B 425663

י!
ARTES
LIBRARY
1837
VERITAS
SCIENTIA
OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
E-PLURIBUS UNUM
TUE BOR
SI-QUAERIS PENINSULAM AMOENAM
CIRCUMSPICE
[
I
1
J
¿
1
BF
1411
M18
1
>
1
岛
​
From a Fainting by Faul Delaroche.
Jeanne Dare
AFTER CONDEMNATION, VISITED BY THE BISHOP OF BEAUVAIS.
Engraved by S. Allen
PHANTASMATA
OR
37722
ILLUSIONS AND FANATICISMS
OF
PROTEAN FORMS PRODUCTIVE OF GREAT EVILS.
Pichard
obat
BY
R. R. MADDEN, F.R.C.S. ENG., M.R.I.A., &c.
66
AUTHOR OF TRAVELS IN THE EAST;" "SHRINES AND SEPULCHRES;"
"LIFE OF SAVONAROLA ;" MEMOIRS OF LADY BLESSINGTON," ETC.
"Imaginatio est tanquam Proteus et Chamæleon, corpus proprium et alienum nonnun-
quam afficiens."-MARSIL, FICINUS, De Theol. Plat. lib. xiii. c. 18.
IN TWO VOLUMES.-VOL. I.
PUBLISHED
LONDON:
BY T. C. NEW BY,
30, WELBECK STREET, CAVENDISH SQUARE.
1857.
11
Kedam 3-10
1
DEDICATION.
TO
JAMES WILLIAM CUSACK, ESQ.
A M., M.D., DUBLIN UNIV.; AND F.R.08., IRE.;
UNIV. PROFESSOR SURG., DUB.; SURG. STEEVEN'S HOSP.; SWIFT'S LUNAT.
ANYL., &0. &c.; M.R.I.A.; R. D. 800.,
AND VARIOUS OTHER SCIENTIFIC AND LITERARY INSTITUTIONS.
!
DEAR SIR,
IN dedicating to you a work of much labour,
and one, as I presume to think, calculated to pro-
mote objects not only of literary curiosity in relation
to singular bewilderments of reason in past ages,
but to prove of importance in our own times,
to the interests of enlightenment, toleration, and
humanity, and their bearing on modes of dealing
with many forms of fanaticism; I am not less
desirous of evincing how sensible I am that my
production is honoured by its connection with your
name, than gratified at having an opportunity of
iv
DEDICATION.
expressing the obligations I owe to your friendship,
and the advantages I have derived in private inter-
course from your opinions, always temperate, just,
and tolerant; the well considered results of ex-
perience long and large, extensive knowledge and
medical philosophy.
I am, dear Sir,
Your obliged and grateful servant,
R. R. MADden.
1st January, 1857.
15
PREFACE.
In the quaint phraseology of old Fuller, " Phan-
cie is an inward sense of the soul, for a while retain-
ing and entertaining things brought in thither by the
common sense; for whilst the understanding and
the will are kept as it were in Libera Custodia, to
their objects of Verum et Bonum, the Phancie is free
from all engagements; it digs without spade, flies
without wings, builds without charges, fights with-
out bloodshed, in a moment striding from the centre
to the circumference of the world, by a kind of omni-
potence creating and annihilating things in an
instant; and things divorced by nature are married
in Phancie as in a lawful place. It is also most
restless, whilst the senses are bound and reason in a
manner asleep, Phancie, like a sentinel, walks the
round, ever working, never wearied. The chief
diseases of the Phancie are, either that they are too
wild and high soaring, or else too low and grovelling,
or else too desultory and over voluble.”*
The subject of this work has largely to do with
the failings and infirmities and passions of mankind
* "The Holy State," by Thomas Fuller, B.D., Prebend. of
Sarum, Jan. 1652, p. 155.
vi
PREFACE.
and their accompanying disorders of the imagination,
for to these sources must we attribute the epidemic
fanaticisms which we meet with in history and else-
where, simulating at one time an ardent zeal for
religion, at another a glowing love of liberty, now a
laudable ambition to rise in the world, to attain to
power, to obtain wealth, to add field to field, posses-
sion to possession, dominion to dominion; anon a
strong wish and settled purpose to dominate over
others, to master their wills, to invade their rights,
to trample down their inferior intelligence, weaker
powers, or feebler energies of mind or body.
Striking illustrations will be found in these pages
of epidemic fanaticisms, which bring men insensibly
from morbid conditions of mind into monomaniacal
states of being, into the practice of delusion, and
eventually into familiar acquaintance with illusions
and hallucinations of a sense or of all the senses.
We are accustomed to regard passing events of
an extraordinary character which disturb society, as
indications of rather too much political excitement
or polemical heat, sectarian strife, competition in
trade, monopoly in patronage and preferments, an
insufficient police force, an inadequate representation,
too little rationalism in religion, or reverence for law,
or devotion to material interests, or knowledge of the
true principles of political economy.
We find it saves the trouble of thinking deeply, to
fall into this way of viewing remarkable outbreaks of
popular phrenzy like those of the Reign of Terror of
PREFACE.
vii
the French Revolution, in the years 1792 and 1793:
outbreaks of intolerance and immanity in Spain and
Portugal in the times of the Inquisition; outbreaks
of barbarity in England and Scotland and the New
England States of America, in the proceedings
against witches;* outbreaks of superstition in various
countries in regard to new revelations of pseudo
saints, pseudo "spiritualists," pseudo seers of mes
merism claiming prophetic gifts; outbreaks of a
raging avidity for sudden gain, for means no matter
how they may be acquired, to live luxuriously, or to
seem to others to be rich, grand, genteel, superior
people, moving in some first circle of one of the
spheres of the many circles of metropolitan life; and
for this false appearance that endures only for a
short time, having recourse to fraud, swindling, and
breach of trust: evils of which every day's reports
attest the magnitude, and the fact of their being
deeply rooted in this rank soil of our society, and
widely spread over this great commercial country.
The madness of the various forms of fanaticism
is not confined to individuals, it extends to com-
munities, at times and intervals more or less widely
separated, and seizes on the minds of nations at
periods, of greater intervening distances, that have
:
* A succinct notice of the outbreaks of Witchcraft Mania in
these countries will be found in the appendix to this volume.
They are referred to only incidentally the work of Sir Walter
Scott on "Demonology," of Mr. Mackay on "Popular Delu-
sions," and other similar recent productions supply all the infor-
mation in detail that is required in relation to them.
viii
PREFACE.
been terminated by great wars, or other grievous
public calamities.
Such fanaticisms have all the distinguishing cha-
racteristics of epidemic mental disorders. They are
manifested in a ferocious spirit of intolerance, or a
fierce and reckless zeal for party interests, or the
triumph of extreme political opinions shaped or in-
fluenced by some evil passion or selfish motive, or in
an insensate desire to plunge into gigantic specula-
tions, or an unscrupulous aptness and promptitude
to retrieve great failures by great frauds; and the
crooked cleverness of a vigilant and astute cunning,
fertile in expedients to evade detection; in a de-
vouring eagerness for money that is not earned by
honest industry, to supply wants that a false position
has created; or in an inordinate ambition and im-
perial pride, lust of power, and military renown,
and territorial aggrandizement on the part of mighty
states; or in a furious impulse to acts of violence
and injustice, brutal and sanguinary on the part of
great numbers of people, who have truly become
"les classes dangereuses de la societé."
When we read in the history of pagan Rome of
the epidemic furibund fanaticisms, of the perpetual
feuds of rival factions, wholesale murders without
the formalities of war, bloody encounters of the
partisans of Marius and Scylla, Cinna and Octavius,
the constant strife of the patricians and plebeians,
we can hardly realize the possibility of the recur-
rence in our times of any similar scenes of massa-
PREFACE.
ix
cres, seditions and proscriptions. And yet they
have been enacted in the memory of some persons
yet living, in one of the most civilized nations of
Europe.
Chateaubriand, in his preface to the "Etudes
Historiques," refers to a laborious work of the Re-
publican Prudhomme, as an authority not to be sus-
pected of any disposition to exaggerate the horrors
of the French Revolution, wherein in a sort of Dic-
tionary he gives the names, ages, places of birth,
business, quality and profession, domiciles, date and
nature of the crimes and places of execution of " the
criminals," as he terms the victims of Revolutionary
Madness. And there are data we are told by
Chateaubriand to be found, which furnish evidence
of the execution of 18,613 persons put to death
by the guillotine-thus distributed :-
Ci-devant Nobles
Women of the same category
J
1278
750
Women of the labouring class and artizans
1467
Nuns (Religieuses)
350
Priests
1153
Men, not noble, of different conditions.
Total guillotined
Other deaths in France attributed to the terrors
13,635
•
18,613
of the Revolution:-
Women dead from premature accouchments
3400
Women dead in child-birth
348
•
;
X
PREFACE.
3.
Carnage in La Vendée:-
Women killed in that province
Children killed in ditto
Killed of all categories in ditto
15,000
22,000
900,000
Carnage during the Proconsulate of Carrier at
Nantes
Among these victims were:-
Children shot
Children drowned
32,000
500
. 1500
Women shot
•
500
Women drowned
500
Priests shot
•
300
Priests drowned
Nobles drowned
. 1400
. 1400
Artisans drowned
•
. 5300
Carnage at Lyons
Victims
31,000
In the above records the multitudes of prisoners
massacred in the prisons of Paris, in the Abbaye,
Les Carmes, and at Versailles, in Sept. 1792, and
shot in the fosses of the fortresses of Toulon and
Marseilles after the siege of those places, are not
comprised.*
It is with individuals as with nations, they are
controlled and restrained by the same influences, or
corrupted and perverted by the same wild impulses
of passion. A man is well constituted intellectually
when his judgment retains its natural rectitude, and
his moral sentiments and his affections maintain their
* Euvres de Chateaubriand, Etudes Hist. Par. 1838, p. 279.
PREFACE.
xi
due equilibrium. But once the faculties of the soul
and of the understanding are overpowered or thrown
into disorder by disease, he can no longer count on
the fidelity of his senses, the justness of his ideas or
his reasonings. He can no longer confide in the
motives on which his joys, his sorrows, his anger,
his hatred are founded, nor rely on the reasons for
which he acts, in one way rather than another.*
Hallucinations of various kinds ensue; and ima-
gination dominated by disease will eventually give a
being, shape and forın, "a local habitation, and a
name,” to fixed ideas and chimeras which are the
pro-
ductions of the brain, will refer these ideas to impres-
sions on the senses, and convert them into sensations.
The greatest thinker of his time, or perhaps of
any time, Blaise Pascal, thus spoke of the most
potent "Des Puissances Trompeuses" that of the
Imagination:
"It is this deceiving power in man: this mistress
of error and falsehood, and so much the more de-
ceptious, that it does not always seem so: for it
would be an infallible rule of truth, if there was an
infallible rule of falsehood. But being for the most
part false, it yet gives no mark of its quality, but
stamps with the same seal that, which is true, and
that which is not so. I speak not with reference to
insane people, I speak of the most sagacious, and it
is on such persons that imagination confers the great
gift of persuading men. Reason in vain protests
*Calmeil de la Folic, t. i. p. 2.
xii
PREFACE.
against this. She cannot cause things to be appre-
ciated at their
proper value.
"This proud power-enemy of Reason, which
finds a pleasure in controlling it, and dominating that
faculty with the view of shewing how potent she is
in all circumstances, has established in man a second
nature. She has her fortunates, unfortunates, her
sane, her sick, her rich, her poor. She causes her
votaries to believe, to doubt, to contradict reason:
she suspends the senses; causes them to revive: she
has her madmen and her sages; and nothing offends
us more than to find that she fills her votaries with
a satisfaction far more full and entire than Reason
does. And those who are dominated by Imagina-
tion, please themselves altogether differently to what
those persons do, who are regulated by prudence, and
yet who cannot reasonably please others."*
Imagination is then all powerful except over
disease: the dominion of disease is exerted over
imagination itself.
mind.
Imagination, however, is no distinct faculty of the
"The phenomena of imagination," says
Brown, "are proofs only of those general tendencies
of the mind by which we are susceptible of simple
suggestion, of relative suggestion, and of desire, but
not of any specific faculty additional to them." The
* Pensées de Pascal par M. Prospere Faugere, en 2 Tomes.
Paris, 1844, t. 2. p. 37.
Philosophy of the Human Mind, by Thomas Brown, M.D.
&c. Ed. 1826, p. 247.
PREFACE.
xiii
sequence of conception after conception, the strong
desire of recalling, applying, and adjusting those
simple and relative suggestions constitute those vivid
powers of reminiscence and conception, exaltation of
ideas, and productiveness of ideal images, which in
their aggregate, are called Imagination.
The nature of such elements and operations is
sufficient to shew how easily they may be disordered
by disturbing physical influences.
Old Fuller prescribes various kinds of "hard and
knotty studies" for slight disorders of the imagination
-for instance, 66
a gradual acquaintance with scho-
lastic theology," he thinks "will cloy the overnimble
phancie;" but he judiciously turns over to the
doctors the graver chronic diseases of the imagina-
tion:-"I meddle not with those Bedlam phancies,
all whose conceits are antiques, but leave them for the
Physician to purge with hellebore."*
The imagination exerts a powerful influence, not
only over the mind, but over the functions of every
organ essential to vitality in the human frame. A
very eminent and accomplished medical man, in a
publication which appeared in 1823 (without the
advantage of his name†) has given expression to a
similar opinion in the following words:
"Much of the error that prevails upon the subject
of diseases, and their remedies, depends on the notion
so generally entertained by unprofessional persons,
*The Holy State, by Thos. Fuller, B.D. p. 167.
+ Sir Philip Crampton, Bart.
xiv
PREFACE.
6
that the nerves and the imagination, and consequently
'nervous' and 'imaginary' diseases are synonymous
terms; that diseases of this class have no existence
but in the distempered fancies of the patients, or in
some indescribable commotion of the nervous influ-
ence; and it is a matter of common observation, that
in such diseases there is a great subserviency to moral
impression, it is concluded that the body is affected,
but in a secondary way, and that the disease being
in the mind, is more properly a subject for moral
than for medical discipline. When such a disease,
therefore, is cured by a strong mental excitement,
the effect is considered as quite natural and simple;
but a broad line is drawn between diseases of this
class, and those in which there is a sensible derange-
ment in the functions of the organs, or a tangible
alteration in their structure; here they say is phy-
sical derangement; here the nerves,' (considered
as synonymous with the imagination) have nothing
to do with the matter.
6
"But anatomy suggests a very different view of
the subject from thence we learn, that the animal
body consists of two distinct parts, namely, a part
that feels, and a part that moves. The sentient part
consists of the brain, spinal marrow, and nerves,
which, taken together, constitute what is called the
nervous system. The moving parts consist of the
muscles and the internal organs, as the heart, arte-
ries, lungs, and in short all the organs (with the
exception of the brain and nerves), which are subser-
PREFACE.
XV
vient to the functions of life. But it can be proved,
that the moving parts derive their power of feeling
and of moving exclusively from the nervous system,
because the dividing a nerve utterly deprives the
part to which its branches are distributed of sensa-
tion as well as motion; and it can be proved, that
the nervous system is equally affectable, or liable to
be acted upon, by moral and by physical agency.
It follows then, that no limits can be assigned to the
influence which the nerves, and through them the
moral affections, or (to use the common expression)
the imagination may exercise on the animal economy
in health and in disease.
"But there are certain moral feelings which have
a power, not only to derange the functions, but to
destroy the structure of certain organs; thus long
protracted grief produces diseases of the liver, heart,
and lungs; and the anatomist, who examines the
body which has sunk under the workings of a
wounded spirit, will find the sentiment embodied in
the disorganised liver, the tuberculated lungs, or the
flaccid and extenuated heart. Again, diseases of
physical origin in the heart, liver, or lungs, excite
the corresponding moral affections with which these
organs are associated; thus a palpitating heart fills
the bosom with vague terrors, and a torpid liver
entails all the horrors of hypochondriasis.
The yellow bile, that on your bosom floats,
Engenders all those melancholy thoughts,'
Dryden.
xvi
PREFACE.
is at least as good an authority in medicine as it is
in poetry."
""*
Sir Philip Crampton in effect gives us to under-
stand, that many disorders are caused by imagination,
and others, which are not so, are maintained by its
influence, and when curable may be cured by it.
Great, indeed then, is the power of imagination:
"Maxima vis est phantasiæ; et huic uni ferè, non
autem corporis intemperiei, omnis melancholiæ causa
est adscribenda."†
The fanaticisms of fraud, of fear, of superstition and
of public opinion powerfully excited, as in the periods
of revolutionary or religious strife, when they assume
the form and dimensions of epidemic insanity, have
their foundations in disorders of the moral sense, in
passions which are dominated by the "Puissances
Trompeuses de l'Imagination," that pervert, deprave,
deceive, and perturb the understanding. They are
symptomatic, moreover, of evils in society, which
are not to be removed or remedied by materialism,
professing Christianity, or sanctimony and sec-
tarianism, proffering for genuine religious instruc-
tion, the teachings of strife and bitterness, a know-
ledge of the controversies and dissidences in religious
belief, but not a knowledge of Christian charity,
* A Physiological Inquiry, &c. by a Physician. Sir Philip
Crampton, Dublin, 1823. † Arnoldus. Breviar. Lib. I. cap. 18.
وو
"I might hear and decide controversies as well as another,
said Confucius, “but what I would have is, that men should be
brought to abstain from controversies out of an inward love and
regard for each other."-Scientia Sin. lib. fol. i. 12.
PREFACE.
xvii
›
.
and the genuine humanising influences of Christian
principles.
The result of my inquiries and researches on this
subject of epidemic fanaticisms in many points has
not been in accordance with my expectations, but in
stating that result I have no preconceived opinions
to confirm, or particular theory to support.
The greatest fanaticisms this world ever saw have
not originated with the poor, the unenlightened and
uneducated; they have originated with the educated
classes, with those who do not labour manually for
their bread. Fanatics who have attained to the emi-
nence of leaders of their fellow enthusiasts, have
generally been persons of abilities and acquirements;
clever, shrewd, and in the common acceptation of
"educated men."
the term,
The faculties of the mind which are developed by
mere intellectual education may be greatly improved
by it, and yet remain incapable of controlling and
directing the passions; and the powers of the ima-
gination may be even inordinately developed by it,
if it be not associated with another kind of educa-
tion, that has to do with the heart and its affections,
with man's spiritual being, its aspirations, its trials,
and its struggles. This thought seems to have been
passing through the mind of an eminent statesman,
when on a recent occasion presiding at a public
meeting convened for the purpose of promoting
education, he declared the lamentable fact that in
the midst of our civilization, in the towns and cities
I.
h
xviii
PREFACE.
where our great trade and manufactures flourished,
people were to be found "knowing nothing of the
truths of religion, ignorant even of the name of
God and of Christ."*
The statesman asks "how came this about?" the
philosopher inquires "how the want of that kind of
knowledge in the young is to be supplied?" "The
mind of a young creature," says Bishop Berkeley,
"cannot remain empty, if you do not put into it
that which is good it will be sure to use even that
which is bad."
* "Lord John Russell paid a visit to Gloucester to-day.
After visiting the Ragged School here, and examining the
pupils, 160 in number, and also inspecting the industrial farm
connected with it, his lordship presided at a public meeting held
at the Shire Hall.
"Lord J. Russell, on taking the chair, addressed the meeting
at some length. He said, in this age of civilization, and in a
country justly proud of what the labour, the skill, the inge-
nuity, and the science of man had accomplished, we found that
in the midst of society-in London, close by the dwellings of
the highest and the noblest of the land-in the cities where
our great manufactures flourished, and in the towns supplied
with every convenience of life, there were persons in the lowest
class of society, and a country which traded with the countries
of the whole world, knowing nothing of geography, in a country
boasting of its history and constitution, knowing nothing of
that history or that constitution; more than all, in a country
where the light of the Gospel was spread around, knowing
nothing of the truths of religion-ignorant even of the name
of God and of Christ. He pointed to the reports of the chap-
lains of gaols and inspectors of prisons in proof of this, and
asked-how, then, came this about ?"
PREFACE.
xix
The influences of that kind of education which I
have referred to, is not to be supplied by power of
repression that belongs to the authority of the police,
or power of enlightenment that looks only to the
maintenance of physical order, and to the encourage-
ment alone of material interests for its successes.
Law and order that conduce to governmental ease
may
be promoted to a great extent by mere secular
education, or any system of instruction that favours
industrial pursuits, and contributes thereby to the
material prosperity of a nation, and yet grave ano-
malies in moral law and order may coexist with
those influences, and very formidable fanaticisms
may be coincident with them.
Sir Thomas Noon Talfourd the last time he sat
on the bench, in his last address to a Grand Jury,
attributed the formidable increase of crime that came
before him "in a great degree to that separation
between class and class which is the great curse of
British society; and for which we are all in our
respective spheres, in some degree responsible.
And if I were to be asked what is the great want of
English society-to mingle class with class, I would
say; in one word, it is the want of sympathy."
We find in a recent notice of Sir Robert Peel by
M. Guizot, expressions attributed to that enlightened
statesman, which plainly shew he participated in the
sentiments of Judge Talfourd, and that he was not
only conscious of the responsibilities of the rich and
powerful in regard to the humbler classes, but earnest
XX
PREFACE.
2
in his purpose to perform the duties of his high
station to the labouring classes-the hard struggling
poor of this country.
We find in Chateaubriand's "Memoires d'Outre
Tombe," expressions attributed to a statesman, a wise
and good man, of great experience in governmental
affairs-Lord Liverpool - indicative of grave appre-
hensions for the institutions, and social fabric of the
country, which were the subjects of Chateaubriand's
eloquent eulogiums: "Lord Liverpool avait lui meme
des tristes presentimens. Je dinai un jour chez lui:
apres le repas nous causames à un fenetre qui s'ouvrait
sur la Tamise; ou apercevoit en avant de la riviere, une
partie de la citè dont le brouillard et la fumèe elar-
gissait la masse. Je faisais à mon hôte l'eloge de cette
monarchie Anglaise ponderèe par le balancement
egal de la libertè de la presse et de pouvoir. Le ve-
nerable Lord levant et allongeant le bras me montre
de la main, la Citè et m'a dit: Qu'y a-t il de Solide
dans ses villes enormes ?"*
"The venerable Lord" did not confine himself to
this brief expression of his thoughts. He made
another observation which indicated an opinion
plainly enough: that in vast cities the danger to
their solidity and security lay in the separation
between class and class, the want of sympathy, of
cohesion in the elements of their society.
It is a reciprocal sense of duty on the part of the
Mem. de l'Outre Tombe, tome 4, p. 210.
PREFACE.
xxi
different classes, a reciprocal sense of right, to care
and sympathy, and to the protection of the state for
the interests of all, that can give to society that only
enduring existence which it can have.
The lawgiver of the Locrians, Zeleucus, prefaced
his ordinances with a fundamental principle, that he
would have pervade all legislation for the govern-
ment of men: "That every inhabitant subject of the
state should be persuaded that there is a God and
Divine Providence. That the only way of becoming
dear to God is by endeavouring, above all things, to
be good both in deed and in will. That a worthy
citizen is one that prefers integrity to wealth."*
It is said that, "man ignorant and uncivilised, is
a ferocious, sensual, and superstitious savage." But
there may
be a great deal of savagery in the heart's
core of civilization, when the intellectual faculties only
have been educated, and the moral feelings and af-
fections have been left untaught. To use common
but significant terms, you must educate the heart
as well as the head. The instruction we give to
people when we teach them to read and write, and
impart elementary knowledge to them, connected
with the arts and sciences, will not teach them their
duties towards God, or their fellow creatures, or
enable them to control their passions, or communicate
to them a just knowledge of the genuine principles of
the Gospel, the beginning and the end of its great
* Stobæus de Leg. et Consuet. S. 145.
xxii
PREFACE.
teaching, to live in the love and fear of God, doing
to others as we would be done to by them. Reli-
gious teaching only will instruct the young in the
knowledge of those principles, and do more than
that—train and maintain them in the practice of the
precepts of the Gospel. "What is the sum and
substance, scope and end of Christ's religion, but the
love of God and man? To which all other points
and duties are relative and subordinate, as parts or
means, as signs, principles, motives, or effects.”*
When imagination soars above reason, and is be-
wildered by its exaltation, there is no other light but
that which comes from heaven, to dispel the clouds
which envelope it.
"Riccorditi, Lettor: se mai nell Alpe
Ti colse nebbia, per le qual vedessi
Non altrimenta, che per pelle talpe;
Come, quando i vapori umidi e spessi
A diradar comminciansi, la spera
Del sol debilmente entrare per essi."+
*The Minute Philosopher, Dial. V. p. 186.
↑ Dantè “La Divina Commedia,” Dél. Purg. Canto xvii.
t
CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.
CHAPTER I.
Notice of some of the Epidemic Disorders of the Mind which have
prevailed in Europe, in the 14th, 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries.
-Introductory Observations
CHAPTER II.
Of the Nature and Distinction of various Forms of Mental Dis-
turbance
CHAPTER III.
The Sorcery of Ancient Times and its Relations to Modern Witch-
craft-Agency of Evil Spirits-The Demon of Socrates
CHAPTER IV.
On the Sacrifice of Children ascribed to the early Christians as a
Religious Rite, and to Sorcerers in the Orgia of their "Sabbath"
Assemblies, at a later period
PAGE.
I
18
. 51
69
CHAPTER V.
Dreams and Visions-Swedenborg and his Revelations
88
CHAPTER VI.
St. Teresa, her Visions and Revelations
115
CHAPTER VII.
The Inquisition in various Countries. [In Spain]
. 161
CHAPTER VIII.
The Inquisition in various countries. [In Portugal]
. 206
CHAPTER IX.
Opinions of Catholic and Protestant Churches on the subject of Sor-
cery and the Operation of Evil Spirits
234
xxiv
CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.
CHAPTER X.
PAGE.
The revived Sorcery of Paganism-Maniacal Epidemics-The
Prevalence of Witchcraft Monomania in an Epidemic Form, in
various Continental Countries, and in the Peninsula, in the 15th,
16th, and 17th Centuries
•
277
CHAPTER XI.
Maniacal Epidemics-Lycanthropy, or Wolf Transformation Mania 334
CHAPTER XII.
The Flagellation Mania.—(13th and 14th Centuries)
CHAPTER XIII.
Epidemic Hysteria, Convulsive Chorea-La Manic de la Danse, of
the French-The Tarantula dancing Epidemic of Apulia.-(14th
to 16th Centuries)
359
•
396
APPENDIX.
I.-ON MALEFIC SPIRITS :-Opinions of the Platonists and Pytha-
goreans of the Third Century of the Christian Æra; of Porphyry,
a Platonic philosopher of Tyre, born in the year A.D. 233, the
scholar of Longinus; and of Jamblichus, a Pythagorean Philoso-
pher and Platonist, a disciple of Porphyry.
II.-" Of the power of the Devil in Transformations and Appari-
tions, and what may be believed of it, by a Christian." From
St. Augustine's City of God
4.22
4.32
III.-Connection of the Flagellant Sect with that of the Lollards . 434
IV. Feyjoo on the Evil of multiplying Miracles not duly authen-
ticated
V.-On Witchcraft Mania in England and America
. 437
4.4.1
·
GENERAL INDEX.
Albigenses and Waldenses.
First
proceedings against them of the
Inquisition, their errors and per-
secutions, i. 185.
Alliance of Church and State. Its
evils, productive in Italy, Spain,
and Portugal, of the Inquisition, i.
184; Idem, productive in England
of the High Court of Commission
and the Penal Code, 184; fore-
most among its evils the aggran-
disement of the Clergy and endow-
ment of the Church with territorial
possessions, 364; influence on re-
ligion of extensive worldly posses-
sions, 383.
Ammou. Epidemic barking disease,
named “Mal de Laira," prevailed
among the women of that town,
i. 319.
Amsterdam. Epidemic Mania in the
Orphan Asylum, ii. 251.
Anabaptists (The). Theomania in
Protestant countries; of the Ana-
baptists in Holland and Germany,
ii. 418; Bayles' notice of the origin
of this sect, 422; carcer of Stork,
Stubner, Muncer, Mathias, John
of Leyden, Picard, David Georges,
Theodore Sartor, Hutter, Hofman
and Tripnaker, 422; their extra-
vagant exploits, insurrections, suf-
ferings and madness, 423; some
of their doctrines in relation to “a
Spiritual Treasury " and spiritual
wives adopted by the Mormonite
Prophets, 427; Professor Hasc's
notice of their origin and career,
428; the excesses at Munster,
449; Calmeil's account of their in-
sanity, 451; in their fanaticism
commit several murders, one bro-
ther slays another, 452; the ex-
travagance of their prophets, 433;
their original conformity to the
original_conformity
tendencies of Protestantisi, 433;
in Zurich they ran mad about
the streets, proclaiming woe; their
doctrines, 438; their phrenzy in
Amsterdamn, their chief, Theodore
Sartor, 443; their early teacher,
N. Stork, 444; their prophet
Muncer, 444; his successor Mat-
thias, 444; their inspired preacher
I.
Hutter,446; the Apostle Georges,
of the House of Jacob, 447; David
Georges preaches and prophesies
publicly, took the title of "The
True Daniel," 455; the various
offshoots of this sect, 456; Honing-
haus, his account of their tenets,
457; Calmeil's observations on
their insanity, 461; their intro-
duction into England, and Queen
Elizabeth's mode of dealing with
them, 464.
Ancyra, Council of. Decree on the
subject of sorcery, i. 242.
Apparitions. Calmeil on that sub-
ject, i. 247.
Apuleian Mania for Dancing, i. 415.
Augustin (St.) Of transformations of
human beings into beasts; of the
power of the devil in transforma-
tions and apparitions, i. 432.
Auxonne Convent. Epidemic Mo-
nomania, ii. 385.
Bartholomew (St.), the festival of,
desecrated by the massacre of the
Huguenots, ii. 469; Dr. Milner's
observations on, 469; Honing-
haus, 470.
Barking Discase, or "Mal de Laira,"
prevailed epidemically in several
Convents of Germany in 1613 and
at Ammou, i. 319; Camden's ac-
count of this epidemic disease in
Leinster, 346; Rollin and Hecquet's
account of it attacking the whole
community of a convent near Paris,
348; Dr. Willis, his account of it
in an English family, 348.
Basle (The Council of). Jeanne
d'Arc offers to submit herself to
notice of the Council, ii. 167.
Bayle. His account of origin of Ana-
baptists, ii. 422.
Beatas, of celebrity for impostures.
Discovery and punishment of the
impostures of the Mother Magda-
lena de la Cruz, abbess of a Domini-
can order of Cordova, of strict inclo-
sure, after deceiving the world for
thirty years, in 1610, condemned by
the Inquisitors of Logrogno;account
of her pretended miracles by Tor-
reblanca, condemned to a life of
C
xxvi
INDEX.
penance, i. 315; sixty years pre-
viously an ancient Abbess of a Con-
vent in the same town of Cordova,
in 1544, was burned on the same
charge of imposture as the former,
317; discovery and punishment of
the impostures of the Mother
Agueda, a Carmelite Abbess, in
1713, those of a Spanish nun,
Marie de la Concepção, punished in
the Auto da fe in honour of the
accession of Philip IV. exhibited
with a mitre on her head and a
gag in her mouth, and received
200 lashes, 318.
Beaufort, Cardinal of Winchester,
notice of, ii. 117; the use of the
two swords of the spiritual and tem-
poral power, 118.
Beauvais (Bishop of). The part taken
by him in promoting the views of
his English patrons after the cap-
ture of Jeanne d'Arc, ii. 113; his
early career, part taken by him in
the Procès and condemnation, 130,
132, 134, 145 to 176; secks letters
of indemnity for the part he took
in the proceedings against the Pu-
celle, his disquieted conscience, 195.
Bedford (Duke of) Regent of France,
marries a sister of the Duc de Bur-
gogne, ii. 9; the Regent, his great
capacity, a great captain and a
great criminal, 119; his base policy
in the case of Jeanne d'Arc, 116.
Berkley (Bishop). His idea of the sum
and substance of Christ's religion,
"love to God and man," i. xxii.;
his opinion, "The mind of a young
creature cannot remain empty, if
you do not put into it what is good
it will be sure to use even that
use even that
which is bad," xviii.
Begards Sect (The). in Suavia, Bo-
hemia, Poland, Bavaria, &c., i. 300.
Bekker, Author of "La Monde En-
chantée," his account of the Swe-
dish sorcerers and judicial murders
in Sweden connected with sorcery
in 1670, i. 364.
Black Death (The), pestilence of the
14th age, i. 3; its origin in China,
its terrible ravages throughout
Europe in the 14th century, 359;
preceded by convulsions of the
earth and atmospherical commo-
tions, 360; loss of life in Europe
estimated at twenty-five millions,
362; this pestilence of the 14th
century considered the most remark.
able event in the history of Europe,
and having the most important in-
fluence on its condition, 362; its
influence on religion, 362; fanati-
cism of fear occasioned by the Black
Death, prevalent idea that the wells
were poisoned, same idea in the
time of Thucydides acted on, 364,
366; its destruction of human life
estimated at a fourth part of the
inhabitants of the old world, fol-
lowed by various outbursts of epi-
demic fanaticisms, 359.
Blandine and Biblis, Roman slaves,
converts to Christianity, put to
death under tortures to extort con-
fessions of the crime of sacrificing
children in Christian rites, i. 86.
Blood Baths for the cure of leprosy
in the case of kings, mentioned by
Pliny, counselled for the Emperor
Constantine: blood of infants said
to be drank by Louis XI. to avert
his death, i. 380.
Boden, Author of Demonologia, his
atrocious sentiments, i. 287, 288.
Boquet, the execrable Judge of
Burgundy, author of "Discours
Execrable des Sorciers," his terri-
ble opinions and sanguinary pro-
ceedings, i. 348; in his "Discours
Exccrable de Sorciers," states, sor-
cerers when brought before their
judges can never be made to shed
tears, this inability a sure test of
guilt, the doctrines of the man-
devil in judicial authority, 350; his
account of six cases of sorcerers
judged by him in 1597 and con-
demned to the flames, 351.
Boileau (Abbe), his account of the
Flagellants, i. 369.
Brauner (Dr.), on death trance and
night mare, i. 99.
Brodie (Sir Benjamin), on velocity of
mental action and succession of
certain states of consciousness, i.
92.
Burgundy (Duke of), Philip le bon.
Instances of his peculiar goodness,
ii. 133.
Calvinists. Theomania of French
Calvinists in Dauphiny, Vivarais
and the Cevennes, ii. 469; the per-
secution they suffered, and their
antecedents. Dr. Milner's notice of
the atrocities of St. Bartholomew's
INDEX.
XXVII
xx vi
|
day sufferings, Honinghaus's ditto,
470; their persecution of the Catho-
lics in the Low Countries, spoliation
of their Churches, 471; Calmeil's
detailed account of the Theomania
of the French Calvinists, 478.
Calmeil, on insanity, i. 32.
Carpenter (Dr.), on rapid and un-
conscious succession of thoughts
attended with singular results, i.
92.
Catrou (Father). His account of
the Anabaptists, ii. 446.
Charles VII. of France. Jean sans
Peur, notice of, and his son the
Duc de Bourgogne, and causes of
his enmity to Charles VII. ii. 6;
unnatural conduct of the mother
of the latter, 7; the Dauphin dis-
inherited by his father Charles
VI. Treaty of Troyes, crown of
France transferred to the English
sovereign, and the daughter of the
French king given in marriage to
Henry V. 8; the Duke of Bed-
ford appointed Regent of France,
9; Charles the Dauphin future
Charles VII. born in 1416, de-
clared King of France in 1422,
entered Paris for the first time as
King in 1437, died in 1461, 9.
Chateaubriand. His account of the
homicidal phrenzy of the French
Revolution, i. viii; remarkable con-
versation with Lord Liverpool, xx.
Church and State. Anomalous con-
nexion, its evils illustrated in the
career of Cardinal Beaufort of
Winchester, ii. 117; the two swords
of the alliance, "gladius Domini et
gladius Martis," 128; results of
the connection in the 15th century,
"des grandes scelerats parmi les
gens d'Eglise-et parmi les Prin-
ces et les gens de la Cour," 141.
Civilization, the true principles of,
ii. 419; Hacknied formulas in
glorification of the efforts for its
advancement in the 19th century,
by means of our wars in the East,
and our trade with the world, 419.
Conolly (Dr.), on insanity, i. 32, 38.
Confucius, on the avoidance of con-
troversies, i. xvi.
Convents. Monomania and Demo-
nopathy, prevalent in nunneries in
15, 16, and 17th centuries, ii. 237;
in Cambrai, Yvertot, Kintorp, Co-
logne, Odenheym, Aix, Lille, Ma-
at
drid, 238; at Loudun in the Ursu-
linenunnery, iniquitous proceedings
against the priest Urban Grandier,
by condemnation and execution at
the stake, fate of the Exorcists, 278;
Monomania in a convent
Auxonne, 385; extraordinary ca-
taleptic phenomena analogous to
effects produced by artificial som-
nambulism, 888; ascribed to the
abuse of exorcisms, 389; abuses in
them in the middle ages of parental
authority unduly exercised, 403;
evils of strict inclosure in those
times, 403, 410; measures taken
by Pope Paul III. to remedy those
evils in monastic institutions, 404;
the Spanish nun's Lament, a poem
of the 16th century, 405; Order of
the Sisters of Charity, excellence of
it: observations on the heroic vir-
tues of its members, 410, 413; their
services in the Crimea, forty of
them the victims of their incessant
exertions in that campaign, 413;
Gerald Griffin's lines on the Sister
of Charity, 415.
Convulsionnaires (The), of Paris.
Epidemic hystero-convulsive Theo-
mania of the Jansenists, its origin
in the cemetery of the Church of
St. Medard, at the tomb of the
Deacon Paris. Notice of the Dea-
con, of St. Cyran, Jansenius, Pascal,
and the controversy with the Jesuits,
ii. 537-587; extraordinary pheno-
mena, exhibited in the case of the
Convulsionnaires, 548; Montge-
ron's account of them, 549; Cal-
meil's observations on them, 555.
Courcelles (De Thomas), onc of
the ecclesiastical Judges of Jean
d'Arc, votes for her being tortured,
notice of his career, ii. 134.
Crampton (Sir Philip). On the effects
of imagination on certain diseases,
i. xiv.
Damascus Jews, accused of killing
Christians for religious rites in
1839-1840, i. 87.
Dancing Mania.
The dancing fa-
natics of Germany, had occasionally
raptures, ecstacies, and visions,
when their paroxysms ceased had
intense internal sufferings, a sense
of insupportable vacuity, required
to be swathed with bands, i. 401;
their assemblages, addressed by
c 2
xxviii
xxx viii
INDEX.
preachers who denounce priests.
and prelates, and all persons as
worshippers of the devil who in-
vented fashions, the wickedness of
women in these inventions repro-
bated, 402; the pious exercises
followed by martial music, blasts
of trumpets, rolls of drum, squeaks
of bagpipes, and then the dancing
orgies, 402; their migratory habits,
strolling bands of dancing fanatics
roamed over the country, 403; of-
ficers appointed to conduct the
affected to certain chapels dedicated
to St. Vitus, 404; reasons assigned
for certain saints being selected as
patrons of persons labouring under
particular disorders, 404; notice
of St. Vitus, 405; St. John con-
sidered a patron of persons labour-
ing under the dancing malady, 406;
celebration of his festival in dif-
ferent countries, by bonfires for-
merly in Germany and in Ireland,
407; in Germany to his festival the
pagan custom of kindling the Nod-
fyr transferred, 408; attacked per-
sons of all ages and conditions and
both sexes. The rage for dancing,
associated with a passion for music
of a shrill or stunning kind. Tunes
composed for them with suitable
words, 409; the plague dance of
Germany and Flanders, lasted for
about two centuries, then declined
and died away. 409; the Tarantula
described by the Jesuit Kircher,
its origin and phenomena. Taran-
tula tunes collected by him. Effects
of the poison of the Tarantula
spider, 410; persons bitten by the
Tarantula, excited by the sight of
any glistening metallic object, and
by colours, 412; a similar disorder
described by a Salernian physician
of the 11th century, Gariopontus,
413; previously to the 15th cen-
tury the dancing mania existed
in some parts of Apulia and Cala-
bria, not ascribed to the bite of the
Tarantula. May have originated
in the German plague dance, 416;
earliest account by Perotti, deceas-
ed in 1480, 415; a case mentioned
by Alexander Ab Alexandro, 415;
mischievous bites of venomous
spiders, spoken of by ancient
Greek and Roman writers, 415;
Kircher's account of, nature of the
virus of the Tarantula spider, 417;
the dancing mania of Apulia at
the close of the 15th century. In
Asia a similar mania prevailed at
the same time, 417; from com-
mencement of 18th century Ta-
rantism has ceased in an epidemic
form, 418; causes of its cessation,
418; memory of the dancing mania
of Germany of the 15th century,
still kept in popular remembrance
in some place by an annual festival,
account of one at Echternach,
twenty miles from Treves, a jump-
ing procession, 419.
Death Trance, various cases recorded
of, i. 99; case of Colonel Towns-
hend, 102; power of suspending
animation, claimed by natives of
India, ii. 397.
Delancre. On barking epidemic of
Ammou, i. 319.
Demons. Wierus, his census of the
lower regions, i. 293; their nature
described by Psellus, 293; form of
conjuration given by Michael de
Arles, 249; the alleged worship of
demons in the 15th century, 295;
Conversation of, with exorcists,
Complaints of their latinity, ii. 294.
Demonomania or Demonopathy.
Characteristics of, i. 49.
Demonolatria. Idem, i. 49.
Diabolical agency. Unsatisfactory
solution of the difficulties surround-
ing the subject, by attempting to
explain them in all cases by re-
course to priestcraft, i. 276; St.
Augustine's treatise "of the Power
of the Devil in Transformations and
Apparitions and what may be be-
lieved of it," from the "Civitas
Dei," 432; opinions of Porphyry
and Jamblichus, concerning "Ma-
lefic spirits," extracted from the
work of Porphyry on abstinence
from animal food, and of Jambli-
chus on the Mysteries, 422, 424;
appropriations of those opinions of
Porphyry and also of Jamblichus,
by the "Spiritualists" of America,
422.
Dominick (St.), his connexion with
the Inquisition, i 185.
Dreams and Visions. "Philosophy
of sleep," i. 88; the similarity of
the state of cerebral organs in
dreams, and the phenomena of
somnambulism, 89; power of pro-
1.
INDEX.
xxix
ducing temporary madness by ar-
tificial somnambulism, 90; power
of seeing whatever phantasms are
desired in certain cases, singu-
lar instance of it in the case of
Blake the painter, 90; application
of this opinion to the claims put
forth by Swedenborg and the spirit
rappers, 90; phenomena of som-
nambulism, 90; rapid succession
of ideas in dreams and velocity of
mental energy, and action in sleep,
92; involuntary transitions of
trains of thought, attended with
new developments of mental power
concentrated on particular subjects
as in the case of Kepler, 92; sus-
pension of certain mental faculties
in sleep, 97; incongruity of ideas
in dreams: nothing incongruous
seems wonderful in them, 97; Guy
Patin's opinion, that certain morbid
conditions of the body may be dis-
covered in dreams in conformity
with that of St. Thomas Aquinas,
98; notice of the life, works and
revelations of St. Teresa, 115; her
observations on different kinds of
mental prayer-prayer of rapture
or ecstacy, 129; her visions re-
corded by herself, 131; state of
rapture described by her, 134;
visions mistaken for illusions of
the devil, 143, 147; visions of hell,
144; visions of heaven, 146; vi-
sions relating to sorcery, 148; her
physical ailments and their influ-
ences on her mind, 149; difficulty
of distinguishing the inspirations of
purely spiritual from hallucinations
of the mind, 152; her great virtues,
and holy death, 156; Brauner, an
old German physician, on night
mare and death trance, 99; cases
of death trance related by Monti,
Gooch, 102; voluntary death trance,
case of Colonel Townshend, 102;
Torreblanca's test for distinguish-
ing dreams and visions to be
ascribed to God, and those to be
referred to evil spirits, 103; Mon-
taigne's observations on, 330.
Ecstasy and Catalepsy. Phenomena
observed at Loudun, ii. 275, 291,
299.
Edict of Nantes. Reference to, ii.
329.
Education. Dr. Winslow on the ne-
cessity of education of the heart,
and the moral sentiments, ii.
420.
Egarements de l'Esprit Humain."
Observations on fanaticism, i. 371.
Enthusiasm, see Fanaticism, passim,
Locke's observations on, i. 105.
Epidemic mental disorders of Middle
ages, notice of, i. 1; preceded al-
ways by public calamities, 276;
confounded with results of sorcery
and witchcraft, 324; probably con-
nected with some particular elec-
trical condition of the atmosphere,
327.
Epidemic Pestilences. Europe ra-
vaged by five or six pestilences in
the 14th century, i. 361; produc-
tive of fanaticism, 367.
Epiphanius (St.) of sacrifice of chil-
dren ascribed to early Christians,
i. 72.
Erotomania, notice of, i. 48.
Eusebius. Sacrifice of children as-
cribed to early Christians, i. 84.
Exorcists. Liable to the epidemic
insanity of the Demonopathists
they exorcised, ii. 300; the Jesuit
Father Surin attacked, 300; Fa-
ther Lactance, ditto, 304; Father
Tranquille, ditto, 317; Father
Lucas, ditto, 319.
Fanaticism. Its various epidemic
forms, i. vi.; its homicidal epidemic
phrenzy in the French Revolution,
viii.; its Antidote-Education of
the heart and culture of its affec-
tions as well as intellectual im-
provement, xvi.; fears for its out-
bursts in modern times, 7, 13; of
followers of Thom of Canterbury,
and Johanna Southcote, 7; of
Fear. Its homicidal instincts, 7;
in America. Illustrations of it in
"Mormonism" and spiritualism,
9; fostered by dissidence of sects,
12; rapidly developed and exten-
sively diffused, 12; fears of its re-
newal expressed by Bishop Butler,
in a sermon preached in 1741, 15;
unparalleled avowal of its sav-
age instincts on the part of Bo-
guet, the Burgundian Judge, 309;
originating in fear in the time
of "
"The Black Death", pesti-
lence. People imagine the Jews
had poisoned the wells, same bar-
barous results in ancient and mo-
XXX
INDEX
to
dern times, 365, 366; massacre of
the Jews in the 14th century; per-
secution of the Jews in Germany
and Switzerland; English persecu-
tion of, 365; on the subject of
leprosy, savagery of curative mea-
sures; Blood baths used as а
cure, 365; of the sect of Flagel-
lants, 365; engendered by great
national calamities, 367; the mad-
ness of it exemplified largely by
the Flagellants, and still more by
those in earlier times, who believed
in the efficacy of human blood
baths for the cure of leprosy, 380;
the Jesuit historian Ribadeneira's
account of Constantine when af-
flicted with leprosy, being coun-
selled by his Heathen priests to
have recourse to baths of blood,
and of his having resolved to put
to death some thousands of infants
with that view, but was dissuaded
from this atrocity by the Pope Syl-
vester, 381; Pliny refers to the
belief that princes attacked with
leprosy, might be cured by baths
of human blood, 381; the French
historian Gaguin, attributes
Louis XI. the belief that his
death could be averted by drink-
ing the blood of young children."
He vehemently hoped to re-
cover by the human blood which
he drank and swallowed from cer-
tain children, 383; outbreaks of, in
the present century in England
and America. Appendix, 444; a
plant not of one soil or clime, but
one that flourishes in lands in Eng-
land, as well as in France or Ger-
many, Spain or Portugal, 449,
460; in America, its origin, Ban-
croft's ideas on that subject, 460;
the Puritans persecuted in Eng-
land turn persecutors in America,
462, 464; notice of the wander-
ings and first settlement of the
Puritans in America, 462; as dis-
tinguished from heroism and en-
thusiasm, ii. 34; in its relation to
enthusiasm and enthusiasts, 35;
not confined to any one country or
people of one creed, 422.
Feyjoo (Rev. Padre). The learned
Benedictine friar on the evils of
the multitude of miracles not duly
authenticated, i. 437.
•
Flagellation Mania. Its origin, pro-
gress and extravagances, i. 359;
the origin, progress, excesses and
fanaticism of the German sect of
Flagellants in the 14th century,
i. 367; first appearance of the
Flagellants in Italy in the 13th
century, 370, 371; its origin sup-
posed to be derived from the use
of the discipline in convents en-
couraged by the Penitentials of
the Greek Church, and their mo-
nastic patrons in the Latin Church,
372; fanatical practices ascribed
to St. Dominic Loricatus, by Peter
Damianus, 373; Boileau traces the
practice of voluntary scourging to
the times of Greek and Roman
Paganism, 374; St. Augustine
mentions certain heretics of his
time who scourged themselves
voluntarily, 374; Abbots and Ab-
besses in the early period of mo-
nastic institutions had the power
of punishing refractory members
of their communities by scourging,
374; use and abuse of the Disci-
pline, or of flagellation, volunta-
rily self-inflicted in a penitential
spirit, 374; the practice condemned
by Boileau: his interpretation of
certain passages in the Scriptures,
wherein the words chastisement
and scourged and chastened are
used, 375; interpretation of the
rules of St. Benedict Columbanus,
an extension of the former in re-
gard to corporal chastisement of
members, 278; extension of the
practice of self-flagellation by in-
dividuals in convents from the time
of Peter Damianus, 379; Abbe
Boileau asks if any thing more in-
conceivable or insensate ever en-
tered into the mind of man than
this fascination of self-torture, 379;
practice of self-flagellation propa-
gated by Peter Damianus after the
example of Dominicus Loricatus,
378; certain anchorites of Eastern
solitudes who lived in the practice
of self-imposed tortures, character-
ized as slow suicidal processes,
378; a Benedictine monk of the
8th century, said to have lacerated
his flesh habitually with the scourge.
But the life of this saint was not
written till the 10th century, 379;
John à Bosco ascribes the origin
of the discipline to the 10th cen
INDEX.
xxxi
tury, 379; ministers of religion, the
inflictors of flagellation in cases
when penitents, who had committed
great crimes, could not be trusted
with the execution of the punish-
ments on their own persons, 383;
in 1174, Henry II. of England,
scourged with rods by the monks
of the church of Canterbury, for
the murder of Thomas a'Becket,
383; the practice of immoderate
mortification and the abuse of self-
flagellation, condemnation by St.
Ignatius of Loyola, 384; burning
of numbers of this sect in Germany,
387; Gerson's treatise against this
fanaticism, 390; St. Augustine's
observation on analogous practices,
390; marvellous references to, in
Turin, 392; Colmenar's, idem in
Portugal, 395; connexion of this
sect with that of the Lollards,
434; origin of it attributed to a
Dominican monk, named Reinher,
who flourished in the time of "the
first Council of Lyons" (which er-
roneously appears in text, at page
435, "Council of Trent") 435; Ger-
son's opinion of the connexion of
this sect with that of the Lollards,
435.
Garcia, Pere. A Benedictine Friar,
Director of a Convent in Madrid,
cast into prison by the Inquisition,
ii. 271, 276.
Gariopontus. A Salernian physician
of the 11th century, refers to a re-
markable epidemic analogous to
the "Convulsive Chorea," i. p. 413.
Good (Dr. Mason), Observations on
Somnambulism, i. 89.
Grafton, the English Chronicler,
reviles the personal appearance,
character and pretensions of Jeanne
d'Arc, ii. 205, 224.
Gregory the Great. Distinction of
dreams and visions, and mode of
discerning spiritual influences, i.
104.
Gretzerus. The learned and zealous
advocate of the practices of the
Flagellants, "Doctissimus Jesuita
Gretzerus vir flagellationibus valdè
propitius," i. 390.
Guy Patin, on discernment of bodily
disease in dreams, i. 98; opinion of
the origin of witchcraft, 13.
Guizot. His conversation with Sir
R. Peel on responsibility of power
in regard to the struggling poor, i.
xix.
Guerre la, de Gueux. War of Flem-
ish fanatics, ii. 471.
Hacket (William). An Anabaptist
fanatic executed in England, in
1592. Bayle's account of his career,
ii. 465.
Hall (Robert).
His extraordinary
mental hallucinations, i. 34.
Hase, (Karl, Professor. His work,
Die Jungfrau von Orleans, ii. 4;
his account of the last moments
and execution of the Pucelle, 178;
his account of the Anabaptists, 430.
Hecker (Professor). History of the
Epidemics of the Middle Ages, i.
3; his account of the Flagellants,
359; his account of "the Black
Death," pestilence of the 14th cen-
tury, 359; his memoir on the
dancing mania of the 14th century,
397.
Heuter (Professor). His Life of In-
nocent III. Definition of truc
intellectual grandeur, ii. 204.
Holland (Dr.) His mental physiology,
i. 34; on evils to the young from
excessive application, 35.
Hume. His notice of the career of
Jeanne d'Arc, ii. 122.
Ignatius of Loyola. Against the
abuse of the discipline, i. 384.
Incubi and Succubi. Offspring of
the brains of the insane, i. 50.
Illusions and Hallucinations. Of the
nuns of Loudun, ii. 293.
Imagination. In relation to fanati-
cism, ii. 34; its illusions and va-
garies, observations on, of Fuller,
Pascal, Brown, Crampton, &c. i. ;
characterized by Fuller, xiii. ; ef-
fects of the cure of diseases; ob-
servations of Sir P. Crampton, xiii.;
observations of Pascal, xi.; idem,
of Brown, xii.; its power over
disease, xiii.
Innocent III. (Pope). Institution of
the Inquisition, rather for civil than
ecclesiastical purposes, i. 175, 177,
183, 190.
Inquisition (The) in Spain, instituted
mainly for civil and not ecclesias-
tical objects, i. 177; forms no part
of Roman Catholic doctrine. Origin
in Spain, 177; Father O'Leary,
xxxii
INDEX.
his opinions as to its establishment
for civil objects as a political es-
tablishment, 183; motives of Pope
Innocent III. for its establishment,
175, 184; St. Dominick, his con-
nection with it, 165; its origin and
progress, 185; its early crusades
against the Albigenses and Wal-
denses, 186; origin ascribed by
Fleury to the Council of Verona, in
1184,187; its formal establishment,
in 1215, 187; first crusade against
Christians accused of heresy, in
1215,190; crusades against the Albi-
genses for 20 years, 191; the Bull
of Pope Gregory IX. against he-
retics, in 1231, 191; the Inquisi-
tion as it existed in Spain and
Portugal, in later times, in all its
severity, posterior to 1254, 192;
in Spain and Portugal, observations
of Mr. O'Leary, 192; observations
of the author on the general cha-
racter of the institution, 178, 232;
in Portugal, 223; original manu-
script accounts of,in Portugal, com-
municated to the author, 223; idem,
record of auto da fe's in Lisbon,
Evora, and Coimbra, for 73 years,
223; persecution of the Jews who
had outwardly conformed to Ca-
tholicity-called Christianos novos,
212 to 233; proceedings of, during
Pombal's administration, from
1752 to 1758, 225 to 228; auto da
fe in Lisbon, in 1761, the celebrated
Jesuit Gabriel Malagrida, con-
demned as a heretic, and executed
at the stake, at the instance of
Pombal, 227; appointment of com-
missaries, in the 4th century, to
inquire into heresies, 163; pro-
ceedings of the prelates, Idalius
and Ithacius, against the Priscil-
lians, 163; penal laws of Theodo-
sius against the Manicheans, 163;
proceedings of those times, 163 ;
origin of systematic legalized in-
quisition into heresies, 163; its san-
guinary proceedings against here-
tics, and also against the Jews, con-
demned by Pope Leo the Great, 162;
the Inquisition condemned by Pope
Siricius, the Councils of Milan and
Turin, 162; opposed by St. Martin
of Tours, 162; cdicts against the
Donatists opposed by St. Augustin
in the 5th century; reprobated by
St. Austin, the Apostle of England,
163; against the Jews, 163; de-
nounced by St. Bernard and Pope
Clement VI. 164; against the
Jews in Portugal reprobated by
the Jesuit historian Marianne, 164;
opinions of Fenelon, 164; crimes
cognizable to that tribunal, 165;
analogous inquisitorial proceedings
in England, temp. Hen. VIII. and
Ed. VI. 166; auto da fe executions
in England, temp. Hen. VIII.;
167; analogous tribunal estab-
lished in England, temp. Elizabeth,
the Court of High Commission for
Ecclesiastical affairs, 168; the
use of torture, temp. Eliz. va-
rious kinds of tortures to which
Catholics were subjected, 171;
number of persons persecuted on
account of religion, temp. Eliz.
172; number of priests executed in
the reign of Elizabeth, 172; a young
lady scourged in the Tower on ac-
count of refusing to attend the
service of the Established Church,
173; in Portugal, origin, progress,
and constitution, 206; valuable
and hitherto unpublished official
sentences of the Inquisitions of
Lisbon, Evora, and Coimbra, from
the Government archives, placed
in author's hands by Viscount Sa
de Bandeira, 210; numbers and
particulars of persons executed-
number of auto da fe's, 211; account
of the Jesuit Father Malagrida's
execution at the stake, one of
Pombal's many victims, 225; in-
genious devices in Lisbon, in 1820;
on the abolition of the Inquisition,
to render the odious tribunal still
more detestable, 228; the Duke of
Wellington's efforts in Spain, in
1812, to sustain the Inquisition,
and to prevent the spoliation of the
Religious orders, 229; many of the
dancing maniacs burned at San-
gerhusen, 387; judicial murders
not its only crimes, nor its worst.
The driving people mad by the
terrors of its procedures among
the latter. Analogous crimes of
Penal Law persecution, ii. 223;
views of Inquisitors with regard
to the female sex, 459.
Isambert, Pere. His fidelity to the
Pucelle, his advice to her to appeal
to the Council of Basle, ii. 166.
Isambert, da la Pierre. A Dominican
INDEX.
xxxiii
friar, eulogium of Quicherat on his
fidelity to Jeanne d'Arc, ii. 177.
Jacobus de Bergamo, De Mem.
Mulier, remarkable notice of Jean
d'Arc, ii. 3.
Jamblichus, of Malefic spirits, i. 424.
Jean sans Peur, Duc de Burgogne,
notice of his career, assassination,
ii. 6.
Jeanne d'Arc, memoir of, ii. 1; notice
of works which treat of her history,
2; Quicherat's collection of origi-
nal documents relating to trial,
&c. 2; Abbé Barthelemy's Bio-
graphy, 3; Abbé Langlet du
Fresnoy's ditto, 3; Biography of
her, of the 16th century, "De
Memorabilibus Mulieribus;" Bio-
graphical memoir of her, in Ger-
man by Professor Hase, ditto, by
Michelet, 4; calamitous state of
France occasioned by English in-
vasions prior to appearance of Jean
d'Arc, 5; the birth-place of the
heroine, 9; description of adjacent
forests and locality, 9; interest
taken in the birth-place and abode
of the illustrious peasant girl of
Domremy, 10; description of her
birth-place, statue placed there after
the model of the heroine, by the
daughter of Louis Philippe, Prin-
cess Marie d'Orleans, 11; remains
of antiquity existing which identify
the site and the structure known
as the house of Jeanne d'Arc, 12;
money voted by Government of
Louis Philippe to preserve the
house and premises, 12; the house
visited by old Montaigne, 13; the
site of the house and the premises
purchased by the Department, 13;
the example might have been acted
on in England, with advantage to
Shakspeare's memory, 14; a pil-
grimage to the shrine of Domremy,
14; history of the life, exploits,
sufferings and death of Jeanne
d'Arc, comprised in a period of
less than 20 years, 14; her early
carcer, parentage, brothers and
sisters, 16; Legendary lore cou-
nected with the children of, 17;
her education, was taught the
Lord's Prayer, Ave Maria, the
Creed, and Angelical Salutation,
to spin and to sew, never learned
to read or write, 18; early religious
habits, meditative turn of mind,
amiable disposition, delighted in
gathering flowers for wreaths and
chaplets, for the Blessed Virgin
and the saints, 20; ravages of the
English and Burgundians in Lor-
raine, calamities of the district
made a deep impression on her
mind: the sufferings of the people,
20, 22, 23, 24, 26; a change took
place in her taste and habits, be-
came fond of the sight of horses,
and the management of them, of
laborious exercises, 20; from the
age of 13 or 14, had frequent
ecstacies, visions, and hallucina-
tions, 20, 26, 27, 28; the reason
she assigned for quitting her home
and taking arms and male attire,
21; her exalted feelings of pure
and ardent patriotism, 21; when
she heard of an injury done her
country, or one of the French na-
tion loyal to the Prince Dauphin,
felt as if it was done to herself, 21;
said she never saw French blood
shed, but it made her hair stand
of an end, 21; her dominant reli-
gious impressions, 21; feelings of
veneration for the sacred foun-
tain, in the vicinity of Domremy,
and ancient oak supposed to be
the rendezvous of fairies, 21, 24,
25; old tradition prevalent in her
childhood, that a maiden was to
come out of France, by whose
heroic deeds France would be
saved from ruin, 24; affairs of
Charles VII. brought to the brink
of ruin, by the loss of the battle
and capture of Verneuil, 22; de-
clares when she was 13 years of
age, the first spiritual communica-
tion was made to her, "ses voix,"
announced to her that France
should be saved by her, 27; de-
clares she has communications
since that time with angels, and is
counselled by them, by St. Michael,
the angel Gabriel, St. Catherine
and St. Marguerite especially, 26,
27; dominant idea of, that France
was to become, le royaume de Jesus,
a fief to be held from the supreme
King of heaven by the gentil roy
de France, 28; acts in conformity
with that opinion in her summons
to the people of Troyes, 28; ac-
count of the first vision of, in her
xxxiv
INDEX.
father's garden, 29; of second vision
and command given to her, 29;
succeeding visions and conferences
with ses freres de paradis," 30,
31; nurtured by legendary lore,
a legend herself, pure and rapid,
from her childhood to her death,
31; nature of her inspirations, vi-
sions and apparitions; observations
on, by the Abbé Langlet du Fres-
noy, 31; question of her inspirations
or hallucinations, 34; her first vi-
sions, 36; injunctions of her voix
celestes, 36; determines to devote
her chastity to God, 36; refusal of
an offer of marriage, 36; beginning
of her mission, departure from her
father's house, pilgrimage to St.
Nicholas's shrine, presentation to
the Duc de Lorraine, 37; deter-
mines to adopt male attire, 38;
interviews with Baudricourt, 39;
sent by Baudricourt to the king,
39; journey from Vaucouleurs to
Chinon, 40; her interview with
the king, 42; her discourse with
the king, 42; inquiries made by
the king's order, into her life and
conduct, 43; opposition to her of
the courtiers, 44; her examination
before an Ecclesiastical commission,
and report in favour of her preten-
sions, 45; secret communicated by
her to the king, 46; her requests
of the king and promised restora-
tion of his kingdom, on condition
of its being offered up to God, 47;
her personal attractions and sin-
gular modesty of deportment, 47;
her examination at Poitiers, theo-
logians demand of her a superna-
tural sign of her power and pre-
tensions, 48; replies, she is sent by
God to raise the siege of Orleans,
49; an establishment provided for
her, 50; her chaplain, Père Pas-
querel, appointed, 50; a sword
offered to her by the king and
refused, asks for a sword that was
buried behind the great altar of
St. Catherine de Frierbois, 50; ar-
mour and a banner prepared for
her, 50; sets out from Orleans at
the head of six thousand men, 50;
her summons to the Duke of Bed-
ford, on her arrival before Orleans,
52; scene with Dunois and alter-
cation, 55; celebrates her religious
service before entering the town,
55; her first attack on an English
fort, 57; at the head of four thou-
sand men, attacks the other forts,
58; announces to her chaplain
that she will be wounded on the
following day, 58; wounded in the
throat, by an arrow, 59; defeat of
the English troops, the siege that
had lasted seven months raised by
her, 60; her deliverance of Orleans
celebrated by a fête, 60; her ex-
ploits before Orleans described by
the Duc d'Alençon, 61; her depar-
ture from Orleans and return to
the king, 62; character and con-
duct of the king, 62; her idea of
establishing a spiritual kingdom
in France, analogous to that of
Savanarola at the close of the same
century, 63; the beau ideal of her
patriotic affections, 63; presents
herself to the king, announces the
deliverance of Orleans, and the
next act of her mission to conduct
him to Rheims to be consecrated,
64; conduct of the king and his
courtiers, and notice of la Tre-
mouille and his hostility to Jeanne,
64; her unceremonious behaviour
and remonstrances addressed to
the king, 66; at the siege and
capture of Gergeau, the dangers
she encountered, 67; her extra-
ordinary courage and energy at
Gergeau, Earl of Suffolk taken
prisoner, eleven hundred English
killed, 69; the king reconciled
with the High Constable, by the
good offices of Jeanne d'Arc, 69;
predicts victory to the king's troops,
the following day the English sig-
nally defeated at the battle of Pa-
tay, 70; her extraordinary success
in repressing licentiousness in the
army and even among the common
soldiers, 71; forces her way into
the king's presence, remonstrates
with him on his delays, 74; extra-
ordinary power of inspiring confi-
dence, 74; surrender of Troyes, 75;
her generous disposition exhibited
on that occasion, absence of all
pride and selfishness, 76; Rheims
entered by the king and his cour-
tiers, Jeanne visited by her father
and eldest brother on her arrival,
after a perilous journey of 70
leagues at the head of 12,000 men,
78; the king consecrated at Rheims,
INDEX.
XXXV
79; the Pucelle present in her
bright armour holding her banner
close beside her sovereign, 79;
after the consecration, throws her-
self at the king's feet, prays to
be allowed to return to her home,
as her mission was accomplished,
79; the question of the accomplish-
ment of her mission, 80; Soissons,
Laon, Chateau Thierry, Provins,
Compiegne, De Senlis, St. Denis,
surrender to the French, 82; the
king's troops, headed by Jeanne
d'Arc, lay siege to Paris, her extra-
ordinary energy, severely wounded
by a javelin in the thigh, 83; the
siege of Paris abandoned and re-
turn of the French troops to St.
Denis, 83; the Pucelle repairs to
the great abbey of St. Denis, and
offers up her arms to God, she
proceeds with the king to receive
the submission of Ligny sur Marne,
that had promised to surrender,
83; corpse of a still-born child
restored to animation for a few
minutes; Towns of Charitè sur
Loire, of St. Pierre le Montier,
besieged by the French, the Pucelle
present on both occasions and en-
gaged in combat, 84; 16th Jan.
1430, the king conferred the honours
of nobility on the Pucelle, and
all her family, and gave the name
of Du Lys; the towns of Sens and
Melun surrender to the French,
85; she proceeds to the Isle de
France at the head of a small force,
passing through Melun declares
she has a presentiment she will
be taken prisoner and delivered up
to the English before the feast of
St. John, opposition to her at the
Court, 86; makes her escape from
the Court, 86; during her sojourn
at Ligny, a Bourguignon prisoner
of war, Franquet, a captain of
celebrity, put to death by the king's
troops, Jeanne d'Arc accused of
not interfering to save his life,
88; proceeds to Compiegne, a
town in the possession of the
French, then besieged by the Duc
d'Orleans, 88; makes a sortie from
Compiegne on the enemy on the
24th May, 1430; attacks the
enemy in their camp, defeated and
captured, 88; her capture attributed
to the treason of the Governor
and two of the principal members
of the king's council, Tremouille
and Regnauld de Chartres, Arch-
bishop of Rheims, 93; no effort
made for her ransom by the king,
97; the question of her mission
being accomplished, 98; exultation
in the English camp, and in Paris,
at the news of her capture, 106;
her captivity in the fortress of
Beaurevoir, and attempted escape,
casts herself from the top of a high
tower, 60 feet high, is severely in-
jured and retaken, 108; the king's
base ingratitude towards her, 111;
dates of leading events in her
career, 112; Shakspeare's references
to her exploits, 122; Hume's ditto,
116, 120; in captivity claimed
from the Duc de Bourguignon by
the University of Paris, to be tried
by an ecclesiastical authority, 127;
part taken by the English Court
in that proceeding of the University
of France, 114, 128; the different
phases of the judicial proceedings
against her, 130; composition of
the ecclesiastical tribunal: parts
acted by the Bishop of Beauvais
and Cardinal of Winchester, 130;
perfidious part played by a monk,
named Loyselleur in the prison of
Jeanne d'Arc, 142; sanction for
that perfidy in the laws which
regulated the proceedings of the
Inquisition, 142; her trial con-
ducted conformably with Inquisi-
torial law and usage, 143; the
rigors of confinement: chained
night and day, 144; proceedings
at the different seances of the ec-
clesiastical tribunal, in the first
phase of the Procès, her examina-
tions, interrogatories, and replies,
145 to 158; her condemnation as
a sorceress, heretic, invoker of
demons, idolatress, apostate, &c.
164; efforts tried to extort an ac-
knowledgment of guilt, threatened
with torture she consents to sub-
mit herself entirely to the Church,
and to abandon her male attire,
is sentenced to perpetual impri-
sonment, a false document put
forth purporting to be a retracta-
tion of all her assertions with
regard to visions, 163 to 176; the
sentence pronounced in the midst
of a vast assemblage, and with all
xxxvi
INDEX.
the pomp of a religious ceremony,
and the pageantry of a dramatic
spectacle, in the cemetery of the
church of St. Ouen at Rouen, 169;
her character and capacity as dis-
played on her trial, 161; her illu-
sions, 162; her examinations on
her trial, 70 articles of accusation
drawn from her answers, 163; sen-
tence of condemnation, 164; efforts
made to induce her to retract her
assertions as to visions, &c. 165;
offers to submit herself to the
Church militant, and appeals to
the Pope, 166; predicts in prison
the deliverance of France from the
English, threatened with the torture
for refusing the retractation de-
manded of her, 168; the spectacle
of the condemned Pucelle in the
cemetery of St. Ouen at Rouen
where her condemnation to per-
petual imprisonment is formally
promulgated, 169; escapade of the
condemned prisoner, while a ser-
mon was being preached against
her and her royal master, 171;
consents to affix her signature to
a document promising to abandon
her male attire, submitting herself
in all things to the Pope; alleged
substitution of a false retractation
for the preceding documents, 170;
discontent of the Duke of Bedford
at the condemnation, resulting only
in the perpetual imprisonment of
the Pucelle. Intrigues set on foot
for a new plea for proceedings
against her. Methods taken to in-
duce her to resume her male attire
and on this plea declaring her a
relapsed heretic, 176; sentenced
on this mere charge to be burned
alive, 178; account of the closing
scenes of her captivity, after this
sentence and of her execution, 178;
preparations for execution, atten-
dance on, of the Dominican friar,
Martin Ladvenu, 183; her latest
words, asserting, "que ses voix ne
l'avaient pas déçue," and expiring
with the holy name on her lips,
"Jesus, Jesus," 188; her career
and its results, 191, 196; the revi-
sion of the sentence of condemna-
tion and vindication of her memory,
192; her memory and monuments
in its honour, 193, 194, 197; the
Bishop of Beauvais secks letters of
indemnity from the English sove-
reign for the part taken by him
in the Procès, 195; the question of
the inconsistency of allowing her
to receive the sacrament, the day
the same authorities declared her
cut off from the body of the faith-
ful, 196; favourable opinion of her
expressed by Jean Nider the In-
quisitor, 198; her character and
mental qualities, 198, 199, 200;
her personal appearance, 205; as
described by Grafton, 205; by
Shakspeare, 206; by Jacobus de
Bergoma, 206; by Michelet, 207;
of the nature of her visions, inspi-
rations, and state of mind, 210;
impostors assuming the name and
pretending to resume the mission
of Jeanne d'Arc. 227.
Jerks, convulsive disease, among Re-
vivalists, ii. 493.
Jews, persecuted in Switzerland in
1348, accused of poisoning the
wells during the pestilence of the
"Black Death," i. 365; in Mayence
12,000 Jews put to death, 365;
persecuted in England in 1327,
accused of poisoning the wells in
the plague then prevailing, 365;
similar fanatical charges against
them in modern times, 366.
Jumpers, notice of, i. 444.
Justin Martyr, on the demons of the
heathen, i. 58; of sacrifice of chil-
dren, ascribed to early Christians,
73.
Kircher (The Jesuit), in his great
work, De Arte Magica, treats of
Tarantism, i. 410.
Ladvenu, Martin Frere, a Dominican
monk, administers the last sacra-
ment to Jean d'Arc, ii. 177.
Langlet du Fresnoy (Abbe), his bio-
graphy of Jeanne d'Arc, ii. 3.
Leyden (John of), see Anabaptists.
Lilith," The Mother of Devils,” i. 69,
Lipothymia, notice of, i. 47.
Liverpool (Lord), on the durability
of the institutions of great coun-
tries, i. xx.
Locke on enthusiasm, i. 106.
Lollards (The), their supposed con-
nexion with the Flagellants, i. 434;
their supposed relations with the
Flagellants, i. 434.
Louis Gaufride, an ecclesiastic of
INDEX.
xxxvii
Marseilles, charged with sorcery
by the Inquisition and burned, ii.
259.
Loudun (Convent of), supposed dia-
bolical possession of its inmates,
history of the persecution of Urban
Grandier, ii. 278; spectacle of ex-
orcisms before the Duke of Or-
leans, 297, 298, 299, 300; several
of the exorcists seized with Demo-
nopathy, Pere Surin, 300; Pere
Lactance, 305: Pere Tranquille,
317; Pere Lucas, 319; also of the
Civil Lieutenant of Loudun, 320;
marks impressed on the hand of
the Superioress by a demon, 323;
Pere Surin's account of this pheno-
menon, 323; Menages' account of
it. 325; Moncony's, idem, 326.
Louviers (Convent of), supposed dia-
bolical possession of fifteen of its
inmates, ii. 317; remarkable letter
of one of the sisters labouring under
Demonomania, 354; extraordinary
hallucinations of the community-
convulsions, trances, ecstacies, re-
velations and delirious ravings,
351; their accusations of sorcery
against the deceased director of
the community, Pere Picard, and
a living ecclesiastic Pere Boullè,
both persons of good repute, 359,
360, 368; one of the community, a
monomaniac, Madeleine Bavan,
condemned as a sorceress, to be
imprisoned for life, 371; her suici-
dal attempts, 372; her confessions
of innumerable and impossible
crimes, 376; on her evidence
mainly criminal proceedings insti-
tuted inculpating the memory of a
deceased ecclesiastic, Pere Picard,
and charging a living clergyman,
Pere Boullè with sorcery, 369, 373,
376; Parliament of Rouen in confir-
mation of an iniquitous sentence,
direct the exhumed remains of
Pere Picard to be burned at the
stake, and the Pere Boullè to be
"burned alive, 380.
Madness—see Monomania, in its re-
lations with crime considered, i. 36,
37, 38; Homicidal ditto, 48; rage
for incendiarism, 48; dancing mad-
ness in Germany and Belgium, 49;
connected with belief in possession
by evil spirits, 49; of belief in hu-
man transformations into wolves,
49; one of its characteristics the
tendency to feign, ii. 331.
Madness of the Mind of Nations.
The French Revolution, i. 6.
Magdalena de la Cruz see Beatas of
celebrity; a nun of a Dominican
convent of Cordova, her impostures
carried on for 30 years, pretended
miracles. Proceedings against her
before the Inquisition, her confes-
sion and condemnation, i. 315, 316.
Mania, various forms of, i. 18; Plato's
idea of diseases of the soul, 19;
Socrates, idem, 20; Locke's defi-
nition of, 25; Dr. James Johnson's
observations on, 26; Cullen's defi-
nition of, 26; Dr. Pritchard's ditto,
27; Dr. Pritchard, his division of
its forms, 28; Esquirol. his account
of Manie sans Delire, 31; Dr. Co-
nolly, observations on, 32, 41;
Calmeil, his accounts of its charac-
teristics, 32; in connexion with
crime considered, Lord Hale's ideas,
36; Dr. Forbes Winslow, 36; Ho-
micidal, 48; Chorea, St. Vitus's
Dance, &c. 48; different form of,
48; on alliance with sorcery, 51.
Manouri, the surgeon of Loudun, his
hallucinations, ii. 321.
Mayo (Herbert), on truths contained
in popular superstitions, i. 97.
M'Nish, on the Philosophy of Sleep,
i. 90.
Mental Powers. Locke's observations
on difference of, in different indi-
viduals, i. 22.
Mental Physiology, Dr. Holland on,
34.
Mental powers of the young injured
by inordinate labour of the mind, i.
35.
Michelet, his biographical memoir of
Jeanne d'Arc, ii. 4.
Midi (Nichole, Father), one of the
most wicked of the judges on the
case of Jeanne d'Arc, and most
conspicuous in perverting justice,
ii. 140; his sermon at the place of
execution of the Pucelle, 188.
Migratory Epidemics of the Middle
Ages. The Bianchi and others, i.
282; the mania of the Flagellants
assumed this character in the 14th
century, 368, 370.
Mind and Body, their reciprocal in-
fluences, i. 5, 21, 40, 92.
Minucius (Felix), sacrifice of children
ascribed to early Christians, i. 86.
xxxviii
INDEX.
Miracles and Spiritual operations re-
corded in Scripture, observations
on, i. 271.
Monasteries. Torreblanca's account
of impostures carried on in them
by Magdalena de la Cruz, a Nun
of a Dominican convent in Cor-
dova, also by a Portuguese nun
in 1546, i. 315; another nun of a
convent in Cordova burned on
similar charges of feigned miracles,
&c. 317; Auto da fè in 1621, in
Spain, in honour of Philip IV. on
his succession, on which occasion a
beata of great celebrity as a hypo-
crite, a nun named Maria de la
Concepção, renowned in the former
reign for miraculous performances,
figured in the auto with a mitre
on her head, a gag in her mouth,
she received 200 lashes and was
sentenced to perpetual imprison-
ment, 318; the Mother Agueda,
Abbess of a Carmelite convent, a
beata, celebrated for her raptures
and visions, brought before the
Inquisition, examined, tortured,
and died in her impostures in the
prison of the Inquisition at Lo-
grogno, 318.
Monomania, Locke's definition of, i.
25; Dr. Pritchard's observations on,
28, 31; Dr. Conolly's, 32, 38, 41;
Dr. Forbes Winslow's, 37; Sir
John Nicholl's, 37; Lord Broug-
ham's, 37; various combinations
of, 38; Esquirol, reflexions on, 45;
Calmeil's, 47; various forms of
Epidemic Monomania, i. vi; its
impulses and influences in the case
of nations as in those of individuals
and communities, x; manifesta-
tions of incipient insanity may be
suppressed in some extent by the
power of the will, ii. 403.
Montaigne, his observations on sor-
cery and account of cases of sup-
posed witchcraft brought before
him, i. 330, 332; visits the birth-
place of Jeanne d'Arc in 1580,ii.13.
Muncer-see Anabaptists.
O'Leary (Rev. Arthur). His senti-
ments with regard to the Inquisi-
tion, i. 178-192.
Odenheym (A convent in).
De-
monopathy of its inmates, ii. 256.
Pascal, on the deceiving powers of
the Imagination, i. x.
Pasquier, Etienne. His opinion of
the services of Jeanne d'Arc to
France, ii. 194.
Peel (Sir Robert). His idea of the
obligations of governmental power
to the industrial poor, i. xvi.
Pestilences. "The oriental bubo
plague," says Hecker, "ravaged
Italy sixteen times, from 1119 to
1340,” i. 419; causes of the infre-
quency of similar plagues in later
times, i. 419.
Pestilences of Middle Ages connected
with mental disorders, i. 3.
Picard (Pere) Cure de Louviers. His
remains exhumed and burned at
the stake, ii. 380.
Pigray.
An enlightened medical
man, employed by the French Go-
vernment in 1589, to inquire into
cases of fourteen persons accused
of sorcery, reported, "they stood
more in need of medicine than
of punishment:" all the accused
accordingly released. Beginning
of a more enlightened jurispru-
dence, i. 310.
Plato. On diseases of the soul, i. 19.
Portugal, Inquisition in, i. 177; de-
tailed account of the proceedings
of Inquisition for 72 years, i. 211.
Porphyry on malefic spirits, i. 422.
Quicherat. His great work relating
to Jeanne d'Arc, ii. 1.
Regnauld de Chartres, Archbishop
of Rheims, ii. 94, 98.
Revivals in America, ii. 499.
Revivalist Fanatics in England and
America, i. 444.
Revolution (French). Its epidemic
homicidal phrenzy, its carnage,
executions, and persecutions,
viii.
Richard (Frere). A celebrated friar,
a slanderer of Jeanne d'Arc, spoken
of by Monstrelet, ii. 73; at Troyes
presents himself to Jeanne d'Arc,
ii. 75.
Russell (Lord John) on the lament-
able prevailing ignorance in some
districts" of the truths in religion,
ignorance even of the name of God
and Christ," i. xviii.
Sacrifice of children, ascribed to early
Christians, i. 69, 72 to 87; ascribed
to sorcerers at their sabbaths, 69;
the legend of Lilith, i. 69; Torre-
blanca's version of it, 71; connected
INDEX.
xxxix
wit sorcery and religious rites of
the Greeks, Phoenicians, &c. 71,
79; traces of it in Roman my-
thology, 71; supposition of, per-
vades the modern sorcery called
witchcraft of Europe, 71.
Samuel and the Witch of Endor, i.
267.
Scott (Sir Walter). His letters on
Demonology and Witchcraft. Con-
troverted opinion as to terms Witch,
Witchcraft, &c. i. 259.
Shakspeare. His treatment of the
history and system of the heroism
of Jeanne d'Arc, ii. 122, 205.
Simon Magus, Tertullian's reference
to, i. 60.
Socrates, the demon of, i. 63.
Somnambulism and Animal Magnet-
ism. Their rapports agree with
many of the phenomena of epidemic
hystero-convulsive Theomânia, ii.
274, 281, 282; in their relations to
Demonomania, 334; induced in a
convent at Auxonne, by abuse of
the rite of exorcism, 386, 402; ap-
parent suspension of respiration
and circulation in the case of the
nuns of Auxonne, 396; Calmeil's
observations on, 398; analogous
results witnessed by author, 399.
Sorcery prevalent among the Pagans
in the time of Justin Martyr, i.
270; objections to opinions, Mons.
M. Calmeil on Christian grounds
tending to a disbelief in spiritual
operations recorded in Scripture,
271 to 276; allied with insanity,
50; of ancient times, origin of, 51;
Tertullian's account of, 53; Justin
Martyr, account of, 58; Justin
Martyr concerning demons, 58;
Plato concerning angels, 54; off-
spring of angels, spoken of by Jo-
sephus, 55; union of angels with
women referred to in Genesis, 55;
the oracles of the Pagans ascribed
to, 57; cure of diseases ascribed to
demons, 57; of Simon Magus, 60;
the subject of a dialogue of Lucian
-"Lovers of Lies," 61; the demon
of Socrates, supposed by Tertul-
lian to be an evil spirit, 63; the
good genius of Socrates, 63; Plato's
account of, 64.
Sorcery and Witchcraft. Opinions
of Catholic Divines and doctrines
of the Catholic Church in relation
to the operation of evil spirits, i. 233
to 245; of Protestant divines and
the Protestant Church on the same
subject, 248; opinions of Luther
on the same subject, 252; contro-
versy with respect to the true
meaning of the Hebrew words in
the Old Testament, which had
been rendered in the English ver-
sion by the terms witch, wizard,
enchanter, &c, 259 to 276; pre-
vailed epidemically in Normandy,
in 1676 500 people compromised
in the proceedings carried on in
one district, 17 condemned to death,
the sentence annulled by Louis
XIV. 820; Demonomania no more
punished with death in France,
328; observations on the use of
torture and imprisonment to obtain
confessions, 324, 325; singular
tendency on the part of vast num-
bers of persons accused of sorcery
to confess they were guilty, when
there is every reason to believe
they were innocent, 325; in the
Canton de Vaud in the 15th cen-
tury, 296; in Germany and France,
300; in Arras and throughout the
Artois country, 301; Pope's Bull
(Innocent VIII.) against sorcerers,
&c. in 1484, 302, 303, 304; Bull of
Pope Julius II. in 1504, against
sorcery, 305; of Pope John XXII.
wherein special inquiry is enjoined
into practices of sorcery and necro-
mancy, 305; severe proceedings in
Venice against sorcery and heresy,
led to violent opposition against
the Inquisition in Venice, 305;
vast numbers of persons put to
death by the Inquisition on charges
of sorcery in Lombardy, Piedmont,
Languedoc, Lorraine, and Avig-
non, 306; accounts of the exploits
of a flying witch in Spain, 313;
burning of witches in Saragossa in
1536, 314; connected with Demono-
pathy in convents, in various coun-
tries, ii. 287; ecclesiastics denoun-
ced by monomaniacs in various
countries as sorcerers, and burned
at the stake: see Urban Grandier,
Trois Eschelles, Picard, Boullè,
Louis Gaufride; Garcia, a Bene-
dictine friar, cast into prison by
the Inquisition. Auto da fè in
1610, celebrated by the Inquisition
of Logrogno, several sorcerers con-
demned, 317; 25 maniacs burned
xl
INDEX.
↓
at Éifdalem, in Switzerland,
charged with sorcery, 354; Becker,
in his "Monde Enchantée," de-
tails the witchcraft mania in Swe-
den, burnings at Eifdalem, alleged
devil-worship at Blocula, Orgies,
Sabbaths, &c. 355; account of eight
youths, of about 5 or 16 years of
age, and a girl of 12
years of age,
sentenced to be burned at Burg-
hausen, in Bavaria, 328; Mon-
taigne's admirable observations on
this subject, his account of persons
brought before him accused of
sorcery, 323; first enlightened
opinions on this subject promul-
gated by Pigray, a medical com-
missary of the French Government,
310; in La Sologne aud Berri,
numbers burned, 311; in the Ne-
therlands (Regnantè Carol. V.)
100,000 persons put to death for
opinions, not in accordance with
those of their rulers, 311; in Spain,
frightful persecutions carried on
against people labouring under
epidemic insanity, 311; in 1507,
at Calhorra in Spain, 30 women
burned as witches, 311; proceed-
ings in Navarre on a large scale
against witches and wizards, the
informants against them being two
young girls; confessions of the ac-
cused, account of the devil's sab-
baths, 312; the Pagan Sagæ, Le-
mures, Lamiæ, veneficæ, and pa-
rents of witches, wizards, &c. of
later times, 277; the Inquisition
showed in its dealings with accusa-
tions of those crimes, it shared in
the prevailing ignorance of the
Middle ages, in respect to the
nature of epidemic mental disor-
ders, 267; work on sorcery of the
Jesuit Delrio: classification of here-
tics and sorcerers, 278; modern
England, 444; in America, 444;
estimated numbers charged with,
executed in England and Scotland,
in two centuries, 30,000, 449; in
Scotland, 449; the latest execu-
tion in England, in 1682, 451; and
in Scotland, 451; tortures to ex-
tort confessions in England, 451;
the swimming ordeal, last woman
murdered undergoing it, in 1751,
453; abolition of the Sorcery Sta-
tutes in England and in Ireland,
453; burning of women's bodies
at the stake on charges of petty
treason in England and in Ireland,
454; majority of persons executed
for sorcery women. Enlightened
views of the Inquisitors on the
subject of the minor faith of women
than of men. Definition of woman,
the name femina from Fè and
minus, 459.
Southcote, Joanna. Fanaticism of,
i. 7.
Spanish Nun.
"Her Lament," a
poem of the 15th century, trans-
lated by B. W. ii. 408; the same
in the original Spanish, i. 501.
Stokes (Dr. W.) on Epidemic Mania,
ii. 337.
Stork-see Anabaptists.
Suero, Emanuel. In the Anales de
Flandres notices the "La Secta de
los dançantes,” i. 397.
Surin, Pere, Ord. Soc. of Jes.; his
exorcisins at Loudun, becomes in-
sane, and a vietim to Demono-
pathy. Notice of his career and
writings, ii. 297, 300, 306.
Swedenborg. His visions and hallu-
cinations, 90; notice of his life,
and works, alleged communica-
tions with angels, i. 107,
Sympathy, its power and effects,
ii. 33.
succour Gergeau, besieged by
Jeanne d'Arc, ii. 69.
Talfourd, Judge. On the separa-
tion between class and class, which
is the great curse of British so-
ciety, i. xix.
opinions on same subject in the Talbot (Earl), sent from Paris to
work entitled, The Jew of Verona.
Revolutionists described as devil-
worshippers,278; Llorente's opinion
on improbability of Demonolatria,
existing as a practice or tenet of a
sect, 279; in 1484 Bull of Pope
Innocent IV. against sorcery, 279;
similar Bulls of Pope Adrian VI.
in 1523; and his successor Pope
Julius II. 305; proceedings of
Boguet against sorcery, in 1597;
his diabolical sentiments, 351; in
Tarantism or Tarantula dancing,
mania, i. 410.
Tertullian. Sacrifice of children as-
cribed to early Christians, i. 96.
Theodore Sartor-see Anabaptists.
Thcomania in Protestant Countries;
INDEX.
xli
the Anabaptists in Holland and
Germany, ii. 418; the French Cal-
vinists in Dauphiny, Vivaraes and
the Cevennes, 469; characterized,
i. 49.
Thom, of Canterbury, his fanaticism,
i. 7.
Torreblanca, his work on Demono-
logia for the guidance of the In-
quisition; its inhuman and fana-
tical doctrines, i. 288.
Torreblanca, of two kinds of dreams,
i. 103.
Townsend (Colonel) case of Death
trance, i. 102.
Tremouille, Count de la. Notice of
his opposition to la Pucelle, ii. 64.
The question of his treachery to
Jean d'Arc, ii. 93.
Trithemius, Abbot of Spanheim, ac-
(
cused of sorcery by Bodin. His
extraordinary work, Steganogra-
phia, or art of secret writing, ana-
logous in some respects to that of
Bishop Wilkins. Pretended con-
jurations used, the words of which
were the expression of symbolic
writing, i. 288, 289.
Trois Echelles. An ecclesiastic, a
reputed sorcerer, and loup garroux,
burnt in Paris in 1571, i. 353.
Troyes, Jeanne d'Arc appears before
the walls of, siege commenced, ca-
pitulation of the town, ii. 76.
Urie (Theodore), in his History of
the Council of Constance treats of
the Flagellants, i. 385.
Uvertet, Convent, Demonopathy of
its inmates, ii. 239.
Vincent (St., of Ferrer), accused of
favouring the Flagellants, i. 388.
Vitus's Dance, account of, i. 397.
Voltaire. The debasement of his
genius by his efforts to degrade
the memory of Jeanne d'Arc, ii.
194.
Wierus. His work on sorcery, notice
of his life and writings, opinions
on the subject of sorcery, distin-
guishes belief in diabolical agency
from belief in witchcraft and super-
natural power ascribed to witches,
i. 283; accused of sorcery by Bodin,
i. 289; of making a census of the
infernal regions and giving an
account of 7,405,926 devils, and
the names and surnames of 572
princes of that "Lower Empire,”
293.
Willis (Dr.). His account of the
barking disease, i. 347.
Winslow Forbes (Dr.), on mania, i.
36, 37; observations on the culture
of the moral feelings and affec-
tions, ii. 420.
Wolf Transformation Mania, or Ly-
canthropy, connected with Demo-
nopathy in Switzerland, St. Claude
in the Jura district, i. 307, 308; ex-
traordinary tendency to make con-
fessions of guilt on the part of
persons evidently innocent of the
crimes they were charged with,
but labouring under Monomania,
307; this epidemic mental malady
preceded by famine. Boquet the in-
famous judge boasts he had caused
more than 600 Lycanthropes to
perish. A French ecclesiastic, Trois
Echelles, put to death as a Ly-
canthropist, 308; one of the epi-
demic forms of Demonopathy and
Demonolatria, 310; its ancient ori-
gin, references to it in Greek and
Latin poets, 336; its prevalence in
Germany in middle ages, known
as the Wehr-wolf sorcery, 336;
St. Augustine's account of it, 336;
Old Burton's centos in relation to
wolf madness, 336; William of
Malmesbury's account of two old
women in Italy, who practised this
kind of sorcery, converting men
into beasts of burden, 340; St.
Augustine's account of a similar
practice in Italy, 341;
Magnus gives details of numerous
transformations of this kind in
Norway and Denmark, Lapland
and Finland, connection with this
kind of sorcery of clairvoyance,
342; its prevalence amongst the
Gauls, 344; amongst the Scythians,
344; amongst the ancient Irish,
345; Camden's account of Ossorian
wolves, 346; condemnation and
execution of many persons in
France on this charge, Loups Ga-
roux as they were termed, from
1521 to 1573, 353; singular case
of this kind of Monomania related
by Sennertus, 365; Puceros, his
account of many persons charged
with this crime in Livonia being
tortured and wrought on to make
confessions of their guilt, 358.
Olaus
I.
d
· xlii
INDEX.
Women, how regarded by the In-
quisition, 459.
Zeleucus, the lawgiver of the Lo-
crians, his mode of governing men,
i. p. xxi.
Zisca, his army of fanatics, his ex-
ploits at Thabor, ii. 423.
PAGE.
VOL. I.
ERRAT A.
25, l. 12, for reduction read deduc-
tion.
29, l. 1, for 3. Mania read Mania.
29, l. 6, for 4. Dementia read De-
mentia.
48, l. 15, for incites read excites.
62, 1. 23, for Socrates read Cicero.
77, l. 15, for tying caution read this
compensation.
95 l. 18, for on read ou.
