The Devill of Mascon.
A true relation of the chief things which an unclean spirit did and said at Mascon, in Burgundy, in the house of Mr Francis Perrault, minister of the Reformed Church in that town. Published in French lately by himself, and now made English by one that hath a particular knowledge of the truth of this story. Oxford, 1658.
The 14th day of September, in the year 1612, I went, with one of the
elders of the Church of Mascon, to the classical meeting held at the
Borough of Couches, and five days after we returned. Being come home, I
found my wife and her maid in very great consternation, apparent in
their face and countenance. When I inquired of the cause of that great
alteration, my wife told me that the night after I went out of town, she
being in bed, her first sleep was broken by something, she knew not
what, that drew her curtains with great noise and violence. That her
maid, that lay in another bed in the same room, hearing that, arose in
haste, and ran to her to see what it was, but saw nothing; yea, that she
found the doors and windows of that room very close, as she had shut
them before she went to bed.
My wife told me, also, that the
night following she made the maid lie with her by reason of that
accident. That, as soon as they were in bed, they felt something that
pulled off their blankets. That then the maid, getting out of the bed,
went from that room, which is at the back of the house, to go to a
kitchen which is in the midst of the house; but that she found the door
bolted, not within only, as she had bolted it herself, but without also,
which, before she could perceive, after she had unbolted the door and
would open it, she felt resistance, as if a man had been on the other
side thrusting against her. That the maid, finding herself shut up,
called on a youth that lay in another room on the foreside of the house,
who rose to open the door, to whom she would say nothing of that
disorder, lest he should be frighted; but, lighting the candle, she
found in the kitchen the pewter and brass thrown about, wherewith the
same night and the following nights the evil spirit made such a noise as
they use to make when they give a charivary (A charivary is a made kind of serenade music of pans and kettles given to old widows when they marry), or when they will hive bees.
Upon this relation, I
will not dissemble that I was seized with some amazement; yet so, that I
took a resolution not to be too credulous at such a strange story, onr too incredulous neither. Several thoughts came to my mind. sometimes I considered the frailty and timorousness of women. Sometimes I thought that it might be the imposture of some knave hidden in the house. Wherefore afore I would go to bed I carefully searched all the corners of the house and set bolts and barricades to all the doors and windows of th ehouse, stopping even the very cat-holes of the doors, and leaving nothing that might give way to suspicion of imposture. And after I had prayed with my family I went to bed, while my wife and her maid sat spinning by the fire, with a lampe upon the table.
Scarce was I in my bed, but I heard a great noise from the kitchen, as the rolling of a billet thrown with great strength. I heard also a knocking against a partition of wainscot in the same kitchen, sometimes as with the point of the finger, sometimes as with the nails, sometimes as with the fist, and then the blows did redouble. Many things also were thrown against that wainscot, as plates, trenchers and ladles, and a music was made with a brass colunder, jinging with some buckles that were at it, and with some other instruments of the kitchen. After I had given attentive ear to that noise, I rose from my bed, and taking my sword, I went into the room where all that stirred was kept, the maid holding the candle before me, and did search narrowly whether I could find somebody hidden, but finding nothing I returned to my bed. The noise beginning again, I rose again and searched again, but all in vain. Then did I begin to know indeed that all this could not proceed but from a wicked spirit, and so did I pass the rest of the night, in such an astonishment as any man may imagine.
the next day very early I gave notice of it to the Elders of the Church. Yea I thought it fit to make it known to Mr Francis Tornus, a Royal Notary and a Procurator of Mascon, although he was a Roman Catholic, and very zealous of his religion. What reasons I had for it, I will say afterwards. Since that time both he and all the others to whom I had imparted it did not fail to visit me every evening, either together or by turns, as long as that persecution continued, sitting up with me till midnight, and sometimes longer.
The first night that they came, and some other following nights, the wicked spirit kept himself from making any noise or stir in their presence, as not willing to be known to them. But in the end, upon the twentieth of September about nine o’clock he made himself openly known for such as he was. For in the presence of us all, Mr Tornus being one of the company, he began to whistle three or four times with a very loud and shrill tone, and presently to frame an articulate and intelligible voice though somewhat hoarse, which seemed to be about three or four steps from us. He pronounced these first words singing vingt et deux deniers, that is two and twenty pence, a little tune of five notes which whistling birds are taught to sing. After that, he said and repeated many times this word: Minister, Minister. Because that voice was very terrible to us at the first, I was long before I would answer anything to that word, but only Get thee from me Satan, the Lord rebuke thee. But as he was repeating again very often that word Minister, thinking (belike) thereby to grieve me much, I was provoked to tell him – Yes indeed I am a Minister, a servant of the living God, before whose Majesty thou tremblest. To which he answered, I say nothing to the contrary. And I replied, I have no need of they testimony. Yet he continued to say the same, as if he would win us to a favourable opinion of him.
Then he would offer to transform himself into an angel of light, saying of his own accord and very loud, the Lord’s Prayer, the Creed, the morning and evening prayers, and the ten Commandments. It is true that he did always clip and leave out some part of it. He sung also with a loud and audible voice part of the Psalm 81. Then said many things which might be true, as some particular passages belonging to my family, as among other things that my father had been poisoned, naming the man that did it, and why, and specifying the place, and the manner of the poison.
