(in his _Lettres choisies_) and Brueys consider them the product of
fasting and vanity, nourished on apocalyptic literature. The doctors
Bertrand (_Du magnetisme animal_, Paris, 1826) and Calmeil (_De la
folie_, Paris, 1845) speak of magnetism, hysteria and epilepsy, a
prophetic monomania based on belief in divine possession. The
Protestants especially emphasized the spirituality of the inspiration of
the Camisards; Peyral, _Histoire des pasteurs du desert_, ii. 280,
wrote: "Il fallait a cet effort gigantesque un ressort prodigieux,
l'enthousiasme ordinaire n'y eut pas suffi." Dubois, who has made a
careful study of the problem, says: "L'inspiration cevenole nous
apparait comme un phenomene purement spirituel." Conservative Catholics,
such as Hippolyte Blanc in his book on _L'inspiration des Camisards_
(1859), regard the whole thing as the work of the devil. The publication
of J.F.K. Hecker's work, _Die Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters_, made
it possible to consider the subject in its true relation. This was
translated into English in 1844 by B.G. Babington as _The Epidemics of
the Middle Ages_.

Although the Camisards were guilty of great cruelties in the prosecution
of the war, there does not seem to be sufficient ground for the charge
made by Marshal de Villars: "Le plupart de leurs chefs ont leurs
demoiselles" (letter of 9th August 1704, in the _War Archives_, vol.
1797). Court replied to these unjust charges: "Their enemies have
accused them of leading a life of licence because there were women in
their camps. These were their wives, their daughters, their mothers, who
were there to prepare their food and to nurse the wounded" (_Histoire_,
vol. i. p. 71).

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--The works devoted to the history of the Camisards are
very numerous. Nevertheless there exists no work specifically devoted
to this extremely interesting period in French history, for in none of
the published works has proper use been made of the valuable documents
preserved in the archives of the ministry of war. Among the chief
works are:--Pere Louvreleuil (priest, former cure of St. Germain de
Calberte), _Histoire du fanatisme renouvele ou l'on raconte les
sacrileges, les maladies et les meurtres commis dans les Cevennes_
(Toulouse, 1704); M. de Brueys, _Suite de l'histoire du fanatisme de
notre temps ou l'on voit les derniers troubles des Cevennes_ (Paris,
1709); _Lettres choisies de M. Flechier eveque de Nimes avec un