DEMONIACS

Persons po e ed of the devil. That the persons spoken of in the New Testament as po e ed of the devil, were not simply lunatics, is clear from a mere perusal of the facts recorded. The devils owned Christ to be the Me iah; they besought him not to torment them; they pa ed into the swine and drove them into the sea. The manner in which our Lord addre ed the demoniacs clearly shows that they were really such: he not only rebuked the devils, but called them unclean spirits, asking them questions, commanding them to come out, . We find also that, for some time, in the early ages of the Church, demoniacs existed, as there was a peculiar service appointed in the Church for their cure. (See Energumens .)