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Who are you, Behemoth Cat? Succubus - Demons

All the demons helped their master Lucifer in everything, and among their many duties of causing harm to people, there was another specific one - they knew how to move into a person and not give him rest for a long time, sometimes driving him to a frenzy.

Such obsession against the will of the victim is very similar to epilepsy or hysteria and usually manifests itself everywhere in the same way.

1. Shrinking of the body, severe convulsions, writhing caused by evil spirits;

2. Vomiting of strange objects;

Demons, in order to quietly penetrate the body of the victim, usually resort to a tried and tested technique - some kind of treat. Henri Bodin believes that “apples are best suited for this, in which the devil (demon) can hide. Thus, Satan repeats exactly what he did in Paradise to seduce Adam and Eve."

In Europe, cases of possession were observed mainly in monasteries. One hysterical nun could well “infect” all the sisters with the help of direct influence on them and suggestion, and then the return of such women to a normal state required exorcism, that is, exorcism. The same Bodin in 1580 wrote that cases of possession by the devil most often occur in Spain and Italy, but at the beginning of the 17th century France gradually came to the fore.

In 1583, in Vienna, a sixteen-year-old nun girl began wild convulsions and writhings, which were determined to be demonic in nature. The Jesuits invited to help had to work hard to expel 12,652 living demons from her, which her grandmother kept in the form of flies in a glass jar with a lid. A seventy-year-old old woman was caught under torture in connection with the Devil. She, tied to the tail of a horse, was dragged to the town square, where they were burned at the stake.

In 1610, Sister Madelena de la Palu of the Ursuline convent in Aix-en-Provence turned out to be the seat of a whole legion of 6666 demons., including Beelzebub, Leviathan, Baalberith, Asmodeus and Astaroth, and another nun, from the same monastery, was possessed by Verrin, Gresil and Sonellon. The exorcists, performing their exorcisms, forced the demons to mark their exit with some kind of signs, the so-called stigmata, at the moment they left the body of the victim.

Here is one example: Abbess of the Loudun Monastery Anna Desange was possessed by seven demons at once: Asmodeus, Amon, Grezil, Leviathan, Behemoth, Balam and Izakaron. Asmodeus was the first to be cast out of the abbess by spells. When leaving, he left his “seal” on it - a hole in the side ... Amon, who followed him, left exactly such a hole. The third demon Gresil also came out through the side of the abbess, leaving a hole there. The fourth - Leviathan, who was sitting on her forehead, when leaving his familiar place, left a “seal” in the form of a bloody cross in the middle of her forehead. Fifth - Behemoth, who was in the womb of the abbess, when leaving, had to throw his victim a arshin up, which he duly performed. The sixth demon - Balam has chosen a place for himself in the body of the abbess in the right side under the second rib. When he left her body, she had the inscription of his name on her hand, which remained indelible for life.

The last one is Izakaron, sat in the right side under the last rib. When leaving, he left his sign in the form of a deep scratch on the thumb of the abbess's left hand. In the treatise "Malleus Maleficarum" it is stated with reference to the most authoritative scientists that demons cannot subjugate the will and mind of a person, but only his body and bodily functions.. In many cases, demons are unable to even master the body as a whole, but move into some part of it - some internal organ, muscle or bone.

6 demons Anneliese Michel

They say that the 23-year-old student from Klingenberg Anneliese Michelle was possessed by six demons who did not want to let her go. Anneliese went through 67 banishment rituals in nine months..When this did not help, the girl chose to starve herself to death. In 1976, she forced herself to refuse food, thinking that hunger would help her get rid of the devil. When she died, her weight was only 31 kilograms. "Mom," she said just before the end, "I'm afraid."

Anneliese Michel was born in 1952 in the small town of Bavaria - Leiblfing, received a traditional Catholic education, her life was no different from other children in the prosperous world ... Until one day she ended up in the hospital with strange symptoms ...

In early 1973, the parents decided to turn to the Catholic Church in order to heal the devil in the girl with a prayer. The church drew attention to the fact that the girl uses psychotropic drugs that doctors prescribed for her, so exile is difficult.

In 1974, a priest was found who undertook to exorcise the demon from Anneliese Michel, but higher religious authorities forbade this to be done ...

By this time, Anneliese's illness began to worsen - she began to more actively insult her family members, fight, bite ... She refused to eat food, motivated by the fact that Satan did not allow her to do this ... She slept only on the floor, she spent almost all days in growling and screaming, and at the opportunity, she destroyed church symbols, tore icons and broke crosses ... She climbed under the table and barked from there like a dog for two days, ate spiders, pieces of coal, bit off the head of a dead bird, licked her own urine from the floor, and through wall neighbors heard her howl.

In 1975, the priest decided to still carry out the process of exorcism according to the Romanesque rite.

At one of the prayers, Annelise admitted that she was possessed by several demons: Lucifer, Judas Iscariote, Neron, Cain, Hitler, Fleischmann (a Frankish monk who fell into the power of Satan in the 16th century).

Throughout 1975, Anneliese Michel underwent a course of prayers of cleansing from the devil once or twice a week, sometimes her condition worsened - at this moment the efforts of at least three men were required to restrain her aggression against her relatives, but in general she could continue a normal life.

Sometimes she injured herself, her limbs cramped, which contributed to the partial paralysis of her legs ... The last crisis came on June 30, 1976 ... Anneliese was ill with pneumonia, at some point she began to have convulsions, her face was drawn out, but she did not lose consciousness until the last sigh understood what was happening to her. She died in unbearable pain...

During her treatment, her mother and relatives were able to record more than 40 tapes with exorcism ...

After Anneliese's death, the prosecutor opened an investigation and charged the two priests who performed the ceremony, based on the diagnosis of doctors who claimed that Anneliese was suffering from psychotic and epilepsy ... The girl's parents and two priests received 6 months in prison.

Upon further listening and expert evaluation of the tapes by other priests practicing exorcism, it was found that the tape recorded the debate-arguments of two devils who tormented Anneliese Michel and quarreled about who should leave the girl’s body first ... This story formed the basis of the plot movie"The Six Demons of Emily Rose"...

The film directed by Scott Derrickson was released in the fall of 2005 and became his most notable picture. The literary source of the film, in turn, was the documentary book by anthropologist Felicitas Goodman, The Exorcism of Annelise Michael.

Annelise's mother still lives in the same house. She never fully recovered from those terrible events. Her husband died and three other daughters left. Anna Michel, now over 80, bears the burden of memories alone. From her bedroom window you can see the cemetery where Anneliese is buried. On the grave there is a wooden cross with the name of the deceased and the inscription "She rested in the Lord."

Azazel

Chief Standard-bearer of the infernal army. Strictly speaking, this fallen angel cannot be classified as a demon, for it was originally created for the benefit of people. But it just so happened that Azazel performed a demonic function.

After the creation of man, the angels were filled with jealousy, since all Divine love was directed to this creation, and they tried in every possible way to denigrate humanity before the Almighty. Then the Lord invited the angels to put on flesh (because an angel is a pure spirit and has no flesh) and go to earth. Two hundred angels, led by Azazel, descended to Mount Hermon (hence its name, which comes from the word "herem", separation - this is how the fallen angels separated from God). But along with the flesh, they also received that evil inclination that is in man. Angels began to marry earthly women, and giants were born from these marriages. In addition, the fallen angels taught people such arts and sciences that it would be better for them not to know. Azazel taught people how to make swords and iron knives, shields and armor, taught people how to dig mines, extract metals and precious stones, and taught women how to use gems, jewelry and taught them the art of face painting (cosmetics). So envy appeared in the world, people began to kill each other because of precious metals and stones.

All this led to the fact that The Almighty sent four of his angels - Uriel, Michael, Gabriel and Raphael - to remove the fallen angels from the earth and punish them accordingly. Each of the angels received a corresponding punishment in hell- except for AZAZEL, who remained in this world, and was imprisoned in the Dudail desert and covered in darkness until the Day of Judgment, when he will be thrown into eternal fire. In the Bible and in Talmudic literature, the name of Azazel is associated with the idea of ​​atonement for sin - the adultery of fallen angels, and most importantly - with the idea of ​​a general atonement for the sins of the people. This idea was embodied in a special ceremony: once a year, two goats were brought to the Yom Kippur holiday; one was destined (by lot) to the "Lord" as a sacrifice, the other - to "Azazel". The latter was “released” into the desert, and then thrown into the abyss from a cliff called Azazel. Hence the "scapegoat". Rabbi 13th century Moses ben Namen writes: “The Lord ordered us to send a goat on the day of Yom Kippur to a master whose possessions lie in desert places. The emanation of his power brings destruction and death… He is connected with the planet Mars… and his share among animals is a goat. Demons enter into his domain and are called seirim in Scripture. Seirim - goat-like demons of the desert, repeatedly mentioned in the Bible (Leviticus, 17, 7; 2 Chronicles. 11, 15; Isaiah 34, 14) have long been considered subordinates of Azazel; it is possible that his cult (the sacrifice of a goat) was formed among the Jews under the influence of the ancient Semitic worship of Seirim.

