Charming hero-sufferer? (according to E. Renan) In the second half of the last century, the image of Christ in the public opinion of the European intelligentsia was refracted through the prism of the image given by the French scientist and writer Ernest Renan in his book "The Life of Jesus",

Satanists have earned themselves a very dubious reputation, despite the fact that the real followers of this teaching do not even perform sacrifices and do not practice witchcraft. Many of them don't even worship the devil. Most often, a Satanist simply wants to live a peaceful life and get what he wants. These 15 little-known facts will lift the veil of secrecy over this ideology.

15. Anton LaVey, founder of the Church of Satan

Anton Szandor LaVey was born April 11, 1930 in Chicago, Illinois. In 1966, he founded the Church of Satan and proclaimed himself high priest. In later years, LaVey wrote The Satanic Bible, The Satanic Rituals, and The Perfect Witch. Critics consider this priest's whole life a complete lie, and his daughter Zina claimed that her father had problems with self-esteem, and he created the Church, seeking to assert himself and earn money.

14. Satanists don't perform sacrifices.

Satanism opposes ceremonial sacrifices. Killing an animal is allowed only if a person is going to eat it, or if it poses a mortal threat. The Satanic Bible says, "Under no circumstances will a Satanist sacrifice an animal or a child."

13. Different Types of Satanists

There are three main varieties of Satanism: Theistic, Luciferianism, and LaVeyian Satanism. The latter is best known: its supporters follow the teachings of Anton Lavey. According to this worldview, Satan is an image that symbolizes love for everything earthly and the denial of Christ. Most of LaVey's followers consider themselves agnostics and atheists.
Theistic Satanism is based on the belief that the devil is a deity worthy of veneration or worship.
Luciferians worship Lucifer as the Angel of Light.

12. Who adheres to the views of Satanism?

Most Satanists are usually teenagers who want to stand up to their parents even in their choice of faith. Some are attracted to occult rituals, others to an atheistic worldview.

11. Crimes in the name of Satan

Yet there were those who committed crimes in the name of the devil. So, in 1985, Sean Sellers shot a clerk in a store, explaining his actions as being possessed by a demon named Ezurate. In 1999 he was executed. And a group of like-minded Italians who called themselves the "Beasts of Satan" in 1998 killed two friends for the sake of sacrifice. After 6 years, the Satanists buried their girlfriend alive, who knew too much. Then the group was arrested.

10 Deal With The Devil

History knows many individuals who have entered into an agreement with the devil himself. So, the brilliant composer Giuseppe Tartini promised to serve the evil spirit in a dream, and in the morning he wrote the famous "Devil's Sonata".

9. Satan and the Middle Ages

In the Middle Ages, the church controlled sexual life so much that it indicated the permitted months and positions in which respectable Christians were allowed to have intimate relationships. All those who violated the prescriptions automatically became Satanists.

8. Nine Satanic Sins

Satanists have identified 9 sins for themselves that they must avoid: stupidity, pretentiousness, solipsism, self-deception, herd agreement, lack of breadth of views, forgetfulness of the orthodoxies of the past, pride that interferes with work, lack of aesthetic beginning.

7. "Satanic Bible"

Anton LaVey wrote The Satanic Bible in 1969, it is divided into four sections under the following titles: The Book of Satan, The Book of Lucifer, The Book of Belial, The Book of Leviathan. According to the author, there is no afterlife, so we must hurry to enjoy earthly joys.

6. Satanists VS. Right

The US Supreme Court allowed Satanists to conduct educational activities, including in educational institutions. In Russia, Satanism is one of the "radically aggressive" religious teachings, and in Belarus the Church of Satan is officially recognized as a destructive sect.

5. Satanists and magic

In the Satanic Bible, Lavey points out 11 rules, including about magic: "Recognize the power of magic if it has been successfully used by you to achieve your goals. If you deny the power of magic after you have successfully used it, you will lose everything you have achieved" . Satanists claim to have Lesser and Greater magic.

4 Famous Satanists

One of the most famous followers of Satanism is Marilyn Manson, who was ordained an honorary member of the Church of Satan by LaVey himself. According to rumors, Hollywood actress Jayne Mansfield was also fond of Satanism and even had a relationship with the high priest.

