The Encyclopedia Of Demons And Demonology

Loudun Possessions 149
debate on the veracity of the nuns’ sufferings, the theological
probability of witchcraft, and the possibility that
Grandier had been sacrificed for his political missteps.
A total of 27 nuns claimed to be possessed, obsessed,
or bewitched. The EXORCISMs became a circus of public
spectacles conducted at the Ursuline convent, local
chapels, and even private homes. Though the case had
generally ended by 1634 with the execution of Grandier,
exorcisms continued until 1637.
The Ursuline Convent
The Ursuline convent was new, established in 1626 by 17
nuns, most of them of noble birth. They were not particularly
pious but were sent to the convent because their
families could not afford dowries large enough to attract
suitors of comparable rank. Most were resigned to their
fate and lived lives of boredom at the convent.
The only place they could afford to rent for their quarters
was a gloomy house no one would live in because it
was notoriously haunted. There was no furniture and the
nuns slept on the floor. They did menial work and did not
eat meat. Soon the locals realized that the nuns were well
connected by blood to important people, and so they sent
their daughters to the convent for education.
In 1627, a new superior was appointed: Jeanne des Anges,
formerly Jeanne de Belciel, a baron’s daughter. Contemporaries
of Jeanne des Anges described her both as a
living saint and as a strange, ambitious woman. She was
arrogant, mean, rich, and extravagant in her secular life as
the daughter of a baron. Sent to the convent because her
hunchback and unattractive appearance made her marriage
prospects poor, Jeanne nursed secret resentments.
She feigned piety in order to become mother superior.
Grandier’s Rise and Fall
In 1617, Grandier was appointed parish priest of St.-
Pierre-du-Marche in Loudun, a town in Poitiers, France.
He cut quite a figure. Handsome, urbane, wealthy, and eloquent,
he had no trouble finding women willing to help
him bend his priestly vows. He inspired admiration and
adoration and at the same time resentment and envy. Everything
he did was successful, and he enjoyed the support
of powerful people.
Grandier reveled in his popularity and often acted
arrogantly. He quarreled with people and did not care
whether they became enemies. Townspeople suspected
him of fathering a child by Philippa Trincant, the daughter
of the king’s solicitor in Loudun, and he openly
courted Madeleine de Brou, daughter of the king’s councilor,
to whom he composed a treatise against the celibacy
of priests. Most assumed Madeleine was Grandier’s
mistress.
Grandier’s first serious setback occurred June 2, 1630,
when he was arrested for immorality and found guilty
by his enemy, the bishop of Poitiers. But Grandier’s own
political connections restored him to full clerical duties
within the year. Next, Grandier’s enemies approached
Father Mignon, confessor to the Ursuline nuns at their
convent and a relative of Trincant. The plan was for Father
Mignon to persuade a few of the sisters to feign possession,
swearing that Father Grandier had bewitched them,
causing his removal and downfall. The mother superior,
Jeanne des Anges, and another nun readily complied, falling
into fits and convulsions, holding their breath and
speaking in hoarse voices.
Jeanne became sexually obsessed with Grandier and
had strange dreams in which he appeared to her as a radiant
angel but spoke more as a devil would, enticing her to
sexual acts and vices. Her hysterical dreams and ravings
disturbed the peace of the convent, and after flagellation
and penance, Jeanne was no quieter, and more nuns had
succumbed to hallucinations and dreams. At this point,
some accounts report Jeanne called for Father Mignon’s
help, not the other way around.
Father Mignon and Father Pierre Barre, his aide, saw
an opportunity for revenge against Grandier. There was
no shortage of other enemies of Grandier, for he had made
many, especially concerning his seductions of women in
town.
When word circulated that the Ursuline nuns were
bewitched and possessed and Grandier was responsible,
the curé shrugged off the gossip. It was a foolish mistake,
for the revised Witchcraft Act of 1604 called for the death
penalty upon conviction of sorcery, WITCHCRAFT, and
diabolical PACT. The development of sorcery accusations
against Grandier had grave implications.
The two priests began exorcizing the nuns, while
Jeanne and the others shrieked, cavorted, and suffered
convulsive fits. Whether the rituals added to the performance
or caused Jeanne’s mind to snap, she swore that
she and the others were possessed by two DEMONs, ASMO-
DEUS and ZABULON, sent by Father Grandier via a bouquet
of roses thrown over the convent walls.
Now realizing his peril, Grandier appealed to the bailiff
of Loudun to have the nuns isolated, but the bailiff’s
orders were ignored. In desperation, Grandier wrote to
the archbishop of Bordeaux; the archbishop sent his doctor
to examine the nuns and found no evidence of possession.
The archbishop ended the exorcisms on March 21,
1633, and ordered the nuns to confinement in their cells.
Peace returned for a while, but the hysteria began again
later that year.
Still convinced he could not be convicted of such
imaginary crimes, Grandier was thrown into prison
at the castle of Angiers on November 30, 1633. DEVIL’S
MARKS were quickly found by lancing him in one part of
the body, causing pain, and lightly touching him elsewhere,
causing none. Observers such as Dr. Fourneau,
the physician who prepared Grandier for torture, and
the apothecary from Poitiers protested the examiner’s
hoax and found no such marks. Other voices were raised
in Grandier’s defense, even from the possessed nuns
themselves.