The Phantom World; or, The philosophy of spirits, apparitions, &c, &c.
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Title: The Phantom World; or, The philosophy of spirits, apparitions, &c, &c.
Author: Augustin Calmet
Editor: Henry Christmas
Release date: July 14, 2009 [eBook #29412]
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Language: English
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THE
PHANTOM WORLD:
THE HISTORY
AND
PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITS, APPARITIONS,
&c. &c.
FROM THE FRENCH OF AUGUSTINE CALMET.
WITH A PREFACE AND NOTES
BY THE
REV. HENRY CHRISTMAS, M.A., F.R.S., F.S.A., LIBRARIAN AND SECRETARY OF
SION COLLEGE.
Quemadmodùm multa fieri non posse, priusquam facta sunt, judicantur;
ita multa quoque, quæ antiquitùs facta, quia nos ea non vidimus, neque
ratione assequimur, ex iis esse, quæ fieri non potuerunt, judicamus.
Quæ certè summa insipientia est.--PLIN. _Hist. Nat._ lib. vii. c. 1.
TWO VOLUMES IN ONE.
PHILADELPHIA:
A. HART, LATE CAREY & HART.
1850.
PHILADELPHIA:
T. K. AND P. G. COLLINS, PRINTERS.
TO
HENRY JAMES SLACK, ESQ., F.G.S.
&c. &c. &c.
MY DEAR HENRY--
I inscribe these volumes with your name to record a friendship which
has lasted from our infancy, tain____________ suspicion, and darkened
by no shadow.
So long as eminent talents can challenge admiration, varied and
extensive acquirements command respect, and unfeigned virtues ensure
esteem and regard, so long will you have no common claim to them all;
and none will pay the tribute more gladly than your affectionate
Friend and Cousin,
HENRY CHRISTMAS.
SION COLLEGE, _March, 1850._
INTRODUCTION.
Among the many phases presented by human credulity, few are more
interesting than those which regard the realities of the invisible
world. If the opinions which have been held on this subject were
written and gathered together they would form hundreds of volumes--if
they were arranged and digested they would form a few, but most
important. It is not merely because there is in almost every human
error a substratum of truth, and that the more important the subject
the more important the substratum, but because the investigation will
give almost a history of human aberrations, that this otherwise
unpromising topic assumes so high an interest. The superstitions of
every age, for no age is free from them, will present the popular
modes of thinking in an intelligible and easily accessible form, and
may be taken as a means of gauging (if the expression be permitted)
the philosophical and metaphysical capacities of the period. In this
light, the volumes here presented to the reader will be found of great
value, for they give a picture of the popular mind at a time or great
interest, and furnish a clue to many difficulties in the ecclesiastical
affairs of that era. In the time of Calmet, cases of demoniacal
possession, and instances of returns from the world of spirits, were
reputed to be of no uncommon occurrence. The church was continually
called on to exert her powers of exorcism; and the instances gathered
by Calmet, and related in this work, may be taken as fair specimens of
the rest. It is then, first, as a storehouse of facts, or reputed
facts, that Calmet compiled the work now in the reader's hands--as the
foundation on which to rear what superstructure of system they pleased;
and secondly, as a means of giving his own opinions, in a detached and
desultory way, as the subjects came under his notice. The value of the
first will consist in their _evidence_--and of this the reader will be
as capable of judging as the compiler; that of the second will depend
on their truth--and of this, too, we are as well, and in some respects
better, able to judge than Calmet himself. Those accustomed to require
rigid evidence will be but ill satisfied with the greater part of that
which will be found in this work; simple assertion for the most part
suffices--often first made long after the facts, or supposed facts,
related, and not unfrequently far off from the places where they were
alleged to have taken place. But these cases are often the _best_
authenticated, for in the more modern ones there is frequently such an
evident mistake in the whole nature of the case, that all the
spiritual deductions made from it fall to the ground.
Not a few instances of so-called demoniacal possession are capable of
being resolved into cataleptic trance, a state not unlike that
produced by mesmerism, and in which many of the same phenomena seem
naturally to display themselves; the well-known instance of the young
servant girl, related by Coleridge, who, though ignorant and uneducated,
could during her sleep-walking discourse learnedly in rabbinical
Hebrew, would furnish a case in point. The circumstance of her old
master having been in the habit of walking about the house at night,
reading from rabbinical books aloud and in a declamatory manner; the
impression made by the strange sounds upon her youthful imagination;
their accurate retention by a memory, which, however, could only
reproduce them in an abnormal condition--all teach us many most
interesting psychological facts, which, had this young girl fallen
into other hands, would have been useless in a philosophical point of
view, and would have been only used to establish the doctrine of
diabolical possession and ecclesiastical exorcism. We should have been
told how skilled was the fallen angel in rabbinical traditions, and
how wholesome a terror he entertained of the Jesuits, the Capuchins,
or the _Fratres Minimi_, as the case might be. Not a few of the most
remarkable cases of supposed _modern_ possession are to be accounted
for by involuntary or natural mesmerism. Indeed the same view seems to
be taken by a popular minister of the church (Mr. Mac Niel), in our
own day, viz., that mesmerism and diabolical possession are frequently
identical. Our difference with him is that we should consider the
cases called by the two names as all natural, and he would consider
them as all supernatural. And here, to avoid misconception, or rather
misinterpretation, let me at once observe, that I speak thus of
_modern_ and _recorded_ cases only, accepting _literally_ all related
in the New Testament, and not presuming to say that similar cases
_might_ not occur now. Calmet, however, may be supposed to have
collected all the most remarkable of modern times, and I am compelled
to say I believe not one of them. But when we pass from the evidence
of truth, in which they are so wanting, to the evidence of fraud and
collusion by which many are so characterized, we shall have less wonder
at the general spread of infidelity in times somewhat later, on all
subjects not susceptible of ocular demonstration. Where a system
claimed to be received as a whole, or not at all, it is hardly to be
wondered at that when some portion was manifestly wrong, its own
requirements should be complied with, and the whole rejected. The
system which required an implicit belief in such absurdities as those
related in these volumes, and placed them on a level with the most
awful verities of religion, might indeed make some interested use of
them in an age of comparative darkness, but certainly contained within
itself the seeds of destruction, and which could not fail to germinate
as soon as light fell upon them. The state of Calmet's own mind, as
revealed in this book, is curious and interesting. The belief _of the
intellect_ in much which he relates is evidently gone, the belief _of
the will_ but partially remains. There is a painful sense of
uncertainty as to whether certain things _ought_ not to be received
more fully than he felt himself able to receive them, and he gladly
follows in many cases the example of Herodotus of old, merely relating
stories without comment, save by stating that they had not fallen
under his own observation.
The time, indeed, had hardly come to assert freedom of belief on
subjects such as these. Theology embraced philosophy, and the Holy
Inquisition defended the orthodoxy of both; and if the investigators
of Calmet's day were permitted to hold, with some limitation, the
Copernican theory, it was far otherwise with regard to the world of
spirits, and its connection with our own. The rotundity of the earth
affected neither shrines nor exorcisms; metaphysical truth might do
both one and the other; and the cry of "Great is Diana of the
Ephesians," was not raised in the capital of Asia Minor, till the
"craft by which we get our wealth" was proved to be in danger.
Reflections such as these are painfully forced on us by the evident
fraud exhibited by many of the actors in the scenes of exorcism
narrated by Calmet, the vile purposes to which the services of the
church were turned, and the recklessness with which the supposed or
pretended evil, and equally pretended remedy, were used for political
intrigue or state oppression.
Independent of these conclusions, there is something lamentable in a
state of the public mind, which was so little prone to examination as
to receive such a mass of superstition without sifting the wheat, for
such there undoubtedly is, from the chaff. Calmet's work contains
enough, had we the minor circumstances in each case preserved, to set
at rest many philosophic doubts, and to illustrate many physical
facts; and to those who desire to know what was believed by our
Christian forefathers, and why it was believed, the compilation is
absolutely invaluable. Calmet was a man of naturally cool, calm
judgment, possessed of singular learning, and was pious and truthful.
A short sketch of his life will not, perhaps, be unacceptable to the
reader.
Augustine Calmet was born in the year 1672, at a village near
Commerci, in Lorraine. He early gave proofs of aptitude for study, and
an opportunity was speedily offered of devoting himself to a life of
learning. In his sixteenth year he became a Benedictine of the
Congregation of St. Vannes, and prosecuted his theological and such
philosophical studies as the time allowed with great success. He was
soon appointed to teach the younger portion of the community, and gave
in this employment such decided satisfaction to his superiors, that he
was soon marked for preferment. His chief study was the Scriptures;
and in the twenty-second year of his age, a period unusually early, in
an age when all benefices and beneficial employments were matters of
sale, he was appointed to be sub-prior of the monastery of Munster, in
Alsace, where he presided over an academy. This academy consisted of
ten or twelve monks, and its object was the investigation of
Scripture. Calmet was not idle in his new position; besides
communicating so much valuable information as to make his pupils the
best biblical scholars of the country, he made extensive collections
for his Commentary on the Old and New Testaments, and for his still
more celebrated work, the History of the Bible. These materials he
subsequently digested and arranged. The Commentary, a work of immense
value, was published in separate volumes from 1707 to 1716. His labors
attracted renewed and increased attention, and the offer of a
bishopric was made to him, which he unhesitatingly declined.
In 1718, he was elected to the abbacy of St. Leopold, in Nancy; and
ten years afterwards, to that of Senones, where he spent the remainder
of his days. His writings are numerous--two have been already
mentioned--and so great was the popularity attained by his
Commentaries, that they have been translated into no fewer than six
languages within ten years. It exhibits a favorable aspect of the
author's mind, and gives a very high idea of his erudition. One cause
which tended greatly to its universal acceptability, was its singular
freedom from sectarian bitterness. Protestants as well as Romanists
may use it with equal satisfaction; and accordingly, it is considered
a work of standard authority in England as much as on the continent.
In addition to these Commentaries, and his History of the Bible, and
Fragments, (the best edition of which latter work in English, is by
Isaac Taylor,) he wrote the "Ecclesiastical and Civil History of
Lorraine;" "A Catalogue of the Writers of Lorraine;" "Universal
History, Sacred and Profane;" a small collection of Reveries; and a
work entitled, "A Literal, Moral, and Historical Commentary on the
Rule of St. Benedict," a work which is full of curious information on
ancient customs, particularly ecclesiastical. He is among the few,
also, who have written on ancient music. He lived to a good old age;
and died regretted and much respected in 1757.
Of all his works, the one presented here to the reader, is perhaps the
most popular; it went rapidly through many editions, and received from
the author's hand continual corrections and additions. To say that it
is characterized by uniform judgment, would be to give it a praise
somewhat different as well as somewhat greater than that which it
merits. It is a vast repertory of legends, more or less probable; some
of which have very little foundation--and some which Calmet himself
would have done well to omit, though _now_, as a picture of the belief
entertained in that day, they greatly add to the value of the book.
For the same reasons which have caused the retention of these
passages, no alterations have been made in the citations from
Scripture, which being translations from the Vulgate, necessarily
differ in phraseology from the version in use among ourselves. The
apocryphal books too are quoted, and the story of Bel and the Dragon
referred to as a part of the prophecy of Daniel; but what is of
consequence to observe, is, that _doctrines_ are founded on these
translations, and on those very points in which they differ from our
own.
If the history of popery, and especially that form and development of
it exhibited in the monastic orders, be ever written, this work will
be of the greatest importance:--it will show the means by which
dominion was obtained over the minds of the ignorant; how the most
sacred mysteries were perverted; and frauds, which can hardly be
termed pious, used to support institutions which can scarcely be
called religious. That the spirits of the dead should be permitted to
return to earth, under circumstances the most grotesque, to support
the doctrines of masses for the dead, purgatory and propitiatory
penance; that demons should be exorcised to give testimony to the
merits of rival orders of monks and friars; that relics, many of them
supposititious, and many of the most disgusting and blasphemous
character, should have power to affect the eternal state of the
departed; and that _all_ saints, angels, demons, and the ghosts of the
departed, should support, with great variations indeed, the corrupt
dealings of a corrupt priesthood--form a creed worthy of the darkest
and most unworthy days of heathenism.
There is, however, one excuse, or rather palliation, for the
superstition of that time. In periods of great public depravity--and
few epochs have been more depraved than that in which Calmet
lived--Satan has great power. With a ruler like the regent Duke of
Orleans, with a Church governor like Cardinal Dubois, it would appear
that the civil and ecclesiastical authority of France had sold itself,
like Ahab of old, to work wickedness; or, as the apostle says, "to
work all uncleanness with greediness." In an age so characterized, it
does not seem at all improbable that portentous events should from
time to time occur; that the servants of the devil should be
strengthened together with their master; that many should be given
over to strong delusions and to believe a lie; and that the evil part
of the invisible world should be permitted to ally itself more closely
with the men of an age so congenial. Real cases of demoniacal
possession might, perhaps, be met with, and though scarcely amenable
to the exorcisms of a clergy so corrupt as that of France in that day,
they would yet justify a belief in the reality of those cases got up
for the sake of filthy lucre, personal ambition, or private revenge.
If the public mind was prepared for a belief in such cases, there were
not wanting men to turn it to profitable account; and the quiet
student who believed the efficacy of the means used, and was scarcely
aware of the wickedness of the age in which he lived, might easily be
induced to credit the tales told him of demons expelled by the power
of a church, to which in the beginning an authority to do so had
undoubtedly been given, and whose awful corruptions were to him at
least greatly veiled.
Calmet was a man of great integrity and considerable acumen, but he
passed an innocent and exemplary life in studious seclusion; he mixed
little with the world at large, resided remote "from courts, and
camps, and strife of war or peace;" and there appears occasionally in
his writings a kind of nervous apprehension lest the dogmas of the
church to which he was pledged should be less capable than he could
wish of satisfactory investigation. When he meets with tales like
those of the vampires or vroucolacas, which concern only what he
considered a heretical church, and with which, therefore, he might
deal according to his own will--apply to them the ordinary rules of
evidence, and treat them as mundane affairs--there he is
clear-sighted, critical and acute, and accordingly he discusses the
matter philosophically and logically, and concludes without fear of
sinning against the church, that the whole is delusion. When, on the
other hand, he has to deal with cases of demoniacal possession, in
countries under the rule of the Roman hierarchy, he contents himself
with the decisions of the scholastic divines and the opinions of the
fathers, and makes frequent references to the decrees of various
provincial parliaments. The effects of such a state of mind upon
scientific and especially metaphysical investigation, may be easily
imagined, and are to be traced more or less distinctly in every page
of the work before us.
To conclude: books like this--the "Disquisitiones Magicæ" of Delrio,
the "Demonomanie" of Bodin, the "Malleus Maleficarum" of Sprengel, and
the like, are at no time to be regarded merely as subjects of
amusement; they have their philosophical value; they have a still
greater historical value; and they show how far even upright minds may
be warped by imperfect education, and slavish deference to authority.
The edition here followed is that of 1751, which contains the latest
corrections of the author, and several additional pieces, which are
all included in the present volumes.
SION COLLEGE, LONDON WALL,
_April, 1850._
CONTENTS.
PAGE
PREFACE xv
CHAPTER
I. The Appearance of Good Angels proved by the Books of the
Old Testament 37
II. The Appearance of Good Angels proved by the Books of the
New Testament 38
III. Under what form have Good Angels appeared? 41
IV. Opinions of the Jews, Christians, Mahometans, and Oriental
Nations, concerning the Apparitions of Good Angels 44
V. Opinion of the Greeks and Romans on the Apparitions of
Good Genii 47
VI. The Apparition of Bad Angels proved by the Holy
Scriptures--Under what Form they have appeared 50
VII. Of Magic 57
VIII. Objections to the Reality of Magic 61
IX. Reply to the Objections 63
X. Examination of the Affair of Hocque, Magician 67
XI. Magic of the Egyptians and Chaldeans 70
XII. Magic among the Greeks and Romans 73
XIII. Examples which prove the Reality of Magic 75
XIV. Effects of Magic according to the Poets 81
XV. Of the Pagan Oracles 83
XVI. The Certainty of the Event predicted, is not always a
proof that the Prediction comes from God 86
XVII. Reasons which lead us to believe that the greater part
of the Ancient Oracles were only Impositions of the
Priests and Priestesses, who feigned that they were
inspired by God 89
XVIII. On Sorcerers and Sorceresses, or Witches 93
XIX. Instances of Sorcerers and Witches being, as they said,
transported to the Sabbath 98
XX. Story of Louis Gaufredi and Magdalen de la Palud, owned
by themselves to be a Sorcerer and Sorceress 102
XXI. Reasons which prove the Possibility of Sorcerers and
Witches being transported to the Sabbath 106
XXII. Continuation of the same Subject 111
XXIII. Obsession and Possession of the Devil 114
XXIV. The Truth and Reality of Possession and Obsession by
the Devil proved from Scripture 117
XXV. Examples of Real Possessions caused by the Devil 119
XXVI. Continuation of the same Subject 123
XXVII. Objections against the Obsessions and Possessions of
the Demon--Reply to the Objections 128
XXVIII. Continuation of Objections against Possessions, and
some Replies to those Objections 132
XXIX. Of Familiar Spirits 138
XXX. Some other Examples of Elves 142
XXXI. Spirits that keep Watch over Treasure 149
XXXII. Other instances of Hidden Treasures, which were guarded
by Good or Bad Spirits 153
XXXIII. Spectres which appear, and predict things unknown and
to come 156
XXXIV. Other Apparitions of Spectres 159
XXXV. Examination of the Apparition of a pretended Spectre 163
XXXVI. Of Spectres which haunt Houses 165
XXXVII. Other Instances of Spectres which haunt certain Houses 170
XXXVIII. Prodigious effects of Imagination in those Men or
Women who believe they hold Intercourse with the
Demon 172
XXXIX. Return and Apparitions of Souls after the Death of the
Body, proved from Scripture 176
XL. Apparitions of Spirits proved from History 180
XLI. More Instances of Apparitions 185
XLII. On the Apparitions of Spirits who imprint their Hands
on Clothes or on Wood 190
XLIII. Opinions of the Jews, Greeks, and Latins, concerning
the Dead who are left unburied 195
XLIV. Examination of what is required or revealed to the Living
by the Dead who return to Earth 201
XLV. Apparitions of Men still alive, to other living Men,
absent, and very distant from each other 204
XLVI. Arguments concerning Apparitions 216
XLVII. Objections against Apparitions, and Replies to those
Objections 221
XLVIII. Some other Objections and Replies 224
XLIX. The Secrets of Physics and Chemistry taken for
supernatural things 229
L. Conclusion of the Treatise on Apparitions 232
LI. Way of explaining Apparitions 235
LII. The difficulty of explaining the manner in which
Apparitions make their appearance, whatever system may
be proposed on the subject 237
DISSERTATION ON THE GHOSTS WHO RETURN TO EARTH BODILY, THE
EXCOMMUNICATED, THE OUPIRES OR VAMPIRES, VROUCOLACAS, ETC. 241
PREFACE 243
CHAPTER
I. The Resurrection of a Dead Person is the Work of God only 247
II. Revival of Persons who were not really Dead 249
III. Resurrection of a Man who had been buried Three Years,
resuscitated by St. Stanislaus 251
IV. Can a Man really Dead appear in his own Body? 253
V. Revival or Apparition of a Girl who had been Dead some
Months 256
VI. A Woman taken Alive from her Tomb 259
VII. Revenans, or Vampires of Moravia 260
VIII. Dead Persons in Hungary who suck the Blood of the Living 262
IX. Narrative of a Vampire from the Jewish Letters, Letter 137 263
X. Other Instances of Revenans.--Continuation of the "Gleaner" 264
XI. Argument of the Author of the Jewish Letters, concerning
Revenans 266
XII. Continuation of the argument of the Dutch Gleaner 270
XIII. Narrative from the "Mercure Gallant" of 1693 and 1694
on Revenans 272
XIV. Conjectures of the "Glaneur de Hollandais" 273
XV. Another Letter on Ghosts 276
XVI. Pretended Vestiges of Vampirism in Antiquity 278
XVII. Ghosts in Northern Countries 282
XVIII. Ghosts in England 283
XIX. Ghosts in Peru 284
XX. Ghosts in Lapland 285
XXI. Return of a Man who had been Dead some Months 285
XXII. Excommunicated Persons who went out of Churches 289
XXIII. Some Instances of the Excommunicated being rejected or
cast out of Consecrated Ground 291
XXIV. Instance of an Excommunicated Martyr being cast out of
the Ground 292
XXV. A Man cast out of the Church for having refused to pay
Tithes 293
XXVI. Instances of Persons who have given Signs of Life after
their Death, and have withdrawn themselves respectfully
to make room for more worthy Persons 294
XXVII. People who perform Pilgrimage after Death 296
XXVIII. Reasoning upon the Excommunicated who go out of
Churches 297
XXIX. Do the Excommunicated rot in the Earth? 300
XXX. Instances to show that the Excommunicated do not rot, and
that they appear to the Living 301
XXXI. Instances of these Returns to Earth of the Excommunicated 302
XXXII. A Vroucolacan exhumed in the presence of M. de
Tournefort 304
XXXIII. Has the Demon power to kill, and then to restore to
Life? 308
XXXIV. Examination of the Opinion that the Demon can restore
Animation to a Dead Body 310
XXXV. Instances of Phantoms which have appeared to the Living
and given many Signs of Life 313
XXXVI. Devoting People to Death, practised by the Heathens 314
XXXVII. Instances of dooming to Death among Christians 317
XXXVIII. Instances of Persons who have promised to give each
other News of themselves from the other World 321
XXXIX. Extracts from the Political Works of the Abbé de St.
Pierre 325
XL. Divers Systems to explain Ghosts 331
XLI. Divers Instances of Persons being Buried Alive 333
XLII. Instances of Drowned Persons who have come back to Life
and Health 335
XLIII. Instances of Women thought Dead who came to Life again 337
XLIV. Can these Instances be applied to the Hungarian Revenans? 339
XLV. Dead People who chew in their Graves and devour their own
Flesh 340
XLVI. Singular Example of a Hungarian Revenant 341
XLVII. Argument on this matter 343
XLVIII. Are the Vampires or Revenans really Dead? 344
XLIX. Instance of a Man named Curma being sent back to this
World 351
L. Instances of Persons who fall into Ecstatic Trances when
they will, and remain senseless 354
LI. Application of such Instances to Vampires 356
LII. Examination of the Opinion that the Demon fascinates the
Eyes of those to whom Vampires appear 360
LIII. Instances of Resuscitated Persons who relate what they
saw in the other World 361
LIV. The Traditions of the Pagans on the other Life, are
derived from the Hebrews and Egyptians 364
LV. Instances of Christians being Resuscitated and sent back
to this World.--Vision of Vetinus, a Monk of Augia 366
LVI. Vision of Bertholdas, related by Hincmar, Archbishop of
Rheims 368
LVII. Vision of St. Fursius 369
LVIII. Vision of a Protestant of York, and others 371
LIX. Conclusion of this Dissertation 374
LX. Moral Impossibility that Ghosts can come out of their Tombs 376
LXI. What is related of the Bodies of the Excommunicated who
walk out of Churches, is subject to very great
Difficulties (in Belief and Explanation) 378
LXII. Remarks on the Dissertation, concerning the Spirit which
came to St. Maur des Fossés 380
LXIII. Dissertation of an Anonymous Writer on what should be
thought of the Appearance of Spirits, on Occasion of
the Adventure at St. Maur, in 1706 387
Letter of the Marquis Maffei on Magic 407
Letter of the Reverend Father Dom Calmet, to M. Debure 440
PREFACE.
