APPARITIONS OF MEN STILL ALIVE, TO OTHER LIVING MEN, ABSENT, AND VERY
DISTANT FROM EACH OTHER.
We find in all history, both sacred and profane, ancient and modern,
an infinite number of examples of the apparition of persons alive to
other living persons. The prophet Ezekiel says of himself,[402] "I was
seated in my house, in the midst of the elders of my people, when on a
sudden a hand, which came from a figure shining like fire, seized me
by the hair; and the spirit transported me between heaven and earth,
and took me to Jerusalem, where he placed me near the inner gate,
which looks towards the north, where I saw the idol of jealousy"
(apparently Adonis), "and I there remarked the majesty of the Lord, as
I had seen it in the field; he showed me the idol of jealousy, to
which the Israelites burned incense; and the angel of the Lord said to
me: Thou seest the abominations which the children of Israel commit,
in turning away from my sanctuary; thou shalt see still greater.
"And having pierced the wall of the temple, I saw figures of reptiles
and animals, the abominations and idols of the house of Israel, and
seventy men of the elders of Israel, who were standing before these
figures, each one bearing a censer in his hand; after that the angel
said to me, Thou shalt see yet something yet more abominable; and he
showed me women who were mourning for Adonis. Lastly, having
introduced me into the inner court of the temple, I saw twenty men
between the vestibule and the altar, who turned their back upon the
temple of the Lord, and stood with their faces to the _east_, and paid
adoration to the rising sun."
Here we may remark two things; first, that Ezekiel is transported from
Chaldaea to Jerusalem, through the air between heaven and earth by the
hand of an angel; which proves the possibility of transporting a
living man through the air to a very great distance from the place
where he was.
The second is, the vision or apparition of those prevaricators who
commit even within the temple the greatest abominations, the most
contrary to the majesty of God, the sanctity of the spot, and the law
of the Lord. After all these things, the same angel brings back
Ezekiel into Chaldaea; but it was not until after God had showed him
the vengeance he intended to exercise upon the Israelites.
It will, perhaps, be said that all this passed only in a vision; that
Ezekiel thought that he was transported to Jerusalem and afterwards
brought back again to Babylon; and that what he saw in the temple he
saw only by revelation. I reply, that the text of this prophet
indicates a real removal, and that he was transported by the hair of
his head between heaven and earth. He was brought back from Jerusalem
in the same way.
I do not deny that the thing might have passed in a vision, and that
Ezekiel might have seen in spirit what was passing in the temple of
Jerusalem. But I shall still deduce from it a consequence which is
favorable to my design, that is, the possibility of a living man being
carried through the air to a very great distance from the place he was
in, or at least that a living man can imagine strongly that he is
being carried from one place to another, although this transportation
may be only imaginary and in a dream or vision, as they pretend it
happens in the transportation of sorcerers to the witches' sabbath.
In short, there are true appearances of the living to others who are
also alive. How is this done? The thing is not difficult to explain in
following the recital of the prophet, who is transferred from Chaldaea
into Judea in his own body by the ministration of angels; but the
apparitions related in St. Augustine and in other authors are not of
the same kind: the two persons who see and converse with each other go
not from their places; and the one who appears knows nothing of what
is passing in regard to him to whom he appears, and to whom he
explains several things of which he did not even think at that moment.
In the third book of Kings, Obadiah, steward of king Ahab, having met
the prophet Elijah, who had for some time kept himself concealed,
tells him that king Ahab had him sought for everywhere, and that not
having been able to discover him anywhere, had gone himself to seek
him out. Elijah desired him to go and tell the king that Elijah had
appeared; but Obadiah replied, "See to what you expose me; for if I go
and announce to Ahab that I have spoken to you, the spirit of God will
transport you into some unknown place, and the king, not finding you,
will put me to death."