That very night he said that he came from Pais de Vaux, that he had passed through the village of Allamogne, which is in Bailliage de Gez, at the door of my elder brother’s house, where he had seen him with Mr Du Pan, Minister of Thoiry. That they were ready to go to supper together at my brother’s house. That there were neighbours and dear friends. That he had saluted them, and asked whether they had any thing to command him to deliver to me, because he was going to Mascon. That they had showed themselves very kind to him and desired him to remember their love to me, yea and had invited him to drink with them. Thou wicked fiend (said I to the spirit) had they known thee they would not have been so kind to thee.
Some truth there was in his story, for M Du Pan has since told me and many others that they remembered very well how at that very time a man of such and such a shape, riding on a very lean horse, that hung down his head, had spoken with them, and that such discourses passed between them.
The Demon told us also of another brother of mine living in the Vale of the Lake de [?] in the country of Vaux, saying that one day when some of our near kindred were come to visit him, he to give them some recreation made them go upon the lake without a boat, upon floating wood tied together: and that they being far on the lake a stormy wind did arise, which constrained them to return in haste to the shore. Not far from which all that floating wood was overturned and they all well nigh drowned. Which storm he affirmed to be of his raising. The relation of that passage being very true, it may be true also that he had raised the wind, as we read in the book of Job, that Satan raised a great wind that made the house fall upon the children of that holy man.
Another night the Demon speaking to Claude Repay, a bleacher of linen cloth, one of them that used to come to me at night, asked h im whether he remembered not that upon such a day, after he had set in order some pieces of cloth and skeins of yarn, he found them a while after removed out of their place and out of order, and then said that it was his doing. He asked another bleacher called Philibert Guillermin, who was also in the company, whether he remembered not that one day as he was stooping to turn some pieces of cloth and skeines of yarn lying upon the grass, something pulled him behind by the skirts of his doublet, and made him go back two or three steps, and that the next evening, as he lay in his bleaching house, his hat, which had hanged on a nail by his bedside was flung at his face, and made him start out of his sleep. That (said he) was of my doing. Both Repay and Guillermin acknowledged that these things had happened to them, but who had a hand in these accidents they knew not before.
That Philibert Guillermin’s brother, a merchant of Lovan coming from Lyons lodged in his brother’s house, and had a mind to visit me the first night, but his brother would not let him. The demon failed not to tell us of it, saying, I know why Mr Philibert came not to sit up here yesternight. His brother had a good mind to have bestowed a visit upon us, but Philibert dissuaded him, because he would not that his brother should hear what noise we keep in this house.
He spoke also of a late quarrel between one James Berard, a cutler of Mascon and one Samuel du Mont, who had so beaten the said Berard that he had brought him to death’s door, which was true and told many particulars of that quarrel which were not known. He told us how at the late Fair of St Lawrence, upon which the citizens of Mascon march in arms under their several colours, one Francis Chickard had been hurt with a musket shot in the leg, which afterwards being gangrened was cut off. And he named the man that had shot him, and said that he had done it to be revenged of Chickard, to whom he bore a malice, which might very well be true.
He related a notable story of those that lived before in the house where we dwelt, Philibert Masson and Guillauma Blane his wife, commonly called la Challonoise; that one day, they being fallen out, the wife took her time when her husband would go down into his shop, and pushed him behind with such violence that he fell down the stairs stark dead. And that she presently by another pair of stairs went down and called the prentices and journeyman from the shop to their drinking, that they finding their master in the bottom of the stairs dead, might impute his death to some sudden sickness. This secret revealed by the devil many have believed to be a truth.
Another night the demon speaking to one of our company told him such private and secret things that the man who affirmed never to have told them to any person came to believe that the devil knew his thoughts, till I had disabused him. Then he began to mock God and all religion, and saying Gloria Patri, he skipped over the second person, and upon the third person he made a foul, horrible and detestable equivocation. Whereupon I being incensed with a just anger told him: But rather thou wicked and abominable spirit, shouldest have said Gloria Patri, creatori coeli et terra, et Filio [?] Jesu Christo, qui destruxit opera diaboli: That is, Glory be to the Father, Creater of heaven and earth, and to his son Jesus Christ, who has destroyed the works of the devil.
He then desired us with great earnestness that we should send for Mr Da Chassin the Popish parson of St Steven’s Parish, to whom he would confess himself, and that he should not fail to bring holy water along with him, for that (said he) would send me away packing presently.
We wondered that the dog of the house who used to be very watchful, and would bark at the least noise, yet never barked at the loud speaking and hideous noise of the demon: He said of his own accord without asking, You wonder that the dog barketh not, It is because I made the sign of the cross upon his head. Then being upon a merry pinne, he fell a scoffing and jeering, and among other things said that he was one of those that scaled the walls of Geneva, and that the ladder being broken he fell from the wall into the ditch, where he had been near to have been eaten by the frogs, whose croaking he did perfectly imitate. He said that a Jesuit called Father Alexander stood at the foot of the ladder, exorting the Savoyards to go up boldly, assuring them that they should take the city and win paradise. And that when the thirteen that were got up and taken, were led to the gallows, the women of the town said to the hangman, Courage Tabesan, thou shalt have money to drink.
Speaking of Pays de Vaux he said that it was a country where they made goodly carbonados of witches, and that he laughed very loud. He delighted much in jesting with the maid of the house calling her Bressando (that is a woman of the country of Bressia) and counterfeited her language. One night as she went up to the garret to fetch coals he told her, Thou art very bold to pass so near me, and making a noise as if he had clapped his hands together, he told her, I will put thee in my sack.
