One Jacques-George de Chaufepied, a pretended continuator of Bayle, assures us that Bekker learned Greek at Gascoigne. Niceron has good reasons for believing that it was at Franeker. This historical point has occasioned much doubt and trouble at court.
The fact is that in the time of Bekker, a minister of the Holy Gospel — as they say in Holland — the devil was still in prodigious3 credit among divines of all sorts in the middle of the seventeenth century, in spite of the good spirits which were beginning to enlighten the world. Witchcraft4, possessions, and everything else attached to that fine divinity, were in vogue5 throughout Europe and frequently had fatal results.
A century had scarcely elapsed since King James himself — called by Henry IV. Master James — that great enemy of the Roman communion and the papal power, had published his “Demonology” (what a book for a king!) and in it had admitted sorceries, incubuses6, and succubuses, and acknowledged the power of the devil, and of the pope, who, according to him, had just as good a right to drive Satan from the bodies of the possessed7 as any other priest. And we, miserable8 Frenchmen, who boast of having recovered some small part of our senses, in what a horrid9 sink of stupid barbarism were we then immersed! Not a parliament, not a presidential court, but was occupied in trying sorcerers; not a great jurisconsult who did not write memorials on possessions by the devil. France resounded10 with the cries of poor imbecile creatures whom the judges, after making them believe that they had danced round a cauldron, tortured and put to death without pity, in horrible torments11. Catholics and Protestants were alike infected with this absurd and frightful12 superstition13; the pretext14 being that in one of the Christian15 gospels it is said that disciples16 were sent to cast out devils. It was a sacred duty to put girls to the torture in order to make them confess that they had lain with Satan, and that they had fallen in love with him in the form of a goat. All the particulars of the meetings of the girls with this goat were detailed17 in the trials of the unfortunate individuals. They were burned at last, whether they confessed or denied; and France was one vast theatre of judicial18 carnage.
I have before me a collection of these infernal proceedings19, made by a counsellor of the Parliament of Bordeaux, named De Langre, and addressed to Monseigneur Silleri, chancellor20 of France, without Monseigneur Silleri’s having ever thought of enlightening those infamous21 magistrates22. But, indeed, it would have been necessary to begin by enlightening the chancellor himself. What was France at that time? A continual St. Bartholomew — from the massacre23 of Vassy to the assassination24 of Marshal d’Ancre and his innocent wife.
Will it be believed that in the time of this very Bekker, a poor girl named Magdalen Chaudron, who had been persuaded that she was a witch, was burned at Geneva?
The following is a very exact summary of the procés-verbal of this absurd and horrid act, which is not the last monument of the kind:
“Michelle, having met the devil as she was going out of the town, the devil gave her a kiss, received her homage25, and imprinted26 on her upper lip and her right breast the mark which it is his custom to affix27 on all persons whom he recognizes as his favorites. This seal of the devil is a small sign-manual, which, as demonological jurisconsults affirm, renders the skin insensible.
“The devil ordered Michelle Chaudron to bewitch two girls; and she immediately obeyed her lord. The relatives of the young women judicially28 charged her with devilish practices, and the girls themselves were interrogated29 and confronted with the accused. They testified that they constantly felt a swarming30 of ants in certain parts of their bodies, and that they were possessed. The physicians were then called in, or at least those who then passed as physicians. They visited the girls and sought on Michelle’s body for the devil’s seal, which the procés-verbal calls the satanic marks. They thrust a large needle into the spot, and this of itself was a grievous torture. Blood flowed from the puncture31; and Michelle made known by her cries that satanic marks do not produce insensibility. The judges, seeing no satisfactory evidence that Michelle Chaudron was a witch, had her put to the torture, which never fails to bring forth32 proofs. The unfortunate girl, yielding at length to the violence of her tortures, confessed whatever was required of her.
“The physicians again sought for the satanic mark. They found it in a small dark spot on one of her thighs33. They applied34 the needle; but the torture had been so excessive that the poor, expiring creature scarcely felt the wound; she did not cry out; therefore the crime was satisfactorily proved. But, as manners were becoming less rude, she was not burned until she had been hanged.”
Every tribunal in Christian Europe still rings with similar condemnations; so long did this barbarous imbecility endure, that even in our own day, at Würzburg, in Franconia, there was a witch burned in 1750. And what a witch! A young woman of quality, the abbess of a convent! and in our own times, under the empire of Maria Theresa of Austria!
These horrors, by which Europe was so long filled, determined35 Bekker to fight against the devil. In vain was he told, in prose and verse, that he was doing wrong to attack him, seeing that he was extremely like him, being horribly ugly; nothing could stop him. He began with absolutely denying the power of Satan; and even grew so bold as to maintain that he does not exist. “If,” said he, “there were a devil, he would revenge the war which I make upon him.”
