Book de Mulieribus Leodiensibus, I, 9,

tells that a friend of Blessed Marie d’Oignies was notably infested by an evil spirit which walked in darkness at noon-tide and was sometimes violently and sometimes cunningly dangerous. For the subtle Enemy transfigured himself into an Angel of light and ap- peared to him familiarly in dreams under the cloak of piety, sometimes reproving him for certain faults, sometimes fraudulently urging him to good works; so giving him as it were a false seeming antidote that anon he might the more secretly instil his poison, and caressed him with a honeyed tongue that he might after- wards sink his teeth in and bind him securely to his tail. For when the man had put a complete trust in him, then that Betrayer, like a sophist or im- postor, so covered his falsehoods with a shadow of truth that at length by his machinations he led that Brother to what would have been a disastrous conclusion of his life, had not the handmaiden of Christ learned through the revelation of the Holy Spirit the deceits of that cunning Enemy. For she told the man that those revelations of his were not from God but were illusions of a wicked demon: but he on the other part objected, guided by his own spirit instead of the Holy Spirit, saying: ““That spirit has brought me
Rome 1240. After attending the University of Paris he visited Marie d’Oignies, a mystic of the Diocese of Liége, who had won a great re- putation for sanctity. Acting upon her advice he became a Canon Regular and from 1210 to 1213 he was one of the most eminent preachers of the crusade against the Albigenses. His “Liber de Mulieribus Leodiensibus’’ is very JSamous. The most celebrated of these holy women was Marie d’Oignies, whose visions he relates; see ““Acta Sanctorum,” Fune, vol. IV, 636, 666.
S. Marie d’Oignies was born at Nivelles about 1177 and died at the béguinage of Oignies in 1213. Her feast is kept in the dioceses of Namur and Liége on 23 Fune. Her holy Relics were enshrined by order of Pope Paul V in 1609.
COMPENDIUM
BK. II. CH. XVI.
so many benefits, and has truthfully foretold so much of the future, that I am sure he does not wish to impose upon me.” The woman then had re- course to her customary weapon of prayer (see, what a sure remedy and shield it is!), and watered with her tears the feet of the Crucifix, assailing Heaven with her prayers; nor did she cease until that wicked Impostor with much groaning and shame came to her as she prayed in her cell at night. Seeing him thus clothed in false splendour, she said: ‘“‘Who are you, and what are you called?” He looking proudly and balefully at her said: “I am he whom you with your cursed prayers have compelled to come to you; and you are trying to take from me my friend by force. I am called Dream; for I appear in visions in the likeness of Lucifer to many, especially to Religious, and they obey me and by my consolations are driven from their senses and consider themselves worthy to converse with Gods and Angels. And I was just about to lead from righteousness that friend of mine who is lost to me through your will.’? And so it proved in the event. But the adder’s eggs were broken, and the evil counsels of the Wicked One were brought to light.
In his De schismate Anglicano Nicholas Sander* relates how the heretics formed an unheard of Plot} to rouse a
* “Nicholas Sander.’ 1530-1581. Edu- cated at Winchester and New College, Oxford, he graduated in 1551. Under Elizabeth he had to fly the country and was ordained at Rome. Es writings are very valuable and he did much to help the oppressed Catholics during the Elizabethan persecutions. The most widely known of his books is the “‘De schismate Angli- cano,”’ which was published after his death, Jirst at Cologne in 1585 and in the following year with many additions by Father Parsons at Rome. It has been translated into various lan- guages and frequently reprinted.
t “Plot.” “De schismate Anglicano.”® Rome, 1586, “Liber Secundus, Maria” (pp. 342-2), where Sander gives details of this silly and profane plot. Elizabeth Croft or Crofts, an
BK. II. CH. XVII.
turbulent mob to disturb the people of London and urge them to sedition and heresy. They persuaded a girl eight- een years of age, corrupted both by heresy and bribes, to act the following abominable lie. She permitted her- self to be shut up for a time between two walls in an obscure corner of a certain house, and through a suitable crack to utter such words as were sug- gested to her by the plotters. The girl’s name was Elizabeth Croft, and the name of the author of the plot was Drake. Accordingly, having been thus instructed and posted in the place con- venient for the deception, the girl kept making wonderful utterances from her hiding place, so loudly that all the neighbours could hear her. They ran up from all directions to see what it was, and in their wonder declared that it was not a mortal voice, but the voice of an Angel. That spirit threatened the city and the country with misery, suffering and every misfortune if they permitted the Spanish marriage, or communion with the Pope of Rome. The voice also uttered much in the manner of an oracle against the Holy
idle wench of eighteen, has found a place in the ‘Dictionary of National Biography.’’ Early in 1554 she seems to have concealed herself in the thick wall of a house in Aldersgate Street, and through a whistle or trumpet her voice ut- tering denunciations of the Catholic Faith, King Philip, and the Queen herself sounded so hollow and loud that large crowds collected, amongst which confederates spread the rumour that the locutions were divinely inspired. Be- fore July 1, 1554, the mysterious voice, “the spirit in the wall,’ was traced, and Elizabeth sent to Newgate. Drake, Sir Antony Knyvett’s servant, had supplied the whistle and a rabble of low rascals were numbered among his ac- complices. On Sunday, 15 July, Elizabeth Crofts was set on a scaffold by S. Paul’s Cross, and there she read her public confession and on her knees asked forgiveness of the Queen. She returned to prison very penitent, but owing to the clemency of Mary was soon released. See Stowe’s ‘‘Annals,” 1554, and the authorities cited in “‘The Dictionary of National Bio-
graphy.”
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147
Sacrifice and the rest of the Catholic Faith. Some of the conspirators took care to mingle with the crowd and interpret the prophetic and darker sayings of this spirit as admonitions for the subversion of religion and the stirring up of sedition. The Lord Mayor, to appease the multitude and to see what the matter was, found some difficulty in exposing the fraud: but at last he decided to pull down the wall and those next to it, whence the voice seemed to come. The wretched girl was then discovered and was questioned as to who had induced and persuaded her to act in that way; and she at once confessed that she had been led to that horrible wickedness by certain seditious sectaries, and espec- ially by the villain who was called Drake.
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