He seemed also to delight much in jesting with one Michael Repay who came almost every night to us with his father, calling him often Mihel Mihel. He told him once that he would bring him to war with the Marquess of St Martin, who was raising a troop of horse in Bressia to go to Savoy. But Michael Repay answered him siling, should I go to wars with such a coward as thy self, since thou protests that thou didst flie from the scalado of Geneva? To which the demon answered, And do you think that I would go and be hanged with my comrades? I was not such a fool. Continuing to jest with Michael Repay he put him in mind that the Sunday before going to church with one Noel Manginot to the village of Urigny, he was saying that the way to catch the devil was to spread a net for him, and then he told him, Wilt thou now spread thy net to catch me? At the same time he did so lively counterfeit the voice of Michael Repay’s mother that he said laughing to his father, ‘Father, truly he speaks just like my mother.’
Another time he told us in a faint and moaning tone that he had a mind to make his will because he must needs go presently to Chambery where he had a lawsuit ready for the trial, and that he feared to die by the way, wherefore he had the maid to go for a Notary naming Mr Tornus, father to that Tornus of whom we spoke before. Of his family he said many particularities, of which, as also of all the passages of this demon acted in his presence, the said Tornus the son, a Royal Notary as his father, has left a relation, written, and signed with his own hand, which ihave in my keeping for confirmation of all that is here related. And it was to have such an authentic testimony that I adressed myself to him when this vexation came upon me.
In that relation he mentions the several legacies which the demon declared that he would leave, to one this, to another that. One of them to whom he said that he would give five hundred pounds, answered him, that he would have none of his money, and wished that it might perish with him. He named another to be his heir general, who also answered that he would not accept the inheritance, I free thee of it (said the Demon) for sixpence and a piece of bread.
A while after he counterfeited that he was not the same spirit that had spoken before, but his servant only. That he came from waiting upon his master, who had charged him to keep his place in his absence, while he was in his journey to Chambery. And when I rebuked him in such words as God put in my mouth, he answered with much seeming lenity and respect: I beseech you Sir to pardon me, you are mistaken in me, you take me for another. I never was in this house before, I pray Sir, What is your name? As he was thus speaking one Simeon Meissonier, that used to resort often to my house upon that occasion, rushed suddenly to the place whence the voice seemed to come, and having searched it again and again, as others had done before him, and found nothing, he returned to the place where we were all, bringing with him several things from the place where the voice sounded, among other things a small bottle. At which the demon fell a laughing and said to him: I was told long since that thou were a fool, and I see now that thou art one indeed, to believe that I am in that bottle: I should be a fool myself to get into it, for so one might take me with stopping the bottle with his finger.
One night when Abraham Lullier a goldsmith was coming to the house, where he seldom failed to be at that hour, the demon said: Go, open the door to Lullier who is coming, and at the same time Lullier knocked at the door. As soon as he was come in, the demon told him, that he desired to learn the goldsmiths’ trade of him, and that for his prenticeship he would give him fifty crowns. Then giving him fair words, I love thee well (said he) thou art an honester man then such a man (naming another goldsmith a man of Geneva) who hath cosened such a lady of Mascon, who was gone to visit some of her kindred at Geneva, in the sale of some rings, jewels and plate. Upon which when Lullier told him ‘I have no need of thy love, I am content with the love of my God. Neither will I take such a prentice as thee.’ The Demon answered Since thou wilt not teach me the Goldsmith’s trade, let Master Philibert teach me to be a bleacher. Then acting again the part of a servant he complained that he was poor and ill clad, that he starved for cold, and that his wages were but twelve crowns a year. He told us that if we would have him to go away quickly we should give him something, and that any thing would please him. I told him that he knocked at the wrong door, and that I would not give him the paring of my nails. He answered You have then very little charity.
Again he obstinately affirmed that he was not the same that had been in the house from the beginning, but his servant, yes that he was not the same that had been in the house the night before, that then one of his fellow servants was waiting, and that they two were expecting their master’s return from his journey to Chambery whence he should return within a few days. However, whether it was the master devil that then spoke, or one or more of his servants, I have been informed by worthy witnesses that at the same time there was a spirit in the house of Monsieur Favre, the first president of Chambery, who for his learning in law was one of the illustrious men of his age. To him the spirit spoke, and told him, among other things, that he came from Mascon and had passed through Bresse, and seen such and such kinsmen of his.
To return to what was in our house at that time, the spirit bespoke aloud great preparations of provision, as turkeys, partridges, hares and the like for the coming of his master. Then he sung many profane and bawdy songs, among others that which is called Le Filou. He counterfeited the voice of jugglers and mountebankes, and especially that of huntsmen crying aloud ho levrier ho levrier, as hunters use to shout when they start a hare. He offered to tempt us by covetousness (one of the ordinary temptations of the devil for which reason he is called Mammon). Diverse times he would preremptorily affirm that there was six thousand crowns hidden in that house, and that if any of us would follow him he would show us where the money was hid. But I can say with a good conscience before God and his holy angels, that I never searched for it, nor employed others about it, nor suffered any to look for it, or ever had any will to make benefit by it.