Azazel appears in the apocryphal Testament of Abraham (1st century), where he is depicted as an "unclean bird" sitting on a sacrifice prepared by Abraham (13, 4-9); identified with Hell (sinners burn in the womb of the "evil worm Azazel" 14, 5-6; 31, 5) and with the Serpent who seduced Eve ("a dragon with human hands and feet, having six wings on the right and six wings on the left", 23 , 7). Origen (3rd century) identified him with Satan.

According to the magicians, Azazel appears as a bearded man with horns, leading a black goat in a crown.. He can take things away and make sure no one ever finds them. It has great power in deeds of destruction and corruption. He must be conjured at least 6 times (which indicates his power), but they say that the magicians who had meetings with him disappeared without a trace.

Azael can be identified with Azael (Asael, Azael, Azzael)- also one of the fallen angels who cohabited with earthly women, who is mentioned in the 6th chapter of the Book of Enoch, the Kabbalistic book "Zohar" and Talmudic texts.

He is said to have taught the people the sorcery that allows the sun, moon, and stars to "come down from the sky" to make them closer objects of worship instead of God.

Also known in Muslim traditions, where Azazel is the name of Iblis (the devil), who refused to bow to Adam, when he was an angel.

. We talked about the possession of demons and their number, now we should talk about the fight against possession. For this, the rites of exorcism serve - the expulsion of demons, which sometimes allows you to cure a sick person, and return him to normal.

Consider how the rite of exorcism performs Christian church , and then we will describe the methods based on psychoregulation.

The practice of exorcism was introduced a very long time ago and was known in the Old Testament. The Exorcists formed one of the four minor orders of the Church. The first concern of any exorcist was to determine exactly how the demon entered the human body. The main unshakable rule is that you should never call on the help of the Devil himself, because he never tells the truth, even under the threat of expulsion from the human body. Their main methods are litanies, prayers, the laying on of hands, the repetition of the words of Jesus, who had already "cast out myriads of evil spirits." After making sure that the demon has settled in the body of a believer, the exorcist must first ask what his name is, then try to determine how many demons have moved into the unfortunate, find out the reason for his or their appearance, try to accurately determine the time of his or their penetration into the body. After that, the exorcist can begin his procedure.

Using a special manual called the “Litany of the Square of Swearing,” the exorcist slanders the demon in every possible way, insults him, swears, calls him a pig, a mangy lousy dog, a wild beast, a bloated toad, or a lousy swineherd, and all the time turns to God with a request that He drove a nail into his skull and drove it deeper with a heavy hammer. In addition to such verbal processing, sometimes in the Roman Catholic Church they resorted to self-flagellation, or flogging, though moderate enough to only frighten the demon, make him jump out, but without causing severe physical pain and unnecessary torment to the woman.

In the West, the exorcism ritual was shown live in America in 1991 on the show "20/20". They called out the demons Lucifer, Nambroff, Bechet, Nashtarot and Nabam. The victim vomited, she shook her fists, spoke obscenities in a rough voice. However, after such an open report, the woman was again forced to turn to psychiatrists.

What does anthropo offer?

1) The search for the demon is made when viewing the field of life of the patient, and if there is an invisible barrier, danger emanates from him, then the person may be possessed. In other words, the definition of possession is not made by visible physical signs, like convulsions, nausea, seizures. A demon is that unclean spirit that will do everything to keep the secret of its place of residence, hide somewhere in the nooks and crannies of a person's being, and remain unknown. The rule for determining possession is spiritual vision when two centers are working: tricky center (remote vision, item 6) and occipital nerve center (disclosure of the source of danger, item 14). In this case, the area of ​​\u200b\u200bactivity ("home") of the demon is fully revealed, which can cover not only the space of a person, but also work, a place of rest, and it becomes clear where to look for the demon - maybe in Hawaii to continue the rite of exorcism. Determination by whom and from where the demon was sent, the name of the demon, the procedure is optional.

2) There are two qualitatively different ways of esorcism. The first way is to imprison the demon in the anthropocosmos of the soul of the exorcist. With the help of the energies of love (which in this case take on the form Zanpakutō Sword of Concord and are associated with the work of the prostatic center, convoy. 81) and energies from being Narayana (which look like additional quantum or spiritual hands and are determined by the currents of the petals of the left and right heart centers, ref. 26 and 72), the demon is expelled from the patient and transferred to the depths of the soul of the esorcist, to the layer of the Narayana cosmos (paragraph 122), where the demon receives imprisonment and time for his spiritual ascent or clarification. This method of exorcism is the fastest. But, he requires from the performer of the ritual of exile of the developed soul, knowledge anthropocosmos of the soul , its horizons, the names of the demiurges, their goals and functions. Otherwise, the exorcist, having absorbed the demon into himself, will himself become possessed by an unclean spirit. The second way is to transform the fallen angel in his own "house" or in a possessed person. For this, the energy of the solar center (Living Light, item 37) is used and energy "I"(the energy of the Spark of Light or the higher "I", which represents eternal joy, happiness), which are directed to the demon in the field of the patient's life. Under the influence of these two factors, the fallen angel is transformed from evil spirits into angelic ones, becoming a protector and helper. This rite requires more time to perform than in the first case, but the patient acquires additional angelic power with which he will go throughout his life.

3) Casting out or transforming a fallen angel leads to a decline in demonic powers, which the demon lord senses and does not allow. For this reason, at the end of the rite, the exorcist himself starts Baal(Beelzubub). In confronting a dangerous and powerful force, turning to the Sephots of the Creator helps, which stop the attacks of the exarch of evil spirits, or the use of the energy of the "I", allowing you to expel the Prince of Devils from his own patrimony.

4) The rite of exorcism is completed. A recovered person should reconsider his actions, words and thoughts so that Baal cannot send the demon again and plant his kingdom. If the first method of the exorcism ritual was used, it is all the more necessary to find the cause leading to the possession. In the case of the second rite of exorcism, the person will be protected by a new angel. But it is not known what the battle of the angel and the new demon for the possession of the "house" Man will lead to.

Europe of the XIV-XVII centuries turned into one big bonfire. Thousands, and according to some sources, hundreds of thousands of people were accused by a special ecclesiastical court for heretics - the inquisition- in connection with the devil and after terrible torture, they were burned alive.

France, which was struck by a terrible epidemic called "demonic possession", was one of the first to open the hunt for heretics. Among the most famous epidemics are cases of collective hysteria in the convents of the cities of Aix (1609), Lille (1610) and Louviers (1643).

The fight against Satan was recognized as a matter of state importance, and the witch hunt took on incredible proportions.

Especially famous is the "demonic" epidemic that broke out in 1631. in the monastery of the Ursulines in Loudun. She became widely known and caused unrest throughout France through the trial of a priest. Urban Grandier.

Urban Grandier received an excellent education at the Jesuit college in Bordeaux. He was a learned and talented person, as well as an outstanding orator. Scholarship and the gift of preaching helped him quickly advance, and at the age of 27 he already became a priest in one of the temples of the city of Loudun. Youth and professional success turned Grandier's head. One of his contemporaries characterized him "as a man with an important and majestic posture, giving him an haughty air."

During his sermons, the "advanced" curate allowed himself to ridicule the monks of the hated orders of the Capuchins, Carmelites, hinting at their dark deeds and sins. Erudition and preaching gift found a response in the hearts and souls of local residents, who gradually moved away from other city parishes and rushed to preach to Urban Grandier.

However, despite all the attractiveness and education, the priest led a far from perfect life. He turned out to be a great hunter to take care of young girls. So, Urban seduced the daughter of his close friend, the royal prosecutor Trenkan, and she bore him a child. Grandier was also in touch with one of the daughters of the royal adviser René de Bru, whose mother, before her death, entrusted her daughter to the confessor, asking him to be the spiritual guardian of the girl.

Urban, in order to break the resistance of his young lover, secretly married her, and at the same time played the role of groom and priest. He managed to convince the girl that the celibacy of the clergy is not a church dogma, but a simple custom, the violation of which does not constitute a mortal sin. (Urban Grandier even wrote a special book against the celibacy of the clergy.)

It was this moral instability that did not allow Grandier in 1631 to take the post of priest of the prestigious Ursuline monastery, where there were women of the most aristocratic families. Preference was given to Father Mignon, with whom Urban had a personal score: he endlessly criticized his dissolute behavior. Soon this hostility degenerated into open opposition. The matter reached the episcopal court, which sided with Mignon.

