Christianity has always believed in the importance of exorcism. Even during its fiercest persecutions, the young Church was aware that bringing souls into the Kingdom of God is, by its very act, a pillaging of the kingdom of Satan. Pope Cornelius, who reigned from 251 AD until his martyrdom two years later, left a fascinating personnel list. In his “Letter to Fabius,” the bishop of Antioch, Pope Cornelius identifies the Church of Rome as having forty-six priests, seven deacons, seven subdeacons, forty-two acolytes, and fifty-two exorcists.1 The fact that exorcists outnumbered the priests
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