Sebastien Michaelis - Aix-en-Provence Possessions

Aix-en-Provence Possessions

See also Aix-en-Provence possessions

In 1610 Michaelis became involved in a case of demonic possession at the Ursuline convent at Aix-en-Provence. This began when Jean-Baptiste Romillon, a local Jesuit, diagnosed one of the nuns, a young girl of noble birth from Marseilles named Madeleine Demandols de la Palud, as possessed. Madeleine made accusations against her confessor, Father Louis Gaufridy, who was priest of the parish of the Acoules in Marseilles. She claimed that Gaufridy had sexually enchanted her (the devil having made his breath aphrodisiac), and inducted her into witchcraft, causing her body to be invaded by demons which would only leave when the priest was converted, dead or punished. She claimed her principal demonic occupant to be Beelzebub. Unable to exorcise her, Romillon referred the case to the papal territory of Avignon, and the jurisdiction of Michaelis. Another Dominican, Francois Doncieux (also known by the Latinised name Domptius) served as fellow chief investigator alongside Michaelis.

Other nuns soon confessed to similar possessions, the demons in many cases prompting them to sermonize at length. One nun, Louise Capeau, claimed to speak with the voice of a demon named Verin (or Verrine), and on 27 December 1610 announced the coming of the Apocalypse. Beelzebub, speaking through Madeleine Demandols, maintained there to be a total of 6,660 devils involved in the possession.

Gaufridy was examined for the "devil's mark" by Jacques Fontaine, professor of medicine at the University of Aix, and when in early 1611 the required marks were found (Gaufridy claimed they had been made on him without his knowledge or consent), the priest was arrested under orders from the Parlement of Aix. He confessed while in prison, and on 11 April 1611 he was publicly tortured and burnt at Aix-en-Provence.