told the formal story of his being delivered at Nazareth out of prison by calling upon his Countrywoman the Lady of Loreto who thereupon appeared to him with her woman called Lucia waiting upon her whom she bid to knock off his chains and opened the prison doors and led him to the Sea side and shewed him a ship ready for his passage and bid him make hast to Loreto and be there baptized And we may think he obeyed her will for he told Riera that he came to Ancona in two days Yet this man was received with great joy and the Miracle highly magnified and which was more for all that we can find verily believed And no doubt the Venetian Courtesan was a person of great credit who having spent many years in that Trade came to Loreto full of a very strange Miracle viz. That she was set upon in her way thither by her companion who desperately wounded her in many places and cut her throat and she just in the very nick of expiring called upon the Lady of Loreto for help who presently appeared to her and took her in her lap and stroked her wounds and immediately cured her body and filled her soul with heavenly Joy Was not the blessed Virgin very kind to a Courtesan But all this was presently believed at Loreto and as an impregnable evidence of the Truth of it she shewed a shining list about her neck upon the skin which was a demonstration she was healed by a divine hand For St. Winifred and others had just such a one when their heads were joyned to their bodies again And are not these Authentick Testimonies and undeniable Monuments Is the Testimony of the whole Christian Church to be compared to that of a Jew and a Courtesan But supposing the persons who delivered these things to them were such as had a great credit and so they had need to be when the reputation of a Miracle depends upon their single Testimony yet is it not possible to suppose that the Priests for the reputation of their House may help out a lame Miracle with an advantagious circumstance or two it being for so good a Cause as the honour of their Church Especially when such infinite riches come by it as may be seen by Tursellinus his History of the Lady of Loreto whose Book is made up of Miracles and Riches and in truth the greatest Miracle there is the riches of that Chappel since it gained reputation in the World They had need of a very untainted credit to have their Testimony taken on their bare words when there is such a reward for Lying Men need not ask Cassius his Question cui bono For any one may easily discern that that compares the Tables of Miracles and the vast riches accruing by them together The honest Heathens thought a persons Testimony was then to be relyed upon when there was no reward for falsehood Cum sunt praemia falsâ— Nullae ratam debet testis habere fidem Tacitus thought it was a good argument of mens fidelity if they affirmed a thing postquam nullum mendacio pretium when there was no advantage to be got by it But I am sure this can never hold in these Authentick Testimonies of the Miracles of the Roman Church Rich Jewels Silver shrines presents of all sorts and vast endowments may tempt men to strain a little in such trifles as a few circumstances which can easily change an ordinary accident into a Miracle Nay persons of great honour and reputation beyond ten thousand such Priests whose interest is so deeply concerned in the belief of these things have affirmed that they have seen Tables hanging up in one of the Churches mentioned by E. W. of a miraculous cure wrought upon a lame person whom themselves have seen immediately aster so lame as to use crutches Therefore I hope such Testimonies as these for meer shame will never more be compared with the Miracles of Christ and his Apostles who had no Diana's to attend upon nor expected any silver shrines Not that I compare the blesfed Virgin to a Heathen Goddefs but I may safely enough the nature and reward of the attendance on both and the means to draw riches to their Temples Can any one imagine if all the Miracles of Christ and his Apostles had been done in this manner and the Testimony of them only taken from Tables hanging upon Walls that ever Christianity would have prevailed upon the ingenuous part of mankind No it was because these Miracles were wrought publickly by Christ and his Apostles in the view of enemies and they who attested them did not fit to receive presents and tell tales but ventured their lives as well as fortunes to give testimony to the truth of these things and offered as much satisfaction as sense and reason could require in these matters But if they had nothing to shew but Tables hanging upon the Walls of their Temples the Heathens would have told them they had as good evidence for Miracles among them For 3. Such Authentick Testimonies as these have been among the greatest enemies to Christianity And I hope E. W. will not say that Christianity hath no better proofs than Paganism If we search but a little into the practices of this nature among the Heathens we shall find that Polydore Virgil had reason of his side when he said this custom of hanging up Tables was taken from them among whom nothing was more usual than upon any extraordinary deliverance to set up their votivae tabulae in the Temples of those Gods they were most addicted to some to Isis some to Neptune some to Aesculapius especially in the case of escape from Shipwrack to Isis and Neptune and in case of recovery from dangerous diseases to Isis or