The city of Loudun, the location of the trial and burning of the Pastor Urban Grandier on 18 August 1634, lies 20 km to the west of the CITÉ IDEALE of Richelieu. The famous events and trial are recounted in the book 'The Devils' by Aldous Huxley (1952) and in the film of the same name directed Ken Russell (1971) starring Oliver Reed as Urban Grandier. Richelieu seems to have acquiesced to the trial and subsequent burning as a political device to calm a national hysteria at this pivotal point at the end of clerical mediaevalism, when witchcraft and witchfinding were not unusual.
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