i6 2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



in again. Here we have an example of the reconciliation and 

 harmonious co-operation of religion and science, which so many- 

 earnest thinkers of to-day are rather futilely striving after. 



The latest expression of the views of the Catholic Church on 

 demoniacal possession is contained in a pamphlet just printed at 

 Munich, in which the casting out of a devil in Wernding is fully 

 and officially reported by the exorcist himself, Father Aurelian, 

 and the case '''critically elucidated for the people" by Richard 

 Treufels. (Die Teufelsaustreibung in Wernding. Nach dem Be- 

 richte des P. Aurelian fur das Volk kritisch beleuchtet von Ri- 

 chard Treufels. Munchen : Schuh & Cie., 1892. Pp. 14. Treufels 

 is doubtless a pseudonym chosen by the author to indicate that 

 his feet are planted on the rock of faith.) 



The report itself is substantially as follows : On Shrove Tuesday, 

 February 10, 1891, a boy, ten years of age, named Michael Zilk, the 

 eldest son of a miller living near Wernding, in Bavaria, began to 

 act in a very strange manner. He could not say his prayers nor 

 hear another person pray without falling into fits of rage. The 

 same effect was produced by the sight of a crucifix or of holy 

 water, and by passing near a sacred shrine or a church. A physi- 

 cian was consulted, but without avail; equally ineffective were 

 the benedictions pronounced by Parson Seitz, of Diirrwangen ; 

 finally, recourse was had to the capuchins of Wernding, where 

 Father Aurelian took the case in hand, and, after a long process 

 of spiritual or magical diagnosis, consisting in the utterance of 

 various forms of benediction and incantation, declared that all 

 the symptoms indicated demoniacal possession. This opinion was 

 indorsed by the Right Reverend Bishop Pancratius, of Augsburg, 

 who saw the boy May 12, 1891, and, "in the full consciousness of 

 his episcopal power and dignity," called upon the unclean spirit 

 to come out of him, but the obstinate imp refused to obey. At 

 length, after special permission was obtained from Bishop Leo- 

 pold, of Eichstadt, to whose diocese Wernding belongs, the cere- 

 mony of exorcism was solemnly performed. 



We need not here enter into a detailed description of the hocus- 

 pocus, which began on the morning of July 13th, and ended with 

 the expulsion of the demon or demons (for there seem to have 

 been ten of them) on the evening of the next day. So great was 

 the strength imparted to the boy by the indwelling devils that 

 half a dozen men could hardly carry him into the presbytery of 

 the cloister church, where the conjuration was to be performed in 

 the presence of the parents and a few friars and devout laymen. 

 The results, however, were wholly unsatisfactory, and in the after- 

 noon the scene of the ceremony was transferred to the choir of 

 the church ; but even then no response was elicited, until Father 

 Aurelian threatened to bring in the monstrance and compel the 



