Title: The Other World; or, Glimpses of the Supernatural (Vol. I of II) - Being Facts, Records, and Traditions Relating to Dreams, - Omens, Miraculous Occurrences, Apparitions, Wraiths, - Warnings, Second-sight, Witchcraft, Necromancy, etc.
Author: Various
Language: English
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GLIMPSES OF THE SUPERNATURAL.



  The Other World;

  OR, GLIMPSES OF THE SUPERNATURAL.

  BEING FACTS, RECORDS, AND TRADITIONS


  RELATING TO DREAMS, OMENS, MIRACULOUS OCCURRENCES,
  APPARITIONS, WRAITHS, WARNINGS, SECOND-SIGHT,
  WITCHCRAFT, NECROMANCY, ETC.


  EDITED BY
  THE REV. FREDERICK GEORGE LEE, D.C.L.
  _Vicar of All Saints’, Lambeth._


  IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I.


  HENRY S. KING AND CO., LONDON.
  1875.



(_All rights reserved._)



  TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
  AUGUSTA,
  COUNTESS OF STRADBROKE,
  OF HENHAM HALL, IN THE COUNTY OF SUFFOLK,
  THESE VOLUMES
  ARE,
  BY HER LADYSHIP’S KIND PERMISSION,
  VERY RESPECTFULLY
  Dedicated.



“It is often asked--Do you believe in Prophecies and Miracles? Yes and no,
one may answer; that depends. In general, yes; doubtless we believe in
them, and are not of the number of those who ‘pique themselves,’ as
Fénelon said, ‘on rejecting as fables, without examination, all the
wonders that God works.’ But if you come to the particular, and say--Do
you believe in such a revelation, such an apparition, such a cure?--here
it is that it behoves us not to forget the rules of Christian prudence,
nor the warnings of Holy Writ, nor the teaching of Theologians and Saints,
nor, finally, the decrees of Councils, and the motives of those decrees.
Has the proper Authority spoken? If it has spoken, let us bow with all the
respect due to grave and mature ecclesiastical judgments, even where they
are not clothed with infallible authority; if it has not spoken, let us
not be of those who reject everything in a partizan spirit, and want to
impose this unbelief upon everybody; nor of those who admit everything
lightly, and want alike to impose their belief; let us be careful in
discussing a particular fact, not to reject the very principle of the
Supernatural, but neither let us shut our eyes to the evidence of
testimony; let us be prudent, even to the most careful scrutiny--the
subject-matter requires it, the Scriptures recommend it--but let us not be
sceptics; let us be sincere, but not fanatical: that is the true mean. And
let us not forget that most often the safest way in these matters is not
to hurry one’s judgment, not to decide sharply and affirm absolutely--in a
word, not to anticipate, in one sense or the other, the judgment of those
whose place and mission it is to examine herein; but to await, in the
simplicity of faith and of Christian wisdom, a decision which marks out a
wise rule, although not always with absolute certainty.”--Dupanloup,
Bishop of Orleans, “On Contemporary Prophecies.”



PREFACE.


These volumes have been compiled from the standing-point of a hearty and
reverent believer in Historical Christianity. No one can be more fully
aware of their imperfections and incompleteness than the Editor; for the
subjects under consideration occupy such a broad field, that their
treatment at greater length would have largely increased the bulk of the
volumes, and indefinitely postponed their publication.

The facts and records set forth (and throughout, the Editor has dealt with
facts, rather than with theories) have been gathered from time to time
during the past twenty years, as well from ordinary historical narrations
as from the personal information of several friends and acquaintances
interested in the subject-matter of the book. The materials thus brought
together from so many quarters have been carefully sifted, and those only
made use of as would best assist in the arranged method of the volume, and
suffice for its suitable illustration.

The Editor regrets that, in the publication of so many recent examples of
the Supernatural (about fifty), set forth for the first time in the
following pages, the names of the persons to whom those examples occurred,
and in some cases those likewise who supplied him with them, are withheld.

The truth is, there is such a sensitive dislike of publicity and of rude
criticism consequent upon publicity, that very many persons shrink from
the ordeal. However, it may be sufficient to state that the Editor holds
himself personally responsible for all those here recorded, which are not
either details of received History, or formally authenticated by the names
and addresses of those who have supplied him with them.

Many examples of the Supernatural in modern times and in the present day
are here published for the first time, in an authoritative and complete
form.

By the kind courtesy of Lord Lyttelton, the family records of a remarkable
apparition, which is said to have been seen by his noble ancestor, were
placed at the Editor’s disposal, and, by his Lordship’s permission, are in
the following pages now first set forth in detail and at length.

The Editor is also indebted to the following, either for obliging replies
to his inquiries, or for information which has been embodied in the
succeeding pages:--The late Lady Brougham, the late Rev. W.
Hastings-Kelke, of Drayton Beauchamp; A. L. M. P. de Lisle, Esq., of
Garendon Park; the Very Rev. A. Weld, S.J.; the Right Rev. Monsignor
Patterson, D.D., of S. Edmund’s College, Ware; the Rev. J. Jefferson,
M.A., of North Stainley Vicarage, near Ripon; the Very Rev. E. J.
Purbrick, S.J., of Stonyhurst College; the Rev. John Richardson, B.A., of
Warwick; Henry Cope Caulfeild, Esq., M.A., of Clone House, S. Leonard’s;
the Rev. Theodore J. Morris; Mrs. George Lee; the Rev. H. N. Oxenham,
M.A.; Miss S. F. Caulfeild; Dominick Browne, Esq. (Dytchley); Captain
Lowrie, of York; Mr. C. J. Sneath, of Birmingham; and many others.

If there be anything set forth in this volume, in ignorance or
misconception, contradictory to the general teaching of the Universal
Church, the Editor puts on record here his regret for having penned it,
and his desire altogether to withdraw such error.

F. G. L.

  All Saints’ Vicarage,
  York Road, Lambeth.



CONTENTS OF VOL. I.


                                                                  Page

  CHAPTER I.

    INTRODUCTORY.--Materialism of the present age                    1

  CHAPTER II.

    The Miraculous in Church History                                21

  CHAPTER III.

    Spiritual Powers and Properties of the Church.--
    Sacraments.--Sacramentals.--Exorcism                            51

  CHAPTER IV.

    Witchcraft and Necromancy                                      149

  CHAPTER V.

    Dreams, Omens, Warnings, Presentiments, and Second Sight       207



MATERIALISM OF THE PRESENT AGE.


“In some sense of the Supernatural, in some faith in the Unseen, in some
feeling that man is not of this World, in some grasp on the Eternal God,
and on an eternal supernatural and supersensuous life, lies the basis of
all pity and mercy, all help, and comfort, and patience, and sympathy
among men. Set these aside, commit us only to the Natural, to what our
eyes see and our hands handle, and, while we may organize Society
scientifically, and live according to ‘the laws of Nature,’ and be very
philosophical and very liberal, we are standing on the ground on which
every savage tribe stands, or indeed on which every pack of wolves
gallops.”



GLIMPSES OF THE SUPERNATURAL.



CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY.--MATERIALISM OF THE PRESENT AGE.


To any sincere and hearty believer in Historical Christianity the advance
of Materialism and the consequent denial of the Supernatural must be the
cause both of alarm and sadness. The few lead, the many follow; and it is
frequently the case that conclusions contrarient to the idea of the
Supernatural are arrived at, after a course of reasoning, which
conclusions appear to many wholly unjustified, either by the premisses
adopted, or from the argument that has ensued.

It has been stated, in a serial of some ability,[1] that the final issue
of the present conflict between so that things are necessarily different
to what they would have been if he had not thus acted, and no disturbance
nor dislocation of the system around him ensues as a consequence of such
action, surely He Who contrived the system in question can subsequently
interpose both in the natural and spiritual order of the world. For to
deny this possibility is obviously to place God on a lower level than man;
in other words, to make the Creator of all things weaker and less free
than His own creatures.

Now, to go a step further, all human efforts to find out God have been the
result of the combination of ideas gleaned from human experience. These
ideas have often enough been grotesque, fanciful, and distorted--a
judgment which will be admitted to be accurate by all Christian people;
whether the gross conceptions of Pagan mythology or the nebulous
speculations of modern “thinkers” are brought under consideration. That
man, the created, cannot understand God the Creator--that the thing made
cannot compass the Maker--is not only perfectly certain, but necessary.
The being of God cannot be grasped by a finite intellect; nor can such an
intellect conceive the mode of an existence absolutely and utterly removed
from created conditions. Such knowledge is too wonderful and excellent: we
cannot attain unto it.[2]

But though it may be, and is, utterly impossible to conceive Almighty
God, it is anything but impossible to conceive the fact and reality of His
being. For, as is well known, the general thought and conscience of
mankind have believed in a God, _semper et ubique_, everywhere and at all
times. Thus a thing may exist, and its existence may be perfectly patent
to the understanding; and furthermore its existence may be worthy of
implicit belief; while, at the same time, the thing itself may be found to
transcend and overpass the limited powers of man’s intellect. Take, for
example, the ideas conveyed by the terms “eternal”[3] and “infinite.” Who
can comprehend them? Who can explain them? Ordinary popular conceptions
make them mere indefinite extensions of duration and space; yet these
conceptions need not and do not appear absurd, but, on the contrary,
enable ideas, at once definite, distinct, and recognizable, to be conveyed
from man to man.

Thus, by a simple process of thought, we may see for ourselves the place
and propriety of a Revelation, and appreciate the truth of the
Supernatural. Here, in the province of a Revelation, not man’s conception
of God, but God Himself is set forth. Not so unlike ourselves is He that
we find Him, with will, actions, and purposes, unintelligible; but, using
analogies gathered and systematized by experience, we learn, at the same
time, that our Creator is beyond the range both of thought and
language--never to be fully known, until, with divinely-illuminated
faculties in a higher state, we see Him face to face.

And when we have attained to this point in our course of thought, the
first leading fact of God’s revelation meets us. Here it is: “There is but
one living and true God, everlasting, without body, parts, or passions; of
infinite power, wisdom, and goodness; the Maker and Preserver of all
things, both visible and invisible. And in unity of this Godhead there be
three Persons, of one substance, power, and eternity: the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Ghost.”[4]

Now in this revelation, given in its fullness by the Eternal Word, and
bequeathed to the Christian Church, to be preserved and handed down for
future generations, all is Supernatural. That body of doctrine which
Christians believe, divinely guarded by the Church, was announced
beforehand, centuries ere it was actually delivered, by a wisdom above
nature--the divine light of prophecy. When it was set forth by the Eternal
Word, its truth was attested in the face of a hostile people by a power
above nature, whose word Creation obeyed, as in regularity, so in marked
and palpable change. This body of doctrine or gospel put forth a
supernatural power in the strange rapidity and manifest success with which
it subdued hearts to itself. Ancient Rome owned the Crucified as a Monarch
conquering and to conquer. His Revelation, of the truth of which there
shall be witnesses unto the end, is above nature, in that it alone
provides adequate remedies for the manifold infirmities of the human race.
The life it produces here is supernatural, as are also the means by which
that life is created, and the efficient gifts by which it is being
constantly renewed. Supernatural, too, is the work of the Holy Ghost,
wrought out by human agents and human instrumentality; changing,
sanctifying, illuminating; shadowing forth by its action the reunion of
earth with heaven, of man with God, only to be completed and made perfect
in the life to come.

Now the purport of this volume is to show by examples of supernatural
intervention--examples many of which have been gathered from quite recent
periods--that Almighty God, from time to time, in various ways and by
different human instruments, still condescendingly reveals to man glimpses
of the world unseen, and shows the existence of that life beyond the
grave, in which the sceptic and materialist of the present restless age
would have us disbelieve, and which they themselves scornfully reject.

From the sure and solid standing-point of Historical Christianity,
believing Holy Scripture to be the Word of God, and the Christian Church
to be the divinely-formed corporation for instructing, guiding, and
illuminating mankind, remarkable examples of the Supernatural, miracles,
spectral appearances of departed spirits, providential warnings by dreams
and otherwise, the intervention and ministry of good angels, the assaults
of bad, the certain power and efficacy of the gifts of Holy Church, the
sanctity of consecrated places, and the persevering malignity of the devil
and his legions, are gathered together, and set forth in the pages to
follow. For it may reasonably be believed that, as Almighty God has
graciously vouchsafed to intervene in the affairs of mankind in ages long
past, so there has never been a period in which such merciful intervention
has not from time to time taken place. Granted that in the days of Moses
and Aaron, and of Elijah and Elisha, man owned miraculous powers, and
wrought wonders by the gift of God; granted that in dreams and visions the
will of the Most High was sometimes made known to favoured individuals of
the Jewish Dispensation; remembering the miracles of our Lord’s apostles
and disciples, and bearing in mind the divine and supernatural powers
which were first entrusted to, and have been ever since exercised by, the
Catholic Church, it is at once unreasonable and unphilosophical to deny
the existence in the world of the supernatural and miraculous. As will be
abundantly set forth, their presence and energy are in perfect accord and
harmony with the universal experience of mankind. Sceptics may contemn and
object, materialists may scoff; but numerous facts as well as a very
general sentiment are against their conclusions and convictions.

Floating straws show the direction and force of a current. As an example
of the lengths to which an adoption of the materialistic principle will
lead some persons, who regard themselves as “philosophers,” and as a
specimen of the dangers which threaten us, it may be well to refer briefly
to the proposal which has recently been formally and publicly made, viz.,
that in certain cases of hopeless disease or imbecile old age, physicians
should be legally authorized to put an end to such patients by poison.

Thus, when the head of a family becomes old or borders on childishness,
the son, by going through the proposed legal formality, may stand by and
witness the poisoning of his father, and so enter on the possession of his
property. When a mother becomes old, the daughter may assist in a similar
manner at her mother’s death. A crippled child, a weak-minded relation, an
infirm member of the family, according to the “philosophers,” should have
a poisonous drug efficiently administered; that so the weak, crippled, or
imbecile might be murdered and put out of the way. Thus these
philosopher-fanatics assure us that “the natural law of the preservation
of the fittest,” propounded by them, will come into active and unchecked
operation. Having warned us that the penalty we endure for ignoring this
“law” is a population largely composed of weak, unhealthy, poor and
suffering people, they now earnestly recommend a “scientific method,” by
which the lame, the blind, the weak, and the imbecile should be cleared
off from the stage of life.[5] “Natural selection,” would, unchecked and
never opposed, have preserved alive only the best and noblest types; and
as, they tell us in their infallible wisdom, this principle or law has
developed us so far from the mollusk to the man, it might by this time,
had it been carefully and faithfully applied, have developed us, if not
into angels, at least into nineteenth-century savages of great muscular
power. This is the odious message to mankind which naturalistic
Materialism announces. And if we confine ourselves to what is sometimes
called “science”--that is, exclusive knowledge of things material--such a
conclusion as that arrived at, and such degrading principles as those
propounded for acceptance and practice, may not be altogether
unreasonable.[6] In this kind of “science” there is little else but
coldness, cruelty, and savagery. Only the strong have a right to live. The
weak were born to have their life trampled out, and, according to this
newly-revived theory, the sooner it is done the better. The murder of the
lame, the halt, and the blind, therefore, becomes thoroughly scientific,
and follows as a matter of course. Its practice is based upon laws which
the materialists have been for some time proclaiming to be “supreme.” If
there be no supernatural basis of life, if the supernatural have no real
existence, if man be of the earth earthy, if he be only an outgrowth of
the dumb forces of matter (the first article of the creed of these
“philosophers”), if he be governed solely and altogether, absolutely and
completely by an inexorable material law (the highest and the only law,
as they would have us believe), then, of course, their conclusion
inevitably follows--that it is both merciful and wise to put a man out of
his misery when he becomes a burden both to himself and his friends. There
is no place in the lofty and elevating system of Naturalism for a being
who cannot take care of himself.

Again: while Scepticism is rampant, and some are endeavouring to bring
back the Pagan notions of ancient nations, to galvanize into new life the
corrupt imbecilities of the past, men of science are making assertions and
assumptions of the boldest, if not of the wildest nature. One such
recently maintained the following proposition:--“Taking our earth, we
_know_ that millions of years have passed since she began to be peopled.”
Now, the maintainer of this assertion notoriously holds some peculiar
theories about the means by which the solar system (and consequently other
systems) was made, or rather grew. These theories, in some of their
details, are or may be founded upon certain more or less well-ascertained
facts. But when he uses the term “know,” we are bold to point out that
such an assertion rests on mere assumption.[7] We need facts,--facts
which could stand the careful investigation of persons skilled in taking
and measuring evidence; and secondly, we require to be reasonably
convinced that no other possible explanation of a difficulty be
forthcoming, except that on which his assumption is founded and his
inevitable conclusion (as he regards it) deduced. But how often with
scientific people the phrase “We know” stands for “This is our theory,” or
rather “This is our _present_ theory;” for scientific theories change very
frequently; and points which have been most dogmatically laid down at one
period have been with equal dogmatism condemned and repudiated at another,
by those who apparently strain every nerve and exercise every gift
bestowed upon them, to deny and cast out the Supernatural from amongst
mankind.

From the introduction to a volume of great interest (“The Maxims and
Examples of the Saints”), the following extract is taken, both because of
its inherent truth, and also because the Christian instinct in defence of
the Supernatural is so prominently and forcibly expressed in every line.
Mr. de Lisle’s words stand thus:--

“In these days of shallowness and scepticism, men pride themselves on
calling everything into question, as if they proved their claim to wisdom
according to the measure of their unbelief. But those who dive a little
deeper into things will not be so ready to admit the claims of modern
insolent writers. They will find that our ancestors had heads as sound,
judgments as cool and unprejudiced, at least, as any of these moderns; and
the more they examine, the more reasons will they find for attaching
weight to their testimony. In my intercourse abroad with divers holy
priests and religious monks, I have seen and heard enough to convince me
that many things take place in this world of a supernatural order. Nor do
I believe there ever has been a period in the history of the Church, when
our Lord has not borne testimony to her divine truth, and to the admirable
sanctity of many of her children, by evident and glorious miracles. This
is the faith of the Church; and who shall gainsay the teaching of that
society that carries with it the experience of eighteen centuries, the
immutable promises of God, the attestations of innumerable martyrs, and
the consent of nations? To him who believes the words of the holy Gospel,
‘The works that I do shall they do also, and greater than these,’ &c.
(speak not now to the unbeliever), the conclusion will be clear, and
humble faith will bow with submission. Keeping this promise in view, the
Christian will not find it difficult to believe even the most wonderful
histories in the lives of the Saints; at all events, his spirit will not
be that which loves to question everything, still less that which treats
the testimony of devout writers with levity or scorn. To the humble
observer of the ways of Divine Providence, enough occurs every day to
prepare him for any manifestation of the Power of God: not to say that
there is not a state in Christendom in which, even in our own times, many
wonderful miracles have not taken place. Witness the glorious appearance
of a vast cross of fire in the heavens at Migné, near Poictiers in France,
in the year 1826, in the month of December, an event which was attested on
oath before the bishop of the diocese by several thousand
eye-witnesses.[8] Josephus relates the prodigies that appeared in the
heavens before the downfall of Jerusalem: and who shall say that this
sublime apparition in France did not portend the approaching calamities
that have since fallen upon that kingdom and upon Europe? In the years
1830 and 1831, blood miraculously flowed from the arms of S. Nicholas, at
Tolentino in Italy, and the circumstance was solemnly attested by the
bishop, the clergy, and the magistrates of that city. History records
similar prodigies to have taken place at Tolentino whenever any calamities
were about to befall Christendom. S. Nicholas has been dead above 500
years. I myself had the consolation to visit his shrine; and I heard from
several individuals, with tears in their eyes, the affecting recital of
the miracle. Who does not call to mind the wonderful manifestations of
God’s power at Rome and at Ancona during the period of the French
Revolution, in the year 1792? Innumerable images of our Blessed Redeemer,
and of his Virgin Mother, were seen to move their eyes, and some even to
weep. Nor were these events seen only by a few, they were beheld and
attested by thousands.[9] The miracles that God has performed by means of
the holy Prince Hohenlohe are known to all, and some of them have been
wrought even in England. These are facts so notorious, that no one can
call them in question; nor is it in the power of profane ridicule to throw
doubt over their authenticity. At the same time, it will always be true
that the Catholic Church does not oblige her children to believe any
miracles but those recorded in the sacred Scriptures; she leaves it to
the discretion of each individual to ground his conviction on the
evidence which has come before him; though it would not be an act of
piety, or worthy of praise for anyone to speak lightly of such miracles as
have been honoured by the approbation of the Holy See.”

       *       *       *       *       *

As a mark of rapid theological decline, it may here be put on record, that
a recent writer, the author of “Supernatural Religion: an Inquiry into the
Reality of Divine Revelation” (Longman: 1874), sets forth his “views” (not
his “opinion,” least of all his faith, but his “views”) as follows:--

“The importance which has been attached to theology by the Christian
Church, almost from its foundation, has been subversive of Christian
morality. _In surrendering its miraculous element and its claims to
supernatural origin, therefore, the religion of Jesus does not lose its
virtue, or the qualities which have made it a blessing to humanity._ It
sacrifices none of that elevated character which has distinguished and
raised it above all human systems: _it merely relinquishes a claim which
it has shared with all antecedent religions, and severs its connection
with ignorant superstition_. It is too divine in its morality to require
the aid of miraculous attributes. No supernatural halo can heighten its
spiritual beauty, and no mysticism deepen its holiness. In its perfect
simplicity it is sublime, and in its profound wisdom it is eternal.

“_We gain infinitely more than we lose in abandoning belief in the reality
of Divine revelation._ Whilst we retain pure and unimpaired the treasure
of Christian morality, we relinquish nothing but the debasing elements
added to it by human superstition. _We are no longer bound to believe a
theology which outrages reason and moral sense._ We are freed from base
anthropomorphic views of God and His government of the universe; and from
Jewish theology we rise to higher conceptions of an infinitely wise and
beneficent Being, hidden from our finite minds, it is true, in the
impenetrable glory of Divinity, but whose laws of wondrous
comprehensiveness and perfection we ever perceive in operation around us.
_We are no longer disturbed by visions of fitful interference with the
order of Nature_, but we recognize that the Being who regulates the
universe is without variableness or shadow of turning. It is singular how
little there is in the supposed revelation of alleged information, however
incredible, regarding that which is beyond the limits of human thought;
but that little is of a character which reason declares to be the ‘wildest
delusion.’ Let no man, whose belief in the reality of Divine Revelation
may be destroyed by such inquiry, complain that he has lost a precious
possession, and that nothing is left but a blank. _The revelation not
being a reality_, that which he has lost was but an illusion, and that
which is left is the truth.”

In another volume recently written by Mr. Congreve, the Positivist, the
author maintains in the plainest possible language, what is the immediate
and practical object of the small sect to which he has allied
himself:--“The professed servants of Humanity must lead in the struggle to
eliminate God; and that this is the essential element in the whole
existing perplexity is forcing itself upon all.” Again, man’s duty is said
to be “openly and avowedly to take service in one or the other of the
opposing camps; to bring face to face the two beliefs; the belief in the
Past, the belief in God, and the belief in the Future, the belief in
Humanity; and to choose deliberately between them.” Furthermore, he avers:
“We contemplate the Trinity of our religion, Humanity, the World, and
Space.” A Christian critic has made the following terse comments on Mr.
Congreve’s book:--

“The chief feeling which possesses us in reading these Essays is one of
sorrow for the writer. It is really sad that a man of education should
lend himself to such a delusion. The ‘Religion’ itself is ridiculous;
indeed it has not so much as a theory. Not even on paper can its doctrines
be stated, for the simple reason that it has no doctrines whatever. But
it is always melancholy to watch a naturally good intellect under the sway
of a fantastic idea, or to see an educated gentleman writing 500 pages on
the ‘Worship’ of what does not exist. The sensation of the reader, as he
turns page after page, is expressed in such an inquiry as this: Since the
writer himself believes in nothing whatever, how can he invite my
conversion?”



THE MIRACULOUS IN CHURCH HISTORY.


“And He said unto them, Go ye into all the World, and preach the Gospel to
every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he
that believeth not shall be damned.

“And these signs shall follow them that believe: In My Name shall they
cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up
serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they
shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover.”--_S. Mark_ xvi.
15-18.



CHAPTER II.

THE MIRACULOUS IN CHURCH HISTORY.


The important subject of the Miraculous in Church History sufficiently
well known to students of it, involves the existence of a religious
principle of universal application. This will be apparent, in due course,
from the following preliminary considerations:--“A miracle,” writes Hume,
“is a violation of the laws of Nature; and, as a firm and unalterable
experience has established these laws, the proof against a miracle is as
entire as any argument from experience can possibly be imagined.”[10]
Further on, he declares “that a miracle supported by any human testimony
is more properly a subject of derision than of argument.”[11] On these
statements, definite and precise as they appear, and yet not sufficiently
definite, it may be remarked in the first place that no human experience
is unalterable: it may to a certain person or certain persons have been
hitherto unaltered. But this is all. Are there then no facts beyond our
experience--no natural positions or states with which we are unacquainted?
When a man writes of “unalterable experience,” he obviously means so much
of that experience, as either mediately or immediately has come to his
knowledge; in other words his own past experience.[12] And this Hume
declares sufficient to enable him to determine what are the unvarying laws
of Nature, and, by consequence, what are miracles. But surely here is
something akin to arrogance. For what modest person would venture to
maintain his own experience to be altogether and absolutely firm and
unalterable? Who would declare of a witness, who testified, for example,
what was contrary to that experience, that such a man was worthy only of
disbelief and derision? And yet many, in the present day, adopt and put
into practice this unstable and imperfect theory of Hume.

What has been set forth above in opposition to that theory is still more
pointedly expressed in the following remarkable passage:

“The natural philosopher when he imagines a physical impossibility which
is not an inconceiveability, merely states that his phenomenon is against
all that has been hitherto known of the course of Nature. Before he can
compass an impossibility, he has a huge postulate to ask of his reader or
hearer, a postulate which Nature never taught: it is that the Future is
always to agree with the Past. How do you know that this sequence of
phenomena always will be? Answer, Because it must be. But how do you know
that it must be? Answer, Because it always has been. But then, even
granting that it always has been, how do you know that what always has
been always will be? Answer, I see my mind compelled to that conclusion.
And how do you know that the leanings of your mind are always towards
truth? Because I am infallible, the answer ought to be; but this answer is
never given.”[13]

Of course no Christian will deny the following elementary propositions
here briefly stated, before the general subject is further discussed.
First that man consists of body and soul, the nobler and more important
part being the soul, which is spiritual, immortal, and eternal. God, the
Creator of all things, is a Spirit; and, in this particular, man is made
in the image of God. Destined to dwell on the earth for a while, during an
appointed period of probation, man passes by death, which is a temporary
separation of soul and body, to the life beyond the grave. Man’s duty
here, therefore, ought to fit and prepare him for a future state, and
teach him better the value of his soul and the reality of the
Supernatural.

Now the Almighty, in calling man into being here, and making him “lord of
the whole earth,” giving him, in fact, dominion over the beasts of the
field, the fowls of the air, and the fishes of the sea, has established in
connection with him a two-fold order, the natural, which relates to the
visible world, and the Supernatural or miraculous, which concerns the
spiritual and invisible. The natural order comprises the law of nature, by
which the World created by God is governed, and concerns man in his
dealings with nature. But the Supernatural concerns him in his relations
with God and the world of spirits. Both orders are alike from God, and
each has its appointed sphere. The Author of both is the controller of
each. And, as if to indicate to man from time to time that God has
something to say in His own creation, and will not be totally excluded
from it by man’s forgetfulness, the Supernatural is wisely and mercifully
interwoven with the natural, to remind man, by the Glimpses occasionally
vouchsafed of the former, that, though the World has been made for his use
and advantage, many things in it speak eloquently of a continued existence
in the future, though now the same World’s fashion most surely passeth
away. How prone man becomes, by constantly contemplating the natural, to
thrust the Supernatural aside, is the experience of many. And this being
so, how merciful is God to remind us of the next world, not only by the
ordinary modes and channels appointed for so doing, by change, by
revelation, by death; but occasionally by suddenly, strangely, and
abruptly breaking in upon the usual order of events, and the ordinary
course of nature, to let us see with our natural eyes, and hear with our
ears, that He is. Thus the Supernatural indicates the tracing of the
Finger of God. Freely, and for a lofty purpose, to set forth His glory,
power, and mercy, He created the laws of nature; freely, and for a like
lofty purpose, He sometimes suspends them. Such intervention on His part,
such a suspension, is a miracle, which may be defined as “a record and
evidence of the Supernatural manifesting itself in the midst of the
natural order;” or, as S. Thomas Aquinas so clearly and ably defined it of
old, “A miracle is an act performed by God out of the ordinary course of
nature.” In accepting this, we do but maintain that God alone is the
Author and Controller of all laws, whether natural or supernatural.
Historical Christianity calls upon us to believe, firstly, the great
principle that miracles are possible; and, secondly, that those recorded
in Holy Scripture, ranging from the time of Moses to that of S. John the
Divine, are true. Other miracles or miraculous interventions rest upon the
value, purport, and character of the evidence and testimony forthcoming
for their authenticity. They are all equally possible, because all are
acts of the Almighty; but they are not all equally credible, because the
evidence of their authenticity may be of a less precise, definite, and
well-authenticated character.

To assert, as some do, that a miraculous intervention implies change or
contradiction in God, is inaccurate; for in His works surely He may
exercise that liberty which is one of His perfections. Were man’s range of
vision wider than it is, the working of a miracle might be found to be,
after all, only the realization and carrying out of God’s original design
and primary purpose. Again, from the point of view of another objection,
to maintain that we cannot know what a miracle is, or whether any miracle
has been ever wrought, without being acquainted with _all_ the laws of
nature, is likewise inaccurate; for we know enough, both of the natural
and supernatural, to be perfectly certain that it is out of the ordinary
course of nature for a dead man to come to life again. While, then, such a
miracle teaches us to acknowledge the power of God, it may, at the same
time, serve to let the Materialist realize his own possible ignorance of
the laws of nature. For after all there may be some hidden law, as yet
unknown, which may contradict a known law, and so modify it--a probability
which is at least deserving of the consideration of those who altogether
deny the Supernatural.

As regards miracles, let the well-known argument of the great S.
Augustine of Hippo be considered: “Christianity,” he writes, “was either
founded by miracles, or it was not. If it was, then miracles exist. If it
was not, then this is the greatest of all miracles, viz. that a religion
so radically contrarient to all human prejudices, and so much resisted by
all human influence, should, without the aid of miracles, have made its
place and assured its progress in the world.” If, again, the only evidence
that a person will admit is that of his own personal experience, that he
must himself witness a miracle; that, like S. Thomas, he will maintain,
“Except I shall see ... I will not believe,” has he not power of mind
enough to appreciate the fact that he is in every way unreasonable, by
demanding for himself that which he altogether refuses to admit in others?

But, in truth, the miracles of our Blessed Lord, and more particularly the
miracle of His Resurrection, were so striking and convincing, being
testified to, both as regards their act and consequences, by so many, that
they produced both conviction and triumph. Not universally, but with a
sufficient number of persons to ensure the steady increase of the infant
Church--though the very miracles which wrought such a vast moral and
religious change, were rejected by the unbelievers of the day.

In the Church of the primitive, as well as in later, ages, the
Supernatural was being constantly manifested. The apostles proved the
divinity of their mission by the power of their works. The miracles
recorded in the “Acts of the Apostles” were followed by others equally
marvellous and remarkable in succeeding periods--a feature that might have
been most reasonably looked for in the history of Christianity, for the
very life and spirit of the Church are supernatural.[14] Persecuted in
every age, she has risen again. After being cast down, driven from this
place in one century, she has made still greater progress elsewhere in
another. For the first three hundred years of her existence, and in the
very heart of the world’s civilization, Rome, every patriarchal primate of
that Holy See died a witness to the truths of Christianity. The ordinary
supernatural powers of our Lord’s first followers were duly inherited by
those formally set apart to fill their place and office. Men freely
testified to what they had seen and heard. As occasion seemed to need it,
the divine power was duly manifested in outward, notable, and noted
acts,--to the truth and reality of which even Profane History has
abundantly witnessed.

While in the records of the Christian Church there is an almost constant
tradition of miraculous facts. The tale of every century is rife with
them. They were to have been anticipated, because He had spoken Whose Word
shall never fail, and His promise seems to have been always remembered:
“Verily, verily I say unto you, He that believeth on Me, the works that I
do he shall do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I
go unto My Father.”[15] Consequently it is found that many of the later
miracles, those termed “ecclesiastical,” in distinction to scriptural, are
even more remarkable than those wrought by our Blessed Lord Himself--a
fact which, instead of deserving ridicule and contempt, merits, from
persons of a Christian habit of mind, patient consideration, and a
careful, if not a ready, acceptance. For in such the faithful will only
perceive a perfect realization of their Master’s divine pledge.

To take a notable example of the miraculous occurring towards the close of
the second century (A.D. 174), testified to, as far as the fact of the
miracle is concerned, by at least four independent Pagan writers,
Dionysius Cassius, Julius Capitolinus, Ælius Lampridius, and Claudian.

Eusebius, in his “Ecclesiastical History,”[16] puts on record the
following account of a most remarkable event:[17]--“It is said that when
Marcus Aurelius Cæsar was forming his troops in order of battle against
the Germans and Sarmatians, he was reduced to extremities by a failure of
water. Meanwhile the soldiers in the so-called ‘Melitene legion,’ which
for its faith remains to this day, knelt down upon the ground, as we are
accustomed to do, in prayer, and betook themselves to supplication. And
whereas this sight was strange to the enemy, another still more strange
happened immediately--thunderbolts which caused the enemy’s flight and
overthrow; and upon the army to which the men were attached, who had
called upon God, a rain, which restored it entirely when it was all but
perishing by thirst.” This fact had been previously put on record by
Claudius Apollinaris,[18] Bishop of Hierapolis, in his “Apology for
Christianity,” addressed about the year 176 to the Emperor Marcus.
Tertullian, about fifteen years later, affirms the truth of the same fact
when addressing the Proconsul of Africa. Each of these writers gives point
to the narrative, the first by recording that henceforth the term
“Thundering Legion” was applied to that in which the Christian soldiers
had prayed: the second by his statement that the Emperor had, in
consequence, promulgated an edict in favour of the Christians. It is clear
from Eusebius, likewise, that the Pagans acknowledged the miracle, as they
could not fail to do, wrought as it was in the presence of so many; but,
of course, they denied that it was to be attributed to the prayers of the
Christians. Julius Capitolinus attributed it to the prayers of the
Emperor;[19] Dionysius Cassius to the operations of Arnuphis, an Egyptian
magician.[20] A record of the unquestioned fact, however, is sculptured on
the Antonine column at Rome;[21] a medal, struck the very year of the
occurrence, likewise commemorates the event. Here, then, we find on record
an occurrence which ordinary people will call a miracle; here we obtain a
distinct example of the Supernatural. In answer to the prayers of certain
Roman soldiers, sons and servants of the Crucified, palpable benefits are
vouchsafed, and marvellous deliverances effected. The foe is destroyed,
and they are rescued. And this fact is testified to by Pagans worthy of
credit as well as by Christians, and is put on record in the modes already
set forth.

Another example, the appearance of a luminous Cross to Constantine (A.D.
312), must here be given, because of its inherent importance; because the
testimony to its having occurred before so many is very general; and
because the moral and religious changes consequent upon it, results that
both immediately and eventually followed, have been at once great and
notorious:--

The conversion of the Roman empire, in the person of its head, was the
most remarkable event in the early pages of Christian history.
“Constantine’s submission of his power to the Church,” writes Dr. Newman,
“has been a pattern for all Christian monarchs since, and the
commencement of our state establishment to this day; and, on the other
hand, the fortunes of the Roman Empire are in prophecy apparently
connected with her in a very intimate manner, which we are not yet able
fully to comprehend. If any event might be said to call for a miracle it
was this; whether to signalize it, or to bring it about. Thus it was that
the fate of Babylon was written on the wall of the banqueting-hall; also
portents in the sky preceded the final destruction of Jerusalem, and are
predicted in Scripture as forerunners of the last great day. Moreover our
Lord’s prophecy of ‘the Sign of the Son of Man in Heaven’ was anciently
understood of the Cross. And further, the sign of the Cross was at the
time, and had been from the beginning, a received symbol and instrument of
Christian devotion, and cannot be ascribed to a then rising superstition.
Tertullian speaks of it as an ordinary rite for sanctifying all the
ordinary events of the day; it was used in exorcisms; and, what is still
more to the point, it is regarded by S. Justin, Tertullian, and Minucius
as impressed with a providential meaning upon natural forms and human
works, as well as introduced by divine authority into the types of the Old
Testament.”[22]

The supernatural manner in which the Emperor’s conversion was
accomplished may be thus recorded. Marching from the border of the Rhine,
through Gaul and part of Italy by Verona to Rome, against the tyrant
Maxentius, who had declared war against him, and was already near Rome
with a largely superior force, Constantine solemnly and earnestly invoked
the One True God, the God of the Christians, for assistance and victory.
At that period he was not a Christian himself, though he had no doubt
accurately enough measured the true character of Roman paganism. A short
time after midday, upon his march, there appeared in the heavens[23] a
large luminous Cross in sight of himself and the whole of his army, with
the inscription surrounding it, “In this conquer.” On the following night
it is recorded that our Blessed Lord appeared to him in a dream, or, as
some say, a vision, and commanded him to have a representation of the sign
made, and to use it henceforth as his chief standard in battle. The
Emperor, rising early the next morning, announced this vision and message
to his confidential friends, and at once gave orders for the making of the
imperial standard.[24] This being done, fifty men of the stoutest and
most religious of his guards were chosen to carry it. And, surrounded by
these, it was borne immediately before the Emperor himself. The Christian
soldiers were full of faith and hope. They saw the Finger of God, and
looked for victory.

On the other hand the army of Maxentius, consisting of three divisions of
veteran soldiers, esteemed the most efficient in the empire, engaged
Constantine in the Quintian fields near the bridge Milvius. The attack was
fast and furious. But the aggressors were at all points met with vigour
and bravery, and soon succumbed and were in retreat. Constantine, with far
fewer numbers than those opposed to him, was completely victorious; the
legions of Maxentius were scattered or slain, and on the same day, with
the sacred Labarum (as the imperial standard in question was termed) borne
before him, he entered Rome in triumph. His conversion to Christianity
soon followed upon his victory. In his triumph he dropped the old customs
of his Pagan predecessors. He neither mounted the Capitol, nor offered
sacrifices to the deities of Rome, but by suitable inscriptions recorded
his belief in the power of Christ’s saving Cross. In his palace at
Constantinople, as well as in the chief square of that city, the sacred
sign was at once set up; and medals were struck, with representations of
the symbol in question upon them, to commemorate both the victory and his
own religious change. This occurred about A.D. 312.

Here then we find the record of a distinctively supernatural intervention.
No known physical cause could have formed a sentence of Greek or Latin in
the air. Nor could a whole army have mistaken a Cross, with its
corresponding and appropriate inscription, for a halo of light, or a mere
natural phenomenon. Moreover: three years after the event, Constantine
erected his triumphal arch at Rome, with an inscription, which still
remains, testifying that he had gained the victory “instinctu divinitatis,
mentis magnitudine.” Lactantius, likewise, in his treatise “De mortibus
Persecutorum” (if it be his book, though some attribute it to Cæcilius),
asserts the main facts of the case as regards the dream, describing the
“heavenly sign of God;” and this in a treatise certainly written within
two years of its occurrence. Seven years later, Nazarius, a Pagan orator,
in a panegyric on the Emperor, also puts upon record his solemn conviction
that celestial aid was miraculously rendered to Constantine in his defeat
of Maxentius. Thus far those who were not Christians testify to the fact
under consideration. On the other hand, Eusebius, who received the account
from Constantine himself (who is known to have confirmed it with an
oath), gives that record of the occurrence which has been already set
forth--and he was notoriously an historian who had small leaning towards
over-belief. While the reasonable conclusion, therefore, is that so many
independent writers and records of the fact could not have been made to
conspire in disseminating a falsehood; the action of the Emperor which
followed the event was in perfect harmony with that which might have been
looked for under the circumstances narrated--the supernatural appearance
of a luminous Cross, heralding a change, even the triumph of the Religion
of Christ over the effete systems of a decaying and decayed idolatry.

The principle which was manifested in these cases is, through the study of
history, likewise seen to have existed and energized in every part of the
Church. Everywhere, from time to time, the proximity of the unseen world
and the existence of the Supernatural were made manifest: while, here and
there, examples of special miraculous interventions evidently stood forth
to show that neither the Arm of the Most High was shortened nor the faith
of the followers of our Blessed Lord stunted in its growth. In fact
miracles of the most remarkable character have been performed from the age
of the apostles to the present time: while Glimpses of the Supernatural
have been granted to many as partially unfolding the mysteries of the
Unseen World to those who longed and prayed for the same; by which
glimpses or visions their faith has been deepened and their conviction of
the truths of Christianity most surely strengthened. Just as our Blessed
Saviour, following Moses, constantly appealed to the prodigies He wrought
in attestation of His divine mission and in support of His doctrine; so
was it with His followers who came after Him. For to them He had promised
as much. So far therefore from confining the power of working miracles to
His own person and time, He expressly pledged himself and promised that
His servants and ambassadors should receive power to work still greater
works.[25] Just as under the laws of Nature and the written law given by
Moses, the Almighty was pleased to illustrate the society of His chosen
servants with frequent miracles, so we are led to expect that the One
Family of God should be for ever distinguished by occasional miracles
wrought in and through her, as a standing proof of her divine origin and
as a guide to the wanderers beyond the confines of her fold. And thus it
comes to pass that the Fathers and Teachers of the Church, amongst other
proofs of her favour, have constantly appealed to the miracles by which
she is illustrated as a proof of her heavenly mission, and as marking her
off, at the same time, from the various hereticks and schismaticks who,
going out from her, were not of her. For example S. Irenæus, a disciple of
S. Polycarp, himself a disciple of S. John the Evangelist, reproaches the
Hereticks against whom he writes in his well-known treatise,[26] that they
could neither give sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, cast out
devils, nor raise the dead to life again, as he maintains was frequently
done in the Church. Tertullian, a contemporary of his, writing of the
hereticks, asks, “I wish to see the miracles which they have worked.” S.
Pacian, in the fourth century, opposing Novatus, and considering his
claims, scornfully inquires, “Has he the gift of tongues, or of prophecy?
Has he restored to life the dead?” S. Augustine of Hippo, in numerous
passages of his works, refers to the miracles wrought by and through and
in the Church as most important if not conclusive evidence of her heavenly
character and veracity.

Again: In the middle of the fourth century occurred that most wonderful
miracle, when the Emperor Julian deliberately attempted to rebuild the
Temple at Jerusalem, with the express intention of disproving the prophet
Daniel’s[27] utterance concerning it. Then tempests, whirlwinds,
earthquakes, and fiery eruptions convulsed the scene of the undertaking,
maiming and alarming the persistent workmen, throwing down buildings in
the neighbourhood, as Rufinus testifies, and rendering the carrying on of
the work a sheer physical impossibility. A luminous Cross surrounded by a
circle, indicating that to the Crucified was given all power in heaven
and earth, and showing that the Word of God could never fail, nor be
brought to nought by the vain determinations of men, appeared in the
sky,--a portent witnessed by thousands, and testified to both by Pagan and
Arian, as well as by Christian writers.[28]

Furthermore, in the following century, another miracle took place at
Typassus or Typasa in Africa, where a large congregation of Christians,
being assembled in divine worship, in opposition to the decree of the
Arian tyrant Hunneric, they were collected in the Forum, in the presence
of the whole province, their right hands were chopped off, and their
tongues cut out to the roots by his command; yet, nevertheless they
continued to speak as plainly and perfectly as they had done before the
barbarous mutilation in question.

This is vouched for by Victor, Bishop of Vite, in the following
words:--“The king in wrath sent a certain count with directions to hold a
meeting in the Forum, of the whole province, and there to cut out their
tongues by the root, and to cut off their right hands. When this was
done, they so spoke and speak, by the gift of the Holy Ghost, as they used
to speak before. If, however, anyone will be incredulous, let him now go
to Constantinople, and there he will find one of them, Reparatus a
subdeacon, speaking like an educated man without any impediment
whatsoever. On which account he is regarded with exceeding great
veneration in the court of the Emperor Zeno, and specially by the
Empress.”[29]

Now, this miracle is remarkable for various reasons. The witnesses to its
authenticity are varied, both as to their persons and the details of their
testimony, which testimony is both consistent and at one on all important
and material points. Moreover, the evidence on behalf of the miracle is
very complete: the number of persons upon whom it was wrought was more
than considerable; thus, at the same time, increasing the occasion of
valid testimony in its favour, and preventing the interposition of what
some persons term “chance.” Furthermore, the miracle is entire; for, as
Dr. Newman remarks, “it carried its whole case with it to every beholder:”
it is also permanent, that is, it continued to indicate its effects before
thousands, whose inquiries, public investigations, and conclusions must
have exercised considerable weight with those who were prepared to accept
it.[30]

In this brief survey of the miraculous, it is impossible even to touch on
the more remarkable evidences of the Supernatural as set forth in the
History of the Christian Church. Numerous miracles are recorded by S.
Basil, S. Gregory Thaumaturgus, S. Athanasius, S. Jerome, S. Chrysostom,
S. Ambrose, and S. Augustine, as well as by other illustrious Fathers and
Church Historians who adorned the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries of
the Christian era. One, however, related by both the last-named, by S.
Ambrose and S. Augustine, deserves notice, because both those holy bishops
were eye-witnesses of it. A cloth in which the relics of SS. Gervasius and
Protasius had been wrapped was applied to the eyes of a blind man, who
thereupon received his sight.[31] S. Augustine likewise gives an account
of numerous miracles wrought in his own diocese of Hippo,--some through
the instrumentality of the sacred remains of S. Stephen, others in answer
to earnest prayer: while three of the miracles so recorded by him are the
raising of three dead bodies to life.

The miracles recorded to have been wrought by S. Basil, S. Athanasius, S.
Jerome, S. John Chrysostom, S. Ambrose, and S. Augustine (and, in this
particular, he who runs may read) testify clearly and sufficiently to the
Divine power which existed in the Church Universal in the times of those
holy saints, and the rich fruits of which were both seen and tested by the
faithful. One of the most remarkable was the verification of the Wood of
the Cross, after its discovery by S. Helena, A.D. 326, through the
convincing miracle wrought upon a dead man, who, on being touched by it,
was immediately restored to life.

