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OUVRAGES DE M. L'ABBÉ RIBET

HONORED BY A BRIEF OF HER SAINTÉE LEON XIII THE CHRISTIAN ASCETICS. Ouvrage approuvé par S. Em. Cardinal DESPREZ, Archbishop of Toulouse. In-& carré . . . . . .. Air DIVINE MYSTICS DISTINGED FROM DIABOLIC COUNTERFACTIONS AND HUMAN ANALOGIES. Ouvrage approuvé par S. Ém. le cardinal BOURRET. 4 volumes in-8° écu 20 fr. THE KEY OF SAINT THOMAS D'AQUIN'S THEEOLOGICAL SUMME. Historique, analyse et appréciation. In-12 . . . . . . . . . . TDEHS THE SAINT PAROLE, or the oratory guide in the ministry of preaching. In-80. /Delhomme et Briquet.) HONEST BEFORE ALL. In-12. (Delhomme and Briguet.) In-12. /Delhomme and Briguet.) VERTUS AND DONATIONS IN CHRISTIAN LIFE. In-& écu. {V. Lecoffre.) MYSTIQUE DIVINE

DISTINGUÉE

DES CONTREFACÇONS DIABOLIQUES

ET DES ANALOGIES HUMAINES

PAR M. J. RIBET CHANOINE HONORAIRE

O TO THE CAUSES OF MYSTICAL PHENOMENES TOME THIRD DIABOLIC CHALLENGES

PORT PAETA 2

PARIS LIBRAIRIE CH. POUSSIELGUE RUE CASSETTE, 15

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DES PHÉNOMÈNES MYSTIQUES

PREAMBLE Importance of this second point of view of Mystics. — Les trois causes

in question: God, demon, man.

Our purpose, in this work on Mystics, was to present a logical exhibition, enlightened by theology and confirmed by history, of all forms of this supernatural order, and, after enumeration of these multiple phenomena, to recognize the causes from which they proceed. In the two volumes we gave to the public, we told the facts: first the preludes, the seizing, the various degrees of contemplative prayer, and then the other intellectual, affective, sensitive manifestations through which mystical life is exercised and radiates. The first part of our task is thus accomplished; we approach the second.

We will not dwell on demonstrating the importance of this. It would be better to completely ignore all this wonderful, if we were powerless to see what hand the product, if we could not discern in these wonders what comes from God from what is satanic or natural.Finally, it is a question of whether man can become the toy of an enemy power that only illuminates him to mislead him, only drinking to corrupt him, seems to spill over on his soul the sources of life only to better give him death. If so, one should defend oneself from all mystical influence and fight in his soul against the most delicious embraces, like the sleeping man whose mind does not sleep completely and who makes an effort to break a false and unhealthy vision.

Assuming that the phenomena go beyond the sphere of man, the causes capable of producing them are reduced to two: one beneficial, tending to the true and the good; the other perfidious, pushing to error and evil: that is, God and the demon. Since good angels are never but God's most faithful agents, their action is not a distinct causality.

But the facts, which first appear supernatural, can only be extraordinary productions of nature. Especially in man, because of the complication of the two elements of his being, the soul and the body, these eccentricities are more numerous and stranger.

The mystical manifestations, true, simulated or apparent, are therefore related to one of these three causes: God, demon, man. In order to determine their provenance, the characters and limits of these three worlds must first be determined: the divine, the diabolical and the human.

By bringing these different points of view together to grasp their relationships and differences, we will seem to repeat ourselves; but it is enough to look at the title of this book to see that these repetitions are only "apparent and that they enter, as such, into the very conception of our work. Gerson compares mystical wonders to currency, a very accurate comparison that enlightens and justifies our march. First there is the right and true currency, the simple currency; then the counterfeit and smuggled currency; finally, objects that come close to the currency by form, effigy, matter, as are medals, stamps: one must distinguish from these counterfeits and analogies the currency of good law.

It is in this respect that we designed and organized our treatise on mystical currency.

First of all, we passed before the eyes the various types, the different pieces of the real currency, always divine. This was the subject of our first two voJumes.

In this one, in order to distinguish the authentic currency from what simulates it without merit, we discuss the question of origin and causality.

God is the author of the true spiritual currency: we assign the intrinsic and extrinsic characters of the divine work and its various processes of realization: it is the object of a first section.

The counterfeiter is the demon: we are looking for what brands recognize his counterfeits, and the means involved in this fabrication of lies: it is a second section, included in this volume.

In a third, which will be the matter of volume four, we will enumerate the singularities of nature that seem to reproduce the divine imprint, and we will be able to make a difference.

This plan requires, at least in appearance, some repetitions. After exposing the multiple forms of the mystical currency, when it comes to specifying the signs of which God marks it, and in what way, if it is allowed to speak so, it sinks, it is obviously necessary to put the various pieces before the eyes: first repetition.

Counterfeiting makes sense as much as they are opposed to the types they imitate: new repetition.

Analogues can only be understood by comparing things that offer resemblance: another repetition.

We can call these successive rapprochements of the same term with terms that we want to distinguish from; for us, we simply have to achieve the goal, which is to unravel the differences, and thus realize the meaningful title of our work: The DIVINE Mystic, DISTINGED OF DIABOLIC COUNTERFACES FIRST SECTION GOD CAUSE OF MYSTICAL PHENOMENES

CHAPITRE PREMIER

THE SURNATURE In principle, mystical facts have God as their author. — The need for precise notions about the supernatural to discern the divine intervention of evil deceptions. — Definition and degrees of the supernatural. — Nature, natural order and miraculous derogation. — The supernatural of grace and glory. It has God as its object.—It is established by I Scripture, — and by tradition. — Is grace a development of nature? — This hypothesis is refuted by theological considerations derived from the notion of grace — and from the notion of glory. - Grace enhances nature, but not by creation. — Nor does it consist in the union either natural or hypostatic of two beings, or in the junction of a creature to a creature. — It is an intimate association with the lives of the three divine Persons. — Résumé de la démonstration. — Important conclusion: All true supernatural comes from God. — The evil facts, natural in themselves, are supernatural only in relation to us. — Ordonnance définitive des matières. I. — Unless we reject in principle all supernatural, it is beyond dispute that his first source is in God. To consider only the mystical phenomena listed in our first two volumes and whose provenance we currently have to justify, these facts are included in one of the three orders: intellectual, emotional and organic. But does not God have free access to all the points of these three orders, and why should he be forbidden to extend or restrict their proportions at his own discretion, to multiply or suspend their energies?

Yes, God, who is by essence light and truth, can reveal new aspects and horizons to our mind; he can speak to him in sensitive external and internal signs, or through purely intellectual communications.

Yes, God, the Sovereign Good and the final term of our emotional life, can only act directly upon our will and determine by his grace the momentum above nature. As for man's body, who dares to challenge God's mastership, and does not have the power to change its forms and functions?

In a word, extranatural manifestations that do not injure any moral law and do not imply contradiction may have God as the author, his power knowing no limits other than those of evil or absurdity. The series of mystical phenomena which are the subject of our first part fulfil these conditions, to be in conformity with the essential order and to overcome nature, and nothing is opposed to us paying homage to the divine power.

II. — Here, from the beginning, there is a considerable difficulty, to which one needs a solution, if one does not want to leave the mystic buried in inextricable darkness. All this wonderful thing is probably right for God, but it can also come from the demon: how can we discern the intervention of these two opposing forces?

This is a long answer, and we can only organize it by using very precise notions about the supernatural. These notions, we could absolutely assume and borrow the formula from dogmatic theology; but, besides they themselves present serious difficulties, it is important for the reader to fully hear them and not lose sight of them in the applications that will follow. These principles, our march will be clear, and solutions will be deduced with ease and clarity.

That is why we dedicate this first chapter to defining the supernatural. Before discussing the causes, the facts are set out; the theory that explains the origin of mystical phenomena is here in its place, between the statement of facts and the discussion of the causes.

IM. — The supernatural, as the word indicates, is what surpasses nature.

This concept implies, first of all, two terms, one of which adds to the other, or at least considers only the same being, two states, one of which is the normal and constant condition of life, and the other a gratuitous and exceptional annapala.

Two forms of the supernatural are thus conceived. The first, circumscribed in the midst of nature, constitutes a benefit of pure favor, but does not draw it from its sphere. The second raises nature above itself by a wonderful association with a higher principle that communicates its overabundance.

Important distinction and gradation, which must be admitted and justified, under penalty of throwing an impenetrable veil on the problems of grace and mysticism.

IV. — The created beings possess a sum of energy which is their own and which they cannot exceed without exceeding themselves. The measurement of these native forces constitutes nature and delimitation; all that comes out of this level of being is supernatural in relation to that being. Thus, by deploying all its virtue and by using all means of investigation, the creature does not achieve the foreknowledge of free acts, by reason that the future is God's exclusive domain; thus the spontaneity of the movement does not suit the inanimate matter.

That's not all. Creatures are subject, in the exercise of their intimate forces, to external conditions which determine in a constant and uniform manner their mutual relations of influence and dependence. All these relationships form the natural order, and their continuity we argu the laws of nature.

According to these laws and in accordance with this order, there are acts to which the intrinsic energy of a being could absolutely suffice, which are forbidden to him, however, because they do not enter into the providential plan which regulates his relations and the exercise of his forces. One example is the enslavement to the current laws of space, which condemn us, from one point to another, to cross the intermediate points, prohibit us from multilocation, subject us to the proportional actions of gravity, and attach us to the earth's ground as the slave to the glebe. Although man does, he does not manage to shake these multiple servitudes; he will only be freed from it at the glorious renovation.

There are other acts that we can carry out, but under conditions of time, instrument, medium. For the normal development of our intellectual life, education and language are necessary; the culture of the mind requires the effort of application and duration; an injury is repaired, but with the help of time.

Derogations from the natural order thus consist of three degrees! At the top, it is an act exceeding the land virtue of the being that is the subject of it, and which God alone can accomplish; it is the first-order miracle.

The being is freed from the obstacles imposed on his activity and he operates, by the action of his intimate forces, which would absolutely be forbidden to him according to the regular and present order: it is the second degree and the second order miracle.

Finally, when the fact is that the creature is able to realize, but realizes it under extranatural conditions; it is the least degree, and the miracle is of third order.

It must be noted carefully, these derogations from the natural order are only supernatural in their causality; taken in itself, the fact does not go beyond nature.: the resurrected man lives absolutely like the man who never died; the paralytic healed by miracle moves his members as if he had always kept its use.

The supernatural that we have just defined, which consists in derogation from the natural order, constitutes the miracle itself.

V. — On top of this world of nature, freed even from the restrictions freely imposed by the Universal Regulator, there is another where the creature only ascends from its sphere, where it enters into communion with a life that exceeds its native capacity, from a life that created nature, carried to its highest power, cannot realize: it is the world, it is the life of grace.

What is this elevation of nature above itself? What is this higher principle that, lowering to man, makes him partaker of his life? This principle is God, even spreading in our souls through an ineffable but real flow, which leaves me subsisting in human individuality by divining it; it is soft God associating with his intimate life of intelligence and love, and thus constituting in us a new mode of existence in which man appears, no longer in the proportions of his nature, but with deified powers and operations that hold both of God and man; it is not the divine, it is not the human; it is the human and the divine melted together, it is THEANDRIC.

We have constantly assumed this theory of supernatural life, when we exposed the mysteries of contemplation, it is perhaps here the place to indicate on which foundations it rests, not only to escape any suspicion of novelty, but also to bring to light the role of God in mysticism.

Yes, — we assert with a complacency full of security — God is for our souls the very source and object of their supernatural life.

VI. — If we wanted to gather the testimonies of Scripture, we would go beyond the bounds of a brief and rapid demonstration; let us point out only a few of these divine attestations.

Saint John makes us admire the divine charity that gives us the name and quality of God's children. "My beloveds," said he? "we are now the sons of God, and one day we will see what we are... He who is born of God does not sin, for he carries in his soul the seed of God... Let us live in charity, and God will dwell in us: God is charity; who abides in charity abides in hs loved, the gift of charity which, in the order of our restoration by Jesus Christ, expresses the grace itself, or at least is inseparable from it, this gift goes so far as to restore us the children of God and to make us reborn from himself. How do we become the sons of God, unless God communicates to us what he is? If we were born of God and the fruits of his substance, is it possible that we are not associated with the life of which he himself lives? God makes our souls his home and like his temple?: isn't it for understanding them of his virtue, to introduce them to the mysteries of his love and to bring the splendors of his glory to them sooner or later?

Saint Paul, too, calls us the sons of God, and he adds that by this divine sonship, whose witness the Holy Spirit gives us in ourselves, we become the heirs of God and the joint heirs of Jesus Christ: but what is this inheritance of God, if not God itself?

Finally, the Prince of the Apostles sums up everything from a word that strongly reflects the sublimitity of our destinies: "By Jesus Christ God has given us gifts that give us the associates of divine nature."

VII. — Christian doctors are here as everywhere the faithful echoes of the heavenly word.

Saint Denis l'Aréopagite® says that sacred charity abou1 Joann. 1v, 7, 16 : Omnis qui diligit ex Deo natus est... Deus charitas est, et qui manet in charitate, in Deo manet et Deus in eo.

2 [ Cor. m, 16. Nescitis quia templum Dei estis, et Spiritus Dei habitat in vobis?

3 Rom. vu, 16,17 : Ipse enim Spiritus testimonium reddit Spiritui nostro quod sumus filii Dei. Si autem filii, et hæredes, cohæredes autem Christi.

4 II Petr. 1, 4 : Per quem maxima et pretiosa nobis promissa donavit, ut per hæc efficiamini divinæ consortes naturæ.

5 From eccl. yesterday. c. 2, Migne, Patr. gr. t. 3., Col. 391: Sacræ vero dilectitis... progressus primus, is ineffabilissima divini nostri statusit in us to the ineffable production of the divine being, and he calls this state of the soul a divine birth.

Didymus+, of all the Fathers, the one who has most admirably spoken of the bestowal of the Holy Spirit in our souls, declares that every creature draws holiness, not from its substance, but from the sacred communion of another holiness, which is holiness in essence. According to Saint Basil, the holiness of creatures comes to them from an extrinsic source, which is the Holy Spirit.

Saint Cyril of Jerusalem explains the presence and action of God in our souls by comparing the fire that penetrates, dilates and transforms the bodies. Saint Cyril of Alexandria, who seems to have been the doctor of sanctifying grace against the blasphemers of the Holy Spirit, as St Augustine was, at the same time, of the present grace against the Pelagians, repeats in all encounters, especially in his comment on St John, this capital truth, that God dwells in our souls, that he unites them with a mysterious graft, that by filling them with his Holy Spirit he makes them participate in his intimate life, his divinity and his glory.

1 Lib. de Spir. sancto, trad. par S. Jérôme, n. 6. Migne, P. gr. t. 39, col. 1038 : Omnis creatura, non ex sua substantia, sed ex communione alterius sanctitatis sancta perficitur.

2 Lib. de Spir. sancto, ©. 46, n. 38; €. 19, n. 48, Migne, t. 32, col. 435 et 155 : Sanctificatio non est absque Spiritu. Neque enim cæœlorum virtutes suapte natura sanctæ sunt; alioquin non differrent a Spiritu sancto... Sanctificatio, quæ est extra substantiam illorum, perfectionem illis affert per communionem Spiritus... Creaturæ inducta is aliende sanctimonia; SpiriSaint Augustine!, interpreting this passage from Psalm xIx: "You are gods and the sons of the Most High," finds this filiation and deification in the grace that justifies us.

According to Saint Fulgence of Ruspe?, to make us able to love him, God must give himself to us. And the reason is, he adds, that God is charity, and that we love God only by charity; unless we receive God himself, we are not in a position to love God.

Here we stop these quotations from the first Christian doctors; the reader wishing to know more fully the series and beauty of these testimonies can ask them to the illustrious compiler of theological traditions, Fr. Petau. However, in these testimonies of the former witnesses, we want to join those of the two princes of the School, St.Thomas of Aquinas and Suarez.

The gift of grace, according to the Angelic Doctor *, surpasses formam gloria ista privatitos revocantis.. Uno enim diversante in nobis Spiritu, unus omnium Pater in nobis erit Deus per Filium, ad unitatem mutuam et suam adducens ea quæ Spiritus participant. Quod autem sancto Spiritui per participationem uniamur, hinc quoque quodammodo manifestum est.

1 Enarrat. in Ps. xuix, n. 2, p. 402 : Manifestum est ergo, quia homines dixit deos, ex gratia sua deificatos, non de substantia natos. Ille enim justificat qui per semetipsum non ex alio justus est; et ille deificat qui per seipsum, non alterius participatione, Deus est. Qui autem justificat, ipse deificat, quia justificando filios Dei facit : « Dedit enim eis potestatem filios Dei fieri. » Si filii Dei facti sumus, et dii facti sumus : sed hoc gratiæ est adoptantis, non naturæ generantis.

2 De Piædestin., 1. 2, n. 45, Migne, t. 65, col. 634 : Sine charitate, nec Deus diligi potest, nec proximus. Ut autem Deus diligi possit, ipse se tribuit, quia Deus charitas est, et Deum nonnisi charitate diligimus. Nisi ergo Deum accipiamus, Deum diligere non valemus.

3 Theolog. dogm. 1. 8, ©. 3-7, Vivès, t. 3, p. 445-495. 4 Sum. 1.2, q. 442, a. 4 : Donum gratiæ excedit omnem facultatem naturæ creatæ, cum nihil aliud sit quam quædam participatio divinæ naturæ , quæ excedit omnem aliam naturam. Et ideo impossibile est quod aliqua creatura gratiam causet. Sic enim necesse est quod solus Deus deificet, communicando consortium divinæ naturæ per quamdam similitudinis participationem, sicut impossibile est quod aliquid igniat nisi solus ignis. toute la capacité de l'être créé, parce qu’elle est une participation à la nature divine, laquelle domine toute autre nature. Therefore, it is impossible for grace to find its causality in the creature; thus, God alone can deify by associating with his intimate life, by spreading in souls to make them a new existence of intelligence and love."

Suarez? also sees in the sanctifying grace and procession of inficent virtues from which it is inseparable, a par-tipation to the divine life, a deification by God itself of the substance, faculties and operations of the human soul. Grace is the seed of this higher life; glory is its complete development and full enjoyment.

The Church, in many of her liturgical formulas, affirms this character of grace to be an association with divine nature. Qu'il nous suffise de signaler en général les invocations adressées au Saint-Esprit, et en par1 Ibid. 1 p.q. #3, a. 3: Super istum modum communem (quo Deus est in omnibus rebus), est unus specialis, qui convenit naturæ rationali, in qua Deus dicitur esse sicut cognitum in cognoscente, et amatum in amante... Secundum istum specialem modum, Deus non solum dicitur esse in creatura rationali, sed etiam habitare in ea sicut in templo suo. Sic igitur nullus alius effectus potest esse ratio quod divina persona sit novo modo in rationali creatura, nisi gratia gratum faciens.

2 De Gratia, l. 6, ©. 12, n. 2, t. 9, p. 71 : Nomine igitur gratiæ sanctificantis intelligimus formam quamdam, accidentalem quidem in se, quia infunditur animæ et illi inhæret; comparatione autem aliarum virtutum infusarum se habentem ad modum formæ substantialis, quia non datur tanquam principium proximum alicujus determinatæ operationis, sed ad dandum animæ esse quoddam divinum. Unde per hanc formam participatur natura divina, non prout est intellectus, vel voluntas, vel aliud attributum quod sit operatio, vel principium proximum operandi; sed prout est essentia quædam et natura supra omnem naturam substantialem creatam et creabilem. Unde fit ut, sicut natura divina secundum rationem est quasi radix intellectus et voluntatis divinæ, ita hæc forma sit quasi radix secundum rem infusarum virtutum , etiam charitatis. And hinc tandem made ut ut per hane formam primo deificetur anima, and follow ex vi ejus connatu— raliter expellatur peccatum, ac denic ratione illius debeantur deificæ operationses usque ad visionem beatam suo tempore obtinendam. ticularize this prayer made by the priest by mixing with the wine of sacrifice a few drops of water, symbol of the union of the peoples with the sovereign Priest and the adorable Victim: "O God, grant us, through the mystery of this water and wine, to be made partakers of the divinity of the One who deigned to associate our humanity, Jesus Christ, your Son, Our Lord."

After the defined dogmas, Christian theology does not contain any truth more expressly, more constantly, more universally affirmed than this divinization of our souls by infusion and the presence in them of the Spirit of God. To hear only the voice of the testimony, — and this voice is the first authority in the Church, — one must come out of the region of the things created to make reason for the supernatural: grace is a divine seed cast into our souls, and one only reaches the divine by rising up to God.

VIII. — A rational demonstration of the absolute supernaturality of grace presents extreme difficulties. Perhaps, however, it is not unrealizable, and, with the help of God, we want to try it by means of a method of gradual elimination that removes one by one all contradictions, and by enlightening our journey of truths acquired both in the name of faith and in that of pure reason.

Unless we openly embrace the error of Pelagicism, we must recognize that the grace that sanctifies us exceeds the present forces of man. The decisions of the ancient councils of Milève? and Orange, expressly reproduced and confirmed by the Council of Trent, do not allow any doubt in this regard.

Unless we maintain with Luther that justification consists in a simple imputation of the merits of Jesus Christ, or in an extrinsic remission of sins, which leaves the sinner in his nakedness and misery, we must admit that grace penetrates souls and brings to them, through the virtue of the Holy Spirit, an intimate quality that renews them?.

This divine quality which adheres to the sanctified soul and surpasses the present forces, does it absolutely exceed the land capacity of nature; or could nature, placed in other conditions and deploying all its energies, without crossing its own enclosure, reach at these heights?

The main problem, which it is important to measure the difficulty and even more to find the solution.

As we have already said, nature is the sum of the intrinsic and constitutive forces of the being, and the being created is subject to laws of exercise which do not always allow it, which only rarely allow it to go jus- = THEORY OF SURNATURE Fi rime delay or prevent full development. And, then, it is well known that his action is subjected, in this world of trial, to countless bondages. Free to push to the last limit the native energy of his powers, would he come to realize what grace currently operates in him? In the end, would grace only be an anticipated and miraculous concession of a fundamentally natural perfection, which, in a state of glory, would become constant and regular? God, no doubt, should not be perfected in nature; but by doing so, he would take it and accomplish it in nature itself.

As you can see, the question is of supreme interest. It is a question of whether, in grace and even in glory, man lives and moves inexorably enclosed in the enclosure of his nature without ever being able to overcome him, whatever the efforts of the divine all-power and the effects of infinite goodness; or whether the gifts that sanctify and glorify him introduce him into a sphere superior to himself, where all the effort of his nature could not have carried him: in a word, — and this word sums up the problem and allows us to measure its importance, — is there in man, in relation to man himself, a true supernatural, and all the supernatural of which man is susceptible there?

If we do not want to challenge the sovereignly free character of divine concessions, we must recognize that God could have limited his gifts to the mere perfection of nature, and that this refinement would still be a gratuitous gift of his goodness. But, in reality, God, who could give less, and even not give anything, spread on his creature with such prodigality, that not only man at the pinnacle of his power and activity, but no created or creable nature, can reach such magnificent proportions. Everything therefore amounts to a question of fact, which must be resolved by the way of either divine or human testimony. We have already produced the statements of Scripture and the affirmations of Christian doctors: it remains for us to establish by reasoning and by the authority that we evade, or rather that we violate these sacred testimonies, by reducing grace to a mere completion of nature.

IX. — In proof of this assertion, the sentences handed down against Baius may be invoked. According to the Doctor of Leuven, man, before his fall, possessed, as a natural prerogative, the justice that raised him up to the participation of the divine nature, to the extent that God could not have constituted him otherwise?; the distinction of a double love, one nature., which would address God, as author of nature; the other gratuitous, which would make us love God as our supernatural end, is vain, false, imagined to avoid the holy letters and testimonies of antiquity; it is sufficient, to be justified, to obey the divine commandments, without it being necessary to receive any inner grace.

Thus did Baius reason; but if grace is only a blossoming of nature, was it not right for Baius to assert that the primitive state was natural in itself, although it was wrong, even in this supposition, to challenge its gratuitousness?

Moreover, — we call on this point the most serious attention — what would grace be during the test, while the progress promised to nature is not yet achieved? At most a free help with which we do good, we obey God's law. In the hypothesis that we are fighting, there is no room for permanent interior grace, called sanctifying or usual, nor for the divine character that several sacraments print to the soul; everything is reduced to a present and transitional concession made to nature for the perfection that it hopes.

Logical with itself, the theory that brings the supernatural back to an evolution of nature therefore goes to nothing less than the radical negation of the usual grace, exorbitant negation that limits to heresy, if it is not heresy itself. Suarez, discussing with his usual science all aspects of this question, points out among the theologians that we must not hide. Some * consider that the existence of a grace permanently in the righteous souls, apart from any operation, is a dogma that has always been imposed on belief; the common feeling ? affirms that this truth was not defined before the Council of Trent; finally, several ? contest that the Council has issued on this subject no dogmatic decision, not even to the canon eleventh of the sixth session 4, where it seems to decree that justification comes from the grace spread by the Holy Spirit and which attaches itself to our souls.

As for Suarez himself, his opinion is that this truth, which we hear from the justification of children? or from the justification of adults, was defined by the fathers of Trent; before, although not yet proposed by the Church #, it was part of the constant teaching of Catholic theologians, so much so that it would be in danger of mentioning only one who dared to contradict it. Such a challenge is worth a demonstration.

X. — The rebuttal of naturalism is even more evident in the Catholic teaching of glory.

On glory, which is the end and crowning of grace, and therefore belongs to the same order, Christian theology professes highly, on the one hand, that God is inaccessible and beyond the reach of the created gaze; on the other, that glorious life carries with it the vision of God as it is: from where it infers that, to be introduced into glory, man needs a light superior to his nature.

The assertions about the invisibility of God are based on cordibus eorum per Spiritum sanctum diffundatur atque illis inhaereat... anathema sit.

1 Ibid. n. 6, p. 14 : Censeo veritatem hanc esse definitam de fide a concilio Trid., saltem in hoc sensu quod gratia, qua sumus permanenter justi, est res aliqua creata distincta ab actibus , et cessantibus illis in homine permanens.

2 Ibid. Licet in particulari parvulos non nominet, tamen definitio generalis est, illos comprehendens.

3 Ibid. n.7, p. 15: Eadem certitudine idem esse tenendum de adultis.

4 Ibid. n. 3, p.13 : Simpliciter verum est ante concilium Trid. non fuisse in Ecclesia tanquam fidei dogma receptum.

5 Ibid. n. 4: Censeo nunquam fuisse probabilem opinionem negantem simpliciter omnem gratiam infusam permanentem , etiam in adultis, quia nullum inveni theologum antiquum ita opinantem, neque de aliquo. viro catholico id relatum invenio.

6 S. THOMAS, Sum.(2.2), q. 24, a. 3, ad 2 : Gratia et gloria ad idem genus referuntur; quia gratia nihil est aliud quam quædam inchoatio gloriæ in les paroles expresses de l'Écriture. "No one has ever seen God," said St John T; and St Paul: "God dwells in an inaccessible light; no man has seen it or can see it?" and elsewhere?: "The eye has not seen, the ear has not heard, the heart of man has not felt what God prepares for those who love him." Christian antiquity * agrees with these words that the clear and direct vision of God is above the natural forces of man.

Scripture also provides the promise that one day God will appear to us face to face *, as it is, that this apparition will assimilate us to himself, and that our life in eternity will be to see God and his son Jesus Christ. This truth is necessary to belief since the definitions of Pope Benedict XII? and of the Council of Florence ° concerning the beatific vision.

Thus, this God declared invisible, inaccessible, glorified man contemplates him without veil. And since the intelligent creature cannot, by its own virtue, extend its gaze

1 Joann. 1, 18 : Deum nemo vidit unquam. — Item 7 Joann. 1v, 12.

2 I Tim. vi, 16: Lucem inbabitat inaccessibilem, quem nullus hominum vidit, sed nec videre potest.

3 T Cor. n, 9 : Sed sicut scriptum est (Is. Lxiv, 4) : Quod oculus non vidit, nec auris audivit, nec in cor hominis ascendit quæ præparavit Deus iis qui diligunt illum.

4 Pgrau, Theol. Dogm., 1. 7,0. 1,1, 7,t. 1, p. 555 : Tribus autem quatuorve potissimum argumentis theologi veteres ostendere solent non posse hac in vita, naturalique vi ingenii ac facultate perfectam obtineri notitiam Dei.

5 7 Cor. xm, 12 : Videmus nunc per speculum in ænigmate, tune autem facie ad faciem.

6 j Joann. 11, 2 : Scimus quoniam cum apparuerit, similes ei erimus, quoniam videbimus eum sicuti est.

7 Joann. xvn, 3 : Hæc est autem vita æterna ut cognoscant te solum Deum verum, et quem misisti Jesum Christum.

8’Const. Benenictus Deus (1336): Vident divinam essentiam visione intuitiva et etiam faciali.

? Illorumque nimas... intueri clare ipsum Deum trinum and unum sicup to these heights t, therefore it is necessary to assume an addition that somehow raises the creature above itself ?.

In addition, the hypothesis that makes glory an evolution that complements nature incurs manifestly erroneous consequences.

If the supernatural of glory is only the development of nature,—undue and gratuitous development, or—the glorification will be equal and uniform in all the elect, since all will achieve this completion of their being: the perfect beatitude requires at least the complete relaxation of the native powers.

But who dares to claim that the blessed are thus leveled, without any distinction in their glory, whatever the diversity of their merits has been? The child who expires by receiving baptism and before having done any act of virtue would equal in splendor the saints who die after long years of penance, fervour and zeal, the martyrs, the apostles, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the very soul of the Man-God! We would not have here, before and after the conciliar and pontifical declarations, 4, l-assen1 CLEMENTIN., l. 5,t. 3, de heretic. c. 3: Quod quaelibet intellectualis natura in se ipsa naturaliter est beata, quodque anima non indiget lumina gloriæ, ipsam elevante ad Deum viendum and 60 beate fruendum.

2 S. ErlPHaANE, Advers. hæreses, 1. 3, hæres. 70, n. 7, Migne, t. 42, col. 350 : Deum quidem videri, præsertim ab humana natura, non posse fatemur, neque quod aspectabile est, id quod videri omnino non potest, intueri fas putamus. Sed idem tamen invisibilis Deus, pro sua humanitate ac potentia, imbecillam aciem ita virtute sua corroborare dignatur, ut quod videri alioqui non potest, aspiciat. Porro cum invisibile illud et infinitum aspiciat, non quatenus infinitum est illud intuetur, sed quantum illius, guod imbecillum est, natura capere potest, ejusmodi vi ac virtute confirmata ut ad potentis illius notitiam adæquare se possit. Quamobrem nihil est in sacris Litteris a seipso discrepans, non sententia ulla quæ ab alia sententia dissideat.

3 Conc. FrLorexnT. Decret. unionis Græc. : Intueri clare ipsum Deum trinum et unum, sicuti est, pro meritorum tamen diversitate alium alio perfectius. — Item Conc. TrID., sess. 6, can. 32.

4 Profession of faith imposed on the Orientals, by Ursain VIII and Benoit XIV unanimously of the Fathers! and Doctors?, that the mere proprieties of reason would suffice to convince us.

Apart from this dogma of inequality in bliss, tradition hardly disagrees over the absolute supernaturality of glory. In order not to extend this brief overview too much, we will mention only Saint Thomas and Suarez, our favorite guides in theological matters.

The Angel of the School professes that seeing God in his essence is above nature, not only of man, but of every creature; that the beatific vision is to natural knowledge what the infinite essence is to the created substance; so that the created intelligence can contemplate the divine essence, it is therefore necessary that God unite with it and raise it up to him.

Pour Suarez, cette affirmation, restreinte aux créatures (Apud Dexancer, Enchirid, n. 875) : Pro meritorum tamen diversitate alium alio perfectius.

1 Cf. Perau, Theologic. dogm. 1. 7, c. 10 et11,t.41, p. 602-608.

2 SUAREZ, de Deo, 1.2, c. 20, n. 3, t. 4, p. 119: Dicendum primo non omnes videntes Deum futuros esse æquales in perfectione visionis seu beatitudinis essentialis. Conclusio est de fide... Omnes sancti intelligunt dictas esse multas (mansiones), propter varietatem earum.

3 Sum. 1.2, q. 5, a. 5: Videre Deum per essentiam est supra naturam non solum hominis, sed etiam omnis creaturæ... Omnis autem cognitio quæ est secundum modum substantiæ creatæ deficit a visione divinæ essentiæ, quæ in infinitum excedit omnem substantiam creatam.

4 Ibid. 4 P. q. 12, a. 4 : Relinquitur ergo quod cognoscere ipsum esse subsistens sit connaturale soli intellectui divino, et quod sit supra facultatem naturalem cujuslibet intellectus creati, quia nulla creatura est suum esse, sed habet esse participatum. Non igitur potest intellectus creatus Deum per essentiam videre, nisi inquantum Deus per suam gratiam se intellectui creato conjungit ut intelligibile ab ipso.— Item Sum. contra gentes, RO

5 De Deo, l. 2, c. 8, n. 5 et 6, p. 70 : Dicendum primo illam visionem esse supernaturalem cuilibet intellectui creato. Ita censeo esse certum de fide... Testimonia videntur sufficienter de hominibus probare, de angelis vero non videntur expressa. Nihilominus omnes theologi ita illa intelligent, and ideo cum eadem certitudine affirming conclusionem positam respectu omnis intellectus creati. 24 1" SECT.: GOD SINGLE CAUSE OF THE SUSTAINABLE MYSTICAL TREASURY, known as man and angel, has the certainty of faith. He goes further: following Saint Thomas and the School almost entirely, he declares the glorious vision simply and absolutely supernatural in relation to any creable intelligence. Elsewhere ?, speaking of the eternal bliss promised to the righteous, the famous doctor holds for certain that it is from any point superior to nature, and he assigns two considerable reasons on which we seem to base the theory of the absolute supernatural: he believes that it is a necessary foundation to victoriously refute the pelagian error and to give reason to several points of doctrine concerning grace.

With these illustrious masters, we can therefore hold for certain that the supernatural that sanctifies and glorifies us is a gift that enhances nature.

XI. — Quel est cet exhaussement ?

It will occur or by a creation that raises nature to a higher level in the scale of beings, or by the junction of two natures pooling their respective energies.

Let us first eliminate the extra by creation. Philosophers and theologians generally agree that creation occurs in the natural order and not in the order of grace, that it constitutes natures and does not enhance them. This agreement, reason inspires and justifies it by the very notion it provides of nature.

Before creating beings, God conceives them; he contemplates in himself! their model and their measure, similar to the artist who translates his ideal vision into sensitive signs. In this conception of creable or possible beings, God, as explained by the Angelic Doctor?, knows himself as imitable to some degree by beings who can appear out of him without being himself. Each degree forms a category of possible beings that God is free to act in more or less multiplied numbers, more or less small numbers of individuals or copies.

Fénelon exposes these things with incomparable lucidity. "This Being that is infinitely," he says, "sees, as he ascends to infinity, all the various degrees to which he can communicate the being. Each degree of possible communication is a possible essence that responds to this degree of being that is in God indivisible with all others. These infinite degrees, which are indivisible in him, can be divided to infinite in creatures, to make an infinite variety of species. Each species will be bounded in a degree of being corresponding to those infinite and indivisible degrees that God himself, and that he sees eternally in the same way because they are immutable, are the fixed models of all that he can do out of him."

Thus, every being that arises out of God necessarily reproduces the measure determined in divine thought. Therefore, what constitutes in its substance an existing being is the faithful reproduction of its essence or of the divine conception that serves it as a type, and this background of the existing being is what we call nature, which is only the actuation of the essence by the creative act.

From these principles, it is easy to conclude that a given essence cannot cross the limit that characterizes it without encountering a new essence of which it stands out. By the same reason, nature, which is only the actual essence, cannot, without ceasing to be itself, pass from the degree which constitutes it to a higher degree. This passage can only be the annihilation of being represented by one essence, and the appearance of a new being responding to another essence.

This is to which the mystery of grace would be reduced in the hypothesis of the increase of being by way of creation: to a nature that ends and to a more perfect nature that succeeds it. Every possible degree of being representing a essence, and this actual degree realizing the nature that corresponds to it, one never adds; one destroys to replace; one makes new natures, but not supernatural. Far from explaining the supernatural, this theory therefore logically leads to its suppression; hence it must be concluded that its starting point is wrong.

XII. — The hypothesis of the junction of beings is complex.

First of all, let us say that there can be no question here of natural union, that is, of the fusion of two activities into a single focal point of life and operation, as is the case in man, for example, between the body and the soul; for therefore there would be no more to distinguish the natural from the supernatural, the own association being to make several elements only one nature; and, heard from the confusion or the mixture between God and man, the theory which would thus purport to justify the supernatural would renew the error professed by Eutychès on the unity of nature in Our Lord.

Would the bond we're talking about be hypostatic?

Assuming that a similar union is possible! from creature to creature, it has not come to the thought of any Catholic theologian to seek there the reason for grace.

And we understand it: such a theory leads, by its very statement, to a clearly erroneous consequence, knowing that every justified creature becomes God by virtue of his hypostatic union with a divine person, and that it is necessary to worship this creature in the same way that we worship Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word.

What, moreover, would be the divine Person who, through his hypostatic union, would become our grace?

For the People of the Trinity, it is absolutely certain that alone? the second, that is, the Word, has entered into a hypostatic alliance with the creature. Tradition attributes the Father invisibility#, and it believed to refute perempANAA,

7 28 1TM SECT.: THE SINGLE CAUSE OF MYSTICAL TRUTH the Sabellan error, which did not admit among the Persons of the Trinity that a nominal distinction, by inflicting on its followers the infamous note of patriarchs', so much as it held as well that the Father did not incarnate himself or relate to the creature, as the Son to humanity. With the exception perhaps of Montan?, he did not meet heretic who imagined an incarnation of God the Father. Simon the Magi? called the Force of God, and dared to call the Holy Spirit Helen, a vile harlot whom he led with him; but these insignia were not to be echoed.

Christian teaching identifies, it is true, the gift of grace with the Holy Spirit, but by attribution only, excluding any natural and hypostatic conjunction. Several Fathers, among others St Jerome, impute to Montan that he had given himself time for a manifestation towards the creature, with which he was not in immediate connection, but through the mediation of the Son.

1 S. AUGUSTIN, de Hæres., n. 41, p. 227.

2 S. Eripnane, Adv. hæres., 1. 2, hær. 48, n. 11, Migne, t. 41, col. 871 : Pergit Montanus infelix homuncio : Non angelus, inquit, non legatus aliquis, sed egomet Deus Pater accessi... Montanus contra vel Parentem se esse gloriatur.

3 5. EPIPHANE, Adv. hær., |. 1, hær. 21, n. 2, col. 287 : Ridicula de ea re fabula discipulos aspersit: se enim summam esse Dei Vim, scortum vero suum Spiritum esse sanctum affirmare ausus est, cujus gratia de cœlo descenderat.

4 P. Prrau, Theolog. dogm., de Trinit., 1. 8, ©. 7, n. 19, t3; p. 493 : Quinam substantiva illa Spiritus sancti communicatio, quam ex antiquorum Patrum decreto ac sententia, etiam personæ ipsius videri hactenus docui, ab ea differat conjunctione cum homine Verbi Dei atque Filii, quæ unam ex ambabus naturis personam efficit. Non est difficilis responsio, eaque ex iis conficitur, quæ identidem in superioribus capitibus adspersimus. Ostendimus enim non semel, conjunctionem illam Spiritus sancti neque evorx4v neque ónoctatrixàv esse, hoc est, negue naturalem, neque personalem; quasi una fiat ex ambobus natura, vel persona.

8 Epist. 41 ad Marcellam , in-4°, Migne, vol. 22, vol. 476 : Aperta est convincenda blasphemia dicentium, Deum primum voluisse in veteri Testamento per Moysen et prophetas salvare mundum; sed, quia non potuerit explere, corpus sumpsisse de Virgine et in Christo sub specie Filii prædipersonalle de l'Esprit-Saint; but Baronius , out of historical scruple doubtless, and perhaps also by deference for the memory of Tertullian associated with that of Montan, defends him from this accusation and thinks that if the enormity that Saint Epiphanus reproaches him for being said to the Father, and that of which Saint Jerome speaks of having affirmed himself the Holy Spirit, have some foundation, these monstrous exaggerations are less the act of this heresiarch than that of his followers.

The personal union of the Word with human nature is therefore the only one of this kind, and nothing allows it to extend beyond the individuality of the Saviour Jesus. It is imputed to Origen to have taught that Christ should one day absorb all creatures, men, angels and even demons, in an immense and common hypostasis, and thus bring the world to unity: unhealthy dreams that the fifth ecumenical council struck with anathema?. Christ is the meritorious and exemplary cause of grace, but by no means our grace itself. It is therefore in vain that we would seek the notion of grace in the mystery of the hypostatic union of the Word with human nature.

What else would be the point of imagining personal association with the Man-God — and what we say about the Word cantem, mortem obiisse pro nobis. Et quia per duos gradus mundum salvare nequiverit, ad extremum per Spiritum sanctum in Montanum, Priscam et Maximillam, insanas feminas, descendisse.

1 Annales ecclesiast. anno Christi 173, n. 25, t. 2, p. 353 : Verum hæc omnia arbitror jactata potius a Montanistis quam. a Montano... Sitam horrendas palam blasphemias Montanus effutisset, quorsum de eo dubitare, prophetane, an pseudopropheta fuerit, opus erat? Quid tamdiu de eo altercatum atque consultatum? In re tam patente, nulla prorsus opus erat altercatione : nam ipso primo audito blasphemiæ, eam cujuscumque licet impii, aures exhorruissent, etc.

Canons 12 and 14 (from Denzinger's Enchiridion, n. 200, p. 78): 'If anyone says that the heavenly powers and all men, and the devil, and the spirits of wickedness, are united to God the Word in every way alike, as is that very Mind which is by them called Christ...; if anyone says that there will be one single unity of all rational beings, their hypostasis and number being taken away together with their bodies...' — [Ribet's argument continues:] that the same [reasoning applied to] the incarnate [Word] would apply to any other union of a like nature — as though it were the final word of the grace that sanctifies us, when this same grace is, by the admission of all theologians, necessary to the soul of Jesus Christ in order to fit it for the divine person of the Word? We only translate the problem of our souls into the human soul of the Saviour, where it all reappears and with new complications. To push back a difficult solution, the insoluble difficulties are multiplied.

It is therefore abusing that to make consist of the secret of sanctifying grace in a personal bond either from creature to creature, or from the Incarnate Word or from the other two divine Persons with human souls.

XIN. — What is left of natural union and hypostatic union to explain the added value of nature, if not to admit that a community of life is established between man and a superior being, less profound than the hypostatic union, more intimate than the moral association of feelings and action? But if one succeeds in demonstrating that the creature is unable to unite with the creature with the intimacy that grace implies, then it will remain acquired that grace is exclusively divine, that it

1 S, Tomas, Sum. 32 P., q. 7, a. 1 : Necesse est ponere in Christo gratiam habitualem propter tria, etc.

Suarez, de Incarn. disp: 18, s. 9, n. 3, t. 17, p. 581: Dico primo: Christi animam habuisse donum gratiæ habitualis. Ita docent omnes doctores. — Et n. 5, p. 582 : Dico secundo : secundum fidem certum existimo hanc habitualem gratiam esse in anima Christi.

Vasquez, de Incarnat. D. 41, c. 14, n. 4, 6, 11, t. 4, p. 345.

De Luco, de Myst. Incarnat. D. 16, s. 5, n. 91, p. 274: Communis et certa sententia omnium Theologorum fatetur Christum habere gratiam habitualem... An haec consulsio sit de fide: asserts Suarez quem alii his'oper by an ineffable conjunction between God and the soul, which raises and makes the soul participate in the intellectual and affective life of God.

We touch on the most delicate and decisive point of the demonstration, on the crucial argument that concludes with the absolute supernaturality of grace and glory.

If it were only a simple agreement of thoughts and wills, a mutual exchange of aspirations, sympathy and love, which would consider contesting, from creature to creature, from soul to soul, these sweats effusions? But we assume demonstrated and admitted that grace compends the creature who receives it and adds to its native power. But the commerce between creatures, however intimate it may be, does not allow them to cross their respective enclosures; the loving being remains always out of love; neither one nor the other pushes his action beyond himself, and, in one as in the other, the love received and given is purely natural. This is the life of relationship between creatures; they juxtapose, they do not compenetrate; they act and provoke to movement, but in these reciprocal actions and reactions, each unfolds its own forces and never exceeds its sphere.

That is why Christian doctors unanimously teach that God alone can insinuate the most intimate of the being whom he creates and maintains, that only he is able to invade the substance, to reside there as in a sanctuary, to make his light shine, to soak like a penetrating oil of the flow of his life and love.

In the testimony of Didymus, only the Trinity can give itself in participation and fill the temple it has made: to the cun created being is not able to communicate in this way. It is said of several saints, says this former doctor!, what were they full of the Holy Spirit; of whom was it said that he was filled with a creature? Neither in the sacred pages nor in the common language is anyone said to be full of an angel or any heavenly power: such communication is only suitable for God.

Gennade?, famous author of the vith century, in the book in which he describes the course of ecclesiastical teaching, ranks among the constant truths that he alone can flow into the soul that is the creator of it. The pious Abbé Rupert, renewing the arguments of the former controversists against the Macedonians, concluded to the deity of the Holy Spirit of the power he has to enter into the soul and penetrate its depths. Before him, St Bernard also taught that sinsinuating and spreading in the spirits is the proper substance of divine substance. « Nul esprit pur, disait-il,

1 Lib. de Spiritu sancto, n. 8 etn. 60. Ibid. col. 1039 et 1082 : Quidam etiam Spiritu sancto pleni esse dicuntur : nemo autem, sive in Scripturis sive in consuetudine, plenus creatura dicitur. Neque enim aut Scriptura sibi hoc vindicat aut sermo communis, ut dicas plenum esse quempiam angelo, throno, dominatione ; soli quippe divinæ naturæ hic convenit sermo... Angeli autem præsentia, sive alicujus alterius excellentis naturæ quæ facta est, non implet mentem atque sensum... Animam vel mentem hominis nulla creatura juxta substantiam possit implere nisi sola Trinitas, etc.

2 De ecclesiast. dogm. liber, c. 83, Migne, P. L. t. 58, col, 999 : Illabi autem menti, illi soli possibile est qui creavit.

3 De divin. Officiis, 1. 10, c. 9, Migne, t. 170, col. 274 : Constat igitur quod Spiritus sanctus humanæ animæ capabilis sit, ejusque penetret interiora, utpote quem illa bibit, id est in interiora suæ substantiæ recipit. At vero hoc divinæ substantiæ proprium est, nihilque aliud humanum vel angelicum potest penetrare spiritum, præter ipsius omniumque creatorem Deum. .— Item, c. 20, col. 283.

4:n Cant. serm. 5, n. 8, p. 161 : Nullus angelorum, nulla animarum hoc modo mihi capabilis, nullius ego capax. Nec ipsi angeli ita se alterutrum capiunt. Sequestretur proinde prærogativa hæc summo ac incircumscripto Spiritui... Per se infunditur, per se innotescit,' purus capitur. to no human soul is able to receive me, nor can I receive them in me. The angels themselves cannot understand each other in this way. It is the exclusive prerogative of the sovereign Spirit, which is not subject to any limit."This is still the feeling of the first doctors of the School: Peter Lombardt, St.Thomas?, St.Bonaventure *, and, following them, of the mass of theologians +, of all mystical authors without exception.

XIV. — From all these testimonies, from all these evidences, comes a conclusion that we hold for certain and to which we have led the increasing and rigorous elimination that we have just made, knowing that God is the means and the very object of our spiritual, supernatural, eternal life; in two words, that he is our grace and our glory.

This conclusion adopted, one understands with the clarity of the evidence why theologians and mystics make consist of perfection and salvation in the union of the soul with God; all the Christian doctrine unfolds with admirable unity, from the glory which is the consummation and the final term, to the means of achieving it: prayer, sacraments, sacrifice; the divine promises recorded in Scripture, the teachings of the Fathers and doctors, the rites and liturgical formulas, all forms, all symbols, all the affirmations of supernatural life are melted and illuminated in a harmonious ensemble. On the contrary, if we dispute that our holiness is a participation in divine life, we no longer know where to grasp the notions of the supernatural, we make grace an insoluble riddle, we cast the shadow on the best part of the revealed dogmas.

Now, who does not know? Harmony is one of the most obvious characters of truth, while the break-up is the note and logical consequence of error.

It remains, therefore, established that the gift of grace and glory raises man to a real, sublime association with God.

And, in order not to conceal anything from the ineffable and glorious mystery of this communion, let us add that it introduces man into the secret of the Trinity, or rather that it introduces the Trinity to the most intimate of man. We may not have insisted enough on this aspect of grace, which brings to its peak the elevation and honor of the supernaturalized creature, and it is not at the end of our demonstration that the evidence should be deduced: that we should simply point out the sources of it.

They abound in Scripture, where it is said in many places that the three divine Persons come to dwell in us and that we are called to enter into society with them, and, more often than not, that the Holy Spirit fills us with his virtue and sanctifies us by his presence?

They are multiplied in this double form in the innumerable documents of tradition: sometimes the holy doctors affirm in formal terms that the Augustus Trinity penetrates our souls to sanctify and glorify them; sometimes — it is the ordinary form — they mention only the Holy Spirit, a substantial love of the Father and the Son, inseparable, as such, from the principle of which he proceeds; inseparable also by virtue of the cercumincession of the three divines Per1 Joann. xiv, 20, 921, 23; xvit, 23. — I Joann. 1, 2 et 3. — Eph. u, 18.

2 Luc. 1, 15; 11,25. — Joann. m, 5; xiv, 17. — I Joann. m, 24. — Act. 1, 8; 1, 17; vin, 17, 1X, 17, 31. — Rom. vni, 4, 9, 14, 16; v, 5. — Gal. 1v, 6. Comm; ant, 16: Vie D LOS Ex 8 ME COr- OE a E xm, 43. — Eph. 1, 13; 1, 18; 1v, 30; v, 18. — I Thess. 1v, 8; v. 19. "Hebr. sounds, which necessarily calls, wherever one of these Persons appears, the other two! If the work of sanctification is attributed to the Holy Spirit, it is that it is eminently the work of love, and that, in the Trinity, the Third Person represents love. We keep the testimonies; but let us mention at least some of the most illustrious names. Origen?, Tertullian ê, St Cyprien 4, St Athanasius*, St John Chrysostom 5, St Ambrose 7, St Basil‘, St Gregory of Nazianze, St Cyril of Alexandria £, St Augustine!, St Leo the Great *?, St Gregory the Great, St Bernard **, most of the Fathers, - in a word, give their hand to the great representatives of the School and Christian theology: the Master of Sentences ©, the Angelic Doctor #, the Seraphic Doctor", Bellarmin ‘$, Suarez‘, Silvius*, Bossuet *. 4 S. Auçusr. De Trinit. 1. 1, n. 48: Aliquando ita loquimur de Spiritu sancto, tanquam solus ipse sufficiat ad beatitudinem nostram , et ideo solus sufficit quia separari a Patre et Filio non potest; sicut Pater solus sufficit, quia separari a Filio et Spiritu sancto non potest. Et Filius ideo suffcit solus, quia separari a Patre et Spiritu sancto non potest. 2 Periarch. 1.1, ©. 1, n. 3, Migne, t. 44, col. 122. 3 Apolog. c. 18, 39, Rigault, p. 18, 35. À Epist. 73 ad Jubain. et epist. T4 ad Pompeium, p. 260, 276. 5 Epist. ad Serap. n. 30, Migne, t. 26, col. 599. 6 Jn Joann. hom. 87, n. 3, Migne, t. 59, col. 471. 7 De Spir. sancto, l. 1, ©. 10-12, Migne, t. 16, col. 731-735. 8 Advers. Eunomium , 1. 5, Migne, t. 29, col. 770. 9 Carm. 1.2, v. 630, Migne, t. 37, col. 1017. 10 Thesaur. Ass. 34, Migne, t. 75, col. 574-618. 11 Im Joann. Tract. 76, n. 4, p. 181. 12 Serm. 76, C. 4, Migne, t. 54, col. 406. 13 In Evang. hom. l. 2, hom. 30, n. 2 et 3, Migne, t. 76, col. 1220. 14 De diversis serm. 89, p. 120. — In Cant. serm. 71, p. 385. 15 Lib. I Sent:.d. 14, Migne, t. 218, col. 47. 16 Sum. 1 P. q. 43, a. 3, ad 4 etad 2, — a. 4, ad 2, — à. 5. 17 Sent. l. 1, d. 15, p.2, a. 1, q. 1-3, t. 1, p. 257. — Serm.in die Peniccostes, t. 13, p. 290. 18 Controvers. de Gratia, l. 1, C. 4, t. 4, p. 525. 49, De Gratia, Proleg. 3, c. 3, .n. 4, t.,7, p. 137 20/COm.in 1 P. q. 43, a. 5, ad 3, t.14, p: 329. 21 Élévat. 9e sem., 9° élév. t. 10, p. 40. CEE D

A #] 36 47° SECT.: SINGLE CAUSE GOD OF MYSTICAL REALITY

The consequence of this sublime theology is tremendous. The life of the Father is to beget the Son, and, with the Son, to produce the Holy Spirit; the life of the Son is to proceed from the Father and to be with him the principle of the Holy Spirit; the life of this Third Person is to form between the Father and the Son an immense and substantial current of love. Grace, making us partakers of the divine nature and associating ourselves with the lives of the three Persons, therefore brings us a certain communion to the mysterious operations through which the adorable Trinity is constituted; our souls take part in this ineffable life, not, doubtless, an essential part like the Divine Persons, but a true part of accidental association and similarity.

Our mind sees only shadows in the mystery of a God in three people: is it surprising that he sees nothing in the mystery of the entry of these People and their development into the creature? "Who will tell us," exclaimed Bossuet? "whose gaze plunges so before in the reasons of things, who will tell us what is this secret part of our soul, of which the Father and the Son make their temple and sanctuary? Who will tell us how intimately they live there? As they dilate it in order to walk, and, from this intimate bottom of the soul, spread everywhere, occupy all the powers, animate all the actions?"But this mystery, so deep as the secret is, we know that it is accomplished; if

1 BonaL, Inst. theolog., de Gratia, n. 195, t. 3, p. 193 : Queæritur an gratia sit, saltem consequenter, participatio seu specialis quædam similitudo ipsius actus quo Deus vivit ad intra, quo scilicet, Pater generat Filium, et quo Pater et Filius spirant Spiritum sanctum ? — Resp. affirmative. Etenim, ex jam dictis, gratia est communicatio et participatio essentiæ divinæ ut viventis in trinitate personarum; porro vita Dei per tres divinas personas est ipsemet actus quo Pater generat Filium, et quo Pater et Filius spirant Spirilum sanctum. Ergo gratia, sive in principio, sive in fine, sive in se, est, saltem consequenter, participatio seu specialis quædam imitatio hujusmodi actus. |

2 Medit, on the Bishop, 93rd day, vol. 9, p. 473. THEORY OF THE SURNATURE > 187 we are powerless to tell how this divine generation operates in us, it is not a reason to challenge the reality or knowledge of it, as Saint Fulgence pointed out! responding to this sophism of the arians that the generation of the Word is inescapable, no one has the right to assert it.

XV. — It is time to summarize the variety of these aspects on the supernatural and to deduce the consequences of mysticism.

The supernatural appears in two forms. The first is accomplished in the sphere of nature, by virtue of a derogation from the regular and normal order; in other words, it is a natural fact in itself, but coming from an intervention by God contrary to or at least alien to the laws of nature.

It's the miracle in relation to the natural order.

The second form brings to nature a real addition that raises the being to a new life. It is no longer merely a departure from the natural laws, a miraculous intervention of the Creator in the field of nature; it is a moral fusion — more than moral, but not becoming either hypostatic or natural — between the creature and God, an ineffable union which, applied to man, constitutes a way of being that belongs to God and man, a #heandric state.

This communion of man with divine life consists of two successive phases: grace and glory. Grace coincides with trial; glory is term and consumption. Chacun de ces états a sa marche régulière. The life of the test is to escape consciousness, com- + y P 4 l ÿ

4 4 S; 128 RAS £ your ES 38 17° SECT.: GOD SINGLE CAUSE OF MYSTICAL TREATY . beg and increase by free, meritorious and progressive acts. The derogation from this providential order is equivalent to a miracle in supernatural order, as the derogation in the course of nature realizes the ordinary miracle. Thus, the facts of contemplation are miraculous, even in relation to the order of grace, which has as its rule not vision, but faith; similarly, the sudden ascension of sin to the heroism of virtue, or from a lower state of perfection to another sublime, are derogations from the common law of sanctification.

The whole mystic is in this miraculous order, in the miraculous in relation to nature, and in the miraculous in relation to grace. But the exception to the supernatural order always entailing a derogation from the natural order, the latter character precisely defines the miracle and suffices to prove any miraculous divine intervention.

XVI.—From all this comes a conclusion of sovereign importance. We are looking for the characteristic sign of the divine supernatural. However, to any degree that we consider the supernatural of which we have just described the forms, it is obvious that God alone is the author of it. The order of grace in its normal or exceptional state, is it not obvious at first glance that it emanates from God, as the grace itself, of which we have recognized the total supernaturality? It is no different from the miraculous derogation from the natural order: no being created escapes the laws of nature, either by going beyond the sphere of his activity or by emancipating conditions to which the providential plan subjects the exercise of it. Therefore, the miracle itself, or the truly extranatural phenomenon, exceeds any power created, as St.Thomas teaches!Theory of the Smie Aa Surnautical and, with him, the crowd of theologians, and constitutes a divine ER A fact.

XVII. "However, the angelic Doctor!" acknowledged, and we recognize with him, an improper miracle," said he, "called miraculum quoad nos, i.e. miracle relative to us, and of which all the supernatural is reduced to the intervention of a power superior to man in the sphere of man, to produce, through a copnatural action, a phenomenon that neither man nor the inferior beings can accomplish, at least under the given conditions. In itself the fact is purely natural, for the superior agent realizes it only by putting into play the intimate forces of the external elements, and by conforming, in this influence, to the proportions and laws of his own nature, to the proportions and laws of the natures which he alters: two conditions also necessary and which it is important to notice; no power other than creative power is sufficient to raise the being above its level or to remove it from the laws which govern it. Creatures cannot, therefore, derogate from nature and the natural order. Above man, they do, it is true, what man cannot do; but, like man himself, they undergo the law of their measure and of their environment. And it is because he has crazy pretensions to the divinity, that the demon affects the virtue of the miracle and strives to accredit him by equivocal or manifestly disorderly prestige, which in the eyes of ignorant or perverted men have a supernatural appearance. He can simulate, never realizes a genuine derogation from the laws of nature; therefore, there is no miracle, but perfidious counterfeits of the miracle.

Ultimately, the suprahuman manifestations fall into two classes: one superior to all the energies created, the other naturally achievable by a finite being, but more powerful than man. According to the notion we have given of it, the miracles of the first and second order always belong to the first category; only the miracles of the third order are suitable for the second, — not when they are operated by a real derogation from the providential order, for in this case they proceed directly from God, who alone can derogate from the laws of nature, — but when they result from the implementation of higher natural forces which supplement the conditions imposed on the inferior being. There is this common ground where God and the demon intervene in turn: God to lift the law, the demon to realize wonders proportionate to his natural virtue, but which amaze man, because they surpass human forces.

One sees it, the difficulty is not to theoretically establish that the true miracle is divine, but to recognize when there is a miracle. If one could specify with certainty the limits of nature and the conditions of the normal order, the mere inspection of the facts which derogate from it would make it possible to conclude to the miracle and the divine; it would only remain to pronounce oneself, using extrinsic notes on the marvelous of the third degree, achievable by the natural action of a being more powerful than man. If it is impossible to determine in all their extent those boundaries of the nature and of the enclosure where its activity is circumscribed, we can SAS: +.

x g i E T

THEORY OF SURNATURE 44 at least collect and report a number of phenomena that clearly exceed the effort of being created, a precious nomenclature that will safely reveal to us the best part of divine manifestations.

The wonderful facts that escape this category are of two kinds: some ostensibly bad, and hence the exclusive part of the demon; the other good in themselves or indifferent, but achievable by the enemy power of God and man: to decide their origin, we must discuss the circumstances and the results.

XVII. — So, after this exhibition of the principles on the supernatural, it is easy for us to indicate the applications we are going to make of them. Among the miraculous facts, some demand a power that God alone possesses, and therefore duly observed, they infallibly denounce God's action. The devil, in turn, has ways of revealing himself that are his own, because they are the bold negation of order, truth, holiness: wherever one meets them, one is in the presence of Satan. Finally, it is a supernatural intermediate, which can be God's work, which can also come from misleading langage; and it will only be with the help of extrinsic considerations drawn from the moral order, borrowed from all that surrounds the phenomenon, that one will be able to distinguish which of these two influences is in action. This brings back to the following forms the superhuman manifestations: the supernatural exclusively divine, the supernatural exclusively evil, the supernatural which can be suitable for God or the demon and which we will call, for this reason, the common supernatural.

In the chapters that follow, we will recognize God's part, either that which is his own, or the part, indecisive in itself, but which circumstances require to attribute to him. After having indicated these characters of divine intervention, we will discuss the means employed 42 1 SECT.: THE SINGLE CAUSE OF MYSTICAL TREASURY in the presentation of the deceitful and infamous practices by which Satan the monkey the action of God. After that, we will only have to describe the human eccentricities that have any analogy with the facts, either divine or diabolical, and to indicate the differences. Our task will then be CHAPTER II

SURNATURE EXCLUSIVELY DIVIN Only a few categories of facts can be reported. — The creation of a substance: difficulty to see the reality of the prodigy. — La résurrection. - Precautions to be sure of death. Saint Vincent Ferrier ressuscite un enfant coupé en morceaux. — Ensure that people return to life. — The maintenance of life despite the abolition of an essential organ. — The renewal of a member. — In cases of injury, even if it is considered fatal, the use of miracles must not be hastened. — The promptness and persistence of healing are the surest signs of divine intervention. — In the intellectual order, God claims the prophecy and discernment of the spirits, — the intellectual words and visions, the purely mental reminder of ecstasy. — In the moral order, divine intervention is revealed in the sudden and brilliant conversions, in the sudden ascension of a inferior state of perfection to a sublime state. I. — As we have already said, if the boundaries of nature were clearly known to us, we would know where the supernatural begins, and we would be able to discern the divine manifestations that surpass the forces created. Taken in all its expanse, this limit escapes us; but we can point out a number of facts that the creature is not enough to realize and whose existence, therefore, reveals the immediate intervention of the Creator. The nomenclature of these facts constitutes for us the supernatural exclusively divine. II. — In the body order, the wonders that require { > Ars AA Er ES t r in the first place the production of a substance, for it is a certain point that God alone can create; but it is difficult, if not impossible, to make experimental sure that the being comes out of nothing, that it is not a pre-existing substance that moves and appears. Despite the absolute certainty of the principle, applications are too problematic for a solution to be seen.

IN. — The return to life, which is much less difficult to see, is almost as guaranteed in favor of the divine miracle. The creator of the soul and body can alone operate or restore the mysterious bond that unites them into a single focal point of operation. Suarez °, mentioning a singular opinion according to which the soul, in some ecstasy, would be separated from the body, then reunited by the evil virtue, the trade of pure imagination, and declares in faith the contrary truth. Thus, the many resurrections performed at the prayer of the saints are works of God's hand, whether they concern men or they are performed on animals.

Strange thing, there may be more wonderful in the resurrection of a beast than in the resurrection of a man: in this one, it is enough to join the immortal soul to the organism that she informed; but the souls of the beasts do not survive separation, it is a new vital principle that must be created to revive the body, unless we admit with Saint

1 S. Tuomas, Sum. 1 P. q. 45, a. 5 : Sic igitur impossibile est quod alicui creaturæ conveniat creare, neque virtute propria, neque instrumentaliter, sive per ministerium.

2 De Relig. 1. 2, c. 18, n. 7, t. 14, p. 199: Quod autem quidam dicunt virtute dæmonis fieri ut in hujusmodi raptu anima realiter separetur a corpore, et postea iterum uniatur, commentitium est et contrarium veritati fidei quæ docet solum Deum posse animam a corpore semel separatam iterum illi unire.

3 Cf. Benoit XIV, de Serv. Dei beatific., 1. 4, P. 1, ©. 21, n. 5, t. 4, p. 455. the very one that was destroyed; conception quite difficult to justify by metaphysics.

IV. — In any case, two precautions are indispensable, but decisive, for the certainty of the resurrection: first to see the fact of death, and then to see the return to life.

One understands it, Until it is shown that death has been real, there can be no question of resurrection, and, as long as the body retains its material integrity, the cerütude of death is not easy to obtain. We do not have to discuss here the various cases, nor the signs that one claims to recognize that life has ceased: we refer to Benedict XIV, * who deals with all the points of view of this interesting subject at length and skillfully. Death is at least unquestionable when the main parts have been crushed or separated, as soon as corruption is started, and more importantly advanced or consumed.

Benedict XIV © cites several trials of canonization where facts of the first kind have been discussed and admitted; but the most extraordinary, undeniably, is the one reported in the life of Saint Vincent Ferrier.

1 Quodlibet 4, a. 5.

2 Benoit XIV, de Serv. Dei beatif., l. 4, P.1, c. 21, n. 6, p. 156: Ad normam hujus doctrinæ Angelici præceptoris, nemo est qui non videat veram resurrectionem dici posse, tum de hominibus, tum de brutis; de hominibus, ob regressum animæ quæ non perierat, utpote immortalis, ad idem corpus; de brutis per novam productionem ejusdem animæ, licet ante ad nihilum redactæ; cum Deo æque facile sit et ad existendum primo vocare quæ nunquam fuerunt, et revocare quæ fuerunt.

3 Zaccuias. Quæst. medico-legal. 1. 4, t: 1, q. 11, n. 17-19, t. 4, p. 293 : Si verum est implicare contradictionem effectum semel corruptum a Deo reproduci jam verum insimul erit neque ipsum Deum posse idem animal numero (de brutis intelligo, non de EEr) cum corruptum fuerit, ad vitam revocare. 4 Benoit XIV, de Serv. Dei bats ibid. n. 9 et seq., p. 157. 5 Ibid. n.15 et seq. 6 Jbid. n. 19, p. 159. 7 Ranzane, BB. 5 April. t. 10, p. 500, n. 19: Furiis agitata, arrepto ferro, at the time when the famous apostle evangelized at the midday of France, a pious resident of this region offered him T hospitality, in the hope that his presence would be a source of blessing to him and his own, especially to his wife, subject to frequent insanity. As soon as the saint had entered the house, he was presented with this unfortunate. He blessed her, and, responding to his desires, he rested his hand on his head. On that day she enjoys a perfect calm, and everyone thinks she is healed. But the next day, while the man of God was going to the exercises of his ministry and the people of the house had gone out to hear it, suddenly taken over by his evil, she seized her little child, the throat, the cut into pieces, and cooked some of it for dinner, reserving the other for the evening meal.

When the preaching was over, the husband returned home joyfully, and when he saw his wife coming to meet him, he asked him whether the meal was served: "All is ready, answer it; all is left to sit down. — Have you prepared fish well? — Fish and meat, good meat, and they are left for another time. — Comment, de la viande! He doesn't have one in the house, and you know that the Father doesn't eat one."Several thoughts pass through the spirit of the unhappy father; he wants to know what is true in these words. He hastily enters, looks at the prepared dishes and those he reserves, and, recognizing the depopulated flesh of his child, ü bursts into cries of pain, bitter complaints, hangs on to Heaven, to the saint who so pays the price of hospitality.

Vincent, however, came in turn; he was told about the sobs, the clamours, and the tumult of the whole house. He commands the silence of the hand and the voice, and then he exclaims: "Trust in the Lord Jesus; he created this child; he himself, if you have a true faith, will call him back to life." He then gets the little body so fragmented, falls on his knees, and, after a fiery prayer, he makes the sign of the cross on these human debris with this invocation: "May Jesus, the Son of Mary, the Savior and the master of the world, who drew the soul of this child from nothingness, bring it back into this body for the praise and glory of his adorable Majesty." At the moment, these scattered members gathered together, and the child appeared full of life. Let us judge the admiration and joy of the spectators!

We have quoted elsewhere, referring to the appearances of the souls of purgatory, the momentary resurrection of a man buried for three years and found in the state of skeleton in his tomb. Such examples disappear into the shadow of doubt about the reality of death; but, indeed, it is not necessary that the testimony of death be pushed so far to allow it to be believed and concluded at the resurrection.

V. — On the very fact of the return to life, contempts are less to be feared; however, circumspection is still necessary in order not to be deceived by Satan's human deceptions or deceit. Simple movements, or even articulated words, would not be sufficient proof of the resurrection; the manifestations of life must be obvious and persist long enough to ‘ rule out any suspicion of illusion, cunning or prestige. ' However, when the purpose of the reminder to life is a transitional act, as an important testimony that one wants to gather from the mouth of the dead, and even better the consul of a sacrament necessary for salvation, such as penance for an adult who died in the act of crime, or baptism for an unfaithful?; in all these and similar cases, it is hard to understand that the resurrection can only be momentary. In particular, it is said of Saint Francis de Sales that, in his mission in Chablais, he gave life to a dead child without baptism, who died again two days later.

VI. — One must still place among the wonders of first order the prolonged maintenance of life despite the suppression of an essential organ, such as the head or the heart.

The beheading, in fact, seems to be an ever immediate cause of death: the experiments made on the bodies of the torturers do not give any probability to the thesis of the persistence of life after the head has been separated from the trunk. This view, moreover, is of little interest to our subject; for we have no example to claim where life has long survived the takeoff, and, if there were any well-established ones, we like to believe that our most proud unbelievers would consent to see it as a fully divine miracle. It is narrated, it is true, of several holy martyrs whom they have spoken, walked, carried even into their hands their heads detached by the sword; but we would not want to place these wonders among the absolutely supernatural facts, because, taken in themselves, these temporary manifestations do not exceed the diabolical power.

As far as the heart is concerned, it seems to be the result of certain facts! that its extraction does not always have the effect of an instantaneous death; but no certain experimentation, no serious testimony, allows to maintain that life can continue naturally, for several days, after the total suppression of the home to which it feeds. The second part should be considered exclusively divine. The difficulty, if there is one in these encounters, is less to establish the suraaturity of the fact than its reality.

VII. — The restoration of an organ destroys, and more importantly the survival of the function to the loss of the organ, — provided, however, that the effect is lasting; for if it were only momentary and transitory, it could be only prestigious, — still seems to us under the conditions of the miracle itself. Pope Leo IMI is told that after he had had his eyes punctured and his tongue cut, he covered his sight and his word. This fact, we know, is disputed by some and maintained by others; * assuming it is true, it constitutes a miracle of first order.

1 Zaccmras, Quæst. medico-legal. 1.5, t. 2, q. 2, n. 22, t. 1, p. 336: Quinimo scimus quod, avulso corde integro et arteriæ magnæ trunco ante avulsionem alligato, animal per aliquod temporis spatium vivere potest, ut multi ex Anatomicis oculati testes sunt, et quandoque ipse etiam vidi. Sed et Galen., 2 de Decr. Hippocr. et Platonis, pluries observatum. memorat in sacrificiis victimas, avulso corde, et clamasse, et aufugisse, donec sanguine toto effuso conciderent.

2 Chap. 31, t. 2, p. 575-583.

3 MARTYROL. Rom. 42 Jun. : Romæ, in basilica Vaticana, saneti Leonis papæ tertii, cui erutos ab impiis oculos and linguam præcisam Deus mirabiThe same would be true, according to the learned doctor Zacchias, of the healing of congenital deafness, either that the hearing apparatus is physically transformed, or, which would be more prodigious, that the hearing should be performed without the assistance of the organ intended to produce it.

The same must be said of all functions and organs.

The integral renewal of a lost limb, as would be the arm, hand, leg, foot, also require divine intervention*?, would it only be a mere meeting of the detached member. Art has managed to join, by juxtaposition of the minimal parts, a finger, for example, fleshy or cartilage fractions, and even to graft on a body fragments of flesh taken from another living body; but it does not record any fact of its domain where members, once fully detached, could have taken over.

These facts which one would seek vainly in the annals of art abound in those of holiness. At the time of the apparitions, we recounted how the Prince of the Apostles appeared to Saint Agathe in his prison, and only by his presence, and in the name of Jesus Christ who sent him, he gave back to this glorious virgin the breasts which a barbaric judge had forced him to amputate. Among other wonders of this kind that we might cite, mention only the one that the Mother of God performed on Saint John Damascene +.

To avenge the writings published by this illustrious defender of the holy images, Emperor Leon Isaurian denounced him to the caliph of Damascus as guilty of high treason, and produced in evidence a supposed letter which he had made by miserable men. The Saracen prince ordered that the right hand of the saint doctor be cut off and exposed in the public square, and his orders were ruthlessly executed. When evening came, John obtained that his hand was brought to him, and, drawing her close to the mutilated arm, he asked with tears, prostrated before an image of the Blessed Virgin, that the use of it be restored to him. As he prayed in this way, he fell asleep, and when he woke up, he found his hand fully restored.

VIII. — In the case of lesions, even in the main organs, one should not hasten to resort to miracles to explain the persistence of life or progressive healing. Medicine ? recognizes mortal wounds of their nature, but not without admitting the possibility and existence of some exceptional healings °. The most serious lesions are naturally those that reach the brain and heart; deep and substantial, they cause immediate or at least immediate death; and yet there are several cases of this kind where life has remained long enough, some of which have resulted in full healing. But for the heart in particular, when life lasts despite a wide and deep rupture, it is that the wound closes or that its edges, by tightening, suspend the bleeding; for if the outcome persists, the total loss of blood cannot fail to take place at short notice. Therefore, Saint Térèse! and the stigmatized ? who have lived whole years with a gaping opening to the heart, seem to us to be in a case, not of natural exception, but of divine exception.

Even though an injury would not be fatal, provided it was indeed wide and deep, its instantaneous disappearance, to the point that there was no trace or at least complete healing, should be considered miraculous; for this restoration is outside the current laws of the organism, and therefore cannot be neither a spontaneous effect of nature, nor the work of the demon, which only acts by putting the forces of nature into play.

The certainty would not be the same if it were a disease or infirmity without organic injury; not that the demon is able to heal them instantly by direct action, but it can be the active cause of evil, and, to feign the miracle, he only has to suspend the evil. We will talk more along these evil tricks in a special chapter.

In summary, the full certainty of the absolute miracle, in fact of body healing, requires conditions that can be reduced to the following four: the natural impossibility of the cure in the conditions in which it occurs, its perfect realization, its promptness and its duration. Naturally achievable, healing cannot be considered miraculous; incomplete, it would not attest sufficiently to the powerful intervention of God; slow and progressive, it could be imputed to the secret resources of nature; and momentary only, it would betray rather Satan's prestige than God's restorative action.

IX. — In the intellectual order, the exclusively divine facts are more precise and no less numerous.

In the first place is the prophecy or prediction of a future free event independent of the will of the one who announces it. Such predictions go beyond the reach of man and the angel, of every creature?: the field of future is God's. Who can describe in advance what will be done by free beings who do not yet exist, or even those who exist, in distant situations that steal from their own eyes? Even in the physical world of which man discovers the laws through experience and induction, God retains the freedom to derogate from it by miracle, and these derogations, he alone has the secret,

This is the unanimous teaching of Christian theology on this point?. To prophesy, one must join the discernment of the spirits who discovers in the depths of souls the intimate visions, the secret purposes, the veiled desires, the unconscious inclinations. God alone! sees this mystery of thought discovered, and it is, in the Gospel, one of the signs of the divinity of Christ? that he penetrated the depths of hearts and consciences: neither faithful angels * nor, more importantly, fallen angels, have access to these depths.

X. — All mystics still reserve to the only divine action the visions and the words called intellectues, as we have said in dealing with these sublime communications.

The first alleged reason is that creatures can only act on a being by complying with the laws that govern it, and it is a law of our intellectual nature that it requires, in order to exercise itself with conscience, a prior and concomitant excitation of the senses. The author of nature lifts this condition at his own discretion; but he alone has this power.

A second reason, which stems from the first, is the invincible conviction where are the souls to whom these visions and intellectual words are addressed, that it is God who enlightens them and speaks to them. We understand without difficulty that God brings with himself the irrefutable testimony of his identity.

By virtue of the same principle, the purely mental reminder that suspends the ecstasy in the name of obedience would be an exclusively divine note, a very valuable note that allows us to verify with certainty the character of these extranatural alienations. It is true that many do not admit the absolute effectiveness of this inner command; but whether it is always effective or not, when it has its effect, it can be considered decisive.

In short, God alone can reach the depths of understanding, either to look at it or to project its light.

"Know," said Saint Bernard, summarizing the affirmations and reasons of Catholic teaching on this point, "that no created spirit can by itself be applied to our souls, so that without the intermediary of our body or of his own, he mixes and spreads in us, and that we become, through his participation, doctes or more doctes, good or better. No one among the heavenly spirits, no human soul is able to contain me in this way, nor myself to contain anyone. The angels themselves do not understand one another in this way. It is therefore necessary to reserve this prerogative to the sovereign Spirit who escapes any limitation, who alone, when he wants to enlighten and instruct angel or man, does not need any instrument either to — speak, or to be heard. By himself he re-educates himself in the intimacy of being; by himself he makes himself known; pure spirit, he penetrates the pure spirit. He alone needs no one but himself; only he is sufficient for himself, and by his own sovereign will he is sufficient for all and all."

XI. — In the moral order, God also has his exclusive way of revealing his presence.

It is an agitated question among theologians, if the justification of the sinner constitutes a miraculous fact. According to St.Thomas!, whose feeling has generally prevailed in the School?, when the passage from sin to grace takes place according to the normal course of penance, there is no miracle; but if conversion departs, either by its suddenness or by its perfection, from the regular laws of supernatural Providence, it accuses, by this very fact, an extraordinary intervention outside the established order; and, from this point of view, it comes into the notion of miracle. Between these two kinds of justification, there is no, no doubt, as well as Suarez's remark, substantial difference; the wonderful exists only in fashion.