Bekker reasoned but too well in saying that if the devil existed he would punish him. His brother ministers took Satan’s part and suspended Bekker; for heretics will also excommunicate; and in the article of cursing, Geneva mimics36 Rome.
Bekker enters on his subject in the second volume. According to him, the serpent which seduced37 our first parents was not a devil, but a real serpent; as Balaam’s ass2 was a real ass, and as the whale that swallowed Jonah was a real whale. It was so decidedly a real serpent, that all its species, which had before walked on their feet, were condemned38 to crawl on their bellies39. No serpent, no animal of any kind, is called Satan, or Beelzebub, or devil, in the Pentateuch. There is not so much as an allusion40 to Satan. The Dutch destroyer of Satan does, indeed, admit the existence of angels; but at the same time he assures us that it cannot be proved by reasoning. “And if there are any,” says he, in the eighth chapter of his second volume, “it is hard to say what they are. The Scripture41 tells us nothing about their nature, nor in what the nature of a spirit consists. The Bible was made, not for angels, but for men; Jesus was made a man for us, not an angel.”
If Bekker has so many scruples42 concerning angels, it is not to be wondered at that he has some concerning devils; and it is very amusing to see into what contortions43 he puts his mind in order to avail himself of such texts as appear to be in his favor and to evade44 such as are against him.
He does his utmost to prove that the devil had nothing to do with the afflictions of Job; and here he is even more prolix45 than the friends of that holy man.
There is great probability that he was condemned only through the ill-humor of his judges at having lost so much time in reading his work. If the devil himself had been forced to read Bekker’s “World Bewitched” he could never have forgiven the fault of having so prodigiously46 wearied him.
One of our Dutch divine’s greatest difficulties is to explain these words: “Jesus was transported by the spirit into the desert to be tempted47 by the devil.” No text can be clearer. A divine may write against Beelzebub as much as he pleases, but he must of necessity admit his existence; he may then explain the difficult texts if he can.
Whoever desires to know precisely48 what the devil is may be informed by referring to the Jesuit Scott; no one has spoken of him more at length; he is much worse than Bekker.
Consulting history, where the ancient origin of the devil is to be found in the doctrine50 of the Persians, Ahrimanes, the bad principle, corrupts51 all that the good principle had made salutary. Among the Egyptians, Typhon does all the harm he can; while Oshireth, whom we call Osiris, does, together with Isheth, or Isis, all the good of which he is capable.
Before the Egyptians and Persians, Mozazor, among the Indians, had revolted against God and become the devil, but God had at last pardoned him. If Bekker and the Socinians had known this anecdote52 of the fall of the Indian angels and their restoration, they would have availed themselves of it to support their opinion that hell is not perpetual, and to give hopes of salvation53 to such of the damned as read their books.
The Jews, as has already been observed, never spoke49 of the fall of the angels in the Old Testament54; but it is mentioned in the New.
About the period of the establishment of Christianity a book was attributed to “Enoch, the seventh man after Adam,” concerning the devil and his associates. Enoch gives us the names of the leaders of the rebellious55 and the faithful angels, but he does not say that war was in heaven; on the contrary, the fight was upon a mountain of the earth, and it was for the possession of young women.
St. Jude cites this book in his Epistle: “And the angels, which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness, unto the judgment56 of the great day . . . . Woe57 unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain. . . . And Enoch, also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied58 of these. . . . .”
St. Peter in his second Epistle alludes59 to the Book of Enoch when he says: “For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness . . . .”
Bekker must have found it difficult to resist passages so formal. However, he was even more inflexible60 on the subject of devils than on that of angels; he would not be subdued61 by the Book of Enoch, the seventh man from Adam; he maintained that there was no more a devil than there was a book of Enoch. He said that the devil was imitated from ancient mythology62, that it was an old story revived, and that we are nothing more than plagiarists.
We may at the present day be asked why we call that Lucifer the evil spirit, whom the Hebrew version, and the book attributed to Enoch, named Samyaza. It is because we understand Latin better than Hebrew.
But whether Lucifer be the planet Venus, or the Samyaza of Enoch, or the Satan of the Babylonians, or the Mozazor of the Indians, or the Typhon of the Egyptians, Bekker was right in saying that so enormous a power ought not to be attributed to him as that with which, even down to our own times, he has been believed to be invested. It is too much to have immolated63 to him a woman of quality of Würzburg, Magdalen Chaudron, the curate of Gaupidi, the wife of Marshal d’Ancre, and more than a hundred thousand other wizards and witches, in the space of thirteen hundred years, in Christian states. Had Belthazar Bekker been content with paring the devil’s nails, he would have been very well received; but when a curate would annihilate64 the devil he loses his cure.
