Miraculous Signs in the View of Enlightenment

Introduction

“We are much too philosophical in this age of universal enlightenment to believe in the apparition of ghosts; and we are, in spite of all enlightenment, too little philosophical not to believe in them.” – This quotation by Christoph M. Wieland pinpoints the central problem I am presenting in this essay: the aim of enlightenment was to extinguish all belief in ghosts and miracles, as well as any kind of superstition. However, this was accomplished only in part; obviously, it was not strong enough to exterminate superstition altogether. What I am trying to do in this presentation is to examine to what extent this discrepancy between demand and what enlightenment has actually accomplished finds expression in the writings of the public enlighteners.. We shall start this examination by taking a look at accounts of miraculous signs in broadsides and pamphlets: They provide an overview of a special kind of superstition in early modern times, namely the prevailing belief in miracles. The interpretations of the miraculous signs as given in the broadsides and pamphlets shall be compared with those in the theoretical, enlightening; writings of the 18th and 19th century; this shall, eventually, lead to a clarification concerning to what degree the enlighteners were indeed successful and where they were “too little philosophical.”

Accounts of Miraculous Signs in Early Modern Broadsides and Pamphlets

First let us consider the accounts of miraculous signs in broadsides and pamphlets: What kind of media are they? The broadside was developed from letterpress printing; it is a large format papersheet printed on only one side. It consists of texts in simple language and basic, often colored, illustrations about recent events. A pamphlet, in contrast, is a non-periodical booklet developed from the broadside at the beginning of the 16th century. It is rarely illustrated and consists of several unbound folios that are printed on both sides; the pages are unnumbered and there are no chapters. Both the broadside and the pamphlet are directed at the general public and they are mainly written in the national language. The terms "Flugblatt" and "Flugschrift" not being introduced until 1787 or 1788 by Christian Daniel Schubart, the contemporary term for such printed media with sensational contents was "Newe Zeitungen", meaning ‘the latest news’.

The layout of the broadsides and pamphlets are relatively similar. All broadsheets consist of three parts: the headline in large letters at the top, which often provides a short summary of the contents; an illustration just below, which takes up a third to a half of the sheet; and, finally, the text, usually in German (seldom in Latin), which is arranged in one to five columns, sometimes followed by an imprint at the lower margin. The generic terms such as "Gesicht", "Abriß", "Abcontrafactur" or "Abbildung" used in the headline refer to the central importance of the illustration. The illustration graphically presented and commented on the event referred to in the text, and generally brought additional information into play.

Pamphlets, on the other hand, are seldom illustrated. They always have a title page, whose function is similar to that of the broadside’s headline. However, it generally provides more details and summarizes the entire contents of the text in one sentence. There are also differences concerning the words that are used: pamphlets are primarily termed as "Newe Zeitungen" or "Wahrhafftige Berichte", thus, claiming to provide more objective news. Broadsides, on the contrary, seek to a greater extent to attract with adjectives, such as "erschröcklich", "wunderbarlich" or "unerhört", and give an account of a "Geschicht" or a "Wunderwerck". The texts in the broadsides and pamphlets are written in prose, song or verse.

There was great diversity in topics: initially, the papers were dominated by reports on battles and information about the plague, as well as official announcements, bleeding instructions and New Year’s greetings. In the course of the 16th century, there was an increasing awareness that the recipient’s opinion could be manipulated by the writings; thus, polemical and defamatory pamphlets, as well as satirical papers were published, making a mock of the emperor, pope, the Jews, etc. Moreover, prognostications with religious predictions were printed along with religious broadsides and pamphlets presenting spiritual songs, pictures of  saints and of the Virgin Mary, letters of indulgence, etc. Finally, the major subgroup is represented by the sensational reports. Accounts of miraculous signs, which is the topic of this presentation, belong in this group along with the reports on murders, battles, natural disasters, or the burning of witches. Accounts are given of strange celestial phenomena, of mice falling from the sky, water and hosts that turn to blood, of angels, ghosts, the revenants, and miraculous rescues.