3. Fundamental individualism

The central idea of ​​Satanism, inherited from Nietzsche, is that the individual must, by his own efforts, find the purpose and meaning of life for himself and overcome mass conformity. Satanists are supporters of social diversity, the disclosure and development of sexuality, personal development, finding individual meaning in life and achieving goals.

2. Satan and atheists

Satanism is inherently atheistic. Satanists do not practice sacrifice not only because they consider such rituals barbaric. They just don't worship myths, much less make sacrifices to them. They don't even believe in Satan as a being.

1. Satan and paranoia

Satanism is still shrouded in myths and false accusations. The doctrine is credited with promoting child abuse and sexual perversion. In fact, the "Satanic Bible" says not to offend children and not to attempt sexual intimacy without an inviting signal.

Horror, how I love all sorts of scary fairy-tale pictures! Since childhood. In children's books, first of all, she eagerly looked at images of witches, women yag, devils and other evil spirits. Naturally, when my grandmother sneaked me to church as a child, I always looked at the scenes of the Last Judgment with curiosity on frescoes and icons. Is it something with me or are you all like this?

The ancient Greek philosophers Pythagoras and Porphyry evoke the devil through hydromancy.
France 1490s.
The official church condemned the fashionable fascination with the works of ancient philosophers.

Now I have become interested in medieval book miniatures - fortunately, now this digitized goodness on the Web is at least a dime a dozen - and I found that among the miniatures there are a lot of my favorite scary pictures. Studying them, I noticed that the authors followed several standard plots in which monsters, devils and other representatives of dark forces were present. And the set of these plots is not so great, although the imagination of some medieval artists was not limited to the usual set - demons in their miniatures sometimes appeared in the most unexpected places, which is quite natural - the devil is omnipresent, he does not sleep! However, I tried to arrange miniatures from manuscripts according to different principles, and below I will show you what happened.

A group of Jews inspired by the devil.
France, 14th century.
Back in the Middle Ages, it was customary to "demonize" the image of the enemy. And who is not the first enemy, if not the Jews?!

It turned out that selecting pictures according to chronology and their origin is not at all interesting. Of course, we are interested in the history of art, but not in such detail. According to the plots, of course!

A lot of pictures showing Hell and the Last Judgment. Terrible horror, but pretty uniform. There are pictures dedicated to demons and their leader - Satan, there are fewer of them, they are still more common in any context. Another favorite theme is original sin and the Serpent-tempter. And, of course, the Apocalypse and the fall of the rebellious angels. Well, a couple more stories.

Lilith tempts Eve.
Netherlands, 14th century.

I took a few books to read and watch popular science films, it became interesting. Delving deeper into the topic, I was surprised to realize that the facts already known to me about the dark side of the afterlife give a very superficial idea of ​​​​it, and the facts themselves are not always as interesting as their origin.

It seems that Satan was so hated and so dangerous that in the sacred texts he was mentioned in passing and infrequently (and I see how the scribe cautiously spits three times over his left shoulder on each such occasion). On the other hand, almost all miniaturists undertook to paint his "animal-like image" and, judging by the results, they did it with great inspiration.

fall
Netherlands. 15th century

And another thought came to my mind: the theme of evil in the Bible is covered so contradictory and sometimes confusingly, as if the answers to some questions are carefully crumpled: how was it allowed? Where does such evil come from, since God created everything? Savage hellish punishments, though well-deserved - good or not? How can incorporeal souls burn in hell? Not souls, but bodies? Why, then, infinitely, should they burn out rather quickly? Is the devil flesh? Appears in some form? So, telesen? And a stronger mortal can overcome him? Or how?

There are many, many questions on which, I suspect, no generation of Christian theologians has broken their spears. And the questions themselves are tricky, provocative, as if you know who asks them (ugh, ugh, ugh). And one more thing - only in Christianity Satan has such power, and he is such a powerful and sworn enemy of God, in other religions there is none. And even then, it seems that such a concept did not appear immediately. Maybe we most of all need someone on whom we can blame our weakness and impurity?

Fall (?)

And it's still interesting! I even had to read some passages from "Ezekiel", and "Isaiah", and "Job" - after all, Satan, or Lucifer, is mentioned for the first time in these Old Testament sources. Even if you take the name - which is correct: Satan or Lucifer? It turns out that “Lucifer” is the name of an angel who rebelled against God the Father and was cast down to earth, it means “son of the dawn”, and not even “prince of darkness” at all.