Grandier, on the conviction of the townspeople, decided to resort to witchcraft, with the help of which he intended to seduce several nuns and enter into a love affair with them. He expected that when the scandal came to light, all the blame would be laid on the Abbé Mignon as the only man in the monastery. Eyewitnesses also claim that Grandier threw a charmed thing into the monastery garden - a small pink branch.

The nuns, having found her, sniffed the flowers in which "demons sat."

First of all, the abbess Anna Desange felt the presence of an evil spirit in herself. Following her, damage was discovered in the Nogaret sisters and Madame Sazily, a relative of Cardinal Richelieu himself.

In the end, all the nuns were under the spell.

Since the spring of 1632, there were already rumors in the city that something was wrong with the nuns. They jumped out of bed at night and, like sleepwalkers, wandered around the house and over the roofs. At night they were ghosts. Some were severely beaten at night, after which marks remained on their bodies. Others felt that someone was constantly touching them day and night, which plunged them into horror.

They felt the presence of the devil, saw the terrible "animal-like faces", felt how they were touched by "vile, clawed paws." They began to convulse, they fought in convulsions, fell into a lethargic state, catalepsy.

The abbot Mignon, having learned about these mysterious phenomena in his ward monastery, was very pleased. This gave him a powerful weapon to fight Urban Grandier. The abbot began to claim that his nuns were cursed, that they were possessed by the devil.

Not wanting to take sole responsibility for such a delicate matter, he resorted to the help of Father Barre, who was famous for his scholarship and the highest virtues, with whom he proceeded to the rite of exorcism (exorcism).

Mignon also found it necessary to notify the civil authorities of everything that was happening. The local judge and the civilian lieutenant witnessed the nuns' demonic rage, they were also shown scenes of their communion with the devil.

Urban Grandier, realizing what a thunderstorm was gathering over his head, tried to avert trouble from himself. He filed a complaint claiming he had been slandered. Thanks to Bishop de Sourdi, he managed to hush up the matter for a while. The bishop acquitted Grandier and forbade Mignon to perform exorcisms in the monastery, entrusting them to Father Barre, he also forbade anyone else to interfere in this matter.

But the clergy, who performed the rites of exorcism, constantly spread rumors among the people about what was happening in the monastery. The people began to demand the punishment of the servant of the altar, who, as they were told, had surrendered to the devil. The news of the incidents of Loudun finally reached Paris, and then to the king himself.

King Louis XIII would have treated the matter with restraint, but he was obviously under pressure from the all-powerful Cardinal Richelieu, who did not like Grandier. A young, arrogant and impudent priest wrote a libel on him. Irritated, Richelieu treated his offender without any mercy.

The provincial quartermaster Laubardemont was sent to Loudun, endowing him with the broadest powers. Laubardemont zealously took up the task, since the abbess of the monastery was his relative. In addition, he was an ardent and devoted admirer of Richelieu and, knowing about the pamphlet, he decided to take a good look at Urban.

In the meantime, the manifestations of possession first subsided a little, and then, in the summer of 1633, they resumed again violently and spread throughout the city. Everywhere there were women showing signs of possession. Rumors of the Possessed at Loudun spread throughout France.

Many came from Paris, Marseille, Lille and other cities to look at the "deeds of the devil." Even the king's brother, Gaston of Orleans, arrived specifically to see the possessed and to be present during the process of exorcising demons from them.

Based on the testimony of the nuns, the rumor continued to blame Grandier for all this, people said that he had made an alliance with Asmodeus. They even found a letter to him, signed by Asmodeus, in which he promises to torture the sisters in Loudun.

In December 1633, Laubardemont arrested Grandier, having adapted a special room in Loudun for his maintenance. The windows in the prison were blocked with bricks, and the door was sealed with iron bars for fear that the devils might come to his rescue and rescue him from prison.

They convened a commission of doctors who were to study the phenomena of possession. The commission ruled that the devil was bound to speak the truth if he was exorcised in the proper manner. Those who did not believe in this thesis could be brought to trial as accomplices of a sorcerer or heretics who disrespectfully speak of Catholic dogmas.

Just in case, it was considered appropriate to hang out at all intersections a prohibition, under pain of corporal punishment and a large monetary fine, to speak ill of judges, exorcists, and demoniacs. These threats led to the desired result. No one dared to defend Grandier. The testimonies of the possessed were recognized as having the force of legal evidence.

The "seals of the devil" were considered extremely important for exposing the sorcerer - special places on the body where there was no sensitivity. Doctors appointed by the commission found on the body of the unfortunate place, the insensitivity of which to the prick of a needle should have irrefutably testified to the agreement he had concluded with Satan.

One of the members of the commission, having red-hot an iron crucifix, brought it to the lips of Grandier, who each time drew back his head. It was recorded in the protocol that the sorcerer did not dare to venerate the cross. This removed all doubt that Grandier was a sorcerer.

Wanting to prove his innocence, Grandier asked permission to perform the rite of exorcism. However, when the possessed saw him, they were terribly excited. They jumped, rolled on the ground, screamed, meowed, barked. Surrounding the priest, the nuns attacked him, threw him to the floor, began to tear his clothes and bite him. At the sight of this spectacle, the crowd crammed into the church was horrified. With great difficulty, the inquisitors managed to snatch Grandier from the demoniacs and take him to prison.

The court, armed with data obtained by the investigation, as well as extracted from the testimony of demons during spells and at a confrontation, examined the case of Grandier and recognized him as fully exposed in witchcraft, intercourse with the devil and heresy. On October 18, 1634, the verdict took place, according to which Urban Grandier was sentenced to be burned at the stake.

After the verdict, Grandier was asked to extradite his accomplices, promising a mitigation of punishment for this. He replied that he had no accomplices. One of the exorcists delivered a most sensitive speech for his edification, which brought tears from all those present; Only Urban was unmoved by this speech. At the place of execution, the confessor handed him a cross, but Grandier turned away from him. He also refused to confess.

After torture, Grandier's legs were crushed, he was brought to the place of execution on a wagon, and then dragged to the fire. The square was filled with people who had come from all around to watch the sorcerer's death. Grandier wanted to address the people with a speech, but the monks surrounding the fire began to beat him with sticks.

One of them grabbed a torch and lit a fire. The executioner, throwing a rope around the condemned man's neck, tried to strangle him, but the rope burned out, and Urban fell into the fire.

The strange seizures of the nuns, caused by the devils of Loudun, did not stop even after the burning of Urban Grandier. A terrible disease spread far beyond the monastery. Masses were celebrated and incantations were read in all churches. The drama of Loudun did not leave anyone indifferent. A frenzy spread among the population. And especially strongly it influenced the people who participated in it. Many casters of Ludun demons have lost their minds, imagining that they were possessed by devils ...

Trials against witches and sorcerers continued in Catholic countries until the 19th century. The last fire was extinguished only in 1877, when five women were burned in Mexico on charges of witchcraft.