Aesculapius Lambin saith the very same custom continues still only instead of the Heathen Gods they do it to the Virgin Mary or some Saint This custom is mentioned not only by Horace but by Virgil Ovid Tibullus Juvenal Persius and others And all know the saying of Dionysius upon seeing these Tables of those who had made vows and escaped but what is become saith he of those who made vows and were drowned And the very same Question may be asked of these modern vows as well as theirs I shall only mention the Tables of those who had as they thought miraculous deliverances from sicknesses of which kind there are so many in the Tables of Loreto and elsewhere It is a remarkable testimony to this purpose which Diodorus Siculus gives of Isis in Egypt where he saith of her That being now advanced to immortality she takes great delight in the cure of men and that to any who deâ—ire her help she manifests her presence to them in sleep as it is in very many of those of Loreto and her great readiness to help them For the proof of which they do not bring Fables as the Greeks do but the evidence of matters of fact
Imprimatur Sam. Parker R. in Christo Patri ac D no. D no. Gilberto Arch. Episc. Cantuar. Ã sac Dom. April 15. 1673. A SECOND DISCOURSE IN VINDICATION OF THE Protestant Grounds of Faith Against the Pretence of INFALLIBILITY In the ROMAN CHURCH In Answer to The Guide in Controversies by R. H Protestancy without Principles AND Reason and Religion or the Certain Rule of Faith by E. W. With a particular Enquiry into the Miracles of the Roman Church By Edward Stillingfleet D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty LONDON Printed by R. W. for H. Martlock at the Sign of the Phoenix in St. Paul's Church-Yard and at the White Hart in Westminster Hall 1673. To the Right Honourable ANTHONY Earl of SHAFTSBURY Lord High Chancellour OF ENGLAND c. My Lord I HOPE it will not be thought unseasonable to make an Address of this nature to Your Lordship in the Beginning of Term since the great Cause at present in Your Court as one of late pleasantly said is thaet between the King and the Pope between our Church and the Church of Rome And while so many Witnesses are daily sworn of the Kings and the Churches side it may not be improper to lay open to Your Lordship the Nature and Merits of the Cause A Cause My Lord which was at first set on Foot by Ambition carried on by Faction and must therefore be maintained by the like means but can never hope to prevail among us again till subjection to a Forreign Power can be thought our Interest and to part at once with Reason and Religion be esteemed our Honour It is a Cause much of the nature of some others depending before Your Lordship more vexatious than difficult and managed by such Advocates who being retained in the Cause though they have nothing material to say for it yet are ashamed to be silent Who are alwayes disputing about an end of Controversies but at the same time do their utmost to increase and perpetuate them and are ready to foment our differences that they may make use of them to their own advantage While we have such restless Adversaries to deal with part of our danger lyes in being too secure of the Goodness of our Cause and methinks there can be little satisfaction in lying still or quarrelling with each other when we know our common enemies to be at work undermining of us But whatever repose others enjoy my Adversaries seem to deal with me as some do with those whom they suspect of Witchcraft they think by pinching me so often and keeping me from taking rest to make me say at last as they would have me But the comfort is as long as I am secure of my senses I am of my Religion against theirs if I once lose them or my understanding I know not whether it may be my fortune to be carried to Rome or some more convenient place And in my opinion they deal with those under their care as if they believed them not to be in their right senses for they keep them alwayes in the dark and think nothing more dangerous than to let in light upon them Wherein I cannot deny but considering the nature of their Cause they take the most effectual course to maintain it for it not being capable of enduring a severe tryal nothing can preserve its reputation but Ignorance and Credulity which are therefore in so great esteem among them that if it were a Custome to Canonize Things as well as Persons we might find those sacred names in their Litanies and addresses as solemn made to them as ever were to Faith and Vertue among the elder and wiser Romans I need not go far for an Instance of their design to advance even in this Inquisitive Age the Honour of these two great Pillars of their Church For if your Lordship shall be pleased to cast Your eye on the following Discourse especially that part which concerns the Miracles of the Roman Church You will find fufficient evidence of it almost in every Page When I first engaged in this Controversie I could hardly believe what I now see that they would ever have brought it to this issue with me viz. That they would renounce all claim to Infallibility if they did not produce as great Miracles wrought in their Church to attest it as ever were wrought by Christ or his Apostles The boldness of which assertion and the pernicious influence of it upon Christianity it self hath made me take the more pains in the examination of it Which I have done with so much care in consulting their own approved Authors