In "Ezekiel" it is said that he was in the "rank" of a cherub, was beautiful in appearance and wore luxurious clothes, "until iniquity was found in you." Moreover, as it is so streamlined, the researchers only assume that we are talking about Lucifer. Pride moved the beautiful angel, he wanted to become equal to God and rebelled against his Creator, raising an army. True, he lost, and, at that moment, apparently, he immediately became terrible and ugly (anger does not color anyone) and was cast down to earth to tempt the human race and do all sorts of dirty tricks. Theologians also did not agree on this immediately. The first interpretations and explanations on this matter appear in the writings of Origen, the theologian of the 3rd century. The essence of his works, interpreting the Scriptures: “If you do not understand, I explain clearly” (I also ran diagonally through the translations).

Original sin
Germany. 15th century
Men, take note: Eve began to "do bullshit" when Adam was busy with himself and his own affairs! There is nothing to leave us without attention!

However, it turns out that Lucifer is not the first being to rebel against God. The first was Lilith - the predecessor of Eve, the first wife of Adam (as you can see, in biblical times, early marriages for men were often something like a “rough draft” before a real great love for life. Lilith, seeing her alleged husband Adam for the first time, stated, that is equal to him, as a creation of God, and is not going to obey anyone (“And no dinner at all, there is now the next series of “Fizruk” begins!”).

That is, Lilith opposed the will of God and refused to be a full-fledged wife of Adam, and in general, any of his wife. Her further fate is described vaguely in Jewish sources, but in the Bible she is briefly mentioned only once - as a night ghost that lives on the ruins in the desert (all of the same "Isaiah"). In general, it seems that the girl got away with everything: she became a demoness-seductress, fooling peasants and killing children (abortions?). Why not the banner of modern feminism?!

fall
Netherlands. Hugo van der Goes. 1470s. Fold of a diptych.
This is not a manuscript, but a painting. But how good, I could not put it here!

It is interesting that in medieval manuscripts the serpent-tempter is depicted in a female form - with breasts, everything is as it should be. It is assumed that the serpent was originally identified with Lilith - after all, the Old Testament does not say anywhere that the serpent is the devil, Satan. It is written simply - a snake, the most cunning and sneaky of animals. It was later, by default, that they accepted the version that the unclean ancestor was tempted by the Unclean - and who else ?!

But perhaps it was just Lilith, there was such a version. You know how it happens: the first wife suddenly begins to “wipe the snot” offended by something on the faithful second, “acting” wife - after all, even then, as you can see, as now, there were two healthy women for one full-fledged man, it was necessary to somehow then unite. They will “crush” a bottle of Baileys for two and let your common “half” wash the bones. The one that is more experienced, the former, well, to induce: what kind of borscht, what kind of football ?! That he “fills all the tanks” with you - about his work and about work! What do you want from a man? In, and I say! She put on a transparent peignoir, candles there, a little wine, put some lipstick on, otherwise you see, how pale, she was completely twitching in this kitchen. And forward: I stuffed his mouth with apples - and ran to bed!

Adam and Eve repent in Jordan after being expelled from Eden, Satan tempts them again.
France 15th century.
As far as I remember, there was no such thing in the Bible, but the artist probably correctly guessed the further development of events: Adam was like this: “Come on, what’s there ... Do you remember how under the apple tree? ... Anyway, they kicked me out, come on one more time!"

Well, you know the rest of the story. This was the first lesson for the girls that they should not seek advice from their "former" lovers. Unfortunately, some have not yet reached.

Let's move on. More such charismatic female characters did not appear on the diabolical stage. In the future, the ladies acted either as victims of seductions and temptations, or appeared in the opposite capacity - saints-victors of demons.

An angel with a sword stops Balaam and a donkey (?)

We follow further. If we consider the Jewish religious tradition, largely transferred to the Old Testament, there we will not find mention of Satan at all, as the King, the Prince of darkness, the antipode of God; he is just a servant of the Creator, such a dark personality, who does not disdain to take on dirty work, and appears extremely rarely. Some researchers suggest that such a dark angel could even be the one that appeared to the Valaam donkey (“The Book of Numbers”), and then to Balaam himself.

