Diabolical rage? Children, violence, and demonic possession in the late middle ages

Abstract

In the medieval world, demons were considered to be active agents in daily life. They could entice people to sin, but also possess an innocent victim’s body. Demoniacs—such possessed people— were often out of their mind, violent, and aggressive. This article explores specific cases of demonic possession—those of children attacking their parents, as reported in medieval canonization processes— and argues that religious rhetoric offered a means to explain the children’s violence. In addition to providing an explanation, religion provided an outlet in an unbearable situation: attacking one’s parents was a sign of the utmost disrespect to the social hierarchies and moral teachings; blaming a demon offered a remedy without blaming the child (or the parents for bad parenting). Child demoniacs were often treated harshly: they were tied up and sometimes beaten, but they were not abandoned. Like the affliction, the cure was also spiritual: parents invoked the help of a saint, which restored the harmony and hierarchy of family life.