At no period in the history of Manchester was there a greater disposition to believe in witchcraft, demoniacal possession, and the occult sciences, than at the close of the sixteenth century.
Madness, as we have seen, is frequently attributed to demoniacal possession.
But the most common motive for abandoning or destroying sick people seems to be fear of infection or of demoniacal possession, which is regarded as the cause of various diseases.
Moreover, as we have seen, madness is often attributed to demoniacal possession,[172] and in other cases it is regarded as a divine punishment.
Even much later, however, when other diseases were assigned a physical origin, insanity was still thought to be demoniacal possession.
This is more readily understood when we remember the connection of Jesus with cases of demoniacal possession, and Paul's frequent references to the spirits of the air.
Following this, there was a firm belief in demoniacal possession, and exorcism was practised by both Smith and his followers, principally by means of command.
Demoniacal possession was a mania in France in the seventeenth century.
Lycanthropy (the transformation of human beings into wolves by sorcery), with the no less irrational belief in demoniacal possession, the product of a diseased imagination and brain, was one of the many results of mere ignorance of physiology.
Under this pressure she made a full confession, ascribing her deceits to demoniacal possession.
To-day insanity is never referable to demoniacal possession, but eighteen hundred years ago the subject of lunacy had not been so patiently investigated as it has been since.
Yet who to-day would think it wise or necessary, with evidence of aberration of thought resulting from local injury, to treat it as a case of demoniacal possession?
In the time of Calmet, cases of demoniacal possession, and instances of returns from the world of spirits, were reputed to be of no uncommon occurrence.
The same belief in demoniacal possession led to the most inhuman treatment of lunatics, and the Church in this respect is put to shame when we compare its action with the wiser and more humane practice of the Moors.
Travellers in remote parts of the East at the present day tell of alleged cases of demoniacal possession, but investigation does not reveal any difference between these cases and epilepsy or acute mania.
That God dispenses both health and disease is a very different belief from that involved in "demoniacal possession.
It is important to remember that the theory of demoniacal possession, and its supposed cure by means of exorcism and invocations, was most common among the Jews long before the commencement of the Christian era.
The Talmud and other Rabbinical writings are full of references to demoniacal possession, but we need not enter into details upon this point, as the New Testament itself presents sufficient evidence regarding it.
Demoniacal possession is the infliction of a physical evil for which the man is not accountable, but demoniacal temptation is an attempt to deprive a man of that for the keeping of which he is accountable, viz.
The miraculous cure of demoniacal possession presents, I need hardly say, less physical difficulty than any other cure performed by our Lord.
In the Gospel, for instance, the woman with a spirit of infirmity is described as bound by Satan, although the case was not one of demoniacal possession.
The affirmation that the Christian argument involves the position that heaven must condescend to use the same arguments as hell, if demoniacal possessionis supposed to be possible, is altogether inaccurate.
The author then proceeds: "The Talmud and other Rabbinical writings are full of references to demoniacal possession, but we need not enter into details on this point, as the New Testament itself presents sufficient evidence respecting it.
The Archbishop of Dublin is probably the only one who asserts the reality of demoniacal possession formerly, and in the present day; and in this way we must say that he is consistent.
The above list will hopefully provide you with a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "demoniacal possession" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this group of words.
