The Phantom World; or, The philosophy of spirits, apparitions, &c, &c.Calmet, Augustin
Religion
The Phantom World; or, The philosophy of spirits, apparitions, &c, &c.
Calmet, Augustin
Apparitions; Demonology; Spirits
M. Remy[297], in his Demonology, speaks of several persons whose
causes he had heard in his quality of Lieutenant-General of Lorraine,
at the time when that country swarmed with wizards and witches; those
amongst them who believed they had received money from the demon,
found nothing in their purses but bits of broken pots, coals, or
leaves of trees, or other things equally vile and contemptible.
The Reverend Father Abram, a Jesuit, in his manuscript History of the
University of Pont a Mousson, reports that a youth of good family, but
small fortune, placed himself at first to serve in the army among the
valets and serving men: from thence his parents sent him to school,
but not liking the subjection which study requires, he quitted the
school and returned to his former kind of life. On his way he met a
man dressed in a silk coat, but ill-looking, dark, and hideous, who
asked him where he was going to, and why he looked so sad: "I am able
to set you at your ease," said this man to him, "if you will give
yourself to me."
The young man, believing that he wished to engage him as a servant,
asked for time to reflect upon it; but beginning to mistrust the
magnificent promises which he made him, he looked at him more
narrowly, and having remarked that his left foot was divided like that
of an ox, he was seized with affright, made the sign of the cross, and
called on the name of Jesus, when the spectre directly disappeared.
Three days after, the same figure appeared to him again, and asked him
if he had made up his mind; the young man replied that he did not want
a master. The spectre said to him, "Where are you going?" "I am going
to such a town," replied he. At that moment the demon threw at his
feet a purse which chinked, and which he found filled with thirty or
forty Flemish crowns, amongst which were about twelve which appeared
to be gold, newly coined, and as if from the stamps of the coiner. In
the same purse was a powder, which the spectre said was of a very
subtile quality.
At the same time, he gave him abominable counsels to satisfy the most
shameful passions; and exhorted him to renounce the use of holy water,
and the adoration of the host--which he called in derision that little
cake. The boy was horrified at these proposals, and made the sign of
the cross on his heart; and at the same time he felt himself thrown
roughly down on the ground, where he remained for half an hour, half
dead. Having got up again, he returned home to his mother, did
penance, and changed his conduct. The pieces of money which looked
like gold and newly coined, having been put in the fire, were found to
be only of copper.
I relate this instance to show that the demon seeks only to deceive
and corrupt even those to whom he makes the most specious promises,
and to whom he seems to give great riches.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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