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found it so. 'She, rising from her bed, sat down to supper, and from below there was such a knocking up as
bred fear to all that were present. This knocking was just under her chair, where it was not possible for any
mortal to knock up.' When Miss Wilson went to bed, and was in a deep sleep, 'her body was so lifted up that
many strong men were not able to keep it down'. {114a} The explanation about cracking the knee-joints
hardly covers the levitations, or accounts for the tremendous noise which surrounded Sister Anthoinette at
matins, or for the bright light, a common spiritualistic phenomenon. Margaret Wilson was about twelve years
of age. If it be alleged that little girls have a traditional method of imposture, even that is a curious and
interesting fact in human nature.
As regards imposture, there exists a singular record of a legal process in Paris, 1534. {114b}
It may have been observed that the Lyons affair was useful to the Church, as against 'the damnable sect of
Lutherans,' because Sister Alix attested the existence of purgatory. No imposture was detected, and no reader
of Montalembert can doubt his good faith, nor the sincerity of his kindness and piety. But such a set of
circumstances might provoke imitation. Of fraudulent imitation the Franciscans of Orleans were accused, and
for this crime they were severely punished. We have the Arrest des Commissaires du Conseil d'État du Roi,
from MS. 7170, A. of the Bibliothèque du Roi. {115} We have also allusions in the Franciscanus, a satire in
Latin hexameter by George Buchanan. Finally, we have versions in Lavaterus, and in Wierus, De Curat.
Laes. Maleficio (Amsterdam, 1660, p. 422). Wierus, born 1515, heard the story when with Sleidan at Orleans,
some years after the events. He gives the version of Sleidan, a notably Protestant version. Wierus is famous
for his spirited and valuable defence of the poor women then so frequently burned as witches. He either does,
or pretends to believe in devils, diabolical possession, and exorcism, but the exorcist, to be respectable, must
be Protestant. Probably Wierus was not so credulous as he assumes to be, and a point of irony frequently
peeps out. The story as told by Sleidan differs from that in the official record. In this document Adam Fumée
counsellor of the king, announces that the Franciscans of Orleans have informed the king that they are vexed
by a spirit, which gives itself out by signs (rappings), as the wife of François de St. Mesmin, Provost of
Orleans. They ask the king to take cognisance of the matter. On the other side, St. Mesmin declares that the
Franciscans have counterfeited the affair in hope of 'black-mailing' him. The king, therefore, appoints Fumée
to inquire into the case. Thirteen friars are lying in prison in Paris, where they have long been 'in great
wretchedness and poverty, and perishing of hunger,' a pretty example of the law's delay. A commission is to
try the case (November, 1534). The trouble had begun on February 22, 1533 (old style), when Father Pierre
d'Arras at five a.m. was called into the dormitory of 'les enfans,' novices, with holy water and everything
proper. Knocking was going on, and by a system of knocks, the spirit said it wanted its body to be taken out
of holy ground, said it was Madame St Mesmin, and was damned for Lutheranism and extravagance! The
experiment was repeated before churchmen and laymen, but the lay observers rushed up to the place whence
the knocks came where they found nothing. They hid some one there, after which there was no knocking. On
a later day, the noises as in Cock Lane and elsewhere, began by scratching. M. l'Official, the bishop's vicar,
'ouit gratter, qui etoit le commencement de ladite accoutummée tumulte dudit Esprit'. But no replies were
given to questions, which the Franciscans attributed to the disturbance of the day before, and the breaking into
various places by the people. One Alicourt seems to have been regarded as the 'medium,' and the sounds were
heard as in Cock Lane and at Tedworth when he was in bed. Later experiments gave no results, and the friars
COMPARATIVE PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 41
Cock Lane and Common-Sense
were severely punished, and obliged to recant their charges against Madame de Mesmin. The case, scratches,
raps, false accusations and all, is parallel to that of the mendacious 'Scratching Fanny,' examined by Dr.
Johnson and Douglas, Bishop of Salisbury. In that affair the child was driven by threats to make counterfeit
noises, but, as to the method of imposture at Orleans, nothing is said in the contemporary legal document.
We now turn to the account by Sleidan, in Wierus. The provost's wife had left directions for a cheap funeral
in the Franciscan Church. This economy irritated the Fathers, who only got six pieces of gold, 'having
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