The Possession At Loudun

Author : Michel de Certeau
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 2000-08
Category : History
ISBN : 9780226100357

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The Possession at Loudun by Michel de Certeau Pdf

It is August 18, 1634. Father Urbain Grandier, convicted of sorcery that led to the demonic possession of the Ursuline nuns of provincial Loudun in France, confesses his sins on the porch of the church of Saint-Pierre, then perishes in flames lit by his own exorcists. A dramatic tale that has inspired many artistic retellings, including a novel by Aldous Huxley and an incendiary film by Ken Russell, the story of the possession at Loudun here receives a compelling analysis from the renowned Jesuit historian Michel de Certeau. Interweaving substantial excerpts from primary historical documents with fascinating commentary, de Certeau shows how the plague of sorceries and possessions in France that climaxed in the events at Loudun both revealed the deepest fears of a society in traumatic flux and accelerated its transformation. In this tour de force of psychological history, de Certeau brings to vivid life a people torn between the decline of centralized religious authority and the rise of science and reason, wracked by violent anxiety over what or whom to believe. At the time of his death in 1986, Michel de Certeau was a director of studies at the école des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris. He was author of eighteen books in French, three of which have appeared in English translation as The Practice of Everyday Life,The Writing of History, and The Mystic Fable, Volume 1, the last of which is published by The University of Chicago Press. "Brilliant and innovative. . . . The Possession at Loudun is [de Certeau's] most accessible book and one of his most wonderful."—Stephen Greenblatt (from the Foreword)

Author : Aldous Huxley
Publisher : Random House
Page : 400 pages
File Size : 43,8 Mb
Release : 2010-05-25
Category : History
ISBN : 9781409079507

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The Devils of Loudun by Aldous Huxley Pdf

A gripping biography by the author of Brave New World In 1634 Urbain Grandier, a handsome and dissolute priest of the parish of Loudun was tried, tortured and burnt at the stake. He had been found guilty of conspiring with the devil to seduce an entire convent of nuns. Grandier maintained his innocence to the end but four years after his death the nuns were still being subjected to exorcisms to free them from their demonic bondage. Huxley's vivid account of this bizarre tale of religious and sexual obsession transforms our understanding of the medieval world.

Author : Michel de Certeau
Publisher : Editions Gallimard
Page : 512 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 2005
Category : Demoniac possession
ISBN : STANFORD:36105122023273

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La possession de Loudun by Michel de Certeau Pdf

Retrace les événements qui virent, à partir de 1632, la ville de Loudun, dans la Vienne, ravagée par la peste puis par la possession : les membres de la communauté des Ursulines, claquemurées pour se protéger, commencent à voir, dans la nuit du 21 septembre, un fantôme qui prend peu à peu la forme du curé Urbain Grandier. Celui-ci finira sur un bûcher le 18 août 1634.

Author : Des Niau
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 170 pages
File Size : 50,8 Mb
Release : 1887
Category : Demoniac possession
ISBN : PRNC:32101046792477

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The History of the Devils of Loudun by Des Niau Pdf

Author : Alexandre Dumas
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 42,8 Mb
Release : 2023-01-16
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 1365931889

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Demons! by Alexandre Dumas Pdf

THE DEVILS (1971) Ken Russell's horrifying film of the possession and resultant exorcism of the "Loudun Nuns," (based upon the book THE DEVILS OF LOUDON by Aldous Huxley), scourged the eyes of audiences in the 1970s, with its harsh, brutal, and sickening depiction of blasphemous torture, hideous pain, possession, and wild, orgiastic rites to fallen spirits. Now here is the classic full account of this bizarre, startling, and tragic chapter in the history of possession and exorcism, the annals of primitive witch hysteria: the exorcism of the Loudun Nuns, and the subsequent trial and hideous execution, by burning, of Father Urbain Grandier, (claimed by some to have entered into a pact with Satan to torment and afflict the sisters of the afflicted Ursuline order). Was Urbain Grandier an emissary of Satan? Or was he simply a man caught up in the crosshairs of his vindictive enemies and powerful forces, those willing to send a man to his death for purely political reasons? What of the hunchbacked Sister Jeanne? Was she really the focus of a black, demonic incubus? Or was she simply a disturbed, repressed woman, one whose life of piety, self-abnegation, penance, and sacrifice, lead her to the brink of madness? To read this chilling account is to step back through a doorway in time, gaining an insight into the hysteria of the witchcraft hysteria of the old world, and what it might tell us about our own contemporary society. Published by Zem Books