But the judge knows that the goal of torture is often not achieved. Some of the tortured have such a weak character that they confirm everything they are told, and even false information is confirmed by them (emphasis mine. - E.P.). Others are so stubborn that, in spite of any torture, they do not want to confess to anything. Those who have already been tortured endure torture better, since they (when raised on their hind legs) immediately stretch out their arms, and then bend them. Although there are among such tortured and those who turn out to be less hardy. There are those who, with the help of charms, endure all tortures. During torture, they seem to be insensitive. They would rather die than confess. In view of this, during torture, one must act with the greatest skill and pay a lot of attention to the properties of the tortured ... If the torture did not force the accused to confess, then the judge immediately appoints the continuation of the torture on the second or third day.
Guided by instructions such as those developed a generation later by Sprenger and the Institoris, the diligent public prosecutor proposed that Gilles de Ré be handed over to the executioners. In vain squeezed ka: a sponge, a man who lost his will, assured the judges of his readiness to admit any accusations and repent. They did not believe, or rather they pretended not to believe, in his sincerity. “Haven’t I brought such crimes upon myself that would be enough to condemn and death two thousand people!” - Exclaimed in despair Zhil Sobbing and asking to pray for the repose of his lost souls, he proceeded to the gallows Prayer chants and funeral bells floated over the city.
When, according to the verdict, fire was thrown at my body, the townspeople who cursed the monster shed sympathetic tears.
The duke was also touched, as he rounded up his lordship. H which are historians, and after
behind them the novelists claim that Gilles de Ré fell victim not so much to the greed of his neighbors as to the greed and treachery of his friends. Life is not a mosaic; it cannot be divided into clearly defined fragments. There is approximately as much truth in the assertion that the marshal of France was killed by the necromancer Prelati as in the denunciations of Rasputin, the evil genius of the last royal couple. It's not about the personality of the charlatan. A holy place, as you know, is never empty. If there had been no Rasputin, there would have been another mystical mentor, like Papus, who at one time took root in St. Petersburg, or the holy fool Mitya Kozelsky, or even Matryona-sandals, from whom the queen was crazy. Did he labor at the royal court, before the runaway horse thief, the Parisian butcher Philippe, appeared there? Having fled from France, where he was to appear before a criminal court for some dark matter, he called himself the highest occult adept, climbed into the very top of the St. Petersburg elite and was honored with the tender friendship of the august couple, who began to call him "our friend." In one of the letters, the queen reassured her worried husband with something: “Our friend Philip gave me an image with bells, which warns me about the proximity of unkind people and prevents them from approaching me ...”
What a charm: an icon with shaman bells! Not the Okhrana, not the Cossacks with allies, but a semi-savage amulet magnetized by a Parisian butcher.
Monsieur Philippe's wings were clipped by the erroneous prediction of pregnancy, which Alexandra Fedorovna was so waiting for. In addition, he began to interfere with state affairs with excessive impudence, and even put his paw into a chest of jewels. However, compared with the new "friend" Grishka Rasputin, the French charlatan - Prelati's psychological double - was a real angel. The middle of the 15th century and the beginning of the 20th century ... Is it permissible to compare? In this case, it is permissible, because, I repeat, occult obscuration is independent of the steady course of the historical process. It is beyond change, it is the notorious "eternal today".
In an interesting study by M.K. Kasvinov “Twenty-three steps down”, which, in particular, describes the last route of the deposed monarch, I was attracted by the following description:
“... Alexandra Fedorovna took out an indelible pencil from her bag and with a sharpened hard point depicted a swastika sign on the glossy white surface of the window jamb, inscribed next to it: April 17/30, 1918.
Gilliard (teacher of children. - E.P.) saw her three months later, when he entered the house together with the White Guard investigators. Then he noted in his diary: “On the wall in the embrasure of the Empress’s room window, I immediately saw her favorite Swastika sign, which she painted so often ... The same sign, only without a number, was painted on the wallpaper of the wall at the height of the bed, which apparently belonged , heir." N. E. Markov (Markov 2nd), speaking in exile about his attempts to take the Romanovs away, explained: “Our conditional sign was the swastika ... The Empress knew this sign well and preferred it to others ...”
Since then, the West has been talking about the sympathy of the Russian Empress for the swastika. London's "Taimo", reviewing the American two-part film "Nikolai and Alexandra", called Alexandra Fedorovna "fascist Brunnhilda." The chapter about the stay of the Romanovs in the Ipatiev House V. Alexandrov in his book and titled: "Under the sign of the swastika." He notes “the historical priority of Alexandra Feodorovna, revealed in one respect”, namely: “Long before the hook-shaped cross began to arrogantly parade itself on the facades of the “Third Reich”, its trace was drawn on the wall of the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg by the deposed Empress.” We will see later where this "priority" comes from, this occult anticipation made by the dethroned queen, born Princess Alice of Hesse - Darmstadt. In the meantime, let's remember the involuntarily lined up row: hysteria, mysticism, the emblem of the fascist pogromists.

Exorcism at Loudun

... These white roses are collected and presented to you, as well as the manuscript, signed with the blood of the sorcerer and being a list from the contract that he concluded with Lucifer; he was forced to constantly carry this list with him in order to maintain his power. And now, to great horror, you can still make out the words inscribed in the corner of the parchment: "The original is kept in the underworld, in the study of Lucifer."
Alfred de Vigny, Saint-Mar

