The Devil's Scourge

The Devil's Scourge PDF Author: Girolamo Menghi
Publisher: Weiser Books
ISBN: 9781578632657
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 230

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Book Description
This is a complete English translation of a Renaissance exorcist's manual. It is a concise history of demonology and contains accounts of seven exorcisms as well as Menghi's manual. Paxia's commentary explains what the signs of demonic possession are and who are the most vulnerable. Paxia also looks at Menghi's life in detail, including how he exorcised people and what objects he used during the ceremony.

The Devil's Scourge

The Devil's Scourge PDF Author: Girolamo Menghi
Publisher: Weiser Books
ISBN: 9781578632657
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 230

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Book Description
This is a complete English translation of a Renaissance exorcist's manual. It is a concise history of demonology and contains accounts of seven exorcisms as well as Menghi's manual. Paxia's commentary explains what the signs of demonic possession are and who are the most vulnerable. Paxia also looks at Menghi's life in detail, including how he exorcised people and what objects he used during the ceremony.

The Devil: A Very Short Introduction

The Devil: A Very Short Introduction PDF Author: Darren Oldridge
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199580995
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 145

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Book Description
The Devil has fascinated writers and theologians since the time of the New Testament, and inspired many dramatic and haunting works of art. Today he remains a potent image in popular culture. The Devil: A Very Short Introduction presents an introduction to the Christian Devil through the history of ideas and the lives of real people.

The Scourge of Demons

The Scourge of Demons PDF Author: Jeffrey Rodgers Watt
Publisher: University Rochester Press
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
In 1636, residents at the convent of Santa Chiara in Carpi in northern Italy were struck by an extraordinary illness that provoked bizarre behavior. Eventually numbering fourteen, the afflicted nuns were subject to screaming fits, throwing themselves on the floor, and falling abruptly into a deep sleep. When medical experts' cures proved ineffective, exorcists ministered to the women and concluded that they were possessed by demons and the victims of witchcraft. Catering to women from elite families, the nunnery suffered much turmoil for three years and, remarkably, three of the victims died from their ills. A maverick nun and a former confessor were widely suspected to be responsible, through witchcraft, for these woes. Based primarily on the exhaustive investigation by the Inquisition of Modena, The Scourge of Demons examines this fascinating case in its historical context. The travails of Santa Chiara occurred at a time when Europe witnessed peaks in both witch-hunting and in the numbers of people reputedly possessed by demons. Female religious figures appeared particularly prone to demonic attacks, and Counter-Reformation Church authorities were especially interested in imposing stricter discipline on convents. Watt carefully considers how the nuns of Santa Chiara understood and experienced alleged possession and witchcraft, concluding that Santa Chiara's diabolical troubles and their denouement -- involving the actions of nuns, confessors, inquisitorial authorities, and exorcists -- were profoundly shaped by the unique confluence of religious, cultural, judicial, and intellectual trends that flourished in the 1630s. Jeffrey R. Watt is professor of history at the University of Mississippi.

The Devil Within

The Devil Within PDF Author: Brian Levack
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300195389
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 519

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Book Description
A fascinating, wide-ranging survey of the history of demon possession and exorcism through the ages. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the era of the Reformation, thousands of Europeans were thought to be possessed by demons. In response to their horrifying symptoms—violent convulsions, displays of preternatural strength, vomiting of foreign objects, displaying contempt for sacred objects, and others—exorcists were summoned to expel the evil spirits from victims’ bodies. This compelling book focuses on possession and exorcism in the Reformation period, but also reaches back to the fifteenth century and forward to our own times. Entire convents of nuns in French, Italian, and Spanish towns, thirty boys in an Amsterdam orphanage, a small group of young girls in Salem, Massachusetts—these are among the instances of demon possession in the United States and throughout Europe that Brian Levack closely examines, taking into account the diverse interpretations of generations of theologians, biblical scholars, pastors, physicians, anthropologists, psychiatrists, and historians. Challenging the commonly held belief that possession signals physical or mental illness, the author argues that demoniacs and exorcists—consciously or not—are following their various religious cultures, and their performances can only be understood in those contexts. “Riveting [and] readable . . . must-reading for students of history, psychology and religion.” —Publishers Weekly “Levak, a distinguished historian of early modern witchcraft, now sets exorcism in a long historical perspective, providing the most comprehensive and scholarly overview of the theme yet published.” —Peter Marshall, Times Literary Supplement

Demons on the Couch

Demons on the Couch PDF Author: Michael J. Sersch
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1527524159
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 195

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Book Description
Belief in possession, including from demonic forces, has ancient roots and continues into the modern world, especially among certain communities. This has been shown in books, movies, places of worship, and in the therapy office. This book traces the global history of possession and looks at ways contemporary mental health professionals can help a person who believes themselves to be possessed. Written especially for clinicians, but interesting to a wide variety of readers, this book uses a variety of disciplines, including cultural studies, psychology, and personal experiences, to try and understand the phenomenon from as wide a perspective as possible, including interviews with exorcists from various backgrounds. Both believers and sceptics will find this to be a fascinating study of a controversial topic.

The Dawn and Other Poems

The Dawn and Other Poems PDF Author: Bassett Green
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 128

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Book Description


The Science of Demons

The Science of Demons PDF Author: Jan Machielsen
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 135133364X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
Witches, ghosts, fairies. Premodern Europe was filled with strange creatures, with the devil lurking behind them all. But were his powers real? Did his powers have limits? Or were tales of the demonic all one grand illusion? Physicians, lawyers, and theologians at different times and places answered these questions differently and disagreed bitterly. The demonic took many forms in medieval and early modern Europe. By examining individual authors from across the continent, this book reveals the many purposes to which the devil could be put, both during the late medieval fight against heresy and during the age of Reformations. It explores what it was like to live with demons, and how careers and identities were constructed out of battles against them – or against those who granted them too much power. Together, contributors chart the history of the devil from his emergence during the 1300s as a threatening figure – who made pacts with human allies and appeared bodily – through to the comprehensive but controversial demonologies of the turn of the seventeenth century, when European witch-hunting entered its deadliest phase. This book is essential reading for all students and researchers of the history of the supernatural in medieval and early modern Europe.

Leaves of Healing

Leaves of Healing PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Spiritual healing
Languages : en
Pages : 868

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Book Description


The Rite

The Rite PDF Author: Matt Baglio
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1847377416
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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Book Description
In 2005 a Vatican-run university opened its doors to priests from around the world, running a course for would-be exorcists. Looking for a story, Rome-based investigative journalist Matt Baglio attended the class, and there met Father Gary Thomas - a Californian priest who had been chosen to attend by his bishop. Father Gary was concerned that many of the 'possessed' were in reality suffering from psychological disorders best left to the care of doctors. How and why his view changed is the subject of this book. We follow Father Gary's year-long training with a senior exorcist as he is transformed from a doubter into a believer. Baglio gained unprecedented access to this world, including participating in exorcisms and culminating with Fr. Gary's own fearsome confrontation with the Devil. Woven into his story is the fascinating history of exorcism, its rites and rituals, and the ways and reasons that people become possessed. Matt Baglio speaks to psychologists and detectives, as well as Vatican clergy, to wrinkle out the truth about this most Gothic of subjects. THE RITE is proof that the truth about demonic possession is not only stranger than fiction, but far more chilling.

The Vatican's Exorcists

The Vatican's Exorcists PDF Author: Tracy Wilkinson
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
ISBN: 0759518378
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 105

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Book Description
* How the Vatican's Office of Exorcism drives out demons and battles Satanic evil in today's world