XIII. century. Sketched by the artist of the Gar- . .

tcnlaube in an inn at Salerno from the original COUneXlOn, OI lUtCr-
painting which has been sold in the mean time to pc(- l-iecinse if rPDre- an Englishman.
sents a revival of the spirit of Gnosticism in its best and most tj'pical form. It may serve as a substitute to characterise by way of example the modes of thought of the ancient Gnostic sys- tems and their comprehension of the problem of evil.
Jacob Bohme was a German mystic, born in 1575 at Alt-Seidenberg near Gorlitz in Silesia. Like David he was in his childhood a shepherd. Having served from his fourteenth year as a shoemaker's apprentice and being
THE DAWN OF A NEW ERA.
151
aifiliated with the shoemaker guild, he established him- self as a master shoemaker in Gorlitz in 1599. Later on in his life he changed his trade for that of a glover. His books circulated during his life-time in manuscript-form only, but even this sufficed to make his name known beyond the limits of his native town. He died on Sun- day, November 17th, 1624, at his home in Gorlitz, much ad- mired by his friends and persecuted by some narrow-minded enemies who showed their malice even af- ter his death b^' de- facing the monument of the deceased phi- losopher. The best evidence, however, of his genius and the recognition which his honest aspirations found among his fel- low citizens appears in the fact that the son of the Rev. Gregorius Richter, the pastor primarius of Gorlitz and the bitterest antag- onist of Jacob Bohme, edited a collection of extracts from his writings, which were afterwards published com- plete at Amsterdam in the year 1682.
The similarity of Jacob Bohme's speculations to Gnosticism is apparent, but the coincidence is almost
Jacob Bohme.
152
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
spontaneous. His education was very limited, and lie was only superficially familiar with the theories of Para- celsus (Theophrastus Bombast von Hohenheim, 1493- 1541) , Kaspar Schwenkfeld (1490-1561) , and Valentin Weigel (1533-1588). His own system is original with him. It is mainly due to a reflection on the Bible, which he read with a deeply religious spirit but preserving at the same time great independence of thought.
Jacob Bohme conceives God as the unfathomable
ground of existence, as
the Ungriind. His bi- ographer in the En- cyclopaedia Britannica saj'S of his philosophy :
"Nature rises out of Him, we sink into Him. . . . The same view when of- fered in the colder logic of
Spinoza, is sometimes set Vignette of Jacob Bohme's Book on the
Threefold Life of Man, aside as atheistical.
Illustrating the three principles which pervade ' ' Translating Bohme's
life, consisting of the principles of Good and ^1^0^],^ ^^jj ^f jj^g uncouth Evil as unfolded in Time.
dialect of material symbols
(as to which one doubts sometimes whether he means them as concrete instances, or as pictorial illustrations, or as a mere moiw- ria technica) we find that Bohme conceives of the correlation of two triads of forces. Each triad consists of a thesis, an antithesis, and a synthesis ; and the two are connected by an important link. In the hidden life of the Godhead, which is at once Nichts and Alles, exists the original triad, viz., Attraction, Diffusion, and their resul- tant, the Agony of the unmanifested Godhead. The transition is made; by an act of will the divine Spirit comes to Light; and im- mediately the manifested life appears in the triad of Love, E.xpres-
THE DAWN OK A NKW KRA.
153
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sion, and their resultant Visible ^'^ariety. As the action of contra- ries and their resultant are explained the relations of soul, body, and spirit ; of good, evil, and free will ; of the spheres of the an- gels, of Lucifer, and of this world.
"It is a more difficult problem to account on this philosophy for the introduction of evil. . . . Evil is a direct outcome of the primary principle of divine ma- nifestation— it is the wrath sid% of God."
The problem of the idea of evil is very promi- nent in Jacob Bohme's philosophy, and has found a monistic solution. With- out identifying good and evil, he arrives at the con- clusion that the existence of evil is intrinsically ne- cessary and unavoidable ; it is ultimately rooted in the nature of God himself. The yearning for self-real- isation constitutes a suffer- ^ . . . , ,_ „ ^ . ,
iTontispiece oi Jacob Bohme s book on ing in God himself, and in 'he subject* and illustrating his religious , , ,. , . philosophy
the act ot revealing him- self his will manifests both the bright and the dark as- pect of life.
Jacob Bohme anticipates Schopenhauer. He says, in his book on "The Threefold Life of Man," p. 56:'''
The Three Principles.
*Hohe und tiefe Griinde von dem Drcyfachin I.chcn dcs Menschen tiach dem GeheimnUss der drey Priitcipien gottlicher Offenbahriing. Geschrieben nach gottlicher Erlcuchtung. Amsterdam, 1682.
154 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
" For all things stand in the will, and in the will they are con- ducted. If I do not conceive a will to walk, my body remaineth at a stand-still. Therefore my will beareth me, and if I have no desire for [moving to] some place, there is no will in me. But if I desire something else, it is of the essence the will.
"The eternal word is the eternal will." — Ihid., p. 17.
Materiality and sensuality are identified with sin, and sin begins not with the actual fall but with lusting, sleep being a symptom of this condition.
"Before his sleep Adam was in the form of an angel, but after his sleep he had flesh and blood, and there was a clod of the ground in his flesh." — Die drey Principioi, p. 221.
With all his gnostic tendencies Jacob Bohme is not a dualist but a monist. The dualit3- of life viewed under the aspect of a higher unity constitutes a trinity whose three principles are represented in the frontispiece of Jacob Bohme's b(3ok on the subject* as two overlapping spheres which by meeting produce a third domain. There is an eternal goodness, and there is an eternal badness, and there is an eternal mixture of both. The eternal goodness contains the divine spirit and all the angels. But the sphere of badness is no less eternal. It is in its ultimate constitution the materiality of the world. The original Adam (a kind of Platonic prototype of man) was spiritual : his fall begins with his falling to sleep (p. 124) , the result of carnal desire which changes his nature and leads to the creation of the woman to tempt him.
But Jacob Bohme is not a dualist, for he conceives of the three spheres as being one. He sa3^s in his book on The Threefold Life of Man ^ p. 16:
* l^cschrcibung dc7- drey Frincifien giitllichoi M'eseris Amsterdam, 16S2
THR DAWN OK A NKW KRA. 155
"We remind tlie Goil-lovinp; and seeking reader to recognise this of God. He should not concentrate his mind and senses to seek the pure Godhead in loneliness, high above the stars, as liv- ing solely in the heavens. . . . No, the pure Godhead is every- where, entirely present in all places and ends. There is everywhere the birth of the Holy Trinity in one Being, and the angelic world reaches unto all the ends wherever thou mayest think ; even into the middle of the earth, stones, and rocks ; consequently also into Hell; briefly, the empire of the wrath of God is also everywhere."
Jacob Bohme docs not believe in the letter but in the spirit of the Biljle ; and although he is counted a mystic, the illumination which he seeks is as sober as j-ou can expect of a man of his culture. He freely util- ises the Scriptures, but urges good Christians to seek the key to the problems of existence deeper. He says: "No one can come to God except through the Holy Ghost," and by the "Holy Ghost" he understands this spiritual illumination of heart and mind. He says [ibid.^ 15-16) :
"Search for the ground of nature. Thus you will comprehend all things. And do not madly go for the mere letter of the his- tories, nor make any blind laws according to your own imaginings wherewith you persecute one another. In this you are blinder than the heathen. Search for the heart and spirit of the Scriptures that the spirit may be born in \ou, and that the center of the Divine Love may be unlocked in 30U. Thus you may recognise God and speak of him rightly. For out of the histories merely, no one shall call himself a master, cogniser, and knower of the Divine essence, but out of the Holy Ghost which appeareth in another principium in the center of man's life, and only to him who searches rightly and seriously."
Jacob Bohme condenses his philosophy in his ex- planation of the frontispiece of his Threefold Lijc^ where he says :
156 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
"Every work indicates by its form, essence, and character, the wisdom and virtue of its maker. Now if we contemplate the grandly marvellous edifice of the visible heaven and earth, consider their motions, inquire into their efficiencies and forces, and judge of the differences of the bodies of the creature, how they are hard and soft, gross and subtile, dark and radiant, opaque and pellucid, heavy and light : we shall at once discover the twofold mother of the revelation of God, viz., darkness and light which have breathed themselves out of all their forces and sealed miracles and form themselves together with the firmament, the stars, the elements, and all the visible conceivable creatures, where life and death, good- ness and evil are at once in each thing. That is the third of the two hidden lives and it is called time contending with vanity. . . .
" Thus this world standeth in the mixed life of time between light and darkness as a genuine mirror of the two, in which the marvels of eternity are revealed in the form of time through the Word, as John announces. All things were made by it, and with- out it was not anything made that was made."
The Gnostic movement and especially its Jewish phase, manifesting itself in sectarian life and in the post- canonical literature, is of greater importance than is gen- erall}' admitted, for it prepared the way for Christianity. Many Christian dogmas, such as the bodilj- resurrection of the dead, the Messiah as the son of man, the approach of the day of judgment, are in the Old Testament Apoc- rypha, as it were, tentatively pronounced. A compre- hensive formulation of the new religious ideals begins to be needed ; and the people find at last in Jesus of Naza- reth a leader whose powerful personalit}' affords a centre around which the fermenting innovations can cr3'stallise into an organised institution, the Christian Church, des- tined to become a new and most influential factor in the history of the world.
EARLY CHRIvSTlANlTY.
Jcsits and the 'M'eiv Testament.
THE EVIL ONE played an important part in tlie imagination of tlie people in the time of Christ. Satan is mentioned repeatedly by the scribes and the peo- ple of Israel in the synoptic gospels, by the Apostles, es- pecially by St. Paul, and very often in the revelation of St. John. Jesus follows the common belief of the time in attributing mental diseases to the possession of demons, and we may assume that he shared the popular view. Nevertheless, he speaks, upon the whole, less of the Devil than do his contemporaries.
The Jesus of the Gospels is said to have been tempted \>y the Devil in much the same way that Buddha was tempted by Mara, the Evil One. Even the details of the two stories of temptation possess many features of resem- blance .
Christ is very impressive in depicting the evil con- sequences of sin. He compares the last judgment to the selection made by fishermen who gather the good fishes into vessels, but cast the bad away (Math, xiii.,47). He speaks of the reward of "the good and faithful"
Jesus Casting Out Devils. (After Schnorr von Carolsteld.)
The Fiend, Sowing Tares Among the Wheat. (From a German Picture-Bible.)
EARLY CHRISTIANITY. 159
■while "the unprofitable servant" will be cast "into outer darkness where there sliall be weeping and gnash- ing of teeth." Hell is described as "the fire that shall never be quenched" and "the worm that dieth not." And the wicked people are compared to goats to whom the Son of Man will say: "Depart from me ye cursed ones, into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels."
Christ represents the Devil as the enemy that sows tares among the wheat, and once addresses as Satan one of his favorite disciples who speaks words that might lead him into temptation. We read in Mark, viii., 33, and Matth., xvi., 23:
"He rebuked Peter, saying: 'Get thee behind me, Satan, for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men.'"
This fact alone appears sufficient to prove that, while it is natural that Christ used the traditional idea of Satan as a personification of the evil powers to furnish him with materials for his parables, Satan to him was mainly a symbol of things wicked or morally evil.
If the Gospel stories actually reflect the real views of the historical Jesus, it appears that his idea of justice was based on the notion that the future life would be an exact inversion of the present order of things. According to the literal meaning of the language of the parable, Dives is not punished for his sins, and Lazarus is not rewarded for his good deeds : the future fate of the former in Hell and the latter in Heaven is the result of an equal- isation, as we read in Luke xvi. 25 :
"But Abraham said, 'Son, remember that thou in th}' lifetime
Dives, Enjoying Life, and Lazarus Suffering. (From a German Picture-Bible.)
Dives Tormented in Hell. (Iroin a German Picture-Bible.)
EARLY CHRISTIANITY.
161
receivedst tliy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: hut now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.'"
And as on earth Dives had the distress of Lazarus before his eyes, so now Lazarus, seated in the bosom of Abraham, sees with complacency the pains of Dives.
Cast Into Outer Darkness where there Shall Be Weeping and Gnashing of
Teeth. (From a German Picture-Bible.)
The keynote of the Christian sentiment of the apos- tolic age is expressed in the second epistle to the Thes- salonians, where St. Paul says:
"Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,
"That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, that the day of Christ is at hand. "
162
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
St. Paul's belief ''that the day of Christ is at hand" is based upon Christ's own utterances. We read in Mark ix. 1 :
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KART.Y CHRISTIANITY. 163
That in this passage the second advent of Christ is referred to there can be no doubt, especially as there are parallel passages which are written in the same spirit. In Matt. X. 23, Christ declares that his disciples preach- ing the Gospel in Palestine and fleeing from one city to another when persecuted for his name's sake, "shall not have gone over the cities of Israel till the Son of Man be come."
St. Paul confidently expected that he himself would see the day of the Lord, and in consideration of its near- ness he deemed all worldly care unnecessary. Having explained in his epistle to the Corinthians the signifi- cance of the events in Jewish history and the punish- ments of sinners, he adds:
"Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples, and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come."* (i Cor. x. ii.)
When some of the Thessalonian Christians died, St. Paul comforted them by declaring that those who sleep will be resurrected and taken together up to heaven with those who survive. And the words of Paul ex- pressly implied that he himself, together with the Thes- salonians whom he addresses, will remain, of which fact he is so sure as to pronounce his opinion as being "the word of the Lord." He says:
'But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concern- ing them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
*Ta teXt] tuv a'luvuv. See also Hebr. ix. 26, where the appearance of Christ is said to have taken place at the consummation of the time (ciri avvrefeiif tuv a'lilivuv).
164
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
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"For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
"For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
"For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first.
"Then we which are alive and remain sliall be caught up to- gether with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
"Wherefore comfort one another with these words."
When the early disciples became more and more dis- appointed at the non-appearance of the Lord in the clouds of heaven, a prominent leader of the Christian Church wrote an epistle to revive their faith, which was apt to suffer by the ridicule of those who did not share this be- lief. We read in the second epistle of St. Peter:
"This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto }'0u ; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance :
"That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken be- fore by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior:
"Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
"And saying, 'Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.'
" . . . . The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness ; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
"But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night ; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the
166 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up.
"Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and god- liness,
"Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the ele- ments shall melt with fervent heat?
"Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness."
The present world remains in the power of Satan until the prophecy of the second advent of Christ be ful- filled, and we had better be prepared for meeting his on- slaughts; as says the author of the first epistle of St. Peter :
"Be sober, be vigilant ; because your adversary, the Devil, as a roaring lion walketh about, seeking whom he may devour."
In addition to his old names of Satan, Beelzebub, and Devil (which latter appears first in Jesus Sirach) , the Evil One is called in the New Testament the prince of this world, the great dragon, the old serpent, the prince of the devils, the prince of the power of the air, tlie spirit that now worketh in the children of disbelief, the Antichrist. Satan is represented as the founder of an empire that struggles with and counteracts the king- dom of God upon earth. He is powerful, but less power- ful than Christ and his angels. He is conquered and doomed through Christ, but he is still unfettered.
The newly discovered fourth book of Daniel ''' con- tains a story which characterises the expectations of the
* Edited by Dr Ed, Bratke. Bonn, iSgi.
EARLY CHRISTIANITY. 167
early Church. We read of a certain man, holding the office of president (Tr/jofor&j?) in a Christian congregation of Syria :
"He persuaded many of the brethren, with their wives and children, to go out into the wilderness to meet the Christ, and they went wandering in the mountains and wastes, there losing their way ; and the end was that all but a few were apprehended as rob- bers and would have been executed by the mayor of the city (j]ys- nwv') had it not been that his wife was a believer and that in re- sponse to her entreaties he put a stop to the proceedings to prevent a persecution arising because of them."
Cases of this kind happened frequently. We read of another Christian officer (also a npoeaToo?) in Pontus that he also "preached the approaching day of judgment :
"He brought the brethren to such a pitch of fear and trem- bling that they abandoned their lands and fields, letting them be- come waste, and sold, the most of them, their possessions."
The belief in the imminent approach of the day of judgment waned during the third century, but was tem- porarily revived in the year 1000, which was commonly believed to be the end of the millennium prophesied by St. John the Divine in the Revelation. The disorder and misery which resulted from the foolish acts that people committed in anticipation of the approaching day of judg- ment all over Christendom are beyond description. Some squandered their property in order to enjoy the last days of their lives ; some sold all the}^ had and gave to the poor ; some invested all their possessions in masses and Church donations ; and thus almost all who were filled with the belief in the coming of the Lord fell a prey to the most wretched poverty and distress.'
