Demonic Possession and Exorcism in Early Modern France (review)

The interpretative framework of this book hinges on three 'predisposing conditions' for the expansion of the French use of exorcism in the Early Modern period: religious war, witch trials, and affective spirituality. Part 1 follows the fortunes of exorcism in France in the second half of the sixteenth century, beginning with perhaps the most famous continental possession case of Nicole Orby in 1566. The rise of Protestantism in France challenged Catholicism, and Huguenots decried the miracle of the Host as the Body of Christ at Mass. Exorcism of the possessed became the prime devotional display used to reinforce the Catholic faith. Showing approval for the power of solely Catholic devotional forms, exorcisms were used to deliver the possessed, thereby reasserting the significance of Catholicism as the religion of the community. By exorcism, Catholics showed their unique ability to humble Satan and his heretical agents, the Huguenots.

Trials for witchcraft reached a peak in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries in France although the trials did not arise so much from the reading of demonological literature but, rather, from the preoccupation of the literate class with the power of the devil. Possession cases, public exorcisms and witchcraft accusations underscored the vulnerability and the power of the French priesthood. The problem of the status of Catholic priests in possession cases is addressed in Part 2. Some seventeenth century French possession cases highlighted this problem, arising from accusations by the possessed that their bodies contained devils which priests and senior female religious persons had placed within them by witchcraft. The 1609 to 1611 Ursuline convent possession cases in Aix-en-Provence and those of the Hospitaller nuns at Louviers in Normandy in the 1640s form the background for the analysis. After 1647, arguments arose among Catholics concerning the authenticity of possession and exorcism and about 'the risks of a more affective, potentially diabolical, form of religiosity.' Widespread in the seventeenth century, this type of spirituality was a key element in further possession episodes.

Part 3 highlights the existence of a scale of authenticity that separated into three distinct areas: spirituality of a divinely endowed ecstatic nature, demonic possession that was potentially suspect, and outright witchcraft. The identification of the presence of evil was generated by a people made anxious by war, witchcraft, and affective spirituality. Anxiety about the presence of the devil generated the proliferation of exorcisms as well as the challenges to its use. Essentially, the foundations of religious authority in Early Modern France were made malleable by exorcism practices that were both a response to and a contributory factor in demonic possession and exorcism in the French Early Modern period. At the centre of the debate concerning the authenticity of possession and exorcism cases was the authority of the Church. Its authority was emphasized through successful exorcisms, but counteracting this was the potentiality of the diabolical origins of such cases because the charismatic and sacramental forms of such exorcisms were suspect. By the end of the seventeenth century, public exorcisms were no longer evident in the mainstream; outbreaks confined as localized events. Such a situation can be associated with the change in the predisposing conditions, religious war, witch trials, and affective spirituality, which had generated demonic possession and exorcism in Early Modern France.

The detail of this work teases out the complex relationship that existed between witchcraft and possession, not only for Early Modern France, but also in more recent times. Using a 1993 Australian example of possession, and the legal case which ensued, Ferber shows that conflicts surrounding the figure of the devil from the Early Modern period are still part of the human experience in Christianity today. The trial of four people for the manslaughter of Joan Vollmer in Victoria highlighted the continuity of disparate views. The testimony of a rural Catholic priest was used in their defence, but a vicar-general of the Catholic Church for the prosecution repudiated the exorcism which they...