RECENT RECRUDESCENCE OF SUPERSTITION. 73 

 KECENT RECRUDESCENCE OF SUPERSTITION. 



BY PROF. E. P. EVANS. 

 [Concluded.'] 



AN article published in the Popular Science Monthly for De- 

 cember, 1892, and entitled Modern Instances of Demoniacal 

 Possession, gives an account of the casting out of a devil from a 

 boy named Michael Zilk, by Father Aurelian, a Capuchin monk, 

 in Wemding, Bavaria. The exorcist accused a Protestant woman, 

 Frau Herz, of having conjured the devil into the boy and de- 

 nounced her as a witch, and was prosecuted by the woman's hus- 

 band for defamation. The trial, which took place in November, 

 1892, resulted in the condemnation of the defendant, who was sen- 

 tenced to pay a fine of fifty marks, with costs, and, in default of 

 payment, to five days' imprisonment. The case derives its chief 

 interest from the testimony of two ecclesiastical experts, whom 

 Father Aurelian called in for the purpose of proving that he had 

 acted strictly in accordance with the rules and regulations of the 

 Catholic Church. These experts were Dr. J. E. Prunner, provost 

 of the cathedral in Eichstadt, and the cathedral capitular, Dr. 

 Schneidt, both of whom approved of Father Aurelian's method 

 of proceeding. That men may enter into a league with Satan, 

 says Dr. Prunner, is affirmed by Holy Writ and by canon law ; 

 both the truth of Scripture and the teachings of the Church estab- 

 lish the possibility and actuality of demoniacal possession beyond 

 a perad venture, which must therefore be accepted as incontesta- 

 ble. As regards Michael Zilk, Father Aurelian was perfectly 

 justified in assuming that he was possessed with a devil, since all 

 the signs favored this presumption, such as sudden paroxysms, 

 abnormal bodily strength, hagiophobia, or strange dread of holy 

 things, and demoniac ecstasy. The demon becomes firmly estab- 

 lished in the organism and uses it as a base of operations, causing 

 the individual to curse and rage and foam, using his tongue to 

 speak languages unknown to him, and endowing his muscles 

 with preternatural force. When these manifestations convinced 

 Father Aurelian that the devil was to pay, it was his duty to 

 investigate the matter and to ascertain the causa posse ssionis, and 

 whether it was produced by ars magica or witchcraft. " Halefi- 

 cium always presupposes factum cum dcemone" ; in other words, 

 sorcery implies a compact with Satan. In the course which he 

 pursued, Father Aurelian followed the instructions and obeyed 

 the injunctions of the ritual, even to the assumption that the dried 

 pears given by Frau Herz to the boy had been the means of con- 

 veying the demoniac infection, since the ritual expressly enjoins 