There again is an instance which proves the possibility of the
transportation of a living man to a very distant spot. The same
prophet, being on Mount Carmel, was seized by the Spirit of God, which
transported him thence to Jezreel in very little time, not through the
air, but by making him walk and run with a promptitude that was quite
extraordinary.
In the Gospel, Elias[403] appeared with Moses on Mount Tabor, at the
transfiguration of the Saviour. Moses had long been dead; but the
Church believes that Elijah (or Elias) is still living. In the Acts of
the Apostles,[404] Annanias appeared to St. Paul, and put his hands on
him in a vision before he arrived at his house in Damascus.
Two men of the court of the Emperor Valens, wishing to discover by the
aid of magical secrets who would succeed that emperor,[405] caused a
table of laurel-wood to be made into a tripod, on which they placed a
basin made of divers metals. On the border of this basin were
engraved, at some distance from each other, the twenty-four letters of
the Greek alphabet. A magician with certain ceremonies approached the
basin, and holding in his hand a ring suspended by a thread, suffered
it at intervals to fall upon the letters of the alphabet whilst they
were rapidly turning the table; the ring falling on the different
letters formed obscure and enigmatical verses like those pronounced by
the oracle of Delphi.
At last they asked what was the name of him who should succeed to the
Emperor Valens? The ring touched the four letters [Greek: THEOD],
which they interpreted of Theodosius, the second secretary of the
Emperor Valens. Theodosius was arrested, interrogated, convicted, and
put to death; and with him all the culprits or accomplices in this
operation; search was made for all the books of magic, and a great
number were burnt. The great Theodosius, of whom they thought not at
all, and who was at a great distance from the court, was the person
designated by these letters. In 379, he was declared Augustus by the
Emperor Gratian, and in coming to Constantinople in 380, he had a
dream, in which it seemed to him that Melitus, Bishop of Antioch, whom
he had never seen, and knew only by reputation, invested him with the
imperial mantle and placed the diadem on his head.
They were then assembling the Eastern bishops to hold the Council of
Constantinople. Theodosius begged that Melitus might not be pointed
out to him, saying that he should recognize him by the signs he had
seen in his dream. In fact, he distinguished him amongst all the other
bishops, embraced him, kissed his hands, and looked upon him ever
after as his father. This was a distinct apparition of a living
man.[406]
St. Augustine relates[407] that a certain man saw, in the night before
he slept, a philosopher, who was known to him, enter his house, and
who explained to him some of Plato's opinions which he would not
explain to him before. This apparition of the Platonician was merely
fantastic; for the person to whom he had appeared having asked him why
he would not explain to him at his house what he had come to explain
to him when at home, the philosopher replied, "I did not do so, but I
dreamt I did so." Here, then, are two persons both alive, one of whom,
in his sleep and dreaming, speaks to another who is wide awake, and
sees him only in imagination.
The same St. Augustine[408] acknowledges in the presence of his people
that he had appeared to two persons who had never seen him, and knew
him only by reputation, and that he advised them to come to Hippo, to
be there cured by the merit of the martyr St. Stephen:--they came
there, and recovered their health.
Evodius, teaching rhetoric at Carthage,[409] and finding himself
puzzled concerning the sense of a passage in the books of the Rhetoric
of Cicero, which he was to explain the next day to his scholars, was
much disquieted when he went to bed, and could hardly get to sleep.
During his sleep he fancied he saw St. Augustine, who was then at
Milan, a great way from Carthage, who was not thinking of him at all,
and was apparently sleeping very quietly in his bed at Milan, who came
to him and explained the passage in question. St. Augustine avows that
he does not know how it happens; but in whatever way it may occur, it
is very possible for us to see in a dream a dead person as we see a
living one, without either one or the other knowing how, when, or
where, these images are formed in our mind. It is also possible that a
dead man may appear to the living without being aware of it, and
discover to them secrets and hidden things, the result of which
reveals their truth and reality. When a living man appears in a dream
to another man, we do not say that his body or his spirit have
appeared, but simply that such a one has appeared to him. Why can we
not say that the dead appear without body and without soul, but simply
that their form presents itself to the mind and imagination of the
living person?
