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Exorcism and Enlightenment Johann Joseph Gassner and the Demons of Eighteenth-Century Germany

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Exorcism and Enlightenment Johann Joseph Gassner and the Demons of Eighteenth-Century Germany EXORCISMthe terry AND ENLIGHTENMENT lectures OTHER VOLUMES IN THE TERRY LECTURE SERIES AVAILABLE FROM YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS The Courage to Be Paul Tillich Psychoanalysis and Religion Erich Fromm Becoming Gordon W. Allport A Common Faith John Dewey Education at the Crossroads Jacques Maritain Psychology and Religion Carl G. Jung Freud and Philosophy Paul Ricoeur Freud and the Problem of God Hans Küng Master Control Genes in Development and Evolution Walter J. Gehring Belief in God in an Age of Science John Polkinghorne Israelis and the Jewish Tradition David Hartman The Empirical Stance Bas C. van Fraassen One World Peter Singer H. C. ERIK MIDELFORT Exorcism and Enlightenment Johann Joseph Gassner and the Demons of Eighteenth-Century Germany YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS ≤ NEW HAVEN AND LONDON Published with assistance from the Louis Stern Memorial Fund. Copyright ∫ 2005 by Yale University. All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publishers. Designed by Nancy Ovedovitz and set in Janson OS type by Keystone Typesetting, Inc. Printed in the United States of America by Sheridan Books. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Midelfort, H. C. Erik. Exorcism and Enlightenment : Johann Joseph Gassner and the demons of eighteenth-century Germany / H. C. Erik Midelfort. p. cm. — (The Terry lectures) Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. isbn 0-300-10669-6 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Gassner Johann Joseph, 1727–1779. 2. Exorcism— Germany—History—18th century. 3. Faith and reason— Christianity—History of doctrines—18th century. 4. Enlightenment—Germany. I. Title. II. Series. bx2340.m53 2005 235%.4%094309033—dc22 2004065905 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. The paper in this book meets the guidelines for perma- nence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources. 10987654321 This book is for Anne THE DWIGHT HARRINGTON TERRY FOUNDATION LECTURES ON RELIGION IN THE LIGHT OF SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY The deed of gift declares that ‘‘the object of this foundation is not the promotion of scientific investigation and discovery, but rather the assimilation and interpretation of that which has been or shall be hereafter discovered, and its application to human welfare, especially by the building of the truths of science and philosophy into the structure of a broadened and purified religion. The founder believes that such a religion will greatly stimulate intelligent effort for the improvement of human conditions and the advancement of the race in strength and excellence of character. To this end it is desired that a series of lectures be given by men eminent in their respective departments, on ethics, the history of civilization and religion, biblical research, all sciences and branches of knowledge which have an important bearing on the subject, all the great laws of nature, especially of evolution . also such interpretations of literature and sociology as are in accord with the spirit of this foundation, to the end that the Christian spirit may be nurtured in the fullest light of the world’s knowledge and that mankind may be helped to attain its highest possible welfare and happiness upon this earth.’’ The present work constitutes the latest volume published on this foundation. CONTENTS Acknowledgments xi Introduction 1 1 The Experience of Demons 11 2 A Niche in the Incubator: Ecclesiastical Politics and the Empire 32 3 Healing59 4 Interpretation 87 5 Conversation and Ridicule 118 Epilogue 143 Notes 149 Index 211 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This book had its origin in the Dwight H. Terry Lectures delivered at Yale University during the spring semester of 2003 before a lively audience. I should like to express here my profound gratitude for having the chance to live once more at Yale, to use the magnificent library collections, and to enjoy the cordial collegiality that goes with living in a residential college. The Terry Committee served as my introduction to several of the congenial communities of scholars who populate Yale, and I would like to thank specifically committee mem- bers Harry Attridge, Michael Della Rocca, Leo Hickey, Dale Martin, Bill Summers, and especially Dianne Witte, who managed the many details of my lectureship with grace and efficiency. My sojourn would also have been much the poorer without the help and constant friend- ship of Carlos Eire, who commented frequently on my evolving thoughts about Johann Joseph Gassner and reassured me that concen- trating on such an apparently minor and largely forgotten figure would prove productive. I would be sadly remiss, too, if I did not acknowledge my debt