were certain Camisards,[499] as they were called, of the Cevennes, who,
after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, had risen in the cause of
their religion, and had been suppressed with great severity by Marshals
Montrevel and Villars. Suffering and persecution have always been
favourable to highly-wrought forms of mysticism. In their sore distress
men and women have implored for and obtained consolations which
transcend all ordinary experience. They have cried, in agonies of faith
and doubt, for cheering visions of brighter things.

Father, O Father, what do we here,
In this land of unbelief and fear?
The land of dreams is brighter far,
Above the light of the morning star.[500]

Not only have they been comforted by what they feel to be direct
intuitions of a Divine Presence in them and about them, but their
imaginations have been kindled into fervent anticipations of triumphs
near at hand and of judgments soon to fall upon their oppressors. From
excited feelings such as these it is but a very little step for
illiterate and undisciplined minds to pass into the wildest phrensies of
fanaticism. So it was with these 'French prophets.' The cause of foreign
Protestantism was at this time very popular in England; and when a
number of them found their way hither as refugees they met at first with
much sympathy, and had many admirers. Some men even of learning and
reputation, as Sir Edward Bulkeley and John Lacy, threw themselves heart
and soul into the movement, on the not unreasonable ground that the
dulness of religion and the degeneracy of the time needed a new
dispensation of the Spirit, and that a great revival had begun. It is
unnecessary to follow up the history in any detail. The impulse had been
very genuine in the first instance, and had stood the test of much
fierce trial. Transplanted to alien soil, it rapidly degenerated, and
presently became degraded into mere imposture. For a time, however, it
not only created much excitement throughout England, and even as far
north as Aberdeen, but also attracted the anxious attention of several
men of note. There could not be many subjects on which Hoadly and
Shaftesbury, Spinckes the Nonjuror, Winston and Calamy could all be
writing contemporaneously on the same side. But it was so in this case.

The commotion caused by these Camisard refugees quickly passed away, but
left its impression on the public mind, and made the educated classes
more than ever i