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having had any instruction in singing-having never even learned a song. When these things became known to the Church at Mayence, they declared that these visions came from God, and by the gift of prophecy. Upon this my writings were placed before Pope Eugene, when he was at Trier, who had them read aloud before many, and then sent me a letter begging me to commit my visions to writing.' Attracted by her fame people went to see her from all parts of Germany and France. She explained passages from Holy Writ; many received counsel for bodily ailments; many were relieved from sickness by her blessing. By her prophetic spirit she was acquainted with the thoughts of those near her, and reproved some who only went to see her from curiosity. As these were unable to answer the spirit which spoke within her, it often happened that they were struck with surprise, and believed. The Jews who entered

into conversation with her she endeavoured to lead to a belief in Christ by words of pious exhortation. She spoke to all with gentleness and love; often reproved the nuns like a mother when they disagreed among themselves, or gave way to a longing for the world. The determinations, the intentions, and the thoughts of others, were so perfectly known to her, that at divine service she gave to each one a blessing according to the nature of their hearts; for she saw in the human mind the future life, even in some cases the death, and, according to the state of their souls, their future reward or punishment. These great secrets, however, were confided to no one but her confessor, to whom she related even the deepest secrets of her heart; and through all this she retained the greatest of all virtues-humility. Her influence upon persons was as wonderful as her inner sight; and the age in which she lived universally attributed miraculous powers to her.

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"Her power of healing sickness," writes her biographer, was so wonderful, that scarcely any one who sought her aid went away without restored health. A girl suffered from tertian fever, which no medicines could subdue, and therefore begged for aid from St. Hildegarde, who laid her hands upon her in the name of the Lord and blessed her she immediately recovered. A lay brother, Novicus by name, who suffered from the same fever, hearing of the miracle

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performed on the girl, went in humility to Hildegarde, received her blessing, and returned sound. A girl, Bertha, was afflicted with a tumour of the neck and breast, and could neither take food nor drink: Hildegarde made the sign of the cross upon the suffering parts, and restored her to health. A man went to her from Swabia, whose body was swollen all over: she kept him for several days near her, touching him with her hands, and, by the grace of God and her blessing, he recovered. A child, seven months old, suffered from convulsions, and was cured. She was not only of service to those who were near to her, but also to those who were at a distance. Arnold Von Wackerheim, whom she had long known, had such a pain in his neck that he was quite unable to change his position. He awaited in faith the benefit of her prayers: Hildegarde, relying on mercy of God, sent him some holy water, and by the use of it the pain vanished. The daughter of a woman in Bingen was unable to speak for three days: her mother went to Hildegarde for aid, who gave her nothing but water, which she herself had consecrated: when the daughter had drunk of it she regained her voice. The same woman gave the remainder of the water to a sick youth who was supposed to be near to death; after drinking and washing his face he recovered. In Trier lived a girl who was approaching her destruction through an unbounded passion for a man: her parents, therefore, sent to Hildegarde, who, after praying to God, blessed some bread with many tears which she shed over it, and sent it to them: after the girl had eaten it, her passion gradually left her."

Hildegarde also appears to have had the power of appearing to distant persons, as has since been observed in ecstatic persons. Her biographer says, "What shall we say of this maiden, who was able to warn persons, by a vision, who were in great danger, and who had mentioned her in their prayers ? A young man, Ederich Rudolph, stopped for the night at a little village, and, on going to bed, prayed for the assistance of Hildegarde. In a vision she appeared to him in the very dress which she at that time wore, and told him that his life would be in danger from his enemies if he did not at once leave the place. With a few of his companions he instantly left; and those who remained were overpowered by their pursuers."

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Several similar cases are recorded. Hildegarde's visions did not only refer to single individuals, but also to general events; for instance, the great division which should occur in the church after her time. For many years she was the oracle of princes and bishops. She was born in 1098, and died in 1179, on the 17th September, as she had long before predicted to her friends. Till her end she was scarcely ever free from suffering; and the manner in which she bore these afflictions is shown by the motto in her ring, which is preserved at Eibingen,-"I suffer willingly.”

In my work "Magnetism in connection with Nature and Religion," I have given some extracts, agreeing in many particulars with the above, from the History of Giovanna della Croce, of Roveredo, whose life and autobiography were published by Beda Weber in his work "Tyrol and the Reformation, in Pictures and Fragments," from manuscripts which fell into his hands. She enjoyed such reputation for the truth of her predictions, that, during the thirty years' war, the highest princes and warriors, even of the Protestant faith, sought her advice and corresponded with her. was weak in health, but eminently pious in disposition; knew the thoughts and inclinations of others, and reproved them for their perverse hearts, not excepting her own confessor, and spread blessings and health far and wide around her.

