EXAMINATION OF WHAT IS REQUIRED OR REVEALED TO THE LIVING BY THE DEAD
WHO RETURN TO EARTH.
The apparitions which are seen are those of good angels, or of demons,
or the spirits of the dead, or of living persons to others still
living.
Good angels usually bring only good news, and announce nothing but
what is fortunate; or if they do announce any future misfortunes, it
is to persuade men to prevent them, or turn them aside by repentance,
or to profit by the evils which God sends them by exercising their
patience, and showing submission to his orders.
Bad angels generally foretell only misfortune; wars, the effect of the
wrath of God on nations; and often even they execute the evils, and
direct the wars and public calamities which desolate kingdoms,
provinces, cities, and families. The spectres whose appearance to
Brutus, Cassius, and Julian the Apostate we have related, are only
bearers of the fatal orders of the wrath of God. If they sometimes
promise any prosperity to those to whom they appear, it is only for
the present time, never for eternity, nor for the glory of God, nor
for the eternal salvation of those to whom they speak. It only extends
to a temporal fortune, always of short duration, and very often
deceitful.
The souls of the defunct, if these be Christians, ask very often that
the sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ should be offered,
according to the observation of St. Gregory the Great;[395] and, as
experience shows, there is hardly any apparition of a Christian that
does not ask for masses, pilgrimages, restitutions, or that alms
should be distributed, or that they would satisfy those to whom the
deceased died indebted. They also often give salutary advice for the
salvation or correction of the morals, or good regulation of families.
They reveal the state in which certain persons find themselves in the
other world, in order to relieve their pain, or to put the living on
their guard, that the like misfortune may not befall them. They talk
of hell, paradise, purgatory, angels, demons, of the Supreme Judge, of
the rigor of his judgments, of the goodness he exercises towards the
just, and the rewards with which he crowns their good works.
But we must greatly mistrust those apparitions which ask for masses,
pilgrimages and restitution. St. Paul warns us that the demon often
transforms himself into an angel of light;[396] and St. John[397]
warns us to distrust the "depths of Satan," his illusions, and
deceitful appearances; that spirit of malice and falsehood is found
among the true prophets to put into the mouth of the false prophets
falsehood and error. He makes a wrong use of the text of the
Scriptures, of the most sacred ceremonies, even of the sacraments and
prayers of the church, to seduce the simple, and win their confidence,
to share as much as in him lies the glory which is due to the Almighty
alone, and to appropriate it to himself. How many false miracles has
he not wrought? How many times has he foretold future events? What
cures has he not operated? How many holy actions has he not counseled?
How many enterprises, praiseworthy in appearance, has he not inspired,
in order to draw the faithful into his snare?
Boden, in his Demonology,[398] cites more than one instance of demons
who have requested prayers, and have even placed themselves in the
posture of persons praying over a grave, to point out that the dead
persons wanted prayers. Sometimes it will be the demon in the shape of
a wretch dead in crime, who will come and ask for masses, to show that
his soul is in purgatory, and has need of prayers, although it may be
certain that he finally died impenitent, and that prayers are useless
for his salvation. All this is only a stratagem of a demon, who seeks
to inspire the wicked with foolish and dangerous confidence in their
being saved, notwithstanding their criminal life and their
impenitence; and that they can obtain salvation by means of a few
prayers, and a few alms, which shall be made after their death; not
regarding that these good works can be useful only to those who died
in a state of grace, although stained by some venial fault, since the
Scripture informs us[399] that nothing impure will enter the kingdom
of heaven.
It is believed that the reprobate can sometimes return to earth by
permission, as persons dead in idolatry, and consequently in sin, and
excluded from the kingdom of God, have been seen to come to life
again, be converted, and receive baptism. St. Martin was as yet only
the simple abbot of his monastery of Liguge,[400] when, in his
absence, a catechumen who had placed himself under his discipline to
be instructed in the truths of the Christian religion died without
having been baptized. He had been three days deceased when the saint
arrived. He sent everybody away, prayed over the dead man,
resuscitated him, and administered to him the baptismal rite.
