MORE INSTANCES OF APPARITIONS.
Peter the Venerable, Abbot of Cluny, relates that a good priest named
Stephen, having received the confession of a lord named Guy, who was
mortally wounded in a combat, this lord appeared to him completely
armed some time after his death, and begged of him to tell his brother
Anselm to restore an ox which he Guy had taken from a peasant, whom he
named, and repair the damage which he had done to a village which did
not belong to him, and which he had taxed with undue charges; that he
had forgotten to declare these two sins in his last confession, and
that he was cruelly tormented for it. "And as assurance of the truth
of what I tell you," added he, "when you return home, you will find
that you have been robbed of the money you intended for your expenses
in going to St. Jacques." The cure, on his return to his house, found
his money gone, but could not acquit himself of his commission,
because Anselm was absent. A few days after, Guy appeared to him
again, and reproached him for having neglected to perform what he had
asked of him. The cure excused himself on account of the absence of
Anselm; and at length went to him and told him what he was charged to
do. Anselm answered him harshly that he was not obliged to do penance
for his brother's sins.
The dead man appeared a third time, and implored the cure to assist
him in this extremity; he did so, and restored the value of the ox;
but as the rest exceeded his power, he gave alms, and recommended Guy
to the worthy people of his acquaintance; and he appeared no more.
Richer, a monk of Senones,[357] speaks of a spirit which returned in
his time, in the town of Epinal, about the year 1212, in the house of
a burgess named Hugh de la Cour, and who, from Christmas to Midsummer,
did a variety of things in that same house, in sight of everybody.
They could hear him speak, they could see all he did, but nobody could
see him. He said he belonged to Clexenteine, a village seven leagues
from Epinal; and what is also remarkable is that, during the six
months he was heard about the house, he did no harm to any one. One
day, Hugh having ordered his domestic to saddle his horse, and the
valet being busy about something else, deferred doing it, when the
spirit did his work, to the great astonishment of all the household.
Another time, when Hugh was absent, the spirit asked Stephen, the
son-in-law of Hugh, for a penny, to make an offering of it to St.
Goeric, the patron saint of Epinal. Stephen presented him with an old
denier of Provence; but the spirit refused it, saying he would have a
good denier of Thoulouse. Stephen placed on the threshold of the door
a Thoulousian denier, which disappeared immediately; and the following
night, a noise, as of a man who was walking therein, was heard in the
church of St. Goeric.
Another time, Hugh having bought some fish to make his family a
repast, the spirit transported the fish to the garden which was behind
the house, put half of it on a tile (_scandula_), and the rest in a
mortar, where it was found again. Another time, Hugh desiring to be
bled, told his daughter to get ready some bandages. Immediately the
spirit went into another room, and fetched a new shirt, which he tore
up into several bandages, presented them to the master of the house,
and told him to choose the best. Another day, the servant having
spread out some linen in the garden to dry, the spirit carried it all
up stairs, and folded them more neatly than the cleverest laundress
could have done.
A man named Guy de la Torre,[358] who died at Verona in 1306, at the
end of eight days spoke to his wife and the neighbors of both sexes,
to the prior of the Dominicians, and to the professor of theology, who
asked him several questions in theology, to which he replied very
pertinently. He declared that he was in purgatory for certain
unexpatiated sins. They asked him how he possibly could speak, not
having the organs of the voice; he replied that souls separated from
the body have the faculty of forming for themselves instruments of the
air capable of pronouncing words; he added that the fire of hell acted
upon spirits, not by its natural virtue, but by the power of God, of
which that fire is the instrument.
Here follows another remarkable instance of an apparition, related by
M. d'Aubigne. "I affirm upon the word of the king[359] the second
prodigy, as being one of the three stories which he reiterated to us,
his hair standing on end at the time, as we could perceive. This one
is, that the queen having gone to bed at an earlier hour than usual,
and there being present at her _coucher_, amongst other persons of
note, the king of Navarre,[360] the Archbishop of Lyons, the Ladies de
Retz, de Lignerolles, and de Sauve, two of whom have since confirmed
this conversation. As she was hastening to bid them good night, she
threw herself with a start upon her bolster, put her hands before her
face, and crying out violently, she called to her assistance those who
were present, wishing to show them, at the foot of the bed, the
Cardinal (de Lorraine), who extended his hand towards her; she cried
out several times, 'M. the Cardinal, I have nothing to do with you.'
The King of Navarre at the same time sent out one of his gentlemen,
who brought back word that he had expired at that same moment."
I take from Sully's Memoirs,[361] which have just been reprinted in
better order than they were before, another singular fact, which may
be related with these. We still endeavor to find out what can be the
nature of that illusion, seen so often and by the eyes of so many
persons in the Forest of Fontainebleau; it was a phantom surrounded by
a pack of hounds, whose cries were heard, while they might be seen at
a distance, but all disappeared if any one approached.
The note of M. d'Ecluse, editor of these Memoirs, enters into longer
details. He observes that M. de Perefixe makes mention of this
phantom; and he makes him say, with a hoarse voice, one of these three
sentences: Do you expect me? or, Do you hear me? or, Amend yourself.