St. Augustine, in the book which he has composed on the care which we
ought to take of the dead,[410] says that a holy monk, named John,
appeared to a pious woman, who ardently desired to see him. The
saintly doctor reasons a great deal on this apparition;--whether this
solitary foresaw what would happen to him; if he went in spirit to
this woman; if it is his angel or his spirit in his bodily form which
appeared to her in her sleep, as we behold in our dreams absent
persons who are known to us. We should be able to speak to the monk
himself, to know from himself how that occurred, if by the power of
God, or by his permission; for there is little appearance that he did
it by any natural power.
It is said that St. Simeon Stylites[411] appeared to his disciple St.
Daniel, who had undertaken the journey to Jerusalem, where he would
have to suffer much for Jesus Christ's sake. St. Benedict[412] had
promised to comply with the request of some architects, who had begged
him to come and show them how he wished them to build a certain
monastery; the saint did not go to them bodily, but he went thither in
spirit, and gave them the plan and design of the house which they were
to construct. These men did not comprehend that it was what he had
promised them, and came to him again to ask what were his intentions
relative to this edifice: he said to them, "I have explained it to you
in a dream; you can follow the plan which you have seen."
The Caesar Bardas, who had so mightily contributed to the deposition of
St. Ignatius, patriarch of Constantinople, had a vision, which he thus
related to Philothes his friend. "I thought I was that night going in
procession to the high church with the Emperor Michael. When we had
entered and were near the ambe, there appeared two eunuchs of the
chamber, with a cruel and ferocious mien, one of whom, having bound
the emperor, dragged him out of the choir on the right side; the other
dragged me in the same manner to the left. Then I saw on a sudden an
old man seated on the throne of the sanctuary. He resembled the image
of St. Peter, and two terrific men were standing near him, who looked
like provosts. I beheld, at the knees of St. Peter, St. Ignatius
weeping, and crying aloud, 'You have the keys of the kingdom of
heaven; if you know the injustice which has been done me, console my
afflicted old age.'
"St. Peter replied, 'Point out the man who has used you ill.'
Ignatius, turning round, pointed to me, saying, 'That is he who has
done me most wrong.' St. Peter made a sign to the one at his right,
and placing in his hand a short sword, he said to him aloud, 'Take
Bardas, the enemy of God, and cut him in pieces before the vestibule.'
As they were leading me to death, I saw that he said to the emperor,
holding up his hand in a threatening manner, 'Wait, unnatural son!'
after which I saw them cut me absolutely in pieces."
This took place in 866. The year following, in the month of April, the
emperor having set out to attack the Isle of Crete, was made so
suspicious of Bardas, that he resolved to get rid of him. He
accompanied the Emperor Michael in this expedition. Bardas, seeing the
murderers enter the emperor's tent, sword in hand, threw himself at
his feet to ask his pardon; but they dragged him out, cut him in
pieces, and in derision carried some of his members about at the end
of a pike. This happened the 29th of April, 867.
Roger, Count of Calabria and Sicily, besieging the town of Capua, one
named Sergius, a Greek by birth, to whom he had given the command of
200 men, having suffered himself to be bribed, formed the design of
betraying him, and of delivering the army of the count to the Prince
of Capua, during the night. It was on the 1st of March that he was to
execute his intention. St. Bruno, who then dwelt in the Desert of
Squilantia, appeared to Count Roger, and told him to fly to arms
promptly, if he would not be oppressed by his enemies. The count
starts from his sleep, commands his people to mount their horses and
see what is going on in the camp. They met the men belonging to
Sergius, with the Prince of Capua, who having perceived them retired
promptly into the town; those of Count Roger took 162 of them, from
whom they learned all the secret of the treason. Roger went, on the
29th of July following, to Squilantia, and having related to Bruno
what had happened to him, the saint said to him, "It was not I who
warned you; it was the angel of God, who is near princes in time of
war." Thus Count Roger relates the affair himself, in a privilege
granted to St. Bruno.
