LITTLE APPENDIX: ON ADJURATION

375. Definition. - Adjuration is an authoritative and deprecatory demand, with the name of God, or of the Saints, or of a sacred thing interposed, that another be induced to do or omit something.

Therefore it differs from an oath in this, that it does not bring God in as witness, but only interposes His name for obtaining the thing desired more efficaciously because of the reverence due to Divinity or to sacred things.

Division. Adjuration is distinguished:

1° Solemn or private, according as it is done by ministers of the Church, and in the manner determined by her, or is destitute of solemnities; and this latter can be done by all.

2° Deprecatory or imperative, according as it is done through prayers, or through command. This latter belongs only to Superiors toward subjects, and to Exorcists toward demons.²

376. Principles. - I. Solemn adjuration is licit only for ministers of the Church, to whom it is expressly permitted by the Bishop; but to the rest it is prohibited under grave sin, not by common law, but generally by Bishops.¹

II. Private adjuration is licit or illicit in all those circumstances in which an oath is licit or prohibited; hence those things which have been said concerning an oath are also to be applied to adjuration.

III. Only intellectual creatures, namely men and demons, can be adjured directly; irrational creatures also indirectly, as salt, water, clouds, locusts, etc., namely by adjuring demons not to harm us through them, or by beseeching God or the Saints that they assist those who will use things of this kind.²

But adjuration against demons ought to be done only in an imperative manner, and for removing the harms and vexation of the possessed, but not for vanity or curiosity.³

377. Questions. - Quaer. 1° Is it licit to use exorcisms in doubt about possession?

Resp. Affirmatively, if the Bishop, with the matter plainly known, approves it; but scandal and contempt of the Church must be diligently guarded against.

Quaer. 2° About what things can a demon be questioned?

Resp. Generally about all things which conduce to his expulsion, for example concerning the time and cause of possession, concerning the sign of departure, etc.⁴

Quaer. 3° How does he sin who curiously questions the demon about those things which do not pertain to the matter?

Resp. Of itself he sins gravely, if he has many useless conversations with the possessing demon; a fortiori, if he jests with him. But otherwise, if he interposes only one or another curious question in an imperative manner.⁵

Quaer. 4° What are the signs of true possession?

Resp. The principal ones are: 1° to speak in a language wholly unknown before the time of possession; 2° to manifest hidden and distant things which naturally cannot be known by man; 3° to obey a merely internal command of a priest, etc.; 4° a greater vexation of the demon, or greater peace, to appear from contact with sacred things wholly unknown, etc.

Generally someone is not readily to be believed to be possessed by a demon; because true possessions in our times are rare, and most of those things which are reported are found to be false.