Volume - The Clarence Darrow Collection

124 FROM "DEMONIACAL POSSESSION" TO INSANITY.
produced, whose influence upon religion and upon the mil
of Louis XIV was enormous Bossuet, Bishop of Meau^
There had been reason to expect that Bossuet would
least do something to mitigate the ;
superstition for his wi
ings show that, in much which before his day had be<
ascribed to diabolic possession, he saw simple lunacy. Ui
fortunately, the same adherence to the literal interpretati(
of Scripture which led him to oppose every other scientif
truth developed in his time, led him also to attack this : h
delivered and published two great sermons, which, whil
showing some progress in the form of his belief, showei
none the less that the fundamental idea oi diabolic possessic
was still to be tenaciously held. What this idea was mi
be seen in one typical statement : he declared that " a sinj
devil could turn the earth round as easily as we turn
marble." *
III. THE FINAL STRUGGLE AND VICTORY OF SCIENCE.
PINEL AND TUKE.
.11
The theological current, thus re-enforced, seemed to Ix
come again irresistible ; but it was only so in appearance
In spite of it, French scepticism continued to develop ; sign
of quiet change among the mass of thinking men were a{
pearing ;
more and more
and in 1672 came one of great si^
nificance, for, the Parliament of Rouen having doomed fou
teen sorcerers to be burned, their execution was fc
delayed
two years, evidently on account of scepticism among ofl
cials and at ; length the great minister of Louis XIV, Colber
issued an edict checking such trials, and ordering the co
victed to be treated for madness.
Victory seemed now to incline to the standard of scienc
and in 1725 no less a personage than St. Andr6, a cou
physician, dared to publish a work virtually showing " der
"
oniacal possession to be lunacy.
* See the two sermons, Sur les Demons (which are virtually but two forms
the same sermon), in Bossuet's works, edition of 1845, vol. iii, p. 236 et seq.\ a
Dziewicki, in The Nineteenth Century, as above. On Bossuet's resistance to otl
scientific truths, especially in astronomy, geology, and political economy, see otl
chapters in this work.
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