God Allows Satan to Test Job's Piety
France, 14th century

God and Satan Discuss Job
England. 16th century Oxford Book of Hours

But the “slave” essence of Satan is more clearly illuminated in the “book of Job”: “And there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord; Satan also came between them. And the Lord said to Satan: Where did you come from? And Satan answered the Lord and said: I walked on the earth and went around it. Such a report of the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Further, the conversation goes on the pious Job. The Lord asks if he is as pious as usual.

Job and Satan
Nuremberg Chronicle, 1493. Hand-coloured woodcut.

Satan replies that his piety is understandable - not for nothing, he himself, they say, you gave him everything, why would Job not be a good guy. Then the Creator makes something like a bet with Satan - to torture Job a little in order to test his piety (as for me, this is a rather controversial idea), but not to cause physical harm. And then the Unclean One begins to scoff at poor Job, as soon as he can - the enemies take all his property from him, his house is destroyed, all the sheep, camels disappear, and then all his children die under the ruins of the tent! But Job is stubborn: "This is God's will, God gave - God took!".

Job and Satan.
12th century

Then the Creator allows Satan to also physically torture him a little - and Satan sends a leprosy to the unfortunate. He sits naked, all covered with purulent buboes, scrapes off the scabs with a clay shard, in roadside dust and ashes, and even the wife is already saying to Job: “Well, say some nasty thing about God, maybe he will kill you, you won’t suffer anymore,” and he cries, wails, pities himself, but all the same he repeats: “God is great, such is his will!”.

Then everything ended well, and Job was happy, but the lousy devilish essence in this story in Satan manifested itself clearly: to distort the goodness of a good person, question his piety, look for self-interest in his actions, and then torture and poison the poor man with pleasure and special care - what the hell! “When he speaks a lie, he speaks his own, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (“John”).

Job, his wife and Satan
15th century, Netherlands
Note that with all the misfortunes that befell poor Job, his wife looks quite "in chocolate"!

Job, his wife and Satan
France, 16th century.
My wife has completely different clothes. Pay attention, the devil is depicted with two faces - where necessary and on the stomach. This is a common practice. In some places, the face was sometimes depicted.

Now back to Origen and the rebellion of the angels. As already mentioned, Lucifer was in great honor with God, as long as he behaved well - all so luxurious, and inexpressibly good-looking, the first helper of the Lord, literally the right hand. His name was "Son of the Dawn" (Lucifer), and also - Dennitsa, less often this name is mentioned. From such a recognition, the angel became proud and wanted to become equal with God. In general, the theme of pride comes up very often in Scripture. This is the first of the major sins, and perhaps the most common.

France, 1420s

France, 15th century

Note that the main sins are not actions, but character traits: pride, greed, envy, anger, lust, gluttony, laziness or despondency. Even if you do not steal anything and do not kill anyone, but you have something of the above or all at once (I, for example, think about it with horror!) - you are a sinner with very sad prospects! And yes, of course, only Satan is to blame for this!

The overthrow of the rebel angels
France, Vincent Beauvais, 1463

But we digress a little. The catalyst for the rebellion was God's creation of man. The Lord was busy with his creation, was proud of it, and, apparently, Dennitsa was jealous. Naturally, here the role of the enemy of man is very congruently assigned to him. And a late interpretation of the essence of the Eden serpent - after all, in the first biblical texts it was just a serpent (the curse of the serpent by God sounded something like this: be damned forever with all your descendants, and crawl in the dust on your belly, and squabble all the time with your wife). Here is the time to crawl, snarl and then joyfully watch from the bushes how defenselessly naked people are driven out of Eden.

The overthrow of the rebel angels
1480

The overthrow of the rebel angels
France, 16th century

Naturally, such an outburst could provoke the wrath of the Lord. A real war broke out. Lucifer raised an army, leading about a third of the angels, and they were defeated and overthrown to the ground. They lost their shiny clothes and attractive appearance, shrank, overgrown with tails, horns and hair - you know, miniaturists portrayed this story with great pleasure - after all, the apotheosis of justice! But what is there to be happy about? They were thrown to us, on the ground.