1 Sum. 1.2, q. 113, a. 10 : Tertio modo, in operibus miraculosis invenitur aliquid præter solitum: et consuetum ordinem causandi effectum... ; et quantum ad hoc justificatio impii quandoque est miraculosa, et quandoque non. Est enim iste communis et consuetus cursus justificationis, ut Deo movente interius animam, homo convertatur ad Deum, primo quidem conversione imperfecta, ut postmodum ad perfectam deveniat... Quandoque vero tam vehementer Deus animam movet, ut statim quamdam perfectionem justitiæ assequatur : sicut fuit in conversione Pauli, adhibita etiam exterius miraculosa prostratione; et ideo conversio Pauli tanquam miraculosa in Ecclesia commemoratur:

2 Benorr XIV, De Serv. This, therefore, seems to be the common and accepted opinion. It is agreed to number among the miraculous conversions those of Saint Matthew, the good thief, and Saint Paul. By its perfection and its brilliance, the conversion of Marie Madeleine seems to have the same character?.

In the later ages, these wonders have multiplied to infinite, and it is one of the privileges, as it is one of the power of prayer, this sudden and lasting reconciliation between God and the most obstinate sinners; it seems that the saints exercise an irresistible empire over God and that, at their request, he suspends the laws of natural order and supernatural order.

The instantaneous elevation of an ordinary virtue to heroic perfection can also be regarded as miraculous; for the common and regular order of supernatural Providence is that souls advance through graduated increments and initial struggles where fear dominates, the illuminations of hope and the ardour of pure love.

In the conversion itself, as in these ascensions to a prominent virtue, the note which serves as a counter-test to instantaneity and which is the indispensable confirmation of it, is perseverance in this state.

1 Benorr XIV, Ibid. n. 9, p.205: Tres sunt conversiones quas theologi inter miracula recensent, conversio videlicet sancti Latronis, conversio sancti Matthæi, et conversio sancti Pauli, quam celebrat Ecclesia universalis. d

2 S. FRANÇ. FROM SALES, Introduction to Life, 17th P., c. 5: It is the beginning of our health that is purged from our peccant moods. Saint Paul at one time was purged with perfect purgation, as was also Saint Catherine of Gennes, Saint Magdelaine, Saint Pelagie and some others; but this kind of purgation is all miraculous and extraordinary in grace, as the resurrection of the dead in nature.

3 Benorr XIV, De Serv. Dei beatific. 1. 4, P. 1, ©. 28, n. 6, p. 204 : Communis ergo et recepta esse videtur sententia, ut impii justificatio vere et EN 58 4° SECT.: DIEU CAUSE UNIQUE DE LA VRAIE MYSTIQUE

Tels sont dans l’ordre corporel, intellectuel et moral, les prodiges qui, par leur caractère intrinsèque, accusent l'intervention divine. proprie miraculum sit, cum, adjuvante Dei gratia, præter ordinem consuetum fit, et in primo momento in quo est, seclusis consuetis præcedentibus minus perfectis dispositionibus, perfectionem assequitur, eodemque CHAPITRE III

THE COMMON SUNATURE: WHAT SIGNS WE RECOGNIZE THAT IT IS DIVINE To recognize among the wonders that the creature can realize those who are divine, we must resort to the extrinsic signs. — All circumstances must breathe kindness and moral propriety. — The holiness of agents recommends miracle, but is not an absolutely necessary condition. — The most certain indices are in the results. — A sure note is advancement in virtue. — Particular verts that signal the divine action: humility, — purity, — obedience to the guide of conscience and to other legitimate superiors, — fidelity to the duties of state. — De tous ces caractères, il est permis de conclure au divin. — God cannot allow the demon to realize them completely. — Many of these cases are insoluble. I. — The divine miracle is of two kinds: absolutely divine, i.e. unrealizable by any other than by God; these are the wonders that we come to enumerate; or relatively divine, and it is then a fact, which, taken in itself, does not exceed the natural virtue of the demon, but, in the circumstances given, is attributable only to God. This second class of miracles is the subject of this chapter. These facts belong to the physical order, since God alone can deal directly with the sanctuary of the soul: these are supernatural healings relative to man, prolonged abstinences, sweet smells, ecstasy, etc.

Balsamism, radiation, air ascensions, ecstasy and jubilations in what they have from the outside, body appearances and even wine; in a word, all the wonders of the same nature accomplished on the bodies.

To unravel here the divine., it is not enough, we understand, to consider the deployed energy, since we suppose the creature capable of reaching, by its natural forces, these proportions: we must resort to other signs.

These signs which attest to the intervention ‘divine and exclude that of Satan, are taken from the fact envisaged in himself or in his mode, of the purpose, of the agents, of the results especially.

IT. — The first condition is that the fact, with all its circumstances, presents nothing but good, honest, decent, nothing that is suitable for the greatness and holiness of God. In general, what causes laughter and overexcites passions is suspicious, as also what would be vulgar, insignificant, bizarre or shock common sense. But we need serious attention and good faith here. He often finds himself in the truly divine manifestations of peculiarities which, at first glance, seem petty, ridiculous to the unbelievers, and which are in essence only touching testimonies of God's tenderness and mercy toward men. When, well and wisely examined, all the circumstances of a wonderful fact breathe: order, proprieties, holiness, God can be there.

Similarly, the prodigy which tends to the good, to the truth, to the relief of misfortune, to the building up of souls, to the prosperity of the Church, to the glory of God, fills the common SUNATURAL condiles, AND ITS SIGNS A 7 104

k

1 is true that the main end and iip ii Cumeus ns does not appear at first glance, and that sometimes it only discovers itself at the last end of the act or event; but, for the ordinary, the meaning and scope of the true supernatural emerges quickly and clearly.

.—When other circumstances are not suspicious, holiness, or at least prominent virtue of the agents of the miracle, is a great presumption in favor of its divine provenance. God has no custom of using in his supernatural concessions only men according to his heart, witnesses worthy of his truthfulness and holiness; or, if they have been so far in the abjection of sin, the divine choice will be attested by a sincere and brilliant conversion.

This is the general law, but it is not absolute. Sinners can become the instruments of divine confidences and works without reaching penance. In these cases, which constitute moral anomalies, the other signs of the divine will have to be more obvious and more indisputable.

Suarez! makes an important distinction on this subject. Or the miracle takes place without any connection with doctrine and only to help others; or it has as its object the confirmation of a cause or belief. God sometimes realizes, albeit very rarely, the marvelous of the first kind through vicious people, less in their consideration than to reward the faith of those who

1 De Fide, disp. 4, S.3,:0.'10, t. 42, p.124 : Respondetur duobus modis posse fieri miraculum. Primum sine ullo respectu ad veritatem aliquam per illud confirmandam, sed solum ‘propter illius utilitatem , ut ad conferendam sanitatem vel quid simile. Secundo, fit miraculum in testimonium alicujus doctrinæ, ut veram esse confirmet. Priori modo, verum est posse Deum facere miracula per pravos homines, quamvis fortasse rarissime hoc contingat; et quando evenit, magis est ex:fide recipientis quam ex virtute operantis. Posteriori autem modo, fieri non potest ut miracula fiat in conqui réclament et reçoivent ce bienfait. But in a prodigy that would recommend error, God will never be for nothing; he can only be the work of the lying angel.

If there is a conflict between the authorities and miracles, God himself must decide the matter through more brilliant and peremptory manifestations. Pascal! was right when he wrote: "God owes men not to mislead them. But they would be misled if miracle-doers foretold a doctrine that did not appear visibly false to the lights of common sense, and if a greater miracle-doer had not already warned not to believe them. Thus, if there were division in the Church, and if the arians, for example, who said they were founded in Scripture like the Catholics, would have done miracles, and not the Catholics, one would have been misled.

... Never in a public dispute, where the two parties say to God, to Jesus Christ, to the Church, miracles are not on the side of false Christians, and the other side without miracles. Never in the restraint of the true God, truth and religion, there has come a miracle on the side of error, not of truth."

IV. — The most authentic clues of the divine supernatural are in its results.

The manifestations that come from God have the ordinary effect of inspiring fear, but a respectful fear to which soon follows the sweetest tranquillity. The devil, on the contrary, dispenses joy only to lead to trouble and astounding; and often he throws into an irremediable worry. Saint Anthony, as St. Athanasius reports? in the life of the illustrious cenobite, pointed out this

1 Thoughts , 2nd P., c. 2, § 1, n. 362 and 364, 3rd ed., by V. ROCHER, p. 236 et 238.

2 Vita S. For indeed the vision of the saints brings no disturbance...; for the Lord is with them — [marking] the significant difference between celestial visions and diabolical apparitions. The first bring with them, he said, peace and joy, because they come from the Lord, who is our joy; and if they first cause a tremor of respect, then they spread peace, trust and suavity into the soul. Others have quite opposite effects: fear, tumult, confusion of thoughts, uprisings of concupiscence, black sorrows, disgust of holy exercises, the horror of death; to all these signs one recognizes the disturbing spirit.

V. — The advancement in virtue and perfection is a sure and characteristic note that reveals the very author of holiness. Except for exceptions that do not invalidate the rule, divine interventions have on the souls that are favored of it, one of these three effects: conversion, acceleration or consumption. But they make certain special virtues shine brightly: humility which removes man from himself, purity which frees him from the servitudes of the flesh, obedience which prevents illusions, fidelity to the duties of state, which makes these privileges contribute to general harmony. Extraordinary graces that are not accompanied by deep humility must be considered false, or at least regarded as suspicious. (Gerson! poses this mark in the front line to distinguish true ‘visions from those that are false. The instinctive movement, indeed, of the faithful souls whom God honors with these favors, is to recognize unworthy of them, to urge to live hidden in common ways, and to take every precaution to escape the eyes of men. Saint Hildegarde? keeps secret his amazing revelations, and resolves to publish them only on the formal orders of heaven. Saint Catherine of Genoa * pleads with the Lord to remove ecstasy and visions, and makes unheard of efforts to avoid and prevent them. Saint Thomas de Villeneuve, unable to dominate the delights which lay down in pulpit and at the altar, renounces the ministry of the word and the celebration of holy mysteries in public. It is superfluous to mention names and facts;

1 De distinct. verarum visionum a falsis, t.:1, col. 45 : Quoad primam conditionem, si cognoveris aliquem qui per superbam curiositatem et vanam laudem, atque præsumptionem sanctitatis, cupidus sit habere revelationes insolitas, qui se dignum istis reputet, qui in talibus de se narrandis gloriabundus delectetur, scito quoniam illudi meretur, neque magnipendas si aliquam habuisse revelationem jactanter affirmet : deest enim pondus humilitatis.

2 Scivias, l. 1, præf. Migne, P. lat. t. 197, col, 383 : Facta est vox de cœlo ad me dicens : O homo fragilis, et cinis cineris, et putredo putredinis, dic et scribe quæ vides et audis. Sed quia timida es ad loquendum , etc.

3 BB. 45 sept. t. 45, p 169, m. 84-86 : Tantum abest ut delectaretur ecstasibus, visionibus, aliisque favoribus cælestibus, ut etiam a prima ætate, quemadmodum supra dictum est, Dominum suppliciter precata fuerit, ut nunquam illis donaretur... Mirabilis visu erat violentia quam sibimet inferebat Sancta ad hæc impediendum... Non destitit tamen illa omnem adhibere industriam ad eas obtegendum nomine vertiginum.

4 BB. 18 Sept. t. 45, p. 882, n. 27: Continuam insper patiebatur lies elevationem, tum concionando, cum Sacra faciendo, aut.officia divina recitando, ita wut tandem a concionibus prorsus vacare, and a Rei divinæ palam celebratione abstinere coactis esty sese a-gloria and sanctitatis opinione subcar, to summarize everything in two words: the humility that refuses or hides these favors is the law; the love that asks and publishes them is the exception.

It should be noted, however, with Cardinal Bonat that something else is to be proud of a revelation, and something else only to be tempted; pride is the mark of a false revelation, but not temptation, especially if it is resisted with great energy.

VI. — Love and the worship of purity are inseparable from the truly divine mystical favors. The attraction of the soul by God has the effect of separating it from fleshly affections, purifying it, and spiritualizing it. These supernatural communications are like a stealthy and anticipated view of God, and this beatitude is promised only to those who have pure heart?. So we must hear this purity, not only of chastity itself, but also of a watchful delicacy of the soul to avoid all sin. These prerogatives of divine love require, says Saint Bernard*, the purity of the soul and the holiness of the body.

The temptations to which one resists strongly, and above all heroically, do not exclude divine favors; the importunities of the flesh and the suavities of spirit, this hell and this heaven, as Saint Gregory expresses himself {, often meet in one soul.

1 De diser. spir. c. 20, n. ur, 3, p. 316 : Aliud est autem superbiam ex revelatione oriri, aliud post revelationem ad eam diabolica tentatione moveri; nam primum falsæ revelationis signum est, alterum nequaquam , cum ille præsertim qui ad elationem excitatur, fortiter hosti reluctatur.

2 Matth. v, 8 : Beati mundo corde, quoniam ipsi Deum videbunt.

3 In cant. serm. 67, n. 8, t. 2, p. 373 : Quid ista ex hac prærogativa amoris glorietur impensum sibi, repensumque vicissim a se, quis se liquido nosse præsumat, nisi qui præcipua puritate mentis et corporis sanctitate, in semetipso meruerit tale aliquid experiri? . 4 Moral. 1.10, c. 10, n. 47, Migne, t. 75, col. 931 : Sæpe namque contingit ut ad summa jam mentem spiritus elevet, sed tamen hanc importunis caro tentationibus impugnet. Cumque ad contemplanda cœlestia animus ducitur, objectis actionis illicitæ imaginibus reverberatur. Nam carnis repente hune ; TH f KRSS EEr ENE i in

CS > $ 66 1 SECT.: SINGLE CAUSE GOD OF MYSTICAL TRUTH

YH. — Obedience is the surest external guarantee of divine action. It is the fruit of humility, always accompanied by self-distrust, and a mark of inspiration from above, for God loves order and does not intervene supernaturally to compromise the hierarchy that protects him. Therefore, when he visits a soul, he makes it flexible and docile, he makes it acquiesce to the orders and advice of the superiors! And let us not object that those who mix in teaching and driving lack more science and prudence; when one is himself careful in choosing a director and is subject to his decisions, God does not allow one to be deceived, or to serve the error even to the merit and spiritual advancement of a humble soul that walks in good faith and simplicity?

This obedience first includes openness and submission to the guide of consciousness. It is a constant maxim among the masters of spiritual life that stimuli salciat quem extra carnem contemplationatio sancta rapiebat. Cœlum ergo simul infernusque coarctatur cum unam eamdemque mentem et sublevatio contemplationis illuminat et importunitas tentationis obscurat : ut et videat intendendo quod appetat, et succumbendo in cogitatione toleret quod erubescat. De cœlo quippe lux oritur, infernus autem tenebris possidetur. In unum ergo cœlum infernusque redigitur, cum mens, quæ jam lucem patriæ supernæ considerat, etiam de carnis bello tenebras occultæ tentationis portat. `

1 Bona, de discret. spir. ©. 8, D. V, 5, p. 249 : Instinctus Dei animam docilem facit, aliorumque sententiæ et consiliis, seniorum præsertim et superiorum acquiescentem. 1

2 S. Jean Crimaque, Scala paradisi, gr. 26, Migne, t. 88, col. 1058 : Quicumque Domini voluntatem cognoscere voluerunt, suam prius mactare seseque abnegare debuerunt, et cum fide et simplicitate exclusa omni malitia, precari, et patres, fratresve cum vera humilitate, et sine ulla cordis dubitatione interrogare, quorum consilia et responsa tanquam ab ore Dei prolata suscipienda sunt; quamvis contraria destinato fini quærentis dicta videantur, aut interrogati non valde religiosi sint. Deus enim non est iniquus ut animas quæ per fidem et simplicitatem alterius se consilio et judicio humiliter subjiciunt, decipi patiatur : nam etiamsi illi qui consuluntur imprudentes fuerint, est tamen ille qui per illos loquitur sine corpore nec oculis subjectus. ka

AND ITS SIGNS 67 souls favored by extraordinary graces must not hide from their directors visions, words and other supernatural impressions that they experience. Saint Térèse?, who, however, had suffered greatly from the inexperience of his confessors, never departed from this conduct and recommended her to her daughters as the sure way from which they should not depart.

It is not obligatory, nor is it expedient to make such confidences to any priest, nor even always to the ordinary confessor; it is mainly in such encounters that it is appropriate and important to resort to a wise, doctious and experienced guide, should he wait a long time before finding him, provided however that all judgment and especially any practical resolution inspired by so-called revelations are suspended until then.

"It is necessary," said St John of the Cross? speaking of supernatural words, "to give knowledge of all these things to a prudent and experienced confessor or to some other doctist and discreet person to receive his advice and instructions; and then it will be his duty to regulate the conduct of him who consults him, and who must follow the con1 ALVAREZ DE PAZ, of discr.\ spirit. 115 , P. 4th. B,,.ind. 4 et 5, t. 6, p. 674 : Sicut revelationes non sunt omnibus propalandæ, ita non sunt a confessario aut magistro spiritus abscondendæ. Si enim in aliis rebus dubiis ad eum recurrimus, cur in hac, quæ summæ dubietatis est, ad eum non recurramus...? Hæc raptuum et revelationum manifestatio, quæ prælato aut magistro spiritus fit, ad hoc dirigitur ut qui illa habet ab eo in omnibus dirigatur. Hæc autem directio, in eo qui regendus est, credulitatem et obedientiam requirit. Gredes igitur ei quem magistrum ac rectorem accepisti.

2 His Life, c. 26: This is the most appropriate course of action; it has no danger and offers many advantages; and we women, who are strangers to science, must above all abide by it: it is to make known the whole soul motor and the graces that we receive to an enlightened confessor, and to obey him. Our Lord himself has commanded me many times; I am putting it into practice, and I cannot without it alone be given it, remaining in complete submission to the will of the director, and in complete indifference to all these communications. If we do not find a man with sufficient experience in these matters, we must be content to draw all the fruit that we can, to despise the rest and to declare ourselves to no one. We could fall into the hands of some people who, instead of building the soul, would disturb her."

It is not only to spiritual directors that obedience is due, but also to all those who exercise legitimate authority; and this is particularly true in religious communities, where superiors must govern, not after particular revelations, but in accordance with established rules. God always approves of this submission, even when it seems to upset his purposes. A remarkable example is found in the life of Blessed Marguerite-Marie Alacoque. To obey her superior, she tried to avoid the supernatural action that dominated her. Far from reciting it, Our Lord addressed to him these touching words, which she herself tells us: "Learn that I am not offended by all these battles and oppositions which you make to me out of obedience, for which I have given my life; but I want to tell you that I am the absolute master of my gifts and my creatures, and that nothing can prevent me from accomplishing my purposes. That's why, not only do I want you to do what your superiors will tell you, but you will not do anything that I will order you without their consent. For I love obedience, and without it I cannot be pleased."

VII. — Finally, God, who loves order, can only inspire those whom he illuminates with his special graces the accuracy of the duties of their state; and, if he calls them to a more perfect vocation, the most sure mark of the attraction he gives them will be a delicate fidelity to fulfill their present obligations, until they are freed from them. Women, above all, are subject to such unfortunate illusions that discredit piety and mystical favours. Many, as soon as they feel vivid impressions that bring them to God, abandon themselves unreservedly to the detriment of the duties of their condition. "No, Philothée, the devotion does not spoil anything when it is vrayed," said Saint Francis de Sales? to her Philothée, "but it perfects everything, and when it makes itself contrary to the legitimate vocation of someone, it is undoubtedly false."

The same must be said of the wonders that seem to belong to the mystical order. When they result in disgust of the condition where Providence has placed and the charges it imposes, they must be held to be suspects. If everyone follows his instinct and sound. attraction in the practice of life, everything becomes confused, and, under the pretext of particular inspiration, one would disturb all institutes, families and the Church itself. "The Holy Spirit," said Bona?, "is assigning to the various states their limits, which must be respected. And just as a tree does not produce the fruits that are peculiar to another, but those of its kind, so it must be of each Christian in its condition: an ecclesiastical must live as an ecclesiastical, a religious, without ever escaping from his profession, unless God calls for a higher perfection."

IX. — Let us conclude from all this that a supernatural fact in relation to man, good in its end and object, worthy and suitable in its circumstances, realized by friends of God, whose results are in favor of virtue, can and must be regarded as divine. If only one of these conditions is violated, except that of holiness in agents, the wonderful in question cannot come from God, in whom all is goodness, holiness and majesty. Here we must apply the moral axiom: Bonum ex integra causa, malum ex quocumque defectu; in the good, everything must be good; for the evil, it is enough of one evil element.

If an act is vitiated by a single defective aspect, it cannot be questioned. Also, in the presence of a fact of which all the circumstantial ones breathe truth and dignity, whose all appearances and effects seem to contribute to the good of souls and to the glory of God, which is accomplished by honest men, especially if they are godly and holy, this fact, we are invinciblely inclined to attribute to the principle of good and order. If the mistake were to be feared in such encounters, God would become in a way the accomplice, making serve the credit of his servants to mislead us, and we could tell him the word of Richard de Saint-Victor +: "Lord, if there is a mistake, it is from you that it comes to us."

X. — But there is an objection here. Is it not possible for the devil, for the evil pleasure of having his action taken for God's, and thus discrediting the divine miracle, to satisfy the conditions that this miracle demands? Why would this deceit be forbidden to him, since Saint Paul warned us that he was turning into an angel of light, in order to seduce us? And if it can happen, when will we be certain that it has not happened?

Taking the act in itself, it is not impossible for the demon to give him appearances of goodness and convenience capable of inducing in error; he can also conceal the intentional purpose, to reveal it in due course. But the divine miracle requires these and other conditions, and, as we have said, it is all these conditions that assign to divine intervention its character. If the object or the end does not reveal the evil turpitudes, they will appear in the actors or in the results. How can we admit that the saints, who are the ordinary agents of the miracle, are at Satan's mercy and that he can force them, at his will and without their knowledge, to cover his prestige? How can we admit above all that the effects of grace that accompany most miraculous facts are the result of this unclean source? These effects, assuming them real and lasting, exceed the power of the demon and are quite contrary to his instincts of hatred against God and perfidy towards man.

Not only is it implausible that the malignant spirit attempts this complete imitation of the divine miracle even in its results, but it would be possible in itself, it is repulsive that God authorizes it; it would therefore become impossible to decide when this wonderful work is the work of infinite goodness or the act of the tempter; and, consequently, the supernatural manifestations some would reduce themselves, on the part of God, to the exclusively own acts of his power; divine intervention could only be exercised by the miracles of first and second order, never by the derogations of the third degree: unacceptable consequence, since, in fact, God multiplies the wonders of this kind, because they generally meet and suffice to the human necessities.

XI. — However, as these third-order miracles take place in the very field where evil virtue is exercised, it is necessary to look very closely at them before declaring that it is God who intervenes, and it is safer to conclude from holiness to miracle than from miracle to holiness. When facts of this nature meet in saints who, so to speak, have proved their worth: a Francis Xavier, a Vincent of Paul, for example, there would be an unwillingness to attribute them to the demon?. But if it is a question of appreciating the virtue or mystical states of people who would recommend themselves only by these third-order wonders, caution recommends that any judgment be stopped.

In general, whenever the miracle needs to take its character from the testimony of holiness, and holiness is not obvious, the rule to follow is abstention. God often gives blessings without giving man the certainty of the supernatural intervention that produces them. It can also allow the demon to start a business, and make it fail in its course without any other result than doubt about the real cause of the wonderful. These cases are virtually insoluble and unspeakable. The Church gives the example of the reserve in the process of canonization, by removing, without blame or approximation, a large number of so-called miracles. Unfortunately, the human multitude is impatient with a so--reading: some do it negative and others do yes:

One or the other can be wrong. CHAPITRE IV

THE MEANS BY WHICH GOD MAKES MYSTICAL PHENOMENES

1° THE DONATIONS OF SAINT-SPIRIT The two forms of the supernatural in which mystical phenomena result are the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the free gråces given. — The gifts of the Holy Spirit accompany the sanctifying gråce and stand out from the infuse virtues. — Their number, their names and their relationship to virtues. - They exist at two degrees, one ordinary, the other miraculous. — By this second aspect, each of these gifts has its share in mystical life: — fear, — piety, — science, — strength, — counsel, — intelligence, — wisdom. — Résumé succinct. — The gifts of the Holy Spirit are not enough to explain all the mystical facts; we must still resort to the free-of-charge gråces, I. — As we said on the first pages of this book, and we have often repeated, mystical phenomena belong to the order of grace, not by ordinary and common conditions, — if so, these wonders would meet in all the sanctified, which was not the place, but by the exception of the miracle. The two forms of grace to which they are generally attributed are the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the graces which are said to be given free of charge, gratiæ gratis datæ. Let us specify the characters of these two forms of the surfactic.

This chapter deals with the gifts of Saimielişpeit.

I. — The Holy Spirit is in us the invisible operator of sanctification, but his action can be considered in various aspects. The principal and fundamental form constitutes the usual grace, which brings into the soul the three adorable persons of the Trinity to be the principle and object of a new and divine life: association now hidden and mysterious, whose clear sight will make to heaven our beatitude.

The inner sanctification, by extending itself to the natural powers to subject them to reason, makes the infuse virtues germinate there; and, through the gifts of the Holy Spirit, it creates new skills in us in relation to the supernatural principle that makes us act.

Infuse virtues do not exert immediate influence on the wonders of supernatural order; we will only talk about them to indicate their relationship and differences with the gifts of the Holy Spirit. For this last form of grace, which is the ordinary means by which God raises the soul to contemplation, and which is sufficient to explain most of the intimate facts of mystical life, it belongs to us rightfully.

The gifts of the Holy Spirit are supernatural dispositions and as new faculties that the Holy Spirit {had to the sanctified soul to make it flexible and docile to its divine impulses +. Many theologians ? do not distinguish these gifts from infuse virtues; but the contrary feeling, represented by St.Thomas ê, is common and more probable +. Both of these two forms of grace come from the Holy Spirit, and as such, according to Suarez ë's remark, can be called his gifts; yet they are two different aspects of supernatural life. The virtues harmonize with reason, and the gifts submit to God; and, as the Angelic Doctor teaches, ‘ man can only receive moral guidance from these two principles, one intrinsic, the other extrinsic: Reason and God.

The theologal virtues whose immediate object is the end of being, who is God, prevail in perfection over the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which are only means to lead to this end. But the divine impulse, being superior to that which comes from reason, must by this very

1 S. Tuomas, Sum. 1.2, q. 68, a. 4 : Dona sunt quidam habitus perficientes hominem ad hoc quod prompte sequatur instinctum Spiritus sancti sicut virtutes morales perficiunt vires appetitivas ad obediendum rationi.

2 Hagert, de Gratia, $ 3, q. 3, Migne, curs. theol. t. 40, col. 4456 : Controversia est in Schola num dona sint habitus a virtutibus distincti. Negant Scotus et alii non pauci, contenduntque esse actus eximios virtutum infusarum. Sanctus vero Thomas, 1.2, q. 68, et alii communiter, quibus subseribimus, docent dona esse habitus a virtutibus distinctos.

3 Sum. 1.2, q. 68, à. 1.

4 Suarez, de Gratia, l. 2, ©. 17, n. 9, p. 672 : Nihilominus communior sententia theologorum hæc dona a virtutibus distinguit...; magis consentaneum est Scripturæ, ac proinde probabilius hos actus esse distinctos.

5 Ibid, n. 1, p. 669 : Quamvis enim omnia bona quæ nobis a Deo communicantur, quatenus ab amore ipsius procedunt, qui Spiritui sancto appropriatur, possint late vocari Spiritus sancti dona, et specialius ea quæ ad gratiam pertinent et ad salutem æternam conducunt; specialissime vero appropriatum est a theologis hoc nomen quibusdam supernaturalibus perfectionibus quæ justis a Spiritu sancto dantur.

6 Sum. 1.2, q. 68, a. 4: Est enim considerandum quod in homine est duplex principium movens : unum quidem interius, quod est ratio; alius autem exterius, quod est Deus.

7S. Tuomas, ibid. a. 8: Virtutes theologicæ præferuntur donis Spiritus sancti, and regulating ea. determine more perfect acts; which raises gifts above moral virtues and establishes between them a double difference. By virtues, man walks in the ordinary ways drawn by reason, while the gifts themselves push him into superhuman and heroic acts; secondly, gifts replace by special excitations the free acts which reason cannot determine.

"The whole observation of God's commandmen," said St. Francis de Salest, "is not in the enclosure of human forces; but it is in the confines of the instinct of the spirit, as very conforming to reason and natural light; so that, vivans according to God's commandmen, we are not for this out of our natural inclination." The permanent grace that seconds our natural inclinations to the good constitutes the infuse virtues.

"But in addition to the divine commandmen," adds the loving doctor, "there are heavenly inspirations for the exequation from which God must not only lift us up above our forces, but also that he pulls us above the instincts and inclinations of our nature; especially since these inspirations are not contrary to human reason, they nevertheless exceed, overcome and are above our natural condition, so that when we live not only a civil, honest and Christian life, but a superhuman, spiritual, devout and ecstatic life, that is, a life that is in any case outside and above our natural condition." — These heavenly inspirations that draw us from our instincts and raise us up to a superhuman life are the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

III. — Isaiah? lists the gifts of the Holy Spirit in these ‘ART: x

CAN) will receive the fullness! of grace to spread it in streams on our souls. " The Spirit of Jehovah will rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of science and godliness; he will be filled with the spirit of the fear of Jehovah. "

The theologians stick to this enumeration and strive to show that it has its foundation in the prophet's very words, in the tradition and analogy of natural virtues °.

St. Thomas puts these seven gifts into two general categories, one of which is of interest to knowledge and the other to action.

Knowledge has a dual purpose: to grasp the truth through intuition and appreciate it through judgment, and in either case, it has in mind speculation or practice. The gift of intelligence responds to the theoretical apprehension of the things of faith, the one of counsel looks at the implementation. The gift of wisdom makes one taste divine truth in itself; that of knowledge considers it as applied to the created world... [the spirit] of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and piety; and the spirit of the fear of the Lord shall fill him.

1 Joann. x, 16.

2 Hasert, de Gratia, § 3, g. 5, Migne, curs. theol. t. 10, col. 1157: Quomodo probatur septenarius ille donorum numerus? — R. Probatur 40 ipsa Prophetæ enumeratione; 2° auctoritate sanctorum Patrum..., consensu theologorum et totius Ecclesiæ, quæ illum numerum hactenus retinuït...; 3° probatur ratione, etc. 4

3 Sum. 1.2, q. 68, a. 4 : In omnibus viribus hominis, quæ possunt esse principia humanorum actuum, sicut sunt virtutes, ita etiam sunt dona, scilicet in ratione et in vi appetitiva. Ratio autem est speculativa et practica; et in utraque consideratur apprehensio veritatis, quæ pertinet ad inventionem et judicium de veritate. Ad apprehensionem igitur veritatis perficitur speculativa ratio per intellectum, practica vero per consilium. Ad recte autem judicandum speculativa quidem per sapientiam, practica vero per scientiam perficitur. Appetitiva autem virtus, in his quidem quæ sunt ad alterum, perficitur per pietatem; in his quæ sunt ad seipsum, perficitur per fortitudinem contra timorem periculorum, contra concupiscentiam vero inordinatam delectabilium per timorem. (LES MOYENS: LES NE DU SAINT- ESPRIT 79

In action, the creature must conform to Yorin by overcoming obstacles. The gift of piety rules the duties of righteousness vis-à-vis God and neighbor; the gift of strength banishes the fear of difficulties, and that of fear triumphs over false pleasures that turn away from the true good.

Thus we see the relationship between the gifts of the Holy Spirit and Christian virtues. Charity is the bond and the principle of gifts! and virtues; but the gifts of wisdom and piety' suit him above all others. The hope that looks upon God as the last end is saved by the gift of fear that weeps out of all that is not the supreme good. The faith, which adheres to God, the sovereign truth, is enlightened by the gift of Ron

In addition to the theologal virtues, which form an order ? apart, there are seven virtues: four called intellectuals, who direct the mind in the knowledge of the good, namely: intelligence, wisdom, science and prudence; three who

1 S. Tuomas, ibid. a. 5 : Dona Spiritus sancti connectuntur sibi invicem in charitate.

2 S. Tuomas, 2.2, q. 24, a. 8 : Per charitatem ordinantur actus omnium alarum virtutum ad ultimum finem, et secundum hoc ipsa dat formam actibus omnium aliarum virtutum; et Eu tanto dicitur esse forma virtutum.

3 Benoir XIV, de Serv. Dei beatific. 1. 3, 0. 2, 3, n. 95,t. 3, p. 154 : Dono Sapientiæ, quod , utpote præstantissimum, respondet charitati virtutum nobilissimæ.

4 ALVAREZ DE Paz, de Natura contempl. l. 5, P. 2, c. 4, t. 6, p. 504: Isto dono anima in contemplatione posita non tantum erga Deum. affectum dulcedinis induit, verum etiam erga proximos præ compassione liquescit.

5 S. Tuomas, 2.2, q. 19, a.. 9, ad 4 : Timor filialis et spes sibi invicem cohærent et se invicem perficiunt.

6 De septem donis Spir. sancti, P. 2, sect, 6, c. 3. Inter S. BONAVENT. Opera t. 7, p. 628: Cum veritates necessariæ ad salutem sint nobis absconditæ..., planum est quod necesse fuit ut Spiritus sanctus intellectui humano supperadderet aliquod lumen supernaturale, quo velamina dictarum veritatum penetraret et veritates absconditas apprehenderet, et eas sic nobis manifestaret. Quod utigue Spiritus sanctus fait, dum nobis donum intellectus inspirat. regulate the will, and for this strictly called moral virtues, i.e.: justice, strength and temperance. To the first four are gifts of wisdom, intelligence, science and counsel; to the other three are gifts of piety, strength and fear +.

To sum up in two words the relationship of gifts with virtues, let's say that they raise to heroic acts the virtues that answer them, and substitute them for the magnanimous resolutions that reason does not command.

IV. — Their role in mystical life would not be heard if two degrees were not distinguished: one ordinary, where these gifts are granted to a common extent, the other exceptional, where they are spread with miraculous profusion.

The mystical facts obviously belong to the second category. If all those who receive these gifts with sanctifying grace do not reach the second degree, it is because the full development of these supernatural habits requires present graces? that God dispenses at his will, and that do not enter into the common order of sanctification.

V.—All authors agree that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are the efficient cause of contemplation, all AN E e # A?

THE MEANS: THE DONATIONS OF THE SAINT-ESPRIF &

Whenever the inner grace accompanies him. Eadmer, a disciple of Saint Anselm, whose doctrine he particularly reproduces in his book of the Simrrupes, says that the five lower gifts are destined for active life, and the last two, namely, the gifts of intelligence and wisdom, to contemplative life, to crown the spiritual edifice. Saint Bonaventure*, or rather the author of a treatise on the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit attributed by a great number to the seraphic doctor, the pious Gerson ë and the learned pontiff Benedict XIV*, also assign the gifts of intelligence and wisdom as the two principles generating contemplation. Le P. Scaramelli seeks to justify this assertion by the details, and to show that all forms of passive prayer, ecstasy, words and supernatural visions find their explanation in the first gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Without contesting absolutely that most of the relevant facts

1 Lib. de S. Anselmi similitudinibus, ©. 132, Migne, t. 159, col. 681 : Hæc autem quinque Spiritus sancti dona ad activam, duo vero quæ seguuntur, id est intellectus et sapientia, ad contemplativam pertinent vitam. Ipsa tamen Spiritus sanctus primis quinque superimponit, ut suorum ædificium donorum possit omnino compleri.

2 De septem donis Sp. sancti, P. 1,c. 2, t. 7, p. 587 : Sunt enim septem dona propter septem expeditiones hominis, tam in vita activa quam in vita contemplativa necessaria. Nam Anselmus dicit quod quinque dona inferiora respiciunt vitam activam, et duo alia respiciant vitam contemplativam.

3 Compendium theologiæ, Tr. 6, de sept. donis Spir. sancti, t. 4, col. 309 : Duo autem prima digniora sunt quæ regunt vitam contemplativam, scilicet sapientia et intellectus; alia autem quinque sufficienter regunt vitam activam.

4 De serv. Dei beatific. 1. 3, c. 26, n. 7, p. 186 : Donum quippe intellectus et donum sapientiæ sunt dona Spiritus sancti... ; utrumque concurrit ad hanc contemplationem (infusam) et facit ut objectum a Deo revelatum | clarius cognoscatur, et suavius ac dulcius ametur. | 5 Dirett. mist. Tr. 2, c. 44, n. 148, p. 102: Mi pare dunque che alla for-的 mazione di qualunque grado di contemplazione, anche d'estasi, di ratti, di locuzioni e visioni posa bastare il dono della sapienza e dell intelletto, e che però non sia necessario ricorrere alla luce delle grazie gratis. to contemplation do not receive sufficient interpretation by resorting only to the gifts of wisdom and intelligence carried up to the miracle, it seems to us that the mystic life, envisaged as a whole, is more easily understood and enlightened by a greater light if one makes a share to each of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit: doctrine very conforming to what St.Thomas teaches "on the perseverance of gifts in the homeland of heaven where all will be contemplation, and expressly supported by Alvarez de Paz°, one of the most famous and safe masters of spiritual life.

To be convinced moreover of the relationship that exists between the different gifts of the Holy Spirit and mystical elevations, it is only necessary to consider the purpose achieved and the effects achieved by each of these gifts.

VI. — The first, by ascending the order and enumeration of the prophet, is the gift of fear. It consists of a reverential feeling and filial respect for God's greatness, which lead to abstaining from anything that is likely to provoke his indignation.

At the beginning of virtue, this gift moves away from sin and courageously fights against passions and gross vices. But love cleanses fear, and brings it, through successive progressions, to an extreme horror of all that displeases God; it goes as far as to cast into mortal terror and a sort of annihilation, to the sight of God irritated, loving and trembling soul; without ceasing to believe in his mercy, she feels terrified and overwhelmed by the appearance of his majesty and justice. Under the guise of this fear which is born of charity and owes him all his terrors, the soul fears less the punishment of sin than the very sin; hell seems infinitely preferable to him, and she would rather sink therein for ever than to commit the lightest offense of God.

We understand that such a fear has and raises the soul to contemplation!: it is she who realizes the passive purifications that precede the contemplative suspension and form its prelude.

VIT. — Piousness measures and tempers fear. She makes adhere and obey God with the joy and docility of a child.

Reached to a high degree, it inspires love for God all the impulses, all the abandonments, all the industries; it brings forth sources of tears and tenderness, communicates hitherto unknown facilities of expression, makes capable of all the devotions; in a word, with the gentle rays of piety, the soul drunk before God with a delicious suavity, and feels for the neighbor the most generous compassion?. Who does not recognize these signs as the cause

1 ALVAREZ DE Paz, de natura contempl. 1.5, P. 2,0. 4, t. 6, p. 504: Imprimit etiam castam quamdam erubescentiam in conspectu Dei, præsertim si mens in aliquo deficiat et inclinat ad despicientiam sui ipsius... Timor hic sanctus rejicit omnem timorem servilem de morte, de judicio, de inferno.

2 ALVAREZ DE PAZ, ibid., p. 503: Donum pietatis voluntatem exornat. Est autem spiritualis quædam devotio et promptitudo ad omnia Dei obsequia, de l'ivresse et des transports qui accompagnent la contemplation ? T

VII. — The gift of science complements the two preceding ones, learning to rise up to God by means of creatures, to avoid what offends him, to realize what pleases him. This illumination is general and looks rather at knowledge than conduct; it is the gift of counsel that guides the soul in particular and practical determinations!.

The ordinary lights of the gift of science do not exceed the common necessities of Christian life. But by-i times it extends further: it opens the eye of the soul to the world $ . of creatures, discovering their intimate properties, the hidden relationships that connect them with each other and with the primary cause, the analogies of nature with the world of faith; thus giving strange facilities of deduction to demonstrate supernatural truths, and, of the spectacle of variations and limits of created things, leading to the contemplation of pure and simple truth ?.

IX. — Force reduces the visions of lintelli-jence into action. As a gift of the Holy Spirit, it also includes two degrees. First, it overcomes the difficulties that do not come out of the common providential order. In the second, she dips the soul for extraordinary battles, she makes him despise the primers of voluptuousness, the contemplation; she finally gives him sufficient energy to withstand faithfully the trials that prepare for passive prayer, and to sustain the ecstatic excesses of this divine attraction!.

X. — The council shall regulate and protect the exercise of force. The role of the Holy Spirit's gift is to supplement natural prudence in the perplexities of sanctification that it cannot solve. The resolutions that seem to contradict the human meaning and breathe divine wisdom are the highest forms of this supernatural gift, and it is through these heavenly impulses that many saints explain the resolutions and eccentricities that the world treats as folly?.

XI. — The gift of intelligence reveals the meaning of divine things, and gives the soul a piercing look that allows it to probe the mysteries of faith, without tearing its veils.

These intuitions may not go beyond the com[mon]... [Alvarez de Paz, ibid., p. 502:] With respect to contemplation, the gift of fortitude causes a man to overcome all sins and every temptation, to despise all lower things, and to guard the adornments of the virtues; that he may offer himself to bear every tribulation, affliction, and adversity for Christ's sake; that he may have the strength to endure mental excesses — ecstasies, raptures, and other things of this kind, in which there is no small difficulty; and finally, that he may transcend all these things, and every consolation, and sensible grace, and the attainment of gifts however excellent, and rest in none of these, but purely and simply in God alone.

2 Suarez, de Gralia, l. 2, ©. 21, n. 6-8, t- 7, p. 689 : Hoc consilium Spiritus sancti ... different tamen ab aliis judicitis practice practices, in regulara munes of the Christian faith; but in their fullness they make shine in the soul on the radiant day of contemplation!. "By this gift," said the author of the treatise attributed to Saint Bonaventure, "the Holy Spirit lifts up the veils of the divine Scriptures? "that he makes penetrate, not only the mysteries of the incarnate truth, but the very depths of the uncreated truth?; that, in revelations and burnings, he fills the soul with the fires and light of the south, that he brings it to the delicious sleep and rest of ecstasy."*

XII. — Saint Bernard defines wisdom as the flavor of good. This gift, in fact, is a supernatural taste that makes God and eternal things savor and makes insipid, on the contrary, all that is earthly and transitory; it makes adhere to the intimate visions of the supernatural and divine world, the source of all that bursts out of good, pure and holy in the region of creatures, in the double perspective of nature and grace ê.

1 De septem donis Spiritus sancti, P.1, c. 4, (Op. S. BONAvENT.), t. 7

7 p. 690 : Donum intellectus mentis domum contemplatione illuminat.

2 Ibid.,P. 2, c. 4, p. 630 : Sed Spiritus sanctus per donum intellectus facit nos penetrare omnia velamina occultantia nobis veritates Scripturarum necessarias nobis ad salutem.

3 Ibid. Item Spiritus sanctus, per donum intellectus, non solum facit nos penetrare omnia velamina veritatis incarnatæ, sed et veritatis increatæ.

4 Ibid. c. 6, p. 632: Post mane hujus diei luminosæ, horæ meridianæ claritas fervida oritur in mente ex dono intellectus , quod pariter illuminat et inflammat in sacra Scriptura ad modum horæ meridianæ... Post horam claræ et fervidæ meridiei, hora vespertina succedit, in qua labor quotidianus terminatur, somnus contemplationis inchoatur, deliciæ nocturnales celebrantur.

5 Serm. 85 in cant. n. 8, p. 432 : Nec duxerim reprehendendum si quis sapientiam saporem boni difliniat.

6 ALVAREZ DE PAZ, de natura contempl. 1:3, P. 2, 04; t. 6, p. 500 : Sapientia quæ est primum Spiritus sancti donum , confert intellectui cognitionem altissimam et simplicissimam Dei, et rerum divinarum et cælestium, ac earum quibus ad omnem sanctitatem promovemur, cum quadam mirabili suavitate, sapore atque dulcedine. Neque tam dulce est mel et saccharum palato carnis quam dulcis est divina veritas, ratione hujus doni, palato mentis... Ita dum in nocte hujus vitae ante lucernam fidei in corde justi saContemplation, where the soul ceases to belong to be lost in God, is the culmination and regular extension of this gift. It produces in the soul the holy drunkenness and the sweet sleep of ecstasy. It is the bread, it is the wine which wisdom itself offers to the fools whom she invites, to make them wise, to the feast of her love: "Come, eat my bread, and drink the wine that I have prepared for you!", and several authors ? see in this gift the effective cause of mystical theology or contemplation, although the common feeling adjoins her for this elevation sublime the gift of intelligence. To consider only the light that inundates the contemplative soul and the charm that subjugates it, these two forms of grace explain without difficulty one and the other; but this is only one aspect, the main, it is true, of mystic life; there are others to which this interpretation would not suffice.

XII. — To sum up in a quick picture the part which belongs to the various gifts of the Holy Spirit, we would attribute to the gift of fear the holy fears which cleanse the soul and dispose it to contemplation;

To the gift of piety, the violence of love that consumes passive purification and also sadness, loving compassion, tears, joyful braiding, these wonderful facilities to express through speech, singing, music, poetry, painting, everything that rejoices, transports and intoxicates;

To the gift of counsel, these boldnesses that confuse the prudence of the flesh, these solutions that disconcerte human calculations, these holy extravagances that make Jes sages worldly laugh or groan; the conduct of these martyrs who have rushed into the flames or into the waters out of impatience to die for Jesus Christ or to escape the peril of losing their virtue, of Samson burying himself with the Philistines under the ruins of their temple, of Saint Simeon Stylite, of Christine Admirable, of Blessed Labre, and of so many other saints who have confused human wisdom by the strangeness of their lives;

To the gift of strength, the heroism that bursts in the martyrs of the body the martyrs of the soul, the mockery and the serenity of a Vincent, a Laurent, a Pionius in the midst of tortures; the immortal cry of Job at the height of his distress: "He would give me the blow of death that I would still hope in him"; these glimmers of love no less sublime for the cross and the divine Crucified: of Teresus: "Or suffer or die"; of Mary-Madeleine de Pazzi: "Suffer and not die"; of John of the Cross: "Suffer and be despised for you, Lord"; the superb challenges of Saint Gutlac, Saint Anthony and so many other athletes of Christ to the infernal legions.

To the gifts of science and intelligence, we would report the ease of seeing God in creatures, infidel knowledge, the prodigious abilities to learn and understand as through a kind of intuition, the intelligence of mysteries, visions and imaginary or intellectual words;

Finally, in the dm of wisdom, the adherence of the soul from passive recollection and quietness to union, ecstasy and spiritual covenant.

We see it, each of the gifts of the Holy Spirit and its share in mystical life.

XIV. — However, these gifts are not enough to explain the mystical facts, for two reasons.

First, because a number of these facts escape this interpretation, such as stigmas, mystical diseases, translations and bilocations, abstinences, perfumes, liqueurs, radiation, the transformation of the senses, the freeing of external servitudes, the empire over nature and man.

Secondly, because the contemplation itself, and more certainly the visions, the words, the delights, the infusion of science and art, in a word, most of these favors, — we expressly exclude that of union, — do not strictly suppose the sanctifying grace * in the subject that receives them; and when these wonders are not accompanied by righteousness, they cannot emanate from the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which are themselves only an emanation and an extension of inner holiness.

It is therefore necessary to resort to another divine process that realizes the miraculous facts without assuming or producing sanctification by itself. This principle independent of holiness exists and bears in the school the name of graces free of charge given, free of charge. To complete the interpretation of mystical phenomena, we must make known these kinds of graces.

This will be the subject of the next chapter. CHAPITRE V

THE MEANS BY WHICH GOD MAKES MYSTICAL PHENOMENES

90 GRACES FREE DATA Relationship of graces given free of charge with grace in general. — The righteous are the ordinary subjects of these graces; but they also meet, albeit rarely, in sinners. — The nine graces indicated by St. Paul. — Ranking after Saint Thomas and Suarez. — The graces of wisdom and science; how they differ from the gifts of the Holy Spirit which bear the same names. — La foi. — La grâce des guérisons. — L'opération des prodiges. — Prophecy and discernment of spirits. — Le don des langues. — Celui de l'interprétation. — Some of these graces are usually given; others consist of transitional acts. — The role in the mystical graces free of charge. — In principle, it is possible to distinguish as many species as there are groups of facts of a common nature. — Brief summary of the divine processes associated with mystical phenomena. I. — Graces are diverse, but all come from the Holy Spirit as a single source, and can be called his gifts? Similarly, any supernatural gift emanates from divine liberality, and would be properly referred to as free grace. However, for 1 I Cor., xn, 4: Divisiones vero gratiarum sunt, idem autem Spiritus. 2 CORNELIUS A LAP., in I Cor., xi, 4: Apte Apostolus gratias seu dona tribvit Spiritui sancto ceu fonti bonitatis. to express the different aspects of the divine operation on souls and to distinguish them between them, one restricts to some of the names which, taken in themselves, would also suit all others.

The most general division derives from the end to which these divine concessions tend; and, from this point of view, the theologians distinguish two kinds of graces: one is destined to unite with the soul God who receives it, and for this reason is described as grace that makes it pleasant, gratia gratum faciens; it embraces three aspects: sanctifying grace, infuse virtues and gifts of the Holy Spirit. The other has as direct object the spiritual utility of the neighbor, and takes the name of grace freely given, gratia gratis data, no doubt because it is outside the natural power and the merit of the subject who carries it +.

This last category includes a whole set of heavenly favours whose usefulness to the next one is all the less apparent, as one recommends to hide them carefully from any other than the director of consciousness, as are supernatural visions and words, ecstases, stigmas, and in general most mystical states?. The reason for this is that these kinds of graces almost always have a salutary radiance outside, and that many nevertheless do not seem absolutely inseparable from inner holiness. IL. — Precisely because they do not themselves carry sanctification, the graces given free of charge are common to the righteous and sinners, and address themselves less to the will to put it into action, than to the mind to bring it light and ease.

However, in divine thought, the grace that sanctifies does not exclude, we understand, the benefit of edification, and free graces, though destined for the benefit of the neighbor, must nevertheless benefit those who are the providers of it?

Much more, although these two graces are designed one without the other, the second is rarely separated from the first. The sanctifying grace, it is true, usually persists without the free graces given, God having not wanted to attach these miraculous gifts to holiness, for fear, says St Augustine °, that human infirmity made more case than good works that merit us eternal life. But if the opposite can happen, know, that the graces given free of charge meet in a soul without justice, it is never only the exception. So one can be holy without enjoying in any way the

1 Suarez, de Gratia, Proleg. 3, c. 4, n. 8 et 10, t. 7, p. 145: Gratiæ gratis datæ communes sunt peccatoribus et justis, gratia vero gratum faciens propria est justorum... Opera spectantia ad gratias gratis datas no ©的 THE MEDIUM privilege of graces freely given; this is the common law; as also one can have these graces without being holy, "otherwise, says pleasantly Saint Bonaventure!, it should be said that Balaam was holy, and even his donkey."

M. — Saint Paul, in his first speech to the Corinthians, points out the graces that theologians have described as free LM. "To everyone," he said, "is given the manifestation of the Spirit as it is useful. To one is given by the Spirit the PAROLE OF SAGESSE; to another the PAROLE OF SCIENCE, according to the same Spirit; to another the For, in the same Spirit; to another the GRACE OF GUERISON, in the same Spirit; to another the VERTU DES PRODIGES; to another the PROPHETIA; to another the DISCERNMENT OF SPIRITS; to another the DONATION OF Various Languages; to another the INTERPRETATION OF LANGUAGES. All these things, one and the same Spirit operates them, giving each one as he pleases."

Saint Thomas °, and after it most + theologians, adopt and strive to justify as complete the nomenclature of the Apostle. Il en èst cependant, et des plus considérables, tels que Suarez *, Corneïlle-la-Pierre $ et Bel1 De profectu religios. 1.2, c. 76, t. 12, p. 434 : Nec faciunt sanctum nec ostendunt, alioquin Balaam sanctus esset, et ejus asina quæ vidit angelum.

2 J Cor., S 7-11.

3 Sum.; 1.2, q. 111, à. 4.

4 MonTaAGvE, de Gratia, quæst. proœm. a. 4, concl. 2, Migne, C. T. t. 10, col. 48 : Ita expresse docet S. Thomas, 1.2, q. 147, à. 4, cui hac in parte plerique omnes suffragantur theologi.

5 De Gratia, Proleg. 3, c. 5, n. 63, t. 7, p. 171 : Superest advertendum circa numerum harum gratiarum, D. Thomam, in dicto art. 4, accurate studuisse rationem illius numeri reddere, ac si gratiæ gratis datæ neque plures, neque pauciores numerari possent. Verumtamen licet illa congruentia , quam adducit, optime declaret quam convenienter et apposite potùerit Apostolus gratias illas distinguere, et tanquam suficientes numerare, nihilominus non cogit dicere, aut illas omnes necessario esse distinguendas, aut non posse vel easdem in plures distingui, vel illis alias adjungi.

6 Com. in I Cor., xu, 10 : Licet Apostolus hic tantum novem numeret gratias gratis datas, plures tamen esse possunt. de formuler une énumération rigoureuse, ou du moins que, sous un nom générique, il comprend des espèces multiples.

Does this latter interpretation leave enough room for the nine expressly stated leaders to be brought back to the most diverse forms of these miraculous graces? It will be judged by one by one the formulas of the Apostle, and by linking them with the different aspects they seem to indicate. The conclusion of this examination may be that St.Paul did not mention that the graces that interest the apostolate and the ministries in the Church, and that apart from its enumeration there are many of these free gifts to which most mystical phenomena relate.

IV. — St. Thomas ? divides graces free of charge into three groups, depending on whether they contribute to the perfection of knowledge, to the confirmation of doctrine or to the ease of expression. The holy doctor places faith, wisdom and science in the first category;

1 Controvers. de Gratia, l. 1, €. 10, t. 4, p. 553 : Quarto quæritur num gratiæ gratis datæ sint tantum novem, ut colligi videtur ex cap. xu prioris ad Corinth. — Respondeo esse multo plures, neqve enim Apostolus eo loco omnes enumeravit, sed tantum aliquas exempli loco posuit.

2 Sum. 1.2, q. 111, à. 4: Gratia gratis data illa sub se continet quibus homo indiget ad hoc quod alterum instruat in rebus divinis, quæ sunt supra rationem. Ad hoc autem tria requiruntur : primo quidem quod homo sit sortitus plenitudinem cognitionis divinorum, ut ex hoc instruere alios possit; secundo ut possit confirmare vel probare ea quæ dicit; alias non èsset efficax ejus doctrina; tertio ut ea quæ concipit, possit convenienter auditoribus proferre. Quantum igitur ad primum..., ponitur fides..., sermo sapientiæ..., sermo scientiæ... Confirmatio est per ea quæ sunt divinæ . Virtuti proprio...; and quantum ad hoc ponitur gratia sanitatum..., operaatio LES MEYENS: THE GRACES FREELY DATA 95 in the second, the grace of healings and that of prodigies, the prophecy and discernment of spirits; in the third, the gift of languages and interpretation.

Suarez! admits the principle of this classification, but it distributes differently the various graces, relating to knowledge: prophecy, interpretation and discernment of spirits; confirmation: faith, the gift of healings and that of miracles; to expression: wisdom, science and the gift of languages.

We do not have to decide on the respective merits of these rankings, each of which has its raison d'être, and, in order to escape all preference, we will stick to the order of exhibition set out by St Paul in his epistle to the Corinthians.

V.—The wisdom here is considered to be a tasty knowledge of eternal things. It differs from wisdom, gift of the Holy Spirit. This is an experimental taste of the divine things that the soul to which it is. given is alone to feel, while the language of wisdom, sermo sapientiæ, is the ability to communicate to others, through the word, this supernatural impressionnability.

Science is the grace that offers and makes tastes of divine truths by means of reasonings that show order and beauty, and analogies, taken in nature, that help to hear them.

Between the free grace of science and the gift of science, there is the same relationship as between the grace of wisdom and the gift of wisdom: the gift is for the soul that receives it; the grace free goes to the building and instruction of the next t.

When holiness accompanies the external graces and the gifts of the Holy Spirit already reach miraculous proportions in the soul, one can look at graces freely given in wisdom and science as a radiance and an extension of the gifts of the Holy Spirit that answer them; or, if one wants, as they provide the sanctification of the soul that receives them, wisdom and science are gifts of the Holy Spirit, and they become graces free of charge when they contribute to the building up of the neighbor?

VI. — The free grace of faith is not the theological virtue by which we adhere to revealed truths; but we do not agree to clarify its concept.

Some see in it the faith that performs miracles, that faith which, according to the word of Our Lord*, repeated by St Paul, carries the mountains. It is the interpretation of Saint John Chrysostom, of several Greek and Latin Fathers, and of some scholastic theologians. Others hear him with a heroic intrepidity to confess, preach and defend holy beliefs +.

According to St.Thomas?, commonly followed by the school, it is an overeminent certainty of faith that makes it able to offer and persuade others the truths that it teaches. In this sense, the grace of faith would be reduced to a miraculous illumination of the spirit, aided by a lucid, ardent and easy word, which insinuates conviction. If the zeal of charity is assumed in the soul, nothing prevents the power of the word from being attributed to a radiance of the intimate faith. And to distinguish, even in this hypothesis, the infuse virtue of the gratuitous grace which bears the same name, it is sufficient to admit, with the Suarez docte ?, that one is a infuse and permanent habit, and that the other consists in an act, in a present and transitory motion of the Holy Spirit, from where the supernatural gift of eloquence results.

VII. — The grace of healing, gratia sanilatum, includes the miraculous facts which have as their object the health cornymo and Ambrosio attributes; and eam sequitur Cajetan., and Salmeron ibi, and Vasquez.

1 Suarez, ibid. n. 11 et 192 : Alii per fidem intelligunt fidei constantiam... Per hanc fidem intelligamus non simplicem assensum fidei, vel aliquam intrinsecam et quasi intensivam certitudinem ejus; sed quasi extensivam perfectionem cognitionis fidei quoad modum concipiendi, persuadendi et defendendi doctrinam fidei.

2 Sum. 1.2, q. 111, a. 4, ad 2 : Fides non numeratur hic inter gratias gratis datas secundum quod est quædam virtus justificans hominem in seipso; sed secundum quod importat quamdam supereminentem certitudinem fidei, ex qua homo fit idoneus ad instruendum alios de his quæ ad fidem pertinent.

3 De Gratia, Proleg. 3, ©. 5, n. 44, p. 153: Absolute autem loquendo, videtur dicendum fidem , ut habet peculiarem rationem gratiæ gratis datæ, in actuali motione Spiritus sancti consistere; nam, licet fortasse habituale lumen fidei, vel habituales species, vel habitus aliquis. scientiæ seu doctrinæ sacræ usu comparatus possit esse principium hujus actus fidei quoad substantiam , nihilominus talis actus non habet rationem gratiæ gratis datæ nisi in quantum ex speciali motione: Spiritus sancti accipit aliquem peculiarem perfectionis modum. TARN porelle. It is one of the forms of the gift of miracles!; but this form deserves a special mention?, 2 because of the attention and preference that man, attached to the life and well-being of the body, gives him over all others.

We have said this by describing the empire of holiness over the world of nature, among the wonderful influences that holy souls exert around them, the most important of which is the sensitive benefits. VIII. — The operation of prodigies, operatio virtutum, is generally understood to mean the gift of miracles in the physical order, to which, as the species to the genus, as we have just said, relates the grace of health. It therefore embraces all derogations from the accomplished bodily nature. on man or other sensitive things, either to convince of the truth of doctrine, or to manifest the power of holiness: the glorious privilege that the Church of Jesus Christ alone possesses, as an irrefutable testimony of her heavenly origin and divine mission.

IX. — Prophecy and discernment of spirits are miracles of intellectual order. Through prophecy one dis[covers]... [Salmanticenses, Arbor prædicament. virtutum, §17, n. 166:] The grace of miracles is divided into the grace of healing — as when miracles are worked for the remedy of our bodily health and life — and into the working of powers, as when they merely manifest divine omnipotence and by that manifestation confirm the faith.

2 S. Tuomas, Sum, 2.2, q. 178, à. 1, ad 4 : Gratia sanitatum commemoratur seorsum, quia per eam confertur homini aliquod beneficium, scilicet corporalis salutis, præter beneficium commune quod exhibetur in omnibus miraculis, ut scilicet homines adducantur ad Dei notitiam.

3 Suarez, de Gratia, Proleg. 3, c. 5, n. 15 et 16, t. 7, p. 454 : Vera igitur gratia sanitatis miraculose: operatur sanitatem ; ergo comprehenditur sub generali gratia faciendi miracula. Operatio autem virtutum, si in tota sua generalitate sumatur, idem est quod gratia miraculorum... Verisimilius is autem gratiam sanitatum solum significare quod verbi proprietas præ se fert, curationes miraculosas a morbis corporis; sub operatinge autem virtutum omnia alia opera miraculosa, quae aliquo modo supernaturalia sint, and vel circa, homines vel circa res alias sisibiles fiant, Apostolum LES MEANS: LES GRACES FREELY DATA "99 covers things: hidden and especially the future: by discernment of spirits, which is only one of the forms of prophecy, one penetrates the thoughts and secret dispositions of souls. . We have dealt expressly, to the question of the Revelations!, with these two kinds of graces to which it is easy to bring back supernatural visions and words, and, in principle, all intellectual manifestations of mystical order.

X. — The gift of languages takes various forms. It usually consists in infuse knowledge of foreign idioms without any prior study or exercise. The prodigy is accomplished in those who bear the word or in those who listen to it, according to whether one speaks or hears a previously unknown language. But sometimes the miracle takes on a more wonderful character. While the speaker speaks in a foreign language, the hearers hear him in their own, all different; or, that is even more prodigious, men of various nations each hear their own idiom under the unique statement of the one who speaks to them?

XI. — The grace of interpretation, interpretatio sermonum, taken in its narrowest sense, is a supernatural ease of understanding and translating a foreign idiom. In a broader sense, it extends to the intelligence of mysterious, difficult, obscure formulas, *

1 96 P, chap. 16, t.9, p. 283-304.

2 Suarez, de Gratia, Proleg. 3, 6.5, n. 48, p. 165 : Duobus autem modis fcogitari potest hæc gratia communicari fidelibus; uno modo, ex parte audientium, alio modo ex parte loquentium. Prior erit si prædicator, una tantum verborum prolatione et in solo idiomate proprio loquens, simul ab omnibus audientibus diversarum linguarum intelligatur. Quod potest dupliciter accidere , scilicet, vel quia omnes verba ejusdem idiomatis audientes significationem eorum percipiunt, vel quia, licet concionator unius linguæ particulièrement des saintes Écritures, des prières et des rites liturgiques, de l’enseignement traditionnel. This gift explains the infuse knowledge that so many saints had sacred texts, and the wonderful ease with which they revealed their mystery, spirit and beauty!

XII. — It is a common doctrine among theologians? that Our Lord alone possessed without restriction or intermittance the graces given for free, and that they meet in the saints only with reservations and alternatives, according to the will of divine liberality; * what is necessary in ? tenderness of all these graces whose fullness is suitable only for Jesus Christ, and of some in particular, whose ordinary form is that of more or less repeated transitional motions. Il en est ainsi de la prophétie ‘ et du discernement des esprits * : jamais ces dons ne sont contest reduci ad donum prophetiæ, inquantum scilicet mens illuminatur ad intelligendum et exponendum quæcumque sunt in sermonibus obscura, sive propter difficultatem rerum significatarum, sive etiam propter ipsas voces ignotas quæ proferuntur, sive etiam propter similitudines rerum adhibitas.

1 Suarez, de Gratia, Proleg. 3, c. 5, n. 55 et 60, p. 168 et 170 : Duo autem modi videntur esse præcipui et probabiliores. Unus est, ut interpretatio sermonum ad significationem verborum referatur; alius est ut de sensibus et mysteriis in verbis inclusis intelligatur. Priori modo interpretari sermonem est verba unius idiomatis per alterius verba exponere, quod potest fieri vel scripto vel voce... Venio ad alium modum hujus interpretationis, qui... datur ad docenda mysteria quæ in verbis latent... Hoc ergo dabatur olim pastoribus et doctoribus Ecclesiæ per gratiam interpretationis sermonum , et fortasse aliquibus sanctis postea data est, etc.

2 Suarez, de Incarn. disp. 21, sect. 2, n. 7, t. 17, p. 616 : Dico has gratias fuisse in Christo permanenter et per modum habitus, ita ut illis uti posset suo arbitrio, in quo alios homines superavit.

3 J. Lopez EZQUERRA , Luc. myst. Tr. 4, c. 1, n. 8, p. 56: Plerumque enim vidimus aliquas ex illis quasi habitualiter possideri, alias vero raro et citra recipientis arbitrium , guia divinus Spiritus singulis dividit prout vult.

4 S. Tuomas, Sum. 2.2, q. 174, a. 3, ad 2 : Prophetia non est per modum habitus immanentis, sed magis per modum passionis transeuntis. Unde non est inconveniens quod uni et eidem prophetæ fiat revelatio prophetica diversis vicibus secundum diversos gradus.

5 Bona, discreet. spir. ©. 2, n, 3, p. 227 : Hæc enim gratia (discretio tinus, even in the saints who possessed them to the highest degree. The same can be said, without contesting the possibility of exceptions, the grace of health and the operation of wonders. The other graces listed by the Apostle, namely: wisdom, science, faith, the gift of languages and the gift of interpretation are usually permanent and in the form of habits.

XII. — If we are now looking for the role of graces given free of charge in mystical phenomena, these are the interpretations that we find most likely.

The contemplative illumination and the drunkenness of the ecstasy are explained by the grace of wisdom; the infuse knowledge and artistic abilities, by the two combined graces of wisdom and science. And if we add faith to these two, we will have the gift of supernatural eloquence.

The grace of idioms completes the power of the apostle. The grace of interpretation imparts an admirable ease of understanding and exposing holy letters, truths and Christian symbols.

Visions, words, revelations of all kinds are forms of prophecy.

The penetration of souls and consciences is due to the discernment of spirits.

God grants the saints the grace of healing in order to res[pond]... [continuing the citation:] ...of spirits — just as the other freely-given graces existed in Christ alone by way of habit, as the common opinion of theologians teaches; to others they are given by way of act or transient motion, to some more rarely, to others more frequently, as divine grace inspires, when and how it wills.

1 BELLARMIN, Controv. de Gratia, 1.4, ©. 40, t. 4, p. 550 : Respondeo, ex novem donis gratis datis..., quinque videri habitus permanentes : sapientiam, scientiam, fidem, genera linguarum et interpretationem sermonum ; quartet reliqua, motiones transeuntes: gratiam sanitatum, operationem 102 as SECT.: SINGLE CAUSE TEN OF MYSTICAL TRUE lay down to the prayers and desires of their charity, and. by revealing to the world the secret of their holiness.

All that remains is the operation of the wonders to make reason for the mystical phenomena still unexplained. But does this grace include an interpretation that responds to the variety of facts that other free donations are not enough to explain? This would require the widest acceptance, i.e. to hear it from the virtue of miracles in general in the active and passive sense. In the active sense, this grace would explain all that we have reported of empire that the saints exercise over the surrounding beings; and, in the passive sense, the wonders of which they themselves are subjects, such as mystical sufferings, stigmatization, smells, balms, radiation, the transformation of the senses, the renovation of the heart.

Is not such an interpretation forced? Let us hear the grace which St Paul calls iveoyhuata ðuvžusov, and which can be translated; the operations of acts of power or wonders, which we may say we hear this grace in the active sense, we understand; but seeing there at the same time the privilege of performing and undergoing all miracles, is, in our opinion, to go beyond the meaning of the word evEpyAUUTE.

And if this is the true meaning of this word, it is necessary to hold the eveoynuura Quvausuwv of Saint Paul, no longer for a particular grace, but as a general and summary statement that would encompass all the graces given free of charge. It would remain, in this assumption, to enumerate the various species understood under this supreme genus, and then comes back the difficulty that it is supposed to elude, namely, that the Apostle did not draw a complete enumeration of the graces given free of charge.

With Joseph Lopez Ezquerra!, we would admit volon- ' y i ME Er pe

THE MEANS: THE GRACES FREELY DATA 103-thirds two parts in these gifts of God: one would look at the external work of sanctification through the ministry of the word; the other would concern mystical facts. In his letter to the Corinthians, Saint Paul only points out the main forms of miraculous preaching; he does not say anything about the mystical facts, which he did not intend to mention. It is not that most graces destined for the success of the apostolate do not intervene in the production of mystical phenomena; but many of these mysterious operations relate to different causes that were not stated by the apostle of the Gentiles.

XIV. — In principle, as many graces can be distinguished free of charge as there are groups of facts of the same nature. Instead of nine, one would thus have an indefinite number of free gifts, and it is no more possible to undertake the complete nomenclature, than it is to number the multiple and inexhaustible forms of divine interventions.

This accepted principle, instead of forcing interpretations to relate to St Paul's statements the indefinite varieties of mystical life, it seems simpler to us to see under each of these statements only what is evident in it, and then to assume as many graces free of charge given as one recognizes diversity in supernatural manifestations.

Let us add that certain aspects of mystical life suppose inner sanctification and cannot be explained by extrinsic favours separable from holiness. We do not understand contemplative union, to whatever degree it is supposed to be, or even quietness without the real presence of God in the soul. Passive purifications do not seem to us to belong to the graces given for free, because, by their very nature, they tend rather to be the same.

J 104 14"° SECT.: GOD SINGLE CAUSE OF MYSTICAL TRUE to the sanctification of the subject than to that of the neighbor; and, if not yet grace justifies, it is at least a present grace that prepares it.

XV. — Thus, to sum up our thinking on the divine processes in which mysticism results, we believe that the whole of phenomena are only given reason by using the two miraculous forms of grace: knowledge, the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the graces given free of charge. There are facts — those which suppose inner grace — which can only be explained by the former; others find satisfactory interpretation only in the latter. Finally, there are those who are also justified by one and the other: when holiness is revealed by unequivocal signs and prodigies have less relation to the external utility than to the subject, which is particularly recognized by the difficulty of expressing the grace that he enjoys, they must be brought back to the gifts of the Holy Spirit!; when, on the contrary, they seem intended for the sanctification of others, they must be placed among the graces freely given. SECOND SECTION THE DIABOLIC CHALLENGES OF DIVINE MYSTICS

CHAPITRE VI

LES CONTREFACÇONS DIABOLIQUES

THE SURNATURE EXCLUSIVELY DIVIN The demon intervenes in the human world. — The various modes of these interventions. — The absolutely divine supernatural that the demon strives to simulate: the creation of a substance.—The resurrection.—The demon pretends death by prolonged lethargy: the fakirs of India buried alive, and returning to life. — He makes believe in the resurrection by exciting transient movements in the corpses: Simon the Mage and Saint Peter in front of the coffin of a child. - Serious injuries and deep wounds can only be instantly cured by the Author of Nature; but here again the tempter deceives by his prestige: the llama of the Thibet which opens his belly and closes the wound at their will. — Bilocations and instant translation are forbidden to the demon.— He cannot introduce the bodies through solid bodies; but he invisibly spawns real and proportionate passages for them. — Prophecy surpasses Satan's power; it simulates it with the help of natural predictions, with equivocal formulas or bold lies. — The knowledge of free thoughts and acts is also eluded; it is reduced and resorts to conjecture. Nor can he raise souls to intellectual communications. — Conclusions et règles pratiques. Į. "We have so far told, with increasing emotion of admiration and joy, the wonders of God, and, despite the deep awareness of our indignity, we LS are influences, which made us better.

We leave these horizons of light and azure where all the beauties of the earth and the sky meet, this embalmed atmosphere that God makes to the holy souls by radiating upon them, to approach a cursed region that obscures and infects the spirit of evil.

The feeling of our misery repeats and turns into a feeling of terror. Whether the poets invoke, on the threshold of Tartarus or hell, intellectual geniuses who guide and protect them. For us, we urge the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus and ours, to watch over us; and our good angel, the faithful companion of our life in this valley of tears, to accompany us on this excursion through the dark abyss.

It is a dogma of the Christian faith! that Satan uses all forms of trick to induce man to sin; but great caution is needed when it comes to deciding on the sensitive manifestations of the tempter. Two pitfalls have to be avoided. "Some people who take their mind and intrepidity consider everything they say about the power of the evil angels, their appearances, the illusions they cause in our senses, the obsessions and possessions of the demons, the changes they produce in the air, and so many other things that are attributed to them, as tales that are conducive to the fun of unfaithful spirits; they look with pity at those who parishion convinced of them. Others go in an excess opposite: they MO persuade themselves of all that is said of the strength of demons, magicians and sorcerers; they slightly believe all the real or claimed miracles that are told to them, and receive without examination all the stories that one makes of the appearances of spirits and possessors of bodies by demons. Others finally, by a much more dangerous disposition of mind, take occasion to deny all miracles, and all that is said of demons, angels and spirits, on the pretext that an infinity of false miracles is poured out, and that certain natural, yet extraordinary, effects have often been taken for wonders, whose causes are unknown to those who star over them."

These remarks are very wise: they will serve as a rule of conduct to avoid with the same care and disbelief and credulity.

First, let us affirm highly, since it is a point of faith, that the demon intervenes in the human world, sometimes openly, as a declared adversary of God, sometimes veiled and in the shadow, perfidibly simulating the divine effectiveness to capture the admiration of men and engage them in his purposes of perversion. f

Satan is terrible when he attacks face-to-face) and it often takes the full power of the Church to contain his audacity and stop his tyranny. He is no less to fear in his hidden tricks and secret perfidies that lead him even more surely to the success that he ambition: the contempt of religion and the ruin of souls".

It is therefore very important to be able to distinguish the wonderful evil from the true supernatural divine.

II. — In order to unravel the cursed counterfeits from the true mystic, we will report the facts that the demon _ simulates or realizes, and we will tell by what methods it operates these wonders.

The facts fall into one of these three categories: what is forbidden to the demon, what can be common to him with God, which is exclusively his own.

At each of these degrees, the rebellious angel appears only to singer and forge the work of God.

In the first, he does not reproduce, he only feigns.

In the second, he realizes a phenomenon that seems equivalent to the miracle, but which is, in itself, purely natural.

In the third, he parodys the divine, less by resemblances than by monstrous contradictions that amaze man and plunge him into the abjection.

Contrefaçons de pur mensonge ;

Real, but not miraculous, counterfeits;

Contrefaçons de parodie, de révolte et de blasphème :

This is the dark world we have to describe.

This chapter deals with the supernatural that exceeds Satan's power, and the counterfeits that he opposes.

The next chapter will bring us back to the common ground where God and the demon meet, one for good and the other for evil, and we will specify the characters of the evil action, as we have specified those that distinguish divine action.

Finally, in a series of chapters, we will describe these horrific parodies by which the genius of evil spreads his hatred and audacity against God.

I, — The supernatural forbidden to the demon is AT itself which constitutes the reserved part of God. This part, we have described in one of the previous chapters, and we would not have to come back to it if we did not try to make bold forgeries, with persistence and perfidy all the more formidable as its supreme and incurable madness is to run for the honors of the divinity. It is obvious, first and foremost, that a creation exceeds the evil power: what is forbidden to every creature can only be suitable for God. But the difficulty of finding that there is actually production and not a shift in substance makes this not very decisive in practice. However, when it comes to the appearances of new beings, and when one is warned by the circumstances that it is the fallen angel that is on stage, one is thus assured that there is not creation, but simple addition of pre-existing beings, or, even less so, pure fantastic appearances. These transpositions and illusions are perfectly in harmony with the clever manners of demons.

Thus, among other things, the wonders of Egypt's magicians in competition with Moses and Aaron can be explained. It is known that these enchanters were able to reproduce the first three signs by which Jehovah's envoys notified Pharaoh of the orders they had received. Aaron threw the mysterious rod to the ground, and she immediately turned into a serpent: the magicians, in turn, threw their rod, which appeared also turned into serpents; but the first reptile, coming out of Aaron's rod, devoured all the others. The same was true of the second sign, which converted the waters of the river to blood, and the third, which caused the frogs to swarm on the ground of Egypt. But at the fourth sign, that of the flies?, the power of the magicians was at the end, and they had to recognize that "the finger of God was there."

The interpreters, as we know, have taken great pains to explain these evil counterfeits, and more than one, mainly among the modern ones, seems to us to (Rat Š y i g0 S$ 3 ONE

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f i i y 110 2 SECTION: DIABOLIC CONTRACTIONS pushes complacency far away to escape objections and mockery of unbelief. *

Why, at first, would it be disputed that the rod of Moses and Aaron had been converted into a serpent, and that, at their will, the water of the Nile had been turned into blood, and the frogs had stuffed on the land of Egypt?

Concerning the transformation of the magicians' yards, serious opinions are reduced to the next two ?. According to some, this change was not real, but prestigious, either that the demon deluded the senses, or that he presented outside the fantastic forms of snakes. The others, in more numbers, think that the snakes that appeared instead of the rods were alive and true, and they agreed that they could not come from a creation. The most plausible and well-motivated interpretation sees a pure substitution of reptiles to the rods suddenly removed or rendered invisible.

The same can be said of all the other wonders. Demons never create; they can only act on natural causes. *

IV. — We have said that the resurrection is an absolutely divine fact, and we have heard Suarez proclaim as a point of faith that the demon is powerless to perform such wonders. But, these wonders, the tempter simulates them, sometimes by pretending death to make believe in a resurrection sometimes, when death is real, by fooling upon the tavi of the excitements and movements that are attributed to the return of life.

V. — Nothing resembles death as a prolonged lethargy, and the demon knows enough of the laws of the organism to determine from it these false suspensions of life. Simon the Magi, who rightly passed for being one of the most insignia of hell, doubtless relied on some intervention of this nature, when he offered, if he believed the author of the PHILOSOPHUMENA ?, to be buried and - to rise, like Christ, on the third day. But the prayer of the prince of the apostles thwarted a trick that tended to overturn the fundamental miracle of the Christian faith. At his word, the magician's disciples dug a pit and buried it there. Three days later they reopened the tomb; but their master did not rise; "for he was not Christ," the author adds.