that I hope at last they will grow ashamed of that groundless calumny that I do not deal fairly in the citing of them A calumny so void of proof that I could desire no better argument of a baffled Cause than such impertinent Clamours But if impudent sayings will serve their turn they need never fear what can be written against them Do they indeed think me a man so void of common sense as to expose my self so easily to the contempt of every one that will but take pains to compare my citations Have I the Books only in my own keeping or are they so rare that they cannot get a sight of them How then come they to know them to be false quoted But alas they are men of business and have not leisure to search out and compare Books and therefore the shortest way is to say that without doubt they are all false Their numbers certainly are not so small nor their business so great but they might have spared some to have undertaken this task particularly if I had been faulty and in my mind it had been of some consequence to have freed their Church from those heavy imputations of Fanaticism and destroying the necessity of a good life from the Testimony of their own Authors But if these could not move them I desire them not to spare me in this present subject of Miracles wherein I profess to relye on the Testimony of their own Writers if they shew me any wilful mistakes therein I will endeavour to give them publick satisfaction Were I not well assured My Lord of the Strength of my Evidence as well as of the Goodness of my Cause I should never have appeared in it before a Person of so sharp and piercing a Judgement as Your Lordship But I have the rather presumed to offer this Discourse into Your Lordships hands and to send it abroad under the Protection of Your Name not only thereby to acknowledge the particular Favours I have received from Your Lordship but to thank You on a more publick Account I mean for Your late generous owning the Cause of our Religion and Church in so Critical a time which not only gives a present Lustre to Your Name but will preserve it with Honour to Posterity I am My Lord Your Lordships most obliged and faithful Servant Edward Stillingfleet The Contents CHAP. 1. An answer to
are things in no request among us whatever they be with you but we have many sick and wounded persons and many dead come and cure all manner of diseases with a word in an instant perfectly and openly raise those who have died of a known incurable disease and are carried out to be buried or have lain in their Graves as Christ did or else out of honour to Christ and Truth and for meer shame avoid such rude and impudent comparisons of the miracles of your Church with those of Christ and his Apostles If we must believe St. Mary Magdalens Vial why not as well all the rest of the Glorious Reliques of your Church for there are few of them but have as good Authority as that of Spondanus which E. W. produces for this Miraculous Vial Why not the Foreskin of Christ about which no meaner a man than Cardinal Tolet saith great miracles were wrought at Calcata in Italy A. D. 1559. after it had been stolen from the Latâ—ran Church in Rome by a certain Souldier A. D. 1527. and lay undiscovered till after his death and yet Ferrandus tells us that Germany Flanders Lorain and France all boast that they have it â—ollandus or rather Roswayd tells us that these of Antwerp pleaded a possession of it for almost 500. years and the testimonies of Pope Eugenius A. D. 1446. and Clement the eighth A. D. 1599. Pope Innocent the third notwithstanding his pretence to Infallibility thought it fit that so weighty a cause should be left to God himself to determine Symphorianâ—â— Campegius in Bollandus saith that it is at Anicium le Puy in France together with Aarons Miter others say that it was carried by an Angel to Charles the great and he placed it at Aken Now the same worship is given at all these places where it is supposed to be and I suppose miracles equally wrought at them I desire to know when false and counterfeit Reliques do work miracles what we are to think of the Testimony given by such miracles and of the nature of them It is a pleasant thing to see the accounts given by these men of the same Reliques being in several places at once Ferrandus hath found out very subtil ways to solve this difficulty and particularly concerning this Foreskin of Christ. 1. By a multiplication of it which being in Gods power to do no question is to be made but he does it 2. By a wonderful replication of it the terms I consess are not very easie but I suppose he means that the same body may be in several places at once He tells us that Suarez and Collius see no cause for so great a miracle but he thinks there is as much reason for it as for the multiplication of the Wood of the Cross and I think so too But yet he hath another reserve which is that these several Prepuces are really nothing but so many parts of the Umbilical Vessels which are sent up and down for the consolation of the faithful And no doubt they tend very much to it especially when they mistake one thing for another And why may not then that which goes for the Blood of Christ be the blood of some other person especially since the blood of Christ is shewn in so many other places besides But that we may not however doubt of the truth of both these St. Brigit saith in her Revelations that the Virgin Mary told her that a little before her assumption she committed