Illiers and the Spiritists.

— Under this title, the Journal de Chartres, of last May 26, contained the following correspondence:

“Illiers, May 20, 1867.

“Are we in May or at carnival time? Last Sunday I thought myself in the latter season. As I was crossing Illiers, around four o’clock in the afternoon, I found myself before a crowd of sixty, eighty, perhaps a hundred urchins, followed by a numerous multitude, shouting at the top of their lungs the refrain: There is the sorcerer! there is the sorcerer! there is the mad dog! there is Grezelle! and accompanying with jeers a brave and placid peasant, with a bewildered gaze and a frightened air, who was overjoyed to come upon a grocer’s shop that served him as shelter. For after the songs and the hooting came the insults, the stones flew, and the poor devil, without this refuge, might perhaps have come off worse. “I asked a group that was there what all this meant. They told me that for some time, every Friday, there had been a gathering of Spiritists at Sorcellerie [La Certellerie, Vieuvicq, France], commune of Vieuvicq, at the gates of Illiers. The great Pontiff who presided over these meetings was a mason, named Grezelle, and it was this unfortunate man who had just been seen so ill-treated. For, they said, for some days very strange things had been happening. He was supposed to have seen the devil, evoked souls who were said to have revealed to him things little flattering to certain families. “In short, several women had gone mad and some men were following in their tracks; it even seems that the Pontiff was leading the way. The truth is that a young woman of Illiers lost her head completely; she was supposed to have been told that, for certain faults, it would be necessary for her to go to purgatory. On Friday she took leave of all her relatives and neighbors, and on Saturday, after having made the preparations for her departure, she was going to throw herself into the river. Fortunately she was being watched, and they arrived in time to postpone her journey. “It is understandable that such an event should have stirred public opinion. The family of this lady had lost their heads, and several members, armed with a good whip, ran after the Pontiff, who had the good fortune to escape their hands. He wanted to leave the Sorcellerie [La Certellerie] of Vieuvicq to come set up his sabbath in Illiers, at the place called Folie-Valleran. It is said that two valiant fathers of families, who served him as singers in the choir, begged him not to come to the Folie: it is madness that would come to their homes. It was also said that the police would take up the matter. “Leave it, then, to the urchins of Illiers. They will know how to overcome the resistance. There are things of this kind that die, struck down by ridicule.”

Léon Gaubert.

— The same newspaper, in its issue of June 13, 1867, contains the following:

In reply to a letter bearing the signature of Mr. Léon Gaubert, published in our issue of last May 26, we have received the following communication, of which we scrupulously preserve the originality:

“La Certellerie, June 4, 1867.

“Mister Editor “In your newspaper of May 26, you give publicity to a letter, in which your correspondent annoys me deeply, in order to show how badly I was treated in Illiers. A mason and a father of a family, I have a right to redress, after having been so violently attacked, and I hope that you will deign to make the truth known, after having allowed error to be spread.

“It is quite true, as that letter says, that the schoolboys and many people whom I esteemed persecute me every time I pass through Illiers. Twice, above all, I nearly succumbed to stones, blows, and other objects that were thrown at me, and even today, if I went to Illiers, where I am very well known, I would be surrounded, threatened, ill-treated. Besides the materials that rain down, they fill the air with insults: madman, sorcerer, Spiritist, such are the most common pleasantries with which they regale me. Fortunately, this much alone is true; everything that your correspondent writes to you (the text says: everything that your correspondent adds) is false and existed only in the imagination of people who sought to incite the population against us. “Mr. Léon Gaubert, who signed your letter, is completely unknown in this region; I am told that he is an anonymous person, if I have retained the word correctly. I say that if he hides himself, it is because he feels that he is not doing good; I will say, then, with all frankness to Mr. Léon Gaubert: Do as I do and put your true name.