A monk[413] named Fidus, a disciple of St. Euthymius, a celebrated
abbot in Palestine, having been sent by Martyrius, the patriarch of
Jerusalem, on an important mission concerning the affairs of the
church, embarked at Joppa, and was shipwrecked the following night; he
supported himself above water for some time by clinging to a piece of
wood, which he found by chance. Then he invoked the help of St.
Euthymius, who appeared to him walking on the sea, and who said to
him, "Know that this voyage is not pleasing to God, and will be of no
utility to the mother of the Churches, that is to say, to Jerusalem.
Return to him who sent you, and tell him from me not to be uneasy at
the separation of the schismatics--union will take place ere long; for
you, you must go to my laurel grove, and you must build there a
monastery."
Having said this, he enveloped Fidus in his mantle, and Fidus found
himself immediately at Jerusalem, and in his house, without knowing
how he came there; he related it all to the Patriarch Martyrius, who
remembered the prediction of St. Euthymius concerning the building in
the laurel grove a monastery.
Queen Margaret, in her memoirs, asserts that God protects the great in
a particular manner, and that he lets them know, either in dreams or
otherwise, what is to happen to them. "As Queen Catherine de Medicis,
my mother," says she, "who the night before that unhappy day dreamt
she saw the king, Henry II., my father, wounded in the eye, as it
really happened; when she awoke she several times implored the king
not to tilt that day.
"The same queen being dangerously ill at Metz, and having around her
bed the king (Charles IX.), my sister, and brother of Lorraine, and
many ladies and princesses, she cried out as if she had seen the
battle of Jarnac fought: 'See how they fly! my son has the victory! Do
you see the Prince of Conde dead in that hedge?' All those who were
present fancied she was dreaming; but the night after, M. de Losse
brought her the news. 'I knew it well,' said she; 'did I not behold it
the day before yesterday?'"
The Duchess Philippa, of Gueldres, wife of the Duke of Lorraine, Rene
II., being a nun at St. Claire du Pont-a-Mousson, saw during her
orisons the unfortunate battle of Pavia. She cried out suddenly, "Ah!
my sisters, my dear sisters, for the love of God, say your prayers; my
son De Lambesc is dead, and the king (Francis I.) my cousin is made
prisoner." Some days after, news of this famous event, which happened
the day on which the duchess had seen it, was received at Nancy.
Certainly, neither the young Prince de Lambesc nor the king Francis I.
had any knowledge of this revelation, and they took no part in it. It
was, then, neither their spirit nor their phantoms which appeared to
the princess; it was apparently their angel, or God himself, who by
his power struck her imagination, and represented to her what was
passing at that moment.
Mezeray affirms that he had often heard people of quality relate that
the duke (Charles the Third) of Lorraine, who was at Paris when King
Henry II. was wounded with the splinter of a lance, of which he died,
told the circumstance often of a lady who lodged in his hotel having
seen in a dream, very distinctly, that the king had been struck and
brought to the ground by a blow from a lance.
To these instances of the apparition of living persons to other living
persons in their sleep, we may add an infinite number of other
instances of apparitions of angels and holy personages, or even of
dead persons, to the living when asleep, to give them instructions,
warn them of dangers which menace them, inspire them with salutary
counsel relative to their salvation, or to give them aid; thick
volumes might be composed on such matters. I shall content myself with
relating here some examples of those apparitions drawn from profane
authors.
