PAGAN ORIGIN OF THE DOCTRINE OF A PERSONAL DEVIL.
THE celebrated Plutarch, historian, philosopher, and priest of Apollo,
in the first century of the Christian era, thus writes: "We ought not to
believe that the Principles of the universe are not animated, as
Democrite and Epicure thought; nor that an inert matter be organized,
and ordained by a Providence that disposes of all, as the Stoicians
taught. It is impossible that one sole being, either good or bad, be the
author of all, for God can cause no evil. The harmony of the world is a
combination of contraries like the strings of a lyre, or like the string
of a bow capable of being bent and unbent. In no case, the poet
Euripedes says, good is separated from evil: there must be a mixture of
the one and of the other. This opinion is of immemorial antiquity, and
has been held by theologians, legislators, poets, and philosophers. Its
inventor is unknown, but it is verified by the traditions of mankind; it
is consecrated by mysteries and sacrifices among the Barbarians, as well
as among the Greeks. They all acknowledge the dogma of two opposite
Principles in nature, who, by their opposition, produce the mixture of
good and evil.
"Therefore it may not be said, that a single dispenser draws events like
a liquor from two casks to mix them together; for this mixture is found
in all the phenomena of nature. We must admit two opposite causes, two
contrary powers, bearing the one to the right, and the other to the
left; and who thus govern our life and the whole sublunar world, which
for this reason is subject to all the irregularities and vicissitudes we
witness, for nothing is done without a cause. As the good cannot produce
evil, then there is a principle causing evil, as one causing good."
We see by this passage of Plutarch, that the true origin of two
Principles proceeds from the difficulty which men, in all times, found
in explaining, by one sole cause, good and evil in nature, and in making
flow from one sole spring, virtue and crime, light and darkness. "This
dogma," Plutarch adds, "has been admitted by nearly all nations, and
more especially by those renowned by their wisdom. They believed in two
gods of different trade, if I may say so, who caused, the one good, and
the other evil. They called the first God by excellence, and the second
Demon."
In fact the Persians, disciples of Zoroaster admitted, and even in our
days, the Parsis, their successors, admit two principles, the one called
Oromaze, and the other Ahriman. Plutarch says: "The Persians believed
that the first was of the nature of light, and the second of that of
darkness. Among the Egyptians the first was called Osiris, and the
second Typhon, eternal foe to the first."
All the sacred books of the Persians, and of the Egyptians, contain the
marvellous and allegorical recital of the various combats given by
Ahriman and his angels to Oromaze, and by Typhon to Osiris. These fables
have been rehearsed by the Greeks in the war of the Titans against the
Giants, against Jupiter, or Principle of good and light; for Jupiter,
Plutarch remarks, was the Oromaze of the Persians, and the Osiris of the
Egyptians.
To these examples quoted by Plutarch, and which he extracted from the
Theogony of the Persians, of the Egyptians, of the Greeks, and of the
Chaldeans, we shall add others, which are living yet, at least the most
of them. The inhabitants of the kingdom of Pegu admit two Principles;
the one author of good, and the other of evil. They particularly
endeavor to obtain the favor of the latter. The Indians of Java
acknowledge a chief supreme of the universe, and address offerings and
prayers to the evil genius lest he harm them. The Indians of the Moluc
and Philippine islands do the same. The natives of the island of Formose
worshiped a good god, Ishy, and demons, Chouy; they sacrifice to the
latter, but seldom to the former.
The negroes of the Cote-d'or admit two Gods, the one good, and the
other bad; the one white, and the other black and evil. They do not
adore the former often, whereas they try to appease the latter with
prayers and sacrifices; the Portuguese have named him Demon. The
Hottentots call the good Principle the Captain of above, and the bad
principle the Captain of below. The ancients believed that the source of
evil was in the underneath matter of the earth. The Giants and Typhon
were sons of the Earth. The Hottentots say, that, whether the good
Principle is prayed to or not he does good; whereas it is necessary to
pray to the evil Principle, lest he might do harm. They call the bad god
Touquoa, and represent him small, crooked, irritable, a foe to them; and
they say that from him all evils flow to this world.
