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Obsession and Possession

Obsession, from Latin obsessionem -obsidere, to besiege, is a form of insanity caused, according to traditional belief, by the persistent attack of an evil spirit without, this being the opposite of possession, control by an evil spirit from within, both meaning however the usurpation of the individuality and control of the body by a foreign and discarnate entity. This belief may be found in the earliest records of human history, and in the magical rites and formulæ of ancient religions, used as charms against and exorcism of these invading influences. Indian, Greek and Roman literature teem with instances, the Bible also furnishing many from the case of Saul "troubled with an evil spirit" only to be dispossessed by the music of David's harping, to the miracles of Jesus Christ who cast out legions of possessing spirits. Plato in his Republic Obsession not only speaks of demons of various grades, but mentions a method of treating and providing for those obsessed by them. Sophocles and Euripides describe the possessed and mention of the subject is also to be found in Herodotus, Plutarch, Horace, and many others of the classics. Terrible and appalling episodes in the Middle Ages are to be traced to the unquestioned belief in the possibility of possession and obsession by the Devil and his legions. All madness was caused thereby, was indeed the visible manifestation of the Evil One, only to be exorcised by charms, averted by the observance of sacred rites, or later, to be burned and destroyed bodily for the good of the tortured soul within. The rites of Black Magic, in all ages and places, deliberately evoke this possession by the Devil and his demons for the communication and benefit of the infallible knowledge it was believed they conferred and its consequent power and control of man and his destinies.

Modern science with its patient and laborious researches into human psychology, has given the key to this baffling mystery, showing the human mind to be an incomparably delicate instrument, peculiarly at the mercy of the perceptions of the senses and their multitudinous impressions on the brain, its balance so easily shaken by a shock, a drug, a momentary excitement, oftener by prolonged and intense concentration upon single groups of ideas. It is to be noted that in the hallucinatory epidemics of all ages and countries there is to be found this unvarying characteristic: they are connected with some dominant cause, train of thought or religious sentiment prevalent at the time. In the Middle Ages when there flourished an intense belief in the positive apparitions of angels, saints and devils, the people's imagination was dominated and rendered intensely dramatic thereby. The transmigration of the human soul into animals was another popular belief and to this again can be traced the terrible superstition of Lycanthropy (q.v.) which possessed large numbers of people in France and Germany in the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries. The Flagellant mania took its rise at Perouse in the thirteenth century, caused by the panic attendant upon an outbreak of plague. These people maintained that there was no remission of sins without flagellation. This they preached with fanatical fervour and bands of them, gathering adherents everywhere, roamed through city and country, clad in scanty clothing on which were depicted skeletons and with frenzied movements publicly lashed themselves. It was to these exhibitions, the name of the "Dance of Death" was first applied. The Dancing mania, accompanied by aberration of mind and maniacal distortions of the body was very prevalent in Germany in the fourteenth century, and in the sixteenth century in Italy where it was termed "Tarantism" and as a variant in source, was ascribed to the bite of the Tarantula spider. The music and songs employed for the cure are still preserved. Edmund Parrish in his work Hallucinations and Illusions makes the following observations on this subject: "If not reckoned as true chorea, the epidemic of dancing which raged in Germany and the Netherlands in the Middle Ages comes under this head. Appearing in Aix it spread in a few months to Liège, Utrecht and the neighbouring towns, visited Metz, Cologne and Strasburg (1418) and after lingering into the sixteenth century gradually died out. This malady consisted in convulsions, contortions accompanying the dancing, hallucinations and so forth. The attack could be checked by bandaging the abdomen as well as by kicks and blows on that part of the body. Music had a great influence on the dancers, and for this reason it was played in the streets in order that the attacks might by this means reach a crisis and disappear the sooner. Quite trifling circumstances could bring on these seizures, the sight of pointed shoes for instance, and of the colour red which the dancers held in horror. In order to prevent such outbreaks the wearing of pointed shoes was forbidden by the authorities. During their dance many of the afflicted thought they waded in blood, or saw heavenly visions."

The same author remarks on other instances :-" Το this category also belongs the history of demoniacal possession. The belief of being possessed by spirits, frequently met with in isolated cases, appeared at certain periods in epidemic form. Such an epidemic broke out in Brandenburg, and in Holland and Italy in the sixteenth century, especially in the convents. In 1350-60 it attacked the convent of St. Brigitta, in Xanthen, a convent near Cologne, and others. The nuns declared that they were visited by the Devil, and had carnal conversation with him. These and other possessed' wretches were sometimes thrown into dungeons, sometimes burnt. The convent of the Ursulines at Aix was the scene of such a drama (1609-11) where two possessed nuns, tormented by all kinds of apparitions, accused a priest of witchcraft on which charge he was burnt to death (See Grandier, Urbain). The famous case of the nuns of Loudun (1632-39) led to a like tragic conclusion, as well as the Louvier case (1642) in which the two chief victims found their end in life-long imprisonment and the stake." 6 66

