as is wont to be the case, increased in violence. Many who visited the tomb fell into convulsions; they asked to be beaten and trod upon by the bystanders; persons lay on the ground uttering wild cries and incoherent prophecies; scenes were enacted that were disgusting and indecent. It was not so much the scandal of such performances, as their Jansenist origin, which at last led the government to interfere. In January, 1732, a royal ordinance declared that the cemetery of St. Médard should be closed, and all persons were forbidden to enter it. ¹ As the faithful approached the scene of their devotions on the 29th of January, they found it surrounded by soldiers, who turned them away, and this guard was strictly maintained. On the following day, a famous paraphrase of the ordinance was attached to the door of the church. "By order of the king, God is forbidden to work miracles in this place." ² The prohibition was respected: no more miracles were wrought in the cemetery of St. Médard; the relies of the blessed deacon occasionally effected a cure, but the lame and the halt no longer came to be healed, and the excitement slowly abated. ³

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