The Convent of Aix-en-Provence

The Ursuline convent in Aix-en-Provence was the site of the first major demonic possession trial in France, setting a pattern that would repeat in Loudun, Louviers, and Salem over the following decades.

Madeleine de Demandols

In 1609, a young nun named Madeleine de Demandols de la Palud began experiencing convulsions during prayer. She screamed, contorted, and spoke in voices that identified themselves as demons. Under examination by the Inquisitor Sébastien Michaëlis, Madeleine accused Father Louis Gaufridi, a priest from Marseille, of seducing her at age fourteen and sealing a pact with the devil in his own blood.

The Trial of Gaufridi

Gaufridi denied everything. The Parlement of Aix ordered his arrest. Under torture, he confessed to attending sabbaths, renouncing God, and bewitching Madeleine. The confession was extracted after days on the strappado. On April 30, 1611, Gaufridi was dragged through the streets, strangled, and burned. The case produced a detailed demonological record because Michaëlis published the demons’ testimony as if it were evidence, including a hierarchy of hell attributed to the demon Berith.

Legacy

The Aix case established that demons speaking through a possessed person could serve as witnesses in a criminal trial. This precedent had consequences. When similar possessions broke out at Loudun in 1634, the authorities already had a template. Urbain Grandier was burned on the same legal logic.