The Devil in the Convent

The Devil in the Convent

Sorry it took so long to post this I have been extremely sick this week and I did not check the facebook page in time to realize that we were have supposed to have read this for last week.   This has been my favorite reading so far that we have done for the class.  I really enjoyed the writing style, the topic, and the writer’s arguments.  Until I read about this and saw The Devils on Monday I had no idea that there had even been mass possessions in convents, which really surprised me. 

What I really found the most interesting was why these mass possessions happened in the places they did and why they only happened to female religious orders.  It makes a lot of sense that these possessions often happened in convents that were experiencing change and reform that made the strict lives of the nuns even more severe.  It must have been hard to adjust and adapt to the new rules that were enforced, so being possessed was a way to except or rebel against these reforms depending on where they happened.  Another main factor that played a role in the possession of these groups of women was that they were, to put it simply, women.  These types of possessions never happened to large groups of religious males, although a single man could be possessed.  This was because, supposedly, “immune to such lack of control over their bodies (and souls) and to the risk of a penetrability of their bodies.”  So, like in most other aspects of life, especially religious life, women were presumed to be more easily tempted and easy to control.  Women were thought to have “excessive” spirituality, which made them so susceptible to demonic possession simply because they worshipped in a way that was different then that of most men.

While demonic possessions were not good, apparently God condoned them.  This is the part of the article and the history that really confused me.  If the Devil and God were enemies then why would the Devil need God’s permission to possess people? And why would God let him?  I just think that is extremely convoluted reasoning but since I am not a contemporary of the time I cannot judge.  The part of this that I do understand is that by having these mass possessions convents actually gained glory and validation for their order.  If the Devil and demons supposedly attacked those that were a threat to them, then having the forces of evil attempt to harm you showed that you were doing something right.  It must have almost been a relief for the cloistered nuns, who could not physically help people outside their walls, to believe that their prayers were having such an impact that the Devil considered them advisories. 

Finally, the last thing that I thought was fascinating from this reading was that there were actual contemporaries who believed that it was not the actual Devil who was causing these possessions but that they were caused by a “devil of the flesh.”  I really never thought anyone would have admitted such a thing during that time period, but I am glad they did because I think that it is probably true.  Young women who were cloistered before they had a chance for any type of physical interaction and had no hope of ever having one must have often wondered about such things.  And, the fact that they stared for hours at Jesus’ almost naked body and had to contemplate themselves and their sins almost endless would not have helped very much either.