prepare him for death, he pushed back with his hand a crucifix which
was presented to him, and muttered between his teeth some words which
were not heard. His guards, witnessing this action, were scandalised,
and told the monk not to offer him the crucifix again since he rejected
it. He recommended himself to no one's prayers, neither before nor
during the execution of the sentence--only, as he passed through the
streets, turning his head on one side and the other to see the people,
it was noticed that he said twice, with an appearance of vanity, "Pray
God for me," and that those to whom he spoke were Huguenots, among whom
was an Apostate. The monk who was with him exhorted him to say, "Cor
mundum crea in me, Deus." Grandier turned his back on him and said with
contempt, "Cor mundum crea in me, Deus."
Having reached the place of execution, the fathers redoubled their
charitable solicitude, and pressed him most earnestly to be converted
to God at that moment, offered him the crucifix, and placed it over his
mouth and on his chest, he never deigned to look at it, and once or
twice even turned away; he shook his head when holy water was offered
him. He seemed eager to end his days, and in haste to have the fire
lighted, either because he expected not to feel it, or because he
feared he might be weak enough to name his accomplices; or perhaps, as
is believed, in fear lest pain should extract from him a renunciation
of his master Lucifer. For the devil, to whom magicians give themselves
body and soul, so thoroughly masters their mind that they fear him
only, and expect and hope for nothing save from him. Therefore did
Grandier protest, placing his hand on his heart that he would say
no more than he had already said. At last, seeing them set fire to
the faggots, he feared they did not intend to keep their promise to
him, but wished to burn him alive, and uttered loud complaints. The
executioner then advanced, as is always done, to strangle him; but the
flames suddenly sprang up with such violence that the rope caught fire,
and he fell alive among the burning faggots. Just before this a strange
event happened. In the midst of this mass of people, notwithstanding
the noise of so many voices and the efforts of the archers who shook
their halberts in the air to frighten them, a flight of pigeons flew
round and round the stake. Grandier's partisans, impudent to the end,
said that these innocent birds came, in default of men, as witnesses of
his innocence; others thought very differently, and said that it was a
troop of demons who came, as sometimes happens on the death of great
magicians, to assist at that of Grandier, whose scandalous impenitence
certainly deserved to be honoured in this manner. His friends, however,
called this hardness of heart constancy, and had his ashes collected as
if they were relics, they who did not believe in such things, for the
Huguenots looked upon him as one of themselves, especially when they
noticed that he never called on the Virgin nor looked on the crucifix.
Thus did he close his criminal career by a death which horrified not
only Catholics, but even the more honourable of the Calvinist party.
But the end of the magician was not the end of the effects of his
sorcery; and the possessions, far from ceasing, as had been hoped,
continued for a time. God permitted that a great number of those who
had been connected with the affair should be more or less vexed by
demons. The Civil Lieutenant, Louis Chauvet, was seized with such fear
that his mind gave way, and he never recovered. The Sieur Mannouri, the
Surgeon who had sounded the marks[13] which the devil had impressed
on the magician priest, suffering from extraordinary troubles, was of
course said by the friends of Grandier to be the victim of remorse.
Here are the particulars of the death of this Surgeon--
One night as he was returning about ten o'clock from visiting a sick
man, walking with a friend, and accompanied by a man carrying a
lantern, he cried all of a sudden, like a man awaking from a dream,
"Ah! there is Grandier! what do you want?" At the same time he was
seized with trembling. The two men took him back to his home, while he
continued to talk to Grandier whom he thought he had before his eyes.
He was put to bed filled with the same illusion, and shaking in every
limb. He only lived a few days, during which his state never changed.
He died believing the magician was still before him, and making efforts
to keep him at arm's length.
