Exorcism Through the Ages

Scholars of the occult explore the phenomenon of demonic possession and expulsion through centuries of Western history in this essay anthology.

Instances of exorcism have been widely documented for centuries, with references to demonic possession and expulsion appearing in the Bible as well as ancient Roman epic poetry. In Exorcism Through the Ages, scholars examine the historical record, analyzing exorcism practices in Jewish, Catholic, and Greek Orthodox traditions.

Numerous cases—such as the Devils of Loudon, the nuns of Aix-en-Provence, and the possession of Elizabeth Knapp—are considered in detail. Other essays discuss the legend of the Golem, the concept of the Dybbuk, the history of the devil, and more.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Philosophical Library Open Road
• Release date: Oct 26, 2021
• ISBN: 9781504067997

Book preview

Erichtho

by Wade Baskin

An artist who lived during the Old Stone Age made a likeness of the Horned God on the wall of a dark cave in southern France. The earliest known god represented every unknown force in the universe. Some of these forces were good, some evil. The paleolithic god represented both good and evil, the curse of sickness and the blessing of health, scarcity and abundance, birth and death. Thousands of years later, myths began to make a twofold division of the forces in the universe, separating the good ones from the evil ones. Ancient mythologies linked good phenomena to one god, evil phenomena to another god. After dualism entered mythology, the Horned God was isolated and made to represent the forces of evil. He became the embodiment of every evil phenomenon in the universe. The prehistoric horn and tail of the god whose likeness appears on the wall of the cave in southern France still survive in the Christian Devil.

Other cultures have dealt with the myth of evil in other ways. The ancient Babylonians made Tiamat the symbol of darkness and chaos. She appears in the form of chaotic waters, an angry serpent, or a horned fowl with sharp claws. The Egyptians made Set the god of darkness and the enemy of the gods of light. He represents drought and storm, the enemies of those who plant and harvest crops. More ancient than the Greek Typhon, he is linked with the supreme god of the Hyksos. The Hindus made Kali their Devil. She appears with a necklace of human heads dangling at her belt and a bloody sword in one of her many hands. The Devil of the Old Testament is remembered chiefly as the tempter of Job. The New Testament pictures Satan as the tempter of Christ and the embodiment of evil. Through him evil spirits seize the bodies or souls of innocent victims and turn them away from God. Diabolical possession continues until these evil spirits are driven out. In this sense Christ was the first of a long line of exorcists that are a part of Christian culture.

The Greeks assigned to Typhon, the most terrible of the Titans, the role of Satan. A powerful symbol of evil, he uses his forces to combat Zeus, the supreme god of the Greeks. Though imprisoned beneath a mountain, he continues to try to overturn the cosmos and destroy his enemy. Like Satan, he is linked with the serpent. He chose as his bride a halfwoman, half-serpent, and he fathered many monsters.

The Greek and Roman worlds were filled with witches who commanded the forces of evil. In what today is the northwestern part of Greece lived Erichtho, one of the most famous crones of all time. Witches from the land of Thessaly were known throughout the ancient world, from Rome and Athens to Memphis and Babylon. The soil of Thessaly produced plants which helped witches to control the forces of evil. The famous crone of Thessaly is known to us today through the writings of Lucan.

The Latin poet Lucan (Marcus Annaeus Lucanus) was born in 39

A.D

. After he failed in his attempt to overthrow Nero, Lucan had to kill himself. Before his death in 65

A.D

., he had written an epic poem on the civil war between Caesar and Pompey, Pharsalia. Ten books of Pharsalia survive. In one part of Book VI, Lucan tells how Pompey’s son Sextus tried to learn what was going to happen to the Romans. Sextus believed that the famous old Thessalian crone known as Erichtho could reveal the future to him.

Erichtho had no home. She lived in deserted tombs and in graves from which she had driven the ghosts of the dead. Sextus knew that she was on good terms with the powers of evil. He was not disappointed by her performance. She succeeded in making a ghost enter the body of a corpse and answer his questions. This example of exorcism in reverse is part of the most detailed account ever written concerning witchcraft in ancient times. What follows is drawn from Lucan’s poem.

