On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
modern diabolical appearance * Thomas B < : ard no doubly sincerely credued * He says , * ¦ * it was a ^ very lamentable spectacle that chanced to the Governor of IVlascon , a magician , whom the devil snatched U |> in dinner-while , and hoisted aloft , carrying him three limes about the town of
IVJftseon in the presence of many beholders , to whom he cryed on this manner ^ help , help , my friends ; * o that the whole town stood amazed thereat ; yea , and
the remembrance of this strange accident slicketh at this day fast in the minds of all the inhabitants of this country . " Mascon or JVlacon is a small city of the province of Burgundy . The authority for this story is Hugo de Cluny , Monk , and probably chief legend-maker to that famous Benedictine Abbey , in the vicinity of Macon . This place was the . scene of another supposed diabolical visitation , nearer our time , and it may excuse the credulity of Thomas Beard to associate hiin upon this occasion wjth the great JRobert Boyle , who gave his sanction to the following
publication : " The Devil of Mascon : or a true relation of the chief things . which an unclean spirit < lid and said at Mascon , in Burgundj * , in the house of one Mr * Francis Pem-aiid , Minister of the Reformed Church in the same town . Published , in French lately by himseliV and now made English by one , th ^ t hath . a particular knowledge of . the truth of the story . "
XhJs translation was first printed at Oxford in l 6 $ 9-.- To the fouith edition in 167 2 , is prefixed a leiter from Mr . Bqyle to the translator Dr > Palter Jpu Moulin .
Untitled Article
Dr . Birch -adds ,- - * ' it was
afterwards indeed reporied that Mr . Boyle had disowned the story of that daemon , as a clear imposture , but he declares that he never did this , in a letter to Mr . Glanvill ,
dated 1678 / ' A passage from that letter Dr . B . proceeds to quote , in which , though Mr . Boyle declares his continued faith " as to the main story / ' Ire
acknowledges an 'fc indisposition to believe such things / ' ( Birch Life of R . Boyle , p . 203 . ) No such indisposition will , be attributed to Thomas Beard r by the readers of the following mar * vellous tale , for which he is indebted to some work on 4 <
Contempt of Sacraments . " ( JLib . 1 . cap . 34 . ) l Mn 1457 , a certain curate of a village near Soissons , to revenge himself of a ; farmer that retained from him the tenths which were appointed to the Knights of Rhodes , wept to a witch , of whom he received
in gift a fat toad which she commanded him to baptise , as he also did , and called it by the name of John % This good holy curate , after he had consecrated the hoJy host , gave it also to the toad to eat , and afterward re . stored it to the witch , who ,
killing the toad and cutting ; it in pieces , with other ^ such like , sorceries , caused a young wench to carry it secretly into the former ' s house , and to put it under the table , as they were at diaxaer , whereupon immediately the farmer and his children that were
at the table fell suddenly sick and thre « days after died - " Tq this horrible narration is ^ ttaohed ^ on the authority of Froifoard , an anecdote coxnpara * lively pleasant " o another cu-.
Untitled Article
11 & 1 Book ^ Wprm . N » . XII ;
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1814, page 116, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2437/page/44/
-