And so soon as the Religion of Christ was brought to Britain by our great
Apostle and Archbishop S. Augustine, “greater works than these” followed,
as a matter of course, when the banner of the cross was unfurled upon the
coasts of Kent. That this was so, that many miracles were wrought, we
learn from a Letter written by S. Gregory the Great to S. Augustine,
embodied in the well-known “History” of the Venerable Bede, and preserved
amongst S. Gregory’s “Works,” in which the Archbishop is duly and lovingly
cautioned against becoming too much elated with vain glory, because of
these marked manifestations of Divine power and favour; and is reminded
that God Almighty had, no doubt, bestowed the gift of working them, not on
the Archbishop’s own account, or for his own merit, but for the conversion
of the English nation.[32]

So, through every succeeding age, were Glimpses afforded of the
Supernatural. For example, S. Bernard, perhaps the most illustrious saint
of the twelfth century, in the “Life of S. Malachi of Armagh,” records the
miraculous cure of the withered hand of a youth, by the dead hand of his
holy friend S. Malachi. But nothing can exceed the splendour and publicity
of the miracles of S. Bernard himself,--to the reality of which the
faithful of France and Switzerland, as well as those of Germany and Italy,
bore abundant testimony. Princes and prelates, kings and priests were
witnesses of his supernatural power; for, like his Lord and Master, he
wrought instantaneous cures on the lame, the halt, and the blind, in the
presence of multitudes, and to the great spread and triumph of the Faith.
Of those worked at Cologne, Philip, Archdeacon of Liége, who was formally
commissioned to inquire and report upon them by Lampeon, Archbishop of
Rheims, declared as follows: that “they were not performed in a corner,
but the whole city was witness to them. If anyone,” he adds, “doubts or is
curious, he may easily satisfy himself on the spot, more especially as
some of the miracles were wrought upon persons of no inconsiderable rank
and reputation.”[33] Moreover, S. Bernard himself distinctly refers to
them in one of his most celebrated treatises, “De Consideratione,”
addressed to Pope Eugenius III., and maintains that the evidence of God’s
special graces and exceptional blessings thus resting upon him, enabled
him to feel sufficient confidence of the Divine aid and benediction to
enter upon the grave and laborious task of preaching the Second Crusade.

And if we proceed onward to the sixteenth century, where in some places,
and especially amongst the northern nations of Europe, Faith began to wax
cold, and Charity was not, we find, from History, that the miracles of
Francis Xavier, the saintly apostle of India, may almost vie with those
of the great S. Bernard, for they were as numerous and as inherently
remarkable; while the testimony as to their truth, reality, and
influence[34] was generally acknowledged by the faithful, as well as by
Protestants.

In truth, wherever the Catholic religion has been taught and accepted,
wherever the Name of Jesus has been loved and venerated, wherever faith in
the Unseen has been active and daring, there the Finger of God has
sometimes been manifested. And this, of course, was to have been expected.
Our Blessed Saviour’s glorious and unfailing promise, that His disciples,
with whom He pledged Himself to remain unto the end of the world, should
do even “greater works” than He Himself had wrought, was thus, from time
to time, as man’s faith merited God Almighty’s intervention, literally and
strictly fulfilled.



SPIRITUAL POWERS AND PROPERTIES OF THE CHURCH.


“When a man holds up to my conscious eye the page of futurity; or when, at
the mandate of a mortal, I clearly perceive Nature to listen and to
suspend her laws, I rationally conclude that such a man is indeed employed
by God. These miraculous and prophetical tests, produced by the ancient
seer to the Israelites, appealed to by Christ in His own sacred cause, and
made over by Him to His ministers for ever in the work of conversion, have
been a means to guide the enquiring soul to that Authority
divinely-commissioned to teach the World. This power to deliver the
dictates of the Holy Spirit, this society of continued apostles, or in
other words, the Holy Catholic Church in every age, has proved by the
evidence of actual miracles her possession of this gift presented to her
by her Divine Founder.”



CHAPTER III.

SPIRITUAL POWERS AND PROPERTIES OF THE CHURCH.


It is allowed on all hands by Catholic Christians that liberty has been
sometimes permitted to the devil or his angels to enter into the bodies of
men (just as of old Satan was allowed to try the patriarch Job), and to
obtain such an absolute command over their powers and faculties as to
incapacitate them, more or less, for any of the common duties of life. On
this point, those who accept the Written Word of God as a portion, and a
very important portion, of His Divine Revelation to mankind, through
Christ, can have no doubt. In the New Testament, numerous instances of
possession by evil spirits are recorded.

The case of the daughter of the woman of Canaan, who cried out to our
Blessed Saviour, “Have mercy upon me, O Lord, Thou Son of David, my
daughter is grievously vexed with a devil,”[35] and obtained from Him the
gracious and merciful reply, “Be it unto thee even as thou wilt,” is
familiar to all.

So likewise is that of the man with an unclean spirit, recorded in the
first chapter of the Gospel according to S. Mark. Here the spirit
acknowledging that Christ was the “Holy One of God,” received the rebuke
of Jesus Christ. “And when the unclean spirit had torn” the man suffering,
“and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him. And they were all
amazed, insomuch that they questioned among themselves, saying, What thing
is this? What new doctrine is this? for with authority commandeth He even
the unclean spirits, and they do obey Him.”

Again we read, “Unclean spirits, when they saw Him, fell down before Him,
and cried saying, Thou art the Son of God.”[36] And when His apostles were
called and formally ordained, it is written that they were “to have power
to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils,” power which in due course
both the Gospels and the recorded History of the Church assure us was duly
exercised.

Another miraculous intervention, by which our Blessed Saviour manifested
His divine power over evil spirits, and freed suffering men from their
frightful influence, is here given from S. Mark’s Gospel at length: “When
He was come out of the ship, immediately there met Him out of the tombs a
man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no
man could bind him, no not with chains: because that he had often been
bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by
him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him. And
always, day and night, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying
and cutting himself with stones. And when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran
and worshipped Him, and cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to
do with Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of the Most High God? I adjure Thee by God
that Thou torment me not. For He said unto him, Come out of the man, thou
unclean spirit. And He asked him, What is thy name? And he answered,
saying, My name is Legion, for we are many. And he besought Him much that
He would not send him away out of the country. Now there was nigh unto the
mountains a great herd of swine feeding. And all the devils besought Him,
saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter unto them. And forthwith
Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into
the swine; and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea
(they were about two thousand), and were choked in the sea. And they that
fed the swine fled, and told it in the city and in the country. And they
went out to see what it was that was done. And they came to Jesus, and see
him that was possessed of the devil, and had the legion, sitting and
clothed and in his right mind.”[37]

With these solemn and awful facts before us, it is impossible to doubt
either of the power or influence of the devil and his angels. That such
power had been known amongst the ancient nations, and that certain persons
had entered into compacts or alliances with evil spirits, seems to be
generally admitted. And although the fact of the Incarnation had sorely
crippled the influence of the enemy of souls, it is clear from the last
promise given by our Lord to His apostles, “In My Name they shall cast out
devils,” that such authority and action would still be needed. For
possessions were not to cease, as a reference to the Acts of the Apostles
shows: where it is recorded that the very authority bestowed by our
Blessed Saviour was actually and efficiently exercised; and there is no
reasonable evidence to show that such divinely-bestowed powers have ever
ceased. All through the History of the Church, here and there, from time
to time, as man needed and as God willed, such direct supernatural powers
as those referred to, appear to have been put into operation. For the
Church can bless and the Church can curse. The Church can bind and can
loose. She can commend to the protection of God Almighty and His holy
angels, and she can deliver over to Satan. She can bestow light and peace
on her true and faithful children, and send out the disobedient and
impenitent beyond the consecrated confines of her spiritual powers and
graces. As effects of Christ’s most gracious promise, such ordinary and
extraordinary works were wrought; for the glory of His great Name, and as
a testimony of the truth of the Church Universal.

For generations, up to the very earliest age of Christianity, there have
been officers of the Church duly set apart and ordained for the particular
work of exorcism. Amongst the minor orders of Western Christendom the
exorcist has always found a place; and although, in later years, this
special work, when undertaken, has been more frequently done by persons in
the higher or sacred orders, yet the very office itself, and its title, as
well as the existing forms for casting out evil spirits, abundantly attest
the Church’s divine and spiritual powers.

In countries which are specially and eminently Christian, where churches,
sanctuaries, and religious houses are numerous; where, by the road-side
and on the hill-top, stand the signs and symbols of the Faith of
Christendom; where the Sacrament of Baptism is shed upon so many; where
post-baptismal sin is remitted by those who have authority and
jurisdiction to bind and loose in the Name of their Master; and where the
Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, God manifest in the Flesh, reposing in the
tabernacle, or borne in triumph through aisle and street and garden,
hallows and feeds the faithful--there the power and influence of the Evil
One is circumscribed and weakened. Sacred oil for unction, and holy water
and the life-giving power of the Cross, and the relics of the beatified as
well as of the favoured and crowned servants of the Crucified, make the
devils flee away, and efficiently curb their power. Hence it is found that
in countries where the Catholic Faith has been halved or rejected,
Superstition has taken the place of the first theological virtue, Faith;
and the Prince of the Powers of the air comes back again with his evil and
malignant spirits to vex mankind anew,[38] and mar and stay the final
triumph of Him to Whom all power is given in heaven and in earth.

A remarkable case of the Supernatural will here be put on record, which
occurred in the diocese of Exeter during the seventeenth century.
Preliminary inquiries and comments concerning the various incidents would
be obviously out of place; for the well-authenticated story itself is
unfolded with a simplicity and yet with a power which efficiently serve to
stamp it as true.

“About 152 years since,” writes Mr. Fortescue Hitchins, in his “History of
Cornwall,” “a ghost is said to have made its appearance in this parish[39]
(Little Petherick[40]), in a field about half a mile from Botaden or
Botathen (in that county). In the narrative which is given of this
occurrence, it is said to have been seen by a son of Mr. Bligh, aged about
sixteen, by his father and mother, and by the Rev. John Ruddle, master of
the grammar school of Launceston, and one of the prebendaries of Exeter,
and vicar of Alternon. The relation given by Mr. Ruddle is in substance as
follows:--

“Young Mr. Bligh, a lad of bright parts and of no common attainments,
became on a sudden pensive, dejected, and melancholy. His friends
observing the change, without being able to discover the cause, attributed
his behaviour to laziness--an aversion to school--or to some other motive
which they suspected he was ashamed to discover. He was, however, induced
after some time to inform his brother that in a field through which he
passed to and from school he was invariably met by the apparition of a
woman whom he personally knew while living, and who had been dead about
eight years. Ridicule, threats, and persuasions were alike used in vain by
the family to induce him to dismiss these absurd ideas. Mr. Ruddle was
however sent for, to whom the lad ingenuously communicated the time,
manner, and frequency of this appearance. It was in a field called ‘Higher
Bloomfield.’ The apparition, he said, appeared dressed in female attire,
met him two or three times while he passed through the field, glided
hastily by him, but never spoke. He had thus been occasionally met about
two months before he took any particular notice of it: at length the
appearance became more frequent, meeting him both morning and evening, but
always in the same field, yet invariably moving out of the path when it
came close by him. He often spoke, but could never get any reply. To avoid
this unwelcome visitor he forsook the field, and went to school and
returned from it through a lane, in which place between the quarry-park
and nursery it always met him.

“Unable to disbelieve the evidence of his senses, or to obtain credit with
any of his family, he prevailed upon Mr. Ruddle to accompany him to the
place. ‘I arose,’ says this clergyman, ‘the next morning, and went with
him. The field to which he led me I guessed to be about twenty acres, in
an open country, and about three furlongs from any house. We went into
the field, and had not gone a third part before the _spectrum_, in the
shape of a woman, with all the circumstances that he had described the day
before, so far as the suddenness of its appearance and transition would
permit me to discover, passed by.

“‘I was a little impressed at it, and, though I had taken up a firm
resolution to speak to it, I had not the power, nor durst I look back; yet
I took care not to show any fear to my pupil and guide; and therefore,
telling him that I was satisfied in the truth of his statement, we walked
to the end of the field, and returned: nor did the ghost meet us that time
but once.

“‘On the 27th July, I went to the haunted field by myself, and walked the
breadth of it without any encounter. I then returned, and took the other
walk, and then the spectre appeared to me, when about the same place in
which I saw it when the young gentleman was with me. It appeared to move
swifter than before, and seemed to me about ten feet from me on my right
hand, insomuch that I had not time to speak to it as I had determined with
myself beforehand. The evening of this day the parents, the son, and
myself being in the chamber where I lay, I proposed to them our going to
the place next morning; we accordingly met at the stile we had appointed;
thence we all four walked into the field together. We had not gone more
than half the field before the ghost made its appearance. It then came
over the stile just before us, and moved with such rapidity, that by the
time it had gone six or seven steps, it passed by. I immediately turned my
head and ran after it, with the young man by my side. We saw it pass over
the stile at which we entered, and no farther. I stepped upon the hedge at
one place, and the young man at another, but we could discern nothing;
whereas I do aver that the swiftest horse in England could not have
conveyed himself out of sight in that short space of time. Two things I
observed in this day’s appearance; first a spaniel dog, which had followed
the company unregarded, barked and ran away as the _spectrum_ passed by:
whence it is easy to conclude that it was not our fear and fancy which
made the apparition; secondly the motion of the _spectrum_ was not
_gradatim_ or by steps, or moving of the feet, but by a kind of gliding,
as children upon ice, or as a boat down a river, which practically answers
the description the ancients give of the motion of these lemures. This
ocular evidence clearly convinced, but withal strangely affrighted, the
old gentleman and his wife. They all knew this woman, Dorothy Durant, in
her lifetime; were at her burial: and now plainly saw her features in this
apparition.

“‘The next morning being Thursday, I went very early by myself, and walked
for about one hour’s space in meditation and prayer, in the field next
adjoining. Soon after five I stepped over the stile into the haunted
field, and had not gone above thirty or forty paces before the ghost
appeared at the further stile. I spoke to it in some short sentences, with
a loud voice, whereupon it approached me but slowly, and, when I came
near, it moved not. I spoke again, and it answered in a voice neither
audible nor very intelligible. I was not in the least terrified, and
thereupon persisted until it spoke again, and gave me satisfaction; but
the work could not be finished at this time. Whereupon the same evening,
an hour after sunset, it met me again near the same place, and after a few
words on each side it quietly vanished, and neither doth appear now, nor
hath appeared since, nor ever will move to any man’s disturbance. The
discourse in the morning lasted about a quarter of an hour.

“‘These things are true, and I know them to be so, with as much certainty
as eyes and ears can give me; and until I can be persuaded that my senses
all deceive me about their proper objects, and by that persuasion deprive
myself of the strongest inducement to believe in Christian Religion, I
must and will assert that the things contained in this paper are true. As
for the manner of my proceeding, I have no reason to be ashamed of it. I
can justify it to men of good principles, discretion, and recondite
learning, though in this case I chose to content myself in the assurance
of the thing, rather than be at the unprofitable trouble to persuade
others to believe it, for I know full well with what difficulty relations
of so uncommon a nature and practice obtain belief.’”

So much as regards the record of the appearance found in the volume
already referred to.

The following extract from Mr. Ruddle’s MS. Diary, was taken by the Rev.
R. S. Hawker, M.A., vicar of Morwenstow, the accomplished and well-known
Christian poet, and appears in his interesting “Footprints of Former Men
in Far Cornwall” (London, 1870), and still further amplifies and
illustrates this story, the practical and eventual issue of which is now
to be recorded:--

“January 7, 1665. At my own house I find by my books what is expedient to
be done; and then Apage Sathanas!

“January 9, 1665. This day I took leave of my wife and family, under
pretext of engagements elsewhere, and made my secret journey to our
diocesan city, wherein the good and venerable bishop then abode.[41]

“January 10. ‘Deo gratias,’ in safe arrival at Exeter: craved and obtained
immediate audience of his lordship; pleading it was for counsel and
admonition on a weighty and pressing cause. Called to the presence; made
obeisance; and then, by command, stated my case, the Botathen
perplexity--which I moved with strong and earnest instances and solemn
asseverations of that which I had myself seen and heard. Demanded by his
lordship, what was the succour that I had come to entreat at his hands?
Replied, license for my exorcism, that so I might, ministerially, allay
this spiritual visitant, and thus render to the living and the dead
release from this surprise.

“‘But,’ said our bishop, ‘on what authority do you allege that I am
entrusted with faculty so to do? Our Church, as is well known, hath
abjured certain branches of her ancient power, on grounds of perversion
and abuse.’

“‘Nay, my Lord,’ I humbly answered, ‘under favour, the seventy-second of
the Canons[42] ratified and enjoined on us, the clergy, Anno Domini 1604,
doth expressly provide that _No minister, unless he hath the license of
his diocesan bishop, shall essay to exorcise a spirit, evil or good_.
Therefore it was,’ I did here mildly allege, ‘that I did not presume to
enter on such a work without lawful privilege under your lordship’s hand
and seal.’

“Hereupon did our wise and learned bishop, sitting in his chair,
condescend upon the theme at some length, with many gracious
interpretations from ancient writers and from Holy Scripture, and did
humbly rejoin and reply; till the upshot was that he did call in his
secretary and command him to draw the aforesaid faculty forthwith and
without further delay, assigning him a form, insomuch that the matter was
incontinently done, and after I had disbursed into the secretary’s hands
certain moneys, for signitary purposes, as the manner of such officers
hath always been, the Bishop did himself affix his signature under the
sigillum of his see, and deliver the document into my hands.

“When I knelt down to receive his benediction, he softly said, ‘Let it be
secret, Mr. Rudall,--weak brethren! weak brethren!’”

Some details from the same Diary as to the exact manner in which the ghost
was laid give an additional interest to the narrative.

“January 12th, 1665. Rode into the gateway of Botathen, armed at all
points, but not with Saul’s armour, and ready. There is danger from the
demons, but so there is in the surrounding air every day. At early morning
then and alone, for so the usage ordains, I betook me towards the field.
It was void, and I had thereby due time to prepare. First I paced and
measured out my circle on the grass. Then did I mark my pentacle in the
very midst, and at the intersection of the five angles I did set up and
fix my crutch of raun [rowan]. Lastly I took my station south, at the true
line of the meridian, and stood facing due north. I waited and watched
for a long time. At last there was a kind of trouble in the air, a soft
and rippling sound, and all at once the shape appeared, and came on
towards me gradually. I opened my parchment scroll, and read aloud the
command. She paused and seemed to waver and doubt; stood still: and then I
rehearsed the sentence again, sounding out every syllable like a chant.
She drew near my ring, but halted at first outside, on the brink. I
sounded again, and now at the third time I gave the signal in Syriac--the
speech which is used, they say, where such ones dwell and converse in
thoughts that glide.

“She was at last obedient and swam into the midst of the circle: and there
stood still suddenly. I saw, moreover, that she drew back her pointing
hand. All this while I do confess that my knees shook under me, and the
drops of sweat ran down my flesh like rain. But now, although face to face
with the spirit, my heart grew calm and my mind composed, to know that the
pentacle would govern her, and the ring must bind until I gave the word.
Then I called to mind the rule laid down of old that no angel or fiend, no
spirit, good or evil, will ever speak until they be spoken to. N.B.--This
is the great law of prayer. God Himself will not yield reply until man
hath made vocal entreaty once and again. So I went on to demand, as the
books advise; and the phantom made answer willingly. Questioned, wherefore
not at rest? Unquiet because of a certain sin. Asked what and by whom?
Revealed it; but it is _sub sigillo_, and therefore _nefas dictu_; more
anon. Inquired, what sign she could give me that she was a true spirit and
not a false fiend? Stated [that] before next Yule-tide a fearful
pestilence would lay waste the land;[43] and myriads of souls would be
loosened from their flesh, until, as she piteously said, ‘Our valleys will
be full.’ Asked again, why she so terrified the lad? Replied, ‘It is the
law; we must seek a youth or a maiden of clean life, and under age, to
receive messages and admonitions.’ We conversed with many more words; but
it is not lawful for me to set them down. Pen and ink would degrade and
defile the thoughts she uttered, and which my mind received that day. I
broke the ring and she passed, but to return once more next day. At
evensong a long discourse with that ancient transgressor, Mr. B----. Great
horror and remorse; entire atonement and penance; whatsoever I enjoin;
full acknowledgment before pardon.

“January 13, 1665. At sunrise I was again in the field. She came in at
once, and, as it seemed, with freedom. Inquired if she knew my thoughts,
and what I was going to relate? Answered, ‘Nay, we only know what we
perceive and hear: we cannot see the heart.’ Then I rehearsed the penitent
words of the man she had come up to denounce, and the satisfaction he
would perform. Then said she, ‘Peace in our midst.’ I went through the
proper forms of dismissal, and fulfilled all, as it was set down and
written in my memoranda; and then with certain fixed rites, I did dismiss
that troubled ghost, until she peacefully withdrew, gliding towards the
west. Neither did she ever afterwards appear; but was allayed, until she
shall come in her second flesh, to the Valley of Armageddon on the Last
Day.”

Another example, giving with singular power and effect a very striking
Glimpse of the Supernatural, from the experiences of a venerated and
exemplary Roman Catholic clergyman, the late Rev. Edward Peach, of S.
Chad’s, Birmingham, is here given at length. The events narrated occurred
in the year 1815, and Mr. Peach deliberately affirmed of the following
account that it “_may be relied on in every particular as being strictly
true_.” “I,” he continues, in a formal record of the successful exorcism,
“was the minister of God employed on the occasion; and truth is more to
me than all the boastings of pride and vain glory.”

The authentic record stands as follows:--

“Some time after Easter, in the year 1815, I was informed that a young
married woman of the name of White, in the parish of King’s Norton,
Worcestershire, a Protestant, was afflicted with an extraordinary kind of
illness, and that her relations, who occupied a small farm, were convinced
that her illness arose solely from the malice of a rejected admirer, who,
they said, had employed the assistance of a reputed wizard at Dudley to do
her a mischief. These were their terms. I paid but little attention to
this story. Afterwards I was informed by a sister who frequents our
markets, and supplies with butter a respectable family of my congregation,
Mr. Powell, Suffolk Street, that the young woman was married in the
beginning of the preceding Lent; that her former admirer repeatedly
declared that, if she did marry any other, she should never have another
happy day; that the day after her marriage she was seized with an
extraordinary kind of mental complaint; that she became suddenly
delirious; that she raved, and declared that a multitude of infernal
spirits surrounded her; that they threatened to carry her away; that she
must go with them. The poor sister informed my friend, with tears
streaming down her cheeks, that she continued in that state, day and
night, for nearly two months, and that the whole family were almost
exhausted with the fatigue of constantly attending her, for, she said,
they could not leave her alone, lest she should put her threats of
destroying herself into execution.

“At the end of about two months, according to the relation of the same
sister, the poor creature was so spent that her medical attendant (who,
during the whole time of his attendance, declared that her illness arose
more from a mental than corporeal cause,) declared that, in all
probability, she could not survive four-and-twenty hours. The clergyman of
the parish was called in to assist her in her last moments; but he found
her in a state not to be benefited by his assistance, and he departed.

“Amongst the neighbours who came to make a tender of their good offices
for the relief of the afflicted family was a Catholic woman. Her offers
were accepted, and she was frequently with her. Finding her reduced almost
to a state of inanition, and hearing her speak of these infernal spirits
every time she opened her lips, the thought came into her mind of applying
to her some holy water. She accordingly procured some, dipped her finger
into it, and made the sign of the cross upon her forehead. Instantly the
poor sufferer started, and, in a faint voice, exclaimed, ‘You have scalded
me.’ However, she leaned upon the bosom of her attendant, and, what she
had not done for a considerable time before, she fell into a gentle sleep.
On awaking, she continued to hold the same language as before. The
Catholic put a little holy water into her mouth. But the very instant it
entered her mouth she seemed to be in a state of suffocation. She and the
others who were with her were alarmed, and expected that every instant
would be her last. In a short time, however, she swallowed it, and after
many convulsive struggles she regained her breath, and exclaimed with
violence, ‘You have scalded my throat, you have scalded my throat.’ In a
few minutes she fell again into a comfortable sleep, and continued so for
some hours. The next morning she appeared refreshed, and spoke reasonably
for a short time. Being informed of what had been applied to her, she
seemed to wish for more. The swallowing was attended with the same
sensation of scalding, and the same convulsive struggles as before; but it
seemed to give her ease. From that time the danger of death seemed to
decrease by degrees. She enjoyed lucid intervals from time to time; and
invariably after the application of holy water, although attended with the
same sensations as before, she fell into a slumber.

“One remarkable circumstance deserves notice. In one of her paroxysms, she
insisted on getting up, and going out of doors. She said that there was a
large snake in front of the house, that she would go and kill it, and then
one of her enemies would be removed. Nothing would satisfy her, till this
same sister, who gave the account, assured her that she would go down and
kill it. She went down, and, to her great astonishment, found a large
snake, and succeeded in destroying it.

“This in substance is the account which the sister gave of Mrs. White’s
extraordinary illness. At the same time it was asked whether I could be of
any assistance to her, or whether it was probable that I could be
prevailed on to go and see her? My friend who related to me the whole of
the above account, asked me to go. I replied that I knew nothing of them,
nor they of me; but that if she would walk over, and examine into the
state of the poor woman, I would go, if there appeared to her to be any
probability of my being of service. She went, and, on her return, she
informed me that all she had heard seemed to be true, and assured me that
all the family were desirous of seeing me, and particularly the young
woman herself.

“However, I still delayed, till at length, on Tuesday in Rogation Week,
May 2nd, 1815, a special messenger came over to inform me that Mrs. White
was in a worse state than ever, and to request me to go and see her
without delay.

“I obeyed the call, and I may say with truth that it was the most awful
visit I ever made during the whole course of my ministry. The distance was
about six miles. No sooner had I cleared the skirts of the town than I
heard the distant thunder before me. Before I had proceeded two miles, the
storm was nearly over my head; and I may say the remainder of my walk,
and during the time I was with her, there was hardly cessation of one
minute between the claps of thunder. I do not say that in this there was
anything supernatural, but, knowing the business I was upon, it was truly
awful.

“When I arrived at the house, I was informed that she was in a dreadful
state, and that the strength of two persons was necessary to keep her in
bed. I went up-stairs, and on entering into the room, before she saw me,
the curtains being drawn on the side where I entered, she turned to the
other side of the bed, and struggled so violently to get away that it was
with difficulty that her husband and two women overpowered her. In a few
minutes, before she had lifted up her eyes to see me (for she had turned
her face downwards) she stretched out her hand to me, in a convulsive
manner, and fell speechless and spent upon her back.

“After a time she opened her eyes, and in a faint whisper, answered a
question that was put to her, and said she knew who I was. She revived by
degrees, and in a short time could speak in an audible voice. Her friends
having requested me to try if I could discover what it was that weighed
most upon her mind, for they said they had tried to no purpose, I
requested them to withdraw. Being alone, she related to me, as far as she
could recollect, the circumstances of her illness, and I found that they
corresponded exactly with the accounts given by her sister. I questioned
her as to the cause, but I could not discover that it was owing to
anything weighing heavy on her mind. She was positive, she said, that it
was the young man who had done her a mischief.

“I then proceeded to explain to her some of the articles of the Catholic
Faith. She listened with every attention; and when I assured her that she
must believe the Holy Catholic Church before she could obtain relief, she,
without hesitation, declared that she did believe, and that she believed
from the moment she knew what holy water was, and experienced its effects.
From the time it was first applied, she said that the devils seemed to
keep at a greater distance from her, and that the number seemed to be
diminished.

“Such were the ideas on her mind at the time. She was convinced, she said,
that it was not the effect of imagination--that she was not
delirious--that she knew everything that was said to her, and that she
could recollect everything that had passed. I asked her to tell me where
the holy water was. Her voice immediately faltered; and with every
endeavour, I perceived that she could not point out with her finger, nor
tell me by words where it was. She was like an infant attempting to point
out an object.

“I looked about and found it. I dipped my finger into it, and made the
sign of the cross on her forehead. She started as soon as I touched her,
and was a little convulsed. I asked her what was the matter. For a few
moments she could not articulate; but as soon as she could speak, she said
that it scalded her.

“After a little more conversation, I desired her to join with me in
repeating the Lord’s Prayer. She consented, and without difficulty
repeated the first words. But when we came to the petitions, her voice
faltered; she was labouring for breath, and appeared to be almost
suffocated: her countenance and limbs were convulsed. The greatest
stammerer could not find greater difficulty in pronouncing words than she
did in pronouncing every word of the petitions. At one time I was inclined
to desist, thinking that it was impossible for her to finish it; but we
laboured on, and at length came to the end.

“After a short pause, she again began to converse with a free voice,
without the least faltering. I explained to her the nature of exorcisms,
and proposed to read them over her. She consented, and said that she would
endeavour to offer up her prayers to God during the time in the best
manner she could. As soon as I began the exorcisms, she fell into a state
of convulsive agitation, not indeed endeavouring to get away; but every
limb, every joint seemed to be agitated and convulsed, even her
countenance was distorted,--it required constant attention to keep her
covered.

“Now it was that I felt in a particular manner the awful situation in
which I was. All alone with a person in a distressed condition,--the
lightning flashing, the thunder rolling, and I with an imperative voice
commanding the evil spirit to reply to my interrogatories, and to go forth
from her. I acknowledge that my flesh began to creep and my hair to stand
on end. However, I proceeded on till I came to the conclusion, and nothing
happened except the violent agitation of the poor sufferer, which
continued uninterrupted during the whole time.

“After I had finished, she became calm, and in a few minutes began to
converse with me with the same ease as before. Among other things, I asked
her whether she had felt any particular sensations during the time that I
was coming to see her? She said that during the whole afternoon she had
felt the most determined resolution to destroy herself; that she employed
every means to induce her friends to leave the room, or to make her escape
from them; and that if she had succeeded, she would have laid violent
hands on herself the moment she was at liberty. I explained to her the
nature of baptism, the necessity of receiving it, and the effects produced
by it.

“During the course of our conversation, discovering that there were strong
reasons to doubt whether she had been baptized at all, or whether the
essential rites had been observed in her baptism, I conceived that it
would be advisable to re-baptize her conditionally. I proposed it, and
she readily consented. I gave her what instructions were necessary, and
repeated several acts of contrition. Finding her in dispositions the most
satisfactory, I made use of the holy water, and baptized her, subject to
the condition, _if she was not baptized_. During the time she trembled
like a leaf, and the features of her countenance were distorted, like
those of a person in acute pain. Upon my putting the question to her, she
replied as she did before, that it gave her as much pain as if boiling
water had been poured over her.

“Immediately after the ceremony was concluded, she began to speak to me
with all the cheerfulness of a person in perfect health and spirits. We
conversed together for a few minutes, and I took my leave, promising to
see her again the next day. Her sister went to her, and her first request
was that she might have a cup of tea and something to eat; and before I
left the house, she eat and drank as she had done before her affliction. I
went to see her the next day, and found her down-stairs in perfect health;
at least, no effects of her illness were perceptible, except a weakness of
body. From that time to this, she has enjoyed good health, and not the
least symptom of her former complaint has been felt. It is more than a
twelvemonth since.”

A second example of successful exorcism, now to be narrated, is from the
pen of an eminent and well-known clergyman[44] of the Church of England,
whose literary labours in the early part of the Oxford movement, were
recognized and rewarded by high authority in the English Church. Only a
slight verbal alteration here and there to make the narrative of itself
quite intelligible, has been made by the Editor.

“The subject is almost too sacred for pen; and I only put it on record to
show the goodness of God, and to indicate that His powers are not
withdrawn, nor His Arm shortened. It is some years, however, since the
event to be related happened; and the subject of it has long gone to his
last account. I must scrupulously refrain from any indication of place and
person; though, in these latter days of rude and coarse unbelief, when
such interpositions of the Almighty’s mercy are laughed to scorn, _some_
may find comfort and edification from its recital.

“The son of a farmer, who had just come of age, having heard a sermon of
mine, which I had preached some five years previously, came a distance of
more than thirty miles to seek at my hands ghostly counsel. From his
childhood he had been led to indulge in breaches of the seventh
commandment, and these after a while were certainly of a heinous
character. He believed himself (when I saw him) to be possessed by an
unclean spirit. Wherever he went, he asserted that he saw a hideous black
figure, darkly draped, with a form like a man, but with the face of a
beast, sitting opposite to, huddled up, and staring at him. It would
appear for weeks together, at home, abroad, in his sleeping-room, in the
field, in the market. Sometimes he would throw himself on to the floor in
an agony of distraction, and pray God that it might be removed. For a
short term he would cease to see it. But in due course it reappeared. And
at last (an event which had never happened hitherto,) it would likewise
haunt him in dreams. On one occasion he declared that it seemed to
elongate itself into a long serpent-like figure, and, as he asserted,
tried to creep down his throat. But wherever he went he almost always saw
it. Thinking it might be the result of bodily ailment he consulted a
physician; but with no effect.

“I am free to say that I was not long in coming to a conclusion, that it
was a case of possession; though I did not arrive at that conclusion until
I had taken counsel from one of the most pious and holy clergymen I ever
knew,[45] and had commended the subject to God Almighty in very earnest
prayer.

“The result was that I unfolded to the subject of this apparition my
intention, with God’s help, and his own sanction, to cast out the spirit,
according to the old rule and custom of Holy Church. Prior to this he made
a full and frank confession of his whole life, and resolved by God’s help
to amend. Having made an appointment, a fortnight hence, with him, and
being resolved to consecrate my proposed act, by special deeds of fasting,
self-denial, and prayer, I was alarmed to hear, by letter, of his most
serious illness a few days later. His relations asserted that he was
suffering from epilepsy, and that the fits were rapid and most severe.

“The following day, taking with me a book containing an authorized form of
exorcism, I went to see the sick man. His sufferings seemed to be
excruciating: his fits shocking to witness. At a half-lucid interval he
saw me; and, starting from his bed, tried to throw himself out of the
window. When he was calmer, I knelt down and prayed for him with his
relations; making several times an act of Faith.

“Then signing him with the cross on forehead, mouth, and breast, I began
the authorized form. During this, his fits returned; and his violence and
ravings were terrible to witness. Throughout I felt sustained in my action
by a Higher Power, and completed my task in the Name of the Adorable and
Ever-Blessed Trinity. Here he sank into a deep sleep; and this sleep
proved to be the beginning of a complete change for the better. The fits
ceased, the body was no longer tortured with writhings; and, as I heard
from him afterwards, the hideous vision or apparition vanished, and was
never seen again. A few years afterwards he died, as I believe in grace;
and, as I commended his soul to God, so I committed his body to the dust;
and have always looked upon this remarkable event as a token, to myself
most unworthy, of the Almighty’s power and Presence amongst us, as well as
of His exceeding great mercy and goodness to this poor sufferer.”

Another remarkable instance of the active and energizing powers of the
Church of God, unimpaired and uncrippled, may be gathered from the record
which follows of the sudden and effectual cure of
Françoise-Geneviève-Philippe, which took place in the church of the
Carmelites of Pontoise on the 16th of July, 1784, upon the Festival of Our
Lady of Mount Carmel. The record below is a literal translation of the
formal act and deed of the person cured:--

“I, the undersigned Françoise-Geneviève-Philippe, called in religion
‘Sister Josephine-Mary of the Incarnation,’ aged thirty years, declare
that my health being disordered at Pontoise, where I resided with the
Ursuline Dames for eleven years, I was advised to make a change of air; I
consequently withdrew to the Dames of the Congregation of
Trouvelle-les-Vernon, where I entered on the 16th of February, 1782. My
health continued bad in consequence of the frequent attacks of hæmorrhage
to which I became subject.

“On the 29th of December following I was seized with a violent headache,
beginning with a swoon, which lasted more than two hours, and with a
frightful hæmorrhage. Suitable remedies were instantly administered to me
by skilful physicians, but in vain; and after this I was attacked with
convulsions, and the entire suspension of all motion in my body.

“Different consultations were held at Paris; MM. Fumé and Petit sent me
prescriptions which produced no effect. This sickness continued until the
13th of May, 1783, when I was removed into the town of my uncle’s. All
these facts have been attested by the physicians and surgeons of Vernon,
by the testimony of M. Atadie, physician to his Serene Highness the Duke
of Penthievre, and of M. le Noble, physician, who had employed magnetism,
but without effect. These certificates, duly legalized by M. le
Lieutenant-Général of the same town, attest that my disorder was deemed so
violent and incurable to the period when I decided upon returning to
Pontoise, hoping to recover my health by the means which it might please
God to employ. I arrived there on the 5th of August, 1783; from that time
my condition was precisely the same, namely habitual convulsions. I was
deprived of the use of my limbs, particularly of my right arm, in which
the convulsions were so violent that it was found necessary to fix and tie
it with a bandage. The left was not much better, for on merely touching
it, or on a change of weather, it experienced similar convulsions. Added
to this I was attacked violently with gout, which I felt all over my body,
but especially in my head and the extremities of my fingers. I was subject
to pains in my breast and stomach, so severe as to occasion me to spit
blood and to vomit up even the most liquid of my food. Sleep, of which I
had in general but little till this period, now became, as it were, a
stranger to me. My voice was for a month or six weeks almost extinct, and
there was not a part of my body which was not in a state of suffering; the
least noise became almost insupportable.

“It is moreover to be remarked, that I never discovered, although always
valetudinary, what could be capable of occasioning such a malady. This is
a testimony I offer to truth. The persons who could not be ignorant of
what concerned their patient have made the same depositions.[46]

“Such was my condition when they were proceeding at Pontoise, by order of
the Holy See, in the process of the beatification of the servant of God,
Marie de l’Incarnation, whose name in the world was Madame Acarie,
foundress of the Carmelites in France, who, having edified the World by
the virtues which characterize great souls, and consecrated at Carmel
three of her daughters, herself embraced this holy state under the humble
quality of converse-sister in the Convent of Carmelites at Amiens, and
died at that of Pontoise in the odour of sanctity on the 18th of April,
1618, aged fifty-two years.

“The fame of this process revived my faith. I made a Novena to her, in
which the Carmelites, as well as many other pious persons, united. I not
only, during this Novena, took no medicines, but I told my physician:
‘Perhaps, sir, you will smile at me when I tell you that I am performing a
Novena to the venerable Sister Marie de l’Incarnation, and that I hope
to-morrow to be taken to her tomb!’ ‘I commend your piety,’ said he, ‘to
make a Novena to that blessed person, but I do not equally commend the
step which you propose to take; I fear that none but bad consequences will
result from it.’ I replied, as I had done to many other of my friends,
‘that I had the firmest confidence of a cure.’

“I persevered constantly in this moral and physical disposition until the
moment when I was carried in a sedan chair into the church of the
Carmelites. I was brought there at five o’clock in the morning. I heard
mass, and communicated without quitting my chair. Towards the moment of
elevation I felt severe pains throughout my whole frame, and seemed to
myself to be in such a state of weakness that I then thought if I were to
be communicated it would have been for the last time. A cold sweat spread
itself at that time over my whole body. The priest who gave me the Holy
Sacrament noticed that I was so weak that I could not hold the cloth upon
my knees. He was so much afraid from the paleness of my countenance and
the alteration he perceived in me, that in fear of some accident he put
the sacred ciborium almost close to my lips.

“Finding me in this painful state, which announced rather a speedy
dissolution than a cure, I formed acts of submission to the Will of God. I
begged Him to accept the sacrifice of my life; I also thrice made the
prayer of the blind man, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me;’ the while
interiorly, having lost my power of articulation. I remained in that state
till the end of the mass, and finding my strength recovering I called my
nurse, and begged her to go and see if the chapel in which the precious
remains of the Venerable Sister Marie de l’Incarnation were deposited was
open, having the design to be carried there. But O bounty and mercy of the
Lord! at the very moment the people were preparing I quitted the chair
myself; my nurse came hastily upon me to stop me, imagining that this
movement was a last effort of nature. I corrected her, saying that I
thanked her, but that thanks be to God! I had no need of her help, and
instantly after, on the steps of the altar, returned thanks after
communion; for I did not as yet perceive the change that was made in me. I
was not sensible of it till after having made my thanksgiving, which was
near a quarter of an hour after. I then raised myself from the ground
filled with joy and consolation, finding I had recovered the use of my
limbs; my breast and stomach at ease and devoid of pain, enjoying
tranquillity altogether wonderful. I first ascended the seven steps of the
altar; and then went to the grate of the choir and thanked the community
for the prayers that they had the goodness to offer up for me; requesting
them to add still further their thanks to mine. I then turned towards the
Blessed Sacrament, where I remained on my knees on the ground without any
support during the period of three masses, which were said in succession.
I afterwards heard high mass, and assisted at the entire Office of the
Day, without the noise of chaunting, of the instruments, nor the great
concourse of people, occasioning me the slightest inconvenience. Although
I had to answer in the course of the day to more than four thousand
persons attracted by the novelty of the circumstance to the church of the
Carmelites, on the afternoon of the same day I went on foot to visit the
Ursuline Dames.

“Done at Compiègne on the 12th of Feb. 1792.

  (Signed) “Françoise-Geneviève-Philippe,

    “Called in religion ‘Sr. Josephine of the Incarnation,’ Religious
    Carmelite of the Monastery of the City of Compiègne, in which I had
    the happiness to enter on the 20th of December, 1786, and to pronounce
    my holy and inviolable engagements on the 22nd of July, 1788.”

Another point bearing very directly on the subject of this chapter here
suggests itself for some brief consideration:--

Deeds of benediction have been so universally recognized in history, that
it may be credibly maintained that the custom originated in the earliest
ages of the World’s existence, either by a direct revelation from Heaven
or by the most elementary religious instinct of the immediate descendants
of our first parents. The heads of tribes, after the Flood, blessed their
children and followers. And, when the Patriarchal dispensation drew
towards its close, the power of blessing was exercised by the leaders and
chiefs of God’s chosen people. Proof of all this is on record in the
Sacred Writings. He, therefore, who runs may read. And we may gather from
the same source that a form of blessing was attached to the priest’s
office;[47] and that such blessing was efficient. All this is of course
taken for granted under the Christian dispensation; and it is evident that
the various forms of sacerdotal benediction are true means of bestowing
the Divine blessing and grace: and this, because of the salient principle
that the Fall of man from original righteousness, having effected a loss
of union with God Almighty, salvation is the renewal of that union by and
through Jesus Christ and His Church. Now, a Blessing, in the Name of God,
is bestowed by a superior upon an inferior.[48] Thus a bishop gives his
benediction to a priest, deacon, or layman; a priest to a layman; a father
or head of a family to a son or an inferior member of that same family; a
patriarch or chieftain to his tribe, or to any member of it. The blessing
of God is a great and mighty gift of grace, and has always been intimately
conjoined with the offering of sacrifice, and so particularly and
specifically with the offering of the Christian sacrifice, as also with
and by a benediction, some of the most solemn services of Holy Church have
been brought to an end.

Of course, if there be a power to bless, there is, as has already been
pointed out, likewise a power to curse. Neither blessing nor curse may be
absolute in their effect, and all acts and deeds are done under God, or
with the permission of the Almighty. Of the results respectively of
blessings or curses we know but little. But the glimpses which History,
Revealed Religion, and Experience alike afford of those results are full
of interest, and are subjects for contemplation and study. Here, as in the
consideration of similar details, concerning the Supernatural, the Church
Universal should be our guide. Where she leads we should go: where she
directs we should follow.

As bearing on this subject, it may be suitably pointed out that Mr. Robert
Southey in his “Common-Place Book” puts on record a very remarkable story
of “citation” by a man unjustly and cruelly murdered:--

“The Philipsons of Colgarth coveted a field like Ahab, and had the
possessor hung for an offence which he had not committed. The night
before his execution the old man (for he was very old) read the 109th
Psalm as his solemn and dying commination, verses 2, 3, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13,
14, 15, and 16.” The verses contain a prayer for vengeance upon “the
wicked and deceitful, who have spoken with a lying tongue,” and whose days
are to be few, and their children to be fatherless, their descendants
continually vagabonds and beggars, and their posterity to be cut off. “The
curse,” Southey adds, “was fully accomplished; the family were cut off,
and the only daughter who remained sold laces and bobbins about the
country.”

Two remarkable and, as may be well believed, supernatural events occurred
(which may be fittingly recorded here) with regard to the cruel and
shameful death of Edmund Arrowsmith, a Roman Catholic priest of the county
of Lancaster, in the year 1628. He was born at Haddock in the parish of
Winwick, five miles from Warrington and seven from Wigan. His father was
Robert Arrowsmith, a yeoman, and his mother Margaret Gerard, of the
ancient and noble family of that name. His immediate ancestors had
suffered much for their religion. Edmund, their son, having been received
into the College at Douay in 1605, was eventually ordained priest at Arras
on December 9th, 1612. A year afterwards he was sent to England to
minister to his fellow religionists. One of his flock being exasperated
against him because he refused to marry him to his first cousin and had
rebuked him for evil-living, informed against him to the vigilant
authorities; and Arrowsmith, being apprehended, was sent to Lancaster
Castle, “for not having taken the oaths, and upon vehement suspicion that
he was a priest and a jesuit.” The judge on circuit was Sir Henry
Yelverton.

“Are you a priest, sir?” asked the judge, when the accused person was
brought before him.

Arrowsmith, signing himself with the cross, replied, “My lord, I would to
God I were worthy.”

On the judge repeating the question Arrowsmith replied coolly, “I would I
were.”

When the accused, in reply to a minister on the bench, suggested a
disputation regarding religion, and claimed to defend his Faith, the judge
silenced him at once, and declared that he would not allow him to make any
defence at all.

“I am ready, my lord, bear in mind,” replied Arrowsmith, “not only to
defend it in words, but in deeds, and to seal it with my blood.”

The judge then told him, in an insulting and savage manner, that he should
die, and see his bowels burnt before his very face.

