It is particularly proper to introduce some mention of Luther in this
place; not that he is in any way implicated in the question of
necromancy, but that there are passages in his writings in which he
talks of the devil in what we should now think a very extraordinary
way. And it is curious, and not a little instructive, to see how a
person of so masculine an intellect, and who in many respects so far
outran the illumination of his age, was accustomed to judge respecting
the intercourse of mortals with the inhabitants of the infernal world.
Luther was born in the year 1483.
It appears from his Treatise on the Abuses attendant on Private Masses,
that he had a conference with the devil on the subject. He says, that
this supernatural personage caused him by his visits "many bitter
nights and much restless and wearisome repose." Once in particular he
came to Luther, "in the dead of the night, when he was just awaked out
of sleep. The devil," he goes on to say, "knows well how to construct
his arguments, and to urge them with the skill of a master. He
delivers himself with a grave, and yet a shrill voice. Nor does he use
circumlocutions, and beat about the bush, but excels in forcible
statements and quick rejoinders. I no longer wonder," he adds, "that
the persons whom he assails in this way, are occasionally found dead
in their beds. He is able to compress and throttle, and more than once
he has so assaulted me and driven my soul into a corner, that I felt
as if the next moment it must leave my body. I am of opinion that
Gesner and Oecolampadius and others in that manner came by their
deaths. The devil's manner of opening a debate is pleasant enough; but
he urges things so peremptorily, that the respondent in a short time
knows not how to acquit himself." [199] He elsewhere says, "The
reasons why the sacramentarians understood so little of the Scriptures,
is that they do not encounter the true opponent, that is, the devil,
who presently drives one up in a corner, and thus makes one perceive
the just interpretation. For my part I am thoroughly acquainted with
him, and have eaten a bushel of salt with him. He sleeps with me more
frequently, and lies nearer to me in bed, than my own wife does." [200]