Xerxes, king of Persia, when deliberating in council whether he should
carry the war into Greece, was strongly dissuaded from it by
Artabanes, his paternal uncle. Xerxes took offence at this liberty,
and uttered some very disobliging words to him. The following night he
reflected seriously on the arguments of Artabanes, and changed his
resolution. When he was asleep, he saw in a dream a man of
extraordinary size and beauty, who said to him, "You have then
renounced your intention of making war on the Greeks, although you
have already given orders to the Persian chiefs to assemble your army.
You have not done well to change your resolve, even should no one be
of your opinion. Go forward; believe me. Follow your first design."
Having said this, the vision disappeared. The next day he again
assembled his council, and without speaking of his dream, he testified
his regret for what he said in his rage the preceding day to his uncle
Artabanes, and declared that he had renounced his design of making war
upon the Greeks. Those who composed the council, transported with joy,
prostrated themselves before him, and congratulated him upon it.
The following night he had a second time the same vision, and the same
phantom said to him, "Son of Darius, thou hast then abandoned thy
design of declaring war against the Greeks, regardless of what I said
to thee. Know that if thou dost not instantly undertake this
expedition, thou wilt soon be reduced to a situation as low as that in
which thou now findest thyself elevated." The king directly rose from
his bed, and sent in all haste for Artabanes, to whom he related the
two dreams which he had had two nights consecutively. He added, "I
pray you to put on my royal ornaments, sit down on my throne, and then
lie down in my bed. If the phantom which appeared to me appears to you
also, I shall believe that the thing is ordained by the decrees of the
gods, and I shall yield to their commands."
Artabanes would in vain have excused himself from putting on the royal
ornaments, sitting on the king's throne, and lying down in his bed,
alleging that all those things would be useless if the gods had
resolved to let him know their will; that it would even be more likely
to exasperate the gods, as if he desired to deceive them by external
appearances. As for the rest, dreams in themselves deserve no
attention, and usually they are only the consequences and
representations of what is most strongly in the mind when awake.
Xerxes did not yield to his arguments, and Artabanes did what the king
desired, persuaded that if the same thing should occur more than once,
it would be a proof of the will of the gods, of the reality of the
vision, and the truth of the dream. He then laid down in the king's
bed, and the same phantom appeared to him, and said, "It is you, then,
who prevent Xerxes from executing his resolve and accomplishing what
is decreed by fate. I have already declared to the king what he has to
fear if he disobeys my orders." At the same time it appeared to
Artabanes that the spectre would burn his eyes with a red-hot iron. He
directly sprang from the couch, and related to Xerxes what had
appeared to him and what had been said to him, adding, "I now
absolutely change my opinion, since it pleases the gods that we should
make war, and that the Greeks be threatened with great misfortunes;
give your orders and dispose everything for this war:"--which was
executed immediately.
The terrible consequences of this war, which was so fatal to Persia,
and at last caused the overthrow of that famous monarchy, leads us to
judge that this apparition, if a true one, was announced by an evil
spirit, hostile to that monarchy, sent by God to dispose things for
events predicted by the prophets, and the succession of great empires
predestined by the decrees of the Almighty.
Cicero remarks that two Arcadians, who were traveling together,
arrived at Megara, a city of Greece, situated between Athens and
Corinth. One of them, who could claim hospitality in the town, was
lodged at a friend's, and the other at an inn. After supper, he who
was at a friend's house retired to rest. In his sleep, it seemed to
him that the man whom he had left at the inn appeared to him, and
implored his help, because the innkeeper wanted to kill him. He arose
directly, much alarmed at this dream, but having reassured himself,
and fallen asleep again, the other again appeared to him, and told him
that since he had not had the kindness to aid him, at least he must
not leave his death unpunished; that the innkeeper, after having
killed him, had hidden his body in a wagon, and covered it over with
dung, and that he must not fail to be the next morning at the opening
of the city gate, before the wagon went forth. Struck with this new
dream, he went early in the morning to the city gate, saw the wagon,
and asked the driver what he had got under the manure. The carter took
flight directly, the body was extricated from the wagon, and the
innkeeper arrested and punished.
