Page:The Mediaeval Mind Vol 1.djvu/510

This page has been validated.

488

THE MEDIAEVAL MIND

BOOK III

to defeat the devil and escape the results of sins committed by himself, but prompted by his enemy. This was war and the ethics of war, in which man was the central struggling figure, attacked by the devil and defended by the saints. The latter also help man's earthly fortunes, and devotion to them may ensure one's welfare in this very palpable and pressing life of earth.

This popular and yet authoritative view of mortal peril and saintly aid is illustrated in the tales from sermons and other pious writings. In them any uncanny or untoward experience was ascribed to the devil. So it was in monkish Chronicles, Vitae sanctorum, Dialogi miraculorum, or indeed in any edifying writing couched in narrative form or containing illustrative tales. Throughout this literature the devil inspires evil thoughts, instigates crimes, and causes any unhappy or immoral happening. It is just as much a matter of course as if one should say to-day, I have a cold, or John stole a ring, or James misbehaved with So-and-so.^[1] Any man might meet the devil, and if sinful, suffer physical violence from him. If any one disappeared the devil might be supposed to have carried him off. Details of the abduction might be given, or the whole matter take place before witnesses.

"A rich usurer, with little fear of God in him, had dined well one evening, and was in bed with his wife, when he suddenly leaped up. She asked what ailed him. He replied: 'I was just snatched away to God's judgment seat, where I heard so many accusations that I did not know what to answer. And while I waited for something to happen, I heard the final sentence given against me, that I should be handed over to demons, who were to come and get me to-day.' Saying this, he flung on a coat, and ran out of the house,

↑ The Dialogi miraculorum of Caesar of Heisterbach, and the Exempla of Étienne de Bourbon (d. 1262) and Jacques de Vitry (d. 1240) present a huge collection of such stories. For the early Middle Ages, the decades just before and after the year one thousand, the mechanically supernatural view of any occurrence is illustrated in the five books of Histories of Radulphus Glaber, an incontinent and wandering, but observing monk, native of Burgundy. Best edition by M. Prou, in Collection des textes, etc. (Paris, Picard, 1886); also in Migne, Pat. Lot. 142. An interesting study of his work by Gebhart, entitled, " Un Moine de l'an 1000," is to be found in the Revue des deux mondes, for October 1, 1891. Glaber's fifth book opens with some excellent devil stories. As there was a progressive enlightenment through the mediaeval centuries, such tales gradually became less common and less crude.

[1] The Dialogi miraculorum of Caesar of Heisterbach, and the Exempla of Étienne de Bourbon (d. 1262) and Jacques de Vitry (d. 1240) present a huge collection of such stories. For the early Middle Ages, the decades just before and after the year one thousand, the mechanically supernatural view of any occurrence is illustrated in the five books of Histories of Radulphus Glaber, an incontinent and wandering, but observing monk, native of Burgundy. Best edition by M. Prou, in Collection des textes, etc. (Paris, Picard, 1886); also in Migne, Pat. Lot. 142. An interesting study of his work by Gebhart, entitled, " Un Moine de l'an 1000," is to be found in the Revue des deux mondes, for October 1, 1891. Glaber's fifth book opens with some excellent devil stories. As there was a progressive enlightenment through the mediaeval centuries, such tales gradually became less common and less crude.

[1]