PART I

CHAPTER II

EXORCISTIC PRAYER AND DEMONOLOGY IN

BYZANTIUM. A BRIEF SURVEY
THROUGHOUT THE HISTORY1

In the introduction to his magisterial eight-volume work History of

Magic and Experimental Science, Lynn Thorndike argues that Magic and
experimental science have been connected in their development, that
magicians were perhaps the first to experiment, and that the history of both
magic and experimental science can be better understood by studying them
together2.
We have to admit that the study of Byzantine science, occult arts,
magic, superstitions and folklore is a topic that modern Byzantinists have

1
Late Byzantium was resolutely Orthodox especially after the Battle of Manzikert
(1071 A.D.) when the geographical borders coincided with the linguistic and religious
ones: Greek language and Orthodox faith, and the enduring aftermath of the 4th Crusade
was the deepening of the sense of alienation and difference from the Western Church.
Byzantium need not be considered an outlived chapter of Church history. Not only does
its liturgy continue to live in the Orthodox Church, but in a sense still defines
Orthodoxy itself, constituting its historical form. In a sense the Byzantine period must
be acknowledged as decisive in the history of Orthodoxy, as the age of the
crystallization of Church life. Thus for the sake of clarity, I have opted to use the word
Orthodox because Oriental can be confusing and in English it means something else.
The nomenclature «Oriental» may be synonymous with «Eastern» and is often used for
the non-chalcedonian churches. However Oriental Orthodox churches are distinct from
those that are collectively referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church. The terms
Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox are generally accepted designations for these
churches in ecumenical venues.
2
L. THORNDIKE, A history of magic and experimental science, 2. Magic is here understood
in the broadest sense of the word, as including all occult arts and sciences, superstitions,
and folklore.

1
probed very little3. However any comprehensive study concerned with both
the reality and the image of the occult sciences in Byzantium would
certainly demonstrate that this city was not marginal to the scientific
culture of the Middle Ages, and that the occult sciences were not
insignificant to the learned culture of the medieval Byzantine world. Indeed,
as Paul Magdalino and Maria Mavroudi write in their introduction to their
book The Occult Sciences in Byzantium, some of the educated,
sophisticated masters of occult knowledge were leading social figures in
Byzantium and were also leading practitioners of magic in late antiquity 4!
The learned practitioners of the occult had a basic general education
including philosophy, and tended to combine their special expertise with a
variety of intellectual interests, which made it appropriate to describe them
as «philosophers». Philosophos was the generic label for the intellectuals of
Byzantium, namely those who were thought to possess extraordinary
mental and spiritual powers. These powers went beyond the rational
exposition of logic and metaphysics and had much in common with the
charisma of Christian holy men who were also called philosophers by their
apologists. This assertion could imply that the occult practitioners offered
an alternative religion, or a superstitious substitute for orthodox worship.
However this was not case. In any case, occult science cannot be regarded
simply as the learned and non-superstitious side of magic. Although later it
came to denote an objective cultural reality, it never lost its negative
connotation. Magic was seen as what the «other side» of the culture
practised as a substitute for true religion, where orthodoxy was the religion
of the Empire. Instead of serving the true deity, magic was criticized as
seeking to usurp divine power by mechanical or demonic means; its rituals
mimicked religious cult, but in exclusive, private setting 5. Yet the Late-
Antique period and the Medieval world articulated a concept of occult

3
F. PRADEL,Griechische und süditalienischeGebet. See also L. DELATTE, Un office
byzantin d’exorcisme.
4
P. MAGDALINO – M. MAVROUDI, The Occult Sciences in Byzantium, 12. In their category
of occult science, the authors include astrology, alchemy, dream interpretation, and a
variety of other divinatory traditions that fall somewhere between the poles of science
and magic. They argue that the problem with the label «magic» is that it collapses any
distinction between, on the one hand, the much-maligned practitioners of magic at the
poorest and least educated levels of society and, on the other hand, those
«sophisticated masters of occult knowledge», who sometimes held, in Byzantium, the
highest offices of church and state. An example of the latter group is Michael Psellus.
5
F. GRAF, Magic in the Ancient World, 2. In his book F. Graf underlines that from the
sixth century B.C. through late antiquity, Ancient Greeks and Romans often turned to
magic to achieve personal goals. Magical rites were seen as a route for direct access to
the gods, for material gains as well as spiritual satisfaction.

2
wisdom that deserves to be considered in its own right 6. Mapping out the
stages in the development of the Byzantine understanding of the occult, «is
made difficult by the relative dearth of theoretical texts on the topic that
can be dated and attributed to known authors with certainty» 7 . This
investigation is further complicated by the Byzantine scholars and
historians themselves, who, in documenting the close and tense relationship
between occult science and imperial power during the period of the 9 th to
12th centuries, tend to attribute involvement in sorcery and occult science to
their political enemies (be they rulers, patriarchs or members of the elite
circles of advisors) in order to tarnish their memory. The trends and shifts
in popularity between one form of occult science and another that took
place over the centuries were very strong as were the ambiguities that are
revealed in the historians own attitudes to these sciences, particularly that
of astrology8.
Most of the magical and divinatory texts of the late Byzantine or
post-Byzantine manuscripts are almost entirely anonymous and undated 9.
Modern scholars gather much of their information concerning the
Byzantine understanding of the occult not so much by examining direct
statements made by Byzantine authors but by examining the surviving
manuscript tradition (or Nachleben/Survival as they are traditionally called),
and the quotations by other writers and reception among professional and
literary circles of ancient «classics» such as the Testament of Solomon or
the Chaldean Oracles (2nd century A.D.)10. However there is an exception
to this in the work of Michael Psellos discussed later. Psellos emerges from
the surviving written record as the most learned, prolific writer of his time
who perhaps best understood and appreciated among his contemporaries
the philosophical legacy of antiquity11.
6
According to V. FLINT, The Rise of Magic in Early Medieval Europe, 146, «the rise
demons of lower air came into the early Middle Ages in part because there were
scriptural and philosophical foundations for a belief in them, and in part because they
were useful as a means of isolating evil from good, and of inspiring an appropriate fear
of it».
7
R. MATHIESEN, «Magic in Slava Orthodoxa», 164.
8
P. MAGDALINO – M. MAVROUDI, The Occult Sciences, 119-163.
9
Relatively recent book-length studies by a single author treating any subject of
Byzantine occult folklore are exceedingly few. See P. M AGDALINO – M. MAVROUDI, The
Occult Sciences in Byzantium, 35.
10
The initial composition or subsequent usage of the Chaldaean Oracles can only by
approximation be dated, localized, and attributed to an identifiable individual. Μ.
ΠΑΠΑΘΩΜΟΠΟΥΛΟΣ – Μ. ΒΑΡΒΟΥΝΗΣ, Εξορκισµοίτου Ιεροµόναχου Βενέδικτου Τζανκαρόλου,
99.
11
Michael Psellos (1018 - ca.1076) was certainly the most important intellectual of the
eleventh century Constantinople and one of the most prolific authors in Byzantine

3
 In this chapter, the Byzantine period is divided into three parts 12 .
Employing a panoramic view, we will try to demonstrate the evidence that
demonology in Byzantium and the riches of the Byzantine church with
regard to demonology, exorcistic prayer and spiritual combat had
influences from both popular folkloric culture and Orthodoxy rooted in
Scripture and the tradition of the Church Fathers. These subjects were not
marginal to the learned culture of the medieval Byzantine world.

1. The challenges of the early church.

The account reported in Mark’s Gospel of the woman afflicted with

the issue of the blood (Mk 5:25-34) shows Jesus working a miracle without
first being conscious of it beforehand. Mark recounts how a woman from
the crowd comes up behind Jesus and, by simply touching his garment, she
is healed from her disease after twelve years of medical ordeal. Christ
neither says nor does anything to cure her. Unaware of her presence, he
realizes only that the power within him has suddenly gone out of him. This
miracle comes as close to the essence of Graeco-Roman magic as anywhere
in the Bible13. From that perspective «it appears that Jesus healing power is
functional in this narrative exactly like those of the magico-medical
amulets made of hematite which were meant to prevent or cure
haemorrhaging. In this episode someone makes contact with Christ’s
clothes and is immediately healed as if somebody makes purposeful contact

history. He wrote extensively on a wide range of topics from theology and philosophy to
science and medicine. He treated of the hitherto neglected forms of possession and
exorcism in the Early Byzantine Empire. His study was carried out through a literary
and analytical study of hagiographic sources. Between the fourth and the seventh
centuries B.C. few terms define the notions of possession, exorcism, and possessed
person, thus rendering more arduous the identification of these notions in the literary
sources.
12
The large world of Late Antiquity may be distinguished from the apostolic period of
Christian history in four main ways. First, with the conversion of the Emperor
Constantine (commonly dated 312). Second, when bishops became Christianity’s
principal officers. Third, and largely as a result of these first mentioned events, the
Christian Church became more thoroughly structured and organised, especially so
through its monastic foundations and liturgy. Fourth, and perhaps most important of all
for our subject, some fourth century Christian emperors found it increasingly
convenient to prosecute their own enemies by means of a charge of sorcery and magic.
Prosecutions of this kind were of great significance to Late Antique Christian attitudes
to demons and to magic. There is no doubt that the concept of the wickedness of the
demons and the idea that they were active in magic above all, came firmly together in
this last period. Cf. S. CLARK – W. MONTER, Witchcraft and Magic in Europe, 315.
13
V. GARY, «Magic and visual culture in late antiquity», 53-57.

4
with a supernaturally charged medium»14. A pagan would probably have
constructed it as an act of magic – except that here, as Mark stresses, it is
the woman’s faith in the person of Jesus that has cured her, and not only
her brush with a charged «object».
Magic and miracles share the same techniques even if not always the
same sponsorship. It is not sufficient to distinguish them from each other by
saying that one appeals to the aid of angels, or God, while the other appeals
to the aid of demons − because both utilize the invisible help of either the
Creator who is «Spirit» (Jn 4:24) or «spiritual creatures» to achieve
something outside the reality of the accepted norm 15. So it was always
difficult for the uninitiated to distinguish between magic and miracles. This
is a problem that confounded the Church from the earliest of times. Given
the range and various styles of his miracles, Christ would easily be
reckoned by pagans as a magos. Even during the life of Jesus there were
often disputes, as to the nature of his miracles, and to their source. One
group of Pharisees were of the opinion that Jesus utilised Beelzebub to
perform his miracles 16 . In fact, looking back, it is not sufficient to say that
miracles were performed by saints and magic by magicians, or even to
claim that miracles have always had beneficial results and magic not
always so. What can be said with certainty is that in the early days of
Christianity, or else the last days of widespread paganism there was much
competition between practitioners on both sides of the fence; much of this
took place in the Eastern Empire, or Greek Byzantium.
An interesting question could be asked here: if Christ had promised
to answer all petitions made in his name (Jn 14:14) could he not also be
invoked in a magical operation? Gary Vikan reminds us that the cross (or
crucifix) often replaced the evil eye aportropaion on early Christian
amulets in the eastern Mediterranean17. However, Christianity’s reaction to
magic was at first very moderate. The passages of the New Testament

14
J.C.B. PETROPOLOUS, ed., «Magic in Byzantium», 41.
15
By spiritual creatures here is meant the whole spectrum of non-physical creatures
from imps, elements, spirits, angels, and daemons. See J. DEE, The Enochian Magic.
16
The Gospel of Matthew 12:24-27 records this event. Interestingly, Jesus did not
directly deny that he used a daemon, but simply asked what daemon the children of
Israel used. «And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them
out? But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has
come upon you» (Mt 12:27-28). The classic Christian interpretation is that Jesus does
not cast out demons by Beelzebul but by the Spirit of God, and the accusation of
performing exorcisms by Beelzebul is merely slander.
17
V. GARY, «Magic and visual culture in late antiquity», 53. «Apotropaion» refers to an
object that is mainly designed to turn aside or avert evil. In Greek antiquity it refers to a
symbol, a sign or amulet that serves as a charm against bad luck.

5
which specifically oppose magicians are few (but very forceful in their
condemnation of them, e.g. Gal 5:20-21; Rv 21:8; 22:15), and these cannot
be compared either in number or in content with the multitude of analogous
passages in the Old Testament (Dt 18:10-12; Ex 22:18; Lv 19:26, 31; 20:6)
where the death penalty is given for magicians.
However there is no evidence to show that God’s prohibition of
magic and sorcery in the Old Testament had been abrogated by apostolic
teaching, on the contrary the apostles encouraged repentance from
magicians and do not hesitate to tell them they are on the path to ruin (cf.
Acts 8:9-24; 19:18-20). The confusion with magic stems from a basic
misunderstanding of Judaic and Christian law. Apostolic teaching reflected
in the New Testament dispenses Christians from observing koshrut, that is,
Jewish dietary laws (cf. Acts 11:9; 15:28-29; Gal 2:14-21). But the new
faith does not dispense them from the moral laws of Judaism reflected in
the commandments (Mt 19:17). Indeed, Jesus condemned the Pharisees for
hypocrisy (Mt 15:7) but he admired their zeal for moral law, as he tells his
Jewish audience: «For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of
the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven»
(Mat 5:20). The Judaic moral law is not abrogated by Jesus in the Gospels
who upholds the Decalogue and says, «If you would enter life, keep the
commandments» (Mt 19:18). Jesus never says, It’s permissible to lie,
cheat, practice magic, etc. The Gospels demand amoral teaching is in many
ways more demanding than the law of Moses (who permitted, for example,
divorce and the hatred of one’s enemies, Mt 19:6 cf. Dt 24:1; Ex 17:14-16).
And Paul asks whether believers in Christ have to obey the moral law: «Do
we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we
uphold the law» (Rom 3:31; cf. 2:6-16). Although in Christianity the
punishments for violating these laws are no longer as harsh as in Judaism −
Jesus words in the Gospels still must have filled the community with fear
that, as he says, any un-repented sin is punished in the afterlife (Mt 5:26;
10:28; par Lk 12:59; Mk 9:43-48; Jn 5:29). In keeping with Old Testament
moral law the New Testament condemns sorcery and idolatry, along with
murder, wrath, malice, slander, adultery, sexual immorality, incest,
sensuality, covetousness, theft, idolatry, debauchery, orgies, obscenity,
deceit, envy, pride, wickedness, etc.,18. Some of these are mentioned only a
few times, such as incest (1 Cor 5:1) or sorcery (Gal 5:20; Rv 9:21; 21:8;
22:15) or male prostitution (1 Cor 6:9), but the fact that they are not
mentioned often is not a sufficient reason to determine that they were
acceptable behaviours in the early Christian community. Thus it seems
18
Cf. Mk 7:20-23; Mt 15:19-20; Mt 19:17-19; 1 Pt 4:3; Col 3:5-9; Gal 5:19-21; 1 Cor
5:1; 6:9-10; 1 Tm 1:10; Jud 1:4-7; 1 Jn 5:21; Rom 1:18-32, etc.