109, l. 26, for Soudum read Loudun.
160, l. 5, for to read read read.
168, l. 5, for The Queen read Eliza-
beth.
234, l. 16, for Lastanges read Lan-
tages.
247, l. 12, for partent read parlent.
289, l. 6, for members read numbers.
329, l. 21, for persuader read per-
suadè.
346, l. 14, for Leicester read Leinster.
417, l. 14, for conjunctory read con-
junctures.
VOL. II.
9, l. 25, for valcouleurs read vau-
couleurs.
14, 7. 17, for thought of mind read
turn of mind.
20, 1. 3, for Des ait read Disait.
24, 1. 3, for Mignet read Michelet.
PAGE.
41, l. 2. for l'abadonner read aban-
donner.
49, l. 21, for over read after.
50, l. 2, for Dotor read Dolon.
52, l. 11, for Gereau read Gergeau.
53, l. 23, for vent read veut.
76, l. 26, for auguel read auquel.
77, l. 6, for fall away read falling.
79, l. 16, for nous read vous.
79, l. 18, for nous read vous.
141, l. 21, for grauds read grands.
145, l. 3, for see read she.
152, l. 11, for au read an.
153, l. 18, for mou read mais.
161, l. 17, for pape read passer.
191, l. 4, for marvulleusement read
marveilleusement.
206, l. 1, for aut read eut.
209, 1. 23, for ses read sa.
260, l. 18, for aut read cut.
284, l. 2, for Easters read Easter.
285, l. 23, for Le Cordonniere read
La Cordonniere.
294, l. 20, for Creatorum read Crea-
torem.
333, l. 2, for Cambien read Combien.
340, l. 4, for apistholonis read opis-
tholonis.
413, l. 3, for it read if.
422, l. 9, for docrine read doctrine.
422, l. 7, for Storch read Stork.
429, l. 9, for an read a.
530, l. 4, for Wigan read Vigan.
EPIDEMIC MENTAL DISORDERS.
CHAPTER I.
NOTICE OF SOME OF THE EPIDEMIC DISORDERS OF
THE MIND WHICH HAVE PREVAILED IN EUROPE,
IN THE 14TH, 15TH, 16TH, AND 17TH CEN-
TURIES. INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS.
IN the 14th, 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries,
various commotions which affected the moral senti-
ments, and the intellectual powers of a considerable
number of persons, took place in the principal coun-
tries of Europe, in various communities; and
signally in the convents of several of the religious
orders in France, Spain, and Germany. These
disturbances seemed to be of a contagious character,
and they prevailed epidemically in particular loca-
lities at the same period.
The subject is one of deep interest, and not with-
out its salutary teachings and warnings, for fana-
ticism, fixed ideas, and delusions of all sorts in our
own times though civilization has advanced, and
many branches of learning and physical science
have made rapid strides of improvement, and dis-
pelled some of the darkest clouds which obscured
I.
B
2
MENTAL DISORDERS.
the intellect and bewildered the reason of vast
numbers of people in former ages.
The signal advancement especially of medical
science directed to the pursuits of physiology and
pathology, in connexion with the study of cerebral
disease, has contributed largely to this important
result. But manifest as the progress of civilization
has been, particularly in the last century and a half,
it is very doubtful, if the progress of enlightenment
among the masses of any country in Europe, has
been of so genuine a character as may be commonly
imagined; or if the same predisposing causes were
again to come into operation-namely, public ca-
lamities on a large scale, civil commotions, pro-
tracted war, famine, pestilence, religious strife,
fanaticism, and oppression-they might not produce
epidemic mental disorders, as terrible as any which
have occurred in past times under the names of
Theomania, Demonolatria and Demonopathy, in-
cluding all the forms of mental illusions connected
with witchcraft, communication with spirits, divina-
tion, and diabolical possession. The prevailing ideas
of modern times, the predominant influences of their
politics, polemics, forms of government, industrial
pursuits, modes of life, competitions, struggles,
sufferings, and privations of the industrious poor,
and their influences on the health, morals and
energies of the community, would naturally modify
the character, and determine the type of those
diseased conditions of mind and body which might
INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS.
3
སྐཁྱ
be expected to arise from wide-spread calamities in
our times.
The panics of a community, like the terrors of an
individual when they strike deep and are of long
continuance, are productive of great disturbances
moral as well as physical; and their general results
will be of a corresponding character in all ages.
Extraordinary calamities, affecting great numbers
of persons, are not likely indeed in our time to be
followed by mental disorders attended with hallu-
cinations connected with a belief in witchcraft or
demon worship, or transformation of human beings
into wolves and other animals. But they are equally
likely now, as at any former period, to be followed
by mental disorders connected with the prevailing
ideas, interests, and speculations of the age.
Professor Hecker, treating of the origin and dis-
semination of pestilences, favours the opinion of the
existence of some unknown powers which exert an
important influence over our planet, either astral
or telluric, influences wholly unconnected with the
modes of communication of disease by contact or
atmospheric contamination. This learned physician
frequently furnishes evidence in his "History of the
Epidemics of the Middle Ages," of great plagues
having been preceded by convulsions of the earth
of various kinds, and by exhalations from it, noxious
to human existence. In his preface to the treatise
entitled "The Black Death," he thus refers to the
subject:
B 2
4
MENTAL DISORDERS.
"Human knowledge is not yet sufficiently ad-
vanced to discover the connexion between the pro-
cesses which occur above, and those which occur
below the surface of the earth, or even fully to ex-
plore the laws of nature, an acquaintance with which
would be required; far less to apply them to great
phenomena in which one spring sets a thousand
others in motion."
These great phenomena are connected with the
revolutions which are performed in vast cycles, sepa-
rated by distances our limited faculties are hardly
able to comprehend. Nevertheless, their importance
as terrestrial events is greater than that of any
results of war, of national or governmental acts, or
the evil passions of mankind.
The convulsions of nature are productive of great
commotions in the minds of nations; and national
catastrophes are productive of dread conflicts in
society and striking changes in civilization. The
fanaticism of fear, in such calamitous times, gets firm
hold of the public mind and keeps for a long time
possession of its powers. Physical sufferings on a
great scale and contagious disorders are followed by
moral maladies and convulsions of the nervous system,
which prevail in the manner of epidemics. And
history teaches us those grave facts in relation to
them: "The human race, amidst the creations which
surround it, moves in body and soul as one indivi-
dual whole," acted on continually by surrounding
elements and incidents, and re-acting on each other.
INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS.
5
The mind and body reciprocally and mysteriously
affect each other. To determine where disorders of
the body cease to be merely physical derangements,
and when mental maladies supervene on bodily ail-
ments, and to distinguish between states of health
in which bodily functions or organs are affected, and
mental faculties or moral feelings are perverted,
requires a large amount of knowledge of medical
philosophy as well as of practical acquaintance with
medical pursuits.
In aid of both, history must step forward to en-
lighten our researches, before we can comprehend
those phenomena which are connected with the
desolations of great pestilences, the subsequent
mental disturbances of communities or nations, when
it would appear as if "nature was not satisfied with
the ordinary alternations of life or death, and the
destroying angel waved over man and beast his
flaming sword."*
It might be added, we must have that historic
light, before we can understand how many degrees
there are of enthusiasm and of excitability of the
nervous system, which amount not to the tempera-
ture of the mind at which reason ceases to be recog-
nized as a controlling power.
The disturbances of the mind which prevailed in
the middle ages in an epidemic form, we are told,
belong only to history; they will never appear again
* Hecker, Gen. Observ. on “The Black Death," ch. i. p. 1,
6
MENTAL DISORDERS.
in the form in which they are recorded. But in
modified shapes we must believe they will appear in
due season and at appointed epochs, as they have
hitherto done. They will be followed by mental
disturbances and aberrations; for to the end of time
and in all stages of civilization, imagination will
probably continue to exert, as she has hitherto
exerted, a marvellous influence over the production
of disease, and morbid sentiments that border on
insanity, or tend to pass that boundary, will be found
in particular states of society to merge into new
forms of fanaticism.
Public opinion in our age has a platform for its
exercise, which it never had before. Its power
undoubtedly is calculated in ordinary circumstances
to mitigate or to stay such national calamities as I
have referred to, and to deal with them so as to
render a vast deal of the suffering they entail endu-
rable. But there are disasters which befal nations,
by war, pestilences, and famine, by corruption and
the seeds of decay or disorder in the heart's core
of their institutions, which no public opinion can
controul.
The disenthralment of public opinion from all
bonds, the license given to experimental political
philosophy at the onset of the French Revolution,
proved of small avail in controlling or directing
that madness of a nation's mind, which partook at
once of the phrensy of exaltation, of extravagant
ideas, of inebriated ignorance, the fanaticism of fear,
INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS.
7
and the homicidal instincts, and alienation of the
moral sentiments.
Such public opinion as prevailed in the middle
ages was enlisted on the side of the several delusions
which assumed the forms and proportions of epi-
demic insanity.
Public opinion was in correspondence with the
philosophy, theology, and medical science of the
times, in relation to sorcery, divination, and diabo-
lical possession. Nothing could prevail against
its despotism.
The tyranny of public opinion is laid on founda-
tions deep and strong-ignorance and pusillani-
mity. In all ages, we may speculate largely on
the widely prevailing influences of folly and of
fear; and even in this 19th century have we
such sure grounds for our confidence in its civiliza-
tion that no fears may be entertained of any recur-
rence of those bewilderments of reason, widely
spread, under which multitudes of people laboured
in "the dark ages?"
Are we forgetful of the epidemic delirium of the
followers of Mr. Thoms in Canterbury and its
vicinity, of the belief in his divinity, of the since-
rity of that belief, sealed with the blood of several
of his followers?
Can the theomania of the followers of Johanna
Southcote be forgotten? the formation of an exten-
sive sect, deriving their doctrine from the hallucina-
tions of an illiterate, repulsive, dropsical old dame,
8
MENTAL DISORDERS.
dreaming in her dotage of the instincts of mater-
nity, and of a divine mission being given to her? or
the delusions of those followers, which were so
strongly manifested in the preparation of a costly
cradle and swaddling clothes of the finest texture
for the expected offspring of an infatuated old
woman?
Has the enlightenment of the 19th century
so entirely dissipated the dark thick mists of de-
mented superstition that no traces of it are to be
found in modern English and American records?
In what language is the future word-painter of
Welsh history to depict the strange antics and the
frantic orgies of the Jumpers and Revivalist fana-
tics?
Will Macaulay "come down" to the period of
the field meetings of the saints, and the love-feasts
of the brethren and sisterhood of the elect in Wales?
Or will Alison "finish Europe" with a chapter on
modern miracles, furnishing a resumée of the phe-
nomena and an elucidation of the mysteries of
clairvoyance?
Shall we read in that chapter of revelations from
the other world by persons in "the superior condi-
tion," solemnly announced in the presence of
Christan ministers, of dignitaries of the Church, im-
pugning doctrines of Christianity which are deemed
fundamental truths in all its Churches?
Must we go back to the middle ages for sor-
cery and dealings with "Satan's invisible king-
INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS.
9
1
dom?" Or may we not only have to cross the
Atlantic on a voyage of discovery for devils and
those who commune with "fallen angels" and "in-
ferior spirits?" Have we not in America, at the
seances of the spirit-rappers, scenes which may
remind us of the "Sabbaths" of assembled witches;
media stationed in circles, intent on conjurations,
discoursing in a jargon scarcely intelligible to the
uninitiated, invoking spirits-some "disobedient,"
"mischievous," "perverse," "mocking,” and “ "men-
dacious;" others "benign," "angelic," and "di-
vinely gifted intelligences"?
Have we not Judges of the land, eminent law-
yers, divines, and journalists, and many thousands
of educated people (estimated throughout the Union
by hundreds of thousands of persons) in the present
year of grace, professed believers in or practisers of
this "art," which was formerly called "black"?
Are we unmindful of the epidemic insanity of the
Mormons, of their faith in the impostures of a ine-
chanic in very indifferent repute in his own locality,
in the finding by Joe Smith of the ancient scrolls
and tables with the divine inscriptions of long-lost
revelation, concerning the tribe of Nephi and that
of the Jaredites? Of the extravagances of those
mind-bewildered people in their own state; of their
battles with their countrymen, of the loss of life
in one of them, on the part of their Chief and Pro-
phet; of their Exodus, their wanderings in the
wilderness, their settlement on the borders of the
10
MENTAL DISORDERS.
Salt Lake, and the increment, even at the present
day, which their numbers receive from the southern
shores of England?
But the preceding visitations of partial delirium
were few and far between compared with the epi-
demic monomanias which prevailed in former ages.
It must be borne in mind, however, that they oc-
curred in ordinary times and under ordinary cir-
cumstances. They were not the results of great
mental disturbances, or physical sufferings, produced
by signal calamities and public commotions, or
powerful impressions made by prevailing prejudices,
and dominant ideas connected with generally received
opinions on the subject of sorcery, divination, or
diabolical possession, ascetic austerities, ecstasies,
trances, visions, or apparitions.
Had they followed in the wake of great public
commotions and calamities, wars, pestilences, fa-
mines, or rapacities at the hands of wicked rulers,
what solid reason have we to believe that they
would have been less violent in their action, less
dehumanizing in their consequences, or of less fre-
quent recurrence than analogous epidemic monoma-
niacal disorders were in the middle ages? The only
good and sufficient reason that can be adduced for
the belief that such disorders of the moral sense in
our times would be of a mitigated character, and of
more rare occurrence in an epidemic form, is the
progress of medical science, and the great advance-
ment of our knowledge of diseases affecting the
INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS.
11
intellectual faculties, and the moral sense and feel-
ings.
We have abundant confessions of compacts with
devils, preparation of philtres, all kinds of extrava-
gant practices of a sortilegious kind in the records
of judicial proceedings of the middle ages, and of
those occurrences which took place under the sanc-
tion and auspices of spiritual superstitions, carried
into effect by the strong hand of the secular arm, at
the gibbet and the stake.
And in the 19th century, we have no dearth
of avowals of sorcery, of interviews with Satan, of
power derived from his angels, of the perpetration
of fearful crimes committed by Satanic suggestion;
but not in the same places and the same circum-
stances as in the middle ages. We have them now
in lunatic asylums, on the part of persons who are
restrained on account of their insanity, and not
burned in the market places on the plea of vindi-
cating God's honour.
"Les Egaremens de l'Esprit Humain" is the title
of an excellent work by Pluquet, written about a
century ago, when society in France was still torn
by a sort of warfare little known among heathen
nations-a warfare of religion. "Wars of this
kind have their origin," observes Pluquet, in the
introduction to his work, "not in the principles of
religion, but in the passions which religion combats,
and often in the vices even of civil government;
often has fanaticism been kindled by cupidity and
12
MENTAL DISORDERS.
inordinate desires for domination; often have the
factious and discontented profited by fanaticism and
the strife of Christians; often have ambition and
state craft turned true and unaffected zeal to the
account of their designs."*
The same author has truly said-
"The principle of fanaticism is hidden, as it may
be said, in the bottom of the heart of every man,
and nothing so rapidly develops it as the dissi-
dences of sects and disputes about religion. They
alone can develop it, in all hearts, and can give to
fanaticism an activity and audacity capable of dar-
ing every thing, of resisting every thing, of sacri-
ficing every thing to party interests.
"Those dissidences of sects, so injurious to religion
and civil societies, have their source in the imper-
fections and passions belonging to human nature,
and each age contains within its limits, in some
way or other, the germ of all schism and of all
errors.
"Fanaticism is an ardent but blind zeal. It
grows up and kindles into flame in the bosom of
ignorance, and burns ou and becomes extinct in
the presence of truth.
"In an enlightened nation, fanatic leaders are
only sick men (morbidly affected persons) who are
* Memoires pour servir à l'histoire Des Egaremens de l'Esprit
Humain, par rapport de la Religion Chretienne. Par. 1762. En
2 tomes, 12mo
INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS.
13
pitied, or impostors who excite only indignation or
contempt."
If that element of fanaticism be then concealed
in the bottom of the heart of every one, as the
enlightened author of the Bewilderments of the
mind of man supposed, needing only sectarian dis-
sidences and religious strife for its development,
and that condition of mental sickness which, in
enlightened nations, begets compassion or contempt
(when it is restrained); an inquiry into the outbreaks
of that fanaticism, and the disorders which are its
results in times and countries when that restraint
was relaxed or done away with, and the means
which were ineffectually employed to restore the
reason that was morbidly affected by it, and to
bring back a system of moderation, tolerance, and
enlightened zeal for religion, such as it should in-
spire; this inquiry is not a vain one, and nothing
connected with it can be unimportant which is
turned to the account of right reason, in matters
which concern people of all creeds and of all ages.
The celebrated physician and "homme d'esprit,"
Guy Patin, in regard to belief in sorcery, has ob-
served: "La plupart des apparitions, des esprits,
des sorcelleries, des predictions, divinations, et
autres choses semblables, dont l'on etourdit les
simples, qui, veulent ensuite nous en etourdir j'ap-
pelle tout cela-les gazettes des sots et le credo de
ceux qui ont trop de foi."*
* L'Esprit de Guy Patin. Amstel. 1760, in 16mo. p. 36.
14
MENTAL DISORDERS.
There is a solecism in the phrase "too much
faith." But too much enthusiasm in matters of re-
ligion-fervour that is not regulated by the legiti-
mate authority of fixed laws and settled doctrines,
will no doubt be found productive of fanaticism.
There is, however, another, and perhaps a worse
species of fanaticism than this-the fanaticism of
infidelity, a fierce spirit of intolerance of all faith
in religion, uniting a profound feeling of contempt
for the fundamental doctrines of Christianity, with
ferocious sentiments of rancorous animosity towards
those who believe in them.
It was this latter sort of fanaticism which gave a
homicidal character to the great delirium of the
moral sentiments at the period of the French Revo-
lution. Sixty-five years have not elapsed since the
horrors of that fanaticism were witnessed in a coun-
try then one of the most civilized in Europe. An
infidel philosophy prepared the mind of the French
nation for that fanaticism.
An infidel periodical literature in England is
accomplishing a similar mission there-slowly per-
haps, but surely, among the great masses of the
people; and where its propagandism of infidelity,
and the vulgar cynicism of socialism does not extend,
corresponding results may be expected from the
prevalent indifference in matters of religion which
characterizes the literature, science, and philosophy
of our time, which pervades our journalism, and
lurks under the folds of the drapery of fashion as
well as in the precincts of St. Stephen's Chapel.
INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS.
15
An able writer, who deals unceremoniously enough
with the religion of Roman Catholics, observes:
"Superstition is undoubtedly an evil; but in-
credulity, in my opinion, is a worse. This, rather
than the former, seems the evil of the day; and
I would prefer throwing the weight of argument into
the counteracting scale. Superstition appears to be
a morbid excrescence, attaching mischievously upon
and deriving sustenance from what is good. It is
allied to Ignorance, while Humility, Innocence and
Devotion are sometimes its companions. Incredulity
is, on the contrary, connected intimately with our
Pride; and is the core of much that is sinfully and
perilously wrong. . .
""
"But unbelief is the vice of a higher step in the
social scale. It is the creature of that worldly
knowledge which, involving no fear of God, is not
the beginning, but the marring of true wisdom;
the growth of a depravity, to which the temptations
that beset superior ranks conduce."*
Bishop Butler, in a sermon before the House of
Lords, in 1741, manifested truly a divining spirit,
all instinct with that political sagacity, "rapt into
future times," which calculates "coming events" of
great pith and moment in a state, by the shadows
which impiety and fanaticism cast before them: "Is
there no danger," he observed, that all this may
raise somewhat like that levelling spirit upon atheis-
tical principles, which in the last age prevailed upon
66
* Tract on Miracles, by E. Barton, London, 1823.
16
MENTAL DISORDERS.
enthusiastical ones? Not to speak of the possibility
that different sorts of people may unite in it upon
those contrary principles." The Bishop, in that
reference to "the levelling principle upon atheis-
tical principles," of the last age, did not regard the
French Revolution in the same light as Lord Mans-
field did when he said of it: "It is an event without
precedent, and therefore without prognostic."
An inquiry of this sort is then not one of mere
literary curiosity, it cannot fail to prove one of
practical utility, if pursued in an unsectarian spirit,
with earnestness of purpose, truthfulness, industry,
and knowledge of the subject to which it is directed
in all its bearings, on existing circumstances,
having any analogy with those, which have been
found so productive of nervous excitement, and
cerebral disturbances at particular epochs, that have
prevailed like epidemics in former ages.
But in one point of view especially the utility of
such an inquiry must be obvious to every one. An
accurate knowledge of the true character of those
outbreaks of nervous excitement and cerebral dis-
turbances, which terminated in monomania, and
were attributed to malignant influences of various
kinds, in ancient times, must afford advantages for
the study of history of modern times, as well as
ancient, and for forming a just estimate of acts of
individuals manifesting extraordinary enthusiasm,
extravagance, temerity, fanaticism, or superstition,
which cannot be over-rated.
INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS.
17
It only remains for the author, in this introductory
chapter, to observe: there is no subject treated in
these volumes which has not, either directly or in-
directly, some important bearings on great questions,
some of vital interest, which agitate the minds of
thinking men of our own times.
I.
C
CHAPTER II.
OF THE NATURE AND DISTINCTION OF VARIOUS
FORMS OF MENTAL DISTURBANCE.
BEFORE the subject of this treatise is entered on,-
"A notice of some of the principal Epidemic Disor-
ders of the Mind, which have formerly prevailed in
Europe"- a few words may be said of the nature
and distinction of mental diseases generally, without
entering into the minutiae of professional research,
placing before the reader simply the opinions on this
subject of some of the most eminent writers.
In ancient times insanity was considered as a
preternatural mental condition, occasioned by a sort
of transmigration of the dispositions, feelings, and
phantasies of evil spirits into the bodies of human
beings.
Several of the Greek philosophers speak of mad-
ness as arising from the malign influence of a de-
mon; and Xenophon, no doubt, was indebted to that
source for the origin of phrenzy, which he attributes
to a spirit, or a demon: and Aristophanes, in like
manner, attributes mania to an evil one-kakodaimon.
Plato sought in human nature its vices and their
MENTAL DISTURBANCE.
19
results, in the penalties of ignorance and indulged
passions, the origin of mental disorders and pertur-
bations.
In the "Timæus," after describing how the dis-
eases of the body are produced, Plato observes :
"Diseases of the soul resulting from the body are as
follows: We must admit that the disease of the
soul is folly, or a privation of intellect; and that
there are two kinds of folly, the one madness, the
other ignorance. Whatever passion, therefore, a
person experiences, that induces either of them, must
be called a disease. Excessive pleasures, however,
are what we should call the greatest diseases of the
soul; and indeed it may almost be asserted,
that all intemperance in any kind of pleasure, and
all disgraceful conduct, is not properly blamed as
the consequence of voluntary guilt. For no one
is voluntarily bad; but he who is depraved, becomes
so through a certain habit of body, and an ill-regu-
lated education, and to every one these are inimical,
as they result in a certain evil."
"Besides this also, the vicious manners of cities,
and discourses both private and public, often cɔn-
tribute to increase this malady; nor are any branches
of learning taught in early life, which tend to serve
as remedies for such mighty ills; and thus all the
vicious are vicious through two most involuntary
causes, which we should always ascribe rather to
the planters than the things planted, and to the
trainers rather than those trained; but still it should
C 2
20
VARIOUS FORMS OF
be our anxious endeavour, as far as we can, by
education, studies, and learning, to fly from vice,
and acquire its contrary-virtue.”*
In the "Phædrus" Plato makes Socrates speak of
madness as a sacred malady; from some kinds of
which disease, when sent by divine bounty, great
advantages were derived. "For the prophetess at
Delphi and the priestesses at Dodona when mad
have done many and noble services for Greece, both
privately and publicly, but in their sober senses little
or nothing. And if we were to speak of the Sybil
and others who employed prophetic inspiration, and
have correctly predicted many things to many persons
respecting the future, we should be too prolix in
relating what is known to every one. This, how-
ever, deserves to be adduced by way of testimony,
that such of the ancients as gave names to things,
did not consider madness as disgraceful, or a cause
of reproach for they would not have attached this
very name to that most noble art, by which the
future is discerned, and have called it a mad art:
but considering it noble when it happens by the
divine decree, they gave it this name; but the men
of the present day, by ignorantly inserting the letter
R, have called it the prophetic art."
"Moreover, for those dire diseases and afflictions,
which continued in some families in consequence of
ancient crimes committed by some or other of them,
*The Works of Plato. The Timæus translated by Henry
Davis. Bohn's ed. vol. ii. p. 403.
MENTAL DISTURBANCE.
21
madness springing up and prophesying to those to
whom it was proper, discovered a remedy, fleeing
for refuge to prayers and services of the Gods,
whence obtaining purifications and atoning rites, it
made him who possessed it sound, both for the pre-
sent and the future, by discovering to him, who was
rightly mad and possessed, a release from present
evils. There is a third possession and madness pro-
ceeding from the Muses, which seizing upon a ten-
der and chaste soul, and rousing and inspiring it
to the composition of odes and other species of
poetry, by adorning the countless deeds of antiquity,
instructs posterity. But he who without the mad-
ness of the Muses approaches the gates of poesy,
under the persuasion that by means of art he can
become an efficient poet, both himself fails in his
purpose, and his poetry being that of a sane man,
is thrown into the shade by the poetry of such as
are mad.'
The great problem of physiology-the influence
of matter on the mind, and the nature of the con-
nexion between both, remains still unsolved; a
mystery which hitherto has baffled the research of
men of science, the speculations of metaphysicians,
and derived little advantage from the inspiration of
oracles, poets and philosophers. On the cognate
subject of mental disturbance and aberration they
have thrown as little light, and to modern philoso-
* Plato in Phædrus. Translated by H. Cary, M.A. vol. ii. p. 320.
22
VARIOUS FORMS OF
phy and medical science alone we must look for
knowledge.
Locke, treating of the marked difference in the
understanding of men that must be obvious to every
one, says: "Which great difference in men's in-
tellectuals, whether it rises from any defect in the
organs of the body, particularly adapted to thinking;
or in the dulness or untractableness of those facul-
ties for want of use; or, as some think, in the un-
natural differences of men's souls themselves; or
some, or all of these together; it matters not here to
examine; only this is evident, that there is a diffe-
rence of degrees in men's understandings, apprehen-
sions, and reasonings, to so great a latitude, that one
may, without doing injury to mankind, affirm that
there is a greater distance between some men and
others, in this respect, than between some men and
some beasts."*
Elsewhere, Locke, on the same subject, observes:
"There is, it is visible, great variety in men's under-
standings, and their natural constitutions put so
wide a difference between some men in this respect,
that art and industry would never be able to master;
and their very natures seem to want a foundation
to raise on it that which other men easily attain
unto. Amongst men of equal education there is
great inequality of parts. And the woods of
America, as well as the schools of Athens, produce
* Locke, Essay on the Human Understanding. Chap. “Of
Wrong Assent or Error," p. 285.
MENTAL DISTURBANCE.
23
men of several abilities in the same kind. Though
this be so, yet I imagine most men come very short
of what they might attain unto, in their several
degrees, by a neglect of their understandings."*
"We are born with faculties and powers capable
almost of any thing, such at least as would carry
us farther than can easily be imagined; but it is
only the exercise of those powers, which gives us
ability and skill in any thing, and leads us towards
perfection."t
Locke, treating of the different kinds of reasoners,
arranges them into three classes: the first never
reason at all, but adopt the opinions of those about
them or over them: "The second is of those who
put passion in the place of reason, and being re-
solved that shall govern their actions and arguments,
neither use their own nor hearken to other people's
reason any further than it suits their humour, in-
terest or party; and these, one may observe, com-
monly content themselves with words which have no
distinct ideas to them, though in other matters, that
they come with an unbiassed indifferency to, they
want not abilities to talk and hear reason, where
they have no secret inclination that hinders them
from being intractable to it. The third sort is of
those who readily and sincerely follow reason; but
for want of having that which one may call large,
sound, round-about sense, have not a full view of all
* Locke, On the Conduct of the Understanding, p. 325.
↑ Ibid. p. 331.
24
VARIOUS FORMS OF
that relates to the question, and may be of moment
to decide it."
"In this we may see the reason why some men of
study and thought that reason right, and are lovers
of truth, do make no great advances in their dis-
coveries of it. Error and truth are uncertainly
blended in their minds; their decisions are lame and
defective, and they are very often mistaken in their
judgments; the reason whereof is, they converse
with one sort of men, they read but one sort of
books, they will not come in the hearing but of one
sort of notions; the truth is, they canton out to
themselves a little garden in the intellectual world,
where light shines, and as they conclude, day blesses
them; but the rest of that vast expansum they give
up to night and darkness, and so avoid coming near
it.”
"They have a petty traffic with known correspon-
dents in some little creek, within which they confine
themselves, and are dexterous managers enough of
the wares and products of the corner, with which
they content themselves, but will not venture out
into the great ocean of knowledge to survey the
riches that nature hath stored other parts with, no
less genuine, no less solid, no less useful than what
has fallen to their lot, in the admired plenty and
sufficiency of their own little spot, which to them
contains whatsoever is good in the universe.
Those who live thus mewed up within their own
contracted territories, and will not look abroad
MENTAL DISTURBANCE.
25
beyond the boundaries that chance, conceit or lazi-
ness has set to their inquiries, but live separate from
the notions, discourses, and attainments of the rest
of mankind, may not amiss be represented by the
inhabitants of the Marian Islands, who, being
separated by a large tract of sea from all communion
with the inhabitable parts of the earth, thought
themselves the only people of the world."*
Insanity, according to Locke, is a preternatural
fervour of the imagination, not altogether destructive
of the reasoning powers, but producing wrongly
combined ideas, and making right reductions from
wrong data; while idiotcy can neither distinguish,
compare, or abstract general ideas.
"In short, herein lies the difference," says Locke,
"between idiots and madmen-that madmen put
wrong ideas together, and so make wrong propo-
sitions; while idiots make very few or no propo-
sitions, and reason scarce at all. They err as men
who do argue right from wrong principles, for by
the violence of their imaginations having taken their
fancies for realities, they make right deductions from
them. Thus
Thus you shall find a distracted man fancy-
ing himself king, with a right inference require
suitable attendance, respect, and obedience; others
who have thought themselves made of glass, have
used the caution necessary to preserve such brittle
bodies. Hence it comes to pass that a man who is
* Locke, Conduct of the Understanding, Essays, &c. vol. ii.
p. 328.
26
VARIOUS FORMS OF
very sober, and of a right understanding in all other
things, may in one particular, be as frantic as any in
Bedlam, if either by any sudden very strong im-
pression, or long fixing his fancy upon one sort of
thoughts, incoherent ideas have been cemented
together so powerfully as to remain united. But
there are degrees of madness as of folly. This
disorder, by jumbling together of ideas, is in some
more and in some less."*
"This subject," says Dr. James Johnson, "is far
from being uninteresting to the medical practitioner.
It is his duty and his interest to study man in health,
aa well as in sickness and to watch the workings
of mind as well as matter, in the human microcosm.
Physicians (by which we mean medical men of all
descriptions) have lost much in public estimation,
by directing their attention too exclusively to dis-
orders of the corporeal fabric, and by thinking it
an extra-professional labour to study the moral part
of our nature. The physician in fact has infinitely
greater, better, and more numerous opportunities of
acquiring an intimate knowledge of metaphysics
than the divine or the moral philosopher; and,
whenever he has directed his attention to these sub-
jects he has excelled in them. The immortal Locke
is a sufficient example."†
Cullen, in his definition of insanity in his "First
* Essay on the Human Understanding, Chap. of Discerning.
† Med. Chir. Review, October, 1833.
MENTAL DISTURBANCE.
27
Lines," describes the mental condition of the insane
-"in a person awake, a false, or mistaken judg-
ment of those relations of things which, as occurring
most frequently in life, are those about which the
generality of men form the same judgment, and
particularly when the judgment is very different
from what the person himself had before usually
formed.
"There is generally some false perception of ex-
ternal objects, and such false perception necessarily
occasions a delirium or erroneous judgment, which is
considered as the disease."
But this definition of insanity, like that of Locke,
is far too limited, and only includes one of many
forms of insanity--namely, Monomania or partial
insanity.
Dr. Pritchard, in his great work on Insanity, ob-
serves" Writers on disorders of the mind have
frequently remarked that it is difficult to furnish a
definition of insanity which may enable us at once
to recognize when it exists, and to distinguish it
from all other conditions, whether of health or of
disease. So great, indeed, has this difficulty ap-
peared to some authors, that by them it has been
thought better to lay aside such an attempt."*
"It has been said with perfect accuracy, that
insanity is a disorder of the system, by which the
* A Treatise on Insanity," &c. by Dr. J. C. Pritchard, London,
1835. Introd. ch. p. 1.
28
VARIOUS FORMS OF
sound and healthy exercise of the mental faculties is
impeded and disturbed."
"The definitions adopted by several modern
writers, though expressed in various terms, have
nearly this meaning," we are told by Dr. Pritchard.
But he admits that any endeavour to define insanity
in the most simple and obvious terms which suggest
themselves, is found to afford no satisfactory result,
and a like disappointment has ensued on every
similar attempt.
All the forms of madness, denominated Mono-
mania, Mania, and Dementia, are classified by Dr.
Pritchard under two heads, namely, Moral Insa-
nity and Intellectual Insanity.
1. Moral Insanity, consisting in a morbid con-
dition of the affective faculties and feelings, per-
version of all affections, moral sentiments, disposi-
tions, and natural impulses, " without any remark-
able disorder or defect of the intellect or reason-
ing faculties, and particularly without any insane
illusion or hallucination."*
2. Intellectual Insanity, including "Monoma-
nia, or partial insanity, in which the imagination
is partially affected, or under the influence of
some particular illusion, referring to one subject
and involving one train of ideas, while the intel-
lectual powers appear, when exercised on other
subjects, to be in a great measure unimpaired."
* Pritchard on Insanity, p. 6.
MENTAL DISTURBANCE.
29
3. Mania, or raving madness, in which there is
general derangement of the understanding, total
loss or long continued suspension of the reasoning
faculties, incessant morbid excitement, and unvary-
ing absurdity on every subject.
4. Dementia, or Incoherence; (generally consi-
dered a result and sequel of Mania, but as Pinel
and Pritchard think, a distinct form of madness,
because having its peculiar characteristic symptoms
from the beginning, or at least from a very early
period of the disorder). As Pinel describes it," Ra-
pid succession or uninterrupted alternation of ideas,
and evanescent and unconnected emotions,-con-
tinually repeated acts of absurdity,-complete forget-
fulness of every previous state,-diminished sensibi-
lity to external impressions,-abolition of the faculty
of judgment, and perpetual activity."
There are, moreover, two states of mental incapa-
bility which take away the character of accounta-
bility from the actions of individuals.
1. Congenital Idiotcy, a state of inaptitude from
birth to retain, connect, or compare ideas, or which
is the result of disease or injury to the cerebral
organs.
2. Senile Imbecility, or fatuity, a sort of middle
state between idiotcy and the mediocrity of mind
belonging to ordinary intelligence, incidental to old
age.
But the fact is, with the exception of the two
last mentioned conditions, all the different forms of
30
VARIOUS FORMS OF
mental derangement differ in degree, and not in
origin. "We may then describe," says Pritchard,
"insanity as a chronic disease, manifested by devia-
tions from the healthy and natural state of the
mind; such deviations consisting either in a moral
perversion, or a disorder of the feelings, affections,
and habits of the individual, or in intellectual
derangement, which last is sometimes partial, name-
ly, in monomania, affecting the understanding only
in particular trains of thought; or general and
unaccompanied with excitement, namely, in mania
or raving madness; or, lastly, confounding or de-
stroying the connections or associations of ideas,
and producing a state of incoherence."*
Softening of the Brain.-There is a diseased
state of the brain, not mentioned in any of the pre-
ceding notices, which may exist for
exist for years without
mania, but which eventually terminates in loss of
memory, impaired judgment, or fatuity.
One of the most common diseases of persons,
who have long and arduously employed their intel-
lectual faculties in literary labour-or studious pur-
suits of any kind; and especially of those whose
brain has been overwrought, and themselves at the
same time have been beset with mental anxiety,
pecuniary cares, and all the turmoil of fierce com-
petition in their particular calling, is softening
of the brain. One of the first symptoms of this
disease is insomnolence, and, perhaps, the next
*A Treatise on Insanity," by Dr. Pritchard, p. 7.
MENTAL DISTURBANCE.
31
most obvious one, is the confusion of recalled ideas,
caused by impaired memory. These symptoms
should be early noticed and duly received as warn-
ings of incipient disease; and, when attended to, the
malady in its early stage may be checked.
Softening of the brain and its symptoms are
sometimes compared with the results of senile inert-
ness of the functions of the brain.
"In extreme old age, which variously expresses,
through the effects of gradual change, the more
sudden but transient anticipations of disease, there
appears to exist not merely an impairment of the
powers of perception and volition, but also of those
actions, whatever their nature, upon which associa-
tion and suggestion depend. The train of thought
may be just in its order and conclusions, but it is
more slowly pursued."
The same observation might be justly applied to
the mental peculiarities of the temperament called
the lymphatic-the slowness to perceive and will,
and the difficulty experienced in the more complex
operations of association and suggestion.
Esquirol (Maladies Mentales) treats of hallucina-
tions of the mind, which he denominates Manie
sans Delire.
Mental derangement and madness (properly so
called) are very different states of mental disease.
A man may labour under symptoms like those of
Nicholas of Berlin and Dr. Bertin, fancying they
32
VARIOUS FORMS OF
see persons, who have no existence but in their
diseased sensorium, and while these spectral illu-
sions last, mental derangement to a certain degree
exists; but as there was a conviction or reflexion in
the minds of the persons thus affected that these
appearances or apparitions were the creations only
of a morbid state of the functions of certain organs,
they were not mad; to use Dr. Conolly's words,
"They never believed in their real existence." They
compared the usual objects of delusion with the
impressions of other senses. The want of power
or resolution to examine them would have been
an evidence of madness.
Calmeil, the enlightened physician of the lunatic
asylum of Charenton, referring to the impossibility
of accurately defining insanity, observes, "La folie
ne peut pas se definir pas plus que la raison."*
There is, in the manner of perceiving, of feeling,
of judging, of reasoning of each individual; in the
mode of regulating his propensities, tastes, incli-
nations, and affections; of calculating his determi-
nations; in the drift and direction of his most
trivial actions, and even in the expression of his
features and the character of his movements, some
peculiarity which indicates that the harmony of the
reasoning power is undisturbed or that it is im-
paired.
In a state of health the perfect and uniform
* De la Folie. Tome i. Introd.
MENTAL DISTURBANCE.
33
relation always subsists which ought to exist between
the qualities of things, which make an impression
on the senses, and the nature of sensations which
arise in the brain, from the action of material objects
on the nerves. Hence all men, thus happily con-
stituted in the exercise of a sound judgment, judge
nearly alike of simple, distinct objects, sounds, and
odours: and reason in the same manner on all essen-
tial points in regard to the duties of parents, friends,
members of a community; on the dangers of unre-
strained passions, and the advantages of a state of
life exempt from great physical privations or moral
mischiefs. But once that equilibrium ceases to
exist, the senses no longer convey just impressions
to the sensorium, and imagination, morbidly affected,
lends form, colour, animation, and activity, to ideas
which are then formed in the brain, refers them to
sensations, and the result of these erroneous reason-
ings are hallucinations or fixed ideas, which have
no foundation in facts or objects represented to the
understanding. "Un fois que les facultés de l'ame
et de l'entendement se trouvent bouleversées par la
maladie, l'homme ne peut plus compter sur la fide-
lité de ses sens, sur la justice de ses idées, de ses
jugemens, de ses raisonnemens; il ne peut plus se
fier aux motifs sur lesquels se fondent sa joie, sa
tristesse, son amour, sa haine, sa colère, se fier aux
motifs qui font qu'il agit d'une manière plutôt que
d'une autre." *
* "De La Folie considerée sous le point de vue Pathologique,
I.
D
34
VARIOUS FORMS OF
"We cannot better describe the mental life of
man," says Dr. Holland, "than as embodied in a
succession of acts or states of consciousness, so con-
tinuous as to give and maintain the sense of personal
identity."*
Whatever serious disturbance then that succes-
sion meets with, and the maintenance likewise of
that sense of personal identity suffers, tends to pro-
duce a state of mind that is abnormal.
We find the same effects produced by certain
narcotics and diffusible stimulants remarkable
rapidity of succession of ideas-produced also by
acute mania.
The celebrated Robert Hall was temporarily af-
flicted with mania, on his recovery he observed to a
friend: "You, with the rest of my friends, tell me
that I was only seven weeks in confinement, and
the date of the year corresponds, so that I am bound
to believe you; but they have appeared to me like
seven years. My mind was so excited, and my
imagination so lively and acute, that more ideas
passed through my mind during those seven weeks
than in any seven years of my life."
What appeared to Robert Hall a result of mania,
is found, in a vast number of instances, one of its
Philosophique Historique et Judiciare, depuis La Renaissance des
Sciences en Europe jusqu'au 19 Siecle:" "Description des Gran-
des Epidemies de delire," &c. Par L. F. Calmeil, Doct. en Med.
Medecin De la Maison des Alienès de Charenton. En 2 Tomes,
8vo. Paris, 1845. Vol. i. p. 2.
* Mental Physiology, Sir H. Holland, p. 47.
MENTAL DISTURBANCE.
35
most predisposing causes; namely inordinate mental
activity, implying extraordinary rapidity of suc-
cession of ideas. But there is another occasion of
injury to the mind not less signal, and certain to be
ultimately mischievous to it-premature and forced
development of the mental faculties in youth.
The seeds of monomania are very frequently
sown in early life. The terrible mischief done to
the intellectual faculties of the young by inordinate
mental labour, by forcing its growth unnaturally,
and most unprofitably as it generally turns out in
the long run, is thus noticed in a recent treatise by
the most eminent of English physicians; one of
forty years experience in the profession he ennobles.
-Sir Henry Holland:
"It is a fact well attested by experience, that the
memory may be seriously, sometimes lastingly in-
jured, by pressing upon it too hardly and continu-
ously in early life.
"Whatever theory we hold as to this great func-
tion of our nature, it is certain that its powers are
only gradually developed, and that if forced into
premature exercise, they are impaired by the effort.
This is a maxim, indeed, of general import, apply-
ing to the condition and culture of every faculty of
body and mind; but singularly, to the one we are
now considering, which forms in one sense the
foundation of intellectual life. A regulated exer-
cise, short of actual fatigue, enlarges the capacity
both as to reception and retention; and gives promp-
36
VARIOUS FORMS OF
titude as well as clearness to its action. But we
are bound to refrain from goading it by constant
and laborious efforts in early life, and before the
instrument has been strengthened to its work, or it
decays under our hands."
The muscles, nevertheless, of the body are not
more invigorated by exercise, than the memory is
strengthened by it.
There is no faculty of the mind more susceptible
of improvement than that of memory and early
development of its powers, is most obvious in young
people at their entrance into life. The exercise of
memory in early life in getting off by heart pieces
of poetry, passages of orations, learning by rote sin-
gular narratives and striking episodes in history is
said to be an indispensable training: but the im-
provement of one faculty should not be at the
expense of the other
of the other powers.
Crime and insanity have many features in common.
Lord Hale was not wholly wrong when he declared:
"All crime to be the result of a partial madness."
But if he argued that all crime on any such hy-
pothesis was unpunishable, and that the accounta-
bility of all criminals ceased when the eccentricity of
their conduct, or the turpitude of their actions
denoted some slight degree of delirium, partial or
evanescent, the doctrine would be something more
than an absurdity: it would be a premium on crime
and a guarantee of impunity to criminals.
MENTAL DISTURBANCE.
37
Dr. Forbes Winslow, a writer of high authority
on all subjects bearing on psychological and medical
subjects; a man of great powers of intellect, deeply
imbued with a philosophical spirit, and not deterred
by Locke, and other metaphysical writers of his
school, from controverting the doctrine of the non-
existence of innate ideas, observes: "There are
certain intuitive principles appertaining to each
individual, which independent of education, give a
natural bias, and sometimes a premature develop-
ment to certain faculties." The tendency may be
to good or evil, but though education may not have
created it, its controlling power cannot be called in
question.
Dr. Forbes Winslow has contrived to compress
into a short sentence a vast deal of truth, wisdom
and philosophy; derived from deep research, large
experience duly enlightened, and knowledge of
human nature, and its relations to a present and a
future life.
"The chief means of controlling the passions, and
of keeping them within just bounds, is to form a
proper estimate of the things of this life, and of the
relation of our present to a future state of existence,
and of the influence which our actions in this world
will have on our happiness hereafter.'
men,
22
Dr. Forbes Winslow, in reference to the acts of
"the records of whose lives form the dark scenes
of history, and present to the world a continuous
career of morbid selfishness, crime, cupidity, caprice,
38
VARIOUS FORMS OF
tyranny, brutality, and vice," asks-" May not all
these monstrous departures from ordinary and
healthy modes of thought, impulse and action, con-
stitute evidence, not only of depravity and vice in
their ordinary signification, but of undetected, un-
perceived, unrecognized mental disease, in all proba-
bility arising from cerebral irritation, or physical
ill-health."*
Many a grave error and grievous consequence
in judicial affairs and those connected with medical
jurisprudence may be attributed to ignorance of,
or inattention to this truth. And as Dr. Conolly
so truly remarks, "how few can sincerely say,
that in themselves no foibles or imperfections, no
passions or heedless impulse, no sins, presump-
tuous or concealed, exist, which in certain cir-
cumstances might not have led to sorrow, or
never ending regret or despair, to crime or to
shame."+
Monomania.-The various combinations are in-
numerable, of that partial delirium formerly called
Melancholia, which is accompanied with hallucina-
tions of the senses, particular illusions, and strange
sensations; and with fixed ideas on matters con-
nected with those illusions, formed on false data, by
individuals who have become incapable of reasoning
*Lettsomian Lecture, by Dr. Forbes Winslow.
+ Croonian Lecture. See Article on Dr. Joseph Williams's
work on the Soundness of Mind in its Mental and Legal Consi-
derations. Dub. Quar. Journal Med. Sc. Nov. 1854.
MENTAL DISTURBANCE.
39
correctly on such subjects, while in other respects
they betray no palpable disorder of mind.
"The notion, however," observes Dr. Pritchard,
"which many persons entertain as to the nature of
this disease is far from being correct in its full
extent. It is supposed that the mind of the
monomaniac is perfectly sound, when its faculties
are exercised on any subject unconnected with a par-
ticular impression which in itself constitutes the
entire disease. Cases are indeed on record, which,
if faithfully related, fully come up to this description.
In general, the real character of monomania is very
different. The individual affected, is under ordinary
circumstances, calm, and exhibits no symptom of
that perturbation and constant excitement which
are observed in raging madness. But on careful
inquiry it will be found that his mind is in many
respects in a different condition from that of perfect
health. The habits and disposition have perhaps
been longer in a greater or less degree in the state
which characterizes insanity. If we advert to the
order and connection of morbid phenomena, we often
learn that on a sudden and habitual melancholy, or
on a morose and sullen misanthropy, long growing
and indulged, or in some other disordered and per-
verted state of the feelings and affections, a parti-
cular illusion has more recently supervened
The disease in these cases has its real commence-
ment long before the period when the particular
illusion which is only an accessory symptom, is
40
VARIOUS FORMS OF
discovered, and even before it became impressed on
the imagination; but it is not until that impression
has taken place that the case assumes the proper
character of monomania.”*
A writer on the influence of the mind on the
body, practically well acquainted with his subject,
aims at demonstrating the influence of the mind,
through the instrumentality of the brain, in deranging
the bodily functions, especially those of the stomach.
He does not deny the reaction of the dyspeptic
disorders on the brain and on the mind; but he
wishes to make them appear insignificant, compared
with the reverse. One of the great philosophers of
antiquity maintained that all disorders of the body
originate in the mind-and one of the latest
writers on dyspepsia has stated that "the opera-
tion of physical causes, numerous as these are,
dwindles into complete insignificance, when com-
pared with that of anxiety or tribulation of mind.”
Irritability of the brain, according to Mr. Fletcher,
has much to do with the sufferings of those labour-
ing under hypochondria. In this form of cerebral
disease, he says, "There is, generally, no delirium,
the pulse is small and quick; the patient is not
* "A Treatise on Insanity and other Disorders affecting the
Mind. By James Cowles Pritchard, M.D., F.R.S." London, 8vo.
1835, p. 27.
"Sketches from the Case Book, to illustrate the Influence
of the Mind on the Body," &c. by R. Fletcher, Esq. Surgeon to
the Gloucester General Hospital, and Consulting Surgeon to the
Lunatic Asylum, near Gloucester, 8vo. 1833.
MENTAL DISTURBANCE.
41
thirsty, he has none of the symptoms called fever:
his face and eyes, though sometimes possessing a
wild expression, are not red or flushed, but he cannot
sleep well generally, as the slightest circumstance
alarms and excites him.
"So far for the bodily symptoms which have
periods of remission, and which are varied in force
or number in different patients, probably an effect
of the more or less intense mental suffering in diffe-
rent characters, and which suffering is the source of
the phenomena. The condition of the mind is still
more remarkable; its functions are unnaturally dis-
turbed, or in morbid excess; but not generally to the
extent of insanity, though often bordering upon it."
Mental derangement may exist to a certain ex-
tent, we are told by a physician of great authority
on all subjects connected with mental disorders,
Dr. Conolly, without constituting insanity in the
usual sense of the word.*
A person may be subject to illusions of the organs
of sense or sound for a considerable time without
being insane, but these illusions, however, may be
the result of insanity.
"Mental aberration," says Dr. Conolly, "is the
impairment of one or more of the faculties of the
mind, accompanied with, or inducing a defect in the
comparative faculty."
*
When dominant fixed ideas of a particular train
((
Inquiry concerning the Indications of Insanity. By John
Conolly, M.D."
42
VARIOUS FORMS OF
that have ultimately become permanently erroneous
and extravagant, are joined with hallucinations of
the senses, the diseased condition of the mind is that
of monomania.
This partial mania may be either moral or intel-
lectual, generally it is both at the same time, either
the injury done to the moral sentiments, involves
the judgment in its mischief, or the alienation of
the judgment, leads to that of the affective faculties.
In the intellectual monomania, we find the indivi-
dual capable of reasoning justly on subjects not
connected with the subject of his delirium. In the
moral monomania, we generally find the moral senti-
ments and natural affections perverted. The power
of the passions, especially of pride, hatred, jealousy,
vengeance, increased beyond bounds.
But in both kinds of monomania partial halluci-
nation confined to a particular sense, or connected
with a particular train of ideas rarely continues long
thus limited. The other senses generally become gra-
dually affected. But there are several notable in-
stances of men of intellectual celebrity, labouring
under a particular hallucination for many years.
In this partial mania the turn of the prevailing
ideas appears permanently influenced by the nature
of the hallucinations which first troubled the imagi-
nations of the sufferers. The delirium is accordingly
gay, sad, daring, and aspiring, or of a fanatical kind,
as the visions and phantasies of the person at the
beginning of the mental disorder may have exhibited
MENTAL DISTURBANCE.
43
themselves, and is manifested by the sensations
which seem to have affected the senses of hearing,
of smell, and touch.
Illusions from perversion of the internal sensations
are productive of hallucinations.
"Insane persons (says Esquirol) fancy they see,
hear, smell, taste, and touch, although external ob-
jects are not presented to their senses, and are,
consequently, incapable of producing any impression
upon them.
them. This symptom is an intellectual phe-
nomenon, totally independent of the organs of sense,
and takes place although they may be inactive, or
have even ceased to exist. Thus, there are deaf
persons who fancy they hear, blind ones who think
they see, &c. &c. The ancients had only observed
this symptom, as far as it related to the remem-
brance of the sensations of sight, and had given
it the name of Vision. But the analysis of the
thoughts of the insane, for they do think and
reason, has proved to me that this phenomenon is
produced by the action of the brain, reacting upon
the sensations previously received by the other
senses, as well as by that of sight. This has led
me to give to this phenomenon the generic name of
Hallucinations. In the same paper in which I
pointed out one of the most remarkable psychologi-
cal pheonomena of delirium, I related some facts
which shew that the hallucinations alone, sometimes,
characterize a variety of monomania."
M. Esquirol makes a marked distinction between
hallucinations, or visions, and illusions.
44
VARIOUS FORMS OF
"In hallucinations, every thing passes within the
brain: visionaries, and persons under the influence
of extatic impressions, are hallucinarians; they
dream even when they are awake. The activity of
the brain is so energetic in them, that they give
form and reality to the images which the memory
re-produces, without the aid of the senses.
66 'In illusions, on the contrary, the sensibility of the
nervous extremities is excited, the senses are active,
and actual impressions produce the reaction of the
brain. This reaction being under the influence of
the ideas and passions, which govern the insane,
they are deceived as to the nature and cause of their
actual sensations. Illusions are not uncommon in
a state of health, but reason dissipates them. A
square tower seen from a distance appears round,
but if we approach it, the error is soon rectified.
When we travel amongst mountains we often take
them for clouds, but on looking attentively, the
error is dissipated. To him, who is in a boat, the
bank appears to move, reflection immediately des-
troys the illusion.”
Hypochondriacs, he observes, have illusions which
arise from the internal senses. They deceive them-
selves with respect to the intensity of their feelings;
but do not attribute their ailments to absurd causes,
nor talk irrationally, unless affected with melancholia
in addition, when there is delirium.
"Two conditions are necessary for the perception
of a sensation; the soundness of the organ which
MENTAL DISTURBANCE.
45
receives the impression, and the soundness of the
instrument that reacts upon it.
"The illusions of the senses recognize, also, two
causes; a disordered state of the senses, and a dis-
ordered state of the brain.
"If the sensibility and activity of the organs are
disturbed, it is evident that the impressions made
upon the senses, by external objects, are modified;
and if, at the same time, the brain is in a state of
disease, it is incapable of rectifying the errors of the
senses. From these causes arise illusions."
Illusions from perversion of the external senses
are manifested by the insane, when they imagine they
hear strange noises, fancy some one speaks to them,
and answer as if questions had been addressed to
them.
The deranged person whom Esquirol designates
the panaphobist, thinks he is spoken to in reproachful
or menacing terms; takes an insignificant phrase
for evidence of a plot against him; fancies he hears
enemies, police agents, and assassins concerting
measures for his destruction; is terrified by the open-
ing of a door, and looks for the appearance of foes
and conspirators.
"Almost always, (says Esquirol) at the com-
mencement, and generally in the course of mental
diseases, the digestive functions are primarily or
secondarily affected. Such patients perceive a bad
taste in the food that is offered to them, which makes
them conclude that it is poisoned, and they reject
46
VARIOUS FORMS OF
it with anger or with terror. This phenomenon
gives rise to an aversion, on the part of the sick, to
those persons who have the care of them, and which
is still more marked towards those who are most
dear and most devoted to them."
The following are the conclusions of Esquirol
from the preceding observations:
"1st. That illusions are caused by internal and
external sensations.
"2nd. That they are the result of the sentient ex-
tremities, and of the re-action of the nervous centre.
"3rd. That they are as often caused by the excite-
ment of the internal, as by that of the external
senses.
"4th. That they cannot be confounded with hallu-
cinations, (visions,) since in the latter cases the brain
only is excited.
"5th. That illusions lead the judgment astray
respecting the nature and cause of the impressions
actually received, and urge the insane to acts dan-
gerous to themselves and to others.
"6th. That sex, education, profession, and habits,
by modifying the reaction of the brain, modify also
the character of the illusions.
"7th. That illusions assume the character of the
passions, and of the ideas which govern the insane.
"8th. That reason dissipates the illusions of the
man of sound mind, whilst it is not powerful enough
to destroy those of the insane."
""*
* "Observations on the Illusions of the Insane, and on the
MENTAL DISTURBANCE.
47
"On a decrit (says Calmeil) beaucoup de pheno-
mènes qui supposent un haut degrè d'aliènation des
qualitès du cœur et de l'ame. L'etude du passè nous
prouvera malheureusement que les types de la mo-
nomanie incendiare, de la monomanie homicide, de
la monomanie religieuse sont bien loin, d'etre nou-
On peut si l'on veut, diviser la monomanie
morale en affective et instructive; mais encore une
fois en y regardent de près, on s'apercoit bientot
que l'intellect, n'est pas aussi souvent epargnè qu'on
a ete portè a le croire dans chacun de ces sous genres
de folie."*
veaux.
Some of the remarkable forms under which Mono-
mania manifests itself, we find described under the
terms-
Lipothymia.-A state of syncope or rapture simi-
lar to that of somnambulism, connected with cere-
bral diseases, or identical with that stage of somnam-
bulism spoken of by writers on animal magnetism
as a temporary separation of the soul from the body,
of frequent return and often at fixed periods.
Nostalgia.-Vehement, painful, and morbid feel-
ings of uncontrollable desire to return to one's coun-
try when absent from it, disturbing reason during
Medico-legal Question of their Confinement. Translated from the
French of M. Esquirol, Medecin en Chef de la Maison Royale de
Charenton, Membre du Conseil de Salubrité, &c. &c. &c. by
William Liddell, Member of the Royal Callege of Surgeons, &c."
Octavo, Renshaw and Rush, 1833.
* Des Grandes Epidemies de Delire, Tome 1. p. 80.
48
VARIOUS FORMS OF
the access of those paroxysms of pining melancholy,
characterized by weariness of life, listlessness, loss
of appetite and insomnolence.
Erotomania.-Love madness, characterized by
melancholy, hallucinations of the senses and imagi-
nation, incommunicativeness, suicidal tendencies.
A species of temporary madness, arising from
local irritability, characterized by hysterical symp-
toms strongly marked, and perversion of moral
feelings, is designated by another name.
Homicidal-mania.-A blind headlong phrenzy,
prompting to outrageous violence, similar to that
delirium of a furious nature, produced in the East,
by smoking hashis, or in the field of battle in the
midst of carnage, which incites a wild rage and
enthusiasm for slaughter: an access of sudden
delirium which drives its victim through scenes of
bloodshed and brutal violence, not to avenge injury
or even supposed injury or insult, but to obey the
impulses of an ungovernable driftless fury.
Incendiarism-mania.-A rage for the destruction
of property, associated with some delirious ideas of
the striking appearances of suddenly kindled fire,
and the irresistible power of rushing flames.
Chorea-mania.-A convulsive, nervous disorder,
attended with a rage of saltation, and violent mus-
cular exercise. The milder form of it, denominated
St. Vitus' dance, prevailed not extensively in parti-
cular localities at distant intervals; but in its in-
tensity, as it existed epidemically in the mountains
MENTAL DISTURBANCE.
49
of Cevennes, in Belgium, and other countries south
and east of Germany. A formidable disease asso-
ciated with a phrenzy of desire for the sounds of
music, and an enthusiastic exultation in them.
But the forms of Monomania which, prevailing
epidemically at different periods and during a con-
siderable lapse of time, have been productive of the
greatest calamities and sufferings to mankind, are
included in the following four categories:
Theomania-characterized by exaltation of ideas
appertaining to supernatural influences, an unrea-
soning belief in communication with angels, in
celestial signs and sounds and portents; or in the
possession of the power of prediction; and accom-
panied by raptures, somnambulism, convulsive symp-
toms, ecstasy, hysteria.
Demonolatria-characterized by belief and parti-
cipation in demon worship, witchcraft and sorcery,
compacts entered into with devils, a disposition to
outrage holy things and places, to deny the exis-
tence of God, to blaspheme His name, to commit all
sorts of enormities in honour of the devil.
Demonomania or Demonopathy-characterized by
the fear of possession by evil spirits-frequently con-
nected with catalepsy, hysteria, and convulsions of
extraordinary violence, distorting the features, twist-
ing the frame, and throwing the whole body into
contortions; Chorea, or uncontrollable dancing and
jumping propensities.
Lycanthropy or Zoanthropy.-This species of
50
VARIOUS FORMS, ETC.
demoniacal madness is characterized by belief in dia-
bolical transportations of human beings into wild
beasts, wolves, cats, and owls, the former especially,
in their nocturnal courses, having the privilege of
tearing the flesh of men and animals.
"Almost everything," says Calmeil, "that we hear
of invocations of spirits, apparitions, obsessions,
ghosts, spectres, shadows, of Simulacres, familiar
Genii, phantoms, Manes, Lares, hobgoblins, be-
witched children, possessed persons, vampyres, fan-
tastic visions, Incubi and Succubi has had its birth
in the brains of people labouring under hallucina-
tions:—les hallucinations n'ont pas donc contribué
pour peu a peupler le monde des prodigès.'
* Des Grandes Epidemies de Delire. Tome i.
#66
p. 6.
CHAPTER III.
THE SORCERY OF ANCIENT TIMES AND ITS RELA-
TIONS TO MODERN WITCHCRAFT-AGENCY OF
EVIL SPIRITS-THE DEMON OF SOCRATES.
In this work, it is not intended, or aimed at, to
give a history of Magic, or to enter even into a brief
account of the different forms of it, which prevailed
in various countries at different periods. The object
of the writer is to point out plainly and intelligibly,
the grievous results in former ages of the bewilder-
ments of the human mind; and of the lamentable
ignorance on the part of men of medical science,
jurists, and writers on ecclesiastical jurisprudence,
which formerly prevailed in relation to several epi-
demic mental disorders, attributed to diabolical
agency, and the malign influences of sorcerers.
In carrying this object into effect, it is necessary
to refer to the opinions that prevailed in remote
times on the subject of sorcery, and to shew what
amount of influence they may have had in giving a
local form, outward aspect, and inward character,
to the phenomena, which, in our times, pass under
the denomination of operations and effects of witch-
craft.
It is evident that the Fathers of the early Christian
Church concurred in the opinion that the gods of
E 2
52
SORCERY OF ANCIENT TIMES,
paganism were identical with demons: that hea-
thens in worshipping the gods were not only idola-
tors, but Demonolatres.
Like all general propositions, exceedingly exten-
sive and indiscriminate, in this particular assertion
it will probably be found that a good many fallacies
are founded on a few leading incontrovertible facts.
In the origin of the worship of false gods-the
tendencies of human nature towards hero-worship,
no doubt played an important part. We are called
on to believe too much, however, when required to
subscribe to the opinion that demons alone furnished
the Pantheon with altars, and that the grateful
remembrance of benign advantages, and heroic
services rendered to a country and its people by an
exalted chief, or virtuous ruler, had no share in the
motives which led to his traditional renown and
apotheosis.
Alexander Von Humboldt, ascribes the tendencies
to idolatry, in part at least, to the intimate commu-
nion with external nature and the deep emotions it
inspires. The naturalism and rationalism of Hum-
boldt's philosophy condescended not to take into
account the influences of original sin, and the tenden-
cies thereof, to the bewilderments of human reason.
We find amongst the most savage nations, a
secret and "terror mingled presentiment of the
unity of natural forces, blending with the dim per-
ception of an invisible and spiritual world, manifest-
ing itself through these forces, whether in unfolding
AND MODERN WITCHCRAFT.
53
the air.
the flower and perfecting the fruit of the food bear-
ing tree, or in the subterranean movements which
shake the ground, and the tempests which agitate
""It is in the intimate commu-
nion with external nature, and the deep emotions it
inspires, that we may also trace in part the first
tendencies to the deification, and worship of the
destroying and preserving powers of nature."*
Tertullian, in his Apology for the Christians,
addressing himself to the Paganism of his time, says:
"Hitherto I have argued upon points of reason,
and contented myself with words only; I come
now to things, and shall give you a demonstration
from fact to convince you, that your gods and
demons both, are but the same beings, though of
different denominations. Let a demoniac therefore
be brought into Court, and the spirit which possesses
him be commanded by any Christian to declare
what he is, he shall confess himself as truly to be
a devil, as he did falsely before profess himself a
God."†
"Tertullian challenges the senses of Pagans, their
eyes and their ears to be judges in the case; he
defies them to deny it if they can; and is ready to
answer for the experiment with his own blood, that
their Celestial Virgin, their Esculapius, and all the
rest of those they worship for gods, shall not only
* Cosmos, by A. Von Humboldt, 7th ed. 1847, p. 16.
Tertullian's Apology for the Christians, translated by the
Rev. W. Reeves, M.A., London, 2nd ed. 1716.
54
SORCERY OF ANCIENT TIMES,
quit the bodies they possess, but publicly in the
hearing of them all, confess themselves to be devils,
upon the demand of any Christian. His scholar,
St. Cyprian, says to Demetrianus, Proconsul of
Africa, upon the same subject, 'O si audire eos
velles, et videre quando a nobis adjurantur, et tor-
quentur spiritualibus flagris, et verborum tormentis
de obsessis corporibus ejiciuntur, quando ejulantes
et gementes voce humanâ, et potestate divinâ
flagella et verbera sentientes, venturum judicium
confitentur; veni, et cognosce vera esse quæ dici-
mus.' And a little after, videbis sub manu nos-
trâ stare vinctos, et tremere captivos quos tu suspicis,
et veneraris ut Dominos.' Lactantius speaks to the
same purpose, de Just. lib. 5. c. 21. All the primi-
tive Fathers assert the same fact, with the same
assurance.'
99*
6
"Plato," continues Tertullian, "is express for the
being of angels, and the magicians are ready to
attest the same, when they have recourse to the
names of angels and demons both in their enchant-
ments. But how from a corrupted stock of angels,
corrupted by their own wills, another worse and
more degeneratet race of demons arose, condemned
* Translator's Note.
+ "Sed quomodo de angelis quibusdam sua sponte corruptis,
corruptior gens dæmonum evaserit," &c. This odd opinion we find
both in the Apologies of Justin Martyr, as well as in this of
Tertullian, and so likewise in Athenagoras, &c. The ground of
it I take to be this: the Fathers were generally of opinion, that
AND MODERN WITCHCRAFT.
55
by God, together with those they descended from,
and Satan the prince of them, for the history of this,
I say, I must refer you to the Holy Scriptures.
"But not to insist upon their generation, it will
be sufficient to my purpose to explain their opera-
tions, or their ways of acting upon the sons of men.
I say, then, that the ruin of mankind is their whole
employment, these malicious spirits were bent upon
mischief from the beginning, and fatally auspicious
in their first attempt, in undoing man as soon as he
was made; and in like manner they practise the
same destructive methods upon all his posterity, by
inflicting diseases upon their bodies, and throwing
them into sad disasters, and stirring up sudden tem-
pests and preternatural emotions in the soul; and
they are fitted by nature for both these kinds of
evil, the subtlety and fineness of their substance
giving them an easy access to body and soul
both. These spirits certainly have great abilities for
evil spirits were clothed with a finer sort of body, which was fed
and refreshed with the odours and steams of the sacrifices. They
found these spirits had a prodigious power over the bodies they
possessed, and could not certainly tell but this power might
extend even to generation; and finding in Josephus, lib. i. cap.
4, πоλλòv äɣуελor Jeou, &c. that many angels of God mixing with
women begot a devilish wicked offspring, and perhaps meet-
ing likewise an ancient edition of the Septuagint, which read
ἄγγελοι where we read οἱ ὑιοὶ τοῦ Θεοῦ, the angels of God, instead
of the sons of God, went into the daughters of men, Gen. vi. 4.
And meeting perhaps with something of the same nature in that
supposititious piece, which went under the name of Enoch's Pro-
phecy, they might by these means be led into this mistake."
56
SORCERY OF ANCIENT TIMES,
mischief, and that they do it is apparent, though the
manner of effecting it is invisible, and out of the
reach of human senses; as, for instance, when a
secret blast nips the fruit in the blossom or the bud,
or smites it with an untimely fall just upon its
maturity, or when the air is infected by unknown
causes, and scatters the deadly potions about the
world; just so, and by a contagion that walketh in
the like darkness, do demons and evil angels blast
the minds of men, and agitate them with furies and
extravagant uncleannesses, and dart in outrageous
lusts with a mixture of various errors; the most
capital of which errors is, that having taken posses-
sion of a soul, and secured it on every side from
the powers of truth, they recommend to it the wor-
ship of false gods, that by the odours of those sacri-
fices they may procure a banquet for themselves,
the smell of the flesh and the fumes of the blood
being the proper pabulum or repast of those unclean
spirits; and what more savoury meat to them than to
juggle men out of the notion of the true God with
delusions of divinations, which delusions I come
now to unfold.
"Every spirit, angel, and demon, upon the account
of its swiftness, may be said to be winged, for they
can be here and there and everywhere in a moment;
the whole world to them is but as one place, and any
transactions in it they can know with the same ease
they can tell it; and this velocity passes for divinity
among such as are unacquainted with the nature of
AND MODERN WITCHCRAFT.
57
spirits; and by this means they would be concluded
the authors of those things sometimes, of which they
are only the relators; and verily sometimes they
are the authors of the evil, but never of the good.
They have collected some designs of Providence
from the mouths of the Prophets; and to those
sermons whose sound has gone into all the earth do
they apply at present, to pick out something where-
by to form their conjectures about events to come;
and so, by filching from hence some revolutions
which have succeeded in time, they rival the Divi-
nity, and set up for gods, by stealing his prophecies.
But in their oracles, what dexterity they have
shewed in tempering their responses with a conve-
nient ambiguity for any question, the Croesuses and
the Pyrrhuses know too well. It was by virtue of the
forementioned velocity, that Pythian Apollo, scud-
ding through the air in a moment to Lydia, brought
back word that Croesus was boiling a tortoise with
the flesh of a lamb. Moreover, these demons, by
having their residence in the air, and by reason of
their neighbourhood and commerce with the stars
and clouds, come to know the dispositions of the
heavens, and promise rain which they see falling
when they promise. These demons, likewise, are
very beneficent, no doubt, in the cure of diseases, for
they first inflict the malady, and then prescribe the
remedy, but remedies marvellously strange and
contrary to the distemper; and after the patient has
58
AGENCY OF EVIL SPIRITS.
used the receipt, the demon omits to afflict him, and
that omission passes for a cure."*
Justin Martyr, concerning Demons, their power,
and way of operation, observes: "But first, I am
to caution you against those spirits, which I have
already accused for practising upon you, that they
do not delude and pervert you from reading and
understanding what I am now proposing to your
consideration; (for to hold you in slavery and bond-
age is the prize they contend for, and sometimes by
visions in sleep, sometimes by magical impostures,
they make sure of all such as are little concerned
about their salvation) I could wish you would follow
our example, who by the persuasions of the Logos
have revolted from these spiritual wickednesses, and
come over to the obedience of the only unbegotten
God, through his Son Jesus Christ."†
"Turn back your thoughts upon the past em-
perors, and you will find they all died like other
men; and could you but discover one to be in a state
of insensibility, you would make a welcome disco-
very to the wicked world but since all departed
souls continue in sensation, and everlasting fire is
treasured up for the unrighteous, let me advise you
to look well about you, and lay these things seri-
* Tertullian's Apology, pp. 249, &c.
+ Justin Martyr, Apology for the Christian Religion, translated
from Dr. Grabe's Oxford Edition, by the Rev. William Reeves,
A.M. Lond. 2nd Edition, 1716. Vol. i. p. 33.
AGENCY OF EVIL SPIRITS,
59
}
ously to heart. For even necromancy, and the
inspection of the entrails of sound children, and the
calling out the souls of dead men, and what the
magicians term dream-senders and familiars, and
many other practices of the dealers in this black art,
may induce you to believe that souls after death
are in a state of sensation; and moreover those per-
sons who are violently caught up, and dashed down
again by departed spirits, and who pass among you
all for demoniacs and mad,* and likewise the Am-
philochian, Dodonean, Pythian, and other like ora-
cles, and also the doctrines of many of your writers,
such as Empedocles, Pythagoras, Plato, and So-
crates, and Homer of Ulysses's visit to the infer-
nal shades, and their confabulations with him.
These, I say, all argue the immortality of human
souls, and several others (are) of the same opinion
as about spirits with ourselves, with whom we desire
the like treatment, as having not a less but a much
greater faith in God than ever they had, being under
a full expectation of being restored to these bodies,
though dead and rotten, because we know that no-
thing with God is impossible."t
"It is notorious that after Christ's ascension into
Heaven, these same accursed spirits furnished out a
* Such were the two demoniacs in the country of the Ger-
gesenes, "who came out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that
no man might pass by that way," Matt. viii. 28; and from their
dwelling only among tombs, these spirits were concluded to be the
souls of dead men.
+ Ib. Justin, p. 41.
60
AGENCY OF EVIL SPIRITS.
set of men, who gave out themselves to be gods; and
yet were you so far from punishing such villains, that
you did them the greatest honour. For Simon, a
certain Samaritan of the village Gitthon, who in
Claudius Cæsar's time, by his magic arts with the
powers of darkness, did such wonderful feats in the
imperial city of Rome, that he gained the reputa-
tion of a god, and accordingly is honoured by you,
like your other gods, with a statue erected upon the
Tiber, between the two bridges, with this Latin
inscription, Simoni Deo Sancto, To Simon the Holy
God. And the Samaritans, almost in general,
though very few of other nations, confess and wor-
ship him as the first and principal god."+
The modern necromancers of the new world will
find food for reflection in those passages.
There are some remarkable passages in Lucian's
dialogue, “Lovers of Lies," on the subject of necro-
mancy, and the pretensions of its votaries. The
speakers are Tychiades and Philocles. (The former
is an impugner of the marvels ascribed to sorcery :
the latter, Philocles, a defender of them.)
Tychiades. "Can you tell me the reason, Philo-
cles, why most men desire to lie, and delight not
* This passage, among others, has been remarked upon by
Daillè for the purpose of discrediting Justin Martyr. "The good
Father," says he, "was mistaken, and instead of Semoni, read
Simoni, and for Sanco, Sancto; whereas our learned critics now
inform us, it was only an inscription to one of the Pagan Demi-
Gods, Semoni Deo Sanco."
† Justin Martyr's Apol. for the Christians, p. 49.
AGENCY OF EVIL SPIRITS.
61
only to speak fictions themselves, but give busy
attention to others who do?"
Philocles. "There be many reasons, Tychiades,
which compel some men to speak untruths, because
they see it is profitable."
Tychiades. "This is nothing to the purpose:
my question concerned not them who lie for profit;
for such deserve pardon, and some praise, who have
thereby defeated their enemies, and used it as a
preservative against dangers; like Ulysses, who by
such sleights secured his own life, and the return of
his companions. But I now speak of those, who
prefer the very lie before truth, and take pleasure
to busy themselves in fables, without any necessary
judgment. I would fain know what motives such
men have to do so?"
Philocles. "Have you met with any persons
born with such a natural love to lying?"
Tychiades. "There are many such."
Philocles. "What other motive can they have
not to speak truth, but their madness? Else cer-
tainly, they would never prefer the worst thing
before the best."
Tychiades. "This is nothing; since I can shew
you many of great discretion and wisdom in other
things, who yet are captives to this delusion, and
love of lies. Nor am I a little troubled to see men
of excellent judgment in other things, take delight
to deceive themselves and others. You cannot but
know those ancients better than I; Herodotus,
62
AGENCY OF EVIL SPIRITS.
Ctesias the Cnidian, and the poets before them,
Homer especially; all men of great name, whose
writings are stored with fictions. So that they not
only deceived their hearers then, but have conveyed
their lies to us also in a preserved succession of ex-
cellent poetry and verses. I cannot, therefore, but
blush for them, as often as they speak of a schism
in heaven, of Prometheus' chains, the giants' insur-
rection, and the whole tragedy of hell. How Jupi-
ter, also, for love became a bull or swan; and how
a woman was transformed into a fowl or bear.
Besides their Pegasus's, Chymeras, Gorgons, Cy-
clops, and the like strange prodigious fables, fit only
to recreate the minds of children, who yet fear
goblins and fairies. But these are things tolerable
in poets. How ridiculous is it that whole cities and
nations should unanimously agree in a public lie?"
Tychiades. "I would fain ask you,
what you
think
of them who have delivered demoniacs from their
possessions, and have evidently charmed forth their
devils. I need not tell you how many the Syrian,
who came from Palestine, a man skilled in such arts,
hath restored after they have fallen down lunatic,
stared with their eyes, and foamed at mouth, and
has sent them away cured, and released them, for
great sums, of their distempers. For standing by
them as they lie, he asks the evil spirit from whence
he entered into the body. The possest person, mean
time, is speechless, and the devil replying in Greek,
or some barbarous language, tells from whence he
DEMON OF SOCRATES.
63
is, and how he entered the man; whereupon he,
by adjuration and threats, if he offered to disobey,
casts him out. I saw a devil cast out black, and
of the colour of soot. No marvel, Ion, said I, that
you saw such visions; Plato, the father of your sect,
hath taught you to see ideas, a spectacle too refined
and subtle for our dull sense. Many others, as well
as you, Ion, said Eucrates, have met with devils,
some by night, others by day; I have, not once, but
a thousand times seen such spectrums; and was at
first frightened with them, but custom has at length
made them not strange, or unfamiliar; especially
since an Arabian gave me a ring, made of the iron
taken from a cross, and taught me an ambiguous,
diverse sensed charm, unless you refuse to give credit
to me also, Tychiades."
The Demon of Socrates.
The Demon of Socrates is referred to as a proof
of the commerce of pagan philosophy with evil
spirits, but in this instance, in all probability, not
successfully. The Genius of Socrates would better
convey to our minds the signification of the term
applied by Socrates to that "Divinum quoddam quod
Dæmonum appellat," &c.
Tertullian, in his Apology, thus endeavours to
make Socrates a worshipper of devils.
"We say then that there are a certain kind of
spiritual substances existing in nature, which go by
the name of demons, and the name is not of a modern
64
DEMON OF SOCRATES.
stamp; the name and the thing being both well
known to the philosophers, for Socrates undertook
nothing without the privy council of his demon; and
no wonder, when this familiar is said to have kept
him close company from his childhood to the con-
clusion of his life, continually, no doubt, injecting
dissuasives from virtue."*
Plato relates of Socrates, that when he stood
before his judges, he said he had anticipated often
the evils that were to be apprehended from allowing
oneself to set about warring with public vices, or
openly resisting injustice.
"Perhaps it may appear absurd," said Socrates,
"that I going about, thus advise you in private,
and make myself busy, but never venture to present
myself in public before your assemblies and give
advice to the city. The cause of this is, that which
you have often and in many places heard me mention,
because I am moved by a certain divine and spiritual
influence, which also (my accuser) Melitus, through
mockery, has set out in the indictment. This began
with me from childhood, being a kind of voice, which
when present always diverts me from what I am
about to do, but never urges me on.'
22
"This it is," he continues, "which opposed my
meddling in public politics, and it appears to me to
have opposed me very properly. For be well as-
sured, 0 Athenians! if I had long since attempted
to intermeddle with politics, I should have perished
* Apol. Tertull., p. 247.
DEMON OF SOCRATES.
65
long ago, and should not at all have benefited you
or myself. And be not angry with me for speaking
the truth. For it is not possible that any man
should be safe who sincerely opposes either you or
any other multitude, and who prevents many un-
just and illegal actions from being committed in a
city: but it is necessary that he who contends for
justice, if he will be safe even for a short time,
should live privately and take no part in public af-
fairs.”*
Socrates assuredly was moved by "a certain
divine and spiritual influence," when he gave utter-
ance to those words of truth and wisdom. And
Savonarola, we may imagine, was moved in a like
manner by a certain divine and spiritual influence,
when conscious of the evils of feudalism, avarice,
and tyranny, which had fallen on the world, sensible
of all the oppression and impieties which were
done under the sun in his degenerate age, and fully
alive also to the difficulty of restraining the burn-
ing indignation which he felt at those outrages,
which he daily witnessed against religion, justice,
and humanity, when he gave expression to those
sombre thoughts of a young sick heart, which we
find embodied in the Canzona "De Ruina Mundi,"
and determined to fly from the world, feeling there
could be no safety for his virtue in it, if he opposed
the multitude, or sought to prevent the many un-
* The Works of Plato. Cary's version. Lond. 12mo. 1848, vol.
i. p. 19.
I.
F
66
DEMON OF SOCRATES.
just and impious actions which were committed in the
city he inhabited.
A man of great erudition, has ably set forth the
opinion, that by the term, demon or genius of Socra-
tes, is understood a sort of preceptor or monitor,
whose counsel and assistance he is said to have ex-
perienced in the chief concerns and actions of his
life. This genius suggested to him what course it
was proper for him and others to avoid, and diverted
him, and those who regarded his advice, from the
prosecution of enterprises which would have proved
prejudicial, without ever prompting him to any par-
ticular action. Cicero (De Divin. l. i.) describes this
demon as "Divinum quoddam, quod dæmonum ap-
pellat, cui semper ipse paruerit, nunquam impellenti
sæpe revocanti.”- Plutarch and Apuleius have com-
posed separate treatises on this genius or demon of
Socrates, in which they state the sentiments of the
ancients concerning its existence and nature.
The Abbé Fraguier, in a dissertation on this sub-
ject, printed in the fourth volume of the "Memoirs
of the Academy of Belles Lettres," ascribes the
whole of what has been said concerning the demon
of Socrates, to the wisdom and prudence of that phi-
losopher, which enabled him to foresee many things
which a person of inferior discernment would never
have thought of; for prudence, says Cicero, is a
kind of divination. If Socrates had not intended to
decline assuming to himself, the merit of an unerring
judgment, by attributing it to a kind of instinct,
DEMON OF SOCRATES.
67
Л
and if he had pretended to any extraordinary gift
superior to that which is obtained from the divine
wisdom by the suggestions of reason, communicated
in a higher or lower degree to all mankind, would
he have escaped, says Xenophon, (Memorab. 1. i.)
the censure of arrogance and falsehood? Thus,
without mentioning any other instances, when he
appears before the judges who were to condemn him,
that divine voice is not heard to prevent him, as it
was upon dangerous occasions; the reason is, that
he did not deem it a misfortune to die, especially at
his age, and in his circumstances.-Every one
knows what his prognostication had been long be-
fore, upon the unfortunate expedition to Sicily. He
attributed it to his demon, and declared it to be the
inspiration of that spirit. A wise man, who sees an
affair ill-concerted, and conducted with passion, may
easily predict the event of it, without the aid of a
demon's inspiration. It must be allowed, however,
that the opinion which ascribed to men genii and
angels for directing and guarding them, was not
unknown even to the Pagans. Plutarch, (De Anim.
Tranquil.) cites the verses of Menander, in which
that poet expressly says, "That every man at his
birth has a good genius given him, which attends
him during the whole course of his life, as a guide
and director." It may, therefore, be presumed, that
the demon of Socrates was nothing more than the
force and rectitude of his judgment, which, acting
according to the rules of prudence, and with the aid
F 2
68
DEMON OF SOCRATES.
of long experience, supported by wise reflections
made him foresee the events of those things, with
regard to which he was either consulted by others,
or deliberated upon himself.
"Timarchus," says Dr. Herbert Mayo, "who was
curious on the subject of the demon of Socrates,
went to the cave of Trophonius to consult the oracle
about it. There, having for a short time inhaled
the mephitic vapour, he felt as if he had received a
sudden blow in the head, and sank down insensible.
Then his head appeared to him to open and to give
issue to his soul into the other world; and an ima-
ginary being seemed to inform him, 'that the part
of the soul engaged in the body, entrammelled in its
organization, is the soul as ordinarily understood;
but that there is another part or province of the soul
which is the daimon. This has a certain control
over the bodily soul, and among other offices con-
stitutes conscience:'-'In three months,' the vision
added,
6 you will know more of this.' At the end
of three months Timarchus died."*
* Herbert Mayo, M.D. "On the Truths contained in Popular
Superstitions." 8vo. Frankfort, 1849, p. 73.
CHAPTER IV.
ON THE SACRIFICE OF CHILDREN ASCRIBED TO
THE EARLY CHRISTIANS AS A RELIGIOUS RITE,
AND TO SORCERERS IN THE ORGIA OF THEIR
66 SABBATH
ASSEMBLIES, AT A LATER PERIOD.
How comes it that this idea in all ages, amongst
all people, has prevailed, of sorcery being connected
with a rage for killing children and feasting on
their flesh, or partaking of their blood, or making an
ointment of the residue of those remains to enable
Sortilegi, Striges, Lestrigones, Lamiæ, by friction
with it, to "come like shadows, so depart," ride in
the air, and to celebrate infernal orgies at their
nocturnal sabbaths?
It was an early superstition of the Jews. Cal-
meil refers to an ancient rabbinical tradition em-
bodying the principal feature of the child killing
diabolical sorcery. Adam, according to this tradi-
tion, was first married to a sorceress named Lilith,
or the Mother of devils. This Megara was a per-
verse being, refused submission to the will of Adam,
and even commands from heaven conveyed to her
by angels. She persisted in her resolutions, and
one day after invoking the name of Jehovah, accord-
ing to the prescribed rules of the Cabala, she took
flight and disappeared in the air.
This must have been a relief to Adam. But it
70
SACRIFICE OF CHILDREN ASCRIBED
was none to his immediate descendants. We may
pass over lightly the extreme antiquity of the Cabala,
it is quite sufficient for us that the legend is as old
as the Rabbins, whose traditional lore was deemed
of an ancient date in the first ages of Christianity.
"Lilith," we are told, "became in course of time the
terror of all Judea. If an epidemic prevailed in
that country that was fatal to children, the people
said it was Lilith, who had transformed herself into
an aërial spectre, who put them to death. If the
ancient of days of the synagogue were asked why
many new-born children were taken away towards
the eighth day of their birth? the ancients replied,
it is Lilith who made them perish! In the hope of
preventing the evil influence of Lilith, the newly
married used to inscribe the names of three angels
on the internal walls of their dwelling, and on the
exterior of it, the names of Adam and Eve, and at a
little distance, the words-Begone Lilith."
"Gradually the name of Lilith was given to
Jewish women of bad repute or suspected of com-
merce with demons. Finally, this name became the
signification of destruction-of a propensity to
homicide. The wretches who were supposed affilia-
ted to the sect of Lilith, were represented with
bare necks, they were said to have the art of
appeasing the cries of infants, by offering them the
breast and suffocating them in the stillness of night,
after having calmed them by insidious caresses.”*
* Calmeil. De la Folie. Tome i. p. 142.
TO EARLY CHRISTIANS AND SORCERERS.
71
The legend of Lilith, transmitted from age to age,
from people to people, introduced into the traditions
and literature of many countries, but always recog-
nizable through the various transformations, addi-
tions, and embellishments, which the different tastes
for allegory of different nations had been the cause
of, eventually became a prevalent traditional idea-
that the practice of sorcery was necessarily allied
with an indomitable propensity to homicide.
9
Torreblanca, refers to this ancient superstition of
the Jews, who on their bed-posts were wont, he says
to affix an inscription with these words, "Et zelo
Chuizlilith," that the person on whose bed these
words were might be delivered by the protection of
Lilith from the nocturnal devil, and against this
nocturnal demon the use of phylacteries was also in
Vogue:
*
"Contra nocturnos fortis tutela timores."
The Greeks consecrated the idea of the connexion
of sorcery with child-killing in their mythology and
their poetry. A daughter of Neptune named Lamia,
a reputed sorceress, was a great slayer of children.
There were various kinds of sorceresses, but all of
homicidal tendencies.
Some of them passed into Rome and acquired a
local habitation and a name in Italy. They trans-
formed themselves there especially into ferocious and
rapacious animals. One sort were called Striges,
sorceresses of an old age who sought to restore their
*Demonologia, 4to. Moguntia, 1623, p. 337.
72
SACRIFICE OF CHILDREN ASCRIBED
debilitated powers, often under the guise of owls
frequenting places of sepulture for the purpose of
feeding on human flesh, and in the silence and still-
ness of night stealing invisibly into houses and
leaving new born children drained of their blood,
exanimate in their cradles.
The Romans in the eastern provinces of their
empire, in the second century charged the Christians
with the practice of killing a child, and eating the
blood mixed with flour, at their religious ceremonies.
Wierus says, the idea of the supposed revels of
sorcerers at their assemblages was derived from the
orgia of the Romans. From Italy the prevalent
idea of the connexion of sorcery and child-murder
crept into the superstitions of all Europe. It per-
vaded the witchcraft of France, Germany, Spain,
and Portugal, the Sclavonic nations, and the British
Islands. "The practice of Anthropophagy," says
Calmeil, "among the people of Europe may then be
classed in the rank of fictions, and children have
never been exposed to the fury of demon worship-
pers."-" Jamais les enfans n'y ont eté exposès en
realitè a la fureur des demolatres."*
St. Epiphanius enters largely into the abominable
crimes which from the time of the Emperor Adrian
were charged against the Christians, and many
persons laid these crimes to the account of the
Gnostics.
From the writings of the two great apologists of
*De la Folie, Tome i. p. 145.
TO EARLY CHRISTIANS AND SORCERERS. 73
the Christian religion of the second century, Justin
Martyr and Tertullian, the following extracts are
taken. For obvious reasons they are taken from a
translation of those Apologies, by a Protestant
divine.*
Justin Martyr, whose Apology for the Christians,
addressed to the Emperor Antoninus Pius, was
written about 150, A.D. according to Photius, "a
man little behind the Apostles themselves, either in
time or virtue"--a contemporary of Irenæus, thus
refers to the accusation brought against the Chris-
tians of killing children for their secret banquets.
"There is one Marcion," says Justin, "also of
Pontus, who at this time instructs his disciples in
the doctrine of another God, greater than the Creator
of the world, and who by the assistance of the evil
spirits has spread this poison so effectually about
every nation, as to prevail upon many to subscribe
to this blasphemy, and deny the Maker of the uni-
verse to be God, professing another greater Deity,
and a Creator of greater worlds; and yet all this
sort of men go by the name of Christians, as I have
already said, just like the philosophers, who though
they differ ever so much in principles, yet all take
upon them the common title of philosopher. But
whether these heretics are really guilty of those
'cursed and scandalous actions, which are industriously
*The Apologies of Justin Martyr, Tertullian and Minutius.
Felix, in defence of the Christian Religion. Translated from their
originals, by the Rev. W. Reeves, M.A. London, 2nd ed. 1716.
74
SACRIFICE OF CHILDREN ASCRIBED
spread abroad about Christians, such as putting out
the candles, and promiscuous intercourse, and the
devouring of human flesh, I cannot say; but this
I am sure of, that you do not harass and destroy
them, as you do us, for these detestable doctrines."*
* Justin Martyr, Apology, p. 52, Reeves' Translation.
'As the reader will meet this horrid charge against the
Christians in all these Apologies, of promiscuous intercourse, and
devouring an infant at their meetings, I think it will not be im-
pertinent in this place to acquaint him with the grounds of such
false and malicious accusations. Origen fathers them upon the
Jews, as if they had invented them on purpose to bring Chris-
tianity into disgrace, and these lies, said he, succeeded so well,
that even some in his time would not hold the least conversation
with a Christian; but though the Jews had malice enough to in-
vent anything to the prejudice of Christians, yet I can hardly
be persuaded that all this was pure lie and invention without
any ground. We know that in the most early times of the Gos-
pel, there were several sorts of heretics, such as Simon Magus,
Menander, Marcion, Marcus, Basilides, &c. who all covered them-
selves over with the gilded name of Christians, and yet were
all guilty of these horrid abominations charged upon Christians
in general. Irenæus adv. Heres. lib. i. c. i. p. 28, and c. 9. p. 70,
reports that they debauched in private those whom they had
perverted and brought over to their sect, (as many with shame
and sorrow acknowledged upon their return to the Church,) and
not only so, but they openly married the women they had sedu-
ced from their husbands, and laughed at the chaste and ortho-
dox Christians, as a parcel of blockheads, styling themselves the
pure, the perfect, and the seeds of election. Clemens Alexandrinus
likewise, Strom. 1. iii. p. 430, tells the same story of the Carpocra-
tians that Minutius Felix does of the Christians, namely, that
both men and women used to meet at supper, in imitation of the
love-feast, and after they had been well warmed with meat and
TO EARLY CHRISTIANS AND SORCERERS.
75
Tertullian, who was born at Carthage, about 160,
A.D. according to Reeves, wrote his Apology about
200, A.D., or as Dodwell computes about 203, and
according to other writers some years before 200,
A.D. One of the principal accusations against the
Christians which he defends them against, is the
charge of killing children and partaking of their
flesh. The following extracts from the Apology,
bearing on this subject, are taken from the transla-
tion of Grabe's Oxford Edition, by the Rev. William
Reeves, A.M. (London, 2nd edition, 1711.)
"It is the common talk," says Tertullian, "that
we are the wickedest of men, that we murder and
eat a child in our religious assemblies,* and when
drink, extinguished the candles, &c. &c. &c. And Epiphanius
tells us the same of the Gnostics, Hæres. xxvi. p. 42, and at
their meetings, he says, they were wont to take an infant begotten
in their promiscuous mixtures, and beating it in a mortar, to
season it with honey and pepper, and some other spices and
perfumes to make it palatable, and then like swine or dogs, to
devour it, and this they accounted their perfect passover. Now
this being the practice of these abominable heretics, who had
the forehead to style themselves Christians, it is no wonder if
both Jews and Gentiles, who were greedy of any occasion to
blacken the Christians, should load them in general with these
detestable crimes, either not knowing them to be false, or else
not willing to distinguish between Christians true or false."
Translator's note.