The great number of authors who have written upon the apparitions of
angels, demons, and disembodied souls is not unknown to me; and I do
not presume sufficiently on my own capacity to believe that I shall
succeed better in it than they have done, and that I shall enhance
their knowledge and their discoveries. I am perfectly sensible that I
expose myself to criticism, and perhaps to the mockery of many
readers, who regard this matter as done with, and decried in the minds
of philosophers, learned men, and many theologians. I must not reckon
either on the approbation of the people, whose want of discernment
prevents their being competent judges of this same. My aim is not to
foment superstition, nor to feed the vain curiosity of visionaries,
and those who believe without examination everything that is related
to them as soon as they find therein anything marvelous and
supernatural. I write only for reasonable and unprejudiced minds,
which examine things seriously and coolly; I speak only for those who
assent even to known truth but after mature reflection, who know how
to doubt of what is uncertain, to suspend their judgment on what is
doubtful, and to deny what is manifestly false.
As for pretended freethinkers, who reject everything to distinguish
themselves, and to place themselves above the common herd, I leave
them in their elevated sphere; they will think of this work as they
may consider proper, and as it is not calculated for them, apparently
they will not take the trouble to read it.
I undertook it for my own information, and to form to myself a just
idea of all that is said on the apparitions of angels, of the demon,
and of disembodied souls. I wished to see how far that matter was
certain or uncertain, true or false, known or unknown, clear or
obscure.
In this great number of facts which I have collected I have endeavored
to make a choice, and not to heap together too great a multitude of
them, for fear that in the too numerous examples the doubtful might
not harm the certain, and in wishing to prove too much I might prove
absolutely nothing. There will, even amongst those I have cited, be
found some which will not easily be credited by many readers, and I
allow them to regard them as not related.
I beg those readers, nevertheless, to discern justly amongst these
facts and instances; after which they can with me form their
opinion--affirm, deny, or remain in doubt.
From the respect which every man owes to truth, and the veneration
which a Christian and a priest owes to religion, it appeared to me
very important to undeceive people respecting the opinion which they
have of apparitions, if they believe them all to be true; or to
instruct them and show them the truth and reality of a great number,
if they think them all false. It is always shameful to be deceived;
_____________________and in regard to religion, to believe on light
grounds, to remain wilfully in doubt, or to maintain oneself without
any reason in superstition and illusion; it is already much to know
how to doubt wisely, and not to form a decided opinion beyond what one
really knows.
I never had any idea of treating profoundly the matter of apparitions;
I have treated of it, as it were, by chance, and occasionally. My
first and principal object was to discourse of the vampires of
Hungary. In collecting my materials on that subject, I found many
things concerning apparitions; the great number of these embarrassed
this treatise on vampires. I detached some of them, and thus have
composed this treatise on apparitions: there still remains a large
number of them, which I might have separated for the better
arrangement of this treatise. Many persons here have taken the
accessory for the principal, and have paid more attention to the first
part than to the second, which was, however, the first and the
principal in my design. For I own I have always been much struck with
what was related of the vampires or ghosts of Hungary, Moravia, and
Poland; of the vroucolacas of Greece; and of the excommunicated, who
are said not to rot. I thought I ought to bestow on it all the
attention in my power; and I have deemed it right to treat on this
subject in a particular dissertation. After having deeply studied it,
and obtaining as much information as I was able, I found little
solidity and certainty on the subject; which, joined to the opinion of
some prudent and respectable persons whom I consulted, had induced me
to give up my design entirely, and to renounce laboring on a subject
which is so contradictory, and embraces so much uncertainty.
But looking at the matter in another point of view, I resumed my pen,
decided upon undeceiving the public, if I found that what was said of
it was absolutely false; showing that what is uttered on this subject
is uncertain, and that one ought to be very reserved in pronouncing on
these vampires, which have made so much noise in the world for a
certain time, and still divide opinions at this day, even in the
countries which are the scene of their pretended return, and where
they appear; or to show that what has been said and written on this
subject is not destitute of probability, and that the subject of the
return of vampires is worthy the attention of the curious and the
learned, and deserves to be seriously studied, to have the facts
related of it examined, and the causes, circumstances, and means
sounded deeply.
I am then about to examine this question as a historian, philosopher,
and theologian. As a historian, I shall endeavor to discover the truth
of the facts; as a philosopher, I shall examine the causes and
circumstances; lastly, the knowledge or light of theology will cause
me to deduce consequences as relating to religion. Thus I do not write
in the hope of convincing freethinkers and pyrrhonians, who will not
allow the existence of ghosts or vampires, nor even of the apparitions
of angels, demons, and spirits; nor to intimidate those weak and
credulous, by relating to them extraordinary stories of apparitions. I
do not reckon either on curing the superstitious of their errors, nor
the people of their prepossessions; not even on correcting the abuses
which arise from this unenlightened belief, nor of doing away all the
doubts which may be formed on apparitions; still less do I pretend to
erect myself as a judge and censor of the works and sentiments of
others, nor to distinguish myself, make myself a name, or divert
myself, by spreading abroad dangerous doubts upon a subject which
concerns religion, and from which they might make wrong deductions
against the certainty of the Scriptures, and against the unshaken
dogmas of our creed. I shall treat it as solidly and gravely as it
merits; and I pray God to give me that knowledge which is necessary to
do it successfully.
I exhort my reader to distinguish between the facts related, and the
manner in which they happened. The fact may be certain, and the way in
which it occurred unknown. Scripture relates certain apparitions of
angels and disembodied souls; these instances are indubitable and
found in the revelations of the holy books; but the manner in which
God operated the resurrections, or in which he permitted these
apparitions to take place, is hidden among his secrets. It is
allowable for us to examine them, to seek out the circumstances, and
propound some conjectures on the manner in which it all came to pass;
but it would be rash to decide upon a matter which God has not thought
proper to reveal to us. I say as much in proportion, concerning the
stories related by sensible, contemporary, and judicious authors, who
simply relate the facts without entering into the examination of the
circumstances, of which, perhaps, they themselves were not well
informed.
It has already been objected to me, that I cited poets and authors of
little credit, in support of a thing so grave and so disputed as the
apparition of spirits: such authorities, they say, are more calculated
to cast a doubt on apparitions, than to establish the truth of them.
But I cite those authors as witnesses of the opinions of nations; and
I count it not a small thing in the extreme license of opinions, which
at this day predominates in the world, amongst those even who make a
profession of Christianity, to be able to show that the ancient Greeks
and Romans thought that souls were immortal, that they subsisted after
the death of the body, and that there was another life, in which they
received the reward of their good actions, or the chastisement of
their crimes.
Those sentiments which we read in the poets, are also repeated in the
fathers of the church, and the pagan and Christian historians; but as
they did not pretend to think them weighty, nor to approve them in
repeating them, it must not be imputed to me either, that I have any
intention of authorizing. For instance, what I have related of the
manes, or lares; of the evocation of souls after the death of the
body; of the avidity of these souls to suck the blood of the immolated
animals, of the shape of the soul separated from the body, of the
inquietude of souls which have no rest until their bodies are under
ground; of those superstitious statues of wax which are devoted and
consecrated under the name of certain persons whom the magicians
pretended to kill by burning and stabbing their effigies of wax; of
the transportation of wizards and witches through the air, and of
their assemblies of the Sabbath; all those things are related both in
the works of the philosophers and pagan historians, as well as in the
poets.
I know the value of one and the other, and I esteem them as they
deserve; but I think that in treating this matter, it is important to
make known to our readers the ancient superstitions, the vulgar or
common opinions, and the prejudices of nations, to be able to refute
them, and bring back the figures to truths, by freeing them from what
poesy had added for the embellishment of the poem, and the amusement
of the reader.
Moreover, I generally repeat this kind of thing, only when it is
apropos of certain facts avowed by historians, and by other grave and
rational authors; and sometimes rather as an ornament of the
discourse, or to enliven the matter, than to derive thence certain
proofs and consequences necessary for the dogma, or to certify the
facts and give weight to my recital.
I know how little we must depend on what Lucian says on this subject;
he only speaks of it to make game of it. Philostratus, Jamblicus, and
some others, do not merit more consideration; therefore I quote them
only to refute them, or to show how far idle and ridiculous credulity
has been carried on these matters, which were laughed at by the most
sensible among the heathens themselves.
The consequences which I deduce from all these stories, and these
poetical fictions, and the manner in which I speak of them in the
course of this dissertation, sufficiently vouch that esteem, and give
as true and certain only what is so in fact; and that I do not wish to
impose on my reader, by relating many things which I myself regard as
false, or as doubtful, or even as fabulous. But that ought to be
prejudicial to the dogma of the immortality of the soul, and to that
of another life, not to the truth of certain apparitions related in
Scripture, or proved elsewhere by good testimony.
The first edition of this work having been printed in my absence, and
upon an incorrect copy, several misprints have occurred, and even
expressions and phrases displeasing and interrupted. I have tried to
remedy this in a second edition, and to cast light on those passages
which they noticed as demanding explanation, and correcting what might
offend scrupulous readers, and prevent the bad consequences which
might be derived from what I had said. I have even done more in this
third edition. I have retrenched several passages; others I have
suppressed; I have profited by the advice which has been given me; and
I have replied to the objections which have been made.
People have complained that I took no part, and did not come to a
decision on several difficulties which I propose, and that I leave my
reader in uncertainty.
I make but little defence against this reproach; I should require more
justification if I decided without a perfect knowledge of causes, for
one side of the question, at the risk of embracing an error, and of
falling into a still greater impropriety. There is wisdom in
suspending one's judgment till we have succeeded in finding the very
truth.
I have also been told, that certain persons have made a joke of some
facts which I have related. If I have related them as certain, and
they afford just cause for pleasantry, let the condemnation pass; but
if I cited them as fabulous and false, they present no subject for
pleasantry; _Falsum non est de ratione faceti._
There are certain persons who delight in jesting on the most serious
things, and who spare nothing, either sacred or profane. The histories
of the Old and New Testament, the most sacred ceremonies of our
religion, the lives of the most respectable saints, are not safe from
their dull, tasteless pleasantry.
I have been reproached for having related several false histories,
several doubtful facts, and several fabulous events. This is true; but
I give them for what they are. I have declared several times, that I
did not vouch for their truth, that I repeated them to show how false
and ridiculous they were, and to deprive them of the credit they might
have with the people; and if I had gone at length into their
refutation, I thought it right to let my reader have the pleasure of
refuting them, supposing him to possess enough good sense and
self-sufficiency, to form his own judgment upon them, and feel the
same contempt for such stories that I do myself. It is doing too much
honor to certain things to refute them seriously.
But another objection, and a much more serious one, is said to be,
what I say of the illusions of the demon, leading some persons to
doubt of the truth of the apparitions related in Scripture, as well as
of the others suspected of falsehood.
I answer, that the consequences deduced from principles are not right,
except when things are equal, and the subjects and circumstances the
same; without that there can be no application of principles. The
facts to which my reasoning applies are related by authors of small
authority, by ordinary or common-place historians, bearing no
character which deserves a belief of anything superhuman. I can,
without attacking their person or their merit, advance that they may
have been badly informed, prepossessed, and mistaken; that the spirit
of seduction may have been of the party; that the senses, the
imagination, and superstition, may have made them take that for truth,
which was only seeming.
But, in regard to the apparitions related in the Holy Scriptures, they
borrow their infallible authority from the sacred and inspired authors
who wrote them; they are verified by the events which followed them,
by the execution or fulfilment of predictions made many ages
preceding; and which could neither be done, nor foreseen, nor
performed, either by the human mind, or by the strength of man, not
even by the angel of darkness.
I am but little concerned at the opinion passed on myself and my
intentions in the publication of this treatise. Some have thought that
I did it to destroy the popular and common idea of apparitions, and to
make it appear ridiculous; and I acknowledge that those who read this
work attentively and without prejudice, will remark in it more
arguments for doubting what the people believe on this point, than
they will find to favor the contrary opinion. If I have treated this
subject seriously, it is only in what regards those facts in which
religion and the truth of Scripture is interested; those which are
indifferent I have left to the censure of sensible people, and the
criticism of the learned and of philosophical minds.
I declare that I consider as true all the apparitions related in the
sacred books of the Old and New Testament; without pretending,
however, that it is not allowable to explain them, and reduce them to
a natural and likely sense, by retrenching what is too marvelous about
them, which might rebut enlightened persons. I think on that point I
may apply the principle of St. Paul;[1] "the letter killeth, and the
Spirit giveth life."
As to the other apparitions and visions related in Christian, Jewish,
or heathen authors, I do my best to discern amongst them, and I exhort
my readers to do the same; but I blame and disapprove the outrageous
criticism of those who deny everything, and make difficulties of
everything, in order to distinguish themselves by their pretended
strength of mind, and to authorize themselves to deny everything, and
to dispute the most certain facts, and in general all that savors of
the marvelous, and which appears above the ordinary laws of nature.
St. Paul permits us to examine and prove everything: _Omnia probate_;
but he desires us to hold fast that which is good and true: _quod
bonum est tenete_.[2]
Footnotes:
[1] 2 Cor. iii. 16.
[2] 1 Thess. v. 21.
ADVERTISEMENT.
Every body talks of apparitions of angels and demons, and of souls
separated from the body. The reality of these apparitions is
considered as certain by many persons, while others deride them and
treat them as altogether visionary.
I have determined to examine this matter, just to see what certitude
there can be on this point; and I shall divide this Dissertation into
four parts. In the first, I shall speak of good angels; in the second,
of the appearance of bad angels; in the third, of the apparitions of
souls of the dead; and in the fourth, of the appearance of living men
to others living, absent, distant, and this unknown to those who
appear. I shall occasionally add something on magic, wizards, and
witches; on the Sabbath, oracles, and obsession and possession by
demons.
THE PHANTOM WORLD.
CHAPTER I.
THE APPEARANCE OF GOOD ANGELS PROVED BY THE BOOKS OF THE OLD
TESTAMENT.
The apparitions or appearances of good angels are frequently mentioned
in the books of the Old Testament. He who was stationed at the
entrance of the terrestrial Paradise[3] was a cherub, armed with a
flaming sword; those who appeared to Abraham, and who promised that he
should have a son;[4] those who appeared to Lot, and predicted to him
the ruin of Sodom, and other guilty cities;[5] he who spoke to Hagar
in the desert,[6] and commanded her to return to the dwelling of
Abraham, and to remain submissive to Sarah, her mistress; those who
appeared to Jacob, on his journey into Mesopotamia, ascending and
descending the mysterious ladder;[7] he who taught him how to cause
his sheep to bring forth young differently marked;[8] he who wrestled
with Jacob on his return from Mesopotamia,[9]--were angels of light,
and benevolent ones; the same as he who spoke with Moses from the
burning bush on Horeb,[10] and who gave him the tables of the law on
Mount Sinai. That Angel who takes generally the name of GOD, and
acts in his name, and with his authority;[11] who served as a guide to
the Hebrews in the desert, hidden during the day in a dark cloud, and
shining during the night; he who spoke to Balaam, and threatened to
kill his she-ass;[12] he, lastly, who contended with Satan for the
body of Moses;[13]--all these angels were without doubt good angels.
We must think the same of him who presented himself armed to Joshua on
the plain of Jericho,[14] and who declared himself head of the army of
the Lord; it is believed, with reason, that it was the angel Michael.
He who showed himself to the wife of Manoah,[15] the father of Samson,
and afterwards to Manoah himself. He who announced to Gideon that he
should deliver Israel from the power of the Midianites.[16] The angel
Gabriel, who appeared to Daniel, at Babylon;[17] and Raphael who
conducted the young Tobias to Rages, in Media.[18]
The prophecy of the Prophet Zechariah is full of visions of
angels.[19] In the books of the Old Testament the throne of the Lord
is described as resting on cherubim; and the God of Israel is
represented as having before his throne[20] seven principal angels,
always ready to execute his orders, and four cherubim singing his
praises, and adoring his sovereign holiness; the whole making a sort
of allusion to what they saw in the court of the ancient Persian
kings,[21] where there were seven principal officers who saw his face,
approached his person, and were called the eyes and ears of the king.
Footnotes:
[3] Gen. iii. 24.
[4] Gen. xviii. 1-3.
[5] Gen. xix.
[6] Gen. xxi. 17.
[7] Gen. xxviii. 12.
[8] Gen. xxxi. 10, 11.
[9] Gen. xxxii.
[10] Exod. iii. 6, 7.
[11] Exod. iii. iv.
[12] Numb. xxii. xxiii.
[13] Jude 9.
[14] Josh. v. 13.
[15] Judges xiii.
[16] Judges vi. vii.
[17] Dan. viii. 16; ix. 21.
[18] Tobit v.
[19] Zech. v. 9, 10, 11, &c.
[20] Psalm xvii. 10; lxxix. 2, &c.
[21] Tobit xii. Zech. iv. 10. Rev. i. 4.
CHAPTER II.
THE APPEARANCE OF GOOD ANGELS PROVED BY THE BOOKS OF THE NEW
TESTAMENT.
The books of the New Testament are in the same manner full of facts
which prove the apparition of good angels. The angel Gabriel appeared
to Zachariah the father of John the Baptist, and predicted to him the
future birth of the Forerunner.[22] The Jews, who saw Zachariah come
out of the temple, after having remained within it a longer time than
usual, having remarked that he was struck dumb, had no doubt but that
he had seen some apparition of an angel. The same Gabriel announced to
Mary the future birth of the Messiah.[23] When Jesus was born in
Bethlehem, the angel of the Lord appeared to the shepherds in the
night,[24] and declared to them that the Saviour of the world was born
at Bethlehem. There is every reason to believe that the star which
appeared to the Magi in the East, and which led them straight to
Jerusalem, and thence to Bethlehem, was directed by a good angel.[25]
St. Joseph was warned by a celestial spirit to retire into Egypt, with
the mother and the infant Christ, for fear that Jesus should fall into
the hands of Herod, and be involved in the massacre of the Innocents.
