monks, all pressed thither in crowds. The pilgrimages\nto Rome were formerly very frequent and very famous. All that is\nfallen away. We have seen provinces over-run with flagellants, and now\nnone of them remain except in the brotherhoods of penitents which are\nstill found in several parts.\n\nWe have seen in these countries jumpers and dancers, who every moment\njumped and danced in the streets, squares or market-places, and even\nin the churches. The convulsionaries of our own days seem to have\nrevived them; posterity will be surprised at them, as we laugh at them\nnow. Towards the end of the sixteenth and at the beginning of the\nseventeenth century, nothing was talked of in Lorraine but wizards and\nwitches. For a long time we have heard nothing of them. When the\nphilosophy of M. Descartes appeared, what a vogue it had! The ancient\nphilosophy was despised; nothing was talked of but experiments in\nphysics, new systems, new discoveries. M. Newton appears; all minds\nturn to him. The system of M. Law, bank notes, the rage of the Rue\nQuinquampoix, what movements did they not cause in the kingdom? A sort\nof convulsion had seized on the French. In this age, a new scene\npresents itself to our eyes, and has done for about sixty years in\nHungary, Moravia, Silesia, and Poland: they see, it is said, men who\nhave been dead for several months, come back to earth, talk, walk,\ninfest villages, ill use both men and beasts, suck the blood of their\nnear relations, make them ill, and finally cause their death; so that\npeople can only save themselves from their dangerous visits and their\nhauntings by exhuming them, impaling them, cutting off their heads,\ntearing out the heart, or burning them. These _revenans_ are called by\nthe name of oupires or vampires, that is to say, leeches; and such\nparticulars are related of them, so singular, so detailed, and\ninvested with such probable circumstances and such judicial\ninformation, that one can hardly refuse to credit the belief which is\nheld in those countries, that these _revenans_ come out of their tombs\nand produce those effects which are proclaimed of them.\n\nAntiquity certainly neither saw nor knew anything like it. Let us read\nthrough the histories of the Hebrews, the Egyptians, the Greeks, and\nthe Latins; nothing approaching to it will be met with.\n\nIt is true that we remark in history, though rarely, that certain\npersons after having been some time in their tombs and considered as\ndead, have returned to life. We shall see even that the ancients\nbelieved that magic could cause death and evoke the souls of the dead.\nSeveral passages are cited, which prove that at certain times they\nfancied that sorcerers sucked the blood of men and children, and\ncaused their death. They saw also in the twelfth century in England\nand Denmark, some _revenans_ similar to those of Hungary. But in no\nhistory do we read anything so usual or so pronounced, as what is\nrelated to us of the vampires of Poland, Hungary, and Moravia.\n\nChristian antiquity furnishes some instances of excommunicated persons\nwho have visibly come out of their tombs and left the churches, when\nthe deacon commanded the excommunicated, and those who did not partake\nof the communion, to retire. For several centuries nothing like this\nhas been seen, although it is known that the bodies of several\nexcommunicated persons who died while under sentence of\nexcommunication and censure of the Church are buried in churches.\n\nThe belief of the modern Greeks, who will have it that the bodies of\nthe excommunicated do not decay in their tombs or graves, is an\nopinion which has no foundation, either in antiquity, in good\ntheology, or even in history. This idea seems to have been invented by\nthe modern Greek schismatics, only to authorize and confirm them in\ntheir separation from the church of Rome. Christian antiquity\nbelieved, on the contrary, that the incorruptibility of a body was\nrather a probable mark of the sanctity of the person and a proof of\nthe particular protection of God, extended to a body which during its\nlifetime had been the temple of the Holy Spirit, and of one who had\nretained in justice and innocence the mark of Christianity.\n\nThe vroucolacas of Greece and the Archipelago are again _revenans_ of\na new kind. We can hardly persuade ourselves that a nation so witty as\nthe Greeks could fall into so extraordinary an opinion. Ignorance or\nprejudice, must be extreme among them since neither an ecclesiastic\nnor any other writer has undertaken to undeceive them.\n\nThe imagination of those who believe that the dead chew in their\ngraves, with a noise similar to that made by hogs when they eat, is so\nridiculous that it does not deserve to be seriously refuted. I\nundertake to treat here on the matter of the _revenans_ or vampires of\nHungary, Moravia, Silesia, and Poland, at the risk of being criticised\nhowever I may discuss it; those who believe them to be true, will\naccuse me of rashness and presumption, for having raised a doubt on\nthe subject, or even of having denied their existence and reality;\nothers will blame me for having employed my time in discussing this\nmatter which is considered as frivolous and useless by many sensible\npeople. Whatever may be thought of it, I shall be pleased with myself\nfor having sounded a question which appeared to me important in a\nreligious point of view. For if the return of vampires is real, it is\nof import to defend it, and prove it; and if it is illusory, it is of\nconsequence to the interests of religion to undeceive those who\nbelieve in its truth, and destroy an error which may produce dangerous\neffects.\n\n\n\n\n DISSERTATION\n\n ON THE GHOSTS WHO RETURN TO EARTH BODILY,\n THE EXCOMMUNICATED,\n THE OUPIRES OR VAMPIRES, VROUCOLACAS, ETC.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\nTHE RESURRECTION OF A DEAD PERSON IS THE WORK OF GOD ONLY.\n\n\nAfter having treated in a separate dissertation on the matter of the\napparitions of angels, demons, and disembodied souls, the connection\nof the subject invites me to speak also of the ghosts and\nexcommunicated persons, whom, it is said, the earth rejects from her\nbosom; of the vampires of Hungary, Silesia, Bohemia, Moravia, and\nPoland; and of the vroucolacas of Greece. I shall report first of all,\nwhat has been said and written of them; then I shall deduce some\nconsequences, and bring forward the reasons or arguments that may be\nadduced for, and against, their existence and reality.\n\nThe _revenans_ of Hungary, or vampires, which form the principal\nobject of this dissertation, are men who have been dead a considerable\ntime, sometimes more, sometimes less; who leave their tombs, and come\nand disturb the living, sucking their blood, appearing to them, making\na racket at their doors, and in their houses, and lastly, often\ncausing their death. They are named vampires, or oupires, which\nsignifies, they say, in Sclavonic, a leech. The only way to be\ndelivered from their haunting, is to disinter them, cut off their\nhead, impale them, burn them, or pierce their heart.\n\nSeveral systems have been propounded to explain the return, and these\napparitions of the vampires. Some persons have denied and rejected\nthem as chimerical, and as an effect of the prepossession and\nignorance of the people of those countries, where they are said to\ncome back or return.\n\nOthers have thought that these people were not really dead, but that\nthey had been interred alive, and returned naturally to themselves,\nand came out of their tombs.\n\nOthers believe that these people are very truly dead, but that God, by\na particular permission, or command, permits or commands them to come\nback to earth, and resume for a time their own body; for when they are\nexhumed, their bodies are found entire, their blood vermilion and\nfluid, and their limbs supple and pliable.\n\nOthers maintain that it is the demon who causes these _revenans_ to\nappear, and by their means does all the harm he occasions both men and\nanimals.\n\nIn the supposition that vampires veritably resuscitate, we may raise\nan infinity of difficulties on the subject. How is this resurrection\naccomplished? It is by the strength of the _revenant_, by the return\nof his soul into his body? Is it an angel, is it a demon who\nreanimates it? Is it by the order, or by the permission of God that he\nresuscitates? Is this resurrection voluntary on his part, and by his\nown choice? Is it for a long time, like that of the persons who were\nrestored to life by Jesus Christ? or that of persons resuscitated by\nthe Prophets and Apostles? Or is it only momentary, and for a few days\nand a few hours, like the resurrection operated by St. Stanislaus upon\nthe lord who had sold him a field; or that spoken of in the life of\nSt. Macarius of Egypt, and of St. Spiridion, who made the dead to\nspeak, simply to bear testimony to the truth, and then left them to\nsleep in peace, awaiting the last, the judgment day.\n\nFirst of all, I lay it down as an undoubted principle, that the\nresurrection of a person really dead is effected by the power of God\nalone. No man can either resuscitate himself, or restore another man\nto life, without a visible miracle.\n\nJesus Christ resuscitated himself, as he had promised he would; he did\nit by his own power; he did it with circumstances which were all\nmiraculous. If he had returned to life as soon as he was taken down\nfrom the cross, it might have been thought that he was not quite dead,\nthat there remained yet in him some remains of life, that they might\nhave been revived by warming him, or by giving him cordials and\nsomething capable of bringing him back to his senses.\n\nBut he revives only on the third day. He had, as it were, been killed\nafter his death, by the opening made in his side with a lance, which\npierced him to the heart, and would have put him to death, if he had\nnot then been beyond receiving it.\n\nWhen he resuscitated Lazarus,[445] he waited until he had been four\ndays in the tomb, and began to show corruption; which is the most\ncertain mark that a man is really deceased, without a hope of\nreturning to life, except by supernatural means.\n\nThe resurrection which Job so firmly expected,[446] and that of the\nman who came to life, on touching the body of the prophet Elisha in\nhis tomb;[447] and the child of the widow of Shunem, whom the same\nElisha restored to life;[448] that army of skeletons, whose\nresurrection was predicted by Ezekiel,[449] and which in spirit he saw\nexecuted before his eyes, as a type and pledge as the return of the\nHebrews from their captivity at Babylon;--in short, all the\nresurrections related in the sacred books of the Old and New\nTestament, are manifestly miraculous effects, and attributed solely to\nthe Almighty power of God. Neither angels, nor demons, nor men, the\nholiest and most favored of God, could by their own power restore to\nlife a person really dead. They can do it by the power of God alone,\nwho when he thinks proper so to do, is free to grant this favor to\ntheir prayers and intercession.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[445] John xi. 39.\n\n[446] Job xxi. 25.\n\n[447] 1 Kings xiii. 21, 22.\n\n[448] 2 Kings iv.\n\n[449] Ezek. xxxvii. 1, 2, 3.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\nON THE REVIVAL OF PERSONS WHO WERE NOT REALLY DEAD.\n\n\nThe resuscitation of some persons who were believed to be dead, and\nwho were not so, but simply asleep, or in a lethargy; and of those who\nwere supposed to be dead, having been drowned, and who came to life\nagain through the care taken of them, or by medical skill. Such\npersons must not pass for being really resuscitated; they were not\ndead, or were so only in appearance.\n\nWe intend to speak in this place of another order of resuscitated\npersons, who had been buried sometimes for several months, or even\nseveral years; who ought to have been suffocated in their graves, had\nthey been interred alive, and in whom are still found signs of life:\nthe blood in a liquid state, the flesh entire, the complexion fine and\nflorid, the limbs flexible and pliable. Those persons who return\neither by night or by day, disturb the living, suck their blood, kill\nthem, appear in their clothes, in their families, sit down to table,\nand do a thousand other things; then return to their graves without\nany one seeing how they re-enter them. This is a kind of momentary\nresurrection, or revival; for whereas the other dead persons spoken of\nin Scripture have lived, drank, eaten and conversed with other men\nafter their return to life, as Lazarus, the brother of Mary and\nMartha,[450] and the son of the widow of Shunem, resuscitated by\nElisha.[451] These appeared during a certain time, in certain places,\nin certain circumstances; and appear no more as soon as they have been\nimpaled, or burned, or have had their heads cut off.\n\nIf this last order of resuscitated persons were not really dead, there\nis nothing wonderful in their revisiting the world, except the manner\nin which it is done, and the circumstances by which that return is\naccompanied. Do these _revenans_ simply awaken from their sleep, or do\nthey recover themselves like those who fall down in syncope, in\nfainting fits, or in swoons, and who at the end of a certain time come\nnaturally to themselves when the blood and animal spirits have resumed\ntheir natural course and motion.\n\nBut how can they come out of their graves without opening the earth,\nand how re-enter them again without its appearing? Have we ever seen\nlethargies, or swoons, or syncopes last whole years together? If\npeople insist on these resurrections being real ones, did we ever see\ndead persons resuscitate themselves, and by their own power?\n\nIf they are not resuscitated by themselves, is it by the power of God\nthat they have left their graves? What proof is there that God has\nanything to do with it? What is the object of these resurrections? Is\nit to show forth the works of God in these vampires? What glory does\nthe Divinity derive from them? If it is not God who drags them from\ntheir graves, is it an angel? is it a demon? is it their own spirit?\nCan the soul when separated from the body re-enter it when it will,\nand give it new life, were it but for a quarter of an hour? Can an\nangel or a demon restore a dead man to life? Undoubtedly not, without\nthe order, or at least the permission of God. This question of the\nnatural power of angels and demons over human bodies has been examined\nin another place, and we have shown that neither revelation nor reason\nthrows any certain light on the subject.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[450] 1 John xii. 2.\n\n[451] 2 Kings viii. 5.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\nREVIVAL OF A MAN WHO HAD BEEN INTERRED FOR THREE YEARS, AND WAS\nRESUSCITATED BY ST. STANISLAUS.\n\n\nAll the lives of the saints are full of resurrections of the dead;\nthick volumes might be composed on the subject.\n\nThese resurrections have a manifest relation to the matter which we\nare here treating of, since it relates to persons who are dead, or\nheld to be so, who appear bodily and animated to the living, and who\nlive after their return to life. I shall content myself with relating\nthe history of St. Stanislaus, Bishop of Cracow, who restored to life\na man that had been dead for three years, attended by such singular\ncircumstances, and in so public a manner, that the thing is beyond the\nseverest criticism. If it is really true, it must be regarded as one\nof the most unheard of miracles which are read of in history. They\nassert that the life of this saint was written either at the time of\nmartyrdom,[452] or a short time afterwards, by different well-informed\nauthors; for the martyrdom of the saint, and, above all, the\nrestoration to life of the dead man of whom we are about to speak,\nwere seen and known by an infinite number of persons, by all the court\nof king Boleslaus. And this event having taken place in Poland, where\nvampires are frequently met with even in our days, it concerns, for\nthat reason, more particularly the subject we are treating.\n\nThe bishop, St. Stanislaus, having bought of a gentleman, named\nPierre, an estate situated on the banks of the Vistula, in the\nterritory of Lublin, for the profit of his church at Cracow, gave the\nprice of it to the seller, in the presence of witnesses, and with the\nsolemnities requisite in that country, but without written deeds, for\nthey then wrote but seldom in Poland on the occasion of sales of this\nkind; they contented themselves with having witnesses. Stanislaus took\npossession of this estate by the king's authority, and his church\nenjoyed it peaceably for about three years.\n\nIn the interim, Pierre, who had sold it, happened to die. The king of\nPoland, Boleslaus, who had conceived an implacable hatred against the\nholy bishop, because he had freely reproved him for his excesses,\nseeking occasion to cause him trouble, excited against him the three\nsons of Pierre, and his heirs, and told them to claim the estate which\ntheir father had sold, on pretence of its not having been paid for. He\npromised to support their demand, and to cause it to be restored to\nthem. Thus these three gentlemen had the bishop cited to appear before\nthe king, who was then at Solech, occupied in rendering justice under\nsome tents in the country, according to the ancient custom of the\nland, in the general assembly of the nation. The bishop was cited\nbefore the king, and maintained that he had bought and paid for the\nestate in question. The day was beginning to close, and the bishop ran\ngreat risk of being condemned by the king and his counselors.\nSuddenly, as if inspired by the Divine Spirit, he promised the king to\nbring him in three days Pierre, of whom he had bought it, and the\ncondition was accepted mockingly, as a thing impossible to be\nexecuted.\n\nThe holy bishop repairs to Pictravin, remains in prayer, and keeps\nfast with his household for three days; on the third day he goes in\nhis pontifical robes, accompanied by his clergy and a multitude of\npeople, causes the grave-stone to be raised, and makes them dig until\nthey found the corpse of the defunct all fleshless and corrupted. The\nsaint commands him to come forth and bear witness to the truth before\nthe king's tribunal. He rises; they cover him with a cloak; the saint\ntakes him by the hand, and leads him alive to the feet of the king. No\none had the boldness to interrogate him; but he took the word, and\ndeclared that he had in good faith sold the estate to the prelate, and\nthat he had received the value of it; after which he severely\nreprimanded his sons, who had so maliciously accused the holy bishop.\n\nStanislaus asked Pierre if he wished to remain alive to do penance. He\nthanked him, and said he would not anew expose himself to the danger\nof sinning. Stanislaus reconducted him to his tomb, and being arrived\nthere, he again fell asleep in the Lord. It may be supposed that such\na scene had an infinite number of witnesses, and that all Poland was\nquickly informed of it. The king was only the more irritated against\nthe saint. He some time after killed him with his own hand, as he was\ncoming from the altar, and had his body cut into seventy-two parts, in\norder that they might never more be collected together in order to pay\nthem the worship which was due to them as the body of a martyr for the\ntruth and for pastoral liberty.\n\nNow then let us come to that which is the principal subject of these\nresearches, the vampires, or _revenans_, of Hungary, Moravia, and\nsimilar ones, which appear only for a little time in their natural\nbodies.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[452] The reverend fathers the Bollandists, believed that the life of\nSt. Stanislaus, which they had printed, was very old, and nearly of\nthe time of the martyrdom of the saint; or at least that it was taken\nfrom a life by an author almost his cotemporary, and original. But\nsince the first edition of this dissertation it has been observed to\nme that the thing was by no means certain; that M. Baillet, on the 7th\nof May, in the critical table of authors, asserts that the life of St.\nStanislaus was only written 400 years after his death, from uncertain\nand mutilated memoirs. And in the life of the saint he owns that it is\nonly the tradition of the writers of the country which can render\ncredible the account of the resurrection of Pierre. The Abbe Fleuri,\ntom. xiii. of the Ecclesiastical History, l. 62, year 1079, does not\nagree either to what is written in that life or to what has followed\nit. At any rate, the miracle of the resurrection of Pierre is related\nas certain in a discourse of John de Polemac, delivered at the Council\nof Constance, 1433; tom. xii. Councils, p. 1397.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\nCAN A MAN WHO IS REALLY DEAD APPEAR IN HIS OWN BODY?\n\n\nIf what is related of vampires were certainly true, the question here\nproposed would be frivolous and useless; they would reply to us\ndirectly--In Hungary, Moravia, and Poland, persons who were dead and\ninterred a long time, have been seen to return, to appear, and torment\nmen and animals, suck their blood, and cause their death.\n\nThese persons come back to earth in their own bodies; people see them,\nknow them, exhume them, try them, impale them, cut off their heads,\nburn them. It is then not only possible, but very true and very real,\nthat they appear in their own bodies.\n\nIt might be added in support of this belief, that the Scriptures\nthemselves give instances of these apparitions: for example, at the\nTransfiguration of our Saviour, Elias and Moses appeared on Mount\nTabor,[453] there conversing with Jesus Christ. We know that Elias is\nstill alive. I do not cite him as an instance; but in regard to Moses,\nhis death is not doubtful; and yet he appeared bodily talking with\nJesus Christ. The dead who came out of their graves at the\nresurrection of the Saviour,[454] and who appeared to many persons in\nJerusalem, had been in their sepulchres for several years; there was\nno doubt of their being dead; and nevertheless they appeared and bore\ntestimony to the resurrection of the Saviour.\n\nWhen Jeremiah appeared to Judas Maccabaeus,[455] and placed in his hand\na golden sword, saying to him, \"Receive this sword as a gift from God,\nwith which you will vanquish the enemies of my people of Israel;\" it\nwas apparently this prophet in his own person who appeared to him and\nmade him that present, since by his mien he was recognized as the\nprophet Jeremiah.\n\nI do not speak of those persons who were really restored to life by a\nmiracle, as the son of the widow of Shunem resuscitated by Elijah; nor\nof the dead man who, on touching the coffin of the same prophet, rose\nupon his feet and revived; nor of Lazarus, to whom Jesus Christ\nrestored life in a way so miraculous and striking. Those persons\nlived, drank, ate, and conversed with mankind, after, as before their\ndeath and resurrection.\n\nIt is not of such persons that we now speak. I speak, for instance, of\nPierre resuscitated by Stanislaus for a few hours; of those persons of\nwhom I made mention in the treatise on the Apparitions of Spirits, who\nappeared, spoke, and revealed hidden things, and whose resurrection\nwas but momentary, and only to manifest the power of God, in order to\nbear witness to truth and innocence, or to maintain the credit of the\nchurch against obstinate heretics, as we read in various instances.\n\nSt. Martin, being newly made Archbishop of Tours, conceived some\nsuspicions against an altar which the bishops his predecessors had\nerected to a pretended martyr, of whom they knew neither the name nor\nthe history, and of whom none of the priests or ministers of the\nchapel could give any certain account. He abstained for some time from\ngoing to this spot, which was not far from the city; but one day he\nrepaired thither accompanied by a few monks, and having prayed, he\nbesought God to let him know who it was that was interred there. He\nthen perceived on his left a hideous and dirty-looking apparition; and\nhaving commanded it to tell him who he was, the spectre declared his\nname, and confessed to him that he was a robber, who had been put to\ndeath for his crimes and acts of violence, and that he had nothing in\ncommon with the martyrs. Those who were present heard distinctly what\nhe said, but saw no one. St. Martin had the tomb overthrown, and cured\nthe ignorant people of their superstitions.\n\nThe philosopher Celsus, writing against the Christians, maintained\nthat the apparitions of Jesus Christ to his apostles were not real,\nbut that they were simply shadowy forms which appeared. Origen,\nretorting his reasoning, tells him[456] that the pagans give an\naccount of various apparitions of AEsculapius and Apollo, to which they\nattribute the power of predicting future events. If these appearances\nare admitted to be real, because they are attested by some, why not\nreceive as true those of Jesus Christ, which are related by ocular\nwitnesses, and believed by millions of persons?\n\nHe afterwards relates this history. Aristeus, who belonged to one of\nthe first families of Proconnesus, having one day entered a foulon\nshop, died there suddenly. The __________ having locked the door, ran\ndirectly to inform the relations of the deceased; but as the report\nwas instantly spread in the town, a man of Cyzica, who came from\nAstacia, affirmed that it could not be, because he had met Aristeus on\nthe road from Cyzica, and had spoken to him, which he loudly\nmaintained before all the people of Proconnesus.\n\nThereupon the relations arrive at the foulon's, with all the necessary\napparatus for carrying away the body; but when they entered the house,\nthey could not find Aristeus there, either dead or alive. Seven years\nafter, he showed himself in the very town of Proconnesus; made there\nthose verses which are termed Arimaspean, and then disappeared for the\nsecond time. Such is the story related of him in those places.\n\nThree hundred and forty years after that event, the same Aristeus\nshowed himself in Metapontus, in Italy, and commanded the Metapontines\nto build an altar to Apollo, and afterwards to erect a statue in honor\nof Aristeus of Proconnesus, adding that they were the only people of\nItaly whom Apollo had honored with his presence; as for himself who\nspoke to them, he had accompanied that god in the form of a crow; and\nhaving thus spoken he disappeared.\n\nThe Metapontines sent to consult the oracle of Delphi concerning this\napparition; the Delphic oracle told them to follow the counsel which\nAristeus had given them, and it would be well for them; in fact, they\ndid erect a statue to Apollo, which was still to be seen there in the\ntime of Herodotus;[457] and at the same time, another statue to\nAristeus, which stood in a small plantation of laurels, in the midst\nof the public square of Metapontus. Celsus made no difficulty of\nbelieving all that on the word of Herodotus, though Pindar and he\nrefused credence to what the Christians taught of the miracles wrought\nby Jesus Christ, related in the Gospel and sealed with the blood of\nmartyrs. Origen adds, What could Providence have designed in\nperforming for this Proconnesian the miracles we have just mentioned?\nWhat benefit could mankind derive from them? Whereas, what the\nChristians relate of Jesus Christ serves to confirm a doctrine which\nis beneficial to the human race. We must, then, either reject this\nstory of Aristeus as fabulous, or ascribe all that is told of it as\nthe work of the evil spirit.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[453] Matt. ix. 34.\n\n[454] Matt. xxvii. 53.\n\n[455] Macc. xiv. 14, 15.\n\n[456] Origen. contra Celsum, lib. i. pp. 123, 124.\n\n[457] Herodot. lib. iv.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\nREVIVAL OR APPARITION OF A GIRL WHO HAD BEEN DEAD SOME MONTHS.\n\n\nPhlegonus, freed-man of the Emperor Adrian,[458] in the fragment of\nthe book which he wrote on wonderful things, says that at Tralla, in\nAsia, a certain man named Machates, an innkeeper, was connected with a\ngirl named Philinium, the daughter of Demostrates and Chariton. This\ngirl being dead, and placed in her grave, continued to come every\nnight for six months to see her gallant, to drink, eat, and sleep with\nhim. One day this girl was recognized by her nurse, when she was\nsitting by Machates. The nurse ran to give notice of this to Chariton,\nthe girl's mother, who, after making many difficulties, came at last\nto the inn; but as it was very late, and everybody gone to bed, she\ncould not satisfy her curiosity. However, she recognized her\ndaughter's clothes, and thought she recognized the girl herself in bed\nwith Machates. She returned the next morning, but having missed her\nway, she no longer found her daughter, who had already withdrawn.\nMachates related everything to her; how, since a certain time, she had\ncome to him every night; and in proof of what he said, he opened his\ncasket and showed her the gold ring which Philinium had given him, and\nthe band with which she covered her bosom, and which she had left with\nhim the preceding night.\n\nChariton, who could no longer doubt the truth of the circumstance, now\ngave way to cries and tears; but as they promised to inform her the\nfollowing night, when Philinium should return, she went away home. In\nthe evening the girl came back as usual, and Machates sent directly to\nlet her father and mother know, for he began to fear that some other\ngirl might have taken Philinium's clothes from the sepulchre, in order\nto deceive him by the illusion.\n\nDemostrates and Chariton, on arriving, recognized their daughter and\nran to embrace her; but she cried out, \"Oh, father and mother, why\nhave you grudged me my happiness, by preventing me from remaining\nthree days longer with this innkeeper without injury to any one? for I\ndid not come here without permission from the gods, that is to say,\nfrom the demon, since we cannot attribute to God, or to a good spirit,\na thing like that. Your curiosity will cost you dear.\" At the same\ntime, she fell down stiff and dead, and extended on the bed.\n\nPhlegon, who had some command in the town, stayed the crowd and\nprevented a tumult. The next day, the people being assembled at the\ntheatre, they agreed to go and inspect the vault in which Philinium,\nwho had died six months before, had been laid. They found there the\ncorpses of her family arranged in their places, but they found not the\nbody of Philinium. There was only an iron ring, which Machates had\ngiven her, with a gilded cup, which she had also received from him.\nAfterwards they went back to the dwelling of Machates, where the body\nof the girl remained lying on the ground.\n\nThey consulted a diviner, who said that she must be interred beyond\nthe limits of the town; they must appease the furies and terrestrial\nMercury, make solemn funeral ceremonies to the god Manes, and\nsacrifice to Jupiter Hospitaller, to Mercury, and Mars. Phlegon adds,\nspeaking to him to whom he was writing: \"If you think proper to inform\nthe emperor of it, write to me, that I may send you some of those\npersons who were eye-witnesses of all these things.\"\n\nHere is the fact circumstantially related, and invested with all the\nmarks which can make it pass for true. Nevertheless, how numerous are\nthe difficulties it presents! Was this young girl really dead, or only\nsleeping? Was her resurrection effected by her own strength and will,\nor was it a demon who restored her to life? It appears that it cannot\nbe doubted that it was her own body; all the circumstances noted in\nthe recital of Phlegon persuade us of it. If she was not dead, and all\nshe did was merely a game and a play which she performed to satisfy\nher passion for Machates, there is nothing in all this recital very\nincredible. We know what illicit love is capable of, and how far it\nmay lead any one who is devoured by a violent passion. The same\nPhlegon says that a Syrian soldier of the army of Antiochus, after\nhaving been killed at Thermopylae, appeared in open day in the Roman\ncamp, where he spoke to several persons.\n\nHaralde, or Harappe, a Dane, who caused himself to be buried at the\nentrance of his kitchen, appeared after his death, and was wounded by\none Olaues Pa, who left the iron of his lance in the wound. This Dane,\nthen, appeared bodily. Was it his soul which moved his body, or a\ndemon which made use of this corpse to disturb and frighten the\nliving? Did he do this by his own strength, or by the permission of\nGod? And what glory to God, what advantage to men, could accrue from\nthese apparitions? Shall we deny all these facts, related in so\ncircumstantial a manner by enlightened authors, who have no interest\nin deceiving us, nor any wish to do so?\n\nSt. Augustine relates that, during his abode at Milan,[459] a young\nman had a suit instituted against him by a person who repeated his\ndemand for a debt already paid the young man's father, but the receipt\nfor which could not be found. The ghost of the father appeared to the\nson, and informed him where the receipt was which occasioned him so\nmuch trouble.\n\nSt. Macarius, the Egyptian, made a dead man[460] speak who had been\ninterred some time, in order to discover a deposit which he had\nreceived and hidden unknown to his wife. The dead man declared that\nthe money was slipt down at the foot of his bed.\n\nThe same St. Macarius, not being able to refute in any other way a\nheretic Eunomian, according to some, or Hieracitus, according to\nothers, said to him, \"Let us go to the grave of a dead man, and ask\nhim to inform us of the truth which you will not agree to.\" The\nheretic dared not present himself at the grave; but St. Macarius went\nthither, accompanied by a multitude of persons. He interrogated the\ndead, who replied from the depth of the tomb, that if the heretic had\nappeared in the crowd he should have arisen to convince him, and to\nbear testimony to the truth. St. Macarius commanded him to fall asleep\nagain in the Lord, till the time when Jesus Christ should awaken him\nin his place at the end of the world.\n\nThe ancients, who have related the same fact, vary in some of the\ncircumstances, as is usual enough when those things are related only\nfrom memory.\n\nSt. Spiridion, Bishop of Trinitontis, in Egypt,[461] had a daughter\nnamed Irene, who lived in virginity till her death. After her decease,\na person came to Spiridion and asked him for a deposit which he had\nconfided to Irene unknown to her father. They sought in every part of\nthe house, but could find nothing. At last Spiridion went to his\ndaughter's tomb, and calling her by her name, asked her where the\ndeposit was. She declared the same, and Spiridion restored it.\n\nA holy abbot named Erricles resuscitated for a moment a man who had\nbeen killed,[462] and of whose death they accused a monk who was\nperfectly innocent. The dead man did justice to the accused, and the\nAbbot Erricles said to him, \"Sleep in peace, till the Lord shall come\nat the last day to resuscitate you to all eternity.\"\n\nAll these momentary resurrections may serve to explain how the\n_revenans_ of Hungary come out of their graves, then return to them,\nafter having caused themselves to be seen and felt for some time. But\nthe difficulty will always be to know, 1st, If the thing be true; 2d,\nIf they can resuscitate themselves; and, 3d, If they are really dead,\nor only asleep. In what way soever we regard this circumstance, it\nalways appears equally impossible and incredible.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[458] Phlegon. de Mirabilib. 18. Gronov. Antiq. Graec. p. 2694.\n\n[459] Aug. de Cura pro Mortuis.\n\n[460] Rosweid. vit. P. P. lib. ii. p. 480.\n\n[461] Sozomen, Hist. Eccl. lib. i. c. 11.\n\n[462] Vit. P. P. lib. ii. p. 650.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\nA WOMAN TAKEN ALIVE FROM HER GRAVE.\n\n\nWe read in a new work, a story which has some connection with this\nsubject. A shopkeeper of the Rue St. Honore, at Paris, had promised\nhis daughter to one of his friends, a shopkeeper like himself,\nresiding also in the same street. A financier having presented himself\nas a husband for this young girl, was accepted instead of the young\nman to whom she had been promised. The marriage was accomplished, and\nthe young bride falling ill, was looked upon as dead, enshrouded and\ninterred. The first lover having an idea that she had fallen into a\nlethargy or a trance, had her taken out of the ground during the\nnight; they brought her to herself and he espoused her. They crossed\nthe channel, and lived quietly in England for some years. At the end\nof ten years, they returned to Paris, where the first husband having\nrecognized his wife in a public walk, claimed her in a court of\njustice; and this was the subject of a great law suit.\n\nThe wife and her (second) husband defended themselves on the ground\nthat death had broken the bonds of the first marriage. The first\nhusband was even accused of having caused his wife to be too\nprecipitately interred. The lovers foreseeing that they might be\nnon-suited, again withdrew to a foreign land, where they ended their\ndays. This circumstance is so singular that our readers will have some\ndifficulty in giving credence to it. I only give it as it is told. It\nis for those who advance the fact to guarantee and prove it.\n\nWho can say that, in the story of Phlegon, the young Philinium was not\nthus placed in the vault without being dead, and that every night she\ncame to see her lover Machates? That was much easier for her than\nwould have been the return of the Parisian woman, who had been\nenshrouded, buried, and remained covered with earth, and enveloped in\nlinen, during a pretty long time.\n\nThe other example related in the same work, is of a girl who fell into\na trance and was regarded as dead, and became enceinte during this\ninterval, without knowing the author of her pregnancy. It was a monk,\nwho, having made himself known, asserted that his vows should be\nannulled, he having been forced into the sacred profession. A great\nlawsuit ensued upon it, of which the documents are preserved to this\nday. The monk obtained a dispensation from his vows, and married the\nyoung girl.\n\nThis instance may be adduced with that of Philinium, and the young\nwoman of the Rue St. Honore. It is possible that these persons might\nnot be dead, and consequently not restored to life.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\nLET US NOW EXAMINE THE FACT OF THE REVENANS OR VAMPIRES OF MORAVIA.\n\n\nI have been told by the late Monsieur de Vassimont, counsellor of the\nChamber of the Counts of Bar, that having been sent into Moravia by\nhis late Royal Highness Leopold, first Duke of Lorraine, for the\naffairs of my Lord the Prince Charles his brother, Bishop of Olmutz\nand Osnaburgh, he was informed by public report that it was common\nenough in that country to see men who had died some time before,\npresent themselves in a party, and sit down to table with persons of\ntheir acquaintance without saying anything; but that nodding to one of\nthe party, he would infallibly die some days afterwards. This fact was\nconfirmed by several persons, and amongst others by an old cure, who\nsaid he had seen more than one instance of it.\n\nThe bishops and priests of the country consulted Rome on so\nextraordinary a fact; but they received no answer, because,\napparently, all those things were regarded there as simple visions, or\npopular fancies. They afterwards bethought themselves of taking up the\ncorpses of those who came back in that way, of burning them, or of\ndestroying them in some other manner. Thus they delivered themselves\nfrom the importunity of these spectres, which are now much less\nfrequently seen than before. So said that good priest.\n\nThese apparitions have given rise to a little work, entitled _Magia\nPosthuma_, printed at Olmutz, in 1706, composed by Charles Ferdinand\nde Schertz, dedicated to Prince Charles, of Lorraine, Bishop of Olmutz\nand Osnaburgh. The author relates that, in a certain village, a woman\nbeing just dead, who had taken all her sacraments, she was buried in\nthe usual way in the cemetery. Four days after her decease, the\ninhabitants of this village heard a great noise and extraordinary\nuproar, and saw a spectre, which appeared sometimes in the shape of a\ndog, sometimes in the form of a man, not to one person only, but to\nseveral, and caused them great pain, grasping their throats, and\ncompressing their stomachs, so as to suffocate them. It bruised almost\nthe whole body, and reduced them to extreme weakness, so that they\nbecame pale, lean and attenuated.\n\nThe spectre attacked even the animals, and some cows were found\ndebilitated and half dead. Sometimes it tied them together by their\ntails. These animals gave sufficient evidence by their bellowing of\nthe pain they suffered. The horses seemed overcome with fatigue, all\nin a perspiration, principally on the back; heated, out of breath,\ncovered with foam, as they are after a long and rough journey. These\ncalamities lasted several months.\n\nThe author whom I have mentioned examines the affair in a lawyer-like\nway, and reasons much on the fact and the law. He asks if, supposing\nthat those disturbances, those noises and vexations proceeded from\nthat person who is suspected of causing them, they can burn her, as is\ndone to other ghosts who do harm to the living. He relates several\ninstances of similar apparitions, and of the evils which ensued; as of\na shepherd of the village of Blow, near the town of Kadam, in Bohemia,\nwho appeared during some time, and called certain persons, who never\nfailed to die within eight days after. The peasants of Blow took up\nthe body of this shepherd, and fixed it in the ground with a stake\nwhich they drove through it.\n\nThis man, when in that condition, derided them for what they made him\nsuffer, and told them they were very good to give him thus a stick to\ndefend himself from the dogs. The same night he got up again, and by\nhis presence alarmed several persons, and strangled more amongst them\nthan he had hitherto done. Afterwards, they delivered him into the\nhands of the executioner, who put him in a cart to carry him beyond\nthe village and there burn him. This corpse howled like a madman, and\nmoved his feet and hands as if alive. And when they again pierced him\nthrough with stakes he uttered very loud cries, and a great quantity\nof bright vermilion blood flowed from him. At last he was consumed,\nand this execution put an end to the appearance and hauntings of this\nspectre.\n\nThe same has been practiced in other places, where similar ghosts have\nbeen seen; and when they have been taken out of the ground they have\nappeared red, with their limbs supple and pliable, without worms or\ndecay; but not without a great stink. The author cites divers other\nwriters, who attest what he says of these spectres, which still\nappear, he says, pretty often in the mountains of Silesia and Moravia.\nThey are seen by night and by day; the things which once belonged to\nthem are seen to move themselves and change their place without being\ntouched by any one. The only remedy for these apparitions is to cut\noff the heads and burn the bodies of those who come back to haunt\npeople.\n\nAt any rate, they do not proceed to this without a form of justicial\nlaw. They call for and hear the witnesses; they examine the arguments;\nthey look at the exhumed bodies, to see if they can find any of the\nusual marks which lead them to conjecture that they are the parties\nwho molest the living, as the mobility and suppleness of the limbs,\nthe fluidity of the blood, and the flesh remaining uncorrupted. If all\nthese marks are found, then these bodies are given up to the\nexecutioner, who burns them. It sometimes happens that the spectres\nappear again for three or four days after the execution. Sometimes the\ninterment of the bodies of suspicious persons is deferred for six or\nseven weeks. When they do not decay, and their limbs remain as supple\nand pliable as when they were alive, then they burn them. It is\naffirmed as certain that the clothes of these persons move without any\none living touching them; and within a short time, continues our\nauthor, a spectre was seen at Olmutz, which threw stones, and gave\ngreat trouble to the inhabitants.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\nDEAD PERSONS IN HUNGARY WHO SUCK THE BLOOD OF THE LIVING.\n\n\nAbout fifteen years ago, a soldier who was billeted at the house of a\nHaidamagne peasant, on the frontiers of Hungary, as he was one day\nsitting at table near his host, the master of the house saw a person\nhe did not know come in and sit down to table also with them. The\nmaster of the house was strangely frightened at this, as were the rest\nof the company. The soldier knew not what to think of it, being\nignorant of the matter in question. But the master of the house being\ndead the very next day, the soldier inquired what it meant. They told\nhim that it was the body of the father of his host, who had been dead\nand buried for ten years, which had thus come to sit down next to him,\nand had announced and caused his death.\n\nThe soldier informed the regiment of it in the first place, and the\nregiment gave notice of it to the general officers, who commissioned\nthe Count de Cabreras, captain of the regiment of Alandetti infantry,\nto make information concerning this circumstance. Having gone to the\nplace, with some other officers, a surgeon and an auditor, they heard\nthe depositions of all the people belonging to the house, who attested\nunanimously that the ghost was the father of the master of the house,\nand that all the soldier had said and reported was the exact truth,\nwhich was confirmed by all the inhabitants of the village.\n\nIn consequence of this, the corpse of this spectre was exhumed, and\nfound to be like that of a man who has just expired, and his blood\nlike that of a living man. The Count de Cabreras had his head cut off,\nand caused him to be laid again in his tomb. He also took information\nconcerning other similar ghosts, amongst others, of a man dead more\nthan thirty years, who had come back three times to his house at meal\ntime. The first time he had sucked the blood from the neck of his own\nbrother, the second time from one of his sons, and the third from one\nof the servants in the house; and all three died of it instantly and\non the spot. Upon this deposition the commissary had this man taken\nout of his grave, and finding that, like the first, his blood was in a\nfluid state, like that of a living person, he ordered them to run a\nlarge nail into his temple, and then to lay him again in the grave.\n\nHe caused a third to be burnt, who had been buried more than sixteen\nyears, and had sucked the blood and caused the death of two of his\nsons. The commissary having made his report to the general officers,\nwas deputed to the court of the emperor, who commanded that some\nofficers, both of war and justice, some physicians and surgeons, and\nsome learned men, should be sent to examine the causes of these\nextraordinary events. The person who related these particulars to us\nhad heard them from Monsieur the Count de Cabreras, at Fribourg en\nBrigau, in 1730.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX.\n\nACCOUNT OF A VAMPIRE, TAKEN FROM THE JEWISH LETTERS (LETTRES JUIVES);\nLETTER 137.\n\n\nThis is what we read in the \"Lettres Juives,\" new edition, 1738,\nLetter 137.\n\nWe have just had in this part of Hungary a scene of vampirism, which\nis duly attested by two officers of the tribunal of Belgrade, who went\ndown to the places specified; and by an officer of the emperor's\ntroops at Graditz, who was an ocular witness of the proceedings.\n\nIn the beginning of September there died in the village of Kivsiloa,\nthree leagues from Graditz, an old man who was sixty-two years of age.\nThree days after he had been buried, he appeared in the night to his\nson, and asked him for something to eat; the son having given him\nsomething, he ate and disappeared. The next day the son recounted to\nhis neighbors what had happened. That night the father did not appear;\nbut the following night he showed himself, and asked for something to\neat. They know not whether the son gave him anything or not; but the\nnext day he was found dead in his bed. On the same day, five or six\npersons fell suddenly ill in the village, and died one after the other\nin a few days.\n\nThe officer or bailiff of the place, when informed of what had\nhappened, sent an account of it to the tribunal of Belgrade, which\ndispatched to the village two of these officers and an executioner to\nexamine into this affair. The imperial officer from whom we have this\naccount repaired thither from Graditz, to be witness of a circumstance\nwhich he had so often heard spoken of.\n\nThey opened the graves of those who had been dead six weeks. When they\ncame to that of the old man, they found him with his eyes open, having\na fine color, with natural respiration, nevertheless motionless as the\ndead; whence they concluded that he was most evidently a vampire. The\nexecutioner drove a stake into his heart; they then raised a pile and\nreduced the corpse to ashes. No mark of vampirism was found either on\nthe corpse of the son or on the others.\n\nThanks be to God, we are by no means credulous. We avow that all the\nlight which physics can throw on this fact discovers none of the\ncauses of it. Nevertheless, we cannot refuse to believe that to be\ntrue which is juridically attested, and by persons of probity. We will\nhere give a copy of what happened in 1732, and which we inserted in\nthe Gleaner (_Glaneur_), No. XVIII.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X.\n\nOTHER INSTANCES OF GHOSTS--CONTINUATION OF THE GLEANER.\n\n\nIn a certain canton of Hungary, named in Latin _Oppida Heidanum_,\nbeyond the Tibisk, _vulgo_ Teiss, that is to say, between that river\nwhich waters the fortunate territory of Tokay and Transylvania, the\npeople known by the name of _Heyducqs_[463] believe that certain dead\npersons, whom they call vampires, suck all the blood from the living,\nso that these become visibly attenuated, whilst the corpses, like\nleeches, fill themselves with blood in such abundance that it is seen\nto come from them by the conduits, and even oozing through the pores.\nThis opinion has just been confirmed by several facts which cannot be\ndoubted, from the rank of the witnesses who have certified them. We\nwill here relate some of the most remarkable.\n\nAbout five years ago, a certain Heyducq, inhabitant of Madreiga, named\nArnald Paul, was crushed to death by the fall of a wagonload of hay.\nThirty days after his death four persons died suddenly, and in the\nsame manner in which according to the tradition of the country, those\ndie who are molested by vampires. They then remembered that this\nArnald Paul had often related that in the environs of Cassovia, and on\nthe frontiers of Turkish Servia, he had often been tormented by a\nTurkish vampire; for they believe also that those who have been\npassive vampires during life become active ones after their death,\nthat is to say, that those who have been sucked suck also in their\nturn; but that he had found means to cure himself by eating earth from\nthe grave of the vampire, and smearing himself with his blood; a\nprecaution which, however, did not prevent him from becoming so after\nhis death, since, on being exhumed forty days after his interment,\nthey found on his corpse all the indications of an arch-vampire. His\nbody was red, his hair, nails, and beard had all grown again, and his\nveins were replete with fluid blood, which flowed from all parts of\nhis body upon the winding-sheet which encompassed him. The hadnagi, or\nbailli of the village, in whose presence the exhumation took place,\nand who was skilled in vampirism, had, according to custom, a very\nsharp stake driven into the heart of the defunct Arnald Paul, and\nwhich pierced his body through and through, which made him, as they\nsay, utter a frightful shriek, as if he had been alive: that done,\nthey cut off his head, and burnt the whole body. After that they\nperformed the same on the corpses of the four other persons who died\nof vampirism, fearing that they in their turn might cause the death of\nothers.\n\nAll these performances, however, could not prevent the recommencement\nof these fatal prodigies towards the end of last year, that is to say,\nfive years after, when several inhabitants of the same village\nperished miserably. In the space of three months, seventeen persons of\ndifferent sexes and different ages died of vampirism; some without\nbeing ill, and others after languishing two or three days. It is\nreported, amongst other things, that a girl named Stanoska, daughter\nof the Heyducq Jotiuetzo, who went to bed in perfect health, awoke in\nthe middle of the night all in a tremble, uttering terrible shrieks,\nand saying that the son of the Heyducq Millo who had been dead nine\nweeks, had nearly strangled her in her sleep. She fell into a languid\nstate from that moment, and at the end of three days she died. What\nthis girl had said of Millo's son made him known at once for a\nvampire: he was exhumed, and found to be such. The principal people of\nthe place, with the doctors and surgeons, examined how vampirism could\nhave sprung up again after the precautions they had taken some years\nbefore.\n\nThey discovered at last, after much search, that the defunct Arnald\nPaul had killed not only the four persons of whom we have spoken, but\nalso several oxen, of which the new vampires had eaten, and amongst\nothers the son of Millo. Upon these indications they resolved to\ndisinter all those who had died within a certain time, &c. Amongst\nforty, seventeen were found with all the most evident signs of\nvampirism; so they transfixed their hearts and cut off their heads\nalso, and then cast their ashes into the river.\n\nAll the informations and executions we have just mentioned were made\njuridically, in proper form, and attested by several officers who were\ngarrisoned in the country, by the chief surgeons of the regiments, and\nby the principal inhabitants of the place. The verbal process of it\nwas sent towards the end of last January to the Imperial Counsel of\nWar at Vienna, which had established a military commission to examine\ninto the truth of all these circumstances.\n\nSuch was the declaration of the Hadnagi Barriarar and the ancient\nHeyducqs; and it was signed by Battuer, first lieutenant of the\nregiment of Alexander of Wurtemburg, Clickstenger, surgeon-in-chief of\nthe regiment of Frustemburch, three other surgeons of the company, and\nGuoichitz, captain at Stallach.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[463] This story is apparently the same which we related before under\nthe name of Haidamaque, and which happened in 1729 or 1730.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI.\n\nARGUMENTS OF THE AUTHOR OF THE \"LETTRES JUIVES,\" ON THE SUBJECT OF\nTHESE PRETENDED GHOSTS.\n\n\nThere are two different ways of effacing the opinion concerning these\npretended ghosts, and showing the impossibility of the effects which\nare made to be produced by corpses entirely deprived of sensation. The\nfirst is, to explain by physical causes all the prodigies of\nvampirism; the second is, to deny totally the truth of these stories;\nand the latter means, without doubt, is the surest and the wisest. But\nas there are persons to whom the authority of a certificate given by\npeople in a certain place appears a plain demonstration of the\nreality of the most absurd story, before I show how little they ought\nto rely on the formalities of the law in matters which relate solely\nto philosophy, I will for a moment suppose that several persons do\nreally die of the disease which they term vampirism.\n\nI lay down at first this principle, that it may be that there are\ncorpses which, although interred some days, shed fluid blood through\nthe conduits of their body. I add, moreover, that it is very easy for\ncertain people to fancy themselves sucked by vampires, and that the\nfear caused by that fancy should make a revolution in their frame\nsufficiently violent to deprive them of life. Being occupied all day\nwith the terror inspired by these pretended ghosts or _revenans_, is\nit very extraordinary, that during their sleep the idea of these\nphantoms should present itself to their imagination and cause them\nsuch violent terror? that some of them die of it instantaneously, and\nothers a short time afterwards? How many instances have we not seen of\npeople who expired with fright in a moment? and has not joy itself\nsometimes produced an equally fatal effect?\n\nI have seen in the Leipsic journals[464] an account of a little work\nentitled, _Philosophicae et Christianae Cogitationes de Vampiriis, a\nJoanne Christophoro Herenbergio_; \"Philosophical and Christian\nThoughts upon Vampires, by John Christopher Herenberg,\" at\nGerolferliste, in 1733, in 8vo. The author names a pretty large number\nof writers who have already discussed this matter; he speaks, _en\npassant_, of a spectre which appeared to him at noonday. He maintains\nthat the vampires do not cause the death of the living, and that all\nthat is said about them ought to be attributed only to the troubled\nfancy of the invalids; he proves by divers experiments that the\nimagination is capable of causing very great derangements in the body,\nand the humors of the body; he shows that in Sclavonia they impaled\nmurderers, and drove a stake through the heart of the culprit; that\nthey used the same chastisement for vampires, supposing them to be the\nauthors of the death of those whose blood they were said to suck. He\ngives some examples of this punishment exercised upon them, the one in\nthe year 1337, and the other in 1347. He speaks of the opinion of\nthose who believe that the dead eat in their tombs; a sentiment of\nwhich he endeavors to prove the antiquity by the authority of\nTertullian, at the beginning of his book on the Resurrection, and by\nthat of St. Augustine, b. viii. c. 27, on the City of God, and in\nSermon xv. on the Saints.\n\nSuch are nearly the contents of the work of M. Herenberg on vampires.\nThe passage of Tertullian[465] which he cites, proves very well that\nthe pagans offered food to their dead, even to those whose bodies had\nbeen burned, believing that their spirits regaled themselves with it:\n_Defunctis parentant, et quidem impensissimo studio, pro moribus eorum\npro temporibus esculentorum, ut quos sentire quicquam negant escam\ndesiderare proesumant._ This concerns only the pagans.\n\nBut St. Augustine, in several places, speaks of the custom of the\nChristians, above all those of Africa, of carrying to the tombs meats\nand wine, which they placed upon them as a repast of devotion, and to\nwhich the poor were invited, in whose favor these offerings were\nprincipally instituted. This practice is founded on the passage of the\nbook of Tobit;--\"Place your bread and wine on the sepulchre of the\njust, and be careful not to eat or drink of it with sinners.\" St.\nMonico, the mother of St. Augustine,[466] having desired to do at\nMilan what she had been accustomed to do in Africa, St. Ambrose,\nbishop of Milan, testified that he did not approve of this practice,\nwhich was unknown in his church. The holy woman restrained herself to\ncarrying thither a basket full of fruits and wine, of which she\npartook very soberly with the women who accompanied her, leaving the\nrest for the poor. St. Augustine remarks, in the same passage, that\nsome intemperate Christians abused these offerings by drinking wine to\nexcess: _Ne ulla occasio se ingurgitandi daretur ebriosis._\n\nSt. Augustine,[467] however, by his preaching and remonstrances, did\nso much good, that he entirely uprooted this custom, which was common\nthroughout the African Church, and the abuse of which was too general.\nIn his books on the City of God,[468] he avows that this usage is\nneither general nor approved in the Church, and that those who\npractice it content themselves with offering this food upon the tombs\nof the martyrs, in order that through their merits these offerings\nshould be sanctified; after which they carry them away, and make use\nof them for their own nourishment and that of the poor: _Quicumque\nsuas epulas eo deferant, quad quidem a melioribus Christianis non fit,\net in plerisque terrarum nulla talis est consuetudo; tamen quicumque\nid faciunt, quas cum appossuerint, orant, et auferunt, ut vescantur\nvel ex eis etiam indigentibus largiantur._ It appears, from two\nsermons which have been attributed to St. Augustine,[469] that in\nformer times this custom had crept in at Rome, but did not subsist\nthere any time, and was blamed and condemned.\n\nNow, if it were true that the dead could eat in their tombs, and that\nthey had a wish or occasion to eat, as is believed by those of whom\nTertullian speaks, and as it appears may be inferred from the custom\nof carrying fruit and wine to be placed on the graves of martyrs and\nother Christians, I think even that I have good proof that in certain\nplaces they placed near the bodies of the dead, whether buried in the\ncemeteries or the churches, meat, wine, and other liquors. I have in\nour study several vases of clay and glass, and even plates, where may\nbe seen small bones of pig and fowls, all found deep underground in\nthe church of the Abbey of St. Mansuy, near the town of Toul.\n\nIt has been remarked to me that these vestiges found in the ground\nwere plunged in virgin earth which had never been disturbed, and near\ncertain vases or urns filled with ashes, and containing some small\nbones which the flames could not consume; and as it is known that the\nChristians did not burn their dead, and that these vases we are\nspeaking of are placed beneath the disturbed earth, in which the\ngraves of Christians are found, it has been inferred, with much\nsemblance of probability, that these vases with the food and beverage\nburied near them, were intended not for Christians but for heathens.\nThe latter, then, at least, believed that the dead ate in the other\nlife. There is no doubt that the ancient Gauls[470] were persuaded of\nthis; they are often represented on their tombs with bottles in their\nhands, and baskets and other comestibles, or drinking vessels and\ngoblets;[471] they carried with them even the contracts and bonds for\nwhat was due to them, to have it paid to them in Hades. _Negotiorum\nratio, etiam exactio crediti deferebatur ad inferos._\n\nNow, if they believed that the dead ate in their tombs, that they\ncould return to earth, visit, console, instruct, or disturb the\nliving, and predict to them their approaching death, the return of\nvampires is neither impossible nor incredible in the opinion of these\nancients.\n\nBut as all that is said of dead men who eat in their graves and out of\ntheir graves is chimerical and beyond all likelihood, and the thing is\neven impossible and incredible, whatever may be the number and quality\nof those who have believed it, or appeared to believe it, I shall\nalways say that the return (to earth) of the vampires is\nunmaintainable and impracticable.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[464] Supplem. ad visu Erudit. Lips. an. 1738, tom. ii.\n\n[465] Tertull. de Resurrect. initio.\n\n[466] Aug. Confess. lib. vi. c. 2.\n\n[467] Aug. Epist. 22, ad Aurel. Carthag. et Epist. 29, ad Alipi. Item\nde Moribus Eccl. c. 34.\n\n[468] Aug. lib. viii. de Civit. Dei, c. 27.\n\n[469] Aug. Serm. 35, de Sanctis, nunc in Appendice, c. 5. Serm. cxc.\ncxci. p. 328.\n\n[470] Antiquite expliquee, tom. iv. p. 80.\n\n[471] Mela. lib. ii. c. 4.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII.\n\nCONTINUATION OF THE ARGUMENT OF THE \"DUTCH GLEANERS,\" OR \"GLANEUR\nHOLLANDAIS.\"\n\n\nOn examining the narrative of the death of the pretended martyrs of\nvampirism, I discover the symptoms of an epidemical fanaticism; and I\nsee clearly that the impression made upon them by fear is the true\ncause of their being lost. A girl named Stanoska, say they, daughter\nof the Heyducq Sovitzo, who went to bed in perfect health, awoke in\nthe middle of the night all in a tremble, and shrieking dreadfully,\nsaying that the son of the Heyducq Millo, who had been dead for nine\nweeks, had nearly strangled her in her sleep. From that moment she\nfell into a languishing state, and at the end of three days died.\n\nFor any one who has eyes, however little philosophical they may be,\nmust not this recital alone clearly show him that this pretended\nvampirism is merely the result of a stricken imagination? There is a\ngirl who awakes and says that some one wanted to strangle her, and who\nnevertheless has not been sucked, since her cries have prevented the\nvampire from making his repast. She apparently was not so served\nafterwards either, since, doubtlessly, they did not leave her by\nherself during the other nights; and if the vampire had wished to\nmolest her, her moans would have warned those of it who were present.