The Exorcist is a 1971 horror novel by American writer William Peter Blatty. The book details the demonic possession of eleven-year-old Regan MacNeil, the daughter of a famous actress, and the two priests who attempt to exorcise the demon. Published by Harper & Row, the novel was the basis of a highly successful film adaptation released two years later, whose screenplay was also written and produced by Blatty, and part of The Exorcist franchise.
Demonic possession involves the belief that a spirit, demon, or other entity can control a person's actions. Those who believe themselves to be possessed commonly claim that symptoms of demonic possession include missing memories, perceptual distortions, loss of a sense of control, and hyper-suggestibility. Erika Bourguignon found in a study of 488 societies worldwide that seventy-four percent believe in spirit possession, with the highest numbers of believing societies in Pacific cultures and the lowest incidence among Native Americans of both North and South America.
Urbain Grandier was a French Catholic priest who was burned at the stake after being convicted of witchcraft, following the events of the so-called "Loudun Possessions". Most modern commentators have concluded that Grandier was the victim of a politically motivated persecution led by the powerful Cardinal Richelieu.
The Devils is a 1971 British historical drama film written and directed by Ken Russell and starring Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave. The film is a dramatised historical account of the rise and fall of Urbain Grandier, a 17th-century Roman Catholic priest accused of witchcraft following the supposed possessions in Loudun, France; it also focuses on Sister Jeanne des Anges, a sexually repressed nun who inadvertently incites the accusations.
The Eye is the fifth studio album by Danish heavy metal band King Diamond, released in 1990. It continues to feature a major storyline like other King Diamond albums, though it is told differently. The Eye is the only album to feature drummer Snowy Shaw and the last to feature guitarist Pete Blakk and bassist Hal Patino, until the latter's return on Abigail II: The Revenge.
Mother Joan of the Angels is a 1961 horror film on demonic possession, directed by Jerzy Kawalerowicz, based on a novella of the same title by Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz loosely based on the 17th century Loudun possessions. The film won the Special Jury Prize at the 1961 Cannes Film Festival.
Nunsploitation is a subgenre of exploitation film which had its peak in Europe in the 1970s. These films typically involve Christian nuns living in convents during the Middle Ages. The main conflict of the story is usually of a religious or sexual nature, such as religious oppression or sexual suppression due to living in celibacy. The Inquisition is another common theme. These films, although often seen as pure exploitation films, often contain criticism against religion in general and the Catholic Church in particular. Indeed, some protagonist dialogue voiced feminist consciousness and rejection of their subordinated social role. Many of these films were made in countries where the Catholic Church is influential, such as Italy and Spain. One atypical example of the genre, Killer Nun, was set in then present-day Italy (1978).
Exorcism is the religious or spiritual practice of evicting demons or other spiritual entities from a person, or an area, that is believed to be possessed. Depending on the spiritual beliefs of the exorcist, this may be done by causing the entity to swear an oath, performing an elaborate ritual, or simply by commanding it to depart in the name of a higher power. The practice is ancient and part of the belief system of many cultures and religions.
Benedetta Carlini (1591–1661) was a Catholic mystic and lesbian nun who lived in counter-reformation Italy. As abbess of the Convent of the Mother of God, at Pescia, she had a relationship with one of her nuns, Sister Bartolemea, for which she was stripped of her rank and imprisoned.
The Aix-en-Provence possessions were a series of alleged cases of demonic possession occurring among the Ursuline nuns of Aix-en-Provence in 1611. Father Louis Gaufridi was accused and convicted of causing the possession by a pact with the devil, and he was executed by strangulation and his body burned. This case provided the legal precedent for the conviction and execution of Urbain Grandier at Loudun more than 20 years later.
The Loudun possessions, known in French as the Possessed of Loudun Affair, was a notorious Witchcraft trial that took place in Loudun, Kingdom of France, in 1634. A convent of Ursuline nuns said they had been visited and possessed by demons. Following an investigation by the Catholic Church, a local priest named Urbain Grandier was accused of summoning the evil spirits. He was eventually convicted of the crimes of sorcery and burned at the stake.
The Devils of Loudun is a 1952 non-fiction novel by Aldous Huxley. It is a historical narrative of supposed demonic possession, religious fanaticism, sexual repression, and mass hysteria that occurred in 17th-century France surrounding unexplained events that took place in the small town of Loudun. It centers on Roman Catholic priest Urbain Grandier and an entire convent of Ursuline nuns, who allegedly became possessed by demons after Grandier made a pact with Satan. The events led to several public exorcisms as well as executions by burning.
Die Teufel von Loudun is an opera in three acts written in 1968 and 1969 by Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki, and then revised in 1972 and 1975. It has a German libretto by the composer, based on John Whiting's dramatization of Aldous Huxley's book of the same name.
Jean-Joseph Surin was a French Jesuit mystic, preacher, devotional writer and exorcist. He is remembered for his participation in the exorcisms of Loudun in 1634-37.
Sébastien Michaelis was a French inquisitor and prior of the Dominican order who lived during the late 16th and early 17th centuries. His Histoire admirable de la possession et conversion d'une penitente (1612), includes a classification of demons which has passed into general use in esoteric literature.
Clara Germana Cele was a South African Christian girl, who in 1906, was said to be possessed by a demon.
Edmund Hartley, dubbed the Tyldesley witch, was a cunning man who from 1595 until 1596 was alleged to have practised witchcraft at Cleworth Hall in Tyldesley, Lancashire. Hartley was hanged, twice, after a trial at Lancaster Assizes in March 1597.
Jeanne des Anges, also known as Jeanne de Belcier, was a French Ursuline nun in Loudun, France. She became mother superior of the convent at a young age, but is chiefly remembered as a central figure in the case of the possessed of Loudun in 1632, which led, after witch trials, to the burning at the stake of the priest Urbain Grandier two years later.
Traité sur les apparitions des esprits et sur les vampires ou les revenans de Hongrie, de Moravie, &c. is one of the many works by an Abbot monk named Antoine Augustin Calmet, an exegete and an 18th century Lorraine scholar of the Benedictine Order; also known as Dom Calmet. The work was published in 2 volumes that dealt with the extensive investigation into occult matters regarding the apparitions of angels, demons and other spirits.
Anna Ecklund was a pseudonym for Emma Schmidt, an American woman whose alleged demonic possession and exorcism occurred over several decades, culminating in an extensive exorcism that lasted from August 18 to December 23, 1928 in Earling, Iowa. Ecklund was said to have exhibited symptoms akin to possession beginning at age fourteen, and was forty-six years old during her final exorcism by Father Theophilus Riesinger, a Roman Catholic priest.
