Alejandro G.

De Aguinaga

The Significance of religious conflict and political context for the phenomenon of
public exorcisms in the post-Reformation period
The initial rise of Protestantism and the rupture towards the Catholic Church that generated,

marked the beginning of the Modern Era, with a schism so great that it would manage to

shake most of Europe from its foundations up. As the tensions escalated, conflict arose and

started wiping the landscape across the continent. The narrative of “us against them”

became engrained in the psyche of many, as religion was, for many, the only way of

understanding the world, and for others, a way into which grasp and maintain power over

land.

As the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries went down, a great number of

significant demonic episodes were recorded. From the small, local and rural cases to the

multitudinary spectacles that astonished many and drew even more, the event of demonic

possession was a constant during the post-Reformation period. It encapsulated the

primordial struggle between good and evil in a way that managed to give new meanings to

this fight. For the communities, being constantly reminded about this conflict, around

which most of the Christian (in the broad sense of the word) doctrine is based, was a

priming tool and a catalyst that enabled the escalation to conflict.

If the Bible and Jesus’ story revolves around ensuring sin and evil’s banishing from

the world, then their earthly ambassadors were tasked with doing the same to the laity, in

which fault could be easily found. The clergy were God’s chosen to fight evil in Earth and

remind the common folk of their tool to salvation: The Word.

The watershed moment came with the arrival of a new Christianity, in the form of

the various Protestant branches that were formed throughout the Reformation, as they
 Alejandro G. De Aguinaga

meant new moral guidelines were enforced, and new interpretations as to how to get rid of

sin were constructed. This challenged the authority of the Catholic Church in a way that

had never been felt before, and it was precisely this which would lead to the escalation of

conflict and to the deep differentiation that was generated from inside the communities.

This essay aims to explore different causes to the events that influenced the massive

exorcism events, and its underlying reasoning. It will ensure that context is emphasised

which will make the understanding of the events a much easier, but fulfilling task.

Catholic and Protestant views on magic, witchcraft, and demons

With the Reformers, Christian theology experimented a deep change. As the ideas from one

group sought to “correct” or “fix” those of the opposite, attention was put into different

places, and emphasis on passages, rites, organisation, denomination, among many more,

was given a different treatment. With this, the ideas of out-worldly phenomena

experimented different interpretations, but most importantly, distinct ways of affecting the

idea of sin.

With the increasing number of people discussing religion and Christianity during

and after the Reformation period, debates around ideas that had been regarded as

unchangeable started flourishing. For example, the different theologians that spoke about

the omnipresence of God were now increasingly discussing the idea that God was the one

who instructed specific demons to bring misfortune to the world 1. For these theologians,

prior to the Reformation what misfortune sent by God meant was explicitly a punishment

1
Watson, Lisa Jacqueline. “The Influence of the Reformation and Counter Reformation upon Key Texts in the
Literature of Witchcraft.” (Newcastle University, 1997) p.44
 Alejandro G. De Aguinaga

for sin, and a method for turning them towards the true way, however if they did not do this

the Devil would now need no explicit instruction and could act against the sinner2.

The Post Reformation Catholic theologians continued the idea of misfortune as a

punishment of sin, but gave much more importance to the might of the Devil, as they

considered it to be the most powerful entity on Earth 3, permitted by God. Their ideas had

been tainted by the publication of books such as the Malleus Malleficarum4 (written by

Heinrich Kramer and Jakob Sprenger), and as a result the theology was now more mixed

with popular ideas than with purist ones. In contrast, Protestant theologians were not in line

with the idea that both entities could have similar amounts of power, let alone, that God

would be the ultimate culprit of the Devil’s actions 5. In fact, what it could do was only to

tempt6, and it was men’s human and corrupt nature what would allow the temptation to turn

into sin.

To Protestant theologians, it was sin which was the ultimate culprit for the

misfortune that came upon men. The different ways that humanity could fall out of grace by

committing sin were all related to men not giving God enough respect, by misusing his

name, or not believing his word. For them, the biggest concern was the people that were

giving so much importance to the Devil and the demons that they were falling into a dual-

worship scenario, a concern that had also been present in the early Reformers when

criticising the way that people were worshiping saints.