\nNevertheless, she dies three days afterwards. Her fright and lowness,\nher sadness and languor, evidently show how strongly her imagination\nhad been affected.\n\nThose persons who find themselves in cities afflicted with the plague,\nknow by experience how many people lose their lives through fear. As\nsoon as a man finds himself attacked with the least illness, he\nfancies that he is seized with the epidemical disease, which idea\noccasions him so great a sensation, that it is almost impossible for\nthe system to resist such a revolution. The Chevalier de Maifin\nassured me, when I was at Paris, that being at Marseilles during the\ncontagion which prevailed in that city, he had seen a woman die of the\nfear she felt at a slight illness of her servant, whom she believed\nattacked with the pestilence. This woman's daughter was sick and near\ndying.\n\nOther persons who were in the same house went to bed, sent for a\ndoctor, and assured him they had the plague. The doctor, on arriving,\nvisited the servant, and the other patients, and none of them had the\nepidemical disorder. He tried to calm their minds, and ordered them to\nrise, and live in their usual way; but his care was useless as\nregarded the mistress of the family, who died in two days of the\nfright alone.\n\nReflect upon the second narrative of the death of a passive vampire,\nand you will see most evident proofs of the terrible effects of fear\nand prejudice. (See the preceding chapter.) This man, three days after\nhe was buried, appears in the night to his son, asks for something to\neat, eats, and disappears. On the morrow, the son relates to his\nneighbors what had happened to him. That night the father does not\nappear; but the following night they find the son dead in his bed. Who\ncannot perceive in these words the surest marks of prepossession and\nfear? The first time these act upon the imagination of the pretended\nvictim of vampirism they do not produce their entire effect, and not\nonly dispose his mind to be more vividly struck by them; that also\ndoes not fail to happen, and to produce the effect which would\nnaturally follow.\n\nNotice well that the dead man did not return on the night of the day\nthat his son communicated his dream to his friends, because, according\nto all appearances, these sat up with him, and prevented him from\nyielding to his fear.\n\nI now come to those corpses full of fluid blood, and whose beard, hair\nand nails had grown again. One may dispute three parts of these\nprodigies, and be very complaisant if we admit the truth of a few of\nthem. All philosophers know well enough how much the people, and even\ncertain historians, enlarge upon things which appear but a little\nextraordinary. Nevertheless, it is not impossible to explain their\ncause physically.\n\nExperience teaches us that there are certain kinds of earth which will\npreserve dead bodies perfectly fresh. The reasons of this have been\noften explained, without my giving myself the trouble to make a\nparticular recital of them. There is at Thoulouse a vault in a church\nbelonging to some monks, where the bodies remain so entirely perfect\nthat there are some which have been there nearly two centuries, and\nappear still living.\n\nThey have been ranged in an upright posture against the wall, and are\nclothed in the dress they usually wore. What is very remarkable is,\nthat the bodies which are placed on the other side of this same vault\nbecome in two or three days the food of worms.\n\nAs to the growth of the nails, the hair and the beard, it is often\nperceived in many corpses. While there yet remains a great deal of\nmoisture in the body, it is not surprising that during some time we\nsee some augmentation in those parts which do not demand a vital\nspirit.\n\nThe fluid blood flowing through the canals of the body seems to form a\ngreater difficulty; but physical reasons may be given for this. It\nmight very well happen that the heat of the sun warming the nitrous\nand sulphureous particles which are found in those earths that are\nproper for preserving the body, those particles having incorporated\nthemselves in the newly interred corpses, ferment, decoagulate, and\nmelt the curdled blood, render it liquid, and give it the power of\nflowing by degrees through all the channels.\n\nThis opinion appears so much the more probable from its being\nconfirmed by an experiment. If you boil in a glass or earthen vessel\none part of chyle, or milk, mixed with two parts of cream of tartar,\nthe liquor will turn from white to red, because the tartaric salt will\nhave rarified and entirely dissolved the most oily part of the milk,\nand converted it into a kind of blood. That which is formed in the\nvessels of the body is a little redder, but it is not thicker; it is,\nthen, not impossible that the heat may cause a fermentation which\nproduces nearly the same effects as this experiment. And this will be\nfound easier, if we consider that the juices of the flesh and bones\nresemble chyle very much, and that the fat and marrow are the most\noily parts of the chyle. Now all these particles in fermenting must,\nby the rule of the experiment, be changed into a kind of blood. Thus,\nbesides that which has been discoagulated and melted, the pretended\nvampires shed also that blood which must be formed from the melting of\nthe fat and marrow.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII.\n\nNARRATION EXTRACTED FROM THE \"MERCURE GALENT\" OF 1693 AND 1694,\nCONCERNING GHOSTS.\n\n\nThe public memorials of the years 1693 and 1694 speak of _oupires_,\nvampires or ghosts, which are seen in Poland, and above all in Russia.\nThey make their appearance from noon to midnight, and come and suck the\nblood of living men or animals in such abundance that sometimes it flows\nfrom them at the nose, and principally at the ears, and sometimes the\ncorpse swims in its own blood oozed out in its coffin.[472] It is said\nthat the vampire has a sort of hunger, which makes him eat the linen\nwhich envelops him. This reviving being, or _oupire_, comes out of his\ngrave, or a demon in his likeness, goes by night to embrace and hug\nviolently his near relations or his friends, and sucks their blood so\nmuch as to weaken and attenuate them, and at last cause their death.\nThis persecution does not stop at one single person; it extends to the\nlast person of the family, if the course be not interrupted by cutting\noff the head or opening the heart of the ghost, whose corpse is found in\nhis coffin, yielding, flexible, swollen, and rubicund, although he may\nhave been dead some time. There proceeds from his body a great quantity\nof blood, which some mix up with flour to make bread of; and that bread\neaten in ordinary protects them from being tormented by the spirit,\nwhich returns no more.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[472] V. Moreri on the word _stryges_.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV.\n\nCONJECTURES OF THE \"GLANEUR DE HOLLANDE,\" DUTCH GLEANER, IN 1733.--NO.\nIX.\n\n\nThe Dutch Gleaner, who is by no means credulous, supposes the truth of\nthese facts as certain, having no good reason for disputing them, and\nreasons upon them in a way which shows he thinks lightly of the\nmatter; he asserts that the people, amongst whom vampires are seen,\nare very ignorant and very credulous, so that the apparitions we are\nspeaking of are only the effects of a prejudiced fancy. The whole is\noccasioned and augmented by the bad nourishment of these people, who,\nthe greater part of their time, eat only bread made of oats, roots,\nand the bark of trees--aliments which can only engender gross blood,\nwhich is consequently much disposed to corruption, and produces dark\nand bad ideas in the imagination.\n\nHe compares this disease to the bite of a mad dog, which communicates\nits venom to the person who is bitten; thus, those who are infected by\nvampirism communicate this dangerous poison to those with whom they\nassociate. Thence the wakefulness, dreams, and pretended apparitions\nof vampires.\n\nHe conjectures that this poison is nothing else than a worm, which\nfeeds upon the purest substance of man, constantly gnaws his heart,\nmakes the body die away, and does not forsake it even in the depth of\nthe grave. It is certain that the bodies of those who have been\npoisoned, or who die of contagion, do not become stiff after their\ndeath, because the blood does not congeal in the veins; on the\ncontrary, it rarifies and bubbles much the same as in vampires, whose\nbeard, hair, and nails grow, whose skin is rosy, who appear to have\ngrown fat, on account of the blood which swells and abounds in them\neverywhere.\n\nAs to the cry uttered by the vampires when the stake is driven through\ntheir heart, nothing is more natural; the air which is there confined,\nand thus expelled with violence, necessarily produces that noise in\npassing through the throat. Dead bodies often do as much without being\ntouched. He concludes that it is only an imagination that is deranged\nby melancholy or superstition, which can fancy that the malady we have\njust spoken of can be produced by vampire corpses, which come and suck\naway, even to the last drop, all the blood in the body.\n\nA little before, he says that in 1732 they discovered again some\nvampires in Hungary, Moravia, and Turkish Servia; that this phenomenon\nis too well averred for it to be doubted; that several German\nphysicians have composed pretty thick volumes in Latin and German on\nthis matter; that the Germanic Academies and Universities still\nresound with the names of Arnald Paul, of Stanoska, daughter of\nSovitzo, and of the Heyducq Millo, all famous vampires of the quarter\nof Medreiga, in Hungary.\n\nHere is a letter which has been written to one of my friends, to be\ncommunicated to me; it is on the subject of the ghosts of\nHungary;[473] the writer thinks very differently from the Gleaner on\nthe subject of vampires.\n\n\"In reply to the questions of the Abbe dom Calmet concerning vampires,\nthe undersigned has the honor to assure him that nothing is more true\nor more certain than what he will doubtless have read about it in the\ndeeds or attestations which have been made public, and printed in all\nthe Gazettes in Europe. But amongst all these public attestations\nwhich have appeared, the Abbe must fix his attention as a true and\nnotorious fact on that of the deputation from Belgrade, ordered by his\nlate Majesty Charles VI., of glorious memory, and executed by his\nSerene Highness the late Duke Charles Alexander of Wirtemberg, then\nViceroy or Governor of the kingdom of Servia; but I cannot at present\ncite the year or the day, for want of papers which I have not now by\nme.\n\n\"That prince sent off a deputation from Belgrade, half consisting of\nmilitary officers and half of civil, with the auditor-general of the\nkingdom, to go to a village where a famous vampire, several years\ndeceased, was making great havoc amongst his kin; for note well, that\nit is only in their family and amongst their own relations that these\nblood-suckers delight in destroying our species. This deputation was\ncomposed of men and persons well known for their morality and even\ntheir information, of irreproachable character; and there were even\nsome learned men amongst the two orders: they were put to the oath,\nand accompanied by a lieutenant of the grenadiers of the regiment of\nPrince Alexander of Wirtemberg, and by twenty-four grenadiers of the\nsaid regiment.\n\n\"All that were most respectable, and the duke himself, who was then at\nBelgrade, joined this deputation in order to be ocular spectators of\nthe veracious proof about to be made.\n\n\"When they arrived at the place, they found that in the space of a\nfortnight the vampire, uncle of five persons, nephews and nieces, had\nalready dispatched three of them and one of his own brothers. He had\nbegun with his fifth victim, the beautiful young daughter of his\nniece, and had already sucked her twice, when a stop was put to this\nsad tragedy by the following operations.\n\n\"They repaired with the deputed commissaries to a village not far from\nBelgrade, and that publicly, at night-fall, and went to the vampire's\ngrave. The gentleman could not tell me the time when those who had\ndied had been sucked, nor the particulars of the subject. The persons\nwhose blood had been sucked found themselves in a pitiable state of\nlanguor, weakness, and lassitude, so violent is the torment. He had\nbeen interred three years, and they saw on this grave a light\nresembling that of a lamp, but not so bright.\n\n\"They opened the grave, and found there a man as whole and apparently\nas sound as any of us who were present; his hair, and the hairs on his\nbody, the nails, teeth, and eyes as firmly fast as they now are in\nourselves who exist, and his heart palpitating.\n\n\"Next they proceeded to draw him out of his grave, the body in truth\nnot being flexible, but wanting neither flesh nor bone; then they\npierced his heart with a sort of round, pointed, iron lance; there\ncame out a whitish and fluid matter mixed with blood, but the blood\nprevailing more than the matter, and all without any bad smell. After\nthat they cut off his head with a hatchet, like what is used in\nEngland at executions; there came out also a matter and blood like\nwhat I have just described, but more abundantly in proportion to what\nhad flowed from the heart.\n\n\"And after all this they threw him back again into his grave, with\nquicklime to consume him promptly; and thenceforth his niece, who had\nbeen twice sucked, grew better. At the place where these persons are\nsucked a very blue spot is formed; the part whence the blood is drawn\nis not determinate, sometimes it is in one place and sometimes in\nanother. It is a notorious fact, attested by the most authentic\ndocuments, and passed or executed in sight of more than 1,300 persons,\nall worthy of belief.\n\n\"But I reserve, to satisfy more fully the curiosity of the learned\nAbbe dom Calmet, the pleasure of detailing to him more at length what\nI have seen with my own eyes on this subject, and will give it to the\nChevalier de St. Urbain to send to him; too glad in that, as in\neverything else, to find an occasion of proving to him that no one is\nwith such perfect veneration and respect as his very humble, and very\nobedient servant, L. de Beloz, ci-devant Captain in the regiment of\nhis Serene Highness the late Prince Alexander of Wirtemberg, and his\nAid-de-Camp, and at this time first Captain of grenadiers in the\nregiment of Monsieur the Baron Trenck.\"\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[473] There is reason to believe that this is only a repetition of\nwhat has already been said in Chapter X.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XV.\n\nANOTHER LETTER ON GHOSTS.\n\n\nIn order to omit nothing which can throw light on this matter, I shall\ninsert here the letter of a very honest man, who is well informed\nrespecting ghosts. This letter was written to a relation.\n\n\"You wish, my dear cousin, to be exactly informed of what takes place\nin Hungary concerning ghosts who cause the death of many people in\nthat country. I can write to you learnedly upon it, for I have been\nseveral years in those quarters, and I am naturally curious. I have\nheard in my lifetime an infinite number of stories, true, or pretended\nto be such, concerning spirits and sorceries, but out of a thousand I\nhave hardly believed a single one. We cannot be too circumspect on\nthis point without running the risk of being duped. Nevertheless,\nthere are certain facts so well attested that one cannot help\nbelieving them. As to the ghosts of Hungary, the thing takes place in\nthis manner: A person finds himself attacked with languor, loses his\nappetite, grows visibly thinner, and, at the end of eight or ten days,\nsometimes a fortnight, dies, without fever, or any other symptom than\nthinness and drying up of the blood.\n\n\"They say in that country that it is a ghost which attaches itself to\nsuch a person and sucks his blood. Of those who are attacked by this\nmalady the greater part think they see a white spectre which follows\nthem everywhere as the shadow follows the body. When we were quartered\namong the Wallachians, in the ban of Temeswar, two horsemen of the\ncompany in which I was cornet, died of this malady, and several\nothers, who also were attacked by it, would have died in the same\nmanner, if a corporal of our company had not put a stop to the\ndisorder by employing the remedy used by the people of the country in\nsuch case. It is very remarkable, and although infallible, I never\nread it in any ritual. This is it:--\n\n\"They choose a boy young enough to be certain that he is innocent of\nany impurity; they place him on an unmutilated horse, which has never\nstumbled, and is absolutely black. They make him ride about the\ncemetery and pass over all the graves; that over which the animal\nrefuses to pass, in spite of repeated blows from a switch that is\ndelivered to his rider, is reputed to be filled by a vampire. They\nopen this grave, and find therein a corpse as fat and handsome as if\nhe were a man happily and quietly sleeping. They cut the throat of\nthis corpse with the stroke of a spade, and there flows forth the\nfinest vermilion blood in a great quantity. One might swear that it\nwas a healthy living man whose throat they were cutting. That done,\nthey fill up the grave, and we may reckon that the malady will cease,\nand that all those who had been attacked by it will recover their\nstrength by degrees, like people recovering from a long illness, and\nwho have been greatly extenuated. That happened precisely to our\nhorsemen who had been seized with it. I was then commandant of the\ncompany, my captain and my lieutenant being absent. I was piqued at\nthat corporal's having made the experiment without me, and I had all\nthe trouble in the world to resist the inclination I felt to give him\na severe caning--a merchandize which is very cheap in the emperor's\ntroops. I would have given the world to be present at this operation;\nbut I was obliged to make myself contented as it was.\"\n\nA relation of this same officer has written me word, the 17th of\nOctober, 1746, that his brother, who has served during twenty years in\nHungary, and has very curiously examined into everything which is said\nthere concerning ghosts, acknowledges that the people of that country\nare more credulous and superstitious than other nations, and they\nattribute the maladies which happen to them to spells. That as soon as\nthey suspect a dead person of having sent them this illness, they\ninform the magistrate of it, who, on the deposition of some witnesses,\ncauses the dead body to be exhumed. They cut off the head with a\nspade, and if a drop of blood comes from it, they conclude that it is\nthe blood which he has sucked from the sick person. But the person who\nwrites appears to me very far from believing what is thought of these\nthings in that country.\n\nAt Warsaw, a priest having ordered a saddler to make him a bridle for\nhis horse, died before the bridle was made, and as he was one of those\nwhom they call vampires in Poland, he came out of his grave dressed as\nthe ecclesiastics usually are when inhumed, took his horse from the\nstable, mounted it, and went in the sight of all Warsaw to the\nsaddler's shop, where at first he found only the saddler's wife, who\nwas frightened, and called her husband; he came, and the priest having\nasked for his bridle, he replied, \"But you are dead, Mr. Cure.\" To\nwhich he answered, \"I am going to show you I am not,\" and at the same\ntime struck him so hard that the poor saddler died a few days after,\nand the priest returned to his grave.\n\nThe steward of Count Simon Labienski, starost of Posnania, being dead,\nthe Countess Dowager de Labienski wished, from gratitude for his\nservices, to have him inhumed in the vault of the lords of that\nfamily. This was done; and some time after, the sexton, who had the\ncare of the vault, perceived that there was some derangement in the\nplace, and gave notice of it to the ________, who desired, according to\nthe received custom in Poland, that the steward's head might be cut\noff, which was done in the presence of several persons, and amongst\nothers of the Sieur Jouvinski, a Polish officer, and governor of the\nyoung Count Simon Labienski, who saw that when the sexton took this\ncorpse out of his tomb to cut off his head, he ground his teeth, and\nthe blood came from him as fluidly as that of a person who died a\nviolent death, which caused the hair of all those who were present to\nstand on end; and they dipped a white pocket-handkerchief in the blood\nof this corpse, and made all the family drink some of the blood, that\nthey might not be tormented.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVI.\n\nPRETENDED VESTIGES OF VAMPIRISM IN ANTIQUITY.\n\n\nSome learned men have thought they discovered some vestiges of\nvampirism in the remotest antiquity; but all that they say of it does\nnot come near what is related of the vampires. The lamiae, the strigae,\nthe sorcerers whom they accused of sucking the blood of living\npersons, and of thus causing their death, the magicians who were said\nto cause the death of new-born children by charms and malignant\nspells, are nothing less than what we understand by the name of\nvampires; even were it to be owned that these lamiae and strigae have\nreally existed, which we do not believe can ever be well proved.\n\nI own that these terms are found in the versions of Holy Scripture.\nFor instance, Isaiah, describing the condition to which Babylon was to\nbe reduced after her ruin, says that she shall become the abode of\nsatyrs, lamiae, and strigae (in Hebrew, _lilith_). This last term,\naccording to the Hebrews, signifies the same thing, as the Greeks\nexpress by _strix_ and _lamiae_, which are sorceresses or magicians,\nwho seek to put to death new-born children. Whence it comes that the\nJews are accustomed to write in the four corners of the chamber of a\nwoman just delivered, \"Adam, Eve, begone from hence _lilith_.\"\n\nThe ancient Greeks knew these dangerous sorceresses by the name of\n_lamiae_, and they believed that they devoured children, or sucked away\nall their blood till they died.[474]\n\nThe Seventy, in Isaiah, translate the Hebrew _lilith_ by _lamia_.\nEuripides and the Scholiast of Aristophanes also make mention of it as\na fatal monster, the enemy of mortals. Ovid, speaking of the strigae,\ndescribes them as dangerous birds, which fly by night, and seek for\ninfants to devour them and nourish themselves with their blood.[475]\n\nThese prejudices had taken such deep root in the minds of the\nbarbarous people that they put to death persons suspected of being\nstrigae, or sorceresses, and of eating people alive. Charlemagne, in\nhis Capitularies, which he composed for his new subjects,[476] the\nSaxons, condemns to death those who shall believe that a man or a\nwoman are sorcerers (striges esse) and eat living men. He condemns in\nthe same manner those who shall have them burnt, or give their flesh\nto be eaten, or shall eat of it themselves.\n\nWherein it may be remarked, first of all, that they believed there\nwere people who ate men alive; that they killed and burnt them; that\nsometimes their flesh was eaten, as we have seen that in Russia they\neat bread kneaded with the blood of vampires; and that formerly their\ncorpses were exposed to wild beasts, as is still done in countries\nwhere these ghosts are found, after having impaled them, or cut off\ntheir head.\n\nThe laws of the Lombards, in the same way, forbid that the servant of\nanother person should be put to death as a witch, _strix_, or _masca_.\nThis last word, _masca_, whence _mask_, has the same signification as\nthe Latin _larva_, a spirit, a phantom, a spectre.\n\nWe may class in the number of ghosts the one spoken of in the\nChronicle of Sigibert, in the year 858.\n\nTheodore de Gaza[477] had a little farm in Campania, which he had\ncultivated by a laborer. As he was busy digging up the ground, he\ndiscovered a round vase, in which were the ashes of a dead man;\ndirectly, a spectre appeared to him, who commanded him to put this\nvase back again in the ground, with what it contained, or if he did\nnot do so he would kill his eldest son. The laborer gave no heed to\nthese threats, and in a few days his eldest son was found dead in his\nbed. A little time after, the same spectre appeared to him again,\nreiterating the same order, and threatening to kill his second son.\nThe laborer gave notice of all this to his master, Theodore de Gaza,\nwho came himself to his farm, and had everything put back into its\nplace. This spectre was apparently a demon, or the spirit of a pagan\ninterred in that spot.\n\nMichael Glycas[478] relates that the emperor Basilius, having lost his\nbeloved son, obtained by means of a black monk of Santabaren, power to\nbehold his said son, who had died a little while before; he saw him,\nand held him embraced a pretty long time, until he vanished away in\nhis arms. It was, then, only a phantom which appeared in his son's\nform.\n\nIn the diocese of Mayence, there was a spirit that year which made\nitself manifest first of all by throwing stones, striking against the\nwalls of a house, as if with strong blows of a mallet; then talking,\nand revealing unknown things; the authors of certain thefts, and other\nthings fit to spread the spirit of discord among the neighbors. At\nlast he directed his fury against one person in particular, whom he\nliked to persecute and render odious to all the neighborhood,\nproclaiming that he it was who excited the wrath of God against all\nthe village. He pursued him in every place, without giving him the\nleast moment of relaxation. He burnt all his harvest collected in his\nhouse, and set fire to all the places he entered.\n\nThe priests exorcised, said their prayers, dashed holy water about.\nThe spirit threw stones at them, and wounded several persons. After\nthe priests had withdrawn, they heard him bemoaning himself, and\nsaying that he had hidden himself under the hood of a priest, whom he\nnamed, and accused of having seduced the daughter of a lawyer of the\nplace. He continued these troublesome hauntings for three years, and\ndid not leave off till he had burnt all the houses in the village.\n\nHere follows an instance which bears connection with what is related\nof the ghosts of Hungary, who come to announce the death of their near\nrelations. Evodius, Bishop of Upsala, in Africa, writes to St.\nAugustine, in 415,[479] that a young man whom he had with him, as a\nwriter, or secretary, and who led a life of rare innocence and purity,\nhaving just died at the age of twenty-two, a virtuous widow saw in a\ndream a certain deacon who, with other servants of God, of both sexes,\nornamented a palace which seemed to shine as if it were of silver.\nShe asked who they were preparing it for, and they told her it was for\na young man who died the day before. She afterwards beheld in the same\npalace an old man, clad in white, who commanded two persons to take\nthis young man out of his tomb and lead him to heaven.\n\nIn the same house where this young man died, an aged man, half asleep,\nsaw a man with a branch of laurel in his hand, upon which something\nwas written.\n\nThree days after the death of the young man, his father, who was a\npriest named Armenius, having retired to a monastery to console\nhimself with the saintly old man, Theasus, Bishop of Manblosa, the\ndeceased son appeared to a monk of this monastery, and told him that\nGod had received him among the blessed, and that he had sent him to\nfetch his father. In effect, four days after, his father had a slight\ndegree of fever, but it was so slight that the physician assured him\nthere was nothing to fear. He nevertheless took to his bed, and at the\nsame time, as he was yet speaking, he expired.\n\nIt was not of fright that he died, for it does not appear that he knew\nanything of what the monk had seen in his dream.\n\nThe same bishop, Evodius, relates that several persons had been seen\nafter their death to go and come in their houses as during their\nlifetime, either in the night, or even in open day. \"They say also,\"\nadds Evodius, \"that in the places where bodies are interred, and\nespecially in the churches, they often hear a noise at a certain hour\nof the night like persons praying aloud. I remember,\" continues\nEvodius, \"having heard it said by several, and, amongst others, by a\nholy priest, who was witness to these apparitions, that they had seen\ncoming out of the baptistry a great number of these spirits, with\nshining bodies of light, and had afterwards heard them pray in the\nmiddle of the church.\" The same Evodius says, moreover, that\nProfuturus, Privus, and Servilius, who had lived very piously in the\nmonastery, had talked with himself since their death, and what they\nhad told him had come to pass.\n\nSt. Augustine, after having related what Evodius said, acknowledges\nthat a great distinction is to be made between true and false visions,\nand testifies that he could wish to have some sure means of justly\ndiscerning between them.\n\nBut who shall give us the knowledge necessary for such discerning, so\ndifficult and yet so requisite, since we have not even any certain and\ndemonstrative marks by which to discern infallibly between true and\nfalse miracles, or to distinguish the works of the Almighty from the\nillusions of the angel of darkness.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[474]\n \"Neu pransae lamiae vivum puerum ex trahat alvo.\"\n _Horat. Art. Poet._ 340.\n\n[475]\n \"Carpere dicuntur lactentia viscera rostris,\n Et plenum poco sanguine guttur habent,\n Est illis strigibus nomen.\"\n\n[476] Capitul. Caroli Magni pro partibus Saxoniae, i. 6:--\"Si quis a\nDiabolo deceptus crediderit secundum morem Paganorum, virum aliquem\naut foeminam strigem esse, et homines comedere; et propter hoc ipsum\nincenderit, vel carnem ejus ad comedendum dederit, vel ipsam comederit\ncapitis sententia puniatur.\"\n\n[477] Le Loyer, des Spectres, lib. ii. p. 427.\n\n[478] Mich. Glycas, part iv. Annal.\n\n[479] Aug. Epist. 658, and Epist. 258, p. 361.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVII.\n\nOF GHOSTS IN THE NORTHERN COUNTRIES.\n\n\nThomas Bartholin, the son, in his treatise entitled \"_Of the Causes of\nthe contempt of Death felt by the Ancient Danes while yet Gentiles_,\"\nremarks[480] that a certain Hordus, an Icelander, saw spectres with\nhis bodily eyes, fought against them and resisted them. These\nthoroughly believed that the spirits of the dead came back with their\nbodies, which they afterwards forsook and returned to their graves.\nBartholinus relates in particular that a man named Asmond, son of\nAlfus, having had himself buried alive in the same sepulchre with his\nfriend Asvitus, and having had victuals brought there, was taken out\nfrom thence some time after covered with blood, in consequence of a\ncombat he had been obliged to maintain against Asvitus, who had\nhaunted him and cruelly assaulted him.\n\nHe reports after that what the poets teach concerning the vocation of\nspirits by the power of magic, and of their return into bodies which\nare not decayed although a long time dead. He shows that the Jews have\nbelieved the same--that the souls came back from time to time to\nrevisit their dead bodies during the first year after their decease.\nHe demonstrates that the ancient northern nations were persuaded that\npersons recently deceased often made their bodily appearance; and he\nrelates some examples of it: he adds that they attacked these\ndangerous spectres, which haunted and maltreated all who had any\nfields in the neighborhood of their tombs; that they cut off the head\nof a man named Gretter, who also returned to earth. At other times\nthey thrust a stake through the body and thus fixed them to the\nground.\n\n \"Nam ferro secui mox caput ejus,\n Perfodique nocens stipite corpus.\"\n\nFormerly, they took the corpse from the tomb and reduced it to ashes;\nthey did thus towards a spectre named Gardus, which they believed the\nauthor of all the fatal apparitions that had appeared during the\nwinter.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[480] Thomas Bartolin, de Causis Contemptus Mortis a Danis, lib. ii.\nc. 2.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVIII.\n\nGHOSTS IN ENGLAND.\n\n\nWilliam of Malmsbury says[481] that in England they believed that the\nwicked came back to earth after their death, and were brought back in\ntheir own bodies by the devil, who governed them and caused them to\nact; _Nequam hominis cadaver post mortem daemone agente discurrere._\n\nWilliam of Newbridge, who flourished after the middle of the twelfth\ncentury, relates that in his time was seen in England, in the county\nof Buckingham, a man who appeared bodily, as when alive, three\nsucceeding nights to his wife, and after that to his nearest\nrelatives. They only defended themselves from his frightful visits by\nwatching and making a noise when they perceived him coming. He even\nshowed himself to a few persons in the day time. Upon that, the Bishop\nof Lincoln assembled his council, who told him that similar things had\noften happened in England, and that the only known remedy against this\nevil was to burn the body of the ghost. The bishop was averse to this\nopinion, which appeared cruel to him: he first of all wrote a schedule\nof absolution, which was placed on the body of the defunct, which was\nfound in the same state as if he had been buried that very day; and\nfrom that time they heard no more of him.\n\nThe author of this narrative adds, that this sort of apparitions would\nappear incredible, if several instances had not occurred in his time,\nand if they did not know several persons who believed in them.\n\nThe same Newbridge says, in the following chapter, that a man who had\nbeen interred at Berwick, came out of his grave every night and caused\ngreat confusion in all the neighborhood. It was even said that he had\nboasted that he should not cease to disturb the living till they had\nreduced him to ashes. Then they selected ten bold and vigorous young\nmen, who took him up out of the ground, cut his body to pieces, and\nplaced it on a pile, whereon it was burned to ashes; but beforehand,\nsome one amongst them having said that he could not be consumed by\nfire until they had torn out his heart, his side was pierced with a\nstake, and when they had taken out his heart through the opening, they\nset fire to the pile; he was consumed by the flames and appeared no\nmore.\n\nThe pagans also believed that the bodies of the dead rested not,\nneither were they safe from magical evocations, so long as they\nremained unconsumed by fire, or undecayed underground.\n\n \"Tali tua membra sepulchro,\n Talibus exuram Stygio cum carmine Sylvis,\n Ut nullos cantata Magos exaudiat umbra,\"\n\nsaid an enchantress, in Lucan, to a spirit she evoked.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[481] William of Malms. lib. ii. c. 4.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIX.\n\nGHOSTS IN PERU.\n\n\nThe instance we are about to relate occurred in Peru, in the country\nof the Ititans. A girl named Catharine died at the age of sixteen an\nunhappy death, and she had been guilty of several sacrilegious\nactions. Her body immediately after her decease was so putrid that\nthey were obliged to put it out of the dwelling in the open air, to\nescape from the bad smell which exhaled from it. At the same time they\nheard as it were dogs howling; and a horse which before then was very\ngentle began to rear, to prance, strike the ground with its feet, and\nbreak its bonds; a young man who was in bed was pulled out of bed\nviolently by the arm; a servant maid received a kick on the shoulder,\nof which she bore the marks for several days. All that happened before\nthe body of Catharine was inhumed. Some time afterwards, several\ninhabitants of the place saw a great quantity of tiles and bricks\nthrown down with a great noise in the house where she died. The\nservant of the house was dragged about by the foot, without any one\nappearing to touch her, and that in the presence of her mistress and\nten or twelve other women.\n\nThe same servant, on entering a room to fetch some clothes, perceived\nCatharine, who rose up to seize hold of an earthen pot; the girl ran\naway directly, but the spectre took the vase, dashed it against the\nwall, and broke it into a thousand pieces. The mistress, who ran\nthither on hearing the noise, saw that a quantity of bricks were\nthrown against the wall. The next day an image of the crucifix fixed\nagainst the wall was all on a sudden torn from its place in the\npresence of them all, and broken into three pieces.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XX.\n\nGHOSTS IN LAPLAND.\n\n\nVestiges of these ghosts are still found in Lapland, where it is said\nthey see a great number of spectres, who appear among those people,\nspeak to them, and eat with them, without their being able to get rid\nof them; and as they are persuaded that these are the manes or shades\nof their relations who thus disturb them, they have no means of\nguarding against their intrusions more efficacious than to inter the\nbodies of their nearest relatives under the hearthstone, in order,\napparently, that there they may be sooner consumed. In general, they\nbelieve that the manes, or spirits, which come out of bodies, or\ncorpses, are usually malevolent till they have re-entered other\nbodies. They pay some respect to the spectres, or demons, which they\nbelieve roam about rocks, mountains, lakes, and rivers, much as in\nformer times the Romans paid honor to the fauns, the gods of the\nwoods, the nymphs, and the tritons.\n\nAndrew Alciat[482] says that he was consulted concerning certain women\nwhom the Inquisition had caused to be burnt as witches for having\noccasioned the death of some children by their spells, and for having\nthreatened the mothers of other children to kill these also; and in\nfact they did die the following night of disorders unknown to the\nphysicians. Here we again see those strigae, or witches, who delight in\ndestroying children.\n\nBut all this relates to our subject very indirectly. The vampires of\nwhich we are discoursing are very different from all those just\nmentioned.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[482] Andr. Alciat. Parergon Juris, viii. c. 22.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXI.\n\nREAPPEARANCE OF A MAN WHO HAD BEEN DEAD FOR SOME MONTHS.\n\n\nPeter, the venerable[483] abbot of Clugni, relates the conversation\nwhich he had in the presence of the bishops of Oleron and of Osma, in\nSpain, together with several monks, with an old monk named Pierre\nd'Engelbert, who, after living a long time in his day in high\nreputation for valor and honor, had withdrawn from the world after the\ndeath of his wife, and entered the order of Clugni. Peter the\nVenerable having come to see him, Pierre d'Engelbert related to him\nthat one day when in his bed and wide awake, he saw in his chamber,\nwhilst the moon shone very brightly, a man named Sancho, whom he had\nseveral years before sent at his own expense to the assistance of\nAlphonso, king of Arragon, who was making war on Castile. Sancho had\nreturned safe and sound from this expedition, but some time after he\nfell sick and died in his house.\n\nFour months after his death, Sancho showed himself to Pierre\nd'Engelbert, as we have said. Sancho was naked, with the exception of\na rag for mere decency round him. He began to uncover the burning\nwood, as if to warm himself, or that he might be more distinguishable.\nPeter asked him who he was. \"I am,\" replied he, in a broken and hoarse\nvoice, \"Sancho, your servant.\" \"And what do you come here for?\" \"I am\ngoing,\" said he, \"into Castile, with a number of others, in order to\nexpiate the harm we did during the last war, on the same spot where it\nwas committed: for my own part, I pillaged the ornaments of a church,\nand for that I am condemned to take this journey. You can assist me\nvery much by your good works; and madame, your spouse, who owes me yet\neight sols for the remainder of my salary, will oblige me infinitely\nif she will bestow them on the poor in my name.\" Peter then asked him\nnews of one Pierre de Fais, his friend, who had been dead a short\ntime. Sancho told him that he was saved.\n\n\"And Bernier, our fellow-citizen, what is become of him?\" \"He is\ndamned,\" said he, \"for having badly performed his office of judge, and\nfor having troubled and plundered the widow and the innocent.\"\n\nPeter added, \"Could you tell me any news of Alphonso, king of Arragon,\nwho died a few years ago?\"\n\nThen another spectre, that Peter had not before seen, and which he now\nobserved distinctly by the light of the moon, seated in the recess of\nthe window, said to him--\"Do not ask him for news of King Alphonso; he\nhas not been with us long enough to know anything about him. I, who\nhave been dead five years, can give you news of him. Alphonso was with\nus for some time, but the monks of Clugni extricated him from thence.\nI know not where he is now.\" Then, addressing himself to his\ncompanion, Sancho, \"Come,\" said he, \"let us follow our companions; it\nis time to set off.\" Sancho reiterated his entreaties to Peter, his\nlord, and went out of the house.\n\nPeter waked his wife who was lying by him, and who had neither seen\nnor heard anything of all this dialogue, and asked her the question,\n\"Do not you owe something to Sancho, that domestic who was in our\nservice, and died a little while ago?\" She answered, \"I owe him still\neight sols.\" From this, Peter had no more doubt of the truth of what\nSancho had said to him, gave these eight sols to the poor, adding a\nlarge sum of his own, and caused masses and prayers to be said for the\nsoul of the defunct. Peter was then in the world and married; but when\nhe related this to Peter the Venerable, he was a monk of Clugni.\n\nSt. Augustine relates that Sylla,[484] on arriving at Tarentum,\noffered there sacrifices to the gods, that is to say, to the demons;\nand having observed on the upper part of the liver of the victim a\nsort of crown of gold, the aruspice assured him that this crown was\nthe presage of a certain victory, and told him to eat alone that liver\nwhereon he had seen the crown.\n\nAlmost at the same moment, a servitor of Lucius Pontius came to him\nand said, \"Sylla, I am come from the goddess Bellona. The victory is\nyours; and as a proof of my prediction, I announce to you that, ere\nlong, the capitol will be reduced to ashes.\" At the same time, this\nman left the camp in great haste, and on the morrow he returned with\nstill more eagerness, and affirmed that the capitol had been burnt,\nwhich was found to be true.\n\nSt. Augustine had no doubt but that the demon who had caused the crown\nof gold to appear on the liver of the victim had inspired this\ndiviner, and that the same bad spirit having foreseen the\nconflagration of the capitol had announced it after the event by that\nsame man.\n\nThe same holy doctor relates,[485] after Julius Obsequens, in his Book\nof Prodigies, that in the open country of Campania, where some time\nafter the Roman armies fought with such animosity during the civil\nwar, they heard at first loud noises like soldiers fighting; and\nafterwards several persons affirmed that they had seen for some days\ntwo armies, who joined battle; after which they remarked in the same\npart as it were vestiges of the combatants, and the marks of horses'\nfeet, as if the combat had really taken place there. St. Augustine\ndoubts not that all this was the work of the devil, who wished to\nreassure mankind against the horrors of civil warfare, by making them\nbelieve that their gods being at war amongst themselves, mankind need\nnot be more moderate, nor more touched by the evils which war brings\nwith it.\n\nThe abbot of Ursperg, in his Chronicle, year 1123, says that in the\nterritory of Worms they saw during many days a multitude of armed men,\non foot and on horseback, going and coming with great noise, like\npeople who are going to a solemn assembly. Every day they marched,\ntowards the hour of noon, to a mountain, which appeared to be their\nplace of rendezvous. Some one in the neighborhood bolder than the\nrest, having guarded himself with the sign of the cross, approached\none of these armed men, conjuring him in the name of God to declare\nthe meaning of this army, and their design. The soldier or phantom\nreplied, \"We are not what you imagine; we are neither vain phantoms,\nnor true soldiers; we are the spirits of those who were killed on this\nspot a long time ago. The arms and horses which you behold are the\ninstruments of our punishment, as they were of our sins. We are all on\nfire, though you can see nothing about us which appears inflamed.\" It\nis said that they remarked in this company the Count Emico, who had\nbeen killed a few years before, and who declared that he might be\nextricated from that state by alms and prayers.\n\nTrithemius, in his _Annales Hirsauginses_, year 1013,[486] asserts\nthat there was seen in broad day, on a certain day in the year, an\narmy of cavalry and infantry, which came down from a mountain and\nranged themselves on a neighboring plain. They were spoken to and\nconjured to speak, and they declared themselves to be the spirits of\nthose who a few years before had been killed, with arms in their\nhands, in that same spot.\n\nThe same Trithemius relates elsewhere[487] the apparition of the Count\nof Spanheim, deceased a little while before, who appeared in the\nfields with his pack of hounds. This count spoke to his cure, and\nasked his prayers.\n\nVipert, Archdeacon of the Church of Toul, cotemporary author of the\nLife of the holy Pope Leo IX., who died 1059, relates[488] that, some\nyears before the death of this holy pope, an infinite multitude of\npersons, habited in white, was seen to pass by the town of Narni,\nadvancing from the eastern side. This troop defiled from the morning\nuntil three in the afternoon, but towards evening it notably\ndiminished. At this sight all the population of the town of Narni\nmounted upon the walls, fearing they might be hostile troops, and saw\nthem defile with extreme surprise.\n\nOne burgher, more resolute than the others, went out of the town, and\nhaving observed in the crowd a man of his acquaintance, called to him\nby name, and asked him the meaning of this multitude of travelers: he\nreplied, \"We are spirits which not having yet expiated all our sins,\nand not being as yet sufficiently pure to enter the kingdom of heaven,\nwe are going into holy places in a spirit of repentance; we are now\ncoming from visiting the tomb of St. Martin, and we are going straight\nto Notre-Dame de Farse.\" The man was so frightened at this vision that\nhe was ill for a twelvemonth--it was he who recounted the circumstance\nto Pope Leo IX. All the town of Narni was witness to this procession,\nwhich took place in broad day.\n\nThe night preceding the battle which was fought in Egypt between Mark\nAntony and Caesar,[489] whilst all the city of Alexandria was in\nextreme uneasiness in expectation of this action, they saw in the city\nwhat appeared a multitude of people, who shouted and howled like\nbacchanals, and they heard a confused sound of instruments in honor of\nBacchus, as Mark Antony was accustomed to celebrate this kind of\nfestivals. This troop, after having run through the greater part of\nthe town, went out of it by the door leading to the enemy, and\ndisappeared.\n\nThat is all which has come to my knowledge concerning the vampires and\nghosts of Hungary, Moravia, Silesia, and Poland, and of the other\nghosts of France and Germany. We will explain our opinion after this\non the reality, and other circumstances of these sorts of revived and\nresuscitated beings. Here follows another species, which is not less\nmarvelous--I mean the excommunicated, who leave the church and their\ngraves with their bodies, and do not re-enter till after the sacrifice\nis completed.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[483] Betrus Venerab. Abb. Cluniac. de miracul. lib. i. c. 28. p.\n1293.\n\n[484] Lib. ii. de Civ. Dei, cap. 24.\n\n[485] Aug. lib. ii. de Civ. Dei, c. 25.\n\n[486] Trith. Chron. Hirs. p. 155, ad an. 1013.\n\n[487] Idem, tom. ii. Chron. Hirs. p. 227.\n\n[488] Vita S. Leonis Papae.\n\n[489] Plutarch, in Anton.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXII.\n\nEXCOMMUNICATED PERSONS WHO GO OUT OF THE CHURCHES.\n\n\nSt. Gregory the Great relates[490] that St. Benedict having threatened\nto excommunicate two nuns, these nuns died in that state. Some time\nafter, their nurse saw them go out of the church, as soon as the\ndeacon had cried out, \"Let all those who do not receive the communion\nwithdraw.\" The nurse having informed St. Benedict of the circumstance,\nthat saint sent an oblation, or a loaf, in order that it might be\noffered for them in token of reconciliation; and from that time the\ntwo nuns remained in quiet in their sepulchres.\n\nSt. Augustine says[491] that the names of martyrs were recited in the\ndiptychs not to pray for them, and the names of the virgin nuns\ndeceased to pray for them. \"Perhibet praeclarissimum testimonium\necclesiastica auctoritas, in qua fidelibus notum est quo loco martyres\net que defunctae sanctimoniales ad altaris sacramenta recitantur.\" It\nwas then, perhaps, when they were named at the altar, that they left\nthe church. But St. Gregory says expressly, that it was when the\ndeacon cried aloud, \"Let those who do not receive the communion\nretire.\"\n\nThe same St. Gregory relates that a young priest of the same St.\nBenedict,[492] having gone out of his monastery without leave and\nwithout receiving the benediction of the abbot, died in his\ndisobedience, and was interred in consecrated ground. The next day\nthey found his body out of the grave: the relations gave notice of it\nto St. Benedict, who gave them a consecrated wafer, and told them to\nplace it with proper respect on the breast of the young priest; it was\nplaced there, and the earth no more rejected him from her bosom.\n\nThis usage, or rather this abuse, of placing the holy wafer in the\ngrave with the dead, is very singular; but it was not unknown to\nantiquity. The author of the Life of St. Basil[493] the Great, given\nunder the name of St. Amphilochus, says that that saint reserved the\nthird part of a consecrated wafer to be interred with him; he received\nit and expired while it was yet in his mouth; but some councils had\nalready condemned this practice, and others have since then proscribed\nit, as contrary to the institutions of Jesus Christ.[494]\n\nStill, they did not omit in a few places putting holy wafers in the\ntombs or graves of some persons who were remarkable for their\nsanctity, as in the tomb of St. Othmar, abbot of St. Gal,[495] wherein\nwere found under his head several round leaves, which were indubitably\nbelieved to be the Host.\n\nIn the Life of St. Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindisfarn,[496] we read that a\nquantity of consecrated wafers were found on his breast. Amalarius\ncites of the Venerable Bede, that a holy wafer was placed on the\nbreast of this saint before he was inhumed; \"oblata super sanctum\npectus posita.\"[497] This particularity is not noted in Bede's\nHistory, but in the second Life of St. Cuthbert. Amalarius remarks\nthat this custom proceeds doubtless from the Church of Rome, which had\ncommunicated it to the English; and the Reverend Father Menard[498]\nmaintains that it is not this practice which is condemned by the\nabove-mentioned Councils, but that of giving the communion to the dead\nby insinuating the holy wafer into their mouths. However it may be\nregarding this practice, we know that Cardinal Humbert,[499] in his\nreply to the ____________ of the patriarch Michael Cerularius,\nreproves the Greeks for burying the Host, when there remained any of\nit after the communion of the faithful.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[490] Greg. Magn. lib. ii. Dialog. c. 23.\n\n[491] Aug. de St. Virgin. c. xlv. 364.\n\n[492] Greg. lib. ii. Dialog. c. 34.\n\n[493] Amphil. in Vit. S. Basilii.\n\n[494] Vide Balsamon. ad Canon. 83. Concil. in Trullo, et Concil.\nCarthagin. III. c. 6. Hippon. c. 5. Antissiod. c. 12.\n\n[495] Vit. S. Othmari, c. 3.\n\n[496] Vit. S. Cuthberti, lib. iv. c. 2. apud Bolland. 26 Martii.\n\n[497] Amalar. de Offic. Eccles. lib. iv. c. 41.\n\n[498] Menard. not. in Sacrament. S. Greg. Magn. pp. 484, 485.\n\n[499] Humbert. Card. Bibliot. P. P. lib. xviii. et tom. iv. Concil.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXIII.\n\nSOME OTHER INSTANCES OF EXCOMMUNICATED PERSONS BEING CAST OUT OF\nCONSECRATED GROUND.\n\n\nWe see again in history, several other examples of the dead bodies of\nexcommunicated persons being cast out of consecrated earth; for\ninstance, in the life of St. Gothard, Bishop of Hildesheim,[500] it is\nrelated that this saint having excommunicated certain persons for\ntheir rebellion and their sins, they did not cease, in spite of his\nexcommunications, to enter the church, and remain there though\nforbidden by the saint, whilst even the dead, who had been interred\nthere years since, and had been placed there without their sentence of\nexcommunication being removed, obeyed him, arose from their tombs, and\nleft the church. After mass, the saint, addressing himself to these\nrebels, reproached them for their hardness of heart, and told them\nthose dead people would rise against them in the day of judgment. At\nthe same time, going out of the church, he gave absolution to the\nexcommunicated dead, and allowed them to re-enter it, and repose in\ntheir graves as before. The Life of St. Gothard was written by one of\nhis disciples, a canon of his cathedral; and this saint died on the\n4th of May, 938.\n\nIn the second Council, held at Limoges,[501] in 1031, at which a great\nmany bishops, abbots, priests and deacons were present, they reported\nthe instances which we had just cited from St. Benedict, to show the\nrespect in which sentences of excommunication, pronounced by\necclesiastical superiors, were held. Then the Bishop of Cahors, who\nwas present, related a circumstance which had happened to him a short\ntime before. \"A cavalier of my diocese, having been killed in\nexcommunication, I would not accede to the prayers of his friends, who\nimplored to grant him absolution; I desired to make an example of him,\nin order to inspire others with fear. But he was interred by soldiers\nor gentlemen (_milites_) without my permission, without the presence\nof the priests, in a church dedicated to St. Peter. The next morning\nhis body was found out of the ground, and thrown naked far from the\nspot; his grave remaining entire, and without any sign of having been\ntouched. The soldiers or gentlemen (_milites_) who had interred him,\nhaving opened the grave, found in it only the linen in which he had\nbeen wrapped; they buried him again, and covered him with an enormous\nquantity of earth and stones. The next day they found the corpse\noutside the tomb, without its appearing that any one had worked at it.\nThe same thing happened five times; at last they buried him as they\ncould, at a distance from the cemetery, in unconsecrated ground; which\nfilled the neighboring seigneurs with so much terror that they all\ncame to me to make their peace. That is a fact, invested with\neverything which can render it incontestable.\"\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[500] Vit. S. Gothardi, Saecul. vi. Bened. parte c. p. 434.\n\n[501] Tom. ix. Concil. an 1031, p. 702.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXIV.\n\nAN INSTANCE OF AN EXCOMMUNICATED MARTYR BEING CAST OUT OF THE EARTH.\n\n\nWe read in the _menees_ of the Greeks, on the 15th of October, that a\nmonk of the Desert of Sheti, having been excommunicated by him who had\nthe care of his conduct, for some act of disobedience, he left the\ndesert, and came to Alexandria, where he was arrested by the governor\nof the city, despoiled of his conventual habit, and ardently solicited\nto sacrifice to false gods. The solitary resisted nobly, and was\ntormented in various ways, until at last they cut off his head, and\nthrew his body outside of the city, to be devoured by dogs. The\nChristians took it away in the night, and having embalmed it and\nenveloped it in fine linen, they interred it in the church as a\nmartyr, in an honorable place; but during the holy sacrifice, the\ndeacon having cried aloud, as usual, that the catechumens and those\nwho did not take the communion were to withdraw, they suddenly beheld\nthe martyr's tomb open of itself, and his body retire into the\nvestibule of the church; after the mass, it returned to its sepulchre.\n\nA pious person having prayed for three days, learnt by the voice of an\nangel that this monk had incurred excommunication for having disobeyed\nhis superior, and that he would remain bound until that same superior\nhad given him absolution. Then they went to the desert directly, and\nbrought the saintly old man, who caused the coffin of the martyr to\nbe opened, and absolved him, after which he remained in peace in his\ntomb.\n\nThis instance appears to me rather suspicious. 1. In the time that the\nDesert of Sheti was peopled with solitary monks, there were no longer\nany persecutors at Alexandria. They troubled no one there, either\nconcerning the profession of Christianity, or on the religious\nprofession--they would sooner have persecuted these idolators and\npagans. The Christian religion was then dominant and respected\nthroughout all Egypt, above all, in Alexandria. 2. The monks of Sheti\nwere rather hermits than cenobites, and a monk had no authority there\nto excommunicate his brother. 3. It does not appear that the monk in\nquestion had deserved excommunication, at least major excommunication,\nwhich deprives the faithful of the entry of the church, and the\nparticipation of the holy mysteries. The bearing of the Greek text is\nsimply, that he remained obedient for some time to his spiritual\nfather, but that having afterwards fallen into disobedience, he\nwithdrew from the hands of the old man without any legitimate cause,\nand went away to Alexandria. All that deserves doubtlessly even major\nexcommunication, if this monk had quitted his profession and retired\nfrom the monastery to lead a secular life; but at that time the monks\nwere not, as now, bound by vows of stability and obedience to their\nregular superiors, who had not a right to excommunicate them with\ngrand excommunication. We will speak of this again by-and-by.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXV.\n\nA MAN REJECTED FROM THE CHURCH FOR HAVING REFUSED TO PAY TITHES.\n\n\nJohn Brompton, Abbot of Sornat in England,[502] says that we may read\nin very old histories that St. Augustin, the Apostle of England,\nwishing to persuade a gentleman to pay the tithes, God permitted that\nthis saint having said before all the people, before the commencement\nof the mass, that no excommunicated person should assist at the holy\nsacrifice, they saw a man who had been interred for 150 years leave\nthe church.\n\nAfter mass, St. Augustin, preceded by the cross, went to ask this dead\nman why he went out? The dead man replied that it was because he had\ndied in a state of excommunication. The saint asked him, where was the\nsepulchre of the priest who had pronounced against him the sentence\nof excommunication? They went thither; St. Augustin commanded him to\nrise; he came to life, and avowed that he had excommunicated the man\nfor his crimes, and particularly for his obstinacy in refusing to pay\ntithes; then, by order of St. Augustin, he gave him absolution, and\nthe dead man returned to his tomb. The priest entreated the saint to\npermit him also to return to his sepulchre, which was granted him.\nThis story appears to me still more suspicious than the preceding one.\nIn the time of St. Augustin, the Apostle of England, there was no\nobligation as yet to pay tithes on pain of excommunication, and much\nless a hundred and fifty years before that time--above all in England.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[502] John Brompton, Chronic. vide ex Bolland. 26 Maii, p. 396.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXVI.\n\nINSTANCES OF PERSONS WHO HAVE SHOWN SIGNS OF LIFE AFTER THEIR DEATH,\nAND WHO HAVE DRAWN BACK FROM RESPECT, TO MAKE ROOM OR GIVE PLACE TO\nSOME WHO WERE MORE WORTHY THAN THEMSELVES.\n\n\nTertullian relates[503] an instance to which he had been witness--_de\nmeo didici_. A woman who belonged to the church, to which she had been\ngiven as a slave, died in the prime of life, after being once married\nonly, and that for a short time, was brought to the church. Before\nputting her in the ground, the priest offering the sacrifice and\nraising his hands in prayer, this woman, who had her hands extended at\nher side, raised them at the same time, and put them together as a\nsupplicant; then, when the peace was given, she replaced herself in\nher former position.\n\nTertullian adds that another body, dead, and buried in a cemetery,\nwithdrew on one side to give place to another corpse which they were\nabout to inter near it. He relates these instances as a suite to what\nwas said by Plato and Democritus, that souls remained some time near\nthe dead bodies they had inhabited, which they preserved sometimes\nfrom corruption, and often caused their hair, beard, and nails to grow\nin their graves. Tertullian does not approve of the opinion of these;\nhe even refutes them pretty well; but he owns that the instances I\nhave just spoken of are favorable enough to that opinion, which is\nalso that of the Hebrews, as we have before seen.\n\nIt is said that after the death of the celebrated Abelard,[504] who\nwas interred at the Monastery of the Paraclete, the Abbess Heloisa,\nhis spouse, being also deceased, and having requested to be buried in\nthe same grave, at her approach Abelard extended his arms and received\nher into his bosom: _elevatis brachiis illam recepit, et ita eam\namplexatus brachia sua strinxit_. This circumstance is certainly\nneither proved nor probable; the Chronicle whence it is extracted had\nprobably taken it from some popular rumor.\n\nThe author of the Life of St. John the Almoner,[505] which was written\nimmediately after his death by Leontius, Bishop of Naples, a town in\nthe Isle of Cyprus, relates that St. John the Almoner being dead at\nAmatunta, in the same island, his body was placed between that of two\nbishops, who drew back on each side respectfully to make room for him\nin sight of all present; _non unus, neque decem, neque centum\nviderunt, sed omnis turba, quae convenit ad ejus sepulturam_, says the\nauthor cited. Metaphrastes, who had read the life of the saint in\nGreek, repeats the same fact.\n\nEvagrius de Pont[506] says, that a holy hermit named Thomas, and\nsurnamed Salus, because he counterfeited madness, dying in the\nhospital of Daphne, near the city of Antioch, was buried in the\nstrangers' cemetery, but every day he was found out of the ground at a\ndistance from the other dead bodies, which he avoided. The inhabitants\nof the place informed Ephraim, Bishop of Antioch, of this, and he had\nhim solemnly carried into the city and honorably buried in the\ncemetery, and from that time the people of Antioch keep the feast of\nhis translation.\n\nJohn Mosch[507] reports the same story, only he says that it was some\nwomen who were buried near Thomas Salus, who left their graves through\nrespect for the saint.\n\nThe Hebrews ridiculously believe that the Jews who are buried without\nJudea will roll underground at the last day, to repair to the Promised\nLand, as they cannot come to life again elsewhere than in Judea.\n\nThe Persians recognize also a transporting angel, whose care it is to\nassign to dead bodies the place and rank due to their merits: if a\nworthy man is buried in an infidel country, the transporting angel\nleads him underground to a spot near one of the faithful, while he\ncasts into the sewer the body of any infidel interred in holy ground.\nOther Mahometans have the same notion; they believe that the\ntransporting angel placed the body of Noah, and afterwards that of\nAli, in the grave of Adam. I relate these fantastical ideas only to\nshow their absurdity. As to the other stories related in this same\nchapter, they must not be accepted without examination, for they\nrequire confirmation.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[503] Tertull. de Animo, c. 5. p. 597. Edit. Pamelii.\n\n[504] Chronic. Turon. inter opera Abaelardi, p. 1195.\n\n[505] Bolland. tom. ii. p. 315, 13 Januar.\n\n[506] Evagrius Pont. lib. iv. c. 53.\n\n[507] Jean Mosch. pras. spirit. c. 88.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXVII.\n\nOF PERSONS WHO PERFORM A PILGRIMAGE AFTER THEIR DEATH.