Prophets And Fanatics.

The words of Pigray , a medical officer , charged -with others to examine fourteen persons accused of sorcery , who had been previously tried and condemned to death while Parliament sat at Tours ( 1589 ) , were , " We found them to be very poor , stupid people , and some of them insane . Our opinion was that they stood more in need of medicine than of punishment ; and so we reported to Parliament . "

It does not , however , transpire whether the advice of Pigray and his fellow medicos was acted upon , out the opinion which they formed in Tours would have sufficed for hundreds of cases which have occurred in various portions of the world .

Mother Magdalena de la Cruz . —R . R . Madden , F . R . C . S ., in his " Phantasmata , " says , " In the warfare of two religious orders , the impostures of Magdalena de la Cruz , the abbess of a convent of the Dominican order in Cordova , wore brought to light by the Franciscans . The following wonderful feats were attributed to or claimed by her . She had been elevated in the air the height of a human being ; she had passed without impediment through a

stone wall ; she had been ministered to by angels ; her hair had marvellously grown all of a sudden so as to cover her entire person , and shrunk again to its proper size and quantity , she fell into trances and had extraordinary visions , seeing into events yet unborn in tho womb of time . And all these wonders were achieved , as she declared , by gifts and graces derived from God for good and religious ends . "

After thirty years of imposture , she was , in 1610 , condemned by fche Inquisitors of Logrogno to a life of penance .

A Spanish Auto-da-Fe . — Another instance related in the "Phantasmata" is as follows : — "In 1621 , the Inquisition , in its loyalty , wishing to celebrate the succession to the throne of Philip IV . offered to his Majesty and his Court , the spectacle of an auto-da-fe of great interest . This was the auto-da-fe of Marie de la Conception , a " beati " and hypocrite of much celebrity in tho former reign . She had deluded great

numbers of people , lay aud clerical , by her supposed revelations , simulated piety , and frequent ecstacies . Eventually it was discovered sho was not only a religious impostor ' , but a person of flagitious morals . She was condemned as a sorceress and heretic and figured at the auto-da-fe attired in a San Benito , with a mitre on her head , and a gag in her mouth . She received 200 lashes , and was condemned to perpetual imprisonment .

One of the last instances of auto-da-fe for heresy was at Goa , in 1717 , when twenty persons perished in the flames , and the last person burnt by the Inquisition was afc Seville , 7 th November 1781 , the victim being a woman accused of making a contract with the devil .

Quietism . —Madame Johanna Mary Bouriers de la Mothe Guyon , of Montargis , was an advocate of Quietism § , which a Spanish Jesuit named Michael Molinos had imposed upon tbe world . She declared herself to be the pregnant woman mentioned in the Apocalypse . She was a widow afc twenty-eight . Becoming obnoxious on account of her visions and prophecies , and by the number of her followers , she was imprisoned in the Bastile , where

she underwent many examinations , but nothing being made out against her she was discharged and lived a quiet visionary aud writer . Fenelon , Archbishop of Cam bray , author of the celebrated " Telemachus , " a quietist himself , undertook her defence , and Bossuet , Bishop of Condon , and afterwards of Meaux was opposed to her , and honce arose the famous controversy concerning Quietism , 1697 . Madame Guyon died at Blois , in 1717 .

Johanna Southcote . —The name of Johanna Southcote ( or Southcott ) , will be familiar to my readers , as a woman who was the means of forming an extensive sect , and whose fanatical hallucinations caused no little commotion in her day . She is described as an illiterate , repulsive , dropsical old dame , who , in her dotage , dreamt of the instincts of maternity , claiming that she had a divine mission by which she was to be the medium of ushering into the modern world another Messiah . So firmly did her infatuated followers believe in her , thafc a costly cradle and swaddling clothes of the finest texture were prepared for the promised Shiloh . She died 27 th December 1814 .