Author : Robert Rapley
Publisher : McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 1998-08-24
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780773567115

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Case of Witchcraft by Robert Rapley Pdf

As a Catholic priest, Grandier was an influential figure in the Loudun community and local government. A brilliant speaker, he was popular with his parishioners. But he had enemies, including Cardinal Richelieu and Louis XIII, who was trying to wrest political autonomy from local governors and centralize power in Paris. Grandier's support of the governor of Loudun meant that he was seen as an enemy of the crown. In addition, the debonair priest's romantic intrigues brought him into conflict with some of the town's most influential power brokers. When a nearby convent of Ursuline nuns began experiencing strange visions and hallucinations, Grandier's enemies seized the opportunity to orchestrate his downfall. These mass possessions, which spread through the convent despite attempts at exorcism, were regarded as witchcraft and Grandier was accused of having caused them. Condemned by Richelieu and the king, Grandier was tortured and burned at the stake for his alleged crimes. He maintained his innocence to the end. This tale of conspiracy, corruption, and mass hysteria provides a fascinating exploration of human behaviour and community dynamics.

Author : Brian Levack
Publisher : Yale University Press
Page : 519 pages
File Size : 40,9 Mb
Release : 2013-04-22
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780300195385

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The Devil Within by Brian Levack Pdf

A fascinating, wide-ranging survey of the history of demon possession and exorcism through the ages. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the era of the Reformation, thousands of Europeans were thought to be possessed by demons. In response to their horrifying symptoms—violent convulsions, displays of preternatural strength, vomiting of foreign objects, displaying contempt for sacred objects, and others—exorcists were summoned to expel the evil spirits from victims’ bodies. This compelling book focuses on possession and exorcism in the Reformation period, but also reaches back to the fifteenth century and forward to our own times. Entire convents of nuns in French, Italian, and Spanish towns, thirty boys in an Amsterdam orphanage, a small group of young girls in Salem, Massachusetts—these are among the instances of demon possession in the United States and throughout Europe that Brian Levack closely examines, taking into account the diverse interpretations of generations of theologians, biblical scholars, pastors, physicians, anthropologists, psychiatrists, and historians. Challenging the commonly held belief that possession signals physical or mental illness, the author argues that demoniacs and exorcists—consciously or not—are following their various religious cultures, and their performances can only be understood in those contexts. “Riveting [and] readable . . . must-reading for students of history, psychology and religion.” —Publishers Weekly “Levak, a distinguished historian of early modern witchcraft, now sets exorcism in a long historical perspective, providing the most comprehensive and scholarly overview of the theme yet published.” —Peter Marshall, Times Literary Supplement

Author : Des Niau
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 148 pages
File Size : 40,9 Mb
Release : 1887
Category : Demoniac possession
ISBN : HARVARD:32044087865473

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The History of the Devils of Loudun by Des Niau Pdf

Author : Aldous Huxley,Huston Smith
Publisher : Harper Collins
Page : 336 pages
File Size : 53,6 Mb
Release : 2013-07-02
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780062236838

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The Divine Within by Aldous Huxley,Huston Smith Pdf

“A genius . . . a writer who spent his life decrying the onward march of the Machine.” — The New Yorker Brave New World author Aldous Huxley on enlightenment and the "ultimate reality." In this anthology of twenty-six essays and other writings, Aldous Huxley discusses the nature of God, enlightenment, being, good and evil, religion, eternity, and the divine. Huxley consistently examined the spiritual basis of both the individual and human society, always seeking to reach an authentic and clearly defined experience of the divine. Featuring an introduction by renowned religious scholar Huston Smith, this celebration of "ultimate reality" proves relevant and prophetic in addressing the spiritual hunger so many feel today.