The widespread belief in and fear of magic and witchcraft operating on superstitious minds produced the most extraordinary hallucinations. Religious ecstasy partakes of the same character, the difference being that it is possession by and contact with so-called good spirits. The sacred books of all nations teem with instances of this and profane history can also furnish examples. The many familiar cases of ecstatic visions and revelations in the Old Testament may be cited, as well as those found in the legends of saints and martyrs, where they either appear as revelations from heaven or temptations of the Devil. In the latter case, a scientific authority, Krafft-Ebing, points out the close connection of religious ecstasy with sexual disturbances. That this condition of ecstasy" was and is sought and induced the following passage amply proves :-" Among Eastern and primitive peoples such as Hindoos, American Indians, natives of Greenland, Kamtschatka and Yucatan, fetish-worshipping Negroes, and Polynesians, the ecstatic state accompanied with hallucinations is frequently observed, sometimes arising spontaneously, but more often artificially induced. It was known also among the nations of antiquity. The means most often employed to induce this state are beating of magic drums and blowing of trumpets, howlings and hourlong prayers, dancing, flagellation, convulsive movements and contortions, asceticism, fasting and sexual abstinence. Recourse is also had to narcotics to bring about the desired result. Thus the flyagaric is used in Western Siberia, in San Domingo the herb coca, tobacco by some tribes of American Indians, and in the East opium and hashish. The ancient Egyptians had their intoxicating drinks, and receipts for witch's salves and philtres have come down to us from mediæval times." In many countries this condition of possession is induced for religious and prophetic purposes, also for mere fortune-telling. The extent to which this belief in obsession and possession obtains at the present day is testified by Tylor in Primitive Culture: " It is not too much to assert that the doctrine of demoniacal possession is kept up, substantially the same theory to account for substantially the same facts, by half the human race, who thus stand as consistent representatives of their forefathers back in primitive antiquity." In the cults of Modern Spiritualism and Theosophy it may be found as a leading tenet of their creeds. The obsessional theory is used to account for all forms of insanity and Obsession crime. The following passage taken from the publication of a modern seer Diakka and their Victims by A. J. Davis indicates this modern belief : - " The country of the diakka is where the morally deficient and the affectionately unclean enter upon a strange probation..... They are continually victimizing sensitive persons still in the flesh making sport of them and having a jolly laugh at the expense of really honest and sincere people. They (these demon-like spirits) teach that they would be elevated and made happy if only they could partake of whiskey and tobacco, or gratify their burning free-love propensities..... Being unprincipled intellectualities their play is nothing but pastime amusement at the expense of those beneath their influence." These creatures are also said to be of a malignant and blood-thirsty nature, inciting the beings they possess to murder, often of a terrible character. Signs of Demoniac Possession. - Melanchthon, in one of his letters, says that though there may occasionally be some natural causes for a frenzy or mania, it is also quite certain that devils enter certain persons and there cause torment and fury with or without natural causes, just as one sees at times maladies cured with remedies which are not natural. Moveover, such spectacles are in the nature of wonders and forecasts of things to come. Twelve years before a woman of Saxony, who could neither read nor write, being controlled by a devil, spoke, after the torment was over, words in Greek and Latin to the effect that there would be great distress among the people. Dr. Ese gives the following as possible signs of possession:

i. Imagining oneself possessed. ii. iii. iv.

V. vi. vii. viii. ix. x.

Leading an evil life.

Living alone.

Chronic ailments, unusual symptoms, a deep sleep, the vomiting of strange things.

Blaspheming and frequent reference to the Devil.

Making a compact with the Devil.

Being controlled by spirits.

Having a face that inspires horror and fear.

Being tired of living and the giving up of hope.

Being enraged and violent in action. xi. Making the cries and noises of a beast.

In an account of those possessed in Loudon, we find the questions put to the University of Montpellier by Santerre, priest and founder of the bishopric and diocese of Nîmes touching on the signs and the judicial answers of this University.

Q.-Whether the bending and moving of the body, the head at times, touching the soles of the feet, with other contortions and strange positions are good signs of possession? A.-Mimics and acrobats make such strange movements, bending and twisting themselves in so many ways that one must conclude that there is no sort of position which men and women cannot take up, after long practice and application, even being able, with the ease of experience, to extend and spread out abnormally the legs and other parts of the body, by the extension of the nerves, muscles and tendonsuch performances are not without the bounds of nature. Q.-Whether the rapidity of the movement of the head backwards and forwards, touching the chest and the back, is an infallible sign of possession ?

A.-This movement is so natural that nothing need be added to what has been said about the movements of the other parts of the body.

Q.-Whether the sudden swelling of the tongue, the throat and the face, and the sudden changing of colour, are sure signs of possession ?

A.-The swelling and disturbance of the chest through interruption are the efforts of breathing or inspirationthe normal actions in respiration-and possession cannot be inferred from them. The swelling of the throat may proceed from the retention of the breath and that of the other parts from the melancholic vapours which are often observed wandering through all parts of the body. Hence it follows that this sign of possession is inadmissible. Q.-Whether a feeling, stupidly heedless, or the lack of feeling, to the point of being pricked or pinched without complaining or moving and not even changing colour are certain signs of possession ?

A.-The young Lacedemonian who allowed himself to be bitten by a fox which he had stolen without seeming to feel it, and those who flog themselves, even to death, before the altar of Diana, without turning a hair, they all show that, with resolution, pin-pricks can be endured without complaining. Moreover, it is certain that in the human body, small areas of skin are met with in some persons, which are insensitive, although the neighbouring parts may be quite sensitive, a condition which occurs the more frequently after some previous illness. Such a condition has, therefore, no bearing on possession.