\n\n\nA scholar of the town of Saint Pons, near Narbonne,[508] having died\nin a state of excommunication, appeared to one of his friends, and\nbegged of him to go to the city of Rhodes, and ask the bishop to grant\nhim absolution. He set off in snowy weather; the spirit, who\naccompanied him without being seen by him showed him the road and\ncleared away the snow. On arriving at Rhodes, he asked and obtained\nfor his friend the required absolution, when the spirit reconducted\nhim to Saint Pons, gave him thanks for this service, and took leave,\npromising to testify to him his gratitude.\n\nHere follows a letter written to me on the 5th of April, 1745, and\nwhich somewhat relates to what we have just seen. \"Something has\noccurred here within the last few days, relatively to your\nDissertation upon Ghosts, which I think I ought to inform you of. A\nman of Letrage, a village a few miles from Remiremont, lost his wife\nat the beginning of February last, and married again the week before\nLent. At eleven o'clock in the evening of his wedding-day, his wife\nappeared and spoke to his new spouse; the result of the conversation\nwas to oblige the bride to perform seven pilgrimages for the defunct.\nFrom that day, and always at the same hour, the defunct appeared, and\nspoke in presence of the cure of the place and several other persons;\non the 15th of March, at the moment that the bride was preparing to\nrepair to St. Nicholas, she had a visit from the defunct, who told her\nto make haste, and not to be alarmed at any pain or trouble which she\nmight undergo on her journey.\n\nThis woman with her husband and her brother and sister-in-law, set off\non their way, not expecting that the dead wife would be of the party;\nbut she never left them until they were at the door of the Church of\nSt. Nicholas. These good people, when they were arrived at two\nleagues' distance from St. Nicholas, were obliged to put up at a\nlittle inn called the Barracks. There the wife found herself so ill,\nthat the two men were obliged to carry her to the burgh of St.\nNicholas. Directly she was under the church porch, she walked easily,\nand felt no more pain. This fact has been reported to me by the\nsacristan and the four persons. The last thing that the defunct said\nto the bride was, that she should neither speak to nor appear to her\nagain until half the pilgrimages should be accomplished. The simple\nand natural manner in which these good people related this fact to us\nmakes me believe that it is certain.\n\nIt is not said that this young woman had incurred excommunication, but\napparently she was bound by a vow or promise which she had made, to\naccomplish these pilgrimages, which she imposed upon the other young\nwife who succeeded her. Also, we see that she did not enter the Church\nof St. Nicholas; she only accompanied the pilgrims to the church door.\n\nWe may here add the instance of that crowd of pilgrims who, in the\ntime of Pope Leo IX., passed at the foot of the wall of Narne, as I\nhave before related, and who performed their purgatory by going from\npilgrimage to pilgrimage.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[508] Melchior. lib. de Statu Mortuorum.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXVIII.\n\nARGUMENT CONCERNING THE EXCOMMUNICATED WHO QUIT CHURCHES.\n\n\nAll that we have just reported concerning the bodies of persons who\nhad been excommunicated leaving their tombs during mass, and returning\ninto them after the service, deserves particular attention.\n\nIt seems that a thing which passed before the eyes of a whole\npopulation in broad day, and in the midst of the most redoubtable\nmysteries, can be neither denied nor disputed. Nevertheless, it may be\nasked, How these bodies came out? Were they whole, or in a state of\ndecay? naked, or clad in their own dress, or in the linen and bandages\nwhich had enveloped them in the tomb? Where, also, did they go?\n\nThe cause of their forthcoming is well noted; it was the major\nexcommunication. This penalty is decreed only to mortal sin.[509]\nThose persons had, then, died in the career of deadly sin, and were\nconsequently condemned and in hell; for if there is naught in question\nbut a minor excommunication, why should they go out of the church\nafter death with such terrible and extraordinary circumstances, since\nthat ecclesiastical excommunication does not deprive one absolutely\nof communion with the faithful, or of entrance to church?\n\nIf it be said that the crime was remitted, but not the penalty of\nexcommunication, and that these persons remained excluded from church\ncommunion until after their absolution, given by the ecclesiastical\njudge, we ask if a dead man can be absolved and be restored to\ncommunion with the church, unless there are unequivocal proofs of his\nrepentance and conversion preceding his death.\n\nMoreover, the persons just cited as instances do not appear to have\nbeen released from crime or guilt, as might be supposed. The texts\nwhich we have cited sufficiently note that they died in their guilt\nand sins; and what St. Gregory the Great says in the part of his\nDialogues there quoted, replying to his interlocutor, Peter, supposes\nthat these nuns had died without doing penance.\n\nBesides, it is a constant rule of the church that we cannot\ncommunicate or have communion with a dead man, whom we have not had\nany communication with during his lifetime. \"Quibus viventibus non\ncommunicavimus, mortuis, communicare non possumus,\" says Pope St.\nLeo.[510] At any rate, it is allowed that an excommunicated person who\nhas given signs of sincere repentance, although there may not have\nbeen time for him to confess himself, can be reconciled to the\nchurch[511] and receive ecclesiastical sepulture after his death. But,\nin general, before receiving absolution from sin, they must have been\nabsolved from the censures and excommunication, if such have been\nincurred: \"Absolutio ab excommunicatione debet praecedere absolutionem\na peccatis; quia quandiu aliquis est excommunicatus, non potest\nrecipere aliquod Ecclesiae Sacramentum,\" says St. Thomas.[512]\n\nFollowing this decision, it would have been necessary to absolve these\npersons from their excommunication, before they could receive\nabsolution from the guilt of their sins. Here, on the contrary, they\nare supposed to be absolved from their sins as to their criminality,\nin order to be able to receive absolution from the censures of the\nchurch.\n\nI do not see how these difficulties can be resolved.\n\n1. How can you absolve the dead? 2. How can you absolve him from\nexcommunication before he has received absolution from sin? 3. How can\nhe be absolved without asking for absolution, or its appearing that he\nhath requested it? 4. How can people be absolved who died in mortal\nsin, and without doing penance? 5. Why do these excommunicated persons\nreturn to their tombs after mass? 6. If they dared not stay in the\nchurch during the mass, when were they?\n\nIt appears certain that the nuns and the young monk spoken of by St.\nGregory died in their sins, and without having received absolution\nfrom them. St. Benedict, probably, was not a priest, and had not\nabsolved them as regards their guilt.\n\nIt may be said that the excommunication spoken of by St. Gregory was\nnot major, and in that case the holy abbot could absolve them; but\nwould this minor and regular excommunication deserve that they should\nquit the church in so miraculous and public a manner? The persons\nexcommunicated by St. Gothard, and the gentleman mentioned at the\nCouncil of Limoges, in 1031, had died unrepentant, and under sentence\nof excommunication; consequently in mortal sin; and yet they are\ngranted peace and absolution after their death, at the simple entreaty\nof their friends.\n\nThe young solitary spoken of in the _acta sanctorum_ of the Greeks,\nwho after having quitted his cell through incontinency and\ndisobedience, had incurred excommunication, could he receive the crown\nof martyrdom in that state? And if he had received it, was he not at\nthe same time reconciled to the church? Did he not wash away his fault\nwith his blood? And if his excommunication was only regular and minor,\nwould he deserve after his martyrdom to be excluded from the presence\nof the holy mysteries?\n\nI see no other way of explaining these facts, if they are as they are\nrelated, than by saying that the story has not preserved the\ncircumstances which might have deserved the absolution of these\npersons, and we must presume that the saints--above all, the bishops\nwho absolved them--knew the rules of the church, and did nothing in\nthe matter but what was right and conformable to the canons.\n\nBut it results from all that we have just said, that as the bodies of\nthe wicked withdraw from the company of the holy through a principle\nof veneration and a feeling of their own unworthiness, so also the\nbodies of the holy separate themselves from the wicked, from opposite\nmotives, that they may not appear to have any connection with them,\neven after death, or to approve of their bad life. In short, if what\nis just related be true, the righteous and the saints feel deference\nfor one another, and honor each other ever in the other world; which\nis probable enough.\n\nWe are about to see some instances which seem to render equivocal and\nuncertain, as a proof of sanctity, the uncorrupted state of the body\nof a just man, since it is maintained that the bodies of the\nexcommunicated do not rot in the earth until the sentence of\nexcommunication pronounced against them be taken off.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[509] Concil. Meli. in Can. Nemo. 41, n. 43. D. Thom. iv. distinct.\n18, 9. 2, art. 1. quaestiuncula in corpore, &c.\n\n[510] S. Leo canone Commun. 1. a. 4. 9. 2. See also Clemens III. in\nCapit. Sacris, 12. de Sepult. Eccl.\n\n[511] Eveillon, traite des Excommunicat. et Manitoires.\n\n[512] D. Thom. in iv. Sentent. dist. 1. qu. 1. art. 3. quaestiunc. 2.\nad. 2.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXIX.\n\nDO THE EXCOMMUNICATED ROT IN THE GROUND?\n\n\nIt is a very ancient opinion that the bodies of the excommunicated do\nnot decompose; it appears in the Life of St Libentius, Archbishop of\nBremen, who died on the 4th of January, 1013. That holy prelate having\nexcommunicated some pirates, one of them died, and was buried in\nNorway; at the end of seventy years they found his body entire and\nwithout decay, nor did it fall to dust until after absolution received\nfrom Archbishop Alvaridius.\n\nThe modern Greeks, to authorize their schism, and to prove that the\ngift of miracles, and the power of binding and unbinding, subsist in\ntheir church even more visibly and more certainly than in the Latin\nand Roman church, maintain that amongst themselves the bodies of those\nwho are excommunicated do not decay, but become swollen\nextraordinarily, like drums, and can neither be corrupted nor reduced\nto ashes till after they have received absolution from their bishops\nor their priests. They relate divers instances of this kind of dead\nbodies, found uncorrupted in their graves, and which are afterwards\nreduced to ashes as soon as the excommunication is taken off. They do\nnot deny, however, that the uncorrupted state of a body is sometimes a\nmark of sanctity,[513] but they require that a body thus preserved\nshould exhale a good smell, be white or reddish, and not black,\noffensive and swollen.\n\nIt is affirmed that persons who have been struck dead by lightning do\nnot decay, and for that reason the ancients neither burnt them nor\nburied them. That is the opinion of the physician Zachias; but Pare,\nafter Comines, thinks that the reason they are not subject to\ncorruption is because they are, as it were, embalmed by the sulphur of\nthe thunderbolt, which serves them instead of salt.\n\nIn 1727, they discovered in the vault of an hospital near Quebec the\nunimpaired corpses of five nuns, who had been dead for more than\ntwenty years; and these corpses, though covered with quicklime, still\ncontained blood.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[513] Goar, not. in Eucholog. p. 688.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXX.\n\nINSTANCES TO DEMONSTRATE THAT THE EXCOMMUNICATED DO NOT DECAY, AND\nTHAT THEY APPEAR TO THE LIVING.\n\n\nThe Greeks relate[514] that under the Patriarch of Constantinople\nManuel, or Maximus, who lived in the fifteenth century, the Turkish\nEmperor of Constantinople wished to know the truth of what the Greeks\nasserted concerning the uncorrupted state of those who died under\nsentence of excommunication. The patriarch caused the tomb of a woman\nto be opened; she had had a criminal connection with an archbishop of\nConstantinople; her body was whole, black, and much swollen. The Turks\nshut it up in a coffin, sealed with the emperor's seal; the patriarch\nsaid his prayer, gave absolution to the dead woman, and at the end of\nthree days the coffin or box being opened they found the body fallen\nto dust.\n\nI see no miracle in this: everybody knows that bodies which are\nsometimes found quite whole in their tombs fall to dust as soon as\nthey are exposed to the air. I except those which have been well\nembalmed, as the mummies of Egypt, and bodies which are buried in\nextremely dry spots, or in an earth replete with nitre and salt, which\ndissipate in a short time all the moisture there may be in the dead\nbodies, either of men or animals; but I do not understand that the\nArchbishop of Constantinople could validly absolve after death a\nperson who died in deadly sin and bound by excommunication. They\nbelieve also that the bodies of these excommunicated persons often\nappear to the living, whether by day or by night, speaking to them,\ncalling them, and molesting them. Leon Allatius enters into long\ndetails on this subject; he says that in the Isle of Chio the\ninhabitants do not answer to the first voice that calls them, for fear\nthat it should be a spirit or ghost; but if they are called twice, it\nis not a vroucolaca,[515] which is the name they give those spectres.\nIf any one answers to them at the first sound, the spectre disappears;\nbut he who has spoken to it infallibly dies.\n\nThere is no other way of guarding against these bad genii than by\ntaking up the corpse of the person who has appeared, and burning it\nafter certain prayers have been recited over it; then the body is\nreduced to ashes, and appears no more. They have then no doubt that\nthese are the bodies of criminal and malevolent men, which come out of\ntheir graves and cause the death of those who see and reply to them;\nor that it is the demon, who makes use of their bodies to frighten\nmortals, and cause their death.\n\nThey know of no means more certain to deliver themselves from being\ninfested by these dangerous apparitions than to burn and hack to\npieces these bodies, which served as instruments of malice, or to tear\nout their hearts, or to let them putrefy before they are buried, or to\ncut off their heads, or to pierce their temples with a large nail.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[514] Vide Malva. lib. i. Turco-graecia, pp. 26, 27.\n\n[515] Vide Bolland. mense Augusto, tom. ii. pp. 201-203, et Allat.\nEpist. ad Zachiam, p. 12.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXI.\n\nINSTANCE OF THE REAPPEARANCES OF THE EXCOMMUNICATED.\n\n\nRicaut, in the history he has given us of the present state of the\nGreek church, acknowledges that this opinion, that the bodies of\nexcommunicated persons do not decay, is general, not only among the\nGreeks of the present day, but also among the Turks. He relates a fact\nwhich he heard from a Candiote caloyer, who had affirmed the thing to\nhim on oath; his name was Sophronius, and he was well known and highly\nrespected at Smyrna. A man who died in the Isle of Milo, had been\nexcommunicated for some fault which he had committed in the Morea, and\nhe was interred without any funeral ceremony in a spot apart, and not\nin consecrated ground. His relations and friends were deeply moved to\nsee him in this plight; and the inhabitants of the isle were every\nnight alarmed by baneful apparitions, which they attributed to this\nunfortunate man.\n\nThey opened his grave, and found his body quite entire, with the veins\nswollen with blood. After having deliberated upon it, the caloyers\nwere of opinion that they should dismember the body, hack it to\npieces, and boil it in wine; for it is thus they treat the bodies of\n_revenans_.\n\nBut the relations of the dead man, by dint of entreaties, succeeded in\ndeferring this execution, and in the mean time sent in all haste to\nConstantinople, to obtain the absolution of the young man from the\npatriarch. Meanwhile, the body was placed in the church, and every day\nprayers were offered up for the repose of his soul. One day when the\ncaloyer Sophronius, above mentioned, was performing divine service,\nall on a sudden a great noise was heard in the coffin; they opened it,\nand found his body decayed as if he had been dead seven years. They\nobserved the moment when the noise was heard, and it was found to be\nprecisely at that hour that his absolution had been signed by the\npatriarch.\n\nM. le Chevalier Ricaut, from whom we have this narrative, was neither\na Greek, nor a Roman Catholic, but a staunch Anglican; he remarks on\nthis occasion that the Greeks believe that an evil spirit enters the\nbodies of the excommunicated, and preserves them from putrefaction, by\nanimating them, and causing them to act, nearly as the soul animates\nand inspires the body.\n\nThey imagine, moreover, that these corpses eat during the night, walk\nabout, digest what they have eaten, and really nourish themselves--that\nsome have been found who were of a rosy hue, and had their veins still\nfully replete with the quantity of blood; and although they had been\ndead forty days, have ejected, when opened, a stream of blood as\nbubbling and fresh as that of a young man of sanguine temperament would\nbe; and this belief so generally prevails that every one relates facts\ncircumstantially concerning it.\n\nFather Theophilus Reynard, who has written a particular treatise on\nthis subject, maintains that this return of the dead is an indubitable\nfact, and that there are very certain proofs and experience of the\nsame; but that to pretend that those ghosts who come to disturb the\nliving are always those of excommunicated persons, and that it is a\nprivilege of the schismatic Greek church to preserve from decay those\nwho incurred excommunication, and have died under censure of their\nchurch, is an untenable assumption; since it is certain that the\nbodies of the excommunicated decay like others, and there are some\nwhich have died in communion with the church, whether the Greek or the\nLatin, who remain uncorrupted. Such are found even among the Pagans,\nand amongst animals, of which the dead bodies are sometimes found in\nan uncorrupted state, both in the ground, and in the ruins of old\nbuildings.[516]\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[516] See, concerning the bodies of the excommunicated which are\naffirmed to be exempt from decay, Father Goar, Ritual of the Greeks,\npp. 687, 688; Matthew Paris, History of England, tom. ii. p. 687; Adam\nde Breme, c. lxxv.; Albert de Stade, on the year 1050, and Monsieur du\nCange, Glossar. Latinit. at the word _imblocatus_.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXII.\n\nVROUCOLACA EXHUMED IN PRESENCE OF MONSIEUR DE TOURNEFORT.\n\n\nMonsieur Pitton de Tournefort relates the manner in which they exhumed\na pretended vroucolaca, in the Isle of Micon, where he was on the 1st\nof January, 1701. These are his own words: \"We saw a very different\nscene, (in the same Isle of Micon,) on the occasion of one of those\ndead people, whom they believe to return to earth after their\ninterment. This one, whose history we shall relate, was a peasant of\nMicon, naturally sullen and quarrelsome; which is a circumstance to be\nremarked relatively to such subjects; he was killed in the country, no\none knows when, or by whom. Two days after he had been inhumed in a\nchapel in the town, it was rumored that he was seen by night walking\nvery fast; that he came into the house, overturning the furniture,\nextinguishing the lamps, throwing his arms around persons from behind,\nand playing a thousand sly tricks.\n\n\"At first people only laughed at it; but the affair began to be\nserious, when the most respectable people in the place began to\ncomplain: the priests even owned the fact, and doubtless they had\ntheir reasons. People did not fail to have masses said; nevertheless\nthe peasant continued to lead the same life without correcting\nhimself. After several assemblies of the principal men of the city,\nwith priests and monks, it was concluded that they must, according to\nsome ancient ceremonial, await the expiration of nine days after\nburial.\n\n\"On the tenth day a mass was said in the chapel where the corpse lay,\nin order to expel the demon which they believed to have inclosed\nhimself therein. This body was taken up after mass, and they began to\nset about tearing out his heart; the butcher of the town, who was old,\nand very awkward, began by opening the belly instead of the breast; he\nfelt for a long time in the entrails without finding what he sought.\nAt last some one told him that he must pierce the diaphragm; then the\nheart was torn out, to the admiration of all present. The corpse,\nhowever, gave out such a bad smell, that they were obliged to burn\nincense; but the vapor, mixed with the exhalations of the carrion,\nonly augmented the stink, and began to heat the brain of these poor\npeople.\n\n\"Their imagination, struck with the spectacle, was full of visions;\nsome one thought proper to say that a thick smoke came from this body.\nWe dared not say that it was the vapor of the incense. They only\nexclaimed \"Vroucolacas,\" in the chapel, and in the square before it.\n(This is the name which they give to these pretended _Revenans_.) The\nrumor spread and was bellowed in the street, and the noise seemed\nlikely to shake the vaulted roof of the chapel. Several present\naffirmed that the blood of this wretched man was quite vermilion; the\nbutcher swore that the body was still quite warm; whence it was\nconcluded that the dead man was very wrong not to be quite dead, or,\nto express myself better, to suffer himself to be reanimated by the\ndevil. This is precisely the idea of a vroucolaca; and they made this\nname resound in an astonishing manner. At this time there entered a\ncrowd of people, who protested aloud that they clearly perceived this\nbody was not stiff when they brought it from the country to the church\nto bury it, and that consequently it was a true vroucolaca; this was\nthe chorus.\n\n\"I have no doubt that they would have maintained it did not stink, if\nwe had not been present; so stupefied were these poor people with the\ncircumstance, and infatuated with the idea of the return of the dead.\nFor ourselves, who got next to the corpse in order to make our\nobservations exactly, we were ready to die from the offensive odor\nwhich proceeded from it. When they asked us what we thought of this\ndead man, we replied that we believed him thoroughly dead; but as we\nwished to cure, or at least not to irritate their stricken fancy, we\nrepresented to them that it was not surprising if the butcher had\nperceived some heat in searching amidst entrails which were decaying;\nneither was it extraordinary that some vapor had proceeded from them;\nsince such will issue from a dunghill that is stirred up; as for this\npretended red blood, it still might be seen on the butcher's hands\nthat it was only a very foetid mud.\n\n\"After all these arguments, they bethought themselves of going to the\nmarine, and burning the heart of the dead man, who in spite of this\nexecution was less docile, and made more noise than before. They\naccused him of beating people by night, of breaking open the doors and\neven terraces, of breaking windows, tearing clothes, and emptying jugs\nand bottles. He was a very thirsty dead man; I believe he only spared\nthe consul's house, where I was lodged. In the mean time I never saw\nanything so pitiable as the state of this island.\n\n\"Everybody seemed to have lost their senses. The most sensible people\nappeared as phrenzied as the others; it was a veritable brain fever,\nas dangerous as any mania or madness. Whole families were seen to\nforsake their houses, and coming from the ends of the town, bring\ntheir flock beds to the market-place to pass the night there. Every\none complained of some new insult; you heard nothing but lamentations\nat night-fall; and the most sensible people went into the country.\n\n\"Amidst such a general prepossession we made up our minds to say\nnothing; we should not only have been considered as absurd, but as\ninfidels. How can you convince a whole people of error? Those who\nbelieved in their own minds that we had our doubts of the truth of the\nfact, came and reproached us for our incredulity, and pretended to\nprove that there were such things as vroucolacas, by some authority\nwhich they derived from Father Richard, a Jesuit missionary. It is\nLatin, said they, and consequently you ought to believe it. We should\nhave done no good by denying this consequence. They every morning\nentertained us with the comedy of a faithful recital of all the new\nfollies which had been committed by this bird of night; he was even\naccused of having committed the most abominable sins.\n\n\"The citizens who were most zealous for the public good believed that\nthey had missed the most essential point of the ceremony. They said\nthat the mass ought not to be celebrated until after the heart of this\nwretched man had been torn out; they affirmed that with that\nprecaution they could not have failed to surprise the devil, and\ndoubtless he would have taken care not to come back again; instead of\nwhich had they begun by saying mass, he would have had, said they,\nplenty of time to take flight, and to return afterwards at his\nleisure.\n\n\"After all these arguments they found themselves in the same\nembarrassment as the first day it began; they assembled night and\nmorning; they reasoned upon it, made processions which lasted three\ndays and three nights; they obliged the priests to fast; they were\nseen running about in the houses with the asperser or sprinkling brush\nin their hands, sprinkling holy water and washing the doors with it;\nthey even filled the mouth of that poor vroucolaca with holy water. We\nso often told the administration of the town that in all Christendom\npeople would not fail in such a case to watch by night, to observe all\nthat was going forward in the town, that at last they arrested some\nvagabonds, who assuredly had a share in all these disturbances.\nApparently they were not the principal authors of them, or they were\ntoo soon set at liberty; for two days after, to make themselves amends\nfor the fast they had kept in prison, they began again to empty the\nstone bottles of wine belonging to those persons who were silly enough\nto forsake their houses at night. Thus, then, they were again obliged\nto have recourse to prayers.\n\n\"One day as certain orisons were being recited, after having stuck I\nknow not how many naked swords upon the grave of this corpse, which\nwas disinterred three or four times a day, according to the caprice of\nthe first comer, an Albanian, who chanced to be at Mico accidentally,\nbethought himself of saying in a sententious tone, that it was very\nridiculous to make use of the swords of Christians in such a case. Do\nyou not see, blind as ye are, said he, that the hilt of these swords,\nforming a cross with the handle, prevents the devil from coming out of\nthat body? why do you not rather make use of the sabres of the Turks?\nThe advice of this clever man was of no use; the vroucolaca did not\nappear more tractable, and everybody was in a strange consternation;\nthey no longer knew to which saint to pay their vows; when, with one\nvoice, as if the signal word had been given, they began to shout in\nall parts of the town that they had waited too long: that the\nvroucolaca ought to be burnt altogether; that after that, they would\ndefy the devil to return and ensconce himself there; that it would be\nbetter to have recourse to that extremity than to let the island be\ndeserted. In fact, there were whole families who were packing up in\nthe intention of retiring to Sira or Tina.\n\n\"So they carried the vroucolaca, by order of the administration, to\nthe point of the Island of St. George, where they had prepared a great\npile made up with a mixture of tow, for fear that wood, however dry it\nmight be, would not burn quickly enough by itself. The remains of this\nunfortunate corpse were thrown upon it and consumed in a very little\ntime; it was on the first day of January, 1701. We saw this fire as we\nreturned from Delos: it might be called a real _feu de joie_; since\nthen, there have been no more complaints against the vroucolaca. They\ncontented themselves with saying that the devil had been properly\ncaught that time, and they made up a song to turn him into ridicule.\n\n\"Throughout the Archipelago, the people are persuaded that it is only\nthe Greeks of the Greek church whose corpses are reanimated by the\ndevil. The inhabitants of the Isle of Santorin have great\napprehensions of these bugbears; those of Maco, after their visions\nwere dissipated, felt an equal fear of being punished by the Turks and\nby the Bishop of Tina. None of the papas would be present at St.\nGeorge when this body was burned, lest the bishop should exact a sum\nof money for having disinterred and burned the dead body without his\npermission. As for the Turks, it is certain that at their first visit\nthey did not fail to make the community of Maco pay the price of the\nblood of this poor devil, who in every way became the abomination and\nhorror of his country. After this, must we not own that the Greeks of\nto-day are not great Greeks, and that there is only ignorance and\nsuperstition among them?\"[517]\n\nSo says Monsieur de Tournefort.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[517] This took place nearly a hundred and fifty years ago.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXIII.\n\nHAS THE DEMON POWER TO CAUSE ANY ONE TO DIE AND THEN TO RESTORE THE\nDEAD TO LIFE?\n\n\nSupposing the principle which we established as indubitable at the\ncommencement of this dissertation--that God alone is the sovereign\narbitrator of life and death; that he alone can give life to men, and\nrestore it to them after he has taken it from them--the question that\nwe here propose appears unseasonable and absolutely frivolous, since\nit concerns a supposition notoriously impossible.\n\nNevertheless, as some learned men have believed that the demon has\npower to restore life, and to preserve from corruption, for a time,\ncertain bodies which he makes use of to delude mankind and frighten\nthem, as it happens with the ghosts of Hungary, we shall treat of it\nin this place, and relate a remarkable instance furnished by Monsieur\nNicholas Remy, procureur-general of Lorraine, and which occurred in\nhis own time;[518] that is to say, in 1581, at Dalhem, a village\nsituated between the Moselle and the Sare. A goatherd of this village,\nnamed Pierron, a married man and father of a boy, conceived a violent\npassion for a girl of the village. One day, when his thoughts were\noccupied with this young girl, she appeared to him in the fields, or\nthe demon in her likeness. Pierron declared his love to her; she\npromised to reply to it on condition that he would give himself up to\nher, and obey her in all things. Pierron consented to this, and\nconsummated his abominable passion with this spectre. Some time\nafterwards, Abrahel, which was the name assumed by the demon, asked of\nhim as a pledge of his love, that he would sacrifice to her his only\nson, and gave him an apple for this boy to eat, who, on tasting it,\nfell down dead. The father and mother, in despair at this fatal and to\nboth unexpected accident, uttered lamentations, and were inconsolable.\n\nAbrahel appeared again to the goatherd, and promised to restore the\nchild to life if the father would ask this favor of him by paying him\nthe kind of adoration due only to God. The peasant knelt down,\nworshiped Abrahel, and immediately the boy began to revive. He opened\nhis eyes; they warmed him, chafed his limbs, and at last he began to\nwalk and to speak. He was the same as before, only thinner, paler, and\nmore languid; his eyes heavy and sunken, his movements slower and less\nfree, his mind duller and more stupid. At the end of a year, the demon\nthat had animated him quitted him with a great noise; the youth fell\nbackwards, and his body, which was foetid and stunk insupportably, was\ndragged with a hook out of his father's house, and buried in a field\nwithout any ceremony.\n\nThis event was reported at Nancy, and examined into by the\nmagistrates, who informed themselves exactly of the circumstance,\nheard the witnesses, and found that the thing was such as has been\nrelated. For the rest, the story does not say how the peasant was\npunished, nor whether he was so at all. Perhaps his crime with the\ndemon could not be proved; to that there was probably no witness. In\nregard to the death of his son, it was difficult to prove that he was\nthe cause of it.\n\nProcopius, in his secret history of the Emperor Justinian, seriously\nasserts that he is persuaded, as well as several other persons, that\nthat emperor was a demon incarnate. He says the same thing of the\nEmpress Theodora his wife. Josephus, the Jewish historian, says that\nthe souls of the wicked enter the bodies of the possessed, whom they\ntorment, and cause to act and speak.\n\nWe see by St. Chrysostom that in his time many Christians believed\nthat the spirits of persons who died a violent death were changed into\ndemons, and that the magicians made use of the spirit of a child they\nhad killed for their magical operations, and to discover the future.\nSt. Philastrius places among heretics those persons who believed that\nthe souls of worthless men were changed into demons.\n\nAccording to the system of these authors, the demon might have entered\ninto the body of the child of the shepherd Pierron, moved it and\nmaintained it in a kind of life whilst his body was uncorrupted and\nthe organs underanged; it was not the soul of the boy which animated\nit, but the demon which replaced his spirit.\n\nPhilo believed that as there are good and bad angels, there are also\ngood and bad souls or spirits, and that the souls which descend into\nthe bodies bring to them their own good or bad qualities.\n\nWe see by the Gospel that the Jews of the time of our Saviour believed\nthat one man could be animated by several souls. Herod imagined that\nthe spirit of John the Baptist, whom he had beheaded, had entered into\nJesus Christ,[519] and worked miracles in him. Others fancied that\nJesus Christ was animated by the spirit of Elias,[520] or of Jeremiah,\nor some other of the ancient prophets.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[518] Art. ii. p. 14.\n\n[519] Mark vi. 16, 17.\n\n[520] Matt. xvi. 14.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXIV.\n\nEXAMINATION OF THE OPINION WHICH CONCLUDES THAT THE DEMON CAN RESTORE\nMOTION TO A DEAD BODY.\n\n\nWe cannot approve these opinions of Jews which we have just shown.\nThey are contrary to our holy religion, and to the dogmas of our\nschools. But we believe that the spirit which once inspired Elijah,\nfor instance, rested on Elisha, his disciple; and that the Holy Spirit\nwhich inspired the first animated the second also, and even St. John\nthe Baptist, who, according to the words of Jesus Christ, came in the\npower of Elijah to prepare a highway for the Messiah. Thus, in the\nprayers of the Church, we pray to God to fill his faithful servants\nwith the spirit of the saints, and to inspire them with a love for\nthat which they loved, and a detestation of that which they hated.\n\nThat the demon, and even a good angel by the permission or commission\nof God, can take away the life of a man appears indubitable. The angel\nwhich appeared to Zipporah,[521] as Moses was returning from Midian to\nEgypt, and threatened to slay his two sons because they were not\ncircumcised; as well as the one who slew the first-born of the\nEgyptians,[522] and the one who is termed in Scripture _the Destroying\nAngel_, and who slew the Hebrew murmurers in the wilderness;[523] and\nthe angel who was near slaying Balaam and his ass;[524] the angel who\nkilled the soldiers of Sennacherib, he who smote the first seven\nhusbands of Sara, the daughter of Raguel;[525] and, finally, the one\nwith whom the Psalmist menaces his enemies, all are instances in proof\nof this.[526]\n\nDoes not St. Paul, speaking to the Corinthians of those who took the\nCommunion unworthily,[527] say that the demon occasioned them\ndangerous maladies, of which many died? Will it be believed that those\nwhom the same Apostle delivered over to Satan[528] suffered nothing\nbodily; and that Judas, having received from the Son of God a bit of\nbread dipped in the dish,[529] and Satan having entered into him, that\nbad spirit did not disturb his reason, his imagination, and his heart,\nuntil at last he led him to destroy himself, and to hang himself in\ndespair?\n\nWe may believe that all these angels were evil angels, although it\ncannot be denied that God employs sometimes the good angels also to\nexercise his vengeance against the wicked, as well as to chastise,\ncorrect, and punish those to whom God desires to be merciful; as he\nsends his Prophets to announce good and bad tidings, to threaten\npunishment, and excite to repentance.\n\nBut nowhere do we read that either the good or the evil angels have of\ntheir own authority alone either given life to any person or restored\nit. This power is reserved to God alone.[530] The demon, according to\nthe Gospel,[531] in the last days, and before the last Judgment, will\nperform, either by his own power or that of Antichrist and his\nsubordinates, such wonders as would, were it possible, lead the elect\nthemselves into error. From the time of Jesus Christ and his Apostles,\nSatan raised up false Christs and false Apostles, who performed many\nseeming miracles, and even resuscitated the dead. At least, it was\nmaintained that they had resuscitated some: St. Clement of Alexandria\nand Hegesippus make mention of a few resurrections operated by Simon\nthe magician;[532] it is also said that Apollonius of Thyana brought\nto life a girl they were carrying to be buried. If we may believe\nApuleius,[533] Asclepiades, meeting a funeral convoy, resuscitated the\nbody they were carrying to the pile. It is asserted that AEsculapius\nrestored to life Hippolytus, the son of Theseus; also Glaucus, the son\nof Minos, and Campanes, killed at the assault of Thebes, and Admetus,\nKing of Phera in Thessaly. Elian[534] attests that the same AEsculapius\njoined on again the head of a woman to her corpse, and restored her to\nlife.\n\nBut if we possessed the certainty of all these events which we have\njust cited--I mean to say, were they attested by ocular witnesses,\nwell-informed and disinterested, which is not the case--we ought to\nknow the circumstances attending these events, and then we should be\nbetter able to dispute or assent to them. For there is every\nappearance that the dead people resuscitated by AEsculapius were only\npersons who were dangerously ill, and restored to health by that\nskillful physician. The girl revived by Apollonius of Thyana was not\nreally dead; even those who were carrying her to the funeral pile had\ntheir doubts if she were deceased. What is said of Simon the magician\nis anything but certain; and even if that impostor by his magical\nsecrets could have performed some wonders on dead persons, it should\nbe imputed to his delusions and to some artifice, which may have\nsubstituted living bodies or phantoms for the dead bodies which he\nboasted of having recalled to life. In a word, we hold it as\nindubitable that it is God only who can impart life to a person really\ndead, either by power proceeding immediately from himself, or by means\nof angels or of demons, who perform his behests.\n\nI own that the instance of that boy of Dalhem is perplexing. Whether\nit was the spirit of the child that returned into his body to animate\nit anew, or the demon who replaced his soul, the puzzle appears to me\nthe same; in all this circumstance we behold only the work of the evil\nspirit. God does not seem to have had any share in it. Now, if the\ndemon can take the place of a spirit in a body newly dead, or if he\ncan make the soul by which it was animated before death return into\nit, we can no longer dispute his power to restore a kind of life to a\ndead person; which would be a terrible temptation for us, who might be\nled to believe that the demon has a power which religion does not\npermit us to think that God shares with any created being.\n\nI would then say, supposing the truth of the fact, of which I see no\nroom to doubt, that God, to punish the abominable crime of the father,\nand to give an example of his just vengeance to mankind, permitted the\ndemon to do on this occasion what he perhaps had never done, nor ever\nwill again--to possess a body, and serve it in some sort as a soul,\nand give it action and motion whilst he could retain the body without\nits being too much corrupted.\n\nAnd this example applies admirably to the ghosts of Hungary and\nMoravia, whom the demon will move and animate--will cause to appear\nand disturb the living, so far as to occasion their death. I say all\nthis under the supposition that what is said of the vampires is true;\nfor if it all be false and fabulous, it is losing time to seek the\nmeans of explaining it.\n\nFor the rest, several of the ancients, as Tertullian[535] and\nLactantius, believed that the demons were the only authors of all the\nmagicians do when they evoke the souls of the dead. They cause\nborrowed bodies or phantoms to appear, say they, and fascinate the\neyes of those present, to make them believe that to be real which is\nonly seeming.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[521] Exod. iv. 24, 25.\n\n[522] Exod. xii. 12.\n\n[523] 1 Cor. x. 10; Judith viii. 25.\n\n[524] Numb. xxii.\n\n[525] Tob. iii. 7.\n\n[526] Psa. xxxiv. 7.\n\n[527] 1 Cor. xi. 30.\n\n[528] 1 Tim. i. 20.\n\n[529] John xiii.\n\n[530] 1 Sam. ii. 6.\n\n[531] Matt. xxiv. 24.\n\n[532] Clem. Alex. Itinerario; Hegesippus de Excidio Jerusalem, c. 2.\n\n[533] Apulei Flondo. lib. ii.\n\n[534] AElian, de Animalib. lib. ix. c. 77.\n\n[535] Tertull. de Anim. c. 22.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXV.\n\nINSTANCES OF PHANTOMS WHICH HAVE APPEARED TO BE ALIVE, AND HAVE GIVE\nMANY SIGNS OF LIFE.\n\n\nLe Loyer, in his book upon spectres, maintains[536] that the demon can\ncause the possessed to make extraordinary and involuntary movements.\nHe can then, if allowed by God, give motion to a dead and insensible\nman.\n\nHe relates the instance of Polycrites, a magistrate of AEtolia, who\nappeared to the people of Locria nine or ten months after his death,\nand told them to show him his child, which being born monstrous, they\nwished to burn with its mother. The Locrians, in spite of the\nremonstrance of the spectre of Polycrites, persisting in their\ndetermination, Polycrites took his child, tore it to pieces and\ndevoured it, leaving only the head, while the people could neither\nsend him away nor prevent him; after that, he disappeared. The\nAEtolians were desirous of sending to consult the Delphian oracle, but\nthe head of the child began to speak, and foretold the misfortunes\nwhich were to happen to their country and to his own mother.\n\nAfter the battle between King Antiochus and the Romans, an officer\nnamed Buptages, left dead on the field of battle, with twelve mortal\nwounds, rose up suddenly, and began to threaten the Romans with the\nevils which were to happen to them through the foreign nations who\nwere to destroy the Roman empire. He pointed out in particular, that\narmies would come from Asia, and desolate Europe, which may designate\nthe irruption of the Turks upon the domains of the Roman empire.\n\nAfter that, Buptages climbed up an oak tree, and foretold that he was\nabout to be devoured by a wolf, which happened. After the wolf had\ndevoured the body, the head again spoke to the Romans, and forbade\nthem to bury him. All that appears very incredible, and was not\naccomplished in fact. It was not the people of Asia, but those of the\nnorth, who overthrew the Roman empire.\n\nIn the war of Augustus against Sextus Pompey, son of the great\nPompey,[537] a soldier of Augustus, named Gabinius, had his head cut\noff by order of young Pompey, so that it only held on to the neck by a\nnarrow strip of flesh. Towards evening they heard Gabinius lamenting;\nthey ran to him, and he said that he had returned from hell to reveal\nvery important things to Pompey. Pompey did not think proper to go to\nhim, but he sent one of his men, to whom Gabinius declared that the\ngods on high had decreed the happy destiny of Pompey, and that he\nwould succeed in all his designs. Directly Gabinius had thus spoken,\nhe fell down dead and stiff. This pretended prediction was falsified\nby the facts. Pompey was vanquished, and Caesar gained all the\nadvantage in this war.\n\nA certain female juggler had died, but a magician of the band put a\ncharm under her armpits, which gave her power to move; but another\nwizard having looked at her, cried out that it was only vile carrion,\nand immediately she fell down dead, and appeared what she was in fact.\n\nNicole Aubri, a native of Vervius, being possessed by several devils,\none of these devils, named Baltazo, took from the gibbet the body of a\nman who had been hanged near the plain of Arlon, and in this body went\nto the husband of Nicole Aubri, promising to deliver his wife from her\npossession if he would let him pass the night with her. The husband\nconsulted the schoolmaster, who practiced exorcising, and who told him\non no account to grant what was asked of him. The husband and Baltazo\nhaving entered the church, the woman who was possessed called him by\nhis name, and immediately this Baltazo disappeared. The schoolmaster\nconjuring the possessed, Beelzebub, one of the demons, revealed what\nBaltazo had done, and that if the husband had granted what he asked,\nhe would have flown away with Nicole Aubri, both body and soul.\n\nLe Loyer again relates[538] four other instances of persons whom the\ndemon had seemed to restore to life, to satisfy the brutal passion of\ntwo lovers.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[536] Le Loyer, des Spectres, lib. ii. pp. 376, 392, 393.\n\n[537] Pliny, lib. vii. c. 52.\n\n[538] Le Loyer, pp. 412-414.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXVI.\n\nDEVOTING TO DEATH, A PRACTICE AMONG THE PAGANS.\n\n\nThe ancient heathens, both Greeks and Romans, attributed to magic and\nto the demon the power of occasioning the destruction of any person by\na manner of devoting them to death, which consisted in forming a waxen\nimage as much as possible like the person whose life they wished to\ntake. They devoted him or her to death by their magical secrets: then\nthey burned the waxen statue, and as that by degrees was consumed, so\nthe doomed person became languid and at last died. Theocritus[539]\nmakes a woman transported with love speak thus: she invokes the image\nof the shepherd, and prays that the heart of Daphnis, her beloved, may\nmelt like the image of wax which represents him.\n\nHorace[540] brings forward two enchantresses, who evoke the shades to\nmake them announce the future. First of all, the witches tear a sheep\nwith their teeth, shedding the blood into a grave, in order to bring\nthose spirits from whom they expect an answer; then they place next to\nthemselves two statues, one of wax, the other of wool; the latter is\nthe largest, and mistress of the other. The waxen image is at its\nfeet, as a suppliant, and awaiting only death. After divers magical\nceremonies, the waxen image was inflamed and consumed.\n\nHe speaks of this again elsewhere; and after having with a mocking\nlaugh made his complaints to the enchantress Canidia, saying that he\nis ready to make her honorable reparation, he owns that he feels all\nthe effects of her too-powerful art, as he himself has experienced it\nto give motion to waxen figures, and bring down the moon from the\nsky.[541]\n\nVirgil also speaks[542] of these diabolical operations, and these\nwaxen images, devoted by magic art.\n\nThere is reason to believe that these poets only repeat these things\nto show the absurdity of the pretended secrets of magic, and the vain\nand impotent ceremonies of sorcerers.\n\nBut it cannot be denied that, idle as all these practices may be, they\nhave been used in ancient times; that many have put faith in them, and\nfoolishly dreaded those attempts.\n\nLucian relates the effects[543] of the magic of a certain Hyperborean,\nwho, having formed a Cupid with clay, infused life into it, and sent\nit to fetch a girl named Chryseis, with whom a young man had fallen\nin love. The little Cupid brought her, and on the morrow, at dawn of\nday, the moon, which the magician had brought down from the sky,\nreturned thither. Hecate, whom he had evoked from the bottom of hell,\nfled away, and all the rest of the scene disappeared. Lucian, with\ngreat reason, ridicules all this, and observes that these magicians,\nwho boast of having so much power, ordinarily exercise it only upon\ncontemptible people, and are such themselves.\n\nThe oldest instances of this dooming are those which are set down in\nScripture, in the Old Testament. God commands Moses to devote to\nanathema the Canaanites of the kingdom of Arad.[544] He devotes also\nto anathema all the nations of the land of Canaan.[545] Balac, King of\nMoab,[546] sends to the diviner Balaam to engage him to curse and\ndevote the people of Israel. \"Come,\" says he to him, by his messenger,\n\"and curse me Israel; for I know that those whom you have cursed and\ndoomed to destruction shall be cursed, and he whom you have blessed\nshall be crowned with blessings.\"\n\nWe have in history instances of these devotings and maledictions, and\nevocations of the tutelary gods of cities by magic art. The ancients\nkept very secret the proper names of towns,[547] for fear that if they\ncame to the knowledge of the enemy, they might make use of them in\ntheir invocations, which to their mind had no might unless the proper\nname of the town was expressed. The usual names of Rome, Tyre, and\nCarthage, were not their true and secret names. Rome, for instance,\nwas called Valentia, a name known to very few persons, and Valerius\nSoranus was severely punished for having revealed it.\n\nMacrobius[548] has preserved for us the formula of a solemn devoting\nor dooming of a city, and of imprecations against her, by devoting her\nto some hurtful and dangerous demon. We find in the heathen poets a\ngreat number of these invocations and magical doomings, to inspire a\ndangerous passion, or to occasion maladies. It is surprising that\nthese superstitious and abominable practices should have gained\nentrance among Christians, and have been dreaded by persons who ought\nto have known their vanity and impotency.\n\nTacitus relates[549] that at the death of Germanicus, who was said to\nhave been poisoned by Piso and Plautina, there were found in the\nground and in the walls bones of human bodies, doomings, and charms,\nor magic verses, with the name of Germanicus engraved upon thin plates\nof lead steeped in corrupted blood, half-burnt ashes, and other\ncharms, by virtue of which it was believed that spirits could be\nevoked.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[539] Theocrit Idyl. ii.\n\n[540]\n \"Lanea et effigies erat, altera cerea major\n Lanea, que poenis compesceret inferiorem.\n Cerea suppliciter stabat, servilibus ut quae\n Jam peritura modis....\n Et imagine cerea\n Largior arserit ignis.\"\n\n[541]\n \"An quae movere cereas imagines,\n Ut ipse curiosus, et polo\n Deripere lunam.\"\n\n[542]\n \"Limus ut hic durescit, et haec ut cera liquescit.\n Uno eodemque igni; sic nostro Daphnis amore.\"--_Virgil, Eclog._\n\n[543] Lucian in Philops.\n\n[544] Numb. xxi. 3.\n\n[545] Deut. vii. 2, 3; xii. 1-3, &c.\n\n[546] Numb. xxii. 5, &c.\n\n[547] Peir. lib. iii. c. 5; xxviii. c. 2.\n\n[548] Macrobius, lib. iii. c. 9.\n\n[549] Tacit. Ann. lib. ii. art. 69.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXVII.\n\nINSTANCES OF DEVOTING OR DOOMING AMONGST CHRISTIANS.\n\n\nHector Boethius,[550] in his History of Scotland, relates that Duffus,\nking of that country, falling ill of a disorder unknown to the\nphysicians, was consumed by a slow fever, passed his nights without\nsleep, and insensibly wasted away; his body melted in perspiration\nevery night; he became weak, languid, and in a dying state, without,\nhowever, his pulse undergoing any alteration. Everything was done to\nrelieve him, but uselessly. His life was despaired of, and those about\nhim began to suspect some evil spell. In the mean time, the people of\nMoray, a county of Scotland, mutinied, supposing that the king must\nsoon sink under his malady.\n\nIt was whispered abroad that the king had been bewitched by some\nwitches who lived at Forres, a little town in the north of Scotland.\nPeople were sent there to arrest them, and they were surprised in\ntheir dwellings, where one of them was basting an image of King\nDuffus, made of wax, turning on a wooden spit before a large fire,\nbefore which she was reciting certain magical prayers; and she\naffirmed that as the figure melted the king would lose his strength,\nand at last he would die when the figure should be entirely melted.\nThese women declared that they had been hired to perform these evil\nspells by the principal men of the county of Moray, who only awaited\nthe king's decease to burst into open revolt.\n\nThese witches were immediately arrested and burnt at the stake. The\nking was much better, and in a few days he perfectly recovered his\nhealth. This account is found also in the History of Scotland by\nBuchanan, who says he heard it from his elders.\n\nHe makes the King Duffus live in 960, and he who has added notes to\nthe text of these historians, says that this custom of melting waxen\nimages by magic art, to occasion the death of certain persons, was not\nunknown to the Romans, as appears from Virgil and Ovid; and of this we\nhave related a sufficient number of instances. But it must be owned\nthat all which is related concerning it is very doubtful; not that\nwizards and witches have not been found who have attempted to cause\nthe death of persons of high rank by these means, and who attributed\nthe effect to the demon, but there is little appearance that they ever\nsucceeded in it. If magicians possessed the secret of thus occasioning\nthe death of any one they pleased, where is the prince, prelate, or\nlord who would be safe? If they could thus roast them slowly to death,\nwhy not kill them at once, by throwing the waxen image in the fire?\nWho can have given such power to the devil? Is it the Almighty, to\nsatisfy the revenge of an insignificant woman, or the jealousy of\nlovers of either sex?\n\nM. de St. Andre, physician to the king, in his Letters on Witchcraft,\nwould explain the effects of these devotings, supposing them to be\ntrue, by the evaporation of animal spirits, which, proceeding from the\nbodies of the wizards or witches, and uniting with the atoms which\nfall from the wax, and the atoms of the fire, which render them still\nmore pungent, should fly towards the person they desire to bewitch,\nand cause in him or her sensations of heat or pain, more or less\nviolent according to the action of the fire. But I do not think that\nthis clever man finds many to approve of his idea. The shortest way,\nin my opinion, would be, to deny the effects of these charms; for if\nthese effects are real, they are inexplicable by physics, and can only\nbe attributed to the devil.\n\nWe read in the History of the Archbishops of Treves that Eberard,\narchbishop of that church, who died in 1067, having threatened to send\naway the Jews from his city, if they did not embrace Christianity,\nthese unhappy people, being reduced to despair, suborned an\necclesiastic, who for money baptized for them, by the name of the\nbishop, a waxen image, to which they tied wicks or wax tapers, and\nlighted them on Holy Saturday (Easter Eve), as the prelate was going\nsolemnly to administer the baptismal rite.\n\nWhilst he was occupied in this holy function, the statue being half\nconsumed, Eberard felt himself extremely ill; he was led into the\nvestry, where he soon after expired.\n\nThe Pope John XXII., in 1317, complained, in public letters, that some\nscoundrels had attempted his life by similar operations; and he\nappeared persuaded of their power, and that he had been preserved from\ndeath only by the particular protection of God. \"We inform you,\" says\nhe, \"that some traitors have conspired against us, and against some of\nour brothers the cardinals, and have prepared beverages and images to\ntake away our life, which they have sought to do on every occasion;\nbut God has always preserved us.\" The letter is dated the 27th of\nJuly.\n\nFrom the 27th of February, the pope had issued a commission to inform\nagainst these poisoners; his letter is addressed to Bartholomew,\nBishop of Frejus, who had succeeded the pope in that see, and to\nPeter Tessier, doctor _en decret_, afterwards cardinal. The pope says\ntherein, in substance--We have heard that John de Limoges, Jacques de\nCrabancon, Jean d'Arrant, physician, and some others, have applied\nthemselves, through a damnable curiosity, to necromancy and other\nmagical arts, on which they have books; that they have often made use\nof mirrors, and images consecrated in their manner; that, placing\nthemselves within circles, they have often invoked the evil spirits to\noccasion the death of men by the might of their enchantments, or by\nsending maladies which abridge their days. Sometimes they have\nenclosed demons in mirrors, or circles, or rings, to interrogate them,\nnot only on the past, but on the future, and made predictions. They\npretend to have made many experiments in these matters, and fearlessly\nassert, that they can not only by means of certain beverages, or\ncertain meats, but by simple words, abridge or prolong life, and cure\nall sorts of diseases.\n\nThe pope gave a similar commission, April 22d, 1317, to the Bishop of\nRies, to the same Pierre Tessier, to Pierre Despres, and two others,\nto inquire into the conspiracy formed against him and against the\ncardinals; and in this commission he says:--\"They have prepared\nbeverages to poison us, and not having been able conveniently to make\nus take them, they have had waxen images, made with our names, to\nattack our lives, by pricking these images with magical enchantments,\nand innovations of demons; but God has preserved us, and caused three\nof these images to fall into our hands.\"\n\nWe see a description of similar charms in a letter, written three\nyears after, to the Inquisitor of Carcassone, by William de Godin,\nCardinal-Bishop of Sabina, in which he says:--\"The pope commands you\nto inquire and proceed against those who sacrifice to demons, worship\nthem, or pay them homage, by giving them for a token a written paper,\nor something else, to bind the demon, or to work some charm by\ninvoking him; who, abusing the sacrament of baptism, baptize images of\nwax, or of other matters with invocation of demons; who abuse the\neucharist, or consecrated wafer, or other sacraments, by exercising\ntheir evil spells. You will proceed against them with the prelates, as\nyou do in matters of heresy; for the pope gives you the power to do\nso.\" The letter is dated from Avignon, the 22d of August, 1320.\n\nAt the trial of Enguerrand de Marigni, they brought forward a wizard\nwhom they had surprised making waxen images, representing King Louis\nle Hutin and Charles de Valois, and meaning to kill them by pricking\nor melting these images.\n\nIt is related also that Cosmo Rugieri, a Florentine, a great atheist\nand pretended magician, had a secret chamber, where he shut himself up\nalone, and pricked with a needle a wax image representing the king,\nafter having loaded it with maledictions and devoted it to destruction\nby horrible enchantments, hoping thus to cause the prince to languish\naway and die.\n\nWhether these conjurations, these waxen images, these magical words,\nmay have produced their effects or not, it proves at any rate the\nopinion that was entertained on the subject--the ill will of the\nwizards, and the fear in which they were held. Although their\nenchantments and imprecations might not be followed by any effect, it\nis apparently thought that experience on that point made them dreaded,\nwhether with reason or not.\n\nThe general ignorance of physics made people at that time take many\nthings to be supernatural which were simply the effects of natural\ncauses; and as it is certain, as our faith teaches us, that God has\noften permitted demons to deceive mankind by prodigies, and do them\ninjury by extraordinary means, it was supposed without examining into\nthe matter that there was an art of magic and sure rules for\ndiscovering certain secrets, or causing certain evils by means of\ndemons; as if God had not always been the Supreme Master, to permit or\nto hinder them; or as if He would have ratified the compacts made with\nevil spirits.\n\nBut on examining closely this pretended magic, we have found nothing\nbut poisonings, attended by superstition and imposture. All that we\nhave just related of the effects of magic, enchantments, and\nwitchcraft, which were pretended to cause such terrible effects on the\nbodies and the possessions of mankind, and all that is recounted of\ndoomings, evocations, and magic figures, which, being consumed by\nfire, occasioned the death of those who were destined or enchanted,\nrelate but very imperfectly to the affair of vampires, which we are\ntreating of in this volume; unless it may be said that those ghosts\nare raised and evoked by magic art, and that the persons who fancy\nthemselves strangled and finally stricken with death by vampires, only\nsuffer these miseries through the malice of the demon, who makes their\ndeceased parents or relations appear to them, and produces all these\neffects upon them; or simply strikes the imagination of the persons to\nwhom it happens, and makes them believe that it is their deceased\nrelations, who come to torment and kill them; although in all this it\nis only an imagination strongly affected which acts upon them.\n\nWe may also connect with the history of ghosts what is related of\ncertain persons who have promised each other to return after their\ndeath, and to reveal what passes in the other world, and the state in\nwhich they find themselves.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[550] Hector Boethius, Hist. Scot. lib. xi. c. 216, 219.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXVIII.\n\nINSTANCES OF PERSONS WHO HAVE PROMISED TO GIVE EACH OTHER NEWS OF THE\nOTHER WORLD AFTER THEIR DEATH.\n\n\nThe story of the Marquis de Rambouillet, who appeared after his death\nto the Marquis de Precy, is very celebrated. These two lords,\nconversing on the subject of the other world, like people who were not\nvery strongly persuaded of the truth of all that is said upon it,\npromised each other that the first of the two who died should bring\nthe news of it to the other. The Marquis de Rambouillet set off for\nFlanders, where the war was then carried on; and the Marquis de Precy\nremained at Paris, detained by a low fever. Six weeks after, in broad\nday, he heard some one undraw his bed-curtains, and turning to see who\nit was, he perceived the Marquis de Rambouillet, in buff-leather\njacket and boots. He sprang from his bed to embrace his friend; but\nRambouillet, stepping back a few paces, told him that he was come to\nkeep his word as he had promised--that all that was said of the next\nlife was very certain--that he must change his conduct, and in the\nfirst action wherein he was engaged he would lose his life.\n\nPrecy again attempted to embrace his friend, but he embraced only\nempty air. Then Rambouillet, seeing that his friend was incredulous as\nto what he said, showed him where he had received the wound in his\nside, whence the blood still seemed to flow. Precy soon after\nreceived, by the post, confirmation of the death of the Marquis de\nRambouillet; and being himself some time after, during the civil wars,\nat the battle of the Faubourg of St. Antoine, he was there killed.\n\nPeter the Venerable, Abbot of Clugni,[551] relates a very similar\nstory. A gentleman named Humbert, son of a lord named Guichard de\nBelioc, in the diocese of Macon, having declared war against the other\nprincipal men in his neighborhood, a gentleman named Geoffrey d'Iden\nreceived in the melee a wound of which he died immediately.