Exordium

“ Another remarkable method of exorcism was a process termed "firing out" the fiend. [1] The holy flame of piety resident in the priest was so terrible to the evil spirit, that the mere contact of the holy hand with that part of the body of the afflicted person in which he was resident was enough to make him shrink away into some more distant portion; so, by a judicious application of the hand, the exorcist could drive the devil into some limb, from which escape into the body was impossible, and the evil spirit, driven to the extremity, was obliged to depart, defeated and disgraced. ”

“ But, at the end of the day, the mal-exorcised demon returns with seven accomplices, and Nature has to resume the original struggle with diminished chances of success—shorn of just as much strength as she had to expend in combating the additional enemy. The exorcist then repeats his dose, but finds that he has to increase the quantum: the exhausted system at last ceases to react against the provocation, and in order to obtain temporary relief the patient must resort to stronger and stronger stimulants. ”

“ At any other time Fleda would have laughed at the idea of using the exorcism; but all the ancient superstition of the Romany people latent in her now broke forth and held her captive. Standing with candle raised above her head, her eyes piercing the space before her, she recalled every word of the exorcism which had caught the drippings from the fountains of Chaldean, Phoenician, and Egyptian mystery. ”

“ Here we need only further draw attention to the osphradium, discovered by Lacaze-Duthiers, and shown by Spengel to agree in its innervation with that organ in all other Gastropoda. On account of the shortness of the visceral loop and the proximity of the right visceral ganglion to the oesophageal nerve-ring, the nerve to the osphradium and olfactory ganglion is very long. The position of the osphradium corresponds more or less closely with that of the vanished right ctenidium, with which it is normally associated. ”

“ Incipient differentiation of the protoplasmic substance into endosarc and ectosarc, the former semi-fluid and granular, the latter more tenacious and pellucid; a nucleus and contractile vesicle; pseudoppdia rod-like, usually tapering from base to point, composed of the same substance as the ectosarc, exhibiting little disposition either to ramify or to coalesce, haying a more or less regular radiating arrangement, and not showing any constant circulation of granules in their subatance, although a movement of particles adherent to their exterior is often to be distinguished. ”

“ To Fleda in her earliest days he had been like one inspired, and as she now stood facing the intangible Thing, she recalled an exorcism which the Sage had recited to her, when he had sufficiently startled her senses by tales of the Between World. This exorcism was, as he had told her, more powerful than that which the Christian exorcists used, and the symbol of exorcism was not unlike the sign of the Cross, to which was added genuflection of Assyrian origin. ”

“ Justin Martyr [25] , Tertullian [26] , Origen [27] , all speak of exorcism as being practised by laymen, even by soldiers, and women, by means of prayer and invocation of the name of Jesus. Accordingly “an Exorcist is not ordained, for it is a gift of the spontaneous benevolence and grace of God through Christ by visitation of the Holy Ghost. For he who has received the gift of healing is declared by revelation from God, the grace which is in him being manifest to all [28] .” ”

“ What the exact meaning of sitting on an axis may be, it is difficult to divine; but those who allege that a patient may be thrown into the mesmeric trance by holding a magnetized branch—and those also who have read of all the phenomena of exorcism being as fully elicited by a satchel of feathers as by a bag of reliques—will readily apply the wand "presented by some deity," and placed in the hand of the priestess at the moment when she should receive the final cataleptic impulse. ”

“ John Lateran in Rome.
“‘The might of the Holy Ghost descend into this fountain—plentitude, and impregnate with regenerating efficacy the whole substance of this water.’ Such is the spell. Exorcisms first chase all evil spirits from the water, then incantations and charms—dividings, oils, crossings, breathings, candle plungings, and other things—cause the might of the Holy Ghost to descend and impregnate the water [150] with regenerating efficacy. It is no longer ordinary water, such as that wherein the eunuch or Cornelius and his friends were baptized ”

“ The Christian exorcists, in conjuring, only made use of prayer and of the name of Christ; these two factors were considered sufficient to cure the patient of his delusions, and they actually did so. Why they accomplished a cure has been explained very strikingly by Harnack. He says: “It is not the prayer that cures, but the praying person; not the formula, but the spirit; not exorcism, but the exorcist. Only in those cases in which the disease, as in numerous cases of the second century, had become epidemic and almost common, did ordinary and conventional means avail. ”

“ In each case the exorcist is told to go a certain number of paces in some particular direction and throw the cash. The hermit wisely confined himself to diseases that will pass away in a few days by themselves, but it is a pity he did not exorcise the whole troop of devils with a good dose of castor oil. ”

“ The enumeration of the causes for the suffering constitutes in fact a part of the incantation. The mention of the real cause in the long list—and the list aims to be exhaustive, so that the exorciser may strike the real cause—goes a long way towards ensuring the departure of the evil spirit. And if, besides striking the real cause, the exorciser is fortunate enough in his enumeration of the various gods, goddesses, and spirits to call by name upon the right god or spirit, the one who has the power over the demon in question, his object is achieved. ”

“ Cleofas. Pinchings, prickings! I have tried everything except the red-hot iron, to which His Excellency objects! Pain has vanished! As the Mooress has bewitched the poor child, my art is ineffective. I have advised the only effective remedy: exorcism in the same church, before the highest altar. (They hear the chants of young girls.) His Excellency and Don Enrique have had the patient carried into it—and they are praying that the demon which possesses her will be chased away. Master Oliveira, whom I left there, will be likely to profit and become an exorciser himself. ”