Q.-Whether the total lack of bodily movement which, at the command of the exorciser, occurs in those supposedly possessed during, and in the middle of, their most violent actions, is an undeniable sign of a true diabolic possession ? A.-The movements of the parts of the body being voluntary it is natural for well-disposed persons to move themselves or not at will, so that such a cessation of movement, if there is not entire lack of feeling, is not sufficient ground from which to infer a diabolic possession.

Q.-Whether the yelping or noise like that of a dog, which comes from the chest rather than from the throat, is a mark of possession ?

A.-Human skill adapts itself so easily to the counterfeiting of all kinds of expressions, that persons are met with every day who can give perfectly the expressions, cries and songs of all sorts of animals, and that with a practically imperceptible movement of the lips. Again, many are to be found who form their words in the stomach and they would seem to come from some other object rather than from the one who forms them. Such persons are called ventriloquists. However, such a condition is natural, as Pasquier shows, in Chap. 38 of his Researches, with one, Constantin, a jester, as an example.

Q-Whether keeping the gaze fixed on some object without moving the eye, is a good sign of possession ? A.-The movement of the eye is voluntary, like that of the other parts of the body, and it is natural to move it or keep it still there is therefore, nothing of note in this. Q.-Whether the answers, given in French, to questions put in Latin, to those supposedly possessed, are a mark of possession ?

A.-We assert that to understand and speak languages which one has not learnt is certainly supernatural, and would lead to the supposition that it occurred through the ministrations of the Devil or from some other cause beyond; but merely to answer some questions suggests nothing more than long practice, or that one of the number is in league with them and able to contribute to such answers making it appear a fallacy to say that the devils hear the questions put to them in Latin and answer in French and in the tongue natural to the one who is to pass for the demoniac. If follows from this that such a result does not infer the occupation by a demon, more especially if the questions are of few words and not involved.

Q.-Whether the vomiting of such things as one has swallowed is a sign of possession ?

A.-Delrio, Bodin, and other authors say that by witch craft, sorcerers sometimes manage to vomit nails, pins, and other strange things, by the work of the devil, who is able Obsession to do the same for the truly possessed. But to vomit things one has swallowed is natural, there being people with weak stomachs who keep down for several hours what they have swallowed and then return it as they have taken it; also the lientery returns food through the bowel as it has been taken by the mouth.

Q.-Whether pricks with a lancet, in different parts of the body, without the drawing of blood, are a good sign of possession ?

A.-This is related to the composition of the melancholic temperament, in which the blood is so thick that it cannot issue from such small wounds and it is because of this that many when pricked by the surgeon's lancet, even in their very veins, do not bleed a drop, as is shown by experience. There is thus nothing extraordinary here.. 66 6 Recorded Incidents of Possession. - Bouloese tells how twenty-six devils came out of the body of the possessed Nicoli, of Laon : At two o'clock in the afternoon, the said Nicoli, being possessed of the Devil, was brought to the said church, where the said de Motta proceeded as before with the exorcism. In spite of all entreaty the said Beelzebub told them in a loud voice that he would not come out. Returning to their entreaties after dinner, the said de Motta asked him how many had come out, and he answered, 'twenty-six.' 'You and your followers,' then said de Motta, must now come out like the others.' 6 No,' he replied, ' I will not come out here, but if you like to take me to Saint Restitute, we will come out there. It is sufficient for you that twenty-six are out.' Then the said de Motta asked for a convincing sign of how they had come out. For witness he told them to look in the garden of the treasury over the front gate, for they had taken and carried away three tufts (i.e. branches) from a green may-pole (a small fir) and three slates from above the church of Liesse, made into a cross, as others in France commonly, all of which was found true as shown by the Abbot of Saint-Vincent, M. de Velles, Master Robert de May, canon of the Church Notre-Dame of Laon, and others."

The same author gives an account of the contortions of the demoniac of Laon: he says:-" As often as the reverend father swung the sacred host before her eyes, saying, 'Begone, enemy of God,' so did she toss from side to side, twisting her face towards her feet, and making horrible noises. Her feet were reversed, with the toes in the position of the heel, and despite the restraining power of eight or the men, she stiffened herself and threw herself into the air a height of six feet, the stature of a man, so that the attendants, sometimes even carried with her into the air, perspired at their work. And although they bore down with all their might, still could they not restrain her, and torn away from the restraining hands, she freed herself without any appearance of being at all ruffled. 66

The people, seeing and hearing such a horrible sight, one so monstrous, hideous and terrifying cried out, 'Jesus, have mercy on us!' Some hid themselves, not daring to look; others, recognising the wild cruelty of such excessive and incredible torment, wept bitterly, reiterating piteously, 'Jesus, have mercy on us!' The reverend father then gave permission to those who wished to touch and handle the patient, disfigured, bent, and deformed, and with the rigidity of death. Chief among these were the would-be reformers, such men as Francois Santerre, Christofle, Pasquot, Gratian de la Roche, Masquette, Jean du Glas, and others well-known for their tendencies towards reform, all vigorous men. They all endeavoured, but in vain, to straighten her limbs, and bring them to a normal position, and to open her eyes and mouth-it was futile. Further, so stiff and rigid was she, that the limbs would have broken rather than give, as also the nose and ears. And then, as she said afterwards, she was possessed, declaring that she was enduring incredible pain. That is, by the soul torment, the devil makes the body become stone or marble." Jean Le Breton gives the following concerning those possessed in Louviers :- "The fourth fact is that many times a day they show transports of rage and fury, during whch they call themselves demons, without, however, offending anyone or even hurting the fingers of the priests, which were put into their mouths at the height of their fury. "The fifth is that during these furies they show strange convulsions and contortions, bending themselves back, among other things, in the form of a circle, without the use of the hands, and in such a way that their bodies are supported as much on the forehead as on the feet. The rest of the body is unsupported and remains so for a long time the position being repeated seven or eight times. After such feats as this and many others, kept up sometimes for four hours, chiefly during the exorcism and during the warmest parts of the dog days, they are found on coming to, to be as normal, as fresh and with a pulse as even as if nothing had happened to them. ،،

