The Encyclopedia Of Demons And Demonology

Miracle of Laon 175
In the aftermath, efforts were made by critics of the case
to have exorcism banned or at least changed.
Seers throughout Europe continue to deliver messages
from Michel about judgment and other religious matters.
Her grave continues to be visited by pilgrims. Adding to
the legend surrounding her are stories of deaths and accidents
related to people who attacked her or the priests
who tried to help her.
In her analysis of the case, the anthropologist Felicitas
D. Goodman opined that the anticonvulsant medications
prescribed to Michel, all of which had serious side effects,
had interfered with her own ability to regain control of
herself, interfered with the exorcism process, and thus
probably contributed to her death.
Michel’s story was made into a film, The Exorcism of
Emily Rose, released in 2005. The film was directed by
Scott Derrickson and stars Jennifer Carpenter as Emily
Rose and Tom Wilkinson as Father Moore, a Catholic
priest.
Rose dies after Moore performs an exorcism on her,
and Moore is charged with negligent homicide. The prosecutor,
Ethan Thomas (Campbell Scott), bases his case on
the argument that Rose’s affliction had a medical explanation,
and Moore killed the girl by preventing her from
taking her necessary medication. The defense counsel,
Erin Bruner (Laura Linney), claims that Rose’s condition
and death were due to supernatural causes.
The trial becomes a stage for the debate of religion,
philosophy, and supernatural beliefs. The principals suffer
events of an apparent supernatural nature during the
course of their arguments. Whether or not Rose actually
suffered from demonic possession is never declared in the
film; it is left to the viewer.
A German film purporting to follow the true story
more closely, Requiem, was released in 2006.
FURTHER READING:
Goodman, Felicitas D. The Exorcism of Anneliese Michel. Garden
City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1981.
Mictantecutli Aztec lord of the underworld and king
of DEMONs. Mictantecutli is the only Aztec deity besides
the Sun god, Tonacaecutli, who wears a crown. He is
depicted as a skeleton on a throne and keeps with him an
owl, a clump of desert grass, a corpse, and a dish of
human hearts.
Mictantecutli tortures the souls of those who are imprisoned
in his dark kingdom, Mictlampa. He occasionally
travels to the realm of the living in search of new
victims. He rules the dreaded hour of midnight, when he
releases all his demons upon the world. They have free
reign until daybreak.
Miracle of Laon (1566) Sensational POSSESSION case in
Laon, France. The Catholic Church used the daily EXOR-
CISMs of Nicole Obry (also Aubry) before huge crowds as
examples of the church’s power over the DEVIL to support
it in religious struggles with the French Huguenots.
Through Obry, BEELZEBUB claimed the Huguenots as his
own people, gleefully noting that their supposed heresies
made them even more precious to him. The demon was
exorcised through repeated administration of holy
wafers, a precedent in exorcism, and proved to the faithful
the danger of the threat of Huguenot reform.
The central issue dividing French Catholics and Huguenots
was transubstantiation, or the Real Presence:
whether or not, during communion, the bread and wine
actually became the body and blood of Christ. This miracle
occurred for Catholics, whereas Huguenots considered
such an interpretation to be idolatry. By exorcising Beelzebub
with the help of holy wafers, the Catholic Church
declared a victory for the power of the presence.
Obry had a troubled past with problems of fits before
she showed signs of possession in 1565, at age 15
or 16. The daughter of a butcher in Vervins, near Laon
in Picardy, she had spent eight years in a convent at
Montreuil-les-Dames. She was a dull-witted student but
learned to read. Her fits probably had physical causes, not
hysteria, unlike those of many other female demoniacs.
She had suffered two severe head injuries, one from a dog
bite and one from a falling tile. As a result, she suffered
from chronic headache until she was exorcised. At the
time of her possession, she had been married for a short
time to a merchant, Louis Pierret. Despite her history, she
was a stunning and convincing demoniac and exhibited
uncanny and genuine clairvoyance via the possessing
demons.
One day, while Obry prayed alone in church, the spirit
of her maternal grandfather, Joachim Willot, visited her.
Willot entered the girl and explained that since he died
suddenly after supper and had not confessed his sins nor
accomplished certain vows, his soul was in purgatory.
He asked for her help to enable him to ascend to heaven:
Obry should have masses said in his name, give alms to
the poor, and make holy pilgrimages, especially to the
shrine of St. James of Compostela.
Obry’s family complied but evaded the pilgrimage to
St. James, perhaps because of the expense involved. Her
convulsive fits, present since Willot’s possession, did not
improve, and Obry blamed her family’s failure to visit St.
James. The family arranged a fake departure for the pilgrimage,
but Obry was not deceived. At this point, the family
asked the local priest, the schoolmaster, and a Dominican
monk to conjure the spirit, who admitted he was not the
soul of Willot but his good ANGEL. Knowing this to be heresy,
the priests finally made the spirit admit he was a devil.
For two months, Obry was exorcized daily in front
of ever-growing crowds. The first exorcisms were done
in Vervin, where inexperienced priests first used a handbook
on baptismal exorcism, then obtained a book of
demonic exorcisms. They followed instructions to find
out the name of the demon and, when they succeeded
in getting Beelzebub’s name, did as the manual directed