Adam, L'Abbé

About the time that the Templars were being driven from France, the Devil was said to have appeared under various guises to the Abbé Adam, who was journeying with one of the servants from his convent to another part of his abbacy of the Vaux de Cernay. The evil spirit first opposed the progress of the Abbé taking the form of a tree white with frost, which rushed toward him with inconceivable swiftness. The Abbé's horse trembled with fear, as did the servant, but the Abbé himself made the sign of the Cross, and the tree disappeared.

The Abbé concluded that he had seen the Devil and called upon the Virgin to protect him. Nevertheless, the fiend shortly reappeared in the shape of a furious black knight. "Begone," said the Abbé. "Why do you attack me far from my brothers?" The Devil once more left him, but returned in the shape of a tall man with a long, thin neck. To get rid of him, Adam struck him a blow with his fist. The evil spirit shrank and took the stature and countenance of a little cloaked monk, with a glittering weapon under his garb. His little eyes could be seen darting and glancing under his cowl. He tried hard to strike the Abbé with the sword he held, but Adam repulsed the strokes with the sign of the Cross.

The demon became in turn a pig and a long-eared ass. The Abbé, impatient to be on his way, made a circle on the ground with a cross in the center. The fiend was then obliged to withdraw a little distance. He changed his long ears into horns, which did not hinder the Abbé from boldly addressing him. Offended by his plain-speaking, the Devil changed himself into a barrel and rolled into an adjoining field. In a short time he returned in the form of a cart wheel, and, without giving the brother time to put himself on the defensive, rolled heavily over his body, without, however, doing him any injury. After that he left him to pursue his journey in peace. This story is related in Regne de Philippe le Bel by Robert Gaguin and in Histoire de la Magie en France by Jules Garinet (1818).