16S THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
Jewish- Christian Eschatology.
The Revelation of St. John, written between 68 and 70 A.D., after Nero's death and before the destruction of Jerusalem, propounds the eschatology of ^2Lx\y Chris- tianity, which closely follows such traditions of the Jews as are preserved in the prophetic books of the Old Testa- ment Apocrypha.
The author of the Revelation is a Jew-Christian, who in the name of the son of man informs the seven churches of Asia Minor that God hates the Nicolaitanes (i., 6 and 15), an antinomistic sect among the Gnostics who according to Irenaeus (I., Chap. 26) regarded the Mosaic law, the nomos, as unessential to salvation. The warning given out against ' ' those who say that they are Apostles and are not" seems to be directed against St. Paul, who, like the Nicolaitanes, is also known for his strong antinomistic principles and finding no sin in eat- ing with pagans, even though the meat might have been offered as a sacrifice to idols.*
An unpleasant denunciation of a follower of anti- nomistic, i. e., Pauline Christianity in the city of Thj^a- tira, is mentioned in chapter ii., verses 20-29, which probably has reference to Lydia, a seller of purple, who was baptised by Paul (Acts xvi. 14-15). The great promises of the Lord offered to the faithful through John the Divine, are strictly limited to the Jew Christian, to him who keeps the law and holds fast to it till Christ's second advent (ii. 25) . As a I'eward Christ, according
*Rom. 14 and i Cor 8.
EARLY CHRISTIANITY.
169
to John the Divine's vision, allows him the great pleas- ure of destroying the Gentiles, saying:
"And he that overcometh and keej)eth my works (i. e., the law) unto the end, to him will I give the power over the nations;
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170
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St. John believes that the judgment of the world is near at hand. The Lamb opens the seven seals, and four
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EARLY CHRISTIANITY. 171
ceive white robes, the sun becomes black as sackcloth, and the moon becomes as blood. Then an angel pro- nounces a triple woe upon the inhabitants of the earth. The pit is opened and four angels who had been bound are loosed to slay the third part of men. A struggle en.sues between a women that travaileth and the dragon, but the dragon is cast down. A beast with seven heads and ten horns appears ; another beast follows and makes an image of the first beast that should be worshipped by men. "The number of the beast" is "six hundred and three score and six," which according to cabali.stic sym- bolism means "Nero." The Roman Emperor is thus regarded as an incarnation of Satan, and for a short time power is given to the pagan government over the world. But the victorious Lamb stands on Mount Zion ; the Gospel is preached, and the sickle of the harvest is read^? for gathering in the clusters of the vine. Then the seven vials of wrath are poured out upon mankind. The city "which reigneth over the kings of the earth" (i.e., Rome), the old Bab3don, the mother of abominations, shall fall, and the fowls of the air are called to fill them- selves with the flesh of the slain. Satan is bound for a thousand years, but let loose again. In a final struggle, Gog and Magog are conquered, whereupon a new heaven and a new earth are created. A heavenly Jerusalem de- scends upon earth and the twelve tribes inhabit the city, which needs no sun because God is its light. The pagan Christians remain outside: "The nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it, and the kings of the earth bring their glor}- and honor into it."
Such is briefly the contents of the Revelation of St.
172
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
The Woman of Abomination. After the Revelation of St. John. (By Albrecht Durer.'
EARLY CHRISTIANITY. 173
John the Divine, which is a very important book, as it embodies the views of the early Jew-Christians concern- ing God's plan in the history of the world, and the powers of evil play in it a most important part.
The main prophecy of the Jewish Christian anthor of the revelation remained unfulfilled. By a strange irony of fate Judaic Christianity disappeared from the face of the earth, while Rome became the centre of the Gentile Christianity, in which capacity she rose almost to more glorious power than pagan Rome ever possessed through her political superiority. Christianity was thoroughly Romanised and remained under the sway of Rome until the Reformation split the Church in twain and opened new possibilities for a progressive development of Chris- tianity, no longer subject to the dictates of a conclave of Italian cardinals and a Roman pope.
The Descent Into Hell.
The belief in Satan and Hell form an essential part of early Christianity, and Christ was believed immedi- ately after his death on the cross to have battled with and to have conquered the prince of hell. Although the old- est manuscripts of the so-called Apostle's Creed do not contain the passage "descended into hell," which is an addition of the seventh century, there can be no doubt that the idea actually prevailed as early as the second century. The Gospel of Nicodemus, which is commonly regarded as a product of the third century, dwells on this part of the Christian belief and offers a detailed account of Christ's descent into Hell, which in Chapters xv-xvi reads as follows :
174 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
"Satan, the prince and captain of death, said to the prince of hell. Prepare to receive Jesus of Nazareth himself, who boasted that he was the Son of God, and yet was a man afraid of death, and said. My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death.* Besides he did many injuries to me and to many others ; for those whom I made blind and lame and those also whom I tormented with several devils, he cured by his word ; yea, and those whom I brought dead to thee, he by force takes away from thee.
"To this the prince of hell replied to Satan, Who is that so powerful prince, and yet a man who is afraid of death? For all the potentates of the earth are subject to my power, whom thou broughtest to subjection by thy power. But if he be so powerful in his nature, I affirm to thee for truth, that he is almighty in his divine nature, and no man can resist his power. When, therefore, he said he was afraid of death, he designed to ensnare thee, and imhappy it will be to thee for everlasting ages.
"Then Satan, replying, said to the prince of hell. Why didst thou express a doubt, and wast afraid to receive Jesus of Nazareth, both thy adversary and mine? As for me, I tempted him and stirred up my old people, the Jews, with zeal and anger against him. I sharpened the spear for his suffering ; I mixed the gall and vinegar, and commanded that he should drink it ; I prepared the cross to crucify him, and the nails to pierce through his hands and feet ; and now his death is near at hand, I will bring him hither, subject both to thee and me.
"Then the prince of hell answering said. Thou saidst to me just now, that he took away the dead from me by force. They who have been kept here till they should live again upon earth were taken away hence, not by their own power, but by prayers made to God, and their almighty God took them from me. Who, then, is that Jesus of Nazareth that by his word hath taken away the dead from me without prayer to God? Perhaps it is the same who took away from me Lazarus, after he had been four days dead, and did
*See Matth., xx%'i 38.
EARLY CHRISTIANITY. 175
l)oth stink and was rotten, and of whom I had possession as a dead person, yet he brought him to hfo again by liis power.
"Satan, answering, said to the prince of hell, It is the very same person, Jesus of Nazareth, which, when the prince of hell heard, he said to him, I adjure thee by the powers which belong to thee and me, that thou bring him not to me. For when I heard of the power of his word, I trembled for fear, and all my impious company were at the same time disturbed ; and we were not able to detain Lazarus, but he gave himself a shake, and with all the signs of malice he immediately went away from us; and the very earth in which the dead body of Lazarus was lodged, presently turned him out alive. And I know now that he is Almighty God who could perform such things, who is mighty in his dominion, and mighty in his human nature, who is the Saviour of mankind. Bring not, therefore, his person hither, for he will set at liberty all those whom I hold in prison under unbelief, and bound with the fetters of their sins, and will conduct them to everlasting life.
"And while Satan and the prince of hell were discoursing thus to each other, on a sudden there was a voice as of thunder and the rushing of winds, saj'ing. Lift up your gates, O ye princes ; and be ye lift up, O everlasting gates, and the King of Glory shall come in.
"When the prince of hell heard this, he said to Satan, Depart from me and begone out of my habitations ; if thou art a powerful warrior, fight with the King of Glory. But what hast thou to do with him? And then he cast him forth from his habitations. And the prince said to his impious officers. Shut the brass gates of cru- elty and make them fast with iron bars, and fight courageously, lest we be taken captives.
" But when all the company of the saints heard this they spake with a loud voice of anger to the prince of hell. Open thy gates that the King of Glory may come in.
"And the divine prophet David cried out, saying. Did not I when on earth truly prophesy and say, O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the chil- dren of men. For he hath broken the gates of brass, and cut the
176
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
s
EARLY CHRISTIANITY. 177
bars of iron in sunder. He hath taken tliem because of tlicir in- iquity, and because of their unrighteousness they are afflicted.
"After this another prophet, namely, holy Isaiah, spake in like manner to all the saints, Did not I rightly prophesy to you when I was alive on earth? The dead men shall live, and they shall rise again who are in their graves, and they shall rejoice who are in earth ; for the dew which is from the Lord shall bring de- liverance to them. And I said in another place, O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?
"When all the saints heard these things spoken by Isaiah, tliey said to the prince of hell, Open now thy gates, and take away thine iron bars, for thou wilt now be bound, and have no power.
"Then there was a great voice, as of the sound of thunder, saying. Lift up your gates, O princes ; and be ye lifted up, ye gates of hell, and the King of Glory will enter in.
"The prince of hell perceiving the same voice repeated, cried out as though he had been ignorant. Who is that King of Glory? David replied to the prince of hell, and said, I understand the words of that voice, because I spake them bj' his spirit. And now, as I have above said, I say unto thee, the Lord strong and power- ful, the Lord mighty in battle : he is the King of Glory, and he is the Lord in heaven and in earth. He hath looked down to hear the groans of the prisoners, and to set loose those that are ap- pointed to death. And now, thou filthy and stinking prince of hell, open thy gates, that the King of Glory may enter in ; for he is the Lord of heaven and earth.
"While David was saying this, the mighty Lord appeared in the Form of a man, and enlightened those places which had ever before been in darkness, and broke asunder the fetters which be- fore could not be broken ; and with his invincible power visited those who sate in the deep darkness by iniquity, and the shadow of death by sin. Impious Death and her cruel officers hearing these things, were seized with fear in their several kingdoms, when they saw the clearness of the light, and Christ himself on a sudden ap- pearing in their habitations ; they cried out therefore, and said.
178 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
We are bound by thee ; thou seemest to intend our confusion be- fore the Lord. Who art thou, wlio hast no sign of corruption, but that bright appearance which is a full proof of thy greatness, of which yet thou seemest to take no notice? Who art thou, so power- ful and so weak, so great and so little, a mean and yet a soldier of the first rank, who can command in the form of a servant as a com- mon soldier? The King of Glory, dead and alive, though once slain upon the cross? Who layest dead in the grave, and art come down alive to us, and in thy death all the creatures trembled, and all the stars were moved, and now hast thou th)' liberty among the dead, and givest disturbance to our legions? Who art thou, who dost release the captives that were held in chains by original sin, and bringest them into their former liberty? Who art thou, who dost spread so glorious and divine a light over those who were made blind by the darkness of sin ?
" In like manner all the legions of devils were seized with the like horror, and with the most submissive fear cried out, and said. Whence comes it, O thou Jesus Christ, that thou art a man so powerful and glorious in majesty, so bright as to have no spot, and so pure as to have no crime? Then the King of Glory trampling upon death, seized the prince of hell, deprived him of all his power, and took our earthly father Adam with him to his glory.
"Then the prince of hell took Satan, and with great indigna- tion said to him, O thou prince of destruction, author of Beelze- bub's defeat and banishment, the scorn of God's angels and loathed by all righteous persons ! What inclined thee to act thus? Why didst thou venture w-ithout either reason or justice, to crucif}' him, and hast brought down to our regions a person innocent and right- eous, and thereby hast lost all the sinners, impious and unrighteous persons in the whole world?
"While the prince of hell was thus speaking to Satan, the King of Glory said to Beelzebub, the prince of hell, Satan the prince shall be subject to thy dominion forever, in the room of Adam and his righteous sons, who are mine. Then Jesus stretched forth his hand, and said, Come to me, all ye saints, who are created
EARLY CHRISTIANITY. 179
in my image, who were condemned by the tree of the forbidden fruit, and by the devil and death ; live now by the wood of my cross ; the devil, the prince of this world, is overcome, and death is conquered."
Hell.
The idea of Hell among the early Christians has found a detailed description in the revelation of St. Peter, which was counted as canonical by Clement of Alexan- dria who annotated it together with the Catholic Epis- tles, while the Muratorian Fragment mentions it as i) book of the New Testament. According to the testimony of Sozomenos it was read in some of the churches of Pal- estine annually, as a preparation for the celebration of Easter in about 440 A. D.* It was used in Rome and Alexandria at the end of the second century, together with the revelation of St. John, where, according to Eusebius, both writings belonged to the contested canonical books, that is to say, they were received as canonical but not without protest in some quarters.
According to the revelation of St. Peter, Heaven and Hell are places. Heaven is described by St. Peter as follows :t
"And I spake to him (the Lord): 'And where are the just, and what is their aeon in which they that possess this glory live?' And the Lord showed me a large space outside of this world overflowed with light, and the air there was illuminated all through by the rays of the sun. And the earth itself was blooming with unfading flowers, and filled with sweet odors, and grandly blossoming and imperishable and blessed fruit-bearing plants. Such was the ful-
*See Harnack, BruchstiUke des Ei'anffiiiunts uiid der Afokalypse des Pe- trus, p. 5-6.
■f Translated into English from HarnacU's edition.
180
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
ness of flowers that the sweet odor thence penetrated even unto us. The inhabitants of that space were clothed with the robes of radi- ant angels; and similar were their robes to their surroundings. Angels were hovering about them. The glory of all who lived there was the same, and with one voice they sang in gladness re- sponsive hymns of praise to God the Lord in that place. Said the Lord to us: 'That is the place of your high priests, of the just people.' "
Christian Representation of the Last Judgment. Sculptures on the main entrance of the Cathedral at Bourges. France. Four- teenth century. (Reproduced from fClassisc!ie>- Skulftiu-oisc/iatz.)
Hell is described in the following words :
"And I saw another place right opposite, rough and being the place of punishment. And those who are punished there and the punishing angels had their robes dark ; as the color of the air of the place is also dark : and some people were hung up by their tongues : they were those who had blasphemed the path of right- eousness ; and underneath them a bright baneful fire was lit. And
EARLY CHRISTIANITY.
ISl
there was a pit large and filled with burning dirt {fiop/iopo^), in which several people stuck who had perverted justice, and the avenging angels assaulted them. There were others there ; women hung up by their braids above the seething dirt. Tliey were those who had adorned themselves for adultery ; but those who had soiled themselves with the miasma of the adultery of those women were hung up by their feet and had their heads in the dirt, and I said, 'I did not believe that I should enter into this place.' I saw mur-
Christian Representation of Hell, Sculptures on the main entrance of the Cathedral at Bourges. France. Four- teenth century. (Reproduced from A'/nssisc/icr Skulpli !schaU .)
derers and their accomplices thrown into a narrow place filled with evil vermin and tormented by those animals and sqiiirming under this punishment. Worms like dark clouds assaulted them. The souls of the murdered people, however, stood b)' and gazed at the punishment of their murderers and said: 'O God, just is thy judg- ment.' But near unto that place I saw a place of torment in which the blood and the stench of the punished flowed down so as to
182 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
make a pool, and there were women to whom the blood reached up to the neck ; opposite them many infants sat who had been brought into the world before their season, and they were weeping. And fiery rays proceeded from the children and bit the eyes of the women. For they were the cursed ones who had conceived and made abortions. And there were men and women standing in flames with half their bodies, and they were thrown into a dark place and were scourged by evil spirits. And they were devoured in their bowels by worms which do not die. They were those who had persecuted the righteous and surrendered them ; and near by to those again were women and men who bit their lips and were punished and received hot irons on their eyes. They were those who had blasphemed and betrayed the path of righteousness. Op- posite them were other men and women who bit their tongues and liad burning fire in their mouths. They were those who bore false witness. In another place were flints sharper than swords and lances, rendered burning hot, and women and men in dirty rags were wallowing on them in torment. They were the rich and those who relying on their riches had not taken compassion on orphan'; and widows, who had a contempt for the commands of God. In another large field with matter and blood and seething dirt were those who take interest and interest on interest. Other men and women were thrown from a high precipice, and having reached the bottom were urged up again by their assaulters to climb the preci pice, and were then again thrown down, and they were given no respite from this torment. They were those who had polluted their own bodies.*. . . And by the side of this precipice was a place which was filled entirely with fire, and there stood the people who had made with their own hands carved images and worshipped them instead of God, and near them were men and women with switches who beat them and did not cease from this castigation. And again other women and men stood near by, burning, and wrig- gling, and roasting. They were those wHo had left the path of God."
*We prefer to omit further details.
