DEMONOLOGT
716
DEMONOLOGY
on this matter. It must be remembered, on the one
hand, that many of the Gospel miracles, and particu-
larly the casting out of devils, must in any case have
given the faithful a vivid sense of the existence and
power of the evil spirits. At the same time, as we
have seen. Scripture itself did not furnish any full and
clear information in regard to the origin and the na-
ture of these powerful enemies; on the other hand, it
may be observed that the first Christian converts and
the first Christian teachers were for the most part
either Jews or Greeks, and many of them were living
in the midst of those who professed some or other of
the old Oriental religions. Thus, while they naturally
wished to know something about these matters, they
had but little definite knowledge of the truth, and on
the other hand their ears were daily filled with false
and misleading information. In these circumstances
it is scarcely surprising to find that some of the earliest
ecclesiastical writers, as St. Justin, Origen, and Ter-
tullian, are not very happy in their treatment of this
topic. There was, moreover, one fruitful source of
error which is rather apt to be forgotten. Now that
common consent of Catholic commentators has fur-
nished a better interpretation of Genesis, vi, 2, and
coneiliar definitions and theological arguments have
established the fact that the angels are purely spiritual
beings, it may seem strange that some early Christian
teachers should have supposed that the phrase, sons
of God, could possibly mean the angels or that these
pure spirits could have taken unto themselves wives
of the daughters of men. But it must be borne in
mind that the old commentators, who read the Sep-
tuagint or some derivative version, did not put this
interpretation on the passage; the word itself was in
the text before them; that is to say, the old Greek
Bibie expressly said that "the Angels of God took
wives of the daughters of men". This unfortunate
reading was certainly enough to give a wrong direction
to much of the demonology of early Christian writers,
and those who went astray in other matters also na-
turally adopted peculiar ideas on this subject. In
some ways one of the most remarkable examples of
this mistaken demonology is that to be found in the
pseudo-Clementine Homilies (Horn. \'iii, ix). The
writer gives a very full account of the mysterious
episode of Genesis, vi, 2, which, in common with so
many others, he takes to be the origin of the demons
who were, in his view, the offspring of the supposed
union of the angels of God and the daughters of men.
But on one point, at any rate, he improves the story
and does something to lighten our initial difficulty.
The first objection to the legend was, that the angels,
as pure spirits, were plainly incapable of feeling sen-
sual passions ; and it was possibly a keen sense of this
difficulty that led some who had adopted the story to
deny the spirituality of the angelic nature. But the
moralist evades it in a more ingenious manner. Ac-
cording to his account, the angels were not over-
powered with the passion of sensual love while they
were as yet in their purely spiritual state; but when
they looked down and witnessed the wickedness and
ingratitude of men whose sins were defiling the fair
creation of God, they asked of their Creator that they
might be endowed with bodies like unto men, so that,
coming down to earth, they might set things right and
lead a righteous life in the visible creation. Their
wish was granted, they were clothed in bodies and
came down to dwell on earth. But now they found
tliat with their raiment of mortal flesh they had ac-
quired also the weakness and passions which had
wrought such havoc in men; and they too, like the
sons of men, became enamoured of the beauty of
women and, forgetting the noble purpose of their
descent to earth, gave themselves up to the gratifica- •
tion of their lust, and so rushed hpaillong to tlu'ir ruin.
The offspring of tlieir union with tfir daughters of men
were tlie giants — the mighty men of .superluunan build
and superhuman powers, as became the sons of incar-
nate angels, yet at the same time mortal, like their
mortal mothers. And when these giants perished in
the Flood their disembodied souls wandered through
the world as the race of demons.
Medieval and Modern Demonology. — Throughout the Christian Middle Ages the external systems of demonology among the uncultured races or in the ancient civilizations of the East continued their course, and may still be found flourishing in the home of their origin or in other lands. Within the Catholic fold there was less scope for the worse form of the old er- rors. The early heresies had been cast out, and theo- logical speculation had been directed in the true way by the decision of the Fifth CEcumenical Council (545), which condemned certain Origenist errors on the suliject of demons. But while the theologians of the great scholastic period were setting forth and elucida- ting the Catholic doctrine concerning angels and devils, there was withal a darker side in the popular super- stitions, and in the men who at all times continued to practise the black arts of magic, and witchcraft, and dealing with the devil. In the troubled period of the Renaissance and the Reformation there appears to have been a fresh outbreak of old superstitions and evil practices, and for a time both Catholic and Protes- tant countries were disturbed by the strange beliefs and the strange doings of real or supposed professors of the black arts and by the credulous and cruel perse- cutors who sought to suppress them. In the new age of the Revolution and the spread of practical ideas and exact methods of science it was at first thought by many that these medieval superstitions would speedily pass away. When men, materialized by the growth of wealth and the comforts of civilization, and enlightened by science and new philosophies, could scarce find faith to believe in the pure truths of re- vealed religion, there could be little room for any be- lief in the doctrines of demons. The whole thing was now rudely rejected as a dream and a delusion. Learned men marvelled at the credulity of their fathers, with their faith in ghosts, and demons, and black magic, but felt it impossible to take any serious interest in the subject in their age of enlightenment. Yet in fact there was still stranger delusion in the naive faith of the early Rationalists, who fondly fancied that they had found the key to all knowledge, and that there were no things in heaven or earth be- yond the reach of their science and philosophy. And much of the histoiy of the last hundred years forms a curious comment on these proud pretentions. For, far from disappearing from the face of the earth, much of the old occultism has been revived with a new vigour, and has taken new form in modern Spiritism. At the same time, philosophers, historians, and men of science have been led to make a serious study of the story of demonology and occultism in past ages or in other lands, in order to understand its true significance.
Conclusion. — With all their variations and contra- dictions, the multitudinous systems of demonology yet have much in common. In some cases this may be accounted for by the fact that one has freely borrowed from another. Tluis, the demonology of early Chris- tian writers would naturally owe much both to the systems of Jewish and Greek demonology, and these id their turn can hardly have been free from other for- eign influences. And since not only heretical opin- ions, but orthodox teacliing on this subject has at any rate some elements in common with the ethnic sys- tems — from the Animism of the simple savage to the elaborate demonology of the Clialdeans and Iranians ■ — the mythologist or folk-lorist bids us come to the conclusion that all are from the same source, and that the Biblical and Catholic doctrine on evil spirits must be no more than a ili'\eli>pment from Animism and a more refined form of ethnic demonology. But it