The sixth is that some of them faint away at will during the exorcism and this condition occurs at a time when the face is the most suffused with blood and the pulse is the strongest. They come to of themselves and the recovery is more remarkable than the swooning-it begins as a movement of the toe, then of the foot and in their order, of the leg, thigh, abdomen, chest and throat, the movement of the, last three being one of wide dilation. The face, meanwhile is apparently devoid of expression, which finally returns with grimaces and shoutings, the spiritual element returning at the same time with its former disturbing contortions." Doctor Ese gives the following as the case of Sister Mary, of the Convent at Louviers :- "The last was Sister Mary of St. Esprit, supposedly possessed by Dagon, a large woman, slender-waisted, and of good complexion, with no evidence of illness. She came into the refectory.. head erect and eyes wandering from side to side, singing, dancing and skipping. Still moving about and touching lightly those around her, she spoke with an elegance of language expressive of the good feeling and good nature which were his (using the person of the devil.) All this was done with movements and carriage alike haughty, following it up with a violence of blasphemy, then a reference to his dear little friend Magdalen, his darling and his favourite mistress. And then, without springing or using effort of any kind, she projected herself into a pane of glass and hanging on to a central bar of iron passed bodily through it, but on making an exit from the other side the command was given in Latin, ' est in nomine Jesu rediret non per aliam sed per eadem viam.' After some discussion and a definite refusal to return she, however, returned by the same route, whereupon the doctors examined her pulse and tongue, all of which she endured while laughing and discussing other things. They found no disturbance such as they had expected, nor any sign of the violence of her actions and words, her coming to being accompanied with some trivial remarks. The company then retired." 6 Another writer on those possessed in Louviers gives the following astonishing fact :- 66

Placed in the middle of the nave of this chapel was a vase of some kind of marble, some two feet in diameter and a little under a foot deep, with sides about three fingers' breadth in thickness. So heavy was it that three of the most robust persons would have had difficulty in raising it while on the ground, yet this girl, to all appearances of very low vitality, came into the chapel and grasping the vase merely by the ends of her fingers, raised it from the pedestal on which it was placed, turned it upside down and threw Obsession it on to the ground with as much ease as if it had been a piece of cardboard or paper. Such great strength in one so weak astonished all those present. Moreover, the girl, appearing wild and possessed, ran hither and thither with movements so abrupt and violent that it was difficult to stop her. One of the clerics present, having caught her by the arm, was surprised to find that it did not prevent the rest of her body from turning over and over as if the arm were fixed to the shoulder merely by a spring. This wholly unnatural performance was carried out some seven or eight times and that with an ease and speed difficult to imagine." The Relation des Ursulines possedées d'Auxonne contains the following :- "

M. de Chalons was no sooner at the altar (at midnight) than from the garden of the monastery and around the house was heard a confused noise, accompanied by unknown voices and some whistling; at times loud cries with strange and indistinct sounds as from a crowd, all of which was rather terrifying among the shadows of the night. At the same time stones were thrown from different places against the windows of the choir where they were celebrating holy mass and this despite the fact that these windows were a good distance from the walls which enclosed the monastery which made it improbable that they came from without. The glass was broken in one place but the stone did not fall into the choir. This noise was heard by several persons, inside and out. The sentinel in the citadel on that side of the town took alarm at it as he said the next day, and at the altar the bishop of Chalons could not but feel a suspicion that something extraordinary was going on in the house and that demons or sorcerers were making some attempts at that moment which he repelled from where he was by secret imprecations and inward exorcisms." "

The Franciscan nuns of the same town heard the noise and were terrified by it. They thought that the monastery shook beneath them and in this confusion and fear they were compelled to have recourse to prayer." "

At the same time voices were heard in the garden, weak and moaning and as if asking for help. It was nearly an hour after midnight and very dark and stormy. Two clerics were sent out to see what was the matter and found Marguerite Constance and Denise Lamy in the monastery garden, the former up a tree and the latter seated at the foot of the stairway into the choir. They were at liberty and in the full possession of their senses, yet appeared distracted, especially the latter, and very weak and pale, though with blood on her face; she was terrified and had difficulty in composing herself. The other had blood on her face also though she was not wounded. The doors of the house were tightly closed and the walls of the garden were some ten or twelve feet high." "

