Jean Grenier, dubbed the 'Werewolf of France' by historians, was around 14 years old when he announced to his village that he had stalked, killed, and eaten children in the area. Children had been going missing in the area, so Grenier was immediately arrested. Back then, before the separation of church and state, if you committed a crime, you'd have the right to a trial, but you'd be tried and sentenced by primarily church officials. Jean Grenier was declared mentally unfit. The judges concluded that Jean Grenier had been possessed by a demon, resulting in lycanthropy. His sentence was to be sent to a monastery to live for the rest of his life.
Jean Grenier was even examined by the infamous Pierre de Lancre; the man who single-handedly initiated the Basque Witch Trials, –a witch-hunt that killed over 600 men and women in France, almost a century before the Salem witch trials took place in colonial Massachusetts. He also wrote several popular volumes of religious anti-witch guides, and witch-hunting books. After several years at the monastery, de Lancre examined Grenier, and found the boy "diminutive in stature, very shy, and unwilling to look anyone in the face. His eyes were deep set and restless; his teeth long and protruding; his nails black, and in places worn away; his mind was completely barren; he seemed unable to comprehend the smallest things.."
