by Matt Baglio
40: the Israelites had a strict law: Gabriele Nanni, Il dito di Dio e ilpotere di Satana: L'esorcismo [The Finger of God and the Power of Satan: Exorcism], p. 15.
40: his name is really just a title: Any number of books address this topic. See, for example, Jeffrey Burton Russell's books, The Prince of Darkness, p. 33; and Satan: The Early Christian Tradition, pp. 26-28; also Edward Langton, Essentials of Demonology: A Study of Jewish and Christian Doctrine, Its Origins and Development.
41: dedicated to incantations and conjurations: The ancient world was rife with fear of demons. In addition to the Assyrians, the Babylonians also believed in a complex hierarchy of evil spirits. For instance, there was Pazuzu, a god associated with the howling north winds who was responsible for leaching the soil and destroying crops. Another was Lilitu (an early forerunner of the witch of medieval tradition), a creature that was part human and part bird who “roamed the night draining men of their bodily fluids.” See Jeffrey Burton Russell, The Prince of Darkness, pp. 15-16.
41: “The Apostles’ Creed professes”: Catechism of the Catholic Church, 325, p. 95.
41: “There must be some incorporeal creatures”: For more on Thomas Aquinas's extensive writings on the subject, see Summa Theologize I, 50, 1; I, 14, 8; I, 19, 4.
41-42: “It would be most extraordinary”: Pie-Raymond Régamey, O.P., What Is an Angel? Translated from the French by Dom Mark Pontifex, pp. 2 0-21.
42: Satan was a good angel: See the Catechism of the Catholic Church 391, p. 110.
42: “render [themselves] similar to God”: Pope John Paul II, “Creator of the Angels Who Are Free Beings,” Catechesis on the Angels, general audience, July 23, 1986, as published in L'Osservatore Romano weekly edition in English. One theologian says, “Pure spirit is pure love … Love has created them and controls them; and their perfection consists in their likeness to God,” Pie-Raymond Régamey, O.P., What Is an Angel? Translated from the French by Dom Mark Pontifex, p. 42.
42: “By creating the pure spirits”: General audience by Pope John Paul II, on July 23, 1986, titled “Creator of the Angels Who Are Free Beings,” from the Global Catholic Network (EWTN) Web site.
42: choosing to place themselves before God: Though no specific passage in the Bible dealt directly with the “sin” of the fallen angels, various theories abounded among the early Apostolic Fathers: Justin Martyr (died between 163 and 176) thought the sin to be lust, while Irenaeus (died in 202) thought it was envy. Over time, the most widely accepted theory would be the one promulgated by Origen (born in 185), that the fallen angels sinned through pride, which made them think they could place themselves above God. Though as Thomas Aquinas says, this pride was less a belief that they could become God, which would be impossible, but that they wanted to be “as God,” beings who could attain ultimate happiness through their own powers (Summa Theologia I, 63, 3). Because of the exalted nature of the angels, once they sinned, they could never go back on their decision. Thomas Aquinas deals with this point extensively and equates the angelic fall with human death: “Now it is clear that all the mortal sins of men, grave or less grave, are pardonable before death; whereas after death they are without remission and endure for ever” (Summa Theologia I, 64, 2).
42: Theologians call this punishment “the pain of loss”: From Catholic Encyclopedia: The New Advent: “The poena damni, or pain of loss, consists in the loss of the beatific vision and in so complete a separation of all the powers of the soul from God that it cannot find in Him even the least peace and rest.”
43: Lucifer and Satan are two distinct demons: There is no mention in the Bible of Satan being connected to Lucifer. In Satan: The Early Chnstian Tradition, Jeffrey Burton Russell notes that the association was most likely established by Origen when he linked the Prince of Tyre and the Dragon to Satan, pp. 131-33. According to Father Amorth, Lucifer is a very common name among demons, while Satan is rare. In Father Amorth's opinion, during an exorcism, if the eyes of the victim roll upward, this signifies the presence of Lucifer or his army, while if they roll down it means that the person has been possessed by Satan or members of his army.
43: “transplanted] into man the insubordination”: Pope John Paul II, in a general audience on August 13, 1986, taken from L'Osservatore Romano, weekly edition in English.
