The Devils of Loudun
In the era of Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers, the real-life Cardinal Richelieu must solve a bizarre mystery: the demonic possessions of the Ursuline nuns of Loudun, who have accused the parish priest of sorcery. In this episode, we explore the trial of Urbain Grandier and the possessions at Loudun. What happens when desire becomes obsession?
Music
Purple Planet - Chimera
Purple Planet - Creepy Hollow
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Piano Sonata no. 11, K. 331, 3. Alla Turca - performed by Eduardo
Purple Planet - Tormented
Purple Planet - In Doubt
Purple Planet - Sense of Loss
Purple Planet - Shadowlands
Sources
Primary
Aubin, Nicolas. Histoire des diables de Loudun. Reprinted in English as The cheats and illusions of Romish priests and exorcists: Discover'd in the history of the devils of Loudun: being an account of the pretended possession of the Ursuline nuns, and of the Condemnation and punishment of Urban Grandier a parson of the same town. London: Printed for W. Turner, at the Angel at Lincolns-Inn Back-Gate and R. Bassett, at the Mitre by the Inner-Temple-Gate in Fleet-Street, 1703.
Des Anges, Jeanne. Autobiographie d'une hystérique possédée. Edited by Gabriel Legué and Georges Gilles de la Tourette. Paris: Aux Bureaux du Progrès médical, 1886. Cited in Michel de Certeau. The Possession at Loudun, translated by Michael B. Smith. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.
Des Niau, M. The History of the Devils of Loudun, the Alleged Possession of the Ursuline Nuns, and the Trial and Execution of Urbain Grandier, Told by an Eye-Witness, 3 vols. Translated by Edmund Goldsmid. Collectanea adamantea 21. Edinburgh: Privately Printed, 1887. In European Magic & Witchcraft: A Reader, edited by Martha Rampton, 434–446. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2018.
Killigrew, Thomas. Letter. London, Bodlein Library, Ashmole, N.S., 21. Edited in European Magazine 43 (February 1801). Cited in Michel de Certeau. The Possession at Loudun, translated by Michael B. Smith. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.
A Relation of the Deuill Balams Departure Out of the Body of the Mother-Prioresse of the Vrsuline Nuns of Loudun. Early English Books Online. London: Printed by R. Badger, 1636.
Richelieu, Armand Jean du Plessis, cardinal de. Mémoires. Book XXIV. In Nouvelle collection des Mémoires relatifs à l’histoire de France, edited by J. Michaud and J. Poujoulat. Paris: 1837–39. Cited in Michel de Certeau. The Possession at Loudun, translated by Michael B. Smith. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.
Secondary
Arnold, Darren. The Devils: Devil's Advocates. La Vergne: Auteur, 2019.
Carmona, Michel. Les diables de Loudun: sorcellerie et politique sous Richelieu. Paris: Fayard, 2014.
De Certeau, Michel. The Possession at Loudun, translated by Michael B. Smith. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.
Ferber, Sarah. Demonic Possession and Exorcism: In Early Modern France. London: Routledge, 2013.
Figuier, Louis. Histoire du merveilleux dans les temps modernes. Vol. 2. L. Hachette et cie, 1874.
Huxley, Aldous. Devils of Loudun. New York: Harper & Row, 1965.
Levack, Brian P. The Devil Within: Possession & Exorcism in the Christian West. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013.
Michaelis, Sebastien. Histoire admirable de la possession et conversion d'une penitente. Chez Charles Chastellain, 1981.
Stephenson, Craig E. Possession: Jung’s Comparative Anatomy of the Psyche. London: Routledge, 2009.
Stephenson, Craig E. “The Possessions at Loudun: Tracking the Discourse of Dissociation.” The Journal of Analytical Psychology 64, no. 4 (September 2017): 544–566.