The same angel informed Joseph of the death of King Herod, and told
him to return to the land of Israel.
After the temptation of Jesus Christ in the wilderness, angels came
and brought him food.[26] The demon tempter said to Jesus Christ that
God had commanded his angels to lead him, and to prevent him from
stumbling against a stone; which is taken from the 92d Psalm, and
proves the belief of the Jews on the article of guardian angels. The
Saviour confirms the same truth when he says that the angels of
children constantly behold the face of the celestial Father.[27] At
the last judgment, the good angels will separate the just,[28] and
lead them to the kingdom of heaven, while they will precipitate the
wicked into eternal fire.
At the agony of Jesus Christ in the garden of Olives, an angel
descended from heaven to console him.[29] After his resurrection,
angels appeared to the holy women who had come to his tomb to embalm
him.[30] In the Acts of the Apostles, they appeared to the apostles as
soon as Jesus had ascended into heaven; and the angel of the Lord came
and opened the doors of the prison where the apostles were confined,
and set them at liberty.[31] In the same book, St. Stephen tells us
that the law was given to Moses by the ministration of angels;[32]
consequently, those were angels who appeared on Sinai and Horeb, and
who spoke to him in the name of God, as his ambassadors, and as
invested with his authority; also, the same Moses, speaking of the
angel of the Lord, who was to introduce Israel into the Promised Land,
says that "the name of God is in him."[33] St. Peter, being in prison,
is delivered from thence by an angel,[34] who conducted him the length
of a street, and disappeared. St. Peter, knocking at the door of the
house in which his brethren were, they could not believe that it was
he; they thought that it was his angel who knocked and spoke. St.
Paul, instructed in the school of the Pharisees, thought as they did
on the subject of angels; he believed in their existence, in
opposition to the Sadducees,[35] and supposed that they could appear.
When this apostle, having been arrested by the Romans, related to the
people how he had been overthrown at Damascus, the Pharisees, who were
present, replied to those who exclaimed against him--"How do we know,
if an angel or a spirit hath not spoken to him?" St. Luke says that a
Macedonian (apparently the angel of Macedonia) appeared to St. Paul,
and begged him to come and announce the Gospel in that country.
St. John, in the Apocalypse, speaks of the seven angels who presided
over the churches in Asia. I know that these seven angels are the
bishops of these churches, but the ecclesiastical tradition will have
it that every church has its tutelary angel. In the same book, the
Apocalypse, are related divers appearances of angels. All Christian
antiquity has recognized them; the synagogue also has recognized them;
so that it may be affirmed that nothing is more certain than the
existence of good angels and their apparitions.
I place in the number of apparitions, not only those of good or bad
angels, and the spirits of the dead who show themselves to the living,
but also those of the living who show themselves to the angels or
souls of the dead; whether these apparitions are seen in dreams, or
during sleep, or awaking; whether they manifest themselves to all
those who are present, or only to the persons to whom God judges
proper to manifest them. For instance, in the Apocalypse,[36] St. John
saw the four animals, and the four-and-twenty elders, who were clothed
in white garments and wore crowns of gold upon their heads, and were
seated on thrones around that of the Almighty, who prostrated
themselves before the throne of the Eternal, and cast their crowns at
his feet.
And, elsewhere: "I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the
world,[37] who held back the four winds and prevented them from
blowing on the earth; then I saw another angel, who rose on the side
of the east, and who cried out to the four angels who had orders to
hurt the earth, Do no harm to the earth, or the sea, or the trees,
until we have impressed a sign on the foreheads of the servants of
God. And I heard that the number of those who received this sign (or
mark) was a hundred and forty-four thousand. Afterwards I saw an
innumerable multitude of all nations, tribes, people, and languages,
standing before the throne of the Most High, arrayed in white
garments, and having palms in their hands."
And in the same book[38] St. John says, after having described the
majesty of the throne of God, and the adoration paid to him by the
angels and saints prostrate before him, one of the elders said to
him,--"Those whom you see covered with white robes, are those who have
suffered great trials and afflictions, and have washed their robes in
the blood of the Lamb; for which reason they stand before the throne
of God, and will do so night and day in his temple; and He who is
seated on the throne will reign over them, and the angel which is in
the midst of the throne will conduct them to the fountains of living
water." And, again,[39] "I saw under the altar of God the souls of
those who have been put to death for defending the Word of God, and
for the testimony which they have rendered; they cried with a loud
voice, saying, When, O Lord, wilt thou not avenge our blood upon those
who are on the earth?" &c.
All these apparitions, and several others similar to them, which might
be related as being derived from the holy books as well as from
authentic histories, are true apparitions, although neither the angels
nor the martyrs spoken of in the Apocalypse came and presented
themselves to St. John; but, on the contrary, this apostle was
transported in spirit to heaven, to see there what we have just
related. These are apparitions which may be called passive on the part
of the angels and holy martyrs, and active on the part of the holy
apostle who saw them.
Footnotes:
[22] Luke i. 10-12, &c.
[23] Luke i. 26, 27, &c.
[24] Luke ii. 9, 10.
[25] Matt. ii. 13, 14, 20.
[26] Matt. iv. 6, 11.
[27] Matt. xviii. 16.
[28] Matt. xiii. 45, 46.
[29] Luke xxii. 43.
[30] Matt. xxviii. John.
[31] Acts v. 19.
[32] Acts vii. 30, 35.
[33] Exod. xxiii. 21.
[34] Acts xii. 8, 9.
[35] Rom. i. 18. 1 Cor. iv. 9; vi. 3; xii. 7. Gal. iii. 19. Acts xvi.
9; xxiii. 9. Rev. i. 11.
[36] Rev. iv. 4, 10.
[37] Rev. vii. 1-3, 9, &c.
[38] Rev. vii. 13, 14.
[39] Rev. vi. 9, 10.
CHAPTER III.
UNDER WHAT FORM HAVE GOOD ANGELS APPEARED?
The most usual form in which good angels appear, both in the Old
Testament and the New, is the human form. It was in that shape they
showed themselves to Abraham, Lot, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Manoah the
father of Samson, to David, Tobit, the Prophets; and in the New
Testament they appeared in the same form to the Holy Virgin, to
Zachariah the father of John the Baptist, to Jesus Christ after his
fast of forty days, and to him again in his agony in the Garden of
Olives. They showed themselves in the same form to the holy women
after the resurrection of the Saviour. The one who appeared to
Joshua[40] on the plain of Jericho appeared apparently in the guise of
a warrior, since Joshua asks him, "Art thou for us, or for our
adversaries?"
Sometimes they hide themselves under some form which has resemblance
to the human shape, like him who appeared to Moses in the burning
bush,[41] and who led the Israelites in the desert in the form of a
cloud, dense and dark during the day, but luminous at night.[42] The
Psalmist tells us that God makes his angels serve as a piercing wind
and a burning fire, to execute his orders.[43]
The cherubim, so often spoken of in the Scriptures, and who are
described as serving for a throne to the majesty of God, were
hieroglyphical figures, something like the sphinx of the Egyptians;
those which are described in Ezekiel[44] are like animals composed of
the figure of a man, having the wings of an eagle, the feet of an ox;
their heads were composed of the face of a man, an ox, a lion, and an
eagle, two of their wings were spread towards their fellows, and two
others covered their body; they were brilliant as burning coals, as
lighted lamps, as the fiery heavens when they send forth the
lightning's flash--they were terrible to look upon.
The one who appeared to Daniel[45] was different from those we have
just described; he was in the shape of a man, covered with a linen
garment, and round his loins a girdle of very fine gold; his body was
shining as a chrysolite, his face as a flash of lightning; his eyes
darted fire like a lamp; his arms and all the lower part of his body
was like brass melted in the furnace; his voice was loud as that of a
multitude of people.
St. John, in the Apocalypse,[46] saw around the throne of the Most
High four animals, which doubtless were four angels; they were covered
with eyes before and behind. The first resembled a lion, the second an
ox, the third had the form of a man, and the fourth was like an eagle
with outspread wings; each of them had six wings, and they never
ceased to cry night and day, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who
was, and is, and is to come."
The angel who was placed at the entrance of the terrestrial paradise
was armed with a shining sword,[47] as well as the one who appeared to
Balaam,[48] and who threatened, or was near killing both himself and
his ass; and so, apparently, was the one who showed himself to Joshua
in the plain of Jericho,[49] and the angel who appeared to David,
ready to smite all Israel. The angel Raphael guided the young Tobias
to Ragès under the human form of a traveler.[50] The angel who was
seen by the holy woman at the sepulchre of the Saviour, who overthrew
the large stone which closed the mouth of the tomb, and who was seated
upon it, had a countenance which shone like lightning, and garments
white as snow.[51]
In the Acts of the Apostles,[52] the angel who extricated them from
prison, and told them to go boldly and preach Jesus Christ in the
temple, also appeared to them in a human form. The manner in which he
delivered them from the dungeon is quite miraculous; for the chief
priests having commanded that they should appear before them, those
who were sent found the prison securely closed, the guards wide awake;
but having caused the doors to be opened, they found the dungeon
empty. How could an angel without opening, or any fracture of the
doors, thus extricate men from prison without either the guards or the
jailer perceiving anything of the matter? The thing is beyond any
known powers of nature; but it is no more impossible than to see our
Saviour, after his resurrection, invested with flesh and bones, as he
himself says, come forth from his sepulchre, without opening it, and
without breaking the seals,[53] enter the chamber wherein were the
apostles without opening the doors,[54] and speak to the disciples
going to Emmaus without making himself known to them; then, after
having opened their eyes, disappear and become invisible.[55] During
the forty days that he remained upon earth till his ascension, he
drank and ate with them, he spoke to them, he appeared to them; but he
showed himself only to those witnesses who were pre-ordained by the
eternal Father to bear testimony to his resurrection.
The angel who appeared to the centurion Cornelius, a pagan, but
fearing God, answered his questions, and discovered to him unknown
things, which things came to pass.
Sometimes the angels, without assuming any visible shape, give proofs
of their presence by intelligible voices, by inspirations, by sensible
effects, by dreams, or by revelations of things unknown, whether
future or past. Sometimes by striking with blindness, or infusing a
spirit of uncertainty or stupidity in the minds of those whom God
wills should feel the effects of his wrath; for instance, it is said
in the Scriptures that the Israelites heard no distinct speech, and
beheld no form on Horeb when God spoke to Moses and gave him the
Law.[56]
The angel who might have killed Balaam's ass was not at first
perceived by the prophet;[57] Daniel was the only one who beheld the
angel Gabriel, who revealed to him the mystery of the great empires
which were to succeed each other.[58]
When the Lord spoke for the first time to Samuel, and predicted to him
the evils which he would inflict on the family of the high-priest Eli,
the young prophet saw no visible form; he only heard a voice, which he
at first mistook for that of the high-priest Eli, not being yet
accustomed to distinguish the voice of God from that of a man.
The angels who guided Lot and his family from Sodom and Gomorrah were
at first perceived under a human form by the inhabitants of the city;
but afterwards these same angels struck the men with blindness, and
thus prevented them from finding the door of Lot's house, into which
they would have entered by force.
Thus, then, angels do not always appear under a visible or sensible
form, nor in a figure uniformly the same; but they give proofs of
their presence by an infinity of different ways--by inspirations, by
voices, by prodigies, by miraculous effects, by predictions of the
future, and other things hidden and impenetrable to the human mind.
St. Cyprian relates that an African bishop, falling ill during the
persecution, earnestly requested to have the viaticum administered to
him; at the same time he saw, as it were, a young man, with a majestic
air, and shining with such extraordinary lustre that the eyes of
mortals could not have beheld him without terror; nevertheless, the
bishop was not alarmed. This angel said to him, angrily, and in a
menacing tone, "You fear to suffer. You do not wish to leave this
world. What would you have me do for you?" (or "What can I do for
you?") The good bishop comprehended that these words alike regarded
him and the other Christians who feared persecution and death. The
bishop talked to them, encouraged them, and exhorted them to arm
themselves with patience to support the tortures with which they were
threatened. He received the communion, and died in peace. We shall
find in different histories an infinite number of other apparitions of
angels under a human form.
Footnotes:
[40] Josh. v. 29.
[41] Exod. iii. 3, 44.
[42] Exod. xiii. xiv.
[43] Psalm civ. 4.
[44] Ezek. i. 4, 6.
[45] Dan. x. 5.
[46] Rev. iv. 7, 8.
[47] Gen. iii. 24.
[48] Numb. xxii. 22, 23.
[49] 1 Chron. xxi. 16.
[50] Tobit v. 5.
[51] Matt. xxviii. 3.
[52] Acts ii.
[53] Matt. xxviii. 1, 2.
[54] John xix. 20.
[55] Luke xxiii. 15-17, &c.
[56] Deut. iv. 15.
[57] Numb. xii. 22, 23.
[58] Dan. x. 7, 8.
CHAPTER IV.
OPINIONS OF THE JEWS, CHRISTIANS, MAHOMETANS, AND ORIENTAL NATIONS
CONCERNING THE APPARITIONS OF GOOD ANGELS.
After what we have just related from the books of the Old and New
Testament, it cannot be disavowed that the Jews in general, the
apostles, the Christians, and their disciples have commonly believed
in the apparitions of good angels. The Sadducees, who denied the
existence and the apparition of angels, were commonly considered by
the Jews as heretics, and as supporting an erroneous doctrine. Jesus
Christ refutes them in the Gospel. The Jews of our days believe
literally what is related in the Old Testament, concerning the angels
who appeared to Abraham, Lot, and other patriarchs. It was the belief
of the Pharisees and of the apostles in the time of our Saviour, as
may be seen by the writings of the apostles and by the whole of the
Gospel.
The Mahometans believe, as do the Jews and Christians, that good
angels appear to men sometimes under a human form; that they appeared
to Abraham and Lot; that they punished the inhabitants of Sodom; that
the archangel Gabriel appeared to Mahomet, and revealed to him all
that is laid down in his Koran: that the genii are of a middle nature,
between man and angel;[59] that they eat, drink, beget children; that
they die, and can foresee things to come. In consequence of this
principle or idea, they believe that there are male and female genii;
that the males, whom the Persians call by the name of _Dives_, are
bad, very ugly, and mischievous, making war against the _Peris_, who
are the females. The Rabbis will have it that these genii were born of
Adam alone, without any concurrence of his wife Eve, or of any other
woman, and that they are what we call _ignis fatuii_ (or wandering
lights).
The antiquity of these opinions touching the corporality of angels
appears in several _old_ writers, who, deceived by the apocryphal book
which passes under the name of the _Book of Enoch_, have explained of
the angels what is said in Genesis,[60] "_That the children of God,
having seen the daughters of men, fell in love with their beauty,
wedded them, and begot giants of them._" Several of the ancient
Fathers[61] have adopted this opinion, which is now given up by
everybody, with the exception of some new writers, who desire to
revive the idea of the corporality of angels, demons, and souls--an
opinion which is absolutely incompatible with that of the Catholic
church, which holds that angels are of a nature entirely distinct from
matter.
I acknowledge that, according to their system, the affair of
apparitions could be more easily explained; it is easier to conceive
that a corporeal substance should appear, and render itself visible to
our eyes, than a substance purely spiritual; but this is not the place
to reason on a philosophical question, on which different hypotheses
could be freely grounded, and to choose that which should explain
these appearances in the most plausible manner, even though it answer
in the most satisfactory manner the question asked, and the objections
formed against the facts, and against the proposed manner of stating
them.
The question is resolved, and the matter decided. The church and the
Catholic schools hold that angels, demons, and reasonable souls, are
disengaged from all matter; the same church and the same school hold
it as certain that good and bad angels, and souls separated from the
body, sometimes appear by the will and with the permission of God:
there we must stop; as to the manner of explaining these apparitions,
we must, without losing sight of the certain principle of the
immateriality of these substances, explain them according to the
analogy of the Christian and Catholic faith, acknowledged sincerely
that in this matter there are certain depths which we cannot sound,
and confine our mind and information within the limits of that
obedience which we owe to the authority of the church, that can
neither err nor deceive us.
The apparitions of good angels and of guardian angels are frequently
mentioned in the Old as in the New Testament. When the Apostle St.
Peter had left the prison by the assistance of an angel, and went and
knocked at the door where the brethren were, they believed that it was
his angel and not himself who knocked.[62] And when Cornelius the
Centurion prayed to God in his own house, an angel (apparently his
good angel) appeared to him, and told him to send and fetch Peter, who
was then at Joppa.[63]
St. Paul desires that at church no woman should appear among them
without her face being veiled, because of the angels;[64] doubtless
from respect to the good angels who presided in these assemblies. The
same St. Paul reassures those who were with him in danger of almost
inevitable shipwreck, by telling them that his angel had appeared to
him[65] and assured him that they should arrive safe at the end of
their voyage.
In the Old Testament, we likewise read of several apparitions of
angels, which can hardly be explained but as of guardian angels; for
instance, the one who appeared to Hagar in the wilderness, and
commanded her to return and submit herself to Sarah her mistress;[66]
and the angel who appeared to Abraham, as he was about to immolate
Isaac his son, and told him that God was satisfied with his
obedience;[67] and when the same Abraham sent his servant Eleazer into
Mesopotamia, to ask for a wife for his son Isaac, he told him that the
God of heaven, who had promised to give him the land of Canaan, would
send his angel[68] to dispose all things according to his wishes.
Examples of similar apparitions of tutelary angels, derived from the
Old Testament, might here be multiplied, but the circumstance does not
require a greater number of proofs.
Under the new dispensation, the apparitions of good angels, of
guardian spirits, are not less frequent in most authentic stories;
there are few saints to whom God has not granted similar favors: we
may cite, in particular, St. Frances, a Roman lady of the sixteenth
century, who saw her guardian angel, and he talked to her, instructed
her, and corrected her.
Footnotes:
[59] D'Herbelot, Bibl. Orient. _Perith. Dives_, 785. Idem, 243, p. 85.
[60] Gen. vi. 2.
[61] Joseph. Antiq. lib. i. c. 4. Philo, De Gigantibus. Justin. Apol.
Turtul. de Animâ. _Vide_ Commentatores in Gen. iv.
[62] Acts xii. 15.
[63] Acts x. 2, 3.
[64] 1 Cor. xi. 10.
[65] Acts xxvii. 21, 22.
[66] Gen. xvi. 9.
[67] Gen. xxii. 11, 17.
[68] Gen. xxiv. 7.
CHAPTER V.
OPINION OF THE GREEKS AND ROMANS ON THE APPARITIONS OF GOOD GENII.
Jamblichus, a disciple of Porphyry,[69] has treated the matter of
genii and their apparition more profoundly than any other author of
antiquity. It would seem, to hear him discourse, that he knew both the
genii and their qualities, and that he had with them the most intimate
and continual converse. He affirms that our eyes are delighted by the
appearance of the gods, that the apparitions of the archangels are
terrible; those of angels are milder; but when demons and heroes
appear, they inspire terror; the archontes, who preside over this
world, cause at the same time an impression of grief and fear. The
apparition of souls is not quite so disagreeable as that of heroes. In
the appearance of the gods there is order and mildness, confusion and
disorder in that of demons, and tumult in that of the archontes.
When the gods show themselves, it seems as if the heavens, the sun and
moon, were all about to be annihilated; one would think that the earth
could not support their presence. On the appearance of an archangel,
there is an earthquake in every part of the world; it is preceded by a
stronger light than that which accompanies the apparition of the
angels; at the appearance of a demon it is less strong, and diminishes
still more when it is a hero who shows himself.
The apparitions of the gods are very luminous; those of angels and
archangels less so; those of demons are dark, but less dark than those
of heroes. The archontes, who preside over the brightest things in
this world, are luminous; but those which are occupied only with what
is material, are dark. When souls appear, they resemble a shade. He
continues his description of these apparitions, and enters into
tiresome details on the subject; one would say, to hear him, that that
there was a most intimate and habitual connection between the gods,
the angels, the demons, and the souls separated from the body, and
himself. But all this is only the work of his imagination; he knew no
more than any other concerning a matter which is above the reach of
man's understanding. He had never seen any apparitions of gods or
heroes, or archontes; unless we say that there are veritable demons
which sometimes appear to men. But to discern them one from the other,
as Jamblichus pretends to do, is mere illusion.
