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Table of contents
INTRODUCTION.
PREFACE.
CHAPTER I.
CHAPTER II.
CHAPTER III.
CHAPTER IV.
CHAPTER V.
CHAPTER VI.
CHAPTER VII.
CHAPTER VIII.
CHAPTER IX.
CHAPTER X.
CHAPTER XI.
CHAPTER XII.
CHAPTER XIII.
CHAPTER XIV.
CHAPTER XV.
CHAPTER XVI.
CHAPTER XVII.
CHAPTER XVIII.
CHAPTER XIX.
CHAPTER XX.
CHAPTER XXI.
CHAPTER XXII.
CHAPTER XXIII.
CHAPTER XXIV.
CHAPTER XXV.
CHAPTER XXVI.
CHAPTER XXVII.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
CHAPTER XXIX.
CHAPTER XXX.
CHAPTER XXXI.
CHAPTER XXXII.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
CHAPTER XXXV.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
CHAPTER XL.
CHAPTER XLI.
CHAPTER XLII.
CHAPTER XLIII.
CHAPTER XLIV.
CHAPTER XLV.
CHAPTER XLVI.
CHAPTER XLVII.
CHAPTER XLVIII.
CHAPTER XLIX.
CHAPTER L.
CHAPTER LI.
CHAPTER LII.
CHAPTER LIII.
CHAPTER LIV.
CHAPTER LV.
CHAPTER LVI.
CHAPTER LVII.
CHAPTER LVIII.
CHAPTER LIX.
CHAPTER LX.
CHAPTER LXI.
CHAPTER LXII.
CHAPTER LXIII.
Approbation.
LETTER OF M. THE MARQUIS MAFFEI
INTRODUCTION.
Among
the many phases presented by human credulity, few are more
interesting than those which regard the realities of the invisible
world. If the opinions which have been held on this subject were
written and gathered together they would form hundreds of volumes—if
they were arranged and digested they would form a few, but most
important. It is not merely because there is in almost every human
error a substratum of truth, and that the more important the subject
the more important the substratum, but because the investigation will
give almost a history of human aberrations, that this otherwise
unpromising topic assumes so high an interest. The superstitions of
every age, for no age is free from them, will present the popular
modes of thinking in an intelligible and easily accessible form, and
may be taken as a means of gauging (if the expression be permitted)
the philosophical and metaphysical capacities of the period. In this
light, the volumes here presented to the reader will be found of
great value, for they give a picture of the popular mind at a time of
great interest, and furnish a clue to many difficulties in the
ecclesiastical affairs of that era. In the time of Calmet, cases of
demoniacal possession, and instances of returns from the world of
spirits, were reputed to be of no uncommon occurrence. The church was
continually called on to exert her powers of exorcism; and the
instances gathered by Calmet, and related in this work, may be taken
as fair specimens of the rest. It is then, first, as a storehouse of
facts, or reputed facts, that Calmet compiled the work now in the
reader's hands—as the foundation on which to rear what
superstructure of system they pleased; and secondly, as a means of
giving his own opinions, in a detached and desultory way, as the
subjects came under his notice. The value of the first will consist
in their
evidence—and
of this the reader will be as capable of judging as the compiler;
that of the second will depend on their truth—and of this, too, we
are as well, and in some respects better, able to judge than Calmet
himself. Those accustomed to require rigid evidence will be but ill
satisfied with the greater part of that which will be found in this
work; simple assertion for the most part suffices—often first made
long after the facts, or supposed facts, related, and not
unfrequently far off from the places where they were alleged to have
taken place. But these cases are often the
best
authenticated, for in the more modern ones there is frequently such
an evident mistake in the whole nature of the case, that all the
spiritual deductions made from it fall to the ground.Not
a few instances of so-called demoniacal possession are capable of
being resolved into cataleptic trance, a state not unlike that
produced by mesmerism, and in which many of the same phenomena seem
naturally to display themselves; the well-known instance of the young
servant girl, related by Coleridge, who, though ignorant and
uneducated, could during her sleep-walking discourse learnedly in
rabbinical Hebrew, would furnish a case in point. The circumstance of
her old master having been in the habit of walking about the house at
night, reading from rabbinical books aloud and in a declamatory
manner; the impression made by the strange sounds upon her youthful
imagination; their accurate retention by a memory, which, however,
could only reproduce them in an abnormal condition—all teach us
many most interesting psychological facts, which, had this young girl
fallen into other hands, would have been useless in a philosophical
point of view, and would have been only used to establish the
doctrine of diabolical possession and ecclesiastical exorcism. We
should have been told how skilled was the fallen angel in rabbinical
tradition, and how wholesome a terror he entertained of the Jesuits,
the Capuchins, or the
Fratres Minimi,
as the case might be. Not a few of the most remarkable cases of
supposed
modern
possession are to be accounted for by involuntary or natural
mesmerism. Indeed the same view seems to be taken by a popular
minister of the church (Mr. Mac Niel), in our own day, viz., that
mesmerism and diabolical possession are frequently identical. Our
difference with him is that we should consider the cases called by
the two names as all natural, and he would consider them as all
supernatural. And here, to avoid misconception, or rather
misinterpretation, let me at once observe, that I speak thus of
modern
and
recorded
cases only, accepting
literally
all related in the New Testament, and not presuming to say that
similar cases
might
not occur now. Calmet, however, may be supposed to have collected all
the most remarkable of modern times, and I am compelled to say I
believe not one of them. But when we pass from the evidence of truth,
in which they are so wanting, to the evidence of fraud and collusion
by which many are so characterized, we shall have less wonder at the
