TER VIII.

THE DEMONIACS OF LOUVIERS--MADELINE BAVENT: 1633-1647.

Had Richelieu allowed the inquiry demanded by Father Joseph into the
doings of the Illuminate Confessors, some strange light would have
been thrown into the depth of the cloisters, on the daily life of the
nuns. Failing that, we may still learn from the Louviers story, which
is far more instructive than those of Aix and Loudun, that,
notwithstanding the new means of corruption furnished by Illuminism,
the director still resorted to the old trickeries of witchcraft, of
apparitions, heavenly or infernal, and so forth.[103]

[103] It was very easy to cheat those who wished to be
cheated. By this time celibacy was harder to practise than in
the Middle Ages, the number of fasts and bloodlettings being
greatly reduced. Many died from the nervous plethora of a
life so cruelly sluggish. They made no secret of their
torments, owning them to their sisters, to their confessor,
to the Virgin herself. A pitiful thing, a thing to sorrow
for, not to ridicule. In Italy, a nun besought the Virgin for
pity's sake to grant her a lover.

Of the three directors successively appointed to the Convent of
Louviers in the space of thirty years, David, the first, was an
Illuminate, who forestalled Molinos; the second, Picart, was a wizard
dealing with the Devil; and Boulle, the third, was a wizard working
in the guise of an angel.

There is an excellent book about this business; it is called _The
History of Magdalen Bavent_, a nun of Louviers; with her Examination,
&c., 1652: Rouen.[104] The date of this book accounts for the thorough
freedom with which it was written. During the wars of the Fronde, a
bold Oratorian priest, who discovered the nun in one of the Rouen
prisons, took courage from her dictation to write down the story of
her life.

[104] I know of no book more important, more dreadful, or
worthier of being reprinted. It is the most powerful
narrative of its class. _Piety Afflicted_, by the Capuchin
Esprit de Bosroger, is a work immortal in the annals of
tomfoolery. The two excellent pamphlets by the doughty
surgeon, Yvelin, the _Inquiry_ and the _Apology_, are in the
Library of Ste. Genevieve.

Born at Rouen in 1607, Madeline was left an orphan at nine years old.
At twelve she was apprenticed to a milliner. The confessor, a
Franciscan, held absolute sway in the house of this milliner, who as
m