Loudun possessions
The matter of the so-called Devils of Loudun or the possessed of Loudun is one of Cardinal Richelieu in the 1630s against the Catholic priest Urbain Grandier (see detailed main article), pastor of the church of Sainte Croix in Loudun in the diocese of Poitiers in France, initiated persecution of witches.
History
1632 accused the nuns of the convent of the Ursulines of Loudun Urbain Grandier the priest to have been bewitched by him. This had addressed a boisterous pamphlet against Richelieu and resisted steadfastly required by this destruction of the city walls. At the request of Richelieu a witch trial against him was launched, it took numerous exorcisms in front of the nuns, and on August 18, 1634 Urbain Grandier was sentenced to death, tortured and burned.
Important insights into the events provide the memoirs of the nun Jeanne des Anges and Joan of the Angels ( Madame de Beclier ), which first appeared in 1866 in French under the title Autobiography d'une hystérique Possédée.