the Sacred Prepuce to the care of St. John with some of the Blood which remained in the wounds of Christ. Et jam lice at dubitare Saith Ferrandus by no means But it is good to understand where it is Yet he tells us some are of opinion that there is no other blood of Christ upon earth besides that in the Eucharist and others that all the blood of Christ which was shed in his passion was resumed at his resurrection and therefore he rather inclines to think it is some of the blood he shed in his Agony which is preserved in so many places But was St. Mary Magdalen there with her Vial to gather it up No it is said it was at the time of his Passion and therefore this answer cannot serve How then come such great quantities of this Blood to be seen not only in St. Maximins Church but at Paris at Rome at Mantua and several other places mentioned by Ferrandus To this he answers with Biel that Christ had a whole legion of wounds 6666. and Alanus de Rupâ— hath undertaken to cast up just how many drops he shed viz. 547500. And can there be any reason in the world to question the credibility of the Testimonies of such persons who are so exact and punctual in their calculations Far be it from us in the least to derogate from that inestimable love which the Son of God expressed in shedding his Blood as a Sacrifice of Propitiation for us We adore and celebrate that sacred mysterie of our Redemption by the Blood of that immaculate Lamb. It is the Blood of Christ we glory in and hope for Salvation by but not as kept for Reliques or preserved in Vials to make a shew of much less to abuse mankind with a pretence of that Sacred Blood when there is not the least shadow of reason to believe it But thus it hath been in the Church of Rome they have turned the most wise and holy and reasonable Religion in the world into a matter of shew and ceremony And for this end they have made use of all manner of devices to get any thing into their hands that seemed to have any relation to the bodies or garments of Christ or his Disciples And thus while they sleight their words and corrupt their Doctrine and pervert their institutions no persons can contend more than they for the hair or nails that belonged to any of their bodies although they destroy each others Testimonies by so many pretending to the same things The very Tears of Christ are pretended to be kept in two several places in France and those put into a Vial too by the blessed Virgin if we believe the Jesuit Ferrandus It is a pretty competent Miracle to preserve Tears so long but what cannot they shew who have some of the hair of Christ when an Infant at St. Denis in France as Spondanus assures us and some of the swadling clouts he was wrapt in in the Manger And as good an Author every whit as Spondanus relates that at Courchiverni a place near Bloys the breath of Joseph is kept in a Vial too which the Angel took while he was cleaving Wood. What a shame would it be now for us to question the truth of any other Relicks among them Why should we dispute the vast quantity of the blessed Virgins Milk so learnedly defended by Ferrandus to be seen in Judea in Italy in Spain and in many
St. Brigid But it may be this must pass for another Miracle that he should see things that were done before he was born We think the preservation of Moses when a Child was extraordinary but what was that to the miraculous preservation and education of St. Kyned The Sonâ— saith Capgrave of a Prince of little Britain by his own Daughter who being delivered she exposed him to the River in a Wicker-Cradle in which he was carried to the Sea and at last was cast upon an Istand called in the British tongue Henisweryn and on a sudden the Sea fowl gathered about him and by their Bills and Claws took him out of the water and carried him into the Air and at last placed him upon a Rock making a bed of Feathers for him and driving away Serpents and hurtful creatures and shelter'd him from Wind and Hail and Snow by joyning their wings together over him While the Child lay thus before nine days were passed an Angel came to him and brought him a Brass Bell and put the Childs mouth to it and when the Child was hungry it turned it self and sucked of the Bell which afforded nourishment sweeter than any milk and of so subtle a nature that he voided no excrements Thus he continued till he could walk and the swaddling cloaths in which he was wrapt grew to him as bark to a Tree just as he grew Afterwards a wild Doe came twice a day and filled the Bell with Milk thus he continued eighteen years being taught to read by an Angel But although he changed his place yet still he continued an Eremitical life once St. David desired him to go to a Council with him he excused himself because of his deformity St. David prayed for the cure of it and he was heal'd St. Kyned prayed for the return of it and he was as bad as ever This Miracle Alford relates although he thinks the Writers of his Life have exceeded a little too much in his Miracles But to my mind St. Kyneds sucking of a Bell was not so strange as St. Berachs sucking St. Froegius his ear which Colganus very gravely relates No sooner was St. Berach born but St. Froegius his Uncle took care of him and told his Mother God was able to bring him up without the help of Milk and he gave him his right ear to suck by which he was as plentifully nourished as if he had sucked all the while at his Mothers breast If Caepgrave had had the trimming