Father Lactance, the worthy monk who had assisted the possessed in
their sufferings, was himself attacked some time after the death of the
priest. Feeling the first symptoms, he determined to go to Notre Dame
des Ardilliers, whose chapel served by the priests of the oratory is
held in great veneration in Saumur and its neighbourhood. M. de Canaye,
who was going into the country, gave him a seat in his carriage. He had
heard speak of his state, and knew that he was tormented by the devil,
but he nevertheless joked about the matter, when, all of a sudden,
whilst rolling along a perfectly level road, the carriage turned over
with the wheels in the air without any one being in any way hurt. The
next day they continued their voyage to Saumur when the carriage again
turned over in the same way in the middle of the Rue du Faubourg de
Fenet, which is perfectly smooth, and leads to the chapel of Ardillier.
This holy monk afterwards experienced the greatest vexations from the
demons, who at times deprived him of sight, and at times of memory;
they produced in him violent fits of nausea, dulled his intelligence,
and worried him in numerous ways. At length, after being tried by so
many evils, God called him to Him.
Five years later, died of the same disease Father Tranquille. He was a
holy monk, a celebrated preacher, gifted with a judicious mind, great
piety, and a profound humility. A laborious exorcist, much feared
by the devils, he had preferred that painful duty, generally little
sought for, to the fame of preaching, and had devoted himself to the
service of the possessed of Loudun. The demons, irritated at his
constancy, determined to possess his body. But God never allowed him
to be entirely possessed. Nevertheless, his cruel enemies succeeded in
attacking his senses to a certain extent. They cast him to the ground,
they cursed and swore out of his mouth, they caused him to put out his
tongue and hiss like a serpent, they filled his mind with darkness,
seemed to crush out his heart, and overwhelmed him with a thousand
other torments.
On the day of Pentecoast they attacked him more violently than ever. He
was to have preached, but was too ill to attempt it. But his confessor
ordered the devil to leave him at liberty, and commanded the father to
ascend the pulpit. He did so, and preached more eloquently than if he
had prepared his sermon for weeks. This was his last sermon.
He performed mass for two or three days more, and then took to his bed
to rise no more. The demons caused him pains, the violence of which
none knew but he; they shrieked and howled out of his mouth, but he
remained clear headed. The following morning the monks saw that God
had given rein to the powers of hell, and had determined to abandon to
them the life of the monk; and he himself begged that Extreme Unction
should be administered to him when they should see that he was passing
away. About twelve o'clock a demon who was being exorcised declared
that Father Tranquille was at his last gasp. They hastened to see if
it were true: he was dying, so the sacrament was administered to him.
He died, and received the crown he had gained by combats with hell so
courageously sustained.
The opinion of his holiness attracted an enormous crowd to his funeral.
A Jesuit pronounced his funeral elogy, and a worthy epitaph was
engraved on his tomb.
Another matter that should be mentioned is that when Extreme Unction
was administered to him, the devils, driven away by the sacrament, were
forced to leave him. But they did not go far; for they entered the body
of another excellent monk who was present, and whom they possessed
henceforward. They vexed him at first by violent contortions and
horrible howlings, and at the moment of Tranquille's death they cried
horribly, "He is dead;" as if they would say, "It is all over, no more
hope of this soul!" At the same time, casting themselves on the other
monk, they worked him so horribly that, in spite of the many that held
him, he kept kicking in the most violent manner towards the deceased.
He had to be carried away.
Father Surin, a Jesuit, had succeeded Father Lactance; he too had his
trials.
The demons used to threaten him out of the mouth of the Mother
Superior, who was under his care. Once, in the presence of the Bishop
of Nimes, the demon took up his position on the face of the nun;
suddenly he disappeared and attacked the father, made him grow pale,
sat on his chest, and stopped his voice; but soon, obeying the order
of another exorcist, he returned to the nun, spoke through her mouth,
and showed himself extremely hideous and horrible on her face; and the
father, returning to the fight, continued his duties as if he had never
been attacked. In one afternoon he was thus attacked and released seven
or eight times; but these assaults were followed by others still more
violent, so that in his exorcisms he seemed to be struck with violent
interior blows, borne to earth, and violently shaken by his adversary;
he remained in this state sometimes half an hour, sometimes an hour.