Satan and King David
The breviary of John the Bold and Margaret of Bavaria, 1420
This is an illustration of the biblical story about how King David decided to take a census without God's blessing, which caused the wrath of the Creator. It would seem - what is it ?! And the tsar's pride leaped up - he wanted to count how many people he had under his control. The Bible does not mention the presence of Satan, this is the artist's fantasy, for who else if not He?!

True, there is also a problem with this: more often the option pops up that it is not on the ground, but immediately underground, to hell. And there is another version - they will be thrown into hell during the Apocalypse and they themselves will begin to fry them in pans there, and St. Andrew in the guise of an angel will ban them all there forever and forever. In any case, you can admire how this happened (will happen) by looking at medieval miniatures.

Temptations of Christ.
England, 1250.
The ascension to the rock and the temptation of hunger are depicted (a handful of stones in the hands of the devil, which was proposed to be turned into bread).
Notice how the pictorial tradition of that time is still similar to the Orthodox one.

Much more often the name of Satan begins to flicker in the New Testament. If the devil is the enemy of man, then Christ, the Savior of mankind, could not but arouse real rage in him.

Temptation of Christ (hunger and pride)
Netherlands (France?) 15th century

Temptation of Christ
France, 12th century (again it looks like ours!)

Temptation of Christ
France, Missal of Fouquet, 1470s
The artist quite literally depicted the ascension of Christ by Satan to the rock.

Temptation of Christ
France. Psalter. Initial letter. 12th century
A rather sketchy drawing by an early artist. Temptation is indicated by the finger of Satan, directed at a pile of stones.

The first plot is the Temptation of Christ. As you know, after baptism, Jesus fasted for 40 days in the desert, and after that Satan came to him and began to tempt him. The first temptation is hunger. The demon offered Christ to turn a handful of stones into bread, since he is the almighty son of God. The second is pride. It was proposed to throw himself from the roof of the Jerusalem temple - since he is the son of God, the Lord will not let him die, and everyone will immediately see who he is. The third temptation is by faith. Satan lifted Christ to the top of the rock so that the whole civilized world could be seen, and offered all the kingdoms, and for this he had to bow before Satan.

Temptation of Christ (again stones, and behind - a rock and a temple)
Netherlands, 15th century

Temptation of Christ.
France. Master of the Bible by Jean de Sy. 14th century

None of the Gospels describes what Satan looked like at the same time, but medieval miniaturists are unanimous - terrible, vile, horned. In the Renaissance, already in the "big" painting, options appeared - a pleasant young man or an elderly monk.

Temptation of Christ.
Netherlands. Simon Bening. 16th century
In later manuscripts, miniaturists began to move away from the "brutal" way of depicting Satan. Here we see him as an elderly monk, albeit with some orthopedic problems.

Another of the popular stories, which often depicted evil spirits - Christ's parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man - Jesus tells it in the Gospel of Luke. It is a question of a beggar Lazar, who is dirty all over, in rags and nasty coats, lying along with stray dogs at the gates of the magnificent palace of a certain Rich Man, and no one will even throw a crust of bread at him. And then once - and they both died! And now the Rich Man is burning in hell, he feels bad, sad, and then he raises his head up and sees the Lord there among the clouds, and next to him is the ruddy and prosperous Lazarus.

The Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man.
Pope Gregory's book of sermons
The soul of Lazarus is depicted as a baby in the hands of the Creator.

The rich man howled, asked that they let Lazarus down to him, so that he would dip his finger in water and at least moisten his lips, - but here are the netushki! Say, you were too good in that life, suffer now in this one. It is in this final scene that the satanic guard is usually depicted - the ill-fated Rich Man is dragged to hell or roasted with special cruelty.

The Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man.
France, 1372

The Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man.
Germany. Munich Golden Psalter. Beginning. 13th century

The Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man.
Roman clock. 16th century
Here the Rich Man points his finger at his mouth, asking Lazarus to beg for him at least a drop of water.

Demons in the New Testament are also mentioned in the context of demoniacs - for example, the description of the miracles of Christ in Ev. From Matthew. We are talking about the healing of a demoniac who was possessed by a whole legion of demons. The unfortunate man lived outside the city, slept in the cemetery (“in coffins”) and was hourly tormented by demons. Christ, at the request of the unfortunate man, cast out demons that had taken possession of a herd of pigs that were grazing nearby. The pigs, feeling an unexpected surge of hostile forces, got excited and jumped into the sea.

