Elizabethan Demonology | Page 9

strange
to the inhabitants of the land in which the acclimatization was
attempted; and the incomprehensible is first suspected, then loathed. It
is not surprising, then, that the new-comers soon fell into the ranks of
purely evil spirits, and that those who persisted in exercising their rites
were stigmatized as devil-worshippers, or magicians.
But in process of time this polytheistic system became pre-eminently
unsatisfactory to the thoughtful men whom Greece produced in such
numbers. The tendency towards monotheism which is usually
associated with the name of Plato is hinted at in the writings of other
philosophers who were his predecessors. The effect of this revolution
was to recognize one Supreme Being, the First Cause, and to
subordinate to him all the other deities of the ancient and popular
theology--to co-ordinate them, in fact, with the older class of daemons;
the first step in the descent to the lowest category of all.
21. The history of the neo-Platonic belief is one of elaboration upon
these ideas. The conception of the Supreme Being was complicated in a
manner closely resembling the idea of the Christian Trinity, and all the
subordinate daemons were classified into good and evil geniuses. Thus,
a theoretically monotheistic system was established, with a tremendous

hierarchy of inferior spirits, who frequently bore the names of the
ancient gods and goddesses of Egypt, Greece, and Rome, strikingly
resembling that of Roman Catholicism. The subordinate daemons were
not at first recognized as entitled to any religious rites; but in the course
of time, by the inevitable operation of the first principle just enunciated,
a form of theurgy sprang up with the object of attracting the kindly help
and patronage of the good spirits, and was tolerated; and attempts were
made to hold intercourse with the evil spirits, which were, as far as
possible suppressed and discountenanced.
22. The history of the operation of this principle upon the Jewish
religion is very similar, and extremely interesting. Although they do not
seem to have ever had any system of ancestor-worship, as the Greeks
had, yet the Jews appear originally to have recognized the deities of
their neighbours as existing spirits, but inferior in power to the God of
Israel. "All the gods of the nations are idols" are words that entirely fail
to convey the idea of the Psalmist; for the word translated "idols" is
_Elohim_, the very term usually employed to designate Jehovah; and
the true sense of the passage therefore is: "All the gods of the nations
are gods, but Jehovah made the heavens."[1] In another place we read
that "The Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods."[2] As,
however, the Jews gradually became acquainted with the barbarous
rites with which their neighbours did honour to their gods, the
foreigners seem to have fallen more and more in estimation, until they
came to be classed as evil spirits. To this process such names as
Beelzebub, Moloch, Ashtaroth, and Belial bear witness; Beelzebub,
"the prince of the devils" of later time, being one of the gods of the
hostile Philistines.
[Footnote 1: Psalm xcvi. 5 (xcv. Sept.).]
[Footnote 2: Psalm xcv. 3 (xciv. Sept.). Maury, p. 98.]
23. The introduction of Christianity made no difference in this respect.
Paul says to the believers at Corinth, "that the things which the Gentiles
sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils ([Greek: daimonia]), and not to God;
and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils;"[1] and the
Septuagint renders the word Elohim in the ninety-fifth Psalm by this
[Greek: daimonia], which as the Christians had already a distinct term
for good spirits, came to be applied to evil ones only.
[Footnote 1: I Cor. x. 20.]

Under the influence therefore, of the new religion, the gods of Greece
and Rome, who in the days of their supremacy had degraded so many
foreign deities to the position of daemons, were in their turn deposed
from their high estate, and became the nucleus around which the
Christian belief in demonology formed itself. The gods who under the
old theologies reigned paramount in the lower regions became
pre-eminently diabolic in character in the new system, and it was
Hecate who to the last retained her position of active patroness and
encourager of witchcraft; a practice which became almost indissolubly
connected with her name. Numerous instances of the completeness
with which this process of diabolization was effected, and the firmness
with which it retained its hold upon the popular belief, even to late
times, might be given; but the following must suffice. In one of the
miracle plays, "The Conversion of Saul," a council of devils is held, at
which Mercury appears as the messenger of Belial.[1]
[Footnote 1: Digby Mysteries, New Shakspere Society, 1880, p. 44.]
24. But this absolute rejection of every pagan