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1
everlasting
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| adj.永恒的，持久的，无止境的 | |
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ass
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| n.驴；傻瓜，蠢笨的人 | |
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prodigious
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| adj.惊人的，奇妙的；异常的；巨大的；庞大的 | |
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witchcraft
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| n.魔法，巫术 | |
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Vogue
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| n.时髦，时尚；adj.流行的 | |
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incubuses
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| n.梦淫妖( incubus的名词复数 )；噩梦；像噩梦压迫着人的事物；精神压力 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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horrid
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| adj.可怕的；令人惊恐的；恐怖的；极讨厌的 | |
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resounded
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| v.（指声音等）回荡于某处( resound的过去式和过去分词 )；产生回响；（指某处）回荡着声音 | |
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torments
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| （肉体或精神上的）折磨，痛苦( torment的名词复数 )； 造成痛苦的事物[人] | |
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frightful
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| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
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superstition
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| n.迷信，迷信行为 | |
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pretext
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| n.借口，托词 | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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disciples
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| n.信徒( disciple的名词复数 )；门徒；耶稣的信徒；（尤指）耶稣十二门徒之一 | |
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detailed
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| adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的 | |
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judicial
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| adj.司法的，法庭的，审判的，明断的，公正的 | |
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proceedings
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| n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报 | |
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chancellor
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| n.(英)大臣；法官；(德、奥)总理；大学校长 | |
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infamous
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| adj.声名狼藉的，臭名昭著的，邪恶的 | |
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magistrates
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| 地方法官，治安官( magistrate的名词复数 ) | |
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massacre
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| n.残杀，大屠杀；v.残杀，集体屠杀 | |
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assassination
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| n.暗杀；暗杀事件 | |
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homage
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| n.尊敬，敬意，崇敬 | |
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imprinted
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| v.盖印（imprint的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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affix
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| n.附件，附录 vt.附贴，盖(章)，签署 | |
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judicially
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| 依法判决地，公平地 | |
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interrogated
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| v.询问( interrogate的过去式和过去分词 )；审问；（在计算机或其他机器上）查询 | |
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30
swarming
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| 密集( swarm的现在分词 )； 云集； 成群地移动； 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去 | |
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puncture
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| n.刺孔，穿孔；v.刺穿，刺破 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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thighs
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| n.股，大腿( thigh的名词复数 )；食用的鸡（等的）腿 | |
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applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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mimics
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| n.模仿名人言行的娱乐演员，滑稽剧演员( mimic的名词复数 )；善于模仿的人或物v.（尤指为了逗乐而）模仿( mimic的第三人称单数 )；酷似 | |
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seduced
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| 诱奸( seduce的过去式和过去分词 )； 勾引； 诱使堕落； 使入迷 | |
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condemned
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| adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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bellies
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| n.肚子( belly的名词复数 )；腹部；（物体的）圆形或凸起部份；腹部…形的 | |
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allusion
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| n.暗示，间接提示 | |
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41
scripture
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| n.经文，圣书，手稿；Scripture:(常用复数)《圣经》，《圣经》中的一段 | |
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42
scruples
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| n.良心上的不安( scruple的名词复数 )；顾虑，顾忌v.感到于心不安，有顾忌( scruple的第三人称单数 ) | |
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43
contortions
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| n.扭歪，弯曲；扭曲，弄歪，歪曲( contortion的名词复数 ) | |
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44
evade
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| vt.逃避，回避；避开，躲避 | |
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prolix
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| adj.罗嗦的；冗长的 | |
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46
prodigiously
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| adv.异常地，惊人地，巨大地 | |
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47
tempted
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| v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词） | |
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48
precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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49
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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50
doctrine
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| n.教义；主义；学说 | |
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51
corrupts
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| （使）败坏( corrupt的第三人称单数 )； （使）腐化； 引起（计算机文件等的）错误； 破坏 | |
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52
anecdote
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| n.轶事，趣闻，短故事 | |
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53
salvation
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| n.（尤指基督）救世，超度，拯救，解困 | |
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testament
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| n.遗嘱；证明 | |
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rebellious
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| adj.造反的，反抗的，难控制的 | |
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judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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57
woe
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| n.悲哀，苦痛，不幸，困难；int.用来表达悲伤或惊慌 | |
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58
prophesied
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| v.预告，预言( prophesy的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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alludes
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| 提及，暗指( allude的第三人称单数 ) | |
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60
inflexible
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| adj.不可改变的，不受影响的，不屈服的 | |
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61
subdued
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| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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62
mythology
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| n.神话，神话学，神话集 | |
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63
immolated
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| v.宰杀…作祭品( immolate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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64
annihilate
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| v.使无效；毁灭；取消 | |
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