Christ drives demons into a herd of pigs (?)

Now let's talk about the theme of contracts with the devil, which is popular even now (in cinema, for example). The first, as it turned out, was not Faust. In the 6th century, there lived such a priest Theophilus (Theophilus) from Adana, who somehow very quickly made a spiritual career. This gave reason to suspect him of all sorts of bad things (as is usually the case in cases of unprecedented success) and gave rise to the legend of Theophilus's deal with the devil.

There was even someone who wanted to write this legend down - a certain Eutyches, it seems, even a colleague of Theophilus. Allegedly, he sold his soul to Satan in exchange for a career. True, then, it seems, he repented. So, if you see a miniature priest whispering with the devil or signing some paper with him, know that this is most likely Theophilus.

Theophilus making a deal with the devil.

Not many manuscripts and pictorial sources of the early Middle Ages, and even more so of early Christian times, have survived, however, even from the few that have come down to us, we can conclude that the theme of Satan, demonism, Evil, is not raised so often in early miniatures. But in the 14th, and especially the 15th and early 16th centuries, real "demonomania" and "demonophobia" began!

Suicide of Judas.
Italy. Giovanni Canavesio. 1493
A rather rare plot: the devil literally scratches the soul out of a strangled sinner.

This is due to many reasons - there were a lot of people in Europe, but somehow it got colder over the past 150 years, there was little food, it became hard to live, besides, in 1500 they were waiting for the End of the World (in Russia - in 1495). The Reformation was brewing, all sorts of new religious movements appeared, which were attributed by the official church to the machinations of Satan. The witch hunt began at the same time.

The devil plays Martin Luther like a bagpipe.
16th century Woodcut.
The satirical image is clearly drawn by a Catholic artist.

This is where the artists turned around - not a single illuminated book of hours or hymnal came out from under their brush without a few miniatures depicting terrible devils and monsters. And now we can, not without inner shudder, admire them.

Satan and his servants awaiting the Last Judgment.

The manuscripts claimed that the devil was, is and will be - up to the Apocalypse and the Last Judgment. He sits with his devils in hell, among the pans prepared in advance and polished to a shine, and waits for hordes of sinners.

Well, you continue to swear over politics, gorge yourself and gossip? Oh well!

To be continued

666 subscribers were noticed in our VKontakte group. On this occasion, I decided to draw something devilishly interesting. At first I wanted a Cerberus, as suggested by Victoria Krovlina. But then I thought, why bother? Let's do a lesson how to draw a devil with a pencil! Yes, the most that neither is a representative of the dark side! Searched the net drawings of the devil in pencil, stopped at this one: We will copy from it. So, let's get straight to the point.

Step one. Let's draw the position of a person personifying evil. No one should have any difficulties with this, so let's move on to the second step. Step two. We draw the contours of the future body. We move on to the pose with the outlines of the mantle, and from below, at the feet of the lord of hell, we will depict the heads of those doomed to eternal torment. Step three. We draw horns on the head. We detail the hands and clothes. Step four. Add sharp spikes to the shoes. Let's draw the hair and elements of the face. Step five. Now we have to draw the faces and hands of sinners, on which the owner of the hell steps. And also add lines on his clothes in order to make it realistic. Step six. In conclusion, let's draw some elements of the costume: straps, spikes, belt. Add sharp claws on the hands. Correct the face, try to give it a serious look. And we will fix the contours and add a couple of strokes to other elements. The result is something like this: Later I will try to draw also a Cerberus. I'll post it as a separate lesson. In the meantime, you can try to draw other representatives of the forces of darkness:

Coincidentally, today is Catholic... you know what. And this is mine 666 fast. So, as they say, Boh himself ordered to write something about the Horned Prince... :-) At first I wanted to post one article, but it's somehow not very satanic (it will be later), then I thought just to put various pictures of the Devil and Satan and came across this wonderful post.

Original taken from marini in The Devil and His Pranks. Vintage engravings

The devil and his tricks. Ancient engravings of the 15th-17th centuries.

The devil and devils lay in wait for a person at every step, and many artists of those times could not ignore this topic. Priests especially got it, there are many images and caricatures of them (apparently, there were reasons for this :).

