Page:Readings in European History Vol 1.djvu/126

Readings in European History 35. The pagan gods only devils in disguise. (From the Dialogues of Gregory the Great, condensed.) Belief in miracles and ever- present demons. 36. St. Gall and the demons. (From the Life of St. Gall (630) by an anonymous writer.) Andrew, by God's mercy bishop of Fondi, was a man of most holy life, but the ancient enemy of mankind sought to tempt him, by causing him to think evil thoughts. Now one day a certain Jew was coming to Rome from Campania, and he traveled by the Appian Way. When he reached the hill of Fondi he saw that the day was dark- ening toward evening, and he did not know at all where he might sleep. He was near a temple of Apollo, and he decided to stay there. He feared the sacrilegious character of the place, so, though he had not the faith of the cross, he took care to pro- tect himself with the sign of the cross. In the middle of the night he was disturbed by the very fear of solitude, and lay awake. Suddenly he looked up, and saw a crowd of evil spirits. He who was in authority over the rest took his place in the midst of them and began to discuss the deeds of each spirit, and to ask how much evil each one had accomplished. One of the spirits told how he had caused Bishop Andrew to think an unholy thought. Then the evil spirit and enemy of the human race exhorted that spirit to carry out what he had begun in Andrew's soul. Then the spirit who commanded the rest ordered his fol- lowers to find out who had presumed to sleep in that temple. But the Jew made the sign of the cross, and all the throng of evil spirits, crying out " Woe, woe ! " disappeared. [St. Columban and St. Gall came, about the year 610, to a village near the Lake of Constance called Bregenz, where they had heard that there might be opportunity to serve God.] There the brethren's hands made ready a dwelling, and the holy Columban fervently prayed to Christ in behalf of that place. The superstitious pagans worshiped three idols of gilded metal, and believed in returning thanks to them rather than to the creator of the world. So Columban, the man of God, wished to destroy that superstition, and told Gall to talk to the people, since he himself excelled in Latin, but not in the language of that