54 Human Levitation. (January, 
in the habit of extreme fasting, ‘‘ macerating”’ their bodies 
either with hair shirts or various irons under their clothes, 
and many of submitting to bloody flagellations. Again, all, 
without exception, were ghost-seers, or second-sighted; and 
all subject to trances, either with loss of consciousness only, 
or of motion and flexibility too, in which case they were 
often supposed dead; and the last in our list, after lying in 
state three days, and being barbarously mutilated by his 
worshippers, for relics, was unquestionably finally buried 
alive.* Many were levitated only in these unconscious 
states; others, as Joseph of Cupertino (the greatest zthrobat 
in all history), both in the trance and ordinary state, and 
(like Mr. Home) most frequently in the latter; while a very 
few, as Theresa, seem to have been always conscious 
when in the air. Several were, in certain states, fire- 
handlers, like Mr. Home. The Princess Margaret was so 
from the age of ten. Many had what was called the “ gift 
of tongues,” that is, were caused (doubtless in an obsessed 
state) to address audiences of whose language they were 
ignorant. Thus the Spaniard, Vincent Ferrer, is said to 
have learnt no language but his own, though he gathered 
great audiences in France, Germany, England, and Ireland. 
Connected with this, we should note how general a quality 
of these persons was eloquence. All the men (unless the 
two kings), and most of the women, were great preachers, 
though few wrote anything, except Bonaventure and Thomas 
in the thirteenth century, and Theresa in the sixteenth, 
who were the greatest Catholic writers of their ages. It is 
also very notable that the list contains the founders of six 
religious orders—the first special preaching order, Domi- 
nicans, the Jesuate Nuns, Minim Friars, Jesuits, Carmelite 
Nuns, and Oratorians; and all of these, except the second, 
great and durable . 
The great majority of them, though often seen suspended, 
were at heights from the ground described only as ‘‘a palm” 
half a cubit, a cubit, and thence up to five or six cubits, or, 
in a few cases, ells. But the Princess Agnes and the Abbess 
Coleta were, like Elijah, carried out of sight, or into the 
clouds; and Peter of Alcantara and Joseph of Cupertino to 
the ceilings of lofty buildings. The times that these and 
others were watched off the ground often exceeded an hour; 
and the Archbishop of Valencia (1555) was suspended in a 
trance twelve hours, so that not only all the inmates of his 
* This appalling story of insane superstition, to be paralleled probably among 
no non-Catholic people on earth, will be found in ‘‘ Aa Sanctorum O@obris,” 
Vol. XII., p. 158-60. : 
