This story, accompanied with horrible cries and howlings, frightened poor Jetzer out of the little wits he had, and engaged him to promise to do all in his power to deliver the Dominican from his torment. Upon this, the impostor told him, that nothing but the most extraordinary mortifications, such as the discipline of the whip, performed during eight days by the whole monastery, and Jetzer’s lying prostrate, in the form of one crucified, in the chapel, during mass, could contribute to his deliverance. He added, that the performance of these mortifications would draw down upon Jetzer the peculiar protection of the blessed virgin; and concluded by saying that he should appear to him again, accompanied with two other spirits. Morning was no sooner come, than Jetzer gave an account of this apparition to the rest of the convent, who all unanimously advised him to undergo the discipline that was enjoined; and every one consented to endure his share of the task imposed. The deluded simpleton obeyed, and was admired as a saint by the multitude that crowded about the convent, while the four friars, that managed the imposture, magnified, in the most pompous manner, the miracle of this apparition, in their sermons, and in their discourse. The night after, the apparition was renewed, with the addition of two impostors, dressed like devils; and Jetzer’s faith was augmented by hearing from the spectre all the secrets of his life and thoughts, which the impostors had learned from his confessor. In this, and some subsequent scenes, (the detail of whose enormities we shall here omit,) the impostor talked much to Jetzer of the Dominican order, which he said was peculiarly dear to the blessed virgin; he added, that the virgin knew herself to be conceived in original sin; that the doctors who taught the contrary were in purgatory; that the blessed virgin abhorred the Franciscans for making her equal with her Son; and that the town of Berne would be destroyed for harbouring such plagues within her walls. In one of these apparitions, Jetzer imagined that the voice of the spectre resembled that of the prior of the convent, and he was not mistaken; but, not suspecting a fraud, he gave little attention to this. The prior appeared in various forms, sometimes in that of St. Barbara, at others, in that of St. Bernard; at length, he assumed that of the virgin Mary; and, for that purpose clothed himself in the habits that were employed to adorn the statue of the virgin in the great festivals; the little images, that on these days are placed on the altars, were made use of for angels, which, being tied to a cord that passed through a pulley over Jetzer’s head, rose up and down, and danced about the pretended virgin to increase the delusion. The virgin thus equipped, addressed a long discourse to Jetzer, in which, among other things, she told him that she was conceived in original sin, though she had remained but a short time under that blemish.