The Aix-en-Provence Possessions

The possessions at Aix-en-Provence between 1609 and 1611 marked a turning point in European witchcraft trials. For the first time, a Catholic priest was executed for witchcraft based primarily on the testimony of allegedly possessed nuns. The case established precedents that would be followed in numerous subsequent possession cases, including Loudun and Salem.

The Ursuline Convent

The case centered on the Ursuline convent in Aix-en-Provence, in southern France. Two nuns, Sister Madeleine de Demandolx de la Palud and Sister Louise Capeau, began exhibiting symptoms of possession in 1609. They convulsed, spoke in strange voices, and claimed to see demons.

Madeleine, a young woman from a noble family, had entered the convent at age twelve and had reportedly been seduced by Father Louis Gaufridi, a priest who served as her confessor. Whether this relationship was real or imagined became central to the case.

The Accusations

Under exorcism, Madeleine and Louise accused Father Gaufridi of witchcraft. They claimed he had taken Madeleine to witches’ sabbaths, had her sign a pact with the devil, and used sorcery to seduce her. The demons supposedly possessing the nuns named Gaufridi as the source of their affliction.

The Grand Inquisitor Sébastien Michaëlis oversaw the exorcisms and became convinced of Gaufridi’s guilt. He documented the case extensively in a book that would influence later possession investigations.

Gaufridi’s Trial and Death

Father Gaufridi was arrested and tortured. Under extreme duress, he confessed to witchcraft and to having attended sabbaths where he ate children and worshipped Satan. The confession was clearly obtained through torture, but it was accepted as valid evidence.

On April 30, 1611, Gaufridi was strangled and then burned at the stake in Aix. He was the first priest in France to be executed for witchcraft, and his death established that clerical status provided no protection against such accusations.

The Possessed Nuns

Madeleine de Demandolx was later accused of witchcraft herself and spent years in prison. She was eventually released but spent the rest of her life under suspicion. Louise Capeau continued to claim possession and reportedly still exhibited symptoms years later.

Whether the nuns genuinely believed themselves possessed, were mentally ill, were deliberately lying to destroy Gaufridi, or were manipulated by Inquisitor Michaëlis remains debated. The truth may involve elements of all these possibilities.

Legacy

The Aix case established dangerous precedents. It demonstrated that testimony from possessed individuals could convict priests of witchcraft. It showed that exorcism could be used as an investigative tool to name witches. And it provided a template for the theatrical public exorcisms that would characterize later cases.

The detailed documentation by Inquisitor Michaëlis became a manual of sorts for handling possession cases, influencing how such episodes were interpreted and prosecuted throughout the seventeenth century.

Assessment

The Aix-en-Provence possessions illustrate the deadly intersection of religious fervor, sexual repression, political ambition, and institutional credulity. A priest died based on accusations extracted through exorcism from disturbed young women, and the case established patterns that would claim many more lives in the decades to come.

Whether demonic possession, mental illness, deliberate accusation, or some combination explains the events, the consequences were tragically real.