Part 30 (1/2)

On Friday, the 26th of June, M. de la Richardiere, having gone to the ma.s.s at St. Maur, a.s.serted that he should be cured on that day. After ma.s.s, the priest put the stole upon his head and recited the Gospel of St. John, during which prayer the young man saw St. Maur standing, and the unhappy shepherd at his left, with his face bleeding from the five knife-wounds which he had given him. At that moment, the youth cried out, unintentionally, ”A miracle! a miracle!” and a.s.serted that he was cured, as in fact he was.

On the 29th of June, the same M. de la Richardiere returned to Noysi, and amused himself with shooting. As he was shooting in the vineyards, the shepherd presented himself before him; he hit him on the head with the b.u.t.t-end of his gun. The shepherd cried out, ”Sir, you are killing me!” and fled. The next day, this man presented himself again before him, and asked his pardon, saying, ”I am called Damis; it was I who cast a spell over you which was to have lasted a year. By the aid of ma.s.ses and prayers which have been said for you, you have been cured at the end of eight weeks. But the charm has fallen back upon myself, and I can be cured of it only by a miracle. I implore you then to pray for me.”

During all these reports, the _mare chausee_ had set off in pursuit of the shepherd; but he escaped them, having killed his two dogs and thrown away his crook. On Sunday, the 13th of September, he came to M.

de la Richardiere, and related to him his adventure; that after having pa.s.sed twenty years without approaching the sacraments, G.o.d had given him grace to confess himself at Troyes; and that after divers delays he had been admitted to the holy communion. Eight days after, M. de la Richardiere received a letter from a woman who said she was a relation of the shepherd's, informing him of his death, and begging him to cause a requiem ma.s.s to be said for him, which was done.

How many difficulties may we make about this story! How could this wretched shepherd cast the spell without touching the person? How could he introduce himself into young M. de la Richardiere's chamber without either opening or forcing the door? How could he render himself visible to him alone, whilst none other beheld him? Can one doubt of his corporeal presence, since he received five cuts from a knife in his face, of which he afterwards bore the marks, when, by the merit of the holy ma.s.s and the intercession of the saints, the spell was taken off? How could St. Maur appear to him in his Benedictine habit, having the wizard on his left hand? If the circ.u.mstance is certain, as it appears, who shall explain the manner in which all pa.s.sed or took place?

Footnotes:

[402] Ezek. viii. 1, 2, &c.

[403] Matt. xvii. 3.

[404] Acts ix. 10.

[405] Acts ix. 2.

[406] Ammian. Marcell. lib. xix. Sozomen. lib. vi. c. 35.

[407] Aug. lib. viii. de Civit. c. 18.

[408] Aug. Serm. cxxiii. pp. 1277, 1278.

[409] Aug. de cura gerenda pro Mortuis, c. 11, 12.

[410] Aug. de cura gerend. pro Mort. c. xxvii. p. 529.

[411] Vita Daniel Stylit. xi. Decemb.

[412] Gregor. lib. ii. Dialog. c. xxii.

[413] Vita Sancti Euthym. pp. 86, 87.

[414] Le Brun, Traite des Superst.i.t. tom. i. pp. 281, 282, et seq.

CHAPTER XLVI.

ARGUMENTS CONCERNING APPARITIONS.

After having spoken at some length upon apparitions, and after having established the truth of them, as far as it has been possible for us to do so, from the authority of the Scripture, from examples, and by arguments, we must now exercise our judgment on the causes, means, and reasons for these apparitions, and reply to the objections which may be made to destroy the reality of them, or at least to raise doubts on the subject.

We have supposed that apparitions were the work of angels, demons, or souls of the defunct; we do not talk of the appearance of G.o.d himself; his will, his operations, his power, are above our reach; we acknowledge that he can do all that he wills to do, that his will is all-powerful, and that he places himself, when he chooses, above the laws which he has made. As to the apparitions of the living to others also living, they are of a different nature from what we propose to examine in this place; we shall not fail to speak of them hereafter.

Whatever system we may follow on the nature of angels, or demons, or souls separated from the body; whether we consider them as purely spiritual substances, as the Christian church at this day holds; whether we give them an aerial body, subtile, and invisible, as many have taught; it appears almost as difficult to render palpable, perceptible, and thick a subtile and aerial body, as it is to condense the air, and make it seem like a solid and perceptible body; as, when the angels appeared to Abraham and Lot, the angel Raphael to Tobias, whom he conducted into Mesopotamia; or when the demon appeared to Jesus Christ, and led him to a high mountain, and on the pinnacle of the Temple at Jerusalem; or when Moses appeared with Elias on Mount Tabor: for those apparitions are certain from Scripture.

If you will say that these apparitions were seen only in the imagination and mind of those who saw, or believed they saw angels, demons, or souls separated from the body, as it happens every day in our sleep, and sometimes when awake, if we are strongly occupied with certain objects, or struck with certain things which we desire ardently or fear exceedingly--as when Ajax, thinking he saw Ulysses and Agamemnon, or Menelaus, threw himself upon some animals, which he killed, thinking he was killing those two men his enemies, and whom he was dying with the desire to wreak his vengeance upon--on this supposition, the apparition will not be less difficult to explain.