THE APPARITION OF BAD ANGELS PROVED BY THE HOLY SCRIPTURES--UNDER WHAT
FORM THEY HAVE APPEARED.
The books of the Old and New Testament, together with sacred and
profane history, are full of relations of the apparition of bad
spirits. The first, the most famous, and the most fatal apparition of
Satan, is that of the appearance of this evil spirit to Eve, the first
woman,[88] in the form of a serpent, which animal served as the
instrument of that seducing demon in order to deceive her and induce
her to sin. Since that time he has always chosen to appear under that
form rather than any other; so in Scripture he is often termed _the
Old Serpent_;[89] and it is said that the infernal dragon fought
against the woman who figured or represented the church; that the
archangel St. Michael vanquished him and cast him down from heaven. He
has often appeared to the servants of God in the form of a dragon, and
he has caused himself to be adored by unbelievers in this form, in a
great number of places: at Babylon, for instance, they worshiped a
living dragon,[90] which Daniel killed by making it swallow a ball or
bolus, composed of ingredients of a mortally poisonous nature. The
serpent was consecrated to Apollo, the god of physic and of oracles;
and the pagans had a sort of divination by means of serpents, which
they called _Ophiomantia_.
The Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans worshiped serpents, and regarded
them as divine.[91] They brought to Rome the serpent of Epidaurus, to
which they paid divine honors. The Egyptians considered vipers as
divinities.[92] The Israelites adored the brazen serpent elevated by
Moses in the desert,[93] and which was in after times broken in pieces
by the holy king Hezekiah.[94]
St. Augustine[95] assures us that the Manichaeans regarded the serpent
as the Christ, and said that this animal had opened the eyes of Adam
and Eve by the bad counsel which he gave them. We almost always see
the form of the serpent in the magical figures[96] _Akraxas_ and
_Abrachadabra_, which were held in veneration among the Basilidian
heretics, who, like the Manichaeans, acknowledge two principles in all
things--the one good, the other bad; _Abraxas_ in Hebrew signifies
_that bad principle_, or the father of evil; _ab-ra-achad-ab-ra_, _the
father of evil_, _the sole father of evil_, or the only bad
principle.
St. Augustine[97] remarks that no animal has been more subject to the
effects of enchantment and magic than the serpent, as if to punish him
for having seduced the first woman by his imposture.
However, the demon has usually assumed the human form when he would
tempt mankind; it was thus that he appeared to Jesus Christ in the
desert;[98] that he tempted him and told him to change the stones into
bread that he might satisfy his hunger; that he transported him, the
Saviour, to the highest pinnacle of the temple, and showed him all the
kingdoms of the world, and offered him the enjoyment of them.
The angel who wrestled with Jacob at Peniel,[99] on his return from
his journey into Mesopotamia, was a bad angel, according to some
ancient writers; others, as Severus Sulpicius[100] and some Rabbis,
have thought that it was the angel of Esau, who had come to combat
with Jacob; but the greater number believe that it was a good angel.
And would Jacob have asked him for his blessing had he deemed him a
bad angel? But however that fact may be taken, it is not doubtful that
the demon has appeared in a human form.
Several stories, both ancient and modern, are related which inform us
that the demon has appeared to those whom he wished to seduce, or who
have been so unhappy as to invoke his aid, or make a compact with him,
as a man taller than the common stature, dressed in black, and with a
rough ungracious manner; making a thousand fine promises to those to
whom he appeared, but which promises were always deceitful, and never
followed by a real effect. I can even believe that they beheld what
existed only in their own confused and deranged ideas.