Sextus could have learned about the future by consulting the Delphic Oracle or the Oracle of Dodona, by killing an animal and examining its entrails, or by talking with someone skilled in the Babylonian arts of reading the stars or throwing a handful of dirt on the ground and observing the results. Instead, he chose to turn to witchcraft. He knew that certain Thessalian witches were near his camp and that they could perform seemingly impossible feats.

Thessaly has many poisonous plants and magical stones. Witches use these plants and stones to make the gods serve them. Their voices reach the most distant places and force the gods to neglect other affairs and pay attention to their requests. They mix strong drinks that can melt the hardest hearts and fill old men with passion. They use words to destroy men’s minds. By moving the threads on a magical wheel, they can inspire passion between two people who have never before felt the slightest physical attraction for each other. They can cause night to fall before the day has ended, raise storms, stop a waterfall, a stream, or the flooding of the Nile.

Every deadly creature fears the Thessalian witches and serves them. Tigers and lions tamely lick their hands. Serpents uncoil for them on the cold ground. They can kill poisonous snakes by breathing on them. They can drag the stars from the sky, make the moon grow dim, and restrain the tide. Yet Erichtho was even more wicked than the other witches of Thessaly. She refused to live in a decent house. She preferred to drive ghosts from their tombs and to live where they had lived. There she could talk with the dead and learn the secrets of Pluto, their god.

Why do the gods obey the wishes of witches? Have they signed a pact with them? Are they afraid the witches will punish them? Or do they work through the creator of all the gods? Lucan raises questions but provides no answers.

Matted hair covered Erichtho’s lean and ugly face. She left the tombs only on wet or cloudy nights, poisoning the air and killing the plants along her pathway. She could imprison men in a tomb, depriving them of a normal life. She stole pieces of flesh and bone from the burned bodies of children. She used her fingers to remove the eyeballs of the unburied dead, and she would even snatch pieces of flesh from the jaws of wild beasts. If she needed warm blood for her spells, she would not hesitate to slit a throat. She performed Caesarian operations in order to have babies for her altar. She would tear the beard from the face of a dying youth or tear a lock from his hair.

Sextus set out at midnight in search of the old crone. He passed through deserted fields and visited one tomb after another. Finally he found her sitting on a steep cliff, making new plans for gaining control of important ghosts. He was the first to speak: I have come here to get information about the battle that is about to begin. You are famous in Thessaly. Everyone knows that you can reveal the future and change the course of events. I am not unknown. I am the son of Pompey and will inherit either sovereignty of the world or total misfortune. I am nervous because of the uncertainty of the future. If I knew the future, I could face any danger. You can save me from the fear of a sudden misfortune.

He told her that she could decide how to find out the truth but that he would like for her to call up the Queen of Death in person and force her to name the ones to die in battle the next day. Flattered by his remarks, Erichtho told him that in many instances she did have the power to change the decrees of fate, but that she was powerless to act when events had been predetermined since the beginning of time. In such cases, saving or killing one person would confuse the destinies of all mankind.

Erichtho told Sextus that there were many simple means of discovering the truth but that the easiest course would be for her to find the corpse of a soldier who had recently died on a battlefield. She used her supernatural powers to make the night darker, wrapped a black cloud around her head, and started to walk among the unburied bodies of the soldiers that had died that day. She drove away the wolves and hungry birds that feed on the dead, examining each corpse in her search for the right one. She wanted to find a corpse whose lungs were sound enough for her purposes. The lungs had to be strong enough to allow the corpse to speak clearly.

Finally she found the right corpse. She put a noose around its neck and dragged it over rocks and stones until she came to the place she had selected in advance. There, in a deep ravine at the foot of a steep incline almost as far down as Pluto’s kingdom, she began to try to bring the corpse to life. Instead of ribbons, she used snakes to keep her hair in place. Her appearance frightened Sextus. She tried to comfort him: Don’t be alarmed by what you see. I am simply going to revive a corpse so that he can speak intelligibly like a normal man. It is not you but the dead who should fear me!

