by which God in divers ways worketh good to mortals; who stir up winds, gather vapors, form clouds, and condense them into hail. ... I exorcise ye, ... that ye relinquish the work ye have begun, dissolve the hail, scatter the clouds, disperse the vapors, and restrain the winds.'" The rubric goes on to order that then there shall be a great fire kindled in an open place, and that over it the sign of the cross shall be made, and the one hundred and fourteenth Psalm chanted, while malodorous substances, among them sulphur and asafœtida, shall be cast into the flames. The purpose seems to have been literally to "smoke out" Satan.[1]
Manuals of exorcisms became important—some bulky quartos, others hand-books. Noteworthy among the latter is one by the Italian priest Locatelli, entitled "Exorcisms most Powerful and Efficacious for the Dispelling of Aerial Tempests, whether raised by Demons at their own Instance or at the Beck of some Servant of the Devil."[2]
The Jesuit Gretser, in his famous book on "Benedictions and Maledictions," devotes a chapter to this subject, dismisses summarily the skepticism that questions the power of devils over the elements, and adduces the story of Job as conclusive.[3]
Nor was this theory of exorcism by any means confined to the elder Church. Luther vehemently upheld it, and prescribed especially the first chapter of St. John's gospel as of unfailing efficacy against thunder and lightning, declaring that he had often found the mere sign of the cross, with the text, "The word was made flesh," sufficient to put storms to flight.[4]
From the beginning of the middle ages until long after the Reformation, the chronicles give ample illustration of the successful use of such exorcisms. So strong was the belief in them that it forced itself into minds comparatively rational, and found utterance in treatises of much importance.
But, since exorcisms were found at times ineffectual, other means were sought, and especially Fetiches of various sorts. One of the earliest of these appeared when Pope Alexander I, in the second century, ordained that holy-water should be kept in churches and bedchambers to drive away devils.[5] Another safeguard was found in relics, and
- ↑ See Polidorus Valerius, "Practica exoreistarum"; also the "Thesaurus exorcismorum" (Cologne, 1626), 158-162.
- ↑ That is, "Exorcismi," etc. A "corrected" second edition was printed at Laybach, 1680, in 24mo, to which is appended another manual of "Preces et conjuratiories contra aëreas tempestates, omnibus sacerdotibus utiles et necessaria," printed at the monastery of Kempten (in Bavaria) in 1667. The latter bears as epigraph the passage from the gospels describing Christ's stilling of the winds.
- ↑ See Gretser, "De benedictionibus et maledictionibus," lib. ii, c. 48.
- ↑ See Gretser, as above.
- ↑ "Instituit ut aqua quam sanctam appellamus sale admixta interpositis sacris orationibus et in templis et in cubiculis ad fugandos dæmones retineretur."—Platina, "Vitæ Pontif.," s. v. Alexander (108-117 a.d.).