2
Ibid. P.46
3
Ibid. P.49
4
Ibid. P.52
5
Ibid. P.54
6
Ibid. P.56
 Alejandro G. De Aguinaga

After the publication of the Malleus Maleficarum, one of the most emphasised

things on the writings of most Catholic theologians was the sexual character of the demonic

attacks, as the aforementioned book dived deep into these affairs 7. This is yet another

instance in which the influence of an external work into the psyche of Catholicism. In this

matter, the Malleus, was part of the backbone that constructed the notion of many about the

interactions of Satan with humankind.

For the Protestant theologians the flashy and fanatical explanations of the witches

and demons’ actions that were constructed post-Malleus were not important for the

construction of the new Christian psyche. As Watson puts it: “Instead, they focused upon

the way the devil was attracting followers by simply getting them to believe in his power” 8.

This is reflective once again of the ideas that moved the Reformers to “cleanse” the religion

from its fanatical and less educated followers. However, the notion that people could be

influenced by the Devil and therefore, the existence of witches, was present among some

Protestants, and yet the works would always return to the fact that the only true power was

that of God9.

France and the political use of religion

The second half of the Sixteenth Century saw the escalation of religious differences to

conflict in France with the Religious Wars. A violent conflict of dynasties in which the

House of Guise and the House of Condé sought to keep the Throne as Catherine de’ Medici

governed for her sons. During this conflictive period, both the Catholics and the Protestant

7
Ibid. P.85
8
Ibid. P.99
9
Ibid. P.107-108
 Alejandro G. De Aguinaga

groups were helped by foreign allies in the form of the Catholic League and Spain for the

Guises and England and Navarre for the Condés.

There have been those who suggest that maybe a stronger King such as Francis I, or

Henry II could have foresaw and put an end to the religious conflict inside French nobility 10

as Calvinism was illegal and pressure was put upon them from the top of the government.

However after Henry and his firstborn Francis’ death, Catherine assumed control of the

Crown and had to undertake the task of mediating the conflict as it escalated, trying to

create truces and publishing edicts to stop the armed revolts, such as the Edict of Amboise.

Although the principal aim of these treatises was to halt any confrontation, they were

helpful for the Huguenots (the Protestant French group) as they allowed them significant

permits towards freedom of worship, which was one of the reasons for the Catholics to

reject them even more, as the former were increasing their power inside the nobility.

As the years went by, tensions grew higher and the number of deaths only went up.

Episodes like the Massacre of St. Bartholomew’s Day in 1572 meant a significant decline

in Huguenot numbers, yet the fight was far from over. During the following decade, violent

uprisings continued throughout the French territory, influenced mainly by the Catholic

League and Spain. During this time the line of succession went as follow: Charles IX,

Henry I (who formed the League), Henry II, and Henry III. In 1584 Henry III had no heir

and thus the War of the Three Henrys began between Henry III, Henry of Guise and Henry

of Navarre. Ultimately, Henry of Navarre and Henry III joined forces to defeat the League

and in his deathbed, the former was named heir to the throne by the latter. To recover Paris

10
Pearl, Jonathan L. ""A School for the Rebel Soul": Politics and Demonic Possession in France." Historical
Reflections / Réflexions Historiques 16, no. 2/3 (1989) P.287.
http://www.jstor.org.ucc.idm.oclc.org/stable/41298924.
 Alejandro G. De Aguinaga

and ultimately the throne he converted to Catholicism begrudgingly, which did not help

ease the worries of both Catholics who saw this as a fake conversion, and the Protestant

who feared that Huguenot support would end. Through 1598 and 1599 Henry IV managed

to pass the Edict of Nantes; a document that granted Freedom of worship to the Protestant

community, by including it to the French Nation. With this, it can be said that the Wars of

Religion ended, although problems certainly did not.

The overly conflictive nature of the second half of the Sixteenth Century in France

brewed the perfect climate for an ideological conflict that went out of the battle ground.

The religious sides engaged in a propaganda war, where Catholics used the public spectacle

of exorcisms to hammer down the advantages of their religion over their rival’s. Two of the

most recognisable cases that illustrate this are the exorcisms of Nicole Obry and the

convent at Loudun. Happening at very different points in time, they are both perfect

examples of how the Catholics used faith as a mean for control.

