Europe's inner demons

Caesarius recognizes that God imposes certain limits to the powers of demons: nobody can be forced to sin, and holy men are capable of resisting any temptation. And nevertheless the accent has shifted, unmistakably, since the days of the early Church. Now the stress is all on die ubiquity and resourcefulness of the demons, the relative helplessness of human beings. Demons are always around us and in our midst, and their cunning is infinite;⁽⁵¹⁾ they lead people astray by false promises or even by false miracles,⁽⁵²⁾ they undermine their faith.⁽⁵³⁾ No trouble is too great if they can damn a soul; a demon has been heard to say that he would rather accompany a soul to hell than go alone to heaven.

⁽⁵⁴⁾ Indeed, a demon is such a dangerous being that only an exceptionally virtuous person can see or touch one without suffering serious harm.⁽⁵⁵⁾ Caesarius tells of an abbot and a monk who nearly died after seeing a demon, and of two youths who fell sick after seeing a demon in the form of a woman.⁽⁵⁶⁾ A woman pressed the hand of a man-servant whom she thought she knew; it proved a bad mistake, for the servant was really a demon, and within a few days the woman was dead.⁽⁵⁷⁾

A soldier who played cards with a demon at night had his entrails torn out.⁽⁵⁸⁾

Most disturbing of all, a demon can enter a person’s body and take up residence in its bowels and hollow places, where the excrement is. Caesarius illustrates the point with a story of a five-year-old boy who swallowed a demon while drinking milk; it continued to torment him until he was a grown man, when the apostles Peter and Paul were moved by his piety to expel it.⁽⁵⁹⁾ But sometimes what appears as possession is really a still more sinister phenomenon. There was once a priest whose singing was a joy to all — until one day another priest heard it, and realized that such perfection must come not from a human being but from a demon. So he exorcized the demon, which promptly departed— whereupon the singer’s body fell lifeless to the ground, showing that for some time it had been animated by the demon alone.⁽⁶⁰⁾

Around 1270 a whole book was composed from the discourses of Richalmus, abbot of Schönthal, concerning the plots and wiles which demons use to ensnare human beings.⁽⁶¹⁾ He too addresses his hints to a novice in the monastery, and unlike Caesarius he takes his material chiefly from the monastic life; his special concern is with the temptations and obstacles with which demons try to divert monks from their quest for sanctity. Within these limits he presents much the same picture as the Rhenish monk.

It was always understood that angels are organized hierarchically, and according to Richalmus the same applies to demons. The finest and most cunning demons dwell permanently in the air just above the earth, and it is they who issue instructions to demons of the cruder sort, who patrol the earth itself;⁽⁶²⁾ there is in fact a constant mutual incitement to evil-doing, with the superior demons setting the pace.⁽⁶³⁾ But hierarchy obtains even amongst demons occupied with a particular job on earth; for instance, in each monastery a staff of demons is employed, and those operating at the top level are themselves known as “the abbot” or "the prior”.⁽⁶⁴⁾

But from the point of their human victims it is the sheer numbers that impress: “It is untrue what some people say, that each human being is pursued by only one demon, for several demons pursue each human being. Just as a man who plunges into the sea is wholly surrounded by water, above and below, so demons too flow around a man from all sides.”⁽⁶⁵⁾ Indeed there are times when demons “surround a man like a thick vault, so that there is no air-hole between them”.⁽⁶⁶⁾ When Richalmus shuts his eyes he often sees the tiny bodies of the demons surrounding him and every human being, thick as specks of dust in the sunlight.⁽⁶⁷⁾

Demons are filled with such hostility towards mankind that it is a miracle that any human being survives; in fact, but for the protection afforded by God’s grace, nobody would. Not for a moment do demons cease from their plaguing and tempting of mortals, and particularly of the pious. “Just as one watches the hand on a pair of scales, to see whether it rises or falls, so do demons ceaselessly observe a man. And the more Christian charity there is in a man, the more violently they attack him… If he is less charitable, they pause and cease from tormenting.”⁽⁶⁸⁾ From this it follows that they concentrate particularly on priests and monks. Richalmus is well equipped to describe the demonic persecutions which he and his brethren have to endure, for he can hear demons talking together. The song of birds, the coughing of human beings, indeed every sound that breaks the silence of meditation — all is demons’ talk; and Richalmus has the gift of understanding it.⁽⁶⁹⁾