Bibliography - Countess Mathilde de Canossa
This is the title of a legendary romance published in Rome in 1858, by
Rev. Father Bresciani, from the Company of Jesus,* author of The Jew
of Verona. The subject of the book is the story of the former Canossa family,
in the style of Walter Scott. That is why the author dedicated the book
to the current descendent from that renowned family, the Marquis Otavio
de Canossa, potentate of Verona and valet of H.M. Emperor of Austria.
The events take place in the middle ages. The witches and wizards represent
great roles in the story and the demoniac scenes are described with
such an accuracy which would make the Scottish romancers jealous. The
author seems less accurate to us in his appreciation of the modern spiritist
phenomena of the talking tables, of magnetism and somnambulism.
Well, here is what can be read in its Chapter X, page 170:
“More than one of my readers, and probably the majority of them,
could be surprised by seeing all these devilish apparatuses in the preceding
chapters, all the exorcism, witchcraft, hallucinations, and fantastic
outbreaks which would fit well in the late night stories and wet-nurse
tales.”
“Who would still believe these days in necromancers, witches, enchantments,
fascination, potions, and dealings with the devil? Would you
be willing to return to the fairy tales from Martin del Rio,** the gauche
superstitions of the people and the ghetto ladies, from legends which give
the shivers to the chubby peasants who fear the headless mule and keep
the chicken boys awake, in the name of the werewolf? Really, my friend,
this is the time to get rid of these futilities. That is somehow the language
that I seem to hear.”
“I will respond to that before neglecting old beliefs, everyone must
question their own conscience, frankly asking if one is not at least as
much credulous as any of one’s predecessors. Let us make no mistake:
what is the meaning of this swarm of magnetizers, mediums, dancing,
speaking and prophetic tables; somnambulists who see through the walls,
reading through their elbows, who see before them something that is done
twenty, thirty and forty miles away; who read and write without knowing
the alphabet; that not knowing a single word in medicine, describe
pathological cases, indicating their causes and prescribing the medication,
in the right dose, with all Greek-Arabic terms of the scientific vocabulary?
What are those interrogatories of spirits; those answers of dead and buried
people; those prophecies of future events? Who evokes those shadows?
Who makes them speak? Who allows them to see a non-existent future?
Who leads them to blaspheme against God, against the saints from heavens,
against the sacraments of the Church?”
“Now brave people, speak up! Why these distorted and nervous
looks? – Ah! You shall end up telling me, who knows! Mysteries of nature,
unknown laws, power of lucidity, occult sense of the human body!
Subtleness of the magnetic fluid, of the nervous influx, of the optical and
acoustic waves; secret virtues excited by electricity or magnetism in the
brain, blood, muscle fibers, in all vital components; supreme power and
strength of will and imagination.”
“My friends, these are foolish things, meaningless words, empty
phrases, ambiguous deviations, enigmas which you don’t understand
yourselves. The whole difference between us and our predecessors is that
to deny one mystery we forge a hundred of others. While a cat was a cat,
and devil the devil to those good people, we have the pretension of accrediting
nature with powers that nature does not have and cannot have.”
“Our elders, wiser and more sincere, would straight forwardly say that
there were supernatural events and very honestly associated them to the
devil. However, less familiar than we are with the natural phenomena,
they have sometimes and undoubtedly taken for a prodigious effect when
they are in the natural order of things, whereas our contemporary, much
more enlightened, cannot see in a good number of charlatanism from the
magnetizers mysterious effect of the secret laws of nature, and the really
diabolic events as nothing more than magic tricks, more or less subtle.”
“However, the better Christians of the good old times knew very
well that the bad spirits, evoked through certain signs, conjurations,
certain pacts, would show up, answer questions, hallucinating imagination,
impressing people in a thousand ways, and particularly doing
as much harm as possible to those who would speak to them.
You must then confess, in good faith, that even in our days, and in a
larger number than before, we have our necromancers, charmers and
witches, with the difference that our ancestors were horrified by all
that witchcraft; that these were secretly practiced in the darkness of
the caves, in the forests, and that many would regret and then confess,
seeking penance. In our days, instead, they are openly practiced in the
gorgeous theaters of gold and lights, before curiosity, in the presence
of young ladies, children and their mothers, without any scruple, thus
frequently making fun of the superstitions of the middle ages.”
“Believe me. Human beings have wished to deal with the devil at all
times, and that astute spirit conforms to all transformations, although
people would not send him back to the abyss, feeding some sort of commerce.
In the former centuries of idolatry he was with the oracles and
foretellers; he would appear under the form of a dove, magpie, rooster, snake, and even sang fatidic songs. In the middle ages he used to show
up pedantically to the barbarians, under terrible disguises and after monstrous
conjurations.”
“If sometimes he would diminish himself to the point of finding
dwelling in someone’s hair, in little flasks, in potions drunk by the lovers
and given by the witches, he would still inspire great horror. Today,
instead, he is given to civilizing the century. He enjoys the elegant world,
the lively soirees, frequently sleeping over with the somnambulists, using
the planchettes to write. In reality, isn’t he kind? He is careful not to
scare anyone; he dresses like the Americans, the English, the Parisians, the
Germans; he is really kind, with his beard and fine Italian mustache; he is
the real deal of the theaters and it would be really awkward if he did not
present an irreproachable distinction. Behold! He has become such a good
apostle that he talks politely to that lady who still goes to the mass and
if she was told: “- Watch out! There are things which are not natural and
could not be natural. There is something of treacherous in it. The good
Christians do not get into that!” – She would laugh at you and respond
with an air of superiority: “- What the hell! All that is very natural; I am
Christian too but not stupid.”