6
likely that magicians were thought to have God’s judgment on them and
public repentance was appropriate for them to enjoy full communion with
the faithful (cf. Acts 19:18-20). The assumption of New Testament authors,
and later as we will see in the Fathers of the Church, is that, questions of
halakhic purity aside, what was morally illicit under Judaic law remains so.
A good example of this is Acts 19, where we find a very interesting
insight into early Christian attitudes towards magic in a heavily pagan
context. Paul has been vigorously preaching in Ephesus for two years, v.10.
This port city was of course, was a major centre of paganism in Asia
Minor, attracting pilgrims from around the Mediterranean to the
remarkable temple of Artemis, the pride of the Ephesians, v.34, and one of
the seven ancient wonders of the world. In this context Paul’s teachings
would be inflammatory and dangerous, as St John Chrysostom puts it, «To
say [as Paul did], ‘They be no gods which men worship, but demons19; He
who was crucified is God;’ ye well know how great wrath it kindled, how
severely men must have paid for it, what a flame of war it fanned»20. Could
Paul survive, let alone preach in Ephesus for two years? Although Paul’s
preaching sparked a sizzling controversy and riots nothing could not stop
his message from spreading like wildfire, vv. 23-41. The fact that his
message had turned away «a great many people» from pagan practices «not
only in Ephesus but almost all of Asia» was testified by Paul’s worst
enemies, who had come to consider Paul a major threat to the economic
and religious life of their society21.

19
This indeed was Paul’s message to former pagans in Corinth: «What pagans sacrifice
they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons.
You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons» (1 Cor 10:20-21). And he
says in the same letter, «We know that an idol has no real existence...for us there is one
God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus
Christ...but not all have this knowledge» (8:4.6-7). It is inconceivable for Paul to preach
Christianity without undermining the basic tenants of Greek religion, particularly the
sacrifice to the gods.
20
J. CHRYSOSTOM, Homily XII on I Corinthians, PG LXI, 106, 158-162;.PG LXI, 38,
14-20. Chrysostom continues, speaking of the unlikely success of the apostolic teachers
who «achieved a splendid victory; a victory which fulfils the prophecy that says, ‘Even
in the midst of your enemies thou shall have dominion.’ (Ps 110:2) For this it was,
which was full of all astonishment, that their enemies having them in their power, and
casting them into prison and chains not only did not vanquish them, but themselves also
eventually had to bow down to them» (IV.10).
21
In Acts 19:25-27 Demetrius and the angry silversmiths who sold silver shrines of
Artemis testify to danger of Paul’s shocking success: «Men, you know that from this
business we have our wealth. And you see and hear that not only in Ephesus but in
almost all of Asia this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people, saying
that ‘gods made with hands are not gods’. And there is danger not only that this trade of

7
 In this heady environment Jewish exorcists began imitating Paul by
using Jesus name in their exorcisms, but in one instance the demoniac
physically attacked the exorcists which made Jesus’ name even more
famous22. Acts 19 aims to show that Paul’s message was being supported
and protected by the supernatural power of God: «God was doing
extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or
aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their
diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them», v.11-12. Why is
this is distinct from magic, is not Paul a magician? The difference is that
magic is done with the goal «my will be done», and miracles «thy will be
done» – Paul had sacrificed his own wellbeing in complete surrender to the
purposes of God in Ephesus, thus God demonstrated the glory of his Son
through the miracles and signs that confirm in the eyes of all Ephesians that
Paul’s message about Jesus is true, and his ministry is blessed by God. The
difference between miracle and magic becomes even clearer in the next
verses which recount the central issue of our topic: the repentance of
magicians. Luke writes how there was a kind of a public confession of sins
and hidden practices, «And many of those who were now believers came,
confessing and divulging their practices», v.18. Among the converts to
Christianity were magicians, «Those who had practiced magic arts brought
their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted
the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver»,
v.19. This is very interesting, because it shows that these magicians were so
passionate about confessing something, that it wasn’t enough for them to
quietly stop practicing magic, they felt they had to act against their own
best interest. If magic had not become utterly repugnant to them, why
would they do this? Could not these magicians have sold their texts worth a
fortune; why go to such extremes? A logical explanation for this is to

ours may come into disrepute but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis may
be counted as nothing, and that she may even be deposed from her magnificence, she
whom all Asia and the world worship». The proceeding verses describe a riot that
ensues, and the dragging out of Paul’s companions.
22
Acts 19:13-16 recounts the incident: a group of travelling Jewish exorcists began
exorcising demons thus: «‘I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims’» v.13. But
in one instance «the evil spirit answered them, ‘Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but
who are you?’» v.15. Then the demon possessed rose up, «mastered them», and gave
them a severe beating. News of this spread among all the Ephesians and because of it
«fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified» v.17. Apparently
without baptism and actual faith in Jesus Christ, a person is not in the position of
spiritual «authority» [cξουσία] required to master demons, and «tread upon... all the
power of the enemy» as Jesus promised, Lk 10:19. This authority is freely given by God,
as John puts it, «to all who did receive him [the Word, Jesus Christ], to those who
believed in his name, he gave the authority to become children of God» (Jn 1:12).

8
assume that what these former magicians did was in keeping with the spirit
and beliefs of the Pauline community to which they belonged. The Pauline
condemnation of sorcery and idolatry (cf. Gal 5:20) is what most likely
forms the spiritual background that motivated this public confession of
occult practices and the destruction of magic texts. What is the evidence
that burning magic books was in keeping with direction of the early
Christian movement?
Firstly we notice how uncontroversial and acceptable the burning of
these magic books is to the Christians of Ephesus who would apparently
take pride in such an act of defiance against the dominant culture. The
context is a free act of divulging of occult practices, and the burning is a
clear sign of the repudiation of such practices. By acting against their own
best interest (financially) the magicians testify to the necessary repentance
from sin that Paul preached, taught, and practiced himself, as he confides to
Timothy: «Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am
the foremost» (1 Tm 1:15) 23. Their act proves to all the pagan people of
Ephesus that these magicians had discovered something by faith in Jesus
that was of far greater value than even their old magic texts that were worth
their weight in gold. It also shows that these magicians came to believe that
magic was harmful not just for them but for anyone, and so they would not
sell these books even to their worst enemy.
Secondly we notice the verse right after the burning of magic books:
«In this way with might the word of the Lord grew and strengthened» (Acts
19:20) (Οűτω κατà κράτος ò λόγος τοñ Κυρίου ηűξανε καì iσχυεν). By
burning the books the power of magic was extinguished and a new power is
rising in Ephesus. What is that power? «The word of the Lord» 24 is used
243 times in the Old Testament, and now, amazingly, it refers not to a new
phenomenon – not directly to the burning of texts but to the teaching of St
Paul as confirmation of the truth of God’s word (cf. Acts 13:46-49)! To the

23
For more examples of the Pauline concern for the continual need of repentance, cf.
e.g. 1 Cor 6:11; 12:2; Col 3:5-7; Ti 3:3-7; Rom 6:17-22; Phil 2:1-10; Eph 2:1-6; 5:1-21.
24
«The word of the Lord» is a stock phrase used 243 times in the Old Testament. The
hermeneutics of continuity, i.e. that «the word of the Lord» is the same between the Old
and New Testaments shines very clear in these verses (v.19-20). How can Peter can say
so boldly: (1 Pt 1:25) «‘The word of the Lord remains forever.’ And this word is the
Good News that was preached to you»? After receiving the Holy Spirit, the apostles and
writers of the New Testament who proclaimed the Gospel saw themselves as continuing
the tradition of the Old Testament prophets who had received the «word of the Lord»
(cf. Acts 13:46-49). But even more than that, the apostles saw the Old Testament
prophets as servants of the Gospel of Christ, as if the prophets only saw from far off
what they had seen with their own eyes!(1 Pt 1:10-12; 1 Jn 1:1-3). Paul (two times) and
Acts (10 times) also use «word of the Lord» in reference to apostolic teaching.

9
author of Acts the burning is an act of obedience to God, not mere
compliance with Pauline doctrine. This phrase reveals a hermeneutic of
continuity between the moral law of the Old Testament and the teaching of
the nascent Church – both in condemnation of occult practice. In Mosaic
law the «word of the Lord» had condemned sorcery and idolatry, now, it is
the same «word», λόγος, that is being preached by Paul and glorified in the
public destruction of magic books. But how is burning books a
demonstration of the power of God’s word? It is not the burning that is
critical. It is that «those who had practiced magic arts» freely burn their
own texts. This freedom manifests the power of God’s word to change
human hearts of those who choose to turn, as Paul says, «from idols to
serve the living and true God» (1 Th 1:9). The word of God empowers the
former magicians to renounce their practices; God strengthens them so that
they could endure coming into the light «confessing and divulging their
practices» without fear (Acts 19:18). God’s word spoken by Paul inspires
them to live in transparency with their sisters and brothers so that the whole
community could be «of one heart and soul» shining with «the glorious
freedom of the children of God» (Acts 4:32; Rom 8:21). Just as exorcism is
a demonstration of the power of Jesus name (Acts 19:13), the magicians
burning their books is sign of the transforming power of God’s word in
fulfilment of the mission to these same «Gentiles» that Jesus gave St Paul
on the road to Damascus: «to open their eyes, so that they may turn from
darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive
forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by
faith in me» (Acts 26:18).
Thirdly, the wider context here is one of deliverance. Luke is telling
an amazing history of how Christianity began in Ephesus which was the
economic and cultural capital of paganism in Asia. Now through the insane
love of Paul for Jesus, the most unlikely of cities is being spiritually
transformed into a capital for Christ, a little community of faith that will
grow into a regional centre of teaching and healing. We see this in the book
of Revelation where Ephesus is the first of «the seven churches in Asia»,
Rv 1:4; 2:1-7, an importance evident also in the letter of St Ignatius of
Antioch c.107 A.D. In Paul’s time citizens of Ephesus without distinction
are being liberated from demonic oppression by an adhesion to the truth of
the Gospel that is being preached at the risk of severe persecution, v. 29.
The author’s point is that despite fierce hostility and peer pressure of a
pagan environment, some of the people of Ephesus have made a clean
break with occult practices and idolatry which in the language of St Paul is

10
«sacrificed to demons» an idea taken directly from the Hebrew Bible (Dt
32:17; Ps 106:37)25.
From these we can conclude that the author’s point in Acts 19:18-20
is that where the word of the Lord prevails in a Christian community, the
occult arts are extinguished; where God’s commandments are observed,
idolatry is trampled down; where Paul’s teaching succeeds, magicians are
repenting and freely burning their texts26. As with the case of Simon magus
(Acts 8:9-24) in these passages we see that the repentance of those who
practiced magic arts was uncontroversial and/or encouraged by the apostles
(Paul and Peter). Indeed repentance was necessary if magicians would
come into full communion with the early Christian community27.
The accusations levelled against Christians, however, that they
supposedly performed acts of magic (as testified by apocryphal «apostolic»
texts, which recount miracles attributed to magical tricks), and the
confusion that often ensued, made it necessary to clarify the situation.
Thus, in the earliest prescriptive ecclesiastical works, such as the
«Instructions» the so-called «Epistle of Barnabas» and, in particular, the
Didache, «Apostolic Commands», prohibitions of clear Judaic origin
gradually appear. The transition from the apologetic nature of the initial
reactions to the Church’s attempt to bring under control all forms of
association with supernatural powers becomes obvious in these provisions.
In her earlier life, the Church found itself in a syncretistic confusion
which became an ongoing problem. Because Christianity arose out of
Judaism but did not accept the entire Mosaic law, there remained the need
for clear apostolic teaching and consensus. The pagan elements, such as
stoicism, persisted in Christian thinking, even into the Church Fathers. In
25
This means idolatry, see 1 Cor 10:20-21; cf. Rv 9:20-21a: «The rest of mankind... did
not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold
and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk, nor did
they repent of their murders or their sorceries».
26
For Paul’s emphasis on following God’s commandments, see 1 Cor 7:19; against
sorcery and Gal 5:20.
27
The Acts of the Apostles describes the unity of the early Church in profoundly vivid
terms: «the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul» (4:32). Such
unity is impossible without the people’s fidelity to apostolic teaching (Acts 2:42-47;
4:32-35; 5:11-32; 15:1-32). This apostolic teaching of the author of Acts is in pains to
describe as nothing less than «the word of the Lord» Acts 8:25 which refers to Peter and
John’s teaching, 11:16 refers to Jesus’ words; 13:44; 15:35; etc. refers to Paul and
Barnabas’ teaching). This is a reflection of Matthew’s gospel where Jesus’ final
commandment to the apostles is to make disciples, baptize, and teach his commandments
to all nations: Mt 28:16-20. Paul himself is concerned to maintain unity with the other
apostles, and thus he visits Jerusalem to gain their approval of the gospel he preaches «in
order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain» (Gal 2:2.9).

11
this environment of syncretism it became more difficult to distinguish
between a heathen charm and a Christian hymn, pagan and Christian rites,
heathen magic and Christian miracle, or holy litanies and demoniac
murmuring, the crucifix and pagan amulets28. The background of these
everyday difficulties was far from trivial. To distinguish the seemingly
indistinguishable was the enormous challenge of the first centuries of
Christianity. However its success implies that from a certain time onward,
it was no longer difficult to recognize Christ as different from other
pretenders to divine qualities. The task was now to single out the
supernatural exotiká29 from a mass of ordinary worshipers, their prayers,
invocations, rites, and behaviours and to determine which were practiced
for the good of mankind in obedience to God’s commands and others that
were dangerous.
Thus, the early Church wanted to draw a clear line between magic
and the emergent religion, between the true and false, right and wrong, high
28
Early Christian writers identified and depicted vividly the devil’s work in a dazzling
number of events in scripture, in Roman history, and in many areas of contemporary
social, political, and religious life. These notions of diabolical presence and activity
saturate early Christian texts. However, for a variety of reasons, modern scholars have
tended to suggest that the devil was just «good to think with», a way of getting at other
more pressing theological or anthropological issues; or they simply elide the devil and
evil, dealing with him as a mere «personification» or «symbol» of evil or they suggest
that he is a «convenient device for explaining awkward events». In these early texts
Satan was said to direct, control, attack, goad, tempt, persuade, seduce, inspire, and
conspire with humans, whether directly, in disguise, or using tools and servants,
especially his myriad minions, the demons to accomplish his aim. See S. L UNN −
ROCKLIFFE, The diabolical problem of Satan’s first sin, 439-457.
29
Anthropologist C. STEWART, Devil and Demons, 15, states that the modern Greek term
exotica refers to a class of malevolent demons, fairies and spirits – manifestations of the
devil-that bring madness and misfortune. He also suggests that the modern Greek
popular perception of the exotiká stands halfway between the abstract theological notion
of evil represented by the devil and the world of men. Similarly, early modern popular
beliefs cannot be forced into the absolute definitions of good or evil laid down by the
official church. He also gives examples of these exotiká. For example he argues that
baptism is effective against the exotiká and that those who are not baptised properly are
more likely to see them or be attacked by them. See also L. A LLATIUS, On the Beliefs of
the Greeks. Leo Allatius was one of the great scholars of the 17 th century, born on the
Greek island of Chios in 1586 or 1587. Although he was born into a Greek Orthodox
environment, Allatius lived the greater part of his life in Rome as a pious Catholic and
signed in Latin or Italian most documents that survive. At the time of his death in 1669,
he was Custodian of the Vatican Library. His cultural background, bestriding the Greek
and Roman worlds, afforded him a unique view of the traditional question of the union
between the Catholic and Orthodox churches. The Gennadius Library of Athens has a
collection of Allatius’s works which includes at least 40 of the 59 books described in C.
JACONO, Bibliografia di Leone Allacci (1588-1669), Palermo 1962.

