In 1632, the Devil came to Loudun, France. For nearly five years, dozens of priests performed hundreds of public exorcisms on a convent of nuns who claimed they were possessed by demons. The nuns accused a parish priest, Urbain Grandier, of making a deal with the Devil.
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This is an unofficial transcript meant for reference. Accuracy is not guaranteed.
At this point, I think we can all agree that if you icily people for a long time inside their homes, they get a little stir crazy, but for most
device that means learning how to home rule computer or teach yourself to Salsa Nod
playing host to forty
six demons would ensue
eighteen. Thirty, two after months of quarantining during a plague outbreak the
Flynn Nuns of Lou done. Franz underwent a terrifying
information. Their bodies have
come home to dozens of demons. What followed was perhaps the most famous case of mass possession in history
so who invited the devil to Lou done. According
the demons themselves. It was an online.
Resource Lou done.
Very own parish, priest,
This is supernatural a cast original, I'm your host, Ashley flowers, every
Wednesday I'll be taking a deep dive into a real unexplained occurrence to try and figure out the truth, you can find
all episodes of supernatural and all other originals from par cast for free on Spotify this week. I'm
making an inside look at the Lou done. Possession from sixteen thirty two
sixteen thirty seven, a group of clergyman
heatedly exercised twenty seven nuns and lay woman at the towns. Local convent delayed
had been invested by an army of demons who claimed they made a pact with the local creased, even
Today, people believed the devil really did come to Lou done just knock.
The way we originally thought we,
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In the fall of sixteen thirty to the town of Blue done is a mass located
western France. The medieval city had been ravaged by about a plague about four thousand people have died,
by the time the outbreak finally starts to die down inside.
Blue Duns New Ursula convent, seventeen, young nuns and at least ten other Catholic lay women had been quarantining four months. Maybe not
to do but fast meditate and pray, and they don't know
it yet, but things are about to get we're on September, twin,
second, sixteen thirty, two, a junior, none named sister marked decent Munich wakes up to the sound of a male voice. Coming from inside her room, she looks towards the foot of her bed
and seized the shadowy figure of a priest.
Looming over her he's hunched over holding a white book ass, her eyes adjust Mark
recognizes that its prior moves, so the convent pre
who normally takes confessions, theirs
we one problem
prior moves so is dead. In fact, he died weeks before
but somehow the confessor is not only looking pretty lively he's weeping at the foot of her bed, the ghost priests claims he's in great pain, and he
smart to pray to God on his behalf, then he offered her a book to read. I'm not sure what the book is, but Mark refuse
It's still prior muso continues to stand there crying for a full three hours and more is just absolute.
Paralyzed me she so freaked out. She can't even bring herself to get help then
Suddenly, the priest just fades away.
The next morning marked discovers that prior muso appeared to two other nuns at the convent. Apparently he asked
all the same thing to pray for him and to look at his weird book,
as far as I know, all the nuns refused and prior Michaud never showed up again, but this is just a big
any because over the next week's the rest of the women at the convent start having bizarre,
experiences. Some of them hear voices at night, invisible hand, hit and slap them
We have a bit of uncontrollable laughter and full body convulsions. Why
and even report, a giant blackball that crashed into her body throwing her to the ground, but it all culminate
but there are thirty year old, mother superior, a nun named John.
And claim she's receiving visit from a new ghostly priest, and he doesn't ask for help this.
Mysterious cleric, has more amorous intentions instead of crying. He try to seduce John. Not only is it very,
weird and creepy, but John has literally taken an oath of celibacy. So this kind of proposal is deeply offensive and over
Whatever is attacking the convent seemed to hate their catholic traditions.
News stories to manifest in different ways for exam
while the nuns apparently have strong reactions whenever they take holy communion, their bodies, spasm
their rejecting the bread and wine which isn't unheard up to the catholic church. It's a homo
symptom of demonic possession off
see. This is freaking everyone out soon enough words
breads through Lou done and beyond alarming all the nearby clergy and by October Fit barely two weeks.