“Mr. Léon Gaubert said that a woman, by reason of Spiritist incitements and practices, went mad and tried to drown herself. I do not know whether she really wanted to drown herself; many people tell me it is not true; but even if it were so, I have nothing to do with it. This woman is a gossip; her reputation here was made long ago, and Spiritism was not yet spoken of and she was already as she is here (the text says known here), as she is now. Her sisters help her to persecute me. I declare to you that she never concerned herself with Spiritism: her instincts carry her in the opposite direction. She never attended our meetings and never set foot in the house of any Spiritist of the region. “Then, you will ask, why does she set upon you, and why do so many in Illiers harass you? It is an enigma to me. I noticed only one thing: it is that many people, before the first scene broke out, seemed previously instructed, and when I entered the streets of Illiers that day, I noticed many people at the doors and at the windows.

“I am an honest workman, sir. I earn my bread decently. Spiritism does not in the least prevent me from working, and if anyone has the slightest serious reproach to address to me, let him fear nothing. We have laws, and in the circumstances in which I find myself, I am the first to ask that the laws of the country be well observed.

“As for being a Spiritist, I do not hide it; it is quite true, I am a Spiritist. My two sons, active, orderly, and prosperous young men, are mediums. Both love Spiritism and, like their father, they believe, pray, work, improve themselves, and seek to raise themselves up. But what harm is there in this? When anger tells me to avenge myself, Spiritism restrains me and says to me: All men are brothers; do good to those who do you evil. And I feel calmer, stronger.

“The priest repels me from the confessional because I am a Spiritist. If I came to him burdened with all possible crimes, he would absolve me; but a Spiritist, a believer in God and doing good according to my power, I find no grace in his eyes. Many people of Illiers do not behave otherwise, and that one among our enemies, who now throws stones at me because I am a Spiritist, would do more: not only would he absolve me but he would applaud me on the day he found me at an orgy.”

Observation. – This last paragraph, in quotation marks, which was in the original letter, was suppressed by the newspaper.

“To please, I could not say black when I see white. I have convictions. For me Spiritism is the most beautiful of truths. What would you have? They want to force me to say the contrary of what I think, of all that I see, and when there is so much talk of liberty, must it be suppressed in practice?

“Your correspondence says that I wanted to leave the Sorcellerie to go establish my sabbath at Folie-Valleran. On seeing Mr. Léon Gaubert invent so many disagreeable words, one would truly say that he is possessed by the rage to deal upon everyone’s head the clumsiest blows of the mason’s trowel. Mr. Valleran is one of the most respectable proprietors of the region and, in raising a magnificent building, makes many workmen earn money, by honest and profitable work. So much the worse for anyone who should be vexed by this or who imitated him only by walking backward.

“Have the kindness, sir, to communicate my letter to your readers and to dissuade, as is just, the people whom the first letter published by you led into error.

“Accept, etc.

Grezelle.

— The editor of the newspaper says that he scrupulously preserves the originality of this letter. By this he surely means the form of the style which, in a village mason, is not that of a man of letters. If this mason had written against Spiritism, and in a style still more incorrect, it is probable that they would not have found him ridiculous. But since he wished to preserve so scrupulously the originality of the letter, why did he suppress a paragraph from it? In case of inaccuracy, the responsibility would fall upon its author. To be rigorously accurate, the newspaper should have added that at first it had refused to publish this letter, and that it yielded only before the imminence of judicial prosecutions, the consequences of which were inevitable, for it was a matter of an esteemed man, attacked by the newspaper itself in his honor and in his standing. The author of the first letter no doubt thought that the burlesque distortion of the facts was not sufficient to cast ridicule upon the Spiritists. He added a strong malice, transforming the name of the locality, which is Certellerie, into that of Sorcellerie. Perhaps it is very witty for people who like coarse salt, but it is a tasteless and very clumsy joke. This kind of ridicule has never killed anything.

Should these facts be considered lamentable? Without doubt they are for those who were their victims, but not for the doctrine, which they can only benefit.

