The French ‘werewolf’ who caused panic in Guyenne and claimed to have devoured several children: “They are a supreme delight”
Instead of being sentenced to the stake, Jean Grenier was confined to a monastery as a mentally ill person, in a revolutionary court ruling for the time.
At the end of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th, France experienced an epidemic of terror surrounding the fantastic and supernatural. The population was influenced by invented stories about witchcraft and possessions that spread like wildfire and were quickly incorporated into popular folklore. Ordinary justice sought drastic ways to eradicate the problem, and witch trials led to punishment by burning at the stake without hesitation, which only served to increase superstition and fear.
Among the many terrifying stories that occurred, the case of Jean Grenier stands out—a teenager who confessed to having kidnapped and devoured several children in the region of Saintonge, in the former province of Guyenne, in southwestern France.
An animal was stalking the children
In 1603, attacks on children began occurring in the forested rural areas of Saintonge. Rumors spread that a wolf was lurking along the paths and spying on homes, turning young children into its prey. Panic swept through the region. Attempts were made to track down the beast, but without success. Everything changed when Marguerite Poirier, a 13-year-old girl, managed to escape an attack by the supposed wolf and described her assailant as a young man with animal-like features.
Thanks to Marguerite’s statement, the authorities arrested Jean Grenier, a 13- or 14-year-old boy, small in stature and sickly in appearance, who seemed to have trouble interacting with others and displayed erratic behavior. But when the interrogations began, all the horror and madness of a completely unbalanced person came to light.
The transformation into a werewolf
Jean lived with his father, Pierre Grenier, and ran away from home—where he was mistreated—after receiving a brutal beating for breaking the Lenten fast. After fleeing, he found work as a cowherd. One day, a man named Pierre Labouré gave him an enchanted wolf pelt and a magical ointment that allowed him to transform into a wolf: “I met a man in the forest. He marked me with his fingernail and gave me an ointment and a wolf skin. With that, I could transform and roam the countryside.” He claimed that from that day on, he was part of a brotherhood of werewolves. He recounted, almost proudly and without any remorse, that at night he would go out, transform, and hunt children: “The flesh of little girls is a supreme delight.” He also confirmed Marguerite Poirier’s earlier statement: “My intention was to kill her and devour her.” His confession was full of macabre details and matched point by point the child attacks that had plagued the region, but there was no clear evidence that he had actually killed anyone.
Jean Grenier was tried by the Parliament of Bordeaux, and the court issued an unusual, unexpected verdict that caused a great stir at the time but was ahead of its era. Instead of being sentenced to the stake, as everyone had assumed, the judges determined that he suffered from a severe mental illness. Therefore, in a surprising ruling for the 17th century, he was confined for life to a Franciscan monastery. There, he was to receive spiritual care and be monitored, but without physical punishment. This trial is considered a precedent for the legal concept of criminal non-responsibility due to psychiatric reasons.
Confined in a monastery
A few years later, the magistrate Pierre de Lancre, known for his role in the witch hunts, wrote a book in 1612 titled Tableau de l’inconstance des mauvais anges et démons (Portrait of the Inconstancy of Evil Angels and Demons), in which, among many other topics, he describes in detail how the trial, interrogations, and confinement unfolded.
Jean Grenier’s life in the monastery was not easy for anyone. He refused to interact, slept in dark corners, and tried to eat raw meat. The monks who lived with him described him as an “animal” with long black nails, prominent teeth, a disturbing gaze, who avoided people and was not entirely human. He never made eye contact. He also showed no signs of recovery or remorse and died at the age of 20 in complete isolation.
Today, his case is studied as an example of clinical lycanthropy, a rare psychiatric disorder in which a person believes they are an animal. A terrible childhood and the common tales of witchcraft at the time contributed to creating a cocktail that amplified his madness.
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