Since this all started, multiple priests have done
send it on the convent, where they immediately begin performing exorcisms before.
One was over. There would be fourteen total at this point
multiple nuns are acting possessed day after day. They
to undergo a gruelling. Exorcism, sometimes even
twice a day
Most of these sessions follow the same script, a priest
he's over a nun and she
start losing it. She
voices uncontrollably making terrifying faces and swinging her head rapidly back and forth its terror,
fine but less bizarre than how some of the exorcisms go apparently
few of the nuns can get a little frisky. Now,
one thousand six hundred and thirty two. So I don't have a lot of details, but one account says the ladies exposed themselves and quote: invited lewd, behavior and quote. This is definitely
range and to the exorcist is further proof that these women literally can't control their actions or the back there.
Now any time they so much as encounter holy communion. They freak out in there
other signs, typical, demonic possession like the noise
and seem to be able to read the priest thoughts and during the
sources, and these speak almost entirely in Latin, which
seem normal for a nine accept these ladys
no latin
they ve memorize some prayers. But aside from that, they never learned the language.
Gene and another woman sister Clare are seen floating in mid air for almost fifteen minutes. They can even rise straight to their feet from a lying position without ever bending their body was like the unpaid
standing up from their coffins,
and as soon as a ritual is over. Most of them can't remember a thing they gave her call what they.
age or what the demon made them say is just completely gone. Church officials
Even invite a bunch of doctors, surgeons and apothecary to examine these women and they re that the patient
symptoms quote, surpassed nature. End quote
in the case of Mother Superior John and Sister Clare dear pulses,
never rise above arresting level and one doktor.
we examined the women claims. They can answer. Almost any question put to them, including
and having to do with incredibly complex theology. If this
evidence enough. There's the demons themselves, as the
Please go by, they start giving their needs, which are all
shoe per se tactic. Sounding like
Berlin asked wroth and behemoth and there's a sign of them.
The mother Superior John, has said,
living inside her each in its own separate body, part and
the priest compile a list of names. They realized there dealing with a total of at least forty six.
Distinct demons, which is just on heard up even for the catholic church at this point,
Greece performing the exorcisms are starting to think. This is some end of days. Stuff, like the town has just been through a plague, and now this it feels like a battle
for the very soul of Lou done, possibly even France
but what really terrifies every one is, how
demons got there in the first place,
one session a demon named Zabulon reveals that a priest has invited him and he goes
to say that no priest will be able to get rid of him
exorcise are stunned and after this
Testimony they double down on their rituals command
the demons to give them a name and finally, on
Toby eleven one spills, the beans and and
aimed none is having an exorcism when suddenly the demon inside her speaks up.
He says his name is asked to IRAN and he claims a priest has brought him there. The exorcist ass who this priest is, and finally the demon hisses, a name, a bun guarantee.
Coming up we'll find out who urban ground here really is
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when the demon names or bun grandiose. Most
the foreign priests are like Orban, who
to the Louvre nights, everything starts to make sense or
grandiose is a parish. Priest of Lou done he's sorted this
divisive figure in town people, either love him or can't stand him, and you can see why he's hands
smart and good at public speaking, but also arrogant, and he
it's been sued multiple times over. Betty fight like
refusing to install a pulpit at his church because he didn't like the way I looked back
first of all, he's a player or buns constant
the entertaining the rich widows and bachelor acts of Lou done rumor. Has it
visit them in their homes and, as one source put said
enjoys their favours. One of these
is the daughter of an aristocrat, a young one,
named Madeline De Berulle, supposedly urban became her spiritual advice,
sir translation, he makes her his mistress
or money so pro sacks that he authors a pamphlet, arguing against church celibacy
He draws examples from history and the Bible to show that priest can and should be able to marry
He even addresses the treatise to Madeline who he refers to as his dearest concubine.
When the demon accuses him, the other Lou done, priests feel vindicated if any
he's going to cause trouble in a convent full of isolated young women, it would be urban
as far as they are concerned, this accusation tracks with the evidence they ve already gathered like them
superior John, claiming that a ghost is trying to seduce her
all the nuns who flashed their exercise some even report a debate
taking desire for urban
A nun named sister, Agnes recalls a day when she and a few other sisters discovered a bouquet of musk roses on the convent steps.