The WHITE ROSE turned purple when Aphrodite pricked the divine leg with a sharp thorn ... The roses and parchment mentioned by Alfred de Vigny were indeed presented as material evidence at the trial, where Urbain Grandier, a minister of the church, was accused of complicity with the devil.
Two hundred years separate the trial of Gilles de Ré from the no less famous case of Urbain Grandier. This is not only an abyss of time, but also a new historical era, which only a schoolboy who had read the novels of Alexandre Dumas could call "the age of the musket." A different symbol is much more suitable for her - a pole lined with firewood. Geographical discoveries, manufactories, the progress of science and technology - this is only one side of the coin, and the "witch hunt" is the other. On the gilded obverse is a frigate flying at full sail, on the sooty reverse - a crow around the scaffold.
Let's not turn the ship off its winning course. Our path passes through the shadowy pages of history...
“No matter how disgusting the details of the persecution raised against witchcraft until the 15th century,” writes G.-Ch. Lee - they were only a prologue to the blind and insane murders that left a shameful stain on the next century and half of the 17th century. It seemed that madness had seized the Christian world, and that Satan could rejoice at the worship that was given to his power, seeing how the smoke of sacrifices ascended endlessly, testifying to his triumph over the almighty. Protestants and Catholics competed in deadly fury. They no longer burned sorceresses singly or in pairs, but in tens and hundreds. The total number of victims of this truly diabolical feast is estimated at 9 or even 10 million people.
“What is the meaning of the torment of one crucified on the cross before the torment of these nine million, burned in his name and for the glory of the holy trinity of people who for months before that had been tormented by bodies and broken bones!” - exclaims M. Genning in a monographic study entitled with the utmost clarity - "The Devil". In the episode that interests us, the devilish legions showed themselves in Loudun, near the ancient French city of Poitiers, choosing a small monastery of the Ursuline sisters for mass pilgrimage. Knowing the situation and customs of women's cloisters, one should not be particularly surprised here. “The unsatisfied thirst for love and motherhood,” Academician S. D. Skazkin noted on this occasion in the preface to Alfred de Vigny’s novel “Saint-Map”, “turned into an ecstasy of love for the heavenly bridegroom, often poured out on the father-confessor, the only man, who appeared in the monastery and was forced by virtue of his duties to listen to a secret confession, wandering through the most intimate corners of the female soul. Things took a dangerous turn when such a father turned out to be a brilliant, handsome and educated priest.
Urbain Grandier fully responded to such a flattering characterization. An excellent orator who received thorough training at the Jesuit college in Bordeaux, he literally fascinated his interlocutors with his speech. To such dangerous eloquence, one should add a spectacular appearance, and an arrogant posture, and relative youth - at the height of the events of Grandier, 42 years have passed - and then the obsession of the nuns will receive the simplest and most natural explanation. In addition, a brilliant minister of the church managed to pass for a shameless womanizer. Having received the parish of Louden at the age of 27, he seduced the very young daughter of the royal prosecutor Trencan, and his connection with the daughter of the adviser Rene de Brou, with whom he even secretly married, played a double role: priest and groom. In a word, the prankster in the cassock was far from sinless in the amorous part. And if he really got the place of confessor in the monastery of Luden, whom he so coveted, then the story of Masetto from Lamporecchio (The Decameron, day III, short story 1) could well be repeated. After all, as it is clear from the annotation, this Masetto, “who pretended to be dumb, enters the gardener in the convent of nuns, who all compete to get along with him.” Grandier did not have to pretend, he only needed to get the coveted position, which was also claimed by his fierce enemy, Father Mignon. Actually, in them, in the enemies, the main intrigue lurked: in ill-wishers, envious people, offended fathers, deceived husbands, ridiculed servants of the Lord.
If we add here a caustic pamphlet in which the Ludun priest dared to offend Cardinal Richelieu himself, then the intervention of the devil in church affairs will become much clearer, the Freethinker and the proud man should have been destroyed by any means, and he was killed when the opportunity presented itself. Persistent in their claims to
the post that was nevertheless given to Mignon, Grandier himself put his weapon into the smashing hand of enemies. They vividly recalled the details of the case of Goffridi, confessor of the Ursulines, who was burned at Aix on April 20, 1611. And above all, the bride of Christ, Louise, a plump blonde, in which Beelzebub moved in, her shameless body movements, dangerous feverish speeches. Why not repeat the number in Loudun? The "prince of magicians" Goffridy could well have been resurrected in Grandier, only to be reduced to ashes again. It was decided to start with a nauzy - some charmed little thing or, in other words, a trick well known to all sorcerers and shamans, based on a fanatical belief in the evil eye, damage and other destructive spells. Finding nothing better, they settled on a branch with beautiful white roses, still damp from heavy dew. Ah, those roses that turned Lucius into a donkey, ah, those touching tears of virgin doves, burned by secret desires, tormented by dense monastic crowds!
The first to see the branch thrown over the fence was Mother Superior Anna Desange. As soon as she breathed the aroma of the charmed flowers, like a monastery garden, and which so lacked a dumb gardener, swirled before her eyes and a hot current of unbearable temptation shook her whole being. About what happened to the venerable abbess further, the investigative protocols tell with the obscene naturalism characteristic of the inquisitors. The sophisticated stylist Alfred de Vigny (through the mouth of the old woman of the witness) makes it much more elegant: “... it was a pity to watch how she tore her chest, how she twisted her legs and arms, and then suddenly weaved them behind her back. When the holy father Lactans approached her and pronounced the name of Urbain Grandier, foam flowed from her mouth and she spoke in Latin, but so smoothly, as if she were reading the Bible: therefore I did not understand anything properly, I only remembered Urbanus magicus rosas diabolica, and this means that the sorcerer Urbain bewitched her with the help of roses, which he received from the evil one. Indeed, roses of a fiery color appeared in her ears and on her neck, and they smelled of sulfur so much that the judge shouted for everyone to plug their noses and close their eyes, because the demons were about to come out.
These demons inhabited everyone who only sniffed the ill-fated roses. Following the abbess, two Nogaret sisters fell ill, then damage was discovered in the pretty nun Saint-Agnès, daughter of the Marquis Delamotte-Brace, then in Claire Sasily, a relative of the all-powerful Richelieu, and off we go. Soon there was almost not a single girl left in the monastery who was not affected by the obsession. The legion of demons that fell upon a modest provincial monastery behaved like a military unit that had taken possession of an enemy fortress. The rapists forced the timid sisters and novices to do incredible things. Moreover, all the obsessed were inflamed with passion precisely for Urbain Grandier, who appeared to them at night, tempting them to sweet sin, seducing them to eternal death. But God is strong! Being on the very edge of destruction, not a single Ursuline fell into the abyss, which was properly evidenced during multiple exorcisms. The demons sitting in the girls were forced to confirm this fact, regrettable for them, but gratifying for the Eternal Light. In the experienced hands of the exorcists, the Hellmarines behaved no longer like occupiers, but like prisoners of war brought to the enemy headquarters for interrogation. Forced to testify, the demon gave his name and rank in the demonic legion, described his own appearance and that innermost corner in the human body, which he unasked and so shamelessly occupied.
I am by no means distorting for the sake of metaphorical completeness, speaking of ranks. In the materials of the Luden trial, it is so directly said - rank. Apparently, the demons that settled in the young ladies carefully studied the Neoplatonist Dionysius the Areopagite, who divided the angels in the work “The Hierarchy of Heavenly Forces” - and the demons, or aggels, are the same angels, only fallen away from God - into nine ranks-ranks. In any case, everyone firmly knew his place in the ranks. The abbess Desange, for example, was obsessed with seven invaders at once, of which Behemoth, Asmodeus and Gresil turned out to be descended from the rank of "thrones", Izakaron, Amon and Balam - "authorities", Leviathan - "seraphim". The body of Louise Barbezier's sister was occupied by two: Eazas belonging to the "dominations", who settled under the very heart, and Caron, who considered himself to be "powers", who made a nest in the center of his forehead. The daughter of the Marquis Sazilla had the worst of all, because the infernal eight moved into her: Zabulon, Neftali, Elimi, the Enemy of the Virgin, Pollution, Verin, Lust and the Infinite, who chose a place under the second rib. This demon had another name - Urbain Grandier, which played perhaps the most fatal role in the fate of the accused. About how the same person can stay simultaneously under the ribs of a nun and in the church of St. Peter, where our hero served, the question was not even raised, for the devil is omnipotent, or rather, almost omnipotent, because he has control. Exorcists exorcised demons from the possessed poor, not knowing the rest. And the demons succumbed, although they swore not to leave their chosen places until the end of their years. The protocols record in detail their testimonies on part of the routes for retreats. Behemoth, for example, before leaving the womb of the abbess, as a sign of his exit, promised to throw poor Desange up, which was immediately done. Izakaron, leaving the last rib, left her a souvenir in the form of a scratch on the thumb of her left hand, the Leviathan sitting in the forehead marked his mark with a bloody cross. And so it was with each: convulsive jumps, writhing, convulsions, scratches and bleeding stigmata.
A terrible game, where deliberate deceit became self-deception, delirium condensed into the reality of a monstrous slander, and caricature hysteria, as in Goya's Caprichos, interfered with farce. When the demon expelled from Agnes’s sister promised to pull off the kamilavka from the head of the royal commissioner, Sieur Laubardemont, and keep it in the air while they sang “Miserere”, Homeric laughter seized those present, which, of course, was also blamed on Urbain Grandier.
Rumors of indecency in the Ludun monastery spread far beyond the borders of the county of Poitiers. Together with the exorcists who conjured the possessed moths of ours, the local judicial authorities also frequented the monastery in order to personally testify to the strange phenomena about which there were such contradictory rumors.
The Abbé Mignon was happy to show his spoiled lambs to the guests. As soon as the high commission entered Sister Jeanne, she had a seizure. Tossing about on the couch, she suddenly grunted with inimitable perfection, then she writhed all over, curled up into a ball and, clenching her teeth, fell into a state of catalepsy. The Abbé Mignon forced his fingers into her mouth with difficulty and began to read the exorcisms. When the entrenched demon trembled and began to speak, the exorcist addressed him in Latin with a question:
- Why did you enter the body of this girl?
“Out of malice,” the demon frankly answered in the same language of church services.
- Which way?
- Through flowers.
- What kind?
- Roses.
- Who sent them?
- Urbain.
“Tell me his last name,” the vengeful confessor demanded, as if the name, which was inflected in every way in Loudun, was not enough.
- Grandier, - the human enemy willingly responded, betraying not only the ruler, but also his brother in the legion.
- Tell me, who is he? - did not lag behind. jorcist, as if there could be another Urbain Grandier in little Loudun.
- Priest.
- What church?
- Saint Peter.
- Who gave him flowers?
- Devil.
All this ludicrous babble was meticulously recorded, and from that day on, all the deeds of the exorcist were accompanied by the judicial authorities. Over Urbain, although he was patronized by influential people, there was a real threat of becoming the second Goffridi, although not he, but his opponent Mignon was the confessor of the Ursulines.
Cardinal de Sourdi, to whom Grandier complained of slander, acquitted the promising talented cleric and forbade Mignon to carry out further exorcisms, leaving such a delicate matter to trusted persons. The city authorities also tended to keep the whole country quiet and gradually put the brakes on the matter.
Reluctantly, the abbot obeyed the archbishop, but the devils did not obey, who even more began to honor their confidant Grandier. When the news of the miracles of Ludun reached the royal ears, Louis XIII treated them with commendable caution, but Richelieu insisted on the strictest investigation. In fact, he had been leading it for a long time, trying to expose the author of the mocking pamphlet. The documents found at Loudun clearly indicated that the author was Grandier, so the Duke-Cardinal had no reason to spare the impudent freethinker. He entrusted the investigation to Laubardemont, whom he provided with the broadest powers.
Returning at the end of 1633 to Loudun, the royal commissioner first of all took the suspect into custody and began collecting "witness" testimony. For speed, each possessed had its own exorcist, court official and scribe. In the meantime, they found "devil's seals" on Grandier's body - areas insensitive to pain, which was not at all difficult, since the inquisitors had special needles that went into the handle with the slightest pressure. The fate of the gallant priest was sealed. Formal condemnation was only a matter of technique, nothing more. “Thrones” and “authorities” surviving from cozy burrows not only gave the necessary testimony, but also supplied justice with evidence, supplied the necessary documents.
When they pressed properly on the main demon Asmodeus, who was captivating the abbess, he could not stand it and dictated a copy of the agreement concluded between him and the person under investigation. This is the product of a limited mind and fierce malice: “Lord and master, I recognize you as my god and promise to serve you as long as I live, and from now on I renounce all others, and Jesus Christ, and Mary, and all the saints in heaven, and from the Apostolic Roman Catholic Church, and from all her deeds and prayers that can be done for me, and I promise to worship you and serve you at least three times daily, and do as much evil as possible, and involve everyone in doing evil, anyone possible, and with a pure heart I renounce chrismation and baptism, and all the grace of Jesus Christ, and in case I want to turn, I give you power over my body, and soul, and life, as if I received it from you, and I cede it to you forever, with no intention of repenting of it.
Signed in blood:
"Urbain Grandier".
The place designated for the storage of the original is already known to us. If this document exposes anyone, it is only the abbess herself, whose style is tongue-tied and her thought meager. Neither Asmodeus nor the sophisticated rhetorician Grandier can be suspected of such incomprehensibility.
The judges, of course, were not at all embarrassed by this, and Urbain Grandier was brought to a confrontation with all the girls and the aggels who had settled in them. The commotion was extraordinary. The demons forced the Ursulines to make shameless gestures and joyfully cried out from their virginal lips: “Our lord! Mister!"
The guilt of the defendant, therefore, was not in doubt. Only the conscientiousness of the judges, who wanted to get to the bottom of every detail, kept them from an immediate verdict.
And she, conscientiousness, brought the desired results. Bes Leviathan revealed the composition of the potion with which white roses were poisoned, or rather, magnetized. To the great horror and disgust of those present, it turned out to be boiled from the heart of an innocent baby slaughtered at the Sabbath in Orleans in 1631, the ashes of a burnt communion wafer, as well as from the blood and semen of Grandier himself.
We will not linger on the details, although they are not without interest, of this blatant, but so ordinary witch trial against the background of similar cases. Its result was a foregone conclusion, and Grandier himself understood this, retaining rare endurance and extraordinary courage even in the arms of the flame.
Defending his human dignity, he tried to oppose logic to madness, he tried to strike with a rational weapon the many-headed hydra, which hovered on the bat wings of hysteria.