She cut the corpse’s chest in several places, washed the blood out of his veins, and poured into this blood other warm blood mixed with every kind of unnatural poison. Then she began to utter strange, inhuman sounds: the bark of a dog, the howl of a wolf, the hoot of an owl, the roar of a wild beast, the hiss of a serpent, the voice of thunder escaping from a cloud. Then she pronounced the words of a Thessalian spell that traveled straight down to the underworld. She named all of the underworld deities, asking them to listen to her voice. She told them that she wanted one of Pompey’s dead soldiers to tell Sextus how the civil war would end.

She had foam on her lips when she raised her eyes and looked at the ghost beside her. But the ghost held back. It did not wish to re-enter the body of the corpse and become a prisoner. Erichtho became furious. She beat the rigid corpse with live serpents, magically opened a passageway to the underworld, and spoke to the infernal powers in no uncertain terms: Didn’t you hear me? Before I called you Kindly Ones…. Watch out now, you bitches, or I will hound you from tomb to tomb, in broad daylight! To Pluto she shouted: If you don’t obey me, I intend to break the roof of your fortress and let the sunlight blind you!

Then she threatened to call upon the mightiest of the gods, the one who lives beneath Pluto’s underworld. The blood of the corpse became warm and began to move through each artery. It reached the fingers and toes. New life spread through the corpse as both lungs began to function. Suddenly the corpse sprang up and stood erect, but he remained pale and silent. He could provide information only when questions were put to him. Erichtho told him that if he answered her questions truthfully, no witch would ever disturb him again. She also told him that the Fates would use his voice to communicate whatever information they might wish Sextus to hear.

Speaking through the revived corpse, the Fates tried to console Sextus by telling him that a safe place had been reserved for Pompey and his family in the brighter part of the underworld, and that, thanks to death, the rivals in the civil war would all be made equal.

After he stopped speaking, the soldier waited sadly. Erichtho gathered some logs and put them in a pile. The soldier climbed to the top of the pile of the logs and lay down. Erichtho set fire to the logs, allowing the soldier to die at last. Then she took Sextus back to his camp, using her magical power to hold back the dawn until they had passed by the guards.

Wade Baskin, Doctor of Education, formerly with Southeastern State College.

The Devils of Loudun

by Wade Baskin

The Ursuline convent established at Loudun in France was the scene of an outbreak of diabolical possession in the year 1633. A detailed account of one of the most extraordinary obsessions of modem times was set forth in a French work published in 1839. The strange behavior of the Loudun nuns inspired a remarkable book by Aldous Huxley, The Devils of Loudun, published in 1952. Three renowned exorcists who took part in trials following the outbreak had cause to regret their roles. One of them experienced diabolical possession for twenty years.

Urbain Grandier was a canon of the Catholic church and a popular preacher in the town of Loudun in the old French province of Anjou. A tall, handsome, well-dressed man, he had distinguished himself in eloquence, piety, and brilliance. His uncle was a priest, his father a notary. The youthful priest had studied at the Jesuit College of Bordeaux and had drawn praise from his teachers for his intellectual powers. He seemed to be on the verge of a successful career when his misfortunes began. In August 1634, Urbain Grandier, who had charmed many of the young ladies in Anjou, was accused of using sorcery to cause certain nuns of the convent of Loudun to experience diabolical possession.

A number of nuns who lived in the Loudun convent had shown signs of diabolical possession. They spoke in tongues and behaved in an extraordinary manner. The Mother Superior of the convent, Jeanne des Anges (formerly Mme. de Beifiel), and five other nuns were the first to be possessed. Their small convent had been established in a rented house in the Angevine town, and they paid their way by educating young ladies. The ideological battles of the Reformation were still in progress, and the poor Ursuline order was directing its efforts toward rehabilitating the daughters of better-class families who had espoused Protestantism. Their first confessor, Father Mussaut, had died and left his post open. Grandier had applied for the post even though he had been accused of showing a secular interest in the young ladies who resided there. He was turned down in favor of his arch-enemy, Father Mignon.