“And you too must die, my lord, and that within a year.”[49]

Two indictments were framed against him: one for being a priest and a
jesuit, and the other for disparaging Protestantism; on these he was found
guilty of high treason, and ordered to die according to the law. To the
gaoler of the prison, the sheriff brought express commands from the judge
to load him with the heaviest irons in the Castle, and to lodge him in a
small cell where he could not lie down. This occurred on the 26th of
August, 1628, and he suffered death on the 28th of the same month. He was
dragged on a hurdle from the Castle to the place of execution, having
received absolution from a fellow prisoner, Mr. Southworth, in the Castle
yard. He was bound on the hurdle, and for greater ignominy with his head
to the horse’s tail. The gallows and boiling caldron were set up about a
quarter of a mile distant from the Castle. The devotion and piety of this
holy and zealous man were as remarkable as his constancy and
fortitude,--graces which edified those who witnessed his sad end. He
offered himself up as a sacrifice thrice: once upon his knees at the foot
of the ladder, again on the ladder, which he kissed, and a third time just
before the halter was fastened round his neck; and then prayed fervently,
“O Sweet Jesus, I freely offer Thee my death, in satisfaction for my
sins.” Then he was cast off, suffered to hang until he was dead--an act
of mercy, by no means ordinary or common--cut down, disembowelled, and
quartered; his head being placed on a pole amongst the pinnacles of the
Castle. It is recorded that the judge being vexed and annoyed with the
clever and luminous answers which Arrowsmith made when under examination,
in the hearing of so many, appeared to take a special pleasure in viewing
the execution from his lodgings, through a perspective glass; that he had
the curiosity to examine the four quarters of his body, which, by his
command, being brought to his apartment, he made an unnatural and shocking
comparison between them and a haunch or two of venison with which he had
that day been presented; and that he deliberately kicked the right hand of
the body in contempt. On leaving the town he ordered the martyr’s head to
be placed on a pole six yards higher than the pinnacles of the Castle.

The judge, sitting at supper at an inn on January 23, 1629, upon return
from circuit, felt a heavy blow, as if someone had struck him on the back
of the head; upon which he fell into a violent rage with, and severely
rated, the servant who was waiting upon him; who protested that he had not
struck him, nor did he see anyone strike him. A little while afterwards,
the judge felt another blow like the first; and, as some records say, a
third just as the meal was being ended. The blows he himself evidently
thought to have come from the hand of divine justice, for he exclaimed in
fear and trepidation: “That dog Arrowsmith hath killed me.”[50] In great
terror he was carried to bed, and dying the next morning, the prophecy of
the holy priest regarding his death was exactly fulfilled.

As regards the Hand of the sufferer, it was procured and treasured up by
his relatives the Gerards: and the following remarkable occurrence is
connected with it.

In the year 1813 a young man named Joseph Lamb, then residing at Eccles,
near Trafford Hall, about four miles from Manchester, fell from a rick of
considerable height to the ground, and received a violent injury in the
back. He was so injured that he could neither stand nor walk and suffered
very considerable pain; but after many attempts had been made by
physicians to give him relief and effect a cure, his case at a later stage
was unanimously pronounced to be incurable. In religion he was a Roman
Catholic, having been converted to that ancient faith from being an
Anabaptist--a sect to which his father still belonged. Local circumstances
had led to his investigating the martyrdom of the venerable priest, Edmund
Arrowsmith, who, as already recounted, gave up his life in the cause of
God at Lancaster, on the 28th of August, 1628. Of this holy man a Hand had
been long and carefully preserved at Sir William Gerard’s, of Garswood,
near Wigan, where it was and is deservedly venerated and held in respect
by all Roman Catholics. The sufferer Lamb, finding that the skill and
power of man could do nothing for him, conceived a firm conviction that it
would please the Almighty to restore him to health by the instrumentality
of this relic, and he consequently most earnestly and systematically
prayed to God that it might be so. His parents consequently, in response
to his urgent entreaties, on October 2nd, 1814, had him conveyed in a
covered cart from his own house near Trafford Hall to Garswood, a distance
of fourteen miles.[51] In a state of considerable suffering, and quite
unable to assist himself, he was lifted out of the cart and carried into
the Roman Catholic chapel, where he was placed before the altar. Then the
“Holy Hand,” as it is termed, was brought forth; the sacred sign of the
cross was solemnly made over the affected part of the poor suffering man’s
back; when, in an instant, he felt freedom from pain and found his former
health and strength perfectly restored. He immediately rose, stood up for
some time in prayer, and then walked, without any assistance whatsoever,
to his relatives and friends who were gathered at the chief entrance of
the chapel. He returned home quite recovered and perfectly well, and so
remained, up to the 19th of September, 1816.[52] The result of this
miraculous intervention was that several of his kinsmen and acquaintances
became converts to the religion which he had elected to follow; and these,
together with many Roman Catholics who became acquainted with Almighty
God’s merciful visitation of him, joined in a solemn act of thanksgiving,
by assembling to sing the _Te Deum_ in the chapel of Garswood.[53]

Thus, then, we see the prophecy of a Christian priest, who was unjustly
and illegally condemned and cruelly murdered, exactly and most strikingly
fulfilled; and a wonderful sign bestowed from God to man of Eternal Truth,
in the supernatural cure wrought some two centuries and more afterwards
upon this Lancashire farm-labourer.

Here something may be properly put on record, regarding cases in which
visible marks and tokens of the Passion of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ have been supernaturally and miraculously impressed upon God’s
saints and servants, in order to set forth before the eyes of man, as a
matter of _sight_ and not as a matter of _faith_, the truth of the
Revelation of Almighty God, through His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

The first recorded instance of stigmatization is that of S. Francis of
Assisi, in the thirteenth century. From the life of this distinguished
saint, written by S. Bonaventure (chapters xii. and xv.), we gather the
following particulars of these remarkable phenomena.

It was the custom of the saint, from time to time, to retire into the
solitudes of Mount Alverna, in the Apennines, in order the more easily to
give himself up to prayer and meditation. “While fasting there for forty
days, being in prayer, on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross,
and feeling within his soul an intense desire to be crucified with his
Lord, he beheld, descending from heaven towards him, a seraph, having six
wings as it were of fire.[54] When the celestial messenger came near to
him, there appeared between the wings the form of One crucified, with the
hands and feet stretched out upon the cross. Two wings rose above the
head, two were spread forth in flight, while the others veiled the whole
body.” Francis felt a great joy at the apparition, and yet, at the same
time, a deep sorrow at beholding Him Whom his soul loved, so cruelly
fastened to the Cross, the thought of which pierced his heart as with a
sword of grief. It was presently revealed to him that he was to imitate
the Passion of our Lord.

“The vision disappearing, his soul was filled with heavenly light, while a
marvellous sign was left imprinted on his limbs. On his hand and feet were
the marks of the nails, as he had beheld in the seraphic vision, and on
his right side was a wound, as if made by a lance’s thrust. His hands and
feet appeared transfixed with the nails, their heads being seen in the
upper part of the feet, and the points on the reverse sides. The heads of
these nails were round and black, and the points somewhat long and bent,
as if turned back; so that between them and the skin there was the space
of a finger. They could be moved with ease; for on the one side they were
embedded in the flesh, whilst on the other they were clear of it: yet it
was not possible to draw them out, as we are assured by S. Clare, who,
after the saint’s death, essayed to do so, but could not succeed. The
wound in the side was deep, and of the width of three fingers. It was red,
and the saint’s habit was often stained by the blood which flowed from
it.”

These stigmata were seen during his life by the reigning Pope Alexander
with many of his cardinals; and after his death, by more than fifty
brethren together, by S. Clare and many of her sisters, and an innumerable
crowd of seculars, who came from all parts of the country to be witnesses
of these wonders.

At the close of the seventeenth century, another case of stigmatization
occurred to Veronica Juliana, a nun; and her examination by the bishop of
her diocese, aided by several physicians, was of so strict and severe a
character, that deception on her part would have been quite impossible.

In the early part of the same century, Joanna di Jesu Maria, a Spanish
nun, was subjected to even a more rigorous examination, before a court
composed of the Commissary of the Inquisition, the Suffragan Bishop,
several of the secular and regular clergy of the district, of many learned
men, and two distinguished physicians. In this case, the subject of the
phenomena bore not only the wounds on her hands, feet, and side, from
which blood and water frequently flowed, but also around her head, as from
the crown of thorns, a deep wound, which, in the opinion of the doctors,
penetrated to the skull. They, furthermore, declared by oath that the
wounds were not natural, and could not possibly be the effect of fraud.

The most celebrated subjects of stigmata in our own days are Maria Mörl,
the Ecstatica of Caldamo, in the Tyrol, and Maria Domenica Lazzari, a
peasant girl of Capriana, whose cases were brought before the English
public by that late distinguished nobleman John, Earl of Shrewsbury, A. L.
M. P. De Lisle, Esq.,[55] the Rev. T. W. Allies, and others.

The following account of Maria Mörl is abridged from that of Görres, in
his work on the Supernatural, entitled “Christliche Mystik,” which,
perhaps, is the most complete and detailed description published. After
giving a brief sketch of her life, which tells us that she was a girl of
great piety, also that at the age of eighteen she became a confirmed
invalid, and after receiving Holy Communion she always remained in an
ecstasy for several hours, we read, that “in the autumn of 1833, her
Confessor, Father Capistran, had by chance noticed that the parts of her
hands where the wounds afterwards appeared had begun to form in hollows,
as though impressed by some external substance, the parts, at the same
time, becoming the seat of considerable pain, accompanied by frequent
cramps.” Soon afterwards, the wounds appeared on the hands, feet, and
side. On Thursdays and Fridays these places often ran with clear blood,
and were covered on other days with a scar of dried blood, without showing
any signs of inflammation. “In 1834, on the occasion of a solemn
procession, a new phase of her ecstasy developed itself, and one day
surprised her in the presence of several witnesses, when she was
transfigured with an angelic beauty, radiant and glorious as a heavenly
spirit, her arms extended to their extreme width in the form of a cross,
and her feet barely seeming to touch the bed on which she reposed. All
around could then plainly perceive the mysterious stigmata, and the matter
could no longer remain a secret.”

Of Maria Domenica Lazzari, who was born March 16th, 1815, and whose case
is no less remarkable than the above, Mr. Allies, then a clergyman of the
Church of England, wrote the following account, twenty-five years
ago:--“In August, 1833, she had an illness, not in the first instance of
an extraordinary nature; but it took the form of an intermittent fever,
confining her completely to her bed, and finally contracting the nerves of
her hands and feet so as to cripple them. On the 10th of January, 1834,
she received on her hands, feet, and left side, the marks of our Lord’s
Five Wounds.... Three weeks afterwards, her family found her in the
morning covering her face in a state of great delight,--a sort of trance.
On removing the handkerchief, letters were found on it marked in blood,
and Domenica’s brow had a complete impression of the crown of thorns, in a
line of small punctures about a quarter of an inch apart, from which the
blood was flowing freshly. They asked her who had torn her so. She
replied, ‘A very fair lady had come in the night and adorned her.’...
From the time that she first received the stigmata, in January, 1834, to
the present time (account published in 1847), the wounds have bled every
Friday, with a loss of from one to two ounces of blood, beginning early in
the morning, and on Friday only. The above information (Mr. Allies
declares) we received from Signor Yoris, a surgeon of Cavalese, the chief
village of the district in which Capriana lies.”

Two additional and quite recent examples of stigmatization, most perfectly
and satisfactorily authenticated, demand to have the facts which are known
and admitted here set forth. The first is as follows:--

On the 30th January, 1850, was born at Bois d’Haine, a village in the
province of Hainaut, in Belgium, Anne Louise Lateau, the daughter of
Gregory and Adèle Lateau. The family, though of humble condition, were at
the time in tolerably comfortable circumstances. The father was employed
as a workman in a neighbouring metal factory, and the cottage in which
they dwelt, together with the land on which it stood, was their own
property. But a sad change soon took place. On the 30th April, 1850,
Gregory Lateau died of small-pox, leaving the mother and three children
(the infant Louise and two little girls of two and three years of age)
unprovided for. To add to their distress, the widow Lateau was seriously
ill, and the infant had caught the small-pox. Abandoned by all, they were
in danger of perishing of starvation had they not been relieved by the
timely aid of a charitable neighbour. It was a long time, however, before
the mother’s health was sufficiently restored to enable her to better
their condition by her own exertions. When eight years old, Louise was
sent to take charge of an old woman confined to her bed, and almost as
poor as themselves. She afterwards received five months’ schooling, which
is all the education she has ever had. At eleven years old, having made
her first communion, she went as a servant to her aunt, with whom she
remained until her death, which occurred two years later. Her next
situation was with a lady at Brussels, but she was obliged to leave
through illness. On her recovery, she was again employed in a farm at
Manage, where she remained till called home by her mother, with whom she
has since lived, working as a dressmaker. With regard to her moral
character, one of its most important features is charity. During the
ravages of the cholera in Belgium, in 1866, she gave examples of the most
heroic devotedness--nursing the sick when their own relations had fled in
dismay, laying out the dead, and, in some instances, even conveying them
to the cemetery. For the rest, she is of a cheerful disposition, simple
and straightforward in her manner, possessed of good sense, without
smartness or enthusiasm. Owing to the small amount of instruction she has
received, her education is limited, but has been much improved by her own
exertions. She speaks French with tolerable fluency, but is unable to
write correctly or read with ease. The mother of Louise is fifty-eight
years of age, of a frank and outspoken character, upright and religious.
Though poor, she refuses to receive any pecuniary assistance, and
manifests great reluctance to the introduction of the numerous visitors
attracted to her cottage from all parts of the world by the wonderful
accounts respecting her daughter. We now come to the consideration of
those phenomena which for nearly six years have been exciting such
universal interest. On Friday, the 24th April, 1868, manifestations of an
extraordinary character commenced with a flow of blood from the chest. The
young girl, with her accustomed reserve, made no mention of the fact; but
as on successive Fridays the bleeding extended to the feet and hands,
concealment became no longer possible. The phenomenon, as it now appears,
is thus described by Dr. Lefebvre:--

“If in the course of the week, from Saturday to Thursday morning, an
inspection is made of the parts from which blood flows on the Friday, this
is what is seen:--On the back of each hand there is a rather oval surface,
nearly one inch in length. It is rather more pink in colour, and it is
smoother than the neighbouring skin, and does not show a trace of oozing
of any kind. On the palm of each hand there is also an oval surface of a
light pink colour, corresponding precisely to the stigmatized surface of
the back. On the upper aspect of each foot, the impress has the shape of a
long square with rounded angles, the square being a little more than an
inch long. To conclude, there are on the soles of the feet, as on the
palms of the hands, small surfaces of pinkish white colour.

“... The first symptoms indicative of the approaching efflux of blood
occur on the Thursday, generally about noon. On each of the pink surfaces
already described on the hands and feet, a vesicle is seen to commence,
and to rise little by little. When completely developed, it is a rounded
hemispherical prominence on the surface of the skin; its base is the same
size as the pink surface on which it rests--that is, nearly an inch long,
by a little more than half an inch broad. This vesicle is formed by the
epidermis detached from the dermis, and elevated as a half sphere by
serous liquid within.”

We again quote some of the medical details:--

“The phenomenon occurs thus:--The vesicle bursts, and the contained
serosity escapes. This occurs in different ways--sometimes by a rent
lengthways, sometimes by a crucial or a triangular division. In the last
case, the rupture of the vesicle suggests the puncture of a leech; but
this is a mere resemblance, to prove which it is enough to ascertain the
entire absence on the hands and feet of those three-cornered white and
indelible scars which always follow leech-bites. But a still more
decisive observation is that this triangular rent only divides the
epidermis; in fact, if this be removed by rubbing with a cloth, the little
wound is no longer seen, and the true skin is found to be quite intact.
Directly after the rupture of the vesicle and the escape of the fluid,
blood begins to ooze from the bare derma.

“The flow of blood always detaches the piece of scarf-skin that makes the
vesicle, so that the bleeding surface of the true skin is quite bare;
sometimes, however--and especially on the palms of the hands and the soles
of the feet, where the epidermis is very tough--the blood collects, and
forms a clot in the partly-torn vesicle.”[56]

The general appearance of the wound in the side on Friday is as
follows:--The blood issues from three small points of a triangular form at
the distance of half an inch from each other. A vesicle has also been
observed similar to those upon the hands and feet. On its bursting, the
blood flowed through the derma or thick skin over a round surface of the
diameter of about half an inch.

The bleeding on the forehead commenced on Friday, the 25th September,
1868, and, at the present time,[57] takes place every week, and has
extended round the whole of the head. The bleeding circlet on the forehead
forms a band of two fingers’ breadth in width, and the blood oozes from
twelve or fifteen points. There is no appearance of vesicle, nor is the
skin discoloured.

The second extraordinary account of a young girl, who is now marked with
the stigmata, is furnished by the Rev. F. Prendergast, of San
Francisco:[58]--

“Miss Collins was born in England; both her parents are Roman Catholics.
About two years and a half ago she was a pupil at the Convent of Notre
Dame. On her return to this city she left her father’s home, and with a
friend, Miss Armer, commenced the practice of charitable acts--visiting
the sick, clothing the destitute, and instructing little children. Many of
the charitable persons of the city co-operate with Miss Collins, Miss
Armer, and an elderly lady who keeps house for them, in their good works.
The archbishop approved of this semi-religious order, and has paid the
house rent of these ladies since they began this practice. Miss Collins
has always been in delicate health, and has frequently received the last
sacraments of the Church, given to those in a dying condition. She has had
periodical attacks of heart disease, and intense pulmonary congestion.
Soon after Miss Collins and Miss Armer entered upon their charitable and
self-denying duties, the former was prostrated by a return of her
complaint. She recovered but slowly and imperfectly, and on January 2nd,
at the children’s festival in the basement of S. Mary’s Cathedral, she was
seized with a most violent attack. She was taken to her residence; and two
or three days afterwards was again seized with congestion of the lungs,
followed by congestion of the brain. The attending physician, herself, and
all her friends were convinced that there was no hope of her recovery. She
took leave of those who stood by her bedside, and made her final
preparations for death. On Wednesday, January 8th, she was all day in
convulsions.... Towards six o’clock she grew better, but on the night of
the third day became speechless, and was compelled to write her wants and
wishes in pencil.

“At twelve o’clock that night, Miss Armer and the nurse, who watched by
her bedside, believed her to be dying, if not dead. They recited the
prayers for the departing soul, and held the blessed candle by her hand,
according to the custom of the Church. Presently Miss Collins closed her
eyes and drew a long breath. They then believed her to be dead; but to
their utter amazement and bewilderment she revived, and made signs that
she wished to write. They gave her the pencil and paper, and she wrote as
follows: ‘Put three drops of the water from the font of Our Lady of La
Salette in my mouth, and say three Hail Maries with me before the
crucifix.’ They complied with the instructions, and perceived that she
joined mentally in the recital of the prayers. As soon as ended, she
reached out her hands for the crucifix, and kissed, with an expression of
great devotion, the Five Wounds of our Blessed Saviour. She then intimated
that she wished to have a little water. They gave her some, and she
immediately rose up and declared, with a beaming and heavenly countenance,
that she was cured; and she called on her companions, Miss Armer and the
nurse, to join her in saying the rosary for the sick. She wished to
recite the principal parts of the devotion herself, but yielding to the
request of Miss Armer, only made the responses in a clear and loud voice.
She then requested her companions to retire, but seeing they had some
objections, told them she would set the example. She laid down quietly,
and slept without motion or sign till morning, when she ate heartily, and
seemed quite restored to health. Since then she has never for a moment
suffered from any of those diseases to which she had been before a victim,
and which had more than once brought her to death’s door.

“On being questioned about her recovery, she stated to her confessor, her
companions, and others of her friends, that immediately previous to her
recovery the Blessed Virgin spoke to her in a voice clear and musical, but
as if it were coming from afar, directing her what to do in order to
obtain her health, approving her manner of life, and giving her some
counsels for her own guidance. Her recovery was regarded by all conversant
with the facts as being a miraculous one; and, contrasting her subsequent
excellent health with her former miserable condition, there seems to be no
reason to doubt but that she was saved by the merciful interposition of
the Supreme Power of God.

“After some weeks she experienced, without any assignable natural cause,
an intense pain in her temples, which caused her indescribable anguish.
These sufferings suddenly passed away, but in the course of some days
returned with equal violence. So far there were no perceptible marks on
any portion of her body, but during her sufferings on the Feast of the
Five Wounds of our Lord she felt an acute pain in her head, her side, in
both hands, and in both feet. On the Friday before Good Friday, the Feast
of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin, she experienced pains in the
same parts, and on that day the stigmata, or marks of our Saviour’s
Wounds, became clearly visible on the backs of her hands, and blood oozed
from her left side, near the heart.

“Several persons witnessed the stigmata on this occasion, but were loth to
reveal the fact, preferring to await further developments. That night the
pains passed away, and her usual health returned. On Holy Thursday the
same sufferings were experienced, commencing in the afternoon and becoming
very intense during Thursday night. On Friday the stigmata appeared on the
surfaces of both hands and on the upper surface of both feet. Blood also
oozed from her side. During the day her sufferings were indescribable, and
were witnessed by a large number of people.[59] The stigmata and
suffering continued unabated until twelve o’clock on Friday night, when
she suddenly experienced some relief, and was able, for the first time in
twenty-four hours, to take a little water. On the next day she attended
divine service in church, and has since been in the enjoyment of excellent
health. The marks of the stigmata remain on her hands and side. She has
never, at any time during her sufferings, been unconscious, except when
they were so intense as to cause momentary delirium. She prayed
continually, and her countenance, ordinarily indicating extreme agony,
occasionally relaxed into a sweet and heavenly smile. At times her hands
were extended in the form of a crucifix, and became so rigid in that
position that it was impossible to move them.”[60]

As serving still further to illustrate the subject of this chapter, it
should be known that Dr. John Milner, F.S.A., Vicar Apostolic of the
Midland District of England (a prelate eminent both for his high character
and great literary ability), records a supernatural cure, the subject of
which was personally known to himself.

“On March 15, 1809, Mary Wood, living at Taunton Lodge, near Taunton, in
Somersetshire, in attempting to open a sash-window, pushed her left hand
through a pane of glass, which caused a very large and deep transverse
wound in the inside of the left arm, and divided the muscles and nearly
the whole of the tendons that lead to the hand; from which accident she
not only suffered at times the most acute pain, but was, from the period
the bishop saw her [March 15, 1809], until some time in July, totally
deprived of the use of her hand and arm.”[61] What passed between the
latter end of July, when, as the surgeon states, “he left his patient with
no hope of her recovery or of restoring her,” until the 6th of August, on
the night of which she was miraculously cured, can be gathered from a
Letter to Bishop Milner, dated November 19th, 1809, by her amanuensis Miss
Maria Hornyold, of the ancient family of that name:

“The surgeon gave little or no hopes of the girl ever again having the use
of her hand; which, together with the arm, seemed withered and somewhat
contracted; only saying [that] in some years Nature might give her some
little use of it, which was considered by her superior as a mere delusive
comfort. Despairing of further human assistance toward her cure, she
determined, with the approbation of her said superiors, to have recourse
to God, through the intercession of S. Winifred by a Novena.[62]
Accordingly on the 6th of August she put a piece of moss from the Saint’s
Well on her arm, continuing recollected and praying, &c., when, to her
great surprise, the next morning she found that she could dress herself,
put her arm behind her, and to her head, having regained the free use and
full strength of it. In short, she was perfectly cured.”

So much for this portion of Miss Hornyold’s narrative. Now, reverting to
Bishop Milner, his testimony to the fact of the cure having been effected
is here set forth:

“In this state I myself saw her a few years afterwards, when I examined
her hand; and in the same state she still continues, at the above-named
place, with many other highly credible vouchers, who are ready
respectively to attest these particulars.”

The conclusion of Miss Hornyold’s Letter is as follows:

“On the 16th of the month the surgeon was sent for, and being asked his
opinion concerning Mary Wood’s arm, he gave _no hope of a perfect cure_,
and little of her ever having _even the least use of it_; when she, being
introduced to him and showing him the arm, which he thoroughly examined
and tried, he was so affected at the sight and the recital of the manner
of the cure, as to shed tears, and exclaim, ‘It is a special interposition
of Divine Providence.’”

The case of Winifred White, a young woman of Wolverhampton, suddenly and
miraculously cured, is not less important and interesting:--“The disease
from which she was suffering,” writes Bishop Milner, “was one of the most
alarming of a topical nature of any that is known, namely a curvature of
the spine, as the physician and surgeon ascertained, who treated it
accordingly, by making two great issues, one on each side of the spine, of
which the marks are still imprinted on the patient’s back. Secondly, that
besides the most acute pains throughout the whole nervous system, and
particularly in the brain, this disease of the spine produced a
_hemiplegia_, or palsy of one side of the patient, so that when she could
feebly crawl, with the help of a crutch under her right arm, she was
forced to drag her left leg and arm after her, just as if they constituted
no part of her body. Thirdly, that her disorder was of long continuance,
namely, of three years’ standing, though not in the same degree till the
latter part of that time, and that it was publicly known to all her
neighbours and a great many others. Fourthly, that having performed the
acts of devotion which she felt herself called upon to undertake, and
having bathed in the fountain [at Holywell in Flintshire], she, _in one
instant of time_, on the 28th of June, 1805, found herself freed from all
pains and disabilities, so as to be able to walk, run, and jump like any
other young person, and to carry a greater weight with the left arm than
with the right. Fifthly, that she has continued in this state these
thirteen years, down to the present time; and that all the above-mentioned
circumstances have been ascertained by me in the regular examination of
the several witnesses of them, in the places of their respective
residences, namely in Staffordshire, Lancashire, and Wales, they being
persons of different counties, no less than of different religions and
situation of life.”[63]

The result of a solemn Curse, made in the Name of Almighty God, by one who
had been greatly and grievously wronged, is recorded and not unsuitably
here, it is hoped, in the following remarkable narrative--one fresh
evidence of the existence of the Supernatural amongst us, had we only eyes
to see and ears to hear.

The younger son of a Nova Scotia baronet, under promise of marriage,
betrayed the only surviving daughter of a Northumbrian yeoman of ancient
and respectable family, nearly allied to a peer, so created in William the
Fourth’s reign. She was a person of rare beauty and of considerable
accomplishments, having received an education of a very superior character
in Edinburgh. After her betrayal she was deserted by her lover, who fled
abroad. The night before he left, however, at her earnest request, he met
her in company with a friend with the avowed intention of promising
marriage in the future, when his family (as he declared) might be less
averse to it. After-events show that this was merely an empty promise, and
that he had no intention of fulfilling it. A long discussion took place
between the girl and her betrayer, in the presence of the female friend in
question, a first cousin of her father. High words, strong phrases, and
sharp upbraidings were uttered on both sides; until at last the young man
in cruel and harsh language, turning upon her fiercely, declared that he
would never marry her at all, and held himself, as he maintained,
perfectly free to wed whom he should choose. “You will be my certain
death,” she exclaimed, “but death will be more welcome than life.” “Die
and be ----,” he replied. At this the girl, with a wail of agony, swooned
away. On her recovery she seemed to gather up her strength to pronounce a
Curse upon him and his. It was spoken in the Name of the One Living and
True God. She uttered it with deliberation, yet with wildness and
bitterness, maintaining that she was his wife, and would haunt him to the
day of his death; declaring at the same time to her relation present, “And
you shall be the witness.” He left the place of meeting without any
reconciliation or kind word, and, it was believed, went abroad. In less
than five months, in giving birth to her child, she died, away from her
home, and was buried with it (for the child, soon after its baptism, died
likewise) in a village churchyard near Ambleside. Neither stone nor
memorial marks the grave. Her father, a widower, wounded to the quick by
the loss of his only daughter, pined away and soon followed her to his
last resting-place.

Five years had passed and the female cousin of the old yeoman, being
possessed of a competency, had gone to live in London, when, on a certain
morning in the spring of the year 1842, she was passing by a church in the
west end, where, from the number of carriages waiting, she saw that a
marriage was being solemnized. She felt mysteriously and instinctively
drawn to look in. On doing so, and pressing forwards towards the altar,
she beheld to her astonishment, the very man, somewhat altered and
weather-worn, who had caused so much misery to her relations, being
married (as on inquiring she discovered) to the daughter of a rich city
merchant. This affected her deeply, bringing back the saddest memories of
the past. But, as the bridal party were passing out of the church, and she
pushed forward to look, and be quite sure that she had made no mistake,
both herself and the bridegroom at one moment saw an apparition of her
relation, the poor girl whom he had ruined, dressed in white, with flowing
hair and a wild look, holding up in both hands her little infant. Both
seemed perfectly natural in appearance and to be of ordinary flesh and
blood. There was no mistaking her certain identity. This occurred in the
full sunshine of noon and under a heavy Palladian Porch in the presence of
a crowd. The bridegroom turned deathly pale in a moment, trembled
violently, and then, staggering, fell forward down the steps. This
occasioned a vast stir and sensation amongst the crowd. It seemed
incomprehensible. The bridegroom, said the church officials in answer to
inquiries, was in a fit. He was carried down the steps and taken in the
bridal carriage to his father-in-law’s house. But it was reported that he
never spoke again; and this fact is mentioned in a contemporary
newspaper-account of the event. Anyhow his marriage and death appeared in
the same number of one of the daily papers. And although the family of the
city merchant knew nothing of the apparition, what is thus set forth was
put on record by the lady in question, who knew the mysterious
circumstances in all their details; which record is reasonably believed by
her to afford at once a signal example of retributive justice and a marked
piece of evidence of the Supernatural. Names, for obvious reasons, are not
mentioned here. The truth of this narrative, however, was affirmed on
oath by the lady in question, before two justices of the peace, at
Windsor, on October 3, 1848, one of whom was a beneficed clergyman in the
diocese of Oxford, well known to the Editor of this volume,--to whom this
record was given, in the year 1857 (when he was assistant-minister of
Berkeley Chapel), by a lady of rank who worshipped there.

Here, accounts of two cases of miraculous cure through and by the Blessed
Sacrament will be suitably and fittingly introduced. The first is from the
pen of a well-known mission-preacher of the Church of England, and
occurred in the diocese of London: the second, equally remarkable, took
place in the diocese of Metz.

The introductory remarks, so full of truth and piety, which immediately
precede the first narrative, have an equal bearing on that which follows.
Both are instances of God’s extraordinary mercy and goodness to the
children of men.

“The Blessed Sacrament of the Body and Blood of the Lord works its effects
not only on the soul of man, but also on his body. We need not be
surprized at this, for if the body is affected by the soul, so that a
person depressed in mind often falls sick in body; and, on the contrary,
if good spirits are of great use in preserving bodily health--as indeed we
frequently see,--if this be the case, may we not expect that the
Sacrament, which only reaches the soul through the body, will have some
influence on that body through which they are transmitted. The Blessed
Sacrament, then, when worthily received, affects the body in three ways.
First, it tends to moderate what is called ‘concupiscence,’ that is those
natural appetites and desires of the body which dwell in the flesh and
tempt to sin. And this we learn from the words of the prayer of Humble
Access in the Communion Service--that our sinful bodies may be made clean
by His Body.

“Secondly, the Blessed Sacrament gives to our bodies glory in the Day of
the Resurrection.

“Our Lord says, ‘He that eateth My Flesh and drinketh My Blood hath
Eternal Life, and I will raise him up at the last day.’ Not that all men
will not rise from the dead at that day, but that the wicked will rise
with hideous bodies, and the righteous only with bodies like unto our
Lord’s own Body; whilst the glory also of those who are saved will differ
one from another. And so S. Paul writes, ‘One star differeth from another
star in glory.’

“Thirdly, the Blessed Sacrament sometimes works the cure of sick persons
who receive it with faith. Of course this is not often the case, for if
miracles were common they would cease to be miracles. Moreover, there is
but little faith now-a-days, and even when our Lord walked in the flesh
there were some places in which He did not do many mighty works because of
their unbelief. Also He worked bodily cures the rather during His earthly
ministry; because when He gives these more excellent gifts it is less
necessary for Him to show this power by miracles of healing. It pleases
Him however, sometimes even now, to cure bodily sickness by his bodily
touch, and a case of this sort we will now relate:--

“I. Two or three years ago there lived in one of our great cities a poor
woman of devotion and faith. She attended a church where the Holy
Eucharist was frequently celebrated, and the true faith believingly
taught. She received the faith gladly, and lived up to it, communicating
regularly and with devotion. It befell her, however, to be taken with
sickness, which brought on lockjaw, so that she could not eat, and only
small portions of nourishment could be given her through an opening in her
teeth. She was in this state several days, looking forward to certain
death.

“At last, thinking more of the suffering which her loss would bring upon
her family than upon any fear of death in her own heart, she said to her
husband, ‘Surely, the Lord Jesus is very merciful and would restore me to
health if we were to ask Him. For how dreadful would it be for the poor
children to be left without a mother! I have heard of a woman who was
cured of a sickness by our Lord when the doctors gave her up. Why should
we not ask Him to cure me?’ Thus she spoke, and her husband agreed with
her, that they would ask this of the Lord.

“The priest of the church which they attended was visiting the poor
woman, and next time he came she told him of what she had thought, and
asked whether it would be wrong to pray for this object. Seeing the faith
of the poor people, he could not say anything against it, only exhorting
them to be ready to accept the Will of the Lord whatever it might be. ‘It
is not wrong,’ said he, ‘to pray to the Lord for restoration to health, so
long as we add, “Not my will but Thine be done.”’

“Accordingly he arranged that they should have a special Celebration of
the Blessed Sacrament with that intention--to ask of our Lord the cure of
the poor mother. The time was fixed. The woman was to be present herself,
and to communicate, and the priest promised to ask some other devout
people to attend and unite in prayer for the same object.

“At the hour appointed the priest was at the altar, a little body of
devout persons was gathered in the church, and the poor woman was brought
there, suffering, but still with good hope. The service proceeded; the
prayer of Consecration was said; the Lamb of God was upon the altar, and
the priest pleaded the one true and perfect and all-sufficient Sacrifice
on behalf of the poor sufferer, and prayed for her recovery, as did also
herself and her friends. Having communicated himself, the priest brought
the Holy Sacrament to the woman, giving her only a small particle, such as
she could receive between her teeth, and then the chalice of the Lord’s
Blood. The faithful now communicated; the remainder of the service was
said, the Priest gave the Peace and Blessing, and the last Amen was said.
Then the woman fell down in a sort of swoon; but it only lasted a short
time, for presently she got up, opened her mouth, and said, ‘I am quite
well.’ Yes! The Lord had heard her. We were astonished with joy, and
joined in hearty thanksgiving to God for the miracle which he had wrought.
The woman walked home, to the great delight of her family, and was able to
return to her ordinary work.

“A fortnight after the event, the writer of this narrative[64] saw the
woman, and heard from her own lips, as well as from the Priest, the
account of the miracle, which he has related as nearly as he can remember
it.

“We are not to be anxious for miracles, nor to crave after signs; but when
it pleases God to work such as this, it seems to be right for His glory,
and for the dignity of the Most Holy Sacrament, that His mercy should be
made known; and is it not joy to every faithful heart, that the Lord
should manifest His power over all His works, and show to men His tender
compassion of the sick and suffering?”

II. The second case is thus related. It bears a remarkable similarity to
that just set forth:--

“Anne de Cléry, the subject of the extraordinary cure about to be
recorded, was at school in the Convent of the Sacred Heart, at Metz, in
the year 1855. She was then thirteen years of age, and her health and
spirits good. Previously she had lived two years in Africa, where her
father still resides,[65] and occupies the post of Notary-General to the
Imperial Court at Algiers. Madame de Cléry’s health having suffered from
the climate, she returned to Metz with her two daughters, the youngest of
whom--Anne--was very uneasy about her mother’s health, and prayed
fervently for her recovery, offering herself to suffer the pains of
sickness in her stead. Anne’s illness, which was of a very distressing
nature, commenced in the Holy Week of 1856, and continued steadily to
increase, in spite of the prescriptions of the first physicians at Metz,
Aix in Savoy, and Paris. Remedies of every possible kind--some of them of
a terribly severe character--were tried, but without the smallest result,
except to increase the sufferings of the poor patient. The Paris
physician, at length (in the year 1857), pronounced her case to be
incurable. He says: ‘Mdlle. Anne is labouring under the disease known by
the name of “muscular and atrophical paralysis.” I very much apprehend
that no remedies can touch the disease.’ The sufferings of the poor girl
were continuous and severe. Her limbs were deprived of power and strength;
they shrank and contracted, and the muscles under each knee produced a
sort of knot which no power on earth could untie. She would be, as far as
man could foresee, a cripple as long as she lived. Anne de Cléry was,
however, resigned to the Will of God, and supported her heavy trial by a
deep piety and constant prayer. At times her faith suggested the
possibility of a miraculous cure; but she scarcely hoped or wished for
such a wonderful favour. She had a particular devotion to the Blessed
Sacrament; and every week the priest brought her the Holy Communion, which
was her greatest support and consolation. She employed her time, when
able, though in the recumbent position, and unable to lift her head, in
embroidering altar-cloths, and making artificial flowers for the adornment
of the sanctuary. It was while thus preparing for the devotion known as
‘the Forty Hours’ Adoration’ in the parochial church of S. Martin at Metz,
in the year 1865, that the thought sometimes crossed her mind that she
might be cured by the Blessed Sacrament. But she was slow to encourage an
idea which might be an illusion, and deprive her of her resignation and
peace of mind. The devotion above mentioned was to take place on the 12th,
13th, and 14th of June. On the first two days it was impossible to carry
her to the church (whither she had not been taken for a long while), her
pains were so severe; but on the third day, with the greatest difficulty,
and at the cost of much suffering, after having received Communion, she
was carried to the church by her maid Clémentine, who sat on a bench and
held her on her knees. Madame de Cléry and Mdlle. de Coetlosquet knelt
close beside her; but neither Anne nor her friends were expecting the
extraordinary event about to follow.

“After a few moments’ rest Anne became absorbed in devotion, and prayed as
she often did at the moment of Communion: ‘Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst
cure me.’ At the same instant she felt so violent a pain in her whole
body, that it was all she could do not to scream out. She prayed for
strength to bear it, and resigned herself to God’s will. Then, she says,
she felt filled with faith and hope, and became conscious that she was
cured. Anne threw herself immediately upon her knees and said to her
companions, ‘Pray, pray; I am cured!’ Madame de Cléry overcome with
emotion, in a state of bewilderment, led her daughter out of the church,
scarcely believing the evidence of her senses when she saw her standing
alone and able to walk. She ascertained that the knots under her
daughter’s knees had entirely disappeared; and then Anne returned to the
church, where she remained kneeling in praise and thanksgiving before the
Blessed Sacrament for three-quarters of an hour, without feeling the least
fatigue.

“Her cure was complete; all the ailments that had afflicted her
disappeared, leaving behind no trace of illness. Eleven days after her
cure, Anne walked through the streets of Metz in a procession of the
Blessed Sacrament, which lasted an hour and a quarter, to the astonishment
and admiration of all who had known her former sad condition. Her
physician, when he saw her rise and walk to meet him, said, ‘Mademoiselle,
what men could not effect, God has done.’”[66]

The Editor has been furnished with many similar accounts; some coming
before him on slender testimony: others on testimony which it is
impossible either to weaken or to reject. In some cases strange and
supernatural events which have occurred of late years--beautiful glimpses
of the unseen world--are treasured up by those who were the direct
subjects of them, though considerable difficulty is experienced in
obtaining such satisfactory attestations of their authentication, (owing
to the fact that persons naturally shrink from publicity,) as would
warrant their appearance in this volume.

Before this chapter is closed, however, it may be well to add the
following, from the pen of an English clergyman well known to the Editor,
which possess some inherent interest:

“This passed under my own eyes a few weeks back. A little child, three
years old, daughter of highly-respectable but poor parents, was
accidentally burnt to death--fell upon the grate, and lingered only some
two hours, it might have been supposed in frightful tortures. Her mother,
who blamed herself for leaving the child even for a moment, seemed in
imminent danger of losing her reason, and was in a state of terrible
despair. The little one raised herself to say, ‘Mother, don’t cry! I’m
going to die;’ and then pointing, added, ‘_Don’t you see that Good Man who
stands there and waits for me?_’ This from a child of three years old.

“Let those who choose, elect to believe that this was an optical delusion:
those who honestly believe that the angels of little children do behold
His Father’s face, and doubt not that angels minister to the heirs of
salvation, will probably arrive at a different conclusion.”[67]

Here is another remarkable case of the Supernatural, provided by the same
clergyman:--

“A lady of my acquaintance, a woman of great intellectual powers, with a
keenly satirical and inquiring mind, chastened, however, by Christian
faith and love--a most devout communicant--was the voucher of these facts.

“Retiring to rest some years ago, late at night, she happened, on her way
to her room, to look out of a window which opened on a court behind the
house. To her surprise (she was not in the least a superstitious person,
nor had her mind been travelling in a ghostly direction), she saw standing
beneath the window, in the full rays of the moonlight, the figure of a
child in white clothing, the arms crossed in prayer, the face inclining
forward, with a kind of white cowl or head-covering, from the body of
which child rays seemed to pass. She was not terrified, but amazed; and
after gazing fixedly some little while, during which the figure did not
move, she went to her room, and sent the nurse down to fetch something,
where she would be likely to see the figure, without saying anything about
it to her. The nurse returned speedily, white with fear, saying, ‘Ma’am,
did you see that wonderful thing all shining?’ The lady inquired what she
meant. The servant’s impressions were identical with her own. Neither of
them went to look again; but the lady thought within herself, that this
might be a warning sent from God to prepare her for the death of an elder
child, a daughter, whose figure and bearing, she thought, resembled that
of the child enshrouded in white linen in the yard; and she consequently
entertained a dread that that daughter might be taken from her. This did
not prove the case; but as another younger child--the very darling of the
mother’s heart, and an infant at the time of this singular
apparition--grew older, the idea was _borne in_ strongly upon the lady’s
mind, that that younger child would be taken from her about the time when
it attained the apparent age and stature of the mysterious visitant, who
seemed to be a little girl of about five years old. This, doubtless, might
be a fancy only: she had not seen the face, only the figure; and when this
dear little one--a peculiarly sweet and engaging child--actually sickened,
and at last, after a long illness, died, at about this age, the mother did
not dare take to herself the consolation it seemed likely to afford her,
as a foreshadowing of her child’s beatified rest. On the contrary, the
mother’s heart was distracted with doubts and fears.... There had been no
direct communion with God, as far as man could judge, near the last;
rather a certain fretfulness, a turning from God to man, a clinging to the
mother as her all. The Christian’s heart was almost paralysed by the vast
and unspeakable terror which took possession of her soul. Was her dear one
indeed saved?... Although she thought all day long of this child,--I knew
her at the time, and she seemed consumed by grief, fast breaking, though
never was God’s house opened without her finding her way thither,--she had
never once dreamt of her, or seen her in her dreams, much to her own
surprise, and despite the constant craving of her aching heart. But at
last, one night she dreamt, and thus: that she had risen from her bed, and
was standing in her chamber; that the door softly opened, and her little
one came and sat upon the threshold, sweetly smiling. ‘What, my own
darling! (she thought she said,) are you come back again to me?’ ‘Yes, my
mamma,’ replied the child. ‘And are you happy, dearest?’ ‘Yes, quite
happy; but not for anything I have done,--only for the merit of my Lord.’
The mother advanced and embraced her child, and thus embracing she awoke.
And now wonderfully was it borne in upon her that the midnight apparition
of so many years ago and the child of her dream were one. Her dream was so
real, that she could not but receive it as a divine intimation, a direct
answer to her prayers. She now felt and believed that her dear one was in
Paradise. For some weeks, despite her longings to renew the vision, she
saw her child no more. Then she did so once again, in a dream. She was
crossing a radiant garden, where she knew not; in its centre was a stately
hall or cupola, and on the marble steps which led to it stood her sweet
one, looking pure and blessed. The mother bounded towards her, when she
espied, within the hall, at the further end of a corridor or long passage,
the form of another child of hers still living! This sight terrified her;
she shrieked out, and shrieking she awoke. That child lives still, and may
it long be preserved to the mother’s prayers! But meanwhile, it is not a
little remarkable, that during nearly three years which have elapsed,
despite every effort on the mother’s part, she has never once dreamt of
her darling! This is what contributes, with the vision of the radiant
child at first, to impart a supernatural character to the whole
transaction, and take these visitations out of the category of ordinary
dreams. On my own mind there is not the smallest doubt that here was a
two-fold supernatural intervention; firstly, vision,--seen, remember, _by
two witnesses_; then by a most strangely corroborative dream.”

Another example, shadowing forth the possible value and power of
prayer,--“the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man,”--though
briefly told, is not without its own special interest in these days of
Irreligion and Unbelief.

“An English gentleman I knew well was residing in France; his only son was
a barrister in the Middle Temple Chambers in London. This son suffered
from disease of the heart, not known to be immediately dangerous; he was a
professed unbeliever--a scoffer, even; and had, alas! spoken lightly of
Revelation the day before his death. A sudden, violent attack prostrated
him; and, after a few hours of suffering, he departed. That night, the
father, who was not aware of any immediate danger to his child, dreamt
that the spirit of his deceased wife appeared to him, and addressed him,
saying, ‘Rise and pray! William is dying, and there are none to pray for
him!’--or words to that effect. This dream was repeated, I believe,
thrice. The father did rise, and remained in earnest intercessory prayer
(he was a devout Christian man,) for the greater part of the night. This
is a well-authenticated fact, the certainty of which may be relied on.”

This chapter is brought to its close by a most impressive account of sweet
and heavenly music which was heard near the dying bed of one, whose
patience and devotion during sickness were as remarkable as her earthly
life had been pure and holy.

It is from the pen of one who for many years was a clergyman of the Church
of England, but is now a Cistercian monk of the Monastery of Mount S.
Bernard, on the Charnwood Hills, in Leicestershire, and who is known in
religion as Father Augustine.

“On the last day she [Mary, daughter of A. P. de Lisle, of Garendon Park,
Esq.], longed much for a cup of cold water, but it was not thought good
for her; and so, when reminded of our Saviour’s thirst on the Cross, she
offered up her own thirst in union with His, and said she would ask for it
no more.[68] Her faculties, however, continued entire and clear to the
end, and by her particular request indulgenced prayers[69] were recited to
her that she might frequently repeat them. Thus her life ebbed softly
away; the last words on her lips being a prayer to her ‘Sweet Saviour to
have mercy upon her.’ And are not such things as these natural grounds for
having a sure hope that she died in the favour of God? It is true that we
have even supernatural grounds in the fact that on the night before her
decease (whilst she was receiving with devout mind the last anointing of
Holy Church to prepare her for her end) there was heard distinctly and by
several persons the sound of a celestial chant, proceeding from her
chamber, hymned by no earthly voices. Does not this look as if the blessed
spirits themselves had been assisting to prepare her that she might soon
become one of their company?”

