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83 pages

English

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Settle in for a chilling thrill-ride with H. Addington Bruce's Historic Ghosts and Ghost Hunters. This volume collects a series of reported hauntings in various locations throughout Europe, as well as detailed reports of the attempts that were made to contact, question, and in some instances, even exorcise the supernatural being or beings at fault.

Sujets

Mind

Body

Spirit

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Publié par	The Floating Press
Date de parution	01 juillet 2014
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781776583638
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0134€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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HISTORIC GHOSTS AND GHOST HUNTERS
* * *
H. ADDINGTON BRUCE

*
Historic Ghosts and Ghost Hunters First published in 1908 Epub ISBN 978-1-77658-363-8 Also available: PDF ISBN 978-1-77658-364-5 © 2013 The Floating Press and its licensors. All rights reserved. While every effort has been used to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information contained in The Floating Press edition of this book, The Floating Press does not assume liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in this book. The Floating Press does not accept responsibility for loss suffered as a result of reliance upon the accuracy or currency of information contained in this book. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment. Many suitcases look alike. Visit www.thefloatingpress.com
Contents
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Preface I - The Devils of Loudun II - The Drummer of Tedworth III - The Haunting of the Wesleys IV - The Visions of Emanuel Swedenborg V - The Cock Lane Ghost VI - The Ghost Seen by Lord Brougham VII - The Seeress of Prevorst VIII - The Mysterious Mr. Home IX - The Watseka Wonder X - A Medieval Ghost Hunter XI - Ghost Hunters of Yesterday and To-Day Endnotes
*
TO
THE MEMORY OF MY FRIEND
JOHN J. HENRY
Preface
*
The following pages represent in the main a discussion of certaincelebrated mysteries, as viewed in the light of the discoveries setforth in the writer's earlier work "The Riddle of Personality."
That dealt, it may briefly be recalled, with the achievements of thosescientists whose special endeavor it is to illumine the nature of humanpersonality. On the one hand, it reviewed the work of thepsychopathologists, or investigators of abnormal mental life; and, onthe other hand, the labors of the psychical researchers, thoseenthusiastic and patient explorers of the seemingly supernormal in humanexperience. Emphasis was laid on the fact that the two lines of inquiryare more closely interrelated than is commonly supposed, and that thediscoveries made in each aid in the solution of problems apparentlybelonging exclusively in the other.
To this phase of the subject the writer now returns. The problems underexamination are, all of them, problems in psychical research: yet, aswill be found, the majority in no small measure depend for elucidationon facts brought to light by the psychopathologists. Of course, it isnot claimed that the last word has here been said with respect to anyone of these human enigmas. But it is believed that, thanks to theknowledge gained by the investigations of the past quarter of a century,approximately correct solutions have been reached; and that, in anyevent, it is by no means imperative to regard the phenomena in questionas inexplicable, or as explicable only on a spiritistic basis.
Before attempting to solve the problems, it manifestly was necessary tostate them. In doing this the writer has sought to present them in areadable and attractive form, but without any distortion or omission ofmaterial facts.
H. ADDINGTON BRUCE.
BROOKLINE, N. H., July, 1908.
I - The Devils of Loudun
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Loudun is a small town in France about midway between the ancient andromantic cities of Tours and Poitiers. To-day it is an exceedinglyunpretentious and an exceedingly sleepy place; but in the seventeenthcentury it was in vastly better estate. Then its markets, its shops, itsinns, lacked not business. Its churches were thronged with worshipers.Through its narrow streets proud noble and prouder ecclesiastic, thriftymerchant and active artisan, passed and repassed in an unceasing stream.It was rich in points of interest, preëminent among which were itscastle and its convent. In the castle the stout-hearted Loudunians founda refuge and a stronghold against the ambitions of the feudal lords andthe tyranny of the crown. To its convent, pleasantly situated in a groveof time-honored trees, they sent their children to be educated.
It is to the convent that we must turn our steps; for it was from theconvent that the devils were let loose to plague the good people ofLoudun. And in order to understand the course of events, we must firstmake ourselves acquainted with its history. Very briefly, then, it, likemany other institutions of its kind, was a product of the Catholiccounter-reformation designed to stem the rising tide of Protestantism.It came into being in 1616, and was of the Ursuline order, which hadbeen introduced into France not many years earlier. From the first itproved a magnet for the daughters of the nobility, and soon boasted agoodly complement of nuns.
