Urbain Grandier and the mystery of the Devils of Loudun
Urbain Grandier
Urbain Grandier (born 1590 in Bouère – died 18 August 1634 in Loudun) was a French Catholic priest who was burned at the stake after being convicted of witchcraft following the events of the Loudun Possessions. Appointed parish priest of St-Pierre-du-Marché in Loudun, a town in Poitou, France, in 1617, Grandier was considered very good-looking, wealthy, and well-educated. This combination made him a target for the attention of the girls in Loudun, including the nuns. Ignoring his vow of celibacy, he is known to have had sexual relationships with a number of women, acquiring a reputation as a philanderer and leaving a trail of jealous women behind with dangerous loose ends. He also wrote a book attacking the discipline of clerical celibacy.
Modern commentators like Aldous Huxley, whose novel The Devils of Loudun (1952) is more famous than the book you are holding in your hands, have argued that the accusations began after Grandier refused to become the spiritual director of the convent. Unaware that the Mother Superior, Sister Jeanne of the Angels, had become obsessed with him, having seen him from afar and heard of his sexual exploits, Grandier’s rejection enraged Sister Jeanne, who then invited Canon Mignon, an enemy of Grandier, to become the director. Jeanne then accused Grandier of using black magic to seduce her. The other nuns gradually began to make similar accusations.
Grandier was interrogated and tried by an ecclesiastical tribunal, but he was a well-connected man, high in political circles. When he was arrested and found guilty of immorality on June 2, 1630, these connections restored him to full clerical duties within the same year. However, Grandier had gained the enmity of the powerful Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister of France, after a public verbal attack against him. Grandier had also written and published scathing criticisms of Richelieu.
Richelieu ordered a new trial, conducted by his special envoy Jean de Laubardemont, a relative of the Mother Superior of the convent of Loudun. Grandier was rearrested at Angers, and the possibility of appealing to the Parlement of Paris was denied to him. Interrogated for a second time, the nuns (including the Mother Superior) did not renew their accusations, but this did not affect the predetermined outcome of the trial. While the defense witnesses were forced to flee, 72 witnesses swore evidence against Grandier, who was denied the normal procedure of trial by a secular court. Had he been tried by a secular court, Grandier could have appealed to the Parliament of Paris. Instead, Richelieu’s committee took charge of the legal proceedings.
After torturing Father Grandier, the judges (chttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldous_Huxleylerics Lactance, Laubardemont, Surin, and Tranquille) introduced documents purportedly signed by Grandier and several demons as evidence that he had made a diabolical pact. It is unknown whether Grandier wrote or signed the pacts under duress or whether they were entirely forged. Grandier was found guilty and sentenced to death. Despite enduring the most horrible forms of torture, Grandier never confessed to witchcraft. He was burned alive at the stake.
‘They threw themselves back till their heads touched their feet, and walked in this position with wonderful rapidity, and for a long time. They uttered: cries so horrible and so loud that nothing like it was ever heard before; they made use of expressions so indecent as to shame the most debauched of men, while their acts, both in exposing themselves and inviting lewd behaviour from those present, would have astonished the inmates of the lowest brothel in the country.’
The Exorcisms at Loudun
The exorcisms at Loudun involved severe cases of demonic possession. Reports described the possessed as performing extreme and disturbing acts: “They threw themselves back until their heads touched their feet and walked in this position with remarkable speed for a long time. They uttered cries so horrible and loud that nothing like it had ever been heard before. They used expressions so indecent as to shame the most debauched of men, while their actions, both in exposing themselves and inviting lewd behavior from those present, would have astonished the inmates of the lowest brothel in the country.”
Fathers Mignon and Barré performed exorcisms, during which several nuns, including Jeanne des Anges, suffered violent convulsions, shrieked, and made sexual motions toward the priests. Following Jeanne des Anges’ lead, many nuns reported illicit dreams, and the accusers would suddenly bark, scream, blaspheme, and contort their bodies. Jeanne claimed that she and the other nuns were possessed by two demons, Asmodeus and Zebulun, sent to them when Father Grandier tossed a bouquet of roses over the convent walls. The demon Gressil, mentioned for the first time in literature in the records of the Loudun possessions, was later identified by Sebastien Michaelis as the demon of impurity and uncleanliness, third in the order of Thrones.