An example of "witchcraft" writing and typical for magical practice in Western Europe in the 15th-16th centuries. "The Book of Demons" (based on the book by F. Barret "The Magician". 1801)

When, in order to drive Grandier into vile images, he bowed to another pit, he was offered to the bishop, asking him to bless him to try himself as a sign to start an exorcism. the exorcist, he, not in the least indulging in such a crazy idea, nevertheless calmly put on himself the priestly robe. Not embarrassed by the protesting assholes of demons, who turned pretty girlish faces into vile images, he bowed to the bishop, asking his blessing to begin exercise.
A terrible game, where deliberate deceit became self-deception, delirium condensed into the reality of a monstrous slander, and caricature hysteria, as in Goya's Caprichos, interfered with farce.
The bishop gave what was required, pointing to the crowd of raging virgins. "You denied it!" - the devil's army squealed, reminding of the concluded agreement. The choir sang the usual in such cases "Veni creator" - "Appear, creator", and the duel with the non-existent began.
Not at all thinking seriously about the ridiculous single combat with obsessed hysterics, Grandier is a naive sage! - hoping to catch one of them in a lie. When Ursuline Claire rushed at him with obscene abuse, he immediately began to scold her, asking permission to address the demon in Greek.
- Don't you dare! yelled the evil spirit hidden in Mother Superior. - Traitor! Deceiver! According to the agreement, you can't ask questions in Greek! Grandier smiled slightly, preparing to draw the attention of the court to such an obvious incongruity, but Sister Claire forestalled him with a haughty cry: - You can speak any language, you will be answered! The girl was educated. The original plan was upset, Grandier was embarrassed and fell silent. Of course, this did not in the least affect the final outcome, because the verdict was a foregone conclusion, and even if the demon Claire did not know Greek, Themis's scales would still remain in a predetermined position.
But this episode says a lot about Grandier's inner world. Having withstood the scolding pouring on him from all sides, although the detractors continued to call him "lord" and "master", he coolly remarked: - I am not your master and not your servant. And I can’t understand at all why, while calling me lord, you are so eager to grab me by the throat?
The indignant sisters, instead of answering a completely reasonable question, began to take off their shoes, bringing down a hail of heavy shoes on the head of the zealot of logic. - Well, the demons unchained themselves! - the prisoner laughed mockingly, wiping blood from his cut temple.
The joker was taken to jail. The verdict was passed on October 18, 1634.
Grandier refused confession and turned his face away from the cross, which the Capuchin confessor had thrust at him at the place of execution. The magic sword is a double-edged weapon. And yet, consecrated by the authority of the church hierarchy, it has done much more trouble than in the hands of singles: fanatics and madmen, charlatans and dupes. Claiming to be "over time-over-spatial" and arrogantly trying to impose its will on the rigidly determined laws of the universe, magic already in its essence carries a destructive and, as a result, a criminal principle. The notorious Marquis de Sade understood this quite intuitively, who immortalized his name in such an unattractive term as “sadism.” Through Bressac, the hero of the novel “New Justine,” he states, not without regret: “What can we actually do in this life "The answer is simple. All our petty crimes against morality can be reduced to a few - perversions and murders, random rapes or incestuous relationships; our crimes against religion are nothing more than blasphemy and profanity. Is there anyone among us who can sincerely confess that really satisfied with these trifles?
- No, of course, - objected the ardent Madame D "Esterval. - I suffer, perhaps more than you, from the meagerness of the crimes that nature allows me. With all our actions, we only offend idols, but not nature itself. I long to insult nature itself. I want to turn her order into chaos, block her orderly movement, stop the stars and shake the planets floating in outer space, hinder what serves nature and patronize what hinders her - in a word, offend nature and stop her great activity. But I can't do any of that." "Yes," put in Bressac, "that's right. What we have achieved is not a crime ... Let's direct our revenge along the paths possible. Let's multiply the horrors, since we cannot increase them."
Crime and witchcraft, they are equally guilty both in the horrors themselves and in their multiplication. Regardless of the starting point, the logic of evolution "forces their" world lines "to converge at the same line, beyond which there is nothing left but to" offend precisely nature ", which has realized itself through the crown of creation - the human brain. That is why obscurantists and misanthropes of all stripes, who, however, are capable of rising to the realization of the complete futility of such a revolt, turn their poisonous fury on science and art, without which knowledge of the objective world is unthinkable.
In the next essay, we will see how closely the snakes of crime and black witchcraft intertwine.

Black mass

On the young man from the black book of magic
Watched vigilantly from the faded paper
Pictures for impure eyes
All the abominations of which the story runs.
Robert Southey, "The Ballad of a Young Man"

THE REGULAR SESSION of the newly restored "fire chamber" - an emergency tribunal established by Henry II (1547) to combat Calvinism, was scheduled for April 10, 1679. When the judges of Louis the Fourteenth, the "Sun King", entered the hall draped with black cloth, the lieutenant of the equestrian guards, Degré, smugly drew himself up. The atrocities of Catherine Monvoisin, nee Dezeuil, who was arrested by him on the porch of the Notre Dame Cathedral, far surpassed the exploits of the marquise-poisoner Jeanne de Brenvier, whom the gallant policeman once managed to extract from the holy walls of the Liege monastery. On the conscience of the portly beauty, who this time appeared before the court, there were such feats that even the royal lawyer, Maitre Laraini, had to resort to a bottle of smelling salt in order to relieve nausea. Looking closely at the tortured defendant, whose once luxurious dress, which cost 15,000 livres, was torn, stained with blood and sewage, Gabriel Nicola Laraini mechanically leafed through the protocols lying in front of him. The materials collected by the investigation were more than enough to hand over the jeweler Monvoisin to the Parisian executioner without further ado. In her garden in Saint-Germain, 2500 buried children's corpses and undeveloped embryos were found, and the rat poison seized during the search would be quite enough to send to the other world a good half of the husbands who bored their wives. However, not ordinary poisoning embarrassed the meter Laraini, and even more so not clandestine abortions. The particular delicacy of the process was that Monvoisin's clients were persons with very big names. Her services were used, for example, by the Duchess of Orleans, the Duchess of Bouillon, and the Marquise de Montespan herself, who took the place of the nun La Vallière, who had taken the veil. The powerful favorite, who gave His Majesty four children, was now experiencing the difficult moment of the "changing of the guard" herself.

... These white roses are collected and presented to you, as well as the manuscript, signed with the blood of the sorcerer and being a list from the contract that he concluded with Lucifer; he was forced to constantly carry this list with him in order to maintain his power. And now, to great horror, you can still make out the words inscribed in the corner of the parchment: "The original is kept in the underworld, in the study of Lucifer."

(Alfred de Vigny, Saint-Mar)

The WHITE ROSE turned purple when Aphrodite pricked the divine leg with a sharp thorn ... The roses and parchment mentioned by Alfred de Vigny were indeed presented as material evidence at the trial, where Urbain Grandier, a minister of the church, was accused of complicity with the devil.

Two hundred years separate the trial of Gilles de Ré from the no less famous case of Urbain Grandier. This is not only an abyss of time, but also a new historical era, which only a schoolboy who had read the novels of Alexandre Dumas could call "the age of the musket." A different symbol is much more suitable for her - a pole lined with firewood. Geographical discoveries, manufactories, the progress of science and technology - this is only one side of the coin, and the "witch hunt" is the other. On the gilded obverse is a frigate flying at full sail, on the sooty reverse - a crow around the scaffold.

Let's not turn the ship off its winning course. Our path passes through the shadowy pages of history...

“No matter how disgusting the details of the persecution raised against witchcraft until the 15th century,” writes G.-Ch. Lee - they were only a prologue to the blind and insane murders that left a shameful stain on the next century and half of the 17th century. It seemed that madness had seized the Christian world, and that Satan could rejoice at the worship that was given to his power, seeing how the smoke of sacrifices ascended endlessly, testifying to his triumph over the almighty. Protestants and Catholics competed in deadly fury. They no longer burned sorceresses singly or in pairs, but in tens and hundreds. The total number of victims of this truly diabolical feast is estimated at 9 or even 10 million people.