This catechumen related that he had been led before the tribunal of
the Supreme Judge, who had condemned him to descend into the darkness
with an infinity of other persons condemned like himself; but that two
angels having represented to the Judge that it was this man for whom
St. Martin interceded, God commanded the two angels to bring him back
to earth, and restore him to Martin. This is an instance which proves
what I have just said, that the reprobate can return to life, do
penance, and receive baptism.
But as to what some have affirmed of the salvation of Falconila,
procured by St. Thecla, of that of Trajan, saved by the prayers of St.
Gregory, pope, and of some others who died heathens, this is all
entirely contrary to the faith of the church and to the holy
Scripture, which teach us that without faith it is impossible to
please God, and that he who believes not and has not received baptism
is already judged and condemned. Thus the opinions of those who accord
salvation to Plato, Aristotle, Seneca, &c., because it may appear to
them that they lived in a praiseworthy manner, according to the rules
of a merely human and philosophical morality, must be considered as
rash, erroneous, false, and dangerous.
Philip, Chancellor of the Church of Paris, maintained that it was
permitted to one man to hold a plurality of benefices. Being on his
death-bed, he was visited by William, Bishop of Paris, who died in
1248. This prelate urged the chancellor to give up all his benefices
save one only; he refused, saying that he wished to try if the holding
a plurality of livings was so wrong as it was said to be; and in this
disposition of mind he died in 1237.
Some days after his decease, Bishop William, or Guillaume, praying by
night, after matins, in his cathedral, beheld before him the hideous
and frightful figure of a man. He made the sign of the cross, and said
to him, "If you are sent by God, speak." He spoke, and said: "I am
that wretched chancellor, and have been condemned to eternal
punishment." The bishop having asked him the cause, he replied, "I am
condemned, first, for not having distributed the superfluity of my
benefices; secondly, for having maintained that it was allowable to
hold several at once; thirdly, for having remained for several days in
the guilt of incontinence."
The story was often preached by Bishop William to his clerks. It is
related by the Bishop Albertus Magnus, who was a cotemporary, in his
book on the sacraments; by William Durand, Bishop of Mande, in his
book _De Modo celebrandi Concilia_; and in Thomas de Cantimpre, in his
work _Des Abeilles_. He believed, then, that God sometimes permitted
the reprobate to appear to the living.
Here is an instance of the apparition of a man and woman who were in a
state of reprobation. The Prince of Ratzivil,[401] in his Journey to
Jerusalem, relates that when in Egypt he bought two mummies, had them
packed up, and secretly as possible conveyed on board his vessel, so
that only himself and his two servants were aware of it; the Turks
making a great difficulty of allowing mummies to be carried away,
because they fancy that the Christians make use of them for magical
operations. When they were at sea, there arose at sundry times such a
violent tempest that the pilot despaired of saving the vessel. A good
Polish priest, of the suite of the Prince de Ratzivil, recited the
prayers suitable to the circumstance; but he was tormented, he said,
by two hideous black spectres, a man and a woman, who were on each
side of him, and threatened to take away his life. It was thought at
first that terror disturbed his mind.
A calm coming on, he appeared tranquil; but very soon, the storm
beginning again, he was more tormented than before, and was only
delivered from these haunting spectres when the two mummies, which he
had not seen, were thrown into the sea, and neither himself nor the
pilot knew of their being in the ship. I will not deny the fact, which
is related by a prince incapable of desiring to impose on any one. But
how many reflections may we make on this event! Were they the souls of
these two pagans, or two demons who assumed their form? What interest
could the demon have in not permitting these bodies to come under the
power of the Christians?
Footnotes:
[395] Greg. Mag. lib. iv. Dialog. c. 55.
[396] Cor. xi. 14.
[397] Rev. xxi. 14.
[398] Bodin, Daemon. tom. iii. c. 6.
[399] Rev. xxi. 27.
[400] Sulpit. Sever. Vita St. Martin. c. 5.
[401] Ratzivil, Peregrin, Jerosol. p. 218.