第34章

Among the ignorant classes of modern Europe the same confusion of ideas， the same mixture of religion and magic， crops up in various forms. Thus we are told that in France the majority of the peasants still believe that the priest possesses a secret and irresistible power over the elements. By reciting certain prayers which he alone knows and has the right to utter， yet for the utterance of which he must afterwards demand absolution， he can， on an occasion of pressing danger， arrest or reverse for a moment the action of the eternal laws of the physical world. The winds， the storms， the hail， and the rain are at his command and obey his will. The fire also is subject to him， and the flames of a conflagration are extinguished at his word. For example， French peasants used to be， perhaps are still， persuaded that the priests could celebrate， with certain special rites， a Mass of the Holy Spirit， of which the efficacy was so miraculous that it never met with any opposition from the divine will； God was forced to grant whatever was asked of Him in this form， however rash and importunate might be the petition. No idea of impiety or irreverence attached to the rite in the minds of those who， in some of the great extremities of life， sought by this singular means to take the kingdom of heaven by storm. The secular priests generally refused to say the Mass of the Holy Spirit； but the monks， especially the Capuchin friars， had the reputation of yielding with less scruple to the entreaties of the anxious and distressed. In the constraint thus supposed by Catholic peasantry to be laid by the priest upon the deity we seem to have an exact counterpart of the power which the ancient Egyptians ascribed to their magicians. Again， to take another example， in many villages of Provence the priest is still reputed to possess the faculty of averting storms. It is not every priest who enjoys this reputation； and in some villages， when a change of pastors takes place， the parishioners are eager to learn whether the new incumbent has the power (pouder)， as they call it. At the first sign of a heavy storm they put him to the proof by inviting him to exorcise the threatening clouds； and if the result answers to their hopes， the new shepherd is assured of the sympathy and respect of his flock. In some parishes， where the reputation of the curate in this respect stood higher than that of his rector， the relations between the two have been so strained in consequence that the bishop has had to translate the rector to another benefice. Again， Gascon peasants believe that to revenge themselves on their enemies bad men will sometimes induce a priest to say a mass called the Mass of Saint Sécaire. Very few priests know this mass， and three-fourths of those who do know it would not say it for love or money. None but wicked priests dare to perform the gruesome ceremony， and you may be quite sure that they will have a very heavy account to render for it at the last day. No curate or bishop， not even the archbishop of Auch， can pardon them； that right belongs to the pope of Rome alone. The Mass of Saint Sécaire may be said only in a ruined or deserted church， where owls mope and hoot， where bats flit in the gloaming， where gypsies lodge of nights， and where toads squat under the desecrated altar. Thither the bad priest comes by night with his light o' love， and at the first stroke of eleven he begins to mumble the mass backwards， and ends just as the clocks are knelling the midnight hour. His leman acts as clerk. The host he blesses is black and has three points； he consecrates no wine， but instead he drinks the water of a well into which the body of an unbaptized infant has been flung. He makes the sign of the cross， but it is on the ground and with his left foot. And many other things he does which no good Christian could look upon without being struck blind and deaf and dumb for the rest of his life. But the man for whom the mass is said withers away little by little， and nobody can say what is the matter with him； even the doctors can make nothing of it. They do not know that he is slowly dying of the Mass of Saint Sécaire.