Augustin Calmet presents a massive compilation of reputed facts, legends, and historical accounts concerning the invisible world, including good and bad angels, magic, sorcery, oracles, possessions, and ghosts returning in the body. The author undertakes this study with the dual perspective of a historian and a theologian, gathering evidence from Scripture, ecclesiastical decrees, and civil law to determine what can be genuinely proven about these supernatural occurrences. While modern readers might find the evidence largely wanting and rely on simple assertion or hearsay, the compilation itself stands as an invaluable storehouse of popular belief and a mirror of the metaphysical capacities of earlier centuries.
The text systematically addresses the reality of angelic apparitions, the claims of Egyptian and Chaldean magic, and the nature of ancient oracles. Calmet investigates whether ancient predictors and modern sorcerers truly possess supernatural powers or if their arts are merely the result of human imposture, natural causes, and the overactive imaginations of susceptible minds. Particular attention is devoted to the accounts of demoniacal possessions, obsessions, and the strange phenomena associated with the witches' sabbath. By weighing contemporary trials and historical anecdotes against the strict demands of evidence, the author distinguishes between genuine spiritual anomalies and the delusions born of ignorance or fraudulent collusion.
A significant portion of the work is dedicated to the famous reports of vampires, vroucolacas, and excommunicated persons who allegedly leave their graves. Calmet scrutinizes these physical returns with critical acumen, analyzing whether the dead can truly walk, consume nourishment, or interact with the living. His rigorous approach demonstrates a mind caught between the traditional beliefs of his church and the emerging critical methods of historical inquiry, often leaving difficult questions in suspension rather than rushing to premature conclusions.
Ultimately, the treatise serves as both a historical record of human aberrations and a philosophical inquiry into the boundaries between the natural and the supernatural. It illustrates how upright minds can be warped by slavish deference to authority and incomplete education while still preserving enough authentic data to inform modern philosophical and physical doubts. The work concludes with a balanced view that upholds the unquestionable authority of scriptural miracles while urging extreme reservation and critical discernment regarding modern and popular legends.
