The Revue Spirite of 1863

Part 6

We continue in this issue the study of the Revue Spirite corresponding to the year of 1863. The condensed text of the mentioned volume will hereby be presented in sixteen parts, based on the translation of Julio Abreu Filho and published by EDICEL.

Issues for discussion 

A. What does François-Nicolas Madeleine say about indulgence?

B. Should we celebrate the birth of the Spiritist Doctrine in the same manner as the Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus?

C. Why is it that in the case of the possession of Morzine the exorcisms were useless?

Text for reading

52. The crises observed in the patients of Morzine, as described by Mr. Constant, show people in a state of fury, quite agitated and declaring themselves devils of hell and hitting the furniture with force and energy. The Victoire V case, twenty years old, one of the first to become ill when she was sixteen, is expressive. Her father says she had never felt anything until one day she was taken spiritually in church. Once, when she took his dinner to the curia, where he worked, she began to jump and threw herself on the floor, shouting and gesticulating. By chance the cure of Montriond was there, but she insulted him. Morzine's priest approached her as she calmed down, but the crisis resumed as he made the sign of the cross on her forehead. After being exorcised several times, without success, he took her to Geneva, where Mr. Lafontaine, the magnetizer, treated her for a month. Victoire returned cured, remaining quiet for about three years. After that, the illness returned, but she was no longer in crisis: she only locked herself in the house and did not want to see anyone, only eating occasionally, which weakened her so much that she could not stand up. Taken back to Mr. Lafontaine, after two sessions she got better and up to now she is no longer ill. (Pages 105 to 110)

53. The Revue transcribes two letters, one from Albi and another from Lyon, in which its authors attest to the positive effect that the knowledge of Spiritism has produced in their lives. "From now on", says Michel of Lyons, "I can pray without fear that my prayers will be lost in space and I will bear with joy the tribulations of this short existence, knowing that my present misery is just the consequence of a guilty past…" (Pages 111-117)

54. On 03/07/1863 a reader wrote from Chauny informing that in the local parish Father X... delivered a sermon in which he spoke about God and the Spirits and their relations with the men, without any attack to Spiritism. In reproducing the letter, Kardec says that, thanks to God, this sermon is not unique in the kind, which shows that part of the clergy does not agree with those who attribute Spiritist facts to the demons. (Pages 117 and 118)

55. A couple from Tours, him eighty years old, and his wife sixty-two, decided to put an end to their anguish by unfortunately committing suicide, which the opponents of Spiritism attributed to the fact that both were in recent times involved in Spiritist practices. The reason, as revealed in a letter left by Mrs. F ..., was purely financial: the couple feared the prospect of the misery that surrounded their home after having made a small fortune in the tissue trade. (Pages 118-121)

56. When the true cause was disclosed in the city, the noise initially made against Spiritism changed its course in favor of the Doctrine, and it showed in the extraordinary increase in the sale of Spiritist books. According to the correspondent of the Revue, the bookstores of Tours never sold as many spiritual works as from that episode. (Page 122)

57. Religious fanaticism added yet another regrettable case to its collection in early 1862 in France. The C... couple had two children: a fifteen-month-old boy and a five-year-old girl, who were never seen by neighbors. Rumor had it that the children were being subjected to cruel treatment, the police went to the house and saw a horrible scene: the girl, shirtless and without socks, with only a filthy Indian dress and the flesh of her feet were glued to the leather of shoes, she was sitting in a urinal, propped up in a box and tied with ropes that passed under her armpits. The investigation found that the child had been in that position for many months, and that the parents woke up at night to torment her, waking her up by beating her. Asked by the police authority, the father explained, "Sir, I am very religious; my daughter did the prayers badly; so I wanted to correct her". (Pages 122 and 123)

58. Camille Flammarion published in the Revue Française of February 1863 an article, requested by the newspaper's director, in which he writes about the history and principles of Spiritism. The Revuecopies part of the article, in which Flammarion reports on the first manifestations in America, its introduction into Europe and its conversion into philosophical doctrine. (Pages 123 to 125)

59. The Spirit of Jobard presents, in a message given in the Spiritist Society of Paris, a new and zealous supporter of Spiritism, who on Earth was not a Spiritist, but never spoke openly out against the Spiritist belief. It is the Spirit of François-Nicolas Madeleine, who wrote a page on indulgence in which he recommends, in the end, that we should be severe to ourselves in the same degree as we are indulgent to the weaknesses of our brethren. (Pages 125 to 128)

60. St. Louis, communicating on Christmas Eve in the city of Tours, mentions the feast of the Nativity of the Child Jesus to say that the Spiritists should also rejoice and celebrate the birth of the Spiritist Doctrine. (Pages 128 and 129)

61. The Revue of May opens with a new article - the fifth and last - concerning the possessions of Morzine, in which Kardec states that these facts have their source in the incessant reaction that exists between the visible and the invisible world that surrounds us and in whose midst we live. Says the Encoder: I) In Morzine a cloud of evil Spirits has come down and it will not be with showers or succulent food that they will be expelled. II) Some call them devils or demons; Spiritism simply calls them evil Spirits and inferior Spirits, which does not imply a better quality, but indicates that they are perfectible beings. III) The exorcisms performed proved to be useless, because their efficacy depends not on the words and signs with which they are made, but on the moral ascendant exercised over those who caused the disturbances. (Pages 131 to 138) (Continues on next issue).

Answers to proposed issues

A. What does François-Nicolas Madeleine say about indulgence?

François-Nicolas Madeleine emphasizes the importance of indulgence and, in the end, recommends that we be as severe to ourselves as we are indulgent to the weaknesses of our brothers. (Revue Spirite, 1863, pages 125-128).

B. Should we celebrate the birth of the Spiritist Doctrine in the same manner as the Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus?

Yes. This is what Saint Louis proposed in a message transmitted on the eve of Christmas in the city of Tours. Spiritists should, according to him, rejoice and celebrate the birth of the Spiritist Doctrine. (Ibid, pages 128 and 129)

C. Why is it that in the case of the possession of Morzine the exorcisms were useless?

According to Kardec, in Morzine like a cloud of malicious Spirits took over the place and it would not be with showers or succulent food that they would be expelled from there. Some call them devils or demons; Spiritism simply calls them evil Spirits and inferior Spirits, which does not imply a better quality, but indicates that they are perfectible beings. The exorcisms performed proved to be useless because their efficacy depends not on the words and signs with which they are made, but on the moral ascendant exercised over those who caused the disturbances. (Ibid, pages 131-138).

Translation:

Eleni Frangatos - eleni.moreira@uol.com.br