Title: 19rd January, 2007
Author: Sean Mulligan

Klaits Chapter Five
Classic Accusers: The Possessed

Mysticism:
•	Long been the belief that people could have a direct experience with God, not mediated by anything or anyone else.
•	Root of the notion of Prophecy
•	Also the heart of all forms of religious ecstasies.

Ecstasies:
•	Klaits writes generally about the anthropological attitudes towards ecstasies.
•	Forms of transcendence in which the person is removed from their body or from their entire “self” to experience some contact with a higher holy power.
•	 Christian mysticism has included prophecy, visions, miraculous healing, etc.

Possession:
•	A foreign intelligence inhabits the body of a living thing.
•	Angelic, as in case of Sr. Benedetta and “Splenditello” (with certain caveats).
•	Demonic, as in cases we will read today.
•	Victims can be humans, occasionally other animals.

Identifying Possession:
•	There were accepted tests to determine whether or not someone was possessed or merely behaving oddly.
–	Ability to speak languages that the person had never learned
–	Reading letters through sealed envelopes
–	Identifying consecrated bread among unconsecrated bread
–	Demonstrating unnatural physical strength or resilience

Societal Response to Possession:
•	“Courts were receptive to this kind of accusation, in part because the authors of demonological tracts had held for centuries that an ability to order the possession of an innocent Christian’s body was one of the powers Satan granted to witches.  The witch was said by these writers to regard the inflicting of demons as one of her highest duties, because this was one of the worst forms of malefice.”
•	Klaits, p.111

Practical Problem – Practical Solution
•	“A practical advantage to society of associating demonic possession with witchcraft was that the connection suggested an effective cure for the disorder.  Executing the witch was an appealing remedy, all the more so because other ways of dealing with the possessed seemed less reliable.”
•	Klaits, p.112
•	(Sometimes being decisive and wrong is more satisfying and productive than being indecisive and right.)

Catholic Response to Possession:
•	Holy Rite of Exorcism “…the ritual in which a priest, acting in the name of God, orders the offending demon to leave the victim’s body.” Klaits p.112
•	Catholic authorities went out of their way to demonstrate benefits of exorcism, large public events, charismatic priests, etc.
•	French Catholic leaders made exorcisms a form of propaganda for their faith.  Problem was that effective exorcisms often weren’t permanent.

Temporary Solution:
•	“The ritual was only a temporary cure, for, although it was thought that a demon must obey the priest’s explicit command to depart, there was nothing to keep him from returning afterward.
•	“For this reason, outbreaks of possession often led to a wearisome round of repeated exorcisms and re-infections, sometimes continuing for months or even years.”
•	Klaits, p.112

Common Story for Us:
•	The Exorcist
•	Rosemary’s Baby
•	The Omen
•	Invasion of the Body Snatchers
•	Aliens
•	28 Days Later
•	Manchurian Candidate (Both)
•	The Exorcism of Emily Rose
•	Fire in the Sky
•	Battlestar Gallactica

Protestant Response to Possession:
•	Catholic response to cases of suspected demonic possession has typically been the Holy Rite of Exorcism, itself a sacrament of extraordinary proportions.
•	Protestant reaction to supposed cases of possession was to recommend prayer, fasting, other forms of appeal for divine grace.
•	Why the disagreement?

Protestant Attitudes to Exorcism:
•	One of the typical protestant complaints made against Catholics was the notion that they were purveying (basically selling) cures and sacraments.
•	The Rite of Exorcism, in Protestant eyes, suggested that the Exorcist Priest presumed to have some power to command the assistance of God’s…who allowed the demon to infest the victim in the first place.

Case Study:  Elizabeth de Ranfaing
•	Location: Lorraine
•	Year:  1620
•	Daughter of an upper class family, she was very religious although her family may not have been so fervent in their faith.

Elizabeth’s Life:
•	Married at age 15.
•	Husband was 57, professional soldier.
•	He brutalized her, and she had six children in a nine year period.
•	He died nine years after marriage.

Elizabeth’s Journey:
•	Free to pursue her religious devotions again, she went on a pilgrimage.
•	Became ill, was treated by a Doctor Poirot.
•	She later claimed that he had administered a love potion in her food and drink.

Under the Spell:
–	She was held under the Doctor’s control.
–	His breath could cast a spell on her.
–	She eventually was invaded by “The Other”
–	Sank into convulsive seizures
–	Uttered outrageous blasphemies

Remember Sr. Benedetta
•	Possessed by a male angel, Splenditello
•	HE seduced a companion nun repeatedly
•	Notion of another agency within a physical individual who displaces the consciousness normally found therein.

The Treatment:
•	Elizabeth was sent for treatment to Doctor Poirot, whose hold on her increased.
•	Elizabeth sent to town of Nancy where Exorcists removed “The Other”
•	The cure was effective until she met Dr. Poirot again.
•	Further exorcisms were ineffectual.