When exorcisms resumed at Loudun, expert exorcists Capuchin Father Tranquille, Franciscan Father Lactance, and Jesuit Father Jean-Joseph Surin led public sessions attended by up to 7,000 spectators. The priests used dramatic commands, threats, and rituals to direct and encourage the nuns’ accusations against Grandier. Stories from both the nuns and Father Grandier’s former lovers added to the hysteria prompted by the public exorcisms. Like the Louviers and Aix-en-Provence possessions, the claims against Grandier were overtly sexual and elicited visible physical responses. The public and dramatic nature of the exorcisms made it easy to make Urbain Grandier a scapegoat for the citizens of Loudun and the surrounding areas.
Jeanne des Anges and other nuns added to their accusations by claiming possession by a third demon, Isacaron, the devil of debauchery. Jeanne went through a psychosomatic pregnancy, and she and the other nuns claimed to be possessed by a multitude of demons, including Asmodeus, Zabulon, Isacaaron, Astaroth, Gresil, Amand, Leviatom, Behemot, Beherie, Easas, Celsus, Acaos, Cedon, Naphthalim, Cham, Ureil, and Achas.
In a final effort to clear his name, Father Grandier performed an exorcism on the nuns himself. He spoke to the nuns in Greek, testing their knowledge of languages previously unknown to them, a sure sign of possession. The nuns, having been coached, responded that they had been ordered in their pact never to use Greek. In another exorcism performed by Father Gault, the priest obtained a promise from the demon Asmodeus to leave one of the nuns he was possessing.
Later, a devil’s pact allegedly written between the Devil and Grandier was presented to the court. This pact, stolen from Lucifer’s cabinet of pacts by Asmodeus, was signed in blood by Grandier and various demons. Asmodeus had apparently written out the same promise he’d given to Father Gault in this pact: “I promise that when leaving this creature, I will make a slit below her heart as long as a pin. This slit will pierce her shirt, bodice, and cloth, which will be bloody. And tomorrow, on the twentieth of May at five in the afternoon of Saturday, I promise that the demons Gresil and Amand will make their opening in the same way, but a little smaller—and I approve the promises made by Leviatam, Behemot, Beherie with their companions to sign, when leaving, the register of the church of St. Croix! Given the nineteenth of May 1629.” Later historians would prove that this note was written in Jeanne des Anges’ hand.
Father Grandier was promised a chance to speak before his execution and that he would be hanged before being burned, an act of mercy. From the scaffold, Grandier attempted to address the crowd, but the monks threw large quantities of holy water in his face so that his last words could not be heard. According to historian Robert Rapley, exorcist Lactance deviated from the planned course of action—enraged by taunting from the crowd gathered for the execution, Lactance lit the funeral pyre before Grandier could be hanged, leaving him to be burned alive.
The possessions did not stop after Father Grandier’s execution; public exorcisms continued. In his summary of the Loudun possessions, author Moshe Sluhovsky reports that these displays continued until 1637, three years after Grandier’s death. The last departing demons left clear signs of their exit from Jeanne des Anges, the mother superior of the community, when the names Joseph and Mary miraculously appeared inscribed on des Anges’ left arm.
The Pact of Urbain Grandier with the Devils
Second part of the pact allegedly signed between Urbain Grandier and the Devil. This half is also signed by Satan, Leviathan, Astaroth, and a number of other demons. This image is from Dictionnaire infernal ou Bibliothèque universelle… by Collin de Plancy (1826)
Translation of the Alleged Pact of Urbain Grandier with Devils
We, the influential Lucifer, the young Satan, Beelzebub, Leviathan, Elimi, and Astaroth, together with others, have today accepted the covenant pact of Urbain Grandier, who is ours. To him, we promise the love of women, the flower of virgins, the respect of monarchs, honors, lusts, and powers. He will engage in whoring for three days; the carousal will be dear to him. He offers us once a year a seal of blood, under his feet he will trample the holy things of the church, and he will ask us many questions. With this pact, he will live twenty years happily on the earth of men, and will later join us to sin against God.
Bound in hell, in the council of demons.
Lucifer
Beelzebub
Satan
Astaroth
Leviathan
Elimi
The seals placed by the Devil, the master, and the demons, princes of the lord.
Baalberith, writer.
The pact was allegedly signed by Urbain Grandier and stolen from the Devil’s cabinet of pacts by the demon Asmodeus. This pact shows the signatures of all demons in possession of the Ursuline nuns at Loudun.