The Greeks and Romans, like the Hebrews and Christians, acknowledged
two sorts of genii, some good and beneficent, the others bad, and
causing evil. The ancients even believed that every one of us received
at our birth a good and an evil genius; the former procured us
happiness and prosperity, the latter engaged us in unfortunate
enterprises, inspired us with unruly desires, and cast us into the
worst misfortunes. They assigned genii, not only to every person, but
also to every house, every city, and every province.[70] These genii
are considered as good, beneficent,[71] and worthy of the worship of
those who invoke them. They were represented sometimes under the form
of a serpent, sometimes as a child or a youth. Flowers, incense,
cakes, and wine were offered to them.[72] Men swore by the names of
the genii.[73] It was a great crime to perjure one's self after having
sworn by the genius of the emperor, says Tertullian;[74] _Citius apud
vos per omnes Deos, quàm per unicum Genium Cæsaris perjuratur._
We often see on medals the inscription, GENIO POPULI ROMANI; and
when the Romans landed in a country, they failed not to salute and
adore its genius, and to offer him sacrifices.[75] In short, there was
neither kingdom, nor province, nor town, nor house, nor door, nor
edifice, whether public or private, which had not its genius.[76]
We have seen above what Jamblichus informs us concerning apparitions
of the gods, genii, good and bad angels, heroes, and the archontes who
preside over the government of the world.
Homer, the most ancient of Greek writers, and the most celebrated
theologian of Paganism, relates several apparitions both of gods and
heroes, and also of the dead. In the Odyssey,[77] he represents
Ulysses going to consult the sorcerer Tiresias; and this diviner
having prepared a grave or trench full of blood to evoke the manes,
Ulysses draws his sword to prevent them from coming to drink this
blood, for which they thirst; but which they were not allowed to taste
before they had answered the questions put to them. They believed also
that the souls of the dead could not rest, and that they wandered
around their dead bodies so long as the corpse remained uninhumed.
Even after they were interred, food was offered them; above everything
honey was given, as if leaving their tomb they came to taste what was
offered them.[78] They were persuaded that the demons loved the smoke
of sacrifices, melody, the blood of victims, and intercourse with
women; that they were attached for a time to certain spots and certain
edifices which they infested. They believed that souls separated from
the gross and terrestrial body, preserved after death one more subtile
and elastic, having the form of that they had quitted; that these
bodies were luminous, and like the stars; that they retained an
inclination for those things which they had loved during their life on
earth, and that often they appeared gliding around their tombs.
To bring back all this to the matter here treated of, that is to say,
to the appearance of good angels, we may note, that in the same manner
that we attach to the apparitions of good angels the idea of tutelary
spirits of kingdoms, provinces, and nations, and of each of us in
particular--as, for instance, the Prince of the kingdom of Persia, or
the angel of that nation, who resisted the archangel Gabriel during
twenty-one days, as we read in Daniel;[79] the angel of Macedonia, who
appeared to St. Paul,[80] and of whom we have spoken before; the
archangel St. Michael, who is considered as the chief of the people of
God and the armies of Israel;[81] and the guardian angels deputed by
God to guide us and guard us all the days of our life--so we may say
that the Greeks and Romans, being Gentiles, believed that certain
sorts of spirits, which they imagined were good and beneficent,
protected their kingdoms, provinces, towns, and private houses.
They paid them a superstitious and idolatrous worship, as to domestic
divinities; they invoked them, offered them a kind of sacrifice and
offerings of incense, cakes, honey, and wine, &c.--but not bloody
sacrifices.[82]
The Platonicians taught that carnal and voluptuous men could not see
their genii, because their mind was not sufficiently pure, nor enough
disengaged from sensual things; but that men who were wise, moderate,
and temperate, and who applied themselves to serious and sublime
subjects, could see them; as Socrates, for instance, who had his
familiar genius, whom he consulted, to whose advice he listened, and
whom he beheld, at least with the eyes of the mind.
If the oracles of Greece and other countries are reckoned in the
number of apparitions of bad spirits, we may also recollect the good
spirits who have announced things to come, and have assisted the
prophets and inspired persons, whether in the Old Testament or the
New. The angel Gabriel was sent to Daniel[83] to instruct him
concerning the vision of the four great monarchies, and the
accomplishment of the seventy weeks, which were to put an end to the
captivity. The prophet Zechariah says expressly that _the angel who
appeared unto him_[84] revealed to him what he must say--he repeats it
in five or six places; St. John, in the Apocalypse,[85] says the same
thing, that God had sent his angel to inspire him with what he was to
say to the Churches. Elsewhere[86] he again makes mention of the angel
who talked with him, and who took in his presence the dimensions of
the heavenly Jerusalem. And again, St. Paul in his Epistle to the
Hebrews,[87] "If what has been predicted by the angels may pass for
certain."
From all we have just said, it results that the apparitions of good
angels are not only possible, but also very real; that they have often
appeared, and under diverse forms; that the Hebrews, Christians,
Mahometans, Greeks, and Romans have believed in them; that when they
have not sensibly appeared, they have given proofs of their presence
in several different ways. We shall examine elsewhere how we can
explain the kind of apparition, whether of good or bad angels, or
souls separated from the body.
Footnotes:
[69] Jamblic. lib. ii. cap. 3 & 5.
[70]
"Quod te per Genium, dextramque Deosque Penates,
Obsecro et obtestor."--_Horat._ lib. i. Epist. 7. 94.
----"Dum cunctis supplex advolveris aris,
Ei mitem Genium Domini præsentis adoras."
_Stac._ lib. v. Syl. I. 73.
[71] Antiquitée expliquée, tom. i.
[72] Perseus, Satire ii.
[73] Senec. Epist. 12.
[74] Tertull. Apol. c. 23.
[75]
"Troja vale, rapimur, clamant; dant oscula terræ
Troades."--_Ovid. Metam._, lib. xiii. 421.
[76]
"Quamquam cur Genium Romæ, mihi fingitis unum?
Cùm portis, domibus; thermis, stabulis soleatis,
Assignare suos Genios?"--_Prudent. contra Symmach._
[77] Odyss. XI. sub. fin. _Vid._ Horat. lib. i. Satire 7, &c.
[78] Virgil. Æneid. I. 6. August. Serm. 15. de SS. et Quæst. 5. in
Deut. i. 5 c. 43. _Vide_ Spencer, de Leg. Hebræor. Ritual.
[79] Dan. x. 13.
[80] Acts xvi. 9.
[81] Josh. v. 13. Dan. x. 13, 21; xii. 1. Judg. v. 6. Rev. xii. 7
[82] _Forsitan quis quærat, quid causæ sit, ut merum fundendum sit
genio_, non hostiam faciendam putaverint.... _Scilicet ut die natali
munus_ annale genio solverent, manum à coede ac sanguine
abstinerent.--Censorin. de Die Natali, c. 2. Vide Taffin de Anno
Sæcul.
[83] Dan. viii. 16; ix. 21.
[84] Zech. i. 10, 13, 14, 19; ii. 3, 4; iv. 1, 4, 5; v. 5, 10.
[85] Rev. i. 1.
[86] Rev. x. 8, 9, &c.; xi. 1, 2, 3, &c.
[87] Heb. ii. 2.
CHAPTER VI.
THE APPARITION OF BAD ANGELS PROVED BY THE HOLY SCRIPTURES--UNDER WHAT
FORM THEY HAVE APPEARED.
The books of the Old and New Testament, together with sacred and
profane history, are full of relations of the apparition of bad
spirits. The first, the most famous, and the most fatal apparition of
Satan, is that of the appearance of this evil spirit to Eve, the first
woman,[88] in the form of a serpent, which animal served as the
instrument of that seducing demon in order to deceive her and induce
her to sin. Since that time he has always chosen to appear under that
form rather than any other; so in Scripture he is often termed _the
Old Serpent_;[89] and it is said that the infernal dragon fought
against the woman who figured or represented the church; that the
archangel St. Michael vanquished him and cast him down from heaven. He
has often appeared to the servants of God in the form of a dragon, and
he has caused himself to be adored by unbelievers in this form, in a
great number of places: at Babylon, for instance, they worshiped a
living dragon,[90] which Daniel killed by making it swallow a ball or
bolus, composed of ingredients of a mortally poisonous nature. The
serpent was consecrated to Apollo, the god of physic and of oracles;
and the pagans had a sort of divination by means of serpents, which
they called _Ophiomantia_.
The Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans worshiped serpents, and regarded
them as divine.[91] They brought to Rome the serpent of Epidaurus, to
which they paid divine honors. The Egyptians considered vipers as
divinities.[92] The Israelites adored the brazen serpent elevated by
Moses in the desert,[93] and which was in after times broken in pieces
by the holy king Hezekiah.[94]
St. Augustine[95] assures us that the Manichæans regarded the serpent
as the Christ, and said that this animal had opened the eyes of Adam
and Eve by the bad counsel which he gave them. We almost always see
the form of the serpent in the magical figures[96] _Akraxas_ and
_Abrachadabra_, which were held in veneration among the Basilidian
heretics, who, like the Manichæans, acknowledge two principles in all
things--the one good, the other bad; _Abraxas_ in Hebrew signifies
_that bad principle_, or the father of evil; _ab-ra-achad-ab-ra_, _the
father of evil_, _the sole father of evil_, or the only bad
principle.
St. Augustine[97] remarks that no animal has been more subject to the
effects of enchantment and magic than the serpent, as if to punish him
for having seduced the first woman by his imposture.
However, the demon has usually assumed the human form when he would
tempt mankind; it was thus that he appeared to Jesus Christ in the
desert;[98] that he tempted him and told him to change the stones into
bread that he might satisfy his hunger; that he transported him, the
Saviour, to the highest pinnacle of the temple, and showed him all the
kingdoms of the world, and offered him the enjoyment of them.
The angel who wrestled with Jacob at Peniel,[99] on his return from
his journey into Mesopotamia, was a bad angel, according to some
ancient writers; others, as Severus Sulpicius[100] and some Rabbis,
have thought that it was the angel of Esau, who had come to combat
with Jacob; but the greater number believe that it was a good angel.
And would Jacob have asked him for his blessing had he deemed him a
bad angel? But however that fact may be taken, it is not doubtful that
the demon has appeared in a human form.
Several stories, both ancient and modern, are related which inform us
that the demon has appeared to those whom he wished to seduce, or who
have been so unhappy as to invoke his aid, or make a compact with him,
as a man taller than the common stature, dressed in black, and with a
rough ungracious manner; making a thousand fine promises to those to
whom he appeared, but which promises were always deceitful, and never
followed by a real effect. I can even believe that they beheld what
existed only in their own confused and deranged ideas.
At Molsheim,[101] in the chapel of St. Ignatius in the Jesuits'
church, may be seen a celebrated inscription, which contains the
history of a young German gentleman, named Michael Louis, of the house
of Boubenhoren, who, having been sent by his parents when very young
to the court of the Duke of Lorraine, to learn the French language,
lost all his money at cards: reduced to despair, he resolved to give
himself to the demon, if that bad spirit would or could give him some
good money; for he doubted that he would only furnish him with
counterfeit and bad coin. As he was meditating on this idea, suddenly
he beheld before him a youth of his own age, well made, well dressed,
who, having asked him the cause of his uneasiness, presented him with
a handful of money, and told him to try if it was good. He desired him
to meet him at that place the next day.
Michael returned to his companions, who were still at play, and not
only regained all the money he had lost, but won all that of his
companions. Then he went in search of his demon, who asked as his
reward three drops of his blood, which he received in an acorn-cup;
after which, presenting a pen to Michael, he desired him to write what
he should dictate. He then dictated some unknown words, which he made
him write on two different bits of paper,[102] one of which remained
in the possession of the demon, the other was inserted in Michael's
arm, at the same place whence the demon had drawn the blood. And the
demon said to him, "I engage myself to serve you during seven years,
after which you will unreservedly belong to me."
The young man consented to this, though with a feeling of horror; and
the demon never failed to appear to him day and night under various
forms, and taught him many unknown and curious things, but which
always tended to evil. The fatal termination of the seven years was
approaching, and the young man was then about twenty years old. He
returned to his father's house, when the demon to whom he had given
himself inspired him with the idea of poisoning his father and mother,
of setting fire to their château, and then killing himself. He tried
to commit all these crimes, but God did not allow him to succeed in
these attempts. The gun with which he wished to kill himself missed
fire twice, and the poison did not take effect on his father and
mother.
More and more uneasy, he revealed to some of his father's domestics
the miserable state in which he found himself, and entreated them to
procure him some succor. At the same time the demon seized him, and
bent his body back, so that he was near breaking his bones. His
mother, who had adopted the heresy of Suenfeld, and had induced her
son to follow it also, not finding in her sect any help against the
demon that possessed or obseded him, was constrained to place him in
the hands of some monks. But he soon withdrew from them and retired to
Islade, from whence he was brought back to Molsheim by his brother, a
canon of Wurzburg, who put him again into the hands of fathers of the
society. Then it was that the demon made still more violent efforts
against him, appearing to him in the form of ferocious animals. One
day, amongst others, the demon, wearing the form of a hairy savage,
threw on the ground a schedule, or compact, different from the true
one which he had extorted from the young man, to try by means of this
false appearance to withdraw him from the hands of those who kept him,
and prevent his making his general confession. At last they fixed on
the 20th of October, 1603, as the day for being in the Chapel of St.
Ignatius, and to cause to be brought the true schedule containing the
compact made with the demon. The young man there made profession of
the Catholic and orthodox faith, renounced the demon, and received the
holy sacrament. Then, uttering horrible cries, he said he saw as it
were two he-goats of immeasurable size, which, holding up their
forefeet (standing on their hindlegs), held between their claws, each
one separately, one of the schedules or agreements. But as soon as the
exorcisms were begun, and the priests invoked the name of St.
Ignatius, the two he-goats fled away, and there came from the left arm
or hand of the young man, almost without pain, and without leaving any
scar, the compact, which fell at the feet of the exorcist.
There now wanted only the second compact, which had remained in the
power of the demon. They recommenced their exorcisms, and invoked St.
Ignatius, and promised to say a mass in honor of the saint; at the
same moment there appeared a tall stork, deformed and badly made, who
let fall the second schedule from his beak, and they found it on the
altar.
The pope, Paul V., caused information of the truth of these facts to
be taken by the commissionary-deputies, M. Adam, Suffragan of
Strasburg, and George, Abbot of Altorf, who were juridically
interrogated, and who affirmed that the deliverance of this young man
was principally due, after God, to the intercession of St. Ignatius.
The same story is related rather more at length in Bartoli's Life of
St. Ignatius Loyola.
Melancthon owns[103] that he has seen several spectres, and conversed
with them several times; and Jerome Cardan affirms that his father,
Fassius Cardanus, saw demons whenever he pleased, apparently in a
human form. Bad spirits sometimes appear also under the figure of a
lion, a dog, or a cat, or some other animal--as a bull, a horse, or a
raven; for the pretended sorcerers and sorceresses relate that at the
(witches') Sabbath he is seen under several different forms of men,
animals, and birds; whether he takes the shape of these animals, or
whether he makes use of the animals themselves as instruments to
deceive or harm, or whether he simply affects the senses and
imagination of those whom he has fascinated and who give themselves to
him; for in all the appearances of the demon we must always be on our
guard, and mistrust his stratagems and malice. St. Peter[104] tells us
that Satan is always roaming round about us, like a roaring lion,
seeking whom he may devour. And St. Paul, in more places than
one,[105] warns us to mistrust the snares of the devil, and to hold
ourselves on our guard against him.
Sulpicius Severus,[106] in the life of St. Martin, relates a few
examples of persons who were deceived by apparitions of the demon, who
transformed himself into an angel of light. A young man of very high
rank, and who was afterwards elevated to the priesthood, having
devoted himself to God in a monastery, imagined that he held converse
with angels; and as they would not believe him, he said that the
following night God would give him a white robe, with which he would
appear amongst them. In fact, at midnight the monastery was shaken as
with an earthquake, the cell of the young man was all brilliant with
light, and they heard a noise like that of many persons going to and
fro, and speaking.
After that, coming forth from his cell, he showed to the brothers (of
the convent) the tunic with which he was clothed: it was made of a
stuff of admirable whiteness, shining as purple, and so
extraordinarily fine in texture that they had never seen anything like
it, and could not tell from what substance it was woven.
They passed the rest of the night in singing psalms of thanksgiving,
and in the morning they wished to conduct him to St. Martin. He
resisted as much as he could, saying that he had been expressly
forbidden to appear in his presence. As they were pressing him to
come, the tunic vanished, which led every one present to suppose that
the whole thing was an illusion of the demon.
Another solitary suffered himself to be persuaded that he was Eli;
another that he was St. John the Evangelist. One day, the demon wished
to mislead St. Martin himself, appearing to him, having on a royal
robe, wearing on his head a rich diadem, ornamented with gold and
precious stones, golden sandals, and all the apparel of a great
prince. Addressing himself to Martin, he said to him, "Acknowledge me,
Martin; I am Jesus Christ, who, wishing to descend to earth, have
resolved to manifest myself to thee first of all." St. Martin remained
silent at first, fearing some snare; and the phantom having repeated
to him that he was the Christ, Martin replied: "My Lord Jesus Christ
did not say that he should come clothed in purple and decked with
diamonds. I shall not acknowledge him unless he appears in that same
form in which he suffered death, and unless I see the marks of his
cross and passion."
At these words the demon disappeared; and Sulpicius Severus affirms
that he relates this as he heard it from the mouth of St. Martin
himself. A little before this, he says that Satan showed himself to
him sometimes under the form of Jupiter, or Mercury, or Venus, or
Minerva; and sometimes he was to reproach Martin greatly because, by
baptism, he had converted and regenerated so many great sinners. But
the saint despised him, drove him away by the sign of the cross, and
answered him that baptism and repentance effaced all sins in those who
were sincere converts.
All this proves the malice, envy, and fraud of the devil against the
saints, on the one side; and on the other, the weakness and
uselessness of his efforts against the true servants of God, and that
it is but too true he often appears in a visible form.
In the histories of the saints we sometimes see that he hides himself
under the form of a woman, to tempt pious hermits and lead them into
evil; sometimes in the form of a traveler, a priest, a monk, or an
_angel of light_,[107] to mislead simple minded people, and cause them
to err; for everything suits his purpose, provided he can exercise his
malice and hatred against men.
When Satan appeared before the Lord in the midst of his holy angels,
and asked permission of God to tempt Job,[108] and try his patience
through everything that was dearest to that holy man, he doubtless
presented himself in his natural state, simply as a spirit, but full
of rage against the saints, and in all the deformity of his sin and
rebellion.
But when he says, in the Books of Kings, _that he will be a lying
spirit in the mouth of false prophets_,[109] and that God allows him
to put in force his ill-will, we must not imagine that he shows
himself corporeally to the eyes of the false prophets of King Ahab; he
only inspired the falsehood in their minds--they believed it, and
persuaded the king of the same. Amongst the visible appearances of
Satan may be placed mortalities, wars, tempests, public and private
calamities, which God sends upon nations, provinces, cities, and
families, whom the Almighty causes to feel the terrible effects of his
wrath and just vengeance. Thus the exterminating angel kills the
first-born of the Egyptians.[110] The same angel strikes with death
the inhabitants of the guilty cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.[111] He
does the same with Onan, who committed an abominable action.[112] _The
wicked man seeks only division and quarrels_, says the sage; _and the
cruel angel shall be sent against him_.[113] And the Psalmist,
speaking of the plagues which the Lord inflicted upon Egypt, says that
he sent evil angels among them.
When David, in a spirit of vanity, caused his people to be numbered,
God showed him an angel hovering over Jerusalem, ready to smite and
destroy it. I do not say decidedly whether it was a good or a bad
angel, since it is certain that sometimes the Lord employs good angels
to execute his vengeance against the wicked. But it is thought that it
was the devil who slew eighty-five thousand men of the army of
Sennacherib. And in the Apocalypse, those are also evil angels who
pour out on the earth the phials of wrath, and caused all the scourges
set down in that holy book.
We shall also place amongst the appearances and works of Satan false
Christs, false prophets, Pagan oracles, magicians, sorcerers, and
sorceresses, those who are inspired by the spirit of Python, the
obsession and possession of demons, those who pretend to predict the
future, and whose predictions are sometimes fulfilled; those who make
compacts with the devil to discover treasures and enrich themselves;
those who make use of charms; evocations by means of magic;
enchantment; the being devoted to death by a vow; the deceptions of
idolatrous priests, who feigned that their gods ate and drank and had
commerce with women--all these can only be the work of Satan, and must
be ranked with what the Scripture calls _the depths of Satan_.[114] We
shall say something on this subject in the course of the treatise.
Footnotes:
[88] Gen. iii. 1, 23.
[89] Rev. xii. 9.
[90] Bel and the Dragon.
