THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL AND THE IDEA OF EVIL FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO PRESENT

[Norrin Radd]

THE
HISTORY OF THE DEVIL
AND THE
IDEA OF EVIL
FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE PRESENT DAY
by PAUL CARUS
[1900]

[Norrin Radd]

This massive work on the history of evil, particularly as symbolized by the Christian devil, was written on the cusp of the 20th century by Paul Carus, who wrote such other books as 'Buddha, the Gospel'.

At that point in history it seemed apparent that evil would soon be eliminated by the onrushing forces of rationalism and modernism. The devil had been reduced to a literary character, always ready to make a silly bargain for a soul. This trivialized image is perpetuated to this day. Satan in the cinema is either represented as a hideous special effect or a comic, bumbling trickster. Long gone is the noble adversary of Jehovah, as portrayed in the Bible, Milton or Dante.

[Norrin Radd]

However, the 20th century brought total war; genocide; death camps; nuclear, biological and chemical weapons; mind control; double-speak; ecological destruction; and finally indiscriminant mass terror. Evil was back and it was unmistakable. No wonder that opinion polls in the United States show that a large proportion of the population believe in the existence of the devil.

PRODUCTION NOTES: First of all, before you fire off any angry letters about this book, please keep in mind that the title of the book is not 'We Worship Satan'. Secondly, the book was lavishly illustrated, and it took a lot of work to get the images compressed enough so that these pages would load effectively on the Internet. So please accept my apologies for the dinky images. In any case, I hope you enjoy this ebook, which was an extremely difficult production job. -- J.B. Hare.

[Norrin Radd]

THE
HISTORY OF THE DEVIL
AND THE
IDEA OF EVIL
FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE PRESENT DAY
by
PAUL CARUS
Ich kann nicht bereden lassen
Macht mir den Teufel nur nicht klein;
Ein Kerl den alle Menchen hassen,
Der Muss was sein!
     Goethe
Open Court [1900]

[Norrin Radd]

CONTENTS

 
   

PAGE

Good and Evil as Religious Ideas
   

1

Devil Worship
   

6

Ancient Egypt
   

15

Accad and the Early Semites
   

29

Persian Dualism
   

50

Israel
   

65

Brahmanism and Hinduism
   

74

Buddhism
   

104

The Dawn of a New Era
   

137

Early Christianity
   

157

The Idea of Salvation in Greece and Italy
   

193

The Demonology of Northern Europe
   

241

The Devil's Prime
   

262

The Inquisition
   

306

The Age of the Reformation
   

338

The Abolition of Witch-Prosecution
   

370

In Verse and Fable
   

407

The Philosophical Problem of Good and Evil
   

[Norrin Radd]

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

 
   

PAGE

Frontispiece
   

vi

Demonolatrous Ceremonies of the Old Inhabitants of Haiti. After Picart
   

11

Human Sacrifices Among the Greeks. After an ancient cameo in Berlin
   

12

A Hind Substituted for Iphigenia. After a Pompeian fresco
   

13

Apapi (Apophis) and Atmu. After Rawlinson
   

16

Forms of Taourt. After Rawlinson
   

16

Seth. After Brugsch
   

16

The Soul Visiting the Mummy. From the Ani Papyrus
   

16

Set Teaching the King the Art of War. After Erman
   

18

The Weighing of the Heart in the Hall of Truth. After Lepsius's reproduction of the Turin papyrus
   

21

The Abode of Bliss. After Lepsius's reproduction of the Turin papyrus
   

25

Xisuthrus (the Babylonian Noah) in the Ark. After an ancient Babylonian cylinder. Reproduced from Smith
   

32

Wall Decorations of the Royal Palace at Nineveh in Their Present State. After Place, reproduced from Lenormant
   

33

Sacred Tree and Serpent. From an ancient Babylonian cylinder. After Smith
   

35

The Tree of Life. Decorations on the embroidery of a royal mantle. British Museum
   

36

Merodach Delivering the Moon-God from the Evil Spirits. From a Babylonian cylinder. Smith
   

37

The Chaldean Trinity Blessing the Tree of Life. British Museum
   

40

p. vi
   

[Norrin Radd]

 
   

PAGE

The Goddess Anna. Bas-relief in the British Museum
   

40

Fight Between Bel-Merodach and Tiamat. British Museum
   

41

Evil Demons. British Museum
   

43

Demon of the Southwest Wind. Statue in the Louvre. After Lenormant
   

44

Nirgalli. British Museum. After Lenormant
   

45

An Ancient Assyrian Bronze Tablet Representing the World in the Clutches of an Evil Demon. Collection of M. de Clercq. After Lenormant
   