Mother Juliana . —This was a very singular character who belonged to Norwich , in the reign of Edward III . In her zeal for mortification she confined herself for several years between four walls . She wrote " Sixteen revelations of Divine love showed to Mother Juliana , " & c . The Spirit of the Wall . —According to Baker's Chronicle , "In the first year of Mary's reign after her marriage with Philip of Spain , Elizabeth

Croft , a girl of eighteen years of age , was secreted in a wall , and with a whistle , made for the purpose , uttered many seditious speeches against the queen and the prince , and also against the mass and confession , for which she was sentenced to stand upon a scaffold at St . Paul's Cross , during sermon time , and make a public confession of her imposture , 1553 . Sho was called tbe " Spirit of the Wall . "

The Holy Maid of Kent . —In the reign of Henry VIII , Elizabeth Barton , a religious fanatic who called herself the Holy Maid of Kent , imposed not only upon the credulity of the lower classes , but also upon the enlightened minds of Sir Thomas More , Bishop Fisher , and Archbishop Warham . She asserted that she saw visions of angels ; that in her trances the Virgin Mary appeared to her ; and that God had revealed to her that if Henry divorced nis

queen , his reign would be over in less than a month . The popish priests took her part , the king ' s name was blackened , but when the latter was insulted to his face by some of the preachers , his resentment was aroused , and the maid and her accomplices were produced before the Star Chamber , where a confession was extracted , she and her confederates were condemned , and executed at Tyburn , 20 th April 1534 .

The Shakers . —This was an English sect , now chiefly found in America , it arose in the time of Charles I . and derived its name from their voluntary convulsion . It existed for a short time only , but was revived by James Wardlaw in 1747 , and still more by Ann Lee ( orStandless ) , expelled Quakers , about 1757 . The sect emigrated to America , May 1772 , and settled near Albany , New York , 1774 . They denounce marriage as sinful , regard celibacy as holy , oppose war , disown baptism and the Lord ' s Supper , and use dancing as part of their worship .

m j Gln , m g ' - —Another form of Shaker . Above 100 English persons settled in the New Forest , near Lymington , Hampshire , on property obtained Mr them by a Miss Wood , in 1872 , but nofc paying interest of the mortgage tney were ejected in very severe weather , and suffered much . This was about ' ¦ tie end of 1874 . Mrs . Girling , the leader , died 18 th September 1886 , and the community gradually dispersed . The Mormons . —I have referred elsewhere to Joseph Smith , who lounclcd the Mormon system , called tho Church of Jesus Christ of the

J . The doctrine of Quietism as advanced by Molinos , was that man must annihilate himself in order to bo united to fche dcifcy .

Prophets And Fanatics.

Latter Day Saints , and as readers aro already familiar with fche fact that he pretended to have received from heaven certain ancient scrolls and tables with the divine inscriptions of long-lost revelation concerning the tribe of Nephi and that of the Jaredites , ifc will nofc be necessary for me to add any further remarks fco what has already been said .

With the march of education , and the relaxation of penal laws , the interest surrounding such incidents as those which I have mentioned has been somewhat allayed , and though isolated cases of gross ignorance and superstition do occasionally arise , yet they are purely local , and usually excite a smile of contempt on the part of the general public , whose credulity is

now seldom imposed upon by the insane antics of crack-brained , overrighteous , sanctified pretenders , and would-be regenerators , for the threatened terrible convulsion of nature , the frightful cataclysm , and the wide-spread devastation which form part of . their stock-in-trade , never takes place , the world wagging merrily on as usual , despite their fearful vaticinations .

My readers will probably be able to form their own opinion upon the following account , compiled principally from an article which appeared in " Collier ' s Weekly , " sometime in July 1896 . A Psychic Wonder . —Mademoiselle Henrietto Couedon , who was born of respectable parents residing in Rue de Paradis , Paris , did not , on the day of her nativity ( 16 th October 1 S 72 ) , evince any signs , beyond the fact that she was a healthy baby , to show that she was likely to develop into an object of universal interest as a " voyante " and " visionnaire . " On 5 th August 1894 ,

when she was twenty-two years old , she fell into a trance of some hours ' duration , which state of catalepsy was repeated , although more seriously , at exactly the same hour on Sth August 1895 . On this occasion she broke into prophecy , relating at the same time many incidents in her father ' s life which , ho contended , were previously unknown to anyone but himself . A few days afterwards she declared that the Angel Gabriel had appeared to her , saying she had been chosen as a medium by which men were to be warned of the dangers which menanced them , and that she was to foretell the approaching end of tlie Republic , and the return of a king to France .

