The bishop's December 31st mandement

Interior, Mende cathedral

On December 31, 1764, the bishop of Mende, France, issued a pastoral letter entitled, “Mandement by Gabriel-Florent de Choiseul-Beaupré, Bishop of Mende: The Bishop’s Charge to His Congregation/to Order Public Prayers Regarding the Animal (the Maneater Who Devastates the Gévaudan.)” In it, the bishop mentions the misfortunes of war, irregularity of the weather, and other woes, and then “this extraordinary scourge,” “a ferocious beast.”  Referring to St. Augustine (upon whom the Jansenists, a controversial religious group, based their beliefs), the bishop informed his flock, “you can easily conclude that your misfortunes can come only from your sins.”* He ordered a 40-hour prayer vigil to be held for three weeks in succession, starting January 6, 1765.

---

*Thompson, Richard H. Wolf-Hunting in France in the Reign of Louis XV: The Beast of the Gévaudan. Lewiston, New York; Queenstown, Ontario, Canada; Lampeter, Dyfed, Wales, United Kingdom: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1991.

December 20, 1764

Château de la Baume, France.
The Beast escaped into the woods of this venerable estate more than once during its reign of terror. 

Nearly 50 official hunts ensued from November 15, 1764, until the September 20, 1765, killing of the first Beast, the Chazes wolf, by King Louis XV’s own porte-arquebuse, or gun-bearer, François Antoine. Hunts were made up of Duhamel and his posse until March 1765, as well as nobles, the peasantry, and fortune-hunting outsiders.

Reward monies totaling 4,000 livres, or pounds, for the Beast’s demise were now being offered by various districts, the combined estates of the province, and the bishop. The Beast was glimpsed here and there during November, and Duhamel and his men hunted dutifully but the creature continued to evade them.
 
The creature attacked four adults between November 18 and the end of the month. On the 25th, it brought death to 60-year-old widow Catherine Vally in Buffeyrettes, in this case beheading her. Perhaps even more disturbing, Duhamel used her remains as bait, believing the Beast would come back for more. It didn’t. 

Duhamel, frustrated yet faithful to his call of duty, kept the hunters on the trail in frigid and fog-obscured conditions, but with no result. Mid-December, the Beast commenced a concentrated series of attacks, beginning with the decapitation of 45-year-old herder Catherine Chastang in Vedrines St-Loup. 

Alas, it seemed that if Duhamel did not have bad luck, he had no luck at all. Around the 20th of December, the captain actually rubbed eyes with his target at Château de la Baume. But his dragoons spooked the creature before he or they could take aim. Duhamel, hungry for success, and his men, seeking a payout, were furious that their weeks’ of hunting had come to naught. Those feelings were mutually shared by those in power, awaiting results, and of course by locals who’d been plagued by the Beast’s predations and who’d put up with the dragoons’ disruptions. 

Photo credit: Ancalagon (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)]

---