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Classic Accusors: The Possessed

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As a proof of Church's power. II. The case of Urbain Grandier ... He told the Catholic Herald newspaper: 'The incidence of the demonic on the whole is rising. ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Classic Accusors: The Possessed


1
Classic Accusors The Possessed
  • I. Possession
  • As a witchcraft phenomenon
  • As a proof of Churchs power
  • II. The case of Urbain Grandier

2
  • Women of the Renaissance, Margaret King
  • A History of their Own, Bonnie Anderson Judith
    Zissner

3
Possession witchcraft
  • Judge Boguet recorded accusations by demoniacs as
    daily occurrence
  • Clergyman George Gifford wrote of Essex (1590)
  • daily it is seene that the devil is driven out
    of some possessed, that where he did vex and
    torment men in their bodies, and in their cattle,
    they have remedie against him.

4
  • According to witness of exorcism in England,
    1612
  • exorcists have many favourers in the world.
  • New England, 1692-3, 48 cases of possession were
    diagnosed

5
Diagnosis
  • Sir Thomas Browne, 17thc doctor, wrote
  • the devil doth really possess some men the
    spirit of melancholy others the spirit of
    delusion others.
  • 16thc English physician wrote possession is
    another kinde of madnesse. And they which be in
    this madnesse be ever possessed of the devyl, and
    be develyshe persons.

6
Church diagnosis
  • The clergy had to know symptoms that
  • distinguish a possessed person from other
    individuals who suffer from melancholia or any
    other illness.

7
Possession as sign of the times
  • 1605, Preacher Heinrich Riess argued that
    possessions were
  • signs of the speedy advent of the Last Day and
    the Day of Judgment.
  • 1584, Jesuit priest George Scherer saw increased
    possessions as sign of Revelations 1212 the
    devils great wrath in the last days.
  • Tobias Seiler, in his Demonomania,wrote that
    the world is down to its last dregs.

8
Witches possession
  • Sanson Birette, demonologist, 1618
  • since we are moving towards the waning of the
    world, so we experience more monstrous and
    strange things which the subtle and
    incomprehensible artifice of devils have brought
    upon people, either by their own efforts, or by
    the intervention of demonic witches.

9
Unnamed 11thc theologian
  • the torment of possession is the greatest man
    can suffer the cause is invisible the most
    dangerous, for it leads to irreparable ruin of
    soul and body

10
Biblical sources
  • Luke 101 Then he called his twelve disciples
    together and gave them power and authority over
    all devils.
  • Mark 1417 In my name shall they cast out
    devils

11
Boguet, witch hunter in Burgundy (1602)
  • Everyday in our town, we continually meet with
    large numbers of possessed persons who, for the
    most part, impute their possession to certain
    vaudois or sorcerers.

12
Characteristic Symptoms
  • fits and convulsions, spontaneoubnms excitement,
    agitation and trembling, changes in appearance,
    speaking in tongues, clairvoyance, uncanny
    strength, revulsion to holy objects (inability to
    recite Lords prayer, or horror of holy relics)

13
Modern-day exorcism
Leading exorcist Father Jeremy Davies, 65, from
the Westminster Diocese, believes the Church's
increased vigilance in the past 10 years had also
contributed to the number of exorcisms being
performed. He told the Catholic Herald
newspaper "The incidence of the demonic on the
whole is rising. At the centre of this is man's
ever growing pride and attempted self-reliance."
Spiritual or medical? Today's priests are
being encouraged to work more closely with the
medical profession to distinguish between cases
of mental illness and demonic influence. Father
Davies, a former doctor and a co-founder of the
200-strong International Association of
Exorcists, warned there was a tendency in the
West to mistake the spiritual for the
psychological. In Britain, each Catholic diocese
has an exorcist, but they are forbidden to speak
publicly about the ritual and are rarely
identified. (BBC news April 27, 2000)

14
Urbain Grandier(1590 - 1634)
15
Urbain Grandier
Loudun, France executed 1630s
16
  • The evidence
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