Who, after this, dares to doubt of the resuscitated dead, with which our
ancient legends are filled, and of all the miracles related by
Bollandus, and the sincere and revered Dom Ruinart? You will find
stories of vampires in the "Jewish Letters" of d'Argens, whom the Jesuit
authors of the "Journal of Trévoux" have accused of believing nothing.
It should be observed how they triumph in the history of the vampire of
Hungary; how they thanked God and the Virgin for having at last
converted this poor d'Argens, the chamberlain of a king who did not
believe in vampires. "Behold," said they, "this famous unbeliever, who
dared to throw doubts on the appearance of the angel to the Holy Virgin;
on the star which conducted the magi; on the cure of the possessed; on
the immersion of two thousand swine in a lake; on an eclipse of the sun
at the full moon; on the resurrection of the dead who walked in
Jerusalem--his heart is softened, his mind is enlightened; he believes
in vampires."
There no longer remained any question, but to examine whether all these
dead were raised by their own virtue, by the power of God, or by that of
the devil. Several great theologians of Lorraine, of Moravia, and
Hungary, displayed their opinions and their science. They related all
that St. Augustine, St. Ambrose, and so many other saints, had most
unintelligibly said on the living and the dead. They related all the
miracles of St. Stephen, which are found in the seventh book of the
works of St. Augustine. This is one of the most curious of them: In the
city of Aubzal in Africa, a young man was crushed to death by the ruins
of a wall; the widow immediately invoked St. Stephen, to whom she was
very much devoted. St. Stephen raised him. He was asked what he had seen
in the other world. "Sirs," said he, "when my soul quitted my body, it
met an infinity of souls, who asked it more questions about this world
than you do of the other. I went I know not whither, when I met St.
Stephen, who said to me, 'Give back that which thou hast received.' I
answered, 'What should I give back? you have given me nothing.' He
repeated three times, 'Give back that which thou hast received.' Then I
comprehended that he spoke of the credo; I repeated my credo to him, and
suddenly he raised me." Above all, they quoted the stories related by
Sulpicius Severus, in the life of St. Martin. They proved that St.
Martin, with some others, raised up a condemned soul.
But all these stories, however true they might be, had nothing in common
with the vampires who rose to suck the blood of their neighbors, and
afterwards replaced themselves in their coffins. They looked if they
could not find in the Old Testament, or in the mythology, some vampire
whom they could quote as an example; but they found none. It was proved,
however, that the dead drank and ate, since in so many ancient nations
food was placed on their tombs.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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