HAKLV CHRISTIANITY. 183
Another description of Hell ac-cordinsT to the views of the Christian Gnostics of the third century is con- tained in the Pistis Sophia ■, where all the places of tor- ment are described at considerable length in all details. "It is remarkable," says Professor Harnack,* "that the Pistis Sophia anticipates on this subject as well as in many other respects the development of the Catholic Church. It insists on the power of salvation of the sacra- ments, of the mysteries, of penance, and ascetic practicfes. At the same time it recognises Apostolic authority, and attempts in every respect to base its doctrines on the canon of the Old and New Testament." Its date has been fixed with great accuracy on the second part of the third century. t This strange book contains questions of Mary and of some of the apostles, which Christ after his resurrection answers on the Mount of Olives, and it is probably identical with a gnostic book mentiond by Epi- phanius under the title The Minor Questions oj Mary. Harnack calls attention to the fact that the book is an evidence of the astonishing agreement of this later Gnos- ticism with later Catholic Christianity. The author of the Pistis Sophia is apparently imbued with the spirit of Syrian Gnosticism or Ophitism ; but he wrote in Egypt where the Syrian Gnostics exercised quite a powerful in- fluence. The revelation of mysteries culminates in the doctrine of Christ's identity with his disciples, which is uttered repeatedly and with emphasis. J The peculiarly
*See Harnack, Texle rind Untersticliungen, etc., p. 98.
\ Ibid. , pp. 94 et seq .
J " Qui acceperit fivavr/pioi' Ineffabilis, ille est ego." — " Ego sum isti, isti sum ego." — " Ego sum mysterium illud." — "Vis quae est in vobis, e me est." Harnack says (p. 30): "These brief significant sentences are not invented by the author who
184 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
Gnostic features of the book consist in the idea of re- incarnation. So, for instance, St. John is directly said to be a reincarnation of Elias, and the Apostles are, as much as Christ, regarded as being possessed of a mysti- cal pre-existence.
The Pis/is Sophia reveals all the m^-steries of the world, among them the ni3-steries of Hell, or, as the Egyptians called it, Amenti, which is described as fel- low's :
"And Mary continued further and said unto Jesus: 'Again, Master, of what type is the outer darkness? How many regions of punishment are there therein?'
"And Jesus answered and said unto Mary : 'The outer dark- ness is a huge dragon, with its tail in its mouth ; it is outside the world and surroundeth it completely.* There are many regions of punishment therein, for there are in it twelve [main] dungeons of horrible torment.
" ' In each dungeon there is a ruler ; and the faces of the rulers are all different from one another.
"'The first ruler, in the first dungeon, is crocodile faced, and it hath its tail in its mouth. From the jaws of this dragon there come forth cold of every kind and freezing, and all diseases of every kind : it is called by its authentic name, in its region, Ench- thonin.
" 'And the ruler in the second dungeon ; its authentic face is a cat's : it is called, in its region, Charachar.
"'And the ruler in the third dungeon; its authentic face is a dog's : it is called, in its region, Acharoch.
"'And the ruler in the fourth dungeon; its authentic face is a serpent's: it is called, in its region, Achrochar.
makes his Christ express himself in quite different sermons: they point, in my opinion, to an older gnostic book, or a gnostic gospel."
*This reminds us of the myths of the Midgard-serpent and anticipates the in- numerable mediaeval representations of Hell as a big-mouthed dragon.
EARLY CHRISTIANITY.
185
O get! "Jtfa iSttfie/bct &u ole cin fficnget uiife gcrcc^tct tn^ttt ixtArmi fiinUcic f xonbiti/iflbwcrffcn/em x>nmt'tli(§e ^effifd)cftrfl(f »croi{>net8(JJ{bff iiic(fcr»x)n^''Ji*>"^ f nfemmttvcr(loffftic5(i(tcvnbx>fr6amptcti:J(§liittJ)ic§'Vctl(^Kmit cm v«6icnftlicl)'Ube
Kic in 5tit bergnafecn 4lf» futcn'&j ic^ tcilgufft Seine bittetc flcrben/mtnnnen tno
The Typical Conception of Hell. German Woodcut of the age of the Reformation.
186 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
"'And the ruler in the fifth dungeon ; its authentic face is a black bull's : it is called, in its region, Marchour.
" 'And the ruler in the sixth dungeon ; its authentic face is a boar's: it is called, in its region, Lamchamor.
" 'And the ruler in the seventh dungeon ; its authentic face is a bear's: it is called, in its region, by its authentic name. Louchar.
" 'And the ruler in the eighth dungeon ; its authentic face is a vulture's: it is called, in its region, Laraoch.
"'And the ruler in the ninth dungeon; its authentic face is a basilisk's: it is called, in its region, Archeoch.
"'And in the tenth dungeon are manj- rulers ; each of them, in its authentic face, hath seven dragons' heads: and that which is above them all, in their region, is called Xarmaroch.
"'And in the eleventh dungeon, in this region also, are many rulers ; each of them, with authentic faces, hath seven cats' heads : and the great one that is over them, is called, in their region, Rhochar.
"'And in the twelfth dungeon there are also man}' rulers ex- ceedingly numerous, each of them in its authentic face, hath seven dogs' heads : and the great one that is over them, is called in their region, Chremaor.
"'These rulers, then, of these twelve dungeons, which are in the inside of the dragon of outer darkness, each hath a name for every hour, and each of them changeth its face every hour.
" 'And each of these dungeons hath a door which openeth to the height, so that the dragon of outer darkness containeth twelve dungeons of darkness, each of which hath a door that openeth to the height ; and an angel of the height watched at each of the doors of the dungeons.
"'These leou,* the first man, the overseer of the light, the ancient of the first statute, hath set to watch over the dragon, lest
*The idea of ' ' leou, the first man, the overseer of the light, the ancient of- the first statue," reminds us of the archetypal man of Simon Magus and other Gnostics and also of the Adam of the Cabala.
EARLY CHRISTIANITY. 187
the dragon and its rulers should turn the dungeons that are in it, upside down.'
"And when the saviour had thus spoken, Mary Magdalene an- swered and said: 'Master, are the souls, then, that are brought into that .region, led into it by these twelve doors, by each accord- ing to the judgment they have merited?'
"The saviour answered and said unto Mary: 'No soul is brought into the dragon by these doors; but the souls of blasphem- ers, and of them that remain in the doctrines of error, and of those who teach such doctrines, and also of them that have intercourse with males, of the polluted and impious, atheists, murderers, adul- terers, sorcerers, all souls, then, of this kind, if they have not re- pented wliile still in life, and have remained persistently in their sin, and all the other souls which have remained without [the light-world], that is to say, who have exhausted the number of the cycles apportioned to them in the sphere without repenting, — they take hold of these souls, in their last cycle, them and all the souls which I have just enumerated to you, and carry them through the opening in the tail of the dragon into the dungeons of the outer darkness. And when they have finished bringing those souls into the outer darkness by the opening in its tail, it putteth back its tail again into its mouth and shutteth them in. This is the way in which souls are brought into the outer darkness.*
"'And the dragon of the outer darkness hath twelve authentic names which are written on its doors, a name for the door of every dungeon ; and these twelve names are all different from one another, but all twelve are contained one in the other, so that he who utter- eth one name will utter all. And these will I tell you, when I ex- plain the emanation of the pleroma. This, then, is the way in which is the outer darkness, which is also the dragon.'
"When the saviour had spoken these things, Mary answered
*In mediasval Hell-representations, which rarely are lacking in coarse humor, the souls are thrown with pitchforks into the open jaws of the dragon. The coarse- ness of the description of Hell in the /'isiis Sophia is apparently serious.
188
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
and said unto the saviour : 'Master, are the torments of this dra- gon terrible beyond the punishment of all the judgments?'
"The saviour answered and said unto Mary : 'Not only are they more painful than all the chastisements of the judgments, but every soul that shall be carried into that region shall be imprisoned in relentless ice,* in the hail and scorching fire which are therein. And in the dissolution of the world, that is to say, in the ascension of the pleroma, these souls shall perish in the relentless ice and scorching fire, and shall be non-existent for the eternity.'
"Mary answered and F.-,sct said: 'Woe for the souls
of sinners! Now, there- fore, O Master, whether is the fire in the world of human kind or the fire in Amenti the fiercer?' "The saviour an- swered and said unto Mary: 'Amen, I say unto thee, the fire in Amenti scorcheth far more than the fire among men, nine times more. " 'And the fire which is in the punishments of the great chaos is nine times fiercer than the fire in Amenti.
" 'And the fire which is in the judgments of the rulers who are in the way of the midst, is nine times fiercer than the fire of the punishments which are in the great chaos.
"'And the fire which is in the dragon of outer darkness, and all the torments which it containeth, are fiercer far than the fire
Weighing the Evil and the Good of the Soul.
Reminding one of similar notions prevalent in ancient Egypt (About 1150. From the cathedral in Autun, France )
*An anticipation of Dante's ice hell.
EARLY CHRISTIANITY.
189
which is in the chastisements and judgments of the rulers who arc in the way of the midst, — this fire is fiercer than they seventy times.'
"And when the saviour had said this unto Mary, she smote her breast, she cried out ah)ud, with tears, and all the disciples v»^ith her, saying : ' Woe for the sinners, for their torments are ex- ceedingly great.'"
The Doom OF THE Damned. (After Luca Signorelli.)
The Gnostic Christian view of Doomsday and Hell embodies many ancient traditions of Egyptian, Indian, and Persian mj-thology and foreshadows at the same time the later Roman Catholic view as represented in medi- aeval art, finding its poetical consummation in Dante's Divina Coinedia.
Satan was regarded by the early Christians as the
190
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
The Trinity Ideal of Medi.eval Christianity. (Old German.) Representing God as Emperor, Christ as King, and the Holy Ghost as the principle of light, of order and good government. (Reproduced from Muther.)
EARLY CHRISTIANITY. 191
Prince of this World, and this belief douiiiiatcd in the Church as k)ng' as pagan authorities remained in power. As soon as tliey were rephiced l)y Christian rulers, and when Christianity became established as the state reli- gion of the Roman Empire, Satan was gradually de- throned and God reinstated in the government of the world .
The empire of the Csesars broke to pieces under the repeated assaults of Vandals, Huns, and Goths, but Charlemagne founded a new empire on its ruins, which, being based upon the rising power of the Teutonic tribes, the Franconians and the Germans, was called the " Holy Roman Empire of German nationality," lasting about a thousand years, from 800 until 1806. This period (by Stahl actually regarded as the realisation of the millen- nium of Revelation) is the age in which Christianity was officially recognised and the attempt was made to apply its ethics by all means to the private and public affairs of the people. It is natural that the Trinity was now conceived after the pattern of the Imperial government of the age ; God was represented as the emperor, Christ as the king, vicegerent and heir, while the Holy Ghost hovered above them as the spirit of order and authority.
The most essential and at any rate practically most important dogma of the early Christian Church, the doc- trine of the imminent approach of the day of judgment, faded away when the Church rose to power, but it re- appeared from time to time, sometimes not unlike an acute attack of a frightful alienation of men's minds ren- dering them forgetful of the duties of the living present for the sake of trying to escape the imaginary evils of the
192 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
doom to come. The scenes of the last judgment, how- ever, have always remained a favorite subject of Chris- tian artists and poets, the keynote of which vibrates through the old Church hymn :
"Dies irae, dies ilia, Solvet saeclum in favila, Teste David cum Sibylla."
THE IDEA OF SALVATION IN GREECE AND ITALY.
dXAii pvaai T)ixa'i 'ittu rov wovrjpov-
Matt. vi. 14.
THE first century of our era is a time in which the fear of evil leads to the organisation of religious in- stitutions having in view the atonement of sin and the redemption of the soul from the terrors of hell. The ideas evil, sin, hell, salvation, and immortal life were familiar to the Greek mind even before the days of Plato, but were still mixed up with the traditional mythology. When philosophers began to wage war against the gross idolatry of Greek polytheism, a fermentation set in which prepared the Greek nation for the reception of Christian- ity. We say "prepared," but we might just as well sa^' that it resulted in the formation of the Christian Church as an institution to deliver mankind from evil. The fear of punishment in the life to come led in the days of sav- agery to human sacrifices as a vicariov:s atonement. This barbarous practice was abandoned in the progress of civil- isation by a substitution of animal victims. But the idea lingered in the minds of the people and was retained in
Hades, (Greatly reduced from ^fon. Inst., VIII., g.)
Picture of a vase found at Altamura, representing a period in which the fear of Hell had become greatly subdued and the belief in its terrors is offset by the legend of a return from the realm of the dead and the conquest of death.
[The upper center shows Pluto and Persephone, the rulers of the Nether World, in their palace, the former with scepter and Kantharos, or sacred cup, the latter holding the cross-torch and a dish filled with fruits and flowers. Kantharos means both scarabaeus-beelle, the Egyptian symbol of immortality, and the drink- ing vessel used in the mysteries which probably derives its name from some un- known connexion with the scarabseus. Underneath we see Heracles taming the three-headed Cerberus in the moment of crossing the Acheron, which originates (see Homer, Odyssey, X, 513) in the conflux of Cocytos and Pyriphlegethon. Her- mes points out the road leading back to the upper world. The Danaides with the water vessels on the right bear their punishment with placidity, while Sisyphos on the left seems to be more severely taxed. Dire Necessity i^Xvaynjj) holds the whip in her right hand, but her left extends to the sufferer a laurel branch. (The branch is missing in many similar pictures. It is apparently not an apple branch, which was a symbol of Nemesis, as some archaeologists suggest.)
The upper scene on the right shows Hippodameia and Pelops, the latter in a Phrygian cap conversing with Myrtilos, who promises to remove a nail from the wheel of Oinomaoss chariot in the race for Hippodameia, his future bride, a trick by which he remains victorious. Underneath are the judges of the dead, Triptol- emos, Aiaciis, and Rhadamanthys, the latter in the attitude of pleading a case with great zeal.
The upper scene on the left represents Megara and her sons, the Heraclides, innocent victims of a cruel fate in life, who are here comforted. Below this group we see Orpheus with lyre in hand, approaching the palace to ask Persephone for a release of Eurydice. The Erinyes, or avenging demons (called IIoIN,-\I) in the picture have lost their terrible appearance and let the singer pass by unmolested.]
GREECE AND ITALY
195
Christianity, where, however, it received a new signifi- cance when restated under the influence of Paul's mes- sage of the crucified, and therefore glorified. Saviour. Christ's death was now declared to be a sacrifice that would be sufi&cient for all the ages to come.'''
The Greeks, equally with other nations, feared pun- ishment after death as the greatest evil, and their belief in hell can be traced back to the dawn of the history of Greece.
Human Sacrifices at the Funeral Pyre of Patroclus.
Wall picture of a tomb in Vulci.
(From Michaelis, Handbtich dcr h'unstgcschkhtc, I., p. 235.)
The most ancient description of the Greek concep- tion of the land of the dead, which is found in Homer, resembles the Jewish Sheol in so far as Hades is the abode of the shades of the dead, both good and evil. It is a gloomy place ; there is a grove of willow and poplar trees, and a large lawn covered with asphodels. The
* The Christian Church never lost sight of the idea that a human sacrifice is indispensable for the expiation of sin, the atonement being procured by the mystic effects of faith. Hence the constant reference of Christ's death on the cross to both Abraham's offering of Isaac and the miraculous healing power of the brazen serpent in the desert
196
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
Y cTilltifirrtJehppUu gjfftpm;
Tfffiti ni rjfiiffi rrufa'ni
(IbrjibB daJiii (>jtT^iffiU>' fiju'i iii\olmfrnnc(rlii66iTi ipiii iV fflo^h limn- ilirpg lie fth'JlRh manu hia fiij piif;' Obrabn pjfj cdttti fmi- qin' C.liiiriiiiraifhi.|) Holi'oTb'' uircTUMolflinnvhE ti'imr
crajag"; amoqie patfrm
fu ouHiruenppuu gjiftpnp
iTBmoiuojVaur be fpprnft
bPlihcraTe.pffpiHiitojjfi'ut
Tarr tifnjjcKTii ruru et nl
1 licit fufpt itb "tt (ffwjj ilhiai
fpuff'; ix frrpEtibolibf I arrhR
ffrpt6riifp"rrilTiiiit9(Ha(plo
cnrrum criirrniftiqirfun
itbi'tidlis fi5Hffl(iiii affipet
■i-i>i'aboloii)lt
butpctulantuc *
'o;? ^itamftiibSTBhuoepaOiqjpi
Christ's Death on the Cross and Its Prototypes. SiMa Panpfrum^ (Woodcut of the fifteenth century.) The immolation of Isaac shows Christ's death in its connexion with human sacrifice, and the story of the serpent lifted up in the wilderness exemplifies the healing power of faith.
GREECE AND ITALY.
197
shade of Achilles declares that he would rather be upon earth a day laborer in a poor man's employ than ruler in
TUCHULCHA, THE DeMON OF INFER- NAL Tortures According to the Belief of the Etruscans.
