Case file · Witch trials
Nicole Obry, the 'Miracle of Laon'
In 1566, 16-year-old Nicole Obry was publicly exorcised before thousands in Laon cathedral; the demon Beelzebub was made to 'confess' the Real Presence of Christ in the Host.
1566 CE · 49.56, 3.62 · status: official
The account
The exorcisms became Catholic propaganda against the Huguenots and were printed as 'the Miracle of Laon', a model for later public possessions in France.
The sceptical view
Historians read it as religious theatre amid the Wars of Religion; Protestants called it a fraud at the time.