The-papacy-its-history-dogmas-genius-and-prospects-wylie

NEW MIRACLES. 507Pope returned to Rome, a famous imago of the VirginHimini was seen to wink. Intelligence was quickly spreadof the miracle ;crowds were assembled; the prodigy was repeatedday by day, and day by day rich offerings continuedto be heaped upon the shrine of the Madonna. It was nowreported that another image at another Italian town hadbeen seen to wink ; and presently there was a whole showerof winking Madonnas. We ask. Is the Pope infallible ?and we are answered by a wink. It is difficult seeing thelogical connection between the wink and the infallibility.The faithful, of course, will take the wink as a proof thatthe Pope is infallible ; but others may take it as meaningjust the opposite. Did Rome understand her position, anattempt to establish her doctrines by miracles would be thelast thing she would think of. The infallibility is the groundon which she rests all belief. When, therefore, she bringsforward a miracle as a proof of any dogma, she in realityshifts her ground ; she commits a grievous solecism in ai*-gument ; and, instead of proving that she is infallible, provesthat she is an impostor.Paris, too, was the scene of some miracles, A PeterPerimond, a plain obese peasant from Grenoble, appeared inParis in March 1850, and announced that he had seen theSaviour, and received from him a commission to heal thesick and convert the world. He lay during passion week,the stigmata impressed on his body, and the blood distillingdrop by drop from his " sacred" wounds. When the sunwent down the wounds ceased to bleed.He cured the diseasedwho visited him, by the touch.atPeter Perimond wasevidently a tool of the priests, by whom the whole affair wasarranged with great adroitness. Some of the first anatomistsof Paris examined the miracle-worker, and pronounced" the whole a juggle."* A Veronica was seen to shed tearsat Naples, doubtless over the misfortunes of the exiled Pontiff,A Madonna at Rome was observed to nod with spe-• «*Church and State Gazette," 13th April 1850,