from the
country. They were so accustomed to this, that they expected him home
by these signs, and he always arrived. It is affirmed of another monk
of the same order that he had a familiar spirit, who warned him, not
only of what passed in the house, but also of what happened out of it;
and one day he was awakened three times, and warned that some monks
were quarreling, and were ready to come to blows; he ran to the spot,
and put an end to the dispute.

St. Sulpicius Severus[284] relates that St. Martin often had
conversations with the Holy Virgin, and other saints, and even with
the demons and false gods of paganism; he talked with them, and
learned from them many secret things. One day, when a council was
being held at Nimes, where he had not thought proper to be present,
but the decisions of which he desired to know, being in a boat with
St. Sulpicius, but apart from others, as usual with him, an angel
appeared, and informed him what had passed in this assembly of
bishops. Inquiry was made as to the day and hour when the council was
held, and it was found to be at the same hour at which the angel had
appeared to Martin.

We have been told several times that a young ecclesiastic, in a
seminary at Paris, had a genius who waited upon him, and arranged his
room and his clothes. One day, when the superior was passing by the
chamber of the seminarist, he heard him talking with some one; he
entered, and asked who he was conversing with. The youth affirmed that
there was no one in his room, and, in fact, the superior could neither
see nor discover any one there. Nevertheless, as he had heard their
conversation, the young man owned that for some years he had been
attended by a familiar genius, who rendered him every service that a
domestic could have done, and had promised him great advantages in
the ecclesiastical profession. The superior pressed him to give some
proofs of what he said. He ordered the genius to set a chair for the
superior; the genius obeyed. Information of this was sent to the
archbishop, who did not think proper to give it publicity. The young
clerk was sent away, and this singular adventure was buried in
silence.

Bodin[285] speaks of a person of his acquaintance who was still living
at the time he wrote, which was in 1588. This person had a familiar
who from the age of thirty-seven had given him good advice respecting
his conduct, sometimes to correct his faults, sometimes to make him
practice vir