* That this charge of devouring a child in the sacrament was
by the Heathens commonly laid upon the Christians is evident,
because Justin, Athenagoras, Tatian, Minutius, and the rest of the
Apologists insist so much upon it. The nature of the institution,
76
SACRIFICE OF CHILDREN ASCRIBED
we rise from supper conclude all in horrible ex-
cesses. It is reported likewise, that for this work,
we have an odd sort of dogs, as officious in put-
ting out the candles, as procurers of darkness for the
freer satisfactions of our impious and shameless dis-
orders. This is the common talk, and the report is of
long standing, and yet not a man attempts to prove
the truth of the fact. Either therefore, if you believe
the report, examine the grounds, or if you will not
examine, give no credit to the report. And this
dissembled carelessness of yours against being better
informed, plainly speaks, that you yourselves believe
nothing of it; you seem to care not to examine, only
in truth because you dare not; for were you of
opinion, that these reports were true, you would
never give such orders as you do about the tortur-
ing of Christians; which you prescribe, not to
make them confess the actions of their life, but
only to deny the religion they profess. But the
Christian religion, as I have already intimated,
began to spread in the reign of Tiberius; and the
truth pulled down a world of hatred in its very
cradle. For it had as many enemies as men
without the pale of revelation, and even those within,
the very Jews, the most implacable of any, out of
a blind passion for the law. The soldiers from dra-
gooning our persons, come to hate our religion, and
and the practice of Simon Magus, Menander, Basilides, Carpo-
crates, and other heretics, who passed under the name of Chris-
tians, most probably gave rise to this horrid story.
TO EARLY CHRISTIANS AND SORCERERS. 77
¡
from a baseness of spirit, our very domestics are as
much bent upon our destruction as they. Thus
we are continually invested on every side, and con-
tinually betrayed, nay, very often we are surprised
and taken in our public meetings and assemblies;
and yet did ever any one come upon us, when the
infant was crying under the sacrificer's hand. Who
ever caught us, like a Cyclops or Siren, with mouths
besmeared in human blood, and carried us in that
cruel condition before a Judge ?"*
"I shall now appeal to the testimony of nature,
and argue whether it is credible, that she is capable
of such inhumanities, as common fame charges upon
Christians; and for argument sake, I will suppose
a Christian promising you eternal life, and tying
caution for the performance, upon consideration of
your obedience. I will suppose likewise, that you
believe this promise, and the question now is, whether
upon such a belief, you could find in your hearts to
be barbarous enough in spite of nature to accept of
eternal life at this inhuman price. Imagine, there-
fore, a Christian addressing you in this manner.—
Come hither, friend, and plunge your dagger into
the heart of this innocent, who can deserve no pun-
ishment, who can be no man's foe, and who may be
every man's son, considering our indiscriminate
disorders.t
"Answer me now to the question proposed, can
* Tertull. Apol. vol. 1, p. 177.
+ Ib. p. 183.
78
SACRIFICE OF CHILDREN ASCRIBED
you purchase heaven upon these terms? If not,
if you feel nature recoil, and your soul shrink at the
proposal of such things, you can never think them
credible in us.*
"But you pretend, that the ignorant only are de-
coyed and tricked into our religion, such as have
not met with any of these stories against us, but
are caught before they have time to consider and
examine with that accuracy which every man is
obliged to, upon changing his religion. And allow-
ing it possible for a man to be ignorant of common
fame, yet if any one is desirous to be initiated, it is
the constant custom, as I take it, for such a person
to go to the chief priest, to be instructed in what is
necessary for such an initiation. And then if these
stories are true, he will instruct him in this manner.
Friend, in order to communicate with us, you must
provide a child tender and good, too young for any
sense or notion of death, such a child as will smile
in
my
face under the fatal knife. You are likewise
to provide bread to soak up the blood, and candle-
sticks and candles, and some dogs with some morsels
to throw to those dogs, just out of their reach, that
by striving to come at them, they may pull down
the candle and candlesticks to which they are tied.†
“But for a fuller confutation, I come now to prove
that the heathens are guilty both in the dark, and
in the face of the sun, of acting the same abomina-
tions they charge upon Christians, and their own
* Tertullian's Apology, vol. 1, p. 184. + Ibid. p. 185.
*
TO EARLY CHRISTIANS AND SORCERERS.
79
guiltiness, perhaps, is the very thing which disposes
them to believe the like of others.* Infants have
been sacrificed to Saturn publicly in Africa, even to
the proconsulship of Tiberius, who devoted the very
trees about Saturn's temple, to be gibbets for his
priests, as accomplices in the murder, for contributing
the protection of their shadow to such wicked prac-
tices. For the truth of this, I appeal to the militia
of my own country, who served the Proconsul in
the execution of this order. But these abominations
are continued to this day in private. Thus you see,
that the Christians are not the only men who act in
* "Infantes penes Africam Saturno palam immolabantur," &c.
The heathens had a notion (however they came by it is not to my
present purpose to conjecture) that repentance alone was not
sufficient to appease the Divine wrath without a bloody sacrifice,
and therefore the blood of man and beast was brought in to supply
the deficiency. Accordingly, among the Phoenicians and Cartha-
ginians it had been an ancient custom to choose by lot some
children of the best quality for a sacrifice, and for those upon
whom the lot fell, there was no redemption. And they were
likewise dressed according to their quality in the richest apparel
to make the sacrifice more splendid. And having omitted these
human sacrifices for some time, and during that omission, being
overcome by Agathocles, they offered two hundred sons of the
nobility upon their altars to atone the Deity for the neglect of
human sacrifices. Vid. Plat. dial. entitled Minos Dionys. Hali-
car. lib. 1, Diodor. Sic. lib. 20, Lactan, lib. 1, c. 21. Euseb. Præ-
par. Evang. lib. 4, and Silius Ital. at the end of the 4th book
speaks thus of Carthage:
Mos fuit in populis, quos condidit advena Dido,
(Infandum dictu) Parvos imponere natos.
80
SACRIFICE OF CHILDREN ASCRIBED
defiance of your laws; nor can all your severity
pull up this wickedness by the roots, nor will your
immortal God alter his abominable worship upon any
consideration; for since Saturn could find in his heart
to eat up his own children, you may be sure he
would continue his stomach for those of other people,
who are obliged to bring their own babes, and sacri-
fice them with their own hands, giving them the
tenderest of words, when they are just about cutting
their throats; not out of any bowels of compassion,
but for fear they should unhallow the mystery, and
spoil the sacrifice with tears. And now,
in my
opinion, this parricide of yours, or slaughtering
your own children, outdoes the simple homicide
charged upon us, by many degrees of barbarity.
But infants are not the only offerings, for the
Gauls* cut a man to pieces on the altars of Mercury,
in the flower of his strength. I omit the human
sacrifices at Diana's Temple in Taurica Chersone-
sus, which are the arguments of your tragedies, and
which you seem to countenance by being so often
at the theatres. But behold! in that most religious
city of the devout descendants of pious Æneas, there
is a certain Jupiter, whom at your religious games
you propitiate with human blood in abundance.
But these, say you, are bestial men, criminals already
* 66
Major ætas apud Gallos Mercurio profecatur." Cicero in
Orat. pro M. Fonteio, speaking of the Gauls has these words,
Quis enim ignorat eos usque ad hanc diem retinere illam immanem
ac barbaram consuetudinem hominum immolandorum ?
TO EARLY CHRISTIANS AND SORCERERS. 81
condemned to die by beasts. Alas-a-day! These are
not men, I warrant ye, because they are condemned
men; and are not your Gods wonderfully beholden
to you for offering to them such vile fellows? How-
ever that be, this is certain, it is human blood.
"How many about me might I justly reproach upon
this head, not only of the mob, continually gorged
with blood of Christians, and nevertheless gaping for
more, but also of your presidents of cities and pro-
vinces, who have been the severest against us upon this
very score? How many, I say, of both sorts, might
I deservedly charge with infant-murder? And not
only so, but among the different kinds of death, for
choosing some of the cruellest for their own children,
such as drowning, or starving with cold or hunger,
or exposing to the mercy of dogs; dying by the
sword being too sweet a death for children, and such
as a man would choose to fall by, sooner than by
any other
ways of violence.
"But Christians now are so far from homicide,
that with them it is utterly unlawful to make away a
child in the womb, when nature is in deliberation
about the man; for to kill a child before it is born,
is to commit murder by way of advance; and there
is no difference, whether you destroy a child in its
formation, or after it is formed, and delivered. For
we Christians look upon him as a man, who is one
in embryo; for he is in being, like the fruit in blos-
som, and in a little time would have been a perfect
man, had nature met with no disturbance.
I.
G
82
SACRIFICE OF CHILDREN ASCRIBED
"As for the inhuman customs of banquetting upon
blood, and such tragical dishes, you may read (for
it is related by Herodotus,* I think), how that certain
nations having opened a vein in their arms, solemnly
drank of each other's blood for the confirmation of
treaties; and something like this Catiline put in
practice in his conspiracy. It is likewise reported,
that in some Scythian families the surviving friends
eat up the dead ones. But I need not go so far
as Scythia, for we have now at this day as barbar-
ous ceremonies at home; Bellona's priests lancing
their thighs, and taking up their own sacred blood
in the palms of their hands, and giving it their com-
municants to drink. Those epileptic persons also,
who flock to the amphitheatres for the cure of their
disease, intercept the reeking blood as it comes gush-
ing from the Gladiator's throat, and swill it off with
greediness. What shall we say of those who gorge
themselves with the beasts they kill upon the stage,
who demand a piece of the boar, or the stag that
* Herodotus, in his first book, reports, that it was the solemn
way among the Medes and Lydians in making of leagues to strike
each other on the shoulders with a naked sword, and then for the
parties mutually to lick up the blood; and in his fourth book he
tells us, that the Scythian rite of entering into league, was to fill
a large cup of blood and wine mixed together, (the blood of both
the parties confederating) and having dipped their swords and
arrows into it, to pledge each other in it, and so by turns drink it
off. And Possidonius, and from him Athenæus, lib. 2. cap. 2.
relates, that the Germans at their banquets opened a vein in their
face, and the parties mutually drinking up each other's blood,
mixed with wine, was the ratification of the treaty.
TO EARLY CHRISTIANS AND SORCERERS. 83
is covered over with their own blood in the combat?
Nay, the very paunches of boars* stuffed with the
crude indigested entrails of men, are dishes much in
vogue; and so man distends himself upon man, by
surfeiting upon beasts fed with men. You who eat
thus, oh! how differently do you eat from Christians?
But what can we think of men so perfectly brutish
as to make food of the very first principles of life,
and so diet upon child and parent both at the same
time? For shame, therefore, blush when you meet
a Christian, who will not endure a drop of the blood
of
any
animal in his victuals, and, therefore, for fear
any should be lodged among the entrails, we ab-
stain from things strangled, and such as die of them-
selves."+
But even earlier writers on ecclesiastical affairs
than Justin or Tertullian accused the Christians of
this homicidal crime; Tatian, who wrote about the
year of our Lord 167, in his treatise against the
Gentiles (page 167) says: "You accuse us of being
cannibals, but you know well that you are slanderers."
Athenagoras, about 177, in his letter to Marcus
Aurelius, triumphantly refutes the same slander.
* To such a degree of luxury, or rather bestiality, were the
Romans grown, that a bear's paunch stuffed with the reeking
viscera of Gladiators was reckoned a rare dish; and by the sump-
tuary laws against luxury I find that verrina and abdomina (which
I take to be the same with these alvei) were forbidden at feasts,
—Vid. Plin. 1. 8. cap. 51.
+ Tertull. Apol. vol. 1. p. 187 to 192.
G 2
84
SACRIFICE OF CHILDREN ASCRIBED
"We, indeed," he says, "to take pleasure in the
eating of human flesh! Before it is eaten, the victim
must be killed, and the one crime is not better proved
than the other; let those who assert it, say, have
they seen it. I defy the most impudent liar to say
so. There are amongst us those who possess slaves,
some more some less, from whom it is impossible to
conceal what we do; never has the charge originated
with one of them against us.
How then can men
be accused of such crimes who are known to hold it
for a principle, not even to assist at an execution,
however legitimate it may be; and yet what ardour
do we not see for the spectacles of gladiators, and
the combats of wild beasts, which the imperial coun-
try lavishes on the curiosity of the people; we alone
fly from them, and shall we, then, steep our hands
in blood, who do not permit ourselves even to assist
at those sports, which we regard as criminal, from
the fear of being rendered useless by them. This
would be, indeed, a monstrous contradiction on our
parts."
Eusebius, in his Ecclesiastical History, cites a letter
from the churches of Lyons and Vienna, to those of
Asia and Phrygia, about the year 177. This letter
details the particulars of a furious persecution raised
against the Christians, on the charge being brought
against them of eating human flesh at their religious
festivals, and committing frightful crimes in their
secret meetings.
"We had," says the letter, "slaves amongst us
TO EARLY CHRISTIANS AND SORCERERS. 85
who, though pagans, were arrested, the government
having ordered that none belonging to us should
escape.
"These slaves, whether from the force of the tor-
tures with which they were menaced, or by a secret
instigation of the devil, renewed against us all the
old and frightful calumnies with which the pagans
blackened our reputation, and that of the innocence
of the church. They charged us with eating human
flesh like Thyestes, and contracting incestuous mar-
riages like Edipus.
"Scarcely had these false accusations been spread
amongst the people, than there arose a universal
clamour against us. Those who had preserved for
us some spark of humanity showered malediction
on us.
"The consideration due to women, ever respected
amongst the most barbarous nations, was no gua-
rantee for their safety, nor for that of Blandine (one
of their slaves.) But the Lord was pleased to shew
by the example of this holy woman, that those who
seem vile in the eyes of men, often are worthy of
being honoured by God himself.
"She was of a nature so delicate that we trembled
for her. But by the strength of grace, she was
enabled to brave the different executioners who tor-
tured her the entire day.
6
"And this holy woman, like a courageous com-
batant, constantly cried out, I am a Christian
woman, we do not commit those crimes."
86
SACRIFICE OF CHILDREN ASCRIBED
"Biblis, her companion, another of the Christian
women, who had previously been tormented into a
renunciation of her faith, was again put to the tor-
ture of a further confession, for the crimes imputed
to the Christians; but in the midst of her sufferings,
she cried out, 'Can those be accused of eating chil-
dren, who from motives of religion, abstain from the
blood of animals? From that moment her constancy
was never shaken, till her martyrdom was accom-
plished, and that of her companion Blandine. The
blood of the poor slave was pure enough to quicken
the seeds of our religion,-sanguis martyrum semen
Christianorum."
Minucius Felix, the Roman advocate, likewise
repudiated the murderous charge. He says, "What
are we to understand of these fables, continually
disseminated, but never investigated or proved ?"
In his celebrated dialogue between Cecilius and
Octavius, he says, "We were persuaded that the
Christians adored monsters, devoured infants, and
abandoned themselves to dissolute courses in their
festal meetings. We never reflected that no one
had sought to verify these accusations, far, indeed,
from thinking to prove them; and that among so
many pretended culprits, not one had confessed the
crime, however assured of impunity or recompense
for so doing."* In the same work Cecilius de-
nounces this Christian practice of murdering human
beings to drink their blood and eat their flesh, so
* Minucius Felix Apol. Translated by Reeves, Vol. i. p. 257.
TO EARLY CHRISTIANS AND SORCERERS.
87
universally ascribed to them at that time, in the
very language employed at this day; and at the
end of 1700 years, the charge seems suited in all
its details for the meridian of Damascus !
"The accounts," he says, "that are given of their
initiation, and of those of the catechumens, who
had been previously excluded from the sacrament,
are no less horrible than those of their other prac-
tices. All the world is of one accord as to the
details; in the obscurity of night, a child is con-
veyed into their assembly, the body of which is
covered with flour, the person initiated without
repugnance strikes the victim, the assembly receives:
the blood, they greedily drink it; they then divide
the flesh among them, and make a horrific banquet
of it. Such is the bond of union which keeps them
in communion, and reciprocally binds the members
in silence."*
* Ib. pp. 85, 86.
CHAPTER V.
DREAMS AND VISIONS-SWEDENBORG AND HIS
REVELATIONS.
M'NISH, in the introduction to his "Philosophy
of Sleep," observes that organic life is not sus-
pended by sleep-" Sleep is the suspension of ani-
mal life, and during its continuance the creature is
under the influence of organic life alone."
Mental excitement, that is not accompanied with
extreme terror, is always productive of wakefulness.
Monotony, on the other hand, of sound, sight, or
thought, the weariness produced by the hearing of
continuous sounds of the same kind, seeing long
without interruption the same object, thinking solely
on one subject, simple in its nature, familiar in its
aspect, and with facility admitted and entertained,
has a tendency to produce sleep. "It will
It will gene-
rally be found," says M'Nish, "that the reasoning
powers are those which are soonest prostrated by
slumber, and the imagination the least so."
In somnambulism, as in ordinary sleep, some of
the cerebral organs are in action-others are sus-
pended; but in the former state, the imagination is
DREAMS AND VISIONS.
89
more forcibly impressed with a vivid idea of the
reality of the images presented to it, and the mus-
cular system is stimulated, and occasionally the
senses of sight and hearing. While a particular
sense or organ is thus inordinately stimulated, the
increased demand on sensorial power causes other
senses and organs to be thrown into greater torpor
than if the whole system had been in repose. Such
is the opinion of Dr. Mason Good. The reasoning
powers in the common somnambulism naturally
induced are generally partially suspended. In the
higher degrees of this disorder of the mental system,
the degree of wakefulness of all the senses and
organs of the brain, does not differ much from the
state of a person wide awake.
There is a mixture of coherency and incoherency
in the dreams of somnambulism, and a forgetfulness
of them when the state of somnambulency has
ceased, that has been considered by many eminent
physicians to shew, that in this respect it is analo-
gous while it endures with insanity.
In somnambulism induced by mesmerism, we are
called on seriously to consider the phenomena
produced, and to inquire-is the condition of the
mental faculties in that state altogether different
from that of the mind, in somnambulism sponta-
neously occurring? Is the mind in that condition
wholly free from any mixture of disorder and incon-
gruity of ideas? Can it not be made in this condi-
tion, by minds possessed of stronger powers of voli-
90
DREAMS AND VISIONS.
tion than its own, to create within itself images of
objects willed for it, of such vivid aspects as to be
undistinguishable from real entities?
Dr. Fossate, in a communication published in the
Zoist (April, 1847), observes-" Whenever we cause
erroneous ideas to enter the intellect of persons,
or to give false sensations, impressions, or notions,
which are not in accordance with the real state of
things, we have the power of making madmen of
them."
M'Nish gives examples of persons, at pleasure,
having the power of seeing whatever phantasms
they wished to see. He tells us of one remarkable
visionary, Blake the painter, who "was in the habit
of conversing with angels, demons, and heroes, and
of taking their likenesses." "His mind," says Cun-
ningham, "could convert the most ordinary occur-
rences into something mystical and supernatural.”
May not this faculty, of seeing at pleasure what-
ever phantoms it is wished to behold, in the case of
persons with tendencies that render wonder, venera-
tion, or enthusiasm unduly energetic, be the power
which enabled Swedenborg and his brother Seers of
the New World to be at will in communication with
angels, and on familiar terms with the celestial
powers.
There is one peculiarity very deserving of notice
in some states of somnambulism naturally induced
-namely, the fact of the somnambulist walking
with the eyes open and the sense of that organ shut,
DREAMS AND VISIONS.
91
while the power of vision seems substituted by
some new medium of communication between the
sensorium and external objects, of the nature of
which we are wholly ignorant.
The rapid succession of ideas, which is one of the
characteristics of dreams, is one of the most obvious
phenomena of that state of mental inebriation which
is produced by opium, the Indian hemp preparation
called hashis, alcohol, æther, and some of the gases.
The late Sir John Sinclair, in a treatise on longevity,
published some forty years ago, makes an observation,
which I quote from memory, to the following effect:
"If life be nothing but a continuous succession
of ideas, the rapidity with which they pass through
the mind, will determine the amount of life that
may be said to be enjoyed."
But, however rapid this successibility of ideas
may be, there is unity of thought; the mind can
only be occupied with one idea at a time. The
felicity of intellectual power, and perhaps the great-
est state of exaltation, is when there is a rapid tran-
sition from one train of ideas to another, and when
with it, is conjoined the power to combine them and
apply them logically, probably the highest degree of
intellectual vigour is attained.
In dreams the power of the imagination exceeds
that of nature. The time occupied by the playing
out of entire scenes of an ideal dream, the wonder-
ful incidents of which could not be accurately des-
cribed (had they to be written down) in half an hour,
92
DREAMS AND VISIONS.
is often hardly appreciable, sometimes it is to be esti-
mated by seconds, at other times by minutes.
A very able writer, in an article on the Connexion
of Body and Mind, observes :-"The time occupied
by a volition or act of will, gives in some degree a
measure of the speed of mental action, and of the
speed with which one state of consciousness gives
place to another."*
Dr. Carpenter, in his " Human Physiology," in a
chapter on the functions of the nervous system, has
noticed the very remarkable fact of certain trains
of thought, in rapid succession sometimes passing
through the mind, of the transition of which we are
not conscious at the time, and of which we become
conscious involuntarily or accidentally at some fu-
ture period, or in some altered condition of the func-
tions of the brain. He notices likewise the very
singular fact, practically well known to Kepler, (as
any one must perceive who reads the account of the
progress, interruption, and resumptions with felicitous
results, of his laborious researches,) that mental ope-
rations, at first carried on with difficulty or without
very successful results, when they have been aban-
doned for a time, and attention has been transferred
to other subjects of thought or inquiry, and again
resumed or recalled, they came as it were with an
66 entirely new development," disembarrassed of
many former difficulties and perplexities.
Sir Benjamin Brodie, on this subject, observes :-
* Edin. Review, No. 210, April, 1856. p. 429.
DREAMS AND VISIONS.
93
"But it seems to me that on some occasions a
still more remarkable process takes place in the
mind, which is even more independent of volition
than that of which we are speaking; as if there
were in the mind a principle of order which operates
without our being at the time conscious of it. It
has often happened to me to have been occupied by
a particular subject of inquiry; to have accumulated
a store of facts connected with it; but to have been
able to proceed no further. Then, after an interval
of time, without any addition to my stock of know-
ledge, I have found the obscurity and confusion in
which the subject was originally enveloped, to have
cleared away; the facts have seemed all to have
settled themselves in their right places, and their
natural relations to have become apparent, although
I have not been sensible of having made any dis-
tinct effort for that purpose."
It has been clearly shewn by Sir Henry Holland,
that when a particular absorbing idea or train of
ideas,"
a train of inward thought," has laid fast hold
of the mind, all external objects "utterly disappear."
Every sense sleeps while the mind is thus awake
and active within itself. By the light of this psycho-
logical philosophy we may read understandingly
accounts which are given by Shelley's biographer, of
states of being of that gifted man which without
them are very incomprehensible.
A man in a state of reverie, whose mind is actively
* Pyschological Inquiries, &c. by Sir B. Brodie. 1856.
94
DREAMS AND VISIONS.
employed" within itself," or to use the words of Sir
Henry Holland, passing suddenly, "by will or ac-
cident, into a train of inward thought," might be
placed on a battle field without hearing the thunder
of the artillery, or surrounded by the most marvel-
lous sights in the world without being conscious of
their proximity.*
The same writer, on this subject, observes else-
where:-
"Place yourself in the crowded streets of a city,
a thousand objects of vision before your eye-sounds
hardly less various coming upon the ear-odours
also constantly changing-contact or collision at
every moment with some external object. Amidst
this multitude of physical objects of sensation, and
with all the organs of sense seemingly open, one
alone (whether in itself simple or compound does
not affect the question) will be found at each mo-
ment distinctly present to the mind. It combines
them only by giving close and rapid sequence to the
acts of attention. Let the trial be made to attend
at once to the figures of two persons within the same
scope of vision; or to listen at the same moment to
two distinct sounds; or to blend objects of sight with
those of hearing in the same act of attention. The
impossibility will instantly be felt, and the passage
of the mind from one act to another very often re-
* Psychological Inquiries, in a series of essays intended to illus-
trate the mutual relations of the physical organization and the
mental faculties. Lond. 3rd Ed. 1856.
DREAMS AND VISIONS.
95
cognized. Or, under the same circumstances, let the
mind pass suddenly, by will or accident, into a train
of inward thought, whatever the subject, and all the
external objects thus crowded around you utterly
disappear, though the physical agents producing,
and the organs receiving sensations, remain precisely
as before. Every sense sleeps while the mind is
thus awake and active within itself. A man so oc-
cupied may be alone in a multitude.”
Leibnitz, in his "Nouveaux Essais sur l'Entende-
ment Humain," has a very remarkable passage on
the same subject:
"D'ailleurs il y a mille marques qui font juger
qu'il y a à tout moment une infinité de perceptions
en nous, mais sans perception et sans réflexion;
c'est à dire des changements dans l'ame même, dont
nous ne nous aperçevons pas, parceque ces impres-
sions sont on trop petites et en trop grand nombre,
on trop unies, en sorte qu'elles n'ont rien d'assez
distinguant à part; mais jointes à d'autres, elles ne
laissent pas de faire leur effet et de se faire sentir
dans l'assemblage au moins confusément.
attention demande de la mémoire et quand nous ne
sommes point avertis, pour ainsi dire, de prendre
garde à quelques-unes de nos propres perceptions
présentes, nous les laissons passer sans reflexion et
même sans les remarquer; mais si quelqu'un nous
en avertit incontinent et nous fait remarquer, par
exemple, quelque bruit qu'on vient d'entendre, nous
nous en souvenons et nous nous aperçevons d'en
Toute
96
DREAMS AND VISIONS.
avoir en tantôt quelque sentiment. . . . Ces petites
perceptions sont donc de plus grand efficace qu'on
ne pense. Ce sont elles qui forment ce je ne sais
quoi, ces goûts, ces images des qualités des sens,
claires dans l'assemblage, mais confuses dans les
parties; ces impressions que les corps qui nous envi-
ronnent font sur nous et qui enveloppent l'infini;
cette liaison que chaque être a, avec tout le reste de
l'univers. On peut même dire qu'en conséquence
de ces petites perceptions le present est plein de
l'avenir et chargé du passé; que tout est conspirant
(comme disait Hippocrate) et que dans la moindre
des substances des yeux aussi percants que ceux de
Dieu pourraient lire toute la serie des choses de
l'univers."*
In the waking state there is passing before us an
endless current of images and reflections, furnished
from our recollections, or produced by the operations
of fear, hope, or desire on the imagination. The
impressions continually made on the senses are con-
stantly changing or modifying the current of our
thoughts. But the most important changes and
modifications in them are effected by the exercise
of attention, a power of controlling, as well as
detaining our thoughts, and submitting them to the
test of experience or opinion.
"In sleep," says Herbert Mayo, "we recognize,
as the psychical basis of sleep, the suspension of the
* Nouveaux Essais sur l'Entendement Humain. Introd. Raspe,
1765.
DREAMS AND VISIONS.
97
attention. Are any other mental faculties sus-
pended in sleep? Sensation and the influence of the
will over the muscular system are not. For our
dreams are liable to be shaped by what we hear.
The sleeper, without waking, will turn his head away
from a bright light; will withdraw his arm if you
pinch it; will utter aloud words which he dreams
he is employing. The seeming insensibility in sleep,
the apparent suspension of the influence of the will,
are simply consequences of the suspension of atten-
tion."*
"Ordinary dreams present one remarkable feature;
nothing in them appears wonderful. We meet and
converse with friends long dead; the improbability
of the event never crosses our minds. One sees a
horse galloping by, and calls after it as one's friend
Mr. so and so. We fly with agreeable facility, and
explain to an admiring circle how we manage it.
Every absurdity passes unchallenged. The atten-
tion is off duty. It is important to remark that
there is nothing in common with dreams to interfere
with the purpose of sleep, which is repose. The
cares and interests of our waking life never recur
to us; or if they do, are not recognized as our own.
The faculties are not really energizing; their seem-
ing exercise is short; they are unharnessed; and
are gambolling and rolling in idle relaxation. That
is their refreshment."
* On the Truths contained in Popular Superstitions, 1849.
8vo. p. 78.
I.
H
98
DREAMS AND VISIONS.
"The attention alone slumbers. Or through some
slight organic change it is unlinked from the other
faculties, and they are put out of gear. This is the
basis of sleep. The faculties are all in their places;
but the attention is off duty; itself asleep, or indo-
lently keeping watch of time alone.”*
"There have been occasions when much excite-
ment on the subject of religion has prevailed, and
when strange disorders of the nervous system have
developed themselves among the people, which have
been interpreted as immediate visitings of the Holy
Spirit. The interpretation was delusive; the belief
in it superstition. The effects displayed were neither
more nor less than phenomena of trance, physiological
consequences of the prevailing excitement."+
Guy Patin, the celebrated French physician and
savant, who flourished in the middle of the 17th
century, a man of great wit as well as learning,
with very little of credulity in his character or en-
thusiasm in his opinions on physiological subjects,
makes the following remarks on certain kinds of
dreams respecting disease and some morbid con-
ditions of the functions of the body:
"Il est constant que l'on peut connaître par les
songes quelque dispositions corporelle. Je suis là
dessus du sentiment de Saint Thomas, quand il dit
2. 2. qu. 95. a 6. "Medici dicunt esse intendendum
*On the Truths of Popular Superstitions by Herbert Mayo,
M.D. p. 79.
† Ib. p. 113.
DREAMS AND VISIONS.
99
somniis ad cognoscendum interiores dispositiones."
En effet, les malades songent d'ordinaire autrement
que ceux que se portent bien; les melancoliques
autrement que les sanguins, les bilieux autrement
que les pituiteux; mais je m'en tiens là, sans tirer
d'autres conjectures sur les choses libres et de pur
hazard, jusqu'à ce que je croye qu' il y ait du sur-
naturel dans ce qu'on a songé; alors je rappelle dans
ma memoire l'histoire de Joseph, de Daniel, &c. pour
m'y soumettre comme à des moyens dont l'Eternel
se sert, pour faire connaitre aux hommes ses
volontez."*
There are some remarks of a German physician,
in a work published upwards of a century ago, on
the subject of nightmare, and its phenomena,
which would apply to visions, dreams, and many of
the delusions of hystero-convulsive monomania.
Dr. Jacob Brauner, a physician, in an old Ger-
man work on Demonology and Witchcraft, pub-
lished in 1747, referring to the common belief that
nightmare was attributable to sorcery and witch-
craft observes :
"It is a rash imagination also, when people
attribute divers diseases, which are difficult of cure,
to witchcraft. The ancient physicians who had not
deeply studied anatomy and chemistry, were of
opinion, that this complaint was caused by the
fumes arising from an overloaded stomach, by which
the stomach and the lungs are oppressed, and the
* L'esprit Guy Patin, Amsterdam, 1710, p. 132.
H 2
100
NIGHTMARE.
motions of the diaphragm interfered with, so as to
impede respiration. But as this malady overtakes
people, who have not overloaden their stomach by
eating supper, I am rather inclined to believe that
this is occasioned by a Halitus narcoticus, or a
thick and unwholesome vapour, which mingles with
the volatile spirits, especially those which proceed
from the eighth pair of nerves that belong to the
chest, and the muscles connected with the organs of
respiration, and so enervates them that they become
completely unstrung, and respiration is impeded,
which interruption occasions dreams and phantasies.
I also hold, with many learned men, that by this
malady a spasmodic contraction of the nerves of
the diaphragm, and of the muscles of the chest is
caused, as also of the air-vessels of the lungs,
whereby their action being impeded, respiration is
affected."*
Death-trance is a form of suspended animation.
There are several others. After incomplete poison-
ing, after suffocation in any of its various ways,
after exposure to cold, in infants newly born, a state
is occasionally met with, of which (although many
of the appearances may differ) the common feature
is an apparent suspension of the vital actions. But
all of these so-cited instances agree in another
important respect; which second inter-agreement
separates them as a class from death-trance. They
represent, each and all, a period of conflict between
* Vide "Supernatural Illusions," Lond. 1841, vol. 1. p. 134.
DEATH-TRANCE.
101
the effects of certain deleterious impressions and the
vital principle, the latter struggling against the
weight and force of the former. Such is not the
case in death-trance.
"Death-trance is a positive status; a period of
repose; the duration of which is sometimes definite
and predetermined, though unknown. Thus the
patient, the term of the death-trance having ex-
pired, occasionally suddenly wakes, entirely and at
once restored. Oftener, however, the machinery
which has been stopped seems to require to be
jogged; then it goes on again.
"The basis of death-trance is the suspension of
the action of the heart, and of the breathing, and
of voluntary motion; generally, likewise, of feeling
and intelligence, and the vegetative changes in the
body are suspended. With these phenomena is
joined loss of external warmth; so that the usual
evidence of life is gone. But there has occurred
every shade of this condition that can be imagined,
between occasional slight manifestations of suspen-
sion of one or other of the vital actions, and their
entire disparition.
"Death-trance may occur as a primary affection,
suddenly or gradually. The diseases, the course of
which it is liable, as it were, to bifurcate, or to
graft itself upon, are first and principally all dis-
orders of the nervous system. But in any form of
disease, when the body is brought to a certain
degree of debility, death-trance may supervene.
102
DEATH-TRANCE.
Age and sex have to do with its occurrence; which
is more frequent in the young than in the old, in
men than in women; differences evidently connected
with greater irritability of the nervous system !"*
There are cases on record of persons who could
spontaneously fall into death-trance. Monti, in a
letter to Haller, mentions several.
"A priest of the name of Caelius Rhodaginus
had the same faculty. But the most celebrated
instance is that of Colonel Townshend, mentioned
in the surgical works of Gooch; by whom and by
Doctor Cheyne and Doctor Beynard, and by Mr.
Shrine, an apothecary, the performance of Colonel
Townshend was seen and attested. They had long
attended him, for he was an habitual invalid; and
he had often invited them to witness the pheno-
menon of his dying and coming to life again, but
they had hitherto refused, from fear of the conse-
quences to himself. Accordingly, in their presence
Colonel Townshend laid himself down on his back,
and Doctor Cheyne undertook to observe the pulse;
Dr. Beynard laid his hand on his heart; and Mr.
Shrine had a looking glass to hold to his mouth.
After a few seconds, pulse, breathing, and the
action of the heart were no longer to be observed.
Each of the witnesses satisfied himself of the
entire cessation of these phenomena. When the
death-trance had lasted half an hour, the doctors
*Letters on the Truths contained in Popular Superstitions, by
Herbert Mayo, M.D., p. 34.
DEATH-TRANCE.
103
began to fear that their patient had pushed the
experiment too far and was dead in earnest. And
they were preparing to leave the house, when a
slight movement of the body attracted their atten-
tion. They renewed their routine of observation;
when the pulse and sensible motion of the heart
gradually returned, and breathing, and conscious-
ness. The sequel of the tale is strange, Colonel
Townshend, on recovering, sent for his attorney,
made his will, and died, for good and all, six hours
afterwards.
"Although many have recovered from death-
trance, and there seems to be in each case a definite
period to its duration, yet its event is not always as
fortunate."+
Don Francisco Torreblanca, an eminent Spanish
lawyer and ecclesiastic, in his work "Dæmono-
logia sive de Magia Naturali, Dæmoniaca," &c.
4to. Moguntia, 1623, professes to give an ac-
count of all that had been written up to his time on
the subject of Sorcery, and of the judicial proceed-
ings of the Inquisition and the civil tribunals against
sorcerers, defending the latter, regulating their prac-
tice, and strenuously asserting the truth of the pre-
vailing opinion of the frequent occurrence of diaboli-
cal possession.
The visions or dreams, he says, which occur in sleep
are either to be ascribed to God, nature, or the devil.
Those which are from God are distinguishable from
* Ib. p. 36.
104
DREAMS AND VISIONS.
66
those which are to be attributed to the devil, as we
are told by Gregory the Great (Dialog. 4, c. 48)—
Holy men discern between illusions and revelations,
and distinguish the sounds emitted and images per-
ceived in these visions when cast into deep sleep,
'quodam intimo sopore,' so as to know those which
emanate from a good spirit, and those which they
suffer from (contrary) illusions."
In the former, "in somniis divinis," the slumber
is quiet and undisturbed by terrors, the mind is
tranquil, something of suavity is always perceived
within, a certain interior alacrity is felt, and some
design seems apparent in them, either for our private
utility or public advantage; or admonitory in them,
recommending what is good; or of exhortation,
warning us from what is evil.*
Torreblanca speaks of two kinds of dreams: one
in which sometimes divine mysteries are revealed-
that, for instance, of Jacob, when the mystic ladder
was revealed to him, and that in which the kingdom
of Christ was revealed to Daniel and likewise that in
which the arcana of philosophy and medicine are
revealed; as when to Alexander, in a vision, it was
shewn how, by means of a certain herb, the effects
of poisoned arrows could be removed; and to
Galen, when sick, the vein was shewn from which
blood was to be taken. The other kind is that of
diabolical dreams, occasioned by the evil spirit agi-
* Torreblanca, Demonologia, pp. 146 ad 148.
ENTHUSIASM.
105
་
.
tating the humours of the body, or imprinting on
the phantasy the figures of things, and making a
representation of sights or scenes either direct or
symbolical in its application, as St. Thomas of
Aquinas affirms, and also St. Augustine. Such were
the visions of the Anabaptists, and those formerly of
the Enthusiasts, "et fuere olim enthusiastarum ;"
those also of the Lectiternia of the Gentiles in the
temples of Esculapius, Serapis, Pasiphae, and others,
and those which the demons were wont to give in
the way of answers to questions, as to King Latinus
(Virgil, Æneid, 7); and similar were the diabolical
influences of those of whom Isaiah speaks (cap. 65),
"qui habitant in sepulchris et delubris idolorum
dormiunt;" and St. Jerome, "ut dæmonis responsa
accipiant." And therefore all observation of dreams
was forbidden to Christians, unless such as origina-
ted in divine revelation, "nisi præcedente divina
revelatione."
In Locke's idea of enthusiasm much truth is ex-
pressed in a few words:
"This I take to be properly enthusiasm which,
though founded neither on reason nor divine revela-
tion, but rising from the conceits of a warmed or
overweening brain, works yet where it once got
footing, more powerfully on the persuasions and ac-
tions of men than either of these two, or both toge-
ther; men being most forwardly obedient to the
impulses they receive from themselves; and the
whole man is sure to act more vigorously when the
106
ENTHUSIASM.
whole man is carried by a natural motion. For
strong conceit, like a new principle, carries all easily
with it, when got above common sense, and freed
from all restraint of reason and check of reflection,
it is heightened into a divine authority, in concur-
rence with our own temper and inclination.
"Though the odd opinions and extravagant ac-
tions enthusiasm has run men into, were enough to
warn them against this wrong principle, so apt to
misguide them, both in their belief and conduct, yet
the love of something extraordinary, the ease and
glory it gains one to be inspired, and be above the
common and natural ways of knowledge, so flatters
men's laziness, ignorance, and vanity, that when once
they are got into this way of immediate revelation,
of illumination without research, and of certainty
without proof and without examination, it is a hard
matter to get them out of it. Reason is lost upon
them, they are above it," &c.*
1
The strength of the conviction of enthusiasts, we
are truly told by Locke, is no proof of the reason-
ableness of it: "This is the way of talking of these
men; they are sure because they are sure, and their
persuasions are right because they are strong in
them
دو
"The strength of our persuasions is no evidence
at all of their own rectitude; crooked things may be
* Essay on the Human Understanding. "Of Enthusiasm,"
vol. 2. p. 274.
SWEDENBORG.
107
1
as stiff and inflexible as straight, and men may be
as positive in error as in truth."*
SWEDENBORG.
Was Emmanuel Swedenborg an impostor and a
hypocrite? or an enthusiast, of a morbid condition of
some of the intellectual faculties which are most
concerned in the production of dreams and the
visions of ecstatic somnambulism?
This singular person, born in 1689, was the son
of a Swedish bishop of Skara, of the Reformed
Church. He had received a good education,
was a man of science, and had devoted himself es-
pecially to the study of mineralogy and chemistry,
with such success, that, after travelling for some
years, on his return home his merits and scientific
acquirements attracted the attention of his sovereign,
and obtained for him the office of Assessor to the Col-
lege of Mines in Stockholm, and gained for him a
patent of nobility in 1719. Up to the year 1743,
when he had attained the age of fifty-four, he lived
in the world engaged in his scientific and philoso-
phical pursuits, and the duties of his office, with the
reputation, well deserved, of an industrious, in-
genious, simple-minded and virtuous man, of un-
doubted sincerity and probity.
His first publication was a volume of Latin poems,
which appeared before he was twenty years of age.
** Essay on the Human Understanding. "Of Enthusiasm,"
vol. 2. p. 278.
:
108
SWEDENBORG.
He wrote several works, and published many trea-
tises of merit in scientific journals on mining and
mineralogical subjects, the principal of which are to
be found in his "Opera Philosophica et Mineralo-
gica." His attention, however, was much given to
religious subjects of inquiry.
In 1743 a conviction appears to have been
made on his mind, that the world of spirits held
occasional communion with certain favoured persons
in this life, and up to the period of his death, in
1772, he lived in the firm persuasion, that he held
continual and almost diurnal commerce with spirits
both of a celestial origin and those of deceased men
of eminent sanctity or heroic Christian virtues.
His intercourse with St. Paul and Luther was of
the most familiar and friendly nature. His chit-
chat with the spirits forms a large portion of his
revelations. Thus, in regard to a disputed point of
theology, he
says, "I had a conversation the other
day on that very point with the apostle Paul."
In a letter to Oelinger, of Wurtemburg, dated
Nov. 11, 1766, the following passage occurs: "If
I have spoken with the angels? to this I answer,
I conversed with St. Paul during a whole year,
particularly with regard to the text Romans iii.
28. I have conversed with St. John three times,
once with Moses, and a hundred times with Luther,
who allowed that it was against the warning of
an angel that he professed 'fidem solam,' that he
stood alone upon the separation from the Pope.
SWEDENBORG.
109
With angels, finally, have I these many years con-
versed and that daily."
Of the habits, forms, and even attire of the angels
he gives a detailed account: "They have human
forms, the appearance of men, as I have a thousand
times seen; for I have spoken with them as a man
with other men, often with several together, and
they have nothing in the least to distinguish them
from other men."
And he informs us-"Lest any one should call
this an illusion or imaginary perception, it is to be
understood that I am accustomed to see them when
perfectly wide awake, and in full exercise of my
(powers of) observation. The speech of an angel or
of a spirit sounds like and is as loud as that of a man :
but it is not heard by the by-standers.
The reason
is, that the speech of an angel or a spirit finds en-
trance into a man's thoughts and reaches his organs
of hearing from within." This is a very remark-
able coincidence of two explanations of the modus
operandi of the same hallucinations, by two indivi-
duals professing to be in communication with the spi-
ritual world-one in the enjoyment of angels' visits,
neither few nor far between, the other possessed by
devils, and constantly receiving communications from
them. The superioress of the convent of Soudum,
giving an account of her own torments from the
demons she imagined herself possessed by, says, that
on one occasion the demon Behemoth tormented
her spirit grievously; he represented to her the
110
SWEDENBORG.
history of her past life from the age of six years.
"Par une locution qu'il me faisait dans ma tête."*
Swedenborg, moreover, tells us: "The angels
who converse with men speak not in their own
language, but in the language of the country: and
likewise in other languages which are known to a
man, not in languages which he does not under-
stand."
But in a letter further on he explains their mode of
speaking to him-they appeared to him to speak his
mother tongue, because in fact it was not they who
spoke but himself after their suggestions.
Swedenborg, like Danté, Mahommed, and many
supposed possessed nuns, had a strong propensity in
narrating the wonders of the other world, and
especially those of the infernal regions, to people
the latter realms of woe with opponents, with
persons whom they had been taught to think ill of,
on polemical grounds.
Swedenborg damns the Popes in general, and the
Cardinals of their court in particular. He finds
them fit men for the agents of Satan, and he has
them accordingly in a fitting place. But he deals
very differently with "the friends of truth," of all
the Reformed Churches, with some remarkable ex-
ceptions however. This is the least poetical portion
of the visions of heaven and hell of Emmanuel
Swedenborg. Things of the earth, less earthy,
* Calmeil de La Folie, t. 2. p. 26.
SWEDENBORG.
111
ought to have been expected from the inspirations of
an enthusiast endowed with poetry and eloquence,
bordering often on the sublime, and the insensate,
it must be admitted.
Here is a passage of his in his best vein of sub-
limity: "When approaching, the angels often appear
like a ball of light; and they travel in companies
so grouped together they are allowed so to unite
by the Lord--that they may act as one being, and
share each other's ideas and knowledge; and in this
form they bound through the universe from planet
to planet."
The following extract is from the last work of
the Swedish seer, entitled, "True Christian Reli-
gion, containing the Universal Theology of the
New Church, which was foretold by our Lord, by
Emmanuel Swedenborg, servant of the Lord Jesus
Christ translated from the original Latin, 2nd ed.
4to. Lond. 1776." "I am aware (he says, after
an account of one of his visions) that many who
read the memorable relations annexed to each
chapter of this work, will conceive that they are
the fictions of imagination; but I protest in truth,
that they are not fictions, but were really seen
and heard; not seen and heard in any state of
the mind in sleep, but in a state when I was broad
awake; for it hath pleased the Lord to manifest
himself unto me, and send me to teach the things
relating to his New Church, which is meant by
the New Jerusalem in his Revelation, for which
112
SWEDENBORG.
purpose he hath opened the interior of my mind or
spirit, by virtue of which privilege it was granted
to me to have commerce with the angels in the
spiritual world, and at the same time with men in
the natural world, and that now for twenty-seven
years. Who in the Christian world would have
known any thing of heaven and hell, unless it had
pleased the Lord to have opened the spiritual vision
to some person or other, and shew and teach what
relates to the spiritual world? That such things do
really appear in the heavens as are represented in
these memorable relations, is clearly evident from
similar things being seen and described by John in
the Apocalypse, and also by the prophets in the
Old Testament.
"In the Apocalypse we read, that John saw
the Son of man in the midst of seven candlesticks;
that he saw a temple, a tabernacle, an ark, and an
altar in heaven, a book sealed with seven seals, the
book opened, and in consequence thereof, horses
going forth, four animals about the throne, twelve
thousand chosen out of each tribe, locusts ascending
from the bottomless pit, a woman bringing forth a
man child and flying into a wilderness by reason of
a dragon, two beasts, one ascending out of the sea,
the other from the earth, an angel flying in the
midst of heaven having the everlasting gospel, a
glassy sea mixed with fire, seven angels having the
seven plagues, vials poured out by them on the
earth, on the sea, on the rivers, on the sun, on the
SWEDENBORG.
113
throne of the beast, on Euphrates, and on the air,
a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, a dragon cast
out into a lake of fire and sulphur, a white horse,
a great supper, a new heaven, and a new earth ;
the holy Jerusalem coming down from heaven,
described as to its gates, its walls, and foundations;
also a river of the water of life; and trees of life
bearing fruit every month; with many things be-
sides, which were all seen by John, whilst as to
his spirit he was in the spiritual world and in
heaven," &c.
"From these, and many other instances in the
word of God, it is evident that the things which
exist in the spiritual world have appeared to
many both before and since the coming of the
Lord; what wonder then is it that the same things
should now also appear at the commencement of
the church, or when the New Jerusalem is coming
down out of the heavens."*
These were the last words penned by Sweden-
borg that have been published. The source of all
the intercourse with the spiritual world imagined by
Swedenborg, of all the revelations he has given of
his innumerable journeys to heaven, was the Apo-
calypse of St. John. Its imagery and machinery
seem to be constantly present in his mind. They
are never lost sight of in his revelations. Their
deep shadows are found constantly projected on his
path. They are deeply impressed by study and
*Swedenborg's Christian Relig. p. 708.
I.
I
114
SWEDENBORG.
profound meditation on his mind, and pictured with
life-like veracity on his imagination. They are
reproduced at will in print, as original conceptions,
without the slightest consciousness of the identity
of those visions with the revelations of his favourite
portion of the Scriptures, St. John's Apocalypse.
CHAPTER VI.
ST. TERESA, HER VISIONS AND REVELATIONS.
THE subject of visions, which are connected with
religion and with the history of persons of saintly
lives, is one of a very different description, as to phe-
nomena and result, from that of the Manifestations,
called Spiritual, of Somnambulists and Evokers of
the inhabitants of the spirit world. It is essential
to the design of this work to shew the difference
there is between these, and this object cannot be
effected more successfully than by setting before
my readers a brief, but carefully prepared memoir
of the career in religion, and the visions of St.
Teresa.
St. Teresa and "The Reformation," came nearly
together into the world. She was born in 1515.
Teresa Sanchez, of Avila in Old Castile, was of good
family and pious parentage. Her life, written by
herself, comes down only to the year 1562, with the
exception of an account of the convent of Avila,
though she survived that period twenty years. Her
death occurred in 1582, two hundred and seventy-
four years ago. In this work an account is given of
I 2
116
ST. TERESA,
many extraordinary visions and revelations for the
three first years of these supernatural occurrences,
as these phenomena were deemed by her; but those
of the rest of her life, and they continued to its close,
were not published by her, but many of them were
communicated to her directors. Father Ribera, a
learned Jesuit, some time her confessor, wrote her
life. Another biography of her was written by
Yepes, bishop of Tarragona; a later one, published
by Bishop Palafox, in four volumes; and all her
works in Spanish, in several editions, and perhaps
the best edition of them, translated by Arnaud
d'Andilly and others, was published in Paris, in
1840. From the time of the death of her good and
holy mother, when Teresa was in her 12th
year, her
piety to God and charity to the poor became settled
habits, that every day seemed to assume more of a
saintly character. A change, however, came over
the spirit of her life on her approach to the age
fifteen. Knight errantry, histories, sentimental
novels and romances, fine clothes, and rich adorn-
ments, agreeable company, though of near relations;
little vanities, exaggerated in her scrupulous mind
into great defects, nay, into mortal sins, gradually
led to a falling off in devotional fervour, which ap-
peared to her at length a grievously sinful state;
one which to die in would inevitably entail eternal
punishment. At the age of fifteen, apparently much
in opposition to her wishes, she was placed in a con-
vent in Avila by her father. There she was fre-
of
HER VISIONS AND REVELATIONS.
117
quently subject to attacks of illness. In a short time,
however, she became reconciled to her seclusion from
the world, and her old fervour of religious feelings
returned. Dangerous indisposition obliged her to
quit the convent, after a residence there of a year
and a half. She returned to her father's house.
There, after some time, a violent fever seized her, and
on her recovery, fearing from former experience the
probability of renewed paroxysms, she determined
on devoting herself to a religious life, and accord-
ingly entered a Carmelite convent in the suburbs of
Avila, and took the veil in opposition to her father's
wishes.
66
She made her profession in her twentieth year, in
1534. “A sickness," says her biographer, "which
'seized her before her profession, increased on her
very much after it, with frequent fits of fainting and
swooning, and a violent pain at her heart which some-
times deprived her of her senses." Physicians find-
ing no remedy for her extraordinary case-she was
removed to her sister's house in the country, and
remained there and at Bazeda nearly a year in the
care of able physicians. She derived no benefit from
them. She suffered from continual fever that preyed
on her nervous system. Sharp pains afflicted her
whole frame; her sinews began to shrink up; she got
no rest by day or night; she had a complication of
maladies which terminated eventually in hectic fever.
In this condition her patience was remarkable; she
read the book of Job frequently, and other holy
118
ST. TERESA,
works, and had often in her mouth the aspirations
of Job, and fervent expressions of resignation to
the Divine will. At length, in August, 1537, then
in her 23rd year, she fell into a lethargic coma or
trance, which lasted four days, and during this
period "it was expected that every moment would
be her last. It being once imagined that she was
dead, a grave was dug for her in the convent, and
she would have been buried if her father had not
opposed it, and testified that he still perceived in her
body some signs of life. Through excess of pain she
had bitten her tongue in many places, when out of
her senses, and for a considerable time she could
not swallow so much as a drop of water without
almost choking. Sometimes her whole body seemed
as if her bones were disjointed in every part, and her
head was in extreme disorder and pain."
❤
It is impossible for a medical man to read this
account of the occasional falling into a lethargic
state, fits of fainting and swooning, violent spasms,
pain at the heart, temporary loss of reason, shrink-
ing of the sinews, oppression with a profound sense
of sadness, biting of the tongue in many places
when out of her senses, inability to swallow any
liquid, distortion of the whole frame as if all her
bones were disjointed, subsequent inability to stir
hand or foot for some time, and a generally diffused
soreness so as to be unable to bear being touched
--without coming to the conclusion that the suf-
ferer laboured under physical disease of a low
HER VISIONS AND REVELATIONS.
119
nervous, or gastric kind, with continuous fever,
probably complicated with epileptic tendencies.
When some slight amendment in the health of
St. Teresa had taken place she was removed to
her convent, by her own earnest desire, though
reduced almost to a skeleton, and still suffering from
pains in all her limbs, and a paralytic affection of
them. In this state she continued eight months, and
remained a cripple nearly three years. During this
time a little contemplative work on self-recollection
and quietude was her constant study. "The prayer
of Quiet," we are told by her biographer," or state of
tranquil abstraction and communion with the Deity,
in which the soul rests in the divine contemplation
so as to forget all earthly things, became a privilege
of hers. And sometimes, though not for a longer
space than an Ave Maria at a time, she arrived at
the prayer of Union, in which all the powers of the
soul are absorbed in God." It is stated, that for
want of an experienced spiritual instructor at this
time, she made little progress in contemplative per-
fection, being liable to distractions which impeded
continuous meditation, so as to be able to hold
mental discourses without the aid of a book.
Nevertheless, the excellent dispositions of this
eminently holy person did not prevent intermissions
of piety in the early part of her career. About the
period just referred to, she fell again from the fer-
vour and devotion of her ordinary course of life.
Her naturally affectionate disposition, and cheerful
120
ST. TERESA,
temper, exposed her to the inconvenience of much
intercourse with secular persons in the parlour of
the convent. Dissipation of mind followed, and
neglect of mental prayer soon succeeded. She
began to take delight in company at the grate and
in the parlour," and she contracted an intimacy
with one whose company was peculiarly dangerous
to her."
One day, while she was conversing at the grate
with a new acquaintance, she had a vision, which
seemed to her intended to rebuke her for the dissi-
pation she had indulged in. The apparition of our
Lord was suddenly presented to the eyes of her
soul, with a rigorous aspect, testifying to the dis-
pleasure occasioned by her conduct.
The vision of our Lord she considered an effect of
imagination, and persuaded herself that the distrac-
tions of her late life had nothing reprehensible in
them. Again she had recourse to mental prayer.
The innocent recreations, however, of conversations
with secular people were only occasionally given up;
and out of twenty-eight years that had passed in
the convent when she wrote the observation, she
says she had spent more than eighteen in strife
between duty and distraction, between trial of
spiritual dryness and intervals of heavenly conso-
lation in the prayer of quiet and communion with
the Deity.
Of the many excellent effects of mental prayer
she discourses largely and eloquently. She tells us
HER VISIONS AND REVELATIONS.
121
how her patience was perfected by it; "that, how-
ever slothful at particular times, she would not tire of
hearing sermons, though ever so bad." Great, in-
deed, must have been her holding out; for what but
the patience of a lamb could have borne so many
bad sermons as the poor lady must have heard from
the Fray Gerundos of Avila, in the course of those
eight and twenty years of conventual life.
There is a curious observation of St. Teresa's,
with respect to the effect produced on her by good
preaching, that psychology, perhaps, might explain,
if theology failed to do so: "I had such an affec-
tion for sermons, that I could not be deprived of
them without feeling much regret. And I could
not hear good preaching without conceiving a great
friendship for the preacher, though I did not know
how that came to be."*
In a short time after her return to the convent
she became enamoured of holy meditation, wonder-
fully cheered and spirit-gladdened by this power of
contemplation and absorption of the soul in the
quietude of prayer. And in this condition we learn
that "she received a heavenly light, in which she
clearly saw the nothingness of all earthly things,
looked upon the world as under her feet, and beneath
the regard of the spirit, and pitied all persons who
vainly pursued its empty bubbles."
Towards the expiration of the third year of her
severest sufferings there was an abatement of her
Her Life written by herself. Tome i. p. 173.
122
ST. TERESA,
bodily sufferings; the paralysis gradually so far
disappeared as to leave her able to crawl upon her
hands and feet. She remained subject, however, to
the end of her life, for a period of upwards of twenty
years, to violent vomitings, of daily occurrence.
All this time her patience continued unsubdued, and
all the tenderness of a woman's feelings, animated
with the most fervent love of the nearest and dearest
objects of affection in this world, seemed mingled
with the melting piety, and yet solemn veneration,
with which she poured out her inmost thoughts in
prayer. That exalted piety was accompanied with
a remarkable earnestness of charity, which made
her resolute and vigilant in resisting the slightest
tendency to detraction. In her presence no one
durst reflect on another, or deal harshly with their
defects. From her earliest years she shewed an
abhorrence of censoriousness. It was one of the
great rules of the life of this faithful servant of God
to speak of others always mercifully, and cause
them to be charitably spoken of in her presence, as
she would desire to be spoken of by others, and her
best friends to be dealt with in their absence kindly
and considerately.
No matter what error of judgment there might
be in the extravagant propensity to exaggerate her
faults, which St. Teresa indulged in, what evidence
of exaltation of mind and excess of enthusiasm there
might be in her religious feelings; there was, in the
heartfelt piety I have referred to, and that instinc-
HER VISIONS AND REVELATIONS.
123
tive horror of the baseness of defamation which
was natural to her, excellences which might lead us
to expect more than ordinary privileges for their
possessor.
A very careful perusal of her writings, moreover,
and an earnest desire to discover in them true
evidence of the real state of her mental and moral
condition, with a very strong disposition, let me
add, to doubt the prudence of ascribing everything
extraordinary that passes in the mind of such a
person to a supernatural origin, has left a conviction
on my mind of the entire sincerity, simplicity of
character, and singleness of purpose of this truly
remarkable, and amiable and pious woman.
""
In the "Œuvres tres complètes de Saint Therese,'
Traduits par Arnaud D'Andilly et en deux tomes,
8vo. Paris, 1840, we have a detailed account of the
raptures, visions, and revelations of this remarkable
person, so eminent for piety, charity, and humility,
and yet so apt to represent to herself all imagina-
tions, however incongruous they might occasionally
be, all ideas, however grotesque in their forms, that
might present themselves to her mind in the highest
state of its excitement, as divine communications, of
equal authenticity with those which evidently bore
the stamp of a purely spiritual origin.
In the 24th chapter of the life of the Saint,
written by herself, she gives a very singular ac-
count of her first perfect consciousness of the
Saviour's presence, the precursive marvel of those
124
ST. TERESA,
visions of the Redeemer's corporal appearance, of
which we have so many accounts in her writings.
"Being in prayer," she says, "on the anniversary
of St. Peter, I saw, or, to speak more correctly, I
felt-for I saw neither with the eyes of the body
nor those of the soul-that some one was near me,
and it seemed to me that it was the Lord Jesus
Christ himself who spoke to me.
As I entirely
ignored what it was to have similar visions, I was
at first frightened, and I wept abundantly. But a
single word of this divine Saviour encouraged me
so much that I became, as I had previously been,
devoid of fear, but also very tranquil and much
comforted. It seemed that He walked alongside of
me, without my being able, however, to observe in
Him any corporeal form, because this vision was
interior and not sensible. I knew only very clearly
that He was always at my right side; that He
saw everything I did; and, however imperfectly I
might recollect, or that I may not have been ex-
tremely distracted, I could not ignore that He was
with me."
This kind of consciousness of the real presence of
our Saviour, says the saint, is quite different from
that ideal presence which some persons, few indeed
the number, deeply engaged and highly favoured in
it-have in the mental prayer of union. "But how,'
she observes, "could I be certain it was not an
illusion, or a mere phantasy of imagination only,
when that presence was not visible to the sight or
22
HER VISIONS AND REVELATIONS.
125
cognizable to any of the senses." She answers those
who appeal to such divine communications, that in
the state in which she was, "there is no obscurity;
the soul is assured of what it feels by a knowledge
more luminous than the light of the sun, which
illuminates the understanding, to render the soul
capable of enjoying so great a favour, and which is
followed by so many others."
God, moreover, she observes, on such occasions
speaks to the soul without words or images, and
makes Himself manifest to it: "This language is so
supernatural and so celestial, that one endeavours in
vain to explain it, if God does not give him the
intelligence, by the effects which it produces."
This celestial mode of communication to the soul, it
is above all to be remarked, says the saint, is adopted
when great mysteries or great truths are to be re-
vealed to it.
St. Teresa distinguishes four degrees in mental
prayer:
1. Holy meditation on the Saviour's life, neces-
sitating serenity of mind and seclusion, ardent love,
total acquiescence in the Divine will, self-distrust,
unshaken trust in God.
2. Quiet, in which the powers of the soul are re-
collected but not absorbed in God; captivated by
his goodness, subjected to his will, and gratified even
to tears and sensible delight with the office of giving
thanksgiving for his mercy.
3. Repose of the soul-the prayer of union at-
tended with a peculiar sense of felicity in the con-
126
ST. TERESA,
templation of the Divine love; a state in which the
soul expends itself in admiration and adoration, but
sinks not into inactivity, as the false Mystics and
Quietists pretend; though how the soul acts in this
condition the saint professes not to know.
By this prayer of union is understood a mystical
harmony of the powers of the understanding and the
will in close union with God, in which state the
mind is filled with an ardent love, and the clear
light and infinite brightness of the Divine wisdom,
which mutually act like a fire consuming all earthly
affections.
St. Teresa's experience of this union at first was
in raptures of very short continuance. "But it
always left a wonderful light, which the infinitely
bright sun had poured into her understanding, and
she found her soul as it were quite melted with sweet
and ardent love. Afterwards it was very long if
this suspension of the powers continued half an hour,
nor is it easy during the time for a person to know
how long it lasts. The saint, being at a loss to ex-
press what passes within the soul on such occasions,
says, on one occasion she heard our Lord say to her:
-"She annihilates and loses herself to pass more
perfectly into me. It is no longer she that lives,
but I live in her. And as she comprehends not
what she hears, it is as if hearing she did not
hear."
The supernatural passion prayer is not attained by
any human effort; but certain conditions are indis-
pensable for its existence: chiefly great purity of
HER VISIONS AND REVELATIONS.
127
heart, disengagement of the mind from earthly
things, mortification of the will and the senses, com-
plete self-renunciation, abandonment of all sensual
gratifications and vain amusements, humility, silence,
solitude and seclusion, frequent mental prayer, fer-
vent aspirations after immortality.
Of this "Sweet Commerce," as St. Bernard calls
the sublime consolation of the sense of unity, even
for the shortest period with God, we have the follow-
ing account:
"It pleased God," says the saint, after many years
of spiritual dreariness and aridity, "to give me the
grace of the prayer of quietude and sometimes of
union. This was at the age of twenty."
"My manner of thus praying was to endeavour, as
much as it was in my power, to have always my
Lord Jesus Christ present to my mind: and when I
had made some passage or action of his life the sub-
ject of my consideration, I represented it to myself
in the bottom of my heart."*
Twenty years had elapsed before she attained what
is termed the highest grade of spiritual exaltation,
the sublime degree of passion prayer. Bartholomæus
A. Martyribus observes--"This gift is sooner and
more sublimely conferred on the simplest-minded
creatures, who have no other care than to work out
their salvation in fear and trembling, and to please
God, than on great and learned theologians, unless
they have given themselves up with their whole
* Her Life. written by herself. Tome i. p. 146.
128
ST. TERESA.
hearts to the study of humility."--(Compend. De L.
par 2. c. 3.)*
The supernatural passion prayer comprises the
prayer of quiet or recollection, and that of union.
In the former the soul is shut up within herself; the
faculties receive no impressions from without; the
operation of the senses is suspended. This prayer
of quiet St. Teresa calls Mystical Theology, being
the first degree of supernatural passion prayer.
In
it supernatural and divine things are represented to
the intellect in a clear heavenly light, by which it
sees and comprehends as it were by intuition, with-
out any effort of the reasoning powers. The saint
calls this state of suspended memory and the reason-
ing faculties, and elevation of the soul, supernatural.
She lays down two important rules, with regard to
supernatural influences in contemplative prayer, wor-
thy of attention: "That no one must ever desire
them, nor use any efforts to obtain them." For such
efforts would be vain or illusory; that is to say,
productive of deceitful effects on the imagination.
Secondly, such efforts would be presumptuous;
"and this edifice of prayer," says the saint, being
founded on humility, the nearer a soul approaches
to God the more must this virtue grow in her. If
it be not so the whole fabric will fall to ruins.
* Butler speaks of the supernatural passion prayer as, "infused
so totally by the Holy Spirit, as not to have the least dependence
upon human industry or endeavours, though it requires certain
remote dispositions in the soul."
HER VISIONS AND REVELATIONS.
129
The fourth and highest elevation of all, of the soul
in prayer, is that which (literally translated) the
saint terms, "The prayer of rapture or ecstacy,
or flights, or transports of the soul." Some of the
specific distinctions might be spared, which are
made between the several forms of mental prayer,
which, in reality, are nothing more than differences
in the degree of elevation of the soul above earth,
and earthly things. In this state she says there is
an entire absorption of the soul in the Deity: the
most perfect union of man's spirit with the Deity
which it is capable of undergoing in this life. A
single moment of the happiness of this state, says
the saint, is accompanied with such an interior ex-
altation of delight, as to be a sufficient recompense
for all the pains that a human being can have ever
undergone. The prayer of union differs, according
to the saint, from that of rapture in this particular,―
in the former "the soul is able to resist the Divine
operation; in the other, of rapture or ecstasy, in
which it cannot resist. In either, the body loses all
the use of its voluntary functions, and every part
remains in the same posture, without feeling, hear-
ing or seeing, at least so as to perceive it; though, she
says, on such occasions the soul knows she is in a
rapture, whilst she is, by the most ardent love, ravished
in God. Those raptures continue sometimes for
hours, though not all the time in the same degree.
In them, the soul sees, in a wonderful and clear
manner, the emptiness of earthly things, the great-
*
I.
K
130
ST. TERESA,
•
ness and the goodness of God and the like. Though
before she saw nothing in herself but desires of serv-
ing God, in a rapture she beholds herself covered
with spots, defects, and faults, for the smallest are
clearly visible in a bright beam of the divine light,
darting in upon her. She sees she is all misery
and imperfection, and cries out: 'Who shall be jus-
tified before thee?' As the vessel which seemed
before clear in a crystal glass, appears full of atoms
if it be placed in the beams of the sun, so this Divine
sun, by darting its bright beams upon the soul, sets
before her eyes all imperfections and sins as so many
hideous spots. At this sight she is confounded and
humbled on one hand beyond expression, and on the
other astonished at the greatness and goodness of God,
and transported in an ecstacy of love and adoration."
"St. Teresa mentions, that having suffered two
raptures in the church, which could not escape the
observation of others, she prayed that this might
no more happen to her in public, and from that time
it had not happened when she wrote. But this was
not long after (the occurrence of the raptures.) She
says, she was sometimes raised from the ground in
prayer, though she endeavoured to resist it."*
St. Teresa's raptures, according to her own account
of them, were special graces that are usually con-
comitant with a vehement love of God in the will,
or come with excessive spiritual joy, or seem to
emanate from a beam of heavenly light darting
* Butler's Lives, Ed. 1833, part x. p. 673.
HER VISIONS AND REVELATIONS.
131
upon the understanding. She says the faculties of
the mind are lost during the intimate union of the
soul with God, so that during a short space of time,
while that exalted sense of union lasts, "she neither
saw nor heard, nor perceived anything about her."
"During the rest of the ecstacy, the soul, though
she can do nothing of herself as to the exterior or the
voluntary motions of the body, understands and hears
things as if they were spoken from afar off. When
she returns to herself her powers continue in some
degree absorbed, sometimes for two or three days."
In the state of rapture, says St. Teresa, the
soul takes no account of anything which does not
bring us nearer to God. There is a strong convic-
tion of the worthlessness of every thing in this world
wealth, and all the enjoyments procured by it-
honour, and all the airy nothings of that name that
are built upon a lie.
Among the heavenly visions of the saint was one
in which she beheld her parents in bliss. In other
visions much greater secrets were revealed of the
glorious kingdom than she had the power to give
utterance to. The brightness of the sun was mean
and obscure, in comparison of that celestial light
which no human imagination can paint to itself. All
the senses, steeped in delight, enjoyed an exquisite
sweetness which cannot be explained. She remained
once about an hour in that condition.
In the 13th of the published epistles of the saint*
* Œuvres. Traduits par Andilly, &c. Tom. 2. p. 254.
K 2
132
ST. TERESA,
there is a letter addressed to an eminent Jesuit-
Don Rodrigo Alvarez, one of her directors, wherein
the fullest details are given of her spiritual experi-
ences, the resumé of which is as follows:-
Supernatural influences accompanying prayer, or
the result of it, cannot be acquired by any efforts of
our own; all that can be done by human beings is
to dispose themselves to receive them, and this dis-
position is a great matter in itself.
The first sort of prayer which appeared to her
supernatural, was that of an interior recollection
which made itself felt in the soul, and seems to have
created within it a new sense like the external senses,
and which sought to disengage itself from the
trouble which the latter caused it. Sometimes this
seeming new sense exercised a dominion over the
external senses, and the desire supervened of shutting
the bodily ears and eyes, in order to see and hear
only with the newly acquired spiritual interior sense,
in order to commune with God alone. In this state
one does not lose any of the senses or powers of the
soul. All are preserved, but filled with the idea of
God.
From this state of recollection (rather of abstrac-
tion) arises a sense of quietude or peace, internal, in
which it seems to the soul that nothing is wanting
to it.
Then the soul wearies of speech and representation
of ideas, that is to say, of prayer and meditation.
It is capable of love alone. This state endures
HER VISIONS AND REVELATIONS.
133
sometimes a long time. This kind of prayer of
quietude produces commonly a sleep, which is called
the sleep of the powers of the soul; in which, how-
ever, these powers are not so profoundly steeped,
that they are altogether so absorbed, nor so sus-
pended, as to justify this state of orison being called
that of rapture or perfect union with the Deity.
In this prayer of quietude it happens generally, at
least it seems so, that the will is united to God; and
yet the other two powers of the soul are free and
capable of devotion to things connected with the
service of religion in this world. Martha and Mary,
in a word, walk together. The first time that Saint
Teresa found herself in this state she was so sur-
prised that she inquired of her director if it was not
an illusion, and the good father Francis said it was
not, for he often felt in this state himself.
But in the prayer of union all the powers of the
soul are absorbed in the Deity. They have nothing
to do with the world. The understanding is struck
as it were with astonishment. The will loves more
than the understanding can conceive of love. There
is no thought left, (of earthly things); memory ap-
pears annihilated. The senses seem lost: and all
this, as the saint imagines, that the soul might wholly
and solely enjoy the fruition of that blissful com-
munion with the dear and adored object with whom
it is taken up, that it may lose none of those moments
of rapture which unfortunately last so short a time.
The soul derives great advantages from this blessed
134
ST. TERESA,
state. The virtue of humility is peculiarly strength-
ened by it. To explain its results to others in a
satisfactory manner is almost an impossibility. The
privileges of it are the greatest which God can con-
fer, or at least among the greatest, on human beings
in this life.
The state of rapture and suspension of the powers
of the soul are nearly synonymous, according to the
saint. But there is a difference of degrees of inten-
sity in these phenomena.
The state of rapture lasts longer and is more cog-
nizable to the external senses. It stops respiration.
The person in this state cannot speak nor open the
eyes. The same happens in the state of suspension,
but not with so much force.
When the rapture is intense the natural heat of
the body departs, the hands remain cold as ice, and
sometimes rigid as bars, and the body remains in a
standing or a kneeling posture, according to the pos-
ture it was in when entering into this mental prayer.
The soul is so engaged enjoying the objects that the
Lord presents to its contemplation, that it seems to
forget to animate the body, and even to abandon it
wholly. Also for the short time that this state
endures, the members for a long time feel the effects
of it.
In it the soul has a more perfect knowledge of
that which it enjoys than in the state of union. In
it God ordinarily discovers the greatest mysteries,
which great privilege is productive of marvellous
HER VISIONS AND REVELATIONS.
135
effects in the soul, such as forgetfulness of itself, and
consciousness only of the glory of the potent Master
of the universe.
The sweetness and satisfaction which are experi-
enced in this ecstatic state of prayer, and with all the
humility that is blended with the soul's admiration
of the Deity, are so incomparably better calculated
to inspire felicity than all enjoyments in this lower
world, that if the remembrance of them only remained
in all its strength, and was not effaced, one would
cast under his feet all the advantages of this world.
The saint attempts to explain a distinction between
raptures and ecstacies, which attempt is evidently an
unnecessary and impracticable effort. She distin-
guishes likewise from ecstacy what she terms "the
flight of the soul." In this attempted explanation the
ordinary distinctness of her ideas and clearness of ex-
pression are not perceptible: and apparently aware
of this, she prefaces her account of this difference
with the observation, "that she has a very bad me-
mory." She says, it seems to her that soul and spirit
ought to be the same thing. She finds no other
difference between them, than that which is met
between a fire well lit and its flame. In fire, that
which remains below is distinguished from that which
ascends, though there is but one element present;
the only difference in the particles of it being in the
situation. And so is it with the soul.
When the fire of the Divine love comes to be lit up,
it produces out of itself and darts upward something
136
ST. TERESA,
vivid and subtle, which ascends and goes where God
wishes it to go. This is what the saint calls, The
flight of the soul-which is an irresistible movement,
swift as that of a bird, and so vividly perceived in
this state of ecstatic prayer, as to admit of no other
comparison than that of flame, and the flight of some
winged creature endowed with singular velocity,
escaping for a moment from confinement.
This little bird of the spirit seems to dart like
lightning from the miserable cage of the body, when
an opening has been left for it: and having recovered
its liberty it is then fitter for the service of the Lord
of perfect freedom. This state is something of so
delicate and subtle a nature, that it takes possession
of the soul without leaving the least doubt of being
deceived. It is only on coming out of this condition,
when the soul begins to consider its misery here
below, it finds many causes for apprehension. Still
there remains within itself a certain profound con-
viction of security which sustains it, and to which
it can deliver itself up without prejudice, provided it
guards sedulously against falling into illusions.
The saint next describes a state of suddenly ac-
cruing transport of the soul, a sense of dereliction
of the spirit, occasionally experienced, even without
being preceded by prayer; there being almost always
a sudden conviction of the absence of God from the
soul. Sometimes this agonizing thought comes
without any apparent cause, discourse, or incident to
suggest or to call it forth. Sometimes it comes with
HER VISIONS AND REVELATIONS.
137
such violence, all of a sudden, as to cast the soul into
complete disorder, desolation, and unutterably horrid
gloom. The disconsolate spirit finds no resource in
the understanding. It rests absorbed in its mortal
disquietude. It feels clearly that it would be a de-
sirable release to die. Hence everything offered to
it while in this condition serves only to torment it
more. It seems as if the Lord wished to deprive
it of all comfort, and that it exists only to suffer.
It has difficulty to persuade itself that it is the
will of God, it should live. It finds itself in a
frightful solitude and abandonment, which cannot
be described: all on earth is wearisome to it, and it
can find no companionship in creation. The soul
then aspires only to its Creator, but it conceives the
impossibility of enjoying his divine presence without
death. It languishes with the desire of dying, to
such an extent, as to be really in danger of death.
It seems to itself-suspended as it were between
heaven and earth, without knowing what is to be-
come of it. Yet from time to time God gives it a
consciousness of His perfections: but only to make
it conceive all it loses by separation from Him; and
this knowledge makes such a strange impression on
it that the grief cannot be expressed that is felt in
this extremity. There are no pains on earth, no
physical sufferings equal to those agonies of a de-
solated soul. To give an idea of them, she observes,
though this condition should last only half an hour,
the sufferer would come out of it with the whole
138
ST. TERESA,
frame, to the feelings, bruised and broken, and the
bones as it were dislocated and pained exceedingly,
and with a hand which it would be then impossible
to employ to write.
But these corporal pains cease to be sensible to
the soul when the transport is over. It is then too
much occupied with its internal sufferings. It
would probably, she believes, be absolutely insensible
to the greatest external torinents. It has, never-
theless, the use of all its senses; of the faculty of
speech, of sight; but the person cannot walk. The
spirit is, as it were, crushed to death by the great
blow of the Divine love. It must be, con-
tinues the saint, that this condition comes of God;
for though one might die of the desire to produce
it, the attempt would fail. It leaves wonderful effects
in the soul, and the latter derives great advantages
from it. Theologians speak diversely of it, but none
of them condemn it. Some highly laud the salutary
effects of it. In fine, the soul clearly comprehends
that this state of transport is one of the greatest
favours that can be received from God. But if this
favour was often repeated, life would not last a long
time.
The saint speaks of a minor transport, more com-
mon and less violent, which admitted of consoling
influences and tenderness derived from tears. But
the terrible state of dereliction of the spirit, which
she denominates Transport, terminates, almost al-
ways, she adds, by an ecstacy; God willing, by
HER VISIONS AND REVELATIONS.
139
this favour to console the soul and engage it to live
only for him.
In the preceding account, the language of the
saint is almost literally rendered, some redundancies
of expression alone have been omitted. But the
concluding portion of this epistle is so remarkable,
that it seems to me the translation should be given
word for word from the original.
"In these states (of ecstacy and transport) I see
the three Persons of the very Holy Trinity as dis-
tinctly as I saw you yesterday, my Reverend Father,
you and the Father Provincial: except that I see
and hear nothing (with the organs of the body), as
I have already had the honour of telling you. But
though I see them not, not even with the eyes of
the soul, I have an extraordinary certitude of their
presence, and when this presence begins to fail, my
soul immediately perceives it. To tell you how that
takes place is an impossibility for me; but I know,
beyond a doubt, it is not the work of my imagina-
tion: and it is so little imaginary, that whatever
effort I may make to recall the same representation
I cannot succeed. I have experienced this more
than once. It is the same with respect to all the
accounts I have been able to give you in this letter.
It is now so many years, the same things happen to
me, that I think I am able to attest the reality of
them. It is very true, and remark this I pray you,
my Reverend Father, it is very true, that as to the
person who always speaks to me, I can say affirma-
140
ST. TERESA,
tively whom he appears to me to be: but I cannot
speak with the same certainty of two others: there
is one whom I know, who has never spoken to me:
the reason I know not: I never occupy myself ask-
ing of God more than is accorded to me; I fear too
much that the devil should delude me: and I hope,
having that fear before me, that I will never be more
curious. It seems to me that the first person has
sometimes spoken to me; but as I do not remember
it well, nor what was said to me, I dare not assert
it positively. All that is written, as you know, and
more at length: as for the rest, though these three
persons present themselves to my soul distinctly,
and in a manner so extraordinary, my soul compre-
hends clearly that it is not but one God. I do not
remember that the Eternal Word has spoken to
me, but His humanity truly, and I think I can
affirm that this is no imagination.
"I cannot answer the question you put to me re-
specting the water. And I have not learned more-
over where the terrestrial paradise was situated. I
have already said, that I hear only what the Lord
is pleased to make me understand, because I cannot
do otherwise, and it does not depend on me not to
hear him but to ask him an explanation of such or
such a thing, I have never done it, nor dare I do it.
I would have too much fear, I repeat it, to be the
dupe of my imagination, and that the devil might
deceive me. Never, thanks be to God, have I had
curiosity. I have no desire to have more know-
HER VISIONS ARD REVELATIONS.
141
ledge than I possess: what I have learned without
wishing for it, has cost me too dear, though I have
reason to believe it is the means by which God has
been pleased to save me, seeing me so wicked, for
the good souls have not need of all these super-
natural succours to practise virtue.
"I must not forget a sort of prayer which pre-
cedes the first form (of quietude) of which I have
spoken to you, and which consists in the presence
This is not a vision. But it is a state
of God.
in which any person may be in who recommends
himself to God sincerely at the beginning of his
prayer, when that prayer might be even merely
vocal, unless the soul should be in a state of ab-
solute dryness. May God shew mercy to me, and be
pleased not to permit that I lose by my fault the
fruit of so many graces that he has poured on me.
"I am, with great respect, my Reverend Father,
obedient servant,
your unworthy and
(Signed)
very
"THERESE DE JESUS."
It is a very curious circumstance, that a person
eminently pious, as St. Teresa undoubtedly was,
whose life should have been devoted to works
of piety for nearly a quarter of a century, as her
life had been, should yet be considered, by certain
spiritual persons, likewise eminent for their piety-
"deluded by the devil," after a careful investigation
of all the circumstances connected with her visions,
and her own statements to those persons.
We read in Butler's biographical notice of the
142
ST. TERESA,
saint: "The first person to whom she opened herself
(on the subject of her own fears as to the nature of
the supernatural influences of her visions) was a
gentleman of Avila, named Francis of Salsedo, a
married man, who for 30 years had practised mental
prayer with great assiduity, and with his virtuous
lady, who concurred with him in his great charities
and other exercises of piety, was an example of
virtue to the whole country. This gentleman intro-
duced to her Dr. Daza, a learned and virtuous
priest; and after an examination of what she de-
clared of herself, both judged her to be deluded by
the devil, saying such divine favours were not
consistent with a life so full of imperfections as she
expressed hers to be."
This opinion appears to have alarmed the saint,
and in her alarm she had recourse to one of the
first fathers of the Society of Jesus, to whom she
laid open her mind; and by this director she was
assured all those phenomena which had been sup-
posed illusions created by the devil were in reality
"divine graces." By the counsel of her new director
her spiritual exercises were augmented, and her
physical condition was more acted on by mortifica-
tions of various kinds. "By the advice of this
confessor, St. Teresa made every day a meditation
on some part of our Lord's passion, and set herself
heartily to practise some kinds of penance, which
were very incompatible with her weak health, for
on pretence of her great infirmities she had
HER VISIONS AND REVELATIONS.
143
thought little of any other mortifications than such
as were general.'
""*
Another confessor told her that her prayer was
an illusion of the devil, and commanded her, when she
saw a vision, to make the sign of the cross and to
insult the vision as that of a fiend. And in simplicity
we are told she obeyed the order of her director ;
though "it was a terrible thing to her," she said, in
these visions to use exterior actions of scorn, "when
she saw the vision of our Lord, as she had seen it
on several occasions." On one occasion, when she
had made these signs of scorn, our Lord commended
her for her obedience to the orders given her; but as
to the prohibition of the use of mental prayer, "our
Lord appeared angry at it, and bade her tell them
it was tyranny."
The Lord gave her a sign also by which she was
to know it was not the devil. He took the small
cross attached to her beads, and when he gave it
back to her, "it appeared to be of four great
stones, incomparably more precious than diamonds.
They had the five wounds of our Lord engraved on
them after a most curious manner.
He told me,"
says the saint, "I should always see this cross so,
from that time forward, and so I did: for I no
longer saw the matter of which the cross was made,
but only these precious stones."
After this vision, she says, "there grew in me so
impetuous a love of God, that I found myself even
* Butler's Lives, No. iv. p. 647.
144
ST. TERESA,
dying through a desire to see Him (my true life),
nor did I know where or how to find this life but
by death."*
But all the visions of the saint were not of
Heaven and its inhabitants. She tells us-" Besides
interior troubles and temptations, she sometimes met
with exterior afflictions, and frequently saw devils
in hideous figures; but she drove them away by the
cross or holy water, and when the place was
sprinkled with holy water they never returned.
One day, while she was in prayer, she had a vision
of hell, in which she seemed in spirit to be lodged
in a place she had deserved (to be in), that into which
the vanities and dangerous amusements of her life
would have led her, had she not been reclaimed by the
divine mercy. Nothing can be added to the energy
with which she described the pain she felt from
an interior fire there, and an unspeakable despair; the
thick darkness without the least glimpse of light, in
which, she says, she knew not how one sees all that
can afflict the sight, from torturing discontent and
anguish, the dismal thought of eternity, and the
agony of the soul by which she is her own execu-
tioner, and tears herself as it were in pieces;
of which torment it is too little to say that it
seems a butchering and a rending of herself (the
soul.)"t
The following are the precise terms in which hell
is described by the saint:
*Her own Life, cap. 28.
+ Butler's Lives.
HER VISIONS AND REVELATIONS.
145
"The entrance to this place seemed to me like
that of those small streets, long and narrow, which
are shut up at the end, or like an oven, very low,
very dark, and very confined. The floor appeared
to me of bubbling fetid water, filthy, and of an
impoisoned odour, and full of a great number of
venomous reptiles. At the extremity of this little
street was a cavity made in the wall, in the shape of
a niche, where I found one was placed in much con-
straint; all this is only a bad sketch, and this aspect,
all frightful as it was, had a charm in it, compared
with the state of my internal feelings. This tor-
ment was so terrible, that all that can be said of it
cannot represent the smallest part of it; I felt my
soul burn in a terrible fire that I can scarcely de-
scribe as it was, since I can with difficulty conceive
it, even though, according to the accounts of doctors,
I have suffered the most excruciating pains that can
be suffered in this life: add to all this, a certain
agony of soul, a compression of the heart, an over-
whelming sensation, a weariness of being, a despair
so appalling that I would undertake in vain to
express it. It is not that the soul is torn by an
external violence, it is of itself that the tearing of
it comes, it seizes and drags itself to pieces. How
can I express this internal fire, and this sort of spiri-
tual rage of which the impression was made on me,
I know not by whom, though I felt myself in utter
consternation, and hacked into a thousand pieces."
There are passages in this account which seem to
I.
L
146
ST. TERESA,
indicate great vividity of imagination, and suscepti-
bility of impressions from passing influences, causing
the shadows even, of subjects of an absorbing in-
terest, the dim outlines of things projected from
surrounding objects of terror to fix on the mind,
and take the shape and air of realities.
It is stated by her in her own life, she sometimes
saw the mystery of the Trinity in so clear and
wonderful a manner as to amaze her; sometimes the
Lord in his Divine Person, sometimes in his human-
ity, and "often heard him say to her, with demon-
strations of great love, Thou shalt now be mine
and I am thine." She sometimes had apparitions of
St. Joseph and the blessed Virgin, and other saints;
"and once," she says, "she saw an angel near her,
towards her left hand, rather little than big, but
very beautiful, his face was so inflamed that he
seemed to be one of those highest angels, called
Seraphims, who seem to be all on fire with divine
love. The angel held a long golden dart, with some
fire at the point, with which he transfixed her heart
several times, which inflamed her spirit with the
love of God, but which caused also a great pain in
her soul, which also affected her body; but this
extremity of pain was accompanied with excessive
delight, and whilst it continued she went up and
down like one transported, not caring to see or
speak, but only to burn and be consumed with that
pain, which was a greater happiness to her than any
that can be found in created things." Yet the
HER VISIONS AND REVELATIONS.
147
seraphim, she says, in withdrawing the dart removed
the viscera.
"Et me percant jusqu'au fond des entrailles il
me semblait qu'en le reserant il me les arrachait et
les enlevait avec lui et il me laissait tout embrasseè
d'amour pour dieu."*
She saw a great number of souls in heaven that
had been in purgatory. "But among all the souls,"
she adds, "which I have seen, I have not known any
one to have escaped purgatory, except three, St.
Peter of Alcantara, a religious of the order of St.
Dominick, and a Carmelite friar."
Many pious persons, we are told, in the life-time
of the saint, believed that she was labouring under
mental hallucinations, which were ascribed to Satanic
agency. It would seem as if religious writers were
disposed to look on these things as inseparable.
"Six religious men," says Butler, " of note, who had
been the friends of St. Teresa, after a conference on
this subject, decided that she seemed deluded by the
devil, and prevailed on F. Balthazar to go with them
to her, and to order her not to communicate so fre-
quently (which was her greatest comfort and support),
not to live so strictly retired, and not to prolong her
meditations beyond the time prescribed by the rule
of the house. Her very friends resisted and shunned
her, as one who had communication with the devil,
and some stuck not to call her a devil."†
* Euvres de Ste. Theresa, tom. i. p. 25.
Butler's Lives, vol. iv. p. 676.
1 2
148
ST. TERESA,
Others, it would appear, with equal injustice,
looked on her as more of a sorceress than a saint,
because in some of her writings she expresses some
belief in magic.
St. Teresa says of magic: "I am not persuaded
of the truth of all that I saw of magic; but I will
repeat that which I have seen, in order that men
may preserve themselves from those detestable crea-
tures, who having cast off the fear of God and the
modesty of their sex, (which should make them hold
no such thoughts,) are capable of committing every
sort of crime to satisfy the passions with which the
fiends inspire them."
She then relates how it came to her knowledge,
that a young ecclesiastic had been placed in the
power of such a person by wearing about his neck
a talisman in the form of a small medal, which she
had given him, and on this medal being given up to
the saint at her instance, and thrown into the
river, the demoniac power which had been exercised
over him ceased all at once.
If the whole tenor of the life and conduct of this
remarkable woman were not in entire accordance with
the practical duties of religion, we might be led to
question the claim of some of the accounts, that have
been given of her spiritual experience, to attention.
But in judging those portions of it which seem
strange, and inconsistent with the solemn interest of
the remaining part of it, without derogating in the
slightest degree from her eminent sanctity, it may
HER VISIONS AND REVELATIONS.
149
be borne in mind that her bodily health underwent
great variations, sudden changes, and accesses of
frightful sufferings, that affected for the time being
all her faculties bodily and mental. In such periods of
affliction, we have to take into account not only the
variable atmosphere of the mind, as it is predisposed
by peculiarity of temperament to be affected by
external influences, but as it is acted on by internal
agencies, with augmented vehemence, when physical
strength is suddenly impaired or overpowered.
Those whose nervous system is most delicately
organised, and their moral and intellectual faculties
are so constituted as to manifest, most clearly, a de-
pendence on that organization; in whom the ele-
ments of life and intellect, and all the ennobling
sentiments are most stirring, active, and energetic,
these are the persons whose thoughts, feelings and
aspirations are most actively engaged, and most fre-
quently disappointed; who are most sensitive to all
"the skyey influences," the most impressible, the
soonest hurt by noxious emanations from earth or air;
having the strongest sympathies between mind and
body, and being less mindful than their fellow-men
of the necessity of maintaining an equilibrium and a
league between powers equally adjusted. If we knew
more of the temperament and physical organisation
of mystics and visionaries (individuals having, not
feigning visions), we would be in a better condition
to form a just opinion of their revelations. "Who
does not know," says Bichat, "that the individual
150
ST. TERESA,
of the sanguine temperament, whose expansion of
lung is great, whose circulatory system is large
and strong, who does not know that such a man is
possessed of a disposition to anger and violence? that
when the bilious system prevails, the passions of
envy and hatred are more particularly developed;
that when the lymphatic system is pronounced, the
inactivity and dulness of the individual are pro-
nounced also."
"In general, that which characterises any parti-
cular temperament, consists in a correspondent mo-
dification of the passions on the one hand, and of
the organic viscera on the other."*
If worldly men might presume to judge of mat-
ters of the kind which M. Villefore treats of, perhaps
it might seem to them, that the constant application
of the mind to contemplative pursuits, and the practice
of austerities of the most rigorous description, were
very inconsistent with the impaired health and shat-
tered frame of this saintly woman, and were calcu-
lated to increase those tendencies to exaltation of
religious sentiments which were already in need of
some controul. From this period, however, St. Teresa
continued under the direction of the most learned
and eminently pious of the Order of Jesus, and her
whole mind seems to have been given up to spiritual
exercises, and to have been acted on by visions and
supernatural agencies.
* Bichat, Physiological Researches on Life and Death.
Trans. by Gold.
HER VISIONS AND REVELATIONS.
151
of
One of the last mundane gratifications she clung
to was the pleasure she derived from the conversa-
tion of certain friends of hers, who were persons
learning, wit, and ingenuity. The Jesuit director,
father Balthazar Alvarez du Paz, " a very spiritual
man," told her this was "contrary to her perfect
sanctification." Her answer was, "that she had
hoped her motive in it had always been for the best,
and that it seemed a kind of ingratitude in her,
entirely to deny herself to certain friends." Accord-
ingly, she renounced this gratification, and "she was
favoured with a rapture, in which she heard these
words, spoken in the most interior part of her soul:
"I will not have thee hold conversation with men,
but with angels.""
But words very like these, words at all events of
similar import, were spoken by the Jesuit father to
her only a short time previously: and that was the
first occasion, moreover, in which she was thus
directly addressed supernaturally in distinct and
specific terms.
From this period, similar raptures and distinct
communications, made when in a state somewhat
resembling a waking dream, were of frequent occur-
rence.
She tells us of the extraordinary consolations and
transports of exaltation experienced on such occa-
sions; but she also gives us to understand that these
short glimpses of the glories of the spiritual world
were followed by long seasons of dejection, of dry-
152
ST. TERESA,
ness of spirit, desolation of soul, sore trials and grie-
vous temptations. She says of herself, (under the
name of a third person) "I know one, who for these
forty years (since God had vouchsafed to honour her
with special favours) hath not passed one day with-
out anguish and various kinds of sufferings, besides
sickness and great fatigues."*
It is observed by Villefore, that what renders
operations purely spiritual, so difficult of belief for
certain persons, is, that they only judge of the action
of the spirit by its relations with the senses.
"But
the sentiments of the soul are not attached to the
organs of the body in certain things, but by divine
appointment, and not at all by necessary relations
of the organs with those sentiments-nothing is
more opposed than the nature of one and the other.
