# An Examen of Witches/Chapter 58

Layout 2
Chapter LVIII.
Against those who Assert that Satan Pretends merely to Fear the Cross, Holy Water and Exorcism; and that in Reality he Cares not.
Further, we may laugh at those who say that the Devil does not really fear Exorcisms or the Cross or Holy Water, but only pretends to fear them. For if it be true that this Enemy of the human race seeks nothing but our total ruin, how can we believe that he would willingly leave the body of a man whom he wishes to torment and lead to perdition? Why does he not remain always in him, to make him drown himself or hurl himself down? Why, again, when Jesus ​Christ was about to cast him out of a man whom he was possessing, did he use these words; Mark 1.“What have we to do with Thee, Thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art Thou come to destroy us? I know Thee who Thou art, the Holy One of God”? We must infer from these words that it sorely vexed the Evil One to leave the body which he was possessing.
Chap. 55.Again, we have seen how the devils fled at the sign of the Cross made by Julian the Apostate; and who can say that this flight was merely simulated? If it were, we could only conclude that the devils wished by this means to invite Julian to return to Christianity and again worship the Cross; Ibid.and that they left men’s bodies when Joseph made the sign of the Cross, in order to draw him to Christianity. It would follow also that the cats, which were no other than devils and witches, who fled when Charcot made the sign of the Cross, did so to persuade this member of the so-called reformed religion to range himself under the standard of the Roman Church, which has the Cross as its chief emblem of salvation. To argue similarly from the case of Antoine Gentil, of whom we spoke in the Chapter on the Cross, would be to draw an absurd conclusion, as certain Theologians say. Cf. Thyr. de loc. infest. par. 3. c. 68. n. 12. 13.No, no; it is impiety to deny the might and virtue of the Cross and Holy Water and Exorcisms. For even the most irrational beasts obey them, as may be seen from St. Thomas, who holds that it is lawful to conjure them, since they are troubled by Satan in order to bring harm to men. In manual. c. 27. n. 13.This view is upheld also by Navarro.
It should not be a matter of wonder that we ​have said that the throat of Rollande du Vernois was seen to swell before the departure of her demons, and that the demons came out of her mouth in the form of slugs; for there is nothing abnormal in either of these points. As to the first, the Devil usually gives some sign of his departure from a person’s body, Thyr. de Dæmon. par. 4. c. 52. num. 13. Raim. in vita Cath.and it has been noted that the commonest of these signs is for the place by which he means to come out to become swollen and big beyond measure. This happened to the demoniac whom St. Catherine of Siena delivered, when the demon raised horrible tumours in the sufferer’s throat.
And as to the second point, demons have often been seen to leave the bodies of possessed persons in the form of some animal, such as flies, spiders, ants, lizards and other such beasts.Thyr. de Dæmon. p. 3. c. 44. nu. 5. & p. 4. c. 52. nu. 8. Sect. 25 in uita Paul simpl. Palladius even tells that he saw a devil once come out of a young man in the shape of a dragon seven cubits long.
But let us return to the history of Rollande.