[91] Wisd. xi. 16.
[92] Elian. Hist. Animal.
[93] Numb. xxi. 2 Kings xviii. 4.
[94] On this subject, see a work of profound learning, and as
interesting as profound, on "The Worship of the Serpent," by the Rev.
John Bathurst Deane, M. A. F. S. A.
[95] Aug. tom. viii. pp. 28, 284.
[96] _Ab-racha_, pater _mali_, or pater _malus_.
[97] August. de Gen. ad Lit. 1. ii. c. 18.
[98] Matt. iv. 9, 10, &c.
[99] Gen. xxxii. 24, 25.
[100] Sever. Sulpit. Hist. Sac.
[101] A small city or town of the Electorate of Cologne, situated on a
river of the same name.
[102] There were in all ten letters, the greater part of them Greek,
but which formed no (apparent) sense. They were to be seen at
Molsheim, in the tablet which bore a representation of this miracle.
[103] Lib. de Anima.
[104] 1 Pet. iii. 8.
[105] Eph. vi. 11. 1 Tim. iii. 7.
[106] Sulpit. Sever. Vit. St. Martin, b. xv.
[107] 2 Cor. xi. 14.
[108] Job i. 6-8.
[109] 1 Kings xxii. 21.
[110] Exod. ix. 6.
[111] Gen. xviii. 13, 14.
[112] Gen. xxxviii.
[113] Prov. xvii. 11.
[114] Rev. ii. 24.
CHAPTER VII.
OF MAGIC.
Many persons regard magic, magicians, witchcraft, and charms as fables
and illusions, the effects of imagination in weak minds, who,
foolishly persuaded of the excessive power possessed by the devil,
attribute to him a thousand things which are purely natural, but the
physical reasons for which are unknown to them, or which are the
effects of the art of certain charlatans, who make a trade of imposing
on the simple and ignorant. These opinions are supported by the
authority of the principal parliaments of the kingdom, who acknowledge
neither magicians nor sorcerers, and who never punish those accused of
magic, or sorcery, unless they are convicted also of some other
crimes. As, in short, the more they punish and seek out magicians and
sorcerers, the more they abound in a country; and, on the contrary,
experience proves that in places where nobody believes in them, none
are to be found, the most efficacious means of uprooting this fancy is
to despise and neglect it.
It is said that magicians and sorcerers themselves, when they fall
into the hands of judges and inquisitors, are often the first to
maintain that magic and sorcery are merely imaginary, and the effect
of popular prejudices and errors. Upon that footing, Satan would
destroy himself, and overthrow his own empire, if he were thus to
decry magic, of which he is himself the author and support. If the
magicians really, and of their own good will, independently of the
demon, make this declaration, they betray themselves most lightly, and
do not make their cause better; since the judges, notwithstanding
their disavowal, prosecute them, and always punish them without mercy,
being well persuaded that it is only the fear of execution and the
hope of remaining unpunished which makes them say so.
But would it not rather be a stratagem of the evil spirit,[115] who
endeavors to render the reality of magic doubtful, to save from
punishment those who are accused of it, and to impose on the judges,
and make them believe that magicians are only madmen and
hypochondriacs, worthy rather of compassion than chastisement? We must
then return to the deep examination of the question, and prove that
magic is not a chimera, neither has it aught to do with reason. We can
neither rest on a sure foundation, nor derive any certain argument for
or against the reality of magic, either from the opinion of pretended
_esprits forts_, who deny because they think proper to do so, and
because the proofs of the contrary do not appear to them sufficiently
clear or demonstrative; nor from the declaration of the demon, of
magicians and sorcerers, who maintain that magic and sorcery are only
the effects of a disturbed imagination; nor from minds foolishly and
vainly prejudiced on the subject, that these declarations are produced
simply by the fear of punishment; nor by the subtilty of the malignant
spirit, who wishes to mask his play, and cast dust in the eyes of the
judges and witnesses, by making them believe that what they regard
with so much horror, and what they so vigorously prosecute, is
anything but a punishable crime, or at least a crime deserving of
punishment.
We must then prove the reality of magic by the Holy Scriptures, by the
authority of the Church, and by the testimony of the most grave and
sensible writers; and, lastly, show that it is not true that the most
famous parliaments acknowledge neither sorcerers nor magicians.
The teraphim which Rachael, the wife of Jacob, brought away secretly
from the house of Laban, her father,[116] were doubtless superstitious
figures, to which Laban's family paid a worship, very like that which
the Romans rendered to their household gods, _Penates_ and _Lares_,
and whom they consulted on future events. Joshua[117] says very
distinctly that Terah, the father of Abraham, adored strange gods in
Mesopotamia. And in the prophets Hosea and Zechariah,[118] the Seventy
translate _teraphim_ by the word _oracles_. Zechariah and Ezekiel[119]
show that the Chaldeans and the Hebrews consulted these _teraphim_ to
learn future events.
Others believe that they were talismans or preservatives; everybody
agrees as to their being superstitious figures (or idols) which were
consulted in order to find out things unknown, or that were to come to
pass.
The patriarch Joseph, speaking to his own brethren according to the
idea which they had of him in Egypt, says to them:[120] "Know ye not
that in all the land there is not a man who equals me in the art of
divining and predicting things to come?" And the officer of the same
Joseph, having found in Benjamin's sack Joseph's cup which he had
purposely hidden in it, says to them:[121] "It is the cup of which my
master makes use to discover hidden things."
By the secret of their art, the magicians of Pharaoh imitated the true
miracles of Moses; but not being able like him to produce gnats
(English version _lice_), they were constrained to own that the finger
of God was in what Moses had hitherto achieved.[122]
After the departure of the Hebrews from Egypt, God expressly forbids
his people to practice any sort of magic or divination.[123] He
condemns to death magicians, and those who make use of charms.
Balaam, the diviner, being invited by Balak, the king, to come and
devote the Israelites to destruction, God put blessings into his mouth
instead of curses;[124] and this bad prophet, amongst the blessings
which he bestows on Israel, says there is among them neither augury,
nor divination, nor magic.
In the time of the Judges, the Idol of Micah was consulted as a kind
of oracle.[125] Gideon made, in his house and his city, an Ephod,
accompanied by a superstitious image, which was for his family, and to
all the people, the occasion of scandal and ruin.[126]
The Israelites went sometimes to consult Beelzebub, god of Ekron,[127]
to know if they should recover from their sickness. The history of the
evocation of Samuel by the witch of Endor[128] is well known. I am
aware that some difficulties are raised concerning this history. I
shall deduce nothing from it here, except that this woman passed for a
witch, that Saul esteemed her such, and that this prince had
exterminated the magicians in his own states, or, at least, that he
did not permit them to exercise their art.
Manasses, king of Judah,[129] is blamed for having introduced idolatry
into his kingdom, and particularly for having allowed there diviners,
aruspices, and those who predicted things to come. King Josiah, on the
contrary, destroyed all these superstitions.[130]
The prophet Isaiah, who lived at the same time, says that they wished
to persuade the Jews then in captivity at Babylon to address
themselves, as did other nations, to diviners and magicians; but they
ought to reject these pernicious counsels, and leave those
abominations to the Gentiles, who knew not the Lord. Daniel[131]
speaks of the magicians, or workers of magic among the Chaldeans, and
of those amongst them who interpreted dreams, and predicted things to
come.
In the New Testament, the Jews accused Jesus Christ of casting out
devils in the name of Beelzebub, the prince of the devils;[132] but he
refutes them by saying, that being come to destroy the empire of
Beelzebub, it was not to be believed that Beelzebub would work
miracles to destroy his own power or kingdom.[133] St. Luke speaks of
Simon the sorcerer, who had for a long time bewitched the inhabitants
of Samaria with his sorceries; and also of a certain Bar-Jesus of
Paphos, who professed sorcery, and boasted he could predict future
events.[134] St. Paul, when at Ephesus, caused a number of books of
magic to be burned.[135] Lastly, the Psalmist,[136] and the author of
the Book of Ecclesiasticus,[137] speak of charms with which they
enchanted serpents.
In the Acts of the Apostles,[138] the young girl of the town of
Philippi, who was a Pythoness, for several successive days rendered
testimony to Paul and Silas, saying that they were "_the servants of
the Most High, and that they announced to men the way of salvation_."
Was it the devil who inspired her with these words, to destroy the
fruit of the preaching of the Apostles, by making the people believe
that they acted in concert with the spirit of evil? Or was it the
Spirit of God which put these words into the mouth of this young girl,
as he put into the mouth of Balaam prophecies concerning the Messiah?
There is reason to believe that she spoke through the inspiration of
the evil spirit, since St. Paul imposed silence on her, and expelled
the spirit of Python, by which she had been possessed, and which had
inspired the predictions she uttered, and the knowledge of hidden
things. In what way soever we may explain it, it will always follow
that magic is not a chimera, that this maiden was possessed by an evil
spirit, and that she predicted and revealed things hidden and to come,
and brought her _masters considerable gain by soothsaying_; for those
who consulted her would, doubtless, not have been so foolish as to pay
for these predictions, had they not experienced the truth of them by
their success and by the event.
From all this united testimony, it results that magic, enchantments,
sorcery, divination, the interpretation of dreams, auguries, oracles,
and the magical figures which announced things to come, are very real,
since they are so severely condemned by God, and that He wills that
those who practice them should be punished with death.
Footnotes:
[115] _Vide_ Bodin Preface.
[116] Gen. xxxi. 19.
[117] Josh. xxiv. 2-4.
[118] Hosea ii. 4, &c. Zech. v. 2.
[119] Zech. x. 2. Ezek. xxi. 21.
[120] Gen. xliv. 15.
[121] Gen. xliv. 5.
[122] Exod. vii. 10-12. Exod. viii. 19.
[123] Exod. xxii. 18.
[124] Numb. xxii., xxiii.
[125] Judg. xvii. 1, 2.
[126] Judg. viii. 27.
[127] 2 Kings i. 2, 2.
[128] 1 Sam. xxviii. 7, _et seq._
[129] 2 Kings xxi. 16.
[130] 2 Kings xxii. 24.
[131] Dan. iv. 6, 7.
[132] Matt. x. 25; xii. 24, 25.
[133] Luke xi. 15, 18, 19.
[134] Acts viii. 11; xiii. 6.
[135] Acts xix. 19.
[136] Psalm lvii.
[137] Ecclus. xii. 13.
[138] Acts xvi. 16, 17.
CHAPTER VIII.
OBJECTIONS TO THE REALITY OF MAGIC.
I shall not fail to be told that all these testimonies from Scripture
do not prove the reality of magic, sorcery, divination, and the rest;
but only that the Hebrews and Egyptians--I mean the common people
among them--believe that there were people who had intercourse with
the Divinity, or with good and bad angels, to predict the future,
explain dreams, devote their enemies to the direst misfortunes, cause
maladies, raise storms, and call forth the souls of the dead; if there
was any reality in all this, it was not in the things themselves, but
in their imaginations and prepossessions.
Moses and Joseph were regarded by the Egyptians as great magicians.
Rachel, it appears, believed that the teraphim of her father Laban
were capable of giving her information concerning things hidden and to
come. The Israelites might consult the idol of Micha, and Beelzebub
the god of Ekron; but the sensible and enlightened people of those
days, like similar persons in our own, considered all this as the
sport and knavery of pretended magicians, who derived much emolument
from maintaining these prejudices among the people.
Moses most wisely ordained the penalty of death against those persons
who abused the simplicity of the ignorant to enrich themselves at
their expense, and turned away the people from the worship of the true
God, in order to keep up among them such practices as were
superstitious and contrary to true religion.
Besides, it was necessary to good order, the interests of the
commonwealth and of true piety, to repress those abuses which are in
opposition to them, and to punish with extreme severity those who draw
away the people from the true and legitimate worship due to God, lead
them to worship the devil, and place their confidence in the creature,
in prejudice to the right of the Creator; inspiring them with vain
terrors where there is nothing to fear, and maintaining their minds in
the most dangerous errors. If, amongst an infinite number of false
predictions, or vain interpretations of dreams, some of them are
fulfilled, either this is occasioned by chance or it is the work of
the devil, who is often permitted by God to deceive those whose
foolishness and impiety lead them to address themselves to him and
place their confidence in him, all which the wise lawgiver, animated
by the Divine Spirit, justly repressed by the most rigorous
punishment.
All histories and experience on this subject demonstrate that those
who make use of the art of magic, charms, and spells, only employ
their art, their secret, and their power to corrupt and mislead; for
crime and vice; thus they cannot be too carefully sought out, or too
severely punished.
We may add that what is often taken for black or diabolical magic is
nothing but natural magic, or art and cleverness on the part of those
who perform things which appear above the force of nature. How many
marvelous effects are related of the divining rod, sympathetic powder,
phosphoric lights, and mathematical secrets! How much knavery is now
well known in the priests of idols, and in those of Babylon, who made
the people believe that the god Bel drank and ate; that a large living
dragon was a divinity; that the god Anubis desired to have certain
women, who were thus deceived by the priests; that the ox Apis gave
out oracles, and that the serpent of Alexander of Abonotiche knew the
sickness, and gave remedies to the patient without opening the billet
which contained a description of the illness! We may possibly speak
more fully on this subject hereafter.
In short, the most judicious and most celebrated Parliaments have
recognized neither magicians nor sorcerers; at least, they have not
condemned them to death unless they were convicted of other crimes,
such as theft, bad practices, poisoning, or criminal seduction--for
instance, in the affair of Gofredi, a priest of Marseilles, who was
condemned by the Parliament of Aix to be torn with hot pincers, and
burnt alive. The heads of that company, in the account which they
render to the chancellor of this their sentence, testify that this
curé was in truth accused of sorcery, but that he had been condemned
to the flames as guilty, and convicted of spiritual incest with his
penitent, Madelaine de la Palu. From all this it is concluded that
there is no reality in what is called magic.
CHAPTER IX.
REPLY TO THE OBJECTIONS.
In answer to these, I allow that there is indeed very often a great
deal of illusion, prepossession, and imagination in all that is termed
magic and sorcery; and sometimes the devil by false appearances
combines with them to deceive the simple; but oftener, without the
evil spirit being any otherwise a party to it, wicked, corrupt, and
interested men, artful and deceptive, abuse the simplicity both of men
and women, so far as to persuade them that they possess supernatural
secrets for interpreting dreams and foretelling things to come, for
curing maladies, and discovering secrets unknown to any one. I can
easily agree to all that. All kinds of histories are full of facts
which demonstrate what I have just said. The devil has a thousand
things imputed to him in which he has no share; they give him the
honor of predictions, revelations, secrets, and discoveries, which are
by no means the effect of his power, or penetration; as in the same
manner he is accused of having caused all sorts of evils, tempests,
and maladies, which are purely the effect of natural but unknown
causes.
It is very true that there are really many persons who are persuaded
of the power of the devil, of his influence over an infinite number of
things, and of the effects which they attribute to him; that they have
consulted him to learn future events, or to discover hidden things;
that they have addressed themselves to him for success in their
projects, for money, or favor, or to enjoy their criminal pleasures.
All this is very real. Magic, then, is not a simple chimera, since so
many persons are infatuated with the power of charms and convicted of
holding commerce with the devil, to procure a number of effects which
pass for supernatural. Now it is the folly, the vain credulity, the
prepossession of such people that the law of God interdicts, that
Moses condemns to death, and that the Christian Church punishes by its
censures, and which the secular judges repress with the greatest
rigor. If in all these things there was nothing but a diseased
imagination, weakness of the brain, or popular prejudices, would they
be treated with so much severity? Do we put to death hypochondriacs,
maniacs, or those who imagine themselves ill? No; they are treated
with compassion, and every effort is made to cure them. But in the
other case it is impiety, or superstition, or vice in those who
consult, or believe they consult, the devil, and place their
confidence in him, against which the laws are put in force and ordain
chastisement.
Even if we could deny and contest the reality of augurs, diviners, and
magicians, and look on all these kind of persons as seducers, who
abuse the simplicity of those who betake themselves to them, could we
deny the reality of the magicians of Pharaoh, that of Simon, of
Bar-Jesus, of the Pythoness of the Acts of the Apostles? Did not the
first-mentioned perform many wonders before Pharaoh? Did not Simon the
magician rise into the air by means of the devil? Did not St. Paul
impose silence on the Pythoness of the city of Philippi in
Macedonia?[139] Will it be said that there was any collusion between
St. Paul and the Pythoness? Nothing of the kind can be maintained by
any reasonable argument.
A small volume was published at Paris, in 1732, by a new author, who
conceals himself under the two initials M. D.; it is entitled,
_Treatise on Magic, Witchcraft, Possessions, Obsessions and Charms; in
which their truth and reality are demonstrated_. He shows that he
believes there are magicians; he shows by Scripture, both in the Old
and New Testament, and by the authority of the ancient fathers, some
passages from whose works are cited in that of Father Debrio, entitled
_Disquisitiones Magicæ_. He proves it by the rituals of all the
dioceses, and by the examinations which are found in the printed
"Hours," wherein they suppose the existence of sorcerers and
magicians.
The civil laws of the emperors, whether pagan or Christian, those of
the kings of France, both ancient and modern, jurisconsult,
physicians, historians both sacred and profane, concur in maintaining
this truth. In all kinds of writers we may remark an infinity of
stories of magic, spells and sorcery. The Parliaments of France, and
the tribunals of justice in other nations, have recognized magicians,
the pernicious effects of their art, and condemned them personally to
the most rigorous punishments.
He relates at full length[140] the remonstrances made to King Louis
XIV., in 1670, by the Parliament at Rouen, to prove to that monarch
that it was not only the Parliament of Rouen, but also all the other
Parliaments of the kingdom, which followed the same rules of
jurisprudence in what concerns magic and sorcery; that they
acknowledged the existence of such things and condemn them. This
author cites several facts, and several sentences given on this matter
in the Parliaments of Paris, Aix, Toulouse, Rennes, Dijon, &c. &c.;
and it was upon these remonstrances that the same king, in 1682, made
his declaration concerning the punishment of various crimes, and in
particular of sorcery, diviners or soothsayers, magicians, and similar
crimes.
He also cites the treaty of M. de la Marre, commissary at the
_châtelet_ of Paris, who speaks largely of magic, and proves its
reality, origin, progress, and effects. Would it be possible that the
sacred authors, laws divine and human, the greatest men of antiquity,
jurisconsults, the most enlightened historians, bishops in their
councils, the Church in her decisions, her practices and prayers,
should have conspired to deceive us, and to condemn those who practice
magic, sorcery, spells, and crimes of the same nature, to death, and
the most rigorous punishments, if they were merely illusive, and the
effect only of a diseased and prejudiced imagination? Father le Brun,
of the Oratoire, who has written so well upon the subject of
superstitions, substantiates the fact that the Parliament of Paris
recognizes that there are sorcerers, and that it punishes them
severely when they are convicted. He proves it by a decree issued in
1601 against some inhabitants of Campagne accused of witchcraft. The
decree wills that they shall be sent to the Conciergerie by the
subaltern judges on pain of being deprived of their charge. It
supposes that they must be rigorously punished, but it desires that
the proceedings against them for their discovery and punishment may be
exact and regular.
M. Servin, advocate-general and councillor of state, fully proves from
the Old and New Testament, from tradition, laws and history, that
there are diviners, enchanters, and sorcerers, and refutes those who
would maintain the contrary. He shows that magicians and those who
make use of charms, ought to be punished and held in execration; but
he adds that no punishment must be inflicted till after certain and
evident proofs have been obtained; and this is what must be strictly
attended to by the Parliament of Paris, for fear of punishing madmen
for guilty persons, and taking illusions for realities.
The Parliament leaves it to the Church to inflict excommunication,
both on men and women who have recourse to charms, and who believe
they go in the night to nocturnal assemblies, there to pay homage to
the devil. The Capitularies of the kings[141] recommend the pastors to
instruct the faithful on the subject of what is termed the Sabbath; at
any rate they do not command that these persons should receive
corporeal punishment, but only that they should be undeceived and
prevented from misleading others in the same manner.
And there the Parliament stops, so long as the case goes no farther
than simply misleading; but when it goes so far as to injure others,
the kings have often commanded the judges to punish these persons with
fines and banishment. The Ordonnances of Charles VIII. in 1490, and of
Charles IX. in the States of Orleans in 1560, express themselves
formally on this point, and they were renewed by King Louis XIV. in
1682. The third article of these Ordonnances bears, that if it should
happen "_there were persons to be found wicked enough to add impiety
and sacrilege to superstition, those who shall be convicted of these
crimes shall be punished with death_."