Far from the agency of the senses being necessary
to the soul to act, the more they have to do with its
operation the more they weaken and degrade it:
for all action of the senses puts the soul in servitude
and dependence, and takes away from it some por-
tion of its nobility and vivacity. Les assujettisse-
mens du corps reserrent ses connaissances et bornent
l'etendue de ses lumieres ; et des qu'elle agit indepen-
dament et que ses idées et ses perceptions sont im-
mediates, elle a toute un autre force et ce serait
bien mal connaitre l'essence de l'ame que de regarder
comme des chimeres ses operations les plus vives et
les plus réelles." St. Augustine said, that what
*Her own Life, ch. 24. Œuvres, Pref. Tome i. p. 13.
6
HER VISIONS AND REVELATIONS.
153
we see by our intelligence, has more of being and
of truth than that which we discover by our sight.
A great prelate of France said: "The greatest
part of men know God only as something marvel-
lous, obscure, and far removed from humanity, which
restrained our inclinations, menaced us with great
evils, and against which it was necessary to take
precaution. When such men are told to seek God
in their own souls, it is to propose to them to go in
search of the Divinity into the most unknown lands,
for what is more unknown to them than their own
hearts, and that impenetrable sanctuary of the soul
where God wishes that he should be adored in spirit
and in truth! How is it they shall understand
heavenly truths, since terrestrial truths, says our
Lord, cannot make themselves felt in their minds.
Every thing terrestrial disappears as a shadow from
the eyes of one who has seen God in the depth of
his own soul. It is then God for him who does
everything, who gives all, who rules all; but the
world sees Him not, and he who has never seen Him
has seen nothing, and his life is past in the illusions
of a dream."
"We must not believe," says de Villefore, "that
there are only agencies of pure intelligence which
can give us perceptions and ideas independent of
the senses. I say that even sensible objects, which
can be present to the spirit, without the ministration
of the external organs, do not render its operations
less real. It is an error to suppose that every thing.
154
ST. TERESA,
which imprints itself in the spirit by the intervention
of the imagination is chimerical. Imagination,
properly speaking, is the reservoir of images which
objects have imprinted or can imprint in the soul by
the senses. But it adds often much, it spiritualizes
them, it perfects them, and even so to speak per-
petuates them for without further employment of
the ministration of the external senses, the soul can
represent them ad infinitum, though it received only
one impression of them by the senses. The imagi-
nation, at the same time, is a modification of the
soul, and can be the occasional cause of good or
evil. Cause occasionelle ou de bien ou de mal.'
God employs it to be so as He wills it, and in that
manner He employs the external senses to give the
soul the impression of objects. He is the master of
its operations, to draw from it images or ideas, so as
to call forth from memory recollections. If these
recollections are only conformable to the truth, and
represent to the soul some maxim of Scripture, I
do not see why one should call the impressions pro-
duced, chimeras or phantoms without reality. It is
the exterior or sensible appearances of the opera-
tion which realizes it. The imagination is not in
itself either good or bad; but though it judges of
nothing and desires nothing, it may be to the under-
standing an occasion of good or evil judgment; to
the will an occasion of good or bad desire, whether
it be that truth or error puts it in movement, or
cupidity or charity causes it to act."*
* Euvres sa Vie de S. Therese. Tom. 1. pref. 14.
HER VISIONS AND REVELATIONS.
155
Independently of the Divine light, which this
holy woman is said to have drawn down on her
actions by the spirit of prayer, she was endowed
with great natural talents, liveliness of imagination,
and a keen zest for wit and humour. Her prudence
and penetration were admirable. Her deportment
graceful and dignified; and in her looks, we are told,
were written, in the early part of her life, in unmis-
takable characters the amiable sweetness of her
temper, the meekness of her nature, the affectionate
tenderness of her heart, which gained the love and
esteem of all who communicated with her. Many
of her sayings are faithful reflections of the beau-
tiful aspects of her religious sentiments:
"Of the succours of this world in time of trouble,"
she says, "I perceive clearly they are all no better
than twigs of dried rosemary, and that there is no
leaning upon them, for upon the least weight of
contradiction pressing on them they are presently
broken. I have learned this by experience, that the
true remedy against falling under evils, is to lean on
the cross, and to trust to Him who was fastened to it."
When she was informed of some slanders that had
been propagated against her, more scandalous than
the ordinary run of calumnies that had been her
portion, she said of her revilers, "If they knew me
thoroughly, they would say much worse of me."
When she was asked, on her death bed, if she would
be buried in her own convent at Avila, she said,
"Have I any thing mine in this world ?"
156
ST. TERESA,
When she was establishing her convent at Toledo,
she met much opposition and many difficulties, on
account of the smallness of the means at her dis-
posal, only a few ducats; but she said of them,
"Teresa and this money are, indeed, nothing. But
God, Teresa, and these ducats, suffice for the accom-
plishment of the undertaking."
At Seville, when she was informed she had been
cruelly calumniated, and was asked how she could
hold her peace, she, smiling at the remark, said:
"No music is more agreeable to my ears. They
have much reason for what they say." There was
an intense love of God and anxiety for the salvation
of her fellow creatures in all her thoughts and
actions, that breathed out their emotions in almost
continuous prayer. In those frequent supplications,
"she conjured Almighty God, for the sake of his
divine Son, present on our altars, to stem the torrent
of vice on earth, and to preserve the world from
those horrible profanations in which his mercy is so
grievously insulted."
66
St. Teresa, on returning from Burgos to Avila,
was seized with her last illness at Alba; and at the
time of her journey, it appears,
was very ill of her
usual distemper, of a palsy, and frequent violent
vomitings." For thirteen days she continued to
give many wholesome instructions to her nuns, with
greater energy and tenderness than usual. On the
3rd of October, in the evening, she sprung up in her
bed, though very weak, and exclaimed, "O my
HER VISIONS AND REVELATIONS.
157
Lord, and my spouse, the desired hour is now come.
It is now time for me to depart hence. Thy will be
done. The hour is at last come, wherein I shall
pass out of this exile, and my soul shall enjoy in
thy company what it hath so earnestly longed for."
"At nine o'clock the same evening she desired and
received extreme unction. F. Antony asked her
if she would not be buried in her own convent at
Avila? To which she answered, as before related,
adding, Will they not afford me here, a little
earth?' She recited often certain verses of the Mise-
rere psalm, especially those words: A contrite and
humble heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.' This
she repeated till her speech failed her. After this
she remained fourteen hours, as it were, in a trance,
holding a crucifix fast in her hand; and calmly
expired at nine o'clock in the evening, on the 4th of
October, 1582."*
6
6
"The ardour of her desires for the Saviour," says
Bossuet," augmented with age, and the flame of that
love of hers for the Lord Jesus Christ, so vivid and
stirring in its nature, could no longer be repressed,
and kept smouldering, in the ashes of this mortal
flesh. This divine malady of love, taking every day
new strength, could no longer admit of life being
supported."
Numerous miracles, duly attested, are stated, in
the life of the saint, to have taken place at her
tomb, and at the moment of her death. One of
* Butler's Lives of the Saints, vol. x. p. 690.
158
ST. TERESA,
the accounts of the latter, in the reports of which
several of the nuns who were around the bedside of
the saint concurred, was to the effect, that at the
moment of the saint's departure, a globe of fire was
seen to ascend.
Her body was honourably interred at the expense
of the Duke of Alba, at Alba. At the expira-
tion of nine months, the tomb was opened by a
principal friar of her Order, and the body was
found perfect in all its parts, flexible, and undis-
coloured. The same feelings of mistaken piety,
bordering on fanaticism, which led to the opening of
the grave, occasioned the mutilation of the remains.
The Provincial cut off the left hand of the saint, to
carry to Avila. The nuns of Alba were greatly
afflicted, but that did not prevent the Provincial from
effecting his object. The body, placed in a new
shroud, was then recommitted to the tomb. Two
years later, the body was furtively carried away,
in conformity with a decree of a Provincial Chapter
of her Order, and removed to Avila in 1585. It was
on that occasion of the disinterment of the body, the
very questionable practice of mutilating the remains
of a person of reputed sanctity was adopted. The
practice has been attended with singular reproduc-
tions of members, and extraordinary confusion in
the property of heads of eminent persons in Spain and
Portugal.* In three years more, however, the Duke
of Alba, a very formidable personage, resented the
* Vide Appendix.
HER VISIONS AND REVELATIONS.
159
translation of the saint's remains, obtained an order
from Rome for their restoration; and in 1586, the
body, being still found uncorrupted, and the joints
flexible, was conveyed back to Alba, less however
by the left hand, which was retained by the nuns
of her Order, in Avila. At Alba, in the church of
the monastery of St. Joseph, the body continued
undecayed, when the pious and good Teresa was
canonized in 1621, and, nearly two centuries later,
became the tenant of a magnificent tomb.
Crashaw, while yet a member of the Church of
England, consecrated some of his finest verses to
the sanctity of "The Spanish Saint," and in praise
of her ardent love for her divine Saviour.
The same admirable poet, when he had become a
member of the Church of Rome, invoked the saintly
being, whose life and departure out of it, had proved
to him, while yet a Protestant, "How much less
strong is death than love." In the following beau-
tiful lines, the strains of praise have given place to
those of prayer:
"O thou undaunted daughter of desires!
By all thy dow'r of lights and fires.
By all of God we have in thee,
Leave nothing of myself in me.
Let me so read thy life that I
Unto all life of mine may die."
I am greatly mistaken, if numbers of that reli-
gion which Crashaw first professed, of the spiritually
minded the ardent Christ-loving of all creeds,
160
HER VISIONS AND REVELATIONS.
when they make themselves acquainted with the
writings I have glanced at, in this necessarily brief
and imperfect notice, will not feel towards "The
undaunted daughter of desires," as Crashaw felt,
and to read her life as he did read it.
CHAPTER VII.
THE INQUISITION IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES.
[IN SPAIN.]
THE task assigned to Commissaries of Christian
princes of inquiring into opinions hostile to the pre-
vailing faith of the rulers and the ruled of a State,
appears to have been first heard of in the days of
Maximus, who contended with Theodosius for the
empire.
Maximus was the first Christian prince who put
heretics to death, namely, the Priscillians and their
followers, at the instigation of two episcopal zealots
named Ithacius and Idalius.
The Inquisitors of "heretical pravity," and the
savagery of their proceedings found no favour, how-
ever, in the sight of some of the greatest prelates
and doctors of the Roman Catholic religion. The
Emperor Theodosius in 382, promulgated a law
against the Manicheans, directing them to be
punished to the last extremity, their goods to be
confiscated, and charging the Prefects with the
pointment of inquisitorial agents and informers, to
discover and denounce those who should conceal
themselves.
ap-
Godefroy, the celebrated writer on the jurispru-
dence of those times, says, this law was the origin of
I.
M
162
THE INQUISITION.
systematic legalized inquisition and espionage in
matters of heresy.
Sanguinary proceedings against heretics had no
countenance or support from the Fathers of the early
Christian Church. At the instigation of Ithacius,
Maximus would have sent his inquisitorial tribunes
into Spain, "to inquire into heresy, to search after
heretics, and take away their lives and goods, had it
not been for St. Martin of Tours."*
"Pope St. Leo the Great," says Fredet, "who lived
at a time when the Church was attacked by very
dangerous heretics, speaking of the Manicheans, the
worst of all, declared that 'ecclesiastical unity was
content, even in this case, with the sacerdotal judg-
ment, and avoided all sanguinary punishments.'
"A remarkable fact had recently proved the truth
of his assertion. It was against a branch of these
sectarians, the Priscillians, that the secular arm
first exerted its severity, at Triers, under the emperor
Maximus, about the year 385. This event served
to shew how adverse the Catholic Church, was to the
bloody spirit of persecution: Pope St. Siricius, and
the most holy prelates of the West, blamed the rigour
that had been exercised against the Priscillians, and
the two bishops Ithacius and Idalius, who had ob-
tained their condemnation in a civil court, were
themselves condemned for that very reason in the
Councils of Milan (A.D. 390) and of Turin (401.)"
"Another Christian emperor, Honorius, having
*The Quest. of Witchcraft, Deb. p. 32.
IN SPAIN.
163
in 410 passed very severe edicts to repress the horrid
excesses and cruelties of the Donatists in Africa,
St. Augustin, and other orthodox prelates, exerted
all their influence to mitigate in favour of these
wretched people the severity of the law, and to
procure their conversion by instructions and confer-
ences, rather than let their bodies perish by capital
punishment. We learn from Possidius, the disciple
and friend of St. Augustin, in the life of this holy
doctor (v. 14), that they had the satisfaction to suc-
ceed in their charitable undertaking."
66 When Ethelbert, King of Kent, was converted
to the true religion by the apostle of England, St.
Austin, he had a great desire that all his subjects
should, like him, embrace Christianity; but the
Venerable Bede relates, he did not compel any one
to do so, because he had learned from the Roman
missionaries that the service of Christ ought to be
voluntary. Pope St. Gregory the Great, by whom
these holy missionaries were sent to England, writing
to the Bishop of Terracina, who had used some
violence against the Jews, said: 'It is by mild-
ness and exhortations, not by threats and terror,
that the infidels must be induced to become Chris-
tians;' and, again, to a patriarch of Constantinople :
6 This is, indeed, a very strange way of preaching,
which enforces the true faith by ill treatment!'
Such were the principles and the constant doctrine
of that holy pontiff.
"St. Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, and the
M 2
164
THE INQUISITION.
brightest ornament of his age, having learned that
a fanatical preacher exhorted the people to murder
the Jews as enemies of Christianity, rose against
him with all the force of eloquence, and rescued
these devoted victims from the danger which threat-
ened them. Pope Clement VI., in a similar out-
break of fanaticism, hastened to forbid, even under
penalty of excommunication, any violence to be
offered to them, either in their persons or in their
property.
"When, likewise, Emmanuel, King of Portugal,
ordered some violent measures to be resorted to,
apparently for the good of religion, the celebrated
Jesuit and historian, Mariana, observed, that the
edict was most repugnant to the laws and statutes
of the Christian Church, decretum a legibus et insti-
tutis Christianis abhorrens maximè.
"It was from these sacred statutes and laws,
still more from his own benevolent heart, that Fe-
nelon drew the following beautiful maxims and
counsels, which he addresses to the son of King
James II., called the Pretender: Above all, never
force your subjects to change their religion.
human power can reach the impracticableness of the
free will of the heart.'
6
No
“Violence can never persuade men, it only serves
to make hypocrites.
Grant civil liberty
to all, not in approving every thing as good, nor
regarding every thing as indifferent, but in tolera-
ting with patience, whatever Almighty God tole-
IN SPAIN.
165
rates, and endeavouring to correct men by mild
persuasion."*
The word Inquisition, suggests ideas fraught with
terror, intolerance, and persecution. The abuses of
the institution have gained for the designation of it,
this obloquy. In the strict signification of the term,
it means an inquiry. Johnson, in his Dictionary,
explains the word as signifying, "a judicial in-
quiry." And in this sense it is a part of the civil
code of every well regulated society. An inquiry
into offences against the established creed and wor-
ship, and public morals of every Christian country,
is sanctioned by the laws and usages which prevail
in it. In most European countries, there is a tri-
bunal for the adjudication of such charges. There
is no objection to the judicial inquiry; but to the mode
of carrying it on, to its executive principle, to its
details, when these are bad, there are great and
undeniable objections.
Among the crimes cognisable to the Inquisition on
the Continent, were magic, divination, sorcery, blas-
phemy, heresy, polygamy, and other enormous
crimes against morality; disturbing of congregations,
insulting ministers of religion, committing sacrilege
in churches, &c. In England we have had abun-
dance of laws, and no lack of judicial inquiries, to
deal with similar offences.
In the capricious reign of Henry the Eighth,
* Life of Fenelon, by Ramsay, p. 176; also Cardinal Bossuet,
vol. 3. p. 208. See Fredet's Modern History, 10th Ed. p. 517.
166
THE INQUISITION.
this "husband without fidelity and lover without.
delicacy," commissioners were appointed to inquire
into heresies, and irregular practices. This Inquisi-
tion was in its power, and the mode of executing
its authority not materially different from that
established in Catholic countries, yet it will not be
presumed that it had the sanction of papal autho-
rity, for the "defender of the faith" shewed no
inclination to submit his will to the Pope, or to seek
his Holiness's ratification of any regulation he might
think proper to propose.
proper to propose. It is not too much to
suppose that had Henry remained in full communion
with the Church of Rome, this inquiry into heresies
would be dignified not only with the name of Inqui-
sition to which it was fairly entitled, but it would
also be designated as popish.
This thing called heresy seems to have no definite
or general meaning; the lexicographers explain it,
as an opinion contrary to the fundamental or or-
thodox points of religion. It seems to be derived
from the French word heresie, or from the Latin
word heresis, and this latter from hærere to stick or
adhere, and thus far may very conveniently be ap-
plied to different purposes. In Spain it is a denial
of transubstantiation; in England, an avowal of
it. Henry the Eighth called every man a heretic,
who believed more or less than his celebrated six
articles; his successor Edward the Sixth threw aside
these six articles, and substituted some thirty or forty
other articles, to disbelieve, doubt, or dispute which
IN SPAIN.
167
constituted heresy in his reign. Until men will agree
what constitutes orthodoxy in religion, they will
never agree as to the proper definition of heresy.
Henry the Eighth, who used to send the Catholic
and Protestant tied together to the place of execu-
tion, caused nineteen Dutchmen and six women to
be arrested on a charge of heresy, they were ex-
amined as to their belief in his six articles, fourteen
of them were burned. This was a British auto de
fé. One Lambert, a schoolmaster of London, ac-
tuated by imprudent zeal, opposed Henry, aided by
several of his bishops, in a solemn debate to which
he was invited or rather challenged. The question
was on the real presence, and Henry being declared
victorious, the unfortunate Lambert was ordered to
retract his opinion; he refused, was led off to
Smithfield, and there burned.
To discover and punish offences against Henry's
six articles, was the duty assigned to his inquisi-
torial commissioners; punishments were awarded
according to a fixed scale; the denial of the real
presence in the sacrament, subjected the person to
death by burning, and to the same forfeiture as in
cases of abjuration. The denial of any of the five
articles, even though recanted, was punishable by
forfeiture of goods and chattels, and imprisonment
during the King's pleasure; an obstinate adherence
to error, or a relapse, was adjudged to be felony,
with death. The marriage of priests was subject to
the same punishments. Abstaining from confession
168
THE INQUISITION.
and from receiving the eucharist at the accustomed
seasons, subjected the person to fine and imprison-
ment during the king's pleasure, and if the criminal
persevered after correction, he was punished with
death and forfeiture, as in cases of felony.
In 1583, the Queen, determined to suppress the
Puritanical ministers and their conventicles, ap-
pointed Whitgift to carry her views into execution.
This zealous churchman informed the Queen, that
all spiritual authority of the prelates was of no
effect without the sanction of the Crown; and as
there was no ecclesiastical commission at that time
in force, he engaged her to issue a new one, more
arbitrary than any of the former, and conveying
more unlimited authority. She appointed forty-four
commissioners, twelve of whom were ecclesiastics;
three commissioners made a quorum; the jurisdic-
tion of the Court extended over the whole kingdom,
and over all orders of men; and every circumstance
of its authority, and all its methods of proceeding,
were contrary to the clearest principles of law and
natural equity. The commissioners were empowered
to visit and reform all errors, heresies, schisms, in a
word, to regulate all opinions, as well as to punish
all breach of uniformity in the exercise of public
worship. They were directed to make inquiry, not
only by the legal methods of juries and witnesses,
but by all other ways and means which they could
devise, that is, by the rack, by torture, by inquisition,
by imprisonment. Where they found reason to sus-
IN SPAIN.
169
pect any person, they might administer to him an
oath, called ex officio, by which he was bound to
answer all questions, and might thereby be obliged
to accuse himself, or his most intimate friend. The
fines which they levied were discretionary, and often
occasioned the total ruin of the offender, the im-
prisonment, to which they condemned any delin-
quent, was limited by no rule but their own pleasure.
They assumed a power of imposing on the clergy
such new articles of subscription, and consequently
of faith, as they thought proper. Though all other
spiritual Courts were subject, since the Reformation,
to inhibitions from the supreme Courts of law, the
ecclesiastical commissions were exempted from that
legal jurisdiction, and were liable to no control.
And the more to enlarge their authority, they were
empowered to punish all incests, adulteries, fornica-
tions, all outrages, misbehaviours, and disorders in
marriage: and the punishments they might inflict,
were according to their wisdom, conscience and
discretion.
It was in a great degree to intimidate the
Puritan preachers, that Queen Elizabeth, seeing the
inefficacy of all other means, caused to be erected
this unconstitutional tribunal, called "the High
Commission for Ecclesiastical Affairs," the proceed-
ings of which were so offensive, that even her
steadiest adherents did not fail to inveigh against it,
while the Protestant writers unreservedly bestowed
on it the title of INQUISITION, describing it as
170
THE INQUISITION.
66 worse than Spanish." The extreme pliancy of
the Parliament to the dictates and wishes of the
"overruler of the Church," as she called herself, left
no hope of peace to the Puritans.
Hume gives the following account of the High
Court of Commission:-"Any word or writing.
which tended towards heresy, schism, or sedition,
was punishable by the High Commissioners, or any
three of them; they alone were judges of what ex-
pressions had that tendency: they proceeded not by
information, but upon rumour, suspicion, or accord-
ing to their own fancy. They administered an
oath, by which the party cited before them, was
bound to answer any question which should be pro-
pounded to him: whoever refused this oath, though
under pretext that he might be thereby brought to
accuse himself, or his dearest friend, was punishable
by imprisonment. In short, an inquisitorial tri-
bunal, with all its terrors and iniquities, was erected
in the kingdom. Full discretionary powers were
bestowed, with regard to the inquiry, trial, sentence,
and penalty inflicted; except only, that corporal
punishments were restrained by the patent of the
Prince which erected that Court, not by the act of
Parliament which empowered him." Milner says,
"the Dissenters filled the kingdom with complaints
of the oppression which they suffered from this
Court during the reigns of Elizabeth and the two
Stuarts, representing it as much more intolerable
than the Inquisition itself." Maclaine, in his notes
IN SPAIN.
171
on Mosheim, shews that, "the High Commission
Court was empowered to make inquiry, not only by
legal means, but also by rack, torture, inquisition,
and imprisonment; that the fines and imprisonment
to which it condemned persons, were limited by no
rule, but by its own pleasure."
In the reign of Elizabeth, the avowal of transub-
stantiation, or the denial of her supremacy, brought
the savagery of the policy and the executive prin-
ciples of this Court, its tortures, incarcerations,
condemnations, and their final results, on the
scaffold and the gibbet, into full effect.
Dr. Milner, in his letters to a Prebendary, says,
"it appears by an account of one of the sufferers,
that the following tortures were in use against the
Catholics in the Tower.
"1. The common rack, in which the limbs were
stretched by levers.*
66
6
"2. The scavenger's daughter,' so called, being
a hoop in which the body was bent, until the head
and feet met.
"3. The chamber called Little ease,' being a
hole so small, that a person could neither stand, sit,
or lie straight in it.
"4. The iron gauntlets.
"In some instances, needles were thrust under
the prisoner's nails."
* The priest Campian underwent it several times, until nearly
all his bones were dislocated, insomuch that he was unable to
raise either hand, and was publicly executed.
172
THE INQUISITION.
"After this, it may be expected that the justly in-
dignant cry against the Inquisition in Catholic coun-
tries, may be extended to all inquisitions, wherever
the country, whatever the religion of the inquisitors.
The British torture may stand a comparison with
the Lisbon tribunal torments, admitting as truth the
most exaggerated descriptions of them. Coustos
stretched upon the rack, in the dismal dungeon of a
Portuguese prison, could not surely envy the hap-
piness of the wretch whose limbs were stretched on
the rack in the Tower of London. His dislocated
shoulders, while the backs of his hands were forced
together behind his back, could not create more pain
or more danger than must be felt by the heretic, the
back of whose head and feet met while he lay bent
on the torturing hoop. The worst of the dungeons
of Goa (and these are represented as most wretched)
permitted the prisoner to stretch his limbs; that
would have been a luxury to the inhabitant of the
'Little ease.""*
During the long reign of Elizabeth hundreds of
persons perished in prisons; vast numbers were tor-
tured; it is calculated that about 1200 suffered con-
fiscation, incarceration, exile, torture, or death on
account of their religious opinions, and of ministers
of religion, that no less than 142 were put to death,
hanged, quartered, and disembowelled, and their
bodies disposed of " at the Queen's pleasure."† Owen
* The Inquisition Examined.
† Vide Madden's History of the Penal Laws. Lon. 1847.
pp. 113, 114.
IN SPAIN.
173
Hopton, a Lieutenant of the Tower of London,
caused one of his prisoners, a young lady of respect-
able family, to be severely scourged, because he could
not prevail on her to attend the public service of a
Church which she deemed heretical. The Governor
of York Castle acted, if not with more justice, cer-
tainly with less cruelty, he dragged by force his
numerous prisoners, and compelled them to be pre-
sent during the service in a church, to the doctrines
of which they were religiously opposed.
A few words on the constitution of this anomalous
tribunal-The Inquisition. I have endeavoured to
make myself well acquainted with its origin, its pro-
gress, and its procedure. This, however, is not the
place to enter into any lengthened details on the
subject; either of the intentions of its founders, or the
abuses of its administration. Any Roman Catholic,
tolerably well acquainted with the obligations imposed
on his belief, and firmly persuaded of the binding
nature of them, will feel no hesitation in stating his
conviction, that however good may have been the
intentions of the founder of this institution, and of
those ecclesiastical persons who were connected with
it; however efficient it may have seemed to be, in
putting down heterodox opinions on religious mat-
ters in particular countries for some time, or in
keeping out such heterodox opinions, and all the
strife of sectarian bitterness and contention, from
other countries, for a longer period-though not
preserving, in the meantime, the discipline of the or-
174
THE INQUISITION.
thodox Church and the lives of its ministers from the
contaminating influences of connection with the State
and its sordid interests and corrupting patronage
the tribunal of the Inquisition has been a great
public calamity wherever it has been established,
with one exception only, namely, that of Rome itself,
and has been exceedingly prejudicial to the true and
lasting interests of religion itself.
A very able writer of the Roman Catholic reli-
gion, who has written on the Inquisition, though
not in an ultra-montane spirit, has the following ob-
servations on this subject.
"The first error respecting the Inquisition, is the
supposition that it was instituted for the simple pro-
tection of religion. I know not how far that might
have been the pretext, but I am satisfied it was not
the real motive. If the Roman Catholic was the
religion of Christ, and so the Pope, the Clergy, and
all the Christian world, at one time held it to be, no
human agency could overthrow it, it had a promise
which could not fail to be fulfilled, it had a security
for its permanence which no artifice could abridge,
it had an all-powerful arm to defend it, and could
not require a bloody Inquisition for its support.
This tribunal must have been erected by a state
policy only, and that for civil purposes. We must,
as I already proposed, exclude all belief in the in-
fallibility of any man, as an article of faith, other-
wise we will proceed blindfolded, and may lose our
way. We must see in the Pope, a temporal prince
IN SPAIN.
175
at the head of an earthly kingdom, and also an eccle-
siastic at the head of the Catholic Church; and in
both situations, a man endowed very probably with
more than common talents, and favoured very possi-
bly, with more than a common share of grace, but
yet a man who must feel in some degree the applica-
bility to him of the expression "nil humanum a me
alienum puto," he had, doubtless, a share of those
passions incidental to humanity; he had his fears,
his cares, his anxieties; he may, for all I know, have
been ambitious, vindictive, tyrannical; I have not
studied his character, and pretend not to any know-
ledge of it. If the opposers of his religion can
derive any advantage from attributing to him a full
portion of the worst qualities of men filling high
stations, I shall leave it to others to defend him; to
my purpose it is not very material, for although he
should be in fact what his enemies may represent
him, yet my case can lose nothing by it. What
his private character was may be matter of curiosity
or of individual concern; his situation as a personage
in high public station, is matter of public concern,
and may be collected from the history of the times.
"The period in which Innocent the Third (the re-
puted founder of the Inquisition) reigned, was ante-
rior to the reformation of Luther. Christendom was
nearly all Catholic, the Pope exercised, or attempted
to exercise great authority, the princes of Europe,
although his spiritual children, and in this point, his
inferiors, were very jealous of the authority he pre-
176
THE INQUISITION.
sumed to exercise, they were restiff, and often either
menacing or rebellious. To these were added a host
of minor enemies, the schismatics and reformers of
that day; men who, by their superior address, had
obtained an influence not always to be despised for
its insignificance, and sometimes dangerous on
account of its increasing authority. Sound policy
would have dictated to the Pope to defend his person
and his territories, by placing an efficient barrier
between himself and his enemies. This would have
been the duty and the conduct of any other prince,
and why not of Innocent the Third? whether the
Inquisition was the proper, the only, or the best de-
fence he could have recourse to, whether it was, in
his situation, justifiable, whether any danger or exi-
gency could authorize it, or whether he, because
head of the Catholic Church, was therefore precluded
from the institution of a tribunal, the like of which
might in an after age be instituted by the head of
another Church, are questions I am not competent
to decide, and which cannot, in any case, affect the
issue of the present inquiry. If it be made to appear
a state measure, not dictated nor required by reli-
gion, the object with which I took up my pen will
be attained. To effect this, it is only necessary to
prove, that being opposed to religion, it could not
be called for, or sanctioned by it. It was not, at any
rate, a mere measure of caprice. Danger menaced:
defence was the law of policy and of nature."*
* The Inquisition Examined. New York, 1825, p. 109.
IN SPAIN.
177
"The Inquisition in Rome was not instituted for
the protection of the Pope as head of the Church,
but by the civil government for his protection as
first magistrate of the civil territory over which he
reigns. The Church would not be overthrown by
the murder more than it would be by the natural
death of Innocent the Third, it is not even certain
that it would be injured thereby; nor is it quite cer-
tain that it might not be benefited."
A recent Catholic historian, referring to the accu-
sations against the Roman Catholic religion, on ac-
count of the sanguinary character of the Spanish
Inquisition, and the sweeping condemnation of the
institution itself, ab initio, observes :
"In answer to these charges, we will remark, in
the first place, that the Inquisition forms no part of
the Catholic creed, and of the obligatory discipline
of the Church. We find, it is true, that it was esta-
blished in some Catholic States as a political means
to maintain the unity of religion within their limits,
and remove from them the disturbances occasioned
by newly invented systems; but this was commonly
done, either at the request, or by the authority of
the sovereigns themselves, e. g. of king Ferdinand
in Spain (A.D. 1480), of John III. in Portugal
(A.D. 1557). This Inquisition, therefore, besides
being a local and temporary institution, was rather
civil than ecclesiastical in its origin. Its chief mem-
bers, particularly in Spain, were indeed selected
from the ecclesiastical order, but they always re-
I.
N
178
THE INQUISITION.
mained under the authority of the king, without
whose previous consent their decrees could be neither
executed, nor even published.
27
The celebrated Roman Catholic divine, Dr. Arthur
O'Leary, a man of the most liberal, enlightened, and
charitable opinions, put forth his sentiments on the
subject of the Inquisition, boldly and ably, though
not in a manner calculated to conciliate the favour
of the Court of Rome and its Princes; nevertheless,
subsequently to the publication of those observations
of his, the Pope signified his high confidence in the
integrity and virtue of the Rev. Arthur O'Leary,
by an appropriate act of his approval-Mr. O'Leary
was, by a papal bull, elevated to the dignity of a
bishop.
"The Pope (says this Rev. divine) was in posses-
sion of a city which formerly gave birth to so many
heroes, besides a good territory bestowed on him by
several sovereigns. He thought it high time to look
about him, when all Europe was in one general
blaze. The liberty of the gospel preached by Muncer
and several other enthusiasts, threw all Germany
into a flame, and armed boors against their sove-
reigns. As he was a temporal prince, he dreaded
for his sovereignty, as well as other crowned heads
in his neighbourhood; and the more so, as his sol-
diers were better skilled in saying their beads, than
handling the musket.
"Great events, the downfall of empires, and the
*Fredet's Modern History, 10th Ed. in 12mo. 1853, p. 506.
IN SPAIN.
179
rise or destruction of extraordinary characters, are
commonly foretold in oracles, both sacred and pro-
fane; and he found himself in the same dubious and
critical situation with Montezeuma, when the Spa-
niards landed in America.
"Old prophecies foretel our fall at hand,
When bearded men in floating castles land."
"Long before the Reformation, the dimensions of
his city were taken; the line was extended over its
walls; and it was discovered that it was 'the great
city built on seven hills, the harlot which had made
the kings of the earth drunk with her cup; and that
her sovereign was antichrist, the man of sin,' men-
tioned by St. Paul, in his epistle to the Thessa-
lonians. Wickliff, Huss, and Jerome of Prague,
had laid down a rule, many years before, that
'Popes, princes, and bishops, in the state of mortal
sin, have no power:' and a state of grace was,
doubtless, incompatible with the character of Anti-
christ. Jerome of Prague, who was burned after-
wards at Constance, to shew that Rome was the
harlot of the Revelations, after beating a monk, and
drowning another, dressed one day, a prostitute in
a Pope's attire, with the three-crowned cap, made
of paper, on her head, and in her head-dress, with-
out being so careful of the rest of her body, led the
female pontiff, half-naked, in a procession through
the streets of Prague, in derision of a religion pro-
fessed by the magistrates.
"Some well-bred divines there are, who justify
N 2
180
THE INQUISITION.
such proceedings, on the principle that it was requi-
site, at that time, 'to cry aloud, and use a strong
wedge to break the knotty block of Popery.' I do
not believe there is a well-bred Protestant living,
who would applaud either martyr or divine who
would exhibit such a merry spectacle in the streets
of Dublin or London; or who would shed a tear for
his loss, if, after exhibiting such a show, in Rome
or Paris, he fell into the hands of the Inquisition,
or were sent to the gallies. The gospel truth is no
enemy to decency.
"St. Paul, in pleading his cause before Festus,
did not inveigh against his vestal virgins, the adul-
teries of their gods, or the wickedness of his empe-
rors. Let a religion of state be ever so false, the
magistrate who professes it, will feel himself insulted,
when it is attacked in a gross, injurious manner :
and, if apologies can be made for indecencies and
seditious doctrines, under pretence of overthrowing
idolatry, some allowance must be made for men who
think themselves insulted by such attacks.
"The Pope, then, as a sovereign prince, had every
thing to dread, when the thrones of the German
princes began to totter from the shocks of inspira-
tion: but what still increased his alarms, was, the
unfolding of the Revelations, which held him up to
all Europe, as the Antichrist, the general enemy of
Christians, who should be destroyed. Lest any one
should miss his aim, it was proved from the Reve-
lations, that he was the beast with ten horns; and,
IN SPAIN.
181
in bearing down such a game, the world was to be
renewed, and the peaceful reign of the millennium,
during which Christ was to reign with the saints on
earth, was to begin. The time wss approaching.
Old John Fox, the martyrologist, says, that after
long study and prayers, God had cast suddenly into
his mind, by divine inspiration, that the forty-two
months must be referred to the church's persecu-
tions, from the time of John the Baptist. This
calculation was to bring on the Pope's destruction
about the year sixteen hundred. Brightman was
more precise, and foretold the final downfall of the
Pope, in the year fifteen hundred and forty-six :
others in fifteen hundred and fifty-six and others
in fifteen hundred and fifty-nine. Luther came
closer to the famous era; and published his pro-
phecy, in which it was revealed to him, that the
Pope and the Turk would be destroyed in two years
after the date of his oracle. This, certainly, was a
close attack on the Pope, who, in all appearance,
did not like to die so soon, even of a natural death.
He apprehended the accomplishment of the oracles
the more, as at that time, almost every one was
inspired, and ready to do any thing for the destruc-
tion of Antichrist.
"Alexander Ross, in his view of religion, de-
scribes numbers of those prophets, and amongst the
rest one Hermannus Sutor, a cobbler of Optzant,
who professed himself a true prophet, and the
Messiah Son of God; a very dangerous neighbour
182
THE INQUISITION.
6
6
for Antichrist! This man, to receive the prophetic
inspiration, stretched himself naked in bed; and,
after ordering a hogshead of strong beer to be
brought close to him, began to drink in the source
of inspiration, and to receive the spirit by infusion;
when on a sudden, he,' to use the words of Alex-
ander Ross, with a Stentor's voice and a horrid
howling, among other things, often repeated this:
'Kill, cut throats, without any quarter, kill all those
monks, all those Popes. Repent, repent; for your
deliverance is at hand.' However extraordinary such
a character would appear now, yet at that time, in-
spiration was so frequent, that one would imagine all
Germany was a nation of prophets; and Herman-
nus, who was afterwards put to death by Charles
Lord of Guelderland, had credit enough to make
proselytes.
"The Pope, thus aimed at, as an object of de-
struction, from all quarters--and seeing, almost in
every nation of Europe, a nursery of prophets fore-
telling his ruin, and animating the candidates for
sanctity to undertake the pious task, began to
tremble, not only for his territories, but, moreover,
for his personal safety. He knew that the imagi-
nations of his Italian subjects were naturally warm;
and that, if but one of them caught the prophetic
flame, the stiletto would soon be darted into Anti-
christ. He found imperial laws already enacted,
and as he was a temporal prince, whose person was
more exposed than any highwayman in Europe, he
IN SPAIN.
183
copied those laws into his directory; and erected
the Inquisition as a barrier between himself and the
formidable foes, who not only foretold his downfall,
but encouraged their followers to fulfil the pre-
diction.
"The impartial reader, in tracing this formidable
tribunal, will discover a political establishment, and
a temporal safeguard. None can infer from its insti-
tution, that it is lawful by the principles of religion,
to deprive a man of his life, precisely on account of
his worship and every one must acknowledge,
that, if ever a prince, whose life and territories were
in danger, was authorized to take the severest pre-
cautions to secure both, no mortal could plead for
greater indulgence in having recourse to rigorous
measures, than one who united in his person the
dignity of a prince, which at that time was both an
object of envy and detestation to people who con-
sidered sovereignty as subversive of Christian reli-
gion-and the character of a sovereign pontiff, which
made him pass for an outlaw, and the great enemy
of Christ, in whose destruction the world was so
deeply concerned. Let any person put himself in
his case, and judge for himself."
The reader is now, pretty fully in possession
of the motive with which Innocent III. resorted
to the Inquisition, as well as the nature of the
provocation which impelled him to that measure.
But there are other considerations, besides the
motives of Pope Innocent III. or the policy of
184
THE INQUISITION.
that
personage in the capacity of a temporal prince,
which are not touched on in any of the preceding
observations.
The law of limited liability in commercial affairs,
is only of recent origin.
The doctrine of separate moral responsibility in the
case of two powers, exercised by the same individual,
is not of so ancient a date as to derive any Christian
prescription from its antiquity.
Fox, the apologist for the Quakers, held this
opinion, and elucidated it in his peculiar manner, in
a controversy with a prelate of the Established
Church. The bishop defended the state and pomp
with which he was surrounded, on the ground that
he used those things, not as a prelate of Christ's
Church, but as a Peer of Parliament. But Fox
inquired, when the Peer of Parliament was arraigned
at the great Tribunal above, and condemned by it
for luxurious living, what was to become of the
Christian Bishop.
The alliance of Church and State has produced
many evils in the world, but very few of greater
magnitude than the Inquisition. The alliance of
Church and State is not necessary to the proper
administration, or the subsistence of either in its
proper sphere. The alliance of Church and State
may be made a convenience of the latter, but can
never fail to be a detriment, a desecration, and
eventually an enslavement of the former.
In England the alliance produced the High Court
IN SPAIN.
185
of Commission, in Spain the Inquisition, in Ireland
the Penal Code; in America it is something to be
able to say, the people who are white are beholden to
exemption from this baneful alliance, for civil and
religious liberty.
St. Dominick, a native of Old Castille, was
born in 1170, and died in 1221, in Bologna, in
his 52nd year. In 1205, then a member of the
Augustinian Order of Regular Canons, he accom-
panied the Bishop of Osmo to Languedoc and
the adjacent countries, where his zeal led him to
labour among the Albigenses. Their heretical opi-
nions were those of the Waldenses, so called from
Peter Waldo, a rich merchant of Lyons, who, about
1160, had suddenly abandoned the world, giving all
his goods to the poor, and proposed to himself and
his followers to imitate the lives of the Apostles.
Waldo and his disciples took the name of "The Poor
Men of Lyons." They fell into several extrava-
gances and errors, and were excommunicated by
Pope Lucius III.
At Orleans, and other cities in France, in 1022,
certain heretics, who seemed to profess Manichean
doctrines, were said to be discovered. A council was
assembled at Orleans, and the said doctrines and
the denounced holders of them were condemned by it,
and excommunicated. The secular arm was strength-
ened by the presence and encouragement of the
King; in this instance the condemned were com-
mitted to the flames. Among them was a priest
186
THE INQUISITION.
named Etienne, who had been confessor of the Queen
Constance.*
The Albigenses, in common with the Waldenses,
had mingled many of the remains of the Manichee
doctrines, which had been introduced from the East
into France and Italy, so early as the 9th century.
They were prevalent in Bulgaria in the 8th century.
They were known on the continent under different
names in the 12th and 13th century,-Petrobru-
sians, Cathari, The Perfect, Bons-hommes, Pauvres-
hommes de Lyon, &c.
"The Albigenses," Butler states, "took their
name from the province called, since the 5th cen-
tury, Albigensis, and the people Albigenses." About
Beziers and Castres "they were composed," he says,
"of all the former sects, and differed in opinion
among themselves."
In 1181, the Cardinal Henri, bishop of Albe,
was sent into France by Pope Alexander III. in
quality of Legate, to urge measures of military
repression against the Albigenses heretics. This
prelate, at the head of a considerable army, seized
on the castle of Lavaur, and forced Roger de Beziers,
and other seigneurs, to abjure their heresy. Alex-
ander III. filled the pontifical chair from 1159 to
1181.
We see, in the convocation of the Council of
Verona, for the condemnation of the same heresies,
three years later, how little the military apostle,
*Llorente, t. i. p. 20.
IN SPAIN.
187
Cardinal Henri, and the army who accompanied
him, had effected in putting down those errors.
Fleury dates the origin of the tribunal of the
Inquisition from the decree of the Council of Verona
in 1184, in the pontificate of Pope Lucius III., in
which it is ordained, that the bishops in Lombardy
should make diligent search to detect heretics, and
deliver up those that are obstinate to the civil power
to be corporally punished.
Mauriquez and Bailly state, that the legate, Peter
of Castelnau, was the first Inquisitor, in 1204, during
the pontificate of Innocent III. While Malvena
asserts that St. Dominick was the first Inquisitor,
having been appointed in 1215 by Innocent III.
But the judicial tribunal of the Inquisition, pro-
perly so called, took the sole jurisdiction out of the
hands of the bishops, and allowed them, but that
nominally, only to act in conjunction with the In-
quisitors; and the tribunal therefore, so constituted,
is of a later date than either the decree of Verona,
the appointment of Castlenau, or the commission of
St. Dominick.
On the arrival at Montpelier of the Bishop of
Osmo and St. Dominick, at the close of 1205, they
met some Cistercian abbots, who had been commis-
sioned by Pope Innocent III., to oppose the reign-
ing heretics who had over-run all the countries
adjacent to their own in numerous bands, pillag-
ing the inhabitants, plundering and profaning the
churches, and putting the priests to death. It was
188
THE INQUISITION.
amongst this people that St. Dominick determined
to devote himself to the duties of a missionary. A
great many conversions during two years crowned his
apostolic labours. The Cistercian abbots returned to
their monasteries, the Bishop of Osmo to his diocese.
In 1207, St. Dominick received a commission
from the Pope Innocent III., to prosecute the mis-
sion for the conversion of the Albigenses.
In 1208, the murder of the Pope's legate, Cas-
telnau, by a servant of the Count of Toulouse, set
all France and Italy in a flame.
"The murder of the legate Castelnau," says
Llorente, "the subsequent crusade, undertaken at
the instance of the Pope, Innocent III., against
the heretic Albigenses, and their protector, Ray-
mond, Count Toulouse, were coincident with the
initiative steps of the tribunal of the Inquisition in
1208."*
"The legate Arnaud, successor of Castelnau, at
this juncture," says Llorente, "charged twelve
monks of his order, St. Dominick, and probably some
other priests, to preach the crusade against the here-
tics; to accord indulgences to those who would
take part in this war; to note those who refused to
engage in them; to inform themselves what was
their religious belief; and to put the obstinate at
the disposition of Simon Count Montford, who
commanded the crusaders."
An army was dispatched to extirpate the authors
* Llorente, t. i. p. 41.
+ Ibid. t. i. p. 42.
IN SPAIN.
189
of those violences. St. Dominick had no share in
these transactions; his only weapons were those of
prayer and preaching. He predicted, however, a
victory at Muret to the Count of Montford, over
his heretical enemies in 1213; and the result of
that predicted victory was the death of the King of
Arragon, and 16,000 of the Albigenses on the field
of battle. The continuators of Bollandus charge
St. Dominick, as Inquisitor, with having delivered
over the Albigenses prisoners to the secular judges
to be put to death; and this charge is denied by
Echard, Touron, and Butler. During the battle of
Muret, Butler states, St. Dominick was not in the
field, "but in the church, within the fortress of
Muret, at his prayers."
He proceeded to Rome in 1215, to assist at the
fourth general Council of Lateran, where the errors
of the Albigenses were condemned. The following
year, 1216, Pope Innocent III. died, having filled
the pontifical chair from 1198, a period of eighteen
years. His successor was Honorius III., by whom
St. Dominick's new order of Friars Preachers was
confirmed in December, 1216.
The third canon of the fourth Council of Lateran
(held in 1215) embodied the views of the reigning
pontiff, Innocent III., in relation to the heretics of
Languedoc, as to the conduct of all proceedings
against them on the part of the bishops, and the
committal of the execution of their sentences to the
secular authorities.
190
THE INQUISITION.
In the early part of the 13th century the Em-
peror, Frederick II., of Germany, when at Padua,
made those decrees whereby heretics were declared
punishable with death.
This memorable and atrocious act of Frederick
was the precursor of many sanguinary and equally,
nay, far more atrocious penal laws for the punish-
ment of persons daring to believe in God, and in
religious matters, according to the dictates of their
conscience, in England, France, Germany, Italy,
Spain, Portugal, &c.
During the life of Frederick II. a commission
had been given by the Pope, to inquire into heretical
pravity in certain provinces of France, adjacent to
the dominions of Frederick.
Up to the time of Innocent III. crusades were
preached up against "Mahommedan infidels." The
first example of a crusade against "infidels" who
had been Christians, ordained and recommended by
a Pope, was that which Innocent III. fulminated
in his bull against the Vaudois and Albigenses
in 1215. Innocent gave the first example of this
kind of crusade against people professing to be
Christians, and it was imitated by Innocent IV.
Pope Honorius III. began his pontificate in
He sent the Cardinal Bertrand as legate
into Languedoc in 1217. "The principal object of
his mission," says Llorente, "was to cause the war
to be carried on with renewed vigour against the
Albigenses."
1216.
IN SPAIN.
191
At the coronation of Frederick II., in 1221, the
Pope, Honorius, succeeded in getting this prince to
give the force of civil law to a constitution which the
Pope had decreed against the heretics.
In 1224, Frederick II., at Padua, published that
law of terrible rigour which has been so often re-
ferred to.*
In 1227, Honorius III. died, without having
been able to give a stable form and constitution to
the judicial regime of the new tribunal of the Inqui-
sition. That object was effected by his successor,
Gregory IX.
The Albigenses had been warred against in the
field for twenty years with terrible inhumanity,
which, Butler admits, cannot, and ought not, to be
excused. Yet the work of extermination remained
to be done in the salles and the prisons of the Inqui-
sition, newly organized by Gregory IX.
In 1231, Pope Gregory IX. fulminated a bull of
excommunication against all heretics in general,
and the Albigenses, and some others, in particular;
ordaining procedures, and prescribing penalties, of
a severity heretofore unexampled in the annals of
the church.
This was the true beginning of the new Inquisi-
tion. The Dominicans, as apostolic inquisitors, were
specially charged with the execution of the bull of
1231. New and extensive privileges were accorded
to it by Pope Innocent IV. in 1246, 1248, 1254;
* Llorente, t. i. p. 52.
192
THE INQUISITION.
Urban IV. in 1265, and Sixtus IV. in 1484, added
considerably to its powers and privileges.
Towards the latter end of the reign of the Emperor
Frederick, Innocent IV. (who filled the pontifical
chair from 1243 to 1254) gave the first sanction to
regular proceedings in the case of suspected or accused
heretics. But though the tribunal was called "The
Inquisition," the institution (as it existed in Spain)
generally known by that name is of a much later date.
On the death of Frederick, during the disorders of
Germany, consequent on a vacancy in the empire,
(which endured for many years,) the Pontiff, In-
nocent IV., introduced the new tribunal into three
provinces, where it had been previously unknown,
Lombardia, Romanalia, and the Marchia Trevisina.
By several bulls of Innocent IV., addressed to
the magistrates of those countries, the observance
of the laws of Frederick against heretics is enjoined ;
the charges of the tribunal of the Inquisition are
directed to be provided for and defrayed out of the
goods of the persons condemned.
Dr. O'Leary, in his observations on the introduc-
tion of the Inquisition into Spain and Portugal,
makes the following observations :-"In these two
kingdoms the Inquisition owes its origin to causes
much similar to those which gave it rise at Rome;
but causes, however, which did not so immediately
affect the sovereign, who was blended with the
common mass of monarchs, without any peculiar
distinction to expose him to the hatred of mankind ;
IN SPAIN.
193
or to afford his assassin a plea of impunity, by alleg-
ing that he was the deliverer of the world, by ridding
it of the enemy of the Son of God, described in the
prophecies of Daniel, pointed out in the Revelations,
and whose downfall was foretold at such a time by
the most celebrated interpreters of Scripture.
"The Spaniards, struggling for a long time with
Mahomet's followers who had invaded their country,
and reduced them not only to the most abject slavery,
but moreover forced them to supply the fire of their
lusts with continual fuel, by sending an annual tri-
bute of Christian virgins to their seraglios, made at
last that great effort so memorable in history.
"It is well known that before the defeat of the
Moors, and their total expulsion from the Spanish
dominions, they were preparing underhand for war,
and had their leaders already chosen. Banished
for ever from a kingdom where they had trampled
on the laws which all Christians, and even heathen
fathers deemed most sacred, a barrier to their re-
turn was erected; and as, by their own laws, every
Christian who has had a connexion with a Maho-
metan woman, is to pass through the fire, the tables
were turned on themselves, and the expectants of an
earthly paradise were threatened with the faggot, if
they returned to initiate the children of Christians
into their mysteries."
In a Spanish work of much research, entitled,
"Discurso sobre el origen progressos y utilidad
del Santo Officio de Espana," printed in Valladolid
I.
O
194
THE INQUISITION.
in 1802, it is stated that the Inquisition was called
into being by Pope Innocent III., in the be-
ginning of the 13th century, when the abbot,
Arnaldo Pedro, of Castronuevo, and Randolf, a
monk of the Cistercian abbey of Fuenfria, in Nar-
bonne, were sent with full authority with a commis-
sion, dated 29th May, 1204, to the province of Tou-
louse, against the Albigenses. The bishops and
magistrates opposed the execution of the commis-
sion, and, amongst others, the Bishop of Beziers,
having refused at the instance of the commission to
excommunicate the civil magistrates of a district, by
the permission of the Pontiff, was deposed by the
commissioners, "which act only rendered the com-
mission more odious, and no good effect was pro-
duced by it." In this state of things, Diego Azevedo,
bishop of Osma, then at Rome, who had been
ambassador in France of the Spanish King Alfonso
XI., undertook, in conjunction with the saintly
Domingo of Guzman, a mission to Toulouse, to
preach the Gospel to the benighted Albigenses. They
laboured together two years; then the bishop re-
turned to his diocese, and left the zealous Domingo
the sole charge of the mission. About 1215 he
associated several secular priests with him, and in
Toulouse, in the church of Jan Roman, laid the
foundation of his Order, which was confirmed.
The first chapter of the work begins with the
following passage:-"Our most holy patriarch,
Dominick, first author of the Holy Inquisition, by
IN SPAIN.
195
Innocent III. and Honorius III., created Apostolic
Inquisitor"-Inquisitor Apostolicus, inquisitorum
parens, exempla et norma. The office of Inqui-
sitor is that of a judge, deputed from the Apostolic
See in causes appertaining to the glory of God, in
faith and ecclesiastical advancement.
Formerly inquisitors were chosen by St. Dominick
from his order; but now, in all Italy, they are
appointed from cardinals, &c. In 1227, Gregory IX.
sent into the same province Cardinal Diacono, called
Santo Angel, who celebrated the famous Council of
Toulouse, with the assistance of the prelates, barons,
and military chiefs, when the decrees were drawn up,
in which was prescribed the way to inquire into and
punish all heresies, reserving this faculty to the
bishops as the natural defenders of the faith. But
the same Pontiff, judging that the prelates did not
proceed against the heretics with the requisite vigour,
committed the charge wholly to the Dominican
friars in 1231. The latter executed the order with
such zeal, that they and their bishop were expelled
from Toulouse by the people and the Count of that
name. Subsequently they were reinstated in their
offices by the Archbishop of Vienne, by the aposto-
lical authority, and acted conjointly with a Fran-
ciscan friar up to 1234.
In 1244 various decrees against the heretics were
expedited by the Emperor Francis II., and impe-
rial constitutions, in which the jurisdiction of the
Inquisition was privately secured to the Dominicans
02
196
THE INQUISITION.
and Minors. This was the tribunal set up in
Toulouse.
In 1542, it was established in Rome by Paul III.
There its chief members consisted of a congrega-
tion of six cardinals.
In Paris it wase stablished in 1258, " and lasted,"
as we are told," while the piety of the kings of that
country endured."
The first arms opposed by Domingo and his fol-
lowers against the Albigenses, were those of preach-
ing and prayer. "Those Inquisitors, going through
all the province of Toulouse, opposed the heretics
with preaching and exhortations, moving the magis-
trates against them, and animating the people with
graces and indulgences; so that, under the guidance
of those "cruce signatos," they should arm their
populations and pursue them (the heretics), in which
they had much success, of which history informs us;
but up to that time there was no formal establishment
of a tribunal."*
In Spain there were several commissions from
Rome of an inquisitorial nature, from 1267 to 1471,
to inquire into different heresies which had sprung
up
in that country; but it was only in 1474, in the
reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, when religion was
in a state of unparalleled disorder, occasioned by the
wars and the existence of the Moors and Jews in
the country, that the proceedings of Inquisitors
assumed a formal appearance, and that a tribunal,
* Discorso, sobre el Origen, &c., p. 21.
IN SPAIN.
197
coadjutorial with the jurisdiction of the bishops, was
created. In 1479, the bull of Pope Sixtus IV.
was published, appointing Dominican inquisitors,
and ordering Seville to be the seat of their juris-
diction.*
In 1524, an inscription was put up in the Inqui-
sition at Seville, setting forth the happy results of
its operation; shewing that from the date of the
expulsion of the Jews in 1492, about one thousand
persons had been burned, and twenty thousand con-
demned to penitential punishments. The jurisdiction
of the holy office extended to all cases of heresy,
against heretics, apostates, schismatics, and blas-
phemers; the believers in heretics, their defenders, and
abettors; the defamers of religion; persons know-
ingly burying heretics in sacred places; notaries and
lawyers patronizing heretics; impeders of the officers
of the holy tribunal; readers and retainers of prohi-
bited books; unqualified persons personating priests
also, in some cases, against infidel delinquents in
Catholic faith "procedunt etiam in aliquis casibus
contra infideles in Catholicam fidem delinquentes.
""
Inquisitors must be above forty years of age,
unless by the express permission of the Pope;
* Llorente states, that the bull for the establishment of the tri-
bunal of the Inquisition in Spain was conceded in 1478, but not
being entirely to the satisfaction of the sovereign, Isabella, the ex-
ecution of it was suspended. It was not till 1481 the tribunal was
regularly established, and the Apostolic Inquisitors installed in their
office in the Dominican convent of Seville, under the pontificate
of Pope Sixtus IV.--Llorente, tom. i. p. 149.
198
THE INQUISITION.
when, at the age of thirty they may be appointed, as
they are in Portugal. They must be at once theo-
logians and skilful jurists.
In Spain and Portugal, from the Inquisitors
General the councillors or deputies are chosen.
Ministers of the Inquisition, being delinquents in
their office, can be punished by those by whom they
are appointed, with caution, however, they ought to
be punished-" Cauté tamen punienda sint."
The office of Inquisitor-General in Spain and Por-
tugal is perpetual; he is elected by the King and
confirmed by the Pontiff. When bishops and inqui-
sitors proceed under delegated authority, they are
equal in proceeding; but in cases of ordinary autho-
rity on the part of the bishops, and of delegates on
the part of the inquisitors, then that of the latter
is superior to that of the former. The jurisdiction
of the inquisitors, moreover, in cases of inquiries on
grounds of suspicion, deprives prelates of the obe-
dience of their subjects.* No prelate can impede
a process of the Inquisition. The Inquisitor-General,
moreover, can call before his tribunal all causes
touching the faith from the bishops. A prelate
without an inquisitor, or an inquisitor without a pre-
late, can cite, arrest, detain in safe custody, and
inquire, but cannot incarcerate for punishment, tor-
ment, and condemn. Proceedings in a contrary
sense are null and void, and confession under tor-
ture without prejudice to the accused.
* Llorente, tom. i. p. 24.
IN SPAIN.
199
The holy tribunal of Piedmont and Savoy was
one of the seven "insignes inquisitiones de la fè.”
"In Flanders, also, the holy Inquisition was
known, as may be inferred from the annals of the
country, in which we read of Robert the Domini-
can, having burned many heretics."*
In Holland it existed also; it was by a Dutch inqui-
sitor that the heretic Herman Riswick was captured.
In Germany notices of it are found in the Chro-
nicon of Trithemius, of Conrade of Masburgh, a
Dominican, who exercised the functions of the office,
and for his zeal was martyred by the heretics, as the
Abbot Arnald had been in Toulouse.
In Hungary the existence of the Inquisition is
also inferred from the martyrdom of two bishops,
who were inquisitors, Saints Nicholas and John,
according to Leander, in his "Viri Illustri." In
Poland also, from the martyrdom of Fr. J. Echen-
field, inquisitor of Prague; and likewise in Dalmatia
and Istria.t
"In England, Ireland, Scotland, we only know
from the Memoirs of the Life of Cardinal Pole, who
was a native of that country, and a legate in those
islands, that before the unhappy occurrences there
the secular judges punished heresy, which was some-
times the cause of spreading so many errors."‡
Inquisitors have the power of proceeding against
all persons who having been baptized are judged
within the Church, unless in cases of special ex-
* Llorente, tom. i. p. 29. + Ibid. p. 31. ‡ Ibid. p. 32.
200
THE INQUISITION.
emption. They cannot proceed against nuncios,
legates, and other officers of the Holy See, nor
against bishops, except by information for the Holy
See, and in cases of flagrant scandal and appre-
hended flight, when they can be incarcerated by the
officers of the holy tribunal.*
They can proceed against all regular and secular
priests.
They can proceed against all emperors, kings, and
all other secular powers; with the counsel, however,
of the Holy See, if the personages are great, if the
peril is mighty, and great perturbations of the people
are to be feared.†
They can proceed against bigamists, magicians,
and diviners; in the crime of heresy against the
dead; against authorities of towns and temporal
rulers refusing to swear to defend the Church against
heretics; against temporal rulers-" dominos tem-
* Llorente, tom. i. p. 29.
"The Inquisitor-General (of Spain) and the council of the
Holy Office," we are told by Llorente, "refused to submit them-
selves to the bulls of the Pope whenever the communications
made to them were not agreeable to them, under pretext that the
laws of the kingdom, and the orders of the Spanish government,
did not permit to conform to them (the Papal bulls); whilst, on
the other hand, they eluded the ordinances of the King whenever
it seemed good to them to do so, pleading pretended bulls of
Popes, which forbade them to obey (those ordinances) under pain
of excommunication: so that they knew how to render themselves
independent of both powers when it was their pleasure that affairs
should remained buried in secrecy."-Llorente, Hist. Inquis. en
Espagn., tom. i. p. 18.
IN SPAIN.
201
porales," refusing them needful assistance; against
laymen disputing matters of faith; confessors abus-
ing their sacred office, &c. &c.*
The Holy Ghost, says Llorente, charges bishops
to govern the Church, acquired by the precious blood
of our Lord Jesus Christ. That charge was taken
out of their hands by the Inquisition; and there is
abundant proof that all the power of that tribunal
was turned against bishops, on divers occasions
against several most holy prelates, against saints,
even whom the Church has canonized.
We read, in Llorente, of proceedings in the Inqui-
sition against eight venerable prelates and nine
doctors of theology, who had assisted at the Council
of Trent.t
The Inquisition excommunicated the bishop of
Murcia, ordered the imprisonment of a bishop of
Carthagena, who had opposed in the Indies some of
their proceedings.
Judicial proceedings were commenced intentés
against several prelates of great reputation. Ca-
ranza, archbishop of Toledo, and primate of Spain-
Guerrero, archbishop of Grenada-Blanco, bishop
of Leon-Cuæsta, bishop of the same see-Carrion-
ero, bishop of Almeria-Melchior Cano, bishop of
the Canaries, an archbishop of Secombria, an arch-
bishop of Burgos, another of Talavera, another of
Grenada, another of Zamora, even against the hero
* Sobre el Origin et del Santo Officio de Espana.
† Llorente, t. iii. p. 62.
202
THE INQUISITION.
of Christianity of his age, Las Casas, bishop of
Chiapa; a bishop of Marseilles, and eighteen other
prelates, an account of whom is given in Llorente,
tome iii. p. 96.
Proceedings were meditated also in the Spanish
Inquisition against St. Francis of Loyola, as a
fanatic and illuminée, against his successor the
General of the Order, Lainez, and St. Francis Bor-
gia of the same order.
The saints themselves, we find, were not exempt
from the tender cares of the Spanish Inquisition.
St. Teresa only escaped imprisonment on account
of the suspension of the process for further proofs;
but she was tormented by menaces of prosecution,
and citations, and investigations of inquisitors, ac-
companied by bands of armed men, as her letters
inform us. The venerable F. Luis de Grenada,
was three times subjected to proceedings against
him on the part of the Inquisition, once as an
illuminée.
"The blessed Jean de Ribero," patriarch of An-
tioch. The venerable Jean D'Avila, called "The
Apostle of Andalusia," and St. John of God, the
founder of the congregation of the Hospitalers. All
these were persons of suspected faith, against whom
proceedings were instituted by the Spanish Inqui-
sition.
During the eighteen years of the inquisitorial
+ Ib. p. 114.
* Llorente, tom. iii.
p. 102.
Ib. p. 102, 110.
IN SPAIN.
203
ministry of Torquemada, in Spain, that relentless
man, we are told by Llorente, caused ten thousand
two hundred and twenty persons to perish in the
flames.*
The expulsion from Spain of Jews, Moors, and
Christians, on account of religion, or rather in its
abused name, is estimated at nearly three millions,
by Llorenté.
The same writer, in his recapitulation of the con-
demnations of the Spanish Inquisition, during the
whole term of its existence, gives the following
results :†
Burned in person
in effigy
31,912
17,659
Sentenced to rigorous penalties 291,450
Total
341,021
•
The Inquisition was abolished in Spain in the
latter part of 1812. The 7th of March, 1813,
Sir Arthur Wellesley being then in Spain, advan-
tage was taken of his supposed opposition to the
measures of the liberals to resist this particular
measure. The Cortes had ordered the decree for
the abolition of this institution to be read in the
churches of Cadiz. The Governor of Cadiz, a man
known to be strongly opposed to the Inquisition,
was removed from his office at the instance of the
clergy by the regency, and a warm advocate of it
Ib. tom. iv. p. 271.
* Llorente, tom. i. p. 281.
204
THE INQUISITION.
was placed in his stead; violent dissensions and broils
arose (and the English influence did not fail to
suffer.) The Cadiz liberal press teemed with
writings against the English Government, "and
every effort was made (says Napier) to create a
hatred of the British General and his troops. These
efforts were not founded entirely on falsehoods, and
were far from being unsuccessful, because the eager
desire to preserve the Inquisition, displayed by the
Duke of Wellington and his brother Sir Henry
Wellesley, although arising from military con-
siderations, was too much in accord with the known
tendency of the English cabinet's policy not to ex-
cite the suspicions of the whole liberal party.
**
In 1814, on the return of Ferdinand VII. to
his dominions, the Inquisition was restored, not how-
ever to its former glory, but shorn of its sanguinary
beams-a ghost of the old terrible tribunal, with
little left of its ancient power to torture, terrify, and
persecute its victims.
I cannot better conclude this part of my subject
than with the words of a Roman Catholic priest,
who was an honour to his order and to his Church,
the enlightened Arthur O'Leary:
"Let legislators, who were the first to invent the
cruel method of punishing errors of the mind with
the excruciating tortures of the body, and antici-
pating the rigour of eternal justice, answer for their
own laws, I am of opinion that the true religion,
* Napier's Peninsular War, vol. v. p. 405.
IN SPAIN.
205
propagated by the effusion of the blood of its mar-
tyrs, would still triumph without burning the flesh
of heretics; and the Protestant and Catholic legis-
lators, who have substituted the blazing pile in the
room of Phalaris's brazen bull, might have pointed
out a more lenient punishment for victims, who, in
their opinion, had no prospect during the intermin-
able space of a boundless eternity, but that of
passing from one fire into another."
"If in latter ages," says the Doctor," some popes
and bishops deviated from the plan of meekness and
moderation, their conduct should not involve a con-
sequence injurious to the principles of the Catholic
church, which condemns such proceedings. The
religion of Catholics and Protestants condemns
frauds, drunkenness, revenge, duelling, perjury, &c.
Some of their relaxed and impious writers have even
attempted not only to palliate but to apologize for
such disorders. The children of the Christian reli-
gion daily practise them: is the Christian religion
accountable for the breach of its laws?"
CHAPTER VIII.
THE INQUISITION IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES.
[IN PORTUGAL.]
THE most authentic particulars relative to the
origin, proceedings, and usages of the Portuguese
Inquisition, are to be found in an official work of
the holy Office in Portugal, for the guidance of all
officers of that tribunal. The work, entitled " Apho-
rismi Inquisitorum, authore P. Fr. Antonio de
Sousa consilario regis et supremi I. Inquisitionis
tribunalis," was published in Lisbon in 1630.
In this work, we are told, that after the Jews, by
the counsel and persuasion of Fr. Thomas of Torque-
mado, were expelled from Spain by orders of Fer-
dinand and Isabella, in accordance with the precept
of the Council of Toledo, celebrated in 638, by which
all princes of Spain, prior to their ascending the
throne, must swear not to permit any infidel to live
in their dominions, many of the expelled Jews fled
into Portugal, John II. being then king. They
were given an asylum till their insidious arts, and
many other malign acts, which this people perpetrated
in those provinces and kingdom, took away all consi-
deration for them. Their expulsion was decreed,
and a stated time given for their departure; at the
IN PORTUGAL.
207
expiration of which all who remained were to be
imprisoned, reduced into slavery, and sold,-"liber-
tate privati atque in servitutem redacti, ut captivi
venundabantur."
In 1497, Don Emmanuel having succeeded John
II., the decree was put in force, and expulsion
ordained under the same penalties. Great numbers
departed, but many who had establishments, trades,
and professions, and possessed property, remained,
it being compulsory on them to become Christians;
under this condition, however, that before twenty
years elapsed (ante viginti annos elapsos) it should
not be lawful to make any inquiry concerning them,
touching matters of faith. And with this condi-
tion, with the sacred baptismal water, they were
cleansed. Nevertheless, it was soon found they only
feigned to be members of the Catholic faith, and
that their children were brought up in the ancient
errors of Judæism.
In 1521, A.D., Don John III. succeeded Emma-
nuel; and it being notorious that not only Judæism
was publicly professed, but that their servants, and
others who were of their blood, but old Christians
were infected with their doctrines, despised the
sacraments, even on their death beds, and irreveren-
tially treated images of the saints and of the blessed
Virgin Mary especially, the King made this state
of things known to Clement VII., and urgently
solicited to have the tribunal of the Holy Inquisition
established in his realm; and in 1531, the first con-
208
THE INQUISITION.
cession, in an apostolic brief, was given by his holi-
ness-in forma juris. In 1534, the Jews, by their
supplications and assiduous negociations, obtained
from Paul III. an indulgence, which suspended the
operation of the proceedings of the tribunal of the
Inquisition against them for that and the following
year, and certain immunities were also conceded to
them which were subsequently, on account of their
malice, revoked.
D. John III. having succeeded D. Emmanuel,
and being inflamed with a most holy zeal, having
found that the attention of the Pontiff had not been
given to the matters concerning the holy office in
Portugal, so as to supply a proper remedy (to exist-
ing evils in matters of faith) in the most suitable
form, laid before the Court of Rome all the represen-
tations which had been made (from Portugal) to
his predecessor Clement VII., and also to himself
for the space of fifteen years. To which communi-
cation, acquiescence in its reasonings having been
signified by his holiness the Pontiff, the bull of the
Inquisition, in the year 1536, was expedited to the
said king D. John III.
The first general of the office of inquisitor was
Fr. Diacus of Sylva, of the Franciscan order of
Minors, bishop of Septa, afterwards archbishop of
Braga.
The second, was the Cardinal Henry, the King's
brother. He retained the office of inquisitor fifteen
months after he became king, and also the style of
IN PORTUGAL.
209
it:
"Ego rex tanquam Inquisitor Generalis,"
&c. and he filled the office at once of king,
priest, cardinal legate à latere, and Inquisitor-
General.
The third was D. Manuel Menezes, bishop of
Coimbra.
The fourth was D. George of Almeida, abbot and
archbishop of Lisbon.
The fifth was Cardinal Albert, archduke of Aus-
tria, son of the Emperor Maximilian, legate à latere,
and governor of Lisbon (under the Spaniards).
The sixth was D. Mattos of Noronha, bishop of
Elvas.
1
The seventh was D. George of Attaida, chaplain
of the King's house and court (during some years of
the Spanish regime).
The eighth was D. Alexander, archbishop of
Evora.
The ninth was D. Peter of Castile, chaplain to the
King's house and court, bishop of Leria.
The tenth was D. F. M. Mascarhenas, bishop of
Algarve.
The eleventh, and last mentioned in this work,
was D. Francis of Castro, bishop of Egeditanensis,
a former rector of Coimbra. This account is thus
brought down to the year 1620, or thereabouts.
It is to be observed that no mention is made of
any Dominican up to that time having held the
office. Neither in the lists of the councillors and
inquisitors of the holy office is mention to be found,
I.
P
210
THE INQUISITION.
but of Doctors of canon law of the University of
Coimbra, with a few exceptions of Doctors of theo-
logy, who were of the order of Preachers.
The Inquisition was established in Lisbon in 1539.
In Evora the bull of the Inquisition was first
published in October, 1536, and a branch of the
holy office was also established in that place in 1539.
In Coimbra the institution was established in
1541, the first commissary inquisitorial was a Do-
minican, but his authority was shared with a bachelor
of canon law.
The institution was established in Goa, in 1560,
fifteen years after urgent solicitations of S. Francis
Xavier, then (1545) in those regions of the East
Indies, "in quibus instanter ab eadem rege postu-
labat, ut in tanta perfidiæ remedium Inquisitionis
officium in illam regionem mittendam curaret."
A very valuable collection of the original official
sentences of the Inquisitions of Lisbon, Evora and
Coimbra, hitherto unpublished, forming part of the
archives of the department of the Minister of
Justice, entitled, "Listas dos Penitenciados pelo
Santo officio de Evora, Coimbra, e Lisboa," was
kindly placed in my hands by the Viscount of
Sa de Bandeira in 1846, in Lisbon, and from them
the following important details are taken.* The
* Of the 35 lists of which the collection consists four are in
MS. The typography of each of the printed ones differs in some
respects. All evidently had appeared at the time of the proceed-
ings of which they treat.
IN PORTUGAL.
211
earliest Auto da Fé recorded in this collection is
one dated 1706, the latest 1778. A period of 72
years
is embraced in the account of those proceed-
ings of the holy office in Portugal.
In Lisbon the number of autos recorded was 18.
In Evora the number of autos was 9.
In Coimbra the number of autos was 8.
The number of persons sentenced must have ex-
ceeded a thousand.
Total number of autos in Portugal, recorded in
that period of 72 years, is 35.
The autos of Lisbon were in 1711, 1726, 1729,
1731, 1732, 1733, 1735, 1739, 1741, 1744, 1747,
1748, 1749, 1752, 1758, 1761, 1767, 1778; of
those in Evora, in 1732, 1736, 1744, 1747, 1752,
1755, 1756, 1757, 1759; in Coimbra 1706, 1721,
1726, 1728, 1734, 1742, 1751, 1753.
The first record of the auto-da-fé in Lisbon is
entitled "Lista das pessoas e condenacoes e sen-
tenças que celebrao no auto publico da fè en Lisboa,
Domingo, 26 Julio 1711, ne Rocco. Nuno da
Cunha de Alaide Bispo e do concelho de sua mages-
tada," &c.
There were 51 sentences of male culprits, and 67
of women. Among the former there was one aged
17, and five under 20 years of age. Among the
latter there was one of 14, one of 17, one of 19, and
ten under 25. There were two sentenced to death
in this auto, and both women, were "Christianos
novos," converted Jews, and both for relapsing into
:
P 2
212
THE INQUISITION.
Judæism. One was the wife of a doctor, aged 49,
the other a widow of 67 years of age. The sentences
of all were read at this "auto publico de fé," on
Sunday the 26th July, 1711.
There were six culprits charged with bigamy,
three were to be imprisoned in a fortress three years;
the others flogged and sent to the galleys for five
years. A parish priest charged with recommending
women to be re-baptized and with Molinism, to be
transported to Africa and degraded. A layman
charged with hearing confessions and saying mass,
making an offering of himself to the devil and say-
ing he was a qualificator of the holy office, to be
transported to India for ten years. Another for
using superstitious means, and remedies, against
wounds, and "the presumption of having made a
compact with the devil," to be imprisoned indefinitely
and flogged; 39 "Christianos novos," one of them
66
tres quartos de Christiano Novo," three-fourths of a
converted Jew, charged with relapsing into Judæism.
Four had relapsed twice, thrice, four, five, six, and
even seven times, the sentences varied according to
the number of relapses--imprisonment indefinite and
perpetual, the habit for a time and for perpetuity.
Of the female culprits, one a widow, for blasphemy,
52 years of age, to be flogged, and three years im-
prisonment in Castro Marini. Another aged 42, for
bigamy, to be flogged and transported to the Bra-
zils for five years. Another aged 32, for feigning
visions and revelations from heaven, "being reputed
IN PORTUGAL.
213
a saint," proffering blasphemous aud indecorous
words, "et piarium aurium offensivas," and on
presumption of a compact with the devil, to be
gagged, flogged, and transported for eight years
to Angola. Forty-two women, Christianos novos,
for relapsing into Judæism, to be imprisoned indefi-
nitely with the habit, and for life with the same.
This is a fair abstract of the 118 cases of the
auto-da-fé of 1711, upwards of two-thirds of which
cases were those of "converted Jews," as they were
called, who were compelled to call themselves
Christianos novos. What is astonishing in these
sentences is, that the fact of the continual relapses
even to the seventh time of persons, constrained to
change the name of their religious creed, never con-
vinced the Inquisitors of the utter folly and futility
of all attempts to change men's religious sentiments
by force.
I shall now proceed with the other lists, but
without entering into the same minute details as in
the record of the former auto, for the sameness of
the charges and results is such as render it un-
necessary to do more than notice the more remark-
able cases. In the auto at Lisbon on the 13th of
October, 1726, a friar of Belem for having married,
to be transported for seven years to Angola. In
this auto of 1726, there were 37 men and 31 women
sentenced. Three were condemned to death.*
* I find in a Lisbon newspaper of 1723, an account of an auto-
da-fé in that city of which there is no detailed mention in the Colle-
214
THE INQUISITION.
A priest, 44 years of age, convicted of pertinacity in,
and preference for the law of Moses and other errors.
A mercantile man, a Spaniard, aged 53, for heresy,
but described in a jargon of the holy office, that is
like the refrain of an old song, that recurs at the
fag end of almost every sentence in bad cases, with
some slight omissions or transpositions of the legal
slang of the Inquisitors: "Confieto, fieto, falso
simulado confitente diminuto, e impenitente;" the
third, a woman aged 65, whose guilt is declared in
the same untranslateable jargon. The total number
of male "Christianos novos" for relapses, sentenced
to imprisonment, temporary or perpetual, men 34,
and of females 30.
One of the culprits condemned to imprisonment
and the habit, at the discretion of the holy office,
was charged with following the errors of the Pro-
testant religion.
Inquisition of Evora.
List of persons sentenced, whose sentences were
read at the public auto-da-fé of Evora, the 21st
September, 1732, the Inquisitor-general being the
most excellent and reverend Senhor Nuno da
cao de Listas. In the Gazeta de Lisboa of the 14th October, 1723,
the following notice appears. There was an auto-da-fé in public,
on Sunday, in the church of the convent of St. Domingo of this city,
when the sentences of 54 persons were read, 35 men and 19 women,
penanced (penitenciados) for various crimes. Four men were
broken (relaxados em carne), one of whom suffered death by hanging,
the other three were burned after being strangled," (em garrotè.)
IN PORTUGAL.
215
Cunha, Presbyter-cardinal of the holy church of
Rome, and of the council of state of his Majesty,
8 sentences of male culprits, and 8 of females, to
imprisonment in some cases with flogging, or trans-
portation; there were no capital punishments. All
the cases, with two exceptions of Christianos novos,
those of blasphemy or bigamy.
Auto-da-fé in Evora, 5th of February, 1736; 15
men and 17 women sentenced, as in the former auto;
no capital punishment.
Auto-da-fé in Evora, 18th October, 1744; 23 men
and 22 women, sentenced as in the former auto; no
capital punishment.
Auto-da-fé in Evora, 19th March, 1747; 17 men
and 26 women, sentences as in the former auto; no
capital punishments; several of the cases were pre-
sumptions of compact with the devil, superstitious
practices, perjuries, and bigamy.
Auto-da-fé in Evora, 27th April, 1755; 15 men
and 16 women sentenced as in the former auto; no
capital punishment.
Auto-da-fé in Evora, 20th June, 1756; 29 men
and 33 women, sentenced as in the former auto; two
Christianos novos condemned to death. A vast
number of the former convictions were of Christianos
novos.
Auto-da-fé in Evora, 25th September, 1757; 18
men and 34 women, sentenced as in the former
auto. One women of 72, a Christiano novo, con-
demned to death--reprieved.
216
THE INQUISITION.
Auto-da-fé in Evora, 6th May, 1759; 16 men
and 27 women, sentenced as in the former auto;
one condemned to death.
Inquisition of Coimbra.
Auto-da-fé in Coimbra, 5th July, 1706; 46 men
and 52 women, all sentenced to imprisonment with
or without flogging, temporary or perpetual, or
transportation. One condemned to be relaxado em
estatua, executed in effigy, Doctor Rodriquez de
Mesquita, Christiano novo, a relapsed convert.
Auto-da-fé in Coimbra, 30th Juue, 1726; 48 men
and 47 women, sentenced as in the former auto, no
capital conviction. One culprit sentenced to be
exiled for two years from his place of residence, for
delivery of a letter of advice to an imprisoned
Christiano novo; with half a dozen exceptions,
these 95 cases were of relapsed Christianos novos.
Auto-da-fé in Coimbra, 27th May, 1727, 42 men
and 60 women, sentenced as in the former auto; no
capital punishment.
Auto-da-fé in Coimbra, 9th May, 1720; 24 men
and 55 women, sentenced to imprisonment and
transportation, all with 16 exceptions, Christianos
novos, charged with relapsing into Judaism. There
were no capital condemnations. A Swiss merchant
of Oporto, a Protestant, charged with spreading
writings against Catholic doctrines, was convicted,
but pardoned in consequence of embracing the
Catholic religion.
IN PORTUGAL.
217
Auto-da-fé 5th of December, 1734, in Coimbra,
30 men and 23 women, sentenced as in the former
auto; no capital condemnation. Two priests of the
habit of St. Peter, charged with exorcising people
for unworthy objects, and presumption of compact
with the devil, sentenced to three years absence from
the diocese they belonged to. All, with three or four
exceptions, were Christianos novos.
At the auto-da-fé, in Coimbra, 9th of May, 1728,
24 men and 75 women were presented publicly as
persons condemned to minor punishments: and, as
in the former auto, there was no capital punishment
there. The Swiss Protestant, charged with diffusing
heretical writings, who was released, and escaped
punishment, having conformed to the Catholic re-
ligion, again admonished; an artizan, charged with
idolatry, to be imprisoned and exiled for two years;
a surgeon, with superstitious cures, and presumed
compact with the devil, same penalty, only an aug-
mented term of exile; another person, charged with
idolatry and blasphemy, to be flogged, gagged, and
sent for four years to a fortress; all the rest "Chris-
tianos novos" charged with relapses.
Auto-da-fé, in Coimbra, 5th December, 1734;
30 men and 23 women sentenced as in the preceding
auto. No capital punishment. Two friars, of the
habit of St. Peter, charged with exorcising persons
for ends contrary to the intentions of the Church,
and presumption of compact with the devil, to be
deprived of the power of exorcising, and exiled for
218
THE INQUISITION.
three years. The rest, with six exceptions, were
"Christianos novos," charged with relapses.
Auto-da-fé, in Coimbra, the 8th June, 1742; 23
men and 19 women sentenced as in the preceding
auto. No capital punishment. One of the former,
an official of the Inquisition, charged with providing
testimonies, and arresting a certain person in the
name, but without the sanction, of the holy office,
being a second offence, to be confined in a fortress
for seven years.
Auto-da-fé, in Coimbra, 22nd August, 1751; 30
men and 10 women sentenced as in the former auto.
No capital punishment. All cases of relapsed Jews,
with five exceptions.
Auto-da-fé, in Coimbra, 27th July, 1755; 9 men
and 18 women sentenced as in the former auto.
No capital punishment. The father Azevedo of
the habit of St. Peter, charged with feigning to be
a commissary of the holy office, and causing great
prejudice to a third party, to be imprisoned in a for-
tress four years; another father, of his habit, for a
presumed compact with the devil, and illicit exorcis-
ings, suspension and exile.
Auto-da-fé, in Coimbra, 23rd December, 1759;
21 men and 13 women sentenced as in the preced-
ing auto. No capital condemnation. The Father
Domingo, of the habit of St. Peter, for very grave
disorders; and two other priests of the same habit,
abuses of their functions, with re-baptizing a woman,
one to be transported to Africa for life, another for
IN PORTUGAL.
219
four years, another for eight years. A great many
persons of the labouring class, some charged with
secret assemblies and superstitious practices, to
which they gave the name of the Apostolate of St.
Matthew, professing to reform religion, and utter-
ing blasphemies against the Holy Trinity and the
Virgin, sentenced to be flogged and imprisoned.
The record of the auto-da-fé of the 16th of October,
1729, in Lisbon, gives an account of forty sentences
of male culprits, of forty ditto of females; and of
ten capital punishments, five of men and five of
This auto seems to have been regulated
by some arithmetician, so far as providing the vic-
tims for it. One was a doctor, another a merchant,
the whole "Christianos novos." Their crime is
described in the same jargon as I have referred to.
women.
For the auto-da-fé, celebrated on Sunday the 15th
of June, 1731, in Lisbon, there were 38 men sen-
tenced; 34 women, 12 condemned to death, and
two, who died in prison, to be executed in effigy.
One for use of mandengas, to be flogged and the
galleys for four years.
A friar for Molinism,
banishment to Algarve for eight years; another,
without faculties, for hearing confessions, four years
at the galleys; another friar, a bachelor in canon
law, for declaring himself God, Se fazer Deos, and
second Redeemer of the human race, perpetual im-
prisonment and habit. Four negro slaves for
Fetich crimes, compact with the devil, and adora-
tion of him as a God, to be flogged, and four years
220
THE INQUISITION.
at the galleys. Twenty-three of the male convicts
were "Christianos novos," charged with relapsing
divers times. All the females, with two exceptions,
charged with the same offence. Of the twelve, "re-
laxadas em carne," eight were women; the guilt
of all specified in the same judicial jargon.
carne.
99
Auto-da-fé on Sunday, the 6th of June, 1732,
44 men sentenced, 27 women, and 8 "relaxadas em
e." Of the former, punished with imprisonment,
was a friar of San Pedro's habit,* charged with
marrying, to be suspended and sent to the galleys
for three years; a friar for Molinism and abuse of
his clerical functions, to be condemned to total
silence, suspended and banished. The great majo-
rity of the culprits, as usual, "Christianos novos,'
charged with relapses. Of the 27 female culprits,
one was a widow, 84 years of age, charged with
Fetich superstitions, and presumption of compact
with the devil, to be banished for three years.
Another, charged with Molinism and "accoes torpis-
simas,” five years banishment to Algarve; another,
aged 66, living on her property, charged with a
similar offence, and presumption of a demoniacal
compact, to be flogged, imprisoned, and transported
for ten years to Africa. All the women, with three
exceptions, "Christianos novos." Of the eight
* The Pedroite friars appear to have been particularly ob-
noxious to the officers of the Inquisition, or particularly lax in
their discipline.
IN PORTUGAL.
221
:
condemned to death, two were women.
"Christianos novos.
22
All were
In the auto-da-fé, celebrated on the 20th of Sep-
tember, 1733, there were 32 men and 22 women
sentenced to imprisonment for various periods,
and four condemned to death, one a female, all
"Christianos novos." All the women sentenced,
with two exceptions, were relapsed Jews; and all
the men, with four exceptions. Three of them were
doctors. The doctors in Portugal were evidently
in bad odour with the holy office. Two of the poor
women were guilty of being reputed saints; ban-
ishment in one case for three years, in another
for four years, was their doom.
Auto-da-fé, celebrated on Sunday, 24th of July,
1735, at Lisbon; 33 men sentenced, and 29 women;
seven condemned to death. A deacon of the habit
of St. Peter, for saying mass without faculties, five
years galleys; a subdeacon, of the same habit, for
same offence, seven years galleys; another in minor
orders, for same offence, to be whipped and sent to
the galleys for five years; two persons for bigamy,
same punishment; a presbyter of the habit of St.
Peter, for feigning inspirations and revelations, six
years degradation in Africa; all the rest were
"Christianos novos." All the female culprits were
"Christianos novos," with one exception, charged
with relapses. Of the seven condemned to death,
four were women.
Auto-da-fé of the 18th of October, 1739, in
222
THE INQUISITION.
:
Lisbon; 21 males and 25 females sentenced; 11
condemned to death, of whom 9 were "Christia-
nos novos." Of those sentenced to imprisonment,
one was a girl of sixteen, another of eighteen years
of age, charged with relapsing into Judæism.
Auto-da-fé, 18th June, 1741, 18 men were sen-
tenced and 5 women; no condemnations to death.
One charge was of blasphemy, one of superstitious
practices, one of bigamy, another of assuming the
functions of a priest without faculties (a friar of the
habit of St. Pedro). The rest of the cases were of
"Christianos novos" relapsing into Judaism, with
one exception.
Auto-da-fé of the 21st of June, 1744, in Lisbon,
22 men and 11 women sentenced to imprisonment
or transportation, or the galleys, with or without
flogging, 8 condemned to death. Of the culprits
to be imprisoned, or transported, one was John
Custon, a native of Cantao of Bazileo, "a Protestant
heretic," charged with introducing the sect of Free-
masons, sentenced to the galleys for four years; one
boy of sixteen, a "Christiano novo," was sentenced
to perpetual imprisonment, and the habit for relaps-
ing into Judæism; one girl of sixteen, of the same
class, for the same crime, to the same penalty. One
of the persons condemned to death was a friar of the
habit of San Pedro, convicted of many heretical
errors; another, named Henequim, for writing many
heretical doctrines, and defending them.
Auto-da-fé in Lisbon, 24th September, 1747;
IN PORTUGAL.
223
24 men and 22 women sentenced to imprisonment
and transportation, and two "Christianos novos"
condemned to death. Of the former, one a young
woman of nineteen, for feigning visions, and being
reputed a saint, was sentenced to be flogged and
exiled for three years; all the rest "Christianos
novos;" one a girl of sixteen, imprisoned indefinitely
for relapsing into Judæism.
Auto-da-fé in Lisbon, 20th October, 1748; 21
men and 14 women sentenced to imprisonment and
transportation; 3 condemned to death. Of the
former, a Moorish sailor was sentenced to be flogged
and sent four years to the galleys, for feigning to be
a Christian and uttering blasphemies. The rest of
the males, with two exceptions, were "Christianos
novos;" and of the women, with one exception, that
of a nun expelled from a convent charged with
making a compact with the devil, and feigning re-
velations, sentenced to perpetual imprisonment; all
those condemned to death were "Christianos novos."
Auto-da-fé in Lisbon, 16th of November, 1749;
27 men and 17 women were condemned to various
punishments, and two condemned to death. This
auto presented the same features as the preceding.
The next in Lisbon, of the 24th of September,
1752 (during Pombal's administration); 30 men and
27 women were sentenced to imprisonment and
transportation, and 4 were condemned to death;
one a lay friar, for hearing confessions without facul-
ties and error of Molino, degradation for ten years,
224
THE INQUISITION.
and one of them imprisonment in his convent; the
others, men and women, were "Christianos novos,"
charged with relapses, as were the four persons con-
demned to death.
Auto-da-fé of the 27th August, 1758, in Lisbon ;
18 men and 21 women sentenced to imprisonment,
flogging, or transportation. No capital condemna-
tions. The father Elwes, secular priest, for dis-
orders, to be suspended and degraded; another
secular priest, for same offence, to be suspended and
transported to Africa. The rest, with four or five
exceptions, cases of relapses of "Christianos novos."
Auto-da-fé of the 20th of December, 1761, in
Lisbon, (during Pombal's administration); 35 men
and 18 women sentenced to imprisonment, with or
without flogging, or transportation; four were sen-
tenced to capital punishment. The reader's atten-
tion is requested to the particulars of this auto.
"A person (a Benedictine monk) taken for crimes,
the adjudication of which appertained to the holy
office, was liberated, his innocence having been ascer-
tained." This is the first entry of a liberation in the
lists up to the date of December, 1761. Alexander
J. C. V. Bulhoens Miranda, for crediting and spread-
ing some predictions and idle dreams and revela-
tions, prejudicial to the public tranquillity and the
government, to be flogged and transported to An-
gola for eight years. Friar Gabriel of the Annun-
ciation, for abuse of his office, two years imprison-
inent. A considerable number of persons sentenced
IN PORTUGAL.
225
to imprisonment, and more such sentences accom-
panied with flogging than in any previous auto, on
charges of pretensions to extracrdinary sanctity and
virtue, or of predicting events (be it remembered
Pombal considered all such acts as the latter in the
light of treasons against him). There was a great
decrease of convictions of "Christianos novos." The
holy office was then turned to the account of political
animosities. Under the head, " Persons put to death,"
we find the following record, "Relaxad em carne,
with a gag and a label of heresiarch-the father
Gabriel Malagrida (aged 62), of the company of
Jesus, priest, confessor, and missionary, native of
the city of Henage, bishopric of Como, Duchy of
Milan, and a resident in this city, convicto, victo,
falso, confitente, revogante e perfidente por erros
hereticos."
""
Of the four persons to be relaxados em carne
at this auto only, was to be "executed in the flesh,'
Padre Gabriel Malagrida, by the death of the gar-
rote, and afterwards to be burned.* Another,
Francis Xavier, of Oliveira, a knight of a religious
order of the accountant-general's office, absent in
London, convicto, negativo, ribelde, to be executed in
effigy ; and two female relapsed "Christianos novos,"
who had died in prison, to have their bones burned,
and be executed in effigy.
* Thus perished the celebrated priest Malagrida, a man of
great zeal and piety, driven mad by the atrocious cruelties of
Pombal's persecution in the fortress of Jonqueiro, near Lisbon.
I.
Q
226
THE INQUISITION.
Auto-da-fé of the 20th September, 1767, in Lisbon:
13 men and 2 women, sentenced to imprisonment or
transportation. No capital condemnations.
In the record of the auto-da-fé, in Lisbon, in
1767, it is to be observed, that there is not a single
sentence of a "Christianos novo" recorded in it.
The credit of this is due to Pombal, with all his
crimes against humanity; the merit of the cessa-
tion of those barbarous proceedings against the Jews,
who were called "Christianos novos," is certainly
due to him. One of his decrees that abolished the
distinction between new and old Christians, put it
out of the power of malevolence or fanaticism to
single out the nominally converted Jews for perse-
cution.
Auto-da-fé of the 11th October, 1778, in Lisbon ;
9 men sentenced to imprisonment or transportation.
Jose de Locera, a soldier, charged with having pro-
hibited books, with having been an Atheista externa,
denying the mysteries of religion, and saying the
religion of every country was good, and ought to be
practised by those in it, with denying the immortality
of the soul; to be imprisoned according to the plea-
sure of the holy office, and deprived of civil rights.
J. M. Abrea, soldier of the same regiment, charged
with the same crimes, with maintaining that the
Americans were not the sons of Adam, and other
iniquitous errors, condemned to the same punishment.
Five other soldiers, same regiment, condemned to the
same penalty. A Frenchman, surgeon-in-chief of
IN PORTUGAL.
