Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 5.djvu/789

 EXISTENCE

709

EXORCISM

Professor Freeman, " like the Archbishop of York was the spiritual head of a separate people." The remote- ness of the see from London prevented it from being bestowed on statesmen or courtiers, so that the roll of bishops is more distinguished for scholars and admin- istrators than for men who played a large part in national affairs. This was fortunate for the diocese and gave it a long line of excellent bishops, one of whom, Edmund Lacy, died with a reputation for sanctity and the working of miracles (14,55). The result of this was seen in the fidelity with which Dev- onshire and Cornwall adhered to the Catholic Faith at the time of the Reformation. The following are the bishops with the dates of their accession:-

Leofric, 1046

Osbern, 1072

William Warelwast, 1107

Robert Chichester, 1138

Robert Warelwast, 1155

Bartholomew Iscanus,

1161 John the Chaunter, 1186 Vacancy, 1191 Henry Marshall, 1194 Vacancy, 1206 Simon de Apulia, 1214. William Bruere, 1224 Richard Blondy, 1245 Walter Bronescombe,

1257 Peter Quivil, 1280 Thomas de Bytton, 1292 Walter deStapeldon, 1308

James Berkeley, 1326 John Grandisson, 1327 Thomas Brantynghara,

1370 Edmund Stafford, 1395 John Ketterick, 1419 Edmund Lacy, 1420 George Neville, 1458 John Bothe, 1465. Peter Courtenay, 1478 Richard Fox, 1487 Oliver King, 1492 Richard Redman, 1496 John Arundell, 1502 Kugh Oldham, 1504 John Ve-sey, 1519 Vacancy, 1551 James Turberville, 1555-

1559

The diocese, originally very wealthy, was plundered during the reign of Henry VIII, when Bishop Vesey was forced to s\irrender fourteen out of twenty-two manors, and the value of the bishopric was reduced to a third. Vesey, though a Catholic at heart, held the see until 1551, when he was made to resign, and the Reformer, Miles Coverdale, was intruded into the see, where he made him.self most unpopular. On the acces- sion of Mary, in 1553, Vesey was restored. He died in 1554 and was succeeded by James Turberville, beloved by Catholics and Protestants alike. He was deprived of the see by Elizabeth in 1559 and died in prison, probably in or about 1570, the last Catholic Bishop of Exeter. The diocese contained four archdeaconries, Cornwall, Barnstaple, Exeter, andTotton, and six hun- dred and four parishes. There were Benedictine, Au- gustinian, Franciscan, Dominican, and Norbertine houses, and four Cistercian abbeys. The cathedral was dedicated to St. Peter, and the arms of the see were: Gules, a sword in pale blade and hilt proper, two keys in saltire or.

Lytti.kton, SoTtu-- remarks on the original foundation of Exeter Cathedral (1754); Englefield, Observations on Bishop Lyttle- ton's account of Exeter Cathedral (London, 1796); Anon, The- saiiru-s Ecclesiasticus Provincialis (Exeter, 1782); Britton, Historyaivl Antiquities of the Cathedral Church of Exeter ( Lon- don, 1836): BuEWER, Hist, and Antia. of the Cath. Ch. of Exeter (London, s. d.); Boggis, Exeter Cathedral (Exeter, s. d.); Hewett, History of the Cathedral Church of Exeter (Exeter, 1848); Oliver, Lives of the bishops of Exeter and history of the Cathedral (Exeter. 1861), also Monasticon Dicecesis Exon- iensis, records illustrating tiie ancient conventual founda- tions (Exeter. 1846); Carter. Some account of the Cathedral Church of Exeter (London, 1879); Shelly, History of the Chap- ter of Kriiir (I'lvmouth. 1881); Hingeston-Randolph. Episco- pal /., ., ',, I h., rise of Exeter, 1257-11,10, 6 vols. (London,

IKS' I 1 I: ■. i>LD8. Use of Exeter Cathedral according to

John ' "« (London, 1891); Freeman, Architectural

Hisiujii / liA-'^r Cathedral (Exeter, s. d.); Reynolds, Short History of the Ancient Diocese of Exeter, with calendar of EpLsoo- pal registers and of MSS. belonging to dean and chapter; (Exeter. 1895); Edwards. Exeter Cathedral (London. 1897); Addleshaw. Exeter: the Cathedral and See (London. 1898).

