The author of “Rome in the Nineteenth Century” says: “Private miracles affecting individuals go on quite commonly every day without exciting the smallest attention. These generally consist in procuring prizes in the lottery, curing diseases, and casting out devils. The mode of effecting this last description of miracle was communicated to me the other day by an abate here, and, as I think it extremely curious, I shall narrate it to you.
“It seems that a certain friar had preached a sermon during Lent, upon the state of the woman mentioned in Scripture possessed with seven devils, with so much eloquence and unction, that a simple countryman who heard him went home, and became persuaded that seven devils had got possession of him. The idea haunted his mind, and subjected him to the most dreadful terrors; till, unable to bear his sufferings, he unbosomed himself to his ghostly father, and asked his counsel. The father, who had some smattering of science, bethought himself, at last, of a way to rid the honest man of his devils and his money together. He told him it would be necessary to combat with the devils singly, and, on the day appointed, when the poor man came with a sum of money—without which the good father told him the devil never could be dislodged—he bound the chain connected with an electrical machine in an adjoining chamber round his body—lest, as he said, the devil should fly away with him—and, having warned him that the shock would be terrible when the devil went out of him, he left him praying devoutly before an image of the Madonna; and after some time, gave him a pretty smart shock, at which the poor wretch fell insensible on the floor from terror. As soon as he recovered, however, he protested that he had seen the devil fly away out of his mouth, breathing blue flames and sulphur, and that he felt himself greatly relieved. Seven electrical shocks at due intervals having extracted seven sums of money from him, together with the seven devils, the man was cured, and a great miracle performed!
“To us this transaction seemed a notable piece of credulous superstition on the one hand, and fraudulent knavery on the other; but to our friend the abate, it only seemed an ingenious device to cure of his fears a simpleton, over whose mind reason could have no power—as the physician cured a lady who fancied she had a nest of live earwigs in her stomach, not by arguing with her on the absurdity of such a notion, but by showing her that an earwig was killed by a single drop of oil, and making her swallow a quantity of it.
“But with respect to the man and his devils, I would ask, why inspire superstitious terrors to conquer them by deceit, and why make him pay so much money? Yet this is nothing to other things that are of daily occurrence.”
In some of the provinces of France, miracles are stated continually to be performed, and the peasants blindly adopt all the extravagances presented to their acceptance. In the little town of Fécamp there is a fountain, the water of which is said to do wonders; and thousands of pilgrims annually resort to it from the neighbouring country. The curé distributes to each a bottle of this water, accompanying it with some Latin words, receiving two sous for his trouble. This amounts to a considerable sum. In another town, Andelys, there is also a fountain which, it is said, possesses, once a year, the sovereign virtue of curing rheumatism, palsy, and nervous affections. The pilgrims either plunge the diseased member into the water, or throw themselves in entirely, and, afterwards, follow the procession in their wet clothes.
In the month of June, 1824, in a small village, called Artes, near Hostalrich, about twelve leagues from Barcelona, there was a constitutionalist, and therefore one opposed to the ruling power, with which the priesthood was fully identified. This man being at the point of death, his brother called on the curate, and requested him to come and administer the sacraments. The curate refused; affirming that the brother, as a constitutionalist, was a villain, an impious wretch, an enemy to God and man; he was lost, without mercy, and that, therefore, it was useless to confess him. The brother asked whence this information was derived; the reply was, that God himself told the curate this during the sacrifice of the mass. In vain the brother reiterated his intreaties; the curate was inexorable. A few days after, the constitutionalist expired, and the brother demanded for the body the rites of sepulture. The curate refused, alleging that the soul of the departed was lost, and that it was in vain to inter the body; adding, “For during the night, the devils will come and carry it away; and in forty days, you yourself will meet the same fate.”
The Spaniard not treating this declaration with implicit faith, but, with his suspicions awakened, watched during the night, with his pistols loaded, beside the body of his brother. Between twelve and one o’clock, a knock was heard at the door, and a voice exclaimed, “I command you to open the door, in the name of the living God! Open! if not, your instant ruin is at hand.” The Spaniard refused; and shortly after he saw enter, by the window, three figures, covered with the skins of wild beasts, provided with horns, claws, and tails; and, as they were about carrying off the coffin containing the body, the Spaniard fired, and shot one of them dead; the others took to flight; he fired after them, and wounded both. One of them died in a few minutes, the other escaped. In the morning, a discovery was made: the people went to church, but there was no curate to officiate: it was found shortly after, on examining those who had been shot, that one was the curate, the other the vicar; the person wounded was the sacristan, who confessed the whole plot. The case was brought before the tribune of Barcelona.[M]
And yet, despite of the frequent exposure of its wicked pretences, the Romish church contends at this hour as earnestly for the possession of miraculous endowments as it ever did. As it claims to be unchangeable, this is manifestly its only course. Accordingly, it has been affirmed of the last persons added to the Romish calendar, only a few years ago, that they wrought miracles. The time of canonization is sagaciously deferred till two centuries after the decease of the parties; but there is no difficulty in seeing that all the avowed deviations from the laws of nature attributed to the canonized, are impious pretences. Dr. Harsnett, afterwards archbishop of York, said, long since, “None but the pope and his scholars can cogge a miracle kindlie, and he and his priests can despatch a miracle as easily as a squirrel can cracke a nutte. A miracle in the bread, a miracle in the wine, a miracle in the holy water, a miracle in holy oyle, a miracle in lamps, candles, beades, bones, stones; nothing done in religion without a miracle and a vice.” And even Petrarch thus wrote:—
“Fountain of grief, abode of anger,
School of errors, and temple of heresy;