“Four men,” continues the author of the Sermon from which the above is
taken, in a note to it, “none of them [Roman] Catholics, heard the
chanting three several times. They all agreed in their conviction as to
whence it came, that it was from the chamber of the dying child. The third
time it was so loud that they could distinguish, as it were, the several
voices that blended in this celestial harmony, some of which sung the
treble notes, while others took the deeper parts. The character of the
music was indescribably beautiful; and one of the men, who had been in the
habit of attending the Catholic service in S. Mary’s chapel, at
Grâce-Dieu, declared that the style of it was exactly like that of the
solemn Plain Chant used in that chapel which he was accustomed to hear
there. They described the chanting as having no air in it that they could
carry away, but the effect was solemn and beautiful beyond expression.
They supposed, at the moment, that it was some service, according to the
Catholic rites, which was being sung in the sick chamber by the priest and
his attendants. When they heard it, therefore, they were not surprised at
the sound, except that its beauty exceeded that of any religious service
they had ever heard; and it was not until the following morning, at the
breakfast hour, when relating what they had heard to their
fellow-servants, and being then informed that there had been no service
_chanted_ in the sick room, that the conviction flashed upon them, as upon
all to whom these facts have been since related, that the chanting
proceeded from heavenly spirits and departed saints, who had come hither
on an errand of mercy, to hedge round the dying bed of the departing
child.”--Note, p. 13.

The Editor prefers to leave these varied records of the spiritual powers
and properties of the Church, these different examples of the presence of
the Supernatural, to the consideration of the reader; himself declining
either to lay down principles, frame arguments, or draw deductions from
facts already set forth.


APPENDIX TO CHAPTER III.

THE FORM OF EXORCISING THE POSSESSED.

[TRANSLATED FROM THE “ROMAN RITUAL.”]

_The Priest, having confessed, or at least hating sin in his heart, and
having said Mass, if it possibly and conveniently can be done, and humbly
implored the Divine help, vested in surplice and violet stole, the end of
which he shall place round the neck of the one possessed, and having the
possessed person before him, and bound if there be danger of violence,
shall sign himself, the person, and those standing by, with the sign of
the Cross, and sprinkle them with holy water, and kneeling down, the
others making the responses, shall say the Litany as far as the prayers._

_At the end the Antiphon._ Remember not, Lord, our offences, nor the
offences of our forefathers, neither take Thou vengeance of our sins.

Our Father. _Secretly._

℣ And lead us not into temptation.

℟ But deliver us from evil.


_Psalm_ liv.

_Deus, in Nomine._

_The whole shall be said with_ Glory be to the Father.

℣ Save Thy servant,

℟ O my God, that putteth his trust in Thee.

℣ Be unto him, O Lord, a strong tower,

℟ From the face of his enemy.

℣ Let the enemy have no advantage of him,

℟ Nor the son of wickedness approach to hurt him.

℣ Send him help, O Lord, from the sanctuary,

℟ And strengthen him out of Sion.

℣ Lord, hear my prayer,

℟ And let my cry come unto Thee.

℣ The Lord be with you,

℟ And with thy spirit.


Let us pray.

O God, Whose property is ever to have mercy and to forgive: receive our
supplications and prayers, that of Thy mercy and loving-kindness Thou wilt
set free this Thy servant (or handmaid) who is fast bound by the chain of
his sins.

O holy Lord, Father Almighty, Eternal God, the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ: Who hast assigned that tyrant and apostate to the fires of hell;
and hast sent Thine Only Begotten Son into the world, that He might bruise
him as he roars after his prey: make haste, tarry not, to deliver this
man, created in Thine Own image and likeness, from ruin, and from the
noon-day devil (_dæmonio meridiano_; in our version, “the sickness that
destroyeth in the noon-day”). Send Thy fear, O Lord, upon the wild beast,
which devoureth Thy vine. Grant Thy servants boldness to fight bravely
against that wicked dragon, lest he despise them that put their trust in
Thee, and say, as once he spake in Pharaoh: I know not the Lord, neither
will I let Israel go. Let Thy right hand in power compel him to depart
from Thy servant N. (or Thy handmaid N.) ✠, that he dare no longer to hold
him captive, whom Thou hast vouchsafed to make in Thine image, and hast
redeemed in Thy Son; Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the Unity of the
Holy Spirit, ever One God, world without end. Amen.

_Then he shall command the spirit in this manner._

I command thee, whosoever thou art, thou unclean spirit, and all thy
companions possessing this servant of God, that by the Mysteries of the
Incarnation, Passion, Resurrection and Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ,
by the sending of the Holy Ghost, and by the Coming of the same our Lord
to judgment, thou tell me thy name, the day, and the hour of thy going
out, by some sign: and, that to me, a minister of God, although unworthy,
thou be wholly obedient in all things: nor hurt this creature of God, or
those that stand by, or their goods in any way.

_Then shall these Gospels, or one or the other, be read over the
possessed._

The Lesson of the Holy Gospel according to S. John i. 1. _As he says these
words he shall sign himself and the possessed on the forehead, mouth, and
breast._ In the beginning was the Word ... full of grace and truth.

The Lesson of the Holy Gospel according to S. Mark xvi. 15. At that time:
Jesus spake unto His disciples: Go ye into all the world ... shall lay
hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

The Lesson of the Holy Gospel according to S. Luke x. 17. At that time:
The seventy returned again with joy ... because your names are written in
heaven.

The Lesson of the Holy Gospel according to S. Luke xi. 14. At that time:
Jesus was casting out a devil, and it was dumb ... wherein he trusted, and
divideth his spoils.

℣ Lord, hear my prayer,

℟ And let my cry come unto Thee.

℣ The Lord be with you,

℟ And with thy Spirit.


Let us pray.

Almighty Lord, Word of God the Father, Jesus Christ, God and Lord of every
creature: Who didst give to Thy Holy Apostles power to tread upon serpents
and scorpions: Who amongst other of Thy wonderful commands didst vouchsafe
to say--Put the devils to flight: by Whose power Satan fell from heaven
like lightning: with supplication I beseech Thy Holy Name in fear and
trembling, that to me Thy most unworthy servant, granting me pardon of all
my faults, Thou wilt vouchsafe to give constancy of faith and power, that
shielded by the might of Thy holy arm, in trust and safety I may approach
to attack this cruel devil, through Thee, O Jesus Christ, the Lord our
God, Who shalt come to judge the quick and the dead, and the world by
fire. Amen.


_Then defending himself and the possessed with the sign of the Cross,
putting part of his stole round the neck, and his right hand upon the head
of the possessed, firmly and with great faith he shall say what follows._

℣ Behold the Cross of the Lord, flee ye of the contrary part.

℟ The Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed.

℣ Lord, hear my prayer,

℟ And let my cry come unto Thee.

℣ The Lord be with you,

℟ And with thy spirit.


Let us pray.

O God, and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, I call upon Thy Holy Name, and
humbly implore Thy mercy, that Thou wouldest vouchsafe to grant me help
against this, and every unclean spirit, that vexes this Thy creature.
Through the same Lord Jesus Christ.


THE EXORCISM.

I exorcise thee, most foul spirit, every coming in of the enemy, every
apparition, every legion; in the Name of our Lord Jesus ✠ Christ be rooted
out, and be put to flight from this creature of God ✠. He commands thee,
Who has bid thee be cast down from the highest heaven into the lower parts
of the earth. He commands thee, Who has commanded the sea, the winds, and
the storms. Hear therefore, and fear, Satan, thou injurer of the faith,
thou enemy of the human race, thou procurer of death, thou destroyer of
life, kindler of vices, seducer of men, betrayer of the nations, inciter
of envy, origin of avarice, cause of discord, stirrer-up of troubles: why
standest thou, and resistest, when thou knowest that Christ the Lord
destroyest thy ways? Fear Him, Who was sacrificed in Isaac, Who was sold
in Joseph, was slain in the Lamb, was crucified in man, thence was the
triumpher over hell. _The following signs of the Cross shall be made upon
the forehead of the possessed._ Depart therefore in the Name of the Father
✠, and of the Son ✠, and of the Holy ✠ Ghost: give place to the Holy
Ghost, by this sign of the holy ✠ Cross of Jesus Christ our Lord: Who with
the Father, and the same Holy Ghost, liveth and reigneth ever one God,
world without end. Amen.

℣ Lord, hear my prayer.

℟ And let my cry come unto Thee.

℣ The Lord be with you.

℟ And with thy spirit.


Let us pray.

O God, the Creator and Protector of the human race, Who hast formed man in
Thine own Image: look upon this Thy servant N. (_or_ this Thy handmaid
N.), who is grievously vexed with the wiles of an unclean spirit, whom the
old adversary, the ancient enemy of the earth, encompasses with a horrible
dread, and blinds the senses of his human understanding with stupor,
confounds him with terror, and harasses him with trembling and fear. Drive
away, O Lord, the power of the devil, take away his deceitful snares: let
the impious tempter fly far hence: let Thy servant be defended by the sign
✠ (_on his forehead_) of Thy Name, and be safe both in body, and soul.
(_The three following crosses shall be made on the breast of the
demoniac._) Do Thou guard his inmost ✠ soul, Thou rule his inward ✠ parts,
Thou strengthen his ✠ heart. Let the attempts of the opposing power in his
soul vanish away. Grant, O Lord, grace to this invocation of Thy most Holy
Name, that he who up to this present was causing terror, may flee away
affrighted, and depart conquered; and that this Thy servant, strengthened
in heart, and sincere in mind, may render Thee his due service. Through
our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.


THE EXORCISM.

I adjure thee, thou old serpent, by the Judge of the quick and the dead,
by thy Maker, and the Maker of the world: by Him, Who hath power to put
thee into hell, that thou depart in haste from this servant of God N., who
returns to the bosom of the Church, with thy fear and with the torment of
thy terror. I adjure Thee again ✠ (_on his forehead_), not in my
infirmity, but by the power of the Holy Ghost, that thou go out of this
servant of God N., whom the Almighty God hath made in His Own Image.
Yield, therefore, not to me, but to the minister of Christ. For His power
presses upon thee Who subdued thee beneath His Cross. Tremble at His arm,
which, after the groanings of hell were subdued, led forth the souls into
light. Let the body ✠ (_on his breast_) of man be a terror to thee, let
the image of God ✠ (_on his forehead_) be an alarm to thee. Resist not,
nor delay to depart from this person, for it has pleased Christ to dwell
in man. And think not that I am to be despised, since thou knowest that I
too am so great a sinner. God ✠ commands thee. The majesty of Christ ✠
commands thee. God the Father ✠ commands thee. God the Son ✠ commands
thee. God the Holy ✠ Ghost commands thee. The Sacrament of the Cross ✠
commands thee. The faith of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, and of all
the other Saints ✠, commands thee. The blood of the Martyrs ✠ commands
thee. The stedfastness (_continentia_) of the Confessors ✠ commands thee.
The devout intercession of all the Saints ✠ commands thee. The virtue of
the Mysteries of the Christian Faith ✠ commands thee. Go out, therefore,
thou transgressor. Go out, thou seducer, full of all deceit and wile, thou
enemy of virtue, thou persecutor of innocence. Give place, thou most dire
one: give place, thou most impious one: give place to Christ in Whom thou
hast found nothing of thy works: Who hath overcome thee, Who hath
destroyed thy kingdom, Who hath led thee captive and bound thee, and hath
spoiled thy goods: Who hath cast thee into outer darkness, where for thee
and thy servants everlasting destruction is prepared. But why, O fierce
one, dost thou withstand? why, rashly bold, dost thou refuse? thou art the
accused of Almighty God, whose laws thou hast broken. Thou art the accused
of Jesus Christ our Lord, whom thou hast dared to tempt, and presumed to
crucify. Thou art the accused of the human race, to whom by thy persuasion
thou hast given to drink thy poison. Therefore, I adjure thee, most wicked
dragon, in the Name of the immaculate ✠ Lamb, Who treads upon the lion and
adder, Who tramples under foot the young lion and the dragon, that thou
depart from this man ✠ (_let the sign be made upon his forehead_), that
thou depart from the Church of God ✠ (_let the sign he made over those who
are standing by_): tremble, and flee away at the calling upon the Name of
that Lord, of Whom hell is afraid; to Whom the Virtues, the Powers, and
the Dominions of the heavens are subject; Whom Cherubim and Seraphim with
unwearied voices praise, saying: Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Sabaoth.
The Word ✠ made Flesh commands thee. He Who was born ✠ of the Virgin
commands thee. Jesus ✠ of Nazareth commands thee; Who, although thou didst
despise His disciples, bade thee go bruised and overthrown out of the man:
and in his presence, having separated thee from him, thou didst not
presume to enter into the herd of swine. Therefore, thus now adjured in
His Name ✠, depart from the man, whom He has formed. It is hard for thee
to wish to resist ✠. It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks ✠.
Because the more slowly goest thou out, does the greater punishment
increase against thee, for thou despisest not men, but Him, Who is Lord
both of the quick and the dead, Who shall come to judge the quick and the
dead, and the World by fire. ℟ Amen.

℣ Lord, hear my prayer.

℟ And let my cry come unto thee.

℣ The Lord be with you.

℟ And with thy spirit.


Let us pray.

O God of heaven, God of earth, God of the Angels, God of the Archangels,
God of the Prophets, God of the Apostles, God of the Martyrs, God of the
Virgins, God, Who hast the power to give life after death, rest after
labour; because there is none other God beside Thee, nor could be true,
but Thou, the Creator of heaven and earth, Who art the true King, and of
Whose kingdom there shall be no end: humbly I beseech Thy glorious
majesty, that Thou wouldest vouchsafe to deliver this Thy servant from
unclean spirits, through Christ our Lord. Amen.


THE EXORCISM.

I therefore adjure thee, thou most foul spirit, every appearance, every
inroad of Satan, in the Name of Jesus Christ ✠ of Nazareth, Who, after His
baptism in Jordan, was led into the wilderness, and overcame thee in thine
own stronghold: that thou cease to assault him whom He hath formed from
the dust of the earth for His own honour and glory: and that thou in
miserable man tremble not at human weakness, but at the image of Almighty
God. Yield, therefore, to God ✠ Who by His servant Moses drowned thee and
thy malice in Pharaoh and his army in the depths of the sea. Yield to God
✠, Who put thee to flight when driven out of King Saul with spiritual
song, by his most faithful servant David. Yield thyself to God ✠, Who
condemned thee in the traitor Judas Iscariot. For He touches thee with
Divine ✠ stripes, when in His sight, trembling and crying out with thy
legions, thou saidst: What have I to do with Thee, Jesus, Son of the Most
High God? Art Thou come hither to torment us before the time? He presses
upon thee with perpetual flames, Who shall say to the wicked at the end of
time--Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the
devil and his angels. For thee, O impious one, and for thy angels, is the
worm that dieth not; for thee and thy angels is the fire unquenchable
prepared: for thou art the chief of accursed murder, thou the author of
incest, thou the head of sacrileges, thou the master of the worst actions,
thou the teacher of heretics, thou the instigator of all uncleanness.
Therefore go out ✠, thou wicked one, go out ✠, thou infamous one, go out
with all thy deceits; for God hath willed that man shall be His temple.
But why dost thou delay longer here? Give honour to God the Father ✠
Almighty, before Whom every knee is bent. Give place to Jesus Christ ✠ the
Lord, Who shed for man His most precious Blood. Give place to the Holy ✠
Ghost, Who by His blessed apostle Peter struck thee to the ground in Simon
Magus; Who condemned thy deceit in Ananias and Sapphira; Who smote thee in
Herod, because he gave not God the glory; Who by His apostle Paul smote
thee in Elymas the sorcerer with a mist and darkness, and by the same
apostle by his word of command bade thee come out of the damsel possessed
with the spirit of divination. Now therefore depart ✠, depart, thou
seducer. The wilderness is thy abode. The serpent is the place of thy
habitation: be humbled, and be overthrown. There is no time now for delay.
For behold the Lord the Ruler approaches closely upon thee, and His fire
shall glow before Him, and shall go before Him; and shall burn up His
enemies on every side. If thou hast deceived man, God thou canst not
scoff: One expels thee, from Whose Sight nothing is hidden. He casts thee
out, to Whose power all things are subject. He shuts thee out, Who hast
prepared for thee and for thine angels everlasting hell; out of Whose
mouth the sharp sword shall go out, when He shall come to judge the quick
and the dead, and the World by fire. Amen.


_All the aforesaid things being said and done, so far as there shall be
need, they shall be repeated, until the possessed person be entirely set
free._

_The following which are noted down will be of great assistance, said
devoutly over the possessed, and also frequently to repeat the_ Our
Father, Hail Mary, _and_ Creed.

_The Canticle._ Magnificat.

_The Canticle._ Benedictus.


_The Creed of S. Athanasius._

_Quicunque vult._

Psalm xci. _Qui habitat._

Psalm lxviii. _Exurgat Deus._

Psalm lxx. _Deus in adjutorium._

Psalm liv. _In Nomine Tuo._

Psalm cxviii. _Confitemini Domino._

Psalm xxxv. _Judica, Domine._

Psalm xxxi. _In Te, Domine, speravi._

Psalm xxii. _Deus, Deus meus._

Psalm iii. _Domini, quid multiplicati?_

Psalm xi. _In Domino confido._

Psalm xiii. _Usque quo, Domine?_

_Each Psalm shall be said with_ Glory be to the Father, &c.


_Prayer after being set free._

We pray Thee, O Almighty God, that the spirit of wickedness may have no
more power over this Thy servant N. (_or_ Thy handmaid N.), but that he
may flee away, and never come back again: at Thy bidding, O Lord, let
there come into him (_or_ her) the goodness and peace of our Lord Jesus
Christ, by Whom we have been redeemed, and let us fear no evil, for the
Lord is with us, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the Unity of the
Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. ℟ Amen.



WITCHCRAFT AND NECROMANCY.


“To deny the possibility, nay actual existence of Witchcraft and Sorcery,
is at once flatly to contradict the revealed Word of God, in various
passages both of the Old and New Testament; and the thing itself is a
truth to which every Nation in the World hath in its turn borne testimony,
either by examples seemingly well attested, or by prohibitory laws, which
at least suppose the possibility of commerce with evil
spirits.”--Blackstone’s “Commentaries,” book iv. chap. iv. p. 61.



CHAPTER IV.

WITCHCRAFT AND NECROMANCY.


Witchcraft is the system of those persons who, through the direct agency
of wicked spirits, perform certain acts and deeds beyond the natural and
ordinary powers of mankind.[70] On the other hand, Necromancy, according
to the definition of Cotgrave, is “divination by conference with dead
bodies raised.” In its modern and wider acceptation, the latter is a
formal summoning of the spirits of the dead out of the hidden place of
their abode--“the desert where they glide,”--in order to consult with them
as to the present or future by unlawful means, and to secure their active
assistance in supernatural things and practices which are forbidden.

The invocation and consultation of evil spirits specially summoned to
earth by certain recognized incantations, would be acts of Witchcraft and
Necromancy. Of these cases, abundant examples occur both in sacred[71] and
profane history.[72]

To the wizard or witch were freely given by the Devil or his angels divers
powers at once supernatural and uncommon, by which, when sought for, both
riches and sensual pleasures could for a while be secured, even to
surfeiting. Occasionally the gift of predicting certain future events was
bestowed; in other cases, the power of working evil and mischief upon the
lives, limbs, and fortunes of neighbours or chosen subjects. This power,
as was commonly believed, was bestowed by an express and definite compact,
as some declare, formally made in writing by the Devil or his agents, and
sealed with the wizard’s or witch’s own blood. By the unvarying terms of
the bond, as an essential preliminary, the Sacrament of Holy Baptism was
expressly renounced by the person accepting the Devil’s terms and
conditions. Satan was formally worshipped, prayed to, and acknowledged as
Ruler and Lord; and then, after a certain number of years, as a necessary
consequence, the soul of the wizard or witch, without any chance of
redemption, was irrevocably lost, and became absolutely the everlasting
property of the Evil One.

The existence of this detail of the Supernatural, sometimes dimly and
obscurely set forth, at others with undoubted and remarkable clearness,
owns in its favour the almost universal consent of the human race[73] in
all ages. Even the incredulity of the modern persons, who term themselves
“philosophers” and “thinkers,” cannot be reasonably alleged in
contravention of so broad and general a fact; for these “philosophers”
themselves admit as much when, in their great wisdom, they proceed to
characterize the opposite disposition--the readiness to accept such
facts--as “vulgar” and “popular.”

It is impossible to point to any period when the belief in Witchcraft and
Necromancy was perfectly obliterated, or to any nation which altogether
repudiated it.[74] If one particular phase was removed, discredited, or
discountenanced, some other form, substantially and inherently similar,
eventually took its place. Holy Scripture[75] is full of references to
Witchcraft and Necromancy. The dark rites and deeds involved in their
practice are distinctly and unequivocally condemned. If such had not
actively existed, why should their condemnation have been pronounced in
the Sacred Books? Supernatural acts are there recorded, which are
expressly said to have been performed by and through the system and power
of Witchcraft, which is plainly declared to be a sin of a very dark dye.
The practice, consequently, is directly and plainly forbidden, as being
contrary to the Mind and Will of God; and laws were enacted and put on
record by which those who, in the face of warnings, continued to practise
such forbidden arts, were to be punished by death.

It is equally clear from certain of the Epistles of the Apostles of our
Blessed Lord, that the fact of Witchcraft and Necromancy being commonly
practised by Pagan nations was not only perfectly well known[76] to the
guides and rulers of the Christian Church, but was again formally
forbidden by those who were left to teach in the Name and on behalf of
their Lord and Master. Nothing, in fact, can be more certain than that the
Apostles condemned and prohibited the consultation of, or intercourse
with, either the spirits of the departed or evil angels.

Here a few remarks defining and setting forth the principle on which such
unlawful arts were authoritatively prohibited, may reasonably follow.

By the very act of his profession the Christian allows the co-existence in
the World of two distinct and separable orders,--the Natural, which
governs the physical and moral laws of the world, and the Supernatural,
which, according to God’s Revelation, gradually unfolded and duly
developed, governs the moral laws of man. The object of man’s faith is
mystery, certain in itself, but above human intelligence. He yields the
homage of his will not only to a God Who is the Great Creator and
Preserver of the world and of all that therein is, but renders it to a God
Who is the Repairer and Restorer of the human race by the Incarnation of
the Eternal Word, and the Sanctifier of souls. This supernatural order,
then, was not only known and established in the earth by other
supernatural facts, but the visible testimony of Nature to the invisible
order superior to and above Nature, was from time to time, and when
necessary, abundantly made manifest. The Supernatural, then, exists in the
World to lead men to God. Everything, therefore, that rises up in
opposition to the Supernatural and mars the true idea of it, of necessity
turns man away from God. The World, the Flesh, and the Devil, each and all
(as Christian experience by temptation testifies,) effect this most
successfully.

The World, which has been defined as “the rebellion of the reason against
God,” scorns to accept miracles and mysteries, and boldly denies the
existence both of angels and fallen spirits--scoffing at and repudiating
the idea of Witchcraft or Necromancy, which it craftily characterizes as
“the foolish and ignorant superstitions of a dark age.” Furthermore, the
World admits of no truth superior to the human intellect, of no law which
restricts what is called “human liberty” or the “rights of man;” and
absolutely refuses to acknowledge in the domain of facts anything which
oversteps those fixed rules which it alone chooses to recognize in the
government of Nature.

The Flesh tends to degrade man to the level of the beasts, with whom he
has in common notable tendencies and powerful passions. To the carnal man,
who is at enmity with God, the very term “Supernatural” is a word void
both of meaning and efficacy. His motto is, “Let us eat and drink, for
to-morrow we die:” his conviction, as far as he may be said to have any,
is that his own soul is nothing more than “a force which has its origin in
matter itself,” and which, by consequence, shares its destruction; while
his God is simply either “a stream of tendency, by which all things tend
to fulfil the law of their being,” or “a substance immanent in the
universe.”[77]

Thirdly, the Devil, through hatred both of God and man, strives in every
way to substitute himself for God in this World. He is the Prince of the
Powers of the air. He is stronger and more knowing than man. His intellect
is clearer and finer. Moreover, his kingdom is powerful; his spiritual
auxiliaries are numerous; his allies on earth, of all kinds, in the flesh,
are multitudinous. The deeds which he delights that men should do are
perfectly well known.[78] By counterfeiting genuine prodigies and true
revelations, therefore, he draws men into the deadly meshes of a degrading
and damnable superstition, by means of a delusive and lying
supernaturalism. And the mischief resulting from such an active and
successful policy is by no means on the wane, if they are not surely on
the increase, in these dangerous latter days. True that in England the
laws against Witchcraft are abolished,[79] but history, fairly consulted
and faithfully read, tells us that not a century has elapsed since the
commencement of the Christian era without its demoniacal apparitions and
certain examples of Necromancy and Witchcraft. While this is so, of course
no intention is entertained by the Editor of denying the common belief of
the Universal Church, that by and through the Incarnation and Sacrifice of
the Ever-Blessed Son of God the powers and influence of the Enemy of souls
have been materially and efficiently crippled.[80]

Having thus digressed for an obvious purpose, it is now needful to return
to the particular subject of this section, upon which some light will, in
due course, be found to have been thrown, by the above brief expositions
of principles; in the consideration and by the aid of which the strange
facts and singular records which follow will appear in their proper place,
when the important subject of the Supernatural, as brought out, incident
upon incident, by historical records and authentic accounts, is under
consideration.

That Witchcraft and Necromancy were publicly recognized as facts by the
Fathers of the Christian Church is indisputable; while the existence of an
order of ministers known as “exorcists,” acting from time to time, as
occasion required or necessity demanded, in casting out evil spirits, is a
sufficient proof of the watchful care and beneficent action of the
Universal Church, at once authoritative, indefectible, and divine.[81]

In 1484, Pope Innocent VIII. issued a Bull against Witchcraft, upon the
promulgation of which, treatises were drawn up for the guidance of local
bishops, chancellors, and other ecclesiastical officials, in the necessary
labour of bringing hardened offenders to justice. This Bull was renewed in
the latter part of the fifteenth century, by Pope Alexander VI., so that
the subject of Witchcraft gained unusual attention about that period.

As a matter of fact, it is computed that in the year 1515, no less than
five hundred witches were burnt in Geneva alone, and the same was the case
in other parts of Christendom,--a proof at once of the craft and power of
Satan, and of the demoralization of those who had deliberately elected to
become his servants and slaves. The earliest statute against Witchcraft
enacted in England, was passed in the reign of King Henry VI.; and
additional laws of great stringency and severity, sorely needed, were
enacted under the Tudors, by Henry VIII., Queen Elizabeth, and James I. In
the year 1604, the great Act of Parliament against Witchcraft, drawn up
by Coke and Bacon, was passed; and it is asserted that no less than twelve
bishops attended the Committee of the House of Lords when the Bill was
under discussion. Sir Matthew Hale and Sir Thomas Browne, men of high
legal and literary rank and mark, each gave evidence at the trials which
speedily followed. In this particular, as in some others, England followed
Geneva. Between the years 1565 and 1700, eleven wizards or sorcerers were
burnt at the stake in the Carrefour du Bordage, in Guernsey, the square
devoted by the city authorities of that island to this kind of punishment.
The last case of death for Witchcraft there took place in 1747.

It may here be put on record that at the period of the Reformation, and
during the succeeding century, the power of casting out devils was claimed
exclusively by those who remained in visible communion with the See of
Rome, and many Roman Catholic writers of those periods maintained that no
such power belonged either to any teacher of heresy or to schismatics.[82]
But many of the Puritans, knowing that the act of exorcism, like baptism,
was not essentially a sacerdotal act (for if baptism may be validly
confirmed by a deacon, it may, with equal validity, be bestowed by a
layman), maintained the power to be inherent in any Christian man (with
right disposition and following recognized and authorized rules) of
casting out evil spirits; and, in consequence, declined altogether to
repudiate the clear and plain records and statements of Holy Scripture
concerning Witchcraft and Necromancy. They therefore made several attempts
to secure the official authorization of a form for exorcism, framed after
the old and customary rite, to be printed in the “Book of Common Prayer.”
This, however, was never done. But in 1604 the subject was duly
considered, and determined upon in the seventy-second Canon, which, as has
been already pointed out, properly and stringently forbad to the clergy
the practice of exorcism without a special license or faculty from the
Bishop of the diocese.

As to the facts of Witchcraft and Necromancy, it is quite impossible to
deny their existence. Records of the plainest character, legal evidence
and literary testimony of undisputed authority,[83] may be discovered,
which very luminously set forth what was believed on the subject; and this
not alone by the ignorant, but by the learned and well-informed. The only
difficulty is to make a suitable selection from that evidence which so
abundantly exists; being careful that such selection shall not set forth
merely one aspect of the subject, but several, and leaving each account to
tell its own story. This it is now proposed briefly to attempt.

For example, in the year 1599, a girl named Martha Brossier, of
Romorantin, in Berry, was reputed to be possessed, and excited a
considerable sensation in Paris. At the suggestion of the then Bishop of
Paris, the King ordered a Committee composed of the most eminent
physicians, to examine and report on her case. The physicians appointed
were Marescot, Ellain, Haulin, Riolan, and Duet; and their Report, which
is exceedingly curious, will be found translated into English by Abraham
Hartwell, and published towards the close of the sixteenth century.[84]
The dedication to his Majesty proceeds thus:--

“Sire, by the commandment of Your Majestie, we have set down briefely and
truly that which wee have found in our visiting of Martha Brossier.... We
present the same unto Your Majestie without any art, without any painted
show, without any flourish, but with a naked Simplicitie, the faithful
companion of Truth, which you have desired from us in this matter and
which you have always loved and curiously sought.” The Report then
continues: “We the undersigned Doctors Regents in the facultie of
physicke in the Universitie of Paris, touching the matter of Martha
Brossier, a maide of the age of two-and-twenty yeres or thereabouts, born
at Romorantin in Berry, who was brought unto us in the chappel of my Lord
of Saint Genefue [Geneviève], and who we saw sometimes in constitution,
countenance and speech as a person sounde of bodie and minde, ... do say
in our consciences, and certify that which followeth: that all which is
before set down (referring to the character of her fits) must be referred
to one of these three causes--sicknesse, counterfeiting, or diabolicall
possession. For the opinion that it proceedeth from sicknesse, we are
clerely excluded from that, for the agitations and motions we observed
therein doe retain nothing of the nature of sickness, nay not of those
diseases whereunto of the first sight they might have resembled; it being
neither an epilepsie or falling sickness, which always supposes the loss
of sense and judgment, nor the passion which we call hysterica, ... nor
any of the foure motions proceeding from diseases, that is to say,
shivering, trembling, panting, and convulsion, or indeede if there doe
appeare any convulsion; and that a man will so call the turning up of her
eyes, the gnashing of her teeth, the writhing of her chaps (which are
almost ordinarie with this maide while she is in her fittes); the
confidence which the priest hath when he openeth her mouth, and holdeth it
open with his finger within it, testifying sufficiently that they doe not
proceede from, nor are caused by, any disease, considering that in
diseases he that hath a convulsion is not master of that part or member
wherein it is, having neither any power of election or command over it,
and particularly which is in the convulsion of the jawes, which is most
violent of all the rest, the finger of the priest should bee no more
respected nor spared than the finger of any other man. Moreover, diseases,
and the motions also of diseases (especially those that are violent),
leave the body feeble, the visage pale, and the breath panting. This
maide, at the end of her fittes, was found to be as little moved and
changed in pulse, colour, countenance, and breath, as ever she was before;
yea, which is the more to be noted, as little at the end of her exorcisme
as at the beginning, at evening as in the morning, at the last day as at
the first. Touching the point of counterfeiting, the insensibilitie of her
bodie during her extasies and furies, tried by the deepe prickings of long
pinnes, which were thrust into divers parts of her hands, and afterwards
plucked out againe, without any show that ever she made of feeling the
same, either in the putting in of them, or the taking out of them, a
griefe which, without majicke and without speech, could not, in our
opinion, be indured, without any countenance or show thereof, neither by
the constancie of the most courageous, nor by the stoutnesse of the most
wicked, nor by the stronge conceit of the most criminall malefactores,
took from us almost the suspicion of it, but much more persuaded us from
that opinion, the thin and slender foam that in her mad fits we saw issue
out of her mouth, which she had no means to be abel to counterfeit. And
yet more than all this, the very consideration before mentioned of the
little or no change at all that was seene in her person after all these
most sharpe and very long pangs, (a thing which nobody in the world did
ever trie in their most moderate exercises,) we are driven, even till this
houre, by all the lawes of discourse and knowledge, yea, and almost forced
to beleeve that this maide is a demoniacke, and the Devill dwelling in her
is the Author of these effects. If wee had seen that which my Lord of St.
Genefue and many others doe report,--that this maide was lifted up into
the ayre more than four foote above five or six strong persons that held
her,--it would have been an argument to us of an extraordinarie power,
over and beyond the common nature and condition of man. But not being
presente at that wonder, we doe give a testamonie of our knowledge, which
is as much or rather more admirable than that force and power was, viz.,
that being demanded, and in her exercising commanded, my Lord of Paris
furnishing the priest with questions and interrogatories, this maide
divers and sundrie times, by many persons of qualitie and worthie of
credit, was seene and heard to obey and answere to purpose, not only in
the Latin tongue, (wherein it had not been impertinent peradventure to
have suspected some collusion,) but also in Greeke and in English, and
that upon the sudden. She did, we say once againe, understande the Greeke
and English languages, wherein we beleeve, as it is very likely that she
was never studied, so that there was no collusion used with her, neither
could she invent or imagine the interpretations thereof. It resteth,
therefore, even in the judgment of Aristotle in the like case, that they
were inspired unto her.” The Report then concludes with this solemn
declaration: “By reason whereof, and considering also, under correction,
that Saint Luke, who was both a physician and an evangelist, describing
the persons out of whose bodies our Lord and his apostles did drive the
devils left unto us, none other or any greater signes than those which wee
think wee have seene in this case, wee are the more induced and almost
confirmed to beleeve and to conclude as before, taking God for a Witness
of our consciences in the matter. Made at Paris, this 3rd April, 1599.”

On this Report, as may be gathered from the tractate referred to, it is
evident and notorious that the physicians Marescot, Ellain, Haulin,
Riolan, and Duet, were all men of scientific attainments and unimpeachable
moral integrity; the same facts were also witnessed and formally attested
by the Bishop of Paris, the Abbot of Geneviève, and other competent
observers.

Another case, that of a girl named Anne Millner, or Mylner, of Chester,
about the year 1564, deserves consideration. The record here given is
taken from a pamphlet of considerable interest.[85] Some curious facts
connected with it are attested by Sir William Calverley, Sir William
Sneyd, Lady Calverley, and other persons of distinction who then lived at
Chester. The description of the paroxysm is extremely graphic:--“We went,”
says the Report, which is signed by the above-named persons, “at about two
of the clocke in the afternoone of the same 16th day of February and there
found the mayden in her traunce, after her accustomed manner lying in a
bed within the haule, her eyes half shut, half open, looking as she had
been agast, never moving either eye or eyelid, her teeth something open,
with her tongue doubling betweene, her face somewhat red, her head as
heavy as leade to lift at; there she laid, still as a stone, and feeling
her pulse it beat in as good measure as if she had been in perfect
health.” The Report then describes her becoming violently convulsed: “She
lifted herself up in her bed, bending backwards in such order that almost
her head and fete met, falling down on the one side, then on the other.” A
person of the name of Lane, who was reputed to possess great power over
demoniacs, was then called in, who first, as the Report expresses it,
“willed” that she should speak, and then “willed” that she should rise and
dress herself, all which she did, to the astonishment of the bystanders;
and a Certificate to that effect was signed by all present on March 8,
1564.

In Lancashire seven persons belonging to one family were reputed to be
under the direct influence of evil spirits, or in a certain state of
bewitchment, exhibiting signs of demoniacal possession. The pamphlet, the
title of which is given below,[86] puts on record what in this case is
reported to have occurred: “These possessed persons had every one
something peculiar to herselfe which none of the rest did shew, and that
so rare and straunge that all the people were obliged to confesse it was
the worke of an evil spirit within them; so had they many things in
common, and were handled for the most part in their fittes alike.... They
had all every one very straunge visions, they heard hideous and fearful
voices of spirits sundrie times and did make marveilous answers back
againe ... they were in their fits ordinarilie holden in that captivity
and bondage, that for an houre, two, or three, and longer time they
should neither see, heare, nor taste, nor feel nothing but the divells,
they employing them wholly for themselves, vexing and tormenting them so
extreameley as that for the present they could feel no other paine or
torture that could bee offered; no, though you should plucke an ear from
the heade or an arm from the bodie. They had also a marveilous sore
heaving as if their hearts would burst, so that with violent straining
some of them vomitted bloude many times. They were all of them verry
fierce, offering violence both to themselves and others, whereine they
shewed verie greate and extraordinarie strength. They were out of their
right mind, without the use of their senses, expecially voyd of feiling:
as much sense in a stock as one of them, or as possible, in a manner, to
quicken a dead man as to alter or chaunge them in their traunces in
anything they either saide or did. They in their fittes had divers parts
and members of their bodies so striffe and stretched out as were
inflexible or very hard to be bended. They shewed very great and
extraordinarie knowledge, as may appeare by the straunge things saide and
done by them, according to that which we have already set down in the
particulars. They ever after their fittes were as well as might be, and
felt very little or no paine at all, although they had been never so sore
tormented immediately before.”

The strange and singular violence of the convulsions in those who were
under the influence of Witchcraft, is brought out in almost all the
records of such cases, notably in those which occurred during the Great
Rebellion,[87] and specially in the case of Anne Styles, who was executed
at Salisbury in 1653.

The narrative states that she was so strong in her fits that six men or
more could not hold her, but while suffering under most grievous hurrying
and tortures of the body, the witch being only brought into the room, she
fell asleep and slept for three hours, so fast that when they would have
awakened her they could not.[88] The insensibility of the body in this
state, we are informed by Increase Mather, led to a cruel test for
demoniacal possession. There was a notorious Witchfinder, he observes, “in
Scotland, who undertook by a pin to make an infallible discovery of
suspected persons, whether they were witches or not. If, when the pin was
run an inch or two into the body of the accused party no blood appeared
nor any sense of pain, he declared them to be witches, by means of which
no less than three hundred persons were condemned for witchcraft in that
country.”[89]

In a small but curious tractate entitled “Daimonomagia,” the effects of
Witchcraft are maintained to be a disease. The definition of it stands
thus:--“A disease of witchcraft is a sickness that arises from strange and
preternatural causes, and from diabolical power in the use of strange and
ridiculous ceremonies by witches or necromancers, afflicting with strange
and unaccustomed symptoms, and commonly preternaturally violent, very
seldom, or not at all, curable by natural remedies.” Then follow the
diagnostical signs, amongst which are insensibility, convulsions, together
with a preternatural knowledge both of living and dead languages, and
after these the causes of witchcraft. Biernannus and Wierius, two
authorities on the subject, find that aspect and contact do not
necessarily bewitch; but witches sometimes try to bewitch another of the
same family. Lastly, as regards the cure, directions are provided by which
the wizard, witch, or necromancer is to be compelled to use certain dark
ceremonies for the cure of the bewitched.

In the year 1658, a woman named Jane Brookes was tried, condemned, and
executed at Chard in Somersetshire. The indictment against her was that
she had bewitched Richard the son of Henry Jones, of Shepton Mallet in
that county. Numberless persons of all ranks and classes, including both
clergymen and physicians, witnessed his sufferings and paroxysms; while
the direct influence of the woman indicted was fully apparent and
abundantly proved. “The boy,” as the Rev. Joseph Glanville,[90] one of the
chaplains of King Charles II. writes, “fell into his fitts at the sight of
Jane Brookes and lay in a man’s arms like a dead person; the woman was
then willed to lay on her hand, which she did, and he thereupon started
and sprung out in a very unusual manner. One of the justices, to prevent
all possibilities of _legerdemain_, caused Gibson and the rest to stand
off from the boy, and then that justice himself held him. The youth being
blindfolded, the justice called as if Brookes should touch him, but winked
to others to do it, which two or three successively did, but the boy
appeared not concerned. The justice then called on the father to take him,
but had privately before desired one Mr. Geoffrey Strode to bring Jane
Brookes to touch him at such a time as he should call for his father,
which was done, and the boy immediately sprang out after a very odd and
violent fashion. He was afterwards touched by several persons and moved
not, but Jane Brookes being again caused to put her hand upon him he
started and sprung up twice as before. All this while he remained in his
fit and some time after, and being then laid on a bed in the same room,
the people present could not for a long time bow either of his arms or
legs.”

It appears tolerably evident that the boy, when under the influence of his
fits, owned a faculty not unlike that of clairvoyance. As regards Jane
Brookes and her sister, he seems to have had the capacity to describe them
accurately wherever they might have been. As the Report declares, “He
would tell the clothes and habits they were in at the time, exactly as the
constable and others have found them on repairing to them, although
Brookes’ house was a good distance from Jones’: this they often tried, and
always found the boy right in his description.”[91]

From the same volume, the main facts of which seem to be admitted by
competent authority, a woman named Elizabeth Style of Bayford was
indicted for bewitching a girl named Elizabeth Hill, thirteen years of
age. In this case the formal deposition of three credible witnesses
attests that “during her fits, her strength was encreased beyond the
proportion of nature, and the force of divers men. Furthermore, in one fit
she foretold when she would have the next, which happened accordingly.”

The case of the “Surey Demoniac,” as he was termed, which was set forth at
length in a publication issued in London towards the close of the
seventeenth century,[92] is certainly worthy of being noticed here. In the
year 1697 a youth of nineteen years of age, named Richard Dugdale, excited
great attention; it being generally believed that he was possessed by an
evil spirit, as the direct consequence of Witchcraft. His paroxysms were
witnessed by numerous clergymen, physicians, and persons of respectability
and rank; and caused an amount of interest and excitement which can
scarcely be realized.[93] His fits commenced with violent convulsions; his
sight or eyeballs turned upward and backwards; he afterwards answered
questions; predicted during one fit the period of accession and duration
of another fit; spoke in foreign languages, of which at other times he was
ignorant, and described events passing at a distance with singular and
recognized accuracy. Here again the word of narration is quoted at
length:--“At the end of one fit the demoniac told what hour of the night
or day his next [fit] would begin, very precisely and punctually, as was
constantly observed, though there was no equal or set distance of time
between his fits; betwixt which there would be, sometimes a few hours,
sometimes many, sometimes one day, sometimes many days.” “He would have
told you,” one of the deponents asserts on oath, “when his fits would
begin, when they were two or three in one day, or three or four days
asunder, wherein he never was, that the deponent knoweth of,
disappointed.” On one occasion, when the minister was addressing him, he
exclaimed, “At ten o’clock my next fit comes on.” “Though he was never
learned in the English tongue, and his natural and acquired abilities were
very ordinary, yet, when the fit seized him, he often spake Latin, Greek,
and other languages very well.... He often told of things in his fits done
at a distance, whilst those things were a-doing,--as, for instance, a
woman being afraid to go to the barn, though she was come within a bow’s
length of it, was immediately sent for by the demoniac, who said, ‘Unless
that weak-faithed jade come, my fits will last longer.’ Some said, ‘Let us
send for Mr. G----.’ The demoniac answered, ‘He is now upon the hay-cart,’
which was found to be true.... On another occasion he told what great
distress there was in Ireland, and that England must ‘pay the piper.’
Again, one going by him to a church meeting, was told by the demoniac in
his fit, ‘Thou needest not go to the said meeting, for I can tell thee the
sermon that will be preached there,’ upon which he told him the text and
much of the sermon that was that day preached.” Lastly, it is certified by
two of the deponents that “the demoniac could not certainly judge what the
nature of his distemper was; because when he was out of his fits, he could
not tell how it was with him when he was in his fits.”

From another publication[94] we gather that, in the case of Florence
Newton, an Irishwoman, who was charged with bewitching Mary Longdon, when
the sufferer and the accused were both in court, and the evidence against
the person charged was being concluded, the prisoner at the bar simply
looked at the woman reputed to be under her influence, and made certain
motions of her hands towards her, upon which we are told that “the maid
fell into most violent fits, so that all the people that could lay hands
on her could scarcely hold her.”

Quaint as these records are, peculiar in their literary style, singularly
simple and homely in their subject-matter as to details, and tinged, it
may be, not infrequently with the exaggerated superstitions of the times,
it is impossible that so many persons of all ranks and classes--the
highest as well as the lowest--eye-witnesses of facts, could have been so
utterly mistaken as to the Supernatural character of Witchcraft, or so
deluded as to its true nature and import. Some writers have hastily and
erroneously asserted that at the close of the seventeenth century the
arraigning and trying of witches came to an end. But this is not so.[95]
In 1712, Judge Parker (who succeeded Chief Justice Holt,) put a check upon
the so-called “trial by water,” by his charge at the Essex Summer Assizes
of that year. Three years later, however, in 1715, Elizabeth Treslar was
hung and then burnt for Witchcraft on Northampton Heath.

The following account (extracted _verbatim et literatim_) is taken from a
rare and curious tract[96] published early in the eighteenth century,
containing an account of the trial, examination, and condemnation of two
witches named Shaw and Phillips in the year 1705. One or two sentences of
the old narrative are two coarse for quotation; but substantially the
contemporary account is reprinted, following its old typographical form:--

“On Wednesday the 7th of this Instant March 1705, being the second day of
the Assizes held at Northampton: One Ellinor Shaw and Mary Phillips[97]
(two notorious Witches), were brought into court and there Arraign’d at
the Bar upon several Indictments of Witchcraft; particularly for
Bewitching and Tormenting in a Diabolical manner, the Wife of Robert Wise
of Benefield in the said County, till she Dyed; as also for Killing by
Witchcraft and wicked Facination one Elizabeth Gorham of Glapthorn, a
Child of about four years of Age, in the said County of Northampton; as
also for Bewitching to death one Charles Ireland of Southwick in the said
County; to which Indictment the two said Prisoners pleaded not Guilty and
there upon put themselves upon their Tryals as followeth:--

“The first Evidence against them was one Widdow Peak, who deposed that she
with two other Women, undertook to Watch the same Prisoners after they had
been Apprehended; and that about Midnight there appeared in the Room a
little white Thing about the Bigness of a Cat, which sat upon Mary
Phillips’ Lap, at which time she heard her, the said Mary Phillips, say,
then pointing to Ellinor Shaw, that she was the Witch that Killed Mrs.
Wise by Roasting her Effiges in Wax, sticking it full of Pinns, and till
it was all wasted, and all this she affirm’d was done the same Night Mrs.
Wise Dyed in a sad and languishing Condition. Mrs. Evans deposed that when
Mrs. Wise first was taken Ill, that she saw Ellinor Shaw look out at the
Window (it being opposite to her House), at Which time she heard her say,
‘I have done her Business now I am sure; this Night Ill send the old Devil
a New Year’s Gift’ (next day being New year’s Day), and well knowing this
Ellinor Shaw to be a reputed Witch, was so much concern’d at her Words
that she went then to see how Mrs. Wise did, Where she found her
Tormented with such Pains, as exceeding those of a Woman in Travel, which
Encreased to such a terrible Degree that she Expired about 12 of the clock
to the great amasement of all her Neighbours.