12
and low. The Church saw that the distinction was straightforwardly
theological and moral: magic, indeed the entire gamut of pagan religious
practices (of which magic was in fact part) was reclassified as demonic in
the pejorative Jewish sense, and thus the work of the devil accomplished
through the incorporated beings (originally the fallen angels) who served
him30. According to the early Christian writers, even when magic was not
an illusion meant to impress and ensnare, it was always an act of
disobedience to God’s commandments. It was thus the work of evil forces,
while miracles were the work of a loving God in cooperation with his
children.
Possession for the ancient Church is a phenomenon that is closely
connected with paganism and idolatry31. The preaching and literature of the
Church during this time were aimed at people outside the Church, and so
the great mass of evidence in the sources are to be found in apologetics or
missionary literature. In the literature directed to a Christian audience,
30
According to M.T. FOGEN, «Balsamon on Magic», 104, the fourth-century legislation
was not concerned with a neat distinction of pagan and Christian practices and rites.
However this separation was later provided by a social and mental discrimination of the
pagan forms. According to Gary Vikan (through personal communication) this was
because of 3 major factors: (1) The work of magic is «other» people’s work, so the
Church’s authority would be compromised; (2) The work of magic leads to direct effect,
unlike the work of the Church (conventional Christianity), which works by way of
intercession; (3) The work of magic makes use of the Old Testament, the New
Testament, the Testament of Solomon, Classical Mythology, and any and all forms of
words, symbols, and incantations to achieve an outcome. Jesus is pretty much at the
back of the field.
31
See O. SKARSAUNE, Possession and Exorcism, 157-171. The author states that already in
the church order of Hippolytus (ca. 210 A.D.) there existed a broadly developed pre-
baptismal repeated exorcism during the time immediately prior to baptism. In
Hippolytus’ conditions for admission for those who want to follow the baptismal
instruction we read the following, «If anybody has a demon, then let him not hear the
Word from the teacher before he has been cleansed» (Apostolic Tradition 16,8). And
further: «From the day that they (who are to be baptized) are elected, let there be laying
on of hands with exorcism every day. When the day of baptism approaches, let the
bishop perform exorcism on each one of them, so that he may be certain that the
baptizand is clean. But if there is anybody who is not clean, he should be set aside
because he did not hear the instruction with faith. For the alien spirit remained with
him». (Apostolic Tradition, 20,3). In Hippolytus it seems as if the pre-baptismal
exorcisms were meant to be used «diagnostically» to reveal and heal possible possession
in the baptizands. The possession is here presupposed to be something that may occur in
baptisms, but not necessarily often. Secondly, there is reason to believe that a preventive
effect is ascribed to the exorcism; it is supposed to prevent possession. Exorcistic
prayers often include a phrase where one prays that the spirit in the future may stay
away from the person for whom the prayer is made, or the spirit is ordered to do so in
direct speech.

13
exorcism is very seldom mentioned, and usually only in connection with
the exhortations or statutes which have reference to baptism and the
exorcisms prior to its administration. Exorcism occurs primarily at the
border between church and paganism; it is primarily a missionary
phenomenon. Significantly, exorcism is a «power encounter», a sign event
which demonstrates that the house of the «strong one» has been robbed by
the one who is stronger; that Christ has conquered Satan and all his army
(Mt 12:29; Heb 2:14; 1 Pt 5:8-9). It is obvious that Christian exorcism
made a deep impression on people in antiquity, both Christians and non-
Christians. The fact that the pagan spirits often reveal, through the mouth
of their victim, that they are subject to the name of Jesus led Tertullian to
remark: «It has not been an unusual thing for these testimonies of your
deities to convert men to Christianity»32. The power of Jesus’ name in
exorcisms is a proof of his victory over the forces of evil. In the language
of the ancient Church, there was no demon who did not bow to the name of
Jesus (Phil 2:10). The Christian exorcism was in principle one hundred
percent efficient.
The great critic of Christianity, Celsus, 33 who had levelled a charge
of sorcery against Jesus, admits that the Christians seemed to possess
power over the demons, and both Origen and Tertullian say that the pagans
used to fetch a Christian when they wanted help for a possessed person 34.
Several of these testimonies, both from Christian and pagan authors,
confirm that even the simplest Christians were recognized as exorcists.
Besides the efficiency of the Christian exorcism, people in antiquity must
also have been struck by the fact that all Christians could do it, and that
they did it without the usual complicated pagan incantation techniques but
only with a simple command in the name of Jesus35.
There is a definite contrast between the Christian exorcism and the
formulae of exorcism found in the ancient magical papyri. Here different
names of gods and other unintelligible names were invoked ad infinitum.
This massive number of supposedly efficacious names was probably the
best evidence that this method was not particularly efficacious. Old
Testament names of God and the name of Jesus were also included in these
syncretistic magical formulae, maybe an indirect testimony about the fame
of Jewish and Christian exorcism. It also looks as if the practice of the
Church in its exorcisms was not completely free from magical influences:
one finds them in the adjuration formulae that eventually became common.

32
S. THELWALL, Ante-Nicene Christian Library, 514.
33
ORIGEN, Contra Celsum 1:6,25, PG XI, 666-667.
34
A. ROBERT, Ante-Nicene Fathers IV.
35
Cf. e.g. Acts 16:18

14
 If we look at healing and exorcism as confirming signs which
accompany the preaching of the church, it may actually look as if one in the
ancient church would place more emphasis on exorcism than on miraculous
healings. The reason for this is not difficult to grasp: the Christians were
not alone in doing and experiencing miracles; also the «spirits of demons»
might perform «miracles» (cf. Rv 16:14). But in an exorcism the demon is
directly confronted and revealed in the name of Christ. The exorcism
functions time and time again as «a miracle of confrontation», where the
demons speak through their victims and acknowledge Jesus in his sublime
identity and that as such he is their superior. This is the reason for the great
significance ascribed to exorcism in the missionary literature of the ancient
Church, because in the eyes of the non-Christian world it seemed to
confirm the tenants of the Christian faith36.

2.0 The Early Byzantine period: 33-843 A.D.

By the fourth century, Christianity had evolved as a syncretic

religion – not simply a religious faith of Jewish antecedents. It had
absorbed many strands of Hellenic philosophy and Hellenistic religious
experiences. Many of the rituals, religious festivals, popular piety,
superstitions and other aspects of Greek and Roman paganism which were
observed in the pagan Græco-Roman œcumene, survived in the religious
life of the Byzantine Empire37. Their influence on Byzantine religiosity can
be discerned primarily in three areas of religious practices and custom:
salvation rituals and superstition, popular festivals and demonology. In the
ecclesiastical world, which was governed by successive bishops who held
to the traditions of the apostles and Church Fathers, any recourse to magical
means and methods was forbidden and considered absolutely incompatible
with Christian life. In the eyes of the Church, in fact, every supernatural
event which ostensibly was provoked by human action could only be
ascribed to the assistance of evil spirits or demons. All Church Fathers,
both East and West, were involved in fighting magic to a greater or lesser
degree 38 . St. John Chrysostom gives a vivid description of the
36
A. FRIDRICHSEN, The Problem of Miracle, 170. no. 29.
37
This a term originally used in the Greco-Roman world to refer to the inhabited
universe. Constantine, in two edicts of 319, forbade only he itinerant practice of the
diviners (under the punishment of being burnt alive), but allowed them to practice
quietly in their own houses. In later edict, he ordained severe punishment of those
sorcerers who, through their art, had harmed the life or the sexual integrity of other
people. It seems that to Constantine magic was not in itself a punishable offense, but is
only harmful in its applications. See F. GRAF, Magic and Divination, 286.
38
J.L. CROW, Miracle or Magic? The Problematic Status of Christian Amulets.

15
relationship of magicians and diviners with the devil: «For when the demon
falls upon their soul, he incapacitates their mind and darkens their thought
and thus they utter everything without realizing what they are saying, like a
soulless flute uttering sounds»39. It is as if the magicians and diviners
through their identification with the devil, shed their personality and
become his mindless instruments.
Starting with the magician Simon of the Acts of the Apostles – an
episode which was greatly elaborated in the apocryphal Acts of the first
centuries – the «hagiographical texts generally bring out magic as a
typically Jewish activity. Among the various activities attributed to the
devil is the corruption of the true faith. Thus he is thought to be responsible
for the emergence of the great heresies» 40 . The iconoclasm is a
characteristic example of this, which in the eighth and ninth centuries
shook not only the Byzantine Church, but also the entire empire. «The
Byzantines did not fail to attribute to the devil the entire upheaval
[iconoclasm] which lasted more than a hundred years, and in successive
stages fashioned a myth about the origin of the prohibition and destruction
of icons»41. Thus from a certain period onwards the devil was considered
the personification of all evil and consequently he was at the source of
every criminal act, even from a legal standpoint. While such a position
might seem bizarre by today’s standards, such was the conviction of
Emperor Justinian (emperor from 527-565 A. D.) as noted in Chapter 1 of
his Novella 77. In a later period Manuel I Komnenos as well (emperor from
1143-1180) portrays the devil in vivid terms as the source of all crime in
his legislative act of Neara, 1166 A. D.42.

2.1 From Roman secular law to Byzantine canon law.

There is no doubt that the Church felt obliged to meet its pastoral
needs as regards to the rising phenomenon of magic and divination and it
did this by delineating its own place in an authoritative manner through the
enforcement of canons 43 which basically alienated practitioners of the
39
S.N. TROJANOS, Magic and the Devil, 47.
40
S.N. TROJANOS, «Magic and the Devil», 48.
41
Ibid., 48.
42
J.M. HUSSEY, The Orthodox Church in the Byzantine Empire; S.N. TROJANOS, «Magic
and the Devil», 49.
43
The Canons of the church belonging to this period that deal with magic and divination
are basically concerned with defining the penalties to be imposed by the Church on
those Christians guilty of engaging in the practices in question. The severity of the
penalties is a reflection of the seriousness with which the Church took all dealings in
magic. See V. ALEKSANDROV, Ecclesiology and some of its Orthodox critics.

16
occult from the sacramental life of the Christian community. As we shall
see in greater depth, the first local synods of the fourth century show an
acute awareness of the danger of magic in the life of the early Christians,
expressing concern at people’s growing search for other, new sources of
knowledge. In these synods the bishops of the Church attempted to bring
under control the personal search for association with supernatural powers
and all forms of knowledge beyond accepted orthodoxy. The synods
deliberated the topic of magic extensively with the outcome that a number
of canons were written which condemned magicians and diviners.

At the Synod of Ankyra, the first in the Eastern section of the

empire (c. 358 A.D.), it was decided to punish with five-year
excommunication «those involved in divination and persisting in pagan
habits, or introducing certain persons into their homes in order to supply
them with spells (pharmakeiai) and purifications»44.
A few years later the Synod of Laodicea (c. 380 A.D.) prescribed a
stricter penalty for the «heretics or clergy proven to be magicians,
charmers, mathematicians, astrologers or makers of the so-called amulets,
for these are prisons of their souls. Complete excommunication is
prescribed in these cases»45.
The Church Fathers of the fourth century also tried to suppress magic
outside the synods. The contribution of St. Basil was of particular
importance, because he repeatedly dealt with this issue from various angles
in his canonical epistles, wherein he ranks magic among the most serious of
canonical offences.
The anonymous codifying works of the first centuries along with the
canons of the synods and that of St. Basil equate the magical arts with
idolatry, without however making an explicit reference to the magicians’
44
AGAPIUS (a) HIEROMONK – NICODEMUS(a) MONK, The Rudder, 302-317. The Synod of
Ancyra A.D. 314 presents the first canon concerning certain forms of divination, but did
not cover all of its forms. Only in the last decades of the 4 th century, in canon 36 of the
synod of Laodicea (ca.380), is the equivalence of magicians, astrologers, and other
diviners, already expressed in Theodosian code (CTh) 9.16.4 (divination), formulated
also in canon law. St. Basil, on the other hand, does not even isolate diviners and the
like from murderers, poison brewers, and other very traditional criminals; cf. canons 7,
8, 65, 72,83(=canon 24 Ankyra). (CTh) 9.18.2. See. M.T. F OGEN, «Balsamon on
Magic»,104.
45
Canon 72, The Rudder, 342-360. That priests and clerics behaved in very much the
same way as those around them is hardly occasion for surprise. It is necessary,
nonetheless, to look a little more closely at who it is in the clergy who practise magic
and what kind of magic it is in which they engage. See M.W. D ICKIE, «Sorcerers and
Sorceresses from Constantine», 274.

17
relationship with evil spirits in general. The association is only indirect but
its application is universal: whatever is outside the Church’s realm – and
this applies to pagans – falls under the devil’s jurisdiction.

2.1.1 St. Gregory of Nyssa.

For the first time in the field of canon law, the devil was directly
linked with magic as we see in Canon 3 written by Gregory of Nyssa (c.
335 – c. 395 A.D.) a bishop from Cappadocia. Here it is clearly stated that
magicians operate through the agency of demons after forming an alliance
with them. In the Canon he «canonizes» (i.e. gives a precise penalty for)
sorcery and divination:
«Anyone who goes to sorcerers and soothsayers, or to those who
promise to purify them with the help and through the operation of
demons from diseases or misfortunes or predicaments such as the evil
eye, or any other evils they happen to be suffering, ought to be asked. If
they insist that they believe in Christ, but that on account of some
necessity arising from illness or from some great injury or loss they
became faint-hearted and did this, thinking that they would thereby be
relieved from these afflictions by means of divination or other magical
means, they shall be canonized like those who denied Christ as a result
of tortures, or, more expressly speaking, nine years. But if, on the other
hand, they appear to have disregarded the belief in Christ and to have
scorned God’s help as coming from the God adored by Christians, and
to have resorted to the demons’ help, they are to be canonized like those
who have wilfully and voluntarily denied Christ»46.

46
Canon 3, The Rudder, 528-529. See also N.G. MIHAIL, Language and theology in St
Gregory of Nyssa; GREGORY OF NYSSA: The Letters, Introduction. Canon 61 of the 6th
Ecumenical (The Rudder, 224-225) states that: «Those who give themselves up to
soothsayers or to those who are called hecatontarchs or to any such, in order that they
may learn from them what things (1) they wish to have revealed to them, let all such,
according to the decrees lately made by the Fathers concerning them, be subjected to the
canon of six years. And to this [penalty] they also should be subjected who carry about
(2) she-bears or animals of the kind for the diversion and injury of the simple; as well as
those who tell fortunes and fates, and genealogy, and a multitude of words of this kind
from the nonsense of deceit and imposture. Also those who are called expellers of
clouds, enchanters, amulet-givers, and soothsayers. And those who persist in these
things, and do not turn away and flee from pernicious and Greek pursuits of this kind,
we declare are to be thrust out of the Church, as also the sacred canons say. «For what
fellowship hath light with darkness?» as saith the Apostle, «or what agreement is there
between the temple of God and idols? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
And what concord hath Christ with Belial?»

