the act of expelling evil spirits from persons or places by means of certain adjurations and ceremonies. The belief in demoniacal possessions, which may be traced in almost every nation, has always been attended by the professed ability, on the part of some individuals, to release the unhappy victims from their calamity. In Greece, men of no less distinction than Epicurus and Æschines were sons of women who lived by this art; and both were bitterly reproached, the one by the Stoics, and the other by Demosthenes (De Cor.), for having assisted their parents in these practices. This power was in some instances considered as a divine gift; in others it was thought to be acquired by investigations into the nature of demons and the qualities of natural productions, as herbs, stones, &c., and by the use of certain forms of adjurations and ceremonies. Indeed the various forms of exorcism, alluded to in authors of all nations, are innumerable. The power of expelling demons Josephus places among the endowments of Solomon, and relates that he left behind him the manner of using exorcisms by which they drive away demons. (For the pretended fragments of these books see Fabric. Cod. Pseud. Vet. Test., p. 1054.) He relates that he had seen a man named Elazar releasing people that were demoniacal, in the presence of Vespasian, his sons, captains, and soldiers, by means of a certain root set in a ring; on the application of which to the nose of the patient, the devil was expelled through his nostrils. (See Antiq. viii. 2, § 5; and De Bell. Jud. vii. 6, § 3.) The profession of exorcist was not uncommon among the Jews; and the epithet applied to such persons (ἐξορκιστής, Vulg. de circumventibus Judeis) would indicate that they were travelling mountebanks, who, having perhaps some knowledge of medicine, pretended also to magical skill. The subject of demoniacal possession is treated at length under the head Demoniac.

The practice of exorcism still makes a part of the superstitions of some churches. In the religious system of the Church of Rome, (the rituals of which forbid the exercising of any person without the bishop's leave,) the ceremony is performed at the lower end of the church, towards the door. The exorcist first signs the possessed person with the figure of the cross, desires him to kneel, and sprinkles him with holy water; then follow the litanies, psalms, and prayer; after which the exorcist asks the devil his name, and abjures him by the holy mysteries of the Christian religion not to afflict the person possessed any more. Then, laying his right hand on the daemoniac's head, he repeats the form of exorcism as follows: "I exorcise thee, unclean spirit, in the name of Jesus Christ; tremble, O Satan, thou enemy of the faith, thou foe of mankind, who hast brought death into the world, who hast deprived men of life, and hast rebelled against justice; thou seducer of mankind, thou root of evil, thou source of avarice, discord, and envy." Houses and other places supposed to be haunted by unclean spirits are likewise to be exorcised with ceremonies very similar.