Demonic Possession As Physical and Mental Disturbance in the Later Medieval Canonization Processes1

Demonic Possession as Physical and Mental Disturbance in the Later Medieval Canonization Processes1

Sari Katajala-Peltomaa

In late medieval culture demonic possession was considered to be one of the reasons behind mental disturbances and deviant behaviour. It overlapped with, but was not equivalent to raving madness, furia.2 Theological, physical and social reasoning intermingled when a person was labelled as possessed by a malign spirit. Theological context was essential since the Devil and demons were part of the spiritual realm, and as such they and their powers were cre- ated by God and accordingly categorized and explained by theologians.3 Demons could be seen to be behind various illnesses and in medical treatises exorcism rituals were occasionally recommended as a cure for lunacy and epilepsy.4 Furthermore, in medical and theological treatises a disease called

1 I am grateful to the projects of the Academy of Finland “Medieval States of Welfare: Mental Wellbeing in European culture c. 1100–1450” and “Gender and Demonic Possession in Later Medieval Europe” for funding the writing of this chapter. 2 Demonic possession and furious insanity had many similar symptoms and were not easily separated from each other. Ronald Finucane, Miracles and Pilgrims. Popular Beliefs in Medieval England (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1995), 107. They could have been categorized under one heading in miracle collections, see “De demoniacis invasacis seu evanitis et adr- abicis liberatis.” BAV MS Vat. Lat. 4027 ff. 27r. Occasionally a distinction was made, but the vocabulary may have been chosen by the commissioners or notaries, rather than by the wit- nesses in the canonization processes. Cf. BAV MS Vat. Lat. 4015 f. 212v–216v; BAV MS Vat. Lat. 4025 f. 99r; BAV MS Vat. Lat. 4019 ff. 62r–63v; 75r–76v; 78v–79r. 3 The Fourth Lateran council in 1215 was a major turning point: Lucifer was defined as a fallen angel who was cast out of heaven after committing the sin of pride. Demons, as spiritual creatures, possessed knowledge of spiritual things. J. Alberigo et al., eds., “Concilium Lateranense IV,” in Conciliorum Oecumenicorum decreta (Freiburg: Herder, 1962), cons 1. On demons and demonic possession in the Biblical tradition, see Johannes Dillinger, “Beelzebulstreitigkeiten. Besessenheit in der Biblen,” in Dämonische Besessenheit. Zur Interpretation eines kulturhistorischen Phänomens, ed. Hans de Waardt et al. (Bielefeld: Verlag für Regionalgeschichte, 2005), 37–62. 4 Lea T. Olsan, “Charms and Prayers in Medieval Medical Theory and Practice,” Social History of Medicine 16: 3 (2003): 343–366. Uses of incantations and amulets can frequently be found in medical treatises. On Anglo-Saxon examples, see Audrey L. Meaney, “Extra-Medical Elements in Anglo-Saxon Medicine,” Social History of Medicine 24: 1 (2011): 41–56; on comparison

Demonic Possession as Physical and Mental Disturbance 109 incubus could mean either a sexual demon enticing to the sin of lust, a phan- tasma creating a sense of strangulation, or an actual disease with symptoms that included a sense of being strangled and inability to move. The physiologi- cal explanations for the disease vary, including a superabundance of black bile which could be remedied by balancing the diet, and a disease of the head linked with epilepsy, apoplexy and mania.5 Whether melancholy could be caused by demons was a question posed throughout the Middle Ages. Physicians, who were more eager than theologians to offer naturalistic explanations for supposedly supernatural events, usually argued that if melancholy was caused by evil spirits, they caused an imbalanced complexion of humours within the body.6 A disease called uterine suffocation, hysteria (from the Greek word for womb, hystera) also resembled demonic possession, in that it could cause mental confusion, grinding of the teeth and convulsive contractions.7 Similar symptoms could indicate demonic possession or other mental disturbance, yet there were some signs that were more typical of demoniacs: abnormal powers, convulsions, blaspheming of the saints and God, and abhor- rence of sacred objects, as well as aggression against themselves and close ones. These symptoms or performances were crossing the boundaries of religion, health and proper conduct. Demonic possession was an overarching

between thirteenth century pastoral manuals and medical texts, see Catherine Rider, “Medical Magic and the Church in Thirteenth-Century England,” Social History of Medicine 24: 1 (2011): 92–107. 5 Medieval authors disagreed on whether an incubus was only a dream phenomenon or a real attacker. Maaike van der Lugt, “The Incubus in Scholastic Debate: Medicine, Theology and Popular Belief,” in Religion and Medicine in the Middle Ages, ed. Peter Biller and Joseph Ziegler York Studies in Medieval Theology III (York: York Medieval Press, 2001), 175–200. Cf. Rainer Jehl, “Melancholie und Besessenheit in gelehrten Diskurs des Mittelalters,” in Dämonische Besessenheit, 63–71. 6 Joseph Ziegler, Medicine and Religion, c. 1300: the Case of Arnau de Vilanova (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 8, 173–175; also Roger Kenneth French, Canonical Medicine: Gentile da Foligno and Scholasticism (Leiden: Brill, 2001), 64. On melancholy and humoral theory, see the chapter of Timo Joutsivuo, and on practical advice for contentamento and mental wellbeing, see Iona McCleery’s chapter. However, physicians drawing from earlier Greek or Arabic tradition were more willing to accept demonic influence as a reason for affliction: see Catherine Rider’s chapter in this collection. 7 Danielle Jacquart and Claude Thomasset, Sexuality and Medicine in the Middle Ages, trans. Matthew Adamson (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988), 173–177. On uterine suffocation and other women’s diseases, see Monica H. Green, Making Women’s Medicine Masculine. The Rise of Male Authority in Pre-Modern Gynaecology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008).