18
Both sorcery and divination, even for the sake of healing, are considered
serious sins of the cognitive faculty tantamount to apostasy.
The Byzantine state and canon law penalized magic, formally and
persistently: this was in effect a continuation of the anti-magical legislation
of the Roman Empire after Constantine. However the fact that the
Byzantines felt the need to reinforce anti-magical legislation suggests a
certain tenacity of occult practices during this period47.

2.1.2 St. Basil the Great.

St. Basil (c. 329 - 379 A.D.), bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia and
brother of St. Gregory of Nyssa, wrote influential ecclesial canons against
the practice of the occult arts. In Canon 65 he writes: «As for anyone
practising incantation or sorcery, he shall be allotted the time of a
murderer, it being proportioned to him in such a manner as though he had
convicted himself of each sin for a year» 48 . Thus this present canon
punishes incantation and sorcery in a manner similar to involuntary
manslaughter49.
Similarly, in Canon 72 St. Basil asserts: «Anyone who places himself
in the hands of fortune-tellers or any other such persons professing, to
foresee future events or to discover the whereabouts of lost property,
persons in hiding, etc., shall be sentenced to the same penalty as is
prescribed for murderers and shall do the same length of time and the same
penances»50. In this canon as well St. Basil canonizes those who surrender
themselves to clairvoyants and fortune-tellers as if they had committed
voluntary manslaughter − or, more expressly, twenty years of penance and
separation from the sacramental life of the Church.

Commenting on Canon LXI of the The Quinisext Council, P. SCHAFF – H. WALLACE,

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 228 states that «old people who had the reputation of
special knowledge were called hecatontarchs. They sold the hair [of these she bears and
other animals] as medicine or for an amulet. St. Chrysostom in his Homilies on the
Statutes explains, in answer to certain who defended them on this ground, that if these
incantations are made in the name of Christ they are so much worse than those who
abuse the name of God. In fact he comments: ‘Moreover I think that she is to be hated
all the more who abuses the name of God for this purpose, because while professing to
be a Christian, she shows by her actions that she is a heathen’».
47
J.C.B. PETROPOLOUS, ed., Greek magic, ancient, medieval and modern, 42, points out the
fact that «under state and canon law heresy, mental disease and all types of crime were
eventually branded as diabolical». See also D. C ONSTANTELOS, Christian Hellenism;ID.,
Byzantine and Ancient Greek Religiosity.
48
Canon 65, The Rudder, 504.
49
See also Canon 52 of the 6th Ecumenical Synod, The Rudder, 501.
50
Canon 72, The Rudder, 506-507.

19
 In Canon 83 St. Basil continues thus: «Those resorting to divination
and continuing the customs of the heathen nations, or admitting certain
persons into their homes with the view to discover sorcerers and
purification, let them fall under the Canon of six years, one year weeping,
and one year listening, and for three years co-standing among the faithful,
then they shall he accepted» 51 . This present Canon borrowed certain
elements verbatim from Canon 24 of Ancyra52; but whereas Ancyra had
apportioned the five years economically and in a different manner, Canon
83 punishes consulters of divination six years, one year for them to weep,
one to listen, etc. It is interesting to note that Basil canonizes diviners and
sorcerers as murderers in his 7th Canon, but here he canonizes them lightly,
on the basis of the penalty set by the council Fathers preceding him in time.
Though St. Basil came from central Asia Minor, he is recognized in the
West as one of the most distinguished Doctors of the Church; and his
influence on ideas about the danger of occult arts was felt in both
Byzantium and Rome for centuries to come.

2.1.3 Canons of the Church.

The sixty-first canon of the Synod in Trullo (692 A.D.) stated that:
«Those who consult diviners, or so-called hecantontarchs or other such
fortune tellers in the hope of learning from them whatever may be revealed
to them, in accordance with what the Fathers had formerly decided in
regard to them, let them incur the canon of six years to abstain from the
Eucharist for six years. As for those who are called cloud-chasers, wailers,
providers of phylacteries, and seers, if they persist in their practices and
refuse to change their occupation and their ruinous habits and Hellenic
customs, we decree that they be thrown out of the Church altogether»53.
51
Canon 83, The Rudder, 510.
52
Canon 24, The Rudder, 312. «They who practice divination, and follow the customs
of the heathen, or who take men to their houses for the invention of sorceries, or for
purification by sacrifices, fall under the canon of five years’ [penance], according to the
prescribed degrees; that is, three years as prostrators, and two of prayer without
oblation».
53
Canon 61, The Rudder, 224-225. «Soothsayers» are persons who have consecrated
themselves to demons and who are supposed to be able to foresee future events by
looking in the palm of the hand or into a bowl of water, or by sacrifices and other
deceptive arts and signs. «Enchanters» is the name applied to those who lure demons
into whatever things they will with some incantations and invocations. They are also
those who bind wild beasts, such as wolves, etc., (by a spell of some kind) in order to
prevent them from eating their cattle when they are outside at night or those who grasp
snakes in their hands and cause them not to bite. The name enchanters is also bestowed
upon those who bind married couples with diabolic art and witchery. The word

20
 Here the canon specifically condemns any of those epitedeumata
(pursuits, customs) which the «Hellenes» used to observe. By the end of
the seventh century, the term «Hellenic» had undergone a semantic change
and meant «pagan». A «Hellenic» pagan tradition may or may not have
been of Greek origin. But since the dominant culture of the empire was
Græco-Roman, there is every reason to believe that most of the habits the
canon condemned were of ancient Hellenic, Hellenistic or Hellenized Near
Eastern origin.
The canon mentions occult practices that need some explanation.
Wailers were persons identified as instruments of the demons, who foretold
the future by reading the palms of the hands, looking into a bowl of water,
offering sacrifices and using other arts and signs which the canon calls
Hellenic customs. The hecantontarchs, who had practised soothsaying the
longest, enjoyed more respect and sympathy from society. Phylacteries
were accessories that included bear hairs, dyed cords, the skin of snakes
and other items inscribed with invocations to demons. They were given to
people to ward off diseases and, especially, the baskania, or the evil eye.
Cloud-chasers were people who observed the shape of clouds, especially at
sunset, to foretell the future. They too were considered possessed by
demons. The seers are of special interest because they were syncretists,
who combined beliefs and practices of Greek antiquity with readings from
the Christian Bible; they invoked the demons as well as the name of the
Holy Trinity, the Theotokos and the saints. The seers were present in
Byzantine society in St. John Chrysostom’s time and well through the
eighth century. Chrysostom condemned such Christians who were, as he
claimed, mostly elderly women who employed the name of Christ in vain,
and pursued the practices of the Hellenes. Such practices and the persons
who engaged in them were condemned by several Church canons and
churchmen in the fourth century54.
These early canons were influential in the later periods of Byzantine
history. Although canons were issued to correct what was being practiced,
these condemnations reflected the contemporary social and religious
conditions. However the efficacy of such measures is open to question. The

«sorcerers» designates those who by magical art prepare poisonous draughts either in
order to put somebody to death or to muddle his brain or to allure him to their love;
which draughts women are especially wont to employ as a means of drawing men into
love. As regards «enchanters and conjuring ventriloquists» God says that they are to be
stoned (Lv 20:27). Those called «amuletics» comprised not only those who made
amulets, winding them with silk threads and inscribing them with invocations of
demons, but also those who bought them from the makers of them and hung them round
their neck in order to have a preventive of every evil.
54
J. CHRYSOSTOM, Homily XV, PG XLIX, 158-162; ID., Homily XX, PG XLIX, 199.

21
canons were issued not to define Christian doctrine on these issues, so
much as to deal with pastoral problems and to prevent the spread of heresy
and syncretism. Despite the anathemas and condemnations, many of these
elements of religiosity and superstition persisted, surviving among laymen
and clergymen alike throughout the Byzantine and post-Byzantine eras.
That is why as late as the 18 th century one still sees ecclesial censure of a
plethora of popular occult practices, such as the condemnation of
Nikodemos the Hagiorite against «those old hags who divine with barley or
with broad beans, or by dumping coal, or by yawning, or who are snatched
up in the air by demons and go from region to region, like that wizard
named Heliodorus, and like those named Cynops in Patmus and Simon.
Likewise those shepherds who put some little bone in the feet of sheep, or
of goats, in order to make them grow fast and augment their flock.
Likewise those who pass their children through rigols. And, speaking
generally, all sorcerers and witches, and all men and women who go to
sorcerers and witches, if they all repent, are to receive the penance
prescribed by the present Canon; if, on the other hand, they persist in this
diabolic delusion, they are to be driven away from the Church of the
Christians altogether as being a portion of Satan, and not of Christ»55.
Those who practiced magic and used amulets to cure bodily diseases
or to prevent damage to crops were condemned by Patriarch Photios as
well as by canon law and the legislation of Emperor Leo VI. The canonists
Theodore Balsamon and John Zonaras confirm the persistence of many of
these pagan religious customs persisted into later centuries 56. While some
of these superstitions are universal phenomena, the canons and their
commentaries indicate that many of them were of specific Hellenic origin
and not of Slavic origin, as some modern Byzantine scholars have proposed.
The problem is that the Church Fathers of the Synod in Trullo knew of no
Slavic paganism among their flock, and there are no relics of Slavic
religiosity in Byzantine provinces that can be traced back to the seventh
century. Slavic religiosity was substantially different from that of the
Greeks, so while specific ancient Greek gods and cults were mentioned,
there is no evidence of such Slavic gods as Perun, Svarog, Stribog, etc in
Byzantine provinces in the seventh or eighth century57.

55
A. ΠΑΠΑ∆ΗΜΗΤΡΙΟΥ., ed., Πηδάλιον, note 5, 273-274.
56
R. JENKINS, Byzantium: The Imperial Centuries, A.D. 610-1071, 55.
57
The myths of the Slavs go back thousands of years, but unlike the Greeks their stories
were not written down until roughly the 6th century A.D. As these myths and stories
were gathered, Perun was the most prominent of the Slavic gods. A Byzantine historian
Procopius was the first to record the triumphs of Perun as his exploits were mostly
known by Slavs who lived in the eastern sections of Europe.

22
 In their commentaries on the sixty-fifth canon of the Synod in
Trullo (692 A.D.), the famous twelfth-century canonists Zonaras and
Balsamon wrote that some Christians, not only of the seventh century but
up into their own times were involved in occult practices and superstitions.
For example, their canon ordains:
«We command that henceforth the bonfires lit by some persons on
the occasion of the new moon in front of their own workshops or houses
and over which some persons leap in accordance with an ancient custom,
shall be abolished and done away with. Whoever, therefore, does any such
thing, if he be a clergyman, let him be deposed from office, but if he be a
layman, let him be excommunicated»58. Their concern with this ‘ancient
custom’ of Hellenic-pagan origin, is that this was a form of augury used to
ward off bad luck and to foresee the future. The people believed that their
bad luck would be burnt up, allowing good fortune to replace it.
Ιn addition to the foregoing practices, Zonaras writes that some of his
Christian contemporaries used to resort to other forms of augury, based on
the study of the bones and claws of birds, especially of ravens and cranes.
Balsamon provides even more concrete information about a variety of
divinations that were practiced in the twelfth century, including the use of
bonfires, omens, astrology and oracles. «The bonfires have been identified
with the ancient Greek Kledona, a divinatory custom. On June 23, the
evening before the birthday of St. John the Forerunner, men and women
would assemble in certain houses or streets. Following a banquet and a
kind of Bacchic festival, they gathered around a copper bucket filled with
sea water where the people had thrown various items such as rings,
necklaces, pins and other kinds of jewellery. A first-born girl dressed like a
bride was asked to pick out from the bucket an item for each person. The
nature and the quality of the item revealed good or bad luck» 59. Balsamon
writes that the eleventh-century patriarch Michael Ι Keroularios had tried to
eliminate all these divinations from Constantinople with some success. But
the customs survived in the provinces and have outlived various
condemnations to the present day60.
As in centuries past, churches both in the cities and in the provinces
held annual feasts and traditional seasonal observances, which until today
retain their particularly ancient character.

58
Canon 65, The Rudder, 228; G.A. RHALLES – M. POTLES, Syntagma V, 456-457 (Also
Σύνταγµα των θείων και ερών κανόνων των τε αγίων και πανευφήµων Αποστόλων, και
των ιερών και οικουµενικών και τοπικών Συνόδων, και των κατά µέρος αγίων Πατέρων,
Γ.Α. ΡΑΛΛΗ – Μ. ΠΟΤΛΗ, Eγκρίσει της Αγίας και Μεγάλης του Χριστού Εκκλησίας.
59
Γ.Α. ΜΕΓΑΣ, Ελληνικές εορτές και έθιµα της λαϊκής Λατρείας, 212-221.
60
G.A. RHALLES – M. POTLES, Syntagma V, 458-59.

23
 The sixty-second canon of the Synod in Trullo condemned «the
so-called festivals of the Calends, the so-called Vota, the Brumalia, the
public festival celebrated on the first day of March...ritualistic ceremonies
performed by men or women in the name of what are falsely called gods
among the Hellenes»61. It condemned men and women who put on comic,
satyric or tragic works and those who invoked the name of Dionysus while
squeezing grapes in the wine presses.
The first day of every month was called by the Romans kalendæ and
it was celebrated in the hope that the month would be a merry one. But by
the 7th the Calends were held on the first day of January. Both the Vota and
Brumalia were Greek festivals celebrated primarily by shepherds and
peasants in honour of Pan, the patron of sheep and other animals, and in
honour of Dionysus, the Roman Brumalius, the giver and patron of wine. Ιn
his honour men and women put on masks and danced ecstatically, a custom
that is still observed even today during cheese-eating week. Both laymen
and clergymen participated in these Hellenic festivals. Zonaras and
Balsamon write that all these Greek rites continued into the 12 th century and
«were observed by many in their own times, especially by the peasants,
who did not know the significance of what they were doing»62.

The sixty-ninth canon of the Council of Carthage (c. 419 A.D.)

confirms that in the first half of the 5th century pagan banquets and dances
were held in many regions of the empire in honour of Dionysus, Poseidon
and other Hellenic deities, many of which were observed on the memorial
days and feasts of Christian martyrs63. Thus Christians and pagans mingled
their traditions. But when the report went out that some pagan dancers
made indecent and lascivious assaults on «decent women», causing them to
avoid attending church services, the Council of Carthage appealed to
Emperors Theodosios II (408-450 A.D.) and Honorius (395-423 A.D.) to
abolish those pagan customs64. Balsamon writes later in the 12th century that
festivities, dances, games and other amusements were held on the memorial
days of saints, not only in various regions of the country but also in cities.
He states that they originated in Hellenic antiquity65.
61
Canon 65, The Rudder, 228; G.A. RHALLES – M. POTLES, Syntagma II, 448-452.
62
G.A. RHALLES – M. POTLES, Syntagma III, 449-450. For the theme about Calends,
Vota and Brumalia, see Φ. ΚΟΥΚΟΥΛΈΣ, Βυζαντινός Βίος και Πολιτισµός, 13-31.
63
Canon 69, The Rudder, 231.
64
G.A. RHALLES – M. POTLES, Syntagma III, 456-66.
65
Αρχήν εσχηκότα εκ της ελληνικής πλάνης (που έχει αρχή (ή εξουσία) από την
ελληνική πλάνη). G.A. RHALLES – M. POTLES, Syntagma III, 456-66; A. VON HARNACK,
History of Dogma III.