Undoubtedly, Simon was not Christ, and in those circumstances when the preaching of the Gospel had been thwarted by such deceptions, God could not authorize them. But is that to say that they can never take place? Ce serait trop affirmer. Quoi qu'il en soit du fait de Simon le Mage, qu'il est difficile de concilier avec d’autres récits sur la fin de ce célèbre imposteur, c’est vraisemblable1 Simon Maioro, Dies caniculares, colloq. 3, t. 2, p. 230 : Est igitur #xataoi diabolica aliud nihil nisi ludibrium diaboli, revocatione ecstaticorum ad sese ac restitutione ceu ex morte in vitam, conantis effingere opus resuscitationis mortuorum , quod solius omnipotentiæ divinæ opus est, diabolo inimitabile; scilicet ut hoc præstigiarum genere fidem faciat his quæ ecstatici ad sese enumerant, et omnipotentiæ divinæ gloriam ac majestatem elevet et obscuret.

2 Lib. 6, n. 20, p. 267 : Quem multos magica arte decipientem sæpe Petrus impugnavit. Novissime venit... et sub platano sedens edocuit. Et tandem quum in eo esset ut convinceretur, quia diu in ea re perstabat, T ; E CA 2 j Le MIT Re 6 x RFA

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It $ 112 9° FRAME: DIABOLIC CONTRACTIONS lie by magical processes that some fakirs of India are buried alive, and, after several days or even months of apparent death, are recalled to life. In the eyes of the vulgar, this can be seen as real resurrections. We borrow from M. de Mirville! two accounts with sufficient guarantees of authenticity, which will give us to hear how to perform these kinds of juggleries where the devil could play the main role.

The first is taken from a book written by an English officer of the Indian Army, Mr. Osborne. "On June 6, 1838," he says, "the monotony of our camp life was fortunately interrupted by the arrival of a famous individual in rations because of his ability to remain buried underground for as long as he pleases. Such extraordinary facts about this man were reported in the country, and so many respectable people guaranteed their authenticity, that we were extremely eager to see him. He told us himself that he had been doing what he called his profession for several years. We have seen, indeed, repeat this strange experience on various points in India. Among the serious and reliable men who bear witness to this, I must mention Captain Wade, a political agent in Lodhiana. This officer told me very seriously that he himself had witnessed the resurrection of this fakir, after a funeral that had taken place a few months earlier, in the presence of General Ventura, Maharadjah and the main Sikh leaders. These are the details that were given to him about this burial, and those that he added, according to his own authority, about the exhumation.

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EXCLUSIVELY DIVIN 113 a few days and which he would repulsively enumerate, the fakir had declared himself ready to undergo the test. Maharadjah, Sikh chiefs and General Ventura met near a masonry grave built on purpose to receive him. Before their eyes, the fakir closed with wax, with the exception of its mouth, all the openings of its body that could give in to the air. Then he stripped himself of the clothes he was wearing. Then they wrapped in a bag of cloth, and, according to his desire, they turned his tongue back, so as to shut him up the entrance of the gossip; immediately after this operation, the fakir fell into a kind of lethargy. The bag containing it was closed, and a stamp was affixed to it by the Maharadjah. This bag was then placed in a box of locked and sealed wood, which was brought down into the grave: a great quantity of land was thrown on it, this land was trodden for a long time, and barley was sown there; finally, sentries were placed all around with orders to watch day and night. Despite all these precautions, the Maharadjah retained doubts; he came twice in the space of ten months, during which time the fakir remained buried, and he opened the grave before him; the fakir was in the bag, as it had been put there, i.e. cold and inanimate. During the last ten months, his final exhumation was carried out, and General Ventura and Captain Wade saw the locks opened, the seals broken, and the body lifted out of the grave. On retira le fakir. No pulse, either in the heart or in the pulse, indicated the presence of life. As a first step to revive him, a person gently inserted his finger into his mouth and placed his tongue in his natural position. Only the top of the head remained the seat of a sensitive heat. Slowly pouring hot water over the body, you gradually get some signs of life. After two hours of care, the fakir rose and began to walk smiling. 4

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"This truly extraordinary man says that during his burial he has delicious dreams, but that the moment of awakening is always very painful to him. Before returning to the consciousness of his own existence, he experiences vertigo.

"He is about thirty years old; his face is unpleasant and has a certain expression of cunning."

The second fact was collected by M. de Mirville! himself from an eyewitness from whom he borrows the writing.

"One day I was invited," he says, "at the most singular ceremony in Tangore, Southern Dekkan. It was nothing less than the exhumation of a fakir who had been buried for twenty days.

"A santassi of the Vishnu sect had claimed that he could live an unlimited time without drinking or eating, and, moreover, locked up in a tomb. Having done this wonderful trick several times, he had become for the Hindus a holy figure placed under the direct protection of the conservative god. The British authority, wishing to take advantage of the opportunity to bring a deadly blow to superstition, believed it at least, proposed to the fakir to bury itself. To everyone's astonishment, the fakir accepted. In the presence of English officers and a huge crowd of Europeans and indigenous people, he was descended into a tomb that was covered with land, surrounded by factionaries and opened only when the twentieth day was over. This expired period, in the presence of the authorities, was to take place the opening of the tomb, where it was believed that only one body was found.

"When I arrived at the door of the Hindu cemetery, I saw a large crowd of Indians gathered the previous day; it was not without difficulty that I could slip into the middle of this -= SURNATURE EXCLUSIVELY DIVIN 115 compact mass. Thanks to an officer of my friends who saw me, however, I ended up at the forefront of the assistants, whose mobile physiognomy, driven by impatience, fear and curiosity, were not the least interesting part of the show. The Brahmins, gravely wrapped in their long yellow robes, seemed very convinced that the fakir was alive; the English officers lifted their shoulders and smiled unbelievably.

"The delegate of the government finally arrived; silence took place. Then, after having passed long bamboos in the buckles sealed at the corners of the wide stone that closed its entrance, eight solid Indians lifted it up, and slided it, leaving the opening of the vault, from which a heavy and mephitic air escaped.

"At the bottom of this six-square-foot masonry hole was a long trunk of teak wood, solidly joined with copper screws. On each wall were small openings of a few centimetres so that the air could pass. We slipped ropes under the extremities of the beer, lifted it on the ground, and the interesting part of the exhumation began.

"In this crowd of eight to ten thousand people belonging to all classes, to all ranks, to all castes, had a silence of death. All we could hear was the gnashing of screws in the wood and the psalmodia of the brahmines, for which what was happening was essentially religious. So accustomed that I myself was to the native morals, I felt a strong emotion. The circle had tightened around the cipayes that formed the hedge, all eyes were fixed on the beer.

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EW to J; 116 2nd SECTION: DIABOLIC COUNTERFACTIONS no longer had any sign of existence. A brahmine approached and lifted out of the trunk a defiled head, mummified and in an incomprehensible state of conservation after such a long stay in the earth. It was the head of a cataleptic and not the head of a dead man. She had kept the position that the priest had given her, having repeatedly passed her hands over her eyes, which were open, fixed, directed forward. On eût dit un visage de cire.

"Two men lifted up the body, and, pulling it from the chest, put it down on a mat. I've never seen a similar thinner before. The dry and wrinkled skin of the fakir was glued to his bones; one could certainly have made on him a course of anatomy. To each of the movements that the carriers imprimed on its limbs covered with living, scorbutic spots, I heard them crack as if they had been bound together by rusty hinges.

"When the deenseveli was seated, the brahmin opened his mouth and introduced him between his lips about half a glass of water; then he stretched again and began to rub him from head to toe, slowly first, more quickly afterwards. For almost an hour, the body made no movement; but when the unbelieving English began to mock the Hindu, the fakir closed his eyes, and immediately reopened them by pushing a sigh.

"A hurrah arose among the natives; the Brahmin began his frictions again. Soon he stirred up an arm, a leg, and, almost without help, lifted up on his seant with a gloomy, glassy look around him. He opened his mouth, moved his lips, but could not speak a word. He was still given a drink, and ten minutes had not passed but the Indian Lazarus, supported by ji

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OF THE SURNATURE EXCLUSIVELY DIVIN 417. the brahmin ji moved away slowly from his tomb, in the midst of the multitude that knelt down on his passage, while the authorities were struggling to hide their disappointment. The British officers made the most singular figure, and treated the fakir as juggling, not finding this strange resurrection any reasonable explanation,

"After the departure of the fakir, curious people had rushed into the vault, but they had been fine in searching all the walls, in demolishing the masonry, in digging the ground, nothing had come to give the unbelievers the key to the riddle. It had been materially impossible for the Hindu to get out of his tomb; there was no way out, and the factionaries had not ceased, during the twenty days he had been locked up there, to keep him night and day. I asked who those factionaries were, and I was told that there had been no cipaya among them, and that they had all been taken from among the English soldiers.

"How then did the fakir not die of this long deprivation of air and food? The doctors of the army, at least those who were learned enough to have the right to confess that they were unaware of something, were seriously discussing; the others, and they were in more numbers, were talking of nothing less than hanging high and running the poor man, to see if his address would allow him to escape from the gallows as she had allowed him to get out of the grave. Fortunately, he had disappeared on the side of the black city, because we could have finished the ceremony by reintegrating him into his coffin. I let my companions discuss, the fosseurs fill the vault, the Hindus dispute the debris of the mats that had wrapped the living dead, and I went back to my hotel, seeking to explain to me what I had just witnessed."

VI. — The second way to feign the resurrection is PR", to produce movements on an inanimate body that give rise to the reappearance of life.

The Acts of the Holy Martyrs Nerea, Achilles and Domitilla contain an example of what the demon is simulating and what God is doing in fact of resurrection. This account, as we know, has no indisputable value, although serious authors dare not reject it; but authenticity does not matter; we only want to stage the doctrine. St Peter and Simon the Mage, is it said?, met one day in front of the body of a child who was carried on the ground. The prince of the apostles had the convoy stopped and proposed to the crowd that the magician misled by his prestige to adhere to the word of the two who would give life to this death. Simon accepted the challenge on the condition that soon after the prodigy he made himself strong, the witnesses would put to death the disciple of Christ. He hoped to get rid of the dreadful adversary who had failed his power before his cunning was discovered. So he began his infernal invocations, and soon the child became agitated, as if he had found life again. At the moment the people make their applause heard and are about to immolate the apostle, when he, with the voice and with the hand, demands silence: "If the child lives," he says, "let him speak, let him walk, let him eat, and go back to his home; if he cannot do so, know that you are fooled by Simon's deceit. "Yes, yes," replied the multitude, "if he does not do this, Simon will have the fate which he asked for for Peter."Imposter sought dispatchers, first in a feint anger, then in flight; but the indignant spectators seized him and inflicted on him the first punishment of public derision. Peter then, raising his eyes to heaven, invokes the name of Jesus Christ on death, and this time he returns to life, comes out of his coffin and speaks to those around him. The crowd alone proclaims the true God whom Peter announces, and wants Simon to atone for his impostures by delivering him to the flames. The disciple of Christ obtains his deliverance by recalling the maxim of the Master, that good must be returned for evil.

"The false resurrections of the dead, will we conclude with M. Gougenot des Mousseaux, are not a very rare demonic phenomenon... Most often the magical resurrections are only tricks of pass, only acts of prestidigitation, only rapid and aerial transport of living bodies instead of corpses, in circumstances of crowds, tumult, half-day or darkness, etc., that spread the wave around the phenomenon and create uncertainty or pity in the minds, as soon as the reflection succeeds surprise. They are also, from time to time, the result of towers of physics and secrets of medicine: the devil, who possesses all the mysteries of the organization of the bodies and all the science of the forces and weaknesses of man, producing false deaths and suspending by various means the acts and functions of life. He did not give himself any more trouble than to help nature, when it comes to simulating resurrections and surrendering the auxiliary to the impostors who work for his benefit."

VII. — The prolonged maintenance of life after the removal of an essential organ and the sudden healing of deep wounds or bereaved wounds are facts that surpass the evil virtue. The demon can only involve natural energies; but these instant results are above the forces of nature.

However, here again, the lying mind has two ways of fooling: simulating the wounds with illusions that, in fainting, seem to bring the normal state back; or, when the evil is real, presenting to the eyes appearances of healing that have only the duration of prestige. Huc! assures that lamas of Tartaria and Thibet

1 Journey to the Tartaria, Thibet and China, ch. 9, t. 4, p. 308: The bokte appears, He moves seriously in the midst of the cheers of the crowd, goes to sit on the altar, and looses from his belt a large knife which he places on his knees. At his feet, many lamas, placed in a circle, begin the terrible invocations of this terrible ceremony. A. As prayer recitation progresses, one sees the bokte trembling of all its members, and gradually entering frantic convulsions. The lamas soon did not keep any measure; their voices were animated, their singing rushed into disorder, and the recitation of prayers was finally replaced by shouts and screams. Then the bokte suddenly rejects the scarf of which he is wrapped, detachs his belt, and, grabbing the sacred cutlass, opens his belly in all its length. As the blood flows from all sides, the multitude prostrates in front of this horrible spectacle, and we question this frenetic about the hidden things... When the devotee's curiosity of the many pilgrims is satisfied, the Lamas resume, with calm and gravity, the recitation of their prayers. The bokte collects blood from his wound in his right hand, carries it to his mouth, blows it three times, and throws it into the air with a great clamour. He quickly passes his hand on the wound of his belly, and everything comes into his primitive state, without any trace remaining of this diabolical operation, if this is an extreme downfall... These horrific ceremonies are often repeated in the large lamaseries of the Tartaria and Thibet. We do not think that we can always count on the deception of the facts of this kind; for after all that we have seen and heard among the idolatrous nations, we are convinced that the demon plays a great role in it. Open the belly in all its length with a great cutlas, and that after having satisfied the curiosity of the many greedy of this spectacle, they only have to pass their hand on the wound so that it closes without the slightest visible sign of scar. By admitting the fact, of which we have no reason to suspect existence, we would hold it to be purely prestigious.

It was by producing a similar hallucination on the spectators that Simon the Mage appeared, it is said!, to have his head slit before Nero, to whom he had promised to rise three days later, in proof that he was the Son of God. But instead of his head, he presented to the executioner the one of a goat: he did not find it hard to appear before Caesar.

Such artifices are quite in Satan's genius, which savors twice the shameful enjoyment of lies?

What we say about injuries must also be understood as the deprivation or congenital alteration of an organ and, in general, any mutilation, infirmity or disease of their incurable nature. But where do the resources of life and the wonders of art stop? It is difficult for physiologists and doctors themselves to decide on this point. One can at least hold for certain that the demon does not restore lost, amputated or dried limbs, and cannot operate instantly of _ true healings, unless the evil is the effect of an evil whose course it suspends, and perhaps also in nerve disorders, very likely to disappear or change under the blow of a moral emotion.

In the case of a real injury, of any organic alteration that defies the power of the demon, the so-called healing consists only in a momentary prestige that removes the traces of the wound and even the feeling of pain. The sick person and those around him may experience both clever illusions; but the sad reality soon reappears.

VIII. — There are many accounts of two-locations attributed to Satan. If it were the simultaneous presence of a pure spirit in several places distant from one another, one could absolutely admit, although the contrary feeling is more common among theologians?; but the alleged accounts concern human beings, who, by demonic virtue, would have appeared at the same time in various places. Such facts are purely prestigious, and the trick is to simulate the multiple presence by a quick translation from one place to another, or by a fantastic representation at the starting point or at the point of arrival‘. God alone can change the laws of nature, and it is an indisputable law of the present order that the same body cannot simultaneously occupy several points of distant space between them; one must abandon one to move on to the other. No doubt, multipresence does not by itself include any contradiction; we have demonstrated it elsewhere!; but the current laws of the physical and human world do not include it: God. Only can derogate from these laws by miracle.

It is still for God alone, in the bodily translations, to dispense with the law that obliges us to cross the circles between the starting point and the point of arrival. This law, no doubt, has been freely established by the Creator, but only he can lift it. It is therefore binding on the demon as well as on the rest of the creatures, whenever he wants to move a portion of matter; for, as a pure spirit, he would escape this necessity, the angels, as Suarez asserts, being not subject to the present conditions of space. But, despite the independence in which he is for himself relative to space, the demon is not free to change its laws; whatever the energy and the promptness of his movements, he is forced to undergo the natural order and to travel, in order to carry one body from one point to another, all the extent that separates them." As for exercising immediate action at a distance, it would be ridiculous to grant Satan a privilege that is denied to God himself, because it includes a real impossibility: immediate action takes the presence! But this question will reappear when we have to discuss the magical phenomenon of bewitchment.

IX. — The current laws also do not permit the penetration of solid bodies. The angel, pure spirit, can, no doubt, pass through material substances at his will; but confer the privilege of penetrating bodies without displacement, is it a miraculous virtue that God reserves in favor of the saints?

It is therefore not necessary to take to the letter what is narrated of the sudden appearances of demons and sorcerers in apartments offering no edge or only minimal openings, such as the cracks of a partition, the lizards of a wall, the hole of the lock. The demons can, in truth, slip into these places without there being any apparent or even real exit, and, once entered, take on fantastic shapes. But if they take out an already formed body, or if they want to introduce a living body of man or beast, they must necessarily find a proportionate opening to these bodies. To hide these stealthy introductions, they open doors or windows without noise or radiation, dilate existing passages, pierce new exits if necessary, and quickly restore things to their first state. But all this, who does not see it? is purely natural and does not exceed the power of demons over matter +.

X. — Satan has always ambitioused the honors of prophecy, precisely because it is a characteristic note of the divine. Temerary thief of the divinity, according to the energetic expression of Tatian 3, he wants to have his prophets as God has his own. It is the envy of the divinity, said Tertullian* speaking of demons and their oracles, which makes them arrogate divination. Their predictions, in fact, are only natural conjectures, or brazen and false assertions, or cleverly equivocal.

Les conjectures de l'ange déchu vont très loin et sa pers1 Suarez, de Relig. 1. 2, c. 16, n. 8, t. 13, p. 577 : Constat posse dæmonem... vere introducere in domos, usque ad interiores partes earum , etiamsi clausæ sint; non quia possit per januam vel fenestram clausam hominem introducere (id enim virtute nullius agentis naturalis aut creati fieri potest); sed quia potest portas subito et sine strepitu aperire, et iterum claudere ; nam hæe et similia per solum motum logalem fieri possunt. Quapropter etiam non possunt humanum corpus intromittere in aliquem locum per foramen adeo parvum, ut capere corpus integrum non possit, nisi nimium densetur vel comprimatur, quod sine gravi læsione et dolore corporis, et interdum sine interitu hominis fieri non possit. Potest tamen dæmon celerrime dilatare viam et foramen, et statim ad priorem statum restituere quia hæc omnia per solum motum localem fieri possunt; itaque hæc et similia facere possunt. Quamvis autem hæc mira hominibus videantur, quia insolita et quia supra vires humanas sunt, non sunt tamen vera miracula, ut notavit D. Thomas... et reliqui theologi.

2 BiınsFELDIUS, Comm. in Tit. Cod. l. 9. de Maleficis, p. 412 : Nunc videndum est an dæmones praescientiam habeant futurorum et secretorum , ita ut ex eorum revelatione possit homo prognosticare et occulta cognoscere ?... Prima conclusio : Futura, si in seipsis considerentur, a nullo, præterquam a solo Deo, cognosci possunt.

3 Oralio adv. Graecos, n. 12, Migne, t. 6, col. 831: Latrones divinitatis fieri conati sunt,

4 Simon Maioco, Dies caniculares, colloq. 2, t. 2, p. 94: Hic scilicet est Satanæ astus, ut omnia sua oracula omnesque cultus imitatione quadam exempli diyini iostituat atque exerceat.

5 Apolog. €. 22, p. 24: Æmulantur divinitatem; dum furantur divinaH GA K e A DA UE LE i EAS.

4 dE 6 TO VA 126. 2nd SECTION: DIABOLIC CONTRACTIONS Picacity is prodigious '. His knowledge of the past, of human nature, of the usual dispositions and dispositions, of the elements and laws that govern them, combined with a wonderful power of deduction, allows him to guess in advance the effects that must result from natural causes. In some cases, its forecasts are certain that contingent facts are likely to occur. If these are physical phenomena that come from determined but unknown laws, or facts that the demon itself must accomplish, for so great a fact as they seem to us, it is evident that he is able to predict them and predict them, although God can, through providential intervention, prevent their execution °. But often, too, to seem to know everything, he makes a careful announcement of what he does not know. To deal with the eventualities that put his conjectures or false assertions at risk of being false, he uses ambiguous formulas that lend themselves to all interpretations. *

Thus, by dismissing the ambiguous responses that adapt to the most contrary events, the statements enigma1 Simon Maioro, Dies canic. ibid., p. 105: Astutia, sapientia, acumine longe superant homines, and longius progrediuntur ratiocinando.

2 SUAREZ ; de Renge 112; c.8,n.56et 7, t, 43, p. 505 Ma futra contingentia quæ a solis causis naturalibus provenire solent, etiam raro et per accidens propter concursus oppositarum causarum, cognosci possunt a dæmone virtute naturali, non in una vel altera causa per se spectata, sed in omnibus simul sumptis exacte cognitis, et inter se collatis, quod facile potest angelus facere : comprehendit enim ornnes naturales causas universi, tam superiores et cœlestes quam inferiores et elementares seu terrestres, et tam efficientes quam materiales, et futurum concursum omnium, nisi a causa libera impediantur vel transmutentur ; et ita potest etiam dæmon sua virtute naturali hæc prædicere... Quæ pendent a propria voluntate, cognoscere potest dæmon et prædicere, quia habent propositum illa faciendi... Potest a Deo et ministris sanctis ejus impediri ne id faciat, et consequenter fiet ut falsa fuerit divinatio.

° SIMON Maioro, Dies canicules, colloq. 2, p. 107 : Idcirco responsa quae reddunt, vel ænigmatibus implicant, vel ancipitibus amphibologicis discer "sance of natural causalities allows to predict the effects, there remains only true prophecy and lie: one is the part of God, the other the part of Satan.

However, God can compel the lying spirit and its followers to serve as organs to his wills and predictions; but then it becomes known by the whole that it is the demon that is on stage and that it is God who commands him?

In any case, between the prophets of God and those of Satan, there is this essential difference that the former always proclaim the truth, and that the latter sometimes predict the truth, but more often the lie and the error.

XI. — Prophecy is therefore forbidden to the demon. The same is true of knowing intimate thoughts and wills, albeit to a lesser extent, because conjectures here are easier: temperament, habits, past acts, attitudes of the body and the expression of physiognomy, all of the circumstances, all of these factors help to guess the silent meditations of the mind and secret resolutions of the will. *

1 S, Tuomas, Sum. 2.2, q. 172, a. 6, ad. 1 : Prophetæ dæmonum non semper loquuntur ex dæmonum revelatione, sed interdum ex inspiratione divina... ; quia Deus utitur etiam malis ad utilitatem bonorum. Unde et per prophetas dæmonum aliqua vera prænuntiat: tum ut credibilior fiat veritas quæ etiam ex adversariis testimonium habet, tum etiam quia, cum homines talia credunt, per eorum dicta magis ad veritatem inducuntur.

2 La Luzerne, Diss. sur les Proph., ch. 4, n. 24, p. 26: We will tell about prophecies what we have said about miracles. If the demon can ever turn it into the supernatural order, it is only by a special permission of God; but I am sure that God will not allow him to make such a order without giving me a way to discover their author.

3 S. THOMAS, 2.2, q. 179, a. 6, ad. 2 : Verus propheta semper inspiratur a spiritu veritatis, in quo nihil est falsitatis, et ideo nunquam dicit falsum; propheta autem falsitatis non semper instruitur a spiritu falsitatis, sed quandoque etiam inspiratur a spiritu veritatis. Ipse etiam spiritus falsitatis quandoque enuntiat vera, quandoque falsa.

4 Suarez, de Relig, 1.2. €. 8, n. 8. t. 13, p. 505 : Eodem fere modo phi128 2nd SECTION: DIABOLIC COUNTERFACTIONS

In order to make the souls whom he wants to seduce by means of visions and words more flexible and more confident to his perfidious insinuations, the tempter strives to persuade them that these favours are of the highest and purely intellectual order; he dazzles them with doubtful claritys where the senses seem to have no part; he affects a vague radiance and some inner silence which seem to be close to the illumination and serenity which characterize the supersensitive revelations. But what he cannot give is the full, complete, irresistible conviction that it is God who appears and speaks, as it takes place in truly intellectual visions and words.

We have pointed out elsewhere, speaking of visions! and words of the intellectual order, this character of being able to emanate only from God; it would be superfluous to expand further on this point.

XII. — Concluons. There are miracles that the demon would vainly try to achieve; they are those who surpass all created virtues. But the demon clings and manages to fake this kind of prodigies. We must therefore, even in the presence of phenomena that God alone can accomplish, warn ourselves against demonic prestige and ensure, by careful attention, the reality of the facts. Two precautions must be taken: first, to see if there is a miracle; and, second, when this first point is certain, to see that the miracle is accomplished. The surest mark is the continuity of the results; what is EXCLUSIVELY DIVIN 129 SUPERNATURE that prestigious does not last, and therefore, what does not last can only be prestigious.

Let us conclude this chapter with a remark of vital importance. In fact, miracles, prophecies and wonders of any kind, there is no claim that one is wearing and that the vulgar — the vulgar one extends far away here, and includes many people who have or believe to have spirit — that the vulgar one, I say, accepts. But when the competent authority intervenes to verify these rumours, and even what goes on for certainties, often the bases are lacking to establish a wise and motivated judgment, sometimes even the imposture is discovered on the one hand, and on the other extreme credulity.

When, moreover, it is a cause that cannot have the assistance of God: a declared heresy, a manifest schism, a revolt against legitimate authority, it is assured in advance that the wonders, if any, are not divine, of those whom God alone has the power to accomplish, but of those whom the demon is given to counterfeit.

History presents us with numerous and brilliant examples of these so-called miracles which have not been held before a careful and severe discussion. These include the wonderful healings that Jansenists wanted to honour the deacon Päris and their party. Mr. de Vintimille, then archbishop of Paris, had carefully examined a first case, then several others whom the appellants gave for first-order wonders, and the result of the investigations was, or was not a miracle, or that the miracle had not taken place. In this regard, we must read the OrponNANCE so remarkable of the illustrious prelate, and on all these facts, the THEOLOGICAL LETTERS of D. La Taste t. The Benedictine scholar sums up, as he follows, the answer to this specific question: If the relationships of the miracles of healing of time deserve our confidence: "The party, he says, has shown an infinite vivacity to maintain that nothing is more worthy of it. But for all these reasons of credibility, I have made it clear that he sometimes claims to us prejudices that prove nothing or that prove against miracles, or evidence that is clearly false or extremely suspicious in many places."

This is the case with miracles and similar accounts. CHAPTER VII THE DIABOLIC CHALLENGES OF THE COMMON SURNATURE:

WHERE THEY ARE RECOGNIZED

1° CHALLENGES Significance from this point of view, — The demon counterfeits the external and imaginary visions, — The ecstasy, — The burning and sensitive radiations, — Extraordinary diseases and healings, stigmas, scenes of the Passion, plastic formations, — Long abstinences, — Balsam liqueurs and sweet smells. — It can delusionalize the senses in such a way as to make it seem like a transformation. — It does not derogate from the laws of gravity, but simulates miracles of this kind by the invisible help of its natural forces. — This explains the movement of the masses, the walking and the suspension of the waters, the aerial flight and the rapid translation. — The demon can take a body away from the eyes. — It is mainly by making them invisible that it seems to confer on its supporters invulnerability. He still protects directly by diverting the blows; the convulsors camisards and Jansenists. — The privilege of non-combustibility is explained in the same way. — The demon uses his power over matter only to molester or to corrupt: These malignant influences will be discussed in the place of magic. — Summary of the way in which the demon performs its counterfeit miracle. — In reality, there are no real miracles. I. — We are dealing with an issue of exceptional importance, and, indeed, it is at this point that the difficulties of dismantling the divine from the devilic are concentrated. The reason is easy to grasp. We know in advance that the demon cannot produce them: there is only to make sure of the reality of the fact and to warn against the prestiges that would present only the appearances. For the manifestations where the rebellious angel ostensibly spreads his audacity against God, contempt for the truth, denial of order, they denounce themselves. But discernment is otherwise difficult when it comes to facts which, taken in themselves, could be supernatural works of God, but which come from the intervention of the demon. Here, of course, we must resort to extrinsic signs and seek in the circumstances, which form as the frame where the fact reveals itself, the trace of the agent who produces it.

To put the reader in a position to make this discernment, we will point out the main forms of mysticism, which enter into the common supernatural and may be the object of demonic counterfeits; this is the subject of this chapter; we will then describe, in the next chapter, the extrinsic notes that attest to Satan's presence. By bringing these two chapters closer to the one! where we have traced the characters of the divine provenance, we will have a complete theory on how to recognize the part of God and that of the devil on this common ground where they manifest themselves in turn.

The inattentive reader may believe that there are repetitions here; this is not the case. We have previously described the true mystic; we now report counterfeits: it is difficult to recognize the counterfeit currency without bringing it closer to the official and authentic currency.

I. — By dealing with visions ? and words è, be extreme. =

À. Paa a.

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FROM THE COMMON SURNATURE: 133 later, i.e. imaginary, we have said that the demon manifests itself in one form and the other, and that it is there for his perfidy one of the most ordinary means of seduction. It is for him a way of singing and altering the wonders of God t. It presents outside real or prestigious phantoms °, and, with the help of organic excitation, it manages to bring up in the imagination images whose novelty and vivacity amaze nature °. Not only does he reveal himself to openly propose evil, but he also transforms himself into an angel of light, as Saint Paul expresses himself, taking, according to the occurrences, the traits of Our Lord glorious or suffering, of the Blessed Virgin Mary, of heavenly spirits, of saints, and affecting the language of piety to better conceal his traps and the ultimate goal of his lies. It is not only in sinners who lend themselves to his illusions that he realizes them, but in pure and holy souls themselves, usually favored by divine communications. We have cited several examples when we were dealing with evil apparitions €.

1 Simon Maioro, Dies caniculares, colloq. 3, t. 2, p. 229 : Facit hæc Satan, ut pleraque, falsa et insolenti imitatione visionum et revelationum quibus usum ad prophetas sanctos et apostolos Spiritum sanetum sacræ litteræ demonstrant... Certat enim superbia et ambitione cum vero Deo, insidiatur gloriam Dei, nec ulla in parte eo videri vult inferior.

2 ALvarez de Paz, de grad. Contempl., 1. 5, P. 3, ©. 11, t. 6, p. 59: Est (visio corporalis) illusioni dæmonis multum exposita : quoniam virtute naturali potest corpus ex aere formare, sicut possunt angeli boni, et in illo Christum Dominum, aut Virginem Mariam, aut sanctum aliquem exhibere, vel seipsum angelum lucis esse mentiri.

3 Joseren Loperz Ezquenra, Luc. myst. tr. 5, ©. 6, n. 50, p. 89 : In his imaginariis impressionibus callidiora diabolus occulit arma...; imaginatio solet esse cathedra pestilentiæ ubi ipse sedet et perversitatis dogmata docet... ibi omnia sua nequissima tela reponit, offerendo visiones et extraordinarias delectationes.

ONCE LE

5 Cf. Bizouann, Man's relationship with the demon, l. 11, ch, 4, 1.23, p- 306.

6 9th P.,ch.11, n. 9,t. 2, p. 209.

ES Ca r *, < 134 2nd SECTION: DIABOLIC COUNTERFACTIONS

Speaking of divination and well-known art in particular, we will discuss in more detail the knowledge that Satan can provide to his followers, and it will be to deny that he communicates to them infuse science in any way: these intimate enlightenments are God's reserved part.

II. — Ecstasy is common among Satan's superiors or fools. But these suspensions do not come, as in the divine attraction, from a high and deep knowledge that deliciously fixes the soul on a radiant object; it is a mere fainting that stops the exercise of the senses, or a vague absorption of mind attached to an external torpor of the organs!. "The demon causes ecstasy," says Bona °, "by linking the senses and preventing the circulation of vital spirits that spread from the brain in the outer senses. Saint Augustine believed that the ecstasy of Plotin and the other Platonicians of that time had been of this kind, but there can be no doubt that the ecstasy of the heresiarch Montan, and the women whom he led after him, did not proceed with evil spirits."

In short, the evil ecstasy is not a true ecstasy; it is a game and a deceit of the lying spirit, supported more than once, as we shall say in its place, by the connivance and imposture of man.

1 J; Lorez EzQÜERRA, Luc. myst. tr. 5, ©. 20, n. 262, pe 410 : Veram ecstasim nequit dæmon efficere, quia impotens est ad spiritum ia sui fundo colligendum... In anima vero quæ nondum a sensibus soluta est, poterit dæmon ei deliquium materiale causare, et ita hebetare potentias, quod putet anima lumen illud infusum immediate in spiritualibus potentiis ipsamque ecstasim passam fuisse,

2 De disc. spirit. ©. 14, n. 4, p. 269 : Dæmon autem ecstasim facit ligando sensus, viasque Obstruendo, per quas spiritus a cercbro in ipsos sensus exteriores diffunduntur. Tales fuisse ecstases Plotini et aliorum illius ævi platonicorum credidit Augustinus. Ecstases item Montani hæresiarchæ cjusque muliereulaium nulli dubium esse potest quiu a malis spiritibus orirentur.

3 Simon Maroko, Dies caniculares, colloq. 3, t. 2, p. 230 : Est igitur čxotacis diabolica aliud nihil nisi ludibrium diaboli. IV. — Burns and radiation do not at least exceed the demon's natural power, and more than one example of diabolical incandescence is cited. Something even more wonderful and no less unmistakable is the sensitive suavities and drunkenness through which the demon tries to seduce and corrupt souls. The author of the treatise entitled "AGUILLON OF LOVE", which many attribute to Saint Bonaventure t, draws attention to these false and perfidious drunkennesses produced by Satan, and indicates as a very effective remedy not to stop at sweetness, from somewhere they come, but to raise his mind and heart in God, the true and sovereign good.

V. — The strangest diseases, with sudden returns to health, are also numerous facts in the cursed and misleading interventions of demons. As we have noted once, these evil and lying spirits often cause evil by direct action, and then, raising their evils, they persuade the vulgar that they are the ones who have healed: it is by ceasing to harm, obst ve Tertullian °, that they accredit their false healings.

We will see later that possessions frequently take the form of diseases, accompanied by characters that denounce their origin; and, in dealing with the practices of magic, we will say what to think of demonic healings. The painful scenes of Jesus Christ's passion are sometimes reproduced by Satan in his supporters or victims, in order to better cover the fabric of his perfidies and surely seduce the weak. The historian of Jansenist convulsionaries, Carré de Montgeron, cites examples that we have no interest in contradicting. No doubt, our conclusions are not those of Sir de Montgeron, a forceful Jansenist; but the variety of interpretations does not change the fact.

"The most ordinary object of these representations," he says, "is to put before us a vivid image of all that our divine Savior has willingly suffered for us... The convulsive person himself becomes the living portrait of the passion of Jesus Christ. He holds his arms on a cross in a motionless manner for all the time that this representation lasts, and the whole attitude of his body takes that of a crucifix. A quick and tender pain, sustained with the most heroic patience and the most perfect resignation, is painted with the most characteristic features on his face, in his dying eyes and in the braiding of his body. After a long time in this state, the father of death completely covers his face; the color of his dry lips becomes blackish; his eyes half closed appear completely extinct; his head can no longer stand on his chest... To which we must add that we have seen several convulsors, in whose hands we have formed, before the eyes of the people present, redness or other marks, precisely in places where the hands of Jesus Christ were pierced with nails."Yes, the very stigmas can be simulated by the demon, as well as the other sensitive symbols of mystical favors, such as kisses!', the ring, crowns.

"Those who believe and boast," says the grave Bona?, "that they have been crowned with roses, in a vision, by Jesus Christ, by an angel or by the Blessed Virgin Mary; or that they have received a ring, a necklace: they must be treated as the toy of the reveries of their own imagination or of the fireworks of the devil, unless one sees in their lives a great perfection, a high holiness, a complete release from the servitude of the senses. The same must be said of the stigmas, which we know, by some examples beyond dispute, to be deceived by Satan's perfidy."

Plastic formations, mysterious or significant inscriptions can occur through Satan's invisible action, either printing them with his own motion to surprise and surprise the spectators, or finding himself constrained by divine power. This latter case presents itself with wonderful circumstances in the famous possession of Loudun. Au témoignage du P. Surin °, 138 2° FRAME: DIABOLIC CONTREFACONS eyewitness and main exorcist, several demons lasted, in sign of their definitive exit, mark prints on the body of the possessed superior, and record, one a bloody and vermilla cross on the forehead, the others

MAIRE PTS TES the names of Jesus, Mary, Joseph, Saint Francis of Sales on the left hand.

VI. — Long abstinences command a great deal of reserve, when it comes to determining their character and their origin. To adhere to the regular laws of physiology, health, action and life are difficult to maintain with a total and prolonged forbearance of food. Apart from the miracle that suspends the laws of nature or a morbid state that reduces to inaction, most of these abstinences are only apparent, and it can certainly be said that imposture is the ordinary way followed by the demon to accredit these false wonders. Sometimes this spirit of sluggishness provides direct support for his suppôts. An unknown author of the fourth century, whom many believed to be Saint Prosper!, says that, in his time, a young girl was possessed by a demon, who lodged himself in her goose and prevented her for seventy days from taking no food; but that towards the COMMON SURNATUREAL MIDU A 139 in her mouth a food that repaired her strength and seemed to increase them, More often still, the impostors themselves obtain food clandestinely, as well as attests the history of the too famous Madeleine of Cordoba '.

However, serious authors, among others the learned Jesuit Delrio?, consider as possible that the demon, by secret action on moods and organs, puts: in a state of prolonging fasting for months and even years, The famous Zacchias?, in whom science was at the height of faith, contends that these cases of abstinences are quite numerous in the natural order, without however contesting that he meets miraculouss, and his opinion is based on too many facts so that it can be ruled out. It is, moreover, today, especially among scholars, the feeling of the greatest number.

If therefore the present nature of these physiological anomalies, there is no obstacle to admit that the demon does not know the mechanism, so to speak, and cannot, using a technical process, determine them at his own discretion.

1 Görres, Mystique, l, 8, ch. 41, t. 5, p. 130: She confessed that, for eleven years, she had wanted to persuade others that she had not taken any food and lived only from the Holy Eucharist; but that for the first seven years she had eaten bread in secret and had been drinking water, with the help of a few nuns who supported her in her imposture, and that for the last four years she had been able to obtain something to eat in secret.

2 Disquis. mag. l. 2, q. 21, t. 4, p. 404 : Ultimum erat de inedia perferenda; de quo non est dubitandum posse diabolum efficere, ut quis mensium multorum ferat incdiam. Potest enim id naturaliter contingere.

3 Qugst. medico-legal. 1. 4, t. 1, q. 7, n. 57, t. 1, p. 275 : Acceptatis ergo jam pro veris historiis omnibus et experientiis a quamplurimis doctissimis viris enarratis,.… jam inde clarissime patet longum jejunium , nimirum non modo quod ad quadraginta dies, sed-ad plures menses, et annos toleretur, esse rem maxime naturalem , nihilque in se miraculosi continere sed potius rari; quod quidem in pluribus veritatem habere est manifestum. Neque tamen, his non obstantibus, dicendum est semper jejunii longam tolerantiam a natura esse, sed fuisse interdum supernaturalem et miracuLa conduite à tenir dans l'examen de ces prodiges est

to the one whom we indicate in studying the abstinences of the saints!, know, that we must conclude from holiness to these miracles, rather than from these miracles to holiness.

VII. — The balsamic liqueurs we have found in the true mystic?, are also found in the demonic parodies ê. Taken in itself, the phenomenon does not present anything that surpasses the prestigious virtue of fallen angel.

Suave smells are rare in the world of abjection; but there is no doubt that the demon can produce in profusion, to delude the good and attract the evil to the unclean voluptuous. Among the many expedients he used to instil in Blessed Jordan thoughts of vain glory, was a delightful emanation that escaped from his hands and engulfed the whole convent. But the religious saint who had prayed to the Lord to make known to him where that smell came from, learned by revelation that it was a trick of Satan who wanted to try him out of complacency; and from that moment on prestige ceased.

VII. — The devil cannot produce on the senses the miraculous transformations that God carries out there, but he realizes something equivalent, either by making available to the organs the real objects which he carries by his natural activity, or by replacing by a prestigious action to the presence of objects.

Thus are explained the sight of distant things, the distant hearing, the abnormalities of taste and smell, the voluptuous or painful sensations in the touch: in a word, the thousand forms by which the corrupter of man impresses his body to pervert his soul!.

IX. — In relating the truly mystical phenomena, we admired in the saints a marvelous freeing from the laws of the outside world, and from salutary influences exerted on the surrounding beings. Most of these facts can be imitated by fallen angels, but with restrictions that are important to report.

Demons act on matter with an energy, a prestess that seems to subtract it from the laws of gravity. There is nothing, however: the attraction is not removed; it is defeated by a higher resistance which emanates from the natural forces of the spirits. They carry the bodies from one place to another all the more easily so that they can act together and realize by number what would exceed the forces of one?. Similarly, it is by their support, which has nothing but natural, that magicians and sorcerers have the virtue of staying on the water without being submerged.

X. — Theft and aerial ascension occur frequently in the possessed, as we shall say in its place; but these phenomena also occur outside of the possessions.

1 Cf. Simon Maioro , Dies caniculares, t. 2, Sagæ, colloq. 3, p. 232. — Görres, Mystique, 1.7, ch. 26, t. 4, p. 510. — Bizouarn, Relationships of Man with the Devil, vol. 5, vol. 24, ch. 2; 1. 26, ch. 1, 2. — GOUGENOT DES Mousseaux, la Magie au XIXe siècle, ch. 16, p. 403; Les hautes pén. de la magie, ch. 6, 3° et 4° d., p. 419 et secq.

2 SUAREZ, de Relig. 1. 2, ©. 8, n. 4,t. 13, p. 574 : Pro certo habitent theologique statim referendi, 7e Wapin, posée dæmones corpora loco 142 2° SECTION : DIABOLIC CONTRACTIONS

RIT MR NT Aa a rs 7% ú à L Magicien ‘. Invisibly supported by two demons, he rises up in the air in the eyes of a whole people and in the presence of Nero. As he hovered in space with the cheers of the crowd and the tyrant, the prayer of the holy apostles Peter and Paul ran away from the spirits that carried him. Abandoned to him-meme, he is rushed down, and, in his fall, breaks both legs?.

Demons sometimes exert similar action on God's servants, to test their constancy, We will later see what is to be thought of the transport of sorcerers on the Sabbath; but, here or there, let us not be objected to any so - called impossibility: we would open the Gospel and put before the eyes of skeptics or contradictors the sacred page which shows us the Savior of the world carried by the tenter of the desert at the pinnacle of the temple and on the top of a mountain, ‘

1 Constitution. Apostol, l. 6 (Opera S. CLEMENT Rom: ), Migne, Patr. Gr., t. 4, col. 930 : Jamque a dæmonibus in altum sublatus volabat sublimis per aera... Simon, stripped of his powers, fell with a great crash, and, dashed down by the violent fall, broke his hip and the extremities of his feet. — ARNOBIUS, Against [the Gentiles]. Gentes, 1. 2, n. 12, Migne, P. Then came that famous encounter of Peter and Paul against Simon, who, having risen aloft by magic arts, supported by two demons, in order to prove himself a god, was, when the demons were put to flight by the prayers of the Apostles, dashed down to the ground and, before the eyes of the people, broken to pieces.

Baronius, Ecclesiastical Annals, year 68, no. 21, vol. 1, p. 578: To these authors on the fall of Simon are seen to be joined Metaphrastes, etc., and almost innumerable others after them; so that concerning a matter agreed upon by all, it is no longer permissible to doubt.

Matthew 4:5, 8: Then the devil took him up into the holy city and set him upon the pinnacle of the temple... Again the devil took him up onto an exceedingly high mountain.

Suárez, On the Third Part, q. 41, art. 4, Disp. 99, sect. 3, no. 19, vol. 49, p. 447: Gregory, Homily 16 on the Gospel, holds that Christ the Lord was carried by the devil himself into the temple and onto the exceedingly high mountain... Chrysostom, Homily 5, is of the same opinion. Imperfecti, et fere reliqui expositores, ét D. Thomas hic (3 P. q. 41 a 4 ad 7), Ethæc sententia videtur magis consentanca verbis Eyangeliorum. — Gf. Fintion, Év: selon S. Matthieu, p. S3. DU SURNATUREL COMMUN ME

These translations are always successive, Dicu being alone . able to lift the law of space after which. to move from one point to another, one has to cross the intermediaries that separate them; but they are sometimes so fast that they would seem to be instantaneous. Every spirit, as Tertullian says, has wings!, demons like angels, and their velocity can make it seem that they are present everywhere.

XI. — These deceptions are all the more easily conceived, since demons can make the bodies invisible, not by derogating from the laws of optics, but by complying with them, i.e. by interposing between the spectators and the object an obstacle that diverts the radiation, or by producing on the eyes an organic impression entirely different from that which would come from the object. In reality, demons prevent a body from being seen rather than making it invisible?.

We do not think it necessary to insist either on the facts that meet everywhere, or on the explanation that seems very simple to us.

XII. — It is mainly to this privilege of escaping from the eyes by prestigious illusions that the magicians owe their invulnerability: it is easy for a man who sees to avoid the blows of a man who does not see and strikes at adventure. These blows, however, sometimes carry, and it has happened that reached by surprise or tightened in a narrow space from where they could not go out without encountering deadly weapons, Satan's superiors were forced to reveal themselves, or were recognized for the wounds they kept trace of! From there came the vulgar prejudice that sharp and sharp weapons are the most effective means of grasping and reducing the sorcerers, as if there were a secret and magical virtue in the tips and blades; to believe it is to pass from one superstition to another; a bullet, a stone, a club would produce the same result, if the blow carried justly. So there is no need to resort to the wonderful to explain these wounds.

XII. — We will not dispute, however, that the demon cannot, by diverting the blows, confer on its followers a kind of invulnerability. The convulsive squabbling and Jansenists are the irrefutable proof of this.

Elijah Marion, one of the ecstatics of the Cevennes, received from the spirit that moved him the order to smite himself with large stab wounds. The possessed one "taken a long and sharp knife, and struck several great blows in his belly and chest; but his body resisted as if he had been of iron, and his garment was not even pierced. All the helpers, afraid, shed tears abundantly? "

What Montgeron ° tells of the convulsors of Saint Médard is even more surprising. We will later produce the narrative of these scenes, as prodigious as they are burlesque, and it will be to rule out the naturalistic interpretations tempted by some contemporaries of the facts and renewed nowadays, as in concert, by all the negators of the supernatural. Convulsions cannot be revoked in doubt, and the modern criticism itself could not ignore the absolutely historical character of the convulsions. Now, the facts once admitted, we think, with an eyewitness of which Benedict XIV has praised in this point the doctrine? the Benedictine scholar D. The Taste?, which it is impossible to render reason for

1 De serv. Dei beatific., 1. 4, P. 1, ©. 7. n. 9 et seq., t. 4, p. 50 et ség.

2 Lettres théologiques, 21° et dernière lettre, t. 2, p. 1310-1314.

FIRST QUESTION: Should we believe in what has been said about the wonders of the work of convulsions...? I take the same feeling of the public, and I therefore pronounce that on the wonderful of most agitations, on the gifts attributed to convulsants to penetrate into the interior of consciences, to discover the past, to foresee the future, to discern relics, to speak of unknown tongues, to heal the sick, to take on oneself the infirmities, etc., we have made lies without number.

But all that has been reported surprising is this lie? no; and this is also generally admitted. How can we doubt, for example, that there has been, as a result of devotion to M. Pàris, a very surprising convulsions; that when his tomb or his relics were tainted, many people were suddenly agitated with convulsions, which ceased at the time when relics were retrieved, or that these persons were reunited from the tomb; that several girls, in the time of their agitations, had received with impunity horrible and murderous blows; to silence many other facts almost as great? It is in front of the public that all this happened, and that there is still a part of it: friends and enemies of the work admitted to see these scenes have recognized the truth; who doubt it, can certainly doubt whether in Paris we represent comic and tragic scenes in theatres...

SECOND QUESTION: Is there supernatural in the work of convulsions? On this there is sharing. The so-called worshippers of this work extend its supernatural to infinite. MM. Hecquet and Bonaire, also called, and some other philosophers, claim on the contrary that all this work must be referred to artifice and nature. The rest of the world is in a middle. Against the convulsionists, he thinks that most of their wonders must be attributed to nature and artifice: against MM. Hecquet and Bonaire maintain, on the contrary, that it is several that Part and nature do not scauroy operate. For me, after serious and clear reflections, it seems to me, of any particular view and interest, I am convinced that it is to this last feeling that we must stick to it. Voici pourquoi : =

First of all, there is no doubt that among the phenomena of the work of convulsions, of which the divinity has been so enthusiastically preached, there is a multitude of them that the sluggishness operates, a multitude that still smote all-natural effects... So let's move on to this point, and let's move on to the other one who found more contradiction.

First, how can we relate to nature what Miss Thevenet experienced during her convulsions? Her breasts swirl and fall asleep

as if they were twisted with their hands: Is this natuli 10 without resorting to invisible power, superior to man. . 5

XIV. — Incombustibility is only a form of linvulnerability, and Satan's protégés give many examples. Are glandular parts, and where there are no muscles, naturally capable of these kinds of agitation?

From time to time she rises to seven or eight feet high, and to the floor; and as she rises, she grabs up to three feet of land two people who weigh upon her with all their strength. Will physicists see here only nature? Is it not constant, by the principles of the famous Borelli, that a purely natural force is sufficient for it?

Even more prodigious event in one sense, horrible event. As Mile Thevenet rises, the head at the top, her skirts and shirt fold like themselves on her head. Does Nature Ever Have

Nor is there any reason to contain in the virtue of the material causes what binds to the convulsors, who, as they touch the tomb of M. Påris, caught in terrible convulsions, who, in the moment they were restored, became perfectly quiet. Perhaps the first of these effects can be explained by physics. But the other effect, how does nature produce?

The wonder is even more certain in some experiences that we have done. Relics of the so-called Blessed were applied, sometimes to children, sometimes to other people who could not see them, even to people who were deeply asleep; and this application was followed in the moment of amazing convulsions. Retiroit-on ces reliques? Les convulsions cessoient soudainement. Étoit-ce maladie? Étoit-ce imagination? Étoit-ce fourberie? It is obvious that this was none of this.

There are still countless wonders of cruel experiences that we do on convulsive girls, without hurting them. Let us report here only two or three traits, of that large number that I have reported elsewhere. We beat Ja Nisette on the head with four logs. Four men unloaded with great punches on the head of Marguerite-Catherine Turpin, nicknamed the Crosse; and with a log so big that they could only take it with two hands, they struck it on the belly, on the back, on the sides and sometimes on the face; and thus they gave it up to two thousand blows. And all this happens without these girls being bruised.

What does reason dictate on these experiences and on a hundred others also some, also deadly? That nature alone has given it success? That's what Mr. Hecquet. Mais pensoit-il raisonnablement? Is it an example that men condemned to the First Wound were beaten with impunity on the bones? Suppose, which seems to be his hypothesis, that the convulsive girls who have been subjected to these trials without any inconvenience ate the petrified bones, hypothesis without proof and without any likelihood: let's not listen to the Sieur de Montgeron !. "Here is another aid that, for several years, was practiced by many convulsors: it is that of fire... The Sonnet, commonly referred to as the Salamandre, lay above and even in some way in the flames, where it sometimes remained so long that it fell asleep there; and that at other times it put its feet in a fiery fire which burned its shoes and up to the sole of its stockings, without causing at its feet any pain... One (other) of these convulsors, who has an extreme fear of fire, sometimes resists for a few moments to plunge his face into it, although the instinct of his convulsiveness expressly commands him. But she is soon forced to obey, because she feels, when she differs, the same suffering as if she put her head in the flames; so that in order to stop this severe pain she is obliged to rush in effectively. And although the flame never fails to be for her like a zephir and a fresh wind that refreshes her face and removes from her from the first moment the pain that she endured, nevertheless is hardly reassured... It is still remarkable that when someone warns of putting a screen or something between the fire and the face of the convulsors, they do not fail to complain that they are being burned, and they really feel the pain." A few years earlier, similar phenomena had occurred among the convulsor convulsors ".

These immunities can be explained not by a derogation from the laws of nature, but by the physical action of the demons who put out of harm those whose protection they take, and who, by invisible obstacles, stop or divert the beatings against them. The instruments keep their virtue, and the living bodies are neither invulnerable nor impassive; all the prodigy is in the intermediate that interposes.

XV.—The innumerable influences that demons exert on nature usually accuse the malicious cause that produces them. While the saints use God's power over the universe to help man, soften the law of labor and lift his soul up to heaven by relieving his body, the tempting angels, on the contrary, usually intervene only to destroy, molester, frighten, push to despair: they do good only to arrive at evil. Their usual exploits are the storms they raise on land and on sea, the flashes of lightning, hails that ravage the countryside, fires, diseases of all kinds. We do not at present insist on these points of view, which will be discussed further, when we deal with malice. If voluptuousness, honors, riches are described as blessings, we will say even later, by studying this aspect of magic, what the demon can give of it, how it deceives and the satisfactions of pride. And, in order to leave the magic healings their true character, we will talk about it in this same place of magic.

XVI. — Everything we have just said about the evil wonders seems to us to bring to light the way in which they are accomplished. The supernatural exists here only in relation to man; in itself, it is natural. The demon can only act by conforming to its nature and established order, and if the facts that it realizes seem to us supernatural, it is because they exceed the forces and means that we have.

This superhuman action of the demon is exercised on souls and bodies.

On bodies, both on man's body and on other parts of the physical world, it can be direct. Pure spirits have the virtue of acting on matter!, and fallen angels keep their natural abilities and energies. They can therefore move the bodies, change their forms and relationships, and this is all the more easy because they have a deeper knowledge of their intimate organization and the laws of their relationships. Undoubtedly, the power of these disturbing spirits on the bodies is governed by the providence of God, which allows or restricts the exercise of it according to his plans of mercy and justice towards men, as well as the remark of St Augustine?; but finally this power exists and tends of itself to action,

All purely external or organic demonic phenomena can be explained without difficulty. Dieu laisse

1 Suarez, de Angelis, 1. 4, ©. 27, n. 2, t. 2, p. 521: Certa res owns Angelos virtute suæ naturæ corporate movere Re to the demon the freedom to act on the organs of man and on the surrounding bodies; and from these extranatural influences result the impressions, transformations and movements that characterize these prestigious and cursed interventions.

The evil influence on souls is never direct; it can only take place through the senses.

By virtue of the laws that unite the soul to the body, our intellectual and conscious life only works after an organic and sensitive excitement, and we can compare the body to the soul with a keyboard whose external touch responds to a determined intimate note. The demon knows this law of human organization and knows how much of the body one must touch to awaken in the soul such impression, such order of images and ideas. That's how he puts our thought to play and gives him direction.

Hence it becomes evident that starting from the body one only reaches the faculties of the soul dependent on the senses, such as sensitive perception, memory, imagination. Among all, the latter is the most accessible to satanic impressions, because of the greater dependence where it is external senses. So it is by this way that he determines the visions and imaginary words, ecstasy, jubilations and sorrows that have something to do with mystical states. But it cannot approach the inner sanctuary of thought when it is carried out without shaking organs, or at least without a characteristic sign that reveals it, nor produce in us purely intellectual operations, nor even recognize them surely as long as they are not expressed outside. More importantly, the will that is only self-reliant escapes any direct influence of Satan, no pressure can come to him from any being created except through the way of LenXVII. — In short, all the phenomena resulting from a natural movement of physical forces, although man is not able, even by going to the end of his energies, to produce them, the demon, whose virtue far exceeds that of man, can absolutely achieve them; but whatever he does, he never comes out of the orbit or the providential order of nature.

Therefore, even in relation to these third-degree wonders, there is a characteristic difference between those which God performs by himself and those which are the work of the demon: the former constitute miracles per se, i.e. true derogations from a particular law of nature; the latter, on the contrary, are purely natural facts carried out by a power superior to man: they have only the appearance of the miracle. Or, for example, ecstatic flight: divine, it is a suspension of the laws of gravity; evil, it is a simple transfer invisiblely executed by demons.

To be exact, let us add that the miraculous derogation takes place only when God acts by himself and without any intermediary; if the good angels, in the name of God, perform the phenomenon, we think, with St Thomas! and Suarez?, that they act in the same way as the evil spirits, that is, by conforming to the laws of nature.

But whether the phenomenon is the immediate work of God and therefore constitutes a derogation from the law, or whether it is due to a natural action of the angel, the fashion according to

Whatever an angel or any other creature does by its own power happens according to the order of created nature, and thus is not a miracle.

ÉRDeP Angels, 1,039 DI 409, D: 569 : Ex quibus tandem recta conclusionditeur assertio intenta, nimirum non posie angelos virtute owner which it is fulfilled escaping from the eye of man, the fact remains for him identically the same in both condition. To recognize the invisible cause that produces this effect, it will not suffice to examine in itself and from the point of view of the energy it requires in its cause, it will be necessary to resort to extrinsic signs that denounce this cause from which it emanates.

In determining God's share, we assigned the notes that reveal the divine supernatural: this is the time to indicate those that characterize the evil intervention.

We will describe them in the following chapter, CHAPTER VIII THE DIABOLIC CHALLENGES OF THE COMMON SURNATURE:

WHERE THEY ARE RECOGNIZED

90 THE SIGNS These notes are obtained by taking the opposite of those that characterize divine action. — General rules drawn up by Gerson and Bona. — Partial signs concerning the object and the end of the wonderful. — Les acteurs. — The characters to which the voluntary or unconscious agents of the demon are recognized. — The convulsors of Uzes and Dijon in the 1st century, and those of the cemetery of Saint-Médard in the xvne. — The decisive mark is in the results. — Ordinary fruits of evil intervention: error, — pride, — contempt for authority, — sensual satisfactions, — abstention and abuse of the Sacraments. — Résumé. I. — To formulate the extrinsic marks that betray Satan's presence, we only have to take the opposite of those suitable for divine action. This rapprochement will be, not a repetition, but a contrast that will shed greater light on God's part and on the part of the demon. "The spirit of Satan being opposed to the spirit of God," wrote Cardinal Bona! at the end of the 17th century, it is easy to say. spirit. €. 41, n.4, p. 260: Cumautem Sathanæ spiritus diyino contrarius sit, easy, ex his quae de hoc dicta sunt, dignosci potest; is enim, ut ai Plato, optimi et pessimi cadem ratio; sed, quia vaferrimi ac fallacismi hostis tot sunt astutiæ et stratagemata, quibus nos decipere recognize one by what has been said of the other; for, as Platos says, the reason for good and evil is basically the same. But because this enemy, so artificious and so deceptive, in order to be able to seduce and overthrow us, of so many tricks and ploys that we can barely number them, we must treat them in particular, so that everyone is able to discover them and avoid them, as much as possible."

And the pious author added these words that respond too well to our insufficiency and our feelings so that we can omit them: "Of course, it is a great undertaking that surpasses my ability; but the forces and confidence that supplement my ignorance and weakness come to me from the holy Fathers, who, perfectly instructed in Satan's tricks, have left us teachings to recognize his traps."

JI. — Gerson ? sets out, in a very precious paper, the principles that distinguish false visions from true ones, using the comparison of the money gold: since there is good and false money, there are true and false visions. And what this author calls visions can and must be understood by all mystical facts. The good pieces are, however, recognized by the following qualities: weight, malleability, resistance, configuration and colour to which the spiritual order responds: humility, docility, patience, truth and charity.

With less symbolism and just as much wisdom, Fr. Godinez drew a brief and substantial picture of the evil perfidies. According to this pious author', the demon attacks preferably souls dedicated to prayer and perfect life, trying to mislead them by misleading consolations, the ease of tears, penances that make them unable to apply to better works and divert them from mental prayer, especially through revelations that compromise humility and charity. These false revelations have as their characteristics to inspire the complacency and recklessness of self-esteem, to blind up to the preference of austeritys over obedience, and devotion to obligations; to cast into trouble, anxiety and discouragement; to make independent, stubborn, indocile; to divert doctic men and good counsel to address the ignorant who will praise instead of driving; to give a composite and artificial hold that imposes on the people of good, and finally to reduce to extreme weakness in the temptations of superb and immorality?. 156 9

ESE RERET Not always openly ?, but more often, on the contrary,

D a ia a BAS subtle illusions that lead to error. He has the habit of first giving assurance +, of pushing the beginnings to an indiscreet zeal? and of persuading them, in the first effort, that they already touch at the top of perfection; then he pushes to worry, discouragement, despair, by exaggeration of the difficulties of virtue; he throws by recklessness into dangerous situations and violently raises passions at the very moment of peril‘; finally, by an forebear that the pueda alabar. Lo sexto, afectan grande artificio en su trato, hablando altamente de las virtudes, con loqual procuran ganar à los virtuosos para que en siendo menester buelvan por ellos. Lo septimo, tienen grande flaqueza resistir à las tentaciones de la sobervia y deshonestidad, con loqual caen à menudo en grandes abominaciones secretas.

By the name of diabolical spirit is denoted that instinct by which what is evil and vicious is suggested to our mind.

2 Ibid. The devil does not always attack man openly...; for sometimes he lies in wait secretly, transfiguring himself into an angel of light, and fraudulently drives him toward vice under the appearance of good.

This thing, he says, has deceived many.

The devil's instinct brings security at the beginning, but at the end distrust of divine help and despair.

In those who begin to serve God, the demon stirs up an ardent and indiscreet desire of converting everyone to God.

By another fraud, no less pernicious, the devil deceives certain persons who, having scarcely entered upon the way of perfection, and knowing that those who have reached the summit enjoy an inexplicable sweetness, are enticed by this and presume to ascend to higher things by a sudden and rash leap.

Sometimes Satan exhorts someone to virtue, but soon stirs him up against it by importunate suggestions, raising many difficulties.

Deceived most wretchedly by vain self-confidence and the devil's most subtle illusion, they rashly expose themselves to dangers, and having begun in the spirit, neglecting the guard of the senses, they end in the flesh. By an insidious mixture of truth and falsehood, of good thoughts and treacherous suggestions, he knows how to clothe error and vice in specious appearances that captivate, reassure, and lead astray.

To these general indications of the characters of the evil intervention, we must add particulars, taken from the object, the end, agents and the results of these cursed manifestations.

HI. — An act, a prodigy, is attributable to God as much as it is at all points perfect. Only one circumstance that hurts holiness, justice, truth, propriety betrays another origin. If therefore the object of the marvelous is vain, childish, grotesque; even more so if it is rude, messing, obscene, ungodly, it is rightfully returned to the genius of evil.

The end is no less significant. If it is not in harmony with truth or morality, if it is petty and unworthy of God's majesty, it is to another intervention that his is to be attributed. The devil has nothing at heart, but to cast ridicule on holy things, in order to weaken faith and respect, or at least to intimidate believers by fear of sarcasm. To sum up, a prodigy that aims to confirm in error, to serve some unrecognizable purpose, to repaint a vain or dangerous curiosity, to satisfy in any way the evil passions, can only emanate from the demon °,

To detect his impostures when, under the appearance of good, he lays his snares, when he deceitfully passes off vice for virtue, evil for good — then indeed it is most difficult,

The evil spirit keeps this custom: that, having learned the soul's good and holy desires, it may seem to assent to them and to foster pious thoughts; but soon it secretly assails the man and most wretchedly deceives him by its deceits.

3 BonaL, Inst. theolog. Tract. de Revel. n. 102, t.1, p. 95: Opera diaboli 4° quoad finem, semper ad puerili aut stultæ curiositati satisfaciendum, ad IV. — As we have said in describing the extrinsic characters of the divine miracle, God generally uses in his supernatural manifestations only honest, pious men of a virtue, if not brilliance, at least sincere and recognized: it is only by way of exception that he compels unclean organs to declare his wills and manifest his action. Satan, on the contrary, chooses his agents from among sinners, and these in his eyes are the most suitable for his infamous missions which are more advanced in crime and closer to hell.

So, as a rule, vicious men are the representatives of the demon, just as the saints are God's intermediaries; and, unless extraordinary circumstances are easy to recognize, any prodigy whose executioners are suspected of immorality, error, impiety. much more so if their overflows are known, this prodigy denounces a diabolical intervention '.

V. — We must also point out those who are the victims of illusions, but believe themselves to be under the influence of a good spirit. Bona? traces a remarkable portrait that we reproduce here.

"Those who are driven by the spirit of evil," he said, "are OF THE COMMON SURNATURE: SIGNS 159 - light, inconstant, turbulent, anxious, violent, without maturity or circumspection. They do not receive counsel from anyone, prefer their own judgment to the maxims of the ancient Fathers; they love those who praise them and hate those who take them back; they are indignant against sinners and greedy with impatience and insults; they are impetuous and hasty in dealing with the things that are proposed to them; in short, in all things they seek themselves. They sometimes boast of their own faults, as if God sent them to protect their humility, while in the meantime they neglect to correct themselves. After the faults that happen to them, or they flatter themselves by the reason that it is a human thing to sin, or they either irritate themselves and fall into a pitiful slumber without imploring the help of God."

Ajoutons un trait caractérisque. Violent agitations that throw man out of himself, disorderly shaking, epileptic seizures are the preferred forms of disturbing mind. In these kinds of frenzy, the various signs that characterize his intervention appear in turn: the grotesque attitudes that provoke laughter, the movements and poses that alarm modesty, the incoherent, equivocal, rude, ungodly words.

This hideous spectacle is usual in possessions, and it is renewed in most evil manifestations.

We know in which access to delirium ancient pythia made its oracles: the French language refuses to translate the description that Saint John Chrysostom * dared to make of it, in his indignant eloquence, to the Christians of his time, in order to inspire them a deeper contempt for the so-called wisdom of the Gentiles.

Thus prophesied Montan, in his turbulent ecstasy, due to the feeling of most of the Fathers?, to the eruptions of the evil spirit.

VI. — These were again the tumultuous scenes twice renewed during the ninth century: in Uzès in the church of Saint-Firmin , and in Dijon in that of Saint-Bénigne. In one and the other place, the demon signaled his presence with strange convulsions that aroused to the same degree curiosity and astonishment. We have on the first fact a letter from Saint Agobard *, Archbishop of Lyon, to Bartholomew, Bishop of Narbonne; and on the second, a reply from another Archbishop of Lyon, Amolon ‘, immediate successor of Agobard, to Theobold, Bishop of Langres.

1 Hom. 29 in Epist: I ad Cor. n. 1, Migne, t. 61, col. 242: Aéyetau roivuv aðra h Mubi yuvý ts ovca emixx0noar To Tpimodi mots tov ’Amo)- Awvos, duarpoloa tă cxékn; c0 oÙtw nveŭpa novnpov xatolev vzððóy.evov, xat deu Tv yevntxy atthe Örxduópevov popiwv TANPOÈY tv yuvaixa TS ovins, KAL TLÝTNY TAS tplyus ASouoav hormdyv ÉnGunyedealui te, XAL appdy Ex ToÙ otoparos ÅQévat, xat oŬtws év mapowiy yevouévnv tà Te PavizG qhéyysoðar puat. — Cf. Gasparo Sonotr, Physica curiosa, 1 h, © 9, p. 548.

2 APPOLLINARY of Hierapolis, apud Evuseium Cæsar. Hist. eccl. 1.5, C. 16, Migne, t. 20, col. 467: Aiunt Montanum quemdam..., dæmone repletum subito quodam furore ac mentis excessu concuti cæœpisse... Others indeed rebuked him... as one carried off and possessed by a demon and driven by a spirit of error. Item, c. 19, col. 482. — Bona, De discr, spir. ©. 14, n. 4, p. 279.

We have learned that your prudence is concerned as to how that is to be understood which in a certain place certain strikings began to occur, such that some fell in the manner of epileptics, or of those whom the common people think or call possessed by demons... And certainly, just as it is most true that these strikings cannot occur except by God's permission, so it is most certain that they are administered by no other power, except by a striking angel.

He said that two men, who claimed to be monks, brought to the aforesaid basilica of the holy martyr what appeared to be the bones of a certain saint...; it began to...

But nothing equals the so-called miraculous representations of the cemetery of Saint-Médard. There's nothing missing: it's the cause of heresy that comes from strange, ridiculous, amusing prodigies, or rather scandalous scenes where the burlesque fights with immorality and impiety.

The Jansenists undertook to make it the apotheosis of their doctrines and the justification for their revolt. Many, it is true, openly spoke out against convulsions and help; but they were unanimous in proclaiming certain healings and in seeing God's very reprobation of the Unigenitus bubble. God being always with his Church, and Jansenists declaring themselves against the Church, it follows that the wonders invoked by them did not come from God, could only be Satan's work.

As for separating the healings from the convulsions, as the anti-first aidists did, or, like the melangists, to distinguish between convulsions and convulsions, it was an illusory and unethical division: willingly, unwillingly, the Jansenist cause was indissolubly linked to these more than strange manifestations.

What was happening, indeed, on the grave of the heretical deacon? « Elle devint, dit M. Picot ‘, a theatre where sick and healthy people ran for the advantage of being convulsive. Men were seen, keeping their clothes only what they could absolutely take away, waving like furious. Women were seen to experience the most violent tremors, in situations which it was difficult to reconcile with decency. in eadem basilica velut quaædam miracula prouri, non sanitatum and curationum quibus ulla indicia divinæ misericordiae et propitionitis ostenderentur, sed percussionum et elisionum, quibus miseræ mulierculæ soudio in ipsa orationis domo cadere et collidi, and quasi vexari vienderentur, etc. -462 2nd SECTION: THE DIABOLIC CONTRACTIONS would have been killed, it was said, so much the spirit of God who was shaking them needed to be regulated by the hand of man. Soon nearly a hundred convulsors of all ages and sex ran, shouted, yelled and made a thousand extravagances. This is the devout show that attracted the crowd. Curious people, fools, visionaries were making their way from all sides. The press was so big that we could barely get close to the cemetery. The circumvene places were filled; there were whole days...

"The work of convulsions, because that is what his admirers called it," continues the same historian on another date, "has become a school of dementia and ungodliness. There we see ridicule, falsehood, cruelty, indecency, blasphemy.

« Le ridicule. Women, perched on men's heads, dogmatized against the bubble. Others, acerupies, were bearded to imitate Abbé Pâris. Convulsions are, so to speak, inept. Mental alienation accompanied them very often.

« La fausseté. The examples meet each step... When one saw that these predictions were not being fulfilled, one refrained from saying that God allowed the false to penetrate into the work in order to better blind the hardened; answer very convenient and peremptory.

« La cruauté. Om knows the violent and murderous help the convulsors were given. She was shot by the four members. She was struck by two men beside her from the plate of her hand, who were raised when they were tired; and one appellant assured that this exercise lasted once more than five hours. A writer, a supporter of convulsions, a common fora: SIGNS

There were girls who had convulsions in the whole months, which from thirty to forty thousand punctures on the body. One of them sometimes recetated, it is said, on the head up to a hundred strokes of a twenty-five pound chenet weighing...

Such beings had to respect the laws of decency. So she was audaciously raped in their orgies, t the convulsions were, for the greatest number, the veil of their turpitudes....

« Les blasphèmes. One sister said, "The savages worship with the sun and worship God; for God is the sun." Another carried the unmistakableness until the Mass was said; and what is hardly credible, priests served her, and wanted to make admire the majesty with which: this girl committed this sacrilege... Could people who insulted the sky with such impudence respect nothing on earth? So we will not be surprised at their invectives and their imprecations against the pope and the bishops... The convulsors did not spare the sovereign more than the pastors."

The wonderful which appeared in these grotesque, filthy, ungodly scenes, and whose avowed purpose was to punish heresy, this wonderful, we understand, was the work of the revolting and corrupting angel.

VIL. — It is mainly through the effects that the identity of the causes, according to the Saviour's words, is accursed: "To the fruits, you will recognize the tree."The most decisive sign of divine or evil intervention in phenomena where God and the demon can intervene, so we must ask above all for the results.

God is the source of truth, goodness, justice, peace; all his works bear this imprint. ‘464 2nd SECTION: DIABOLIC CONTRACTIONS

The unfaithful angel, irrevocably fixed in negation and revolt, personifies error, hatred and disturbance. He only mixes with men and with human things to disturb, molest and corrupt; and if he initially affects some outside of charity, order and virtue, these appearances soon pass away, and always the last consequence is evil. By his evil deeds, he reaches and torments the bodies, but it is above all to the souls that he wants, and, at the ravages he exercises there, it is easy to recognize his trace.

VIII. — In the first place, among the consequences that denounce Satan's presence, let us point to lies and mistakes.

God, who is by essence truth and holiness, can neither deceive nor be deceived. If then the error is attached to a prodigy that surpasses human forces, this prodigy obviously proceeds from the demon, in whatever form the error appears, whether it concerns the past, the present or the future, the intimate things of the soul and the secrets of the invisible world, or the phenomena of the physical order.

Only one reservation has to be made, but it is very important to consider whether the error is due to the statement itself or to the interpretation given to it. If the statement is in obvious contradiction with the facts or with the truths certain of faith and reason, there is no need to hesitate; it is the error itself. That if falsehood is born in the way of the In1 Bible of Vence, Exod. Diss. on the true and false miracles, vol. 2, p. 40: The demon obsesses and torments the bodies, he causes infirmities, he tries the good: these are the effects of his power. If he appears to Jesus Christ, it is to engage him, if he could, to tempt God, to worship the most unworthy of creatures. Everything he does comes from dangerous and harmful power. It seems everywhere father of lies, of impiety, of superstition. terpretating a vague, obscure, equivocal formula, in this case it is necessary, in the absence of other signs, to stay the final judgment.

IX. — In the moral order, the most ordinary and significant fruits of the evil contest are: pride, distrust and contempt for authority, sensual satisfactions, abstention and the abuse of the sacraments.

Pride is Lucifer's salient mark: because of his revolt and his ruin, the madness that causes him to rise remains the cause of his hatred against God and his machinations against us. As soon as he approaches a soul, it is to blow to him this spirit of opposition to God and to the truth, of foolish isolation by which the creature separates himself from his principle and his good to be complacent in itself.

"Everything that touches another," says Bossuet!, "pulls it through the place where it is the most moving itself. The movement by which this evil angel is drawn is pride; and there was never any, nor can there be any more violent, nor faster, than his. So he pushes man through the place where he fell himself; and the impression that he communicates to him is that which was most powerful in him, that is, that of pride."

The gradations and shapes of the superb are innumerable and as difficult to predict as to describe. However, from the point of view that we are dealing with, we can SAME shades which are as many degrees.

The vain complacency which makes one expand and rejoice in the exceptional favors, is a movement so natural to man that it occurs, if one is not attentive to repressing it, even in the truly divine graces; but, with the illusions of proud angel, it is soul abandon to these secret complacencies and principle they proceed, is to subject it to. the test of humiliation, by resuming it severely, abruptly, the injuring. With the spirit of God, these reproaches will bring out humility and submission; the face will be able to express shame and embarrassment at first, but peace and respect will not be compromised. If, on the contrary, the demon exerts his influence, he will be troubled, saddened, ignited, irritated, and perhaps answer by insult to what is believed to be an insult.

The desire and pleasure to appear, the tendency to perform, the search, spontaneous or thoughtful, for esteem and applause, the joy that comes from praise, the fear of displeasing, the sadness to incur criticism and blame: in a word, everything that feels like human ostentation betrays an enemy spirit of truth and virtue.

More importantly, is God far from a soul that would not only be greedy for success, popularity, admiration, but attentive to doing and saying everything that can bring it to light; who, taking charge of her own cause, would praise and boast herself, disclose and proclaim in time and time the graces that she thinks she is honored with? NOT TO NRA x es VE 1

PN dx 7

1

OF THE COMMON SURNATURE: THE TEKEN SIGNS ‘are these concerns, such practices, if they do not proceed from nature, can only be inspired by Satan, and the wonders that accompany them are clearly his work.

It is hardly necessary to point out, as from the same principle, the wonderful joint with crazy assurances of eminent holiness, of brilliant merit, of exceptional predestination; to vain and ridiculous pretensions that are not in harmony with faith or common sense, and that nothing supports, except the words of those who glorify them.

In this way, all aberrations, for so incredible and absurd as they seem, are possible: nothing touches madness more closely than pride, and on the other hand, human credulity knows no limits. One has seen a Amount call itself the personification, at least ministerial, of the Holy Spirit, and nowadays, the illuminated Peter Michel Vintras?, proclaim also the organ of the Holy Spirit and the herald of a new revelation. We have seen fools and villains giving themselves to Christ; such as, among others, the energence of which speaks Saint Gregory of Tours, manifesti che le sue rivelazioni o siano finzioni maliziose, o inganni diabolici, o scherzi di fantasia.

1 Baronius, Annal. ecclesiast. Anno 173, t. 2, p. 353, n. 26.

2 Opusculum on communications announcing the work of Mercy, n. 15, p. 38: This kingdom (of the Holy Spirit) will be the third and last... The world has lived under the reign of the Fear, from Moses to Jesus Christ; during the reign of Grace, from Jesus Christ to our day, and it will pass under the reign of Love in the Work of Mercy... In the third period, God chose PeterMicuec as his organ, which he commissioned to receive, write and spread His Divine Communications, concerning the covenant which he will renew with men, etc.

3 Hist. He entered the territory of the region of Gabala, giving himself out as great and not fearing to profess himself Christ, having taken with him a certain woman as a sister, whom he had called Mary. A multitude of people flocked to him, bringing the sick, whom, by touching, he restored to health... But he did all these things by diabolical arts and by I know not what tricks — this man who, at the very time when this writer [Gregory of Tours] was setting down the history of the Franks, ravaged the regions of Mende and Le Puy with his brigandage and diabolical illusions.

X. — Disrespect for authority is one of the ordinary fruits of pride; but more than once this disorder is also due to the direct suggestions of the evil spirit, which never binds to it more surely than by detaching from legitimate authority. Because of this origin and the perils that these kinds of illusions cause souls to run, it is important, when it comes to deciding on the wonderful, to point out them as one of the most authentic marks of the evil intervention.

