oah, and afterwards that of
Ali, in the grave of Adam. I relate these fantastical ideas only to
show their absurdity. As to the other stories related in this same
chapter, they must not be accepted without examination, for they
require confirmation.

Footnotes:

[503] Tertull. de Animo, c. 5. p. 597. Edit. Pamelii.

[504] Chronic. Turon. inter opera Abaelardi, p. 1195.

[505] Bolland. tom. ii. p. 315, 13 Januar.

[506] Evagrius Pont. lib. iv. c. 53.

[507] Jean Mosch. pras. spirit. c. 88.

CHAPTER XXVII.

OF PERSONS WHO PERFORM A PILGRIMAGE AFTER THEIR DEATH.

A scholar of the town of Saint Pons, near Narbonne,[508] having died
in a state of excommunication, appeared to one of his friends, and
begged of him to go to the city of Rhodes, and ask the bishop to grant
him absolution. He set off in snowy weather; the spirit, who
accompanied him without being seen by him showed him the road and
cleared away the snow. On arriving at Rhodes, he asked and obtained
for his friend the required absolution, when the spirit reconducted
him to Saint Pons, gave him thanks for this service, and took leave,
promising to testify to him his gratitude.

Here follows a letter written to me on the 5th of April, 1745, and
which somewhat relates to what we have just seen. "Something has
occurred here within the last few days, relatively to your
Dissertation upon Ghosts, which I think I ought to inform you of. A
man of Letrage, a village a few miles from Remiremont, lost his wife
at the beginning of February last, and married again the week before
Lent. At eleven o'clock in the evening of his wedding-day, his wife
appeared and spoke to his new spouse; the result of the conversation
was to oblige the bride to perform seven pilgrimages for the defunct.
From that day, and always at the same hour, the defunct appeared, and
spoke in presence of the cure of the place and several other persons;
on the 15th of March, at the moment that the bride was preparing to
repair to St. Nicholas, she had a visit from the defunct, who told her
to make haste, and not to be alarmed at any pain or trouble which she
might undergo on her journey.

This woman with her husband and her brother and sister-in-law, set off
on their way, not expecting that the dead wife would be of the party;
but she never left them until they were at the door of the Church of
St. Nicholas. These good people, when they were arrived at two
leagues' distance from St. Nich