Edwin Burton. Existence. Sec Essence and Existence.

Exodus, the seconfl Book of the Pentateuch, second also of the whole Old Testament Canon (see Penta- teuch).

Exomologesis. See Penance.

Exorcism is (1) the act of driving out, or warding off, demons, or evil spirits, from persons, places, or things, which are, or are believed to be, possessed or infested by them, or are liable to become victims or instru- ments of their malice; (2) the means employed for this purpose, especially the solemn and authoritative ad- juration of the demon, in the name of God, or of any higher power to which he is subject. The word, which is not itself biblical, is derived from ^lopKifw, which is used in the Septuagint (Gen. xxiv, 3 = cause to swear; III (I) Hngs xxii, 16 = adjure) and in Matt.xxvi, 63, by the high priest to Christ, "I adjure thee by the living God ..." The non-intensive op/cifM and the noun i^opKicrrT/s (exorcist) occur in Acts xix, 13, where the latter (in the plural) is applied to certain strolling Jews who professed to be able to cast out demons. Expulsion by adjuration is, therefore, the primary meaning of exorcism, and when, as in Chris- tian usage, this adjuration is in the name of God or of Christ, exorcism is a strictly religious act or rite. But in ethnic religions, and even among the Jews from the time when there is evidence of its being in vogue, exorcism as an act of religion is largely replaced by the use of mere magical and superstitious means, to which non-Catholic writers at the present day sometimes quite unfairly assimilate Christian exorcism. Super- stition ought not to be confounded with religion, how- ever much their history may be interwoven, nor magic, however white it may be, with a legitimate religious rite.

In Ethnic Religions : The use of protective means against the real, or supposed, molestations of evil spirits naturally follows from belief in their exist- ence, and is, and has been always, a feature of ethnic religions, savage and civilized. In this connexion only two of the religions of antiquity, the Egyptian and the Babylonian, call for notice; but it is no easy task, even in the case of these two, to isolate what bears strictly on our subject, from the mass of mere magic in which it is embedded. The Egyptians as- cribed certain diseases and various other evils to demons, and believed in the efficacy of magical charms and mcantations for banishing or dispelling them. The dead more particularly needed to be well fortified with magic in order to be able to accomplish in safety their perilous journey to the underworld (see Budge, Egyptian Magic, London, 1899). But of exorcism, in the strict sense, there is hardly any trace in the Egyp- tian records.

In the famous case where a demon was expelled from the daughter of the Prince of Bekhten, human ministry was unavailing, and the god Khonsu himself had to be sent the whole way from Thebes for the pur- pose. The demon gracefully retired when confronted with the god, and was allowed by the latter to be treated to a grand banquet before departing " to his own place" (op. cit. p. 206 sq.). Babylonian magic was largely bound up with medicine, certain diseases being attributed to some kind of demoniacal posses- sion, and exorcism being considered the easiest, if not the only, way of curing them (Sayce, Hibbert Lect. 1887, 310). For this purpose certain formula; of ad- juration were employed, in which some god or god- dess, or some group of deities, was invoked to conjure away the evil one and repair the mischief he had caused. The following example (from Sayce. op. cit., 441 seq.) may be quoted: "The (possessing) demon which seizes a man, the demon (ekimmu) which .seizes a man; The (seizing) demon which works mischief, the evil demon. Conjure, O spirit of heaven; conjure, O spirit of earth." For further examples see King, Babylonian Magic and Sorcery (London, 1896).

Among the Jews: There is no instance in (he Old Testament of demons being expelled by men. In Tobias, viii, 3, it is the angel who "took the devil