At Molsheim,[101] in the chapel of St. Ignatius in the Jesuits'
church, may be seen a celebrated inscription, which contains the
history of a young German gentleman, named Michael Louis, of the house
of Boubenhoren, who, having been sent by his parents when very young
to the court of the Duke of Lorraine, to learn the French language,
lost all his money at cards: reduced to despair, he resolved to give
himself to the demon, if that bad spirit would or could give him some
good money; for he doubted that he would only furnish him with
counterfeit and bad coin. As he was meditating on this idea, suddenly
he beheld before him a youth of his own age, well made, well dressed,
who, having asked him the cause of his uneasiness, presented him with
a handful of money, and told him to try if it was good. He desired him
to meet him at that place the next day.
Michael returned to his companions, who were still at play, and not
only regained all the money he had lost, but won all that of his
companions. Then he went in search of his demon, who asked as his
reward three drops of his blood, which he received in an acorn-cup;
after which, presenting a pen to Michael, he desired him to write what
he should dictate. He then dictated some unknown words, which he made
him write on two different bits of paper,[102] one of which remained
in the possession of the demon, the other was inserted in Michael's
arm, at the same place whence the demon had drawn the blood. And the
demon said to him, "I engage myself to serve you during seven years,
after which you will unreservedly belong to me."
The young man consented to this, though with a feeling of horror; and
the demon never failed to appear to him day and night under various
forms, and taught him many unknown and curious things, but which
always tended to evil. The fatal termination of the seven years was
approaching, and the young man was then about twenty years old. He
returned to his father's house, when the demon to whom he had given
himself inspired him with the idea of poisoning his father and mother,
of setting fire to their chateau, and then killing himself. He tried
to commit all these crimes, but God did not allow him to succeed in
these attempts. The gun with which he wished to kill himself missed
fire twice, and the poison did not take effect on his father and
mother.
More and more uneasy, he revealed to some of his father's domestics
the miserable state in which he found himself, and entreated them to
procure him some succor. At the same time the demon seized him, and
bent his body back, so that he was near breaking his bones. His
mother, who had adopted the heresy of Suenfeld, and had induced her
son to follow it also, not finding in her sect any help against the
demon that possessed or obseded him, was constrained to place him in
the hands of some monks. But he soon withdrew from them and retired to
Islade, from whence he was brought back to Molsheim by his brother, a
canon of Wurzburg, who put him again into the hands of fathers of the
society. Then it was that the demon made still more violent efforts
against him, appearing to him in the form of ferocious animals. One
day, amongst others, the demon, wearing the form of a hairy savage,
threw on the ground a schedule, or compact, different from the true
one which he had extorted from the young man, to try by means of this
false appearance to withdraw him from the hands of those who kept him,
and prevent his making his general confession. At last they fixed on
the 20th of October, 1603, as the day for being in the Chapel of St.
Ignatius, and to cause to be brought the true schedule containing the
compact made with the demon. The young man there made profession of
the Catholic and orthodox faith, renounced the demon, and received the
holy sacrament. Then, uttering horrible cries, he said he saw as it
were two he-goats of immeasurable size, which, holding up their
forefeet (standing on their hindlegs), held between their claws, each
one separately, one of the schedules or agreements. But as soon as the
exorcisms were begun, and the priests invoked the name of St.
Ignatius, the two he-goats fled away, and there came from the left arm
or hand of the young man, almost without pain, and without leaving any
scar, the compact, which fell at the feet of the exorcist.
There now wanted only the second compact, which had remained in the
power of the demon. They recommenced their exorcisms, and invoked St.
Ignatius, and promised to say a mass in honor of the saint; at the
same moment there appeared a tall stork, deformed and badly made, who
let fall the second schedule from his beak, and they found it on the
altar.
The pope, Paul V., caused information of the truth of these facts to
be taken by the commissionary-deputies, M. Adam, Suffragan of
Strasburg, and George, Abbot of Altorf, who were juridically
interrogated, and who affirmed that the deliverance of this young man
was principally due, after God, to the intercession of St. Ignatius.
The same story is related rather more at length in Bartoli's Life of
St. Ignatius Loyola.
