"WIZARDRY."

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18905, 21 January 1927, Page 16

"WIZARDRY."

PRIEST ACCUSED BY MOB. | PENALTIES FOR ASSAULT. :bt cable—peess association—conraiGirr.) 'AUSTRALIA* AKD S.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION.) (Received January 21st, 1.25 a.m.) PAEIS, January 19. Two men and eight women convicted of assault on Abbe Des Xoyers, of Boinbon. who was stripped and flogged by a number of persons from Bordeaux, who accused him of wizardry, were sentenced respectively to eight and six months' imprisonment, fined one hundred francs, and ordered to pay Abbe Des Xoyers uOO,OOO francs damages. Accused pleaded that they acted legitimately in defence against the forces of Satan. i The judge pointed out that the Penal Code 'did not provide for such a defence. [After Mass at Bourbon, near Melun, four persons threw pepper in tire Abbe's eyes. He was bound, flogged, and stripped of his clothing until his cries attracted a gendarme, who arrested his assailants. Behind the attack is the weirdest story of Madame Mesmin's statue of the" Virgin which wept but ceased when removed to a convent.-The statue was replaced by a facsimile which did not weep but exhaled perfume. That also ceased and Madame Mesmin began to suffer. The Abbe was then accused of witheraft.]