of this story he would have added that this was sweeter than any milk Colganus as he had reason is very angry with those that say St. Froegius his ear gave milk for although saith he it were possible for God to make his ear give milk yet it is not probable because other wayâ— might serve as well for his nourishment We read not of any Miracles wrought by Christ himself till he entred upon his Preaching but these Saints began very early and some of them held out to a mighty Age for St. David lived to 147. St. Fintan to 125. St. Mochaius to 150. and St. Cathubius as long St. Finnian to 180. St. Kentigern 185. but St. Kieran for 300. years saith the Author of his life near 300. saith the Lesson upon his day St. Abban 300. St. Mochteus 300. In all which time he neither spake an idle word nor eat fat meat so the Author of his Life saith but the old Verses cited by Colganus say That in all that time he neither spake nor eat and others that speak more moderately say That in one hundred years he eat nothing A pretty reasonable fast for any man But to be sure much exceeding that of Christ himself but that is not our present business which is to shew how very early they began to work Miracles It is hardly conceivable they should begin sooner than in their Mothers Wombs and while St. Fursey was in his Mothers Womb he very severely rebuked his Grandfather for thinking to condemn his Mother without any reasonable cause Colganus confesses that this was a very great Miracle but justifies it as the Author of his Life doth from Gods omnipotency Yet Bollandus would fain in his Notes have it softened and made more probable viz. That a voice was heard to that purpose and that some thought the Child spake in his Mothers Womb but he confesses the ancient Mss. are express that it was the Child the hymns of the Church are plain to that purpose Matris intra viscera Loquens avi nequioris arguebat scelera Which were Sung upon his day saith Arnoldus Wion from whom Bollandus had them and we hope they were more honest than to praise God for that which they did not believe Was St. John Baptist's leaping in his Mothers belly to be compared to this But they have a better instance to parallel this viz. St. Nicholas his fasting Wednesdays and Fridays while he suckt his Mothers breasts or which is all one sucking but once on those days which I suppose being after Vespers made it a good fast but methinks in honour to the Church of Rome Saturday should have been one of his Fasting-days But commend me for devotion to St. Mochtâ—us that leapt in his Mothers Womb at Canonical hours a good presage certainly of his future devotion For a Child new born scarcely any went beyond St. Cathaldus for assoon as he was born he struck his head against a piece of Marble and the Marble yielded like wax to him and when his Mother expired at her delivery the Child raised up himself without any help and embracing his Mother in his Arms he raised her to life again Was not this a towardly beginning for a Child Had not St. Alred a very clear complexion whose face Arch deacon William in Capgrave saw shining like the Sun with such bright beams that his hand gave a shadow being held towards him from whence he had reason to think he would prove an extraordinary man in his time It seems to be now no great matter that S. Aldelm should make a Child to speak at nine days old to vindicate the Innocency of the Pope and although Mr. Cressy speaks doubtfully of this matter yet surely there is no more reason to question it than many other Miracles related by him and his Authors for it was read in the Lessons upon his day Capgrave saith that St. Ninian commanded a Child who was but few days old to declare who was his own Father the Child presently obeyed and pointed with his finger and openly said such a man was his Father Was not this an early sign of a wise Child But never was there certainly a more early Confessor than St. Romwold of whom Capgrave relates that being newly born he cryed out he was a Christian and presently made a most elaborate confession of his Faith hardly short of that of Athanasius in its exactness in the point
discovery by these persons whom they disposed of in several places and fed with money and promises and kept from their Friends and sometimes threatning them that if they confessed any thing the Devil would possess them worse than before and withal told them that without an Oath they might say any thing to excuse themselves but Harrington a Priest that had taken to himself one of the Wenches afterwards under pretence of marrying her told Friswood Williams which was her right name that if she were examined upon Oath the Church did dispence with her so as she might answer what she thought good notwithstanding because an Oath did not bind her to confess any thing that might tend to the dishonour of their Priesthood or of the Catholick Church Before this imposture was discovered it did the Priests very great service for Anthony Tyrrell one of the Priests in his examination confessed that in the compass of half a year they had gained five hundred persons to their Church and some said three or four thousand And the Priests had written several Books concerning the miracles wrought by them full of most notorious forgeries as appeared by the particular examination of the Persons pretended to be dispossessed by them Tyrell said that Weston the Provincial of the Jesuits had written a Quire of Paper of the Visions