24
 As is well known, in the Byzantine world, like its predecessors, the
Hellenistic and the Roman worlds, the people commonly thought the world
to be full of demons and evil spirits. The 11th century intellectual Michael
Psellos wrote extensively on Byzantine demonology, and his essays, «The
Operations of the Demons» and «The Opinions of the Greeks Concerning
Demons» reflect the opinions of the period. A modern scholar, Perikles
Petros Joannou, in his search for Psellos’ sources of demonology, sifted
through more than two hundred lives of saints of the fifth to the eleventh
centuries 66 . He concludes that Psellos did not seek his information on
demonology in the distant Orient or in the writings of Proklos and other
Neoplatonists but in the beliefs and practices of Byzantine society. Psellos’
demonology seems to be impregnated with elements contained in
contemporary popular beliefs.
The affinity between Christian and ancient Greek demonology is
striking. In both systems demons were identified with the pagan gods; they
lived in temples and heathen areas; they possessed human beings and could
control animals. However when they were exorcised by the Church, they
were thought to flee to hide in deserted places, in mountains, rivers and
caves. Many believed in a kind of syncretism between Jewish and Hellenic
traditions, namely, that the pagan gods of Greek antiquity were
incarnations of the demons who, after having caused the fall of Adam,
seduced the human race into idolatry.

The sixtieth canon of the Synod of Trullo takes issue with certain
persons who pretended to be possessed by demons, mocking and imitating
their gesticulations in order to deceive the innocent and naive for profit 67.
The Church condemned such people in the seventh century, and patriarchs
and bishops could even have them chained and imprisoned. Zonaras and
Balsamon claimed that similar behaviour existed in their own time.

66
P.P. JOANNOU, Démonologie populaire-démonologie critique au XΙ siecle, 46-47;M.
PSELLUS, De daemonum operatione, PG CXII, 849ff.; L. ALLATIOS, On the Beliefs of the
Greeks. To what extent Psellos can be regarded as representative of the Byzantine
mainstream, and even the occult sciences of Byzantium, remains uncertain. He was
apparently the first scholar to take a serious interest in the Oracles since Proclus.
Judging from his scholarship and research on the extant sources is ultimately impossible
to decide whether he was the supreme representative of the Byzantine tradition, the
inaugurator of a new phase who moved the tradition on to a higher level, or an
exceptional polymath who was typical of no-one but himself. In the current state of
research there seems to be little interest in developing further this interesting theme. For
further information see P. MAGDALINO – M.V. MAVROUDI, The occult sciences in
Byzantium.
67
Canon 60, The Rudder, 224. G.A. RHALLES – M. POTLES, Syntagma II, 441.

25
Balsamon writes that he saw many who claimed to be possessed by demons
and acted, for example, like a prophetesses of the Hellenes, visiting one
city after the other with impunity. Ιn fact, some people received them as if
they were saints or holy men.
An example of how much ancient demonology and even popular Hellenic
belief influenced the beliefs and rituals of the Church can be seen in the
second prayer used for the reception of catechumens in the Christian
sacrament of baptism: «The Lord condemns you... Ιn fear, get out and
depart from this creature, and return not again, neither hide yourself in him
or her, neither seek to meet him or her, nor to influence him but depart
hence to your own Tartarus until the determined day of judgement». This
exorcistic prayer is strikingly parallel to 2 Pt 2:4: «For if God did not spare
angels when they sinned, but thrust them down into Tartarus [ταρταρώσας]
and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the
judgment» (emphasis mine). Tartarus is of course a famous place of
punishment from Greek mythology, it is the deepest abyss of Hades. But
the Jewish translators of the Septuagint had already translated the Hebrew
Sheol as Hades <δης which is also found even in the Gospels 68. One can
observe in 2 Peter and this exorcistic prayer both Hellenic and Jewish
apocalyptic elements. In the same Church service the priest breathes upon
the catechumen, saying: «Expel from him every evil and impure spirit
which hides and makes its nest in his heart» 69. The devil is called the spirit
of error, of guile, of idolatry and of every concupiscence. Following several
prayers, the catechumen or the sponsor is called upon to renounce Satan
and all «his angels» and his works70.
So after the 4th century, when the canonists began prescribing
punishments for involvement in the occult arts, the effort to curb the
popularity of magic and superstition became more and more a
«domesticated» issue of civil concern71 . In the early Byzantine period,
68
For uses of Hades <δης in the N.T. see: Mt 11:23; 16:18; Lk 10:15; 16:23; Acts 2:27;
2:31; 1 Cor 15:55; Rv 1:18; 6:8; 20:13; 20:14. 2 Pt 2:4 is the only reference to Tartarus
in either the N.T. or LXX.
69
H.A. KELLY, The Devil at Baptism: Ritual, Theology, and Drama, 164.
70
Any Euchologion includes these prayers. For a critical edition see P.Ν. TREMBELAS,
Mikron Euchologion, I, 338-347. See also the author’s introduction, 275-285.
71
Ιn its efforts to spread the Christian faith, the Church did not systematically reject
everything that had derived from pagan religious feelings and symbols. Theodoret of
Cyrrhus implies that the Church adopted certain cults in order to fulfil some of the
psychological needs of her flock. He speaks of the tradition of saints and martyrs, which
was likened to the honours paid to ancient heroes and demigods. Ιn an attack on pagans
he writes that even if all others should ridicule the Christian practice of honouring the
martyrs, the Greeks should be the last to do so because they too had the cult of
venerating annually their heroes and demigods, such as Herakles, Asclepius, Klemedes,

26
secular power provoked excitement and chaos in trying to bring popular
belief in line with the official orthodoxy of the empire. The Church officials
were greatly concerned with defining orthodoxy itself and distinguishing it
from paganism. But from the 4th to the fourteenth century, while occult
practices survived, the attitude of Church leaders and secular powers had
changed and gradually gave way to a professional handling which ended in
a matter of routine. Popular superstitions and magic were no longer
considered a threat to the state nor to the integrity of the faith, though the
Church continued to criticize such practices. Canon law and its experts had
worked to transform what was seen as a cause for instability and heresy
into the normal execution of religious discipline.

2.1.4 The Fathers of the Church and popular saints.

The historical era of early Byzantium, which extended from the

proclamation of Christianity as the official religion of the empire by
Constantine in 313 A.D. to the death of Justinian in 565 A.D., was a period

Machaon and several others. Also, the ninety-fourth canon of the Synod in Trullo
condemns «those who take Hellenic oaths» and makes them liable to penance and even
excommunication. Christians used to swear by the gods, for example «by Zeus» or by
other elements of Greek religion such as «by the Sun» or «by the Heavens». The canon
summarizes the structures of Church Fathers such as Basil the Great, Chrysostom, and
others who were responsible for harsh canons. Nevertheless Christians, who were urged
to despise Hellenic customs, continued to swear by and invoke the names of ancient
deities. Another religious cult which has retained an unbroken continuity from ancient
Greek times through the Byzantine era to the present is the offering of panspermia,
πãς/πãν (pas/pan) «all» and σπέρµα (sperma) «seed» or pankarpia, (ancient Greeks
used to offer to the dead, once a year, what they called «Panspermia» (medley) or
«Pankarpia», which is a mixture of fruits of all kinds) which refers to a small cake
which in Greek religion was a mixture of several kinds of fruit offered to the dead on
the third day, called Chytroi, of the Anthesteria or Dionysia.Ιn Christian Byzantium
panspermia was transformed into the offering of kollyba, boiled wheat, distributed to
the congregation on certain memorial days and on the day of a funeral as well as on the
third, ninth, and fortieth days after death).See H ESYCHIOS OF ALEXANDRIA, Lexicon, 502;J.E.
HARRISON, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, 32, 80, 159.The trichokouria, or
the cutting of hair from the head of the newly baptized, practiced in early Christianity
and the Byzantine Church, was of ancient Greek religious origin. Ιn Greek antiquity,
when the young reached puberty, they offered sacrifices to Apollo and had their hair cut.
Pseudo-Athanasios confirms that the Christian hair-cutting immediately following
baptism was an inheritance from Greek religious practices. These and several other
ancient Greek customs such as polysporia, libation rituals, the Kallikantzaroi
(Christmastide spirits), the kalogeroi ceremony, workshop of the Nereids, or water-
nymphs, have survived through the Byzantine era and have remained an integral part of
popular religiosity.

27
of expansion and consolidation of the eastern Roman empire72. During this
period, Christianity became the universally accepted ideology. Byzantine
Christianity, by viewing all things in the light of a Creator who loves his
creatures, explained adequately the mystery of creation and the working of
the world; it provided ideals for people’s behaviour and upheld human
dignity, while proposing an image of heavenly rule which served as a
model for the rule of the empire.
The importance of religion in Byzantium, which was later labelled
Byzantine theocracy, was exemplified by the involvement of emperors and
secular powers in ecclesial affairs such as the convoking of ecclesial
councils where Christian dogmas were interpreted and defined. Throughout
this period there was a continuous struggle of emperors and people to
remain united in the midst of religious issues which provoked great
controversy, division, and civil strife (e.g. the Arian heresy that denied the
divinity of Christ). Thanks to the popularity of the teaching of the Church
Fathers in early Byzantium, Christian beliefs were being systematized to
the point in which they had obtained a coherent worldview, a clear
explanation of man’s place in the kosmos. To the Byzantine mind, even at
the level of popular culture, the world was a battlefield between Good and
Evil, that is, God and Satan, and between their agents, angels and demons
respectively. In this spiritual combat, Man was directly implicated, and not
only in his earthly life but in his eternal destiny. The brute fact that these
cosmic powers existed was nothing new. The idea of an Eternal Creator,
the personification of good and evil, the gods, the demons, angels, spirits,
etc. were all concepts that had long existed in the cultures and religious
beliefs of the Near East, among the Jews, Greeks, Babylonians, and
Egyptians. However, these religious beliefs and different schools of
philosophy vied against each other; they lacked integration into a single
coherent system accepted by both the masses and philosophers alike. This
integration was achieved by the Church Fathers in the Christian era.
In Byzantium, demonic power was thought to be present in every
aspect of life73. Demons caused diseases and misfortunes to individuals, to
communities, and to the state, either by direct intervention or by
influencing people’s decisions. The emperors themselves had declared that
the devil was the source of all criminal acts (see section 2.0 above).
72
The demonization of magic and sorcery during this period came after centuries of
thought about demons. This happened on a grand scale only towards the end of this
period until the death of Augustine in 430 but when it happened, it was founded on a
real belief in demonic power, a belief made all the more intense by its long gestation.
See S. CLARK– W. MONTER, The demonization of Magic and Sorcery in Late Antiquity,
281-281.
73
S. KOTSOPOULOS, «Intrusion and Internalisation of the Devil», 79-85.

28
However, man was not left alone in the battlefield between Good and Evil.
Popular saints who lived among the people, fought demons through the
power of God and directed the faithful to stay on God’s path. Furthermore,
the Fathers of the Church, with their words, recorded in sermons and letters,
helped the faithful to understand Christ’s teaching and to use it as a guide
for everyday life. In this historical and cultural milieu demonic interference
can be conceptualized in two distinct ways, which S. Kotsopoulos
identified as «intrusion» and «internalisation»74.
The intruding form of the demonic forces reflects a popular
conscious of demons that was presented, for example, in the hagiographies
of popular saints. The internalization form of the demonic forces was
presented and elaborated upon by the Fathers of the Church in their
interpretation of Scripture. Each of the two forms of demonic interference
probably appealed to different social groups. The idea of demons physically
intruding in human life was simple and coherent and likely appealed more
to peasants living in the interior of the empire. The educational level of the
peasants was probably low, most of them being illiterate. In this social
context, popular saints, as true athletes of God, fought the «great red
Dragon» (Rv 12:3), Satan, and expelled demons from their victims in the
name of Jesus Christ. At the same time, through their miracles, they
provided a powerful message about the godly origin and the mission of the
new religion. These saints were never idle, even if they were sitting at the
top of a column as the famous stylites did; they were always interacting
with crowds of beleaguered people who sought their help. In addition to
expelling demons, the saints also provided spiritual guidance and practical
advice, performing roles somewhat similar to the social workers and
ombudsmen of our times.
On the other hand the Fathers of the Church elaborated on the
Christian dogmas and dealt with the more psychological or internalised
form of the devil. They addressed urban audiences and the educated. In
their sermons and letters, among other important aspects of the new faith,
the Fathers dealt with the sinister interference of the devil in the everyday
life of people. They addressed temptation and other deceptive interventions
by the devil, such as stirring emotions, inflaming passions, and blurring
judgement or putting thoughts in the minds of people, particularly those
trying to perfect themselves (e.g. monks). The devil’s objective was always

74
S. KOTSOPOULOS, «Intrusion and Internalisation of the Devil», 79. The terms
«intrusion» and «internalisation» are used in the present study instead of «possession»
and «temptation» respectively, to denote specific psychological activity and in the
opinion of the present author are more in tune with modern psychological vocabulary.

29
intended to make them transgress the rules of God. The faithful were to be
aware of the devil’s deceptions and to be prepared to defend themselves.

2.1.5 The devil’s physical intrusion against his psychological

internalisation.

As stated above, to the Byzantine mind the devil’s interference with

man could be described as having two distinct forms which we may
identify generally as «physical intrusion» and «psychological
internalisation». Psychological internalisation was better understood by the
educated than the common people and was elaborated upon by the Fathers
of the Church. Intrusion, however, remained the most striking and
characteristic demonic interference with man, it was legendary not only in
the Gospels but the historical conscious of ordinary people. These two
forms of demonic interference are compatible with one another and could
coexist in a coherent worldview in which all evil was consolidaded under
the power of the devil, that is, his nefarious influence is the source of all
mental illness, social corruption and ethical failure.

Physical intrusion was seen as an invasion of the body by demons

or impure spirits that took possession of the person and could cause
madness and other illnesses75. The physical intrusion by the devil or his
demons is a hallmark of the Synoptic Gospels (see chapter I, 3.2). For
example, the characteristics of intrusion are spelled out in the incident of
the Gadarene demoniac. According to the accounts of Matthew and Luke,
the demons first challenge Jesus, but they capitulate to him knowing they
cannot resist his authority. Jesus casts them out with a simple order thus
restoring health to the victim who clearly had been driven insane by
demonic possession (cf. Lk 8:27.29). This understanding of demonic
interference and its cure prevailed, and it became the norm for possession
and exorcism till modern times, as we see this basic model repeated in the
Byzantine hagiographies. The stories of people who had been invaded and
possessed by demons which were then confronted and expelled by saints,
were told many times in hagiographies of early Byzantium such as Daniel
Stylite, Theodore of Sykeon, St. Simeon Stylite the Younger, and others.
Here the saints are combating the devil in his intrusion form.

75
Sophie Lunn − Rockliffe looks at ideas of «the devil within man», starting with
invention of empathetic and psychologically astute first-person speeches for him in
dialogue hymns, and then exploring his presence and role in liturgies of baptism and
exorcism. S. LUNN − ROCKLIFFE, The Devil and his works in Late Antiquity.