These topics, however, were not new. Bloodrain, comets, celestial signs and malformations had already been observed and interpreted as signs during antiquity. In the 16th century, though, an increasingly widespread interest in apocalyptic signs became apparent. There was an ever growing belief that the religious and political turmoil, as well as the social evils of that time resulted from God’s wrath – He who sent new signs to the people every day to admonish them to do penance and to remind them that the end of the world was near. Hence, these signs were seen in connection with the dire straits and the general fear that resulted thereof. This, on the one hand, is given evidence in the numerous books on miraculous signs, which were published in the 16th century, such as the "Prodigiorum ac ostentorum chronicon" by Lycosthenes, "the Wunderwerck und Wunderzeichen Buch" by Caspar Goltwurm, and Job Fincel’s three volume collection of miraculous signs. The general belief in miracles, apart from this, is also reflected in the broadsides and pamphlets. In contrast to the books on miracles, they had the benefit of reaching the poorer and uneducated population because of their cheap price and simple presentation; they gave an account of a particular miraculous sign only shortly after it had been observed, and, therefore, were rather topical. Much of this advantage was owed to the new conditions of reproduction since the invention of letterpress printing. For the first time, it was possible to achieve a certain topicality of the news, obtain a quick and widespread effect, and, with that, have a better influence on the recipients.

Interpretation of Miraculous Signs in the Early Modern Age

The miraculous signs of the early modern age were closely connected with the prevalent belief in apocalyptic signs and with the people’s conviction that the end of the world was near. How is this reflected in the interpretations given in the broadsides and pamphlets? As we look into this question, we will closely examine three different categories of miraculous signs in the following discussion: first, the celestial phenomena, such as halos and northern lights; second, the religious signs, such as host miracles and miraculous springs; and third, the preternatural beings like ghosts and revenants.

The texts of the broadsides and pamphlets mostly follow a standard pattern: a report about an occurrence of a miraculous sign is followed by an interpretation of the sign, which is, eventually, closed by an appeal to the recipients to repent and do penance, and a short prayer to God for His mercy on the sinful people. This pattern was applied to all mysterious occurrences in many early broadsides and pamphlets, regardless of their individual nature; any inexplicable apparition was interpreted as a manifestation of God’s wrath over the sins of the people. In later broadsides and pamphlets of the 17th century, however, a variation can be noted concerning the interpretation of the different miraculous signs. Regarding the first group, namely that of the celestial phenomena, there was a noticeable attempt to find a logical explanation for them. In a broadside about the sighting of a mock sun in 1626, for instance, Caspar Fuld attempts to ascribe a natural meaning to this phenomenon by explaining that it indicates a weather change. Jacob Koppmayer puts this statement more precisely in his broadside in 1681 by concluding that they generally predict rain. Koppmayer, moreover, was the first to make an attempt at trying to give information about the natural cause of such apparitions, which he explains as follows: "those rainbows occur in thick, humid, identical clouds which do not move so that the sun or moon can project their likeness onto them". Even though both Fuld and Koppmayer still stressed the symbolic nature of the apparitions, they also tried to find a natural explanation for the mock sun phenomenon.

The approach is different concerning the interpretation of northern lights. They were likewise carefully observed in the 17th century, but no attempt whatsoever of a logical explanation can be found in the contemporary broadsides and pamphlets, although there were theoretical writings that were published at the same time, which did suggest approaches for the elucidation of this phenomenon. Throughout the pamphlets and broadsides the northern lights were described as a burning sky, flaming red sky with white lines, blazing fire, as fiery warriors with flaming swords, as fighting armies or fighting animals. The fact that this traditional interpretation had so long survived in this case, can, for one thing, be attributed to the rarity of this phenomenon in central Europe, which made the occurence especially exceptional; on the other hand, it was perhaps due to the great variation of northern lights that made it so difficult to find a unified, scientific explanation for them.