227
same regiment, also with holding that a man ought
to kill himself rather than suffer dishonour, with
having opened his vein in prison with the view of
putting an end to himself; condemned to imprison-
ment in the French convent of Barbadirhos. J. A.
de Cunha, a former professor of geometry, in the
University of Coimbra, of the same regiment, charged
with being an Atheist, an indifferentist, a liberationist,
a libertine, a Deist. He was an advocate of liberty
of conscience; "he affirmed that our Lord would
not punish those who from ignorance embraced a
false religion." He denied predestination and the
mystery of the most Holy Trinity. He reproved a
state of celibacy as injurious to the state. He com-
municated sacrilegiously, and said it was an act of
violence to compel men (to frequent the sacrament),
and to fetter the understanding in matters of faith,
condemned to imprisonment in the convent of the
Necessidades, and degradation in Evora. Another
prisoner, a student in canon law, for blasphemous
discourses and acts of revolting impiety, to be
whipped through the streets, and exposed with a gag
in his mouth.
So far I have dealt only with those valuable offi-
cial documents, certainly heretofore unpublished, for
which I am indebted to the enlightened Viscount de
San Bandeira.
From the reports of all the autos referred to in
the places where the three inquisitions were esta-
blished, it appears that this tribunal had cognizance
? 2
228
THE INQUISITION.
not only of offences against the faith but against the
laws of the land, which prohibited crimes against
public morality. All offences against the religion
of the State, all crimes committed by its ministers,
sacrilege, blasphemy, impiety, crimes against society,
in violation of sacraments, or religious tenets,
bigamy, perjury, all opinions deemed heretical, these
were judged by the Inquisition. Who can read the
record even of its convictions and executions, and
not acknowledge it was a terrible institution. It
was in every respect objectionable in its constitution
and administration; its mode of receiving denun-
ciations, and of acting on them, and of extorting
evidence. It was objectionable, especially in taking
away the ministers of a religion of mercy from their
spiritual duties, and investing them with the cha-
racter of jurists, judges and prosecutors.
There were some "ingenious devices" adopted
at the period of the revolution in Portugal, in 1820,
and the downfall of the Inquisition, with a view
to the object of bringing more effectual odium on
an institution already sufficiently odious.
Miguel Paulo d'Almeida, son of a Lisbon
merchant living at Bonnavista, his father named
Miguel Gomez d'Almeida, in 1820, then a young
man, the night before the people were admitted to
see the interior of the Inquisition recently abolished,
at the time of the revolution, with the assistance of
some other young men, carried into the Inquisition
a quantity of human bones they had collected in a
IN PORTUGAL.
229
churchyard, and deposited them there, to impress the
people with an idea of the horrors committed by the
inquisitors. He told this to Mr. Hickie, a mer-
chant of this town, who was my informant of the
facts above stated in 1845, in the presence of Rev.
P. Russell and J. Savage, of the Dominican convent
of Corpo Santo, in Lisbon. Almeida is now living
at Rio Janeiro.*
* The Duke of Wellington, in 1812, stayed not only the total
abolition of the Portuguese Inquisition, but the wholesale spoli-
ation of the church property in Portugal, and the driving out on
the world of the members of the monastic orders. rr
Finally,"
says Colonel Napier, "Mr. Vansittart, Mr. Villiers, and the Count
Funchal devised, and the English Cabinet actually entertained
the plan of selling the crown and church property of Portugal."
"It was in the trenches of Burgos that Wellington had to exhibit
the folly and impolicy of this scheme. In his memoir to Govern-
ment from the trenches of Burgos, at a moment when suffering
such distress, that in his own words, all former distress for
money
had been slight in contemplation, he pointed out the inconsistency
of the course recommended with the proclaimed motives of the
war on the French, namely, the defence of the religion and old
institutions of the country. The best mode, says the Duke in his
memoir, of obtaining for the state eventually the benefit of the
church property would be to prevent the monasteries and nunne-
ries from receiving novices, and thus in the course of time the
Pope might be brought to consent to the sale of the estates, or
the nation might assume possession when the ecclesiastical cor-
poration had become extinct. He, however, thought it no disad-
vantage to Spain or Portugal, that large portions of land should
be held by the church. The bishops and monks were the only
proprietors who lived on their estates, and spent their revenues
amongst the labourers by whom those revenues had been produced,
233
THE INQUISITION.
and until the habits of the new landed proprietors changed, the
transfer in land from the clergy would be a misfortune.”—Napier's
Peninsular War, vol. v. p. 394.
As the sentiments of a man who had no sympathy with the
institutions in question, nor for the institutions of any country,
except as the interests of the service he was engaged in, and those
of the Government he was employed by, were affected by them,
these opinions of the Duke are worthy of notice and worthy of
the man.
In proof of the latter assertion respecting the Duke's
philosophy of the military school of Stoicism, we have a remark-
able confirmation of it in the strenuous efforts of his Grace to
sustain the Inquisition in Spain in opposition to the Cortes, and
the order issued by the Regency on the 7th of March, 1813, for
its abolition.
CHAPTER IX.
OPINIONS OF CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT CHURCHES
ON THE SUBJECT OF SORCERY AND THE OPERA-
TION OF EVIL SPIRITS.
THE substance of the doctrines taught by the
Roman Catholic church, and the discipline explained
by the doctors of it duly authorized, and in recent
times too, duly accredited, on the subject of Witch-
craft and Magic, given in the succeeding pages,
necessarily, compendiously and summarily, is taken
from a French work, entitled "Catechisme De La
Foi et des Moeurs Chretiennes, par Mons. De Las-
tanges, Pretre de Saint-Sulpice, Premier Superieur
du Seminaire du Puy."-Nouvelle edition, in 8vo.
Paris, 1851, pp. 53 to 61.
As to the authority of the work, as a genuine
exposition of Roman Catholic doctrine, the follow-
ing extracts from Episcopal approvals of it are suffi-
ciently explicit. The author of the work was born
in 1616, and died in 1694. St. Vincent de Paul,
in a few words pronounced a great eulogium on
Lastanges, "Le plus parfait ecclesiastique de son
siecle."
232
CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT
Approbations.
"Eveché du Puy, 3 Janvier, 1849.
"Le Catéchisme de la Foi et des Moeurs Chré-
tiennes, composé il ya près d'un siècle et demi par M.
de Lastanges, prêtre de Saint-Sulpice, premier supé-
rieur de notre Séminaire, et publié, par deux Man-
dements des Evêques de Clermont et du Puy, est un
enseignement complet de la Religion. Toutes les
questions du dogme, des sacraments et de la morale
sont traitées d'apres les principes de la saine théo-
logie, avec autant de clarté et de méthode que de
science et de pieté.'
29*
"Eveché du Mans, le 5 Fevrier, 1850.
"Je desire vivement que cet excellent ouvrage,
qui renferme a la fois tant de doctrine et d'onction,
dans un cadre restraint, en égard aux matières dont
il traite, se répande parmi les fidèles et ceux qui
doivent les insture."t
"Eveché de Rennes, le 17 Janvier, 1850.
"Nous joignons tres volontiers notre approbation
à celle de nos vénérables collegues les Evéques du
Puy et de Clermont."
Catholic doctrine touching Magic.
1. The belief and teaching of the Roman Catholic
church in matters concerning evil spirits, their power,
influence, and modes of operation, summarily con-
sidered, are to the following effect :-Lucifer, and
* A. C. G. Evéque du Puy.
+ J. B. Evéque du Mans.
G. Evéque de Rennes.
DOCTRINE OF MAGIC.
233
that part of the heavenly choir expelled from heaven,
fell into rebellion through pride, and the guilt in-
curred by those celestial spirits of eternal reproba-
tion, holds them in unceasing warfare against the
will and works of the Creator of the universe.
2. Spiritual pride, an inordinate sense of superior
excellence, and an unmeasured self-concentrating
power that exaggerates its own perfections, and
eventually bewilders all intelligence, engenders hatred
to God and man, and seeks compensation for dimi-
nished power in fraud, falsehood, and seduction;
these became the characteristics of Satan and his
angels after their fall.
3. Their punishments are the pain of privation of
God's presence and grace; the pain of the torment
of hell's flames; the pain of the conviction of the
eternity of those punishments, and of the detestable
society in which their doom is to live for ever sor-
rowfully.
pe-
4. Their intelligence, always active, vivid, and
netrating, is capable of discovering to them many
secrets of which man is ignorant. But that intelli-
gence is obscured, deprived as it is of the superna-
tural light of divine grace, and is thus degraded
from its original angelic excellence.
5. The power to will or perform what is good they
have not. The power to hurt mankind by suggest-
ing evil, to make men their accomplices and compa-
nions is possessed by them, by the permission of God.
6. The power thus possessed by them is exercised
234
CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT
in different ways, by deceit, by seduction, by terrors,
by illusions, and vexations.
7. Their malign influence by deceit and illusions
is chiefly exercised on those who fall away by their
vices from the fear and love of God; they cause the
judgment of God and the thought of death to pass
out of such men's minds; they fill the heart with
new cares and sordid interests, and thus insensibly
lead men to live without faith, and at variance with
human as well as divine law.
:
8. They deceive the minds of those who make
profession of piety and devotion, disguising evil
under the semblance of good; making the toleration
of evil appear a practice of charity and meekness, or
the excesses of inordinate anger pass for the move-
ments of a holy and discreet zeal; taking the form
of angels of light to deceive simple and unwary souls
by false appearances of visions, revelations, and in-
spirations procuring for them extraordinary emo-
tions of sensibility in their devotions; and during
such temptations inciting them to apply themselves
indiscreetly and without measure, reason, or due
regard to their physical constitution, to incessant
prayer and extreme austerities, to a state of spiritual
excitement, followed by exhaustion of the animal
spirits and bodily health, and also by counter feel-
ings to those of fervour; distaste and aversion for
religious exercises, disquietude of mind, and dis-
turbance of conscience.
9. They tempt men by seductions and allure-
DOCTRINE OF MAGIC.
235
ments, when they find the heart disposed for such
temptations, by inspiring sensual thoughts, and
making cupidity the ruling passion of the mind.
10. They endeavour to triumph over man's faith
and reason by causing extraordinary terrors; exag-
gerating the difficulties and dangers that beset us;
magnifying impediments to virtue, and the force of
circumstances opposed to repentance or conversion.
11. They bring their malign influence to bear on
men's minds and dispositions by vexations of spirit
and of body; operating by means of wicked sugges-
tions, horrid phantasies, scruples of conscience, and
incitements to indulgence of unbridled passions;
tormenting the body from without, as in the case of
Job; and from within, as in the case of possession;
when they effect an entrance into the body, or agi-
tate bodies, using their organs, causing them to act
and speak as they will, and thus usurping the power
of their souls.
12. Those persons who affirm they are not called
on to believe in possession by evil spirits, must forget
they are called on to believe in such cases recorded
in the New Testament, and that there is temerity in
limiting times for the possibility of their occurrence,
and thus by implication calling in question usages of
the Church, founded on belief in the authenticity of
accounts of possession deemed by spiritual authori-
ties well established; and that usage especially, of
consecrating, annually, ministers specially appointed
to exorcise demons, who may possess the bodies of
236
CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT
human beings; no one, however, is obliged to believe
that any particular person is possessed by a devil,
so long as he sees nothing in the phenomena mani-
fested, which surpases the power of nature, or which
cannot be the result of
any natural cause.
13. When the proofs of possession are doubtful,
the clergy are expected and obliged, after having
duly investigated the case, to report the difficulties
they encounter to their bishop.
14. When God permits diabolical possession to take
place, it is for the purpose of chastising or proving
the faith of persons who are thus afflicted, and shew-
ing, in such cases, now of rare occurrence, if the
demons have such power to torment mankind when
their power is extremely limited, how much greater
must the torments be which they will have the power
of inflicting in hell, when those unfortunate souls
will be at their mercy.
15. Those who are tormented by demons in any
manner whatsoever, are under an obligation to pray
fervently to the Holy Spirit to fortify and sustain
them; to invoke their guardian angels to succour
them; and to bear the ills they labour under in a
spirit of penitence and submission to the Divine will.
16. Evil spirits act on men immediately, or medi-
ately by their agents; by themselves as by posses-
sion, by forming in the imagination representations
and phantasies of an evil nature. Causing an agi-
tation of the blood and humours of the body, and
thus exciting the passions; mediately, by the con-
DOCTRINE OF MAGIC.
237
formity of men's dispositions to the malign influences
of demons, and the wickedness of evil councillors,
and persons at enmity with God, who lead men into
error by their seductions, or the terror with which
they inspire them. Demons cannot act immedi-
ately on the conscience or the free will of man. God
alone can do that. It is said, in the Scripture, men
are tempted by God. The divine goodness tempts
not men with a design to make them fall into sin;
He tempts "his own" to prove their faith, and to
crown their fidelity, when it has been manifested
in great trials.
17. Satan is called, in the Scriptures, "the prince
of this world," not because God has given him any
sovereignty over it, but because men in the perver-
sity of their hearts abandon their Creator and his
law, and place themselves under the domination of
the arch enemy of the human race.
18. Satan is called, in the Scriptures, "the god
of this world:" because, in times antecedent to the
advent of the Messiah, when idolatry prevailed
throughout the world, with the exception of Judea,
the devil, through the idols, and on the altars of
heathen nations, received the homage of mankind;
because he is still thus worshipped by a portion of
the Pagan world, and by perverse men professing to
be Christians, who promote his interests by the
idolatry of pride manifested in strife and disobe-
dience, or the idolatry of vice, which makes itself
idols of vices and the pleasures of this world; thus
238
CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT
rendering men slaves of sin and servants of its
author.
19. The subjects of Satan, on whom the
power of
his tyranny is chiefly exercised, are those who are
wilfully under the empire of the Prince of darkness,
who wish not to be of the true Church of Jesus
Christ; those who are magicians and sorcerers, that
is to say, those who profess to hold communion ex-
pressly with demons, to be given to Satan, and to
have renounced Jesus Christ and baptism, to render
obedience to this accursed master, and to be marked
with his seal; those abandoned to vice, whom Satan
holds in bondage of sin, and of those captives such
as are most puffed up with pride.
Perhaps it may be objected to the preceding state-
ments of Roman Catholic doctrine on the subjects of
Sorcery and the operation of Evil Spirits, the work
from which they are taken is intended only for the
laity. I now lay before my readers a summary of
the doctrine on the same subjects, especially laid
down for the instruction and guidance of ecclesiastics,
from a work of authority, entitled "De Instructione
Sacerdotum," &c., Lib. viii., Francisci Toletus (Soc.
Jes.), Rothom., 1630, Lib. iv. cap. 14.
Magic may be described as an inordinate power
of doing preternatural things. The effects are pro-
duced by the aid of demons. Magic is distinguished
from the other kinds of superstition by its object,
which is to display the extraordinary power of the
magician.
DOCTRINE OF MAGIC.
239
In reality there is no power existing in the
magician, for the effects are produced by the devil
at the command of the magician.
Magic cannot compel the demons to act, for it has
in reality no power over them, though they feign to
be coerced in order to deceive the more. It is true
that on occasions the inferior spirits may be com-
pelled to act at the command of the magician, by the
demons of a higher order. The mode of their action
is threefold. In the first place, they produce effects
by transferring bodies with great rapidity from one
place to another. For the demons have power over
all [inferior things, natural or artificial, in this
respect; and, moreover, they are endowed with
wonderful agility, which enables them to pass in an
instant from one place to another, however remote.
Secondly, demons produce effects by the occult
application of natural causes, and by accelerating
their action for their knowledge is incredible. They
understand the nature and properties of every thing
in the mineral, vegetable, and animal worlds; and
they know where everything is. Hence they some-
times produce trees, fruits, animals, in an incredibly
short space of time, by the application of the seeds
and the other causes.
They often effect cures by the occult use of medi-
cines, or by entering the body and expelling evil
humours.
Thirdly, they perform prodigies by acting on the
senses. This happens in two ways; sometimes
240
CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT
ROTE
they produce objects made of condensed air, and
moved by them. Thus they make serpents, dra-
gons,
and many
kinds of animals appear; at other
times they impede the action of the senses, and
excite the imagination until impressions are so vivid,
that they seem to be caused by the objects that
naturally produce them.
It is in one or more of these ways the demon acts
at the word or request of the magician.
There is almost always a compact with the demon,
though, on rare occasions, he works on being tacitly
invoked.
The compact between the demon and magician is
based upon engagements mutually entered into.
The man promises to obey the demon, to disobey
God, to deny his attributes, his sacraments, &c.;
and the demon, on his part, promises to work for
him and at his bidding. This compact is entered
into either with the demon himself appearing, or
through the intervention of some man devoted to
magic.
The compact with the demon is sometimes con-
cluded with great solemnity. For example, when
the demon appears seated on a throne, and sur-
rounded by a host of evil spirits, as attendants and
witnesses of the contract.
The tacit invocation of the demon takes place,
when a man makes use of the same means as magi-
cians to effect his purpose, though there is no ex-
press contract. Generally there is formed a tacit
DOCTRINE OF MAGIC.
241
invocation of the demon, when a person endeavours
to accomplish a work by means which have no
natural or supernatural adaptation for the desired
end.
For example, the use of words without meaning,
figures curved or angular, false or fictitious state-
ments, such as that Christ had diseases, or other
such falsehoods, attaching importance to circum-
stances that cannot possibly have influence on the
effect that is looked for, such as the colour of the
paper on which passages of Scripture should be
written, or the particular day and hour for procur-
ing herbs; all these are tacit invocations of the
demon.
Magicians often unite heresy to their art, and
thus are excommunicated, as are all who consult
them, or seek their assistance.
There are two kinds of divination. The demon
is invoked in both, expressly and tacitly, to declare
things naturally concealed from man.
Such ex-
press invocation of the demon occurs in a variety of
ways, and gives to divination a variety of names.
The demon knows much naturally that men do
His long experience renders him service in
conjecture. He may derive some knowledge from
the good angels.
not.
He sees causes that naturally and necessarily
must produce in the course of time effects. For
instance, the death of a person attacked by disease,
naturally fatal, yet not known to many as such, can
I
R
242
CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT
be predicted. Hence he can deceive the diviners
and those who consult them.
Sorcerers, like wine,
work by the aid of the evil spirit.
Sorcerers injure by their art, sometimes persons,
sometimes property. Demons have no power over
either person or property, except by God's permis-
sion. They cannot coerce the will of any; but they
may, by suggestion, allurements, &c. induce per-
sons to follow a certain course. In every instance
it is the demon that works, causing sickness, and
destroying houses and crops, and even though the
sorcerers imagine they themselves are the agents.†
a provincial Council, more ancient than the
Nicene council, called "The Council of Ancyra,"
there are some very remarkable passages in a decree
on the subject of Sorcery and Satanic influence, of
very great interest. There is a difference of opinion
among ecclesiastical writers as to the place where
the Council was held, but none of weight as to the
genuineness of the acts of it. Baronius believes
this Council was held in Rome, under Pope Damascus,
in the time of St. Jerome. Del Rio, the learned
Jesuit, believes it to have been held in Ancyra, the
metropolis of Galatea, according to the declaration
of those who collected the ancient canons. Alciatus,
in his "Parerga," refutes some interpreters of the
decrees of this Council, who had disparaged its
authority: "Nec coelum, nec terram attingunt."
+ Ib. lib. iv. cap. 16.
* Toletus, lib. iv. cap. 14, p. 7.
DOCTRINE OF MAGIC.
243
The following are the passages in the decree
above referred to.
"Illud etiam non est omittendum, quod quodam
sceleratæ mulieres retro post Satanam conversæ,
dæmonum illusionibus et phantasmatibus seductæ,
credunt et profitentur; se nocturnis horis, cum
Diana Paganorum Deâ, vel cum Herodiade, et in-
numerâ multitudine mulierum, equitare super quas-
dam bestias, et multa terrarum spatia intempesta
noctis spatio pertransire, ejusque jussionibus velut
Dominæ obedire, et certis noctibus ad ejus servitium
evocari: Sed utinam hæ solæ in sua perfidia periis-
sent, et non multos secum in infidelitatis interitum
pertraxissent: Nam innumera multitudo hac falsa
opinione decepta, hæc falsa opinione decepta, hæc
vera esse credit, et credendo a rectâ fide deviat, et
in errore Paganorum revolvitur, cum aliquid divini-
tatis aut numinis extra unum Deum arbitratur.
Quapropter sacerdotes per ecclesias sibi commissas,
populo omni instantiâ prædicare debent, ut noverint
hæc omnimodis esse falsa, et non a divino sed a ma-
ligno spiritu talia phantasmata, mentibus fidelium
irrogari. Siquidem ipse Satanus qui transfigurat se
in angelum lucis, cum mentem cujusque mulierculæ
cæperit, et hanc sibi per infidelitatem subjugaverit,
illico transformat se in diversarum personarum spe-
cies atque similitudines, et mentem quam captivam
tenet in somnis deludens, modo læta, modo tristia,
modo cognitas, modo incognitas personas ostendens,
devia quaque
quaque deducit. Et cum solus spiritus hoc
per
R 2
244
CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT
partitur, infidelis mens hoc non in animo, sed incor-
pore opinatur evenire. Quis enim non in somnis et
nocturnis visionibus extra se educitur, et multa videt
dormiendo, quæ nunquam viderat vigilando. Quis
vero tam stultus et hebes est, qui hæc omnia quæ in
solo spiritu fiunt, etiam in corpore accidere arbitre-
tur; cum Ezechiel propheta visiones Domini in
spiritu, non in corpore, vidit? Et Johannes Apos-
tolus Apocalypsis, sacramentum in spiritu, non in
corpore, vidit, et audivit, sicut ipse dicit, statim in-
quit fui in spiritu. Et Paulus non audet dicere se
raptum in corpore. Omnibus itaque publicè annun-
ciandum est quod qui talia et his similia credit, fidem
perdit; et qui fidem rectam in Domino non habet,
hic non est ejus, sed illius in quem credit, id est,
diaboli. Nam de Domino nostro scriptum est,
omnia per ipsum facta sunt. Quisquis ergo credit
posse fieri aliquam creaturam, aut in melius, aut in
deterius immutari, aut transformari in aliam speciem
vel similitudinem, nisi ab ipso Creatore qui omnia
fecit, et per quem omnia facta sunt, procul dubio in-
fidelis est et pagans inferior."
"Now this decree of the Ancyran Council," says a
learned writer, "was the more seasonable, in regard
that, a little before, Manes, or Manichæus, had spread
abroad in the Christian world, that old heathenish
doctrine of the two principles, one of good and the
other of evil; and it is remarkable, that witches and
Manichæans are coupled together by the Emperors
Dioclesian and Maximian, in their rescript to Julian,
DOCTRINE OF MAGIC.
245
the proconsul of Africa, de Maleficis et Manichæis, as
it is cited out of the Gregorian code by Ruffinus, in
his Collation of the Jewish with the Roman laws.
About a hundred years after, and somewhat more,
Priscillian and his followers did, in a great measure,
embrace the doctrine of Manes; insomuch, that in
the year 563, there was a Council held at Bracara,
a town of Gallicia, in Spain, against the Priscillian-
ists. In the decrees of this Council, Manes and
Priscillian are frequently joined together for their
foolish conceits concerning the power of the devil
or evil principle; but especially they have one
decree, very considerable to our present purpose,
wherein they anathematize all those who believe that
the devil can make any creature, or so much as
raise storms and tempests by his own authority or
power; the words are these, Si quis credit, quod
aliquantas in mundo creaturas diabolus faceris, et
tonitrua, et fulgura, et tempestates, et siccites, ipse
diabolus sua autoritate faciat, sicut Priscillianus
dixit, anathema sit. Wherefore, if the devil cannot
raise thunder and lightning and tempests by his
own power, he did no more in the case of Job, than
Elijah, or any mortal man may do, when he receives
a commission from God."*
The learned Benedictine, Pere Augustine Calmet,
whose commentary on the Scriptures is of European
celebrity, published a remarkable work on spirits,
entitled "Dissertations sur Apparitions des Anges,
* The Question of Witchcraft debated, pp. 52, &c.
246
CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT
des Demons, et des Esprits : et sur les Revenans et
Vampires." In 12mo. Paris, 1746.
The main design of this work is to shew, that the
Scriptures abound in evidence of apparitions of good
and evil spirits, and that their existence cannot be
denied without rejecting the authority of the sacred
Scriptures, which records those apparitions. "The
reality of them is a matter of fact, which must be
received," says Calmet; "the mode of their appear-
ance, is a question which it is permitted to reason
on-whether those apparitions were real or ima-
ginary." The subject is so important, and the dis-
sertation on it at once so comprehensive and suc-
cinct, that I am induced to lay it before my readers
without any curtailment-and that portion of it,
which is particularly deserving of attention-in the
original French :-"On ne peut donc nier les Appa-
ritions des Anges et des demons sans renverser toutes
les Ecritures qui les rapportent et les supposent.
Mais il est permis de raisonner sur la maniere dont
se sont faites ses apparitions. Etoient illes reelles
on imaginaires? Les anges avoient-ils de veritables
corps palpables et materiels ou des corps subtiles,
aeriens en forme de vapeurs epaisses, qui les faisoient
paroitre aux sens commes personnes vivantes, parlant
marchant, mangeant, agissant comme composès de
corps animès; ou etoient-que de simples phantomes,
qui imposent aux sens et aux yeux des hommes ?
ou etoit-ce une espèce de fascination et illusion
faite aux yeux et aux sens de spectateurs, qui
croyoient voir, entendre, toucher, ce qui n'etoit
DOCTRINE OF MAGIC.
247
rien au dehors et ne subsistoit, que dans leur ima-
gination trompée, comme il arrive dans le sommeil,
ou meme dans la veille, quand l'ignorance de la
physique nous fait prendre pour rèel, ce qui n'est
que apparent, comme quand on plonge une batòn
dans l'eau et qu'il paroit courbè ou rompu, quoi-
qu'il n'y ait aucun changement dans le baton mais
seulement dans les rayons visuels, et dans l'impression
qu'ils font sur les yeux; ou ce qui se passe dans
l'idee des hypochondriaques, qui se figurent etre de
terre, de neige, de glace; ou etre rois, papes, car-
dinaux ou loups, chats ou chiens et qui partent et
agissent en consequence."
Calmet, in continuation, says, "I cannot better
answer these questions, nor resolve these doubts,
than by the following words of St. Augustine:
'Who can explain with what bodies angels have
appeared to men, so that they were not only seen,
but touched how they appeared in dreams, and
have spoken as those speak whom one sees in dreams;
for the holy angels had thus manifested themselves,
although they have not palpable bodies; on which
matter a question arises very difficult to resolve: to
understand for instance, how the Patriarch washes
their feet; how Jacob conld wrestle with an angel
clothed with a palpable body. When questions are
raised on all those matters, and each person proposes
his conjectures, those researches serve to exercise the
mind usefully, provided one remains within the limits
of legitimate inquiry, and does not flatter himself in
248
CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT
vain, imagining that he knows that which he does
not know. For, what necessity is there, in fine,
to affirm, or to deny, or to define things of this
sort, which cannot be affirmed without danger, and
which can be ignored without sin, and without any
inconvenience.'"* [So far for St. Augustine.]
"One must then," observes Calmet, "without de-
nying that which is certain, rest in silence and avow
one's ignorance as to the way in which apparitions
take place. It will be said to me-this is not resolving
the difficulty, nor untying the knot which has caused
embarrassment. I avow it: but God has not per-
mitted that we should know more on this subject.
Whoever seeks to penetrate too far into the depths
of the majesty and greatness of His works, will be
oppressed with the dazzling brightness of them,
'Qui scrutator est majestatis, opprimetur à gloria.""
Prov. xxv. 27.†
The Protestant doctrine and belief concerning
sorcery and witchcraft, is to be found thus compen-
diously explained in a work of generally received
authority, "A Practical Catechism, by H. Ham-
mond, D.D.:" [15th edit., London, 1715, pp. 322
to 625.]
The meaning of the promise made by the sponsors
of the baptized to "renounce the devil and all his
works and pomps."
* August. Enchiridion, cap. 59.
+ Calmet," Dissertations sur les Apparitions," &c. ch. iv. page
11 to 14.
DOCTRINE OF MAGIC.
249
"Certainly the principal thing here renounced is
the false gods, id est, devils which the heathen
world did worship so universally before Christ's
time, and against which the catechists (who pre-
pared all for baptism) did first labour to fortify their
disciples, and are for that cause called in the ancient
church, and known by the title of Exorcists, as those
that cast out those devils."
"But then, secondly, as he that acknowledges the
true God with his tongue, doth oft deny him in his
life; so they that renounce these fallen gods or
devils, that pray not to them, nor believe them to be
gods, may yet acknowledge them in their actions,
i.e., may be supposed (as men are oft found) to live
like those idolatrous heathens in the midst of Chris-
tianity. And, therefore, after this sense of renounc-
ing the devil, as that signifies forsaking all idolatrous
worship, you must further add the renouncing
all commerce or consulting with him; the former
being that which witches and sorcerers use, the
latter, that which they are guilty of which repair to
such witches, or receive responses from them, or
directions for health or thriving, or acquiring any
advantages in the world; or if it be but by way
of curiosity to know (by any such black art) any
future events, or the like, and all other things
wherein the devil's help is called in, through not de-
pending totally upon God: which, as you meet with
them, you will understand, by the proportion or
250
CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT
analogy which they hold with those which I have
now named to you.
29
The catechist proceeds to explain the meaning of
the secondary sense in which all such sins as have a
special character of Satan in them-pride, ambition,
deadly mischief, and malignant evil to life or fame
of others, slandering, corrupting, or terrifying them
to unlawful acts and other sins, carrying much of
Satan's image in them, and deserving to be called
his works.
"Whensoever it is sure that the devil tempts any
man to any sin, if he yield to it, that is very pro-
perly a work of the devil. But it is hard to dis-
cern that, or when, or where the devil doth thus
immediately tempt any, and it is ordinary to
accuse the devil of that which comes from our own
evil inclinations and customs, &c. . . . . I say, for
these and other considerations I did not think fit to
name these in the front of the works of the devil,
being not sure they all belong to that rank of sins
as here they are set down by way of difference from
the 'pomps of the world, and the deserts of the
flesh.' Yet shall I not on this occasion neglect to
mind you how nearly you are concerned to watch
the devil, that evil spirit, that he do not secretly in-
spire or infuse any evil thoughts into you; and the
rather, because what he doth so, he takes all care
that those suggestions may seem not to come from
* A Practical Catechism, by H. Hammond, D.D., lib. vi.
p. 322. London, 1715.
DOCTRINE OF MAGIC.
251
him, (knowing that any Christian must needs be
averse from hearkening to them then,) but he labours
to appear an angel of light, a good spirit, the very
Spirit of God, and often brings it so about, that in
his inward whisperings having some specious dis-
guise of religion, or zeal for God put upon them, are
taken for the voice of God's Spirit within men; and
among those that pretend to enthusiasms, and that
they are taught by the Spirit those things which
the Word of God (the sure inspired voice of God's
Spirit) doth not teach them (nay, which in the con-
ceit and opinion of some of them are to be believed,
though they seem contrary to that), it will be no
wonder if Satan do so prevail as to obtrude his temp-
tations under the disguise of dictates of God's
Spirit; and that may be a reason that St. Paul con-
jures the Galatians, that they anathematize whosoever
(though a seeming angel from heaven) that teaches
any other doctrine for the doctrine of God, save
that which was then already received by them; inti-
mating that seeming good angel, to be indeed a
diabolical accursed spirit, that so teacheth: and St.
John, 1. Ep. iv., advises us, likewise to try the spirits,
whether they be of God or no; signifying (as many
false teachers acted by evil spirits,) so surely many
evil spirits also, do put on the outward appearance
of godlike spirits, so that they, if we beware not, may
be by us mistaken for the Spirit of God."*
* A Practical Catechism, by H. Hammond, D.D., lib. vi.
p. 325. London, 1715.
252
CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT
Luther's opinions and observations on the subject
of the agency and operations of evil spirits may be
gathered from his "Colloquia Mensalia." The pas-
sages I cite from those "Familiar Discourses," are
taken from "The Table Talk," edited and translated
by W. Hazlitt, Esq. Bogue, London, 1848.
"OF THE DEVIL AND HIS WORKS.
66
DLXXIV.
"The greatest punishment God can inflict on the
wicked, is when the church, to chastise them, deli-
vers them over to Satan, who, with God's permis-
sion, kills them, or makes them undergo great cala-
mities. Many devils are in woods, in waters, in
wildernesses, and in dark pooly places, ready to
hurt and prejudice people; some are also in the
thick black clouds, which cause hail, lightnings, and
thunderings, and poison the air, the pastures and
grounds. When these things happen, then the phi-
losophers and physicians say, it is natural, ascribing
it to the planets, and shewing I know not what
reasons for such misfortunes and plagues as ensue.
"DLXXVI.
"Dr. Luther was asked, whether the Samuel who
appeared to king Saul, upon the invocation of the
pythoness, as is related in the first Book of Kings,
was really the prophet Samuel. The doctor an-
swered: No, 'twas a spectre, an evil spirit, assum-
6
DOCTRINE OF MAGIC.
253
ing his form. What proves this is, that God, by the
laws of Moses, had forbidden man to question the
dead; consequently, it must have been a demon
which presented itself under the form of the man of
God. In like manner, an abbot of Spanheim, a
sorcerer, exhibited to the emperor Maximilian all the
emperors his predecessors, and all the most cele-
brated heroes of past times, who defiled before him
each in the costume of his time. Among them were
Alexander the Great and Julius Cæsar. There was
also the emperor's betrothed, whom Charles of
France stole from him. But these apparitions were
all the work of the demon.
66
DLXXXI.
"August 25, 1538, the conversation fell upon
witches who spoil milk, eggs, and butter in farm-
yards. Dr. Luther said, 'I should have no com-
passion on these witches; I would burn all of them.
We read in the old law, that the priests threw the
first stone at such malefactors. 'Tis said this stolen
butter turns rancid, and falls to the ground when
any one goes to eat it. He who attempts to coun-
teract and chastise these witches, is himself corpo-
really plagued and tormented by their master, the
devil. Sundry schoolmasters and ministers have
often experienced this. Our ordinary sins offend
and anger God. What, then, must be his wrath
against witchcraft, which we may justly designate
high treason against divine majesty, a revolt against
254
CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT
the power of God. The jurisconsults who have so
learnedly treated of rebellion, affirm that the subject
who rebels against his sovereign, is worthy of death.
Does not witchcraft, then, merit death, which is a
revolt of the creature against the Creator, a denial
to God of the authority it accords to the demon?"
66
DLXXXII.
"Dr. Luther discoursed at length concerning
witchcraft and charms. He said, that his mother
had to undergo infinite annoyance from one of her
neighbours, who was a witch, and whom she was
fain to conciliate with all sorts of attentions; for
this witch could throw a charm upon children, which
made them cry themselves to death. A pastor
having punished her for some knavery, she cast a
spell upon him by means of some earth upon which
he had walked, and which she bewitched. The poor
man hereupon fell sick of a malady which no remedy
could remove, and shortly after died.
66
DLXXXIII.
"It was asked: Can good Christians and God-
fearing people also undergo witchcraft? Luther
replied: Yes; for our bodies are always exposed to
the attacks of Satan. The maladies I suffer are not
natural, but devil's spells,
66
DLXXXVII.
"The devil seduces us at first by all the allurements
of sin, in order thereafter to plunge us into despair:
he pampers up the flesh, that he may, by and bye,
DOCTRINE OF MAGIC.
255
prostrate the spirit. We feel no pain in the act of
sin, but the soul after it is sad, and the conscience
disturbed.
،،
DXCIV.
"The devil knows the thoughts of the ungodly, for
he inspires them therewith. He sees and rules the
hearts of all such people as are not kept safe and
preserved by God's Word; yea holds them captive
in his snares, so that they must think, do, and speak
according to his will. And St. Paul
And St. Paul says: "The
god of this world blindeth the minds of them that
believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of
Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto
them,' &c. And Christ gives a reason how it comes
to pass, that many hear the Word, yet neither un-
derstand nor keep the same, where he says: "The
devil cometh, and taketh the Word out of their
hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.'
Therefore it is no marvel that the devil, through his
prophets, declares what shall happen and come to
pass.
66 DXCV.
"The Scripture clearly shews that the devil gives
unto` mankind evil thoughts, and suggests evil pro-
jects to the ungodly; as of Judas is written that the
devil put it into his heart to betray Christ. And he
not only instigated Cain to hate his brother Abel,
but, moreover, to murder him. But the devil knows
not the thoughts of the righteous, until they utter
256
CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT
them. He knew not the thoughts of Christ's heart,
nor knows he the thoughts of the godly, in whose
heart Christ dwells. 'Tis a powerful, crafty, and
subtle spirit. Christ names him the Prince of the
World; he goes about shooting all thoughts, his
fiery darts, into the hearts, even of the godly, as
discord, hatred to God, despair, blaspheming, &c.
St. Paul well understood all these assaults, and bit-
terly complains of them.
"DXCVI.
"The apostle gives this title to the devil: That
he hath the power of death.' And Christ calls him
a murderer. He is so skilled, that he is able to
cause death even with the leaf of a tree; he has
more boxes and pots full of poison, wherewith he
destroys men, than all the apothecaries in the world
have of healing medicine; if one poison will not dis-
patch, another will. In a word, the power of the
devil is greater than we can imagine; 'tis only God's
finger can resist him.
66 DCIV.
"In cases of melancholy and sickness, I conclude
it is merely the work of the devil. For God makes
us not melancholy, nor affrights nor kills us, for he is
a God of the living. Hence the Scripture: Re-
joice, and be of good comfort.' God's Word and
prayer is physic against spiritual tribulations.
66
DCVII.
6
"I hold that a devil, once overcome with God's
DOCTRINE OF MAGIC.
257
6
Word and Spirit, must be gone, and dare not return
again with the same temptation ;
Christ says
'Avoid, Satan.' And in another place: Come
out, thou unclean spirit.' Then say the devils :
'Suffer us to enter into the herd of swine.' Origen
says: 'I believe that the saints strangle and slay
many devils in combating '—that is, break their
power.
66 DCVIII.
"Witchcraft is the devil's own proper work, where-
with, when God permits, he not only hurts people,
but often makes away with them; for in this world
we are as guests and strangers, body and soul cast
under the devil; he is god of this world, and all
things are under his power, whereby we are pre-
served in temporal life,-as meat, drink, air, &c.
"The devil is so crafty a spirit, that he can ape and
deceive our senses. He can cause one to think he
sees something, which he sees not, and he hears
thunder, or a trumpet, which he hears not.
66
DCXIII.
"The devil has two occupations, to which he
applies himself incessantly, and which are the foun-
dation stones of his kingdom-lying and murder.
God says: "Thou shalt have none other gods but
me.' Against these two commandments, the devil,
with all his force, fights without intermission.
He now plays no more with people, as heretofore,
by means of rumbling spirits, for he sees that the
1.
S
258
CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT
condition of the time is far otherwise than what it
was twenty years past. He now begins at the right
end, and uses great diligence. The rumbling spirits
are mute among us; but the spirits of sedition in-
crease above measure, and get the upper hand: God
resist them.
66
DCXIV.
"The power the devil exercises is not by God com-
manded, but God resists him not, suffering him to
make tumults, yet no longer or further than he wills,
for God has set him a mark, beyond which he neither
can nor dare step.
"When God said, concerning Job, to Satan :
"Behold, he is in thy hands, yet spare his life," this
power was by God permitted, as if God should say:
I will so far permit and give thee leave, but touch
not his life.
66
DCXX.
"God gives to the devil and to witches power over
human creatures in two ways; first, over the un-
godly, when he will punish them by reason of their
sins; secondly, over the just and godly, when he
intends to try whether they will be constant in the
Without God's
faith, and remain in his obedience.
will and our own consent, the devil cannot hurt us;
for God says: "Whoso touches you, toucheth the
apple of mine eye.' And Christ: There cannot
fall an hair from your head, without your heavenly
Father's notice."
こ
​DOCTRINE OF MAGIC.
259
66
DCXXX.
"Men are possessed by the devil two ways; cor-
porally and spiritually. Those whom he possesses
corporally, as mad people, he has permission from
God to vex and agitate, but he has no power over
their souls. The impious, who persecute the divine
doctrine, and treat the truth as a lie, and who,
unhappily, are very numerous in our time, these the
devil possesses spiritually. They cannot be delivered,
but remain, horrible to relate, his prisoners, as in the
time of Jesus Christ, were Annas, Caiaphas, and
all the other impious Jews whom Jesus himself could
not deliver, and as now-a-days, are the pope, his
cardinals, bishops, tyrants, and partisans."
In the Letters on "Demonology and Witchcraft,"
by Sir Walter Scott, addressed to J. G. Lockhart,
Esq. [2nd ed. 12mo. 1831] reference is made at pages
51 and 54, to the following two passages in the Old
Testament, in connection with the subject of witch-
craft and sorcery; the first, "Men shall not
suffer a witch to live," Exodus, ii. 22: the second,
"There shall not be found among you any one
that maketh his son or daughter to pass through the
fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times,
or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a
consulter with familiar spirits, or a necromancer,"
Deuteronomy, xvii. 10, 11.
With respect to the first passage, Scott says," Many
learned men have affirmed, that in this remarkable
S 2
260
CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT
passage the Hebrew word Chasaph means nothing
more than poisoner, like the word veneficus, by
which it is rendered in the Latin version of the
Septuagint; other learned men contend, that it hath
the meaning of a witch also, and may be understood
by denoting a person who pretended to hurt his or
her neighbour in life, limb, or goods, either by noxious
potions, by charms or similar mystical means."*
"But supposing," he observes, "that the Hebrew
witch proceeded only by charms, invocations, or such
means as might be innoxious, save for the assistance
of demons or familiars, the connection between the
conjurer and the demon must have been of a very
different character under the law of Moses, from that
which was conceived in latter days to constitute witch-
craft. There was no contract of subjection to a dia-
bolic influence, no infernal stamp or sign of such a
fatal league, no revellings of Satan and his hags, and
no infliction of disease or misfortune on good men.
At least there is not a word in Scripture to authorise
us to believe that such a system existed."†
With respect to the passage from Deuteronomy,
and passages to a like effect, in Leviticus, xix.
and xx. and 2 Chronicles, xxviii.; Sir Walter Scott
observes,--"Those passages seem to concur with
the former, in classing witchcraft among other de-
sertions of the prophets, of the Deity, in order to
obtain responses by the superstitious practices of
the pagan nations around them. To understand
*Letters on Demonology, &c. p. 51.
+ Ib. p. 52.
DOCTRINE OF MAGIC.
261
the texts otherwise seems to confound the modern
system of witchcraft, with all its unnatural and
improbable outrages on common sense, with the
crime of the person who in classical days consulted
the Oracle of Apollo-a capital offence in a few,
but surely a venial sin in an ignorant and deluded
Pagan."*
Sir Walter, in a note subjoined to a preceding
passage, refers to some observations on the text,
with which he had been favoured, which are inserted
at the end of his volume.
In those observations it will be found, the writer
plainly affirms what Sir Walter Scott left unsaid,
but meant to be believed, namely, that the terms made
use of in the two passages from the Old Testament
cited by him, are misinterpretations in the English
version. The writer of the observations in the note
says "The versions of them in the English Bible
are exceedingly loose and indefinite, and a stricter
interpretation will be found to add great strength to
the position laid down by Sir Walter Scott, and
which no doubt contains the true exposition of the
nature of the guilt, which attached to the exercisers
of these arts among the Jews."t
The writer gives the various terms in the Eng-
lish version which he considers misinterpreted, and
the number in the two passages cited is no less
than six.
* Letters on Demonology, p. 54.
+ Note on a passage in Sir W. Scott's Demonology, p. 391.
262
CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT
This is a matter of no small importance, and
deserves more attention than a matter treated as it
were casually in a popular work might seem to
require.
It will be observed, that Sir Walter Scott alluding
to the alleged misinterpretation, says, many learned
men have affirmed, "so and so," but he refers to
no particular authority. The writer of the note
refers for his authority on the same subject to
Parkhurst's Lexicon.
It will be found, however, that the original source
of the opinion adopted by Sir Walter Scott, and
extended and explained by the annotator, is an
English treatise, entitled "The Question of Witch-
craft Debated;" wherein this view of the alleged
misinterpretation of the terms by which the various
forms of Jewish sorcery were expressed, was for
the first time set forth in extenso in an English
publication. Learned men had previously referred
incidentally in their works to those terms and ob-
jected to their indefinitiveness, but in the treatise
above referred to the views of several writers,
which may have been separately insinuated, are put
before the English public, combined in a distinct
form and advanced with no less ability than bold-
ness, perhaps temerity might be a better word.
As an argument, forcibly and frankly stated, of
a Protestant writer of ability, representing opinions
on this subject of eminent literary men of his Church,
adopted by such men too as Sir Walter Scott, and
DOCTRINE OF MAGIC.
263
as the treatise in which it is set forth is one rarely
met with, I have thought it would be desirable to
place it before my readers.
"The Question of Witchcraft Debated, or a Dis-
course against their opinion that affirm Witchcraft.
By J. W. 1669, in 12mo.”
"That absolute and unlimited power, with which
the Eastern nations were always governed, did re-
quire not only the force of arms, but the craft also
and tricks of superstition to uphold it; nor indeed
were standing armies of greater use unto the orien-
tal monarchs for keeping of their people in awe,
than idols were and priests, and the various im-
postures used by them. So various, that to enume-
rate every particular way of delusion insisted on by
the heathen priests of old, is a very difficult task
to perform. Wherefore in regard it belongs unto
my present purpose and design, to treat of them
only so far as they comprehend all that notion of a
witch, which may be found in Scripture; I shall in
order thereunto, reduce them unto these four
general heads, of Juggling, Enchanting, Conjecturing,
Divining.
"Jugglers were such as performed strange things
in the sight of the common people, to their admira-
tion and astonishment. This they did, either by
legerdemain, that is, slight of hand, or else by
magic, that is, skill in Natural Philosophy; or lastly
by a familiar, that is, a confederated person privy
to the plot, and assistant to the performance.
264
CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT
"Enchanters were such as with charms or certain
composures and set forms of words, did pretend
by virtue thereof, to bless and to curse, to do good
and to do hurt unto the parties for whom those
charms were made. Now these two sorts of im-
postors may not unaptly be called, the counterfeit
miracle-mongers of the heathens, as the other two
that follow may justly be called their false prophets.
"Conjecturers, in their guessing at the event of
future things, made use of rules, drawn from their
own or other men's observations, about the stars,
about the fowls of the air, about the entrails of
sacrificed beasts, and about many other things
needless here to be reckoned up.
"Diviners, whom I here call so by way of emi-
nence, and of distinction from conjecturers (not
ignorant that divining taken in a general sense,
doth comprehend conjecturing also; I say Diviners)
pretended to a higher and more infallible kind of
prophecy, receiving forsooth their revelations from
some divinity or other; either from a God, or from
a demon, or from the spirit of a man departed.
"Thus did the heathen priests, with subtile and
sly inventions, magnify the power of their idol gods,
and seduce the foolish people to idolatry. Where-
fore these impostures were so hateful in the sight
of God, that the Israelites are often in the Mosaical
law forewarned from them, as being those very
abominations, for which the Lord did cast their
enemies out of that land which they were to inherit.
DOCTRINE OF MAGIC.
265
But above all places, the eighteenth chapter of
Deuteronomy is most remarkable, I mean the ninth,
tenth, eleventh, and twelfth verse of that chapter,
which in our English translation runs thus.
"When thou art come into the land which the
Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to
do after the abominations of those nations.
"There shall not be found among you any one
that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through
the fire, or that useth divinations, or an observer of
times, or an enchanter, or a witch.
"Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar
spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
"For all that do these things are an abomina-
tion unto the Lord; and because of these abomina-
tions, the Lord thy God shall drive them out from
before thee.'
"Now this place in Deuteronomy, is therefore
highly to be considered as to my present purpose
in regard there is not a word in the Bible importing
Witchcraft, in any other sense than the words of
the tenth and eleventh verses do. Wherefore if we
consider things right, Witchcraft is not to be found
in Scripture, this being the true translation of those
two verses.
"Let there not be found among you any one
that maketh his son or his daughter pass through
the fire, or that useth divinations, or a star-gazer, or
a conjecturer, or a miracle-monger.
"Or an enchanter, or a seeker of an oracle, or a
wizard, or a necromancer.'
266
CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT
"Here are to be seen three notorious mistakes
of our English translators. The first is their calling
a conjecturer an enchanter, which why they should
I cannot at all imagine, there being not the least
hint of such a signification in the Hebrew word
Far better was it rendered in the old transla-
tion, 'a regarder of the flying of fowls,' for that is
truth, although it be not all the truth: the flight
of fowls being but one way of many, which conjec-
turers made use of. Whereas on the contrary to
call a conjecturer an enchanter, hath not the least
spark of truth in it: an enchanter being the same
with a charmer, which follows in the next verse,
and is in the Hebrew a word derived from 377
to speak, pronounce or declare; and not from the
same word, as it signifies to join to, or be in league
with; from whence some fondly imagine, that an
enchanter is one who hath a league with the devil.
"The second mistake of our translators is, their
calling a miracle-monger a witch. The Hebrew
word is, which the Septuagint renders by the
Greek word páрμaкos, meaning an impostor, not
a poisoner for it is ridiculous to think, that Pha-
raoh's magicians, Jezebel the Queen, and King
Manasses, did exercise the art of poisoning. Thus
in the eighteenth chapter of the Revelations and
the twenty-third verse, the word pápμaketa is
neither taken for witchcraft, nor poisons, but for
impostures though our translators have rendered
it witchcraft. Now the miracle-mongers, or jug-
DOCTRINE OF MAGIC.
267
gling workers of counterfeit miracles are therefore
so severely prohibited in that Law of Moses, because
they acted strange things in the sight of the people
to confirm them in false religions.
"In the case of Samuel raised by the witch of
Endor, Scripture speaks according to the deceived
apprehensions of Saul and his followers for neither
that woman, nor all the devils in hell could raise
Samuel, who had been dead and buried almost two
years. As for those who fancy that God did then
raise Samuel; it is a very likely thing indeed, that
God should refuse to answer Saul, when he con-
sulted him in ways appointed by himself, and yet
should answer him when he consulted in a forbidden
way. Besides, if Samuel had been raised by God,
no doubt he would never have said unto Saul, Why
hast thou disquieted me? for it would have been no
disquiet nor trouble unto him, to come upon God's
errand. Some there are who will needs have it to
be the devil in the likeness of Samuel, because Saul's
death was foretold. To this I answer, that it was
the woman herself, or a person confederated with
her, who spoke it at a venture, knowing that Saul
was going to fight: but as for the certainty of his
death, it could not have been foretold by the devil
himself.
"The third error of our translators is, their mis-
taking a consulter with oracles or false prophets,
for a consulter with familiar spirits. The Hebrew
words are, which word ob signifies in Scrip-
268
CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT
6
ture, sometimes the gift of oracling, and sometimes
the person that hath such a gift. It signifies also
a bottle, or hollow vessel, and from this signification,
I suppose the other came. For it is certain that
oraclers, when they pronounced their oracles, did
use to counterfeit strange kinds of voices, that they
might seem not to be human. To this purpose
it is not unlikely, that they made use of a bottle, or
trunk, or some other hollow vessel, which they spoke
through, whereby their voices must needs be very
much altered, especially if they were in a cave or room
under ground, when they made answer to enquiries.
These kind of cheating tricks are plainly alluded
unto by the prophet Isaiah in these words; And
thy voice shall be as of an oracler out of the earth,
and thy speech shall peep out of the dust.' Here I
suppose, the prophet chiefly alludes unto the necro-
mantic oracler, or one that pretended to consult with
the dead who himself or confederate, did therefore
counterfeit a voice like the piping of a chicken, that
it might the more plausibly seem to be the small
voice of a poor departed ghost. This will appear
more plainly, if we consider the nineteenth verse
of the eighth chapter of Isaiah, according to the
translation of Junius and Tremelius, our own being
hardly sense the words are these, For when they
say unto you, ask counsel of oraclers and sooth-
sayers, who peep and mutter; Should not a people
ask counsel of their God? should they ask counsel
of the dead for the living?" Now as the oraclers,
6
DOCTRINE OF MAGIC.
269
when they pretended to receive answers from the
dead would pipe like chickens; so when they delivered
the mind of a god, or a demon, they counterfeited
other-guise tones. In which way of counterfeiting,
some were such excellent artists that they stood in
need of no instrument to help them; in regard they
could speak with their mouths shut, and their voice
would seem to come out of their bellies, as if they
had been really possessed with a talking devil: hence
they were called Engastrimuthians by the Greeks,
as also they were called Eurycleans, from one
Eurycles a famous impostor of this kind. And as
Plutarch testifies, these Engastrimuthians or Eury-
cleans, were anciently called Pythons: Now Пve@v
and Πνεῦμα Πύθονος in Greek doth exactly render
the Hebrew ob. Thus if we take ob for an oracler,
and the spirit of oracling, we may very commodi-
ously, with Junius and Tremelius, translate that
passage in the Chronicles, concerning Manasses,
where it is said of him, 8, he made or set up
an oracle, that is, he ordained or appointed oraclers.
For the word gnashah signifies to make or finish.
Wherefore because it would be ridiculous to say,
that Manasses made familar spirits, our transla-
tors have altered the true signification of gnashah,
and translate it, though erroneously, as if it signified
to deal with, affirming that Manasses dealt with
familar spirits. But whosoever seriously views and
considers that place, he shall find it a mere descrip-
tion of idolatry, where there is mention of high
270
CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT
places and groves, and of altars, dedicated not only
to Baal, but unto the whole host of Heaven, as
also of the setting up a carved idol in the very
house of God. Wherefore it was suitable to men-
tion also that crew of men who were set apart by
Manasses, to officiate in this idolatrous worship;
such as were various sorts of oraclers, and miracle-
mongers. But how witches should come in here I
cannot tell, no nor how devils neither, unless you
believe that devils made answer at the heathen
oracles. Which if you do, for my part I must crave
leave to dissent, judging them to be nothing but
the impostures of men. And as Demosthenes did
wisely observe in his days, that the Delphian oracle
did piλπiew, so I am confident if history be
true, that the Hammonean did 'Aλežavdpíšew,
and that all the rest of the cheating pack did one
way or other 'Ανθρωπίζειν.”*
The different kinds of Pagan sorcery prevalent
in the times of Justin Martyr, are referred to in his
great work, "Apol. lib. i. sect. 24;" and in their
several ages, frequently in Tertullian's "Apology,"
in one of the "Dissertations of Maximus of Tyre"
(22), and over and over in the writings of St.
Jerome. Surely those persons who lived so near
the times of the Apostles, and must have been so
conversant with the sacred Scriptures, and with
the opinions of the Jews on the subject, the belief
in magic and the practices of sorcery, may be
The Question of Witchcraft Debated, ch. i.
DOCTRINE OF MAGIC.
271
considered as capable of comprehending and in-
terpreting those Hebrew terms which are rendered
in the English versions of the Scripture, both
Protestant and Catholic, by the words sorcerer,
wizard, diviner, &c. as persons of our times who
have applied themselves for a few years, and even
during that time only incidentally, perhaps, to the
study of Hebrew.
The high opinion entertained of the work of
Doctor Calmeil, by the author, is amply shewn in
the extensive use made of it in these pages. It
would be difficult to exaggerate its merits. There
certainly is no work in the English language on
Epidemic Insanity, where so much valuable informa-
tion is to be found, or wherein that subject is treated
with such a profound knowledge of it in all its
bearings.
It has the merit, moreover, of exhibiting strong
sympathies with humanity, enlightened views, and
just notions on all questions of medical jurisprudence.
But one great objection, and of most grave im-
portance, truly, must be taken to all those parts
of the work in which the author treats of the mi-
racles both of the Old and New Testament. There
is no avowed disbelief in the Christian religion, no
revolting declaration of distrust in the miraculous
powers of Christ or his Apostles, no express denun-
ciation of the Saviour's miracles as impostures; and
yet all the tendencies of the author's references to
them are to this effect, that all miracles are attri-
272
CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT
butable to the operation of natural causes; and all
diseases recorded in the Scriptures, as being pro-
duced by evil spirits, and cures described therein as
miraculously performed, as being explicable to medi-
cal philosophy, on grounds purely natural and scien-
tific. Most assuredly, if the medical philosophy that
teaches that opinion in France, or elsewhere, (and
we need not travel out of modern English medical
literature of the highest standing for it) be true-
Christianity is not. We have to make our election
between the teaching of that modern philosophy and
that of the Gospel: and to stand by our decision.
There is no mincing the matter. There is no use in
pretending to say Calmeil and his emules in the
schools of modern medical philosophy do not form-
ally, and in distinct express terms deny the divinity
of Christ, or the truth of the supernatural works
ascribed to them by the Gospel. Calmeil, and the
psycologists of his school, cut the ground as far as
they are able from under the foundations of Chris-
tianity, by discrediting all miracles, and involving
the character of those recorded in Scripture in the
opprobrium and contempt which they have brought
on the impostures and fanatical pretensions of which
we read in the description " Des Grandes Epidemies
de Delire" of the middle ages.
It would be more courageous for the incredulity
and disbelief in revelation, of modern science and
philosophy to assail Christianity openly, and with
sword in hand pointed at its throat, than to approach
DOCTRINE OF MAGIC.
273
its fortifications with unfriendly designs, under false
colours, or to sup the foundations covertly, when
the defenders are off their guard, unsuspicious of
any attack.
That species of cautious animosity which is
"willing to wound but yet afraid to strike," is very
manifest in the strictures of Monsieur Calmeil on
miracles recorded in the Scriptures, and it is the
more dangerous because it is unaccompanied with
any apparent violence, obvious hostility or offensive
vulgarity of contumely, profanity or impiety.
This observation, it cannot be denied, applies to a
large portion of the highest order of the scientific,
philosophical, and more erudite criticism of Germany
and England. Nothing in the New Testament is
more express, than the numerous appeals made by
the Evangelists to the miraculous powers of Christ,
exhibited in the casting out of devils and healing
the sick and the attribution of those powers to his
Apostles. The purpose of those appeals is plainly
seen in the convincing argument they furnished for
the end of Christ's coming into this world, the
destruction of the kingdom of darkness, the over-
throw of Paganism, the establishment and main-
tenance of the Christian religion.
The devil is called "The Prince of the power of
the air," "the God of this world," and his kingdom
had subsisted above two thousand years before the
advent of the Messiah.
On His coming the most famous oracles of Pagan-
I.
T
274
CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT
ism were silenced; its philosophy was disconcerted
and bewildered.
St. John says,
"For this purpose the Son of God
was manifested that He might destroy the works
of the devil." The unclean spirits not only acknow-
ledged him "The Holy one of God," but those
whom He sent forth. "The seventy returned to him
with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject
unto us through Thy name." After his death
and resurrection his disciples and followers exer-
cised the power that had been promised them.
"And these signs shall follow them that believe ;
in my name they shall cast out devils."
In the extracts which follow from the Apologies
for the Christian religion of Justin Martyr and of
Tertullian, to the close of the second century, the
appeals to those miraculous powers of the primi-
tive Christians were triumphantly addressed to
Pagan Emperors and Senates. The possession of
those powers, an eminent Protestant divine de-
clares, "was a standing miracle for several hundred
years together, till the kingdom of darkness was
destroyed and the Christian religion became the
joy of the whole earth.”
But the Christian religion has certainly not yet
become the joy of "the whole earth.”
It never embraced one half the limits of the Pa-
gan world, and until it does embrace the whole,
there is certainly nothing in Scripture to warrant
the belief that the promise shall be abrogated which
DOCTRINE OF MAGIC.
275
was given to those who preached the Gospel. "And
these signs shall follow them that believe; in my
name they shall cast out devils," &c.
The maintenance of Christianity, as well as its
establishment, required that standing miracle of
power over the kingdom of darkness.
The institution of a Christian Church and the
development of its organization may have super-
seded the necessity for the ordinary appeal to mira-
culous works, and rendered the display of superna-
tural power over demoniac influences less necessarily
frequent than in the times of primitive Christianity.
But while far more than one half of the popula-
tion of the world are involved in Paganism, the pur-
pose for which the Son of God was manifested,
"that He might destroy the works of the devil," it
cannot be said is yet accomplished wholly, and that
the promise is now null and void, " And these signs
shall follow them that believe; in his name they
shall cast out devils," &c.
But Mons. Calmeil, and his fellow psychologists
and medical philosophers, see nothing more in the
devil-craft of our Saviour's time and of the early ages
of Christianity than priest-craft. Hence it can be no
wonder that any suspicion of devil-craft in the ex-
traordinary phenomena of the furibund orgies of
the Beguards, the homicidal fanatics of the Pays-
du-Vaud and Berne, the Lycanthropists of Germany,
the Convulsionaires of St. Medard, the Anabaptists
of the Low Countries, can never cross their minds.
T 2
276
DOCTRINE OF MAGIC.
We have unfortunately too much evidence in the
history of the various Epidemic disorders of the hu-
man mind, in the middle ages especially, of the fatal
influence exercised on the reasoning powers of men
at various epochs of great public calamities or signal
visitations of the wrath of God-in times of bar-
barity, or periods of great sufferings from war,
rapacity, feudal tyranny, superstition, insecurity,
hardship and privation, in producing those "grandes
delires," which though attributable clearly to epi-
demic insanity, have been ignorantly, unjustly, and
inhumanly dealt with, as crimes against religion
punishable with death and persecution. Terrible
crimes in the name of religion have been committed
against humanity in dealing with those victims of
epidemic insanity.
But in our horror of them it is not necessary to the
interests of religion or of justice to have recourse, in
every similar case of an extraordinary nature mani-
festing mental and physical phenomena, which philo-
sophers and medical science are not competent to
explain, to priest-craft for a solution of the difficul-
ties which present themselves; and to deny that
there is any power which can be exerted by devil-
craft in this world which could account for them.
CHAPTER X.
THE REVIVED SORCERY OF PAGANISM.-MANIACAL
EPIDEMICS. THE PREVALENCE OF WITCHCRAFT
MONOMANIA, IN AN EPIDEMIC FORM, IN VA-
RIOUS CONTINENTAL COUNTRIES, AND IN THE
PENINSULA, IN THE 15TH, 16TH, AND 17TH
CENTURIES.
THE sorcery and necromancy of Pagan Rome, for
the ministration of their mysteries and its idolatry,
had their oracles, priestesses, and sibyls; their Sagæ,
Lemures, Lamia or Veneficæ, Lares and Penates,
time-honoured progenitors of our degenerate demon-
worshippers, fortune-tellers, predicters, invokers of
spirits, see-ers of apparitions, wizards and witches,—
"et hoc genus omne servorum et servarum Diabo-
lorum."
The Inquisition, in its relations with the epidemic
mental disturbances of the middle ages, shared in
all the ignorance that prevailed in those times. But
with its ignorance, craft and power were unhappily
blended; and fanaticism and intolerance operating
in the same direction, identified crimes, which, in
numberless cases, had no common origin.
The learned Jesuit Delrio, in his celebrated work
on Magic, written at the close of the 16th cen-
tury, (the date of the preface of the first edition is
278
WITCHCRAFT MONOMANIA
1596)* professes to give an account of all things
necessary to be known on the subject of Magic, its
curious arts and vain superstitions, by theologists,
jurists, physicians, and philosophers.
In the prologue to the first book and chapter of
his work, the author sets out with an exposition of
the necessity of his work on the following grounds:
At that time the reason of so many sorcerers was
on account of a defect in faith. Many heretics, at
the same time, were sorcerers; and heresy was
generally wont to terminate in sorcery.
It is not without reason that attention is particu-
larly called to this subject: for it is deeply to be
lamented, that in our own times, nay, in the present
year 1856, we should find in various periodicals and
public journals of high character, in other Catholic
countries, as well as in Rome and Vienna, no small
portion of their space devoted to a work entitled,
"The Jew of Verona," wherein the modern practice
of demon worship is solemnly asserted-the time as-
signed to it-the period of the late revolutionary
movements in Italy-the scene of that diabolical
worship Rome itself, as well as other revolutionized
places; and the actors in those impious rites of
Satanic adoration-the associates and colleagues,
and confederates of Mazzini and Garribaldi.
The demon-worshippers are as old as the opinions
* Delrio Martino. Magicarum Disquisitiones: seu Methodus
Confessariorum Directioni Commoda. Moguntia. 1618. 4to. in
3 tomes.
IN AN EPIDEMIC FORM.
279
of the most ancient philosophers of the Pagan world,
who speculated on the existence of two contrary and
contending principles, always in operation and in
conflict-one a preservative, the other a destructive
principle.
In the Paganism of antiquity there is no doubt
that the evil and destructive principle had its worship
and worshippers, as in the modern Paganism of some
African tribes, the same principle represented by the
Fetish of the Kroomen has its homage in the terrors
it inspires, and the deprecation of that wrath that
is considered the source of all mischief here below.
But that any sect professing Christianity, and com-
posed of members of sane mind, ever held the doctrine
of the demon being entitled to homage at their hands,
Llorente thinks highly improbable and absurd to
imagine. The testimony, however, of the inquisitors,
on whose reports the opinion promulgated in the pon-
tificate of Julius II. was founded, was derived from
confessions of so-called sorcerers, extorted by terror,
by torture, by that dominant contagious impulse (to
which I shall elsewhere have occasion to allude),
which impels numbers of people accused of the same
crime, susceptible of the same superstitious feelings,
surrounded by the same circumstances of a fanatical
nature, perpetually having the crime of which they
are accused suggested to them-to make any con-
fession that is sought from them.
In 1484 Pope Innocent VIII. fulminated a bull
against sorcery, wherein it was stated, that demon-
worship prevailed in several parts of Germany, and
280
WITCHCRAFT MONOMANIA
had taken deep root, especially in Cologne, Mayence,
Treves, Salzburg, and Bremen: and various cala-
mities disturbances of the atmosphere-blight of
the vine-loss of crops-pestilential epidemics-
destruction of cattle-were attributed to diabolical
agencies, and the commerce of sorcerers with evil
spirits.
The Pope Adrian VI. (who had been Inquisitor-
General in Spain) published a bull the 20th July,
1523, in which he stated, that from the time of his
predecessor Julius II. (that is to say, from 1503
to 1513) a sect extremely numerous had existed in
Lombardy, whose followers had abjured the Christian
faith, and made a practice of sacrilege, profanation
of the most sacred rites, divers kinds of sorceries.*
At the times above referred to, and for at least a
century preceding them, it must be observed, large
bodies of people roamed about in several continental
countries, and excited the fears of their rulers both
civil and ecclesiastical.
THE MIGRATORY EPIDEMIC.
This disordered state of the mental faculties, may
be thus designated; a result of great excitement,
exaltation and depression, following hard on great
public calamities or disturbances of nature, which
manifests itself in a prevalent feeling of malaise,
of unrest, and gloomy prospects everywhere within
the horizon of home and country, and which ends in
* Llorente.
"Histoire de L'Inquisition D'Espagne traduite
par Pellier." Par. 1817, in 4 Tomes, t. 2, p. 40.
IN AN EPIDEMIC FORM.
281
causing large numbers, to abandon both, making
religion a plea for that abandonment.
At various times, in the middle ages, the minds
of a multitude of people seem simultaneously to
have been affected with this universal feeling of
malaise, accompanied by an irresistible and unac-
countable impulse to go forth and walk out of one's
own land and place in society, to move with masses
of people with some apparent instinct of a high
purpose; at one period, they appear as it were on a
pilgrimage, but without any definite object or fixed
shrine, like the Bianchi in the thirteenth century,
wandering en masse from one end of Italy to the
other, making no proclamation of plan or object, but
moving onward with a dim confused idea that God's
honour was in some way or other to be promoted by
these peregrinations.
The persons generally who laboured under the
migratory monomania were in a state of moral and
physical disquietude, actuated by a strong sentiment
of impending judgments, of the necessity of fleeing
from the wrath to come, and having a sort of
instinctive feeling favourable to migratory expe-
ditions to wanderings with masses of people in
pilgrimage or without a definite object, but with a
vague expectation of reforming the world, and per-
haps with some shadowy visions occasionally flitting
across their imaginations that honour or gain, or
pre-eminence of some kind, was to be acquired by
their peregrinations..
This migration monomania, connected with fana-
282
WITCHCRAFT MONOMANIA
tical ideas, was a new method of salvation-"novum
salutis genus."
The migrations that I refer to are spontaneous
movements of masses of people, independently of
their legitimate rulers, the Crusades are migratory
epidemics of another class.
If at any period the Crusades assumed the former
character, it was in the first enterprize, when "in
the spring of A.D. 1096, above sixty thousand of
the population, of both sexes, from the confines of
France and Lorraine, flocked round the first mis-
sionary of the Crusade, and pressed him with im-
portunity to lead them to the holy sepulchre.
""*
In the year 1300, in the midst of the greatest
strife that ever reigned in Italy, both in the spiritual
and temporal affairs of that ill-fated country, in
the midst of frightful convulsions of the earth, of
earthquakes, as we are told by Platina, which
endured many days, Pope Boniface VIII., in the
temporary place of refuge he had caused to be con-
structed for himself in the court-yard of a Domini-
can convent at Rietz, after the creation of a great
number of Cardinals, ordained the first Jubilee that
was instituted. Innumerable multitudes of people
flocked to Rome on this memorable occasion. The
number of pilgrims for some time who arrived daily
exceeded 200,000, as we are told by Muratori.
But during the actual solemnization of the Jubi-
* Gibbon. History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire. Bohn, 1855. 12mo. p. 413.
† Vit. de Pontif. p. 337.
IN AN EPIDEMIC FORM.
283
lee, although "there was peace throughout Italy,"
the profound lull was only of that kind which is the
surest presage of a tempest: revolts, civil wars,
foreign alliances, contested successions to German
thrones, interferences of the Court of Rome, and
reprisals of sovereigns on the Holy See, followed
hard
upon
the celebration of "The Holy Year."
The works of John Wier, a native of Brabant,
(born in 1515, deceased 1577, cognomento Joannis
Wierus, Piscinarium) contain all the knowledge
that was possessed in his time on the subject of
sorcery, witchcraft, and divination.
There is no published work of the sixteenth cen-
tury that contains so much valuable information
on the subject of those inquiries. Wierus was a
physician of repute in the Low Countries. He
spent some twenty years in the service of the Duke
of Cleves, and appears to have been not only
thoroughly convinced that terrible crimes against
humanity were committed in those ages, but that a
very large number of the cases of epidemic monoma-
nia which occurred in religious communities in those
times were the results of possession by evil spirits.
Wierus notwithstanding was a man of great
intelligence and learning, and it may be safely said
that all the learning that existed in his times on the
subject of sorcery was possessed by him.
In stating, then, the opinions entertained by
284
WITCHCRAFT MONOMANIA
Wierus on those subjects, I am dealing with the
knowledge of his time existing on them; and it is
quite unnecessary in our times to wonder at the
narrowness of its limits in respect to mental maladies.
It is not necessary, to embrace Wierus's opinions
of the diabolical agencies and influences which he
attributed generally to the phenomena that were
produced by natural operations and physical causes.
It is sufficient that we have presented to us by an
erudite physician, and a man of high character and
integrity, the facts and opinions of the Jenner of his
age in regard to them, and that we deal with them
in such a manner as the lights of our own age may
enable us to do legitimately and usefully.
Wierus applied himself early to the study of
philosophy and classical learning. He embraced
the medical profession, and visited Paris, and soon
made himself known to the most eminent men of
his profession by his extensive and solid knowledge
in medical science. He travelled in Europe, the
Levant and Africa.
About 1550 he became principal physician to the
Duke of Cleves, and continued in that office upwards
of twenty years. While resident in the Duchy of
Cleves, he witnessed with pain the sufferings of a
great number of people, on suspicion of sorcery,
imprisoned, tortured and burned. The strong im-
pression made on his mind by these occurrences, led
to a profound study of the subject of sorcery, and
the publication of the treatise entitled "Opus de
Veneficis et sagis;" in which a vast deal of erudition
IN AN EPIDEMIC FORM.
285
is to be found connected with medical science, philo-
sophy, theology, and jurisprudence, bearing on the
subject of his researches. He died suddenly at
Teklemborg in 1577.*
Wierus is not always apparently consistent.
His sentiments and his medical science were far in
advance of those of his age. He made a nearer
approach to the enlightenment of medical philosophy
of modern times, on the subject of those aberrations
of the intellect of which he treated than any medi-
cal writer of his age. He maintained that a vast
number of those who perished at the stake as magi-
cians were sick people, either bodily or mentally
disordered, and sometimes both, and that the judges
who condemned them thereby committed great
crimes against justice and humanity. But in
numerous instances he declares there was no
doubt of diabolical possession. He acquits the
sorcerers, however, who were accused of having
occasioned it.
A question of much importance in an enquiry of
this sort is connected with this apparent anomaly.
It is only after very careful inquiry into the matter
and close examination of his opinions, that I come
to this conclusion. Wierus, a Protestant physician,
was a man of a phlegmatic temperament. Mode-
rate in all his views, tolerant in his opinions, and any-
thing but an enthusiast or a fanatic in his religious
*The edition of the works of Wier in my possession, to
which reference is made-"Opera omnia Joannis Wieri," 4to.
Amst. 1660,
286
WITCHCRAFT MONOMANIA
sentiments. He was naturally of a humane dispo-
sition. He appears to have been a sincere and
implicit believer in revealed religion.
We gather not from any passage in particular,
but from the concurrent meaning and indications of
opinion of numerous passages throughout his work,
that Wierus believed that evil spirits existed not
only in the infernal regions but had an invisible
empire in the air and on the earth; that their
enmity to mankind was constant and indefatigable ;
that they had a malign power capable of suggest-
ing evil to men's minds and of tormenting them
corporeally. But that the exercise of such power
was not necessarily or generally the result of
mediate human influence, of compacts with demons,
or spells, magic arts or incantations of persons
called witches and sorcerers.
In short, he was of opinion, the existence of witches
and sorcerers was a fable; and that of evil spirits here
below, in legions too that are numberless, was a fact.
He believed in diabolical possession; but invaria-
bly maintained those persons who are of sane minds
in sound bodies and not abandoned to vice, are the
least subject to this dire affliction. There are
several diseases be believed, complicated functional
disorders of the liver, spleen, stomach, the nerves,
and the brain, which produce certain morbid con-
ditions, that evil spirits find apt and fit for their
operations and it is persons so circumstanced
(whose cases had come to his own knowledge) who
are found or thought to be possessed.
:
IN AN EPIDEMIC FORM.
287
This distinction it is very important to bear in
mind, in all researches on this subject.
To fanatics of savage minds and sanguinary dis-
positions, like Bodin the author of the Demonologia,
the opinions of Wierus were necessarily distasteful.
He therefore treats him as a man in the interest of
Satan: a promoter of impiety and atheism: an
agent of the devil who served by his writings to
swell the number of souls in hell, advocating as he
did the cause of sorcery, by counselling magistrates
to spare the lives of sorcerers.
By another writer of the same school, Don Fran-
cisco Torreblanca, a Spanish lawyer and juriscon-
sulist of great eminence, he is treated pretty much in
the same fashion but in milder terms.
This work of Torreblanca,* written by order of
the Spanish sovereign, Philip III., was intended to
expound, chiefly for the use of lawyers and theolo-
gians who were canonists connected with tribunals
of justice, all laws human and divine which could
be brought to bear against persons accused or
suspected of witchcraft. If the legal doctrines
laid down in that terrible book could be acted on
and carried out practically in any country, so in-
discriminate is its category of crimes connected with
witchcraft and heresy, so infuriate is its fanaticism,
so wholesale its assignment of capital punishments,
tortures and confiscations to convictions on charges
* "Demonologia sive de Magia Naturale Demoniaca," &c. 4to.
Mogunt. 1623.
288
WITCHCRAFT MONOMANIA
falling within that category above referred to-
charges in numerous instances the most frivolous,
absurd, and obviously destitute of any solid founda-
tion, that the land would be wasted and desolated,
by the execution of that code of blood and terror..
The people of that land, who had witnessed and
survived its horrors, might indeed truly say of it
"Alas poor country
Almost afraid to know itself! It cannot
Be called our mother, but our grave: where nothing
But who knows nothing, is once seen to smile :
Where sighs and groans, and shrieks that rend the air
Are made not mark'd: where violent sorrow
Seems a modern ecstasy."
it-
Bodin, in his head-long rage and animosity to
Wierus, on account of his efforts to stay the fanati-
cism which steeped the soil of nearly all Europe with
gore, accuses him on one ground especially of being
an abettor of sorcery. But, in bringing forward
the latter charge, he is obliged to implicate in it a
very learned and virtuous Benedictine friar, Tri-
themius, abbot of Spanheim. Bodin refers to a
passage in the works of Wierus, where the latter
states he found in the Cabinet of Agrippa a work of
Trithemius, entitled "Steganographie," which work,
according to Bodin, was filled with the names of
the demons, and the prayers with which the author,
Trithemius, invoked the evil spirits: which work
Wierus transcribed entirely, and as Bodin concludes,
in so doing incurred the guilt of sorcery.
0
IN AN EPIDEMIC FORM.
289
The work of Trithemius, "Steganographia," which
is referred to by Bodin, I have carefully examined.*
It must have been written before 1516, for the au-
thor who was born in 1462 died in 1516. The
design of the work is to shew how persons may
correspond in different manners by members. It
differs not essentially, as far as the object is con-
cerned, from the treatise of the learned and eccentric,
but original thinker, Dr. John Wilkins, Dean of
Ripon (subsequently Bishop of Chester) entitled,
"Mercury, or the secret and swift messenger, shew-
ing how a man may with privacy and speed com-
municate his thoughts to a friend at any distance."
3rd edition, Lond. 1707. Here will be found an
exact conformity with the design of the work of
Trithemius, and with the ideas and arguments of the
latter in favour of the system of symbolic writing
for the conveyance of secret intelligence.
Bishop Wilkins heads the ninth chapter of his
treatise thus: "Of concealing any written sense
under barbarous words; and such as shall not seem
to be of any signification," &c.†
And a previous chapter (2) is thus headed: "The
conditions requisite to secrecy, the use of it in the
* "Steganographia: hoc est Ars per occultam Scripturam ani-
mi sui voluntatem Absentibus aperiendi certa. Authore Rev. et
Clar. Viri Joanne Trithemio, Abbate Spanheimensi, et Magice
Naturalis Magistro Perfectissimo. 4to. Darmstadt. 1621.
+ Wilkius. The Secret and Swift Messenger, p. 7.
I.
U
290
WITCHCRAFT MONOMANIA
matter of speech either by fables of the heathen or
by parables of Scripture.*
Now Trithemius adopted the jargon of the sor-
cerers whom in the preface to his tract he expressly
repudiates. He selects the names given by them to
demons as representatives of the characters in com-
mon use, and he certainly introduces into his trea-
tise the most astounding collection of diabolical
names, of a most barbarously sounding nomencla-
ture that can be imagined. And not content with
this, he heads and concludes chapters with cabalistic
conjurations of spirits, and directions how to find
out the spirits of particular places.
Here is one of them, word for word, and in its
integrity.
"Carmen Conjurationis."
"Demoriel onear dabursoy
Chamerson chelrusys noeles
Scheinlaryn venodru patron
Myselro chabardon revaon
Maferos ratigiel personay
Lodiol Camedon nasiel
Fabelmarusin sociel chamarchoysin.
Completo carmine.
Spiritus ad omnia promptus
Obediens et paratipumus tibi
Visibilis apparebat cui secure.
Committis arcanum perferendum."†
Now the spirit conjured so prompt, obedient,
* Wilkins. The Secret and Swift Messenger, p. 64.
+ Trithemius, Steganographia, p. 57.
IN AN EPIDEMIC FORM.
291
and always prepared to come when properly in-
voked, it is clear was the knowledge of the art of
symbol writing; which being understood, disclosed
the secret meaning that had been hidden from the
vulgar, by this ingenious device of a diabolical
nomenclature.
Again, we find in Wilkins' treatise, that he
suggests the adoption of barbarous words for secret
writing-also fables of the heathen and parables
of Scripture. Trithemius may have considered the
holy Scriptures would be profaned by any such
application of their words. But in those he selected
for his purpose, he certainly combined the barbarous
and the fabulous to a large extent.
But Wilkins seems to have overlooked one re-
markable circumstance in the examples given by
Trithemius, in this work of his of the mode of con-
veying secret intelligence from one person to another.
The very first example given by him is a form of
secret writing, shewing how a prince may be in-
formed of what he desires to know of an absent
vassal. Other examples are to the same effect,
purporting to be alike serviceable to princes. Tri-
themius then, if his main design was to serve the
higher powers by this art of secret writing, must
have desired to give it an occult character, and thus
keep it from the eyes of the vulgar. But I have no
doubt that the author began to wander in his mind
a little before he terminated his labours.
Trithemius affirms that Cicero wrote a treatise
U 2
292
WITCHCRAFT MONOMANIA
on secret writing, which is very probable from a
passage in a letter to Atticus, (lib. 13, ep. 32),
and he states that this treatise was afterwards
augmented by St. Cyprian, and that he had found
in an old library the copy of a Psalter written in
those characters, inscribed by some ignorant man
with this title, " Psalterum in Lingua Armenica."
66
But there is a remarkable passage in Bishop
Wilkins' treatise, in reference to Trithemius and
his system of secret writing:
"The abbot Trithemius in his books concerning
the several ways of secret and speedy discoursing
does pretend to handle the forms of conjuration,
calling each kind of character by the name of spirits,
thereby to deter the vulgar from searching into his
works. But under this pretence he is thought
also to deliver some diabolical magic. Especially
in one place where he speaks of the three saturnine
angels, and certain images by which in the space
of twenty-four hours a man may be informed of
news from any part of the world, and this was the
main reason why by Junius his advice, Frederick
II. did cause the original copy of that work to be
burned, which action is so much, though it should
seem so unjustly blamed by Selences."*
Bodin would not have been satisfied with burn-
ing the book; he would have consumed to ashes the
man who wrote it had it been in his power, thus to
* Wilkins. The Secret and Swift Messenger, p. 64.
IN AN EPIDEMIC FORM.
293
improve the speculative opinions of the Benedictine
friar.
Bodin accuses Wierus of having made a calendar
of demons of Satan's empire, giving the names and
surnames of 572 princes of that empire, and of seven
millions four hundred and five thousand nine hun-
dred and twenty-six devils.
It is pleasing no doubt, and intended to be con-
vincing, to see this exactness in the census of Satan's
dominions, and to find of a certainty there were
precisely twenty-six devils over and above the 7
millions, 405 thousand and 900 duly recorded in
the calendar.
In the remarkable work on the energy or opera-
tion of demons by Michael Psellus, (a Byzantine
writer of the time of the Emperor Constantine
Ducas) translated from the Greek by Pietro Morello,
we find magic in connection with heresy in Christian
times, traced up to the Gnostics and the Manichean
followers of Manes, and those of Euchites held as
influenced and acted on by diabolical agencies. *
The 3rd chapter is thus headed, "Quare Satanaki
Dei filius ab Euchitis dicatur. Hæreson origo à
Satana quam cœeci menteque capti sunt hæretici, qui
demonis illusiones non deprehendant."
Psellus asserts there are six principal genera of
demons. The first genus which is designated by
* "Dialogus de energia seu operatione dæmonum e Græco
translatus. Petro Morello Interprete." 12mo. Par. 1577.
294
WITCHCRAFT MONOMANIA
the name Leliurius, wanders through the upper
regions of the air.
The second, who wanders through the lower
atmosphere, contiguous to human beings, is called
Erial.
The third, is called Terrestrial, and goes about the
earth.
The fourth, is termed Aqueous, and the sphere of
its operations is in the waters of the great deep lakes
and rivers.
The fifth, is named Subterranean, and is located
in the interior of the earth.
The sixth, and last, is denominated Lucifugus, it
shuns the light of day, and skulks in caves, and
catacombs, in all dark and dismal places. All
these genera of demons burn with a fierce hatred
to God, and are adversaries to the human race.
All demons have not the same powers and vo-
litions. For there are some destitute of intelligence,
others mute, others less specially qualified to act on
the imaginations of men, to create phantasms, to
cause visions, exaltations of mind, to inflame the
passions and to excite fierce emotions.*
Martinus de Arles, an ecclesiastic of Navarre
("Tractatus de Superstitionibus"), referring to cer-
tain forms of diabolical conjurations which had been
found in his parish, cites the following formula, by
means of which communion with evil spirits was said
to be effected:"Conjuro te per Elim, per Elion,
* Psellus. Ib. vide cap. xi. xix. xx.
IN AN EPIDEMIC FORM.
295
per Saboan, per Adonay, per Allelujah, per tanti,
per Archabulon," &c. And, a little further on,
"Sitis allegati et constricta per sancta nomina Dei,
Her, Elli, habet, sat, mi filisgæ adriotiagundi, tat,
chamiteram," &c. And, in another formula, "Coris-
cion, Mabratron Caladafoir Ozcazo, Yostel," &c.
The signification of these abstruse terms would
no doubt puzzle any conjuror of modern time.
It is not alone in Berne and Lausanne, through-
out the Vaudois territory, and in Languedoc in the
15th century, we look for charges and avowals of
sorcery, invocations of evil spirits, compacts with
Satan, commerce with subordinate demons, renun-
ciation of Baptismal grace, impious rites and incan-
tations, blasphemies against God, secret murder of
children by witchcraft, exhumation of their remains,
the horrid hell-broth of the cauldron, the diabolical
feast, and the charm of that ointment which enabled
the sorcerers to ride in the air, to raise commotions
in the elements, to send down all sorts of ills on
earth, diseases on man, and beasts to ravage the
cornfields, and scatter ruin far and wide. We find
them in every country in Europe, at various epochs,
for centuries before the period above referred to, and
for nearly three centuries after it, and generally in
connexion with supposed homicidal tendencies.
In the beginning of the 15th century Demono-
latria, or belief in the worship of, and compact with
evil spirits, prevailed extensively among the disci-
296
WITCHCRAFT MONOMANIA
ples of the sect who called themselves "Pauvres de
Lyon," in the Canton de Vaud, and the south of
France. The sorcerers in France at that time were
commonly known as "faicturiers," and the sorceresses
"faicturieres." The hallucinations of the visionaries
of the "Pauvres de Lyon" had the most striking
resemblance with the later demonolatres of Artois
and the Rhenish provinces.
In 1431, Jeanne d'Arc fell a victim to the
prevailing belief of the 15th century in demon
worship; and within a period of five years we find
a multitude of monomaniacs judicially murdered in
Switzerland, on charges of sorcery and commerce
with infernal spirits. About the year 1436, a ru-
mour began to attract public attention that in the
Canton de Vaud there was an association of persons
of perverted morals and wicked propensities who
practised demonolatria, and who connected with
their worship assassination and cannibalism. The
environs of Berne and Lausanne were particularly
signalized for the scene of these diabolical practices.
The suspected devil worshippers had entered into
compacts with the devil, sought nothing but to serve
their diabolical master, perpetrated various outrages
against morals and religion, and even eat their own
children. Thirteen victims, it was affirmed, in a
very short time had disappeared and been devoured.
The authorities commenced investigations, and insti-
tuted proceedings against great numbers of the sus-
pected peasantry of Berne. The civil judge of the
IN AN EPIDEMIC FORM.
297
Bolligen, aided by an inquisitor, had hundreds of
suspected peasants put to the torture of the chavalet,
and committed a considerable number to the flames.*
Many of the tortured, under the influence of pain
and suffering, and others under that of terror only,
confessed the practices imputed to them; a pact
with Satan, the invocations of devils, the murder of
many persons, children especially.t
A woman, who was executed at Berne, made a
formal avowal of diabolical crimes, wherein she
stated, she belonged to a sect who had sworn obe-
dience to the devil. The followers of that sect looked
for their victims, particularly after unbaptized chil-
dren, or negligently baptized, not being duly signed
with the cross. By potent incantations they caused
the death of those children, and made it appear the
death was caused by suffocation, or some sudden
accidental illness. When the remains of those chil-
dren were interred they exhumed the bodies, put
them in a cauldron of boiling water, digested the
flesh and bones for food, and with the residue com-
posed an ointment with which those who anointed
themselves, would be immediately transported in
the air wherever they wished to go. The liquid
contents of the cauldron were preserved in fit ves-
sels, and no sooner had a novice of the sect swal-
lowed some drops of this bouillon than he felt himself
* Ap. Calmeil de la Folie, t. i. p. 136. Nider in Malleo Malle-
ficorum, tom. i. p. 484.
Spranger et Nider, Ap. Calmeil, tom. i. p. 137.
298
WITCHCRAFT MONOMANIA
initiated in the secrets of the sect, and found himself
by his knowledge on a par with the masters of it.*
A
young peasant recently married was cast into
prison with his wife. He attempted no defence, but
cried aloud vehemently: "I am guilty-quite pre-
pared to avow my wickedness. May pardon be
granted to me by men, now that I am about to die.
Both I and my wife belonged to the company of
sorcerers: I renounced the grace of baptism. I en-
gaged myself to kneel to Satan: I have drank the
juice extracted from a child's flesh, the juice which
the worshippers of Satan preserve so carefully in
vessels, and which produces a knowledge which be-
longs only to the initiated.Ӡ
This is not the language of a peasant; the coin-
cidences in the two accounts are too exact to be
genuine; but the mode of writing down a proces
verbal explains all the difficulties of the kind referred
to. The account shews clearly the credence of the
time in matters of sorcery.
Nider states, this man supported the pain of fire
with resignation, and manifested penitence; his
young wife, who was burned at the same time, to
the last protested against the accusations of her
husband, and, ascending the pile, heaped maledictions
on her executioner. "A person named Stadelein,
А
whose sorcery had inspired the peasantry of the
same locality with terrible alarm, and was similarly
* Calmeil de la Folie, tom. i.
"Malleo Maleficorum," tom. i.
+ Calmeil. Ib. t. 1, p. 138.
p. 137. Spranger, also Nider in
p. 484.
IN AN EPIDEMIC FORM.
299
punished with fire, as that of the above mentioned un-
fortunate couple, confessed that he was affiliated with
the sect of the enemies of God: that in pronouncing
certain words, and practising certain rites, he had
the power of compelling the devil to send subordinate
spirits on the earth; and according to his account,
these demons afterwards caused thunder-storms to
burst, and hail-showers to fall on the growing crops
of his neighbours. He avowed that he had caused
seven children of the same mother to perish, and that
a commerce of this kind of infant murder (ante partu)
was carried on in the habitation of the person above
mentioned, and that a malign compound, consisting
of the dead body of a lizard, had alone caused all
those catastrophes."*
THE BEGARDS.
Another sect prevailed in the 15th century, whose
madness was likewise epidemic, that of the Begards,
of whom Jean Nidier, in his treatise "De Visionibus,"
&c. (pp. 337, &c.) first printed at Strasbourg in 1517,
says, "There crept into Suabia, amongst a great
many persons of both sexes, seculars and clergy,
a heresy and an hypocrisy, so enormous, that I
dare not disclose all the particulars of it, lest I should
offend chaste ears. The persons (tainted with it)
believe it is lawful to lie, to break their engagements,
to put innocent people to death, even their own
parents. They fast only when they have to eat with
* Nider, Mal. Malef. Ap. Calmeil, T. 1, p. 138.
300
WITCHCRAFT MONOMANIA
others. They use meat, milk, and eggs in Lent.
They work in private on solemn festivals, and pass
the other days in idleness. They hold in utter con-
tempt the ceremonies of the Church, as works of
men of animal instincts, and not of spiritual minds.
They place all virtue and perfection in a certain
profound meditation, although they are themselves
very carnal, and live amongst themselves in a brutal
manner, as I am well informed, and they boast even
of attaining such a high degree of perfection, that
no criminality can be attributed to them. Hence
is it, that they make no account of the Pope's
authority, and that of the other prelates of the
Church. And what is most lamentable is, they
seduce stealthily into their disordinate courses persons
of quality-virgins and widows."
The Begards were condemned by the Pope, and
severely punished by the secular princes of the coun-
tries in which they most prevailed-Bohemia, Poland,
Bavaria, and some parts of Italy and France.
In 1350 certain heretics designated Begards,
whose chief leader was Jacques Juste, says Llorente,
were discovered and denounced to the Inquisition at
Valence. Jacques was condemned to perpetual im-
prisonment, the rest were reconciled to the Church.
In 1442 this sect had made some progress in
Biscay, at Durango and Calahorra. The King sent
certain ecclesiastics as commissioners into those parts,
who caused a great number to be put to death.
From 1450 to 1500, the mania of sorcery existed
epidemically in France and Germany.
IN AN EPIDEMIC FORM.
301
In 1459, in the town of Arras, and throughout
the country of Artois, a terrible access of this phren-
zied fear of sorcery prevailed. It was called the
Vaudoisie sorcery, but for what reason no explana-
tion is given. The persons who were accused of
this witchcraft, men and women, transported them-
selves, it was alleged, by night to forests and desert
places, where they were in the habit of meeting the
demon in the form of a man, whose face, however,
they never saw. This demon gave them his com-
mands on such occasions, and caused them to salute
him in a ridiculous manner. This demon then usually
gave
them a little money, and an abundance of brandy
and wines on which they feasted. The lights were
then extinguished, and scandalous disorder prevailed.
The diabolical orgies then ceased, and instantly all
those who assisted at them found themselves in the
places from which they had severally come.
