* *

Under these distressing circumstances--in the midst of poverty,
suffering, and terror--a sort of religious hysteria suddenly developed
itself amongst the people, breaking out and spreading like many other
forms of disease, and displaying itself chiefly in the most persecuted
quarters of Dauphiny, Viverais, and the Cevennes. The people had lost
their pastors; they had not the guidance of sober and intelligent
persons; and they were left merely to pray and to suffer. The terrible
raid of the priests against the Protestant books had even deprived
most of the Huguenots of their Bibles and psalm-books, so that they
were in a great measure left to profit by their own light, such as it
was.

The disease to which we refer, had often before been experienced,
under different forms, amongst uneducated people when afflicted by
terror and excitement; such, for instance, as the Brotherhood of the
Flagellants, which followed the attack of the plague in the Middle
Ages; the Dancing Mania, which followed upon the Black Death; the
Child's Pilgrimages, the Convulsionaires, the Revival epilepsies and
swoons, which have so often accompanied fits of religious devotion
worked up into frenzy; these diseases being merely the result of
excitement of the senses, which convulse the mind and powerfully
affect the whole nervous system.

The "prophetic malady," as we may call it, which suddenly broke out
amongst the poor Huguenots, began with epileptic convulsions. They
fell to the ground senseless, foamed at the mouth, sobbed, and
eventually revived so far as to be able to speak and "prophesy," like
a mesmerised person in a state of _clairvoyance_. The disease spread
rapidly by the influence of morbid sympathy, which, under the peculiar
circumstances we have described, exercises an amazing power over human
minds. Those who spoke with power were considered "inspired." They
prayed and preached ecstatically, the most inspired of the whole being
women, boys, and even children.

One of the first "prophets" who appeared was Isabel Vincent, a young
shepherdess of Crest, in Dauphiny, who could neither read nor write.
Her usual speech was the patois of her country, but when she became
inspired she spoke perfectly, and, according to Michelet, with great
eloquence. "She chanted," he says, "at first the Commandments, then a
psalm, in a low and fascinating voice. She meditated a moment, then
began the lamentation of the Church, tortured, exiled,