128
 Psychological internalisation is a form of demonic interference that
was seen as more subtle, less glamorous, but all the more sinister. Although
this demonic internalisation was not thought to cause mental illness it
affected people unconsciously, that is, without their being aware of where
these thoughts are coming from. Demonic forces secretly perverted the
minds of people by injecting thoughts, inflaming passions and interfering
with judgements, and thus leading to erroneous actions, contrary to the
commands of God.
A characteristic model of psychological internalisation of the devil is
provided in the Synoptic Gospelswhen Jesus rebukes his foremost apostle
Peter calling him «Satan», not because Peter’s behavior was bad but
because his way of thinking was blocking God’s plan (Mt 16:21-24). Here
Peter says Jesus should never have to suffer rejection and be killed. And
Jesus rebukes him: «Get behind me, Satan! ...for you are not setting your
mind on the things of God, but on the things of man» (Mt 16:23) 76. What
was Peter’s error? In this case Peter is motivated by the universal fear of
death, a fear that the devil has exploited to enslave mankind (Heb 2:14-15).
Here perhaps, Christ reveals a subtle demonic influence has infiltrated
human thinking making it satanic in so far as it is obstructing God’s
purposes for human good. According to Christianity, through the death of
Jesus God will bring the gift of eternal life to all who believe.
Another example is Judas betrayal of Jesus where Luke writes,
«Satan entered into Judas… He went away and conferred with the chief
priests and officers how he might betray him to them» (Lk 22:3-4). Here
Satan works not to cause illness in Judas’ body but he poisons his mind,
driving his human reason toward perversion, against what his conscience
knew was right. The devil leads Judas into insanity; not only the insanity of
Judas selling his master for thirty pieces of silver, and betraying him with a
kiss, but the insanity of despair and suicide. As Matthew writes «after he
saw Jesus condemned» Judas repented of his betrayal, «changing his mind»;
he even confessed «I have sinned» (Mt 27:3-4). Judas knew what he did was
wrong, but he lost hope in God’s boundless mercy. In this whole
psychological process we note that Judas is unable to flee from the poison
76
The accusation of Peter being Satan is all the more shocking and ironic considering
that Jesus has just blessed Peter (16:18), naming him the «Rock» upon which Jesus says
«I will build my Church». But suddenly Peter is harshly rebuked by Jesus because, out
of fear, Peter cannot understand the fullness of Jesus’ mission to die and be risen on the
third day (Mt 16:21). It is natural and ‘human’ to think like Peter, but God is calling his
apostles to begin thinking supernaturally, that is, by preaching «Christ crucified» reveal
the «wisdom of God and the power of God» (1 Cor 1:23-24). Why is that? Because it is
not by human wisdom, but by God’s wisdom hidden in the cross that humans will
conquer the devil and inherit eternal life.

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Satan had planted in his mind which drove him along a downward spiral:
initial seduction, self-deception, betrayal, guilt, dispair, suicide.
Thus Jesus and the Gospel writers depict the devil working in human
thoughts and desires beyond our full knowledge or awareness 77. All these
instances are comparable to the serpent’s role in the seduction of Eve in
Eden where she was led by her desires to act in a way that is objectively
against her best interest – which leads to suffering and death (Gn 3:1-6).
Furthermore we have the incident, as told by Matthew, Luke, and Mark, of
Jesus’ temptation in the desert, in which the devil enticed him to transgress
the rules of God (Mt 4:1-11). This approaches the model of psychological
internalization, but with one important difference. It seems that the
temptation in this incident is not only psychological (i.e. unseen) but
originates from a possibly visible form of the demon, one who tells Jesus
«fall down and worship me» (Mt 4:9). And to this Jesus replies verbally, as
if Satan were standing in his very presence: «Begone Satan» reminding him
that God alone is worthy of worship.
In this temptation sequence (Mt 4:1-11) we have a case that can give
us a model of the internalised devil manifesting himself through the
person’s internal dialogue, in which we can trace the following
characteristics.
First, a person is an ethical being who is imperfect. Thus humans are
considered vulnerable and prone to personality weaknesses, often identified
as passions. Jesus has been fasting forty days and is hungry, the devil
tempts him to change stones into bread (Mt 4:3).
Second, the devil may inflame passions, excite perverse desires, and
at the same time weaken the person’s judgement, capitalizing on
misunderstanding, and leading him or her to a course of action contrary to
the rules of God. Though God’s rules are known, the devil uses all his skill

77
Psychological internalization is further elaborated in the Johannine literature. We
recall that in John’s Gospel Jesus does not perform an exorcism on any one demoniac,
but rather, Christ expels Satan from the whole cosmos. As the cosmic Exorcist Jesus
wills to suffer and die in order to «cast out» «the ruler of this world» from «all people»
(Jn 12:30-32). John stresses that all humans are unknowingly oppressed by this «ruler».
Jesus says boldly to those who believed in him but failed to recognize their sin: «You
are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a
murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no
truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the
father of lies» (Jn 8:44). All humans are sinners (1 Jn 1:8), and as such, victims of false
consciousness, thinking they are free to act in their best interest, they are really slaves to
desires Satan has proposed to them. He does this in order to gain psychological power
over those who refuse to confess their faults and receive forgiveness and protection
from Jesus (Jn 8:33-34; 1 Jn 1:8; 3:8).

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to convince individuals to «bend the rules a little» and use their power to
commit a «small» injustice for some perceived gain.
Third, God’s basic rules are known, but Christian ethics has much to
be elaborated upon. This is a task performed by the Fathers of the Church
who explain the rules in concrete examples and make people aware of the
devil’s deceptive tactics, advising them how to defend themselves through
examination of conscience, prayer, and self-knowledge. Exposing the
devil’s schemes makes people aware of how he works subtly in their
thoughts, so that once the devil is rejected and the faith adhered to, the
faithful may be divinized by grace in the Holy Spirit. This is the essence of
baptismal promises. Thus when Christ’s temptation ordeal is over he is
aided by God’s supernatural power, «the devil left him, and behold, angels
came and were ministering to him» v. 11.
Fourth, the informed person is expected to use his or her judgement
and decide what to do, therefore becoming responsible for his or her own
actions. A person may be vulnerable to several passions, which the devil
may target and exploit, but these derive from a fundamental «excessive
love of self» which can easily lead to disaster. Other faults include gluttony,
love of money and vanity. A special case is fornication. In this case, it was
explained that the natural attraction between the sexes for the purpose of
reproduction is abused to selfish ends. The one responsible for this passion
was the «demon of fornication».

2.1.6 From desert combat to philosophy in the Church Fathers.

Taking inspiration, perhaps, from Jesus’ tempation in the desert, the

psychological internalization of the devil was concieved of in terms of an
ongoing «spiritual warfare» or the «battle of the thoughts» according to the
desert Fathers who were holy monks and hermits from the fourth century
onward that formed a subdivision of the Church Fathers. We see in the
lives of these desert saints a vivid manifestation of demonic forces. Their
psychological battles and temptations are described in terms of nothing less
than a cosmic war between Good and Evil, in cooperation with the angels
these saints fought the demons who tempted them to give up their prayer.
The goal was that through humility and obedience to the commandments,
God would do for them what St. Paul promised the Romans: «the God of
peace will soon crush Satan under your feet» (Rom 16:20). This is because
the desert saints were not only seeking to purify themselves but to intercede
for all humanity by uniting with God’s Son through the cross, and thus
truly conquer the devil and destroy his authority on earth. Therefore the
desert Fathers teach one who has totally abandoned his life to God, that he

131
must eliminate all thoughts, (logismoi, λογισµόι) both good and bad. This
is because these saints humbly admit that they do not know which thoughts
were from the devil and which were from God. All thoughts must go so as
to live in the fulness of reality. As we will see in the example of St Antony,
the proud devil is crushed through the humility of such souls who unite
their suffering to God. The souls of these saints are purified and become
«rivers» of blessings and teaching poured out to all humanity for the
salvation of many souls (Jn 7:38; Col 1:24; 1 Pt 1:9). Thus by uninhibited
contemplation of God in the desert and by their «stand» in refusing to do
any evil these saints came to see their vital role in a great cosmic war
between the forces of Good and Evil as it was fiercely being fought
between angels and demons for the salvation of souls78.

The devil’s interference with a person trying to perfect himself might

at times change from subtle temptation to more dramatic manifestations
such as those illustrated in the Life of St Antony, a classic work written by
St Athanasius of Egypt. Athanasius is himself a spiritual giant of the
Council of Nicaea (325); as a tenacious defender of Christ’s divinity in an
epoch of widespread Arian heresy even among a majority of bishops, he
won the title «the Father of Orthodoxy». The fact that St Athanasius would
take such interest in St Antony tells us just how influential the desert
Fathers had become in mainstream Christianity in the «golden age» of the
Church Fathers. St. Antony is a major inspiration of the entire movement of
the desert Fathers, he was a legendary hermit who lived to the ripe age of
105 and became Patriarch of Alexandria. His biography gives us some of
the most engaging of all Christian accounts of demons in what is here
dubbed their «psychological internalization» form79 ; the vividness with

78
St. Paul describes famously and vividly this combat (Eph 6:11-18). He begins: «Put
on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the
devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the
authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual
forces of evil in the heavenly places» (v.11-12).The fight against these cosmic powers
of evil was indirect because the desert Fathers do not attack the devil. They describe
their resistance in terms of «standing firm» in faith despite all the temptations of the evil
one and his agents who «attacked them» with thoughts, fantasies, and images.
79
The devil targeted Antony who as a young man who gave his riches away in obedience
to the Gospel and withdrew to the desert as a hermit. The devil «first attempted to lead
him away from the discipline, suggesting memories of his possessions, the guardianship
of his sister, the manifold leisure of food, the relaxations of life, and finally the rigour of
virtue».Thus, the devil raised in Antony’s mind a «great dust cloud of considerations,
since he wished to cordon him off from his righteous intention». But Antony, through
prayers and resolve, was able to suppress these ideas. The devil then

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 which it portrays demons besetting the hermit makes it easy to understand
why it had such an enormous impact on iconographers. The memory of St.
Antony and the admiration he inspired were the prime factors in the ready
acceptance of the idea of the demons as a factor useful to monastic progress.
According to the Life of Antony he was moved by hearing the Gospel
message and decided to give his riches to the poor and follow Jesus (Mt
19:21). But he was beset by the devil and his attendant demons from the
moment he renounced his property and family, and went out alone into the
desert. The demons in the Life of Antony are still creatures of the air, like
the Greek daimones: they are all wicked spectres, with a touch of hell-fire
about them. They bring Antony to remember all he had lost, and incite him
to lustful thoughts. But Antony is so determined to continue in prayer night
and day, that the demons are permitted to beat him and try to frighten him
with terrifying sounds and horrifying images80. The saint is undaunted.
Antony’s Letters also provide us with a clear example of how a
monk would have received previous traditions about demons and adapted
them as they were found not only in such theologians as Clement and
Origen, but also in Gnostic and Valentinian literature81. In his demonology
the monk is understood as a single, unified personality (monos) in
opposition to the multiple, divisive demons. Like Origen, Antony writes
that all rational beings originated in a lost unity, from which they fell
because they engaged in evil conduct, being seduced by the ancient serpent.
Since the destiny of the devil and his demons is everlasting destruction in
the hell to come, they are enraged with God and plot against God’s most
dear creatures, his human beings. The demons want all mankind to rebel
from God and be lost with them. Their means of attack are diverse, and
thus to recognize their secret ambushes monks need a contrite heart and a
spirit of discernment. In particular, the monk must discriminate between
three kinds of physical movements: those natural to the body, those caused
by the monk’s own negligence regarding food and drink, and those caused
by demons. The soul that is not docile to the Spirit of God or the mind that
disobeys God’s teaching becomes disordered, allowing the demons to stir
up movements within the body, and this miserable person becomes
enslaved to the evil spirits working in its members. Still, even this pitiful
condition can bring the monk to weariness, conversion, and healing if in his
despair he cries out for God’s help. Once humbled again and again the

changed tactics. He «hurled foul thoughts at him, resorted to titillation», and one night
the devil assumed the form of a woman, imitating «her in every gesture».
80
ATHANASIUS OF ALEXANDRIA, Life of Antony, 22-24; See also V. FLINT, The Demonisation
of Magic and Sorcery in Late Antiquity, 310-348.
81
S. RUBENSON, The Letters of St. Antony.

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monk will be totally purified and united to God. The demons themselves
are invisible, but a monk’s capitulation to their suggestions renders them
visible in the monk’s person.
Echoing a discussion of Origen in his First Principles, Antony
speaks of the diversity of rational creatures in terms of their names –
archangel, principality, demon, human being, and so on – which God
assigned to them based on the quality of their conduct.

Inspired in part by the spiritual combat of monks such as St.

Anthony, the Fathers of the Church dealt also with the internalised devil
extensively, but not systematically. St. John Chrysostom (344-407 A.D.)
and St. Basil the Great (329-379 A.D.), both considered pillars of the early
church, St. John Cassian (360-435 A.D.) and St. Diadochos of Photiki
(400-486 A.D.) among others, all contributed to the development and
understanding of this theme.

The thoughts and comments of St. John Chrysostom, who was a

prolific writer, are scattered in homilies, letters and other texts dealing with
this subject. In one of his homilies he elaborates on the incident of Jesus
being taken to the desert and tempted by the devil. Speaking of temptations
he explains that: «The following [passions] are responsible for numerous
failures: caring for the stomach, acting out of vanity, driven by the desire to
amass money...What makes us servants of the devil is seeking for more and
being insatiably greedy...The enemy is irreconcilable and wages undeclared
war against us...We should turn away from the devil, not only in our minds
but also in our acts; and we should not do what he tells us to do, but do
what God directs us to do»82. St. John encourages the faithful to resist the
devil by conquering themselves, in obedience to God’s will, and to become
truly master of their passions, responsible for all their actions.
In another homily, St. John Chrysostom also points to the thoughts
the devil puts in unwary minds: «We speak what the devil puts in our
minds, at times laughing or talking about frivolous and ridiculous things, or
cursing, swearing, or perjuring ourselves»83. Elsewhere he points to the
responsibility of the person. In Homily 6 for example he states: «God has
given us serious and humble reasoning, self-controlling and repenting
thoughts. These are gifts of God which we will very much need. Difficult
struggles have been imposed upon us, to fight against invisible forces,
against evil spirits and their domain. [But] it is sufficient, with calmness
and alertness, to fight back these wild armies and defeat them. However, if
82
J. CHRYSOSTOM, Homilies on Matthew XIII, PG LVII, 212-213.
83
J. CHRYSOSTOM, Homilies: Works from Constantinople, PG LII, 30.