general spread of infidelity in times somewhat later, on all subjects
not susceptible of ocular demonstration. Where a system claimed to be
received as a whole, or not at all, it is hardly to be wondered at
that when some portion was manifestly wrong, its own requirements
should be complied with, and the whole rejected. The system which
required an implicit belief in such absurdities as those related in
these volumes, and placed them on a level with the most awful
verities of religion, might indeed make some interested use of them
in an age of comparative darkness, but certainly contained within
itself the seeds of destruction, and which could not fail to
germinate as soon as light fell upon them. The state of Calmet's own
mind, as revealed in this book, is curious and interesting. The
belief
of the intellect
in much which he relates is evidently gone, the belief
of the will
but partially remains. There is a painful sense of uncertainty as to
whether certain things
ought
not to be received more fully than he felt himself able to receive
them, and he gladly follows in many cases the example of Herodotus of
old, merely relating stories without comment, save by stating that
they had not fallen under his own observation.The
time, indeed, had hardly come to assert freedom of belief on subjects
such as these. Theology embraced philosophy, and the Holy Inquisition
defended the orthodoxy of both; and if the investigators of Calmet's
day were permitted to hold, with some limitation, the Copernican
theory, it was far otherwise with regard to the world of spirits, and
its connection with our own. The rotundity of the earth affected
neither shrines nor exorcisms; metaphysical truth might do both one
and the other; and the cry of "Great is Diana of the Ephesians,"
was not raised in the capital of Asia Minor, till the "craft by
which we get our wealth" was proved to be in danger.Reflections
such as these are painfully forced on us by the evident fraud
exhibited by many of the actors in the scenes of exorcism narrated by
Calmet, the vile purposes to which the services of the church were
turned, and the recklessness with which the supposed or pretended
evil, and equally pretended remedy, were used for political intrigue
or state oppression.Independent
of these conclusions, there is something lamentable in a state of the
public mind, which was so little prone to examination as to receive
such a mass of superstition without sifting the wheat, for such there
undoubtedly is, from the chaff. Calmet's work contains enough, had we
the minor circumstances in each case preserved, to set at rest many
philosophic doubts, and to illustrate many physical facts; and to
those who desire to know what was believed by our Christian
forefathers, and why it was believed, the compilation is absolutely
invaluable. Calmet was a man of naturally cool, calm judgment,
possessed of singular learning, and was pious and truthful. A short
sketch of his life will not, perhaps, be unacceptable to the reader.Augustine
Calmet was born in the year 1672, at a village near Commerci, in
Lorraine. He early gave proofs of aptitude for study, and an
opportunity was speedily offered of devoting himself to a life of
learning. In his sixteenth year he became a Benedictine of the
Congregation of St. Vannes, and prosecuted his theological and such
philosophical studies as the time allowed with great success. He was
soon appointed to teach the younger portion of the community, and
gave in this employment such decided satisfaction to his superiors,
that he was soon marked for preferment. His chief study was the
Scriptures; and in the twenty-second year of his age, a period
unusually early, in an age when all benefices and beneficial
employments were matters of sale, he was appointed to be sub-prior of
the monastery of Munster, in Alsace, where he presided over an
academy. This academy consisted of ten or twelve monks, and its
object was the investigation of Scripture. Calmet was not idle in his
new position; besides communicating so much valuable information as
to make his pupils the best biblical scholars of the country, he made
extensive collections for his Commentary on the Old and New
Testaments, and for his still more celebrated work, the History of
the Bible. These materials he subsequently digested and arranged. The
Commentary, a work of immense value, was published in separate
volumes from 1707 to 1716. His labors attracted renewed and increased
attention, and the offer of a bishopric was made to him, which he
unhesitatingly declined.In
1718, he was elected to the abbacy of St. Leopold, in Nancy; and ten
years afterwards, to that of Senones, where he spent the remainder of
his days. His writings are numerous—two have been already
mentioned—and so great was the popularity attained by his
Commentaries, that they have been translated into no fewer than six
languages within ten years. It exhibits a favorable aspect of the
author's mind, and gives a very high idea of his erudition. One cause
which tended greatly to its universal acceptability, was its singular
freedom from sectarian bitterness. Protestants as well as Romanists
may use it with equal satisfaction; and accordingly, it is considered
a work of standard authority in England as much as on the continent.In
addition to these Commentaries, and his History of the Bible, and
Fragments, (the best edition of which latter work in English, is by
Isaac Taylor,) he wrote the "Ecclesiastical and Civil History of
Lorraine;" "A Catalogue of the Writers of Lorraine;"
"Universal History, Sacred and Profane;" a small collection
of Reveries; and a work entitled, "A Literal, Moral, and
Historical Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict," a work which
is full of curious information on ancient customs, particularly
ecclesiastical. He is among the few, also, who have written on
ancient music. He lived to a good old age; and died regretted and
much respected in 1757.Of