Dante's "Inferno"
Ilustration for Dante's "Inferno", dated c.1460-70.

The Tribulations of St. Anthony
The saint is in mid-air, tormented by eight devils.
Engraving made by Martin Schongauer, Germany, 1469 - 1473.

St Antony standing on the demon with a staff in both hands
Van Meckenem engraved St Antony and St Quirinus on the one plate, but the only known examples are from the plate cut vertically in two halves.

Quirinus is the patron saint of Neuss near Düsseldorf and Antony was a popular saint who in the same region was called upon in times of need. In 1474/5, Neuss was attacked by troops of Charles the Bold. This print might well have been produced in response to that event, to invoke the protection of these saints.


The Saint is Lifted into the Air by Several Demons

The Saint is lifted into the air by several demons; to the right a tree with the two Saxon shields hanging in the boughs; buildings in the left background; second state; with fractures, touched in with black ink; trimmed below.

Woodcut made by the great German artist Lucas Cranach the Elder, Signed "LC", dated 1506 in the block in lower l corner.


Seven heads of Lucifer.
Luther with seven heads; identifying Luther as a doctor, a monk, a Turk, a preacher, a fanatic, a church visitor and a wild man with a club. Title-page to Cochlaeus, "Septiceps Lutherus", Leipzig: Valentin Schumann, 1529.


The life of antichrist is sinners.
Marvelous woodcut made by the German artist Matthias Gerung, c.1544-1558.

Catholic clergy revelling; clerics and prostitutes drinking and playing games at a table, a flying devil holding the papal tiara above a priest on l.


A flayed personification of Fury who rides a monster holding a skull aloft in his left hand above which is a serpent
Disturbing engraving made by the Italian print artist Jacopo Caraglio, probably between 1520 to 1539.


The destruction of the Catholic Church
Print made by Matthias Gerung
German 1547

Such Musicians suit such Dances
Devils lead a group of naked men and women in a dance amid flames; above, two monstrous winged creatures, one playing a violin, the other a trumpet.
Engraving made by John Drapentier, 1674-1700, probably a book-illustration

Diabolici Spiritus Delineatio
An engraved emblem by Theodoor Galle in Jan David's "Veridicus Christianus".An unillustrated version of the text, in Dutch, had previously been printed in Brussels, in 1597.


A Murdered child, a pig, devil and three jews
An engraving showing two images, on the top a altar-like platform with a murdered child, underneath a "Judensau", a pig on which a Jew is riding backwards, from which another Jew is sucking, and with a third Jew, assisted by the devil, eating the pig's excrement.
Engraved title and text:
Anno 1476 Ward das Kindlein von Trient...von den Juden umbgebracht...
Saug du die Milch, Fris du den Treck...
The dating of the print follows Paas.
The print records an anti-Semitic wall painting, which was until 1801 on the Old Bridge Tower in Frankfurt am Main.
The print refers to the alleged ritual murder of Simon of Trent in 1475, here wrongly given as 1476.

A Christian on his deathbed - a Christian on his deathbed.
Proof impression of an illustration to "Hortulus anime Teuwtsch ...", Nuremberg: Friedrich Peypus for Johann Koberger, 1518.

Death of a Just Man
Engraving made by Carel van Mallery, After Jan van der Straet, Published by Philips Galle, Flemish school, 1596 (or after).

The Devill's Tryumph over Romes Idoll
Inscription Content Lettered above the image with the title, within the image with speech in captions numbered 1 to 8, sixteen lines of verse "This hawhty Prelat, who disdayneth Kings, ... That trust in him; him selge he cannot save" and "Now Devill Looke you too" t for be you shure; If popish plotts can doo"t you"r not secure.".

Etching made by Francis Barlow, England, 1680. 15. Aprill.


The clergy feasting in the jaws of a devil
Woodcut Attributed to Matthias Gerung, Formerly attributed to Hans Weiditz, Germany, 1520-1560.

The Devil and the Malefactor
The Devil carrying a bag on his back at right, a man at left kneeling in fear front of him, a bell on a cord lying on the floor, a lamp hanging from a cord and a table with a jug and several pipes in left background , a wall with an arched doorway in background; large empty lower margin.

