Louis Gaufridi

Disclaimer

This is NOT a page about Wiccans or neo-pagans, and I do not advocate the belief that Wiccans are Satan-worshippers and/or baby-killers. I am well aware that they are not. This is a starting point for historical research into the great witch craze of 1100-1700 AD. And please, don't ask me for spells.

Louis Gaufridi

Known as the Prince of Sorcerers (Wedeck 202), Father Louis Gaufridi was executed in 1611 for sending demons into the Ursuline nuns of Aix-en-Provence.

Gaufridi's trial and execution were known of by the persecutors of Father Urbain Grandier.

The following is Gaufridi's story as told by Eric Maple in Man, Myth, and Magic:

In the first 25 years of the 17th century the witchcraft delusion in France reached its high peak of intensity. A characterisitc feature of the period was the prevalence of cases of demonic possession, involving priests and nuns. Demons were believed to be attacking the human race, obsessing the minds and controlling the bodies of victims into whom they had entered through the bodily orifices. In a reign of terror against every form of demonism, the Inquisitors attemtped to withstand what they believed to be a mass assault levelled at Church and society by the Devil, working through his agents--sorcerers and witches.

In the year 1609 signs of diabolical invasion appeared at Aix-en-Provence in southern France, the victim being Madeleine de Demandolx de la Palud, a girl who had a history of emotional instability. In 1605 she had been admitted to the Ursuline convent at Aix but had been returned to the care of her parents, a well-established Provencal family, to recover from the attacks of depression which afflicted her when away from home. Unfortunately she fell under the influence of Father Louis Gaufridi, parish priest of Accoules in Marseilles and a friend of the family.

Like so many clerics of that age Gaufridi was far from ascetic in his way of life. Several women were known to be infatuated with him, and his services as a confessor were in particular demand amongh the wives of the citizens. The disparity between the ages of Gaufridi and Madeleine (he was 34, she was 13) was apparently no barrier to the priest. His visits became ever more frequent and he was often closeted alone with her for long periods. Inevitably, perhaps, she fell violently in love with him, and possibly he with her.

The story soon reached the ears of Catherine de Gaumer, head of the Ursuline convent at Marseilles, who warned the child's mother of the dangers to which her daughter was exposed. A hint was conveyed to the priest Gaufridi that he should cease his attentions at once.

In the following year Madeleine was admitted to the Ursuline convent at Marseilles under the direct control of Mother de Gaumer, to whom she revealed the full story of her relations with Gaufridi, which she said involved sexual intercourse since her childhood.

Hordes of Demons

It was considered wise to move Madeleine out of danger of any further association with the priest by transferring her to the distant convent at Aix. The affair might have been forgotten had not Madeleines, two years later at the age of 16, suddenly fallen victim to what in contemporary eyes was unmistakably demonic possession. Her body became contorted, hordes of demons surrounded her and in a fit of rage she destroyed a crucifix.

Such states of mind were not uncommon in convents and were usually cleared up very quickly by exorcism--a 17th century equivalent of modern psychiatric treatment. This case proved more obstinate, however, as the Jesuit Father Romillon discovered when his attempts to drive out the possessing demons failed.

Exorcism was an extremely complex ritual, requiring infinite patience and skill. It involved a violent verbal assault on the devil in possession, as well as prayers and the liberal use of holy water. The patient was often made to breathe in noxious fumes, to accelerate the departure of the devil from so inhospitable a habitation.

Father Gaufridi was questioned about his sexual relations with Madeleine and insisted that his association with her had been proper in every respect. Further exorcisms, however, brought from the mouth of the possessed girl damning accusations that Gaufridi was a devil worshipper and had copulated with her since she was 13. The situation at the convent was now getting out of hand, for three more nuns were possessed by devils; and by the end of the year the number had risen to eight. The most severly afflicted of these was Sister Louise Capeau whose ravings and contortions were, if anything, even more hideous than Madeleine's.

Reduced to desperation, Father Romillon sought the aid of one of the most famous witch-hunters of the age, the Grand Inquisitor Sebastian Michaelis. The Flemish exorcist, Father Domptius, was also called in and managed to produce from the mouth of Louise the harsh, blaspheming howls of three terrifying devils, by name Grésil, Sonnillon and Vérin, each of whom was high in the hierarchy of hell.

It was Vérin who accused Gaufridi of causing Madeleine's condition, revealing to the amazed exorcist that no less than 6666 ferocious evil spirits were now in possession of her body, the most eminent of these being the devils Leviathan, Ballberith, Asmodeus, Astaroth and the mighty Beelzebub, second only in authority and infamy to Lucifer himself.

Cannibalism and Perversion

Father Gaufridi was summoned from his parish and ordered to exorcize Louise Capeau. No expert in this highly specialized treatment, he failed miserably and heard himself denounced as a sorcerer and cannibal by the very demons he was struggling to expel. Typical of their dununciations was: "Louis Gaufridi outside makes believe that he is a saint; however, inside he is full of iniquity. He feighns to abstain from flesh; nevertheless he makes himself drunk with the flesh of little children...whome he has eaten, the others whom he has suffocated and afterwards dug up all cry before God for vengeance upon crimes so execrable." Gaufridi's reply to the dangerous charge of sorcery was not only curious but also damning, for he said: "If I were a witch I would certainly give my soul to a thousand devils." This statement was regarded as a confession of guilt by the Inquisitors, who flung Gaufridi into prison.

Meanwhile, the possessed nun Louise attempted to outdo Madeleine by loudly insisting that Gaufridi had committed every imaginable sexual perversion. The alarmed authorities immediately ordered the priest's rooms to be searched for magical objects or books but were surprised and disappointed to discover nothing of an incriminating nature. They learnt from those who knew him that he was well regarded in his parish. They released him and let him return to his parish. Here he clamoured for the vincication of his good name, and demanded that his accusers be punished.