all his works, the one presented here to the reader, is perhaps the
most popular; it went rapidly through many editions, and received
from the author's hand continual corrections and additions. To say
that it is characterized by uniform judgment, would be to give it a
praise somewhat different as well as somewhat greater than that which
it merits. It is a vast repertory of legends, more or less probable;
some of which have very little foundation—and some which Calmet
himself would have done well to omit, though
now,
as a picture of the belief entertained in that day, they greatly add
to the value of the book. For the same reasons which have caused the
retention of these passages, no alterations have been made in the
citations from Scripture, which being translations from the Vulgate,
necessarily differ in phraseology from the version in use among
ourselves. The apocryphal books too are quoted, and the story of Bel
and the Dragon referred to as a part of the prophecy of Daniel; but
what is of consequence to observe, is, that
doctrines
are founded on these translations, and on those very points in which
they differ from our own.If
the history of popery, and especially that form and development of it
exhibited in the monastic orders, be ever written, this work will be
of the greatest importance:—it will show the means by which
dominion was obtained over the minds of the ignorant; how the most
sacred mysteries were perverted; and frauds, which can hardly be
termed pious, used to support institutions which can scarcely be
called religious. That the spirits of the dead should be permitted to
return to earth, under circumstances the most grotesque, to support
the doctrines of masses for the dead, purgatory and propitiatory
penance; that demons should be exorcised to give testimony to the
merits of rival orders of monks and friars; that relics, many of them
supposititious, and many of the most disgusting and blasphemous
character, should have power to affect the eternal state of the
departed; and that
all
saints, angels, demons, and the ghosts of the departed, should
support, with great variations indeed, the corrupt dealings of a
corrupt priesthood—form a creed worthy of the darkest and most
unworthy days of heathenism.There
is, however, one excuse, or rather palliation, for the superstition
of that time. In periods of great public depravity—and few epochs
have been more depraved than that in which Calmet lived—Satan has
great power. With a ruler like the regent Duke of Orleans, with a
Church governor like Cardinal Dubois, it would appear that the civil
and ecclesiastical authority of France had sold itself, like Ahab of
old, to work wickedness; or, as the apostle says, "to work all
uncleanness with greediness." In an age so characterized, it
does not seem at all improbable that portentous events should from
time to time occur; that the servants of the devil should be
strengthened together with their master; that many should be given
over to strong delusions and to believe a lie; and that the evil part
of the invisible world should be permitted to ally itself more
closely with the men of an age so congenial. Real cases of demoniacal
possession might, perhaps, be met with, and though scarcely amenable
to the exorcisms of a clergy so corrupt as that of France in that
day, they would yet justify a belief in the reality of those cases
got up for the sake of filthy lucre, personal ambition, or private
revenge. If the public mind was prepared for a belief in such cases,
there were not wanting men to turn it to profitable account; and the
quiet student who believed the efficacy of the means used, and was
scarcely aware of the wickedness of the age in which he lived, might
easily be induced to credit the tales told him of demons expelled by
the power of a church, to which in the beginning an authority to do
so had undoubtedly been given, and whose awful corruptions were to
him at least greatly veiled.Calmet
was a man of great integrity and considerable acumen, but he passed
an innocent and exemplary life in studious seclusion; he mixed little
with the world at large, resided remote "from courts, and camps,
and strife of war or peace;" and there appears occasionally in
his writings a kind of nervous apprehension lest the dogmas of the
church to which he was pledged should be less capable than he could
wish of satisfactory investigation. When he meets with tales like
those of the vampires or vroucolacas, which concern only what he
considered a heretical church, and with which, therefore, he might
deal according to his own will—apply to them the ordinary rules of
evidence, and treat them as mundane affairs—there he is
clear-sighted, critical and acute, and accordingly he discusses the
matter philosophically and logically, and concludes without fear of
sinning against the church, that the whole is delusion. When, on the
other hand, he has to deal with cases of demoniacal possession, in
countries under the rule of the Roman hierarchy, he contents himself
with the decisions of the scholastic divines and the opinions of the
fathers, and makes frequent references to the decrees of various
provincial parliaments. The effects of such a state of mind upon
scientific and especially metaphysical investigation, may be easily
imagined, and are to be traced more or less distinctly in every page
of the work before us.To
conclude: books like this—the "Disquisitiones Magicæ" of
Delrio, the "Demonomanie" of Bodin, the "Malleus
Maleficarum" of Sprengel, and the like, are at no time to be
regarded merely as subjects of amusement; they have their
philosophical value; they have a still greater historical value; and
they show how far even upright minds may be warped by imperfect
education, and slavish deference to authority.The
edition here followed is that of 1751, which contains the latest
corrections of the author, and several additional pieces, which are
all included in the present volumes.Sion
College, London Wall,
PREFACE.
