the demoniac threw himself upon him, and would have
strangled him, saying that he knew Jesus Christ, and Paul, but that
for him, he feared him not. We must then distinguish well between
possessions and possessions, exorcists and exorcists. There may be
found demoniacs who counterfeit the possessed, to excite compassion
and obtain alms. There may even be exorcists who abuse the name and
power of Jesus Christ to deceive the ignorant; and how do I know that
there are not even impostors to be found, who would place pretended
possessed persons in the way, in order to pretend to cure them, and
thus gain a reputation?

I do not enter into longer details on this matter; I have treated it
formerly in a particular dissertation on the subject, printed apart
with other dissertations on Scripture, and I have therein replied to
the objections which were raised on this subject.

Footnotes:

[250] Luke viii. 21.

[251] Luke x. 17.

[252] Mark xvi. 27.

[253] Mark ix. 36-38. Acts xi. 14.

[254] Acts xix. 14.

CHAPTER XXV.

EXAMPLES OF REAL POSSESSIONS CAUSED BY THE DEVIL.

We must now report some of the most famous instances of the possession
and obsession of the demon. Every body is talking at this time of the
possession (by the devil) of the nuns of Loudun, on which such
different opinions were given, both at the time and since. Martha
Broissier, daughter of a weaver of Romorantin,[255] made as much noise
in her time; but Charles Miron, Bishop of Orleans, discovered the
fraud, by making her drink holy water as common water; by making them
present to her a key wrapped up in red silk, which was said to be a
piece of the true cross; and in reciting some lines from Virgil, which
Martha Broissier's demon took for exorcisms, agitating her very much
at the approach of the hidden key, and at the recital of the verses
from Virgil. Henri de Gondi, Cardinal Bishop of Paris, had her
examined by five of the faculty; three were of opinion that there was
a great deal of imposture and a little disease. The parliament took
notice of the affair, and nominated eleven physicians, who reported
unanimously that there was nothing demoniacal in this matter.

In the reign of Charles IX.[256] or a little before, a young woman of
the town of Vervins, fifteen or sixteen years of age, named Nicola
Aubry, had different apparitions of a spectre, who called itself her
grandfather, and asked her for masses and prayers for the repose of
his