The new confessor heard intriguing tales about Grandier. Some of the girls said that they had actually seen him in the nunnery and heard strange scufflings. Some had even felt him in the flesh beside them during the night. Mignon confided in the Mother Superior. Whether unwittingly or in order to promote their several aims—political, religious, economic—Jeanne des Anges may have caused the signs of diabolical possession to multiply. Soon all of the inmates were infected. Mignon sent for Pierre Barre, a local priest with a reputation for extreme piety, and the two of them started to exorcize the Mother Superior and two of her nuns. A third priest invited two magistrates to observe the exorcism of the possessed nuns.

The first exhibition took place on October 11, 1632. Mignon reported that the nuns had been troubled for some time by demonic visitations and were now possessed by demons. The Mother Superior was possessed by the great demon Astaroth, another nun by Sabulon. The demons spoke in classical languages through the mouths of the Ursuline sisters. Mignon began the interrogation of the possessing demon:

Why did you enter this virgin’s body? he asked.

I was angry, the demon replied through the victim’s mouth.

By what pact?

Flowers.

What kind of flowers?

Roses.

Who sent the roses?

Urbain.

What is his surname?

Grandier.

Mignon brought out the information that the flowers had been brought by a demon. He explained the significance of the terrible things the magistrates had seen and heard, and he reminded them of what had happened at another Ursuline convent two decades earlier. In that instance, Louis Gaufridi had been found guilty of a similar charge. The demonstration failed to convince everyone that the nuns had been possessed, with the result that the Archbishop banned further exorcism by Mignon. The persecution of Grandier continued, however, with encouragement from Cardinal Richelieu.

Three well-known exorcists entered the picture. The Franciscan Father Lactance, the Jesuit Father Surin, and the Capuchin Father Tranquille undertook to exorcize the possessed nuns in public. Under exorcism the nuns denounced Grandier before the huge crowds that came to witness the spectacle. Some of his rejected mistresses prejudiced his case by accusing him of incest, adultery, sacrilege committed in the most secret places of his church, as in the vestry, where the holy host was kept, on all days and at all hours. Since they claimed that he was responsible for their condition, Grandier himself was in the end forced to try to exorcise the nuns. He spoke to one of them in Greek, but she chided him: You know that one of the first conditions of our pact was never to speak Greek. The Mother Superior testified that Grandier had managed to bewitch them by throwing roses over the walls of the convent. On November 30, 1633, he was jailed in the castle of Angers.

Investigations failed to prove conclusively that he had any Devil’s marks on his body. The prosecution managed to produce a pact with the Devil, allegedly written in Grandier’s own hand and given to the court by the demon Asmodeus, who had taken it from Lucifer’s cabinet:

We, the omnipotent Lucifer and his subordinates—Satan, Beelzebub, Leviathan, Elimi, Astaroth, and others—this day have accepted the pact of alliance with Urbain Grandier, who is on our side. To him we promise the love of women, the flower of maidens, the chastity of nuns, secular honors, pleasures, and treasures. He will indulge in fornication every three days; he will cherish intoxication. Once a year he will hand us a tribute marked with his blood; he will scorn the sacraments of the church and address his prayers to us. This pact empowers him to live happily on earth for twenty years, then to come among us and curse God. Made in hell, in the council of the demons.

The pact was signed by Satan, Beelzebub, Lucifer, Elimi, Leviathan, and Astaroth. It was notarized by the signature and mark of the chief devil and by those of his lords the princes of hell. It was countersigned by the recorder, Beelberith.

The court would not allow several nuns to retract statements they had previously made against the priest. The Mother Superior appeared in court with a noose around her neck, saying that she would hang herself to atone for the false witness that she had previously made. Some of Grandier’s witnesses were not allowed to offer evidence in his defense. On August 18, 1634, the defamed priest, still protesting his innocence, was pronounced guilty of the crime of causing demoniacal possession of several of the nuns as well as of other secular women. He was condemned to be burned alive. His ashes were to be scattered to the wind. Before burning, he was ordered subjected to the first and last degrees of torture. Torture was applied, torture so severe that the marrow oozed from his broken bones, but he maintained his innocence to the end. His accusers proved him a witch by arguing that he was actually invoking the Devil, his own god, whenever he addressed a prayer to God.