to the department of history at Yale for granting me an office and administrative support. At Ezra Stiles College, Mas- ter Traugott Lawler and his wife Peggy went out of their way to include me in the life of the college and provided me with chances to explain myself to colleagues. They helped make life for my wife, Anne, and me most pleasant. The most extraordinary social experience at Yale, however, came at the hands of Professors Nelson Donegan of neuroscience and Howard Stern of the German department, who together hosted a Friday afternoon ‘‘moderately cheerful’’ Stammtisch that surpassed all expectations of affability, learned conversation, and friendship. This project, however, began ten years ago with the friendship of scholars who helped me find my way into the forbidding world of the late eighteenth century. Wolfgang Behringer was perhaps the first to xi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS encourage me to take on Gassner, and I only regret that this book does not settle or even try to settle many of the intriguing questions he posed as I began my research. Elmar Schallert, the diocesan archi- vist of Feldkirch, was helpful and friendly when I first turned up looking for Gassneriana. He gave me perhaps my first introduction to the surviving manuscript remains of the exorcist and helped me to understand the place and purpose of Gassner’s diaries. In Neuenstein I was lucky enough to have the help of Dr. Peter Schiffer, who not only knew what I might be looking for but was willing to photocopy most of it. In Augsburg I was fortunate to fall in with another remarkable band of congenial scholars, chief of whom were the members of the Thursday Stammtisch comprising scholars and administrators of the local archives and libraries. I should thank by name Hans-Jörg Künast, Marjorie Elizabeth Plummer, and Georg Feuerer. At the Augsburg Staats- und Stadtbibliothek, I was graciously aided by Wolfgang Mayer and Eckehart Nowak, who provided me many cour- tesies. Without their help, my studies would have taken much longer and would surely have been even more incomplete than they are. This is also the place to thank Klaus Graf for his tireless work for the web list ‘‘Hexenforschung,’’ through which I have discovered many re- searchers in related fields and countless bibliographical leads. Dr. Burkhard Peter kindly allowed me to read several papers on Gassner and psychotherapy before they were published, and Professor Ger- hard Ammerer provided me welcome assistance in locating articles he had published in obscure locations. Hermann Ehmer and Martin Brecht were also helpful on specific points of detail. Librarians at the state libraries of Bregenz, Feldkirch, Bamberg, Munich, and Stuttgart have always been willing to help me on short notice. The notes record my specific debts, but I should also like to thank generally the friendly and helpful archivists of state, ecclesiastical, and local archives, who did so much to recover diaries, letters, notes, reactions, and reports concerning Gassner, as well as the postmortem inquest recording his few worldly possessions at the time of his death. These repositories include the diocesan archive of Feldkirch, the princely archive of xii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Hohenlohe in Neuenstein, the episcopal Ordinariatsarchiv in Re- gensburg, the Bavarian Hauptstaatsarchiv in Munich, and the episco- pal archive of Augsburg. Near the end of my researches, I spent a semester at Oxford Uni- versity enjoying the hospitality of Wolfson College. I’m deeply grate- ful to the many libraries of Oxford for providing a perfect environ- ment in which to read and write. I must specifically thank Lyndal Roper, Robin Briggs, Robert Evans, and Thomas Biskup for their advice and assistance. Various versions of the chapters of this book have been delivered as lectures at the universities of Oxford, Cam- bridge, and London, as well as at Tübingen University and the Histo- risches Kolleg in Munich. At Cambridge I learned much in a very short time from Simon Schaffer. At the Institute of Historical Re- search in London I gained immeasurably from David Wootton. I am grateful to all of these institutions and to my alert listeners, from whom I have learned much. Colleagues at the University of Virginia, moreover, have long had to listen to me go on about an obscure eighteenth-century exorcist. They have done much more than toler- ate this tedious behavior, and I owe a great debt to Alon Confino, Ted Lendon, Duane Osheim, and Anne Jacobson Schutte. Sophie Rosen- feld subjected the entire manuscript to a learned and searching cri- tique from which I have gratefully profited. Two anonymous readers for Yale University Press also made several shrewd criticisms, to which I have tried to respond. It was also a proud moment when my daughter Lucy read part of the manuscript and made useful sugges- tions. Most of all, I am grateful to Anne McKeithen, who has repeat- edly rearranged her life and work in order to help me.
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