The Louviers Possessions

Record summary

The Louviers affair involved Ursuline and other religious women who reported possession, sexualized demonic assault and extraordinary behavior, with the nun Madeleine Bavent becoming a central figure. Investigations, exorcisms and legal proceedings generated printed accounts and competing explanations. It is a useful comparative lead for collective trance, institutional suggestion, trauma narratives and the construction of supernatural testimony. The surviving literature is highly partisan, and the relationship between convent politics, coercive examination and later editorial presentation is difficult to reconstruct.