How we cite our quotes: (Book.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"Miracles, upon my soul!" rejoined Gringoire. "Here the blind see, and the lame run." (II.VI.25)
The Cour des Miracles, or the Court of Miracles, is a bit of a tongue-in-cheek name. Gringoire is pointing to that here: it's a "miracle" that the blind should suddenly be able to see, but the reason they do is that they're all criminals faking blindness in the first place. The suggestion is that deception, or rational misunderstanding, underlies many (all?) "miracles." But "Court of Misconceptions" somehow just doesn't have the same ring to it.
Quote #2
The people held much the same opinion; all who possessed any wisdom regarded Quasimodo as the demon and Claude Frollo as the conjurer. It was obvious that the bell ringer had been engaged to serve the Archdeacon for a specific time, at the expiration of which he would be sure to steal his soul by way of payment. (IV.V.9)
The best part of this passage is the narrator's statement that "it was obvious…" You know why? Because it's not obvious at all. This is Hugo at his most bitingly sarcastic. Naturally "all who possessed any wisdom" would come to the conclusion that Frollo called forth a deformed demon to be his servant in exchange for his soul, right? It makes perfect sense. Hugo is trying to give you a sense of the superstitious mentality of this society. These people love accounting for things with weird supernatural logic.
Quote #3
"The next day, which was Sunday, they found on a heath between Gueux and Tilloy, about two leagues from Reims, the remains of a large fire, a few ribbons that belonged to Paquette's child, and several drops of blood and goat droppings. There could be no further doubt that the gypsies had Saturday night held their Sabbath on this heath and devoured the child in the company of their master, Beelzebub, as is the custom among Mahometans." (VI.III.52)
Like the passage above, Hugo doesn't literally believe that based on this evidence, "there could be no doubt" about the child being eaten. He's taking on the voice of the superstitious people. In their minds, there can be no other explanation, but we, as readers, are meant to see what a ridiculous leap in logic this is. The people's lack of logic gets reinforced by their other misunderstandings about gypsies, as well, and those are on full display all through the novel. For example, did you know that gypsies worship the demon Beelzebub? Or that they are Muslims? Or that they come from Egypt? Nice try, Parisians, but we're so not buying it.