Among the phenomena observed in demonomaniacal hysteria there are
some, as we have remarked, that modern neurologists have wished to
_pass over in silence_, because it was impossible to give a rational
explanation. It arose from that mysterious force which acts upon the
human personality and its faculties and produces _supernatural results_
in contradiction to well known scientific laws, known in one sense as
_Psychic Force_, but which is nothing else than _modern spiritualism_.
This force, a power possessed in a high degree not only by hysterical
persons, but all varieties of neuropaths, who are designated as
_mediums_ by spiritual psychologists, _cannot be doubted by real
scientists to day_.
The demonologists of the Middle Ages have often mentioned it in the
demonomaniacs, and attributed it to possession by evil spirits; and,
if not pathologists, _they did not disdain to occupy themselves with
something that tends to simplify the study of the physiology of the
nervous system_; but to minds of the modern type, that consider science
as synonymous with truth, it seems strange and incomprehensible that
our learned investigators should have been overpowered by the fear of
the criticism that might overtake them because _they cannot explain
purely and simply an inexplicable fact, a truth, real positive and
certain_.
Not being ourselves timorous to this prudence, which is, they claim,
one of the conditions, _sine qua non_, to be a candidate for the
Institute of France, we shall now pursue our investigations with the
historical documents regarding the medical Middle Age we possess, and
thus loyally seek a scientific interpretation for facts observed in
modern spiritualism or _psychic force_.
Among these documents we will choose as a type the “Trial made to
deliver a girl possessed by the Evil Spirit, at Louviers.” This suit,
which dates back to 1591, is in reality a series of trials written
up by several magistrates, in the presence of numerous witnesses,
reporting with precision all facts observed by them—facts interpreted,
it is true, with ideas of the demonidolatry of the sixteenth century,
but having a character whose authenticity is undisputed, and _even
undiscussed_. The first trial is thus conceived:[81]
“On Saturday, the 18th day of August, 1591, in the morning at Louviers,
in the aforesaid place, before us, Louis Morel, Councillor of the King,
Provost General and Marshal of France for the Province of Normandy,
holding Court in the service of the King in the villages and castles of
Pont de l’Arche and Louviers, with one lieutenant, one recorder, and
fifty archers, assisted by Monsieur Behotte, licentiate of law, Judge
Advocate and Lieutenant General of Monsieur the Viscount of Rouen, in
the presence of Louis Vauquet, our clerk.” * * *
This old document, in French now almost obsolete and difficult of
translation,[82] goes on to state that in a house at Louviers,
belonging to Mrs. Gay, two officers, belonging to the troops occupying
the town, who had temporary quarters with Gay, complained to their
commandant that “a spirit in the house mentioned tormented them.”
Now, this house was occupied by three ladies: Madame Gay, one of her
friends, a widow named Deshayes, and a servant girl called Francoise
Fontaine.
Captain Diacre, who was commandant of the village, found on
investigation the general disorder of the residence, the furniture
turned upside down, the two ladies terrified, and the servant girl with
several wounds on her body. The latter was suspected of being in league
with the Devil, and was arrested and cast into the prison of the town.
On her person was found a purse containing a teston (old French coin),
a half teston, and a ten-sous piece. The trial proved nothing. The
ladies might have had nightmare, the officers might have been drunk,
the noises heard might have been the result of a thousand different
causes, but it is necessary to mention this case in order to comprehend
the subsequent trials.
The second trial, witnessed, tried, and authenticated by the same
authorities, determined the fact that Francoise Fontaine was born at
Paris, Faubourg Saint Honore, and that at the age of twenty two years
she had already witnessed similar phenomena in a house “haunted,” said
she, “by evil spirits that frightened her so much that she went to a
neighbor’s to sleep while her mistress was absent from home.” This
statement was proved correct in six subsequent trials containing the
depositions of Marguerite Prevost, Suzanne Le Chevalier, Marguerite Le
Chevalier, and Perrine Fayel.
The following trial states that on Saturday, the 31st of August, 1591,
before Louis Morel, Councillor of the King, assisted by his clerk,
Louis Vauquet, etc., etc.,
“Came Pierre Alix, first jailer and guard of the prison, who threw
himself on his two knees before us, holding the prison keys in his
hand, pale and overcome by emotion; for which action we remonstrated,
when he stated to our great astonishment that he did not wish to
longer act as prison guard, for the reason that the evil spirit that
tormented the aforesaid Francoise Fontaine likewise tormented him, and
also the prisoners, who desired to break jail and fly in order to
save themselves, having a presentement that the aforesaid Francoise
Fontaine, was in a dungeon or pit, and _that she had removed a great
iron door that had fallen upon her afterwards_; and several persons
having ran to her along with the jailer found the aforesaid Fontaine
acting as though possessed by an evil spirit, with her throat swollen,”
etc.
Let us pass over an interminable recital made by Francoise Fontaine
to the priests and counsellors of the King, relative to _diabolic
possession_, to which she had been subject all her life. Also, as to
the testimony of many witnesses as to her performance while in jail;
as, for instance, “the body of Francoise rose in the air about four
feet, without being in contact with anything, and she floated towards
us in the air,” etc., etc.
Francois Fontaine claimed that she had consented to belong to the
Demon, who was “a black man with whom she had cohabited.” Considered
from a medical standpoint the girl was a victim to hysterical
demonomania.
