Читать книгу Art of the Devil - Arturo Graf - Страница 5

TO speak of the Devil, as if there were but one devil, is inaccurate; the devils were many, and when we use the word “devil” in the singular we refer to the prince of devils, or else to the whole diabolic race taken collectively and represented by the individual.

Not only were the devils many, they were innumerable. It was generally admitted by theologians that a tenth part of the angels rebelled against God; but there were some who were not satisfied with so vague an estimate, and who subjected the infernal population to a regular census. One theologian, more diligent than the rest, after making a thorough examination of the subject, found that the devils must number not less than ten thousand billions.

For so great a multitude, room was needed; and the abodes of the devils were accordingly two: the sphere of the air and Hell; the former, that they might have an opportunity to tempt and to torment the living; the latter, for their own proper punishment and that they might inflict merited chastisement upon the dead. The aerial abode was granted to them only until the Judgment Day; when the final doom is pronounced, they must all be thrust into Hell, to come forth no more.

The devils were not all of one class or of one condition. There were aquatic demons, who were called Neptuni; there were some that dwelt in caves and woods, and they were called Dusii; there were also the Incubi, the Succubi and so forth. Furthermore, not all had the same aptitudes; one was more successful in one thing, another in another. Hence, the division of labour and the necessity for a certain social organisation. It has seemed to some that among the demons, who are the very personification of disorder and confusion, an organisation of this sort should not and could not exist; but such is not the opinion of Saint Thomas and the most accredited theologians, who insist that there is a hierarchy among the devils, just as there is a hierarchy among the angels that remained loyal. Indeed, the hierarchy of the devils would seem to be more firmly established and more complete than that of the angels; since the former have one chief who stands above all and commands all, while the latter have none, or have one only in God, who is a universal monarch and not theirs alone. The prince and monarch of the devils is Beelzebub, according to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke[30] and the general belief of theologians, but it must be said that considerable uncertainty prevails in this regard. Sometimes their chief appears to be Satan; at other times, Lucifer; and Dante – perhaps to escape this difficulty – makes of Satan, Lucifer and Beelzebub, one single and identical devil, contrary to the opinion of others, who make of them three distinct devils not possessing equal powers.

Orders of devils are spoken of in the so-called Book of Enoch, which antedates Christianity; and they are spoken of, later, in the New Testament. Saint Thomas makes express mention of higher and of lower devils, and of systematically established ranks among them; without, however, entering into details on the subject. But such reserve, though it might well become theologians in general, did not at all suit those who were especially classed as demonographers or those who gave attention to the study and practice of magic. For all these, it was of the utmost importance to become thoroughly acquainted with the diabolic hierarchy and, at the same time, with the condition and the activities of each rank included therein – nay, as far as might be possible, with those of each individual demon. Furthermore, the principles of their organisation were not understood in the same way by all; and while some of the Fathers thought that their rank was determined according to the various kinds of sins that the demons fostered, others believed that this was done according to their degree of power and method of action.

Dante calls Lucifer the “Emperor of the Doleful Realm”;[31] for him, the universe is symmetrically divided into three great monarchies: the celestial, above; the infernal, below; and the human, midway between the two. But this conception of a Satanic kingdom is not peculiar to Dante, or even to the Middle Ages, though in the Middle Ages it attains its greatest degree of fullness and precision. This idea is already found in the Gospels and in the writings of certain Fathers; hence, the custom of attributing to Lucifer, as symbols of his power, the sceptre, the crown and the sword. In more than one ascetic legend, Satan appears seated on a throne, surrounded with royal pomp and accompanied by a great throng of ministers and satellites. And some even went so far in this fantasy as to imagine a Satanic court, similar in all respects to the courts of the great princes of the earth. In the magic book of Johannes Faustus, that Faust whose fearful history furnished the theme for Goethe’s masterpiece, we read that the king of Hell is Lucifer, that Belial is viceroy, that Satan, Beelzebub, Ashtoreth and Pluto are governors, that Mephistopheles and six others are princes, and that in Lucifer’s court are found five ministers, a secretary and twelve familiar spirits. In other books on magic and demonology, note is made of infernal dukes, marquises and counts; and in connection with each one, we are told very definitely how many legions of devils he has under his orders.