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we laugh and are frivolous and unconcerned, we will be defeated even
before the fight begins»84. The first step in this fight is to cry out to Jesus
and not identify with desires that could lead to disaster. Thus St. John
views demonic influence as spiritual combat that all the faithful must fight.
St. Basil the Great of Caesarea in Asia argues also in a similar
manner. In a letter addressed to Amphilochos, bishop of Ikonion, (letter
233) he states: «There are two forces present [in the mind], according to the
understanding we have who believe in God; one is sinister, demonic, which
drives us towards defection; the other is godly and of good nature and
brings us close to God. If the mind abandons itself to the deceiver, giving
up its judgement, it will turn to faulty images... If it opens itself to the
godly side and welcomes the graces of the Spirit, it will become capable of
comprehending truth which is in keeping with its own good nature»85.
Similarly, in a letter addressed to Valerius, bishop of Illyicum, (letter 91),
referring to the Arian heresy, Basil expresses concern with the Christians
who are weary from the attacks of evil spirits: «Those here, who defend the
faith of our fathers, are tired of the attacks by the devil, with the many and
varied assaults he crafts and engineers»86.
John Cassian (360-435 A.D.) pays special attention to demons in
Book 7 of his Conferences (which he wrote for a new monastic foundation
he had established at Ménherbes). He says that the soul of the monk is
surrounded by countless demonic enemies which are again like the
daimones of the Greeks, airy spirits, far lighter in substance and greater in
power than human beings, yet similar to them in certain of their attributes.
They are perceptive and intelligent, able to detect a monk’s inner
weaknesses by means of analysing his external behaviour. Cassian, like
Antony, presents us with a wide variety of demonic postures, abilities and
possible habitations including persons, practices, and shrines. Interestingly
he also offers a kind of demonic hierarchy. He names eight vices all
procured by the demons who try to win over the monk as he progresses in
the spiritual life and during which he may suffer assaults of an ever
deepening intensity. These vices are: gluttony, unchastity, avarice, anger,
dejection, listlessness, inflated self-esteem and pride 87. Each demon has his
own speciality in the matter of temptation; some demons are good at
targeting lust, for instance; others target vainglory. They vary their
onslaughts on their chosen targets at different times, places, states and

84
J. CHRYSOSTOM, Homilies on Matthew VI, PG LVII, 71.
85
St. BASIL THE GREAT OF CAESAREA, Letter addressed to Amphilochos, PG XXXII, 865b.
86
St. BASIL THE GREAT OF CAESAREA, Letter addressed to Valerius, PG XXXII, 476c.
87
S. NIKODIMOS – S. MAKARIOS, The Philokalia, 73.

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dispositions. Cassian describes the aptness of demons; their specialisation
may lead them to be attached to particular places on earth and some may be
more skilful than others. There are demons which work during night shifts
and some which are particularly powerful at the hour of noon (Ps 91:6).
There is also the familiar, and partly biblically inspired, assemblage of
demons in animal forms such as serpents, asps, lions and scorpions 88 .
Concerning unchastity he said: «Our struggle is against the demon of
unchastity and the desire of the flesh, a desire which begins to trouble man
from the time of his youth. This harsh struggle has to be fought in both soul
and body, and not simply in the soul, as is the case with other faults. We
therefore have to fight it on two fronts. Bodily fasting alone is not enough
to bring about perfect self-restraint and true purity; it must be accompanied
by contrition of heart, intense prayer to God, frequent meditation on the
Scriptures, toil and manual labour. These are able to check the restless
impulses of the soul and to recall it from its shameful fantasies. Humility of
soul helps more than everything else»89. For Cassian speaks about the
virtue of being citizens of heaven: «a sign that we have acquired the virtue
perfectly is that our soul ignores those images which the defiled fantasy
produces during sleep. For even if the production of such images is not a
sin, nevertheless it is a sign that the soul is ill and has not been free from
passion. The way to keep guard over our heart is immediately to expel from
the mind every demon-inspired recollection of women»90.
Cassian also adds forcefully to the growing evidence that the most
evil among the demons may be especially concerned with magic 91. He
argues, like the Book of Enoch and the Clementine recognitions,92 that the
wicked Ham allowed magic to survive the flood. Cassian even tells us how
Ham learnt the magic arts from the demonically assisted and magically
adept, daughters of Cain. Then, because he knew that Noah would allow no
book containing such arts into the ark, he inscribed their secrets upon water
resistant material, metal and stone; all which led to his own downfall and
that of all humans who followed him in his forbidden knowledge93.

88
J. CASSIAN, Conferences, 32-33. See also B. ANKARLOO – S. CLARK, Witchcraft and Magic
in Europe, 312. For biblical accounts of demonic scorpions and serpents see Lk 10:19;
Rv 9:3-11.
89
The Philokalia, 75.
90
J. CASSIAN, Conferences, 76.
91
V. JANE FLINT, The Athlone history of Witchcraft and Magic in Europe.
92
These ten volumes of the «Anagnoseis» (Calling to Mind) purport to be Clement’s
autobiographical account of how he learned the faith from St. Peter, and in turn
delivered it to the Church.
93
Conferences, 8.21.

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 Diadochos of Photiki (400-486 A.D.), a bishop in north-western
Greece, identified two types of demons affecting man: the ones affecting
the soul and the others affecting the body with their lustful enticements.
The mind, Diadochos states, produces good and evil thoughts. The latter
are conceived as a result of attacks by demons. A man who has fought and
controlled almost all passions still has to confront two demons which fight
him: The first demon troubles the soul by diverting it from the great love of
God into a misplaced zeal, so that it does not want any other soul to be as
pleasing to God as itself. The second demon inflames the body with sexual
lust. «This happens to the body in the first place because sexual pleasure,
with a view to procreation, is something natural and so it easily overcomes
us»94. He continues explaining that Satan «uses the body’s humours to
befog the intellect with mindless pleasures»95.
The concepts of demonic intrusion and internalisation were not
mutually exclusive. The Fathers of the Church, such as St. John
Chrysostom and St. Basil, who elaborated on the concept of internalised
devil, also accepted the notion of demonic intrusion. This becomes
particularly evident in their exorcism prayers, which are appeals to God to
free those possessed by intruding demons96. In the spiritual world of early
Byzantium, the personified devil is depicted as a being who interferes with
people as a wicked person would do, taking pleasure in making them sin
and getting them into trouble with God. He was crafty and when his
deceptive tricks failed, he grew angry and more determined to return with
new plans to attack his victims. The devil could even take on human forms
if he wished and if God permitted it.
We have seen how the psychological and physical seem to unite in
the case of St. Antony. For example, when St. Antony fought back, by
turning his mind away from all «foul thoughts» the devil had presented him
with, the latter took the form of a woman in order to seduce him and then
appeared in the form of a black boy who questioned the saint about how he
dared to oppose the «spirit of fornication». The angry diabolos then sent a
team of demons who beat the saint, leaving him unconscious97.
The ideas of demonic intrusion and internalisation very likely had
developed from different historical roots including Greek philosophy which
merged into Christian thought as taught by the Fathers, in a cultural
melding process that they believed to be the grace and foresight of
Almighty God. The Church Fathers believed that God had not only

94
The Philokalia, 294.
95
The Philokalia, 279.
96
GOA:579, ZER:148, ROM:359, PAP:108, BAR: 206.
97
ATHANASIUS «The Life» (cit. n.35), 34-35.

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prepared the Jewish people for the Messiah, but he had planted the seeds of
important ideas within the cultures of the Near East that once touched by
the light of Christ’s Church would come into their full flourishing. Beliefs
in demons and demonic interference with man thrived in the Jewish,
Hellenic and Egyptian contexts and in other cultures of the Eastern
Mediterranean98. Some of the specific characteristics of intruding demons
which became prevalent in early Byzantium probably originated in
Babylon99 where testimonies remain of cuneiform inscriptions telling of
demonic possession and incantations for protection against demons.
Malevolent demons were thought to be lurking everywhere in order to
attack people and to cause illness, suffering and death. The demons were
expelled with magic incantations or were tricked into leaving the bodies of
their victims to enter an animal or a statuette offered in lieu of the patient 100.
Particularly influential upon the Christian beliefs on demonic interference
were the Egyptian «demonological fantasies» that were introduced with the
hagiography of St Antony101.
Passions were considered by the Fathers of the Church as the
stepping stone for demonic interference from within; these passions had
similarities and differences with the passions as they were conceptualized
by the Stoic philosophy prevalent in the Hellenistic world 102. According to
the Stoics, passions which determined behaviour, at least in part, had to be
controlled by those aspiring to be persons of virtue. Virtue was vital
because without it one could not achieve Stoic happiness, aταραξία,
«tranquillity»103. The Stoic passions have been rendered in modern English
as affections, emotions, or impulses, and included such states as anxiety,
fear, anger, sorrow, pleasure, and excitement104. Many of these passions,
with the exception of compassion and holy fear of God, for example, were,
according to the Fathers, imperfections in character or maladies of the soul,
which the true Christian had to address and eradicate 105. The Stoic ideal of
apatheia or dispassion is accepted to this day as the perfect moral state by
the Eastern Orthodox. Even though the word apetheia, dispassion, is not

98
E. FERGUSON, Demonology of the Early Christian World; J. BURTON RUSSELL, The Devil.
99
T.K. OESTERREICH, Possession, 147-158; H.W.F. SAGGS, The Greatness that was
Babylon, 486.
100
T.K. OESTERREICH, Possession,312; P. PRIORESCHI, A History of Medicine, 417-429.
101
H. ANSGAR KELLY, The Devil, 107.
102
W. TARN – G.T. GRIFFITH, Hellenistic Civilization, 325.
103
A.A. LONG, Hellenistic Philosophy, 205-209; W. TARN – G.T. GRIFFITH, Hellenistic
Civilization, 329.
104
A.A. LONG, Hellenistic Philosophy, 206.
105
J.C. LARCHET, Théologie de la Maladie Theologies, 151-170.

138
mentioned in the Bible it is thought to explain Jesus’ words «If anyone
would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow
me» (Mt 16:24). In other words, in order to follow Jesus in the path of love
one must deny the egocentric passions, and thus discover perfect self-
forgetfulness and trust in God. Both Christianity and Stoicism declare an
inner or spiritual freedom in the face of the external world, the likeness of
human beings to a higher Nature or to God, a sense of innate depravity−or
«persistent evil»−in humanity, and the futility of worldly possessions and
attachments. Both encourage discipline with respect to the passions and
inferior emotions such as lust, envy and anger, so that what is best and
noblest in human nature can come forth and flourish. But unlike Stoicism
personal self-forgetfulness and tranquillity are not the goal of Christianity,
but it is the first step and the means to the goal perfect union with God
(divinization) achieved purely through God’s grace, not human merit.
Stoics deliberated about passions consistently from Chryssipus (3 rd
century B.C.) down to Galen (2nd century A.D.) before the Church Fathers
started borrowing extensively from their scholarship106. Stoicism provided
the Fathers with the philosophical language to address the passions or what
the New Testament calls «the flesh» and «the old man», which is simply
the basic human nature before baptism and regeneration in Christ 107 .
According to St. Paul Stoicism or any philosophy may encourage war on
the passions but could not truly set anyone free from the power of «the
flesh» (Col 2:23). Without the grace of baptism that comes from God and is
actualized through faith in Christ’s death and resurrection, the Stoic may
gain perfect «virtue» in his own eyes but his fallen nature could not be
perfect. Achieving the Stoic ideal might only make a person prideful, for
example, or stubborn, lacking the openness, self-sacrifice and humility of
Christ. Being like Christ not living up to a human ideal is the true goal. In
the language of the Fathers, the perfect Stoic would still be under the
devil’s control if he shared in the devil’s chief vices: self-satisfaction or
lack of compassion for the poor and unfortunate. Unlike Christians, the
Stoics did not consider mercy a virtue – and there is no real sense that
God’s grace, and not human effort, is what saves humanity 108. For them the
disciplined man can save himself, he does not need a Saviour.
Therefore, although Stoic philosophers both provided Christianity
with psychological terms to describe the struggle for moral purity in terms

106
I. AB ARNIM, Fragmenta Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta, 110-133;W. DE BOER, De
Propiorum Anim; F.H. SANDBACH, The Stoics,18.
107
Cf. Rom 7:5.14; 8:2-14; Eph 4:17-4:24; Gal 5:19-21; Tit 3:3-7; 1 Pt 4:2; Jn 3:6; Jas
4:1:7.
108
Cf. Ti 2:11; Eph 2:4-10.

139
of the internalization of the devil and succeed in locating the problem as an
intrinsic weakness embedded in human nature, they did not recognize the
source of the problem of ethical failure as the Church Fathers did. The
stoics did not conceptualize human weakness as being exploited by non-
human spiritual forces of evil who seduce people to act in a way contrary to
God’s rules, and then enslave them into destructive cycles of behaviour
called vices. The Church Fathers, however, especially moral theologians
such as St. Gregory the Great, St. Ambrose, and St. Basil, would much
elaborate this theme by skilfully melding concepts learned in their Greek
philosophical educations within the structure of orthodox Christian
theology as defined by Scripture and the consensus of tradition. The idea
that the devil is the real source of the seduction of human weakness in the
exploitation of the passions is clearly present in the thinking of the authors
of the New Testament109.
Demonic interference with man, intrusion in particular as shown in
the hagiographies of popular saints, has had an enduring effect on religious
and spiritual culture till modern times but to develop this topic further
would be beyond the scope of the present study110.

2.1.7 The evil eye.

The evil eye, the power to inflict illness, damage to property, or even
death simply by gazing at or praising someone, is among the most
pervasive folk beliefs in the Indo-European and Semitic world 111. Even the
most highly educated and sophisticated Christians of the late fourth and
early fifth centuries found it hard to rid themselves of the idea that envy
lends a malign power to men’s eyes112. The difficulty that the Fathers of the
109
Cf. Mt 4:1-11; Lk 22:3-6; 1 Tm 3:6-7; Eph 4:26-27; Jas 4:1-7; 1 Jn 3:8-10; 1 Pt 5:8.
110
H. ANSGAR KELLY, The Devil, 123-132; J. BURTON RUSSELL, The Devil, 17-35.
111
The theme of the evil eye as an ancient superstition and touches other themes such as:
sympathetic magic, totems, portents, tree worship, symbols and amulets, crescents,
horns, gestures, the cross, the manopantea, the cimaruta, sirenes, tablets, cabalistic
writings, magical formulae, incantations, protective acts, pixies, the celestial mother,
divination and incantations etc. See F.T. ELWORTHY, The Evil Eye.
112
A. DUNDES, The Evil Eye. The basic belief in the evil eye consists in the notion that
there are people, animals, demons or gods who have the power to cause harm to those
of whom they are envious or jealous, just by looking at them. People may become ill,
have accidents, misfortunes, or even die. Those who possess the evil eye may cause
harm to others, knowingly or unknowingly. Some people are not aware that they have
the ability to harm another with an envious glance. The eye is believed to be the window
to the soul, physically exposing a person’s inner being. Through this window evil
spirits/demons enter the body, empowering the jealous or envious person to cause harm
to others. Evil eye is associated with envy, greed, stinginess and not wanting to

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Church such as St. Basil, St. Jerome, and St. John Chrysostom had with
pulling themselves away from this pagan idea, is some indication of how
deep-seated it must have been in the general population. And although they
have no reservations about condemning all forms of magic-working, in
which category they certainly included the casting of the evil eye, 113 they
waver on the question of whether it has power to inflict harm or not 114.
There is no doubt that for the Fathers of the Church magic is the devil’s
work and that it is an illusion, but they are not at all certain how the
demonic powers help magicians to create what appears to be change. The
attitude of the Fathers of the Church to magic reflects in part the hostility of
the Roman civil authorities to magic as a socially disruptive force. It also
reflects the general feeling of scepticism found in educated pagan circles
regarding the possibility of a person’s being able to set aside the laws of
nature, and also the feeling that endowing some people with supernatural
abilities is something contrary to Christian doctrine115.
According to Matthew Dickie, Scripture has a surprisingly small part
to play in shaping Christian attitudes toward magic 116. He claims that the
little support the Church Fathers can find in it for their condemnation of
magic is apparent in Jerome’s palpable delight in his commentary on

share ones possessions with those in need. It exposes «a heart that was hardened and a
hand that was shut to a neighbour in need». Socially this means that the evil eye is
prominent where there is a large gap between the «haves» and the «have-nots». In the
two-class social system of antiquity the privileged worried about the evil eye. Persons
who had a sudden turn of fortune could become the object of envy and therefore
become vulnerable to the evil eye. The privileged were most susceptible to the evil eye,
as were children, work places and animals. Those suspected of having the power of the
evil eye were neighbours, relatives, those with ocular impairments (e.g. the blind), those
with strange ocular features (e.g. joined eyebrows), those with physical deformities (e.g.
humpbacks), those with physical disabilities (e.g. epileptics), those who were socially
displaced (e.g. widows), social deviants, strangers and enemies, 147-159. See J.H.
ELLIOTT, Paul, Galatians, and the Evil Eye, 262-273.
113
For the views of the ante-Nicene fathers on magic see C.R. F RANCIS THEE, Julius
Africanus and the Early Christian View of Magic, 316-448. For Origen, Chrysostom,
and Augustine see N. BROX, Magie und aberglauben, 157-80.
114
Julius Africanus a Christian traveller and historian of the late 2nd and early 3rd century
A.D. states that «the small number of references to magic and related areas and the
rhetorcial use of them when they do appear, leaves the impression that magic was
basically an alien factor, which was regarded as presenting some danger to the Church
members but was far from being the Church’s main worry and was of no interest to
them». C.R. FRANCIS THEE, Julius Africanus, 327.
115
On the tendency to deny that humans can perform sorcery and yet to blame
everything negative on the demonic see P. BROWN, Sorcery, Demons and the Rise of
Christianity, 32.
116
M.W. DICKIE, «The Fathers of the Church and the Evil Eye».