Every
age, every nation, every country has its prejudices, its maladies,
its customs, its inclinations, which characterize them, and which
pass away, and succeed to one another; often that which has appeared
admirable at one time, becomes pitiful and ridiculous at another. We
have seen that in some ages all was turned towards a certain kind of
devotion, of studies and of exercises. It is known that, for more
than one century, the prevailing taste of Europe was the journey to
Jerusalem. Kings, princes, nobles, bishops, ecclesiastics, monks, all
pressed thither in crowds. The pilgrimages to Rome were formerly very
frequent and very famous. All that is fallen away. We have seen
provinces over-run with flagellants, and now none of them remain
except in the brotherhoods of penitents which are still found in
several parts.We
have seen in these countries jumpers and dancers, who every moment
jumped and danced in the streets, squares or market-places, and even
in the churches. The convulsionaries of our own days seem to have
revived them; posterity will be surprised at them, as we laugh at
them now. Towards the end of the sixteenth and at the beginning of
the seventeenth century, nothing was talked of in Lorraine but
wizards and witches. For a long time we have heard nothing of them.
When the philosophy of M. Descartes appeared, what a vogue it had!
The ancient philosophy was despised; nothing was talked of but
experiments in physics, new systems, new discoveries. M. Newton
appears; all minds turn to him. The system of M. Law, bank notes, the
rage of the Rue Quinquampoix, what movements did they not cause in
the kingdom? A sort of convulsion had seized on the French. In this
age, a new scene presents itself to our eyes, and has done for about
sixty years in Hungary, Moravia, Silesia, and Poland: they see, it is
said, men who have been dead for several months, come back to earth,
talk, walk, infest villages, ill use both men and beasts, suck the
blood of their near relations, make them ill, and finally cause their
death; so that people can only save themselves from their dangerous
visits and their hauntings by exhuming them, impaling them, cutting
off their heads, tearing out the heart, or burning them. These
revenans
are called by the name of oupires or vampires, that is to say,
leeches; and such particulars are related of them, so singular, so
detailed, and invested with such probable circumstances and such
judicial information, that one can hardly refuse to credit the belief
which is held in those countries, that these
revenans
come out of their tombs and produce those effects which are
proclaimed of them.Antiquity
certainly neither saw nor knew anything like it. Let us read through
the histories of the Hebrews, the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the
Latins; nothing approaching to it will be met with.It
is true that we remark in history, though rarely, that certain
persons after having been some time in their tombs and considered as
dead, have returned to life. We shall see even that the ancients
believed that magic could cause death and evoke the souls of the
dead. Several passages are cited, which prove that at certain times
they fancied that sorcerers sucked the blood of men and children, and
caused their death. They saw also in the twelfth century in England
and Denmark, some
revenans
similar to those of Hungary. But in no history do we read anything so
usual or so pronounced, as what is related to us of the vampires of
Poland, Hungary, and Moravia.Christian
antiquity furnishes some instances of excommunicated persons who have
visibly come out of their tombs and left the churches, when the
deacon commanded the excommunicated, and those who did not partake of
the communion, to retire. For several centuries nothing like this has
been seen, although it is known that the bodies of several
excommunicated persons who died while under sentence of
excommunication and censure of the Church are buried in churches.The
belief of the modern Greeks, who will have it that the bodies of the
excommunicated do not decay in their tombs or graves, is an opinion
which has no foundation, either in antiquity, in good theology, or
even in history. This idea seems to have been invented by the modern
Greek schismatics, only to authorize and confirm them in their
separation from the church of Rome. Christian antiquity believed, on
the contrary, that the incorruptibility of a body was rather a
probable mark of the sanctity of the person and a proof of the
particular protection of God, extended to a body which during its
lifetime had been the temple of the Holy Spirit, and of one who had
retained in justice and innocence the mark of Christianity.The
vroucolacas of Greece and the Archipelago are again
revenans
of a new kind. We can hardly persuade ourselves that a nation so
witty as the Greeks could fall into so extraordinary an opinion.