Legions and chiefs constitute an army. The demons were, by their very nature, militant spirits; and their military organisation is opposed to the military organisation of Heaven. What wonder, then, that such an organisation should be imagined as in every respect like to the military organisations of earth? In the legend of the blessed Mary of Antioch, we see, at dead of night, the king of the demons pass by in his chariot, surrounded and followed by a countless host of horsemen. Peter the Venerable (died in 1156) tells of an immense throng of diabolic warriors, armed at all points, that passed one night through a certain forest. And how many times have the armed legions been seen flying, like storm clouds, across the sky?

William Blake, Plate 5, from Europe: A Prophecy, 1793. Relief etching, colour wash. The British Museum, London, United Kingdom.

Mikhail Aleksandrovich Vrubel, Flying Demon, c. 1899. Oil on canvas, 158.5 × 430.5 cm. Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia.

Anonymous, Man with Seven Devils,extract from the Book of the Seven Deadly Sins, 15th century. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, France.

If Hell was a kingdom and if Satan, as king, had his court, it will not appear strange that in such a court councils should be held, measures discussed, and judgments and sentences pronounced; or that, from time to time, Satan, desirous of relaxation, should depart with a portion of his followers for some mad chase through the forests of the earth, uprooting in his course the age-old trees, and scattering about him terror and death. With less fury, but not always with less damage, was the chase followed in those days by princes of flesh and blood. As king, Satan claimed the homage of all who acknowledged him.

Concerning the knowledge of the demons, the theologians are not always in agreement; however, it is admitted by all that after the fall their intellects were darkened, so that, even though they greatly surpass the human intellect, they are far inferior to those of the angels. The demons know things past and present, even the most hidden ones; but present things God can always conceal from them, if he so desires. Some of the Fathers declared that Satan was ignorant of many things concerning Christ and the mystery of his incarnation; or, in a word, that he did not recognise in Christ the God become man. Such ignorance cost him dear; for, by furthering the unjust death of Christ, he opened the way for the work of redemption, and thus brought about his own ruin. In fact, in the Gospel of Matthew, Satan says to Christ: “If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread”[32] – words which show that he has no clear understanding of him whom he is tempting.

The demons are acquainted with all the secrets of nature; but are they equally well acquainted with those of the human mind? Can they penetrate the inmost recesses of our consciousness and spy upon our thoughts and our affections? On this point, also, opinions are divided. It has seemed to some that if such a faculty had been granted to the demons, man would be altogether at their mercy, and without any possible defence against suggestions and temptations. And in truth, granted that I have full and sure knowledge of a man’s mind, then, if my wit aid me a little, I can govern him at my pleasure. Many, therefore, affirmed that the demons cannot see the human mind, but conjecture, from outward signs, what is going on within it; thus doing, though with greater accuracy, what a mere human being can do. Others, in their turn, thought that the demons could read in our minds as in an open book; and of this opinion is that prince of theologians, Saint Thomas Aquinas. Still others adopted a middle course.

Thus, Honorius Augustodunensis (died after 1130) declares that the demons know men’s evil thoughts but not their good ones. It is a fact that more than one unfortunate exorcist, while putting forth every effort to drive the devil out of the body of a possessed person, suffered the mortification of hearing the fiend recite coram populo the entire list of his own most secret sins, including those of thought.

Do the devils know the future? Another puzzling question! The majority of theologians denied this, and rightly; for if they know the future, as they know the present and the past, in what way does their knowledge differ at all from that of God? And how can God suffer the devils to know beforehand all that He is to do throughout the ages of eternity? Such knowledge as this they could not have possessed, even before their banishment from Heaven; for had they possessed it, knowing what was bound to be the outcome of their rebellion, they would never have rebelled. Indeed, it is said that not even the good angels have direct knowledge of the future, but know it only in so far as they read it in the mind of God, and in so far as God permits them to read it. However, even on this point, there is a way to conciliate conflicting opinions. Origen would have it that the demons conjectured the future from the aspects and movements of the heavenly bodies; an opinion, to my mind, not altogether consistent with that of Lactantius (about 300), who made astrology itself an invention of the demons. Saint Augustine believed that the devils did not know the future through direct vision, but that by virtue of a faculty that they possess of moving from place to place with lightning speed, and because of the acuteness of their senses and their intellect, they were able to surmise it, imagine it or divine it. Saint Bonaventure (1221–1274) affirmed that they did not know those future things that are contingent, but that they did know those that follow fixed laws; for the demons had a very complete knowledge of the course of nature.

