Demons and the Physical Body
It is strikingly obvious from a cursory summary of Becket's miracles that there are no physical descriptions of demons or of their methods for entering the body in either collection.
Such an absence was not uncommon in English hagiography composed in the long twelfth century (1075-1225). For example, in the Vita et passio Willelmi Norwicensis, compiled in the 1170s by Thomas of Monmouth (a brother of the Benedictine community in Norwich), several victims of demonic possession came to the child-martyr, William of Norwich's shrine to be cured.[1022] A mad servant was seized by a demon (‘demonio arreptus'), and a mad peasant was vexed by a demon (‘demonio uexatum') but nowhere was a demon physically described[1023] [1024] In Adam of Eynsham's collection of miracles in the Magna Vita Sancti Hugonis, compiled in the early thirteenth century, a mad sailor was possessed by a demon (‘possessum demone'), again without any portrayal of the demon itself.35 In her study of possessions and exorcisms, Caciola explains that ‘the cultural categories of the divinely and the demonically possessed were constructed in similar ways as regards exterior behaviours'[1025] [1026] Demonic possession was not recognised by the physical appearance of the demon but by the behaviour of the possessed, and by their own recollections upon cure. In the miracles of Thomas Becket, we have already encountered two types of demonic possession: those who were internally invaded by demons and those who were externally tormented (either because external attack was the demon's intention, or because the victim had been able to escape before an internal invasion took place). This section examines the physical signs and recognisable behaviours of internal and external “possession”.Elward of Selling was never ‘possessed' or ‘seized' by demons.
Instead, he could see a demon in front of him, and this drove him insane (‘mentis agebatur insania').37 The demon was believed to be capable of influencing his mind without physically invading his body. However, Elward does not seem to have fully lost control of his reason, and was able to order the demon to desist from its attacks in the name of the lord (‘Imperabat illi in nomine Domini abscessum’).[1027] Furthermore, despite his insanity, Elward did not exhibit any traits of physical violence. It was Becket’s divine powers that were able to manipulate his physical body (to fit inside the shrine), and not the demon whose snarls he fled. The child, whose story was recounted by William of Earley’s wife, also appeared to see a supernatural presence (though it was not specifically attributed to the demonic), and like Elward, he was able to tell others what he saw. Once again, his cure came from external contact with the saint’s relics (a piece of clothing that was attached around his neck), as though the saint was able to offer a protective physical barrier against unwanted supernatural encounters[1028] The significance of the neck can perhaps be seen as important here as the final barrier protecting the head, and mind, from invasion through the body. Caciola explains how saints’ relics were used in the High Middle Ages to repel demonic spirits from the areas of the body with which they made contact; twelfth- and thirteenth-century exorcisms often involved the placing of relics on upper parts of the body in order to drive the demons down and out through the bowels.[1029] Through the use of the relics, and by their vows of pilgrimage, the child’s mother and father were actively involved in his cure. Both the child and Elward do not seem to have been rejected because of their conditions, as others who were internally attacked, like the wild man, were. Perhaps, in such instances, it was the responsibility of the Christian community to ward off devils, whereas, if the demon resided internally, its host could prove dangerous to others.Those who were internally possessed by demons, often sought a cure that required the internal consumption of holy relics, most commonly the holy water of Thomas Becket, as was discussed earlier. Both collections record the use of holy water to treat internal conditions when drank by the sufferer, or external conditions when applied to the afflicted area. A man had holy water poured onto his leg ulcer (‘aquam sanctam vestram infudi’) in order to recover[1030] Conversely, an Italian, called Hingram, and his son, who were suffering from epilepsy, a condition which, as discussed above, William of Canterbury specifically located internally in the brain, limbs, and stomach, drank the holy water (‘bibit aquam de sepulchre martyris’) in order to attain their cures [1031] The internal consumption of holy water for the cures of the possessed suggests that the cause of this ailment was believed to be internal, despite the only descriptions of the condition relating to external behaviours. Those possessed by demons often performed the actions commonly associated with their possessors. Robert Bartlett, through a study of multiple miracle collections, has identified several behaviours commonly associated with demons: demons possessed the gift of tongues, the power to unleash blasphemies and inhuman violence, the capacity for extreme strength, the ability to bring about sickness, and a terrifying control over the mind.[1032] [1033] The demons who seized their victims in the two Becket collections displayed many of these characteristics using the bodies of those they had possessed, as in the case of the possessed woman who was able to speak in both Latin and German.44 Matilda of Cologne became violent, killed her baby, and attacked others[1034] [1035] The servant of the Prior of Colchester, upon regaining his sanity, asked what had held him, and intimated that he could not control his hands (‘“Quid me tenetis? Manus meas mihi dimittite.”’). His loss of control demonstrates how the demon had expressed its own violent physicality through the man’s body?6 Whether the presence of the demon was felt internally or externally, it was reflected in the behaviour of the possessed person and not in the physical appearance of the demon. Demons were never physically described by Benedict or William but instead seem to have had more of an ethereal hold on their victims. In cases of external torment, like that of Elward of Selling, demons were able to trick the mind and drive a person to madness. In cases where demons seized or possessed their victims internally, they were able to use human bodies to express their own characteristics. Some of these symptoms (such as the ability to speak multiple languages) do not appear in cases of madness where demonic interference was not implied. The question we must now ask is what happened to/in the mind of a mad person whilst a demon was in control of their body? How was the mind thought to exert control over the body, and what happened when a demon took over?