In the afternoon of the same day the bishop of Chalons, with the intention of exorcising Denise Lamy, sent for her and when she was not found, he inwardly commanded her to It come to him in the chapel of St. Anne where he was. was striking to see the prompt obedience of the demon to this command, formulated merely in the mind, for in about a quarter of an hour a violent knocking was heard at the door of the chapel, as if by one hard pressed. On opening the door this girl entered the chapel abruptly, leaping and bounding, her face changed greatly and with high colour and sparkling eyes. So bold and violent was she that it was difficult to restrain her, nor would she allow the putting on of the stole which she seized and threw violently into the air despite the efforts of four or five clerics who did their best to stop her, so that finally it was proposed to bind, her, but this was deemed too difficult in the condition. in which she was." "On another occasion, at the height of her frenzy. the demon was ordered to stop the pulse in one of her arms, and it was immediately done, with less resistance and pain than before. Immediate response was also made to the further order to make it return. The command being given to make the girl insensible to pain, she avowed that she was so, boldly offering her arm to be pierced and burnt as wished. The exorcist, fortified by his earlier experience, took a sufficiently long needle and drove it, full length, into the nail and flesh, at which she laughed aloud, saying that she felt nothing at all. Accordingly as he was ordered, blood was allowed to flow or not, and she herself took the needle and stuck it into different parts of her arm and hand. Further, one of the company took a pin and, having drawn out the skin a little above the wrist, passed it through and through so that the two ends were only visible, the rest of the pin being buried in the arm. Unless the order was given for some no blood issued, nor was there the least sign of feeling or pain."

The same account gives, as proofs of the possession of the Auxonne nuns, the following:- "Violent agitation of the body only conceivable to those who have seen it. Beating of the head with all their might against the pavement or walls, done so often and so hard that it causes one to shudder on seeing it and yet they show no sign of pain, nor is there any blood, wound or contusion. "The condition of the body in a position of extreme violence, where they support themselves on their knees with the head turned round an inclined towards the ground for a foot or so, which makes it appear as if broken. Their power of bearing, for hours together without moving, the head being lowered behind below the level of the waist ; their power of breathing in this condition; the unruffled expression of the face which never alters during these disturbances; the evenness of the pulse; their coolness during these movements; the tranquil state they are in when they suddenly return and the lack of any quickening in the respirations; the turning back of the head, even to the ground, with marvellous rapidity. Sometimes the movement to and fro is done thirty or forty times running, the girl on her knees and with her arms crossed in front; at other times, in the same position with the head turned about, the body is wound around into a sort of semicircle, with results apparently incompatible with nature." ،، Fearful convulsions, affecting all the limbs and accompanied with shouts and cries. Sometimes fear at the sight of certain phantoms and spectres by which they say they are menaced, causes such a change in their facial expression that those present are terrified; at other times there is a flood of tears beyond control and accompanied by groans and piercing cries. Again, the widely-opened mouth, eyes wild and showing nothing but the white, the pupil being turned up under cover of the lids-the whole returning to the normal at the mere command of the exorcist in conjunction with the sign of the cross. 66

They have often been seen creeping and crawling on the ground without any help from the hands or feet; the back of the head or the forehead may be touching the soles of the feet. Some lie on the ground, touching it with the pit of the stomach only, the rest of the body, head, feet and arms, being in the air for some length of time. Sometimes, bent back so that the top of the head and the soles of the feet touch the ground, the rest of the body being supported in the air like a table, they walk in this position without help from the hands. It is quite common for them, while on their knees to kiss the ground, with the face twisted to the back so that the top of the head touches the soles of the feet. In this position and with the arms crossed on the chest they make the sign of the cross on the pavement with their tongues.

Obsession "

A marked difference is to be noticed between their condition when free and uncontrolled and that which they show when controlled and in the heat of their frenzy. By reason of their sex and delicate constitutions as much as from illness they may be weak, but when the demon enters them and the authority of the church compels them to appear they may become at times so violent that all the power of four or five men may be unable to stop them. Even their faces become so distorted and changed that they are no longer recognisable. What is more astonishing is that after these violent transports, lasting sometimes three or four hours; after efforts which would make the strongest feel like resting for several days; after continuous shrieking and heart-breaking cries; when they become normal again-a momentary proceeding-they are unwearied and quiet, and the mind is as tranquil, the face as composed, the breathing as easy and the pulse as little changed as if they had not stirred out of a chair. "It may be said, however, that among all the signs of possession which these girls have shown, one of the most surprising, and at the same time the most common, is the understanding of the thought and inward commands which are used every day by exorcists and priests, without there being any outward manifestation either by word or other sign. To be appreciated by them it is merely necessary to address them inwardly or mentally, a fact which has been verified by so many of the experiences during the stay of the bishop of Chalons and by any of the clergy, who wished to investigate, that one cannot reasonably doubt such particulars and many others, the details of which cannot be given here. " A number of archbishops or bishops and doctors in Sorbonne made the following notification with regard to the condition at Auxonne. "That among these differently-placed girls there are seculars, novices, postulants and professed nuns ; some are young, others old; some from the town, others not; some of high estate, others of lesser parentage; some rich, others poor and of low degree. That it is ten years or more since the trouble began in this monastery; that it is remarkable that a reign of deceit was able for so long to preserve the secret among girls in such numbers and of conditions and interests so varied. That after research and a stricter enquiry, the said Bishop of Chalons has found nobody, either in the monastery or in the town, who could speak other than well of the innocence and integrity, alike of the girls and of the clergy who worked with him in the exorcisms, and, for himself, he finds them with the bearing of persons of uprightness and worth-evidence which he gives in the interest of truth and justice." "Added to the above is the certificate of Morel, doctor and present at everything, who asserts that all these things exceed the bounds of nature and can only occur as the work of a demon; in short, we consider that all the extraordinary findings with these girls are beyond the powers of human nature and can only be instigated by a demon possessing and controlling their bodies."