Within a month Father Lactance, who had personally exorcised three demons from the body of the Prioress of Loudun, died insane. His last words were these: Grandier, I was not responsible for your death. While exorcizing others, he had often been attacked by demons. Within five years Father Tranquille died insane. Some people said that he was finally killed by demons, some time after he had decided to try his powers on the possessed Ursulines only to be attacked en route by the Devil, who weakened him so that he could hardly walk. Another Loudun exorcist. Father Lucas, was tormented by demons until extreme unction was applied to him. Only then did they abandon him and turn instead to a friar who was present at his death-bed. The demons took their revenge by entering into the poor friar’s body. The friar reportedly kicked the dead body until he was forcibly taken from the room.

Grandier’s death did not put an end to the demoniacal possession of the nuns. The principal demoniac, Jeanne des Anges, reported her experiences in her autobiography. Her words suggest that she firmly believed that she was possessed:

At the outset I was in a disturbed mental state for three whole months…. The demons were powerful and the Church used exorcism to fight them, day and night. My mind was filled with blasphemies.… I hated God. The Devil confused me to such an extent that I could hardly separate his desires from my own…. On my way to Communion the devil seized my hand and made me throw the half-moistened wafer I had received into the priest’s face. I am certain that I did not do this of my own free will, but also know that I allowed the devil to do it. I do not believe that he could have done this if I had not had a pact with him.

The demons who possessed the Ursuline nuns became more obstreperous than ever and flippantly answered to the names of Asmodeus, Leviathan, Behemoth, etc. Brother Surin, a frail and unhealthy monk, was delegated to put an end to the affair. After much wrestling in prayer, he finally succeeded in exorcizing the demons.

Exorcism and the Bible

by Charles Buck

Exorcism

The expelling of devils from persons possessed, by means of conjurations and prayers. The Jews made great pretences to this power. Josephus tells several wonderful tales of the great success of several exorcists. One Eleazer, a Jew, cured many demoniacs, he says, by means of a root set in a ring. This root, with the ring, was held under the patient’s nose, and the devil was forthwith evacuated. The most part of conjurors of this class were impostors, each pretending to a secret nostrum or charm which was an overmatch for the devil. Jesus communicated to his disciples a real power over demons, or at least over the diseases said to be occasioned by demons.

Exorcism makes a considerable part of the superstition of the church of Rome, the ritual of which forbids the exorcising of any person without the bishop’s leave. The ceremony is performed at the lower end of the church, towards the door. The exorcist first signs the possessed person with the sign of the cross, makes him kneel, and sprinkles him with holy water. Then follow the litanies, psalms, and prayer; after which the exorcist asks the devil his name, and adjures him by the mysteries of the Christian religion not to afflict the person any more; then, laying his right hand on the demoniac’s head, he repeats the form of exorcism, which is this: I exorcise thee, unclean spirit, in the name of Jesus Christ; tremble, O Satan, thou enemy of the faith, thou foe of mankind, who hast brought death into the world; who hast deprived men of life, and hast rebelled against justice; thou seducer of mankind, thou root of all evil, thou source of avarice, discord, and envy. The Romanists likewise exorcise houses and other places supposed to be haunted by unclean spirits; and the ceremony is much the same with that for a person possessed.