“Another Evidence made Oath that Ellinor Shaw and Mary Phillips being one
day at her house they told her she was a Fool to live so Miserable as she
did, and therefore if she was willing, they would send some thing that
Night that would Relieve her, and being an ignorant Woman she consented;
and accordingly the same Night two little black Things, almost like Moles
came into her bed ... repeating the same for two or three Nights after,
till she was almost frightened out of her Sences [sic] insomuch that she
was forced to send for Mr. Danks the Minister, to Pray by her several
nights before the said Imps would leave her: She also added that she
heard the said Prisoners say that they would be Revenged on Mrs. Wise
because she would not give them some Buttermilk.

“Mrs. Todd of Southwick deposed that Charles Ireland being a Boy of about
12 years of Age, was taken with Strange Fitts about Christmas last,
continuing so by Intervals till twelf Day last, at which time he Barked
like a Dogg, and when he was Recovered and come to himself, he would
Distinctly describe Ellinor Shaw and Mary Phillips, affirming them two to
be the Authors of his Misfortunes, though he never saw them in his Life;
so that Mrs. Ireland, the Boy’s mother, was advised to Cork up some ... in
a stone Bottle filled full of Pins and Needles, and to Bury it under the
Fire Hearth; which being done accordingly, the two said Witches could not
be quiet till they came to the same House and desired to have the said
Bottle taken up, which was not granted, till they had confessed the
Matter, and promised never to do so again; but for all this the Next night
but one, the said Boy was so violently Handled, that he Dyed in two Hours
time; and this Woman’s Testimoney was confirm’d by five or six other
Evidences at the same time.

“The said Witches were Try’d a third time for Bewitching to Death
Elizabeth Gorham of Glapthorne on the 10th of February last, as also for
killing several Horses, Hogs, and Sheep, being the Goods of Matthew
Gorham, Father of the said Child aforesaid. The Evidence against them to
prove all this, was William Boss and John Southwel; who deposed that being
Constables of the said Town, they were Charged with the said Prisoners in
their Custody, who threatning them with Death if they did not Confess, and
promising them to let them go if they would Confess; after some little
Whineing and Hanging about one another’s Necks they both made this
Confession:--

    “‘That living in one house together they contracted with the Devil
    about a Year ago to sell their Souls to him, upon condition he would
    enable them to do what Mischief they desired against whom they
    pleased, either in Body, Goods, or Children; upon which the same Night
    they had each of them three Imps sent them as they were going to Bed,
    and at the same instant the Devil appeared to them in the shape of a
    tall black Man, and told them that these Imps would always be at their
    Service, either to kill Man, Woman, Child, Hog, Cow, Ship, [_i.e._
    Sheep] or any other Creature, when they pleased to command them,
    provided ... which being agree’d to, the Devil came to Bed to them
    Both.... And that the next morning they sent four of their Imps to
    kill two Horses of one John Webb of the said Town of Glapthorne,
    because he openly said they were Witches; and accordingly the Horses
    were found dead in a Pond the same day; and two Days after this, they
    Kill’d four great Hoggs after the same manner, belonging to Matthew
    Gorham, because he said they both look’d like Witches, and not
    thinking this Revenge sufficient, the next day after, they sent two
    Imps a piece to destroy his Child, being a little Girle of about four
    years of Age, which was done accordingly in 24 Hours’ time,
    notwithstanding all the Skill and Endeavour of able Doctors to
    preserve it. They further confessed that if the said Imps were not
    constantly imploy’d to do Mischief they had not their Healths, but
    when they were imploy’d they were very Healthful and Well. They
    further added, that the said Imps did often tell them in the
    Night-time in a hollow whispering low voice, which they plainly
    understood, that they should never feel Hell Tormēts, and they had
    Kill’d a Horse and two Cows of one Widow Broughton because she deny’d
    them some Pea-cods last year, for which they had also struck her
    Daughter with Lameness, which would never be cured as long as either
    of them Liv’d, and accordingly she had continued so ever since.’

“The above said Evidence further deposed that having thus extorted the
said Confession from the prisoners, they persuaded them to set their Hands
to it, which was done accordingly, tho’ with very much difficulty, upon
which the said Confession was produced in Court, and the Witness’s to it
Examin’d, who all deposed upon Oath that the said Confession was made in
their Hearing, and that they saw the said reputed Witches set their Marks
to it in the presence of ten Witnesses.

“Upon which the said Prisoners were desired by the Court to declare
wheather they own’d the said Confession and the Marks thereunto Affixed or
not, to which they both answered in the Negative; and thereupon made such
a Howling and lamentable Noise as never was heard before to the amusement
of the Whole Court, and Deny’d every particular that was laid to their
Charge: but the Court having heard the matter of Fact so positively
asserted against them by several Evidences, and above all by their own
Confessions, that after having given a Larned [sic] Charge to the Jury
relating to every particular Circumstance, they brought them in both
Guilty of wilful Murther and Witchcraft, and accordingly the next day the
Court was pleased to pronounce sentence of Death upon them, that is to
say, To be Hang’d till they are almost Dead, and then surrounded with
Faggots Pitch and other Combustable matter, which being set on fire their
Bodies are to be consumed to _Ashes_.”

In the month of March, 1711-12, another woman, Jane Wenham by name[98]
(formally charged with bewitching Anne Thorne, Anne Street, and others),
was tried at the Assizes at Hertford, and received sentence of death. The
case was heard before Sir Henry Chauncey. Before the grand jury the
depositions of sixteen witnesses were taken; one of whom deposed that Jane
Wenham confessed to him that she had practised Witchcraft during sixteen
years. On one occasion when the girl whom she had afflicted was in one of
her paroxysms, we are informed that a very ingenious gentleman and able
physician happened to be present, his curiosity bringing him a little out
of his way to inquire into the truth of the story of this witch, which he
had heard several ways told, as things of this nature generally are. When
he saw her in a fit, which was one of the least she ever had, he tried
whether he could bring her out of it without prayers. He took a great
feather, which burning he held under the maid’s nose, and though the stink
was so great that we were not able to bear it in the room, yet the maid
received the strong steam into her nose without being the least affected
by it and without perceiving it, as far as we could perceive. The
physician then felt her pulse and assured them that “it was no natural
disease under which the maid laboured, that it must be counterfeit or
preternatural; but,” observes the author of this account, “that she should
counterfeit even death itself one minute and restore herself to health the
very next, and that she should put herself to all this trouble for no
manner of pleasure or profit, is so very inconceivable and so wholly
unaccountable, that I must needs say I shall never have faith enough to
believe such a heap of absurdities.” (p. 33.)

The undoubted insensibility of the girl was tested in a very practical but
remarkably barbarous manner. One of the members of the Family of Chauncey
“ran a pin into her arm six or seven times, and finding she never winced
for it, but held her arm as still as if nothing had been done to it, and
seeing no blood come, he ran it in a great many times more; still no blood
came; but she stood talking and never minded it. Then, again, he ran it in
several times more. At last he left it in her arm that all the company
might see it, run up to the head.” (p. 19.)

The record of these cases also contains the following:--

“There are also some things in which the fits of Mary Longdon and Anne
Thorn agree, particularly the great strength of the afflicted when in a
fit, so great that three or four men could hardly hold ’em down, but there
is one very remarkable difference, which I doubt not my readers have
already taken notice of, viz. that this Mary Longdon was always worse of
her fits whenever Florence Newton came in the room; whereas Anne Thorn
constantly recovered from hers at the touch of the witch. And yet I think
these different appearances may be accounted for [in] different ways. It
is not reasonable to suppose that either of those alterations in the
afflicted came to pass by the consent or procurement of the witches
themselves, who could not but perceive that they served as strong
circumstances against them, but this was done by the overruling providence
of Almighty God to convict these miserable creatures; and either of these
ways might do as well as the other, since it is equally surprising to see
one in perfect health fall into such terrible fits at the sight of any one
person, as to see another recover out of such fits by the bare touch of
the suspected witch, both of them tending only to the discovery of the
criminal.” (pp. 17, 18.)

As to certain of the characteristics and evidences of Witchcraft, Increase
Mather in his “Cases of Conscience” writes as follows. What he sets forth,
and what is now to be quoted, serves to show not only the kind of evidence
as to facts which was then forthcoming, but also to afford information as
to the current sentiment of his own period: “As for that which concerns
the bewitched persons being recovered out of their agonies by the touch of
the suspected party, it is various and fallible; sometimes the afflicted
person is made sick instead of being made whole by the touch of the
accused; sometimes the power of imagination is such as that the touch of a
person innocent and not accused shall have the same effect. Bodin relates
that a witch who was tried at Nantes was commanded by the judges to touch
a bewitched person, a thing often practised by the judges of Germany in
the Imperial Chamber. The witch was extremely unwilling, but being
compelled by the judges, she cried out, I am undone, and as soon as ever
she touched the afflicted person the witch fell down dead. I think,”
continues Mather, “that there is weight in Dr. Cottar’s argument, viz.
that the power of healing the sick and possessed was a special grace and
favour of God for the confirmation of the truth of the Gospel; but that
such a gift should be annexed to the touch of wicked witches, as an
infallible sign of their guilt is not easy to be believed. It is a thing
well known, that if a person possessed by an evil spirit is (as oft it
happens) never so outrageous whilst a good man is praying with and for the
afflicted, let him lay his hand on them and the evil spirit is quiet.”

The cases already referred to took place in England. A brief reference may
be here made to two examples which caused considerable sensation in
Scotland,--a country where the belief in Witchcraft was in times past
almost universal; and where, even still, the clear statements of Holy
Scripture on the subject are neither explained away, scoffed at, nor
disbelieved:--

In the year 1696 a commission was appointed in Scotland by the Lords of
his Majesty’s Privy Council, to inquire into the case of Christian Shaw,
daughter of John Shaw of Bargarran, and the accused persons confronted
before Lord Blantyre, the rest of the commissioners, several others
gentlemen of note and ministers, the accused and in particular Catherine
Campbell were examined in the presence of the commissioners. “When they
[the accused] severally touched the afflicted girl, says the Report, she
was seized with grevious fits and cast into intolerable agonies; others
then present did also touch her, but no such effects followed, and it is
remarkable that when Catherine Campbell touched the girle she was
immediately seized with more grevious fittes and cast into more
intolerable torments than upon the touch of other accused persons, whereat
Campbell herself being daunted and confounded, though she had formerly
declined to bless her, uttered these words, ‘The Lord of heaven and earth
bless thee and save thee both body and soul.’”[99]

During these trials we are informed that the “prisoners were called in,
one by one, and placed about seven or eight feet from the justices and
accusers; then, stood between the justices and them, the prisoners were
ordered to stand right before the justices, with an officer appointed to
hold each hand, lest they should herewith afflict them, and the prisoners’
eyes must be constantly on the justices, for if they looked on the
afflicted they would either fall into fitts or cry out they were much
hurt by them.”

“On the trial of Bridget Bishops,” it is further added that, “the
indictment being drawn up according to form, it was testified at the
examination of the prisoner before the magistrates that the bewitched were
extremely tortured. If she did but cast her eye on them they were
presently cast down, and this in such a manner that there could be no
collusion in the business. But upon the touch of her hand upon them when
they lay in their swoones they would immediately revive, and not upon the
touch of anyone else. Moreover, upon the special actions of her body, as
the shaking of her head or the turning up of her eyes, they presently fell
into the same postures, and many of the like accidents fell out while she
was at the bar.”[100]

Most curious are the various details of the trials thus far referred to.
And certain of them may be regarded as trivial, if not absurd and
ridiculous. Nevertheless it should be our careful aim to distinguish
between those facts which were formally, regularly, and clearly
established by positive evidence, and the personal fancies, superstitions,
notions and wild ideas which may possibly accompany the reports of them.
Of course exaggerations may have been made, and impositions not
unfrequently practised; but in the forcible words of Joseph Glanville, we
should remember that “frequency of deceit and fallacy will warrant a
greater care and caution in examining, and a greater scrupulosity and
shyness of assent to, things wherein fraud hath been practised, or may in
the least degree be suspected; but to conclude that, because an old
woman’s fancy hath abused her, or some knavish fellow hath put tricks on
the ignorant and timorous, therefore whole assizes have been deceived in
judgment upon matters of fact, and that numbers of persons have been
forsworn in things wherein perjury could not advantage them, I say such
inferences are as void of charity as of good manners.... In things of fact
the people are as much to be believed as the most subtle philosophers and
speculators, since their sense is the judge, but in matters of notion and
theory they are not at all to be heeded, because Reason is to be the judge
of these, and this they know not how to use.”[101]

It must be frankly admitted that these records of trials--of which there
are such numerous examples in print--often contain principles and details
of a most disagreeable and offensive nature. They have been quoted at some
length, however, in order to point out exactly what for many years was
currently believed with regard to Witchcraft; and whatever fanciful
additions were made, or whatever superstitious garnishings were added to
such accounts, by the ignorant or half-informed, there can be little doubt
that, after all reasonable deductions had been made, there was a
considerable substratum of truth underlying each of them, which ought not
to be ignored, and which cannot, on any satisfactory theory, be reasonably
explained away.

In certain cases the subject of Witchcraft had a somewhat wide and vague
meaning. It not unfrequently covered the practices of all the so-called
“occult sciences,” just as in the “Book of Daniel,” “the magicians, the
astrologers,[102] the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers,” classed together,
were together consulted; so it seems to have been in ancient times in
places, and amongst people who practised Witchcraft and Necromancy.
Invocations of the dead; the use of charms; watching the flight of birds;
“reading the stars;” interpreting dreams, and foretelling future events
by the aid of evil spirits, were all practices which, in a somewhat vague
but popular phraseology, came under the class of sins of the nature of
those directly condemned in Holy Scripture.

One or two further remarks may be added upon the general subject. From the
amount of evidence which exists, it is impossible to deny that such a
power as Witchcraft has been frequently exercised, and consequently may be
put into practice again. It is idle to assert that it is a mere moral
epidemic, at least for those who take up a Christian standing-point, and
do not deny both the Inspiration of Holy Scripture and the Indefectibility
and Infallibility of the Church Universal, as well as, and in addition to,
well-authenticated historical facts. The practice of Witchcraft has, of
course, been more ordinary in countries which are not Catholic;[103] for
example in Scotland, Sweden, Germany, and North America; though, of
necessity it prevailed very largely with many in England from the period
of the Reformation until the beginning of the eighteenth century, as has
been already sufficiently shown. Thus, many who refused to hear, and abide
by, the message and guidance of Holy Church; who rejected the miracles and
mercies of the Almighty, were sometimes too ready to accept as true, and
participate in the weird works of necromancers, and sometimes to be duped
by the Prince of darkness, through the active instrumentality of his human
agents.[104]

Without, at this point of our general argument, trenching unduly on a
detail of the subject in its most recent developments, which is carefully
considered at some length in later chapters, it may be well to give a
single example perfectly accurate and most satisfactorily authenticated.

Here it is:--The friend of a distinguished Scotch peer wished for certain
important and valuable information, which in any ordinary, usual, and
common modes he was, it appears, altogether unable to obtain. He therefore
thought it right and proper to consult a “spiritual medium,” and so held a
consultation, made an inquiry, and obtained a response. The following is
the authenticated record of this action:--

“A friend of mine was very anxious to find the Will of his grandmother,
who had been dead forty years, but could not even find the certificate of
her death. I went with him to the Marshall’s[105] and we had a _séance_;
we sat at a table, and soon the raps came; my friend then asked his
questions _mentally_; he went over the alphabet himself, or sometimes I
did so, not knowing the question. We were told [that] the Will had been
drawn by a man named William Walter, who lived in Whitechapel; the name of
the street and the number of the house were given. We went to Whitechapel,
found the man, and subsequently, through his aid obtained a copy of the
draft; he was quite unknown to us, and had not always lived in that
locality, for he had once seen better days. The medium could not possibly
have known anything about the matter, and even if she had, her knowledge
would have been of no avail, as all the questions were mental ones.”[106]

The specific features of this account are so obvious and well defined, and
the account itself is so remarkably clear in all its various parts, that
nothing more needs to be added, than the simple remark, that if the old
and false principles of Witchcraft and Necromancy are not here again
present and energizing (only appropriately and properly draped in a
nineteenth-century garment, and carefully adapted to the tastes of refined
and educated people), it would be well to find some other principle by
which this, and thousands of other similar cases may be rationally and
openly explained and accounted for, and this from the standing-point of a
firm belief in Historical Christianity.

From the point of view from which this book is written, it may be
reasonably maintained that recent “spiritual manifestations,” as they are
termed, are very possibly only another mode by which in an age of superior
civilization the Prince of the Power of the air, adapting his delusions to
the less coarse tastes and sentiments of his anxious clients and inquiring
followers, produces “lying wonders,” false miracles, and delusive
appearances; or unlawfully reveals secrets, affords information in the
present, and gives, or pretends to give, revelations as to the future.

Many persons in the present day are ready enough (as well they may be,) to
become eloquent on the trivial absurdities and vulgar (too often dark and
obscene) contrivances of the Witchcraft of the seventeenth century. Be it
so. But perhaps, after all, the system as then worked was both skilfully,
intellectually, and well enough adapted for the purposes and aims which
its author had in hand. If the coarse-minded and uneducated of those days
so readily became its agents and workers, coarseness and ignorance were
reasonably and suitably, and perhaps of necessity, used in its operations.
Now, however, the persistent Enemy of mankind, “the Old Serpent,”[107]
appears to have adopted quite another course of tactics, less coarse it
may be, and less revolting (in some particulars) to the sentimental and
shallow, but equally efficacious for his diabolical purposes and eventual
success. Where Witchcraft was formerly practised by ten persons, its new
and more attractive phase, it is to be feared, is now accepted by
thousands. All this, and more, may be gathered later on, when the subject
of “Modern Spiritualism” is duly considered.



DREAMS, OMENS, WARNINGS, PRESENTIMENTS, AND SECOND SIGHT.


“And how will those modern wits, of which our age is so full, account for
this, who allow no God or Providence, no invisible world, no angelic kind
and waking spirits, who, by a secret correspondence with our embodied
spirits, give merciful hints to us of approaching mischief and impending
dangers; and that timely, so as to put the means into our hands to avoid
and escape them?”--_History and Reality of Apparitions_, _by_ Andrew
Moreton, Esq., p. 218. London: 1735.

  “The Soul’s dark cottage, batter’d and decay’d,
   Lets in new light through chinks which Time hath made.”
                                                        Edmund Waller.

“All who read this, I exhort in the Name of the Most Sacred Majesty of our
Most Blessed King, Jesus Christ, to be extremely suspicious of all such
extraordinary appearances, presentiments, trances and predictions; to
examine well and minutely everything; not to look upon those books, which
even pious souls in such a state have written, unconditionally as a divine
revelation; and not to believe their predictions, but to be persuaded,
that though some things may be fulfilled, others may not.”--J. H.
Jung-Stilling, _On Forebodings_. London: 1834.



CHAPTER V.

DREAMS, OMENS, WARNINGS, PRESENTIMENTS, AND SECOND SIGHT.


The subjects here set forth for consideration (by which no slight progress
will be made in exhibiting such facts as serve to unfold and make manifest
more plainly the purpose of this treatise), are very wide in their scope.
A large volume might with no great difficulty be compiled upon each
separate subject; for the examples of remarkable dreams and supernatural
omens which are already on record, are exceedingly numerous,[108] while
the warnings and presentiments of danger and death, which are still often
vouchsafed, have been so notably providential in their purport, that many
of the mercifully-bestowed Glimpses of the Supernatural, brought before
the Editor’s notice, can only be attributed generally to the goodness of
Almighty God, and particularly either to the intercession of His Saints,
the effectual fervent prayers of those still in the flesh, or the direct
intervention of His Holy Angels, the guardians and guides of Christians.

Some dreams, especially those of an ordinary character, appear to consist
of the mere revival of old memories and associations regarding persons and
events which have long passed out of the mind, and seem to have been
forgotten. It is often quite impossible to trace the manner in which, or
the method by which, dreams arise; and certainly many of the facts
connected with them do not appear referable to any coherent principle with
which it may truly be said that man is perfectly acquainted. They are
mysterious; they are strange; they are supernatural. At the same time it
is impossible not to remember how frequently the sacred and divine
writings record examples of dreams, by which the Will of God was directly
made known of old to some of His favoured servants. The case of King
Abimelech, warned against taking Abraham’s wife (whom he had untruly
called his sister), is an early instance in point.[109] So, too, are the
warnings and directions given by Almighty God to Jacob and Laban. The
dreams of Joseph likewise illustrate the principle which may be readily
discovered and comprehended by the help of Scripture, viz. that some
dreams, whatever others may be, are certainly from God, and ought not to
be disregarded. For the Almighty expressly pledged Himself to make known
His Will to His prophets both by dreams and in visions.[110] And it was by
the former that He appeared to Solomon, graciously and mercifully offering
him a response to any request he might make. “Ask what I shall give thee.”
The dreams and visions of Daniel, the Hebrew Prophet, likewise of S.
Joseph of Nazareth, both with regard to the Blessed Virgin and the malice
of Herod; the warning dreams of the Three Eastern Kings; that of Pilate’s
wife, and others equally remarkable, are familiar to us all. So that,
whatever theories may be excogitated by some, it is impossible for
Christians to hold any novel and fantastic ideas, which would sweep away
those links which in dreams and visions may still bind together the
natural with the supernatural, and by which, from time to time, in the
present day, warnings and necessary lessons may sometimes be mercifully
vouchsafed and imparted.

A considerable difficulty has been experienced by the Editor, not only in
testing recent examples which have been brought before him, but in
inducing those who supplied him with them, to allow the use and support of
their names.[111] In the cases to be given, he has spared no reasonable
trouble in their investigation; and, where they are not matters of history
(received and recognized by those who are satisfied with an application of
the ordinary laws of evidence), the reader may rely on the fact that they
have not been embodied in this volume without the most anxious inquiry and
careful sifting of their truth and accuracy.

Thus much as to his purport and intent. Now let the examples of remarkable
dreams be put on record; after a brief reference has been made to the
belief and expressions of opinion of certain early Christian writers,
obviously formulated upon the basis of scriptural assertions and sacred
examples of old.

When the body sleeps, as Tertullian remarks,[112] it takes its own
peculiar refreshment, but that refreshment not being adapted to the soul,
which does not rest, she during the inactivity of the bodily members
employs her own. Then in his treatise “On the Soul,”[113] he proceeds to
distinguish between the hallucination of dreaming and insanity. Dreaming
is agreeable to the course and order of Nature, he maintains; but he
rejects the doctrine of Epicurus, in which dreams are disparaged as idle
and fortuitous. He further expresses his conviction that future honours,
dignities, medical remedies, thefts and treasure have been revealed by
dreams--testimonies to which are both numerous and strong. Many dreams,
specially those which are vain, frivolous, impure, and turbulent, may be
attributed to demons. Others, again, proceed from God or holy angels, as
one portion of prophecy.

Lactantius, in a short passage of his well-known “Tract,”[114] expresses
his conviction of divine agency in dreams. He maintains that the undoubted
testimony of History presents mankind with several most remarkable
verifications of dreams; and he repeats what Tertullian had already
maintained, viz. that part of the economy of prophecy depends upon them.
He holds that Virgil’s evidence may be admitted, that dreams are neither
always true nor always false.

Again, S. Cyprian states that he was divinely instructed in a dream to mix
a little water with the wine for the Holy Eucharist.[115] On the general
subject, S. Basil warns those who may be ready to attribute too great
importance to dreams, to rest contented with the written revelation of
Almighty God in Holy Scripture.[116] S. Bernard, the last of the Fathers,
treats of dreams at great length in his remarkable sermon “On Sleep,”
which is full of sage advice of the same nature as that set forth by S.
Basil; and so does S. Thomas Aquinas, who discusses the subject with
singular breadth, fulness, and system, arriving at the conclusion that it
is unreasonable to deny anything--the truth of which is affirmed by
general experience; and he adds that general experience affirms that
dreams very frequently give indications of coming events; and therefore,
concludes that it is lawful to interpret and endeavour to comprehend
them.[117] But at this point, he goes on to maintain that only those
dreams which are suggested by angels may be investigated and interpreted,
those suggested by demons and evil spirits being left alone. But
unfortunately he provides no criterion by which the one class may be
safely and truly distinguished from the other; nor is it easy to supply
the deficiency.

From another point of view, a thoughtful modern writer[118] has remarked
that “dreams are uniformly the resuscitation or re-embodiment of thoughts
which have formerly, in some shape or other, occupied the mind. They are
old ideas revived, either in an entire state, or heterogeneously mingled
together. I doubt if it be possible,” he continues, “for a person to have
in a dream, any idea whose elements did not, in some form, strike him at a
previous period. If these break loose from their connecting chain, and
become jumbled together incoherently, as is often the case, they give rise
to absurd combinations; but the elements still subsist, and only manifest
themselves in a new and unconnected shape.”

This, and such as this, may be quite true; but yet whatever theories the
scientific may propound which seem to oppose the facts of man’s
experience, will not in the long run command that adhesion which for
awhile they may possibly obtain. And now for examples:

The Dream of the so-called “Swaffham Tinker”[119] is singular, and may
well be here reproduced, because it represents an example of the practical
results of dreaming, which is quite worthy of consideration:--

“This Tinker, a hard-working, industrious man, one night dreamed that if
he took a journey to London, and placed himself at a certain spot on
London Bridge, he should meet one who would tell him something of great
importance to his future prospects. The Tinker, on whom the dream made a
deep impression, related it fully to his wife in the morning; who,
however, half-laughed at him and half-scolded him for his folly in heeding
such idle fancies. Next night he is said to have re-dreamed the dream; and
again on the third night, when the impression was so powerful on his mind
that he determined, in spite of the remonstrances of his wife and the
ridicule of his neighbours, to go to London and see the upshot of it.
Accordingly he set off for the metropolis on foot, reached it late on the
third day (the distance was ninety miles), and, after the refreshment of a
night’s rest, took his station next day on a part of the Bridge answering
to the description in his dream. There he stood all day, and all the
next, and all the third, without any communication as to the purpose of
his journey; so that towards night, on the third day, he began to lose
patience and confidence in his dream, inwardly cursed his folly in
disregarding his wife’s counsel, and resolved next day to make the best of
his way home. He still kept his station, however, till late in the
evening, when, just as he was about to depart, a stranger who had noticed
him standing stedfastly and with anxious look on the same spot for some
days, accosted him, and asked him what he waited there for. After a little
hesitation, the Tinker told his errand, though without acquainting him
with the name of the place whence he came. The stranger enjoyed a smile at
the rustic’s simplicity, and advised him to go home and for the future to
pay no attention to dreams. ‘I myself,’ said he, ‘if I were disposed to
put faith in such things, might now go a hundred miles into the country
upon a similar errand. I dreamed three nights this week that if I went to
a place called Swaffham in Norfolk, and dug under an apple-tree in a
certain garden on the north side of the town I should find a box of money;
but I have something else to do than run after such idle fancies! No, no,
my friend; go home, and work well at your calling, and you will find there
the riches you are seeking here.’ The astonished Tinker did not doubt that
this was the communication he had been sent to London to receive, but he
merely thanked the stranger for his advice, and went away avowing his
intention to follow it. Next day he set out for home, and on his arrival
there said little to his wife touching his journey; but next morning he
rose betimes and began to dig on the spot he supposed to be pointed out by
the stranger. When he had got a few feet down, the spade struck upon
something hard, which turned out to be an iron chest. This he quickly
carried to his house, and when he had with difficulty wrenched open the
lid, found it, to his great joy, to be full of money. After securing his
treasure, he observed on the lid of the box an inscription, which,
unlearned as he was, he could not decipher. But by a stratagem he got the
description read without any suspicion on the part of his neighbours by
some of the Grammar School lads, and found it to be--

  ‘Where this stood
   Is another twice as good.’

And in truth on digging again the lucky Tinker disinterred, below the
place where the first chest had lain, a second twice as large, also full
of gold and silver coin. It is stated that, become thus a wealthy man, the
Tinker showed his thankfulness to Providence by building a new chancel to
the church, the old one being out of repair. And whatever fiction the
marvellous taste of those ages may have mixed up with the tale, certain it
is that there is shown to this day a monument in Swaffham Church, having
an effigy in marble, said to be that of the Tinker with his Dog at his
side and his tools and implements of trade lying about him.”

Among the various histories of singular dreams and corresponding events,
the following, which occurred in the early part of the eighteenth century,
seems to merit being here placed on record. Its authenticity will appear
from the relation; and it may surely be maintained that a more
extraordinary concurrence of fortuitous and accidental circumstances can
scarcely be produced or paralleled:--

“One Adam Rogers, a creditable and decent man of good sense and repute,
who kept an inn at Portlaw, a small hamlet nine or ten miles from
Waterford, in Ireland, dreamed one night that he saw two men at a
particular green spot on the adjoining mountain; one of them a small,
sickly-looking man, the other remarkably strong and large. He then saw the
latter man murder the other, upon which he awoke in great agitation.

“The circumstances of the dream were so distinct and forcible that he
continued much affected by them. He related them to his wife, and also to
several neighbours next morning.

“In some time he went out coursing with greyhounds, accompanied amongst
others by one Mr. Browne, the Roman Catholic priest of the parish. He soon
stopped at the above-mentioned particular green spot on the mountain, and
calling Mr. Browne, pointed it out to him, and told him what had happened
there. During the remainder of the day he thought little more about it.

“Next morning he was extremely startled at seeing two strangers enter his
house at about eleven o’clock in the forenoon. He immediately went into an
inner room, and desired his wife to take particular notice, for they were
precisely the two men he had seen in his dream.

“After the strangers had taken some refreshment, and were about to depart
in order to prosecute their journey, Rogers earnestly entreated the little
man at once to quit his fellow-traveller. He assured him that if he would
remain with him that day he would accompany him to Carrick the next
morning--that being the town to which the travellers were proceeding. He
was unwilling and ashamed to tell the cause of his being so solicitous to
separate him from his companion. But as he observed that Hickey (which was
the name of the little man) seemed to be quiet and gentle in his
deportment, and had money about him, and that the other had a ferocious,
bad countenance, the dream still recurred to him. He dreaded that
something fatal would happen, and wished at all events to keep them
asunder.

“However, the humane precautions of Rogers proved ineffectual, for
Caulfield (such was the other’s name) prevailed upon Hickey to continue
with him on their way to Carrick, declaring that as they had long
travelled together, they should not part, but remain together until he
should see Hickey safely arrived at the habitation of his friends. The
wife of Rogers was much dissatisfied when she heard they were gone, and
blamed her husband exceedingly for not being absolutely peremptory in
detaining Hickey.

“About an hour after they left Portlaw, in a lonely part of the mountain,
just near the place observed by Rogers in his dream, Caulfield took the
opportunity of murdering his companion. It appeared afterwards from his
own account of the horrid transaction, that as they were getting over a
ditch he struck Hickey on the back part of the head with a stone, and when
he fell down into the trench in consequence of the blow, Caulfield gave
him several stabs with a knife, and cut his throat so deeply that the head
was observed to be almost severed from his body. He then rifled Hickey’s
pockets of all the money in them, took part of his clothes and everything
else of value about him, and afterwards proceeded on his way to Carrick.
He had not been long gone when the body, still warm, was discovered by
some labourers who were returning to their work from dinner.

“The report of the murder soon reached Portlaw. Rogers and his wife went
to the place and instantly knew the body of him whom they had in vain
endeavoured to dissuade from going on with his treacherous companion. They
at once spoke out their suspicions that the murder was perpetrated by the
fellow-traveller of the deceased. An immediate search was made, and
Caulfield was apprehended at Waterford the second day after.

“He was brought to trial at the ensuing assizes and convicted of the fact.
It appeared amongst other circumstances that when he went to Carrick he
hired a horse and a boy to conduct him--not by the usual road, but by that
which runs on the north side of the river Suir--to Waterford, intending to
take his passage in the first ship from thence to Newfoundland. The boy
took notice of some blood on his shirt, and Caulfield gave him a
half-crown to promise not to speak of it.

“Rogers proved not only that Hickey was last seen in company with
Caulfield, but that a pair of new shoes which Hickey wore had been found
on the feet of Caulfield when he was apprehended; and that a pair of old
shoes which he had on at Rogers’s house were upon Hickey’s feet when the
body was found. He described with great exactness every article of their
clothes. Caulfield on the cross-examination, shrewdly asked him from the
dock whether it was not very extraordinary that he, who kept a
public-house, should take such particular notice of the dress of a
stranger accidentally calling there? Rogers in his answer said he had a
very particular reason, but he was ashamed to mention it. The court and
the prisoner insisted on his declaring it. He gave a circumstantial
narrative of his dream, called upon Mr. Browne, the priest, then in
court, to corroborate his testimony, and said that his wife had severely
reproached him for permitting Hickey to leave their house, when he knew
that in the short footway to Carrick they must necessarily pass by the
green spot in the mountain which had appeared in his dream.

“A number of witnesses came forward, and the proofs were so strong that
the jury without hesitation found the prisoner guilty.

“It was remarked as a singularity that he happened to be tried and
sentenced by his namesake, Sir George Caulfeild, at that time Lord Chief
Justice of the King’s Bench, which office he resigned in the summer of the
year 1760.

“After sentence Caulfield confessed the fact. It came that Hickey had been
in the West Indies two and twenty years, but falling into a bad state of
health, he was returning to his native country (Ireland) bringing with him
some money his industry had acquired. The vessel on board which he took
his passage was, by stress of weather, driven into Minehead. He there met
with Frederick Caulfield, an Irish sailor, who was poor and much
distressed for clothes and common necessaries. Hickey compassionating his
poverty, and finding he was his countryman, relieved his wants, and an
intimacy commenced between them. They agreed to go to Ireland together;
and it was remarked on their passage that Caulfield spoke contemptuously,
and often said it was a pity that such a puny fellow as Hickey should
have money, and he himself without a shilling. They landed at Waterford,
at which place they stayed some days, Caulfield being all the time
supported by Hickey, who bought some clothes for him. The assizes being
held in the town during that time, it was afterwards recollected that they
were both at the Court-house, and attended the whole of a trial of a
shoemaker who was convicted of the murder of his wife. But this made no
impression on the hardened mind of Caulfield, for the very next day he
perpetrated the same crime on the road between Waterford and
Carrick-on-Suir, near which town Hickey’s relations lived.

“He walked to the gallows with firm step and undaunted countenance. He
spoke to the multitude who surrounded him, and in the course of his
address mentioned that he had been bred at a charter-school, from which he
was taken as an apprenticed servant by William Izod, Esq., of the county
of Kilkenny. From this position he ran away on being corrected for some
faults, and had been absent from Ireland six years. He confessed also that
he had several times intended to murder Hickey on the road from Waterford
to Portlaw, which, though in general not a road much frequented, yet
people at that time continually coming in sight, prevented him.

“Being frustrated in all his schemes, the sudden and total disappointment
threw him probably into an indifference for life. Some tempers are so
stubborn and rugged that nothing can affect them, but immediate sensation.
If to this be united the darkest ignorance, death to such characters will
hardly seem terrible, because they can form no conception of what it is,
and still less of the consequences that may follow.”

The record of the following dream is certainly curious and interesting,
and is perfectly well authenticated, coming as it does from the pen of the
gentleman’s son more immediately concerned, who testified as to its
literal fulfilment:--

“In the year 1768 my father, Matthew Talbot, Esq., of Castle Talbot, in
the county of Wexford, was much surprised at the recurrence of a dream
three several times during the same night, which caused him to repeat the
whole circumstance to his lady the following morning. He dreamed that he
had arisen as usual and descended to his library, the morning being hazy.
He then seated himself at his _secrétaire_ to write; when, happening to
look up a long avenue of trees opposite the window, he perceived a man in
a blue jacket mounted on a white horse coming towards the house. My father
arose and opened the window. The man advancing, presented him with a roll
of papers, and told him they were invoices of a vessel which had been
wrecked and had drifted in during the night on his son-in-law’s, Lord
Mountmorris’s, estate close by, and signed ‘_Bell and Stephenson_.’ My
father’s attention was only called to the dream from its frequent
recurrence: but, when he found himself seated at his desk on the misty
morning, and beheld the identical person whom he had seen in his dream in
the blue coat riding on the grey horse, he felt surprised, and opening the
window waited the man’s approach. He immediately rode up, and drawing from
his pocket a packet of papers, gave them to my father, stating they were
invoices belonging to an American vessel which had been wrecked, and
drifted in upon his lordship’s estate; that there was no person on board
to lay claim to the wreck, but that the invoices were signed ‘_Stephenson
and Bell_.’ I assure you that the above is most faithfully given by me as
it actually occurred; but it is not more extraordinary than other examples
of the prophetic powers of the mind or soul in sleep which I have
frequently heard related.”[120]

Another remarkable dream, exceedingly well authenticated by an aunt of the
Editor of this volume, is now set forth in detail and at some length:--

“On the night of the 11th of May, 1812, Mr. Williams, of Scorrier House,
near Redruth, in Cornwall, awoke his wife, and exceedingly agitated, told
her that he had dreamed that he was in the lobby of the House of Commons,
and saw a man shoot with a pistol a gentleman who had just entered the
lobby, who was said to be the Chancellor, to which Mrs. Williams naturally
replied that it was only a dream, and recommended him to be composed, and
go to sleep as soon as he could.

“He did so, but shortly after again woke her; and said that he had the
second time had the same dream; whereupon she observed that he had been so
much agitated with his former dream that she supposed it had dwelt on his
mind, and begged of him to try to compose himself and go to sleep, which
he did. A third time the same vision was repeated, on which,
notwithstanding her entreaties that he would be quiet, and endeavour to
forget it, he arose, being then between one and two o’clock, and dressed
himself.

“At breakfast the dreams were the sole subject of conversation, and in the
forenoon Mr. Williams went to Falmouth, where he related the particulars
of them to all his acquaintance that he met.

“On the following day, Mr. Tucker, of Trematon Castle, accompanied by his
wife, a daughter of Mr. Williams, went to Scorrier House about dusk.
Immediately after the first salutation, on their entering the parlour,
where were Mr., Mrs., and Miss Williams, Mr. Williams began to relate to
Mr. Tucker the circumstances of his dream; and Mrs. Williams observed to
her daughter, Mrs. Tucker, laughingly, that her father could not even
suffer Mr. Tucker to be seated before he told him of his nocturnal
visitation; on the statement of which Mr. Tucker observed that it would do
very well for a dream to have the Chancellor in the lobby of the House of
Commons, but that he would not be found there in reality; and Mr. Tucker
then asked what sort of man he appeared to be, when Mr. Williams minutely
described him; to which Mr. Tucker replied: ‘Your description is not at
all that of the Chancellor, but is certainly very exactly that of Mr.
Perceval, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and although he has been to me
the greatest enemy I ever met with through life, for a supposed cause
which had no foundation in truth (or words to that effect), I should be
exceedingly sorry, indeed, to hear of his being assassinated, or of any
injury of the kind happening to him.’

“Mr. Tucker then inquired of Mr. Williams if he had ever seen Mr.
Perceval, and was told that he never had seen him, nor had ever even
written to him, either on public or private business; in short, that he
never had had anything to do with him, nor had he ever been in the lobby
of the House of Commons in his life.

“At this moment, whilst Mr. Williams and Mr. Tucker were still standing,
they heard a horse gallop to the door of the House, and immediately after,
Mr. Michael Williams of Trevince (son of Mr. Williams of Scorrier),
entered the room and said that he had galloped out from Truro (from which
Scorrier House is distant seven miles), having seen a gentleman there, who
had come by that evening’s mail from London, who said that he was in the
lobby of the House of Commons, on the evening of the 11th, when a man
called Bellingham had shot Mr. Perceval, and that, as it might occasion
some great ministerial changes, and might affect Mr. Tucker’s political
friends, he had come out as fast as he could to make him acquainted with
it, having heard at Truro that he had passed through that place in the
afternoon on his way to Scorrier.

“After the astonishment which this intelligence had created had a little
subsided, Mr. Williams described most particularly the appearance and
dress of the man whom he had seen in his dream fire the pistol, as he had
before done of Mr. Perceval.

“About six weeks after, Mr. Williams, having business in town, went
accompanied by a friend to the House of Commons, where (as has been
already observed) he had never before been. Immediately that he came to
the steps at the entrance of the lobby, he said: ‘This place is as
distinctly within my recollection in my dream, as any room in my house,’
and he made the same observation when he entered the lobby.

“He then pointed out the exact spot where Bellingham stood when he fired,
and where Mr. Perceval had reached when he was struck by the ball, and
where and how he fell. The dress, both of Mr. Perceval and Bellingham,
agreed with the descriptions given by Mr. Williams, even to the most
minute particular.”[121]

The number of records in which it is believed that dreams have been the
means by which murder has been discovered are so considerable; and some
are so well authenticated, that it is impossible, as it certainly would be
presumptuous, to endeavour to set them aside. The murder of Maria Marten
of Polstead in Suffolk, by William Corder, a farmer, in May of the year
1827, is a remarkable example:--

This unfortunate woman was induced to leave her home, and having
accompanied the man who, under the promise of marriage, had betrayed her,
to a certain barn, was there cruelly murdered and buried under the floor.
For nearly twelve months the murder was undiscovered; for Corder, who
remained away, but still communicated with her parents, maintained that
she had married him; that circumstances prevented his bringing her back to
his father’s home: but that in due course they would both come, though it
was implied that they were both on the Continent.

The mother of the murdered woman, however, about ten months after her
daughter’s death, dreamed that her daughter had been murdered, and buried
under the floor of the barn. So strong and deep an impression did this
make both on her relations and the people of the village, that the girl’s
father and others on April 19, 1828, took up the floor of the barn, where
they discovered the body of the murdered woman in a sack; and not so much
decayed but that obvious marks of violence were perceptible. The body was
successfully identified by the want of two teeth--one on the left side of
the upper jaw, and the other on the right side of the lower. In the
meantime Corder had married, and had gone to live in Essex, where he was
apprehended, tried, and condemned on the strongest circumstantial
evidence. He made a full confession of the murder when in prison, under
sentence of death, and was executed in August, 1828.

The following sets forth how an impressive, vivid, and twice-repeated
dream induced a sailor to go to the place dreamed of, and rescue three
suffering fellow-creatures from a horrible death. It was related to a
Cornish friend, as a matter of fact, by a native of the island of
Alderney, and is quite worthy of being here recorded:--

“Some few years before the erection of those well-known lighthouses called
the Caskets, near that island, an islander dreamed that a ship had been
wrecked near those rocks, and that some part of the crew had saved
themselves upon them. This dream he related on the quay; but the sailors
(although the most superstitious people in the world) treated it as an
idle fancy. Yet the next night produced the same dream, and the man would
no longer be laughed out of it; so he prevailed upon a companion the next
morning to take a boat and go with him to the rock, where they found three
poor wretches half-starved with cold and hunger, and brought them on
shore. This circumstance, and the supposed loss of the ‘Victory’ on this
rock, the islanders give as a reason for erecting three lighthouses
there.”

Still more remarkable perhaps is the following, which, telling its own
story, and abundantly illustrating the reality of the Supernatural, needs
no comment:--

“The Rev. Mr. Perring, Vicar of a parish which is now a component part of
London, though, about forty-five years ago it had the appearance of a
village at the outskirts, had to encounter the sad affliction of losing
his eldest Son at an age when parents are encouraged to believe their
children are to become their survivors; the youth dying in his seventeenth
year. He was buried in the vaults of the church.

“Two nights subsequently to that interment, the father dreamed[122] that
he saw his Son habited in a shroud spotted with blood, the expression of
his countenance being that of a person enduring some paroxysm of acute
pain: ‘Father, father! come and defend me!’ were the words he distinctly
heard, as he gazed on this awe-inspiring apparition; ‘they will not let me
rest quiet in my coffin.’

“The venerable man awoke with terror and trembling; but after a brief
interval of painful reflection concluded himself to be labouring under the
influence of his sad day-thoughts, and the depression of past sufferings;
and with these rational assurances commended himself to the All-Merciful,
and slumbered again and slept.

“He saw his Son again beseeching him to protect his remains from outrage,
‘For,’ said the apparently surviving dead one, ‘they are mangling my body
at this moment.’ The unhappy Father rose at once, being now unable to
banish the fearful image from his mind, and determined when day should
dawn to satisfy himself of the delusiveness or verity of the revelation
conveyed through this seeming voice from the grave.

“At an early hour, accordingly, he repaired to the Clerk’s house, where
the keys of the church and of the vaults were kept. The Clerk after
considerable delay, came down-stairs, saying it was very unfortunate he
should want them just on that very day, as his son over the way had taken
them to the smith’s for repair,--one of the largest of the bunch of keys
having been broken off short in the main door of the vault, so as to
render it impracticable for anybody to enter till the lock had been picked
and taken off.

“Impelled by the worst misgivings, the Vicar loudly insisted on the
Clerk’s accompanying him to the blacksmith’s--not for a key but for a
crowbar, it being his resolute determination to enter the vault and see
his Son’s coffin without a moment’s delay.

