Parish Life in Old France

 

Outline:

A. Responsibilities of the pastor

B. Parish incomes and expenses

C. Other parochial duties of the pastor

D.  Superstitions: 

“In June 1681, the parishioners of La Madeleine obtain a monitory contra vermes and walk in procession to fuminate it; in the month of August the vicar-general is asked for an order of excommunication against the wasps which were causing a lot of damage at the time; in June 1684 the order excommunicating earthworms is renewed; these cases area as common as the entreaties for rain or fine weather on the relics of Saint Prothade.”

                        Claude Fohlen and colleagues, Histoire de Besncon, vol. II, 108.

“The leaves fell from the trees and shriveled and the fruit remained upon them, and creatures like mice were seen running up the trees … only they had no ears and it was thought to be witchcraft … On the twentieth day of September the peasants stoned three witches out of the village of Épinay and rove them toward Seclin, where one was killed … and then chased the others as far as the mills of Lille at the Porte des Malades, half-dead, and so broken by stoning that they could barely move … (1679)