Urbain Grandier

Urbain Grandier (v. 1590, Bouère (Mayenne) - April 18th 1634, Loudun) was a French priest, wire of a royal notary of Sablé. He was shown of Sorcellerie and died on the Bûcher. After its noviciate, Grandier was named in July 1617, at 27 years, priest of the Saint-Pierre Church of the market and canon of the Church Holy-Cross of Loudun, in the diocese of Poitiers. It seems to have had several sexual relationships and emotional with women and had acquired a reputation of seducer. In 1632, some nuns of the convent of the Ursulines of the city showed it to have bewitched them, in their sending inter alia the demon Asmodée, to lead them to make acts impudic with him. The modern critics who studied the business estimate that the charges started after Grandier had refused to become the spiritual adviser of the monastery, without suspecting that the Mother Superior, the Jeanne Sister of the Angels, had become insane of him, after having seen it by far and to have heard of its exploits in love. It is thought that Jeanne, setting out of it by her refusal, proposed to the Mignon canon, sworn enemy of Grandier, this place of director. She then showed Grandier to have employed the black magic to allure it. The other nuns little by little are reflected with launching charges of the same kind. Many modern scholars a case of collective hysteria sees there. Grandier was stopped, questioned and judged by an ecclesiastical court, which discharged it.

Unfortunately for him, Grandier had attracted itself the hostility of powerful the Cardinal of Richelieu which it had publicly attacked in word. Richelieu ordered that a new lawsuit was made, that he entrusted to a man especially sent by him: Jean de Laubardemont, a relative of the Mother Superior. Grandier was stopped again with Angers and one refused the right to him to call upon the Parlement of Paris. Questioned second once, the nuns (and even the Mother Superior) did not repeat their charges, but that did not change anything with the lawsuit where all was decided in advance.

Judges (Laubardemont, Lactance, and Quiet), after having tortured the priest, produced documents allegedly signed by Grandier and several demons as the proof that it had passed a diabolic pact. One of the acts was written in Latin and was given as signed by Grandier; another, almost illegible, comprised a crowd of strange symbols and “was signed” by several demons with their seals, as well as by Satan itself (a signature is read Satanas clearly). It is not known if Grandier wrote or signed such acts under the constraint, or if they were entirely counterfeited.

In spite of the defense of his/her friend Claude Quillet, Grandier was recognized guilty and condemned to death. The judges ordered his setting with the “extraordinary question”, form of torture which was usually fatal, but not immediately, and which was thus applied only to the victims which were to be carried out afterwards immediately. In spite of torture, Grandier refused to acknowledge that which one showed it. It was burned alive.

Publications

funeral Praise of Scévole of Holy-Marthe, marked the September 11th 1623, in the church of Saint-Pierre of Loudun. Paris, 1629

The wording entitled was wrongfully allotted to him:

Letter of the cordonnière of the Queen-mother with Mister de Barradas (page of Louis XIII), 1634. This letter, signed Catherine of Love , above cordonnière of the Queen mother, was abusive with the person and the birth of the Cardinal of Richelieu; Grandier was shown to be the author about it.

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