Concerning the specifically religious miracles, their interpretation underwent similar constancy. In contrast to most other accounts of miracles, they were of a Catholic affair which required specific Catholic doctrines. Thus, host miracles, for instance, are only possible, assuming, as the Catholic Church believes, that the host is actually transformed into the Corpus Christi in the Eucharist. The blood host is, hence, just an additonal, vivid expression of the given doctrine. Like relics, blood hosts are put on display in the churches where they are revered and worshiped by believers. Examples of blood host occurences are Augsburg, Seefeld, Wilsnack, or Willisau. Numerous people go there on pilgrimage, especially the sick, in the hope of being healed by the miracle host. The broadsides and pamphlets that report about these miracle hosts give a list of persons who have been healed from various illnesses by the power of the host. It is not surprising that the Protestants in particular were very sceptical of such miracles. Their criticism was principally directed towards the belief in miracles and the dogma of Transsubstantiation in the Catholic Church. The Protestants’ reservations were grounded on the fact that the alleged miracle, in many a case, had been brought about by an abuse of the host, in that a person had taken the host out of his mouth and had kept it stored in his home. The Protestants paralleled this to the practice of magic with hostss, which they dismissed as superstition. What is more, they denounced such host miracles as fraud, which priests would carry out to get attraction to their churches in order to financially profit from them as places of pilgrimage. So-called host miracles were then, and are even today, regarded as God’s doing by all Catholics; this, however, was vehemently repudiated by the Protestants. Unlike the celestial phenomena, the issue here was not about finding a possible, logical explanation for this phenomenon but rather a matter of conflicting religious doctrines that put the two denominations in opposition on this issue.

Not only do healings come about through miracle hosts, they may occur through miracle springs as well. All broadsides and pamphlets suggest the force responsible to be the heavenly doctor Jesus Christ, as it is written in a pamphlet about the famous miracle springs of Hornhausen in 1646. Hereby, miracle healing is inseparably linked with the religious miracles. When secular medicine fails, people turn to the celestial doctor – God – who can surely cure the sick, even in their seemingly hopeless situations, by way of a miracle. Like host miracles, miraculous healings are religious in character; Catholics interpret them as miraculous signs, which they do not understand as God’s punishments but as His goodness and grace. Possibly for this reason, broadsides and pamphlets did not at first find it necessary to provide a logical explanation for religious miracles.
 The third group of miraculous signs, that of the preternatural beings, is less unified. Among the miraculous signs in the sense just mentioned, spirits in particular would fit into that category. Spirits are described as dead, headless beings, who make strange sounds by roaring, clattering, or by singing some sweet melody. Their apparition appeal to all human senses, which causes them to frighten and horrify even more. Spirits, like other apparitions, are signs whose purpose was to scare people and remind them of God’s wrath.

Ghosts appearing as actual people, however, were viewed in a different light. In a number of pamphlets, a report about a ghost and his demands is followed by a detailed interpretation and assessment of the ghost story. An author of a pamphlet about the infamous ghost of Buddissin in 1684, thus, raises the questions:
"        1. What shall we make of this ghost?
        2. Should we meet his demands or not?
        3. What does the deacon suggest our actions should be?
        4. And how should we  proceed in this matter otherwise? "

The author gives an answers to this from a Protestant viewpoint: He rejects the existence of revenants and, accordingly, calls them evil spirits, whose orders are not to be complied with. The Catholic belief, that one should help the poor souls who have returned from purgatory, is again rejected as superstition. Thus, the ghost issue here, as in many other cases, is the result of conflicting religious doctrines between the Catholic and Protestant believers. While apparitions of ghosts are possible from the Catholic point of view, they are fiercely denied by the Protestants. Protestant writers of pamphlets draw to the conclusion that ghosts are not of divine origin but a deception from the Devil, evil spirits which he uses to tempt people. The pamphlets, apparently, did not dispute whether ghosts and spirits did in fact exist, the question was, rather, whether they were the souls of deceased persons or whether they were good or evil spirits.