The other exorcists applied the Holy Sacrament to the places where he
felt the demons, sometimes to his chest, sometimes to his head. When
the devil left him he reappeared on the face of the mother, where the
monk, with holy vengeance, pursued him, and constrained him to adore
the Holy Sacrament. Once the devil threw him out of a window on to the
rock where stands the convent of the Jesuits, and broke one of his
thighs. After having sustained during many years with perfect patience
and resignation these terrible trials, he was freed from them, and at
length died in the odour of sanctity.
As to the Mother Superior, towards the end of the year 1635, something
happened to her of a most extraordinary nature. Lord Montague came
to Loudun, accompanied by two other English noblemen. He brought the
exorcists a letter from the Archbishop of Tours, ordering them to edify
his Lordship as much as possible. The Superior, in the midst of a
convulsion, stretched out her left arm, and the name of Joseph appeared
on it written in capital letters. The report of this event was signed
by the English noblemen. Lord Montague hastened to Rome, abjured his
heresy, embraced the ecclesiastical career, and, under another name,
settled in France, where he lived many years. He is mentioned in the
memoirs of Madame de Motteville.
At the beginning of 1636, on Twelfth Night, Father Surin resolved to
compel the last demon that remained in the Mother Superior to adore
Jesus Christ. He had the lady tied to a bench. The exorcisms drove
the demon into a fury; and instead of obeying, he vomited a multitude
of maledictions and blasphemies against the three persons of the
Holy Trinity, against Jesus Christ, and against his Holy Mother,
so execrable that one would be horrified to read them. The father
knew that he was about to come out, and had the lady unbound. After
tremblings, contortions, and horrible howlings, Father Surin pressed
him more and more with the Holy Sacrament in his hand, and ordered him
in Latin to write the name of Mary on the lady's hand. Raising her left
arm into the air, the fiend redoubled his cries and howls, and in a
last convulsion issued from the lady, leaving on her hand the holy name
MARIA, in letters so perfectly formed that no human hand could imitate
them. The lady felt herself free and full of joy; and a _Te Deum_ was
sung in honour of the event.
Such is the true story of the possession of the nuns of Loudun and
of the condemnation of Urbain Grandier, so different from the false
accounts hitherto published. Even those who do not blush to deny the
truth of infernal possessions need only notice that the human race
has always believed, and still believes, that there are intelligent
creatures in existence other than man, and almost similar to those whom
the Pagans have always represented as Gods of Evil, or subterranean
genii, like the demons believed in by Christians; and the belief
in infernal possession, having in it no longer anything repugnant,
will seem at once to them not only possible but probable. To believe
that Urbain Grandier was unjustly condemned and executed, we must
blindly believe hundreds of things which revolt common sense. One of
the Protestant writers, for example, after having said in a thousand
different ways that the possession of the nuns of Loudun was a mere
imposture and horrible farce, confesses that it is impossible to
conceive human beings, and especially women, driving a priest to a
horrible death by such a series of feigned possessions.
FOOTNOTES:
[12] Boot or Bootikin, an instrument of judicial torture formerly used
as a means of extorting confessions or evidence. It was originally
brought from Russia, and consisted of a narrow wooden box made by
nailing four planks together, and the leg of the prisoner being placed
in it, wedges were inserted between the calf of the leg and the sides
of the box, and struck home with a mallet. Sometimes a case of iron was
used in a similar way, and occasionally the wedges were placed against
the shin bone. The torture, which was of the most horrible character,
was sometimes administered until the limbs were wholly crushed and
rendered for ever useless. In the judicial records of Scotland there
are many instances given of the application of the boot, and some of
the details are of the most revolting character. It was last used in
1690, when an English gentleman named Neville Payne was, by the express
command of William III., submitted to the torture of the thumb-screw
and boot, and which in his case were applied with fearful severity.
It is believed that all judicial torture had been given up in England
about fifty years previous to this, and it was finally abolished by 7
Anne, c. 20.