Goulart culls from Wier many stories of demoniacs. "Antoine Benivenius in the eighth chapter of the Livre des causes cachées des maladies tells of having seen a girl of sixteen years whose hands contracted curiously whenever she was taken with a pain in the abdomen. With a cry of terror her abdomen would swell up so much that she had the appearance of being eight months pregnant-later the swelling went down and, not being able to lie still, she tossed about all over the bed, sometimes putting her feet above her head as if trying a somersault. This she kept up throughout the throes of her illness and until it had gone down by degrees. When asked what had happened to her, she denied any remembrance of it. But on seeking the causes of this affection we were of opinion that it arose from a choking of the womb and from the rising of malignant vapours affecting adversely the heart and brain. We were at length forced to relieve her with drugs but these were of no avail and becoming more violent and congested she at last began to throw up long iron nails all bent, brass needles stuck into wax, and bound up with hair and a part of her breakfast-a mass so large that a man would have had difficulty in swallowing it all. I was afraid, after seeing several of these vomitings, that she was possessed by an evil spirit, who deluded those present while he removed these things and afterwards we heard predictions and other things given which were entirely beyond human comprehension." "

Meiner Clath, a nobleman living in the castle of Boutenbrouch in the duchy of Juliers, had a valet named William who for fourteen years had had the torments of a possession by the devil, and when, at the instigation of the devil, he began to get ill, he asked for the cure of St. Gerard as confessor..... who came to carry out his little part.... but failed entirely. Seeing him with a swollen throat and discoloured face and with the fear of his suffocating, Judith, wife of Clath and an upright woman, with all in the house, began to pray to God. Immediately there issued from William's mouth, among other odds and ends, the whole of the front part of the trousers of a shepherd, stones, some whole and other broken, small bundles of thread, a peruke such as women are accustomed to use, needles, a piece of the serge jacket of a little boy, and a peacock's feather which William had pulled from the bird's tail eight days before he became ill. Being asked the cause of his trouble he said that he had met a woman near Camphuse who had blown in his face and that his illness was the result of that and nothing else. Some time after he had recovered he contradicted what he had said and confessed that he had been instructed by the devil to say what he had. He added that all those curious things had not been in his stomach but had been put into his throat by the devil despite the fact that he was seen to vomit them. Satan deceives by illusions. The thought comes at times to kill oneself or to run away. One day, having got into a hog-shed and protected more carefully than usual he remained with his eyes so firmly closed that it was impossible to open them. At last Gertrude, the eldest daughter of Clath, eleven years old, came along and advised him to pray to God for the return of his sight, but he asked her to pray and the fact of her praying, to the great surprise of both, opened his eyes. The devil exhorted him often not to listen to his mistress or anyone else who bowed the head at the name of God, who could not help him as he had died once, a fact which was openly preached." "

He had once attempted rudely to touch a kitchenmaid and she had reproved him by name, when he answered in a voice of rage that his name was not William but Beelzebub, at which the mistress asked - Do you think we fear you? He Whom we serve is infinitely more powerful than you are.' Clath then read the eleventh chapter of St. Luke where mention is made of the casting out of the dumb devil by the power of the Saviour and also of Beelzebub, prince of devils. Finally William began to rest and slept till morning like a man in a swoon, then taking some broth and feeling much relieved he was sent home to his parents, after having thanked his master and mistress and asked God to reward them for the trouble they had been caused by his affliction. He married afterwards and had children, but was never again tormented by the devil." On the 18th March, 1566, there occurred a memorable case in Amsterdam, Holland, on which the Chancellor of Gueldres, M. Adrian Nicolas, made a public speech, from which is the following: -" Two months or so ago thirty Obsession children of this town began to be strangely disturbed, as if frenzied or mad. At intervals they threw themselves on the ground and for half an hour or an hour at the most this torment lasted. Recovering, they remembered nothing, but thought they had had a sleep and the doctors, sorcerers, and exorcists were all equally unable to do any good. During the exorcism the children vomited a number of pins and needles, finger-stalls for sewing, bits of cloth, and of broken jugs and glass, hair and other things. The children didn't always recover from this but had recurrent attacks of it-the unusualness of such a condition causing great astonishment."

Jean Languis, a learned doctor, gives the following, in the first book of his Epitres, as having happened in 1539 in Fugenstall, a village in the bishopric of Eysteten and sworn to by a large number of witnesses :- "