46

An Assyrian Cameo
   

59

A Persian Cameo
   

59

Assyrian Cylinder
   

59

Sculptures on a Royal Tomb. Lenormant
   

60

Bas-Relief of Persepolis. Lenormant
   

61

The King Slaying a Unicorn. Bas-relief of Persepolis
   

63

Saul and the Witch of Endor. After Schnorr von Carolsfeld
   

68

Assyrian Goat Demons. Carvings on a boulder. After Lenormant
   

69

The Brahman Trimurti. After Coleman
   

75

Brahma. Fragment of a car. Musée Guimet
   

76

Brahma and Suraswati. Reproduced from Hermann Göll
   

77

Vishnu, Lakshmi, and Brahma. After a native illustration, reproduced from Hermann Göll
   

78

The Matsya Avatar or Fish Incarnation. From Picart
   

79

The Kurm Avatar or Tortoise Incarnation From Picart
   

79

The Varâha Avatar or Wild Boar Incarnation. From Picart
   

79

The Narasinha Avatar or Man-Lion Incarnation. From Picart

[Norrin Radd]

Lakshmi, the Goddess of Beauty. Musée Guimet
   

80

Vishnu Narasinha. Fragment of a car. Musée Guimet
   

81

Hanuman, the Monkey King, Building the Bridge Over the Strait Between India and Lanka. Reproduced from Hermann Göll
   

82

The Vâmana Avatar or Dwarf Incarnation
   

83

The Parashura Avatar, or Battle-Ax Incarnation
   

83

The Râma Chandra Avatar
   

83

The Krishna Avatar
   

83

p. vii
   

 

 
   

PAGE

The Monkey King Sugriva Fighting. Reproduced from Coleman
   

84

Vishnu and Shri-Lakshmi as Râma Chandra and Sita After Their Happy Reunion. Reproduced from Coleman
   

85

Hanuman Reciting His Adventures to Râma Chandra and Sita. Reproduced from Coleman
   

86

Krishna Nursed by Devaki. Reproduced from Moore's Hindu Pantheon
   

87

Krishna. Bronze statue, Musée Guimet
   

88

Krishna, the Favorite of the Country Lasses of Gokula. Reproduced from Coleman
   

89

Krishna's Adventures. Reproduced from Coleman
   

90

The Battle Between the Kurus and Pandus on the Field of Kurukshetra. Reproduced from Wilkins
   

91

Jagannath with His Two Companions. After Schlagintweit
   

92

Shiva with Parvati. Musée Guimet
   

93

Shiva-Trimurti. Musée Guimet
   

93

Shiva Dancing Surrounded by a Halo of Flames. Bronze Statue, Musée Guimet
   

94

The Buddha Avatar or Vishnu's Incarnation as the Enlightened Teacher of Mankind. Reproduced from Picart
   

95

The Kalki Avatar or the White-Horse Incarnation. From Picart

[Norrin Radd]

Shiva Worship. From Picart
   

95

Shiva and Parvati. From Göll
   

96

Kali. After an Indian picture. From Schlagintweit
   

97

Durga. Indian sculpture. From Schlagintweit
   

98

mKha's Groma, the Tibetan Kali. Musée Guimet
   

99

Kali-Durga in the Hindu Pantheon. From Wilkins
   

100

Hari Hara. From Wilkins
   

101

Ganesa. From Wilkins
   

102

Agni. From Hermann Göll
   

102

Kama. From Wollheim da Fonceka
   

102

Shiva Slaying a Demon. From Wilkins
   

102

The Demon of Lightning. A Japanese temple statue
   

106

The Demon of Thunder. A Japanese temple statue
   

107

p. viii
   

 

 
   

PAGE

Mara's Army. Gandhara sculptures. Museum of Lahore. From Grünwedel
   

110

Buddha, Tempted by Mara's Daughters. Gandhara sculptures. Reproduced from Grünwedel
   

114

An Indian Wheel of Life. From L. E. Waddell's picture
   

119

[Norrin Radd]