Nicole Obry was a sixteen newlywed who lived in Laon with her husband. On

November 3 1565, she allegedly was visited by the apparition of her deceased grandfather

who urged her to have their family pray for him as he was in purgatory, as well as to make

a series of pilgrimages to Notre Dame de Liesse, Arcy Saint Restitute, Saint Guillan, and

Santiago de Compostela. Nicole was left in her parents’ house at Vervins, and the male

portion of her family made all but the last pilgrimage, to which Nicole responded

negatively, as she started to suffer from seizures, and threatened that if her grandfather’s

request continued to be disregarded, she would turn deaf, mute and blind.

Worried about her state, the family consulted a local Dominican friar who

diagnosed that Nicole was in fact, not being affected by her grandfather’s spirit, but being
 Alejandro G. De Aguinaga

possessed by an evil spirit. Friar Pierre de la Motte was then invited to examine the girl,

and after conversing with the spirit in Latin, he got answered that it was the devil itself. The

friar and the bishop of Laon began to exorcise Nicole on the 27 th of November, 1565. The

first exorcism took place in Vervins, yet a great number of visitors forced it to be moved to

the cathedral of Laon, contrary to what church manuals said. The devil inside Nicole

threatened to not leave the body unless the exorcisms were public for God’s will to

manifest in public.

A special stage was erected inside the cathedral at Laon for the people to watch

Nicole in her bed respond to questions made to her in Flemish, German, French, and Latin,

as well as revealing people’s secrets. She was carried in processions from Vervins to

Laodun, and continued to suffer physical attacks that would only stop when given the

Eucharist. La Motte chose to use this as other Holy instruments had failed to work against

the devil. She would be fed an increasing amount of Hosts until the final exorcism on

February 8 of the following year.11

This was the first moment when demonology was used as an act of Catholic

propaganda against Protestant Huguenots12. The use of the Host as the ultimate tool for the

exorcism was made, as mentioned before, because it was the only thing that the devil inside

Nicole feared. It was with the use of Hosts that it revealed itself as Beelzebub and a

Huguenot leader13. He even explicitly confessed to fear the Eucharist as it was “the Real

Presence of God, as Catholicism maintained, and not just a sign of it, as Huguenots had

11
This is a synthesis of the accounts taken from Sluhovsky, Moshe. "A Divine Apparition or Demonic
Possession? Female Agency and Church Authority in Demonic Possession in Sixteenth-Century France." The
Sixteenth Century Journal 27, no. 4 (1996): 1039-1042 www.jstor.org/stable/2543907.
12
Op cit. Pearl, p.292
13
Op cit. Slushovsky, p.1041
 Alejandro G. De Aguinaga

it.”14 When fed an increased number of Hosts, more demons invaded Nicole and as they

were expelled, they announced their return to Geneva15, a Huguenot stronghold.

The Miracle of Laon, as it would be known, was an event that paved the way for

Catholics to use demonic possession and subsequent exorcisms to publicly state the

differences between Catholicism and Protestantism by reaffirming the miracle of

transubstantiation, and denouncing the Huguenots. The imagery that they managed to

produce out of these spectacles hit the mark, as Protestants in attendance ended up

converting to Catholicism and accepting it as the true religion 16. This early case was so

influential, mainly because, it worked. Not only was it a spectacle that gathered very large

crowds, but it also gave a victory to the Catholic cause, as even King Charles IX went to

Loudun to visit Nicole and congratulated her for the defence of Catholicism she had

performed17.

More than half a century later, well after the Edict of Nantes had passed, another big

public exorcism happened in the Ursuline convent of Loudun. A small city divided by

Protestant and Catholic lines, it started as Huguenot stronghold, as before 1624 Catholics

were not allowed to live there18. Catholics started to inhabit the city, and with them,

religious orders, as in 1626 the Ursuline convent was founded.

14
Ibid.
15
Ibid. P.1042
16
Op cit. Pearl, p.294
17
Op cit. Slushovsky, p.1042
18
Mair, Lucy. "Witchcraft, Spirit Possession and Heresy." Folklore91, no. 2 (1980): 231.
http://www.jstor.org.ucc.idm.oclc.org/stable/1260394.
 Alejandro G. De Aguinaga

In the city, a priest named Urbain Grandier was notorious for his opinions on clergy

celibacy, his sexual activity, and his Protestant connexions. He was a man of enemies,

among them the spiritual director of the Ursulines, Father Mignon.

