Loudun

[suspenseful music] It began with strange noises inside a nun's convent, and the frightened women soon whispered that something evil had found its way into the small French town of Loudun.

But before long, those nuns began screaming, convulsing, and claiming that demons had taken control of their bodies while thousands gathered to watch their exorcisms.

At the center of it all was one man, a local priest the women claimed was responsible for everything that was happening, and so he felt the full wrath of the church as a result.

But in the end, the questions of demons, responsibility, and possessions were left lingering even after blood was eventually spilled.

And this, this is the story of the Loudun demonic possessions.

My name's Ben.

I'm Nicole, and you're listening to Wicked & Grimm.

Seems like it's gonna be.

Yeah.

Because the, one of the first things that happens in the film is, uh, they, the, the government comes to the town of, of Loudun where, um, which is this, which is pitched by Grandier as this sort of, uh, multi-faith, non-denominational utopia where he's like, "Yeah, we have, we have Catholics, but also we have other people, and it, we're fine.

We like it here.

This is, this is a place where everybody can be what they want to be." And the government says, "No, it's not."

Instead of allowing the hate he had aroused to die away or at least to fall asleep by letting the past be past, he continued with more zeal than ever his proceedings against Dutibot, and succeeded in obtaining a decree from the Parliament of La Tournelle, by which Dutibot was summoned before it and obliged to listen bare-headed to a reprimand, to offer apologies, and to pay damages and costs.

having thus got the better of one enemy urbain turned on the others and showed himself more indefatigable in the pursuit of justice than they had been in the pursuit of vengeance the decision of the archbishop had given him a right to a sum of money for compensation and interest thereon as well as to the restitution of the revenues of his livings and there being some demur made he announced publicly that he intended to exact this reparation to the uttermost farthing and set about collecting all the evidence which was necessary for the success of a new lawsuit for libel and forgery which he intended to begin it was in vain that his friends assured him that the vindication of his innocence had been complete and brilliant it was in vain that they tried to convince him of the danger of driving the vanquished to despair urbain replied that he was ready to endure all the persecutions which his enemies might succeed in inflicting on him but as long as he felt that he had right upon his side he was incapable of drawing back grandier's adversaries soon became conscious of the storm which was gathering above their heads and feeling that the struggle between themselves and this man would be one of life or death mignon barreau munier and mignot met trinquant at the village of pindadane in a house belonging to the latter in order to consult about the dangers which threatened them mignon had however already begun to weave the threads of a new intrigue which he explained in full to the others they lent a favorable ear and his plan was adopted we shall see it unfold itself by degrees for it is the basis of our narrative We had already said that Mignon was the director of the convent of Ursulines at Loudun.

Now the Ursuline order was quite modern, for the historic controversies to which the slightest mention of the martyrdom of St. Ursula and her 11,000 virgins gave rise had long hindered the foundation of an order in the saint's honor.

However, in 1560, Madame Angélée de Bresset established such an order in Italy with the same rules as the Augustinian order.

This gained the approbation of Pope Gregory XIII in 1572.

In 1614, Madeleine Nullier, with the approval of Pope Paul V, introduced this order into France by founding a convent at Paris, whence it rapidly spread over the whole kingdom, so that in 1626, only six years before the time when the events just related took place, a sisterhood was founded in the little town of Loudun.

although this community at first consisted entirely of ladies of good family daughters of nobles officers judges and the better class of citizens and numbered among its founders jeanne de belfield daughter of the late marquis of cos and relative of m de l'auberdemont mademoiselle de fazilly cousin of the cardinal duke two ladies of the house of barbigny de nougaret madame de lamotte daughter of the marquis lamotte barras of anjou and madame d'escoubleau de sourdi of the same family as the archbishop of bordeaux yet as these nuns had almost all entered the convent because of their want of fortune the community found itself at the time of its establishment richer in blood than in money and was obliged instead of building to purchase a private house The owner of this house was a certain Mousseau-Dufresne, whose brother was a priest.

This brother, therefore, naturally became the first director of these godly women.

In former times, these rages of demented women were supposed to have been caused by possession of demons, which tormented them at the orders of magicians, and advantage was often taken by the unscrupulous to accuse their enemies of the crime of sorcery and thus cause their executions.

