Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 4.djvu/794

 DEMONOLOGY

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DEMONOLOGY

At the same time some attempt may be made to dis- tinguish the scattered elements of truth which may still be found in this vast fabric of falsehood — truths of natural religion, recorded experience of actual facts, even perhaps remnants of revealed teaching that come from the Jewish and Christian Scriptures or from primitive tradition. This point has some importance at the present day, when the real or apparent agree- ment between heathen legend and Christian theology is so often made a groimd of objection against the truth of revealed religion.

Perhaps the first fact that strikes one who ap- proaches the study of this subject is the astonishing universality and antiquity of demonology, of some belief in the existence of demons or evil spirits, and of a consequent recourse to incantations or other magical practices. There are some things which flourished in the past and have long since disappeared from the face of the earth ; and there are others whose recorded origin may be traced in comparatively modern times, and it is no surprise to find that they are still flourish- ing. There are beliefs and practices, again, which seem to be confined to certain lands and races of men, or to some particular stage of social culture. But there is something which belongs at once to the old world and the new, and is found flourishing among the most widely different races, and seems to be equally congenial to the wild habits of savages and the refine- ments of classical or modern culture. Its antiquity may be seen not only from the evidence of ancient monuments, but from the fact that a yet more remote past is still present with us in the races which remain, as one may say, in the primitive and prehistoric con- dition. And even amid these rude races, apparently innocent of all that savours of science and culture, we may find a belief in evil spirits, and some attempts to propitiate them and avert their wrath, or maybe to secure their favour and assistance. This belief in spirits, both good and evil, is commonly associated with one or other of two widespread and primitive forms of religious worship — and accordingly some modern folk-lorists and mythologists are led to as- cribe its origin either to the personification of the forces of nature — in which many have found a "key to all the mythologies" — or else to Animism, or a belief in the powerful activity of the souls of the dead, who were therefore invoked and worshipped. On this last theorj- all spirits were at first conceived of as being the souls "of dead men. and from this aboriginal Animism there were gradually developed the various elaborate systems of mythologj-, demonology, and angelology. But here it is well to distinguish between the facts themselves and the theory devised for their interpre- tation. It is a fact that these rude forms of worship are found among primitive peoples. But the manner in which they began and the motives of the first pre- historic worshippers are and must remam matters of conjecture. In the same way, with regard to the later phases, it is a fact that these primitive beliefs and practices have some features in common with later and more elaborate ethnic systems — e. g. the Iranian demonology of the Avesta — and these again have many points which find some counterpart in the pages of Scripture and Catholic theology; but it by no means follows from these facts that these facile theories are right as to the nature of the connexion between these various ethnic and Christian systems. And a further consideration of the subject may serve to show that it may be explained in another and more satisfactory manner.

Assi/rian and Akkadian Demonology. — Some idea of the antiquity of demonology and magical practices might be gathered from notices in the Bible or in classic literature, to say nothing of the argument that might be drawn from the universality of these beliefs and

Eractices. But still more striking evidence has been rought to light by the decipherment of the cuneiform

hieroglyphics which has opened a way to the study of the rich literature of Babylon and Assyria. In conse- quence of their bearing on the problems of Biblical historj', attention has been attracted to the evidence of the monuments in regard to such matters as the cosmologj', the tradition of the Deluge, or the relations of Assyria and Babylon with the people of Israel. And possibly less interest has been taken in the relig- ious beliefs and practices of the Assyrians them- selves. In this question of demonology, however, some of the Assyrian monuments may be said to have a special importance. From certain cuneiform texts which are more especially described as "religious", it appears, as Lenormant remarks, that, besides the public and official cult of the "twelve great gods" and their subordinate divinities, the Assyrians had a more sacred and secret religion, a religion of mystery and magic and sorcery. These "religious" texts, more- over, together ■with a mass of talismanic inscriptions on cylinders and amulets, prove the presence of an exceedingly rich demonology. Below the greater and lesser gods there was a vast host of .spirits, some of them good and beneficent and some of them evil and hurtfid. And these spirits were described and classi- fied with an exactness which leads Lenormant to liken the arrangement to that of the choirs and orders of our own angelic hierarchy. The antiquity and im- portance of this secret religion, with its magic and in- cantations of the good spirits or evil demons, may be gathered from the fact that by order of King Assur- banipal his scribes made several copies of a great mag- ical work according to an exemplar which had been preserved from a remote antiquity in the priestly school of Erech in Chaldea. This work consisted of three books, the first of which is entirely consecrated to incantations, conjurations, and imprecations against the evil spirits. These cuneiform books, it must be remembered, are really written on clay tab- lets. And each of the tablets of these first books which has come down to us ends with the title, "Tab- let No. — of the Evil Spirits". The ideogram which is here rendered as kullulu — "accursed" or "evil" — might also be read as limuttu — "baneful". Besides being known by the generic name of udukku — " spirit ' ' — a demon is called more distinctly ecimmu, or mas- kimmu. One special class of these spirits was the sedu, or divine bull, which is represented in the well- known figure of a man-headed bull so common on the Assyrian monuments. ThLs name, it may be re- marked, is probably the source of the Hebrew word for demon. The Assyrian sedu, it is true, was more commonly a beneficent or tutelary spirit. But this is hardly an obstacle to the derivation, for the good spirits of one nation were often regarded as evil by men of rival races.

Iranian Demonologxj. — In many ways one of the most remarkable demonologies is that presented in the .\vesta (q. v.), the sacred book of the Mazdean religion of Zoroaster. In this ancient religion, which, unlike that of the Assyrians, still exists in the Parsee community, the war between light and darkness, good and evil comes into greater prominence. Over against the good God, Ahura Mazda, w'ith his hierarchy of holy spirits, there is arrayed the dark kingdom of de- mons, or dacras, tmder Anro Mainyus (Ahriman), the cruel Evil Spirit, the Demon of Demons {Daevanam Daci'a), who is ever warring against Ahura Mazda and his faithful ser%'ants such as Zoroaster. It may be re- marked that the name of Dacva is an instance of that change from a good to a bad sense which is seen in the case of the Greek word Sai/iav. For the original meaning of the word is "shining one", and it comes from a primitive Aryan root dir, which is likewise the source of the Greek Zei/j and the Latin deus. But while these words, like the Sanskrit deva, retiiin the good meaning, dacrn h.as come to mean "an evil spir- it". There is at least a coincidence, if no deeper sig-