The transformation of ideas about possession on demonic materials of late medieval treatises

In this article the author examines the problem of profound discrepancies in the definition of the meaning of "possession" in the texts of demonic treatises of the early modern time. The aim of the article lies in the analysis of an array of early modern demonic treatises of such authors as H. Boguet, P. Pomponazzi, J. Boden, M. A. Del Rio, P. de L'Ancre, F. M., Guazzo, James I Stuart, John. Darrell and others, with historical-comparative and retrospective methods of analyzing texts to determine changes in understanding of the term "possession" over time. In the framework of source-study analysis the characteristics of demonic treatises are given. The complexity of the composition, the structure and content of the tracts, the similarity of the texts with modern scientific works are determined. The classification of demonic tracts depending on their types - peripheral and the mainland, demonological, witchcraft and anti-witchcraft treatises - is presented. The study of the texts of demonic tracts allocated 5 main concepts of possession: (1) possession as God's punishment; (2) possession as a malicious intervention of demons in human life; (3) possession as a result of malicious witchcraft or damage; (4) possession as a reflection of the sinfulness or purity of the soul of the possessed and its surroundings; (5) possession as a disease of natural origin. Several basic types of possession were identified: divine possession; demonic possession; intentional and unintentional possession, possession of body and possession of soul, particularly, obsession. There is a connection between the notion of possession and the main demonic and theological concepts: maleficia, God's permission and sinfulness of human nature. The topic of determination of possession through the natural science concept is discussed. On the basis of the material obtained, the following conclusions were made. The main causes of the formation of conceptual contradictions are: (1) the collision of three major sources of knowledge about possession - the Bible, Antiquity and folk views, they have a different understanding of the term "possession"; (2) the transition from abstract academic definitions to a practical understanding of possession associated with the description of actual cases of possession; of decisive importance in the formation of a new type of description of the phenomenon is the observation method; (3) religious schism. The struggle of Protestants and Catholics for the congregation, their use of the concept of possession in the process of religious wars and ideological agitation led to the emergence of new concepts, phenomena and new meanings of the concepts. A conclusion is made about the fluctuating nature of the change in the understanding of the term "possession" in the intellectual thought of the late medieval Western Europe; several different definitions and meanings overlap in the 16th-17th centuries; they determined the situation of terminological discrepancies.

Keywords

Authors

References