One of the most famous of these horrible affairs was that of Loudun in Poitiers, where the nuns of the Ursuline convent, becoming hysterical and demented, swore themselves afflicted by Urbain Grandier, a priest of the local church.

and despite the attempts of the rational bailiff and sensible civil lieutenants, some enemies of the cur among the exorcists managed to secure the arrest, torture, and final burning of the unfortunate man in 1632.

Later it was discovered that, being personally attractive, handsome, and gallant, Grandier, who never denied his numerous amours, had incurred the enmity of the Loudun nuns by entirely ignoring their advances.

And hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

These libidinous women, constantly brooding over disappointment to their fond hopes, gave such a character of demonic possession to their neurosis that advantage could be taken of it by rival priests to rid themselves of an envied enemy.

In former times, these rages of demented women were supposed to have been caused by possession of demons, which tormented them at the orders of magicians, and advantage was often taken by the unscrupulous to accuse their enemies of the crime of sorcery and thus cause their executions.

One of the most famous of these horrible affairs was that of Loudun in Poitiers, where the nuns of the Ursuline convent, becoming hysterical and demented, swore themselves afflicted by Urbain Grandier, a priest of the local church.

and despite the attempts of the rational bailiff and sensible civil lieutenants some enemies of the cure among the exorcists managed to secure the arrest torture and final burning of the unfortunate man in sixteen thirty two Later it was discovered that, being personally attractive, handsome, and gallant, Grandier, who never denied his numerous amours, had incurred the enmity of the Loudun nuns by entirely ignoring their advances.

And hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

These libidinous women, constantly brooding over disappointment to their fond hopes, gave such a character of demonic possession to their neurosis that advantage could be taken of it by rival priests to rid themselves of an envied enemy.

Um, it's, uh...

Where do we start here? Basically, uh, it's The Devils of Loudun, and it's adapted for film by Ken Russell.

And he took the...

He also took the play, and he adapted kind of both of them, amalgamated t- them together.

They, uh, they happen over the course of, like, 30 days, but in the film it's only a couple days.

Um, some of the characters are combined, uh, but the sentiments are, are real, and it's really documented what happened in this, uh, to, uh, Urban Grandier, Grandier, uh, who was a Roman Catholic, uh, clergyman.

I don't know his rank or whatever, but he was, he was the Roman Catholic, uh, bishop, let's say, of the town of Loudun, uh, in France.

And there was a, uh, Roman Catholic king, and, uh, the bishop actually...

And advantage was often taken by the unscrupulous to accuse their enemies of the crime of sorcery and thus cause their execution.

One of the most famous of these horrible affairs was that of Loudun in Poitiers, where the nuns of the Ursuline convent, becoming hysterical and demented, swore themselves afflicted by Urbain Grandier, a priest of the local church.

And despite the attempts of the rational bailiff and sensible civil lieutenants, some enemies of the curé among the exorcists managed to secure the arrest, torture, and final burning of the unfortunate man in 1632.

Later it was discovered that, being personally attractive, handsome, and gallant, Grandier, who never denied his numerous amours, had incurred the enmity of the Loudun nuns by entirely ignoring their advances.

And hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

These libidinous women, constantly brooding over disappointment to their fond hopes, gave such a character of demonic possession to their neurosis that advantage could be taken of it by rival priests to rid themselves of an envied enemy.

The tragic death of Urban Grandier shows how dangerous it was in the days of superstition to incur the displeasure of powerful men, and how easily the charge of necromancy could be used for the purpose of removing an obnoxious person.

Grandier was curate of the Church of Saint Peter at Loudun and canon of the Church of the Holy Cross.

He was a pleasant companion, agreeable in conversation, and much admired by the fair sex.

Indeed, he wrote a book, Contra Coelebatum Clericorum, in which he strongly advocated the marriage of the clergy and showed that he was not himself indifferent to the charms of the ladies.

In an evil hour, he wrote a little book entitled Le Cordonnier de Loudun, in which he attacked Richelieu and aroused the undying hatred of the great cardinal.

Richelieu was at that time in the zenith of his power and when offended, he was not very scrupulous as to the means he employed to carry out his vengeance, as the fate of our author abundantly testifies.

In the town of Loudun was a famous convent of Ursuline nuns, and Grandier solicited the office of director of the nunnery, but happily he was prevented by circumstances from undertaking that duty.

A short time afterwards, the nuns were attacked with a curious and contagious frenzy, imagining themselves tormented by evil spirits, of whom the chief was Asmodeus.