(Part of a wall picture of a tomb in Corneto)
Charun, the Etruscan Demon of Death, Waiting for a Victim.
(From an Etruscan vase, Hellenised style.)
the land of the dead. While the oldest reports do not as yet contain any reference to a reward of the good (for even Achilles shares the sad fate of all mortals) , we learn
Oknos and the Daughters of Danaos in Hades Oknos (i. e., the Tardy or Inattentive One) weaving a rope of hay which is de- voured by the donkey, and the daughters of Danaos endeavoring to fill the urn without a bottom.
(Frieze of a Roman well decoration. Vatican.)
of the tortures to which the wicked are subjected, — Tan- talus, the Danaides, Sisyphos, Ixion, Oknos.
19S
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
Homer represents the dead as unsubstantial forms, like dream images. However, an exception is made in the case of Hercules, whose shadow is in Hades, while Hercules himself, who is an Immortal, lives among the gods in Olympus {Odyssey, XL, 601-626) . Another hero whose fate after death is more cheerful than that of com- mon people is Menelaog. Being a son-in-law of Zeus,
IxiON ON THE Fiery Wheel.
Underneath an avenging Erinys. Hephaestos, the smith of the gods, looks at the wheel, his handiwork, with apparent satisfaction. Hermes is ready to return to the Upper World. Archaeologists have not yet succeeded in interpreting the significance of the angel-like figures on both sides of Ixion.
Ixion, a Thessalian king, committed a murder, but was lustrated by Zeus him- self who admitted him as a guest to his own table. But the criminal lusted after Hera, the queen of the gods. In her place he embraced a cloud which bore to him the unruly race of Centaurs. Thereupon Ztnis had Ixion fastened to a fiery wheel in Hades.
The suffering Ixion is commonly regarded as the mythological precipitate of a former god of the sky, a rival of Zeus ; but the features of his divinity have paled in the human conception of a later age which was no longer conscious of the myth- ological significance of his deeds.
GREECE AND ITALY.
199
the husband of Helen, who is apparently conceived as the goddess of the moon, he lives in Elysion where Rhada- nianth3's rules. There the people live in ease. There is
GiGANTOMACHV ; The Giants Sturming Heaven Bas relief of an ancient sarcophagus. Now in the Museum of the Vatican.
no snow, no winter, no storm, but only gentle and re- freshing zephyrs blow from the ocean.
The Egyptian origin of the belief in Elysion is
Zeus Conquering Typhoeus. Picture on an antique water pitcher. (Baumeister, hcnkm. d class. Alt., p. 2135.)
guaranteed by the name Rhadamanthys which is the god
Ra Amenthes, the Lord of the Hidden World, Amenti.
When the spread of gnostic views prepared the
Greek nation for Christianity, the ancient pagan myths
200
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
were not abandoned but transformed. Hesiod tells us in the Tlieogony of the terrible struggle between Zeus and the Titans ; and St. Peter,* when speaking in his second letter of the revolution of the angels that sinned, says that " God hurled them down to Tartarus." The ex- pression, however, is obliterated in the version of King James, for the word rafiayrapaaz (having hurled them to Tartarus) is translated "sent them down to hell."
GiGANTOMACHY ; The Giants Storming Heaven. An ancient Greek frieze.
We read in the Theogony of the battle between Zeus and the monster Typhon (also called Typhoeus) :
"When Zeus had driven the Titans out from heaven, huge Earth bare her youngest born son, Typhoeus, .... whose liands,
indeed, are fit for deeds on account of tlieir strength On his
shoulders there were one hundred heads of a serpent, of a fierce dragon, playing with dusky tongues. From the eyes in his won- drous heads fire struggled beneath the brows. From his terrible mouths voices were sending forth every kind of sound ineffable, — the bellowing of a bull, the roar of a lion, the barking of whelps, and the hiss of a serpent. The huge monster would have reigned over mortals unless the sire of gods and men quickly observed him.
*Or rather the author of the second epistle of St. Peter, so called.
GREECE AND ITALY.
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War in Heaven. After the Revelation of St. Jofin. (By Albrecht Diirer.;
202
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
Harshly he thundered, and heavily and terribly the earth re-echoed around. Beneath Jove's immortal feet vast Olympus trembled, and the earth groaned. Heaven and sea were boiling. Pluto trem- bled, monarch of the dead. The Titans in Tartarus trembled also, but Jove smote T^phoeus and scorched all the wondrous heads of the terrible monster. When at last the monster was quelled, smit- ten with blows, it fell down lame, and Zeus hurled him into wide Tartarus."
CHiM.tRA OF Akezzo. The monster slain by Bellerophon. (Now at Florence.)
This description reminds us not onU' of the Second Epistle of St. Peter, but also of Revelation, xii. 7-9:
"And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon ; and the dragon fought and his angels ; and prevailed not ; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the Devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world ; he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him."
GREECE AND ITALY,
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Thus the old Greek demons merely changed names and reappeared in new personalities. In this shape they were embodied into the canonical books of the New Tes- tament and became the integral part of tlie new religion, which at that time began to conquer the world.
Theseus and Pirithous.
Venturing down to Hades for the purpose of bringing up Persephone, the daughter of Ceres, they are made prisoners and bound by an Erinys. Theseus is at last rescued by Hercules. Pluto holds in his hand a scepter on the top of which sits the dismal owl as an avisfunebris. Persephone carries two cross-torches.
(From an Etruscan Vase. Baumeister, Dcnkmiilcr dcs class. Allcriums.)
The Greek idea of salvation is mirrored in the le- gends of Hercules, Bellerophon, Theseus, Dionysus, and other myths, which had become dear to the Greek mind through the tales of poets and the works of artists.
The powers of evil which Hercules overcomes are represented as a lion, a dragon, a wild boar, harpy-like
204
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
birds, and a bull. In addition be captures the swift bind of Arcadia, be cleanses tbe stables of Augeas, tames tbe man-eating mares of Diomedes, conquers H3^polyte, tbe queen of tbe Amazons, brings tbe oxen of Geryon from tbe far West, and carries Cerberus to tbe upper world.
Perseus With the Head of the Decapitated Medusa.
The soul of the latter is represented as a small figure leaving the body and still
trying to retain the head.
(Terra cotta from Melos. Baumeister, Dcnkmalcr dcs class. AlUrtums.)
Tbe poet Peisander (wlio lived about 650 B. C.) wrote an apotbeosis of Hercules, called the Hciachy^ which contributed much toward idealising the hero.
GREECE AND ITALY
205
Later Greek philosophers, such men as Xenophon and the sophist Prodicus/'' regarded him as the realisation of divine perfection, and now it became customary to look
Perseus and Andromeda. f Picture of an ancient Amphora in Naples. (From Baumeister, D. d. cl. A., p. 1291.)
*Xen., Mem., ii. i. Plato, Symp., 177 B.
f Trendelenburg has discovared a passage commenting on this or a similar pic- ture in Achilles Tatius, and explains it as follows : Andromeda, adorned as the bride of death with girdle, crown, and veil, is tied to two poles. Above her Cupid stands engaged with women in the preparation of a wedding. Andromeda's old nurse hands her a twig. Behind and above the nurse are guards with Phrygian caps and arms. On the left, Cassiopeia, Andromeda's mother, who exhibits the vanity of which the legend accuses her, is seated in conversation with her serv- ants. Underneath Perseus fights the monster, which scene is witnessed by three Nereids, one riding on a sea-horse, one on a dolphin, and the third resembling the typical figure of Scylla. The monster differs here from the typical Medusa figure.
206
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
upon the old legends as perversions of a deeper religious truth. Epictetus, who speaks of Hercules as the saviour,
Sicilian Coin with Medusa-Head. The use of the Triguetra (three legs) is frequent in the three-cornered island. The ears of wheat indicate the proverbial fertility of Sicily, the granary of Rome.
The Gorgoneion on the Shield of Phidias's Athene. The head of the Medusa is surrounded by scenes of a battle with Amazons. One of the fighters (the man with the bald head) is supposed to be a portrait of the artist Phidias.
and as the son of Zeus, says (iii. 24) : "Do you believe all the fables of Homer? "
Hercules is called repeller of e\il {uXeSixaHos) , leader
GoRGONEioN, Ancient Face oh the Gorgon Medusa.
Medusa Rondanini. Beautiful yet ghastly. (Glyptothek, Munich.)
208
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
in the fray (7rpo/ Ho=) ,'=' the celestial {o\vi.inio?) , destroyer of flies, vermin, and grasshoppers {/.iviapyos, Ittohtovo;, Hopvonioav) . He, the solar hero, is identified with Apollo, the sun-god, in the names prophet {navTis) , and leader of the Muses {^/uovffayeTij;) .
; . ''n^
Bellerophon Slaying the Chimera. (A terra cotta statue of Melos, now at the British Museum )
The legends of Perseus are in many respects simi- lar to the tales of Hercules. Perseus, too, the Greek prototj'pe of the Christian St. George, is a divine saviour. Assisted b}^ Athene, he liberates Andromeda, the bride of Death, held captive by the horrible Medusa, a symbol of deadly fright. t
* The Greek Aa/df is not limited to the definition of beautiful as we use the word.
f The Medusa is mentioned by Homer, > 634, as a terrible monster of the Nether
World ; it was used as an amulet to avert evil, and became therefore a favorite de-
GREECE AND ITALY.
209
As a symbol which destroys evil iniluences, the Aledusa-head frequently appears on shields and coins.
Bellerophon is another solar hero. He rides on Pegasus, a mj^thological representation of the thunder- cloud,* and slays the Chimasra, a monster half lion, half goat, representing barbarism and savagery, or some sim- ilar evils.
Some of the tales of divine saviours may be ulti- mately founded upon local Greek traditions, but many features of these religious myths indicate that they were introduced early from the Orient whose religions began to influ- ence the occidental na- tions at the very dawn of their civilisation. Thus Hercules is the Tyrian Baal Melkarth, probably identical with the Baby- lonian Bel, — the con- queror of Tiamat ; and his twelve labors are the deeds of the sun-god in the twelve months of the year. Phoenix-like, lie dies by
The Lion-Killing Hero of KHORSABAD.f
vice on shields. The original of the upper illustration on p. 207 is colored, — which adds to the frightful appearance of this picture found on the Acropolis at Athens,
*The statue reproduced on p. 208 belongs to an older period of Greek art. and the horse Pegasus is not as yet endowed with wings, which became very soon its never-missing attributes. The modern notion that Pegasus is the symbol of poet- ical enthusiasm only dates back to the fifteenth century of our era, and was foreign to the Greek
f Figures of the lion-killing saviour are also found on Asiatic coins and on As- syrian cylinders.
210
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
self-combustion and rises in a transfigured shape from the flames of the pyre. The Jews also appropriated the figure of this solar hero in the shape of Sampson whose strength is conditioned by his hair, as the power of the sun lies in his rays.
In spite of the strong admixture of foreign m3'th- ology, Hercules has become the national hero of Greece, and the Greek idea of salvation has found in him the most t3'pical expression, which has been most beautifully worked out by ^schylus in a grand tragedy which rep-
Prometheus Tied by Zeus to the Stake (or Cross) and Exposed to the Eagle;
Rescued by Hercules.
(A vase found at Chiusi, now in Berlin. Baumeister, D. d. cl. .4 , p. 1410.)
resents Prometheus (the fore-thinker) as struggling and suffering mankind, tied to the pole of misery by Zeus as a punishment for the sin of having brought the bliss of light and fire down to the earth. But at last the divine saviour, Hercules, arrives, and, killing the eagle that lacerates the liver of the bold hero, sets him free.
Prometheus and Hercules are combined into one person in the Christian Saviour, Jesus Chri.st. The sim- ilarity of the story of Golgotha with the mytli of Pro- metheus is not purely accidental. For observe that in some of the older pictures, as for instance in the vase of
GREECE AND ITALY. 211
Chiusi (see illustration on p. 210) , Prometheus is not chained to a rock but tied to a pole, i. e., to a aravpoz or cross, and Greek authors frequently use expressions such as the verb avaaHokoniB.Ba'iiai (uS^scliylus) and avaaxav povaBai (Lucian) which mean "to be crucified."*
Seneca speaks of Hercules as the ideal of the good man who lives exclusively for the welfare of mankind. Contrasting him to Alexander the Great, the conqueror of Asia, he says {De Bene/., I., 14) :
"Hercules never gained victories tor himself. He wandered through the circle of the earth, not as a conqueror, but as a protec- tor. What, indeed, should the enemy of the wicked, the defensor of the good, the peace-bringer, conquer for himself either on land or sea! "
Epictetus praises Hercules frequently and declai^es that the evils which he combated served to elicit his vir- tues, and were intended to try him (I., 6). Zeus, who is identified with God, is called his father and Hercules is said to be his son (III., 26) . Hercules, when obliged to leave his children, knew them to be in the care of God. Epictetus says (HI., 24) :
"He knew that no man is an orphan, but that there is a father always and constantly for all of them. He had not only heard the words that Zeus was the father of men, for he regarded him as his father and called him such ; and looking up to him he did what Zeus did. Therefore he could live happily everywhere."
In Christianity the struggles of the saviour receive a dualistic interpretation and are spiritualised into a vic-
* In the beautiful sarcophagus (see illustration on p. 212) which represents the Prometheus myth, the first design is apparently incomplete ; for we should expect to see Prometheus represented as stealing the fire and offering it to Deukalion.
212
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
GREECE AND ITALY,
213
tory over the temptations of the flesh and other world!}-
passions.
*
The conception of evil as hell received a philosophi- cal foundation in the dualism of Plato who did not shrink from depicting its minutest details ; and his views of the future state of the soul, its rewards in heaven and hell, are in close agreement with Christian doctrines, even in
^'3^'L^^'^yLj':.
3iC:QOQiOO]^jj!aeOH^;C>i{5
The Temptations op Christ. (Seventh century. Mosaic in the cathedral of Monreale, Sicily )
most of their details, with the exception of the doctrine of the transmigration of the soul.
Plato concludes his book on the Republic (X., 614- 621) with the tale of Er, the son of Armenius, a man who had died and come back to life for the purpose of giving information to mankind concerning the other world which might serve to warn people as to what they had to expect in the life to come. Plato says that this Er, a Pamphylian bj^ birth, was slain in battle, but when the dead were taken up his body was found unaffected by decay, and, on the twelfth day, as he was Ij'ing on the funeral pile, he returned to life. Plato continues :
214 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
" He [Er, the son of Armenius] said that when his soul left the body he went on a journey with a great company, and that they came to a mysterious place at which there were two openings in the earth ; they were near together, and over against them were two other openings in the heaven above. In the intermediate space there were judges seated, who commanded the just, after they had given judgment on them and had bound their sentences in front of them, to ascend by the heavenly way on the right hand ; and in like manner the unjust were bidden by them to descend by the lower way on the left hand ; these also bore the symbols of their deeds, but fastened on their backs.
" Er said that for every wrong which they had done to any one they suffered tenfold."
Hell is described as follows :
" 'And this,' said Er, 'was one of the dreadful sights which we ourselves witnessed. We were at the mouth of the cavern, and, having completed all our experiences, were about to reascend, when of a sudden Ardiaeus [the tyrant] appeared and several oth- ers, most of whom were tyrants ; and there were also, besides the tyrants, private individuals who had been great criminals : they were, as they fancied, about to return into the upper world, but the mouth, instead of admitting them, gave a roar, whenever any of these incurable sinners or some one who had not been sufficiently punished, tried to ascend ; and then wild men of fiery aspect, who were standing by and heard the sound, seized and carried them off ; and Ardiaeus and others they bound head and foot and hand, and threw them down and flayed them witli scourges, and dragged them along the road at the side, carding them on thorns Hke wool, and declaring to passers-by what were their crimes, and that they were being taken away to be cast into hell.' And of all the many terrors which they had endured, he said that there was none like the terror which each of them felt at that moment, lest they should hear the voice ; and when there was silence, one by one they as- cended with exceeding joy. These, said Er, were the penalties and retributions, yet there were blessings as great."
GREECE AND ITALY. 215
The idea of the rising and sinking of the wicked in hell is similar to the Buddhist view of Buddhagosha who in his parables (translated by Capt. T. Rogers, R. E., pp. 128-129) tells us how the condemned go up and down like grains of rice in a boiling cauldron. The concep- tions of the mouth of hell, of the fierce tormentors and the various punishments are probably older than Plato ; they reappear in the gnostic doctrines and were retained by Christianity down to the age of the Reformation.
