Death of the Bishop of Barcelona.

— They write to us from Spain that the bishop of Barcelona, the one who had three hundred Spiritist volumes burned by the hand of the executioner, on the 9th of October 1861, n died on the 9th of this same month and was buried with the customary pomp due to the chiefs of the Church. Only nine months have elapsed and already this auto-da-fé has produced the results foreseen by all, that is, it accelerated the propagation of Spiritism in that country. Indeed, the repercussion of that act, unqualifiable in this century, called to this doctrine the attention of a multitude of persons who had never heard of it, and the press, whatever its opinion, could not remain mute.

The display exhibited in such a circumstance was capable of exciting curiosity by the attraction of the forbidden fruit and, above all, by the very importance given to the thing, inasmuch as everyone would have reasoned that one does not proceed thus with a trifle or with a vain dream. Quite naturally thought went back several centuries and they remembered that, formerly, in this same country, not only books but human beings were burned. What, then, could such books contain that they should become worthy of the solemnities of the stake? That is what they wished to know; and in Spain the result was the same as everywhere that Spiritism was attacked; without the mocking or serious attacks of which it was the object, it would count ten times fewer partisans than it has; the more violent and repeated the criticism, the more it placed itself in evidence and developed; inoffensive attacks would have passed unnoticed, whereas the brilliance of the lightning awakens the most torpid; they wish to see what is happening, and that is all we ask, convinced in advance of the result of the examination. This is a positive fact, for each time that, in a locality, the anathema descended upon it from the height of the pulpit, we are certain to see the number of our subscribers increase or to see them arise where there were none before. Spain could not escape this consequence;

thus, there is not a Spiritist who has not rejoiced upon learning of the auto-da-fé of Barcelona, followed a little while later by that of Alicante;

and more than one adversary deplored an act from which religion had nothing to gain. Daily we have the irrefutable proof of the progressive march of Spiritism in the most enlightened classes of that country, where it counts zealous and fervent adepts.

— One of our correspondents in Spain, announcing the death of the bishop of Barcelona, advises us to evoke him. We were disposed to do so and, in consequence, we had prepared some questions, when he manifested himself spontaneously to one of our mediums, answering in advance all the questions we wished to put to him and even before they were verbalized. His communication, of an absolutely unforeseen character, contained, among others, the following passage: “… Aided by your spiritual chief, I was able to come to teach you by my example and to say to you: Reject none of the ideas announced, because one day, a day that will last and weigh like a century, those ideas heaped up will cry out like the voice of the Angel: Cain, what have you done with your brother? What have you done with our power, which was to console and elevate Humanity? The man who voluntarily lives blind and deaf in spirit, as others are in body, will suffer, will expiate, and will be reborn to begin again the intellectual labor which his sloth and his pride led him to avoid; and that terrible voice said to me: You burned the ideas and the ideas will burn you!… “Pray for me. Pray, because the prayer addressed to God by the persecuted in benefit of the persecutor is pleasing to Him.

“He who was a bishop and who is nothing more than a penitent.”

— This contrast between the words of the Spirit and those of the man has nothing in it that should surprise. Every day we see creatures who, after death, think differently from how they thought during life, once the blindfold of illusions has fallen, which is an incontestable proof of superiority; only inferior and vulgar Spirits persist in the errors and prejudices of terrestrial life. When alive, the bishop of Barcelona saw Spiritism through a particular prism, which distorted its colors for him or, better said, he did not know it. Now he sees it in its true light and sounds its depths. The veil having fallen, it is no longer for him a simple opinion, an ephemeral theory, that can be smothered in the ashes: it is a fact; it is the revelation of a law of Nature, a law irresistible as the force of gravitation, a law which must, by the force of things, be accepted by all, like everything that is natural. This is what he now understands and what made him say that “the ideas which he wished to burn will burn him.” Said otherwise, he will be swallowed up by the prejudices which had led him to condemn them. We cannot reproach him, for the triple reason that the true Spiritist condemns no one, harbors no rancor, forgets offenses and, after the example of the Christ, pardons his enemies; in the second place, far from harming us, he was useful to us; finally, because he asks of us the prayer of the persecuted for the persecutor, as the most pleasing to God, a thought all charity, worthy of Christian humility, revealed by the last words: “He who was a bishop and who is nothing more than a penitent.” A beautiful image of the earthly dignities left at the edge of the tomb, in order to present oneself to God just as one is, without the displays imposed upon men. Spiritists, let us pardon him the harm he wished to do us, as we would wish our offenses to be pardoned us, and let us pray for him on the anniversary of the auto-da-fé of the 9th of October 1861. [1] See, for details, the Spiritist Review of the months of November and December 1961.