Urban was nowhere to be seen, but when
smell the flowers. They were struck by a great passion for him suppose
Thirdly, they wandered around the convent grounds calling out his name and they perched on top of the
roofs and climbed up the trees. Were they stay for four or five days without eating or drinking just wait
for him to show up
ok sitting in a tree or gaze with no water, sounds a little hard to believe. But the catholic church hears these tales and
then it's settled or bun. Obviously,
Then the hell mouth in lieu dine getting forty six demons through, so the church officials
move to the next step, binding prove that urban,
is a sorcerer capable of summoning demons into a wholly convent
meanwhile, the Lou Dinah
sessions are causing a stir across France, tourist travel to this city, hoping
to see the famous nuns and in Paris
This news from Lou done pricks the ears of a very influential figure. His name is car.
No Richelieu
better known as the bad guy from the three musketeers in red.
How is he he's the head of the catholic Church in France
Chief Minister to King Louis, the thirteenth recently
not only familiar with urban. He actively hates him years before a pin
put surface claiming that King Louis was being fooled by his evil councillors and, while it
didn't name any names it pretty?
clearly meant Richelieu. Now, no one ever proves that Urban wrote the pay
but everyone assumes it was him and they're. Probably right.
So when Richelieu hears the rumour that urban is a rotten priest, he is thrilled. He sends a lieutenant named Bear
and the low bar duma to lose.
to investigate.
on December saddened? Sixteenth
three over a year since the demons first accuse or by the baron burst into the priests home in lieu done
he weighed the rooms looking for evidence of sorcery and as far as he
concerned. He finds it there's a copy.
Buns treatise against celibacy, along with it.
election of dirty poems written by the priest, the Baron
when finds a pamphlet in his desk Lange
all the reasons why urban couldn't have summoned. The demons did
bearing this all looks super suspicious, so he has urban arrested. Then
urban just languishes in jail for months, while the possessions escalate
The number of women grows to a final total of seventeen nuns and ten lay women. The community
comes so enthralled. They even start doing public exorcisms. They build
stage in front of the town cathedral, where thousands of people gather day after day to watch
eventually, the most damning piece of evidence comes from one of these exorcisms at this point, its spring of sick,
keen thirty for about a year and a half since the possessions started a crown
watches, as the mother Superior Sean is lead onstage in chains, the
sources and begins. A demon named Asmodeus speaks through John. He claims there's a pact between urban and ahead head,
A man named leviathan,
Medea, says the agreement is marked on a piece of paper, that's spotted with blood and its hit.
Somewhere near by the extra
This and the onlookers frantically search this stage for this document and there's nothing to be found, but
later during another exorcism leviathan himself speaks through John. He tells them to look under a bishop who
near by observing the ceremony. The bishop discovers a piece of paper by his
and sure enough? It's the smoking gun they ve been looking for blood soaked, the top of the page and the words are written in backwards. Latin translated it, Sir
his quote, we, the influential Lucifer, the young Satan, Beelzebub Leviathan, Ellen
an asteroid together with others, have today accepted the covenant power.
of urban grandiose, who is ours, end quote
is even signed by urban grandiose. The demons
Satan himself.
through Jean Leviathan claims, that the blood on the pact comes from or buns right thumb when they check urban hand back at the jail.
Well, there's a scar in the exact same spot on
sleep? Anyone could have done this to urban, but it's exactly what the baron is looking for, indelible prove
that urban bun is in league with the devil.
And in another one of Jones Exorcisms, the deed
An asthma DS commands the exorcist to search urban for so called indolent marks, or
leases on his body that don't bleed or feel pain.
has been gears says it will be proof that the priest has dealt with demons like how which is supposedly have marks of the devil. So doctors are brought
two or buns prison to cast him. They stick
with long pins in some places,
even down to the bone. Now this is both horribly, cruel and painful, and according to urban, he felt every
pinprick and bled in every spot. But according to the
doctors. There were a few places on his body where he didn't cry out, or at least he didn't cry out enough and that proof,
for the baron any other church officials
by summer there ready to move forward with a trial.
the baron gathers a tribunal of judges from the surrounding towns and presence there.
