The bodily effects of possession, visibly surpassing natural forces, are such evident proof that they are perceptible even to the least cultivated minds. They have this advantage: a single example of this kind is enough to convince an entire assembly witnessing it. Now, the energumens of Loudun provided the most striking examples of this every day.
They were seen, when the exorcist gave some command to the demon, to pass from a state of peaceful tranquility suddenly into the most terrible convulsive movements, without the slightest pulse agitation, like persons living in great repose and moderation in their actions. It should be noted that everything we are about to say was common to all the nuns and even to some secular girls.
They beat their chest and back with their head, as if their neck were dislocated, with inconceivable speed and so roughly that there is no one in the world, however agile, who could do anything similar.
They twisted their arms at the joints of the shoulders, elbows, and wrists, two or three turns, and, leaning on their stomach, they joined the palms of their hands exactly to the soles of their feet; something they could not execute without making at least one turn at each joint.
The body of Sister Claire bent like a sheet of lead and twisted in all directions, even out of its equilibrium and line of direction. When the demon possessed her, it opened her thighs in such a way that the perineum touched the ground.
The demon made the mother prioress execute such an extension of her legs that one could measure seven feet from one heel to the other, although her height was scarcely one meter thirty-three centimeters. Their faces became frightful to behold; their eyes remained open without blinking.
The demon Balam put into the mother's eyes such an extraordinary liveliness that several times the doctors who witnessed it certified that this effect could not be natural. Their tongues suddenly came out of their mouths, of a horrible thickness, black, hard, hanging, and covered with bumps, like morocco leather; they did not clench it between their teeth, and no tumor from natural illness had formed on it, and in this state they spoke distinctly.
This phenomenon occurred in the blink of an eye and ended just as quickly. They bent backwards, their head touching their heels, and they walked in this posture with surprising speed and for a considerable time. They moved their head with such swift movements that one could not see it without admitting that it was beyond human strength.
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They uttered cries so horrible and of such strange force that nothing approached them, except perhaps those of the damned; their howls were far above the strength of the wildest men and the fierce beasts that inhabit the deserts. When they were lying on the ground, they stiffened and became so heavy that the most robust man had difficulty moving even their head; and in this position, they rose up all at once without using either their feet or hands.
Furthermore, the agitations of the possessed were so violent that it took the most rigorous persons to hold these poor girls who, once the exorcism was over, were weak according to the ordinary condition of their sex. They uttered abominable words, held impudent conversations that made the least delicate men on this matter blush, vomited curses against the three divine persons, imprecations, blasphemies so terrible that they could not naturally come to the human mind; and these nuns were well-educated, belonging to respectable families, and when their fits were over, they regained feelings of the most tender piety: they perpetually kept vigil and fasted for five or six days in a row, without losing any of their natural good dispositions.
Yet they were tormented in this way twice a day, for several hours, without their health being impaired; on the contrary, those who were of weak health seemed to fare better than before the possession. All authors for and against the possession agree on this.
Different voices arguing at once were heard in the body of Françoise Fillâtreau, a secular girl. The subject of these vociferations revolved around the power and domination to be established in this girl's body, and her mouth was completely closed.
Let us conclude this account with the general remarks of François Pidoux, a physician from Poitiers and an eyewitness to the possession. These remarks are taken from his work entitled *In acliones Juliodunensium viryinum excrcitatio médira*, in response to Duncan, a physician from Saumur:
Pleroeque Juliodunensium Lrsulinarum , alioeque extra eoenobium nondum thalamo jugatoe, maturoe tatnen, ab uno aut altéra anno in re aligna , délirant, cociferantur, rident, plorant , ejidant , proeloncjam exerunt lin/juam, obsccnoe loquuntur, cxecranda cdunt, tnulfos puqnis impclunt, contorsiones et obversiones stuptndas exercent, humi volutantur et sese rotant, convulsiones vniversalcs et particulares patiuntur, in extases rapiuntur, qnoeslionibus romano idiomate proesertim propositis et scrpius repetitis, apposite, sed vcrnaculo sermone respondent, sacrosanctas cucharistioe species subinde in os sofas rccjerunt , casque summis inhoertntis labiis aut exertoe lincjuoe cxtremo illibatas palam ostcndunt , facta denique quoedam occulta dete-(junt , ea vcro omnia maxime ad imperium Satefdotti exercent
( GOOGLE TRANSLATE ) And most of the Juliodunum Lrsulinarum and others outside the monastery are not yet attached to the chamber, but when they are mature, from one year or the other in an aligned thing and they practice astonishing turns, are called to the ground and turn themselves; they suffer from universal and particular convulsions, they are carried away in ecstasies; or they openly reveal their last words and remain intact, and finally reveal some hidden acts
For two years, most of the Ursulines of Loudun, and outside their convent, other unmarried persons, but in the vigor of age, in the midst of certain actions, are in the most absolute delirium, utter horrible cries, laugh, weep, sob, stick out their tongue in an excessive manner, say obscene things, make abominable imprecations, punch indiscriminately, make frightful contortions and grimaces, are thrown to the ground and roll in the dust, experience convulsions throughout their body, and sometimes only in certain parts of their body, are ravished in ecstasy, answer very aptly and in French to questions
proposed to them, and often repeated to them in Latin; they bring back from their chest into their mouth only the sacred species of the Eucharist, and show them, without any trace of corruption, attached to the extremity of their lips or the tip of their tongue, which they stick out for this purpose.
Finally, they discover certain occult facts, and all this is done mainly at the command of the priest. These are facts against which it is not easy to plead false; they were observed by a considerable number of curious onlookers and were the subject of detailed reports, as we have been able to verify in the body of the history itself, and the doctors who witnessed it declared that in all this there was something supernatural; consequently, that the Ursuline nuns of Loudun were truly possessed by the spirit of evil.
Source: Chapter IV: Studies on the Possessions of Loudun by Abbé LERICHE 1859