43: Satan has been given some degree of dominion over man: The Council of Trent (1545-63) affirms this story as a dogmatic element of the Church. “Let him be an anathema who does not admit that the first man, Adam, after having transgressed God's commandment, in the earthly paradise, immediately lost his holiness and the justice in which it had been established, and incurred, by committing such an offence, the wrath and indignation of God and subsequently death, with which God had previously threatened him, and with death, captivity under the dominion of him who, from that instant after that, had dominion over death, that is to say the Devil, and that Adam, by committing this offence, suffered a fall both in his body and his soul.” From the Eternal World Television Web site, “The Council of Trent, Session V, June 17, 1546,” www.ewtn.com/library/councils/trent5.htm.
43: fallen angels had denser bodies: For more see Jeffrey Burton Russell's Satan: The Early Chnstian Tradition, p. 73; and The Angeh, by Pascal P. Pàrente, pp. 20-23.
44: “‘Angel’ is the name”: Catechism of the Catholic Church 329, p. 96.
44: not according enough importance to intelligence: Thomas Aquinas addresses the intelligence of angels in the Summa Theologia I, 58, 1-7.
44: endowed with intellect and free will: Thomas Aquinas says, “Only a being endowed with an intellect can act with a judgment which is free” (Summa Theologian I, 59, 3).
44: their knowledge is derived from the intellect: In Summa Theologice I, 54, 3, Thomas Aquinas writes, “An angel is called ‘intellect’ and ‘mind,’ because all his knowledge is intellectual: whereas the knowledge of a soul is partly intellectual and partly sensitive.”
44: “An angel possesses such penetration”: A. M. Lepicier, The Unseen World, p. 27, from The Angeh, by Pascal P. Pàrente, p. 29.
44: the demon is acting on that object: Thomas Aquinas addresses this notion extensively in question I, 52, 1 of the Summa Theologia. “A body is said to be in a place in such a way that it is applied to such place according to the contact of dimensive quantity; but there is no such quantity in the angels, for theirs is a virtual one. Consequently an angel is said to be in a corporeal place by application of the angelic power in any manner whatever to any place.”
45: likened this movement to the human mind: Pascal P. Pàrente, The Angeh, p. 38.
45: Satan has only “preternatural” power: Preternatural is derived from the Latin prcetor, meaning outside the normal laws of nature, as opposed to supernatural, which comes from the Latin supra, meaning above or beyond the laws of nature. In this way, an angel's abilities are said to be outside the understanding of humans, though still within the confines of the natural world, while God's are above nature.
45: create the appearance of a miracle: Thomas Aquinas writes: “For even a man by doing what is beyond the power and knowledge of another, leads him to marvel at what he has done, so that in a way he seems to that man to have worked a miracle” (Summa Theologia I, 114, 4).
45: accurately “predicting” what will happen: Thomas Aquinas addresses this in the Summa Theologia I, 57, 3. “This manner of knowing future events exists in the angels, and by so much the more than it does in us, as they understand the causes of things both more universally and more perfectly.”
46: God permits the Devil to act: “It is a great mystery that providence should permit diabolical activity, but ‘we know that in everything God works for good with those who love him’” (Catechism of the Catholic Church 395, p. 111). Thomas Aquinas called the Devil's work part of the natural order: “In another way, indirectly, as when anyone assailed is exercised by fighting against opposition. It was fitting for this procuring of man's welfare to be brought about through the wicked spirits,
lest they should cease to be of service in the natural order” (Summa Theolgix I, 64, 4).
46: “The devil is not the cause of every sin”: Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theological, 114, 3.
47: The Devil's extraordinary activity: It is important to note that according to the International Association of Exorcists (IAE), these categories do not constitute a sequence of events that lead automatically to possession, which some authors have suggested.
48: this kind of direct attack is aimed at people who are closest to God: Born in Siena, Catherine was a mystic who was said to have received visions of Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. The Devil supposedly appeared to Catherine in various forms, including once as an angel of light, to tempt and assault her. She wrote extensively on the discernment of spirits.
A powerful reformer of the Carmelite order, Teresa was born in Avila, Spain. Considered to be one of the foremost writers on mental prayer, Teresa later became one of only three women ever to be named as a doctor of the Church. A mystic, Teresa was troubled by demonic visions as well as physical attacks that she attributed to the Devil. Once the Devil attacked her in the form of a small black “creature” that she chased away with ajar of holy water.
The Curé d'Ars, Saint John Vianney, was born near Lyons, France, in 1786.
