GASSNER. JOUANN JOSEPH, a man who made a noise as an exorcist in the 18th c., was born Aog. 28, 1727, at Bratz, near Pludenz, in the .Tyrol, and became Catholic priest at KlOsterle, in the diocese of Coire. While in that office, the accounts of demo niacs in the New Testament, combined with the writings of celebrated magicians, brought him to the conviction that most diseases are attributable to evil spirits, whose power can be destroyed only by conjuration and prayer. He began to carry out his conviction by practicing on some of his parishioners, and succeeded so far as to attract notice at least. The bishop of Constance called him to his residence, but having come very soon to the conviction that he was a charlatan, advised him to return to his sonage. Gassner betook himself, however, to other prelates of the empire, some of whom believed that his cures were miraculous. In 1774, he even received a call from
the bishop at Ratisbon, to Ellwangen, where, by the mere word of command, Cesset (Give over), he.cured persons who pretended to be lante or blind, but especially those afflicted with convulsions and epilepsy, who were all supposed to be possessed by the devil. Although an official person kept a continued record of his cures, in which the most extraordinary things were testified, yet it was found only too soon that Gassner very often made persons in health play the part of those in sickness, and that his cures of real sufferers were successful only so long as their imagination remained heated by the persuasions of the conjuror. Intelligent men raised their voice against him, and ho lost all respect before his death. He died, March, 1779, in possession of the wealthy deanery of Benndorf.