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 in-
coherent 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 faith-
ful 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 para-
phrase 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 excite-
ment slowly abated. ³

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