A Tibetan Wheel of Life. From Bastian
   

121

A Japanese Wheel of Life. From Bastian
   

123

Meifu, the Dark Tribunal. From Karma
   

128

Kongo, the Sheriff. From a Japanese art print
   

130

Emma, the Judge. From a Japanese art print
   

130

The Devil as a Monk. Japanese wood carving, Musée Guimet
   

131

Oni-no-Nembutzu. After a wood carving in the author's possession
   

132

Hono-Kuruma, the Cart of Hell. After an old Japanese painting
   

133

Tibetan Devil's Altar. From Waddell
   

134

Buddha Extending His Help to a Sufferer in Hell. From Karma
   

136

The Christian Trinity, God Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Reproduced from Muther
   

139

Asmodi, an Evil Spirit, Cast Out by Prayer. After Schnorr von Carolsfeld
   

141

Heaven and Hell. After H. F., an unknown Old-German master
   

144

The Holy Trinity in the Vatican. After Pietro Berrettini
   

146

The Buddhist Trinity, the Buddha, the Dharma, the Sangha. Musée Gulmet
   

147

The Trinity and Mary. After Lübke
   

148

[Norrin Radd]

The Christian Trinity. From Bastian
   

149

The Trinity of Salerno. Sketched by the artist of the Gartenlaube
   

150

Jacob Böhme
   

151

Vignette of Jacob Böhme's Book on the Threefold Life of Man
   

152

The Three Principles. Frontispiece of Jacob Böhme's book
   

153

Jesus Casting Out Devils. After Schnorr von Carolsfeld
   

158

p. ix
   

 

 
   

PAGE

The Fiend, Sowing Tares Among the Wheat. From a German Picture-Bible
   

158

Dives Enjoying Life, and Lazarus Suffering. From a German Picture-Bible
   

160

Dives Tormented in Hell. From a German Picture-Bible
   

160

Cast Into Outer Darkness Where There Shall be Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth. From a German Picture-Bible
   

161

The Day of the Lord. After Michelangelo
   

162

The Last judgment. A fresco in the Campo Santo, Pisa
   

164

The Christian World-Dispensation According to St. John the Divine. After Schnorr von Carolsfeld
   

169

The Four Riders of the Apocalypse. Wall-painting on the Campo Santo, Berlin
   

170

The Woman of Abominations. By Albrecht Dürer
   

172

Christ's Descent Into Hell. By Sasha Schneider
   

176

Christian Representation of the Last judgment. From Klassischer Skulpturenschatz

[Norrin Radd]

Christian Representation of Hell. From Klassischer Skulpturenschatz
   

181

The Typical Conception of Hell. German woodcut of the age of the Reformation
   

185

Weighing the Evil and the Good of the Soul. From the cathedral in Autun, France
   

188

The Doom of the Damned. After Luca Signorelli
   

189

The Trinity Ideal of Mediæval Christianity. Reproduced from Muther
   

190

Hades. From Mon. Inst.
   

194

Human Sacrifices at the Funeral Pyre of Patroclus. From Michaelis, Handbuch der Kunstgeschichte
   

195

Christ's Death on the Cross and its Prototypes. Biblia Pauperum. Woodcut of the fifteenth century
   

196

Tuchulcha, the Demon of Infernal Tortures According to the Belief of the Etruscans. Part of a wall-picture of a tomb in Corneto
   

197

Charun, the Etruscan Demon of Death, Waiting for a Victim. From an Etruscan vase
   

197

p. x

[Norrin Radd]

Oknos and the Daughters of Danaos in Hades. Frieze of a Roman wall decoration
   

197

Ixion on the Fiery Wheel
   

198

Gigantomachy; the Giants Storming Heaven. Vatican Museum
   

199

Zeus Conquering Typhœus. Baumeister
   

199

Gigantomachy; the Giants Storming Heaven. Greek frieze
   

200

War in Heaven. By Albrecht Dürer
   

201

Chimæra of Arezzo. Now at Florence
   

202

Theseus and Pirithous. Baumeister
   

203

Perseus with the Head of the Decapitated Medusa. Baumeister
   

204

Perseus and Andromeda. Baumeister
   

205

Sicilian Coin with Medusa Head
   

206

The Gorgoneion on the Shield of Phidias's Athene
   

206

Gorgoneion, Ancient Face of the Gorgon Medusa. Glyptothek, Munich
   

207

Medusa Rondanini. Glyptothek, Munich
   

207

Bellerophon Slaying the Chimæra. British Museum
   

208

The Lion-Killing Hero of Khorsabad
   

209

Prometheus Tied by Zeus to the Stake (or Cross) and Exposed to the Eagle; Rescued by Hercules. Vase now at Berlin, Baumeister
   