Ignorance or prejudice, must be extreme among them since neither an
ecclesiastic nor any other writer has undertaken to undeceive them.The
imagination of those who believe that the dead chew in their graves,
with a noise similar to that made by hogs when they eat, is so
ridiculous that it does not deserve to be seriously refuted. I
undertake to treat here on the matter of the
revenans
or vampires of Hungary, Moravia, Silesia, and Poland, at the risk of
being criticised however I may discuss it; those who believe them to
be true, will accuse me of rashness and presumption, for having
raised a doubt on the subject, or even of having denied their
existence and reality; others will blame me for having employed my
time in discussing this matter which is considered as frivolous and
useless by many sensible people. Whatever may be thought of it, I
shall be pleased with myself for having sounded a question which
appeared to me important in a religious point of view. For if the
return of vampires is real, it is of import to defend it, and prove
it; and if it is illusory, it is of consequence to the interests of
religion to undeceive those who believe in its truth, and destroy an
error which may produce dangerous effects.
CHAPTER I.
THE
RESURRECTION OF A DEAD PERSON IS THE WORK OF GOD ONLY.After
having treated in a separate dissertation on the matter of the
apparitions of angels, demons, and disembodied souls, the connection
of the subject invites me to speak also of the ghosts and
excommunicated persons, whom, it is said, the earth rejects from her
bosom; of the vampires of Hungary, Silesia, Bohemia, Moravia, and
Poland; and of the vroucolacas of Greece. I shall report first of
all, what has been said and written of them; then I shall deduce some
consequences, and bring forward the reasons or arguments that may be
adduced for, and against, their existence and reality.The
revenans
of Hungary, or vampires, which form the principal object of this
dissertation, are men who have been dead a considerable time,
sometimes more, sometimes less; who leave their tombs, and come and
disturb the living, sucking their blood, appearing to them, making a
racket at their doors, and in their houses, and lastly, often causing
their death. They are named vampires, or oupires, which signifies,
they say, in Sclavonic, a leech. The only way to be delivered from
their haunting, is to disinter them, cut off their head, impale them,
burn them, or pierce their heart.Several
systems have been propounded to explain the return, and these
apparitions of the vampires. Some persons have denied and rejected
them as chimerical, and as an effect of the prepossession and
ignorance of the people of those countries, where they are said to
come back or return.Others
have thought that these people were not really dead, but that they
had been interred alive, and returned naturally to themselves, and
came out of their tombs.Others
believe that these people are very truly dead, but that God, by a
particular permission, or command, permits or commands them to come
back to earth, and resume for a time their own body; for when they
are exhumed, their bodies are found entire, their blood vermilion and
fluid, and their limbs supple and pliable.Others
maintain that it is the demon who causes these
revenans
to appear, and by their means does all the harm he occasions both men
and animals.In
the supposition that vampires veritably resuscitate, we may raise an
infinity of difficulties on the subject. How is this resurrection
accomplished? It is by the strength of the
revenant,
by the return of his soul into his body? Is it an angel, is it a
demon who reanimates it? Is it by the order, or by the permission of
God that he resuscitates? Is this resurrection voluntary on his part,
and by his own choice? Is it for a long time, like that of the
persons who were restored to life by Jesus Christ? or that of persons
resuscitated by the Prophets and Apostles? Or is it only momentary,
and for a few days and a few hours, like the resurrection operated by
St. Stanislaus upon the lord who had sold him a field; or that spoken
of in the life of St. Macarius of Egypt, and of St. Spiridion, who
made the dead to speak, simply to bear testimony to the truth, and
then left them to sleep in peace, awaiting the last, the judgment
day.First
of all, I lay it down as an undoubted principle, that the
resurrection of a person really dead is effected by the power of God
alone. No man can either resuscitate himself, or restore another man
to life, without a visible miracle.Jesus
Christ resuscitated himself, as he had promised he would; he did it
by his own power; he did it with circumstances which were all
miraculous. If he had returned to life as soon as he was taken down
from the cross, it might have been thought that he was not quite
dead, that there remained yet in him some remains of life, that they
might have been revived by warming him, or by giving him cordials and
something capable of bringing him back to his senses.But
he revives only on the third day. He had, as it were, been killed
after his death, by the opening made in his side with a lance, which
pierced him to the heart, and would have put him to death, if he had
not then been beyond receiving it.When
he resuscitated Lazarus,[445]
he waited until he had been four days in the tomb, and began to show
corruption; which is the most certain mark that a man is really
deceased, without a hope of returning to life, except by supernatural
means.The
resurrection which Job so firmly expected,[446]
and that of the man who came to life, on touching the body of the
prophet Elisha in his tomb;[447]
and the child of the widow of Shunem, whom the same Elisha restored
to life;[448]
that army of skeletons, whose resurrection was predicted by
Ezekiel,[449]
and which in spirit he saw executed before his eyes, as a type and
pledge as the return of the Hebrews from their captivity at
Babylon;—in short, all the resurrections related in the sacred
books of the Old and New Testament, are manifestly miraculous
effects, and attributed solely to the Almighty power of God. Neither
angels, nor demons, nor men, the holiest and most favored of God,
could by their own power restore to life a person really dead. They
can do it by the power of God alone, who when he thinks proper so to
do, is free to grant this favor to their prayers and intercession.Footnotes:[445]
John xi. 39.[446]
Job xxi. 25.[447]
1 Kings xiii. 21, 22.[448]
2 Kings iv.[449]
Ezek. xxxvii. 1, 2, 3.
