Alis de Telieux
In 1528, there was published in Paris a curious book, entitled, La merveilleuse histoire de l'esprit qui, depuis naguère, s'est apparu au monastère des religieuses de Saint Pierre de Lyon, laquelle est pleine de grande admiration, comme on pourra vois par la lecture de ce prèsent livre, par Adrien de Montalembert, aumonier du roi François Ier. This work dealt with the appearance in the monastery of the spirit of Alis de Telieux, a nun who had lived there before the reformation of the monastery in 1513. Alis, it seems, had led rather a worldly life, following pleasure and enjoyment in a manner unbecoming to a nun, finally stealing the ornaments from the altar and selling them. After this last enormity, she, of course, left the monastery, and for a time continued her disgraceful career outside, but before she died she repented of her sins, and through the intercession of the Virgin, received pardon. This, however, did not gain for her Christian burial, and she was interred without the usual prayers and funeral rites. A number of years afterwards, when the monastery was occupied by other and better nuns, one of their number, a girl of about eighteen years, was aroused from her sleep by the apparition of Sister Alis. For some time afterwards the spirit haunted her wherever she went, continually rapping on the ground near where she stood, and even communicating with the interested nuns. From all indications, it was a good and devout spirit who thus entered the monastery, but the good sisters, well versed in the wiles of the devil, had their doubts on the subject. The services of the Bishop of Lyons and of the narrator, Adrien de Montalembert, were called in to adjure the evil spirit. After many prayers and formalities, the spirit of Alis was found to be an innocent one, attended by a guardian angel. She answered a number of questions regarding her present state and her desire for Christian burial, and confirmed the doctrines of the Catholic Church, notably that of purgatory, which latter spirit-revelation the author advances triumphantly for the confusion of the Lutherans. The remains of Sister Alis were conveyed to consecrated ground, and prayers made for the release of her soul from purgatory, but for some reason or other she continued to follow the young nun for a time, teaching her, on her last visit, five secret prayers composed by St. John the Evangelist.