The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-01-17
"Thlere Were Devils
lin Those Days."
A Romance of rledlaevaI Superstition and
Cruelty i'm the Light of Modern Science.
From the Medical Record.

There is many romance and thrill
ing tale hidden amid the dusty tones OF
medieval medicine. Especially is this
true of those old works which treat or
demoniacal possession and obsession,
of trance, ecstasy, and the thousand
and one manifestations of hysteria then
characterized as visible presentments or
the devil himself in propria persona.
In the tale of Urban Grandier, in
Grimes Celebres," Alexander Dumas
has simply related an historical episode
combining himself closely to absolute
fact. Laigue-Gentil gives the medical
points Of this strange story, and from
these two authors the following para
phrase is derived.
Even in early youth Urban Grandier
was distinguished by mental acute
ness and activity that far transcribed
the mediocre and cropping phychical eff
forts of his companions. The boys
high intellectually soon attracted the
notice of his uncle, Claude Grandier,
scientist of considerable note in his day,
who undertook his early education. Af-
ter several years study with his uncle,
Urban was enrolled at the age of
twelve ir the Jesuits' College at Bor-
deauN. His teachers soor discovered
full student, whereupon he was made to
preach and declaim, his style being
carefully watched. criticised, and cor
rected. As soon as he arrived at a suit
able age the college authorities made
him curate of St. Peters church in the
town of Loudun; soon after this he
was given the stipend of a prebendary
in the college of Sainte-CroiN. Con-
tempCrareous writers describe him as
being about thirty years old Q63D,
tall and well proportioned, his air
noble, and his courtenance very hand
some, although its expression was a
little naughty" He was by far the
most learned man in that section of the
country, finished orator, a courtly, re-
fined, and agreeable gentleman. He
was free from all the vices of that age,
and the only fault that could he found
in him by his enemies (and he soon
made host of very formidable and
powerful OnCS) was an inOrdinate fond
ness for the society of women.
MADE OTHERS JEALOUS.
BY his wit, his learning, his oratory,
and his pleasing personality he soon
filled his church TO overlooking with
jealous and admiring commandments
But, just in proportion as st. Peters
became crowded, the congregations OF
the other churches and the perquisites
of the priests in charge of them
dwindled away. This. of course arous-
ed jealousy, and jealousy soon turned
into downright, deadly hatred.
Urban was gentle, affable, agreeable
and affectionate when among his
friends, but when among his enemies
especially when he had right on hi.
side, he was stern, naughty, and alb.
solutely inflexible. Soon after he wa:
given the prebend in the college o
Sainte-CroiX, he sued that chapter fol
the possession of a house and won tht
suit. He Immediately pressed the judg'
ment given him in this suit to a full
iillment, thereby incurring the bitte
enmity of Mignon, a canon of Saint'
CroiX and director of the Ursuline con
vent This priest was an arrant hvpo.
critic, detestable liar and falsifier, anC
was, as we shall soon see, the heat
and centre of the miserable band o
plotting priests, nuns, officials anC
riffraff, that brought the brave ant
honorable Grandier to a horrible tor
ture and to a still more horrible ant
painful death
About the time of Urban's victor,
over the chapter of Sainte-Croix, Juli;
Trinluant. the beautiful daughter o.
the procurer du roi, fell sick with SOM
lingering disease, and Martha Pelletier
one of her girl friends. left her owl
home and went to that of Julia in orde
TO nurse her sick friend. During TIL
course of Mile. Trinquant's illness,
child was born to Mile Pelleter bu
the people of the town, influenced b,
the atrocious calumniator, Mignon, as
cr.bed ma ternity not TO Marthathe rea
mother of the child, but to Julia, tn
fair and innocent daughter of the pro
cureur du roi. The father of the chill
was declared to be Urban Grandiel
Trinquant, by virtue of his office, ha
Martha arrested; she was brought be
fore him and questioned, but she swor
over and over again that the child wa
her own. She also declared that Urba
Ggandier was not the father of he
child. The public was not convinced
however but still believed that Mile
Pclletier had assumed the guilt of Mile
Trinquant for Il monetary considera
tion, and that Urban was the father G
the child.
A CONSPIRACY.
NJ, BarOt, rlCh ana influential CitiZe
of Loudun and Mignon's uncle, had ha
a furious quarrel with Grandier,
which he came out badly worsted. Thi
made him an implacable foe, and on
too, on account of his wealth and pos
tion, to be feared. This man invite
Trinquant, Mignon, and a Lriest name
Meunier (from whom Urban had wo
lawsuiD to meet him and to join hil
in a cabel against their mutual enemy
NJ. Mcnuau, aVccat du roi, who we
jealous of Grandier. also came TO tn
meeting. Having failed to incriminat
Urban and Julia Trinquant throug
Martha Pelletler, they set themselvC
to evolve another plot. But Fathe
Grardier lived so honestly and III
rightly that they could find no fault O
which to base an accusation.
l have stated above that he was e,