Patron saint of parish priests, Vianney was reputed to have a preternatural gift of knowing the past and future, and was also said to have a gift for healing. Vianney was also believed to have been attacked by the Devil, who would harass him all night with shouts and loud noises and in one famous incident set his bed on fire. During the last ten years of his life, he spent between sixteen to eighteen hours a day in the confessional.
49: “Some are thoughts and impulses”: Francesco Bamonte, Possessioni diaboliche ed esorcismo, p. 76.
49: Also known as “involuntary possession”: Anthropologists refer to demonic possession as being “involuntary” so as not to confuse it with the various rituals in which a shaman or witch doctor is said to invite a possession to take place (usually for the purpose of imparting knowledge or healing). The same also goes for the practice of glossolalia (or speaking in tongues), in which individuals are said to be possessed by the Holy Spirit.
49: more people are becoming possessed: Father Amorth compares the cultural atmosphere of today to the decadence of the declining years of the Roman Empire.
50: “People who are possessed can keep undergoing”: This quote is taken from a personal interview with Italian exorcist Father Gabriele Nanni. For more on Father Nanni, see Chapter Six.
51: “In this case,” says an Italian exorcist: Ibid.
51: “like a demon walking on the earth”: The person is not literally taken over by the demon, but his actions comply with the demonic. For example, he is full of pride, hate, rage, or engages in illicit activity, crime. In this case, say exorcists, the demon does not need to make his presence known. It is only when the person wishes to turn his life around that the demon manifests to put a stop to that.
CHAPTER FIVE: OPENING THE DOOR
55: the Cathars took up this theory once again: The Cathars were a dualist sect that took hold primarily in northern Italy and southern France in the twelfth century. Influenced by Gnosticism, the Cathars essentially believed that the material world was too evil and corrupt to have been created by God. Instead, in order to account for the existence of both good and evil, the Cathars stipulated that the true God created only the spirit, while the Devil created the material world. As a corollary, the Cathars believed that the God of the Old Testament was too cruel to be the true God. In response, the Catholic Church labeled the Cathars as heretics and, during the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), established a canon delineating that the Devil had indeed been created by God, and was not a principal or entity independent from him. For more on the Cathars, see Jeffrey Burton Russell's The Prince of Darkness, pp. 135-136, 164.
55: this view was easily perverted: Jeffrey Burton Russell and Brooks Alexander, A History of Witchcraft, Sorcerers, Heretics ana Pagans, p. 61. The authors write: “Evidence that this [misinterpretation of Catharist doctrine] occurred comes from fourteenth century Italy, where heretics believed that the Devil created the material world. Since the Devil was the creator of the world, he was more powerful than God, and should be worshipped in his place.”
55: the infamous Hellfire Club: For more on the Hellfire Club, see Geoffrey Ashe's The Hell-Fire Clubs, 2001.
55: Father Bamonte, who also authored a book: Cosa fare con questi maghii (What Do We Do with These Magicians?), Ancora, Milan, 2000.
56: seven capital sins: Pride, avarice, lust, wrath, envy, gluttony, and sloth.
56: “‘Do what you want’“: Francesco Bamonte, Possessioni diaboliche ed esorcismo, p. 46. A variant of the famous phrase “Do what thou wilt,” by Aleister Crowley, who called himself “The Great Beast.”
57: “satanic panics” that gripped the United States: According to author Michael Cuneo, a variety of factors contributed to this phenomenon, including, among other things, an explosion in charismatic-style deliverance ministries coinciding with the growth in psychotherapy that took place during the 1980s. A few scandalous testimonials—some later debunked as fabrications— such as Michelle Remembers, which detailed the horrors of ritual abuse, also fanned the flames. For more see American Exorcism by Michael Cuneo, pp. 51-55, 195-209.
57: the McMartin Preschool trial: This phenomenon was well covered in Paul and Shirley Eberle's The Abuse of Innocence: The McMartin Preschool Trial (1993); Debbie Nathan and Michael R. Snedeker's Satan's Silence: Ritual Abuse and the Making of a Modern American Witch Hunt (1995); and Jeffrey S. Victor's Satanic Panic: The Creation of a Contemporary Legend (1993).
58: According to exorcists: The information in this section is compiled from interviews with Fathers Francesco Bamonte, Gabriele Amorth, Gabriele Nanni, Giancarlo Gramolazzo, Francois Derrnine, Fra Benigno, Jeremy Davies, and Carmine De Filippis.