Devil

The leader of the fallen angels, and the arch-foe of God and man. Matt. 25: 41. The name, like the French diable, German teuffel, Latin diabolus, is only a modified form of the Greek word diabolos, which, from diaballein, to calumniate, properly signifies calumniator, detractor, false accuser, &c. In the Syriac language, he is called achelkartzo, the devourer of calumni, which most emphatically expresses the delight which he takes in every attempt that is made to blast the character of good and holy men. It deserves to be particularly noticed, that though the term devils, in the plural, occurs frequently in the English version, in application to fallen spirits, the original word is not, in such instances, diaboloi, but daimones, or daimonia. When used in the plural, diabolos never refers to fallen angels, but to human beings. See 1 Tim. 3: 11, 2 Tim. 3: 43. Titus 2: 3. There is, therefore, according to the strict propriety of Scripture language, only one devil, who is otherwise characterized by the epithets—the god and prince of this world; the prince of darkness; the prince of the power of the air; the accuser; Belial; the tempter; an adversary, deceiver, liar, &c. His power, though infinitely short of omnipotence, is represented as great and extensive; and his influence, exerted either immediately by himself, or through the agency of the innumerable multitude of wicked spirits who are enlisted in his service, is set forth as fearful in the extreme. Yet truly appalling as are the power and influence of this malignant demon, it is nevertheless a fact, substantiated no less by the testimony of Scripture than by the experience of mankind, that they may successfully be resisted by the weakest moral agent who shall avail himself of the means placed at his disposal for this end by his benevolent and merciful Creator. Nothing, therefore, can possibly be more absurd than for sinners to attempt to exculpate themselves by throwing the blame of their wicked actions on the devil. Tempt them he may, and his methods of seduction are various and well adapted to compass his ends; but force them to the commission of one sin he cannot. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Whom resist steadfast in the faith. James 4: 7. 1 Peter 5: 9. The position attempted to be maintained by the Socinians, that by Satan we are merely to understand a symbolical person, the principle of evil personified, a fictitious personage, an evil disposition, &c. cannot be reconciled with any rational or consistent principles of Scripture interpretation, and deserves to be classed with the hypothesis, that our Savior himself had no real existence, but, as described by the evangelists, is only a personification of virtue or moral excellence.

Satan

Satan is a Hebrew word, and signifies an adversary, or enemy, and is commonly applied in Scripture to the devil, or the chief of the fallen angels. By collecting the passages, says Cruden, where Satan, or the devil, is mentioned, it may be observed, that he fell from heaven with all his company; that God cast him down from thence for the punishment of his pride; that, by his envy and malice, sin, death, and all other evils, came into the world; that, by the permission of God, he exercises a sort of government in the world over his subordinates, over apostate angels like himself; that God makes use of him to prove good men and chastise bad ones; that he is a lying spirit in the mouth of false prophets, seducers, and heretics; that it is he, or some of his, that torment or possess men; that inspire them with evil designs, as he did David, when he suggested to him to number his people; to Judas, to betray his Lord and Master; and to Ananias and Sapphira, to conceal the price of their field. That he roves full of rage like a roaring lion, to tempt, to betray, to destroy, and to involve us in guilt and wickedness; that his power and malice are restrained within certain limits, and controlled by the will of God. In a word, that he is an enemy to God and man, and uses his utmost endeavors to rob God of his glory, and men of their souls.

More particularly as to the temptations of Satan:—1. He adapts them to our temper and circumstances. 2. He chooses the fittest season to tempt: as youth, age, poverty, prosperity, public devotion, after happy manifestations; or when in a bad frame; after some signal service; when alone or in the presence of the object; when unemployed and off our guard; in death. 3. He puts on the mask of religious friendship, 2 Cor. 11: 14. Matt. 4: 6. Luke 9: 50. Gen. 3. 4. He manages temptation with the greatest subtlety. He asks but little at first; leaves for a season in order to renew his attack. 5. He leads men to sin with a hope of speedy repentance. 6. He raises suitable instruments, bad habits, relations, Gen. 3. Job. 2: 9, 10.

Demons

Demons; (Greek, daimon and daimanion) a name given in the New Testament to fallen angels, or, morally evil and impure spirits, and in some instances, (such as Acts 17: 18. 1 Cor. 10: 20, 21. 1 Tim. 4: 1. Rev. 9: 20) to heathen gods, human spirits whom the heathen deified and worshipped, and the canonized saints of corrupt churches. According to the heathen philosophers, demons held a middle rank between the celestial gods and men upon earth, and carried on all intercourse between them; conveying the addresses of men to the gods, and the divine benefits to men. They also believed