“What is the meaning of the torment of one crucified on the cross before the torment of these nine million, burned in his name and for the glory of the holy trinity of people who for months before that had been tormented by bodies and broken bones!” - exclaims M. Genning in a monographic study entitled with the utmost clarity - "The Devil". In the episode that interests us, the devilish legions showed themselves in Loudun, near the ancient French city of Poitiers, choosing a small monastery of the Ursuline sisters for mass pilgrimage. Knowing the situation and customs of women's cloisters, one should not be particularly surprised here. “The unsatisfied thirst for love and motherhood,” Academician S. D. Skazkin noted on this occasion in the preface to Alfred de Vigny’s novel “Saint-Map”, “turned into an ecstasy of love for the heavenly bridegroom, often poured out on the father-confessor, the only man, who appeared in the monastery and was forced by virtue of his duties to listen to a secret confession, wandering through the most intimate corners of the female soul. Things took a dangerous turn when such a father turned out to be a brilliant, handsome and educated priest.

Urbain Grandier fully responded to such a flattering characterization. An excellent orator who received thorough training at the Jesuit college in Bordeaux, he literally fascinated his interlocutors with his speech. To such dangerous eloquence, one should add a spectacular appearance, and an arrogant posture, and relative youth - at the height of the events of Grandier, 42 years have passed - and then the obsession of the nuns will receive the simplest and most natural explanation. In addition, a brilliant minister of the church managed to pass for a shameless womanizer. Having received the parish of Louden at the age of 27, he seduced the very young daughter of the royal prosecutor Trencan, and his connection with the daughter of the adviser Rene de Brou, with whom he even secretly married, played a double role: priest and groom. In a word, the prankster in the cassock was far from sinless in the amorous part. And if he really got the place of confessor in the monastery of Luden, whom he so coveted, then the story of Masetto from Lamporecchio (The Decameron, day III, short story 1) could well be repeated. After all, as it is clear from the annotation, this Masetto, “who pretended to be dumb, enters the gardener in the convent of nuns, who all compete to get along with him.” Grandier did not have to pretend, he only needed to get the coveted position, which was also claimed by his fierce enemy, Father Mignon. Actually, in them, in the enemies, the main intrigue lurked: in ill-wishers, envious people, offended fathers, deceived husbands, ridiculed servants of the Lord.

If we add here a caustic pamphlet in which the Ludun priest dared to offend Cardinal Richelieu himself, then the intervention of the devil in church affairs will become much clearer, the Freethinker and the proud man should have been destroyed by any means, and he was killed when the opportunity presented itself. Persistent in their claims to

the post that was nevertheless given to Mignon, Grandier himself put his weapon into the smashing hand of enemies. They vividly recalled the details of the case of Goffridi, confessor of the Ursulines, who was burned at Aix on April 20, 1611. And above all, the bride of Christ, Louise, a plump blonde, in which Beelzebub moved in, her shameless body movements, dangerous feverish speeches. Why not repeat the number in Loudun? The "prince of magicians" Goffridy could well have been resurrected in Grandier, only to be reduced to ashes again. It was decided to start with a nauzy - some charmed little thing or, in other words, a trick well known to all sorcerers and shamans, based on a fanatical belief in the evil eye, damage and other destructive spells. Finding nothing better, they settled on a branch with beautiful white roses, still damp from heavy dew. Ah, those roses that turned Lucius into a donkey, ah, those touching tears of virgin doves, burned by secret desires, tormented by dense monastic crowds!

The first to see the branch thrown over the fence was Mother Superior Anna Desange. As soon as she breathed the aroma of the charmed flowers, like a monastery garden, and which so lacked a dumb gardener, swirled before her eyes and a hot current of unbearable temptation shook her whole being. About what happened to the venerable abbess further, the investigative protocols tell with the obscene naturalism characteristic of the inquisitors. The sophisticated stylist Alfred de Vigny (through the mouth of the old woman of the witness) makes it much more elegant: “... it was a pity to watch how she tore her chest, how she twisted her legs and arms, and then suddenly weaved them behind her back. When the holy father Lactans approached her and pronounced the name of Urbain Grandier, foam flowed from her mouth and she spoke in Latin, but so smoothly, as if she were reading the Bible: therefore I did not understand anything properly, I only remembered Urbanus magicus rosas diabolica, and this means that the sorcerer Urbain bewitched her with the help of roses, which he received from the evil one. Indeed, roses of a fiery color appeared in her ears and on her neck, and they smelled of sulfur so much that the judge shouted for everyone to plug their noses and close their eyes, because the demons were about to come out.

These demons inhabited everyone who only sniffed the ill-fated roses. Following the abbess, two Nogaret sisters fell ill, then damage was discovered in the pretty nun Saint-Agnès, daughter of the Marquis Delamotte-Brace, then in Claire Sasily, a relative of the all-powerful Richelieu, and off we go. Soon there was almost not a single girl left in the monastery who was not affected by the obsession. The legion of demons that fell upon a modest provincial monastery behaved like a military unit that had taken possession of an enemy fortress. The rapists forced the timid sisters and novices to do incredible things. Moreover, all the obsessed were inflamed with passion precisely for Urbain Grandier, who appeared to them at night, tempting them to sweet sin, seducing them to eternal death. But God is strong! Being on the very edge of destruction, not a single Ursuline fell into the abyss, which was properly evidenced during multiple exorcisms. The demons sitting in the girls were forced to confirm this fact, regrettable for them, but gratifying for the Eternal Light. In the experienced hands of the exorcists, the Hellmarines behaved no longer like occupiers, but like prisoners of war brought to the enemy headquarters for interrogation. Forced to testify, the demon gave his name and rank in the demonic legion, described his own appearance and that innermost corner in the human body, which he unasked and so shamelessly occupied.

I am by no means distorting for the sake of metaphorical completeness, speaking of ranks. In the materials of the Luden trial, it is so directly said - rank. Apparently, the demons that settled in the young ladies carefully studied the Neoplatonist Dionysius the Areopagite, who divided the angels in the work “The Hierarchy of Heavenly Forces” - and the demons, or aggels, are the same angels, only fallen away from God - into nine ranks-ranks. In any case, everyone firmly knew his place in the ranks. The abbess Desange, for example, was obsessed with seven invaders at once, of which Behemoth, Asmodeus and Gresil turned out to be descended from the rank of "thrones", Izakaron, Amon and Balam - "authorities", Leviathan - "seraphim". The body of Louise Barbezier's sister was occupied by two: Eazas belonging to the "dominations", who settled under the very heart, and Caron, who considered himself to be "powers", who made a nest in the center of his forehead. The daughter of the Marquis Sazilla had the worst of all, because the infernal eight moved into her: Zabulon, Neftali, Elimi, the Enemy of the Virgin, Pollution, Verin, Lust and the Infinite, who chose a place under the second rib. This demon had another name - Urbain Grandier, which played perhaps the most fatal role in the fate of the accused. About how the same person can stay simultaneously under the ribs of a nun and in the church of St. Peter, where our hero served, the question was not even raised, for the devil is omnipotent, or rather, almost omnipotent, because he has control. Exorcists exorcised demons from the possessed poor, not knowing the rest. And the demons succumbed, although they swore not to leave their chosen places until the end of their years. The protocols record in detail their testimonies on part of the routes for retreats. Behemoth, for example, before leaving the womb of the abbess, as a sign of his exit, promised to throw poor Desange up, which was immediately done. Izakaron, leaving the last rib, left her a souvenir in the form of a scratch on the thumb of her left hand, the Leviathan sitting in the forehead marked his mark with a bloody cross. And so it was with each: convulsive jumps, writhing, convulsions, scratches and bleeding stigmata.

A terrible game, where deliberate deceit became self-deception, delirium condensed into the reality of a monstrous slander, and caricature hysteria, as in Goya's Caprichos, interfered with farce. When the demon expelled from Agnes’s sister promised to pull off the kamilavka from the head of the royal commissioner, Sieur Laubardemont, and keep it in the air while they sang “Miserere”, Homeric laughter seized those present, which, of course, was also blamed on Urbain Grandier.

Rumors of indecency in the Ludun monastery spread far beyond the borders of the county of Poitiers. Together with the exorcists who conjured the possessed moths of ours, the local judicial authorities also frequented the monastery in order to personally testify to the strange phenomena about which there were such contradictory rumors.

The Abbé Mignon was happy to show his spoiled lambs to the guests. As soon as the high commission entered Sister Jeanne, she had a seizure. Tossing about on the couch, she suddenly grunted with inimitable perfection, then she writhed all over, curled up into a ball and, clenching her teeth, fell into a state of catalepsy. The Abbé Mignon forced his fingers into her mouth with difficulty and began to read the exorcisms. When the entrenched demon trembled and began to speak, the exorcist addressed him in Latin with a question:

Why did you enter this girl's body?