With an enormous five thousand page file describing EV
You think that's transpired so far and for a second
tenth century court. The proof is pretty compelling theirs
act with the devil, the scar on or buns hand and the so called indolent marks
where's. None of this is actual evidence. It could have all been planted.
An urban himself is adamant. He is not a sorcerer he had.
It's too a weakness of
nature as far as his desire for women, but he denies having anything to do with the possessions still
It's not enough at dawn on August eighteen, the tree
beautiful announces, their judgment or both
Grenadier is guilty of performing magic. Casting
spells and incur
king demons to possess the nuns and lay women of blue done his sentence that coming up
we ll hear about or bonds unusual punishment. Now, let's get back to the story
it's not enough for the tribunal to simply execute urban first, he must ask for forgiveness of
wars that would be admitting guild. So Urban refuses
deadly. He writes a response to the judges saying he is innocent and that he hopes he dies worth
Of God's love,
So the tribunals moves on to the next point. They have a hard time believing
one man could orchestrate such a mass possession in order
to die with the pure heart. They tell urban. He must name his accomplices, of course,
is he says he doesn't have any
and this is medieval times so the tribunal basically says. Ok. Well, then
we'll have to torture you and they wish
urban off to something called the boot. It's basically these fit
wooden Cox that squeeze or bonds legs until his bones, or about to break still. He made
panes his innocence and swears. He has no accomplices, so they completely shatter his legs. The next step.
To burn or by a lie.
Here's where he really protests
water means nothing. He says, but he's afraid of the fire he's
worried. This fear would make him fall into despair. A mortal sin he believes could prevent him from entering Heaven.
Surprisingly, the tribunal agrees bill. Hang him. First, they put urban bun in a cart with
rope around his neck and Peru
made him around new done, then they bring
to the town square, where it s
made six to twelve thousand people are waiting to watch some of the clergy
have set up a gallows above a burning funeral pyre and since
urban can't walk the x,
Commissioner literally carries him up to the gallows they place and
whose around his neck and urban speaks. His final words quote. I hope that my God, my creator saviour and redress
more will. Pardon me. He alone knows that I am innocent. End quote.
one of the exorcist lights, the fire underneath the scaffold and the executioner pulls the trap door, but then the very being or bun fears
happens the rope snaps he falls into the bonfire and burns alive. It is a horrible way to die, but in lieu dine.
They believe they ve done it. The sorcerer is dead, evil has been defeated and they can. Finally
go back to their normal demon,
Free wives right well, not exactly because even with urban day,
the possessions, continue for two and a half more year.
for the twenty seven nuns and lay women. Its business
as usual to
systems a day every day, men in
really sixteen thirty, seven, the unexpected happens on February.
Seven. The mother Superior John has a dream. She clay
seems she's visited by a beautiful angel with the phase of sea
Joseph. He apply
eyes a sap to her side and when she wakes up poof everything's back to normal
nearly five years of convulsions, speaking in tongues and daily exorcisms, the demons are gone just like that back to Hell the priest pact, their bags and the crowds trickle out of Lou done it's over,
And that's just really suspicious right, John
story seems like a super anticlimactic ending for something that's taken, Lou done over five years to get rid of
but if you believe in spiritual entities, it might make sense. Remember
The demon Zabulon claimed that no priest would ever be able to get rid of him. Maybe
This was some sort of prophecy and John.