The belief in hell and the anxiety to escape its ter- rors produced conditions which are drastically described by Plato, who says, speaking of the desii'e of the wicked to ransom their souls from a deserved punishment :
"Mendicant prophets go to rich men's doors and persuade them that they have a power committed to them by the gods of making an atonement for a man's own or his ancestor's sins by sac- rifices or charms, with rejoicings and feasts. . . . And they produce a host of books written by Musaeus and Orpheus, who were chil- dren of the Moon and the Muses — that is what they say — accord- ing to which they perform their ritual, and jjersuade not only indi- viduals, but whole cities, that expiations and atonements for sin may be made by sacrifices and amusements which fill a vacant hour, and are equally at the service of the living and the dead ; the latter sort they call mj'steries, and they redeem us from the pain of hell, but if we neglect them no one knows what awaits us."
The dualism that underlies Plato's views began to be taken more seriously by his disciples, the Neo-Plato- nists, and reached an extraordinary intensity in the be- ginning of the Christian era. The philosopher longed for death, and the common people feared the terrors of the next life.
216 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
The philosophical longing for death is satirically' de- scribed in one of the epigrams of Callimachus, who says (No. XXIV) :
"Cleombrot,* he of Ambracia, took leave of the sun m the heavens: Leapt from a wall in the hope Sooner to reach the Beyond;
Not that he e'er had encountered an ill that made life to him hateful ; Merely because he had read Plato's grand book on the soul."
The idea of immortality became more and more ac- cepted by the masses of the people ; but there were many to whom it was no welcome news, for it served only to enhance the fears of man's fate after death. Acquaint-
*
ance with other religions revealed new terrors ever}-- where. The Egyptians' dread of judgment in the nether world, the Jews' horror of Gehenna, the Hindus' longing for an escape from future sufferings, were now added to the Greek notions of Hades, and rendered them more terrible than before. The Christian conception of hell is more fearful and at the same time drastic than any one of the older beliefs jn future punishment.
Lucian tells the story of Peregrinus, surnamed Pro- teus, who after various adventures became a convert to Christianity. He would have been forgotten and his name would never have been mentioned in history but for the fact that in the presence of a great crowd at the Olympian festivals he burned himself to death on a big pile of wood.
All these strange facts were symptoms which illus- trated the religious zeal of the people and characterised
*Cleombrotus may have been the same disciple of Socrates who is mentioned in Phaedo II , p. 59, c. This strange case of suicide is alluded to by St. Augustine in de Civ. Dei, I , 22. — The verses are translated in the original metre.
GREECE AND ITALY. 217
the unrest of the times. Further, Plutarch tells us in his Morals that the superstitious are chastised by "their own imagination of an anguish that will never cease." He says :
" Wide open stand the deep gates of the Hades that they fable, and there stretches a vista of rivers of fire and Stygian cliffs ; and all is canopied with a darkness full of fantasms, of spectres threat- ening us with terrible faces and uttering pitiful cries."
Mr. F. C. Conybeare, in his Monuvients of Ea^-ly Christiatiity^ says, concerning the belief in hell :
"We make a mistake if we think that this awful shadow was not cast across the human mind long before the birth of Christian- ity. On the contrary, it is a survival from the most primitive stage of our intellectual and moral development. The mysteries of the old Greek and Roman worlds were intended as modes of propitia- tion and atonement, by which to escape from these all-besetting terrors, and Jesus the Messiah, was the last and best of the XvT-qpioi 6toi, of the redeeming gods. In the dread of death and in the belief in the eternal fire of hell, which pervaded men's minds, a few philosophers excepted, Christianity had a. point d'appui, with- out availing itself of which it would not have made a single step towards the conquest of men's minds."
And why was Christ a better Saviour than the gods and heroes of Greece? Simply because he was human and realistic, not mythological and symbolical; he was a sufferer and a man, — the son of man, and not a slayer, not a conqueror, not a hero of the ferocious type, ruthless and bloodstained ; he fulfilled the moral ideal which had been set up by Plato, who, perhaps under the impres- sion of -^schylus's conception of the tragic fate of Pro-
218 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
metheus,* saj-s of the perfect man who would rather be than appear just :
"They will tell you that the just man who is thought unjust will be scourged, racked, bound ; will have his eyes burnt out ; and, at last, after suffering every kind of evil, he will be hung up at the pale."
The strang-e.st thing about this passage is that the word ai'ao-jz»'tfi;A£t»S7;afra'z, which means "he will be hung up at the stake," or "fixed on a pale," is an older syno- nym of the New Testament term Gravpotiv, commonly translated "to crucify."
Alluding to Plato, Apollonius, a Christian martyr, declares :
" One of the Greek Philosophers said : The just man shall be tortured, he shall be spat upon, and last of all he shall be crucified. Just as the Athe- nians passed an unjust sentence of death, and charged him falsely, because they yielded to the mob, so also our Saviour was at last sentenced to Christian Gemj death by the lawless." %
In the days of Augustus and his successors the peo- ple were taught to expect salvation, the dispensation of justice, protection, peace, and prosperity from the em- peror ; and just as we have to-day monarchies where the king regards himself as the Anointed One by the grace of God and a representative of God on earth, so the Ro- man emperor arrogated to himself divine honors, and even philosophers such as Seneca did not hesitate to ac-
*See above, page 210,
f This gem (a Christian New Year's present) represents the death of a martyr. The letters AN FT mean annum ncn'itm/ilicim tibi.
X The Apology and Acts of Apollonius, 40-41. Translated by F. C. Conybeare in Monuments 0/ Early Christianity, p. 47.
GREECE AND ITALY. 219
knowledge the claim. The practical significance of this view is that the government should be regarded with re- ligious awe, and its officers, as such, are divine. The Christians who refused to worship before the emperor's images must have appeared to the Romans of those days as anarchists and rebels. But when Nero committed matricide and other most outrageous crimes, the belief in the emperor's divinity dwindled away, and the idea of the suffering God, the man who died on the cross be- cause he would rather be than appear just, gained ground
among the people.
* * *
Christianity was not the only religion which prom- ised deliverance from evil through the saving power of blood and by means of a vicarious atonement, for we know of the immortality-promising mysteries, and espe- cially of the cult of Mithras, which had embodied many ideas and ceremonies that are also met with in Chris- tianity.
The early Christians belonged exclusively to the lower walks of life, and the earliest Church authorities, with few exceptions, were by no means cultured or highly educated persons. Some Christian writers were quite talented men ; but few of the Church fathers can be said to have enjoyed more than a mediocre education. Platonic philosophy, for instance, did not enter into Christian minds directly, but only through the channels of Philo's books. Thus it is natural that Christians were lacking both in knowledge as to the origin of many of their rites and also in critique, and when they were confronted with the same practices and conceptions
220
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
Mithras Monument of Ostburken.
among non-Christians, they were puzzled and found no other explanation for such remarkable coincidences, than
the guiles of Satan. Even the most peculiarly Christian sacrament, the Lord's Supper, was, according to the tes- timony of Justin Martyr, celebrated by the Persians in the same way as by the Chris- tians ; * and Justin is in- genuous enough to attribute this coincidence without the slightest hesitation to the in- fluence of evil spirits. Tertullian is also aware of many similarities between Church institutions and the pagan modes of Mithras worship, which observation prompted
him to declare that ' ' Satan imi- tates the sacraments of God."t The Devil appears to have been very cunning in those daj^s, for if he had not daring spies in heaven, he must himself have anticipated the Lord's plans ; for the pagan institutions spoken of as Satanic imitations, such as the Persian haoma sacri- fice, the eating of consecrated cakes in commemoration
* Apol.. 86.
\ Dei sacramenta Satanas affectat. De exh. cast., 13.
^After Chiflet. reproduced from C. W. King. Two erect serpents stand like supporters, on both sides. Mithras, between the stars of the twins (the Dioscuri), holds the horses of the rising and of the setting sun, or of life and death. Above his head, the raven ; in the sky, the emblems of sun and moon. Underneath, the table with the consecrated bread and the cup of the Eucharist.
MiTHRAic Symbols.};
GREECE AND ITALY,
221
of the dead for the sake of obtaining life immortal are older than Christianity.
The competitors of Christianity which endeavored to
Mithras the Saviour. (Borghesi Monument, now at the Louvre in Paris )*
* The monument bears the inscription " Deo Soli Invicto Mithrae." Mithras sacrifices in a cave a bull for the forgiveness of sins. A dog licks the dripping blood, called "nama sebesion" (the sacred 6uid). A serpent crawls on the ground. A scorpion pinches off the bull's testicles. A youth at the left turns a torch up- wards ; at the right, downwards. A raven, which here looks like an owl, witnesses the scene. Over the cave, the sungod, Helios, and the goddess of the moon, Selene, drive past in their chariots. Whether the sacrifice of the bull was practised or only commemorated is not known. Concerning the significance of the Mithras mysteries little is known, except that initiations were by penances, fasts, self-mortifications, lustrations, and water and fire probations. Baptism was practised, and Mithras was called the mediator for the remission of sin. The most important references besides the monuments are passages in Justin Martyr, Apol., I., 66. and Tertullian, Praescr. haeret , 40. The Mithras cult had many votaries among the Roman sol- diery garrisoned in the northern provinces.
222 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
embody the religious ideals of the age, for various reasons failed to be satisfactory, leaving the field to Christianity, which in its main doctrines was simple and in its morality direct and practical. But it is to be regretted that the fanaticism of Christian monks has almost totally wiped out the traces of other religious aspirations, leaving only scattered fragments, which are, however, very interesting to the historian, partly on account of their similarity to Christianit3^, partly through their dissimilarities.
We know of several Oriental gods who became fash- ionable at Rome, among whom Mithras, the Egyptian Serapis, and lao- Abraxas were the most celebrated.
The influence of Mithras worship on Christianity is well established.* We mention especially the rites of baptism, the Eucharist, facing the Orient in pra3^er, the sanctification of the day of the sun, and the celebration of the winter solstice as the birthday of the Saviour. Con- cerning this latter institution, the Rev. Robert Sinker says in William Smith's Dictionary of Christian Antiqui- ties (pp. 357-8):
"As Mithraicism gradually blended with Christianity, chasnging its name but not altogether its substance, many of its ancient no- tions and rites passed over too, and the Birthday of the Sun, the visible manifestation of Mithras himself, was transferred to the commemoration of the Birth of Christ.
"Numerous illustrations of the above remarks may be found in ancient inscriptions, e. g., SOLI INVICTO ET LUNAE AETERNAE C. VETTI GERMANI LIB. DUO PARATUS
*The mysteries of Mithras were introduced into Greece at the time of Alex- ander. They gained more and more influence until they reached a climax in the second century of the Christian era^ Most of the many monuments which the Mithras worship left all over the Roman empire, especially in Gallia and Germany, date from this period when it had almost become a rival of Christianity.
GREECE AND ITALY. 223
ET HERMES DEDERUNT,* or HAK2 MI0PA ANIKHTIif (Gru- ter, Inscriptiones Anliqiiae, p. xxxiii). In the legend on the reverse of the copper coins of Constantine, SOLI INVICTO COMITI4 retained long after his conversion, there is at once an idea of the ancient Sun-God, and of the new Sun of Righteousness.
"The supporters of this theory cite various passages from early Christian writers indicating a recognition of this view. Tht- sermon of Ambrose, quoted by Jablonsky, is certainly spurious, and is so marked in the best editions of his works ; it furnishes, how- ever, an interesting illustration of an early date. The passage runs thus: 'Bene quodammodo sanctum hunc diem Natalis Domini ^c- ' /em novum wulgus appellat, et tanta sui auctoritate id confirmat, 'ut Judaei etiam atque Gentiles in banc vocem consentiant. Quod 'Hbenter amplectandum nobis est, quia oriente Salvatore, non so- 'lum humani generis salus, sed etiam solis ipsius claritas innova- 'tur.'§ {Se>m. 6, in Appendice, p. 357, ed. Bened.)
"In the Latin editions of Chrysostom is a homily, wrongly ascribed to him, but probably written not long after his time, in which we read: 'Sed &X. Invicti Nalalem appellant. Quis utique 'tam invictus nisi Dominus noster, qui mortem subactam devicit? 'Vel quod dicunt Solis esse Natalem, ipse est Sol Justitiae, de quo ' Malachias propheta dixit, Orietur vobis timentibus nomen ipsius 'Sol Justitiae et sanitas est in pennis ejus.'|| {Scrmo de Nativitalr S. Joannis Baptistae; vol. ii. 11 13, ed. Paris, 1570.
*"To the unconquerable sun and the eternal moon this is given by P. and H,, the two children of C. V. G."
f I. e., Helios (or the sun) Mithras the invincible.
\ "To the invincible Sun, the protector."
§ "Well do the common people call this somehow sacred day of the birth of the Lord 'a new sun,' and confirm it with so great an authority of theirs that Jews and Gentiles concur in this mode of speech. And this should willingly be accepted by us, because with the birth of the Saviour there comes not only the salvation of mankind, but the brightness of the sun itself is renewed."
I " But they call it the birthday of the Invincible (i. e., Mithras). Who, how- ever, is invincible if not our Lord, who has conquered death ? Further, if they say 'it is the birthday of the sun,' He is the sun of righteousness, about whom the prophet Malachi says, ' Unto you that fear my name shall the sun of righteous- ness arise with healing in his wings.'" Observe in this passage that the prophet
224 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
" Leo the Great finds fault with the baneful persuasion of some 'quibus haec dies solemnitatis nostrae, non tarn de Nativitate 'Christi, quam de novi ut dicunt solis ortu, lionorabilis videlur.'* {Serm. 22, § 6, vol. i. p. 72, ed. Ballerini.) Again, the same father ob- serves: 'Sad banc adorandam in caelo et in terra Nativitatem nul- 'lus nobis dies magis quam hodiernus insinuat, et nova etiam in 'elementis luce radiante, coram (al. totam) sensibus nostris mira- 'bilis sacramenti ingerit claritatem.'t (Serm. 26, § i, p. 87.)
" We may further cite one or two instances from ancient Chris- tian poets : Prudentius, in his hymn Ad Natalem Domini, thus speaks {^Cathemerinon, xi. init., p. 364, ed Arevalus) :
'Quid est. quod arctum circulum sol jam recurreos deserit ? Christusne terris nascitur qui lucis auget tramitem ?'|
Paulinus of Nola also {Poema xiv. 15-ig, p. 382, ed. Muratori):
' Nam post solstitium, quo Christus corpore natus Sole novo gelidae mutavit tempora brumae, Atque salutiferum praestans mortalibus ortum, Procedente die, secura decrescere noctes Jussit.'§
Reference may also be made to an extract in Assemani {Bibl. Or. I . 163) from Dionysius Bar-Salibi, bishop of Amida, which shows
thinks of the sun of God after the Babylonian and Egyptian fashion, as having; wings which are of a wholesome or healing influence.
The preceding lines of this quotation from Chrysostom (Hom. 31) plainly state that Christ's birthday has been fixed upon the day of the birth of Mithras : "On this day (the birthday of Mithras) also the birthday of Christ was lately tixed at Rome in order that whilst the heathen were busied with their profane cere- monies, the Christians might perform their holy rites undisturbed."
* " Some to whom this day of our celebration is worthy of honor not so much on account of the birth of Christ as for the sake of the renewal of the sun."
f " But no other day appears to us more appropriate than to-day for worship- ping in heaven and earth the Feast of the Nativity, and while even in the material world (in the elements) a new light shines. He confers on us before our very senses, the brightness of His wonderful sacrament."
\ " Why does the sun already leave the circle of the arctic north ?
Is not Christ born upon the earth who will the path of light increase ? " § "Truly, after the solstice, when Christ is born in the body.
With a new sun he will change the frigid days of the north wind.
While he is offering to mortals the birth that will bring them salvation,
Christ with the progress of days gives command that the nights be declining. '
GREECE AND ITALY.
225
traces of a similar feeling in the East ; also to a passage from an anonymous S3'rian writer, who distinctly refers the fixing of the day to the above cause ; we are not disposed, however, to attach much weight to this last passage. More important for our purpose is the injunction of a council of Rome (743 A.D.): ' Ut nuUus Kalendas Janua- rias et broma (= brumalia) colere praesumpserit'* (can. g, Labb6 vi. 1548), which shows at any rate that for a long time after the fall of heath- enism, many traces of heathen rites still remained."
^on, the lion faced, with key, torch, and measuring staff is a divinity of considerable im- portance in the religion of Mith- ras. He is the Zrvan Akarana (Time unlimited) of the Zcnd- avesta^ not so much a personality as a personified abstraction, repre- senting the primordial state of ex- istence from which Ahura Mazda is born. The serpent's coils that surround his body represent the revolutions of time, his wings the four seasons. His relation to the deities of the Greek pantheon, Hephaestus, ^'Esculapius, Hermes, and Dionysius, is indicated by the presence of their emblems.
