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Isabeau Vincent, the lunatic shepherdess locked in Crest tower

The tower | Remi Mathis / CC-BY-SA
Tower Imprisonment Crest tower

Persecuted...

Crest was used as a sinister jail between the 17th and the 19th century, for Protestants mainly.

By the way, look at her: Isabeau, the young lunatic shepherdess. She was locked in Crest jail.

Do you know her? Isabeau Vincent was born in 1670 near Crest in a Protestant family.

At that time, those one were persecuted, in France, because king Louis XIV signed the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes... which means no more religious liberty.

You had to renounce, or they would put you in jail! But in Crest area, from Cévennes to Alps, we found Protestants who tried to resist.

The apparition!

Isabeau was converted to Catholicism. Then, she left her poor parents: a relative lodged her and entrusted her his sheep.

One day, while she was guarding the cattle in a field, she saw a man in front of her. A stranger.

He said to her: «You are a prophet. Go defend your faith and tell your friends about their imminent deliverance».

Isabeau didn’t think and followed orders to the letter: she started to preach in the neighbouring cities.

The prophetess

Meanwhile, in her little bed, when she fell asleep, she spoke. Scraps of sentences like «Repent, brothers!»

Repent? Sure, because some changed religion... They had to hold on: one day, all the Protestants would be released! And all Christianity would be sorry.

Isabeau preached and defended the Reformed faith in this brutal world.

She became famous, people came from a long way to hear her sermons. A book full of her «prophecies» was even printed in Holland in 1688!

They arrested her the same year. Locked in Crest tower and questioned. Oh, she was locked here only for one day...

But they sent her in a convent where she sadly ended her life.

About the the author

Vinaigrette
I'm fond of strolls and History, with juicy and spicy details!