Melancthon owns[103] that he has seen several spectres, and conversed
with them several times; and Jerome Cardan affirms that his father,
Fassius Cardanus, saw demons whenever he pleased, apparently in a
human form. Bad spirits sometimes appear also under the figure of a
lion, a dog, or a cat, or some other animal--as a bull, a horse, or a
raven; for the pretended sorcerers and sorceresses relate that at the
(witches') Sabbath he is seen under several different forms of men,
animals, and birds; whether he takes the shape of these animals, or
whether he makes use of the animals themselves as instruments to
deceive or harm, or whether he simply affects the senses and
imagination of those whom he has fascinated and who give themselves to
him; for in all the appearances of the demon we must always be on our
guard, and mistrust his stratagems and malice. St. Peter[104] tells us
that Satan is always roaming round about us, like a roaring lion,
seeking whom he may devour. And St. Paul, in more places than
one,[105] warns us to mistrust the snares of the devil, and to hold
ourselves on our guard against him.
Sulpicius Severus,[106] in the life of St. Martin, relates a few
examples of persons who were deceived by apparitions of the demon, who
transformed himself into an angel of light. A young man of very high
rank, and who was afterwards elevated to the priesthood, having
devoted himself to God in a monastery, imagined that he held converse
with angels; and as they would not believe him, he said that the
following night God would give him a white robe, with which he would
appear amongst them. In fact, at midnight the monastery was shaken as
with an earthquake, the cell of the young man was all brilliant with
light, and they heard a noise like that of many persons going to and
fro, and speaking.
After that, coming forth from his cell, he showed to the brothers (of
the convent) the tunic with which he was clothed: it was made of a
stuff of admirable whiteness, shining as purple, and so
extraordinarily fine in texture that they had never seen anything like
it, and could not tell from what substance it was woven.
They passed the rest of the night in singing psalms of thanksgiving,
and in the morning they wished to conduct him to St. Martin. He
resisted as much as he could, saying that he had been expressly
forbidden to appear in his presence. As they were pressing him to
come, the tunic vanished, which led every one present to suppose that
the whole thing was an illusion of the demon.
Another solitary suffered himself to be persuaded that he was Eli;
another that he was St. John the Evangelist. One day, the demon wished
to mislead St. Martin himself, appearing to him, having on a royal
robe, wearing on his head a rich diadem, ornamented with gold and
precious stones, golden sandals, and all the apparel of a great
prince. Addressing himself to Martin, he said to him, "Acknowledge me,
Martin; I am Jesus Christ, who, wishing to descend to earth, have
resolved to manifest myself to thee first of all." St. Martin remained
silent at first, fearing some snare; and the phantom having repeated
to him that he was the Christ, Martin replied: "My Lord Jesus Christ
did not say that he should come clothed in purple and decked with
diamonds. I shall not acknowledge him unless he appears in that same
form in which he suffered death, and unless I see the marks of his
cross and passion."
At these words the demon disappeared; and Sulpicius Severus affirms
that he relates this as he heard it from the mouth of St. Martin
himself. A little before this, he says that Satan showed himself to
him sometimes under the form of Jupiter, or Mercury, or Venus, or
Minerva; and sometimes he was to reproach Martin greatly because, by
baptism, he had converted and regenerated so many great sinners. But
the saint despised him, drove him away by the sign of the cross, and
answered him that baptism and repentance effaced all sins in those who
were sincere converts.
All this proves the malice, envy, and fraud of the devil against the
saints, on the one side; and on the other, the weakness and
uselessness of his efforts against the true servants of God, and that
it is but too true he often appears in a visible form.
In the histories of the saints we sometimes see that he hides himself
under the form of a woman, to tempt pious hermits and lead them into
evil; sometimes in the form of a traveler, a priest, a monk, or an
_angel of light_,[107] to mislead simple minded people, and cause them
to err; for everything suits his purpose, provided he can exercise his
malice and hatred against men.
