rinkled with foul
compounds.

But these were merely preliminaries to the exorcism proper. In this
the most profound theological thought and sacred science of the period
culminated.

Most of its forms were childish, but some rise to almost Miltonic
grandeur. As an example of the latter, we may take the following:

"By the Apocalypse of Jesus Christ, which God hath given to make
known unto his servants those things which are shortly to be; and hath
signified, sending by his angel,... I exorcise you, ye angels of untold
perversity!

"By the seven golden candlesticks,... and by one like unto the Son of
man, standing in the midst of the candlesticks; by his voice, as the
voice of many waters;... by his words, 'I am living, who was dead; and
behold, I live forever and ever; and I have the keys of death and of
hell,' I say unto you, Depart, O angels that show the way to eternal
perdition!"

Besides these, were long litanies of billingsgate, cursing, and
threatening. One of these "scourging" exorcisms runs partly as follows:

"May Agyos strike thee, as he did Egypt, with frogs!... May all the
devils that are thy foes rush forth upon thee, and drag thee down to
hell!... May... Tetragrammaton... drive thee forth and stone thee, as
Israel did to Achan!... May the Holy One trample on thee and hang thee
up in an infernal fork, as was done to the five kings of the
Amorites!... May God set a nail to your skull, and pound it in with a
hammer, as Jael did unto Sisera!... May... Sother... break thy head and
cut off thy hands, as was done to the cursed Dagon!... May God hang thee
in a hellish yoke, as seven men were hanged by the sons of Saul!" And so
on, through five pages of close-printed Latin curses.(352)

(352) Thesaurus Exorcismorum, pp. 812-817.

Occasionally the demon is reasoned with, as follows: "O obstinate,
accursed, fly!... why do you stop and hold back, when you know that your
strength is lost on Christ? For it is hard for thee to kick against the
pricks; and, verily, the longer it takes you to go, the worse it will
go with you. Begone, then: take flight, thou venomous hisser, thou lying
worm, thou begetter of vipers!"(353)

(353) Ibid., p. 859.

This procedure and its results were recognised as among the glories of
the Church. As typical, we may mention an exorcism directed by a certain
Bishop of Beauvais, which was so effective that five devils gave up
possession of a sufferer and signed thei