In this part of Penbroch,unclean spirits have conversed,nor visibly,but sensibly,with mankind;first in the house of Stephen Wiriet,{114}and afterwards in the house of William Not;{115}manifesting their presence by throwing dirt at them,and more with a view of mockery than of injury.In the house of William,they cut holes in the linen and woollen garments,much to the loss of the owner of the house and his guests;nor could any precaution,or even bolts,secure them from these inconveniences.In the house of Stephen,the spirit in a more extraordinary manner conversed with men,and,in reply to their taunts,upbraided them openly with everything they had done from their birth,and which they were not willing should be known or heard by others.I do not presume to assign the cause of this event,except that it is said to be the presage of a sudden change from poverty to riches,or rather from affluence to poverty and distress;as it was found to be the case in both these instances.And it appears to me very extraordinary that these places could not be purified from such illusions,either by the sprinkling of holy water,or the assistance of any other religious ceremony;for the priests themselves,though protected by the crucifix,or the holy water,on devoutly entering the house,were equally subject to the same insults.From whence it appears that things pertaining to the sacraments,as well as the sacraments themselves,defend us from hurtful,but not from harmless things;from annoyances,but not from illusions.It is worthy of note,that in our time,a woman in Poitou was possessed by a demon,who,through her mouth,artfully and acutely disputed with the learned.
He sometimes upbraided people with their secret actions,and those things which they wished not to hear;but when either the books of the gospel,or the relics of saints,were placed upon the mouth of the possessed,he fled to the lower part of her throat;and when they were removed thither,he descended into her belly.His appearance was indicated by certain inflations and convulsions of the parts which he possessed,and when the relics were again placed in the lower parts,he directly returned to the upper.At length,when they brought the body of Christ,and gave it to the patient,the demon answered,"Ye fools,you are doing nothing,for what you give her is not the food of the body,but of the soul;and my power is confined to the body,not to the soul."But when those persons whom he had upbraided with their more serious actions,had confessed,and returned from penance,he reproached them no more.
"I have known,indeed,"says he,"I have known but now I know not,(he spake this as it were a reproach to others),and I hold my tongue,for what I know,I know not."From which it appears,that after confession and penance,the demons either do not know the sins of men,or do not know them to their injury and disgrace;because,as Augustine says,"If man conceals,God discovers;if man discovers,God conceals."Some people are surprised that lightning often strikes our places of worship,and damages the crosses and images of him who was crucified,before the eyes of one who seeth all things,and permits these circumstances to happen;to whom I shall only answer with Ovid,"Summa petit livor,perflant altissima venti,Summa petunt dextra fulmina missa Jovis."On the same subject,Peter Abelard,in the presence of Philip king of France,is said to have answered a Jew,who urged these and similar things against the faith."It is true that the lightning descending from on high,directs itself most commonly to the highest object on earth,and to those most resembling its own nature;it never,therefore,injures your synagogues,because no man ever saw or heard of its falling upon a privy."An event worthy of note,happened in our time in France.During a contention between some monks of the Cistercian order,and a certain knight,about the limits of their fields and lands,a violent tempest,in one night,utterly destroyed and ruined the cultivated grounds of the monks,while the adjoining territory of the knight remained undamaged.On which occasion he insolently inveighed against the fraternity,and publicly asserted that divine vengeance had thus punished them for unlawfully keeping possession of his land;to which the abbot wittily replied,"It is by no means so;but that the knight had more friends in that riding than the monastery;"and he clearly demonstrated that,on the other hand,the monks had more enemies in it.