CHAPTER II.
ON
THE REVIVAL OF PERSONS WHO WERE NOT REALLY DEAD.
The
resuscitation of some persons who were believed to be dead, and who
were not so, but simply asleep, or in a lethargy; and of those who
were supposed to be dead, having been drowned, and who came to life
again through the care taken of them, or by medical skill. Such
persons must not pass for being really resuscitated; they were not
dead, or were so only in appearance.
We
intend to speak in this place of another order of resuscitated
persons, who had been buried sometimes for several months, or even
several years; who ought to have been suffocated in their graves, had
they been interred alive, and in whom are still found signs of life:
the blood in a liquid state, the flesh entire, the complexion fine
and florid, the limbs flexible and pliable. Those persons who return
either by night or by day, disturb the living, suck their blood, kill
them, appear in their clothes, in their families, sit down to table,
and do a thousand other things; then return to their graves without
any one seeing how they re-enter them. This is a kind of momentary
resurrection, or revival; for whereas the other dead persons spoken
of in Scripture have lived, drank, eaten and conversed with other men
after their return to life, as Lazarus, the brother of Mary and
Martha,[450]
and the son of the widow of Shunem, resuscitated by Elisha.[451]
These appeared during a certain time, in certain places, in certain
circumstances; and appear no more as soon as they have been impaled,
or burned, or have had their heads cut off.
If
this last order of resuscitated persons were not really dead, there
is nothing wonderful in their revisiting the world, except the manner
in which it is done, and the circumstances by which that return is
accompanied. Do these
revenans
simply awaken from their sleep, or do they recover themselves like
those who fall down in syncope, in fainting fits, or in swoons, and
who at the end of a certain time come naturally to themselves when
the blood and animal spirits have resumed their natural course and
motion.
But
how can they come out of their graves without opening the earth, and
how re-enter them again without its appearing? Have we ever seen
lethargies, or swoons, or syncopes last whole years together? If
people insist on these resurrections being real ones, did we ever see
dead persons resuscitate themselves, and by their own power?
If
they are not resuscitated by themselves, is it by the power of God
that they have left their graves? What proof is there that God has
anything to do with it? What is the object of these resurrections? Is
it to show forth the works of God in these vampires? What glory does
the Divinity derive from them? If it is not God who drags them from
their graves, is it an angel? is it a demon? is it their own spirit?
Can the soul when separated from the body re-enter it when it will,
and give it new life, were it but for a quarter of an hour? Can an
angel or a demon restore a dead man to life? Undoubtedly not, without
the order, or at least the permission of God. This question of the
natural power of angels and demons over human bodies has been
examined in another place, and we have shown that neither revelation
nor reason throws any certain light on the subject.
Footnotes:
[450]
1 John xii. 2.
[451]
2 Kings viii. 5.
CHAPTER III.
REVIVAL
OF A MAN WHO HAD BEEN INTERRED FOR THREE YEARS, AND WAS RESUSCITATED
BY ST. STANISLAUS.All
the lives of the saints are full of resurrections of the dead; thick
volumes might be composed on the subject.These
resurrections have a manifest relation to the matter which we are
here treating of, since it relates to persons who are dead, or held
to be so, who appear bodily and animated to the living, and who live
after their return to life. I shall content myself with relating the
history of St. Stanislaus, Bishop of Cracow, who restored to life a
man that had been dead for three years, attended by such singular
circumstances, and in so public a manner, that the thing is beyond
the severest criticism. If it is really true, it must be regarded as
one of the most unheard of miracles which are read of in history.
They assert that the life of this saint was written either at the
time of martyrdom,[452]
or a short time afterwards, by different well-informed authors; for
the martyrdom of the saint, and, above all, the restoration to life
of the dead man of whom we are about to speak, were seen and known by
an infinite number of persons, by all the court of king Boleslaus.
