12. Reasons why the empire of the supernatural is so extended amongst
savages. 13. All important affairs of life transacted under
superintendence of Supreme Powers. 14. What are these Powers? Three
principles regarding them. 15. (I.) Incapacity of mankind to accept
monotheism. The Jews. 16. Roman Catholicism really polytheistic,
although believers won't admit it. Virgin Mary. Saints. Angels.
Protestantism in the same condition in a less degree. 17. Francis of
Assisi. Gradually made into a god. 18. (II.) Manichaeism. Evil spirits
as inevitable as good. 19. (III.) Tendency to treat the gods of hostile
religions as devils. 20. In the Greek theology. [Greek: daimones].
Platonism. 21. Neo-Platonism. Makes the elder gods into daemons. 22.
Judaism. Recognizes foreign gods at first. _Elohim_, but they get
degraded in time. Beelzebub, Belial, etc. 23. Early Christians treat
gods of Greece in the same way. St. Paul's view. 24. The Church,
however, did not stick to its colours in this respect. Honesty not the
best policy. A policy of compromise. 25. The oracles. Sosthenion and St.
Michael. Delphi. St. Gregory's saintliness and magnanimity. Confusion of
pagan gods and Christian saints. 26. Church in North Europe. Thonar,
etc., are devils, but Balda gets identified with Christ. 27. Conversion
of Britons. Their gods get turned into fairies rather than devils.
Deuce. Old Nick. 28. Subsequent evolution of belief. Carlyle's Abbot
Sampson. Religious formulae of witchcraft. 29. The Reformers and
Catholics revive the old accusations. The Reformers only go half-way in
scepticism. Calfhill and Martiall. 30. Catholics. Siege of Alkmaar.
Unfortunate mistake of a Spanish prisoner. 31. Conditions that tended to
vivify the belief during Elizabethan era. 32. The new freedom. Want of
rules of evidence. Arthur Hacket and his madnesses. Sneezing.
Cock-crowing. Jackdaw in the House of Commons. Russell and Drake both
mistaken for devils. 33. Credulousness of people. "To make one danse
naked." A parson's proof of transubstantiation. 34. But the Elizabethans
had strong common sense nevertheless. People do wrong if they set them
down as fools. If we had not learned to be wiser than they, we should
have to be ashamed of ourselves. We shall learn nothing from them if we
don't try to understand them.