What likewise contributed to the confessional controversy were stories of the apparently dead or people who had arisen from the dead. Accordingly, a pamphlet reporting the event of “a Polish cavalry captain’s resurrection” in 1622 provoked a similar argument to the one about ghosts. The evil spirit – again, such was the cavalry captain identified as by the Protestants – scared the clergymen by haunting the church where he had been buried; he, moreover, caused devastation in the church house to make fun of the Catholics. It is apparent that this reflects the power which the Protestants claim to have over the Catholics.

The story of the ghost of the cavalry captain is quite exceptional among the pamphlets about the apparently dead. Rising from the dead, usually, was considered a miracle, which God granted only the poor and the pious people. Those who were risen from the dead had the opportunity to receive messages from God, or even be given a glimpse of Heaven and Hell, and pass their experience on to the living people. The point was, ultimately, to make an appeal to the people to repent, as was the message of all pamphlets about miraculous signs. What made this appeal so exceptional, was that it was not made by the author of the pamphlet, but originated from the people individually, who had personally experienced apparent death. Their appeal was therefore more convincing and more at issue. All such occurrences were exclusively regarded as “resurrection”, though rather a “comeback” from apparent death had been the case. It appears that the people in the 16th and 17th century did not yet have any knowledge of apparent death and, hence, were not yet aware of the possibility that someone believed to be dead could be buried, while, in fact, he is still living. In accordance with their belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, they were likely to take it as a miracle when people, who had been confirmed as dead by doctors, later returned from death.

In sum, throughout most broadsides and pamphlets miracles are interpreted as signs of God’s wrath and admonition to the sinful people. Attempts to give a logical explanation did exist , yet only with regard to the apparition of halos. Religious miracles are exceptional, in that they undergo different interpretations by Catholics and Protestants, with the former usually insisting on the symbolic character of miracles, and the latter exposing them as deceptions, rejecting their symbolic character and divine origin.

The Discussion of Miraculous Signs during the Enlightenment

However extensively broadsides and pamphlets covered the confessional controversy over miraculous signs, they did only little to explore and investigate their true nature. Nevertheless, from the 17th century, miraculous occurrences were no longer accepted as given facts. This is evident from the numerous theoretical writings published in the 17th and, particularly, in the 18th century. The writings, however, had a minimal effect on the interpretation of religious miracles. Regarding the host miracles, they merely stirred the controversy between the Catholics and the Protestants, which the broadsides and pamphlets had already been discussing. Concerning the miracle springs, during the 17th century and, more so, in the 18th century, efforts were increasingly made to take analyses of the water and derive its curative power from its chemical elements. What the doctors of the 18th century found in the composition of the water, yet, appeared so extraordinary to them that, as a result, this was attributed to another one of God’s marvelous works. So, despite the fact that a natural explanation had been found, it did not suffice to extinguish the people’s belief in supernatural forces.

However, the enlightening writings did have an effect on the interpretation of celestial phenomena. Mock suns had not only been the object of physical research in broadsides and pamphlets exclusively, but, since the beginning of the 17th century, also in a number of theoretical writings. As early as the 1720s, the theory of reflection, which is still current today, was established for a scientific description of mock suns. In Christian Wolff’s "Vernünfftige Gedancken Von den Würckungen der Natur" of 1723, he explains mock suns as s"unrays reflected in the hailstones that are before the sun". Northern lights were likewise a much treated scientific subject in a number of theoretical writings. Various models had been devised for the description of northern lights. Theorists ascribed their apparition, among others, to "the sulphurous mist that rises from the ground and consists of flammable substances that inflame in the air", as Heuson writes in 1721. Fischer (1790) refers the apparition of northern lights to "ice particles, which, for their light weight, can rise so high in the air that they reflect the moonlight and the stars, and transform their reflection into many colors". The real cause of northern lights remained yet unknown in the 18th century. The 19th century could bring a step further to an elucidation in the discovery that the phenomenon of northern lights was linked to terrestial magnetism. A complete settlement was achieved only after exact studies had been carried out and numerous expeditions had been taken to the north pole in the 20th century. They led to the still current explanation for the cause of northern lights, which are caused by solar wind which, streaming the earth magnetosphere, produces electrical fields. The reason why this had not been discovered in the 18th century is probably due to the insufficient physical theories at that time and to the fact that there had been little opportunity of investigating northern lights in central Europe. In any case, the enlighteners should have succeeded in establishing an awareness for the existence of a natural explanation and that northern lights were not necessarily fire signs sent from God.

