* W. M. Alexander, Demonic Poteeuion in the ST, Edin- burgh, 1902, p. 81.
t lb. p. 39. „
! Mt 9I8, Mk 623 62. 6 823. 25 927, Lk 440 13I8, AC 612 917 828 ; cf.
Ao 3- ; Dearmer, Bndi/ and Soul, p. 168 ; Mt W'S, Mk 1018, Ac 6» 812. 18. 19 133 196, 1 Ti i'-i 622.
§ Mt 86- 32 1718, Mk 68, Lk 435. 88.
1 EBr^ ixvL 49.
POSSESSION
POSSESSION
253
some outstanding quality like kingship or holiness, anil if tlieie has j;Town uji a wiilrsproail popular belief iu his power ; also when the patient is in- ferior in knowledge or station to tlie agent. Sug- gestion becomes still more powerful if the attention of both is intensely concentrated on the purpose to lie accomplished, if the impression has alreatfy been produced that the agent will accomplish his task, and if consciousness is practically, for the time being, concentrated on tlie one thing. Of course the more direct and powerful the suggestion and the more receptive the patient, the greater the success. * A careful reading of the cures of demono- mania efl'ected by our Lord will show how the factors making for success were not only present, but powerfully present. We are in this way led to the conclusion that there is ' no reason to sup- pose that the cases . . . recorded [in tlie NT] were due to anything but disease. . . . No facts are recorded which are not explicable either as the ordinary symptoms of mental disease or as the result of suggestion.' t
The Jewish doctrine as to demonomania will be found fully developed in the Talmud. J
The article Exorcism shows how belief in de- monomania and its cure by exorcism |irevailed in the Apostolic Church, and among the Fatliers.§ In the post-Apostolic Church these beliefs were, if possible, even more strongly held. Justin Martyr says|| that some Christians had ' the spirit of healing,' and claims IT that their exorcism in the name of Christ always succeeded, while success was probable only if the exorcism was in the name of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 'The church sharply distinguished between exorcists who employed the name of Christ, and pagan sorcerers and magicians, etc. ; but . . . several of her exorcists were just as dubious characters as her "prophets."'** From the time of Justin ^Martyr for about two centuries there is not a single Christian writer who does not solemnly and explicitly assert the reality and frequent employ- ment of exorcism. The Christians fully recognized the supernatural power possessed by the Jewish and Gentile exorcists, but they claimed to be in many respects their superiors. By the simple sign of the Cross or by repeating the name of the Master they professed to be able to cast out devils which liad resisted all the enchantments of the pagan exorcists. Tertullian, Origen, Laetantius, Atlianasius, Augustine, and Minucius Felix all profess their faith in demonomania and exorcism. tt In the mediaeval Church the depyov/j.ei'oi, persons who are apt to become possessed, and to whom a special part of the church was exclusively assigned, were under the care of an ^7rop/ii(rT^s. JJ
The belief in demonomania lingered, and still lingers, in certain Christian circles. We have it in the Church. The rite of casting out demons from the bodies of the possessed is still retained in the rituals of the Roman and Greek Churches, §§ the exorcist in the former Communion occupying the
" W. MacDougall, Psycholnriy, London, 1912, p. 196 ; SBril xxvi. 49 ; Boris Sidis, Ttie Ftfiicholoqy of Sv^vjcMiini, do.. 1898, pp. 66, 79; DOG i. 402; Boris Sidis and S. P. Goodhart, Multiple Personality, Nt-w York, 1905, which contains an account of the famous Hanna Case ; Hudson, The Law of Psychic Pht'jiomena, p. 351.
t EBrn xxii. 176.
I Jos. Ant. vni. ii. 5 ; DCG i. 439 ; Exp, 7th ser., ill. 320, 325. § HJ xi. 1.53.
II Dial. c. Tryph. 30, 39, 76; Apol. ii. 6, 6. *\ Apol. ii. 0 ; Dial. 30, 85.
** Harnack, Mission atid Expansion of Christianity^, tr. J. Moffatt, London, 190S, i. 132.
tt W. E. H. Leckv, History of European Morals, London, 1911, i. 161 ; BDB iii. 39 ; art. Exorcism ; Exp, 7th ser., viii. 615 ; de Cieitate Dei, Eng. tr., Edinburgh, 1871, ii. 490 ; Tylor, PC* ii. 139.
It See art. Exorcism and authorities quoted there; ERE, ' Demons and Spirits (Christian).'
§§ Tj'lor, PC* ii. 142.
third place among the four minor orders. It still liolds a place in the belief and ritual of the Maronitc Church.* In Kngland, by the 7"2nd Canon of A.D. 1003, ' no minister or ministers shall, without licence and direction of the bishop . . . attempt ... to cast out any devil or devils.' t Among individuals we hnd HurtonJ a firm believer in demonomania. Times of excitement, especially of religious excitement, rou.se tlie belief in demons and demonomania. Certain disturbances wliich occurred in the Rectory at I'^jiworth were ascribed liy the Wesleys to the devil.sj Wesley (1703-28) himself believed that disease and other discomforts were caused by denuuis, and that epilepsy was often the re.sult of possession. H lie gives several cases of such disease, where the atllictcd person believed that he or she was possessed by an evil spirit, and who were partially or completely cured by exorcism. If Cotton Mather (1GG3-17'28) was a fervent believer in demonomania. Lavater (1741- 1801 ) was so convinced of the facts of possession that he was seriously concerned with the cessation of the gifts of healing and miracle-working power possessed by the early Church.** The ob.solete word ' demonagogue ' was used as late as 1730 to indicate a medium ' useful in expelling preter- natural substances from the body.' it George Lukins, who was possessed of seven devils who threw him into fits, and talked, sang, and barked out of him, was cured by a solemn exorcism by seven clergymen at the Temple Church in Bristol in 1788. Jt In 1843 Pastor Blumhardt exorcized the devil out of the sisters Dittus.§§ As late as 1848 ' demonifuge ' was used to mean some substance, like salt, used to drive away demons. In countries still under the sway of animism the belief exists in all its pristine strength. In Ceylon the exorcist will demand the name of the demon po.ssessing a person, and the person will give the demon's name. nil To the question 'Does Devil-possession, in the sense in which it- is referred to in the New Testament, exist at this present time amongst the least civilized of the nations of the globe?' R. C. Caldwell gives an answer in the afhrmative, and gives instances of such possession from Southern India. HIT Among all peoples of the lower culture demonomania and exorcism are mixed up with a good deal of trickery and ventriloquism.*** But even among the more highly educated races the belief ever and anon becomes more or less pro- minent. The diseases which were ascribed to demons still occur, and where a person of powerful will and outstanding religiosity, with a profound belief in himself and in demon-possession, attains to some eminence, then persons more or less demoniac are treated by exorcism. But modern exorcism — or Divine healing, as it is sometimes called — rests very much on the personality of Satan and on subordinate demons only as doing his work ; ttt and so the patient should be treated only by those who are ' anointed by the Holy Spirit.' J+J ISfevius, an American missionary, found that in China demonomania was not an uncommon disease, and that the Chinese ascribed it, as all people of