\n\nAbout two months afterwards, this same Geoffrey appeared to a\ngentleman named Milo d'Ansa, and begged him to tell Humbert de Belioc,\nin whose service he had lost his life, that he was tormented for\nhaving assisted him in an unjust war, and for not having expiated his\nsins by penance before he died; that he begged him to have compassion\non him, and on his own father, Guichard, who had left him great\nwealth, of which he made a bad use, and of which a part had been badly\nacquired. That in truth Guichard, the father of Humbert, had embraced\na religious life at Clugni; but that he had not time to satisfy the\njustice of God for the sins of his past life; that he conjured him to\nhave mass performed for him and for his father, to give alms, and to\nemploy the prayers of good people, to procure them both a prompt\ndeliverance from the pains they endured. He added, \"Tell him, that if\nhe will not mind what you say, I shall be obliged to go to him myself,\nand announce to him what I have just told you.\"\n\nMilo d'Ansa acquitted himself faithfully of his commission; Humbert\nwas frightened at it, but it did not make him better. Still, fearing\nthat Guichard, his father, or Geoffrey d'Iden might come and disturb\nhim, above all during the night, he dare not remain alone, and would\nalways have one of his people by him.\n\nOne morning, then, as he was lying awake in his bed, he beheld in his\npresence Geoffrey, armed as in a day of battle, who showed him the\nmortal wound he had received, and which appeared yet quite fresh. He\nreproached him keenly for his want of pity towards his own father, who\nwas groaning in torment. \"Take care,\" added he, \"that God does not\ntreat you rigorously, and refuse to you that mercy which you refuse to\nus; and, above all, take care not to execute your intention of going\nto the wars with Count Amedeus. If you go, you will there lose both\nlife and property.\"\n\nHe said, and Humbert was about to reply, when the Squire Vichard de\nMaracy, Humbert's counselor, arrived from mass, and immediately the\ndead man disappeared. From that moment, Humbert endeavored seriously\nto relieve his father Geoffrey, and resolved to take a journey to\nJerusalem to expiate his sins. Peter the Venerable had been well\ninformed of all the details of this story, which occurred in the year\nhe went into Spain, and made a great noise in the country. The\nCardinal Baronius,[552] a very grave and respectable man, says that he\nhad heard from several very sensible people, and who have often heard\nit preached to the people, and in particular from Michael Mercati,\nProthonotary of the Holy See, a man of acknowledged probity and well\ninformed, above all in the platonic philosophy, to which he applied\nhimself unweariedly with Marsilius Ficin, his friend, as zealous as\nhimself for the doctrine of Plato.\n\nOne day, these two great philosophers were conversing on the\nimmortality of the soul, and if it remained and existed after the\ndeath of the body. After having had much discourse on this matter,\nthey promised each other, and shook hands upon it, that the first of\nthem who quitted this world should come and tell the other somewhat of\nthe state of the other life.\n\nHaving thus separated, it happened some time afterwards that the same\nMichael Mercati, being wide awake and studying, one morning very\nearly, the same philosophical matters, heard on a sudden a noise like\na horseman who was coming hastily to his door, and at the same he\nheard the voice of his friend Marsilius Ficin, who cried out to him,\n\"Michael, Michael, nothing is more true than what is said of the other\nlife.\" At the same, Michael opened his window, and saw Marsilius\nmounted on a white horse, who was galloping away. Michael cried out to\nhim to stop, but he continued his course till Michael could no longer\nsee him.\n\nMarsilius Ficin was at that time dwelling at Florence, and died there\nat the same hour that he had appeared and spoken to his friend. The\nlatter wrote directly to Florence, to inquire into the truth of the\ncircumstance; and they replied to him that Marsilius had died at the\nsame moment that Michael had heard his voice and the noise of his\nhorse at his door. Ever after that adventure, Michael Mercati,\nalthough very regular in his conduct before then, became quite an\naltered man, and lived in so exemplary a manner that he became a\nperfect model of Christian life. We find a great many such instances\nin Henri Morus, and in Joshua Grandville, in his work entitled\n\"Sadduceeism Combated.\"\n\nHere is one taken from the life of B. Joseph de Lionisse, a missionary\ncapuchin.[553] One day, when he was conversing with his companion on\nthe duties of religion, and the fidelity which God requires of those\nwho have consecrated themselves to them, of the reward reserved for\nthose who are perfectly religious, and the severe justice which he\nexercises against unfaithful servants, Brother Joseph said to him,\n\"Let us promise each other mutually that the one who dies the first\nwill appear to the other, if God allows him so to do, to inform him of\nwhat passes in the other world, and the condition in which he finds\nhimself.\" \"I am willing,\" replied the holy companion; \"I give you my\nword upon it.\" \"And I pledge you mine,\" replied Brother Joseph.\n\nSome days after this, the pious companion was attacked by a malady\nwhich brought him to the tomb. Brother Joseph felt this the more\nsensibly, because he knew better than the others all the virtues of\nthis holy monk. He had no doubt of the fulfilment of their agreement,\nor that the deceased would appear to him, when he least thought of it,\nto acquit himself of his promise.\n\nIn effect, one day when Brother Joseph had retired to his room, in the\nafternoon, he saw a young capuchin enter horribly haggard, with a pale\nthin face, who saluted him with a feeble, trembling voice. As, at the\nsight of this spectre, Joseph appeared a little disturbed, \"Don't be\nalarmed,\" it said to him; \"I am come here as permitted by God, to\nfulfill my promise, and to tell you that I have the happiness to be\namongst the elect through the mercy of the Lord. But learn that it is\neven more difficult to be saved than is thought in this world; that\nGod, whose wisdom can penetrate the most secret folds of the heart,\nweighs exactly the actions which we have done during life, the\nthoughts, wishes, and motives, which we propose to ourselves in\nacting; and as much as he is inexorable in regard to sinners, so much\nis he good, indulgent, and rich in mercy, towards those just souls who\nhave served him in this life.\" At these words, the phantom\ndissappeared.\n\nHere follows an instance of a spirit which comes after death to visit\nhis friend without having made an agreement with him to do so.[554]\nPeter Garmate, Bishop of Cracow, was translated to the archbishopric\nof Gnesnes, in 1548, and obtained a dispensation from Paul III. to\nretain still his bishopric of Cracow. This prelate, after having led a\nvery irregular life during his youth, began towards the end of his\nlife, to perform many charitable actions, feeding every day a hundred\npoor, to whom he sent food from his own table. And when he traveled,\nhe was followed by two wagons, loaded with coats and shirts, which he\ndistributed amongst the poor according as they needed them.\n\nOne day, when he was preparing to go to church, towards evening, (it\nbeing the eve of a festival,) and he was alone in his closet, he\nsuddenly beheld before him a gentleman named Curosius, who had been\ndead some time, with whom he had formerly been too intimately\nassociated in evil doing.\n\nThe Archbishop Gamrate was at first affrighted, but the defunct\nreassured him and told him that he was of the number of the blessed.\n\"What!\" said the prelate to him; \"after such a life as you led! For\nyou know the excesses which both you and myself committed in our\nyouth.\" \"I know it,\" replied the defunct; \"but this is what saved me.\nOne day, when in Germany, I found myself with a man who uttered\nblasphemous discourse, most injurious to the Holy Virgin. I was\nirritated at it, and gave him a blow; we drew our swords; I killed\nhim; and for fear of being arrested and punished as a homicide, I\ntook flight without reflecting much on the action I had committed. But\nat the hour of death, I found myself most terribly disturbed by\nremorse on my past life, and I only expected certain destruction; when\nthe Holy Virgin came to my aid, and made such powerful intercession\nfor me with her Son, that she obtained for me the pardon of my sins;\nand I have the happiness to enjoy beatitude. For yourself, who have\nonly six months to live, I am sent to warn you, that in consideration\nof your alms, and your charity to the poor, God will show you mercy,\nand expects you to do penance. Profit while it is time, and expiate\nyour past sins.\" After having said this, he disappeared; and the\narchbishop, bursting into tears, began to live in so Christianly a\nmanner that he was the edification of all who knew him. He related the\ncircumstance to his most intimate friends, and died in 1545, after\nhaving directed the Church of Gnesnes for about five years.\n\nThe daughter of Dumoulin, a celebrated lawyer, having been inhumanly\nmassacred in her dwelling,[555] appeared by night to her husband, who\nwas wide awake, and declared to him the names of those who had killed\nherself and her children, conjuring him to revenge her death.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[551] Biblioth. Cluniae. de Miraculis, lib. i. c. 7, p. 1290.\n\n[552] Baronius ad an. Christi 401. Annal. tom. v.\n\n[553] Tom. i. p. 64, _et seq._\n\n[554] Stephani Damalevini Historia, p. 291. apud Ranald continuat\nBaronii, ad. an. 1545. tom. xxi art. 62.\n\n[555] Le Loyer, lib. iii. pp. 46, 47.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXIX.\n\nEXTRACT FROM THE POLITICAL WORKS OF M. L'ABBE DE ST. PIERRE.[556]\n\n\nI was told lately at Valogne, that a good priest of the town who\nteaches the children to read, had had an apparition in broad day ten\nor twelve years ago. As that had made a great deal of noise at first\non account of his reputation for probity and sincerity, I had the\ncuriosity to hear him relate his adventure himself. A lady, one of my\nrelations, who was acquainted with him, sent to invite him to dine\nwith her yesterday, the 7th of January, 1708, and as on the one hand I\nshowed a desire to learn the thing from himself, and on the other it\nwas a kind of honorable distinction to have had by daylight an\napparition of one of his comrades, he related it before dinner without\nrequiring to be pressed, and in a very naive manner.\n\n\nCIRCUMSTANCE.\n\n\"In 1695,\" said M. Bezuel to us, \"being a schoolboy of about fifteen\nyears of age, I became acquainted with the two children of M.\nAbaquene, attorney, schoolboys like myself. The eldest was of my own\nage, the second was eighteen months younger; he was named\nDesfontaines; we took all our walks and all our parties of pleasure\ntogether, and whether it was that Desfontaines had more affection for\nme, or that he was more gay, obliging, and clever than his brother, I\nloved him the best.\n\n\"In 1696, we were walking both of us in the cloister of the Capuchins.\nHe told me that he had lately read a story of two friends who had\npromised each other that the first of them who died should come and\nbring news of his condition to the one still living; that the one who\ndied came back to earth, and told his friend surprising things. Upon\nthat, Desfontaines told me that he had a favor to ask of me; that he\nbegged me to grant it instantly: it was to make him a similar promise,\nand on his part he would do the same. I told him that I would not. For\nseveral months he talked to me of it, often and seriously; I always\nresisted his wish. At last, towards the month of August, 1696, as he\nwas to leave to go and study at Caen, he pressed me so much with tears\nin his eyes, that I consented to it. He drew out at that moment two\nlittle papers which he had ready written: one was signed with his\nblood, in which he promised me that in case of his death he would come\nand bring me news of his condition; in the other I promised him the\nsame thing. I pricked my finger; a drop of blood came, with which I\nsigned my name. He was delighted to have my billet, and embracing me,\nhe thanked me a thousand times.\n\n\"Some time after, he set off with his brother. Our separation caused\nus much grief, but we wrote to each other now and then, and it was but\nsix weeks since I had had a letter from him, when what I am going to\nrelate to you happened to me.\n\n\"The 31st of July, 1697, one Thursday--I shall remember it all my\nlife--the late M. Sortoville, with whom I lodged, and who had been\nvery kind to me, begged of me to go to a meadow near the Cordeliers,\nand help his people, who were making hay, to make haste. I had not\nbeen there a quarter of an hour, when about half-past-two, I all of a\nsudden felt giddy and weak. In vain I leant upon my hay-fork; I was\nobliged to place myself on a little hay, where I was nearly half an\nhour recovering my senses. That passed off; but as nothing of the kind\nhad ever occurred to me before, I was surprised at it and feared it\nmight be the commencement of an illness. Nevertheless it did not make\nmuch impression upon me during the remainder of the day. It is true I\ndid not sleep that night so well as usual.\n\n\"The next day, at the same hour, as I was conducting to the meadow M.\nde St. Simon, the grandson of M. de Sortoville, who was then ten years\nold, I felt myself seized on the way with a similar faintness, and I\nsat down on a stone in the shade. That passed off, and we continued\nour way; nothing more happened to me that day, and at night I had\nhardly any sleep.\n\n\"At last, on the morrow, the second day of August, being in the loft\nwhere they laid up the hay they brought from the meadow, I was taken\nwith a similar giddiness and a similar faintness, but still more\nviolent than the other. I fainted away completely; one of the men\nperceived it. I have been told that I was asked what was the matter\nwith me, and that I replied, 'I have seen what I should never have\nbelieved;' but I have no recollection of either the question or the\nanswer. That, however, accords with what I do remember to have seen\njust then; as it were some one naked to the middle, but whom, however,\nI did not recognize. They helped me down from the ladder. The\nfaintness seized me again, my head swam as I was between two rounds of\nthe ladder, and again I fainted. They took me down and placed me on a\nlarge beam which served for a seat in the large square of the\ncapuchins. I sat down on it and then I no longer saw M. de Sortoville\nnor his domestics, although present; but perceiving Desfontaines near\nthe foot of the ladder, who made me a sign to come to him, I moved on\nmy seat as if to make room for him; and those who saw me and whom I\ndid not see, although my eyes were open, remarked this movement.\n\n\"As he did not come, I rose to go to him. He advanced towards me, took\nmy left arm with his right arm, and led me about thirty paces from\nthence into a retired street, holding me still under the arm. The\ndomestics, supposing that my giddiness had passed off, and that I had\npurposely retired, went every one to their work, except a little\nservant, who went and told M. de Sortoville that I was talking all\nalone. M. de Sortoville thought I was tipsy; he drew near, and heard\nme ask some questions, and make some answers, which he has told me\nsince.\n\n\"I was there nearly three-quarters of an hour, conversing with\nDesfontaines. 'I promised you,' said he to me, 'that if I died before\nyou I would come and tell you of it. I was drowned the day before\nyesterday in the river of Caen, at nearly this same hour. I was out\nwalking with such and such a one. It was very warm, and we had a wish\nto bathe; a faintness seized me in the water, and I fell to the\nbottom. The Abbe de Menil-Jean, my comrade, dived to bring me up. I\nseized hold of his foot; but whether he was afraid it might be a\nsalmon, because I held him so fast, or that he wished to remount\npromptly to the surface of the water, he shook his leg so roughly,\nthat he gave me a violent kick on the breast, which sent me to the\nbottom of the river, which is there very deep.\n\n\"Desmoulins related to me afterwards all that had occurred to them in\ntheir walk, and the subjects they had conversed upon. It was in vain\nfor me to ask him questions--whether he was saved, whether he was\ndamned, if he was in purgatory, if I was in a state of grace, and if I\nshould soon follow him; he continued to discourse as if he had not\nheard me, and as if he would not hear me.\n\n\"I approached him several times to embrace him, but it seemed to me\nthat I embraced nothing, and yet I felt very sensibly that he held me\ntightly by the arm, and that when I tried to turn away my head that I\nmight not see him, because I could not look at him without feeling\nafflicted, he shook my arm as if to oblige me to look at and listen to\nhim.\n\n\"He always appeared to me taller than I had seen him, and taller even\nthan he was at the time of his death, although he had grown during the\neighteen months in which we had not met. I beheld him always naked to\nthe middle of his body, his head uncovered, with his fine fair hair,\nand a white scroll twisted in his hair over his forehead, on which\nthere was some writing, but I could only make out the word _in_, &c.\n\n\"It was his same tone of voice. He appeared to me neither gay nor sad,\nbut in a calm and tranquil state. He begged of me when his brother\nreturned, to tell him certain things to say to his father and mother.\nHe begged me to say the Seven Psalms which had been given him as a\npenance the preceding Sunday, which he had not yet recited; again he\nrecommended me to speak to his brother, and then he bade me adieu,\nsaying, as he left me, _Jusques_, _jusques_, (_till_, _till_,) which\nwas the usual term he made use of when at the end of our walk we bade\neach other good-bye, to go home.\n\n\"He told me that at the time he was drowned, his brother, who was\nwriting a translation, regretted having let him go without\naccompanying him, fearing some accident. He described to me so well\nwhere he was drowned, and the tree in the avenue of Louvigni on which\nhe had written a few words, that two years afterwards, being there\nwith the late Chevalier de Gotol, one of those who were with him at\nthe time he was drowned, I pointed out to him the very spot; and by\ncounting the trees in a particular direction which Desfontaines had\nspecified to me, I went straight up to the tree, and I found his\nwriting. He (the Chevalier) told me also that the article of the Seven\nPsalms was true, and that on coming from confession they had told each\nother their penance; and since then his brother has told me that it\nwas quite true that at that hour he was writing his exercise, and he\nreproached himself for not having accompanied his brother. As nearly a\nmonth passed by without my being able to do what Desfontaines had told\nme in regard to his brother, he appeared to me again twice before\ndinner at a country house whither I had gone to dine a league from\nhence. I was very faint. I told them not to mind me, that it was\nnothing, and that I should soon recover myself; and I went to a\ncorner of the garden. Desfontaines having appeared to me, reproached\nme for not having yet spoken to his brother, and again conversed with\nme for a quarter of an hour without answering any of my questions.\n\n\"As I was going in the morning to Notre-Dame de la Victoire, he\nappeared to me again, but for a shorter time, and pressed me always to\nspeak to his brother, and left me, saying still, _Jusques_, _Jusques_,\nand without choosing to reply to my questions.\n\n\"It is a remarkable thing that I always felt a pain in that part of my\narm which he had held me by the first time, until I had spoken to his\nbrother. I was three days without being able to sleep, from the\nastonishment and agitation I felt. At the end of the first\nconversation, I told M. de Varonville, my neighbor and schoolfellow,\nthat Desfontaines had been drowned; that he himself had just appeared\nto me and told me so. He went away and ran to the parents' house to\nknow if it was true; they had just received the news, but by a mistake\nhe understood that it was the eldest. He assured me that he had read\nthe letter of Desfontaines, and he believed it; but I maintained\nalways that it could not be, and that Desfontaines himself had\nappeared to me. He returned, came back, and told me in tears that it\nwas but too true.\n\n\"Nothing has occurred to me since, and there is my adventure just as\nit happened. It has been related in various ways; but I have recounted\nit only as I have just told it to you. The Chevalier de Gotol told me\nthat Desfontaines had appeared also to M. de Menil-Jean; but I am not\nacquainted with him; he lives twenty leagues from hence near Argentan,\nand I can say no more about it.\"\n\nThis is a very singular and circumstantial narrative, related by M.\nl'Abbe de St. Pierre, who is by no means credulous, and sets his whole\nmind and all his philosophy to explain the most extraordinary events\nby physical reasonings, by the concurrence of atoms, corpuscles,\ninsensible evaporation of spirit, and perspiration. But all that is so\nfar-fetched, and does such palpable violence to the subjects and the\nattending circumstances, that the most credulous would not yield to\nsuch arguments. It is surprising that these gentlemen, who pique\nthemselves on strength of mind, and so haughtily reject everything\nthat appears supernatural, can so easily admit philosophical systems\nmuch more incredible than even the facts they oppose. They raise\ndoubts which are often very ill-founded, and attack them upon\nprinciples still more uncertain. That may be called refuting one\ndifficulty by another, and resolving a doubt by principles still more\ndoubtful.\n\nBut, it will be said, whence comes it that so many other persons who\nhad engaged themselves to come and bring news of the immortality of\nthe soul, after their death, have not come back. Seneca speaks of a\nStoic philosopher named Julius Canus, who, having been condemned to\ndeath by Julius Caesar, said aloud that he was about to learn the truth\nof that question on which they were divided; to wit, whether the soul\nwas immortal or not. And we do not read that he revisited this world.\nLa Motte de Vayer had agreed with his friend Baranzan Barnabite that\nthe first of the two who died should warn the other of the state in\nwhich he found himself. Baranzan died, and returned not.\n\nBecause the dead sometimes return to earth, it would be imprudent to\nconclude that they always do so. And it would be equally wrong\nreasoning to say that they never do return, because having promised to\nrevisit this world they have not done so. For that, we should imagine\nthat it is in the power of spirits to return and make their appearance\nwhen they will, and if they will; but it seems indubitable, that on\nthe contrary, it is not in their power, and that it is only by the\nexpress permission of God that disembodied spirits sometimes appear to\nthe living.\n\nWe see, in the history of the bad rich man, that God would not grant\nhim the favor which he asked, to send to earth some of those who were\nwith him in hell. Similar reasons, derived from the hardness of heart\nor the incredulity of mortals, may have prevented, in the same manner,\nthe return of Julius Canus or of Baranzan. The return of spirits and\ntheir apparition is neither a natural thing nor dependent on the\nchoice of those who are dead. It is a supernatural effect, and allied\nto the miraculous.\n\nSt. Augustine says on this subject[557] that if the dead interest\nthemselves in what concerns the living, St. Monica, his mother, who\nloved him so tenderly, and went with him by sea and land everywhere\nduring her life, would not have failed to visit him every night, and\ncome to console him in his troubles; for we must not suppose that she\nwas become less compassionate since she became one of the blest:\n_absit ut facta sit vita feliciore crudelis_.\n\nThe return of spirits, their apparition, the execution of the promises\nwhich certain persons have made each other, to come and tell their\nfriends what passes in the other world, is not in their own power. All\nthat is in the hands of God.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[556] Vol. iv. p. 57.\n\n[557] Aug. de Cura gerend. pro Mortuis, c. xiii. p. 526.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XL.\n\nDIVERS SYSTEMS FOR EXPLAINING THE RETURN OF SPIRITS.\n\n\nThe affair of ghosts having made so much noise in the world as it has\ndone, it is not surprising that a diversity of systems should have\nbeen formed upon it, and that so many manners should have been\nproposed to explain their return to earth and their operations.\n\nSome have thought that it was a momentary resurrection caused by the\nsoul of the defunct, which re-entered his body, or by the demon, who\nreanimated him, and caused him to act for a while, whilst his blood\nretained its consistency and fluidity, and his organic functions were\nnot entirely corrupted and deranged.\n\nOthers, struck with the consequence of such principles, and the\narguments which might be deduced from them, have liked better to\nsuppose that these vampires were not really dead; that they still\nretained certain seeds of life, and that their spirits could from time\nto time reanimate and bring them out of their tombs, to make their\nappearance amongst men, take refreshment, and renew the nourishing\njuices and animal spirits by sucking the blood of their near kindred.\n\nThere has lately been printed a dissertation on the uncertainty of the\nsigns of death, and the abuse of hasty interments, by M. Jacques\nBenigne Vinslow, Doctor, Regent of the Faculty at Paris, translated,\nwith a commentary, by Jacques Jean Bruhier, physician, at Paris, 1742,\nin 8vo. This work may serve to explain how persons who have been\nbelieved to be dead, and have been buried as such, have nevertheless\nbeen found alive a pretty long time after their funeral obsequies had\nbeen performed. That will perhaps render vampirism less incredible.\n\nM. Vinslow, Doctor, and Regent of the Medical Faculty at Paris,\nmaintained, in the month of April, 1740, a thesis, in which he asks if\nthe experiments of surgery are fitter than all others to discover some\nless uncertain signs of doubtful death. He therein maintained that\nthere are several occurrences in which the signs of death are very\ndoubtful; and he adduces several instances of persons believed to be\ndead, and interred as such, who nevertheless were afterwards found to\nbe alive.\n\nM. Bruhier, M.D., has translated this thesis into French, and has\nmade some learned additions to it, which serve to strengthen the\nopinion of M. Vinslow. The work is very interesting, from the matter\nit treats upon, and very agreeable to read, from the manner in which\nit is written. I am about to make some extracts from it, which may be\nuseful to my subject. I shall adhere principally to the most certain\nand singular facts; for to relate them all, we must transcribe the\nwhole work.\n\nIt is known that John Duns, surnamed Scot,[558] or the Subtile Doctor,\nhad the misfortune to be interred alive at Cologne, and that when his\ntomb was opened some time afterwards, it was found that he had gnawn\nhis arm.[559] The same thing is related of the Emperor Zeno, who made\nhimself heard from the depth of his tomb by repeated cries to those\nwho were watching over him. Lancisi, a celebrated physician of the\nPope Clement XI., relates that at Rome he was witness to a person of\ndistinction being still alive when he wrote, who resumed sense and\nmotion whilst they were chanting his funeral service at church.\n\nPierre Zacchias, another celebrated physician of Rome, says, that in\nthe hospital of the Saint Esprit, a young man, who was attacked with\nthe plague, fell into so complete a state of syncope, that he was\nbelieved to be really dead. Whilst they were carrying his corpse,\nalong with a great many others, on the other side of the Tiber, the\nyoung man gave signs of life. He was brought back to the hospital and\ncured. Two days after, he fell into a similar syncope, and that time\nhe was reputed to be dead beyond recovery. He was placed amongst\nothers intended for burial, came to himself a second time, and was yet\nliving when Zacchias wrote.\n\nIt is related, that a man named William Foxley, when forty years of\nage,[560] falling asleep on the 27th of April, 1546, remained plunged\nin sleep for fourteen days and fourteen nights, without any preceding\nmalady. He could not persuade himself that he had slept more than one\nnight, and was convinced of his long sleep only by being shown a\nbuilding begun some days before this drowsy attack, and which he\nbeheld completed on his awaking. It is said that in the time of Pope\nGregory II. a scholar of Lubec slept for seven years consecutively.\nLilius Giraldus[561] relates that a peasant slept through the whole\nautumn and winter.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[558] Duns Scotus.\n\n[559] This fact is more than doubtful. Bzovius, for having advanced it\nupon the authority of some others, was called _Bovius_, that is,\n\"Great Ox.\" It is, therefore, better to stand by what Moreri thought\nof it. \"The enemies of Scotus have proclaimed,\" says he, \"that, having\ndied of apoplexy, he was at first interred, and, some time after this\naccident having elapsed, he died in despair, gnawing his hands. But\nthis calumny, which was authorized by Paulus Jovius, Latomias, and\nBzovius, has been so well refuted that no one now will give credit to\nit.\"\n\n[560] Larrey, in Henri VIII. Roi d'Angleterre.\n\n[561] Lilius Giraldus, Hist. Poet. Dialog.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XLI.\n\nVARIOUS INSTANCES OF PERSONS BEING BURIED ALIVE.\n\n\nPlutarch relates that a man who fell from a great height, having\npitched upon his neck, was believed to be dead, without there being\nthe appearance of any hurt. As they were carrying him to be buried,\nthe day after, he all at once recovered his strength and his senses.\nAsclepiades[562] meeting a great funeral train of a person they were\ntaking to be interred, obtained permission to look at and to touch the\ndead man; he found some signs of life in him, and by means of proper\nremedies, he immediately recalled him to life, and restored him in\nsound health to his parents and relations.\n\nThere are several instances of persons who after being interred came\nto themselves, and lived a long time in perfect health. They relate in\nparticular,[563] that a woman of Orleans was buried in a cemetery,\nwith a ring on her finger, which they had not been able to draw off\nher finger when she was placed in her coffin. The following night, a\ndomestic, attracted by the hope of gain, broke open the coffin, and as\nhe could not tear the ring off her finger, was about to cut her finger\noff, when she uttered a loud shriek. The servant fled. The woman\ndisengaged herself as she could from her winding sheet, returned home,\nand survived her husband.\n\nM. Bernard, a principal surgeon at Paris, attests that, being with his\nfather at the parish of Real, they took from the tombs, living and\nbreathing, a monk of the order of St. Francis, who had been shut up in\nit three or four days, and who had gnawed his hands around the bands\nwhich confined them. But he died almost the moment that he was in the\nair.\n\nSeveral persons have made mention of that wife of a counselor of\nCologne,[564] who having been interred with a valuable ring on her\nfinger, in 1571, the grave-digger opened the grave the succeeding\nnight to steal the ring. But the good lady caught hold of him, and\nforced him to take her out of the coffin. He, however, disengaged\nhimself from her hands, and fled. The resuscitated lady went and\nrapped at the door of her house. At first they thought it was a\nphantom, and left her a long time at the door, waiting anxiously to be\nlet in; but at last they opened it for her. They warmed her, and she\nrecovered her health perfectly, and had after that three sons, who all\nbelonged to the church. This event is represented on her sepulchre in\na picture, or painting, in which the story is represented, and\nmoreover, written, in German verses.\n\nIt is added that the lady, in order to convince those of the house\nthat it was herself, told the footman who came to the door that the\nhorses had gone up to the hay-loft, which was true; and there are\nstill to be seen at the windows of the _grenier_ of that house,\nhorses' heads, carved in wood, as a sign of the truth of the matter.\n\nFrancois de Civile, a Norman gentleman,[565] was the captain of a\nhundred men in the city of Rouen, when it was besieged by Charles IX.,\nand he was then six-and-twenty. He was wounded to death at the end of\nan assault; and having fallen into the moat, some pioneers placed him\nin a grave with some other bodies, and covered them over with a little\nearth. He remained there from eleven in the morning till half-past six\nin the evening, when his servant went to disinter him. This domestic,\nhaving remarked some signs of life, put him in a bed, where he\nremained for five days and nights, without speaking, or giving any\nother sign of feeling, but as burning hot with fever as he had been\ncold in the grave. The city having been taken by storm, the servants\nof an officer of the victorious army, who was to lodge in the house\nwherein was Civile, threw the latter upon a paillasse in a back room,\nwhence his brother's enemies tossed him out of the window upon a\ndunghill, where he remained for more than seventy-two hours in his\nshirt. At the end of that time, one of his relations, surprised to\nfind him still alive, sent him to a league's distance from Rouen,[566]\nwhere he was attended to, and at last was perfectly cured.\n\nDuring a great plague, which attacked the city of Dijon in 1558, a\nlady, named Nicole Lentillet, being reputed dead of the epidemic, was\nthrown into a great pit, wherein they buried the dead. The day after\nher interment, in the morning, she came to herself again, and made\nvain efforts to get out, but her weakness, and the weight of the other\nbodies with which she was covered, prevented her doing so. She\nremained in this horrible situation for four days, when the burial men\ndrew her out, and carried her back to her house, where she perfectly\nrecovered her health.\n\nA young lady of Augsburg,[567] having fallen into a swoon, or trance,\nher body was placed under a deep vault, without being covered with\nearth; but the entrance to this subterranean vault was closely walled\nup. Some years after that time, some one of the same family died. The\nvault was opened, and the body of the young lady was found at the very\nentrance, without any fingers to her right hand, which she had\ndevoured in despair.\n\nOn the 25th of July, 1688, there died at Metz a hair-dresser's boy, of\nan apoplectic fit, in the evening, after supper.\n\nOn the 28th of the same month, he was heard to moan again several\ntimes. They took him out of his grave, and he was attended by doctors\nand surgeons. The physician maintained, after he had been opened, that\nthe young man had not been dead two hours. This is extracted from the\nmanuscript of a bourgeois of Metz, who was cotemporary with him.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[562] Cels. lib. ii. c. 6.\n\n[563] Le P. Le Clerc, _ci devant_ attorney of the boarders of the\ncollege of Louis le Grand.\n\n[564] Misson, Voyage d'Italie, tom. i. Lettre 5. Goulart, des\nHistoires admirables; et memorables printed at Geneva, in 1678.\n\n[565] Misson, Voyage, tom. iii.\n\n[566] Goulart, loca cetata.\n\n[567] M. Graffe, Epit. a Guil. Frabi, Centurie 2, observ chirurg. 516.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XLII.\n\nINSTANCES OF DROWNED PERSONS RECOVERING THEIR HEALTH.\n\n\nHere follow some instances of drowned persons[568] who came to\nthemselves several days after they were believed to be dead. Peclin\nrelates the story of a gardener of Troninghalm, in Sweden, who was\nstill alive, and sixty-five years of age, when the author wrote. This\nman being on the ice to assist another man who had fallen into the\nwater, the ice broke under him, and he sunk under water to the depth\nof eight ells, his feet sticking in the mud: he remained sixteen hours\nbefore they drew him out of the water. In this condition, he lost all\nsense, except that he thought he heard the bells ringing at Stockholm.\nHe felt the water, which entered his body, not by his mouth, but his\nears. After having sought for him during sixteen hours, they caught\nhold of his head with a hook, and drew him out of the water; they\nplaced him between sheets, put him near the fire, rubbed him, shook\nhim, and at last brought him to himself. The king and court would see\nhim and hear his story, and gave him a pension.\n\nA woman of the same country, after having been three days in the\nwater, was also revived by the same means as the gardener. Another\nperson named Janas, having drowned himself at seventeen years of age,\nwas taken out of the water seven weeks after; they warmed him, and\nbrought him back to life.\n\nM. D'Egly, of the Royal Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres, at\nParis, relates, that a Swiss, an expert diver, having plunged down\ninto one of the hollows in the bed of the river, where he hoped to\nfind fine fish, remained there about nine hours; they drew him out of\nthe water after having hurt him in several places with their hooks. M.\nD'Egly, seeing that the water bubbled strongly from his mouth,\nmaintained that he was not dead. They made him throw up as much water\nas he could for three quarters of an hour, wrapped him up in hot\nlinen, put him to bed, bled him, and saved him.\n\nSome have been recovered after being seven weeks in the water, others\nafter a less time; for instance, Gocellin, a nephew of the Archbishop\nof Cologne, having fallen into the Rhine, remained under water for\nfifteen hours before they could find him again; at the end of that\ntime, they carried him to the tomb of St. Suitbert, and he recovered\nhis health.[569]\n\nThe same St. Suitbert resuscitated also another young man who had been\ndrowned several hours. But the author who relates these miracles is of\nno great authority.\n\nSeveral instances are related of drowned persons who have remained\nunder water for several days, and at last recovered and enjoyed good\nhealth. In the second part of the dissertation on the uncertainty of\nthe signs of death, by M. Bruhier, physician, printed at Paris in\n1744, pp. 102, 103, &c., it is shown that they have seen some who have\nbeen under water forty-eight hours, others during three days, and\nduring eight days. He adds to this the example of the insect\nchrysalis, which passes all the winter without giving any signs of\nlife, and the aquatic insects which remain all the winter motionless\nin the mud; which also happens to the frogs and toads; ants even,\nagainst the common opinion, are during the winter in a death-like\nstate, which ceases only on the return of spring. Swallows, in the\nnorthern countries, bury themselves in heaps, in the lakes and ponds,\nin rivers even, in the sea, in the sand, in the holes of walls, and\nthe hollows of trees, or at the bottom of caverns; whilst other kinds\nof swallows cross the sea to find warmer and more temperate climes.\n\nWhat has just been said of swallows being found at the bottom of\nlakes, ponds, and rivers, is commonly remarked in Silesia, Poland,\nBohemia, and Moravia. Sometimes even storks are fished up as if dead,\nhaving their beaks fixed in the anus of one another; many of these\nhave been seen in the environs of Geneva, and even in the environs of\nMetz, in the year 1467.\n\nTo these may be added quails and herons. Sparrows and cuckoos have\nbeen found during the winter in hollow trees, torpid and without the\nleast appearance of life, which being warmed recovered themselves and\ntook flight. We know that hedgehogs, marmots, sloths, and serpents,\nlive underground without breathing, and the circulation of the blood\nis very feeble in them during all the winter. It is even said that\nbears sleep during almost all that period.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[568] Guill. Derham, Extrait. Peclin, c. x. de aere et alim. def.\n\n[569] Vita S. Suitberti, apud Surium, I. Martii.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XLIII.\n\nINSTANCES OF WOMEN WHO HAVE BEEN BELIEVED TO BE DEAD, AND WHO HAVE\nCOME TO LIFE AGAIN.\n\n\nVery clever physicians assert[570] that in cases of the suffocation of\nthe womb, a woman may live thirty days without breathing. I know that\na very excellent woman was six-and-thirty hours without giving any\nsign of life. Everybody thought she was dead, and they wanted to\nenshroud her, but her husband always opposed it. At the end of\nthirty-six hours she came to herself, and has lived a long time since\nthen. She told them that she heard very well all that was said about\nher, and knew that they wanted to lay her out; but her torpor was such\nthat she could not surmount it, and she should have let them do\nwhatever they pleased without the least resistance.\n\nThis applies to what St. Augustine says of the priest Pretextas, who\nin his trances and swoons heard, as if from afar off, what was said,\nand nevertheless would have let himself be burned, and his flesh cut,\nwithout opposing it or feeling it.\n\nCorneille le Bruyn,[571] in his Voyages, relates that he saw at\nDamietta, in Egypt, a Turk whom they called the Dead Child, because\nwhen his mother was with child with him, she fell ill, and as they\nbelieved she was dead, they buried her pretty quickly, according to\nthe custom of the country, where they let the dead remain but a very\nshort time unburied, above all during the plague. She was put into a\nvault which this Turk had for the sepulture of his family.\n\nTowards evening, some hours after the interment of this woman, it\nentered the mind of the Turk her husband, that the child she bore\nmight still be alive; he then had the vault opened, and found that his\nwife had delivered herself, and that his child was alive, but the\nmother was dead. Some people said that the child had been heard to\ncry, and that it was on receiving intimation of this that the father\nhad the tomb opened. This man, surnamed the Dead Child, was still\nliving in 1677. Le Bruyn thinks that the woman was dead when her child\nwas born; but being dead, it would not have been possible for her to\nbring him into the world. It must be remembered, that in Egypt, where\nthis happened, the women have an extraordinary facility of delivery,\nas both ancients and moderns bear witness, and that this woman was\nsimply shut up in a vault, without being covered with earth.\n\nA woman at Strasburg, who was with child, being reputed to be dead,\nwas buried in a subterranean vault;[572] at the end of some time, this\nvault having been opened for another body to be placed in it, the\nwoman was found out of the coffin lying on the ground, and having\nbetween her hands a child, of which she had delivered herself, and\nwhose arm she held in her mouth, as if she would fain eat it.\n\nAnother woman, a Spaniard,[573] the wife of Francisco Aravallos, of\nSuasso, being dead, or believed to be so, in the last months of her\npregnancy, was put in the ground; her husband, whom they had sent for\nfrom the country, whither he had gone on business, would see his wife\nat the church, and had her exhumed: hardly had they opened the coffin,\nwhen they heard the cry of a child, who was making efforts to leave\nthe bosom of its mother.\n\nHe was taken away alive and lived a long time, being known by the name\nof the Child of the Earth; and since then he was lieutenant-general of\nthe town of Herez, on the frontier of Spain. These instances might be\nmultiplied to infinity, of persons buried alive, and of others who\nhave recovered as they were being carried to the grave, and others who\nhave been taken out of it by fortuitous circumstances. Upon this\nsubject you may consult the new work of Messrs. Vinslow and Bruyer,\nand those authors who have expressly treated on this subject.[574]\nThese gentlemen, the doctors, derive from thence a very wise and very\njudicious conclusion, which is, that people should never be buried\nwithout the absolute certainty of their being dead, above all in times\nof pestilence, and in certain maladies in which those who are\nsuffering under them lose on a sudden both sense and motion.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[570] Le Clerc, Hist. de la Medecine.\n\n[571] Corneille le Bruyn, tom. i. p. 579.\n\n[572] Cronstand, Philos. veter. restit.\n\n[573] Gaspard Reies, Campus Elysias jucund.\n\n[574] Page 167, des additions de M. Bruhier.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XLIV.\n\nCAN THESE INSTANCES BE APPLIED TO THE HUNGARIAN GHOSTS?\n\n\nSome advantage of these instances and these arguments may be derived\nin favor of vampirism, by saying that the ghosts of Hungary, Moravia,\nand Poland are not really dead, that they continue to live in their\ngraves, although without motion and without respiration; the blood\nwhich is found in them being fine and red, the flexibility of their\nlimbs, the cries which they utter when their heart is pierced or their\nhead being cut off, all prove that they still exist.\n\nThat is not the principal difficulty which arrests my judgment; it is\nto know how they come out of their graves without any appearance of\nthe earth having been removed, and how they have replaced it as it\nwas; how they appear dressed in their clothes, go and come, and eat.\nIf it is so, why do they return to their graves? why do they not\nremain amongst the living? why do they suck the blood of their\nrelations? Why do they haunt and fatigue persons who ought to be dear\nto them, and who have done nothing to offend them? If all that is only\nimagination on the part of those who are molested, whence comes it\nthat these vampires are found in their graves in an uncorrupted state,\nfull of blood, supple, and pliable; that their feet are found to be in\na muddy condition the day after they have run about and frightened the\nneighbors, and that nothing similar is remarked in the other corpses\ninterred at the same time and in the same cemetery. Whence does it\nhappen that they neither come back nor infest the place any more when\nthey are burned or impaled? Would it be again the imagination of the\nliving and their prejudices which reassure them after these\nexecutions? Whence comes it that these scenes recur so frequently in\nthose countries, that the people are not cured of their prejudices,\nand daily experience, instead of destroying, only augments and\nstrengthens them?\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XLV.\n\nDEAD PERSONS WHO CHEW IN THEIR GRAVES LIKE HOGS, AND DEVOUR THEIR OWN\nFLESH.\n\n\nIt is an opinion widely spread in Germany, that certain dead persons\nchew in their graves, and devour whatever may be close to them; that\nthey are even heard to eat like pigs, with a certain low cry, and as\nif growling and grunting.\n\nA German author,[575] named Michael Rauff, has composed a work,\nentitled _De Masticatione Mortuorum in Tumulis_--\"Of the Dead who\nMasticate in their Graves.\" He sets it down as a proved and sure\nthing, that there are certain dead persons who have devoured the linen\nand everything that was within reach of their mouth, and even their\nown flesh, in their graves. He remarks,[576] that in some parts of\nGermany, to prevent the dead from masticating, they place a motte of\nearth under their chin in the coffin; elsewhere they place a little\npiece of money and a stone in their mouth; elsewhere they tie a\nhandkerchief tightly round their throat. The author cites some German\nwriters who make mention of this ridiculous custom; he quotes several\nothers who speak of dead people that have devoured their own flesh in\ntheir sepulchre. This work was printed at Leipsic in 1728. It speaks\nof an author named Philip Rehrius, who printed in 1679 a treatise with\nthe same title--_De Masticatione Mortuorum_.\n\nHe might have added to it the circumstance of Henry Count of\nSalm,[577] who, being supposed to be dead, was interred alive; they\nheard during the night, in the church of the Abbey of Haute-Seille,\nwhere he was buried, loud cries; and the next day, on his tomb being\nopened, they found him turned upon his face, whilst in fact he had\nbeen buried lying upon his back.\n\nSome years ago, at Bar-le-Duc, a man was buried in the cemetery, and a\nnoise was heard in his grave; the next day they disinterred him, and\nfound that he had gnawed the flesh of his arms; and this we learned\nfrom ocular witnesses. This man had drunk brandy, and had been buried\nas dead. Rauff speaks of a woman of Bohemia,[578] who, in 1355, had\neaten in her grave half her shroud. In the time of Luther, a man who\nwas dead and buried, and a woman the same, gnawed their own entrails.\nAnother dead man in Moravia ate the linen clothes of a woman who was\nburied next to him.\n\nAll that is very possible, but that those who are really dead move\ntheir jaws, and amuse themselves with masticating whatever may be near\nthem, is a childish fancy--like what the ancient Romans said of their\n_Manducus_, which was a grotesque figure of a man with an enormous\nmouth, and teeth proportioned thereto, which they caused to move by\nsprings, and grind his teeth together, as if this figure had wanted to\neat. They frightened children with them, and threatened them with the\nManducus.[579]\n\nSome remains of this old custom may be seen in certain processions,\nwhere they carry a sort of serpent, which at intervals opens and shuts\na vast jaw, armed with teeth, into which they throw cakes, as if to\ngorge it, or satisfy its appetite.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[575] Mich. Rauff, altera Dissert. Art. lvii. pp. 98, 99, et Art. lix.\np. 100.\n\n[576] De Nummis in Ore Defunctorum repertis, Art. ix. a Beyermuller,\n&c.\n\n[577] Richer, Senon, tom. iii. Spicileg. Ducherii, p. 392.\n\n[578] Rauff, Art. xlii. p. 43.\n\n[579]\n \"Tandemque venit ad pulpita nostrum\n Exodium, cum personae pallentis hiatum\n In gremio matris fastidit rusticus infans.\"\n _Juvenal_, Sat. iii. 174.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XLVI.\n\nSINGULAR INSTANCE OF A HUNGARIAN GHOST.\n\n\nThe most remarkable instance cited by Rauff[580] is that of one Peter\nPlogojovitz, who had been buried ten weeks in a village of Hungary,\ncalled Kisolova. This man appeared by night to some of the inhabitants\nof the village while they were asleep, and grasped their throat so\ntightly that in four-and-twenty hours it caused their death. Nine\npersons, young and old, perished thus in the course of eight days.\n\nThe widow of the same Plogojovitz declared that her husband since his\ndeath had come and asked her for his shoes, which frightened her so\nmuch that she left Kisolova to retire to some other spot.\n\nFrom these circumstances the inhabitants of the village determined\nupon disinterring the body of Plogojovitz and burning it, to deliver\nthemselves from these visitations. They applied to the emperor's\nofficer, who commanded in the territory of Gradiska, in Hungary, and\neven to the cure of the same place, for permission to exhume the body\nof Peter Plogojovitz. The officer and the cure made much demur in\ngranting this permission, but the peasants declared that if they were\nrefused permission to disinter the body of this man, whom they had no\ndoubt was a true vampire (for so they called these revived corpses),\nthey should be obliged to forsake the village, and go where they\ncould.\n\nThe emperor's officer, who wrote this account, seeing he could hinder\nthem neither by threats nor promises, went with the cure of Gradiska\nto the village of Kisolova, and having caused Peter Plogojovitz to be\nexhumed, they found that his body exhaled no bad smell; that he looked\nas when alive, except the tip of the nose; that his hair and beard had\ngrown, and instead of his nails, which had fallen off, new ones had\ncome; that under his upper skin, which appeared whitish, there\nappeared a new one, which looked healthy, and of a natural color; his\nfeet and hands were as whole as could be desired in a living man. They\nremarked also in his mouth some fresh blood, which these people\nbelieved that this vampire had sucked from the men whose death he had\noccasioned.\n\nThe emperor's officer and the cure having diligently examined all\nthese things, and the people who were present feeling their\nindignation awakened anew, and being more fully persuaded that he was\nthe true cause of the death of their compatriots, ran directly for a\nsharp-pointed stake, which they thrust into his breast, whence there\nissued a quantity of fresh and crimson blood, and also from the nose\nand mouth; something also proceeded from that part of his body which\ndecency does not allow us to mention. After this the peasants placed\nthe body on a pile of wood and saw it reduced to ashes.\n\nM. Rauff,[581] from whom we have these particulars, cites several\nauthors who have written on the same subject, and have related\ninstances of dead people who have eaten in their tombs. He cites\nparticularly Gabril Rzaczincki in his history of the Natural\nCuriosities of the Kingdom of Poland, printed at Sandomic in 1721.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[580] Rauff, Art. xii. p. 15.\n\n[581] Rauff, Art. xxi. p. 14.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XLVII.\n\nREASONINGS ON THIS MATTER.\n\n\nThose authors have reasoned a great deal on these events. 1. Some have\nbelieved them to be miraculous. 2. Others have looked upon them simply\nas the effect of a heated imagination, or a sort of prepossession. 3.\nOthers again have believed that there was nothing in all that but what\nwas very simple and very natural, these persons not being dead, and\nacting naturally upon other bodies. 4. Others have asserted[582] that\nit was the work of the devil himself; amongst these, some have\nadvanced the opinion that there were certain benign demons, differing\nfrom those who are malevolent and hostile to mankind, to which (benign\ndemons) they have attributed playful and harmless operations, in\ncontradistinction to those bad demons who inspire the minds of men\nwith crime and sin, ill use them, kill them, and occasion them an\ninfinity of evils. But what greater evils can one have to fear from\nveritable demons and the most malignant spirits, than those which the\nghouls of Hungary cause the persons whose blood they suck, and thus\ncause to die? 5. Others will have it that it is not the dead who eat\ntheir own flesh or clothes, but serpents, rats, moles, ferrets, or\nother voracious animals, or even what the peasants call\n_striges_,[583] which are birds that devour animals and men, and suck\ntheir blood. Some have said that these instances are principally\nremarked in women, and, above all, in a time of pestilence; but there\nare instances of ghouls of both sexes, and principally of men;\nalthough those who die of plague, poison, hydrophobia, drunkenness,\nand any epidemical malady, are more apt to return, apparently because\ntheir blood coagulates with more difficulty; and sometimes some are\nburied who are not quite dead, on account of the danger there is in\nleaving them long without sepulture, from fear of the infection they\nwould cause.\n\nIt is added that these vampires are known only to certain countries,\nas Hungary, Moravia, and Silesia, where those maladies are more\ncommon, and where the people, being badly fed, are subject to certain\ndisorders caused or occasioned by the climate and the food, and\naugmented by prejudice, fancy, and fright, capable of producing or of\nincreasing the most dangerous maladies, as daily experience proves too\nwell. As to what some have asserted that the dead have been heard to\neat and chew like pigs in their graves, it is manifestly fabulous, and\nsuch an idea can have its foundation only in ridiculous prepossessions\nof the mind.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[582] Rudiga, Physio. Dur. lib. i. c. 4. Theophrast. Paracels. Georg.\nAgricola, de Anim. Subterran. p. 76.\n\n[583] Ovid, lib. vi. Vide Debrio, Disquisit. Magic. lib. i. p. 6, and\nlib. iii. p. 355.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XLVIII.\n\nARE THE VAMPIRES OR REVENANS REALLY DEAD?\n\n\nThe opinion of those who hold that all that is related of vampires is\nthe effect of imagination, fascination, or of that disorder which the\nGreeks term _phrenesis_ or _coribantism_, and who pretend by that\nmeans to explain all the phenomena of vampirism, will never persuade\nus that these maladies of the brain can produce such real effects as\nthose we have just recounted. It is impossible that on a sudden,\nseveral persons should believe they see a thing which is not there,\nand that they should die in so short a time of a disorder purely\nimaginary. And who has revealed to them that such a vampire is\nundecayed in his grave, that he is full of blood, that he in some\nmeasure lives there after his death? Is there not to be found in the\nnation one sensible man who is exempt from this fancy, or who has\nsoared above the effects of this fascination, these sympathies and\nantipathies--this natural magic? And besides, who can explain to us\nclearly and distinctly what these grand terms signify, and the manner\nof these operations so occult and so mysterious? It is trying to\nexplain a thing which is obscure and doubtful, by another still more\nuncertain and incomprehensible.\n\nIf these persons believe nothing of all that is related of the\napparition, the return, and the actions of vampires, they lose their\ntime very uselessly in proposing systems and forming arguments to\nexplain what exists only in the imagination of certain prejudiced\npersons struck with an idea; but, if all that is related, or at least\na part, is true, these systems and these arguments will not easily\nsatisfy those minds which desire proofs far more weighty than those.\n\nLet us see, then, if the system which asserts that these vampires are\nnot really dead is well founded. It is certain that death consists in\nthe separation of the soul from the body, and that neither the one\nnor the other perishes, nor is annihilated by death; that the soul is\nimmortal, and that the body destitute of its soul, still remains\nentire, and becomes only in part corrupt, sometimes in a few days, and\nsometimes in a longer space of time; sometimes even it remains\nuncorrupted during many years or even ages, either by reason of a good\nconstitution, as in Hector[584] and Alexander the Great, whose bodies\nremained several days undecayed;[585] or by means of the art of\nembalming; or lastly, owing to the nature of the earth in which they\nare interred, which has the power of drying up the radical humidity\nand the principles of corruption. I do not stop to prove all these\nthings, which besides are very well known.\n\nSometimes the body, without being dead and forsaken by its reasonable\nsoul, remains as if dead and motionless, or at least with so slow a\nmotion and such feeble respiration, that it is almost imperceptible,\nas it happens in faintings, swoons, in certain disorders very common\namongst women, in trances--as we remarked in the case of Pretextat,\npriest of Calame; we have also reported more than one instance,\nconsidered dead and buried as such; I may add that of the Abbe Salin,\nprior of St. Christopher,[586] who being in his coffin, and about to\nbe interred, was resuscitated by some of his friends, who made him\nswallow a glass of champagne.\n\nSeveral instances of the same kind are related.[587] In the \"Causes\nCelebres,\" they make mention of a girl who became _enceinte_ during a\nlong swoon; we have already noticed this. Pliny cites[588] a great\nnumber of instances of persons who have been thought dead, and who\nhave come to life again, and lived for a long time. He mentions a\nyoung man, who having fallen asleep in a cavern, remained there forty\nyears without waking. Our historians[589] speak of the seven sleepers,\nwho slept for 150 years, from the year of Christ 253 to 403. It is\nsaid that the philosopher Epimenides slept in a cavern during\nfifty-seven years, or according to others, forty-seven, or only forty\nyears; for the ancients do not agree concerning the number of years;\nthey even affirm, that this philosopher had the power to detach his\nsoul from his body, and recall it when he pleased. The same thing is\nrelated of Aristaeus of Proconnesus. I am willing to allow that that is\nfabulous; but we cannot gainsay the truth of several other stories of\npersons who have come to life again, after having appeared dead for\nthree, four, five, six, and seven days. Pliny acknowledges that there\nare several instances of dead people who have appeared after they were\ninterred; but he will not mention them more particularly, because, he\nsays, he relates only natural things and not prodigies--\"Post\nsepulturam quoque visorum exempla sunt, nisi quod naturae opera non\nprodigia sectamur.\" We believe that Enoch and Elijah are still living.\nSeveral have thought that St. John the Evangelist was not dead,[590]\nbut that he is still alive in his tomb.\n\nPlato and St. Clement of Alexandria[591] relate, that the son of\nZoroaster was resuscitated twelve days after his (supposed) death, and\nwhen his body had been laid upon the funeral pyre. Phlegon says,[592]\nthat a Syrian soldier in the army of Antiochus, after having been\nkilled at Thermopylae, appeared in open day in the Roman camp, and\nspoke to several. And Plutarch relates,[593] that a man named\nThespesius, who had fallen from the roof of a house, came to himself\nthe third day after he died (or seemed to die) of his fall.\n\nSt. Paul, writing to the Corinthians,[594] seems to suppose that\nsometimes the soul transported itself without the body, to repair to\nthe spot where it is in mind or thought; for instance, he says, that\nhe has been transported to the third heaven; but he adds that he knows\nnot whether in the body, or only in spirit--\"Sive in corpora, sive\nextra corpus, nescio, Deus scit.\" We have already cited St.\nAugustine,[595] who mentions a priest of Calamus, named Pretextat,\nwho, at the sound of the voices of some persons who lamented their\nsins, fell into such an ecstasy of delight, that he no longer breathed\nor felt anything; and they might have cut and burnt his flesh without\nhis perceiving it; his soul was absent, or really so occupied with\nthese lamentations, that he was insensible to pain. In swoons and\nsyncope, the soul no longer performs her ordinary functions. She is\nnevertheless in the body, and continues to animate it, but she\nperceives not her own action.\n\nA cure of the Diocese of Constance, named Bayer, writes me word that\nin 1728, having been appointed to the cure of Rutheim, he was\ndisturbed a month afterwards by a spectre, or an evil genius, in the\nform of a peasant, badly made, and ill-dressed, very ill-looking, and\nstinking insupportably, who came and knocked at the door in an\ninsolent manner, and having entered his study told him that he had\nbeen sent by an official of the Prince of Constance, his bishop, upon\na certain commission which was found to be absolutely false. He then\nasked for something to eat, and they placed before him meat, bread,\nand wine. He took up the meat with both hands, and devoured it bones\nand all, saying, \"See how I eat both flesh and bone--do the same.\"\nThen he took up the wine-cup, and swallowed it at a draught, asking\nfor another, which he drank off in the same fashion. After that he\nwithdrew, without bidding the cure good-bye; and the servant who\nshowed him to the door having asked his name, he replied, \"I was born\nat Rutsingen, and my name is George Raulin,\" which was false. As he\nwas going down stairs he said to the cure in German, in a menacing\ntone, \"I will show you who I am.\"\n\nHe passed all the rest of the day in the village, showing himself to\neverybody. Towards midnight he returned to the cure's door, crying out\nthree times in a terrible voice, \"Monsieur Bayer!\" and adding, \"I will\nlet you know who I am.\" In fact, during three years he returned every\nday towards four o'clock in the afternoon, and every night till dawn\nof day. He appeared in different forms, sometimes like a water-dog,\nsometimes as a lion, or some other terrible animal; sometimes in the\nshape of a man, or a girl, when the cure was at table, or in bed,\nenticing him to lasciviousness. Sometimes he made an uproar in the\nhouse, like a cooper putting hoops on his casks; then again you might\nhave thought he wanted to throw the house down by the noise he made in\nit. To have witnesses to all this, the cure often sent for the beadle\nand other personages of the village to bear testimony to it. The\nspectre emitted, wherever he showed himself, an insupportable stench.\n\nAt last the cure had recourse to exorcisms, but they produced no\neffect. And as they despaired almost of being delivered from these\nvexations, he was advised, at the end of the third year, to provide\nhimself with a holy branch on Palm Sunday, and also with a sword\nsprinkled with holy water, and to make use of it against the spectre.