ened in 1698 to one of the
so-called reformed religion.[636] A minister of the county of York, at
a place called Hipley, and whose name was Henry Vatz (Watts), being
struck with apoplexy the 15th of August, was on the 17th placed in a
coffin to be buried. But as they were about to put him in the grave,
he uttered a loud cry, which frightened all the persons who had
attended him to the grave; they took him quickly out of the coffin,
and as soon as he had come to himself, he related several surprising
things which he said had been revealed to him during his trance, which
had lasted eight-and-forty hours. The 24th of the same month, he
preached a very moving discourse to those who had accompanied him the
day they were carrying him to the tomb.

People may, if they please, treat all that we have related as dreams
and tales, but it cannot be denied that we recognize in these
resurrections, and in these narrations of men who have come to life
again after their real or seeming death, the belief of the church
concerning hell, paradise, purgatory, the efficacy of prayers for the
dead, and the apparitions of angels and demons who torment the damned,
and of the souls who have yet something to expiate in the other world.

We see also, that which has a visible connection with the matter we
are treating upon--persons really dead, and others regarded as such,
who return to life in health and live a long time afterwards. Lastly,
we may observe therein opinions on the state of souls after this life,
which are nearly the same as among the Hebrews, Egyptians, Greeks,
Romans, barbarous nations, and Christians. If the Hungarian ghosts do
not speak of what they have seen in the other world, it is either that
they are not really dead, or more likely that all which is related of
these _revenans_ is fabulous and chimerical. I will add some more
instances which will serve to confirm the belief of the primitive
church on the subject of apparitions.

St. Perpetua, who suffered martyrdom in Africa in 202 or 203, being in
prison for the faith, saw a brother named Dinocrates, who had died at
the age of seven years of a cancer in the cheek; she saw him as if in
a very large dungeon, so that they could not approach each other. He
seemed to be placed in a reservoir of water, the sides of which were
higher than himself, so that he could not reach the water, for which
he appeared to thirst very much. Perpetua was much moved at this, and
prayed to God w