Case CII

St. Ambrose was apprised of the death of Saint Martin at Tours (in the year A. D. 400), in the church at Milan, during the mass.

It was customary for the reader to present himself before the officiating priest with the book, and not to read the lesson until he was told by him to do so. Now it happened that, on the Sunday in question, whilst he who was prepared to read the Epistle of St. Paul, was standing before the altar, St. Ambrose, who was celebrating the mass, fell asleep on the altar.

Two or three hours passed, and no one dared to awake him. At length the bystanders ventured to tell him how long he had kept the people waiting: " Be not troubled," said he; "it has been a great blessing to me to sleep, since God has worked a great miracle; know that my brother St. Martin has just died. I have assisted at his obsequies, and, after the usual service, there only remained the capitulary to repeat, when you awoke me."

The assistants were much surprised. They noted the day and hour, and it was discovered that the happy confessor had died at the very instant when St. Ambrose described himself as assisting at his funeral, †

Reason and science would explain these facts as an undue excitement of the brain, and as a simple coincidence; but that is only putting aside the difficulty. Thus, in the case related by St. Gregory, the death of St. Martin at Tours was known to St. Ambrose at the moment it occurred, although a distance of more than two hundred leagues separated them. In speaking of presentiments in dreams, we have related the anecdote of Miss R., whose character and mind vouch for the accuracy of the details with which she furnished me. In her case, also, the time of her mother's death exactly coincided with her dream. Our researches into the mechanism of mind are vain; how, then, can we expect to be more learned when we consider it in its abnormal state?

* War of the Jews against the Romans, Book VI., chap. 31, p. 779, edition Pantheon Litteraire. † Gregoire de Tours, De Miraculis St. Martini, lib. i. oh. 5.

We must not lose sight of the fact that men of the highest intelligence have recognized the truth of cases of prevision, whilst they acknowledge ignorance of the causes. Bacon says, that there are striking examples of prevision of the future in dreams, in ecstasies, and at the approach of death.*

"I cannot give the reason," remarks Machiavel, "but it is an attested fact in all history, both ancient and modern, that no great misfortune ever happened to a city or province that was not predicted by some soothsayer, or announced by revelations, prodigies, or other celestial signs. It is very desirable that the matter should be discussed by men learned on matters natural and supernatural, an advantage that I do not possess. Be that as it may, the fact is undeniable, "†

M. le Maistre observes that the spirit of prophecy is natural to our kind, and will never cease to be heard in the world. Man, by attempting at all times, and in all places, to dive into the future, declares that he is not formed for time; "for time is a forced thing, that only desires to come to an end," (quelque chose de force qui ne demande qu'd finir.)

Thence it is that in our dreams we take no note of time, and that a state of sleep was always judged favorable to divine communications. ‡

We could relate a vast number of anecdotes in support of the opinion of Machiavel; but a few will suffice.

In the year 1483, Savonarola believed that he felt within him the secret and prophetic impulse which pointed him out as the reformer of the church, and called him to preach repentance to Christians, whilst he denounced to them the calamities with which Church and State were equally menaced. In 1484, he commenced, at Brescia, his preaching on the Apocalypse, and announced to his auditory that the walls would one day be bathed in torrents of blood. Two years after the death of Savonarola, this menace appeared to be accomplished, when, in 1500, the

* Bacon, De la Dignite de l'Accroissement dee Sciences, torn. ii. liv. ii.

† Machiavel, Discours sur Tite-Live, liv. i. p. 56.

‡ M. le Maistre, Soirees de St. Petersbourg, 11e entretien, p. 355.

French, under the Duke de Nemours, seised upon Brescia, and devoted the inhabitants to a dreadful massacre.*

"Savonarola," says Philippe de Gommines, "had always asserted the coming of the King, and that he was sent by God to chastise the tyrants of Italy, and that nothing could succeed against him; he had also said that he would enter Pisa, and that,. on that day, the States of Florence would cease to exist; and so it happened, for Pierre de Medicis was on that day driven out. And he predicted many occurrences which took place, such as the death of Laurentia de Medicis; and he also publicly said, it was revealed to him that the state of the Church would be reformed by the sword. This prediction has been nearly, though not quite fulfilled."†

The author of a summary of the life of Cattho, Archbishop of Vienna, printed with his Memoirs, relates that he first announced the death of Charles the Bold to Louis the Eleventh. "At the instant," says the Summary, "that the said duke was killed, King Louis was hearing mass, in the church of Saint Martin at Tours, distant ten good days' journey, at least, from Nancy; and at the said mass, the Archbishop of Vienna acted as chaplain, who, in offering the salutation, said these words to him: 'Sire, God grants you peace and repose; they are yours, if you desire it, quia consummatum est; your enemy the Duke of Burgundy is dead; he has just now been killed, and his army discomfited.' The hour designated was subsequently found to be that in which the said Duke was killed."‡

Thirteen years previously to the revolution of 1789, Pere Beauregard (a learned preacher) made the arches of Notre Dame vibrate with these singular words: " Tea, thy temples, O Lord, will be desecrated and destroyed, thy feasts abolished, thy name blasphemed, thy worship proscribed. But, what do I hear? Great God! what do I see? Lascivious and profane songs succeed the holy canticles, to which these arches have resounded in thy honor. And thou, infamous divinity of paganism, wanton Venus! thou comest here audaciously to take the place of the living God, to sit on the throne of the Saint of Saints, and receive the culpable incense of thy new adorers."*