Demonology and Devil-lore Part 57

[138] John xvii. 12.

[139] 'But,' says Professor King (Gnostics, p. 52), 'a dispa.s.sionate examiner will discover that these two zealous Fathers somewhat beg the question in a.s.suming that the Mithraic rites were invented as counterfeits of the Christian Sacraments; the former having really been in existence long before the promulgation of Christianity.' Whatever may have been the incidents in the life of Christ connected with such things, it is certainly true, as Professor King says, that these 'were afterwards invested with the mystic and supernatural virtues, in a later age insisted upon as articles of faith, by succeeding and unscrupulous missionaries, eager to outbid the attractions of more ancient ceremonies of a cognate character.' In the porch of the Church Bocca della Verita at Rome, there is, or was, a fresco of Ceres sh.e.l.ling corn and Bacchus pressing grapes, from them falling the elements of the Eucharist to a table below. This was described to me by a friend, but when I went to see it in 1872, it had just been whitewashed over! I called the attention of Signor Rosa to this shameful proceeding, and he had then some hope that this very interesting relic might be recovered.

[140] Op. iv. 511. Col. Agrip. 1616.

[141] For full details of all these superst.i.tions see Eisenmenger (Entd. Jud. li. Armillus); D'Herbelot (Bib. Orient. Daggiel); Buxtorf (Lexicon, Armillus); Calmet, Antichrist; and on the same word, Smith; also a valuable article in M'Clintock and Strong's Cyc. Bib. Lit. (American).

[142] Deutsch, 'Lit. Remains.' Islam.

[143] Weil's 'Biblical Legends.'

[144] Eisenmenger, ii. 60.

[145] See vol. i. pp. 58 and 358.

[146] 'Zoroastrische Studien,' pp. 138-147. With which comp. Spiegel, Transl. of Avesta, III. xlvii.

[147] 'Studies in the Hist. of the Renaissance.' Macmillan.

[148] 'Chald. Genesis,' by George Smith, p. 84.

[149] This text was engraved by Mrs. Rose Mary Crawshay on a tomb she had erected in honour of her humble neighbour, Mr. Norbury, who sought knowledge for its own sake. Few ancient scriptures could have supplied an inscription so appropriate.

[150] Mr. Baring-Gould, quoting this (from Anastasius Sinaita, Hodegos, ed. Gretser, Ingolst. 1606, p. 269), attributes this s.h.i.+ning face of Seth to his previous character as a Sun-G.o.d. ('Old Test. Legends,'

i. 84.)

[151] King's 'Gnostics,' p. 53, n.

[152] Tertullian's phrase, 'The Devil is G.o.d's Ape,' became popular at one time, and the Ape-devil had frequent representation in art--as, for instance, in Holbein's 'Crucifixion' (1477), now at Augsburg, where a Devil with head of an ape, bat-wings, and flaming red legs is carrying off the soul of the impenitent thief. The same subject is found in the same gallery in an Altdorfer, where the Devil's face is that of a gorilla.

[153] S. Cyp. ap. Muratori, Script. it. i. 295, 545. The Magicians used to call their mirrors after the name of this flower-devil--Fiorone. M. Maury, 'La Magie,' 435 n.

[154] This whole subject is treated, and with ample references, in M. Maury's 'Magie,' p. 41, seq.

[155] 'La Sorciere.'

[156] Dasent's 'Norse Tales,' Introd. ciii.

[157] 'Chips,' ii.

[158] 'Chester Plays,' 1600.

[159] 'Declaration of Popish Impostures,' 1603.

[160] So Shakespere, 'The Devil d.a.m.n thee black.'

[161] In an account, 1568, we find:--'pay'd for iij li of heare ijs vjd.'

[162] The Directions for the 'Castle of Good Perseverance,' say: '& he t schal pley belyal, loke t he have gune powdr brenng in pypysih's hands & i h's ers & i h's ars whne he gothe to batayle.'

[163] This notion was widespread. I have seen an ancient Russian picture in which the Devil is dancing before a priest who has become drowsy over his prayer-book. There was once a Moslem controversy as to whether it was fair for pilgrims to keep themselves awake for their prayers by chewing coffee-berries.

[164] 'Liber Revelationum de Insidiis et Versutiis Daemonum adversus Homines.' See Reville's Review of Roskoff, 'The Devil,' p. 38.

[165] See M. Maury's 'Magie,' p. 48.

[166] The history has been well related by a little work by Dr. Albert Reville: 'Apollonius of Tyana, the Pagan Christ.' Chatto & Windus.

[167] Sinistrari names Luther as one of eleven persons whom he enumerates as having been begotten by Incubi, 'Enfin, comme l'ecrit Codens, cite par Maluenda, ce d.a.m.ne Heresiarque, qui a nom Martin Luther.'--'Demonialite,' 30.

