HPB-SB-10-66

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vol. 10, p. 66

H. P. Blavatsky Scrapbooks

from Adyar archives of the International Theosophical Society

vol. 10

 

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< Spiritualism and the Church of England (continued from page 10-65) >

which thou hast not known, and let us serve them;’ thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul” Deut. xiii. 1—4. In the following verses directions are given that that prophet or that dreamer of dreams should be put to death.

Here I leave the question. But before I close my letter I would beg Mr. Farquhar to try his skill in preaching to a popular audience. Let him gather round him a knot of costermongers or “needy knifegrinders.” Let him talk of humanity, homogeneity, soleity, and be understood. Nay, more, let him go and “feed the hungry” with his mellifluous prose, and “bind up the broken-hearted” with that poor comfort his earth-born system professes to bestow.

October 1st, 1879.

The Devil of Mason*

(Abridged from “The Psychological Review,”)

[The translation of this early instance of the doings of a Poltergeist, or earth-bound spirit, is by Peter du Moulan, at the request of the Hon. “Robert Boyle, who saw and conversed with M. Perrault in Geneva.]

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 night the evil spirit made such a noise as they use to make 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, nor too incredulous neither. Sometimes I considered the frailty and timorousness of women; sometimes I thought 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 barricadoes to all the doors and windows of the house, 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 lamp upon the table.

Scarce was I in my bed than I heard a great noise from the kitchen, like the rolling of a bullet 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 cullender, jingling 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 stir 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, 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 fit to make it known to Mr. Francis Tornus, a royal notary and procurator of Mascon, although he was a Roman Catholic, and very zealous of his religion. 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 20th 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 seventy-pence—a little tune of five notes which whistling birds are taught to sing. After that, lie 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 thy 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 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, 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, at the door of my elder brother’s house, where he had seen him with Mr. Du Pan, minister of Thoiry. That he had saluted them, and asked whether they had anything 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 that, they would not have been so kind to thee.

Some truth there was in his story, for Mr. Du Pan hath 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 discourse passed between them...

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.

He delighted much in jesting with the maid of the house, calling her Bressande (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 near me; and making a noise, as if he had clapped his hands together, he said, I will put thee in my sack.

He sung many profane songs, and counterfeited the voice of jugglers and mountebanks, and especially that of huntsmen crying. He offered to tempt us by covetousness (one of the ordinary temptations of the devil, for which reason he is called Mammon). . . .

He told me in great wrath that he would do this and that to me. Among other things, he said that when I should be in bed he would come and pull off my blankets, and pull me out of the bed by the feet. I answered him: I will lay me down and sleep, for the Lord maketh me to 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. . . .

The demon having used all these wiles against us, was forced to say that he could not prevail against us, because we did call too much upon the name of God. To show the efficacy of our prayers, this is an observable truth, that every time the devil saw that we began to kneel to go to our prayers, lie 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, whether he went forth or stayed, we had a wonderful silence during our prayer. But no sooner was the prayer done than 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 25th of November, when he spake these words: Alas, d alas, I shall speak no more! From that very time he gave over, and spake no more.

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 bedposts, setting over them a rough hat, such as the country women of Bresse used 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. And many times he hath 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 upon 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 feather bed, 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. 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 had found that he had saddled my horse with the crupper before, and the pommel behind.

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. 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 these 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 hath told me of many of his actions in his house and 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 gold ring which he had then in hand upon the table, with the tool 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, then he and I saw both the ring and the tool fall, we knew not from whence, upon the table again.

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 myself, 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, morning to evening, and in great quantity, some of them of two or three pounds weight...

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 of witchcraft. Once, 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, for he will do them no harm. And the truth is, she would jest and be familiar with him. She did once expostulate with the demon that he brought her no wood, whereupon he presently threw down a faggot for her at the stairfoot. 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. 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 guest.

[To the narrative is appended a testimony of “approbation of Authority of the Synod of Burgundy,” in which province he had “exercised the charge of the Holy Ministry for fifty years.”]

* 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.

Editor's notes

Sources

• 

  London Spiritualist, No. 372, October 10, 1879, pp. 176-78