The Encyclopedia Of Demons And Demonology

Swedenborg, Emanuel 251
Devil passes from the body of the possessed person, and
coming into mine, assaults me and overturns me, shakes
me, and visibly travels through me, possessing me for
several hours like an energumen. . . . Some say that it is
a chastisement from God upon me, as punishment for
some illusion; others say something quite different; as
for me, I hold fast where I am, and would not exchange
my fate for anyone’s, being firmly convinced that there is
nothing better than to be reduced to great extremities.
Surin asked D’Attichy to pray for him and to keep his letter
confidential, but the priest had it copied and widely
circulated.
Jeanne continued to exhibit signs of possession
until October 1635, when Surin succeeded in expelling
LEVIATHAN, followed by BALAAM on November 29
and ISACAARON on January 7, 1636. Next, he struggled
with Behemoth, but after 10 months of failure, he broke
down. Behemoth said he would leave if Jeanne made a
pilgrimage to the tomb of St. Francis de Sales, and Surin
went with her.
He accompanied her on part of the trip. He was by
then struck dumb by the devils, and he prayed for deliverance
at the tomb, without success. He was given a dried
clot of the saint’s blood to eat, but it enabled him to speak
only for a moment. Surin left to return to Bordeaux and,
along the way, regained enough speaking ability to give
strained sermons.
Surin said usually there were two demons in him,
Isacaaron and Leviathan. The DEVIL told him that he
would be deprived of everything, and the Devil had made
a PACT with a witch in order to prevent Surin from speaking
of God.
The demons tortured the priest. Surin said his possession
felt as if he had two different souls within him,
fighting over his body. He was subjected to extremes of
emotion and action, ranging from great peace at God’s
good pleasure to rage, aversion to God, and intense
and violent desire to cut himself off from God. His attempts
at spiritual practice, such as making the sign
of the cross, were immediately thwarted by the warring
demons within him. Any thoughts of goodness
were countered by rage. He was plagued by thoughts
of suicide.
Others told Surin that he was being punished by God
for some sin. If so, he said, he accepted his fate and was
glad to be reduced to extremities and was content to die.
Surin continued ill and tormented throughout 1637
and 1638. He had periods of lucidity and normalcy. By
1639, his afflictions worsened, and he lost the ability to
move and speak. He could not converse or preach and was
struck completely dumb for seven months. He could not
read or write, dress and undress himself, walk, or stand
upright. He slept in his clothes. He suffered fever and
partial paralysis and fell into a mysterious sickness that
defied the diagnosis of doctors and that no medical treatments
remedied. He vomited almost everything he ate.
From 1639 to 1657, Surin stopped writing letters and
communicating and lived in near-total isolation. He had
wild swings of mood, thought, and emotion. He was
seized with repeated temptation to burn down the house.
Others considered him insane and avoided him. He believed
he was a sorcerer who had the power to send demons
into others.
Visions of angry saints and an angry Christ tormented
him; he believed he was damned to HELL. Visions of the
Blessed Virgin Mary scowled at him in disapproval and
threw punishing thunderbolts that he felt throughout his
body.
On May 17, 1645, Surin attempted suicide at a Jesuit
house in Saint-Macaire, near Bordeaux, where he lived.
The house was built above a river. Surin threw himself
out of his window and landed on the rocks below. He survived
with a broken thighbone.
After a few months, Surin was able to walk again,
but with a limp, and to read and write. He even attained
enough inner strength to preach and hear confession. But
for the next three years, he was watched by a brother or
was tied to his bed to prevent more suicide attempts.
In 1648, a sympathetic brother, Father Bastide, was
appointed rector of the College of Saintes and took Surin
with him. Bastide nursed him back to a functioning
level of health. Surin felt better mentally if he was in pain
physically. He still considered himself damned, completely
evil.
He returned to Bordeaux. From 1651 to 1655, he managed
to dictate his greatest work, The Spiritual Catechism.
In 1657, he recovered a limited ability to scrawl words on
paper, and, in 1660, he regained an ability to walk. He
had profound psychic experiences, and, through his good
angel, began dispensing personal advice. He was ordered
to stop. (Jeanne did the same thing later in her life but
was allowed to continue.)
Surin began functioning as a priest again, visiting the
sick, and writing letters. His behavior was odd, however,
and his superiors censored most of his letters.
In 1663, he wrote his account of the Loudun affair,
Experimental Science. He died peacefully in 1665.
Modern commentators have opined that Surin was
never really possessed, because he retained his own intelligence,
and that he was instead in the grip of a longlasting
obsession.
FURTHER READING:
Huxley, Aldous. The Devils of Loudun. New York: Harper and
Brothers, 1952.
Swedenborg, Emanuel (1688–1772) Scientist and
mystic who traveled out of body to both heaven and
HELL. Emanuel Swedenborg described in great detail the
structure and hierarchy of the afterlife. He believed that
people make the choice of either heaven or hell. Swedenborg
wrote about his experiences, but his views were
rejected by his contemporaries. After his death, his works