Loudun, France 1632. It’s late at night when suddenly, Jeanne
awoke from a deep sleep to find a man standing over her mat. The mysterious stranger wept, begging her
to pray with him. Fumbling in terror, she excused herself and
fled, fetching another nun who saw nothing….but for the rest of the night both of them were
disturbed by mysterious whispers. Over the next several days, Jeanne began seeing
the phantasm during the daytime. Sometimes he begged her to pray. Sometimes he whispered lascivious things to
her. Jeanne’s skin crawled, it felt like her
very bones itched. Soon many of the nuns in the Ursuline convent
of Loudun began experiencing similar symptoms. Blood raced through their veins, their hearts
pounded. They hallucinated. Voices urged them to do wicked things. No matter how much penance and self flagellation
the nuns performed, the symptoms persisted. Their confessor thought they were possessed
by demons. He began holding exorcisms; sprinkling the
nuns with holy water and praying over them. The nuns cried out and mewled like cats. They writhed and contorted their bodies into
sexual positions. By the authority of God, the priest demanded
to know who had cursed the brides of Christ. The eyes of one of the nuns rolled back into
her head and a deep voice emanated from her mouth. “Urban Grandier,” answered the demon. Father Urban Grandier--the clergy had been
betrayed by one of their own. In 1617, Urbain Grandier was appointed the
parish priest of the Church of Saint-Pierre-du-Marche in the small town of Loudun. He made a stir when he arrived at his post. He was good looking, wealthy and well educated. Over the next few years Grandier garnered
quite a reputation. Despite the fact that priests were supposed
to be celibate, he had secret affairs with several women of the town. Quick witted and clever, Grandier was good
at criticizing townspeople who disagreed with him. Some felt he was sympathetic to Huguenots,
Protestant Christians who believed that simple devout faith was preferable in religious life
than the lavish ceremonies of the Roman Catholics. There had been an ongoing power struggle between
the religious sects for some time and Grandier found himself in the middle of it. His sexual escapades and his political beliefs
made him a lot of enemies and only added fuel to the fire. Meanwhile, in 1626 near Loudun, the Ursuline
convent was established. The convent quickly became a popular place
to send noble daughters who couldn’t be married off due to lack of money for a dowry
or other reasons. One of the few joys of the austere lives of
the Ursuline nuns was gossiping about townspeople, the most popular topic being Father Grandier. After the first prioress passed away, in 1627,
a new superior was appointed: Jeanne des Anges. She had been sent to the convent because her
hunchback and unattractive appearance made her marriage prospects poor. Ambitious Jeanne manipulated and lied her
way into being appointed mother superior. Though the women ran the nunnery themselves,
they still confessed to a male priest. Jeanne was apparently obsessed with Grandier
and asked him to be the convent’s chaplain. He declined the honor. In other accounts, Grandier wanted the position,
but due to his behavior he wasn’t considered a suitable confessor for pure, young Brides
of Christ. Either way, Father Mignon who had a sterling
reputation was selected to be the confessor for the nuns of Ursuline. In 1630, some of Grandier’s critics managed
to bring charges against him for immorality. An enemy, the bishop of Poitiers found him
guilty. However, due to his connections to high political
figures, Grandier was restored to full clerical duties within the year. Not long afterwards, the Loudun region was
struck by a typhus plague. The covent and other areas self segregated
to limit exposure to sickness. While the plague mainly subsided after about
6 months, anxiety, paranoia and other mental health issues were rampant among the citizens. By this time Jeanne had been prioress for
about 5 years. She was in charge of 17 nuns with an average
age of 25. For a long time, Jeanne had stewed over the
fact that Father Grandier wasn’t the confessor for the nunnery. She worked herself into hallucinations or
lied and claimed she was experiencing hallucinations. Real or not, she confessed to Father Mignon
about visions of Grandier tormenting her. Father Mignon and his assistant Father Barre
were not fans of Grandier; they promptly turned this odd situation to their advantage. Later some of the nuns were to claim that
Father Mignon harassed and tricked them into being possessed. It's possible that the Bishop of Poitiers
conspired with Father Mignon to get the nuns to claim that Father Grandier had bewitched
them. The truth is lost to history. Symptoms spread throughout the nuns and soon
most of the nunnery was afflicted with possession. The nuns experienced everything from fits,
to beatings from invisible spectres and hives. Curiously some of the nuns seemed to suddenly
speak foreign languages or displayed superhuman strength, and a host of other crazy symptoms. Father Mignon began holding exorcisms at the
convent. When prayed over or sprinkled with holy water,
the nuns reacted, twisting their bodies into odd shapes, uttering blasphemies in deep voices
and crudely propositioning the priests in graphic sexual terms. When questioned, some of the nuns named the
demons who had taken over their bodies. Others, especially Jeanne claimed that Grandier
had seduced them and that he was a magician practicing the dark arts. At first, Grandier was incredulous and laughed
off the nuns’ claims. It was a foolish misculation. The Witchcraft Act of 1604 called for the
death penalty upon conviction of sorcery, Witchcraft, and diabolical Pact. As the accusations of witchcraft persisted,