“The recollections of the dream were now becoming more and more vivid, and
the scrutiny about to be made assumed a solemnity mingled with awe, which
the agitation of the father rendered terrible to the agents in this
forcible interruption into the resting-place of the dead. But the hinges
were speedily wrenched asunder--the bar and bolts were beaten in and bent
beneath the heavy hammer of the smith,--and at length with tottering and
outstretched hands, the maddened parent stumbled and fell: his son’s
coffin had been lifted from the recess at the vault’s side and deposited
on the brick floor; the lid, released from every screw, lay loose at top,
and the body, enveloped in its shroud, on which were several dark spots
below the chin, lay exposed to view; the head had been raised, the broad
riband had been removed from under the jaw, which now hung down with the
most ghastly horror of expression, as if to tell with more terrific
certainty the truth of the preceding night’s vision. _Every tooth in the
head had been drawn._

“The young man had when living a beautiful set of sound teeth. The Clerk’s
Son, who was a barber, cupper, and dentist, had possessed himself of the
keys, and eventually of the teeth, for the purpose of profitable
employment of so excellent a set in his line of business. The feelings of
the Rev. Mr. Perring can be easily conceived. The event affected his mind
through the remaining term of his existence; but what became of the
delinquent whose sacrilegious hand had thus rifled the tomb was never
afterwards correctly ascertained. He decamped the same day, and was
supposed to have enlisted as a soldier. The Clerk was ignominiously
displaced, and did not long survive the transaction. Some years
afterwards, his house was pulled down to afford room for extensive
improvements and new buildings in the village.

“As regards the occurrence itself, few persons were apprised of it; as the
Vicar--shunning public talk and excitement on the subject of any member of
his family--exerted himself in concealing the circumstances as much as
possible. The above facts, however, may be strictly relied on as
accurate.”

A somewhat similar dream is recorded in the following statement, copied
from the public prints, the fact of which has been authenticated by a
correspondent in Scotland, who furnished the Editor with it. The
paragraph, now to be quoted, appeared some years ago in the “Scotsman”
newspaper, and was quoted in the “Times” of Tuesday, April 25, 1865:--

“The legal proceedings which lately took place in the Sheriff Court of
Clackmannanshire, with regard to the violation of a grave in the
churchyard at Alloa, and the unwarrantable exhumation of the body of James
Quin, had their origin, it is stated, in a remarkable dream of the mother
of the deceased. Young Quin died in September, 1863, and was buried in a
lair in the churchyard, which was purchased by his father from William
Donaldson, the Kirk Treasurer, it being agreed that the price was to be
paid by instalments. About six months afterwards, Robert Blair, the sexton
or grave-digger, took upon himself (without the authority, it would
appear, of Donaldson) to sell the same lair to another person, and to
inter therein a relative of the new purchaser, without, however, at the
time exhuming the body of Quin, the former tenant. Some considerable time
after this the mother of Quin being desirous of erecting a head-stone on
the grave of her son, made some inquiries with that view, in the course of
which she heard something of another person having been buried in his
grave, this having, as she stated, been ‘cast up’ by Blair’s nephew to a
younger son of hers on their way from Sunday-school. But the grave-digger
denied the truth of this story, and managed to pacify her. Feeling,
however, that he had got into a scrape by the lair having been resold, he,
some weeks after Mrs. Quin had interrogated him on the subject, dug up the
body of her son during the night of Thursday, the 23rd of March last, and
reinterred it in the other ground. Now, on that very Thursday night, as
sworn to by Mrs. Quin, at the trial, she had this remarkable dream:--

“She dreamt that her boy stood in his nightgown, at her bedside, and said
to her, ‘Oh, mother, put me back to my own bed.’ She then awoke her
husband, and forgetting in her half-dreaming state that her son was dead,
said to him, ‘Jemmie is out of his bed; put him back into it;’ after which
she fell asleep, and again had the same dream.

“A third time, during the same night, she dreamt that her son was standing
beside her bed; but on this occasion remembering that he was dead, the
figure of the grave-digger was mixed up with that of the boy, and he
appeared to be shoving his spade into the body. Awakening in great
trepidation, and feeling certain that her boy had been taken out of his
grave, she went to the grave-digger and vehemently accused him of having
dug up the body, which, after prevarication, he at last admitted. Hence
arose the action of damages against Donaldson, the Kirk Treasurer, and
Blair, the grave-digger, which being restricted to twelve pounds was
brought in the Small Debt Court. The Sheriff, after a long proof,
assoilzied Donaldson, and found Blair liable in damages, which, the
parties not having settled the same extrajudicially, have since been
assessed at five pounds.”

Another dream, equally remarkable, by which a warning was given, and in a
measure attended to by the dreamer, now follows; although not so weirdly
tragic as that relating to the Perring Family, yet it efficiently serves
to shadow forth the proximity of the spiritual world; and, it may be, in
this example, the direct intervention of a guardian-angel:--

“Some years ago a clergyman named W---- was visiting an old college
friend, Canon Hutchinson of Blurton Vicarage, near Trentham, and being a
good pedestrian, proposed to accomplish his journey home again from
Trentham to Birmingham, which place he desired to reach by ten o’clock one
morning, on foot. In order to do this he intended to leave Blurton at four
o’clock a.m. on a certain day; and so retired to rest the previous evening
at an unusually early hour. During the night he had a vivid and remarkable
dream, which deeply impressed him. He dreamt that whilst he was on his
walking journey between Tamworth and Sutton, upon a very lonely road
enclosed by tall hedges, he heard a rough voice cry out, ‘Ah, Jack, are
you there?’ and looking round saw two exceedingly ill-looking men jumping
down from an elevated part of the bank under the hedge, and alighting
close to him on the path below. Their countenances and suspicious bearing
seemed to bespeak their evil intentions. Presently one of them all of a
sudden presented a pistol at him. The clergyman imagined that he had only
a moment or two in which to commend his soul to God, which he did with
earnestness, when the pistol was fired and his life thus taken away. Here
the dream ended and he awoke. It left an uneasy impression on his mind,
but being naturally of an undaunted spirit, and a firm believer in the
protection of Almighty God, he did not hesitate to leave his friend’s
house at the early period determined on. After walking for about an hour
and a half, and when a few miles from Sutton Coldfield, where all of a
sudden, as regards locality, he realized the minutest details of the
dream, two men coming through the hedge suddenly overtook him. One
addressed the other in the words already set forth. They were in every
particular, even to features, dress, and demeanour, identical with those
whom he had seen in the dream. They accompanied him, keeping close to his
side, and watched him with very mysterious looks. He was deeply startled
and alarmed, but lifted up his heart to God for guidance, direction, and
protection. Soon they all reached a broad and dreary common, upon the
extreme distant edge of which stood a small inn, whither he resolved to go
for refreshment in the hope of shaking off his companions. Here for awhile
they separated; but, on entering the house and asking to be supplied with
tea, he found that the two men had followed him, and were asking for
refreshments likewise. After waiting for some time, he determined on
leaving the inn by a path at its back entrance, which, from knowing
something of the locality, he believed would take him by a nearer way to
Sutton Coldfield. This turned out to be the case; for by his action he
successfully avoided the two tramps, who were afterwards taken up and
imprisoned for some marked offence against the laws of the land.”[123]

A warning of a very similar character may now be narrated, in which the
curious point seems to be that it was given so many years before it was
needed, though its efficiency was fully made manifest when the actual
danger threatened:--

“The Housekeeper of a county family in Oxfordshire dreamt one night that
she had been left alone in the house upon a Sunday evening, and that
hearing a knock at the door of the chief entrance, she went to it, and
there found an ill-looking tramp armed with a bludgeon, who insisted on
forcing himself into the house. She thought that she struggled for some
time to prevent him so doing, but quite ineffectually; and that being
struck down by him and rendered insensible, he thereupon gained ingress
to the mansion. On this she awoke.

“She at once mentioned her dream to some of her fellow-servants, and also,
a few days later, to the Master of the House. The latter, smiling,
pooh-poohed it; but remarked that ‘all the greater care should be taken by
the servants to see that the fastenings were secure.’

“As nothing happened for a considerable period, the circumstance of the
dream was soon forgotten; and, as she herself asserts, had altogether
passed away from her mind. However, many years afterwards, this same
Housekeeper was left with two other servants to take charge of an isolated
mansion at Kensington (subsequently the town residence of the family),
when, on a certain Sunday evening, her fellow-servants having gone out and
left her alone, she was suddenly startled by a loud knock at the front
door.

“All of a sudden the remembrance of her former dream returned to her with
singular vividness and remarkable force, and she felt her lonely isolation
greatly. Accordingly, having at once lighted a lamp on the hall
table--during which act the loud knock was repeated with vigour--she took
the precaution to go up to a landing on the stair, throw up the window,
and there, to her intense terror, she saw in the flesh the very man whom
years previously she had seen in her dream, armed with a bludgeon and
demanding an entrance. With great presence of mind she went down to the
chief entrance, made that and other doors and windows more secure, and
then rang the various bells of the house violently, and placed lights in
the upper rooms. It was concluded that by these acts the intruder was
scared away. It turned out afterwards that the lodge-keeper, having left
two children to guard the entrance, they had been terrified into admitting
the tramp into the garden; and that the latter had fastened them into the
lodge, where they were found in a considerable state of alarm by the two
servants on their return home.”[124]

Another example of a warning attended to, which had been given in a dream,
and acted upon immediately afterwards, comes to the Editor on conclusive
evidence of its undoubted truth and authenticity:

A Scotch lady, a relation of the late J. R. Hope Scott, Esq., of
Abbotsford, dreamt that her nephew, a promising young student of the
University of Edinburgh, had been drowned with two companions with whom
he had made an engagement to take an excursion by boat on the Frith of
Forth. So much impressed was she by this dream, that she rose two hours
earlier than usual in the morning, and sent off her man-servant at once to
prevail upon her nephew to give up his engagement. On being pressed he did
so. His companions (who had also been warned not to go,) went without him,
and alone, that is, without an experienced sailor. The boat was capsized
and they were both drowned.

In the case which is now to follow, the warning given, not having been
acted upon at once, came too late. It was narrated to the Editor, _vivâ
voce_, in 1866, by the late Dr. J. M. Neale:--

“In the autumn of the year 1845, one of the maid-servants of the then
rector of Shepperton, a village on the Thames, near Chertsey, dreamed that
her brother, a respectable and steady youth belonging to that place, was
drowned. The dream was singularly vivid. In it she further imagined that
she actually went to search for her brother’s body, and that, after
seeking for some time, she found it at a certain part of the river, which
she knew well, near the brink, and in a particular position. This dream
took place on a Saturday night. When she awoke on the Sunday morning, she
at once acquainted her fellow-servant (who saw how deep an impression the
dream had evidently made), and remarked that she ought at once to obtain
her master’s leave to go home on the morrow, and warn her brother, who
was unable to swim, not to go out on to the river. The leave was given,
and her home was soon reached, but alas! the warning had come too late.
Her brother had gone rowing on the Sunday evening, the boat was
accidentally upset, and he was drowned. The body was not recovered for
some time; nor was it found near the spot where the accident had happened.
But it was found by the poor youth’s sister, lower down the river, and
exactly in the same place and position as had been so forcibly and clearly
prefigured in her impressive dream.”

The following example of a dream which occurred about twenty years ago, by
which the fact of a murder was made known, being likewise well
authenticated and of considerable interest, is now set forth:--

“On Saturday, the 30th of July, 1853, the dead body of a young woman was
discovered in a field at Littleport, in the isle of Ely. The body has not
yet been identified, and there can be little doubt that the young woman
was murdered. At the adjourned inquest, held on the 29th August before Mr.
William Marshall, one of the coroners for the Isle, the following
extraordinary evidence was given:--

“James Jessop, an elderly, respectable-looking labourer, with a face of
the most perfect stolidity, and who possessed a most curiously-shaped
skull, broad and flat on the top, and projecting greatly on each side over
the ears, deposed--‘I live about a furlong and a half from where the body
was found. I have seen the body of the deceased. I have never seen her
before her death. On the night of Friday, the 29th of July, I dreamt three
successive times that I heard the cry of murder issuing from near the
bottom of a close called Little Ditchment Close (the place where the body
was found). The first time I dreamt I heard the cry it awoke me. I fell
asleep again and dreamt the same thing. I then awoke again and told my
wife I could not rest, but I dreamt it again after that. I got up between
four and five o’clock, but I did not go down to the close, the wheat and
barley in which has been since cut.

“‘I dreamt once about twenty years ago that I saw a woman hanging in a
barn, and on passing the next morning the barn which had appeared to me in
my dream, I entered and did find a woman there hanging, and cut her down
in time to save her life. I never told my wife that I heard cries of
“murder,” but I have mentioned it to several persons since. I saw the body
on the Saturday it was found. I did not mention my dream to any one till a
day or two after that. I saw the field distinctly in my dream and the
trees therein, but I saw no person in it. On the night of the murder the
wind lay from that spot to my house.’

“Rhoda Jessop, wife of the last witness, stated that her husband related
his dreams to her on the evening of the day that the body was
found.”[125]

Another case, deeply interesting, and certainly more dramatic in the
nature and importance of the very practical results which followed from
the action taken upon it, than even that already recorded of the Perring
family (for it greatly benefited the living), is now narrated. The
interesting account, which, with the greatest simplicity, and in the
actual words of the persons advantaged, records the plain facts, tells its
own story with considerable power. Frivolous and pointless as are so many
dreams, without intelligible purpose or sequence of action, this is one
which it may be reasonably held can only be explained by a firm belief in
a superintending Providence, in other words in Almighty God, Who, as an
old writer asserts, “sometimes warneth and instructeth in dreams,” and Who
mercifully uses the ministry both of angels and men for carrying out His
Divine purpose:--

“A Gloucestershire gentleman in good circumstances, who for many years had
lived a retired life, quite apart from his relations, some of whom in a
previous year had been cast in a lawsuit with him for the recovery of
certain properties, suddenly died, and, as was supposed, died intestate.

“He had long intended, at the advice of the Rector of the village in which
he dwelt, and with whom alone he was on terms of intimacy, to make certain
provisions by will on behalf of the relations in question, who had lost
much by his successful lawsuit. However, this (as was believed by his
family lawyer, residing in an adjacent country town, who proceeded to
settle his affairs) had not been done; and the whole of his property
consequently seemed likely to go to his heir-at-law, a man of property,
almost unknown to him.

“Five months after his death, however, the Rector of the parish in which
he had lived, had what he termed ‘a waking dream,’ in which he imagined
that the deceased gentleman came to him in sorrow, and solemnly conjured
him to obtain possession of a Will, which had been duly made by him in
London a few months before his decease, and which was in the custody of a
firm of attorneys there, which Will was so drawn as that the relations in
question should greatly benefit by the just and righteous disposition
therein of his property. Imagining the dream to be only a dream and
nothing more, he took no notice of it, and regarded it as the mere result
of his own imagination.

“In about a fortnight, however, the identical dream occurred again--with
the simple difference that the deceased gentleman bore an expression of
deeper grief, and appeared to urge him, in still stronger terms, to obtain
the Will. The Rector was much impressed by this; but on careful reflection
upon the following day, appeared indisposed, on such testimony, to
interfere with arrangements which were then being made for the settlement
of the deceased person’s affairs, on the supposition that he had left no
Will. And consequently he did nothing.

“A third time, however, about eight days afterwards, he had the same
dream, with certain additional details of import and moment. The deceased
person, as the Rector imagined, appearing once again, urged him most
vehemently and solemnly to do as he wished, and to go and obtain the Will.
A conversation took place as it were in the dream, and the clergyman set
forth many cogent arguments why he should not be called upon to undertake
a work, which might not only be misunderstood, but might render him liable
to misrepresentations, if not to trouble and annoyance.

“However, at last he consented, and, in his dream, accompanied the
deceased person to a certain lawyer’s office at a certain number, on a
certain floor in Staple Inn, on the south side of Holborn, where the
drawer in a writing-table was opened, and he saw the packet containing the
Will sealed in three places, with the deceased person’s armorial bearings.
The whole room was before him vividly. It was panelled in oak, picked out
with white and pale green, and over the mantel-piece hung an engraving of
Lord Eldon.

“The Rector awoke, and resolved without delay to do as he was enjoined.
Before proceeding, he mentioned the circumstance of the thrice-repeated
dream to a clerical friend, who volunteered to accompany him to London on
his important errand.

“They went together. Neither had ever been to Staple Inn before; nor did
they know its exact whereabouts. On inquiry, however, it was soon found.
And so was the room and office, with the furniture and print of Lord
Eldon, which had been seen beforehand by the Rector in the dream, to his
intense awe and wonderment. Even the peculiar handles of the
writing-table, which were of brass and old-fashioned, were those which had
been clearly apparent. The identical drawer was opened, and the Will,
secured in an envelope of stout paper and sealed with three impressions,
was found, just as it had been seen in the dream. The lawyer, who at once
gave every facility for inquiry, was a junior partner in the firm which
had drawn it up, and had only recently come to London, from a cathedral
city, where the firm in question had a branch office, on the death of the
chief partner. The Will was found to be good and valid, and was in due
course proved. Under it the relations, who had so suffered by the loss of
their law-suit as to have been almost reduced to penury, obtained their
due. The whole of these facts are vouched for by a friend of the Editor of
this book.”[126]

The following example of presentiment of death is also well authenticated.
It occurred on board one of the ships of the Royal Navy at Portsmouth in
the year 1850. From the MS. account, furnished by one thoroughly able to
give an exact record, the following is taken:--

“The officers being one day at the Mess-table, a young Lieutenant
R----suddenly laid down his knife and fork, pushed away his plate, and
turned extremely pale. He then rose from the table, covering his face with
his hands, and retired from the room. The President of the mess, supposing
him to be ill, sent one of the young men to inquire what was the matter.
At first Mr. R---- was unwilling to speak; but, on being pressed, he
confessed that he had been seized by a sudden and irresistible impression
that a brother he had in India was dead. ‘He died,’ said he, ‘on the 12th
of August at six o’clock, I am perfectly sure of it.’ No argument could
overthrow this conviction, which, in due course of post, was verified to
the letter. The young man had died at Cawnpore at the precise period
mentioned.”

Under the heading of “Singular Prognostication,” “The Times” of April the
17th, 1865, copies from the “Cornish Telegraph” the narrative of a then
recent dream of a young clergyman of the county of Cornwall, which was
almost immediately followed by the accidental death of the dreamer:--

“On Wednesday last, the Rev. Stephen Barclay Drury, an unmarried
clergyman of twenty-six, who has for about twelve months acted as the
curate of Phillack and Gwithian, had a conversation with the brother of
the Rector of those parishes,[127] Mr. Charles Hockin, and related a
dream, which he described as a very singular one, and as having made a
deep impression on him.

“His words were: ‘I dreamt I was to be buried, and I followed my coffin
into the church, and thence to the tomb. I took no part in the service,
and when we came to the tomb, I looked into it, and saw it was very nice.
I then asked the undertaker who was to be buried, and he answered, “You.”
I then said, “I am not to be buried, I am not dead.” The undertaker then
said, “I must be paid for the coffin,” upon which I awoke.’

“On Sunday morning and afternoon Mr. Drury officiated at Gwithian, and
after the second service remained with the children to practise singing.

“Returning to his lodgings in Gwithian at half-past four, he waited a
little, took with him Thomas à Kempis’ ‘De Imitatione Christi,’ and set
out for a walk, accompanied by a Newfoundland dog. He asked for a bit of
cord, as he might give the dog a dip, and started in his usually cheerful
and happy mood. In an hour and a half the dog returned with the cord
around his neck.

“Mr. Drury was never again seen alive. His absence throughout the night
occasioned no surprise, as he sometimes went to, and slept at Copperhouse,
two miles off.

“On Monday morning a Gwinear miner, in quest of seaweed at low water, near
the rocky shore of Godrevy, saw Mr. Drury’s body in a pool seventy or
eighty yards from the sea.

“An inquest, under the county coroner, Mr. John Roscoria, was held on
Tuesday at Gwithian, when these circumstances were elicited, and a verdict
was returned of ‘Found Drowned.’

“From the facts, however, that Mr. Drury had never shown the least signs
of depression, that he started with the expressed intention of giving the
dog a dip, and that he was very near-sighted, the general inference is
that the unfortunate gentleman slipped on the rocks, was stunned, fell
into the water, and so casually and singularly fulfilled his strange dream
of a few days previously.”

A somewhat similar prognostication was had in the case of Captain Speer,
which may properly be put on record, for, as in the case already narrated,
it turned out to be a true warning of impending death:

Captain Speer, an officer of the 3rd Surrey Militia, and a magistrate for
the county of Surrey,[128] lately met his death under remarkable
circumstances. The “Quebec Mercury” says:--“Captain W. D. Speer passed the
last winter among us. During part of it, he had some fine sport on the
north shore of the S. Lawrence, in company with Captain Knox and
Lieutenant Duthie, of the 10th Royal Artillery. This spring he made a tour
through the States and West Indies, with Major Leslie, R.A., returning
only for a few days, to set out again on what has, alas! proved to be his
last expedition.[129] Strange to say, he stated to several gentlemen, just
before setting out, that he had had a dream in which he distinctly saw a
coffin with the name of ‘W. D. Speer, died June 17th, 1867,’ on it; and in
writing to a lady three weeks previously,[130] he said in a joke that one
reason for addressing her was his own approaching end. The date of his
death is not known,[131] but it must have been on the day he named, or
very near it. It appears that he was going to his cabin on board the
Mississippi steamer, which was at anchor, and somewhere in the
neighbourhood of the Indian disturbances; when in the middle of the night
he was shot dead by a sentry, who omitted to challenge him.”

On this remarkable incident a Letter was written, from which the following
extract may fittingly be put on record here:

“It seems the account of the dream was true, as Major Terry told Mr.
Kempson, that he had heard the letter read in which he [Captain Speer]
related the circumstance. Singular, was it not? I trust it may have taken
some little effect on his mind, but I fear he was not one to attach any
importance to such a warning. However, I do hope he did, for it is so
awful to think of anyone in pure health and spirits being ushered into
Eternity without one moment’s preparation.” From a Letter, dated August
10th, 1867, signed “Anne M. Kempson, Richmond Hill, Surrey, S.W.”

Another example of a warning given in a dream (but neglected) may now be
put on record:

A few years ago a serious accident occurred in the village of Bulmer, in
Yorkshire, to a pic-nic party going to Castle Howard. The party made the
journey in an omnibus, and it seems that the wife of one of the men
hesitated to join the others, and tried to persuade her husband not to go,
because she asserted that she had dreamt a week before that they were in
an omnibus, and were upset on going through a village and greatly injured,
the fright awakening her. The man and his wife however did go; but on
reaching Bulmer, the woman became greatly excited. Not only, she remarked,
was the omnibus that which she had seen in her dream, but the village was
the one in which the accident she dreamt of appeared to happen. The words
were scarcely uttered when the omnibus was upset and a scene of great
confusion resulted. Those on the outside were thrown to the ground with
great violence; one man was rendered insensible by the omnibus falling
upon him, and several sustained rather serious injuries. The woman to whom
the accident was revealed beforehand, was herself badly hurt; but her
husband’s was the worst case, he sustaining a dislocation of an ankle.
Medical aid was quickly procured, the sufferers were relieved, and
afterwards conveyed to their homes. Every incident of the accident seems
to have been pictured in the premonitory dream.

A remarkable presentiment by means of a dream is related in the second
section of the first volume of the “Museum of Wonders,” and is to the
following effect. Though not new, it is so exceptionally curious as to be
quite worthy of reproduction here:--

“A short time before the Princess Natgotsky, of Warsaw, travelled to
Paris, she had the following dream:--She dreamed that she found herself in
an unknown apartment, when a man who was likewise unknown to her, came to
her with a cup, and presented it to her to drink out of. She replied that
she was not thirsty, and thanked him for his offer. The unknown individual
repeated his request, and added that she ought not to refuse it any
longer, for it would be the last she would ever drink in her life. At this
she was greatly terrified and awoke.

“In October, 1720, the Princess arrived at Paris, in good health and
spirits; and occupied a furnished hotel, where soon after her arrival she
was seized with a violent fever. She immediately sent for the King’s
celebrated physician, the father of Helvetius. The physician came, and the
Princess showed striking marks of astonishment. She was asked the reason
of it, and gave for answer that the physician perfectly resembled the man
whom she had seen at Warsaw in a dream; but added she, ‘I shall not die
this time, for this is not the same apartment which I saw on that occasion
in my dream.’

“The Princess was soon after completely restored, and appeared to have
altogether forgotten her dream, when a new incident reminded her of it in
a most forcible manner. She was dissatisfied with her lodgings at the
hotel, and therefore requested that a dwelling might be prepared for her
in a convent at Paris, which was accordingly done. The Princess removed to
the convent, but scarcely had she entered the apartment destined for her,
than she began to exclaim aloud: ‘It is all over with me; I shall not come
out of this room again alive, for it is the same that I saw at Warsaw in
my dream!’ She died in reality not long afterward in the same room, in
the beginning of the year 1721, of an ulcer in the throat, occasioned by
the drawing of a tooth.”

“This dream,” observes Jung Stilling, from whose work the account of it is
transcribed, “proceeded from a good angel, who wished to attract the
attention of the Princess to her approaching end.”

A dignitary of the Church of England, of rank and reputation, courteously
furnishes the Editor with the following remarkable Dream, which occurred
to himself,--alas! so completely fulfilled. Another account of the same,
almost identical in terms, was sent to him from another quarter. But he
prefers putting on record the former:[132]--

“My brother had left London for the country to preach and speak on behalf
of a certain Church Society, to which he was officially attached. He was
in his usual health, and I was therefore in no special anxiety about him.
One night my wife woke me, finding that I was sobbing in my sleep, and
asked me what it was. I said, ‘I have been to a strange place in my dream.
It was a small village, and I went up to the door of an inn, if so it
might be called, though it really was a decent public-house. A stout woman
came to the door. I said to her, ‘Is my brother here?’ She said, ‘No,
sir, he is gone.’ ‘Is his wife here?’ I went on to enquire. ‘No, sir, but
his widow is.’ Then the distressing thought rushed upon me that my brother
was dead: and I awoke sobbing.

“A few days after, I was summoned suddenly into the country. My brother
returning from Huntingdon had been attacked with _angina pectoris_; and
the pain was so intense that they left him at Caxton (a small village in
the diocese of Ely), to which place on the following day he summoned his
wife: and the next day, while they were seated together, she heard a sigh
and he was gone.

“When I reached Caxton, _it was the very same village to which I had gone
in my dream. I went to the same house, was met and let in by the same
woman; and found my brother dead, and his_ widow _there._”

One of the most striking and well-authenticated cases of a Warning given
in a Dream and acted upon, by which a grave temporal danger was actually
averted, remains to be put on record now. The case is related with great
simplicity by one who has carefully investigated the circumstances of both
the dreams; and nothing is required on the Editor’s part, either to
enlarge on any detail of it or to point its moral:--

“Knowing as I do intimately,” writes the correspondent in question, “the
Widow of an Irish clergyman who was warned by a dream of the railway
accident which took place a few years ago at Abergele, in North Wales, I
give you gladly the following particulars:--

“About a fortnight before the accident occurred, my friend, the lady in
question, had a dream in which her husband, who had been dead for three
years, appeared to her, as she thought. This occurred on the night which
followed the day on which she had settled and arranged with some friends
to make a journey by railway. She dreamed that her husband was still
living, and that she and he were walking on the sea-shore of North Wales,
close to which the railway to Holyhead passes, when they came to a
tunnel,[133] from which, all of a sudden, volumes of the blackest smoke
were pouring out, and which became so dense that the sky was quite
overcast. Alarmed at this, they hastily went forward together towards its
mouth, when it seemed to be all on fire; the crackling and roar of which
was quite unusual. In a moment or two the sounds of frantic cries of men
and women wildly shrieking seemed to come from out of the mouth of the
tunnel; and then, as if to add to the horror of what had already appeared,
another train, full of people and at express speed, came up and dashed
through smoke and flame into the tunnel itself. Upon this the lady awoke,
and so deep an impression had the dream made (for it unhinged her for some
days), that she resolved to postpone her journey, which she did. Had she
gone at the time appointed and arranged, she and her friends would have
travelled by the very train--the passengers of which were burnt by the
explosion of petroleum.

“The most curious part of this interesting record has yet to be told. On
the same night upon which this lady had this dream-warning, her own
daughter, a child of nine years of age, who was staying with some
relations nearly sixty miles from home, had likewise a dream, in which she
thought she saw two trains meeting each other on one line of railway, in
one of which her mother was seated, and in the other one of her mother’s
friends (who was to have travelled with her). The trains seemed to be
going at a great rate, and when the collision actually took place, the
child at once awoke. On the following morning she recounted her dream to
her relations: but at the time they took no notice of it, though it formed
the subject of a general conversation regarding dreams. It was only when
(as was afterwards discovered) her mother had possibly escaped the
frightful disaster of a railway accident, and probably a very painful
death, that the fact of her child having had the dream on the night of her
own warning and mentioned it, was specially remarked and noted down.”

A prognostication, or rather a personal Presentiment of impending death,
and that death the result of an accident, will fittingly be recorded
here:--

At the village of Bloxwich, in the diocese of Lichfield, a miner resided,
well known to the person who communicated the following occurrence to the
Editor of this volume:--“One morning in 1872, on his way to the pit’s
mouth, the miner had a strong presentiment that he should be killed at his
work. He returned home, communicated his impressions to his wife (who
expostulated with him for being so fanciful and superstitious), and then
insisted on seeing all his children. They were assembled. He took down his
Prayer Book and Bible, read a chapter from the latter, and afterwards said
some of his accustomed prayers. Then affectionately greeting wife and
children, he went to his work, with the same strange but vivid
presentiment of approaching death upon him; as his wife so clearly
testifies. He had not been at work many minutes when he was suddenly
crushed to death by the fall of a rock.”

These facts are duly authenticated by persons who obtained the account
from the man’s widow on the day of his burial, and have supplied them
directly to the Editor.

The following cases, equally remarkable, are taken from the “Standard”
newspaper:--

“Sir,--I beg to acquaint you of a very singular event which occurred here
yesterday. On Saturday night a villager named Andrew Scott dreamed of
being along the coast on S. Cyrus’ Sands, and finding a man among the
rocks under Whitson Houses. On Sabbath morning after breakfast he cleaned
himself, and told his wife he would go and see if there was anything in
his dream, taking another man with him to whom he made known his errand;
and on arriving at the spot where he expected to find the man, sure enough
there was the drowned man, washing amongst the rocks, just as seen in his
dream. He was taken ashore, reported to the S. Cyrus’ authorities, and
to-day he is to be interred. He is supposed to be one of the men belonging
to the ‘Providence,’ wrecked on Dec. 19. I have the honour to be, sir,
your most obedient servant,

  “Daniel Hamilton.

“Johnshaven, Kincardineshire, Jan. 20.”

“At an inquest held on Monday afternoon at James Bridge, near
Wolverhampton, on the body of a collier named Samuel Tinley, who had been
killed in a pit there by a fall of rock strata, it transpired that during
the previous night he awoke, saying he had a ton of rock on his head,
though he had no headache. He was convinced it boded ill, and was
reluctant to go to work. Upon being urged to go by his wife, he went to
his child and saying, ‘Let me have my last kiss,’ went to the pit and was
killed. It was further shown that a cousin of his, who is a close friend,
was returning home from working a night-shift, when he said he saw the
deceased standing before him in the road. Instead of going home to bed he
went to the deceased’s house, to which place the news of the death had
just been brought, but altogether unknown to the cousin.[134] At the
inquest a yet more remarkable case, that had come before the same coroner
in the same locality, was mentioned.”

So much as to examples and records of extraordinary Dreams, Warnings by
Visions, and Presentiments. The subject of Omens may now be briefly
touched upon. An “omen” has been defined to be “a token or sign of good or
ill;” “a boding or foreboding;” “a prognostic.” Some of the following are
of such a character as that they are very suitably considered both in
connection with events already described and with those yet to be
narrated.

It has been forcibly and appropriately remarked, though not perhaps in any
marked or specific Christian spirit, that Omens constitute the poetry of
history. They cause the series of events which they are supposed to
declare to flow into epical unity, and the political catastrophe seems to
be produced, not by prudence or by folly, but by the superintending
destiny.

The case of the Tichborne Prophecy, in connection with the well-known
ancient Dole of that family, is so curious (having been in part recently
fulfilled), that it may not only be set forth in detail, but may
reasonably find a place at this particular part of this book. For the
following version the Editor is indebted to a near connection of the
family:--

“The Tichbornes date their possession of the present patrimony, the manor
of Tichborne, so far back as two hundred years before the Conquest. When
the Lady Mabella,[135] worn out with age and infirmity, was lying on her
deathbed, she besought her loving husband, Sir Roger Tichborne, as her
last request, that he would grant her the means of leaving behind her a
charitable bequest, in a Dole of Bread to be distributed to all who should
apply for it annually on the Feast of Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin
Mary. Sir Roger, her husband, readily acceded to her request by promising
the produce of as much land as she could go over in the vicinity of the
Park while a certain brand or billet was burning, supposing that, from her
long infirmity (for she had been bedridden some years), she would be able
to go round a small portion only of his property. The venerable dame,
however, ordered her attendants to convey her to the corner of the Park,
where, being deposited on the ground, she seemed to regain a renovation of
strength; and to the surprise of her anxious and admiring lord, who began
to wonder where this pilgrimage might end, she crawled round several rich
and goodly acres.

“The field which was the scene of Lady Mabella’s extraordinary feat
retains the name of ‘The Crawls’ to this day. It is situated near the
entrance to the Park, and contains an area of twenty-three acres.

“Her task being completed, she was re-conveyed to her chamber; and,
summoning her family to her bedside, predicted its prosperity while the
annual Dole existed, and left her solemn Curse, uttered in God’s most Holy
Name, on any of her descendants who should be so mean or covetous as to
discontinue or divert it, _prophesying that when such should happen the
old house should fall, and the family name would become extinct from the
failure of heirs male; and that this would be foretold by a generation of
seven sons being followed immediately after by a generation of seven
daughters and no son_.

“The custom thus founded in the reign of Henry II. continued to be
observed for centuries; and our Lady’s Day, the 25th of March, became the
annual festive-day of the family. It was not until the middle of the last
century that the custom was abused; when, under the pretence of attending
the Tichborne Dole, vagabonds, gipsies, and idlers of every description,
assembled from all quarters, pilfering throughout the neighbourhood; and,
at last, the gentry and magistrates complaining, it was discontinued in
1796. Singularly enough, the baronet of that day, Sir Henry
Tichborne,[136] had seven sons, and, when he was succeeded by the eldest,
there appeared a generation of seven daughters, while the apparent
fulfilment of the prophecy was completed by the change of the name of the
late baronet to Doughty, under the will of his kinswoman. (This allusion
is to Sir Edward Doughty, ninth baronet, who inherited the ‘Doughty’
estate, then Mr. Edward Tichborne.)”

Here is the record of a weird and obvious Omen:--

“The Duke of Somerset, the great sacrilegious nobleman of Henry VIII.’s
reign, who worked such mischief and perpetrated such robberies on God’s
poor, is said to have been more than once warned of his coming death upon
the scaffold, by the appearance of a Bloody Hand stretched out from the
panelled wall of the corridor of his mansion; and it is also reported that
the Hand was visible to his duchess as well as to himself.”

And here is the narrative of a remarkable Dream, as well as of a singular
coincidence:--

“Sir Thomas White, Alderman of London, was a very rich man, charitable and
public-spirited. He dreamed that he had founded a college at a place where
three elms grew out of one root. He went to Oxford probably with that
intention; and discovering some such tree near Gloucester Hall, he began
to repair the building of that community, with a design to endow it. But
walking afterwards by the convent where the Bernardines formerly lived, he
plainly saw an elm tree with three large bodies rising out of the same
root; he forthwith purchased the ground, and endowed his college there, as
it is at this day; except the additions which Archbishop Laud made near
the outside of the building, in the garden belonging to the President. The
tree is still to be seen. He made this discovery about the year 1557.”

The numerous tokens of the death of Henry IV. of France, who reigned from
1589 until 1610, are finely tragical. Mary of Medicis, in her well-known
dream, saw the brilliant gems of her crown change into pearls--the
recognized symbols of tears and mourning. An owl is said to have hooted
until sunrise at the window of the chamber to which the King and Queen
retired at S. Denis on the night preceding her coronation. During the
ceremony, it was observed with dread, that the dark portals leading to the
royal sepulchre beneath the choir, were gaping and expanded. The flame of
the sacred taper held by Her Majesty was suddenly extinguished, and it is
said that her crown twice nearly fell to the ground.

An anecdote, which was current during the reign of King Charles I., and
has the support both of Archbishop Laud and Lord Clarendon, is said to
have thrown a sad gloom over the spirits of the royal friends, already
saddened by the fearful pestilence which inaugurated his reign. At the
coronation it was found that there was not in the whole of London, nor
indeed in the whole of England, sufficient purple velvet with which to
make the customary royal robes and the corresponding furniture of the
chair of state and throne. What was to be done? Rigid custom, coming down
no doubt for long generations, possibly from the time of S. Edward,
required that old traditions should be scrupulously observed and carefully
followed. What was needed could not in all probability be had nearer than
Genoa. To obtain it would have caused a delay of several months: and it
was agreed that the solemn anointing and coronation could not be properly
postponed. So it was resolved to robe His Majesty in _white_ velvet, from
which he was known afterwards as “the White King.” But this was the colour
in which victims were arrayed. So many persons maintained that the Council
which had sanctioned such an innovation had unwittingly, perhaps, but
efficiently established an agency of evil; and many more after the King’s
martyrdom recalled the ominous change.

Another Warning, or supposed Warning, of approaching evil vouchsafed to
the King was equally striking and peculiar. It happened a short time
before the disastrous Battle of Newbury, and is thus recorded:--

The King being at Oxford, went one day to see the Public Library, where he
was shown amongst other books, a Virgil, nobly printed and exquisitely
bound. The Lord Falkland, to divert the King, would have his Majesty make
a trial of his fortune by the _Sortes Virgilianæ_, which everybody knows
was not an unusual kind of augury some ages past. Whereupon the King
opening the book, the period which happened to come up was part of Dido’s
imprecation against Æneas, which Mr. Dryden translated thus:--

  “Yet let a race untamed, and haughty foes,
   His peaceful entrance with dire arms oppose;
   Oppress’d with numbers in th’ unequal field,
   His men discouraged and himself expelled,
   Let him for succour sue from place to place,
   Torn from his subjects and his son’s embrace;
   First let him see his friends in battle slain,
   And then untimely fate lament in vain;
   And when at length the cruel war shall cease,
   On hard conditions may he buy his peace;
   Nor let him then enjoy supreme command,
   But fall untimely by some hostile hand,
   And lie unburied on the barren sand.”
                                    “Æneid,” Book iv. 88.

It is said that King Charles seemed concerned at this accident, and that
Lord Falkland observing it, would likewise try his fortune in the same
manner, hoping he might fall upon some passage that could have no relation
to his case, and thereby divert the King’s thoughts from any impression
the other might have upon him. But the place that Falkland stumbled upon
was yet more suited to his destiny than the other had been to the King’s;
being the following expressions of Evander upon the untimely death of his
son Pallas, as they are translated by the same hand:--

  “O Pallas! thou hast fail’d thy plighted word,
   To fight with caution, not to tempt the sword;
   I warn’d thee but in vain; for well I knew
   What perils youthful ardour would pursue,
   That boiling blood would carry thee too far,
   Young as thou wert in dangers--raw in war!
   O cursed essay in arms--disastrous doom,
   Prelude of bloody fields and fights to come.”
                                    “Æneid,” Book xi. 230.

Again, as regards the King’s bust, the following record was current and
commonly discussed:--

“Vandyke, having painted the King’s head, in three different attitudes, a
profile, a three-quarters, and a full face, the picture was sent to Rome
for Bernini, the celebrated sculptor, to make a bust from it. This artist,
being exceedingly dilatory over his work, and having had complaints made
to him on the subject, said that there was something so unusually sad and
melancholy in the royal features, that if any stress might be laid on
physiognomy, he was sure that the person whom the picture represented was
destined for a violent end. When the bust arrived in England, the King
being anxious to see it, it was taken immediately to Chelsea and placed on
a table in the garden, whither the King, attended by many, went to
inspect it. While so doing a hawk, with a wounded and bleeding partridge
in its talons, flew over the King’s head, and some of the blood fell upon
the marble neck of the bust, where it remained without being wiped off.
The omen is said to have been marked by many.”

On the day of the King’s burial, when the coffin was borne to S. George’s
Chapel, Windsor, by tried and trusted subjects and servants, it was
carried through a severe snow-storm, and the purple pall was covered with
the whitest snow, thus adding a fresh reason for the title by which His
Majesty had been known.

There were also some remarkable Warnings in the life of the great
Archbishop Laud, some of which were noted down in his “Diary.” For
example, he was elected Head of S. John’s College, Oxford, on the Feast of
the Beheading of S. John the Baptist; and of course, when he as Head of
that college perished by a similar death, this more than remarkable
coincidence was noticed and remembered. Another likewise is certainly
curious. Not long before his martyrdom, on entering his study one day, he
is said to have found his own portrait, by Vandyke, at full length on the
floor, the cord which fastened it to the wall having snapped. The sight of
this warning, as it was regarded, is said not only to have deeply
impressed that great man, whose obvious belief in the Supernatural was
considerable; but also to have brought back to his memory the fact of a
great disaster which occurred to one of his barges, on the very day of his
translation to the See of Canterbury, which boat sank with his coaches and
horses into the Thames.

There was an Omen attached to the ancient Ferrers family, of Chartley Park
in Staffordshire. The large possessions of this family were forfeited by
the attainder of Earl Ferrers, after his defeat at Burton Bridge, where he
led the rebellious barons against Henry III. The Chartley estate having
been settled in dower was alone reserved and handed down. In the Park is
said to be preserved an indigenous Staffordshire cow, small in stature, of
sand-white colour, with black ears, muzzle, and tips at the hoofs. In the
year of the Battle of Burton Bridge a black calf was born; the downfall of
the house of Ferrers happening at the same period gave rise to the
tradition, which to this day is said to be commonly current through
observation of past events, viz., that the birth of a parti-coloured calf
from the wild herd in Chartley Park is a sure omen of death within the
same year to a member of Lord Ferrers’ family. By a noticeable coincidence
a calf of this description has been born whenever a death has happened of
late years in this noble family.[137] The decease of the late Earl and
Countess, of his son Lord Tamworth, and of his daughter, Mrs. William
Joliffe, as well as the deaths of the son and heir of the present
nobleman, and his daughter, Lady Frances Shirley, has each been preceded
by the birth of an ominous calf. In the spring of the year 1835 an animal
perfectly black was calved by one of this weird tribe; and it was soon
followed by the death of the amiable Countess.

The Omen connected with the ancient gentle family of Oxenham, co.
Devon,[138] may now be suitably referred to. The following, describing it,
is copied from a rare and ancient pamphlet:[139]--“In the parish called
Sale Monachorum, in the county of Devon, there lives one James Oxenham, a
gentleman of good worth and quality, who had many children, one whereof
was called John Oxenham, a young man in the vigour, beauty, and flower of
his age, about 22, who was of stature comely and tall, being in height of
body sixe foote and a half, a very proper person.... This young gentleman
fell sicke, who being visited by many of the neighbours during the time of
his sickness, departed this transitory life on the 5th day of September
1635, to whom, two days before he yielded up his soul to God, there
appeared the likeness of a Bird with a white breast hovering over him.”
The pamphlet in question states that the White Bird also appeared
previously to the deaths of Thomasine, Rebecca and Thomasine the
younger,[140] facts formally testified to, on the oaths of divers
eyewitnesses before the Lord Bishop of Exeter (Dr. Joseph Hall).

In Howell’s “Familiar Letters,” a communication dated “July 3, 1632,”
states that the writer saw, at a stonecutter’s shop in London, a marble
monument commemorating several examples of this curious omen; and gives
the following as the inscriptions:--

“Here lies John Oxenham, a goodly young man, in whose chamber as he was
struggling with the pangs of death, a Bird with a White Breast was seen
fluttering about his bed, and so vanished.

“Here lies also Mary Oxenham, the sister of the said John, who died the
next day, and the same apparition was seen in the room.

“Here lies hard by, James Oxenham, the son of the said John, who dyed a
child in his cradle a little after, and such a Bird was seen fluttering
about his head a little before he expir’d, which vanish’d afterwards.”

At the bottom of the stone there is:--

“Here lies Elizabeth Oxenham, the mother of the said John, who died
sixteen years since, when such a bird with a white breast was seen about
her bed before her death.”[141]

Then come the following remarks:--

“To all these there be divers witnesses both squires and ladies, whose
names are engraven upon the stone. This stone is to be sent to a town hard
by Exeter where this happen’d. Were you here, I could raise a choice
discours with you hereupon. So hoping to see you the next tirm, I rest,
etc.”

From an old MS. letter of the eighteenth century, written on the fly-leaf
of a copy of Howell’s book already referred to, it seems that the
appearance of the omen was regarded as a fact at that period. The Letter
dated “December 29th, 1741,” contains the following statement:--

“I have received an answer from the country in relation to the strange
Bird which appeared to Mr. Oxenham just before his death, and the account
which Dr. Bertie gave to Lord Abingdon of it, is certainly true. It first
was seen outside the window, and soon afterwards by Mrs. Oxenham in the
room, which she mentioned to Mr. Oxenham, and asked him if he knew what
bird it was. ‘Yes,’ says he, ‘it has been on my face and head, and is
recorded in history as always appearing to our family before their deaths;
but I shall cheat the Bird.’ Nothing more was said about it, nor was the
Bird taken notice of from that time: but he died soon afterwards. However
odd this affair may seem, it is certainly true; for the account was given
of it by Mrs. Oxenham herself: but she never mentions it to anyone unless
particularly asked about it; and as it was seen by several persons at the
same time, I cannot attribute it to imagination, but must leave it as a
phenomenon unaccounted for.”

My friend, the Rev. H. N. Oxenham, of this family, writes to me A.D.
October, 1874, as follows:

“The tradition about the White Bird has certainly existed for so long a
time--I believe for centuries--in our family, that I have every reason to
believe there are well-authenticated accounts of its appearance before the
death of the head of the family; and that certainly a white Bird was seen
at the window a few days before my late uncle’s death (who was the head of
the family) last Christmas” [_i.e._ in 1873].