Out of spite, - the demon frankly answered in the same language of church services.

Which way?

Through flowers.

Who sent them?

Tell me his last name, the vengeful confessor demanded, as if the name, which was inflected in every way in Loudun, was not enough.

Grandier, - the human enemy willingly responded, betraying not only the ruler, but also his brother in the legion.

Tell me who is he? - did not lag behind. jorcist, as if there could be another Urbain Grandier in little Loudun.

Priest.

What church?

Saint Peter.

Who gave him flowers?

All this ludicrous babble was meticulously recorded, and from that day on, all the deeds of the exorcist were accompanied by the judicial authorities. Over Urbain, although he was patronized by influential people, there was a real threat of becoming the second Goffridi, although not he, but his opponent Mignon was the confessor of the Ursulines.

Cardinal de Sourdi, to whom Grandier complained of slander, acquitted the promising talented cleric and forbade Mignon to carry out further exorcisms, leaving such a delicate matter to trusted persons. The city authorities also tended to keep the whole country quiet and gradually put the brakes on the matter.

Reluctantly, the abbot obeyed the archbishop, but the devils did not obey, who even more began to honor their confidant Grandier. When the news of the miracles of Ludun reached the royal ears, Louis XIII treated them with commendable caution, but Richelieu insisted on the strictest investigation. In fact, he had been leading it for a long time, trying to expose the author of the mocking pamphlet. The documents found at Loudun clearly indicated that the author was Grandier, so the Duke-Cardinal had no reason to spare the impudent freethinker. He entrusted the investigation to Laubardemont, whom he provided with the broadest powers.

Returning at the end of 1633 to Loudun, the royal commissioner first of all took the suspect into custody and began collecting "witness" testimony. For speed, each possessed had its own exorcist, court official and scribe. In the meantime, they found "devil's seals" on Grandier's body - areas insensitive to pain, which was not at all difficult, since the inquisitors had special needles that went into the handle with the slightest pressure. The fate of the gallant priest was sealed. Formal condemnation was only a matter of technique, nothing more. “Thrones” and “authorities” surviving from cozy burrows not only gave the necessary testimony, but also supplied justice with evidence, supplied the necessary documents.

When they pressed properly on the main demon Asmodeus, who was captivating the abbess, he could not stand it and dictated a copy of the agreement concluded between him and the person under investigation. This is the product of a limited mind and fierce malice: “Lord and master, I recognize you as my god and promise to serve you as long as I live, and from now on I renounce all others, and Jesus Christ, and Mary, and all the saints in heaven, and from the Apostolic Roman Catholic Church, and from all her deeds and prayers that can be done for me, and I promise to worship you and serve you at least three times daily, and do as much evil as possible, and involve everyone in doing evil, anyone possible, and with a pure heart I renounce chrismation and baptism, and all the grace of Jesus Christ, and in case I want to turn, I give you power over my body, and soul, and life, as if I received it from you, and I cede it to you forever, with no intention of repenting of it.

Signed in blood:

"Urbain Grandier".

The place designated for the storage of the original is already known to us. If this document exposes anyone, it is only the abbess herself, whose style is tongue-tied and her thought meager. Neither Asmodeus nor the sophisticated rhetorician Grandier can be suspected of such incomprehensibility.

The judges, of course, were not at all embarrassed by this, and Urbain Grandier was brought to a confrontation with all the girls and the aggels who had settled in them. The commotion was extraordinary. The demons forced the Ursulines to make shameless gestures and joyfully cried out from their virginal lips: “Our lord! Mister!"

The guilt of the defendant, therefore, was not in doubt. Only the conscientiousness of the judges, who wanted to get to the bottom of every detail, kept them from an immediate verdict.

And she, conscientiousness, brought the desired results. Bes Leviathan revealed the composition of the potion with which white roses were poisoned, or rather, magnetized. To the great horror and disgust of those present, it turned out to be boiled from the heart of an innocent baby slaughtered at the Sabbath in Orleans in 1631, the ashes of a burnt communion wafer, as well as from the blood and semen of Grandier himself.

We will not linger on the details, although they are not without interest, of this blatant, but so ordinary witch trial against the background of similar cases. Its result was a foregone conclusion, and Grandier himself understood this, retaining rare endurance and extraordinary courage even in the arms of the flame.

Defending his human dignity, he tried to oppose logic to madness, he tried to strike with a rational weapon the many-headed hydra, which hovered on the bat wings of hysteria.

An example of "witchcraft" writing and typical for magical practice in Western Europe in the 15th-16th centuries. "The Book of Demons" (based on the book by F. Barret "The Magician". 1801)

When, in order to drive Grandier into vile images, he bowed to another pit, he was offered to the bishop, asking him to bless him to try himself as a sign to start an exorcism. the exorcist, he, not in the least indulging in such a crazy idea, nevertheless calmly put on himself the priestly robe. Not embarrassed by the protesting assholes of demons, who turned pretty girlish faces into vile images, he bowed to the bishop, asking his blessing to begin exercise.

A terrible game, where deliberate deceit became self-deception, delirium condensed into the reality of a monstrous slander, and caricature hysteria, as in Goya's Caprichos, interfered with farce.

The bishop gave what was required, pointing to the crowd of raging virgins. "You denied it!" - the devil's army squealed, reminding of the concluded agreement. The choir sang the usual in such cases "Veni creator" - "Appear, creator", and the duel with the non-existent began.

Not at all thinking seriously about the ridiculous single combat with obsessed hysterics, Grandier is a naive sage! - hoping to catch one of them in a lie. When Ursuline Claire rushed at him with obscene abuse, he immediately began to scold her, asking permission to address the demon in Greek.

Don't you dare! yelled the evil spirit hidden in Mother Superior. - Traitor! Deceiver! According to the agreement, you can't ask questions in Greek! Grandier smiled slightly, preparing to draw the attention of the court to such an obvious incongruity, but Sister Claire forestalled him with a haughty cry: - You can speak any language, you will be answered! The girl was educated. The original plan was upset, Grandier was embarrassed and fell silent. Of course, this did not in the least affect the final outcome, because the verdict was a foregone conclusion, and even if the demon Claire did not know Greek, Themis's scales would still remain in a predetermined position.

But this episode says a lot about Grandier's inner world. Having withstood the scolding pouring on him from all sides, although the detractors continued to call him "lord" and "master", he coolly remarked: - I am not your master and not your servant. And I can’t understand at all why, while calling me lord, you are so eager to grab me by the throat?

The indignant sisters, instead of answering a completely reasonable question, began to take off their shoes, bringing down a hail of heavy shoes on the head of the zealot of logic. - Well, the demons unchained themselves! - the prisoner laughed mockingly, wiping blood from his cut temple.

Grandier refused confession and turned his face away from the cross, which the Capuchin confessor had thrust at him at the place of execution. The magic sword is a double-edged weapon. And yet, consecrated by the authority of the church hierarchy, it has done much more trouble than in the hands of singles: fanatics and madmen, charlatans and dupes. Claiming to be "over time-over-spatial" and arrogantly trying to impose its will on the rigidly determined laws of the universe, magic already in its essence carries a destructive and, as a result, a criminal principle. The notorious Marquis de Sade understood this quite intuitively, who immortalized his name in such an unattractive term as “sadism.” Through Bressac, the hero of the novel “New Justine,” he states, not without regret: “What can we actually do in this life "The answer is simple. All our petty crimes against morality can be reduced to a few - perversions and murders, random rapes or incestuous relationships; our crimes against religion are nothing more than blasphemy and profanity. Is there anyone among us who can sincerely confess that really satisfied with these trifles?

No, of course, - objected the ardent Madame D "Esterval. - I suffer, perhaps more than you, from the meagerness of the crimes that nature allows me. With all our actions, we only offend idols, but not nature itself. It is nature that I long to insult. I I want to turn her order into chaos, block her ordered movement, stop the stars and shake the planets floating in outer space, hinder what serves nature and patronize what hinders her - in a word, offend nature and stop her great activity. I can't do any of that." "Yes," put in Bressac, "that's right. What we have achieved is not a crime ... Let's direct our revenge along the paths possible. Let's multiply the horrors, since we cannot increase them."

Crime and witchcraft, they are equally guilty both in the horrors themselves and in their multiplication. Regardless of the starting point, the logic of evolution "forces their" world lines "to converge at the same line, beyond which there is nothing left but to" offend precisely nature ", which has realized itself through the crown of creation - the human brain. That is why obscurantists and misanthropes of all stripes, who, however, are capable of rising to the realization of the complete futility of such a revolt, turn their poisonous fury on science and art, without which knowledge of the objective world is unthinkable.

In the next essay, we will see how closely the snakes of crime and black witchcraft intertwine.