"And they believe," says he, "that these were sports of sorcerers, or
of the malignant spirit." The Journal of Henry IV., and the Septenary
Chronicle, speak of them also, and even assert that this phenomenon
alarmed Henry IV. and his courtiers very much. And Peter Matthew says
something of it in his History of France, tom. ii. p. 68. Bongars
speaks of it as others do,[362] and asserts that it was a hunter who
had been killed in this forest in the time of Francis I. But now we
hear no more of this spectre, though there is still a road in this
forest which retains the name of the _Grand Veneur_, in memory, it is
said, of this visionary scene.
A Chronicle of Metz,[363] under the date of the year 1330, relates the
apparition of a spirit at Lagni sur Marne, six leagues from Paris. It
was a good lady, who after her death spoke to more than twenty
people--her father, sister, daughter, and son-in-law, and to her other
friends--asking them to have said for her particular masses, as being
more efficacious than the common mass. As they feared it might be an
evil spirit, they read to it the beginning of the Gospel of St. John;
and they made it say the _Pater_, _credo_, and _confiteor_. She said
she had beside her two angels, one bad and one good; and that the good
angel revealed to her what she ought to say. They asked her if they
should go and fetch the Holy Sacrament from the altar. She replied it
was with them, for her father, who was present, and several others
among them, had received it on Christmas day, which was the Tuesday
before.
Father Taillepied, a Cordelier, and professor of theology at
Rouen,[364] who composed a book expressly on the subject of
apparitions, which was printed at Rouen in 1600, says that one of his
fraternity with whom he was acquainted, named Brother Gabriel,
appeared to several monks of the convent at Nice, and begged of them
to satisfy the demand of a shopkeeper at Marseilles, of whom he had
taken a coat he had not paid for. On being asked why he made so much
noise, he replied that it was not himself, but a bad spirit who wished
to appear instead of him, and prevent him from declaring the cause of
his torment.
I have been told by two canons of St. Diez, in our neighborhood, that
three months after the death of M. Henri, canon of St. Diez, of their
brotherhood, the canon to whom the house devolved, going with one of
his brethren, at two o'clock in the afternoon, to look at the said
house, and see what alterations it might suit him to make in it, they
went into the kitchen, and both of them saw in the next room, which
was large and very light, a tall ecclesiastic of the same height and
figure as the defunct canon, who, turning towards them, looked them in
the face for two minutes, then crossed the said room, and went up a
little dark staircase which led to the garret.
These two gentlemen, being much frightened, left the house instantly,
and related the adventure to some of the brotherhood, who were of
opinion that they ought to return and see if there was not some one
hidden in the house; they went, they sought, they looked everywhere,
without finding any one.
We read in the History of the Bishops of Mans,[365] that in the time
of Bishop Hugh, who lived in 1135, they heard, in the house of Provost
Nicholas, a spirit who alarmed the neighbors and those who lived in
the house, by uproar and frightful noises, as if he had thrown
enormous stones against the walls, with a force which shook the roof,
walls, and ceilings; he transported the dishes and the plates from one
place to another, without their seeing the hand which moved them. This
genius lighted a candle, though very far from the fire. Sometimes,
when the meat was placed on the table, he would scatter bran, ashes,
or soot, to prevent them from touching any of it. Amica, the wife of
the Provost Nicholas, having prepared some thread to be made into
cloth, the spirit twisted and raveled it in such a way that all who
saw it could not sufficiently admire the manner in which it was done.
Priests were called in, who sprinkled holy water everywhere, and
desired all those who were there to make the sign of the cross.
Towards the first and second night, they heard as it were the voice of
a young girl, who, with sighs that seemed drawn from the bottom of her
heart, said, in a lamentable and sobbing voice, that her name was
Garnier; and addressing itself to the provost, said, "Alas! whence do
I come? from what distant country, through how many storms, dangers,
through snow, cold, fire, and bad weather, have I arrived at this
place! I have not received power to harm any one--but prepare
yourselves with the sign of the cross against a band of evil spirits,
who are here only to do you harm; have a mass of the Holy Ghost said
for me, and a mass for those defunct; and you, my dear sister-in-law,
give some clothes to the poor, for me."
They asked this spirit several questions on things past and to come,
to which it replied very pertinently; it explained even the salvation
and damnation of several persons; but it would not enter into any
argument, nor yet into conference with learned men, who were sent by
the Bishop of Mans; this last circumstance is very remarkable, and
casts some suspicion on this apparition.
Footnotes:
[357] Richer Senon. in Chronic. m. (Hoc non exstat in impresso).
[358] Herman Contraet. Chronic. p. 1006.
[359] D'Aubigne, Hist. Univ. lib. ii. c. 12. Ap. 1574.
[360] Henry IV.
[361] Mem. de Sully, in 4to. tom. i. liv. x. p. 562, note 26. Or Edit.
in 12mo. tom. iii. p. 321, note 26.
[362] Bongars, Epist. ad Camerarium.
[363] Chronic. Metens. Anno, 1330.
[364] Taillepied, Traite de l'Apparition des Esprits, c. xv. p. 173.
[365] Anecdote Mabill, p. 320. Edition in fol.