Chapter 9 Possession and Exorcism
In: A Companion to the Devil and Demons, c.1100â1750Search for other papers by Ismael del Olmo in
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This chapter presents the historiographical and historical debates surrounding possession and exorcism in early modern Europe. Viewing the main confessional conflict of this time through this demonological lens allows it to highlight the Catholic use of demoniacs and their miraculous healing in propaganda and the Reformed critique of exorcism as demonic superstition and human deceit. By studying the controversies regarding the natural or demonic origin of traditional possession symptoms, this chapter also traces the relationship between seventeenth-century materialism, Cartesianism, and biblical criticism which was instrumental in denying the ontological reality of possession and exorcism and which nurtured the proto-Enlightenment process that transformed divine Scripture into a human text. These contested cultural scenarios highlight the epistemological difficulties that beset early modern understanding of demons and their relationship with humans.