On the mind side, independence from the superiors is manifested by the reservation and silence with regard to the guide of conscience t, by the repulsiveness of asking for and following the wise and fearful counsel of God, by an excessive attachment to his own thoughts, and above all by feelings opposed to the doctrine of the Church.

The revolt of the will is less common, but when it meets, one can boldly pronounce that God is not there.

And, in this respect, without ignoring the hierarchy between the various authorities, it is important to maintain the rights of each and every one and to safeguard his or her respect. The child must submit to his father and mother, the wife to the husband, the servant to the master, the citizen to the state, the penitent to the confessor, the faithful to the Church. To be emancipated from natural, divine or human laws, under the pretext of perfection, is, not perfection, but disorder: not the sign of God's spirit, but the obvious manifestation of the revolted and counter-distinctive spirit.

We touched on this by speaking of the debt due to revelations. ‘ At present, we sum up the practical rules that allow us to recognize the true cause of a wonderful phenomenon: a revelation, a prodigy of any kind tending to rise to a natural or divine law, denounce the spirit of disobedience and lies, by reason that God does not exempt from these laws; that if they are positive prescriptions which the competent authority can dispense, the order wants us to ask for and obtain the consent of this authority before we feel freed.

XI. — If pride is the folly of the devil, the concupiscence of the flesh is the supreme infirmity of man. God, in the day after creation, painted our misery with these energetic words: "My spirit will not remain forever in man, because he is flesh?"Abandoned to himself, the man slumbers, and slips as if driven by his own weight towards the sensitive things. If, to this imperious instinct which he has so much difficulty in containing, is added an external impulse, skillful, perfidious, redoubling the attraction, multiplying the baits, man will escape the pitfall of pleasure and voluptuousness.

The devil knows this weak side of our nature, and when he wants to lose man, he never fails to spare him slippery slopes to these abyss of the flesh.

The immortalization in food and sleep, and in general all that feels softness *, the concern of 170 2nd SECTION: DIABOLIC CONTRACTIONS − enjoyment, the horror of sorrow accuses a spirit other than that of Jesus Christ *.

Chastity is otherwise difficult than temperance, and as much as God is jealous to preserve from all defilement the souls whom he calls for his favors, so much the evil spirit pushes those whom he wants to lose to the abjections of impureness; he feels a proud enjoyment to see the creature which God substituted for fallen and crushed angels sink into the filthy bourbers?.

And here mainly, falls are skillfully prepared by imperceptible transitions from piety to nature, from the emotions and attachments of the heart to the shaking of sensitivity and flesh.

In this point, everything is to be considered: thoughts, words, attitudes, relationships, connections, sensitive and organic impressions. The immediate effect of divine favors is to contain passions; the direct or indirect purpose of evil interventions is to light them; and it is one thing to note that the spiritual suavities of the demon are usually to lead to the disruptions of the flesh, and even to the most monstrous excesses. Sensitive emotions of piety come down to sensual impressions; one thinks himself freed from the common precautions of the Christian reserve, one no longer stands in the bounds and the 1 rules prescribed by common sense, experience and authority. It even happens that, ignoring the laws of nature, one abandons himself to dignible turpitudes; and such is, says Bena*, whose thought we reproduce substantially, is the dementia where Satan's clever illusions can lead, which he claims to cover the most shameful excesses of the veil of divine revelation.

It is enormities that seem even greater, because they involve a more direct trade with corrupting spirits, or, by bringing them back to pure illusions, a deeper lowering of the moral and Christian sense. It would be to believe, as reported by some Saint Bonaventure °, in heavenly apparitions intended to favor the most shameful delectations. Here blasphemy is added to infamy.

Finally, let us make a final remark about these shameful falls; it is that they are not incompatible with imposing exteriors and true penance practices. The examples are numerous, and can be explained by the extreme horror of the proud to admit ignominyous weaknesses, and by the ease given to him by his reputation as a virtue to satisfy them.

XII. — Another unequivocal sign of the deceit in which the devilic DIABOLIC COUNTERFACTIONS are the abstention and abuse of holy things, mainly the sacraments of Penance and Eucharist, which, well received, restore and nourish souls, and, received indignation, often become the Seal of their reprobation.

. The frequent use of these two sacraments is like the foundation and witness of Christian life. True, the example of a few solitary women who have spent many years without recourse to it is the kind of life they had embraced that did not bring them within reach. But, under ordinary conditions, this systematic abstention would be an indication of an enemy influence of piety. For example, freeing oneself from the precept of confession, because, it seems, there were no faults to be accused of, or because one is deprived of the confessor of his choice; or else usually refrain from communicating, even at Easter, as the Jansenists practiced, and that they themselves told it with praise of the deacon Pâris!; do not attend the Mass and the Church's offices under the pretext of retreat, humility, supernatural instinct, formal revelation, high perfection: all this would be suspicious, to say nothing more.

The abuse of sacraments and sacred things is a more frequently repeated and no less certain mark of an evil spirit.

The sacrilege is for the demon the most effective way to enter into a sensitive relationship with the wicked. It was after Judas had received the Eucharistic Bread in his treacherous and abominable heart, that Satan broke into this traitor?.

1 Picor, Memoirs, 15 July 1731, vol. 2, p. 309: Resisted deacon, by a fairly common practice in this party, he spent once up to two years without a communier, and meme without doing his Easter. This omission of a formal precept was, among its own, proof of a high perfection, which was not necessary to observe the commandments of the Church. Apart from an open and conscious desecration, the wonderful one who would attach himself to the holy things to make it a spectacle of vain curiosity, miraculous communions for example, multiplied to pleasure in front of the eyes of stunned visitors, this wonderful one looks rather like a clever display of the tempter than a touching familiarity of love, and far from providing the irrefutable proof of a divine trade, it should rather inspire fears and command the most vigilant reserve.

XII. — In short, there is the same relationship between God's action and Satan's action as between God and Satan.

God is truth, holiness, greatness, infinite goodness. He intervenes supernaturally with man only to enlighten, purify, raise and rescue him.

Satan, on the other hand, lives with lies, abjection, hatred, jealousy, and appears in man's world only to blind, defile, defile, and lose him.

From there, these two kinds of scenes where these two invisible agents reveal their identity through oppositions and contrasts: one simple, dignified, decent, peaceful, salutary, highlighting the virtue of the saints and the divine benignness; the other, noisy, turbulent, bizarre, petty, unhealthy, executed by actors suspected of impiety and immorality, of such a nature that it denounces on any side the corrupter of man.

However, these scenes are not always so sharp that at first inspection one can decide on their character. In addition to one case, even after a careful examination, doubt glides on the perfect convenience of a wonderful fact, on its scope, on the morality of the actors. We repeat here what we have said elsewhere, that in such encounters wisdom requires that one refrain from deciding anything. God is free to grant a blessing without revealing his trace, and can also stop the demon in the course CHAPTER IX

THE DIABOLIC PARODIES OF THE DIVIN SURNATURE

LES IRRUPTIONS DESPOTIQUES

1° THE OBSESSION The hate against God and a mad ambition of the divinity lead the demon to parody the divine institutions and mysteries of the Religion. — Formes diverses de ces parodies. — Obsession: how it differs from possession. — L’obsession intérieure. — External obsession and countless ways in which senses and ‘organs are reached. ' — Is the violence of these assaults going so far as to make man compete with the most incompetences? — In these meetings, the directors must be full of caution and benignness. — They must make sure that the reality of the obsession is not confused with some eccentric but natural infirmity. — Signs and precautions to recognize the evil intervention. — The causes of obsession taken in the subject: sin, reckless challenges, natural. — Man can determine it by evil, and God often allows it to cleanse virtue, prepare for contemplation, and bring forth holiness. I. — We said that the demon had three ways of infringing the supernatural divine. In the first, he simulates, by false appearances, facts that God alone can accomplish: these are the evil counterfeits of the supernatural exclusively divine. In the second, it operates, by applying its natural forces and conforming to the laws of nature, superhuman wonders that God has custom to realize by a true derogation from the ordinary and constant order: this is what we have called the counterfeits of the common supernatural. In the previous chapters, we have dealt with these two forms of evil action.

The third, which we still have to talk about, is less a forgery under which the demon is veiled, than an open and bold parody. Satan poses himself there as a declared adversary of God, claims the supreme honor of worship, worships hatred, crime and abjection. This parody, however, is still a forgery, not the forgery of the trick that is hidden, but the forgery of mockery, mockery, blasphemy. It is Satan's religion organized like the religion of the true God, but by means of negation and contrast.

It is important to highlight these antinomies which form like the two poles of the moral world, the pole of good and the pole of evil, this systematic contradiction of divine institutions and processes for the sanctification and glorification of souls, through opposing practices and manoeuvres whose ultimate goal is eternal damnation.

The Incarnation is the climax of the divine religion: God makes himself a creature for the creature to render to God even infinite homages.

After the Incarnation, whose mystery is fulfilled only in Jesus Christ, comes the divine condescendence of the grace to which we are all invited.

Man, in fact, is destined to enjoy God in bliss and glory, according to the extent to which he loved and possessed him during the trial. It is therefore necessary that God and man meet in order to give themselves and unite: admirable encounter, which is called grace in this world, and in the other glory.

This mysterious conjunction is always God who prepares and realizes it, without harming the DESPOTIC IRRUPTIONS: Obsession 177 human freedom. However, sometimes it is God who seems to descend to man, and sometimes man who seems to rise to God; and, except the initiative that always starts from the primary cause, these acts are real and in God and in man.

God approaches man in two ways: by intimate attractions and external excitements that cause him to act and to give himself up; this is the first way that constitutes the present grace; by means of determined sensitive signs, with this promise that man will receive the divine gift whenever, freely and sincerely, he will seek its benefit by using the signs and established ministers; this is the second way, in which it is easy to recognize the salutary institution of the sacraments. D -

Man goes to God by prayer and by the use of the 53 divine crements. hEoia El

Finally, by uniting with God, man does not isolate himself from human society; public life will be an auxiliary to supernatural sanctification, as it is a means for the development and exercise of his natural faculties. He will recognize certain symbols and a common rendezvous those who profess his faith and share his hopes; it is to the authority that presides over the religious society that he will come to ask for the sacramental signs that sanctify, and it is in the assembly of believers that he will take part in the eminently public pact of sacrifice.

With a mixture of pride that aspires to divinity and derision, which braves her, the demon imitates and mocks both this trade of God with his creature. -By possession where he takes over the bodies and seems to absorb the human personality, it seems that he wants to sing the hypostatic union.

In obsession, he seeks, through the body he is seated, to dominate and pervert the soul, as God, through present grace, solicits it for good and purification. It stipulates with sinners terrible commitments, setting themselves at their command for time, on the condition that they will be at his mercy for eternity.

Sometimes he responds to an invocation addressed to him; more often he presents himself and imposes his services, always paid for at the expense of the soul.

He has his abominable sacraments, his infamous liturgy, his ministers, his assemblies, his feasts, his orgies.

Let us hear about these audacity of the fallen archangel the great Bossuet. ‘

"According to the maxim of the Gospel, man being tamed by the devil, he became incontinent his slave: A quo enim quis superatus est, hujus and servus is: and the Monarch of the world being overcome by this superb winner, everyone passed under his laws. Swelling with this good success, and not forgetting his first purpose to be equal to the divine nature, he openly declares himself the rival of God; and trying to clothe himself with divine majesty, as it is not in his power to make new creatures to oppose them to his master, what does he do? "At least he adulterates all the works of God," says the grave Tertullian, "he teaches men to corrupt their use; and the stars, and the elements, and the plants, and the animals, he turns all into idolatry," he abolishes the knowledge of God, and by all the expanse of the earth he gets worshipped in his place... And to what insolence, my brothers, did not bear this rival of God? He has always affected to do what God does, not to get closer in some way to his holiness, it is his enemy capital, but as a rebellious subject who, out of contempt or insolence, affects the same pump as his sovereign... Has he not had his altars and temples, his mysteries and his sacrifices, and the ministers of his unclean ceremonies, which he has rendered, as much as he could, like those of God; for what reason, faithful? because he is jealous of God and wants to appear in all his equal."

These are the monstrous parodies we have to describe. So far, while we were dealing with hell, we were, so to speak, only in the vestibule; now it is the very hell that we must address: may the Savior Jesus and his divine Mother be of help to us.

II. — The satanic manifestations we have to talk about are divided into two major classes, depending on how they operate. Some, in fact, are the result of a pact that puts the demon at the service of man, and the man at the mercy of the demon, — it is the MAGIE; the others are the result of a despotic eruption of the demon that imposes on man an odious violence: eruption, sometimes inside, by which the evil spirit penetrates into the body of man and moves him at his will, as if he were the true owner of it, — then it is possession; sometimes external, where the tempter assailed man from the outside as if he were the seat of it, which has called this mode of attack OBSESSION.

The rest of this chapter deals with obsession. The study of possession will complete the next chapter. We will devote another one to indicating the remedies for the evil eruptions of possession and obsession; after which we will approach the horrific magic with its various forms.

I. — There is obsession when the demon torments the man outside in a sensitive way that accuses his presence and action.

In possession, the mind acts from within and seems to substitute itself in the body for the soul that lukewarms and moves it. In the obsession, on the contrary, it is an extrinsic constraint, which, while leaving to the soul the consciousness of its 180 172 SECTION: DIABOLIC PARODIES "with such violence that one feels in itself two beings and two principles caught against one another: one external and despotic who seeks to invade and dominate, the other internal, i.e. the soul itself, who suffers and fights against this alien domination. Obsession is the attack of the enemy who strives to enter a place of which he is not the master; and this place to conquer is the soul, the possession is the enemy in the very heart of the place and commanding it in despot; and this place invaded and enslaved is the body.

There is, we see, a notable difference between these two evil eruptions: Tuna is external, the other inner; by itself, it is addressed to the body, it moves and agitates; this one goes to the soul and has the immediate aim of soliciting it to evil. This is why the obsession is more to be feared than the possession itself: the enslavement of the sound is infinitely less to fear than that of the soul.

IV. — The obsession is internal or external, depending on whether the tempter provokes intimate impressions- or whether it manifests by some sign its presence outside. External obsession rarely goes without psychological obsession. However, outside violence does not reach or disturb the soul; while outside there is noise and abuse, the calm and serene soul feels no temptation per se, no inclination to evil. The stories of the saints contain many examples of these powerless wraths of demons, succeeding in exciting in God's servants only challenges and contempt. `

The purely inner obsession differs from ordinary temptations only by vehemence and duration. Whenever the disorder of the soul is so violent and the inclination that pushes it to such obstinate evil, it becomes necessary, in order to explain it, to suppose an extrinsic excitation, though to - that, outside, nothing reveals the trace, one is entitled to conclude to intimate obsession.

As in common temptations, the soul is struggling with the pleasure that attracts and the pain that frightens. What is most important to note is the two aspects, or, if one wishes, the gradation of this evil eruption.

It first solicits and fatigues the mind, either by fixed thoughts on which all intellectual forces seem to concentrate, or by vivid images that impose themselves on the equal of the most expressive and absorbing realities; thoughts and images that affect our passions and our duties, which blow us the doubt on what we must believe or hope for, the hatred of what we must love and practice, the desire, on the contrary, of what we must hate.

From the spirit, obsession descends to this part of us where the movements of passions take place. By acting on the senses, on the intimate elements of the organism, the demon raises appetites that respond to the visions and attractions of the mind. Nevertheless, one is plagued by the perplexities of doubt, the bitterness of resentment, the bubbling of anger, the disgust of antipathy, the fury of hatred, the anguish of despair; one feels with almost irresistible training the tenderness of love and the fascinations of voluptuousness.

V. — The external and sensitive obsessions, less dangerous when they are not joined to the intimate shakings of the soul, however, make on those who undergo them, and around them, a deeper impression, because they ostensibly put in front of the enemy.

This action of the demon on man takes the most diverse forms: it does not make sense that it does not reach.

The eyes are fascinated by dazzling, pleasant, voluptuous, threatening, horrible appearances. Who does not know the perfidious and dreadful visions of Saint Hilarion+, Saint Anthony?, most of the fathers of the desert, and, in general, the saints who have marked the most in the Church of God.

Hearing suffers all the charms of speech and harmony, all the horrors of obscenity and blasphemy, all the cry and all the dissonances. The demon tired with the most infamous songs the Blessed Marguerite of Cortone, * and the press to repeat them: to which the faithful penitent responds only with prayers, moaning, tears that weep and run away the filthy spirit.

The smell in turn perceives the most sweet smells and the most intolerable infection.

The taste can be pleasantly affected by succulent dishes, or even by those who are the most disgusting in themselves, and which the demon makes find exquisite; by delicious liquors drawn from outside or which are born in the mouth itself. More often than not, he feels the most revolting bitterness even in the most important foods.

1 S. Jérome, Vita S. Many are his temptations, and by day and night the varied snares of demons... How often did naked women appear to him as he lay down, how often did the most abundant feasts appear to him when he was hungry?

2 S. The wretched devil even endured to put on by night the form of a woman, and to imitate a woman's gestures, in order to deceive Anthony.

For such was their savagery that scarcely a few, and only those very steadfast and advanced in years, could tolerate [text missing] ... chosen, or even apart from the use of food. It is also not uncommon for the demon to mix with the eating of disgusting things whose swallowing is impossible or very perilous, pins, for example, needles, glass fragments, rubbish of all kinds.

The touch, spread by the whole body, is affected by Satan in different ways, by voluptuous sensations or pains of varying intensity, often even by blows, tears whose traces persevere and demonstrate to the most skeptical that these impressions are not purely imaginary. Blessed Christine of Stommelen! is a memorable example of these evil obsessions in all forms.

For pure souls who fear above all the offense of God, abuse is nothing compared to oppression that suspends the duties of piety and threatens the preservation of virtue. Quite frequently the demon, at the time of confession, warns to prevent the use of the word and to bind the exercise of the language. The head, arms, legs, all parts of the body, in a word, can undergo this despotic action and carry out movements that repulse the soul.

Whatever the excesses, the resulting external acts are attributable to man only as much as he agrees. But it is not always easy to decide to what extent one has freely given in to the disorientated suggestions and impulses produced by the obsessive mind.

VI. — What disconcertes and frightens above all else is that the demon can push violence to the last turpitudes.

Toutefois il y a lieu de distinguer ici. If it is an absolutely passive oppression resulting from an external constraint or from an extreme and involuntary exaltation of the imagination, it is found not only in sinners in punishment for their faults, but also in pure souls that God makes come out of this strange furnace, where they believe themselves to be in a burglary, plunged into garbage.

But can violence go so far that the patient is both the instrument and the victim?

Schram does not admit that such a heinous tyranny can ever reach the obsessed, especially if it is right? According to Gravina, of which Saint Alphonse of Liguori? holds opinion as probable, it is possible.

It may be asked whether a demon can, by shameful intercourse, violently overpower a man or a woman whose possession has been permitted for the purpose of acquiring perfection and contemplation... I myself have found many who, although they grieved over the crimes committed and abhorred this wicked commerce with the devil, were nevertheless compelled to suffer it unwillingly. Let not the reader wonder that God permits such things to sinners as a punishment for their crimes... But what is to be said of souls that are pure and endowed with the greatest chastity? Of these I say that true intercourse has sometimes been permitted by God for the exercise of heroic virtue, and this has been most certainly ascertained by me and by other prudent and learned men — for men and women of this kind are wont to repel by every means the incubus or succubus that assails them; and even if they cannot ward it off, they are far from any consent.... It is to be believed that intercourse of this kind, so far as this can be, is carried out rather in imagination than physically and in reality. I said 'so far as this can be': for sometimes this cannot be believed; for there are certain persons of upright and sound mind, of whom it is established from their other works that they were never deluded by their own imagination, and who yet affirm with assurance that they truly see — not with the mind, but with the bodily eyes — a person approaching them shamefully, and experience that person doing things which it would be shameful to relate.

2? God never permits a besieging demon to abuse the body of the possessed, especially one good and perfect, by compelling him to cooperate with his own hands and members in external sins, particularly in a matter of lust, even while unwilling in heart to consent: which, although it could happen from the nature of the case and given the devil's power and malice, can nevertheless never happen under the law of God, who will not permit such things.

Here, however, a doubt arises whether the demon, God permitting, without fault on the man's part, can move his hands toward itself, to be defiled by touches. Affirmat pater Gravina dominicanus, et quide probabiliter; si enim valet dæmon corpus alicujuus totum movere, ut narQui en qu'en qu'en qu'en qu'en qu'en qu'en qu'en qu'en qu'en qu'en qu'en qu'en qu'en qu'en qu'en qu'en qu'en qu'en qu'en qu'en qu'en qu'en qu'en qu'en qu'en qu'en qu'en qu'en qu'en qu'en qu'en qu'en qu'en qu'en qu'en qu'en qu'en qu'en qu'en qu'en qu'en qu'en qu'en qu'en qu'en qu'en qu'en qu'en qu'en qu'en qu'il qu'il

VIT. — The direction of the souls thus tested must be full of circumspection: and of manslaughter. Assuming true obsession, we should not hasten to impute to the will the movements and deregulated acts carried out externally by these unfortunate victims of Satan; these excesses may seem voluntary without being in reality, and making those who suffer them responsible would push them to the end, all the most disastrous, of despair. On the other hand, human infirmity is such that all failures are credible. In many cases, if the fall is not complete, it is at least partial or indecisive. How can we discern the part of the tempter and the part of man? The full certainty of the fall or the resistance eliminates, one understands, any hesitation: there can be only questionable cases.

Now, the rule to follow in these difficult circumstances is this?: The usual horror of sin, especially of the sin to which the temptation which is the object of doubt induces, is a presumption that has not been consented. On the contrary, if the obsessed person is in the habit of not resisting temptations in general, or in particular the one concerned, in this case, the probabilities are for the fall. "So let us conclude, with Scaramelli', with the general doctrine that theologians teach us on this subject, and which we contain in the following principles: when the person who doubts whether he has stopped at an inner temptation has a broad conscience and often succumbs to these suggestions, the presumption of guilt is against him, so that he himself must judge himself guilty. When, on the contrary, it is such a delicate conscience that it usually rejects all evil thoughts and affections, the presumption is in its favour; so it must usually look at itself as free from full and deliberate consent."

VIH. — The great danger is to take for a diabolical obsession eccentric exaltations of temperament or the feints of imposture. To challenge in principle the fact and frequency of obsessions is to bear witness to a great ignorance of the world of souls; but we must be careful to fall into the opposite excess, which would be to see the demon everywhere; and in the order of the facts, it is better to exceed by reservation than by credulity. Women? _ Above all, they are subject to caution in such matters: the vivacity of their imagination and their extreme impressionnability expose them to transform their intimate emotions and concussion into external realities, not to mention the deceptions they lead with an incomparable art.

The most ordinary misconceptions are to confuse a purely natural infirmity with obsession. There are strange diseases that have the effect of throwing trouble into the organic part of man who touches the intellectual and moral world, give delirium without fever and cause in the imagination impressions so vivid that one is tempted to take them for reality!.

IX. — In order to escape, as far as possible, such contempt and to recognize the part to be played in natural causes, it is necessary to take the advice of conscientious doctors, enlightened, but not systematically declared against all supernatural things: experience shows that these kinds of people stiffen against the very obvious.

It is not enough to find that the cause of these physical and moral disturbances is extranatural, and consequently evil, to say that these visions and impressions come from outside realities. Most often they are purely fantastic: the obsessed are alone to see, to hear, to feel, when around them nothing strikes the senses of the spectators. Moreover, it does not matter whether the action of the demon is purely internal or external, if not for the certainty of its presence.

When everyone sees and hears, or sees the translation by an invisible hand of an apparent object, it is a clear sign of the reality and external character of the obsession.

1 Scuram, Theol. myst. & 228, t. 1, p. 401: Sæpissime, quæ putantur - dæmonis obsessiones, non sunt nisi morbi naturales, aut naturales imaginationes, vel etiam inchoata aut perfecta amentia. Quare caute omnino procedendum, usguedum per specialissima signa de obsessive constet. ostensible marks, it cannot be doubted that they leave the demon; especially if evil is suddenly and miraculously healed by God, as is often seen in his _ tere of holy souls. However, even in the case of visible traces, there is no clear evidence that these injuries were done with a particular instrument, in such or such a way that it is believed to be visible; there may be only real pain and wounds. The mode doesn't matter, when the fact is constant and unquestionable.

Thus, to sum up the authentic characters of the obsession, the evil intervention is sufficiently accused when it reveals itself by signs visible to all, by external abuse that cannot come from any natural cause, and when the person who is the subject presents all the guarantees of self-possession, of the sinister, with greater reason of holiness.

X. — Several causes can be attributed to obsession, taken from the subject, from men and from God. We are only indicating them here, reserving ourselves to discuss them with more timely and extended to the place of possession.

On the subject side, the ordinary cause of evil assaults is sin. It is a salutary atonement that gives an idea of hell and brings God closer by inspiring Satan's horror.

[Scaramelli(?)], Theol. myst., §229, vol. 1, p. 402: If wounds inflicted by the demon are suddenly healed by God, it is judged with sufficient prudence, concerning just souls, that torments and the manner of tormenting of this kind are not according to the ordinary rule of nature.

2 Scunaw, ¿bid. Sehol. Notat P. Reguera, in Praw. Th. myst., vol. 2, p. 753: that sometimes the instruments, torments, and wounds by which the besieging demon vexes the possessed are physical and real; sometimes the torments and wounds are real, but not the instruments, which are figured only in the imagination; sometimes, too, the torments and wounds are imaginary, but the pain is felt physically and some trace of the wounds remains physically, just as if the torments were physical... "Reckless defiances can bring on these violences of Satan." There are several examples of these imprudences that a truly humble soul must never afford.

Can the natural offer predispositions to evil assaults? — If it is a purely inner obsession, it is no doubt that the character and temperament cannot give hold to Satan's importunities, which each assails by its weakest side; and since the ordinary effect resulting from these aggressions and preparing for falls is to make the melancholic temperaments of all are most exposed to this violence of the tempter!

But when it comes to external manifestations, the demon finds no more openness in one complexion than in another, in the sense at least that it can come to these excesses only by express permission from God, and that God, in these licenses granted to obsessive spirits, obeys other laws than those that promote fall and threaten salvation.

XI. — Obsession can come from human wickedness and be the result of a mischievous one. The question will come back with a repetition of difficulties with respect to possession. What we shall say then will apply, with the right reservations, to the much less violent lobsession.

Finally, obsession is often a trial that God sends to righteous souls to cleanse, activate and consume their virtue. We have said elsewhere, describing the passive purifications available to contemplation, that demonic obsession is a regular part of these means of sanctification. But, regardless of any vocation to contemplative life, the devilish assault is very common in the history of holy souls. From Job to the venerable parish priest of Ars, there may not be a saint who had suffered him. CHAPITRE X

DEMON'S DESPOTIC IRRUPTIONS

20 THE POSSESSION What is possession. — We do not want to demonstrate the possibility and existence of the unbelievers. — Evidence of authority and experience provided to believers. — Heavenly spirits, blessed souls, suffering or damned, did not possess it: the fallen angels were the sole authors. — Plusieurs démons peuvent concourir à posséder un seul individu. — The same demon may possess several subjects successively, and perhaps even simultaneously. — The possessor spirits represent various vices. — In whatever form they manifest themselves, their presence is circumscribed in the body of the possessed, and, if they tire the soul, it is by obsession. — Possession does not take the union either natural or hypostatic of demons with the body, but only a simple influence of movement. — In this motor action, one must distinguish between the crisis and the intervals of calm: soul in one and the other state; description by the P. Surprising of its interior during possession. - Possession is frequently maintained in the form of illness. — It is not always continuous. - Seat of the demon in the body of the possessed. — Symptoms of demonic eruption. — The causes of possession in the subject are demand and sin, either deadly or venial; organic and natural dispositions are for nothing. — Men can determine it by means of punishment, malice and contagion. 11 are other causes of which God reserves the secret, and which generally derive themselves from his purposes of mercy, righteousness, and wisdom upon men. — Authentic signs and some of possession. I. — The second form of demonic eruption is possession. Possession is the invading by the demon of the body of a living man, whose organs he moved in his name and at his will, as if this body had become his own.

Thus, in possession, the demon introduces and resides in the inside of the body he torments, he acts there and speaks in master, he treats it as his property. From there, as we have already said, the name of possession given to this despotic eruption, and the name of possessed ones by which they are referred to as those who suffer it. They are also called demonic, because they are under the dependence of the demon; enerqumens, because they are moved by the spirit that is within themselves; and often as obsessed, although this term more directly expresses external assaults?.

Thyreus, who enjoys great authority in the matters we deal with, teaches that possession almost always prevails these two things: the presence of demons in man and the power they have to exert upon him a tyrannical action. Possession exists, in fact, only as much as an evil spirit penetrates and settles forever

1 In Greek, évspyoüuevoc, of epyeoux, passive of epyew, act, and preposition ev, în, within. To the Greek word evepyodwevos answers the Latin word arreplitius, used by St Augustine, and more frequently in lower Latinity. The Greek evepyoÿüuevos expresses better the violence that the demon exerts, and the Latin arreptitius (of arripio, arreptus) that the man undergoes.

? In strictness, however, and according to the propriety of the term, they differ greatly from one another. For properly speaking, the obsessed are those in whom the demon is not, but who nevertheless are vexed and afflicted by him existing outside them. But those are called possessed in whom the demon is, exercising various operations in them and, God permitting, tormenting them. These possessed persons are also called by other names: 1° Demoniacs, because they are placed under the power of a demon; 2° Energumens, that is, vexed ones, because they are tormented by the possessing demon; 3° Arreptitii, because, unwilling, they are seized by the demon to do, or rather to suffer, many things; 4° Maleficiati, if they are possessed by the demon through the working of witchcraft. — De dæmoniacis, p. 1, c. 2, n. 2, p. 5: I would say that generally two things are necessary: one, that the demons be in the men themselves; the other, that they have also received a certain power over them. Horum if alterum desires, not bene homines a daemonibus obsideri tenerimus. in a living body; and what would be the purpose of this invasion and of this dwelling, if not to harm the subject who is suffering it or those who are approaching it? However, the demon can remain veiled and silent for a longer or shorter time, in order to better secure his perverse purposes, and sometimes it takes the power of exorcism to force him to declare himself. The common law is that he soon betrays his presence, and it is certainly a constant law that sooner or later he reveals himself by the violence that accuses him of taking possession and attests his identity.

The demon can also invade and occupy ab intrinseco living animals, trees, plants, and even inanimate objects, such as statues?, furniture 3, houses; this is a kind of possession, but inappropriately spoken, this word being particularly reserved to designate the intrinsic domination in the human body: it is especially on man, on man still free from his destiny, that the demon wants to act as master.

This despotism has enough to inspire horror. The unfortunate ones of whom Satan invades and occupies the organs are given to all the accesses of rage, blasphemy, and indecency. At the paroxism of the crisis, we see them rolling down under the guise of the darkest despair, grinning teeth, breaking like madmen all that resists them, betraying by their attitudes and cries the audacity, anger, revolt, impiety, the frightfulness of hell, disconcerting and throwing into the stupor by the unexpected of their questions and the suddenness of their answers, by the mordant and cynicism of their mockery and the hateful violence of their curses. Sometimes an invisible force removes them and precipitates them like an inert mass, pushes them irresistibly into the flames or into the abyss!; sometimes they reject, either through the mouth, or through any other part of the body, snakes, spiders or other repulsive animals, stones, pieces of iron, needles, knife blades, bones, thorns, glass debris, hair or hair, all kinds of filthy materials; their lips and nostrils escape from flames, smoke, pestilential exhalations?. Who would not think, by attending such strange shows, that it is not the man who speaks and acts, but the enemy spirit of God and man, who usurps in man even the use of his members?

II. — Is possession, as we have just defined it, possible? Is it credible that a foreign mind can, without breaking the vital bond that binds the soul to the body, introduce itself into this body, substitute it for the soul, if not in its invigorating functions, at least as a motor principle; shake the limbs, move according to its whims the organs of the senses and more powerfully than the soul itself would? And such a strange alleged usurpation possible, can God thus deliver man still in trial, the innocent man above all, to a terrible tyranny that already holds from hell?

By discussing the intimate nature of possession and the causes that determine it, we will show that it does not imply any impossibility, either metaphysical or moral, and that, by authorizing it, God does not deliver man to Satan's mercy. At present, we only want to consider the fact of this occupation of man by demons. In any way and for whatever reason, this fact is of unquestionable certainty, of a certainty of faith +.

But let the reader allow us to remind here who we are talking to. It is not to the unbelief that challenges the existence of the invisible world, the possibility of miracle, the authority of holy books, the testimonies of tradition, the facts of history that contradict its theories. And if anyone complains that we don't write for everyone, we will tell him that any scientific demonstration has a beginning, progress and a climax: a beginning to expose the principles, a progress where applications take place, a climax that formulates and justifies the highest conclusions.

In the order of theology, mysticism undoubtedly occupies the highest point. Taking it as the basis for argumentation against unbelief would be a nonsense, just as if one approached the science of mathematics, not by the elementary data of arithmetic, but by the highest problems of infinitesimal calculus; medicine, by the most delicate complications of therapeutics, before having exposed the first notions of anatomy, physiology, nosology, pharmaceuticals; or else, jurisprudence, not by preliminary study of law and laws, but by the extreme sinuousness of the procedure.

By standing and enclosing ourselves in our subject, we can only address ourselves to believers, that is to say, to those who worship the divine word of the Scriptures, bow to Christian tradition, obey the Church, do not subordinate common sense and history to CN systems EN 196 2 SECTION: THE preconceived DIABOLIC PARODIES. May the skeptic at his ease assertions which go beyond the sphere where he pleases to lock himself up; we now oppose his laughter only the sweet gaze of pity, and, while waiting for him to be moved for mysticism, we send him back to the catechism of common sense and faith.

III. — Among believers, who would like to challenge the fact of evil possessions ‘? The Gospel presents a very large number of examples of this, and it is not one of the least traits of the divine mission of Jesus Christ that the sovereign empire with which he commanded the unclean spirits, forced them to unmasking themselves, to speak or to remain silent, and finally to come out of the bodies they tormented. The multiplicity and obviousness of these wonders are such that the scribes and Pharisees, unable to revoke them in doubt, come to say that the Saviour operated against the demons by Beelzebub, prince of demons. And Jesus confuses them with this simple answer: "If Satan is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand?"

And we cannot imagine, as some rationalistic exegetes have done, that these possessions were diseases which the vulgar attributed to the malignant influences of the devil: for Our Lord directly calls upon demons, who respond*, or the demons call upon Christ, the Son of God, who imposes silence on them." Et lorsque le

1 D. Carmer, Nouvelles dissert. Diss. sur les possesses. et les obsess., art. 2, p. 89: The feeling that sustains the reality of the demon's possessions has for him the Scripture, the Fathers of the Church, the Jews, the pagans, the ancients and the divine Master gives his powers to the apostles, he maania, expressly that of curing diseases and driving out demons! Finally, St Matthew? summarising the various wonders that the Saviour operated among the peoples, points out, apart from the languors and infirmities of all kinds, the evil of possession.

The book of Acres contains in this order two remarkable facts. Saint Paul, accompanied by Silas, had just arrived at Philip in Macedonia and discreetly began preaching the Gospel there, when a daughter possessed of the demon began to pursue them, shouting, "These men are servants of the Most High God, who preach to you the way of salvation." L-Apostle, tired of these importunities, turned around and said to the mind, "I command thee in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to come out of her." At Ephesus+, a few Jews warned of wanting to question and cast out demons by this formula which they thought should be effective: "I adjure you by Jesus, whom Paul announces." The evil spirit replied to them: "I know Jesus, and I know who Paul is; but who are you?" And the possessed fell upon them with fury, and broke their clothes and made them strong.

If we wanted to collect the assertions of the holy doctors about the diabolical possession, Origen*, TerRSR laughs) asy T IR OAN AN i x 198 2nd SECTION: THE DIABOLIC PARODIES Cyrille of Jerusalem *, Saint John Chrysostom *, Saint Ambrose 6, St Augustine, St Gregory the Great, St John Damascene °, in a word, the whole suite of the Fathers would give us countless testimonies.

"All the ancient Fathers admit that demons can, with God's permission, take possession of men. All take to the letter what is said in the Scripture of possessions and possessed; they testify that the same acts of possession and healing of the possessed still take place of their time, and they invoke in support of the Christian faith, in their apologies, the power of the faithful to cast out demons. We will find everywhere this belief in the all-powerful possessions and virtue of the name of Jesus to deliver the possessed."

The ecclesiastical annals relate in large numbers, and continuously, the deliverances accomplished by exorcisms and Christian virtue, from the early ages of the Church to the present day.

This is how Saint Cyprien! called in the first half of the century the proconsul Demetric and him.

1 Apologet., C. 23, p. 24.

? Lib. contra Constantium imperat., n. 8, Migne, t. 10, col. 584.

3 Demonst. evangel., l. 3, Migne, t. 29, col. 234.

4 Cateches. 16, c. 15, Migne, t. 33, col. 939.

ë In Matth. Hom. 28, Migne, t. 57.

6 Epistol. 22, n. 16-93, Migne, t. 16, col. 1024.

7 Contra litteras Petiliani, n. 196, t. 32, p. 72.

8 Hom. in Evang., l. 2, hom. 29, n. 4, Migne, t. 76, col. 4245,

9 De fide orthodox., 1. 2, ©. 4, Migne, t. 94, col. 878.

10 H. Keer, Manual of the History of Christian Dogmas, 2nd P., c. 3, $ 2, i, 0. 16t dp 369:

Oh, if only you would hear and see them when they are adjured by us and tormented with spiritual scourges, and are cast out of possessed bodies by the torment of words; when, wailing and groaning with a human voice, and feeling the scourges and blows by divine power, they confess that the judgment to come... You will see us entreated by those whom you entreat, feared by those whom you fear, worshipped by those whom you worship. You will see, standing bound and trembling as captives under our hand, those whom you look up to and venerate as lords. ES) 5

DESPOTIC IRRUPTIONS: POSSESSION i 199 opposed in favor of the Gospel the very confession of the demons: "What comest ye , he said, see and hear them when we adjure them and torment them with our spiritual whips, that under the guling of sacred words they come out of the bodies which they obsess, and that, moaning, weeping with rage, but unable to stand under the blows and invisible flogging that the divine power inflicts upon them , they are forced to confess the judgment to come. You would see them, those whom you pray, pray to us ourselves; those whom you worship in trembling, trembling before us; you would see them chained and trembling with fear at our feet, those slaves whom you look upon and venerate as your masters."

These historical attestations, we find them all the centuries, as the facts themselves. Sulpice Severus! will tell us about the deliverances accomplished by St.Martin, the thaumaturge of Gauls; St. Jerome?, the wonders of the same kind as St.Paulus will have seen with his eyes at the tombs of the prophets Elisha and Abdiah, and the glorious precursor John the Baptist; St. Augustine, those whom he will have witnessed on the land of Africa. Theodoret *, Saint Gregory of Tours, Saint Gregory the Great ê, the venerable Bede, and many others will continue this series of testimonies. The story of Saint Bernard contains these facts in large numbers, and they may abound too much in the legends of the Middle Ages. The Reformation, which boasted of having carried a mortal blow to superstition, witnessed a recruSED i TAPIE NS NE DATA RER CHERE LRU 200 2nd SECTION: THE DIABOLIC PARODIES Descent of these evil eruptions, and, more than once, found there the brilliant condemnation of his blasphemy against the Eucharist: that we suffice to cite the famous possession of Nicole Obry +t, of Vervins, in the 19th century, and, in the 20th century, the more famous possessions of the nuns of Loudun? and Louviers. Finally, nowadays, these facts are not as rare as one would like to persuade himself: we send the unbelievers back to the life of a contemporary priest, the admirable priest of Ars.

And, to tell the truth, there is almost no saint a little significant, at some time that he has lived, who, through his miracles, his writings or his words, does not attest by his testimony to the existence of possessions.

To the testimonies of tradition and history, one adds another, of all, after that of the divine Scriptures, the most important and decisive, namely: the practice of the Church.

The Church proceeds to the deliverance of the possessed and recognizes an order, the exorcist one, specifically responsible for this public service. Let us read the Pontifical and the Ritual, and we will see if it takes seriously these tyrannical incursions of Satan into man. Would it still be Catholic, one who dares to think and to say that the Church misunderstands or abuses popular credulity, when she considers or presents purely natural accidents as superhuman facts?

1 J. Rocer, Histoire de Nicole de Vervins, Paris, 1863.

2 LERICHE, Studies on possessions in general and on that of Loudun For, finally, if possession does not exist, it is a decoy that it suffers or that it imposes. She is no longer worthy of deceit, but of mockery; deceitful, she is worthy of all contempt.

Finally, the facts are imposed by their very evidence: they accuse a superhuman power, and this power superior to man, which blasphemes God and the saints, which ignores all the laws of order, dignity, virtue, is clearly the genius of evil and revolt, Satan.

In short, let us conclude with Thyreus!, this one alone can deny the evil possession which refuses to relate to its senses, rejects all the history of the past and questions the divine attestations of Scripture.

IV. — But is the demon alone among the spirits to be introduced into the human organism?

Let us first note that the father of the lie is interested in making believe that he is not alone in fulfilling this role and that he says to himself at will sometimes a faithful angel, sometimes a human soul, blessed, suffering or damned, depending on the occurrences: it is the ordinary form of contemporary spiritism. When the identity of the demon is recognized on the other hand, these statements, which have no guarantee other than his word, are suspected of lying.

However, taken in itself, the fact that a mind appears in a body does not include impossibility. Is it not obvious that good angels can what does not pass the power of rebellious angels? But so far, to our knowledge, there is no example that God's messengers have ever manifested themselves in this way. We had in our hands the meticulous and conscientious relationship of a very complicated possession, in which good spirits ct 202 2nd SECTION: THE evil DIABOLIC PARODIES alternated, to believe their testimony, in the body of a nun, who died very recently, and whose life presented the most dramatic and singular peripets; but we would dare take on ourselves to pronounce on the quality of this supernatural, and if something inclined us to see there the Spirit of God, it would certainly not be the exceptional peculiarities of this strange possession.

What we say about angels applies more clearly to blessed souls and suffering souls: in fact, they never take hold of man's body. What does the pure possibility of such an occupation matter in itself? Would it be realized, that it would be very difficult to see with certainty, and God did not usually throw into a complicated and perilous supernatural.

In any case, the possessions that would be made by the angels, the blessed or even the souls of purgatory would offer nothing of the violence that the evil spirits affect; but this sign would not suffice to draw the character of possession, for demons can, for a more or less time, simulate piety, serenity, a sweet and moving sadness.

There is more connection between the demons and the souls of the damned. Saint Justin, whose doctrine on demons is not blameless, attributes possessions to the souls of the dead. But Tatien °, his disciple, was already protesting against this interpretation, and Saint John Chrysostom will denounce

Those seized and cast down by the souls of the dead are called by everyone 'demoniacs' and 'madmen.'

DEPOTIC IRRUPTIONS: POSSESSION 203 the allegations of demoniacs about this as manifest lies of demons who speak through their mouths. "The demons themselves, you will say to me, cry every day: I am the soul of such a man. But isn't this a trap they're setting us up and an effect of their deception? It is not the soul of this dead man who speaks in this way, it is the devil who pretends to be and who tries to seduce us by this imposture."So St John Chrysostom spoke, and this interpretation prevailed in Christian teaching!

Practically, therefore, one can hold for certain that the possessions themselves are the work of fallen angels.

V.—An even better point, is that several demons can possess at once the same person. Who does not remember the seven demons that the Saviour delivered Mary Magdalene °, and the legion that obtains permission from Jesus Christ to pass from the body of a possessed in a flock of filthy animals that she rushes into the sea? The possessions of Vervins, Loudun and Louviers present these cases of several evil spirits in one individual, and these kinds of examples are greatly multiplied in the Fallacia diabolica East Lives. For it is not the soul of the dead that cries out, but a demon who feigns this in order to deceive the hearers.

As for the fourth opinion, concerning the souls of the dead, it is not to be admitted. For they would be either blessed, or damned, or in an intermediate state. Not blessed, because it would be unworthy and impious to ascribe to them all the actions of the possessed, since these are often impious or absurd; not damned, because they have neither such power nor such knowledge as to produce all that we often see in the possessed; not existing in an intermediate state, both for the reason just given, and because these do not involve themselves with men so as...

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YYE AS PMU 2nd SECTION: THE DIABOLIC PARODIES of the saints, these great opponents of Satan who enjoy a wonderful power to relieve and deliver the victims of his tyranny.

Let us note, however, that on this point we are not always obliged to relate to the statements of these lying spirits?.

VI. — In taking the question in the opposite direction, it is necessary to ask whether the same demon is sufficient to possess several subjects.

There is no doubt that successive occupation is possible, and more than once demons have been seen passing from one energist to another, especially in the possession of the nuns of Louviers è.

But is it possible that a demon simultaneously occupies several bodies, so that, with one possessor, there are several possessed?

From the point of view of pure possibility, the question is reduced to this: Can an angel be at the same time in several places? Contrary to the opinion received in the School+, we believe that this multi-location does not in itself imply

1 BB, passim. See the alphabetical index of each volume, in particular in Volume 48, at the word Dæmon, p. 895.

? GÖRRES, Mystique, l. 7, ch. 13, t. 4, p. 378.

3 Le P. Spirit could Bosrocer, The Suffering Piety, 1. 2, ch. 4, p. 222: The first proof of bodily possession can therefore be drawn quite obviously from a movement, or from the action of a devil who passed from the body of one possessed to that of another possessed...: this happened so. Putiphar possessing the sister of the Blessed Sacrament, who was then in the inner choir, said to Encitif, possessing Sister Barbe de Saint-Michel: Do you want me to go with you in the bitch you hold? To which Encitif having answered, Yes, I will, immediately said Putiphar passed in an instant into the body of Sister Barbe, and the sister of the Blessed Sacrament was seen absolutely free from her demon, fell on her knees near the altar, and began to say her breviary to Laudes.

On this point Scotus was in doubt, In II, d. 2, q. 7: 'For,' he says, 'no argument appears necessarily for or against.' And Gabriel followed him, etc. Nevertheless, modern theologians commonly teach that this is naturally repugnant. And it is held to be the opinion of Thomas... But these arguments do not seem to be conclusive, etc.

DESPOTIC IRRUPTIONS: POSSESSION 205 no absurdity; at most it can be said that it is contrary to the current order, which therefore implies a miraculous derogation from which demons are incapable, although the reason by virtue of which pure spirits would be subject to the laws that currently govern bodies escapes us. Suarez, after a subtle argumentation, in which he refutes the commonly alleged reasons against angelic multilocation and tries to substitute equally questionable news, in our view, draws this modest conclusion that this thesis is quite probable. That is enough to say that these assertions are not necessary in the name of authority.

Whatever the theory, there are no facts, to our knowledge, of diabolical multilocation, and these facts, they would exist, would be very difficult to see. Görres ? assures that "many men are (sometimes) possessed by the same demon"; but, against his ordinary, he does not cite an example in support. This absence of facts, though inconclusive against the possibility, is serious; for, as Suarez notes?, if this act is naturally feasible, we do not see why God would constantly prevent it from being exercised.

VII. — In these tyrannical demonstrations, demons usually strive to manifest certain vices which they seem to represent in a special way *, such as DIABOLIC PARODY LORLS 206 2nd SECTION: claw, avarice, envy, lust, blasphemy, laughter, sadness; each demon has, so to speak, its tint and temperament!, or at least its mission is to push to such . or such sin ?, the triumph of evil which seems to have to be more assured and more complete by this regular distribution of roles between tempters. Some names are cited as representing certain vices, for example Lucifer for pride, Mammon for avarice, Asmodated for lust and others on which tradition is less constant.

VII. — In whatever form it reveals itself, this intimate presence of the evil spirit in man is circumscribed in the body; the soul remains free, or at least if, by a consequence of the invasion of the organs, the exercise of its conscious life is suspended, it itself is never invaded: God alone has the privilege of penetrating it in its very essence by its creative virtue, and of making it its home through the special union of grace.

1 BÉRULLE, Treaty of Energum., ch. 6, n. 4, p. 15: The evil spirits have shared between themselves and sin and sorrows, so that each one of them has his vice to which he asks us most..., from where they draw their names as well as of distinct quality, one being named..., for the look of vices, spirit Terror in Saint Paul, the other, spirit of fornication in Hosea.

This, however, we ought to know: that not all demons instill all the passions in men alike, but that certain spirits brood over each particular vice — some indeed take delight in uncleanness and the filth of lusts, others are bent on blasphemies, others chiefly on anger and fury, others feed on sadness, others are soothed by vainglory and pride, and each one instills into human hearts that vice in which he himself delights.

3 BsreLD, De confess. malef. Prael. 10, p. 57: Thus Lucifer presides over pride, Mammon over avarice, Asmodeus over lust, Satan over anger and discord, Beelzebub over gluttony, Leviathan over envy, Beelphegor over sloth, and each of these presiding spirits strives above all to induce that sin over which he presides and from which he is named.

4 S. To be within something is to be within its limits... But spiritual substance has no limits of quantity, but only of essence, and therefore nothing enters into it except him who gives being, namely God the creator, who has intrinsic... [text breaks off and is followed by:] However, the final aim of the demon's violence is to reach the soul by driving it to sin; but insofar as he solicits to moral evil, he besets rather than possesses. Whatever the visions raised in the mind and the fury of which it is assailed, soul remains master of itself, and, if she is faithful to the grace of God, she has in her free will? an inviolable asylum.

IX. — The influence exerted by the demon on the organs is not of the same nature as that which connects the body to the soul. The soul animates the body and forms with it a harmonious compound, a single life, a single nature, a unique personality; the evil mind, by seizing the body, does not infuse it with a new vital principle or bind it by any personal bond: it only moves it è.

. The information of the body by the soul, to use a scholastic term, this amazing meeting which, of two principles of different order, makes an indivisible being, a unique home of life and operation, is a work of which the Creator alone is capable. A mind may well act on matter, but it will not achieve this intimate and profound fusion that makes the unity of life, unless it is constituted by creative virtue.

Not only the demon by possessing the body does it

1 BERULLE, Treaty of Energumenes, ch. 4, n. 3 and 4, p. 10: It tends to 3 hypostatically!, because the hypostatic union, as well as the natural union, requires a creative act. Even assuming that two created natures can, while each maintaining a separate life, blend into a unique personality, a welding so intimate, if it is allowed to speak in this way, accuses the powerful intervention of the Creator, and cannot be the effect of a created will?.

It is true that the demon simulates, in the tyrannical act of possession, the incomparable condescendence of the divine Incarnation. "His desire to look like the Most High," said Fr. de Bérulle ê, "has increased: and, as it pleased God to unite our nature with the hypostasis of his divinity, so this monkey of God pleases to unite himself with this same nature through a possession which is the shadow and the idea of the singular possession that God took of our humanity in Jesus Christ. For in one it is a God, in the other it is a reborn demon of the human nature. And in each of these possessions there are two different spirits and two complete natures, united together with a very extraordinary bond."

Despite this appearance of relationships, in reality demonic possession does not establish any hypostatic dependence

It must also not be believed that two perfect natures concur here, and are received into one hypostasis.

Concerning the other hypostatic union, indeed, theologians dispute whether it is possible in a created person, and it is more probably believed that it too is simply impossible. Nevertheless, whatever may be the case regarding what is possible in relation to God's absolute power, speaking of the ordinary [power] and of fact, it must be most certain that no other hypostatic union has been made nor will be made, besides that which has been touched upon between the divine Word and human nature... Such a union cannot come about through the natural active power of an angel assuming a body; but demons assume bodies; therefore they do not assume them through hypostatic union; for God does not concur with demons in a miraculous and supernatural manner so that they might take on bodies. (And this is certainly likewise the case in possessions!)

3 The Treaty of Energians, ch. 3, n. 6, p. 9. Between Satan and the possessed: it is not a true reproduction, but an odious caricature of the Incarnation.

X. — The oppression that the evil spirit exerts on the body therefore consists in removing it from the empire of the soul and printing it movements that express his Hi and his anger outside.

This domination occurs to varying degrees and in multiple forms.

First, two distinct states must be distinguished, the state of crisis and the state of calm. A

The crisis is the violent access of evil, and its violence itself does not allow it to be continuous?. This is the time when the demon declares itself openly by acts, words, agitations, bursts of rage and ungodliness of which man is not capable, and which can only come from the blasphemous angel. 10

Most often, patients lose any feeling of cae that occurs in them during these accesses, as happens in the extreme crises of illness and great pain; and, coming back to themselves, they do not retain any memory of what they have said or what they have done, or rather of what the demon has said or done by them. They can hardly feel the evil spirit at the beginning of the eruption and when it begins to use their limbs in control.

In some cases, however, the spirit of the possessed remains free at the height of the crisis and witnesses with astonishment to this despotic usurpation of his organs by the demon. Le P. Surin, who, while exorcising the Ursulines of Loudun, was himself assailed from possession and remained for twelve years under this odious servitude, kept the consciousness of what was happening in him at the very moment of access, and he left us in a letter of 3 May 1635 addressed to Fr. d-Attchy, Jesuit of Rennes, a faithful and very valuable description of his internal state in the violence to which he was subjected. We must mention, at least in part, this important testimony.

"I cannot say what happened in me during this time, nor how this spirit unites with mine without taking away my conscience or my freedom. He is there like another me; it seems then that I have two souls, one of whom is deprived of the use of his bodily organs and standing as in the distant, look at what the other does. Both spirits struggle on the same battlefield, i.e. in the body; and the soul is as shared: open, in one, to evil impressions; abandoned, in the other, to its own movements and to those of God. At the same time, I feel a great peace under the good pleasure of God, and do not conceive of this repulsion which pushes me, on the other hand, to separate myself from Him, to the great astonishment of those who see me. I am, at the same time, filled with joy and watered with sadness that exhales in complaints or shouts, according to my whim of demons. I feel in me the state of damnation and I fear it; this foreign soul, which seems to me mine, is pierced by despair as by arrows, while the other, full of trust, despises these impressions and curses in all its freedom the one who also leaves them from these two souls, and it is impossible for me to decide whether it is the joy or the fury that produces them. This tremor that seizes me as I approach the DESPOTIC IRRUPTIONS: THE POSSESSION 211 Holy Eucharist comes, it seems to me, and the horror that this approach inspires me, and a respect full of tenderness, without I can say which one of these two feelings dominates. If I want, asked by one of these two souls, to make the sign of the cross on my mouth, the other soul pulls my arm with strength, and makes me grasp my finger with the teeth and bite it with a kind of rage. In these storms, my consolation is prayer; it is to her that I have recourse while my body is rolling on the ground and the ministers of the Church speak to me as a demon and utter curses against me. I cannot express to you how joyful I am to be a demon of this kind, not by a revolt against God, but by a punishment that discovers me the state where sin reduces me; and, while I apply myself the curses that are uttered, my soul can plunge into its nothingness. When the other possessed men see me in this state, it is necessary to see how they triumph, saying, "Medicine, heal yourself! So now go up to the pulpit; it would be nice to hear you preach after you so rolled to the ground!"My condition is such, that I have very few actions left where I am free. If I want to speak, my tongue is rebellious; during Mass, I am forced to stop suddenly; at the table, I cannot carry the pieces to my mouth. If I confess, my sins escape; and I feel that the devil is in me as in his house, entering and going out as he pleases. If I wake up, he is there waiting for me; if I pray, he shakes my mind according to his whim. Does my heart open to God, it fills him with fury; if I will watch, I fall asleep, and it boasts by the mouth of the other possessed that he is my master, which I cannot deny in fact."

XI. — In the intervals of calm, nothing usually reveals, either to the possessed or to the others, the presence of the evil mind, unless possession affects the form of an effect, that by invading the body, the demon determines it.

PP organic disorder which, almost always, is confused by its

eije eiccentricity of categories and resources of art t. Sometimes also evil is characterized, sometimes in a general form, such as paralysis, lethargy; sometimes by a particular affection that reaches a certain sense, hearing from deafness, sight through blindness, taste, smell, tact by strange anomalies that render these organs unfit for their functions; or localized in one part of the body?: arms, legs, digestive or sexual organs, brain. This latter form gives rise to hallucinations and extravagances of madness. Moreover, possession sometimes feels, to speak of it, about a pre-existing disease.

From the variety of evils they inflict, evil spirits receive names that express, not their nature, but the character of possession: this is how in the Gospel one is called a spirit of infirmity, another, a mute spirit,

XIIL. — Continuity of evil makes it possible to infer the perseverance of the cause that produces it. But the opposite is not also true: the demon often conceals his presence by keeping silent, and it takes the power of exorcism to force him to declare himself.

However, possession is not always continuous, and the demon that produces it can come out for a while

1 Tuyréc, De Dæmoniacis, P. 1, c. €, n. 1, p. 15: Vel mortem afferunt, vel membror um usu privant, vel aliam homini minime convenientem forpour revenir ensuite et recommencer ses odieuses vexations.. Being bound by no link other than that of his will, one understands that he can enter and exit at his will, as long as the divine license necessary for possession lasts!. The essence of possession, according to Bérulle's remark? "is precisely a right which the evil mind has to reside in a body and alter in any way; whether residence and alteration is continuous or interrupted; whether it is violent or well fashioned; or whether it brings only a deprivation of any act and use naturally due to nature, or whether it has accompanied a severe torment."

XI. — The demon, playing in possession only the role of motor, it seems that his seat in the body must be where he makes his action felt. This point, however, is not exempt from difficulties and has given rise to strange solutions.

Because of the ill-treatment of which he afflicts the bodies he invades, the demon often determines the swellings under which he was believed to be hiding. It is not doubtful, moreover, that in some cases it manifests its presence by swelling of the parts it works ë, and the Roman Ritual * recommends to the exorcist, if it sees occurrence on

Thus there is no doubt that they can, for a time, abandon the bodies which they inhabit. Their union with bodies is not as great as that of souls with their own bodies. In bodies, they are but a kind of movers; wherefore it is as easy for them to leave bodies as to enter them.

2 The Treaty of Energum, ch. 6, n. 1, p. 14. the members of the possessed some tumor, to sprinkle it with holy water and to trace on it the sign of the cross.

Let invading lange betray his presence and his action by these protuberances, there is nothing impossible; but imagine that he needs a emptiness, some space to penetrate and dwell in a body, would be a gross mistake that contradicts the very notion of the spirit; unless, however, he first takes a bodily form and keeps himself under this mask in the home of the possessed! It was seen, in fact, to enter and exit in the form of a snake, worm, spider, fly, ant, and it cannot introduce with it real bodies without occupying a specific space responding to their extension. It is therefore necessary in such cases to retire or to lodge in the natural cavities of the body, such as the stomach, abdomen, airways. But these bodies may exist and only appear outside, or be purely fantastic, or even receive from the demon only an extrinsic movement °.

Some make the heart the ordinary seat of the evil spirit, because, they say, from there it can easily communicate to the body all the impulses è. From this point of view, DESPOTIC IRRUPTIONS: THE POSSESSION IS more logical to assume the seat in the brain, the real center from which the movement emanates. The Roman Ritual repeatedly prescribes, in the course of exorcisms, to make the sign of the cross on the forehead and chest of the possessed, as to indicate that it is above all to the head and heart that the filthy mind takes refuge.

The nervous system, considered as a whole, appears, not without reason, in Görres the central point of possession, if however we hear the learned German philosopher. To be more assured of his thinking, let us listen to him speak himself t.

"It is now...to examine in which areas of the human personality, in which system of life the possession is accomplished. The soul occurs in a triple form, and each of these forms corresponds, in the body, to a particular system of organs. And first, the soul is enlightened inwardly by this light which enlightens every man coming into this world; and moreover it receives, through the impressions of the outside, ideas which it associates and combines with each other and which form the treasure of its knowledge. In other words, the soul is endowed with the ability to think, conceive and judge. To this faculty corresponds, in the body, the nervous system which is particularly overexcited and involved by these sublime intelligence functions. Moreover, the soul, not content with receiving the impressions of objects from outside, feels the need to react to them, and to push out this activity that consumes them; in other words, it is endowed with the ability to want. However, this ability corresponds in the body to the nervous and muscular system. Finally, the soul penetrates, informs, animates and revives the body to which it is united; it therefore has in it a vital faculty to which responds, in a special way, the ganglionary system and the circulatory system...

"Position attacks man, not by that bright side by which he connects with God, but rather by that dark and inferior side which is turned and inclined towards material things. In a word, it is in the nocturnal region of the human personality that this mysterious act is carried out in its nature and so terrible in its results. Now, to these dark areas of the soul correspond, in the body, these deep and mysterious systems that form nerves by uniting and intertwining with one another, these systems that give the inner movement of life its form and rhythm, and which escape completely from the empire of the will... However, in all these systems, what forms the centre and as the link, is the sympathetic system. This is also where possession usually begins and its first symptoms occur. Indeed, one of the most striking characteristics of possession is a fury that knows no bounds; it is like a evil contagion that seizes and subjects to the demon the motor power of man. But the sympathetic system itself is placed in the body between two systems dependent on it and which find in it their center and their nucleus. Indeed, pushing down its branches, it gives birth to the plexus of the heart, lungs, abdominal and sexual regions. Then, extending from above, it gives birth to the ganglias of the brain, and from there reacts, by the impressions it produces, to the operations of the intelligence.

"Now, to these three parts of the sympathetic system, answer three distinct kinds of operations on the part of the demon. By the upper part, it somehow penetrates into the realm of the mind, and makes its disastrous influence felt up to the operations of thought... By the central part of the same sympathetic system, it penetrates, so to speak, into the sphere of will by making men do external acts whose will is not the efficient cause, although they are accomplished in and by their members. Finally, by the lower part of this system, it penetrates into the very domain of organic life and produces there as a kind of superfetation which, in its contours, mimics and reproduces to a certain extent nature."

In order not to lose ourselves in nebulous interpretations, we would rather simply say, with Thyrea t, that the demons reside entirely in the body or in the organs they possess, that they pass from one point to another of the body, that they occupy more or less parts of it, that they can be present simultaneously to all and to each of the elements; that in short, possession with the aim of moving the human organism or suspending its functions, the invading spirits place themselves at the points where they can prevent action or produce it?.

XIV. — It is not important to know by which way

I would think too that it often happens that those [demons] who are in one man sometimes change their stations, and are now in this part of the body, now in another, now even possess several parts of the man at once, now fewer... In whatever part of the body they are, they are wholly there; in the whole body which they possess they are wholly present, just as the soul of a man is in the man.

Is not what the pilot is in a ship, what the demons are in possessed bodies? But indeed the pilot stations himself in that part of the ship where the ship can most conveniently be steered. In that part of the man, therefore, will the demons be, in which, once stationed, they will more easily be able to drive the man's body wherever they wish. Moreover this is not the only purpose of demons, to move bodies at the pleasure of men: they also strive to hinder, and therefore do hinder, in their own natural operations proper to themselves. Ubi igitur justius sedes suas habebund, quam ubi illas impedire commodissime the diabolical eruption t, but we can say a word of the symptoms that announce it, leaving aside details without interest.

Often possession is sudden and coincides with the cause to which it attaches itself. The precursor sign, when it exists, is usually obsession, in one of the sensitive forms that we have described elsewhere?: before entering and settling permanently, the demon rotates and agitates outside, as an enemy who carries out the assault of the place of which he will become the master. God allows these external manifestations, in order to warn of the inner invasion of which they are the prelude, and to inspire a deeper horror of it °.

We do not have to discuss the natural predispositions of the subject which one would like to see as symptoms of possession: we have already denied the existence of this report.

XV. — It is of all other importance to recognize the causes of possession.

If the evil spirits could at their will invade men, they would go to all to these acts of fury. But God contains them, and they come to this violence only in the opportunities and to the extent that his providence permits. Practically, it is not always easy to assign

By which part evil spirits enter into possessed men.

2 Tuyrée, ibid., P. 1, ©. 11, n. 2, p. 26: Dubium non est plerumque suum in homines ingressum prodere. This can be demonstrated by the examples of many who were at one time possessed. Some of them assert that, before they were possessed, they saw a spirit under the appearance of a dog or a black Ethiopian; some were struck by a certain noise; some had, in sleep, I know not what grave and troublesome imaginings.

°? Tayrée, ibid. n. 6, p. 27: Forte divina providentia idem postulat. For it is not rare that those who are steeped in grave sins are possessed by demons, and open, as it were, a door for them to enter; as to the starting point and final reason of each possession — in more than one case it is a secret that God keeps to himself, a profound and mysterious mixture of mercy and justice!

The causes that man can grasp, proceed or of the possessed himself, or of those around him.

In the subject of possession, they return to these two: demand and sin.

Asking and getting to be delivered to the most appalling tyranny, is a strange thing that is not justified by common rules, that no one has the right to counsel?, but that it is not appropriate, either, to disapprove unreservedly, history attesting that godly characters have made this prayer to God and that God has answered it. Saint Sulpice Sévère ê recounts that a holy man, who exercised a wonderful power over demons, surprised, or rather tempted with a sense of vain glory, asked the Lord to deliver him for five months to the power of the demon and to become like the unfortunate ones he had once healed. Immediately the devil seized him and made him suffer,

Hence (Blessed Jerome) does not judge... Jerome) that our thoughts are to be much wearied here; he wishes rather that divine providence be admired and proclaimed.

SCHRAM, Mystical Theology, §217, schol. 1, vol. 4, p. 383: Imprudently and rashly certain spiritual persons, especially women, under the pretext of suffering for Christ, ask of God that they be handed over to the possessing demon, or sometimes, at the suggestion of a demon transforming itself into an angel of light, thinking this to be the will of God, they of their own accord place themselves in the demon's power, and are in fact seized by him. Temere tales procedunt... Nor do the examples of certain saints avail, which are more to be admired than imitated, and presuppose a special impulse of the Holy Spirit.

With all his prayers, then, he is said to have turned to the Lord and prayed that, power over him having been permitted to the devil for five months, he might become like those whom he himself had cured. Quid multis morer? That most powerful man, renowned throughout the whole East for signs and virtues, to whose threshold the peoples had before flocked, at whose doors the highest powers of this age had prostrated themselves, was seized by a demon, held fast in chains. Having suffered all those things which the possessed usually endure, he was at length in the fifth month purged, not only of the demon but, what was more useful and desired for him, [text illegible]

D CAN et ~ pIa ES REMPLIES NEURX : à Je 20 GR CN OR A MAS

TÄ ANA的 cing months, all violence of possession. After that he was delivered, not only from evil oppression, but, even better, from all the attacks of vanity.

Moral sin is the usual cause of possession: God, in fact, usually inflicts such a great evil only to punish sin and inspire a healthy horror.

Among the sins, some seem to call with special efficiency the punishment of possession. Thyreus ? points to infidelity and apostasy, the abuse of the Holy Eucharist, blasphemy, pride, excesses of lust, envy and avarice, persecution against God's servants, the unrighteousness of children towards their parents, violence of anger, contempt for God and holy things, imprecations and pacts by which Satan is given. In general, the great crimes predispose to this horrible enslavement, which makes man's body home and like the own body of demons. History presents many examples of these horrific punishments that make sinners feel what hell will be.

What is more surprising is that mistakes, serious to the truth, but without formal character of enormity, are told by Tertullian f. A baptized woman went to the show, came back with a demon in the body. The unclean spirit, by the virtue of exorcisms, was called to declare how he dared to seize a Christian: "It was right that I did it," he replied; "I found it in my house."This is still the case of this young Arab girl, of whom the author speaks? of a work often attributed to St.Prosper, a Christian herself, and who, for having carried on a statue of Venus and on herself, while she was bathed, with immodest glances, was suddenly invaded by the unclean spirit.

Some facts are mentioned, but very rare, of possessions that seem to have been determined by mere venial sins. Thus, in Cassian's report, the saint Abbé Moïse, who, in a contestation, had let escape a speech too loudly against Abbé Macaire, was immediately seized by the demon and beset by his fury; but his saint, who fell to his knees, interceded for him and obtained his deliverance immediately. The nun Saint Gregory the Great speaks of, * though this account is also certain.

An example occurred, as the Lord is witness, of that woman who went to the theater, and returned from there with a demon. And so, in the exorcism, when the unclean spirit was reproached for having dared to attack a believer, he said steadfastly: 'And indeed I did most justly; I found her in what was mine.'

2 Lib. de promiss. et prædict. P. 4, ©. 6, Migne (Op. S. A certain young Arab girl, wearing the habit of a handmaid of God, while washing in the bath, looked shamelessly at a certain image of Venus and at herself, likening herself to it, and offered herself as a dwelling to the devil.

Since he too was a singular and incomparable man, on account of a reproach in a certain discourse which he uttered somewhat too harshly in disputing against abbot Macarius, being forestalled indeed by a certain opinion, he was immediately handed over to so dire a demon that it made him stuff his own mouth with human excrement... Continuo, abbate Macario in oratione submisso, dicto citius nequam os ab eo fugatus abscessibility. that it is simple, — seems even less guilty: it is possessed for having ripped out in the garden of the monastery and ate a lettuce, by a movement too natural and without taking the precaution to bless it. It is also narrated in the life of Saint Amet 1, Abbé de Remiremont, that Satan took another nun because she had taken a fruit to eat him without asking permission from his superior. Cassian ? assures that he has known men of a high virtue delivered to the demon in punishment for very slight mistakes, and Thyreus ? makes this just remark that between possession and venial sin, the penalty is below evil.

In addition to these two positive causes of possession, namely demand and sin, can he meet with others, in the subject, coming from natural predisposition?

This issue, agitated in various ways, as we have seen in speaking of obsession, is resolved by what we have said in this place, or at least by virtue of the same principles.

There is no doubt that possession cannot take a form that has anything to do with temperament, simmer on an existing infirmity or determine which ones seem natural; but that is not the question. It is a question of whether such an organic or malady disposition is linked with possession as the cause with its effect, if not as a fatal and always effective cause, at least as a sufficiently effective cause of its nature to lead to that effect. To this question thus asked, we make an absolutely negative answer, because the truth is that there is no causal link between nature and its states on the one hand, and the demonic eruption on the other.

Moreover, possession will be all the more questionable and its verification all the more difficult, since it will be closer to the natural inclinations of the subject or will be linked to pre-existing infirmities.

XVI. — Man can cause possession in three ways: by punishment, malice and contagion.

The punishment is, or the result on one innocent of the fault committed by another, or the punishment imposed, in the name of God, on the culprit himself.

The solidarity which imposes on one another the penalty due to the sin of another, the redemption of the culprit by the innocent, is such a constant law in the human world and especially in the Christian economy, that it would be superfluous to demonstrate it here. As possession is not, of its nature, a moral disorder, and the punishment is separable, from the point of view of the subject, from the guilt, one understands that one person can be possessed for the fault of another. It may be a reasonable interpretation of possession in some cases where there is no, even there can be no personal fault, as in small children. We also have facts that give these conjectures a certain basis. Among the many miracles performed at the tomb of Saint John Gualbert t is the fact of a young girl possessed for the iniquities of her father and mother. One of the most remarkable examples is Ann d'Eus- . tochie de Padua. Born of adultery and sacrilege, she was subjected to the most atrocious violence of demons from her first childhood until the eve of her death; for twenty-five years her trials lasted, her courage never denied herself, and after her death she deserved to be honored as a saint by all the people of Padua +.

It is worthy of God and his merciful providence to redeem the culprit by the innocent to save them both; it is no less worthy of his righteousness to protect unseen holiness and authority among men. 4

The saints, far from calling demons, are the most powerful auxiliaries against their despotism. Sometimes, however, God punishes with the punishment of possession insults to his servants and friends.

More than once, the curse of a father or mother had the effect of the terrible evil of possession?.

More often than not, representatives of the divine authority in the Holy Church have handed down to the demon the rebels and the great sinners. Saint Paul provides a twofold example: the first is the excommunication pronounced against the incestuous of Corinth*; the second is the one he carries against Hymenaeus and Alexander‘, to punish them for their blasphemy. The very formula of these sentences indicates that the culprits are abandoned to Satan, and tradition almost unanimously interprets these words, not only of the separation of Christian society, but of bodily invasion through possession. In the first centuries of the Church, the second penalty was the ordinary conséS æ © quence of the first! and if, in the future, these facts - have become more rare, religious history does not cease to present examples of them to all ages.

It is understandable that, in order to avenge the insults to authority and holiness, God gives the culprits to the vexations of the evil spirit; what is more surprising is that, because of malice or sensitivities posed by his followers, Satan can enter the bodies of innocent, honest and even godly people. And yet this is a constant fact, and, so strange as it seems, it cannot be dismissed in doubt by anyone who has studied so little the history of evil interventions. Those who would like the proof of it only have to read the miraculous deliverances carried out during their lives and after their death by Saint Bernard ° and Saint John Gualbert*, to name only those two among the multitude of saints who have indicated themselves in this kind of wonders; or what concerns the famous possessions of Louviers and Loudun. In Louviers, we see a whole convent of nuns delivered to Satan's action by the charms of a bad priest, Mathurin Picard, who is careful to pass on his succession to another priest, Thomas Boullé, worthy of his perversity. In Loudun, he is still a priest, no less a villain,

1 Corn. A LAr. From these Fathers it is gathered that the excommunicated were formerly handed over to the demon (that they might learn to fear excommunication), and were also bodily (which some here deny) afflicted and as it were possessed by him... For this phrase seems to have arisen from that bodily affliction which the demon used to inflict upon the excommunicated in the primitive Church. Examples are frequent in the Lives of the Fathers, and namely in the life of St. Ambrosii scripta per Paulinum. 2 GUILLAUME, abbé de Saint-Thierri de Reims, BB. 20 Aug., t. 39, p. 271, n. 55 et passim. 3 Jérôme DE Razziolo, BB. 12 jul., t. 30, p. 368, n. 22 — p. 373, n. 53 — p. 389, n. 150, et passim. 4 P. Hope of the BosroGrr, The Grieved Piety, or Historical and Theological Speech of the possession of the nuns known as Suinte-Elisabeth of ] 226 Fe 2 SECTION: THE DIABOLIC PARODIES

Grandier, who casts a similar spell on fourteen nr gious Ursulines, hitherto pure and irreproachable +. -Whatever Urbain Grandier, who has had the bad ‘fortune of having generally only passionate opponents of supernaturalism, Catholicism and Richelieu as defenders, we have an authority that a believer will hardly disavow, it is the constant practice of the Church in exorcisms. The Roman Ritual ? expressly recommends to compel the demon to declare whether the possession is due to these kinds of infamy sacraments, to say in what place they consist, and to resort, in order to destroy the effect, not to the magicians or sorcerers who threw them, but to the liturgical prayers, taking care, as soon as they are discovered, to burn them.

Possession sometimes appears to occur by contagion.

It is an undeniable fact, several times renewed in history, that certain demonic invasions are communicative, either from spectator to spectator, or even outside of any presence and contact, in an epidemic form, such as the diseases of this species. The Jansenist convulsors of the Saint-Médard cemetery and the Cevennes Camisards provide clear evidence of this. It appears from certain facts that possession itself spreads in this form of the epidemic. Several cases of this kind are mentioned, among others two recent and very remarkable, one of which was held in 1857 in Morzines, village i la Savoie! and the other in 1878 in Verzegnis, in Frioul?. The facts are not and cannot be revoked in doubt; but the rationalists called to find them did want to see there only a pathological case, and, using Greek formulas, renewed from Calmeil or elucidated for the occasion, they have increased the long category of human infirmities to which they do not know any remedies. It was enough to achieve their ends: the supernatural was shunned.

We do not follow the same procedure. Assuming these facts the dual character of demonic possession and endemic transmission, the reason for this report should be sought.

As we have already stated, there is no connection between organic disturbances and possession of cause and effect. Possession often results from disease; never does disease lead to possession as a natural consequence. The dependence that seems to be established from one to the other, if it is not a trick of demons who conceal their presence outside of a contagious disease, must be attributed to conditions made by God to the invaders. These conditions can be reduced to this: either God, for reasons of justice and wisdom, authorizes on many a multiple and growing possession, in a similar form that makes it appear to be an epidemic spread, although in reality there is only mere coincidence; or else he allows the evil spirits to invade within a circumscribed radius those who have a communicable affection of its nature, such as madness, epilepsy, and, in some cases, in others.

1 Cf. De Mirville, Des Esprits, t. 2, c. 4, $ 3, p. 213, with Appendix B, p. 233. — HiproLyTe WHITE, the Wonderful, pp. 279-297. _ General, diseases which have their seat in the nervous system. The cases reported so far clearly fall within these categories.

XVII. — In addition to the causes we have just assigned to evil possession, are there any other? Apart from the sin that God punishes, the prayer that he hears, the holiness that he avenges and the authority that he protects, the substitution of the innocent to the culprit, the laws of trial that open to the wicked and the demons secret from which to assail the righteous, is there any other motive that can determine this amazing phenomenon?

With the wisest authors, we do not hesitate to respond in the affirmative. We have seen little children still with the demon agitated mamela, without the parents seeming to have given rise to it by any crime." We have seen pious characters in the same vexations, although outside nothing attests that there was fault on their part, nor on the part of God substitute for other culprits. We have already quoted Fr. Surin. There is another example, more ancient and more remarkable, that we must not pass in silence; it is that of Stagire, famous for his holy life and trials, even more famous by the three books addressed to him by his friend Saint John Chrysostom °, in order to raise his courage and justify the apparent rigours of Providence towards him. After a youth free of disruptions, he had embraced the life of the cenobitics and faithfully practiced their least observances. Nevertheless, he was assailed and perhaps possessed by the demon with vehemence and tenacity that resisted all the prayers of the Church and the saints. God obviously had his purposes in keeping a faithful servant under this cruel oppression.

These designs, Chrysostom, in the above-mentioned book, and the other Christian doctors have been careful to deepen them, and we must report them ourselves to the reader.

In the first line, we must place the sanctification even of the innocent souls who are subjected to this abhorrent tyranny. When God thus abandons the body to Satan, it is to better save the soul that loves him and wants to serve him. We have noticed, speaking of the preparatory trials of contemplation, that possession was not part of it regularly; but it is wonderfully suited to inspire the horror of demons, the fear of God's judgments, humility and prayer +.