When, therefore, it is evident that some person has inflicted injury
on his neighbor by malpractices, the Parliament punishes them
rigorously, even to the pain of death, conformably to the ancient
Capitularies of the kingdom,[142] and the royal Ordonnances. Bodin,
who wrote in 1680, has collected a great number of decrees, to which
may be added those which the reverend Father le Brun reports, given
since that time.
He afterwards relates a remarkable instance of a man named Hocque, who
was condemned to the galleys, the 2d of September, 1687, by sentence
of the High Court of Justice at Passy, for having made use of
malpractices towards animals, and having thus killed a great number in
Champagne. Hocque died suddenly, miserably, and in despair, after
having discovered, when drunken with wine, to a person named Beatrice,
the secret which he made use of to kill the cattle; he was not
ignorant that the demon would cause his death to revenge the discovery
which he had made of this spell.
Some of the accomplices of this wretched man were condemned to the
galleys by divers decrees; others were condemned to be hanged and
burnt, by order of the Baillé of Passy, the 26th of October, 1691,
which sentence was confirmed by decree of the Parliament of Paris, the
18th of December, 1691. From all which we deduce that the Parliament
of Paris acknowledges that the spells by which people do injury to
their neighbors ought to be rigorously punished; that the devil has
very extensive power, which he too often exercises over men and
animals, and that he would exercise it oftener, and with greater
extension and fury, if he were not limited and hindered by the power
of God, and that of good angels, who set bounds to his malice. St Paul
warns us[143] to put on the armor of God, to be able to resist the
snares of the devil: for, adds he, "we have not to war against flesh
and blood: but against princes and powers, against the bad spirits who
govern this dark world, against the spirits of malice who reign in the
air."
Footnotes:
[139] Acts xvi. 10.
[140] Page 31, _et seq._
[141] Capitular. R. xiii de Sortilegiis et Sorciariis, 2 col. 36.
[142] Capitular. in 872, x. 2. col. 230.
[143] Eph. vi. 12.
CHAPTER X.
EXAMINATION OF THE AFFAIR OF HOCQUE, MAGICIAN.
Monsieur de St. André, consulting physician in ordinary to the king,
in his sixth letter[144] against magic, maintains that in the affair
of Hocque which has been mentioned, there was neither magic, nor
sorcery, nor any operation of the demon; that the venomous drug which
Hocque placed in the stables, and by means of which he caused the
death of the cattle stalled therein, was nothing but a poisonous
compound, which, by its smell and the diffusion of its particles,
poisoned the animals and caused their death; it required only for
these drugs to be taken away for the cattle to be safe, or else to
keep the cattle from the stable in which the poison was placed. The
difficulty laid in discovering where these poisonous drugs were
hidden; the shepherds, who were the authors of the mischief, taking
all sorts of precautions to conceal them, knowing that their lives
were in danger if they should be discovered.
He further remarks that these _gogues_ or poisoned drugs lose their
effects after a certain time, unless they are renewed or watered with
something to revive them and make them ferment again. If the devil had
any share in this mischief, the drug would always possess the same
virtue, and it would not be necessary to renew it and refresh it to
restore it to its pristine power.
In all this, M. de St. André supposes that if the demon had any power
to deprive animals of their lives, or to cause them fatal maladies, he
could do so independently of secondary causes; which will not be
easily granted him by those who hold that God alone can give life and
death by an absolute power, independently of all secondary causes and
of any natural agent. The demon might have revealed to Hocque the
composition of this fatal and poisonous drug--he might have taught him
its dangerous effects, after which the venom acts in a natural way; it
recovers and resumes its pristine strength when it is watered; it acts
only at a certain distance, and according to the reach of the
corpuscles which exhale from it. All these effects have nothing
supernatural in them, nor which ought to be attributed to the demon;
but it is credible enough that he inspired Hocque with the pernicious
design to make use of a dangerous drug, which the wretched man knew
how to make up, or the composition of which was revealed to him by the
evil spirit.
M. de St. André continues, and says that there is nothing in the death
of Hocque which ought to be attributed to the demon; it is, says he, a
purely natural effect, which can proceed from no other cause than the
venomous effluvia which came from the poisonous drug when it was taken
up, and which were carried towards the malefactor by those which
proceeded from his own body while he was preparing it, and placing it
in the ground, which remained there and were preserved in that spot,
so that none of them had been dissipated.
These effluvia proceeding from the person of Hocque, then finding
themselves liberated, returned to whence they originated, and drew
with them the most malignant and corrosive particles of the charge or
drug, which acted on the body of this shepherd as they did on those of
the animals who smelled them. He confirms what he has just said, by
the example of sympathetic powder which acts upon the body of a
wounded person, by the immersion of small particles of the blood, or
the pus of the wounded man upon whom it is applied, which particles
draw with them the spirit of the drugs of which it (the powder) is
composed, and carry them to the wound.
But the more I reflect on this pretended evaporation of the venomous
effluvia emanating from the poisoned drug, hidden at Passy en Brie,
six leagues from Paris, which are supposed to come straight to Hocque,
shut up at la Tournelle, borne by the animal effluvia proceeding from
this malefactor's body at the time he made up the poisonous drug and
put it in the ground, so long before the dangerous composition was
discovered; the more I reflect on the possibility of these
evaporations the less I am persuaded of them. I could wish to have
proofs of this system, and not instances of the very doubtful and very
uncertain effects of sympathetic powder, which can have no place in
the case in question. It is proving the obscure by the obscure, and
the uncertain by the uncertain; and even were we to admit generally
some effects of the sympathetic powder, they could not be applicable
here; the distance between the places is too great, and the time too
long; and what sympathy can be found between this shepherd's poisonous
drug and his person for it to be able to return to him who is
imprisoned at Paris, when the _gogue_ is discovered at Passy?
The account composed and printed on this event bears, that the fumes
of the wine which Hocque had drank having evaporated, and he
reflecting on what Beatrice had made him do, began to agitate himself,
howled, and complained most strangely, saying that Beatrice had taken
him by surprise, that it would occasion his death, and that he must
die the instant that _Bras-de-fer_--another shepherd, to whom Beatrice
had persuaded Hocque to write word to take off the poisoned drug which
he had scattered on the ground at Passy--should take away the dose. He
attacked Beatrice, whom he wanted to strangle; and even excited the
other felons who were with him in prison and condemned to the galleys,
to maltreat her, through the pity they felt for the despair of Hocque,
who, at the time the dose was taken off the land, had died in a
moment, in strange convulsions, and agitating himself like one
possessed.
M. de St. André would again explain all this by supposing Hocque's
imagination being struck with the idea of his dying, which he was
persuaded would happen at the time they carried away the poison, had a
great deal to do with his sufferings and death. How many people have
been known to die at the time they had fancied they should, when
struck with the idea of their approaching death. The despair and
agitation of Hocque had disturbed the mass of his blood, altered the
humors, deranged the motion of the effluvia, and rendered them much
susceptible of the actions of the vapors proceeding from the poisonous
composition.
M. de St. André adds that, if the devil had any share in this kind of
mischievous spell, it could only be in consequence of some compact,
either expressed or tacit, that as soon as the poison should be taken
up, he who had put it there should die immediately. Now, what
likelihood is there that the person who should make this compact with
the devil should have made use of such a stipulation, which would
expose him to a cruel and inevitable death?
1. We may reply that fright can cause death; but that it is not
possible for it to produce it at a given time, nor can he who falls
into a paroxysm of grief say that he shall die at such a moment; the
moment of death is not in the power of man in similar circumstances.
2. That so corrupt a character as Hocque, a man who, without
provocation, and to gratify his ill-will, kills an infinite number of
animals, and causes great damage to innocent persons, is capable of
the greatest excess, may give himself up to the evil spirit, by
implicated or explicit compacts, and engage, on pain of losing his
life, never to take off the charge he had thrown upon a village. He
believed he should risk nothing by this stipulation, since he was free
to take it away or to leave it, and it was not probable that he should
ever lightly thus expose himself to certain death. That the demon had
some share in this virtue of the poisonous composition is very likely,
when we consider the circumstances of its operations, and those of the
death and despair of Hocque. This death is the just penalty of his
crimes, and of his confidence in the exterminating angel to whom he
had yielded himself.
It is true that impostors, weak minds, heated imaginations, ignorant
and superstitious persons have been found who have taken for black
magic, and operations of the demon, what was quite natural, and the
effect of some subtilty of philosophy or mathematics, or even an
illusion of the senses, or a secret which deceives the eye and the
senses. But to conclude from thence that there is no magic at all, and
that all that is said about it is pure prejudice, ignorance, and
superstition, is to conclude what is general from what is particular,
and to deny what is true and certain, because it is not easy to
distinguish what is true from what is false, and because men will not
take the trouble to examine into causes. It is far easier to deny
everything than to enter upon a serious examination of facts and
circumstances.
Footnotes:
[144] M. de St. André, Letter VI. on the subject of Magic, &c.
CHAPTER XI.
MAGIC OF THE EGYPTIANS AND CHALDEANS.
All pagan antiquity speaks of magic and magicians, of magical
operations, and of superstitious, curious, and diabolical books.
Historians, poets, and orators are full of things which relate to this
matter: some believe in it, others deny it; some laugh at it, others
remain in uncertainty and doubt. Are they bad spirits, or deceitful
men, impostors and charlatans, who, by the subtilties of their art,
make the ignorant believe that certain natural effects are produced by
supernatural causes? That is the point on which men differ. But in
general the name of magic and magician is now taken in these days in
an odious sense, for an art which produces marvelous effects, that
appear above the common course of nature, and that by the operation of
the bad spirit.
The author of the celebrated book of Enoch, which had so great a
vogue, and has been cited by some ancient writers[145] as inspired
Scripture, says that the eleventh of the watchers, or of those angels
who were in love with women, was called Pharmacius, or Pharmachus;
that he taught men, before the flood, enchantments, spells, magic
arts, and remedies against enchantments. St. Clement, of Alexandria,
in his recognitions, says that Ham, the son of Noah, received that art
from heaven, and taught it to Misraim, his son, the father of the
Egyptians.
In the Scripture, the name of _Mage_ or _Magus_ is never used in a
good sense as signifying philosophers who studied astronomy, and were
versed in divine and supernatural things, except in speaking of the
Magi who came to adore Jesus Christ at Bethlehem.[146] Everywhere else
the Scriptures condemn and abhor magic and magicians.[147] They
severely forbid the Hebrews to consult such persons and things. They
speak with abhorrence of _Simon and of Elymas_, well-known magicians,
in the Acts of the Apostles;[148] and of the magicians of Pharaoh, who
counterfeited by their illusions the true miracles of Moses. It seems
likely that the Israelites had taken the habit in Egypt, where they
then were, of consulting such persons, since Moses forbids them in so
many different places, and so severely, either to listen to them or to
place confidence in their predictions.
The Chevalier Marsham shows very clearly that the school for magic
among the Egyptians is the most ancient ever known in the world; that
from thence it spread amongst the Chaldeans, the Babylonians, the
Greeks and Persians. St. Paul informs us that Jannès and Jambrès,
famous magicians of the time of Pharaoh, resisted Moses. Pliny
remarks, that anciently, there was no science more renowned, or more
in honor, than that of magic: _Summam litterarum claritatem gloriamque
ex ea scientia antiquitùs et penè semper petitam._
Porphyry[149] says that King Darius, son of Hystaspes, had so high an
idea of the art of magic that he caused to be engraved on the
mausoleum of his father Hystaspes, "_That he had been the chief and
the master of the Magi of Persia_."
The embassy that Balak, King of the Moabites, sent to Balaam the son
of Beor, who dwelt in the mountains of the East, towards Persia and
Chaldea,[150] to entreat him to come and curse and devote to death the
Israelites who threatened to invade his country, shows the antiquity
of magic, and of the magical superstitions of that country. For will
it be said that these maledictions and inflictions were the effect of
the inspiration of the good Spirit, or the work of good angels? I
acknowledge that Balaam was inspired by God in the blessings which he
gave to the people of the Lord, and in the prediction which he made of
the coming of the Messiah; but we must acknowledge, also, the extreme
corruption of his heart, his avarice, and all that he would have been
capable of doing, if God had permitted him to follow his bad
inclination and the inspiration of the evil spirit.
Diodorus of Sicily,[151] on the tradition of the Egyptians, says that
the Chaldeans who dwelt at Babylon and in Babylonia were a kind of
colony of the Egyptians, and that it was from these last that the
sages, or Magi of Babylon, learned the astronomy which gave such
celebrity.
We see, in Ezekiel,[152] the King of Babylon, marching against his
enemies at the head of his army, stop short where two roads meet, and
mingle the darts, to know by magic art, and the flight of these
arrows, which road he must take. In the ancients, this manner of
consulting the demon by divining wands is known--the Greeks call it
_Rhabdomanteia_.
The prophet Daniel speaks more than once of the magicians of Babylon.
King Nebuchadnezzar, having been frightened in a dream, sent for the
Magi, or magicians, diviners, aruspices, and Chaldeans, to interpret
the dream he had had.
King Belshazzar in the same manner convoked the magicians, Chaldeans,
and aruspices of the country, to explain to him the meaning of these
words which he saw written on the wall: _Mene_, _Tekel_, _Perez_. All
this indicates the habit of the Babylonians to exercise magic art, and
consult magicians, and that this pernicious art was held in high
repute among them. We read in the same prophet of the trickery made
use of by the priests to deceive the people, and make them believe
that their gods lived, ate, drank, spoke, and revealed to them hidden
things.
I have already mentioned the Magi who came to adore Jesus Christ;
there is no doubt that they came from Chaldea or the neighboring
country, but differing from those of whom we have just spoken, by
their piety, and having studied the true religion.
We read in books of travels that superstition, magic, and fascinations
are still very common in the East, both among the fire-worshipers
descended from the ancient Chaldeans, and among the Persians,
sectaries of Mohammed. St. Chrysostom had sent into Persia a holy
bishop, named Maruthas, to have the care of the Christians who were in
that country; the King Isdegerde having discovered him, treated him
with much consideration. The Magi, who adore and keep up the perpetual
fire, which is regarded by the Persians as their principal divinity,
were jealous at this, and concealed underground an apostate, who,
knowing that the king was to come and pay his adoration to the
(sacred) fire, was to cry out from the depth of his cavern that the
king must be deprived of his throne because he esteemed the Christian
priest as a friend of the gods. The king was alarmed at this, and
wished to send Maruthas away; but the latter discovered to him the
imposture of the priests; he caused the ground to be turned up where
the man's voice had been heard, and there they found him from whom it
proceeded.
This example, and those of the Babylonish priests spoken of by Daniel,
and that of some others, who, to satisfy their irregular passions,
pretended that their God required the company of certain women, proved
that what is usually taken for the effect of the black art is only
produced by the knavishness of priests, magicians, diviners, and all
kinds of persons who impose on the simplicity and credulity of the
people; I do not deny that the devil sometimes takes part in it, but
more rarely than is imagined.
Footnotes:
[145] Apud Syncell.
[146] Matt. iii. 1, 7, 36.
[147] Lev. xix. 31; xx.
[148] Acts viii. 9; xiii. 8.
[149] Porph. de Abstinent. lib. iv. § 16. Vid. et Ammian. Marcell.
lib. xxiii.
[150] Numb. xxiii. 1-3.
[151] Diodor. Sicul. lib. i. p. 5.
[152] Ezek. xxi. 21.
CHAPTER XII.
MAGIC AMONG THE GREEKS AND ROMANS.
The Greeks have always boasted that they received the art of magic
from the Persians, or the Bactrians. They affirm that Zoroaster
communicated it to them; but when we wish to know the exact time at
which Zoroaster lived, and when he taught them these pernicious
secrets, they wander widely from the truth, and even from probability;
some placing Zoroaster 600 years before the expedition of Xerxes into
Greece, which happened in the year of the world 3523, and before Jesus
Christ 477; others 500 years before the Trojan war; others 5000 years
before that famous war; others 6000 years before that great event.
Some believe that Zoroaster is the same as Ham, the son of Noah.
Lastly, others maintain that there were several Zoroasters. What
appears indubitably true is, that the worship of a plurality of gods,
as also magic, superstition, and oracles, came from the Egyptians and
Chaldeans, or Persians, to the Greeks, and from the Greeks to the
Latins.
From the time of Homer,[153] magic was quite common among the Greeks.
That poet speaks of the cure of wounds, and of blood staunched by the
secrets of magic, and by enchantment. St. Paul, when at Ephesus,
caused to be burned there books of magic and curious secrets, the
value of which amounted to the sum of 50,000 pieces of silver.[154] We
have before said a few words concerning Simon the magician, and the
magician Elymas, known in the Acts of the Apostles.[155] Pindar
says[156] that the centaur Chiron cured several enchantments. When
they say that Orpheus rescued from hell his wife Eurydice, who had
died from the bite of a serpent, they simply mean that he cured her by
the power of charms.[157] The poets have employed magic verses to make
themselves beloved, and they have taught them to others for the same
purpose; they may be seen in Theocritus, Catullus, and Virgil.
Theophrastus affirms that there are magical verses which cure
sciatica. Cato mentions (or repeats) some against luxations.[158]
Varro admits that there are some powerful against the gout.
The sacred books testify that enchanters have the secret of putting
serpents to sleep, and of charming them, so that they can never either
bite again or cause any more harm.[159] The crocodile, that terrible
animal, fears even the smell and voice of the Tentyriens.[160] Job,
speaking of the leviathan, which we believe to be the crocodile, says,
"Shall the enchanter destroy it?"[161] And in Ecclesiasticus, "Who
will pity the enchanter that has been bitten by the serpent?"[162]
Everybody knows what is related of the Marsi, people of Italy, and of
the Psyllæ, who possessed the secret of charming serpents. One would
say, says St. Augustine,[163] that these animals understand the
languages of the Marsi, so obedient are they to their orders; we see
them come out of their caverns as soon as the Marsian has spoken. All
this can only be done, says the same father, by the power of the
malignant spirit, whom God permits to exercise this empire over
venomous reptiles, above all, the serpent, as if to punish him for
what he did to the first woman. In fact, it may be remarked that no
animal is more exposed to charms, and the effects of magic art, than
the serpent.
The laws of the Twelve Tables forbid the charming of a neighbor's
crops, _qui fruges excantâsset_. Valerius Flaccus quotes authors who
affirm that when the Romans were about to besiege a town, they
employed their priests to evoke the divinity who presided over it,
promising him a temple in Rome, either like the one dedicated to him
in the besieged place, or on a rather larger scale, and that the
proper worship should be paid to him. Pliny says that the memory of
these evocations is preserved among the priests.
If that which we have just related, and what we read in ancient and
modern writers, is at all real, and produces the effects attributed to
it, it cannot be doubted that there is something supernatural in it,
and that the devil has a great share in the matter.
The Abbot Trithemius speaks of a sorceress who, by means of certain
beverages, changed a young Burgundian into a beast.
Everybody knows the fable of Circé, who changed the soldiers or
companions of Ulysses into swine. We know also the fable of the Golden
Ass, by Apuleius, which contains the account of a man metamorphosed
into an ass. I bring forward these things merely as what they are,
that is to say, simply poetic fictions.
But it is very credible that these fictions are not destitute of some
foundation, like many other fables, which contain not only a hidden
and moral sense, but which have also some relation to an event really
historical: for instance, what is said of the Golden Fleece carried
away by Jason; of the Wooden Horse, made use of to surprise the city
of Troy; the Twelve Labors of Hercules; the metamorphoses related by
Ovid. All fabulous as those things appear in the poets, they have,
nevertheless, their historical truth. And thus the pagan poets and
historians have travestied and disguised the stories of the Old
Testament, and have attributed to Bacchus, Jupiter, Saturn, Apollo,
and Hercules, what is related of Noah, Moses, Aaron, Samson, and
Jonah, &c.
Origen, writing against Celsus, supposes the reality of magic, and
says that the Magi who came to adore Jesus Christ at Bethlehem,
wishing to perform their accustomed operations, not being able to
succeed, a superior power preventing the effect and imposing silence
on the demon, they sought out the cause, and beheld at the same time a
divine sign in the heavens, whence they concluded that it was the
Being spoken of by Balaam, and that the new King whose birth he had
predicted, was born in Judea, and immediately they resolved to go and
seek him. Origen believes that magicians, according to the rules of
their art, often foretell the future, and that their predictions are
followed by the event, unless the power of God, or that of the angels,
prevents the effect of their conjurations, and puts them to
silence.[164]
Footnotes:
[153] Homer, Iliad, IV.
[154] Acts xix. 19.
[155] Acts viii. 9; xiii. 8.
[156] Pind. Od. iv.
[157] Plin. I. 28.
[158] Cato de Rerustic. c. 160.
[159] Psalm lvii. Jer. vii. 17. Eccles. x. 11.
