Exorcism
From New Age Village
To exorcize, according to the received definitions, states Edward Smedley in The Occult Sciences (1855), is "to bind upon oath, to charge upon oath, and thus, by the use of certain words, and performance of certain ceremonies, to subject the devil and other evil spirits to command and exact obedience. Minshew calls an exorcist a conjuror; and it is so used by Shakespeare; and exorcism conjuration. It is in the general sense of casting out evil spirits, however, that the word is now under-stood."
The History of Exorcism
The trade of exorcism has probably existed from very early times. In Greece, Epicurus and Aeschines were sons of women who lived by this art, and each was bitterly reproached, the one by the Stoics, the other by Demosthenes, for having assisted his parent in her "dishonorable" practices. A reference in the biblical Acts of the Apostles (19:13) concerns the failure and dis-grace of "certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists," who, like the apostles, "took upon them to call over them that had evil spirits the Name of the Lord Jesus."
The ancient Jewish historian Josephus observed: "God enabled Solomon to learn that skill which expels demons, which is a science useful and sanative to men. He composed such incantations also, by which distempers are alleviated, and he left behind him the manner of using exorcisms, by which they drive away demons, so that they never return. And this method of cure is of great force unto this day; for I have seen a certain man of my own country, whose name was Eleazar, releasing people that were demoniacal, in the presence of Vespasian and his sons, and his captains, and the whole multitude of his soldiers. The manner of the cure was this. He put a ring that had a root of one of those sorts mentioned by Solomon to the nostrils of the demoniac, after which he drew out the demon through his nostrils; and when the man fell down immediately, he adjured him to return unto him no more, making still mention of Solomon, and reciting the incantation which he composed. And when Eleazar would persuade and demonstrate to the spectators that he had such a power, he set, a little way off, a cup or basin full of water, and commanded the demon as he went out the man to overturn it, and thereby to let the spectators know that he had left the man."
Some alleged fragments of these incantations of Solomon appear in the Codex Pseudepigraphus of Fabricus, and Josephus himself has described one of the antidemoniacal roots, in a measure reminiscent of the perils attendant on gathering the mandrake. Another fragment of antiquity bearing on this subject is the exorcism practiced by Tobit, the father of the Jewish hero Tobias, upon which it is by no means easy to pronounce judgment. The seventeenth-century Dutch scholar Grotius, in a note on that history, states that the Hebrews attributed all diseases arising from natural causes to the influence of demons. (These facts are derived in great measure from the Dutch theologian Balthasar Bekker's ingenious, though forgotten, four volumes Le Monde Enchanté (1694), which discuss the necessity of exorcism.)
Belthasar Bekker related an instance of exorcism practiced by Jews to avert the evil influence of the demon Lilis (or Lilith), whom some rabbis claimed was the wife of Satan. During the 130 years (states Elias, in the Thisbi) that elapsed before Adam was married to Eve, he was visited by certain she-devils, of whom the four principal were Lilis, Naome, Ogére, and Machalas; these encounters produced a fruitful progeny of spirits. Lilis visited the bedroom of women recently delivered and endeavored to kill their babies, boys on the eighth day after their birth, girls on the twenty-first. To chase her away, the attendants drew circles on the walls of the room with charcoal and within each they wrote, "Adam, Eve, Lilis, avaunt!" On the door of the room they also wrote the names of the three angels who preside over medicine (Senoi, Sansenoi, and Sanmangelof), a secret that was apparently taught them, somewhat unwittingly, by Lilis herself.
A particular ecclesiastical order of exorcists does not appear to have existed in the Christian church until the close of the third century, and the eighteenth-century German theologian Johann Mosheim attributed its introduction to the prevalent fancies of the Gnostics. In the tenth canon of the Council of Antioch, held in 341 C.E., exorcists were expressly mentioned in conjunction with subdeacons and readers, and their ordination described by the fourteenth Council of Carthage. It involved delivery by the bishop of a book containing forms of exorcism and directions that the exorcists should exercise the office upon energumens, (demoniacs), whether baptized or only catechumens. The fire of exorcism, as St. Augustine termed it, always preceded baptism. Catechumens were exorcised for 20 days previous to the administration of this sacrament. In the case of catechumens who were not also energumens, these exorcisms were not directed against any supposed demoniacal possession. They were, as Cyril described them, no more than prayers collected and composed from Holy Writ to beseech God to break the dominion and power of Satan in new converts and to deliver them from his slavery by expelling the spirit of wickedness and error.
In the Greek Church, before baptism the priest blew three times on the child to displace the devil from his seat, and this may be understood as symbolic of the power of sin over the unbaptized, not as an assertion of their real or absolute possession.
The exorcists formed one of the minor orders of the Roman Catholic Church. At their ordination the bishop addressed them as to their duties, and concluded with these words: "Take now the power of laying hands upon the energumens, and by the imposition of your hands, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, and the words of exorcism, the unclean spirits are driven from obsessed bodies."
One of the most complete manuals for Roman Catholic exorcists ever compiled was a volume of nearly 1,300 pages entitled Thesaurus Exorcismorum et Conjurationum … (1608). It contained the following tracts: "Practica Exorcistarum" (two parts), "Flagellum Daemonum," "Fustis Daemonium," "Complementum Artis Exorcistiae," and "Fuga Satanae."
From the first of these treatises, it appears that the energumens were subjected to a very severe corporal as well as spiritual discipline. They first underwent "pre-exorcisms" consisting of confessions, postulations, protestations, concitations, and interrogations. The exorcisms themselves were eight in number.