The natives of Madagascar believe in two Principles. They ascribe to the
bad one the form and badness of a serpent, they call him Angat: they
name the good one Jadhar, which means great, omnipotent God. They rear
no temple to the latter because he is good. The Mingrelians more
particularly honor the one of their idols, which they think to be the
most cruel. The Indians of the island of Teneriffe believe in a supreme
God, whom they call Achguaya-Xerax, which means the greatest, the most
sublime, the preserver of all things. Also they admit an evil genius
named Guyotta.
The Scandinaves have their god Locke, who wars against the gods, and
particularly against Thor. He is the slanderer of the gods, Edda says,
the great forger of deceit. His spirit is evil; he engendered three
monsters; the wolf Feuris, the serpent Midgard, and Hela, or death. He
causes the earthquakes. The Tsouvaches and the Morduans recognize a
supreme being, who gave men all the blessings they enjoy. They also
admit evil spirits whose occupation is to injure mankind.
The Tartars of Katzchinzi adore a benevolent god, in kneeling towards
the Orient; but they fear another god, Toüs, to whom they pray to disarm
his wrath; and to whom, in the spring, they sacrifice a stallion. The
Ostiaks and the Vogouls name that evil god Koul; the Samoyedes name him
Sjoudibe; the Motores, Huala; the Kargasses, Sedkyr. The Thibetans admit
evil spirits which they place in the regions above. The religion of the
Bonzes supposes two Principles. The Siamoeses sacrifice to an evil
spirit, whom they consider as being the cause of all the misfortunes of
mankind.
The Indians have their Ganga and their Gournatha, spirits whom they try
to appease with prayer, sacrifices, and processions. The inhabitants of
Tolgony, India, believe that two Principles govern the universe; the one
good, he is light; and the other bad, he is darkness. The ancient
Assyrians, as well as the Persians, admitted two Principles; and they
honored, Augustine says, two gods, the one good, and the other bad. The
Chaldeans also had their good and bad stars, animated by geniuses or
intelligences also good and bad.
In America the dogma of two Principles, and of good and bad spirits, is
also found. The Peruvians revered Pacha-Camac as being a good god, and
Cupaï as being a bad god. The Caraïbs admitted two sorts of spirits; the
one benevolent, who dwell in the heaven; and the other evil, who hover
over us to lead us to temptation. The former, on the contrary, invite us
to do good, and each of us is guarded by one of them. Those of
Terra-Firma think that there is a god in the heaven, namely, the sun.
Besides they admit a bad Principle, who is the author of all evils; they
present him with flowers, fruits, corn, and perfumes. The Tapayas,
situated in America by about the same latitude as the Madegasses in
Africa, believe also in two Principles.
The natives of Brazil believe in a bad genius: they call him Aguyan; and
they have conjurors who can, they say, divert his wrath. The Indians of
Florida and of Louisiana adored the sun, the moon, and the stars. They
also believed in an evil spirit named Toïa. The Canadians, and the
savage tribes of the Bay of Hudson, revered the sun, the moon, the
stars, and the thunder; but they more particularly prayed to the evil
spirits. The Esquimaux believe in a god supremely good, whom they call
Ukouma, and in another, Ouikan, who is the author of all evils; who
causes the tempests, and who capsizes the boats. The savages of the
strait of Davis believe in beneficent and malignant spirits.
This distinction of two Principles, of a god, and of geniuses or
spirits, authors of good and light; and of a god and geniuses, authors
of evil and darkness, is immemorial. This opinion has been so
universally adopted for the only reason, that those who observed the
opposite phenomena of nature could not account for them, and could not
reconcile them with the existence of a single cause. As there are good
and bad men, they believed that there were good and bad gods, the ones
dispensers of good, and the others authors of evil.