\nHe did so once or twice, and from that time he was no more molested.\nThis is attested by a Capuchin monk, witness of the greater part of\nthese things, the 29th of August, 1749.\n\nI will not guarantee the truth of all these circumstances; the\njudicious reader will make what induction he pleases from them. If\nthey are true, here is a real ghost, who eats, drinks, and speaks, and\ngives tokens of his presence for three whole years, without any\nappearance of religion. Here follows another instance of a ghost who\nmanifested himself by actions alone.\n\nThey write me word from Constance, the 8th of August, 1748, that\ntowards the end of the year 1746 sighs were heard, which seemed to\nproceed from the corner of the printing-office of the Sieur Lahart,\none of the common council men of the city of Constance. The printers\nonly laughed at it at first, but in the following year, 1747, in the\nbeginning of January, they heard more noise than before. There was a\nhard knocking near the same corner whence they had at first heard some\nsighs; things went so far that the printers received slaps, and their\nhats were thrown on the ground. They had recourse to the Capuchins,\nwho came with the books proper for exorcising the spirit. The exorcism\ncompleted they returned home, and the noise ceased for three days.\n\nAt the end of that time the noise recommenced more violently than\nbefore; the spirit threw the characters for printing, whether letters\nor figures, against the windows. They sent out of the city for a\nfamous exorcist, who exorcised the spirit for a week. One day the\nspirit boxed the ears of a lad; and again the letters, &c., were\nthrown against the window-panes. The foreign exorcist, not having been\nable to effect anything by his exorcisms, returned to his own home.\n\nThe spirit went on as usual, giving slaps in the face to one, and\nthrowing stones and other things at another, so that the compositors\nwere obliged to leave that corner of the printing-office and place\nthemselves in the middle of the room, but they were not the quieter\nfor that.\n\nThey then sent for other exorcists, one of whom had a particle of the\ntrue cross, which he placed upon the table. The spirit did not,\nhowever, cease disturbing as usual the workmen belonging to the\nprinting-office; and the Capuchin brother who accompanied the exorcist\nreceived such buffets that they were both obliged to withdraw to their\nconvent. Then came others, who, having mixed a quantity of sand and\nashes in a bucket of water, blessed the water, and sprinkled with it\nevery part of the printing-office. They also scattered the sand and\nashes all over the room upon the paved floor; and being provided with\nswords, the whole party began to strike at random right and left in\nevery part of the room, to see if they could hit the ghost, and to\nobserve if he left any foot-marks upon the sand or ashes which covered\nthe floor. They perceived at last that he had perched himself on the\ntop of the stove or furnace, and they remarked on the angles of it\nmarks of his feet and hands impressed on the sand and ashes they had\nblessed.\n\nThey succeeded in ousting him from there, and they very soon perceived\nthat he had slid under the table, and left marks of his hands and feet\non the pavement. The dust raised by all this movement in the office\ncaused them to disperse, and they discontinued the pursuit. But the\nprincipal exorcist having taken out a screw from the angle where they\nhad first heard the noise, found in a hole in the wall some feathers,\nthree bones wrapped up in a dirty piece of linen, some bits of glass,\nand a hair-pin, or bodkin. He blessed a fire which they lighted, and\nhad all that thrown into it. But this monk had hardly reached his\nconvent when one of the printers came to tell him that the bodkin had\ncome out of the flames three times of itself, and that a boy who was\nholding a pair of tongs, and who put this bodkin in the fire again,\nhad been violently struck in the face. The rest of the things which\nhad been found having been brought to the Capuchin convent, they were\nburnt without further resistance; but the lad who had carried them\nthere saw a naked woman in the public market-place, and that and the\nfollowing days groans were heard in the market-place of Constance.\n\nSome days after this the printer's house was again infested in this\nmanner, the ghost giving slaps, throwing stones, and molesting the\ndomestics in divers ways. The Sieur Lahart, the master of the house,\nreceived a great wound in his head, two boys who slept in the same bed\nwere thrown on the ground, so that the house was entirely forsaken\nduring the night. One Sunday a servant girl carrying away some linen\nfrom the house had stones thrown at her, and another time two boys\nwere thrown down from a ladder.\n\nThere was in the city of Constance an executioner who passed for a\nsorcerer. The monk who writes to me suspected him of having some part\nin this game; he began to exhort those who sat up with him in the\nhouse, to put their confidence in God, and to be strong in faith. He\ngave them to understand that the executioner was likely to be of the\nparty. They passed the night thus in the house, and about ten o'clock\nin the evening, one of the companions of the exorcist threw himself at\nhis feet in tears, and revealed to him, that that same night he and\none of his companions had been sent to consult the executioner in\nTurgau, and that by order of the Sieur Lahart, printer, in whose house\nall this took place. This avowal strangely surprised the good father,\nand he declared that he would not continue to exorcise, if they did\nnot assure him that they had not spoken to the executioners to put an\nend to the haunting. They protested that they had not spoken to them\nat all. The Capuchin father had everything picked up that was found\nabout the house, wrapped up in packets, and had them carried to his\nconvent.\n\nThe following night, two domestics tried to pass the night in the\nhouse, but they were thrown out of their beds, and constrained to go\nand sleep elsewhere. After this, they sent for a peasant of the\nvillage of Annanstorf, who was considered a good exorcist. He passed\nthe night in the haunted house, drinking, singing, and shouting. He\nreceived slaps and blows from a stick, and was obliged to own that he\ncould not prevail against the spirit.\n\nThe widow of an executioner presented herself then to perform the\nexorcisms; she began by using fumigations in all parts of the\ndwelling, to drive away the evil spirits. But before she had finished\nthese fumigations, seeing that the master was struck in the face and\non his body by the spirit, she ran away from the house, without asking\nfor her pay.\n\nThey next called in the Cure of Valburg, who passed for a clever\nexorcist. He came with four other secular cures, and continued the\nexorcisms for three days, without any success. He withdrew to his\nparish, imputing the inutility of his prayers to the want of faith of\nthose who were present.\n\nDuring this time, one of the four priests was struck with a knife,\nthen with a fork, but he was not hurt. The son of Sieur Lahart, master\nof the dwelling, received upon his jaw a blow from a pascal taper,\nwhich did him no harm. All that being of no service, they sent for the\nexecutioners of the neighborhood. Two of the persons who went to fetch\nthem were well thrashed and pelted with stones. Another had his thigh\nso tightly pressed that he felt the pain for a long time. The\nexecutioners carefully collected all the packets they found wrapped up\nabout the house, and put others in their room; but the spirit took\nthem up and threw them into the market-place. After this, the\nexecutioners persuaded the Sieur Lahart that he might boldly return\nwith his people to the house; he did so, but the first night, when\nthey were at supper, one of his workmen named Solomon was wounded on\nthe foot, and then followed a great effusion of blood. They then sent\nagain for the executioner, who appeared much surprised that the house\nwas not yet entirely freed, but at that moment he was himself attacked\nby a shower of stones, boxes on the ears, and other blows, which\nconstrained him to run away quickly.\n\nSome heretics in the neighborhood, being informed of all these things,\ncame one day to the bookseller's shop, and upon attempting to read in\na Catholic Bible which was there, were well boxed and beaten; but\nhaving taken up a Calvinist Bible, they received no harm. Two men of\nConstance having entered the bookseller's shop from sheer curiosity,\none of them was immediately thrown down upon the ground, and the other\nran away as fast as he could. Another person, who had come in the same\nway from curiosity, was punished for his presumption, by having a\nquantity of water thrown upon him. A young girl of Ausburg, a relation\nof the Sieur Lahart, printer, was chased away with violent blows, and\npursued even to the neighboring house, where she entered.\n\nAt last the hauntings ceased, on the 8th of February. On that day the\nspectre opened the shop door, went in, deranged a few articles, went\nout, shut the door, and from that time nothing more was seen or heard\nof it.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[584] Homer de Hectore, Iliad XXIV. 411.\n\n[585] Plutarch de Alexandro in ejus Vita.\n\n[586] About the year 1680; he died after the year 1694.\n\n[587] Causes Celebres, tom. viii. p. 585.\n\n[588] Plin. Hist. Natur. lib. vii. c. 52.\n\n[589] St. Gregor. Turon. de Gloria Martyr. c. 95.\n\n[590] I have touched upon this matter in a particular Dissertation at\nthe Head of the Gospel of St. John.\n\n[591] Plato, de Republ. lib. x.; Clemens Alexandr. lib. v. Stromat.\n\n[592] Phleg. de Mirabilis, c. 3.\n\n[593] Plutarch, de Sera Numinis Vindicta.\n\n[594] 1 Cor. xiii. 2.\n\n[595] Aug. lib. xiv. de Civit. Dei, c. 24.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XLIX.\n\nINSTANCE OF A MAN NAMED CURMA WHO WAS SENT BACK INTO THE WORLD.\n\n\nSt. Augustine relates on this subject,[596] that a countryman named\nCurma, who held a small place in the village of Tullia, near Hippoma,\nhaving fallen sick, remained for some days senseless and speechless,\nhaving just respiration enough left to prevent their burying him. At\nthe end of several days he began to open his eyes, and sent to ask\nwhat they were about in the house of another peasant of the same\nplace, and like himself named Curma. They brought him back word, that\nhe had just expired at the very moment that he himself had recovered\nand was resuscitated from his deep slumber.\n\nThen he began to talk, and related what he had seen and heard; that it\nwas not Curma the _curial_,[597] but Curma the blacksmith, who ought\nto have been brought; he added, that among those whom he had seen\ntreated in different ways, he had recognized some of his deceased\nacquaintance, and other ecclesiastics, who were still alive, who had\nadvised him to come to Hippoma, and be baptized by the Bishop\nAugustine; that according to their advice he had received baptism in\nhis vision; that afterwards he had been introduced into Paradise, but\nthat he had not remained there long, and that they had told him that\nif he wished to dwell there, he must be baptized. He replied, \"I am\nso;\" but they told him, that he had been so only in a vision, and that\nhe must go to Hippoma to receive that sacrament in reality. He came\nthere as soon as he was cured, and received the rite of baptism with\nthe other catechumens.\n\nSt. Augustine was not informed of this adventure till about two years\nafterwards. He sent for Curma, and learnt from his own lips what I\nhave just related. Now it is certain that Curma saw nothing with his\nbodily eyes of all that had been represented to him in his vision;\nneither the town of Hippoma, nor Bishop Augustine, nor the\necclesiastics who counseled him to be baptized, nor the persons living\nand deceased whom he saw and recognized. We may believe, then, that\nthese things are effects of the power of God, who makes use of the\nministry of angels to warn, console, or alarm mortals, according as\nhis judgment sees best.\n\nSt. Augustine inquires afterwards if the dead have any knowledge of\nwhat is passing in this world? He doubts the fact, and shows that at\nleast they have no knowledge of it by ordinary and natural means. He\nremarks, that it is said God took Josiah, for instance, from this\nworld,[598] that he might now witness the evil which was to befall his\nnation; and we say every day, Such-a-one is happy to have left the\nworld, and so escaped feeling the miseries which have happened to his\nfamily or his country. But if the dead know not what is passing in\nthis world, how can they be troubled about their bodies being interred\nor not? How do the saints hear our prayers? and why do we ask them for\ntheir intercession?\n\nIt is then true that the dead can learn what is passing on the earth,\neither by the agency of angels, or by that of the dead who arrive in\nthe other world, or by the revelation of the Spirit of God, who\ndiscovers to them what he judges proper, and what it is expedient that\nthey should learn. God may also sometimes send men who have long been\ndead to living men, as he permitted Moses and Elias to appear at the\nTransfiguration of the Lord, and as an infinite number of the saints\nhave appeared to the living. The invocation of saints has always been\ntaught and practised in the Church; whence we may infer that they hear\nour prayers, are moved by our wants, and can help us by their\nintercession. But the way in which all that is done is not distinctly\nknown; neither reason nor revelation furnishes us with anything\ncertain, as to the means it pleases God to make use of to reveal our\nwants to them.\n\nLucian, in his dialogue entitled _Philopseudes_, or the \"Lover of\nFalsehood,\" relates[599] something similar. A man named Eucrates,\nhaving been taken down to hell, was presented to Pluto, who was angry\nwith him who presented him, saying--\"That man has not yet completed\nhis course; his turn has not yet come. Bring hither Demilius, for the\nthread of his life is finished.\" Then they sent Eucrates back to this\nworld, where he announced that Demilius would die soon. Demilius lived\nnear him, and was already a little ill.\n\nBut a moment after they heard the noise of those who were bewailing\nhis death. Lucian makes a jest of all that was said on this subject,\nbut he owns that it was the common opinion in his time. He says in the\nsame part of his work, that a man has been seen to come to life again\nafter having been looked upon as dead during twenty days.\n\nThe story of Curma which we have just told, reminds me of another\nvery like it, related by Plutarch in his Book on the Soul, of a\ncertain man named Enarchus,[600] who, being dead, came to life again\nsoon after, and related that the demons who had taken away his soul\nwere severely reprimanded by their chief, who told them that they had\nmade a mistake, and that it was Nicander, and not Enarchus whom they\nought to bring. He sent them for Nicander, who was directly seized\nwith a fever, and died during the day. Plutarch heard this from\nEnarchus himself, who to confirm what he had asserted said to\nhim--\"You will get well certainly, and that very soon, of the illness\nwhich has attacked you.\"\n\nSt. Gregory the Great relates[601] something very similar to what we\nhave just mentioned. An illustrious man of rank named Stephen well\nknown to St. Gregory and Peter his interlocutor, was accustomed to\nrelate to him, that going to Constantinople on business he died there;\nand as the doctor who was to embalm him was not in town that day, they\nwere obliged to leave the body unburied that night. During this\ninterval Stephen was led before the judge who presided in hell, where\nhe saw many things which he had heard of, but did not believe. When\nthey brought him to the judge, the latter refused to receive him,\nsaying, \"It is not that man whom I commanded you to bring here, but\nStephen the blacksmith.\" In consequence of this order the soul of the\ndead man was directly brought back to his body, and at the same\ninstant Stephen the blacksmith expired; which confirmed all that the\nformer had said of the other life.\n\nThe plague ravaging the city of Rome in the time that Narses was\ngovernor of Italy, a young Livonian, a shepherd by profession, and of\na good and quiet disposition, was taken ill with the plague in the\nhouse of the advocate Valerian, his master. Just when they thought him\nall but dead, he suddenly came to himself, and related to them that he\nhad been transported to heaven, where he had learnt the names of those\nwho were to die of the plague in his master's house; having named them\nto him, he predicted to Valerian that he should survive him; and to\nconvince him that he was saying the truth, he let him see that he had\nacquired by infusion the knowledge of several different languages; in\neffect he who had never known how to speak any but the Italian tongue,\nspoke Greek to his master, and other languages to those who knew them.\n\nAfter having lived in this state for two days, he had fits of madness,\nand having laid hold of his hands with his teeth, he died a second\ntime, and was followed by those whom he had named. His master, who\nsurvived, fully justified his prediction. Men and women who fall into\ntrances remain sometimes for several days without food, respiration,\nor pulsation of the heart, as if they were dead. Thauler, a famous\ncontemplative (philosopher) maintains that a man may remain entranced\nduring a week, a month, or even a year. We have seen an abbess, who\nwhen in a trance, into which she often fell, lost the use of her\nnatural functions, and passed thirty days in that state without taking\nany nourishment, and without sensation. Instances of these trances are\nnot rare in the lives of the saints, though they are not all of the\nsame kind, or duration.\n\nWomen in hysterical fits remain likewise many days as if dead,\nspeechless, inert, pulseless. Galen mentions a woman who was six days\nin this state.[602] Some of them pass ten whole days motionless,\nsenseless, without respiration and without food.\n\nSome persons who have seemed dead and motionless, had however the\nsense of hearing very strong, heard all that was said about\nthemselves, made efforts to speak and show that they were not dead,\nbut who could neither speak, nor give any signs of life.[603]\n\nI might here add an infinity of trances of saintly personages of both\nsexes, who in their delight in God, in prayer remained motionless,\nwithout sensation, almost breathless, and who felt nothing of what was\ndone to them, or around them.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[596] August. lib. de Cura pro Mortuis, c. xii. p. 524.\n\n[597] _Curialis_--this word signifies a small employment in a village.\n\n[598] IV. Reg. 18, et. seq.\n\n[599] Lucian, in Phliopseud. p. 830.\n\n[600] Plutarch, de Anima, apud Eusebius de Praep. Evang. lib. ii. c.\n18.\n\n[601] Gregor. Dial. lib. iv. c. 36.\n\n[602] See the treatise on the Uncertainty of the Signs of Death, tom.\nii. pp. 404, 407, _et seq._\n\n[603] Ibid. lib. ii. pp. 504, 505, 506, 514.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER L.\n\nINSTANCES OF PERSONS WHO COULD FALL INTO A TRANCE WHEN THEY PLEASED,\nAND REMAINED PERFECTLY SENSELESS.\n\n\nJerome Cardan says[604] that he fell into a trance when he liked; he\nowns that he does not know if, like the priest Pretextat, he should\nnot feel great wounds or hurts, but he did not feel the pain of the\ngout, or the pulling him about. He adds, the priest of Calama heard\nthe voices of those who spoke aloud near him, but as if from a\ndistance. \"For my part,\" says Cardan, \"I hear the voice, though\nslightly, and without understanding what is said. And when I wish to\nentrance myself, I feel about my heart as it were a separation of the\nsoul from the rest of my body, and that communicates as if by a little\ndoor with all the machine, principally by the head and brain. Then I\nhave no sensation except that of being beside myself.\"\n\nWe may report here what is related of the Laplanders,[605] who when\nthey wish to learn something that is passing at a distance from the\nspot where they are, send their demon, or their souls, by means of\ncertain magic ceremonies, and by the sound of a drum which they beat,\nor upon a shield painted in a certain manner; then on a sudden the\nLaplander falls into a trance, and remains as if lifeless and\nmotionless sometimes during four-and-twenty hours. But all this time\nsome one must remain near him to prevent him from being touched, or\ncalled; even the movement of a fly would wake him, and they say he\nwould die directly or be carried away by the demon. We have already\nmentioned this subject in the Dissertation on Apparitions.\n\nWe have also remarked that serpents, worms, flies, snails, marmots,\nsloths, &c., remain asleep during the winter, and in blocks of stone\nhave been found toads, snakes, and oysters alive, which had been\nenclosed there for many years, and perhaps for more than a century.\nCardinal de Retz relates in his Memoirs,[606] that being at Minorca,\nthe governor of the island caused to be drawn up from the bottom of\nthe sea by main force with cables, whole rocks, which on being broken\nwith maces, enclosed living oysters, that were served up to him at\ntable, and were found very good.\n\nOn the coasts of Malta, Sardinia, Italy, &c., they find a fish called\nthe Dactylus, or Date, or Dale, because it resembles the palm-date in\nform; this first insinuates itself into the stone by a hole not bigger\nthan the hole made by a needle. When he has got in he feeds upon the\nstone, and grows so big that he cannot get out again, unless the stone\nis broken and he is extricated. Then they wash it, clean it, and dress\nit for the table. It has the shape of a date, or of a finger; whence\nits name of _Dactylus_, which in Greek signifies a finger.\n\nAgain, I imagine that in many persons death is caused by the\ncoagulation of the blood, which freezes and hardens in their veins, as\nit happens with those who have eaten hemlock, or who have been bitten\nby certain serpents; but there are others whose death is caused by too\ngreat an ebullition of blood, as in painful maladies, and in certain\npoisons, and even, they say, in certain kinds of plague, and when\npeople die a violent death, or have been drowned.\n\nThe first mentioned cannot return to life without an evident miracle;\nfor that purpose the fluidity of the blood must be re-established, and\nthe peristaltic motion must be restored to the heart. But in the\nsecond kind of death, people can sometimes be restored without a\nmiracle, by taking away the obstacle which retards or suspends the\npalpitation of the heart, as we see in time-pieces, the action of\nwhich is restored by taking away anything foreign to the mechanism, as\na hair, a bit of thread, an atom, some almost imperceptible body which\nstops them.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[604] Hieron. Cardanus, lib. viii. de Varietate Verum, c. 34.\n\n[605] Olaus Magnus, lib. iii. Epitom. Hist. Septent. Perecer de Variis\nDivinat. Generib. p. 282.\n\n[606] Memoirs of Cardinal de Retz, tom. iii. lib. iv. p. 297.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LI.\n\nAPPLICATION OF THE PRECEDING INSTANCES TO VAMPIRES.\n\n\nSupposing these facts, which I believe to be incontestably true, may\nwe not imagine that the vampires of Hungary, Silesia, and Moldavia,\nare some of those men who have died of maladies which heat the blood,\nand who have retained some remains of life in their graves, much like\nthose animals which we have mentioned, and those birds which plunge\nthemselves during the winter in the lakes and marshes of Poland, and\nin the northern countries? They are without respiration or motion, but\nstill not destitute of vitality. They resume their motion and activity\nwhen, on the return of spring, the sun warms the waters, or when they\nare brought near a moderate fire, or laid in a room of temperate heat;\nthen they are seen to revive, and perform their ordinary functions,\nwhich had been suspended by the cold.\n\nThus, vampires in their graves returned to life after a certain time,\nand their soul does not forsake them absolutely until after the entire\ndissolution of their body, and when the organs of life, being\nabsolutely broken, corrupted, and deranged, they can no longer by\ntheir agency perform any vital functions. Whence it happens, that the\npeople of those countries impale them, cut off their heads, burn them,\nto deprive their spirit of all hope of animating them again, and of\nmaking use of them to molest the living.\n\nPliny,[607] mentioning the soul of Hermotimes, of Lazomene, which\nabsented itself from his body, and recounted various things that had\nbeen done afar off, which the spirit said it had seen, and which, in\nfact, could only be known to a person who had been present at them,\nsays that the enemies of Hermotimes, named Cantandes, burned that\nbody, which gave hardly any sign of life, and thus deprived the soul\nof the means of returning to lodge in its envelop; \"donec cremato\ncorpore interim semianimi, remeanti animae vetut vaginam ademerint.\"\n\nOrigen had doubtless derived from the ancients what he teaches,[608]\nthat the souls which are of a spiritual nature take, on leaving their\nearthly body, another, more subtile, of a similar form to the grosser\none they have just quitted, which serves them as a kind of sheath, or\ncase, and that it is invested with this subtile body that they\nsometimes appear about their graves. He founds this opinion on what is\nsaid of Lazarus and the rich man in the Gospel,[609] who both of them\nhave bodies, since they speak and see, and the wicked rich man asks\nfor a drop of water to cool his tongue.\n\nI do not defend this reasoning of Origen; but what he says of a\nsubtile body, which has the form of the earthly one which clothed the\nsoul before death, quite resembles the opinion of which we spoke in\nChapter IV.\n\nThat bodies which have died of violent maladies, or which have been\nexecuted when full of health, or have simply swooned, should vegetate\nunderground in their graves; that their beards, hair, and nails should\ngrow; that they should emit blood, be supple and pliant; that they\nshould have no bad smell, &c.--all these things do not embarrass us:\nthe vegetation of the human body may produce all these effects. That\nthey should even eat and devour what is about them, the madness with\nwhich a man interred alive must be transported when he awakes from his\ntorpor, or his swoon, must naturally lead him to these violent\nexcesses. But the grand difficulty is to explain how the vampires come\nout of their graves to haunt the living, and how they return to them\nagain. For all the accounts that we see suppose the thing as certain,\nwithout informing us either of the way or the circumstances, which\nwould, however, be the most interesting part of the narrative.\n\nHow a body covered with four or five feet of earth, having no room to\nmove about and disengage itself, wrapped up in linen, covered with\npitch, can make its way out, and come back upon the earth, and there\noccasion such effects as are related of it; and how after that it\nreturns to its former state, and re-enters underground, where it is\nfound sound, whole, and full of blood, and in the same condition as a\nliving body? Will it be said that these bodies evaporate through the\nground without opening it, like the water and vapors which enter into\nthe earth, or proceed from it, without sensibly deranging its\nparticles? It were to be wished that the accounts which have been\ngiven us concerning the return of the vampires had been more minute in\ntheir explanations of this subject.\n\nSupposing that their bodies do not stir from their graves, that it is\nonly their phantoms which appear to the living, what cause produces\nand animates these phantoms? Can it be the spirit of the defunct,\nwhich has not yet forsaken them, or some demon, which makes their\napparition in a fantastic and borrowed body? And if these bodies are\nmerely phantomic, how can they suck the blood of living people? We\nalways find ourselves in a difficulty to know if these appearances are\nnatural or miraculous.\n\nA sensible priest related to me, a little while ago, that, traveling\nin Moravia, he was invited by M. Jeanin, a canon of the cathedral at\nOlmutz, to accompany him to their village, called Liebava, where he\nhad been appointed commissioner by the consistory of the bishopric, to\ntake information concerning the fact of a certain famous vampire,\nwhich had caused much confusion in this village of Liebava some years\nbefore.\n\nThe case proceeded. They heard the witnesses, they observed the usual\nforms of the law. The witnesses deposed that a certain notable\ninhabitant of Liebava had often disturbed the living in their beds at\nnight, that he had come out of the cemetery, and had appeared in\nseveral houses three or four years ago; that his troublesome visits\nhad ceased because a Hungarian stranger, passing through the village\nat the time of these reports, had boasted that he could put an end to\nthem, and make the vampire disappear. To perform his promise, he\nmounted on the church steeple, and observed the moment when the\nvampire came out of his grave, leaving near it the linen clothes in\nwhich he had been enveloped, and then went to disturb the inhabitants\nof the village.\n\nThe Hungarian, having seen him come out of his grave, went down\nquickly from the steeple, took up the linen envelops of the vampire,\nand carried them with him up the tower. The vampire having returned\nfrom his prowlings, cried loudly against the Hungarian, who made him a\nsign from the top of the tower that if he wished to have his clothes\nagain he must fetch them; the vampire began to ascend the steeple, but\nthe Hungarian threw him down backwards from the ladder, and cut his\nhead off with a spade. Such was the end of this tragedy.\n\nThe person who related this story to me saw nothing, neither did the\nnoble who had been sent as commissioner; they only heard the report of\nthe peasants of the place, people extremely ignorant, superstitious\nand credulous, and most exceedingly prejudiced on the subject of\nvampirism.\n\nBut supposing that there be any reality in the fact of these\napparitions of vampires, shall they be attributed to God, to angels,\nto the spirits of these ghosts, or to the devil? In this last case,\nwill it be said that the devil will subtilize these bodies, and give\nthem power to penetrate through the ground without disturbing, to\nglide through the cracks and joints of a door, to pass through a\nkeyhole, to lengthen or shorten themselves, to reduce themselves to\nthe nature of air, or water, to evaporate through the ground--in\nshort, to put them in the same state in which we believe the bodies of\nthe blessed will be after the resurrection, and in which was that of\nour Saviour after his resurrection, who showed himself only to those\nwhom he thought proper, and who without opening the doors,[610]\nappeared suddenly in the midst of his disciples.\n\nBut should it be allowed that the demon could reanimate these bodies,\nand give them the power of motion for a time, could he also lengthen,\ndiminish, rarefy, subtilize the bodies of these ghosts, and give them\nthe faculty of penetrating through the ground, the doors and windows?\nThere is no appearance of his having received this power from God, and\nwe cannot even conceive that an earthly body, material and gross, can\nbe reduced to that state of subtility and spiritualization without\ndestroying the configuration of its parts and spoiling the economy of\nits structure; which would be contrary to the intention of the demon,\nand render this body incapable of appearing, showing itself, acting\nand speaking, and, in short, of being cut to pieces and burned, as is\ncommonly seen and practiced in Moravia, Poland, and Silesia. These\ndifficulties exist in regard to those persons of whom we have made\nmention, who, being excommunicated, rose from their tombs, and left\nthe church in sight of everybody.\n\nWe must then keep silence on this article, since it has not pleased\nGod to reveal to us either the extent of the demon's power, or the way\nin which these things can be done. There is even much appearance of\nillusion; and even if some reality were mixed up with it, we may\neasily console ourselves for our ignorance in that respect, since\nthere are so many natural things which take place within us and around\nus, of which the cause and manner are unknown to us.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[607] Plin. Hist. Natur. lib. vii. c. 52.\n\n[608] Orig. de Resurrect. Fragment. lib. i. p. 35. Nov. edit. Et\ncontra Celsum, lib. vii. p. 679.\n\n[609] Luke xvi. 22, 23.\n\n[610] John xx. 26.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LII.\n\nEXAMINATION OF THE OPINION THAT THE DEMON FASCINATES THE EYES OF THOSE\nTO WHOM VAMPIRES APPEAR.\n\n\nThose who have recourse to the fascination of the senses to explain\nwhat is related concerning the apparition of vampires, throw\nthemselves into as great a perplexity as those who acknowledge\nsincerely the reality of these events; for fascination consists either\nin the suspension of the senses, which cannot see what is passing\nbefore their sight, like that with which the men of Sodom were\nstruck[611] when they could not discover the door of Lot's house,\nthough it was before their eyes; or that of the disciples at Emmaus,\nof whom it is said that \"their eyes were holden, so that they might\nnot recognize Jesus Christ, who was talking with them on the way, and\nwhom they knew not again until the breaking of the bread revealed him\nto them;\"[612]--or else it consists in an object being represented to\nthe senses in a different form from that it wears in reality, as that\nof the Moabites,[613] who believed they saw the waters tinged with the\nblood of the Israelites, although nothing was there but the simple\nwaters, on which the rays of the sun being reflected, gave them a\nreddish hue; or that of the Syrian soldiers sent to take Elisha,[614]\nwho were led by this prophet into Samaria, without their recognising\neither the prophet or the city.\n\nThis fascination, in what way soever it may be conceived, is certainly\nabove the usual power known unto man, consequently man cannot\nnaturally produce it; but is it above the natural powers of an angel\nor a demon? That is what is unknown to us, and obliges us to suspend\nour judgment on this question.\n\nThere is another kind of fascination, which consists in this, that the\nsight of a person or a thing, the praise bestowed upon them, the envy\nfelt towards them, produce in the object certain bad effects, against\nwhich the ancients took great care to guard themselves and their\nchildren, by making them wear round their necks preservatives, or\namulets, or charms.\n\nA great number of passages on this subject might be cited from the\nGreek and Latin authors; and I find that at this day, in various parts\nof Christendom, people are persuaded of the efficacy of these\nfascinations. But we must own three things; first, that the effect of\nthese pretended fascinations (or spells) is very doubtful; the second,\nthat if it were certain, it is very difficult, not to say impossible,\nto explain it; and lastly, that it cannot be rationally applied to the\nmatter of apparitions or of vampires.\n\nIf the vampires or ghosts are not really resuscitated nor their bodies\nspiritualized and subtilized, as we believe we have proved, and if our\nsenses are not deceived by fascination, as we have just seen it, I\ndoubt if there be any other way to act on this question than to\nabsolutely deny the return of these vampires, or to believe that they\nare only asleep or torpid; for if they truly are resuscitated, and if\nwhat is told of their return be true--if they speak, act, reason, if\nthey suck the blood of the living, they must know what passes in the\nother world, and they ought to inform their relations and friends of\nit, and that is what they do not. On the contrary, they treat them as\nenemies; torment them, take away their life, suck their blood, cause\nthem to die with lassitude.\n\nIf they are predestinated and blessed, whence happens it that they\ndisturb and torment the living, their nearest relations, their\nchildren, and all that for nothing, and simply for the sake of doing\nharm? If these are persons who have still something to expiate in\npurgatory, and who require the prayers of the living, why do they not\nexplain their condition? If they are reprobate and condemned, what\nhave they to do on this earth? Can we conceive that God allows them\nthus to come without reason or necessity and molest their families,\nand even cause their death?\n\nIf these _revenans_ are really dead, whatever state they may be in in\nthe other world, they play a very bad part here, and keep it up still\nworse.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[611] Gen. xix. 2.\n\n[612] Luke xxiv. 16.\n\n[613] 2 Kings iii. 23.\n\n[614] 2 Kings iv. 19, 20.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LIII.\n\nINSTANCES OF PERSONS RESUSCITATED, WHO RELATE WHAT THEY HAVE SEEN IN\nTHE OTHER WORLD.\n\n\nWe have just seen that the vampires never speak of the other world,\nnor ask for either masses or prayers, nor give any warning to the\nliving to lead them to correct their morals, or bring them to a better\nlife. It is surely very prejudicial to the reality of their return\nfrom the other world; but their silence on that head may favor the\nopinion which supposes that they are not really dead.\n\nIt is true that we do not read either that Lazarus, resuscitated by\nJesus Christ,[615] nor the son of the widow of Nain,[616] nor that of\nthe woman of Shunam, brought to life by Elisha,[617] nor that\nIsraelite who came to life by simply touching the body of the same\nprophet Elisha,[618] after their resurrection revealed anything to\nmankind of the state of souls in the other world.\n\nBut we see in the Gospel[619] that the bad rich man, having begged of\nAbraham to permit him to send some one to this world to warn his\nbrethren to lead a better life, and take care not to fall into the\nunhappy condition in which he found himself, was answered, \"They have\nthe law and the prophets, they can listen to them and follow their\ninstructions.\" And as the rich man persisted, saying--\"If some one\nwent to them from the other world, they would be more impressed,\"\nAbraham replied, \"If they will not hear Moses and the prophets,\nneither will they attend the more though one should go to them from\nthe dead.\" The dead man resuscitated by St. Stanislaus replied in the\nsame manner to those who asked him to give them news of the other\nworld--\"You have the law, the prophets, and the Gospel--hear them!\"\n\nThe deceased Pagans who have returned to life, and some Christians who\nhave likewise returned to the world by a kind of resurrection, and who\nhave seen what passed beyond the bounds of this world, have not kept\nsilence on the subject. They have related at length what they saw and\nheard on leaving their bodies.\n\nWe have already touched upon the story of a man named Eros, of the\ncountry of Pamphilia,[620] who, having been wounded in battle, was\nfound ten days after amongst the dead. They carried him senseless and\nmotionless into the house. Two days afterwards, when they were about\nto place him on the funeral pile to burn his body, he revived, began\nto speak, and to relate in what manner people were lodged after their\ndeath, and how the good were rewarded and the wicked punished and\ntormented.\n\nHe said that his soul, being separated from his body, went with a\nlarge company to a very agreeable place, where they saw as it were two\ngreat openings, which gave entrance to those who came from earth, and\ntwo others to go to heaven. He saw at this same place judges who\nexamined those arrived from this world, and sent up to the right those\nwho had lived well, and sent down to the left those who had been\nguilty of crimes. Each of them bore upon his back a label on which was\nwritten what he had done well or ill, the reason of his condemnation\nor his absolution.\n\nWhen it came to the turn of Eros, the judges told him that he must\nreturn to earth, to announce to men what passed in the other world,\nand that he must well observe everything, in order to be able to\nrender a faithful account to the living. Thus he witnessed the\nmiserable state of the wicked, which was to last a thousand years, and\nthe delights enjoyed by the just; that both the good and the bad\nreceived the reward or the punishment of their good or bad deeds, ten\ntimes greater than the measure of their crimes or of all their\nvirtues.\n\nHe remarked amongst other things, that the judges inquired where was a\ncertain man named Andaeus, celebrated in all Pamphylia for his crimes\nand tyranny. They were answered that he was not yet come, and that he\nwould not be there; in fact, having presented himself with much\ntrouble, and by making great efforts, at the grand opening before\nmentioned, he was repulsed and sent back to go below with other\nscoundrels like himself, whom they tortured in a thousand different\nways, and who were always violently repulsed, whenever they tried to\nreascend.\n\nHe saw, moreover, the three Fates, daughters of Necessity or Destiny.\nThese are, Lachesis, Clotho, and Atropos. Lachesis announced the past,\nClotho the present, and Atropos the future. The souls were obliged to\nappear before these three goddesses. Lachesis cast the lots upwards,\nand every soul laid hold of the one which it could reach; which,\nhowever, did not prevent them still from sometimes missing the kind of\nlife which was most conformable to justice and reason.\n\nEros added that he had remarked some of the souls who sought to enter\ninto animals; for instance, Orpheus, from hatred to the female sex,\nwho had killed him (by tearing him to pieces), entered into a swan,\nand Thamaris into a nightingale. Ajax, the son of Telamon, chose the\nbody of a lion, from detestation of the injustice of the Greeks, who\nhad refused to let him have the arms of Hector, which he asserted were\nhis due. Agamemnon, grieved at the crosses he had endured in this\nlife, chose the form of the eagle. Atalanta chose the life of the\nathletics, delighted with the honors heaped upon them. Thersites, the\nugliest of mortals, chose the form of an ape. Ulysses, weary of the\nmiseries he had suffered upon earth, asked to live quietly as a\nprivate man. He had some trouble to find a lot for that kind of life;\nbut he found it at last thrown down on the ground and neglected, and\nhe joyfully snatched it up.\n\nEros affirmed also that the souls of some animals entered into the\nbodies of men; and by the contrary rule, the souls of the wicked took\npossession of savage and cruel beasts, and the souls of just men of\nthose animals which are gentle, tame, and domestic.\n\nAfter these various metempsychoses, Lachesis gave to each his\nguardian or defender, who guided and guarded him during the course of\nhis life. Eros was then led to the river of oblivion (Lethe), which\ntakes away all memory of the past, but he was prevented from drinking\nof its water. Lastly, he said he could not tell how he came back to\nlife.\n\nPlato, after having related this fable, as he terms it, or this\napologue, concludes from it that the soul is immortal, and that to\ngain a blessed life we must live uprightly, which will lead us to\nheaven, where we shall enjoy that beatitude of a thousand years which\nis promised us.\n\nWe see by this, 1. That a man may live a good while without eating or\nbreathing, or giving any sign or life. 2. That the Greeks believed in\nthe metempsychosis, in a state of beatitude for the just, and pains of\na thousand years duration for the wicked. 3. That destiny does not\nhinder a man from doing either good or evil. 4. That he had a genius,\nor an angel, who guided and protected him. They believed in judgment\nafter death, and that the souls of the just were received into what\nthey called the Elysian Fields.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[615] John xi. 14.\n\n[616] Luke vii. 11, 12.\n\n[617] 2 Kings iv. 25.\n\n[618] 2 Kings xiii. 21.\n\n[619] Luke xvi. 24.\n\n[620] Plato, lib. x. de Rep. p. 614.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LIV.\n\nTHE TRADITIONS OF THE PAGANS CONCERNING THE FUTURE LIFE ARE DERIVED\nFROM THE HEBREWS AND EGYPTIANS.\n\n\nAll these traditions are clearly to be found in Homer, Virgil, and\nother Greek and Latin authors; they were doubtless originally derived\nfrom the Hebrews, or rather the Egyptians, from whom the Greeks took\ntheir religion, which they arranged to their own taste. The Hebrews\nspeak of the _Rephaims_,[621] of the impious giants \"who groan under\nthe waters.\" Solomon says[622] that the wicked shall go down to the\nabyss, or hell, with the Rephaims. Isaiah, describing the arrival of\nthe King of Babylon in hell, says[623] that \"the giants have raised\nthemselves up to meet him with honor, and have said unto him, thou has\nbeen pierced with wounds even as we are; thy pride has been\nprecipitated into hell. Thy bed shall be of rottenness, and thy\ncovering of worms.\" Ezekiel describes[624] in the same manner the\ndescent of the King of Assyria into hell--\"In the day that Ahasuerus\nwent down into hell, I commanded a general mourning; for him I closed\nup the abyss, and arrested the course of the waters. You are at last\nbrought down to the bottom of the earth with the trees of Eden; you\nwill rest there with all those who have been killed by the sword;\nthere is Pharaoh with all his host,\" &c. In the Gospel,[625] there is\na great gulf between the bosom of Abraham and the abode of the bad\nrich man, and of those who resemble him.\n\nThe Egyptians called _Amenthes_, that is to say, \"he who receives and\ngives,\" what the Greeks named Hades, or hell, or the kingdom of Hades,\nor Pluto. They believed that Amenthes received the souls of men when\nthey died, and restored them to them when they returned to the world;\nthat when a man died, his soul passed into the body of some other\nanimal by metempsychosis; first of all into a terrestrial animal, then\ninto one that was aquatic, afterwards into the body of a bird, and\nlastly, after having animated all sorts of animals, he returned at the\nend of three thousand years to the body of a man.\n\nIt is from the Egyptians that Orpheus, Homer, and the other Greeks\nderived the idea of the immortality of the soul, as well as the cave\nof the Nymphs described by Homer, who says there are two gates, the\none to the north, through which the soul enters the cavern, and the\nother to the south, by which they leave the nymphic abode.\n\nA certain Thespisius, a native of Soloe in Cilicia, well known to\nPlutarch,[626] having passed a great part of his life in debauchery,\nand ruined himself entirely, in order to gain a livelihood lent\nhimself to everything that was bad, and contrived to amass money.\nHaving sent to consult the oracle of Amphilochus, he received for\nanswer, that his affairs would go on better after his death. A short\ntime after, he fell from the top of his house, broke his neck, and\ndied. Three days after, when they were about to perform the funeral\nobsequies, he came to life again, and changed his way of life so\ngreatly that there was not in Cilicia a worthier or more pious man\nthan himself.\n\nAs they asked him the reason of such a change, he said that at the\nmoment of his fall he felt the same as a pilot who is thrown back from\nthe top of the helm into the sea; after which, his soul was sensible\nof being raised as high as the stars, of which he admired the immense\nsize and admirable lustre; that the souls once out of the body rise\ninto the air, and are enclosed in a kind of globe, or inflamed vortex,\nwhence having escaped, some rise on high with incredible rapidity,\nwhile others whirl about the air, and are thrown in divers directions,\nsometimes up and sometimes down.\n\nThe greater part appeared to him very much perplexed, and uttered\ngroans and frightful wailings; others, but in a less number, rose and\nrejoiced with their fellows. At last he learnt that Adrastia, the\ndaughter of Jupiter and Necessity, left nothing unpunished, and that\nshe treated every one according to their merit. He then details all he\nsaw at full length, and relates the various punishments with which the\nbad are tormented in the next world.\n\nHe adds that a man of his acquaintance said to him, \"You are not dead,\nbut by God's permission your soul is come into this place, and has\nleft your body with all its faculties.\" At last he was sent back into\nhis body as through a channel, and urged on by an impetuous breeze.\n\nWe may make two reflections on this recital; the first on this soul,\nwhich quits its body for three days and then comes back to reanimate\nit; the second, on the certainty of the oracle, which promised\nThespisius a happier life when he should be dead.\n\nIn the Sicilian war[627] between Caesar and Pompey, Gabienus, commander\nof Caesar's fleet, having been taken, was beheaded by order of Pompey.\nHe remained all day on the sea-shore, his head only held on to his\nbody by a fillet. Towards evening he begged that Pompey or some of his\npeople might come to him, because he came from the shades, and he had\nthings of consequence to impart to him. Pompey sent to him several of\nhis friends, to whom Gabienus declared that the gods of the infernal\nregions favored the cause and the party of Pompey, and that he would\nsucceed according to his wishes; that he was ordered to announce this,\n\"and as a proof of the truth of what I say, I must die directly,\"\nwhich happened. But we do not see that Pompey's party succeeded; we\nknow, on the contrary, that it fell, and Caesar was victorious. But the\nGod of the infernal regions, that is to say, the devil, found it very\ngood for him, since it sent him so many unhappy victims of revenge and\nambition.[628]\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[621] Job xxvi. 5.\n\n[622] Prov. ix. 18.\n\n[623] Isa. xix. 9, _et seq._\n\n[624] Ezek. xxxi. 15.\n\n[625] Luke xvi. 26.\n\n[626] Plutarch, de his qui misero a Numine puniuntur.\n\n[627] Plin. Hist. Natur. lib. vii. c. 52.\n\n[628] This story is related before, and is here related on account of\nthe bearing it has on the subject of this chapter.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LV.\n\nINSTANCES OF CHRISTIANS WHO HAVE BEEN RESUSCITATED AND SENT BACK TO\nTHE WORLD--VISION OF VETINUS, A MONK OF AUGIA.\n\n\nWe read in an old work, written in the time of St. Augustine,[629]\nthat a man having been crushed by a wall which fell upon him, his wife\nran to the church to invoke St. Stephen whilst they were preparing to\nbury the man who was supposed to be dead. Suddenly they saw him open\nhis eyes, and move his body; and after a time he sat up, and related\nthat his soul, having quitted his body, had met a crowd of other souls\nof dead persons, some of whom he knew, and others he did not; that a\nyoung man, in a deacon's habit, having entered the room where he was,\nput aside all those souls, and said to them three times, \"Return what\nyou have received.\" He understood at last that he meant the creed,\nwhich he recited instantly; and also the Lord's Prayer; then the\ndeacon (St. Stephen) made the sign of the cross upon his heart, and\ntold him to rise in perfect health. A young man,[630] a catechumen,\nwho had been dead for three days, and was brought back to life by the\nprayers of St. Martin, related that after his death he had been\npresented before the tribunal of the Sovereign Judge, who had\ncondemned him, and sent him with a crowd of others into a dark place;\nand then two angels, having represented to the Judge that he was a man\nfor whom St. Martin had interceded, the Judge commanded the angels to\nsend him back to earth, and restore him to St. Martin, which was done.\nHe was baptized, and lived a long time afterwards.\n\nSt. Salvius, Bishop of Albi,[631] having been seized with a violent\nfever, was thought to be dead. They washed him, clothed him, laid him\non a bier, and passed the night in prayer by him: the next morning he\nwas seen to move; he appeared to awake from a deep sleep, opened his\neyes, and raising his hand towards heaven said, \"Ah! Lord, why hast\nthou sent me back to this gloomy abode?\" He rose completely cured, but\nwould then reveal nothing.\n\nSome days after, he related how two angels had carried him to heaven,\nwhere he had seen the glory of Paradise, and had been sent back\nagainst his will to live some time longer on earth. St. Gregory of\nTours takes God to witness that he heard this history from the mouth\nof St. Salvius himself.\n\nA monk of Augia, named Vetinus, or Guetinus, who was living in 824,\nwas ill, and lying upon his couch with his eyes shut; but not being\nquite asleep, he saw a demon in the shape of a priest, most horribly\ndeformed, who, showing him some instruments of torture which he held\nin his hand, threatened to make him soon feel the rigorous effects of\nthem. At the same time he saw a multitude of evil spirits enter his\nchamber, carrying tools, as if to build him a tomb or a coffin, and\nenclose him in it.\n\nImmediately he saw appear some serious and grave-looking personages,\nwearing religious habits, who chased these demons away; and then\nVetinus saw an angel, surrounded with a blaze of light, who came to\nthe foot of the bed, and conducted him by a path between mountains of\nan extraordinary height, at the foot of which flowed a large river, in\nwhich he beheld a multitude of the damned, who were suffering diverse\ntorments, according to the kind and enormity of their crimes. He saw\namongst them many of his acquaintance; amongst others, some prelates\nand priests, guilty of incontinence, who were tied with their backs to\nstakes, and burned by a fire lighted under them; the women, their\ncompanions in crime, suffering the same torment opposite to them.\n\nHe beheld there also, a monk who had given himself up to avarice, and\npossessed money of his own, who was to expiate his crime in a leaden\ncoffin till the day of judgment. He remarked there abbots and bishops,\nand even the Emperor Charlemagne, who were expiating their faults by\nfire, but were to be released from it after a certain time. He\nremarked there also the abode of the blessed in heaven, each one in\nhis place, and according to his merits. The Angel of the Lord after\nthis revealed to him the crimes which were the most common, and the\nmost odious in the eyes of God. He mentioned sodomy in particular, as\nthe most abominable crime.\n\nAfter the service for the night, the abbot came to visit the sick man,\nwho related this vision to him in full, and the abbot had it written\ndown directly. Vetinus lived two days longer, and having predicted\nthat he had only the third day to live, he recommended himself to the\nprayers of the monks, received the holy viaticum, and died in peace,\nthe 31st of October, 824.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[629] Lib. i. de Miracul. Sancti Stephani, cap. 4. p. 28. Lib. vii.\nOper. St. Aug. in Appendice.\n\n[630] Sulpit. Sever. in Vita S. Martini, cap. 3.\n\n[631] Gregor. Turon. lib. vii. c. 1.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LVI.\n\nTHE VISION OF BERTHOLDUS, AS RELATED BY HINCMAR, ARCHBISHOP OF RHEIMS.\n\n\nThe famous Hincmar,[632] Archbishop of Rheims, in a circular letter\nwhich he wrote to the bishops, his suffragans, and the faithful of his\ndiocese, relates, that a man named Bertholdus, with whom he was\nacquainted, having fallen ill, and received all the sacraments,\nremained during four days without taking any food. On the fourth day\nhe was so weak that there was hardly a feeble palpitation and\nrespiration found in him. About midnight he called to his wife, and\ntold her to send quickly for his confessor.\n\nThe priest was as yet only in the court before the house, when\nBertholdus said, \"Place a seat here, for the priest is coming.\" He\nentered the room and said some prayers, to which Bertholdus uttered\nthe responses, and then related to him the vision he had had. \"On\nleaving this world,\" said he, \"I saw forty-one bishops, amongst whom\nwere Ebonius, Leopardellus, Eneas, who were clothed in coarse black\ngarments, dirty, and singed by the flames. As for themselves, they\nwere sometimes burned by the flames, and at others frozen with\ninsupportable cold.\" Ebonius said to him, \"Go to my clergy and my\nfriends, and tell them to offer for us the holy sacrifice.\" Bertholdus\nobeyed, and returning to the place where he had seen the bishops, he\nfound them well clothed, shaved, bathed, and rejoicing.\n\nA little farther on, he met King Charles,[633] who was as if eaten by\nworms. This prince begged him to go and tell Hincmar to relieve his\nmisery. Hincmar said mass for him, and King Charles found relief.\nAfter that he saw Bishop Jesse, of Orleans, who was over a well, and\nfour demons plunged him into boiling pitch, and then threw him into\nicy water. They prayed for him, and he was relieved. He then saw the\nCount Othaire, who was likewise in torment. Bertholdus begged the wife\nof Othaire, with his vassals and friends, to pray for him, and give\nalms, and he was delivered from his torments. Bertholdus after that\nreceived the holy communion, and began to find himself better, with\nthe hope of living fourteen years longer, as he had been promised by\nhis guide, who had shown him all that we have just related.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[632] Hincmar, lib. ii. p. 805.\n\n[633] Apparently Charles the Bald, who died in 875.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LVII.\n\nTHE VISION OF SAINT FURSIUS.\n\n\nThe Life of St. Fursius,[634] written a short time after his death,\nwhich happened about the year 653, reports several visions seen by\nthis holy man. Being grievously ill, and unable to stir, he saw\nhimself in the midst of the darkness raised up, as it were, by the\nhands of three angels, who carried him out of the world, then brought\nhim back to it, and made his soul re-enter his body, to complete the\ndestination assigned him by God. Then he found himself in the midst of\nseveral people, who wept for him as if he were dead, and told him how,\nthe day before, he had fallen down in a swoon, so that they believed\nhim to be dead. He could have wished to have some intelligent persons\nabout him to relate to them what he had seen; but having no one near\nhim but rustics, he asked for and received the communion of the body\nand blood of the Saviour, and continued three days longer awake.\n\nThe following Tuesday, he fell into a similar swoon, in the middle of\nthe night; his feet became cold, and raising his hands to pray, he\nreceived death with joy. Then he saw the same three angels descend who\nhad already guided him. They raised him as the first time, but instead\nof the agreeable and melodious songs which he had then heard, he could\nnow hear only the frightful howlings of the demons, who began to fight\nagainst him, and shoot inflamed darts at him. The Angel of the Lord\nreceived them on his buckler, and extinguished them. The devil\nreproached Fursius with some bad thoughts, and some human weaknesses,\nbut the angels defended him, saying, \"If he has not committed any\ncapital sins, he shall not perish.\"\n\nAs the devil could not reproach him with anything that was worthy of\neternal death, he saw two saints from his own country--St. Bean and\nSt. Medan, who comforted him and announced to him the evils with which\nGod would punish mankind, principally because of the sins of the\ndoctors or learned men of the church, and the princes who governed the\npeople;--the doctors for neglecting to declare the word of God, and\nthe princes for the bad examples they gave their people. After which,\nthey sent him back into his body again. He returned into it with\nrepugnance, and began to relate all that he had seen; they poured\nspring water upon his body, and he felt a great warmth between his\nshoulders. After this, he began to preach throughout Hibernia; and the\nVenerable Bede[635] says that there was in his monastery an aged monk\nwho said that he had learned from a grave personage well worthy of\nbelief, that he had heard these visions described by St. Fursius\nhimself. This saint had not the least doubt that his soul was really\nseparated from his body, when he was carried away in his trance.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[634] Vita Sti. Fursci, apud Bolland. 16 Januarii, pp. 37, 38. Item,\npp. 47, 48. Saecul. xi. Bened. p. 299.\n\n[635] Bede, lib. iii. Hist. c. 19.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LVIII.\n\nVISION OF A PROTESTANT OF YORK, AND OTHERS.\n\n\nHere is another instance, which happened in 1698 to one of the\nso-called reformed religion.[636] A minister of the county of York, at\na place called Hipley, and whose name was Henry Vatz (Watts), being\nstruck with apoplexy the 15th of August, was on the 17th placed in a\ncoffin to be buried. But as they were about to put him in the grave,\nhe uttered a loud cry, which frightened all the persons who had\nattended him to the grave; they took him quickly out of the coffin,\nand as soon as he had come to himself, he related several surprising\nthings which he said had been revealed to him during his trance, which\nhad lasted eight-and-forty hours. The 24th of the same month, he\npreached a very moving discourse to those who had accompanied him the\nday they were carrying him to the tomb.\n\nPeople may, if they please, treat all that we have related as dreams\nand tales, but it cannot be denied that we recognize in these\nresurrections, and in these narrations of men who have come to life\nagain after their real or seeming death, the belief of the church\nconcerning hell, paradise, purgatory, the efficacy of prayers for the\ndead, and the apparitions of angels and demons who torment the damned,\nand of the souls who have yet something to expiate in the other world.\n\nWe see also, that which has a visible connection with the matter we\nare treating upon--persons really dead, and others regarded as such,\nwho return to life in health and live a long time afterwards. Lastly,\nwe may observe therein opinions on the state of souls after this life,\nwhich are nearly the same as among the Hebrews, Egyptians, Greeks,\nRomans, barbarous nations, and Christians. If the Hungarian ghosts do\nnot speak of what they have seen in the other world, it is either that\nthey are not really dead, or more likely that all which is related of\nthese _revenans_ is fabulous and chimerical. I will add some more\ninstances which will serve to confirm the belief of the primitive\nchurch on the subject of apparitions.\n\nSt. Perpetua, who suffered martyrdom in Africa in 202 or 203, being in\nprison for the faith, saw a brother named Dinocrates, who had died at\nthe age of seven years of a cancer in the cheek; she saw him as if in\na very large dungeon, so that they could not approach each other. He\nseemed to be placed in a reservoir of water, the sides of which were\nhigher than himself, so that he could not reach the water, for which\nhe appeared to thirst very much. Perpetua was much moved at this, and\nprayed to God with tears and groans for his relief. Some days after,\nshe saw in spirit the same Dinocrates, well clothed, washed, and\nrefreshed, and the water of the reservoir in which he was, only came\nup to his middle, and on the edge a cup, from which he drank, without\nthe water diminishing, and the skin of the cancer in his cheek well\nhealed, so that nothing now remained of the cancer but the scar. By\nthese things she understood that Dinocrates was no longer in pain.\n\nDinocrates was there apparently[637] to expiate some faults which he\nhad committed since his baptism, for Perpetua says a little before\nthis that only her father had remained in infidelity.\n\nThe same St. Perpetua, being in prison some days before she suffered\nmartyrdom[638] had a vision of the deacon Pomponius, who had suffered\nmartyrdom some days before, and who said to her, \"Come, we are waiting\nfor you.\" He led her through a rugged and winding path into the arena\nof the amphitheatre, where she had to combat with a very ugly\nEgyptian, accompanied by some other men like him. Perpetua found\nherself changed into a man, and began to fight naked, assisted by some\nwell-made youths who came to her service and assistance.\n\nThen she beheld a man of extraordinary size, who cried aloud, \"If the\nEgyptian gains the victory over her, he will kill her with his sword;\nbut if she conquers, she shall have this branch ornamented with golden\napples for her reward.\" Perpetua began the combat, and having\noverthrown the Egyptian, trampled his head under her feet. The people\nshouted victory, and Perpetua approaching him who held the branch\nabove mentioned, he put it in her hands, and said to her, \"Peace be\nwith you.\" Then she awoke, and understood that she would have to\ncombat, not against wild beasts, but against the devil.