It's even more useful to the next one. This spectacle of a creature that survives the most atrocious violence, gives us to know, on the one hand, the hatred, the rage, the carried away of demons against man; and, on the other, the merciful protection that God grants to him up to the hands of these cruel enemies, who, in the end, can not, as we ostensibly see in the person of Job, anything that God allows them?. N OAE E A S K 4 230 9° SECTION: DIABOLIC PARODIES

Another no less salutary lesson: the horrific fury of demons over the bodies they possess is a prelude to damnation, and warn how many are to complain of the captive souls of sin and placed, so to speak, at the vestibule of hell? According to St Augustine è's remark, fleshly men fear the present evils more than the future evils, and that is why God strikes them in time, so as to teach them what the terrible torments of eternity will be.

Finally, possessions are used to bring forth the divinity of Our Lord, the power of the Church, and the credit of the saints. In the name of Jesus Christ, to the exorcisms of his priests, to the consummations of his servants, the demons, dæmoniacis identify licatet, and Dei benignitatem, and dæmonum improbitatem. And indeed the wickedness of demons, when they trouble and agitate the soul of the demoniac; but the goodness of God, in that He restrains and checks so savage a tenant desiring to cast the man down headlong, and does not permit it to use all its power.

Here, as in an image, those extreme torments and torments are set before the eyes, which after this life await the reprobate; and by consideration of these it comes about that mortals flee the sins by which they would once have deserved the dominion of demons and torment in the future life.

2 S. Indeed, though the soul is daily overwhelmed by the force of sins, there is no one who mourns; but if ever this body suffers, that indeed seems hard and unbearable.

All this temporal vengeance terrifies weak souls, so that it may instruct those reared under discipline and may turn them away from everlasting and ineffable punishments: for carnal men fear more what God avenges in the present than what he threatens for the future.

4 S. PAULIN DE Noze, Poema 23, De S. Felicis nat. Carm. 7, Migne, t. 61, col. 609 :

Behold, by the art of our Redeemer, the Evil One in turn

Luderis illusor. JNE E PE MAC d'Art Le

becomes the ensnarer ensnared; man deceives the robber with his own prey,

and the captive of the captured body, its bait,

while seeking what is unlawful, swallows the deadly hook.

5 RITUEL ROMAIN, de Exorcizandis obsessis a dæmonio.

6 BB. Acta SS. passim. Let someone be produced here before your tribunals who is known to be possessed by a demon: that spirit, when ordered by any Christian to speak, will as truly confess himself to be a demon as elsewhere he falsely confesses himself to be a god. Trembling, beseeching, they answer and abandon the bodies they torment.

XVII. — In order not to expose our beliefs and practices to the mockery of the unbelief, it is sovereignly important to use the utmost caution when deciding on the characters of evil possession. These characters are certain or only probable. They usually take care of the strangeness of the evil, the extreme agitations of the patient, the blasphemies he utters, the horror he testifies to the holy things'. Whatever these clues provide only conjectures, we will not stop there, because there is too close to the mere probability of error, and that error here gives the malicious and ignorant an opportunity to conclude, against logic without doubt, a particular contempt for the falseness of the whole. To cut short the feints of imposture and the illusions of the unknown, the two ordinary sources of error in this matter, we will only allege the absolutely demonstrative signs of possession.

The characters assigned by the Roman Ritual fulfil the conditions of perfect certainty. In the opinions that precede the ceremonial of exorcisms, it is recommended that the priest ensure first and foremost the presence of demons, not to believe in them lightly and to use, to recognize possession, the signs that distinguish it from the atrabilary mood or from some disease. But the signs of evil possession, the Ritual T adds, are as follows: To speak and hear tongues that have never been learned, to discover distant and hidden things, to deploy forces above his age and condition, as it would be to fly at a great distance, to stand in the air without a point of support, to walk his feet against a vault or ceiling and his head down, to lift burdens that many people could not move; or, if he is a child or a retarded person, to deploy forces superior to those of the most robust man °.

We can add to these marks an out-of-line science in a gross person who would not have received any prior instruction, the prompt obedience to exorcisms, and again — but in this it would take the most absolute secret before experimentation and the most attentive circumspection in experimentation itself — the sudden impression made by the unexpected contact of sacred things, while secular objects would leave indifferent. CHAPITRE XI

DEMON'S DESPOTIC IRRUPTIONS

3° REMEDIES Magic remedies, assuming their effectiveness, are never lawful. — En existe-t-il de naturels? Theories that led several former Fathers to think so. — Scriptural and other facts that seem to favor this feeling. — Nature has no direct antidote against demons. — Supernatural remedies alone are effective. — These means are: the sacramental confession, — the divine Eucharist, — the intervention of the saints and their relics, — the sacramentals, especially the holy water, — the cross, — the holy names of Jesus and Mary, — the exorcisms. — Power given by Jesus Christ to the Church to adjure demons, and exercise of that power. — Forme de ces adjurations. — Leur efficacité. — This efficiency does not depend on the holiness of the minister. — The Catholic Church alone has the power to exorcise demons. — Appropriate precautions before proceeding with exorcisms. — Rules to be followed and to be followed in the operation. — Signs of deliverance and thanksgiving. — The above-mentioned supernatural means also serve against obsessions. I. — We have described the evil; we must make known the remedies. These remedies were asked of the devil himself, nature, and God. We admit only the divine antidotes, but we cannot completely ignore what has been said about the evil and natural processes. Let us proceed by way of elimination, and from an abject, Satan.

There is no harm in curing his infamous and deceitful superiors, no inextricable situation that they do not commit themselves to undo. They abound in recipes against all pain, even against the most pronounced evil importunities. Use their intervention to ward off the triumphant rabies of the disturbing spirit, and probably increase the evil rather than heal it.

However, possessions and obsessions may cease or be suspended by these kinds of practices. To explain this withdrawal, it is not necessary to assume an injunction from a higher demon forcing the subordinate demon against man to retire. The only point on which the revolted angels agree is the hatred of God and the ruin of his creature! So if Satan withdraws himself under the action of a magic sign, it is that his perfidy lends himself to all that can cover his tricks and better ensure his blows; he suspends an evil only to produce a greater one; he unties the body only in order to chain the soul, loving better to act as master over souls than over bodies.

Whatever the effectiveness of these means, the use of them is unlawful and detestable, first because the act of the evil agents is a crime for which the direct opportunity is provided; and, second, because these practices carry with them a corrupting rapet." 4 The only case in which one can lawfully turn to the magij cien to stop a demonic incursion is when the evil is the effect of a permanent malice of which he is the author; nothing prevents him from being forced to refrain from doing wrong; he is asked only a negative contest? to which he is bound.

Our conclusion on the value and morality of magic recipes against possessions and obsessions is therefore that, far from prejudging Satan's violence, they usually have the effect of redoubling his rage and that, they should succeed, it is never allowed to resort to it, because they involve a contest, at least tacit, with God's declared enemy.

The same would not be true of natural remedies, assuming that they exist, for we do not see why their use would be prohibited.

En existe-t-il en réalité?

II. — Many, if not many, have believed in the existence and effectiveness of these kinds of remedies, and if we look for what may have inclineed into this strange feeling, we find at the starting point theories and facts.

From this it is plainly concluded that it is not lawful to ask a sorcerer to remove one evil deed by another evil deed, however ready he may be to do it. For the demon is ready enough, though it is not lawful to ask this of him; but when it is asked of some magician, it is asked of the demon himself, albeit through the magician. Because to ask a magician to work a malefice in order to remove a malefice is nothing other than to ask him to obtain this from the demon, as his friend and associate who has a pact with him; therefore whoever asks this of a magician asks it, through him, of the demon, which is of the same malice.

SUAREZ, ibid., n. 8, p. 594: One man can be compelled by another, both in fact, on account of superior strength, and even by right, when this can be done without inducement to evil and without injustice. Utrumque autem horum concurrit in coactionc magi ad destruendum maleficium, quando sine maleficio potest et ideo talis We know that the ancient Fathers! supposed angels, and especially fallen angels, clothed with more or less subtle bodies, therefore subject to the sensitive influences of the material world. This doctrine, once laid down, is led to admit that these angels, subject like us to cosmic laws, are attracted or repulsed by some form of matter; experience will learn which bodies the approach of which delights or tortures demons, and, to put them on the run, there will only be to oppose them what hurts and revolts their senses.

This conclusion, rightly deduced, is compromised by the falseness of the principle from which it is drawn; for it is a certain point ? that angels, either good or bad, are purely spiritual substances. The theory of the corporeity of angels cannot therefore serve as a basis for the one who subjects them to the sensitive influences of material beings.

II. — The facts are more embarrassing. Two, especially those mentioned in the Bible, require special attention.

Voici le premier.

The Spirit of the Lord, is it said in the first Book of Kings, that he departed from Saul, and, in his place and by his permission, the evil spirit began to torment this poor prince, to the point that he was seen giving himself in his house to the most violent entrances of wrath. His servants asked him to bring to his person someone who could touch the harp, so that, at the moment when the evil spirit would stir, he would be relieved by the sweet chords of this instrument: and the young David was reported to him as very skilful in playing the harp. David was commanded and brought to the king, who loved him and made him his squire. "And every time," said the sacred text, "that the evil spirit seized Saul, David took his harp and played it; and Saul was comforted and relieved; for the evil spirit withdrew from him."

Is it necessary to see in the evil of which Saul suffered a true possession, and in this case, how did David's music have the virtue of calming down these accesses?

The interpreters commonly hear Saul's evil of true possession, taking the form of a dark melancholy whose violence went as far as fury? It remains to be seen whether this black sadness was the occasional effect or cause of the demonic eruption, which is not indifferent to deciding how David, by playing the harp, calmed the king's agitations.

Those who seek in nature specifics against the attacks of the demon believe here to have support for their thesis; perhaps it is to pose in principle what would need to be demonstrated. There were some who thought that David, already pleasing to God, calmed Saul by the prayer which he attached to the accords of his harp: pious supposition Hate sacred torian n'insinue or condemn. Others saw two things in Saul's access: possession and the black melancholy that followed; David could not do anything against possession, but he relieved the discomfort that it caused. The sacred text seems to indicate more, because it expressly states that David's harmonious music forced the demon to retire.

To these interpretations, could we not add another, which leaves in its literal integrity the biblical account, namely: that Saul gave to the attacks of the evil spirit by his atrabilary mood, and that, dissipating by the natural charm of a sweet melody these melancholic impressions, David made him peace and put the demon to flight?

As we can see, the sacred text does not strictly conclude here that the material elements are directly effective against demonic eruptions.

The second example taken from Scripture seems more explicit. The angel Raphael recommends to the young Tobie to preserve as precious specifics the heart, liver and gall of the fish that caused him so much fear. The honey dissolves the sheaths that veil the eyes; the heart and the liver run away from the demons; for, said angel to his protégé, if it is put on the blaze, the smoke that comes out of it casts out any spirit that torments either a man or a woman. While waiting for the gall to give back the view to old Tobie, the opportunity will present itself to experience the second antidote. At the word of his guide, Tobie accepted Sarah, the unfortunate daughter of Raguel, whose demon Asmodea had already killed seven husbands successively on the first night of their wedding; but he, smoking on burning coals the heart and liver of the fish; and, the sacred text added, "the angel Raphael took the demon and relegated him to the desert of Upper Egypt."

Should this fumigation be attributed direct effectiveness on the evil mind? No notable interpreter dared to claim it?; but many believe that this virtue had been supernaturally attached to it by God, as he, according to them, attached to other bodies, to herbs, to stones, to metals, the effect of repelling demons, thus subjecting them, in punishment for their pride, to the inferior elements of nature. It is unbelievable that this virtue is maintained in this fish that no one knows, and even less believeable that a single application is sufficient by itself to rule out the demon forever, as the text declares from this wonderful specific *. on the organs to dispel the dark moods that attract

Tobit 8:2-3: So Tobias, remembering the angel's words, took out of his bag a piece of the liver, and laid it upon the live coals. Then the angel Raphael seized the demon, and bound it in the desert of upper Egypt.

No natural power of corporeal things can act directly upon a demon, and therefore neither odor, nor fumigation, nor herbs, stones, or any other sensible things whatsoever can directly and physically drive them away, whether from places or from men. Ita S. Thomas, etc. etc., et plerique in cap. 6 vel 8 Tobiæ, cum aliis multis... It is therefore impossible, as Abulensis rightly infers in the place cited, and with him very many others, that a lesser power, such as that of corporeal things, should subject a demon to itself.

3 CORNEL. Cornelius a Lapide, on Tobias 6:8: You will ask, by what force and power the heart of this fish, as well as its gall, drives away demons? Valesius, sacr. Philosophus, ch. 28, says that a supernatural power was granted to this fish by God for driving away demons... Favent Guliel. Paris. 1. de Universo , Dionys. Carth., Petrus Gregor. Tolosanus, Syntagm. juris, l. 34, €. 22, Hier. Mengus, in the Flagellum daemonum, [reporting others] saying that demons, on account of pride, are made subject by God to certain bodies and herbs. But this power in this fish is unheard-of, nor could a single fumigation of it have force to keep the demon away forever... so that they no longer held back the demon, and the intervention of the angel completed the deliverance!

We would like even better, with Thyrée?, Corneille-laPierre è, the commentators and the most serious theologians, to attribute the result in its entirety, not to the liver, the heart or the smoke, but to the prayers and merits of Sara and Tobie, who determined the competition of the angel, the only and true author of the deliverance. That if the angel seemed to link the escape of the demon to the external condition which he had prescribed, it was in order not to reveal himself before the hour to the young Tobie and to continue with him, under the appearances of the man, his tutelary mission.

In addition to these facts inscribed in the sacred pages, Christian annals and secular history provide others more or less certain, more or less specious. We will mention only one, narrated by Flavien Josephus; he deserves all the more attention as he was used to qualify the so-called natural specifics used against the demon.

It is known from Scripture that Solomon possessed a CORNEL admi1. A Lapide, ibid.: More plainly and fully, Lyranus, Serarius, and Abulensis on 1 Kings 16, q. 46, and Pererius on Daniel hold that the smoke from the heart of the Callionymus fish (this is, according to Cornelius a Lapide, the fish in question here) drove out the demon, begun by natural force, as Raphael here suggests, but completed by angelic and heavenly power.

2 De Dæmoniac. P. 3,0, 48, n. 23, p. 178: Quid igitur est quod dæmonium profligavit? Fumus? Non. Raphael angelus profligavit. Quomodo vero? Was it on account of the smoke that was raised? Nec hoc etiam. Verum tamen quando excitatus est fumus, profligatus est dæmon. If anything here, apart from the work of the angel, put the demon to flight, it was the merits and prayers of Tobias and Sara.

3 CORNEL. A Lar., ibid. The complete cause driving away the demon, however, was the angel Raphael, who, at the fumigation of the liver, on account of the merits and prayer of Tobias, put the demon to flight. But Raphael kept this silent, and put forward the fumigation as a pretext, lest he should reveal himself, or lest Tobias should know him to be an angel, whom he had as a companion and guide of the journey, as though he were a man... It was not therefore the fish's liver, but Raphael, that seized and put to flight the demon.

4 Cf. D. CaLuer, In dæmonem Asmodæum dissert. Migne, Grand Cours d'Ecriture sainte, vol. 12, vol. 633-648. According to the grave historian of the Jewish nation, God had given him the secrets of the physical world, that he might teach men to use it for the relief of their pains and against the attacks of demons. To this end, he had composed recipes against various diseases and left in writing formulas that conjured the demons and stopped their importunities. "These exorcisms are still in great use among us," Josephus continues? speaking of the Jews, "and I have seen myself a certain Eleazar of our nation, healing many possessed in the presence of Vespasian, his sons, his officers, and his army." He placed under the nose of the demoniac a ring whose kitten contained a root designated by the great king, and this smell forced the devil to come out by the nostrils of the man whom he possessed; then he adjured the evil spirit, reciteing formulas due to Solomon, not to return °.

Ce n'est pas tout. To show the spectators all the power of his art, this strange exorcist put a vase full of water at a distance and ordered the demon to overthrow him as a sign of his exit +.

Antiquities of the Jews, bk. 8, ch. 2, trans. Sigismund Gelenius, vol. 4, p. 237: For he was ignorant of the nature of none of these things, nor left it unexamined…; he obtained this by divine favor for the benefit and healing of men, a power which is effective against demons. For he composed incantations by which diseases are driven away, and left behind written forms of exorcism, by which demons, yielding, are put to flight in such a way that they never dare to return afterward.

2 Ibid. And this kind of remedy still prevails greatly among our people even now. For I saw a certain Eleazar, one of my countrymen, in the presence of Vespasian and his sons and the tribunes and the rest of the soldiers, curing many who were possessed.

3 Jbid. Now the manner of the cure was this. Having brought to the nostrils of the possessed man a ring, under whose seal was enclosed a kind of root indicated by Solomon, to...

What about this story and these practices? Many believed, according to Josephus, that the material elements could possess, either naturally or through a positive annexation, an antipathetic virtue to evil spirits, and from there came to the natural recipes used against these spirits the name of Solomon's exorcisms. According to others, if Solomon instituted exorcisms, it is about a particular revelation of God, but nature itself is alien to these kinds of results. Finally, the common feeling is that this Eleazar was a magician and that these practices imputed to Solomon were purely superstitious. The only staging described by Josephus is sufficient to demonstrate this: these ridiculous experiments performed before the crowd are not the gravity and decency of a divine institution, and it would be even less serious to attribute such effects to pure nature!

IV. — This last solution is ours, and we extend to all cases of the same kind. The reasons behind it are simple. To affirm the effectiveness of a means, one must perceive a connection with the result to be achieved; however, there is no intrinsic proportion between the material energies and the action exerted on the spirits. [...] and he commanded the demon, as it left the man, to overturn these [vessels], so as to give the onlookers a sign that it had left the man.

1 G. As to the root of Solomon, I say that it did not by itself, by natural power, drive away demons, but only when employed together with the adjurations or exorcisms which Solomon had instituted by God's authority, if what Josephus relates in the passage cited is true. Whether that Eleazar actually cast out demons by the power of Solomon's exorcism might seem doubtful to someone, since indeed this took place after the coming of Christ and the promulgation of the Gospel throughout Judea. Certe DeLRIO, 1. 2, Disg. mag., q. 30, sect. 3, credit Eleazarum illum fuisse magum et per signum pacti operatum; idque colligit ex circumstantiis quæ apud Josephum loc. cit. apponuntur. Perhaps, too, it is not true that the adjurations and that root, which the Jews then used in driving out demons, were instituted by Solomon, but rather by superstitious Rabbis. Quidquid tamen sit, certum is ex dictis radicem llam non habuisse vim naturalem shovendi daemones. . divine will could attach to these elements a positive virtue; but, apart from the sacraments and blessings of the Church, we do not know any productive sign of a supernatural effect.

This is the feeling of the most versed authors in these subjects, such as Thyreus!, Delrio?, the learned Zacchias*, both physician, coroner and theologian, Benedict XIV+, the most authorized master when it comes to untangle the natural of the diabolical and the divine.

We would not, however, want to contest absolutely any effectiveness, even indirect, of natural remedies in the evil eruptions. We have already said that these invasions may have an organic disorder as a condition; in this case, the evil being removed by natural reagents, the imports to which it gives taken would also cease.

Therefore, against the demon's access in the form of a characterized disease, medical prescriptions can and must be used. If the evil gives way, it must not be concluded that the medicines have acted on the malignant mind, but on the body, to combat and destroy what T 944 20 SECTION: DIABOLIC PARODIES served as the beginning. Usually, the opposite happens: the demon produces disease rather than disease calls me the demon; and, when it is so, the natural agents lose all virtue. It is not that the remedies do not tend by themselves to cure the bodily malaise; but the demons that cause it are more active in maintaining it than the remedies to make it disappear, and by direct resistance they can even deprive them of any effectiveness '. It is only by way of exception that the evil of which they are the perpetrators would yield, while they continue their abuse, to the natural specifics ?.

Therefore, it is not necessary to ask the nature of antidotes against possession and obsession. On the other hand, the use of the demon or its agents is a crime which, far from lifting the evil, usually only causes it to be exasperated. Who, then, should you turn to, if not to God?

V.—God rarely grants the demon to exercise the open violence of possession and obsession, and, when he permits it, he does not leave man helpless in these appalling extremities. He even seems to release the bridle to the tempter only to give the believers the double proof of his rage and weakness, and to show the prey to the wild beast only to bring him to the trap, according to the just and poetic comparison already quoted by Saint Paulin of Nole‘. The authority of the Church, the divine virtue of the sacraments, the prerogatives of holiness burst beautifully into these horrific and grandiose scenes, where Satan, directly questioned, is forced to obey the man commanding in the name of Jesus Christ, escapes from the only aspect of God's servants, from the blessed sign of the cross, from the contact of the holy relics and sacred things.

We still have to make known these supernatural processes, the only real ones, to drive out demons. What we are going to say is mainly suitable for possession; we will specify to what extent these remedies are applicable to obsession.

The Roman Ritual reports most of the means to be used against demonic eruptions. We cannot take a safer guide. It is also easy to relate to these statements the various assertions of the authors who have dealt with these matters.

VI.—The first counsel to be given to the person whom Satan tyrannizes is that of an entire inner cleansing? Since the ordinary cause of evil is sin, it must first be removed by a humble and sincere confession.* A general confession especially could, through the salutary humiliation that accompanies, accelerate

1 Poem, 23, v. 79-81; Migne, Patr. t. 61, col. 609.

The snared man becomes a snare;

...the captive, captured [prey?] of the body's bait,

While he seeks what is forbidden, he swallows the deadly hook.

RITUALE, On Exorcizing the Possessed: Let the possessed person, if he is able in mind and body, be admonished to pray to God for himself, and to fast, and to fortify himself often, at [the exorcist's] discretion, with holy confession and communion...

The second remedy is purification of conscience [...]; if [a grave sinner], through a general confession, and then, with amendment, frequent use of the sacrament of Penance; if lukewarm, through a renewal of fervor...; if he strives for perfection, by carefully examining himself whether perhaps some sin, even venial, or some passion remains in him [...] — the flight of the impure and proud spirit. The result would be more quickly and surely achieved if, at the admission of faults and sacramental absolution, prayer and the practices of penance were joined. Fasting is reported by Our Lord ? as having a special effectiveness against some demons that are more difficult to reduce, especially against others.

VII. — The Church uses the sacrament of the altar in several ways to remove man from Satan's despotism.

She recommends first to the possessed to join the practice of confession the use of the Eucharist. It is, in fact, a constant rule to give this heavenly food to demoniacs sufficiently prepared and calm enough to receive it with decency. The council of Elvire, as Fr. Morin * advances until the middle of the m° century and which is usually placed * in the first years of the 1st century, decrees, despite the severity of his discipline, that communion will not be refused to energists. The first council of Orange £, held in 441, orders to give it to those who desire their deliverance and show themselves docile to the advice of the clergy responsible for their conduct; and, to the testimony of Cassien? relating a dialogue on this subject between the two A

DESPOTIC IPRUPTIONS: REMARKS 247

$ that, if it were possible, it should be given to them every day. Without going that far, the Roman Ritual! leaves it to the priests to decide to what extent they should admit these unfortunate ones to the Eucharistic table.

The book OF THE PROMESSES AND PREDICTIONS OF GOD ?, attributed by several to Saint Prosper of Aquitaine, but which is probably of a contemporary author, and native to Africa, contains on the use of the Eucharist against evil possession a memorable fact of which we have already spoken. A young girl, possessed of the devil for having, while she was bathing herself, cast on a statue of Venus and on herself impudent eyes, spent eighty-five days without being able to swallow a single drop of water; yet she ate. At night a black bird came to pour into his mouth a mysterious food that maintained his strength and even gave him the most beautiful appearances of health. She was brought to church on a Sunday, and after Mass the priest presented to her the body of the Lord soaked in the species of wine; but, for half an hour, she made tam a senioribus nostris nunquam meminimus interdictam, quin imo si posibile esset, etiam quotidie eis impartiale eam debere censebant.

On Exorcising the Possessed: Let the possessed person be admonished... let him communicate frequently, by sacred confession and communion, at the discretion of the priest.

2 Lib. de promiss. et prædict. A certain young girl, Arab by nation, wearing the habit of a handmaid of God, when washing in the bath looked shamelessly at a certain image of Venus and at herself, and, likening herself to it, offered herself as a dwelling to the devil... Now it happened that the fifteenth Sunday was dawning. As the priest went up with us, so that the morning sacrifice might be offered there as usual, the superior led the girl to the altar with that gait and bearing with which women flushed red from feasting and drinking are wont to arrive... The sacrifice thus completed, when she, among the others, received from the priest a small particle of the Lord's body, dipped, though chewing for half an hour she was unable to swallow it... Then, the priest supporting her face with his hand, lest she should cast out the holy [sacrament], it was suggested by a certain deacon that the bishop apply the saving chalice to her throat. When this was done, as soon as she left, by the Savior's command, that place which the devil had beset, the girl cried out that she had swallowed the sacrament which she carried in her mouth, with praise of the Redeemer — [French fragment, untranslated: 'of the vain efforts to swallow it']. While the priest supported her head, not letting the divine species fall to the ground, a deacon proposed to approach the possessed neck the chalice of salvation. They did so, and immediately the passage opened, and the demon cut off in that part of the body fled, to the great joy of the people, who broke out in thanksgiving.

This way of dispensing the Eucharist to the energists has succeeded more than once in delivering them; it is not, however, to advise as the rule to be followed in order to achieve this result; these experiments expose to unwelcome circumstances. The Roman Ritüel! recommends not to approach the divine sacrament from the head of the possessed or any other part of his body, because of the peril of irreverence. But we can present it to him standing at a certain distance, and sum the demon, by the God of the tabernacle, to abandon his victim. For this reason, it is necessary that the energist be sufficiently quiet, or retained in such a way that he cannot desecrate himself. In the exorcisms practiced on Nicole de Vervins? and on the possessed of Loudun °, the Eucharist was made a less reserved use than required by the Rituel. Without blaming experiences that served to highlight in the eyes of Protestants the dogma rejected by them of the real presence of Our Lord in the Eucharist, we can only exhort ourselves not to abandon the precautions and prescriptions decreed by the Church for these perilous encounters.

More than once, however, God's servants, with their trust in the virtue of holy hosthood, have, through his contact, reduced Satan to a brink and forced him to withdraw from his despotic domination. The life of St.Bernard in particular presents examples of this. Perhaps it is right to recognize here the two powers brought together from there divine Eucharist and holiness.

VII. — The saints, in fact, are the most formidable adversaries of the invading and disturbing spirit. It is reported in many people's lives that, as they approached, the demons shouted through the mouths of the possessed and testified, through this violence, of the torture inflicted on them by the presence of God's servants alone. We do not speak of Our Lord, the Holy One of the saints, who commanded the demons in master, imposed silence on them, and a word drove them out of the bodies they tormented. The apostles received to a wonderful degree this empire over the filthy spirits, as promised to them by the Saviour. The shadow alone of Saint Peter healed the infirm and delivered the possessed?. The linens that had been used by Saint Paul and the belt he had worn had the same virtue. In one word, the same apostle forced demons to flee. ‘ Saint Philip renews these wonders in Samaria, so brilliantly that the too famous Simon the Magician converts for a moment to the Christian faith.

We will not begin to tell about the exploits of the saints against Satan and the victorious empire with which they cast him out of the bodies he tyrants. Among the most famous by this kind of prodigies, we will mention the ancient lexandria#, and following them, among the multitude, Saint Gregory the Thaumaturge, Saint Martin of Tours, Saint Geneviève of Paris, Saint John Gualbert, Saint John of the Cross?, Saint Philip of Néri ®. This gift erupted above all in Saint Bernard ‘!, especially during his journey to Italy to extinguish the schism of Peter of Leo: through the cities where he passed, to Milan, Padua and Cremona, he was brought to him the unfortunate ones whom the demon assailed and tortured, and the saint abbot delivered them by a simple prayer, resting on their heads, as we said, the adorable Eucharist, giving them to drink water of which he washed his hands, or in several other ways.

To the virtue of the saints, binds one that of their relics. Their glorious tombs have always been seen as shelters against the tyranny of demons. We will mention in particular those of Saint Martin de Tours? and Saint John Gualbert #.

It is not only the mortal remains of God's servants who cast out the spirits of darkness, but also all that has been used for their use or worship. We refrain from multiplying examples and narratives; anyone who is

DESPOTIC IRRUPTIONS: REMARKS 9251 has travelled the lives of the saints knows how many of these wonders are in large numbers t. But we must not ignore the Church's prescriptions on the use of relics in exorcisms. The Ritual? recommends that exorcists, as far as possible, seek holy relics, wrap them up and cover them carefully, in order to preserve them from any desecration, and then approach them with respect to the head or chest of the possessed person. The contact of these blessed and sanctified remains is to demons as burning coals that burn them.

IX. - The sacramentals and objects consecrated by the prayers of the Church also enjoy special efficiency. Blessed water, in particular, has always been used to run away from unclean spirits.' The formulas of the Ritual assign this virtue to him in the most explicit way, and the Church, which uses it in most other blessings, particularly recommends its use in public adjurations against Satan. According to Saint Teresus, the holy water would be more effective than the cross

1 Cf. Tavrée, de Dæmoniacis, P. 3, ©. 43, p. 137.

On Exorcising the Possessed: Relics of the saints too, where they can be had, fittingly and securely bound and covered, are to be reverently applied to the breast or head of the possessed person; but let care be taken that sacred things not be handled unworthily, or that any injury be done to them by the demon.

3 Tayrée, de Dæmoniac. The fourth method is examined, by which demons are cast out of human bodies through the use of consecrated things.

4 ManrTieny, Dict, antiq. chrét., word EAU BÉNITE.

The Rite for Making Holy Water: I exorcise you... that you may become exorcised water for putting to flight all the power of the enemy, and that you may be able to uproot and cast out the very enemy along with his apostate angels... So that wherever it shall be sprinkled, through the invocation of your holy name, every assault of the unclean spirit may be driven off, and the terror of the venomous serpent be cast far away.

On Exorcising the Possessed: Let him sprinkle holy water, which he should have at hand, exorcised.

7 Her life by herself, ch. 31 : I will experience many times, nothing equals the power of the holy water to drive out demons and prevent them from returning; they also flee from the appearance of the cross, but they return. The virtue j RY PEN Sy 252 2nd SECTION: DIABOLIC PARODIES to drive out demons; but P. Ribera t, his historian, wisely notes that the saint tells her experiences rather than assigns a rule, and that God grants, at his will, more virtue sometimes to one sign and sometimes to another.

X.—Whether it is the relative superiority of the cross over the other signs used against demons, it is at least certain that it is an extremely formidable symbol for them? The parcels of the true cross are, of all relics, the most precious and venerated, the one that inspires the most terror and horror to the cursed angels, because it is the memorial of their great defeat.

The image alone of the cross is enough to put them on the run. That is why the Ritual prescribes the exorcists to bring the crucifix, to hold it in their hands or to have it before their eyes.

The sign of the hand-marked cross has always been in use among Christians as a sovereign condom against Satan, his practices and his violence*, and the Church, which brings back to this form most of the blessings it confers, multiplies more particularly the sign of the cross in exorcisms. It was by the sign of the cross that the servants of God operated the deliverances and SATA where the IRRUPTIONS DESPOTIC: THE REMEDIES 253. chased the demons!, as one can convince by browsing their acts in the collection of the Bollandists and other hagiographs.

This is the virtue of the sign of the cross that one of the greatest enemies of the Christian name, Julien the Apostate, having traced this sign on his forehead, in a magical evocation that glazed him with terror, the appearance ceased immediately. We take this account of St Gregory of Nazianze ?, the contemporary and the condisciple of the renegat emperor, Theodoret? and Sozomène +*.

XI. — The holy name of Jesus is even more powerful to repel demons, and he has become, according to the promise of the Saviour è, a sort of sacrament against these revolted angels. We see the apostles, Saint Paul ê in particular, instructing the demons, by this sacred name, to abandon the bodies they possess, and they come out immediately. From the beginning of the Church, the practice is established of commanding by the blessed name of Jesus to the unclean spirits, and it is through this invocation, accompanied by the sign of the cross, that the saints are accustomed to exert an irresistible empire on them 7.

1J. To this belong those histories which testify that demons were driven out by holy men through the laying on of hands — histories which, because this was never done without the sign of the cross, the writers, as though it were a most well-known thing, passed over in silence the making of the cross.

2 Orat. Struck by the novelty of the thing — for he had only lately embraced zeal for these matters — he fled to the cross, the old remedy, and with this sign fortified himself against terrors, and took as his helper him whom he had been persecuting. And what follows is more fearsome still. The sign proved effective: the demons yield, the terrors are driven off.

4, Migne, t. 82, col. 1086.

à Écçles. Fst., 113,10:

Aus er AAE EEA OE

Mark 16:17: In my name they shall cast out devils.

Acts 16:18: I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And it came out that same hour.

7 Tuyrée, de Dæmoniac. P. 3, ©. 42, n.14, p. 131: Formam et rationem dæmonia ejiciendi per nomen Domini nostri, et Dominus videtur præscripsisse, et apostoli observasse, et viri sancti usurpasse. 254 2° SECTION : LES PARODIES DIABOLIQUES : :

Mary's name is also abhorrent and terrible to demons; the examples of this salutary power are innumerable and justify the general feeling of Christian piety which makes Mary invoke against all the assaults of Satan.

XII. — In addition to these means, which each Christian can oppose to evil violence, the Church uses formulas and processes that have a sort of sacramental virtue: exorcisms?, a Greek word, means to bring out by adjuration and command.

All exorcisms are aimed, in fact, at expelling demons from the bodies or places they infest. They were practiced against diseases that were extraordinary in nature, against lightning and hail, against locusts and caterpillars in times when these plagues were viewed as works of Satan, perhaps with an exaggeration of faith to which a no less unreasonable exaggeration of unbelief followed. Today, the Church still exorcises the salt and water that she blesses, the catechumens in the baptismal ceremonies, and finally the demoniacs. It is only the latter kind of dexorcism.

XII. "Our Lord had promised to those who would give him their faith that they would astonish the world by their wonders, and the chief of these wonders must be the power to cast out demons {. Also, in the first centuries, when faith was in its full development, the simple Christians delivered the possessed in the name of Jesus or by DS UE TV AL PEU off Es fe $ ns 7 x { i = DESPOTIC IRRUPTIONS: THE REMEDIES 235 the sign of the cross, as attested Origen!, Tertullian*, Saint Cyprien? and other ancient Fathers. However, the Church, which concentrates in her hands the virtue and exercise of divine institutions, without linking the power of faith and holiness, soon made this power over demons a dependence on the priesthood and one of the gradations of the sacrament of order.

We do not speak of the Orientals, who, in the first centuries, also had exorcists, but who, for twelve hundred years, have no longer been in their hierarchy of dicolytes, exorcists or doormen.

In the West one sees, at least in the middle of the century, as a regular and constant institution, the special order of the exorcists, as attested by the letter of Pope St. Cornelius (251) to St. Fabian of Antioch, reported by the historian Eusebius. *

The fourth council of Carthage f, held in 398, already contains and imposes the formulas still in use in the Latin Church for the ordination of clerics, and expressly prescribes that of the exorcist by the tradition of the book of exorcisms.

The first exorcists whose ecclesiastical annals mention by name, are perhaps Saint Felix de Nole, of which Saint Paulin? immortalized the tomb and memory, and Saint Peter, martyred in 302 with the priest Marcellin. A few years from there we see Martin +, who will one day be the thaumaturg of Gauls and the glory of the episcopate, promoted by Saint Hilaire, bishop of Poitiers, to the exorcist functions.

For a long time this ministry, although always maintained as a separate order in the ecclesiastical hierarchy, is exercised, in reality, only by priests; and again, when exorcisms must be solemn and public, is it for the bishop to designate the priest who is most capable of fulfilling these perilous functions; for, for private adjurations, they have never been forbidden to anyone in the Church, especially to the ministers of religion? and to the directors of conscience.

XIV. — In private exorcisms, no special form is prescribed. The divine Eucharist given to patients, the application of the crucifix, holy relics or holy objects, the sign of the cross drawn with the hand above the head or marked on the forehead, on the chest or on any other part of the body; the pious litany, the invocation of the names of Jesus and Mary and the adjugation by these powerful symbols and names; and the use of ritual formulas: these are the means to be used to contain and remove evil spirits.

The ritual formulas are in large numbers. Among the collections that have been made of them, we will mention those of D. Martene in his master book on the Ciscain Antigues: the Fleece of Demons, the Remedies very effective against the evil spirits, the Båton of Demons?; the Practice or the Manual of Exorcists, by Valère Polidore*; the Antidote against Demons*, by Fr. Alessio Porri, Carmelite religious; the Escape of Satan, by Pierre-Antoine Stampa Several of these manuals and a few others have been assembled under the title of Maleficent Hammer®. The Parisian liturgy had in its Ritual special formulas of exorcism.

Except for the churches that enjoy the privilege of a proper liturgy, it is the Roman Ritual which, in the West, serves as a guide in the public adjugation of demons. It is not forbidden, however, to use formulas drawn from other sources, mainly from Scripture, or which piety would suggest: the very warnings of the Roman Ritual, leave this latitude to the exorcist.

We do not have to reproduce the various formulas here; it is enough to draw attention to the method and spirit in which they are generally written. They form a mixture and as a kind of contrast of ardent prayers towards God and compelling questioning of demons: an alternative full of solemnity in which the exorcist, turn to

1 De Antiquis eccl. ritibus, t. 3, 1. 3, ©. 9, p. 497 et seq. Reims, 1702.

2 Flagellum dæmonum... And the most well-tried remedies, and a singular teaching for driving out evil spirits... There was finally added a second part, which is entitled "FUSRIS DÆMONUM." — Deux in-8° de 309 pages chacun, 3° éd., 1727,

Practica exorcistarum, Padua, 1582. — Antidotario contro li demonii, Venice, 1601. — Fuga Satanæ, Lyon, 1610. — Malleus maleficus. — De Exorcizandis obsess.: Let him perform and read the exorcisms with command and authority, with great faith and fervor; and when he sees the spirit being severely tormented, let him then press on and urge more insistently... Dum exorcizat, utatur sacræ scripture verbis potius quam suis aut alienis. 258 2nd SECTION: DIABOLIC PARODIES tower revives and exercises its power, ascends to the humble and begging sky, then ordering with more empire to the princes of hell. What adds to the grandiose ceremony is that all the means used against demons are gathered and condensed there: the holy water, the sign of the cross, the laying on of hands, the holy relics, the adorable Eucharist.

Another character of these adjurations, which trace to exorcists the conduct to be held towards demons, is that they are always made in a peremptory, objuratory, contemptuous form!

It is important to note that the notion of exorcisms is there as a whole; it is the exercise of a power divinely granted to the Church over the revolted angels, power completely independent of such or such formula. As soon as one proceeds against them in the name of the Church, it is in the name of God and of Jesus Christ that one proceeds, and thereby these injunctions take a supernatural strength and virtue.

XV. — Theologians quite commonly admit that exorcisms operate in the way of the sacraments, ex

1 S. There is a twofold manner of adjuring: one by way of entreaty or invocation, out of reverence for something sacred; the other by way of compulsion. In the first manner, however, it is not lawful to adjure demons, because that manner of adjuring seems to pertain to a certain benevolence or friendship, which it is not lawful to employ toward demons. In the second manner of adjuration, however, which is by compulsion, it is lawful for us to use it for one purpose, and not lawful for another. For demons are constituted as our adversaries in the course of this life... We can therefore, by adjuring through the power of the divine name, repel demons as enemies, so that they may not harm us spiritually or bodily, according to the divine power given by Christ.

Theologians more commonly teach that the effect of casting out demons in exorcisms comes not only from the work of the one who performs it, but from the work performed [ex opere operato]; which those must hold all the more, who wish the order of exorcist, together with the other minor orders, to be a true sacrament.

S. ALPH. DE Licuori, Theol, mor., 1. 3, tract. 2, App. de Adjuratione, f. 2, p. 58: Communicate autem dicunt doctores exorcismos habere vim inflibilem expellendi daemones tanquam ex operato. opere operato, according to the expression consecrated by the School: it is the proper of the permanent divine institutions to produce their effect as soon as the conditions on which they depend are fulfilled.

However, this assertion is not without difficulty; for finally, if exorcism acts ex operato, should it not suffice to pose it once? Why should the formulas be multiplied, repeated for long hours and even whole days? How can we explain above all that, in more than one encounter, deliverance does not take place and that ritual consequences remain unsuccessful?

Also serious authors, among others Thyreus! and Scaramelli °, do not recognize to exorcisms an intrinsic efficiency, without however challenging to them a kind of sacramental virtue, when made by a minister of order and mission.

XVI. — In any case, the power to cast out demons being a divine concession, it may be argued that his virtue is not entirely due to the sanctity of the minister, nor to the sacramental power or graces freely given. In the day of judgment, a great many, multi, will appear, -—it is Jesus Christ himself who declares it *, — saying, "Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name; in your name have we not cast out demons?" And the Sovereign Judge will answer them, "I never know you; go away from me, workers of iniquity."When demons yield to the injunctions of sinners, they do not obey men or sinners, but to God, who invests them with his power.

XVII. — One thing worthy of note is that the empire over demons is the exclusive privilege of the Catholic Church. Should we be surprised? Did not our Lord make this prerogative the mark of true faith, when he said, "He that believeth and be baptized shall be saved; he that believeth not shall be condemned; but these are the signs that shall accompany them that believe: they shall cast out demons in my name, they shall speak new tongues? etc."Those therefore, who believe not in Jesus Christ, and do not profess the pure doctrine of the Church, cannot bear these distinctive features.

The book of Acres è contains a memorable fact about this. Some Jewish exorcists, the son of Sceva, the prince of the priests, seeing Saint Paul cast out demons by the invocation of the name of Jesus alone, tried to do the same on a demoniac with this phrase: "I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches." But the evil spirit answered them, "I know Jesus, and I know who Paul is; but who are you?" And the man in whom the evil spirit was cast upon them and maltrayed them so hard that they had to flee the clothes into tatters, and smeared with wounds.

Saint Epiphane! reports another fact, which seems to overturn the precedent and contradict our assertion in favour of the Catholic Church. He speaks of a Jew of Tiberias, named Josephus, whom he had known personally, who delivered an energist furious in making the sign of the cross on him with this adjugation: "In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified, come forth, a demon, of this man, and let him now be safe and sound."But we must not overlook what Saint Epiphanus relates to this fact: it is that this Jew was pursued by the grace of Jesus Christ and that, in order to triumph over his obstinacy, God operated by him and in his presence wonders that finally led to his conversion.

Never, at least, will God allow a heretic to command the demons and drive them out of the bodies they possess, in circumstances where these wonders could become a recommendation of error?.

In fact, there are no examples of deliverance by heretics °, and on the contrary, there are attempts made by them that have only led to ridiculous {. Or, among many others, the following trait told by an eyewitness and almost by an actor, Frédéric Staphyle!, then a young teacher and engaged in the mistakes of the Reformation.

In 1545, a demonic young girl was brought to Luther, from Misnia to Wittemberg, in the hope that this third Elijah would deliver her from her evil demon. Luther was very reluctant to undertake such an important wonder for his Gospel; but at last he ordered that she be brought to the sacristy of the parish church in Wittemberg, and there, in the presence of several doctors and people of letters, — of which I was, Staphyle added, — he began to adjure the demon and to exorcise, but in his own way, and not after the rites used in Catholics. But he adjured, and the devil didn't leave; and he even furiously chased the new exorcist, and he rushed to the door to go out. But this demon devil had closed it so well that, either from within or from outside, it was impossible to open it. Luther's trances became only more beautiful, so much so that he tried, but in vain, to escape through a window misguided with bars. He was forced to wait with all the others for the sacristan to pass through an axe with which the very one from whom we hold this account cut down the door. While waiting for his deliverance, Luther did not stand in place and looked all the way, says the narrator, of a sheep eager to lamb. DESPOTIC IRRUPTIONS: REMARKS 263

XVII. — Although exorcisms derive their virtue from God's institution rather than from man's holiness, the exorcist has precautions to take, the oblivion of which would expose him not only to humiliating unsuccess, but also to terrible miscounts and punishments on the part of Satan.

It shall comply with the above requirements and shall accompany the deprecatory formulae at all points. These warnings can be found in the Roman Ritual, the main provisions and recommendations of which are summarized below.

The perilous exercise of exorcisms should be disposed of through fasting and prayer; for he is demons, — it is the Saviour who affirms it to his apostles t, — who give way only to fasting and prayer; wherein he can. conclude ‘that the most rebellious do not resist this double means.

Caution also recommends purifying one's conscience by a humble and sincere confession, before entering into a game with Satan? No doubt, the effectiveness of these functions, as we have already said, is, absolutely speaking, independent of the minister's virtue; however, the minister's indignity may be detrimental to the effectiveness of the functions. In any case, while yielding to the divine authority of which the sinful exorcist is clothed, the demon could, before moving away, cover him with confusion by revealing the defilements and. the secret turpitudes of his life.

The witnesses of these adjurations run the same peril and are more exposed to it than the exorcist himself, being not protected as he is by the authority of his office. These disturbing and humiliating revelations are not rare in

Mark 9:28: This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting.

2 J. Purity of conscience must be added, by means of sorrowful contrition for one's sins and pure sacramental confession; for although the priest, by priestly power, prays in the person of the Church, yet his prayer is more efficacious when, on his part, it is pure. The facts are everywhere; it is superfluous to discuss detail and produce quotations.

Let us note, however, that the sins confessed and handed over escape the censorship of demons. In addition to a meeting, sinners, from the first time they appeared at the mockery of the evil spirit, having withdrawn and confessed, were no longer recognized upon their return. Consoling perspective for defiled souls who resort to the salutary remedy of confession.

The ordinary place of public exorcisms is a church or chapel, unless, by consideration for the possessed person or his family, or for any other sufficient reason, it is considered appropriate to make them in a particular house.

Wherever he does this important act, the exorcist must not remain alone with the energist, but be assisted by serious, pious witnesses, some of whom are robust enough to control the patient in his violence. If it is to exorcise a woman, it is more appropriate to put her in the hands of people of her sex who are able to contain her, in order to avoid and prevent any inconvenience and immorality. In the course of exorcisms, the priests in charge of this ministry will be attentive to refraining, vis-à-vis women, from what would hurt or seem to shock decency, and to thwart the tricks by which the evil spirit would attempt to arouse dangerous impressions in them or in others.

Jerome Menghi, Scourge of Demons, ch. 12, p. 33: Sometimes too, when the woman being exorcised is quite young, [the demon] pretends to be troubled that the priest touches her face, so that he may touch it more forcefully and thereby instill in the woman voluptuous fantasies; and for the same reason it pretends to be troubled that the priest, in speaking, comes too close to her mouth, so that he may bring his face still closer. And therefore let the priest be modest and cautious both in his eyes and in his hands and in all his movements, not only for his own sake, but also for the sake of... — After the proper preparation and preparation, we must come to the act of exorcism, in accordance, as we have said, with the order laid down by the Ritual.

We must begin with the prayers that open this ceremony; then we ask questions.

The exorcist must be alone in questioning the demon; the assistants will be in small numbers and will have to stand silent, worthy, gathered and begging before God, speak or answer only with the assent of the presiding one, and above all avoid laughing and applaudiing the projections of the demons possessors +.

First of all, these spirits must be forced to declare themselves. We assume that before we began the exorcisms we made sure, with the help of the signs we have assigned above, of the reality of possession. But it may happen that at the moment when the minister of the Church will proceed against them, the demons conceal their presence, leaving the patient a certain freedom that makes him believe in deliverance, or suddenly throwing him in a deep lethargy, infringing a purely natural infirmity. To thwart all these artifices, they will be asked, by the authority of which one is clothed, to denounce and answer ?.

The questions to be addressed will concern the number and names of the possessor spirits, the time and motives of their invasion ê, the existence of charms that would have given rise to the possession and maintain it, in order to discover them and destroy them !.

We will avoid verbiage, jokes, laughter, idle questions or pure curiosity, and when the evil mind questions, makes biteful answers, causes digressions, excites to laugh, we must impose silence with authority and dignity ?.

In the course of Adjudication, when one sees the demon redouble with rage, one can question him and force him to say where his anxieties come from. The patient will also be questioned if he is in a position to respond.

Finally, the evil spirit of declaring when he comes out, and what sign of his escape will be recognized, threatening him, if he persists in silence or resist, to add to his shame and torture.

The way to increase the torment of demons is to repeat the adjurations that seem to be more irritating them, to repeat the anathemas and contempts, to force them to bend themselves, to prostrate themselves in the presence of the divine Eucharist, before the crucifix or the holy relics, to multiply, with a great sense of faith, the signs of the cross and the sprinkling of holy water, to invoke the adorable Persons of the Most Holy Trinity, the sacred names of Jesus and Mary, to declare that by virtue of the power of which one is clothed, one has the express will to increase the punishment in proportion to the resistance and delay è. But one ought not [...] as to the name of the possessing spirits, the time at which they entered, the cause, and other things of this kind.

Rituale [Romanum]: And let him order the demon to say whether he is detained in that body on account of some work of magic, or malefic signs or instruments — which, if the possessed person has swallowed, he should vomit up; or if they are elsewhere outside the body, let him reveal them; and let what is found be burned.

2 Ibid.: Exorcista does vagetur in multiloquio, aut supervacaneis vel curiosis interrogatibus, præsertim de rebus futuris et occultis, ad suum munus non pertinentibus; sed jubeat immuntum spiritum tacere, and ad interrogatata, tantum responsee. - 3 Scnram, Theol. myst., $ 225, t. 1, p. 397: Exorcista daemones poscipas impose punishments that are not the responsibility of the exorcist, such as adding to the eternal punishment of hell. to relegate to an earthly or other place, to the bottom of the sea, for example, to the center of the earth, to the top of a mountain, to the moon, to hell t. The example of the angel Raphael, who sequestered the unmistakable Asmodated in the desert of Upper Egypt, and other injunctions of this nature made by some saints to the demons whom they cast out from the bodies of the possessed, cannot be used; these facts find their explanation, not in the regular powers of exorcist, but in particular and supernaturally manifested wills of Providence.

Nor will the exorcist propose or accept concessions that engage the spirits to come out, as would be to raise storms, to make hail, to enter the bodies of animals, let alone that of another man. Everything on his part will be limited to expelling the possessor spirit, whose fate he will abandon to divine justice.

In every case, if he grants them anything, [text damaged] ...with new torments unto the penalty of damnation he cannot afflict them; because, since they are at their term, they can no longer demerit anything further toward the increase of a new essential punishment. He can indeed torment them terribly with new accidental punishments through exorcisms, both because this proud spirit is with great difficulty made subject to the minister of God, and because it is most harshly rebuked, held in contempt, and trampled underfoot in the name of Jesus, etc. In the exorcisms themselves, pressing thus: Because the longer you delay to go out, the more your punishment grows.

The exorcist cannot adjure the demon, once cast out, to go to this or that place where it might do less harm, because concerning this power of the exorcist nothing is established either from the Gospel, or from his ordination, or from the Ritual; at most he may pray to God for this, though it is better to leave it to divine providence. Exemplum S. Of the archangel Raphael relegating the demon into the desert of upper Egypt (Tob. 8:3), and of certain saints — the example that follows cannot be drawn upon by all... Nor is it approved that, when a demon offers to go out of a man, entrance into another be permitted to him [text damaged] ...provided it is never anything contrary to the glory of God and to the usefulness of men.

Let him also guard against employing a superior demon to overcome a subordinate demon. A similar practice would be an inconsequence or a fault: an inconsequence, if a stronger demon is forced to dismiss a weaker demon by means of adjugation, since the adjugation that reduces the former would reduce the latter to a greater extent; a fault, if prayer is used, because soliciting demons for any service, is a grave sin of its nature. Moreover, if the spirit to which one asks to intervene in order to chase another is alien to possession, exorcism has no grip on him; that, if he is himself possessor, the sacramental formulas have no less action on others than on himself?.

Once the exorcisms begin, they will continue, if necessary, several hours in a row, until the complete deliverance; and if it cannot be obtained for the first time, the next days will be repeated, as long as the ecclesiastical superiors judge it appropriate.

XX. — With regard to the final exit, which the exorcist does not believe too easily. The demon sometimes announces that he withdraws, and indeed leaves the patient in rest; but it is only a feign to obtain the suspension of exorcisms. Other times, he threatens to kill the person whom he tyrants, to leave him with some infirmity, to tear up, to get out, such part of the body. The exorcist will instruct him to leave without harm. He may even impose on him, in the name of God, of Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Virgin, a sign of his flight anything other than that which he proposes; for example, as the Father did. Surin for the possessed of Leuven, to write on the hands, forehead or chest the letters or initials of the blessed names of Jesus, Mary, Joseph; but in this it is necessary a lot of discretion.

It is difficult to formulate something specific about the certainty of deliverance. ‘ However, the following two cases can be brought back: those in which the demon's removal is concluded by the cessation of the violence which denoted his presence, and those in which he leaves a sensitive testimony of his escape.

Often there was no evidence of deliverance other than the patient's calm and freedom? that the malignant mind tormented, or the disappearance of an infirmity or deformity caused by his presence. But these negative marks are not decisive; the counter-test would result in a direct interpellation which would remain without result.

The positive signs, if any, are of two kinds: or imposed by the exorcist, or of the choice of possessor spirits. The former recognize themselves without difficulty; it is enough to say that they must have nothing but dignity and propriety. The latter consist of external manifestations consistent with the character of the demons, by which they give one last satisfaction of anger: they are fierce shouts or roarings, a noise

1 Cf. Auessio Porri, Antidotario, dub. 31, p. 219 : Da che segno pu6 conoscere l ́essorcista lo spirito essersi partito dal corpo ch的 egli posedea.

2 TuyréE, de Dæmoniac. Hence it is that we often read of spirits cast out concerning whom it could not be established, from any signs given at their departure, that they had actually left the human bodies.

3 Tuyrée, ibid., n. 40, p. 491: Quartum signum is deformitatis per sudden like that of thunder, the extinction of candles, the breakage of windows, infectious smells, the vomiting of filthy materials, bizarre mixtures, animals or insects that inspire horror; most often, it is a last resort of extreme violence that seems to have to break the patient, and throw him down as dead +.

As soon as deliverance is well established, the exorcist sends a final prayer to God that he forbids the evil spirit ever to enter into the body which he was forced to abandon °; and then he can recite or sing with the pious witnesses who assisted him in this victorious battle the Te Deum, the Magnificat, any other song, hymn, psalm or prayer, which is the expression of the action of graces. -I finally exhorts the delivered person to bless the divine mercy that has just burst into his person, and to preserve himself with the utmost care of all sin, so as not to give rise to the return of the evil spirit.

XXI. — All we have just said concerns possession. In the case of obsession, the course to be followed has particular characteristics, which we must say a few words in concluding this long chapter.

The principal and indispensable help that is needed to souls assailed by the evil spirit is a sweet, strong and pru1 Tuvree, from Dæmon. ibid., n. 8-18: Primum sit, ipsorum spirituum confessio... Second, the departure of certain small creatures from those possessed... Third, let there be great shouts, cries, and the voices of beasts... The fourth sign is the cessation of the deformity brought on by the devil... Fifth, vomiting, with which the departing spirits are not seldom recorded to come out... The sixth sign is a grave stench... Septimum indicium discessus spirituum immundorum est insolitus tumor in obsessorum corpore, maxime illa parte qua egredi volunt... The eighth argument is the tearing apart of the limbs and violent torment... The ninth sign is the casting down of the possessed onto the ground and their being dashed against it. — 2. Roman Ritual, On the Exorcising of the Possessed. Oratio post liberationem.

3 Id., ibid. Admonitions at the end: But if the possessed person is freed, let him be warned to guard himself diligently against sins, lest he give the demon occasion to return into him, lest the last state of that man become worse than the first. DESPOTIC IRRUPTIONS: REMEDIES 271 will exhort them to humility, to trust in God, to patience, to prayer. As long as the will refuses its assent and remains united with God, no matter how painful and perilous the obsession is, it is not the evil of sin, the only evil, in the depths, that is to be feared. Undoubtedly, in order to maintain oneself, the will needs grace, and a powerful grace; but, we must believe it under pain of losing hope, God always grants his grace to whom demand it, and does not allow us to be tempted above our strength.

If the obsession is the effect of a mischievous or magical charm, one will try to remove this cause by all lawful means; but discretion and prudence are necessary here.

When obsession is the punishment of sin, the patient must hasten with sincere penance the hour of deliverance and accept, in the meantime, this cruel atonement.

Often these Satan's eruptions are a trial; it is then above all that it must be borne with courage and confidence: God allows these attacks only for the greatest perfection of souls and for the confusion of the tempter.

However, it is necessary to distinguish between the various obsessive genres.

If these are inner temptations, spectra, visions, even abuse which only impose the evil of suffering, the direction is relatively easy t; prayer, patience and above all a filial abandonment to the will of God, are the ordinary means against these kinds of vexations.

But when the evil action threatens the treasure of purity through uprisings and organic excitements, when above all these assaults lead to turpitudes, in any way and in any form that they occur, it is not enough to pray and groan, it is necessary to exhaust all the resources that the faith and the divine institutions can provide to suppress this abhorrent violence of the filthy spirit.

The first precaution to take is to inspire these poor souls the greatest horror of sin and to make sure that they do not consent inwardly! to the impressions that they suffer and that desolate them.

The remedies and procedures we have indicated against possession are then used; for most of them are equally effective against obsession. Fasting and prayer, the sacraments of penance and Eucharist, the sign of the cross, the holy water, the holy relics, the consecrated things, are all ways of repelling the demonic eruptions in whatever form they occur. There is only difficulty and controversy in the use of exorcisms. Some, like Godinez?, restrict their virtue to the cases of possession; according to others, among them St.Liguori °, and before him, Thyreus 4, whose authority is unparalleled in these matters, one can also use it against obsessions. In particular, it is said in the life of Saint John of the Cross, ' that this saint used effectively this remedy against a demon who stubbornly tormented a fervent religious in the monastery of Avila. Other, no less serious authors, such as Scaramelli?, while recognizing that these ritual adjurations do not usually have as complete an effect on obsessed persons as on energists, nevertheless advise the practice in either case.

We would not be blaming the secret and private use of the Church's formulas on people or things affected by Satan's invasions, and it is up to the ecclesiastical authority to decide whether, in these meetings, to resort to CHAPTER XII

THE DIABOLIC PARODIES OF THE DIVIN SURNATURE

VOLUNTARY TRADE WITH DEMON

OU LA MAGIE

NOTION AND EXISTENCE Concept of magic. — Son origine. — White magic and black magic. — There is no white magic in the miraculous sense. — Imposture and imagination explain much of the phenomena attributed to magic. — Reality of this trade between man and demon according to Scripture and Councils. — Acts of the Pontiffs, in particular John XXII and Innocent VIII. — Constance of Christian tradition on this point. - Universally common beliefs and practices among all peoples. — Penalties imposed by all the old laws against malice. I. — The man in his body wrestling with demons, but by the authority of the Church dominating their fury, and by his will remaining the master of his soul, offers a spectacle worthy of mercy, if one wishes, but more worthy of admiration. There is another spectacle that has nothing but hideous, that of the free man, who is able to deal with the rebellious angel, willingly accepting his despotism, abandoning his soul at the price of often illusory satisfactions, ephemeral success, filthy enjoyments. Tract and horrible trade, which constitute magic, this infernal art that we now have to describe.

May Jesus and Mary, whose names alone are the terror of hell, protect us from their sweet and luminous gazes through the cursed region of darkness.

The word of magic obviously derives from that of Mage. Zoroaster, the great revealer of magism, passed, according to Pline! and St Augustine?, for the inventor of demonic practices, from where would have come the name of magic, and to those who exercise them, that of magi. The Persians, and in general the Orientals, thus qualified the scholars, custodians of sacred science, and the priests, mediators of office between divinity and men, between the visible and invisible world.

All the ancient peoples admitted good and bad geniuses, and thought that man could come into contact with one another. Magic was the ordinary way to connect with these invisible powers, and those who served as intermediaries were precisely called magicians.

II. — For us Christians, the good and bad geniuses are the faithful angels and fallen angels whose revelation tells us of our existence, but for the people who were idolatry, they were their false gods, who were in the bottom only demons, and magic became the main form of their worship.

"The origin of this disastrous art , rightly said the learned author è of the Theological Dictionary inserted in the Encyclopedia , is the same as that of polytheism ; it is one of them.

1 Natur. histor., 1. 30, ©. 1, p. 538: Sine dubio illic orta in Perside a Zoroastre, ut inter auctores convenit.

2 De Civit. Dei, l. He is reported to have been the inventor of the magic arts.

3 Bercer, Dict. théol., au mot MaGiCIEX. Among the pagans, whose imagination was struck by a multitude of spirits, geniuses, demons, or gods spread throughout nature, who animated all the parties and governed them, they were attributed the most ordinary phenomena, goods and evils, storms, sterility of the countryside, diseases and healings; more importantly, they were to be believed to be authors of all that seemed extraordinary, wonderful and supernatural: nothing was done without them; the most important knowledge was therefore, how to obtain their benevolence, to appease them when they were irritated, to obtain benefits and to force them, in some way, to condescend to the wills of their worshippers.

"Any man who seemed to have this knowledge, the talent to do evil or to heal him, to guess the hidden things, to predict some event, to deceive his eyes with tricks of flexibility, etc., was to have a spirit or spirits always ready to carry out his wills. The name of the Magi or magician was therefore not derogatory in its origin; those who used magic to do good to men were esteemed and honored; but those who used it to do evil were rightly hated and proscribed. The art of the former was simply called magic; the practices of the latter were called goetia, black or evil magic.

"This was the opinion, not only of the ignorant, but of the most famous philosophers; all maintained that the stars, the elements, the animals were driven by geniuses or demons, that these so-called intelligences had all the events; on this prejudice was founded the worship that was given them, and this cult was approved by all the paganism that a man could have dealt with with the geniuses or demons that he worshipped as gods, to obtain from them superior knowledge, to operate through them prodigious and supernatural things. The philosophers were convinced of this as the people."

II. — By keeping to these origins of magic, everything is abominable and unlawful, since it is reduced to the idolatrous worship of demons, enemies of God and men. However, the distinction continued for a long time through the ages of salutary magic and evil magic.

The neoplatonic or alexandrian, declared supporters of superstitious evocations, carefully distinguished these two kinds of magic. The first, which they called THEURGIE! where God's work was made, according to these philosophers, good spirits; the second came from the wicked geniuses, and for that they had called it GOETIA °, with a Greek word synonymous with pain.

The scholastics, by retaining division, substituted the word goetie for the expressive qualifier of black magic, and, as opposed to this kind of magic, they called its opposite white magic?.

Today, the word white magic has taken on a completely different meaning, and is said to be the wonderful purely natural accomplished by means of processes that escape vulgarity.

IV. — It is not our intention to expose the recreational art of the prestidigitators. As for the truly miraculous white magic, by virtue of which man would at his will relate to the divine or angelic world, it must be regarded as a cunning familiar to demons, who conceal their identity, or a gratuitous and inconvenient supposition. God and his angels exert upon the human world influences that amaze and surpass nature, and which we have described elsewhere; but it is in no way in man's power to evoke them according to his whims, to stage them, to ask them for these kinds of supernatural interventions: the divine miracle requires more seriousness. So it's not about white magic here, it's about magic, our evil magic, real magic.

In its common sense, in fact, magic means a trade more or less confessed with the demon, in order to realize through its assistance wonders that exceed the power of man.

These sacrilegious relationships may be just a temporary fact, or a habit; prolonged practice makes the magician and brings the crime to its peak; an act or a few acts do not reach that heinous character: they are sins, but not a profession of magic.

V. — Before going further and describing the various conditions and forms of this horrible art, we must ask ourselves whether such an agreement between man and Satan is possible and whether it ever comes true.

Let us recognize it first of all, imposture can play a great role in similar matter, and it is not enough to say magic to be so.

Similarly, let the man who believes in the devil and his free interference in human things, try to levour, ask him to fulfill his wishes and come to persuade himself, by means of desires, that he really relates to this invisible power, no one, not even the unbelief of profession, will think of contesting it.

But Satan's response to man's call and his command to one day have his soul is what scares human thought, what strong spirits can hear without laughing, which many believers welcome me only with the precautions of doubt, if not with manifest testimony of unbelief.

Actually, what about it? Would magic be just one of the forms of imposture, or an illusion of man hallucinated by his lusts, or is it a sad, but undoubted reality?

In this way, the part of lies and foolishness must be very broad. Most of the so-called diviners and sorcerers are only petty charlatans who exploit the credulity of the vulgar. Do we want to know the last word of his destiny, to discover the cause and the specificity of a disease, to have the knot of an intrigue and the sons of a conjuration, we only have to address to these confidants of destiny: they know everything, they have answers and remedies to everything; they see uncovered in the most secret souls purposes, in the organs the least disturbance, in the nature the intimate properties of beings; in the present, the past, the future, nothing escapes them.

It's too much: the devil himself cannot promise so much without lying.

The power of imagination is also great, and, restricted in the field of the subject, it is difficult to assign its precise limit, as we will say in dealing with natural analogies that limit to extrahuman facts.

VI. — However, neither the imposture, nor the imagination alone, nor the one and the other together, is sufficient to give reason to the magical phenomena, and to claim it, is clearly to contradict the teaching of Christian theology.

We write for the believers, let us be allowed to recall it once again; let us therefore, first of all, claim the irrefutable testimonies of Scripture.

The wonders that the magicians! of Pharaoh oppose the miracles of Moses and Aaron, the evocation of Samuel by the pythonisse of Endor *?, the warning given by Our Lord that, at the end of time, the false prophets will perform signs capable of misleading, if possible, the elect themselves, the death penalty imposed in the Mosaic law against the divines + and all those who consult them5, are all proofs provided by the Scripture of the reality of the wonders due to the simultaneous intervention of man and the demon acting in concert.

The Catholic Church has ceased to carry anathema against magicians, and, far from questioning their attacks, it expressly affirms its sacrilegious reality. Would she have, for centuries, fought against shadows?

To be convinced of the attentive perseverance with which the Church fought the magic and all forms of superstition, it is enough to go through the successive monuments of her legislation.

The APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTIONS, falsely attributed to St Clement of Rome, but which critics make go back to the first years of the rv° century, and some until the beginning of the In°!, contain prohibitions against magic and divination?.

The Councils do not tire of legislating against these kinds of crimes; let us mention those of Elvire ?, Laodicea*, Ancyre (1*)5, Carthage (4°)5, Agde, Orléans (1°), Tours*°, the fourth ® and sixteenth t! of Toledo, the sixth of Paris'?, Palenza in Castile, the Quinisexte of Constantinople #, the fifth of Lateran.

Corpus Joris? contains many of these conciliar provisions and others.

VIT. — The sovereign pontiffs, watchful guardians of the purity of doctrine and morals, have openly pronounced themselves, on several occasions according to the needs of the times, against the demonic practices that constitute magic. Without ignoring the deceptions of fraud and the extravagances of imagination, they point out and resent the terrible and overreal sequels of the evil alliance. To convince oneself, it is sufficient to read the bubbles SUPER ILLIUS SPECULA, by John XXII (1326); HONESTIS PETENTIUM voted, by Leo X (1521); Duoum, by Adrien VI (1522); SUMMIS DESIDERANTES AFFECTIBUS, by Innocent VII (1484); the Constitution of Sixte V, Heart and TERRÆ (1585); and that of Gregory XV, Omniporenris (1623).

Only two of these documents are mentioned in part; the reader will appreciate how explicit they are.

"We have learned with pain," said Pope John XXII, "and we cannot think of it without being disturbed to the bottom of our bowels, that many, Christians only by name, abandoning the truth that had first enlightened them, have come to this degree of obscurity, darkness and error, that they enter into a covenant with death and make a pact with hell. They immolate demons and worship them, they manufacture or cause to be made images, rings, mirrors, bottles or any other object to attach demons to them by a magic virtue; they ask for answers and they obtain them; and, in order to satisfy their perverse desires, they plead for their help, in return offering these shameful services a shameful servitude. O pain! this hideous plague now takes in new increments in the world, and its ravages gain more and more the flock of Christ."

Écoutons maintenant Innocent VII.

"He once came to our knowledge, and it has penetrated us with immense pain," said the pontiff?, "that, in some parts of Upper Germany, in the territory of Mainz, et., several people of one and the other sex, forgetful of their salvation and rebels to the Catholic faith, are engaged in a filthy trade with demons. Their incantations, their charms, their conjurations and other superstitious practices, their culpable, criminal, monstrous spells, destroy the newborns, the little ones of the animals, the products of the earth, the clusters of the vines and the fruits of the trees; much more, men and women, herds and animals of all kinds, vineyards, orchards, meadows, pastures, fields and gereets covered with harvests, crops of all kinds, nothing escapes their destructive evils. They prevent the legitimate procreation of children between spouses. They have no horror, driven by the enemy of the human race, of renouncing by impious formulas the faith they received at holy baptism, of committing finally a host of other unheard-of crimes and misdeeds, without fear of the peril their souls run, without respect for the divine Majesty, without concern for the bad example and scandal that result from it for a great many — "...in the regions of upper Germany, as well as in Mainz, etc., many persons of both sexes, unmindful of their own salvation and straying from the Catholic faith, abuse themselves with demons, incubi and succubi, and by their incantations, spells and conjurations, and other nefarious, superstitious and sorcerous excesses, crimes and offenses, do not fear to bring about and procure the perishing, suffocation and extinguishing of the offspring of women, the young of animals, the produce of the earth, the grapes of the vineyards and the fruits of the trees; as well as of men, women, herds, flocks and other animals of different kinds; likewise of vineyards, orchards, meadows, pastures, standing corn, wheat and other crops of the earth; and to afflict and torment these same men, women, beasts of burden, herds, flocks and animals with dire pains and torments both inward and outward; and to hinder men from begetting and women from conceiving, and husbands from rendering the conjugal act to their wives and wives to their husbands; moreover to deny with sacrilegious mouth the very faith which they received in the reception of holy baptism; and, at the instigation of the enemy of the human race, do not fear to commit and perpetrate very many other nefarious excesses and crimes, to the peril of their own souls, the offense of the divine Majesty, and a pernicious example and scandal..." [text breaks off] — The Christian tradition of the fact and crime of demonic operations in the form of magic has not changed since the first centuries. We do not know of an ecclesiastical writer, enjoying some reputation of science and orthodoxy, who has challenged the possibility or even the existence of these practices, and we could cite an unbroken series of witnesses who assert it, both among the Greeks and among the Latins, from the former doctors to the most recent ones. "It's a point admitted and maintained by the apologists," says a contemporary author who cleverly condensed the traditional statements about the different parts of the Christian dogma, "that the demons made themselves in the world (by them) upset, like a new empire?, by founding paganism there*; that they seduced and misled men by the fables of the poets {, by the mysteries, oraclesf, aruspices ? and idols $, so that they were worshipped by the blinded human race and struck with madness °."

Two intrepid defenders of faith in the last century, Bullet © and Baltus *', have demonstrated against the sophists who dishonored this age, that the reign of magic is inseparable from idol worship, and have produced about it a do and. irrefutable testimonies of: the oldest Fathers.

The theologians continue the chain. Let us name only Hugues de Saint-Victor!, Guillaume de Paris ?, Saint Thomas d'Aquin *, Saint Bonaventure +, Gerson, Bossuet ê. This persevering agreement of the doctors, together with the attestations of Scripture, made the illustrious Suarezs, say that this teaching is so certain that it cannot be challenged without error in the faith.

IX. — Leaving aside the many accounts of the story of magic, from Simon the Mage's high disbelief to the recent prowess of Scots, M. David Dunglas Home, the most famous medium of modern spiritism, indicates only by finishing two forms of human testimony that seem to us to establish the reality of magic operations, namely: popular beliefs and the severity of laws relative to the harms of magic.

Nothing is more inveterate than superstition among peoples without religious truth. We have already said with Bergier, wherever idol worship reigns, magic also reigns. We think it is superfluous to insist on this point. To the one who would contradict us, we nal1 Eruditionis didascalicæ, 1. 6, c. 15, Migne, t. 176, col. 810,

2 De Legibus, C. 24,t. 1, p. 69; C 27, pe 89.

3 Sum. 2.2, Me 95 et 96.

4 Sent., L 2,.4 7, P. 2, a. 2,.q.. 2 et. 3, ti 2, p. 421 et seqq.

5 Tract. de Erroribus circa artem magicam et Articul. reprobatis, t. 4, col. 210-219.

6 4th Serm. on demons, Exord., vol. 12, p. 171.

It must therefore be said without hesitation that there is a magic which teaches how to do certain wondrous things which cannot be done by human power and through natural causes, insofar as these can be known and applied by man; and accordingly such magic is superstitious, because it does not occur without a pact with the demon. Hæc assertio est tam certa, ut.sine error in fide negari non posit; nam satis express habetur in Scriptura. 286 2° FRAME: DIABOLIC PARODIES: THE MAGIE would be bequeathed point Philon‘, Pline?, or even Bossuet *, alternately at different times and under different conditions, the universality of magic; we would not make him enumeration of the ancient and modern peoples, all infected with this leprosy; we would simply call upon him to cite a pagan nation that was free of it. Praise to God that his true worshipers were clean of such filth! The severe penalties whose Mosaic and Christian laws continue the exercise of divination and magic may have contained, they never entirely prevented these abominable practices. — Now, if everything is in vain in this art, if everything is constantly misled on the part of those who exercise it, if man always invokes in it in pure loss the competition of invisible powers, how can one explain this unanimous perseverance to resort to it, not only on the part of the ignorant vulgar, but also in the most famous + representatives

Not only the common people practice it, but even the greatest kings of kings, especially the Persians...; from this adulterated and depraved [art] descend what we call, most properly, the evil arts — the pursuits of jugglers and soothsayers.

The most fraudulent of the arts has held very great sway throughout the whole world and for very many centuries.

3 Jer Sermon on demons, Exord., vol. 42, p. 171: This is further confirmed by this no're science of magic, to which many too curious people have given themselves in all parts of the earth.

4 Baye, Answer to the questions of a provincial, ch. 38, t. 3, p.573: D is natural that I remember here a letter where you told me of two or three strong spirits, who told you several times that in order to deny the existence of magic, one only needs proof that can be drawn from the miserable condition of those who were accused of meddling in this art, people raised among sheep, they told you, rude, stupid, mountain women, some women of the people's lee, ugly to scare, who hardly have enough to live. What is the appearance that the demon is never communicated to such people, and that it does not enrich some of its sectarians to make many others want to devote themselves to his service? It will be very easy for you, Sir, to refute the alleged evidence that these gentlemen are making so many cases. It is based on a false assumption. All you have to do is read my last letter (see previous chapter); you will see that princes and princesses, and great philosophers have cultivated magic, have made it a profession, or have used those who profess it. But here are other examples, etc. of ancient philosophy? In all the lands of the earth, therefore, dupes and dupers would have irremediably obstinately persisted in perpetuating a lure without result as without foundation: it is obviously exaggerating human imbecility.

X. - Civil laws have penalized these popular wanderings by their severity in suppressing malice. Plato ? wanted magicians to die when they used their art to harm. Augustine reminded the Gentiles of his time that, from the confession of Cicero, the oldest laws of Rome, that is, those of the Twelve Tables, imposed the same penalty for the same crimes. The Justinian + code condemned to the last torment those who had caused man's death by magical words and enchantments, such as those who had killed by iron or poison. The middle age, who does not know, sent to the stake the diviners and sorcerers. Such rigors, whose enemies of the Church would like to place on her responsibility, as if the Church were responsible for the penalties of different peoples and ages, assume that all societies and the Church itself have held the evils of magic, not for chimera, but for real and characterized crimes.

But, in good faith, if magic is nothing but an imposture, 288 2nd SECTION: DIABOLIC PARODIES: Was MAGIE allowed to punish it otherwise than because of the damage caused by a cause for which it was used as a mask? That if it is only a hallucination of sick brains, all the sentences of old were, if not brilliant iniquities, at least lamentable aberrations: the judges of those times all had a blindfold on their eyes and did not earn those who, today, decided our conflicts.

Modern laws have removed penalties from which the ancients used to strike magic: has magic disappeared for this?

We don't think so, and we would have to be inattentive to believe it. These mysteries of Satan are renewed in the midst of us, in the darkest conventicles of Masonic societies; they are spread out in the open in the sessions of contemporary spiritism, and, presumably, in the strange phenomena of rotating tables and artificial magnetism.

But let's stop at these glimpses on which we will have to come back, or better, let's sum them up in the following quote from Abbé Thiers, the well-known author of the TREATY OF SUPERSTITIONS.

"It's so close," he said, "to want to light up the sun, to stop proving the existence of dark or evil magic. In fact, the Holy Scripture defends in several places to consult the magicians and mentions the magicians of Pharaoh and Manasses, the pythonisse or guessess that Saul, Simon the magician, Bar-Jesu the magician, and another pythonisse of the body of which the Apostle Saint Paul cast out the demon. The councils fulminate anathemas against magicians, holy Fathers and historians speak of them when they have occasion to do so. Finally, civil law imposes various penalties against them. So that there is no doubt that there are magicians or sorcerers, — for these two words usually take on the same meaning, — without visibly contradicting the holy letters, the sacred and secular tradition, the canonical and civil laws and the experience of all centuries, and without imprudently rejecting the irrefragable and infallible authority of the Church, which so often throws the lightnings of CHAPTER XIII

DE LA MAGIE

THE COVENANT On the part of man, the pact is tacit or formal. — The explicit pact is verbal or written. — Clauses ordinaires du contrat. — Invocations are not always effective. — When the demon does not respond, it is usually because God prevents it. — The pact is not binding on the demon or man. It's hard for man to get out of here. — Mission miséricordieuse du prêtre. — Examples of broken pacts, History of Saint Theophile the Penitent. I. — In the perverse relations between man and the fallen angel, one can consider the pact that underpins them, the effects that result and the means used to obtain them, and finally the external signs that betray their infamous servitude in Satan's followers. This chapter deals with the pact that is the starting point of magic. On the part of man, this pact consists in asking the demon for effects that exceed human energies: it therefore presupposes an invocation, at least implicit, of his assistance and a desire to enter into contact with him, equal to that which one has to achieve the desired results: one wants the means as one wants the end. 291

This covenant is express or tacit, depending on whether the inquiry to Satan is direct or only aimed at the effects that must be his work! In one and the other case, there is magic; but, of course, there is a profound difference between these two kinds of commitments. The simple tacit, seen, deliberate, consented convention is undoubtedly a serious sin; and, when it is followed by extrahuman results that one knows come from the evil action, it is equivalent to a formal agreement; the explicit stipulations with the enemy of God imply, however, a bolder denial of divine things and salvation?