Throughout this period the nun Madeleine never ceased to be wracked in body and spirit by the tormenting devils and the convent was in complete disarray as the result of her ravings, obscenities and accusations against Gaufridi. Overwhelmed by the 6666 furious demons within her, she sometimes neighed like a horse, while her bones creaked and groaned like a tree bending before a mighty storm.

The case of the possessed nuns of Aix was now rocking France. On the one side stood Gaufridi, insisting upon vindication, and on the other the Grand Inquisitor Michaelis, victor of a thousand battles with Satan, determined to bring Gaufridi to trial. The result was predictable. In 1611 the case came before a court in Aix and although he could not at first have realized it, the priest's doom was sealed.

The behaviour in court of the two nuns, Madeleine and Louise, was by 17th century standarts typical of an advanced state of diabolical possession. Madeleine in particular was often demented, shrieking, crying, and alternating between violent denunciations of Gaufridi as a devil worshipper and wizard, and the complete retraction of the same accusations. Then she would return to the charge of cannibalism. "Much he cares for your salt fish or your eggs. He eats good smoking flesh of little children which is brought to him invisibly from the synagogue" (the meeting of the witches). Then she would expose her passion for him by pleading for a single word of kindness from his lips. Sometimes she would be overcome by the wildest lust and it became painfully obvious to those in court that the girl was experiencing an orgasm before their eyes, her convulsions "representing the secual act with violent movements of the lower part of her body".

In a frenzied reaction against life itself she twice attempted suicide. During the course of the trial it was discovered that she possessed "Devil's marks" on her body, the secret brands by which Satan recognized his own. These marks later vanished in a mysterious fashion.

The Pact With Satan

Gaufridi was brought into court shattered by the mental anguish and physical tortures he had suffered in prison. His body had been shaved and searched for Devil's marks, three of which had been found as further evidence against him. To complete his misery, a pact with Satan signed in his own blood was produced in court, under the terms of which all women were to be made subject to his will.

It was common knowledge that the pact with the Devil required the surrender of the body and soul of a witch or sorcerer at the end of 20 years. But with true legalistic formality it was conceded that should the pact be written on virgin parchment or prepared outside the magic circle, the agreement was null and void. Such contracts between a sorcerer and Satan were sometimes written, and invariably signed, in blood. In return for his soul the sorcerer would receive some specific gift or power. There is no evidence that the agreement afforded any protection against the Inquisition, however, for Satan only rarely intervened on behalf of his dupes. The production of such a document in court was usually sufficient to secure a verdict of guilty from the witch-fearing judges of the 17th century.

Gaufridi's Confession

Gaufridi's confession, which he had signed in prison, reflected the morbid state of mind of his accusers rather than that of the accused. He said he had eaten babies and celebrated a black mass at the sabbath, where he held the rank of Prince of the Synagogue, sprinkling the witches with consecrated wine, and he had exercised his magical power over women. "More than a thousand persons have been poisoned by the irresistable atraction of my breath which filled them with passion. The Lady of la Palud, the mother of Madeleine, was fascinated like so many others. But Madeleine was taken with an unreasoned love and abandoned herself to me both in the Sabbath and outside the Sabbath...I was marked at the Sabbath of my contentment and I had Madeleine marked on her head, on her belly, on her legs, on her thighs, on her feet..."

In court Gaufridi strenuously repudiated the confession, declaring it to consist of fantasies in the minds of the Inquisitors, extorted from him by torture. But protest was useless; the signed confession and the pact were sufficient to damn any man in the eyes of 17th century Christians, and Gaufridi was found guilty and condemned to suffer death by fire. He was to be burned slowly over a pyre of bushes instead of logs, so that his anguish would be prolonged. His tormentors gave him no peace, and even after his sentence he was pestered with demands for the names of his accomplices.

Exquisite Torments

On 20 April his spirit weakened and his mind gave way to despair. He cried out to his tormentors that since nobody would listen to the truth he might as well admit everything. On 30 April 1611, with head and feet bare and with a rope around his neck, he went through the official mummery of asking pardon of God. He was handed over to the torturers again to undergo certain exquisite torments that had been reserved for him--the strappado and squassation....

After the torture, the shattered body of the still living Gaufrid was dragged on a hurdle through the streets for five hours, escorted by archers. Arriving at the place of execution, the priest was granted the unexpected mercy of strangulation before the fire was lit, thus escaping the ultimate horror of the original sentence. His lifeless body was then burned to ashes.

As if by the influence of a magic charm, the nun Madeleine suddenly became free of her tormenting devils, thus disposing of any doubts that may have remained about Gaufridi's guilt. Madeleine's fellow demoniact, Lousie Capeau, was less fortunate, for she was harassed by demons to the end of her days, while the devil mania itself spread to the nuns of other convents before it finally subsided. Madeleine, however, never escaped from the watchful eyes of the Inquisition. Once the taint of diabolic possession had become associated with an individual, no one really knew waht infamies the devils might venture on next.

A generation after Gaufridi's execution, the year 1642 saw her defending herself with difficulty against a charge of witchcraft. Ten years later she was prosecuted again and this time, incriminated by the Devil's marks which had reappeared on her body, was sentenced to perpetual imprisonment; she was released, at an advanced age, into the custody of a relative. Still under the eye of the Inquisition, Madeleine de Demandolx found freedom at last in death, in 1670 at the age of 77.

(Maple 90-92)

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Louis Gaufridi is copyrighted 1996-1998 to Shantell Powell.