Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 4.djvu/791

 DEMONIACS

711

DEMONIACS

that even the liigher gods of the Greeks had come to be nt^arded as devils.

\\ o have a curious instance of the confusion caused \i\ the ambiguity and variations in the meaning of the \\(prd,in the case of the ccl('l)ratpd "Da?mon" of 8oc- rati\s. This has been luulerstood in a bad sense by SI 'Die Christian writers who luive made it a matter of ivproach that the great Clreek philosopher was accom- panied and prompted by a demon. But, as Cardinal .Manning clearly shows in his paper on the subject, the « 1 )r(l here has a very different meaning. He points to the fact that both Plato and Xenophon use the form cai/xifiof, which Cicero rightly renders as divinum iilitpiid, "something divine". And after a close ex- luiiination of the account of the matter given by Si .irates himself in the reports transmitted by his dis- ■ iples, he concludes that the promptings of the " l);emon" were the dictates of conscience, which is the voice of God.

It may be observed that a similar change and de- Icrioration of meaning has taken place in the Iranian languages in the case of the word daevn. Etymolog- irally this is identical with the Sanskrit deva, by which it is rendered in Neriosengh's version of the A vesta. I'.iit whereas the devas of Indian theology are good and beneficent gods, the daevas of the A vesta are hateful spirits of evil. (See also Demonology.)

M iNNi.NC, The Dtemon of Socrates (1872); Alexander, /)' manic Possession in the New Testanu-nt (1902).

W. H. Kent.

Demoniacs (Gr. Sai/xoi-uAs, iaiiiovi^iixtvo^, possessed I \' a demon). — The idea of demonic possession by which a man becomes demonized, that is possessed 1 1 routroUcd by a demon, was present in many ancient I thnic religions, and in fact it is found in one form or aiinther wherever there is a belief in the existence of (l.anons, and that is practically everywhere (cf. De- Bl m.in; Demonology). Here, however, we are chiefly concerned with the demonic possession in the New Testament; for this is in many ways the most worthy of special attention, and serves as a standard by which we may judge of cases occurring elsewhere. Further (juestions in regard to these other cases and the gen- eral practice of the Church in dealing with those who are possessed by evil spirits will be treated in other articles (Exorci.sm, Obsession). Among the many miracles recorded in the synoptic Gospels, special prominence is given to the casting out of devils or demons iSa.iij.wv, Sai/xdviov) . Thus, in St. Mark, the first of all the wonders is the casting out of the devil from a demoniac, the man "with an unclean spirit" {if irvev/iaTi aKaddpTcf) in the synagogue at Caphar- naum. And St. Peter thus describes the mission and the miracles of Christ: "Jesus of Nazareth: how God anointed him with the Holy Ghost, and with power, who went about doing good, and healing all that were opjiressod by the devil" (rois KaTaSwaa-TevoiUvovs tnrb ToD 5ia^6Xou— Acts, X, 38).

The reason for the stress thus laid on this casting out of the devils is not far to seek. For the miracles of Christ, as St. Augustine says, are both deeds and woriLs. They are works done in testimony of His power and His Divine mi.ssion; and they are words, be- cause they have a deep significance. In both these aspects the casting out of devils seems to have a special pre-eminence. Few, if any, of the wonders can be said to give such a striking proof of a power above the order of nature. And for this reason we find that tiie disciples seem to have been more impressed by this than by the other powers given to them — "The devils even are subject to us." And as, when He stilled the storm at sea, they cried: "Who is this (think you), that He commandeth both the winds and the sea, and they obey Him?" (Luke, viii, 25). So those who saw the devil cast out at Caphamaum asked: " What thing is this? What is this new doc-

trine? For with power He commandeth even the un- clean spirits, and they obey Him" (Mark, i, 27). In the same way it may be said that these wonders speak in a special manner and show forth the meaning of Ilis mission; for He had come to break the power of Satan and deliver men from their state of servitude. It is thus that Christ Himself, on the eve of His Passion, spealis of the great victory which He was about to accomplish by His Cross on Calvary: "Now is the judgment of the world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out" (John, xii, 31). That casting-out is symbolized in the deliverance of everj' demoniac. They might also be in the slavery of sin and in need of forgiveness. They might possibly have some bodily infirmity and need healing; still, it was not for this that they were said to be demoniacs, but because an evil spirit had literally entered into, and taken posses- sion of, them to control and direct, or perhaps hinder, their physical powers, e. g. to speak through their vocal organs, or to tie their tongues. And though this possession might be a,ssociated with sin, this was not necessarily the case; for sometimes this affliction might befall an innocent person, as in the case of the boy who had been possessed from his infancy (Mark, ix, 20). So neither is it necessary to suppose that there was any bodily infirmity in the victim distinct from the demonic possession itself, even in the case of those who are described as being blind or dumb as well as being possessed by a devil. For it may be — and in some places it may seem that this is intimated by the text — that the dumbness or other infirmity is not due to any defect in the organs, but to the fact that their normal activity is hindered by the possessing devil. Hence, when once his influence and restraint is taken away, the infirmity forthwith disappears.

It is in this way that these cases of demonic posses- sion have been constantly understood by Catholic commentators; that is to say, the words of Scripture have been taken literally, and understood to mean that an evil spirit, one of the fallen angels, has entered into the demoniac, that this spirit may speak through the voice of the demonized person, but that it is not the man, but the spirit, who is speaking, and that by the command of Christ or that of one of His servants the evil spirit may be cast out, and the possessed per- son set free. And though our commentators and theologians have treated the subject of obsession with their wonted fullness of detail and critical discrimina- tion, for a long time there was little occasion for any determined defence of this literal interpretation and acceptance of the Scriptural tloctrine on this matter. For even in the days of the first Reformers, when so many traditional doctrines were rudely called in question, there was no disposition to dispute the real- ity of demonic possession. The primitive Protestants might not accept the claims of the Church to the power of exorcizing evil spirits, as they plainly denied the higher sacramental powers of the Christian priest- hood; but they had no mind to doubt or deny the existence of evil spirits and the reality of Satanic influ- ence and activity. Nor is this surprising, since the beginning of Protestantism was marked by an increase in practices of superstition, and for a long while, both in Catholic and in Protestant countries, men were prone to be too credulous in these nuatters, and to exaggerate the extent of obsession, witchcraft, and intercourse with evil spirits.

Needless to say, the whole traditional doctrine on this matter was rejected by the Sceptical philosophers of the eighteenth centurj'. And with the spn-ad of new ideas in the age of revolution, and political econ- omy and practical science, itsecmefl, for a time at any rate, in the early nineteenth centurj^ that the old superstitious beliefs in spirits and witchcraft were dying a natural death. Most educated men were in- credulous of any diabolical agency in this world, even if they retained some shadowy belief in the existence