Here a singular account of the possession of a charm, or amulet, and of a
Curse connected with it, may be fittingly set forth:--

“The family of Graham of Inchbrachie, county Perth, are said to possess a
small blue, uncut stone, set in an antique ring, of which the following
story is told. Some two centuries ago, as the Head of the Family was
passing by a hill near or at Crieff, he discovered a large crowd, presided
over by one of the Campbells of ----, preparing to execute a witch. On
approaching the crowd, he found that the unhappy victim (who had for some
years lived in a rocky cave, still known by her name), was none other than
his old nurse, Katherine Nivens. Charged with witchcraft, she had been
condemned and was about to be executed. Graham, addressing the mob, urged
them to prevent Campbell from carrying out his purpose. In acknowledgment
of his generous help on her behalf, the poor creature threw him a small
blue stone like a bead, which she had kept in her mouth, and desired him
to keep it for her sake; adding that as long as it was preserved in his
family good fortune should ever attend them; while to the Campbells of
---- (whom she solemnly cursed), she predicted that there never should be
born an heir male, and cited him to appear before God’s judgment-bar,
where justice should be done.[142] The strange feature in the story is
that (as a correspondent avers) _both promise and prediction have turned
out to be true_. The stone is said to be an uncut sapphire. Other Scotch
families possess similar amulets or charms: amongst these the
Macdonald-Lockharts of Lee in the county of Lanark.

The sound of the Beating of a Drum is said to betoken death to a noble
Scotch family--one which has been a staunch, good old loyalist clan for
centuries, and suffered sorely for having been “leal and true” to their
Royal House and their own consciences. Some years ago the then head of it
was paying a visit in England, when, one day, sitting outside in the
garden with the lady of the house, his lordship exclaimed suddenly,
“Listen! here comes a band of music.”

“Music!” she replied, “oh, impossible.”

“Oh, don’t you hear it? it is coming this way.”

“No, I hear nothing.”

“Listen!” he retorted; “don’t you hear the Drum?”

She assured him that there was nothing, that it was a fancy, and that no
band of music could come near enough to the house to be heard, on account
of the unusual extent of the grounds and park.

On this the nobleman turned pale, and becoming much agitated, remarked
that he felt sure it must be the sound of the family “Drum,”--an omen that
always preceded death, and feared that something had happened to one of
his relations.

The next post brought him the sad and melancholy news of his wife’s
unlooked-for death, through giving birth prematurely to a child.

The origin of this omen, as far as the Editor can discover, appears to be
unknown.

In another family of rank a female figure, dressed in brown clothes,
appears as a warning of death. To the members of an old knightly family in
the West of England there always comes, before the death of its chief, the
sound of a heavy carriage with many horses driven round the paved
courtyard of the Elizabethan mansion.

It is equally notorious that in a certain noble English family, the form
of a spectral head appears as a sign of death to any member of it, and
invariably so, when the chief of it dies,--a fact which the Editor has
been assured of in writing (A.D. 1872) from a member of a junior branch of
the same.

To another family, living in the East of England (of the rank of gentle
people), appears an Omen, equally, if not more disagreeable. The
appearance of a spectral Black Dog is also a portent of death. About
twenty years ago, A.D. 1853, the then head of the family married, and
though he himself (by no means superstitious) could not reject the
tradition of the unpleasant omen, having heard so much about it on its
previous appearance, he said nothing to his wife. Some years afterwards,
in 1861, their eldest child was taken ill. The illness, however, (as the
physician asserted,) was slight, and not at all likely to prove dangerous;
so little, in truth, was this anticipated that there were several persons
staying in the house at the time. Just before dinner was announced one
evening, the wife of the head of the family asked to be excused for a
moment or two, while she looked into the night nursery to see how the sick
child was. She went, but returned almost immediately, saying, “Darling
---- is fast asleep; but there’s a large black dog lying under the bed; go
and drive it out.” The father, at once calling to mind the omen, was
sorely terrified. He went at once to the sick room. Neither under nor near
the bed, nor (as was afterwards discovered) on the premises, was there, or
had there been, any dog, but the poor child’s sleep was found to be the
sleep of death.

To revert to Omens in general. There is a widely-spread and singular
prejudice, (which with many is deeply rooted,) that if thirteen people sit
down to dinner one of them, at least, shall die within a year.[143] It
seems to have originated from the fact of Judas having been the thirteenth
at the Paschal Feast, when our Lord instituted the Holy Sacrament.

Again, Friday has from time immemorial been considered an unlucky
day;[144] because the Crucifixion of our Blessed Saviour took place on
that day--a day of fear and trembling, of darkness and of earthquakes--a
day of awe, when even some of the Pagan oracles were silent, and
indications of the decay and weakening of their powers were by their
impotence made manifest. Plutarch in his book on the “Cessation of
Oracles,” makes mention of the voice which, near Paxos, the pilot of a
vessel heard in the spring of the nineteenth year of the Emperor Tiberius,
crying out, “Great Pan is dead.” Now we know that in the spring of that
year, and possibly on the afternoon of that very day, our Divine Lord
overcame death by dying, conquered Satan, and opened the gates of
everlasting life to mankind. Can we be surprised that after that victory
on the first Good Friday, the power of the Evil One was largely and surely
curbed?

Second Sight, indications of the existence of which have already been
given, appears to be a power or property of seeing beforehand events which
are still in the future, and such sight claimed by several[145] is said
to belong to many persons in Scotland. In a “Description of the Western
Isles,” a popular writer of the last century somewhat amplified the
definition. He maintained as follows: “The Second Sight is a singular
faculty of seeing an otherwise invisible object, without any previous
means used by the person that sees it for that end; the vision makes such
a lively impression upon the seers, that they neither see nor think of
anything else, except the vision, as long as it continues; and then they
appear pensive or jovial, according to the object which was represented to
them.” He further points out generally that when persons gifted with
Second Sight “actually behold something unusual, the eyelids of the person
are erected, and the eyes continue staring until the object vanish.” In
the case of a certain person in the Island of Skye, “when he sees a
vision, the inner part of his eyelids turns so far upwards, that after the
object disappears, he must draw them down again with his fingers.” The
same writer maintains that the property of Second Sight does not
necessarily descend in a family, as some persons hold and assert. “I know
several parents,” he writes, “who are endowed with it, but their children
not, and _vice versa_; neither is it acquired by any previous compact.
And, after a strict inquiry, I could never learn from any among them that
this faculty was communicable any way whatsoever.”

Several volumes have been written on the subject, and examples almost
without number provided.

In John Aubrey’s “Miscellanies”[146] is recorded a remarkable escape from
death of Dr. William Harvey, the celebrated discoverer of the circulation
of the blood through Second Sight:--“When Dr. Harvey, one of the
Physicians’ College in London, being a young man (in 1695), went to travel
towards Padua, he went to Dover with several others, and showed his pass
as the rest to the Governor there. The Governor told him that he must not
go, but he must keep him prisoner. The Doctor desired to know ‘for what
reason? how he had transgressed?’ ‘Well, it was his will to have it so.’
The pacquet boat hoisted sail in the evening, which was very clear, and
the doctor’s companions in it. There ensued a terrible storm, and the
pacquet boat and all the passengers were drowned. The next day the sad
news was brought to Dover. The Doctor was unknown to the Governor both by
name and face; but the night before the Governor had a perfect vision of
Dr. Harvey in a dream, who came to pass over to Calais, and that he had a
warning to stop him. This the Governor told the Doctor the next day. The
Doctor was a pious, good man, and has several times directed this story to
some of my acquaintance.”

The following, from a rare and curious volume of the last century,[147]
containing nearly two hundred cases, authenticated mainly by ministers of
the Scotch Establishment, is a good example:--

“Alexander Macdonald, of Kingsborough (when living in the possession of
Aird, in the remote end of Trotternish), dreamed that he saw a reverend
old man come to him, desiring him to get out of bed, and get his servants
together, and make haste to save his fields of corn, as his whole cattle,
and his tenants’ cattle also, had got out of the fold, and were in the
middle of a large field behind the house. He awaked and told his wife,
with whom he consulted whether he would rise or not; and she telling him
it was but a dream, and not worth noticing, advised him to lie still,
which he obeyed; but no sooner fell asleep, than the former old man
appeared to him, and seemed angry, by telling Mr. Macdonald (then of
Aird), he the old man was very idle, in acquainting him of the loss he
would or had by this time sustained by his cattle, and seemed not to heed
what he said, and so went off. Mr. Macdonald awaking the second time, told
his wife, but she would not allow him, and ridiculed him for noticing the
folly of a confused dream; so that, after attempting to get up, he was, at
his wife’s persuasion, prevailed upon to lie down again; and falling
asleep, it being now near break of day, the old gentleman appeared to him
a third time, with a frowning countenance, and told him he might now lie
still, for that the cattle were now surfeited of his corn, and were lying
in it; and that it was for his welfare that he came to acquaint him so
often, as he was his grand-uncle by his father; and so went off. He
awaking in about an hour thereafter, arose and went out, and actually
found his own and his tenants’ cattle lying in his corn, after being tired
of eating thereof; which corn, when comprised, the loss amounted to eight
bolls of meal.”

Two quite recent cases of Second Sight are here given, and are each
somewhat remarkable. Both have been furnished to the Editor by those who
knew the cases, and the accuracy of each has been vouched for by trusty
and courteous correspondents.

The first has reference to the murder of a policeman at Cardiff:--“An
inquest was formally opened on the body of William Perry, a constable of
the Cardiff police force, who was fatally stabbed on Tuesday by a butcher,
named Jones. The medical evidence went to show that the murderer was in a
very excited state at the time, but was neither insane nor suffering from
_delirium tremens_. The further hearing was adjourned. The ‘Western Mail’
says:--The deceased man Perry was a well-known and very efficient officer.
He joined the borough police force on the 5th of July, 1865, and from that
time had always conducted himself in a praiseworthy manner, having
attained to the position of a first-class constable some time ago.
Previous to 1865 he was employed in the Merthyr division of the county
police. He was 36 years of age. The superstitious will probably feel
interested in the following story, which our reporter heard last night
from the lips of the widow herself. Strange as it may seem, it is no less
strange than true; and mournful as the circumstance is in itself, those
who believe in the efficacy of dreams as prognosticators of future events,
will perhaps derive some gratification from it. On Sunday night Mrs. Perry
(who resides at Melrose-cottage, Heath-street, Canton), had a dream, which
but too faithfully predicted the sad tragedy of yesterday. In the midst of
her sleep she saw, to use her own words, a large crowd following her
husband down the Cowbridge-road, in the direction of the Westgate hotel,
where the murder was committed. She saw, in the horror of her dream, a
knife plunged into the breast of her husband, and drawn out again,
blood-stained and grimy, by some cruel but unknown hand. She saw, too,
the murdered form of her husband borne away, and little thought, when
brooding over her awful dream, that it was a ‘dark presage,’ and the
precursor of what was soon to be a terrible reality. The dream occasioned
her great uneasiness, but she mentioned it to no one until the dreadful
tidings of her husband’s death reached her yesterday morning, when the
circumstance forced itself vividly upon her recollection.” (A.D. 1873.)

The second example is equally remarkable:--“A singular case of Second
Sight is reported from the neighbourhood of Marlborough. A labourer named
Duck, employed by Mr. Dixon, of Mildenhall Warren Farm, was in charge of a
horse and water-cart on the farm, when the animal took fright and knocked
him down. The wheel went over his chest, and the injuries he received were
such that his death occurred shortly afterwards. However, the singular
part of the story remains to be told. Duck resided at Ramsbury, and
immediately after the accident Mr. Dixon despatched a woman to acquaint
his wife of the fact. On arriving at her home the messenger found her out
gathering wood; but shortly afterwards a girl who was her companion
arrived, and, without being told of what had occurred, volunteered the
statement that ’Ria (Mrs. Duck) was unable to do much that morning, that
she had been very much frightened, having seen her husband in the wood.
Shortly afterwards Mrs. Duck returned, without any wood, and, being
informed by a neighbour that a woman from Mildenhall Woodlands wished to
see her, ejaculated immediately, ‘My David’s dead, then.’ Inquiry has
since been made by Mr. Dixon of the woman, and she positively asserts that
she saw her husband in the wood, and said, ‘Holloa, David, what wind blows
you here, then?’ and that he made no reply. Mr. Dixon inquired what time
this occurred, and she replied about 10 o’clock, the hour at which the
fatal accident took place.” (A.D. 1874.)

Before this chapter is closed, the following account, which created the
deepest impression in the town and neighbourhood of Devizes, is embodied
in terms which plainly enough set forth its point and purpose. It is an
awful example of God’s summary judgment, recorded by the local authorities
both as a memorial of the Supernatural and as a warning to all:--

“The Mayor and Corporation of Devizes avail themselves of the stability of
this building [the Market Cross,] to transmit to future times the record
of an awful event which occurred in the Market Place in the year 1753,
hoping that such record may serve as a salutary warning against the danger
of impiously invoking Divine vengeance, or of calling on the Holy Name of
God to conceal the devices of falsehood and fraud:

“On Thursday, the 25th of January, 1753, Ruth Pierce, of Potterne in this
county, agreed with three other women to buy a sack of wheat in the
market, each paying her due proportion towards the same. One of these
women, in collecting the several quotas of money, discovered a deficiency,
and demanded of Ruth Pierce the sum which was wanting to make good the
amount. Ruth Pierce protested that she had paid her share, and said: _She
wished she might drop down dead if she had not._ She rashly repeated the
awful wish; when, to the consternation and terror of the surrounding
multitude, she instantly fell down and expired, having the money concealed
in her hand.”

The narrative of this solemn event was by order of the authorities
recorded on a tablet and hung up in the Market house (a row of sheds near
the Cross). When the building was taken down, Mr. Halcombe, who kept the
Bear Inn, in order that the remembrance might not be lost, caused it to be
inscribed on the pediment of a couple of pillars which stood opposite his
inn, supporting the sign of the Bear.

The sign was removed in 1801, and a few years after Lord Sidmouth having
presented to the town the New Cross, which forms the central ornament of
the Market Place, the Mayor and Corporation “availed themselves,” to use
their own language, “of the stability of the new structure to transmit to
future time a record of the awful death of Ruth Pierce in hope that it
might serve as a salutary warning against the practice of invoking the
Sacred Name to conceal the devices of falsehood and fraud.”

And now to conclude this portion of the subject. Each example already
recorded has, no doubt, told its own story sufficiently well. Some cases
may appear to certain minds to be as trivial as they certainly are, to
others, marvellous and inexplicable; other examples, again, cannot fail to
leave a deep impression on the reader, as well from the remarkable
character of the presentiments and dreams themselves, as from the
reasonable testimony by which their truth is supported by persons of
repute and credibility. The Editor has intentionally avoided the making of
comments, either prolix or the reverse, preferring to present to the
reader each recorded narrative, as received or obtained by himself,
without dissertations, theories, or explanations.


END OF VOL. I.

  CHISWICK PRESS:--PRINTED BY WHITTINGHAM AND WILKINS,
  TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE.



GENERAL INDEX.


  A Discerner of spirits, i. 81

  Abimelech’s dream, i. 210

  Aerolites, i. 24

  After-vision of a suicide, ii. 75

  Alexander Macdonald’s dream, i. 285

  Amulet of the Grahams, i. 277

  ---- of the Macdonald Lockharts, i. 278

  Ann Thorne bewitched, i. 194

  Apparition at Ballarat, ii. 61

  ---- at time of death, ii. 59

  ---- in the Jewel House, ii. 105

  ---- near Cardiff, ii. 114

  ---- of a college friend, ii. 71

  ---- of a crow, ii. 131

  ---- of a dying father, ii. 58

  ---- of a dying lady to her children, ii. 64

  ---- of a father to his son, ii. 58

  ---- of a friend, ii. 60

  ---- of a sister, ii. 59

  ---- of a son to his mother and another, ii. 73

  ---- of an officer, ii. 10

  ---- of Dr. Ferrar’s daughter, ii. 25

  ---- of Philip Weld, ii. 51

  ---- of Rev. W. Naylor, ii. 7

  ---- of S. Stanislaus, ii. 51

  ---- seven years after death, ii. 71

  ---- to a gentleman, ii. 119

  ---- to a lady and her child, ii. 113

  ---- to a lady and her child, ii. 117

  ---- to a sentry, and his death thereupon, ii. 108

  ---- to Lord Brougham, ii. 68

  ---- to Lord Chedworth, ii. 35

  ---- to Mr. Andrews, ii. 41

  Apparitions at Oxford, ii. 209

  Arrowsmith, Trial of Rev. E., i. 91

  Arrowsmith’s Hand preserved, i. 95

  Authentication of Lamb’s cure, i. 96


  Barony of Chedworth, ii. 34

  Belief in God universal, i. 5

  Benediction, The principle of, i. 90

  Beresford apparition, The, ii. 11

  Bird, The Spectral, ii. 128

  Bisham Abbey, Ghost at, ii. 91

  Bishop Joseph Hall on temporal punishment, ii. 89

  Bishop Ken’s hymn, ii. 82

  Blessing and cursing, Power of, i. 90.

  Bosworth’s testimony, Mr. T., ii. 146

  Bridget Bishop accused of witchcraft, i. 198

  Bull of Pope Innocent VIII. against witchcraft, i. 162


  Captain William Dyke, ii. 22

  Cardan, Jerome, i. 282

  Case of Annie Milner, i. 169

  ---- of Martha Brossier, i. 165

  Catharine Campbell accused of witchcraft, i. 197

  Catholic claim to exclusive use of exorcism, i. 163

  Causation, The law of, i. 3

  Chamber, John, on “Judiciall Astrologie,” i. 200

  Charles I., Omens concerning, i. 267, 271

  Charles Ireland bewitched, i. 186

  Chevalier’s testimony concerning Spiritualism, Mr., ii. 180

  “Christ is coming” quoted, ii. 136.

  Christian Shaw bewitched, i. 197

  Christian writers on the Supernatural, i. 31

  Christianity, Morse on the decline of, ii. 137

  Citation, Remarkable case of, i. 90

  Club, The Hell-Fire, ii. 207

  Colgarth, The Philipsons of, i. 90

  Collins’s Sermon, Rev. H., i. 135

  Cometism, The Trinity of, i. 19

  Constantine victorious, i. 38

  Creslow, Haunted chamber at, ii. 92

  Criticism upon Mr. Congreve, i. 20

  Crookes, Mr. W., on Spiritualism, ii. 159, 162, 164

  Cross of Constantine, The, i. 35

  ---- fire seen in France in 1826, A, i. 16

  Cure, Miraculous, i. 95

  ---- Miraculous, by the Blessed Sacrament, i. 121, 125


  Daimonomagia, i. 174

  Dale-Owen, Mr., quoted, ii. 183, 185

  Death of Captain Speer, i. 253

  ---- of Rev. S. B. Drury, i. 251

  De Lisle’s, Miss, death, Supernatural music at, i. 135

  De Lisle, Mr., on the Weld ghost story, ii. 54

  ---- Mr. Edwin, on Strauss, i. 2

  Demons, Belief in, ii. 212

  Denial of the Supernatural, i. 1

  Details of the Supernatural, i. 8

  Discovery of a lost will, i. 204

  Disease of witchcraft, i. 174

  Double apparition at time of death, ii. 55

  ---- in the West Indies, ii. 58

  Dr. Lamb, the sorcerer, i. 202

  Dr. Newman on ecclesiastical miracles, i. 36

  Dr. Samuel Johnson on the Lyttelton story, ii. 45

  Dr. William Harvey’s escape from death, i. 284

  Dream of a child, Warning given in the, i. 260

  ---- of a dignitary realized, i. 257

  ---- of a housekeeper realized, i. 240

  ---- of a widow lady, i. 258

  ---- of Adam Rogers, i. 219

  ---- of Andrew Scott, i. 261

  ---- of Mr. Matthew Talbot, i. 225

  ---- of Mr. Williams of Scorrier, i. 226

  ---- of the Princess Natgotsky, i. 255

  ---- of the Swaffham tinker, i. 215

  ---- Prognostication of death in a, i. 250

  ---- Remarkable, of a clergyman, i. 247

  ---- Warning given in a, i. 254

  ---- Warning neglected, i. 244

  Dreams and visions, i. 211

  Dreams, Nature of, i. 210

  ---- of James Jessop, i. 244, 245

  ---- recorded in Scripture, i. 211

  ---- reproduction of thoughts in, i. 215

  ---- supernatural, i. 210

  Dunbar’s testimony, Rev. Dr., ii. 218

  Dungeon at Glamis Castle, The, ii. 114


  Early Popes martyrs, The, i. 31

  Eastern form of exorcism, i. 162

  Ecclesiastical miracles, i. 32

  Effect of the Supernatural, i. 7

  Elimination of God, The, i. 19

  Elizabeth Gorham bewitched, i. 187

  ---- Style accused of witchcraft, i. 177

  ---- Tibbots bewitched, i. 178

  ---- Treslar hung for witchcraft, i. 181

  Ellinor Shaw and Mary Philips, i. 182

  Emperor Julian thwarted, The, i. 42

  English canon concerning exorcism, i. 164

  ---- statutes against witchcraft, i. 163

  “Eternal,” The term, i. 5

  Execution of Frederick Caulfield, i. 223

  ---- of Lamb’s servant, i. 203

  Exhumation of James Quin, i. 236

  Exorcism, Power of, i. 57, 69, 82

  ---- Latin form of, i. 138

  ---- Oriental form of, i. 162


  Facts of witchcraft and necromancy, i. 164

  Faculty of Jerome Cardan, i. 283

  Fall of aerolites, i. 25

  False reasoning, i. 26

  Ferrers family, Omen concerning, i. 272

  Florence Newton accused of witchcraft, i. 180

  Friday an unlucky day, i. 282


  Ghost of Bisham Abbey, ii. 91

  God and His creatures, i. 4

  ---- The elimination of, i. 19

  Guesses of Science, The, i. 14


  Hand of Arrowsmith preserved, i. 95

  Hanmer, Mr. C. L., on an apparition, ii. 60

  Hannah Green’s testimony, i. 242

  Haunted houses and localities, ii. 82

  ---- chamber at Creslow, ii. 92

  ---- Glamis Castle, ii. 114

  ---- house at Barby, ii. 109

  ---- house at Berne, ii. 126

  ---- house in Cheshire, ii. 116

  ---- house in Scotland, ii. 123

  ---- place at York Castle, ii. 96

  ---- places, ii. 84

  ---- police cell, ii. 121

  ---- road near Cardiff, ii. 114

  ---- room at Glamis Castle, ii. 112

  ---- room in the Tower, ii. 104

  ---- spot in Yorkshire, ii. 100

  Hell-Fire Club, The, ii. 207

  Henry Spicer’s testimony, Mr., ii. 75

  ---- IV. of France, Omen of death to, i. 267

  Herder on Witchcraft, ii. 210

  Heresies of the modern Spiritualists, ii. 185, 191

  Home, Mr. Daniel, ii. 151, 153

  Hospitals, Christian in their origin, i. 10

  Howell, Mr. J., on Spiritualism, ii. 176, 177

  Howitt, Mr. W., on eternal punishment, ii. 186, 188

  Hume on miracles, i. 23


  Increase Mather on the tests of demoniacal possession, i. 173

  ---- Mather’s “Cases of Conscience,” i. 195

  Inquiries regarding Wynyard, ii. 33


  Jane Brookes accused of witchcraft, i. 175

  ---- Wenham accused of witchcraft, i. 192

  Johnson, Dr. Samuel, on the Lyttelton ghost, ii. 45


  Kostka’s, S. Stanislaus, apparition, ii. 53

  ---- picture at Stonyhurst, ii. 53


  Labarum, The, i. 37

  Lactantius on dreams, i. 213

  Lady Betty Cobb, ii. 15

  Lancashire demoniacs, The, i. 171

  Lane, Mr., on Modern Necromancy, ii. 215, 217

  Laud, Omens concerning Archbishop, i. 271

  Law of causation, The, i. 3

  Lecky, Mr. W. H. E., on the Oxford Movement, ii. 232

  Legion, The Thundering, i. 34

  Longdon, Mary, bewitched, i. 194

  Lord Falkland, Omen concerning, i. 270

  Lord Litchfield’s note of a presentiment, i. 281

  ---- testimony, i. 281

  Lord Westcote’s testimony, ii. 42

  Lyttelton Ghost story, ii. 36, 42, 46


  Macdonald’s, A., case of second sight, i. 285

  Macknish on dreams, i. 215

  Major George Sydenham, ii. 22

  Marquis de Marsay on Spirits, ii. 86

  Mary of Medicis, Omen of death to, i. 267

  Media, Table of Spiritual, ii. 143

  Mines, Haunted, ii. 84

  Ministry of Angels, ii. 82

  Miracles at Rome in 1792, i. 17

  ---- Bishop Hall on, ii. 230

  ---- examination of at Rome, ii. 227

  ---- of our Lord, i. 30

  ---- of Prince Hohenlohe, i. 17

  ---- wrought by the Blessed Sacrament, i. 123, 126

  Miracle at Garswood, i. 96

  ---- at Metz, i. 128

  ---- at Typasa, i. 42

  ---- under Marcus Aurelius, i. 33

  Miraculous cure at Pontoise, i. 83

  ---- facts, Tradition of, i. 32

  ---- of Joseph Lamb, i. 95

  ---- of Mary Wood, i. 114

  ---- of Winifred White, i. 116

  Mediumship, ii. 143

  ---- Clairlative, ii. 146

  ---- Clairvoyant, ii. 150

  ---- Developing, ii. 148

  ---- Duodynamic, ii. 148

  ---- Gesticulating, ii. 144

  ---- Homo-motor, ii. 147

  ---- Impersonating, ii. 145

  ---- Impressional, ii. 150

  ---- Manipulating, ii. 145

  ---- Missionary, ii. 149

  ---- Motive, ii. 144

  ---- Neurological, ii. 146

  ---- Pantomimic, ii. 145

  ---- Pictorial, ii. 148

  ---- Psychologic, ii. 147

  ---- Psychometric, ii. 148

  ---- Pulsatory, ii. 145

  ---- Speaking, ii. 150

  ---- Symbolic, ii. 147

  ---- Sympathetic, ii. 146

  ---- Therapeutic, ii. 149

  ---- Tipping, ii. 144

  ---- Vibratory, ii. 144

  Miss Weld’s testimony, ii. 54

  Modern scientific methods, i. 10

  Monsignor Patterson’s testimony, ii. 52

  More’s “Antidote against Atheism,” i. 173

  Mr. De Lisle on Miracles, i. 15

  Mr. De Lisle’s testimony, ii. 54

  Mr. Edwin De Lisle in reply to Strauss, i. 4

  Mr. E. Lenthal Swifte’s testimony, ii. 104

  Mr. George Fortescue’s declaration, ii. 43

  Mr. Henry Cope Caulfeild’s testimony, ii. 115

  Mr. Herbert Spencer answered, i. 11

  Mr. J. G. Godwin’s declaration, ii. 68

  Mr. Laxon’s wife tormented, i. 189

  Mr. M. P. Andrews’ declaration, ii. 43

  Mr. Ralph Davis on the Northampton witches, i. 182

  Mr. Rutherford’s declaration, i. 263

  Mr. William Talbot’s testimony, i. 226

  Mrs. Baillie-Hamilton’s testimony, ii. 66

  Mrs. George Lee’s testimony, i. 230

  Mrs. Kempson’s testimony, i. 254

  Murder discovered by a dream, i. 221

  ---- of Maria Martin discovered, i. 231

  ---- of the crippled and imbecile, i. 9


  Naturalistic materialism, i. 10

  Nature of God, i. 6

  ---- dreams, i. 210

  Necromancy recognized by the fathers, i. 161

  ---- in China, ii. 220

  Northamptonshire witches, The, i. 182

  Notions, reintroduction of Pagan, i. 13


  Old traditions generally accepted, ii. 90

  Omen concerning Archbishop Laud, i. 271

  ---- concerning King Charles I., i. 268, 269, 270

  ---- concerning Lord Falkland, i. 270

  Omens and prognostications, i. 263

  ---- The subject of, i. 263

  Opinions of Strauss, i. 3

  Oracles, The cessation of, i. 282

  Ostrehan’s, Captain, testimony, ii. 218

  Oxenham omen, The, i. 273


  Pagan notions, Reintroduction of, i. 13

  Patterson’s, Monsignor, information, ii. 52

  Perrone, Father, on Spiritualism, ii. 184

  Philipsons of Colgarth, The, i. 90

  Planchette, Use of, ii. 220, 222

  Plumer Ward’s, Mr., account of the Lyttelton ghost, ii. 46

  Plutarch on the “Cessation of Oracles,” i. 282

  Popes martyrs, The early, i. 31

  Portrait of S. Stanislaus, ii. 53

  Power and malice of Satan, ii. 83

  ---- of blessing and cursing, i. 90

  ---- of exorcism claimed exclusively, i. 163

  Presentiment of Lieutenant R----, i. 250

  ---- of death, i. 262

  ---- to Lady Warre’s chaplain, i. 281

  Principle of benediction, The, i. 88

  Principles of the Broad Church party, ii. 137

  Prognostication of death in a dream, i. 250

  ---- of death to Captain Speer, i. 252

  Prognostications and omens, i. 263

  Propriety of a revelation, i. 5

  Purbrick, Rev. E. J., on the Weld ghost story, ii. 54

  Purport of dreams, i. 212


  Rebuilding of the Temple, i. 42

  “Report on Spiritualism” quoted, ii. 153

  Rev. Dr. Cox’s testimony, ii. 54

  Rev. Dr. J. M. Neale’s testimony i. 243

  Rev. Edward Price on the World of Spirits, ii. 82

  Rev. G. R. Winter on the Swaffham tinker, i. 215

  Rev. H. N. Oxenham’s testimony, i. 277

  Rev. J. Richardson’s testimony, i. 253

  Rev. John Wesley on evil spirits, ii. 85

  Rev. Joseph Jefferson’s testimony, ii. 100

  Rev. Mr. Perring’s dream realized, i. 234

  Rev. T. J. Morris’s testimony, i. 240

  “Rules for the Spirit Circle” quoted, ii. 151


  S. Augustine on miracles, i. 30

  S. Bernard on dreams, i. 214

  S. Cyprian on dreams, i. 214

  S. Cyril on dreams, i. 214

  S. Irenæus on miracles, i. 41

  S. John’s College, Oxford, Founding of, i. 267

  S. Pacian on miracles, i. 41

  S. Thomas Aquinas on dreams, i. 214

  Sacrilege discovered by a dream, i. 232

  “Sadducismus Triumphatus” referred to, i. 199

  Satan, power and malice of, ii. 83

  Science and faith, Rev. R. S. Hawker on, ii. 239

  Science of the Pagan oracles, i. 161

  “Scientific View of Modern Spiritualism” quoted, ii. 143

  Scott, Dream of Andrew, i. 261

  Scripture on witchcraft and necromancy, i. 164

  Séance at the Marshalls’, i. 203

  ---- record of, from “Spiritual Magazine,” ii. 169

  Second sight, Treatise on, i. 285

  ---- at Cardiff, i. 286

  ---- at Ramsbury, i. 288

  ---- Jerome Cardan’s gift of, i. 283

  Sexton, Dr. G., on spiritualism, ii. 225

  Shakespeare’s conception of the supernatural, ii. 89

  Singular prognostication, i. 250

  Sir Christopher Heydon on astrology, i. 200

  Sir George Caulfeild, i. 223

  Sir Henry Chauncy trying witches, i. 193

  Sir Henry Yelverton and his death, i. 95

  Sir Martin Beresford, ii. 13

  Sir Matthew Hale’s evidence as to witchcraft, i. 163

  Sir Thomas Brown’s evidence against witchcraft, i. 163

  Slade’s, Sir Alfred, testimony, ii. 218

  Somerset omen, The, i. 266

  Sorcery of Dr. Lamb, i. 202

  _Sortes Virgilianæ_, The, i. 269, 270

  Sound of a drum, The, i. 278

  Southey on haunted localities, ii. 84

  Spectral dog, The, i. 280

  Spectre of Lady Hobby, The, ii. 91

  Spedlin’s Tower haunted, ii. 97

  Spirits, perturbed, ii. 87

  ---- World of, ii. 82

  Spiritualism despised, ii. 139

  ---- modern, ii. 135, 169

  ---- Mr. W. Crookes on the phenomena of, ii. 159

  ---- Origin of, ii. 141

  Spiritualistic manifestations, i. 205;
    ii. 151, 153, 155, 157, 160, 161, 163, 169, 173, 175, 176, 177, 178,
        180

  Statement of Lord Lyttelton’s valet, ii. 45

  Stigmatization, i. 98, 100, 101, 102, 105, 109

  Strauss, Opinions of, i. 2

  Successful exorcism by an English clergyman, i. 80

  Sudden death of Ruth Pierce, i. 289

  Supernatural banished, The, ii. 140

  ---- basis of life, i. 12

  ---- its work, i. 2

  ---- noises at Abbotsford, ii. 99

  ---- religion, i. 18

  Surey demoniac, The, i. 177


  Tertullian on dreams, i. 213

  Testimony to the fulfilment of a solemn Curse, i. 117

  The Chester-le-Street apparition, ii. 3

  The Christian system, i. 26

  The Lyttelton ghost story, ii. 35

  The Misses Amphlett, ii. 39

  The Oxenham omen, i. 274

  The result of a solemn Curse, i. 117

  The sound of a drum, i. 278

  The spectral dog, i. 280

  ---- bird, ii. 128

  The use of the Sign of the Cross, ii. 4

  The white bird of the Oxenhams, i. 274

  Theories concerning dreams, i. 210

  Thirteen to Dinner, i. 281

  Thomas Aquinas on miracles, S., i. 28

  Three men rescued by a dream, i. 231

  Tichborne dole, The, i. 264

  ---- Curse and Prophecy, The, i. 265

  ---- Mabella, Lady, i. 264

  ---- Sir Henry, i. 265

  ---- Sir Roger, i. 264

  Tinley, Dream of Samuel, i. 262

  Tradition of miraculous powers, i. 32

  Treatise on second sight, i. 285

  Trial of Rev. E. Arrowsmith, i. 91

  Trinity of Comteism, The, i. 19

  Twice-repeated dream of a sailor, i. 231

  Tyrone apparition, The, ii. 11


  Unalterable experience, i. 24

  Use of the Sign of the Cross, ii. 4


  Wallace, Mr. A., on spiritualism and science, ii. 193

  Wandering souls, ii. 87

  Ward’s account of the Lyttelton ghost, Mr., ii. 46

  Warning given in a dream, i. 238, 254

  ---- given to a lady by a dream, i. 242

  ---- to a lady, i. 258

  ---- to a little child, i. 260

  ---- to two persons in dreams, i. 258

  “Weekly Register,” The, on Mr. Wallace’s theories, ii. 197

  Weld ghost story, The, ii. 49

  ---- Philip, drowned, ii. 50

  ---- Very Rev. Alfred, S. J., on the Weld ghost story, ii. 54

  Weld’s, Philip, apparition, ii. 53

  Westcote, Lord, on the Lyttelton ghost, i. 33

  White’s Dream, Sir Thomas, i. 266

  Witchcraft and necromancy, i. 152

  ---- and sorcery, Canon Melville on, i. 156

  ---- common in non-Catholic countries, i. 201

  ---- condemned in Scripture, i. 152, 155

  ---- Definition of, i. 174

  ---- Examples of, i. 176-201

  ---- George More on, i. 171

  ---- Herder on, ii. 210

  ---- Jane Wenham accused of, i. 192

  ---- Joseph Glanville on, i. 175

  ---- recognized by the Fathers, i. 161

  ---- Rev. John Wesley on, i. 160

  Witches, The Northamptonshire, i. 182

  “Wonders of the Invisible World,” i. 198

  World of spirits, The, ii. 82

  Wynyard ghost story, The, ii. 26



FOOTNOTES:

[1] “Westminster Review,” July, 1872.

[2] Acts xvii. 27.

[3] The idea of the eternal enters largely into the stock arguments of
unbelief; for it is through the asserted “eternity of matter” that the
unbeliever shifts away the ideas of creation and a creator.

[4] Articles of Religion, No. 1, Book of Common Prayer.

[5] Christianity, as we know, exhorted men and women to the care of the
aged, the suffering, and the infirm. Our Blessed Saviour’s promise,
regarding the gift of a cup of cold water and its reward, was not
forgotten. Christian love resisted and cast out Pagan selfishness.
Hospitals were built where the diseases of the poor might be cured; where
the sore distress of hopeless pain and slow wasting-away might be soothed;
and asylums were provided where the weak and imbecile might be tended. Now
if the Pagan theories of “scientific people” are applied, the chief duty
of physicians in the future will be to poison their patients. Such a
conception would be ludicrous were it not so utterly revolting.

[6] A writer in an influential organ of opinion connected with the
American Church puts forth the following vigorous protest:--

“It is quite as well that we should be accustomed to the logical
consequences of some of our philosophies. The tradition of Christianity is
so strong upon the most ‘advanced’ of our wise men that it holds them back
from the carrying-out of their principles. But here and there is one, and
we should all be thankful to him who is so intellectually constituted that
he must carry ‘a law’ to its issue, and by the issue let us see the nature
of the law. The hint of what may be is given in the revival of the
advocacy of suicide for the wretched, and the putting to death of the
helpless. Naturalism carried out comes to that conclusion. Mr. Herbert
Spencer had been patiently laying down principles which scores who think
they think are accepting, without the slightest idea, on his part
apparently or on theirs, that they are simple savagery and pure Paganism,
and that the man who dines off his aged mother has been acting on them,
though Mr. Spencer’s name had never been heard in his native speech.

“In some sense of the supernatural, in some faith in the unseen, in some
feeling that man is not of this world, in some grasp on the Eternal God,
and on an eternal, supernatural, and supersensuous life, lies the basis of
all pity and mercy, all help and comfort and patience and sympathy among
men. Set these aside, commit us only to the natural, to what our eyes see
and our hands handle; and while we may organize society scientifically,
and live according to ‘the laws of nature,’ and be very philosophical and
very liberal, we are standing on the ground on which every pack of wolves
gallops.

“One may safely say, ‘If you will show me, on any principle of naturalism,
or any rule of what you shallowly in these days call ‘philosophy,’ on any
law of nature, why I should not strangle my deaf and dumb child, smother
my paralytic father, or drown my hopelessly insane wife, then I will turn
materialist also.’ We are far from believing that these gentlemen know how
they have been undermining the foundations of civilized and social life. A
lurid glare cast across these speculations, like this English discussion
of Euthanasia, may startle some whom Mr. Tyndall’s discussion of the
scientific absurdity of prayer might not startle, though both are locked
in one, and stand or fall together. But however it be, we are sure that
man will find that society stands on supernatural ground, that the Family
and the Nation are divine, and that ‘Naturalism,’ modified or disguised as
it may be, is only isolated savagery--‘every man for himself, and the
weakest to the wall.’”

[7] A writer in the “Church Journal” of New York puts the case well and
fairly as follows:--“The scientific people have taken up the lost weapons
of bigoted theological polemics, and assail with the rough sides of their
tongues and pens any man who calls for further evidence, or presumes to
bring their assumptions to the test of examination. But having no more
reverence for the unsustained _dicta_ of Sir Charles Lyell, Mr. Proctor,
or Professor Tyndall, than for the same sort of _dicta_ from a Middle Age
monk, we shall go on calling for proof. Our credulity is incapable of
saying ‘we know’ about a thing of which, when we examine, nobody ‘knows’
anything, except that some scientific man asserts it in his book.

“We are not ‘enemies to science;’ we only want science, and not guesses.
And the thoroughly unscientific, uncritical, and credulous way in which
men like Mr. Proctor are declaring ‘we know’ about things of which they
know nothing, is one of the greatest obstacles with which science has to
contend.”

[8] “La Croix de Migné vengée de l’incrédulité du siècle.” Published at
Paris, in 1829.

[9] “Account of the Miraculous Events at Rome in the years 1792 and 1793.”
Published in London, by Keating and Brown, Duke Street, Grosvenor Square.

[10] Hume’s “Essays and Treatises on Various Subjects,” second edition,
vol. ii. p. 122. London, 1784.

[11] Ibid. vol. ii. p. 133.

[12] Take for example the subject of meteoric stones. Marked changes with
regard to a belief in these, have existed in the past. The scholar can
testify that antiquity is undoubtedly in favour of their existence.
Plutarch, for example, in his “Life of Lysander,” describes a celebrated
aerolite which fell in Thrace, and History testifies unmistakably to
similar events--more particularly to the preservation of such in ancient
temples. Yet it was not until the year 1803, when meteoric stones fell at
L’Aigle in Normandy, that the Academy of Sciences in Paris appointed a
committee to investigate the case, and their report determined the
question. Mr. W. G. Nevill, F.G.S., of Gresham Street, City, London,
comprises the above in the following testimony to facts which appeared in
the “Standard,” of Feb. 25, 1873. “With reference to a paragraph headed
‘An Exercise of Credulity’ in your paper of the 24th instant, allow me to
offer a few observations, as the circumstance narrated therein of the fall
of an aerolite on board the Seven Stones light-vessel, as narrated by the
crew, is of extreme interest. The men in the light-vessel service are
carefully selected by the elder brethren of the Trinity House and trained
to make observations on the weather and record them in books at the time,
which books are received as evidence in the Admiralty Court. Their account
agrees in the main with the details given in other cases. My father, Mr.
W. Nevill, of Godalming, has a collection of specimens of 226 distinct
falls of such bodies. These take place in all parts of the world. I
believe only one instance has before been recorded in England. That
occurred at Wold Cottage, Thwing, Yorkshire, on Dec. 13, 1795. One of the
earliest recorded falls took place at Guisheim, in Alsace, during a
battle, Nov. 7, 1492, and was preserved in the neighbouring church. A
large shower of stones took place at L’Aigle, in north of France, on April
26, 1803 (not very far from the Seven Stones). These stones are of a grey
ashy colour and invariably coated with black enamel; other meteorites are
composed of solid native iron, and are sometimes of large size, as the one
at Bitburg in Rhenish Prussia, which weighed several tons.”

[13] “Athenæum,” for March 12, 1859, p. 350.

[14] Testimonies to the Supernatural amongst Christian writers are
abundant. The following may be instanced as a few concerning such events,
both in the second and third centuries:--Justin Martyr, Ap. ii. cap. vi.;
Dial. cum Tryph. cap. xxxix. and lxxxii.; Irenæus, ii. 31 and v. 6;
Tertullian “Apolog.” cap. 23, 27, 32, 37; “Origen against Celsus,” book i.
p. 7 and book vii. pp. 334-335, Ed. Spencer; Dionysius of Alexandria, in
“Eccl. Hist.” of Eusebius, vi. 40; Minucius Felix Octav. p. 361, Ed.
Paris, 1605; S. Cyprian, “De Idol. Vanit.” p. 14.

[15] S. John xiv. 12.

[16] “Hist. Eccles.” cap. v. Chronicon. p. 82.

[17] The following version by Dio. Cassius, translated from the “Annals”
of Baronius, affords no slender testimony to the account by Eusebius given
in the text:--“When the barbarians would not give them battle, in hopes of
their perishing by heat and thirst, since they had so surrounded them that
they had no possible means of getting water; and when they were in the
utmost distress from sickness, wounds, sun, and thirst, and could neither
fight nor retreat, but remained in order of battle and at their posts in
this parched condition, suddenly clouds gathered, and a copious rainfall,
not without the mercy of God. And when it first began to fall, the Romans,
raising their mouths towards heaven, received it upon them; next, turning
up their shields and helmets, they drank largely out of them, and gave to
their horses. And when the barbarians charged them, they drank as they
fought, and numbers of them were wounded.... And while they were thus
incurring heavy loss from the assault of the enemy, because most of them
were engaged in drinking, a violent hailstorm and much lightning were
discharged upon the enemy. And thus water and fire might be seen in the
same place falling from heaven, that some might drink refreshment and
others be burnt to death.”--Dion. Cass. “Hist.” lxxi. p. 805.

[18] The treatise of Apollinaris, it should be added, is lost; and there
seems to be some ground for believing that a particular Legion bore the
name “Thundering” as far back as the days of Augustus. This latter
assertion, however, even if proved, cannot set aside the leading facts
recorded in the text.

[19] “Life of Marcus Antonius,” chap. xxiv.

[20] “Historia Romana,” lxi. 8.

[21] Mosheim’s “Ecclesiastical History” (Ed. Stubbs), vol. i. pp. 99-101.
London, 1863.

[22] “Two Essays on Scripture Miracles and on Ecclesiastical,” by J. H.
Newman, pp. 273-4, Second Edition. London, 1870.

[23] Socrates, Philostorgius, Gelasius, and Nicephorus declare that the
Cross was in the sky. Sozomen, too, on the authority of Eusebius, makes a
similar statement. So likewise does Rufinus.

[24] This standard was known by the name of the “Labarum”--a word the
etymology of which is very uncertain. It was a pole plated with gold, upon
which was laid horizontally a cross-bar, so as to form the figure of a
cross. The top of the perpendicular shaft was adorned with a golden crown,
ornamented with precious stones. In the middle of this crown was a
monogram representing the name of Christ by the two Greek initial letters
Χ and Ρ. A purple veil of a square figure hung from the cross-bar, which
was likewise spangled with jewels. Gretser, “De Cruce,” Lib. i. cap. iv.

[25] S. John v. 20.

[26] Liber cont. Hær. c. xxxi.

[27] Daniel ix. 20-27.

[28] These miraculous interventions are testified to by S. Gregory
Nazianzen, S. Chrysostom, and S. Ambrose, as well as by Rufinus, Socrates,
Sozomen, and Theodoret. They are also recorded by Philostorgius the Arian,
and by Ammianus the Pagan. Bishop Warburton published a volume entitled
“Julian” in proof of their miraculous character, and they are acknowledged
as such by Bishop Halifax on p. 23 of his “Discourses.”

[29] Those who testify to the truth of this miracle are firstly a
Christian prelate, Victor Vitenus, “Hist. Pers.” sec. Vandal, iii. p. 613,
whose words are translated above; the Emperor Justinian (who declares that
he had seen some of the sufferers, “Codex Justin.” Lib. I. Tit. xxx. Ed.
1553); the Greek historian, Procopius of Cæsarea, who asserts that their
tongues were cut off as low down as their throat, and that he had
conversed with them, Lib. I. “De Bell. Vand.” cap. viij. and x. 1. Æneas
of Gaza, a Platonic philosopher, who, having examined their mouths,
remarked that he was not so much surprised at their being able to talk, as
at their being able to live. He saw them at Constantinople. Mosheim,
amongst Protestants, and Dodwell, the nonjuror, amongst English writers,
frankly admit the miracle. The most lucid and exhaustive account, however,
may be found in Section ix. of Dr. J. H. Newman’s “Essays on Miracles,”
pp. 369-387 (Second edition, London, 1870), where the ancient evidence is
set forth at length.

