8 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The convent was filled mainly with ladies of noble birth, who, 

 not having sufficient dower to secure husbands, had — according 

 to the common method of the time — been made nuns, without any 

 special regard to their feelings. 



It is not difficult to understand that such an imprisonment of 

 a multitude of women of different ages would produce some wo- 

 ful effects. Any reader of Manzoni's " Promessi Sposi," with its 

 wonderful picture of a noble lady kept in a convent against her 

 will, may have some idea of the rage and despair which must 

 have inspired such assemblages in which pride, pauperism, and 

 the suppression of the instincts of humanity wrought a fearful 

 work. 



What this work was is to be seen throughout the middle 

 ages ; but it is especially in the sixteenth and seventeenth cent- 

 uries that we find it frequently taking shape in outbursts of 

 diabolic possession.* 



In this case at Loudun, the usual evidences of satanic influ- 

 ence appeared. One after another of the inmates fell into convul- 

 sions; some showed physical strength apparently supernatural; 

 some a keenness of perception quite as surprising ; many howled 

 forth blasphemies and obscenities. 



Near the convent dwelt a priest — Urbain Grandier — noted for 

 his brilliancy as a writer and preacher, but careless in his way of 

 living. Several of the nuns had evidently conceived a passion for 

 him, and in their wild rage and despair dwelt upon his name. 



In the same city, too, were sundry ecclesiastics and laymen 

 with whom Grandier had been engaged in various petty neigh- 

 borhood quarrels, and some of these men held the main control of 

 the convent. 



Out of this mixture of " possession " within the convent and 

 malignity without it, came a charge that Grandier had bewitched 

 the young women. 



The Bishop of Poictiers took up the matter. A trial was 

 held, and it was noted that, whenever Grandier appeared, the 

 " possessed " screamed, shrieked, and showed every sign of dia- 

 bolic influence. Grandier fought desperately, and appealed to the 

 Archbishop of Bordeaux, De Sourdis. The archbishop ordered a 

 more careful examination, and, on separating the nuns from each 

 other and from certain monks who had been bitterly hostile to 

 Grandier, such glaring discrepancies were found in their testi- 

 mony that the whole accusation was brought to naught. 



But the enemies of Satan and of Grandier did not rest. 



* On monasteries, as centers of " possession," and hysterical epidemics, see Figuier, 

 "Le Merveilleux," page 40 and following; also Calmeil, Langin, Kirchhof, Maudsley, 

 and others. On similar results from excitement at Protestant meetings in Scotland and 

 camp-meetings in England and America, see Hecker's " Essay," concluding chapters. 