He would try us also by curiosity, saying that if we had a mind to see him in any shape of man, woman, lion, bear, dog, cat, etc. he would give us the sport of it. Which motion we did much abhor and reject, saying that we were so far from desiring to see him in any of these shapes, or any other, that we were very desirous, if it might be God’s pleasure, never to hear him, but that we hoped that God would shortly deliver us from all his temptations. In the end he became very angry, first against me because I had told him ‘Go thou cursed into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.’ Whereupon he told me, Thou liest, I am not cursed, I hope yet for salvation by the death and passion of Jesus Christ. This he said perhaps to make us believe that he was the soul of a woman deceased a little before in that house, the daughter of a woman whom I had ejected by law out of that house, for there had been a rumour that when she died she prayeed to God that she might return to the house after her death to vex us. He told me in great wrath that he would do this and that to me. Among other things he told me that when I should be abed he would come and pull off my blankets and pull me out of the bed by the feet. I answered him the same thing that the Royal Prophet David said to his enemies: ‘I will lay me down and sleep for the Lord maketh me dwell in safety.’ I told him also that which Jesus Christ said to Pilate: ‘Thou hadst no power on me but what is given thee from above’. Whereupon he answered me repeating two or three times these words It is well for thee, It is well for thee.
He was also very angry with one of the company who had called him ‘stinking he-goat’ and gave him many ill words, as these: Thou wouldest appear a good man, but thou art but an hypocrite, thou goest often to Pont de ville, pretending to go hear sermons. But when thou goest thou takest thy box of bills and bonds along with thee, to exact thine arrears and use money. Go, thou wouldst make no conscience to hang a man for twenty shillings, as Mr Denis doth. That master Denis was the hangman of Mascon. Then making a noise as if he had clapped his hands together, he said again to the same man, Those makest heare the shew of a valiant man, having brought thy sword along with thee this night, but if thou beest so bold as to come hither without a light, it shall be seene which of us two is the most valiant.
Having said all these things of the time past and present, he would also speak of the future. Speaking of those that profess the reformed religion within the Kingdom of France, he made once this exclamation: O! poor Hugonots! you shall have much to suffer within a few years! O what mischief is intended against you! and more words to the same purpose. He said of my wife that was with child and near her time, that she should have a daughter, and said it two or three times. The case she was in made me fear that she should get some harm in her childbearing by a fright, caused by our infernal ghost. Wherefore, I desired her to go out of the house, and go to her grandmother the Lady Philiberta de la Moussiere with whom she had been bred from her infancy, and to lie in at her house. But she did excuse herself from it very courageously, saying that going away would be mistrusting the power and mercy of God. That since it pleased God to visit us so he might find us as well in another house, and that to resist the devil we must not flee from him. Wherein verily I acknowledged her to be in the right, because we are often exhorted in the Scripture, to resist and fight, and wrestle with the devil, but never to flee from him, which would be yeildingto him the victory. For he is like the wolf, or the crocodile, whom if you stand against stoutly they will run away, but if you fear them and run from them they will run after you.
The demon said one night before us all, that without fail I should die within three years, thinking thereby to torment me with a continual apprehension of death, and to make me fall if he could into some melancholy, and so into sickness thereby to have made his words good. But I answered him in the word sof St Paul Act 20. ‘None of these things move me neither count I my life dear unto my self, so that I might finish my course with joy and the ministry which i have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.
The demon having used all these wiles against us was forced to say that he could not prevail against us, because we did all too much upon the name of God. To show the efficacy of our prayers, this is an observable truth, that every time that the Devil saw that we began to kneel to go to our prayers he left talking, and many times told us these words, While you are at your prayers I’ll go take a turn in the street. Really, whither he went forth or stayed we had a wonderful silence during our prayer. But no sooner was the prayer done but he began again as before, and urged and solicited us to speak with him. And so continued speaking and provoking us to speak till the 25 of November when he spoke these last words: Ha ha je ne parleray plus, that is, Alas I shall speak no more. From that very time he gave over, and spake no more.
I might add many other discourses of this demon, but I confess that I purposely omit them because they offend either religion or the state or the good name of some great persons and honourable families, or because they are foul and dishonest as proceeding from an unclean spirit. so much as we have related is sufficient to show how strange and admirable was this speaking of the devil. As his words were strange and admirable so were his actions, for besides those which I have related, done in my absence, he did many more of the same kind as tossing about very often a great roll of cloth of fifty ells which a friend had left at my house to be sent to Lyons by water. Once he snatched a brass candlestick out of the maid’s hand leaving the candle lighted in her hand. He would very often take the maid’s coats and hang them over the bed posts, setting over them a rough hat such as the countrywomen of Bresse use to wear for she was of that country. Sometimes he would hang at those posts a great starching plate with cords so tied and with so many knots that it was impossible to untie them and yet himself would suddenly untie them in a moment. Once I found my boots so entangled within a winding blades that they could not be taken off. And many times he has so twisted radishes together that the like could not be done unless it had been studied with a very long patience and leisure.
One afternoon a friend of mine one Mr Connain a physician of Mascon, bestowed a visit on me. As I was relating unto him these strange passages we went together to the chamber where the demon was most resident. There we found the featherbed, blankets, sheets, and bolster, laid all upon the floor. I called the maid to make the bed, which she did in our presence, but presently we being walking in the same room, saw the bed undone and tumbled down on the floor as it was before. In the room over that, where I had my study, I found several times part of my books laid on the floor, and my hourglass unbroken, and no other harm. As I was sitting in my study the demon made a noise as if it had been a great volley of shot in the room above. Sometimes he would be the groom of my stable rubbing my horse, and plaiting the hair of his tail and mane, but he was an unruly groom, for once I found that he had saddled my horse with the crupper before, and the pommel behind.