The authorities seized on many of the notabilities
of Arras, and a multitude of people of inferior con-
dition, and they were so terribly tortured that many
confessed themselves guilty of the crime of sorcery
imputed to them. And the old chronicler who has
recorded this epidemic observes, that they confessed
to having seen and heard in those assemblies "many
persons of distinction, seigneurs and other magis-
trates of towns and villages." Considerable numbers
of these were taken up and tortured so long and
severely, that they confessed whatever they were
required to acknowledge. Those who were of
302
WITCHCRAFT MONOMANIA
humbler condition, "des moindres gens were exe-
cuted and burned inhumanly." Numbers of the
wealthy who were accused were allowed to ransom
themselves with money, others fled the country.
The name of Vaudois devil worship, which was
given to the Artois mania, helped not a little to the
terror inspired by the accusation, for the Vaudois,
as heretics, had already been severely visited-ex-
terminés à feu et à
feu et à sang.
Monstrelet, who has chronicled those proceedings
at Arras and Artois, declares that all the accused
and the condemned were in full possession of their
intellectual faculties. The hallucinations of mono-
maniacs have been usually punished as apostacies
and heresies on the same opinion.
While these proceedings against sorcery were
going on in France, demon worship was inquired
into, and prosecuted vigorously in Germany.
In 1484, ecclesiastical censures were fulminated
against it. Demonolatria, in the bull of Pope Inno-
cent VIII.,* was said to have taken deep root in
Cologne, Mayence, Treves, Salzburg, and Bremen.
In those censures, associations were denounced
whose members carried on a commerce with the
devil, and criminal intercourse at their satanic
sabbaths with evil spirits, entering into contracts
with Satan, taking obligations on them to kill and
eat new-born unbaptized children, causing and con-
* Zenor. Bulla Apostolicæ adversus Hæresim Maleficorum,
In Maleo. Malef.
IN AN EPIDEMIC FORM.
303
senting to cause tempests in the air, blight of
vineyards, destruction of harvests, outbreaks of epi-
demics, the murrain among cattle, abortions, pining
away, and breaking down of virile strength.
There were others labouring under a different
form of monomania, who were called Tempestieres,
supposed to be especially endowed with the power
of raising tempests, and destroying crops. They
underwent the usual ordeal of examination for the
ascertainment of truth, or the amount of pain that
can be endured before it can be feigned or forced
to take the hue it is expected to assume under
torture, and were burned likewise. But it must be
admitted that several of those accused of witchcraft
seemed eager to avow their imputed crimes, and
even went far beyond the limits of the accusations
brought against them. These were almost inva-
riably women, and commerce with demons, inter-
course with them and killing children, were usually
the crimes they seemed driven by an irresistible
impulse to confess.
A frightful crusade in Germany and Switzerland
against persons suspected of the crime of sorcery,
was entered on, and multitudes of men and women
perished at the hands of the Inquisition, with the
usual delicacy of calling in the aid of the secular
arm for the performance of the executions at the
stake, between the years 1484 and 1500. Forty
women of the sorceresses of Burbie, charged with
these crimes, always including the killing and eating
304
WITCHCRAFT MONOMANIA
of children, perished in one year in the flames, and
great numbers of females to save their lives, or at
least their liberty, fled into the territory of Sigis-
mond, in Austria.* All these unfortunate wretches
confessed the crimes imputed to them. It was the
same with forty-eight others, burned in the space
of five years, either at Constance or at Ravensburg.
All these confessed devil worship, commerce with
demons, with Incubi and Suecubi, and hatred
towards God.
The bull of Pope Innocent VIII. directed to the
inquisitors of Almaine, plainly shews what deep root
the belief in witchcraft, and what wide extension
that belief had taken in the minds of Christian
people at that period.
Calmeil cites the particulars of the judicial pro-
ceedings in some of these cases, of German midwives
accused of sorcery and child-murder, and notices
particularly, "the apparent authenticity of these
confessions, and the gravity, in appearance over-
whelming of other proofs, which seemed to rise up
against these German women." And he adds-" I
avow I find it difficult to believe, that children have
(thus) perished, especially in such great numbers at
Basle, Strasbourg, and many other localities. I am
rather induced to believe, that these unfortunates had
accused themselves of crimes which they never com-
mitted."
* Spranger, et Henricus, Institutor, in Malleus Maleficorum,
tom. i. p. 105, ib.
p. 182.
IN AN EPIDEMIC FORM.
305
And he grounds this opinion mainly on the fact,
that the accusation of these child-murders extended
over a period of many years, and no tendency to
homicidal monomania had ever been discovered in
them, up to the time of their arrest and imprisonment.
Pope Julius II. in 1504, published a brief against
sorcery in Cremona, and the adjacent country.
66
Pope John XXII. issued a bull, designated-
Super illius specula," wherein special cognizance
was taken of all the practices, so called, of magic,
sorcery, necromancy, &c.
In 1518, in the Venetian territories, a great
number of persons, accused of sorcery and heresy,
were condemned by the Inquisition, and handed
over to the secular arm, and by the civil power were
duly consigned to the executioner: and by that
functionary the law was finished, and the lives of
those who were condemned by it. But the people
of Venice rose up against the Inquisitors, and were
hardly to be appeased by the Council.
In 1523, Pope Adrian VI. enforced the bull
of Pope Innocent VIII. against sorcery, and pro-
mulgated a bull, in which the penalty of excommu-
nication was decreed against sorcerers and heretics.
The Dominicans were charged with its execution in
Lombardy.
In the district of Como alone, the number who
perished are estimated by Barth. de Spina (in
Malleo Maleficorum) at a thousand a year; and in
the space "of seven years," in Piedmont, Lombardy,
I.
X
306
WITCHCRAFT MONOMANIA
and Mirandola, the number who perished was enor-
mous.
In 1574, eighty persons accused of sorcery were
put to death at Valery, in Savoy.
The partial madness which passes under the name
of Demonolatria became contagious in the South of
France, about 1577. At that time an eminent jurist,
Gregory of Toulouse, who was engaged in a work on
jurisprudence, relates some phenomena of sorcery,
which were then of common occurrence in Languedoc
especially. He says, in this work, that "the sor-
cerers, whom the Senate of Toulon had to judge in
1577, were more numerous than all the other accused
persons, not sorcerers, who had been brought before
the local tribunals in the space of two years. Many
of them had to suffer punishments more or less
grave; near four hundred were condemned to perish
in the flames; and that, which is calculated to
excite no small degree of surprise, almost all bore the
mark of the devil."* The four hundred condemned
monomaniacs of the Haute Languedoc bore, no
doubt, evident marks of disordered intellect, but these
to the legal mind of the eminent Toulousan jurist
were marks of the demon.
Nicholas Remy, in an account of the judicial
proceedings against sorcerers, who were demon wor-
shippers in Lorraine, where he filled the office of
Procureur Criminel, states, that nine hundred per-
* Gregorius. Tertius postremo Syntagmatis juris universi pars.
Lib. 34, cap. 21, ap. Des Grandes Delires, t. 1. p. 287.
IN AN EPIDEMIC FORM.
307
sons were put to death in the fifteen intervening
years-between 1580 and 1595.*
***
In the poor and miserable mountainous district of
St. Claude, in the Jura, some leagues from Ferney,
Lycanthropy in connection with Demonopathy, and
Demonopathy, reigned epidemically towards the end
of the 16th century, after periods of scarcity and
privation.
It has been observed by Calmeil, in his account of
the judicial proceedings at Avignon, in 1582, against
persons accused of demon-worship, that "almost
all those who laboured under delirium, connected
with Demonomania, were of accord in confessing,
that the first diabolical apparitions, or first hallucina-
tions, occurred after long sufferings, either moral or
physical, or while they were a prey to poignant afflic-
tions. It is in analogous circumstances, that in the
present times mental disorders manifest themselves."
In 1582, the Pere Michaelis, in his work entitled,
"Pneumalogie ou Discours sur les Esprits," &c., in
4to. 1587, gives an account of a number of persons
who were brought before the Inquisition, accused of
sorcery. These persons, he states, had escaped as if
by a miracle from the famine which prevailed at
that time. They did not escape, however, from the
Inquisition. Many of them (but the number is not
stated) were condemned, handed over to the secular
arm, and it is needless to say, were put to death.
*Nicolai Remigii. Demonolatria. Liber 3, and Col. Agripp.
1596.
X Q
308
WITCHCRAFT MONOMANIA
Boguet, chief judge of the district, which included
St. Claude, was charged with an investigation into
the rumoured prevalence of Lycanthropy and sor-
cery in the Jura, and the punishment of the guilty;
and he carried on his proceedings with such zeal
that he was able to boast at the termination of his
career, it is affirmed, that he had caused more than
six hundred Lycanthropes or Demonolatres to
perish.*
"In our days," says Calmeil, "the delirium varies
according to the predominance of ideas. But in
the time of Michaelis, partial delirium generally
presented only one and the same hue, and in per-
ceiving the image of a fantastic person, the individual
having that hallucination at once believes himself in
presence of a demon."
This just observation should be borne in mind in
all inquiries into subjects of this nature. It applies
to the case particularly of the wretched population
of the desert and dreary locality of St. Claude, in
the vicinity of Ferney.
A French clergyman, named Trois Echelles,
was accused of sorcery in the reign of Charles IX.,
but had the good fortune to escape the flames on
that occasion. He was less fortunate on the second
occasion, and expired at the stake. During his im-
prisonment he accused vast numbers of people of
witchcraft and demon worship.
In the reign of Henri Quatre, one of the judicial
* Calmeil, tom. i. p. 311.
IN AN EPIDEMIC FORM.
309
17
magistrates of Bourgogne, wrote a furious tirade
against the sorcerers of France, whom he counted
by hundreds of thousands. He referred to the autho-
rity of Father Trois Echelles, who had declared, in
the time of Charles IX., that their number in France
alone was 300,000. He spoke with complacency of
the numbers they had burned in Burgundy. But,
nevertheless, in various countries they went on mul-
tiplying prodigiously, even like grubs in a garden.
"Je tiens que les sorcieres pourroient dresser une
armée egale a celle de Xerxes qui estoit de dix huit
cent-milles hommes." And in the Dedication to the
Abbè d'Acey, of his "Discours," this astounding
passage occurs: "Je veux bien qu'ils saçhent que
si les effets correspondoyent à ma volontè, la terre
seroit tantost repurgèe, car je desire qu'ils fus-
sent tous unis en un seul corps, pour les faire brusler
tout à un fois en un seul feu."*
Boguet juge de Bourgogne should have his name
inscribed in history in the highest place on the list of
men of surpassing infamy; for probably so atrocious
a sentiment as the preceding was never deliberately
expressed, and recorded in print by any writer.
He estimated the number of sorcerers in Europe
at 1,800,000 men; a number, he says, equal to the
army of Xerxes, and he wished it were possible to
unite them all in one mass, that he might burn the
whole in one and the same fire.
In 1589, a medical officer, named Pigray, charged
* Calmeil, Ses Grandes Delires, tom. i. p. 217.
310
WITCHCRAFT MONOMANIA
with three other commissaries, with the examination
of fourteen persons accused of sorcery, who had been
previously tried and condemned to death, while the
Parliament sat at Tours, in a medical treatise (book
vii. ch. x.) in which a report of this inquiry is given,
says: "We found them to be very poor, stupid
people, and some of them insane; many of them
were quite indifferent about life, and one or two
of them desired death as a relief for their suffer-
ings.
"Our opinion was that they stood more in need
of medicine than of punishment; and so we re-
ported to the Parliament.
"Their case was, thereupon, taken into further
consideration, and the Parliament, after mature
counsel amongst all the members, ordered the poor
creatures to be sent to their homes, without inflict-
ing any punishment upon them."
From the commencement of the 16th to the close
of that century, judicial proceedings against persons
accused of sorcery, as Lycanthropes and Demono-
latres, or generally suspected so to be, or on confes-
sion after torture, charged with frequenting demon
sabbaths, at which murdered children were eaten,
prevailed extensively in the south of France, Spain,
Germany, and some parts of Italy; and vast num-
bers of executions were the result.
Towards the end of the 16th century, the Mono-
mania which was designated by the names of
Demonomania, Lycanthropy, and Demonopathy,
IN AN EPIDEMIC FORM.
311
prevailed in some of the mountainous districts of
Switzerland.
In 1615 and 1616, twenty-one monomaniacs,
accused of sorcery and treated as Demonolatres,
were dragged before the tribunals of La Sologne
and Berri, and several were condemned to be
strangled and afterwards burned.
Under Charles V. in the Netherlands, the number
of persons put to death for religious opinions, not
in accordance with those of their rulers, is said
by Grotius not to be under one hundred thousand :
"Carnificata hominum non minus centum millia.”*
Spain, in the beginning of the 16th and through-
out the 17th century, figured largely in the terrible
crusade of the times against people labouring under
epidemic insanity.
"In 1507, it appears that the Inquisition of
Calahorra (in Spain), caused to be burned upwards
of thirty women as sorceresses and witches."t
In 1527, a great number of sorceresses were dis-
covered in Navarre, we are told by Llorente. The
discovery was made by means of two girls, one aged
eleven, another ten years of age; and the particulars
are related by the Bishop of Tui, Dom Prudent de
Sandoval, in his history of Charles V. He states
that the two children came of their own accord,
and denounced themselves to the Royal Council
of Navarre, as members of the sect of Jurguinas,
* Grotius. Annales, p. 12. Ed. 1678.
+ Llorente, Inquis. de l'Espagne, t. 2. p. 46.
312
WITCHCRAFT MONOMANIA
that is to say, sorcerers; and they undertook to
discover all the women who were sorceresses if they
were themselves pardoned. The proposition was
accepted. The children declared they had only to
look into the left eye of any woman to see if she
was given to sorcery or not. They indicated the
place where a great number of the women who
practised sorcery held their assemblies. The Royal
Council appointed a Commissary to conduct the two
little girls, escorted by fifty cavaliers, to the place
indicated.
On arriving in each hamlet or town, the children
were placed in two houses apart, and inquiries were
set on foot by the Commissary and the local magis-
trates, as to the existence of any witches in the place.
Several were accordingly suspected and confronted
with the children, and we are told the result was that
all of them who were declared practisers of sorcery
by the children really were such. They who were
sent to prison acknowledged that their sect consisted
of about 150; they had sabbath orgies of an abomin-
able nature, a principal demon in the form of a
buck goat, entirely black, figured in the assemblies,
and was worshipped with some ridiculous and other
revolting rites. The witches and wizards danced at
a hoarse signal given by the goat-demon; then there
were repasts, renunciations of Christ, adoration of
demons, transformations of the witches and wizards
into buck goats, anointings of the body with grease
of various reptiles, and other strange and disgusting
IN AN EPIDEMIC FORM.
313
substances, flights in the air at will, slipping into.
houses through open windows and doors, scattering
spells and effecting poisonings. The episcopal his-
torian who makes this recital, adds, that the Com-
missary of the Royal Council wishing to have ocular
evidence of the extraordinary feats ascribed to these
sorceresses, caused one of them, an old woman, to be
brought to him, and promised her pardon on condi-
tion of her performing before him all the operations
of sorcery, and permitted her also, if she possessed
the power, to make her escape, while these operations
were performing. The offer was accepted; she
asked for a box of ointment which had been found
on her, and ascended a tower accompanied by the
Commissary, and at the top placed herself beside
him at a window. "She began, in the sight of a
great number of persons, to apply the ointment with
the palm of the left hand to the wrist, the back of
the neck, under the arms, on the loins, and on the
left side. Then she said in a very strong voice,
Are you there? all the spectators heard in the air a
voice which answered, 'Yes, I am here.' The
woman then began to descend the tower (by the
external wall), the head downward, using her hands
and feet after the manner of lizards. When she
reached the middle of the tower's height, she made
a dart into the air before those present, who did
not cease to see her until she had passed beyond
the horizon."
In the astonishment which this prodigy had
314
WITCHCRAFT MONOMANIA
thrown the world into, the Commissary caused it to
be made public, that he would give a considerable
sum of money to any person who would bring back
the sorceress to him. She was presented to him
in two days time, having been discovered and
arrested by some shepherds. The Commissary
inquired, why she had not flown far enough to
escape pursuit? To which she replied, that her
master did not wish to transport her beyond the
distance of three miles, and that he had left her in
the field where the shepherds had found her.*
The local judge having proceeded against the 150
sorceresses of this locality, they were delivered to
the Inquisition of Estella, and neither the diabolical
ointment nor their supposed master was of sufficient
avail to save them from 200 lashes each and several
years of imprisonment. Notwithstanding the gra-
vity of the authority of the bishop who relates these
matters, Llorente says, he believed nothing of the
movement of this witch along the face of the tower,
nor of the flight in the air which is related by him.
And if this bishop be the same Sandoval, who is
the author of a chronicle of the country which was
the scene of this extraordinary exploit, I would be
disposed to place little reliance on any statement
of his in matters which were at all strange or
astounding in the sight of ignorant and supersti-
tious people.
In 1536, several were burned at Saragossa.
* Sandoval, Hist. de Car. V. liv. 16. sec. 16; Llorente, t. 2, p.46.
IN AN EPIDEMIC FORM.
315
"Divination, which is false prophecy," we are
told by Torreblanca, has led even in some religious
houses to great scandals, and even tragedies.
In a monastery, he states, of most strict discipline
in Cordova, during the lifetime of St. Ignatius of
Loyola, the devil in the guise of sanctity insinuated
his malice into the mind of Magdalena de la Cruz.
"For thirty years," says Torreblanca, "she prac-
tised not only on fellow-citizens of mine who were
acute intelligent persons, but even on princes, till
tiring at length of such wicked imposture, she was
brought before the Inquisitors, confessed her crime,
and was admitted to salutary penitence; as we find
narrated by a fellow-citizen of mine (Episcopus
Jacob. Semanc. de Cath. Instit. tit. 21. n. 24),
and by Peter Ribadeneira," (in Vita S. Ignatii,
lib. v. cap. 10).*
That is all we find in Torreblanca's work of the
thirty years' imposture of Magdalena de la Cruz.
But elsewhere we find strange notices of her and her
doings.
Torreblanca states, "about the year 1546, in
Portugal, there was another woman not of less pre-
tensions to sanctity and religion, deluded by the
devil, who attracted public attention by so many
feigned miracles and revelations, that she was
accounted a saint, so that she even led into error
a prelate of the Church, who venerated her even as
another St. Catherine of Sienna, (quia plagas finx-
*Torreblanca. De Demonologia, 4to. p. 167.
316
WITCHCRAFT MONOMANIA
erat) as we find related (Horoscop. Covarr. lib. i. de
falsa prophetia, cap. 24.)"*
In forming an opinion of these cases, as to the
question of imposture or delusion on the part of the
persons above referred to, Torreblanca's judgment
must be held of small account, for he treats Jeanne
D'Arc in the same way as he does those persons-
as feigners and impostors beguiled by devils.
In the warfare of two religious orders, the im-
postures of Magdalena de la Cruz, the abbess of a
convent of the Dominican order in Cordova, were
brought to light by the Franciscans. The follow-
ing wonderful feats were attributed to or claimed by
her. She had been elevated in the air the height
of a human being; she had passed without impedi-
ment through a stone wall; she had been ministered
to by angels; her hair had marvellously grown
all of a sudden so as to cover her entire person, and
shrunk again to its usual proper size and quantity.
She fell into trances and had extraordinary visions,
seeing into things and places that were far distant,
and into events yet unborn in the womb of time.
And all these wonders were achieved, as she de-
clared, by gifts and graces derived from God for
good and religious ends.
Torreblanca gives the following account of
Magdalena de la Cruz.
"Similia alia fecit, apud concives meos, Magda-
*Torreblanca, ib. p. 167.
IN AN EPIDEMIC FORM.
317
1
Et
lena de la Cruz, dum dolia confracta redintegrabat,
rosas in hyeme, nives in æstate adferebat.
quod magis admiratur, dum viaticum corpus Domini
per vias præteriret parietes monasterii (cui se de-
voverat) in duas partes scindebat et eum adoraret,
et rursus eas uniri compellebat. Et dum Puer
essem, audivi ex avo meo Francisco Ferdinandez,
teste oculato genitoris mei Michaelis Hieronymi
Torreblanca patre. Quod non solum prestigiis fieri
potest, sed etiam motu locali, nam dæmon potuit
parietes scindere, dum corpus domini præteribat, et
interim molem sustentare, ne lapides ruerent.
Et
postea eadem celeritate, atque dexteritate, iterum
eos in suum locum reponere. Ut docet (Mart. Del
Rio de Magica.) In extasi frequenter rapiebatur:
Extases dico, non quod anima ejus extra corpus
peregrinaretur, nam, quamdiu quisque vivit, anima
sine carne esse non potest: (ut docet Tertullian. lib.
de Anima, et lib. de Resurrect. carn.) Sed, sopitis
sensibus, e terrâ per dæmonem motu locali eleva-
batur, et pro sancta haberetur, ut de Marco Maga
narrat Irenæus."
Lib. contra hæres. cap. 6.)*
In 1544, an ancient abbess of a convent of Cor-
dova, was burned on the same charge.
In 1610, the Inquisitors of Logrogno celebrated
an auto-da-fé, after having condemned fifty-two
persons, twelve of whom were sentenced to relax-
ation, and twenty-one to minor punishments. Six
* Torreblanca, ib. p. 216.
318
WITCHCRAFT MONOMANIA
only of the relaxados were burned alive, the others
were consumed in effigy. Of the condemned
eighteen were sorcerers.*
In 1621, the Inquisition in its loyalty wishing to
celebrate the succession to the throne of Philip IV.
offered to his Majesty and his Court the spectacle of
of an auto-da-fé of great interest.
This was the auto-da-fé of Marie de la Concep-
tion, a beata and hypocrite of much celebrity in
the former reign. She had deluded great numbers
of people, lay and clerical, by her supposed revela-
tions, simulated piety and frequent ecstacies.
Eventually it was discovered, she was not only a
religious impostor but a person of flagitious morals.
She was condemned as a sorceress and heretic, and
figured at the auto-da-fé, attired in a San Benito,
with a mitre on her head, and a gag in her mouth.
She received 200 lashes, and was condemned to
perpetual imprisonment. It was something saved
to humanity that even this impostor was not burned.
In 1713, the mother Agueda, abbess of a Car-
melite convent in Navarre, became celebrated for her
supposed sanctity, and the numerous reported rap-
tures and miracles associated with her name.
This beata practised the most singular deceptions;
she eventually fell under the suspicion of sorcery
and of grievous disorders of conduct of various
kinds. She was seized by the Inquisition, ex-
* Llorente, tom. iii. p. 43.
IN AN EPIDEMIC FORM.
319
amined, tortured, and died avowing her impostures
in the dungeons of the holy office at Logrogno.
In 1613, a great number of women of the
district of Ammou, in the vicinity of Aego, were
seized with a convulsive malady, similar in many
respects to that which prevailed in several convents
of Germany in the preceding century. The out-
breaks of this disease manifested themselves,
sometimes by violent muscular contractions,
and symptoms which were taken for those of epi-
lepsy; at other times by convulsive outcries re-
sembling the barking of dogs, whence it got the
name of "Mal de Laira." The phenomena of
both forms of this convulsive hysterical disease
were regarded as the results of diabolical influences
and obsession.
At one time eighty women in a smaller com-
munity laboured under this disease, barking in the
church like so many dogs, and rendering it im-
possible to remain at all collected or composed in
prayer. Delancre, who believed firmly in the
diabolical character of this and most other nervous
disorders, and who has written an account of the
former, observes, that fortunately it so happened
when the women were in the paroxysms of this
disease induced by sorcery, the patients were in the
habit of crying out the names of those by whom
they had been put into relations with demons; and
this was a particular mercy of God to enable the
* Llorentè, tom. iv. p. 36.
320
WITCHCRAFT MONOMANIA
authorities immediately to seize on the persons of
those who were thus named, and thus vast numbers
were brought to justice who ultimately confessed
their crimes.*
During the attack the women of Ammou were
like persons in raging madness.
in raging madness. They flung them-
selves on the floor, crawled on the ground like
reptiles, and beat their heads, trunks and members
with frightful violence against the floor.
In epilepsy those who fall down and work in
fits, which endure from half an hour to an hour,
are usually unconscious of the violence of the
convulsive throes, which are generally uniform.
They are insensible to any blows or hurts they
receive in the fit. But in the hysterical convulsive
malady of the Laira, the afflicted perceived the
sensations more or less poignant of their agonizing
nervous crisis, and there existed always a relation
between the violence of their pains and the force of
the muscular contractions which manifested itself
in all the organs of locomotion.
The monomania of sorcery prevailed epidemically
in Normandy in 1676. The criminal proceedings
instituted against the supposed sorcerers compro-
mised upwards of 500 people of the villages in the
vicinity of La Haye-Dupuis, and ended in the con-
demnation to death of seventeen persons, and the
annulment of the sentence by Louis XIV.
The Parliament of Normandy furnished a striking
* Delancre, p. 368.
IN AN EPIDEMIC FORM.
321
proof of its credulity in the memorable affair of Lou-
viers; an absurd process to which folly and hallu-
cination again gave rise in 1670, served to shew
how this same Parliament continued faithful to the
errors of its renowned jurisprudence.
A young man, named Ernouf, had made frequent
complaints to the Bailli of La Haye-Dupuis, of
being persecuted by sorcerers, of whose snares he
was kept in constant dread. After this was publicly
known, Ernouf often in the presence of strangers
behaved in the most unreasonable and ridiculous
manner; he made grimaces, involuntary contor-
tions, he gave sudden and piercing cries. The
Bailli, though thinking within himself whether the
devil was the author of the sufferings of the lad,
still hesitated to make any inquiry, when, on the
25th of February, 1669, he received an order from
the Procureur Fiscal to enter upon a regular in-
quiry. The mother of Ernouf, who was the first
called to give an account of the state of the sufferer,
said, that for some time past her son appeared
affected with a very grave nervous attack; that he
often at intervals fell down on a sudden, and had
violent convulsive fits; at the time of the crisis, he
frequently made the most frightful cries, and struck
himself in a violent manner; that he was in the
habit, at certain times, to talk to himself, and then
he would appear terrified by visions. Mons. Noel,
professor of philosophy at Harcourt College, uncle of
Ernouf, of whom they made inquiries as to his nephew's
•
I.
Y
322
WITCHCRAFT MONOMANIA
state of health, immediately replied, that the unhappy
condition of the lad's health was occasioned by an
affection of the brain, and was not the result of any
supernatural cause. He stated that learned phy-
sicians of the city, whose advice he had taken, had
declared that his nephew was affected with epilepsy,
subject to visions and hypochondria; that magicians
and spirits had nothing to do with his infirmities :
and that the friends of the young man had given
him a trade to employ himself in manual labour,
because they had perceived that the disorder with
which he was afflicted rendered him unfit for literary
pursuits.
Romy, a saddler, at Constance, the master of
Ernouf, deposed, that the young man had fallen
into epileptic attacks, that he had frequent visions,
that he believed at times he had devils about his
person, that he also complained of being importuned
by evil spirits; that one night, at his mother's, he
was going to hang himself, thinking he was insti-
gated to do so by Satan; that it was a mere chance
that they had arrived in time to save him from
putting an end to himself.
The Bailli observed, that it was for the interest
of the devil that the bewitched should destroy them-
selves, because they were afraid that they would
denounce their associates to the authorities.
Ernouf, interrogated in his turn, made the follow-
ing declaration: "I feel certain that I have been
bewitched by sorcerers. A young man, named
IN AN EPIDEMIC FORM.
323
Godefroy, had already been ordered to draw me into
their corporation. Godefroy has begged of me, has
entreated me, to consent to his wishes, not to refuse
the offer he has made to conduct me to the sabbath.
I irritated him by my refusal; he threatened me.
One night this unfortunate entered my room, accom-
panied by a great black man, and made me suffer
all the horrors of fear; the devil wanted to force me
to prostrate myself before him. I heard the most
frightful noise when the two phantoms, after having
made me endure a thousand persecutions, vanished
away.
"Upon another occasion," he said, "I was thrown
upon the pavement, in the open street, in front of
the cathedral of Constance, by an invisible power;
my hat and my lantern were flung a distance from
me; the inhabitants hastened to come to my help;
again I lost all recollection in a house where I was
taken, and I found it impossible for me to get back
alone to my master's house.
"Some days after this accident, I perceived in
the street a black man, whose aspect was most re-
pulsive. This individual was armed with a long
club; he tried to lead me in a wrong direction, and
pursued me to the entrance of the house of Romy."
29
The remainder of the deposition of this poor epi-
leptic monomaniac is a tissue of the same delirious
absurdities, which passed, however, with all the
authorities, civil, legal, and ecclesiastical of the
* De la Folie, tom. ii. pp. 143, &c.
Y 2
324
WITCHCRAFT MONOMANIA
place, and with the Parliament of Rouen, for a grave
accusation of sorcery and malign arts of witchcraft,
against a number of unfortunate rustics, who gene-
rally obeyed the same extraordinary impulse which
usually impelled inultitudes of people in other places
under similar accusations, to make confessions of
guilt, and to exaggerate the charges brought against
them.
The shrewd and erudite author of "The Question
of Witchcraft debated," makes the following obser-
vations on the confession of witches:-
"But methinks I hear some men object and say
with a great deal of vehemence and confidence:
what need there be any dispute about these stories,
since parties themselves have confessed their own
witchcraft; and can there be anything clearer than
self-confession?
"To this I answer, that the wisest men in the
world may, by imprisonment and torture, be brought
to confess anything, whether it be true or false; as
many miserable creatures, confessing themselves
witches, have had their confessions extorted from
them by such cursed means. Besides, I do not
doubt, but some poor, silly, melancholic old wretches,
have really believed themselves witches, and to be
guilty of those actions, which not only their foolish
neighbours, but worshipful men in the world have
charged them with. Nor is it to be wondered at
by any one that considers the strange effects of me-
lancholy, especially if it hath been heightened by
IN AN EPIDEMIC FORM.
325
poverty, or want of good diet, by ignorance, solitari-
ness, and old age. For that such kind of people
take their very dreams to be real visions and truths,
I am sure, not only by consequences drawn from
their actions reported in books, but by the expe-
rience also of my own acquaintance. The truth is,
want of knowledge in the art of physic makes men
attribute unto spirits mere natural distempers. Nay,
physicians themselves, who have excellently laboured
in anatomy and chemistry, perhaps have added little
or nothing to the diagnostic part of diseases, so hap-
pily begun by Hippocrates. Hence it is, that we
are still in the dark as to the abstruser distempers
of human bodies, especially such as arise from
melancholy; which are of so many sorts, and have
such wonderful effects, that whosoever should rightly
describe them, and make them plainly manifest, he
would discover unto us an unknown world, full of
unheard of prodigious monsters."*
Neither Calmeil, nor any other author who has
treated of epidemic hallucinations of this description,
has given any satisfactory explanation of the sin-
gular fact which has been referred to, that when
numbers of persons fell under suspicions of sorcery,
an accusation being made against them by monoma-
niacs, evidently labouring under delusions connected
with demonomania, those accused persons who had
previously been in the possession of their senses be-
* The reader will bear in mind the date of this treatise,
Question of Witchcraft debated, 1669," p. 65.
CC The
326
WITCHCRAFT MONOMANIA
came in general as insane as their accusers, and
made admissions of guilt which were obviously
destitute of all foundation. The terror inspired by
those accusations, and the sufferings they endured
in confinement and under prosecution, are not ade-
quate to the solution of this difficulty, where con-
fessions might be considered the rule and not the
exception.
In those outbreaks of moral mania, which prevail
epidemically, may we not look to some particular
electrical condition of the atmosphere, a state of dis-
turbance of its elements, productive of influences
unfavourable to the nervous system and the Cerebral
functions which predispose both to disease? We
find the extensive blight of certain plants, and the
pestilences which suddenly originate and run a rapid
and destructive course, ascribed by medical men of
great eminence, in various countries, to alterations
in the constitution of the air; or to miasma of a
morbific kind engendered in the soil, existing in a
gaseous form in the air. These malignant influ-
ences affect the physical structure of plants and
animal functions of human beings. May we not
suppose that the mental faculties may be subject to
noxious influences of an atmospheric kind? And to
what deterioration in its constitution does it seem
more reasonable to attribute influences which have
a special action of disturbance on the spiritual part
of our organization, than to that which is occasioned
by electrical alterations connected with it.
IN AN EPIDEMIC FORM.
327
There is a passage in a treatise, by Herbert Mayo,
somewhat vaguely expressed, but still obviously
pointing to an opinion entertained by him, that there
were certain material arrangements of imponderable
forces which influenced each other, and in the cate-
gory, mental energy, and the electric fluid deserved
a place.
"Mind, like electricity, is an imponderable force
pervading the universe: and there happen to be
known to us certain material arrangements, through
which each may be influenced. We, cannot, indeed,
pursue the analogy beyond this step. Consciousness
and electricity have nothing further in common.
Their further relations to the dissimilar material
arrangements, through which they may be excited
or disturbed, are subjects of totally distinct studies,
and resol able into laws which have no affinity, and
admit of no comparison."*
The judicial proceedings against the multitude of
people, de la Haye-Dupuis, and several adjoining
villages, accused of sorcery, occupied upwards of six
months; sentence of death was passed on seventeen
of the principal supposed demon-worshippers. Louis
XIV., to his lasting honour, refused to sanction the
condemnation, which the Parliament of Rouen con-
firmed. He commuted the sentence of death to
that of perpetual banishment. But the Norman
Parliament, true to its old sanguinary instincts,
remonstrated strenuously and boldly against the
* "Letters on the Truths contained in Popular Superstitions,"
by Herbert Mayo, M.D. Frankfort, 8vo. 1849, p. 73.
328
WITCHCRAFT MONOMANIA
commutation of punishment. In their remonstrance,
addressed to the King, they cited a vast number of
authorities, the Scriptures, the Fathers, the decisions
of the Church, the Constitutions of Constantine and
Theodosius, the Pagan laws of Greece and Rome,
the law of the Twelve Tables, in proof of the legality
and expediency of punishing the crime of sorcery
with death. They furnished his Majesty with an
abstract of all the capital condemnations that had
taken place in France, from the times of Gregory of
Tours to those of his Majesty. They prayed to be
permitted to put the sentence in execution, which
had been recently passed, and to continue the pro-
ceedings against others accused of the same crime.
The King happily rejected the prayer of the Parlia-
ment: and thereby the lives of two priests were
saved, and, no doubt, the lives of a great number
besides those who were already condemned. From
that time demonomania was no more punished in
France with death; and about 1682, a complete
reform was made (as Calmeil thinks) in the criminal
code in reference to witchcraft.
of
In a work that exists in the Library of the Royal
Dublin Society, entitled, Lettres Historiques, pub-
lished at La Haye, in 1698, there is an account of
eight youths, who had scarcely attained the age
fifteen or sixteen years, and a girl of twelve years
of age, who were convicted of sorcery, and sentenced
to be burnt at Burghausen, in Bavaria.
IN AN EPIDEMIC FORM.
329
I think it right to state, I have not seen any
reference to this apparently incredible atrocity in
any work which treats of judicial proceedings in
cases of witchcraft of that period. The following is
the account literally copied from the Lettres Histo-
rique.
"Des lettres de Viennes, ecrites le 26 Mars, ont
marqué, que dans un lieu de la Baviére, nommé
Burghausen, ou devoit brûler, avant les fêtes de
Paque huit jeunes garçons, qui avoient a peine atteint
l'age de quinze à seize ans, accusez et convaincus de
Magie, et une jeune fille de douze, qui avoit déja eu
commerce huit fois avec le diable.
"J'avoue, Monsieur, que je fremis a de tels exam-
ples; mais c'est moins pour les prevenus, que pour
les Juges. Il est étonnant que dans un siecle aussi
éclairé, que le notre, on donne dans de semblable
égaremens. Je ne voudrois pas nier absolument,
qu'il n'y eut des sorciers cela paroit trop téméraire;
puis que je doute, qu'on puisse démontrer, qu'il n'y
en ait point: mais je suis très persuader, que de
cent et deux cens examples, ils seront bien difficile
de prouver à un homme raisonnable la verité d'un
seul. On a remarqué il y a long tems, qu'il n'y a
point de sorciers là ou l'on n'en punit point: au lieu
que tout en fourmille là ou l'on, les brûle à tas et a
pilles: grand préjuge en faveur de ceux, qui attri-
buent tous ces dérèglemens à une imagination
blessée ! J'ai oui avouer dans un certain lieu, que
je ne nommerai pas, que divers Seigneurs ne s'etoient
330
WITCHCRAFT MONOMANIA
enrichis, qu'en intentant des procès de Sortilege à
ceux de leurs sujets qui etoient à leur aise, qu'ils
faisoient brûler inhumainement, en s'attribuant la
confiscation de leurs biens. En ce pays là, ce n'etoit
pas les plus pauvres, mais les plus accommodez de
la paroisse, qui étoient suspects de sortilege. Je
voudrois pour l'honneur de genre humain, que ceux
qui faisoient cet aveu se fussent trompez.
99*
Montaigne in one of his Essays, about 1580,
rendered a great service to humanity, by his ob-
servations on the popular belief in witchcraft, and
the judicial proceedings instituted against persons
accused of sorcery. Nothing better or more to the
purpose has ever been written on the subject in so
small a compass as those observations.
66
"The sorcerers of my locality," says Montaigne,
are placed in danger of their lives, by the opinions
of each new author who comes forward to give
shape and substance to their dreams. To accom-
modate the examples that holy Writ gives us of such
things, most certain and irrefragable examples,
and to tie them to our modern events, because we
neither see the causes nor the means, will require
another sort of wit than ours. It peradventure
only appertains to that sole all-powerful testimony,
to tell us, this is, and that is, and not that other.
God ought to be believed, and certainly with very
good reasons; but not one amongst us, for all
*Lettres Historiques. May 1698, pp. 535, 536. La Haye,
1698.
IN AN EPIDEMIC FORM.
331
that, who is astonished at his own narration, (and
he must of necessity be astonished, if he be not out
of his wits) whether he employ it about other men's
affairs, or against himself. I am heavy and dull
of comprehension, given to seek out that which is
likely to occur, and avoiding those ancient re-
proaches- Majorem fidem homines adhibent eis
quæ non intelligunt. Cupidine humani ingenii
libertius obscura creduntur.' Men are most apt
to believe what they least understand; and through
the lust of human wit, obscure things are more
easily credited. I see very well that men get angry,
and that I am forbidden to doubt upon pain of
execrable injuries. A new way of persuading
people to believe is this. Through the mercy of
God I am not to be made to believe in any particular
fashion by blows and cuffs." "To kill a man for
belief, a clear and shining light is required; and our
life is too real and essential to warrant these super-
natural and fantastic accidents. As to drugs and
poisons, I throw them out of my account, as being
the worst sorts of homicide; yet even in this, it is
said, that men are not always to insist upon the
proper confessions of these people; for they have
sometimes been known to accuse themselves of the
murder of persons who have afterwards been found
living and well. In these other extravagant accu-
sations, I shall be apt to say, that it is sufficient,
a man, whatever recommendation soever he may
have, be believed in human things; but of what is
332
WITCHCRAFT MONOMANIA
beyond his conception, and of supernatural effect,
he ought then only to be believed, when authorized
by a supernatural approbation. The privilege it
has pleased Almighty God to give to some of our
witnesses, ought not to be lightly communicated and
made cheap. I have my ears battered with a thou-
sand such tales as these. Three sow them such a
day in the east, three the next day in the west; at
such an hour, in such a place, and in such a habit ;
in earnest I should not believe myself. How much
more natural and likely do I find it that two men
should lie, than that one man in twelve hours time,
should fly with the wind from east to west? How
much more natural that our understanding should
be carried from its place, by the volubility of our
disordered minds than this, that one of us should be
carried, by a strong spirit upon a broom-stick, flesh
and bones as we are, up the shaft of a chimney? Let
us not seek illusions from without and unknown,
who are perpetually agitated with illusions domestic
and our own.'
Montaigne goes on philosophizing with his cus-
tomary ease, and in his usual vein of sagacity and
sound common sense, on certain efforts made to
abate his incredulity in witchcraft, by a sovereign
prince in whose territories he happened to be travel-
ling. A number of persons imprisoned on charges
of witchcraft were brought before him by the
*Les Essais de Michel Seigneur de Montaigue, 4to. Paris,
1635, liv. iii. p. 803.
IN AN EPIDEMIC FORM.
333
prince and subjected to his examination. "Amongst
them was an old hag, a real witch in foulness and
deformity, who had been long famous in that calling.
I saw both proofs and free confessions, and I know
not what insensible mark upon the miserable crea-
ture;
I examined and talked with her, and the rest,
as much and as long as I wished, and made the
best and soundest observations I could, neither am
I a man to suffer my judgment to be captivated by
prepossession, and in the end, should in conscience
sooner have prescribed them hellebore than hem-
lock. Captisque res magis mentibus, quam consce-
leratis similis visa. The thing was rather to be
attributed to madness than malice.
Justice has
As to the
correction proper for such maladies.
oppositions and arguments that honest men have
made me, both there, and oft in other places, I
have met with none that have convinced me, and
that have not admitted a more likely solution than
their conclusions. It is true indeed that the proofs
and reasons that are founded upon experience and
matter of fact, I do not go about to untie, neither
have they any end; I often cut them as Alexander
did the Gordion knot. After all it is the setting a
man's conjectures at a very high price upon them,
to cause a man to be roasted alive."*
* Les Essais, ib. liv. iii. p. 804.
CHAPTER XI.
MANIACAL EPIDEMICS.
LYCANTHROPY, OR WOLF TRANSFORMATION MANIA.
THE prevalence of particular forms of insanity
at particular epochs has been noticed in various
countries, and was first treated of scientifically in
France by Docteur Calmeil, the very able and en-
lightened physician.* At different periods in the
middle ages, we find large masses of people moved
at the same time by the same exciting influence,
seized by a nervous affection of an epidemic nature,
that soon merged into a state of mental exaltation
and terminated in monomania, if it were not timely
checked.
These forms of mental insanity are very apt to
assume a religious character. Those which assume
that character are classed by Calmeil under the
head of "Theomania," the opposite of this character
under that of Demonomania, which he divides into
two kinds-Demonolatria, devil worship, and Demo-
nopathy, a belief in possession by evil spirits.
* De la folie sous le point de vue pathologique, philosophique
et judiciare, &c. Par. L. F. Calmeil, Doct. en Med. de Paris,
8 Par. 2 tomes.
MANIACAL EPIDEMICS.
335
It would appear the Demonomania of those
afflicted with Lycanthropy partook of the character
both of Demonolatria and Demonopathy.
In maniacal epidemics we find numbers of people
in a particular locality under some prevailing dérè-
glement of the imagination or the passions, or some
dominant excitement, or exaggeration of dangers,
or desires that overpower judgment. Each form of
the disease will have its own prevailing symptoms
and manifestations of the ruling passion which is
connected with it. Persons labouring under Demo-
nomania have been observed in frequent instances
to have been afflicted with spasms, convulsions,
hysteria or epilepsy; in some cases opisthotonos to
such a degree that the head touched the back,
fixing of the eyes and turning up of the ball so as
to conceal the corners, perverted feelings of various
kinds, hallucinations of all the senses, somnambu-
lism, supposed power of reading the thoughts of
those around them, insensibility to pain during the
deep sleep of somnambulism, divination, free use of
languages previously to the possession supposed to
be unknown; and preternaturally augmented mus-
cular strength. Evidence of demoniac possession has
been mainly rested on the three last named pheno-
mena.
We find this epidemic in one or other of its
various forms associated with excessive mental
activity, or a mysterious sense of impending judg-
ments from a high or a strong conviction of self-
336
MANIACAL EPIDEMICS.
criminality of the deepest dye, or surrounding guilt
of surpassing turpitude, or extravagant zeal in
outward observances and religious enthusiasm, or
strangely mistaken inferences from great facts and
solemn annunciations of sacred truth, and subsc-
quently simulated visions and ecstacies, or a con- ·
suming passion for penetrating into all that is
abstruse in the holy Scriptures, or a blind unreason-
ing belief in witchcraft, sorcery, and demoniacal
influence.
The Were or Wehr-wolff superstitious insanity,
which prevailed so extensively in Germany in the
middle ages, and under the name Lycanthropy, and
generally throughout Europe, is of very ancient
origin and lineage; so ancient as to be found
mingled with the pagan sorceries, which abound in
the writings of the ancient poets of Greece and
Rome.
St. Augustine, in his work "De Civitate Dei,"
devotes a brief chapter to "incredible transforma-
tions of men," which Varro believes in, which
chapter is here given in its integrity.
"In support of this opinion," says St. Augustine,
"Varro relates other things not less incredible of the
celebrated sorceress Circè, who transformed the
companions of Ulysses into beasts, and of the Arca-
dians, who, happening to swim over a certain lake,
were converted into wolves and lived with other
like beasts in the deserts of that region. But if
they eat not human flesh, at the end of nine years
MANIACAL EPIDEMICS.
337
•
when passing the same lake they were restored to
their former shape of men. He has also made men-
tion of one Demænetes, who having tasted of the
sacrifice which the Arcadians were accustomed to
offer to their god Lyceus, having immolated a child
to him, was transformed into a wolf, and the tenth
year was restored to human shape, exercised pugi-
listic feats, and subsequently obtained success in
the Olympic games. "Nor does he think that
Pan and Jupiter were called Lycæi, in the Arca-
dian history, for any other reason, but because they
used to transform men into wolves. For they con-
sidered this impossible to any but a divine power.
A wolf is called in Greek Lupos, and from that,
their name Lycæus is derived. And he says, that
the Roman festivals, the Luperci, had their origin
from the mysteries of these people."*
"Hoc Varro ut astruat, commemorat alia non
minus incredibilia de magna illa famosissima Circe,
quæ socios quoque Ulyssis mutauit in bestias, et de
Arcadibus, qui sorte ducti transnatabant quoddam
stagnum, atque ibi convertebantur in lupos, et cum
similibus feris per illius regionis deserta viuebant.
Si verò carne non vescerentur humana: rursus post
novem annos eodem renato stagno reformabantur
in homines. Denique etiam nominatim expressit
quemdam Demænetum quum gustasset de sacrificio
quod Arcades immolato puero deo suo Lycao
facere solerent, in lupum fuisse mutatum, et anno
* De Incredibilis Transformationis quod Varro crediderit.
I.
Z
338
MANIACAL EPIDEMICS.
decimo in figuram propriam restitutum, ad pugilatus
sese exercuisse, et Olympiaco vicisse certamine.
Nec idem propter illud arbitratur ab historico Ar-
cadiæ tale nomen affictum Pani Lycao et Ioui
Lycao, nisi propter hanc in lupos hominum muta-
tionem Aukòs dicitur, unde Avkalov nomen apparet
inflexum. Romanos etiam Lupercos ex illorum
mysteriorum veluti semine dicit exhortos." *
Old Burton, in his great arsenal of recondite lore,
has an abundant stock of centos and quaint sen-
tences on the subject of man-wolf transformations,
muddled together in admirable disorder.
"Lycanthropia, or wolf-madness, when men run
howling about graves and fields in the night, and
will not be persuaded but that they are wolves, or
some such beasts-Aetiust and Paulust call it a
kind of melancholy; but I should rather refer it to
madness, as most do. Some doubt whether there
be any such disease. Donat. ab Altomari§ saith
that he saw two of them in his time: Wierus
one at Padua, that would not believe but that he
was a wolf. He hath another instance of a Spaniard
who thought himself a bear. Forestus confirms
as much by many examples; one, amongst the rest,
of which he was an eye-witness, in Holland- a poor
husbandman that always hunted about graves and
-
* De Civitate Dei, lib. xviii. cap. 17, tom. ii. p. 369.
+ Lib. vi.
cap. 11.
§ Cap. ix. Art. med.
‡ Lib. iii. cap. 16.
of
|| De præstig. Dæmonum. lib. iii. cap. 21.
¶ Observat. lib. x. de morbis cerebri, cap. 15.
MANIACAL EPIDEMICS.
339
*
kept in churchyards, of a pale, black, ugly, and fear-
ful look. Such, belike, or little better, were king
Proetus' daughters, that thought themselves kine;
and Nebuchadnezzar, as some interpreters hold, was
only troubled with this kind of madness. This dis-
ease perhaps gave occasion to that bold assertion of
Pliny, some men were turned into wolves in his
time, and from wolves to men again; and to that
fable of Pausanias, of a man who was ten years a
wolf, and afterwards turned to his former shape:
to Ovid's tale of Lycaon, &c.
This ma-
lady, saith Avicenna, troubleth men most in Febru-
ary, and is now a days frequent in Bohemia and
Hungary, according to Heurnius. § They lie hid,
most part, all day, and go abroad in the night,
barking, howling, at graves and deserts; they have
usually hollow eyes, scabbed legs, very dry and pale,
saith Altomarus."
The Metamorphoses of Ovid, and Apuleius, and
of Lucian, have surely lent a good deal of the me-
chanism of their fabulous lore to the legends of some
Christian writers. William of Malmesbury relates
in his History (lib. iv. ch. 22, et lib. vi. c. 12), that
"in the time of Petrus Damianus there were two old
women lived on the road leading to Rome, whom
Augustine designates 'stabularia,' that is, persons
entertaining travellers for payment (for 'stabulum'
* Hippocrates, lib. de insaniâ.
† Lib. viii. cap. 22. Homines interdum lupos fieri; et contra.
Met. lib. i. § Cap. de Man.
z 2
340
MANIACAL EPIDEMICS.
properly means a public inn, hospititium venale et
publicum). These women, sojourning in a small
hut, were both addicted to sorcery, and when a tra-
veller came there alone as a guest, they changed
him into a horse, a pig, or an ass, and for a certain
price they sold the same to dealers. On a certain
day a young man requiring entertainment, with
feigned greetings they received him, and changed
him into an ass, making much money of him, who
by a miracle was thus destined for the use of tra-
vellers.
He did not, however, lose his un-
derstanding, but his speech. Hence the old women
derived great advantage from the use made of him;
which being known, a neighbour bought the ass at
a large price; he was cautioned, however, by the
women, that he should keep the ass from going to
water. For a long time he was kept without water,
but at length, the keeper having relaxed in care, the
ass betook himself to a lake, and there rolling for
some time he (the young man) was restored to his
proper form." The rest of the story is rather prolix
as it is narrated, suffice it to say, the family of the
young man complained to the authorities. The then
Pope, Leo, being informed of the affair, and having
taken due cognizance of it, was in some doubt on
the subject, but was confirmed in the opinion of the
actual sorcery of the case by Petrus Damianus, a
most learned man, who brought forward the example
of Simon Magus, who had impressed his own
image on Faustinian.* William of Malmesbury
* Gul. Malmes. Hist. ap. op. Wieri, p. 190.
MANIACAL EPIDEMICS.
341
assuredly had in his remembrance the 18th book of
St. Augustine's "De Civitate Dei," when he com-
posed this narrative.
The following notice of this supposed transforma-
tion of human beings into the shapes of wolves and
other animals, from that work of St. Augustine, I
give both in the English by the Rev. Alban Butler,
and in the original Latin :-
6
"For if we say that we do not credit those things,
no blame attaches to those who assert either that
they have heard of such things as certainties, or
even witnessed them. So I being in Italy, I heard
related similar things having happened, in a certain
part of that region, where it was said, that certain
women, who kept places of entertainment (for man
and beast) 'stabularias mulieres," and being imbued
with those bad arts of sorcery,' were wont to give
in cheese what things they chose or could, to pas-
sengers, when the men were converted into beasts,
and were made to carry burdens. And having
thus been made use of, they were restored to their
former shape. And during this transformation,
their minds felt nothing of the beast, they retained
their reason, and the senses proper to man.
whether these things are false, or so rare that one
refuses to credit them, still undoubtedly, and with
great firmness we ought to believe that God all-
powerful, can do whatever he likes, whether for the
punishment of the wicked, or for the succour and
favour of those who serve him, and that it is not
But
342
MANIACAL EPIDEMICS.
for devils to do anything by the mere strength of
their nature, which is of an angelic kind, though
they are malevolent, unless He whose judgments are
ever secret, never unjust, permit them."
"Si enim dixerimus ea non esse credenda non
desunt etiam nunc qui ejusmodi quædam vel certis-
sima audisse, vel etiam expertos se esse asseuerunt
nam et nos quum essemus in Italia, audiebam
talia de quadam regione illarum partium: ubi sta-
bularias mulieres imbutas his malis artibus, in caseo,
dare solere dicebant, quibus vellent seu possent via-
toribus, unde in jumenta ilicò verteréntur, et neces-
saria quæque portarent, póstque perfuncta opera
iterum ad se redirent: nec tamen in eis mentem
fieri bestialem, sed rationalem humanámque servari
sicut Apuleius in libris quos Asini aurei titulo, in-
scripsit, sibi ipsi accidisse, ut accepto veneno humano
animo permanne asinus fieret aut judicavit, aut
finxit. Hæc vel falsa sunt, vel tam inusitata, ut
meritò non credantur, firmissime tamen credendum
est omnipotentem Deum omnia posse facere quæ
voluerit, sive vindicando, sive præstando, nec dæ-
mones aliquid operari secundum naturæ suæ poten-
tiam, quia et ipsa angelica creatura est, licet pro-
prio sit vitio maligna, nisi quod ille permiserit, cujus
judicia occulta sunt multa, injustitia nulla.'
""*
Olaus Magnus revels in accounts of men con-
verted into wolves.
He states that on a certain Christmas night, a
* Augustinus, De Civitate Dei, lib. xviii. cap. 17.
MANIACAL EPIDEMICS.
343
troop of the Wehr-wolves congregated in a certain
district, and caused the greatest terror and detri-
ment to the inhabitants. They broke into houses
in the dead of night, descended into beer cellars,
guzzled and emptied the casks into the middle of
the cellar, and played the most brutal antics. And
it has been constantly affirmed that among this
multitude of Wehr-wolves which ravage the Nor-
thern regions, there are many magnates of this
world, and men of the first nobility.
"De ferocia hominum per incantamenta in lupos
conversorum."
"In festo nativitatis Christi sub noctem, statuto
in loco, quem inter se determinatum, habent, tanta
luporum ex hominibus diversis, in locis habitantibus,
conversorum copia congregatur, quæ postea eadem
nocte, mira ferocia quum in genus humanum tum
in cetera animalia, quæ færam naturam non habent,
sævit ut majus detrimentum ab his istius regionis
inhabitatores quam unquam a veris et naturalibus
lupis accipiant. Nam uti compertum habitur ædi-
ficia hominum in sylvis existentium, mira cum atro-
citate oppugnant, ipsasque fores effringere conantur,
quo tam homines quam reliquia animantia ibidem
manentia consumant. Cellaria cervisiarum ingre-
diuntur, ac illic aliquot cervisiæ aut medonis tonnas
epotant ipsa que nasa vacua in medio cellari unum
super aliud elevando collocant in quo à genuinis aut
veris lupis discrepant.
Denique constanter
asseritur inter hanc multitudinem etiam istius terræ
344
MANIACAL EPIDEMICS.
magnates, atque ex prima mobilitate veros, ver-
sari."*
In Olaus Magnus's work on the Northern Nations,
book iii. chap. 16, there is a curious account of
magic practices, particularly in Lapland and Fin-
land, where incantations are performed by a
process of striking the image of a brazen frog or
serpent, with many blows on an anvil, and other
operations, whereby a deep sleep like death, and
a state of ecstasy, is produced. He states also that
by force of their incantations, they can see the most
remote things as if they were present; and that
they can perceive what either their friends or ene-
mies are doing, at any time, though such persons
may
be at the distance of five hundred or a thousand
miles from them. These and other extraordinary
phenomena are evidently connected with Animal
Magnetism, or ascribable to some influence produc-
ing catalepsy, somnambulism, trance, and ecstasy.
Martin, in his work on the religion of the Gauls,
makes the following reference to the prevalence of
Lycanthropy.
"Rien de plus ordinaire dans l'antiquite que les
changements des hommes en loups par la voye des
enchantements. Herodote avoit appris des Scythes
et des Grecs, que certaines gens en Scythie etoient
tous les ans transformes en loups pour un tems;
c'est un maladie qu'on appelle lycanthropie, causée
* Olaus Magnus. Gentium Septentrionalium Historia Bre-
viarum. Lib. xviii. cap. 32.
MANIACAL EPIDEMICS.
345
par une melancholie qui fait croire qu'on est loup
et qui fait chercher les forets."*
The following passage in Herodotus is that, in
all probability, which is referred to by Martin.
"These men attempt to be magicians: and the
Scythians, with the Grecians who inhabit in Scythia,
say, that all the Neurians, once every year, are
transformed into wolves for a few days, and then
resume their former shape. But I am not persuaded
to believe this, though they affirm their assertion
with oaths."+
So early as the sixth century, we find Lycan-
thropy prevalent in an epidemic form in Italy. At
later periods, we have large details of the ravages
of this loathsome sickness of the imagination, in the
North of Europe, in the pages of Olaus Magnus,
and from Norway and Sweden it seems to have in-
vaded Germany, France, and the British Islands.
Ireland had its men wolves as well as other coun-
tries. Camden tells us of a certain race of people
in Ossory, who were transformed into wolves every
seven years.
"Whereas some of the Irish, and such as would
be thought worthy of credit, doe affirme that certaine
men in this tract are yeerly turned into wolves:
surely I suppose it a meere fable: unlesse haply
through that malicious humour of predominant un-
* La religion des Gaulois, par le R. P. Dom
Martin) vol. 2, liv. iv. p. 60.
† Herodotus. Melpom. c. iv. p. 249.
(Jacques
346
MANIACAL EPIDEMICS.
kind melancholie, they be possessed with the malady
that the physicians call Lycanthropia, which raiseth
and engendereth such like phantasies as that they
imagine themselves transformed into wolves"* every
seven years.
Camden makes one of the Ossorian wolves tell his
own story.
·
"De quodam hominum genere sumus Ossyrien-
sium, unde quolibet septennio per imprecationem
sancti cujusdam natalis scilicet Abbatis. ... formam
enim humanam prorsus exeuntes induunt Lupinam."
In the Annals of Ireland, under date 1341,
Camden gives an account of the barking disease
prevailing in the county of Leicester:
"Item, this wonderous prodigie following, and
such as in our age had not been heard of before,
happened in the county of Leicester, where a certain
waifaring man, as he travelled in the king's highway
found a paire of gloves fit, as he thought, for his
own turne, which, as he drew upon his hands, forth-
with instead of a man's voice and speech, he kept a
strange and mervaillous barking like unto a dogge:
and from that present, the elder folke and full growen,
yea, and women too throughout the same country
barked like big dogges, but the children and little
ones waughed as small whelpes. The plague con-
tinued with some, eighteen days, with others, a
whole moneth, and with some for two yeares. Yea
* Camden's Britannia, translated into English, by Dr. Hol-
land. Lond. 1610, p. 82.
MANIACAL EPIDEMICS.
347
this foresaid contagious maladie entered also into
the neighbouring shires, and forced the people in
like maner to barke,”*
The celebrated Dr. Willis gives an account of his
attendance on a family living in the country, in which
five children laboured under a convulsive malady,
accompanied with very singular symptoms: all the
patients barked like dogs.
"In the family which I visited, there were four
girls ill I heard their cries a long time before I
arrived at the village, and when I entered the house,
I remarked, that although their heads were agitated
with great violence, there appeared no convulsion of
the face, except that they yawned frequently. Their
pulses were good, but towards the close of the
disease became a little feeble. Their cries did not
so much resemble the sound made by dogs when
barking, as that made when they howl and are
complaining. They were more frequent also than
those of dogs, and in fact occurred at every respiration.
The youngest of these girls was but six years old, the
eldest but sixteen. Sometimes intervals occurred,
in which they had the perfect use of their senses:
the seizure of the disease was sudden, and after
howling till they were exhausted, they fell as in
epilepsy."
There are forms of mania connected with perverted
religious ideas which cannot be called epidemics, but
* Camden's Britannia, Holland's trans. Annals, p. 188.
348
MANIACAL EPIDEMICS.
*
rather endemics, found prevalent in a particular
community or establishment.
Rollin and Hecquet make mention of a nervous
disease of this kind, attacking the whole community
of a convent near Paris. The members were at-
tacked every day about the same hour with an
unconquerable propensity, to imitate the mewing of
cats. After much trouble had been given to the
religious, and great scandal being occasioned by
this malady, the nerves of the sufferers had a
remedy applied to them, which was quite effectual;
they were menaced with the interposition of the au-
thorities, and with having a file of soldiers posted at
the gate of the convent, to enter on the first occasion
of the repetition of the mysterious noises; and it is
said the effect of the intimation had such an effect
on the nervous system of the community, that the
disease ceased all at once.
In that work of an execrable Judge, aptly entitled,
"Discours Execrable Des Sorciers ;" par Henri
Boguet, Grand Juge au Comtè de Bourgogne
(Rouen, 16mo. 1606). A chapter is devoted to the
"Sorcellerie des Lycanthropes ou Loups Garoux,"
wherein he details the particulars of the trials in
1597, of six individuals charged with sorcery, Lycan-
thropy, frequenting the devil's sabbaths, the use of
diabolical unguents, transformations into wolves, and
killing children for their orgies, and causing many
people, and a great deal of cattle, to perish by their
incantations. Boguet being judge, it is hardly ne-
MANIACAL EPIDEMICS.
349
cessary to say, no escape from his justice was to be
expected tortures and terrors suggested confessions,
extorted admissions of guilt, condemnations and
burnings necessarily followed, wherever this in-
human ermined-monster presided in his official ca-
pacity, who, in its certainty, justified the proverb of
his country-"Que l'homme est loup à l'homme."
Boguet-Grand Juge de Bourgogne-puts aside,
however, the terrors of his office at the end of this
chapter on Loups garoux. He becomes lamb-like,
meek, and charitable. He says, "Je ne me pleigne
de ceux qu' excusent les sorciers et rejettent tout
ce quils font sur Satan, comme s'els en estoyent
entierement innocens. Car il se recognoit de ce que
j'ai dit, que ce sont les sorciers qui causent la mort et
Et plus quand il n'y auraoit
autre chose, que le damnable intention q'uils ont,
pourquoi ne les jugerons nous pas coupable de mort,
veu que la loi punit la volontè meme en choses qui
ne sont pas trop graves, encore que les effets ne s'en
soyent point ensuivis. J'adjouste que quoique ils
n'ont jamais telle intention, qu'au preallable, ils
n'ayent renoncè a Dieu, et au ciel.*
tuent eux memes.
66
There is one short chapter of Boguet's work, the
fortieth, headed ; “ Les Sorcieres ne peuvent jetter de
larmes en la presence de la Juge." The "Grand
Juge" begins by referring to a learned author, Bo-
dinus, who relates the confession of a woman, to this
Boguet. Discours Execrable, &c. ch. 47, p. 258.
350
MANIACAL EPIDEMICS.
effect, that sorcerers could only shed three tears with
the right eye. "The doctors," says Boguet, "es-
teem it one of the strongest presumptions that exist
as a test in crimes of sorcery. I wish to report what
has come to my knowledge. All the sorcerers whom
I have examined in quality of Judge, have never shed
tears in my presence: or, indeed, if they have shed
them, it has been so parsimoniously-si maigrement,
that no notice was taken of them.
"I say this with regard to those who seemed to
weep, but I doubt if their tears were not feigned.
I am at least well assured that those tears were
wrung from them with the greatest efforts: arra-
chès avec grandissime force.' The which was
shewn by the efforts which the accused made to
weep, and by the small number of tears which they
shed. But if I spoke to them in private, they shed
tears and wept with all possible vehemence. The
same happened when they confessed. They then
shewed themselves more lively and joyous than they
had previously been, as if they had been delivered
from a great burden.
"Besides, it is probable that sorcerers do not shed
tears, since tears serve principally to penitents to
wash away and cleanse their sins. Neverthe-
less, if you demand of sorcerers why they do not
shed tears, they answer you that it is impossible for
them to weep, because they have the heart too much
oppressed- ils ont le cœur trop estreint et serres -
!
MANIACAL EPIDEMICS.
351
at seeing themselves disgraced by the imputation of
a crime so detestable as that of sorcery."
21*
And then this man-devil in judicial authority,
gives instructions to other judges how they should
act in such cases, in a high tone of dignity: he who
could wring from human misery tears, "arrachès avec
grandissime force;" and with all the coldness and
calm composure that he thought becoming his high
functions, who could measure the scanty drops that
came from channels dried up with terror and the
anguish of cruel torments, from the fountain no
longer gushing of the heart, "trop estreint et ser-
rès," who could frame a judicial test of tears, and
find an evidence of guilt in the small number which
a wretched prisoner could shed before the judge who
was about to consign him to the stake, dares to talk
of justice and religion. This was the model judge
who was to teach his junior brothers of the Bench
how they were to act "en faicts de Sorcellerie."
Of the six prisoners referred to, who were tried
and condemned to the flames in 1597, Boguet finds
it necessary to devote a chapter to one of them, a
woman named Clauda Gaillard, to leave no doubt of
the evidence of her guilt in the public mind. This
chapter I place before my readers without the omis-
sion of a single word.
"1. Common report was against her.
"2. No one ever saw her shed a single tear,
* Boguet, ib. chap. xl. p. 229.
352
MANIACAL EPIDEMICS.
whatever effort might be made to cause her to shed
tears.
"3. She made use of execrable imprecations or-
dinarily in her responses.
❝ 4. She condemned herself as well as the woman
Baillu before she was accused: inasmuch as when
she was demanded, among other things, if Humbert
Yinchon was married, she replied in the affirmative,
and that his wife was named Maria Perrier: and
at the same instant, of her own accord, added, that
she had never done any harm to this woman, but,
on the contrary, it was that woman who had done
harm to her health by breathing in her face.
"5. She was convicted of guilt, being confronted
by one of the prisoners, Aranthon: for being brought
along with another woman into a chamber where
the officers were, Aranthon recognized her, and
(addressing her) strenuously maintained, that she
had come to the Sabbath (of the devil) in the
village of Coiries with others she had named.
Moreover, she varied often in her answers.
"Finally, she was accused of several acts of sor-
cery, and also of having caused Madame Perrier to
fall sick, and Claude Perrier, by breathing in their
faces. Item, to have caused the deaths of six goats
of Peter Perrier, and caused a mare of his to fall
sick, and afterwards to have cured that mare, and to
have moreover transformed herself into a wolf. It is
however quite true that the witnesses who deposed
MANIACAL EPIDEMICS.
353
to these acts were for the most part single witnesses,
but as they were of accord as to the crime of sorcery,
they so far confirmed it, and although even they were
all either relations or connexions of Clauda Gail-
lard."*
I have given in the preceding literal' translation
from the French original, the whole of Boguet's
"Raisons et Fondements de la Sentence Condemna-
toire de Clauda Gaillard," which forms chap. li. of
his "Discours Execrable de Sorcellerie," with the
view of affording a fair specimen of the jurispru-.
dence of the 16th century in matters of sorcery:
and for the purpose of obviating the necessity of
entering further into extensive details on a subject
which cannot be read without feelings of pain and
humiliation. Of the more remarkable cases of
"loups garoux," we find mention made in the
"Discours Execrable," of the following:-
In 1521, three loups garoux were burned at
Poligni.
In 1571, Trois Echelles, a sorcerer and loup
garou, was burned in the Place de Greve, in Paris.
In 1573, Gilles Garnier, a sorcerer and loup
garou, was burned at Dole.
In 1578, Jacques Rollet, a sorcerer and loup
garou, was burned at Paris, in the Place de Greve.
And yet, in 1579, we are told the number of
sorcerers who underwent transformations into wolves
was vastly increased. For the next twenty years
* Boguet, ib. chap. li. p. 317, &c.
I.
2 A
354
MANIACAL EPIDEMICS.
the authorities were more active than ever, the
bourreaux could not complain of want of business.
But, in 1589, an unheard of occurrence took place
in France, fourteen persons charged with sorcery
and wolf transformations, and tried, not by Boguet,
on that charge, were acquitted.
But though checked in one place the crusades
against loups garoux went on in the other parts of
France with undiminished ardour. A vast number
were burned, and Boguet claims the merit of the
principal portion of those judicial murders.
In 1670, twenty-five monomaniacs were burned
at Eifdalem, in Sweden, charged with sorcery. The
unfortunate Swedes of the village of Mohra, who
were put to death as sorcerers, like the victims of
Labourd, were similarly wrought on, and subdued
into confessions of guilt. They were subjected to
the same malign influences of disease, terrors, suffer-
ings, and torments, at the hands of Royal Commis-
saries, who were sent into the province to establish
a tribunal with the clergy and local judges, for the
trial of those demonolatres. Bekker, in "Le Monde
Enchanté," gives an account of those proceedings.
The Swedish sorcerers generally made confessions
to the following effect:-
"We invoke a devil named Anteper, who assem-
bles us in a place called Blocula. The spirit nearly
always appears to us for the first time under the
form of a man in a grey dress, with a red beard,
blue stockings, red shoes, a pointed hat, ornamented
MANIACAL EPIDEMICS.
355
with bunches of ribbons. We perform long voyages
by night through the air; we are then borne by
goats, sheep, by devils transformed into beasts of
burden; we steal many children, which we bring to
Blocula. The first time we are admitted to the
sabbath we renounce the true God, and we give our
body and our soul to the devil. A peculiar kind of
baptism is administered to us; and we make vows
and pronounce abominable words. Many things
forbidden take place at Blocula. The sorcerers
fight, dance, deliver themselves to the pleasures of
voluptuousness and luxury. The devil plays the
harp, and desires the company of wizards and
witches.
Sometimes Anteper lets himself die,
in order to re-appear by the effect of a prompt re-
surrection: we learn how to milk cows at a distance
from them, and to kill men without touching them.
We are made a present of a quadruped and a
white bird, which we make use of to take game.
Every thing that falls under the claws of the bird
belongs to us; the devil claims for his portion what-
ever the quadruped succeeds in securing. It happens,
also, that the soul is transported alone to Blocula,
while the body remains as if deprived of life in the
house of the person possessed."*
Rude and uncivilized as these poor Swedish vil-
lagers were, it is evident their ears had been fami-
liarized with the legendary lore of witchcraft, as it
was long known in Germany, Flanders, France, and
* Bekker, Le Monde Enchantè.
2A2
356
MANIACAL EPIDEMICS.
Switzerland. But it is extremely curious to observe
how the northern ideas of costume, the chase, the
boisterous revels at their assemblages, the dance, and
accompanying scenes of strife crept into the old
recitals of witchcraft in other countries, and gave
a national Swedish character to the picture of the
devil and his place of revelry in this world.
Sennertus throws much light on the subject of
this monomania in Germany, without seeming con-
scious of the importance of the fact related by him.
He states, he was informed, on good authority,
that a woman had been arrested on suspicion of
being a wehr-wolf, and the magistrates promised to
spare her life if she confessed how she effected her
transformations, which she consented to do. She
was allowed to send to her house for a certain pot of
ointment. On its being brought to her she anointed
her head, neck, and shoulders, and her members
with it, and immediately after having done so she
fell down in a deep swoon, which lasted for three
hours. And on awaking, and being asked where she
had been in the interval, she replied, she had been
transformed into a wolf, and had a coursing chase,
in which she had killed a cow and a sheep. And
then comes the marvellous addition to the account
of the deep swoon and the dream of the ter-
rified and half-crazed culprit, namely, that the
magistrates sent immediately, to ascertain the truth
of the woman's statement, to the place indicated
by her as the scene of the alleged slaughter of the
MANIACAL EPIDEMICS.
357
sheep and the cow, and the magistrates found
the precise damage she described had actually been
done. Sennertus has no doubt on his mind of the
diabolical influence exerted in this case, but he sup-
poses the demon had acted by suggestion, as in the
case of Eve, and when the evil impression had
been made on the woman's imagination, did the
mischief himself, and made her dream that she had
done it.
Puceros, in his work, "De Divinatione" (page
170), treating the popular belief in those transforma-
tions as fabulous and absurd, yet expresses his
astonishment at the accounts given him by trust-
worthy persons of the confessions of several persons
who had been apprehended in Livonia and the
adjacent countries, and put to the torture by the
authorities.
The confessions had a kind of consistency in
them; the persons so examined by torture, gene-
rally agreed that they had entered into compact with
Satan; that they were in the habit of assembling
twelve days after Christmas, being led by a young
man who was lame of one foot; and urged on by
another person of large stature, armed with a
whip of iron wire and chains twisted together, who
severely scourged the loiterers, and inflicted wounds
which left weals and scars on the persons thus
driven to the place of rendezvous.
When they came to the appointed place of assem-
blage, after various rites and ceremonies, they were
358
MANIACAL EPIDEMICS.
all transformed into wolves. They then commenced
their courses in the forests and adjoining places of
pasture; fell on flocks of sheep, but had no power to
hurt the shepherds, and for twelve days revelled
like beasts of prey, scampering over the plains, scat-
tering flocks, and feeding on vast numbers of animals
that had been worried to death by them.
Guy Patin's ironical admission of the necessity of
conformity to prevailing bètises was realized by the
wehr-wolves-men of Livonia: "Il faut hurler avec
les loupes et badiner avec les autres betes."
CHAPTER XII.
THE FLAGELLATION MANIA.
THIRTEENTH AND FOURTEENTH CENTURIES.
THE most remarkable Epidemics of fanaticism
that have afflicted humanity at various epochs, have
been preceded by signal pestilences or famines, or
convulsions of nature, that have been attended
with great national calamities.
Professor Hecker, one of the most learned
German physicians and medical writers of his
country, in his very remarkable work, "The Epi-
demics of the Middle Ages," gives an account of
three remarkable epidemics, which had a most im-
portant bearing on the history of the human race.
The first of these was the Black Death, or Glandular
Plague, or Great Mortality, which in the 14th century
swept away at least one quarter of the population of
the old world within a period of four years, and
raged in England with such destructive violence,
that "the annals of contemporaries report that
throughout the land only a tenth part of the inha-
bitants remained alive."*
*The Epidemics of the Middle Ages," from the German of
J. F. C. Hecker, M.D., Professor at Frederick William's Univer-
sity at Berlin. Translated and published by the Sydenham
Society, Jan. 1844, p. 7.
360
THE FLAGELLATION MANIA.
But, elsewhere, (at page 27) Hecker says this esti-
mate is evidently greatly exaggerated.* Throughout
Europe the crops failed, cattle died, the insect tribe
multiplied marvellously, famine set in, the plague
burst forth the same dire calamities occurred in
France, Germany, Silesia, Poland, Denmark, and
much farther north. In nearly all these countries
great convulsions of nature had taken place.
"In the inmost depths of the globe that impulse
was given in the year 1333, which in uninterrupted
succession for six and twenty years shook the sur-
face of the earth, even to the western shores of
Europe."+
In 1347, the first appearance of the plague in
Cyprus, Sicily, Marseilles, and some Italian sea-
ports, clearly indicated the route of the pestilence
from the Levant to Europe.
"In all Germany, according to a probable calcu-
lation," we are told, by Hecker, "there seems to
have died only 1,244,434 inhabitants; this country
however, was more spared than others. Italy, on
the contrary, was more severely visited. It is said
to have lost half its inhabitants." In Sardinia and
Corsica scarcely a third of the population remained
alive. Venice lost three-fourths of its inhabitants
by this plague.
+
* "In Yarmouth," says Hecker, "7052 died. In London, in
one burying ground alone, there were interred upwards of 50,000
corpses arranged in layers in large pits."
+ Ibid. p. 18.
‡ Ib. 27.
THE FLAGELLATION MANIA.
361
The disease first appeared in China in 1347; for
upwards of thirteen years previously that vast
empire was ravaged by mighty revolutions in the
earth, parching droughts, terrible inundations, earth-
quakes, and frequent tempests.
"From China to
the Atlantic the foundations of the earth were shaken
throughout Asia and Europe; the atmosphere was
in commotion, and endangered by its baneful influ-
ence both vegetable and animal life."*
Famine supervened, cattle of all kinds perished of
the murrain, and various universally prevailing dis-
eases; then the plague made its appearance, every-
where similar in its leading characteristics, and of
the same type as the present plague of the Levant,
except that it was accompanied generally with vio-
lent inflammation of the lungs.
In January, 1348, "an unexampled earthquake
shook Greece and Italy, and whole villages were
swallowed up in the latter country. The whole
period during which the black plague raged with
destructive violence in Europe was,
with the excep-
tion of Russia, from the year 1347 to 1350.”+
But various pestilences, "common plagues with-
out inflammation of the lungs, such as in former
times, and in the following centuries, were excited
by the matter of contagion everywhere existing,"
returned from 1350 to 1383. In fact, during the
14th century Europe was ravaged by five or six
great plagues.
* Ibid. p. 13.
† Ibid. p. 29.
362
THE FLAGELLATION MANIA.
Of the number of lives lost in Europe, by "The
Black Plague," from 1347 to 1351, the period of its
last ravages in Russia, Hecker states that the most
probable estimate is, a fourth-part of the inhabitants
were carried off. "Now, if Europe," he observes,
"contain 210,000,000 inhabitants, the population,
not to take a higher estimate, which might easily be
justified, amounted to at least 105,000,000 in the
16th century. It may therefore be assumed, with-
out exaggeration, that Europe lost 25,000,000 of
its inhabitants."
Historians seem to have made small account of
the greatest destruction of human life on record.
Even in England, where its ravages were enormous,
Hume disposes of the subject in a single paragraph.
Yet, in London alone, 100,000 persons are said to
to have perished in this plague. Hume reduces the
number to half that estimate, yet he refers in a note,
to a statement of Stowe, where it is asserted, that in
one churchyard alone set apart for the burial of the
poor, 50,000 were buried: "But a sudden damp,"
says Hume, "was thrown over this festivity and
triumph of the Court of England, by a destructive
pestilence which invaded that kingdom, as well as
the rest of Europe; and is computed to have swept
away near a third of the inhabitants in every country
which it attacked. It was probably more fatal in
great cities than in the country; and above 50,000
souls are said to have perished by it in London
* Epidemics of the Middle Ages, p. 30.
THE FLAGELLATION MANIA.
363
alone.* This malady first discovered itself in the
north of Asia, was spread over all that country,
made its progress from one end of Europe to the
other, and sensibly depopulated every state through
which it passed. So grievous a calamity, more than
the pacific disposition of the princes, served to main-
tain and prolong the truce between France and
England."†
There is an observation of Hecker on the results
of this great pestilence worthy of notice: "We for
our parts are convinced that in the history of the
world, 'The Black Death' (of the 14th century)
is one of the most important events which have
prepared the way for the present state of Europe.
He who studies the human mind with attention,
and forms a deliberate judgment on the intellectual
powers which set people and states in motion, may
perhaps find proofs of this assertion in the follow-
ing observation: at that time the advancement of
the hierarchy was in most countries extraordinary
for the Church acquired treasures and large proper-
ties in land: even to a greater extent than after the
Crusades, but experience has demonstrated that such
a state of things is ruinous to the people, and causes
"There were buried 50,000 bodies in one churchyard, which
Sir Walter Manny had bought for the use of the poor. The
same author says that there died above 50,000 persons of the
plague in Norwich, which is quite incredible."-Stowe's Survey,
p. 478.
+ Hume's History of England, 16mo. 1811, vol. iii. Edw. III.
p. 77.
364
THE FLAGELLATION MANIA.
them to retrograde, as was evinced on this occasion.”*
Hecker is certainly mistaken in imagining that the
treasures and large properties acquired by the
clergy and the Church during this terrible epidemic,
were productive of consequences that were ruinous
to the people. It produced a state of things that
proved ultimately ruinous to religion, to the true
interests and spiritual influence of the enriched
clergy and aggrandized Church. The treasures and
large properties which were wrung, either from the
terrors or the repentance of the conscience-stricken
possessors, came not to the clergy or the Church
from the people, they came from the rich maraud-
ing feudal chiefs and lords of the soil, from the
heads of plundering, rapacious factions, who had
made themselves masters of the different territories
throughout Europe, by the sword, held them by
that tenure, and ground the unfortunate serfs and
villains of their territorial possessions to the dust by
their oppression and exaction.
In the 14th century, there was a singular con-
firmation of the opinion of Dr. Babington: "That
in all severe epidemics, from the time of Thucydides.
to the present day, a false suspicion has been enter-
tained by the vulgar, that the springs or provisions
have been poisoned or the air infected, by some sup-
posed enemies of the common weal." Thousands of
"innocent lives were sacrificed under this barbarous
notion."
The Epidemics of the Middle Ages, p. 31.
THE FLAGELLATION MANIA.
365
The persecution of the Jews, which originated at
Chillon in 1348, was attributable to the same cause.
The pestilence of the "Black Death," had no sooner
broken out in Switzerland, than the Jews were ac-
cused of poisoning the wells, and legal proceedings
of the utmost rigour were instituted against them.
The savage persecution extended all over Switzer-
land and Germany. "In Mayence alone, 12,000
Jews are said to have been put to a cruel death."*
The Flagellants had entered that place in August,
1348, and had suffered some offence at the hands of
the Jews, by whom some of the disciplinarians and
their protectors were slain. The inhabitants espoused
the quarrel of the Flagellants, and raised so terrible
a persecution against the Jews, that great numbers
of the latter consumed themselves and their families
by setting fire to their dwellings. Pope Clement
IV. to his honour, endeavoured to stay the bar-
barous persecution. He issued two bulls denounc-
ing the persecutors, and pleading the innocence of
the persecuted and pillaged Jewish people.
In the reign of Edward II. in 1327, Hume
states the Jews of England were the victims of a
similar panic in the public mind:
Among other wild fancies of the age, it was
imagined, that the persons affected with leprosy, a
disease at that time very common, particularly from
bad diet, had conspired with the Saracens to poison
all the springs and fountains; and men being glad
“The Black Death,” p. 44.
* Hecker.
366
THE FLAGELLATION MANIA.
of any pretence to get rid of those who were a bur-
then to them, many of those unhappy people were
burnt alive on this chimerical imputation. Several
Jews also were punished in their persons, and their
goods were confiscated on the same account."*
Bearing in mind the events that took place in
St. Petersburgh and Madrid, during the cholera of
1831, it is singular to read in Thucydides the follow-
ing words on the subject of the great Plague which
shewed itself in the Piræus during the Peloponne-
sian war, and next visited Athens and swept away
thousands of the Athenians:-"The contagion
shewed itself first in the Piræus, which occasioned a
report that the Peloponnesians had caused poison to
be thrown into the wells, for as yet there were no
fountains there."t
Dr. Lefevre, in his observations on the Cholera,
in St. Petersburgh, 1831 (p. 9), says, "The disease
was attributed by the people to poison, and nothing
could be more authentic than the reports that were
spread of miscreants taken in the act of putting
poisonous drugs into the food and drink."
But what have these details of pestilence to do
with the subject of this work?
It will be seen they have a good deal to do with
several of those "Egarements de l'Esprit Humain"
* Hume's History of England, 16mo. 1811.
vol. 2, p. 410.
Edward II.
+ Thucydides. Translated by Dr. Smith, Dean of Chester.
Valpy, 1831. Vol. i. book 2, 177.
p.
THE FLAGELLATION MANIA.
367
which are referred to in it. The moral results of
great pestilences, famines, and convulsions of the
earth, are often perceptible in the most remarkable
outbreaks of fanaticism, mental hallucination, illu-
sions, epidemic mania in all its forms; desecrating
what is most high and holy, perverting what is
true, natural, or salutary, and spreading the conta-
gion of inordinate enthusiasm and false zeal, and
maddening excitement far and wide.
THE FLAGELLANTS.
"While all countries," says Hecker, "were filled
with lamentations and woe, there first arose in
Hungary, and afterwards in Germany, the Brother-
hood of the Flagellants, called also the Brotherhood
of the Cross, or Cross Bearers, who took upon them-
selves the repentance of the people for the sins they
had committed, and offered prayers and supplications
for the averting of this plague.
"This order consisted chiefly of persons of the
lowest class, who were either actuated by sincere
contrition, or who joyfully availed themselves of this
pretext for idleness, and were hurried along with
the tide of distracting frenzy. But as these bro-
therhoods gained in repute, and were welcomed by
the people with veneration and enthusiasm, many
nobles and ecclesiastics ranged themselves under
their standard, and their bands were not unfre-
quently augmented by children, honourable women
and nuns, so powerfully were minds of the most
368
THE FLAGELLATION MANIA.
opposite temperaments, enslaved by this infatuation.
They marched through the cities in well organized
processions, with leaders and singers; their heads
covered as far as their eyes, their looks fixed on the
ground, accompanied by every token of the deepest
contrition and mourning. They were robed in
sombre garments, with red crosses on the breast,
back, and cap, and bore triple scourges tied in
three or four knots, in which points of iron were
fixed. Tapers, and magnificent banners of velvet
and cloth of gold were carried before them;
wherever they made their appearance they were
welcomed by the ringing of the bells, to listen to
their hymns, and to witness their penance with
devotion and tears.
"In the year 1349 two hundred Flagellants first
entered Strasburg, where they were received with
great joy and hospitality, and lodged by the citizens.
Above a thousand joined the Brotherhood, which
now assumed the appearance of a wandering tribe,
and separated into two bodies for the purpose of
journeying to the north and to the south.”*
The influence of this fanaticism was so great and
formidable to the secular and also to the spiritual
power, that at length a check was put to it; not
before the excitement it created was like that which
about 250 years before had summoned the inhabitants
of the principal towns and cities of Europe into the
deserts of Syria and Palestine.
* The Epidemics of the Middle Ages, &c., p. 654.
THE FLAGELLATION MANIA.
369
It is remarkable, that in nearly all the epidemic
mental disorders connected with fanatical ideas,
psalm-singing by the multitude formed a large part
of the religious observances. This was the case
with respect to the Flagellants as well as the
Piagnoni of Florence, the dancing maniacs of
Germany, the Lollards of the same country, the
Convulsionaries of Paris, the Anabaptists of Hol-
land and the Netherlands, and the Revivalists of
North America. The Flagellants on entering a
town or city were usually announced by the ringing
of the church bells; "they first visited the church-
yards, and then the churches, where they sung
hymns in which nothing was to be found that did
not breathe a truly pious and christian sentiment."*
Schetting (di secta Flagell.), and the Abbe Boileau
(Hist. des Flagellans) bear testimony to the same
fact.
The German Flagellants, when their disease as-
sumed a migratory pilgrimaging character, marked
by strong symptoms of insubordination and pride,
engendering contempt for all authority, secular and
spiritual, were condemned by the Court of Rome,
and the petty Princes of Italy and Germany, and
banished from their States.
The scourging epidemic then abated, but did not
die out altogether; for as usual with all epidemic
manias following in the wake of widely prevailing
national calamities, the scourging mania appeared
* Lenfans, Hist. de Con. de Const., tom. i. p. 81.
I.
2 B
370
THE FLAGELLATION MANIA.
in Germany again after great commotions and suf-
ferings of the people.*
Hecker has not very clearly stated the fact that
the Society of Flagellants in Germany, in the middle
of the 14th century, was only a revived institution,
the origin of which dated back upwards of a century
previously to their appearance in Germany in 1348.
In the "Chronicon Ursitius Basiliensis" of the
monk St. Justin, of Padua, published in 1585, we
have the most detailed account that is to be found
of the first appearance of the Flagellants as a sect
in Italy in 1260. With the exception of the fana-
ticism which exhibited itself in the laceration of
their bodies, there is nothing to find fault with in
their practices or religious observances, at least as
they are narrated by St. Justin.
"The Flagellants," says Boileau, "were almost
extinct, as a sect, when in 1349 they again made
made their appearance in great force, as St. Justin
affirms, in 1585."
Boileau cites another chronicle for an account of
the fanaticism of flagellation which followed the
pestilence of the middle of the 14th century.
"The pestilence," he tells us, "having abated by
degrees towards the beginning of 1349, that is to
say, eighty-nine years after the origin of the sect of
Flagellants; in Germany they began again to be
migratory, and about two hundred of them came from
Spires under the leadership of one principal ruler
* Lenfans, Hist. de Con. de Const., tom. i. p. 63.
THE FLAGELLATION MANIA.
371
and two other magistrates. On the first occasion
of their public appearance at Spires, they made a
circle in a broad place before the principal monastery,
and in the middle of it they despoiled themselves of
their habiliments, "habentes in modum braccæ
Canŭsinas in femores ac talos prætentas ;" they then
went round the circular space one after another, and
then in the form of a crucifix prostrated themselves,
and commenced the practice of self-flagellation with
scourges, having each four knobs with iron points."
The remainder of this account it is unnecessary to
proceed with; from other sources the main particu-
lars of the proceedings of this second visitation of
the Flagellant fanaticism have been already given.
""*
The author of the work "Des Egaremens de
l'Esprit Humain," tells us: "Voluntary flagellations
(of an expiatory nature) became very frequent in the
11th and 12th century; and, finally, these ideas pro-
duced, at the end of the 13th century (1260), the
sect of Flagellants, of which the monk St. Justin
of Padua relates the origin."†
The author describes them as "Penitens fana-
tiques et atrabilaires qui se fouettoient impitoyable-
ment et qui attribuoient à la flagellation plus de
vertu qu'aux sacremens pour effacer les pecher."
Their origin, we are told, was at a period of signal
* Such instruments of flagellation. similarly armed with sharp
iron points, as are now in use in one of the new orders emanating
from the Puseyites.
† Hist. des Egar. del l'Esprit Ilumain, tom. ii. p. 62.
2B 2
372
THE FLAGELLATION MANIA.
depravity, when all Italy was a prey to rapacity and
misery, steeped in crime and vice of all kinds. Then
it was this extraordinary superstition crept into
being among the people of Perugia and Rome, and
thence among all the people of Italy.
"The fear of the last judgment had so forcibly
seized on men's imaginations, that nobles, adven-
turers of every kind, placed themselves naked (se
mettent tous nues) in the ranks of those who
marched along the streets in the procession, each
with a scourge in his hand, and flogged himself on
the shoulders till the blood came; each uttered
doleful cries and groans; and at first these exam-
ples of penitence had good results; they were pro-
ductive of many reconciliations and restitutions."*
It should be borne in mind this moral epidemic
disease began to prevail after Italy had been long
torn by the contending factions of rapacious feudal
chiefs, Guelphs and Ghibelines, and of contending
rival claimants to spiritual thrones and dignities.
It seems certain that so early as the 11th cen-
tury, self-flagellation in some religious communities,
in penitential seasons, was practised in their churches.
The Penitentials of the Greek church, which were
remarkable for their severity, had patrons in the Latin
church, who carried their ideas of the efficacy of cor-
poral punishment to an extent of rigour in the 10th
and 11th centuries, which tended greatly to encourage
fanaticism. Courses of mortification were prolonged
* Des Egaremens de l'Esprit Humain, tom. ii. p. 63.
THE FLAGELLATION MANIA.
373
from forty days to seven years. Compensations
were allowed by money for remission of some courses
of self-inflicted punishments that were found imprac-
ticable; and in the excess of fanaticism, the doc-
trine of the Latin church was abused by some mis-
taken enthusiasts in the cloisters, so far as to frame
a code of the equivalents of sins and stripes, estimat-
ing a year's penance at 3000 lashes. Peter Damia-
nus, in an account of St. Dominic Loricatus, states,
that the zeal and perseverance of this holy man were
such, that in six days he could discharge a debt of an
entire century of 300,000 stripes. And his example,
we are told, was followed by many penitents of both
sexes; and some disciplinarians were even found to
expiate on their own backs the sins of others.*
This Dominicus Loricatus, a monk of St. Croce
D'Avellano, is mentioned by Damianus as the master
and model of this species of mortification of the flesh.
But we must travel beyond the times of the monk
of Avellano, and even beyond the precincts of
Christianity itself for the origin of voluntary flagel-
lation.
The principal source of authentic information con-
cerning the Flagellants, is the Latin work of the
Abbé Boileau.†
The Arcadians, Boileau observes, in the time of
King Evander, voluntarily scourged themselves in
* See Fleury, Hist. Eccles., tom. i. pp. 96, 104.
"Historia Flagellantium: de Recto et Perverso usu Flagro-
rum apud Christianos," in 12mo. Paris, 1700.
374
THE FLAGELLATION MANIA.
honour of the god Pan. Petronius Arbiter alludes
to the practice, and not as a sacred rite, at page 503
of the Amsterdam edition of his works, 1669.
In the time of St. Augustine there were certain
heretics who scourged themselves voluntarily. And
in various religious communities, from his time, the
abbots and abbesses had the power of punishing
the members of their communities by scourging.*
Tertullian observes, in the book "Ad Martyres,"
that it was a most celebrated festival with the Lace-
demonians, which they called, "Dies Flagellatio-
nis," when certain youths scourged themselves volun-
tarily before the altar of Diana, in the presence of
their parents, friends, and neighbours, who were
present encouraging them, "Hinc prima flagrorum
spontaneorum labes."+
But Herodotus claims the origin of voluntary
scourging for the Egyptians (Euterpè, lib. ii. cap. 41).
He states, before the sacrifice was offered up by the
priests, self-scourging was always practised. Apu-
leius narrates the same of the spontaneous flagel-
lations of the worshippers of the Syrian goddess.
The opinions of learned doctors, Boileau says, are
various and discrepant on the subject of the use and
abuse of the discipline, as the flagellation was desig-
nated, which was spontaneously self-inflicted, in a
penitential spirit. The design of his work, he states,
is not to impugn pious and holy means of bringing the
body into subjection to the spirit, for instance, by
* Ilist. Flagell. pp. 104, 5, 6.