[168] Glanvil's 'Saducismus.'

[169] King Lear, iii. 4. Asmodeus and Mohammed are, no doubt, corrupted in these names, which are given as those of devils in Ha.r.s.enet's 'Declaration of Popish Impostures.'

[170] 'A Discourse of Witchcraft. As it was acted in the Family of Mr. Edward Fairfax, of Fuystone, in the county of York, in the year 1621. Sibi parat malum, qui alteri parat.'

[171] W. F. Poole, Librarian of Chicago, to whom I am indebted for a copy of Governor Thomas Hutchinson's account of 'The Witchcraft Delusion of 1692,' with his valuable notes on the same.

[172] The delicacy with which these animals are alluded to rather than directly named indicates that they had not lost their formidable character in Elfdale so far as to be spoken of rashly.

[173] Glanvil, 'Saducismus Triumphatus,' p. 170.

[174] Porphyry, ap. Euseb. v. 12. The formula not preserved by Eusebius is supposed by M. Maury ('Magie,' 56) to be that contained in the 'Philosophumena,' attributed to Origen:--'Come, infernal, terrestrial, and celestial Bombo! G.o.ddess of highways, of cross-roads, thou who bearest the light, who travellest the night, enemy of the day, friend and companion of darkness; thou rejoicing in the baying of dogs and in shed blood, who wanderest amid shadows and over tombs; thou who desirest blood and bearest terrors to mortals,--Gorgo, Mormo, moon of a thousand forms, aid with a propitious eye our sacrifices!'

[175] 'The Devil,' &c., p. 51.

[176] Scheible's 'Kloster,' 5, 116. Zauberbucher.

[177] Bayard Taylor's 'Faust,' note 45. See also his Appendix I. for an excellent condensation of the Faust legend from the best German sources.

[178] Tertull. ad Marcion, iii. 18. S. Ignatii Episc. et Martyr ad Phil. Ep. viii. 'The Prince of this world rejoices when any one denies the cross, for he knows the confession of the cross to be his ruin.'

[179] See his 'Acta,' by Simeon Metaphrastus.

[180] I have been much struck by the resemblance between the dumpy monkish dwarf, in the old wall-picture of Auerbach's Cellar, meant for Mephistopheles, and the portrait of Asmodeus in the early editions of 'Le Diable Boiteux.' But, as devils went in those days, they are good-looking enough.

[181] Sh.e.l.ley's Translation.

[182] Bayard Taylor's Translation. Scene iv.

[183] See Lavater's Physiognomy, Plates xix. and xx., in which some artist has shown what variations can be made to order on an intellectual and benevolent face.

[184] 'Der deutsche Volksaberglaube der Gegenwart.' Von Dr. Adolf Wuttke, Prof. der Theol. in Halle. Berlin: Verlag von Wiegand & Grieben. 1869.

[185] 'Histoire de France et des Choses Memorables,' &c.

[186] The universal myth of Sleepers,--christianised in the myth of St. John, and of the Seven whose slumber is traceable as far as Tours,--had a direct pagan development in Jami, Barbarossa, Arthur, and their many variants. It is the legend of the Castle of Sewings.h.i.+elds in Northumberland, that King Arthur, his queen and court, remain there in a subterranean hall, entranced, until some one should first blow a bugle-horn near the entrance hall, and then with 'the sword of the stone' cut a garter placed there beside it. But none had ever heard where the entrance to this enchanted hall was, till a farmer, fifty years since, was sitting knitting on the ruins of the castle, and his clew fell and ran downwards through briars into a deep subterranean pa.s.sage. He cleared the portal of its weeds and rubbish, and entering a vaulted pa.s.sage, followed the clew. The floor was infested with toads and lizards; and bats flitted fearfully around him. At length his sinking courage was strengthened by a dim, distant light, which, as he advanced, grew gradually brighter, till all at once he entered a vast and vaulted hall, in the centre of which a fire, without fuel, from a broad crevice in the floor, blazed with a high and lambent flame, that showed all the carved walls and fretted roof, and the monarch and his queen and court reposing around in a theatre of thrones and costly couches. On the floor, beyond the fire, lay the faithful and deep-toned pack of thirty couple of hounds; and on a table before it the spell-dissolving horn, sword, and garter. The shepherd firmly grasped the sword, and as he drew it from its rusty scabbard the eyes of the monarch and his courtiers began to open, and they rose till they sat upright. He cut the garter, and as the sword was slowly sheathed the spell a.s.sumed its ancient power, and they all gradually sank to rest; but not before the monarch had lifted up his eyes and hands and exclaimed--