From this time the soul spoke no more, but it haunted everybody in the
convent and church. The brother Cordeliers exorcised it. Brother Peter
of Arras adopted a very awkward manner of conjuring it. He said to it:
"If thou art the soul of the late Madame de St. Memin, strike four
knocks;" and the four knocks were struck. "If thou are damned, strike
six knocks;" and the six knocks were struck. "If thou art still
tormented in hell, because thy body is buried in holy ground, knock six
more times;" and the other six knocks were heard still more distinctly.
"If we disinter thy body, and cease praying to God for thee, wilt thou
be the less damned? Strike five knocks to certify it to us;" and the
soul certified it by five knocks.
This interrogation of the soul, made by Peter of Arras, was signed by
twenty-two Cordeliers, at the head of which was the reverend father
provincial. This father provincial the next day asked it the same
questions, and received the same answers.
It will be said, that the soul having declared that it was in purgatory,
the Cordeliers should not have supposed that it was in hell; but it is
not my fault if theologians contradict one another.
The lord of St. Memin presented a request to the king against the father
Cordeliers. They presented a request on their sides; the king appointed
judges, at the head of whom was Adrian Fumée, master of requests.
The procureur-general of the commission required that the said
Cordeliers should be burned, but the sentence only condemned them to
make the "amende honorable" with a torch in their bosom, and to be
banished from the kingdom. This sentence is of February 18, 1535.
After such a vision, it is useless to relate any others: they are all a
species either of knavery or folly. Visions of the first kind are under
the province of justice; those of the second are either visions of
diseased fools, or of fools in good health. The first belong to
medicine, the second to Bedlam.
VISION OF CONSTANTINE.
Grave theologians have not failed to allege a specious reason to
maintain the truth of the appearance of the cross in heaven; but we are
going to show that these arguments are not sufficiently convincing to
exclude doubt; the evidences which they quote being neither persuasive
nor according with one another.
First, they produce no witnesses but Christians, the deposition of whom
may be suspected in the treatment of a fact which tended to prove the
divinity of their religion. How is it that no Pagan author has made
mention of this miracle, which was seen equally by all the army of
Constantine? That Zosimus, who seems to have endeavored to diminish the
glory of Constantine, has said nothing of it, is not surprising; but the
silence appears very strange in the author of the panegyric of
Constantine, pronounced in his presence at Trier; in which oration the
panegyrist expresses himself in magnificent terms on all the war against
Maxentius, whom this emperor had conquered.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account