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I have also mentioned the history of the Maid of Orleans somewhat minutely; have treated of her life, her visions and deeds, and the pious inclination of her mind, from the Report of Görres (Die Jungfrau von Orleans, nachden Processacten und Gleichzeitigen Chroniken, Regensburg 1834); and also from Charmette (Histoire de Jeanne d'Arc, surnommeé la Pucelle d'Orleans: Paris, 1817);-to which works, as also to Görres' "Mystic," I refer the reader for more minute and circumstantial particulars concerning these and other inspired persons.

It has become common at the present time to have but little consideration for the above-mentioned examples, but at the same time to think much too highly of phenomena which agree with them in many respects. For of late years very remarkable phenomena have been observed in persons

of the female sex, and of very pious or even fanatical dispositions; and these have been either allowed to pass unchallenged from a theological point of view, as supernatural wonders, or, on the contrary, have been ascribed to fanaticism, or intended deception. These are those rare and very remarkable states in which persons, sunk in religious contemplation and ecstasy, have inward visions, particularly of our Saviour, and in which certain signs, as the cross, and scars, are impressed in their bodies, accompanied, generally, with bleeding from the forehead, the hands, the feet, and the side. Visions and prophecies are not wanting, but are seldom regarded with any degree of attention by the ecclesiastics who usually surround them. The persons subject to these visions seldom eat much; and other phenomena are connected with their conditions, which will make it necessary for us to regard them in connection with each other, as they possess many magical (not magnetic) features, and from the fact that lately they excited much attention in various parts of Germany. In another work I have collected accounts of all the different appearances, and have subjected them to a course of scientific and physiological investigation; endeavouring to trace everything wonderful and supernatural to well-known laws of nature, and thereby transferring them from a theological to a medical foundation. In that work I have collected every known instance of similar appearances from the earlier centuries, and must refer the reader to that work for more minute particulars, should he feel inclined to become more intimately acquainted with them. I have there mentioned (1) A. K. Emmerich, a nun at Dülmen; (2) Maria v. Mörl, who is still living at Kaltern; (3) Dominica Lazari, at Capriana, in the Tyrol, the daughter of a miller, and who is still alive; (4) and many examples of older date. The subject is anything but uninteresting; and for the purpose of enabling the reader who is unacquainted with it to form an opinion, I shall give a short account of the first-named person, as I have extracted it from her biographies: the remaining cases are all similar in the principal facts, though slightly varied in physiological points. I have endeavoured to prove that the persons in whom these phenomena present themselves do not belong to the higher category of saints which we have just treated

of. from the fact that, beyond the merely religious senses, no others are excited, as is the case in the latter; and, moreover, that all the phenomena arise from natural, not from supernatural causes. All these persons were afflicted with sickness, and in general also subject to the most violent spasms and convulsions, without any power of acting beneficially upon others, or of revealing the futurity of events or humanity. The visions which are occasionally met with associated with spasms are nothing extraordinary; and the appearance of bleeding wounds on the body are to be explained psychologically, as the intensely active imagination in all these cases preserves its power, and transforms the ideas of the fancy through an uninterrupted contemplation, into permanent shapes, which even obtain a certain plastic firmness in the body, as similar appearances have been observed in nature, and in pathological conditions; so that we are by no means justified in ascribing them to artificially produced deceptions, even if (sit venia verbis) intentional deceptions had taken place. The soul creates and the body forms; and, in fact, only according to that shape which has been held before it. The imagination is the creative and inventive power of the soul, which endeavours to reproduce outwardly that which it inwardly believed; and this succeeds more especially when the body is in a passive condition, and the outward senses are dormant. Even animals-as, for instance, horses -have been known to produce young of a certain colour which has been constantly before them; the nightmare, the terror of an inevitable danger, have been known to leave permanent marks upon the body. As the human imagination, however, alone creates ideas, so can it alone impress ideal marks,-as the wounds of our Saviour, on the body.

Anna Katharina Emmerich, a sister in the Convent of Dülmen, had numerous visions, and the remarkable power of distinguishing between harmless and noxious plants, as well as between the bones of saints and those of any other person. In frequent ecstasies she revealed secrets to various persons, which could only have occurred by a higher inspiration; and particularly to the clergyman and her confessor. Born in the neighbourhood of Coesfeld, she was sickly, but of a pious disposition, from her childhood; and even before

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