Читать книгу Sketches of Imposture, Deception, and Credulity онлайн

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In this case, as in many others, we are astonished to find that men of learning and acute intellect are to be met with in the list of believers. There were also many who, notwithstanding they shrank from the irreverence of making the Deity a party to such deeds, believed the miracles to be really performed, and were, of course, under the necessity of giving the credit of them to the devil. It might naturally be supposed so insane a sect as that of the convulsionaries would speedily die away, but this did not happen; in spite of ridicule, and punishment, it maintained its ground to a certain extent for a long series of years, and there is some reason to doubt whether it is yet wholly extinct.

Two insane fanatics, of Brugglen, in the canton of Berne, did not escape with so slight a penalty as those who have already been recorded. They were brothers, named Rohler, and, in the year 1746, they proclaimed themselves to be the two witnesses mentioned in the eleventh chapter of the Revelations, and selected a girl of their acquaintance to fill the part of the woman who was to be clothed with the sun, and have the moon under her feet. The advent of Christ to judge the world, they fixed for the year 1748, after which event the kingdom of Heaven was to commence in their village. One of the brothers gave a sufficient proof of his being mad, by declaring that he would ascend in the flesh to heaven before the assembled multitude. He had, however, cunning enough to attribute his failure to the circumstance of numbers of his followers holding by his garments, that they might take the journey with him. These lunatics were followed by crowds, who abandoned all their usual occupations, thinking it useless to work, when the final day was at hand; and many of the believers in their mission indulged in licentious pleasures, perhaps under the idea that, as little time was left, they ought to make the most of it. The government of Berne at length began to apprehend danger from this frenzy, and it averted the evil by dooming the brothers to death.