It is one of two things: either the people who gather in this locality give themselves over to an unworthy comedy, or they are honorable creatures, sincerely Spiritist. In the first case, it is to render a great service to the doctrine to unmask those who abuse it or who mingle its name with ridiculous practices. Sincere Spiritists can only applaud all that tends to rid Spiritism of the parasites of bad faith, in whatever form they present themselves, for they have never taken up the defense of conjurers and charlatans. In the second case, it can only gain from the repercussion given to it by a persecution founded on disputed facts, because it excites people to inform themselves of what it is. Now, Spiritism asks only to be known, quite certain that a serious examination is the best means of destroying the prejudices aroused by the malevolence of those who do not know it. Thus, we would not be surprised if this skirmish had a result quite different from that hoped for by those who provoked it, and were the cause of a resurgence in the number of adherents in the locality. So it has been everywhere that a somewhat violent opposition has shown itself. What, then, is to be done? the adversaries will ask. If we do not intervene, Spiritism advances; if we act against it, it marches with more vigor. – The answer is very simple: to recognize that what one cannot prevent is in the will of God, and the best thing to do is to let it pass.

— Two of our correspondents, strangers to each other, have transmitted to us regarding these facts precise and perfectly concordant information. One of them, Mr. Quômes of Arras, a man of science and a distinguished writer, at the first account of these events, reported by the Chartres newspaper, not knowing the cause of the conflict, did not wish to rush into defending either the facts or the persons, whom he abandoned to the severity of criticism, if they deserved it; but he took up the defense of Spiritism. In a letter full of moderation and propriety, addressed to the newspaper, he endeavors to demonstrate that if the facts were such as related by Mr. Léon Gaubert, Spiritism would have nothing to do with it, even if its name had been used. Any impartial person would have regarded it as a duty to give opportunity for so legitimate a rectification. This was not what happened, and the repeated entreaties resulted only in a formal refusal. This took place before Grezelle’s letter, which, as we have seen, was to have the same fate. If the newspaper feared to raise the question of Spiritism in its columns, it should not have admitted Mr. Gaubert’s letter. To reserve to oneself the right to attack and to refuse that of defense is an easy means, but a very illogical one, of putting oneself in the right. Mr. Quômes of Arras went to those places, in order to ascertain for himself the state of things. He was good enough to send us a detailed account of his visit. We regret that the length of this document does not permit us to publish it in this issue, where not all that should have been in it could find a place. We summarize its principal conclusions. Here is what he learned in Illiers, from various honorable persons, strangers to Spiritism.

Grezelle is an excellent mason, a proprietor at Certellerie. Far from being deranged, all who know him can only do justice to his good sense, to his habits of order, of work, of regularity. He is a good father of a family; his only fault is to disquiet the materialists and the indifferent of the region by his energetic, multiplied affirmations about the soul, about its manifestations after death, and about our future destinies. He is far from being, in the region, the only partisan of Spiritism, which there counts, especially in Brou, numerous and devoted adherents.

