Ideas across traditions · ritual · Medieval Latin
exorcism
Works in 7 traditions beyond Medieval Latin attest this concept, on 340 cited pages. Translators have rendered it as “exorzismus”; a link through a rendering is marked as such, because another translator chose differently.
Also under: exorcise · exorcised · exorcising · “exorzismus”
Analogues, judged
A different word, in another tradition, that a reviewer judged to name a neighbouring idea. These are not attestations of exorcism; each carries the reviewer’s confidence and reason.
- possession Renaissance & Early Modern Europe80%glossed 'the ritual of driving out demons' — the remedy for possession, not possession (judged from the other side)
In other traditions
Ordered by the earliest work in each tradition that attests the concept. Within a tradition, works run from earliest to latest by conventional composition date.
Greek
- 375 BCEPlato, Republic IX (the lawless desires in sleep) and Timaeus on the liversame word
Hellenistic & Late Antique
- 300 CEMithras Liturgy (PGM IV.475–829)same word and a translator’s rendering
Renaissance & Early Modern Europe
- 1533Agrippa, De occulta philosophia libri tressame word
- 1533Agrippa, De occulta philosophia III (on dreams and prophecy)same word
- 1606Johann Arndt, Vier Bücher vom wahren Christentum / Paradiesgärtleinsame word and a translator’s rendering
- Exorcism — the ritual of commanding spirits to leave a person before baptismtendent of Bernburg, Dionysius Dragendorff, approached the Prince to seek counsel and consent so that the aforementionedGesammlete kleine Schrifften, 1736, p. 695 · flagged as a term by the translator
- exorcism — a ritual in the baptismal liturgysoon after. Arndt made it a matter of conscience not to consent to this. He refused to approve the forceful abolition ofSechs Bücher vom wahren Christenthum. Paradies-Gärtlein, 1738, p. 19 · flagged as a term by the translator
- 1651Hobbes, Leviathan (Part I, Of Man) with De corpore and De hominesame word
- 1651Hobbes, Leviathan I.2 (on dreams and apparitions)same word
- 1659Henry More, The Immortality of the Soul (in Collection of Philosophical Writings)same word
- 1799Gallerie der neuen Propheten, apokalyptischen Träumer, Geisterseher (1799) and the German ghost-debatesame word
Modern European
- 1836Colquhoun, Isis Revelata; Townshend, Facts in Mesmerism; Gregory, Letters on Animal Magnetism (British mesmerism)same word
- 1871Tylor, Primitive Culturesame word
- 1871Tylor, Primitive Culture (dreams as the origin of the soul idea)same word
- 1911Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism / Practical Mysticism / The Mystic Waysame word
- 1913Underhill, The Mystic Way / Practical Mysticismsame word
Native American & Mesoamerican
- 1868Brinton, Myths of the New World / Religions of Primitive Peoplessame word
Theosophical & Modern Esoteric
- 1889Blavatsky, The Key to Theosophy (with The Voice of the Silence, Theosophical Glossary)same word
Norse & Celtic
At home in Medieval Latin
No work labelled Medieval Latin on the four maps attests it behind the gate; the concept’s own tradition may be under-mapped, or its home works are held only in vocabulary lists.
Evidence gate. A work is listed only where a translator marked the word as a term with a gloss, or kept the original word beside the English, on at least one page of a held edition. Vocabulary lists and keywords alone do not count: in a Greek vocabulary list ἡσυχία is the ordinary word for quiet. Up to 3 pages are shown per work, preferring those with a gloss. The vocabulary was built 2026-09-11; the graph on 2026-09-13.