II.
Although he had instituted the tribunal of examination towards the end of July, still, before permitting it to begin its work, Mgr. Laurence desired a more peaceful state of the public mind. "To wait," he thought, "will not compromise God's work, since he holds all time in his hands." The issue proved that he was right. For after the stormy discussions of the French press and the violent proceedings of Baron Massy, the grotto finally became free, and there was no longer fear of the scandal of seeing police agents arresting the episcopal commission on its way to the Massabielle rocks in order to fulfil its duty, and examine the traces of God's finger at the very place of the apparition.
On the 17th of November, the commission went to Lourdes. They examined the seer. "Bernadette," says the procès-verbal of the secretary, "presented herself before us with great modesty, and, nevertheless, with remarkable confidence. She appeared calm and unembarrassed in the midst of the numerous assembly, in presence of distinguished ecclesiastics, whom she had never seen, but of whose mission she had been made aware."
She described the apparitions, the words of the Blessed Virgin, the order given by Mary to build a chapel in her honor, the sudden breaking out of the fountain, the name, "Immaculate Conception," which the vision had given to itself. She set forth all that was personal to herself in this supernatural drama with the grave certainty of a witness fully convinced, and the humble candor of a child. She answered every question, and left no obscurity in the mind of those who interrogated her, no longer in the name of man, as Jacomet had done, but in the name of the Catholic Church. Our readers are already aware of the substance of her testimony. We have, in former pages, narrated events in the order of their date. The commission visited the Massabielle rocks. It beheld the great volume of the miraculous fountain. It established, by the testimony of the neighboring inhabitants, that no spring existed there before the time when it broke forth in the presence of the multitudes under the hand of the ecstatic seer.
At Lourdes and in other places they made studious inquiry into the miraculous cures worked by the water of the grotto.
In this delicate task there were two parts, entirely distinct. Human testimony determined the facts themselves; but their natural or supernatural character depended, for the most part, on the verdict of medical science. The method followed by the tribunal was inspired by this twofold thought.
Throughout the dioceses of Lourdes, Auch, and Bayonne, the commission summoned before it the subjects of these singular cures. It cross-examined the minutest details of their sickness, and their sudden or gradual restoration to health. It brought in human science to put those technical questions of which theologians, perhaps, would not have thought. It summoned the relations, friends, neighbors, and other witnesses of the different phases of the event, to confirm evidence. Having once come to a certainty of all details, it submitted facts to the judgment of two eminent physicians admitted as colleagues. These physicians were Dr. Vergès, superintendent of the baths at Barèges, Fellow of the Medical Faculty of Montpellier, and Dr. Dozous, who had already, out of private interest, given his attention to several of these strange incidents. Each physician gave in his report his personal opinion regarding the nature of the cure, sometimes rejecting the miracle, and attributing the cessation of disease to certain natural causes; at other times declaring its utter inexplicability without the action of a supernatural power; and, lastly, sometimes not arriving at any conclusion, but remaining in doubt as to the true explanation. Thus prepared by the double knowledge of facts and the conclusion of science with respect to them, the commission deliberated, and finally pronounced its judgment to the bishop, and submitted the evidence.
The commission had not and could not have any preconceived opinions. Believing on principle in the supernatural, which is always to be met with in the history of the world, it knew, also, that nothing so tends to discredit the true miracles of God as false prodigies worked by men. Equally indisposed to deny or affirm anything prematurely, having no brief to sustain either for or against the miracle, it was confined strictly to the task of examination and sought only the truth. It appealed to every source of light and information, and acted in full view of the public.
It was as open to unbelievers as to those who believed. Resolved to discard remorselessly all that was vague or uncertain, and to accept only incontestable facts, it rejected every declaration based upon hearsay.
It imposed two conditions upon every witness: first, to testify only to what came under personal knowledge and observation; secondly, to state under oath the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
With such precautions and an organization so prudent and wise, it would have been impossible for a false miracle to deceive the judgment of the commission. It would have been impossible, in the face of the hostile criticism of those who were bent upon combating and overthrowing every error and even the least exaggeration, to sustain any doubtful assertion or the miraculous character of any doubtful fact.
If, then, true miracles, imperfectly proved, failed in obtaining the sanction of the commission, it is absolutely certain that no false prodigy could stand before its searching examination.
Whoever had the means of contesting any one of the miracles—not by vague and general theories, but by facts and personal knowledge—was thereby summoned to appear against it. Not to do so was to give up the case, and acknowledge that no formal or intelligible counter-evidence could be sustained. When passions run high in the ardor of a long struggle, parties do not let judgment go by default. To refuse the combat is to accept defeat.