Freaks of Fanaticism, and Other Strange EventsBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Religion
Freaks of Fanaticism, and Other Strange Events
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
History; Mysticism; Patarines
As soon as the high priestess had come out of the room where she had
been examined by the amtmann, she went to her own bed-chamber, where
boards had been laid over the gaps between the rafters broken by the
axes and picks, during the night. Elizabeth, Susanna, Ursula, and
the maid sat or stood round her and prayed.
At eight o'clock, the father and his son, Caspar, rejoined her, also
her eldest sister, Barbara, arrived from Trüllikon. The servant,
Heinrich, formed one more in the re-assembled community, and the
ensuing night was passed in prayer and spiritual exercises. These
were not conducted in quiet. To the exhortations of Margaret,
both Elizabeth and the housemaid entreated that the devil might be
beaten out of them. But now Ursula interfered, as the poor girl
Elizabeth had been badly bruised in her bosom by the blows she had
received on the preceding night. When the Saturday morning dawned,
Margaret stood up on her bed and said, "I see the many souls seeking
salvation through me. They must be assisted; would that a sword were
in my hand that I might fight for them." A little later she said,
with a sigh of relief, "The Lamb has conquered. Go to your work."
Tranquillity lasted for but a few hours. Magdalena, Moser's wife,
had arrived, together with her husband and Conrad. The only one
missing was the dearly beloved Jacob, who was far on his way
homeward to Illnau and his hardly used wife, Regula.
At ten o'clock, the old father, his five daughters, his son, the two
brothers, John and Conrad Moser, Ursula Kündig, the maid Jäggli, and
the man Heinrich Ernst, twelve in all, were assembled in the upper
room.
Margaret and Elizabeth sat side by side on the bed, the latter
half stupified, looking fixedly before her, Margaret, however, in
a condition of violent nervous surrexitation. Many of the weapons
used in wrecking the furniture lay about; among these were the
large hammer, and an iron wedge used for splitting wood. All there
assembled felt that something extraordinary was about to happen.
They had everyone passed the line that divides healthy common-sense
from mania.
Margaretta now solemnly announced, "I have given a pledge for many
souls that Satan may not have them. Among these is the soul of my
brother Caspar. But I cannot conquer in the strife for him without
the shedding of blood." Thereupon she bade all present recommence
beating themselves with their fists, so as to expel the devil, and
they executed her orders with wildest fanaticism.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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