\n\nSaturus, one of the companions of the martyrdom of St. Perpetua, had\nalso a vision, which he relates thus: \"We had suffered martyrdom, and\nwere disengaged from this mortal body. Four angels carried us towards\nthe East without touching us. We arrived at a place shining with\nintense lustre; Perpetua was at my side, and I said unto her, 'Behold\nwhat the Lord promised us.'\n\n\"We entered a large garden full of trees and flowers; the four angels\nwho had borne us thither placed us in the hands of other angels, who\nconducted us by a wide road to a place where we found Jocondus,\nSaturninus, and Artazes, who had suffered with us, and invited us to\ncome and salute the Lord. We followed them, and beheld in the midst of\nthis place the Almighty, crowned with dazzling light, and we heard\nrepeated incessantly by those around him, Holy! holy! holy! They\nraised us towards him, and we stopped before his throne. We gave him\nthe kiss of peace, and he stroked our faces with his hand.\n\n\"We came out, and we saw before the door the bishop Optatus and the\npriest Aspasius, who threw themselves at our feet. We raised and\nembraced them. We recognized in this place several of our brethren and\nsome martyrs.\" Such was the vision of Saturus.\n\nThere are visions of all sorts; of holy martyrs, and of holy angels.\nIt is related of St. Exuperus, bishop of Thoulouse,[639] that having\nconceived the design of transporting the relics of St. Saturnus, a\nformer bishop of that church, to place them in a new church built in\nhis honor, he could with difficulty resolve to take this holy body\nfrom the tomb, fearing to displease the saint, or to diminish the\nhonor which was due to him. But while in this doubt, he had a vision\nwhich gave him to understand that this translation would neither\nlessen the respect which was due to the ashes of the martyr, nor be\nprejudicial to his honor; but that on the contrary it would contribute\nto the salvation of the faithful, and to the greater glorification of\nGod.\n\nSome days before[640] St. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, suffered\nmartyrdom, in 258, he had a vision, not being as yet quite asleep, in\nwhich a young man whose height was extraordinary, seemed to lead him\nto the Praetorium before the Proconsul, who was seated on his tribunal.\nThis magistrate, having caught sight of Cyprian, began to write his\nsentence before he had interrogated him as was usual. Cyprian knew not\nwhat the sentence condemned him to; but the young man above mentioned,\nand who was behind the judge, made a sign by opening his hand and\nspreading in form of a sword, that he was condemned to have his head\ncut off.\n\nCyprian easily understood what was meant by this sign, and having\nearnestly requested to be allowed a day's delay to put his affairs in\norder, the judge, having granted his request, again wrote upon his\ntablets, and the young man by a sign of his hand let him know that the\ndelay was granted. These predictions were exactly fulfilled, and we\nsee many similar ones in the works of St. Cyprian.\n\nSt. Fructueux, Bishop of Tarragona,[641] who suffered martyrdom in\n259, was seen after his death ascending to heaven with the deacons who\nhad suffered with him; they appeared as if they were still attached to\nthe stakes near which they had been burnt. They were seen by two\nChristians, who showed them to the wife and daughter of Emilian, who\nhad condemned them. The saint appeared to Emilian himself and to the\nChristians, who had taken away their ashes, and desired that they\nmight be all collected in one spot. We see similar apparitions[642] in\nthe acts of St. James, of St. Marienus, martyrs, and some others who\nsuffered in Numidia in 259. We may observe the like[643] in the acts\nof St. Montanus, St. Lucius, and other African martyrs in 259 or 260,\nand in those of St. Vincent, a martyr in Spain, in 304, and in the\nlife of St. Theodore, martyr, in 306, of whose sufferings St. Gregory\nof Nicea has written an account. Everybody knows what happened at\nSebastus, in Armenia, in the martyrdom of the famous forty martyrs, of\nwhom St. Basil the Great has written the eulogium. One of the forty,\novercome by the excess of cold, which was extreme, threw himself into\na hot bath that was prepared just by. Then he who guarded them having\nperceived some angels who brought crowns to the thirty-nine who had\npersevered in their sufferings, despoiled himself of his garments,\njoined himself to the martyrs, and declared himself a Christian.\n\nAll these instances invincibly prove that, at least in the first ages\nof the church, the greatest and most learned bishops, the holy\nmartyrs, and the generality of the faithful, were well persuaded of\nthe possibility and reality of apparitions.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[636] Larrey, Hist. de Louis XIV. year 1698, p. 68.\n\n[637] Aug. lib. i. de Origine Animae.\n\n[638] Ibid. p. 97.\n\n[639] Aug. lib. i. de Origine Animae, p. 132.\n\n[640] Acta Martyr. Sincera, p. 212. Vita et Passio S. Cypriani, p.\n268.\n\n[641] Acta Martyr. Sincera, pp. 219, 221.\n\n[642] Acta Martyr. Sincera, p. 226.\n\n[643] Ibid. pp. 231-233, 237.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LIX.\n\nCONCLUSIONS OF THIS DISSERTATION.\n\n\nTo resume, in a few words, all that we have related in this\ndissertation: we have therein shown that a resurrection, properly so\ncalled, of a person who has been dead for a considerable time, and\nwhose body was either corrupted, or stinking, or ready to putrefy,\nlike that of Pierre, who had been three years buried, and was\nresuscitated by St. Stanislaus, or that of Lazarus, who had been four\ndays in the tomb, and already possessing a corpse-like smell--such a\nresurrection can be the work of the almighty power of God alone.\n\nThat persons who have been drowned, fallen into syncope, into a\nlethargy or trance, or looked upon as dead, in any manner whatever,\ncan be cured and brought back to life, even to their former state of\nlife, without any miracle, but by the power of medicine alone, or by\nnatural efforts, or by dint of patience; so that nature re-establishes\nherself in her former state, that the heart resumes its pulsation, and\nthe blood circulates freely again in the arteries, and the vital and\nanimal spirits in the nerves.\n\nThat the oupires, or vampires, or _revenans_ of Moravia, Hungary,\nPoland, &c., of which such extraordinary things are related, so\ndetailed, so circumstantial, invested with all the necessary\nformalities to make them believed, and to prove them even judicially\nbefore judges, and at the most exact and severe tribunals; that all\nwhich is said of their return to life; of their apparition, and the\nconfusion which they cause in the towns and country places; of their\nkilling people by sucking their blood, or in making a sign to them to\nfollow them; that all those things are mere illusions, and the\nconsequence of a heated and prejudiced imagination. They cannot cite\nany witness who is sensible, grave and unprejudiced, who can testify\nthat he has seen, touched, interrogated these ghosts, who can affirm\nthe reality of their return, and of the effects which are attributed\nto them.\n\nI shall not deny that some persons may have died of fright, imagining\nthat their near relatives called them to the tomb; that others have\nthought they heard some one rap at their doors, worry them, disturb\nthem, in a word, occasion them mortal maladies; and that these persons\njudicially interrogated, have replied that they had seen and heard\nwhat their panic-struck imagination had represented to them. But I\nrequire unprejudiced witnesses, free from terror and disinterested,\nquite calm, who can affirm upon serious reflection, that they have\nseen, heard, and interrogated these vampires, and who have been the\nwitnesses of their operations; and I am persuaded that no such witness\nwill be found.\n\nI have by me a letter, which has been sent me from Warsaw, the 3d of\nFebruary, 1745, by M. Slivisk, visitor of the province of priests of\nthe mission of Poland. He sends me word, that having studied with\ngreat care this matter, and having proposed to compose on this subject\na theological and physical dissertation, he had collected some memoirs\nwith that view; but that the occupations of visitor and superior in\nthe house of his congregation of Warsaw, had not allowed of his\nputting his project in execution; that he has since sought in vain for\nthese memoirs or notes, which have probably remained in the hands of\nsome of those to whom he had communicated them; that amongst these\nnotes were two resolutions of the Sorbonne, which both forbade cutting\noff the head and maiming the body of any of these pretended oupires or\nvampires. He adds, that these decisions may be found in the registers\nof the Sorbonne, from the year 1700 to 1710. I shall report by and\nby, a decision of the Sorbonne on this subject, dated in the year\n1691.\n\nHe says, moreover, that in Poland they are so persuaded of the\nexistence of these oupires, that any one who thought otherwise would\nbe regarded almost as a heretic. There are several facts concerning\nthis matter, which are looked upon as incontestable, and many persons\nare named as witnesses of them. \"I gave myself the trouble,\" says he,\n\"to go to the fountain-head, and examine those who are cited as ocular\nwitnesses.\" He found that no one dared to affirm that they had really\nseen the circumstances in question, and that it was all merely\nreveries and fancies, caused by fear and unfounded discourse. So\nwrites to me this wise and judicious priest.\n\nI have also received since, another letter from Vienna in Austria,\nwritten the 3d of August, 1746, by a Lorraine baron,[644] who has\nalways followed his prince. He tells me, that in 1742, his imperial\nmajesty, then his royal highness of Lorraine, had several verbal acts\ndrawn up concerning these cases, which happened in Moravia. I have\nthem by me still; I have read them over and over again; and to be\nfrank, I have not found in them the shadow of truth, nor even of\nprobability, in what is advanced. They are, nevertheless, documents\nwhich in that country are looked upon as true as the Gospel.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[644] M. le Baron Toussaint.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LX.\n\nTHE MORAL IMPOSSIBILITY OF THE REVENANS COMING OUT OF THEIR GRAVES.\n\n\nI have already proposed the objection formed upon the impossibility of\nthese vampires coming out of their graves, and returning to them\nagain, without its appearing that they have disturbed the earth,\neither in coming out or going in again. No one has ever replied to\nthis difficulty, and never will. To say that the demon subtilizes and\nspiritualizes the bodies of vampires, is a thing asserted without\nproof or likelihood.\n\nThe fluidity of the blood, the ruddiness, the suppleness of these\nvampires, ought not to surprise any one, any more than the growth of\nthe nails and hair, and their bodies remaining undecayed. We see every\nday, bodies which remain uncorrupted, and retain a ruddy color after\ndeath. This ought not to appear strange in those who die without\nmalady and a sudden death; or of certain maladies, known to our\nphysicians, which do not deprive the blood of its fluidity, or the\nlimbs of their suppleness.\n\nWith regard to the growth of the hair and nails in bodies which are\nnot yet decayed, the thing is quite natural. There remains in those\nbodies a certain slow and imperceptible circulation of the humors,\nwhich causes this growth of the nails and hair, in the same way that\nwe every day see common bulbs grow and shoot, although without any\nnourishment derived from the earth.\n\nThe same may be said of flowers, and in general of all that depends on\nvegetation in animals and plants.\n\nThe belief of the common people of Greece in the return to earth of\nthe vroucolacas, is not much better founded than that of vampires and\nghosts. It is only the ignorance, the prejudice, the terror of the\nGreeks, which have given rise to this vain and ridiculous belief, and\nwhich they keep up even to this very day. The narrative which we have\nreported after M. Tournefort, an ocular witness and a good\nphilosopher, may suffice to undeceive those who would maintain the\ncontrary.\n\nThe incorruption of the bodies of those who died in a state of\nexcommunication, has still less foundation than the return of the\nvampires, and the vexations of the living caused by the vroucolacas;\nantiquity has had no similar belief. The schismatic Greeks, and the\nheretics separated from the Church of Rome, who certainly died\nexcommunicated, ought, upon this principle, to remain uncorrupted;\nwhich is contrary to experience, and repugnant to good sense. And if\nthe Greeks pretend to be the true Church, all the Roman Catholics, who\nhave a separate communion from them, ought then also to remain\nundecayed. The instances cited by the Greeks either prove nothing, or\nprove too much. Those bodies which have not decayed, were really\nexcommunicated, or not. If they were canonically and really\nexcommunicated, then the question falls to the ground. If they were\nnot really and canonically excommunicated, then it must be proved that\nthere was no other cause of incorruption--which can never be proved.\n\nMoreover, anything so equivocal as incorruption, cannot be adduced as\na proof in so serious a matter as this. It is owned, that often the\nbodies of saints are preserved from decay; that is looked upon as\ncertain, among the Greeks as among the Latins--therefore, we cannot\nthence conclude that this same incorruption is a proof that a person\nis excommunicated.\n\nIn short, this proof is universal and general, or only particular. I\nmean to say, either all excommunicated persons remain undecayed, or\nonly a few of them. We cannot maintain that all those who die in a\nstate of excommunication, are incorruptible. For then all the Greeks\ntowards the Latins, and the Latins towards the Greeks, would be\nundecayed, which is not the case. That proof then is very frivolous,\nand nothing can be concluded from it. I mistrust, a great deal, all\nthose stories which are related to prove this pretended\nincorruptibility of excommunicated persons. If well examined, many of\nthem would doubtless be found to be false.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXI.\n\nWHAT IS RELATED CONCERNING THE BODIES OF THE EXCOMMUNICATED LEAVING\nTHE CHURCH, IS SUBJECT TO VERY GREAT DIFFICULTIES.\n\n\nWhatever respect I may feel for St. Gregory the Great, who relates\nsome instances of deceased persons who died in a state of\nexcommunication going out of the church before the eyes of every one\npresent; and whatever consideration may be due to other authors whom I\nhave cited, and who relate other circumstances of a similar nature,\nand even still more incredible, I cannot believe that we have these\nlegends with all the circumstances belonging to them; and after the\nreasons for doubt which I have recorded at the end of these stories, I\nbelieve I may again say, that God, to inspire the people with still\ngreater fear of excommunication, and a greater regard for the\nsentences and censures of the church, has willed on these occasions,\nfor reasons unknown to us, to show forth his power, and work a miracle\nin the sight of the faithful; for how can we explain all these things\nwithout having recourse to the miraculous? All that is said of persons\nwho being dead chew under ground in their graves, is so pitiful, so\npuerile, that it is not worthy of being seriously refuted. Everybody\nowns that too often people are buried who are not quite dead. There\nare but too many instances of this in ancient and modern histories.\nThe thesis of M. Vinslow, and the notes added thereto by M. Bruhier,\nserve to prove that there are few certain signs of real death except\nthe putridity of a body being at least begun. We have an infinite\nnumber of instances of persons supposed to be dead, who have come to\nlife again, even after they have been put in the ground. There are I\nknow not how many maladies in which the patient remains for a long\ntime speechless, motionless, and without sensible respiration. Some\ndrowned persons who have been thought dead, have been revived by care\nand attention.\n\nAll this is well known and may serve to explain how some vampires have\nbeen taken out of their graves, and have spoken, cried, howled,\nvomited blood, and all that because they were not yet dead. They have\nbeen killed by beheading them, piercing their heart, and burning them;\nin all which people were very wrong, for the pretext on which they\nacted, of their pretended reappearance to disturb the living, causing\ntheir death, and maltreating them, is not a sufficient reason for\ntreating them thus. Besides, their pretended return has never been\nproved or attested in such a way as to authorize any one to show such\ninhumanity, nor to dishonor and put rigorously to death on vague,\nfrivolous, unproved accusations, persons who were certainly innocent\nof the thing laid to their charge.\n\nFor nothing is more ill-founded than what is said of the apparitions,\nvexations, and confusion caused by the pretended vampires and the\nvroucolacas. I am not surprised that the Sorbonne should have\ncondemned the bloody and violent executions which are exercised on\nthese kinds of dead bodies. But it is astonishing that the secular\npowers and the magistrates do not employ their authority and the\nseverity of the laws to repress them.\n\nThe magic devotions, the fascinations, the evocations of which we have\nspoken, are works of darkness, operations of Satan, if they have any\nreality, which I can with difficulty believe, especially in regard to\nmagical devotions, and the evocations of the manes or souls of dead\npersons; for, as to fascinations of the sight, or illusions of the\nsenses, it is foolish not to admit some of these, as when we think we\nsee what is not, or do not behold what is present before our eyes; or\nwhen we think we hear a sound which in reality does not strike our\nears, or the contrary. But to say that the demon can cause a person's\ndeath, because they have made a wax image of him, or given his name\nwith some superstitious ceremonies, and have devoted him or her, so\nthat the persons feel themselves dying as their image melts away, is\nascribing to the demon too much power, and to magic too much might.\nGod can, when he wills it, loosen the reign of the enemy of mankind,\nand permit him to do us the harm which he and his agents may seek to\ndo us; but it would be ridiculous to believe that the Sovereign Master\nof nature can be determined by magical incantations to allow the demon\nto hurt us; or to imagine that the magician has the power to excite\nthe demon against us, independently of God.\n\nThe instance of that peasant who gave his child to the devil, and\nwhose life the devil first took away and then restored, is one of\nthose extraordinary and almost incredible circumstances which are\nsometimes to be met with in history, and which neither theology nor\nphilosophy knows how to explain. Was it a demon who animated the body\nof the boy, or did his soul re-enter his body by the permission of\nGod? By what authority did the demon take away this boy's life, and\nthen restore it to him? God may have permitted it to punish the\nimpiety of the wretched father, who had given himself to the devil to\nsatisfy a shameful and criminal passion. And again, how could he\nsatisfy it with a demon, who appeared to him in the form of a girl he\nloved? In all that I see only darkness and difficulties, which I leave\nto be resolved by those who are more learned or bolder than myself.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXII.\n\nREMARKS ON THE DISSERTATION CONCERNING THE SPIRIT WHICH REAPPEARED AT\nST. MAUR DES FOSSES.\n\n\nThe following Dissertation on the apparition which happened at St.\nMaur, near Paris, in 1706, was entirely unknown to me. A friend who\ntook some part in my work on apparitions, had asked me by letter if I\nshould have any objection to its being printed at the end of my work.\nI readily consented, on his testifying that it was from a worthy hand,\nand deserved to be saved from the oblivion into which it was fallen. I\nhave since found that it was printed in the fourth volume of the\nTreatise on Superstitions, by the Reverend Father le Brun, of the\nOratoire.\n\nAfter the impression, a learned monk[645] wrote to me from Amiens, in\nPicardy, that he had remarked in this dissertation five or six\npropositions which appeared to him to be false.\n\n1st. That the author says, all the holy doctors agree that no means of\ndeceiving us is left to the demons except suggestion, which has been\nleft them by God to try our virtue.\n\n2d. In respect to all those prodigies and spells which the common\npeople attribute to sorcery and intercourse with the demon, it is\nproved that they can only be done by means of natural magic; this is\nthe opinion of the greater number of the fathers of the church.\n\n3d. All that demons have to do with the criminal practices of those\nwho are commonly called sorcerers is suggestion, by which he invites\nthem to the abominable research of all those natural causes which can\nhurt our neighbor.\n\n4th. Although those who have desired to maintain the popular error of\nthe return to earth of souls from purgatory, may have endeavored to\nsupport their opinion by different passages, taken from St. Augustine,\nSt. Jerome, St. Thomas, &c., it is attested that all these fathers\nspeak only of the return of the blessed to manifest the glory of God.\n\n5th. Of what may we not believe the imagination capable after so\nstrong a proof of its power? Can it be doubted that among all the\npretended apparitions of which stories are related, the fancy alone\nworks for all those which do not proceed from angels and the spirits\nof the blessed, and that the rest are the invention of men?\n\n6th. After having sufficiently established the fact, that all\napparitions which cannot be attributed to angels, or the spirits of\nthe blessed, are produced only by one of these causes: the writer\nnames them--first, the power of imagination; secondly, the extreme\nsubtility of the senses; and thirdly, the derangement of the organs,\nas in madness and high fevers.\n\nThe monk who writes to me maintains that the first proposition is\nfalse; that the ancient fathers of the church ascribe to the demon the\ngreater number of those extraordinary effects produced by certain\nsounds of the voice, by figures, and by phantoms; that the exorcists\nin the primitive church expelled devils, even by the avowal of the\nheathen; that angels and demons have often appeared to men; that no\none has spoken more strongly of apparitions, of hauntings, and the\npower of the demon, than the ancient fathers; that the church has\nalways employed exorcism on children presented for baptism, and\nagainst those who were haunted and possessed by the demon. Add to\nwhich, the author of the dissertation cites not one of the fathers to\nsupport his general proposition.[646]\n\nThe second proposition, again, is false; for if we must attribute to\nnatural magic all that is ascribed to sorcerers, there are then no\nsorcerers, properly so called, and the church is mistaken in offering\nup prayers against their power.\n\nThe third proposition is false for the same reason.\n\nThe fourth is falser still, and absolutely contrary to St. Thomas,\nwho, speaking of the dead in general who appear, says that this occurs\neither by a miracle, or by the particular permission of God, or by the\noperation of good or evil angels.[647]\n\nThe fifth proposition, again, is false, and contrary to the fathers,\nto the opinion commonly received among the faithful, and to the\ncustoms of the church. If all the apparitions which do not proceed\nfrom the angels or the blessed, or the inventive malice of mankind,\nproceed only from fancy, what becomes of all the apparitions of demons\nrelated by the saints, and which occurred to the saints? What becomes,\nin particular, of all the stories of the holy solitaries, of St.\nAnthony, St. Hilarion, &c.?[648] What becomes of the prayers and\nceremonies of the church against demons, who infest, possess, and\nhaunt, and appear often in these disturbances, possessions, and\nhauntings?\n\nThe sixth proposition is false for the same reasons, and many others\nwhich might be added.\n\n\"These,\" adds the reverend father who writes to me, \"are the causes of\nmy doubting if the third dissertation was added to the two others with\nyour knowledge. I suspected that the printer, of his own accord, or\npersuaded by evil intentioned persons, might have added it himself,\nand without your participation, although under your name. For I said\nto myself, either the reverend father approves this dissertation, or\nhe does not approve of it. It appears that he approves of it, since he\nsays that it is from a clever writer, and he would wish to preserve it\nfrom oblivion.\n\n\"Now, how can he approve a dissertation false in itself and contrary\nto himself? If he approves it not, is it not too much to unite to his\nwork a foolish composition full of falsehoods, disguises, false and\nweak arguments, opposed to the common belief, the customs, and prayers\nof the church; consequently dangerous, and quite favorable to the free\nand incredulous thinkers which this age is so full of? Ought he not\nrather to combat this writing, and show its weakness, falsehood, and\ndangerous tendency? There, my reverend father, lies all my\ndifficulty.\"\n\nOthers have sent me word that they could have wished that I had\ntreated the subject of apparitions in the same way as the author of\nthis dissertation, that is to say, simply as a philosopher, with the\naim of destroying the credence and reality, rather than with any\ndesign of supporting the belief in apparitions which is so observable\nin the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, in the fathers, and in\nthe customs and prayers of the church. The author of whom we speak has\ncited the fathers, but in a general manner, and without marking the\ntestimonies, and the express and formal passages. I do not know if he\nthinks much of them, and if he is well versed in them, but it would\nhardly appear so from his work.\n\nThe grand principle on which this third dissertation turns is, that\nsince the advent and the death of Jesus Christ, all the power of the\ndevil is limited to enticing, inspiring, and persuading to evil; but\nfor the rest, he is tied up like a lion or a dog in his prison. He may\nbark, he may menace, but he cannot bite unless he is too nearly\napproached and yielded to, as St. Augustine truly says:[649] \"Mordere\nomnino non potest nisi volentem.\"\n\nBut to pretend that Satan can do no harm, either to the health of\nmankind, or to the fruits of the earth; can neither attack us by his\nstratagems, his malice, and his fury against us, nor torment those\nwhom he pursues or possesses; that magicians and wizards can make use\nof no spells and charms to cause both men and animals dreadful\nmaladies, and even death, is a direct attack on the faith of the\nchurch, the Holy Scriptures, the most sacred practices, and the\nopinions of not only the holy fathers and the best theologians, but\nalso on the laws and ordinances of princes, and the decrees of the\nmost respectable parliaments.\n\nI will not here cite the instances taken from the Old Testament, the\nauthor having limited himself to what has passed since the death and\nresurrection of our Saviour; because, he says, Jesus Christ has\ndestroyed the kingdom of Satan, and the prince of this world is\nalready judged.[650]\n\nSt. Peter, St. Paul, St. John, and the Evangelists, who were well\ninformed of the words of the Son of God, and the sense given to them,\nteach us that Satan asked to have power over the apostles of Jesus\nChrist, to sift them like wheat;[651] that is to say, to try them by\npersecutions and make them renounce the faith. Does not St. Paul\ncomplain of the _angel of Satan_ who buffeted him?[652] Did those whom\nhe gave up to Satan for their crimes,[653] suffer nothing bodily?\nThose who took the communion unworthily, and were struck with\nsickness, or even with death, did they not undergo these chastisements\nby the operation of the demon?[654] The apostle warns the Corinthians\nnot to suffer themselves to be surprised by Satan, who sometimes\ntransforms himself into an angel of light.[655] The same apostle,\nspeaking to the Thessalonians, says to them, that before the last day\nantichrist will appear,[656] according to the working of Satan, with\nextraordinary power, with wonders and deceitful signs. In the\nApocalypse the demon is the instrument made use of by God, to punish\nmortals and make them drink of the cup of his wrath. Does not St.\nPeter[657] tell us that \"the devil prowls about us like a roaring\nlion, always ready to devour us?\" And St. Paul to the Ephesians,[658]\n\"that we have to fight not against men of flesh and blood, but against\nprincipalities and powers, against the princes of this world,\" that is\nto say, of this age of darkness, \"against the spirits of malice spread\nabout in the air?\"\n\nThe fathers of the first ages speak often of the power that the\nChristians exercised against the demons, against those who called\nthemselves diviners, against magicians and other subalterns of the\ndevil; principally against those who were possessed, who were then\nfrequently seen, and are so still from time to time, both in the\nchurch and out of the church. Exorcisms and other prayers of the\nchurch have always been employed against these, and with success.\nEmperors and kings have employed their authority and the rigor of the\nlaws against those who have devoted themselves to the service of the\ndemon, and used spells, charms, and other methods which the demon\nemploys, to entice and destroy both men and animals, or the fruits of\nthe country.\n\nWe might add to the remarks of the reverend Dominican father divers\nother propositions drawn from the same work; for instance, when the\nauthor says that \"the angels know everything here below; for if it is\nby means of specialties, which God communicates to them every day, as\nSt. Augustine thinks, there is no reason to believe that they do not\nknow all the wants of mankind, and that they cannot console and\nstrengthen them, render themselves visible to them by the permission\nof God, without always receiving from him an express order so to do.\"\n\nThis proposition is rather rash: it is not certain that the angels\nknow everything that passes here below. Jesus Christ, in St. Matthew\nxxiv. 36, says that the angels do not know the day of his coming. It\nis still more doubtful that the angels can appear without an express\ncommand from God, and that St. Augustine has so taught.\n\nHe says, a little while after--\"That demons often appeared before\nJesus Christ in fantastic forms, which they assumed as the angels do,\"\nthat is to say, in aerial bodies which they organized; \"whilst at\npresent, and since the coming of Jesus Christ, those wonders and\nspells have been so common that the people attributed them to sorcery\nand commerce with the devil, whereas it is attested that they can be\noperated only by natural magic, which is the knowledge of secret\neffects from natural causes, and many of them by the subtilty of the\nair alone. This is the opinion of the greater number of the fathers\nwho have spoken of them.\"\n\nThis proposition is false, and contrary to the doctrine and practice\nof the church; and it is not true that it is the opinion of the\ngreater number of the fathers; he should have cited some of them.[659]\n\nHe says that \"the Book of Job and the song of Hezekiah are full of\ntestimonies that the Holy Spirit seems to have taught us, that our\nsouls cannot return to earth after our death, until God has made\nangels of them.\"\n\nIt is true that the Holy Scriptures speak of the resurrection and\nreturn of souls into their bodies as of a thing that is impossible in\nthe natural course. Man cannot raise up himself from the dead, neither\ncan he raise up his fellow-man without an effort of the supreme might\nof God. Neither can the spirits of the deceased appear to the living\nwithout the command or permission of God. But it is false to say,\n\"that God makes angels of our souls, and that then they can appear to\nthe living.\"\n\nOur souls will never become angels; but Jesus Christ tells us that\nafter our death our souls will be _as_ the angels of God, (Matt. xxii.\n30); that is to say, spiritual, incorporeal, immortal, and exempt from\nall the wants and weaknesses of this present life; but he does not say\nthat our souls must _become_ angels.\n\nHe affirms \"that what Jesus Christ said, 'that spirits have neither\nflesh nor bones,' far from leading us to believe that spirits can\nreturn to earth, proves, on the contrary, evidently that they cannot\nwithout a miracle render themselves visible to mankind; since it\nrequires absolutely a corporeal substance and organs of speech to make\nourselves heard, which does not agree with the spirits, who naturally\ncannot be subject to our senses.\"\n\nThis is no more impossible than what he said beforehand of the\napparitions of angels, since our souls, after the death of the body,\nare \"like unto the angels,\" according to the Gospel. He acknowledges\nhimself, with St. Jerome against Vigilantius, that the saints who are\nin heaven appear sometimes visibly to men. \"Whence comes it that\nanimals have, as well as ourselves, the faculty of memory, but not the\nreflection which accompanies it, which proceeds only from the soul,\nwhich they have not?\"\n\nIs not memory itself the reflection of what we have seen, done, or\nheard; and in animals is not memory followed by reflection,[660] since\nthey avenge themselves on those who hurt them, avoid that which has\nincommoded them, foreseeing what might happen to themselves from it if\nthey fell again into the same mistake?\n\nAfter having spoken of natural palingenesis, he concludes--\"And thus\nwe see how little cause there is to attribute these appearances to the\nreturn of souls to earth, or to demons, as do some ignorant persons.\"\n\nIf those who work the wonders of natural palingenesis, and admit the\nnatural return of phantoms in the cemeteries, and fields of battle,\nwhich I do not think happens naturally, could show that these phantoms\nspeak, act, move, foretell the future, and do what is related of\nreturned souls or other apparitions, whether good angels or bad ones,\nwe might conclude that there is no reason to attribute them to souls,\nangels, and demons; but, 1, they have never been able to cause the\nappearance of the phantom of a dead man, by any secret of art. 2. If\nit had been possible to raise his shade, they could never have\ninspired it with thought or reasoning powers, as we see in the angels\nand demons, who appear, reason, and act, as intelligent beings, and\ngifted with the knowledge of the past, the present, and sometimes of\nthe future.\n\nHe denies that the souls in purgatory return to earth; for if they\ncould come back, \"everybody would receive similar visits from their\nrelations and friends, since all the souls would feel disposed to do\nthe same. Apparently,\" says he, \"God would grant them this permission,\nand if they had this permission, every person of good sense would be\nat a loss to comprehend why they should accompany all their\nappearances with all the follies so circumstantially related.\"\n\nWe may reply, that the return of souls to earth may depend neither on\ntheir inclination nor their will, but on the will of God, who grants\nthis permission to whom he pleases, when he will, and as he will.\n\nThe wicked rich man asked that Lazarus[661] might be sent to this\nworld to warn his brothers not to fall into the same misfortune as\nhimself, but he could not obtain it. There are an infinity of souls in\nthe same case and disposition, who cannot obtain leave to return\nthemselves or to send others in their place.\n\nIf certain narratives of the return of spirits to earth have been\naccompanied by circumstances somewhat comic, it does not militate\nagainst the truth of the thing; since for one recital imprudently\nembellished by uncertain circumstances, there are a thousand written\nsensibly and seriously, and in a manner very conformable to truth.\n\nHe maintains that all the apparitions which cannot be attributed to\nangels or to blessed spirits, are produced only by one of these three\ncauses:--the power of imagination; the extreme subtility of the\nsenses; and the derangement of the organs, as in cases of madness and\nin high fevers.\n\nThis proposition is rash, and has before been refuted by the Reverend\nFather Richard.\n\nThe author recounts all that he has said of the spirit of St. Maur, in\ncausing the motion of the bed in the presence of three persons who\nwere wide awake, the repeated shrieks of a person whom they did not\nsee, of a door well-bolted, of repeated blows upon the walls, of\npanes of glass struck with violence in the presence of three persons,\nwithout their being able to see the author of all this movement;--he\nreduces all this to a derangement of the imagination, the subtilty of\nthe air, or the vapors casually arising in the brain of an invalid.\nWhy did he not deny all these facts? Why did he give himself the\ntrouble to compose so carefully a dissertation to explain a\nphenomenon, which, according to him, can boast neither truth nor\nreality? For my part, I am very glad to give the public notice that I\nneither adopt nor approve this anonymous dissertation, which I never\nsaw before it was printed; that I know nothing of the author, take no\npart in it, and have no interest in defending him. If the subject of\napparitions be purely philosophical, and it can without injury to\nreligion be reduced to a problem, I should have taken a different\nmethod to destroy it, and I should have suffered my reasoning and my\nimagination to act more freely.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[645] Letter of the Reverend Father Richard, a Dominican of Amiens, of\nthe 29th of July, 1746.\n\n[646] See on this subject the letter of the Marquis Maffei, which\nfollows.\n\n[647] St. Thomas, i. part 9, 89, art. 8, ad. 2.\n\n[648] The author had foreseen this objection from the beginning of his\ndissertation.\n\n[649] Aug. Serm. de Semp. 197.\n\n[650] John xvi. 11.\n\n[651] Luke xxii. 31.\n\n[652] 2 Cor. xi. 7.\n\n[653] 1 Tim. i. 2.\n\n[654] 1 Cor. xi. 30.\n\n[655] 2 Cor. ii. 11, and xi. 14.\n\n[656] 2 Thess. ii.\n\n[657] 1 Pet. v. 8.\n\n[658] Ephes. vi. 12.\n\n[659] They are cited in the letter of the Marquis Maffei.\n\n[660] The author, as we may see, is not a Cartesian, since he assigns\nreflection even to animals. But if they reflect, they choose; whence\nit consequently follows that they are free.\n\n[661] Luke xiii. 14.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXIII.\n\nDISSERTATION BY AN ANONYMOUS WRITER.\n\n_Answer to a Letter on the subject of the Apparition of St. Maur._\n\n\n\"You have been before me, sir, respecting the spirit of St. Maur,\nwhich causes so much conversation at Paris; for I had resolved to send\nyou a short detail of that event, in order that you might impart to me\nyour reflections on a matter so delicate and so interesting to all\nParis. But since you have read an account of it, I cannot understand\nwhy you have hesitated a moment to decide what you ought to think of\nit. What you do me the honor to tell me, that you have suspended your\njudgment of the case until I have informed you of mine, does me too\nmuch honor for me to be persuaded of it; and I think there is more\nprobability in believing that it is a trick you are playing me, to see\nhow I shall extricate myself from such slippery ground. Nevertheless,\nI cannot resist the entreaties, or rather the orders, with which your\nletter is filled; and I prefer to expose myself to the pleasantry of\nthe free thinkers, or the reproaches of the credulous, than the anger\nof those with which I am threatened by yourself.\n\n\"You ask if I believe that spirits come back, and if the circumstance\nwhich occurred at St. Maur can be attributed to one of those\nincorporeal substances?\n\n\"To answer your two questions in the same order that you propose them\nto me, I must first tell you, that the ancient heathens acknowledge\nvarious kinds of spirits, which they called _lares_, _larvae_,\n_lemures_, _genii_, _manes_.\n\n\"For ourselves, without pausing at the folly of our cabalistic\nphilosophers, who fancy spirits in every element, calling those sylphs\nwhich they pretend to inhabit the air; _gnomes_, those which they\nfeign to be under the earth; _ondines_, those which dwell in the\nwater; and _salamanders_, those of fire; we acknowledge but three\nsorts of created spirits, namely, angels, demons, and the souls which\nGod has united to our bodies, and which are separated from them by\ndeath.\n\n\"The Holy Scriptures speak in too many places of the apparitions of\nthe angels to Abraham, Jacob, Tobit, and several other holy patriarchs\nand prophets, for us to doubt of it. Besides, as their name signifies\ntheir ministry, being created by God to be his messengers, and to\nexecute his commands, it is easy to believe that they have often\nappeared visibly to men, to announce to them the will of the Almighty.\nAlmost all the theologians agree that the angels appear in the aerial\nbodies with which they clothe themselves.\n\n\"To make you understand in what manner they take and invest themselves\nwith these bodies, in order to render themselves visible to men, and\nto make themselves heard by them, we must first of all explain what is\nvision, which is only the bringing of the _species_ within the compass\nof the organ of sight. This \"_species_\" is the ray of light broken and\nmodified upon a body, on which, forming different angles, this light\nis converted into colors. For an angle of a certain kind makes red,\nanother green, blue or yellow, and so on of all the colors, as we\nperceive in the prism, on which the reflected rays of the sun forms\nthe different colors of the rainbow; the _species_ visible is then\nnothing else than the ray of light which returns from the object on\nwhich it breaks to the eyes.\n\n\"Now, light falls only on three kinds of objects or bodies, of which\nsome are diaphanous, others opake, and the others participate in these\ntwo qualities, being partly diaphanous and partly opake. When the\nlight falls on a diaphanous body which is full of an infinity of\nlittle pores, as the air, it passes through without causing any\nreflection. When the light falls on a body entirely opake, as a\nflower, for instance, not being able to penetrate it, its ray is\nreflected from it, and returns from the flower to the eye, to which it\ncarries the _species_, and renders the colors distinguishable,\naccording to the angles formed by reflection. If the body on which the\nlight falls is in part opake and in part diaphanous, like glass, it\npasses through the diaphanous part, that is to say, through the pores\nof the glass which it penetrates, and reflects itself on the opake\nparticles, that is to say, which are not porous. Thus the air is\ninvisible, because it is absolutely penetrated with light: the flower\nsends back a color to the eye, because, being impenetrable to the\nlight, it obliges it to reflect itself; and the glass is visible only\nbecause it contains some opake particles, which, according to the\ndiversity of angles formed upon it by the ray of light, reflect\ndifferent colors.\n\n\"That is the manner in which vision is formed, so that air being\ninvisible, on account of its extreme transparency, an angel could not\nclothe himself with it and render himself visible, but by thickening\nthe air so much, that from diaphanous it became opake, and capable of\nreflecting the ray of light to the eye of him who perceived him. Now,\nas the angels possess knowledge and power far beyond anything we can\nimagine, we need not be astonished if they can form aerial bodies,\nwhich are rendered visible by the opacity they impart to them. In\nrespect to the organs necessary to these aerial bodies, to form sounds\nand make themselves heard, without having any recourse to the\ndisposition of matter, we must attribute them entirely to a miracle.\n\n\"It is thus that angels have appeared to the holy patriarchs. It is\nthus that the glorious souls that participate the angelic nature can\nassume an aerial body to render themselves visible, and that even\ndemons, by thickening and condensing the air, can make to themselves a\nbody of it, so as to become visible to men, by the particular\npermission of God, to accomplish the secrets of his providence, as\nthey are said to have appeared to St. Anthony the Hermit, and to other\nsaints, in order to tempt them.\n\n\"Excuse, sir, this little physical digression, with which I could not\ndispense, in order to make you understand the manner in which angels,\nwho are purely spiritual substances, can be perceived by our fleshly\nsenses.\n\n\"The only point on which the holy doctors do not agree on this subject\nis, to know if angels appear to men of their own accord, or whether\nthey can do it only by an express command from God. It seems to me\nthat nothing can better contribute to the decision of this difficulty,\nthan to determine the way in which the angels know all things here\nbelow; for if it is by means of \"_species_\" which God communicates to\nthem every day, as St. Augustine believes, there is no reason to doubt\nof their knowing all the wants of mankind, or that they can, in order\nto console and strengthen them, render their presence sensible to\nthem, by God's permission, without receiving an express command from\nhim on the subject; which may be concluded from what St. Ambrose says\non the subject of the apparition of angels, who are by nature\ninvisible to us, and whom their will renders visible. _Hujus naturae\nest non videri, voluntatis, videri._[662]\n\n\"On the subject of demons, it is certain that their power was very\ngreat before the coming of Jesus Christ, since he calls them himself,\nthe powers of darkness, and the princes of this world. It cannot be\ndoubted that they had for a long time deceived mankind, by the wonders\nwhich they caused to be performed by those who devoted themselves more\nparticularly to their service; that several oracles have been the\neffect of their power and knowledge, although part of them must be\nascribed to the subtlety of men; and that they may have appeared under\nfantastic forms, which they assumed in the same way as the angels,\nthat is to say, in aerial bodies, which they organized. The Holy\nScriptures assure us even, that they took possession of the bodies of\nliving persons. But Jesus Christ says too precisely, that he has\ndestroyed the kingdom of the demons, and delivered us from their\ntyranny, for us possibly to think rationally that they still possess\nthat power over us which they had formerly, so far as to work\nwonderful things which appeared miraculous; such as they relate of the\nvestal virgin, who, to prove her virginity, carried water in a sieve;\nand of her who by means of her sash alone, towed up the Tiber a boat,\nwhich had been so completely stranded that no human power could move\nit. Almost all the holy doctors agree, that the only means they now\nhave of deceiving us is by suggestion, which God has left in their\npower to try our virtue.\n\n\"I shall not amuse myself by combating all the impositions which have\nbeen published concerning demons, incubi, and succubi, with which some\nauthors have disfigured their works, any more than I shall reply to\nthe pretended possession of the nuns of Loudun, and of Martha\nBrossier,[663] which made so much noise at Paris at the commencement\nof the last century; because several learned men who have favored us\nwith their reflections on these adventures, have sufficiently shown\nthat the demons had nothing to do with them; and the last, above all,\nis perfectly quashed by the report of Marescot, a celebrated\nphysician, who was deputed by the Faculty of Theology to examine this\ngirl who performed so many wonders. Here are his own words, which may\nserve as a general reply to all these kind of adventures:--_A natura\nmulta plura ficta, a Daemone nulla._ That is to say, that the\nconstitution of Martha Brossier, who was apparently very melancholy\nand hypochondriacal, contributed greatly to her fits of enthusiasm;\nthat she feigned still more, and that the devil had nothing to do with\nit.\n\n\"If some of the fathers, as St. Thomas, believe that the demons\nsometimes produce sensible effects, they always add, that it can be\nonly by the particular permission of God, for his glory and the\nsalvation of mankind.\n\n\"In regard to all those prodigies and those common spells, which the\npeople ascribe to sorcery or commerce with the demon, it is proved\nthat they can be performed only by natural magic, which is the\nknowledge of secret effects of natural causes, and several by the\nsubtlety of art. It is the opinion of the greater number of the\nfathers of the church who have spoken of it; and without seeking\ntestimony of it in Pagan authors, such as Xenophon, Athenaeus, and\nPliny, whose works are full of an infinity of wonders which are all\nnatural, we see in our own time the surprising effects of nature, as\nthose of the magnet, of steel, and mercury, which we should attribute\nto sorcery as did the ancients, had we not seen sensible\ndemonstrations of their powers. We also see jugglers do such\nextraordinary things, which seem so contrary to nature, that we should\nlook upon these charlatans as magicians, if we did not know by\nexperience, that their address alone, joined to constant practice,\nmakes them able to perform so many things which seem marvelous to us.\n\n\"All the share that the demons have in the criminal practices of those\nwho are commonly called sorcerers, is suggestion; by which means they\ninvite them to the abominable research of every natural cause which\ncan do injury to others.\n\n\"I am now, sir, at the most delicate point of your question, which is,\nto know if our souls can return to earth after they are separated from\nour bodies.\n\n\"As the ancient philosophers erred so strongly on the nature of the\nsoul--some believing that it was but a fire which animated us, and\nothers a subtile air, and others affirming that it was nothing else\nbut the proper arrangement of all the machine of the body, a doctrine\nwhich could not be admitted any more as the cause of in men than in\nbeasts; we cannot therefore be surprised that they had such gross\nideas concerning their state after death.\n\n\"The error of the Greeks, which they communicated to the Romans, and\nthe latter to our ancestors was, that the souls whose bodies were not\nsolemnly interred by the ministry of the priests of religion, wandered\nout of Hades without finding any repose, until their bodies had been\nburned and their ashes collected. Homer makes Patroclus, who was\nkilled by Hector, appear to his friend Achilles in the night to ask\nhim for burial, without which, he is deprived, he says, of the\nprivilege of passing the river Acheron. There were only the souls of\nthose who had been drowned, whom they believed unable to return to\nearth after death; for which we find a curious reason in Servius, the\ninterpreter of Virgil, who says, the greater number of the learned in\nVirgil's time, and Virgil himself, believing that the soul was nothing\nbut a fire, which animated and moved the body, were persuaded that the\nfire was entirely extinguished by the water--as if the material could\nact upon the spiritual. Virgil explains his opinions on the subject\nof souls very clearly in these verses:--\n\n 'Igneus est ollis vigor, et celestis origo.'\n\nAnd a little after,\n\n 'totos infusa per artus\n Mens agitat molem, et toto se corpore miscet;'\n\nto mark the universal soul of the world, which he believed with the\ngreater part of the philosophers of his time.\n\n\"Again, it was a common error amongst the pagans, to believe that the\nsouls of those who died before they were of their proper age, which\nthey placed at the end of their growth, wandered about until the time\ncame when they ought naturally to be separated from their bodies.\nPlato, more penetrating and better informed than the others, although\nlike them mistaken, said, that the souls of the just who had obeyed\nvirtue ascended to the sky; and that those who had been guilty of\nimpiety, retaining still the contagion of the earthly matter of the\nbody, wandered incessantly around the tombs, appearing like shadows\nand phantoms.\n\n\"For us, whom religion teaches that our souls are spiritual substances\ncreated by God, and united for a time to bodies, we know that there\nare three different states after death.\n\n\"Those who enjoy eternal beatitude, absorbed, as the holy doctors say,\nin the contemplation of the glory of God, cease not to interest\nthemselves in all that concerns mankind, whose miseries they have\nundergone; and as they have attained the happiness of angels, all the\nsacred writers ascribe to them the same privilege of possessing the\npower, as aerial bodies, of rendering themselves visible to their\nbrethren who are still upon earth, to console them, and inform them of\nthe Divine will; and they relate several apparitions, which always\nhappened by the particular permission of God.\n\n\"The souls whose abominable crimes have plunged them into that gulf of\ntorment, which the Scripture terms hell, being condemned to be\ndetained there forever, without being able to hope for any relief,\ncare not to have permission to come and speak to mankind in fantastic\nforms. The Scripture clearly set forth the impossibility of this\nreturn, by the discourse which is put into the mouth of the wicked\nrich man in hell, introduced speaking to Abraham; he does not ask\nleave to go himself, to warn his brethren on earth to avoid the\ntorments which he suffers, because he knows that it is not possible;\nbut he implores Abraham to send thither Lazarus, who was in glory. And\nto observe _en passant_ how very rare are the apparitions of the\nblessed and of angels, Abraham replies to him, that it would be\nuseless, since those who are upon earth have the Law and the Prophets,\nwhich they have but to follow.\n\n\"The story of the canon of Rheims, in the eleventh century, who, in\nthe midst of the solemn service which was being performed for the\nrepose of his soul, spoke aloud and said, That he was sentenced and\ncondemned,[664] has been refuted by so many of the learned, who have\nshown that this circumstance is clearly supposititious, since it is\nnot found in any contemporaneous author; that I think no enlightened\nperson can object it against me. But even were this story as\nincontestable as it is apocryphal, it would be easy for me to say in\nreply, that the conversion of St. Bruno, who has won so many souls to\nGod, was motive enough for the Divine Providence to perform so\nstriking a miracle.\n\n\"It now remains for me to examine if the souls which are in purgatory,\nwhere they expiate the rest of their crimes before they pass to the\nabode of the blessed, can come and converse with men, and ask them to\npray for their relief.\n\n\"Although those who have desired to maintain this popular error, have\ndone their endeavors to support it by different passages from St.\nAugustine, St. Jerome, and St. Thomas, it is certain that all these\nfathers speak only of the return of the blessed to manifest the glory\nof God; and of St. Augustine says precisely, that if it were possible\nfor the souls of the dead to appear to men, not a day would pass\nwithout his receiving a visit from Monica his mother.\n\n\"Tertullian, in his Treatise on the Soul, laughs at those who in his\ntime believed in apparitions. St. John Chrysostom, speaking on the\nsubject of Lazarus, formally denies them; as well as the law\nglossographer, Canon John Andreas, who calls them phantoms of a sickly\nimagination, and all that is reported about spirits which people think\nthey hear or see, vain apparitions. The 7th chapter of Job, and the\nsong of King Hezekiah, reported in the 38th chapter of Isaiah, are all\nfull of the witnesses which the Holy Spirit seems to have desired to\ngive us of this truth, that our souls cannot return to earth after our\ndeath until God has made them angels.\n\n\"But in order to establish this still better, we must reply to the\nstrongest objections of those who combat it. They adduce the opinion\nof the Jews, which they pretend to prove by the testimony of Josephus\nand the rabbis; the words of Jesus Christ to his apostles, when he\nappeared to them after his resurrection; the authority of the council\nof Elvira;[665] some passages from St. Jerome, in his Treatise against\nVigilantius; of decrees issued by different Parliaments, by which the\nleases of several houses had been broken on account of the spirits\nwhich haunted them daily, and tormented the lodgers or tenants; in\nshort an infinite number of instances, which are scattered in every\nstory.\n\n\"To destroy all these authorities in a few words, I say first of all,\nthat it cannot be concluded that the Jews believed in the return of\nspirits after death, because Josephus assures us that the spirit which\nthe Pythoness caused to appear to Saul was the true spirit of Samuel;\nfor, besides that the holiness of this prophet had placed him in the\nnumber of the blessed, there are circumstances attending this\napparition which have caused most of the holy fathers[666] to doubt\nwhether it really was the ghost of Samuel, believing that it might be\nan illusion with which the Pythoness deceived Saul, and made him\nbelieve that he saw that which he desired to see.\n\n\"What several rabbis relate of patriarchs, prophets, and kings whom\nthey saw on the mountain of Gerizim, does not prove either that the\nJews believed that the spirits of the dead could come back, since it\nwas only a vision proceeding from the spirit in ecstasy, which\nbelieved it saw what it saw not truly; all those who compose this\nappearance were persons of whose holiness the Jews were persuaded.\nWhat Jesus Christ says to his apostles, that the spirits have 'neither\nflesh nor bones,' far from making us believe that spirits can come\nback again, proves on the contrary evidently, that they cannot without\na miracle make us sensible of their presence, since it requires\nabsolutely a corporeal substance and bodily organs to utter sounds;\nthe description does agree with souls, they being pure substances,\nexempt from matter, invisibles, and therefore cannot _naturally_ be\nsubject to our senses.\n\n\"The Provincial Council held in Spain during the pontificate of\nSylvester I., which forbids us to light a taper by day in the\ncemeteries of martyrs, adding, as a reason, that we must not disturb\nthe spirits of the saints, is of no consideration; because besides\nthat these words are liable to different interpretations, and may even\nhave been inserted by some copyist, as some learned men believe, they\nonly relate to the martyrs, of whom we cannot doubt that their spirits\nare blessed.\n\n\"I make the same reply to a passage of St. Jerome, because arguing\nagainst the heresiarch Vigilantius, who treated as illusions all the\nmiracles which were worked at the tombs of the martyrs; he endeavors\nto prove to him that the saints who are in heaven always take part in\nthe miseries of mankind, and sometimes even appear to them visibly to\nstrengthen and console them.\n\n\"As for the decrees which have annulled the leases of several houses\non account of the inconvenience caused by ghosts to those who lodged\ntherein, it suffices to examine the means and the reasons upon which\nthey were obtained, to comprehend that either the judges were led into\nerror by the prejudices of their childhood, or that they were obliged\nto yield to the proofs produced, often even against their own superior\nknowledge, or they have been deceived by imposture, or by the\nsimplicity of the witnesses.\n\n\"With respect to the apparitions, with which all such stories are\nfilled, one of the strongest which can be objected against my\nargument, and to which I think myself the more obliged to reply, is\nthat which is affirmed to have occurred at Paris in the last century,\nand of which five hundred witnesses are cited, who have examined into\nthe truth of the matter with particular attention. Here is the\nadventure, as related by those who wrote at the time it took\nplace.[667]\n\n\"The Marquis de Rambouillet, eldest brother of the Duchess of\nMontauzier, and the Marquis de Precy, eldest son of the family of\nNantouillet, both of them between twenty and thirty, were intimate\nfriends, and went to the wars, as in France do all men of quality. As\nthey were conversing one day together on the subject of the other\nworld, after several speeches which sufficiently showed that they were\nnot too well persuaded of the truth of all that is said concerning it,\nthey promised each other that the first who died should come and bring\nthe news to his companion. At the end of three months the Marquis de\nRambouillet set off for Flanders, where the war was then being carried\non; and de Precy, detained by a high fever, remained at Paris. Six\nweeks afterwards de Precy, at six in the morning, heard the curtains\nof his bed drawn, and turning to see who it was, he perceived the\nMarquis de Rambouillet in his buff vest and boots; he sprung out of\nbed to embrace him to show his joy at his return, but Rambouillet,\nretreating a few steps, told him that these caresses were no longer\nseasonable, for he only came to keep his word with him; that he had\nbeen killed the day before on such an occasion; that all that was said\nof the other world was certainly true; that he must think of leading a\ndifferent life; and that he had no time to lose, as he would be killed\nthe first action he was engaged in.\n\n\"It is impossible to express the surprise of the Marquis de Precy at\nthis discourse; as he could not believe what he heard, he made several\nefforts to embrace his friend, whom he thought desirous of deceiving\nhim, but he embraced only air; and Rambouillet, seeing that he was\nincredulous, showed the wound he had received, which was in the side,\nwhence the blood still appeared to flow. After that the phantom\ndisappeared, and left de Precy in a state of alarm more easy to\ncomprehend than describe; he called at the same time his\nvalet-de-chambre, and awakened all the family with his cries. Several\npersons ran to his room, and he related to them what he had just seen.\nEvery one attributed this vision to the violence of the fever, which\nmight have deranged his imagination; they begged him to go to bed\nagain, assuring him that he must have dreamed what he told them.\n\n\"The Marquis in despair, on seeing that they took him for a visionary,\nrelated all the circumstances I have just recounted; but it was in\nvain for him to protest that he had seen and heard his friend, being\nwide awake; they persisted in the same idea until the arrival of the\npost from Flanders, which brought the news of the death of the Marquis\nde Rambouillet.\n\n\"This first circumstance being found true, and in the same manner as de\nPrecy had said, those to whom he had related the adventure began to\nthink that there might be something in it, because Rambouillet having\nbeen killed precisely the eve of the day he had said it, it was\nimpossible de Precy should have known of it in a natural way. This\nevent having spread in Paris, they thought it was the effect of a\ndisturbed imagination, or a made up story; and whatever might be said\nby the persons who examined the thing seriously, there remained in\npeople's minds a suspicion, which time alone could disperse: this\ndepended on what might happen to the Marquis de Precy, who was\nthreatened that he should be slain in the first engagement; thus every\none regarded his fate as the denouement of the piece; but he soon\nconfirmed everything they had doubted the truth of, for as soon as he\nrecovered from his illness he would go to the combat of St. Antoine,\nalthough his father and mother, who were afraid of the prophecy, said\nall they could to prevent him; he was killed there, to the great\nregret of all his family.\n\n\"Supposing all these circumstances to be true, this is what I should\nsay to counteract the deductions that some wish to derive from them.\n\n\"It is not difficult to understand that the imagination of the Marquis\nde Precy, heated by fever, and troubled by the recollection of the\npromise that the Marquis de Rambouillet and himself had exchanged, may\nhave represented to itself the phantom of his friend, whom he knew to\nbe fighting, and in danger every moment of being killed. The\ncircumstances of the wound of the Marquis de Rambouillet, and the\nprediction of the death of de Precy, which was fulfilled, appears more\nserious: nevertheless, those who have experienced the power of\npresentiments, the effects of which are so common every day, will\neasily conceive that the Marquis de Precy, whose mind, agitated by a\nburning fever, followed his friend in all the chances of war, and\nexpected continually to see announced to himself by the phantom of his\nfriend what was to happen, may have imagined that the Marquis de\nRambouillet had been killed by a musket-shot in the side, and that the\nardor which he himself felt for war might prove fatal to him in the\nfirst action. We shall see by the words of St. Augustine, which I\nshall cite by-and-by, how fully that Doctor of the Church was\npersuaded of the power of imagination, to which he attributes the\nknowledge of things to come. I shall again establish the authority of\npresentiments by a most singular instance.