He was a good while in the house before we could perceive hat he resorted to my bedchamber. But one night after all were retired that were come to hear him, my self and my family being all abed, the doors and the windows of the house being well shut, he came in and began to whistle softly and by intervals as if he had been afraid to awake us: he knocked as if it had been with his finger upon a trunk near my bed, as he did many times since. He would throw our shoes about the room, those of the maid especially, who feeling him once taking one of her shoes laid hold presently on the other, and said smiling ‘This thou shalt not have.’ Under the table in the same room he did once imitate the noise of hempdressers that beate the hemp fouce [sickle] together such as we had in our neighbourhood, and keeping the same equal measure. He made us hear for a long time a harmony not unpleasant of two little bells tied together which he had taken among some rusty irons in my house. When I heard them first, and knew by their sound that they were mine, I went to the place where I had laid them, but did not find them. Neither did the demon use these bells in my house only, but he carried them about to many places both of the town and country. Upon a Lord’s day morning as I was going to officiate at Urigny, with some elders of my church we heard the sound of those bells very near our ears. Mr Lullier, one of our company, affirmed unto me that he had heard those bells many times at his house. Many others have heard them very near, but could never see them.
Neither did that demon play his tricks only at my house, Mr Lullier has told me of many of his actions in his house and both shop. As the taking and hiding of his jewels or tools, and then putting them again where they were before. While Mr Lullier was telling me of this, he laid a golden ring which he had then in hand upon the table with the tool that he held it with, but presently he found them missing and in vain sought them half an hour, wherefore he betook himself to other work, but then he and I saw both the ring and the tool fall, we knew not from whence, upon the table again.
One night that Lullier had not sat up with us as he used to do, two that came from my house very late stayed by Lullier’s shop to give him an account of the demon’s actions and words that night. While they were talking the demon smote three times very hard upon a shed of boards that was over the shop. The next night after, Lullier and Repay coming from my house met a woman alone at the corner of the street in a country habit spinning by moon-shine. But when they came near to know what she was, she vanished from their sight.
Leaving now such actions as the demon did out of my house as things of which I cannot speak with the like certainty as those which I have seen and heard my self. I will but add his last actions at my house, and indeed the most troublesome of all, as they say that the devil is always more violent in the end than in the beginning, and is then most fierce when he must be gone. He threw stones about my house continually the ten or twelve last days from morning to evening, and in great quantity, some of them of two or three pounds weight. One of those last days Mr Tornus coming to my house about noon, would know whether the devil was there still, and whistled in several tones, and each time the devil whistled to him again in the same tone. Then the demon threw a stone at him, which being fallen at his feet without any harm to him, he took it up and marked it with a coal, and flung it into the backside of the house which is near the town walland the river of Saone, but the demon threw it up to him again, and that it was the same stone he knew it by the mark of the coal. Tornus taking up that stone found it very hot and said he believed it had been in hell since he had handled it first.
Finally after all these words and actions the demon went away the 22 day of December; and the next day a very great viper was seen going out of my house, and was taken with long pincers by some naylors our neighbours, who carried it all over the town crying, ‘Here is the devil that came out of the minister’s house,’ and finally left it at one William Clarke’s house apothecary, where it was found to be a true and natural viper, a serpent rare in that country.
All the time that the demon haunted my house God permitted him not to do us any harm, neither in our persons nor in our goods. Those bells which he did so toss and carry about, he hanged at a nail over the chimney of the room where he was most conversant, the day that he left the house. He had not so much power given to him as to tear one leaf of my books, or to break one glass, or to put out the candle, which we kept lighted all the night long. Wherefore I bow my knees, and will as long as I live, unto my gracious God to give me thanks for that great mercy.
This is the plain and true relation of that demon’s words and actions. And Marcelin, a Capuchin that preached at the same time at Mascon hath truly related many of these passages in a book of his, printed at Grenable against Mr Boutereve, saying, that he had the story from diverse persons, especially from Mr Fovillard Lieutenant General in teh Balliage of Mascon, who upon the general rumour of that strange accident, sent his brother in law Mr Francis Guerin and Mr Guichard an Advocate to my house, to desire me to come to him, as I did, to tell him the whole matter. Yet (by Marcellius leave) it is not true that which he and other prejudicate and passionate men do infer out of it to disgrace my person and my profession, namely, that I had communication with evil spirits. For God bears witness to my conscience that I never had communication with those horrible creatures, and know no more of them then what it hath pleased his divine wisdom to let me know by his word and by this domestic experience; and that my chief curiosity was to improve the little talent which God hath given me to instruct my self and others in the true and solid science of eternal salvation, which is to know him the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent.
And truly Marcellin and others that have spoken and written of this history to my disadvantage herein, contradict both Mr Fovillard Lieutenant General of Mascon, and the Lord Gaspard Divet then Bishop of Mascon, who upon the common report of these passages sent for Mr Tornus to know the truth of them; And for more certainty sent his own Secretary Mr Chamber to learne the particulars of them from mine own mouth, to whom I related all without concealing or disguising any thing. These two gentlemen Tornus and Chamber have told me since that the Bishop had heard that story with great admiration, and had made some records of the same.
If any now enquire of me what may the cause be of this admirable accident (as there is nothing more ordinary or more natural to every man than to enquire of the causes especially of things extraordinary) I will answer that considering the circumstances of time and place and persons, which I had then to do with, many causes seem to have concurred for it. First, whereas there are times in which Devils are in a manner unchained and have more liberty to do their feats, and other times when they are tied short and restrained from acting, as we learn in the twentieth chapter of the Revelation. Truly one may with good reason say that when the demon made himself to hold in my house it was a time when the devil was, as it were, let loose, for then the world was full of stories of the extraordinary pranks of those wicked spirits. This may be justified by the book written by Mr De l’Anere one of the King’s Counsellors joined in commission with Mr D’Elpagnet, President at Talosa to judge the witches of the country of Labour, other wise the country of the Basques near the Pyrenean mountains, the title of the book is ‘A representation of the inconstancy of demons and wicked spirits’, where such strange and horrible things are represented, as will make the readers hair to stand. To which join the horrible story of Lewis Gauffredi, a priest of Marseilles one of the greatest instruments of the devil that ever hell brought forth, who had been burnt a little before the order of the Court of Parliament of Aix in Provence.
