Believe Not Every Spirit: Possession, Mysticism, and Discernment in Early Modern Catholicism
By Moshe Sluhovsky (NHC Fellow, 2002–03) From 1400 through 1700, the number of reports of demonic possessions among European women was extraordinarily high. During the same period, a new type of mysticism—popular with women—emerged that greatly affected the risk of possession and, as a result, the practice of exorcism. Many feared that in moments of … Continued