This is the specifically formulated pact that we consider mainly here.

II. — It concludes with words addressed to the demon or with the acceptance of a formula proposed by the demon itself, whether it appears and offers its help, or whether it is evoked by adjurations and promises.

Usually, the commitment is not only verbal: it is written, and the victim signs it, sometimes even of his blood. Most often, the convention ends with instigations and in the hands of magicians who give and receive promises in Satan's name, before he has deigned to show himself or give guarantees of his adherence. Especially today, initiation is more commonly accomplished in secret societies*, through execrable formulas that the leaders impose on the followers, making illuminating in their eyes the bait of prosperitys and temporal enjoyments.

JII. — The conditions and clauses of this infamous contract are intended to enslave man to the demon and to make the demon available to man.

The ordinary stipulations imposed on man are: the worship of Satan, the denial of God, Jesus Christ and the Blessed Virgin; the desecration of holy things, especially of the Holy Eucharist; and the promise to put themselves, at an appointed end, at the mercy of the demon.

Sometimes the clever angel is less demanding, assured that he is or flattering himself with the hope that a first concession will bring others, and that once engaged on this slope of consensual relations with hell, the man will slide down to the bottom: is not the victim already bound by crime, submissive and promised to the dark empire?

IV. — These invocations and perverse desires, which call upon the demon, are only too successful in bringing him in, especially when one resorts to an appointed intermediary or when one mixes with the ungodly assemblies which have as their object these abominable manifestations. However, the inquiry, mainly when it is direct and occurs without a pre-existing pact, often remains ineffective. Jean-Antoine Llorente! reports a striking example, of which we do not guarantee authenticity. Towards the end of the 19th century, an artisan from Madrid, Jean Pérez, driven by misery, gave himself to the devil body and soul, on the condition that he would help him to avenge the people to whom he blamed his misfortunes. Although Satan was called upon to consult with all the magicians whom he could discover and follow their counsel, Satan never responded to his advances. Instead of recognizing in this failure the divine protection which saved him from his most cruel enemy, the poor man came to deny that there were demons, and saw himself, for the latter mischief, referred to the court of the Inquisition. He confessed everything, explained his negations by his misadventures, treated the magicians and sorcerers of impostors and disarmed his judges by declaring himself ready to accept all the penances that they would like to impose on him.

According to Suarez's Just remark, the failure of these attempts is due to a more or less secret purpose of Providence; but, for man, sin is the same.

V. — To the extent that God permits, the demon responds to man's call and commits himself to giving him what he desires: science, if he wants to know; gold, voluptuousness, honors, revenge, at his will. He promises to obey evocations, in accordance with the covenant, and usually he keeps his word, unless God forbids it. He also observes the conventions relating to evil, inflicting or suspending evil, depending on whether the magician poses or removes the conventional sign, and this, as Suarez still observes, not out of fidelity, for he is essentially a liar, but out of hatred for man, whose ruin he assures by satisfying his desires.

On Superstition, ch. 8, n. 1, vol. 13, p. 503: But sometimes it can happen that, although a man asks such knowledge from the demon, even offering some condition, the demon does not teach him, nor gives any answer, either because God does not permit it, or for other reasons hidden from us. But then the proper guilt of divination has already been incurred by the man, even if the desired effect did not follow.

The manner is also varied on the part of the one asking: for sometimes sacrifices, fumigations, and other ceremonies performed in honor of the demon are added to the request. Sometimes adjurations, figures, anointings, and the like are added, according to the pact made with him. Whence sometimes the demon is invoked by command alone, and is as it were forced to answer by virtue of the pact; and as a rule he does not fail to keep his promises, unless he is prevented by God — not from any power of fidelity, for he is a liar, but out of hatred for man and for the sake of later evocations and the working of demonic wonders. All magic books assume that with the help of certain signs and sacramental words, man has the ability to evoke the evil spirit!; this succeeds, at least almost always, in cases of a pact that has specified the conditions.

VI. — In fact, the evil spirit is by no means bound to his promises; he keeps only what he wants and to the extent that he hopes to harm? The man alone is bound; not that he is obliged to abide by these heinous commitments, nor that he is powerless to break them, but because of the cruel empire which he exercises over him, from this sacrilegious oath, the one whom he has given himself as master.

The difficulty of getting clear seems even greater when Satan has been given a writing or given the right to life and death under the covenant in the case of infidelity. The atrocity of crime and the fear of the tyrant to whom they have enslaved, bank the chains of these poor slaves and plunge them into irremediable despair. Far from being founded, such persuasion constitutes a heresy and a crime greater than the one used as a pretext. As long as the trial lasts, the sinner belongs, can and must return to God. These unfortunate ones must therefore hope in divine mercy and repent; penance is the only, but true, way to reshuffle the horrific covenant that dedicates them to damnation. It does not matter whether the demon holds the sensitive promises by which they have bound themselves, or returns them; provided that the conversion is sincere and constant, they are assured of their salvation. Unfortunately, it is a fact of experience that these kinds of conversions are rarely complete and lasting, and it is only too true, judging by the results, that the return of these unfortunate victims of evil prestige and their perseverance in the good are deplorable difficulties.

VII. — The priest, who represents divine mercy to these sinners, will be careful not to express hesitations that would encourage despair. It must, however, require them to make adequate reparations for the harm they have done and to give sufficient evidence of their sincerity. He will therefore ask them to abjure any commitment and any relationship with the demon, to burn the forms, the books, the charms and instruments of any kind used in this infamous trade, as well as the cedule of the pact, if they have it in their hands; and finally to repair the damage they have done.

For these men, then, that they may come to their senses, the first remedy of all to be applied is against despair and heresy; for the wretched are wont to think that no remedy for eternal salvation remains to them, since they have already renounced it and have bound themselves to perpetual fellowship with and subjection to the demon. But indeed, by settled judgment, to believe this is heretical, and to act according to that opinion or apprehension is the sin of despair. These persons, therefore, are bound firmly to believe, first of all, not only that it is lawful but that they are obliged to rescind the pact and renounce the demon, and, as far as in them lies, to break all the signs, and to abstain altogether from their former sorceries. Then they are bound to believe also that this sin can be blotted out through penance, to which they are accordingly to be roused... [the harms] they may have caused by their sorceries. They will be able to pray to God or to the saints, if the demon holds the copy of the covenant, so that it may be returned to them; but they will not do any direct adjugation for this purpose.

VII. — Not only does the magic pact not irrevocably seal eternal damnation; but after breaking it, one can rise, through penance, to the highest perfection. Some saints are quoted who, returning from this abominable trade with Satan, left in the Church a reputation of holiness and deserved the honors of canonization, among others St.Cyprian?, who, after having tried by magic to pervert St.Justine, shared his martyrdom; Blessed Gilles de Vaozel*, of the Preachers Brothers. But the most famous among all is Saint Theophile, nicknamed the Penitent. We will reproduce in substance the history of his fall and his conversion, written by a named Eutychian, who seems to have been eyewitness to the facts. The reader will see how far the miseries of pride can lead and how powerful is the Pintercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

By the middle of the vi century, before the invasion of the Roman Empire by the Persians, Theophile {exercised in the church

1 S. They are to be admonished that they are bound: 1. To abjure and dissolve any express pact, if they have one, with the demon, or any commerce [with him]; 2. To burn their books, papers, ligatures, and other instruments of the art; 3. To burn the written bond, if they have it; but if the demon alone has it, he need not necessarily be compelled to return it, since the pact is sufficiently dissolved through penance; 4. Damna illata resarcire,

2 BRÉV. ROMAIN, 26 sept.

3 ANDRÉ DE RÉSENDE, BB. 14 maii, t. 46, p. 404, n. 2.

Bollandists, 4 February, vol. 4, p. 489, nn. 1-2: It came to pass, before the invasion of the accursed nation of the Persians into the Roman commonwealth, that there was in a certain city named Adana, in the second region of Cilicia, a certain vice-dominus of the holy Church of God, named Theophilus, outstanding in character and conduct... By common counsel they decreed that he be made bishop... He was led to the metropolitan bishop, and received with joy. Sacratio imminebat; at ille prostratus pavimento, comprehensis pedibus episcopy, precabatur nihil in se tale exerciti, immeritum se omnino episcopatus graduated THE DIABOLIC COVENANT; 297 of Adana, in Cilicia, the functions of steward or treasurer with disinterest, zeal and charity that had won him all hearts. The bishop who had given up his trust having come to die, the vote of the clergy and the people unanimously took place on Theophile and appointed him to the Metropolitan as the most worthy of holding this position of honour. But he, still humble, fell at his feet, declaring himself unworthy of the episcopal office and begging that this burden should be spared to his weakness. His bodies were such that he was given three days of reflection. The last three days, his repugnance and his response were the same: another choice had to be made.

Jealous counselors warned against the faithful treasurer of the new bishop, who, too easy for the first impressions, withdrew his office and provided another one.

The emptiness was made around this man, a former object of such disdain. In the solitude in which he was relegated his disgrace, the spirit of pride enslaved bitter and dark thoughts that demanded revenge and a brilliant rehabilitation: troubled, splattered, out of him, he resolved to ask one and the other the demon.

He spoke to a Jew, who was known in the city as a magician, and came nightly to ask for his intervention to recover and avenge his honor. "Come back tomorrow at the same time," said the Jew, "I will introduce you to my master and he will grant your request."

Theophile returned the next day towards the middle of the night. His guide led him to the arenas of the city, and when they were there, he said to him, "Whatever you saw and whatever you heard, do not be afraid, especially do not make the sign of the cross." Then appeared in his sight a tumultuous meeting of men clothed in white robes, bearing torches, and having in the midst of them a kind of king sitting on a throne: He was the devil and his court.

The Jew, taking Theophile by hand, presented him to the assembly. "What does this man come to do here?" said the demon. "Victim of the precautions of his bishop, he asks, master, for your help. "How can I help a man who serves God?" But if he wants to come to my service and be part of my army, which he relies on me; I will get him more credit than he has ever had, he will see everyone at his feet, even the bishop. "You hear?" said the introducer, turning to Theophile. "Yes, I have heard," replied this one, and I accept all the conditions, as long as he comes to my aid,""Well," said Satan, "that he deny the son of Mary and Mary also; they are one of me and the other also in horror, and that he make me a writing of all this; then he may ask me everything; but let him renounce it first."

In the wandering of his passion, the unfortunate renegade Christ and his Mother, wrote that he sealed from his ring and handed it over to his new master; then he withdrew very satisfied with the hopes given to him.

Strange thing!The next day, probably by an inspiration of Providence, says the historian whose account we summarize!, but nothing prevents us from believing that this resolution was secretly suggested by the evil spirit, the next day the bishop recalled Theophile with great honor, and, for the reparation to be more complete, restored him to his office in the presence of the clergy and the people, confessing publicly that he had been wrong to strip and provide another less able one.

So this is the renegade more in favor than ever. However he was no longer the same man; far from tempering his authority, as in the past, by mildness and modesty, he overtly commanded, and everyone trembled around him. The Jew who had lost him frequently visited him in secret, until the time when he was burned alive for his crimes and mischief, and boasted to him the power and services of his master; from which Theophile agreed and never ceased to express his gratitude.

But God, in consideration of the merits of the past,

1 BB. Ibid., p. 490, n. 5: But on the following day, the bishop, moved—as I believe—by divine providence, having recalled with all honor the vice-dominus from his withdrawal, and having shamefully cast out the one whom he himself had promoted, appointed him vice-dominus as before, and granted before all the clergy and people the authority of administering the holy Church and the possessions belonging to it, and of the whole people, and he was again raised to an honor twice as great as he had held before... Cœpit 300 2nd SECTION: DIABOLIC PARODIES: THE MAGIE . took pity on this great sinner and gave him the grace to return to himself. His thought focused on the last ends, so likely to remove the sinner from his hardening. Scared by what awaited him, after death, at God's judgment, he began a new life of prayer, fasting, watch and tears. "Missable that I am," he said to himself, "what have I done! What is not my crime! Where to flee to find the salvation of my soul? Where will I go, an unfortunate sinner who denied my Saviour and his Mother, and dedicated me in writing to Satan's slavery? Who can rip me out of his hands and help me? O fatality that made me meet this infamous Jew, worthy of the torment he suffered! What will my honours and my riches be worth to me in the dreadful day of demonstrations, before the sovereign judge to whom nothing escapes and who holds vengeance in his hand? Ah! malheur à moi, mille fois malheur! »

While he was desolating himself in this way, the thought arose in his soul to resort to the Most Holy Virgin Mary and to implore divine mercy through her. So he came to the temple dedicated to the Mother of God, and he spent forty days and forty nights there without discontinuing his supplications, fasts and watches.

At the end of this time, the Blessed Virgin appeared to her in the middle of the night and addressed these harsh words to her: "Where comes the audacity to invoke my help to a

1 BB. O most wretched I, what have I done and what have I wrought! Whither shall I now go, laden with excesses, that I may save my soul? Where shall I go, unhappy sinner that I am, who have denied my Christ and his holy Mother, and have made myself a servant of the devil through the written bond of an unspeakable pledge? Who, do you think, among men will be able to snatch it from the hand of the ravaging devil, and help me? What was the necessity of recognizing that most wicked man, and of burning that Hebrew?... What shall I answer on the day of judgment, when all things will be naked and open?...: Woe to me, wretched one!...

2? BB. Ibid., p. 491, n. 9: Post expletionem vero dierum, medio noctis apparuit manifeste... Our Lady and true Mother of Christ, saying to him: Why, O man, do you persist so rashly and disdainfully in asking that I help you, O man who has renounced my Son and who has renounced me myself? If you had offended only me, who represents pure mercy and can refuse nothing to those who call for their help, your fault would be forgiven; but I cannot see or hear the renegades of my Son; how shall I present myself before his face to calm his righteousness and plead for forgiveness?

"My crime is great," replied the humble penitent; "but even greater is your mercy, and you can do everything about Him who was born of you, O my Sovereign, O blessed Mother, the protection and refuge of sinners. Forgiveness has never been denied repentance and penance. The Ninevites, David, the prince of the apostles, Zacchaeus, Saint Paul, the incestuous of Corinth, and until this Blessed Cyprien, who, after having renounced the practices of magic for Jesus Christ, deserved to share the martyrdom of Saint Justine, are all witnesses of this. Like them, I repent and want to do penance; as with them, get me forgiveness!

"Since these are your feelings and your desires," replied the gentle and compassionate Mother of Jesus, "confess with heart and mouth that the One whose mother I am and whom you have denied is Christ, the Son of the living God, the judge of the living and the dead, and then I will intercede for you."

Theophile, his face to the ground and bathed in tears, cried out from the bottom of his soul: "Yes, Jesus Christ is my Lord and my God; I confess him and worship him."

Et la vision disparut.

Three days again the humble penitent remained so prostrate and begging, until the divine Virgin, appearing again, addressed these comforting words to him: "Man of God, your penance is acceptable to your Creator and Savior; to my prayer he has received your tears and answered your sighs; abide in peace and be faithful to the end to your Lord and my Son!"

‘A matter of concern remained with Theophile: the demon held the cedule of his denial. He begged the Blessed Virgin to have her recovered. Three days later, while he was asleep, it seemed to him that the Mother of God came to lay her in her hands, and when he awakened, he found her indeed on her chest?

The next day, which was a Sunday, Theophile went to the main church where the people gathered together for the holy mysteries: and, after the gospel, prostrated themselves at the feet of the astonished bishop, he publicly told his apostasy, his penance and the wonders that had assured him of his forgiveness; then he showed the infamous miraculously recovered note and burned it, while the pontiff and all the assembly burst into thanksgiving.ÿ

When this public atonement was accomplished, the Blessed Penitent returned to the sanctuary of Our Lady where he had found forgiveness and peace, determined not to leave this blessed place any more. But so many tremors and emotions had exhausted his strength. He fell ill, and a few days later he gave his soul to the Lord Jesus and to the Immaculate Virgin, to the very place where she had appeared to him, and which was also the place of his burial.

1 BB. Ibid., p. 492, n. 13: Rursum... apparuit hilari vultu, et lætis oculis, et mansueta voce, dicens ei: Homo Dei, sufficiens est pœnitentia tua, etc.

? BB. After another three days, as though in a vision, St. [Mary?] showed him... ...Mary, the little document of surety..., and rising from sleep he found the document upon his breast.

8 BB. But on the following day, since it was the Lord's day, going (al...

Like God, the Church forgets the error and remembers only the return, and, doubtless on the faith of the signs that illustrated her tomb, she inscribed Theophilus the Penitent in the catalogue of her saints. latus corpore, infirmatus est in eo loco; in quo et sepultus est, ubi etiam et beatam illam visionem vidit, declinans se tanquam confixus in eo loco. And after three days, kissing his brothers, he delivered his blessed soul into the hand of the Son of God.

DE LA MAGIE

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20 THE EVOCATIONS The various points of view. — L’évocation. — Variety of evil apparitions: prestiges, pythonics, oracles. — Evocation of the dead or necromancy. — Scene of an evocation in the Pharsal of Lucain. — These sensitive manifestations are the work of demons. — Renewal of evocations in spiritism.

I. — The wonders that come from magic are numerous and of all kinds. Developing these various aspects would give our work an disproportionate extension, capable of frightening the reader and weary ourselves. We will limit ourselves to pointing out the various prestiges and to discussing, in the light of theology, what they really contain of evil influence.

Trade with the demon is established at two degrees. In the first, the fallen angel betrays his intervention only by producing, at the request of man, an extrahuman effect; in the second, arrested, he makes an act of presence under a sensitive appearance: it is then the evocation.

Whether or not there is a prestigious manifestation, the MAGIC PRODIGES RELATIONS: THE EVOCATIONS 303 results of magic can fall into four categories, depending on the diversity of the purpose it aims to achieve, namely: a knowledge to be acquired, an evil to be produced, a good to be realized, a cult to be given to the demon in public assemblies.

The science that comes from the demon takes the generic name of divination.

The evils that it produces are of several kinds that we will have to specify.

The goods offered have as their object health, opulence, pleasures; we will say what to think of healings, riches and voluptuousness of this kind.

The assemblies where Satan's followers meet to give him divine honors are known as the Sabbath.

So we have to talk successively about evocation, divination, malice, satanic favours, the Sabbath.

II. — Let us continue this chapter by dealing with evocation, the most common and highest practice of magic.

We will tell later, in the case of magic processes, by what means these evil apparitions are provoked; at present we only want to describe the main forms, the reality and the nature of these manifestations.

HI. — The forms of demonic appearance are innumerable, but they are grouped and characterized according to the senses that they affect. As we have said in dealing with the objects of the vision, the demons show themselves to the eyes under a sensitive appearance of men, animals or any other object; they reveal themselves to be lured by words, noises, clamours; to smell, by sometimes delectable and softening odors, but usually infecting; to taste, to touch, by voluptuous or painful impressions. Saint Thomas! describes as PRESTIGES the outer or fantastic manifestations by which the cursed angels reveal themselves to mortals. Living men are the ordinary organs of these ostensible interventions. We have already reported the energists in whom the demons speak and act in their own name and through direct action. They must be joined by the: suppôts who ex officio use this infamous mediation and prophesy in fury. This aspect of magic, which could be called PYTHONIC, had the character of a regular and traditional institution in the most famous temples of paganism. When the demons spoke through the mouths of idols?, these interventions bore the name D'ORACLES, although this qualifier also suited the answers made by those who were agitated by the furious spirit of python.

IV. — When demons reveal themselves under the appearances of known or unknown dead, it is NECROMANCY. These evocations, which bring the spirits into the visible world, occupy the first place among the evil prestiges. They usually operate through a medium or magician who recalls in the scene of the living the invisible beings that are asked to see or to see

Sometimes indeed, thrusting themselves upon the sight and hearing of men by certain deceptive apparitions, in order to foretell future things; and this kind is called illusion (praestigium), from the fact that the eyes of men are dazzled...

2 S. [Cyprian?], On the Vanity of Idols, bk. 1, p. 432: These spirits, therefore, consecrated under statues and images, lie hidden. These, by their breath, [...] the breasts of the seers. Thus the pythonisse of Endor evoked the prophet Samuel, to the prayer of the unfortunate king Saul! This is not the place to discuss the character of this apparition; but, that there has been evocation and appearance, those only can question it, which do not have respect for the sacred and historical texts.

Paganism made frequent use of magical evocations, as well as the allusions, statements and accounts of ancient authors. We know Ulysses' levation in the Odyssey of Homer?, and Pomiting that Virgile actually in the Sixth Book of Eneid. Stace °, Lucien‘, Apuleei, Celsef, Macrobe, allow no doubt about the existence and frequency of these practices. The philosophy of the Alexandrians, whom Julien the Apostate tried to replace Christianity, had as its main dogma the evocation of spirits. Lucain, in her Pharsal, describes the grim scene of a magician struggling with the corpse of a Roman legionary, which she reminds life to obtain revelations.

V.—We reproduce this passage to give an idea of how one conceived the evocation in pagan centuries. It feels like Lucain's usual phase, but here the exaggeration of the form is very close to the horrific truth.

On the eve of the Battle of Pharsale, Sextus, son of 308 2nd SECTION: DIABOLIC PARODIES: The Pompey Maggie, asks the famous magician to question hell, to know the fate that destiny reserves to his father's cause and weapons. She hastened to remove in the theatre of the last fight the corpse barely attracted by a Roman soldier. She puts a belt in her throat, and, through the rocks, drags him to the bottom of the cave where she carries out her terrible mysteries.

"When she makes new incisions on the chest of the dead, she sheds a blood full of heat; she cleanses her intestines and circulates the streams of lunar Pecum. It blends everything nature provides with more violent poisons. There is nothing missing from him, neither a dog's skin, nor the viscera of the lynx, nor the nanny thorn of the hyena, nor the entrails of the deer that has sprung up with snakes. Join it and remora, which in the open sea holds the ships, while the Eurus swollen the sails; and they will of the dragon, and the sound stone that was.Calcinated under the cover of the eagle; and the winged serpent of the Arabs, and in the Red Sea the viper keeper of his precious conch; and the envelope that remains, all alive, the cerat of Libya, or the ashes of the phenix, which burns himself on the altar among the peoples of the East.

"When she mixed with vile and too famous poisons, herbs infected by her enchanting blacks, simples on which she blew, at their birth, the gall of her mouth and all the kinds of venom which she herself gave the world, then her voice, more powerful than all the philtrists to evoke the gods of hell, first makes her hear only a confused murmuring, and which has nothing of the human voice: it is together the bark of the dog, the scream of the wolf; it is the owl's dreadful cry, the night cry and complaining of the owl; it is the roaring of the lion mixed with the whistle of the snake; it is the rustling of the stream that is smearing.

It breaks against the pitfall; it's the mowing of the forest and the MAGIC PROCESSES: THE EVOCATIONS 309. Tous ces sons divers se confondent en un seul. But soon his voice makes distinct accents in his magic song, and these words descend to the Tartarian gulf:

"Euménides, and you, crimes and torments of Tartarus: and you, Chaos, always eager to engulf worlds without number; and you, Monarch of the underworld, torment for ever your immortality, Styx, the Elisian fields refused to the Hemonides; and you, who, for the underworld, left heaven and your mother, Proserpine, you, the last emblem of our triple Hecate, by whom I maintain a secret trade with the donkeys; and you, guardian of the vast empire, who cast into Cerberus our bowels to soothe her fury; and you, Parques, who will break again the thread that I will reconnect; and you, nod from the burning Phlegethon, sad old man, weary, doubtless, to iron the shadows that I evoke, all hear my prayer: If I speak here with a rather criminal mouth, quite unclean; if he never receives me, you made the fisssickness of the fessickness, you made of the fesickness, without making me any of the blood; if ever more of the blood. We ask not a shadow from a long time trapped in the Tartar and accustomed to your darkness; the one I mention, she barely left the kimier: she descended, she did not cross the seil of the pale sojourn. Returning to my charms, she will only see once the Mân empire. Let the shadow of a soldier who was once ours, instruct Pompey's son of his father's plans, if civil war at your own expense."

"In these words she straightens her head, her mouth foams: she sees standing in front of her eyes the shadow of the corpse lying at her feet. This trembling shadow from the sight of these inanimate limbs, which make him abhor, trembles to lock up in his ancient prison. She is terrified of the idea that we should fit into this open chest, into these viscera, into those fibers that death mutilated. Unfortunate! He is taken away from the last blessing of the trepas, the only advantage between all his miseries, that of not dying.

"Erichtho is surprised that hell takes so long to obey him. She irritates against death, and with a whip of live snakes she strikes the still corpse. Through the cracks that open to her charms, she screams at the bottom of the hells and interrupts the silence of the dark empire.

"Tisiphone, and you, Migger, who are very little of my cries, do not hunt, armed with your avenging whips and through the space of the Arab, this rebellious soul! Seem that I do not call you under your true names; that, given to the light, to your canine form, I will not delight you with your honors of the Styx! I will chase you through the brows, through the funeral, constantly looking at you; I will drive you out of the tombs, I will keep you out of all the ballot boxes. And you, who, in order to produce yourself in heaven, clothe every time with false features that are not yours, Hecate, I will produce you in the eyes of the gods with your pale and livid face; I will prevent you from stripping the one that you have in hell. I will tell the world what bait is holding you in the deep cavities of the earth, you who are called Ennea; I will say under what laws you gave yourself to the monarch of the dark edges, and that Ceres, after your infamy, would not remember you.

"And you, who, in the division of the world, are nothing but a detestable empire, tremble that I open the infernal vaults, that I make the light of the sun penetrate there, that you are not suddenly struck by the waves of light. Do you obey me? or will I have to call him whose land I never hear speak the name without shuddering; he who with an assured eye looks in front of the Gorgon, who with his whip punishes Erinnys all trembling, who holds his empire in these abyss of Tartarus where your eye never plunged; he - who is for you what you are for humans, who alone can perjure himself by invoking the Styx?"

« Elle dit. Sudden heat penetrates the blood of the corpse; this blood will revive its wounds and circulate in all its veins: under the icy heart, immediately the fiber vibrates its pulses, and life, insinuating in those limbs that have lost its use, mixes with death. Then one sees all the organs shake; the nerves stretch; the corpse does not rise slowly, leaning on its limbs: a leap the earth pushes it back, it is on its feet. His eyes open through the eyelid. It is not yet a living, it is the image of a moribund. He preserves stiffness, paleness in the lines; he is astonished to find himself in the world. His mouth closed makes no sound: he had no voice, no tongue, but to respond to the enchantment.

"Tell me," she said, "what I command you: at this price you can count on a great reward; for if you say the truth, I am free for ever to obey the evocations of the Hemonids. I will build your tomb, I will compose your stake in such a way, with the help of my enchantments, that your shadow will be deaf from now on to all evocations, etc."

"She adds to her prayer a charm that educates shadow of everything she wants to know about her. Sadly, and with eyes bathed in tears, the corpse says: "... Deplorable family! you don't have in all the asylum universe safer than the fields of Pharsal."As soon as he has revealed these destinies, he stands still, with his eyes fixed and gloomy: he \à

K autrement. Destinies have no power over his soul; they have exhausted their rights. Then she assembles many bundles of wood, she builds a stake: death comes to place itself. When she set fire to it, she moves away and lets him die at last."

VI. "No matter what the procedures are used and what we will describe later, there is no doubt that these calls to demons, souls, spirits cannot lead to sensitive manifestations, and even that, under evil action, corpses seem to revive, speak, act, and then fall back into immobility of death. It is an experience, as we have done elsewhere!The observation, following Cardinal Bona and other theologians, that demons use dead bodies in their apparitions to which they seem to return life. Nothing prevents these prestiges from taking place on certain bodies, whose souls evoked seem to regain possession. The identity of these spirits is highly questionable, as we shall soon say, but the phenomenon, considered in its external appearances, ñe has nothing but disallowable, and it is not permissible to reject without distinction all that is said in this regard of the paean superstition.

VII. — And it pleased God that these detestable practices would have ceased with paganism! But, of all the instincts that, misdirected, lead to superstition, the one to find missing beings, and to communicate with the invisible world is perhaps the most compelling. At all ages and on all pots of the earth, he betrays himself in one form or another, as a testimony involuntarily MAGIC PROCESSES: THE EVOCATIONS %43 that man gives himself of his immortality.

Görres appreciates this time wisely these crazy attempts to end up in the invisible world. "The three kinds of magic that have passed before our eyes," he said, referring to the Pevocation of Spirits, "have, as we can see, a diabolical origin, although they do not want to agree. Coming from hell, they lead, and form the second degree of initiation that introduces Phomme into the mysteries of darkness. A caring and caring power has hidden three things from man in his present state, namely: the depths of nature, the future and the kingdom of spirits. False magic wants to force the entry of the first of these three domains; the divination, that of the second; the preaching of spirits, that of the third... He who, out of curiosity, seeks to come into contact with the world of spirits, has for him neither the discipline of the Church nor the law of nature; he is wrapped in darkness, without guidance and without compass. The winds that blow around him are raised by powers that go and come according to their good pleasure and according to laws that they ignore. Here, all the greatnesses are unknown greatnesses; the same is true of their affinities, so that he has before him an insoluble problem. It is therefore a tedious insignia to venture, without compass or compass, upon this sea sown with pitfalls; and this tyranny, God punisheth it with righteousness by giving the culprit to the powers to which he has entrusted himself; and of which he becomes a slave, instead of being served by them."

This so-called trade with the good or fallen angels, with the dead, with the beings who were and remain dear, with the great spirits, heroes and illustrious villains, is the usual and consecrated form of contemporary spiritism. Homer, Plato, Cicero, Parchange Michel, Pange Raphaël, Saint Paul, Saint Augustin, Pascal, Bossuet, Mirabeau, Lammenais, who finally wanted to. Parents and children, husbands and friends come to hear from their loved ones. It must also be said that Satan and his angels are more than once directly required and respond to the wishes of the fools who evoke them.

Spiritual manifestations, inaugurated by writing, are still taking place in this way; but very often they also become more sensitive and translate into words, touchings, true apparitions, by all the wonders suitable for demons.

We will have to come back to the question of spiritism, and then we will say what to think of the various personalities who respond to the evocations. CHAPITRE XV

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20 DIVINATION AND NOTORY ART The demon exploits human curiosity, — The concept and field of divination. — L'art notoire. Its various forms: the well-known art strictly said, angelic art, the art of Saint Paul, the explicit or tacit invocation to the demon to arrive, through his assistance, to science. — God alone gives infuse science. — Infuse science of evil origin is a sign of possession. Exemple de ce genre. — Demons can communicate knowledge, directly by sensitive revelation, indirectly by organic influences. — Blessed Gilles de Vaozel, who was introduced to science by magic, and to whom, after his conversion, the Blessed Virgin had the cursed pact restored. I. — The immoderate desire to know, to know good and evil led our first parents to listen and follow Satan's perfidious counsel. This temptation is still, of all, the most powerful, the most pressing to bend, to induce man to enter into a trade with the devil, the most fruitful also in illusions and disappointments. The greed to know can go to things that are out of the human reach and that, therefore, it is necessary to ask higher than man, or to a science that human work might achieve, but which is supposed to receive from a higher principle. When the invocation and intervention of the demon are the object of the first kind of knowledge, it is the DIVINATION itself; when the object is the second, it is the NOTORY ART. Although, in ordinary language, these two points of view are included in the general statement of divination, we distinguish them in order to proceed with greater clarity and method.

II. — Divination is the confessed or tacit recourse to the demon to discover secrets naturally unknown to man.

Among these mysteries that come out of the ray of human knowledge, some are within the reach of fallen angels, others remain hidden from them as well as from us.

Demons can know and therefore reveal past and present events accomplished in the world. They can also foresee future events that are related to physical causes of which they know the energy. But future resolutions that depend on free causes, man and above all on God, escape them entirely; all that they can, in this regard, be reduced to more or less risky conjectures in which their experience of the past and their plans for the future combine, or to bold affirmations that cost nothing to these disbeliefs and liars. Except for a few cases where God, for providential reasons, makes them supernaturally known and even predict what should happen?* Precisely because it is the reserved and exclusive part of the divinity, demons affect the knowledge of the free future. From there came this form of superstition, as well as the remark Saint Isidore of Seville t, the name of DIVINATION, and to those who give themselves to it, the name of Devins. The truth is that the secrets of the future of the game of freedom remain unaffordable to demons.

In fact, divination embraces not only this field of the future where demons have ambitious and lying claims to penetrate, but all knowledge that naturally escapes man. Whether it is the present, the past or the future, intimate thoughts and resolutions or external facts, what is near or what is far away, as long as man ignores it and asks for its revelation to a higher principle other than God, he commits the sin of divination.

The forms and varieties of divination are innumerable. We reserve the right to list them by describing the various magical processes.

HI. —- As for the art purported to know, taken in its generality, it consists in waiting from a cause superior to man for the gift of knowledge.

We must distinguish, in this superstition, different modes and degrees.

In the first mode and in the first degree, one would obtain the infusion of science with the help of certain traditional practices and signs. These theories had a lot of vogue 318 2nd SECTION: DIABOLIC PARODIES: MAGIE in the 17th century. The proponents of this ridiculous art assured that Solomon had received universal science by this means, and that he had composed a form of rites to observe in order to achieve this result. This Salomon ritual never existed, and the books that circulated under the title of NoTOIRE Art differ between them and contain only baroque and unintelligible formulae. Delrio, reproducing Ciruelo, the Spanish author of the 19th century, describes the method commonly followed to arrive at initiation from the book that was then running.

The aspirant made a general confession of all his faults, often communicated, and if he were to sin, he confessed the same day. Moreover, for seven weeks he had to abstain from all the external things; to the fasts commanded by the Church, to add others of superrogation, and, each Friday in particular, to be content with bread and water; to recite every day the seven psalms of penance and other prayers. Then, three times during three moons, the first seven days of the new moon, at sunrise, we had to recite other formulas and worship certain figures contained in the sacramental book. Finally, when the neophyte was sufficiently heated, he had to choose a day when his devotion was more lively and ardent, and alone, in a church or in some oratory, on his knees, his hands and eyes lifted up in heaven, about three o'clock in the evening, recite the first stanza of the hymn Veni, Sancte Spiritus. After that, he could not fail to feel full of science, as Solomon, the prophets, and the apostles, to the point of no longer recognizing himself.

This was the Noterfly Art, and so it is commonly understood by theologians, especially St.Thomas and Suarez.

Another form, called the ART DES Esprits or ANGTLIQUE ART, attributes the gift of science to the good spirits, especially to the guardian angel. We have reported above under the name of theurgy or white magic. In this art, communication would take place either by unconscious elevation or by ecstasy, or by an external and sensitive conversation with the spirits!

The art said pe Saint Paus holds much in the first way, for it consisted of being introduced to the deepest secrets by a ravishing like the one who carried the apostle to the third heaven?.

It is obvious that all these practices are ridiculous childish practices and that they can have any virtue, if ever, only through demonic intervention. God and his angels do not mingle with laughable absurdities that lead Solomon to the practice of general confession and frequent communion, the fasting of the Church and to the prose of Pentecost. Whether the expectation is vain or leads to a result, it amounts to at least a tacit invocation of the demon, and as such these practices are still unlawful.

The direct and formal demand which one would make to the demon of science in general or of some particular science, obviously belongs to the same order, as also the tacit or express invocation of a help that would help human work; and it is with good reason that Suarez{ attaches to the well-known art these extranatural means of knowing. 320 2nd SECTION: DIABOLIC PARODIES: THE MAGIE

IV. — Is it true that science can come from demons in any way that is coveted and hoped to receive it?

Il faut s'entendre.

The direct communication of science can be done by infusion or revelation.

In the infusion, the spirit is suddenly illuminated and receives without effort the motions of things, in the same way as the gifts of grace.

It is certain that the devil is powerless to give no knowledge by this way, and that it is for God alone, as St.Thomas teaches, to reach the soul in these depths and in this way. Asking Satan for infuse science, openly or by any sign, is therefore pure ineptitude. This is no less a serious sin, because of the trade at least tacit that this understanding implies with the demon?.

V. — Cases where there suddenness and the extent of knowledge would take manifest characters of infuse science, should make suspect the action and personal staging of Satan, who make possession. tute naturali talium observantiarum proui non possunt..., sine dubio hoc genus superstitionis committeret. Likewise, he who would wish to be taught by a demon in the manner in which one is taught by a man speaking — whether he intends the demon to speak to him at the ears of the body, in a visible body assumed, or only by forming the same words in the imagination, which the demon can also do. For by whatever means association with a demon is entered into, even if nothing is asked, expressly or tacitly, that exceeds his natural power, it is superstitious, and belongs to this part of the magic art.

It is certain, however, that some have had wisdom and knowledge from God by infusion, as is read of Solomon... But it does not belong to demons to illuminate the intellect. But the acquisition of knowledge and wisdom occurs through the illumination of the intellect, and therefore no one has ever acquired knowledge through demons.

2 CAJETAN, In Sum. On Superstition: This superstition is a mortal sin on account of the association entered into with a demon, concerning whose institution these things are observed — and uselessly, because it does not belong to demons to infuse knowledge into souls.

Here is a singular example of this, from which we borrow the account from the principal historian of St John of the Cross!

"In a monastery in Avila, a young person who had seen the demon appear in a human form at the age of six and who, seduced by his apparent beauty, had given him all his affections, was given the holy garment. She naturally had a great penetration of mind, a spiritual and endearing conversation. With his violent inclination for him, the devil offered him to make her more learned and skillful than even the most eminent men, provided that he undertook in writing, by signing his promise of his blood, never to have any other husband but him. The poor child, with the help of the demon, peeked so cleverly at her arm that, without feeling any pain, she shed enough blood to write the pledge that was asked of her, and, after having written it and signed it with her hand, she had the imprudence to deliver it to her eternal enemy. This completed contract and hell thus became the owner of this unfortunate soul, it made itself such a revolution, that it came to pursue God with deep hatred and ardent desire to see him abhor him all, in order to be able to offer his new fiancé this proof of love.

"Growth in age, whether she could find in her family no way to embrace another state, or whether the demon wanted to use her to lose souls, she entered a convent, where the brilliant hopes given by all her kind of talents made her welcome with great joy. The demon, in fact, had kept his word and fulfilled his promise. She spoke all the languages, she had all the fine arts, she played so easily for infuse. But, as always, what is singular attracts attention, and what is extraordinary gives rise to suspicions: the superiors of his order conceived worries and resolved to examine more closely this soul which made universal admiration.

"After consulting with a few learned and serious men, who did not attach great importance to it and did not follow it up, they heard about our blessed Father and the discernment of the spirits that God had given him; so they asked him to take care to examine the religious in question himself. He began by apologizing; then, defeated by the most pressing instances, he ended up surrendering to their desires. After having come to light with them, he prepared himself for it by his usual weapons, I mean the prayer, penance, the living faith in Our Lord and a deep distrust of himself, Arrived to the parlor of the convent, hardly there was in the presence of the nun, that this woman with such profound science and speech so easy, not only kept an absolute silence and became mute, but also began to tremble when she saw her discovered impostures.

"The Blessed Father, enlightened by the lights from above that were always present, recognized these symptoms as the cause of this sad state, and told the superiors that this nun was deceived by the demon and that it was necessary to exorcise it several times, because he had acquired on her, by a long possession, an extremely tenacious power and difficult to overcome; but the superiors begged him, since he had discovered evil, to willingly apply the remedy there. What decided it was less their instances than his charity and the peril where that soul was.

"From the first exorcism, the event made the Father right. The demon deprived this nun of the use of the senses, and he himself, a demon speaking as he was, became a mute demon. At the second session, the tongue was deliated and the demon was forced, despite him, to reveal first how long he had possessed this soul, the evil he had done to him and the motives he had had to deceive her; then, the number of demons that currently possessed it...

"Returning to herself and being unable to doubt that the Blessed Father knew everything, possessed her, who was deprived of the use of her senses only during exorcisms, explained in detail the deplorable state of her soul... However, the saint imposed his will on the demons with such irresistible authority that, despite their efforts to refuse his orders, he forced them not only to confess that their prince had sent them with the formal order to throw this soul into despair, but also to get out of his body, to leave it free and to return to him the written commitment that she had given them. In spite of them they obeyed all that he required, and in front of the whole community the enemy threw away the paper which the Father took and delivered into the fire. It was the deliverance of the nun who, in her soul and in her body, was restored to full freedom."

VI. — If the inner infusion of science surpasses the virtue of demons, the same is not true of sensitive revelation. By speaking to their followers, as man speaks to man, they can teach them many things; St.Thomas! agrees, although he does not bring these kinds of communication back to the well-known art. Suarez?, which brings back to the same genre all these superstitious and magical means of reaching human science, includes 324 2nd SECTION: DIABOLIC PARODIES: THE MAGIE still imaginary revelations, which, as we have said in its place, do not exceed the diabolical power. But this influence on the imagination is not due to direct action on the soul, it is the backlash of the action exerted on the organism, whose excitements have the effect of putting into play the sensitive images of the mind?.

Through this path of the body, which is the soul's instrument for the exercise of thought, the demon can accelerate or delay intellectual development. The activity of the mind determines in the brain a proportional excitation, and similarly, the brain excitation is active to the same extent, albeit often disorderly, the work of the mind. By physical action on the brain, the demon can produce a momentary increase in vitality and movement, resulting, in the same proportion to the mind, in extraordinary facilities to apply, see, understand, to remember: the science thus acquired will be the work, indirect if it wants, but true of the demon.

The meeting of these means, namely: apart from the sensitive revelation, and in the subject organic excitations, without difficulty explain all the facts of magic science. On nE CR

. PRODIGES: DIVINATION AND NOTOIRE 393. Many of them are quoted on the authenticity of which we do not have to pronounce ourselves; we only have to have demonstrated the possibility. However, we will report the following trait, where the demon's contribution seems to be combined with the work of man.

VII. "Blessed Gilles de Vaozel, who was to illustrate by his penance and his ardent devotion to the mother of God the order of Saint-Dominique, had been cast into his youth, through the disorderly love of science, into the abominable excesses of magic, and this is how. He left Coimbra to study science, particularly medicine, at the University of Paris, and met on his way a strange traveller, who, after having inquired about his plan, advised him to go through Toledo, where, better than in Paris, his hunger for knowledge would be satisfied. There he would be taught secrets that scare weak minds, and with the help of which he would perform as many healings and wonders as he would like. The young man understood everything: he was a demon who invited him to be introduced to the mysteries of magic. After some hesitation, the desire for reputation and science took hold in his soul. So he came to Toledo to solicit these wonderful, but secret criminals. He was initiated, after having signed with his blood the promise that he would recover, in seven years' time, at the master's discretion; for his part, he was assured that he would surpass the most skilled in his art. Proud of this hope, he went on his way to Paris, where he, in fact, surprised the scholars themselves by the wonders he displayed in their eyes.

Our Lord, who had on this astray plans of mercy, in turn multiplied the miracles to take him away from evil and damnation. With grace, Gilles changed his entire life and was admitted to the family of Saint-Dominique on his behalf. But after his conversion, a thought dismayed him; it was to know in Satan's hands the ungodly act that he had signed with his blood. He used the Most Holy Virgin so that she could be restored to her, and the mother of God granted her, as to Theophilus the Penitent, this miraculous consolation. ' CHAPTER XVI

LA MAGIE

LES PRODIGES

99 THE MALEFICES Distinguished evil of charm. — Sa cause efficiente. — Réalité de ces pernicieuses influences. - Misfits that affect external property and health. — Those who reach the spouses. — Le maléfice impur. — L'envoütement, — Les transformations bestiales. La Mythologie païenne. — The facts of passive metamorphoses: Nebuchadnezzar, and a sick woman healed by Saint Macaire. — Testimony and theology of St. Augustine on this subject. — Active transvestances by magicians. — Explanation of the so-called bestial metamorphoses. — Les vampires. — Supernatural, natural and superstitious remedies against malice. I. — Satan's natural tendency is to evil, and the predominant character of the virtue which he imparts to his followers is to do evil; even when he seems to serve, he acts only to lose, from where came the effects that emanate from his power, the common name of evildoers. However, by its etymology and its immediate acceptance, this word expresses an external and sensitive damage due to a positive intervention of the demon and generally determined by a sacramental sign which is the work of one of its agents. This sign and this damage bear indifferently the names of MALEFICE and CHARME, although CHARME better designates the sacramental sign, and the mazerice the resulting effect. In any case, we defer the study of charms to the place where we will deal with the processes of magic, and we are currently examining only the evil determined by these evil sacraments.

II. — Before describing the various forms of these malignant influences, let us assign the ordinary cause that produces them. They are obviously the work of demons, when the authors of evil practice at a distance, for real action presupposes presence: then evil spirits perform, by virtue of a pact or by pure natural tendency, the wills and vows of their agents. They still have to be blamed for internal diseases and injuries, rapid and distant translation, and, in general, all the effects that exceed human power, such as storms, hail, atmospheric upheavals.

But many of these facts can be immediately produced by the magicians themselves, especially when they show fear that to be seen, because it is not doubtful that the demon, by its prestige, sometimes makes them invisible, either by modifying, by direct action on the sense of sight, the act of vision, or by interposing an environment that prevents it. It can also transport them with great speed from one place to another, introduce them into enclosed and closed places, not by making them pass through locks, as claimed by the vulgar, but by opening without noise and quickly the doors, widening the openings and then restoring everything to its first state.

This is the general solution which explains most of the

MAGIC PRODIGES: DISCLOSURES 329 mistrust; some, however, require special explanations that we will attach to the facts.

UT. — It is only too certain that Satan's superiors exercise pernicious influence on those who become the object of their hatred, or even without any other reason than to satisfy the instinct that causes them to harm!, and the demons respond to the wishes of their malignity, they wait, so to speak, for this call to multiply the desolation and ruins around them. The Church expressly indicates this in her prayers and instructions, and opposes these evil attacks with blessings that conjure them?. All peoples, moreover, believed in these pernicious spells, and they were all the more afraid of the power they were given to superstition. The general belief is strongly summarized in this Chaldean conjuration formula*:

"At the four cardinal points, the vastness of their invasion burns like fire. They violently attack man's homes. In the city and in the country they wilt everything. They oppress the free man and the slave.

It is far more certain... that the effects of maleficia are more than real, so to speak; for it is more proper to the demon to harm than to do good — indeed he never does good except to seize an occasion for doing harm; and for this reason truth is found more often in the effects of maleficia than in other things; and on this account this art of maleficia is so severely forbidden, and maleficia themselves are punished, as was alleged above from canon and civil law, because in truth they do great harm, and not merely apparent harm, and thus, beyond the ruin of religion, they are also, against justice, very harmful to the commonwealth.

2 Riruez Romain, de Benedictionibus, passim. Particularly the blessing of the water: 'May every illusion, and wickedness, or cunning of diabolical fraud, and every unclean spirit flee and depart from the place where it has been sprinkled...' May every assault of the unclean spirit be driven off, and may the terror of the venomous serpent be cast far away. For the blessing of candles: That in whatever places they shall be lit or set, the princes of darkness may depart, and tremble, and flee in terror together with all their ministers from those dwellings, nor presume any longer to disturb or trouble those who serve you, almighty God.

3 Magic among the Chaldeans, by Fr. LENORMAND, Ch. 1, p. 28. Don't they rain like hail in heaven and on earth... They, the products of hell, above they carry trouble, below they carry confusion... From house to house they enter; into the gates, like serpents, they slip. They prevent the wife from being fertilized by the man; they bring the free woman out of the house where she was born. They are the voice that shouts and chases man."

IV. — We have already observed that possessions and obsessions can come from this cause; we will point out the other main evils that reach man in his external possessions, in his health and life, in the freedom of his limbs and in the use of his reason.

The less cruel and ordinary have the effect of damaging or destroying the things that are man's property and are used for its use: harvests, houses, furniture, flocks, domestic animals; or to upset the operations of labor and the play of instruments, to create external obstacles, often invisible, that geneate, stop, disconcert, irritate. The malaise of the lock or ankle, which stopped the horses and couplings on the spot, was once quite common.

Saint Charles Borromée!, whom it will not be accused of having had a weak or light mind, made it clear legally, in the Swiss valley called Mesolcine, the existence and the evils THE MAGIC PRODIGES: THE MALEFICES 331 of a band of witches and witches who, through their evils, spread desolation.

The fates that man fears above all are those that directly attack his health and life, bind the movement of his organs, subject him to a capricious and elusive tyranny. A sudden and unknown evil is thrown upon one who tortures him, undermines his strength and sometimes leads him to the tomb; in the other one prevents the use of the word, of someone of his senses or of his limbs; to this one the food which he absorbs or wants to take, where one mixes in it dangerous, bitter, disgusting ingredients; to this one, one removes or transforms in his hands the objects which he thinks he seizes.

V. Among the evils cast upon the man, one of the most dreaded in the past was the one who struck the spouses, especially the newlyweds. Well known from pagan antiquity, this strange ligature has become an undecided theme of mockery for modern unbelief. Montaigne ?, Bayleÿ, the libertines of the past century, and today unbelievers and believers * have relegated him to the lubies of imagination.

This evil can certainly come from an imaginary fear, from a subjective impression that nothing outside proves otherwise. But even assuming that he resides in imagination, he can be the work of the demon acting at the call of one of his agents.

Whether it starts from the imagination or immediately reaches the organs, the Church has always taken it seriously. She has authorized and offered prayers to lift this kind of evil!; she has decreed excommunication against those who would throw it upon the spouses? Finally, she places it, when it is persistent, among the causes that dissolve the marriage not yet consumed. How to admit that the Church has despised one fact, after all

[Title, illegible] Sacerdotale, to S... R. ECCL. CONSUETUDINEM, Venise, 4587. Prayer for those hindered in marriage by a demon or by maleficia: 'Deign to free these your servants from every binding, bewitchment, and maleficium of Satan..., that they may freely make use of their marriage for begetting [children], etc.'

2 Tars, des Superstitions, 1. 10, ch. 7, p. 321: Those who put this malefice into use are excommunicated by an infinity of ecclesiastical regulations, and above all by the synodal statutes of Eudes de Sulli, bishop of Paris, died in 1208; by the ordinances of Richard Poore, bishop of Sarisbéri, of about Pan 1217; by the synodal statutes of Pierre de Colmieu, archbishop of Rouen, in 1245, and by those of Miles de Tailli, bishop of Orléans; in 1314, by those of Siffride de Wersterbourg, archbishop of Cologne, who died in 1299; by those of the diocese of Troyes, in 1529; by those of the metropolitan and primatial church of Lyon, in 1566 (and in 1577...) Those who use this malefice are still excommunicated by the Gallican church assembled in Melun in 1579...; by the ordinances of the diocese of 16th century, by Congo, by 16th, by 16th, by 16th, by The Rituals of the Dioceses, in accordance with this regulation, also excommunicate all those who mingle to tie the needle to the newlyweds, or to make them some other malice. This is what the Rituals of Autun say..., of Périgueux..., of Chartres..., of Evreux..., of Paris, of Bologna, of Châlons sur-Marne, of Troyes, of Bourges, of Beauvais... The other Rituals do not speak otherwise in their admonitions.

3 Corpus Juris Can. Cap. ult. de Frigidis et maleficiis.— Cf. S. LIGUORI, Theol. mor. l. 6, n. 1096, t. 7, p. 58. — Bouvier, Diss. in 6 Decal. præc., p. 129-141. of serious importance, until to legislate for centuries in a vacuum?

The theologians and the canonists are unanimous! on this point, and therefore there would be recklessness in contradicting them. Before we get to that point, we should at least argue a few reasons for the absolute or moral impossibility of the fact. Far from these reasons, the material possibility? and the likelihood of such intervention on the part of the demon are obvious, which exempts us from insisting on such a scabrous subject.

VI. — By another evil in the opposite direction, Satan ignites in the heart and limbs the fire of fleshly lusts. The nature leans quite powerfully on this side so that it is superfluous, in most cases, to seek other reasons for excesses, even fury that push to voluptuousness. In some encounters, however, the evil intervention becomes so obvious that it cannot be reasonably challenged. And what is surprising, moreover, that the evil spirit takes advantage of all the pretexts and opportunities to ignite and activate the tyrannical passion to which man resists with so much pain?

The ancient authors speak of, or make mention of, in a hundred [places — text broken] ... Lequeux, Diss. 3, on the Duties of Chastity in particular, n. 19, p. 22: "All theologians and interpreters of the canons admit that men can be rendered impotent through malefices (sorcery)." Id supponit cap. Si per sortiarias, 4, xxx, Q. 1. Nec id among others, point out them when they enumerate the perfidious enchantments of the Thessalian magic; Ovid*, the classical singer of voluptuousness, also mentions and resents these heinous secrets; less severe, Théocrite‘ stages a magician who recalls her unfaithful lover by her incantations.

Christian doctors, sometimes tell of such facts as they witnessed, sometimes affirm as unquestionable and the possibility and realization of this malice, of all the most formidable because of the dangers that it causes to run in modesty. Without delaying to cite examples that are found in large numbers in the collections of demonologists and in the acts of the saints, ordinary healers of the evil importunities, let us summarily indicate the circumstances that make it possible to recognize the action of the demon in these despotic attractions and detestable ardours.

If they declare themselves as soon as a charm which does not exert any physical and natural contact has been laid, especially if the person affected has ignored the Islands to which they were subjected and the means used to seduce them, there is a reason to believe in a mischievous one. The evidence is even greater when the victim is suddenly transported with passion, until he forgets any modesty, for a person

1 Pharsal. |. 6, v. 52-60, p. 36:

? Metamorph. 1. 3, t. 1, p. 195,

* De Arte amandi, l. 9, v. 105-107 :

4 Idyll. 2, entitled: Pappaxevrpra, i.e. the poisoner or magician,

By a Thessalian charm it flowed into the hard heart

Love not brought on by the fates; [remainder illegible: 'Pant severi']

Illicitis arsere senes.

. + Quos non éantotdis PIG

Does any power of the marriage-bed bind [?], or the charm of a pleasing form,

Twisted threads were drawn together by magic whirling.

Nor did the pale love-potions given to girls avail them.

Philtra nocent animis, vimque furoris ahabent. at she would have disdained until then or whose desires she would not even have suspected.

We would also hold to demonstrate the evil intervention that a holy thaumaturge would reveal and heal, as we see examples in the life of many servants of God, of Saint Hilarion+, for example, to name but one.

The demon knows enough the mechanism of the human body, if one can speak of it in this way, to lift up the impetuous movements of passions, and, by influencing the mind, to concentrate these impressions on a particular figure. As for the relationship between the external sign and the intimate disturbance of the senses, it is a pure effect of the magical conventions whereby Satan puts himself, in order to do wrong, at the mercy of his agents, as we will more fully say when we deal with charms.

VII. — It is even more extraordinary that the mistrust we have just spoken of appears to be surprising. For us, the whole question is whether they are true or only possible, and, assuming them, to explain how they can be fulfilled. This is especially the second point of view that concerns us.

Among these incredible phenomena, one must place Penvoütement?, This magic operation consists of directing on an external effigy, a mannequin, a figure of wax or any other matter, a painting, an image appearing in a liquid or any reflector, strokes or curses that affect the person whom one wants to achieve.

All magic rituals report this evil and it is found in all peoples and at all ages. "The spell seems to have been one of the most common black magic operations in Chaldea," said M. Fr. Lenormand !. . Magical documents allude to it many times. This is all the more curious because, according to the Arab writer IbnKhaldoun?, who lived in the 19th century C.E., this practice was still in great use among the Nabatean sorcerers of the lower Euphrates, heirs to many of the more or less corrupt traditions of the ancient inhabitants, and speaks of it as an eyewitness."

Ovide, Horace‘, and in general all the ancient authorsÿ who had the opportunity to mention superstitious evils, report this one. "By uttering some verses, the Thracians, according to historians, shoved a tison into their enemy's eye without touching it, a curious example of remote wounds. All historians report that the magicians of Thessaly... caused impotence and a slow death by means of wax images in the effigy of those whom they wanted to malaise and which they punctured with needlesst."

1 Magic among the Chaldeans, c. 1, p. 57.

2 Prolegomenes d'Ibn -Khaldoun, trad. de Slane, vol. 1, p. 177: We saw, with our own eyes, one of these individuals make the image of a person he wanted to bewitch... The magician then utters a few words about the image which he has just posed before him, and which offers the real or symbolic representation of the person whom he wants to bewitch; then he blows and throws out of his mouth a portion of saliva which was gathered there, and makes vibrate at the same time the organs which serve to enunciate the letters of this evil formula... The result is that the magician drops the evil he wants on his victim.

3 Heroid. Ep. 6, Hypsipyle, v. 91 et 92:

He curses the absent and fixes waxen images,

and drives slender needles into the wretched liver.

4 Satir. 1, 1, sat. 8, v. 30-34:

There was a woollen effigy, and another of wax; the larger

the woollen one, that it might restrain the lesser with punishments;

the waxen one stood suppliant, as one in servile...

Jam peritura modis.

5 Cf. DELrlo, Disquis mag., 1. 3, p. 1, q. 3, S. 4, p.38.

6 BizouarD, Relationships of Man with the Devil, l. 4, ch. 6, t. 4, p. 130. Belief and practice were interrupted, from Tertullian! to jurisconsults and theologians of the Middle Ages. "Byzantine history," says Görres ê, whose erudition is as exact as his theology is adventurous, "provides us with a large number of such facts, as well as the history of France, especially in the era of religious wars. The exorcists tell us a great many; but most of these facts are such that it is difficult to sit on them a perfectly sure judgment."

These kinds of facts are supposed to be interpreted. The only acceptable explanation is that demons carry out on the person the designs of an enemy who strikes his image. According to Görres*, "the images used in these circumstances serve as a mirror that concentrates, as in a home, the criminal action of magicians and sorcerers, and directs it towards those whom they want to reach; they are like a device where demonic influences are gathered, roughly like the magnetic pack concentrates and spreads magnetic influences."This interpretation, in our view, is meaningless, if it does not mean that the demon becomes the executor of man's homicidal or evil thoughts.

VII. — Finally, here is the prodigy that surpasses them all, certainly the least credible, namely: the diabolical metamorphoses, the change from man to tree, to stone, to beast, above all. When the metamorphosis leads to the shape of the wolf, the individuals thus transformed are said to run the werewolf and called garous or wolves1 De Spectac., ©. 2, p. 90. — De Resurrect. carnis, ©. 16, p. 389.

2 DELRIO, Disquis, magic., 1. 3, LP., q. 4; $ 4, p. 70: Agnovere hujusmodi imagines et jurisconsulti et theologi. — Cf. ALra, pe Castro, dé Just. hæretic. punitione, l. 4, c. 15, col. 1137,

3 Mystique, 1.8, ch. 36, t. 5, p, 403,

á Id., ibid, ; garous^. Since this transformation is known as the most ordinary in the legends of witchcraft, the influence of demounder the generic name of lycanthropy.

Is the power of the demon going so far as to turn men into beasts or to allow them to transvestite in this way at their own discretion? The popular superstition affirms it and it dates from afar, because this belief alone makes the background of ancient mythology: Io or Isis is metamorphosed into cow, Argus in peacock, Lycaon in wolf, Arcas in bear, Galanthis in weasel, Pleiades in stars, Daphne, Phaeton, Lotis, Philemon in trees, nymph Cyane in fountain, Lychas in rock, Battus in touchstone, Diamond Celme, etc. The theme of the Golden Ane d'Apulée is the magical transformations to which this author would have been subjected; Ovid's Meramorposes are only a charming series of these childish imaginations, and, to go back to Homer?, we know how Circé changed Ulysses' companions into those for. But these are fables or allegories, not facts.

IX. — De ces faits, en existe-t-il?

Most popular narratives are pure legends imagined and amplified to pleasure, or hallucinations born of fear. However, some have more serious guarantees and appear to be resisting the severity of criticism. To reject them all indifferently and absolutely, to not have to explain them, would be a false evolution unworthy of the historian and the theologian.

First of all, let us distinguish two kinds of metamorphoses: those which the agents of the demon use for themselves and those which they inflict on others. The latter belong directly to the subject we deal with; the others, however, also touch on it, because the ordinary purpose of these transvestances is to misrepresent; the connection, moreover, from the two points of view does not allow to separate them.

Let us first look at the malice itself, which robs the man of his form and turns him into a beast.

The Scripture contains an example that cannot be revoked in doubt and can shed light on facts and stories of the same nature. Nebuchadnezzar! had a mysterious dream that, as a punishment for his pride, was an unheard-of humiliation. As the warning was not effective, this is how the prophecy came to pass. One day this beautiful king walked on a terrace of his palace, from where his gaze lay on the capital of his empire: "Isn't this, he said to himself, the great Babylon that I built to be the royal dwelling, and who will testify and my power and my glory?" Immediately a voice sounded from heaven: "King Nabuchodonosor, know that your power passes into other hands. And thou shalt be cast out of the society of men, and dwell with the beasts of the field: thou shalt eat the grass as oxen, and seven times, that is, seven years, shall pass over thee, until thou knowest that the Most High ruleth over the kingdoms of men, and giveth them unto whom he pleaseth."And immediately the sentence was fulfilled, and Nebuchadnezzar was cast out from among men, and they saw him eat the grass as an ox. He lived for seven years in the fields, 340 2nd SECTION: DIABOLIC PARODIES: The feathers of the eagle, and his nails like the claws of birds. After that time the king of Babylon found himself, lifted up his eyes to heaven, gave glory to God, and the empire was restored to him.

The life of Saint Macaire! of Egypt presents the very curious case of a woman whom the evil prestiges made appear changed into mare. The saint brought down this charm and desiccated the eyes of the spectators.

X. — We still need to hear St. Augustine treatous books from his most worked and matured pen.

The holy doctor has just spoken of pagan traditions on the metamorphoses of men into beasts. "But," he adds, "on these perfidious games of demons, my readers may be waiting for my feeling... Will I say that any belief in these wonders should be denied? But, still today, the witnesses will not fail to affirm that

A certain lustful Egyptian, seized with love for a certain freeborn woman who had married a husband, since he could not entice her on account of her modesty and the chastity of her virginity toward her spouse, the wicked man went to a magician, saying: Either incite her to love me, or by your art bring it about that her husband dismiss her. When the sorcerer had therefore received enough from him, he employed his tricks and incantations; and since he could not move her mind to consent to him, he brought it about that she appeared a mare to those who looked at her. When her husband had then come in from outside, he saw his wife in the form of a mare... He was all the more distressed in mind when he understood that she was his wife, but had been changed into a mare by the curious arts of men... At length, that God might be glorified and the power of St. [Macarius(?)] might be seen... ...of Macarius, it came into the heart of her husband to lead her into the solitude to the holy man; and when he had tied her with a halter as if she were a mare, he led her into the solitude... Respondit autem S. Macarius said to the brothers who reported to him that someone had brought a horse there: It is you who are horses, who have the eyes of horses; for she is a woman, just as she was created, not transformed, but only appearing so to the eyes of those who are deceived. When she had been brought, and he had blessed water..., he brought it about that she appeared a woman to all who saw her.

2 Civit, Dei, 1.18, c. 18, trad. de L. MOREAU , t. 3, p. 103. j

MAGIC PRODIGES: MALFICES 341 of similar facts struck their eyes or ears. Did not we ourselves, during our stay in Italy, hear tell that in some parts of this country, women, hoteliers initiated in sacrilegious practices, were recognisable in a cheese offered to such travelers that it was lawable or possible, the secret of turning them suddenly into beasts of sum which they loaded with their luggage. This task accomplished, they returned to their nature, and yet this metamorphosis did not extend to their mind, they kept the reason of homin; as Apulée tells of himself in the account or fiction of Ane d'Or, when a poisoned drink made him become donkey leaving him reason. Lies that all this, or phenomena so rare, that it is reasonable not to add faith. What we must believe is that God, by his almighty power, can do whatever he wants to satisfy his righteousness and mercy, and that demons, these angelic creatures, but perverted by their own will, act, in the spring of their natural power, only according to the permission of him whose judgments are hidden and never unjust. Undoubtedly, by unfolding these prestiges, demons do not create new natures, but they change so much in their appearances those that the true God created, that they seem to be what they are not.

"Thus, I will never grant to the demons, whatever their artifice or power, to be able to change the soul, what I say, the very body of man, to the body, to the real forms of the brute: what I believe, is that the human imagination, changing according to the infinite multitude of objects suggested by thought or sleep, and, though intangible, folding with wonderful speed to reproduce the resemblance of the bodies, a certain fantastic image of man can, in the favor of 342 2nd SECTION: DIABOLIC PARODIES: THE MAGIE L'Assoupment or Lethargy, arrive, — how? I ignore it, — in a bodily appearance, until our sensitive perception; while the very body of man may lie elsewhere, undoubtedly living, but in a deeper fainting than that of sleep. Thus, this fantastic image of man would appear in our senses incorporated into some brute figure, and in this state as well as in the illusion of a dream, man himself might think himself as it appears and imagine himself carrying burdens. Are these burdens real?It is then the demons who carry them to abuse men, whose vision is divided between a real burden and an imaginary brute. One Præstantius said that his father, having by chance tasted in his house of this poisoned cheese, had remained on his bed as asleep, but without it being possible to awaken. Returning to himself, a few days later, he recounted as a dream what had just happened to him: he had become a horse and, in the company of other beasts of sum, carried to the soldiers of the food (retica), which he enveloped in nets. The fact had happened as he told it, and that fact seemed to him to be just a dream...

"These facts have come to us, not on the attestation of any people to whom it seems unworthy to us to add faith, but of men whom we consider incapable of misleading. Thus, what tradition or literary monuments tell us about the prestiges of the gods or rather of the demons, of these usual metamorphoses of Arcadians into wolves and of these enchantments of Circé, which transformed the companions of Ulysses, all this could be done in the way I have just said, if however this happened."

XI. — The above-mentioned facts concern only passive metamorphosis by demons on those they want to molester; those attributed to them (

MAGIC PRODIGES: DISCUSSION 343 employees, through which they multiply and conceal their misdeeds, are more numerous. The fable is rich in: these legends: Jupiter, to cover his adultery, turns in turn into a golden rain, a swan, an eagle, a bull. Protée! escaped the troublesome who came to ask her the secrets of the future by passing at her will from one appearance to another. Herodotus tells us that the Neurs, according to Scythes and Greeks living in Scythia, changed into wolves once a year, for a few days, and then returned to their first state. All popular beliefs assume this privilege to sorcerers, and one can say with a contemporary author è, who accumulates erudition only to make it a right to disbelief, that almost everywhere reigns on their account the same fables. " They are assured that they can, at their will, become invisible or transform into animals, that they are invulnerable and that their eyes have a magical and almost always evil virtue. " These tales are spread throughout America as well as among Muslims; China is full of them, and they form the whole popular history of the Chamans."

Closer to us, and also with greater certainty, is pre-VIRGILE, Georg., l. 4, V. 405-414, 440-444.

It is said by the Scythians, and by the Greeks who dwell in Scythia, that individuals once a year become wolves for several days, and then return again to their former state; those who say this, however, do not persuade me.

3 ALFRED Maury, Magic and Astrology, 11° P., c. 1, p. 20.

4 Ibid., note 2: In Northern Guinea, it is assumed that sorcerers can turn into tigers, and transform their enemies into elephants to kill them. (Leighton Wilson, Western Africa" p. 398.)

In Darfur, it is believed that magicians have the ability, when they are about to be caught, to turn into air or wind. (Mohammed-elTounsy, Travel to Darfur, trad. Perron, p: 356.) In Ireland, once, the people, full of old Celtic superstitions, imagined that sorcerers could take all kinds of forms of beasts, especially those of flies . feel many stories which it is difficult to deny any character of authenticity and truth. Scholarly and pious ecclesiastical inquisitors, honest Secular magistrates, judicious theologians who had to know about these facts, have cited examples that can only be opposed by the preconceived resolution of not believing in them. In the 19th and 19th centuries, Sprenger +, Delrio*, Schott? among the ecclesiastical authors; of Lancre‘, Bodin, and Boguet® among the royal judges; and nowadays, to speak only of the secular writers, Görress, MM. de Mirville*, Gougenot des Mousseaux °, Bizouard ®, did not believe that they had to refuse any attention to these accounts, although they did not agree on how to interpret them.

What is no less serious is that many, in the last period of the Middle Ages, were convinced by testimonies and by their own confessions of having committed, under the cover of these metamorphoses, cruelty homicides, and, from this leader, condemned to the last torture.

XII. — Since the substance of these accounts is supposed to be true or only possible, what explanation can be given?

It is well known, first of all, that metamorphosis cannot be real.

1 Malleus maleficarum, q. 10, p. 105. Venetiis, 1576.

The transformation itself is indeed illusory, yet many of the effects accompanying it are most real. Considered in the soul, the fall of reasonable life to the state of the brute is metaphysically impossible, even to the divine all-power: a being endowed with reason cannot cease to be such without ceasing to be entirely.

Restricted in the realm of the body, we conceive the transmutation only of one of these two ways: where by a modification of the bodily forms, or by introduction into a new organism of the soul torn from its natural organism. In one way and the other is possible only by God alone!, and God never inflicted on man either. The case of the king of Babylon is sufficiently explained by mental alienation that made him think he was a beast? We do not stop at the wife of Loth? converted into a statue of salt, for there is only petrification of this woman's body, punished with death for disobeying God's order. It is true that some saints have carried out miraculous transformations of another kind, of which we do not have to guarantee the authenticity; for example, of Saint Dominique, who changed a girl into a boy to accept the vows of a mother, and of Saint Oronceÿ, a miracle quite the opposite, the change of a boy into a girl, in punishment for the irreverence of his mother vis-à-vis this holy martyr; but we do not know of a body metamorphosis performed in the name and by the power of God.

In any case, even if an organic modification is understood, such a metamorphosis exceeds the power of the demon. The evil spirit does not exert such an empire upon our members that it can change its disposition and conformation at its own discretion; let alone it has the virtue of removing the soul from the body it animates and introducing it into a foreign body and then returning it to its natural seat. It is therefore necessary to assume in principle that such changes are never real, but only prestigious or imaginary, as well as teaching, in the testimony of Suarez, Saint Augustine, Saint John Chrysostom, Saint Isidore, Raban Maur, Saint Thomas, Saint Bonaventure, Richard of Saint Victor, Suarez himself, and with him most theologians.

The transvestances of witches are explained in two ways. Either the demons ‘execute in a bestial form the facts attributed to the magicians, or it is the magicians themselves who act. In the first hypothesis, the whole fact is at the charge of the spirits, and it is known that they can affect any form of body, move dead or living bodies with a higher speed MAGIC PRODIGES: THE MALEFICES 347 lower than anything seen in nature. The impact of the wounds on those who accept these responsibilities would be the work of Satan himself. As he realizes these exploits, the evil-doing and deceitful angel plunges into deep lethargy those who believe in accomplishing them, and delusionalizes their minds to the point that they think they are perpetrating the evil that meets their vows?.

However, in several cases the presence of man seems to have been real, and there will be no doubt when threats and blows force them to lift the mask and declare themselves. All this can be explained by prestigious illusions that the demon exercised over the witnesses of these scenes, and whose agents he enveloped in order to take them out of sight.

There are also incursions in which the so-called lycanthropists reappeared as true wolf skins and ran, thus affluent, through the fields*. It is perfectly worthy of the demon to favor these burlesque and cruel transvestinations; in fact, there would be wolf there only the skin.

Metamorphosis inflicted by malaise may be interpreted in the same way. On the side of the victims, it is a mental disturbance that makes them think they are transformed into beasts, and, if in reality they appear such outside, it is by the effect of a prestige exerted on the senses of the spectators. Sometimes, all the evil is in this external prestige which only affects witnesses, as is seen in the ill-treated woman healed by Saint Macaire. As for the external facts which would hardly be explained by the true action of the subjects so prestigiously metamorphosed, it is enough to bring them back to the demons who act in their name and place; so that St Augustine gives reason to the metamorphoses which he tells and which we have quoted above.

We will not stop talking about Görres' strange assumptions; they come back to saying that in these always imaginary transmutations, man thinks himself to be changed into the beast which he approaches most by his instincts: "Master and king of animals originally," he said, "man has approached them by sin, and the more he sinns, the more he becomes like them. This lowering is even more rapid and far deeper when it is the result of a satanic influence, and it is not surprising that man, in this state, ends up having the feeling and the sight of the various forms of animals he found, so to speak, at the bottom of his being. This is what explains these bestial metamorphoses that are sometimes the effect of obsession."We prefer the solutions of common theology to these nebulous theories that seek in nature more than it can give.

XII. — The question of vampires comes naturally to the point of malice and confines itself to that of evil transmutations. We will say little, however enough to make the case and solutions heard?.

In popular opinion, vampires are returnees who come out on the night of their sepulchres, assail, invisible and silent, the living, and drink to their veins until they reduce them to complete exhaustion; that if they open their tombs, they are found in perfect condition of preservation and sipped from the blood of their victims. The way to avoid their incursions and bloodthirsty greed is to burn them, to pierce them with a spear or nail, to impal them, absolutely like a living evildoer who would be prevented and punished.

These beliefs, which are presented in the form of legends rather than specific facts, are prevalent mainly in the countries of Austrian domination, in Poland and in Turkey of Europe; but they meet, with variations, everywhere. The trace is found throughout ancient times. "The belief in the dead that came from the tomb to the state of vampires existed in Chaldea and Babylon?" In the Hebrews, the demon Liura, who was to wander, according to Isaiah, on the ruins of Babylon, referred to the night and bloodthirsty spectre that attacked the children. St.Jerome translated this word into LAME, lamia: but the Greeks and Romans called hideous witches who at night sucked the blood of the children, and the Latins also called them srrycs. In the Middle Ages, witches were identified interchangeably by these various names of rams and srryGes, and several others 6. Vampires, stryges, lamies have this in common, that they are evil beings who live and delight in the blood of their victims. It does not matter to us that the facts put into circulation, at all ages of the world, on vampirism, are real, imaginary or imagined: by making as wide as possible the part of fear, credulity, superstition, lies, it seems difficult to contest everything. "I will not consider it," said Huett, "if the facts (of vampirism) which are reported are true, or if it is a popular mistake, but it is certain that they are reported by so many skilful and reliable authors and by so many eyewitnesses, that one must not take sides without much attention." Far from proceeding with this reservation, most reject the fact of bias, reputing them, before any examination, absurd and impossible. It is an easy and expeditious process, but — we have had the opportunity to observe it many times — as an enemy of science as of history. For us, we are proud to follow a very opposite course of action. We carefully record the accounts which seem to offer us clear guarantees of certainty, must we give up finding a satisfactory explanation; and, if we are told of an order of facts whose control is beyond careful and strict investigation, we do not rush to deny, neither do we affirm; but, taking the statement, we discuss the possibility and consider whether it is likely to be properly interpreted. It is principally this last point of view that belongs to theology and which, as such, is ours.

So let us take the alleged phenomenon in itself. It consists in a evil evil of the evil order that would reach man at the source of life, removing the blood from his veins. In itself, the fact does not present absurdity or impossibility; it is not to the doctors, in particular, THE MAGIC PRODIGES : THE MALEFICES 354 that one must learn that one dies of hemorrhage and anaemia.

But what would be the bleeding, the leech, the vampire, in a word? It is not the dead who eat or drink, nor come out of their graves. Nous en convenons pleinement.

Would it be witches and witches? Probably not, although made invisible by the demons, they can cause mortal wounds and oppress those they pursue.

But, if the dead and the magicians were to be excluded, why would the demons, called by a cursed sign, not accomplish this horrible task? And what task would be more suited to Satan's genius than to tarnish the sources of life in man, in his body, and in his soul? Homicide by jealousy and hatred from the beginning, he is greedy for blood as he is insatiable for destruction and death. Homer! represents the shadows of Tartarus altered by blood and running to drink to the one that Ulysses has just spread to evoke them. These so-called donkeys are only the infernal spirits who like to give themselves to the souls of the dead, in order to better surprise the sympathy and credulity of the living.

But in this hypothesis, which attributes to demons the cruelty of vampirism, what does this blood, which the bodies of the dead suspected of such misdeeds seem to mean? Assuming this coincidence, the evil trick, which thus diverts the attention of the true cause and accredits a terrible superstition, suffices to explain everything.

So if vampires there are, "demons, let's conclude with Mr. Gougenot des Mousseaux*, angels of darkness housed in fake bodies or animating catours in turn gods, demons or souls, it is blood that they claim to feed themselves, in order worse for man to spread it."

XIV. — In concluding this question of malice, it is necessary to indicate the remedies which can be used against these harmful influences.

The theologians assign three kinds of them. The first, the only effective means to fight directly and indirectly the evil action, are the supernatural means that we have indicated? against possession and obsession, namely: prayer, sacraments, alms, fasting, invocation of saints, sacramentals, and above all exorcisms.

The latter are natural and suitable for specific cases of infirmity and illness. Suarez? notes that medical prescriptions generally serve little when the malice is real and present, because it is easy for the demon to prevent its effect. At least, when the evil has ceased and only the sequels remain, the simplest way is to resort to natural means.

The third resource is to ask the magic itself for the cure of the evil it has caused: a very delicate question of which it is important to separate the various aspects, in order to recognize well what is lawful and what is not.

It is first of all obvious that it is never permissible to consult or employ, in any way whatsoever, a magician to stop another's evil: it would be pursuing a good by a positive evil.

If the evil one is attached to a charm that one can destroy, not only is it a permissible thing, it is still an obligation under natural law to remove the object that gives rise to evil action!.

But are we entitled to compel the one who caused the evil to lift him? If he can do so without resorting to a magic and without sinning, suspending the pernicious influence or indicating the charm that causes him, he is morally obliged to do so, and nothing therefore prevents him from being brought to this by prayer, by money, by threats, and even by beatings, wounds, torture, without however coming to kill him?. Generally speaking, mistrust presupposes continuity of action on the part of the person in need; it is therefore permissible to force him to withdraw by means of persuasion or coercion.