At their head, as mother superior, was a certain Jeanne de Belfiel, ofnoble birth and many attractive qualities, but with characteristicswhich, as the sequel will show, wrought much woe to others as well as tothe poor gentlewoman herself. Whatever her defects, however, she laboredtirelessly in the interests of the convent, and in this respect was ablyseconded by its father confessor, worthy Father Moussaut, a man of raregood sense and possessing a firm hold on the consciences and affectionsof the nuns.
Conceive their grief, therefore, when he suddenly sickened and died. Nowensued an anxious time pending the appointment of his successor. Twonames were foremost for consideration—that of Jean Mignon, chief canonof the Church of the Holy Cross, and that of Urbain Grandier, curé ofSaint Peter's of Loudun. Mignon was a zealous and learned ecclesiastic,but belied his name by being cold, suspicious, and, some would have it,unscrupulous. Grandier, on the contrary, was frank and ardent andgenerous, and was idolized by the people of Loudun. But he had seriousfailings. He was most unclerically gallant, was tactless, was overreadyto take offense, and, his wrath once fully roused, was unrelenting.Accordingly, little surprise was felt when the choice ultimately fell,not on him but on Mignon.
With Mignon the devils entered the Ursuline convent. Hardly had he beeninstalled when rumors began to go about of strange doings within itsquiet walls; and that there was something in these rumors became evidenton the night of October 12, 1632, when two magistrates of Loudun, thebailie and the civil lieutenant, were hurriedly summoned to the conventto listen to an astonishing story. For upwards of a fortnight, itappeared, several of the nuns, including Mother Superior Belfiel, hadbeen tormented by specters and frightful visions. Latterly they hadgiven every evidence of being possessed by evil spirits. With theassistance of another priest, Father Barré, Mignon had succeeded inexorcising the demons out of all the afflicted save the mother superiorand a Sister Claire.
In their case every formula known to the ritual had failed. The onlyconclusion was that they were not merely possessed but bewitched, andmuch as he disliked to bring notoriety on the convent, the fatherconfessor had decided it was high time to learn who was responsible forthe dire visitation. He had called the magistrates, he explained, inorder that legal steps might be taken to apprehend the wizard, it beingwell established that "devils when duly exorcised must speak the truth,"and that consequently there could be no doubt as to the identity of theoffender, should the evil spirits be induced to name the source of theirauthority.
Without giving the officials time to recover from their amazement,Mignon led them to an upper room, where they found the mother superiorand Sister Claire, wan-faced and fragile looking creatures on whosecountenances were expressions of fear that would have inspired pity inthe most stony-hearted. About them hovered monks and nuns. At sight ofthe strangers, Sister Claire lapsed into a semi-comatose condition; butthe mother superior uttered piercing shrieks, and was attacked byviolent convulsions that lasted until the father confessor spoke to herin a commanding tone. Then followed a startling dialogue, carried on inLatin between Mignon and the soi-disant demon possessing her.
"Why have you entered this maiden's body?"
"Because of hatred."
"What sign do you bring?"
"Flowers."
"What flowers?"
"Roses."
"Who has sent them?"
A moment's hesitation, then the single word—"Urbain."
"Tell us his surname?"
"Grandier."
In an instant the room was in an uproar. But the magistrates did notlose their heads. To the bailie in especial the affair had a suspiciouslook. He had heard the devil "speak worse Latin than a boy of the fourthclass," he had noted the mother superior's hesitancy in pronouncingGrandier's name, and he was well aware that deadly enmity had longexisted between Grandier and Mignon. So he placed little faith in thelatter's protestation that the naming of his rival had taken himcompletely by surprise. Consulting with his colleague, he coldlyinformed Mignon that before any arrest could be made there must befurther investigation, and, promising to return next day, bade them goodnight.
Next day found the convent besieged by townspeople, indignant at theaccusation against the popular priest, and determined to laugh thedevils out of existence. Grandier himself, burning with rage, hastenedto the bailie and demanded that the nuns be separately interrogated, andby other inquisitors than Mignon and Barré. In these demands the bailieproperly acquiesced; but, on attempting in person to enforce his ordersto that effect, he was denied admittance to the convent. Excitement ranhigh; so high that, fearful for his personal safety, Mignon consentedto accept as exorcists two priests appointed, not by the bailie, but bythe Bishop of Poitiers—who, it might incidentally be mentioned, had hisown reasons for disliking Grandier.
Exorcising now went on daily, to the disgust of the serious-minded, themystification of the incredulous, the delight of sensation-mongers, andthe baffled fury of Grandier. So far the play, if melodramatic, had notapproached the tragic. Sometimes it degenerated to the broadest farcecomedy. Thus, on one occasion when the devil was being read out of themother superior, a crashing