All these were accompanied with appropriate psalms, lessons, litanies, prayers, and adjurations. Then followed eight "postexorcisms." The first three were to be used according to how determined the demon was to retain possession. If the demon was very obstinate, an effigy of it, vile and horrible, was to be drawn, with its name inscribed under it, and be thrown into the flames, after having been signed with the cross, sprinkled with holy water, and fumigated. The fourth and fifth were forms of thanksgiving and benediction after liberation. The sixth referred to incubi and succubi. The seventh was for exorcising a haunted house, in which the service varied during every day of the week. The eighth was to drive away demoniacal storms or tempests and called for throwing into a huge fire large quantities of various herbs.
The "Flagellum Daemonum" treatise contained in the Thesaurus Exorcismorum gave numerous cautions to the exorcist himself not to be deceived by the arts of the demon, particular-ly when dealing with possessed women. If the devil refused to tell his name, the demoniac was to be fumigated. If it was necessary to break off the exorcism before the evil spirits were wholly expelled, they were to be adjured to quit the head, heart, and stomach of the energumen and to abscond themselves from the lower parts of the body.
In the "Fustis Daemonum" the exorcist was directed to verbally abuse the evil spirit if it persisted in staying. After this railing latinity, redoubled precaution was necessary, and if the demon still refused to tell its name, the knowledge of which facilitates an exorcism, it was to be called the worst names imaginable and the demoniac fumigated. The seventh exorcism in this treatise called for, among other things, anointing the demoniac with holy oil, and if all adjurations failed, the possessed was to be strenuously exhorted to patience. In the last form, dumbness was attacked; a very effectual remedy against this infirmity was declared to be a draught of holy water with three drops of holy wax, swallowed on an empty stomach.
Father Zacharias Vicecomes, in his Complementum Artis Exorcistiae (1608), explains the signs of possession or bewitchment. He also discusses how to discern the evil spirit's departure; sometimes it puts out the light, now and then it issues like a flame, or a very cold blast, through the mouth, nose, or ears. Vicecomes then enumerates various prescriptions for emetics, perfumes, and fumigations calculated to promote these results. He concludes with a catalog of the names of some of the devils of commonest occurrence: Astaroth, Baal, Cozbi, Dagon, Ase-roth, Baalimm, Chamo, Beelphegor, Astarte, Bethage, Phogor, Moloch, Asmodaeus, Bele, Nergel, Melchon, Asima, Bel, Nex-roth, Tartach, Acharon, Belial, Neabaz, Merodach, Adonides, Beaemot, Jerobaal, Socothbenoth, Beelzebub, Leviathan, Lucifer, Satan, and Mahomet.
Petrus Stampa's "Fuga Satanae" treatise in the The Sauvus Exorcismorum is very brief and does not contain any significant additional information.
According to a treatise on practical exorcism entitled Histoire admirable de la possession et conversion d'une Penitente…. (1613), Sr. Madeleine de Demandolx de la Palud was exorcised over a four-month period. She was under the power of five princes of the devils—Beelzebub, Leviathan, Baalberith, Asmo-deus, and Astaroth—as well as many lesser demons. Beelzebub lived in her forehead, Leviathan in the middle of her head, Astaroth in the back of it. Her head made unnatural, perpetual movements and pulsations. After the exorcism her head barely moved.
A second sister of the same convent, Louise Capeau, was also possessed by three devils of the highest degree: Vérin, Grésil, and Soneillon. Vérin, through the proceedings of the exorcists, appears to have turned state's evidence, for, in spite of the remonstrances and rage of Beelzebub, he gave important information and instruction to his enemies and appeared to sincerely repent that he was a devil. The daily Acts and Examinations, from November 27 to the following of April 23, were specially recorded by the exorcist himself, and all the conversations of the devils were recorded verbatim. The whole business ended in tragedy, and Louis Gaufridi, a priest from Marseilles who was accused of witchcraft on the occasion, was burned alive at Aix-en-Provence.
An exorcism case of almost unparalleled atrocity occurred at Loudun in 1634 when Urbain Grandier, cure and canon of that town, was mercilessly brought to the stake partly by the jealousy of some monks, partly to gratify the personal vengeance of Cardinal Richelieu, who had been persuaded that this ecclesiastic had lampooned him, an offense he never forgave. Some Ursuline nuns were tortured and confessed themselves possessed, and Grandier was the person accused of effecting their possession. A certain Tranquille, one of the exorcists, died within four years of the execution of his victim, in a state of reputed possession, perhaps distracted by self-accusations of remorse.
The last acknowledgment of exorcism in the Anglican Church during the progress of the Reformation occurs in the first liturgy of Edward VI, which gives the following form of baptism: "Then let the priest, looking upon the children, say, 'I command thee, unclean spirit, in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, that thou come out and depart from these infants, whom our Lord Jesus Christ has vouchsafed to call to His holy baptism, to be made members of His Body and of His Holy congregation. Therefore, thou cursed spirit, remember thy sentence, remember thy judgment, remember the day to be at hand wherein thou shalt burn in fire everlasting prepared for thee and thy angels. And presume not hereafter to exercise any tyranny towards these infants whom Christ hath brought with His precious blood, and by this His holy baptism calleth to be of His flock."'
On the remonstrance of Martin Bucer (1491-1551), arguing that exorcism was not originally used for any but demoniacs, and that it was uncharitable to imagine that all who came to baptism were demoniacs, it was thought prudent by reformers to omit it altogether in subsequent liturgies.
The seventy-second canon issued the following restriction on exorcism: "No minister shall, without the license of the bishop of the diocese, first obtained and had under his hand and seal … attempt upon any pretence whatever, either of obsession or possession, by fasting or prayer, to cast out any devil or devils: under pain of the imputation of imposture or cosenage, and deposition from the ministry."
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