Brossier, Marthe

Brossier, Marthe a French fanatic, was born in 1547, and was the daughter of a baker at.Romorantin. She pretended to be possessed with spirits, and in that state inveighed against the edict of Nantes. Her imposture, however, was exposed by the bishop of Angers, who produced the same convullsions- upon her nervous temperament by artificial excitants. She travelled about, first with her father, and afterwards with a certain abbe of St. Martin. She was repeatedly arrested, and, was finally confined in a convent, where she died about the beginning of the 16th century. See Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, s.v.