Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 06.djvu/218

DEVIL. oven the weakest, could be forced to do evil; and the sipi of the cro>s, the coiiiiiiemoration of iSatan's defeat in the dei-isive eoiiibat, sullieed to put him to Ili^'ht. The lives of the saints, espe- cially during the Middle Ages, are full of narra- tives of encounters with the Devil, undei' some- times a seductive, sometimes a terrifyiiif; form; and one of the best-known incidents in l.ulher's life is liis single combat with him in the Wart- burp, when the enemy was said to have been put to Uight by a well-aimed inkstand.

The fall of the IX'vil from liis former estate of an anjiel of light has been a subject much discussed by theologians. Some assert that he was originally the highest of all the angels; others, the prince of one of the lower orders. Tlie sin of the angels is generally supposed to have been pride: this view is based not only upon the indications of Scripture, but upon this being the most proba1)le tem])tation for their incorpo- real nature. Some assert that their revolt took place upon the revelation to them that in the divine counsel it was intended that God should assume a nature lower than theirs, that of man. hile the problem of the origin of evil is often considered insoluble, there is a certain plausi- bility in the view that evil was thus primarily nothing more than the choice by the angels of lower gf)od, their own glory, in ])refcrence to a higher, the glory of ("Joil. Kvil would then have diverged more aiid more from good as time «'ent on. until it assumed the features of positive and repulsive enormity of some of its manifesta- tions. Some theologians assert that the angels had and refused one chance of repentance: but it is more generally believed that the high per- fection of their nature made their act decisive and irrevocable.

The old German and Xorse 7uythologies poured a flood of heathen fancies into the 'doc- trine of the Devil.' Kven THilas. at a nnich earlier period, had translated the New Testa- ment word daimoH or dainioiiioii by iinhiillhd, i. e. she-devil or sorceress, because the old Ger- mans believed in female demons, while the Chris-, tian usiis loquendi contains no trace of such. The peculiarly German conception of a now malig- nant, now gentle fenuile lives to this day in the German phrase, "The Devil is beating his mother" (when rain and sunshine quickly alter- nate!. In England and Scotland, too. the phrase is or' recently was current. 'The Devil and his dam." The Germans have also the jiroverb, "Where the Devil cannot come, there he sends his grandmother." Soon, however, the word ilinho- lus, in violation of the New Testament di.stine- tion between it and daimon. came to signify devils of every or any sort. The dwelling of the Devil was hell, which, however, according to old Germanic and Scandinavian notions, was placed in the dreary regions of the north. .Mthough his mischievous powers are to be |)retty well con- trolled till the coming of.

tichrist. when he expects to hold carnival, yet, like ancient gods and demons, he occasionally appears on the earth. He then assumes at times a purely human form, but, like Vulcan, who was thrown down from heaven like himself, and the smith. Wieland, of German mythology, he is somewhat lame. He is covered with a gray, green, or red cloak, like the kobolds and dwarfs (see Giant.s and Dwarf), the spirits of llie MipprrsMil heatheiiisiii : some- times, also, he appisii- black and sooty, as befits his dwelling-place and his opposition to a pure God. 15ut as the old deities, both elas= sieal and tierman, possessed the power of trans- formation to a most remarkable degree, the Devil, through his relationship with these, inherited tills power when they vanished from the scene. The form he most fre<|uently assumed was that of an animal, approximating, in this respect, to the Gernnin forest spirits and the tJreek satyrs and fauns. At one time he shows the foot of a horse or goat with horns and tail; at another, he appears as a black horse, a he-goat, a hog, a wolf, a hellhound, a raven, a serpent, a worm, a dragon, or a lly. The conce])tioii of the power of the Devil was vastly enlarged by the inllux of these new fancies, in fact, it rose almost to a new dualism: but on the other hand, also, many mild and friendly traits of the heathen gods passed over into the po|uilar conception (if the Devil, and gave to his nature a ipiite new, liuiiioroiis, and even merry siile. As, after the introduction of t'liristianily. ofTerings were still occasionally made to the old gods, the Devil shared in these honors. A horse, a he-goat, or a hound was at times saeriliecd to him ; and to the present day the expression has survived, "To ikindle a fire for the Devil" — obviously an allu- sion to altar-Hames. Various features of the old Norse gods, especially of l.oki and Donar (Tlior). the gods of fire and thunder, were also trans- ferred to him. Hence the still current phrases in tlcrmanv when thunder is heard : "The Devil must be striking." and "The runawav goose is gone to the Devil." (Donner. 'thunder,' is the word used for devil in this case.) Every power, too, which, according to the older heathen belief, was lodged in the lesser demons, giants, etc.. had now its projier centre in the great fiend himself, who could ])erform all the pranks attributed to the more grotesque creations of the Norse mythology, an<l work all the evil of the more malignant spirits; but. in general, these beings were rather pressed into his service than ab- sorbed by him or incarnatccl in his person. So did this great, originally IVrsico-.Tudaic belief sjircad itself tlirou.i;li all Christian lands, incorporating with itself, first, the kindred con- ceptions of the ancient classical world, and. ulti- mately, the rich and varied superstitiims of our Teutonic and Scandinavian forefathers. Thus decked out in the cosliuiics of many dilTerent climes and agi's. the imaw of evil iiasseil into the light of the modern woiTd. Every step forward that it now took robbed it of some potent spell that used to chill the blood and strike the heart with awful horror. Men first lost faith in the Devil's iK'casioiial incarnation: then meilical science destroyed his claims to the origination of mental phenomena, which he was once supjiosed to have caused dire<tly: natural science di'prived him of his control over the elements; historical criticism pliU'ked from him his borrowed feathers; while metaphysics and a deeper reli- gious exegesis have combined, not. perhaps, to annihilate his ]ier-^onalitv or deny his inlluenee. but certainly to clothe the former with a more spiritual form, jiiid to limit the latter by a reverential belief in the wisdom and coodness of God. Consult: Ma.ver. Ilhlorin Diahr.l! (Tubin- gen. ITSO) : Tlors't, DUmntiologie (Frankfort, 1S18): id.. y.nuherhihVwIhel- ' (ys 7.. 1S21- '2(>) ; Grimm. Deiil.iehr M)ilhoJnqir (4th ed.. Berlin, 1875-78) ; Conway, Demonolnii;/ niid Devil-