This doctor, reasoning on the fact,[238] says, that it proves nothing at all for Sister Seraphina; but the thing well verified proves God and the devil--that is to say, the whole of religion; that the circumstance being proved, is of very great consequence to religion; that the world is full of certain persons who believe only what cannot be doubted; that the great heresy of the world is no longer Calvinism and Lutheranism, but atheism. There are all sorts of atheists--some real, others pretended; some determined, others vacillating, and others tempted to be so. We ought not to neglect this kind of people; the grace of God is all-powerful; we must not despair of bringing them back by good arguments, and by solid and convincing proofs. Now, if these facts are certain, we must conclude that there is a God, or bad angels who imitate the works of God, and perform by themselves or their subordinates works capable of deceiving even the elect. One of the oldest instances I remark of persons thus raised from the ground without any one touching them, is that of St. Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, who died in 988, and who, a little time before his death, as he was going up stairs to his apartment, accompanied by several persons, was observed to rise from the ground; and as all present were astonished at the circumstance, he took occasion to speak of his approaching death.[239] Trithemius, speaking of St. Elizabeth, Abbess of Schonau, in the diocese of Treves, says that sometimes she was in an ecstatic trance, so that she would remain motionless and breathless during a long time. In these intervals, she learned, by revelation and by the intercourse she had with blessed spirits, admirable things; and when she revived, she would discourse divinely, sometimes in German, her native language, sometimes in Latin, though she had no knowledge of that language. Trithemius did not doubt her sincerity and the truth of her discourse. She died in 1165. St. Richard, Abbot of S. Vanne de Verdun, appeared in 1036 elevated from the ground while he was saying mass in presence of the Duke Galizon, his sons, and a great number of lords and soldiers. In the last century, the reverend Father Dominic Carme Dechaux, was raised from the ground before the King of Spain, the queen, and all the court, so that they had only to blow upon his body to move it about like a soap-bubble.[240] Footnotes: [225] Matt. iv. 5. [226] Dan. xiv. 33, 34. Douay Version. [227] Acts viii. 40. [228] Joan. Diacon. Vit. Gregor. Mag. [229] Lettre de M. G. P. R., 5th October, 1746. [230] On the 26th of May, of the Bollandists, c. xx. n. 356, 357. [231] Acta S. J. Bolland. 3 Jul. p. 95. [232] Ibid. 31 Jul. pp. 432, 663. [233] Acta S. J. Bolland, 21 Aug. pp. 469, 481. [234] Ibid. 18 Aug. p. 503. [235] Ibid. 17 Aug. p. 255. [236] Ibid. 4 Aug. p. 405. [237] Vita S. Christina. 24 Jul. Bolland. pp. 652, 653. [238] Nicole, tom. i. Letters, pp. 203, 205. Letter xlv.