Symptoms of Possessed:
•	Speaking in tongues, able to see through opaque materials, capable of identifying sacred items amid profane ones.
•	All symptoms which had been listed in the Roman Ritual of Exorcism
•	Rite had been issued in its codified form only a few years earlier.

Conjunctions of Events:
•	Remember:  the accounts provided by convicted witches after torture all bore stark similarities.
•	Possibly because they had been genuine workers of malefice, or perhaps because they were asked all the right questions under torture. (See: Spee, upcoming).

Conjunctions of Events:
•	De Lancre’s witnesses (hired children) came to provide broadly similar accounts of the witches sabbat.
–	Bestiality, unnatural acts, blasphemies
•	Witch-Finders found similar marks on people’s bodies while looking for the devil’s marks.
–	-Folds in genitals, moles, birth marks.

Poirot’s Story:
•	He was passing through Nancy when Elizabeth spotted and denounced him.
•	He was arrested, interrogated, shaved, searched for the devil’s mark. None was found.

Poirot’s End:
•	Months later he was accused by another peasant girl.
•	He was taken in again, searched again, and this time a mark was found.
•	Despite intervention, even by royalty, he was found guilty.
•	Both he and the girl were strangled, and their bodies were burned at the stake.

Elizabeth’s End:
•	Slowly recovered over following years.
•	In 1631 named Mother Superior of the convent of Notre-Dame-du-Refuge in Nancy
•	After her death, her body lay in state, and her heart was sent as a sacred relic to the headquarters of her order at Avignon.

Another Diagnosis:
•	Modern Psychiatry has suggested a psycho-pathological interpretation.
–	Neurotic tendencies
–	Strict upbringing
–	Harsh treatment from husband
–	Her own unacknowledged spiritual inclinations
–	Served to create notion of bewitchment and mania

Residual Questions:
•	Why did the Doctors, clergy, and the judges (24 of them) all agree that Elizabeth was possessed?
•	Why did they continually reinforce the suggestible woman’s belief in diabolical contamination?
•	Why did cases like this become so common during the witch-craze?

Possession in the Cloister

Exorcism as Propaganda: Kp.113
•	“France had a long history of demonic possession in the period of the religious wars, when exorcisms were used as Catholic weapons in the campaigns against Protestant groups.

•	1599, after Henry IV granted limited toleration for Huguenots (protestants), devils “spoke” through a woman to say how delighted Satan was with the new policy.

Holy Orders - Mendicant
•	Mendicant orders travel from place to place, and are very engaged in the outside world.
–	Ex: Dominicans, Franciscans, Jesuits
•	Missionary work
•	Educational work
•	Evangelization
•	Searching for Heresy

Holy Orders - Cloistered
•	A “cloistered order” removes itself from worldly affairs and lives in a fortified keep or “abbey”.
•	Convents are all female communities.
•	Stress is on abstention, devotion, prayer, meditation, spiritual and mental purity.
•	Environment of profound introspection and confession of impure thoughts.

Willing the Will to Will What We Want?
•	Montaigne informs us that, on reflection, we can’t always control our bodies…
•	Or our thoughts and perceptions…
•	Or our wills…
•	It is therefore ESPECIALLY tough to control our dreams

Three Cases from the Cloisters:
•	Elizabeth de Ranfaing
•	Dr. Poirot
–	K.104

•	Madeleine de Demandolx de la Palud
•	Fr. Gaufridi
–	K.113

•	Mother Joan of the Angels
•	Fr. Grandier
–	K.115

Second Case: Madeleine de Demandolx
•	Madeleine de Demandolx de la Palud, from Marseilles
•	Parents sent her at age 12 to the newly founded Ursuline convent at Aix.
•	Other girls had been sent there by their parents, not necessarily because they wanted to be nuns.
•	After two years she was sent back to live with her parents as a result of severe depression.

Madeleine in Marseilles:
•	While back at Marseilles she entered the Ursuline convent there, and was aided in her recovery by the local confessor Fr. Gaufridi.
•	Gaufridi was a family friend, popular confessor for many women in the family’s social circle.
•	Her private meetings with Gaufridi started rumours, and she had fallen in love with him.

Madeleine back at Aix:
•	When she began her novitiate at Marseilles, she started reporting intimate and erotic episodes with the priest, and was transferred back to the convent at Aix.
•	Christmas 1609 began to suffer episodes of shaking and cramps
•	Saw devils, claimed one of the devils was responsible for the act in which she publicly destroyed a crucifix.

The Exorcist:
•	The Ursulines’ spiritual director Jean-Baptiste Romillon confirmed she was possessed, and performed a series of exorcisms on her.
•	Romillon had been a Huguenot who converted as a young man to Catholicism.
•	Led efforts to suppress mediaeval customs that hinted at sexual license in the clergy, and other forms of clerical abuse.