Such was the universal belief when Jesus Christ came to the world. The
Jews themselves, since the captivity of Babylon, generally believed in
those two Principles. They went so far as to immolate their own children
on the altars of evil deities, in order to appease them. Jesus preached
his Gospel, died, and left on earth his apostles with the trust of
continuing, among men, his saving mission. As in the writings of the
Evangelists the word demon, or devil, was used figuratively, meaning
lust, wrong desire, etc., some of the first Christians understood the
true sense of these figurative words, and others did not. In the third
century the Church of Rome, which had been tending to supremacy over
other churches, and which, from policy, to gain more adepts, was
compromising with Paganism, understood the word demon, or devil,
literally, and preserved the heathen doctrine, which, as she grew,
became widely spread, and afterwards an article of faith.
The Fathers of the Church, of that age, believed that the demons, or
devils, were innumerable; that their chief, Lucifer, had entrusted a
demon to accompany each man through life, to tempt him to sin; that
Lucifer had as many bad angels, or demons, under his command, as God had
good angels; that all those demons were corporeal, and that those male
committed fornication and adultery with the daughters of men; and those
female with the sons of men; that they had generated the giants; and
that they had incited the oppressors of the Christians to persecute
them. Thus thought Justin, Tatian, Minutius-Felix, Athenagoras,
Tertullian, Julius-Firmicus, Origen, Synesius, Arnobe, St. Gregory of
Nazianze, Lactance, St. Jerome, St. Augustine, etc., as seen in their
works in either edition of the Benedictines, or of the canon Caillot, of
Migne, a priest, now editor in Paris. Even in our days the most of the
superstitious practices of the Pagans, in regard to evil spirits, are
preserved in the Papal Church,--conjurations, exorcisms, Agnus Dei, holy
water, etc., and others which they have added, such as the sign of the
cross, the expulsion of the devil from houses, barns, wells, wagons,
beasts, fields, etc. These ceremonies are oftentimes performed, as a
matter of course, for money.
The same took place in the Church of Rome in reference to the heathen
dogma of good angels being under the command of the good spirit, or God;
this dogma was generally believed even by the Jews, at least since the
captivity of Babylon. We say _generally_, because the Sadduceans did not
believe it; and perhaps, also, the Samaritans and the Caraïtes, for we
have but two testimonies that prove they partook of the opinion of the
Samaritans on this point, namely, the testimony of Abusaïd, author of an
Arabic version of the Pentateuch, and that of Aaron, in his commentaries
of the same. The Papal Church holds still that the angels form three
hierarchies, or choirs. The first is that of the Seraphims, Cherubims,
and thrones; the second comprises the dominations, the virtues, and the
powers; and the third is composed of the principalities, of the
archangels, and of the angels. One of these angels, called guardian, is
obliged to stand by each one of us all the days of our life. Temples,
altars, prayers and sacrifices are offered to them.
Tertullian, Origen, Clement of Alexandria, etc., thought that the bodies
of the good angels were formed of a very thin, subtle matter. Other
Fathers, Basile, Athanase, Cyrille, Gregory of Nysse, John-Chrysostomus,
etc., considered them as spiritual beings; however, they believed that
they may take a body when they please. The Church of Rome holds, as an
article of faith, that the good angels ought to be adored.
As seen above, the Church of Rome has preserved, with a very slight
modification, if any, the heathen dogma of two Principles, the one good,
God; and the other bad, Lucifer, or the devil; also the nomenclature of
geniuses, or spirits, or angels, which are, the ones under the command
of God, and the others under the command of Lucifer. When, in the
sixteenth century, the Protestants parted with the Church of Rome, they
cut off many branches of this dogma; but they kept its body, namely,
instead of understanding the words demon, or devil, as meaning lust,
abuse of free agency, wrong desire, etc., they understood them of
personal beings, either material or immaterial, but existing, tempting
each man to sin; and relentlessly seeking the ruin of mankind.
_Therefore the doctrine of a Personal Devil is of Pagan origin._