of Mainey one of the persons out of whom he said he had cast out Devils and another Book to prove the continuance of this power in their Church and to shew the vertue of holy Relicks especially of their late Tyburn Saints Campian Sherâ—in Brian and Coltam This business making so much noise put the Persons in Authority upon enquiring more strictly into it and having at last seized upon some of the Persons concerned in it in their several examinations upon oath they confessed the whole cheat as I have delivered it from them Their examinations were entred upon Record in the Court of High-commission and afterwards published A. D. 1604. with a particular declaration of the whole imposture In which any person may satisfie himself of the Truth of what I have reported and abundance of circumstances which I have omitted Tyrell the Priest upon his oath June 15. 1602. declared in his consession written with his own hand that having perused the examinations of Sara Williams and Friswood her sister of Anne Smith and of Richard Mainey he was fully perswaded that they have deposed the truth in such points whereof they were examined belonging to their pretended possession or dispossession The effect whereof saith he is that they were drawn by our cunning carriage of matters to seem as though they had been possessed when as in truth they were not neither were any of the Priests ignorant in my Conscience of their dissimulatino nor the parties themselves as now it appeareth of our dissembled proceeding with them And afterwards adds a very material thing viz. For although both my self and so I think of the rest did know that all was but counterfeit yet for as much as we perceived that thereby great credit did grow to the Catholick cause and great discredit to the Protestants we held it lawful to do as we did For the general conceit saith he among all the Priests of that Order is that they may deny any thing which being confessed doth turn to the dishonour of the Catholick Church of Rome and concludes his confession with saying that they do not account it evil as I verily think to câ—lumniate the Protestants by any device whatsoever that may carry any probability with it nor make any Conscience at all to tell and publish any untruths which they think being believed may advance and promote such points and matters as they take upon them to defend for the honour of the Church of Rome and dignity of their Priesthood Judge now Reader whether such persons do not deserve the highest credit in all their stories of Miracles who think it lawful both to cheat and lie for the sake of their Church Not twenty years after the discovery of this imposture â—e find them at the same work again when they writ the faithful narration of the proceedings of the Catholick Gentlemen with the Boy of Bilson with this sentence at the beginning and end of it Non nobis Domine non nobis sed Nomini tuo da Gloriam Whereas the history of this imposture is so particularly laid open by the confession of the Boy himself that it would make any others but such as have the impudence to compare their frauds and impostures with the miracles of Christ and his Apostles be ashamed ever to mention or own it Such another imposture Thuanus at large relates concerning Martha Brossier A. D. 1599. which gave great disturbance in France happening so soon after the edict of â—ants One James Brossier being weary of his poor imployment at home wanders from place to place with his three Daughters and this Martha pretended to be possessed with an evil Spirit and although the cheat was discovered in other places yet at Paris they hoped to meet with some who would be ready to make use of such a counterfeit possession for their own ends accordingly there the Capuchins presently lay hold upon her and perswade the people she was really possessed the Arch-Bishop of Paris disliking the Capuchins proceedings appointed some of the ablest Physicians in Paris to watch and examine her who presently suspected the imposture but desired further time and advice In the mean while Fr. Seraphin very solemnly falls to his Exorcisms and she acted her part so artificially with writhing her body rolling her eyes and trembling of all her joynts as caused great astonishment in the Spectators but at these words Homo factus est she moved her whole body in so strange a manner from the Altar to the doors of the Chappel that Fr. seraphin cried out if there be any Infidel yet among you let him come and try his strength with this Spirit At which Marescot the Physitian said he would do it then the cunning Gypsie cried that the Spirit had left her wherein she was seconded by the Exorcist While the Physitians were by she lay very still but she no sooner thought them gone but she was at her old tricks Then these Physitians were shut out and others brought in who would be more favourable to the design and by these a certificate was drawn up attested by themselves that she was really possessed and an Abbot affirmed that when she was held by six men she got above their heads four foot into the air and there stood When this account of her was published Marescot confuted it answering all their arguments and giving an account of all the strange Symptoms which were sâ—en in her But so much were the people moved by this that there was great danger of a tumult the King therefore gave order to the Parliament to prevent riotous meetings and to commit the pretended possessed person to