* " No one shall celebrate the ist of January and the Brumalia." ,
f The statue here reproduced was found in the Mithraeum of Ostia, where C. Valerius Heracles and his sons dedicated it in the year igo A. D,; it was figured for the first time by Layard in his Recherchcs sur Mithra, Plate LXX. Similar statues are found in various Mithras caves.
.Eon or Zrvan Akarana. Unlimited Time.f
226 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
Mr. W. C. King quotes from Flaminius Vacca (No. 117) the interesting story of the discovery of an ^on statue as follows :
"I remember there was found in the vineyard of Sig. Orazio Muti (where the treasure was discovered), opposite S. Vitale, an idol in marble, about 5 palms high (31^ feet), standing erect upon a pedestal in an empty chamber, with the door walled up. Around him were many little lamps in terra cotta, set with their nozzles towards the idol. This had a lion's head, and the rest of the body that of a man. Under his feet was a globe, whence sprang a ser- pent which encompassed all the idol, and its head entered into his mouth. He had his hands crossed upon the breast : a key in each, four wings fastened upon the shoulders, two pointing upwards, two downwards. I do not consider it a very antique work, being done in a rude manner; or perhaps it is so ancient that at the time it was made the good st^-le was not yet known. Sig. Orazio, how- ever, told me that a theologian, a Jesuit Father, explained its meaning, saying it signified the Devil, who in the time of heathen- ism ruled over the world; hence the globe under his feet ; the ser- pent which begirt him and entered into his mouth, his foretelling the future with ambiguous responses ; the keys in his hands, his sovereignty over the world ; the lion's head, the ruler of all beasts. The wings signified his presence everywhere. Such was the version given by the aforesaid Father. I have done everything to see the idol, but Sig. Orazio being now dead, his heirs do not know what has become of it. It is not unlikely that by the advice of the theo- logian, Sig. Orazio may have sent it to some lime-kiln to cure its dampness, for it had been buried many and many a year."
lao, the god with the adorable name (i. e., Abraxas) ,* bears the cock's head, which is the emblem of ^scula- pius, the god of healing. When Socrates died he re-
* Abrak is Egyptian, and means "bow down" or "adore." The word occurs In the Bible, Gen. 41, 43. Sas (standing for Sadshi) means "name." Abraxas is the name to be adored. (See King, The Gtiostics, p. 36. )
GREECE AND ITALY.
227
quested his friends to sacrifice a cock to y^sculapius be- cause his soul had recovered from the disease of bodily existence. The serpent (the emblem of mystery, of eter- nity, of wisdom, the prophet of the gnosis) walks without feet, and therefore lao is serpent-legged.
The God of Goodness, or Agathodsemon, exercised a great charm upon the minds of the people. He is rep- resented on gems in the shape of a serpent whose head is surrounded with solar rays, hovering about the sacred
Abraxas Gem.*
AoATHOD.'EMON.f
Iao Gem.
cista, the cylindrical box, from which the priest emerged at the celebration of the mj'stery.
The design of the Agathodsemon is as common as the Iao design and that it was used as an amulet appears from a passage of Galen, who says:
"Some, indeed, assert that a virtue of this kind is inlierent in certain stones, such as is in reahty possessed by the green jasper, which benefits the chest and mouth of the stomach, if tied upon
*The inscription reads, "Gabriel Sabaoth," i. e., The strong God Zebaoth. The second P (i. e., A') is a mistake which the stone cutter made for A (i. e., X).
Bellermann, in his remarks on Abraxas-gems, in a "Programm des Grauen Klosters" (Berlin, 1817-1819) describes the gem. The priest of Abraxas carries a serpent coiled up in the form of a ring, and a lance round which entwines another serpent. His head is crowned by a strange head-dress of four feathers (presumably of the Phoenikopteros) and surrounded by three stars.
f From C. W. King. The first line of the inscription is between X crosses ; it is explained to mean " I am the Good Spirit, the Eternal Sun."
228
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
them. Some, indeed, set the stone in a ring and engrave upon it a serpent with his head crowned with rays, according as is pre- scribed by King Nechepsos in his thirteenth book."
How excusable these gnostic superstitions were in those daj's appears from the strange fact that svich a sober man as Galen believed in the efficiency of these amulets. He continues :
"Of this I have had ample experience, having made a neck- lace of such stones and hung it round the patient's neck, descend- ing low enough for the stones to touch the mouth of the stomach, and they proved to be of no less benefit thus than if they had been engraved in the manner laid down by King Nechepsos." (De Simp. Med., IX.)
To us who have grown up under the influence of Christian traditions, the idea of representing the Good God under the allegory of a serpent seems strange, but we must bear in mind that other people and other ages had differ- ent ideas associated with the serpent. To the people of the Orient the limb- less serpent was a s^'mbol of niysterj-, and represented health and immortal- ity. Eusebius (I., 7) informs us :
"The serpent never dies naturally, but only when injured by violence, whence the Phcenicians have named it the good genius (Agathodffimon). Similarly the Egyptians have called him Cneph and given him a hawk's head on account of the special swiftness of that bird."
Serapis, which is a Hellenised form of Osiris-Apis,
GREECE AND ITALY. 229
was a religion which in many respects resembled Chris- tianity. Their sacred symbol was the cross, as we know through Christian authors,''' and Emperor Adrian (no mean authority in such matters) speaks of Serapis wor- shippers as Christians, saying that those who consecrated themselves to Serapis called themselves "bishops of Christ." Even if a local blending of Christianity with the Serapis cult in Egypt had not taken place we must recognise that the monkish institutions of the Serapean temples were an exact prototype of the Christian monas- teries which originated in Egj'pt and flourished there bet- ter than anywhere else.
The Serapis cult was a reformation of the old Egyp- tian Osiris worship, introduced by Ptolemy So- ter for the purpose of adapting the old tradi- tions of Egypt to the Hellenic culture of Alex- andria.
Akin in spirit but independent in its devel- opment, is the worship of the Egyptian Tot, the ibis-headed scribe of the gods. Originally a personifica- tion of the moon. Tot, or Tehuti, was the deity of all measure, and thus his importance grew to signif}- the .divine cosmic order. He is called "Ibis the Glorious," and "the Ibis who proceeded ffoni Ptah." Osiris, the dying and resurrected God, is identified with him as " Osiris the Ibis, the Blessed One." Together with the moon god, Xunsu and Maut, he is worshipped in the trinity Xunsu-Maut-Tehuti as the "child ever being born again." t
*See Socrates, Eccl. Hist., 5, 17, which report is repeated by Sozomenes. ■f-R. Pietschmann. Hermes Trismegistos, p. 7.
230
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
Among the Greeks, Tot was identified with Hermes, who now begins to play a very prominent role as Hermes Trismegistos, the thrice great, the saviour of souls. Hermes is now adored as the first-born son of Zeus, and is even identified with the father of the gods as his repre- sentative and plenipotentiary.
The philosophers of the time bear the stamp of their age. Thus Seneca, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, and other pagan sages are kindred in spirit to the Christian religion ; they are under the influence of Platonism ; they object to the idolatry of pol3'theisni and demand a
Hermes, Saviour ok Souls.
Staff of Hermes.
Hermes as Jupiter.
pure theism ; they speak of the fatherhood of God ; they insist upon moralitj' and are inclined to conceive the soul as di-stinct from, and superior to, the body which is re- garded as its temporal tabernacle, and as the seat, if not cause, of all evil. Yet they are philosophers, not pastors. They are too aristocratic to appreciate their kinship to Christianit^^ They even show a contempt for the re- ligion of the vulgar, and they themselves appeal to the thinkers, not to the toilers, not to the multitudes, not to the poor in spirit.
Graeco- Egyptians developed a religious philosophy upon the basis of ancient Egyptian traditions, compiled
GREECE AND ITALY. 231
in a book called the Divine Pymander* whicli contains many beautiful sayings that remind us of Christian views; hut t\ie^ Divine Pymmzder (like other philosophi- cal books) is addressed to the few not to the many, and its mysticism rendered it unfit to become the religion of mankind.
Apollonius of T3'ana is a figure in many respects similar, but by no means superior, to Jesus Christ. For in him the philosophy of the age becomes a religion. His followers, however, were neither better nor wiser than the early Christians ; they shared with them the same superstitions, cherishing the same trust in miracles, yet for all we know, they had only few of their redeeming features.
Julian, surnamed by Christian authors the Apostate, is in spite of his idealism a reactionary man who set his face against Christianity because he recognised in the latter the most powerful representative of the coming faith. This last pagan emperor, it is true, was a noble- minded and thoughtful man who opposed Christianit}- mainly on account of its shortcomings, its Jewish afifilia- tions, and the narrowness of its devotees, but he was enamored with the past, and his highest ambition was to revive the barbarism of pagan institutions, which tend- ency appears most plainly in his retention of bloody sac- rifices, his esteem for oracles and a general indulgence in the mysteries of Neo-Platonism.
The various schools of post-Christian gnosticism were in all probability the most dangerous competitors of
*The term " Pymander" is commonly explained to mean rroifiyv avdpuv, i. e., "shepherd of man."
232 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
Christianity, which explains the bitterness with which the Church-fathers revile gnostic doctrines. But the gnostics were after all so similar to the Christians that some Church-fathers use the name "Gnostic" as a syno- nym for Christians. Gnostic teachers are looked upon less as strangers than as heretics, and their speculations have been an important factor in the development of Christian dogmas.
The gnostics, as a rule, represent the demiurge, i.e., the architect of the world, whom they identify with the Jewish Yahveh, as the father of all evil. They describe him as irascible, jealous, and revengeful, and contrast him with the highest God who had nothing to do with the creation. As the demiurge created the world, he has a right to it, but he was overcome through the death of Jesus. The demiurge thought to conquer Jesus when he let him die on the cross, but his triiimph was preposter- ous, for through the passion and death of the innocent Jesus the victory of God was won and the salvation of mankind became established.
One peculiarly interesting sect of gnostics is called the Ophites, or serpent worshippers. The demiurge (so they hold) , on recognising the danger that might result from the emancipation of man through gnosis (i. e., knowledge or enlightenment), forbade him to eat from the fruit of the tree of knowledge. But the God, the highest Lord, the all-good and all-wise Deit}-, took compassion on man and sent the serpent to induce him to eat of the tree of knowledge so that he might escape the bondage of ignorance in which Yahveh, the demi- urge, tried to hold him.
GREECE AND ITALY.
233
The serpent appears on many gnostic gems and is never missing in the Mithras monuments. Frequently it is found on Christian devices where it is sometimes diffi- cult to interpret it as the representative of evil.
Irenseus, an adversary of the gnostic view, replaced the demiurge by the Devil, whom he regards as a rebel angel, having fallen by pride and arrogance, envying God's creation {Adv. //o'r., No. 40). He agrees, how- ever, with the gnostics, in that he maintains that the Devil had claims upon man because of man's sin. Jesus,
A Ship Symbolising THE Church.
A Christian Gem with Serpent,
A Gnostic Gem.
however, having paid the debt of mankind, has the power to redeem the souls of men from the clutches of the Devil who, by having treated a sinless man as a sinner, became now himself a debtor of mankind.
This juridical theory of the death of Jesus and his relation to the Devil was further elaborated by Origen. According to Origen the sacrifice of Jesus is not rendered to make an atonement to God or satisfj^ his feeling of justice (which is the Protestant conception) , but to pay off the Devil. Jesus is, as it were, a bait for the Devil. Satan imagines he must destroy Jesus, but having sue-
234
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
ceeded in killing Wm, finds out to his unspeakable regret that he has been outwitted by the Lord. God had set a trap, and the Devil was foolish enough to allow himself to be caught.
Manes, a man educated in the Zoroastrian faith, en- deavored to found a universal religion through the syn- thesis of all the religions he knew ; and because Mani- cheism, as this view is called, contains many Christian elements, it is commonly regarded as a Christian or a gnostic sect, but it was strongly denounced as heretical by St. Augustine. Manes taught the Persian dualism,
Christian Symbols of the Catacombs.
but St. Augustine, who formulated the orthodox Chris- tian doctrine denying the independent existence of evil, explains the presence of sin in the world by the free will with which Adam was endowed at creation, and regards evil as a means to an end in God's plan of education.
Christianity triumphed over paganism, and it did so by embodying in its fabric everything that in those days was regarded as true and good and elevating. Thus the adoration of statues and images, at first so vehemently denounced by Christians as heathenish, was reintroduced with all the pagan methods of worship, the burning of
GREECE AND ITALY.
235
incense, processions, sprinkling with lioly water, and other rituals. The old symbol of the labarum was inter- preted as the monogram of Christ ; and the sacred mark of two intersecting lines, a religious emblem of great an- tiquity, was identified with the cross of Golgotha. The figure of two intersecting lines was a mark of salvation among the Syrians and other nations, and the probability is that it represented the four quarters of the compass ;* but now since is was called a cross, it recovered in a higher degree its traditional reputa- tion as a powerful magic charm and was extensively used for exorcisms. t There is no doctrine on which the Christian fathers so thor- oughly agree as on the belief that the Devil is afraid of the cross.
The Greek gods were regarded as demons by the early Christians, but the ideas which found expression in the mythology of Greece, in the tales of Greek deities
*The equilateral cross o£ Paganism is frequently, though not always, orna- mented with four dots, one in each corner. We believe we are not mistaken when we interpret the dots as emblems of the sun in its four respective positions, in the east, south, west and north. Egyptian wall-pictures show the Apis covered with this sacred symbol, (see e. g. Lenormant, L'Hist. Anc. de T Orient , V., 183,) and it serves as a not uncommon pattern on the dresses of various Greek deities.
\ For further details see the author's articles on The Cross, Its History and Significance in Tlie Open Court, 1899 and igoo. Their publication in book form is contemplated by The Open Court Publishing Co.
I From Egyptian monuments of the eighteenth dynasty. (After Wilkinson.) The same use of the cross, as an amulet worn round the neck, was made in Greece, as we know from ancient pictures, published by Gerhard.
Aram.^an Warriors, Wearing the Cross as an Amulet for Pro- tection IN Battle. I
236
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
and heroes, were retained and Christianised. The old Greek saviours simply changed names and became Chris- tian saints, or at least contributed important features to the legends of their lives.
Christianity is a religion of peace, but the Western nations are warlike, and at the very beginning of the Christian era the need was felt to have the spirit of bel-
St. Anthony Fighting the Devil With THE Cross. See pp. 239-240. (After Salvator Rosa.)
St. George, the Princess, and the
Dragon.
(Traditional representation.)
ligerency consecrated b}' religious sentiment and repre- sented in struggling saints and angels.
The Christian patron saint of fighters is St. George, and it is natural that the English, who among the Chris- tian nations are not the least pious and at the same time not the least belligerent, have chosen the name of St. George for their battle-cry.
GREECE AND ITALY. Ill
The legend and pictures of St. George remind ns strongly of the m3'ths of Perseus. In its Christian form the tale appears first in the Legendce Sanctorum of Jaco- bus de Voragine, who tells us of a pagan cit^^ the neigh- borhood of which was infested by a dragon that had to be appeased by human sacrifices. The monster was finally slain by St. George, a chivalrous Christian knight, who arrived at the moment the king's daughter was offered as a victim. The princess, at the request of the knight, tied her girdle round the dragon's neck, who now, although the beast had been reported dead, rises and follows the virgin like a tame lamb to the city. The people are frightened by the sight, but St. George kills him once more, this time for good. St. George is richly rewarded, but he distributes his wealth among the poor, converts the King and his subjects to Christianity, and goes to another land, where he dies a martyr's death.
The historical St. George, an archbishop of Alexan- dria and a follower of Arius, possesses no features what- ever of the heroic dragon-slayer of the legend. According to the unanimous report of Christian and pagan histo- rians, he was an abject, cringing fellow, and when he had attained the high position of archbishop, proved a cruel and extortionate tyrant who was greatly hated by the people. He was deposed by the worldly authorities and put in jail on Christmas eve, 361. But his enemies, mostly poor people belonging to his diocese, grew tired of the delay of the law ; a mob broke open the prison doors and lynched the deposed archbishop on January 17, 362. His violent death was later on regarded as a suffi- cient title to the glory of the mart3'r's crown. The most
238
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
important service he rendered the Church consisted in the fact, that the official recognition of an Arian saint helped to reconcile the followers of Arius.
Gelarius seems to be the first Roman Catholic Pope who mentions St. George, and he knows nothing of his life, but counts him among those saints "who are better
Archangel Michael Conquering
Satan.
(By Raphael. In the Louvre.)