It is otherwise if the cessation of evil requires a new and positive intervention of the demon: implementing such a means would still do evil to provide a good. £ 1 SE. 4 NET) }

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a: R However Suarez t, taking sides on this point against Cajetan and other theologians, except the case where the malice could be lifted without any recourse to magic, although it is foreseen with certainty or at least with probability that the magician will use for this purpose, out of habit or malice and not out of necessity, an unlawful means.

Another equally interesting question is whether it is possible to prevent or break the evil at the very moment when it occurs.

One cannot deny the virtue of prayer, sacramentals and other supernatural means listed above, against the eruptions and diabolical influences, but the vulgar brings forth puerile recipes that can only be effective through Satan's intervention: baroque formulas, incoherent acts, ridiculous movements, in a superstitious practical word, which one would vainly try to justify reason for being and morality.

However, a natural process is reported more than once successfully used. It is to surprise the evildoer when he exercises, invisible, his criminal operation, to seize him, to reduce him, through threats and blows, to reveal himself. There are examples where the sorcerer, caught on the act and hit by an unexpected blow, had to lift the mask. * The virtue of sharp and sharp weapons has been seen above all, probably because they cause more rapid and deeper wounds! M. de Mirville ? recounts, in particular, a feat of this kind that happened in 1851 in Cideville, a village in the diocese of Nantes, and with very serious legal evidence.

Let us add that these means usually remain ineffective, either that the demon immediately operates the evils, or that it protects its agents by diverting the blows directed against them, or by keeping them from harm. Much more, it can make them invulnerable, even when they are struck out and with violence capable of killing them on the spot, as we have said before and we will have the opportunity to say again, by discussing against doctors and rationalists the true character of the grotesque scenes given, in the last century, by the Jansenist convulsors at the cemetery CHAPTER XVII

LA MAGIE

LES PRODIGES

9° SATANIC FAVOURS The power and honors granted by Satan. — Where does he take gold? — The riches it spreads are usually only prestigious illusions: the history of Radbod. - Magical healings; what signs are recognized. — The art of St. Anselm, St. Paul. — Les saludadores espagnols. — Marcous or seventh boys born as a result of six other consecutives. Autres guérisseurs. — Devotions to a particular saint to obtain special favors are nothing in common with demonic practices, although they sometimes seem tainted with superstition. — Incubic voluptuousness attested by authority and experience. I. — We have just described the evils inflicted by the devil and his followers; we have yet to speak of the so-called advantages they promise or give to attract and corrupt. — Satan promises to his worshipers that ambition will torment the empire of the world, and it will indeed bring to some the glory of fame and the triumphs of human glory. But, more often than not, these results are due less to active intervention by the evil spirit than to mutual support among those who support the world, and to the solidarity of interests that unite them.

It is more true to say that even from this world, the part of those who worship Satan is humiliation and contempt. Among all peoples, those who profess to be and relate to the genius of evil are doomed to abjection, and, if they are always feared, they are rarely honoured.

Il. — The same is true of wealth. Most of the unfortunate people who are handed over to magic practices are as poor as they are of honour, and share only shame and misery, despite the assurances of lying angel. "What attracts the unfortunate to the slippery precipice of the path of perdition, and to dedicate oneself to Sathan," says Bodin, "is a reprehensible opinion that they have that the devil gives riches to the poor, delights to the afflicted, power to the unfaithful, beauty to the ugly, to the ignorant, to the shameful, and to the favor of the great. And nothingless is seen by the eye that there are no more miserable, more beristres, more hedges, more ignorant, more tormented than the sorcerers."

The demon, however, promises a great deal ? all the goods that try to covet, especially gold, because it is the great way, among men, to arrive at everything. In most of the contracts with him, it states that he will give gold, and more than once he dispenses with it with a certain liberality. It is not, as the alchemists of the Middle Ages believed, that he has the power to make this metal at will; but there is no reason to challenge to him the knowledge of mines where he can draw from it at discretion, or even the ability sufficient to beat money; by which he is in a state, if he wills and if God does not hinder it, to satisfy the human greed. At the bottom, it is likely that things will happen quite differently and more simply: the gold and silver that the demon provides are taken, or discavities of men, or hidden and unknown treasures. And, in this respect, theologians push delicacy until they examine whether the goods thus acquired impose the law of restitution. In cases where one knows with certainty the person to whom these goods would have been surveyed, one should, without doubt, as in ordinary flights, restore them; but generally the uncertainty where one is from the origin of these treasures!, and even better their misleading appearance, emerge from the care of restitution.

II. — A thousand times for one, indeed, these so-called riches are purely illusory and prestigious? God cannot leave at the disposal of the tempter such an effective, universal means of seduction and corruption; if the demon dispensed material goods at his will and at the will of men: gold, silver and other instruments of wealth, he would truly be the master of the world, and the number of those who would address him would be incalculable. So he promises and pretends to give, but, in Eh RATE

PRODIGES: SATANIQ FAVOURS 359reality, it pays for illusions. This way of alluring men with the appåt of wealth to put in their hands only snags, is moreover quite in the genius and habits of the infamous and lying spirit, which takes pleasure in deceiving men by exciting their passions.

It is, in fact, as it proceeds: it presents in the eyes of cupids of the heaps of gold, of which it seems to put them in possession; but, as in dreams, soon everything vanishes, or it remains in the hands only a common matter, a coarse metal or something more vile still t.

The former historians of Saint Wulfran?, first Archbishop of Sens, then Apostle of the Frisians, tell a legend that suits the subject we deal with. In order to keep in the worship of idols the ruler of the land, the Duke Radbod, already shaken by the preaching of the holy bishop, the demon appeared to him in a dream, the forehead girded with a diadem glittering with stonework, under sumptuous clothes all woven

Ordinarily, all these things are vain, and come about through an illusion of the imagination, since the demon cannot produce such animals..., indeed perhaps not even gold, especially by so sudden an action. Hence too they report that such gold is wont to turn into coals shortly afterward, etc.

2 BB. 20 Mart., t. 9, p. 146, Appendix, n. 2et 3: Deceptor hominum diabolus... ei apparuit diademate aureo cum fulgentibus gemmis capite opertus, vesteque auro textili toto amictus corpore... Tell me, I beg you, bravest of men, who has so seduced you that you wish to withdraw from the worship of the gods and the religion of your forefathers? Do not act thus, I beseech you, but remain in the worship of the gods which you have held until now, and you shall go to golden houses that shall abide forever, which I am about to give you shortly...; let envoys be sent, and I will be the guide of the journey, and I will show them a dwelling of extraordinary beauty and immense splendor, which I am about to give you in a little while... The priest of Christ... at once sent his deacon together with a certain Frisian... Entering upon a very broad road..., and they see from afar a golden house, etc. And the deacon, astonished at what he had seen, said: If these things were made by almighty God, let them remain forever; but if by the devil, let them quickly perish... The guide of the journey, who had appeared to be a man, turned into a devil, and the golden house was turned into mud... Revertuntur ad oppidum, invenientes præfatum ducem Radbodum sine baptised-or; and speaking to him: "Tell me, O first of the brave, who was able to seduce you to the point that you want to give up the gods honored by your ancestors? Remain faithful to the religion of the past, and you will have, whenever you want, the most beautiful palaces. The Christians also promise you a house of light for eternity: sum them up to show you what they hope for, and as you will not get anything from it, send with one of them an emissary from you; I myself will be their guide and show them what I reserve for you."The Duke woke up and immediately called Wulfran, to tell him what he had just seen. The saint found without difficulty that it was a maneuver of the evil spirit to prevent the prince's conversion, and he urged him to cut short these perfidious illusions by hastening to receive baptism. But Radbod s的obstina to ask in proof of the Christian faith the heavenly vision, that God grant only after death. The bishop saw him inflexible, and wanting to prevent false noises that the Gentiles might accredit on this adventure, sent his deacon, to whom he joined a man of the land, and instructed him to go and control Satan's lies.

At the gate of the city, the two messengers found a man who said to them, "Come, I will show you the royal dwelling place, which is to Radbod the god of his fathers."They went long, until finally a spacious and magnificent avenue opened before them. At the end was a vast courtyard paved with precious stones. From there one entered a palace where one could see only marbles and gold, splendid furniture and ornaments, and in the most beautiful apartment, a throne that surpassed all in brilliance and richness. "You see," said the guide to the two envoys, "the residence that Radbod's god will give him after his death."

The deacon, returning from the stupor where this spectacle had it THE PRODIGES: SATANIC FAVOURS 361 first cast, said in turn, "If these things are of the Almighty God, that they remain forever; but if they are of the devil, let them faint." He said, and made the sign of the cross. Suddenly the guide, who was none other than the devil, disappeared, and the golden house turned into a muddy mass. The Frison and the deacon who had followed him were alone, in the midst of swamps from which they were very hard to get out; and when, after three days of hard walking, they returned to the city, they were told that Duke Radbod had been struck with death without having received the baptism: just punishment for his unbelief.

IV. — Health is even more dear to man than wealth, and Satan promises, with equal impudence, to heal all his evils.

It is not absolutely repulsive that demons and their suppôts should perform true healings, either if they consider their power, which can discover the causes of the diseases and suppress them, or know the specific remedies and apply them; or if they are considered their perversity, which contributes to the well-being of the body to give rise to the illusions and defections of the soul, which keeps Satan in his role as an evildoer.

In reality, most of these cures are only simulated, and are reduced to the suspension of the evils that have caused evil to make believe in the cure, or to prestiges that soon faint and let evil resume its course, if they do not worsen it. But finally, in whatever way, it would be imprudent and contrary to the truth to reject all these cures indistinctly as unrealizable; it is enough to bring the prodigy back to one of the interpretations we have proposed.

We have reported demonic healing elsewhere, but only in cases where it could be attributed to a supernatural cause other than the demon itself: let us not forget that here we are studying openly evil phenomena. even no virtue, at least in relation to the effect that is demanded of them; and, in principle, all those involving the agents of the demon, diviners, sorcerers and magicians, people of bad life or suspicious faith. Where nature is powerless, one must, in order to have the cause of the action that occurs, go up to God or down to Satan, and, in the case of which this is concerned, Satan alone can claim such effects, realized by such Moÿens and by such agents.

V. — These evil healers meet everywhere, under different names according to times and countries. In the 19th century, the art of Saint Anselm was in great use in Italy, and the vulgar saw it as a superhuman gift dating back to Saint Anselm of Canterbury; but Delrio ' tells us that the true inventor of these practices was Georges Anselm of Parma, famous magician of the 19th century. They consisted of touching only with the hand cloths applied to wounds and wounds. One particularity that ends to reveal the superstitious character of this art is that it formed the exclusive privilege of a few Italian soldiers. There were also some in this nation who, saying themselves of the family of St Paul or of St Catherine, martyrdom, claimed to cure different kinds of diseases. If the imposture did not make the whole of these healings, it remains to attribute them to the intervention and satanic prestiges.

VI. — In Spain, it is the sALupADORS (donors of salite or dryness who were once particularly renowned, and, to hear the most serious authors of this land idea of theology, it is not always easy to decide by what virtue these strange healers operated. Torquemada! shows us one in action and performing an extraordinary cure on his own father. During a journey that he made in his youth, a dog, big and black, threw himself furious at him, crossed his boot with his teeth, and made him a slight scratch on his leg, from which a few drops of blood came out. Three or four days later, having entered a church to hear the Mass, he saw a peasant come to him and greeted him, saying, "Didn't he be bitten by a dog? "How do you know that," replied the young man, who no longer thought of anything, and why your question? "Thank God for bringing you to me," said the peasant, "for I am a salutary man, porque soy saludador; the dog that bit you was rabid, and if you had waited until the ninth day, it was made of you."On this he explained to him the least circumstances of the incident, the size and coat of the dog, the way in which he attacked and wounded him. And he said, "Wait here a little, and I will heal you."The young man, struck by what he had just heard, was guarded from going. This man entered his house, greeted him, offered him dinner, and, after dinner, greeted him again. Then he asks to make him a little bleed, stings his nose three times with the tip of his knife, and collects, greeting each time, the three drops of blood that come out of it. He then takes wine, which he salutes, and, by greeting, washes the incisions, without losing sight of the three drops of blood, until this 364 2nd SECTION: DIABOLIC PARODIES: THE MAGIE that he saw a living worm come out. And then, "You are here," he brought you here.Never, indeed, did Torquemada's father feel the bite he had received.

It is probably this way of operating that was worth the term saludadores to these empiricals. They had other ways of doing things: they made invocations about the sick, blew on them, touched them with mysterious tricks and gestures. Gürres ? sums up as follows what the different authors have reported about their manners and practices.

"They formed a kind of fraternity, some of which were sedentary, while others travelled through towns and villages to practice their art. They wore a cross on their chests that they kissed to those who wanted to be healed. With this they recite certain formulas, blow slowly on the patient or kiss him; or, in poisoning, in rage, they gave them a piece of bread that they had bitten themselves.They touched the wounds in a certain way, and they often took small pieces of iron and healed them. They claimed that, in order to succeed in their profession, they needed to drink a lot of wine. — It was no doubt, Görres adds naively, a way of giving new energy to the ordinary faculty that resided in them. This, combined with other inseparable disorders of wandering life, gave many of them a bad reputation. However, there was no necessary relationship between their lives and the gift they had received, continues the German author; hence it can be concluded that this gift was physical and natural in his Görres makes a logic apart from that in order to subtract from the supernatural the facts which he inscribed and reproduced, we recognize it, accurately. If the gift of sa/udadores is physical and natural in its principle, love of wine and the other inseparable disorders of wandering life will not invalidate, if one wishes, efficiency. But, curing by a simple touch, a kiss, a breath, reciting certain formulas, giving to eat a piece of bread in which one bit himself, was it ever a natural thing? And if there is a supernatural here, then the inclination to drink and the other licenses of a wandering life do they not accuse a causation rather demonic than divine?

Without contesting absolutely that such a virtue cannot hold from the miraculous grace of health, and that these kinds of graces do not meet even in sinners, however, in principle, unless there are exceptional signs of this origin, such practices must be seen as superstitious, if they are not, as Suarez' remarks, juggleries intertwined with human remedies. According to the common teaching of the theologians ? who have dealt with these questions, and in particular those of Salamanca °, the magic character does not sound. 23-96, t. 43, p. 571. — Concna, Theol. Christ., 1. 3, d. 2, c. 10, t. 3, p.42. — VALLE DE Moura, de Incant. seu Ensalmis, Op. 1, s. 2, €. 9, p. 264 et seq. — SALMANTICENS. Tr. 21, c. 11, P. 9, $ 2, t. 5, p. 234.

These men are sometimes accustomed to use these natural remedies so secretly and artfully that they appear to work without them, so that in this way they may be held in greater esteem and admiration.

2 CONCINA, Theol. The esteemed Salmanticenses, and other authors generally, set forth several signs by which the superstition of these 'salutatores' [charm-healers] may be discerned.

[citation illegible] ...Many such practices are superstitious, and they carry them out with the help of a demon... Quare, ut superstitiosi, excludeddendi sunt : 4° which dictates itself will future cognoscere... ; 2° quando sine læsione laminas flamentes calcant, carbons manibus countering aut J profession of predicting the future, of fearing nothing from the fire, of recognizing one another without ever having seen one another; that they lose in the presence of another more powerful healer; that they show on their bodies extraordinary prints, such as the wheel of Saint Catherine; that they say they have learned this art of healing, or that this gift has been followed by others in the same family without interruption,

VII. "In France, this seventh son, to whom the prerogative! of healings would come, is called marcou, of Saint Marculphe, vulgarly Marcoul or Marcou, abbot of Nanteuil, whose intercession was particularly effective against scrofules. It is, it is said, of this saint that the kings of France obtained the supernatural privilege * to heal the collapses by simple touching, and for this purpose, after having been sacred in Reims, they were going to make a novena in Corbeny, in the diocese of Laon, in the church where some of his relics were preserved. * The main virtue of the brother born after six other consecutive boys was also to heal the collapses, and according to popular tradition, it was in the name of the Lord and in the name of St.Marcou that these privileged of the number seven operated their healings on all the lands of France: wen did not need so much to make them qualify as marcous.

Assuming it exists, it is not nature that can give reason for this strange privilege. Why the seventh boy instead of the first or the eighth? Why do sons, rather than daughters, get this favor? Moreover, if this gift is natural, it should meet constantly in all the seventh boys; but that is not what it is. Nature therefore does not explain the marcous, and if it is ever seen, it is to extranatural causality that one must attribute their virtue.

God, no doubt, may grant, in witness to his blessing on the many families, a grace freely given t; but this grace will be revealed by the cracters suitable for divine concessions, not by eccentricities that betray superstition. These are however the ordinary notes of the popular marcous °. They have virtue only after a fast of three or nine days; they only operate on certain fixed days, such as the

Thus some have the gift of curing scrofula; which a male born seventh in unbroken succession is commonly believed to possess. Indeed it is not to be doubted that God can grant to certain men or families that power, so that by their touch, or clothing, or smell, they can cure certain diseases, etc.

2 Tmers, des Superstitions, c. 36, p. 436: Many believe that in France, the seventh boys nose of legitimate marriages, without the continuation of the seven was interrupted by the birth of no girl, can also heal third fevers, fourth fevers, and even escroëlles, after I have spent three or nine days before touching the sick. But they make too much of the seven-year-old number, by assigning to the seventh boy preferably to all others, a power that there is as much reason to attribute to the sixth or eighth, to the number of three and to that of nine, so as not to engage in superstition. Joint, that of three that I know of these seventh boys, there are two that do not heal from nothing, and that the third my avowed good foy that he once had the reputation of curing many ills, although in fact he never manery VA ADA. m A

ÿ RUN vendredi saint. It is not a guarantee of the sanctity of these practices in the name of Saint Marku or any other saint; for it is not uncommon for sorcerers to mix sacred formulas with their absurd and baroque recipes.

What we say about marcous is also suitable for all empirical healers who operate, not by natural means and proportionate to evil, but by cabalistic formulas or ridiculous prescriptions.

VII. — With regard to the healing of various diseases by resorting to certain saints, each country has its traditions and legends, which are mixed more than once with superstitious beliefs and habits. When the worship and invocation of a saint, in order to obtain a special favor, have as its foundation a particularity of his life or death, miracles which he seemed to multiply with a kind of preference, even immemorial legends which historical criticism would have some difficulty in justifying, but having in itself nothing but reasonable, one cannot find it to be contradicted. It is thus that Saint Joseph, who died between the arms of Jesus and Mary, is asked the grace of good death; that Saint Agathe, cruelly mutilated, be called upon against the evils of the breast and in favour of the nanny; Saint Félicité, mother of seven boys, to have male children; Saint Raymond Nonnat, for the happy deliverances; Job, against leprosy, ulcers and sorrows; Saint Apollonie, who had his teeth crushed in his martyrdom, against the pains of teeth; Saint Roch, against the plague; Saint Hubert of Liège, against rage; Saint Lucia, against the loss of blood; Saint Scolastique, against storms; Saint Ambrose, for the bees, and an infinity of others against particular diseases and plagues. PRODIGES: SATANIC FAVOURS 369

It is more difficult to justify other devotions based solely on certain analogies of names between the saint whom one invokes and the evil to heal. One uses, for example, Saint Claire and Saint Lucia in the diseases of the eyes, Saint Cloud for nails or boils, Saint Achaire (Acarius) against acariasters, Saint Amable for the healing of mad men and demoniacs, Saint Sulpices (whose vulgarity makes Supplice), in acute pains, Saint Serene to have good weather, Saint Leu or Loup against the evil of fear, Saint Lié (Lætus!) to untie the rachitics. No matter how childish these popular devotions are, as long as we ask for the intervention of these saints and not that of the demon, there would be injustice and inconvenience to put them on the same footing as openly superstitious and demonic practices.

IX. - Carnal voluptuousness naturally has its place among Satan's degrading favours and means of corruption. We have already insinuated, with regard to obsessions, ‘ at which ends the tempter could reduce in order to tarnish in a soul the brightness of chastity, and, by assigning the notes of the divine and the diabolical °, we have ranked among the most suspicious clues all that alarms the Langelic virtue. We would now have to denounce in contempt the most daring intervention of the filthy mind, the incubic, abject and shameful prestige among all. We feel an insurmountable disgust at lifting the veil that covers these ignominyes. Leaving aside any exposure and discussion of details, we will simply assert the fact. After what the books and the souls have taught us, we are not allowed to doubt, and our duty is to fight, even by a mere statement, the many authors who, brazenly or recklessly, treat these horrors with fables or hallucinations +.

On the fact in itself, the doubt is difficult, indeed, for anyone who has studied the history of the evil satanic influences, have all the authenticity that can be given them by an educated procedure with all the zeal and talent that could be brought to it by enlightened and conscientious magistrates, to whom, at all times, the facts were not lacking?"

1 We regret having to report among the most disdainful adversaries the P. Debreyne, a doctor who became a Trappist, but without completely stripping the prejudices of his first profession. In the most doctoral tone, he declares the teaching of the ancient theologians in this matter outside science and experience, and his disdain is such that he forgets to bring any reason to establish why this teaching contradicts and science and experience. The following quotation will give an idea of the assurance and respect of this neotheology:

« Incube et succube. We would certainly not instill here these strange ideas that the Middle Ages have left us, if Mo Bouvier himself assured us that all theologians speak of these abominable conjunctions, that is, diabolical; and this apparently over the authority of St Augustine and St Thomas. Here are the passages of these Fathers that may have given rise to these inconceivable aberrations. (Follow the quotations...) We must believe that the aberrations of these great characters were less their own mistakes than the mistakes of their century... Saint Augustine and Saint Thomas, despite this deviation, are no less two of the most powerful geniuses who appeared on earth. We shall not make lengthy critical reflections on the text which has just been mentioned; we shall confine ourselves to saying that, taken in its substance and with the spirit which has dictated it, it cannot be the subject of any serious scientific discussion today. Moreover, every educated and judicious reader will himself carry on this passage the judgment which will accept and science, and reason, and experience; that is to say, to this strange elubration of St.Thomas the seal of an eternal oblivion. Let it be blotted out from the book of knowledge... The best remedies for all these madnesses, these extravagances and impostures, were, without a doubt, the Hellebore, as the elders, the small houses or the prison say, rather than the fire, which, after all, seems to us a somewhat violent remedy... Now let's say a few words about the incube itself, which is simply that nightmare or night suffocation." (Moral Theol. Trial, c. 6, $. 2, pp. 209-213.)

2 BizouarD, Relationships of Man with the Devil, 1.15, c. 8, t. 3, p. 388. Saint Augustine called it impudence to deny these facts. Most Catholic theologians seriously examine them from the double perspective of possibility and existence, and conclude, not that they are absurdities or chimeras, but sad realities. Let us name in this glorious series William of Paris °, Saint Thomas to, Saint Bonaventure *, Suarez *, the doctors of Salamanca 6, Saint Alphonsus of Liguori, Billuart `, Benedict XIV ° which,

1 De Civit. [citation: De Civitate Dei, bk. 15, ch. 23, p. 269]: That they constantly attempt and accomplish this uncleanness, many such witnesses affirm, so that to deny it would seem shameless.

[citation: De Universo, part 2(?), p.3, ch. 25, vol. 1, p. 1070]: The testimonies of men and women who have testified — and still assert — that they suffered the illusions, troubles, and wickednesses, and also the violence of the lust, of these beings (commonly called incubi or succubi), have rendered their existence, their lustful desire, and also their begetting of offspring, both notorious and credible.

3 In 2 Sent. dist. 8. [Summa, I, q. 51, a. 3, ad 6]: If, however, some are at times born from intercourse with demons, this is not by seed emitted by them, or from assumed bodies, but by the seed of some man taken for this purpose — in such a way that the same demon which is a succubus to a man becomes an incubus to a woman.

[Sentences, bk. 2, dist. 8, pt. 1, a. 3, vol. 2, p. 442]: They submit to men in the guise of a woman, and receive from them the seed of pollution, and by a certain cunning preserve it in its potency, and afterward, with God's permission, become incubi and pour it into the vessels of women.

5 De Angelis, l. 4, €. 38, n. 10 et 14, t. 2, p. 555 : Docet D. Thomas..., and the rest of the theologians commonly agree... The reason for this opinion is that that whole action does not exceed the natural power of the demon, and the use of such power is quite in conformity with the depraved will of the demon, and can justly be permitted by God on account of the sins of certain men. Therefore it cannot be denied on any foundation, and so Augustine not undeservedly said that, since it is established by many experiences and testimonies concerning that use, it cannot be denied without impudence.

6 Theol. mor. Tr. 21, ©. 11, P. 40, p. 480 et 181, t. 5, p. 255: Negant aliqui, credentes impossibile esse quod dæmones actum carnalem cum hominibus exercere valeant... But the contrary opinion is to be held as altogether certain.

Some have denied that these demons are given as incubi or succubi; but the authors commonly affirm it.

The same demon who is a succubus to a man can become an incubus to a woman, etc.

9 De Serv, Dei beatific., l. 4, P. 1, €. 3, n. 3: Quamvis enim prædicti concubitus communiter admittantur, sed generatio a nonnullis excluded with all those we have just mentioned, holds this sentiment as common, finally the authors who specifically addressed these questions: Thyrée‘, Delrio?, Sprenger *, Nider *, Grilland ë, Alphonse de Castro £, Binsfeld 7, Schott °, Bodin, de Lancre, Boguet *', and of our time: Görres %, Bizouard ®, Gougenot des Mousseaux ‘. Beyond all these [authorities — text broken]; others, however, have judged that both intercourse and generation could occur, and indeed did occur.

On the Apparition of Spirits, c. 10, n. 3, p. 29: To deny these couplings of demons with human beings of both sexes is so rash that it would be necessary at the same time to overturn the gravest judgments of the most holy and most grave men, to declare war on human senses, and to confess yourself ignorant of how great is the power and might of those spirits over these bodies.

Disquisitiones magicae, bk. 2, q. 45, t. 1, p. 332: For the affirmation of this axiom has found favor with so many that it is to be feared departing from it would be a matter of obstinacy and boldness; for this is the common opinion of the Fathers, of theologians and of the more learned philosophers, confirmed by the experience of almost every age and nation.

3 Malleus malefic. To assert that men are sometimes procreated by demons through incubi and succubi is so much a Catholic teaching that to assert the opposite of it is contrary not only to the sayings of the saints, but also to the tradition of sacred Scripture.

Formicarius, c. 9, p. 338: The reason why demons make themselves incubi or appear to be succubi seems to be that through the vice of lust they may injure both natures of man, namely of body and of soul, in which injury they seem especially to delight.

The demon transforms itself into the form of a succubus, and has intercourse with a man...; it approaches a woman, namely in the form of a man... Thus theologians commonly affirm.

6 De Justa hæret. punit., 1. 1, c. 16, col. 1452 : Certissima experientia sæpe cognitum est fæminas ctiam invitas a dæmonibus fuisse com= pressas, etc. ;

On the Confession of Witches, concl. 5, p. 206: This is an undoubted truth which not only the most certain experience proves, but which antiquity also confirms, whatever certain physicians and jurists may think.

So many and such weighty authors uphold the affirmative opinion that it seems one cannot depart from it without incurring the mark of obstinacy.

2 Démonomanie, 1. 2, ch. 7, p. 104.

10 Table of demon inconstancy, 1. 3, disc. 5, p. 214.

11 Discours des sorciers, ch. 411.

12 Mystique, 1..8,'Ch:39,t-501p. 338.

13 Man's Relationship with the Devil, 1. 1, Ch. 6, t, 4, — 1. 45, ch. 4, t s.

14 The high phen, of magic, ch. 6, pp. 274-348. THE PRODIGES: SATANIC FAVOURS 373 authorities, stands out that of Pope Innocent VIII, whose testimony we have quoted above!.

The history of the saints confirms this teaching. "There is very little," observes the Rent? speaking of men, who were visibly tempted by devils in the shape of women," and it can be added that many holy women have been obsessed with opposite visions. One hundred others are Saint Anthony, Saint Hilarion, Saint Pacôme, the solitaire Saint Victorin 5, disappointed in the most ironic and lamentable way, Saint John of God?, Saint Colette, Saint Catherine of Siena, the Blessed Christine of Stommeln £. We insinuated, describing obsessions ‘!, to what excesses could go this cursed violence.

The saints hated such visions; but many others succumb to them, and we are talking about these dealings with the spirit.

1 Bull. It has indeed come to our hearing, not without great distress, that... many persons of both sexes, forgetful of their own salvation and straying from the Catholic faith, abuse themselves with incubus and succubus demons. — Voir plus haut, p. 282.

2 Four books of ghosts or apparitions and visions spirits, angels and demons showing themselves to men, p. 514. — Angers, 1586.

3 S. ATHANASE, Vie de saint Antoine, n. 23, Migne, t. 26, col. 878.

4 S, Jérome, Vie de saint Hilarion, n. 7, Migne, t. 23, col. 32.

5 BB. 44 Maii, t. 16, p. 300, n. 43.

6-BB. Addenda ad 8 Jan.,t.1,p. 742, n.11.

7 BB. 8 Mart., t. 7, p. 827, n. 64.

8 BB. 6 Mart., t. 7, p.572, n. 159.

9 RaymonD DE CAP., BB. 13 April., t. 12, p. 888, 889.

10 PIERRE DE Dacie, BB, 22 Jun., t. 25, p. 276, n. 52.

11 above, c. 9, n. 6, p. 184. We have cited Schram, Theol. myst., §233, ch. 4, vol. 4, p. 408; we reproduce here the important part of his testimony, in agreement with the opinion of the theologians of Salamanca and of several other weighty authors: "I myself have found many who, although they grieved over the crimes committed, and abhorred this wicked commerce with the devil, were nevertheless forced to endure it against their will..." But what is to be said of souls that are pure and endowed with the greatest chastity? Of these I say that true carnal union, permitted at times by God for the exercise of heroic virtue, has been very well ascertained both by me and by other prudent and learned men. In the first propositions, resistance would be less difficult; but as soon as one has bowed, the bond becomes tyrannical and indissoluble, not absolutely, but by the double effect of habit on the one hand and violence on the other.

We ignore the various interpretations given to these facts. The simplest, most plausible is to say that demons exercise these black turpitudes by using a real body or by an illusion that simulates it °.

But let us turn our eyes away from these abyss of abjection to bring them back to God, the source of pure and sanctifying light.

1 P, SINISTRARI D AMENO, de Dæmonialitate, et incubis et succubis, édité et CHAPITRE XVIII

LA MAGIE

LES PRODIGES

49 THE SABBAT Etymology of this word. — Dread of the world for the sabbath belief. — The place and time of these assemblies. — Fantastic trip by means of ointment. — Lucifer préside, et en quelle forme. — Why there are more women than men. — Cérémonies de l'admission. — The Sabbath opens with Satan's idolatrous worship. — Messe et liturgie horribles. — Le banquet. — Dances and orgies. — Lassitude et insatiable désir. — The modern Sabbath of the Freemasons. — What should we think of the legendary Sabbath? — Some facts seem to be in favour of the view that these journeys and scenes are pure hallucinations. — Their external possibility is out of the question, either that the facts should be taken in themselves or that they should be considered in relation to the demon and man. - Evidence of the sabbath reality provided by the accused, witnesses and judges. — Evidence from ecclesiastical procedures. — Judgment of Görres on the trials of witchcraft, and strangeness of his interpretations. — More logical conclusion by Mr. Bizouard on the reality of the Sabbath. — The Church's interference in the prosecution of witches. — The views of demonologists and theologians on the nature of the Sabbath. — Résumé. I. — God has his feasts and temples to bring together those who worship, to hear their prayers, to receive their praises, and to dispense them with the sacraments of life through his priests. Satan, too, has his assemblies where he gathers under his k TIN SE AE AA Meet EN Be PE RQ y T BY THIS MONA, 376 2nd SECTION: DIABOLIC PARODIES: THE MAGIE looks at the unfortunate become his slaves, and an infamous liturgy that prostrates them at his feet in the most abject idolatry. This ignoble parody of Christian worship is called SABBAT.

This word, heard from demonic orgies, is never used by Latin authors, even by those who wrote in the Middle Ages, as can be assured by reading their books or by consulting the most renowned glossaries, such as Robert Estienne's Tarsaurus, for classical Latin, and the Grossarium de du Cange, for the one in the Castilian and Italian idiosms, and it is hardly in use only in the two languages of oc and oil for the French regions, and in the Germanic language.

In any case, the word, like the thing itself, is linked, at least by appearances, to the idolatrous and devout cult of Bacchus. Zabesioc or Dabadios, Sabasius or Sabadius, the name of the chief god of the Phrygians, had become, among the Greeks, the nickname of the god of drunkenness t. From there cxbaleiv, celebrate the Sabazies or feasts of Bacchus, shouting in the manner of the bachantes. Zabor, cabor, saboé, saboé, was indeed the cry of the baccinants in fury, and on the Sabbath the sorcerers and witches also shouted in their brazen dances: "Sabbath, sabbath?"

By its very etymology, * the Sabbath would be connected

1 Cf. SAINTE-CROIX, Research on the mysteries of paganism, 6° §, à. 4, t. 2, p. 93. — Arrren Maury, Hist. of the Religions of Ancient Greece, ch. 14, t. 3, p. 101.

2 Bonin, Démonomanie, l. 2, ch. 4, p. 88. — De Lancre, Demon's Inconstancy Table, 1. 3, d. 4, p. 212.

3 This etymology does not please Mr. "We wanted to find the etymology of the Sabbath, a meeting of the sorcerers, in the Sabazis, in his incomparable Dictionnaire de la langue française (mot sassar), but the form does not allow it; moreover, how, in the Middle Ages, would we have been able to do so?

THE MAGIC PRODIGES: THE SABBAT- 377 to the unclean mysteries of paganism, whose demons were the gods.

I — This subject has been dealt with conscientiously — who would doubt it? — and, whatever the free thought may say, with equal respect for philosophy and history, by most scholastic theologians, and also by jurisconsults made up of judges of these facts and no less trustworthy than the magistrates of today. Since the mocking and ignorant century that preceded ours, the Sabbath is no longer in the cultivated and learned world than an object of ridicule, than a pitiful aberration of the Middle Ages. Alone, the superstitious people of the countryside still believe in it. If our conviction had been that of the so-called lettered publication, we would have been happy to ignore these demeaning scenes, where man touches the last degrees of the abjection. But, looking closely at it and considering only the whole, we have seen nothing that is metaphysically feasible, nothing that is suitable for Satan's vileness and human fragility, nothing that God absolutely cannot allow. And since we have imposed on ourselves the duty to fight the prejudices which, in disregard of true science and pure theology, tend to exonerate the enemy of man in his boldest manifestations, we will summarily describe what is said about these satanic orgies, and then discuss what these accounts have of possible and true.

II. — It must be agreed, what is said about the Sabbath is strange, ridiculous, inconsistent. The burlesque mingles with 378 2nd SECTION: DIABOLIC PARODIES: MAGIE the horrible, and childishness with abominations. If license, disorder, blasphemy, abjection, are Satan's own marks, certainly Satan is there. Let us judge by what is said about the convocation and the journey, the assembly itself, the end and the return.

The preferred meetings for these meetings would be the wild, deserted, swampy places, the peaks of the steep mountains, the deep gorges, the dark woods, the ruins t; often also the private houses of one of the affidae, or even, if one believes of Lancre?, churches where the revolted angel sets his throne in front of the altar and the tabernacle.

The night is the regular time of the Sabbath, and the one suitable for the prince of darkness. However, nothing prevents it from being held in broad daylight.

It is said that it usually takes place on Thursday night, others say Monday and Saturday; but the variety of statements seems to indicate that everything depends on the whim of the master, who summons his worshippers at his own discretion. When you have to leave, a voice calls them, and they get on their way.

IV. — We go to the Sabbath in every way: to

1 Görres, Mystique, l. 8, ch. 18, t. 5, p. 197. — De Lancre, de lInConstat 1 psio: k

2 From the Inconstance of the Devil, 1. 1, d. 2, p. 37.

The assemblies are held, for the most part, either in the silence of midnight, when the power of darkness is strong, or by day at noon, concerning which there are those who cite that well-known verse of the Psalmist about the noonday demon. The nights are more frequent which precede the third and sixth ferial days. — foot and simply, if the journey is not long; when the distance is considerable, one can still walk there, but with the speed of the wind; or else one is carried by goats, light horses, or other animals, on a stick, a broom handle, a whey. It is the common train, realized, of course, by demons under these fantastic or ridiculous outsides. Sometimes you get carried away by the air, faster than the bird, without any apparent support, with fake wings or without wings?.

The prerequisite for these wonderful translations is the use of ointment or magic powder ê. The most advanced in the service and favors of the master dispense with this formality, and move themselves through an act of the will or even without thinking about it, driven by an irresistible instinct. This anointing, moreover, by itself has no virtue, if not perhaps that of dissipating and removing from unwise travellers the feeling of the perils they face; but it is a kind of evil sacrament whose use carries with it the invocation at least implicit to the demon, and the renewal of the pact concluded with him. V. — Lucifer presides as king and god at these sacrilegious assemblies. He takes forms that betray his perversity, his abjection, his fury: usually that of the goat, because of the ugliness, the stench and the salacity of this animal, or that of the bull, because of his strength and his petulance. At other times he wears the traits of man, but of a gigantic man, black or red, and almost always with a mixture of bestiality, having horns at his forehead, the feet of the ox or the horse, the claws of the beast fawn. It also appears in the form of a tree, a huge trunk and dried up.

He sits on a high point, having beside him the queen of the Sabbath, whom he chooses from among the most beautiful and filthiest?.

From one of his horns or from his smoking mouth, there is a blafring light that illuminates the assembly 3.

His raucous voice utters unarticulated sounds, but noisy and terrible #.

Lower demons also appear, most often in the abject form of toads, or in human appearances that cause voluptuousness.

VI. — There would be a lot to say about witnesses and actors, if we had to tell them everything. We will limit ourselves to a few points that suffice to give the sabbath physiognomy. Women are, it is said, more likely than men, and the authors give several reasons that can be brought back to these two: the weakness of the mind which

1 Cf. De Lancre, de lInconst. des Démons, 1. 2, d. 1, p. 67 et seq. — d. 4, D: 120.

Cf. De Lancre, ibid. 1. 3, d. 5, p. 223.

e ©) © MAGIC PRODIGES: SABBAT 381 makes them gullible, and the extreme impressionnability that impels them to voluptuous emotions, and, when they have given in to it by violating the laws of modesty, makes them insatiable!,

Sabbath visitors sometimes hide in bestial forms, or cover the face of a mask to remain unknown?.

VII. — The first time that one appears in the cursed assembly, one is presented to Satan, seated on his throne, and one denies at his feet God, Jesus Christ and his most holy Mother, baptism, and. in general all holy things; one swears fidelity to the new master, who promises in return honors, riches, pleasures, revenge, in a word, everything that can flatter the depraved passions of man °.

The formal pact and denial, at least in this solemn form, are not always required: many are admitted after the mere use of the ointment, or by this alone which they have voluntarily followed one of the affiliates of the troupe.

Sometimes the demon is content with any present: a candle, a finger, a drop of blood. He thus achieves his goal, which is to enter into a confessed trade with men, which carries with them a serious sin. vd TTA, 382 2nd SECTION: DIABOLIC PARODIES: THE MAGIE

Once initiated, one must faithfully surrender to all summonses under penalty of fine, and, worse, corporal punishment and bloody fustigation.

VIII. — The formalities for admission once completed, the Sabbath begins. The main thing is Satan's worship in the form he liked to put on, and it is usually, as we have said, that of the goat. We will not describe everything that the ceremonial has horrifying and debilitating; it is impossible to translate into honest language the obscenities that it imposes?. Let us mention only a few lines of Görres, which very faithfully sums up the statements of the demonologists on the filthy peculiarities of the Sabbath. "On the throne sits a goat, or at least the shape of a goat, for the devil cannot hide what he is; his nature is always betrayed by some side. And where there is no order or measure, there can be neither beauty, nor dignity, nor majesty, but there is rather the opposite of all these things. The homage given to this king is also in his forms a derisory parody of the subjection that each one owes to him who is above him, and at the same time expresses the blindest servitude; for the subjects of the demon pay homage to him by lowering the filthiest parts of the goat, of which he has taken the form. It is through this ceremony that all new followers, both children and their parents, are introduced to the unclean mysteries of hell, as well as adults who are presented for the first time by an older person than they are. She renews herself at every big party, and the most familiar only are allowed to kiss her mouth. Everyone approaches with fear and trembling of the throne, falls at the master's feet and humbly kisses his hips; or they all kneel before him by turning their backs, and joining their hands from behind, and remain in that position until he commands them to stand up."

IX. — To bring to its peak the unmistakable, evil worship parody in detail the mysteries of Christian worship. The Sabbath has its mass with a reversal of liturgy that makes it worthy of its object. The regulars bring there consecrated hosts ? on which they exercise the most execrable desecrations. The confession also practises, but it consists in accusing itself of good works done, of the evil which it has failed to do, of breaches of the sacrilegious covenant, or of boasting of all that it has been possible to carry out malice, defiance, debominations. The children, presented by their parents or trained by miggers, receive a baptism whose rites and formulas express an entire and irrevocable servitude to the devil +.

Let us still listen to Görres, * who collected on this evil liturgy the echoes of tradition, the testimonies of theologians, sorcerers and their judges.

"The office usually begins with a regular confession; but instead of confessing their sins, the initiates accuse themselves of their good works, and ask the master for absolution. This one, raising his left arm, absits them and gives them for penance to eat meat on Friday and Saturday, or something similar. After confession, the demon put on priestly clothes, and said Mass, omitting the Confiteor and the Alleluia; he marmots the rest in a book that he holds with his left hand. He sits at the offertory, and the assistants come with black candles to worship. After having fucked her by shaking her left hand, they present to her as an offering bread, eggs, etc., which the queen, standing by her side, receives in a dish. He is also offered silver, and especially coins that do not bear the cross. When they present them to him who have the cross, he turns away. After the homage comes the sermon, preached by the diabie himself, in the form of a goat, or by some magician. In the first case, the demon usually exposes to the assembly how he is their true god.And how those who seek another can not operate their salvation. He ended by recommending that they pursue Christians. In the second case, the purpose of the sermon is to excite the helpers to do evil, to slander the innocent and to help the culprits, as well as to bring a large number of children to the demon. Then we continue the Mass...

"It is not always the demon that offends, but it is sometimes replaced by priests; for the priestly character does not preserve the man from the sabbath infamies, as evidenced by the investigations carried out in the country of Labourd and elsewhere. The first one who was accused in Gascony was the parish priest of Ascain, He was an old man; and he confessed himself - that twenty years ago he was on the Sabbath, that he had forsaken God, and received Satan's priesthood instead of the divine priesthood, of which he had been clothed before... He named the people he had seen on the Sabbath, and two witnesses also declared that they had seen him there. He repeated his statement three times in writing before his judges and bishop, and continued to do so until death... Two of the most compromised, P. Bocal, aged twenty-seven, and Migalena, aged sixty-one, were brought before the courts. It happened that the first belonged to a family that passed to be given to magic. Seventy witnesses declared that they had seen him on the Sabbath, and accused him of having, the night before his first Mass, celebrated that of the devil with a great pomp on the Sabbath. When asked about this, he replied that he had wanted to practice saying Mass. Tous deux furent dégradés et exécutés !. »

X. — In the divine liturgy, the feast follows the sacrifice; the same is true on the Sabbath. All the depositions agree to talk about the banquet that Satan offers to his hosts, on various tables where each one sits according to his rank? By prestige familiar with the spirit of lies, everything appears on these tables succulent and magnificent; in reality, the dishes they serve are the most infective, filthiest, most dispossessing: * rotten flesh of bodies of men or animals, the flesh of unbaptized children, naturally dead or violently massacred for the occasion. AE

Whatever you eat there, you get more hungry than ever. The bread often lacks, it is said, at these feasts, and the salt toufor that salt is a symbol of immortality, which the devil has extremely hate; besides that God has commanded that salt be measured in all sacrifices and oblations made to him, where comes that it is used for the baptism which is a sovereign antidote against the power of the devil; one can still adjoin that as salt is a signal of wisdom, God, by secret judgment, does not allow one to use it on the Sabbath, to give to the sorcererers that all that they do is pure madness."

XI. — The orgies of voluptuousness follow those of the table. They open with frenetic dances where the laws of decency and harmony are also outraged. Let Görres è describe us, after Lancre { and the other demonologists ë, this terrible orchestra and these hideous bacchanals.

"The energy of nature is manifested in the movements that it operates in the beings that are subject to it. Thus the natural instinct that carries the sexes one to the other, produced these voluptuous dances that one meets in almost all peoples under various names, such as fandango, sarabands and other dances of this kind. When the evil inclinations lying at the bottom of the human heart have found their master and accepted his yoke, he prints them certain determined movements which, in the form of a dance, symbolically express the relationship of servitude in which they are toward the demon. But, since there can be no harmony in evil, the music that directs these movements is dissonant, confused and unpleasant to the ears... The Sabbath dance is precisely the counter-foot of the regular movement of ordinary dances; for it must express a false and disorderly relationship. The master sits in the middle of the band, when he does not mingle with her, and from his seat he contemplates in a serious air these evolutions, whispering from time to time unarticulated sounds; the initiates, naked or in shirt, dance in circles around him and turn his back. Every witch has his demon next to her. All, with their hands on their backs, stand and always turn to the left side with the most obscene movements. According to the statements of the initiates, there are three types of dances: one similar to that of the Bohemians, and this is the one found in the Land of Labourd; the other is a round composed of jumps, like that of the peasants; in the third finally, the dancers are placed in a straight line one after the other, but the man and the woman turn their backs, move away, get closer to each other by a cadenced movement and encounter each other brutally. Sometimes, however, they are placed in such a way that each of the two partners, in turn, turns his face outside, while the other turns him towards the middle, and thus dances in circles all together. This way of turning one's backs to the other expresses the disorder that governs these dances."

These lascivious, extravagant, brutal dances prelude to bordering, if only by way of quotations, the horrors that most demonologists try to translate. It is enough, too perhaps, to say that all the excesses of immorality meet there, sacrilege, lincest, sodomy, bestiality, always demonic commerce. De Lancre, recounting the dissolutions which he had found in the numerous procedures instructed by him in the Labourd, enters into inexpressible details, and declares that he was half of them. The filthy accounts before which he did not recede are consistent with the traditions of other countries, in the various provinces of France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Sweden and England.

XII. — The Sabbath ends before the dawn of the day and the song of the cock +. Everyone returns in the same way he came. Demons lend their help in the various forms we have spoken of, and bring their clients either to their homes or to their beds.

However, these trips are not always easy. The slightest sign of faith and religion is enough to cause the evil spirit to fail. It is above all invocations and symbols which have for this purpose a special effectiveness: for example, the blessed names of Jesus and Mary, the sign of the cross, the sound of the bells?"There are several facts of unfortunate sorcerers abandoned by the demons who carried them, to the unannounced ringing of the Angelus.

More often than not, the infernal assembly was dissolved

1 Of Lancre, Tabl. of the Inconst. of demons, 1. 2, d, 5. All this talk goes on this subject: "From the CoQ, AND IF IT IS REALLY WHAT IT IS DICT, THAT ALL ALSO TOST that it is heard on the Sabbath, it dissipates by its song and faict esvanoüir the whole assembly." ? Simon Majoro, Dies canicoles , Coll. 3, vol. 2, p: 294. and scattered with fearful confusion by one of these spontaneous acts of religion , escaped the faith or the fear of some neophyte, of some intruder, who, out of curiosity or violence, was involved in the cursed band. But these crimes of satanic lèse-majesté are almost always punished by the death of those who introduced the disruptors.

We come back from these orgies broken by fatigue, women mainly t. And yet these unfortunate victims speak of the Sabbath as an earthly paradise where everything is melody, suavity, drunkenness. The long hours they spend in these dizzying concussions seem to them moments, and nothing can soften the regret of seeing them finish that the hope of returning soon ?.

These are shorthand descriptions of the Sabbath, as can be read in the theologians and jurists of the xvi® and the xvn-century, who took care of demonology. It's time to ask what basis these testimonies are based on, whether these stories express the dreams of imaginative delusions, or whether the earth has ever seen these scenes.

1 From LANCRE, Table of the Inconst. of demons, 1. 3, d. 5, p. 224226.

2 DE Lancre, 2bid. 1. 2, d. 4, p. 195: Jeanne Dibassona, twenty-nine years old, tells us that the Sabbath is the vray paradise, where there is much more pleasure than one can express; that those who go there find the time so short, with pleasure and contentment, that they can come out without a wonderful regret, so that they can wait infinitely for them to come back. Mary of the Ralde, twenty-eight years old, very beautiful woman, who has left this abomination for five or six years, deposits that she was a witch and attended the Sabbaths and then at the age of ten years...; that she saw a singular pleasure to go to the Sabbath, so that when she was poisoned to go there, she alloited as if to noppies; not so much for freedom and licentiate..., but because the devil tenous so much bound their hearts and their will, that scarcely let him enter no other desire; besides that the witches believed to go to some place where there were a hundred thousand strange and new things to see, and heard so many diverse and melodic instrumens that they were delighted and believed to be in 390 2nd SECTION: DIABOLIC PARODIES: THE MAGIE D'extravagances, D'abominations.

XIII. — If we consider the Sabbath in its general meaning, as an appointment of the slaves of the demon to worship it with sacrilegious rites, and to abandon ourselves in its presence, which is evidently manifested to the most infamous turpitudes, we believe ourselves in a position to affirm, by what we have read and by what has been entrusted to us, that the Sabbath is not a ridiculous legend, but a real fact, more than once repeated, even today.

We would like to be able to doubt this, but the statements made by witnesses and actors who have not been able to concert, hardly allow it; — it is ensured that in some more clandestine meetings, the high affiliates of secret societies engage in execrable desecrations on the divine Eucharist, and that, more than once, Satan appears in the midst of them in a sensitive form, receives their homages and arouses by his presence to the last excesses of impeccability and lubricity. The masses of affiliates do not share, even ignore these turpitudes; but they are of tradition and use among the most advanced in this satanic work!.

XIV. "But, it will be said, this is not the true Sabbath, these night assemblies, at the top of a mountain, at the bottom of a wild gorge, on the ruins of an old manor house, in the dark thickness of a forest, in the midst of dry moors, where run at night, from every corner of the horizon, clouds of witches and witches mounted on goats, riding on a broom handle, or crossing the spaces without any apparent support; and there pay homage to the king of the underworld, sit down at a fantastic banquet, engage in furious sarabands, and then to worldly voluptuous ones, and, before the first rays of dawn, resume their flight and quietly enter each one into his home."

On this Sabbath, what should we think about it and what should we believe?

If one wants to pay attention to it, there is little between the Sabbath of the Freemasons and that of the sorcerers than accidental differences; the bottom is the same, namely: the worship of Satan, the desecration of holy things, the overflowing of fornication.

We would gladly grant that satanic consticles no longer have the form of the past, and that the Sabbath described by Sprenger, Bodin, Boguet and Lancre, is rare among us. Satan varies according to the times and places the staging of his interventions, thus achieving a double goal, to alight by the novelty and to disguise himself by the very diversity of his manifestations.

XV. — Let us consider what is happening or what has happened to sabbatical assemblies.

There is no doubt, first of all, that most witches and sorcerers were not convinced that they were attending the Sabbath. The unsolicited confessions made spontaneously by them in the countless witchcraft trials, do not allow any hesitation in this regard.

But are these congresses and trips real or only imaginary?

Some facts seem to favour interpretation that brings them back to purely subjective hallucinations. In fact, there are several cases where women gave to witchcraft, and who pretended to cross by a fast flight of great distances by rubbing themselves with a magical ointment, begged to prove what they were advancing, took care of this wonderful specific, but instead of taking the airs and disappearing, they were immediately seized with a deep lethargy, and when they woke up, they made sure that they were in those assemblies, told what they had seen, the meals they had made, the pleasures they had intoxicated +.

That, in such cases, the scene does not go beyond the boundaries of the imagination, it can be assumed, although the conclusion is not peremptory; for finally, the prestige that deceives the witch and makes her believe that she runs the spaces, could just as well delude the spectators and affect them as if the witch were there, while she is no longer there. But to infer from these trials that the Sabbath is never and can only be imaginary, that is to contradict reason, exceed the data of experience and ignore other facts no less decisive in the opposite direction, is finally to exit from the common teaching.

XVI. — There is certainly imprudence and irreflexion to revolt in the name of reason against the eccentricities of the Sabbath, because reason has nothing to oppose the possibility, either intrinsic or extrinsic of these kinds of facts. Moreover, whoever knows the nature of the fallen angels will judge that such excesses are not above their strength and perverseness, nor beyond their desires. Lucifer, their prince, is greedy until the folly of the divine honors which he coveted from the beginning, and he is no less eager for everything that can contribute to the ruin of men. The prodigies Set ješ sensitive manifestations of the Sabbath lead him to this double goal, the adoration of his person and the loss of his worshipers.

The most surprising thing in these assemblies is the appearance of demons and aerial flight. We have already recognized the possibility and reality of the evil epiphanies, and declared, with Suarez ‘, this point so well known that there would be temerity to contest it. As for the rapid transfer of sorcerers through spaces, there is no reason to deny the demon the power to operate. The angel of the Lord carried the prophet Baruch from Judea to Babylonia; why could not the fallen angel do the same? How can we hesitate, moreover, when we see Jesus Christ carried by the tempter, from the desert on the pinnacle of the temple, and from there on the top of a mountain, saints transferred in the same way, and by the same hands of one place to another? What Satan was able to do about the saints and the Saint of the saints, to tempt them, he can certainly do about sinners with a plan of pride, blasphemy and corruption.

That if we want to reject ourselves against man and contest that he is capable of such audacity and shame, we will answer that human weakness, like the malice of our enemy, is immeasurable.

To objections drawn from the ridicule and turpitudes of the details, we would still reply that, everything that is dissonant, low, abject, far from excluding the demon, calls him, reveals him and betrays his presence. The exhibitions of obscenities, impiousness, monstrosities, by which he will try to throw man into the astonishment, to engage him, to degrade him, will exceed all that man could imagine in this kind. On the Sabbath, the measure is full, if it is desired; but this very excess, far from contradicting: the possibility of the fact, helps to establish it.

XVII. — The best proof of possibility is the facts. Now these facts are so multiplied and so well attested, that according to the measured expression of Tostat!, I famous Bishop of Avila, imprudence to deny them. On this point, we have on this point, the formal confessions, repeated and maintained, of the very actors of the Sabbath, the testimonies of countless witnesses who have witnessed or observed these evil scenes without taking part in them. Several secular judges have passed on to us the procedures which they have conducted or followed; the existence of these misdemeanours, once punished with the most severe penalties, detachs from them with the brilliance of the evidence. Jean Bodin (1530-1596), a lawyer at the Paris Parliament, summarized his experiences and knowledge in this area in his TREATY OF DEMONOMANIA. Nicolas Remi, criminal prosecutor in Lorraine, after having tried, from 1581 to 1585, nearly nine hundred people accused of witchcraft, also recorded the results of his investigations in his three books on the Demonorarræ (1595). Henri Boguet, a grand-judge in the Franche-Comté, published his SPEECHS ON SORCIERS around the same time, adding a valuable instruction to the use of judges in witchcraft. Pierre de Lancre (m. 1630), adviser to the court of Bordeaux, who, by the order of Henri IV, was entrusted, together with the president of Espaignet, to purge the Basque countries from the canker of witchcraft (1609), left us the details of his procedures in his TABLE OF INCONSTANCE OF ANGE AND DEMONS MAUVAIS (1612), where the ordinary grievance is the Sabbath. We can question the theology of these magistrates, which, in fact, on more than one point we paUniv Matth. q. 47, t. 18, p. 410: Ista igitur vulgata sunt, nec quisquam THE MAGIC PRODIGES: SABBAT 395 is in default; nothing allows me to suspect in them the common sense and conscience of the judge, nor the sincerity of the historian, if not the bias taken to push back the things they testify.

XVII. — Could the authority and competence of the royal jurists be overturned, the ecclesiastical courts that have operated for more than three centuries in almost all parts of Christendom. It will therefore be necessary to assume that, to the great dishonour of religion, the correctness and attention of the mind, the true doctrine or the most vulgar probity, have failed these priests, these religious, those theologians who have heard, examined, judged a multitude of unfortunate hallucinators, accused and convinced, on their own confession, of the imaginary mischief of the Sabbath. Several of these ecclesiastical commissioners have recorded in their writings the results of their information, their experiences, their deep studies: among others Jacques Sprenger, of the order of Saint-Dominique, officially entrusted by Innocent VIII to suppress the attacks of magic in the northern parts of Europe, and Alphonse de Castro, Franciscan religious, preacher and confessor of Charles-Quint, who died in Brussels in 1558, before having taken possession of the archbishopric of Compostela, to which he had been appointed.

Sprenger explains in his MALLEUS MALEFICARUM , now the manual of the inquisitors, the rules to follow in witchcraft cases. The author and his book have often been articulated against him with extreme severity. We believe that he has complied for the punishments of his time, and as for the rules he makes for the investigation of the case, they breathe to an equal degree the science of the theologian and the caution of the judge.

Alphonse de Castro is the author of an important book entitled De Justa HÆRETICORUM PUNITIONE. He also determines the legal form of these kinds of causes, and he devotes in particular to witches and their night trips a long chapter that we would like to reproduce in full, because it contains a brief and faithful summary of all that is said about the Sabbath +.

XIX. — Gürres, however scrupulous to report facts as fanciful in interpretations, pays tribute to the sincerity and prudence of the judges who had to rule on the crime of witchcraft. "We would be unfair," he said, "to the judges responsible for informing against the crimes of magic, and above all to those who lived in better times, if one imagined that they were proceeding lightly, and that they were alien to any sense of humanity. They never hid that they were walking on an uncertain and mobile terrain... So we see in the parliaments of France the first jurisconsults of the time undertake these investigations, and carry out them with a very remarkable prudence and skill... We have no reason to assume that ecclesiastical courts are proceeding with less caution, although their task was more difficult, because they had to deal with the very substance of things, which the secular courts avoided as much as they could."

Görres then enumerates the observed precautions and the course followed in these procedures; and, nothing miserious- . leuse! it is not to conclude to the reality of the Sabbath, but only to prove the illusion and good faith of the judges. For him +, he thinks he explains everything by the insight given by evil ecstasy. "Everything considered," he says elsewhere, "between all the facts that one quotes, in order to prove that witch night trips are real, there is not one that clearly demonstrates what one wants to demonstrate. It is true that several saints, in ecstasy, sometimes acquired a specific lightness that allowed them to rise above the earth. But nothing prevents us from believing that the body can acquire the same faculty through the operation of the demon. But we do not see in the lives of the saints that these phenomena occurred in a large number of characters at once... Is it reasonable to assume that God leaves the demon and his prestige with more space and play than he kept for himself with regard to the saints? There is therefore no other way to explain most of the facts of this kind, but to assume a vision produced by a demonic ecstasy."

To change his conclusions, the German scholar had only to remember the stories he had just made, and to think of those he still reserved for his readers. Nothing is more harmful to logic than the system spirit. The following facts which we could have borrowed from the first sources, but which we like to copy more textually in the very work of Görres, make it easier to demonstrate how easily it can be interpreted.

"The bishop of Pamplona, Pr. de Sandoval, in his History of Charles-Quint, tells the following fact, on the occasion of a trial of sorcerers that was brought before the Council of State of Navarre. Wanting to convince himself by his own eyes of the truth of the facts, of which the witches were accused, he promised his grace to one of them if she wished to exercise in his presence his magical works. She accepted the proposal, and only asked for his box to be returned, which had been taken away from him. She went up on a tower with the commissioner and many other people; then, having put herself at a window, she rubbed with her ointment the palm of her hand, the kidneys, the elbow joints, the lower part of her arm, the shoulders and the left side. Then she cried with a loud voice, "Are you one?" And all the attendants heard a voice in the air, saying, "Yes, I am." Then the magician began to come down from the tower, with her head down, using her feet and her hands like a squirrel. When she arrived about in the middle of the tower, she took her flight, and the attendants followed her with their eyes until the horizon had been removed from their eyes. All were amazed; and the commissioner had publicly announced that he who would deliver this woman again would have a considerable sum of money as a reward. She was brought back after two days by shepherds who had found her. The commissioner asked her why she had not flown further, in order to escape those who were looking for her; she replied that her master had only wanted to take her to three leagues of the way, and had left her in a field where the shepherds had found her.

"Llorente, in his History of the Inquisition, recounts this trial in which more than 150 people were involved, who were punished either by whipping or by prison. This fact is similar to that of this brave Indian, whom several Englishmen saw flying in the air on a stick, It is not always necessary, Görres continues with imperturbable assurance, to attribute the facts of this kind to the influence of the demon. So Remi tells that one day, in the German Vosges and near Huncaria, a violent storm rose, accompanied by thunder and lightning, shepherds who were in the fields sought refuge with their flocks in a wood. There they suddenly saw two peasants who were suspended at the top of a tree, and who seemed so troubled that it was easy to see that it was not by themselves, but by an accident that they had arrived there. The condition of their clothes covered with mud aroused the suspicions of the shepherds, and made them believe that it was perhaps the devil who had carried them on those trees; especially since, after having stayed there for a while, they descended from them when they were not looked at, and disappeared. Having been taken later, they spontaneously confessed what the shepherds had said about them. Another time, in Belmont, two men, a certain Rothar, and another named Amant, were cast into a hurricane from the top of a cloud on a roof. The first worried a lot about how they could go down to the ground; but the other replied: "Funny as you are, don't be afraid; the one in whose power we are can do much more." Indeed, one swallowed them immediately and laid them on the ground without them having any harm..."

Görres adds two more facts, one borrowed from Remi, and the other from Delrio, and then further away from new stories of the same kind. Here the imagination is obviously powerless to explain everything: do we think that the author of the evil mystic will finally report these phenomena to whom by right, that is to say to the demon? No, he needs less, for all this, according to him, is nothing but natural. This end of quote will be our only answer: "Of the facts we have just mentioned, the first are confirmed by legal statements, and for the last, Delrio appeals to a large number of eyewitnesses. They must therefore be based on a true background. On the other hand, when it comes to such a fact, one must always seek to explain it by natural causes; and explanations of this kind must be admitted until they seem obviously insufficient. In the first three cases, a severe storm had risen. It is not natural, I agree, that we are looking for a shelter against the storm on trees or on roofs; but it is possible that these men were carried there by a truncheon (!); and it would not be surprising if they had lost the presence of spirit, and that, in their trouble, they had attributed this accident to the demon. When circumstances make this explanation impossible, use must be made of those provided by sleepwalking t."

XX. — At the judgment of Görres, constantly faithful to the tactic of suppressing, as far as he can, the supernatural, and of softening when it is necessary, we prefer the one carried by Mr. Bizouard, following an abundant presentation of the facts that we regret not being able to reproduce.

"The Sabbath is very real," the demonologists said, "for not only have sorcerers everywhere confessed it, but reliable people have seen it. A thousand peculiarities, a thousand proofs of obvious, palpable facts, prove that what is said about them is not the effect of an injured imagination. What shows that the Sabbath is not a dream is that all say that several of them are masked, that the rounds are back to back; their motive is, in the case of the prosecution of one of the accused, to avoid in the interrogations that he denounces his accomplices... °. Everything we say about the sabbath of the different countries is similar to the bottom, but varies a little in each country as to the details. We have seen that the demon takes different forms, that Mass is celebrated there with some differences for ceremonies, clothes, etc. It is obvious that the sorcerers do not repeat a fe entirely done; they tell in each country what has struck them in what is happening there... There are visible facts; not dreams, not a narrative that all repeat ‘.' XXI. — The authority seems to us to grant these historical assertions a favour which it would be assiduous to ignore or despise.

Who knows that the Church has given her hand to the prosecution and the severity of the sorcerers, and especially to the fact of the Sabbath attendance? The inquisition, whose abuses are attributable, if one wishes, to the civil power which made it an instrument of despotism, but whose institution, it must be recognized and not blushing, remains at the charge of the Catholic Church, proceeded not only against heresy, but also against superstitious practices, and mainly against witchcraft, which one rightly regarded as a form of heresy. Now, if the Sabbath is only a dream, a hallucination, it is necessary to conclude that the Church was manoeuvring in the void and in the iniquity, which she pursued and reached only shadows, or rather than deceived, hallucinated herself, she was cruelly hitting innocent people and madmen. Think and speak thus who will: such a thought will never invade our faith; never this language will be on our lips.

XXII. — Let us recognize, however, that faith is independent of these solutions, and theology itself is not unanimous in imposing them. In order to accurately render the opinion of theologians on this matter, it is necessary to distinguish between the possibility and the actual fact. We do not believe that the possibility is the subject of any dissent between Catholics. In fact, there is also agreement to bring back, in some cases, the so-called night trips of witches and witches to a pure work of imagination. The whole question is whether these fantastic scenes are constantly imaginary, or whether, in some more or less repeated encounters, they present an undeniable external reality. Many of the most illustrious representatives of theological science bow to the first solution, convinced that the hypothesis of evil ecstasy suffices to explain the impressions and the sayings of the sorcerers. Bergier ! pronounces itself too resolutely in this sense; Benedict XIV ?, Concina ê, Cajetan 4, and others of great renown, seem favorable, without absolutely rejecting the contrary opinion, or rather admitting for cases of exception.

However, the second opinion, which affirms the real and external existence of the Sabbath, seems to us the most common and most motivated. To the demonologists themselves, who have specifically dealt with these subjects, such as Sprenger *, Grilland 6, Delrio 7, Binsfeld $, Castro °, Schott ®, Simon Maiolo *, all of whom declare themselves to be in the affirmative, join the leaders of common theology: Tostat £, Salmanticenses ©, Lessius *, Sanchez ®, Sylvius #, Saint Ligori . Suarez %, including theological appraisals

1 Dict. de théologie, mot SORCELLERIE, t. 7, p. 448-450.

2 De Serv. Dei beatif., T ba P.1, 0.3, n. 3, t. 4, pe 44.

STheol. christian., 1. 3, 4 2,%c.19; n.5,1.3Np.b

#n 2.2, q. 95, 4.4.

5 Malleus malefic., q. 1, c. 3, p. 185.

6 De Sortileg., q. 7, p. 261.

Disg. magicis 1. 2, q: 10, tA, p. 350;

8 De Confess. malefic., Præl. 10, p. 67.

? De Justa hæret. punit., ©. 16.

10Physcurose, e AOSS PI

11 Dies caniculares, coll. 3, t. 2, p. 292.

For we know many who transported themselves as if in a moment from distant places to other places, the demons — who are the princes of sorcerers — thus serving for this purpose. And this is so manifest that it would be imprudent to deny it, since a thousand witnesses present themselves to us who are themselves conscious of these things.

13 Theol. mor. Tr. 21, c. 41, P. 11, n. 171, t. 5, p. 244: Vera et communis doctorum sententia est.

14 De Justitia, 1. 2, ©. 44, d. 3, n. 45, p. 539: Notandum est non deesse qui negent sagas reipsa transferri a dæmone... ; sed hæc sententia falsa est et reipublicæ perniciosa.

15 In Decalog., 1. 23-0: 40, n. 6.

16 In 1 P. D. Thom., q. 51, a. 2, t. 1, p. 385, ad fin.

WeTheol- monalo 143, Tr. Mc dd. Sn 10.26.

This is the common opinion of theologians and jurists. MAGIC PRODIGES: SABBAT 403 are so sure, said this agreement between theologians and jurists two centuries ago. He goes further; he openly aligns himself with the great number. What decides this is in the first place the possibility of these wonders and the tendency of the demon to idolatrous worship given to him in these assemblies; then the innumerable depositions of the actors and witnesses; and finally the judgments of the judges who knew of these misdeeds and had to repress them with all the severity of the laws. Hence he concluded with Tostat that it would be imprudent to deny these facts as a whole t. He nevertheless concedes that they are sometimes circumscribed in the imagination; but, according to him, this is the exception: as a general rule, these scenes are true and external?.

Like those of whom he shares the feeling, Suarez objectes and discusses the so-called canon of the council of Ancyre, which deals with pure and unhealthy illusions the night races which boast to make some wicked women, carried, they say, by horses through the spaces, following Diane and Herodias, and pronounces that giving to such fables is to lose faith. By admitting the authority of this document, which, according to some, would emanate from the Holy Pope Damascus, and, whatever its origin, is recommended by its insertion in the decree of Gratian!, it is sufficient to take it in its content to justify it, without it being necessary to extend to the transport of witches, nor to infer from it the negation of the Sabbath: it is difficult to ride in the air following Diane, mythological figure, and of Herodiad, who did not exist too much, but who, since her death, saved or damned, cannot lead the choir of witches.

In any case, the high antiquity of the canon becomes a peremptory proof that the sabbath is not, as has been claimed, an imaginary conception entirely unheard of having the Middle Ages?.

XXHI. — Our opinion on the Sabbath is not different from that of these illustrious theologians, and here it is in summary. Taken in themselves, these hideous scenes are only too suitable for abject, violent, perverse morals of demons, and if God does not obstruct them, it does not seem to us doubtful that Satan does realize them. For execrable, however, are these displays of idolatry, servitude and fornication, God can allow them, as he permits other forms of temptation and sin. On the other hand, we believe in man enough credulity, fragility and recklessness to be trained in these degrading orgies. Therefore, when the evidence is sufficient, we would accept the facts of this nature as we admit the other facts of history.

However, everything seems to indicate that, while these odious mussels were common in other epochs, they are rare today or renew themselves only in another form, no less worthy of reprobation and horror. LA MAGIE

LES PROCÉDÉS MAGIQUES

10 THE INCANTATORY PROCESSES The diabolical sacraments, parody of the divine sacraments, bring in rap" port with the demon, as these relate to God.— Their variety ct their ranking. — Les charmes. — Leur composition. — The benevolent, pernicious, voluptuous, prestigious charm. — The incantations or magical words. — Leur usage. — Les phylactères ou ligatures. — Les amulettes. — Les talismans. — Les vaines observances. — Collections of witchcraft and magic. — To connect with the demon, either for the first time or in subsequent operations, face-to-face or only to obtain an effective intervention, magic indicates and implements strange means, matched with the purpose they are intended to achieve, hideous assemblage of abject puerility, eccentric phenomena, incoherent blasphemes. These magical means are, in essence, only the parody of the Christian sacraments. God has sensitive signs of spiritual things, in order to grasp man in his dual nature and penetrate to his soul through the channel of the senses, taking care of preala406 2nd SECTION: DIABOLIC PARODIES: THE MAGIE mysteries of his word and the sources of his life. These sacraments and symbols form the substance of the Catholic liturgy.

The monkey of God, who claims to dispute with him the honor of attracting man and controlling him, reproduces these symbolic rites in his own way. He also attaches to formulas, to artificial or natural signs, his evil action, like God, in a plan of sanctification and love, fixes therein the salutary virtue of his grace.

Whatever they may be, these signs are by themselves ineffective; all their virtue comes to them from the express or tacit agreement between the prince of evil and his unfortunate slaves, or, at most, from their strangeness which makes them adopt by Satan, as more able to cover his intervention.

Almost always they present the two aspects that the School points out in the divine sacraments, matter and form, that is, external realities, acts or things, and the words that determine their meaning. However, one of these elements remains without the other, so that they can be considered separately as separate processes.

We must now describe these evil sacraments.

I. — They are multiple, indefinite, undefinable by their very variety and incoherence. Some are of all time; but from far to far, unforeseeable ones arise, which multiply the fools by the bait of novelty. How can we introduce order into this tenuous and changing chaos? However, let us try to regularize our march in the exhibition of such complex facts, bringing them back to sufficiently characterized groups and staggering in a logical order. As we have said in exposing the wonders of magic, man binds with the demon to obtain an extrahuman virtue of knowing, harming or enjoying; and, to realize these effects, he simply demands the help of the demon or he calls upon him, and the demon responds to his invocation under one appearance or another. The processes by which one operates a good or an evil can be called INCANTATORIES; those whose purpose is to discover the hidden things, DIVINATORIES; and finally those which have the effect of bringing in spirits in a sensitive form, EVOCATORES, by giving the latter word a meaning different from that which it has in the language of jurisconsultes. This division must be complete, since it responds to all the magical phenomena.

Let us begin with the presentation of the incantatory means, then we will deal successively with the processes used for divination and evocation.

II. — The external signs attached to evil influences of enjoyment or malfeasance bear the name of cmarms, and these effects are called incantatory. These words come from the Latin CARMEN, verse, poetry, by extension, enchantment; which can be understood as a good or bad fascination exercised by a higher power, or a regulated formula from which one should not be freed. "

The incredulous, and also many believers, find it pleasant to laugh at superstitious charms like shams without real efficiency, imagined by weak and sick spirits, and only suitable to disturb them again. 408 2nd SECTION: DIABOLIC PARODIES: THE Church takes more seriously these maüdite inventions which, to be childish in appearance, by the fact that they are no less formidable. In its prescriptions to exorcists, it is to inquire if the evil is not due to a sensitive charm, and, if necessary, it recommends that they remove this cause before proceeding with exorcism.

The facts confirm this belief and advice. In fact, demonized harassments are frequently caused by such signs, and their suppression leads to or at least facilitates Ja deliverance. The history of Saint Hilarion t, those of Saint John Gualbert?, Saint Teresus? and many others, offer striking examples. The memorable possession of the nuns of Louviers presents one, in particular, as precise as it is authentic. On the indications of the demons, forced to confess by the virtue of exorcisms, twelve variously composed charms were discovered in different places of the monastery and the church, each with its own particular purposes, such as inspiring hatred, dissension, voluptuousness, blasphemy +.

1 S. Jérome, Vita S. Hilarion., Migne, t. 23, col. 39.

2 BB. 49 Jul., t. 30, p. 368, n. 22.

3 Her life by herself, ch. 5, pp. 55 and 56.

4 P. Hope of the Bosroger, The afflicted piety, 1. 1, ch. 8, p. 95: The demons, subjugated under the rule of the Church, taught several charms, which they returned at various times: we saw them, with our own eyes, with many people of all conditions, coming out of the bowels of the earth. Members of the Board, send the Queen and Council from there, have considered them and have burned a part of them, from which they have left oral proceedings; the other part has been presented to the Court and to the Court.

The devils began on the fourteenth day of June of the year 1643 to declare their charms, and that same day they returned the first... The second charm that the demons said to have been composed to give to the religious horror of the sacraments, was found under the great altar, ayañt on earth six feet deep... The third, formed to incite these very religious chastities to impurity, was fired, in the sacristy, by Leviathan, from such a deep pit... The fourth, called the charm of intrinsic and material discomposition, the species are innumerable. However, they can be grouped into three categories.

In the first one are understood all influences whose charmer is immediately the principle, by direct and personal action or by emanating part of its organs. These are the enchantments caused by the look, the voice, the touch, the breath, the saliva, the smell.

The second category contains the evils that come from an object influenced by the magician: a liqueur, a piece of bread, fruit, any food, a letter.

Finally, the most formidable charms are composed of disparate ingredients, assembled and mixed with superstitious peculiarities that lighten the genius of confusion and disorder. What is lowest and most abject, sentimental, was... found in the path of the choir between the four doors... The fifth was taken from the corner of the altar, on the side of the leper, from a pit as deep as the others... The sixth... was placed nine feet forward on the ground under the new pillar of the new building, and was found in the presence of Monsignor the archvesque of Toulouze. The seventh... was taken into the hospital room under the altar... The eighth, which was hidden between the doors of the convent, was taken from a pit which saw the same depth... The ninth... was found at the corner of the altar, on the side where it was said the gospel, and was taken from a pit which saw seven to eight feet high; the devil himself assailed that this charm was the will of the ungodly and unhappy David and Picard. The tenth... was found in the interior of the choir, by the door, and pulled from a place that saw more than twelve feet deep... As for the eleventh and twelfth charms, they were found on the 3rd of January 1644; the devils called them the standard....

One saw and heard, with admiration, these possessed girls declare the composition of all these charms made on the Sabbath, and placed in several places by the magicians Picard and Magdelene Bavan. These energists clearly explain, before we draw these evils from the earth, the sacrilegious execrations and the abominable blends of the sacred Hosties that star with a thousand hallowed and filthy shames; they teach the point and the proper place where these charms are hidden, specifying all the pieces, ligatures, knots, characters, letters and other peculiarities, without ever having missed any of the things they promised. 410 2nd SECTION: DIABOLIC PARODIES: THE MAGIE especially what smells of defilement and impiety, forms the raw material of these hindrances. Toads, venomous reptiles, night birds, blood obtained by murder, infective flesh of corpses, mainly damned dead in blasphemy and crime, filthy excrement, goat hair, witch hair, everything that, in the human body or in nature, defiles, repels, inspires horror: these are the ordinary elements of these evil poisons! ìi Shakespeare makes appear, in Macbeth, act. 4,Sc. 1, a choir of witches composing charms. This scene of the tragic English implies a fairly approximate knowledge of these kinds of mixtures. Judge: THE THREE SORCIERES (in a dark cave and around a boiling cauldron). PREMIÈRE SORCIÈRE. — Three times the speckled cat mowed, SECOND SORCIER. "And three times the young hedgehog moaned once. TROISIÈME SORCIÈRE, — Harpier crie : Il est temps! il est temps!

FIRST SORCIER Around the cauldron we turn, And his poisoned bowels we fill, Toad, who, under the cold stone, for thirty and one days and thirty and one nights. You're swollen with venom while you're asleep, you're the first one in the enchanted pot!

THE THREE SORCIERES (in choir): Redoubles , doubles of labor and sorrow; Burn, fire; bubble, cauldron.

SECOND SORCIER Snake net from the swamps, Bous and cooks in the cauldron; Salamander's eye, frog's paw, Bat's hair, dog's tongue, Viper's forked dard, Orvet's sting, Lizard's leg, owl's wing, For a powerful delirium spell, Bouillonez et bouillez comme un potage d'enfer,

En chœur : Redoublons, etc.

THIRD SORCIER Dragon's scab, wolf's tooth, witch's mummy, jaw and throat Sea shark's voracious, Ciguë's root torn up in the night, Blasphemous Jew's liver, Goat's honey, if Alas's shavings!What believing soul would not simmer at this thought? The adorable Eucharist is confused with the garbage in these specifics of Satan. It is a constant fact that consecrated hosts are used for magical purposes. From the infamous orgies of Gnostics and Manicheans to the filthy Sabbaths of the 19th century!, to the lubricated and ungodly scenes that celebrate in the shadow, in our great cities, the high affiliates of Freemasonry, this odious, detestable, this infernal desecration has never been interrupted. We do not know what should be more confused here, of the malice of man and demons, or of the unbounded charity of Jesus Christ, thus engaging in the audacity of ungodliness. These disparate elements are simply assembled in a common envelope and placed in small packages in the places where they are to be operated, or melted in such a way as to form a homogeneous mixture, sometimes in the form of powder, or in the form of soft paste or ointment.

