Exorcism

Exorcism
General Information
Effect	Driving demons out of human hosts
Users	Reverend Lewis Increase Mather Cotton Mather

“	Exorcism is not something to toy with. [...] Are you sure you want to take this risk? If there is something inside of him, we are much more likely to agitate and enrage it than destroy it. Some things are better left unawakened.	”
	— Cotton Mather[src]

A Exorcism is a dangerous ritual performed to free a person possessed by evil spirits and demons.

Description

An Exorcism is the religious or spiritual practice of purportedly evicting demons or other spiritual entities from a person or an area that are believed to be possessed. Depending on the spiritual beliefs of the exorcist, this may be done by causing the entity to swear an oath, performing an elaborate ritual, or simply by commanding it to depart in the name of a Higher Power. The practice is ancient and part of the belief system of many cultures and religions.

According to the words of Mary Sibley and Mercy Lewis, the practice of exorcism is not permitted by Puritan, who consider it a legacy of paganism rather than Christian liturgy. This is because it is believed that the sinful pride can insidiously make its way into the exorcist. This is but one of the differences between Catholics and Protestants. However, very few people have the guts and the experience to carry out an exorcism without problems, since most of the time it leads to the death of everyone withstanding.

Throughout Salem

Reverend Lewis performs a Catholic exorcism on his daughter ,Mercy Lewis. Holding a cross and a Holy Bible, he chants in Latin while Mercy pleads with her father to stop in fear of what the Puritan's will do to him if they discover what he has done but her father tells her he is not afraid of the Puritan's and is adamant he will free her from the witches' grasp. Later, the witch Mary Sibley once again forces the young Mercy Lewis under her control by forcing another familiar within her, despite the girl's pleas.

Walking down the market street, Mary Sibley and Mercy Lewis run into Reverend Lewis, asking to speak with his daughter. Mary told Mercy to fetch Isaac before threatening Reverend Lewis he can never spend time with his daughter again because if he tries to do so, she will publicly accuse him of child abuse and having attempted to perform an exorcism on her.

Captain John Alden asked his old friend Cotton Mather to reach him at Petrus' Hut, where he revealed that he needed his help to perform an exorcism on his son, John, whom he rightly believed to be possessed by evil entities. Unfortunately, while Cotton warned John Alden not to take similar rituals lightly, the child woke up and started talking with a diabolical voice, harbringing doom. With his eyes completely turned pitch-black, John rotated his own head in an inhumane way.

Rev. Mather enclosed young John Sibley in a protective circle, drawn with coal on the floor inside Petrus' Hut. The circle was also enhanced by the power of some cabalistic-like symbols. The ritual of exorcism started with an attempt to suppress malignant entities within the child, but when Cotton Mather tried to recite his prayers, the Devil inside the child took control of his host and induced the priest to vomit blood. Little John was then shaken by terrible spasms and apparently, only the strength of Aldens's paternal love managed to temporarily banish the evil spirit from the child.

Rituals

The Exorcism of Mercy Lewis

The ritual of exorcism employed by Reverend Lewis to release a human host by the evil yoke of a demon, in this case, a familiar in the guise of a serpent slithering out of cuts he inferted on the abdomen of his daughter, Mercy. The girl was bound hands and feet to the bed, sprinkled with holy water and subjected to listen to the litany in Latin and in English while the Reverend was holding a cross, as a sign of banishment to the malignant spirit.

• Ritual words: "Imperat tibi Deus Pater Imperat tibi Deus Filius Imperat tibi Deus Spiritus Sanctus Imperat tibi majestas Christi. Eternum dei verbum caro factum Imperat sacramentum crucis! I cast you out, every unclean spirit, every satanic power... I beseech you! Every onslaught of the infernal adversary In the name and in the power of our Lord Jesus. Malleus Maleficarum!"

The Exorcism of John Sibley

A complex ritual that resorts to total submission and faith in the Almighty through unorthodox teachings.