Archangel Michael Holding the
Scales for Weighing Souls.*
(After Lorenzo Sabbatieri.)
known to God than to mankind.""!' It is difficult to say whether His Holiness was conscious of the iron}- of this passage.
It is an unsolved problem how St. George could have been identified with the dragon-slaying deities of ancient
* Reproduced from Scheible, Das A'/oslcr, \ Qui Deo miig'is (/nam lioim'm'lnis noli sunt.
GREECE AND ITALY. 239
pagan mytliolog'ies. The connecting links are missing, but it is probable that there is no deeper reason than a similarity in the sound of names. Perhaps a solar deity was somewhere worshipped under the name ysaypyo?, i. e., tiller of the ground, because tlie civilisation of agriculture overcame the dragon of savage barbarism.
The final conqueror of the dragon, however, is not St. George, but the Archangel Michael, who, on the day of judgment, plays the part of Zeus defeating the giants and Typhaeus, or the Teuton God Thor, slaying the Mid- gard serpent ; and when the victory is gained Michael will hold the balances in which the souls are weighed.
The belligerent spirit did not remain limited to Michael and St. George, but was also imputed to other saints who proved their prowess in various ways in their encounters with the Evil One. St. Anthony, of Egj'pt (251-356) , the founder of the Christian monastery sys- tem, is reported to have battled with evil spirits in the desert near Thebes, whither he withdrew from the world to practise severe penances. His heroic deeds, which consist of frightful struggles with the demons of his im- agination, have been recorded bj^ the good Bishop Atha- nasius, whose book on the subject is of special interest because it contains an essay written by St. Anthony him- self, containing the gist of his wisdom and experience in struggling with evil spirits.* The artistic genius of Sal- vator Rosa gave a concrete plausibility to the story in a highly dramatic picture illustrating the combat in a crit-
*See the Acta Sanctortim of the Bolandists tor January 17, which is observed as St. Anthony's day. In addition there are several Latin translations o£ St. An- thony's letters extant in the Bibliot'itia Patrum.
240 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
ical moment when only the cross saved the undaunted saint from defeat during a daring onslaught of the fiend in his most horrible shape. (See the illustration on page 236.)
There can scarcely be anj' doubt that the original doctrine of Jesus of Nazareth was an ethics of peace ; not only peacefulness and gentleness of mind in general, but peace at any price, and a non-resistance to evil. The warlike spirit among later Christians and the worship of belligerent archangels and saints were introduced into the writings of the early Church from pagan sources and the importance of this phase of Christianity grew with its expanse among the energetic races of the North. The Teutonic nations, the Norsemen, the Germans, the Anglo- Saxons and their kin, whose conversion is the greatest conquest Christianity ever made, proved no less belliger- ent than the Greek and Roman, but they were their su- periors in strength, in generosity, in fairness toward their enemies, and in purity oi morals.
THE DEMONOLOGY OF NORTHERN EUROPE.
THE religion of the Teutons was in the main a religion of fighters, and we do not hesitate to say that they, more than any other people on earth, developed the ethics of struggle. War, strife, and competition, are frequently regarded as in themselves detestable and immoral, but the Teutons discovered that life means strife, and that therefore courage is the root of all virtue. Their highest ideal was not to shrink from the unavoidable, but to face it squarely and unflinchingly. Their chief god was the god of war, and their noblest consummation of life was death on the battlefield. They despised the coward who was afraid of wounds and death. They respected and even honored their enemies if they were but brave. They scorned deceit and falsity and would rather be hon- estly defeated than gain a victory by trickery. And this view did not remain a mere theory with them, but was practised in life. The Teutons were repeatedly defeated by the Romans, by Marius, Caesar, and others who were less scrupulous in their methods of fighting, but in the long run they remained victorious and built a Teutonic empire upon the debris of Rome.
242 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
Hel, the Goddess of the Nether World (By Johannes Gehrts.
DEMONOLOGY OF NORTHERN EUROPE. 243
The idea of evil played an important part in the re- ligion of the Teutons.
Loki, the god of fire, the cunning mischief-maker among the Asas, is believed to have brought sin and evil into the world. In the younger Edda, Loki takes part in the creation of man, whom he endows with the senses, passions, and evil desires. Loki's children are (1) the Fenris wolf, (2) the Jormungauder, i. e., the Midgard ser- pent, and (3) Hel, the queen of Nifelheim, the world of the dead.
Loki induced the gods to build fortifications, for which the architect, who was one of the giants and an enemy of the gods, should, if he finished his woi-k in a stipulated time, receive as remuneration Freyja, the goddess of beauty and love. But when it became ap- parent that the walls would be soon completed, Loki, true to his treacherous character, assisted the gods in cheating the architect. He further helped the giant Thjasse to steal Idun with her immortality-giving gol- den apples. Only when the gods threatened to punish him did he become accessory iu bringing Idun back again. The worst deed which Loki accomplished was the death of Baldur, the god of light and purity. After that he was outlawed and resided no longer in Asgard. But he came back and mocked the gods when they were assembled at ^gir's banquet. At last he was captured and in punishment for his crimes tied upon three pointed rocks right beneath the mouth of a serpent. Sigyn, Loki's wife, remains with him to catch the dripping venom in a bowl, which from time to time she empties. Whenever the bowl is withdrawn the venom drops into Loki's face
244
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
and he writhes with pain, which makes the world tremble in what men call earthquakes.
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The most remarkable feature of Teutonic m3'thology is the conception of doomsday or Ragnarok (the twiliijht
DEMONOLOGY OF NORTHERN EUROPE. 245
of the gods), boding a final destruction of the Avorld, in- cluding all the gods. At present the powers of evil are fettered and subdued, but the time will come when they will be set loose. Loki, the Feniis wolf, the Midgard ser- pent, and Hel, with their army of frost giants and other evil beings, will approach; Heimdall, the watchman of the gods, will blow his horn, and the Asas prepare for battle. The combat on the field Vigrid will be inter- necine, for the Asas are to die while killing the monsters of wickedness whom they encounter, and the flames of Muspil will devour the wrecks of the universe.
The world had a beginning, it therefore must come to an end ; but when the world is destroyed a new heaven and a new earth will rise from the wreck of the old one, and the new world will be better than the old one. Leif- thraser and his wife Lif (representing the desire for Life and potential Life) remained concealed during the catas- trophe in Hodmimer's grove and were not harmed by the flames. They now become the parents of a new race that will inhabit the new abode, called Giviel (the Ger- man Himniet) , and among them will be found Odhiu with his sons, Thor, Baldur, Fro, and all the other Asas.
Christianity Teiitonised.
When Christianity spread over Northern Europe it came into contact with the Teutonic and Celtic nations, who added new ideas to its system and transformed sev- eral characteristic features of its world-view. Christianitj- to-day is essentially a Teutonic religion. The ethics of Christianity, which formerly was expressed in the sen- tence "Resist not evil," began, in agreement with the
246 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
combative spirit of tlie Teuton race, more and more to emphasise the necessity of struggle. Not only was the figure of Christ conceived after the model of a Teutonic war-king, the son of the emperor, while his disciples be- came his faithful vassals ; not only did the archangels assume the features of the Asas, the great northern gods, Wodan, Donar, Fro, and others; not only were the old pagan feasts changed into Christian festivals ; the Yuletide became Christmas and the Ostara feast in the spring was celebrated in commemoration of Christ's res- urrection ; but the individual features of the evil pow- ers of the North were also transferred to Satan and his host.
Teutonic legends and fairy tales frequently mention the Devil, and there he possesses many features that re- mind us of Loki. In addition, the ice giants of the Norse- men, the Nifelheim of the Saxons, the Nether-world of the Irish, all contributed their share to the popular no- tions of the Christian demonology of the Middle Ages. The very name "hell" is a Teutonic word which origi- nally signified a hollow space or a cave underground, and denotes the realm of Hel, Loki's daughter. The weird and terrible appearances of the gods, too, were retained for the adornment of demoniacal legends ; and Odhin as storm-god became "the wild hunter."
Dr. Ernst Krause, who is best known under his nam dc plume of Cams Sterne, has undertaken the work of proving the Northern influence upon Southern fairy tales and legends.* He finds that all the m_vths which .symbolise the death and resurrection of tlie sun, giving
* Die Trojabiirgeti Nord-Euiopas. Glogau. Carl Flemming, 1S93.
DEMONOLOGY OF NORTHERN EUROPE. 247
rise to the idea of immortality, doomsday, and tlie final restoration of the world, have originated in Northern countries where on Chri.^tmas day the sun that seemed lost returns spreading again light and life. Our philol- ogists believe that the Nibelungenlied contains features of Homer's great epics; but, according to Dr. Krause, it would seem that the original source of the Nibelungenlied is older than Homer, an(^ that the theme of the Voluspa, the first song of the Edda, being a vision that proclaims the final destruction and degeneration of heaven and earth, antedates Christ's prophecies of the coming judg- ment. (Matt., 24.) Christianity comes to us from the Orient, but the idea that a God will die and be resur- rected is of Northern origin.
Dr. Krause proceeds to prove that the conception of hell as depicted in Dante's Divina Comedta, which may be regarded as the classical conception of Roman Catho- lic Christianity, is in all its essential elements the pro- duct of a Northern imagination.* Dante followed closel\- Teutonic traditions, which in his time had become a com- mon possession in the Christian world through the writ- ings of Saxo Grammaticus, Beda Venerabilis, Albericus, Caedmon, Caesarius of Heisterbach, and others. It is specially noteworthy that the deepest hell of Dante's In- ferno is not, as Southern people are accustomed to de- scribe the place of torture, a burning sulphur lake, but the wintry desolation of an ice-palace. That this ice hell can be traced back to the days of Gnosticism would only prove that this Northern influence may, in many of its most characteristic features, date back to a prehistoric age.
* I'ossische Zeitung, 1896, Feb. 2, g, 10 ; Sonntagsbeilagen.
248
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
Dante's vision is by no means the product of his own imagination. It embodies a great number of old tradi- tions. Dante reproduced in his description of Satan and hell the mythological views of the North so popular in his days. His cantos not only remind us of Ulysses's and Virgil's journey to the Nether-world, but also and mainly of Knight Owain's descent into St. Patrick's Pur-
Dante's Ice Hell (By Gustave Dore.)
gatory in Ireland, and of the vision of hell as described by Beda, Albericus, and Chevalier Tundalus. In the last song of the Inferno, Dante describes the residence of the sovereign of hell, which is surrounded by a thick fog, so as to make it necessary for the poet to be led by the hand of his guide. There the ice-palace stands almost inacces- sible through the cold blizzards that blow about it ; and
DEMONOLOGY OF NORTHERN EUROPE. 249
there the ruler of hell and his most cursed fellows stand with their bodies partly frozen in the transparent ice.
Dante's portraiture of the evil demon whom he calls ' ' Dis ' ' agrees exactly with the appearance of the princi- pal Northern deity of evil, as he was commonly revered among the Celts, the Teutons, and the Slavs. Dis has three faces : one in front, and one on each side. The mid- dle face is red, that on the right side whitish-yellow, that on the left side, black. Thus the trinity idea was trans- ferred to Satan on account of the ill-shaped idols of the crude art of Northern civilisation. Dante's description of Dis reminds us not only of the three-headed hoar-giant of the Edda, Hrini-Grimnir, who lives at the door of death, but also of the trinity of various pagan gods, espe- cially of Trigiaf, the triune deity of the Slavs.
When Bishop Otto of Bamberg converted the Pome- ranians to Christianity, he broke, in 1124, the three- headed Trigiaf idol in the temple of Stettin and sent its head to Pope Honorius II. at Rome. Dr. Krause sug- gests that since Dante, who as an ambassador of Florence visited Rome in 1301, must have seen with his own eyes the head of the Pomeranian Trigiaf, it is by no means impossible that he used it as a prototype for the descrip- tion of his trinitarian Satan.
TIic Giants.
It is interesting to observe the transformation of the old Teutonic giants who were plain personifications of the crude forces of nature, into Christian devils. North- ern mythology represents the giants, be they mountain- giants, storm-giants, frost-giants, fog-giants, or what not,
250 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
as stupid, and they are frequently conquered by the wis- dom of the gods, or by human cunning and invention. There are innumerable legends which preserve the old conception and simply replace the names of giants by devils; and we can observe that all the conquests of man over nature are, in the old sense of the Teutonic m3-th- ology, described as instances in which giants or devils are outwitted in one way or another.
The giants, as representatives of mountains, forests, rivers, lakes, and the soil of the earth, are always bent on collecting the rent that is due to the owner of the land, for men are merely tenants of the earth , which by right belongs to the giants. The giants envy men their com- fort and try to destroy their work. Thus the fog-giant Grendel appears at night-time in the hall of King Hrodh- gar and devours at each visit thirty men. Beowulf, the sun -hero, fights with him and cuts off his arm ; he then encounters Grendel's mother, the giantess of the marsh whence the fog rises, and finally succeeds in killing both Grendel and his mother.
The parades of giant families which form an impor- tant feature of Dutch and Flemish carnivals may be a relic of older customs representing visits of the lords of the ground collecting their rents, which is given in re- freshments while the people sing the giant-song* with the refrain :
"Keer u eens otn, reuzjen, reiizjen!" [Return once more little giant, little giant.]
* Floegel's Geschichle des Grotesk-h'omischen, by Ebeling, p. 286, quotes the giant-song as sung in Ypern.
DEMONOLOGY OF NORTHERN EUROPE. 251
Burying Alive.
The pi"ivilege of collecting rent whicli the forces of nature, be they gods, demons, or giants, and later on in their stead, the Devil, were supposed to possess, led to the idea of offering sacrifices in payment of the debt due to the powerful and evil-minded landlords, the owners of the soil. And this notion resulted in the superstition of burying alive either human beings or animals, a practice which at a certain stage of civilisation probably was all but universal and received even the sanction of the God of Israel.*
Grimm says {Mythology^ p. 109) :
" Frequently it was regarded as necessary to entomb within tlie foundation of a building living creatures and even men, an act which was regarded as a sacrifice to the soil which had to endure the weight of the structure. By this cruel custom people hoped to attain permanence and stability for great buildings."
There are innumerable stories which preserve rec- ords of this barbaric custom, and there can be no doubt that many of them are historical and that the practice continued until a comparatively recent time. We read in Thiele {Ddnische Volkssagen^ I., 3) that the walls of Co- penhagen always sank down again and again, although they were constantly rebuilt, until the people took an in- nocent little girl, placed her on a chair before a table, gave her toys and sweets, and while she merrily played, twelve masons covered the vault and finished the wall, which since that time remained stable. Scutari is said to have
* 1 Book of Kings, xvi. 34.
252 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
been built in a similar way. A ghost appeared while the fortress was in the process of building, and demanded that the wife of one of the three kings who should bring the food to the masons on the next day should be entombed in the foundation. Being a young mother, she was per- mitted to nurse her baby, and a hole was left for that purpose which was closed as soon as the child was weaned.
We read in F. Nork's Sitten tind Gebrduche {Das Kloster, Vol. XII.) that when in 1813 the ice broke the dam of the river Elbe and the engineers had great trouble in repairing it, an old man addressed the dike-inspector, saying : " You will never repair the dike unless 3'ou bury in it an innocent little child," and Grimm adduces even a more modern instance {Sagen^ p. 1095) which dates from the year 1843. "When the new bridge in Halle was built," Grimm tells us, " the people talked of a child which should be buried in its foundations."
So long did these superstitions continue after the cruel rite had been abandoned; and they were held, not only in spite of the higher morality which Christianity taught, but even in the name of Christianity. In Tom- maseo's Canti Popiilari an instance is quoted of the voice of an archangel from heaven bidding the builders of a wall entomb the wife of the architect in its foun- dation. The practice is here regarded as Christian and it is apparent that there are instances in which Christian authorities were sufficiently ignorant to sanction it, for even the erection of churches was supposed to require the same cruel sacrifice; and there were cases in which, ac- cording to the special sanctity of the place, it was deemed
DEMONOLOGY OF NORTHERN EUROPE- 253
necessary to bury a priest, because children or women were not regarded as sufficient. In Giinther's Sagenbuch des Deutschen Volkes (Vol. I., p. 33 ff.) we read that the Strassburg cathedral required the sacrifice of two human lives, and that two brothers He buried in its foundation.
The Power of Evil Outwitted.
The presence of all the big bowlders that lie scattered in the low lands of Germany is attributed either to giants or to the devils ; they are sometimes said to be sand- grains which giants removed from their shoes, or they were thrown down in anger when they found themselves cheated out of their own by the wit of mortals.