† Ibid. p. 71.
1
THE FLAGELLATION MANIA.
375
the emaciation of the flesh, but to reprehend perverse
practices that are either barbarous or pernicious,
perilous to health or unedifying, such as those which
are attended with voluntary laceration of the flesh,
and wounds self-inflicted. In the lives of the
anchorets of the Thebaid, and of Syria and Pales-
tine, some things are related that we are to read with
veneration, and are not called on to receive in the
way of imitation, "non imitatione sed veneratione
consequar.
In the Old Testament no authority is found for
this practice of self-scourging, and the only passage
that is brought forward in the New Testament in
support of it, in the author's opinion, does not admit
of the interpretation given to it, by the advocates of
the discipline.
The 14th verse of the 72nd Psalm (of the Douay
Bible), " And I have been scourged all the days,
and my chastisement hath been in the mornings;"
and the 18th verse of the 37th Psalm, "For I am
ready for scourges, and my sorrow is continually
before me;" Boileau says cannot be interpreted in
any other sense than as expressions significant of
tribulations and divine judgments. The passage
above referred to in the New Testament in St. Paul's
1st Epistle to the Corinthians, ch. xix. 27. “Sed prěmo
et castigo corpus meum, et in servitutem redigo:"
"But I chasten my body and bring it into subjec-
tion:" Boileau produces corresponding passages
from a vast number of ancient commentators on the
376
THE FLAGELLATION MANIA.
Scriptures and Fathers of the Church, to shew that
the true signification of it is the bringing down of
the body by means of a contrite spirit and of humilia-
tion; as Clemens Alexandrinus, Lib. Stromatum,
p. 469, has done, commenting on the words "Ipsum
corpus meum, prěmo et in servitutem redigo."*
The opinions of an enlightened ecclesiastic like
Boileau, on the subject of the abuse of the discipline
in religious communities both of women and of men,
and in his own times as well as at former periods, are
of importance, for the same abuse exists in some
communities of this kind, even at the present day.
Those opinions are best given in the original Latin
words of the author :-
"Eam ob rem libenter spero ab æquis lectoribus
perspectum iri faciliter, ex hujusce libri lectione, peni-
tùs ignotas et inauditas fuisse vernantibus nascentis
Ecclesiæ diebus, quas vocant disciplinas seû spon-
taneas flagellationes, quibus poenitentes vibicibus
tergora sua conscribillant, aut propriâ manu nates
inhonestis scuticis funiculis nodosis, aut virgis betu-
læis seû vimineis cruentant. Neque enim dubitan-
dum est vehementer flagrare, ejusmodi flagellationes
apud recentiorum Monialium aut Monachorum
societates, easque præsertim, quæ sub specie refor-
mationis, antiquas regularum leges, novis constitu-
tionum accessionibus cumularunt. Eò devolvitur
integrum hujusce lucubrationis consilium. Sed ante-
quam tantulum opus exegerim, duo subjicienda
* Historia Flagellantium, p. 38.
THE FLAGELLATION MANIA.
377
sunt, adeò certa, ut de iis nemini homini dubium
subolere possit. 1. Scilicet, hodiernus flagellationum
usus, pœnitentes seipsos diverberare scuticis aut
virgis, aut nodosis funiculis, vel spontè, vel ab
alienâ manu ejusmodi corii vibificationes recipere:
"2. Istius modi flagellationes super scapulas, et
humeros, aut super lumbares musculos, quos glutei
medici vocant, effieri. Primam sursùm, alteram
vero deorsùm disciplinam nuncupant. Hanc verò
novam, et apud veteres Christianos inauditam defendo,
multisque de causis veræ pietati ac pudori incommo-
dare propugno, foetumque idololatriæ, manu super-
stitionis obstetricante eductum; posseque, et debere,
tanquam perversum usum et errorem, relegari et
relinqui ; per manus hominum imperitorum sub specie
pietatis et perfectissimæ pœnitentiæ in republicâ
Christianâ traditum et intromissum.":
St. John Climacus, who flourished in the 6th cen-
tury, makes mention of monks who led a solitary
life, and were in the habit of voluntarily scourg-
ing themselves, as some interpret his words. But
Boileau maintains the scourging was not self-in-
flicted or voluntary, of which St. Climacus speaks.
The rule of St. Benedict (Art 70) forbids the inflic-
tion of flagellation on monks, except by permission of
superiors, but there is no reference to self-scourging.
The rule of Columbanus, which, according to
Ordericus Vitalis, was an extension of that of St.
Benedict, was to the same effect.
* Historia Flagellantium. Parisiis, 1700. pp. 5, 6, 7, 8.
378
THE FLAGELLATION MANIA.
The practice of voluntary flagellation, says Boi-
leau, in religious communities, did not exist before
the year 1046 or 1056, in which time Petrus Dami-
anus flourished: nor was it then regarded without
repugnance by men of great eminence in religion.
Baronius in his Annals says, "At this time also,
and if not by means of the same author, namely,
Peter Damianus, who was certainly a propagator of
this practice, there was introduced into the church
that laudable custom-ille laudabilis usus-of the
faithful, for the sake of penance, inflicting stripes on
oneself, after the example of the blessed Dominicus
Loricatus, hermit, as Peter Damianus indeed testifies
in his letter to the Countess Blanca."
But this commendable custom of self-flagellation
in the Abbé Boileau's opinion, was neither laudable,
general, or authorized.
That it was practised long before by anchorets,
there can be, however, no doubt; notwithstanding
Boileau's objections to the evidence on which they rest.
Theodoretus, an eminent prelate, who figured in
the Council of Calcedonia, wrote a history of thirty
ascetics, anchorets of Eastern solitudes and wilder-
nesses, wherein marvellous accounts are given of
mortifications of the flesh, torturings of all the senses,
that might be better characterized as slow suicidal
processes, than as religious practices of rational
human beings, whose bodies as well as souls were
the work of God, and that Being a God of mercy.
In the life of St. Pandulf, a Benedictine monk
THE FLAGELLATION MANIA,
379
and abbot, who lived in the 8th century, we are
told the saint lacerated his body with the discipline
of the scourge. But this life was written two cen-
turies after the saint's death, when self-scourging
was beginning to come into vogue.
John à Bosco, the learned Irish monk of the order
of the Celestines, in the book published in 1605, en-
titled "Bibliotheca Floriacensis," in the life of St.
Genulf, (cap. 26) who flourished at the close of the
10th century, states that "in the time of this saint
the scourge or the discipline," as it was called, came
into use among penitents. But Boileau objects to
those flagellations, which John à Bosco refers to,
being interpreted-" disciplinæ spontaneæ, propria
manu inflictæ.
""
St. Peter Damianus died in 1072, in his 66th
year. He lived long enough to give a spiritual
eclat to the practice of self-inflicted voluntary fla-
gellation, by holding forth the laceration of the body
practised by St. Dominic Loricatus, and the holy
prelate Rodolphus bishop of Eugubinus, as prac-
tices of piety and patterns for imitation.
From the time of Damianus the practice merged
into a conventual self-imposed obligation. The
fanaticism of flagellation extended beyond convents,
into episcopal and imperial palaces.
The Abbè Boileau asks if any thing more incon-
ceivable or insensate ever entered into the mind of
man than this fascination of self-torture?
"Omnium ineptiarum haud scio an ulla ineptior
380
THE FLAGELLATION MANIA.
sit ista flagellatione. Sed quid tam insulsum? ut
incogitabile sit humano cerebro, semel novitatis
illecebris fascinatio." 99*
There are depths, however, in the insensate, and
almost inconceivable immanity of fanaticism still
'more profound than those to which Boileau has re-
ferred, but they are connected with fanaticism by
one common barbarous idea, belief in the efficacy of
a practice which is inhuman and unnatural.
In the history of the madness of fanaticism, there
is nothing more terrible than the accounts we meet
with of barbarous usages, and of one especially, the
most barbarous of all of them, founded on belief
that the blood of human beings was efficacious for
the cure of certain loathsome diseases.
In the 28th book of Pliny's Natural History we
find that this idea prevailed among the Egyptians,
speaking of leprosy, he says:
"A peculiar malady
is this, and natural to the Egyptians; and when
any of their kings fell into it, woe betide their sub-
jects and poor people, for then the tubs and bathing
vessels, wherein the kings sat in the bath, were filled
with men's blood for their cure.”
Christians, if history speak true, when leprosy
prevailed in Europe, believed in the efficacy of blood
baths.
One of the most beautiful poems of the 13th cen-
tury, written by Hartman Von Der Ane, gives
proof of the popular notions of the period.
* Boileau, Hist. Flagell. p. 268.
THE FLAGELLATION MANIA.
381
The Jesuit father, Ribadeneira, one of the early
companions of Loyola, in his Lives of the Saints,
written in Spanish (and translated into English,
fol. ed. Dub. 1763) ascribes the conversion of Con-
stantine to a circumstance connected with this san-
guinary fanaticism. He states that during the wars
of Constantine with his competitors for the Empire,
St. Sylvester, who then filled the chair of St. Peter,
was obliged to retire for refuge, for some time, to a
cave in the mountain of Soractè, about twenty miles
from Rome. While the Pope was hidden there, the
Emperor Constantine, who was then established
in the Empire, was afflicted with "an incurable
leprosy," with which disease also his daughter
Constantia had been afflicted, but the latter had
been cured through the intercession of St. Agnes.
The disease, as Pliny states, was so common in his
time that even kings were attacked with it, and it was
believed by them, adds Ribadeneira, that by bathing
in men's blood they might be cured. This notion
seems then to have originated in a religious opinion.
"The same heathenish priests," says Ribadaneira,
"counselled the Emperor Constantine, making more
account of the health of one man than of the destruc-
tion of so many innocents, who by their deaths were
to give him life. The Emperor was resolved to bathe
himself in the blood of three thousand infants;
and those children he had commanded should
be sought out in divers places to make that cruel
sacrifice, and they having been brought, and the
382
THE FLAGELLATION MANIA.
cruel butchers, who were to kill them, being ready,
and their sorrowful and weeping mothers tearing
their hair, and beating their breasts, and filling the
heavens with their cries and clamours, the pious Em-
peror having compassion of the innocent age of the
little children, and consideration for the tender feel-
ings of their mothers would not buy his health at so
dear a rate. And so he resolved to remain sick,
or to seek out other medicines for the cure of his
leprosy; and commanded the children to be restored
to their mothers, and a good sum of money to be
given them, and to be sent contented and joyful to
their homes. That very night St. Peter and St.
Paul appeared to Constantine, and having thanked
him for the mercy he had shewed towards the
mothers and their children, they advised him to
send to Mount Soracte for the Bishop of the Chris-
tians, who was called Silvester, who would teach
him another bath, by which he should be better
cured, both of the leprosy of his body and also of
the leprosy of his soul, than that which the priests
of the idols had counselled him to make use of."*
The French historian, Gaguin, states that Louis
XI. (of infamous memory) fancied his approaching
death could be averted by drinking the blood of
young children.
"But his disorder," says Gaguin,
"still grew upon him, and in this year, 1443, im-
ploring high and low the aid of God and man, he
* Ribadeneira. Lives of the Saints. Translated by W. P. fol.
Dub. 1763. p. 391.
THE FLAGELLATION MANIA.
383
commanded that they should bring to Tours the
sacred unction, which it was said was sent from heaven
to anoint King Clovis in his city of Rheims. Besides
this, he had from the holy chapel at Paris the rod
of the high priest Aaron, which many affirm to have
been divinely given to Charlemagne. But there
was nothing that could put off the appointed hour.
Every day he grew worse and worse, and the medi-
cines profited him nothing, though of a strange
character, for he vehemently hoped to recover by
the human blood which he drank and swallowed
from certain children. But he died at Tours."
There is abundant evidence in history how the
rage for flagellation caused exaggerated and pre-
posterous notions of the merits of the practice as an
expiatory sacrifice to prevail, and even made mi-
nisters of religion the inflictors of the castigation, in
cases where perhaps the penitents could not be
trusted with the execution of the punishment on
their own persons.
In 1174, Henry II. of England, says Boileau,
in performance of the penance enjoined for the
murder of St. Thomas of Canterbury, was scourged
with rods by the monks of the church of Canter-
bury.
*
* Matthew of Paris, in Historia Anglicanâ, 1174, p. 90, ed.
Paris, thus narrates the scourging of Henry II. :-" Sed quoniam
interfectores martyris gloriosi ex verbis ejus non satis circum-
spectè prolatis, occasionem sumpserant Archiepiscopum perimendi
ab episcopis qui tunc presentes erant absolutionem petiit, carnem-
384
THE FLAGELLATION MANIA.
With respect to rules for female communities
supposed to bear on this subject, the most ancient
reference of all, is to be found in St. Augustine
(Epist. 109), in these words: "Disciplinam labens
habeat, metuens imponat." But this discipline,
says Boileau, is not of flagellation but regulation
of life and manners and emendation of them as in
the rule of St. Pacomius (art. 32), "Unusquisque
præpositorum docebit in domo suo quomodo debeant
cum, disciplina et mansuetudine comedere."*
The members of several of the monastic orders in
the middle ages, it is quite clear from the concurrent
testimony of many eminent ecclesiastical writers of
the Roman Catholic church, and among the latter
we may enumerate St. Ignatius Loyola,† exagger-
ated the merits, and abused the discipline recom-
mended or regulated by the Penitentials.
Ignatius of Loyola wrote and argued, in his
discourses with his followers, against these excesses:
"Corporis castigatio immoderata esse non debet, nec
indiscreta, in vigiliis et abstinentiis, et aliis pœniten-
tiis externis, ac laboribus, quæ et nocumentum
afferre, et magna bona impedire solent."
que suam nudam disciplinæ virgarum supponens, à singulis viris
religiosis quorum multitudo magna convenerat, ictus ternos vel
qui nos accepit."
* Ibid. p. 170.
+ Vide "Histoire de St. Ignace de Loyola," etc., par le Rev.
Pere Daniel Bartoli, Jesuite, traduit de l'Italien. Brux. 1844.
2 tomes, 8vo.
Bartoli, "Hist. St. Ig. de Loyola," tom. ii. p. 39.
THE FLAGELLATION MANIA.
385
"It was the ordinary maxim of Ignatius (says
his biographer, Bartoli,) that it was the interior of
men it was necessary to mould, and that we should
think the mortification of our own will more import-
ant than the power of restoring a dead man to life."
The enlightened Pope Clement VI. (raised to the
Papal throne in 1332, deceased in 1352,) condemned
this sect, and the bishops of Germany confirming the
Apostolic brief, had forbidden the Flagellants to
form associations in their sees, and thus a second
time the sect of scourgers dwindled away and dis-
appeared for another century, and towards the com-
mencement of the 15th century, in 1414, became
resuscitated in Misnia, by a certain Conrad, who
renewed the legend of a divine revelation for the
institution of the Flagellants.
Theodoric Urie, in his history of the Council of
Constance, a contemporary of the Flagellant chief
Conrad, distinctly states that the order by letters
for the institution of the Flagellants had been brought
to Rome from Jerusalem, and had been found there
on an altar dedicated to St. Peter, where it had been
placed by holy angels.
On the occasion of this new outbreak of the dis-
order in Germany, Conrad and his followers claimed
a divine mission for the practice of public flagellation.
When the rabble crowded to the novel spectacle that
was offered to them, the Flagellants after having
scourged themselves, "read a document to the multi-
* Ibid., p. 873
I.
2 C
386
THE FLAGELLATION MANIA.
tude, which they said contained the substance of a
written message which an angel had brought from
heaven and deposited on the altar of a church, wherein
it was declared that our Lord had been irritated by
the depravity of the age, and that at the intercession
of the blessed Virgin for mercy on His people, our
Lord had replied, if sinners desired to obtain mercy
it was necessary they should flee their country, and
scourge themselves during thirty-four days, in me-
mory of the time of His sojourn on earth :* and thus
this sect made many proselytes."+
Conrad moreover promulgated a new doctrine,
namely, that the Flagellants being established, God
had been pleased to abrogate the Papacy, and that
there was no salvation except by means of the new
baptism of blood through the instrumentality of
scourging. And then we are told, as a natural re-
sult, of an effective remedy for an epidemic mania
of this description :—“L' Inquisiteur fit arreter ces
nouveaux Flagellans et l'on en brula plus de quatre
vingt onze; si les Flagellans etoient devenus plus forts
que l'Inquisiteur ils auront fait bruler l'Inquisiteur et
tous ceux qui n'auroient pas voulu se flageller."‡
66
But though the combustion was not in any respect.
beneficial to the disordered brains of so many human
beings, we are consoled by the assurance, that the In-
quisitors' safety was secured by it; for if the Flagel-
* This is a mistake, the time mentioned by the writers cited by
L'Enfant is thirty-three days and a half.
+ Ib. Tome ii. p. 64.
‡ Ib. p. 64.
THE FLAGELLATION MANIA.
387
lants had not been consumed by the Inquisitors,
the Inquisitors would have been burned by the Fla-
gellants. In either case it would appear poor
humanity was on the horns of a dilemma.
In the beginning of 1414 a contemporary author,
Gobelin Persona, relates that the Inquisitors, at the
solicitation of the Margraves of Misnia, caused several
of this sect to be burned at Sangerhusen in Thuringia.
Another writer, an eye-witness of the facts he relates,
states, (but without mentioning dates) that Schone-
veldt, Inquisitor of the Faith in Germany, made a
grand inquiry into the charges against this sect, and
caused ninety-one to be burned at Sangerhusen, and
a great number in other places. He states that the
patriarch of this sect in Germany was Conrad Smith,
who had been dead some years before the execution
of his followers at Sangerhusen. Fortunate Conrad
Smith to have died so timely !
This heresiarch rejected all the sacraments, and
substituted for them the divinely revealed obligation
of flagellation. He pretended also that the Prophet
Enoch and himself were one and the same person;
but here Conrad is said to have borrowed an idea
from Begard, another divine messenger who had
preceded him, who announced himself to his disciples
as the Prophet Elias; but had the misfortune to fall
into the hands of unbelievers in his mission, and was
burned at Erfurt for the improvement of his theolo-
gical opinions, about the middle of the fourteenth
century.
2 c2
388
THE FLAGELLATION MANIA.
But this clumsy machinery of the stake and the
gibbet for the promotion of spiritual and moral ends
failed, as it ever did, and ever will fail, to effect such
objects and to secure a permanent triumph for them.
The fire which reduces an heresiarch to ashes has
a vivifying influence on his sect. A man's body
can be consumed in less than a couple of hours; his
opinions may be found unscathed and even un-
scorched several centuries after the burning of the
mere husk of mind and soul.
The unburned Flagellants of Germany lay "per-
dus" for a long time. Their opinions, insensate as they
were, outlived them. Another century passed away
and we find Confraternities of this sect in Germany
again, in Spain and Portugal, who abandoned their
founder's claim to a Divine special mission, but who
still practised publicly the devotion of self-scourg-
ing, and passed in great processions through various
towns and cities.
St. Vincent of Ferrer was suspected at the Council
of Constance of being too favourable to the Flagel-
lants;
Gerson remonstrated with the saint for not
openly and publicly denouncing them, and St.
Vincent wrote to the Council that he submitted in
all things to the Council, and he had exhorted his
people to do the same. During the sitting of the
Council, Gerson published a treatise against the Fla-
gellants,* wherein he maintains that their practices
* The treatise of Gerson against the Flagellants, is to be found
in the first volume of his works, p. 637. Ed. Par. 1606.
THE FLAGELLATION MANIA.
389
are contrary to the Gospel, because the latter is a
law of charity and not a burden; because the New
law is as much opposed as the Old law to the san-
guinary superstitions of idolaters who made inci-
sions in their flesh; because the blood of Christ
being sufficient to save from all sin, no other effusion
of blood was necessary: because this public scourg-
ing was contrary to modesty in women, to gravity
in men, and caused children to lose the respect
which they owed to their parents.
He did not assert that there was an express pro-
hibition of Flagellation in the law of Christ, or that
it was not permissible, provided it was done by
order of superiors, that it was moderate, without
scandal, without ostentation, without effusion of
blood. He opposed the practice, however, on the
ground that it had been always condemned by
the Church; and, moreover, that it gave scandal
to the Jews and Mahommedans, by causing the
Christian religion to be considered sanguinary and
cruel; and being of human invention, and neither in
accordance with the commandments of God or the
ordinances of the Church, and the occasion of grave
disorders in the Church and in the State, it ought
to be denounced alike by the spiritual and civil autho-
rities, but that mild means of repression were to be
preferred to violent measures. "Immo (Gersonius
inquit) sicut non licet hominem seipsum propriá auto-
ritate mutilare vel castrare, nisi pro sanitate totius
corporis consequendâ; sic nec licet, ut videtur, quod
à seipso quis sanguinem violenter ejiciat, nisi causa
390
THE FLAGELLATION MANIA.
medicinæ corporalis: aliaquin simili ratione posset
se homo cauterisare per ferrum ignitum; quod
adhuc nemo possuit nec concessit, nisi fortè idolo-
latræ vel falsi Christiani, quales reperiuntur in Indiâ
qui se putant debere baptisari per ignem.
99*
Gerson's treatise against the Flagellants was im-
pugned by a learned Jesuit, " Doctissimus Jesuita
Gretzerus vir flagellationibus valdè propitius." He
was potent, too, in arguments and reasoning in con-
futing Gerson. We are favoured with a specimen
of his reasoning powers. The learned Jesuit proved
by this irrefragable argument, that it was lawful for
a man to lacerate his own flesh by flagellation,
"because the father can flog his son if he offends,
and the husband his wife:" "quia pater verberare
potest filium si quid delinquat et maritus uxorem."†
There is a very remarkable passage from the lost
work of Seneca on Superstitions, and the comment
on it of St. Augustine is no less remarkable, furnish-
ing, as it seems to me, the best argument in the
fewest words against the superstitious use of the
discipline, and the barbarity of a practice of Pagan
origin.
It is surprising that a passage of this kind, and
such a comment on it as that of St. Augustine,
should have escaped the notice of Boileau and
others who opposed the Flagellant fanaticism.
St. Augustine, in his great work, "De Civitate
Dei," in the chapter which treats "of Seneca's bold-
* Historia Flagellantium. Parisiis, 1700, p. 308.
+ Boileau, ibid. p. 303.
THE FLAGELLATION MANIA.
391
ness in reprehending the Civil Theology more vehe-
mently than Varro reproved the fabulous," speaks
in high terms of commendation of a book which
Seneca wrote against "Superstitions," and he quotes
the following passage from it as a proof of Seneca's
"surprising freedom :"
"One priest mutilates himself, another wounds
his arms with some sharp instruments, taking such
means as these to render the gods propitious to
them. But if the gods be pleased with service of
this sort, they should not be worshipped by any
means. So great is the madness of their disturbed
minds, that they think the gods are appeased in
such a manner as even men would not be. Tyrants
of the foulest cruelty mentioned even in fables, have
lacerated the members of men, but they never
ordered any to maim themselves.
But when
these men scar themselves in the temples: suppli-
cating the gods by their wounds and blood, if one
had leisure to observe what they do, and what they
suffer, he would find them so unbecoming honour-
able men, so unworthy free men, and unlike even
men, that none would doubt they were mad."
So far for Seneca. St. Augustine hereupon
observes:
"Seneca then relates what things are done in the
Capitol, and boldly attacks them all: but who could
believe that any man, unless he were mad, would be
capable of such things."*
* De Civitate Dei, lib. 18, cap. 19.
392
THE FLAGELLATION MANIA.
This fanaticism gradually declined in the 15th
century. In the 16th it is rarely heard of, except as
a conventual observance, and on certain festivals
as a penitential public exhibition, when the Flagel-
lants were paraded in procession, in some parts of
Italy, in Spain and Portugal.
The learned Benedictine, Pere Mabillon (who
visited Italy in 1689) witnessed a scourging proces-
sion of the Flagellants at Turin on a Good Friday,
and gives the following account of it: "Ils com-
mencerent à se fouetter dans l'Eglise Cathedrale,
en attendant son Altesse Royale ils se fouettoient
assez lentement, ce que ne dura pas une demi heure,
mais d'abord que ce prince parut, ils firent tomber
une grèle de coups sur leurs epaules deja dechirées
et alors la procession sortit de l'Eglise. Ce seroit
une institution pieuse, si ces gens se fustigeoient
ainsi pour une douleur sincere de leur pèchès et
dans l'intention d'en faire une penitence publique et
non pour donner une espece de scandale."*
Colmenar, in his "Annales d'Espagne et de Por-
* Musæum Italicum, p. 80.
The first appearance of this work was under the title of "Les
Delices de L'Espagne et de Portugal." There was an edition
published in Leyden, in 1715, under the title of Annales d'Espagne
et Portugal, evidently pirated; and another, under the same title,
in 1741, at Amsterdam, in 4 vols. 4to. the one from which I quote,
tome 4, p. 8. Feller, in his "Dictionnaire Biographique," with his
customary ignorance of a vast number of the books he mentions,
speaks of the Delices d'Espagne et Portugal and the Annales
above cited as two different and distinct works.
THE FLAGELLATION MANIA.
393
tugal," thus describes the procession of Holy
Friday at Madrid, about the middle of the 17th
century, (he died in 1651 :)
"At this procession are seen all the penitents or
the disciplinists of the city, who flock to it from every
quarter. They wear a high cap covered with linen
cloth, of the height of three feet, and of a sugar-loaf
form, from which hangs a stripe of cloth which falls
in front and covers their faces. There are some
who take this exercise (of the discipline) from a true
motive of piety, but there are others who practise it
only to please their mistresses, and the gallantry of
it is of a new kind, one unknown to other nations.
These good disciplinarians wear gloves, and white
shoes, a shirt, of which the sleeves are tied with
ribbons, and they have a ribbon attached to their
cap, or to their scourge, of the colour which most
pleases their mistresses. They scourge themselves
by rule and on a fixed and settled plan, with a whip
of cords to which are attached at the end little balls
of wax with pieces of pointed glass stuck in it.
He who flogs himself with most vigour and address
is considered the most courageous. Lorsque ils ren-
contrent quelque dame bien faite, ils savent se
fouetter si adroitement, qu'ils font ruisseler leur sang
jusques sur elle et c'est une honneur dont elle ne
manque pas de remercier le galant Disciplinant.
Et quand ils se trouvent devant, la maison de leur
maitresse, c'est alors qu'ils redoublent les coups avec
plus de furie, et qu'ils dechirent le dos et les epaules.
394
THE FLAGELLATION MANIA.
La Dame qui les voit de son balcon, et qui sait
qu'ils le font a son intention, leur en fait bon grè
dans son cœur et ne manque pas de leur en tenir
compte."
"Those who take the discipline are obliged to re-
turn to it every year, for without it they would fall
sick, and it is not only people of the lower class and
the bourgeois who practise scourging, but also per-
sons of good quality."
The very rigid penitents practise many other
mortifications. They go barefooted, they bind
themselves with a piece of matting which covers
their arms and a part of their body below the waist.
Some carry crosses of an enormous weight, others
bear naked swords stuck in the flesh of the back
and the arms, which make large wounds when they
make any movement unusually vehement. Those
who practise those mortifications are usually masked
and followed by masked servants, who support
them along the route. There are many who die of
those wounds. The same practice prevailed at
Lisbon all the Fridays of Lent, and the women are
so accustomed to this bloody and fanatical devotion
that they utter reproachful cries and heap injuries
on those who do not scourge themselves violently
enough, according to their notions.*
Colmenar informs us, the Flagellant fanaticism
extended in Spain and Portugal to the female sex:
"La devotion du fouet attaqua bientot les femmes.
* Annales d'Espagne et Portugal, tome 4. p. 28.
THE FLAGELLATION MANIA.
395
Mais pour ne pas scandaliser le publie elles se fouet-
terent en chambre."*
The Flagellant processions, merged into those of
the Penitents, continued in Lisbon till a late period,
down to 1820. An attempt was made to renew
them during Don Miguel's usurpation. So late as
1843, when I visited Portugal, and during a residence
of four years in Lisbon, the processions on Good
Fridays were continued. Confraternities of Peni-
tents bearing large crosses walked then, attired as
of old, but without the whips or any scourging in
public. The disarmed Othellos of the Flagellant
Brotherhood were there, but their occupation was
gone.
* Annales d'Espagne et Portugal, tome 4. p. 28.
CHAPTER XIII.
EPIDEMIC HYSTERIA, CONVULSIVE CHOREA:~LA
MANIE DE LA DANSE, OF THE FRENCH—THE
TARANTULA DANCING EPIDEMIC OF APULIA.
FOURTEENTH TO SIXTEENTH CENTURIES.
THE workings of the human mind, in various cir-
cumstances affecting the nervous system and the
senses, and at various epochs, marked by signal
terrestrial commotions, visitations of pestilence or
famine, political convulsions, or revolutions in reli-
gious opinions, afford a subject of inquiry, of no
slight interest and importance.
The 14th century, and greater portion of the 15th,
abounded in calamities occasioned either by pesti-
lence or strife and their results are very obvious
in various maniacal forms of fanaticism, which pre-
vailed in the manner of epidemics, and were con-
founded with demoniac influences and afflictions,
mental and corporeal.
"The mind and the body," says Dr. Babington,
the translator of Hecker's "Dancing Mania," "reci-
procally and mysteriously affect each other, and the
maladies which are the subject of these pages are so
intimately connected with the disordered state of
both, that it is often difficult to determine, on which
CONVULSIVE CHOREA.
397
they more essentially depend, or which they more
seriously influence.”
Perhaps there never was a period in the history
of the world, so pregnant with great national calami-
ties throughout Europe as that of the 14th century.
The great pestilence, aptly designated "The Black
Death," which had consigned it is estimated a third
of the human race to the grave, had not wholly sub-
sided, when a new malady of a convulsive nervous
and maniacal character, burst out in Germany about
1374, of a more strange nature than any previous
malady that had afflicted humanity so extensively
as to deserve the name of an epidemic.
The dancing mania connected with Demonomania,
made its way into some parts of Flanders and Ger-
many, after many signal calamities from pestilence,
war, and civil feuds. This dancing disease, we are
told, “was a great epidemic of a severe nervous ma-
lady, of which the present St. Vitus's dance is the
feeble echo."
The afflicted generally believed they were possessed
by demons; they tormented their minds with dread-
ful images of judgments on sins of theirs which had
brought this grievous affliction on them, and they were
exorcised very often with indifferent success. No one
thought of dealing medicinally with their disease.
The earliest mention of the German dancing mania,
I find in any contemporaneous historical work, is in
the "Annales de Flandes," por Emanuel Sueyro, in
the Spanish tongue, (in fol. Anvers. 1624), under
398
EPIDEMIC HYSTERIA,
date 1374; the following notice occurs of" La Secta
de los Dançantes."
"It was accounted portentous of succeeding ills,
the exhibition in those days of the madness with
which, from the confines of the Rhine and the Mo-
selle, descended on Flanders so great a multitude
of people who went dancing and singing through the
towns, in troops of a hundred and of fifty, as if impelled
by some fury no one knew how it arose, or where
first appeared this tumultuous disorder, which the
laws were ill able to repress.
وو
"Tuvose por prodigio de los males siguentes, y
el haver visto en los mismos dias la locura, con que de
los confines del Rhin y de la Mosa, baxò a Flandes
van tan gran multitud de gente, que van dançando y
cantando por las villas en tropas de ciento, y de cin-
quenta; como impelidos de algun furor: no se sabe
como ni adonde parò este desatino, que podian mal
reprimir las leyes."*
Hecker states, that so early as 1374 large as-
semblages of persons of both sexes were seen at Aix-
la-Chapelle, who had come out of Germany, united
by one common delusion, and shewed to the public and
in the street the strangest spectacle. Circles joined
hand in hand, strangely excited, apparently deprived
of all command over their senses and of their reason,
dancing continually for hours together, regardless
of bystanders.†
* Annales de Flandes. Por Emanuel Sveyro. 1624. p. 556.
† Hecker. The Dancing Mania. Babington's Edition of the
Epidemics of the Middle Ages. Lond. 1844. p. 88.
CONVULSIVE CHOREA.
399
22.
In Belgium the affected persons were called Dan-
satores Chorisantes; elsewhere they were called St.
John's Dancers, and St. Vitus's Dancers.
St. Vitus's Dance,-the "Chorea Sancti Viti,"
known to medical authors, is described as an habitual
convulsive malady, chiefly affecting the voluntary
muscles of the extremities, face, head and neck of
debilitated children, boys and girls, from eight to
fourteen years of age indiscriminately, and sometimes,
but rarely, young women at the age of puberty; a
disease accompanied generally with derangement of
the digestive organs, a variable and often ravenous
appetite, tumescence of the stomach and lower
viscera, and subsidence of the convulsive movements
during sleep.
But this description of the ordinary disease gives
idea of the Dancing Plague of the 14th century. It
had been heard of however so early as the 11th century
in Germany, in Anhalt near Bernbourg, associated
with a curse. In 1237 it is said to have prevailed
at Erfurt, and traditions remained of upwards of
100 children having been seen dancing and jumping
on the public roads, and sinking exhausted by the
violence and duration of their paroxysms. Forty-
one years later, in 1278, an outbreak of this disease
is said to have taken place at Utrecht, and 200 of
those attacked perished by the falling of a bridge, on
the occasion of a priest passing, who was conveying
the blessed sacrament to a sick person, and while they
were in the midst of their uninterrupted orgies.
This catastrophe acquired the character of a Divine
400
EPIDEMIC HYSTERIA,
retribution on the impiety and fanaticism of these
people. The attacks varied at their onset in different
places, and in the same places in different persons.
The earliest symptoms were generally of a con-
vulsive nature, twitches of the limbs, an irresistible
impulse to bound, to leap, to dance in circles; and
in some cases to run at full speed, and scamper
through fields as if the parties attacked were chased
by hounds.
When they danced in company for any length of
time, their excitement became a furious delirium,
till at length they sank down to the ground wholly
exhausted. The accounts given of them at the
termination of those paroxysms forcibly remind me
of the condition of whirling Dervishes in the vicinity
of Cairo, as it has been witnessed by me, when after
tramping round and round, hand in hand, keeping
time to the sing-song utterance of the reiterated
word Allah, not only with the movements of the feet,
but with the motions of the head, with gradually
increasing velocity, till at length the gyrations at-
tained the utmost degree of violent exertion, the
sounds became a confused murmur, and one by one
swooning individuals dropped out of the circle, stag-
gered, and sank exhausted, or fell suddenly wholly
senseless to the ground.
In the dancing mania of Germany, during the
swoon that followed violent paroxysms, the sufferers
were insensible to sounds, and to pain, but became
often convulsed, foamed at the mouth, their limbs
were vehemently moved, and the features hideously
CONVULSIVE CHOREA.
401
distorted. Those who were not thus tormented had
ecstasies and visions, fancied they conversed with
angels, and enjoyed the highest state of beatitude
in the highest heaven. When they came out of the
swoon, all the beatitude was gone, they manifested
intense internal sufferings, oppression of the chest,
a sense of sinking, of insupportable vacuity, as if all
vital energy had died away in their interior, espe-
cially in the stomach, and whole epigastric region.
In this pitiable state they writhed in agony,
groaned, and supplicated the bystanders for relief.
And the only relief they experienced was by swath-
ing them with cloths as tightly as they could be
bound round their bodies, or pressing with all possi-
ble force on their stomachs, trampling on them, or
inflicting blows, that in their normal condition, in
many well authenticated instances, would have been
sufficient to produce death. The same phenomena,
be it observed, were exhibited in the case of the
convulsionnaires of St. Medard. On coming out of
swoons the same symptoms were manifested, and the
same extraordinary means of relief employed.
The assemblages of penitential monomaniacs were
addressed too by furious enthusiasts, who denounced
priests and prelates, and howled imprecations on
their heads. And when these pious exercises were
performed, and each "occasion" of a gathering of
the elect was thus suitably improved, the meeting
closed with playing up a stirring tune, with a blast
of the trumpet or a roll of the drum, or a squeak
I.
2 D
402
EPIDEMIC HYSTERIA,
of the bagpipes, which was a favourite instrument
with the elect, especially in the Rhenish Provinces
of Germany. And then the dancing orgies ensued,
and the humiliating spectacle of human beings in
multitudes rushing into all sorts of extravagances,
as if the inmates of all the Bedlams of the land
had been let loose, and were then congregated in
one place, for the delirious exercises of bounding,
jumping, tramping, panting as if they were ready
to die, and dancing as if they would never cease,
if it were possible, to make the last moment of their
lives coincident with the kicking of their feet.
The preposterousness of their infatuation in
Belgium could not be exceeded, the dancers flocked
to the assemblies with garlands in their hair, tricked
out for the orgies, as if they came prepared for
bridal festivities.
But in strange contrast with the garlands ap-
peared the bandages on their person, prepared for
the swathing after the mad dance was over, all in
readiness on the waist for twisting tightly by means
of a stick used for that purpose, when the attack of
the tympanitic distension should ensue and necessi-
tate that remedy.
In Liege the fanatics assembled in large multi-
tudes, raved about the sins of the world, preached
against its wickedness, denounced the worshippers
of the devils who invented fashions and suggested
all innovations in attire.
And yet the "The Demon fashion" of the fifteenth
CONVULSIVE CHOREA.
403
age had little to answer for, compared with the dia-
bolical milliners of the nineteenth century, who have
bewitched womankind with crinoline.
The poor dancing fanatics of Germany and of
Belgium of the middle ages had no awful exaggera-
tions of human nature, and alarming consumption of
silken materials for the attire of those enlarged di-
mensions, to bewail in their penitential sermons.
They had only to weep over the wickedness of shoes
pointed at the toes, and the weakness of the sex as
it was manifested in those times, in a passion for
trinkets, and other vanities which those daughters
of Eve inherited from their grandmothers, if not
from the first mother of mankind.
The dancing plague broke out in Strasburg in
1418. The symptoms were the same as in other
places in previous visitations of the epidemic. People
affected went about in strolling bands, accompanied
by musicians playing on bagpipes, dancing with
frantic violence, and followed by great crowds of
idle and disorderly people of profligate habits. The
ranks of the dancing maniacs were kept up by con-
stant accession either of impostors, who became even-
tually affected by the attraits impulsifs, of imitation
and contagion of familiar intercourse long continued
with a phrenzied multitude, or by the numbers of
the friends and relatives of the afflicted, who followed
them from motives of affection, and who by the
force of sympathy were drawn within the influence
of this powerful delusion.
2D2
404
EPIDEMIC HYSTERIA,
The authorities of Strasburg and other places in
the Rhenish Provinces, appointed superintendents
to watch over the affected, and to aid them in pro-
ceeding to certain chapels dedicated to St. Vitus,
near Zabern and Rotestein, where the clergy minis-
tered to them, and special religious services were
performed, in which hundreds earnestly engaged.
Hecker, not much disposed to favour any views
which he believes superstitious, acknowledges that by
these means "it is probable that many were through
the influence of devotion and the sanctity of the place
cured of this lamentable aberration." And he states
moreover, "it was worthy of observation that the
dancing mania did not recommence at the altars of
the saint, and that from him alone assistance was
implored, and through his miraculous interposition a
cure was expected which was beyond the reach of
human skill."
The reasons why particular saints are singled out
of the Calendar as patrons, specially devoted to the
interests, or propitious to the prayers of sick people
peculiarly diseased, appear more unaccountable than
they are in reality. The saint who becomes renowned
for cures effected by his intercession in cases of
disease called St. Vitus's dance finds no clients
among those affected with the malady designated
St. Anthony's fire. And yet, although there is no
ground for believing that St. Vitus, or St. John the
Baptist ever suffered from hystero-convulsive-chorea,
or had any knowledge of that malady, more than St.
Anthony or any other saint, we find reasons given
CONVULSIVE CHOREA.
405
in their lives for the peculiar veneration in which
their memories were held by persons suffering under
particular visitations. St. Vitus, son of Hylas, a
Gentile magnate, was born in Mazara, in Sicily, in the
time of Diocletian; while yet a child, we are told by
Ribadeneira,* he manifested extraordinary piety, and
even in childhood "began to work great miracles,
healing the sick, casting out devils, and doing such
other wonderful things, for God had chosen him
from that most tender age to manifest his glory in
him, and by him." He was rescued out of the
hands of persecution by Modestus and Crescentia, and
finally conveyed to Rome. The great fame of St.
Vitus for sanctity and miraculous gifts, made him
known to the Emperor Diocletian, who availed himself
of the signal spiritual gifts to rescue a child of his
from the power of the demon by whom that child was
possessed. By the prayers of St. Vitus the child was
delivered from the evil spirit, as we are informed ;
but the young saint refusing the proffered favour
of the Emperor, and the conditions on which it
was offered, namely, of abjuring Christ, and adoring
the gods of paganism, he was cast into prison
in Lucania, together with Modestus and Crescen-
tia. The Emperor finally ordered them to be
thrown into a cauldron of boiling pitch, and
other inflammable compounds, to see whether their
God could deliver them out of his hands. Signing
the cauldron with the sign of the cross they entered in
* Lives of the Saints. From the Spanish of the Rev. Father
Peter Ribadeneira. 3rd Ed. Dublin, 1763. p. 270, 2nd part.
406
EPIDEMIC HYSTERIA,
a holy transport of hope and joy, singing praises and
hymns to God, and they came forth unhurt, in the
presence of twenty thousand people. Diocletian then
ordered them to be put to death on a scaffold stretched
on the Catasta, where they endured the most fright-
ful torments. These had not ceased before a furious
tempest and earthquake ensued, which buried several
temples of the Pagan gods, and killed many of their
worshippers. The Emperor fled in consternation,
and acknowledged he was overcome by a Christian
boy. Then appeared an angel of the Lord who de-
livered the confessors from their torments, and car-
ried them to the banks of a river, and placed them
under a tree, and there the martyrs gave up their
souls to God on the 15th of June, A. D. 303, and
were honourably buried. The domain of history
borders on the confines of legendary lore: but,
though often confounded with the latter, is still
separable from it in some important particulars.
The body of St. Vitus was moved to Apulia in 672,
afterwards translated to St. Denis in France, and in
836 to the abbey of Corvey in Saxony. Some of
the relics in 775 had been obtained by Wenceslaus,
king of Bohemia, and enshrined in a church built
to his honour in Prague. The power ascribed to
St. Vitus of casting out devils and performing mira-
culous cures was then the cause of the trust reposed
in his intercession, and the recourse to it of those
afflicted with a disease generally considered as one
of supernatural origin in the 15th century. The
festival of St. Vitus occurs on the 15th of June.
CONVULSIVE CHOREA.
407
St. John the Baptist was no less a patron saint of
those afflicted with the dancing mania than St. Vitus.
The great powers and privileges of this saint, pre-
dicted even before his birth, may have contributed in
part to the patronage of St. John being so earnestly
sought by all labouring under diseases supposed to
be connected with diabolical agencies. The com-
mand to Zachary, "Thou shalt call his name John,
and he shall be great before God," his prophetic gifts
and especial graces, the prodigies connected with
his mission, the spirit of poverty and mortification
which sanctified his solitude in the wilderness, all
these considerations served to invest the character of
the Baptist with those traits of power and divine in-
fluence which gave to his patronage peculiar advan-
tages in the eyes of those subjected to ills regarded
as supernatural. The festival of St. John occurs on
the 24th of June.
But legendary lore had much to do with the con-
nexion of the name and patronage of St. John the
Baptist with the dancing mania of the 14th century.
Not only formerly in Germany, but in several other
countries, and in Ireland, within my own recol-
lection, the festival of St. John and the eve of it were
solemnized by bonfires; leaping through the flames;
by patterns at holy wells dedicated to the Saint; by
music and dancing.
In the East both Greeks and Latins celebrate this
festival with modes of rejoicing of a very heathenish
character, and in the Greek churches particularly with
408
EPIDEMIC HYSTERIA,
squibs, crackers, fireworks, and discharge of pistols;
more like Bacchanalian orgies than Christian usages.
In Germany the Pagan custom of kindling the
Nodfyr had been transferred to the festival of St.
John's day, and was solemnized with dancing and
leaping through the flames, like a sort of baptism of
fire: notwithstanding the denunciation of these
orgies by St. Boniface. The same custom on this
festival appears to have existed in the time of St.
Augustine, and met with similar denunciations by
him.
The accounts, in fact, given by various writers of
the bonfire revels of the middle ages in honour of St.
John's festival, the jumping through the flames, and
passing children through them for the prevention of
diseases for the ensuing year, and the running round
the fire with brands, or dancing in circles with them
in their hands, would lead one to imagine no slight
vestige of the ancient Roman lustration by fire in
the Palilia was to be found in these usages of St.
John's fires.
Hecker couples the first appearance of the dancing
maniacs in Aix-la-Chapelle in July, soon after the
festival of the Baptist, with the fact of their utter-
ing in their exclamations the name of St. John,
and says:
"The conjecture is probable that the
wild revels of St. John's day, A. D. 1374, gave rise
to this mental plague, which thenceforth has visited
so many thousands with incurable aberration of
intellect and disgusting distortions of body."
CONVULSIVE CHOREA.
409
The plague dance was not confined to the young, it
attacked persons of all ages and conditions, both sexes,
inhabitants of towns and cities, and the peasantry.
It was manifested periodically in Germany, year after
year, during the prevalence of the epidemic, for
several weeks prior to St. Vitus's festival in some
places, and in others prior to the commemoration
of St. John's birth-day. The uncontrollable rage
for dancing, or jumping, or hopping, which latter
was a very usual sort of violent movement with
those afflicted with the malady, was associated with
a passionate eagerness for music, and especially for
the shrill tones of fifes, and the piercing din and
brazen notes of trumpets.
The paroxysms were generally exacerbated by
the stunning and tumultuous performance of their
musicians. There was seldom any assemblage of
the fanatics without the latter, and Horstius states
the dancing rage was usually excited by the music,
and convulsions also.
They had tunes composed for them, and these
were characterized by sudden transitions in the
measure-
"From grave to gay, from lively to severe."
But none of these tunes of the German votaries
of St. Vitus have been preserved: not so with those
of Italy, thanks to the industry of the learned Jesuit
Kircher.
The plague dance of Germany and Flanders
lasted for about two centuries, declined and died
410
EPIDEMIC HYSTERIA,
away, and has never re-appeared, in its original
form or intensity.
If any disorder of the human race ever might be
accounted one of demoniac origin, it surely was this
furious and uncontrollable rage of "La Secta de
los Dançantes," as they are called by Suero.
In the work of the learned Jesuit, Athanasius
Kircher, "De Arte Magnetica," (Col. 4to. 1643. p.
756) treating" De Tarantismo sive Tarantula, Apulo
Phalangio (sive araneo) ejusque magnetismo, ac
mira cum musica sympathia," we find the most in-
teresting account of the Tarantula dancing mania
of Apulia that has been given by any writer: and
to the Tarantella tunes collected by him, with their
accompanying words and graphic description of the
antidotal dance and music of the Tarantula, many
travellers of great repute of our times are indebted
for their Apulian lore on this subject, and have
appropriated the labours and research of the erudite
Jesuit without scruple or acknowledgment, on the
principle of the legitimacy of spoiling the Egyptians.
The word Tarantula, he says, is derived from the
city of Tarento or from the river Thara in Apulia,
in the vicinity of which those venomous spiders
which produce the dancing disease abound.* But
*Hecker disagrees with Kircher as to the derivation of the
word Tarantula from Tarento or Tharo, he thinks the word is
derived from Terrantola. "The word," says Hecker, "is appa-
rently the same as terrantola, a name given by the Italians to
a stellio of the old Romans, which was a kind of lizard, said
CONVULSIVE CHOREA.
411
they are also found, he states, in Calabria, Sicily and
in the country about Rome in the hottest months.
Labourers in the fields, gardeners and vine-dressers
are chiefly those who are bitten by those noxious
spiders. The bite is inflicted with teeth, not with
a sharp sting as in the bee, although the tarantula
bite looks as if it was only the puncture made by
the bee, but the venom is so subtle that it is quickly
diffused through the whole body, and penetrates even
to the region of the heart.
The effects of the poison are manifested sooner or
later by disquietude, want of sleep, loss of appetite,
excitement, and convulsive movements, "so that
some perpetually run, others laugh, others weep,
others vociferate, others sleep, others can get no
rest, others are tormented with vomitings, some
leap, some perspire, others tremble, some are wholly
oppressed with fear, and others suffer various incon-
veniences, become phrenetic, lymphatic, and like
maniacs. In fact these symptoms are so various, it
can only be said they arise from various degrees of
virulence in the poison or difference of temperament
in those affected."*
to be poisonous, and invested by credulity with such extraordi-
nary qualities, that like the serpent of the Mosaic account of the
creation, it personified in the imagination of the vulgar, the notion
of cursing by the appellation of a stellionatus." But Kircher
was a man of varied learning and vast research, as well as of
science, and therefore his opinion on a matter of this kind must
be preferred to. Hecker's.
* Kircher de Arte Mag. p. 757.
412
EPIDEMIC HYSTERIA,
Kircher observes the remarkable circumstance,
that the sense of sight as well as that of hearing is
morbidly affected in this disease. Persons bitten
by the tarantula were found to be singularly excited
by the sight of any glistening metallic objects,
especially of weapons, such as swords. They were
affected too in different countries by the same
colours in a different manner. In Germany the
sight of a red garment was found insupportable.
In Italy cloths and ribbons of the same colour
became at first repugnant, eventually agreeable to
the Tarantulists: more than agreeable, objects of
passionate admiration.*
It is especially worthy of notice that the decided
symptoms of the disease, according to Kircher,
usually set in with the heat of summer, and then it
*The following are the words of the Jesuit: Alii enim
viridem flavum allii afficient. Nonulli rubrum colorem depe-
reunt: mox enim ac obiectum coloratum ipsis gratum occur-
rerit, ita vehementi eius desiderio accenduntur, vt veluti leones
famelici, frequenti morsicatione id vellicent, stringant; deinde ad
blandimenta deuoluti, non secus ac amoris insania laborantes,
hiante ore, expansis brachijs, oculis lachrymantibus, frequentibus
ex imo pectore haustis suspiriis, in teneros et amorosos amplexus
panni colorati irruentes, ardentissimê unionem et vt ita loquur,
identificationem cum eo affectare videntur: quæ omnia confirman-
tur exemplo personæ religiosa è sucro Capuccinorum ordine hoc.
malo affectæ, quod in ipsa Tarentina Vrbe in presentia eminentis-
simi Cardinalis Caietani, dictæ Ciuitatis Archiepiscopi contigit;
desiderabat hic vnicè videre exoticos et prorsus extrauagantes huius
Religiosi in saltando, de quibus multum inaudierat, paroxysmos."
-Kircher, de Arte Mag. p. 758.
CONVULSIVE CHOREA.
413
was that the action of the poison in the human body
excited a desire for the sounds of musical instru-
ments, and for harmony proportioned to the discords
of the nervous systems of the sufferers. Grave men,
labouring under this disorder, and even discreet
matrons, were then seen impelled to most violent fits
of leaping, so that all decorum being abandoned, all
restraints of modesty being broken through, they
rushed into extravagances and excesses as if they
were possessed by devils. But before these violent
dancing outbreaks occurred, previously for the space
of two months, divers morbid effects were produced
in the bodies of the persons bitten, great dejec-
tion, loss of appetite, burning fever, pains of the
joints, a livid squalid hue, like that occasioned by
jaundice.*
A. Salernian physician of the 11th century, Gario-
pontus, in a Latin work, entitled "De Morborum Causis
accidendibus et curationibus, (Basil. 1506, in 8vo. p.
27)," refers to an epidemic mania of his time, cha-
racterized by many of the leading symptoms of the
Tarantula dancing malady, and shewing unmistak-
ably something more than an affinity between the
two disorders. And first, be it observed, that Gario-
pontus was a native of the kingdom of Naples, and
from his residence at Salerno, must have been well
acquainted with the neighbouring territory of Apulia.
The substance of the passage in the work of Gario-
pontus, is to the following effect:
* Kircher de Arte Mag. p, 757.
414
EPEDEMIC HYSTERIA,
Anteneneasmon (the enthusiasmus of the Greek
physicians,) is a kind of mania extremely dangerous.
Those affected with it are suddenly excited, and im-
pelled to violent movements of the hands and feet,
because they falsely imagine in their ears they hear
various sounds as of voices that are like the musical
tones of divers instruments, by which being so de-
lighted they leap, or dance, or run swiftly. They
seize suddenly on a sword, and strike themselves or
others; and they endeavour to bite themselves and
others. By some they are called percussores, others
say they are the legions of the devil, and in their
paroxysms are vexed and tormented by demons. . .
If they foam at the mouth, or the cause of their dis-
ease is the bite of rabid dog, within seven days they
die "quod si spumam per os ejecerint vel en canis
rabidi morsu causa fuerit, intra septem dies moriun-
tur."*
:
The idea that this furibond mania might be caused
by the bite of a mad dog, however erroneous it may
be, affords evidence at least of the opinion entertained
by the old Salernian physician, that symptoms such
as those he described of convulsive mania, might be
occasioned by the virus of a rabid animal in the case
of a bitten person. One step farther in experience
would have brought him to the conclusion, that the
virus of a venomous insect could have produced simi-
lar effects, with the exception of the fatal result
within a term of a few days.
For original Latin citation, see Hecker's Dancing Mania.
CONVULSIVE CHOREA.
415
It is quite certain, however, that the Greeks and
Romans were acquainted with the mischievous effects
of the bites of venomous spiders, but no mention is
ever made of one of those effects being an irresistible
impulse to dance, or of a mode of cure being the per-
formance of music, and the exercise of dancing in
harmony with it.
The earliest account of this disease is in a work
of Nicholas Perotti, a man of learning, born in 1430,
deceased in 1480;* of this disorder, he states there
were no records, in the writings of those who went
before him: “Hic majorum nostrorum temporibus in
Italiæ visus non fiut, nunc frequens in Apulia visitur."
Alexander ab Alexandro in his Genialium Dierum,
libri vi, who lived from 1461 to 1523, states that he
saw a young man in a remote village in the kingdom
of Naples, who was seized with a violent attack of
Tarrantism, who in a paroxysm of his disorder danced
with astonishing vehemence, and violently leaped like
a madman, keeping time however with the music
that was played for him, and at its cessation saw him
fall to the ground in a state of syncope, from which
he recovered when the musicians recommenced.
The Apulian mania for dancing may be regarded
as of a much earlier date, than any notices of it as
a distinct disease in the works of writers of the 15th
century. There can be little doubt that a venomous
spider exists in the south of Italy, the bite of which
Cornucopia Latina Linguæ, Basel. 1536, fol. Comment. in
Epigram. Mart. p. 51, 52.
416
EPIDEMIC HYSTERIA,
produces disorders of the nervous system with
violent convulsive movements. This was only noticed
in the fifteenth century by medical men. But long
before the disease was described by Perotti, a
dancing mania existed in some parts of Apulia and
Calabria. This disease may have been a remnant
of the dance of St. Vitus of the Germans and
Belgians of 1374, or of the children of Erfurt in
1237. But there is no reasonable ground for doubt-
ing that a disease of a very similar character was
occasioned in Apulia by the bite of a venomous
spider. And it appears equally certain that inde-
pendently of the venomous bite of the spider, the
disease was spontaneously produced in a vast num-
ber of cases by the workings of the human mind.
In periods of great fanaticism or times of signal pes-
tilential calamity, the disorder might and did arise
alone from the force of imagination and the instinct
of imitation. Kircher's statement, moreover, that
after a person was bitten by the venomous spider,
although he was affected by depression of spirits,
or general feelings of malaise, the violent paroxysm
of the rage for dancing did not usually occur till
the following summer season when the great heat
set in; this would tend very strongly to confirm the
opinion that if the traditions of the German and
Belgian plague dance of an earlier period did not
exist, that phase of tarantism which was marked by
for dancing would not have been observed.
It is far more easy to understand how the force
a rage
CONVULSIVE CHOREA.
417
of imagination and the instinct of imagination would
have produced it, than to comprehend how the virus
of a venomous insect would have remained dormant
in a bitten person for several months; or, according
to Kircher's account, as it might do for a year.
"Tarantism," says Hecker, "has been denied
in toto, and stigmatized as an imposition by most
physicians and naturalists, who in this controversy
have shewn the narrowness of their views and their
utter ignorance of history."
Among the incredulous writers who have denied
the existence of the disease, as being occasioned prin-
cipally by the bite of a venomous insect, is Serao, a
Neapolitan, who published a treatise on the subject
in 1742, entitled "Tarantola o vero Falangio de
Puglia." He considered the bite as a stimulus
given to melancholy, the chief cause of the malady
acting as a spur would do on a horse already
running-accelerating motion.
At the close of the 15th century this dancing
mania of Apulia was at its height. In Asia, at the
same period, a panic prevailed in many places of a
similar kind to that which existed in Italy. The
* “Morsu itaque transfundit venenum per corpore icti, qui in
principio quidem adeo parum sentitur, ut simplex muscæ morsus
videri possit, sed post anni revolutionem peractam calore solis et
tempore qualitate ad sonos et musicorum instrumentarum harmo-
niam proportionatam venenum patientes viros etiam et matronas
honestissimas in saltus cogitata violentos," &c. Kircher, De Arte
Mag. p. 757.
I.
2 E
418
EPIDEMIC HYSTERIA,
dread of the bite of venomous serpents was greater
in Asia than it had been in the memory of man.*
The Tarantism mania of Apulia continued without
much abatement throughout the 16th century. It
prevailed likewise through the whole course of the
17th century, but with a declining strength; from
the commencement of the 18th it may be said to
have ceased in an epidemic form; and from 1821 to
1824, during a constant residence in Naples, I can
state from my own knowledge and inquiries in that
country that the occurrence of a single case of the
disorder is rare.
To what cause are we to attribute that result?
Has the Tarantula spider, the Araneus Apulus
Phalangius, died out in Apulia?
Has the venom of the insect become less injurious
to persons bitten by it?
Is the disease occasioned by the bite better un-
derstood than in former times?
We need not trouble ourselves with those in-
quiries.
We will find an explanation of the result above
referred to in a few facts, connected with changes
in the moral and physical condition of the people of
Southern Italy.
In the last century and a half there have been few
great pestilences in Italy. A single species of pes-
tilence, but the most terrible of all, "the oriental bubo
* Hecker, Dancing Mania, p. 129.
CONVULSIVE CHOREA.
419
plague," says Hecker, ravaged Italy sixteen times
between the years 1119 and 1340."
All the links which connected the eighteenth
century with the middle ages have been long since
snapped asunder.
A barbarous state of society, insecurity, oppres-
sion, ignorance, and fanaticism are no longer power-
ful, predisposing influences, calculated in every
visitation of sickness or of distress on a large scale,
to strike a panic in the public mind, to knock down
the vital energies, to enervate the intellectual and
moral powers, and to disorder the whole nervous
system, leaving the workings of the human mind
in particular conjunctory and trying circumstances,
under no controlling influences, ready to confound
the inspirations of fanaticism with those of religion,
and to let imagination give a shape to emotions and
excitements which border on the domain of disease,
and eventually pass the boundary of reason.
The dancing mania of Germany of the 15th cen-
tury is still kept in popular remembrance in some
places, by an annual festival, especially at Echter -
nach, a small town in Luxembourg, about twenty
miles from Treves, where thousands of people annu-
ally meet on Whit-Tuesday to solemnize this feast
with what is termed "the jumping procession," and
also the procession of the jumping saints. "The
ancient practice thus annually honoured, originated,"
says a correspondent in Notes and Queries, "in the
14th century, and obtained the name of St. Vitus's
2 E 2
420
EPIDEMIC HYSTERIA,
dance. It first broke out in the Archbishopric of
Treves and Cologne and other parts of Germany.
The name was derived from a chapel in Ulm,
dedicated to St. Vitus, which was much in vogue
with those afflicted with the disease, who flocked
here in crowds to entreat the saint's intercession
in their behalf. There were men of the time who
observed that those who suffered under the disease
were afflicted with spasmodic movements of the limbs
which forced them to dance and jump about like
madmen, without any power over their own will,
until they fell down in a state of exhaustion. These
observers conceived the idea, that by voluntarily
going through the same process, and performing
the same fatiguing movements they might ward off
the disease itself—a curious foreshadowing of the
system of Jenner and Hahnemann. Acting upon this
idea, the festival of the procession of the Jumpers was
formed and once a year, on Whit-Tuesday, that
procession still wends its way to the grave of St.
Willebrodus in the ancient abbey church of Echter-
nach. The procession starts from the bridge ac-
companied by several bands of music. The pilgrims
of both sexes form in rows and spring first four steps
forward and three back, then eight forward and
three back and so on, continually increasing the
steps forward, but making no change in those back-
ward, until they reach the church, where they
throw themselves on their faces and begin to pray.
Having entered the church, after prayer, the flag-
CONVULSIVE CHOREA.
421
-
bearers and brothers of the order place themselves
under the great lustre, with its seventy-two lighted
tapers, and high mass, accompanied by solemn
music, begins. I should have mentioned that the
jumping march is performed to curious old music,
composed expressly for this ceremony. So many
evils arose from bringing such masses of people
together in so small a compass, so much drunken-
ness, riot, and debauchery, that the festival was sup-
pressed by law in 1777; it was, however, re-intro-
duced by Joseph II. in 1790; put down by the
French in 1795, and again appeared in 1802, in
which year there were nearly 3000 dancers and
74 musicians. In the year 1812 there were 12,678
dancers in the procession, which has, however, now
diminished to an annual average of 8000."*
*Notes and Queries, September, 1856.
APPENDIX.
No. I.
OF MALEFIC SPIRITS:
Opinions of the Platonists and Pythagoreans of the Third
Century of the Christian Æra; of Porphyry, a Pla-
tonic philosopher of Tyre, born in the year A.D. 233,
the scholar of Longinus; and of Jamblichus, a Pytha-
gorean philosopher and Platonist, a disciple of Porphyry.
PORPHYRY'S opinions on the nature of demons, good
and evil, have been evidently studied and many of them
appropriated in a very wholesale manner, without any ac-
knowledgment moreover, by "spiritualists" of America
of the first order, Dr. Ware, Mr. A. J. Davies, and several
others.
In the treatise, "on Abstinence from Animal food,"
Porphyry discoursing of "those invisible beings whom
Plato indiscriminately calls demons," says "But such
souls as do not rule over the pneumatic substance (or
spirit) with which they are connected; but for the most
part are vanquished by it, these are vehemently agitated
and borne along (in a disorderly manner,) when the
irascible motions and desires of the pneumatic substance.
receive an impetus. These souls are indeed demons, but
are deservedly called malefic demons.
"All these beings, likewise, and those who possess a con-
trary power, are invisible, and perfectly imperceptible by
human senses: for they are not surrounded by, with a solid
body, nor are all of them of one form, but they are fashioned
in numerous figures. The forms, however, which charac-
terize their pneumatic substance, at one time become
apparent, but at another invisible, sometimes also those
APPENDIX.
423
that are malefic change their forms: but the pneumatic
substance, so far as it is corporeal, is passive and corrupti-
ble: and though, because it is thus bound by the souls that
are incumbent on it, the form of it remains for a long time,
yet it is not eternal. For it is probable that something
continually flows from it, and also that it is nourished.
They (the malefic demons) are distributed about the
terrestrial region. Hence, there is no evil which they do
not attempt to effect: for, in short, being violent and
fraudulent in their manners, and being also deprived of
the guardian care of more excellent demons, they make
for the most part vehement and sudden attacks: some-
times endeavouring to conceal their incursions, but at
other times assaulting openly. Hence the molestations
produced by them are rapid: but the remedies and correc-
tions proceeding from more excellent demons appear to
be more slowly effected."
“It must be admitted,
..
however, that one of the greatest injuries occasioned by
malefic demons is this, that though they are the causes of
the calamities which take place about the earth, such as
pestilence, sterility, earthquakes, excessive dryness, and the
like, yet they endeavour to persuade us that they are the
cause of things the most contrary to these, viz: of benignity,
fertility, (salubrity and elementary peace.) . . . But they
effect these, and things of a similar nature, in consequence
of wishing to turn us from right conceptions of the gods,
and convert us to themselves: for they are delighted with
all such as act incongruously and discordantly, and as it
were, assuming the persons of other gods, they enjoy the
effects of our imprudence and folly. Conciliating to them-
selves the good opinion of the vulgar by inflaming the
minds of men with the love of riches, power, and pleasure,
and filling them with the desire of vain glory, from which
sedition and war, and other things allied to them, are
424
APPENDIX.
And not
produced. But that which is the most clear of all things
they proceed still further, and persuade men that similar
things are effected by the greatest gods, &c.
only the vulgar are affected in this manner, but not a few
also of those who are conversant with philosophy."
" All
enchantment, however, is performed through demons of a
contrary nature (to those who are good,) for those who
perpetrate evil through enchantments, especially venerate
these malefic beings, and the power that presides over
them. For they are full of every kind of imagination, and
are sufficiently qualified to deceive through effects of a
prodigious nature. . . . For all intemperance, and hope
of possessing wealth and renown, and especially deception,
exist through these; since falsehood is allied to these male-
volent beings; for they wish to be considered as gods, and
the power which presides over them is ambitious to appear
to be the greatest god.”*
So far for the opinions of Porphyry in relation to malefic
spirits: we now proceed to those of Jamblichus, on the
same subject.
,
"It is also necessary to demonstrate to you, in what
demons, heroes, and souls differ from each other, and
whether this difference is according to essence, or accord-
ing to power, or according to energy. I say, therefore, that
demons are produced according to the generative and
demiurgic powers of the gods, in the most remote termina-
tion of progression, and ultimate distribution into parts.
But heroes are produced according to the reasons, (or
effective principles) of life in divine natures; and from
these, the first and perfect measures of souls receive their
termination and distribution into parts."
1
"Let us, however, now proceed to the appearances of
* Select works of Porphyry, translated from the Greek by Thomas
Taylor, Lon. 1823. Of Abstin. from Animal Food. Book ii. pp. 75, 79.
APPENDIX.
425
the gods and their perpetual attendants, and shew what
the difference is in their appearance. For you inquire by
what indication the presence of a god, or an angel, or an
archangel, or a demon, or a certain archon (i.e. ruler) or a
soul, may be known.' In one word, therefore, I conclude that
their appearances accord with their essences, powers, and
energies. For such as they are, such also do they appear
to those that invoke them, and they exhibit energies and
ideas consentaneous to themselves, and proper indications
of themselves. But that we may descend to particulars,
the phasmatæ, or luminous appearances, of the gods are
uniform; those of demons are various; those of angels
are more simple than those of demons, but are subordinate
to those of the gods; those of archangels approximate in
a greater degree to divine causes; but those of archons, if
those powers appear to you to be the cosmocrators, who
govern the sublunary elements, will be more various,
but adorned in order; but if they are the powers that pre-
side over matter, they will indeed be more various, and
more imperfect, than those of the archons (properly so
called); and those of souls will appear to be all-various.
And the phasmata, indeed, of the gods will be seen shin-
ing with salutary light; those of archangels will be terrible,
and at the same time mild; those of demons will be dread-
ful, those of heroes (which you have omitted in your in-
quiry, but to which we shall give an answer for the sake
of truth) are milder than those of demons; but those of
archons, if their dominion pertains to the world, produce
astonishment, but if they are material they are noxious and
painful to the spectators; and those of souls are similar to
the heroic phasmata, except that they are inferior to
them."
* Jamblichus. "On the Mysteries of The Egyptians, Chaldeans
and Asyrians." Translated from the Greek by Thomas Taylor, Chis.
1821, Sect. 2, ch. 1, pp. 82, 86.
428
APPENDIX.
tusms likewise, will consist in deceptive perversions. For
that which is an imitation of (real) being, and is an obscure
assimilation, and becomes the cause of deception, pertains
to no one of the true and clearly existing genera. But the
gods, indeed, and those powers that follow the gods, reveal
true images of themselves, but by no means extend phan-
tasms of themselves, such as exist in water, or in mirrors.
For on what account should they exhibit these? Shall
we say as bringing with them an indication of their own
essence and power? This, however, is by no means the
case. For these phantasms become the cause of deception
to those that believe in them, and withdraw the spectators
from the true knowledge of the gods. Shall we say then,
that it is because they afford a certain utility to those
that behold them? But what advantage can be derived
from falsehood? If therefore this is not the case, may it
not be natural to divinity to extend a phantasm from
itself? But how can that which is firmly established in
itself, and which is the cause of essence and truth, produce
in a foreign seat a certain deceitful imitation of itself? By
no means therefore does divinity either transform himself
into phantasms, nor extend these from himself to other
things, but emits by illumination, truc representations of
himself, in the manner of souls."
<<
*
Concerning the divination, therefore, which takes place
in sleep, you say as follows: 'We frequently obtain through
dreams, when we are asleep, a knowledge of future events,
not being in an ecstasy, through which we are much agitated,
for the body is quiet, but we do not apprehend what we see
in the same clear manner as when we are awake.' It is usual,
however, for what you here say, to happen in human
dreams, and in dreams which are excited by the soul, or
by some of our conceptions, or by reason, or by imagination,
* Ib. p. 107.
APPENDIX.
429
or certain diurnal cases. And these, indeed, are sometimes
truc, and sometimes false; and in some things they appre-
hend reality, but in many deviate from it. But the dreams.
which are denominated theopemptoi, or sent from God, do
not subsist after the manner which you mention; but they
take place, either when asleep in leaving us, and we are
beginning to awake, and then we hear a certain voice,
which concisely tells us what is to be done; or voices are
heard by us, between sleeping and waking, or when we are
perfectly awake. And sometimes, indeed, an invisible and
incorporeal spirit surrounds the recumbents, so as not to
be perceived by the sight, but by a certain other cosen-
sation and intelligence. The entrance of this spirit, also,
is accompanied with a noise, and he diffuses himself on all
sides without any contact, and effects admirable works
conducive to the liberation of the soul and body. But some-
times a bright and tranquil light shines forth, by which
the sight of the eyes is detained, and which occasions them
to become closed, though they were before open. The
other senses, however, are in a vigilant state, and in a cer-
tain respect have a cosensation of the light unfolded by
the gods; and the recumbents hear what the gods say,
and know by a consecutive perception what is then done
by them."*
"The wise, therefore, speak as follows: The soul having
a two-fold life, one being in conjunction with body, but
the other being separate from all body; when we are
awake we employ, for the most part, the life which is
common with the body, except when we separate ourselves.
entirely from it by pure intellectual and dianoctic ener-
gies. But when we are asleep, we are perfectly liberated,
as it were, from certain surrounding bonds, and use a life
separated from generation."
* Ib. p. 116.
430
APPENDIX.
"And it possesses a divination still more perfect than
this, when it conjoins the portions of life and intellectual
energy to the wholes from which it was separated. For
then it is from wholes with all scientific knowledge, so as
the most part to attain by its conceptions to the appre-
hension of every thing which is effected in the world. In-
deed, when it is united to the gods, by a liberated energy
of this kind, it then receives the most true plenitudes of
intellections, from which it emits the true divination of
divine dreams, and derives the most genuine principles of
knowledge."*
"And bodies, indeed, that are diseased it heals; but
properly disposes such things as subsist among men erro-
neously aud disorderly. It likewise frequently delivers the
discoveries of arts, the distributions of justice, and the
establishment of legal institutions. Thus in the temple of
Esculapius, diseases are healed through divine dreams;
and through the order of nocturnal appearances, the medical
art is obtained from sacred dreams.”
+
"Again, therefore, still worse than this is, the explana-
tion of sacred operations, which assigns as the cause of
divination, 'a certain genus of demons, which is naturally
fraudulent, omniform, and various, and which assumes the
appearance of gods, and demons, and the souls of the
deceased.' I shall therefore relate to you, in answer to
this, what I once heard from the prophets of the Chaldeans.
Such gods as are truly divinities, are alone the givers of
good; alone associate with good men, and with those that
are purified by the sacerdotal art, and from these amputate
all vice, and every passion. When these also impart their
light, that which is evil, and at the same time demoniacal,
vanishes from before more excellent natures, in the same
as darkness when light is present; nor is it able to disturb
* Ib. pp. 118-119.
† Ib. p. 120.
APPENDIX.
431
theurgists in the smallest degree, who receive from this
light every virtue, obtain worthy manners, become orderly
and elegant in their actions, are liberated from passions,
and purified from every disorderly motion, and from
atheistical and unholy conduct. But those who are them-
selves flagitious, and who leap as it were to things of a
divine nature in an illegal and disorderly manner, these,
through the imbecility of their proper energy, or
through indigence of inherent power, are not able to
associate with the gods. Because, likewise, they are ex-
cluded through certain defilements from an association.
with pure spirits, they become connected with evil spirits,
are filled from them with the worst kind of inspiration, are
rendered depraved and unholy, become replete with in-
temperate pleasures, and every kind of vice, are emulous
of manners foreign to the gods, and in short, become
similar to the depraved demons with whom they are con-
nascent. These therefore, being full of passions and vice
attract to themselves, through alliance, depraved spirits,
and are excited by them to every kind of iniquity. They
are also increased in wickedness by each other, like a circle
conjoining the beginning to the end, and similarly making
an equal compensation. Hence deeds which are the
nefarious offences of impiety, which are introduced into
sacred works in a disorderly manner, and which are also
confusedly performed by those, who betake themselves to
such works, and at one time, as it seems, cause one
divinity to be present instead of another, and again intro-
duce depraved demons instead of gods, whom they call
equal to the gods (avrilεovç)—such deeds as these you
should never adduce in a discourse concerning sacerdotal
divination. For good is more contrary to evil than to that
which is not good. As, therefore, the sacrilegious are in
the most eminent degree hostile to the religious cultiva-
432
APPENDIX.
tion of the gods; thus, also, those who are conversant with
demons who are fraudulent, and the causes of intempe-
rance, are undoubtedly hostile to theurgists. For from
these every depraved spirit departs, and when they are
present, is entirely subverted. "*
FC
No. II.
Of the power of the Devil in Transformations and Ap-
puritions, and what may be believed of it, by a Christian.”
From St. Augustine's City of God.
"SED de ista tanta ludificatione dæmonum, nos quid
dicamus, qui hæc legent: fortassis expectant, quid Chris-
tiani agere debeant, quando inter idola gentium miracula,
fieri asseruntur. Et quid dicemus, nisi de medio Babylonis
esse fugiendum? Quod præceptum propheticum ita
spiritaliter intelligitur, ut de hujus seculi civitate quæ
profectò et angelorum et hominum societas impiorum est,
fidei passibus, quæ per dilectionem operatur, in Deum
vivum proficiendo fugiamus, Quantò quippe in hæc ima
potestatem dæmonum majorem videmus, tantò tenacius
mediatori est inhærendum, per quem de imis ad summa
descendimus.
Nec sanè dæmones naturas creant,
si aliquid, tale faciunt, de qualibus. factis ista vertitur
quæstio, sed specie tènus quæ à vero Deo sunt creata
commutent, ut videantur esse quod non sunt. Non itaque
solum animum, sed nec corpus quidem ulla ratione credi-
derim dæmonum arte vel potestate in membra, vel linea-
menta bestialia veraciter posse converti, sed phantasticam
hominis, quod etiam cogitando sive somniando per rerum
* Jamblichus on the Mysteries of the Egyptians, Chaldeans and
Assyrians, translated from the Greek by Thomas Taylor, Chis. 1821,
pp. 199, 200.
APPENDIX.
433
innumerabilia genera variatur, et quum corpus non sit, cor-
porum tamen similes mira celeritate formas capit, sopitis
aut oppressiss corporei hominis sensibus, ad aliorum sensum
nescio quo ineffabili modo figura corporea posse perduci:
ita ut corpora ipsa hominum alicubi jaceant, viventia
quidem: sed multò gravius atque vehementius quà somno
suis sensibus obseratis, Phantasticum autem illud veluti
corporatum in alicujus animalis effigie apparet sensibus.
alienis, talisque etiam sibi homo esse videatur, sicut talis sibi
videri posset in somnis, et portare onera: quæ onera si vera
sunt corpora, portanturà dæmonibus, ut illudatur hominibus,
partim vera onerum corpora, partim jumentorum falsa
cernentibus. Nam quidam nomine Præstantius patri suo
contigisse judicabat, ut venenum illud per caseum in domo
sua sumeret, et jaceret in lecto suo quasi dormiens, qui
tamen nullo modo poterat excitari. Post aliquot autem
dies eum velut evigilasse dicebat, et quasi somnia enarrasse,
quæ passus est, caballum se scilicet factum, annonam
inter alia jumenta bajulasse militibus, que dicitur retica,
quoniam ad retia deportatur. Quod ita ut narravit factum
fuisse compertum est: quæ tamen ei sua somnia videbantur.
Indicavit et alius se domi suæ per noctem antequam re-
quiesceret vidisse venientem ad se quendam philosophum
sibi notissimum, sibique exposuisse nonnulla Platonica,
quæ antea rogatus exponere noluisset. Et cum ab eodem
philosopho quæsitum fuisset, cur in domo ejus fecerit,
quod in domo sua petenti negaverat. Non feci, inquit, sed
me eam exhibitum est vigilanti, quod alter vidit in somnis.
Hæc ad nos non quibuscunque qualibus credere putaremus
indignum, sed eis referentibus pervenerunt, quos nobis non
existimaremus fuisse mentitos. Proinde quòd homines
dicuntur, mandatumque est literis à diis, vel potius dæmoni-
bus Arcades in lupos solere converti: et quòd carminibus
Circe socios mutavit Ulyssis, secundum istum modum
I.
2 F
434
APPENDIX.
mihi videtur fieri potuisse, quem dixi: si tamen factum est.
Diomedæas autem volucres, quando quidem genus earum
per successionem propaginis durare perhibetur, non mutatis
hominibus factas, sed subtractis credo fuisse suppositas,
sicut cerva pro Iphigenia regis Agamemnonis filia: Neque
enim dæmonibus judicio Dei permissis hujusmodi præstigiæ
difficiles esse potuerunt sed quia illa virgo postea viva
reperta est, suppositam pro illa cervam esse facile cognitum
est. Socii vero Diomedis, quia nusquam subito compa-
ruerunt, et postea nullo loco apperuerunt, perdentibus cos
ultoribus angelis malis, in eas aves pro illis occultè ex
aliis locis, ubi est quæ hoc genus avium ad ea loca per-
ductæ sunt ac repentè supposite, creduntur esse conversi.
Quod autem Diomedis in templum aquam rostris afferunt
et aspergunt, et quod blandiuntur Græcigenis, alienigenas
persequuntur, mirandum non est fieri de monum in-
stinctu quorum interest, persuadere deum factu esse
Diomedem, ad decipiendos homines, ut falsos deos cum
veri Dei injuria multos colant et hominibus mortuis, qui
nec cum viverent, vere vixerunt templis, altaribus, sacrificiis,
sacerdotibus, quæ omnia cùm recta sunt, non nisi uni Deo
vivo et vero cui debentur, inserviant."*
No. III.
Connexion of the Flagellant Sect with that of the Lollards.
THERE is a remarkable passage in Gerson's treatise
in reference to the Flagellants, wherein he points out
various errors of the Begards of Belgium and the Lollards,
which had crept into the Creed of the Flagellants. The
practice of voluntary flagellation, it appears, was in vogue
also with the former fanatics. Schelling (de Secta Flagell.
p. 57.) concurs with other writers in opinion that the first
* Augustini de Civitate Dei; Ad Marcellinum, Lib. xviii. cap.
xviii. tom. 2. p. 377.
APPENDIX.
435
public exhibition of this practice took place in Perugia, and
he states that the invention of it was to be attributed to a
certain Dominican monk named Reinher, who was living at
the time of the Council of Lyons. Reinher, it is said,
touched by the terrible calamities of Italy, torn by the
contending factions of Guelphs and Ghibelines had de-
vised this mode of appeasing the wrath of heaven.
L'Enfant, in his "Histoire de Concile de Constance,"
(4to. Amst. 1727, tome 2, p. 80) says, there is much reason
to believe this Reinher was a Dominican friar, who had fallen
into heresy, and after seventeen years was converted, and
after his conversion wrote a book pointing out the way to
discover hereticks and doctrine "sonans heresiæ." Gerson's
opinion of the connexion of the Begards and Lollards
with the sect of the Flagellants, and the statement in L'En-
fan's History of the Council of Constance, of Reinher's
connexion with the heretics of his time for seventeen years,
and of being the founder of the sect of the Flagellants,
excite some degree of curiosity about this person; of whom,
however, no further notice is to be found in the works I
have referred to. There is some reason to suspect that
Reinher may be the principal subject of a very rare and
singular work in 4to. illustrated with quaint representations
of seers and allegorical figures, on Prognostics and Pro-
phecies appertaining to the time of its publication, 1488.*
* The title of this work is "Prognosticatio in Latino. Rara et
Prius non audita que exponit et declarat nonnullos cœli influxus et
inclinationes certas constellationum magne videlicet conjunctionis
et eclipsis que fuerant istis annis quid boni mali ve hoc tempore ipse
in futurum huic mundo portendant durabitque pluribus annis.”
The following is the colophon on the last page: "Datum in vico
Umbroso subtus Quercu Carpentuli Anno Domini M.C.C.C.C.
LXXXVIII. Kalendas Aprilis p. peregrinu Ruth in nemoribus lan-
tantem cujus oculi caligaverunt stilus tremet senio oppressus. Vale-
ant q rectè animo emēdant. Valeantq ut valere pbas est qui oblatrare
non cessant." The author of this book, though not given in the
436
APPENDIX.
After several notices of the different ways in which divin-
ing knowledge is given to man, as to Ptolemy by contem-
plation of the heavens, to Aristotle by deductions from
astronomical and metaphysical principles, to the Sybils by
way of visions or dreams, to St. Bridget by revelations :
we find the following passage :
"Cui associet quidam Reynhardus Lolhardus ut suis
locis infra patebit.”
The 21st chapter begins with the words, "Reynhardus
Lolhardus in revelatione suæ dicit," &c.
The last print in the work represents a begging friar,
by imposture obtaining money from women, and above, in
Gothic characters, these words "Hic debet stare Lulhardus
et dicere versus sequentes:
"Lulhardi lollant ut nummos undique tollant ut Reynhart
volucres, sic Lolhart fallit mulieres."
Of the dates of the predictions ascribed to Reynhardus
Lolhardus and others, the date of the latest to be accom-
plished is 1576.
The words over the woodcut, representing a monk re-
ceiving money from two women, clearly indicates an allu-
sion to the Lollards:
“Lulhardi lollant ut nummos undique-tollant."
Sir Henry Spelman, in his "Glossarium Archaiologicum
continens Latino-Barbaro vocabula," &c. (Lond. 4to. 1654,
p. 370,) on the authority of Trithemius asserts that the
Lollards, (the name by which this sect was known in Eng-
land about the time of Edward III.) derived their origin
from Walter Lollard (Gualterus Lolhard) a German, who
flourished about 1315.
work, was Johannis Lichtenberger. There have been several editions
-the first (that in my possession) 1488-two at Cologne, 1526 and
1528, and an earlier one at Milan (in volgare) no date, and another
at Modena, no date.
APPENDIX.
437
In a reeent life of Wicliff, it is stated, our English
word to loll is derived from the name of this sect, whose
followers were in the habit of singing psalms in a lugu-
brious tone of voice, which was called lolling.
Walter Lolhard perished at the stake in Cologne in
1322. The person called Reyhardus may have been named
Lollard as belonging to that sect.
No. IV.
Feyjoo "Sobre La Multitud de Los Milagros."
On the evils arising from the multitude of miracles not
duly authenticated "Sobre La Multitud de Milagros,"
&c.*-one of the most learned men of the most learned
of all the religious orders, the celebrated Benedictine
Feyjoo, has written a remarkable letter, wherein the true
doctrines of his church on the subject of the credit to be
given to accounts of occurrences attributed to super-
natural agency, and not duly authenticated, are set forth
in a forcible manner, and as concisely as perspicuously
"Pensar, que todos los que convalecen de sus dolencias,
despues de implorar à su favor la intercesison de nuestra
Señora, ù de qualquier otro Santo, sanan milagrosa-
mente, es discurrir la Omnipotencia muy prodiga, y la
Naturaleza muy inepta. La baxa opinion, que el Vulgo
tiene formada de esta, es muy util à los Medicos; porque,
como si nada pudiesse el vigor nativo de el cuerpo, donde
el Medico es llamado, siempre que el enfermo sana, se atri-
buye à la Medicina. A la Naturaleza se debe las mas
veces la victoria; pero al Arte se da la gloria de el triunfo.
*"Cartas Eruditas, Y Curiosas." Por el Reverendissimo Padre
Fray B. G. Feyjoo, Maestro General de la Religion de San Benito,
1748, Madrid, 4to. Tomo i. p. 366.
438
APPENDIX.
Y, ò quantas veces esta no hace mas que estorvar, y desca-
minar aquella! Quantas veces los errores de el Medico,
parciales de la enfermedad, conspiran con ello à la ruina
de el enfermo! Quantas veces por este camino, ò por este
descamino, dolencias veniales se hacen mortales.
2. De este riesgo carece, à la verdad, el recurso à la in-
tercession de los Santos, el qual nunca puede ser nocivo :
y acaso entonces es mas provechoso, quando por èl no se
alcanza la convalecencia deseada; siendo muy verisimil,
que se aplica à algun bien de el alma aquel ruego, que se
buscaba para la salud de el cuerpo. Tambien se logra esta
algunas veces; pero pensar, que siempre que se logra, se
logra por este medio, es un excesso de la Piedad, que pica
en supersticion. Lo mismo digo de la multitud de Mila-
gros, que el indiscreto Vulgo sueña sobre otros assumptos.
3. Pero quien es culpado en este error? El Vulgo mis-
mo? No por cierto; sino los que, teniendo obligacion à
desengañar el Vulgo, no solo le dexan en su vana aprehen-
sion, mas tal vez son Autores de el engaño: Pastores eorum
seduxerunt eos. (Jerem. 50.) Quantos Parrocos, por in-
teressarse en dar fama de Milagrosa à alguna Imagen de
su Iglesia, le atribuyen Milagros, que no ha havido! No
es mi animo comprehender à V. mrd. en esta Invectiva,
porque tengo noticia de su desinterès, y buena fee. Mas
no por esso le eximo de toda culpa, pues debiera tener pre-
sente para su observancia la sabia disposicion de el Santo
Concilio de Trento, que manda no admitir milagro nuevo
alguno, sin preceder examen, y Aprobacion de el Obispo
Nulla etiam admittenda esse nova miracula
eodem recognoscente, et approbante Episcopo. (Sess. 25.
tit. de Invocatione, et Veneratione, &c.)
nisi
4 Dirà V. mrd. que tampoco otros infinitos, yà Pastores,
yà no Pastores, esperan la Aprobacion de el Obispo, para
creer, preconizar, y campanear nuevos Milagros, y que
APPENDIX.
439
apenas ha visto hasta ahora poner en practica la regla
establecida por el Concilio, en orden à este punto. Creo
que en esto dirà V. mrd. verdad. Pero de esta verdad me
lastimo yo, y me he lastimado siempre mucho: porque de
la inobservancia de aquella regla, toman ocasion los
Hereges para hacer mofa de los Milagros, que califican la
verdad de nuestra Religion. Como son muchos los que
siendo imaginarios se publican como verdaderos, ò por un
vil interès, ò por una indiscreta piedad; ellos pudieron
assegurarse de la falsedad de algunos, y de aqui passan à
la desconfianza de todos. No resultarìa este inconveniente,
si se observasse inviolablemente la disposicion de el Con-
cilio. Son iniquos sin duda los Hereges en atribuir al
cuerpo de la Iglesia la fraudulenta ficcion, ò ciega credulidad
de algunos particulares. Es visible su mala fee en esta
acusacion, porque no ignoran lo que el Santo Concilio de
Trento estableciò sobre el assumpto; ni tampoco ignoran,
que aquel es el organo, por donde explica su mente la
Iglesia Romana; mas no por esso dexan de ser muy cul-
pables, los que con sus ficciones de Milagros dàn algun
aparente pretexto à las insultantes Invectivas de nuestros
Enemigos.
5. El severo cuidado, que los Padres de el Concilio qui-
sieron se pusiesse en el examen de los milagros, muestra,
que consideraron de una summa importancia para el
credito de la Iglesia, evitar los fingidos; pues no con-
tentos con intimar, que ninguno nuevo se admitiesse, sin
·la Aprobacion de los Obispos ; añadieron, que à esta Apro-
bacion precediesse consulta de Varones Sabios, y Piado-
sos, como se vè en la Clausula immediatamente siguiente
à la arriba alegada: Qui (Episcopus) simul atque de his
aliquid compertum habuerit, adhibitis in consilium Theologis,
et aliis Piis viris, ea faciat, quæ Veritati, et Pietati con-
sentanea judicaverit. Donde me parecen dignas de reflexion.
440
APPENDIX.
1
aquellas palabras, Veritati, et Pietati. El titulo hermoso
de Piedad, es quien hace sombra à los Milagros fingidos,
para que se les dè passaporte corriente en los Pueblos.
Este es el Sagrado Sello, con que se imprime el silencia en
los labios de todos aquellos, que enterados de la verdad,
quando empieza a preconizarse algun imaginario portento,
quisieran desengañar al publico. Pero es esto conforme al
espiritu de la Iglesia? Antes diametralmente opuesto.
La piedad, que la Iglesia pide, la que promueve en sus
hijos, la que caracteriza à los verdaderos Christianos, es
aquella que se junta, y hermana con la verdad, Veritati, et
Pietati. No dixeron los Padres Veritati, aut Pietati,
como que qualquiera de los dos titulos divisivamente.
bastasse para autorizar las relaciones de Milagros, sino
Veritati, et Pietati; como que es menester que concurran
unidos entrambos. Piedad opuesta à la Verdad, es una
piedad vana, ilusoria, de mera perspectiva; mas propria
para fomentar la supersticion, que para acreditar la Religion:
Veri adoratores adorabunt Patrem in Spiritu, et Veritate,
nam et Pater tales quærit, qui adorent eum. (Johan. cap. 4)
6. Indemniza en esta materia al rudo Vulge su sencillèz.
Pero què disculpa tienen los que tal vez engañan al Vulgo,
ò causando, ò fomentando su error? Doy que el fin sea
bueno, no por esso la accion dexa de ser mala. Ningun
Theologo negarà, que aunque huviesse entera certeza, de
que con un Milagro falso se havia de convertir todo el
Mundo à la Religion Catholica, no podria fingirse sin
pecar; y no como quiera, sino gravemente; porque esta
accion, segun los Theologos, es de su naturaleza pecado
mortal de aquella especie de supersticion, que llaman Culto
indebido. Què hacemos, pues, con que el fin de inventar,
ò publicar un Milagro falso, sea autorizar de milagrosa
alguna Imagen, ò promover el culto de el Santo represen-
tado en ella? Abominable serà en los ojos de Dios la
APPENDIX.
441
ficcion, y merecedora de la condenacion eterna, si no la
disculpa la ignorancia.
7. Pero mas abominable serà, si procede de el motivo de
algun interès temporal, como sin duda sucede algunas veces.
En el Concilio Senonense, celebrado en el año 1528. se
halla un Decreto, (y es el 40. de los pertenecientes ad
mores) que establece en orden à la admission de Milagros
nuevos, lo mismo que despues para toda la Iglesia ordenò
el Tridentino. Solo tiene de particular un a expression,
que supone, que muy ordinariamente la codicia es quien
excita à la invencion de Milagros apocryphos. El Decreto
es como se signe: Ex Multorum fida relatione didicimus,
simplicem populum aliquando levi assertione miraculorum ad
unum, et alterum locum, populariter concurrisse, candelas, et
alia vota obtulisse. Ut igitur credula simplicitati nobis
commissæ plebis consulamus, et novis, impudentibusque
hominum mente corruptorum ad quæstum occasionibus obvie-
mus, sacro approbante Provinciali Concilio, districtè pro-
hibemus, ne quis posthac miraculum de novo factum præ-
tendat: nevè intra, aut extra Ecclesiam, Titulum, Capellam,
ant Altare prætextu novi miraculi erigat, aut populi con-
cursum in miraculi gratiam, et venerationem recipiat: nisi
prius loci Episcopus de negotio quid sentiendum, tenendum-
que sit, causa cognita, decreverit.
8. En este contexto se proponen dos motivos de el
Decreto: el primero, precaber el error de el simple Vul-
go en creer Milagros falsos: el segundo, quitar la ocasion
à las detestables negociaciones de hombres corrompidos,
que hacen pabulo de su codicia la ficcion de Milagros. En la
expression de el primer motivo se vè, que los Padres
de el Concilio no miraron, como conveniente para el
servicio, y gloria de Dios, dexar à la plebe continuar en
aquel error; antes consideraron su vana creencia, como
una enfermedad espiritual à que se debia aplicar remedio.
442
APPENDIX.
De aqui se colige, quan descaminados vàn aquellos, que
quando se esparce en el Pueblo algun Milagro falso, si
alguno, averiguada la patraña, quiere desengañar el publico,
revestidos de una espiritualidad engañosa, se le oponen,
diciendo, que se debe dexar al publico en su buena fee;
que aquella creencia, aunque mal fundada, enfervoriza su
piedad; que con ella se firma mas en los animos la
Religion; que en esse error se interessa la gloria, y culto
de Dios, y de sus Santos. O Protectores de el embuste,
con capa de zelo: Numquid Deus indiget vestro mendacio,
ut pro illo loquamini dolos? (Job. cap. 13.)