Cicero relates also some other instances of similar apparitions which
occurred in sleep; one is of Sophocles, the other of Simonides. The
former saw Hercules in a dream, who told him the name of a robber who
had taken a golden patera from his temple. Sophocles neglected this
notice, as an effect of disturbed sleep; but Hercules appeared to him
a second time, and repeated to him the same thing, which induced
Sophocles to denounce the robber, who was convicted by the Areopagus,
and from that time the temple was dedicated to Hercules the Revealer.
The dream or apparition of Simonides was more useful to himself
personally. He was on the point of embarking, when he found on the
shore the corpse of an unknown person, as yet without sepulture.
Simonides had him interred, from humanity. The next night the dead man
appeared to Simonides, and, through gratitude, counseled him not to
embark in the vessel then riding in the harbor, because he would be
shipwrecked if he did. Simonides believed him, and a few days after,
he heard of the wreck of the vessel in which he was to have embarked.
John Pico de la Mirandola assures us in his treatise, _De Auro_, that
a man, who was not rich, finding himself reduced to the last
extremity, and without any resources either to pay his debts or
procure nourishment for a numerous family in a time of scarcity,
overcome with grief and uneasiness, fell asleep. At the same time, one
of the blessed appeared to him in a dream, taught him by some
enigmatical words the means of making gold, and pointed out to him at
the same moment the water he must make use of to succeed in it. On his
awaking, he took some of that water, and made gold of it, in small
quantity, indeed, but enough to maintain his family. He made some
twice with iron, and three times with orpiment. "He has convinced me
by my own eyes," says Pico de la Mirandola, "that the means of making
gold artificially is not a falsehood, but a true art."
Here is another sort of apparition of one living man to another, which
is so much the more singular, because it proves at once the might of
spells, and that a magician can render himself invisible to several
persons, while he discovers himself to one man alone. The fact is
taken from the Treatise on Superstitions, of the reverend father Le
Brun,[414] and is characterized by all which can render it
incontestible. On Friday, the first day of May, 1705, about five
o'clock in the evening, Denis Misanger de la Richardiere, eighteen
years of age, was attacked with an extraordinary malady, which began
by a sort of lethargy. They gave him every assistance that medicine
and surgery could afford. He fell afterwards into a kind of furor or
convulsion, and they were obliged to hold him, and have five or six
persons to keep watch over him, for fear that he should throw himself
out of the windows, or break his head against the wall. The emetic
which they gave him made him throw up a quantity of bile, and for four
or five days he remained pretty quiet.
At the end of the month of May, they sent him into the country to take
the air; and some other circumstances occurred, so unusual, that they
judged he must be bewitched. And what confirmed this conjecture was
that he never had any fever, and retained all his strength,
notwithstanding all the pains and violent remedies which he had been
made to take. They asked him if he had not had some dispute with a
shepherd, or some other person suspected of sorcery or malpractices.
He declared that on the 18th of April preceding, when he was going
through the village of Noysi on horseback for a ride, his horse
stopped short in the midst of the _Rue Feret_, opposite the chapel,
and he could not make him go forward, though he touched him several
times with the spur. There was a shepherd standing leaning against the
chapel, with his crook in his hand, and two black dogs at his side.
This man said to him, "Sir, I advise you to return home, for your
horse will not go forward." The young La Richardiere, continuing to
spur his horse, said to the shepherd, "I do not understand what you
say." The shepherd replied, in a low tone, "I will make you
understand." In effect, the young man was obliged to get down from his
horse, and lead it back by the bridle to his father's dwelling in the
same village. Then the shepherd cast a spell upon him, which was to
take effect on the 1st of May, as was afterwards known.
During this malady, they caused several masses to be said in different
places, especially at St. Maur des Fosses, at St. Amable, and at St.