59: “Possessed persons can obtain”: Patrología graeca, ed. P. J. Migne, LX, p. 293, from Corrado Balducci, The Devil, p. 119.
60: “All forms of divination”: Catechism of the Catholic Church 2116, pp.569-70.
61: The first people to be affected by a curse: In the Bible, Jesus rebukes his disciples James and John when they wish to “bring down fire from heaven” in order to punish the Samaritans who refuse them hospitality. For more on this concept see Francis MacNutt, Deliverance from Evil Spirits, pp. 97-119.
67: “Whenever I express a fear”: John Nicola, Diaholical Possession and Exorcism, p. 95.
CHAPTER SIX: IN MY NAME
71: a documentary on exorcism: Series Is It Real? on exorcism, Episode 8, season 1, August 29, 2005.
72: exorcism is a sacramental: According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “Sacramentàis are sacred signs which bear a resemblance to the sacraments. They signify effects, particularly of a spiritual nature, which are obtained through the intercession of the Church,” 1667, p. 464. For more on sacramentàis, see Catechism of the Catholic Church 1668-1679, pp. 464-67.
72: “In a simple form, exorcism”: Catechism of the Catholic Church 1673, pp.465-66.
72: According to the Christian deliverance minister: Francis MacNutt, Healing, p. 167.
72: “The priest […] should carry out this work”: Praenotanda, No. 13, De exorcismis et supplicationibus quibusdam, translated by Pierre Bellemare of Saint Paul University. Also, number 1172 of the Code of Canon Law states that a potential exorcist should have piety, knowledge, prudence, and integrity of life.
73: The earliest mention of the office: Jeffrey Grob, unpublished dissertation, “A Major Revision of the Discipline on Exorcism: A Comparative Study of the Liturgical Laws in the 1614 and 1998 Rites of Exorcism,” Saint Paul University, Ottawa, Canada, p. 53.
73: The Council of Laodicea: Ibid., p. 54.
73: the practice of blowing on the person: In his Apologetics, Tertullian added this practice, which some experts say is connected to the act of
Jesus breathing on his disciples after the Resurrection. For more see Apologetics 23.16; Tertullian: Apologetical Works andMinucius Felix: Octavius, p. 74; 1, 415.
74: an exorcist who uses complicated or lengthy invocations: Grob, p. 48.
74: Statuta Ecclesiae Latinae, a collection: Corrado Balducci, The Devil, translated by Jordan Aumann, O.P., p. 167.
74: growing climate of superstition: As early as the eleventh century, people began to augment the official formulas of the Church with their own gestures, incantations, and medicines. A general sense of superstition grew attached to the rite of exorcism, which fed into the already growing hysteria of the age, marked by an exaggerated fear of the Devil and witchcraft. Perhaps one of the most infamous cases illustrating the hysterical climate surrounding exorcism during the sixteenth century was Marthe Brossier, a twenty-five-year-old woman who alleged that her neighbor had bewitched her, causing her to become possessed. The neighbor was jailed and Brossier was paraded from village to village by her father—as a sort of traveling sideshow—and repeatedly exorcised in public. Jeffrey Grob, p. 78. See also Sarah Ferber, Demonic Possession and Exorcism in Early Modem France, pp. 40-59.
74: diverse formulas were compiled into the Roman Ritual: Though a number of people were involved in this process, two stand out as having contributed much of what would later come to be known as the Ritual. The first was a Franciscan named Girolamo Menghi (1529-1609) born in Viadana, Italy, and considered to be one of the most important exorcists of the sixteenth century. Menghi's work, the Flagellum daemonum (Scourge of Devils), contains seven exorcism prayers as well as helpful advice for exorcists on discerning spirits. For more on Menghi, see The Devil's Scourge, Weiser Books, 2002. The second figure was Peter Thyraeus (1546-1601), a Jesuit from Germany who was instrumental in revising the criteria used for determining whether a person was possessed or not. Prior to Thyraeus, the signs used by exorcists to determine possession varied greatly from region to region. His most important work was Daemoniaci, hoc est: de obsessis a spiritibus daemoniorum hominihus, published in 1598. Thyraeus divided the signs of possession into two categories, those that are attributed to the intellect and those to the body.