And this event having taken place in Poland, where vampires are
frequently met with even in our days, it concerns, for that reason,
more particularly the subject we are treating.The
bishop, St. Stanislaus, having bought of a gentleman, named Pierre,
an estate situated on the banks of the Vistula, in the territory of
Lublin, for the profit of his church at Cracow, gave the price of it
to the seller, in the presence of witnesses, and with the solemnities
requisite in that country, but without written deeds, for they then
wrote but seldom in Poland on the occasion of sales of this kind;
they contented themselves with having witnesses. Stanislaus took
possession of this estate by the king's authority, and his church
enjoyed it peaceably for about three years.In
the interim, Pierre, who had sold it, happened to die. The king of
Poland, Boleslaus, who had conceived an implacable hatred against the
holy bishop, because he had freely reproved him for his excesses,
seeking occasion to cause him trouble, excited against him the three
sons of Pierre, and his heirs, and told them to claim the estate
which their father had sold, on pretence of its not having been paid
for. He promised to support their demand, and to cause it to be
restored to them. Thus these three gentlemen had the bishop cited to
appear before the king, who was then at Solech, occupied in rendering
justice under some tents in the country, according to the ancient
custom of the land, in the general assembly of the nation. The bishop
was cited before the king, and maintained that he had bought and paid
for the estate in question. The day was beginning to close, and the
bishop ran great risk of being condemned by the king and his
counselors. Suddenly, as if inspired by the Divine Spirit, he
promised the king to bring him in three days Pierre, of whom he had
bought it, and the condition was accepted mockingly, as a thing
impossible to be executed.The
holy bishop repairs to Pictravin, remains in prayer, and keeps fast
with his household for three days; on the third day he goes in his
pontifical robes, accompanied by his clergy and a multitude of
people, causes the grave-stone to be raised, and makes them dig until
they found the corpse of the defunct all fleshless and corrupted. The
saint commands him to come forth and bear witness to the truth before
the king's tribunal. He rises; they cover him with a cloak; the saint
takes him by the hand, and leads him alive to the feet of the king.
No one had the boldness to interrogate him; but he took the word, and
declared that he had in good faith sold the estate to the prelate,
and that he had received the value of it; after which he severely
reprimanded his sons, who had so maliciously accused the holy bishop.Stanislaus
asked Pierre if he wished to remain alive to do penance. He thanked
him, and said he would not anew expose himself to the danger of
sinning. Stanislaus reconducted him to his tomb, and being arrived
there, he again fell asleep in the Lord. It may be supposed that such
a scene had an infinite number of witnesses, and that all Poland was
quickly informed of it. The king was only the more irritated against
the saint. He some time after killed him with his own hand, as he was
coming from the altar, and had his body cut into seventy-two parts,
in order that they might never more be collected together in order to
pay them the worship which was due to them as the body of a martyr
for the truth and for pastoral liberty.Now
then let us come to that which is the principal subject of these
researches, the vampires, or
revenans,
of Hungary, Moravia, and similar ones, which appear only for a little
time in their natural bodies.Footnotes:[452]
The reverend fathers the Bollandists, believed that the life of St.
Stanislaus, which they had printed, was very old, and nearly of the
time of the martyrdom of the saint; or at least that it was taken
from a life by an author almost his cotemporary, and original. But
since the first edition of this dissertation it has been observed to
me that the thing was by no means certain; that M. Baillet, on the
7th of May, in the critical table of authors, asserts that the life
of St. Stanislaus was only written 400 years after his death, from
uncertain and mutilated memoirs. And in the life of the saint he owns
that it is only the tradition of the writers of the country which can
render credible the account of the resurrection of Pierre. The Abbé
Fleuri, tom. xiii. of the Ecclesiastical History, l. 62, year 1079,
does not agree either to what is written in that life or to what has
followed it. At any rate, the miracle of the resurrection of Pierre
is related as certain in a discourse of John de Polemac, delivered at
the Council of Constance, 1433; tom. xii. Councils, p. 1397.
CHAPTER IV.
CAN
A MAN WHO IS REALLY DEAD APPEAR IN HIS OWN BODY?
If
what is related of vampires were certainly true, the question here
proposed would be frivolous and useless; they would reply to us
directly—In Hungary, Moravia, and Poland, persons who were dead and
interred a long time, have been seen to return, to appear, and
torment men and animals, suck their blood, and cause their death.
These
persons come back to earth in their own bodies; people see them, know
them, exhume them, try them, impale them, cut off their heads, burn
them. It is then not only possible, but very true and very real, that
they appear in their own bodies.
It
might be added in support of this belief, that the Scriptures
themselves give instances of these apparitions: for example, at the
Transfiguration of our Saviour, Elias and Moses appeared on Mount
Tabor,[453]
there conversing with Jesus Christ. We know that Elias is still
alive. I do not cite him as an instance; but in regard to Moses, his
death is not doubtful; and yet he appeared bodily talking with Jesus
Christ. The dead who came out of their graves at the resurrection of
the Saviour,[454]
and who appeared to many persons in Jerusalem, had been in their
sepulchres for several years; there was no doubt of their being dead;
and nevertheless they appeared and bore testimony to the resurrection
of the Saviour.