After laying the afflicted in a protective circle drawn with charcoal and enhanced with esoteric symbols, the exorcist provides to use apotropaic magic to shield himself from the devils. The exorcism begins with a series of prayers to the Almighty, his son Jesus Christ and his Holy Angels, asking for divine intervention to free the possessed. Then the host is told to recite prayers, since a demon cannot pronounce or hear prayers without suffering. The intent of the ritual is to expel the Devil and, at best, to make the victim survive.

• Ritual words: "Oh, Almighty and everlasting God, be merciful to we who implore Thee. Send Thy Holy Angel from Heaven to bless and hallow these ashes so that we, who know ourselves to be but ashes, may fear no evil. Protect us, Oh Lord. There is no god but God. And God, this Almighty, everlasting God... So loved the world, he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. And Jesus rebuked the foul spirits, saying unto him, thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him! And the spirit cried and foamed and gnashed his teeth and rent him sore...I command thee, in the name of the Eternal God and Jesus Christ, our Savior, to speak your name and declare from whence thou cometh! He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. But he that believeth not shall be damned and these signs shall follow them that believe. In my name shall they cast out devils. I abjure thee in the name of Jesus Christ, son of Almighty God, depart from this boy! Whosoever believeth in him shall not perish!"

Notable Exorcists

A list of notable amateur and professional exorcists throughout the series.

Character	Description
Increase Mather	An experienced witch hunter and exorcist, Increase Mather has employed counter-magic against witches, including cabalistic symbols and the ashes of a 200-years-old witch. He is said to have exorcised several people.
Cotton Mather	Reverend Cotton Mather is a scholar of witchcraft and is theoretically trained on the subject. He tries to exorcise John Sibley, unaware that Lucifer himself has his claws in the child - a Vessel for the Dark Lord.
Reverend Lewis	Reverend Lewis has proven to be able to exorcise a familiar from his daughter, Mercy Lewis.

Memorable Quotes

Mercy Lewis: "You must stop this. They will hang you if they learn of this."

Reverend Lewis: "The witches have already taken your life. I no longer fear the Puritan claiming mine. The wretched spirit that inhabits you must be excised. Do you trust me, Mercy? That I would do nothing to hurt you?"

Mercy Lewis: "It's you that's been driven to madness!"

— Survivors

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Mary Sibley: "May I ask you a question, Reverend? When your father seeks out demons, does he ask permission? Does he knock on doors and offer to come back at a more convenient time? Or does he, armed with the Lord's righteousness, demand the demon answer to him?"

Cotton Mather: "My father and I are different men. We work in different ways."

— Survivors

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John Alden: "Look, all you need to know is that without him, the entire witches' plan falls to nothing, but if we don't get the devil out of him... We're done. All of us."

Cotton Mather: "You yourself told me that you killed a man just because he knew your name. So, why don't you just... kill the boy? An exorcism is a very dangerous rite to perform, and we might not make it out alive."

— Til Death Do Us Part

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Cotton Mather: "Exorcism is not something to toy with. What if I hurt him? What if he's innocent?"

John Alden: "He is, but what's in him is far from it. Save the boy before we lose him completely."

Cotton Mather: "Are you sure you want to take this risk? If there is something inside of him, we are much more likely to agitate and enrage it than destroy it. Some things are better left unawakened."

— Til Death Do Us Part

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John Alden: "There's nothing wrong with this boy except some sickness and the pain we are causing him. He's just a boy!"

Cotton Mather: "One moment, he is just your son in all his innocence. But if he is under their influence, his soul is besieged by another. It is that other we must expose and expel. "

— On Earth as in Hell

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Cotton Mather: "No demon may speak the "Our Father." The very words scorch their tongue. "

— On Earth as in Hell

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Gallery

• Promotional Stills
• Screencaps

Little John is shaken by spasms

Little John vomiting flies

Videos

Salem 211 "On Earth as in Hell" - Exorcism

Trivia

• Adam Simon was keen to point out that head-spinning and vomiting foul things during the exorcism of John Sibley is inspired from actual beliefs of the time and records, not the 1973 cult movie The Exorcist.
• Puritan were against the practice, as it was considered Catholic.
• The words used by Reverend Lewis are extrapolated from the Exorcism Prayer by Pope Leo XIII.