WOW!
I’ve been having a lot fun reading this one, as did many also in the 1730’s. I have seen a few copies of 1732 editions in French and one in German But in English While it went through ten editions there are only 4 copies of any edition of this one. I can’t exactly Place this edition..as the descriptions of the extant copies are hard to perce. I’m sure it was quite popular but didn’t survive well, many authors used this plot as a launch pad including as a play by Henry Fielding (’The Old Debauchees’, 1732) .
240G Marie-Catherine Cadière (1709-?. )
The case of Mrs. Mary Catharine Cadiere, against the Jesuit father John Baptist Girard, in a memorial presented to the Parliament of Aix. Wherein he is accused of seducing her, by the abominable doctrines of quietism, into the most criminal excesses of lewdness, and under an appearance of the highest mystical devotion, deluding into the same vices six other females, who had put their consciences under his direction with a preface by the publisher, containing a short and plain account of the rules of proceeding according to the laws and customs of France in cases of this nature.
London, Printed for and sold by London : Printed and sold by J. Roberts in Warwick-Lane, and by most booksellers in town and country 1732. SOLD
Octavo 7¾x4¾ inches A-N4.Second edition(?) Bound in later quarter calf, a nice copy.
Cadière, was an alleged French witch. The trial of Catherine Cadiére in 1731 is one of the most famous of its kind in French history, and have been referred to many times in literature, notably in the pornographic novel Thérèse philosophe.
This book is an account of the trial and On 11 September 1731, Catherine Cadiére was sentenced to death, but on 10 October 1731, she was declared innocent. Her acquittal and release was greeted with great rejoicing from the public. She was turned over to her mother, who was to remove her to prevent chaos, so that civil order could be restored. However, the fate of Catherine Cadiére after this is unknown, and considered to be mysterious.
This Exposition of a case that caused quite a stir at the time it was written to fan the flames of anti-Catholicism and especially as negative propaganda against the Jesuits and more specifically Quietism (a devotional contemplation and abandonment of the will as a form of religious mysticism). Quietism particularly associated with the writings of Miguel de Molinos, and which were condemned as heresy by Pope Innocent XI in the papal bull Coelestis Pastor of 1687. There seem to have been upwards of eleven editions of the book published in 1732 (in French) , such was its appeal, but I have not been able to locate any editions earlier than the fourth edition listed in OCLC/WorldCat. See ESTC page below. Of the ten editions recorded all are very rare with only 4 copies of any edition are in the us. See ESTC Below.
Catherine Cadière was born to a merchant, whose health was ruined by the plague in 1720, and lived under the guardianship of her widowed mother and three brothers. When she was eighteen, she joined “a loosely organized group of women who, through living in their own homes, were dedicated to prayer and meditation. The spiritual director of these devotees of the “Third Order of St. Theresa” was the Jesuit Jean-Baptiste Girard (1680–1733), whom she met in 1728[1]. She was encouraged by Girard in the belief that she suffered from holy convulsions and saintly stigmata and spiritual visions, (Gastaut–Geschwind syndrome ‘temporal lobe epilepsy’) which Girard presented as the symptoms of a saint. He visited her often and possibly abused her sexually. Her emotional state during these experiences was described as hysterical. In June 1730, Girard was investigated for abuse and corruption, and Cadière was placed in a convent. She was released in September 1730.
The case was transferred to the court of Aix-en-Provence. Catherine was first placed in a convent in Toulon and then taken to a convent in Aix for the trial, which began on 10 January 1731 under the Parlement of Aix.
The Parlement at Aix took evidence and witness accounts for almost a year. The case drew enormous attention from the whole of France, and Catherine was supported by parliamentarians, noblewomen, and the public in Toulon and Aix. The case was seen as a case against the Jesuit order, and Catherine was seen as a symbol of the corruption of the Jesuits. Catherine accused Girard of bewitching her by making her fall in love with him: She accused him of seduction, “spiritual incest” (that is, introducing sex into a religious relationship of power), witchcraft, and heresy.
“You see here before you a young girl of twenty years,
plunged into an abyss of evils, but whose heart is still unsullied.”
On 11 September 1731, Catherine Cadiére was sentenced to death, but When they returned with their verdict on 11 October 1731, the judges were split 12 to 12. (President Lebret) cast the deciding vote, and he “returned Father Girard to the ecclesiastical authorities for his irregular conduct as a priest, and Catherine was declared innocent and sent back to her mother. By this dismissal he indicated the charges of sorcery were not proved.” 
Her acquittal and release was greeted with great rejoicing from the public. She was turned over to her mother, who was to remove her to prevent chaos, so that civil order could be restored. However, the fate of Catherine Cadiére after this is unknown, and considered to be mysterious.
Robbins, Rossell (1974). The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and Demonology (Twelfth ed.). New York, N.Y.: Crown Publishers, Inc
In the novel Thérèse philosophe the narrative starts with Therese, from solid bourgeois stock, becoming a student of Father Dirrag, a Jesuit who secretly teaches materialism. Therese spies on Dirrag counseling her fellow student, Mlle. Eradice, and preying on her spiritual ambition in order to seduce her. Through flagellation and penetration, Dirrag gives Mlle. Eradice what she thinks is spiritual ecstasy but is actually sexual. “Father Dirrag” and “Mlle. Eradice” are named after anagrams of Catherine Cadière and Jean-Baptiste Girard !
In the novel Thérèse philosophe, Therese is placed in a convent, where she becomes sick because her pleasure principle is not permitted to express itself, putting her body into disorder. She is rescued by Mme. C and Abbe T. and she spies on them discussing libertine political and religious philosophy in between sexual encounters…..
see: Natania Meeker, « ‘I Resist no Longer’: Enlightened Philosophy and Feminine Compulsion in Thérèse philosophe », Eighteenth-Century Studies, Spring 2006, n° 39 (3), p. 363-76
http://estc.bl.uk/F/NQNNXUCISIANML5D4JSMEGTMBSGRKL5N56AH1HSFSA72QI5SFI-79149?func=find b&request=The+case+of+Mrs.+Mary+Catharine+Cadiere&find_code=WRD&adjacent=N&image.x=31&image.y=5
English Short Title Catalog,; ESTCT20093
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