In August 1634, a French priest named Urbain Grandier was convicted of sorcery and burned at the stake. His accusers held that he had brought the devil into the Ursuline nunnery of Loudon, and had there committed acts in violation of human and divine law--to say nothing of his priestly vows.

The possession at Loudon has provided the storyline for plays, novels, and films, but it has received little historical scrutiny. In this slender essay, the late Jesuit historian Michel de Certeau examines the possession in the context of the larger contemporary struggle between medieval values and the dawning Enlightenment. As he points out, during the eight years when the possession and its attendant trials and exorcisms were unfolding as a kind of morality play, Descartes published his Discourse on Method, and science and religion met on countless ideological battlefields. The era, he notes, was marked by plague, economic and social dislocation, and a general atmosphere of fearfulness, ideal for rituals of scapegoating and expiation. Certeau draws on several techniques of the Annales school of historians, examining the minutiae of the Loudon trials--including, for instance, a payment voucher to the woodcutter who provided the timber for Grandier's immolation--and remarking that the hysteria that visited the little town of Loudon points to "the strangeness of history." --Gregory McNamee


From Library Journal
Eminent French Jesuit intellectual and historian de Certeau (1925-86) documents with scholarly detail the events surrounding the alleged diabolic possession of 17 nuns in an Ursuline convent during the early 1630s in the provincial French town of Loudun. A cause c l bre for years afterward, the matter touched Cardinal Richelieu and the monarchy and has been the subject of drama, opera, and the writings of Aldous Huxley, among others. Affairs culminated in the execution of accused priest-sorcerer Urbain Grandier, followed by a triumphant tour by the convent's mother superior. Politics, both ecclesiastical and civil, permeate the many official sources quoted, as unexplained phenomena and exorcisms vie with local self-interests and hysteria in a major theatrical spectacle of the time. This translation of the original French text (1970) makes the author's brilliant work accessible to English-speaking readers. De Certeau's analyses are not an easy read, as he dissects mystical, psychoanalytical, and sociological elements of events. For specialized collections.DAnna M. Donnelly, St. John's Univ. Lib., Jamaica, NY Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Kirkus Reviews
A scholarly work for hardy souls who enjoy reading about tortured ones. In France, ever since Sartre, heavyweight intellectuals have gained fame by writing inscrutable prose. De Certeau's study, originally published in France in 1970, is exemplary in that regard, and Americans (the heirs of Twain and Hemingway) will find it hard going. De Certeau, the late, distinguished Jesuit scholar, was the right historian to try to bring fresh perspectives to the events of demonic possession, exorcism, and religious belief that convulsed a community in western France in the 1630s. It is a story that might appeal to fans of Stephen King if only they had the patience to wade through this version of it. For it is a fantastic tale of religion gone mad, cruel torment, grand hypocrisy, clever play-acting, and great courage in a time gone by. The genuine strangeness of the devil's supposed possession of some nuns (through the vehicle of a parish priest) remains gripping and can't fail to move even the most agnostic modern audience--except in this tortured text, an artifact of literary new historicism. De Certeau provides ample selections from contemporary documents, each foreign and curious to modern eyes. He also emphasizes the dramaturgic qualities of the cruel medical and psychological examinations of the possessed, the stout faith of the condemned priest, and the lively public debates that surrounded his trial. But do readers have to be tried, too? Translator Smith must have been sorely taxed to render the original into some semblance of clear English. As if acknowledging his difficulty, he leaves some passages in the original Latin and French--fine for specialist scholars and graduate students but not so for normal souls looking for greater insight into an infamous series of events. The best rendering of Satan's forays into old Catholic France remains Aldous Huxley's still vital Devils of Loudun. Go there first. (32 illustrations, not seen) -- Copyright © 2000 Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Book Description
It is August 18, 1634. Father Urbain Grandier, convicted of sorcery that led to the demonic possession of the Ursuline nuns of provincial Loudun in France, confesses his sins on the porch of the church of Saint-Pierre, then perishes in flames lit by his own exorcists. A dramatic tale that has inspired many artistic retellings, including a novel by Aldous Huxley and an incendiary film by Ken Russell, the story of the possession at Loudun here receives a compelling analysis from the renowned Jesuit historian Michel de Certeau.

Interweaving substantial excerpts from primary historical documents with fascinating commentary, de Certeau shows how the plague of sorceries and possessions in France that climaxed in the events at Loudun both revealed the deepest fears of a society in traumatic flux and accelerated its transformation. In this tour de force of psychological history, de Certeau brings to vivid life a people torn between the decline of centralized religious authority and the rise of science and reason, wracked by violent anxiety over what or whom to believe.

