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A Case of Witchcraft: The Trial of Urbain Grandier

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A Case Of Witchcraft by independent Canadian scholar Robert Rapley is the true story of Urbain Grandier, a priest who was accused of sorcery, tortured, and burned at the stake during the reign of King Louis XIII. a meticulously researched and scholarly look at mass hysteria and religious extremism at its worst, A Case Of Witchcraft is so compelling it cannot be put down - the thoughts and acts every character within are reconstructed from records, documented evidence, and sometimes oral legends that have survived the centuries. A Case Of Witchcraft is simultaneously a fascinating and a disturbing historical account.

Urbain Grandier was a Catholic priest in the 1600s was an influential figure in Loudon, France. When Ursuline nuns in a nearby convent began experiencing strange visions and hallucinations, Grandier's enemies seized the opportunity to orchestrate his downfall. These mass possessions, which despite exorcism spread through the convent, were regarded as witchcraft and Grandier was accused of having caused them. Condemned by Louis XIII, Grandier was tortured and burned at the stake for his alleged crimes, but maintained his innocence to the end. This book helps show how witch trials were primarily motivated by men with their own motives.