The Abbé Étienne Guibourg (c. 1610 – January 1686) was a French

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

abbé ''Abbé'' (from Latin ''abbas'', in turn from Greek , ''abbas'', from Aramaic ''abba'', a title of honour, literally meaning "the father, my father", emphatic state of ''abh'', "father") is the French word for an abbot. It is the title for lowe ...

and

occult The occult, in the broadest sense, is a category of esoteric supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving otherworldly agency, such as magic and mysticism a ...

ist who was involved in the ''affaire des poisons'', during the reign of

Louis XIV , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Vers ...

. He has been variously described as a "Defrocking, defrocked" or "renegade" priest, and is said to have also had a good knowledge of chemistry. He is best known for performing a series of Black Mass rituals with La Voisin, Catherine Monvoisin for Françoise-Athénaïs, marquise de Montespan, Madame de Montespan.

Early life and ecclesiastic career

Guibourg claimed to be the illegitimate son of Henri II de Montmorency, Henri de Montmorency.''Geography of Witchcraft''
by Montague Summers (1927; reprint Kessinger Publishing, 2003) He was the sacristan of the Saint-Marcel church at Saint-Denis, Seine-Saint-Denis, Saint-Denis which was later destroyed during the French Revolution but described as being "the most beautiful of the parish churches of the town of Saint-Denis". He was formerly the chaplain to the Comte de Montgomery. Despite his position, he is said to have kept a long-term mistress, Jeanne Chanfrain, with whom he had several children.

Black Masses

According to later accounts, confessions and trials, Guibourg performed a series of Black Masses with Catherine Monvoisin (known as La Voisin). The most famous of these were performed for Madame de Montespan around 1672-3. Montague Summers gives an account of one such ritual: Summers provides a further account of the incantation used by Guibourg himself: Accounts suggest that La Voisin performed rituals with a number of priests (including at least one whose work was uncovered by Church authorities, forcing him into exile) as well as Guibourg. It is unlikely Guibourg took part in all of La Voisin's Black Masses. It is alleged, upon her arrest, investigators discovered the corpses of 2,500 infants buried in her yard, allegedly sacrificed the same way as in Guibourg's ritual. Allegedly, La Voisin had paid prostitutes for their infants for use in the rituals. Eleanor Herman, in her book ''Sex with Kings'', claims that the police, given reports of "babies' bones", uncovered the remains of 2,500 infants in La Voisin's garden. However, Anne Somerset disputes this in her book ''The Affair of the Poisons'' and states there is no mention of the garden being searched for human remains.

Arrest and sentence

In 1680, Françoise Filastre, under interrogation in connection with the Affair of the Poisons, poison affair, claimed that Guibourg had performed Black Masses. Guibourg was arrested and confessed to this and to other crimes.''The Affair of the Poisons: Murder, Infanticide, and Satanism at the Court of Louis XIV''
by Anne Somerset (St. Martin's Press, 2003) He was sentenced to life imprisonment and Sequestration (law), sequestration and died in prison in 1686.

In fiction

He is portrayed in a novel by Judith Merkle Riley: ''The Oracle Glass'' (1994). He is portrayed as Father Etienne Gibbourg in the second season of the French-Canadian television series Versailles (TV series), Versailles (2017) by Ned Dennehy.

References

* Hugh Noel Williams - ''Madame de Montespan and Louis XIV'', 1910.
Excerpts from Bastille trial records of Guibourg and LaVoisin (French and English translation)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Guibourg, Etienne 1610 births 1686 deaths Abbés Prisoners and detainees of France French people who died in prison custody French occultists 17th-century occultists People imprisoned by lettre de cachet Affair of the Poisons