Luther himself has given a denial to Claude; for, in his treatise on Missa Privata, in which the vision is described, after having exalted the power of Satan, who will never allow long conferences, he says: "This explains, why men are sometimes found dead in their beds; they are strangled by Satan. Emser, CEcolampadius, and others, who fell into the clutches of the evil spirit, died as suddenly." Hospinian believes that Emser actually died the diabolic death stated by Luther; but he cannot give up CEcolampadius to the fiend, "an evangelist of so holy and pure a life, who, according to Beze, after a gentle death went to rejoin his brother, Zuingle, the pastor of Eisendeln, who said that Luther was not only possessed by one bad spirit, but, like a stronghold, was occupied by a whole legion of devils."*

Why should we speak of the bag of nuts removed by the devil, his transformation into a fly, how he hung on the neck of the monk, the frequent visits he paid to him, when in bed, where he lay closer to the Reformer than even his Catherine?

Certainly, viewing the matter in a scientific light, Luther is accused and convicted of hallucinations; but was he insane? We must answer in the negative. At the period of the Reformation, Satan had immense power; he figured in creeds, books, pictures, sculptures, conversations, vigils. All evil was attributed to him. He drew in his train an innumerable company of magicians and sorcerers, † He trafficked publicly in souls; and reports were abroad, from one end of Europe to the other, of the removal and violent deaths of those who made compacts with this terrible master. The ideas of Luther, exalted by continual controversy, by the danger of his position, and by the thunders of the Church, and unceasingly revolving in a religious circle, would naturally feel the influence of the demon, who seemed to pervade all things; to whom he attributed every obstacle which he encountered, and whom, in common with all men of his time, he believed to interfere in every human event.

* Audin, Histoire de la vie, des ouvrages et des doctrines de Luther. Paris, 1842, p. 132 to 145.

† M. Ozanam, Professor in the Sorbonne, in a very remarkable lecture, developed the idea that paganism was in full force when Christianity appeared. He remarked that if, towards the commencement of the fifth century, it ceased to exist as the religion of the State, the traces of the spirit with which it was animated were found in the Middle Ages, and even up to our own times. He sees the traces, and the persisting life, of paganism under Charles Martel, when the peasantry strove to replace the idols; notes it in the teachings of a false philosophy; in those, for example, of Scot-Erigene, who, in the tenth century, revived the ideas of Plotin, or something approaching to them; in the grotesque and immoral feasts of the Middle Ages; in the heresies of the Albigenses; in the occult sciences, whose origin, he says, as well as the manner, frequently terrible, of their suppression, must not be traced to the darkness of the Middle Ages, but to the old superstitions of pagan antiquity. If in the Middle Ages, sorcerers and magicians were burned alive, the cruelty must not be attributed to the Christian Church, but to the remains of paganism, which still burrowed in the heart of society.

Hallucinations were, so to speak, in the whole social community, not in individuals. This character of generality, observable in the follies of the Middle Ages, resulted, doubtless, from the fact that men were absorbed in them, whilst free discussion would, of necessity, cause individuality to triumph. Thus, in our days, when personality has reached its highest point, general follies have almost entirely disappeared, and have been replaced by alienations peculiar to each person.

This passage was written before the revolutions which succeeded the 24th of February, 1848. The notice that we published in L' Union Medicale (20th July, 1848), on the Influence des derniers Evenements, proves that social derangements are not so far removed from our midst as we had imagined; and that the circles of passion in which we move, are, with some modifications, always derived from the same source.*

Thus, admitting the fact of Luther's hallucinations, we would say that they had no power over his reason; that they were produced by the superstitious beliefs of the time, and by his tension of mind, and that they should only be looked upon as the pictured reflex of his thoughts.

To the cases already cited, wo feel we should certainly add that of the heroine to whom France owes the expulsion of the foreigner.

"There is no episode in our annals," says M. Buchon, "which excites so much admiration and interest as the brief history of the arrival of Joan of Arc in the French camp, her exploits, her virtue, and her execution. So extraordinary an event has given rise to the most varied conjectures. Some, partaking of the ideas of the times, have thought her to be really inspired with supernatural light; others have regarded her enthusiasm as the effect of highly-wrought feelings of patriotism and religion; others, again, have made her the agent or the dupe of a vast and profound intrigue organized by the ministers of the court of Charles the Seventh, †

* See also our Analysis of La Maladie Democratique, Annal. M6dic. Psycho. 1850. † Buchon, Analyse raisonnee des Documents sur la Pucelle, p. 196

Who, then, was the Maid of Orleans? A young peasant, eighteen or nineteen years of age, tall and of a noble figure, a countenance mild, but proud, a character remarkable for its union of candor and strength, modesty and authority, and finally of a conduct which was the admiration of all who knew her. From the earliest stage of her warlike career, she became the perfect model of a Christian knight. Intrepid, indefatigable, sober, pious, modest; skilful in subduing horses, and versed in all parts of the science of arms, everything in her life points her out as a being highly inspired, and bears the stamp of divine authority.* At the early age of eighteen, her mission was fulfilled; and nothing remained for her but the crown of martyrdom.