The Other World; or, Glimpses of the Supernatural (Vol. 1 of 2): Being Facts, Records, and Traditions Relating to Dreams, Omens, Miraculous Occurrences, Apparitions, Wraiths, Warnings, Second-sight, Witchcraft, Necromancy, etc.
Religion
The Other World; or, Glimpses of the Supernatural (Vol. 1 of 2): Being Facts, Records, and Traditions Relating to Dreams, Omens, Miraculous Occurrences, Apparitions, Wraiths, Warnings, Second-sight, Witchcraft, Necromancy, etc.
Spiritualism; Supernatural
“Sire, by the commandment of Your Majestie, we have set down briefely and
truly that which wee have found in our visiting of Martha Brossier.... We
present the same unto Your Majestie without any art, without any painted
show, without any flourish, but with a naked Simplicitie, the faithful
companion of Truth, which you have desired from us in this matter and
which you have always loved and curiously sought.” The Report then
continues: “We the undersigned Doctors Regents in the facultie of
physicke in the Universitie of Paris, touching the matter of Martha
Brossier, a maide of the age of two-and-twenty yeres or thereabouts, born
at Romorantin in Berry, who was brought unto us in the chappel of my Lord
of Saint Genefue [Geneviève], and who we saw sometimes in constitution,
countenance and speech as a person sounde of bodie and minde, ... do say
in our consciences, and certify that which followeth: that all which is
before set down (referring to the character of her fits) must be referred
to one of these three causes--sicknesse, counterfeiting, or diabolicall
possession. For the opinion that it proceedeth from sicknesse, we are
clerely excluded from that, for the agitations and motions we observed
therein doe retain nothing of the nature of sickness, nay not of those
diseases whereunto of the first sight they might have resembled; it being
neither an epilepsie or falling sickness, which always supposes the loss
of sense and judgment, nor the passion which we call hysterica, ... nor
any of the foure motions proceeding from diseases, that is to say,
shivering, trembling, panting, and convulsion, or indeede if there doe
appeare any convulsion; and that a man will so call the turning up of her
eyes, the gnashing of her teeth, the writhing of her chaps (which are
almost ordinarie with this maide while she is in her fittes); the
confidence which the priest hath when he openeth her mouth, and holdeth it
open with his finger within it, testifying sufficiently that they doe not
proceede from, nor are caused by, any disease, considering that in
diseases he that hath a convulsion is not master of that part or member
wherein it is, having neither any power of election or command over it,
and particularly which is in the convulsion of the jawes, which is most
violent of all the rest, the finger of the priest should bee no more
respected nor spared than the finger of any other man. Moreover, diseases,
and the motions also of diseases (especially those that are violent),
leave the body feeble, the visage pale, and the breath panting. This
maide, at the end of her fittes, was found to be as little moved and
changed in pulse, colour, countenance, and breath, as ever she was before;
yea, which is the more to be noted, as little at the end of her exorcisme
as at the beginning, at evening as in the morning, at the last day as at
the first. Touching the point of counterfeiting, the insensibilitie of her
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