The Encyclopedia Of Demons And Demonology

mirror 177
and wrote it on a piece of paper and burned it. Beelzebub
shrieked but did not depart. The demon quickly became
immune to this procedure and even remarked that it was
a waste of paper and ink.
Obry was moved to the cathedral in Laon when Beelzebub
complained that a prince of his rank could be
expelled only by a bishop in a suitable location. The exorcisms
continued on stage in the cathedral for two days
but moved to a private chapel to prevent mob chaos. But
Beelzebub protested again. In the account of Obry’s exorcism
by the Hebrew professor Jean Boulaese in 1578,
Beelzebub told the priests that “it was not right to hide
what God wanted to be manifested and known to all the
world,” and that he would only leave Obry in “that great
brothel” (the cathedral), and on stage.
The exorcisms grew to two times a day, during which
Obry gave an impressive demoniacal performance, with
contortions, horrible noises, blackened tongue, rigidity,
and levitation. Beelzebub commanded center attention,
but 29 other demons also made appearances.
During the rituals, the priests tried to use more traditional
methods, such as holy water, relics, the sign of
the cross, and prayers to the Virgin Mary, but these only
succeeded in angering Beelzebub. Only the host, or Eucharist—the
body and BLOOD of Christ—tamed him. By
submitting to the host, Beelzebub confirmed the power of
the Real Presence. On one occasion, Beelzebub called the
Eucharist “Jack the White.” Before this, the Eucharist had
not been used as a principal weapon in exorcisms, making
this case unusual.
Obry occasionally suffered repossessions as often as
50 times a day, leading to mass consumption of holy wafers.
The host began to be regarded as medicine for her
spiritual sickness. Although he admitted that he was the
father of lies, Beelzebub taunted Huguenot doubters about
Obry’s possession, gleefully noting that their doubts of
faith made them all the more precious to him. Through
Obry, Beelzebub also pointed out sinners in the masses
watching the exorcisms, revealing their secret, unconfessed
sins. Many went to receive confession, and some
rejoined the church. On some days, thousands confessed
out of sheer fear of exposure by Beelzebub; priests were
stationed everywhere in the cathedral to handle the demand.
As propaganda for the Catholics, Obry’s sufferings
were unparalleled.
French theologians did not use the accusations of demoniacs
against the accused witch until the 17th century.
But it may have been the possession of Obry at Laon that
planted the seeds of such evidence. As well as identifying
secret sinners, Beelzebub, through Obry, accused some
women of witchcraft while still in Vervins. According
to the account by Barthelemy Faye, a magistrate, Obry
claimed that a gypsy woman, not a man, as some claimed,
had bewitched her early in her possession. In addition,
the Huguenots continually claimed SORCERY and MAGIC
against Obry’s mother, one of the exorcists, and a priest,
Despinoys, who accompanied Obry after her expulsion
from Laon.
Beelzebub finally left Obry at 3:00 P.M. on Friday, February
8, 1566. After his expulsion, Obry and her husband
remained in Laon until, fearing outright religious war,
the Huguenots succeeded in barring Obry from the city.
Still weak, Obry survived only on communion wafers. She
made one last bid for celebrity in 1577, when she became
blind and was cured, not by the host, but by the holy relic
of John the Baptist’s head.
The Catholic Church, rejoicing in this miraculous affirmation
of transubstantiation, used the accounts of it to
their greatest advantage. Future cases of possession and
exorcisms relied on the happenings at Laon, and even
certain Huguenots, including Florimond De Raemond,
the historian of 16th-century heresy, were converted. Obry’s
redemption was celebrated at the Cathedral of Laon
on February 8 until the French Revolution at the close of
18th century.
FURTHER READING:
Calmet, Dom Augustin. The Phantom World: Concerning
Apparitions and Vampires. Ware, England: Wordsworth
Editions in association with the Folklore Society, 2001.
Walker, D. P. Unclean Spirits: Possession and Exorcism in
France and England in the Late Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth
Centuries. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania
Press, 1981.
mirror According to folklore, a doorway or portal
through which spirits, including ghosts and DEMONs, can
gain access to the physical world. Mirrors are problems
in some cases of demonic infestations and hauntings.
Since ancient times, any shiny surface has been regarded
as a spirit doorway and can be used deliberately
to summon spirits into the world. They also are used for
seeing visions of the future. Much of the folklore about
mirrors is negative. In widespread belief, they are “soul
stealers” with the power to suck souls out of bodies. In
the Greek myth of Narcissus, he sees his own reflection
in water, pines away, and dies. The DEVIL and demons
can enter through mirrors to attack people, according to
some beliefs.
There also are numerous beliefs about mirrors and
the dead. When a person dies, all the mirrors in a house
should be turned over, for if a corpse sees itself in a mirror,
the soul of the dead will have no rest or will become
a vampire. Corpses seeing themselves in mirrors also
will draw bad luck upon the household. Such beliefs hark
back to days when the corpses were laid out in homes,
and people believed that souls lingered about the body
until burial.
Another folk belief holds that if a person sees his or
her own reflection in a room where someone has died, it
is a death omen. Mirrors also should be covered in sick
rooms in the folk belief that the soul is weakened and
more vulnerable to possession during illness.