210

The Myth of Prometheus on a Sarcophagus
   

212

The Temptations of Christ. Mosaic in the cathedral of Monreale, Sicily
   

213

Christian Gem
   

218

Mithras Monument of Ostburken
   

220

Mithraic Symbols. From C. W. King
   

220

Mithras the Saviour. Borghesi monument, the Louvre
   

221

Æon of Zrvan Akarana. From Layard
   

225

Abraxas Gem
   

227

Agathodæmon. From C. W. King
   

227

Iao Gem
   

227

Serapis
   

228

Serapis Gem
   

229

p. xi
   

 

[Norrin Radd]

Hermes, Saviour of Souls
   

230

Staff of Hermes
   

230

Hermes as Jupiter
   

230

A Ship Symbolising the Church
   

233

A Christian Gem with Serpent
   

233

A Gnostic Gem
   

233

Christian Symbols of the Catacombs
   

234

Aramæan Warriors, Wearing the Cross as an Amulet for Protection in Battle. After Wilkinson
   

235

St. Anthony Fighting the Devil with the Cross. After Salvator Rosa
   

236

St. George, the Princess and the Dragon
   

236

Archangel Michael Conquering Satan. By Raphael. In the Louvre
   

238

Archangel Michael Holding the Scales for Weighing Souls. After Lorenzo Sabbatieri
   

238

Hel, the Goddess of the Nether World. By Johannes Gehrts
   

242

Ragnarok, or Doomsday of the Teutons. By Johannes Gehrts
   

244

Dante's Ice Hell. By Gustave Doré
   

248

St. Dunstan and the Devil. From Scheible
   

255

The Legend of St. Cuthbert. From the Ingoldsby Legends
   

257

The Legend of St. Medard. From the Ingoldsby Legends
   

258

The Devil's Bridge Over the Reuss
   

260

Modern Snake Charmers. Reproduced from Brehm
   

262

Moses and Aaron Performing the Snake Miracle Before Pharaoh. After Schnorr von Carolsfeld
   

263

The Egyptian Snake Naja Haje Made Motionless by a Pressure on the Neck. From Verworn after photographs
   

264

A Successful Rain-Maker Slaying His Rivals. After Schnorr von Carolsfeld
   

267

Tenskwatawa, the Shawano Prophet in 1808. Reproduced from the Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology
   

268

Tenskwatawa, the Shawano Prophet in 1831. Reproduced from the Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology
   

269

p. xii
   

 

 
   

PAGE

The Ecstasy of the Ghost Dance of the North American Indians
   

271

The Blessing. A Ceremony In the Ghost Dance of the North American Indians
   

273

Henricus Cornelius Agrippa ab Nettesheim. Reproduced from the original edition of his works
   

274

Illustrations from the Original Edition of Occulta Philosophia
   

276,277

Exorcising by the Cross. Bas-relief on a water vessel found near Pisama
   

278

Text of the Baptismal Abjuration Formula in Old Low-German. From O. Henne am Rhyn
   

281

Specimen Page of an Illuminated Initial in Heisterbach's Dialogus Miraculorum. Original in Royal Library at Düsseldorf
   

283

Witches Conjuring a Hail-Storm
   

285

The Devil of Conceit as Seen by a Clergyman on the Dress of a Fashionable Lady
   

285

The Main Actors in Mediaeval Mysteries. From Dr. Gustav Könnecke
   

288

Witches. From Horndorff
   

290

The Witches' Sabbath. After Picart
   

291

Virgulta Divina. From an old MS. by George Conrad Horst
   

294

A Seal of Petrus de Albano for Conjuring Good Spirits
   

295

The Twelve Houses of a Horoscope. From Gerhard
   

295

The Sign of the First Hour of Sunday
   

296

[Norrin Radd]

The Divine Name Arranged for Conjuration
   

296

Knight and Devil
   

297

The Bishop of Lodi Preaching at the Trial of John Huss. From Castelar
   

301

Savonarola
   

302

Savonarola Praying in His Cell. From Castelar
   

303

Burning of Savonarola. After Don Ricardo Balaca
   

304

Pope Urban V. Proclaiming the Bull In Cæna Domini, 1362, Condemning Heretics
   

311

The Banner of the Spanish Inquisition. From Picart
   

312

p. xiii