The enlighteners should have ha success concerning apparent death: while a general awareness of apparent death had been non-existent well into the 18th century, a host of writings from the second half of the 18th century and the 19th century reveal that people later did realize the danger and possibility of erroneous death confirmation, and, that one could be buried alive. What had previously been believed to be a miraculous resurrection was now carefully considered to be a potential case of rash burial. People were horrified at the thought of such a possibility. Doctors racked their brains in finding a solution to avoid such cases to occur. Intensive research was done on the exact determination of death until there was a common agreement that death was not certain until the dead body began to rot, which was made out to be the only surefire sign of death. To postpone burial until the first sign of rottenness, the researchers made an appeal for the introduction of mortuaries. They demanded that mortuaries be submitted to government regulations, making their concern, thus, of public importance. According to the physicians of the 18th and 19th century, more had to be done than waiting if a dead person would come alive again; they demanded that everything possible should be done for the resuscitation of a dying person. With this object in mind, lifesaving societies were founded to save the apparently dead, and suitable means were developed to revive them. Christian Struwe’s "Galvanism" is an example which he considered the strongest stimulant hitherto, and therefore the most essential means of rescuing the apparent dead. A consciousness, evidently, had settled in the people’s minds that apparent death was, by no means, a harmless miracle but a dangerous state that could happen to anyone. Enormous efforts were made to enlighten the people and prevent such a risk. However, no veritable solution could be found to this problem. Even in medicine today, there is still disagreement about the exact determination of death and, with that, the phenomenon of apparent death still remains a riddle. The anxiety among the population, therefore, had also remained. Whereas, previously, people had directed their fear, as early pamphlets show, towards God, who, as they believed, wanted to punish them, their fear was now directed at the phenomenon itself, that is, the actual danger of being buried alive.

Neither was a uniform solution found with regard to ghosts and spirits. Spirits, as it was reflected in the broadsides and pamphlets, were at first considered signs from God, which were either good or, if under the devil’s influence, evil. The question about the nature of spirits did not arise until the end of the 17th century; this was eventually settled in the conclusion that they were rational beings, such as God and the souls of humans. There were approaches to prove the existence of spirits on the basis of reason, particularly in the first half 18th century. The second half of the 18th century, however, gave rise to the notion that spirits could not possibly be actual beings, but that they were, rather, merely illusions produced by human powers of imagination. Yet, although this explanation accounted for spirits, it could not take away the phenomenon, for people still continued to witness apparitions, but simply raised it on to another level. Belief in spirits even hit a new peak in the 19th century in the context of a general spirtistic-esoteric movement believing in the realistic existence of spirits that could be evoked by human will.