There is a Aldrcken of a farmer who undertook to till heretofore uncultivated ground and the Devil (that is to say, the giant who owned the land and had seen nothing except sterile rocks and desolate deserts) gazed with astonishment at the green plants that sprang from the earth. He demanded half the crop, and the farmer left him his choice whether he would take the upper or the lower half. When the Devil chose the lower half, the farmer planted wheat, and when the upper half, he planted turnips, leaving him now the stubble and now the useless turnip tops. Whichever way the Devil turned be was outwitted.*
The story came in its migration south to Arabia, where it was discovered by Friedrich Riickert,who retold it in his poem "The Devil Outwitted,"! which Mr. E.
* Grimm, Marchcn, No. 189. Deutsche Mythologie, No. 981. Miillenhoff. No. 377. Thiele, Datiische Sagen, No. 122. \Der betrogene Teufel.
254 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
F. L. Gauss, of Chicago, has kindl3' translated for the special purpose of quotation in this connection :
" The Arabs tilled their fields align, Then came the Devil in a flare Protesting : ' Half the world is mine, Of your crops, too, I want my share.'
'• The Arabs said, for they are sly,
' The lower half we'll give to thee,' But the Devil, always aiming high, Replied : ' It shall the upper be !'
" They turnips sowed all o'er their field, And when he came to share the crops, The Arabs took the subsoil yield, And the Devil got the turnip tops-
" And when another 3'ear came round The Devil spoke in wrathful scorn : 'To have the lower half I'm bound ! ' The Arabs then sowed wheat and com,
" When came the time again to share.
The Arabs took the sheaves pell-mell. The Devil took the stubbles bare And fed with them the fire of hell."
There are innumerable other legends of stupid devils. A miller of the Devil-mill in Kleinbautzen tied the Devil to the water- wheel.''' A smith who for his hospitality once had a wish granted by Christ, bewitched the Devil and placed Lucifer, the chief of devils, on his anvil, which frightened him so much that the smith, when he died, was not admitted to hell.t And there is a humorous Ger- man folk-song of a tailor, which begins :
*Preusker, Blicke in div I'utcrlandischc Vorzeit, I,, p, 182. \ Mentioned in Grimm's Mdrchcn.
DEMONOLOGY OF NORTHERN EUROPE.
155
A tailor went to wander,
On Monday, in tin- morn. And there he met the Devil,
His clothes and shoes all torn. Hey, tailor, follow me ! In hell the boys need thee ;
For thou must clothe the devils Whatever the cost may be.
The tailor, on arriving in hell, maltreated all the devils with his tailor utensils in the attempt at dres.sing
St. Dunstan and the Devil. (Reproduced from Scheible.)
them, and they swore that they would never again allow a tailor to come near them, even though he might have stolen ever so much cloth.'''
Another comical story is told of Dunstan, abbot of Glaston, later archbishop of Canterburj'. While busily
* Translated by tha author. The song may be found in various collections of German folksongs. Its first verse runs :
" Es woUt ein Schneider wandern, "He, he, du Schneidergesoll,
Des Montags in der Fruh. Du musst mit mir zur Holl,
Begegnet ihm der Teufel. Du sollst die Teufel kleiden.
Hat weder Kleider noch Schuh lis koste was es woll."
256 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
engaged in the fabrication of a Eucharist cup, the Devil suddenly appeared to him. But the saint was not afraid ; he took the pincers out of the fire and seized the nose of Satan, who ran off with a howl and never again dared to molest him. The event is commemorated in an old rhyme, thus :
" St. Dunstan, as the story goes, Once pulled the Devil by the nose With red-hot tongs, which made him roar That he was heard three miles or more."
An act of bravery is told of St. Cuthbert. Sir Guy Le Scoope (as Thomas Ingoldsby tells us, closely follow- ing the chronicle of Bolton) expected company, but find- ing at the appointed hour the banquet hall empty, because the guests had been kept away through a bad joke of the inviting messenger, he called on the Devil and ten thou- sand fiends to eat the dinner and take all that was there with them to the infernal regions. The Devil came with his devilish company and all the folk of Sir Guy fled, leav- ing the little heir behind, who was at once seized by Black Jim, the leader of the fiendish company. In his anxiety Sir Guy cried to St. Cuthbert of Bolton, who actually made his appearance in the shape of an old palmer and forced the demoniac crowd to surrender the child, but he generously allowed them to remain as the guests of Sir Guy, adding:
" 'But be moderate, pray, — and remember thus much, Since you're treated as Gentlemen, shew yourselves such,
And don't make it late, But mind and go straight Home to bed when you've finished — and don't steal the plate .' Nor wrench cff the knocker — or bell from the gate.
DEMONOLOGY OF NORTHERN EUROPE.
257
Walk away, like respectable Devils, in peace,
And don't " lark " with the watch or annoy the police ! '
Having thus said his say, That Palmer grey Took up little Le Scoope and walk'd coolly away. While the Demons all set up a ' Hip ! hip ! hurray ! '
0W \;M:^' ' ■^|-''^i^il^f 5^
The Legend of St. Cuthbert. (From the Ingoldsby Legends.)
Then fell tooth and claw on the victuals, as they Had been guests at Guildhall upon Lord Mayor's day, All scrambling and scuffling for what was before 'em. No care for precedence or common decorum."
Still another stor3- of saintl3' courage is told of St. Medard, who while once promenading on the shore of
258
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
the Red Sea in Egypt, saw Old Nick carrying in a bag a number of lost sinners. The saint took compassion on the poor souls and slit Satan's bag open, whereupon Old •Nick's prisoners escaped.
^^ ->^^"^^
The Legend of St. Medard. (From the /n^'oldsby Lc^rends )
" Away went the Quaker, — away went the Baker, Away went the Friar — that fine fat Ghost,
Whose marrow Old Nick Had intended to pick, Dressed like a Woodcock, and served on toast !
" Away went the nice littk- Cardinal's Niece,
And the pretty Grisettes, and the Dons from Spain,
And the Corsair's crew. And the coin-clippinf:; Jew, And they scamper'd, like lamplighters, over the plain !
DEMONOLOGY OF NORTHERN EUROPE. 259
" Old Nick is a black-looking fellow at best, Ay, e'en when he's pleased ; but never before
Had he looked so black As on seeing his sack Thus cut into slits on the Red Sea shore."
Old Nick took up a stone and threw it at the saint.
" But Saint Medard Was remarkably hard And solid about the parietal bone."
The stone recoiled.
" And it curl'd, and it twirl'd, and it whirl'd in the air, As this great big stone at a tangent flew !
Just missing his crown, It at last came down Plump upon Nick's Orthopedical shoe !
" It smashed his shin, and it smash'd his hoof, Notwithstanding his stout Orthopedical shoe ;
And this is the way That, from that same day, Old Nick became what the French call Boilcux !"
One of the oldest triumphs of human skill in bridge- building gave rise to the M'drchen of the Devil's Bridge which boldly overspans the yawning gorge of the Reuss where the mountain road passes up to the furca of the St. Gotthard. A new bridge has been l)uilt by engineers of the nineteenth century right above the old one ; but the old one remained for a long time in its place, until it broke down in recent years. The legend goes that a shepherd-lad engaged the Devil to build the bridge on the condition that the soul of the first living creature that crossed it should be forfeited. When the work M-as fin- ished the lad drove a chamois over the bridge, which, seeing that he was cheated out of the price he had ex- pected, the Devil wrathfully lore into pieces.*
* Grimm. Deutsche Sageti, 336. and Tobler, Afpenzellcy Sprachschatz, 214.
260
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
All these stories are Christianised pagan notions of evil conquered either through cleverness and wit or by divine assistance ; and even the church doctrines of sin
s^-
The Devil's Bridge Over the Reuss.
and salvation are based upon pre-Christian conceptions ultimately dating back to human sacrifices and the mys- tic rites of cannibalism in wliich man hoped to partake of
DEMONOLOGY OF NORTHERN EUROPE. 261
divinit}' and immorlalit^' by eating the flesh and drinking the blood of his incarnated God or his representative.
The Christian scheme of salvation may be briefly called the vicarious atonement of man's sin through the blood of Christ. God's wrath upon the guilty human race is purified through the sufferings and death of tlie innocent god-man. Divine Justice is satisfied by the sac- rifice of Divine Love.
The mystery of this doctrine and also of the doctrine of original sin, which in its literal sense can hardly be regarded as commendable, has a deep sense which appears when we consider the organic unity of the human race. We not onl^' inherit the evil consequences of our ances- tors' evil deeds, but we actually consist of their evil dis- positions themselves. Thus the sin of our fathers is our curse because it is our own, and, in the same way, the merit of our brothers becomes, or may become, our own blessing. We can easily share in the benefit that will ac- crue from inventions or other advances made by one man if we are only willing to accept the lesson which his ex- ample teaches.
The idea of a salvation through vicarious atonement has grown dimmer of late. The old interpretation re- minding us of the bloody sacrifices of savages is begin- ning to wane, although it can scarcely be regarded as entirely abandoned ; it is not surrendered but merely transformed, and may now be called the idea of salvation through sacrifice.
THE DEVIL'S PRIME.
A
Miracles and Magic.
LATIN proverb says: "5/ duo faciniit idem., non est idem " (if two do the same thing, it is not the
Modern Snake Charmers. (Reproduced from Brehm.)
same ihins^) ; and this is true not only of individuals, but also of nations and of religions. It is a habit common
THE devil's prime.
263
among all classes of people to condone the faults of their own kind but to be severe with those of others. The or- acles of Delphi were divine to a Greek mind, but they were of diabolical origin according to the judgment of Christians. Jesus was a magician in the eyes of the pa- gans, while the Christians worshipped him as the son of God, and a man who performed miracles.
Moses and Aaron Performing the Sn/vke Miracle Before Pharaoh. (After Schnorr von Carolsfeld.)
The priests of Pharaoh and Moses perform the same tricks still performed by the snake charmers of Eg^^pt and India, but the deeds of Moses alone are regarded as miracles, and the Israelites claim that he could accom- plish more than the Egj'ptians. Father Juan Bautista (of about 1600) tells us that among the natives of Mexico
264
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
there are magicians who "conjure the clouds, and can make a stick look like a serpent, a mat like a centipede, a stone like a scorpion, and similar deceptions."*
Simon Magus and his disciples were believed by the early Christians to possess power over demons ;t but Simon was a competitor of the Apostles, and therefore his deeds were not regarded as divine. Before an impartial tribunal the methods and aspirations of both parties would
The Egyptian Snake Naja Haje maue Motionless by Pressure on the Neck.^ (Reproduced from Verworn after photographs.)
resemble one another more than the one-sided statements of Christian authors at first sight seem to warrant. The accusation made against Simon b.y Luke, of having offered money to the Apostles for communicating to him the Holy Ghost, does not prove a depravity of heart, as the later Christians thought ; for Simon took the rebuke
*Cf. J'our/einlli Atnnial Kef'orl of the B. of Ktli., i8g2-i8()3, p. 150. \h'en. adf. hat'r.^ I., 20-2 r ; Justin Ma7'tyy., App, II , pp. 69-70; E-piphan. ad. hair., XXII., i ; Euseb., //. E., II., p. 13.
JThe snake resembles a stick ; still it is not stiff but flaccid and pliant.
THE devil's prime. 265
in tlie proper spirit and apparently remained on gocd terms witli the Apostles. The reports of the church fathers which make Peter and Simon rivals in working miracles, develop the story in the spirit of the age ; they characterise the superstitions of the time; yet, although they probably reflect historical facts, they are as unreli- able as are the charges of pagan authors hurled against the Christians.
The early Christians practised healing the sick by the laying on of hands and by praying ; so did the Thera- peutse and other Gnostics ; yet faithcure and Christian science are not countenanced by the churches to-day.
Minucius Felix* puts the common notions, which in his days prevailed in Greece and Italy concerning the practices of the Christians, into the mouth of Caecilius who describes them as a desperate class of vulgar men and credulous women threatening the welfare of mankind. He states that they are atheists, for they cherish a con- tempt for temples, spit at the gods, and ridicule religious ceremonies ; that their own cult is a mixture of supersti- tion and depravity ; that the}- possess secret symbols by which they recognise one another ; they call themselves brothers and sisters, and degrade these sacred words by sensuality. Further, it is said that they adore a don- key's head, and that their worship is obscene. The libel culminates in the assertion that the reception of new members is celebrated by slaughtering and devouring a child covered all over with flour, which is an obvious per- version of the Communion, but Caecilius declares that it
* Oclavius, ein Dialog des M. .Minucius Felix. Edited by B. Dombart. Sec- ond edition. Eriangen, 1881. Ante Nicene Chr. Libr., Vol. XIII., p, 451 ff.
266 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
is done because partnership in guilt is the best means of securing secrecy. Lastly, he adds, that on festival days they celebrate love feasts which after the extinction of the lights end with sexual excesses.
Similar accusations are found in various authors, and even the noble-hearted and high-minded Tacitus speaks of the Christians with contempt ; while on the other hand the Christians do not shrink from ridiculing the holiest and noblest of paganism. For instance, Minucius Felix, a Christian of the highest type and best education, speaks of Socrates as "the Athenian buffoon."*
Justinus Martyr in his Apologia makes the assevera- tion that the Christians are innocent, but leaves the ques- tion open whether the heretics, such as the Gnostics, might not be guilty of these abominations (App. II., p. 70) , and Eusebius directly claims that the practices that prevailed among the heretics were the direct cause of the evil rumors concerning the life of the Christians.
While we must bear in mind that the moral rigiditj' of the Gnostics leaves upon the whole no doubt about the purity of their life, we may grant the probability of the presence of black sheep among them. But the same is true of the Christians, as we know for certain on the good authoritj' of St. Paul who in his First Epistle to the Co- rinthians, after an enumeration of such sinners as will not inherit the kingdom (v. 8-11, — the passage had better remain unquoted) says, "and such were some of you." Accordingly, there can be no doubt that there were abuses in the Church of Corinth. St. Paul believes the rumor of a sin, "that is not so much as named among
* Octavius, Chap, 38. " Socrates scurra Atticus."
THE DKvn.'s PRIME.
267
the Gentiles," and the Second Epistle is the best evi- dence that the Corinthians did not deny the facts. They repent, whereuijon St. Panl recommends charity toward the main offender (2 Cor. ii. 6-11), saying: "To whom ye forgive anything, I forgive also."
The vai"ions aberrations among the Christians which
A Successful Rain-Maker Slaying His Rivals. (See pp. 26S-269.) (Elijah and Baal priests. After Schnorr von Carolsfeld.)
were very apparent in many of their most prominent leaders, such as Constantine the Great, must not astonish us, because Christianity originated in an age of unrest, and the new movement was the centre of attraction for all kinds of eccentricity. In spite of various excrescences, we cannot but say that Christianity opened to the world
268
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
new vistas of truth. Represented by such men as St. Paul, it tended toward purity of heart ; but the same is true of the Gnostics and the IManichees. The accusations on both sides rest mainly upon partisan statements and cannot be trusted, or at least mi:st be used with due re- serve. But it is natural that here as alwa3's, the same things are no longer the same when reported of people of
another faith. Thus the virtues of the pagans are to St. Augustine only "polished vices," and the heroism of Christian martyrs is mere obsti- nacy' in the opinion of Roman praetors.
W'e look with con- tempt upon the Indian prophet who poses as a rain-maker, but read the story of Elijah with great edification, and while we justif3' the holy zeal of the latter, we would make no allowance for the severit3' of Indian reformers who fail to spare the lives of their rivals. One instance will suf- fice : Tenskwatawa, the Shawano prophet, preached in the beginning of the nineteenth centurj^ a nobler religion and a purer morality to the tribes of the prairie, and was revered bv his followers as an incarnation of ]\Ianabozho
Tenskwatawa, the Shawano Prophet in 1808.*
* Reproduced from the Fourtifnih Antiiial h'l-porl of Ike Bureau of l:thnol- offy. P- 670.
THE devil's prime.
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(i. e., first doer). Drunkenness, the besetting sin of the Indians since their acquaintance with the whites, and the traditional superstition practised by the medicine- men ceased. But reform was coupled with persecution. Tenskwatawa "inaugurated a crusade against all who were suspected of dealing in witchcraft or magic arts," and he took advantage of the faith of his followers "to effectually rid himself of all who opposed his sa- cred claims." All his rivals were successively marked by the prophet, and doomed to be burned alive.*
All these facts are so many instances which prove the truth of the proverb, that if two do the same thing it will not be regarded as the same thing: and thus the miracle of our own religion is mere magic and witchcraft in other religions.
Tenskwatawa, the Shawano Prophet in i83i.f
■ One of the most characteristic features of the pre- scientific age is man's yearning for the realisation of that which is unattainable b}' natural means. The belief in
* For details see the Fourteenth Annual Refort of the Bureau of Ethyiology ,