When
Jeremiah appeared to Judas Maccabæus,[455]
and placed in his hand a golden sword, saying to him, "Receive
this sword as a gift from God, with which you will vanquish the
enemies of my people of Israel;" it was apparently this prophet
in his own person who appeared to him and made him that present,
since by his mien he was recognized as the prophet Jeremiah.
I
do not speak of those persons who were really restored to life by a
miracle, as the son of the widow of Shunem resuscitated by Elijah;
nor of the dead man who, on touching the coffin of the same prophet,
rose upon his feet and revived; nor of Lazarus, to whom Jesus Christ
restored life in a way so miraculous and striking. Those persons
lived, drank, ate, and conversed with mankind, after, as before their
death and resurrection.
It
is not of such persons that we now speak. I speak, for instance, of
Pierre resuscitated by Stanislaus for a few hours; of those persons
of whom I made mention in the treatise on the Apparitions of Spirits,
who appeared, spoke, and revealed hidden things, and whose
resurrection was but momentary, and only to manifest the power of
God, in order to bear witness to truth and innocence, or to maintain
the credit of the church against obstinate heretics, as we read in
various instances.
St.
Martin, being newly made Archbishop of Tours, conceived some
suspicions against an altar which the bishops his predecessors had
erected to a pretended martyr, of whom they knew neither the name nor
the history, and of whom none of the priests or ministers of the
chapel could give any certain account. He abstained for some time
from going to this spot, which was not far from the city; but one day
he repaired thither accompanied by a few monks, and having prayed, he
besought God to let him know who it was that was interred there. He
then perceived on his left a hideous and dirty-looking apparition;
and having commanded it to tell him who he was, the spectre declared
his name, and confessed to him that he was a robber, who had been put
to death for his crimes and acts of violence, and that he had nothing
in common with the martyrs. Those who were present heard distinctly
what he said, but saw no one. St. Martin had the tomb overthrown, and
cured the ignorant people of their superstitions.
The
philosopher Celsus, writing against the Christians, maintained that
the apparitions of Jesus Christ to his apostles were not real, but
that they were simply shadowy forms which appeared. Origen, retorting
his reasoning, tells him[456]
that the pagans give an account of various apparitions of Æsculapius
and Apollo, to which they attribute the power of predicting future
events. If these appearances are admitted to be real, because they
are attested by some, why not receive as true those of Jesus Christ,
which are related by ocular witnesses, and believed by millions of
persons?
He
afterwards relates this history. Aristeus, who belonged to one of the
first families of Proconnesus, having one day entered a foulon shop,
died there suddenly. The having locked the door, ran directly to
inform the relations of the deceased; but as the report was instantly
spread in the town, a man of Cyzica, who came from Astacia, affirmed
that it could not be, because he had met Aristeus on the road from
Cyzica, and had spoken to him, which he loudly maintained before all
the people of Proconnesus.
Thereupon
the relations arrive at the foulon's, with all the necessary
apparatus for carrying away the body; but when they entered the
house, they could not find Aristeus there, either dead or alive.
Seven years after, he showed himself in the very town of Proconnesus;
made there those verses which are termed Arimaspean, and then
disappeared for the second time. Such is the story related of him in
those places.
Three
hundred and forty years after that event, the same Aristeus showed
himself in Metapontus, in Italy, and commanded the Metapontines to
build an altar to Apollo, and afterwards to erect a statue in honor
of Aristeus of Proconnesus, adding that they were the only people of
Italy whom Apollo had honored with his presence; as for himself who
spoke to them, he had accompanied that god in the form of a crow; and
having thus spoken he disappeared.
The
Metapontines sent to consult the oracle of Delphi concerning this
apparition; the Delphic oracle told them to follow the counsel which
Aristeus had given them, and it would be well for them; in fact, they
did erect a statue to Apollo, which was still to be seen there in the
time of Herodotus;[457]
and at the same time, another statue to Aristeus, which stood in a
small plantation of laurels, in the midst of the public square of
Metapontus. Celsus made no difficulty of believing all that on the
word of Herodotus, though Pindar and he refused credence to what the
Christians taught of the miracles wrought by Jesus Christ, related in
the Gospel and sealed with the blood of martyrs. Origen adds, What
could Providence have designed in performing for this Proconnesian
the miracles we have just mentioned? What benefit could mankind
derive from them? Whereas, what the Christians relate of Jesus Christ
serves to confirm a doctrine which is beneficial to the human race.
We must, then, either reject this story of Aristeus as fabulous, or
ascribe all that is told of it as the work of the evil spirit.
Footnotes:
[453]
Matt. ix. 34.
[454]
Matt. xxvii. 53.
[455]
Macc. xiv. 14, 15.
[456]
Origen. contra Celsum, lib. i. pp. 123, 124.
[457]
Herodot. lib. iv.