When Satan appeared before the Lord in the midst of his holy angels,
and asked permission of God to tempt Job,[108] and try his patience
through everything that was dearest to that holy man, he doubtless
presented himself in his natural state, simply as a spirit, but full
of rage against the saints, and in all the deformity of his sin and
rebellion.
But when he says, in the Books of Kings, _that he will be a lying
spirit in the mouth of false prophets_,[109] and that God allows him
to put in force his ill-will, we must not imagine that he shows
himself corporeally to the eyes of the false prophets of King Ahab; he
only inspired the falsehood in their minds--they believed it, and
persuaded the king of the same. Amongst the visible appearances of
Satan may be placed mortalities, wars, tempests, public and private
calamities, which God sends upon nations, provinces, cities, and
families, whom the Almighty causes to feel the terrible effects of his
wrath and just vengeance. Thus the exterminating angel kills the
first-born of the Egyptians.[110] The same angel strikes with death
the inhabitants of the guilty cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.[111] He
does the same with Onan, who committed an abominable action.[112] _The
wicked man seeks only division and quarrels_, says the sage; _and the
cruel angel shall be sent against him_.[113] And the Psalmist,
speaking of the plagues which the Lord inflicted upon Egypt, says that
he sent evil angels among them.
When David, in a spirit of vanity, caused his people to be numbered,
God showed him an angel hovering over Jerusalem, ready to smite and
destroy it. I do not say decidedly whether it was a good or a bad
angel, since it is certain that sometimes the Lord employs good angels
to execute his vengeance against the wicked. But it is thought that it
was the devil who slew eighty-five thousand men of the army of
Sennacherib. And in the Apocalypse, those are also evil angels who
pour out on the earth the phials of wrath, and caused all the scourges
set down in that holy book.
We shall also place amongst the appearances and works of Satan false
Christs, false prophets, Pagan oracles, magicians, sorcerers, and
sorceresses, those who are inspired by the spirit of Python, the
obsession and possession of demons, those who pretend to predict the
future, and whose predictions are sometimes fulfilled; those who make
compacts with the devil to discover treasures and enrich themselves;
those who make use of charms; evocations by means of magic;
enchantment; the being devoted to death by a vow; the deceptions of
idolatrous priests, who feigned that their gods ate and drank and had
commerce with women--all these can only be the work of Satan, and must
be ranked with what the Scripture calls _the depths of Satan_.[114] We
shall say something on this subject in the course of the treatise.
Footnotes:
[88] Gen. iii. 1, 23.
[89] Rev. xii. 9.
[90] Bel and the Dragon.
[91] Wisd. xi. 16.
[92] Elian. Hist. Animal.
[93] Numb. xxi. 2 Kings xviii. 4.
[94] On this subject, see a work of profound learning, and as
interesting as profound, on "The Worship of the Serpent," by the Rev.
John Bathurst Deane, M. A. F. S. A.
[95] Aug. tom. viii. pp. 28, 284.
[96] _Ab-racha_, pater _mali_, or pater _malus_.
[97] August. de Gen. ad Lit. 1. ii. c. 18.
[98] Matt. iv. 9, 10, &c.
[99] Gen. xxxii. 24, 25.
[100] Sever. Sulpit. Hist. Sac.
[101] A small city or town of the Electorate of Cologne, situated on a
river of the same name.
[102] There were in all ten letters, the greater part of them Greek,
but which formed no (apparent) sense. They were to be seen at
Molsheim, in the tablet which bore a representation of this miracle.
[103] Lib. de Anima.
[104] 1 Pet. iii. 8.
[105] Eph. vi. 11. 1 Tim. iii. 7.
[106] Sulpit. Sever. Vit. St. Martin, b. xv.
[107] 2 Cor. xi. 14.
[108] Job i. 6-8.
[109] 1 Kings xxii. 21.
[110] Exod. ix. 6.
[111] Gen. xviii. 13, 14.
[112] Gen. xxxviii.
[113] Prov. xvii. 11.
[114] Rev. ii. 24.