“ We all pressed in upon the youth, wishing to discern whether life were still in him or no; but the exorcist waved us back, as one having authority; and, taking the boy by the hand, he raised him up, speaking kind words to him and to his father. Soon his life returned to the boy, and the exorcist restored him to his father, whole and sound (albeit weak and pale) , and, as it appeared, delivered from the unclean spirit. The father, weeping for joy, placed a heavy purse in the hand of the exorcist ”

“ The ancient rite of exorcism in connexion with baptism is still retained in the Roman ritual, as is also a form of service for the exorcising of possessed persons. The exorcist signs the possessed person with the figure of the cross, desires him to kneel, and sprinkles him with holy water; after which the exorcist asks the devil his name, and abjures him by the holy mysteries of the Christian religion not to afflict the person possessed any more. ”

“ When transudations are unhealthy, they may accumulate in serous cavities or in cellular structures, and constitute dropsy. Exudation is the result of inflammation, and the product effused coagulates and becomes the seat of a new growth of tissue. Exosmosis means the passage of fluid from within outward, and is a process constantly taking place in health; while transudation takes place because the blood is watery and the tissues are feeble and permeable, permitting the serum and watery elements of the blood to pass into certain cavities, where they accumulate. ”

“ The uncouth appearance and sepulchral voice of the exorcist everywhere produce the deepest sensation, and young and old, men and women, gladly part with some article to get rid of his hated and feared presence. If, as sometimes happens, one or two less superstitious individuals object to these wicked exactions, the exorcist has a right to compel every one present to smell an abominable concoction of foul herbs and decayed bones which he carries in his pouch ”

“ Thus among the Bodo and Dhimal of North-East India, who ascribe all diseases to a deity tormenting the patient for some impiety or neglect, the exorcists divine the offended 131god and appease him with the promised sacrifice of a hog; these exorcists are a class of priests, and the people have no other doctors. [277] Where the world-wide doctrine of disease-demons has held sway, men’s minds, full of spells and ceremonies, have scarce had room for thought of drugs and regimen. ”

“ In Helix and Limax the osphradium has not been described, and possibly its discovery might clear up the doubts which have been raised as to the nature of the mantle-chamber of those genera. In Planorbis, which is sinistral (as are a few other genera or exceptional varieties of various Anisopleurous Gastropods) , instead of being dextral, the osphradium is on the left side, and receives its nerve from the left visceral ganglion, the whole series of unilateral organs being reversed. ”

“ Thus the practices of the exorcist appear side by side with the doctrine of possession, from its first appearance in savagery to its survival in modern civilization; and nothing could display more vividly the conception of a disease or a mental affection as caused by a personal spiritual being than the proceedings of the exorcist who talks to it, coaxes or threatens it, makes offerings to it, entices or drives it out of the patient’s body, and induces it to take up its abode in some other. ”

“ Among all afflictions, the state of being possessed by devils occupies the most remarkable place in the annals of the Church, and is seen to have required the most powerful exorcisms for its cure. The ecclesiastical pathology declares that in this disease the devil is unhidden, while in all others he is concealed. The exorciser who is to expel the fiend appears in full priestly vesture; incense and consecrated wax tapers are lighted, all the objects surrounding the demoniac are sprinkled with holy water, the air around is purified by the pronunciation of certain formulas ”

“ Two pairs of tentacles. Foot without parapodia; no pallial cavity, but always a single ctenidium situated on the right side between mantle and foot. Genital duct diaulic, without open seminal groove; male and female apertures contiguous. Visceral commissure short, tendency to concentration of all ganglia in dorsal side of oesophagus.
Fam. 1.—Tylodinidae. Shell external and conical; anterior tentacles form a frontal veil; ctenidium extending only over right side; a distinct osphradium. Tylodina. ”

“ Holy water is used against the assaults of demons from without. But exorcisms are directed against those assaults of the demons which are from within. hence those who are exorcized are called energumens, as it were "laboring inwardly." ”

“ No operculum. Proserpina, Central America. Order 2. Pectinibranchia.—In this order there is no longer any trace of bilateral symmetry in the circulatory, respiratory and excretory organs, the topographically right half of the pallial complex having completely disappeared, except the right kidney, which is represented by the genital duct. There is usually a penis in the male. The ctenidium is monopectinate and attached to the mantle along its whole length, except in Adeorbis and Valvata; in the latter alone it is bipectinate. There is a single well-developed, often pectinated osphradium. ”

“ Ignatius Loyola never cured possessed persons otherwise than by prayer. As early as the sixteenth century a case is recorded clearly illustrating the true nature of exorcism. A demon was, after many fruitless attempts, at last driven out by a particle of the cross of our Saviour, but in departing he declared in a loud voice that he knew full well the nature of the piece of wood; it was cut from a gallows and not from the true cross, nevertheless he was forced to go because the exorcist willed it so, and the patient believed in his power. The same rule applies to cures achieved by relics ”

“ Not only some of the genuinely insane—though not all, be it noted—but also sufferers from dreads and inhibitions of various kinds, the victims of tics and uncontrollable habits, especially the childish repetition of blasphemous words, and sufferers from other psychoses and neuroses, were considered to be the victims of diabolic action. Exorcism then became a favourite form of treatment of all these conditions, but its [Pg 196] general acceptance came about because it was so often successful. ”

“ Thou art the purifier! 9 Of the wicked man in the night time Thou dost repel the assault! 10 But the man who serves his god, Thou wilt give him light for his actions!
ASSYRIAN TALISMANS AND EXORCISMS TRANSLATED BY H.F. TALBOT, F.R.S. DEMONIACAL POSSESSION AND EXORCISM Diseases were attributed to the influence of Evil Spirits. Exorcisms were used to drive away those tormentors: and this seems to have been the sole remedy employed, for I believe that no mention has been found of medicine. ”