Author : C. Torrington
Publisher : Arcturus Publishing
Page : 74 pages
File Size : 41,6 Mb
Release : 2016-01-15
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN : 9781784281403

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Demonic Possession by C. Torrington Pdf

The idea of people possessed by evil spirits against their will is as old as the hills. Often there is thought to be a special way a person has become possessed. It might be the result of a curse cast on them by a sorcerer, or some unfortunate mishap such as stepping over a dead body. Or the demons can have been invited, in a Satanic ritual. More often, at least in recent Christian tradition, there is no initiating moment that can be identified - they just find their way in, like disease. From Pearl Curran, a housewife living in St Louis, Missouri, who soared to fame in the second decade of the 20th century as the amanuensis of 'Patience Worth', a writer who had died in the 17th century, to victims of Dissociative Personality Disorder (thought to have inspired Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde), this book examines demonic possession from every angle.

Author : Des Niau
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 150 pages
File Size : 43,5 Mb
Release : 1887
Category : Demonology
ISBN : COLUMBIA:CR00239577

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History of the Devils of Loudun by Des Niau Pdf

Author : Moshe Sluhovsky
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 556 pages
File Size : 43,8 Mb
Release : 2018-12-24
Category : History
ISBN : 9789004387652

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Into the Dark Night and Back: The Mystical Writings of Jean-Joseph Surin by Moshe Sluhovsky Pdf

Into the Dark Night and Back is the first comprehensive English language selection of the mystical writings, poems, and letters of the French mystic and exorcist Jean-Joseph Surin, S.J. (1600–65).

Author : Edmund Goldsmid
Publisher : BoD – Books on Demand
Page : 81 pages
File Size : 43,9 Mb
Release : 2018-11-19
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9783748199434

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The Devils of Loudun by Edmund Goldsmid Pdf

THE following extraordinary account of the "Cause Célèbre" of Urbain Grandier, the Curé of Loudun, accused of Magic and of having caused the Nuns of the Convent of Saint Ursula to be possessed of devils, is written by an eye-witness, and not only an eyewitness but an actor in the scenes he describes. It is printed at "Poitiers, chez J. Thoreau et la veuve Ménier, Imprimeurs du Roi et de l'Université 1634." I believe two copies only are known: my own, and the one in the National Library, Paris. The writer is Monsieur des Niau, Counsellor at la Flèche, evidently a firm believer in the absurd charges brought against Grandier.

Author : Brian P. Levack
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
Page : 350 pages
File Size : 40,9 Mb
Release : 1992
Category : Demoniac possession
ISBN : 0815310315

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Possession and Exorcism by Brian P. Levack Pdf

First Published in 1993. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Author : Alexandre Dumas
Publisher : Lulu.com
Page : 170 pages
File Size : 53,9 Mb
Release : 2019-02-22
Category : History
ISBN : 9780359042838

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Demons! The Possession and Exorcism of the Nuns of Loudun, and the Execution of Urbain Grandier by Alexandre Dumas Pdf

The Devil's (1971) Ken Russell's harsh, horrifying film of the possession and exorcism of a group of medieval French nuns, and the death by burning of Father Urbain Grandier in 1632, scorched the eyes and disturbed the souls of viewers of the early Seventies. Now, here is a full account of the hideous happenings, the demonic doings, that saw a group of holy sisters become cursing, spitting, vile creatures, and accused priest Grandier, said to be in league with the Devil, go to an unimaginable death at the stake. Here then is a story of good, evil, torture, betrayal, madness and consequences too hideous to contemplate. This tale of a medieval exorcism and fiery execution will open your eyes to the history many think too nightmarish to have happened, yet did.