Caught during a moon eclipse,

Nez de Turc, lèvres de Tartare,

Finger of strangled child at birth,

Born into a ditch by a runner,

Make the soup thick and sticky:

Let's add more tiger guts

The ingredients of our cauldron.

En chœur :

Redoublons, etc.

DEUXIÈME SORCIÈRE

Let's cool it with the blood of a monkey,

So that the charm is solid and good.

Les trois sorcières chantent :

Esprits noirs et blancs,

Esprits rouges et gris,

Mêlez, mêlez, mêlez,

You who mix know! 1 BAyLE, who does not pass as either a believer or a credule, reports this form of sacrilege as common among Lutherans. (Answer to questions of a provincial, 1st P., c. 56, t. 3, p. 605) V. — From the point of view of the result he pursues, the charm is benevolent, pernicious, voluptuous or prestigious.

The beneficent charm provides a good that is coveted, heals, stops a malice or serves as a condom. We will come back to the effects of this kind by talking about philacteries. In general, charity is rare in demonic interventions or is limited to transient appearances: Satan's genius goes to evil, and if it sometimes does good to the body, it is to better lose the soul. That is why the pernicious charm is of all the most frequent, It has as object one of those many malices that we have spoken of. The detail is useless: the things of their most harmless nature can, under magical action, turn into violent poison, in principle of malaise and misfortune.

The charm that brings to voluptuousness is known as the philtra, the Greek verb euksiv, which means love.

We leave it to the doctors to decide whether there are exciting erotics in the nature, and whether it is true, as it is said, that such drinks have more than once given death. As soon as it is constant that the so-called incendiary charm contains some of the elements used for ordinary aphrodisiacs, such as cantharids, phosphorus, saffron, grey amber, or any plant, flower, ingredient that has been reported by medicine as having venereal properties, it must be regarded as purely natural, unless extrinsic circumstances testify to a superior intervention.

While it is important not to take pharmaceutical recipes for demonic charms, we must also avoid challenging the possibility and reality of extranatural philtres, who derive their full virtue from the demon's action on the senses and organs. Catholic theologians! agree to recognize this kind of malice, and the facts are so multiplied that it takes a bias to deny them. Man, no doubt, is inclined enough to voluptuousness not to seek without reason out of himself the cause of the trainings he undergoes, However, in some cases, the violence and suddenness of these attacks betray an extrinsic influence. Let it be as wide as one will want the part of nature, provided that one does not dispute this intervention that Satan is only too inclined to provide. In general, every time the so-called charm operates by absorption or contact on the body, there is reason to suspect some natural influence. But if it is only a question of inscriptions or cabalistic signs, objects deposited inside or outside the house and without the knowledge of the enchanted person, the cause cannot be attributed to the intrinsic properties of these things, but to an invisible agent. Evidence is even more decisive when charm determines possession.

The prestigious charm serves to realize the wonders commonly attributed to magicians, such as theft, metamorphoses, invisibility. The powder and ointment of witches are reported in the front line among these wonderful specifics.

By admitting, as we have observed so many times, that these sacramental signs are not intrinsically virtuous, which they serve only to call and stage the perverse angel, one cannot claim against the effectiveness of these practices any valid purpose of non-receiving, at least in the name of pure possibility. As for the achievements, it is easy, we agree, to assume imaginations; however, because of their possibility, as soon as the facts of this kind meet the requirements of historical certainty, they must be equal to the others. That of the disparity and the improportionability of the ingredients that make the charms, we conclude to an extrinsic and extranatural causality, it is logical. To explain everything, it is enough to admit a sacramental relationship in the order of magic between these signs and these effects: the incapacity itself and the inconvenience of the signs used recommend them to Satan's adoption.

What we say about material charms also applies to the verbal form of the diabolical sacraments, that is to say to the INCANTATIONS, for that is how we call words intended to produce magical effects.

VI. — These verbal formulas are infinitely varied, depending on the whims, the bizarreness, the necessities, the fears, the hatreds of those who invent them. Sometimes it is the repetition of the pact by which one gave himself to Satan and which is still used to invoke his help, or it is praises, supplications to the invisible spirits. Most often it is a disparate mixture of barbaric and unintelligible words, an assemblage of terms..cabalistics, bizarre statements where blasphemy mixes with incoherence.

What is more strange and no less common is the use of holy words, texts borrowed from Scripture or the sacred liturgy, but unrelated to the effect to be obtained or pronounced with circumstances that betray superstition. These practices meet everywhere; nowhere, however, were they as used only in Spain; they were referred to as the characteristic word of ENSALMO! (de salmo, psalm), and those who are accustomed to curing by these invocations and sentences were called ENSALMADORES , which would translate, in accordance with the harmonies of our language, into psalmizers or psalmizers. The ensalmadores were once confused with the saludadores, of which we spoke, because they used to operate by recitation of sacred formulas.

It is not appropriate, of course, to put on the same footing pious quotations and magic formulas themselves. Recited with faith and devotion, the first are prayers rather than incantations. However, when they are in the form of sentences offering no definite meaning or any relation of meaning to the end to be attained, they cannot be excused for superstition?; and, mixed with vain, baroque, inconvenient words, expressing error, or cabalistic signs, they take all the characters of the magic formulas.

VII. — The use of incantations is multiple as the very purpose they pursue. They are the regular foreplay of the evocation, as we will say in describing this dreadful form of magic. They produce the malice with or without a mixture of external charms.The most dreaded fice. "The imprecation acts upon man as a evil demon," is it said in an accadian conjuration; "the voice that cries upon him exists; the evil voice exists upon him; the impregnation of malice is the source of sickness. This man, the evil imprecation, kills him like a lamb...; the voice that shouts, like hyena, subjugates him and dominates him."Such effects, we understand, result, not from the words, but from the devil, to whom they give, so to speak, the signal to do wrong?.

Incantation is also used to preserve oneself and to free oneself from evil, and the formula then takes the name of conjuration. We have already said that using these means is repelling an evil by the same kind of evil.

Magical conjuration is mainly in use against diseases, whether they come from malice, as the vulgar is always ready to assume, or from natural causes. Superstition collections provide all cases and appropriate formulae for each. Moreover, so that no evil escapes its perfidious charity, magic has general conjurations that encompass all infirmities, all necessities, all perils.

The reader will forgive us not to approach the census of so many ills and curative formulas. But we must warn him, or rather remind him, that the eccentricity and ridicule of these recipes and sentences do not allow to deny their effectiveness, since the demon can, by secret intervention, produce the results that the ignorant and superstitious crowd attributes to these powerless signs. "I'm not surprised," said J.-B. Thiers! following a long and tedious enumeration of these formulas, that these oraisons often produce the effects they promise, because they derive all their virtue from the demon, as a result of the pacts and conventions that men have made with them. But what surprises, let us add, with this grave author, is, that being as ill-digested, as ridiculous, as extravagant, as vain and as crazy as they are for the most part, they still find so much debt in the world today, and even with many people of common sense, albeit of little foy, who do not care in what way they are wary of their diseases and guarded against the dangers and damage that can happen to them, if they are once."

VII. — The magic formulas do not only work orally, but also and above all written, and in this form they take the name PHYLACTÈRES. Although by its etymology this word derives from Greek?, it is, however, by the use it characterizes, of Jewish origin. The Jews thus called bands of parchment on which were written the words of the law, and which they bore bound to the neck, to the arms, to the chest, and from there came the name of LIGATURES to them again.

Under this statement, we must understand not only intelligible invocations and sentences, but also barbaric words, signs or figures inscribed on any substance.

Whether verbal or written, these formulas must be valued in the same way, and therefore this 1 Treaty of superst., Ch, 34, p. 410. that we have said incantations is suitable for phy- = lactères. Holy words, spoken with faith and piety, often have supernatural effectiveness, although they do not always seem to have a direct connection with grace to obtain. Similarly, the practice of wearing prayers, sacred formulas such as medicines or condoms should not be described indistinctly as superstition. Is it not universal practice in the Church to have on oneself medals of the Blessed Virgin and of the saints, images of the sacred Heart of Jesus, symbolic signs representing faith, hope, charity or any other holy thing?

Except in cases where the inscriptions and representations have this religious character, their virtue, if they have one, can only come from the demon, and as such they are part of the magical processes. Thus the Church has always considered them, constantly resenting them and cursed them by the voice of his doctors and councils, as the learned Abbé Thiers! and Fr. The Brun?, no less learned than the previous.

We ignore the absurd formulas recommended in the so-called magic grimoires. Whatever their forms, phylacterists are used for the same purposes as incantations. They are used to harm, to heal, to defend themselves above all and to preserve themselves.

IX. — When superstitious virtue comes, not _1 Treaty of superstitions, ch. 28, p. 292-301: These are the same remedies that the Councils and the Fathers of the Church have condemned so positively_ THE PROCESSES: INCONANTATORY PROCESSES 449 only of inscription, but rather of the matter on which it is engraved, of the manner in which it has been executed, of the various elements that accompany it, and that it is primarily intended to make this object a condom against such or such evil or against any kind of evil, the superstitious sign is more precisely called AMULETTE, although this word is also used to describe what we have called phylactère. Their etymology, like their respective sigmification, seems to make them synonymous: phylacter means condom that keeps and preserves, and amulet, condom that avoids the danger.

The way in which amulet is made and the way in which it is used are very important to superstition, but very little to decide whether the practice is superstitious, because its virtue, in all these cases, can come only from the devil, not from God and his angels? Let it be contained in this triangular form, which reproduced the entire word on its various faces:

This sign was attached to the patient's neck and the letters were cut off one by one, beginning at the bottom of the triangle, and as these letters were eliminated, evil receded on its side.

According to Baronius (Ann. eccl. an. 120, n. 17, t. 2, p. 139), this phylacter would be of gnostic origin, and would attach itself to the basilidian superstition, whose barbaric term of Abrasaæ was the password and doctrinal symbol. ` 1 Latin amolior, repel.

Characters or figures, or letters, do not have it in their nature to be ordered toward any effects except by the mediation of a rational or intellectual creature. For to signify is to constitute a thing in the intellect... It is established that such an observance

Si

ABRACADABRA

ABRACADABR

ABRACADAB

ABRACADA

ABRACAD

ABRACA

ABRAG

ABRA

ABR

AB

A 420 2nd SECTION : DIABOLIC PARODIES : THE MAGIE sachet or encased in a ring, any ornament, whether suspended on the neck or applied to such other part of the body, whether made of any substance or another, on such or such other day, as soon as the sign has no natural property, it falls into the category of diabolical sacraments.

X. "The razismans! belong to the same family. They are often confused with phylacters and amulet; however, they should be distinguished. The talisman probably has charm that preserves and delivers unfortunate accidents, but even more so the prestigious charm that seems to free himself from the usual laws of nature. With the help of this sign, it is not wonderful, it is said, that one cannot accomplish: one makes oneself invisible, one transports from one point to another with the speed of lightning, one discovers the hidden treasures, one inspires sympathy or fear at his will, one triumphs over all preventions, all resistances, one becomes joyful, happy, victorious and almost immortal. Of course, so much virtue is not found in any talisman, or even in the collection of talismans; but finally, it is attached to this word, mainly in the Orientals, where these signs have always been in great honour, the idea of an extraordinary superhuman virtue.

Three things do the talisman: the material, the print and there making.

In general, the substances used are precious stones, ivory, priced metals; but sometimes they are also more common materials, copper, tin, D i x

THE PROCESSES: INCANTATORIES 421. lead, iron, ordinary stone, paper, parchment. According to Cardan! and other proponents of hermetic science, many fine stones themselves have properties that place them among the talismans.

The engraved or chiseled figures are as diverse as man's fantasies and the whims of chance can be. The astrologers, who make everything dependent on sidereal influences, demand that the drawing conform to the heavenly sign whose virtue is invoked. The basilidians used to engrave on precious stones their mysterious A6oxçxË, a word that summed up Sasilide's theory of the three hundred and sixty-five divine processions in numbers, and looked at these symbols as wonderful condoms.

Sometimes there are stones or other substances on which are drawn, by games of nature, representations and signs that make them put into the class of talismans; they are referred to by the special name of Gamahez*.

Finally, the magicians or charlatans who have made this art profession exalt the effectiveness of the pantacle, according to them, the incomparable talisman. It consists of a series of concentric circles, intertwined with various names of God: Jehovah, Adonai, Emmanuel, etc., and insignificant signs, all drawn on virgin goat parchment, with a set of formulas and observances no less ridiculous than superstitious.

The timing and the ceremonial recommended for making depends mainly on the strength of the talisman. The metal that receives the print must have been cast under the influence of the heavenly sign, which communicates its virtue to it. The nature and importance of these conditions is judged by the following definition of talisman. "Talisman," said the author, "is anything other than the seal, figure, character or image of a celestial sign, planette or constellation, printed, engraved or carved on a sympathetic stone or on a metal corresponding to the earth, by a worker who has the mind arrested and attached to the work and to the end of his work, without being distracted or dissipated in other foreign thoughts at the day and hour of the plane, in a wealthy place, in a beautiful and serene time, and when he is in the best disposition in the sky that he may be, in order to attract more strongly influences, for an effect depending on the same power and the virtue of his influences."

To believe that all these arbitrary signs infallibly confer such privileges would be childish; but to deny them absolutely some effectiveness would ignore the ordinary way, for the demon, to intervene in human things. "Some virtue that the talismans have," we add with J.B. Thiers?, they can only draw it from an express or at least tacit pact with the demon, and they should only be seen as magical phylacteries and the Church, and that nature cannot produce the extraordinary effects that are attributed to them."

XI. — It is a last category of sacramental signs which suppose and establish an at least implicit trade with the demon, and which none of the preceding notions sufficiently qualify. They return effortlessly to the general statement of vain observances, which seems to suit them with particular accuracy. To distinguish them from the species already listed, we define them as an action or omission from which we expect a result which has no natural relation to this supposed ‘causal'. Some examples of these superstitions, from which we take the statements in the Treaty of B.C. Thiers !, feront entendre pleinement en quoi elles consistent.

"Wash his hands on the first day of May in manure juice, and cut down the cover of the hive three times on his hands, to prevent them from getting hyvered. Warm the fever by drinking in a bucket of water after a horse gets there. When a woman is ready to give birth, take her belt, go to church, tie the bell with this belt and make her ring three strokes, so that this woman gives birth fortunately... Take as many peas as we have of verruës, wrap them in a linen and throw this linen in a way. Celuy who picks it up will have the verruës, and that who sees them before will no longer have them... Attaching nail tests to the doors of houses, so that the people and the beasts that inhabit them are preserved of charm and evil... Wear a wig made of hung hair, and soaked in the blood of a pupu, in order to get in- (a S

VE 424 2 FRAME: DIABOLIC PARODIES: THE MAGIE: under the kidneys and curing those who have the colic or some descent of hoses... Bring to a married man the heart of a mass quail, and to his wife the heart of a female quail, so that they may always live in peace, etc."

We overlook a large number of other cases, reported by this author, and the curious quotations he makes of John Fernel and Saint Bernardin of Siena. But it's enough to hear how far we can go, to be forgiven for this word, human nonsense,

XU. — It is not appropriate for us to trace the details of these absurd and abominable practices. Christian demonologists keep on magical processes a reserve that we have made a duty to imitate. The learned author we have just quoted relates, it is true, a large number of practices and formulas, but taking care to omit what feels blasphemy and obscenity. Before him, Martin Delrio also pointed out, in his master book on magic, several superstitious recipes, but stopped at the first words of the ungodly incantations.

In the 17th century, Jean Wier, doctor of the Duke of Clèves, as incredulous in the matter of witchcraft as doctors today may be, described more than he should have, in his book of PRESTIGES OF DEMONS, the magical processes and invocations, on the pretext of showing the insanity of them by the incoherence and ridicule that overflowed there: false argumentation and taken absolutely backwards; for it is the very nature of the evil facts to almost always assume absurd and baroque forms. Un écrivain de notre temps, J. Collin de Plancy, believed that he could multiply these indications, under the same pretext and with the sole intention of enjoining readers, in his INFERNAL DICTIONNAIRE, collection of legends X { tk 7 oi x k

7) \

THE PROCESSES: INCANTATORIES 425 written with a lot of mind, it is true, but with too little science and seriousness t.

In addition to these works, which the literate public barely knows, he circulates among the people a large number of opuscules who claim to initiate the secrets of magic. Henri-Corneille Agrippa, who was the master of Jean Wier, is attributed a collection of magic formulas, published in 1530, under the title DE ocCulta PHILOSOPHIA , often translated since and still widespread today in the ignorant and superstitious classes. Other libels of the same spirit and value are scattered all over the cities and especially in the countryside, such as the ADMIRABLE SECRETS OF ALBERT THE GREAT, and the MERVEILLOUS SECRETS OF PETITALBERT, or simply the GRAND-ALBERT and PETIT-ALBERT, the DRAGON ROUGE, the SALOMON CLAVICULES, etc., true fatras of wonderful recipes and so-called magical conjurations. Here we point out these absurd grimities, not to recommend their insipid reading, but only to wield the inepties, the turpitudes, the impieties contained therein, and also to recall the pontifical ordinances that prescribe to deliver to the flames these rituals of superstition. CHAPITRE XX

LES PROCÉDÉS MAGIQUES

DIVINATORIES PROCESSES Two categories of processes. — Inspection of things of nature.

— L'astrologie et l'horoscope. — L’aruspicine. — L'art augural. —

Presages of encounters, words and names. — La chiromancie.

— Les songes. — Les sorts. — La divination spéculaire. — The divination by the key, the ring, the sifting.

I. — The superstitious man questions everything in nature, in himself, around and above him, in order to penetrate the mysteries of the past, the present and the future; but he attributes to certain objects, to certain phenomena, a specific virtue to lead to this knowledge, and he makes as many means of divination.

These means can be divided into two categories: the first embraces natural phenomena which present nothing prodigious, but in which superstition seeks to read what it ignores; and the second, conventional processes to which man requests reveII. — The divination from the spectacle of nature offers infinite varieties, such as objects and situations that serve as a pretext for it. Superstition attaches itself to everything, and in every aspect of things it finds itself guessing and predicting. The heavens, animals, plants, inanimate bodies, all the accidents of Pair, earth, water and fire, the variety of body forms, the encounters of the day and the dreams of the night, the surprises of chance, the eventualities of the spell, the thousand fantasies that can spring from sick brains, provide so many opportunities for omens. To enumerate them all, it would be impossible to undertake: we will merely point out, among these countless practices, the most used and the best known.

The dust thrown into the air and falling back to draw figures where the future fits, is one of the innumerable forms of GEOMANCY!, which generally embraces all the omens drawn from the earth's objects, from their various configurations. The many ways to predict by water inspection what must happen belong to HYDROMANGIA?. When it is to fire or flame that one asks for these secrets, it is PYROMANGY *; when it is to lair phenomena, it is PAEROMANCY *.

IL. — The most famous and ancient form of this lying art is JUDICIAL ASTROLOGY, so called because it judges and decides everything, and also to distinguish it from astronomy or science that cares for celestial bodies. She draws her data from the movements, oppositions and conjunctions of the stars. She focuses on predicting the destiny of every man by the constellation that presides at his birth; from there came the supporters of these vain conjectures the names of astrologers and genetics.

This art, from Chaldea and Egypt, was first confused with astronomy, and passed in this dual form to the Greeks and the Romans. It was hardly until the second century, in the time of Clement of Alexandria, that astronomical science emerged from the dreams of judicial astrology. This did not, however, continue to exist, even throughout Christian centuries. In 1586, Sixtus V? resented her with several other forms of superstition, and in the middle of the 17th century, Fr. de Condren and Cardinal de Bérulle wrote treatises to combat these strange mistakes; Bayle himself would seriously interfere with them. *

This is how it was usually used to set up the horoscope of a mortal: it was only necessary to juxtapose the astrological zodiac on the celestial zodiac. It is known that the celestial zodiac is an ideal area parallel to the ecliptic, and divided into equal parts by constellations or signs. These constellations or signs exert, according to astrologers, benign, pernicious or indifferent influences, each according to its kind. To the celestial zodiac came to adapt the astrological zodiac. It also divided the horizon into twelve parts of the same dimension, called the houses of heaven, in such a way that each house framed by its own with every sign of the astronomical zodiac. The first house was always the one of birth, and for that reason it was called the horoscope. * In addition, just as each of the signs of heaven had its influence determined by good or bad, the series of houses set out various aspects of human life. To the first replied the longevity, to the second the wealth, to the third the brothers and close relatives, to the fourth the father, mother and ancestors, to the fifth the children, to the sixth the health, to the seventh the marriage, to the eighth the death, to the ninth the religion, to the tenth the dignitys, to the eleventh the friends, to the twelfth the enemies.

The first house responds to the point of the ecliptic that rises at the time of birth. It remains to be seen at what point the other houses of the astrological zodiac fall down from the celestial zodiac; by this one has the questions, and by this one the answers.

The astrologers also proceeded by combinations of numbers and letters drawn from these occurrences of houses and signs: but it is enough to have indicated the general principle of these assumptions +; let the moral theology the easy task of demonstrating its disorder and absurdity?.

IV. — Sacrifice has too much place in the religious order, so that superstition does not attempt to usurp part of it. In difficult circumstances, the blood of the victims was shed on the altars, and the omens that were drawn from their smoking bowels were called by the Latins Arusricrum; hence the name of HaRUSPICES given to these interpreters divine wills. Their art, recorded in traditional books, was to pronounce on the future according to the appearances of 430 2 SECTION: DIABOLIC PARODIES: THE MAGIE the bowels of the immolated hosts, and after extraordinary wonders that could scare mortals, such as earthquakes, flashes of lightning, storms, etc.

V. — The interpretation of the ordinary natural phenomena came from the AUGURES +, and the omens to which they gave rise constituted the AUSPICES, auspicium ?.

Augural art played a great role in pagan superstition, especially among the Romans, although the augurs, no more than the aruspics, had no priestly dignity. We do not have to describe the very complicated rites of this kind of divination °. It suffices to remind us that originally it was for the purpose of inspection of the birds, to draw happy or unhappy omens of their song, their flight, to eat them; that later they spread to the signs of the sky, especially to lightning and thunder, to the movements and attitudes of the quadrupeds and snakes in the enclosure of the augural temple, that is, in the space of the sky drawn by the stick of augurs, finally to the least incidents that occurred during the duration of the auspication.

In all peoples, ornithomancy, or divination by birds, has been practiced with infinite variations. The raven, crow, and owl are particularly suspicious, but it is important to observe with great care whether the flight and cry of these sinister volatiles occur to the right or left, in the morning or evening.

Dog barking had its meaning for those who could hear it.

The snakes were also used in the past for divination.

1 De avis, oiseau, et gerere, conduire.

2 De avis, oiseau, et specere, regarder .

3 Cf. Cm. DAREMBERG et En. Saario, Dict. of Antiquities, word Avure. 4 Ololygmancia, of oko\tw, screaming, and uxvrefæ, divination. The skilful can read the secrets of the future in eggs 1, either whole, or broken and poured into clear water.

VI. — In man everything provides an opportunity for superstitious omens: what he says, what he does, all the forms of his body and the least accidents of his outside life.

The words spoken without purpose or intention and giving rise to the conjectures of the diviners were called by the Latins Omen °, which we simply translate by omens. These kinds of interpretations are of all time. As Caiaphas, from whom the Gospel reports that he prophesied without knowing it, each of us, to the saying of many superstitious people, prophesies, without his knowledge, some day or another, by reflections to which he does not attach any importance: the whole is to know the moment or to meet at the point a lucid interpreter.

The divination by names * and anagrams has been popular at times and in some countries. Combinations of letters leading to stinging statements and curious wordplays about a person's name and destiny are cited; but, in the face of common sense, it was never just a game.

VII. — Body forms have in turn provided their share of revelations. These divine conjectures should not include those based on the traits of physiognomy, cranium protuberances, facial angle and other signs of the same order: the discussion of these points of view is a matter of physiology and anthropology. To stick to the purely superstitious processes, passing the destiny, we will mainly point out the hand as the most fruitful field for explorations of this kind. However, a distinction should be made between PHYSICAL CHIROMANCIA and ASTROLOGICAL CHIROMANCIA. It bases its judgments on the combined data of the horoscope and the lines of the hand: Sixte V # severely condemned this mode of divination and all the books that deal with it. This one pronounces on the character and fate of people by the conformation of the hand and the lines that crisscross it.

These kinds of prognosis, considered according to the general principles of physiognomonia, have the same value as natural observations on any other part of the body. However, the inept futility of which this art of chiromancy has been complicated, which, as Görres ê claims, is not the exclusive division of the Bohemians, makes it impossible to see in it the characters of the vain observances. The mere statement of the signs that are sought in the hand and the qualifiers that are given to them suffices to demonstrate this.

The palm of the hand, which is the main seat of prognosis, is divided into lines and mountains: the lines are formed by the folds made by the hand by closing; the mountains are the fleshy parts ended by these lines.

Among the lines that crisscross the hand, four usually meet in all individuals, and form the basis of chiromancial theory; others are peculiar to a few and complement the system. The first common line is born between the thumb and the index finger, and runs along the root of the thumb to the bottom of the hand: it is the lifeline, and of all the most important, because it decides, at what is assured, the very length of life and its direction. The second, called the line of head, of mind, or even of health, attaches itself to the line of life, and crosses in its width the middle of the hand: its qualifiers give the measure of its influence. The third, the heartline, starts from the base of the index and runs along the other fingers parallel to the middle line: it makes the share of happiness or misfortune. The fourth marks the passage of the arm to the hand and is said, as fair, line of the wrist or joint; but it also presages by the diversity of its forms the chances of good or bad fortune. Many hands have a fifth line, called the triangle, which cuts the lines of heart and head, moving from the middle of the wrist towards the root of the little finger: it is attributed strong influences on destiny. We're moving on to the accidental lines.

The mountains, or the fleshy protuberances, are thus distributed: Jupiter claims the one who wears the index; Saturn, the one who is under the mediaus; Apollo claims the mount of the ring; Mercury, the one of the little finger or ear; Venus reserves the fleshy mass that is under the thumb; Mars has the region that faces it and extends from the end of the heart line under the auricular, to the line of life at the root of the thumb. We know the various kinds of influences attributed to these deities of fable.

VIII. — The superstition of dreams is of all the most popular, because it is based on subjective impressions common to all men. There is no one who, one night or another, made dreams delicious or terrible, and desired or feared to see them come true. It is not unheard of, as we have said in dealing with visions, that dreams reveal God's will and are prophetic announcements of the future. It is warned that they have this character by organs whose holiness guarantees witness, by an irresistible feeling, especially by the concordance of the vision with an event that escapes human foresight. Out of there, there's nothing but dreaming or superstition.

However, the vulgar, and many people who believe themselves above, often give more importance to the dreams of the night than to the thoughtful acts of the day before, and seek mysterious warnings of what should happen to them. In addition to the dedicated interpreters to whom they tell their visions and who boldly reveal their meaning, the weak and superstitious minds believe to discover happy or harmful omens of their own accord, according to their impressions, in these nocturnal inconsistencies. To help each other in these conjectures, we always have books in hand where all cases are planned, and which put the childliness of LorroMANCIE! within everyone's reach. Among these collections, two of the oldest are attributed, one to Artemidore of Ephesus ?, nicknamed the Daldien, who lived under Antonine the Pious, the other to Nicéphore Gregoras, Greek writer of the 19th century ê, whose work is a commentary on the treatise of the SonGes, by Synésius * (350-430).

It is all the less necessary to take into account dreams that do not have the character of a divine confidence, as the demon can be the author of it, and those who believe in it without discernment cannot be excused for serious fault, especially after experience has shown them vanity and falsehood. More importantly, are they guilty of the sin of superstition and magic, says Suarez?, those who are waiting for the demon, by virtue of a previous pact, for warnings and answers through dreams, or turn to him for the interpretation of dreams whose intelligence escapes them.

IX. — Divination by spells is done in a thousand ways. The most commonly used forms are dice, cards, names or numbers placed in an urn and drawn at random, letters at first opening of a book, short straw.

The use of fate is not always a superstition or a sin. It is permissible to use it, both from the mutual consent of the parties and from the authority of the judge, when it comes to awarding a single thing to which many are entitled to claim; there is not the shadow of divination. Even to get to know what is hidden, unknown, the spell is not always superstitious: we see it practiced in many places of Scripture, and ratified by God. Joshua è discovers by this way the Israelite who had diverted something from the spoil of Jericho; Samuel + proceeded in this way to the election of Saul; this is how

1 SUAREZ, ibid. n. 25, p. 557 : Quando quis sine prudenti discreete et judicio facile credit hujusmodi somniis , non excusatur, per se loquendo, are denounced Jonathas ! and Jonas ?; as well as Saint Mathias ? is elected to the apostolate.

The dividing line between what is permitted and what is not is difficult to establish. In principle, this means of revelation should be used only by a movement of the Holy Spirit 4, and in cases of necessity where divine intervention is necessary and appropriate. * Expecting from fate or some latent power a solution that one does not even think of asking God through prayer, is an invocation, if not express, at least implicit of the demon.

These are the most widespread applications of the art of divination to natural phenomena: disparate mixtures of futile observances, ridiculous practices, consequences without principle, without link or proportion, of false or risky conjectures; work worthy in all of the angel dedicated to pride, lies, abjection.

We will complete this subject with what remains to be said of the magical processes and by what we will say, in its place, of the divinatory wand, of the rotating and speaking tables, of magnetism: as many forms of divination as the reader might expect to find here, and which will have their place in the fourth volume.

X. — The conventional methods used to discover the unknown are innumerable. Let's mention some of the most used.

Divination presupposes a second view extending beyond the natural ray, or a reverberation of unknown things that puts them at the reach of the gaze. Magnetism, which we will talk about later, quite often realizes the first hypothesis; divination by mirror or catoptromancia * responds to the second. It operates with the help of a reflector who brings before the eyes the representation of the hidden things that one wants to know. It is sometimes an ordinary mirror, sometimes a transparent crystal, a full cup, a liquid, in a word, some object capable of reflecting light.

It is not given indifferently to each one to see with his eyes these revealing images, but only to mediums endowed with clairvoyance. The child's look is particularly suitable for this kind of intuition?. In an article entitled Eastern Magic, Mr. Léon de Laborde reported in the first half of the century such facts as he had witnessed in Cairo, and which English travellers also saw and attested?. In the Revue pes DEux-Monpes of August 1, 1833, we can read this interesting statement, which the narrator expressly guarantees the perfect accuracy. *

The fascination of children and young girls in these experiments would naturally be explained by assuming that it is a matter of hypnotization here; but it would still be necessary to give reason to the second view which occurs in the hypnotism itself, as we will say in dealing expressly with this form of magnetism.

XI. — The CLIDOMANGIES was in vogue in xvie and at

1 De xéromtpoy, miroir.

2 Cf. Gorres, Mystique, 1. 6, ch. 8, t. 4, p. 118-198.

3 Cf. An account of the manners and customs of the modern Egyptians, London, 1837. — Quarterly Review, n. 117, juillet 1837.

4 T. 3, p. 332-343.

5 Ibid. p. 332, note by Mr.Pe Lasorne: We ask the reader not to look at this article as a tale of pleasure; it is the faithful story and to discover the evildoers and treasures. We put the key on the Bible or an open prayer book at the place of a gospel, we place under successively, written on strips of paper, the names of suspect persons, or we pronounce these names: the key stirs, it is said, when passing the name of the culprit.

The ring was also used, and in several ways. He was held hanging on a wire, on the opening of a vase, and the number of hits against the walls answered the proposed questions?. At other times it was rolled on a plane dotted with letters, and if, together, the letters affected offered meaning, it was that of the riddle. The material that the ring was made of was also important in DACTILIOMANCY °.

History tells that under Valens, three of his officers, impatient with the yoke, met two magicians to discover, by means of Panel, who would succeed him to the empire. They first learned that he would be a man of an eminent spirit and poured out in all kinds of knowledge, but that they themselves would not see him reigning and would soon receive the punishment of their reckless curiosity. We pushed further, and we wanted to know the name of the future emperor. The first four letters designated were GEOA; they concluded that it was Theodore, the head of the notaries, who was, in their thought, the most prominent figure: it was Theodosius, to whom they did not dream; Theodore and those who secretly acclaimed him perished in the torments, victims of Valens' cruel mistrust.

1 Cf. CHrisTian, Hist. de la magie, 1. 5, p. 411.

2 BizouarD, Relationships of Man with the Devil, 1.6, c. 5, t. 2, p. 404,

3 De üaxtulloc, anneau.

Cf. From Brocue, The Church and the Empire in the 1st century, vol. 5, p. 308. Hilaire, one of the magicians involved in the case, tells us how we were doing these magic consultations. "We place, he said, in the middle of a room previously sanctified by the fragrances of Arabia, the table shaped for this use. On Ja table is a disc composed of various metals and with the inner edges of which are engraved the twenty-four letters of alphabet; a ring attached to a wire is suspended above. A magician, dressed in clothes and in linen sandals, his head covered with a twisted hairstyle, a bouquet of magical herbs in his hand, invokes, by mysterious formulas, the god of the oracles and continues his conjurations until the table comes into motion. He then prints an impulse to the ring which, by oscillating, comes to strike the edges of the disc and, by the letters he designates, composes perfectly regular heroic worms and thus answers the questions proposed!"

In Brittany, and once also in Greece ?, the screen or the airlock was used for these investigations, from which they came the learned name of COSGINOMANCIE è. A screen or sieve is suspended by a rope and placed at rest; then one of the assistants — usually the witch of the place — articulates the names of the persons in question: when the clock oscillates, it is to designate the culprit.

In all these practices, superstition is too obvious for it to be necessary to insist. CHAPITRE XXII

LES PROCÉDÉS MAGIQUES

3° EVOCATORY PROCESSES The evocation is usually done through a magician or a

médium.— Les formules rituelles. — Le rituel de Thessalie. — Scène d’une

evocation in the Pharsal of Lucain. — Autres variétés moins horribles.

— Limitations and conditions of exercise of the midimic faculty. — Comment on devient médium. — Cérémonial de P. Christian pour évoquer

un mort aimé. - Last comment on this process and on the others,

I. — Evocation is the most daring form of magic; to achieve it, all means are at stake.

Généralement on recourt à un médiateur de profession, c'est-à-dire à un magicien, à un médium. The latter qualifier is in great use in the language of the spiritists. By its etymology, it means a medium, .4n medium, an intermediary, and it is, in fact, a person who acts as an intermediary between spirits and men. "Everyone who feels, to some degree, the influence of spirits," says Kardect, "is therefore a medium. This faculty is inherent in man, and therefore is not an exclusive privilege; therefore, there is little in the $ THE PROCEDIES: EVOCATORY PROCESSES 441 which one finds some rudiments. So we can say that everyone, just about anything, is a medium. However, in practice, this qualification applies only to those in which the medianmical faculty is clearly characterized, and translates into obvious effects of a certain intensity, which then depends on a more or less sensual organization."For us, who do not doubt that the spirits referred to here are demons, and who call any voluntary trade with these fallen angels magic, we do not differentiate between a medium and a magician, if not at most that one can be in good faith on the character of these practices, while the other acts in full awareness of his criminal relationship with Satan.

I. — This magic mediator operates in several ways. Among the means used, ritual formulas must be placed in the front line. These are direct adjurations to the dark spirits, expressing in turn humble prayer, servile promises, shameful and sacrilegious promises, anger, rage, threat, inconsistencies of fury and blasphemy. They are usually accompanied by charms, malice, superstitious practices, absurd, criminal, abominable, which, even because of these ignominious characters, have a special virtue to call the genius of evil and confusion.

The ritual of Thessaly was famous among all in P antiquity, by the horror of its staging, the boldness of its interrogations, the hideous mixture of its charms. The Puarsaze of Lucain! presents a sample of this dreadful apparatus, in the evocation of the donkeys of a Roman legionary by the magician Erichto; we have quoted it by speaking of evocations?. II. — Ceremonial is not always as scary. The simple call, a superstitious sign, often even an act of will, is enough to evoke the invisible being that one wants to maintain, or rather the demon that, in general, we have already said, is the true agent of these overseas manifestations.

Each theurge has its own traditions, rites, formulas; each medium has its own habits and special faculties'. To speak only of these mediators of spiritism, some exercise at will their power, others are subject to the whims of the spirits, which, less under their action than at their occasion, shake, write, speak, appear, impress, harass. But, let us note, it is less man who acts on the demon here than the demon on man, and the people who thus serve as instruments and toy are rather obsessed than they are true mediums. Medianmic commerce, to speak this new language, presents other varieties with indefiniteness. They hear only the spirits and converse with them; they see them. The others see, hear, either during the day before and in normal condition, or during sleep or under the eccentric conditions of sleepwalking, ecstasy. There are more people who act as intermediaries through pencils or pens, sometimes conscious, sometimes unconscious of what they write. =

IV. — Everyone can call the spirits; but the spirits do not answer everyone? Do not become who wants medium hearing, seeing, evocative. At most one can aspire to the gift of writing, and yet is there never the complete assurance of achieving this kind of mediation: all is to try; success or linsuccess decides, In short, there are, according to the spiritists, extraordinary and unforeseen concessions of nature and spirits; in our opinion, caprices and perfidious tricks of demons or secret purposes on the part of God, who, at the mercy of his righteousness or mercy, looses or contains the fury of the cursed angels.

However, there are processes that usually have the effect of communicating with the spirits, according to Allan Kardec, the practitioner of spiritism.

"A way that succeeds quite often," he says, "is to use as a temporary auxiliary a good flexible writer medium already trained. If he puts his hand or fingers on the hand that has to write, it is rare that the hand does not immediately do so... It is still sometimes enough to magnetize strongly in this intention the arm and the hand of the one who wants to write; often even the magnetizer confines himself to laying his hand on his shoulder, and we have seen them write quickly under this influence. The same effect can also occur without any contact and by the will alone... Another way that can also be powerful in contributing to the development of the faculty is to bring together a number of people, all with the same desire, and by the community of intent; there, all simultaneously, in absolute silence and with a religious contemporaneously, try to write by calling each one to his guardian angel, or to some kind mind. One can also make, without special designation and for all the members of the meeting, a general call to good spirits, saying, for example: In the name of Almighty God, we ask good spirits to kindly communicate with one another by the people present here. It's rare that in the number there are none that quickly give signs of psychicity, or even commonly write in a short time... We've been looking for processes for the formation of mediums, as we've been looking for diagnostics; but so far we don't know any more effective than those we've indicated!

"Faith, in the apprentice medium, is not a condition of rigour; it helps undeniably efforts, but it is not indispensable: purity of intention, desire and good will are sufficient, We have seen perfectly unbelieving people be astonished to write in spite of them, while sincere believers can achieve it; this proves that this faculty is due to an organic predisposition."

The conclusion is not rigorous. By admitting, which is indisputable to us, that invisible agents are demons, it is less to man than to the very spirits that preference and exclusion must be attributed. We may say many times, the spirit of lies has no finer tactic to conceal its intervention than to subject it to these intermittances and to hide itself under the so-called varieties, divergences, anomalies of nature, V. — A contemporary author, who has written on magic a book that is not serious for the background, licked in form, but above all odiously hateful and declamatory against the Church, indicates a process, which he believes to be effective, to give himself the vision of a loved death.

Let us cite the main passages of this precious and curious piece.

"The purpose of this experiment," the author said, "is to evoke the deaths that are dear to us. He borrows the formulas from a very ancient secret theory. His supernatural results have been repeatedly attested by a few minds superior to any surprise of the senses, and whose unselfish testimony seems to me irrefutable. I do not mention names, because this revelation of one of the greatest mysteries of occult science binds to privacy communications that impose a delicate reserve on me. Some personal motives are also inclined to think that overseas manifestations can be obtained, if the evocation is carried out in a properly prepared environment, at a given time, and with the help of certain rites whose effectiveness is realized more or less strongly, depending on the degree of expansion of the religious sentiment that animates us...

"The place chosen for the evocation is not indifferent. The most favorable, certainly, would be the apartment where to be regretted left its last trace. When this condition cannot be fulfilled, in some solitary countryside, a place whose aspect recalls as accurately as possible the measures and orientation of the mortuary chamber must be obtained.

"The window must be masked by olive-tree boards, hermetically joined, so as not to allow any external light to penetrate. The ceiling, the four side walls and the floor will be covered with a vertemeral silk hanging, which the evocator himself will adjust with copper nails, without resorting to the help of any foreign hand, because, from that moment on, he alone must enter this reserved place which takes the name doratory.

Then you have to collect the furniture, which the loved one used, the objects she loved and which received her last glances. They are placed in the order they occupied at the time of death. If one no longer possesses these memories, one must at least obtain, or have painted, with the most faithful resemblance possible, a portrait at the foot of the person, dressed in the costume and colors that she wore in the last days of her life... The evocator must turn to the east to pray, and to the west to evoke. Before entering this little sanctuary, dedicated to the religion of memories, he clothed himself with a blue silk dress, or he applied the talisman of Venus to his chest, etc.

"When these preparations are completed, the evocator imposes twenty-one Retirement Days, which begin with the birthday of the birth or death of the loved one...

"Every day, a little before midnight, the evocator will wear the consecrated costume. At midnight, he will go into the oratory with a lighted candle on his right hand, and the other a hourglass. The candle will be placed on the candelabra, and the hourglass on the altar, will mark the hour. The evocator will then proceed with the renewal of the crown of flowers and garlands. Then he will discover the portrait, and, standing in front of the altar, i.e. turned towards the east, he will slowly and slowly return to his heart all the memories that he keeps of the loved person.

"When the upper container of the hourglass is exhausted, flame of the candelabra the small fragments of yellow wood and laurel contained in the stove placed on the altar; then, taking in the shuttle a pinch of incense, he will throw three times on the fire, saying these words: Glory to the Father of universal life, in the splendour of infinite heights, and peace, in the twilight of endless depths, to the spirits of good will.

"Then he will see the portrait again, and, taking his candle in hand, will come out of the oratory slowly back to the threshold. The same ceremonial will take place, every evening, at the same hour of midnight, during the first twenty days of retirement...

"On the twenty-first day having arrived, the Advocate will do his best to get in touch with anyone. If he can't dispense with any interview, he won't have to speak first and send any case back the next day. At noon, he will set up a small round table in the oratory, covered with a table of linen with a perfect whiteness, and which would never be served. There will be two copper calyxes, one whole bread and one bottle of crystal containing very pure wine. The bread shall be broken, not cut; the wine shall be divided in both chalices. The evocator will offer the deceased the half of this mysterious communion, which will be, that day, his only food... He will eat standing and in silence the other half, in front of the veiled portrait, and in Punique light of a candle. Then he will retreat as usual, receding to the threshold. The bread and chalice offered must be left on the table.

"In the evening, at the solemn hour, the evocator will bring well dried cypress wood into the oratory, which he will light on the altar and on the tripod. He will throw on the flame of the altar three pinches of incense. .. During each evaporation of the sacred fragrance, he will repeat the doxology: Glory to the Father of universal life, etc. Then, turning toward the east, he will invoke God through the prayers of the worship which the person mentioned professed, living. After these prayers, turning to occident......, he will speak mentally: to the loved person, with affection, with faith. He will beg her to show himself and renew this mental abjuration seven times, under the auspices of the seven angelic geniuses, by trying to raise her mind above the weaknesses of human nature. Finally evocative, wanting them closed and the face covered with both hands, will call aloud, but with gentleness, the person evoked, speaking three times all his names. A few moments after the third call, he will slowly spread his arms on a cross, and, opening his eyes, he will see before him the loved one, perfectly recognizable... The evocator and the person mentioned will be able to talk and understand each other in silence through a mutual and mysterious transmission of their thought. The soul evoked finally indicates the time when the evocation can be renewed... The ceremonial conditions of evocation are, as we can see, perfectly simple."

VI. — This fantasy seems to be well suited to determining a hallucination; but whatever the historian of magic thought, whose authority affects us little, it could also AE to an evocation; not to the evocation of a loved soul, but to the one ji demons who counter the dead in order to better deceive the living. This superstitious observance of time, of place, of the talisman of Venus, of fine stones and fragrant wood, these cabalisticly composed abjurations, numbered, debossed, this robe of appearance, all this set of vain prescriptions and formulas indicate the theurgy, not religion; the lying and perfidious angels; not messengers of light ct of consolation; Satan and his satellites, In a word, and this word concludes and sums up this chapter on the evocative processes, direct or indirect, confessed or unconscious calls to the spirits, whether they occur or remain fruitless, in any way that they are forsaken or executed, go, not to God, nor to his angels, nor to the souls of the dead, but to demons, the only instigators and agents of these manifestations that amaze man and lose; those, therefore, who develop such businesses and engage in similar practices, are excusable only by a gross faith of the enormous crime. CHAPITRE XXII

EXTERNAL TRADE SIGNS

With DEMON ïl there are not always external indices attesting to trade with

Satan, however, may exist. — The physiology betrays the sorcerers,

but does not go so far as to provide legal evidence. — It is the same with

même de l'odeur infecte. — Personal fingerprints are more decisive.

— Forme, siège, certitude de ces stigmates. - The cold water test;

how we did it and what it proved. — Conclusion et aperçu

sommaire des contrefaçons diaboliques.

I. — We are reaching the end of this dark study of magic. After establishing the existence of this voluntary trade with Satan, we have dealt in turn with the pact that binds him, the wonders that result from it, and the methods used to accomplish them.We still have to talk about the external marks that reveal these shameful relations with the spirit of evil.

Let us begin by stating two points which formulate the principles on this subject.

In the first place, one must be certain that the practice of magic is most often revealed by no authentic and undoubted clue. By virtue of the radiation of the soul on the body, it is undoubtedly natural that the dominion exercised by the demon over the soul, which has become his affectionate and his slave, has a backlash on the physiognomy; but this backlash is rarely a positive and precise sign of the trade with Satan; apart from magic, so many crimes can reach the human soul and strike the traits of a dishonoring stigma! Moreover, one must count with the skilful compositions of hypocrisy: who did not meet deviled souls affecting the outsides of virtue and holiness?

However this hideous trade of magic can be betrayed by unequivocal signs which denounce it, attest it and even equivalent to the most severe legal proof,

Among the satanic marks listed by the authors, we will mention only the following: the ugliness of the physiognomy, the odour infects, the body prints, the test of water. Many others must be ruled out as inconclusive, such as the impotence to shed tears, and those who seem to us to be admissible rarely lead to complete certainty.

II. — As physiognomy is the reflection of the soul, it is understood that the traits of the unfortunate dedicated to the cult of evil have an expression of turpitude and deformity that inspire disgust and horror. From there, this popular proverb: "Laid as a witch!" The man takes something dark and cruel that makes him look like

As a twelfth point, the doctors of the Malleus Maleficarum, Grillandus and Bodinus, hold that witches cannot shed tears. But if they mean tears proceeding from sorrow for sins, or from the oil of divine sweetness, I readily assent; otherwise, that they cannot shed drops of water and tears, I attribute little weight. For what someone once sang of women is true:

That they might weep, they trained their eyes.

DeLnio, Disg. mag. l. 5, sect, 5, t. 3, p. 74: Hoc merito alii inane et frivolum signum reputant... ; fieri potest ut talis sit quarumdam constiau maître infâme auquel il s’est asservi. The woman loses what makes the honor and charm of her sex, the soft, shy and graceful modesty, the modesty that attracts at the same time and that retains, and, instead of delicacy, grace, purity, one sees in her only boldness, hardness, impudence. Like Goürres, we will quote, but without changing anything to the naive form of time, the portrait of Lancre ? we have drawn from Necato, famous witch, "superlative and excellent over all the others". "Nature," said the author, "that has never seen such a figure," saw him squandered with his sex to make him a man or a hermaphrodite; for she has all to factfully seen the face, the word, and the hold of a man, and still very rough, smoky and smoky as a silvain or wild who frequents only wood and mountains, bearded as a satyre, small eyes, sink, furious and hagard in the form of a wild cat; if it is inclining and dreadful that the young children and girls whom she brings to the sabbath, conversing with him, could only suffer her gaze, quoy for the love of us, being in the face of justice, she taschast to moderate them and bring back to some sweetness, pasusing and elevating this natural pride as best she can see. So she thought that to throw them on this horrible mud which presides on the Sabbath, to which she had composed her furious and poignant regärds."

Catholic theologians unanimously and wisely disagreed that the sorcerers were condemned on their mine. This index, apart from not having absolute certainty, can come from a scalerateness other than that of magic. But now that it is no longer a matter of condemning magicians and witches to fire, there are fewer drawbacks to pronounce against them on their physiognomy, and when other evidence precedes and confirms this one, we would in some cases be inclined to take into account the revelations of the face, the eyes and the hold.

II. "We have seen that the saints, without their knowledge, became homes of suave emanations. This is the opposite for Satan's followers and slaves: they spread infection around them. The elders described them as foetuses or fetishes, and in the foothills of the Pyrenees they bear the name of poudouës and poudouèros (female), whose etymology has just come from whore, stinking.

This smell, which permeates their clothes and all the objects for their use, is an emanation of the uncleanness of their flesh, and the ordinary sign that attests to the presence of the filthy spirit. It is a fact a hundred times related in the appearances of the demon, that he infects those whom he visits. One day he showed himself to Saint Philip of Neri, * in the annoyances of a wall in ruins, passing in turn from the shape of a young man to that of an old man. The saint commands him in the name of Jesus Christ to declare who he is. At this injunction, which thwarted his tricks, the lying angel fled, and the intolerable smell that he left behind made him sufficiently known. We could cite many of the traits of this kind. Impure and infect contract in his trade this ignoble and accusatory sign. It is claimed that the master does not allow them to wash in the morning, and that one of the ways to escape his tyranny, and also their spells, is to cleanse his hands every day. " Those who neglect such an easy condom should hardly be complained of.

However, the infection they spread may well be explained enough by the disgusting unproperty they work for. And then, so many people who are not sorcerers feel bad, that it would be imprudent to want to conclude from the smell to magic; we would rather, the fact of magic being demonstrated on the other hand, conclude from magic to the bad smell. Ultimately, this sign offers little certainty.

IV. — The physical fingerprints on the body are quite different.

Through the sacraments of baptism, confirmation and order, Our Lord marks the souls with an ineffaçable character, and sometimes he still prints on the flesh of his servants and friends the glorious stigmatizations of his passion, his blessed name or any other symbol that bears witness to their fidelity and his love. Attentive to forge the divine in all things, the devil also marks his own, those whom he suspects above all ?, signs which are the opposite, both in form and in meaning, of sacred prints. These are the stigmas of the ignominy, the servi-- THE EXTERNAL SIGNS Sp is tude and the damnation, odious parody of the sacramental character and mystical fingerprints.

These impressions are made on different parts of the body +, on the head, on the eyes, the eyelids, the lips, the forehead, the neck, on the chest, the back, the heart, the belly, the sexual parts, on the hands, the arms, the legs, the soles of the feet.

V. — These signs are infinitely diverse. It is sometimes the complete image of the toad, the dog, the cat, the bat, the spider, or any other object expressing the abjection; sometimes the partial image of these different symbols of the evil spirit, the head, the paw, the eye of one of these unclean animals?. Sometimes there is only a discoloration of the skin, which, at the point of stigmatization, seems obscure, black, reddish, or a depression or roughness as in the scars of a wound. It also happens that these prints are completely invisible, and that they can only be discovered by the indications of the initiates, or by successively stinging the various parts of the body; for it is usually the proper part of these marks to make the place of the body carrying them insensitive." In witchcraft trials, the eyes of the accused were blindfolded, and punches and lancets were embedded in the flesh without determining the mildest bloodshed, or a sign of sensitivity and pain. Often the sorcerers, in order to steal the examiners and the judges, began to tremble and shout before they were even touched; but their contempt even ended in betraying them!

We find it difficult to dispute the fact of satanic prints. The confessions of the accused and accomplices, the repeated experiences of the judges and surgeons who assisted them, do not, in our view, allow any doubt in this regard. Moreover, the possibility and the likelihood of these infamous stigmas, far from justifying ?systematic doubts, condemn them and deprive them of all pretexts.

Moreover, according to his ordinary tactics, the demon erases at his will and according to his plans of perversion or deceitfulness these marks of his serfdom, and they always disappear at the conversion of the sorcerers.

Finally, assuming them as we have just described them, these signs are the act of Satan; nature is powerless to produce them, and it is Messeant to impute them to God or his angels.

VI. — A word of the water test remains to be said.

Judgments by fire and water were in great use in the first part of the Middle Ages. The church's defenses had succeeded in suppressing them, when, in the 19th century, the cold water test reappeared in witchcraft trials, in Germany, then in France and elsewhere. The curious experience was as follows: The two arms of the accused were crossed under his legs, and the right thumb was attached to the toe of the left foot, the left thumb to the toe of the right foot, a rope was placed under his armpits and thrown into the water: if he was sinking, he was innocent; if he was surging, he was guilty.

"We often do this ordeal," said Fr. The Brun +, in a river and sometimes in a barrel full of water; for the way in which one binds the one that is thrown into the water, reduces it to such a small volume, that a barrel of three or four feet in diameter could suffice for the experiment. This is always done in front of many people; and one cannot reasonably doubt the facts, report, as they are, by a large number of contemporary authors."

The author we have just quoted rightly adds: "There is no reason to doubt whether the effect was natural or not. We agree, and it is quite obvious, that there is supernatural in the experience. The posture of the one who is tested does not allow him to supernade."

Because these facts seem strange, this is no reason to deny them. We have seen even more strange in the presentation of magical prestiges. Now these well-characterized facts obviously involve extrinsic and evil intervention; for finally, by what physical law could a body so rolled have superseded?

In the hypothesis of evil intervention, the only acceptable interpretation is that the demon, who dreams only of man's ruin, prevented these unfortunate ones from sinking, in order to have them condemned to the last torment, while keeping them by these wonders themselves in their obstinacy.

The reason alleged by a few authors ê, that the demon, light of its nature, communicated to its followers a lightness that made their bodies less heavy than water, is childish, and has no more serious than the interpretation long by the horror that nature has of emptiness.

VIE. — We have finished this long presentation of the evil counterfacons: let us quickly measure the way we have come.

God alone accomplishes mystical phenomena, he alone can realize these miraculous derogations from the laws of the physical, intellectual, and moral nature.

The demon, however, opposes his intervention to that of God, and to disturb the work of God, to pose himself in God against God himself, he ambition the honors of the mystical truth, always divine, and those of a mystic own, horrible parody of the divine mystic.

In this detestable parody, Satan invades man and subjects him to his odious tyranny, assailing him outside, waving him inside, in order to reproduce in his own way the two forms of divine grace: the gentle prevenance, which solicits from the outside, and the action, which sanctifies and fruitful within,—or man comes to Satan to demand his help and perform with this assistance works of iniquity.

These bold parodys can only delude those who want to be deceived. This is quite different from the perfidious counterfeits by which the demon imitates the miraculous intervention of God; it is there above all that there is a danger to take as coming from heaven manifestations that are accomplished by influence and for the benefit of hell.

In order to discern these tricks, we have indicated the respective and contradictory characters that are suitable for divine action and diabolical immixation.

We have reported a class of prodigies absolutely forbidden to the demon. He tries, however, to forge them; but it is enough to look carefully at them to discern the truth of the lie.

The ordinary field of evil perfidies is this wonderful common, which God works by miracle, and which the demon imitates by natural prestige.

We have assigned the extrinsic clues that reveal God's miraculous intervention, and the signs that betray Satanic illusions.

The notes are not always sufficient to lead to an obvious conclusion. In these cases, more than one thinks and bearers of impatient minds, logic and wisdom demand that one refrain from pronouncement.

Let us make two more remarks, in our opinion of extreme importance when it comes to appreciating demonic manifestations: one door on the childish, ignoble, ridiculous sides, which seem to characterize Satan's role; the other, on the variability and inconstancy of his interventions.

The invincible movement that impels the fallen angel to the abjection, is explained by its very decay and by the purpose it pursues. Abject by a consequence and a punishment of his fall, Satan tends to make the man abject; he tends there by the laughter that shakes the faith and extinguishes the prayer, by the ease of pleasure and the filthy displays, by the insinuation of doubt and the audacity of blasphemy.

In the capricious variations of his prestige, Satan strives to mask his play, to question the facts already achieved, or to have them attributed to occult causes of nature. Thus are explained the contradictory experiences of the wand, rotating tables, spiritism, which distort science and seem to give victory to unbelief. But for those who know how to think about it, this variability betrays a free and invisible agent, who escapes from power and freedom to the serN TABLE OF CONTENTS

LES CAUSES

DES PHÉNOMÈNES MYSTIQUES

PRÉAMBULE

Pages Importance of this second point of view of Mystics. . . . . . 1 The three causes in question: God, the demon, man. , . . . . . 2

THE FIRST DIGITAL DIY OF MYSTICAL PHENOMENES

THE SURNATURE CHAPTER I. In principle, mystical facts have God as author. .

[3 II. Need for precise notions about the supernatural to discern

6 If. Definition and degrees of the supernatural . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 IV. Nature, natural order and miraculous derogation . . . . 7 V. The supernatural of grace and glory. It has God as its object. 9 Veto cabit by the Borir; s asa 4 QE IE Tunes e 10 VIE SE by the tradition RENE NME E ATE 14 VIII. Is grace a development of nature? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . This hypothesis is refuted by theological considerations

from the notion! of grace: +, . . : + a . 18 AEG dercollordoAd glory m nee EMILE E Nr Se, 20 XI. Grace enhances nature, but not by creation. . 24 TABLE OF CONTENTS

hypostatique de deux êtres, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

SONNES e eR 02 AE ME PE PP RUE,

par rapport AMMOUS SRE CN RE RC DCR

AL

SURNATURE EXCLUSIVELY DIVIN Only a few categories of facts can be reported. I. The creation of a substance: difficulty to see the reality

duSprodige Eee... IS Cr MR SAS THE TESUTECCTION RE M E T E A O T E U E I H. Precautions to be sure of death. Saint Vincent IV.

Ferrier resurrects a child cut into pieces. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

not hastening to resort to the miracle, . . . . . . . . . . .

sure marks of divine intervention. e . . . a, . , , In the intellectual order, God claims prophecy and the

discernment Aos Spirits ya PE and has EU Words and intellectual visions, the purely reminder

mental do lextasen = "RSR EE e AN E In moral order, divine intervention is revealed in the

sudden and brilliant conversions, in the sudden ascents of a lower state of perfection to a Sublime state.

56 LE SURNATUREL COMMUN. — A QUELS SIGNES

IT WAS RECOGNIZED THAT IT IS DIVIN To recognize among the wonders that the creature can rei;

to read those who are divine, we must resort to the signs exLDINSEQUENT NN NET EI SR Nect Pr All circumstances must Tora goodness and conII.

moral venances, o ssis ue Rte dina aa aa The holiness of agents recommends miracle, but is not HI.

a condition absolutely required. eis ee . 4, , . à. IV. The most certain indices are in the results .. , . , . TABLE DES MATIÈRES V. A sure note is advancement in virtue. Particular vertus that signal the divine action: humility, . . . . . . . MARS FADUEE TON Tree ae ren Ta de me NT Se ie VIT. Obedience to the guide of conscience and other supereTICUTS IMEE Pr ner ner VAN CR TR This YIM Ea ndene to the duties detak Re RER nS AE IX. De tous ces caractères, il est permis de conclure au divin . . X. God cannot allow the demon to realize them completely. XI. Many of these cases are insoluble. , , . . . . . . THE MEANS BY WHICH GOD REALIZED

LES PHÉNOMÈNES MYSTIQUES

1° The gifts of the Holy Spirit. CHAPITRE IV I. The two forms of the supernatural from which the mystical phenomena result are the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the graces gratuiternen ONNO ES ER Sr Teener er TAY SOR H. The gifts of the Holy Spirit accompany sanctifying grace and are distinguished from inficent virtues, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . II. Their number, their names and their relationship to virtues . . IV. They exist at two degrees, one ordinary, the other miraculous. V. In this second aspect, each of these donations has its share in the life of SOUTH ENS ne ALAN EE M TNT SN ANOT VINES CTI TO RS AND EC RS slow Re Sete ME EE E N DAA KEE E E PNR NT RE is a RE SE VIII. 'Science, . 4 a FR LC NT PO LPO QE LEE STE SA Dis perte E E SOLE. ni GR EP TEL OR LA ES Ka Advice 7 to LUS AVE TRS PAT NE AND RE RIT IEP ENCE A EU TS PU a e e ee AL KILALA eI LOSSE tte ie PA DD Mt an un CN XIPU- MR ESTIMÉ FSU COOL PRO en DE NC er ARTE à XIV. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are not enough to explain all the mystical facts; we must still resort to the graces known as the graces of grace. ET RÉ NN SO ARE ET à

20 Les grâces gratuitement données. CHAPITRE V I. Rapport des grâces gratuitement donnés avec la grâce en géli. The righteous are the ordinary subjects of these gråces; but they also meet, albeit rarely, in sinners. The nine graces indicated by Saint Paul . . . . . . . . . . IV. Classification after Saint Thomas and Suarez. . . . . . . . . V. The graces of wisdom and science; how they differ from the gifts of the Holy Spirit that bear the same names.

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88 Pages NS LOL TE Re in ee ES ee Use Sie And 96 VA ilia thanks to the suETISONS AE NET ON NE 97 VI- The operation of the prodigies of s in UN NN 98 IX. Prophecy and discernment of spirits. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Some of these graces are usually given;

the others consist of transitional acts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The role in the mystical graces freely given.. 401 XIV. In principle, it is possible to distinguish as many species as it is.

présente de groupes de faits ayant un caractère commun. . 403 XV. Brief summary of the divine processes to which the

DRÉNOMONCS MYSUIU Er CN rc e S 104

SECOND SECTION DIABOLIC CHALLENGES

DE LA MYSTIQUE DIVINE

I. COUNTERFACTIONS ON THE DIABOLIC COUNTERFACTIONS OF THE SURNATURE

EXCLUSIVEMENT DIVIN CHAPITRE VI I. The demon intervenes in the human world. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Various modes of these interventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The absolutely divine supernatural that the demon strives to simulate: The creation of a substance "min nn 108 IV The resurrection oe ER T A T A a REe 140 V. The demon feigns death by prolonged lethargy: the

fakirs of India buried alive, and returning to life. 441 VI. It makes you believe in the resurrection by exciting movements

transitoires dans les cadavres. Simon the Mage and Saint Peter

in front of the neck of a child sats Se enr a 417 VII, Serious injuries and deep injuries cannot be

instantly healed only by the Author of nature; but

Here again the tempter deceives by his prestige: the lamas

Thibet opening the belly and closing the wound

ENEE Re ER RC CESR DR CS TE TE Met 120 Pages. vm. Bilocations and translations are prohibited.

AURA ONE NP ENS RE TE nl LR NC HE s AF499 IX. 11 cannot introduce bodies through solid bodies;

but invisiblely spawns real and proDONUONATED passages 7 MEN RAR AR Era) AMEN OT 124 X. Prophecy surpasses Satan's power, simulating it to

the aid of natural forecasts, through equivocal formulae

audacieuæs st, mi Us C aD or 195 XI. The knowledge of free thoughts and acts escapes him

It is also reduced and conjectures are used. Il

cannot, either, raise souls to communications

desl'ordremtellectueler. Meier T E E 127 THE DIABOLIC CHALLENGES OF THE COMMON SURNATURE. — WHAT SIGNS ARE RECOGNIZED

4° Les contrefaçons. CHAPITRE VIT I. The importance of this point of view. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The demon contradicts the external and imaginary visions. 132 Moreran LOS PTT E 2 CON PAPER 2 EN CT EP te 134 IV. Burning and sensitive radiation, . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 V. Extraordinary diseases and healings, stigma,

scenes of the Passion, plastic formations, SEL The DER 135 VI. The long a VO TAEVA RA TRES in k Sai 138 VII. Balsam liqueurs and sweet odors. . . . . . . . . 140 VIII. It can delude the senses in such a way as to make a

transtorna On EMI NSA IE REN MENN à 140 IX. He does not derogate from the laws of gravity, but simulates the laws of gravity.

miracles of this kind by the invisible competition of its forces

E MERE ES a ER Re TE te ie 141 X. This explains the movement of the masses, the march and the

suspension on water, air flight and translation

TA DITES PA TA ARMOR MAS DR RS SEE ee A AN 141 XI. The demon can subtract a body from the eyes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . It is mainly by making them invisible that he seems to confer 4 His Substitutes the invulnerability.

convulsionnaires camisards et jansénistes. . . . . . . . . 144 XIV. The privilege of non-combustibility one of the same MANEES IN E RA EE PANIER has PE RE and NG 146 XV. The demon uses its bay on ii Wi due to molester or to corrupt. Ces influences malignes seront

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 XVI. Summary of the way the demon performs its counters

perfidious tacons of the miracle, Mn RME, 7 E XVII, In reality he does not operate any real miracles, . . s . . . . . . 151 to. Pages

2° Les signes. CHAPITRE VIII I. These notes are obtained by taking the opposite of those that characterize Vachon-Divine: a e NRE RMS EAST 153 IT. General rules drawn up by Gerson and Bona.. . . . . 3pm IH. Special signs concerning the object and the end of PAT 157 IVa Lossa ctenr si EAN NE 158 V. Characters to which voluntary agents are recognized.

Illegible; only the word 'amor' ('love') can be made out among the fragments. E 158 VI. The convulsors of Uzes and Dijon in the 1st century, and those

from Saint-Médard cemetery to xvie. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The decisive mark is in the results. . . . . REUTERS VIII. Common fruits of the diabolical intervention: The error, of A6 X Domain ee ENS VER A R P AE E Kp LAMEpris de J'AUTOENES eri aies ates NON ia p a OE XI. Seneke M a A M ER SALE ADO, XII. Abstention and abuse of the Sacraments. . . . . . . . Dr Ne Ny KUV RESUME TRE ME TEE MM ENT relier Ch Er 173

II. LES PARODIES AUDACIEUSES

LES IRRUPTIONS DESPOTIQUES

4° L’obsession. CHAPITRE 1X l. Hate against God and a mad ambition of the divinity lead the demon to parody the divine institutions and mysteries of Religion. . . . . . . T EE M rer 4 US Il. Formes diverses de ces parodies. . . . . re SEM I. Lobsession: how it differs from possession. EEI TS IV. L’obsession intérieure . PAAA NIIN RE 180 V. External obsession and the innumerable ways in which

and organs are affected . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Does the violence of these assaults go so far as to compete?

man of the most infamous turpitudes? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . In these meetings, directors must be full of circumspection and benignness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Confounding with some eccentric infirmity, but natumolles 2 186 IX. Signes et précautions Dos ones late onto T ee 187 X. The causes of obsession taken in the subject: sin,

Unwise challenges, natural ERA ME 188 XI. Men can determine it by the evil, and Di

often allows it to purvey virtue, prepare for contemplation and bring forth holiness. . . . . . . PR AE AE) Pages.

2° La possession. CHAPITRE X I. What possession consists of. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . We do not want to demonstrate its possibility and existence.

AUX-INCTÉAULES. PILE RO III. Evidence of authority and experience or to ora 3744196 1V. Heavenly spirits, blessed souls, suffering or

the fallen angels,

are the only authors. . . . . . . 201 V. Plusieurs démons peuvent concourir à posséder. un n seul indiVIJU rtas PHONE e E 203 VI. The same demon may possess several subjects successively, and perhaps even simultaneously. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Spirits. possessors represent various vices. . . . . 205 VIU. In whatever form they manifest themselves, their presence is

circumscribed in the body of the possessed, and, if they weary the soul,

is by Fopsessionisurro snes 206 IX. Possession does not take the union of either natural or hypostatic demons with the body, but only one

simple influence de mouvement . . . . . . 207 X. In this driving action, we must distinguish between BS crisis and

calm intervals: soul in one and the other state; description by P. Surprising of its interior during the posSESSION EE RS LOUE E PU EE 209 XI. Possession is frequently ART in the form of disease. 211 XH-2EHeMIeStipas always Continue. Seat of the demon in the body of the Dosséfié, Mr. PEN has D A LE XIV. Symptoms of demonic eruption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The causes of possession in the subject are the nun and

sin, either mortal or venial; organic D N

. . . . . . . 218 XVI. Men can determine it by means of punishment:

by malice and contagion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . There are other causes of which God reserves the secret, and which

usually get away from his purposes of mercy, from

righteousness and wisdom over men. . . . . . 20 XVIII. Authentic signs and some of possession. AO |

3° Les remèdes. CHAPITRE XI . Magical remedies, assuming their effectiveness, does Lagal

are never lawful. . . . . . re 233 II. En existe-t-il de naturels? Theories that have worn several

ancient Fathers to think so. TRD lIl. Bible and other facts that seem to favor this feeling. . 236 IV. Nature has no direct antidote against demons. . . . . . 242 V. Supernatural remedies alone are effective: : . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . These means are: sacramental confession, . . . . . . . . . 245 TABLE OF CONTENTS Laidivin Eucharist We MN S The intervention of the saints and their relics, sacramentals, in particular Blessed Skin, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IX. X. KA OEO DIALOGUE ER D GG cc LE 6 The Holy Names of Jesus and Mary: < . . . . . . . . . . . XI. XII. The Rexorcisms / 4 EME E A EREE Ae ‘Power given by Jesus Christ to the Church to adjure demons, and exercise of this power. . + + + doe + + . . + + . Forme de CBS AdUrAIONS NE PT MEN EG RME XIV. XV. Feun GRO GITES AE IN ANR AND ER, RERO, SRE This efficiency does not depend on the holiness of the minister. . The Catholic Church alone has the power to exorcise deXVII. Appropriate precautions before proceeding with exorcisms. . Rules to follow and conduct in the operation itself. . . XIX. Signs of deliverance and thanksgiving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . XX. The above-listed supernatural means serve egaXXI.

IEEE LOMMES FOR VOLUNTARY TRADE WITH DEMON

OU LA MAGIE

Notion et existence. Noton aeta Magte TRS LS The ele ent R P I. SEAT EE T S r O ANS A N T O AS White magic and black magic, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IT. There is no white magic in the miraculous sense, IV. The imposture and imagination explain a large part of the M,

phenomena attributed to magic. The reality of this trade between man and demon after VI.

4 ANR A CORMENT VIK Acts of the Pontiff Sovereigns, in particular of John XXII and John XXII

INNOCOnRANITE. a Eee ES CESR NET A VII. Constance of Christian tradition on this point, . . . . . . Universally common beliefs and practice among all IX.

ENGINEERING PEOPLES RITES SRE AE VS Penalties laid down In all the old legislations against X.

Male hce: 45520 TARNE SAME AND ARE

Le pacte. On the part of man, the pact is tacit or formal. I. The explicit pact is word OEO SNA DOES NOT WANT AES IT. Standard clauses Id CONTAL EAP NARENMR PUS k III, Invocations are not always effective. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IV. V. When the demon does not respond, it is usually because

Dicu Len employment ee PEN TE AR TABLE OF CONTENTS

Pages VI. The pact is not compulsory for the devil or man.

Difficult for man to get out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Exemples de pactes rompus. History of Saint Theophile the Pea a a E AA O Lean 4th R, AS SRE (PES

Les prodiges.

1° Les évocations. CHAPTER XIV TH These drvo bridges rde me RITES Vaut, M RENE 304 BEVO a a N rE E a UC A 305 II. Variety of evil apparitions: ts The pythoHic My tOraCles LCR MUR QAR. AUS EU ER PER RATER 305 IV. Evocation of the dead or necromancy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Scene of an evocation in the Pharsal of Lucain. . . . . . 307 VI. These sensitive manifestations are the work of demons. 312 VIT. Renewal of Evocations in Spiritualism . . . . . . 312

2° Divination and well-known art CHAPTER XV I. The demon exploits human curiosity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The concept and field of divination. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Its various forms: strictly well-known art

says, angelic art, the art of Saint Paul, the explicit or tacit invocation to the demon to arrive, through his assistance,

aJa Sence Re C0 Hi EL NEA REA RE RS PA AU TS 317 IV. God alone gives infuse science. . . . . . + . . . . . . . . . . 320 V. An infuse science of evil provenance is a sign of

possession. Example of similar possession . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320 VI. Demons can communicate knowledge directly by

sensitive revelation, indirectly by organising influences EM A Re ele re MR ANNEE EA 323 VII. Blessed Gilles de Vaozel introduced to science by magic, and to whom, after his conversion, the Blessed Virgin makes recover the cedule of the cursed pact u . e e a e sre s-e p . 325

30 Malefices, CHAPTER XVI 1- Distinguished malefici of the mass grave.. ar P aoe n à 327 MES PCAS eMCe NT e RAS DNS a e aeaa NVE ee 328 II. Réalité de ces pernicieuses influences: . : . a FR 329 1 Pages. 1V. The evils that affect external property and property

SAME ASTM REV UE RER PARENTS PENTIER 51830 V. Those who reach the spouses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Le maléfice impur. + . ;: . ..,. REEN O RCE UE ane DAS VIL LCenyoutement inr eae Me EC ON RER EEE A 335 VIII. Les transformations bestiales. La Mythologie païenne. . . . 337 | IX. The facts of passive metamorphosis: Nebuchadnezzar, and a

disabled woman cured by Saint Macaire. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Testimony and Theology of Saint Augustine on this subject. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Active transvestination by magicians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Explanation of the so-called bestial metamorphoses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Supernatural, natural and superstitious remedies against AR MAORNE Te ON Fe ER AE eee

4o Les faveurs sataniques. CHAPITRE XVII

l. The power and honors granted by Satan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The wealth that it spreads is usually only illustrious.

sions prestigieuses : histoire de Radbod. . . . . . . . . . 358 IV. Magical healing; what signs are recognized. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The art of Saint Anselm, Saint Paul . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Marcous or seventh boys born as a result of six others

consécutifs. Autras SUÉLISSEUTS NN ER EE 366 VIN. The devotions to a saint to obtain favors

There is nothing in common with demonic practices, although they sometimes seem to be tainted with supersMO RUE A DE TER CLS T S S A ER Een 368 IX. Incubated voluptuousness attested by authority and experience. 369

5o Le sabbat. CHAPITRE XVIII

I. Etymology of this word.. . . . . ; E e C A ANSO II. Dedain of the world written for belief on the Sabbath SRE SE III. The place and time of these assemblies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377 IV. Fantastic trip by means of ointment. . . . . . . . . . 378 Va Lucifer preside etquelle form. ne RER 380 Vi. Why there are more women than men. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Sabbath opens with the idolatrous worship of Satan . . . . . . 382 1X Mass and Horror Liturgy san aea MC MERE ee 383 Xe Banquet: SRE TE EPL TETE HENUTE TER FENTE Xli Dances and Orgies a T S RE CE RE 120386 XII -Dassituderetinsatiable desire earn ate e CR en e 388 XIIL. The modern Freemasons Sabbath. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Pages. XV. Some facts seem to be in favour of the view that

travels and these scenes for pure hallucinations. . . . . . . 391 XVI. Their external possibility is out of the question, i.e. that

the facts in themselves, that is to say, that they are considered in relation to demon and man. laugh 392 XVII. Evidence of the reality of the Sabbath provided by the accused, the

témoins et les juges. . . . . ON EE PET ES 0 XVIII. Evidence from ecclesiastical procedures RATE NE E 395 XIX. Judgment of Görres on witchcraft trials, and strangeness

de ses interprétations . . . . . 396 XX. More logical conclusion of Mr. Bizouard on the reality of the

SADPAE D NE en, 400 XXI. The Church's interference in the proceedings against her

SOTO LS RE en PR a à 401 XXII. Opinions of demonologists and theologians on Ta T

œUSSADDAR IS RELATING TO O PAL A E THE A TA A A RESME a a ae CO rd ara e 0

Les procédés.

lo Les procédés incantatoires. CHAPITRE XIX

l. The devilish sacraments, parody of the divine sacraments,

relate to the demon, as these put in

relation avec Dieu... . . . . . SORA TONER Nes TE IT. Their variety and ranking. : . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Leur composition. . . . - 409 V. The beneficent, voluptuous, prestigious charm. Magical incantations or words. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4h14 VIT. Leur usage. . . . . Re M OPEL 445 VIII. The phylacteria or ligatures Folie SR NEO SM NE PA bestan lotos CD e ER ele ye e lose se Let LS NOR ESA MANS ES EEC c c c c i e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l e l Les vaines observances.. . . NN TS O A O XII. Collections of witchcraft and magic. RS ru OO 424

2° Les procédés divinatoires. CHAPITRE XX

I Lestdenmceatésories de ProcodéS. MN, TEA C II. The inspection of things of nature. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Se ADT Mas olore net PHOroscope a o ria a an oe e e e JS EAD ER de E E TE se re VoD anau surak ACER. R URNE O 430 VI. Présages des rencontres, des paroles a es Dons ANARA L U ETANO a OL E A S AS AE A RE e A O TO E AE RIVES D à EAE AAA ma -© TABLE OF CONTENTS IX. Fos sortetr asie a : X. Specular divination of its different DEN Y SER XI. The divination by the key, the ring, the erible. . . . . .

3° Les procédés évocatoires. CHAPITRE XXI. I. The reference is usually done through a mabician OA UNENATO NE E IT. Les formules rituelles. Le rituel de Thessalie. HI. Autres variétés moins horribles. IV. Comment on devient médium. 5 ? V. Cérémonial de P. Christian for A, a beloved SU. VI. Last observation on this process and on the others. External signs that betray trade

avec le démon. CHAPITRE XXII. I. There are not always external indices of trade with Satan; however, there may be . . . . . . II. The physiognomy betrays the sorcerers, but does not go as far as

fournir des preuves juridiques . IT. The same applies to the odour infected. ; IV. Personal fingerprints would be more decisive í V. Forme, siège, certitudes de ces stigmates. ; VI. The cold water test: how we did it and what it did

DLOUVAIT ANR SCT LS ER ST PS AN DE VII. Conclusion et aperçu sommaire o Jes contrefaçons Jiabofigues!

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