\n\n\"A lady of talent, whom I knew particularly well, being at Chartres,\nwhere she was residing, dreamt in the night that in her sleep she saw\nParadise, which she fancied to herself was a magnificent hall, around\nwhich were in different ranks the angels and spirits of the blessed,\nand God, who presided in the midst, on a shining throne. She heard\nsome one knock at the door of this delightful place; and St. Peter\nhaving opened it, she saw two pretty children, one of them clothed in\na white robe, and the other quite naked. St. Peter took the first by\nthe hand and led him to the foot of the throne, and left the other\ncrying bitterly at the door. She awoke at that moment, and related her\ndream to several persons, who thought it very remarkable. A letter\nwhich she received from Paris in the afternoon informed her that one\nof her daughters was brought to bed with two children, who were dead,\nand only one of them had been baptized.\n\n\"Of what may we not believe the imagination capable, after so strong a\nproof of its power? Can we doubt that amongst all the pretended\napparitions that are related, imagination alone produces all those\nwhich do not proceed from angels and blessed spirits, or which are not\nthe effect of fraudulent contrivance?\n\n\"To explain more fully what has given rise to those phantoms, the\napparition of which has been published in all ages, without availing\nmyself of the ridiculous opinion of the skeptics, who doubt of\neverything, and assert that our senses, however sound they may be, can\nonly imagine everything falsely, I shall remark that the wisest\namongst the philosophers maintain that deep melancholy, anger, frenzy,\nfever, depraved or debilitated senses, whether naturally, or by\naccident, can make us see and hear many things which have no\nfoundation.\n\n\"Aristotle says[668] that in sleep the interior senses act by the\nlocal movement of the humors and the blood, and that this action\ndescends sometimes to the sensitive organs, so that on awaking, the\nwisest persons think they see the images they have dreamt of.\n\n\"Plutarch, in the Life of Brutus, relates that Cassius persuaded\nBrutus that a spectre which the latter declared he had seen on waking,\nwas an effect of his imagination; and this is the argument which he\nputs in his mouth:--\n\n\"'The spirit of man being extremely active in its nature, and in\ncontinual motion, which produces always some fantasy; above all,\nmelancholy persons, like you, Brutus, are more apt to form to\nthemselves in the imagination ideal images, which sometimes pass to\ntheir external senses.'\n\n\"Galen, so skilled in the knowledge of all the springs of the human\nbody, attributes spectres to the extreme subtility of sight and\nhearing.\n\n\"What I have read in Cardan seems to establish the opinion of Galen.\nHe says that, being in the city of Milan, it was reported that there\nwas an angel in the air, who appeared visibly, and having ran to the\nmarket-place, he, with two thousand others, saw the same. As even the\nmost learned were in admiration at this wonder, a clever lawyer, who\ncame to the spot, having observed the thing attentively, sensibly made\nthem remark that what they saw was not an angel, but the figure of an\nangel, in stone, placed on the top of the belfry of St. Gothard, which\nbeing imprinted in a thick cloud by means of a sunbeam which fell upon\nit, was reflected to the eyes of those who possessed the most piercing\nvision. If this fact had not been cleared up on the spot by a man\nexempt from all prejudice, it would have passed for certain that it\nwas a real angel, since it had been seen by the most enlightened\npersons in the town to the number of two thousand.\n\n\"The celebrated du Laurent, in his treatise on Melancholy, attributes\nto it the most surprising effects; of which he gives an infinite\nnumber of instances, which seem to surpass the power of nature.\n\n\"St. Augustine, when consulted by Evodius, Bishop of Upsal, on the\nsubject I am treating of, answers him in these terms: 'In regard to\nvisions, even of those by which we learn something of the future, it\nis not possible to explain how they are formed, unless we could first\nof all know how everything arises which passes through our minds when\nwe think; for we see clearly that a number of images are excited in\nour minds, which images represent to us what has struck either our\neyes or our other senses. We experience it every day and every hour.'\nAnd a little after, he adds: 'At the moment I dictate this letter, I\nsee you with the eyes of my mind, without your being present, or your\nknowing anything about it; and I represent to myself, through my\nknowledge of your character, the impression that my words will make\non your mind, without nevertheless knowing or being able to understand\nhow all this passes within me.'\n\n\"I think, sir, you will require nothing more precise than these words\nof St. Augustine to persuade you that we must attribute to the power\nof imagination the greater number of apparitions, even of those\nthrough which we learn things which it would seem could not be known\nnaturally; and you will easily excuse my undertaking to explain to you\nhow the imagination works all these wonders, since this holy doctor\nowns that he cannot himself comprehend it, though quite convinced of\nthe fact.\n\n\"I can tell you only that the blood which circulates incessantly in\nour arteries and veins, being purified and warmed in the heart, throws\nout thin vapors, which are its most subtile parts, and are called\nanimal spirits; which, being carried into the cavities of the brain,\nset in motion the small gland which is, they say, the seat of the\nsoul, and by this means awaken and resuscitate the species of the\nthings that they have heard or seen formerly, which are, as it were,\nenveloped within it, and form the internal reasoning which we call\nthought. Whence comes it that beasts have memory as well as ourselves,\nbut not the reflections which accompany it, which proceed from the\nsoul, and that they have not.\n\n\"If what Mr. Digby, a learned Englishman, and chancellor of Henrietta,\nQueen of England, Father Kircher, a celebrated Jesuit, Father Schort,\nof the same society, Gaffarelli and Vallemont, publish of the\nadmirable secret of the palingenesis, or resurrection of plants, has\nany foundation, we might account for the shades and phantoms which\nmany persons declare to have seen in cemeteries.\n\n\"This is the way in which these curious researchers arrive at the\nmarvelous operation of the palingenesis:--\n\n\"They take a flower, burn it, and collect all the ashes of it, from\nwhich they extract the salts by calcination. They put these salts into\na glass phial, wherein having mixed certain compositions capable of\nsetting them in motion when heated, all this matter forms a dust of a\nbluish hue; of this dust, excited by a gentle warmth, arises a stem,\nleaves, and a flower; in a word, they perceive the apparition of a\nplant springing from its ashes. As soon as the warmth ceases, all the\nspectacle vanishes, the matter deranges itself and falls to the bottom\nof the vessel, to form there a new chaos. The return of heat\nresuscitates this vegetable phoenix, hidden in its ashes. And as the\npresence of warmth gives it life, its absence causes its death.\n\n\"Father Kircher, who tries to give a reason for this admirable\nphenomenon, says that the seminal virtue of every mixture is\nconcentrated in the salts, and that as soon as warmth sets them in\nmotion they rise directly and circulate like a whirlwind in this glass\nvessel. These salts, in this suspension, which gives them liberty to\narrange themselves, take the same situation and form the same figure\nas nature had primitively bestowed on them; retaining the inclination\nto become what they had been, they return to their first destination,\nand form themselves into the same lines as they occupied in the living\nplant; each corpuscle of salt re-entering its original arrangement\nwhich it received from nature; those which were at the foot of the\nplant place themselves there; in the same manner, those which compose\nthe top of the stem, the branches, the leaves, and the flowers, resume\ntheir former place, and thus form a perfect apparition of the whole\nplant.\n\n\"It is affirmed that this operation has been performed upon a\nsparrow;[669] and the gentlemen of the Royal Society of England, who\nare making their experiments on this matter, hope to succeed in making\nthem on human beings also.[670]\n\n\"Now, according to the principle of Father Kircher and the most\nlearned chemists, who assert that the substantial form of bodies\nresides in the salts, and that these salts, set in motion by warmth,\nform the same figure as that which had been given to them by nature,\nit is not difficult to comprehend that dead bodies being consumed away\nin the earth, the salts which exhale from them with the vapors, by\nmeans of the fermentations which so often occur in this element, may\nvery well, in arranging themselves above ground, form those shadows\nand phantoms which have frightened so many people. Thus we may\nperceive how little reason there is to ascribe them to the return of\nspirits, or to demons, as some ignorant people have done.\n\n\"To all the authorities by means of which I have combated the\napparitions of spirits which are in purgatory, I shall still add some\nvery natural reflections. If the souls which are in purgatory could\nreturn hither to ask for prayers to pass into the abode of glory,\nthere would be no one who would not receive similar entreaties from\nhis relations and friends, since all the spirits being disposed to do\nthe same thing, apparently, God would grant them all the same\npermission. Besides, if they possessed this liberty, no sensible\nperson could understand why they should accompany their appearance\nwith all the follies so circumstantially related in those stories, as\nrolling up a bed, opening the curtains, pulling off a blanket,\noverturning the furniture, and making a frightful noise. In short, if\nthere were any reality in these apparitions, it is morally impossible\nthat in so many ages _one_ would not have been found so well\nauthenticated that it could not be doubted.\n\n\"After having sufficiently proved that all the apparitions which\ncannot be ascribed to angels or to the souls of the blessed are\nproduced only by one of the three following causes--the extreme\nsubtility of the senses; the derangement of the organs, as in madness\nand high fever; and the power of imagination--let us see what we must\nthink of the circumstance which occurred at St. Maur.\n\n\"Although you have already seen the account that has been given of it,\nI believe, sir, that you will not be displeased if I here give you the\ndetail of the more particular circumstances. I shall endeavor to omit\nnothing that has been done to confirm the truth of the circumstance,\nand I shall even make use of the exact words of the author, as much as\nI can, that I may not be accused of detracting from the adventure.\n\n\"Monsieur de S----, to whom it happened, is a young man, short in\nstature, well made for his height, between four and five-and-twenty\nyears of age. Being in bed, he heard several loud knocks at his door\nwithout the maid servant, who ran thither directly, finding any one;\nand then the curtains of his bed were drawn, although there was only\nhimself in the room. The 22d of last March, being, about eleven\no'clock at night, busy looking over some lists of works in his study,\nwith three lads who are his domestics, they all heard distinctly a\nrustling of the papers on the table; the cat was suspected of this\nperformance, but M. de S. having taken a light and looked diligently\nabout, found nothing.\n\n\"A little after this he went to bed, and sent to bed also those who\nhad been with him in his kitchen, which is next to his sleeping-room;\nhe again heard the same noise in his study or closet; he rose to see\nwhat it was, and not having found anything more than he did the first\ntime, he was going to shut the door, but he felt some resistance to\nhis doing so; he then went in to see what this obstacle might be, and\nat the same time heard a noise above his head towards the corner of\nthe room, like a great blow on the wall; at this he cried out, and his\npeople ran to him; he tried to reassure them, though alarmed himself;\nand having found naught he went to bed again and fell asleep. Hardly\nhad these lads extinguished the light, than M. de S. was suddenly\nawakened by a shake, like that of a boat striking against the arch of\na bridge; he was so much alarmed at it that he called his domestics;\nand when they had brought the light, he was strangely surprised to\nfind his bed at least four feet out of its place, and he was then\naware that the shock he had felt was when his bedstead ran against the\nwall. His people having replaced the bed, saw, with as much\nastonishment as alarm, all the bed-curtains open at the same moment,\nand the bedstead set off running towards the fire-place. M. de S.\nimmediately got up, and sat up the rest of the night by the fire-side.\nAbout six in the morning, having made another attempt to sleep, he\nwas no sooner in bed than the bedstead made the same movement again,\ntwice, in the presence of his servants, who held the bed-posts to\nprevent it from displacing itself. At last, being obliged to give up\nthe game, he went out to walk till dinner time; after which, having\ntried to take some rest, and his bed having twice changed its place,\nhe sent for a man who lodged in the same house, as much to reassure\nhimself in his company, as to render him a witness of so surprising a\ncircumstance. But the shock which took place before this man was so\nviolent, that the left foot at the upper part of the bedstead was\nbroken; which had such an effect upon him, that in reply to the offers\nthat were made to him to stay and see a second, he replied that what\nhe had seen, with the frightful noise he had heard all night, were\nquite sufficient to convince him of the fact.\n\n\"It was thus that the affair, which till then had remained between M.\nde S. and his domestics, became public; and the report of it being\nimmediately spread, and reaching the ears of a great prince who had\njust arrived at St. Maur, his highness was desirous of enlightening\nhimself upon the matter, and took the trouble to examine carefully\ninto the circumstances which were related to him. As this adventure\nbecame the subject of every conversation, very soon nothing was heard\nbut stories of ghosts, related by the credulous, and laughed at and\njoked upon by the freethinkers. However, M. de S. tried to reassure\nhimself, and go the following night into his bed, and become worthy of\nconversing with the spirit, which he doubted not had something to\ndisclose to him. He slept till nine o'clock the next morning, without\nhaving felt anything but slight shakes, as the mattresses were raised\nup, which had only served to rock him and promote sleep. The next day\npassed off pretty quietly; but on the 26th, the spirit, who seemed to\nhave become well-behaved, resumed its fantastic humor, and began the\nmorning by making a great noise in the kitchen; they would have\nforgiven it for this sport if it had stopped there, but it was much\nworse in the afternoon. M. de S., who owns that he felt himself\nparticularly attracted towards his study, though he felt a repugnance\nto enter it, having gone into it about six o'clock, went to the end of\nthe room, and returning towards the door to go into his bed-room\nagain, was much surprised to see it shut of itself and barricade\nitself with the two bolts. At the same time, the two doors of a large\npress opened behind him, and rather darkened his study, because the\nwindow, which was open, was behind these doors.\n\n\"At this sight, the fright of M. de S. is more easy to imagine than to\ndescribe; however, he had sufficient calmness left, to hear at his\nleft ear a distinct voice, which came from a corner of the closet, and\nseemed to him to be about a foot above his head. This voice spoke to\nhim in very good terms during the space of half a _miserere_; and\nordered him, _theeing_ and _thouing_ him to do some one particular\nthing, which he was recommended to keep secret. What he has made\npublic is that the voice allowed him a fortnight to accomplish it in;\nand ordered him to go to a place, where he would find some persons who\nwould inform him what he had to do; and that it would come back and\ntorment him if he failed to obey. The conversation ended by an adieu.\n\n\"After that, M. de S. remembers that he fainted and fell down on the\nedge of a box, which caused him a pain in his side. The loud noise and\nthe cries which he afterwards uttered brought several people in haste\nto the door, and after useless efforts to open it, they were going to\nforce it open with a hatchet, when they heard M. de S. dragging\nhimself towards the door, which he with much difficulty opened.\nDisordered as he was, and unable to speak, they first of all carried\nhim to the fire, and then they laid him on his bed, where he received\nall the compassion of the great prince, of whom I have already spoken,\nwho hastened to the house the moment this event was noised abroad. His\nhighness having caused all the recesses and corners of the house to be\ninspected, and no one being found therein, wished that M. de S. should\nbe bled; but his surgeon finding he had a very feeble pulsation,\nthought he could not do so without danger.\n\n\"When he recovered from his swoon, his highness, who wished to\ndiscover the truth, questioned him concerning his adventure; but he\nonly heard the circumstances I have mentioned--M. de S. having\nprotested to him that he could not, without risk to his life, tell him\nmore.\n\n\"The spirit was heard of no more for a fortnight; but when that term\nwas expired--whether his orders had not been faithfully executed, or\nthat he was glad to come and thank M. de S. for being so exact--as he\nwas, during the night, lying in a little bed near the window of his\nbed-room, his mother in the great bed, and one of his friends in an\narm-chair near the fire, they all three heard some one rap several\ntimes against the wall, and such a blow against the window, that they\nthought all the panes were broken. M. de S. got up that moment, and\nwent into his closet to see if this troublesome spirit had something\nelse to say to him; but when there, he could neither find nor hear\nanything. And thus ended this adventure, which has made so much noise\nand drawn so many inquisitive persons to St. Maur.\n\n\"Now let us make some reflections on those circumstances which are the\nmost striking, and most likely to make any impression.\n\n\"The noise which was heard several times during the night by the\nmaster, the female servant, and the neighbors, is quite equivocal;\nand the most prejudiced persons cannot deny that it may have been\nproduced by different causes which are all quite natural.\n\n\"The same reply may be given as to the papers which were heard to\nrustle, since a breath of air or a mouse might have moved them.\n\n\"The moving of the bed is something more serious, because it is\nreported to have been witnessed by several persons; but I hope that a\nlittle reflection will dispense us from having recourse to fantastic\nhands in order to explain it.\n\n\"Let us imagine a bedstead upon castors; a person whose imagination is\nimpressed, or who wishes to enliven himself by frightening his\ndomestics, is lying upon it, and rolls about very much, complaining\nthat he is tormented. Is it surprising that the bedstead should be\nseen to move, especially when the floor of the room is waxed and\nrubbed? But, you will say, some of the witnesses even made useless\nefforts to prevent this movement. Who are these witnesses? Two are\nyouths in the service of the patient, who trembled all over with\nfright, and were not capable of examining the secret causes of this\nmovement; and the other has since told several people that he would\ngive ten pistoles not to have affirmed that he saw this bedstead\nremove itself without help.\n\n\"In regard to the voice, whose secret has been so carefully kept, as\nthere is no witness of it, we can only judge of it by the state in\nwhich he who had been favored with this pretended revelation was\nfound. Repeated cries from the man who, hearing his closet door beaten\nin, draws back the bolts which he had apparently drawn himself, his\neyes quite wild, and his whole person in extraordinary disorder, would\nhave caused the ancient heathens to take him for a sibyl full of\nenthusiasm, and must appear to us rather the consequence of some\nconvulsion than of a conversation with a spiritual being.\n\n\"Lastly, the violent blows given upon the walls and panes of glass, in\nthe night, in the presence of two witnesses, might make some\nimpression, if we were sure that the patient, who was lying directly\nunder the window in a small bed, had no part in the matter; for of the\ntwo witnesses who heard this noise, one was his mother, and the other\nan intimate friend, who, even reflecting on what he saw and heard,\ndeclares that it can only be the effect of a spell.\n\n\"How much good soever you may wish for this place, I do not believe,\nsir, that what I have just remarked on the circumstances of the\nadventure, will lead you to believe that it has been honored with an\nangelic apparition; I should rather fear that, attributing it to a\ndisordered imagination, you may accuse the subtility of the air which\nthere predominates as having caused it. As I am somewhat interested\nin not doing the climate of St. Maur such an injury, I am compelled to\nadd something else to what I have said of the person in question, in\norder that you may know his character.\n\n\"You need not be very clever in the art of physiognomy to remark in\nhis countenance the melancholy which prevails in his temperament. This\nsad disposition, joined to the fever which has tormented him for some\ntime, carried some vapors to his brain, which might easily lead him to\nbelieve that he heard all he has publicly declared; besides which, the\ndesire to divert himself by alarming his domestics may have induced\nhim to feign several things, when he saw that the adventure had come\nto the ears of a prince who might not approve of such a joke, and be\nsevere upon it. Thus then, sir, you will think as I do, that the\nreport of the celebrated Marescot on the subject of the famous\nMargaret Brossier agrees perfectly with our melancholy man, and well\nexplains his adventure: _a natura multa, plura ficta, a daemone nulla_.\nHis temperament has made him fancy he saw and heard many things; he\nfeigned still more in support of what his wanderings or his sport had\ninduced him to assert; and no kind of spirit has had any share in his\nadventure. Without stopping to relate several effects of his\nmelancholy, I shall simply remark that an embarkation which he made on\none of the last _jours gras_, setting off at ten o'clock at night to\nmake the tour of the peninsula of St. Maur, in a boat where he covered\nhimself up with straw on account of the cold, appeared so singular to\nthe great prince before mentioned, that he took the trouble to\nquestion him as to his motives for making such a voyage at so late an\nhour.\n\n\"I shall add that the discernment of his highness made him easily\njudge whence this adventure proceeded, and his behavior on this\noccasion has shown that he is not easily deceived. I do not think it\nis allowable for me to omit the opinion of his father, a man of\ndistinguished merit, on this adventure of his son, when he learned all\nthe circumstances by a letter from his wife, who was at St. Maur. He\ntold several persons that he was certain that the spirit which acted\non this occasion was that of his wife and son. The author of the\nrelation was right in endeavoring to weaken such testimony; but I do\nnot know if he flatters himself that he has succeeded, in saying that\nhe who gave this opinion is an _esprit fort_, or freethinker who makes\nit a point of honor to be of the fashionable opinion concerning\nspirits.\n\n\"Lastly, to fix your judgment and terminate agreeably this little\ndissertation in which you have engaged me, I know of nothing better\nthan to repeat the words of a princess,[671] who is not less\ndistinguished at court by the delicacy of her wit than by her high\nrank and personal charms. As they were conversing in her presence of\nthe singularity of the adventure which here happened at St. Maur, 'Why\nare you so much astonished?' said she, with that gracious air which is\nso natural to her; 'Is it surprising that the son should have to do\nwith spirits, since the mother sees the eternal Father three times\nevery week? This woman is very happy,' added the witty princess; 'for\nmy part, I should ask no other favor than to see him once in my life.'\n\n\"Laugh with your friends at this agreeable reflection; but, above all,\ntake care, sir, not to make my letter public: it is the only reward\nthat I ask for the exactitude with which I have obeyed you on so\ndelicate an occasion.\n\n \"I am, sir,\n \"Your very humble, &c.\n\n_St. Maur, May 8, 1706._\"\n\n\n\n\nAPPROBATION.\n\n\n\"By order of the Lord Chancellor, this dissertation on what we must\nthink of spirits in general, and of that of St. Maur in particular,\nhas been read by me, and I have found nothing therein which ought to\nhinder its being printed.\n\n\"Done at Paris, the 17th of October, 1706.\n (_Signed_) \"LA MARQUE TILLADET.\n\n\"The king's permission bears date the 21st November, 1706.\"\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[662] St. Ambrose, Com. on St. Luke, i. c. 1.\n\n[663] Martha Brossier, daughter of a weaver at Romorantin, was shown\nas a demoniac, in 1578. See De Thou on this subject, book cxxiii. and\ntom. v. of the Journal of Henry III., edition of 1744, p. 206, &c. The\naffair of Loudun took place in the reign of Louis XIII.; and Cardinal\nRichelieu is accused of having caused this tragedy to be enacted, in\norder to ruin Urban Grandier, the cure of Loudun, for having written a\ncutting satire against him.\n\n[664] M. de Lannoy has made a particular dissertation De Causa\nSecessionis S. Brunonis: he solidly refutes this fable. Nevertheless,\nthis event is to be found painted in the fine pictures of the little\nmonastery of the Chartreux at Paris.\n\n[665] Eliberitan Council, an. 305 or 313, in the kingdom of Grenada.\nOthers have thought, but mistakenly, that it was Collioure in\nRoussillon.\n\n[666] Jesus, the son of Sirach, author of Ecclesiasticus, believes\nthis apparition to be true. Ecclus. xlvi. 23.\n\n[667] This story has been related in the former part of the work, but\nmore succinctly.\n\n[668] Arist. Treatise on Dreams and Vigils.\n\n[669] The Abbe de Vallemont, in his work on the Singularities of\nVegetation. Paris, 1 vol. 12mo.\n\n[670] This was a century and a half ago; but the Philosophical\nTransactions record no account of any successful result to such\nexperiments.\n\n[671] Madame the Duchess-mother, daughter of the late king, Louis\nXIV., and mother of the duke lately dead, of M. the Count de\nCharolois, and of M. the Count de Clermont.\n\n\n\n\n LETTER OF M. THE MARQUIS MAFFEI\n ON MAGIC;\n ADDRESSED TO\n THE REVEREND\n FATHER INNOCENT ANSALDI,\n OF THE ORDER OF ST. DOMINIC;\n TRANSLATED FROM THE ITALIAN OF THE AUTHOR.\n\n\nLETTER OF M. THE MARQUIS MAFFEI ON MAGIC.\n\n\nMY REVEREND FATHER,\n\nIt is to the goodness of your reverence, in regard to myself, that I\nmust attribute the curiosity you appear to feel to know what I think\nconcerning the book which the Sieur Jerome Tartarotti has just\npublished on the _Nocturnal Assemblies of the Sorcerers_. I reply to\nyou with the greatest pleasure; and I am going to tell my opinion\nfully and unreservedly, on condition that you will examine what I\nwrite to you with your usual acuteness, and that you will tell me\nfrankly whatever you remark in it, whether good or bad, and that may\nappear to deserve either your approbation or your censure. I had\nalready read this book, and passed an eulogium on it, both for the\ngreat erudition displayed therein by the author, as because he\nrefutes, in a very sensible manner, some ridiculous opinions with\nwhich people are infatuated concerning sorcerers, and some other\nequally dangerous abuses. But, to tell the truth, with that exception,\nI am little disposed to approve it; if M. Muratori has done so in his\nletter, which has been seen by several persons, either he has not read\nthe work through, or he and I on that point entertain very different\nsentiments. In regard to my opinion, your reverence will see, by what\nI shall say, that it is the same as your own on this subject, as you\nhave done me the favor to show by your letter.\n\nI. In this work there is laid down, in the first place, as a certain\nand indubitable principle, the existence and reality of magic, and the\ntruth of the effects produced by it--superior, they say, to all\nnatural powers; he gives it the name of \"diabolical magic,\" and\ndefines it, \"The knowledge of certain superstitious practices, such as\nwords, verses, characters, images, signs (_qy._ moles), &c., by means\nof which magicians succeed in their designs.\" For my part, I am much\ninclined to believe that all the science of the pretended magicians\nhad no other design than to deceive others, and ended sometimes in\ndeceiving themselves; and that this magic, now so much vaunted, is\nonly a chimera. Perhaps even it would be giving one's self superfluous\ntrouble to undertake to show that everything related of those\nnocturnal hypogryphes,[672] of those pretended journeys through the\nair, of those assemblies and feasts of sorcerers, is only idle and\nimaginary; because those fables being done away with would not prevent\nthat an infinite number of others would still remain, which have been\nrepeated and spread on the same subject, and which, although more\nfoolish and ridiculous than all the extravagances we read in romances,\nare so much the more dangerous, because they are more easily believed.\nIt would, in the opinion of many, be doing these tales too much honor\nto attempt to refute them seriously, as there is no one at this day,\nin Italy, at least, even amongst the people, who has common sense,\nthat does not laugh at all that is said of the witches' sabbath, and\nof those troops or bands of sorcerers who go through the air during\nthe night to assemble in retired spots and dance. It is true, that\nnotwithstanding, that if a man of any credit, whether amongst the\nlearned or persons of high dignity, maintains an opinion, he will\nimmediately find partisans; it will be useless to write or speak to\nthe contrary, it will not be the less followed; and it is hardly\npossible that it can be otherwise, so many minds as there are, and so\nmany different ways of thinking. But here the only question is, what\nis the common opinion, and what is most universally believed. It is\nnot my intention to compose a work expressly on magic, nor to enter\nvery lengthily on this matter; I shall only exhibit, in a few words,\nthe reasons which oblige me to laugh at it, and which induce me to\nincline to the opinion of those who look upon it as a _pure_ illusion,\nand a _real_ chimera. I must, first of all, give notice that you must\nnot be dazzled by the truth of the magical operations in the Old\nTestament, as if from thence we could derive a conclusive argument to\nprove the reality of the pretended magic of our own times. I shall\ndemonstrate this clearly at the end of this discourse, in which I hope\nto show that my opinion on this subject is conformable to the\nScripture, and founded on the tradition of the fathers. Now, then, let\nus speak of modern magicians.\n\nII. If there is any reality in this art, to which so many wonders are\nascribed, it must be the effect of a knowledge acquired by study, or\nof the impiety of some one who renounces what he owes to God to give\nhimself up to the demon, and invokes him. It seems, in fact, that they\nwould sometimes attribute it to acquired knowledge, since in the book\nI am combating the author often speaks \"of the true mysteries of the\nmagic art;\" and he asserts that few \"are perfectly instructed in the\nsecret and difficult principles of this science;\" which is not\nsurprising, he says, since \"the life of man would hardly suffice\" to\nread all the works which have treated of it. He calls it sometimes the\n\"magical science,\" or \"magical philosophy;\" he carries back the origin\nof it to the philosopher Pythagoras; he regards \"ignorance of the\nmagic art as one of the reasons why we see so few magicians in our\ndays.\" He speaks only of the mysterious scale enclosed by Orpheus in\nunity, in the numbers of two and twelve; of the harmony of nature,\ncomposed of proportionable parts, which are the octave, or the\ndouble, and the fifth, or one and a half; of strange and barbarous\nnames which mean nothing, and to which he attributes supernatural\nvirtues; of the concert or the agreement of the inferior and superior\nparts of this universe, when understood; makes us, by means of certain\nwords or certain stones, hold intercourse with invisible substances;\nof numbers and signs, which answer to the spirits which preside over\ndifferent days, or different parts of the body; of circles, triangles,\nand pentagons, which have power to bind spirits; and of several other\nsecrets of the same kind, very ridiculous, to tell the truth, but very\nfit to impose on those who admire everything which they do not\nunderstand.\n\nIII. But however thick may be the darkness with which nature is hidden\nfrom us, and although we may know but very imperfectly the essential\nprinciples and properties of things, who does not see, nevertheless,\nthat there can be no proportion, no connection, between circles and\ntriangles which we trace, or the long words which signify nothing, and\nimmaterial spirits? Can people not conceive that it is a folly to\nbelieve that by means of a few herbs, certain stones, and certain\nsigns or characters, we can make ourselves obeyed by invisible\nsubstances which are unknown to us? Let a man study as much as he will\nthe pretended soul of the world, the harmony of nature, the agreement\nof the influence of all the parts it is composed of--is it not evident\nthat all he will gain by his labor will be terms and words, and never\nany effects which are above the natural power of man? To be convinced\nof this truth, it suffices to observe that the pretended magicians\nare, and ever have been, anything but learned; on the contrary, they\nare very ignorant and illiterate men. Is it credible that so many\ncelebrated persons, so many famous men, versed in all kinds of\nliterature, should never have been able or willing to sound and\npenetrate the mysterious secrets of this art; and that of so many\nphilosophers spoken of by Diogenes Laertius, neither Plato, nor\nAristotle, nor any other, should have left us some treatise? It would\nbe useless to attack the opinions of the world at that time on this\nsubject. Do we not know with how many errors it has been infatuated in\nall ages, and which, though shared in common, were not the less\nmistakes? Was it not generally believed in former times, that there\nwere no antipodes? that according to whether the sacred fowls had\neaten or not, it was permitted or forbidden to fight? that the statues\nof the gods had spoken or changed their place? Add to those things all\nthe knavery and artifice which the charlatans put in practice to\ndeceive and delude the people, and then can we be surprised that they\nsucceeded in imposing on them and gaining their belief? But let it not\nbe imagined, nevertheless, that everyone was their dupe, and that\namongst so many blind and credulous people there were not always to be\nfound some men sensible and clear-sighted enough to perceive the\ntruth.\n\nIV. To be convinced of this, let us only consider what was thought of\nit by one of the most learned amongst the ancients, and we may say,\none of the most curious and attentive observers of the wonders of\nnature--I speak of Pliny, who thus expresses himself at the beginning\nof his Thirtieth Book;[673] \"Hitherto I have shown in this work, every\ntime that it was necessary and the occasion presented itself, how very\nlittle reality there is in all that is said of magic; and I shall\ncontinue to do so as it goes on. But because during several centuries\nthis art, the most deceptive of all, has enjoyed great credit among\nseveral nations, I think it is proper to speak of it more fully.\" \"No\nmen are more clever in hiding their knaveries than magicians;\" and in\nseven or eight other places he endeavors to expose \"their falsehoods,\ntheir deceptions, the uselessness of their art,\" and laughs at it. But\none thing to which we should pay attention above all, is an invincible\nargument which he brings forward against this pretended art. For after\nhaving enumerated the diverse sorts of magic, which were employed with\ndifferent kinds of instruments, and in several different ways, and\nfrom which they promised themselves effects that were \"quite divine;\"\nthat is to say, superior to all the force of nature, even of \"the\npower to converse with the shades and souls of the dead;\" he adds,\n\"But in our days the Emperor Nero has discovered that in all these\nthings there is nothing but deceit and vanity.\" \"Never prince,\" says\nhe, a little lower down, \"sought with more eagerness to render himself\nclever in any other art; and as he was the master of the world, it is\ncertain that he wanted neither riches, nor power, nor wit, nor any\nother aid necessary to succeed therein. What stronger proof of the\nfalsity of this art can we have than to see that Nero renounced it?\"\nSuetonius informs us also, \"That this prince uselessly employed magic\nsacrifices to evoke the shade of his mother, and speak to her.\" Again,\nPliny says \"that Tirdates the Mage (for it is thus it should be read,\nand not Tiridates the Great, as it is in the edition of P. Hardouin),\nhaving repaired to the court of Nero, and having brought several magi\nwith him, initiated this prince in all the mysteries of magic.\nNevertheless,\" he adds, \"it was in vain for Nero to make him a present\nof a kingdom--he could not obtain from him the knowledge of this art;\nwhich ought to convince us that this detestable science is only\nvanity, or, if some shadow of truth is to be met within it, its real\neffects have less to do with the art of magic than the art of\npoisoning.\" Seneca, who also was very clever, after having repeated a\nlaw of the Twelve Tables, \"which forbade the use of enchantments to\ndestroy the fruits of the earth,\" makes this commentary upon it: \"When\nour fathers were yet rude and ignorant, they imagined that by means of\nenchantments rain could be brought down upon the ground, or could be\nprevented from falling; but at this day it is so clear that both one\nand the other is impossible, that to be convinced of it it does not\nrequire to be a philosopher.\" It would be useless to collect in this\nplace an infinity of passages from the ancients, which all prove the\nsame thing; we can only __________ the book written by Hippocrates on\nCaducity, which usually passed for the effect of the vengeance of the\ngods, and which for that reason was called the \"sacred malady.\" We\nshall there see how he laughs \"at magicians and charlatans,\" who\nboasted of being able to cure it by their enchantments and expiations.\nHe shows there that by the profession which they made of being able to\ndarken the sun, bring down the moon to the earth, give fine or bad\nweather, procure abundance or sterility, they seemed to wish to\nattribute to man more power than to the Divinity itself, showing\ntherein much less religion than \"impiety, and proving that they did\nnot believe in the gods.\" I do not speak of the fables and tales\ninvented by Philostrates on the subject of Apollonius of Thyana, they\nhave been sufficiently refuted by the best pens: but I must not omit\nto warn you that the name of magic has been used in a good sense for\nany uncommon science, and a sublimer sort of philosophy. It is in this\nsense that it must be understood where Pliny says,[674] although\nrather obscurely, \"that Pythagoras, Empedocles, Democritus, and Plato,\ntraveled a great deal to acquire instruction in it.\" For the rest,\npeople are naturally led to attribute to sorcery everything that\nappears new and marvelous. Have not we ourselves, with M. Leguier,\npassed for magicians in the minds of some persons, because in our\nexperiments on electricity they have seen us easily extinguish lights\nby putting them near cold water, which then appeared an unheard-of\nthing, and which many still firmly maintain even now cannot be done\nwithout a tacit compact? It is true that in the effects of electricity\nthere is something so extraordinary and so wonderful, that we should\nbe more disposed to excuse those persons who could not easily believe\nthem to be natural than those who have fancied tacit compacts for\nthings which it would be much more easy to explain naturally.\n\nV. From what has just been said, it evidently results that it is folly\nto believe that by means of study and knowledge one can ever attain\nany of those marvelous effects attributed to magic; and it is\nprofaning the name of science to give it an imposture so grossly\nimagined; it remains then that these effects might be produced by a\ndiabolical power. In fact, we read in the work in question that all\nthe effects of magic \"must be attributed to the operation of the\ndemon; that it is in virtue of the compact, express or tacit, that he\nhas made with him that the magician works all these pretended\nprodigies; and that it is in regard to the different effects of this\nart, and the different ways in which they are produced, that authors\nhave since divided it into several classes.\" But I beg, at first, that\nthe reader will reflect seriously, if it is credible, that as soon as\nsome miserable woman or unlucky knave have a fancy for it, God, whose\nwisdom and goodness are infinite, will ever permit the demon to appear\nto them, instruct them, obey them, and that they should make a compact\nwith him. Is it credible that to please a scoundrel he would grant the\ndemon power to raise storms, ravage all the country by hail, inflict\nthe greatest pain on little innocent children, and even sometimes \"to\ncause the death of a man by magic?\" Does any one imagine that such\nthings can be believed without offending God, and without showing a\nvery injurious mistrust of his almighty power? It has several times\nhappened to me, especially when I was in the army, to hear that some\nwretched creatures had given themselves to the devil, and had called\nupon him to appear to them with the most horrible blasphemies, without\nhis appearing to them for all that, or their attempts being followed\nby any success. And, certainly, if to obtain what is promised by the\nart of magic it sufficed to renounce God and invoke the devil, how\nmany people would soon perform the dreadful act? How many impious men\ndo we see every day who for money, or to revenge themselves on some\none, or to satisfy a criminal desire, rush without remorse into the\ngreatest excesses! How many wretches who are suffering in prison, at\nthe galleys, or otherwise, would have recourse to the demon to\nextricate them from their troubles! It would be very easy for me to\nrelate here a great number of curious stories of persons generally\nbelieved to be bewitched, of haunted houses, or horses rubbed down by\nwill-o'-the-wisp, which I have myself seen at different times and\nplaces, at last reduced to nothing. This I can affirm, that two monks,\nvery sensible men, who had exercised the office of inquisitors, one\nfor twenty-four years, and the other during twenty-eight, have\nassured me that of different accusations of sorcery which had been\nlaid before them, and which appeared to be well proved, after having\nexamined them carefully and maturely, they had not found one which was\nnot mere knavery. How can any one imagine that the devil, who is the\nfather of lies, should teach the magician the true secret of this art;\nand that this spirit, full of pride, of which he is the source, should\nteach an enchanter the means of forcing him to obey him? As soon as we\nrise above some old prejudices, which make us excuse those who in past\nages gave credence to such follies, can we put faith in certain\nextravagant opinions, as what is related of demons, incubes, and\nseccubes, from a commerce with whom it is pretended children are born.\nWho will believe in our days that Ezzelin was the son of a\nwill-o'-the-wisp? But can anything more strange be thought of than\nwhat is said of tacit compacts? They will have it, that when any one,\nof whatever country he may be, and however far he may be from wishing\nto make any compact with the devil, every time he shall say certain\nwords, or make certain signs, a certain effect will follow; if I, who\nam perfectly ignorant of this convention, should happen to pronounce\nthese same words, or make the same signs, the same effect ought to\nfollow. They say that whoever makes a compact with the devil has a\nright to oblige him to produce a certain effect, not only when he\nshall make himself, for instance, certain figures, but also every time\nthat they shall be made by any other person you please, at any time,\nor in any place whatever, and although the intention may be quite\ndifferent. Certainly nothing is more proper to humble us than such\nideas, and to show how very little man can count on the feeble light\nof his mind. Of all the extraordinary things said to have been\nperformed by tacit compacts, many are absolutely false, and others\nhave occurred quite differently than as they are related; some are\ntrue, and such as require no need of the demon's intervention to\nexplain them.\n\nVI. The evidence of these reasons seems to suffice to prove that all\nwhich is said of magic in our days is merely chimerical; but because,\nin reply to the substantial difficulties which were proposed to him by\nthe Count Rinaldi Carli, the author of the book pretends that to deny\nis a heretical opinion condemned by the laws, it is proper to examine\nthis article again. For the first proof of its reality, is advanced\nthe general consent of all mankind; the tradition of all nations;\nstories and witnesses _ad infinitum_ of theologians, philosophers, and\njurisconsults; whence he concludes \"that its existence cannot be\ndenied, or even a doubt cast upon it, without sapping the foundations\nof what is called human belief.\" But the little I have said in No. IV.\nalone suffices to prove how false is this assertion concerning this\npretended general consent. Horace, who passes for one of the wisest\nand most enlightened men amongst the ancients, reckons, on the\ncontrary, among the virtues necessary to an honest man, the not\nputting faith in what is said concerning magic, and to laugh at it.\nHis friend, believing himself very virtuous because he was not\navaricious--\"That is not sufficient,\" said he: \"are you exempt from\nevery other vice and every other fault; not ambitious, not passionate,\nfearless of death? Do you laugh at all that is told of dreams, magical\noperations, miracles, sorcerers, ghosts, and Thessalian\nwonders?\"[675]--that is to say, in one word, of all kinds of magic.\nWhat is the aim of Lucian, in his Dialogue entitled \"Philopseudis,\"\nbut to turn into ridicule the magic art? and also is it not what he\nproposed to himself in the other, entitled \"The Ass,\" whence Apuleius\nderived his \"Golden Ass?\" It is easy to perceive that in all this\nwork, wherein he speaks so often, the power ascribed to magic of\nmaking rivers return to their source, staying the course of the sun,\ndarkening the stars, and constraining the gods themselves to obey it,\nhe had no other intention than to laugh at it, which he certainly\nwould not have done if he had believed it able to produce, as they\npretend, effects beyond those of nature. It is, then, jokingly and\nironically that he says they see wonders worked \"by the invincible\npower of magic,\"[676] and by the blind necessity which imposes upon\nthe gods themselves to be obedient to it. The poor man thinking he was\nto be changed into a bird, had had the grief to see himself\nmetamorphosed into an ass, through the mistake of a woman who in a\nhurry had mistaken the box, and giving him one ointment for another.\nThe most usual terms made use of by the ancients, in speaking of\nmagic, were \"play\" and \"badinage,\" which plainly shows that they saw\nnothing real in it. St. Cyprian, speaking of the mysteries of the\nmagicians, calls them \"hurtful and juggling operations.\" \"If by their\ndelusions and their jugglery,\" says Tertullian, \"the charlatans seem\nto perform many wonders.\" And in his treatise on the soul, he\nexclaims, \"What shall we say of magic? what almost all the world says\nof it--that it is mere knavery.\" Arnobius calls it, \"the sports of the\nmagic art;\" and on these words of Minutius Felix, \"all the marvels\nwhich they seem to work by their _jugglery_,\" his commentator remarks\nthat the word _badinage_ is in this place the proper term. This manner\nof expressing himself shows what was then the common opinion of all\nwise persons. \"Let the farmer,\" says Columella, \"frequent with neither\nsoothsayers nor witches, because by their foolish superstitions they\nall cause the ignorant to spend much money, and thence they lead them\nto be criminal.\" We learn from Suidas, \"that those were called\nmagicians who filled their heads with vain imaginations.\" Thus, when\nspeaking of one of these imposters, Dante was right when he said[677]\n\"he knew all the trickery and knavery of the magic art.\" Thus, then,\nit is not true that a general belief in the art of magic has ever\nprevailed; and if, in our days, any one would gather the voice and\nopinion of men of letters, and the most celebrated academies, I am\npersuaded that hardly would one or two in ten be found who were\nconvinced of its existence. It would not be, at least, one of the\nlearned friends of the author of the book in question, who having been\nconsulted by the latter on this matter, answers him in these\nterms--\"Magic is a ridiculous art, which has no reality but in the\nhead of a madman, who fancies that he is able to lead the devil to\nsatisfy all his wishes.\" I have read in some catalogues which come\nfrom Germany, that they are preparing to give the public a \"Magic\nLibrary:\" _oder grundliche nagrichen_, &c. It is a vast collection of\ndifferent writings, all tending to prove the uselessness and\ninsufficiency of magic. I must remark that the poets have greatly\ncontributed to set all these imaginations in vogue. Without this\nfruitful source, what becomes of the most ingenious fictions of Homer?\nWe may say as much of Ariosto and of our modern poets. For the rest,\nwhat I have before remarked concerning Pliny must not be\nforgotten--that in the ancient authors, the word magic is often\nequivocal. For in certain countries, they gave the name of magi, or\nmagicians, to those who applied as a particular profession to the\nstudy of astronomy, philosophy, or medicine; in others, philosophers\nof a certain sect were thus called: for this, the preface of Diogenes\nLaertius can be consulted. Plato writes that in Persia, by the name of\nmagic was understood \"the worship of the gods.\" \"According to a great\nnumber of authors,\" says Apuleius, in his Apology, \"the Persians\ncalled those magi to whom we give the name of priests.\" St. Jerome,\nwriting against Jovinian, thus expresses himself--\"Eubulus, who wrote\nthe history of Mithras, in several volumes, relates that among the\nPersians they distinguish three kinds of magi, of whom the first are\nmost learned and the most eloquent,\" &c. Notwithstanding that, there\nare still people to be found, who confound the chimera of pretended\ndiabolical magic with philosophical magic, as Corneillus Agrippa has\ndone in his books on \"Secret Philosophy.\"\n\nVII. Another reason which is brought forward to prove the reality and\nthe power of the magic art, is that the laws decree the penalty of\ndeath against enchanters. \"What idea,\" says he, \"could we have of the\nancient legislators, if we believe them capable of having recourse to\nsuch rigorous penalties to repress a chimera, an art which produced no\neffect?\" Upon which it is proper to observe that, supposing this error\nto be universally spread, it would not be impossible that even those\nwho made the laws might suffer themselves to be prejudiced by them; in\nwhich case, we might make the same commentary on Seneca, applied, as\nwe have seen, to the Twelve Tables. But I go further still. This is\nnot the place to speak of the punishments decreed in the Scripture\nagainst the impiety of the Canaanites, who joined to idolatry the most\nextravagant magic. In regard to the Greek laws, of which authors have\npreserved for us so great a number, I do not remember that they\nanywhere make mention of this crime, or that they subject it to any\npenalty. I can say the same of the Roman laws, contained in the\nDigest. It is true that in the Code of Theodosius, and in that of\nJustinian, there is an entire title concerning _malefactors_, in which\nwe find many laws which condemn to the most cruel death magicians of\nall kinds; but are we not forced to confess that this condemnation was\nvery just? Those wretches boasted that they were able to occasion when\nthey pleased public calamities and mortalities; with this aim, they\nkept their charms and dark plots as secret as it was possible, which\nled the Emperor Constans to say, \"Let all the magicians, in whatever\npart of the empire they may be found, be looked upon as the public\nenemies of mankind.\" What does it matter, in fact, that they made\nfalse boastings, and that their attempts were useless? \"In evil\ndoings,\" says the law, \"it is the will, and not the event, which makes\nthe crime.\" Also, Constantine wills that those amongst them should be\npardoned who professed to cure people by such means, and to preserve\nthe products of the earth. But in general these kind of persons aimed\nonly at doing harm; for which reason the laws ordain that they should\nbe regarded as \"public enemies.\" The least harm they could be accused\nof was deluding the people, misleading the simple, and causing by that\nmeans an infinity of trouble and disorder. Besides that, of how many\ncrimes were they not guilty in the use of their spells? It was that\nwhich led the Emperor Valentinian to decree the pain of death \"against\nwhomsoever should work at night, by impious prayers and detestable\nsacrifices, at magic operations.\" Sometimes even they adroitly made\nuse of some other way to procure the evil which they desired to cause;\nafter which, they gave out that it must be attributed to the power of\ntheir art. But what is the use of so many arguments? Is it not certain\nthat the first step taken by those who had recourse to magic was to\nrenounce God and Jesus Christ, and to invoke the demon? Was not magic\nlooked upon as a species of idolatry; and was not that sufficient to\nrender this crime capital, should the punishment have depended on the\nresult? Honorius commanded that these kind of people should be treated\nwith all the rigor of the laws, \"unless they would promise to conform\nfor the future to what was required by the Catholic religion, after\nhaving themselves, in presence of the bishops, burned the pernicious\nwritings which served to maintain their error.\"\n\nVIII. What is remarkable is, that if ever any one laughed at magic, it\nmust certainly be the author in question--since all his book only\ntends to prove that there are no witches, and that all that is said of\nthem is merely foolish and chimerical. But what appears surprising is,\nthat at the same time he maintains that while in truth there are no\nwitches, but that there are enchantresses or female magicians; that\nwitchcraft is only a chimera, but that diabolical magic is very real.\nIs not that, as it appears to some, denying and affirming at the same\ntime the same thing under different names? Tibullus took care not to\nmake nothing of these distinctions, when he said: \"As I was promised\nby a witch, whose magical operations never fail.\" While treating in\nthis book of witchcraft and magic, it is affirmed that the demon\nintervenes on both, and that both work wonders.\" But if that is true,\nit is impossible to find any difference between them. If both perform\nwonders, and that by the intervention of the demon, they are then\nessentially the same. After that, is it not a contradiction to say\nthat the magician acts and the witch has no power--that the former\ncommands the devil and the latter obeys him--that magic is founded on\ncompacts, expressed or tacit, while in witchcraft there is nothing but\nwhat is imaginary and chimerical? What reason is given for this? If\nthe demon is always ready to appear to any one who invokes him, and is\nready to enter into compact with him, why does he not show himself as\ndirectly to her whom the author terms a witch as to her to whom he is\npleased to give the more respectable title of enchantress? If he is\ndisposed to appear and take to himself the worship and adoration which\nare due to God alone, what matters it to him whether they proceed from\na vile or a distinguished person, from an ignoramus or a learned man?\nThe principal difference which the author admits between witchcraft\nand magic, is, that the latter \"belongs properly to priests, doctors,\nand other persons who cultivate learning;\" whilst witchcraft is purely\nfanaticism, \"which only suits the vulgar and poor wretched women;\"\n\"also, it does not,\" says he, \"derive its origin from philosophy or\nany other science, and has no foundation but in popular stories.\" For\nmy part, I think it is very wrong that so much honor should here be\npaid to magic. I have proved above in a few words, by the authority of\nseveral ancient authors, that the most sensible men have always made a\njest of it; that they have regarded it only as a play and a game; and\nthat after having spared neither application nor expense, a Roman\nemperor could never succeed in beholding any effect. I have even\nremarked the equivocation of the name, which has often caused these\npopular opinions with philosophy and the sublimest sciences. But I\nthink I can find in the book itself of the author, enough to prove\nthat one cannot in fact make this distinction, since he says therein\n\"that superstitious practices, such as figures, characters,\nconjurations, and enchantments, passing from one to the other, and\ncoming to the knowledge of these unhappy women, operate in virtue of\nthe tacit consent which they give to the operation of the demon.\"\nThere then all distinction is taken away. He says again that,\naccording to some, \"nails, pins, bones, coals, packets of hair, or\nrags, found by the head, of children's beds, are indications of a\ncompact express or tacit, because of the resemblance to the symbols\nmade use of by true magicians.\" Thus, then, witches and those who are\nhere styled _true magicians_ employ equally the same follies; they\nequally place confidence in imaginary compacts--and consequently they\nshould both be classed in the same category.\n\nIX. It is proper to notice here that it is not so great a novelty as\nis generally believed, to make a distinction between witches and\nmagicians. Nearly two hundred years ago James Wier, a doctor by\nprofession, had already said the same thing. Never did an author write\nmore at length upon this matter; you may consult the sixth edition of\nhis book, _De Praestigiis Daemonum et Incantationibus_, published at\nBasle. He there proves that witches ought not to be condemned to\ndeath, because they are women whose brain is disturbed; because all\nthe crimes that are imputed to them are imaginary, having no reality\nbut in their ill will, and none at all in the execution; lastly,\nbecause, according to the rules of the soundest jurisprudence, the\nconfession of having done impossible things is of no weight, and\ncannot serve as the foundation of condemnation. He shows how these\nfoolish old women come to believe that they have held intercourse with\nsome evil spirit, or been carried through the air; so far nothing can\nbe better; but otherwise, being persuaded that there are really magic\nwonders,[678] and thinking that he has himself experienced something\nof the kind, he will have magicians severely punished. He says,[679]\n\"that very often they are learned men, who, to acquire this diabolical\nart, have traveled a great deal; and who, learned[680] in Goesy and\nTheurgy,[681] whether through the demon or through study,[682] make\nuse of strange terms, characters, exorcisms, and imprecations;\" employ\n\"sacred words and divine names, and neglect nothing which can render\nthem skillful in the black art;\"[683] which makes them deserving of\nthe punishment of death.[684] \"But,\" according to him, \"there is a\ngreat difference between magicians and witches, inasmuch as these\nlatter[685] make use neither of books, nor exorcisms, nor characters,\nbut have only their mind and imagination corrupted by the demon.\" He\ncalls witches \"those women who pass for doing a great deal of harm,\neither by virtue[686] of some imaginary compact, or by their own will,\nor some diabolical instinct;\" and who, having their brain deranged,\nconfess they have done many things, which they never have nor could\nhave performed. \"Magicians,\"[687] he says, \"are led of themselves, and\nby their own inclination, to learn this forbidden art, and seek\nmasters who can instruct them in it; wizards, on the contrary, seek\nneither masters nor instructions; but the devil takes possession of\nthose women,\" whom he thinks the most likely to be deceived, \"on\naccount of their old age, of their melancholy temperament, or their\npoverty and misery.\" Everybody must see, and I have sufficiently shown\nit already, to how many difficulties and contradictions all this\ndoctrine is subject; what we must conclude from it is, that wizards as\nwell as magicians have equally recourse to the demon, and place their\nhope in him, without either of them ever obtaining what they wish. The\nauthor sometimes believes he renders what he says of the power of\nmagic, and in short reduces it to nothing, by saying, that all the\nwonderful effects attributed to it have no reality, and are but\nillusions and vain phantoms; but he does not remark that it is even\nmiraculous to cause to appear that which is not. Whether the wands of\nPharaoh's magicians were really metamorphosed into serpents, or that\nthey appeared to be thus changed to the eyes of the beholders, would\neither of them equally surpass all the power and industry of men. I\nshall not amuse myself with discussing largely many inutilities which\nmay be found in this work; for instance, he does not fail to relate\nthe impertinent story of the pretended magic of Sylvester II., which,\nas Panvinius has shown, had no other foundation than this pope's being\nmuch given to the study of mathematics and philosophy.\n\nX. It is owned in the new book, that it is very likely some woman may\nbe found \"who, with the help of the demon, may be capable of\nperforming a great many things even hurtful to mankind,\" and that by\nvirtue \"of a compact, express or tacit;\" and it is added, that it\ncannot be denied that it may be, without absolutely denying the\nreality of magic. But when, so far from denying it, every effort on\nthe contrary is made to establish it; when it is loudly maintained\nthat persons may be found who, with the assistance of the demon, are\nable to produce real effects, even of doing harm to people; how, after\nthat, can it be denied that there are witches, since, according to the\ncommon opinion, witchcraft is nothing else? Let them, if they will,\nregard as a fable what is said of their journeys through the air to\nrepair to their nocturnal meetings; what will he gain by that, if,\nnotwithstanding that, he believes that they possess the power to kill\nchildren by their spells, to send the devil into the body of the first\nperson who presents himself, and a hundred other things of the same\nkind? He says, that \"to render the presents which he makes more\nprecious and estimable, and the more to be desired, the demon sells\nthem very dear, as if he could not be excited to act otherwise than by\nemploying powerful means, and making use of a most mysterious and very\nhidden art,\" which, doubtless, he would have witches ignorant of, and\nknown only to magicians. But then they pretend that this art can be\nlearned only from the devil, and to obtain it from him they say that\nhe must be invoked and worshiped. Now, as there is hardly an impious\ncharacter, who, having taken it into his head to operate something\nimportant by his charms or spells, would not be disposed to go to that\nshocking extreme, we cannot see why one should succeed in what he\nwishes, whilst the other does not succeed; nor what distinction can be\nmade between rascals and madmen, who are precisely of a kind. I hold\neven, that if the reality and power of magic are granted, we could not\nwithout great difficulty refuse to those who profess it the power of\nentering places shut up, and of going through the air to their\nnocturnal assemblies. It will, doubtless, be said that that is\nimpossible, and surpasses the power of man; but who can affirm it,\nsince we know not how far the power of the rebel angels extends?