rs into the midst of their feasts and orgies.

Now it was the threat, "Jesus came not to send peace, but a sword." Then
this consolation, "For where two or three are gathered together in My
name, there am I in the midst of them." Or perhaps it was this appeal
for united action which was soon to become a summons to revolt, "That
which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have
fellowship with us."

And before these promises, taken from the New Testament, the persecuted
paused, and then went home inspired by faith in the prophets, who spake,
as St. Paul says in his First Epistle to the Thessalonians, "not the word
of men but the word of God."

Very soon these words became incarnate, and what the prophet Joel
foretold came to pass: "Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your
old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions,... and I
will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood and fire,... and
it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord
shall be delivered."

In 1696 reports began to circulate that men had had visions; being able
to see what was going on in the most distant parts, and that the heavens
themselves opened to their eyes. While in this ecstatic state they were
insensible to pain when pricked with either pin or blade; and when, on
recovering consciousness, they were questioned they could remember
nothing.

The first of these was a woman from Vivarais, whose origin was unknown.
She went about from town to town, shedding tears of blood. M. de Baville,
intendant of Languedoc, had her arrested and brought to Montpellier.
There she was condemned to death and burnt at the stake, her tears of
blood being dried by fire.

After her came a second fanatic, for so these popular prophets were
called. He was born at Mazillon, his name was Laquoite, and he was
twenty years of age. The gift of prophecy had come to him in a strange
manner. This is the story told about him:--"One day, returning from
Languedoc, where he had been engaged in the cultivation of silkworms, on
reaching the bottom of the hill of St. Jean he found a man lying on the
ground trembling in every limb. Moved by pity, he stopped and asked what
ailed him. The man replied, 'Throw yourself on your knees, my son, and
trouble not yourself about me, but learn how to attain salvation and save
your brethren. This can only be done by the communion of the Holy Ghost,
who is in