DEMONIAC.

Martha Brossier, a woman who pretended to be possessed by the devil, had nearly occasioned great disorders in France, towards the latter end of the sixteenth century. Her father, who was a weaver at Remorantin, found it more convenient to ramble about with his three daughters, one of which had the art of making a thousand distortions, than to stay at home and mind his trade. He therefore went up and down through the neighbouring towns, showing his daughter Martha as a woman possessed by the devil, who stood in great need of the exorcism of the church. A prodigious multitude of people resorted to that spectacle. The cheat was found out at Orleans, . and for that reason, in the year 1598, all the priests of the diocese were forbidden to proceed to exorcisms ‘ on pain of excommunication. Nor was the bishop of Angers more easy to be imposed upon; he quickly detected the cheat, for having invited Martha to dinner, he caused some holy water to be brought her instead of common water, and common water instead of holy water. Martha was caught; she was not at all affected when she drank the holy water, but she made a thousand contortions when the common water was presented to her. Thereupon the prelate called for the book of exorcisms, and read the beginning of the Æneid. Martha was entrapped a second time; for thinking those Latin verses of Virgil were the beginning of the exorcism, she put herself into violent postures as if she had been tormented by the devil. This was sufficient to convince the bishop of Angers that she was an impostor; however he only reproved her father in private.

The knave however, did not care to go back to Remorantin with his daughter, as the prelate had advised him; but, on the contrary, he carried her to the great stage of the kingdom, I mean to Paris, where he hoped to be supported by credulous and ill-affected people, and by those whom the edict of Nantes had lately exasperated against the king. He pitched upon St Genevieve’s church to act his farce. The Capuchins, who immediately took up the business, lost no time, and quickly exorcised the wicked spirit of Martha, without a previous enquiry, as it is ordered by the church. The postures she made, whilst the exorcists performed their function, easily made the common people believe that she was a demoniac, and the thing was quickly noised about all over the town. The bishop being willing to proceed orderly in the matter, appointed five of the most famous physicians in Paris to examine the thing: they unanimously reported, that since it did not appear that Martha had any skill in Greek or Latin, the devil had no hand in the matter, but that there was a great deal of imposture, and some distemper in it. Two days after, two of those physicians seemed to waver, and, before they answered the bishop, desired the three others might be sent for, and time granted them till the next day. Thus on the first of April, 1599, a critical day for the cause, father Seraphin, on the one side, renewed his exorcisms, and Martha reiterated her convulsions on the other. She rolled her eyes, lolled out her tongue, quaked all over her body; and when the father came to these words, “ & homo factus est,” she fell down, and skipped and capered from the altar to the door of the chapel. Whereupon the exorcist cried out, that if any one persisted still in his incredulity, he needed only fight that devil, and try to conquer him, if he durst venture his life. Marescot, one of the five physicians, answered, that he accepted the challenge, and

immediately took Martha by the throat, and bid her stop. She obeyed, and alleged for her excuse, that the evil spirit had left her, which was confirmed by father Seraphin. Whence Marescot inferred, that it was he who had frighted the devil away. The bishop ordered, that the exorcisms should be carried on; at first Martha was not moved with them; only when she saw that Marescot was ready to struggle with her, she said, that he, Riolan and Hautin, would do better to mind their physic; but when she knew they were gone, she threw herself upon the ground, and began again her mad tricks. They returned, and quickly made her quiet, and maintained to father Seraphin that there was nothing supernatural in the case, exhorted the maid to deceive the people no longer, and threatened her with the rack. They consulted again about it, and laying great stress on Martha’s confessing, when asked several questions in Greek and Latin, that she was ignorant of those two languages, they all concluded, except one, that she was not possessed by the devil. It is true, there was another, who notwithstanding the signs of imposture, which he acknowledged, gave his opinion, that she should be observed three months longer. Two days after, some other physicians were sent for, the first being dismissed. Father Seraphin attended by one of his fraternity, who was an Englishman, repeated his exorcisms; and then Martha, besides her usual postures, answered some questions that were asked her in Greek and English. Whereupon, the physicians asserted, that she was truly possessed by the devil, but Marescot confuted all the arguments they alleged for it. People being divided in their opinions about it, and there being reason to fear that some answers might be suggested to that maid, which might raise a sedition, under pretence of the edict granted to the protestants; Henry IV was advised not to neglect the matter. He was sensible of the importance of it, and enjoined the parliament of Paris to use their authority in the affair. The parliament ordered Martha to be put into the hands of the lieutenant-criminal, and the king’s attorney in the chatelet. They kept her forty days, during which time they shewed her to the best physicians, who asserted, that they observed nothing in her that was beyond nature. In the mean time the preachers gave themselves a prodigious liberty: they cried out, that the privileges of the church were incroached upon, and that such proceedings were suggested by the heretics. Andrew du Val, a doctor of the Sorbonne, and archangel Du-Puy, a capuchin, were the most furious among those seditious declaimers. The parliament had much ado to silence the latter; but at last they made him sensible of their power, and on the twenty-fourth of May, 1599, the provost was ordered to carry James Brossier and his three daughters to Remorantin, and the father forbidden to let his daughter Martha go abroad without leave from the judge, on pain of corporal punishment. Thus the devil was condemned by an arrêt.

When I think that the wretched daughter of a weaver, carried from town to town like a bear, and at last engrossed by two or three monks, who pretended that she was a demoniac, made Henry IV, the parliament of Paris, and all honest Frenchmen, very uneasy; when I think that such a creature gave occasion to fear that a large kingdom would fall again into a combustion, which was but just quenched; when I think that, upon the news of her going to Rome, the agents of the French court were ordered to omit nothing with the Pope in order to ward off that blow: I say, when I consider all these things, I cannot but pity the fate of sovereigns, and their unavoidable dependence upon the clergy. Whether they be devout or not, they will be always obliged to have a regard for them, and to fear them; they are a true

imperium in imperio. It is true, the kingdom of Jesus Christ is not of this world; he says so himself; but those, who pretend to represent him, are frequently masters of the kings of the earth, and will give, or take away crowns. And those, who talk so much of the church militant, are more in the right than they think. This title cannot rightly be called into question; she is too much concerned in wars, her arms are too formidable, to contend with her about it. It is true, she pretends to be unarmed; but what does this signify to those who are afraid of her, since she has a thousand ways of arming the world, and shewing the falsity of the maxim, “ Nemo dat quod non habet. - - - - - No body gives what he has not.” How many men has she, of each of whom one may say what the poet says of Misenus?

- - - - - - - - - - - quo non præstantior alter
Ære ciere viros, martemque accendere cantu.
Art.Brossier.