[13] "There have been many found in whom such characters have
concurred, as by the observation of all ages and nations, are symptoms
of a witch; particularly the witch's marks, _mala fama_, inability to
shed tears, etc., all of them providential discoveries of so dark a
crime, and which, like avenues, lead us to the secret of it. 'Tis true,
one man, through the concurrence of corrosive humours, may have an
insensible mark, another may be enviously defamed, and a third, through
sudden grief or melancholy, not be able to weep. One or other of these
may concurr in the innocent, but none do attest that all of them have
concurred in any one person but a witch; and 'tis reasonable to think
that these indicia taking place in witches through all places in the
world, do proceed from a common cause, rather than a peculiar humour.
'Tis but rational to think that the devil, aping God, should imprint
a sacrament of his covenant; and it is thought by many, of greatest
repute in the learned world, that whatsoever way, whether by accident
or otherwise, such insensible marks be in the body, yet no such mark as
theirs, every circumstance considered, is to be found with any other
but themselves. I need not insist much in describing this mark, which
is sometimes like a little teate, sometimes but a blewish spot; and I
myself have seen it in the body of a confessing witch, like a little
powder-mark, of a blea colour, somewhat hard, and withall insensible,
so as it did not bleed when I pricked it."--_A Discourse of Witchcraft,
by Mr. John Bell, Minister of the Gospel at Gladsmuir_, 1705, _MS._
[Quoted by T. D. Morison in his Edition of Sharpe's Witchcraft.]
In another printed Tract, by the same author, entitled, "The Trial of
Witchcraft; or Witchcraft Arraigned and Condemned, in some answers to
a few Questions anent Witches and Witchcraft, wherein is shewed how
to know if one be a Witch, as also when one is bewitched: With some
Observations upon the Witch's Mark, their compact with the Devil, the
White Witches, &c."--he says, "The witch mark is sometimes like a blew
spot, or a little teate, or reid spots, like flea biting; sometimes
also the flesh is sunk in, and hollow, and this is put in secret
places, as among the hair of the head, or eye-brows, within the lips,
under the arm-pits, and even in the most secret parts of the body."
Mr. Robert Kirk, minister at Aberfoill, in his Secret Commonwealth,
describes the witch's mark--"A spot that I have seen, as a small mole,
horny, and brown-coloured; throw which mark, when a large brass pin was
thrust, (both in buttock, nose, and rooff of the mouth,) till it bowed
and became crooked, the witches, both men and women, nather felt a pain
nor did bleed, nor knew the precise time when this was doing to them,
(their eyes only being covered)."
APPENDICES.
APPENDIX I.
THE DUKE OF LAUDERDALE ON WITCHCRAFT.
Instances sent me (BAXTER) from the Duke of Lauderdale; more in other
Letters of his I gave away, and some Books of Forreign Wonders he sent
me.
SIR,
It is sad that the Sadducean, or rather atheistical denying of spirits,
or their apparitions, should so far prevail; and sadder, that the
clear testimonies of so many ancient and modern authors should not
convince them. But why should I wonder, if those who believe not
Moses and the prophets, will not believe though one should rise from
the dead? One great cause of the hardening of these infidels is, the
frequent impostures which the Romanists obtrude on the world in their
exorcisms and pretended miracles. Another is the too great credulity
of some who make everything witchcraft which they do not understand;
and a third may be the ignorance of some judges and juries, who condemn
silly melancholy people upon their own confession, and perhaps slender
proofs. None of these three can be denied, but it is impertinent
arguing to conclude, that because there have been cheats in the world,
because there are some too credulous, and some have been put to death
for witches, and were not, therefore all men are deceived. There is
so much written, both at home and abroad, so convincingly, and by so
unquestionable authors, that I have not the vanity to add any thing,
especially to you; but because you have desired me to tell you the
story of the nuns at Loudun, and some others, I shall first tell you of
a real possession near the place I was born in; next of disquietings
by spirits, (both of which I had from unquestionable testimonies) and
then I shall tell you what I saw at Loudun, concerning that which I do
not doubt to call a pretended possession, sure I am a cheat. About 30
years ago, when I was a boy at school, there was a poor woman generally
believed to be really possessed. She lived near the town of Duns, in
the Mers, and Mr John Weems, then minister of Duns, (a man known by his
works to be a learned man, and I knew him to be a godly honest man,)
was perswaded she was possessed. I have heard him many times speak with
my father about it, and both of them concluded it a real possession.