At the time of his death in 1986, Michel de Certeau was a director of studies at the école des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris. He was author of eighteen books in French, three of which have appeared in English translation as The Practice of Everyday Life, The Writing of History, and The Mystic Fable, Volume 1, the last of which is published by The University of Chicago Press.

"Brilliant and innovative. . . . The Possession at Loudun is [de Certeau's] most accessible book and one of his most wonderful."--Stephen Greenblatt (from the Foreword)




Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French

FROM THE PUBLISHER

It is August 18, 1634. Father Urbain Grandier, convicted of sorcery that led to the demonic possession of the Ursuline nuns of provincial Loudun in France, confesses his sins on the porch of the church of Saint-Pierre, then perishes in flames lit by his own exorcists. A dramatic tale that has inspired many artistic retellings, including a novel by Aldous Huxley and an incendiary film by Ken Russell, the story of the possession at Loudun here receives a compelling analysis from the renowned Jesuit historian Michel de Certeau. Interweaving substantial excerpts from primary historical documents with fascinating commentary, de Certeau shows how the plague of sorceries and possessions in France that climaxed in the events at Loudun both revealed the deepest fears of a society in traumatic flux and accelerated its transformation. In this tour de force of psychological history, de Certeau brings to vivid life a people torn between the decline of centralized religious authority and the rise of science and reason, wracked by violent anxiety over what or whom to believe.

SYNOPSIS

In 1634 Father Urbain Grandier, convicted of sorcery leading to the demonic possession of the Ursuline nuns of provincial Loudun, France, confessed his sins outside the church of Saint-Pierre, then died in a fire lit by his own exorcists. The story inspired a novel by Aldous Huxley, a Ken Russell film adaptation of Huxley's novel, and this analysis by the Jesuit historian, and former director of studies at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris, Michel de Certeau (d. 1986). Interweaving court proceedings, medical reports, and private letters with his own impressive commentary, Certeau shows a populace at the intersection of the decline of religion and the rise of reason, uncertain what or who to believe. Originally published in France, 1970. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal

Eminent French Jesuit intellectual and historian de Certeau (1925-86) documents with scholarly detail the events surrounding the alleged diabolic possession of 17 nuns in an Ursuline convent during the early 1630s in the provincial French town of Loudun. A cause c l bre for years afterward, the matter touched Cardinal Richelieu and the monarchy and has been the subject of drama, opera, and the writings of Aldous Huxley, among others. Affairs culminated in the execution of accused priest-sorcerer Urbain Grandier, followed by a triumphant tour by the convent's mother superior. Politics, both ecclesiastical and civil, permeate the many official sources quoted, as unexplained phenomena and exorcisms vie with local self-interests and hysteria in a major theatrical spectacle of the time. This translation of the original French text (1970) makes the author's brilliant work accessible to English-speaking readers. De Certeau's analyses are not an easy read, as he dissects mystical, psychoanalytical, and sociological elements of events. For specialized collections.--Anna M. Donnelly, St. John's Univ. Lib., Jamaica, NY Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\

Kirkus Reviews

A scholarly work for hardy souls who enjoy reading about tortured ones. In France, ever since Sartre, heavyweight intellectuals have gained fame by writing inscrutable prose. De Certeau's study, originally published in France in 1970, is exemplary in that regard, and Americans (the heirs of Twain and Hemingway) will find it hard going. De Certeau, the late, distinguished Jesuit scholar, was the right historian to try to bring fresh perspectives to the events of demonic possession, exorcism, and religious belief that convulsed a community in western France in the 1630s. It is a story that might appeal to fans of Stephen King if only they had the patience to wade through this version of it. For it is a fantastic tale of religion gone mad, cruel torment, grand hypocrisy, clever play-acting, and great courage in a time gone by. The genuine strangeness of the devil's supposed possession of some nuns (through the vehicle of a parish priest) remains gripping and can't fail to move even the most agnostic modern audience—except in this tortured text, an artifact of literary "new historicism." De Certeau provides ample selections from contemporary documents, each foreign and curious to modern eyes. He also emphasizes the dramaturgic qualities of the cruel medical and psychological examinations of the possessed, the stout faith of the condemned priest, and the lively public debates that surrounded his trial. But do readers have to be tried, too? Translator Smith must have been sorely taxed to render the original into some semblance of clear English. As if acknowledging his difficulty, he leaves some passages in the original Latin and French—fine forspecialistscholars and graduate students but not so for normal souls looking for greater insight into an infamous series of events. The best rendering of Satan's forays into old Catholic France remains Aldous Huxley's still vital Devils of Loudun. Go there first. (32 illustrations, not seen)

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