Was the answer all along still, even people at the time are suspicious
in sixteen thirty four, when the possessions are still going on a Scott,
Doktor named Mark Dunkin writes a treatise claiming the entire thing is a product of the
HANS imaginations,
your constant sermons on the devil's ability to tempt the righteous believe
may have convened
themselves that they were possessed. Perhaps John
even the ringleader, as mother
Superior. She could have persuaded the women underneath her to play along. In fact,
a nun names sister, Agnes Deed, admit to some sort of coercion going on according
the exorcism Minute Agnes said she was quote not possessed, but that they wanted to make her think she was and that they forced her to let herself be exercised
and peer pressure, or not. The idea of fake possessions start to make a lot more sense. When you think about the context,
when is whole thing started in September of one thousand six hundred and thirty, two Jean and the other women at the convent had been quarantined because of the plague.
The months of isolation may have caused them to become unmoved
from reality and this tracks, with what some people thought. When
the possessions first started. They based
He blamed on mental illness brought on by isolation now bats,
neither here nor there for the catholic church. As far as
are concerned the loot.
and possessions, are a huge victory at the end of the day. It proves,
they have the power to cast literal demons back to Hell
but an eye witness at the time ass. His own theory. This is
Nicholas, oh by a protestant
Minister who observed the public exorcisms at close range in
sixteen. Ninety three o bun publishes his own account of the possessions he claims.
The entire thing was. An inside job meant to take down protestantism and
but at the same time, according to
Oh ban, the Catholic Establishment Beard Lou done
whipping into the hands of the Protestants in sick,
In thirty two, the city sits near the edge of a protestant controlled region in France and Lieutenant
Wine is a melting pot for people of both faiths, so the Catholic Hierarchy makes a plan.
they'll stage a series of exorcisms proving that coffee
policies and is
the mightiest religion
Meanwhile, cardinal Richelieu sees another opportunity.
To get rid of the man. He thinks is his vocal critic. Urban
o Brien claims. The reason why it went on for years is that no one
not the physicians, clergyman or the nuns dared to speak up
Currently the tribunal for buying handed down a court order forbid
in any one from so much as disparaging the case. Anyone found
guilty would be put to death to
Creates this impossible situation for any one close to the case, which brings
as to the crux of this whole conspiracy, then
themselves. Now there
two ways this could have gone down
The nuns at Loo done really were suffering from a real possession.
Cardinal Richelieu and the Catholic Church Use
it as an opportunity to clean house or
we were in on it from the beginning, as it turns out,
this particular Ursula Monastery, was home to many daughters of french aristocrats and government officials. In fact, two of our buns
Users were sisters in law to his chief prosecutor.
Baron de low barjaumont,
one was related to Cardinal Richelieu himself. Super
all we know the Ladys were coerced or forced to pretend that they were possessed,
The ghostly visions and the limitations never happened and the demonic voices were all some sort of ventriloquist trick. That's a lot of effort to go to.
especially for a powerful establishment like the catholic Church, you would being that is there
kings in Richelieu could have cooked up some other trumped up charge.
that wouldn't involve dozens of nuns and priests as actors. Unfortunately,.
We don't know for sure, and even John the steadfast much
Her superior herself admitted at one point that the possessions were fake. Suppose it
the day after she submitted her deposition for the pending trial. John appeared in the baron's courtyard
for two hours she stood outside his house, a rope around her neck and a candle.
Her hand and when he finally
open the door she ran inside fell
to her knees and confessed. That urban is innocent
Then she ran back out of the courtyard through the rope.
or a tree branch and tried to strangle herself.
The only reason she failed is because the other nuns intervene at the time exit
is considered this as proof of our buns influence, but it looks a whole
like someone trying to come clean from a horrible lie. So what really have,
and in lieu done me,
the cardinal Richelieu saw an opportunity in a convent of young, politically connected nuns or maybe
devil really was active in lieu done. Most of the time,
comes down to whether or not you believe demons are real to begin with. But whatever the case, it's
pour to examine closely because, as
old saying goes. The devil is in the details
for listening I'll be back next week with another episode you can find all episodes of supernatural and all other par cast originals for free on Spotify Spotify.
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supernatural stars, Ashley flowers in his Spotify original from part cast its executive produced by,
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Natural was written by Molly Quinlan with writing assistance by drew call an alley wicker that checking by
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Transcript generated on 2021-03-02.