PACT - DEMONS - EXORCISM Signed record of pact made by the demon Asmodeus with the exorcist Jean Baptiste Gault, on 19 May 1629. The pact sets out the conditions by which the exorcised demon, Asmodeus, will leave the body of a nun he has been possessing, and (we presume) how three other demons will leave the bodies of other possessed nuns. The text translates: I promise, in leaving the body of this creature, to make, below her heart, a slit the length of a pin [which will penetrate] at the same time her chemise, bodice and over-dress. The slit will be bleeding. This will be [done] tomorrow, the twentieth of May, at five o'clock in the afternoon [which is] Saturday. I promise also that Gresil and Amand [two demons] will also make their openings, in a similar way, though smaller, and I ratify that which Leviatam, Behemot and Beherie have promised to do [along with] their companion, as a sign of their leaving [the body], on this register made in the church of Sainte Croix, on 19 May 1629. Asmodee. I have introduced some punctuation (there being little in the document), and with the help of bracketed words, attempted to make linguistic sense of what is, in effect, a badly written script. The demon offers the French names of his companions: three are better known as Asmodeus (the signator), Leviathan, Behemoth. Beherie, Gresil and Amand are not listed in the standard grimoires, but such names, like the demons themselves, are legion. I read the date given at the end of the manuscript as 19 May 1629, mainly because this was a Saturday (the demon made an error of one day) a Saturday. Other specialists - notably, Grillot de Givry, in 1929 - have read the date of the pact as 29 May 1624, yet the first numeral is evidently ambiguous. The interesting fact is that, at the time specified, four of the then-known planets (Moon, Sun, Mercury and Venus) were in the sign Taurus. Pluto (then unknown) was also in this sign. I can think of no other