MODERN INSTANCES OF DEMONIACAL POSSESSION. 161 



ality of witchcraft ; or the popes, bishops, and synods that have 

 unanimously, with the necessary limitations, established it as a 

 Catholic doctrine ?" 



There are doubtless many sincere Catholics, like Cantu, who 

 repudiate the belief in demoniacal possession, but Brunengo is 

 unquestionably right in affirming that this view is opposed to the 

 plain teaching and actual practice of the Church on this subject. 

 Leo XIII is justly regarded as a man of more than ordinary intelli- 

 gence, and more thoroughly imbued with the modern spirit than 

 any of his predecessors, yet he composed and issued, November 

 19, 1890, a formula of Exorcismus in Satanam et Angelos Apos- 

 'itas worthy of a place in any mediaeval collection of conjurations. 

 ■ lis Holiness never fails to repeat this exorcism in his daily prayers, 

 end commends it to the bishops and other clergy as a potent 



neans of warding off the attacks of Satan and of casting out 

 devils. In 1849 the Bishop of Passau published a Manuale Bene- 

 dictionum for the same purpose; and in 1851 there was printed at 

 Munich, in Bavaria, a work entitled Bituale Ecclesiasticum ad 

 usum clericorum ordinis S. Francisci, by Pater Franz Xaver 

 Lohbauer, in which the theory of demoniacal possession is main- 

 tained, and the method to be pursued in such cases minutely pre- 

 scribed — Modus jurandi afflictos a dcemone. The author of this 

 ritual distinctly declares that nearly all so-called nervous diseases, 

 hysteria, epilepsy, insanity, and milder forms of mental alienation, 

 are either the direct result of diabolical agencies or attended and 

 greatly aggravated by them. A sound mind in a sound body may 



lake a man devil-proof, but Satan is quick to take advantage of 



'ie infirmities of men in order to get possession of their persons. 



}he adversary is constantly lying in wait watching for and trying 

 10 produce physical derangements as breaches in the wall, through 

 which he may rush in and capture the citadel of the soul. In all 

 cases of this sort the priest is to be called in with the physician, 

 and the medicines are to be blessed and sprinkled with holy water 

 before being administered. Exorcisms and conjurations are not 

 only to be spoken over the patient, but also to be written on slips 

 of consecrated paper and applied, like a plaster, to the parts espe- 

 cially affected. The physician should keep himself supplied with 



hese written exorcisms, to be used when it is impossible for a 

 p'riest to be present. As with patent medicines, the public is 



framed against counterfeits, and no exorcism is genuine unless it 

 xs stamped with the seal of the bishop of the diocese. According 

 to Father Lohbauer, the demon is the efficient cause of the malady, 

 and there can be no cure until the evil one is cast out. This is the 

 office of the priest ; the physician then heals the physical disorder, 

 repairing the damage done to the body, and, as it were, stopping 

 the gaps with his drugs so as to prevent the demon from getting 



VOL. XLII. 11 