In 1632, the convent’s prioress, Jean des Anges, and the nuns began seeing spirits

inside the convent that eventually took the form of Grandier 19. As the weeks passed, they

began to show signs of diabolical possession, and accused the former of being the direct

culprit of their attacks. Grandier appealed to the Archbishop of Burdeaux and the exorcisms

ceased.

However, a man named Martin de Laubardemont, who had been sent prior to

Loudun by Richelieu to tear down the fortifications of the city and clashed with Grandier

about it, caught word of the events and got a special commission from Richelieu to

investigate the matter.

Exorcisms began again, this time in public and, just like in Laon, stages were made

so that all who was interested could get a view of what was happening. During the

exorcisms the nuns accused Grandier of having signed a pact with the Devil and produced a

copy of the contract between them20. Grandier was accused and Laubardemont set up a

tribunal to judge him and he was found guilty, tortured and executed by being burned in the

stake on August 1634.

The possession persisted however, and Richelieu appointed the Jesuits to exorcise

the nuns in a much private manner21. This took until 1637, when Jean des Anges ended up

19
Sluhovsky, Moshe. "The Devil in the Convent." The American Historical Review 107, no. 5 (2002): 1379
www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/532851
20
Ibid.
21
Op cit. Mair, p.233
 Alejandro G. De Aguinaga

with stigmata in her arms, which took her to travel across France to show her marks to

“believers among them the royal couple and Cardinal Richelieu”, then she retreated to

Loudun and became a mystic 22

This case shows how public exorcisms were utilised to settle rivalries between

individuals, authorities, and religious groups. The spectacle created to help the nuns came

after they had already been examined and deemed not necessary. Political games were

being played and those involved were able to use their connections to make a statement that

ensured their position. It should also be noted how the orders involved, Capuchins and

Jesuits, were among those who felt a bigger resentment towards the Protestant community 23

Both cases are the product of the deep religious confrontation that had occurred in

France, though they have differences; the main one being the number of possessed. In the

Laon case, only Obry fell to the attacks of demons, whereas in Loudon an entire convent

was targeted.

Conclusion

The practice of public exorcisms in France during the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

was a direct result of the schism that happened with the Reformation. As different religious

groups emerged and different ways of interpreting the Christian dogma with them, conflicts

arose when these groups clashed. What started only as a signal of heresy from one group to

another and vice versa, escalated to fully armed conflicts that tore nations apart.

The different ways of interpreting religion gave foot to the Catholics to find ways of

establishing their message when confronted by the Reformers. The Counter-Reformation,

22
Op cit. Moshe “The Devil in the convent” p.1380
23
Op cit. Pearl, p.301
 Alejandro G. De Aguinaga

was not a process of fixing what was wrong, but to explain why the Catholic practices were

right, and by doing so, retaining the political power they had harnessed across Europe. The

spectacle of the massive public exorcism was an effective tool for the French Catholics, as

they managed to present the Sacrament as the true cure for the grievances of the possessed,

and their orders as the only ones who could deal with such problems. In essence, this

amounted to very effective propaganda for the Catholics in a divided nation.

 Alejandro G. De Aguinaga

Bibliography

Mair, Lucy. "Witchcraft, Spirit Possession and Heresy." Folklore91, no. 2 (1980):

http://www.jstor.org.ucc.idm.oclc.org/stable/1260394.

Pearl, Jonathan L. ""A School for the Rebel Soul": Politics and Demonic Possession in

France." Historical Reflections / Réflexions Historiques 16, no. 2/3 (1989)

http://www.jstor.org.ucc.idm.oclc.org/stable/41298924.

Sluhovsky, Moshe. "A Divine Apparition or Demonic Possession? Female Agency and

Church Authority in Demonic Possession in Sixteenth-Century France." The Sixteenth

Century Journal 27, no. 4 (1996): www.jstor.org/stable/2543907

Sluhovsky, Moshe. "The Devil in the Convent." The American Historical Review 107, no. 5

(2002): www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/532851

Watson, Lisa Jacqueline. “The Influence of the Reformation and Counter Reformation

upon Key Texts in the Literature of Witchcraft.” (Newcastle University, 1997)