Mr Weems visited her often, and being convinced of the truth of the
thing, he, with some neighbour ministers, applied themselves to the
king's privy council for a warrant to keep days of humiliation for
her; but the bishops being then in power, would not allow any fasts
to be kept. I will not trouble you with many circumstances; one I
shall only tell you, which I think will evince a real possession. The
report being spread in the country, a knight of the name of Forbes,
who lived in the north of Scotland, being come to Edinborough, meeting
there with a minister of the north, and both of them desirous to see
the woman, the northern minister invited the knight to my father's
house, (which was within ten or twelve miles of the woman) whither
they came, and next morning went to see the woman. They found her a
poor ignorant creature, and seeing nothing extraordinary, the minister
says in Latin to the knight, "_Nondum audivimus spiritum loquentem_."
Presently a voice comes out of the woman's mouth, "_Audis loquentem,
audis loquentem_." This put the minister into some amazement, (which I
think made him not mind his own Latin,) he took off his hat, and said,
"_Misereatur Deus peccatoris_;" the voice presently out of the woman's
mouth said, "_Dic peccatricis, dic peccatricis_;" whereupon both of
them came out of the house fully satisfied, took horse immediately, and
returned to my father's house at Thirlestoane Castle, in Lauderdale,
where they related this passage. This I do exactly remember. Many more
particulars might be got in that country, but this Latin criticism,
in a most illiterate ignorant woman, where there was no pretence to
dispossessing, is evidence enough, I think.
Within these 30 or 40 years, there was an unquestionable possession in
the United Provinces; a wench that spoke all the languages, of which I
have heard many particulars when I lived in the Low Countries. But that
being forreign, I will not insist on it.
As to houses disquieted with noises, I shall tell you one that happened
since I was a married man, and hint at more, which, if you please, I
can get you authentically attested.
Within four miles of Edinborough, there lived an aged godly minister,
one that was esteemed a Puritan; his son, now minister of the same
place, and then ordained his assistant. Their house was extraordinarily
troubled with noises, which they and their family, and many neighbours
(who for divers weeks used to go watch with them) did ordinarily hear.
It troubled them most on the Saturday night, and the night before their
weekly lecture day. Sometimes they would hear all the locks in the
house, on doors and chests, to fly open; yea, their cloaths, which were
at night locked up into trunks and chests, they found in the morning
all hanging about the walls. Once they found their best linnen taken
out, the table covered with it, napkins as if they had been used,
yea, and liquor in their cups as if company had been there at meat.
The rumbling was extraordinary; the good old man commonly called his
family to prayer when it was most troublesome, and immediately it was
converted into gentle knocking, like the modest knock of a finger; but
as soon as prayer was done, they should hear excessive knocking, as
if a beam had been heaved by strength of many men against the floor.
Never was there voice or apparition; but one thing was remarkable (you
must know that it is ordinary in Scotland to have a half cannon-bullet
in the chimney-corner, on which they break their great coals,) a merry
maid in the house, being accustomed to the rumblings, and so her fear
gone, told her fellow maid-servant that if the devil troubled them
that night, she would brain him, so she took the half cannon-bullet
into bed; the noise did not fail to awake her, nor did she fail in her
design, but took up the great bullet, and with a threatning, threw it,
as she thought, on the floor, but the bullet was never more seen; the
minister turned her away for meddling and talking to it. All these
particulars I have had from the mouth of the minister, now living; he
is an honest man, of good natural parts, well bred both in learning and
by travel into foreign parts in his youth. I was not in the country
myself during the time, but I have it from many other witnesses; and my
father's steward lived then in a house of mine, within a mile of the
place, and sent his servants constantly thither; his son now serves me,
who knows it.