Grandier began to take the issue seriously and mount a defense. He wrote the Archbishop of Bordeaux, who ended
up sending his personal physician to examine the nuns. The doctor found no evidence of true possession. In March of 1633, the Archbishop ordered the
exorcisms ceased and the convent sequestered. The issue died down for several months, but
later in the year the hysteria returned. Cardinal Richelieu, who held power both in
the Catholic church and as King Louis XIII's chief minister got involved on behalf of the
government. Previously Richelieu and Grandier had clashed
over Huguenots issues. In November 1633, Richelieu appointed a political
crony of his, Jean De Laubardemont, as leader of a commission to investigate if Grandier
was a witch. As a precaution Grandier was arrested and
imprisoned in the Castle of Algiers so he couldn’t flee the area. The priests resumed exorcisms, but with a
twist--instead of being held at the convent, the exorcisms began being held publically. In addition to Father Mignon and Father Barres,
two other priests who specialized in exorcism- Father Tranquille, and Father Lactance- joined
the proceedings. Up to 7,000 spectators came to see the possessed
nuns. Seeing the sexual acting out of the nuns turned
public opinion against Grandier. Also, many of the townspeople converted from
Protestant to Catholicism as a result of the public exorcisms. Meanwhile, the commission questioned Grandier,
adding further accusations. They forced him to sign statements and denials
which were then taken by Laubardemont to the royal court in Paris. The commission also intercepted letters and
petitions from Grandier’s supporters. In May of 1634, Laubardemont returned to Loudun
with a Decree of the Council, extending his powers and prohibiting Parlement and all other
judges from interfering in the matter, as well as forbidding all parties concerned from
appealing under penalty of a fine. In fact, several Grandier supporters chose
to flee France because of fear of the authorities denouncing them as accessory witches. During the trial an alleged pact made between
Grandier and the Devil was brought to light. The pact which confirmed Grandier’s wicked
duplicity was said to be stolen from Lucifer’s cabinet of devilish agreements by one of the
tormenting demons. The agreement allegedly written backward by
Grandier in Latin and signed in Blood, outlined Grandier’s duties to the Devil and the benefits
he would receive in turn. Cosigners were Satan, Beelzebub, Lucifer,
ELIMI, Leviathan, and Astaroth, and it was notarized by “signature and mark of the
chief devil, and my lords the princes of hell.” Some nuns including Jeanne des Anges began
recanting their testimonies of possession, proclaiming Grandier’s innocence. She even appeared in court with a noose around
her neck, threatening to hang herself if they didn’t let her recant her prior lies. Ultimately, 72 witnesses swore evidence against
Grandier. Forgoing normal court procedures, the Royal
Commission quickly passed a sentence on August 18, 1634. Urbain Grandier was found guilty of sorcery
and placing evil spells to cause the possession of the Ursuline nuns. His punishment was to be burned alive at the
stake. However, before his execution Grandier was
subjected to various tortures including the boot in order to force him to name his accomplices. Though they broke both his legs, Grandier
refused to provide names. He apologized for his previous lascivious
ways, but steadfastly maintained his innocence of witchcraft and any contracts with the devil. Often the condemned were allowed to make a
last statement to the crowd and were compassionately strangled before burning at the stake. However, Grandier was not allowed this small
mercy. Once he was on the scaffold the friars deluged
him with holy water, preventing him from speaking. Also Father Lactance lit the funeral pyre
before the executioner could strangle Grandier, causing him to be burned alive. But Grandier had the last word. As he struggled against the flames, Grandier
reportedly told Father Lactance that he would see God in 30 days. Grandier was correct; Father Lactance died
within a month. In fact Grandier’s death seemed to unleash
a curse upon several people involved with the trial.Within five years, Father Tranquille,
one of the trial judges, Louis Chauvet and Dr. Mannoury, a fraudulent physician, fell
into delirium and died insane. Father Barre eventually ended up being banished
from the church for conspiring to accuse a priest of rape on the altar. Not long after Grandier’s death, Father
Jean-Joseph Surin came to Loudon to perform exorcisms. Jeanne de Anges had flip flopped back and
forth between being possessed and claiming that she lied. Father Surin attempted an exorcism for her
and allegedly became possessed by Jeanne’s devils. Haunted, he went into a slow decline, eventually
becoming unable to eat, dress himself, walk, read, or write. He tried to commit suicide, but was taken
in by the Jesuit College at Saintes, and was slowly nursed back to health. However, Jeanne des Anges recovered from her
malady. She ended up travelling France displaying
the curious physical sign from God that was proof of her exorcism and supernatural healing:
the names of Jesus, Mary, Joseph, and François de Sales miraculously and indelibly etched
on her left hand. The exorcisms continued until 1637, 3 years
after Grandier’s death. They had become quite the tourist attraction,
twice a day except Sundays, the afflicted nuns were exorcised for the titillation of
the crowds. Finally Cardinal Richeliu cut off financial
support and the shows ended. Now, check out this video on an ancient torture
method, the Roman Candle.: The Enfield Poltergeist caused panic and fear
in a small town in England. But what was really going on?:
