"Our Lady of Tears"

Both Jean Frenchman and the foremost criminologists of France have followed for exactly a year (TIME, Jan. 18, Feb. 1, 1926) the astounding trial at Melun concerning a cult whose members revived at Bordeaux the sorceries of the Middle Ages and the flaggellant rites invented by the infamous "Marquis de Sade."

Since "witchcraft" and "sorcery" had their real existence in the anti-social activities of a special class the cult of Notre Dame des Pleurs (Our Lady of Tears) whose members were finally convicted last week, may be properly considered a late survival of "Medieval witchcraft."

Specifically, two men and eight women members of the cult were convicted of having entered the oratory of a priest, the Abbe des Noyers, at Bombon,* and there stripped him naked, bound him to a table and flogged him with knotted ropes. One of the convicted, Mme. Robert, openly exulted that she had been the last to flog the Abbe before he swooned; and her 17-year-old daughter boasted that she had not only taken a hand in flogging the Abbe but had thrown pepper in his eyes.

The cult to which the defendants belonged was proved to have flourished for 21 years at Bordeaux, since its foundation by a concierge (janitress), Mme. Marie Mesmin, or "Sainted Mother Marie." The defendants alleged that the Abbe des Noyers had been a member of their cult, but had later withdrawn and turned his sorceries against them. During the trial Defendant Maurice Lourdin, pointing at the Abbe, cried: "There sits the Devil, Satan himself! . . , He is the greatest sorcerer of the age. . . ." "He afflicted me with shameful diseases," testified Defendant Henri Froger. "We women," testified Mme. Robert, "were often bounced about in our beds by this wicked man working his sorceries."

Before these charges the Abbe sat immobile, only exclaiming now and then: "That is a frightful lie!" He did not, however, explain away the testimony of his neighbors.

The attack upon him which provoked the trial was apparently made at the instigation of Mme. Mesmin, who feared and hated him as a more powerful sorcerer than herself. Last week, the Court awarded the significantly small damages of 5,000 francs ($200) to the Abbe des Noyers, sentenced the two convicted males to eight months' imprisonment, imprisoned their eight female accomplices for six months and assessed upon them costs and a fine of 100 francs ($4) each. Since several of the defendants were of more than modest wealth, and since Mme. Mesmin was not ousted from her sanctum at Bordeaux, the persistence of the cult seemed scarcely threatened. Significantly Mme. Mesmin came originally from Lyons, where, in the words of J. K. Huysmans: "Satanism still flourishes, and every heresy pullulates and is green."

*Once the seat of Marshal Foch's General Staff.