At the same time a demon appeared at Lyons in the shape of a fine gentlewoman to the Lieutenant of the Knight of the watch named la Jacquiere, and to two others of his companions, which three had carnal knowlege of that demon, and thereby came to a most tragical and fearful end. Which story is printed among many other tragical stories of our time. At the same time, which was in the year 1612, the like story to that of Lyons was published, how in Paris, the first of January of that year, a person of quality had cohabitation with a Demon, which to him appeared a beautiful lady, but the next morning that lady being visited by Justices and Physicians was found to be the body of a woman that had been hanged a few days before. About the same time the prisons of Mascon were filled with a great number of men and women, young and old of the village of Chaffelas, and other towns near it, all indicted of witchcraft, who being condemned at Mascon, appealed to the court of the parliament of Paris, and were conducted to Paris by a messinger[?] and some guards. In the way a coach met them, and in it a man that looked like a Judge, w ho stayed, and asked the massinger what prisoners he led, whence they came, and whether they went. The massinger having satisfied him, the man (if one may call him so) eying the prisoners said to one of them, calling him by his name, ho now! art thou one of them? Fear nothing, for neither thou nor any of thy company shall suffer. And his words proved true, for soon after they were all released.
At the same time a girl of Mascon about 13 or 14 years of age, daughter to one of the chief citizens of the town, lying with the maid of the house, perceived that she absented her self many times in the night, and once asked her whence she came, the maid answered that she came from a place where there was good company, gallant dancing, and all kinds of sports and merriment. The girl taken with this report desired the maid to bring her to that place. Whereupon the maid annointed her, and made her do the ordinary ceremonies prescribed to witches by the devil, after which the girl was carried up into the air by a demon, as she reported, but feeling herself above the convent of the Capuchin friars, she was afraid, and called upon God, who did help her and caused the demon to lay her down in their garden about midnight. The Capuchins hearing her lamenting voice came to her help, and when she had told them who she was, and what had happened to her, she was secretly conducted by two of them to her father’s house. This relation I have heard from many persons, affirmed as most certainly true. That girl I have often seen, and I was told that she was married since.
At the sme time the common report was, that a demon haunted the house of a woman baker of Mascon, in the street de na Tapinerie, in a man’s shape, with a red cap, and would look out of the window by moonlight. This many persons have affirmed to me to be very true, the foresaid Abraham Lullier being one of them. I doubt much whether the demon hath yet left the house notwithstanding all the exercising, and the judicial course also which was used to eject him. At the same time a Demon kept a great stir at St Steven’s Church of Mascon, turning over many graves, which being bruited about the town, I saw, as living in that neighbourhood, great part of the people flock hither. The like happened also in the Church of St Alban, near Mascon, and at the same time. Again, at the same time a widow’s house at Marigny les Nounains, not far from MAscon, was for three months haunted by a demon who did there a great deal of harm, letting out the wine in the cellar, and beating outragiously several persons, among others a locksmith that came into the house drunk, and gave many ill words and threatenings to that devil, who presently was even with him, for he took one of the andirons, and grievously beat him with it, till he ran away out th ehouse, which he did in all haste. By these relations, and many of the like kind, which I omit, it is evident that at the time that the demon was at my house; the devil was in a manner unchained.
I conceive also that this demon might be sent to me by some that were incensed against me, for procuring a licence from the king to build a church for our reformed congregation near the walls of Mascon, for that very day that the devil began that disorder in my house, was threatened by one before the civil corporation of Mascon, that some evil would overtake me presently and that man was suspected to be a disciple of one Cefar a known magician, who had lived Mascon a little before.
Many have attributed the coming of that demon to my maid Bressande, of whom I spake before, for she was suspected to be a witch, born of parents suspected to be guilty of witchcraft as some do report. I remember that once she asked of me, whether any of those that had given themselves to the devil, could find mercy before God. And that another time, when she saw me afraid lest the devil should hurt two youths that lay in a room next to that where he was heard, she told me ‘fear not, he will do them no harm’. And the truth is that she would jest and be familiar with him . For besides that I said before, she would once expostulate with the demon that he brought her no wood, whereupon he presently threw down a fagot for her at the stair foot; and whereas upon her offering to leave our service another came to serve us in her place and lay in the same bed with her, the demon, who never hurt her, would beat that new maid in the bed, and pour water upon her head till he forced her to go away. My suspicion of that Bressande was increased by a relation which she made unto me, one day that I was sick, of a tall black man that had appeared unto her the night before by moonshine, holding a vial in his hand like a physician. This and other like things gave me an ill opinion of her, as one that might be a concurrent cause of the coming of that hellish ghost.
To these add the circumstance of the place, for in the same house a murder had been committed, if the demons words and the common report may be credited. As it is not unusual that houses where some murder or some other foul fact has been committed will be haunted by the devil. Cardan relates that there is a castle at Parma belonging to the noble family of the Torelli, in one of whose chimney’s a wicked spirit appears in the shape of a foul old wife every times that one of the family is to die, ever since that an old woman very rich was slain in that house by her covetous nephews, who cut her in pieces and threw her into the jakes.
