"[[119c]]
Against one form of insanity both Catholics and Protestants were
especially cruel. Nothing is more common in all times of religious
excitement than strange personal hallucinations, involving the
belief, by the insane patient, that he is a divine person. In the
most striking representation of insanity that has ever been made,
Kaulbach shows, at the centre of his wonderful group, a patient
drawing attention to himself as the Saviour of the world.
Sometimes, when this form of disease took a milder
hysterical character, the subject of it was treated with
reverence, and even elevated to sainthood: such examples as St.
Francis of Assisi and St. Catherine of Siena in Italy, St.
Bridget in Sweden, St. Theresa in Spain, St. Mary Alacoque in
France, and Louise Lateau in Belgium, are typical. But more
frequently such cases shocked public feeling, and were treated
with especial rigour: typical of this is the case of Simon
Marin, who in his insanity believed himself to be the Son of God,
and was on that account burned alive at Paris and his ashes
scattered to the winds.
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