into the bodies of nuns in the Ursuline convent of Loudun,
although he had never spoken to any of the sisterhood there; that the
guardianship of the sisters who, it was alleged, were possessed, and the
task of exorcism, had been entrusted to Jean Mignon and Pierre Barre, who
had in the most unmistakable manner shown themselves to be the mortal
enemies of the petitioner; that in the reports drawn up by the said Jean
Mignon and Pierre Barre, which differed so widely from those made by the
bailiff and the civil lieutenant, it was boastfully alleged that three or
four times devils had been driven out, but that they had succeeded in
returning and taking possession of their victims again and again, in
virtue of successive pacts entered into between the prince of darkness
and the petitioner; that the aim of these reports and allegations was to
destroy the reputation of the petitioner and excite public opinion
against him; that although the demons had been put to flight by the
arrival of His Grace, yet it was too probable that as soon as he was gone
they would return to the charge; that if, such being the case, the
powerful support of the archbishop were not available, the innocence of
the petitioner, no matter how strongly established, would by the cunning
tactics of his inveterate foes be obscured and denied: he, the
petitioner, therefore prayed that, should the foregoing reasons prove on
examination to be cogent, the archbishop would be pleased to prohibit
Barre, Mignon, and their partisans, whether among the secular or the
regular clergy, from taking part in any future exorcisms, should such be
necessary, or in the control of any persons alleged to be possessed;
furthermore, petitioner prayed that His Grace would be pleased to appoint
as a precautionary measure such other clerics and lay persons as seemed
to him suitable, to superintend the administration of food and medicine
and the rite of exorcism to those alleged to be possessed, and that all
the treatment should be carried out in the presence of magistrates.

The archbishop accepted the petition, and wrote below it:

"The present petition having been seen by us and the opinion of our
attorney having been taken in the matter, we have sent the petitioner in
advance of our said attorney back to Poitiers, that justice may be done
him, and in the meantime we have appointed Sieur Barre, Pere l'Escaye, a
Jesuit residing in Poitiers, Pere Gaut of the Oratory, residing at Tours