Let us make a few more extracts from the records of this trial:
“As the aforesaid Fontaine told us these things, being meantime on
her two knees before us, who were seated on a raised platform, the
aforesaid Fontaine fell forward on her face as though she had been
struck from above, and the candles in the chandeliers of the room
were extinguished, except those on the clerk’s table, the which were
roughly blown upon several times without being put out, when no visible
person present was near them to blow, and these candles were raised out
of their candlesticks, lighted as they were, and rubbed against the
ground in an attempt to extinguish them, and the which were finally
extinguished with a great noise, without any human hand appearing near
them; the which so astonished the priest, the advocate, the first
jailer, the archers guard, who were present, that they retired, leaving
us alone, the hour being then nine o’clock at night.
“Finding myself alone, I recommended my soul to God, and exclaimed in
a loud voice the words, ‘My God, give me grace not to lose my soul to
the Devil, and I command thee O, Demon, by the power I have invoked, to
leave the body of Francoise Fontaine! Again I repeat the command!’”
At the same instant the exorcist felt himself seized by the legs, arms
and body, and tightly held in the arms of an unknown force, which felt
hot and blew a warm breath, while blows were rained on the Judge’s body
as though he were beaten by a heavy piece of wood. He was struck on the
jaw and under the ear hard enough to draw blood, etc.
At the eleventh trial it was found that Francoise Fontaine was bodily
raised out of bed during the night by an unseen force, and this fact is
duly authenticated by witnesses.
In the following trial the same phenomena were produced in the church
at Louviers, during the mass of exorcism, where:
“Francoise Fontaine floated from the earth into the air, higher than
the altar, as though lifted up by the hair by an unseen hand, which
quickly alarmed the assistants, who had never before witnessed such an
occurrence,” etc.
In presence of these facts Francoise was led back to prison, and it was
decided by the clerical council, assisted by two eminent physicians,
Roussel and Gautier, to cut off the girl’s hair, as was the custom when
witches were arrested.
During this operation, which was performed publically by Dr. Gautier,
the same phenomenon was reproduced. For says the veracious old French
chronicle: “Francoise est de rechef enleuee en l’air fort hault, la
tete en bas, les pieds en hault sans que ses accoustrementz se soient
renuersez, au trauers desquelz il sortoit par deuant et par derriere
grande quantite d’eaue et fumee puante.”
Like the many preceding trials, with experiments, which are duly
attested by magistrates, physicians and the clerk, seven person in all,
who witnessed the phenomena, as to material facts, we cannot suspect
people whose honesty was never doubted; for it was through their
influence that Francoise Fontaine was set at liberty, after all her
inexplicable symptoms had disappeared and her nervous malady abated.
In order to render an account of the _supernatural_ phenomena observed
by early demonographers and attributed to evil spirits, let us briefly
glance at the experiments made regarding _Spiritualism_ by a few brave
physiologists of our own epoch, who have dared to investigate the
analogy existing between these two orders of phenomena.
Among the modern experimenters who have made a scientific study of this
subject—let us call it _Psychic Force_, if you will—we will mention Mr.
Crookes, member of the Royal Society of London, the (English Academy
of Sciences), the master mind, the most illustrious in modern science;
the discoverer of thallium, radiant matter, photometer of polarization,
spectral microscope—a chemist and physicist of the first order,
accustomed to the most minute experimental investigations.
The experiments of this _savant_ have been arranged by him in three
classes, as follows:
CLASS I.—_Movement of weighty bodies with contact, but without
mechanical effort._
This movement is one of the most simple forms of the phenomenon
observed; it presents degrees that vary from trembling or vibration
of the chamber and its contents up to the complete elevation in the
air, when the hand is placed above, of a weighty body. We commonly
object that when they touch an object put in motion, they push, draw
or raise it. I have experimentally proved that this is impossible in a
great number of cases; but, as a matter of evidence, I attach little
importance to that class of phenomena considered in themselves, and
have only mentioned them as a preliminary to other movements of the
same kind, but without contact.
“These movements (and I may truly add all other similar phenomena) are
generally preceded by a particular breeziness of the air, amounting
sometimes almost to a true wind. This air disperses leaves of paper and
lowers the thermometer several degrees.
“Under some circumstances, to the subject of which I shall, at some
future day, give more details, I have not found any of this air; but
the cold was so intense that I can only compare it to that experienced
by placing the hand at a short distance from mercury in a state of
congelation.” (_Crookes_).
I have obtained, like the eminent “member of the Royal Society of
London,” the movement of weighty bodies by contact very easily, not
only lifting massive tables of a weight altogether out of proportion
and far superior to the force of a very robust man, but have also seen
this furniture move in a given direction; I have even noted a small
square table keep time in beating with a determined cadence. This
phenomenon, well known to all experimenters, may be reproduced without
the assistance of a powerful medium; it was well known in times of
antiquity, but is not mentioned in the writings on sorcery during the
Middle Ages.
As extraordinary as these facts seem, they are no more singular than
those observed by W. Crookes, and very recently by Zoellner,[83]
Professor in the University of Leipsic and correspondent of the French
Institute, in presence of Professors Fechner, Braune, Weber, Scheibner,
and the celebrated surgeon, Thiersch. It was with Slade, an American
medium as extraordinary as Home, that Zoellner experimented. These
experiments may be thus briefly mentioned:
1. Movements made by psychic force, through the medium of Slade, of a
magnet enclosed in a compass box.
2. Blows struck on a table, a knife raised in air, without contact, to
the height of a foot.
3. Movement of heavy bodies. Zoellner’s bed was drawn two feet from the
wall, Slade remaining seated with his back to the bed, his legs covered
and in full view of the experimenters.
4. A fire-screen broken with noise, without contact with the medium,
and the fragments thrown five feet.
5. Writing produced on several experimental occasions between two
slates belonging to Zoellner, and held well in view.