Esprit. Young La Richardiere was present at some of these masses
which were said at St. Maur; but he declared that he should not be
cured till Friday, the 26th of June, on his return from St. Maur. On
entering his chamber, the key of which he had in his pocket, he found
there that shepherd, seated in his arm-chair, with his crook, and his
two black dogs. He was the only person who saw him; none other in the
house could perceive him. He said even that this man was called Damis,
although he did not remember that any one had before this revealed his
name to him. He beheld him all that day, and all the succeeding night.
Towards six o'clock in the evening, as he felt his usual sufferings,
he fell on the ground, exclaiming that the shepherd was upon him, and
crushing him; at the same time he drew his knife, and aimed five blows
at the shepherd's face, of which he retained the marks. The invalid
told those who were watching over him that he was going to be very
faint at five different times, and begged of them to help him, and
move him violently. The thing happened as he had predicted.
On Friday, the 26th of June, M. de la Richardiere, having gone to the
mass at St. Maur, asserted that he should be cured on that day. After
mass, the priest put the stole upon his head and recited the Gospel of
St. John, during which prayer the young man saw St. Maur standing, and
the unhappy shepherd at his left, with his face bleeding from the five
knife-wounds which he had given him. At that moment, the youth cried
out, unintentionally, "A miracle! a miracle!" and asserted that he was
cured, as in fact he was.
On the 29th of June, the same M. de la Richardiere returned to Noysi,
and amused himself with shooting. As he was shooting in the vineyards,
the shepherd presented himself before him; he hit him on the head with
the butt-end of his gun. The shepherd cried out, "Sir, you are killing
me!" and fled. The next day, this man presented himself again before
him, and asked his pardon, saying, "I am called Damis; it was I who
cast a spell over you which was to have lasted a year. By the aid of
masses and prayers which have been said for you, you have been cured
at the end of eight weeks. But the charm has fallen back upon myself,
and I can be cured of it only by a miracle. I implore you then to pray
for me."
During all these reports, the _mare chausee_ had set off in pursuit of
the shepherd; but he escaped them, having killed his two dogs and
thrown away his crook. On Sunday, the 13th of September, he came to M.
de la Richardiere, and related to him his adventure; that after having
passed twenty years without approaching the sacraments, God had given
him grace to confess himself at Troyes; and that after divers delays
he had been admitted to the holy communion. Eight days after, M. de la
Richardiere received a letter from a woman who said she was a relation
of the shepherd's, informing him of his death, and begging him to
cause a requiem mass to be said for him, which was done.
How many difficulties may we make about this story! How could this
wretched shepherd cast the spell without touching the person? How
could he introduce himself into young M. de la Richardiere's chamber
without either opening or forcing the door? How could he render
himself visible to him alone, whilst none other beheld him? Can one
doubt of his corporeal presence, since he received five cuts from a
knife in his face, of which he afterwards bore the marks, when, by the
merit of the holy mass and the intercession of the saints, the spell
was taken off? How could St. Maur appear to him in his Benedictine
habit, having the wizard on his left hand? If the circumstance is
certain, as it appears, who shall explain the manner in which all
passed or took place?
Footnotes:
[402] Ezek. viii. 1, 2, &c.
[403] Matt. xvii. 3.
[404] Acts ix. 10.
[405] Acts ix. 2.
[406] Ammian. Marcell. lib. xix. Sozomen. lib. vi. c. 35.
[407] Aug. lib. viii. de Civit. c. 18.
[408] Aug. Serm. cxxiii. pp. 1277, 1278.
[409] Aug. de cura gerenda pro Mortuis, c. 11, 12.
[410] Aug. de cura gerend. pro Mort. c. xxvii. p. 529.
[411] Vita Daniel Stylit. xi. Decemb.
[412] Gregor. lib. ii. Dialog. c. xxii.
[413] Vita Sancti Euthym. pp. 86, 87.
[414] Le Brun, Traite des Superstit. tom. i. pp. 281, 282, et seq.