Ulric Neusesser, a ploughman in this village, was greatly troubled by a pain in the side. On an incision being made into the skin by a surgeon an iron nail was removed, but this did not relieve the pain, rather did it increase so that, becoming desperate, the poor man finally committed suicide. Before burying him two surgeons opened his stomach, in front of a number of persons, and in it found some long round pieces of wood, four steel knives, some sharp and pointed, others notched like a saw, two iron rods each nine inches long and a large tuft of hair. One wondered how and by what means this mass of old iron could be collected together into the space of his stomach. There is no doubt that it was the work of the devil who is capable of anything which will maintain a dread of him." "Antoine Lucquet, knight of the order of the Fleece, of high repute throughout Flanders, and privy counsellor of Brabant, had married in Bruges, and his wife, soon after the nuptials, began to show the torments of an evil spirit, so much so that at times, even in company, she was suddenly taken up and dragged through rooms and thrown from one corner to another, despite the efforts of those around to restrain and hold her. She was little conscious of her bodily welfare while in this frenzy and it was the general opinion that her condition had been induced by a former lover of her young and light-hearted husband. Meanwhile she became pregnant without a cessation in the evil torment and the time of her delivery being at hand the only woman present was sent for the midwife but instead, she came in and herself acted as midwife which disturbed the invalid so much that she fainted. She found, on recovering, that she had been delivered, yet to the astonishment of both there was no sign of a child. The next day on wakening up she found a child in swaddling clothes in the bed and she nursed it a couple of times. Falling asleep shortly afterwards the child was taken from her side and was never seen again. It was reported that notes with the hall-mark of magic had been found inside the door." 66

Goulart gives an account from Wier, of the multitude of terrible convulsions suffered by the nuns of the convent of Kentorp near Hammone, Just before and during the attack their breath was fœtid and sometimes continued so for hours. While affected they did not lose their power of sound judgment nor of hearing and recognising those around them, despite the fact that owing to the spasm of the tongue and respiratory organs they could not speak during the attack. All were not equally affected but as soon as one was affected the others, though in different rooms, were immediately affected also. A soothsayer, who was sent for, said they had been poisoned by the cook, Else Kamense, and the devil taking advantage of the occasion increased their torment, making them bite and strike each other and throw each other down. After Else and her mother had been burnt some of the inhabitants of Hammone began to be tormented by an evil spirit.

The minister of the Church took five of them home to warn them and strengthen them against the machinations of the enemy. They laughed at him and mentioned certain women of the place whom they would like to visit on their goats, which were to carry them there. Immediately one straddled a stool calling out that he was off, while another, squatting down, doubled himself up and rolled towards the door of the room which opened suddenly and through which he went falling to the bottom of the steps without hurting himself." "

The nuns of the Convent of Nazareth at Cologne (according to the same writer) were affected much the same as those of Kentorp. After being troubled for along time and in various ways by the devil they were more terribly affected in 1564 when they would lie out on the ground, with clothing disordered, as if for the companionship of man. During this their eyes would be closed and they would open them later with shame and feeling that they had endured some deep injury. A young girl of fourteen named Gertrude who had been shut up in this convent was subject to this misfortune. She had often been troubled by wild apparitions in bed as witness her mocking laughter, although she tried in vain to overcome it. A companion slept near her specially to protect her from the apparition but the poor girl was terrified at the noise from Gertrude's bed, the devil finally controlling the latter and putting her through a variety of contortions... The beginning of all this trouble was in the acquaintance picked up with one or two of the nuns on a neighbouring tennis court by some dissolute young man who kept up their amours over the walls." "

The torments suffered by the nuns in Wertet in the county of Horne are also wonderful. The beginning is traced to a poor woman who borrowed from the nuns during Lent some three pounds of salt and returned double the amount before Easter. From that they began to find in their dormitory small white balls like sugar-plums, and salt to the taste, which they did not eat, nor did they know whence they came. Shortly after they heard a moaning as of a sick man, then warnings to rise and go to the help of a sick sister, which they would do but would find nothing. Sometimes in endeavouring to use a chamber it would be pulled away suddenly with a consequent soiling of the bed. At times they were pulled out by the feet, dragged some length, and tickled so much on the soles of the feet that they nearly died with laughter. Pieces of flesh were pulled out of some, while others had their legs, arms and heads twisted about. Thus tormented some would throw up a large quantity of black fluid, although for six weeks previously they had taken nothing but the juice of horseradish without bread. This fluid was so bitter and so sharp that it blistered their mouths and one could evolve nothing which would give them an appetite for anything else. Some were raised into the air to the height of a man and as suddenly thrown to the ground again. When some thirty of their females visited this convent to congratulate those who seemed relieved and practically cured, some of them immediately fell backwards from the table they were at, losing the power of speech and of recognising anyone, while others were stretched out as if dead with arms and legs turned around. One of them was raised into the air against the restraining efforts of those present and then brought again to the ground so forcibly that she seemed dead. She rose, however, as if from a deep sleep and left the convent uninjured. Some moved about on the fronts of their legs as if lacking feet and as if dragged in a loose sack from behind. Others even climbed trees like cats and came down as easily. The Abbess told Margaret, Countess of Bure, that she cried aloud when pinched in the Obsession leg; it was as severe as if a piece had been pulled out, and that she was carried to bed at once and the place became black and blue, but she finally recovered. This derangement of the nuns was an open secret for three years but has been kept dark since." "

What we have just said applies equally to the early case of the Bridget nuns in their convent near Xanthus. Now, they gambol or bleat like sheep or make horrible noises. Sometimes they were pushed from their seats in church where their veils would be fastened above their heads. At other times their throats would be so stopped up that they could swallow no food, and this affliction lasted for ten years in some of them. It was said that the cause of all this was a young nun whose parents had refused to allow her to marry the young man she loved Further that the devil in the form of this young man had come to her at the height of her passion and had advised her to return to the convent which she did at once and when there she became frenzied and her actions were strange and terrible. The trouble spread like the plague through the other nuns, and the first one abandoned herself to her warder and had two children. Thus does Satan both within and without the convent, carry out his hateful schemes." "Cardan relates that a ploughman.... often threw up glass, nails and hair and, on recovering, felt within a large quantity of broken glass which made a noise like that from a sackful of broken glass. This noise he said troubled him greatly and for some eighteen nights towards seven o'clock, although he had not observed the time and although he had felt cured for some eighteen years, he had felt blows in his heart to the number of hours which were to strike. All this he bore not without great agony." "

