Religous Wars..Territorial Ambition..Demonization..Fear..Destruction

One of the most celebrated of all cases of bewitchment and/or possession occurred in the French town of Loudun during the mid-1630s.

The most spectacular of a series of such cases, it involved a whole convent of Ursuline nuns, allegedly possessed as a result of the devilish practices of their handsome spiritual director, Father Urbain Grandier SJ, who had arrived in Loudun in 1617 as a parish priest and ended his life at the stake as a result of the nuns' accusations.

Loudun was notable for several reasons. It was a town full of churches and religious houses. It stood at the edge of the Huguenot heartland around La Rochelle, it was divided between Protestants and Catholics and, in 1616, it was the scene of a conference between the two churches, with a view to finding grounds for reconciliation.

It was the home of the great grammarian, Scévole de Sainte Marthe, whose fame was such that Charles I of England came to visit him and whose literary circle was noted for its brilliance.

Urbain Grandier was charming and eloquent, arrogant and hated. He made enemies in high places and he was rumoured to enjoy the favours of rich widows.

The worldly parish priest had not only made enemies in the town by his licentious behaviour. It was rumoured that he was the author of a pamphlet that greatly offended the Capuchins and Cardinal Richelieu, the most powerful man in France. This folly, if indeed Grandier committed it, came home with a vengeance. More Loudun

Salem Witch Trials 1692

From June through September of 1692, nineteen men and women, all having been convicted of witchcraft, were carted to Gallows Hill, a barren slope near Salem Village, for hanging.

Another man of over eighty years was pressed to death under heavy stones for refusing to submit to a trial on witchcraft charges. Hundreds of others faced accusations of witchcraft. Dozens languished in jail for months without trials. Then, almost as soon as it had begun, the hysteria that swept through Puritan Massachusetts ended.

Why did this travesty of justice occur? Why did it occur in Salem? Nothing about this tragedy was inevitable. Only an unfortunate combination of economic conditions, congregational strife, teenage boredom, and personal jealousies can account for the spiraling accusations, trials, and executions that occurred in the spring and summer of 1692. More Salem