Elisabeth de Ranfaing

French professor and early sceptic, Claude Pithoys, was called in to perform an exorcism but he instead declared his suspicion that Ranfaing had been drugged by the local doctor, Charles Poirot, into convulsions simulating demonic possession.

Pithoys was dismissed and another less skeptical doctor, Remy Pichard, was brought in, to perform the Exorcism.

[4] Skepticism has been placed on Poirot's guilt in modern times with Étienne Delcambre [fr] and Jean Lhermitte doubting that the doctor's drug would persist in convulsions for the seven years Ranfaing was possessed.

[5] Claiming instead that fabricated her own possession to integrate herself in the religious society of France.

[1][2] In Françoise Mallet-Joris's book Trois âges de la nuit, Mallet-Joris presents a fictionalised account of Elisabeth de Ranfaing's life along with the witch trials of two other 16th and 17th century figures accused of witchcraft.