The devils, then, knew by heart all the sciences: and it is probably for this reason that, whenever a man of science has revealed some great truth to his fellows, the Church has never failed to cry: “To the Devil with him!” and to burn him alive if it could. Dante denies that the devils can philosophise; “for love, in them, is altogether extinguished; and to philosophise, love is necessary”.[33] This does not prevent Dante, however, from representing as arguing in perfectly good form the devil who is carrying off the soul of Guido da Montefeltro, who had received undeserved absolution from Pope Boniface VIII; or from permitting the demon to style himself a “logician”, just as if he were a Doctor of the Sorbonne.[34] It is said (and the famous Jean Bodin[35] so writes in his Daemonomania) that the renowned Ermolao Barbaro, patriarch of Aquileja (died in 1493), once called up a devil in order to find out from him what Aristotle had meant by his “entelechy”. At any rate, though ignorant of sound philosophy, the demon must have been well versed in sophistry, even master of it; and in this connection I recall the fearful tale of that scholar of Paris, who (having died and gone to perdition) appeared to his terrified teacher, arrayed in a gown that was completely embroidered with sophisms; a tale that the good Passavanti (1297–1357) relates, for the admonition and confusion of all those who do not make good use of the syllogism.

But if the devils were not supposed to have any knowledge of philosophy, it will appear strange to some that they could have a knowledge of theology, could know the Scriptures by heart, and could argue concerning the mysteries with that same precision and clarity of ideas that we so admire in professional theologians. Yet such was the case. On countless occasions, through the mouths of possessed persons of whose bodies they had made themselves masters, the demons would quote passages from both the Old and the New Testaments; they would cite the opinions and judgments of Fathers and Doctors of the Church; they would propound embarrassing questions; to the no slight humiliation of those who, listening to them or striving to exorcise them, found that they themselves knew far less of these matters than did the demons. In one of the Visions of Saint Fursey, the demons argue very learnedly with the angels concerning sins and penances, quote the Scriptures, and show themselves no less able dialecticians than are the greatest theologians. Nor is there any lack of other cases of like nature. We know how the Devil used to engage in very bitter theological disputes with Luther.

However, we need not believe that all the devils possessed the same knowledge, or that they were all of the same mental capacity. There were among them, indeed, some who were more, some less, learned than the rest; just as some were more, some less, intelligent. In due season, we shall meet the stupid and ignorant devil, a conception that is not so unreasonable as it might seem at first glance. If a certain branch of knowledge appealed to any devil, he could, it seems, devote himself to that particular branch. Caesarius tells of a devil lawyer, Oliver by name, who proved himself an able pleader. Other devils took greater delight in material pursuits; and these helped in the brewing of philtres, the transmuting of metals and in performing other tasks of that nature.

Knowledge implies power; therefore it is no wonder that the devils were able to perform great things. True, their power also had its limits, but what were these limits? It is hard to say with any accuracy. Matthew calls Satan a powerful spirit,[36] and, indeed, not without reason. His power is not comparable with the omnipotence of God; yet he is great and formidable. He rebels and is conquered, and victory will never smile on him again; but, though conquered, he rises again and avenges himself. He enters the happy abode of our first parents and brings in sin; he disturbs the harmony of God’s work and brings in death. He poisons the world and makes it apostatise from God; he becomes the lord and arbiter of this perverted world, princeps hujus saeculi.[37] It is said, forsooth, that he can do only so much as God permits him to do; but we must admit that God permits much to him, and that, whatever he performs, he performs by virtue of a force that resides within himself and is connatural to him. Whatever there is of evil in the world comes, in the beginning, from him; and the preponderance of evil renders gigantic our own conception of his power. And this power of his, which was to have been weakened by the work of redemption, has not been weakened. We are told how the Devil once appeared to Saint Anthony and told him that the curses men were incessantly hurling at him were undeserved, since, now that Christ reigned, he himself could no longer do anything. But the devil who said this lied. Along with paganism, perhaps his unlimited sway over the earth also ceased; but his power did not cease. Christ has conquered him, but he has not disarmed him; and straightway he begins the strife anew and ranges the earth at will, disputing with his victorious adversary this wretched human race, soul by soul. He peoples his kingdom with slaves; and when century after century has passed since the Redeemer’s death, who, looking on this poor troubled world of ours, would say that he found himself in a world redeemed?