But the most likely cause is that after i had recovered that house by law, and was put in possession by the power of justice, the woman whom I came to dispossess was found under a chimney calling upon the devil and using terrible imprecations against me and my family, saying that she would be content to be hanged, yea to be damned, and to be in the bottom of hell with all the devils if she might but be avenged of me and minie. Which words being related to me, I presented a petition against her to the judge of Mascon, Lieutenant General Foillard, who bound the woman to her good behaviour, forbidden her to annoy us either in our person or our Goods upon great penalties; and I and my family were put under the protection of the King and justice, of which process I keep still with me the judicial acts. But without staying any more upon the second causes, I attribute all to the disposition of the first, and lift up mine eyes to the hand that gave the blow, showing together his strength in my weakness, his mercy in my sinfulness, and his wife, moderate and admirable dealing with me in that he suffered me not to be tempted above my strength, but gave me with the temptation away to come out, that I might be able to bear it. Great reason I have to say with the Royal Prophet David. Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the hand of the fowlers, the snare is broken and we are escaped, Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth. To him be glory for it, now and for ever more, Amen.
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An Appendix of the Translator.
The author to make his word good that he would publish none of the discourses of the demon that were offensive to God or the State, or the credit of some honourable persons, has left out diverse notable stories, some of which he has related to my Reverend Father, upon whose relation I will add here two considerable passages. Being to speak of two several persons, for the one I must be true to the intent of the author, which is to offend no man, whether I will or no; for I know not the man’s name. The name of the other I do purposely suppress.
One of them was a grave Divne who hearing the demon speak profanely, rebuked him religiously and vigorously. To whom the demon answered, Minister you are very holy and very serious in this compnay, you were not so when you were singing such a bawdy song in such a taverne, and then the demon sung the whole song before the company. The Divine answered much to this purpose: ‘It is true, Satan, I have been licentious in my young years, but God in his mercy hath given me repentence and pardon; But for thy [?] thou art confirmed in sin, and shalt never have repentance nor pardon. Let every one keep a watch to his words and actions, for the devil, who is called the accuser of the brethren, and is so by his trade, keeps a register of that which we say and do, and will be sure to bring it forth when and where it may do us most harm.
The other man was an eminent Officer of a Court of Justice and a Papist, who being brought by his curiosity to the Minister’s house, to hear that devil that told future things and secrets both of public and private business, would needs offer to make questions to the demon about several things. Whereupon the minister, who had always very earnestly forbidden and hindered that any should propound questions to the devil, desired the gentlemen to forbeare, and represented to him the sin and the danger of it; but the lawyer rejected his counsel with scorn, bidding him to teach his own flock, and let him have the government of himself. So having silenced the minister, he entertained himself with the devil without interruption, questioning him sometimes about one absent friend, sometimes about this or that private business, sometimes about news and state affairs. Upon all which when the demon had answered him, he spoke to him further, much to this purpose. Now Sir, I have told you all that you demanded, I must tell you next that which you demand not. That at this very time while you are making questions to the devil, such a one (whom he named) is doing your businesses with your wife, and then revealed many secret foul dealings of the lawyer, which made him appear a dishonest man. Neither was this all, for in the conclusion the devil told him. Now Sir, let me school you for being so bold as to question the devil, you shuld have taken the minister’s safe counsel. Then upon a sudden the whole company could see the man drawn by the arm into the midst of the room, where the devil whirled him about, and gave him many turns with great swiftness, then touching the ground only with his toe, and then thew him down upon the floor with great violence. His friends took him up and carried him to his house where he lay sick, and distracted many days, giving by his example a lesson to all, that the devil may be for a while a fair companion to them that will keep company with him, but will pay them in the end with torment and despair.
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Approbation of the author by the Synod of Burgundy.
We pastors and elders, of the Reformed Churches of the Province of Burgundy, assembled in a Synod at Bussy in the Bailliage of Chalons upon Saone, certify to all, that Mr Perreand Minister of the Holy Gospel, hath exercised the charg eof the holy Ministry in this Province, for the space of fifty years, first in this town of Bussy, where he was born, being descended from the most ancient and considerable family of the town, and since in the Church of Mascon, and afterwards in the Churches of the Bailliage of Gez, where he is now serving the Church of Thoiry; IN all that time, and in all those churches, doing the office of a good pastor and a faithful servant of God, both in doctrine and life; Of which he had an especial testimonial given him by the Church of Mascon in the last Synod of this Province held at Psustile in the year 1649, the said Church expressing much satisfaction of his godliness and singular charity as it appears by the acts of the synod. And the like he hath from the church of Thoiry by an Act bearing date the 8 of March 1651. To which we add that although it hath pleased God to bring him into many, and some very extraordinary trials, especially while he served the Church of Mascon, yet the same God hath strengthened him with a constant health of his body, and a godly tranquility of mind, and hath endued him with virtue to beare and to overcome all his afflictions. We therefore beseech the Lord daily to fill his servant with more and more strength in his old age, and that after he hath finished his course he may depart in peace, and obtain the Crown of glory reserved for those that will persevere faithful unto the end.
Done at Bussy October 29 1651.
Signed Francis Reynaud Moderatour.
G Bruys Adjunct
H Morlet Secretary.
FINIS.
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The Epistle Dedicatorie.
To My Reverend and learned friend, Doctor Peter Du Moulin.