Romillon’s Activities:
•	“For instance, Romillon had tried to ban the traditional celebration that followed a monk’s first mass, at which the daughter of a local family acted as the new priest’s partner during the festivities.
•	The dancing, kissing, and other liberties customary at such occasions mortified Romillon, but,when he intervened to break up one of these parties, the unreformed monks are said to have waylaid him and beaten him with clubs they had concealed under their robes.”
•	Klaits, p.114

A Sympathetic Listener:
•	Romillon heard Madeleine’s confessions, and was the first to bring charges against Gaufridi in 1610.
•	During investigation of possession in the cloister, other nuns started having convulsions.
•	One young nun, Louise Capeau, claimed Gaufridi had seduced her as well, and that he was tormenting her body with demons.

Higher Authority:
•	The Grand Inquisitor Michaelis, papal judge, moved their case to Ste. Baume, where exorcisms were witnessed publicly by large crowds of spectators.
•	They didn’t work, and the Inquisitor decided to investigate Gaufridi.

The Story Continues:
•	Gaufridi was initially exonerated, countercharged calumny and slander, Romillon not impressed with this.
•	1611 brought to trial again by the Parlement of Aix, kept in a dungeon for weeks, shaved, inspected, marks of devil were found.
•	Madeleine and Louise experienced numerous “episodes” during the trial.

Courtroom Drama:
•	Like other victims of possession in the 17^th century, she repeatedly attempted suicide.  
•	A typical day in court found her first confessing that her allegations were “all imaginings, illusions and had not a word of truth in them.”
•	But then she proclaimed in Provencal how she yearned for Gaufridi’s love, after which she was seized with lascivious tremblings “representing the sexual act, with violent movements of the lower part of her belly.”

In the End:
•	Gaufridi eventually confessed to being a “Prince of the Synagogue”, later tried to retract his statements but this was ignored.
•	Tortured, publicly dragged through the streets, strangled, burned at the stake.
•	Louise’s possession continued after Gaufridi’s death, later accusations “brought another victim to the stake”.

Madeleine’s End
•	Madeleine’s possession ended with Gaufridi’s death.
•	At age 49 she was charged with witchcraft.
•	Charges could not be proved, but they were never dropped.
•	Examined, devil’s marks found on her body.
•	Fined heavily, imprisoned for life.

Third Case:  Joan of Loudun
•	Mother Joan of the Angels
•	Ursuline nun at Loudun
•	Possessed by a demon who compelled her “to blaspheme and behave indecently”
•	Focus Text on p.116, to be taken up next week.

Realities of Cloistered Life:
•	Intense scrutiny and mechanisms of thought control
•	Sexual frustration and an abjuration of physicality
•	Reformist religion and absolute evangelization of everyday life
•	Political rivalry between orders and communities
•	Presence of a dominant male figure with whom residents share all of their impure thoughts, desires, fantasies, urges towards sin and blasphemy.

Accusations and Assumptions:
•	“…nature of the accusations stemmed, at least in part, from the assumptions of the authorities.”  
•	Those assigned to counsel the possessed were usually religious persons who interpreted the sufferer’s behaviour in accord with their previous knowledge of demonic possession.
•	Began their sympathetic therapy by reinforcing the suggestible victim’s fear that he or she was suffering from a supernaturally induced disorder.

Cultural Backdrop:
•	17^th C. period when restraint and self-control were becoming highly valued personal traits.
•	Behaviour of possessed was loud, violent and sexual, and spontaneous.
•	Recall the efforts of religious reformers to radically alter popular habits.
•	Follow Par. 2 on p.118

Phenomenon of Mass Possession:
•	The publicity of these cases undoubtedly contributed to the increase in their scope.
•	Possession in cloisters was contagious, but so were cases in the outside world.
•	Reality was that the cultural backdrop, and persistent fear in the power of the Devil to work through witches and warlocks provided the right environment for localized mass panics.

Case Study:  Mora, Sweden
•	Upwards of 300 children were thought to be possessed.
•	King Charles XI, 1699, appointed a royal commission to investigate the initial charges from a 15 yr. old girl.
•	Commission attempted a cure through sermons and mass prayer (exorcisms were forbidden in Lutheran areas).
•	Thousands of people heard these sermons, and many newly possessed children appeared.

Case Study:  Basque Region
•	“Much the same pattern had occurred in the Basque trials of France and Spain around 1610, when hundreds of children were inspired by powerful, suggestive stimuli to see themselves as unwilling participants in the witches’ sabbat.”
•	Klaits, p.119

The Accusers:  Women and Children
•	Even before their cures,the protagonists in convent possession outbreaks were, in effect,presiding over a female subculture.
•	Like members of female possession cults the world over, their religious ecstasy freed them of restrictions placed on them by a male-dominated society.
•	Together with other weak and downtrodden groups, women have been especially susceptible to ecstatic experience.
•	Prestige derived from supposed contact with the spirit world secured a degree of recognition and power otherwise unavailable to them.

Two Hypotheses:
•	If there wasn’t such a public treatment of these cases, perhaps the mass possessions wouldn’t have occurred.
•	If torture wasn’t a standard implement in these cases, perhaps there would have been no witch craze.

END.