Convent Possession in Europe (1500–1700) – Loudun Was Far from the Only Case
When the restored version of Ken Russell’s The Devils returns to theaters, it may at first seem like a cinematic relic from a more radical era of filmmaking. Yet the events depicted in the film—the seventeenth-century possession case of Loudun—were part of a much broader European history of convent “possession epidemics.”
Between roughly 1500 and 1700, similar cases appeared throughout Europe: female convents in which nuns suddenly began trembling, speaking in strange voices, experiencing visions, or displaying collective behavior that contemporaries interpreted as demonic. What later historians would recognize as a recurring pattern, contemporaries saw as a direct confrontation with evil. The sexual obscenities that occurred during these episodes of possession were, for understandable reasons, profoundly shocking to church authorities and something they wished to eliminate as quickly as possible. Not only was the virtuous Christian atmosphere violated, but the authority of the Church itself was threatened.
The Beginning: Mysticism, Discipline, and Fragile Bodies (1500–1550)
The earliest cases emerged in the aftermath of late medieval mysticism. In convents throughout Germany, Italy, and Spain, accounts were recorded around 1500 of nuns entering ecstatic states during prayer.
In a Benedictine convent in southern Germany, a chronicle describes how a young nun suddenly became rigid during Mass, ceased responding to her surroundings, and afterward claimed that she had “not spoken of her own accord.” For the community, the interpretation was clear: a demon had taken possession of her body.
What stands out in this early phase is that no fixed diagnosis yet existed. Visions, mystical experiences, and possession overlapped. The nun’s body was simultaneously regarded as a holy instrument and a dangerous vessel.
Italy and Spain: Ecstasy Under Pressure (1550–1580)
In the second half of the sixteenth century, the tone changed. The Counter-Reformation brought stricter convent discipline and more intensive religious oversight.
In Tuscan convents, descriptions appeared of nuns who entered trance-like states after prolonged periods of fasting. A Dominican observer in Florence recorded how a young tertiary “fell as though dead” during prayer and afterward spoke for hours in a voice that no one recognized.
In Spain, where the Inquisition maintained a strong presence, similar phenomena were quickly interpreted as potentially demonic. Convents of the Poor Clares in Castile reported cases in which several nuns simultaneously began trembling or screaming during prayer.
What emerged here was something new: not merely individual ecstasy, but the first form of what would later become known as “collective possession.”
Sexuality as an Undercurrent
Even in these early cases, a recurring pattern appears that contemporaries often expressed in religious language such as “temptation,” “impurity,” or “demonic touch.” Nuns described visions in which they were pursued, restrained, or “touched” by invisible entities. Modern historians point out that this language often functioned as a religious framework for physical and psychological experiences that could not be described otherwise within the convent environment.
The Rise of Epidemics: Italy and Germany (1580–1600)
Toward the end of the sixteenth century, something appeared that contemporaries could scarcely explain: phenomena that seemed to spread.
In Italian Ursuline convents, clerics described how one nun began experiencing visions, after which several sisters developed similar symptoms within a matter of weeks. In Rome, reports emerged of a dormitory where nuns at night “fell into the same motions as if one spirit governed them all.”
The responses were intense: exorcism, isolation, prayer, and increasingly strict control.
Here begins the pattern that would later become fully visible at Loudun: the nun’s body as the stage upon which a struggle greater than the individual was played out.
The Physical and Sexual Interpretation Becomes More Explicit
During this period, symptoms were increasingly described in physical terms that contemporaries understood as sexually charged. Convulsions, rigidity, groaning, and trance-like states were linked in exorcism accounts to “demonic penetration” or “unclean touch.” It is important to note that these interpretations were not sexual in the modern psychological sense, but emerged from a theological framework in which the body was viewed as a battleground between grace and temptation.
Aix-en-Provence (1610–1611): The First French Explosion
In the Ursuline convent of Aix-en-Provence, a case erupted in 1610 that attracted attention throughout Europe.
The prioress began hearing voices and speaking in multiple identities. Before long, other nuns followed her example. Exorcisms were conducted publicly, sometimes in the presence of clergy, magistrates, and townspeople.
What stands out is the theatrical intensity: possession was not merely experienced, but also observed, discussed, and staged.
In Aix, the first more explicit descriptions of demonic “seduction” and physical approach also appeared, though still within a strongly religious and symbolic vocabulary. The emphasis remained on sin and spiritual struggle rather than on the accusation of specific individuals.
Loudun (1632–1638): The Center of the European Imagination
Jeanne des Anges
The most famous case occurred at the Ursuline convent of Loudun.
Sister Jeanne des Anges, the prioress, reported being tormented by demons. Her behavior became increasingly extreme: screaming, visions, bodily spasms, and obscene conduct. Before long, attention shifted to a local priest, Urbain Grandier.
Here the sexual element assumed a new and decisive form.
During exorcisms, descriptions were given of demonic acts that Jeanne and other nuns allegedly endured. Unlike earlier cases, these episodes became remarkably concrete, repeatedly described, and connected to one specific man: Grandier. What had previously been diffuse language of temptation and touch now became part of a legal narrative.
During exorcisms, his name was repeatedly spoken by the supposedly possessed nuns. What began as a religious crisis evolved into a political persecution. Grandier was arrested, accused of witchcraft, and ultimately executed in 1634.
One well-known scene in the records describes how several nuns simultaneously cried out the name “Grandier” during an exorcism, as though a single invisible voice were speaking through them all.
Loudun thus became a symbol—not merely of possession, but of how religion, politics, and collective belief can reinforce one another into a destructive force, and how sexuality can become an explosive element when linked to guilt, accusation, and power.
Louviers (1642–1647): The Echo of Loudun
A decade later, the pattern repeated itself in Louviers, once again in an Ursuline convent.
The symptoms were familiar: voices, convulsions, exorcism proceedings, and public attention. Here too, descriptions of physical and “unclean” experiences played a role in the interpretation of events, although doubts about a literal demonic origin were now expressed more frequently.
Yet the script remained intact: possession as a collective crisis within a closed community.
From Belief to Doubt (1650–1700)
During the second half of the seventeenth century, Europe slowly began to change its interpretive framework.
Cases continued to occur in Spain and Italy, but they became less spectacular and were more often corrected internally. Scholars and church authorities began considering alternative explanations: melancholy, imagination, and physical illness. The great epidemic phase gradually faded away.
But the stories endured.