[160] Plin. lib. viii. c. 50.
[161] Job xl. 25.
[162] Ecclus. xii. 13.
"Frigidus in pratis cantando rumpitur anguis."--_Virgil_, Ecl. viii.
"Vipereas rumpo verbis et carmine fauces."--_Ovid._
[163] Plin. lib. xxviii.
[164] The fables of Jason and many others of the same class are said
by Fortuitus Comes to have a reference to alchemy.
CHAPTER XIII.
EXAMPLES WHICH PROVE THE REALITY OF MAGIC.
St. Augustine[165] remarks that not only the poets, but the historians
even, relate that Diomede, of whom the Greeks have made a divinity,
had not the happiness to return to his country with the other princes
who had been at the siege of Troy; that his companions were changed
into birds, and that these birds have their dwelling in the environs
of the Temple of Diomede, which is situated near Mount Garganos; that
these birds caress the Greeks who come to visit this temple, but fly
at and peck the strangers who arrive there.
Varro, the most learned of Romans, to render this more credible,
relates what everybody knows about Circé, who changed the companions
of Ulysses into beasts; and what is said of the Arcadians, who, after
having drawn lots, swam over a certain lake, after which they were
metamorphosed into wolves, and ran about in the forests like other
wolves. If during the time of their transmutation they did not eat
human flesh, at the end of nine years they repassed the same lake, and
resumed their former shape.
The same Varro relates of a certain Demenotas that, having tasted the
flesh of a child which the Arcadians had immolated to their god Lycæa,
he had also been changed into a wolf, and ten years after he had
resumed his natural form, had appeared at the Olympic games, and won
the prize for pugilism.
St. Augustine testifies that in his time many believed that these
transformations still took place, and some persons even affirmed that
they had experienced them in their own persons. He adds that, when in
Italy, he was told that certain women gave cheese to strangers who
lodged at their houses, when these strangers were immediately changed
into beasts of burden, without losing their reason, and carried the
loads which were placed upon them; after which they returned to their
former state. He says, moreover, that a certain man, named
Præstantius, related that his father, having eaten of this magic
cheese, remained lying in bed, without any one being able to awaken
him for several days, when he awoke, and said that he had been changed
into a horse, and had carried victuals to the army; and the thing was
found to be true, although it appeared to him to be only a dream.
St. Augustine, reasoning on all this, says that either these things
are false, or else so extraordinary that we cannot give faith to them.
It is not to be doubted that God, by his almighty power, can do
anything that he thinks proper, but that the devil, who is of a
spiritual nature, can do nothing without the permission of God, whose
decrees are always just; that the demon can neither change the nature
of the spirit, or the body of a man, to transform him into a beast;
but that he can only act upon the fancy or imagination of a man, and
persuade him that he is what he is not, or that he appears to others
different from what he is; or that he remains in a deep sleep, and
believes during that slumber that he is bearing loads which the devil
carries for him; or that he (the devil) fascinates the eyes of those
who believe they see them borne by animals, or by men metamorphosed
into animals.
If we consider it only a change arising from fancy or imagination, as
it happens in the disorder called lycanthropy, in which a man believes
himself changed into a wolf, or into any other animal, as
Nebuchadnezzar, who believed himself changed into an ox, and acted for
seven years as if he had really been metamorphosed into that animal,
there would be nothing in that more marvelous than what we see in
hypochondriacs, who persuade themselves that they are kings, generals,
popes, and cardinals; that they are snow, glass, pottery, &c. Like him
who, being alone at the theatre, believed that he beheld there actors
and admirable representations; or the man who imagined that all the
vessels which arrived at the port of Pireus, near Athens, belonged to
him; or, in short, what we see every day in dreams, and which appear
to us very real during our sleep. In all this, it is needless to have
recourse to the devil, or to magic, fascination, or illusion; there
is nothing above the natural order of things. But that, by means of
certain beverages, certain herbs, and certain kinds of food, a person
may disturb the imagination, and persuade another that he is a wolf, a
horse, or an ass, appears more difficult of explanation, although we
are aware that plants, herbs, and medicaments possess great power over
the bodies of men, and are capable of deranging the brain,
constitution, and imagination. We have but too many examples of such
things.
Another circumstance which, if true, deserves much reflection, is that
of Apollonius of Tyana, who, being at Ephesus during a great plague
which desolated the city, promised the Ephesians to cause the pest to
cease the very day on which he was speaking to them, and which was
that of his second arrival in their town. He assembled them at the
theatre, and ordered them to stone to death a poor old man, covered
with rags, who asked alms. "Strike," cried he, "that enemy of the
gods! heap stones upon him." They could not make up their minds to do
so, for he excited their pity, and asked mercy in the most touching
manner. But Apollonius pressed it so much, that at last they slew him,
and amassed over him an immense heap of stones. A little while after
he told them to take away these stones, and they would see what sort
of an animal they had killed. They found only a great dog, and were
convinced that this old man was only a phantom who had fascinated
their eyes, and caused the pestilence in their town.
We here see five remarkable things:--1st. The demon who causes the
plague in Ephesus; 2d. This same demon, who, instead of a dog, causes
the appearance of a man; 3d. The fascination of the senses of the
Ephesians, who believe that they behold a man instead of a dog; 4th.
The proof of the magic of Apollonius, who discovers the cause of this
pestilence; 5th. And who makes it cease at the given time.
Æneas Sylvius Picolomini, who was afterwards Pope by the name of Pius
II., writes, in his History of Bohemia, that a woman predicted to a
soldier of King Wratislaus, that the army of that prince would be cut
in pieces by the Duke of Bohemia, and that, if this soldier wished to
avoid death, he must kill the first person he should meet on the road,
cut off their ears, and put them in his pocket; that with the sword he
had used to pierce them he must trace on the ground a cross between
his horse's legs; that he must kiss it, and then take flight. All this
the young soldier performed. Wratislaus gave battle, lost it, and was
killed. The young soldier escaped; but on entering his house, he found
that it was his wife whom he had killed and run his sword through, and
whose ears he had cut off.
This woman was, then, strangely disguised and metamorphosed, since
her husband could not recognize her, and she did not make herself
known to him in such perilous circumstances, when her life was in
danger. These two were, then, apparently magicians; both she who made
the prediction, and the other on whom it was exercised. God permits,
on this occasion, three great evils. The first magician counsels the
murder of an innocent person; the young man commits it on his own wife
without knowing her; and the latter dies in a state of condemnation,
since by the secrets of magic she had rendered it impossible to
recognize her.
A butcher's wife of the town of Jena, in the duchy of Wiemar in
Thuringia,[166] having refused to let an old woman have a calf's head
for which she offered very little, the old woman went away grumbling
and muttering. A little time after this the butcher's wife felt
violent pains in her head. As the cause of this malady was unknown to
the cleverest physicians, they could find no remedy for it; from time
to time a substance like brains came from this woman's left ear, and
at first it was supposed to be her own brain. But as she suspected
that old woman of having cast a spell upon her on account of the
calf's head, they examined the thing more minutely, and they saw that
these were calf's brains; and what strengthened this opinion was that
splinters of calf's-head bones came out with the brains. This disorder
continued some time; at last the butcher's wife was perfectly cured.
This happened in 1685. M. Hoffman, who relates this story in his
dissertation _on the Power of the Demon over Bodies_, printed in 1736,
says that the woman was perhaps still alive.
One day they brought to St. Macarius the Egyptian, a virtuous woman
who had been transformed into a mare by the pernicious arts of a
magician. Her husband, and all those who saw her, thought that she
really was changed into a mare. This woman remained three days and
three nights without tasting any food, proper either for man or horse.
They showed her to the priests of the place, who could apply no
remedy.
Then they led her to the cell of St. Macarius, to whom God had
revealed that she was to come; his disciples wanted to send her back,
thinking that it was a mare. They informed the saint of her arrival,
and the subject of her journey. "He said to them, You are downright
animals yourselves, thinking you see what is not; that woman is not
changed, but your eyes are fascinated. At the same time he sprinkled
holy water on the woman's head, and all present beheld her in her
former state. He gave her something to eat, and sent her away safe and
sound with her husband. As he sent her away the saint said to her, Do
not keep from church, for this has happened to you for having been
five weeks without taking the sacrament of our Lord, or attending
divine service."
St. Hilarion, much in the same manner, cured by virtue of holy water a
young girl, whom a magician had rendered most violently amorous of a
young man. The demon who possessed her cried aloud to St. Hilarion,
"You make me endure the most cruel torments, for I cannot come out
till the young man who caused me to enter shall unloose me, for I am
enchained under the threshold of the door by a band of copper covered
with magical characters, and by the tow which envelops it." Then St.
Hilarion said to him, "Truly your power is very great, to suffer
yourself to be bound by a bit of copper and a little thread;" at the
same time, without permitting these things to be taken from under the
threshold of the door, he chased away the demon and cured the girl.
In the same place, St. Jerome relates that one Italicus, a citizen of
Gaza and a Christian, who brought up horses for the games in the
circus, had a pagan antagonist who hindered and held back the horses
of Italicus in their course, and gave most extraordinary celerity to
his own. Italicus came to St. Hilarion, and told him the subject he
had for uneasiness. The saint laughed and said to him, "Would it not
be better to give the value of your horses to the poor rather than
employ them in such exercises?" "I cannot do as I please," said
Italicus; "it is a public employment which I fill, because I cannot
help it, and as a Christian I cannot employ malpractices against those
used against me." The brothers, who were present, interceded for him;
and St. Hilarion gave him the earthen vessel out of which he drank,
filled it with water, and told him to sprinkle his horses with it.
Italicus not only sprinkled his horses with this water, but likewise
his stable and chariot all over; and the next day the horses and
chariot of this rival were left far behind his own; which caused the
people to shout in the theatre, "Marnas is vanished--Jesus Christ is
victorious!" And this victory of Italicus produced the conversion of
several persons at Gaza.
Will it be said that this is only the effect of imagination,
prepossession, or the trickery of a clever charlatan? How can you
persuade fifty people that a woman who is present before their eyes
can be changed into a mare, supposing that she has retained her own
natural shape? How was it that the soldier mentioned by Æneas Sylvius
did not recognize his wife, whom he pierced with his sword, and whose
ears he cut off? How did Apollonius of Tyana persuade the Ephesians to
kill a man, who really was only a dog? How did he know that this dog,
or this man, was the cause of the pestilence which afflicted Ephesus?
It is then very credible that the evil spirit often acts on bodies, on
the air, the earth, and on animals, and produces effects which appear
above the power of man.
It is said that in Lapland they have a school for magic, and that
fathers send their children to it, being persuaded that magic is
necessary to them, that they may avoid falling into the snares of
their enemies, who are themselves great magicians. They make the
familiar demons, whose services they command, pass as an inheritance
to their children, that they may make use of them to overcome the
demons of other families who are adverse to their own. They often make
use of a certain kind of drum for their magical operations; for
instance, if they wish to know what is passing in a foreign country,
one amongst them beats this drum, placing upon it at the part where
the image of the sun is represented, a quantity of pewter rings
attached together with a chain of the same metal; then they strike the
drum with a forked hammer made of bone, so that these rings move; at
the same time they sing distinctly a song, called by the Laplanders
_Jonk_; and all those of their nation who are present, men and women,
add their own songs, expressing from time to time the name of the
place whence they desire to have news.
The Laplander having beaten the drum for some time, places it on his
head in a certain manner, and falls down directly motionless on the
ground, and without any sign of life. All the men and all the women
continue singing, till he revives; if they cease to sing, the man
dies, which happens also if any one tries to awaken him by touching
his hand or his foot. They even keep the flies from him, which by
their humming might awaken him and bring him back to life.
When he is recovered he replies to the questions they ask him
concerning the place he has been at. Sometimes he does not awake for
four-and-twenty hours, sometimes more, sometimes less, according to
the distance he has gone; and in confirmation of what he says, and of
the distance he has been, he brings back from the place he has been
sent to the token demanded of him, a knife, a ring, shoes, or some
other object.[167]
These same Laplanders make use also of this drum to learn the cause of
any malady, or to deprive their enemies of their life or their
strength. Moreover, amongst them are certain magicians, who keep in a
kind of leathern game-bag magic flies, which they let loose from time
to time against their enemies or against their cattle, or simply to
raise tempests and hurricanes. They have also a sort of dart which
they hurl into the air, and which causes the death of any one it falls
upon. They have also a sort of little ball called _tyre_, almost
round, which they send in the same way against their enemies to
destroy them; and if by ill luck this ball should hit on its way some
other person, or some animal, it will inevitably cause its death.
Who can be persuaded that the Laplanders who sell fair winds, raise
storms, relate what passes in distant places, where they go, as they
say, in the spirit, and bring back things which they have found
there--who can persuade themselves that all this is done without the
aid of magic? It has been said that in the circumstance of Apollonius
of Tyana, they contrived to send away the man all squalid and
deformed, and put in his place a dog which was stoned, or else they
substituted a dead dog. All which would require a vast deal of
preparation, and would be very difficult to execute in sight of all
the people: it would, perhaps, be better to deny the fact altogether,
which certainly does appear very fabulous, than to have recourse to
such explanations.
Footnotes:
[165] Aug. de Civit. Dei, lib. xviii. c. 16-18.
[166] Frederici Hoffman, de Diaboli Potentia in Corpora, p. 382.
[167] See John Schesser, _Laponia_, printed at Frankfort in 4to. an.
1673, chap. xi. entitled, _De sacris Magicis et Magia Laponia_, p.
119, and following.
CHAPTER XIV.
EFFECTS OF MAGIC ACCORDING TO THE POETS.
Were we to believe what is said by the poets concerning the effects of
magic, and what the magicians boast of being able to perform by their
spells, nothing would be more marvelous than their art, and we should
be obliged to acknowledge that the power of the demon was greatly
shown thereby. Pliny[168] relates that Appian evoked the spirit of
Homer, to learn from him which was his country, and who were his
parents. Philostratus says[169] that Apollonius of Tyana went to the
tomb of Achilles, evoked his manes, and implored them to cause the
figure of that hero to appear to him; the tomb trembled, and
afterwards he beheld a young man, who at first appeared about five
cubits, or seven feet and a half high--after which, the phantom
dilated to twelve cubits, and appeared of a singular beauty.
Apollonius asked him some frivolous questions, and as the young man
jested indecently with him, he comprehended that he was possessed by a
demon; this demon he expelled, and cured the young man. But all this
is fabulous.
Lactantius,[170] refuting the philosophers Democritus, Epicurus, and
Dicearchus, who denied the immortality of the soul, says they would
not dare to maintain their opinion before a magician, who, by the
power of his art, and by his spells, possessed the secret of bringing
souls from Hades, of making them appear, speak, and foretell the
future, and give certain signs of their presence.
St. Augustine,[171] always circumspect in his decisions, dare not
pronounce whether magicians possess the power of evoking the spirits
of saints by the might of their enchantments. But Tertullian[172] is
bolder, and maintains that no magical art has power to bring the souls
of the saints from their rest; but that all the necromancers can do is
to call forth some phantoms with a borrowed shape, which fascinate the
eyes, and make those who are present believe that to be a reality
which is only appearance. In the same place he quotes Heraclius, who
says that the Nasamones, people of Africa, pass the night by the tombs
of their near relations to receive oracles from the latter; and that
the Celts, or Gauls, do the same thing in the mausoleums of great men,
as related by Nicander.
Lucan says[173] that the magicians, by their spells, cause thunder in
the skies unknown to Jupiter; that they tear the moon from her sphere,
and precipitate her to earth; that they disturb the course of nature,
prolong the nights, and shorten the days; that the universe is
obedient to their voice, and that the world is chilled as it were when
they speak and command.[174] They were so well persuaded that the
magicians possessed power to make the moon come down from the sky, and
they so truly believed that she was evoked by magic art whenever she
was eclipsed, that they made a great noise by striking on copper
vessels, to prevent the voice which pronounced enchantments from
reaching her.[175]
These popular opinions and poetical fictions deserve no credit, but
they show the force of prejudice.[176] It is affirmed that, even at
this day, the Persians think they are assisting the moon when eclipsed
by striking violently on brazen vessels, and making a great uproar.
Ovid[177] attributes to the enchantments of magic the evocation of the
infernal powers, and their dismissal back to hell; storms, tempests,
and the return of fine weather. They attributed to it the power of
changing men into beasts by means of certain herbs, the virtues of
which are known to them.[178]
Virgil[179] speaks of serpents put to sleep and enchanted by the
magicians. And Tibullus says that he has seen the enchantress bring
down the stars from heaven, and turn aside the thunderbolt ready to
fall upon the earth--and that she has opened the ground and made the
dead come forth from their tombs.
As this matter allows of poetical ornaments, the poets have vied with
each other in endeavoring to adorn their pages with them, not that
they were convinced there was any truth in what they said; they were
the first to laugh at it when an opportunity presented itself, as well
as the gravest and wisest men of antiquity. But neither princes nor
priests took much pains to undeceive the people, or to destroy their
prejudices on those subjects. The Pagan religion allowed them, nay,
authorized them, and part of its practices were founded on similar
superstitions.
Footnotes:
[168] Plin. lib. iii. c. 2.
[169] Philost. Vit. Apollon.
[170] Lactant. lib. vi. Divin. Instit. c. 13.
[171] Aug. ad Simplic.
[172] Tertull. de Animâ, c. 57.
[173] Lucan. Pharsal. lib. vi. 450, _et seq._
[174]
"Cessavere vices rerum, dilataque longa,
Hæsit nocte dies; legi non paruit æther;
Torpuit et præceps audito carmine mundus;
Et tonat ignaro coelum Jove."
[175]
"Cantat et e curro tentat deducere Lunam
Et faceret, si non æra repulsa sonent."
_Tibull._ lib. i. Eleg. ix. 21.
[176] Pietro della Valle, Voyage.
[177]
".... Obscurum verborum ambage nervorum
Ter novies carmen magico demurmurat ore.
Jam ciet infernas magico stridore catervas,
Jam jubet aspersum lacte referre pedem.
Cùm libet, hæc tristi depellit nubila coelo;
Cùm libet, æstivo provocat orbe nives."
_Ovid. Metamorph._ 14.
[178]
"Naïs nam ut cantu, nimiumque potentibus herbis
Verterit in tacitos juvenilia corpora pisces."
[179]
"Vipereo generi et graviter spirantibus hydris
Spargere qui somnos cantuque manque solebat,"
CHAPTER XV.
OF THE PAGAN ORACLES.
If it were well proved that the oracles of pagan antiquity were the
work of the evil spirit, we could give more real and palpable proofs
of the apparition of the demon among men than these boasted oracles,
which were given in almost every country in the world, among the
nations which passed for the wisest and most enlightened, as the
Egyptians, Chaldeans, Persians, Syrians, even the Hebrews, Greeks, and
Romans. Even the most barbarous people were not without their oracles.
In the pagan religion there was nothing esteemed more honorable, or
more complacently boasted of.
In all their great undertakings they had recourse to the oracle; by
that was decided the most important affairs between town and town, or
province and province. The manner in which the oracles were rendered
was not everywhere the same. It is said[180] the bull Apis, whose
worship was anciently established in Egypt, gave out his oracles on
his receiving food from the hand of him who consulted. If he received
it, say they, it was considered a good omen; if he refused it, this
was a bad augury. When this animal appeared in public, he was
accompanied by a troop of children, who sang hymns in his honor; after
which these boys were filled with sacred enthusiasm, and began to
predict future events. If the bull went quietly into his lodge, it was
a happy sign;[181] if he came out, it was the contrary. Such was the
blindness of the Egyptians.
There were other oracles also in Egypt:[182] as those of Mercury,
Apollo, Hercules, Diana, Minerva, Jupiter Ammon, &c., which last was
consulted by Alexander the Great. But Herodotus remarks that in his
time there were neither priests nor priestesses who uttered oracles.
They were derived from certain presages, which they drew by chance, or
from the movements of the statues of the gods, or from the first voice
which they heard after having consulted. Pausanias says[183] that he
who consults whispers in the ear of Mercury what he requires to know,
then he stops his ears, goes out of the temple, and the first words
which he hears from the first person he meets are held as the answer
of the god.
The Greeks acknowledge that they received from the Egyptians both the
names of their gods and their most ancient oracles; amongst others
that of Dodona, which was already much resorted to in the time of
Homer,[184] and which came from the oracle of Jupiter of Thebes: for
the Egyptian priests related that two priestesses of that god had been
carried off by Phoenician merchants, who had sold them, one into
Libya and the other into Greece.[185] Those of Dodona related that two
black doves had flown from Thebes of Egypt--that the one which had
stopped at Dodona had perched upon a beech-tree, and had declared in an
articulate voice that the gods willed that an oracle of Jupiter should
be established in this place; and that the other, having flown into
Lybia, had there formed or founded the oracle of Jupiter Ammon. These
origins are certainly very frivolous and very fabulous. The Oracle of
Delphi is more recent and more celebrated. Phemonoé was the first
priestess of Delphi, and began in the time of Acrisius, twenty-seven
years before Orpheus, Musæus, and Linus. She is said to have been the
inventress of hexameters.
