Wonderful stories these are indeed, but as they are, for the most part, of the same general character as those already recounted, they may be passed over.  There is, however, an account of a possessed maiden which is worth attention.  This is set forth in a memoir, the principal contents of which are the speeches of a demon who declared himself to possess the singular appellation of “Wiggo,” and revealed himself in the presence of many witnesses, before the altar, close to the relics of the blessed martyrs.  It is noteworthy that the revelations appear to have been made in the shape of replies to the questions of the exorcising priest; and there is no means of judging how far the answers are, really, only the questions to which the patient replied yes or no.

The possessed girl, about sixteen years of age, was brought by her parents to the basilica of the martyrs.

When she approached the tomb containing the sacred bodies, the priest, according to custom, read the formula of exorcism over her head.  When he began to ask how and when the demon had entered her, she answered, not in the tongue of the barbarians, which alone the girl knew, but in the Roman tongue.  And when the priest was astonished and asked how she came to know Latin, when her parents, who stood by, were wholly ignorant of it, “Thou hast never seen my parents,” was the reply.  To this the priest, “Whence art thou, then, if these are not thy parents?” And the demon, by the mouth of the girl, “I am a follower and disciple of Satan, and for a long time I was gatekeeper (janitor) in hell; but, for some years, along with eleven companions, I have ravaged the kingdom of the Franks.”  (Cap. v. 49.)

He then goes on to tell how they blasted the crops and scattered pestilence among beasts and men, because of the prevalent wickedness of the people.[21]

The enumeration of all these iniquities, in oratorical style, takes up a whole octavo page; and at the end it is stated, “All these things the demon spoke in Latin by the mouth of the girl.”

And when the priest imperatively ordered him to come out, “I shall go,” said he, “not in obedience to you, but on account of the power of the saints, who do not allow me to remain any longer.”  And, having said this, he threw the girl down on the floor and there compelled her to lie prostrate for a time, as though she slumbered.  After a little while, however, he going away, the girl, by the power of Christ and the merits of the blessed martyrs, as it were awaking from sleep, rose up quite well, to the astonishment of all present; nor after the demon had gone out was she able to speak Latin:  so that it was plain enough that it was not she who had spoken in that tongue, but the demon by her mouth. (Cap. v. 51.)

If the “Historia Translations” contained nothing more than has been laid before the reader, up to this time, disbelief in the miracles of which it gives so precise and full a record might well be