By Seoyeon Kim Class of 2026

Editor’s Note: History Fellowship is a course in which students conduct independent, college-level historical research on a topic of their choice with close faculty mentorship. This paper was selected as one of the seven strongest from this year’s course.

In 1582, priests in the Franconian town of Spalt performed an exorcism on thirty-year-old Apolonia Geisslbrecht. According to her exorcist’s account, her crisis began in the ordinary cruelty of a marriage shaped by her husband’s drunkenness and abuse. Worn down, she cried out to the Devil for help. Soon after, a tall, seductive man appeared, promising pleasures and relief she had never known. Overwhelmed and seeking escape, Apolonia gave him her hand. 

When Apolonia’s fits began, Wolfgang Agricola, the dean of Spalt, brought Apolonia to the local church and tested her to confirm possession. He then moved the rite to her bedroom and turned a private crisis into a public event by gathering priests, theology students, and neighbors for a witnessed ritual. Agricola made the Eucharist the centerpiece of the ceremony by placing the consecrated host directly on Apolonia’s head. In the narrative, the interrogators pressed the possessing spirit until it conceded that the Eucharist was Christ’s real body, using the exorcism as a public proof of Catholic doctrine.

Click here to continue reading: Demonology as an Explanatory System: Emotion and Institutional Judgment in the Holy Roman Empire, 1450–1650