But I think I can remark vestiges of oracles in Egypt, from the time
of the patriarch Joseph, and from the time of Moses. The Hebrews had
dwelt for 215 years in Egypt, and having multiplied there exceedingly,
had begun to form a separate people and a sort of republic. They had
imbibed a taste for the ceremonies, the superstitions, the customs,
and the idolatry of the Egyptians.
Joseph was considered the cleverest diviner and the greatest expounder
of dreams in Egypt. They believed that he derived his oracles from the
inspection of the liquor which he poured into his cup. Moses, to cure
the Hebrews of their leaning to the idolatry and superstitions of
Egypt, prescribed to them laws and ceremonies which favored his
design; the first, diametrically opposite to those of the Egyptians;
the second, bearing some resemblance to theirs in appearance, but
differing both in their aim and circumstances.
For instance, the Egyptians were accustomed to consult diviners,
magicians, interpreters of dreams, and augurs; all which things are
forbidden to the Hebrews by Moses, on pain of rigorous punishment; but
in order that they might have no room to complain that their religion
did not furnish them with the means of discovering future events and
hidden things, God, with condescension worthy of reverential
admiration, granted them the _Urim and Thummim_, or the Doctrine and
the Truth, with which the high-priest was invested according to the
ritual in the principal ceremonies of religion, and by means of which
he rendered oracles, and discovered the will of the Most High. When
the ark of the covenant and the tabernacle were constructed, the Lord,
consulted by Moses,[186] gave out his replies from between the two
cherubim which were placed upon the mercy-seat above the ark. All
which seems to insinuate that, from the time of the patriarch Joseph,
there had been oracles and diviners in Egypt, and that the Hebrews
consulted them.
God promised his people to raise up a prophet[187] among them, who
should declare to them his will: in fact, we see in almost all ages
among them, prophets inspired by God; and the true prophets reproached
them vehemently for their impiety, when instead of coming to the
prophets of the Lord, they went to consult strange oracles,[188] and
divinities equally powerless and unreal.
We have spoken before of the teraphim of Laban, of the idols or
pretended oracles of Micah and Gideon. King Saul, who, apparently by
the advice of Samuel, had exterminated diviners and magicians from the
land of Israel, desired in the last war to consult the Lord, who would
not reply to him. He then afterwards addressed himself to a witch, who
promised him she would evoke Samuel for him. She did, or feigned to do
so, for the thing offers many difficulties, into which we shall not
enter here.
The same Saul having consulted the Lord on another occasion, to know
whether he must pursue the Philistines whom he had just defeated, God
refused also to reply to him,[189] because his son Jonathan had tasted
some honey, not knowing that the king had forbidden his army to taste
anything whatever before his enemies were entirely overthrown.
The silence of the Lord on certain occasions, and his refusal to
answer sometimes when He was consulted, are an evident proof that He
usually replied, and that they were certain of receiving instructions
from Him, unless they raised an obstacle to it by some action which
was displeasing to Him.
Footnotes:
[180] Plin. lib. viii. c. 48.
[181] Herodot. lib. ix.
[182] _Vide_ Joan. Marsham, Sæc. iv. pp. 62, 63.
[183] Pausan. lib. vii. p. 141.
[184] Homer, Iliad, xii. 2, 235.
[185] Herodot. lib. ii. c. 52, 55.
[186] Exod. xxv. 22.
[187] Deut. xviii. 13.
[188] 2 Kings i. 2, 3, 16, &c.
[189] 1 Sam. xiv. 24.
CHAPTER XVI.
THE CERTAINTY OF THE EVENT PREDICTED IS NOT ALWAYS A PROOF THAT THE
PREDICTION COMES FROM GOD.
Moses had foreseen that so untractable and superstitious a people as
the Israelites would not rest satisfied with the reasonable, pious,
and supernatural means which he had procured them for discovering
future events, by giving them prophets and the oracle of the
high-priest. He knew that there would arise among them false prophets
and seducers, who would endeavor by their illusions and magical
secrets to mislead them into error; whence it was that he said to
them:[190] "If there should arise among you a prophet, or any one who
boasts of having had a dream, and he foretells a wonder, or anything
which surpasses the ordinary power of man, and what he predicts shall
happen; and after that he shall say unto you, Come, let us go and
serve the strange gods, which you have not known; you shall not
hearken unto him, because the Lord your God will prove you, to see
whether you love Him with all your heart and with all your
soul."
Certainly, nothing is more likely to mislead us than to see what has
been foretold by any one come to pass.
"Show the things that are to come," says Isaiah,[191] "that we may
know that ye are gods. Let them come, let them foretell what is to
happen, and what has been done of old, and we will believe in them,"
&c. _Idoneum testimonium divinationis_, says Turtullian,[192] _veritas
divinationis_. And St. Jerome,[193] _Confitentur magi, confitentur
arioli, et omnis scientia sæcularis litteraturæ, præescientiam
futurorum non esse hominum, sed Dei_.
Nevertheless, we have just seen that Moses acknowledges that false
prophets can predict things which will happen. And the Saviour warns
us in the Gospel that at the end of the world several false prophets
will arise, who will seduce many[194]--"They shall shew great signs
and wonders, insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive
even the elect." It is not, then, precisely either the successful
issue of the event which decides in favor of the false prophet--nor
the default of the predictions made by true prophets which proves that
they are not sent by God.
Jonah was sent to foretell the destruction of Nineveh,[195] which did
not come to pass; and many other threats of the prophets were not put
into execution, because God, moved by the repentance of the sinful,
revoked or commuted his former sentence. The repentance of the
Ninevites guarantied them against the last misfortune.
Isaiah had distinctly foretold to King Hezekiah[196] that he would not
recover from his illness: "Set thine house in order, for thou shalt
die, and not live." Nevertheless, God, moved with the prayer of this
prince, revoked the sentence of death; and before the prophet had left
the court of the king's house, God commanded him to return and tell
the king that God would add yet fifteen years to his life.
Moses assigns the mark of a true prophet to be, when he leads us to
God and his worship--and the mark of a false prophet is, when he
withdraws us from the Lord, and inclines us to superstition and
idolatry. Balaam was a true prophet, inspired by God, who foretold
things which were followed up by the event; but his morals were very
corrupt, and he was extremely self-interested. He did everything he
could to deserve the recompense promised him by the king of Moab, and
to curse and immolate Israel.[197] God did not permit him to do so; he
put into his mouth blessings instead of curses; he did not induce the
Israelites to forsake the Lord; but he advised the Moabites to seduce
the people of God, and cause them to commit fornication, and to worship
the idols of the country, and by that means to irritate God against
them, and draw upon them the effects of his vengeance. Moses caused the
chiefs among the people, who had consented to this crime, to be hung;
and caused to perish the Midianites who had led the Hebrews into it.
And lastly, Balaam, who was the first cause of this evil, was also
punished with death.[198]
In all the predictions of diviners or oracles, when they are followed
by fulfilment, we can hardly disavow that the evil spirit intervenes,
and discovers the future to those who consult him. St. Augustine, in
his book _de Divinatione Dæmonum_,[199] or of predictions made by the
evil spirit, when they are fulfilled, supposes that the demons are of
an aërial nature, and much more subtile than bodies in general;
insomuch that they surpass beyond comparison the lightness both of men
and the swiftest animals, and even the flight of birds, which enables
them to announce things that are passing in very distant places, and
beyond the common reach of men. Moreover, as they are not subject to
death as we are, they have acquired infinitely more experience than
even those who possess the most among mankind, and are the most
attentive to what happens in the world. By that means they can
sometimes predict things to come, announce several things at a
distance, and do some wonderful things; which has often led mortals to
pay them divine honors, believing them to be of a nature much more
excellent than their own.
But when we reflect seriously on what the demons predict, we may
remark that often they announce nothing but what they are to do
themselves.[200] For God permits them, sometimes, to cause maladies,
corrupt the air, and produce in it qualities of an infectious nature,
and to incline the wicked to persecute the worthy. They perform these
operations in a hidden manner, by resources unknown to mortals, and
proportionate to the subtilty of their own nature. They can announce
what they have foreseen must happen by certain natural tokens unknown
to men, like as a physician foresees by the secret of his art the
symptoms and the consequences of a malady which no one else can. Thus,
the demon, who knows our constitution and the secret tendency of our
humors, can foretell the maladies which are the consequences of them.
He can also discover our thoughts and our secret wishes by certain
external motions, and by certain expressions we let fall by chance,
whence he infers that men would do or undertake certain things
consequent upon these thoughts or inclinations.
But his predictions are far from being comparable with those revealed
to us by God, through his angels, or the prophets; these are always
certain and infallible, because they have for their principle God, who
is truth; while the predictions of the demons are often deceitful,
because the arrangements on which they are founded can be changed and
deranged, when they least expect it, by unforeseen and unexpected
circumstances, or by the authority of superior powers overthrowing the
first plans, or by a peculiar disposition of Providence, who sets
bounds to the power of the prince of darkness. Sometimes, also, demons
purposely deceive those who have the weakness to place confidence in
them. But, usually, they throw the fault upon those who have taken on
themselves to interpret their discourses and predictions.
So says St. Augustine;[201] and although we do not quite agree with
him, but hold the opinion that souls, angels and demons are disengaged
from all matter or substance, still we can apply his reasoning to evil
spirits, even upon the supposition that they are immaterial--and own
that sometimes they can predict the future, and that their predictions
may be fulfilled; but that is not a proof of their being sent by God,
or inspired by his Spirit. Even were they to work miracles, we must
anathematize them as soon as they turn us from the worship of the true
God, or incline us to irregular lives.
Footnotes:
[190] Deut. xiii. 1, 2.
[191] Isaiah xli. 22, 23.
[192] Tertull. Apolog. c. 20.
[193] Hieronym. in Dan.
[194] Matt. xxiv. 11, 24.
[195] Jonah i. 2.
[196] Kings xx. 1. Isai. xxxviii. 1.
[197] Numb. xxii. xxiii. xxiv.
[198] Numb. xxxi. 8.
[199] Aug. de Divinat. Dæmon. c. 3, pp. 507, 508, _et seq._
[200] Idem. c. 5.
[201] S. August. in his Retract. lib. ii. c. 30, owns that he advanced
this too lightly.
CHAPTER XVII.
REASONS WHICH LEAD US TO BELIEVE THAT THE GREATER PART OF THE ANCIENT
ORACLES WERE ONLY IMPOSITIONS OF THE PRIESTS AND PRIESTESSES, WHO
FEIGNED THAT THEY WERE INSPIRED BY GOD.
If it is true, as has been thought by many, both among the ancients
and the moderns, that the oracles of pagan antiquity were only
illusions and deceptions on the part of the priests and priestesses,
who said that they were possessed by the spirit of Python, and filled
with the inspiration of Apollo, who discovered to them internally
things hidden and past, or present and future, I must not place them
here in the rank of evil spirits. The devil has no other share in the
matter than he has always in the crimes of men, and in that multitude
of sins which cupidity, ambition, interest, and self-love produce in
the world; the demon being always ready to seize an occasion to
mislead us, and draw us into irregularity and error, employing all
our passions to lead us into these snares. If what he has foretold is
followed by fulfilment, either by chance, or because he has foreseen
certain circumstances unknown to men, he takes to himself all the
credit of it, and makes use of it to gain our confidence and
conciliate credit for his predictions; if the thing is doubtful, and
he knows not what the issue of it will be, the demon, the priest, or
priestess will pronounce an equivocal oracle, in order that at all
events they may appear to have spoken true.
The ancient legislators of Greece, the most skillful politicians, and
generals of armies, dexterously made use of the prepossession of the
people in favor of oracles, to persuade them what they had concerted
was approved of by the gods, and announced by the oracle. These things
and these oracles were often followed by success, not because the
oracle had predicted or ordained it, but because the enterprise being
well concerted and well conducted, and the soldiers also perfectly
persuaded that God was on their side, fought with more than ordinary
valor. Sometimes they gained over the priestess by the aid of
presents, and thus disposed her to give favorable replies. Demosthenes
haranguing at Athens against Philip, King of Macedon, said that the
priestess of Delphi _Philipized_, and only pronounced oracles
conformable to the inclinations, advantage, and interest of that
prince.
Porphyry, the greatest enemy of the Christian name,[202] makes no
difficulty of owning that these oracles were dictated by the spirit of
falsehood, and that the demons are the true authors of enchantments,
philtres, and spells; that they fascinate or deceive the eyes by the
spectres and phantoms which they cause to appear; that they
ambitiously desire to pass for gods; that their aërial and spiritual
bodies are nourished by the smell and smoke of the blood and fat of
the animals which are immolated to them; and that the office of
uttering oracles replete with falsehood, equivocation, and deceit has
devolved upon them. At the head of these demons he places _Hecate and
Serapis_. Jamblichus, another pagan author, speaks of them in the same
manner, and with as much contempt.
The ancient fathers who lived so near the times when these oracles
existed, several of whom had forsaken paganism and embraced
Christianity, and who consequently knew more about the oracles than we
can, speak of them as things invented, governed, and maintained by the
demons. The most sensible among the heathens do not speak of them
otherwise, but also they confess that often the malice, imposition,
servility and interest of the priests had great share in the matter,
and that they abused the simplicity, credulity and prepossessions of
the people.
Plutarch says,[203] that a governor of Cilicia having sent to consult
the oracle of Mopsus, as he was going to Malle in the same country,
the man who carried the billet fell asleep in the temple, where he saw
in a dream a handsome looking man, who said to him the single word
_black_. He carried this reply to the governor, whose mysterious
question he knew nothing about. Those who heard this answer laughed at
it, not knowing what was in the billet: but the governor having opened
it showed them these words written in it; _shall I immolate to thee a
black ox or a white one?_ and that the oracle had thus answered his
question without opening the note. But who can answer for their not
having deceived the bearer of the billet in this case, as did
Alexander of Abonotiche, a town of Paphlagonia, in Asia Minor. This
man had the art to persuade the people of his country that he had with
him the god Esculapius, in the shape of a tame serpent, who pronounced
oracles, and replied to the consultations addressed to him on divers
diseases without opening the billets they placed on the altar of the
temple of this pretended divinity; after which, without opening them,
they found the next morning the reply written below. All the trick
consisted in the seal being raised artfully by a heated needle, and
then replaced after having written the reply at the bottom of the
note, in an obscure and enigmatical style, after the manner of other
oracles. At other times he used mastic, which being yet soft, took the
impression of the seal, then when that was hardened he put on another
seal with the same impression. He received about ten sols (five pence)
per billet, and this game lasted all his life, which was a long one;
for he died at the age of seventy, being struck by lightning, near the
end of the second century of the Christian era: all which may be found
more at length in the book of Lucian, entitled _Pseudo Manes_, or _the
false Diviner_. The priest of the oracle of Mopsus could by the same
secret open the billet of the governor who consulted him, and showing
himself during the night to the messenger, declared to him the
above-mentioned reply.
Macrobius[204] relates that the Emperor Trajan, to prove the oracle of
Heliopolis in Phoenicia, sent him a well-sealed letter in which
nothing was written; the oracle commanded that a blank letter should
also be sent to the emperor. The priests of the oracle were much
surprised at this, not knowing the reason of it. Another time the same
emperor sent to consult this same oracle to know whether he should
return safe from his expedition against the Parthians. The oracle
commanded that they should send him some branches of a knotted vine,
which was sacred in his temple. Neither the emperor nor any one else
could guess what that meant; but his body, or rather his bones, having
been brought to Rome after his death, which happened during his journey,
it was supposed that the oracle had intended to predict his death, and
designate his fleshless bones, which somewhat resemble the branches of a
vine.
It is easy to explain this quite otherwise. If he had returned
victorious, the vine being the source of wine which rejoices the heart
of man, and is agreeable to both gods and men, would have typified his
victory--and if the expedition had proved fruitless, the wood of the
vine, which is useless for any kind of work, and only good for burning
as firewood, might in that case signify the inutility of this
expedition. It is allowed that the artifice, malice, and inventions of
the heathen priests had much to do with the oracles; but are we to
infer from this that the demon had no part in the matter?
We must allow that as by degrees the light of the Gospel was spread in
the world, the reign of the demon, ignorance, corruption of morals,
and crime, diminished. The priests who pretended to predict, by the
inspiration of the evil spirit, things concealed from mortal
knowledge, or who misled the people by their illusions and impostures,
were obliged to confess that the Christians imposed silence on them,
either by the empire they exercised over the devil, or else by
discovering the malice and knavishness of the priests, which the
people had not dared to sound, from a blind respect which they had for
this mystery of iniquity.
If in our days any one would deny that in former times there were
oracles which were rendered by the inspiration of the demon, we might
convince him of it by what is still practiced in Lapland, and by what
missionaries[205] relate, that in India the demon reveals things
hidden and to come, not by the mouth of idols, but by that of the
priests, who are present when they interrogate either the statues or
the demon. And they remark that there the demon becomes mute and
powerless, in proportion as the light of the Gospel is spread among
these nations. Thus then the silence of the oracles may be
attributed--1. To a superhuman cause, which is the power of Jesus
Christ, and the publication of the Gospel. 2. Mankind are become less
superstitious, and bolder in searching out the cause of these
pretended revelations. 3. To their having become less credulous, as
Cicero says.[206] 4. Because princes have imposed silence on the
oracles, fearing that they might inspire the nation with rebellious
principles. For which reason, Lucan says, that princes feared to
discover the future.[207]
Strabo[208] conjectures that the Romans neglected them because they
had the Sibylline books, and their auspices (aruspices, or
haruspices), which stood them instead of oracles. M. Vandale
demonstrates that some remains of the oracles might yet be seen under
the Christian emperors. It was then only in process of time that
oracles were entirely abolished; and it may be boldly asserted that
sometimes the evil spirit revealed the future, and inspired the
ministers of false gods, by permission of the Almighty, who wished to
punish the confidence of the infidels in their idols. It would be
going too far, if we affirmed that all that was said of the oracles
was only the effect of the artifices or the malice of the priests, who
always imposed on the credulity of mankind. Read on this subject the
learned reply of Father Balthus to the treatises of MM. Vandale and
Fontenelle.
Footnotes:
[202] Porphr. apud Euseb. de Præpar. Evang. lib, iv. c. 5, 6.
[203] Plutarch, de Defectu Oracul. p. 434.
[204] Macrob. Saturnal. lib. i. c. 23.
[205] Lettres édifiantes, tom. x.
[206] Cicero, de Divinat. lib. ii. c. 57.
[207]
"Reges timent futura
Et superos vetant loqui."
_Lucan_, Pharsal. lib. v. p. 112.
[208] Strabo, lib. xvii.
CHAPTER XVIII.
ON SORCERERS AND SORCERESSES, OR WITCHES.
The empire of the devil nowhere shines forth with more lustre than in
what is related of the Sabbath (witches' sabbath or assembly), where
he receives the homage of those of both sexes who have abandoned
themselves to him. It is there, the wizards and witches say, that he
exercises the greatest authority, and appears in a visible form, but
always hideous, misshapen, and terrible; always during the night in
out-of-the-way places, and arrayed in a manner more gloomy than gay,
rather sad and dull, than majestic and brilliant. If they pay their
adoration in that place to the prince of darkness, he shows himself
there in a despicable posture, and in a base, contemptible and hideous
form; if people eat there, the viands of the feast are dirty, insipid,
and destitute of solidity and substance--they neither satisfy the
appetite, nor please the palate; if they dance there, it is without
order, without skill, without propriety.
To endeavor to give a description of the infernal sabbath, is to aim
at describing what has no existence and never has existed, except in
the craving and deluded imagination of sorcerers and sorceresses: the
paintings we have of it are conceived after the reveries of those who
fancy they have been transported through the air to the sabbath, both
in body and soul.
People are carried thither, say they, sitting on a broom-stick,
sometimes on the clouds or on a he-goat. Neither the place, the time,
nor the day when they assemble is fixed. It is sometimes in a lonely
forest, sometimes in a desert, usually on the Wednesday or the
Thursday night; the most solemn of all is that of the eve of St. John
the Baptist: they there distribute to every sorcerer the ointment with
which he must anoint himself when he desires to go to the sabbath, and
the spell-powder he must make use of in his magic operations. They
must all appear together in this general
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