Now it was the threat, “Jesus came not to send peace, but a sword.”  Then this consolation, “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.”  Or perhaps it was this appeal for united action which was soon to become a summons to revolt, “That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us.”

And before these promises, taken from the New Testament, the persecuted paused, and then went home inspired by faith in the prophets, who spake, as St. Paul says in his First Epistle to the Thessalonians, “not the word of men but the word of God.”

Very soon these words became incarnate, and what the prophet Joel foretold came to pass:  “Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions,... and I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood and fire,... and it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered.”

In 1696 reports began to circulate that men had had visions; being able to see what was going on in the most distant parts, and that the heavens themselves opened to their eyes.  While in this ecstatic state they were insensible to pain when pricked with either pin or blade; and when, on recovering consciousness, they were questioned they could remember nothing.

The first of these was a woman from Vivarais, whose origin was unknown.  She went about from town to town, shedding tears of blood.  M. de Baville, intendant of Languedoc, had her arrested and brought to Montpellier.  There she was condemned to death and burnt at the stake, her tears of blood being dried by fire.

After her came a second fanatic, for so these popular prophets were called.  He was born at Mazillon, his name was Laquoite, and he was twenty years of age.  The gift of prophecy had come to him in a strange manner.  This is the story told about him:—­“One day, returning from Languedoc, where he had been engaged in the cultivation of silkworms, on reaching the bottom of the hill of St. Jean he found a man lying on the ground trembling in every limb.  Moved by pity, he stopped and asked what ailed him.  The man replied, ’Throw yourself on your knees, my son, and trouble not yourself about me, but learn how to attain salvation and save your brethren.  This can only be done by the communion of the Holy Ghost, who is in me, and whom by the grace of God I can bestow on you.  Approach and receive this gift in a kiss.’  At these words the unknown kissed the young man on the mouth, pressed his hand and disappeared, leaving the other trembling in his turn; for the spirit of God was in him, and being inspired he spread the word abroad.”