I have often seen," says Goulart, "a demoniac named George, who for thirty years on and off was tormented by an evil spirit and often I have seen her swell up, and become so heavy that eight strong men could not raise her from the ground. Then, exhorted and encouraged in the name of God and the hand of some good man extended to her, she would rise to her feet and return home, bent and groaning. She did harm to no one whether by day or night while in this condition, and she lived with a relative who had a number of children so used to her ways that when they saw her twisting her arms, striking her hands and her body swelling up in this strange way, they would gather in some part of the house and commend her to God and their prayers were never in vain. Finding her one day in another house of the village in which she lived I exhorted her to patience... She began to roar in a strange way and with a marvellous quickness shot out her left hand at me and enclosed in it my two hands, holding me as firmly as if I had been bound with stout cords. I tried, but in vain, to free myself, although I am of average strength. She interfered with me in no other way nor did she touch me with her right hand. I was held as long as it has taken to tell the incident and then she let me go suddenly, begging my pardon, and I commended her to God and led her quietly home.... Some days before her death being much tormented she went to bed with a low fever. The fury of the evil one was then so much curtailed that the patient, wonderfully strengthened inwardly, continued to praise God who had been so merciful to her in her affliction and comforting all who visited her.... I may add that Satan was overcome, and that she died peacefully, calling on her Saviour."

According to Goulart "there was, in the village of Leuensteet and duchy of Brunswick, a young girl of twenty years, Margaret Achels, who lived with her sister. Wishing to clean some shoes one day in June she took a knife some six inches long and sat down in a corner of the room for she was still weak from a fever of long standing, whereupon an پی old woman entered and inquired how she was and whether she still had the fever and then left without further words. After the shoes were cleaned she let the knife fall in her lap but subsequently could not find it despite a diligent search. The girl was frightened and still more so when she found a black dog under the table. She drove it out, hoping to find the knife, but the dog got angry, showed its teeth and growlingly made its way into the street and fled. The girl at once seemed to feel something indefinable which passed down her back like a chill and fainting suddenly she remained so for three days when she began to breathe better and to take a little food. When carefully questioned as to the cause of her illness she said that the knife which had fallen into her lap had entered her left side and that there she felt pain. Although her parents contradicted her, attributing her condition to a melancholic disposition, her long abstinence and other things, she did not cease to complain, to cry and to keep a continuous watch, so much so that her mind became deranged and sometimes for two days at a time she would take nothing even when kindly entreated to do so, so that sometimes force had to be used. Her attacks were more severe at times than others and her rest was broken by the continuous pains which beset her, being forced as she was to hold herself doubled over a stick. What increased her pain and lessened the chance of relief was her firm belief that the knife was buried in her body and the stubborn contradiction of the others who said it was impossible and thought it nothing but a phantom of the mind, since they saw nothing which would give them ground for believing her unless it were her continual complaints and tears. These were kept up for some months and until there appeared on her left side between the two false ribs a tumour as large as an egg which fluctuated in size with the changes in her own girth. Then the girl said to them: Up to the present you haven't wanted to believe that the knife was in my side, but you will soon see now that it is. On the 30th June, that is after almost thirteen months of the trouble, the ulcer which developed on her side poured out so much material that the swelling began to go down and the point of the knife showed and the girl wanted to pull it out but her parents prevented her and sent for the surgeon of Duke Henry who was at the Castle 6 of Walfbutel. This surgeon arrived on the 4th July and begged the curate to comfort, instruct and encourage the girl, and to take particular note of her answers since she was regarded as a demoniac. She agreed to be attended by the surgeon, not without the idea that a quick death would follow. The latter, seeing the point of the knife projecting, grasped it with his instruments and found that it was just like the other in the sheath and very much worn about the middle of the blade. The ulcer was finally cured."

Goulart, quoting Melanchthon, says that “there was a girl in the marquisate of Brandebourg who pulled some hairs off the clothing of some person and that these hairs were at once changed into coins of the realm which the girl chewed with a horrible cracking of the teeth. Some of these coins are kept still by persons who snatched them away from the girl and found them real. From time to time this girl was much tormented but after some months got quite well and has remained so since. Prayers, but nothing more, are often offered up for her."

The same author also says: "I have heard that there was in Italy a demented woman who when controlled by a devil and asked by Lazare Bonami for the best verse of Virgil, answered at once : 'Discite Justitiam Moniti et non temnere divos.' 'That,' she added, 'is the best and most-deserving verse that Virgil every wrote: begone and don't come back here again to try me.' ," Louise Maillat, a young demoniac who lived in 1598 Olcott lost the use of her limbs and was found to be possessed by five demons who called themselves, wolf, cat, dog, beauty and a griffin. At first two of these demons came out from her mouth in the form of balls the size of the fist, the first fire-red, the second, which was the cat, quite black; the others left her with less violence. On leaving her they all made a few turns round the hearth and disappeared.

Frances Secretain was known to have made this girl swallow these devils in a crust of bread the colour of manure."