The issue about ghosts did not undergo such a uniform development. A distinction has to be made according to the views of three different parties. There were the rationalists, on the one hand, who denied the existence of ghosts because there was no reasonable basis that could prove this, and, therefore, declared ghost apparitions to be extremely unlikely. Ghosts were rather illusions, which stemmed from human imagination, likely to intimidate irrational and fearful people. Countering the rationalist’s argument, the empiricists, on the other hand, asserted that the existence of ghosts may not be susceptible to proof but still may at least be possibl. From experience, there was no compelling reason to refute the possibility of their existence. And, third, there were those who argued from a religious point of view: this party is mainly represented by Catholic clergymen, who, on the one side, referred to the miracles of Jesus, and, on the other side, adhered to the theory of purgatory. According to this theory, it was possible for the souls of the dead to return to the world with a special purpose in mind. This theory was rejected by the Protestants from the outset; however, the enlightening philosophers could not agree whether or not they should at least accept the possible existence of ghosts – whatever their nature may be. Their viewpoint was that ghosts, like all (religious?) miracles, may indeed disturb the course of nature, by this principle, therefore, they had to be rejected as superstition. Since their non-existence could not be proven – especially since God works in mysterious ways and His divine power has no limits – the possibility of ghosts could not be completely ruled out. The enlightening philosophers admitted that ghosts had to be accepted as part of the natural way of the world, yet insisted that each case be investigated with reason, and that they be carefully examined to exclude the possibility of human deception.

The Remains of the Miraculous Today

We have seen that there was a noticeable effort made on the part of the enlighteners to look at all miraculous signs in the light of reason and investigate their natural cause. However, the effects of their efforts were quite variable. Among the examples we have been looking at, a clarification could only be made with regard to halos. As for the northern lights, they could only be accounted for with hypotheses, which had to be accepted. Regarding the religious miracles among the Catholics, the Protestants were virtually powerless against them. And considering the apparently dead, an awareness for the real danger had been created; nonetheless, having only shifted the grounds of the people’s fears, the enlighteners did not succeed in completely doing away with all of those fears, which were still present. The fear of ghosts, likewise, could not be entirely stamped out. From a rational point of view, the possibility of ghosts was rather unlikely, nonetheless, there was no proof that they did not exist, nor could it by reason be refuted that certain people did have a gift of discerning beings that were otherwise invisible to others.

Today, miraculous signs are virtually no longer interpreted as God’s warnings, as was usual in the broadsides and pamphlets. In this enlightened spirit of our age, notwithstanding, we can still find miraculous traces in tabloids, such as "BILD-Zeitung", or modern media, such as the internet, that can spread this kind of subject in huge numbers, such as the internet. In the months of March and April of 1981, "BILD-Zeitung", for instance, published a series titled “Buried Alive”; the people featured in this series gave their accounts of their experience of awakening from apparent death and finding themselves buried alive, after their death had been erroneously confirmed by a doctor. The description of the terror they had gone through in their dreadful situations is strikingly powerful. Even celestial phenomena can still cause people anxiety, which a report proves about an apparition of a northern light that was seen in broad sections of Germany on April 7, 2000. "BILD-Zeitung" describes it as “mysterious”, as a “gigantic firework display” and an “exceptional natural spectacle”. Even though we know the natural cause for this phenomenon today, it nevertheless still has a mysterious and miraculous touch, which can be attributed to its rare and unusual occurrence.

Apparitions of ghosts and spirits are still booming today; this is given evidence by the countless websites that cover the subject of ghosts and paranormal phenomena, such as "www.paranormal.de". They describe ghosts as people’s “part of soul”, their “splitting-off” or telepathic faculties. Like in a host of printed material, numerous stories of ghosts and spirits are published and spread on the world wide web.

Apparently, miraculous signs, by and large, are still present today. They may have lost their symbolic force but virtually none of their miraculous character. Only the media responsible for their circulation has changed. Today, we no longer find miraculous signs in broadsides and pamphlets; nowadays, they appear in tabloids and the new mass media such as the internet. In early modern times, all miraculous signs inevitably caused anxiety. As to the celestial apparitions and phenomena like blood springs, they no longer give rise for fear and anxiety. From the state of scientific research today, we know that they are chemical or physical processes; access to such knowledge is almost exclusively provided in scientific textbooks. However, the anxiety has remained in those cases which are still not completely settled. It is striking that even a man as enlightened as Alfred B. Nobel should write in his last will: “Finally, it is my express wish that following my death my veins shall be opened, and when this has been done and competent doctors have confirmed clear signs of death, my remains shall be cremated in a so-called crematorium” (27/11/1895).