\n\nI remember to have formerly heard some persons at Rome reason very\nsensibly on the difficulty there is sometimes of deciding upon the\ntruth of a miracle, which difficulty is founded on our ignorance of\nthe extent of the powers of nature.\n\n[[688] It is true that it would be dangerous to carry this principle\ntoo far; doubtless, we are not to deduce from it that nothing ever\nhappens but what is natural, as if the Sovereign Author of all had in\nsome measure bound his hands, and had not reserved unto himself the\nliberty to comply with the wishes and prayers of his servants--of\nsometimes according favors which manifestly surpass the powers he has\ngranted to nature. It may often happen that we doubt whether an effect\nis natural or supernatural; but also how many effects do we see on\nwhich no sensible and rational person can form a doubt, good sense\nconcurring with the soundest philosophy to teach us that certain\nwonders can only happen by a secret and divine virtue? One of the most\ncertain proofs which can be had of this is the sudden and durable cure\nof certain long and cruel maladies. I know that simple and pious\npersons have sometimes attributed to a miracle cures which might very\nwell be looked upon as purely natural; but what can be opposed to\ncertain extraordinary facts which have sometimes happened to very wise\nand wide-awake persons, in the presence of sensible and judicious\nwitnesses who have attested them, and confirmed by the report of the\ncleverest physicians, who have shown their astonishment at them? In\nthis city of Verona, where I live, an event of this kind happened very\nrecently, and it has excited the wonder of every one; but as the truth\nof it is not yet juridically attested I abstain from relating it. But\nsuch is not the case with a similar fact, verified, ten years ago,\nafter the strictest examination. I speak of the miraculous cure of\nDame Victoire Buri, of the monastery of St. Daniel, who after a\nchronic ague of nearly five years' duration, after having been\ntortured for several days with a stitch in her side, or acute pain,\nand with violent colics--having, in short, lost her voice, and fallen\ninto a languid state, received the holy viaticum on the day of the\nfete of St. Louis de Gonzaga. In this condition, having fervently\nrecommended herself to the intercession of the saint, she in one\nmoment felt her strength return, her pains ceased, and she began to\ncry out that she was cured. At these cries the abbess and the nuns ran\nto her; she dressed herself, went up the stairs alone and without\nassistance, and repaired to the choir with the others to render thanks\nto God for her recovery. I had the curiosity to wish to inform myself\npersonally of the fact and of these circumstances, and after having\ninterrogated the lady herself, those who had witnessed her cure, and\nthe physicians who had attended her, I remained fully convinced of the\ntruth of the fact. I, I repeat, whose defect is not that of being too\ncredulous, as it sufficiently appears by what I write here.\n\nAgain, I may say, that finding myself fourteen years ago at Florence,\nI was in that city acquainted with a young girl, named Sister\nCatherine Biondi, of the third order of St. Francis; through her\nprayers a lady was cured in a moment and for ever of a very painful\ndislocation. This circumstance was known by everybody, and I have no\ndoubt that it will one day be juridically attested. For myself, I\nbelieve I obtained several singular favors of God through the\nintercession of this holy maiden, to whose intercession I have\nrecommended myself several times since her death. The wise and learned\nfather Pellicioni, abbot of the order of St. Benedict, her confessor,\nsaid that if we knew the life and family arrangements of this inferior\nsister, we should soon be delivered from all sorts of temptations\nagainst faith.\n\nIn effect, what things we are taught by these facts, which remain as\nif buried in oblivion! What subtile questions are cleared up by them\nin a very short time! Why do not the learned, who shine in other\ncommunions, give themselves the trouble to assure themselves of only\none of these facts, as it would be very easy for them to do? One alone\nsuffices to render evident the truth of the catholic dogmas. There is\nnot one article of controversy for the defence of which it would not\nbe necessary to compose a folio; whereas, only one of these facts\ndecides them all instantly. We advance but little by disputation,\nbecause each one seeks only to show forth his own wit and erudition,\nand no one will give up a point; while by this method all becomes so\nevident that no reply remains in answer to it. And who could imagine\nthat among so many miracles verified on the spot, in different places,\nand reported in the strictest examinations made for the canonization\nof saints, there would not be one which was true? To do so, we must\nrefuse to believe anything at all, and to make use of one's reason.\nBut when one of these facts becomes so notorious that there is no\nlonger room to doubt it, if after that some difficulty presents itself\nto our feeble mind, which, so far from grasping the infinite, has only\nmost confused knowledge of material bodies, will not any one who\nwishes to reason upon them be obliged to decide them suddenly by\nsaying, \"I do not understand it at all, but I believe the whole?\"\nThose also, who, through the high opinion they have of their own\nknowledge, laugh at all which is above them; what can these men oppose\nto facts, in which Divine Providence shines forth in a manner so\nevident not only to the mind but to the eyes? In regard to those who,\nfrom the bad education which they have received, or from the idle and\nvoluptuous life which they lead, stagnate in gross ignorance; with\nwhat facility would not one of these well-proved facts instruct them\nin what they most require to know, and enlighten them in a moment on\nevery subject?]\n\nTo return to my subject. If it is sometimes difficult to decide on the\ntruth of a miracle, how much more difficulty would there be in\nobserving all the qualities which suit the superior and spiritual\nnature, and prescribing limits to it. In regard to the penalties which\nthe author would have them inflict on magicians and witches,\npretending that the former are to be treated with rigor, while, on\nthe contrary, we must be indulgent to the latter, I do not see any\nfoundation for it. Charity would certainly have us begin by\ninstructing an old fool, who, having her fancy distorted, or her heart\nperverted, from having read, or heard related, certain things, will\ncondemn herself, by avowing crimes which she has not committed. But if\nwe are told, for instance, that, after having made a little image, an\nignoramus has pierced it several times, muttering some ridiculous\nwords, how can we distinguish whether this charm is to be attributed\nto sorcery or magic? and consequently, how can we know whether it\nought to be punished leniently or rigorously? However it may be done,\nno effect will follow it, as has often been proved; and whether the\nspell is the work of a magician or a wizard, the person aimed at by it\nwill not be in worse health. We must only remark, that although\nineffectual, the attempt of such wizards is not less a crime, since to\narrive at that point, \"they must have renounced all their duty to God,\nand have made themselves the slaves of the demon:\" also do they avow\nthat to cast their spells they must \"give up Jesus Christ, and\nrenounce the baptismal rite.\" It is commonly held that \"the demons\nappear to them, and cause themselves to be worshiped by them.\" This is\ncertainly not the case; but if it were so, why should witches have\nless power than magicians? and on what foundation can it be asserted\nthat they are less criminal?\n\nXI. Now, then, let us come to the point, which has deceived many, and\nwhich still deludes some. Because in the Scripture, in the Old\nTestament, magic is often spoken of as it then was, they conclude that\nit still exists, and is on the same footing at this day. To that a\nreply is easy. Before the advent of the Saviour, the demon had that\npower; but he no longer possesses it, since Jesus Christ by his death\nconsummated the great work of our redemption. It is what St. John\nclearly teaches in the Apocalypse, when he says[689]--\"I saw an angel\ndescend from heaven, holding in his hand the key of the well of the\nabyss, and a long chain with which he enchained the dragon, the old\nserpent, who is the devil and Satan, and he bound him for a thousand\nyears.\" The Evangelist here makes use of the term \"a thousand years\"\nto designate a period both very long and indeterminate, since we read,\na little lower down, that the demon shall be unbound at the coming of\nAntichrist.[2] And \"after a thousand years,\" says St. John, \"Satan\nshall be unbound, and shall come out of his prison.\" Whence it\nhappens, that in the time of Antichrist all the wonders of magic shall\nbe renewed, as the apostle tells us, when he says[691] that his\narrival shall be marked with the greatest wonders that Satan is\ncapable of working, and by all sorts of signs and lying prodigies.\nBut till then, \"the prince of this world,\" that is to say, the demon,\n\"will be cast out.\" Which made St. Peter say, that in ascending to\nheaven, Jesus Christ has subjugated \"the angels, the powers, and the\nvirtues;\" and St. Paul says, that \"he has enriched himself with the\nspoils of principalities and powers;\" and that \"when he shall give up\nthe kingdom to God even the Father, and destroyed all principalities,\nand powers, and rule.\" These various names indicate the different\norders of reprobate spirits, as we learn from different parts of the\nNew Testament. Now, to understand that the might and power which the\ndemon has been deprived of by the Saviour, is precisely that which he\nhad enjoyed until then of deceiving the world by magical practices, it\nis proper to observe, that until the coming of Jesus Christ there were\nthree ways or means by which the reprobate spirits exercised their\npower and malice upon men:--1. By tempting them and leading them to do\nevil. 2. By entering into their bodies and possessing them. 3. By\nseconding magical operations, and sometimes working wonders, to wrest\nthe worship which was due to Him. At this day, of these three kinds of\npower, the demon has certainly not lost the first by the coming of the\nSaviour, since we know with what determination he has continued since\nthen, and daily does continue, to tempt us. Neither has he been\ndeprived of the second, since we still find persons who are possessed;\nand it cannot be denied, that even since Jesus Christ, God has often\npermitted this kind of possession to chastise mankind, and serve as a\nwarning. Thence it remains, that the demon has only been absolutely\ndespoiled of the third; and that it is in this sense we must\nunderstand what St. Paul says, \"that Satan has been enchained.\" Thence\nit comes, that since the death of our Saviour all these diabolical\n______ having no longer the same success as before, those who until\nthen had made a profession of them, brought their books to the\napostles' feet, and burned them in their presence.\" For that these\nbooks treated principally of magic, we learn from St. Athanasius, who\nalludes to this part of the Scripture, when he says, that \"those who\nhad been celebrated for this art burned their books.\" It is not that,\neven in the most distant time, braggarts and impostors have been\nwanting who falsely boasted of what they could not perform. Thus we\nread in Ecclesiasticus--\"Who will pity the enchanter that is bitten by\nthe serpent?\" In the time of St. Paul, some exorcists, who were Jews,\nran about the country, vainly endeavoring to expel demons; this was\nthe case with seven sons of one of the chief priests at Ephesus. It is\nthis prejudice which made Josephus believe[692] that in the presence\nof Vespasian and all his court attendants, a Jew had expelled demons\nfrom the bodies of the possessed by piercing their nose with a ring,\nin which had been encased a root pointed out by Solomon. In his\nnarrative of this event, we may see, in truth, that the demons were\nobliged to give some sign of their exit; but who does not perceive\nthat what he relates can proceed only from one who has suffered\nhimself to be deceived, or who seeks to deceive others?\n\nXII. From what I have said, it is obvious, that if in the Old\nTestament the magic power, and the prodigies worked by magic, are\noften spoken of, there is in return no mention made of it in the New.\nIt is true, that as the world was never wanting in impostors, who\nsought to appropriate to themselves the name and reputation of\nmagician, we find two of these seducers named in the Acts of the\nApostles. The one is Elymas,[693] who, in the isle of Cyprus, wished\nto turn the attention of the Roman proconsul from listening to the\npreaching of the apostles, and for that was punished with blindness.\nThe other is Simon, who for a long time preaching in Samaria that he\nwas something great, had misled all the people of that city, so that\nhe was generally regarded there as a sort of divine man, because\n\"through the effect of his magic he had for a long time turned the\nheads of all the inhabitants;\" that is to say, he had seduced and\ndazzled them by his knaveries, as has often happened in many other\nplaces. For it is evidently shown that he could never succeed in\nworking any wonder, not only by the silence of the Scripture on that\npoint, but also on seeing the miracles of St. Philip he was so\nsurprised at them, and so filled with admiration, that he directly\nasked to be baptized, and never after quitted this apostle. But having\noffered some money to St. Peter, in order to obtain from him the\napostolical gift, he was severely reprimanded by him, and threatened\nwith the most terrible punishments, to which he made no other reply\nthan to entreat the apostles to intercede for him themselves with\nJesus Christ, that nothing of the kind might happen to him. This is\nall we have that is certain and authentic on the subject of Simon the\nmagician. But in times nearer to the apostles, the authors of\napocryphal books and stories invented at pleasure, profited well by\nthe profession of magic, which Simon had for a long time skillfully\npracticed; and because the magic art is fruitful in wonders, which\ncertainly render a narrative agreeable and amusing, they attributed\nendless prodigies to him; amongst others they imagined that, in a sort\nof public discussion between him and St. Peter, he raised himself into\nthe air, and was precipitated from thence to the ground at the prayers\nof that apostle. Sigebert mentions this, and, if I mistake not, it has\nappeared in print at Florence. The most ancient apocryphal works\nwhich remain to us, are the Recognitions of St. Clement, and the\nApostolical Constitutions. In the first, they make Simon say that he\ncan render himself invisible, traverse the most frightful precipices,\nfall from a great height without hurting himself, bind with his own\nbonds those who enchained him, open fastened doors, animate statues,\npass through fire without burning himself, change his form,\nmetamorphose himself into a goat or a sheep, fly in the air, &c. In\nthe second they make St. Peter say, that Simon being at Rome, and gone\nto the theatre about noon, he ordered the people to go back and make\nroom for him, promising them that he would rise up into the air. It is\nadded, that he did in effect rise up into the air, carried by the\ndemons, saying he was ascending to heaven, at which all the people\napplauded; but at that moment St. Peter's prayers were successful, and\nSimon was hurled down, after he had spoken beforehand to him, as if\nthey had been close to each other. You can read the whole story, which\nis evidently false and ill-imagined. It is true that these old\nwritings, and a few others of the same kind, have served to deceive\nsome of the fathers and ecclesiastical authors, who, without examining\ninto the truth, have permitted themselves to go with the stream, and\nhave followed the public opinion, upon which many things might be said\ndid time allow. How, for instance, can any one unhesitatingly believe\nthat St. Jerome could ever have written that St. Peter went to Rome,\nnot to plant the faith in that capital, and establish therein the\nfirst seat of Christianity, but to expel from thence Simon the\nmagician? Is there not, on the contrary, reason to suspect that these\nfew words have passed in ancient times, from a note inadvertently\nplaced in the margin, into the text itself? But to confine myself\nwithin the limits of my subject, I say that it suffices to pay\nattention to the impure source of so many doubtful books, published\nunder feigned names, by the diversity and contradiction which\npredominate amongst them relatively to the circumstance in question,\nby the silence, in short, of the sovereign pontiffs and other writers\nupon the same, even of the profane authors who ought principally to\nspeak of it, to remain convinced that all that is said of it, as well\nas all the other prodigies ascribed to the magic power of Simon, is\nbut a fable founded solely on public report. Is there not even an\nancient inscription, which is thought to be still in existence, and\nwhich, according to the copy that I formerly took of it at Rome,\nbears: \"Sanco Sancto Semoni Deo Filio,\" which upon the equivoque of\nthe name, has been applied to Simon the magician by St. Justin, and\nupon his authority by some other writers, which occasioned P. Pagi to\nsay on the year 42, \"That St. Justin was deceived either by a\nresemblance of name, or by some unfaithful relation;\" but that which\nmust above all decide this matter is the testimony of Origen, who says\nthat indeed Simon could deceive some persons in his time by magic, but\nthat soon after he lost his credit so much, that there were not in all\nthe world thirty persons of his sect to be found, and that only in\nPalestine, his name never having been known elsewhere; so far was it\nfrom true that he had been to Rome, worked miracles there, and had\nstatues raised to him in that capital of the world! Origen concludes\nby saying, that where the name of Simon was known, it was so only by\nthe Acts of the Apostles, and that the truth of the circumstances\nevidently shows that there was nothing divine in this man, that is to\nsay, nothing miraculous or extraordinary. In a word, the Acts of the\nApostles relate no wonder of him, because the Saviour had destroyed\nall the power of magic.\n\nXIII. To render this principle more solid still, after having based it\nupon the Scripture, I am going to establish again with my usual\nfrankness, upon tradition, and show that it is truly in this sense the\npassages in the fathers, and ancient ecclesiastical writers, must be\nunderstood. I begin with St. Ignatius the Martyr, bishop, and\nsuccessor of the apostles in the pulpit of Antioch. This father, in\nthe first of the Epistles which are really his, speaking of the birth\nof the Saviour, and of the star which then appeared, adds, \"Because\nall the power of magic vanished, all the bonds of malice were broken,\nignorance was abolished, and the old kingdom of Satan destroyed;\" on\nwhich the learned Cotelerius makes this remark: \"It was also at that\ntime that all the illusions of magic ceased, as is attested by so many\ncelebrated authors.\" Tertullian, in the book which he has written on\nIdolatry, says, \"We know the strict union there is between magic and\nastrology. God permitted that science to reign on the earth till the\ntime of the Gospel, in order that after the birth of Jesus Christ no\none might be found who should undertake to read in the heavens the\nhappiness or misfortunes of any person whomsoever.\" A little after, he\nadds: \"It is thus that, till the time of the Gospel, God tolerated on\nthe earth that other kind of magic which performs wonders, and dared\neven to enter into rivalry with Moses.\"\n\nOrigen, in his books against Celsus, speaking of the three magi, and\nthe star which appeared to them, says that then the power of magic\nextended so far, that there was no art more powerful and more divine;\nbut at the birth of the Saviour hell was disconcerted, the demons lost\ntheir power, all their spells were destroyed, and their might passed\naway. The magi wishing them to perform their enchantments and their\nusual works, and not being able to succeed, sought the reason; and\nhaving seen that new star appear in the heavens, they conjectured that\n\"He who was to command all spirits was born,\" which decided them to go\nand adore him.\n\nSt. Athanasius, in his treatise on the Incarnation, teaches that the\nSaviour has delivered all creatures from the deceits and illusions of\nSatan, and that he has enriched himself, as St. Paul says, with the\nspoils of principalities and powers. \"When is it,\" he says afterwards,\n\"that the oracles have ceased to reply throughout all Greece, but\nsince the advent of the Saviour on earth? When did they begin to\ndespise the magic art? Is it not since mankind began to enjoy the\ndivine presence of the Word? Formerly,\" he continues, \"the demons\ndeluded men by divers phantoms, and attaching themselves to rivers and\nfountains, stones and wood, they drew by their allusions the\nadmiration of weak mortals; but since the advent of the Divine Word,\nall their stratagems have passed away.\" A little while after, he adds,\n\"But what shall we say of that magic they held in such admiration?\nBefore the incarnation of the Word, it was in honor among the\nEgyptians, the Chaldeans, the Indians, and won the admiration of those\nnations by prodigies; but since the Truth has come down to earth, and\nthe Word has shown himself amongst men, this power has been destroyed,\nand is itself fallen into oblivion.\" In another place, refuting the\nGentiles, who ascribed the miracles of the Saviour to magic, \"They\ncall him a magician,\" says he, \"but can they say that a magician would\ndestroy all sorts of magic, instead of working to establish it?\"\n\nIn his Commentary on Isaiah, St. Jerome joins this interpretation to\nseveral passages in the prophet--\"Since the advent of the Saviour, all\nthat must be understood in an allegorical sense; for all the error of\nthe waters of Egypt, and all the pernicious arts which deluded the\nnations who suffered themselves to be infatuated by them, have been\ndestroyed by the coming of Jesus Christ.\" A little after, he\nadds--\"That Memphis was also strongly addicted to magic, the vestiges\nwhich subsist at this day of her ancient superstitions allow us not to\ndoubt.\" Now this informs us in a few words, or in the approach of the\ndesolation of Babylon, that all the projects of the magicians, and of\nthose who promise to unveil the future, are a pure folly, and dissolve\nlike smoke at the presence of Jesus Christ. Again, he says elsewhere,\nthat \"Jesus Christ being come into the world, all kinds of divination,\nand all the deceits of idolatry, lost their efficacy; so that the\nEastern magi understanding that a Son of God was born who had\ndestroyed all the power of their art, came to Bethlehem.\"\n\nTheophilus of Alexandria, in his Paschal Letter addressed to the\nbishops of Egypt, and after him St. Jerome, who has given us a Latin\ntranslation of this letter, says that Jesus Christ by his coming has\ndestroyed all the illusions of magic. They add, \"Jesus Christ by his\npresence having destroyed idolatry, it follows that magic, which is\nits mother, has been destroyed likewise.\" They call magic the mother\nof idolatry, because it transfers to another the confidence and\nsubmission which are due to God alone. St. Ambrose says, \"The magician\nperceives the inutility of his art, and you do not yet understand that\nthe promised Redeemer is come.\" I could bring forward here many other\npassages from the fathers if I had the books at hand, or if time\nallowed me to select them.\n\nXIV. But why amuse ourselves with fruitless researches? What I have\nsaid will suffice to show that this opinion has been that of not only\none or two of the fathers, which would prove nothing, but of the\ngreater number of those among them who have discoursed of this matter,\nwhich constitutes the greater number. After that it is of little\nimport if in after and darker ages a thousand stories were spread on\nthe subject of witchcraft and enchantments, and that those tales may\nhave gained credit with the people in proportion to their rudeness and\nignorance. You may read, if you have any curiosity on the subject, a\nhundred stories of that kind, related by Saxo Grammaticus and Olaus\nMagnus. You will find also in Lucian and in Apuleius, how, even in\ntheir time, those who wished to be carried through the air, or to be\nmetamorphosed into beasts, began by stripping themselves, and then\nanointing themselves with certain oils from head to foot; there were\nthen found impostors, who promised as of old to perform by means of\nmagic all kinds of prodigies, and still continued the same\nextravagances as ever.\n\nA great many persons feel a certain repugnance to refusing belief in\nall that is said of the prodigies of magic, as if it was denying the\ntruth of miracles, and the existence of the devil; and on this subject\nthey fail not to allege, that amongst the orders in the church is\nfound that of exorcists, and that the rituals are full of prayers and\nblessings against the malice and the snares of Satan. But we must not\nhere confound two very different things. So far from the miracles and\nwonders performed by Divine power leading us to believe the truth of\nthose which are ascribed to the demon, they teach us on the contrary\nthat God has reserved this power to himself alone. We experience but\ntoo often that there are truly evil spirits, who do not cease to tempt\nus. In respect to the order of Exorcists, we know that it was\nestablished in the church in the first ages of Christianity; the most\nancient fathers make mention of them; but from none of them do we\nlearn that their order was instituted against witchcraft and other\nknaveries of the same kind, but only as at this day, to deliver those\npossessed; \"to expel demons from the bodies of the possessed;\" says\nthe Manual of the Ordination. It is not, then, denied, that for\nreasons which it belongs not to us to examine, God sometimes allows\nthe demon to take hold of some one and to torment him; we only deny\nthat the spirit of darkness can ever arrive at that to please a\nwretched woman of the dregs of the people. We do not deny that to\npunish the sins of mankind, the Almighty may not sometimes make use in\ndifferent ways of the ministry of evil spirits; for, as St. Jerome\nsays,[694] \"God makes men feel his anger and fury by the ministry of\nrebel angels;\" but we do deny that it ever happens by virtue of certain\nfigures, certain words, and certain signs, made by ignoramuses or\nscoundrels, or some wretched females, or old mad women, or by any\nauthority they have over the demon. The sovereign pontiff who at this\nday governs the church with so much glory, discourses very fully[695]\nin his excellent works on the wonders worked by the demon and related\nin the Old Testament, but he nowhere speaks of any effect produced by\nmagic or by sorcery since the coming of Jesus Christ. In the Roman\nritual we have prayers and orisons for all occasions; we find there\nconjurations and exorcisms against demons; but nowhere, if the text is\nnot corrupted, is there mention made either of persons or things\nbewitched, and if they are mentioned therein, it is only in after\nadditions made by private individuals. We know, on the contrary, that\nmany books treating of this subject, and containing prayers newly\ncomposed by some individuals, have been prohibited. Thus they have\nforbidden the book entitled _Circulus Aureus_, in which are set down\nthe conjurations necessary for \"invoking demons of all kinds, of the\nsky, of hell, the earth, fire, air, and water,\" to destroy all sorts\nof \"enchantments, charms, spells, and snares,\" in whatever place they\nmay be hidden, and of whatever matter they may be composed, whether\nmale or female, magician or witch, who may have made or given them,\nand notwithstanding \"all compacts and all conventions made between\nthem.\" Ought not the fact that the church forbids any one to read or\nto keep these kind of books, to be sufficient to convince us of the\nfalsehood of what they imagine, and to teach us how contrary they are\nto true religion and sound devotion. Three years ago they printed in\nthis town a little book, of which the author, however, was not of\nVerona, in which they promised to teach the way \"to deliver the\npossessed, and to break all kinds of spells.\" We read in it that\n\"those over whom a malignant spell has been cast, lead such a wretched\nlife that it ought rather to be called a long death, like the corpse\nof a man who had just died,\" &c. That is not all, for \"almost all die\nof it,\" and if they are children, \"they hardly ever live.\" See now the\npower which simple people ascribe, not only to the devil, but to the\nvilest of men, whom they really believe to be connected with, and to\nhold commerce with him. They say afterwards in this same book[696]\nthat the signs which denote a malignant spell are parings, herbs,\nfeathers, bones, nails, and hairs; but they give notice that the\nfeathers prove that there is witchcraft \"only when they are\nintermingled in the form of a circle or nearly so.\" And, again, you\nmust take care that some woman has not given you something to eat,\nsome flowers to smell, or if she has touched the shoulder of the\nperson on whom the spell is cast. We have an excellent preservative\nagainst these simplicities in the vast selection of Dom Martenus,\nentitled _De Antiquis Ecclesiae Ritibus_, in which we see that amidst\nan infinity of prayers, orisons and exorcisms used at all times\nthroughout Christendom, there is not a passage in which mention is\nmade of spells, sorcery, or magic, or magical operations. They therein\ncommand the demon in the name of Jesus Christ to come out and go\naway--they therein implore the divine protection, to be delivered from\nhis power, to which we are all born subject by the stain of original\nsin; they therein teach that holy water, salt, and incense sanctified\nby the prayers of the church may drive away the enemy; that we may not\nfall into his toils, and that we may have nothing to dread from the\nattacks of evil spirits; but in no part does it say that spells have\npower over them, neither do they anywhere pray God to deliver us from\nthem, or to heal us. It is so far from being true that we ought to\nbelieve the fables spread abroad on this subject, that I perfectly\nwell remember having read a long time ago in the old casuists, that we\nought to class in the number of grievous sins the believing that magic\ncan really work the wonders related of it. I shall remark, on this\noccasion, that I know not how the author of the book in question can\nhave committed the oversight of twice citing a certain manuscript as\nto be found in any other cabinet than mine, when it is a well known\nfact that I formerly purchased it very dear, not knowing that the most\nimportant and curious part was wanting. What I have said of it may be\nseen in the Opuscules which I have joined to the \"History of\nTheology.\"[697] For the present, it suffices to remember that in the\nfamous canon _Episcopi_, related first by Reginon,[698] we read these\nremarkable words--\"An infinite number of people, deceived by this\nfalse prejudice, believe all that to be true, and in believing it\nstray from the true faith into the superstition of the heathen,\nimagining that they can find elsewhere than in God any divinity, or\nany supernatural power.\"\n\nXV. From all I have hitherto said, it appears how far from truth is\nall that is commonly said of this pretended magic; how contrary to all\nthe maxims of the church, and in opposition to the most venerated\nauthority, and what harm might be done to sound doctrine and true\npiety by entertaining and favoring such extravagant opinions. We read,\nin the author I am combating, \"What shall we say of the fairies, a\nprodigy so notorious and so common?\" It is marvelous that it should\nbe a _prodigy_ and at the same time _common_. He adds, \"There is not a\ntown, not to say a village, which cannot furnish several instances\nconcerning them.\" For my part, I have seen a great many places; I am\nseventy-four years of age, and I have perhaps been only too curious on\nthis head; and I own that I have never happened to meet with any\nprodigy of that kind. I may even add that several inquisitors, very\nsensible men, after having exercised that duty a long time, have\nassured me that they also never knew such a thing. It is not often\nthat fairies of all kinds of shapes and different faces have passed\nthrough my hands, but I have always discovered and shown that this was\nnothing but fancy and reverie. On one side, it is affirmed that there\nis a malicious species among them, who were amorous of beautiful\ngirls; and on the other, they will have it, on the contrary, that all\nwitches are old and ugly. How desirable it would be, if the people\ncould be once undeceived in respect to all these follies, which accord\nso little with sound doctrine and true piety! Are they not still, in\nour days, infatuated with what is said of charms which render\ninvulnerable rings in which fairies are enclosed, billets which cure\nthe quartan ague, words which lead you to guess the number to which\nthe lot will fall; of the pas key, which is made to turn to find out a\nthief; of the cabala, which by means of certain verses and certain\nanswers, which are falsely supposed to contain a certain number of\nwords, unveils the most secret things? Are there not still to be found\npeople who are so simple, or who have so little religion, as to buy\nthese trifles very dear? For the world at this day is not wanting in\nthose prophets spoken of by Micah,[699] whom money inspired and\nrendered learned. Have we not again calendars in which are marked the\nlucky and unlucky days, as has been done during a time, under the name\nof Egyptians? Do they not prevent people from inhabiting certain\nhouses, under pretence of their being haunted? that is to say, that in\nthe night spectres are seen in them, and a great noise of chains is\nheard, some saying that it is devils who cause all this, and others\nthe spirits of the dead who make all this clang; which is surprising\nenough that it should be spirits or devils, and that they should only\nhave the power to make themselves perceived in the night. And how many\ntimes have we seen the most fatal quarrels occur, principally amongst\nthe peasants, because one amongst them has accused others of sorcery?\nBut what shall we say of spirits incube and succube, of which,\nnotwithstanding the impossibility of the thing, the existence and\nreality is maintained? M. Muratori, in that part where he treats of\nimagination, places the tales on this subject in the same line with\nwhat is said of the witches' sabbath; and he says[700] \"that these\nextravagant opinions are at this day so discredited, that it is only\nthe rudest and most ignorant who suffer themselves to be amused by\nthem.\" One of my friends made me laugh the other day, when, speaking\nof the pretended incubuses, he said that those who believed in them\nwere not wise to marry. Again, what shall we say of those tacit\ncompacts so often mentioned by the author, and which he supposes to be\nreal? Can we not see that such an opinion is making a god of the\ndevil? For that any one, for example, living three or four hundred\nleagues off, may have made a compact with the devil, that every time a\npendulum shall be suspended above a glass it shall mark the hour as\nregularly as the most exact clock. According to this idea, that same\nmarvel will happen equally, and at the same moment, not only in this\ntown where we are, but all over the earth, and will be repeated as\noften as they may wish to make the experiment. Now this is quite\nanother thing from carrying a witch to the sabbath through the air,\nwhich the author asserts is beyond the power of the demon; it is\nattributing to this malicious spirit a kind of almightiness and\nimmensity. But what would happen if some one, having made a compact\nwith a demon for fine weather, another on his part shall have made a\ncompact with the demon for bad weather? Good Father Le Brun wishes us\nto ascribe to tacit compacts all those effects which we cannot explain\nby natural causes. If it be so, what a number of tacit compacts there\nmust be in the world! He believes in the stories about the divining\nrod, and the virtue ascribed to it of finding out robbers and\nmurderers; although all France has since acknowledged that the first\nauthor of this fable was a knave, who having been summoned to Paris,\ncould never show there any of those effects he had boasted of. Let any\none have the least idea of the invisible atoms scattered abroad\nthroughout the world, of their continually issuing from natural\nbodies, and the hidden and wonderful effects which they produce, one\ncan never be astonished that at a moderate distance water and metals\nshould operate on certain kinds of wood. The same author sincerely\nbelieves what was said, that the contagion and mortality spread\namongst the cattle proceeded from a spell; like the man who affirmed\nthat his father and mother remained impotent for seven years, and this\nceased only when an old woman had broken the spell. On this subject,\nhe cites a ritual of which Father Martenus does not speak at all,\nwhence it follows that he did not recognize it for authentic. To give\nan idea of the credulity of this writer, it will suffice to read the\nstory he relates of one Damis. But we find, above all, an\nincomparable abridgment of those extravagant wonders in a little book\ndedicated to the Cardinal Horace Maffei, entitled, \"Compendium\nMelificarum,\" or the \"Abridgment of Witches,\" printed at Milan in\n1608.\n\nXVI. In a word, it is of no little importance to destroy the popular\nerrors which attack the unalterable attributes of the Supreme Being,\nas if he had laid it down as a law to himself that he would condescend\nto all the impious and fantastic wishes of malignant spirits, and of\nthe madman who had recourse to them, by seconding them, and permitting\nthe wonderful effects that they desire to produce. Do reason and good\nsense allow us to imagine that the Sovereign Master of all things, who\nfor reasons which we are not permitted to examine, refuses so often to\ngrant our most ardent prayers for what we need, whether it be public\nor private, can be so prompt to lend an ear to the requests of the\nvilest and most wicked, by allowing that which they desire to happen?\nSo long as they believe in the reality of magic, that it is able to\nwork wonders, and that by means of it man can force the demon to obey,\nit will be in vain to preach against the superstition, impiety, and\nfolly of wizards. There will always be found too many people who will\ntry to succeed in it, and will even fancy they have succeeded in it in\nfact. To uproot this pest we must begin by making men clearly\nunderstand that it is useless in them to be guilty of this horrible\ncrime; that in this way they never obtain anything they wish for, and\nthat all that is said on this subject is fabulous and chimerical. It\nwill not be difficult to persuade any sensible person of this truth,\nby only leading him to pay attention, and mark if it be possible that\nall these pretended miracles can be true, whilst it is proved that\nmagic has never possessed the power to enrich those who professed it,\nwhich would be much more easy. How could this wonderful art send\nmaladies to those who were in good health, render a married couple\nimpotent, or make any one invisible or invulnerable, whilst it has\nnever been able to bring a hundred crowns, which another would keep\nlocked up in his strong box? And why do we not make any use of so\nwonderful an art in armies? Why is it so little sought after by\nprinces and their ministers? The most efficacious means for\ndissipating all these vain fancies would be never to speak of them,\nand to bury them in silence and oblivion. In any place where for time\nimmemorial no one has ever been suspected of witchcraft, let them only\nhear that a monk is arrived to take cognizance of this crime and\npunish it, and directly you will see troops of green-sick girls, and\nhypochondriacal men; crowds of children will be brought to him ill\nwith unknown maladies; and it will not fail to be affirmed that these\nthings are caused by spells cast over them, and even when and how the\nthing happened. It is certainly a wrong way of proceeding, whether in\nsermons, or in the works published against witches, to amuse\nthemselves with giving the history of all these mad-headed people\nboast of, of the circumstances in which they have taken a part, and\nthe way in which they happened. It is in vain then to declaim against\nthem, for you may be assured that people are not wanting who suffer\nthemselves to be dazzled by these pretended miracles, who become\nsmitten with these effects, so extraordinary and so wonderful, and try\nby every means to succeed in them by the very method which has just\nbeen taught them, and forget nothing which can place them in the\nnumber of this imaginary society. It is then with reason that the\nauthor says in his book, that punishment even sometimes serves to\nrender crime more common, and \"that there are never more witches than\nin those places where they are most persecuted.\" I am delighted to be\nable to finish with this eulogium, in order that it may be the more\nclearly seen that if I have herein attacked magic, it is only with\nupright intentions.\n\nXVII. The eagerness with which I have written this letter has made me\nforget several things which might very well have a place in it. The\ngreatest difficulty which can be opposed to my argument is that we\nsometimes find, even amongst people who possess a certain degree of\nknowledge and good sense, some persons who will say to you, \"But I\nhave seen this, or that; such and such things have happened to\nmyself.\" Upon which it is proper, first of all, to pay attention to\nthe wonderful tricks of certain jugglers, who, by practice and\naddress, succeed in deceiving even the most clear-sighted and sensible\npersons. It must next be considered that the most natural effects may\nsometimes appear beyond the power of nature, when cleverly presented\nin the most favorable point of view. I formerly saw a charlatan who,\nhaving driven a nail or a large pin into the head of a chicken, with\nthat nailed it to a table, so that it appeared dead, and was believed\nto be so by all present; after that, the charlatan having taken out\nthe nail and played some apish tricks, the chicken came to life again\nand walked about the room. The secret of all this is that these birds\nhave in the forepart of the head two bones, joined in such a way that\nif anything is driven through with address, though it causes them\npain, yet they do not die of it. You may run large pins into a man's\nleg without wounding or hurting him, or but very slightly, just like a\nprick which is felt when the pin first enters; which has sometimes\nserved as a pastime for jokers. In my garden, which, thanks to the\ncare of M. Seguier, is become quite a botanic garden, I have a plant\ncalled the _onagra_,[701] which rises to the height of a man, and\nbears very beautiful flowers; but they remain closed all day, and only\nopen towards sunset, and that not by degrees, as with all other night\nplants, but in budding all at once, and showing themselves in a moment\nin all their beauty. A little before their chalice bursts open, it\nswells and becomes a little inflated. Now, if any one, profiting by\nthe last-named peculiarity, which is but little known, wished to\npersuade any simple persons that by the help of some magical words he\ncould, when he would, cause a beautiful flower to bloom, is it not\ncertain that he would find plenty of people disposed to believe him?\nThe common people in our days leave nothing undone to find out the\nsecret of making themselves invulnerable; by which they show that they\nascribe to magic more power than was granted to it by the ancients,\nwho believed it very capable of doing harm, but not of doing good. So,\nwhen the greater number of the Jews attributed the miracles wrought by\nthe Saviour to the devil, some of the more sensible and reasonable\namong them asked, \"Can the devil restore sight to the blind?\"[702] At\nthis day, there are more ways than ever of making simple and ignorant\npersons believe in magic. For instance, would it be very difficult for\na man to pass himself off as a magician, if he said to those who were\npresent, \"I can, at my will, either send the bullet in this pistol\nthrough this board, or make it simply touch it and fall down at our\nfeet without piercing it?\" Nevertheless, nothing is easier; it only\nrequires when the pistol is loaded, that instead of pressing the\nwadding immediately upon the bullet as is customary, to put it, on the\ncontrary, at the mouth of the barrel. That being done, when they fire,\nif the end of the pistol is raised, the ball, which is not displaced,\nwill produce the usual effect; but if, on the contrary, the pistol is\nlowered, so that the ball runs into the barrel and joins the wadding,\nit will fall on the ground from the board without having penetrated\nit. It seems to me that something like this may be found in the\n\"Natural Experiments\" of Redi, which I have not at hand just now. But\non this subject, you can consult Jean Baptista, Porta, and others. We\nmust not, however, place amongst the effects of this kind of magic,\nwhat a friend jokingly observed to me in a very polite letter which he\nwrote to me two months ago:--A noisy exhalation having ignited in a\nhouse, and not having been perceived by him who was in the spot\nadjoining, nor in any other place, he writes me word that those who,\naccording to the vulgar prejudice, persisted in believing that these\nkinds of fire came from the sky and the clouds, were necessarily\nforced to attribute this effect to real magic. I shall again add, on\nthe subject of electrical phenomena, that those who think to explain\nthem by means of two electrical fluids, the one hidden in bodies, and\nthe other circulating around them, would perhaps say something less\nstrange and surprising, if they ascribed them to magic. I have\nendeavored, in the last letter which is joined to that I wrote upon\nthe subject of exhalations, to give some explanation of these wonders;\nand I have done so, at least, without being obliged to invent from my\nown head, and without any foundation, to universal electrical matters\nwhich circulate within bodies and without them. Certainly, the ancient\nphilosophers, who reasoned so much on the magnet, would have spared\nthemselves a great deal of trouble, if they had believed it possible\nto attribute its admirable properties to a magnetic spirit which\nproceeded from it. But the pleasure I should find in arguing with\nthem, might perhaps engage me in other matters; for which reason I now\nend my letter.\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[672] The author here alludes to the hypogryphe, a winged horse,\ninvented by Ariosto, that carried the Paladins through the air.\n\n[673] Magicus Vanitates.\n\n[674] Plin. lib. xxx. c. 1.\n\n[675]\n \"Somnia, terrores magicos, miracula, sagas,\n Nocturnos lemures, portentaque Thessala rides?\"\n HORAT. lib. ii. Ep. 2.\n\n[676] Inexpugnabili magicae disciplinae potestate, &c.--Lib. iii.\n\n[677] Delle magiche frodi seppe il Givoco.--Dante, _Inf._ c. 20.\n\n[678] Pp. 139 and 145.\n\n[679] P. 9.\n\n[680] P. 144.\n\n[681] _Goesy_, or _Goesia_, is said to be a kind of magic. It is\nasserted that those who profess it repair at night to the tombs, where\nthey invoke the demon and evil genii by lamentations and complaints.\n\nIn regard to _Theurgy_, the ancients gave this name to that part of\nmagic which is called _white magic_. The word _Theurgy_ signifies the\nart of doing divine things, or such as God only can perform--the power\nof producing wonderful and supernatural effects by licit means, in\ninvoking the aid of God and angels. _Theurgy_ differs from _natural\nmagic_, which is performed by the powers of nature; and from\n_necromancy_, which is operated only by the invocation of the demons.\n\n[682] P. 170.\n\n[683] P. 654.\n\n[684] P. 749.\n\n[685] P. 9.\n\n[686] P. 30, de Lam.\n\n[687] P. 94.\n\n[688] What is enclosed between the brackets is a long addition sent by\nthe author to the printer whilst they were working at a second edition\nof his letter.\n\n[689] Et vidi angelum descendentem de coelo habentem clavem abyssi et\ncatenam magnam in manu sua; et appehendit draconem, serpentem,\nantiquum, qui est Diabolus et Satanas, et ligavit eum per annos\nmille.--_Apoc._ xx. 1.\n\n[690] Et cum consummati fuerint mille anni, solvetur Satanas de\ncarcere suo.--_Apoc._ v. 7.\n\n[691] Cujus est adventus secundum operationem Satanae in omni virtute\net signis et prodigiis mendacibus.--2 Thess. ii. 9.\n\n[692] Joseph. Antiq. lib. viii. c. 2.\n\n[693] Acts viii. 6.\n\n[694] Mittet siquidem Dominus in iram et furorem suum per angelos\npessimos. Hier. ad Eph. i. 7. p. 574.\n\n[695] Vid. de Beatif. lib. iv. p. i. c. 3.\n\n[696] Pp. 67, 75.\n\n[697] P. 243.\n\n[698] Lib. ii. p. 364.\n\n[699] In pecunia divinabunt.--Mich. iii. 11.\n\n[700] P. 127.\n\n[701] Now well known as the evening primrose.\n\n[702] Numquid daemonium potest coecorum oculos asperire? Joan. ix,\n21.\n\n\n\n\nLETTER\n\n_From the_ REVEREND FATHER DOM. AUGUSTINE CALMET, _Abbot of Senones,\nto_ M. DE BURE SENIOR, _Librarian at Paris._\n\n\nSIR--I have received The Historical and Dogmatical Treatise on\nApparitions, Visions, and particular Revelations, with Observations on\nthe Dissertations of the Reverend Father Dom. Calmet, Abbot of\nSenones, on Apparitions and Ghosts. At Avignon, 1751. By the Abbe\nLenglet du Frenoy.\n\nI have looked over this work with pleasure. M. du Frenoy wished to\nturn to account therein what he wrote fifty-five years ago, as he says\nhimself, on the subject of visions, and the life of Maria d'Agreda, of\nwhom they spoke then, and of whom they still speak even now in so\nundecided a manner. M. du Frenoy had undertaken at that time to\nexamine the affair thoroughly and to show the illusions of it; there\nis yet time for him to give his opinion upon it, since the Church has\nnot declared herself upon the work, on the life and visions of that\nfamous Spanish abbess.\n\nIt is only accidentally that he composed his remarks on my\nDissertations on Apparitions and Vampires. I have no reason to\ncomplain of him; he has observed towards me the rules of politeness\nand good breeding, and I shall try to imitate him in what I say in my\nown defence. But if he had read the second edition of my work, printed\nat Einsidlen in Switzerland, in 1749; the third, printed in Germany at\nAugsburg, in 1750; and the fourth, on which you are now actually\nengaged; he might have spared himself the trouble of censuring several\npassages which I have corrected, reformed, suppressed, or explained\nmyself.\n\nIf I had wished to swell my work, I could have added to it some rules,\nremarks, and reflections, with a vast number of circumstances. But by\nthat means I should have fallen into the same error which he seems to\nhave acknowledged himself, when he says that he has perhaps placed in\nhis works too many such rules and remarks: and I am persuaded that it\nis, in fact, the part that will be least read and least used.[703]\n\nPeople will be much more struck with stories squeamishly extracted\nfrom Thomas de Cantimpre and Cesarius, whose works are everywhere\ndecried, and that one dare no longer cite openly without exposing them\nto mockery. They will read, with only too much pleasure, what he\nrelates of the apparitions of Jesus Christ to St. Francis d'Assis, on\nthe Indulgence of the Partionculus, and the particularities of the\nestablishment of the Carmelite Fathers, and of the Brotherhood of the\nScapulary, by Simon Stock, to whom the Holy Virgin herself gave the\nScapulary of the order. It will be seen in his work that there are few\nreligious establishments or societies which are not founded on some\nvision or revelation. It seemed even as if it was necessary for the\npropagation of certain orders and certain congregations; _so that\nthese kind of revelations were, as it were, taken by storm_; and there\nseems to have been a competition as to who should produce the greatest\nnumber of them, and the most extraordinary, to have them believed. I\ncould not persuade myself that he related seriously the pretended\napparition of St. Francis to Erasmus. It is easy to comprehend that it\nwas a joke of Erasmus, who wished to divert himself at the expense of\nthe Cordeliers. But one cannot help being pained at the way in which\nhe treats several fathers of the church, as St. Gregory the Great, St.\nGregory of Tours, St. Sulpicius Severus, Peter the Venerable, Abbot of\nClugny, St. Anselm, Cardinal Pierre Damien, St. Athanasius even, and\nSt. Ambrose,[704] in regard to their credulity, and the account they\nhave given us of several apparitions and visions, which are little\nthought of at this day. I say the same of what he relates of the\nvisions of St. Elizabeth of Schonau, of St. Hildegrade, of St.\nGertrude, of St. Mecthelda, of St. Bridget, of St. Catherine of\nSienna, and hardly does he show any favor to those of St. Theresa.\n\nWould it not have been better to leave the world in this respect as it\nis,[705] rather than disturb the ashes of so many holy personages and\nsaintly nuns, whose lives are held blessed by the church, and whose\nwritings and revelations have so little influence over the salvation\nand the morals of the faithful in general. What service does it render\nthe church to speak disparagingly of the works of the contemplatives,\nof the Thaulers, the Rushbrooks, the Bartholomews of Pisa, of St.\nVincent Ferrier, of St. Bernardine of Sienna, of Henry Harphius, of\nPierre de Natalibus, of Bernardine de Bustis, of Ludolf the Chartreux,\nand other authors of that kind, whose writings are so little read and\nso little known, whose sectaries are so few in number, and have so\nlittle weight in the world, and even in the church?\n\nThe Abbe du Frenoy acknowledges the visions and revelations which are\nclearly marked in Scripture; but is there not reason to fear that\ncertain persons may apply the rules of criticism which he employs\nagainst the visions of the male and female saints of whom he speaks in\nhis work, and that they may say, for instance, that Jeremiah yielded\nto his melancholy humor, and Ezekiel to his caustic disposition, to\npredict sad and disagreeable things to the Jewish people?[706]\n\nWe know how many vexations the prophets endured from the Jews, and\nthat in particular[707] those of Anathoth had resolved to put their\ncountryman Jeremiah to death, to prevent him from prophesying in the\nname of the Lord. To what persecutions were not himself and Baruch his\ndisciple exposed for having spoken in the name of the Lord? Did not\nKing Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, throw the book of Baruch into the\nfire,[708] after having hacked it with a penknife, in hatred of the\ntruths which it announced to him?\n\nThe Jews sometimes went so far as to insult them in their dwellings,\nand even to say to them,[709] _Ubi est verbum Domini? veniat_; and\nelsewhere, \"Let us plot against Jeremiah; for the priests will not\nfail to cite the law, and the prophets will not fail to allege the\nwords of the Lord: come, let us attack him with derision, and pay no\nregard to his discourse.\"\n\nIsaiah did not endure less vexation and insult, the libertine Jews\nhaving gone even into his house, and said to him insolently[710]--_Manda,\nremanda; expecta, re-expecta; modicum ibi, et modicum ibi_, as if to\nmock at his threats.\n\nBut all that has not prevailed, nor ever will prevail, against the\ntruth and word of God; the faithful and exact execution of the threats\nof the Lord has justified, and ever will justify, the predictions and\nvisions of the prophets. The gates of hell will not prevail against\nthe Christian church, and the word of God will triumph over the malice\nof hell, the artifice of corrupt men, of libertines, and over all the\nsubtlety of pretended freethinkers. True and real visions,\nrevelations, and apparitions will always bear in themselves a\ncharacter of truth, and will serve to destroy those which are false,\nand proceed from the spirit of error and delusion. And coming now to\nwhat regards myself in particular, M. du Frenoy says, that the public\nhave been surprised that instead of placing my proofs before the\ncircumstances of my apparitions, I have given them afterwards, and\nthat I have not entered fully enough into the subject of these proofs.\n\nI am going to give the public an account of my method and design.\nHaving proposed to myself to prove the truth, the reality, and\nconsequently the possibility of apparitions, I have related a great\nmany authentic instances, derived from the Old and New Testament,\nwhich forms a complete proof of my opinion, for the certainty of the\nfacts carries with it here the certainty of the dogma.\n\nAfter that I have related instances and opinions taken from the\nHebrews, Mahometans, Greeks, and Latins, to assure the same truth. I\nhave been careful not to draw any parallel between these testimonies\nand the scriptural ones which preceded. My object in this was to\ndemonstrate that in every age, and in all civilized nations, the idea\nof the immortality of the soul, of its existence after death, of its\nreturn and appearance, is one of those truths which the length of ages\nhas never been able to efface from the mind of nations.\n\nI draw the same inference from the instances which I have related, and\nof which I do not pretend to guarantee either the truth or the\ncertainty. I willingly yield all the circumstances that are not\nrevealed to censure and criticism; I only esteem as true that which is\nso in fact.\n\nM. du Frenoy finds that the proof of the immortality of the soul which\nI infer from the apparition of the spirit after death, is not\nsufficiently solid; but it is certainly one of the most palpable and\nmost easy of comprehension to the generality of mankind; it would make\nmore impression upon them than arguments drawn from philosophy and\nmetaphysics. I do not intend for that reason to attack any other\nproofs of the same truth, or to weaken a dogma so essential to\nreligion.\n\nHe endeavors to prove, at great length,[711] that the salvation of the\nEmperor Trajan is not a thing which the Christian religion can\nconfirm. I agree with him; and it was useless to take any trouble to\ndemonstrate it.[712]\n\nHe speaks of the young man of Delme,[713] who having fallen into a\nswoon remained in it some days; they brought him back to life, and a\nlanguor remained upon him which at last led to his death at the end of\nthe year. It is thus he arranges that story.\n\nM. du Frenoy disguises the affair a little; and although I do not\nbelieve that the devil could restore the youth to life, nevertheless\nthe original and cotemporaneous authors whom I have quoted maintain\nthat the demon had much to do with this event.[714]\n\nWhat has principally prevented me from giving rules and prescribing a\nmethod for discerning true and false apparitions is, that I am quite\npersuaded that the way in which they occur is absolutely unknown to\nus; that it contains insurmountable difficulties; and that consulting\nonly the rules of philosophy, I should be more disposed to believe\nthem impossible than to affirm their truth and possibility. But I am\nrestrained by respect for the Holy Scriptures, by the testimony of all\nantiquity and by the tradition of the Church.\n\n \"I am, sir,\n Your very humble\n and very obedient servant,\n D. A. CALMET, Abbot of Senones.\"\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[703] Dom. Calmet has a very bad opinion of the public, to believe\nthat it values so little what is, perhaps, the best and most sensible\npart of the book. Wise people think quite differently from himself.\n\n[704] Neither Gregory of Tours, nor Sulpicius Severus, nor Peter the\nVenerable, nor Pierre Damien, have ever been placed in a parallel line\nwith the fathers of the Church. In regard to the latter, it has always\nbeen allowable, without failing in the respect which is due to them,\nto remark certain weaknesses in their works, sometimes even errors, as\nthe Church has done in condemning the Millenaries, &c.\n\n[705] An excellent maxim for fomenting credulity and nourishing\nsuperstition.\n\n[706] What a parallel! how could any one make it without renouncing\ncommon sense?\n\n[707] Jeremiah xxi. 21.\n\n[708] Jerem. xxxvi.\n\n[709] Jerem. xvii. 15.\n\n[710] Isai. xxviii. 10.\n\n[711] Tom. ii. p. 92 _et seq._\n\n[712] It is true that what Dom. Calmet had said of this in his first\nedition, the only one M. Lenglet has seen, has been corrected in the\nfollowing ones.\n\n[713] P. 155.\n\n[714] A bad foundation; credulous or interested authors.\n\n\n\n\nTHE END.\n\n\n\nTranscriber's Notes:\n\n Passages in italics indicated by underscore _italics_.\n\n The original text includes Greek characters. For this text version these\n letters have been replaced with transliterations set off by [Greek: ]\n tags.\n\n The original text includes several blank spaces. These are represented by\n _______________ in this text version.\n\n Footnote punctuation has been standardized for consistency.\n\n Misprints corrected:\n \"Corpernican\" corrected to \"Copernican\" (page vii)\n \"destitue\" corrected to \"destitute\" (page xvii)\n \"superstit on\" corrected to \"superstition\" (page xx)\n \"Apocalapse\" corrected to \"Apocalypse\" (page 40)\n \"for\" corrected to \"fro\" (page 55)\n \"thousands\" corrected to \"thousand\" (page 57)\n \"predjudices\" corrected to \"prejudices\" (page 61)\n \"repentence\" corrected to \"repentance\" (page 87)\n \"sorcerors\" corrected to \"sorcerers\" (page 100)\n \"subtil\" corrected to \"subtile\" (page 112)\n \"Loudon\" corrected to \"Loudun\" (page 128)\n \"Gassendy\" corrected to \"Gassendi\" (page 146)\n \"statue\" corrected to \"stature\" (page 161)\n \"testiomony\" corrected to \"testimony\" (page 179)\n \"Ratzival\" corrected to \"Ratzivil\" (page 204)\n \"embarrasment\" corrected to \"embarrassment\" (page 220)\n \"Mohometans\" corrected to \"Mahometans\" (page 222)\n \"ancesters\" corrected to \"ancestors\" (page 231)\n \"cf\" corrected to \"of\" (page 238)\n \"Other\" corrected to \"Others\" (page 248)\n \"treaties\" corrected to \"treatise\" (page 254)\n \"Spiridon\" corrected to \"Spiridion\" (page 258)\n \"not not\" corrected to \"not\" (page 262)\n \"drangement\" corrected to \"derangement\" (page 278)\n \"neigborhood\" corrected to \"neighborhood\" (page 282)\n \"d'Englebert\" corrected to \"d'Engelbert\" (page 286)\n \"obervations\" corrected to \"observations\" (page 305)\n \"of\" corrected to \"off\" (page 326)\n \"corpuscules\" corrected to \"corpuscles\" (page 329)\n \"or\" corrected to \"for\" (page 342)\n \"our\" corrected to \"out\" (page 349)\n \"childen\" corrected to \"children\" (page 360)\n \"her her\" corrected to \"her\" (page 372)\n \"abe\" corrected to \"able\" (page 386)\n \"or\" corrected to \"on\" (page 390)\n Missing text \"III.\" added (page 411)\n \"permittted\" corrected to \"permitted\" (page 412)\n \"One\" corrected to \"On\" (page 434)\n\n Some quotes are opened with marks but are not closed. Obvious errors\n have been silently closed, while those requiring interpretation have\n been left open.\n\n Additional spacing after some of the quotes is intentional to indicate\n both the end of a quotation and the beginning of a new paragraph as\n presented in the original text.\n\n All other spelling and punctuation is presented as in the original.","title":"The Phantom World; or, The philosophy of spirits, apparitions, &c, &c.","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":193726}