Sir, Though I suppose you will look upon my sending you Monsieur Perreaud’s French book as a minding you of the promise you were the other day pleased to make me of putting it into an English dress; yet I hope you will do me the right to believe that if the subject were not extraordinary, and if my own pen were not (as you know it is) preengaged to a theme of a very distant nature, I should think it injurious to the public, and to you, to be accessory to his turning translator of another’s books, that has already manifested in several languages, how able he is to write excellent one of his own. I must freely confess to you, that the powerful inclinations which my course of life and studies, hath given me to diffidence and backwardness of assent, and the many fictions and superstitions, which (as far as I have hitherto observed) are wont to blemish the relations where spirits and witches are concerned, would make me very backward to contribute anything to your publishing, or any man’s believing, a story less strange than this of Monsieur Perreand.
But the conversation I had with that pious author during my stay at Geneva, and the present he was pleased to make me of this treatise before it was printed, in a place where I had opportunities to enquire both after the writer, and some passages of the book, did at length overcome me (as to this narrative) all my settled indisposedness to believe strange things. And since I find that you have received an account both of Monsieur Perreand himself, and several things relating to his book from that great scholar and excellent person your Father: I have no reason to doubt, but that as your skill in the tongues, out of which and into which this treatise is to be translated, will bring it the greatest advantages that it can receive from a translator’s pen. So the reputation which your and your learned Father’s names will give it, will prove as effectual as any thing of that nature can be, to make wary readers as much believe even the amazing passages of it, as I hope you do that great truth of my being in a high degree.
Sir, Your very affectionate friend and humble servant, Robert Boyle.
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To the Honorable and most eminent in goodness and learning, Mr Robert Boyle.
Sir, In obedience to the charge which you have been pleased to lay upon me, I have translated this admirable story, worthy to be known of all men, and of singular use to convince the atheists and half-believers of these times. Most of which will persuade themselves that there is no such thing in the world as any spiritual, immaterial, intelligent substances. And some of them will say that which most of them think: that if they could have any certainty that there are Devills, they would believe also that there is a God. And Satan to confirm these pretenders to the title of strong wits in their pernicious unbelief, will scarce once in an age discover himself in any visible or audible manner, but either to the rudest poor people and the most bestial natures in some remote barren heath, or if he converse with Magicians, whose wit is of a form somewhat higher, it is only in secret conference, that the confessions of the first sort may be ascribed to the [?] of gross and terrestrial melancholy, as the only Devill that frames meetings and dances of witches in their brains, and that the profession of the other sort may be imputed to the imposture of wicked men, such as all Magicians are. Likewise when they are told of persons possessed or obsessed with Devils they ascribe those disorders to sickness or juggling. And the truth is that the Devill does most harm where he is least seen, heard, and suspected.
Wherefore I verily believe that he hath not in many ages done more wrong to his kingdom, then in disclosing himself so plainly and sensibly as he did in the passages here related: for thereby he has left no shift for the unbelief of reasoning atheists. And though this was a witty devil, yet (in that respect) he was not well read in the politics of hell. Many relations are extant of manifestations of daemons: the most certain are in the history of the Gospel, how the devils spoke aloud out of possessed bodies in the presence of great multitudes, which they did constrained and frighted by the presence of the Lord of life, their sovereign and their judge. But no history either sacred or profane, ancient or modern relates such a voluntary, public, continued, and undeniable manifestation of the wicked spirit as this does. For this familiar conversation of the devil was not with magicians and witches but with godly men. And it was not in a corner, or in a desert, but in the midst of a great city, in a house where there was daily a great resort to hear him speak, and where men of contrary religion met together: whose proneness to cast a disgrace upon the dissenting parties did occasion the narrow examining and the full confirming of the truth thereof, both by the Magistrate, and by the Diocesan of the place.
All these particulars and many more have been related to my Reverend Father when he was President of a National Synod in those parts by the man that was most concerned in them: the author of this book, a religious well poised and venerable divine, who (if he be alive still) is above 80 years of age. He wrote this relation when it was fresh in his memory, yet did not publish it but 41 years after, in the year 1653; being compelled to it by the many various and therefore some false relations of that story which were scattered abroad. With this he set out a treatise about demons and witches which he intitled Demonologia, a book worth reading. His behaviour in all these passages was prudent, courageous and godly, for he always resisted the devil in his several postures, whether of an angel of light, or of an open enemy of God. He was tempted by the evil spirit sometimes to curiosity, sometimes to fear, sometimes to jesting and merriment. But the good man was always alike, grave, constant and serious, in rebuking Satan and using the weapons of righteousness against him on the right hand and on th eleft.
And he was not disappointed of his trust in God, for in all the time of that persecution God permitted not that stirring devil to do him any harm, or to any belonging to him, either in their persons or goods, and in the end of a hundred days God dispossessed the devil of his usurped hold. My labour in translating these few sheets is so inconsiderable that I would not have put my name to it, but that you thought, Sir, my konwledge of the truth of this history by the relation of my Reverend Father would be some confirmation of the certainty of it. I have it at the second hand, yet from a sure hand. But yourself, Sir, had from the author himself a more immediate information. Which being prefixed before this narrative, gives it a free and uncontrollable pass to be admitted into the belief of the most severe and judicious readers.
Neither will they have a lesser opinion of the utility than truth of this relation, when they see that a person so high in learning, so deep in judgement, so real in godliness, so exemplary in good works has judged it to be of principal use for the convincing of unbelievers, and the confirming of those that are in the faith. Thereby also I shall reap this benefit to myself, that the world shall know I am honoured with your commands, and that I delight to approve my self.
Sir, Your most humble and obedient servant, and true honorer, Peter Du-Moulin.