“As for the women, whom, according to the Journal de Chartres, Spiritism is supposed to have driven mad or dragged into culpable acts, it is pure invention. The case to which it alludes is that of a gossip well known in Illiers, given to drink, and whose reason was always weak. She has it in for Grezelle and speaks ill of him, no one knows why. As Spiritist ideas circulate in the region, she must have heard them spoken of and mixes them into her own incoherences, but she never concerned herself seriously with him. As for having wanted to drown herself, such a thought would have nothing impossible about it, in view of her habitual state; but the fact seems invented. From there Mr. Quômes of Arras went to Certellerie, five kilometers beyond Illiers. “Arriving there, he says, I sought the house of Mrs. Jacquet, whose name had been given to me in Illiers. She was in the garden with her son, amid the flowers, occupied with needlework. As soon as she learned the motive of my journey, she led me into her house, where there soon gathered her servant, a girl of twenty, a speaking medium and a fervent Spiritist, Grezelle, and his eldest son, of twenty years. It was not necessary to converse long with these people to perceive that I found myself not in relation with agitated, sad, singular, exalted, or fanatical spirits, but with serious, reasonable, benevolent persons, of perfect society; frankness, clarity, simplicity, love of the good, such were the salient traits that were painted on their exterior, in their words, and — I will confess to my confusion — I did not expect so much. “Grezelle is forty-five years old, is married and has two sons; both are writing mediums, like their father. He calmly recounted to me the sufferings he endured and the intrigues of which he was the object. Mrs. Jacquet also told me that many people, in the region, nourished the worst sentiments against them, because they are Spiritists. To my eyes it seemed very probable, having afterward acquired the most complete certainty that these various families are tranquil, benevolent toward all, incapable of doing harm to anyone whomsoever, and sincerely devoted to all their duties; giving thanks to heaven, I admired the firmness, the strength of character, the solidity of conviction, the profound attachment to the good of these excellent creatures who, in the country, without great instruction, without encouragement and without visible resources, surrounded by enemies and mockers, have held high, for four years, their principles, their faith, their hopes. To defend their banner against laughter, they have a courage that, unfortunately, is often lacking in our learned men of the cities, and even in many advanced Spiritists. “Grezelle, the only one who was really ill-treated, although he has been a Spiritist for three years, has all the fervor of a neophyte, all the zeal of an apostle, and still all the exuberant activity of an ardent, energetic, and enterprising nature. By reason of his business, he is continually in contact with the population of the region and, full of Spiritism, loving it more than life, he cannot keep himself from speaking of it, from making it stand out, from showing its beauties, grandeurs, and marvels. With a truly obstinate and forceful word, he produces in the midst of the indifferent who surround him the effect of fire on water. As he takes no account of time, nor of contrary circumstances, one might say that he errs a little through excess of zeal and, perhaps, also through lack of prudence.” The following day, in the evening, Mr. Quômes attended, at Grezelle’s house, a Spiritist session composed of eighteen or twenty persons, among whom was the mayor, notabilities of the place, persons of notable respectability, who certainly would not have come to an assembly of madmen and of the illuminated. Everything there passed in the greatest order, with the most perfect recollection and without the least trace of the ridiculous practices of magic and witchcraft. They begin with prayer, during which all kneel. To the prayers taken from The Gospel According to Spiritism, are added the evening prayer and others, taken from the ordinary ritual of the Church. “Our detractors, especially the ecclesiastics, adds Mr. Quômes, would perhaps not have noted, without embarrassment and without admiration, the fervor of these sincere souls and their recollected attitude, denoting a profound religious sentiment. There were six mediums, of whom four men and two women, among whom Mrs. Jacquet’s servant, a speaking and writing medium. In general the communications are weak in style, the ideas in them are prolix and without connection; even some manias appear in the manner of communication; but, after all, there is nothing bad, nothing dangerous, and all that is obtained edifies, encourages, strengthens, leads the spirit toward the good or raises it up toward God.” Mr. Quômes found in these Spiritists sincerity and a devotion proof against everything, but also a lack of experience, which he strove to supply by his counsels. The essential fact that he ascertained is that nothing in their manner of acting justifies the ridiculous picture made by the Journal de Chartres. The savage acts that took place in Illiers were, evidently, aroused by malevolence and seem to have been premeditated.

For our part we feel happy that it should be so, and we congratulate our brothers of the canton of Illiers on the excellent sentiments that animate them.

As we have said, persecutions are the inevitable portion of all great new ideas, for all have had their martyrs. Those who endure them will one day be happy, for having suffered for the triumph of truth. So let them persevere without becoming discouraged and without faltering, and they will be sustained by the good Spirits who observe them; but, also, let them never renounce the prudence that circumstances require, avoiding with care all that might provoke our adversaries. It is in the interest of the Doctrine.

[1]

[La Certellerie, Chateaudun, Eure-et-Loir, Centre, France, Europe.]

[2] [The Codifier is right to affirm that Mr. Gaubert invented so many disagreeable words, for Folie-Valleran is a fictitious locality name, folie in French means madness and Valleran is the name of a proprietor of the region; further on Kardec says that the author added a strong malice, transforming the name of the locality, which is Certellerie, into that of Sorcellerie, which means Witchcraft.]