18. Philtres And Magnetismd

de Nancy, formerly ambassador of the most Christian King at Constantinople and then priest of the Oratory, Charles of Lorraine, Bishop of Verdun, two Sorbonne doctors specially deputed to assist, exorcised her frequently in Hebrew, in Greek and in Latin, and she invariably replied to them pertinently, though she herself could scarcely read even the last language. Mention is made of the certificate given by M. Nicholas de Harlay, learned in the Hebrew tongue, who recognized that Mlle. Ranfaing was really possessed, that she had answered the mere motion of his lips without any uttered words, and given numerous other proofs. The sieur Gamier, doctor of the Sorbonne, having also adjured her several times in Hebrew, she replied lucidly, but in French, saying that the pact bound her to speak an ordinary tongue. The demon added: ‘Is it not sufficient for me to show that a understand what you say?’ The same doctor, addressing him in Greek, inadvertently used one case for another, whereupon the possessed woman, or rather the devil, said: ‘You have blundered.’ The doctor replied in Greek, ‘Point out my error.’ The devil answered, ‘Be satisfied that I mention the mistake: I shall tell you no more.’ The doctor bade him be silent in Greek, and he retorted, “You bid me hold my tongue, but for myself I decline to be silent.’” This remarkable example of hysterical affection carried into the region of ecstasy and demonomania, as the consequence of a potion administered by a man who believed that he was a sorcerer, proves better than any argument the omnipotence of will and imagination reacting one upon another, and the strange lucidity of ecstatics or somnambulists, who comprehend speech by reading it in thought, though they do not understand the words. I make no question as to the sincerity of the witnesses cited by Dom Calmet; I am merely astonished that men so serious failed to notice the pretended demon's difficulty over answering in a tongue foreign to the sufferer. Had their interlocutor been what they meant by a demon, he would have spoken as well as understood Greek: the one would have been as easy as the other to a spirit so acute and learned. Dom Calmet does not stop here with his history; he enumerates a long series of insidious questions and trivial injunctions on the part of the exorcisers, and a sequence of more or less congruous replies by the poor sufferer, still ecstatic and somnambulistic. It is needless to add that the excellent father draws precisely the luminous conclusions of the not less excellent M. de Mirville. The phenomena being above the comprehension of the witnesses, they were all ascribed to perdition. Brilliant and instructed conclusion! The most serious part of the business is that the physician Poirot was arraigned as a magician, confessed like all others under torture, and was burnt. Had he, by any potion, really attempted the reason of the woman in question, he would have deserved punishment as a poisoner: this is the most that we can say. But the most terrific of all philtres are the mystical exaltations of misdirected devotion. Will ever any impurities equal the nightmares of St. Anthony or the tortures of St. Theresa and St. Angela de Foligny? The last applied a red-hot iron to her rebellious flesh, and found that the material fire was cooling to her hidden ardours. With what violence does Nature cry out for that which is denied her, but is brooded over continually to increase detestation thereof! The pretended bewitchments of Magdalen Bavan, of Mlles. de la Palud and de la Cadiere, began with mysticism.