Exorcism developed over many centuries, but was refined during the Catholic Counter-Reformation.  Although aided by the numerous manuals it was by no means an infallible method of banishing evil. This was due in part to a lack of faith from the bystanders or because of the type of sin of a possessed person.  To determine whether a possession was genuine the exorcist would first seek to establish several essential factors.  Firstly, the ability of the possessed to speak eight or ten words, correctly and well constructed, in several different languages.  Secondly, the ability to levitate for a considerable period of time and thirdly whether the possessed was aware of several things going on in some faraway place while being spoken to by the exorcist. The Eucharist was seen as one of a number of powerful weapons in the battle against demons and the devil. Other weapons included the use of holy names and the reciting of prayers, particularly the veneration of the Virgin Mary. 

Once an exorcist was confident a possession was genuine the medical profession were sometimes called in to offer its opinion.  Possession was seen as the direct action of the Devil, and resulting from the individual's own sins, so exposing them to this terrible fate. One contemporary view of possession is expressed by Jean Bodin who wrote “[it] is not an easy matter to discover witches, nor to distinguish them from respectable people”. However, what is certain is that a witch was one who knowingly tried to accomplish something by diabolical and unlawful means. On evil spirits Bodin writes, “[Satan] often makes evil spirits come out of demoniacs, (sic) pretending to do it by diabolical means, so that one will have faith in spells and idolatries”.

Exorcism is a familiar weapon to civilisations that live in fear; but only improved behaviour and prayer are effective weapons against the Devil. In sixteenth and seventeenth century Western Europe a binary-based view of the world existed, night and day, dark and light, good and evil, God and the Devil. Possession by demons and acting at the Devil’s behest were regarded as a reality.

 

Urbain Grandier was born 1590 in Bouère, Mayenne. He was a French Catholic priest in Loudun, burnt at the stake on 18 August 1634 after being convicted of witchcraft.

Grandier served as curé of Saint-Pierre-du-Marché Loudunfrom 1617 to his death in 1634, in the  Catholic Diocese of Poitiers. Ignoring a vow of priestly celibacy, Grandier is known to have had sexual relationships with a number of women in Loudun, acquiring a reputation as a bit of a ladies’ man. In 1632, a group of nuns from the local Ursuline convent accused him of having bewitched them, sending demons, to commit evil and perform sexual acts upon them. Modern commentators have argued that the accusations began after Grandier refused to become the spiritual director of the convent. Grandier was unaware the Mother Superior, Sister Jeanne of the Angels, had become obsessed with him, having seen him from afar and heard of his sexual exploits. It is claimed Jeanne, enraged by his rejection, asked religious rival of Grandier to become the director. Jeanne then accused Grandier of using black magic to seduce her. The other nuns gradually began to make similar accusations. Many modern scholars claim that this was a case of collective hysteria. Grandier was arrested, interrogated, tried by an ecclesiastical tribunal and acquitted.

Grandier, however, gained the enmity of the powerful Cardinal Richelieu and Richelieu ordered a new trial, conducted by his special envoy Jean de Laubardemont, a relative of the Mother Superior of the convent of Loudun. Grandier was rearrested and the possibility of appealing to the Parlement of Paris denied to him. Interrogated for a second time, the nuns, including the Mother Superior, did not renew their accusations, but the judges (Laubardemont, Lactance, Surin and Tranquille), after torturing the priest, introduced documents purportedly signed by Grandier and several demons as evidence he had made a diabolical pact. One of the pacts was written in Latin and appeared to be signed by Grandier; another almost illegible, had many strange symbols and was "signed" by several demons as well as by Satan, a signature clearly reads Satanas. It is unknown if Grandier wrote or signed the acts under duress, or if they were entirely forged.

Grandier was found guilty and sentenced to death. The judges who condemned Grandier ordered that he be put to the "extraordinary question", a form of torture which usually, but not immediately proved, fatal, and was therefore only administered to victims who were to be executed immediately afterwards. Despite torture, Grandier never confessed to witchcraft.

Rather than a case of sexual frustration, the possession of Sister Jeanne, and the other Ursuline nuns was regarded by some contemporary observers as genuine. For men like Laubardemont, although sceptical of Grandier’s guilt viewed the possessions as serving a useful purpose, they reinforced the authority of the Catholic Church and the State.  Those like Father Surin and Sister Jeanne experienced years of torment and renewed possession following Grandier’s death. The historian Lyndal Roper suggests that conversion to Catholicism was experienced through a long and dramatic process of intellectual struggle. Surin's intellectual capacity compelled him down a path of self-analysis and introspection over his part in Grandier’s conviction and death; today Surin would probably be treated with a combination of psychoanalysis and drugs. It seems probable that Sister Jeanne was a willing participant in her own ordeal, but she also was a means to an end for others who were out to get Grandier.

 

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