When the news was conveyed to the gay Parisians that m one of the Faubourgs of their city dwelt a young girl who was endowed with supernatural and prophetic powers , they laughed . But it transpired that citizens of social standing and repute were willing to vouch for the accuracy of the statement , and the wonder increased , until at last the residence of her parents was besieged , and the roadway blocked with carriages and pedestrians ,

till the Bue de Paradis became in notoriety almost a second Berners Street . The police were compelled to interfere by way of maintaining order , and M . Couedon devised a means by which visitors were to receive proper attention , for so great was the number attracted that those who came to sign the register on the afternoon of the second day , appoining an interview , found that they had no chance of being received until a period of six weeks had elapsed .

Public audiences were given twice a week , other days being reserved for the visits of doctors , and learned men representing every science , who readily admitted that instead of being a " farceuse , " Mdlle . Couedon was a mystery whom they could not understand or describe , for she baffled all their ingenuity and knowledge .

A great number entertained the belief that " she was a celestial messenger , a being uniting the land of shadow with the world we live in . To others she appeared as a victim of hysteria , or as a case of mental aberration . There are also opinions which pronounce it ' clairvoyance , ' or second sight , and hypnotism has been suggested . "

Whether in public or in private her actions are remarkable . " She seats herself opposite the visitor , and enters into converse such as one might expect upon the occasion of an ordinary social call . Meanwhile she waits for some inspiration from the Angel Gabriel as to whether he desires to communicate witb you . First of all you aro told that your questions must be addressed to the angel , and not to her . She impresses upon you that she is merely a medium of communication , and that as an individual her identity is merged . Unconscious of all , she remains passive while the angel speaks .

If the angel desires communication with you the face of •" la voyante " is suffused with a dull red colour . Her eyelids droop until only a narrow margin of white is visible . Then , after a short silence , the words of the angel proceed from her lips . Sho is now in a state of ecstasy , her voice changes and has a certain measured , harmonious tone , and her words are spoken in verse .

Among other portentous predictions , she foretells of a general European war . All nations will participate in it . France and England , however , will suffer most—England on account of her unjust usurpations , France because her people have been wicked . While she is doomed to lose half her territory , France will recover Lorraine . Yet the other of her two lost provinces—Alsace—will never come back . The Republic will sink into oblivion , and the

kings will resume their swa }' . There was great speculation about the identity of the coming king . He is to appear at the most critical moment in the history of the land . He will be called Henry V ., which made people think that the prophecy referred to Prince Henry of Orleans . But this theory was dispelled by the voice of the angel , which said that the king was to be a Bourbon . "

The prediction further says that this king will not descend from Louis XVI ., thus destroying the romance that tho son of the unfortunate dauphin and Queen Marie Antoinette known to history as Louis XVII , and who , upon the downfall of his parents , was at the age of eight years entrusted to the care of Simon , a shoemaker , to be rudely treated , or , as some supposed poisoned—the prediction of Mdlle . Couedon destroys the romance believed in by some that this boy did not die in prison , bufc escaped in exile , and left descendants .

According to our newspaper authority M . l'Abbe S . paid a visit to " la voyante , " and upon being informed b y her that bis sister was dangerously ill he returned home , where a letter awaited him confirming the statement of Mdlle . Couedon . The news which she imparted to M . Jean Sabatur , of the Boulevard de la Tour-Maubourg was of a far more pleasant nature . He was to receive a legacy , hitherto quite unexpected , and , strange to say , tho good fortune was realised in tho course of a few days .

A certain Madame Ugalda had a daughter who was seriously ill . The angel predicted through the medium that the patient would recover upon a day which was mentioned , and this also happened . " La voyanto " informed M . C . that he had forwarded a picture to the Salon which would be subjected to adverse criticism , aud it is said that " tho judgment of the connoisseurs subsequently corresponded exactly with tho prediction . "

The article concludes as follows , "None can yot explain the mystery of Mdlle . Couedon and her gifts . But it must bo remembered thafc in 1788 , in the salon of the Countess do Grammont , Cazotte , a famous Frenchman of that day , prophesied tho death of Louis XVI ., upon tlio scaffold . "