Etching made by Dirk Stoop, illustrated to John Ogilby's "The Fables of Aesop", London, Engalnd, 1665.

Three Haggard-looking Old Women, Possibly Witches, Beating the Devil to the Ground
Etching made by Daniel Hopfer, Germany, 1505-1536.


The Rich Man in Hell
A man lying at centre, surrounded and tormented by demons, water being poured over his head, Abraham with the same man on his lap on clouds in top left corner.

Engraving made by Aegidius Sadeler II, after Palma Vecchio. Published by Marco Sadeler, Belgium, 1595.

Marriage for Wealth Officiated by Satan
Satan, with a female breast and a goat legs, stands between a finely attired couple who face each other and hold hands.

Engraving made by Jan Saenredam after Hendrik Goltzius, Holland, 1595 (circa).

The Devil trying to unravel the peasants spun thread
Etching made by Pieter Jansz. Quast & Published by Claes Jansz Visscher, Holland, 1634-1640 (published 1652). Formerly attributed to Pieter Nolpe.


A woman seated at a table and weighing coins while two demonic creatures appear at left & a personification of Death holding an hour-glass and looking through a window
Mezzotint made by Jan van der Bruggen After David Teniers the Younger, Belgium, 1665-1690.

The young Weisskunig instructed in the Black Arts - training in black magic.
The young Weisskunig instructed in the Black Arts; Maximilian and his tutor standing at centre, to left an old witch with a devil, on right a monk with an angel. Above two books containing the secrets of astrology suspended from two stars. Early proof for an illustration to "Der Weisskunig".

Made by Hans Burgkmair the Elder in 1516. based on Der Weisskunig.

Three demons come out of the woman.
Three demons coming out of the body of a woman lying in a bed and held by several figures
Representation of the Annunciation in top left corner; illustration to "Scelta d" alcuni miracoli e grazie della santissima nunziata di Firenze" (Florence: Pietro Cecconcelli, 1619).

Flagellation is also the exorcism of the devil.
Interior of a monastery with a monk tied to a column and being flagellated by several nuns holding whips
Mezzotint made by Jacob Gole After Cornelis Dusart, 1684-1724.

Inscription Content: Lettered in lower center of impression: "Broer Cornelis".

Depart pour le Sabat
Made in 1755 by Jean Jacques Aliamet After David Teniers the Younger

Ritual in an interior during the night; in the foreground on the left, a witch sitting at a table with demons and preparing a potion; in the background, a witch kneeling in front of a fireplace and pushing a naked woman towards the fire.
Merry ---


A drunken child chained by the devil - a drunken(!) child is chained.(!)
Illustration to Johann von Schwartzenberg, "Ain buchle wider das zutrincken", Woodcut made by Jörg Breu I, Printed by Heinrich Steiner and published as part of "Der Teütsch Cicero", Augsburg, Germany, 1535.

especially loved jokes about priests and devils.


Priests are driven to hell.
Devils chasing monks and clerics into the mouth of Hell
Woodcut Attributed to Erhard Schön; the hunt with nets and dogs towards the mouth of a large boar at left; printed from four blocks.
Germany, 1525.

The Descent of the Pope into Hell - The priests are taken to hell.
The pope on horseback on r, behind him a carriage filled with cardinals and bishops. In front two devilish creatures attacking a monk, the devil on the left carrying a bishop in a sling basket on his back. Behind the carriage a tree from which papal bulls and insignia are hanging. On right a building on fire filled with clerics.

Print made by the wonderful artist Sebald Beham, Germany, 1524.

In the center Lucifer torturing several damned souls, some of whom are named (eg. "BRUTO, TOLOMEO, ANTENOR, CHASSIO"); around this other sinners are being tortured by devils; various cardinal sins are also indicated (eg. "LUSURIA, AVARICIA, Ghalf length, INVIDIA").

This is the upright version of another print of the same subject derived from the "Last Judgment" fresco formerly attributed to Andrea di Cione -called Orcagna- in the Campo Santo, Pisa; the fresco is now believed to be by the Pisan painter and illuminator Francesco Traini and is dated from the mid-1330s


Devil and Priest.
c.1530
Print made by Erhard Schön
devil playing the bagpipes; perched on the shoulders of a monk whose head forms the bagpipe