Antoine Augustin Calmet

Treatise on the Apparitions of Spirits and on Vampires

Antoine Augustin Calmet

In the 18th century, the stories of witches, ghosts and vampires were taken for the true records, not for legends. In the documents of those times, the mentions of the dead risen from the tombs were often recorded alongside with the mentions of natural disasters like floods and fires. Yet, even in those times, there were doubts about the reality of such episodes. The society needed a tool to tell a true record of vampirism or witchcraft from the faked one. The Abbot Don Augustin Calmet, also known as a Black Monk, with the approval of the King of France, developed a set of rules for determining the legitimacy of such records. His rules based on the philosophical reasoning and scientific examination. This book is a «How to» manual for dealing with the cases of witchcraft, vampirism, ghost appearance or possession. Additionally, this book gives a deep look in the history of these phenomena. In its time, the work by Calmet was perceived the European society of the Age of Rason as scientific research.