“Meanwhile, given a proper occasion, he will magnetize your twenty
year old daughter, and out of her magnetic intuition, make her foretell
distant facts and secrets of the future.”
“I leave you to that and to think if that naughty devil is not laughing
his head off at that good Christian!”
We leave to the readers the task of assessing the judgment passed by
Father Bresciani. You will, like us, uselessly look for authoritative arguments
against the spiritist ideas or any demonstration of untruthfulness
of those ideas. He no doubt thinks that those ideas deserve no refutation
and that a breath is sufficient to destroy them. However, it seems to us
that similarly to most adversaries, he arrives to a consequence in opposition
to his expectations, since he does not unequivocally demonstrate
that those things are not possible. Considering that Father Bresciani is
a man of undisputed talent and superior instruction we think that since his objective was to combat the spirits, he should have gathered the most
lethal weapons against them, from what we conclude that if he does not
say much against them the fact is that he has nothing else to say; that if
he does not give proofs it is because he has none to oppose to those ideas,
otherwise he would not have left them in his back pocket.
In all that argumentation, the mostly ridiculed are not the spirits but
the devil himself, who is treated a bit too much gentlemanly, and not like
something that is taken seriously. We are then forced to believe, before
such a polished style, that the author does not believe in the devil more
than in spirits. However, if he is the only agent of all manifestations, as
intended, then it is necessary to acknowledge that he represents a more
entertaining than frightening role, being much more capable of exciting
curiosity than fear. As a matter of fact, up until now this is the result of
everything that has been said and written against Spiritism. Thus, it has
done us more service than harm.
According to the majority of the critics, the fact of the manifestations
has no relevance. It is a short living mania, a game, and the author does not
seem to have faced it in a more serious way. If that is the case, why bother?
Let it be and another pastime will be in fashion tomorrow, and Spiritism will
experience the same that happened to the Potichomania: the duration of two
seasons. By throwing stones at it one gives the impression that it is feared because
one only tries to knock down something that gives reason for fear; if it
is an utopia, an illusion, why then fighting the windmills? It is true, they say,
that the devil sometimes mingles with these things, but then there would be
no need for so many authors, like the one above, painting the devil with such
pinkish colors, and leading the ladies to be willing to get to know him.
Has Father Bresciani thoroughly examined the subject? Has he pondered
the reach of all of his words? Kindly allow us the doubt. When he
says: “What are those answers of dead and buried people? Who allows them
to see a non-existent future?” Our question is if it was a Christian or a materialist
the person who wrote similar things. Even a materialist would speak
of the dead with more respect. – “Who leads them to blaspheme against
God?” – Where are those blasphemies? The author, attributing everything to the devil, has certainly supposed those blasphemies or he would otherwise
know that the most unlimited trust in God’s benevolence is the foundation
of Spiritism; that everything that is done in Spiritism is done so in
the name of God; that even the most perverse spirits speak of God with fear
and respect and the good ones do so with reverence and love. Where is the
blasphemy? – However, how should we interpret these words: “…we have
the pretension of accrediting nature with powers that nature does not have
and cannot have!” – Our more sensible elders would treat them simply as
devilish tricks. Thus it is wiser to attribute the natural phenomena to the
devil than to God. While we proclaim the infinite power of the Creator,
Father Bresciani gives limit to them; nature, which summarizes the Divine
work, does not have and cannot have other powers beyond those that we
know. As for those which we ignore it is wiser to attribute them to the devil
that would then be more powerful than God. One needs to ask on which
side is the blasphemy or the greater respect to the Supreme Being. Finally,
the devil takes all forms. Isn’t he very kind? He dresses like the Americans,
the English, the Parisians; he is really kind with his beard and fine Italian
mustaches and it would be really awkward not to recognizing in him an
almost irreproachable distinction. We don’t know if the Italian gentlemen
will be flattered for being taken by naughty devils. Who are those nice
ladies that turn the kind devils into an attraction and that before the charitable
warning that there may be something treacherous in all this they say:
“What the hell! I am not that stupid!”
If it is a natural flagrant, we then ask in which world, “l’entier ou le
demi monde”,*** those ladies use such beautiful expressions? We regret the
fact that the author had not obtained his knowledge about Spiritism from
more serious sources, for he would not speak so lightheartedly. While
more peremptory arguments are not opposed to Spiritism, its followers
may then sleep in peace.
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* One volume, in-8, translated from the Italian – J. B. Pélagaud & Co., Rue des Saints
Pères, 57 – Paris, price 3.5 fr
** Del Rio was a Jesuit scholar born in Anvers, 1551 and deceased in 1608. The author refers
to his work Disquisitiones Magicoe.
*** Expression created by Dumas meaning the underground world (demi-monde), the outlawed
world – Kardec employs a wordplay when counter l’entier (the whole world) to le demi
(the mid world or underground world) – (RT)
