Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker Discourse volume 1.djvu/229

182 monks of that place, and a third by the above-mentioned Geoffrey. He cured the deaf, the dumb, the lame, the blind, men possessed with devils, in many cases before multitudes of people: he wrought thirty-six miracles in a single day, says one of these historians; converted men and women that could not understand the language he spoke in. His wonders are set down by the eye-witnesses themselves, men known to us by the testimony of others. I do not hesitate in saying that there is far more evidence to support the miracles of St Bernard than those mentioned in the New Testament.

But we are to accept such testimony with great caution. The tendency of men to believe the thing happens which they expect to happen; the tendency of rumour to exaggerate a real occurrence into a surprising or miraculous affair, is well known. A century and a half have not gone by since witches were tried by a special court in Massa-