[30] On this subject a volume has recently been published, entitled “The
Tongue not Essential to Speech: with Illustrations of the Power of Speech
in the African Confessors.” By the Hon. Edward Twistleton. London: 1873.
This book has been carefully and exhaustively criticized in “The Month,”
for September, 1873. It will be sufficient here to remark that the modern
scientific objections to this miracle, that, because in a certain case, by
the skill of an operator, a tongue was so removed with marked dexterity in
recent times, therefore the power of speech retained by the African
Confessors was an ordinary event, are objections at once inconsequential
and invalid.

[31] “De Civitate Dei,” Lib. xxii. p. 8.

[32] “Epist. Sti. Greg.;” “Hist. Bed.” Lib. i. c. xxxj.

[33] _Vide_ “Sti. Bernardi Vita,” _in loco_, published by Mabillon.

[34] They were examined on the spot, by virtue of a Commission from John
III. King of Portugal, and were generally acknowledged, not only by
Europeans, but also by native Mahometans and Pagans. The important and
conclusive testimony of three Protestant writers--Hackluyt, Baldens, and
Tavernier--is set forth in Bouhours’ “Life of Francis Xavier,” which our
own poet, John Dryden, translated and published.

[35] S. Matthew xv. 22-28.

[36] S. Mark iii. 11. _Ibid._ iii. 15, 22-30.

[37] S. Mark v. 2-15. See also S. Luke viii. 26-40. Instances of such
power bestowed and exercised over unclean or deaf and dumb spirits may be
found in the following:--S. Mark vi. 13; vii. 25-30; ix. 17-29. S. Luke
iv. 33-37; ix. 38-42; xi. 14-26. Acts v. 12, 16; xvi. 16-18; xix. 13-20;
xxviii. 3-6.

[38] One of the most distinguished physicians in London recently assured
the Editor that, in his judgment, numerous peculiar and remarkable cases
both of epilepsy and madness could only be duly and rationally accounted
for by the Christian theory of possession; and he himself declared that if
the Church’s spiritual powers on the one hand, and the virtue of faith on
the other, were more commonly put into practice than they are, many cures,
by God’s blessing, might be looked for.

[39] “The History of Cornwall,” by Fortescue Hitchins, Esq., in 2 vols.
4to. Helston, 1824. Vol. ii. pp. 548-51.

[40] The parish of Little Petherick is six miles north of S. Columb, and
three due south from Padstow.

[41] Bishop Seth Ward, D.D.--Editor.

[42] “No minister or ministers shall ... without the license and direction
(_mandatum_) of the Bishop ... attempt upon any pretence whatsoever either
of possession or obsession, by fasting or prayer, to cast out any devil or
devils, under pain of the imputation of imposture or cosenage, and
deposition from the ministry.”--Canons of 1604, No. 72.

[43] Mr. Hawker quotes from the Diary of Mr. Ruddle for July 10th, 1665,
the following triumphant entry:--“How sorely must the infidels and
hereticks of this generation be dismayed when they know that this Black
Death, which is now swallowing its thousands in the streets of the great
city [London] was foretold six months agone, under the exorcisms of a
country minister, by a visible and suppliant ghost! And what pleasures and
improvements do such deny themselves who scorn and avoid all opportunity
of intercourse with souls separate, and the spirits, glad and sorrowful,
which inhabit the unseen world.”--pp. 123-4.

[44] In the act of exorcism, of course it is not necessary that the
exorcist be a clergyman, in other words, in holy orders. An “exorcist”
technically so called, when formally ordained, is only in “minor” and not
in “holy” or “sacred orders.” Any Christian layman, with faith and a
hearty desire and readiness to abide by the rules of the Church, can
perform the act of exorcism, if no duly-ordained exorcist can be had; just
as a layman (in the absence of a priest), can validly baptize. By baptism
the “old man” is cast out, and the work of regeneration formally effected.
By exorcism, some evil spirit or devil is expelled from a person
possessed, in the Name of our Adorable Redeemer, Who triumphed over death
and hell, and Who delegated Divine powers to the Church which He
instituted. “It belongs to an exorcist,” writes a distinguished Western
divine, “by exorcisms to deliver energumens and catechumens from the
vexations of demons.”--“Axioms concerning the Sacraments,” No. lxviii. of
Augustinus Hunnæus. On this point, the same theologian, sometime Professor
of Theology at Louvain, writes thus:--“In adults catechism, whereby the
doctrine of faith is delivered, ought to precede baptism; but exorcism,
whereby evil spirits are expelled, and the senses opened to the perception
of the mysteries of Salvation, ought to precede catechism. _Both, as well
catechism as exorcism, pertain to the office of a priest_; but in
catechizing he uses the ministry of a reader: _in exorcism that of an
exorcist_.”--“Axioms concerning the Sacraments,” No. xii.

[45] This clergyman, whose name the Editor is not at liberty to mention,
is known to many to be “a discerner of spirits.” He is now a dignitary of
the English Church in the colonies.

[46] “The same has been attested to myself by M. Denison, nephew to the
celebrated Morand, whom I saw at that time at Maubuisson-les-Pontoise. He
ran the same career as his uncle, and was also distinguished for his
merit. F. G. P.”

[47] Deut. x. 8; Numb. vi. 22-26, a form which the Christian Church has
adopted and retained.

[48] Heb. vii. 7.

[49] Another version of this conversation gives the report as follows:
“And should I die unjustly and undeservedly, my lord, in that case, you,
my lord, shall soon die too, and follow me; yea within the compass of a
year.”--_MS. Letter of Very Rev. Dr. Husenbeth._

[50] “That _dead_ dog Arrowsmith” stands in another version of this
portion of the narrative.--Editor.

[51] They went in company with Thomas Cutler and Elizabeth Dooley. The
above facts were formally authenticated by the parents of Lamb, as also by
the Rev. Thomas Sadler, of Trafford, near Manchester; and the Rev. J.
Craythorne, of Garswood. A friend who resides in Lancashire informs the
Editor that this miracle is firmly believed by thousands (A.D. 1873).

[52] It was on this day that formal and sufficient testimonies were put
into writing of the fact of the cure narrated above; and duly signed by
those who from their own personal knowledge could testify to the truth of
the same.

[53] The event recorded above, Arrowsmith’s sufferings and death, and its
details are taken from Dod’s “Church History,” Challoner’s “Memoirs of
Missionary Priests,” vol. ii. pp. 130-146; a “Relation of the Death of E.
Arrowsmith,” published A.D. 1630; a Latin MS. of his life, preserved at
Douay; and special traditional information given to the Editor by the late
Very Rev. Dr. Husenbeth, Provost of Northampton.

[54] This wonderful mystery is frequently represented in Christian Art,
both with beauty and effect.

[55] See a rare and remarkable pamphlet, by Mr. De Lisle, with etchings by
J. R. Herbert, R.A., now out of print, containing an account of his visit
to the subject of this miraculous occurrence. London: Dolman, 1841.

[56] The following is the full title of the volume from which the above
narrative and the extracts given are taken:--“Louise Lateau of Bois
d’Haine, her Life, her Ecstasies, and her Stigmata.” A medical study, by
Dr. F. Lefebvre. Translated from the French. Edited by Rev. J. Spencer
Northcote, D.D., President of S. Mary’s College, Oscott. To which the
following explanatory note may be added:--The name of Dr. Lefebvre is
sufficient guarantee of the importance of any work coming from his pen.
During twenty years that he has filled the chair of General Pathology and
Therapeutics in the University of Louvain he has gained a world-wide
reputation by his investigations in the wide and, to a great extent,
unexplored field of medical research. Add to this moral qualities of the
first order, and ardent zeal in the cause of religion, and we have a
character which commands our admiration and esteem in the highest degree.
The book, translated into English under the superintendence of Dr.
Northcote, is a medical inquiry into the case of Louise Lateau, the
Belgian _stigmatizata_. The medical features of the case are all that Dr.
Lefebvre proposes to treat, leaving, of course, to the proper
ecclesiastical authorities the theological investigation. An abridged
account of this case has been published, entitled “Louise Lateau, the
Ecstatica of Bois d’Haine,” by Dr. Lefebvre, translated from the French by
J. S. Shepard. London: Richardson and Son. 1872.

[57] This account was written in 1874.

[58] Affidavits of the truth of the above narrative have been made by the
physician and clergyman who witnessed the miraculous intervention, as also
by the person more immediately concerned--Miss Collins.

[59] Among the spectators were the following: Mr. R. Tobin and family, Mr.
John Sullivan and wife, Mr. C. D. O’Sullivan and wife, Mr. J. A. Donahue
and wife, Mr. George Hooper and wife, Mrs. Emmet Doyle, Mr. D. J. Oliver,
and many others. Dr. Polactri was standing by Miss Collins’s bedside,
taking notes on the condition of the patient. He confessed the case was
beyond the reach of medical science. Her head moved from side to side with
the intensity of her agony, and her tongue was parched and swollen.

[60] Mr. D. J. Oliver writes from San Francisco, in a private letter, as
follows: “I was awe-stricken whilst beholding the miracle. I know both the
young girls, and the account is correct in every particular, except that
the stigmata was on both sides of the hands and feet, and not on one side
only. I spent an hour with them last evening, and saw them at communion at
early mass this morning.”

[61] The account up to this point is copied from a Letter to Miss F. T.
Bird, dated September 3, 1809, by Mr. Woodford, an eminent surgeon of
Taunton, who attended Mary Wood upon her accident.

[62] Certain stated prayers and devotional exercises continued throughout
_nine_ days.

[63] The authentic documents of the examination, and of the whole process
of the cure, are contained at length in a work entitled “The Miraculous
Cure of Winifred White,” by the Rev. John Milner, D.D., published by Grace
of Dublin, and reprinted, on several occasions and in different forms, in
England. It may be added that Winifred White departed this life on the
13th of January, 1824, nineteen years after her cure. She died of
consumption.

[64] A well-known clergyman of the Church of England.

[65] The account from which the above was compiled was a formal and
authentic statement of the Curé de S. Martin, at Metz (A.D. 1865).

[66] The account given above is taken from a small tractate entitled “The
Miracle of Metz, wrought by the Blessed Sacrament, June 14, 1865,”
translated from the French, by Lady Georgiana Fullerton. With the
imprimaturs of His Grace the Archbishop of Westminster and the Bishop of
Metz. London: Burns and Co., 1865.

[67] See a series of most interesting letters, entitled “Is God amongst
us?” by a Clergyman of the Church of England, published in the “Union”
newspaper, for 1857, vol. ii. pp. 262, 329-330. London: Painter.

[68] “The Measure of Christian Sorrow for the Departed,” a Sermon preached
at the funeral of Mary Lisle Phillipps de Lisle, by the Rev. Henry
Collins, M.A. Loughborough: J. H. Gray, 1860, pp. 11-13.

[69] “Indulgenced prayers are prayers to the recital of which is attached
by the Church the grant of _indulgences_. By indulgences Catholics
understand a remission of sin, that is, of all those temporal pains which
God inflicts for sin committed by His servants after baptism; and the
Church teaches that the power of remission was conferred by Jesus Christ
when He said to the Apostles, ‘Whatsoever ye shall loose on earth, shall
be loosed in Heaven.’” S. Matt. xvi. 19.

[70] An anonymous seventeenth-century writer reasons as follows:--“To know
things aright and perfectly is to know the causes thereof. A definition
doth consist of those causes which give the whole essence, and contain the
perfect nature of the thing defined; where that is therefore found out,
there appears the very clear light. If it be perfect, it is much the
greater; though if it be not fully perfect, yet it giveth some good light.
For which respect, though I dare not say I can give a perfect definition
in this matter, which is hard to do even in known things, because the
essential form is hard to be found, yet I do give a definition which may
at the least give notice and make known what manner of persons they be of
whom I am to speak:--A witch is one that worketh by the Devil, or by some
devilish or curious art, either hurting or healing, revealing things
secret, or foretelling things to come, which the Devil hath devised to
entangle and snare men’s souls withal unto damnation. The Conjurer, the
Enchanter, the Sorcerer, the Diviner, and whatsoever other sort there is,
are indeed encompassed within this circle. The Devil doth (no doubt) after
divers sorts and divers forms, deal in these. But no man is able to show
an essential difference in each of them from the rest. I hold it no wisdom
or labour well spent to travel much therein. One artificer hath devised
them all.”

[71] “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.”--Exodus xxii. 18. “Neither
shall ye use enchantment.”--Levit. xix. 26. “Regard not them which have
familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by
them.”--Ibid. ver. 31. “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 divination, or
an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a
consulter with familiar spirits, or a necromancer. For all that do these
things are an abomination unto the Lord: and because of these abominations
the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee.”--Deut. xviii.
9-12. Of Manasseh is recorded, that “He caused his children to pass
through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom: also he observed
times, and used enchantments, and used witchcraft, and dealt with a
familiar spirit, and with wizards.”--2 Chron. xxxiii. 6. Lastly, S. Paul
mentions “witchcraft” amongst such “works of the flesh” as “adultery,
fornication, heresies, drunkenness, and murders.”--Galat. v. 19-21.

[72] Many of the heathens cordially defended magic and Necromancy. For
example, Asclepiades, who lived in the time of Pompey the Great, cured
diseases by magic, _enjoining upon his patient, in the case of the falling
sickness, to bind upon his arm a Cross with a Nail driven into it_.
Julianus, the magician, is reported to have driven the plague out of Rome
by magical power. Apuleius, a disciple of Plato, wrote at length on magic.
To him may be added Marcellus and Alexander Trallian. Pliny asserts in
very plain language that Necromancy was so prevalent in his day, but was
condemned by the wisest, that it was classed with treason and poisoning.
And it is notorious that magic was long used as a convenient though
inefficient weapon against Christianity.--Vide, likewise, Livy i. 20, and
Strabo, lib. vi.

[73] “Fuga Satanæ. Exorcismus, ex sacrarum Litterarum fontibus, pioq̃ S.
Ecclesiæ Instituto exhaustus. Authore Petro Antonio Stampa, Sacerdote
Clavenense. Cum privilegio. Venetiis. M.D.C.V. Apud Sebastianum Combis.”

[74] “Touching the antiquity of Witchcraft, we must needs confess that it
hath been of very ancient time, because the Scriptures do testify so much,
for in the time of Moses it was very rife in Egypt. Neither was it then
newly sprung up, being common, and grown into such ripeness among the
nations, that the Lord, reckoning by divers kinds, saith that the Gentiles
did commit such abominations, for which He would cast them out before the
children of Israel.”--“What a Witch is, and the Antiquities of
Witchcraft,” A.D. 1612.

[75] See note to this effect on page 152.

[76] The following passage, from a sermon by the late Canon Melville,
bears out the above statement:--“It is unnecessary for us to inquire what
those arts may have been in which the Ephesians are said to have greatly
excelled. There seems no reason for doubting that, as we have already
stated, they were of the nature of magic, sorcery, or witchcraft; though
we cannot profess accurately to define what such terms might import. The
Ephesians, as some in all ages have done, probably laid claim to
intercourse with invisible beings, and professed to derive from that
intercourse acquaintance with, and power over, future events. And though
the very name of witchcraft be now held in contempt, and the supposition
of communion with evil spirits scouted as a fable of what are called the
dark ages, we own that we have difficulty in believing that all which has
passed by the names of magic and sorcery may be resolved into sleight of
hand, deception, and trick. The visible world and the invisible are in
very close contact: there is, indeed, a veil on our eyes, preventing our
gazing on spiritual beings and things, but we doubt not that whatsoever
passes upon earth is open to the view of higher and immaterial creatures.
And as we are sure that a man of piety and prayer enlists good angels on
his side and engages them to perform towards him the ministrations of
kindness, we know not why there cannot be such a thing as a man whose
wickedness has caused his being abandoned by the Spirit of God, and who,
in this his desertion, has thrown open to evil angels the chambers of his
soul, and made himself so completely their instrument, that they may use
him in the uttering or working strange things, which shall have all the
air of prophecy or miracle.”--“Sermons on certain of the less prominent
facts and references in Sacred Story.” By Henry Melville, D.D. In two
volumes. London: Rivingtons, 1872. Vol. i. pp. 57, 58.

[77] The above definitions are taken from the literary productions of
certain of the most recent “philosophers” and “thinkers” already referred
to in the text.

[78] “The works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: adultery,
fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, _witchcraft_, hatred,
variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings,
murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like.” Galat. v. 19-21.

[79] This took place in England in the year 1736, in the teeth of the
protests of many, who felt that a modification of laws founded on an
explicit principle of Scripture would have been both wiser and safer than
their total and absolute abolition. Amongst others, Mr. John Wesley wrote
and preached to this effect. Quite recently a distinguished Liberal
statesman remarked that if the practices of the so-called “Spiritualists”
still developed, as for some time they had been developing, some
re-enactment of the laws against Witchcraft might become necessary. It
certainly seems one-sided and unfair that ignorant women should be
punished for “fortune-telling,” and that the paid professional mediums
should go scot free.

[80] The following bears out the remarks in the text:--“The influence of
Christianity upon magic could not be small; material changes would
undoubtedly be brought about through its influence.... At the epoch of
Christ’s appearance, faith in demons, and particularly in evil spirits,
was not only general amongst the heathen, but also among the Jews to an
incredible extent; and unbounded powers, even as great as those of the
Divinity, were ascribed to them, which not only were supposed to influence
the mind, but also Nature and physical life.”--Ennemoser’s “History of
Magic.” Translated by W. Howitt. London, 1854. Vol. i., pp. 340, 341. One
particular fact may be here put upon record, as being, to say the least,
more than remarkable: To the Roman Emperor Augustus, who, according to
Suidas and Nicephorus, sent to a renowned Oracle to inquire what successor
he should have, it was answered, “_The Hebrew Child, Whom all the gods
obey, drives me hence_.” No other response was vouchsafed.

[81] The Editor is indebted to the Rev. Dr. Littledale for the following
note:--“There is an authorized Form of Exorcism in the Greek
‘Euchologion.’ It begins with the Trisagion, and Psalms, _Domine exaudi_,
_Dominus regit me_, _Dominus illuminatio mea_, _Exurgat Deus_, _Miserere_,
_Domine ne in furore_, and _Domine exaudi precem_. Then follows the
Consolatory Canon, with a long Hymn addressed to our Blessed Lord, the
Blessed Virgin Mary, and All Saints. At the close of this the priest
anoints the patient, saying a brief prayer over him, and so the office
closes.” See also Appendix to Chapter iii. pp. 138-148.

[82] John Selden, in his “Table Talk,” in the article upon “Devils,”
somewhat scoffingly asserts that the Roman Catholics affirm that “the
Protestants the Devil hath already, and the Papists are so holy, he dares
not meddle with them.”

[83] “The Question of Witchcraft debated.” By John Wagstaffe. London:
1669. Second edition, 1671.

[84] “A True Discourse upon the Matter of Martha Brossier, of Romorantin,”
translated out of French into English, by Abraham Hartwell. London:
imprinted for John Wolfe. 1599.

[85] “The Copy of a Letter describing the Wonderful Worke of God in
delyviring a maydene within the city of Chester from a horrible kind of
torment or sicknesse, 16 February anno 1564.” Imprinted at London for John
Judely, dwelling in Little Britayne Street beyond Aldersgate, 23 March
1564.

[86] “A Briefe and True Discourse, contayning the certayne possession and
dispossession of seven persons in one familie, in Lancashire.” By George
More, Minister and Preacher of the Word, and now (for bearing witness unto
this, and for justifying the rest,) a prisoner at the Clinks, where he
hath continued almost for two yeares. A.D. 1600.

[87] It is asserted by several authorities that no less than three
thousand persons were executed for Witchcraft during that dark period of
heretical pravity, the Great Rebellion. Now, as “Rebellion,” according to
the express assurance of the Prophet Samuel (1 Sam. xv. 23) “is as the sin
of Witchcraft,” no hearty believer in God’s revelation can be at all
surprised to find that both Witchcraft and Rebellion in an atmosphere of
heresy flourished together, under that odious tyrant and hypocritical
fanatic, Oliver Cromwell: when the altar was thrown down and both King and
Archbishop were murdered.

[88] “An Antidote against Atheism: or an Appeal to the Natural Faculties
of the Mind of Man.” By Henry More, Fellow of Christ’s College, Cambridge.
1655.

[89] “Cases of Conscience concerning Evil Spirits personating Men.” By
Increase Mather. Printed at Boston, and reprinted in London for John
Dutton at the Raven in the Poultry, 1693.

[90] “Sadducismus Triumphatus: a Full and Plain Evidence concerning
Witches and Apparitions.” By Joseph Glanville, Chaplain in Ordinary to
King Charles II. London: 1726.

[91] A careful deposition as to the above facts was made before the
Justices of the Peace mentioned, who added the following formal
attestation: “The aforesaid passages [_i.e._ occurrences] were some of
them seen by us, and some other remarkable ones, not here set down, were
upon the examination of several witnesses taken on oath before us.

  “(Signed)  Robert Hunt.
             John Carey.”

[92] “The Surey Demoniack; or, an Account of Satan’s Strange and Dreadful
Actings in and about the Body of Richard Dugdale of Surey, near Whalley in
Lancashire.” London: 1697.

[93] The following curious extract from a “Coventry News-Letter,” dated
Nov. 2, 1672, certainly tells a wonderful story, in some respects not
unlike that recorded in the text. It serves at all events to show what
were the popular notions concerning occurrences which, to say the least,
were very remarkable; and it is reprinted here _verbatim_:--

“All our wonder here about is employ’d at the strange condition of a maid
neare us, one Elizabeth Tibbots of about 18 yeares of age liveing with her
unkle one Thomas Crofts at a place cal’d Hust (?) in ye parish of Stonely
(Stoneleigh) about two miles hence. Ye maid for about this 3 weekes past
has bene taken with strange fitts in which shee has vomitted up severall
things incredible, as first severall Peble stones neare as big as eggs,
knives, sissers, peices of glass some of them two or 3 Inches square,
peices of Iron, an Iron Bullet of at least 8 Inches round, and 2 pound &
halfe weight, a black drinking pot of neare halfe a pint, peices of cloth
& wood, a pockett pistoll, a paire of Pincers, Bottoms of yarne and
severall other things many whereof are now at our majors, and have bene
evidently seene to come out at her mouth, by many credible witnesses, nor
should I my selfe venture to give you this Relation, which seemes soe
unlike truth, had I not my selfe beene an eye wittness, with my most
cunning observation of soe much of it, that I am confirmed in ye beleife
of the whole, all which is imputed to some diabollicall practices of one
Watson a strang kind of an Emperick, to whom shee was some tyme a Patient,
who had it seemes soe wrought with her as that shee had promis’d him
marriage, & to goe with him (though shee knew not whither,) But afterwards
refused it. Immediately upon which shee fell into these fitts, yet has
shee her respites, dureing which shee appeares reasonable well, & I have
heard her discourse very rationally of her selfe & condition, a full
account whereof would be too long to give; ’tis said that for these 4 or 5
dayes past (in which tyme I have not seene her) somewhat appeares to her
in ye shape of a dogg. Now, whether shee be bewicht or whether shee be a
witch, or whether ye Divell be in her, (as well as some others of her
sex,) I know not, but that what I have told you seemed to ye most vigilant
eye to be infallibly true is not doubted, so that if it be not really soe,
I can onely say the Divell’s in’t, who you perhaps may fancy to be in him
that gives you this seemingly incredible Relation, which be pleased to
accept for better, for worse from,” &c.

[94] “Witchcraft further Displayed.” London: Printed for E. Curl at the
Dial and Bible. 1714.

[95] In the “Overseer’s Accounts” for the parish of S. Giles, Northampton,
there is an item for the purchase of faggots for the purpose of burning a
witch. A.D. 1705.

[96] “An Account of the Tryals, Examination, and Condemnation of Ellinor
Shaw & Mary Phillips (Two Notorious Witches) at Northampton Assizes on
Wednesday the 7th of March, 1705, for Bewitching a Woman & Two children,
Tormenting them in a Sad and Lamentable Manner till they Dyed. With an
account of their strange Confessions about their Familiarity with the
Devil, and How They Made a wicked Contract with him to be revenged on
several Persons, by Bewitching their Cattel to Death, &c. And several
other Strange and Amasing Particulars.” London: Printed for F. Thorne,
near Fleete-street.

[97] The following “Letter” from Mr. Ralph Davis, of Northampton,
addressed to Mr. William Simons, merchant in London, is reprinted almost
verbatim, certain passages, by reason of their extreme coarseness, being
alone suppressed. It was published by Thorne, of Fleet Street, in 1705,
and had a very large circulation. It is entitled “The Northamptonshire
Witches:”--

“According to my word Promise in my last I have sent you here Inclosed a
faithful Account of the Lives and Conversations of the two notorious
Witches that were Executed on the North side of our town on Saturday the
17th instant, and indeed considering the extraordinary Methods these
wicked women used to accomplish their Diabolical Art, I think it may merit
your Reception, and the more since I understand you have a friend near
Fleete Street who being a Printer may make use of it in order to oblige
the Publick; which take as followeth; viz:--

“To proceed in order, I shall first begin with Ellinor Shaw (as being the
most notorious of the two) who was Born at Cotterstock within a small Mile
of Oundle in Northamptonshire, of very obscure Parents, who not willing,
or at least not able, to give their Daughter any manner of Education, she
was left to shift for her self at the age of 14 years; at which time she
got acquainted with a Partener in Wickedness, one Mary Phillips, Born at
Oundle aforesaid, with whom she held a frindly Correspondence for several
years together, and work’d very hard for a Livelihood; but when she
arriv’d to the age of 21 she began to be a very lude [lewd] sort of a
Person ... which wicked and loathsom Actions were not only talked of in
the Town of Cotterstock where she was Born but at Oundle, Glapthorne,
Benefield, Southwick and several Parts adjacent; and that as well by
Children of four or five years of Age as persons of riper years; so that
by degrees her Name became so famous or rather infamous that she could
hardly peep out of her Door but the Children would point at her in a
Scoffing manner ... [so] that she Swore she would be revenged on her
enemies tho’ she pawn’d her Soul for the Purchase; and then Mary Phillips
being her Partner in Knitting and Bedfellow also, who was as bad as
herself in the Vices aforesaid, she communicated her Thoughts to her,
relating to a Contract with the Devil, in order to have the Wills of those
who Slandered them.... In fine as these two Harlots agreed in their other
Wickedness so they were resolv’d to go Hand in Hand in this, and
consequently go to the Devil together for Company, but out of a Hellish
kind of Civility he saved them that Trouble at present, for ... he
immediately waited upon ’em to obtain his Booty on Saturday the 12th of
February 1704 about 12 a Clock at Night according to their own
Confessions, appearing in the shape of a black tall Man, at whose approach
they were very much startled at first, but taking Ellinor Shaw by the Hand
he spoke thus--Says he, Be not afraid, of me for I am one of the Creation
as well as your selves, having power given me to bestow it on whom I
please, and do assure you that if you will pawn your Souls to me for only
a Year and two Months I will for all that time assist you in whatever you
desire. Upon which he produced a little piece of Parchment on which by
their Consents having prick’t their Fingers’ ends, he wrote the Infernal
Covenants in their own Blood which they signed with their own Hands and
the same Night.... In the Morning he told them they were now as
substantial Witches as any were in the world, and that they had power by
the assistance of the Imps that he would send them to do what Mischief
they pleased.

“I shall not trouble you with what is already mention’d in the Tryals of
these two persons because it is in print by your Friend already but only
instance what was omitted in that as not having room here to contain it
altogether but as to their general confessions after their Condemnations,
take as followeth:--

“The day before they were Executed, Mr. Danks the Minister visited them in
Prison, in order if possible to bring them to a State of Repentance, but
seeing all pious Discourse prov’d ineffectual, he desired them to tell him
what mischeivous Pranks they had Play’d and what private Conference they
had with the Devil from time to time, since they had made that fatal
Bargain with him: To which Ellinor Shaw with the Consent of the other told
him that the Devil in the Shape of a tall black Man appear’d several times
to them and at every visit would present them with new Imps some of a Red
Coulour others of a Dun and the third of a black Colour and that ... by
the Assistance of these Hellish Animals they often Kill’d Men Women and
Children to the great surprise of all the towns thereabouts; she further
adding that it was all the Delight they had to be doing such wicked
Actions and they had Kil’d by their Inchantments and Witchcraft in the
space of nine Months time 15 children eight Men and six Women tho’ none
was suspected of being Bewitch’d but those two Children, said the Woman,
that they Dy’d for; and that they had Bewitch’d to Death in the same Space
of Time 40 Hoggs of several poor People, besides 100 Sheep, 18 Horses, and
30 Cows, even to the utter Ruin of several Families: As to their
particular Intreagues and waggish tricks I have not Room to enumerate,
they are so many; only some remarkable Feats they did in Prison which was
thus, viz:--one Day Mr. Laxon and his wife coming by the Prison had the
Curiosity to look through the Grates and seeing of Ellinor Shaw told her
that now the Devil had left her in the Lurch, as he had done the rest of
his Servants; upon which the said Ellinor was observ’d to Mutter strangely
to herself in an unknown Language for about two Minutes; at the end of
which Mr. Laxon’s Wife’s Cloathes were all turn’d over her head Smock and
all in a most strange manner ... notwithstanding all the Endeavours her
Husband could use to keep her Cloathes in order; at which the said Ellinor
having Laughed Heartily and told her She had prov’d her Lyer, her Cloathes
began to come to their right order again. The keeper of the Prison having
one Day Threatened them with Irons, they, by their Spells, caused him to
Dance almost an Hour Naked in the Yard to the Amazement of the Prison:
nay, such Pranks were Play’d by them during their Confinement that no one
durst give them an ill Word, insomuch that their Execution was the more
hastened in the regard of their frequent Disturbances and great Mischief
they did in several places of the Town notwithstanding their Imprisonment.

“They were so hardened in their Wickedness that they Publickly boasted
that their Master (meaning the Devil) would not suffer them to be
Executed: but they found him [a] Lyer; for on Saturday Morning being the
17th instant they were carried to the Gallows on the Northside of the Town
whither numerous Crowds of people went to see them Die, and being come to
the place of Execution the Minister repeated his former pious endeavours
to bring them to a sense of their Sins but to as little purpose as before:
for instead of calling on God for Mercy nothing was heard from them but
D----g and Cursing. However a little before they were ty’d up; at the
request of the Minister, Ellinor Shaw confessed not only the Crime for
which she Dyed, but openly declared before them all how she first became a
Witch, as did also Mary Phillips; and being desired to say their Prayers
they both set up a very loud Laughter, calling for the Devil to come and
help them in such a Blasphemous manner as is not fit to Mention, so that
the Sherif seeing their presumptious Impenitence caused them to be
Executed with all the Expedition possible; even while they were Cursing
and raving; and as they liv’d the Devil’s true Factors so they resolutely
Dyed in his service, to the Terror [of] all People who were eye-Witnesses
of their dreadful and amazing Exits.

“So that being Hang’d till they were almost Dead the Fire was put to the
Straw, Faggots and other Combustable matter till they were Burnt to Ashes.
Thus Liv’d and thus Dyed two of the most notorious and presumptious
Witches that ever were known in this Age.

“To conclude: I heartly wish that these wretched Women’s Sad and
Lamentable Fates may be a warning to all Proud, Lustful and Malicious
Persons whatsoever, least they be brought Step by Step before they are
aware unto the Devil’s Slaughterhouse of Confusion and Misery to all
Eternity.

“I am promised a Copy of the Sermon that was Preached by Mr. Danks at the
Church of All Saint’s the next day after the said Witches were Executed
(being Sunday) upon that very Occasion, which I hope to send you by the
next Post.

  “I am Sir, Your humble Servant, Ralph Davis.”

[98] “A Full and Impartiall account of the Discovery of Sorcery and
Witchcraft, practised by Jane Wenham,” etc. London: 1712.

[99] “Sadducismus Debellatus: or a True Narrative of the Sorceries and
Witchcraft exercised by the Devil and his Instruments upon Mrs. Christian
Shaw in the county of Renfrew, in the West of Scotland, from August 1696
to April 1697, &c.” Collected from the Records. London: Newman and Bell,
1698.

[100] “Another Brand Plucked out of the Burning: or More Wonders of the
Invisible World.” London: 1700.

[101] “Saddvcismus Triumphatus,” pp. 20-37.

[102] Two remarkable works for and against what was termed “Judiciall
Astrologie,” were published in the latter years of Queen Elizabeth’s
reign. One, attacking the system, from the pen of John Chamber, Prebendary
of Windsor and Fellow of Eton College (London: John Harrison, Paternoster
Row, 4to., Lambeth Library, 78 F. 22); the other defending it, in reply to
the above, by Sir Christopher Heydon, Knt., printed at Cambridge, by John
Legat, printer to the University in 1603 (Lambeth Library, 78 F. 12). The
former is a treatise of very considerable vigour and power of reasoning:
the latter is somewhat laboured, eminently pedantic, overburdened with
tedious and irrelevant quotations, and altogether very inferior from a
literary point of view.

[103] In almost all Heathen or Pagan countries, Witchcraft, Necromancy and
Sorcery are recognized and established institutions.

[104] There was a notorious sorcerer and reputed necromancer in King James
the First’s reign, a certain Dr. Lamb. In Baxter’s “Certainty of the World
of Spirits” (A.D. 1691), he records a curious instance of Lamb’s
miraculous performances. This sorcerer, meeting two of his acquaintances
in the street, they, expressing a wish to witness some example of his
spiritual skill, were invited to his house. There they were conducted to
an inner room, where to their intense surprise they saw a growing-tree
spring up slowly in the middle of the room. [It may be here remarked that
the Oriental jugglers and sorcerers work a similar manifestation of their
powers, often witnessed and frequently described.--Editor.] In a moment,
as this record informs us, there appeared three diminutive men, who with
little axes felled the tree; and then the doctor dismissed his guests, who
had been duly impressed by his powers. On that very night, however, a
tremendous hurricane arose, causing the house of one of the guests to rock
from side to side, with every probability that the house would fall, and
bury him and his wife in its ruins. The wife in an agony of fear inquired,
“Were you not at Dr. Lamb’s to-day?” The husband admitted that it was true
that he had been. “And did you not bring something away from his house?”
The husband confessed that he had done so. When the little men were
felling the tree, he had picked up some of the chips and put them into his
pocket. Nothing, therefore, as his wife pointed out, remained to be done
but to produce these chips, and get rid of them as fast as possible. When
this was done, the tempest ceased, and the rest of the night was perfectly
calm. It may be added that this sorcerer became so odious, because of his
necromancy and other infernal practices, that in 1640 the populace rose
upon him and tore him to pieces in the streets; while, thirteen years
afterwards, a woman who had been in his service was apprehended upon a
charge of Witchcraft, was tried on what seems to have been very strong and
conclusive evidence, found guilty, and in expiation of her crime was
executed at Tyburn. [The contemporary literature extant, relating to this
case of Lamb and his servant, would fill a large volume.--Editor.]

[105] These persons are reported and reputed to be professional mediums,
and are said to be very largely patronized by people of all ranks and
classes, more especially the higher.

[106] “Report on Spiritualism.” Examination of the Master of Lindsay, p.
215. London: Longman, 1871.

[107] Genesis iii. 1; Revelation xii. 9; Ibid. xx. 2.

[108] The Editor, while avoiding the reproduction of examples which are
tolerably well known, has generally aimed at setting forth cases which
have not yet been put into print; though in some records which follow, a
few have been selected which have already been published, in order that
one example, at least, of all the particular kinds of warning and dreams,
may be here presented to the reader.

[109] Genesis xx. 3; Ibid. xxxi. 11, and (to Laban) ver. 31. As to
Pharaoh’s dream of a coming famine, see Genesis xli.

[110] Numbers xii. 6; 1 Kings iii. 5-15; Daniel vii. to the end of the
book. S. Matthew, 1-20; Ibid. ii. 12 (as to S. Joseph), ver. 13. and
verses 19 and 20; Ibid, xxvii. 19.

[111] Two valued correspondents respectively write as follows:--“One could
relate many such family incidents as you suggest, but everyone shrinks
from allowing them to be verified by name. I imagine that this reticence
arises from the natural dread and dislike to having what is sacred to
one’s own faith and feelings submitted to the ridicule of sceptical and
rationalistic minds.”

Another:--“I send you the enclosed--a record of the supernatural
appearance which is always seen immediately prior to the death of the head
of our family. But I do not wish it printed; and absolutely forbid the
mention either of place or person, lest it should be identified, which
might cause annoyance to our friends.”

[112] De Anima, c. 45-47.

[113] Ibid.

[114] De Opificio Dei, sæc. xviii.

[115] Epist. Sti. Cypriani, lxiii.

[116] Epist. Sti. Basilii, cxx.

[117] Opera Thom. Aquin., Tom. ii., Quæst. xcv., Art. vi.: Tom. iii.,
Quæst. lxxx., Art. vii.

[118] “The Philosophy of Sleep.” By Macknish.

[119] The Rev. George R. Winter, M.A., Vicar of Swaffham and Rural Dean,
thus most obligingly writes to the Editor (A.D. 1874):--“The story of the
Dream is popularly believed, and there was a good foundation for it. In
the upper portion of the windows of the north aisle is some old painted
glass, which is supposed to represent the man and his family; but the
chief monument of his identity is a piece of old carving representing a
pedlar with a pack on his back, and also his dog, forming part of the
westernmost stalls of the choir. This, I believe, was at one time in the
north aisle, which the man is supposed to have built.” The dream is
related at length in Blomfield’s “History of Norfolk.”

[120] The above was written at Alton Towers, Cheadle, on the 23rd of
October, 1842, and duly signed by Mr. William Talbot, a relation of John,
Earl of Shrewsbury.

[121] “The account here given of the Dream which occurred in Cornwall, is,
as I personally testify, true and accurate. (Signed) Rachel L. Lee
(daughter of the late Benjamin Tucker, of Trematon Castle, Esquire, and
daughter-in-law of the late Rev. T. T. Lee, Vicar of Thame), Kentons, near
Henley-on-Thames, May 14th, 1873.”

[122] A friend who provided the above example writes to the Editor:--“I
knew the family, and the circumstance of Mr. Perring’s singular dream; and
can certainly testify to its truth.”

[123] From a Letter dated Nov. 1, 1872, in the handwriting of the Widow of
the Clergyman in question, kindly communicated to the Editor by the Rev.
Theodore J. Morris, Vicar of Hampton in Arden, near Birmingham.

[124] The following document was drawn up about thirteen years ago, and
given to the Editor with the above account by an Oxford friend:--

“This is to certify that in 1840 I dreamt the Dream about the strange man
coming to the front door and forcing himself in; and that seven years
afterwards, that is in 1847, what I had seen in my dream occurred in
London, when, having heard knocks at the door when I was alone in the
house, I saw the man outside the door whom I had seen in my dream seven
years before.

  “Hannah Green.

“Wootton, Oxfordshire, August 5, 1861.”

[125] “Notes and Queries,” Sept. 24, 1853.

[126] “I have carefully read the account which you have so nicely written
out from my own and my brother’s Letters; and have also twice read the
same to my mother and brother. Both join with me in testifying to its
absolute truth and perfect accuracy. Our account was taken down from the
lips of the Rector of ---- himself. We, indeed, have reason to believe in
the Supernatural.”

[127] The Rector of Phillack and Gwithian, near Hayle in Cornwall, is the
Rev. Frederick Hockin, M.A. and Rural Dean.

[128] He is described as “Wilfred D. Speer, Esq., of West End Lodge,
Thames Ditton, a magistrate for the County of Surrey, and a captain in the
Militia of that county.”

[129] “Statement of the Circumstances attending the Death of Wilfred D.
Speer, Esq., with copies of Testimony and Correspondence.” London,
Ontario: John Cameron, Dundas Street, West, 8vo. pp. 12, 1867.

[130] “If my dream come true, I am certainly approaching my latter end,
and have only a little time longer in this world.” Attested copy of
Captain Wilfred Speer’s Letter, given to the Editor by the Rev. John
Richardson, of Warwick.

[131] He was shot dead on the night of the 17th of June, 1867, on board a
steamboat on the Missouri.

[132] The following Letter has been received by the Editor from the
dignitary in question:--“Nov. 6, 1874. Rev. and dear Sir, I only wish that
my name should not be published. The statement, as written out by me, is
entirely at your service.... To the Rev. Dr. Lee.”

[133] It seems that as a matter of fact there is no tunnel near the scene
of the accident, but a long, level line of railway, very near the margin
of the sea. At least so a correspondent who knows the locality well has
informed me.--Editor.

[134] “Having made enquiries regarding the fact of Tinley’s remarkable
dream, which seemed to foreshadow his death by the well-known accident, I
can testify to the truth that he had such a dream, and that he regarded it
as a sign of coming death.

  “A. Rutherford, Wolverhampton.

“July 14, 1874.”

[135] Sir Roger Tichborne, Knt. of Tichborne, flourished in the reign of
Henry II. He married Mabella, daughter and sole heiress of Ralph de
Lamerston, in the Isle of Wight.

[136] Sir Henry Tichborne, born in 1756, married in 1778 Elizabeth
Plowden, and had seven sons, viz. 1. Henry, 2. Benjamin, 3. Edward, 4.
James, 5. John, 6. George, and 7. Roger. His eldest son Henry, who married
Anne, daughter of Sir Thomas Burke, had seven daughters, viz. 1. Eliza, 2.
Frances, 3. Julia, 4. Mary, 5. Katherine, 6. Lucy, and 7. Emily.

[137] “Staffordshire Chronicle,” July, 1835.

[138] Lysons in his “Magna Britannia,” vol. vi. describing the parish of
South Tawton, about five miles from Okehampton, co. Devon,
says:--“Oxenham, in this parish, gave name to an ancient family who
possessed it, at least from the time of Henry III. to the death of William
Long Oxenham, Esq., in 1814.” The mansion, as the Editor learns, has long
been occupied as a farm-house. It may here be added that it is believed
that Drake’s friend, Captain John Oxenham, who lost his life in an
engagement with the Spaniards in South America (A.D. 1575), was a member
of this family. Mr. Canon Kingsley, in “Westward-Ho,” has introduced the
omen of a Bird with a white breast in connection with this gentleman.

[139] “A True relation of an Apparition in the likeness of a Bird with a
White Breast, that appeared hovering over the deathbeds of some of the
children of Mr. James Oxenham, of Sale Monachorum, Devon, Gent. Confirmed
by Sundry witnesses. London, printed by I. O. for Richard Clutterbuck, and
are to be sold at the figure of the Gun in little Britain, near St.
Botolph’s church. 1641.” British Museum, Press-Mark E. 205-9.

A copy of this pamphlet is also to be found amongst Gough’s collection in
the Bodleian. The British Museum copy contains a curious and very
effective engraving, representing the actual appearance of the Bird to a
person dying in bed.

[140] It is also stated in this pamphlet that the clergyman of the parish
had been appointed by the bishop of the diocese to inquire into the truth
of these particulars, and that a monument had been put up with his
approbation with the names of the witnesses of each apparition of the
Bird. The pamphlet states that those who had been sick and had recovered,
never saw the apparition. It further came out in the evidence tendered,
that the same Bird had appeared to Grace, the grandmother of John Oxenham,
who died in 1618.

[141] Lysons states that these monumental inscriptions _do not now_ exist
either in the church or churchyard of Tawton or Sale Monachorum. But,
considering the shameful destruction of monuments in late years by
so-called “Church Restorers,” this is not to be wondered at.

[142] It has been shrewdly and perhaps not untruly observed, that “a
genuine and solemn citation may tend to work its own fulfilment in certain
minds, who, by allowing the thing to prey upon their spirits, enfeeble the
powers of life, and perhaps at the critical date arouse some latent or
dormant disease into deadly action.”

[143] The following is from a MS. note of a member of the Editor’s
family--George Henry Lee, Lord Litchfield, who was Chancellor of the
University of Oxford in the latter part of the last century. Lord
Rochester, it should be added, was allied to that family through his
mother, Anne, Countess of Rochester, previously the widow of Sir F. H.
Lee:--

“Lord Rochester told me of an odd presage that one had of his approaching
death in the Lady Warre his mother-in-law’s house. The chaplain had dreamt
that such a day he should die, but being by all the family put out of the
belief of it, he had almost forgot it till the evening before at supper,
there being thirteen at table, according to a fond conceit that one of
these must soon die, one of the young ladies pointed to him that he was to
die. He, remembering his dream, fell into some disorder; and the Lady
Warre reproving him for his superstition, he said he was confident he was
to die before morning; but he being in perfect health, it was not much
minded. It was Saturday night, and he was to preach the next day. He went
to his chamber, sat up late, (as appeared by the burning of his candle,)
and he had been preparing his notes for his sermon, but he was found dead
in his bed next morning. These things he said made him inclined to believe
[that] the soul was a substance distinct from matter, and this often
returned into his thoughts.”

[144] The Registrar-General in his last Report writes thus:--“Seamen will
not sail, women will not wed on a Friday so willingly as on other days of
the week. It has been ascertained that out of 4,057 marriages which took
place during a certain period in the midland district of England, not two
per cent. were celebrated on a Friday, while thirty-two per cent. were
entered as having taken place on a Sunday.”

[145] Jerome Cardan, the strange sixteenth-century physician, who dealt so
extensively in horoscopes, and is said to have sought the assistance of
spirits, professed to own and exercise some specific and supernatural
gifts:--1. The power of throwing his spirit out of his body, by which he
could see things at a distance. 2. _His faculty of Second Sight, or of
seeing whatever he pleased with his eyes, “Oculis, non vi mentis.”_ 3. His
dreams, which, as he maintained, uniformly foretold to him what was about
to occur, and by which he truly predicted the day of his own death, and 4.
his “unerring astrological knowledge.”

[146] “Miscellanies, collected by J. Aubrey, Esq.” London: printed for
Edward Castle, 1696.

[147] “A Treatise on the Second Sight, Dreams, and Apparitions,” by
Theophilus Insulanus. Dedicated “To the Honourable Sir Harry Monro, of
Foulis, Baronet.” Pp. 107-108. Edinburgh: 1763.



Transcriber's Notes:

The General Index was not a part of the original text. It has been copied
from Volume II of the series.

Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_.





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