9. En la expression de el segundo motivo, sobradamente
dàn à conocer aquellos Padres, que la ansia de un vil
interès, es quien impele no pocas vezes à la fabrica de
Milagros falsos, en que de muchos modos pueden hallar
su ganancia los Artifices, como à qualquiera serà facil dis-
currir; aunque por la mayor parte pienso, que solo un
zelo falso, ò piedad indiscreta interviene en estas ilusiones,
haciendo tomar por verdadero prodigio qualquiera leve
apariencia de Milagro. Pero que proceda de este, que de
aquel principio, todo hombre imbuìdo de sòlida piedad,
debe interessarse en que se observe el Santo Concilio de
Trento. La Iglesia, dirigida siempre por el Espiritu Santo,
sabe lo que conviene à la gloria de Dios, al culto de los
Santos, à la edificacion de los Ficles, aumento de la Piedad,
y firmeza de la Religion.
10. Como V. mrd. ni por el expressado motivo de interès,
ni por otro alguno vicioso, (à lo que yo creo) fino con
muy buena fee, ha calificado de milagrosas las muchas
curaciones, de que me habla en su Carta, es natural, que
desengañado yà, en virtud de mis razones, desee alguna
regla para discernir las curaciones sobre naturales, de las
que se deben à la Naturaleza, ò à la Medicina. Y no
puedo yo dat le otra, ni mas adequada, ni mas segura, que
APPENDIX.
443
la que, siendo aun Cardenal, y poco antes de subir al So-
lio Pontificio, manifestò al publico nuestro Santissimo Pa-
dre Benedicto Decimoquarto en el tomo 4. de su grande
Obra de Servorum Dei Beatificatione, et Beatorum Ca-
nonizatione. En la noticia de este Tomo, que dàn los Au-
tores de las Memorias de Trevoux, en el mes de Marzo
de el año 1740. he visto copiada dicha regla, la qual consta
de las siguientes advertencias.
11. La primera, que la enfermedad curada sea grave, y
naturalmente incurable, ò por lo menos de muy dificil
curacion. La segunda, que no vaya en declinacion. La
tercera, que no se hayan hecho remedios; ò que si se hi-
cieron, no hayan tenido efecto. La quarta, que la curacion,
sea repentina, ò instantanea, y juntamente total, ò perfecta.
La quinta, que no haya precedido crise natural. La sexta,
que sea constante, ò durable; esto es, sin recaida.
444
APPENDIX.
No. V.
THE WITCHCRAFT MANIA IN AMERICA.
THE Pilgrim Fathers carried with them from England
their fanaticism as well as their faith, and the persecution
they endured in their own country only served to render
that fanaticism more ferocious in their exile than it had
originally been. Their opinions on the subject of witch-
craft they certainly carried with them from their own land.
Before I enter on the subject of their action on those
opinions in the land of their adoption, it will be necessary
to refer briefly to the laws against witchcraft that were in
force in England at the period of their exile, but it is not
requisite in this work to enter into any detailed account of
the proceedings against persons accused of sorcery in
England and Scotland, as such details abound in other
works easily accessible to English readers.
England, Scotland and Wales have not been exempt
from the epidemic mania of various kinds, national delu-
sions on the subject of witchcraft, and periodical outbreaks
of religious morbid enthusiasm and fanaticism.
England has had her Jumpers, her Johanna Southcote-
Shiloh-begetting believers, her Thom of Canterbury
worshippers and infatuated followers, her Agapemones
and Saturnalian orgies. Scotland and Wales have had their
revivals as well as America, their extravagances and furious
paroxysms of excitement and wild enthusiasm.
The Witchcraft mania began in England later than in
most other parts of Europe, and while it lasted, which it
did till the beginning of the 18th century, it raged with
no less virulence than on the Continent.
The practice of taking off people obnoxious to those in
authority, Civil or Ecclesiastical, on charges of sorcery
APPENDIX.
445
dispensed with legal sanctions till the latter part of 1541.
Several cases however occurred of accusations of sorcery in
England previous to that period.
"In 1441 the Duke of Gloucester," says Hutchinson,
"uncle to Henry VI., preferred articles against his great
uncle the Cardinal. The Cardinal found nothing to return
him in requital, but accused his Duchess for seeking
the king's death by sorcery."
upon
The Duchess was cast into prison and condemned to do
penance. Margery Gurdeman, her supposed accomplice,
"was burnt for a witch in Smithfield." Roger Bulling-
brook was hanged, "but declared that the Duchess had
only desired to know how long the king would live."
Thomas Southwell, another of the supposed accomplices,
died the night before his appointed execution, and Roger
Only, another supposed accomplice was hanged, as we find
set forth in Baker's Chronicle, pp. 187, 201. And five
years later the Duke himself was murdered by his enemies,
as Speed, Baker, and other later historians affirm.
But who was the Cardinal, who had all these judicial
and extra-judicial murders to answer for?
Why, the same Lord Cardinal Beaufort who had assisted
at the judicial murder of Jeanne d'Arc, at Rouen, on
another charge of sorcery, in 1430.
In 1483 Richard III. found it necessary to deal with his
enemies in the same way as my Lord Cardinal had done.
He attainted the Countess of Richmond, mother of Henry
VII. Morton, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr.
Lewis, and William Knevet, of sorcery.
In 1534 Elizabeth Barton, the Maid of Kent, for speak-
ing against the marriage of King Henry VIII., was hanged,
with seven others "that had managed her fits to the dis-
turbance of the state."*
* Hutchinson's Witchcraft, p. 24.
446
APPENDIX.
In 1541 the Earl of Hungerford was beheaded on a
charge of sorcery, "for procuring certain persons to con-
jure that they might know how long Henry VIII. should
live."*
And yet up to that time there was no law on the Statute
Book against Witchcraft. But subsequently to the last
mentioned judicial murder in the reign of Henry VIII. two
Acts of Parliament were enacted the same year 1541,
one against false prophets, the other against conjurations,
witchcrafts, sorcery and pulling down crosses. The penalties
of the law against sorcery extended however only to injury
to life by means of witchcraft.
In 1562 a formal statute of Elizabeth against sorcery, as
penal in itself, was passed. The penalty was limited to
the pillory in the first instance. The crime was declared
one of the greatest guilt, whether it was attended with
injury to life or not. Inquisitorial powers were given to
the Prelates to act against suspected sorcerers. We find
the prelates in their articles of visitation, directing inquiry
to be made after those who should use enchantments or
any like craft of sorcery invented by the devil.
From that time the witchcraft mania raged in England
and Scotland with great violence.
Bishop Jewell, in 1598, fearful lest the Queen's zeal
against witchcraft should relax, in a sermon before her
Majesty, addressing the Queen, said,
"It may please your Grace to understand that witches
and sorcerers, within the last four years, are marvellously
increased within this your Grace's realm. Your Grace's
subjects pine away even unto the death; their colour
fadeth-their flesh rotteth-their speech is benumbed-
their senses are bereft! I pray God they may never prac-
tise further than upon the subject!"
* Hutchinson's Witchcraft, p. 25.
APPENDIX.
447
King James I. was no sooner seated on the English
throne than he had a statute passed against witchcraft in
the first year of his reign, declaring the crime felony,
without benefit of clergy. This statute made the practice
of any art of sorcery, without reference to any ulterior
object, a capital felony. This was worthy of the royal
author of a trumpery work on Demonology.
The Act of James I. against witchcraft (1 chap. xii)
was passed when Lord Bacon was a member of the House
of Commons, and Lord Coke was Attorney General.
That Act was referred in the House of Lords to a Com-
mittee which had the spiritual assistance and guidance of
twelve bishops of the Church of England.
Witchcraft in England and Scotland differed in no ma-
terial point from that of the Continent. In all European
countries the same absurd opinions and insane ideas pre-
vailed as to the power of impious and malicious people,
especially of old women, to effect supernatural mischief,
to fly through space, to change themselves into dogs, cats,
wolves and goats, to kill, worry, or terrify men, women,
and children for their pastime, and to feed on the flesh of
the latter at horrid banquets presided over by devils.
This clumsy machinery of European sorcery was well
known to the mightiest of all magicians, who at will could
conjure up the weird sisters on the "blasted heath," and
hold familiar converse with those
and who
"Secret black and midnight hags,"
"Now about the cauldron sing
Like elves and fairies in a ring,
Enchanting all that they put in."
That great wizard initiates us into all the mysteries of that
witchcraft, of which we meet with such frequent glimpses
in the records of the judicial proceedings against the
448
APPENDIX.
demon worshippers, and sorcerers of all European coun-
tries of many ages.
We have the witches meeting at his bidding upon the
heath:
"In thunder, lightning, and in rain;"
boasting of infernal exploits, trading in "riddles and affairs
of death;" "spiteful and wrathful," "the close contrivers
of all harms," riding in the air, spending the night in con-
jurations, all tending "to a dismal and a fatal end,” and
by the strength of the illusion, "leading men on to their
confusion," rendering them sleepless, mocking and de-
ceiving them, causing the bark of the mariner to be
"tempest tossed," "exulting in their power to do mis-
chief," "to untie the winds, confound and swallow naviga-
tors up," to lodge the faded corn and blow down trees,
and steeples. We have the incantation
"For a charm of powerful trouble."
"Round about the cauldron go;
In the poisoned entrails throw.
Toad, that under coldest stone,
Days and nights hast thirty-one
Sweltered venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first in the charm'd pot!"
All the other necessary ingredients to make "a hell
broth," we find judiciously mingled among them: "fillet
of a fenny snake," "toe of frog," "adder's fork," "blind-
worm's sting," "lizard's leg," "owlet's wing," "scale of
dragon," "tooth of wolf," "root of hemlock digg'd in the
dark,” “finger of birth-strangled babe," "sow's blood that
hath eaten her nine farrow," "grease that's sweaten'd from
the murderer's brow."
If Shakspeare had ransacked all the arsenals of witch-
craft lore, had made himself intimately acquainted with
the "Maleus Maleficarum," of that worthy Inquisitor, Fra
APPENDIX.
449
Jacobus Sprenger, the "Formicularum de Maleficis et
eorum Deceptionibus," of the renowned Dominican Fra
Joannis Nider, Inquisitor insignis, with "Le Monde en-
chante," of Bekker, or the "Discours Execrables des Sor-
ciers," of the famous Boguet, Grand Juge de Bourgogne,
for his choice collection of witchcraft pastimes, devilries,
and delicate inventions for the banquets and the orgies of
witches' sabbaths.
Unfortunately, there are other records besides poetical
passages from the works of an immortal playwright, re-
lating to English and Scotch witchcraft; records of ju-
dicial proceedings in the cases of hundreds and thousands
even of wretched creatures, sacrificed to the demon of the
prevalent fanaticism of those times.
The records of those proceedings are written in blood,
and they abound with proof that fanaticism is a plant not
of one clime or soil, or sect, but one that flourishes in all
lands, and in all religions, at particular periods modified
by the peculiar circumstances of each creed and country,
but not essentially altered in character by them.
They prove that human nature has its infirmities in
England as well as in France, or Germany, or Italy, or
Spain and Portugal, and that people of the Anglo-Saxon
race in former times did not, more than any other,
"Rein up the organs of their fantasies."
"Barrington, in his observations on the ancient statutes,
page 407* (on statutes made at Westminster, temp. 20,
Hen. VI. 1442), in a note that has reference to the case
of the Duchess of Gloucester, first charged with treason
and afterwards with necromancy, observes: -Dr. Grey in
his notes on Hudibras, mentions that Hopkins, the noted
* Observations on the more ancient statutes from Magna Charta
to 21st James I. cap. 27. By Hon. Daines Barrington, 4th Ed. 1775.
I.
2 G
450
APPENDIX.
witch-finder, hanged sixty suspected witches in one year.
He also cites Hutchinson on Witchcraft for 30,000 having
been burned within 150 years."
According to Dalyell, at particular periods the executions
in Scotland far exceeded those in England. "But it is pro-
bable," he says, "that a greater number perished in Scotland
during a single year, 1662 especially, considering that above
150 then accused are known. On the 13th of Sept. 1678,
ten women were brought to the bar of the Court of Justi-
ciary, nine of whom were condemned to be burned, and on
the very day that this bloody tribunal sanctioned their
slaughter, other nine were outlawed."* One hundred
and seventy-eight years only have elapsed since these nine
cases of women burning occurred in Scotland.
(6
A writer on the superstitions of Scotland states, that
superstitions are unnoticed in the earliest Scottish cri-
minal trials comprehending the years 1493 and 1504, nor
is it evident that any special enactment enjoined inter-
ference previous to a statute of 1563. It is affirmed also
that one particular portion of the law relative to consul-
tation "with sorcerers, witches or soothsayers, was not
in operation until the year 1590."†
Pinkerton (vol. i. p. 291) says, "the earliest conviction
on a charge involving sorcery was in the year 1470, for
consuming a waxen image of the King."
In Howell's Letters we find an account of trials, con-
demnations and executions, on an extensive scale in Eng-
land. It is there stated that in 1646 two hundred persons
were tried, condemned, and executed for witchcraft at the
Sussex and Essex Assizes.
The last person burned to death for witchcraft in England
* Dalyell, p. 669.
+
↑ "The Darker Superstitions of Scotland," by John Graham Dal-
yell, F.A.S.E. Glasg. 1835, p. 618.
{
APPENDIX.
451
is stated by a writer in the "Notes and Queries,” as he
believes, to have been at Bury St. Edmunds, in 1664,* the
case being tried by Sir Matthew Hale. The victims
executed were Amy Duny and Rose Callendar. The writer
is mistaken in his statement of the last victim of the burning
barbarity of English law for witchcraft being in 1664.
Hutchinson, in his "Historical Essay concerning Witch-
craft," which was published in 1718, in his chronological
table of executions and prosecutions for witchcraft, date
1682, says "Susan Edwards, Mary Trembles, and Tem-
perance Lloyd, confessed themselves witches, but died
with good prayers in their mouths. I suppose these are
the last three that have been hanged in England."+
The last case of strangling and burning a woman for
witchcraft in Scotland occurred in 1722, at Sutherland,
little more than a century ago, "The victim was an insane
old woman,” we are told by Sir Walter Scott, " belonging
to the parish of Loth, and who had so little idea of her
situation, as to rejoice at the sight of the fire, that was
destined to consume her."+
The various tests recognised in England as presumptions
confirmatory of the repute of sorcery were no less barbarous
than those of other continental countries: they comprised
pricking the flesh of the accused or suspected, "scratching
the witch," as this test was called, the watery ordeal, in
frequent use about 1690, "trying" for the witch's mark,
shaving off the hair of the accused, "watching for the
discovery of witches," by keeping them awake for days and
nights, by walking them continuously, seating them in con-
strained and painful positions for many hours, in various
*Notes and Queries, vol. vi. November, 1853, p. 470.
+ Hutchinson on Witchcraft, p. 41.
† Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft, 1830, p. 338.
2 G 2
452
APPENDIX.
other tortures; by application of "the finger-stocks" and
"thumb-locks," and "pyrewinks."
Inability to shed tears or blood was an evidence of the
guilt of persons suspected of witchcraft.
In Scotland the tests were had recourse to with still more
barbarity.
“In 1722 (says Dalyell) a reputed witch was burnt in
the soles of the feet, and executed. Fire matches were
frequently used to extort confessions."*
6
"John Kincaid (says the same author) the celebrated
pricker, was imprisoned, for taking upon him, of his own
authority, to prick and try those persons who are sus-
pect (of witchcraft), whereby, in all probability, many
innocents have suffered;" and although liberated on con-
dition of abstaining from similar offences, another is
said (by Gardiner) to have been condemned for such like
villainie exercised in Scotland: and upon the gallows he
confessed he had been the death of above an hundred and
twenty women in England and Scotland."+
In 1751, a rabble in Staffordshire undertook the ad-
ministration of mob-law, for the discovery and punishment
of witches: in the case of an aged couple, named Osborn,
who resided near Tring, and had fallen under the suspicion
of witchcraft. The unfortunate old couple were seized by
an organized gang, conducted to a pond, and subjected to
the swimming ordeal. They were dragged through the
water under the superintendence of a brute in the human
form (as we are told by Scott) who, after the woman had
lost her life during the dragging process, and through the
ineffable brutality of the rabble, went among the spectators,
and solicited money for the sport he had shewn the people.
This was only 105 years ago, but the barbarity was too
"The Darker Superstitions of Scotland." p. 657.
+ Ib. p. 643.
APPENDIX.
453
much, at the beginning of the 18th century. The fanaticism
of the Royal pedant was on the wane in England. Three of
the ringleaders of the rabble, by whom the old woman was
murdered, were tried for that outrage, and one of them named
Colley was condemned and hanged, to the great disgust of
the townspeople of the murderer, and at the place of execu-
tion abused those who had any hand "in putting to death
an honest fellow, for ridding the parish of an accursed
witch." The Government judging, that this brutal prac-
tice of swimming aged people on suspicion of witchcraft,
was traceable to the unabolished statute of James I.
against witchcraft, took immediate steps for the removal of
this odious act, and it was accordingly abrogated in
England, by the 9th of George II. cap. 5. From that
time witchcraft in England may date its downfall. But
sorcery continued to be a legal crime in Ireland, till a recent
period.
The 28th of Elizabeth, chap. 2, against sorcery, enacted
by the Irish Parliament, was repeated by 1 and 2 George IV.
chap. 18, and James I.'s Act against sorcery, also enacted
in Ireland, was repealed by the 10th George IV. chap. 34.
The last authenticated instance of the swimming ordeal
in England occurred in 1785, and is quoted from a
Northampton Mercury of that year: "A poor woman
named Sarah Bradshaw, of Mears Ashby, who was accused
of being a witch, in order to prove her innocence, submitted
to the ignominy of being dipped, when she was immediately
taken to the bottom of the pond, which was deemed to be
an incontestable proof that she was no witch.”*
The legal punishment of females, convicted of high
treason, and petty treason, was burning; coining was held
high treason; and murder of a husband was petty treason.
The barbarity of augmenting the penalty of capital crime
*Notes and Queries, vol. vi. November, 1853, p. 470.
454
APPENDIX.
in the case of females is not much mitigated by the feelings
of delicacy which, we are told by a great lawyer, dictated a
procedure worthy of what the enlightened and humane Sir
Benjamin Hammett, designated in his place in the House
of Commons, the 10th May, 1790," the savage remains of
Norman policy disgracing our Statute Book, as the practice
did the Common Law."
"In treason of every kind," says Blackstone, "the
punishment of woman is the same, and different from man.
For as the decency due to the sex forbids the exposing and
publicly mangling their bodies, which is to the full as
terrible to sensation, as the other is to be drawn to the
gallows, and there to be burned alive. .
And elsewhere he observes:
وو
"The humanity of the English nation has authorized
by a tacit consent an almost general mitigation of such
part of those judgments as savours of torture and cruelty:
a sledge or hurdle being usually allowed to such traitors as
are condemned to be drawn; and there being very few
instances (and these accidental or by negligence) of any
person being embowelled or burned till they are previously
deprived of sensation by strangling."
There is something very striking, and perhaps to legal
minds very admirable, in the cool, imperturbable, unim-
passioned professional sangfroid, with which great lawyers
who become judges, expatiate on the working of sanguin-
ary statutes, on the humanity for instance of burning
women's bodies from a regard for propriety, for
"the
decency due to the sex," on the humanity exhibited in tying
a woman to a stake surrounded by faggots and strang-
ling her first, and then burning the still quivering remains
to ashes.
Your great Judges have been bad guardians of the
interests of humanity, as well as of those of liberty, in past
APPENDIX.
455
·
times, and even down to the beginning of our own age.
Happily for the former interests, a member of the House
of Commons, whose name should be remembered with
more honour than that of Chief Justice Hale, Sir Benja-
min Hammett on the 10th of May, 1790, obtained leave
for altering this atrocious law, which Blackstone could not
bring himself to denounce, and in that session the Act
30 Geo. III. c. 48 was passed, which removed from the
Criminal Code of England one of the savage remains of
Norman policy that disgraced the Statute Book.
In November, 1726, Katharine Hayes of Tyburn, now
Oxford Road, was literally burned alive at Tyburn for the
murder of her husband. The usual practice of strangling
the female culprit first, and then burning the dead body,
was not carried into effect in this instance. "Katharine
Hayes," says Mr. Charles Ross, "was executed at Tyburn
under circumstances of great horror, for in consequence of
the fire reaching the executioner's hands he left his hold of
the rope with which he ought to have strangled the crimi-
nal, before he had executed that part of his duty, and the
result was that Katharine Hayes was burned alive. The
wretched woman was seen in the midst of flames pushing
the blazing faggots from her while she yelled in agony:
fresh faggots were piled around her, but it was a consider-
able time before her torments ended."*
In the Gentleman's Magazine (Chronicle for March,
1789) under date 18th of March, an account is given of
the execution of six persons. Two were condemned for
coining, Joseph Walker and Jane Grace. Walker was
hanged with the other five, "but the woman for coining
was brought out after the rest were turned off, and fixed to a
stake and burnt, being first strangled by the stand being
taken from under her."
*Notes and Queries, vol. ii. June, 1850, p. 50.
456
APPENDIX.
A writer in the Notes and Queries, who signs himself
Octogenarius, vol. ii. p. 261, states he was present when
the above-mentioned execution took place; and in the
following year heard sentence passed on another female
coiner, that she should be "drawn to the place of execu-
tion and there burnt with fire till she was dead."
The last case of woman-burning in London, and in all
probability in England, occurred only sixty-seven years ago.
A woman was strangled and burned for coining in front of
Newgate on the 10th of March, 1789.
"The Cork Remembrancer, or Historical Register," by
John Fitzgerald (12mo. Cork, 1783, the original edition)
contains several notices of the burning of women, some of
which are not to be found in the later mutilated reprints.
Under date 1712 we have the following:-" Wednesday,
May 7, Mary Easberry was burnt at Gallows Green for
poisoning her husband, Daniel Easberry, tallow chandler,
who lived in Paul St."
Under date 1731-" Timothy Croneen, for the murder
of Andrew St. Leger, Esq. and his wife, was hanged,
quartered and beheaded at Gallows Green the 25th of
. Joan Condon, for the same murder, was
burnt the Saturday following."
January.
•
Under date 1758-" Johanna Keoghane for the murder
of James O'Hea, Esq., and Catherine Sheehan for the
murder of her aunt near Macromp, were burnt at Gallows
Green on Satu: day the 26th of August, 1758. Catherine
Sheehan was under sentence of death since August 1755,
and Johanna Keoghane since March, 1757, and avoided
execution on account of their different pregnancies."
Under date 1760-"Mary Cassady, for the murder of
her step-son, Hugh Cassady, was burnt at Gallows Green
on Saturday, the 12th of April, 1760."
Under date 1773-"Mary Smith and Mary Sullivan,
APPENDIX.
457
burnt at Gallows Green the 2nd of October, for the mur-
der of their husbands."
Under date 1781—“ Julian [na] Geran and John Daly
were executed at Gallows Green, Easter Monday, the 16th
of April, for the murder of James Geran, husband to said
Julian [na]; the former was hanged and burnt, the latter
had his head severed from his body."
The execution by burning of Julianna Geran, in 1781,
is the last recorded burning of a woman to be found in
Fitzgerald's Remembrancer, and in all probability is the
last case of woman-burning that took place in Ireland.
The Notes and Queries (vol. vi. July 1852, p. 33,)
states, that "a gentleman was still alive, or was so very
lately, who saw the last woman who was burned in Dublin,
at the place of public execution, which was where the
fashionable street called Fitzwilliam Street now is."
The great majority of the persons put to death for sor-
cery on the Continent were women. The Inquisition was
composed of ecclesiastics who were under vows of celibacy.
The fact will be considered explanatory in these countries
of the low estimate of the female character which an un-
married clergy was likely to form of the sex in general,
and of the calamitous results of extravagant opinions of
the merits of their separation from female influences. But
how does it come to pass that the clergy who were relieved
from such restraints in the reigns of Elizabeth, James the
First, and the first and second Charles, in England and
Scotland, adopted the same opinion and acted on it in all
their relations with the State in regard to criminal prose-
cutions on the charge of sorcery?
The great majority of those tried, condemned, strangled
and burned on charges of witchcraft in England and Scot-
land were women. The fact is incontrovertible, yet not in
accordance either with the presumed tendencies of the
458
APPENDIX.
faith of those countries, the circumstances of their clergy,
or peculiarities of the national character of the people of
either of them.
The Inquisitors are very explicit in their writings on the
subject of their experience of the presumed liability of
women to the diabolical influences of sorcery as being far
greater than that of men. Their arguments, happily for
humanity, are not conclusive, otherwise one half the human
race would be in a perilous condition. The powers of
witchery, however, of a large portion of that half which
Sprenger, Institor, and Nider have looked on with so
much alarm, no doubt are very considerable even in this
nineteenth century.
Two friars of the names of Henry Institor and James
Sprenger, were specially charged with the execution of the
celebrated Bull of Pope Innocent III. against German
sorcerers (1484). Both of the monks were of the Domi-
nican order, Professors of Theology, of great eminence,
and they were honoured moreover with the title "Inquisi-
tores Hereticæ Pravitatis."
The terrible experience of those inquisitors and " the
sacred science" appertaining to their office, is embodied in
the first volume of a work, entitled "Maleus Maleficarum.*
At page 63 we find that terrible experience and sacred
science brought to bear on the question-How it happens
that the great majority of persons addicted to sorcery are
women? And we find the reason is, that women are
naturally more prone to evil of various kinds than men.
They prove this from several writers, Christian and Pagan.
They enlist the services of St. Chrysostom even on the
side of these terrible opinions of the nature and disposition
of women. And they boldly enquire:
* "Maleus Maleficarum." Auctores 1mi Tomi Fr. Jac. Sprenger
et Fr. Hen. Institor, Lugd. 1520. :
APPENDIX.
459
"What else is a woman but an inimical amity, a pain not
to be put to flight, a necessary evil, a natural temptation, a
desirable calamity, a domestic danger, a delectable mischief,
an evil of nature, painted in fine colours."
The poor laity are further enlightened on this interesting
subject by the venerable "Inquisitores Hereticæ Pravitatis,”
happily for them by their state of celibacy safe from all the
dangers they so feelingly describe. There is no riddance,
they say, from torments, occasioned by those evils of nature:
Ergo si dimittere illam peccatum est cum opportet tenere,
jam vero tormentum necessarium est, ut aut dimittentis
adulteria faciamus: aut quotitianas pugnas habeamus.”*
C6
These eminent Doctors in theology, fearful lest they
should not have sufficiently explained themselves, add :—
"It is shewn in the case of the first woman, that naturally
a woman has less faith (than a man); when replying to
the interrogating serpent who asked why they did not eat
of the fruit of all the trees in Paradise; she said if we
eat of all perhaps we shall not die; it is shewn she doubted,
and had not faith in the words of God. Which fact
the etymology of the name (woman) demonstrates. For
a woman is called (in the Latin tongue) fœmina, from Fe
and Minus, because she always has less faith, and serves.
less faithfully."+
* "Quid aliud est mulier nisi amicitiæ inimica ineffugabilis pœna,
necessarium malum, naturalis tentatio, desiderabilis calamitas, do-
mesticum periculum, delectabile detrimentum, malum naturæ, bono
colore depicta."-Maleus Maleficarum, Lugd. 1620, p. 63.
t "Patet in prima muliere, quod ex natura, minorem habet fidem.
Cum dixit serpenti interroganti, quare non ederent de omni ligno
paradisi? Respondit de omni, et ne fortè moriamur: in quo ostendit
se dubitare, et fidem non habere ad verba Dei; quæ omnia etiam
Etymologia nominis demonstrat. Dictur enim Fœmina a Fè, et
minus: quia semper minorem habet et servat fidem."-Maleus
Maleficarum, p. 65.
460
APPENDIX.
But it will be consolatory to the friends of the female
sex to learn that these worthy gentlemen of the Inquisition
are of opinion there have been in the world a few excep-
tions to this general rule in ancient times-namely, Judith,
Deborah, and Esther-and one above all who, by special
grace, was excellent.
Fra. Joannis Nider of the Dominican order, another
renowned inquisitor of the same era, in his "Formicarium
de Maleficiis Decepta," published in the first volume of
the "Maleus Maleficorum," at page 513, gives the first
passage as above cited from Sprenger and Institor, "Quid
aliud est mulier "-word for word-and the importance he
attaches to it is indicated by these marginal words :-
"Mulier necessarium mali naturalis tentatio."
May we not conclude that fanaticism is a sturdy plant
of the same quick growth and development, sombre leaves
and bitter fruits in every soil, where its roots strike deep
and the mould is rank about them. One too, as we shall
find, that bears transplanting, and will flourish anywhere,
beside a Church that is in alliance with the State, or that
has suffered persecution and acquired the power of perse-
cuting in its turn.
With these preliminary observations we may now pro-
ceed to the subject of the Witchcraft Mania in New Eng-
land.
"The project of settling the country north of Florida
would have been abandoned, or deferred to a distant day,
had pecuniary gain or domestic comfort been the only in-
citements: what nature seemed to deny, human artifice or
rather human cruelty supplied. Through a mistaken or a
pretended love of God, the men of Europe persecuted
each other, until the worsted party was compelled to seek
refuge in the uncultivated wilds of America. To persecu-
tion on account of religion more than to any other cause,
APPENDIX.
461
may be ascribed, that the American country north of
Florida contains a population of twelve millons of persons
natives of Europe, or descendants of European parents.
Can it be believed, future generations will totally discredit
the fact, that the persecuted who fled from Europe to the
wretched asylum offered by America, became the perse-
cutors of each other? If we except the Quakers of
Pennsylvania, and the Catholics of Maryland, the spirit of
fanaticism and of persecution for conscience sake, was too
apparent throughout. This however was less prevalent in
the southern than in the northern portion of this country.
The tract to which the name of "New England" was
given by one of the early explorers of America, compre-
hending the country north-east of the Dutch colony of
New York, and bounded by the river St. Lawrence on the
north, was the most remarkable for the zeal with which its
inhabitants carried on the work of holy persecution.”*
Bancroft tells us, "The settlement of New England was
a result of the Reformation, not of the contest between
the new opinions and the authority of Rome, but of im-
placable differences between Protestant dissenters and
the Anglican Church.† Puritanism, with Calvin for its
apostle, waged war on Protestantism as established by
Luther. Elizabeth during her long reign protected
the latter, and persecuted the former. James I. "in
Scotland had solemnly declared his attachment to the
Puritan discipline and doctrines, but it was from the fear
of open resistance."
"His mind had been early
and deeply imbued with the doctrines of Calvinism, but he
loved arbitrary power better than the doctrines of Knox,
The Inquisition examined by an impartial Reviewer. New
York, 1825, p. 11.
+ History of the United States from the discovery of the American
Continent. By George Bancroft, Vol. i. p. 2.
462
APPENDIX.
and when the Arminians favoured royalty, King James
became an Arminian."* The borders of Scotland had been
hardly passed however, before James began to identify the
interests of the English Church with those of her prero-
gative. In 1694 he had a conference with the Puritans at
Hampton in the presence of the Protestant bishops, on
which occasion he astounded the Puritans with a declara-
tion of his intended line of conduct towards them. "I will
have none of that liberty as to ceremonies; I will have
one doctrine, one discipline, one religion in substance and
in ceremony. Never more speak to that point how far you
are bound to obey."
Turning to the bishops he
said, "I will make them, the Puritans, conform, or I will
harry them out of the land."
He kept his royal word. He did harry a great number
of the Puritans out of the land.
"On the last day of the conference he defended the
necessity of subscription, concluding that, if any would
not be quiet and shew their obedience, they were worthy
to be hanged.'" During this conference Bishop Bancroft
on his knees said, God had given England such a king as
has not been; and in relation to this conference, a little
later, James boasted in a letter to a friend, that "he had
soundly peppered off the Puritans."+
In 1604, above three hundred Puritan ministers are said
to have been sentenced to imprisonment or exiled. But this
statement is believed to be an exaggeration. James became
a persecutor of the Puritans, a great many in 1607 fled to
Holland where their discipline prevailed, and was protected.
There they were received as "Pilgrims."
Among the most successful of the Puritans, was a man
named Robert Brown, a republican in principle. Bold in
* Ib. Vol. i. p. 222.
† Ib. Vol. i. p. 225.
APPENDIX.
463
his attack on the Established Church, and possessing a very
insinuating address, he collected followers with great
rapidity, and had he persevered might possibly have shaken
the mighty fabric of Protestantism: while others of his
party were persecuted, the popularity of Brown seemed to
protect him against the advocates of the High Church. The
Government, before it would resort to the desperate expe-
dient of a personal attack, had resort to an experiment on
his virtue; Brown was not proof against a bribe, he was
offered, and he accepted a comfortable benefice, and became
a staunch Protestant. His followers had already taken the
title of Brownists, and by this name they continued to be
known notwithstanding the defection of their leader.
The Brownists or a considerable number of them fled to
Holland, under the guidance of John Robinson their newly
elected chief.
At Leyden the pilgrims became a large community—“ a
multitude." In 1620, after protracted negotiations with
the English Government, a considerable number of the
English Puritans residing in Leyden took their departure
for the New World, and formed the first colony of New
England, thirteen years after the first British colonization
of Virginia. From the period of the pilgrims landing at
Plymouth, for some years, their sufferings and priva-
tions from scarcity of food and hardships of various kinds,
were very great. But neither these sufferings nor the
persecution they had endured at home and fled from,
sufficed eventually to restrain a fierce spirit of fanaticism
in the new Puritan settlement in New England; and by
various accessions to their numbers from England of
Calvinists, cruelly persecuted, the title of Pilgrim fathers
swelled into "the United Colonies of New England."
In 1656 the Puritans of Boston, who had quit their own
land for the sake of liberty of conscience, became relentless
464
APPENDIX.
persecutors. Two women of the sect of Quakers, Mary
Fisher and Anne Austin, arrived on the roads before.
Boston. "There was as yet no statute respecting Quakers;
but on the general law against heresy their trunks were
searched and their books burned by the hangman."
Though no token could be found on them but of innocence,
"their persons were examined in search of signs of witch-
craft, and after five weeks of imprisonment they were
thrust out of the jurisdiction.* In 1657 a law was in force
against Quakers. A Quaker woman who had come all the
way from London to give spiritual advice to the magistrates
and counsel against persecution, was whipped with twenty
stripes; some who had been banished on coming back a
second time were imprisoned, whipped, and again sent
away.
6
"A fine was imposed on such as should entertain any of
the accursed sect,' and a Quaker after the first conviction
was to lose one ear, after a second another ear, after a
third to have his tongue bored with a red hot iron."+ The
Government of Massachusetts by an ordinance banished
all Quakers from that settlement on pain of death. Four
persons were put to death in 1659 for violating this law.
And these doings were not in a colony for trade, but in “a
religious plantation."
"Witchcraft," says Bancroft, "had not been made the
subject of sceptical consideration, and in the years in which
Scotland sacrificed hecatombs to the delusion, there were
three victims in New England. Dark crimes that seemed
without a motive may have been pursued under that name;
I find one record of a trial for witchcraft, where the prisoner
was proved a murderess."‡
Fredet, in his Modern History observes :-"The same
* Ib. Vol. i. p. 339. Ib. Vol. i. p. 330.
+ Ib. Vol. i. p. 330. † Ib. Vol. i. p. 348.
APPENDIX.
465
benevolent and mild spirit of Catholicity has been also
strikingly displayed on this side of the Atlantic. To prove
this, we need merely refer to the History of the Settlers of
Maryland, the only one of the early British colonies that
was founded by a body of Catholics." "Its history," says
Bancroft (Vol. I. p. 268), "is the history of benevolence,
gratitude, and toleration.
The Roman Catholics
who were oppressed by the laws of England, were sure to
find a peaceful asylum in the quiet harbours of the Chesa-
peak; and there, too, Protestants were sheltered against
Protestant intolerance." (See also Wilson, Amer. Revol.
ch. 11, p. 21).
"Whilst the Episcopalians of Virginia would suffer no
other form of worship than their own; whilst the Puritans
of New England punished with exile, fines, or tortures, the
dissenters from their creed; the Catholics of Maryland
alone, instead of imitating the example, invited the suf
ferers to come among them, and kindly received into their
hospitable colony the victims of intolerance from the other
settlements." Fredet's Modern History, 10th ed. p. 519.
•
In 1688, in that New England, which, like Canaan had
been settled by fugitives, whose leading religious doctrines
had received a deeper colouring from the Jewish code than
from the Christian dispensation; the belief in witchcraft
prevailed, and in all probability had prevailed from the
beginning of the settlement. The daughter of a man named
John Goodwin, a child of thirteen years of age, accused a
laundress, named Glover, of stealing clothes. The laundress
rebuked the girl, who immediately felt that she was
bewitched. The contagion of the supposed sorcery spread
rapidly. Three others of the family, the youngest, a boy
under five years old, were strangely disordered, and were
declared likewise to be bewitched.
66
'They would affect to be deaf," says Bancroft, "then
n
1.
2 H
466
APPENDIX.
dumb, then blind, or all three at once; they would bark
like dogs, or purr like so many cats; but they ate well
and slept well. Cotton Mather went to prayer by the
side of one of them, and lo! the child lost her hearing till
prayer was over. What was to be done? The four mi-
nisters of Boston, and the one of Charlestown assembled
in Goodwin's house, and spent a whole day of fasting in
prayer. In consequence, the youngest child, the little one
of four years old, was 'delivered.' But if the ministers
could thus by prayer deliver a possessed child, then there
must have been a witch; the honour of the ministers re-
quired a prosecution of the affair; and the magistrates,
William Stoughton being one of the judges, and all holding
commissions exclusively from the English king, and being
irresponsible to the people of Massachusetts, with a
'vigour' which the united ministers commended as 'just,'
made a 'discovery of the wicked instrument of the devil.'
The culprit was evidently a wild Irish woman, of a strange
tongue. Goodwin, who made the complaint, ‘had no
proof that could have done her any hurt,' but 'the scan-
dalous old hag,' whom some thought crazed in her intel-
lectuals,' was bewildered, and made strange answers, which
were taken as confessions; sometimes in excitement using
her native dialect. One Hughes testified that, six years
before she had heard one Howen say she had seen Glover
come down her chimney. It was plain the prisoner was a
Roman Catholic; she had never learned the Lord's prayer
in English; she could repeat the Paternoster fluently
enough, but not quite correctly; so the ministers and
Goodwin's family had the satisfaction of getting her con-
demned as a witch and executed. Here,' it was pro-
claimed, 'was food for faith.' So desperately wicked is the
heart of man, the girl who knew herself to be a deceiver
had no remorse, and to the ministers, in their self-
3
C
APPENDIX.
467
6
6
righteousness, it never occurred that vanity and love of
power had blinded their judgment. There were sceptics
in Boston. The age, thought the ministers, was a
debauched one,' given up to Sadducism;' and as the
possessed damsel obtained no relief, Cotton Mather, eager
to learn the marvels of the world of spirits, and wishing
to confute the Sadducism' of his times, invited her to his
house; the artful girl easily imposed upon his credulity.
The devil would permit her to read in Quaker books, or
the Common prayer, or Popish books; but a prayer from
Cotton Mather, or a chapter from the Bible, would throw
her into convulsions. By a series of experiments, in read-
ing aloud passages from the Bible in various languages,
the minister satisfied himself, by trials of their capacity,'
that devils are well skilled in languages, and understood
Latin, and Greek, and even Hebrew; though he fell upon
one inferior Indian language which the demons did not
seem so well to understand.' Experiments were made
with unequal success, to see if the devils can know the
thoughts of others; and the inference was that all devils
are not alike sagacious.' The vanity of Cotton Mather
was further gratified, for the bewitched girl would say that
the demons could not enter his study, and that his own
person was shielded by God against blows from the evil.
spirits."*
6
In 1692, the government for New Hampshire was or-
ganized, and from that time the civil history of that colony
for à quarter of a century had been a series of lawsuits about
land. But that state of strife about property was followed
by fanaticism, the fierceness of which was no doubt largely
augmented by rancorous feelings; availing themselves of
* History of the United States, by George Bancroft, Vol. ii. p.
749, 750, 751.
Bancroft, ib. Vol. ii. p. 754.
2 H 2
468
APPENDIX.
judicial forms and popular delusions on the subject of
witchcraft for vindictive purposes.
In Massachusetts, the nomination of its first officers
under the Charter was committed to the fanatic, Cotton
Mather, a minister of an austere, harsh, unkindly dis-
position; sanctimonious, daring, and even ferocious in
his fanaticism; infatuated with the wildest notions of the
Calvinistic enthusiasm and persecuting intolerance of his
times.
"In Salem village, now Danvers, there had been be-
tween Samuel Parris, the minister, and a part of his people,
a strife so bitter, that it had even attracted the attention
of the general court. The delusion of witchcraft would
give opportunities of terrible vengeance. In the family of
Samuel Parris, his daughter, a child of nine years, and his
niece, a girl of less than twelve, began to have strange ca-
prices. He that will read Cotton Mather's Book of
Memorable Providences, may read part of what those chil-
dren suffered; and Tituba, an Indian female servant, who
had practised some wild incantations, being betrayed by
her husband, was scourged by Parris, her master, into con-
fessing herself a witch. The ministers of the neighbour-
hood held at the afflicted house a day of fasting and prayer,
and the little children became the most conspicuous per-
sonages in Salem. Of a sudden, the opportunity of fame,
of which the love is not the exclusive infirmity of noble
minds, was placed within the reach of persons of the
coarsest mould; and ambition of notoriety recruited the
little company of the possessed. There existed no motive.
to hang Tituba, she was saved as a living witness to the
reality of witchcraft; and Sarah Good, a poor woman of
a melancholic temperament, was the first person selected
for accusation. Cotton Mather, who had placed witches
<
among the poor, and vile, and ragged beggars upon
APPENDIX.
469
.
earth,' and had staked his own reputation for veracity on
the reality of witchcraft, prayed for a good issue.' As
the affair proceeded, and the accounts of the witnesses ap-
peared as if taken from his own writings, his boundless
vanity gloried in 'the assault of evil angels upon the
country, as a particular defiance upon himself.' Yet the
delusion, but for Parris, would have languished. Of his
niece, the girl of eleven years of age, he demanded the
names of the devil's instruments who had bewitched the
band of the afflicted, and then became at once informer
and witness. In those days there was no prosecuting
officer, and Parris was at hand to question his Indian ser-
vants and others, himself prompting their names, and
acting as recorder to the magistrates. The recollection of
the old controversy could not be forgotten, and Farris,
moved by personal malice as well as by blind zeal, stifled
the accusations of some,'-such is the testimony of the
people of his own village—and at the same time, vigilantly
promoting the accusations of others, was 'the beginner
and the procurer of the sore afflictions to Salem village and
the country.'
"Martha Cary, who on her examination in the meeting
house before a throng, with a firm spirit, alone, against
them all denied the presence of witchcraft, was committed.
to prison. Rebecca Nurse, likewise a woman of purest
life, an object of the especial hatred of Parris, resisted the
company of accusers, and was committed." "And Parris
filling his prayers with the theme, made the pulpit ring
with it-Have I not chosen you twelve,' such was his
text-' and one of you is a devil?' At this Sarah Cloyce,
sister to Rebecca Nurse, rose up and left the meeting
house; and she too was cried out upon and sent to prison."*
* Ib. Vol. ii. p. 757.
470
APPENDIX.
The deputy-governor and five other magistrates on the
day appointed for the trial, several ministers being pre-
sent, conducted the judicial investigation. Parris officiated
as a manager of the prosecutions, and by his mode of
management "it is plain (says Bancroft) that he himself
clicited every accusation." This godly minister's first
witness, John, the Indian servant, husband to Tituba, was
rebuked by Sarah Cloyce, one of the prisoners, as a
grievous liar. The nicce of the godly minister Parris,
Abigail Williams, was also at hand "with her tales." The
prisoner, Sarah, she declared had been at the witches.
sacrament. Struck with horror, Sarah Cloyce asked for
water, and sank down "in a fainting fit." This witness
also declared that Sarah Proctor had invited her to sign
the devil's book. "Dear child," exclaimed the accused in
her agony, "it is not so. There is another judgment, dear
child."
The accusers of this poor woman then turning towards
her husband, who was in court, declared that he too was
a wizard.
He was immediately committed. Examina-
tions and commitments multiplied from that time.
An old man, of a stubborn disposition, named Giles Cary,
upwards of fourscore years of age, who had quarrelled
with his minister Parris, could not escape his vengeance.
A farmer named Edward Bishop declared that on one occa-
sion he had cured John, the Indian servant, of a fit by flog-
ging him, and stated moreover, his belief that he could cure
the whole company of the afflicted; and for his scepticism
found himself and his wife forthwith in a prison.
prison. Another
sister of Rebecca Nurse, Mary Easy, was torn from her
children and cast into prison-a woman of singular
gentleness and force of character, deeply religious, yet
uninfected by superstition. A preacher named George
Burroghs, who had formerly exercised his calling in the
APPENDIX.
471
village of Salem, was considered a rival of minister Parris.
He too being a sceptic in witchcraft was accused, and
committed. Up to that period no confession had been
procured. But the advantage to the accused of confessing
began to be mooted. And at last Deliverance Hobbs con-
fessed everything that was asked of her, and was left un-
harmed.
The Governor deemed the evidence insufficient ground of
guilt. But the arrival of a new Charter of Government
and a change of magistrates proved favourable to the views
and interests of Cotton Mather. In fact, the triumph of
this canting miscreant was then complete. One Stoughton
was appointed by the Governor chief judge in this case.
The trials commenced on the 2nd of June. The first
experiment of a trial was in the case of Bridget Bishop,
a poor and friendless old woman," the fact of whose
witchcraft was assumed as "notorious." The godly
minister, Samuel Parris, appeared as a witness against
her; deposed to his knowledge of her having the power
of inflicting torture. "He had seen it exercised."
"Deliverance Hobbs had been whipped with iron rods by
her spectre. Neighbours who had quarrels with her were
willing to lay their little ills to her charge; the poor crca-
ture had a preternatural excrescence in her flesh." "She
gave a look towards the great and spacious meeting house
at Salem;" it is Cotton Mather who records this, "and
immediately invisibly entering the house tore down a part
of it"
On the 10th of June this poor creature, protesting her
innocence, was hanged. "The tribunal by which she had
been found guilty, was illegally constituted. But what did
that signify to the malignant fanatic Cotton Mather, or the
truculent minister, Samuel Parris. They had a triumph
in this judicial murder."
472
APPENDIX.
It is some consolation to learn, from Bancroft, that in the
interior of the colony this delusion did not spread at all.
But the consolation is not left long to us, for we are told
that immediately after this execution, the ministers of
Boston and Charlestown addressed to the Council their
grateful thanks for their sedulous endeavours to defeat
abominable witchcrafts, praying that the discovery of them
might be perfected, but cautioning the Council to condemn
none on the testimony of the devil alone, and illustrating
this sanctimonious caution with the following direful
advice:-"We recommend the speedy and vigorous perse-
cution of such as have rendered themselves obnoxious."
The blood of one unfortunate creature was not enough for
the tender consciences of those pious ministers.
Their recommendation was not without due effect. "The
obedient Court at its next sitting condemned five women, all
of blameless lives, all protesting their innocence." Four
had been convicted without much trouble.
Rebecca Nurse was at first acquitted. "The honoured
Court was pleased to object against the verdict." An ex-
pression of hers on the trial in reference to her former
acquaintance with some of the witnesses from whom con-
fessions had been obtained: "they used to come among us,"
the iniquitous Judge Stoughton interpreted into an admis-
sion that she had been with them at a witch festival. The
jury withdrew and could not yet agree, but as the prisoner
was hard of hearing, and made no observation on the in-
terpretation of her words by the judge, they at length were
brought to agreement and found her guilty, stating the
ground of her condemnation. When this was made known
to her, she made a declaration of the meaning of her words
in reply. The Governor saw cause to grant a reprieve. But
Bancroft tells us, "Parris had preached against Rebecca
Nurse and prayed against her, had induced the afflicted '
APPENDIX.
473
to witness against her, had caused her sisters to be impri-
soned for their honourable sympathy. She must perish or
the delusion was unveiled; and the Governor recalled the
reprieve."
On the next communion day she was taken in chains to
the meeting house to be formally excommunicated by Noyes,
her minister, and was hanged with the rest.
To Sarah Good, another of the convicted about to suffer,
this Christian pastor said:"You are a witch; you know
you are" urging a confession. "You are a liar," replied
the poor woman, "and if you take my life God will give
you blood to drink.”
The zealous ministers, Cotton Mather and Samuel
Parris, emboldened by their late success, proceeded
vigorously in their investigations; confessions of great im-
portance multiplied in their hands; the jails were filled.
Proofs of witchcraft were publicly reported that were de-
clared to be incontestable-callous spots in the flesh, true
devil's marks-impossibility to shed tears, to say the Lord's
Prayer correctly; manifestations of great physical strength,
all these were signs of witchcraft. "And in some instances,”
says Bancroft," the phenomena of witchcraft would seem to
have been exhibited, and the afflicted, out of their fits, knew
nothing of what they did or said in them."*
"Again on a new session six are arraigned and six
convicted. John Willard as an officer had been employed
to arrest the suspected witches. Perceiving the hypocrisy,
he declined the service. The afflicted' immediately de-
nounced him, he was seized, convicted and hanged."
At the trial of George Burroghs, the bewitched persons.
pretended to be dumb or were represented by the prose-
When the Judge, Stoughton, asked the
cutors to be so.
* Bancroft, Ib. vol. ii. p. 760.
474
APPENDIX.
prisoner "Who hinders these witnesses from giving their
testimonies ?" The prisoner replied-"I suppose the
devil." "How comes the devil," asked the learned judge,
(6
so loth to have any testimony borne against you?" And
this question, unanswered and unanswerable indeed, from
the bench, seems to have been considered as a poser so
"effective" as to suffice for taking away the life of a
human being. Ah! but there were other proofs of guilt
of witchcraft brought forward by the ministers of religion!
The prisoner had performed feats of extraordinary and
therefore preternatural muscular strength. And that
"painted sepulchre" of a Christian pastor-the sancti-
monious hypocrite-who confounded in his villainies the
wild inspirations of fanaticism, with the cool malignity of
vindictive feelings, and the calculating artifices of fraud
and falsehood-Cotton Mather, says the evidence was
enough." The prisoner was found guilty.
66
John Procter, another of the victims of these blood-
thirsty ministers, before his trial, well knowing in whose
hands were the issues of life and death in Massachusetts,
addressed a memorial, not to the Governor and Council, but
"to Cotton Mather and the ministers," praying to have
him brought to trial in Boston, or at least, for a change of
magistrates. "Among the witnesses against him were
some who had made no confessions till after torture," and
alluding to them, the unfortunate memorialist said:
"They have already undone us in our estates, and that
will not serve their turns without our innocent blood.”
John Procter might as well have turned his face to the
chill damp wall of his dungeon, and appealed for pity to
its hard stones, as have tried to touch the flinty hearts of
those he petitioned, "Cotton Mather and the ministers."
Another of these victims, Martha Carrier, was brought
to trial. This wretched woman, and most wretched of all
APPENDIX.
475
mothers, had seen her own children brought against her.
"Her two sons refused to perjure themselves till they had
been tied neck and heels so long that the blood was ready
to gush from them." But a little girl of hers, a child of
seven years old, was worked on by the ministers and their
official accomplices of the jail, and the judicial tribunal; a
confession of the poor child against her own mother was
extorted, and that confession reduced to writing is still
preserved; an awful evidence of a barbarity, worse than
any savagery of uncivilized men, the hardness of heart
that is insensible to all the instincts of natural affections,
to all feelings of sympathy with our fellow-creatures, and
of compassion for our kind, of men professing to be the
ministers of Christ.
Another of these victims, an old man named Jacobs, was
condemned partly on the evidence of his granddaughter.
But this unfortunate grandchild confessed before the magis-
trates the whole truth of the efforts that had been em-
ployed to extort a confession from her, and she found means
to have a letter conveyed to her father, in which she said:
"I have confessed things contrary to my conscience and
knowledge. But oh! the terrors of a wounded conscience,
who can bear." The magistrates hereupon committed her
to prison for trial, and in the meantime they hanged her
grandfather.
These five victims of the ministers were condemned on
the 3rd, and hanged on the 19th of August. On the plea
of pregnancy, Elizabeth Procter was reprieved. One of
the executed was a preacher of Salem, a rival minister
of Parris, of the name of Burroghs. There was a
novelty in the country of the Pilgrim fathers in the exe-
cution of a minister of religion, for dealings with the devil.
But Burroghs had committed a great crime, he had denied
absolutely that there was such or could be such a thing as
476
APPENDIX.
witchcraft in the current sense of the word. And by im-
plication this denial was an accusation of judicial murder
against the minister who got up those prosecutions, and the
magistrates who conducted them to the issue denied by the
former. Accordingly, Cotton Mather taking a particular
interest in this execution, attended it on horseback. And
when Burroghs, having ascended the ladder, asserted his
innocence in an earnest and impressive speech, and repeated
the Lord's Prayer in a solemn manner, and with a fervour
that astounded the spectators; causing the tears to flow
from the eyes of many; it seemed as if the assembled mul-
titude would have risen up to have stopped the execution.
But at that juncture Cotton Mather riding up, addressed the
people, cavilling at the ordination of Burroghs, and stating
that he was no true minister, that he was guilty of witch-
craft, and that the devil has power to transform himself
into the appearance of an angel of light. And so Cotton
Mather had another triumph, for the hanging of the preacher
Burroghs proceeded.
The ministers now turned their attention to the Ana-
baptists. Confessions began to be rumoured affecting
persons of that sect. One Mary Osgood, was worked on
by the managers of the prosecutions, and brought to an ad-
mission of having been "dipped by the devil." New
trials took place. Six women were condemned, and more
convictions followed. One man, an octogenarian, Giles
Cary, refused to plead, and was condemned to be pressed
to death, and this horrid sentence was carried into effect,
only 163 years ago! "This barbarous usage of English
laws," says Bancroft, "was never again followed in the
colonies."
On the 22nd of Sept. 1692, eight persons were led to
the gallows. Of these Samuel Wardell was supposed safe,
having made a confession, and being promised that his life
APPENDIX.
477
should be spared. But he had retracted his confession
"from shame and penitence," and spoke out the truth
boldly, and he was hanged not for witchcraft, but for a
denial of it.
66
One of the condemned women, Martha Cary, had been
visited in prison a short time prior to her execution by the
minister Parris, two deacons, and another member of his
church. And the records of that church tell that she
imperiously" rebuked the minister and his attendants,
and that "they pronounced the dreadful sentence of ex-
communication against her." Ghostly comforters to the
afflicted, the broken of heart and the bruised of spirit, were
the Puritan minister of Salem, his two deacons, and the
member of his church, who visited only to curse the poor
condemned woman in her dungeon. Of these men, and
all like them, can that blessing be the inheritance which
is promised to the helper of the poor, the succourer of
the unfortunate, the comforter of the sick, the stranger,
and the prisoner? Come, you blessed of my Father,
possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foun-
dation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave
me to eat: I was thirsty and you gave me to drink; I
was a stranger and you took me in; naked and you
covered me; sick and you visited me. I was in prison
and you came to me.”*
66
One unfortunate woman, Mary Easy, several members
of whose family had been marked out for persecution by
the ministers, exhibited on her trial extraordinary calmness
and composure in exposing the falsehoods of the witnesses
brought against her; we are told by Bancroft "she joined
the noblest fortitude with sweetness of temper, dignity, and
resignation." But the chief judge, the infamous Stough-
* Matthew, xxv. 34, 35, 36.
478
APPENDIX.
ton, acted in the judgment seat as if he had been law
officer of the Crown appointed to conduct the prosecution
(an error that has been sometimes fallen into in later times).
"He was very impatient in hearing anything that looked
another way."
And when the body of this woman and the bodies of
seven other human creatures were swinging in the air, one
of the ministers-Noyes, a. minister of Salem-said:
"There hang eight firebrands of hell," pointing to the
bodies "swinging from the gallows."
Oh, gentlemen of New England! Christian people of
Massachusetts! think of these doings when you assemble.
annually at festive boards to solemnize the anniversary and
commemorate the landing on your shores of the Pilgrim
Fathers.
When the last eight victims had been disposed of,
twenty-five persons had been put to death for imputed
witchcraft; fifty-five had been tortured or terrified into
confessions.
And as the number of executions increased, the ferocious
zeal of the persecuting ministers became more fierce and
unscrupulous. The jails were so thronged, and homes so
desolated or disturbed by the proceedings of the managers,
by searches, rumours of confessions, hints of suspicion in-
curred, proofs of former enmity and ill will revived, that
even "the generation of the children of God" were in
danger of falling under that condemnation."
(6
After the executions above referred to, there was a
short respite in the game of hunting out witches. The
Court was adjourned to the ensuing November. But in
the interim the great assembly of the representatives of the
people were to meet, and it was generally believed the sub-
ject of those numerous prosecutions and executions would
APPENDIX.
479
be strictly inquired into. Before the appointed meeting
of the Court, Mather with indefatigable industry had com-
posed a narrative, which he entitled "The Wonders of the
Invisible World," with the admitted design of promoting
a pious thankfulness to God for justice being so far re-
vealed amongst us."
66
At the recall of Governor Phipps, the Government re-
mained for some years in the hands of Stoughton. The
press was necessarily restrained by this functionary. But
one Calef, whom Mather designated "the coal from hell,"
whose intelligence and common sense made it requisite
for Cotton Mather to stigmatize as one whose statements
emanated from a diabolical malignity, kept his ground in
public estimation, and his narrative of the proceedings of
the ministers against the supposed witches, made all further
attempts to stifle public opinion futile and unavailing.
Cotton Mather had been forced to condescend to write
against his bold impugner. He began by denouncing his
adversary Calef as "an enemy of religion," whose book
was "a libel upon the whole Government and ministry of
the land." The policy of this mode of defence had nothing
novel in it, and the experience of the last century and a half
proves that the character of novelty is not at all essential to
it even in our times. Battles are waged in our own days
as they were in those of Cotton Mather, for sordid selfish
interests in the name of religion, and professedly for the
State by men who care more for themselves than they
do for the altar or the throne, or for both together.
In taking up the pen, Cotton Mather declared his object
to be, "to lift up a standard against the infernal enemy.”
When the representatives of the people assembled, a
fortnight after the last hanging of eight at Salem, the people
of Andover, their minister joining with them, appeared
480
APPENDIX.
with their remonstrance against the doings of the witch
tribunals. "We know not," they said, "who can think
himself safe if the accusations of children and others, under
a diabolical influence, shall be received against persons of
good fame."
The General Assembly, however, evidently shewed the
feelings of the people were not so strong against the judicial
proceedings in cases of alleged witchcraft, as Bancroft
would lead us to imagine. There was no impeachment of
those proceedings, on the contrary, the English law against
witchcraft was adopted word for word as it stood in the
English statute book. But they abrogated the special Court
as a tribunal for such proceedings. Stoughton was re-
tained in his office as chief judge.
The Court legally constituted did not sit till the month of
January, 1693. Six women of Andover, accused of witch-
craft when the Court opened, renounced their confessions,
and apparently with impunity. The grand jury threw out
more than half the bills in witchcraft cases.
Those they
returned as true bills, twenty-six in number, brought before
the petty jury resulted in acquittals, all the prisoners were
set free.
The reign of Cotton Mather and the ministers, who were
his accomplices, was at an end.
Were these ministers and the magistrates who co-operated
with them sincere in their belief in the witchcraft of those
persons they prosecuted and persecuted to death?
"It must be observed," says Bancroft, "that in modern
times the cry of witchcraft has been raised by the priest-
hood, rarely, I think never, except when free inquiry was
advancing. Many a commission was empowered to punish
alike heresy and witchcraft. The bold inquirer was some-
times burned as a wizard, and sometimes as an insurgent
APPENDIX.
481
against the established faith. In France, where there were
most heretics, there were most condemnations for witch-
craft. Cotton Mather in his Discourse' did but repeat
the old tale Rebellion is the Achan, the trouble of us
all.""
:
It is quite clear that Cotton Mather's design in getting up
a cry against witchcraft had nothing to do with any troubles
arising from insurgent boldness directed against the esta-
blished faith of Massachusetts. There were no heresies in
his time with any power to make head against it, to be con-
founded with witchcraft. The Anabaptists were too few
and too feeble as a sect to give any just alarm to the
Puritans. The people who were selected for victims were
chiefly poor labouring people—the great majority women.
The whole secret of Cotton Mather's conduct in this dire
drama of his "getting up," is to be traced to motives of
ambition, influencing the acts, the policy, and the fears of
loss of power and consideration of a man of narrow mind,
a cold heart, a bigot in his creed, and a firebrand in his
polemics.
"Inter-
In 1691, we are told by Bancroft, "For Massachusetts,
the nomination of its first officers under the charter, was
committed to Increase Mather. As Governor he proposed
Sir Wm. Phipps, a native of New England, who honestly
loved his country; headstrong, and with a reason so feeble,
that in politics he knew nothing of general principles; in
religion he was the victim to superstition."
cession had been made by Cotton Mather for the advance-
ment of William Stoughton, a man of cold affections, proud,
self-willed, and covetous of distinction. He had acted
under James II. as Deputy-president, a fit tool for such a
king, joining in all the miscarriages of the late government.
The people had rejected him in their election of judges,
giving him not a vote.”
I.
وو
2 I
482
APPENDIX.
So Mather, under the new Royal Charter given to this
settlement, had the whole patronage of the government in
his hands for a time.
He exercised it in many cases in opposition to the
wishes of the people, as he had done in the appointment
of the rejected candidate for a judgeship to the office of
Deputy-Governor. Of the twenty-eight advisers or assis-
tants of the Governor who formed his Council, the agent
writes officially, "every man of them is a friend to the
interests of the churches."
Then we find by Cotton Mather's journal, that he had
jealousies to encounter, fears to afflict him, of being made
a sacrifice to wicked rulers; wrestlings with God to go
through, to awaken the churches. He felt, as Bancroft
observes, that something remarkable was to be done, and
therefore "a religious excitement was resolved upon."
When some moderate people began to object to the
judicial murders, on the plea of punishing witchcraft,
Cotton Mather thundered anathemas against these Sad-
ducees, "advocates of witches," impious objectors, “against
the work going on at Salem."
When the machinations of the ministers at length were
defeated, by a verdict of acquittal in the case of an old
woman of eighty years of age, tried for witchcraft: when
the grand jury dismissed more than half the presentments
sent up to them against persons accused of witchcraft—
finding bills against twenty-six only; when the trials in
the latter cases served only to shew the feebleness of the
testimony on which the former convictions had been
obtained, then it was plain enough, even to the most in-
fatuated of Mather's adherents and co-operators, that their
power and influence was coming to an end.
Mather, to cover his confusion, got up a case of witch-
craft in his own parish.
APPENDIX.
483
He had laid claim to miraculous powers by prayer, of
curing diseases by them. And he avers that miracles
were wrought in Boston. But his claims and his aver-
ment sufficed not to retrieve his waning influence. The
getting up of the cry of witchcraft, was a great experiment,
but the policy of it was too obvious to escape detection.
The getting up of a case of witchcraft at such a juncture
in his own parish, when the proceedings against witches.
had broken down elsewhere, "c'est pire q'une crime,
c'etoit une sottise."
The case of sorcery he brought forward in his own
parish, was that of a bewitched person, "afflicted by veiled
spectres." But he did not venture on having recourse to
the secular arm, in this instance. His dear brother in
Christ, Parris the minister of Salem, had incurred too
much odium for having caused his own parishioners to be
hanged. The imposture of "the veiled spectres,” was too
promptly exposed to ridicule to give Cotton Mather time
or encouragement to push his last experiment to the
extent of a prosecution. The exposer of the imposture,
who, Bancroft states, was a rational and intelligent, though
unlettered man, named Robert Calef, Cotton Mather de-
signates "a malignant, calumnious and reproachful man,
a coal from hell.”
"Was Cotton Mather honestly credulous?" Bancroft
inquires at the end of his account of this persecution, and
he answers the question in these words, "Ever ready to
dupe himself, he limited his credulity only by the probable
credulity of others. He changes or omits to repeat his
statements without acknowledging error, and with a clear
intention of conveying false impressions. He is an example
how far selfishness, under the form of vanity and ambition,
can blind the higher faculties, stupify the judgment and
2 I 2
484
APPENDIX.
dupe consciousness itself. His self-righteousness was
complete till he was resisted."*
The fate of the persecutors of New England had no
Lactantius for its historian. All that cotemporaneous in-
dignation or the contemptuous indifference of modern in-
quiry enables us to say of those great culprits, is this:
"the inexorable indignation of the people of Salem village
drove Parris from the place;"" Noyes regained favour only
by a full confession, asking forgiveness always, and conse-
crating the remainder of his days to deeds of mercy:"
"Sewall, one of the judges, by the frankness and sincerity
of his undisguised confession, recovered public esteem.”
(C
Stoughton and Cotton Mather never repented." "The
former lived proud, unsatisfied and unbeloved; the latter
attempted to persuade others that he had not been
specially active in the tragedy. But the public mind
would not be deceived. His diary proves that he did not
wholly escape the rising impeachment from the monitor
within and Cotton Mather, who had sought the founda-
tion of faith in tales of wonder, himself had temptations
to atheism and to the abandonment of all religion as a
mere delusion."+
:
There is a sentence of Seneca [in relation to superstition]
which conveys a just but a terrible idea of the power of
fanaticism on a disordered mind, and the perversion of reli-
gious instincts to savage impulses of cruelty: "Tantus
est perturbatæ mentis furor, ut sic Dii placentur que-
madmodum ne homines quidem sæviunt.”
""
Nations like individuals transmit these "peccant hu-
mours to their posterity. When old countries found
colonies, their vices as well as their virtues are transplanted
by them. Our American offspring are indebted to us for
*Bancroft, ib. vol. 2. p. 765.
† Ib. p. 766.
APPENDIX.
485
slavery, for witchcraft; and some later forms of fanaticism
which made their first appearance amongst them in the
early part of the present century.
Professor Hecker, in his work on "The Epidemics of
the Middle Ages," in referring to the latter, alludes to the
unwillingness of the enlightened spirits of the eighteenth
century to admit the possibility of such "lamentable phe-
nomena as occurred in the epidemic mania of the
French convulsionnaires in the early part of the 18th cen-
tury.
دو
Alas! for poor humanity, the enlightened spirits of the
19th century have to allow the existence of "lamentable
phenomena " of an analogous kind. England and America
have had their minor convulsionnaires, and their pitiable
fanaticisms referable to theomania, though on a smaller
scale, and for a shorter period than France was afflicted,
by the extravagances of the monomaniacs of the Jansenist
shrine and sepulchre in the cemetery of St. Medard.
Assuredly, nothing of fanaticism was more manifest in
Catholic France, on the part of many of the Theomaniacs
of the early part of the eighteenth century, than was
apparent in the later extravagances of the Jumpers in
Protestant England; or in those of the camp-meeting
revivalists, and the epidemical convulsive disorders con-
nected with theomania which have prevailed amongst
several sects in America from the beginning of the present
century.
The English Jumpers continued to exist in the present
century, though they became a sect so early as 1760 in
the county of Cornwall.
Two fanatics, named Harris Rowland and William Wil-
liams, became of notoriety for extraordinary religious zeal
and extreme enthusiasm.
Their first followers were members of the Methodist
486
APPENDIX.
persuasion, and their principal doctrines were originally
of that sect. In the fervour of their religious exercises
they prayed, preached, and prophesied with great
vehemence and volubility—in a wild strain of incoherent
improvisation. They jumbled solemn scriptural texts in
their familiar discourse with homely phrases and vulgar
terms; and they applied them in a way that gave an air of
absurdity to impiety.
In their extemporaneous prayers and preachings they
got into the habit of reiterating particular scriptural names,
and words devoid of any meaning, with rapidity, accom-
panied by corresponding swayings of the body to and fro,
and became accustomed to a state of stupefaction, thus
artificially produced, which they believed to be a spiritual
condition. Convulsions followed, and a temporary deli-
rium, having the usual characters of theomania, and in
numerous cases, especially among the elders and particu-
larly pious, trances, ecstasies, and visions. The leading
character of their disorder was the convulsive tendency of
all the voluntary muscles, and a state of religious phrenzy,
which impelled them to jump, to make frightful gestures,
to utter shrieks and groans, which might be taken for
demoniacal ravings.
The favoured few, who were "privileged" with raptures,
ranted and prayed as if they were wrapt in a divine fury,
and always terminated by jumping, which set on the con-
gregation to jump and bound, sometimes for hours together,
till "the weaker vessels" broke down, and were carried
away in swoons, or the religious exercise ended occasion-
ally in riot and revels, which were as wild as any Baccha-
nalian orgies.
"It is some consolation (says Evans) to real religion to
add, that this practice is on the decline, as the more sober
or conscientious, who were at first at a loss to judge where
APPENDIX.
487
this practice might carry them, have seen its pernicious
tendency.
"Such is the account of the Jumpers, which, with a few
alterations, has been transmitted me by a respectable
minister, who frequently visits the principality. It is to
be hoped, that the exercise of common sense will in time
recover them from these extravagant ecstasies, which pain
the rational friends of revelation, and afford matter of ex-
ultation to the advocates of infidelity.
"About the year 1785, I myself happened very acciden-
tally to be present at a meeting which terminated in
jumping. It was held in the open air, on a Sunday evening,
near Newport in Monmouthshire. The preacher was one
of Lady Huntingdon's students, who concluded his sermon
with the recommendation of jumping; and to allow him
the praise of consistency, he got down from the chair on
which he stood, and jumped along with them. The argu-
ments he adduced for this purpose were, that David danced
before the ark-that the babe leaped in the womb of
Elizabeth, and that the man whose lameness was removed
leaped and praised God for the mercy which he had
received. He expatiated on these topics, with uncommon
fervency, and then drew the inference, that they ought to
shew similar expressions of joy, for the blessings which
Jesus Christ had put into their possession. He then gave
an impassioned sketch of the sufferings of the Saviour, and
hereby roused the passions of a few around him into vio-
lent agitation. About nine men and seven women, for
some little time, rocked to and fro, groaned aloud, and then
jumped with a kind of frantic fury. Some of the audience
flew in all directions; others gazed on in silent amazement!
They all gradually dispersed, except the jumpers, who
continued their exertions from eight in the evening to near
eleven at night. I saw the conclusion of it; they at last
488
APPENDIX.
kneeled down in a circle, holding each other by the hand,
while one of them prayed with great fervour, and then all
rising up from their knees, departed. But previous to
their dispersion, they wildly pointed up towards the sky,
and reminded one another that they should soon meet
there, and be never again separated !"*
Elsewhere we find a graphic and authentic account of
the later progress of this epidemic fanaticism.
6
"In a Methodist chapel at Redruth, a man during
divine service, cried out with a loud voice, What shall I
do to be saved?' at the same time manifesting the greatest
uneasiness and solicitude respecting the condition of his
soul. Some other members of the congregation following
his example, cried out in the same form of words, and
seemed shortly after to suffer the most excruciating bodily
pain. This strange occurrence was soon publicly known, and
hundreds of people who had come thither, either attracted
by curiosity, or a desire from other motives to see the suf
ferers, fell into the same state. The chapel remained open
for some days and nights, and from that point the new
disorder spread itself with the rapidity of lightning over
the neighbouring towns of Camborne, Helston, Truro,
Penryn, and Falmouth, as well as over the villages in the
vicinity. Whilst thus advancing, it decreased in some
measure at the place where it had first appeared, and it
confined itself throughout to the Methodist chapels. It
was only by the words which have been mentioned that it
was excited, and it seized none but people of the lowest
education. Those who were attacked betrayed the greatest
anguish, and fell into convulsions; others cried out, like
persons possessed, that the Almighty would straightway
* Evans' Sketch of the various Denominations of the Christian
World. New Ed. Edinburgh, 1840, p. 257, 258.
APPENDIX.
489
pour out his wrath upon them, that the wailings of tor-
mented spirits rang in their ears, and they saw hell open
to receive them. The clergy when, in the course of their
sermons, they perceived that persons were thus seized,
earnestly exhorted them to confess their sins, and zealously
endeavoured to convince them that they were by nature
enemies to Christ; that the anger of God had therefore
fallen upon them; and that if death should surprise them
in the midst of their sins, the eternal torments of hell
would be their portion. The over-excited eongregation
upon this repeated their words, which naturally must have
increased the fury of their convulsive attacks. When the
discourse had produced its full effect the preacher changed
his subject, reminded those who were suffering of the
power of the Saviour, as well as of the grace of God, and
represented to them in glowing colours the joys of heaven.
Upon this a remarkable reaction sooner or later took place.
Those who were in convulsions felt themselves raised from
the lowest depths of misery and despair to the most ex-
alted bliss, and triumphantly shouted out that their bonds
were loosed, their sins were forgiven, and that they were
translated to the wonderful freedom of the children of God.
In the meantime their convulsions continued, and they
remained during this condition so abstracted from every
earthly thought that they staid two and sometimes three
days and nights together in the chapels, agitated all the
time by spasmodic movements, and taking neither repose
nor nourishment. According to a moderate computation.
4000 people were within a very short time affected with
this convulsive malady.
"The course and symptoms of the attacks were in
gene-
ral as follows:-There came on at first a feeling of faint-
ness, with rigour and a sense of weight at the pit of the
stomach, soon after which the patient cried out, as if in
490
APPENDIX.
the agonies of death or the pains of labour. The convul-
sions then began, first shewing themselves in the muscles.
of the eyelids, though the eyes themselves were fixed and
staring. The most frightful contortions of the countenance
followed, and the convulsions now took their course down-
wards, so that the muscles of the neck and trunk were
affected, causing a sobbing respiration, which was per-
formed with great effort. Tremors and agitation ensued,
and the patients screamed out violently, and tossed their
heads about from side to side. As the complaint increased
it seized the arms, and its victims beat their breasts, clasped
their hands, and made all sorts of strange gestures. The
observer who gives this account, remarked that the lower
extremities were in no instance affected. In some cases
exhaustion came on in a very few minutes, but the attack
usually lasted much longer, and there were even cases in
which it was known to continue for sixty or seventy hours.
Many of those who happened to be seated when the attack
commenced bent their bodies rapidly backwards and for-
wards during its continuance, making a corresponding
motion with their arms, like persons sawing wood. Others
shouted aloud, leaped about, and threw their bodies into
every possible posture, until they had exhausted their
strength. Yawning took place at the commencement in
all cases, but as the violence of the disorder increased the
circulation and respiration became accelerated, so that the
countenance assumed a swollen and puffed appearance.
When exhaustion came on patients usually fainted, and
remained in a stiff and motionless state till their recovery.
The disorder completely resembled the St. Vitus's dance,
but the fits sometimes went on to an extraordinarily violent
extent, so that the author of the account once saw a woman
who was seized with these convulsions resist the endea-
vours of four or five strong men to restrain her. Those
APPENDIX.
491
patients who did not lose their consciousness were in
general made more furious by every attempt to quiet them
by force, on which account they were in general suffered
to continue unmolested until nature herself brought on
exhaustion. Those affected complained more or less of
debility after the attacks, and cases sometimes occurred in
which they passed into other disorders: thus some fell
into a state of melancholy, which however, in consequence
of their religious ecstasy, was distinguished by the absence
of fear and despair; and in one patient inflammation of the
brain is said to have taken place. No sex or age was
exempt from this epidemic malady. Children from five
years old and octogenarians were alike affected by it, and
even men of the most powerful frame were subject to its
influence. Girls and young women, however, were its
most frequent victims."*
In the summer of 1803, St. Vitus's dance, in the form of
an epidemic, broke out in Tennessee, in the United States.
A graphic account of this disorder is given by Felix
Robertson, in an inaugural address on Chorea Sancti Viti,
8vo. Philadelphia, 1805. The author, in his introductory
remarks, observes:
"I suppose there are but few individuals in the United
States who have not at least heard of the unparalleled
blaze of religious enthusiasm which burst forth in the
western country about the year 1800; but it is impossible
perhaps to have a competent idea of its effects without per-
sonal observation."
This religious enthusiasm travelled like electricity with
astonishing rapidity, and was felt almost instantaneously in
every part of the states of Tennessee and Kentucky.
* This statement is made by J. Cornish. See Fothergill and
Want's Medical and Physical Journal, vol. xxxi. 1814, pp. 373-379.
492
APPENDIX.
It afterwards proved so powerful a stimulus, that every
other entirely lost its effect, or was but feebly felt.
Hence that general neglect of earthly things which was
observed, and an almost perpetual attendance at places of
public worship.
The author states, that on days of worship great multi-
tudes of people flocked from distant points to their places
of meeting, supplied with provisions and tents, remained
on the spot day and night in acts of religious worship,
occupied almost incessantly: "The outward expression of
their worship consisted chiefly in alternate crying, laugh-
ing, singing, and shouting, and at the same time perform-
ing that variety of gesticulation which the muscular system
is capable of producing. It was under these circumstances
that some found themselves unable by voluntary efforts to
suppress the contraction of their muscles; and to their
own astonishment and the diversion of many of the spec-
tators, they continued to act from necessity the curious
character which they had commenced from choice."
The disease spread rapidly through the medium and
instinct of imitation. A single individual affected would
communicate all the symptoms of his disorder to a whole
assembly of new comers. A great majority of those affected
were females and young people, generally from the age of
fifteen to twenty-five, those most enthusiastic in their
religious sentiments and delicate in their organisation. The
convulsive motions were generally in the muscles of the
neck, sometimes the superior extremities of the trunk, but
rarely, if ever, of the inferior members. When the muscles
of the back were strongly affected at the commencement of
the disease, the patients would be thrown violently on the
ground, where for some time their motions would more
resemble those of a live fish when thrown on land than
anything else to which the author could compare them.
APPENDIX.
493
The irregular contractions of the muscles of the chest
occasioned strange interruptions in conversation and sounds
like those of forcible expiration, causing them to grunt
when speaking.
In their paroxysms (which never occurred during sleep)
they seemed to suffer no bodily pain; on the contrary,
they spoke of their sensations as being agreeable, which
the more enthusiastic often endeavoured to express by
laughing, shouting, dancing, and at the same time perform-
ing that variety of gesticulation which the muscular system
is capable of producing.
In no case within the knowledge of the writer did this
disease prove mortal. It was often connected with me-
lancholia, which was of long continuance.
Gradually it became less violent, and seemed to wear
itself out, as the novelty of the enthusiasm in which it ori-
ginated wore off, and finally having run its course for a
few years it disappeared.
Lorenzo Dow, the cosmopolite, in his published
"Journal, containing his Experience and his Travels from
Childhood to 1815," Philadelphia, in 12mo. 1815, second
edition, gives the following account of the convulsions
called the jerks, which he witnessed at various places at
the camp meetings he attended, in the United States, in
years 1804, 1805, and 1806 :
the
"I had heard about a singularity called the jerks, or
jerking exercise, says he, which appeared first near
Knoxville, in August last (1804), to the great alarm of the
people; which reports at first I considered as vague and
false, but at length, like the Queen of Sheba, I set out
to go and see for myself; and sent over these appointments
into this country accordingly.
I began to speak
to a vast audience, and I observed about thirty to have the
jerks, though they strove to keep as still as they could;
494
APPENDIX.
these emotions were involuntary and irresistible, as any
unprejudiced eye might discern. Hence to Mary's-
ville, where I spoke to about one thousand five hundred,
and many appeared to feel the word, but about fifty felt
the jerks. At night I lodged with one of the Nicholites, a
kind of Quakers, who do not feel free to wear coloured
clothes. I spoke to a number of people at his house
that night. Whilst at tea I observed his daughter (who
sat opposite to me at table) to have the jerks, and dropped
the tea cup from her hand in violent agitation. I said to
her, 'Young woman, what is the matter?" She replied,
'I have the jerks.' I asked her how long she had it? She
observed, a few days,' and that it had been the means of
the awakening and conversion of her soul, by stirring her
up to serious consideration about her careless state, &c.
Sunday, February 19th, 1805, I spoke in Knoxville to
hundreds more than could get into the Court House, the
Governor being present, about one hundred and fifty ap-
peared to have the jerking exercise, among whom was a
circuit preacher (Johnson), who had opposed them a little
before, but he now had them powerfully; and I believe he
would have fallen over three times had not the auditory
been so crowded that he could not, unless he fell perpendi-
cularly.
(6
6
"After meeting, I rode eighteen miles to hold a meeting
at night, the people of this settlement were mostly
Quakers, and they had said (as I was informed) the
Methodists and Presbyterians have the jerks because they
sing and pray so much, but we are still peaceable people,
wherefore we do not have them; however, about twenty
of these came to the meeting, to hear one as was said,
somewhat in a Quaker line, but their usual stillness and
silence was interrupted; for about a dozen of them had
the jerks as keen and as powerful as any I had seen, so as
APPENDIX.
495
to have occasioned a kind of grunt or groan when they
would jerk. It appears that many have undervalued the
great revival, and attempted to account for it altogether on
natural principles; therefore it seems to me (from the best
judgment I can form) that God hath seen proper to take this
method to convince people, that He will work in a way to
shew his power, and sent the jerks as a sign of the times,
partly in judgment for the people's unbelief, and yet as a
mercy to convict people of divine realities.
"I have seen Presbyterians, Methodists, Quakers,
Baptists, Church of England, and Independents exercised
with the jerks. Gentleman and lady, black and white, the
aged and the youth, rich and poor, without exception; from
which I infer, as it cannot be accounted for on natural
principles, and carries such marks of involuntary motion,
that it is no trifling matter; I believe that those who are
most pious and given up to God, are rarely touched with
it, and also those naturalists who wish and try to get it, to
philosophize upon it, are excepted, but the lukewarm,
lazy, half-hearted, indolent professor is subject to it; and
many of them I have seen, who, when it came upon them
would be alarmed, and stirred up to redouble their diligence
with God, and after that they would get happy, and were
thankful it ever came upon them. Again, the wicked are
frequently more afraid of it than the small-pox or yellow
fever; these are subject to it: but the persecutors are
more subject to it than any, and they sometimes have
cursed, and swore, and damned it, whilst jerking; there is
no pain attending the jerks except they resist it, which, if
they do, it will weary them more in an hour than a day's
labour, which shews that it requires the consent of the
will to avoid suffering.
“20th.—I passed by a meeting-house where I observed
the undergrowth had been cut up for a camp meeting, and
496
APPENDIX.
from 50 to 100 saplings left breast high, which to me ap-
peared so slovenish that I could not but ask my guide the
cause, who observed they were topped so high, and left for
the people to jerk by. This so excited my attention that I
went over the ground to view it, and found where the
people had laid hold of them and jerked so powerfully, that
they had kicked up the earth as a horse stamping flies.
I observed some emotion both this day and night among
the people, a Presbyterian minister (with whom I stayed)
observed, 'Yesterday whilst I was preaching some had the
jerks, and a young man from North Carolina mimicked
them out of derision, and soon was seized with them himself
(which was the case with many others); he grew ashamed,
and on attempting to mount his horse to go off, his foot
jerked about so that he could not put it into the stirrup;
some youngsters seeing this assisted him on, but he jerked
so that he could not sit alone, and one got up to hold him
on, which was done with difficulty. I observed this, went
to him and asked him what he thought of it? said he, I
believe God sent it on me for my wickedness, and making
so light of it in others, and he requested me to pray for
him.'
"I observed his wife had it; she said she was first at-
tacked with it in bed. Dr. Nelson said, he had frequently
strove to get it (in order to philosophize upon it), but
could not, and observed they could not account for it on
natural principles.
The
"Next day he gave me some money, and sent a horse
with me several miles, and then I took to my feet and went
on to Greenville, and so on to Abingdon in Virginia.
last jerks that I saw was a young woman who was severely
exercised during the meeting. She followed me into the
house; I observed to her the indecency and folly of such
public gestures and grunts, and requested (speaking
APPENDIX.
497
sternly to make an impression on her mind) if she had
any regard for her character to leave it off; she replied, 'I
will if I can.' I took her by the hand, looking her in the
face, and said, 'Do not tell lies.' I perceived (by the
emotion of her hand) that she exerted every nerve to re-
strain it, but instantly she jerked as if it would have jerked
her out of her skin if it were possible; I did this to have
an answer to others on the subject, which I told her, that
my abruptness might leave no bad impression on her
mind.
"From thence to New London, where I began speaking
in the Court House, when Papa and Mamma Hobson
came in, and we had a gracious time. Hence I fell in
with brother Stith Mead, and we went on to the camp
meeting which I had appointed last August.
“23rd.—About fifteen hundred people appeared on the
ground, and the Lord began a gracious work that day,
which I trust hell shall never be able to extinguish. One
soul found peace before night, and another in the night.
“24th.-About three thousand people attended; the
solemnity and tenderness, and prospect of good increased.
“25th, Sunday.-About five thousand on the ground,
and in general good attention. Colonel Callaway and a
number of respectable gentlemen used their endeavours to
protect our peaceable privileges.
Monday, 26th. -About three thousand appeared on
the ground, and the rejoicings of old saints, the shouts of
young converts, and the cries of the distressed for mercy,
caused the meeting to continue all night, until we parted
on Tuesday morning, 27th.
(6
Monday, Oct. 1st.-I saw the jerks in Pennsylvania,
Ohio, and this state on this journey. Several of the pre-
siding elders called me into a private room, and after some
I.
2 K
498
APPENDIX.
interview we parted in friendship. Next day I spoke
under the trees, nearly the whole conference being
present.
"Friday, 19th.-Camp meeting commenced at Liberty;
here I saw the jerks, and some danced, a strange exercise
indeed; however, it is involuntary, yet requires the con-
sent of the will, that is, the people are taken jerking irre-
sistibly, and if they strive to resist it it worries them
much, yet is attended with no bodily pain; and those who
are exercised to dance (which, in the pious, seems an anti-
dote to the jerks) if they resist, it brings deadness and
barrenness over the mind; but when they yield to it they
feel happy, although it is a great cross; there is a heavenly
smile and solemnity on the countenance, which carries a
great conviction to the minds of beholders; their eyes
when dancing seem to be fixed upwards, as if upon an
invisible object, and they lost to all below.
46
Sunday, 21st. I heard Doctor Tooley, a man of
liberal education, who had been a noted Deist, preach on
the subject of the jerks and the dancing exercise. He
brought ten passages of Scripture to prove that dancing
was once a religious exercise, but corrupted at Aaron's
calf, and from thence young people got it for amusement.
I believe the congregation and preachers were generally
satisfied with his remarks.
(6
Sunday, 25th Nov.-I spoke for the last time at Nat-
chez. I visited Seltzer-town, Greenville, and Gibson
Port. This last place was a wilderness not two years ago,
but now contains near thirty houses, with a court-house
and gaol. We held quarterly meeting on Clarke's Creek ;
some supposed I would get no campers, but at this quar-
terly meeting I wanted to know if there were any back-
sliders in the auditory, and if there were, and they would
come forward, I would pray with them. An old back-
APPENDIX.
499
slider, who had been happy in the old settlements, with
tears came forward and fell upon his knees, and several
followed his example. A panic seized the congregation,
and an awful awe ensued; we had a cry and shout-it
was a weeping tender time. The devil was angry, and
some without persecuted, saying, 'Is God deaf, that they
cannot worship him without such a noise?' though they
perhaps would make a greater noise when drinking a
toast."*
The phenomena manifested at the great revivals, some
forty years ago, at Kentucky and Tennessee, are thus
described by a writer quoted by Mr. Power (Essay on the
Influence of the Imagination over the Nervous System) :-
"At first appearance these meetings exhibited nothing to
the spectator but a scene of confusion that could scarcely
be put into language. They were generally opened with
a sermon, near the close of which there would be an un-
usual outcry, some bursting out into loud ejaculations of
prayer," &c.
"The rolling exercise consisted in being cast down in a
violent manner, doubled with the head and feet together,
or stretched in a prostrate manner, turning swiftly over
like a dog. Nothing in nature, could better represent the
jerks than for one to goad another alternately on every
side with a piece of red-hot iron. The exercise commonly
begun in the head, which would fly backwards and for-
wards, and from side to side, with a quick jolt, which the
person would naturally labour to suppress, but in vain.
He must necessarily go on as he was stimulated, whether
with a violent dash on the ground, and bounce from place
to place like a foot-ball; or hopping round with head,
limbs, and trunk, twitching and jolting in every direction,
as if they must inevitably fly asunder, &c."
* Lorenzo Dow, pp. 177, 178, 179, 180, 181, 182, 183, 208, 209,
212.
500
APPENDIX.
In the revivals of modern times, scenes parallel to the
extravagances of the Jumpers and Jerkers have been re-
newed, and have been attended with some very remarkable
results.
"I have seen," says Mr. Le Roi Sunderland. a preacher,
(Zion's Watchman, New York, Oct. 2, 1842) "persons
lose their strength, as it is called, at camp-meetings and
other places of great religious excitement; and not pious
people alone, but those also who were not professors of
religion. In the spring of 1824, while performing pastoral
labour in Dennis, Massachusetts, I saw more than twenty
people affected in this way. Two young men of the name
of Crowell came one day to a prayer meeting. They were
quite indifferent. I conversed with them freely, but they
shewed no signs of penitence. From meeting they went
to their shop (they were shoemakers) to finish some work
before going to the meeting in the evening. On seating
themselves they were both struck perfectly stiff. I was
immediately sent for, and found them sitting paralysed
on their benches, with their work in their hands, unable
to get up or to move at all. I have seen scores of persons
affected the same way. I have seen persons lie in this state
forty-eight hours. At such times they are unable to con-
verse, and are sometimes unconscious of what is passing
round them; at the same time they say they are in a happy
state of mind."
.
.
501
APPENDIX VI.
The Nun's Lament. In the original Spanish.
A Poem of the Fifteenth Century.
LAS DOZE COPLAS MONIALES.
Mayòr que mi sentimiento
es el menòr de mis daños :
gràn linaje de tormento,
ver qu'en discontentamiento
se me van mis tristes años!
Solatio, misera, meo,
clausæ sunt undique portæ :
no las halla mi deseo,
mas de par en par las veo,
à la mìa gran pena forte.
El secreto de la quàl
en el alma està, do toca,
que de grave y de mortàl
es como purga mì mal,
que se me viene à la boca.
Derelicta sum cautiva,
in florenti ætate mea,
en este carcel esquiva
do viverè cuanto viva
dolorosa, afflitta, y rea.
Sepultada estoy aqui
do muero hasta que muera.
Desventurada de mi ..
de madre libre nascì:
quien me hizo prissionera ?
502
APPENDIX.
Sensi nata paucos annos,
Fortunam iratam Deam:
entre sì, con crudas manos,
mis propios padres y hermanos
diviserunt vestem meam!
Yo quedè monja metida,
inocente de mi daño
hasta despues de crecida,
qu'el dolor d'esta herida
me dà queja del engaño,
Anima mea deserta
tristis erit usque ad mortem:
mil angustias a su puerta
sobr❜ello traen reyerta,
et super eam miserunt sortem.
D'esta causa, à mì pesàr,
estoy puesta en tal abismo,
de tristeza y de penár,
que no lo basta à contar
ningun cuento de guarismo.
Mortis urget me cupido,
thedio compungor ab isto
con este dolor crescido,
vivo, cuando dèl me olvido,
muero cuando pienso en Crìsto.
Juntanse tambien à esto
otras cosas de quebranto,
que hazen triste à mi jesto,
porque con ellas me acuesto,
y con ellas me levanto,
curæ, mei cordis, heredes,
dies in noctem verterunt:
APPENDIX.
noches so tantas paredes
con tantos tornos y redes,
dies mei declinaverunt.
Què dirè de las passiones
de las congojas continuas
pesadumbres à montones,
e graves reprehensiones,
castigos e disciplinas?
Tentaciones graviores,
quibus in vita resisto,
enojos y sinsabores,
mil plagas y mil dolores,
que
me han facto como à Cristo.
Las amigas que tomè
leales nunca me fueron ..
Mas en qien busco
qien busco yo fè?
pues las tetas que mamè
para mi no la tuvieron ?
Cupiditate non fida,
me parentes tradiderunt,
do para siempre perdida,
lloro el placer de mi vida
quem pro numis vendiderunt.
Queriendo darme mas pena,
como Padres indignados,
no bastò echarme en cadena
y en una prision tan buena
que quedaron bien vengados.
Supplicio perfidi meo
hunc dolorem addiderunt,
unde estoy do nadie veo:
por cumplir mas sù desseo,
manus et pedes foderunt.
503
504
APPENDIX.
Viendo aquesto mì ventura
ha venido en tal pobreza,
cual no vino en criatura,
pues los llantos y tristura,
ya no suenan, de flaqueza.
Similata semper agno,
judicata mortis rea
el tormento es tan estraño
que mis trabajos y daño
diminuerunt ossa mea.
Ansi que podrè dezir,
qu'el tener me hizo mal,
pues me pudiera yo ir,
y me pudiera venir
sin tormento tan mortal.
Natam captarunt parentes,
vinculis ligarunt eam,
las monjas muy bien prudentes
y de mis joyas sedientes,
diviserunt vestem meam.
O vosotras, qu' escuchais
por este torno traydor,
yo vos ruego que creais,
que ningun mal que sintais
iquala con mi dolor.
Vos habetis libertatem,
ego vim patior hic fortem,
hasta que penas me maten
que ya comigo combaten,
et super me miserunt sortem.
END OF VOL. I.
1

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
3 9015 03315 9289