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Galatians at Paul’s mentioning sorcery [φαρµακεíα] immediately after
idolatry amongst the deeds of the flesh (Gal 5:18). Jerome remarks that we
are not to imagine that magical spells and the maleficent arts are not
forbidden in the New Testament – they are forbidden amongst the deeds of
the flesh.
Paul’s letter to the Galatians makes a well-known reference to the
evil eye (Gal 3:1), and this is the source of the majority of patristic
commentary on the subject. Paul writes, «O foolish Galatians! Who has
bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly
portrayed as crucified». Literally he says τίς nµãς cβάσκανε, who has evil
eyed you, or who has cast a spell on you? What Paul precisely means by
cβάσκανε seems difficult to assess without considering the wider context.
The context is that some Jewish Christians were apparently recommending
that the Galatian Christians need to add circumcision and Jewish traditions
to their faith in Christ. Paul’s main point in the letter is to contradict this
teaching by emphasizing the absolute sufficiency of Jesus death on the
cross for salvation, and that we receive salvation «not by works of the law»
(2:16) but through faith in Christ and baptism (3:24-27). So is it possible
that Paul means by cβάσκανε (3:1) that these Jewish teachers of
circumcision literally employed magic/evil eye to «bewitch» people from
Paul’s gospel? That would seem unlikely if, as Paul implies, these Jewish
teachers were «zealous for» Christians «to be under the Law» (4:17, 21).
Since magic as is strictly forbidden in the Torah it seems unlikely that these
orthodox rigorists would be casting the evil eye. But the basic meaning
interpreted by the Fathers such as Chrysostom is that just as the evil eye is
a «spell» motivated by envy that puts someone under a curse, so Paul says
that these Jewish teachers who impose circumcision were motivated by
envy of «our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus so that they might bring
us into slavery» (2:4). Paul is «perplexed» at how the Jewish teachers could
have «bewitched» (4:20; 3:1) these Christians into «desiring to be under the
Law» (4:21) even though, according to Paul, «all who rely on works of the
law are under a curse» (3:10) but «Christ redeemed us from the curse of the
Law» (3:13). Thus St John Chrysostom writes, «You must not suppose that
the glance of the eye has any natural power to injure those who look upon
it», commentating on Gal 3:1 he continues, «To behold in an evil manner
belongs to a mind depraved within… And [Paul] speaks thus, not as if envy
had any power of itself, but meaning that the teachers of these doctrines
acted from envious motives»117. Apparently they would be envious of the
joyful freedom of those unburdened by «the curse» of ritual law. Paul is
marvelling here not at the power of magic, but at how easily these «false
117
J. CHRYSOSTOM, Homily V on Galatians, PG LXI, 613-656.

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brothers» (2:4) and «mutilators of the flesh» (Phil 3:2) had fooled the
Galatians − «O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?» (3:1).
There are two questions to ask here: Firstly, does early Christian
literature condemn magic and the evil eye? Secondly, why would magic be
condemned by anybody, what could be the actual danger of magic in the
New Testament?
Firstly, we see many significant condemnations of magic in the early
Christian literature, as Dickie himself cites118. When the question of eternal
destiny is at stake the New Testament material seems to be in fact even
more severe than the Old Testament in the sense that in ancient Israel those
who used magic fell under the judgment of YHWH only in this life but
nothing is said about their being punished eternally. But we have seen that
Paul condemns «sorcery, idolatry, enmity, strife... envy, drunkenness,
orgies» etc. as among the «works of the flesh» (Gal 5:20-21), and solemnly
declares these works render a person in danger of being unworthy of
eternal life, he says: «I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who
do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God» (5:21)119. These works
118
Magic and sorcery are condemned in the Old Testament as among the very most
serious sins: Dt 18:10-12, Ex 22:18, Lv 19:26, 31; 20:6; and directly in the New
Testament: Gal 5:20, Rev 21:8, 22:15; and in literature of the early Christian era:
Didache, 2.2, 5.1, Aristeides [Apologia, 8.2, 13.8], Justin [Apologia, 1.14.2]; Pseudo-
Phocylides, 149 and Oracula Sibyllina, 283. Scripture also condemns magic indirectly
through examples of lives that were ruined by the practice of the occult arts, and thus
they fell under divine wrath, cf. 2 Kg 17:17; 21:6; 1 Chr 10:13; 1Sm 15:23.
119
We should not imagine that Paul, by listing these sins as unworthy of the kingdom of
God was particularly eager to condemn sinners or exclude people from eternal life (an
exclusion which Jesus did not make, see Mt 21:31). In these lists of sins (Gal 5:19-21, 1
Cor 6:9-11) Paul simply makes clear what kind of actions are in need of repentance,
such as sorcery, idolatry, murder, theft, and sexual immorality. Furthermore Paul says
elsewhere that the Christian community itself is composed of people who once did such
things (1 Cor 6:11; Ti 3:3), but who have repented and are being saved «by the washing
of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom [God] poured out on us richly
through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become
heirs according to the hope of eternal life» (Ti 3:5-7). In other words, the Christian
community is composed of people who were sinners, but are being saved by grace and
transformed, infused with the «Divine Nature» (2 Pt 1:4). In the language of Paul, the
true Christian has become a «new creation» (Gal 6:15). He or she is a new person who
being joyfully set free from the bonds of sin, now «bears fruit for God» by giving up
selfish desires in order to «serve one another through love» (Rom 7:4; Gal 5:13). Thus
the grace of God fills all aspects of their lives so much so that they learn to joyfully lay
down their life for others. To Paul the essential «law of Christ» is to bear one another’s
burdens, to love one another; this is the fulfilment of all Old Testament law (Gal 6:2;
5:14; cf. Jn 13:34). Thus in pursuit of love, believers begin to shine with «the fruit of
the Spirit» that is God’s essential characteristics: «Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control» (Gal 5:22-23).

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of the flesh, such as magic, envy, strife, etc. are essentially human means to
work retribution or «vengeance» which is forbidden in Mosaic law (cf. Lv
19:18). Paul contrasts them with the commandment: «You shall love your
neighbour as yourself» which Paul says is the fulfilment of the «whole
law» (Gal 5:14; Lv 19:18).
Another question must be asked why do «works of the flesh» render
a person unable to enter the kingdom of heaven (Gal 5:20)? Following the
interpretation of Chrysostom and the Fathers, when Paul juxtaposes of
«works of the flesh» v. 19, against «fruit of the Spirit» v. 22, he is not
talking about the physical body vs. the immortal soul 120 . Rather Paul
contrasts flesh and Spirit because he is speaking about «two covenants» one
in the flesh and one in the Spirit (Gal 4:24). The old covenant in the flesh
(Gn 17:13) is incapable of giving eternal life, precisely because it is
powerless to destroy the works of the flesh, envy, hatred, etc. It is not by
works of the law, but by God’s grace that flows from Christ’s sacrifice on
the cross, that change of heart and eternal life flows to all who believe (Gal
1:4; 2:16, 21). Paul’s basic point in Galatians is that circumcision, which is
a good thing, along with «works of the flesh», which are not good, both
belong to this age, i.e. the fallen world, «this present darkness» (Eph 6:12)
− or what he simply calls «the flesh». If these works become fixations that
distract a person from receiving God’s free gift of salvation in Christ, they
could prevent them from inheriting the kingdom. What matters for Paul is
that Christians have faith that «the Lord Jesus Christ gave himself for our
sins to deliver us from the present evil age» (Gal 1:3-4). Not so that we
would cease to live, but so that in dying with Jesus to this world (Gal 5:23)
we would pass into the «new creation» (Gal 6:14-15), the life of the world
to come121.
Sorcery and idolatry are «works of the flesh» because their power
belongs to this passing world. « For though we walk in the flesh, we are not
waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not
of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds» (2 Cor 10:4).
Paul does not boast of himself, but what «Christ accomplished through me
to bring the nations» into surrender to God through faith in Christ from
120
J. CHRYSOSTOM, Homily V on Galatians, PG LXI, 613-656.
121
Jewish Rabbis of Paul’s time spoke of two ages. To them salvation is spoken not so
much in terms of the immortality of the soul, but in ‘sharing in the age to come’ (olam
haba). That is, passing from the present age (olam hade) into the resurrection or new
creation in the Messianic age, including the resurrection of the body and the restoration
of this fallen world. This is perhaps Paul’s background for discussion of the flesh and
the Spirit in Galatians, Romans, (Gal 5:16-25, Rom 8:1-17) where the flesh corresponds
to this fallen world and the Spirit corresponds to the life in a new creation. «For neither
circumcision counts for anything, nor un-circumcision, but a new creation» (Gal 6:15).

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Antioch in Syria, Asia Minor, Macedonia, Greece, all the regions where
God confirmed Paul’s teaching «by the power of signs and wonders, by the
power of the Spirit of God» (Rom 15:18-19). Unlike the flesh the power of
the Spirit is from God is the power of miracles which are signs of the new
creation that God reveals in order to confirm that the apostolic teaching is
true, that forgiveness and conversion of heart are possible through faith in
Jesus. Magic changes the outward flesh, the appearance, but it cannot
change human nature towards love of God; it cannot change hatred into
kindness. But only by faith in God’s infinite love for humans – in that he
gave Jesus to be «crucified» for our sins and «raised him from the dead» –
is the power released, «the Spirit», purifies and transforms human hearts
and «works miracles among you» (Gal 1:1; 3:1, 5) 122. In the end, Paul says,
God’s Spirit brings about the only thing that matters: «love working
through faith» (5:6) by which the whole law is fulfilled (5:14). We see
clearly now this dichotomy between the old creation of the flesh vis-à-vis
the new creation in the Spirit is the same dichotomy between the kingdom
of this world dominated by Satan vis-à-vis the kingdom of God. This
dichotomy likely forms the background Paul’s discussion of the flesh and
the Spirit in Gal 5:16-25. It is in this context that Paul speaks about sorcery
and idolatry being works of the flesh. Magic is in the kingdom of Satan, not
of God, because it is against God’s will, and so when it focuses people’s
thoughts toward a desired result by using some invisible, supernatural
power that power cannot be under God’s blessing. In the realm of the spirit,
all spirits are subject to God, but none are neutral, they are either under
Satan and doomed to eternal fire or they are angels in heaven who always
obey God’s word (Rv 12:7f; Ps 103:20). Magic proceeds by self-
justification, let my will be done because..., not, O God, if it be thy will...;
without regard to God’s will the magicians speak about manipulating the
forces of Nature, «channelling power» and «moving energy» through

122
Paul indicates that by baptism Christians have been crucified with Christ, and yet
began to live in the new creation (Rom 6:4). But the new creation will not be fully
realized until the revelation of «the Sons of God» when the power of God’s Spirit will
bring about mysteriously a new heavens and a new earth (Gal 6:12-16; Rom 8:19-23).
Paul, speaking about the resurrection of the dead into the new creation: 1 Cor 15:50
«And I say this, brothers, that flesh and blood is not able to inherit the kingdom of God,
nor does corruption inherit incorruption». Human nature must be glorified by God’s
light, transformed in Christ by passing through his crucifixion and resurrection, that is,
by putting on the new nature that was born in baptism and is renewed in the image of
God himself (Rom 6:4; Col 3:10). Christian hope for Paul is more than immortality it is
to receive a glorified body: «So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is
perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It
is sown in weakness; it is raised in power» (1 Cor 15:42-43).

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artefacts, rituals, spirits, or pagan deities. In the world of magic God’s law
is basically forgotten, no honour is paid to his sovereignty, no fear
accorded to his judgment, and no gratitude for his gift. The magician
emerges as the master and manipulator of the spirit. Christian writings such
as Acts of the Apostles, Pauline letters, and the book of Revelation 123 take it
for granted that these actions are extremely dangerous are explicit that
those who practice magic, sorcery, envy (which motivates the evil eye),
unless they repent are in danger renouncing their place in the kingdom of
eternal life.
Magic and sorcery are addressed in the Didache (or The Lord’s
Teaching Through the Twelve Apostles to the Nations), an early Jewish
Christian text from the late 1st to early 2nd century124. The document begins
famously: «There are two Ways, one of life and one of death, and there is a
great difference between these two ways». The context of the two ways fits
perfectly with Galatians idea of «the present evil age» vis-à-vis «new
creation» (Gal 1:4, 6:15). The way of life is essentially to love God and
neighbour as Jesus taught, and to abstain from gross sin such as theft,
murder, sexual immorality and abortion, as well as the practice of magic
and sorcery (οn µαγεnσεις, οn φαρµακεnσεις) 125 . Later in the Didache
«magic, sorcery, idolatry» (µαγεiαι, φαρµακíαι, εíδωλολατρíαι) are
explicitly named as constituting the Way of Death126.
We see an even greater severity of condemnation of occult practices
in Revelation, a book saturated with the ecstasy and doom of the final
eschatological judgment, and here it is sorcery and magicians who are
named in particular as the object of divine wrath. As in Gal 5:20 and the
Didache, the word φαρµακεíα is used, and here in Revelation it describes
the occult arts in general, and φαρµακεíα especially connotes the deceptive,
drug-like power or spell power that magic can wield. What about the final
judgment, can practitioners of magic hope to fair well when «the books are
opened» and God judges all people «according to their works?» (Rv 20:12).

123
Cf. Gal 5:20-21; Rv 22:15.
124
The full title of the Didache is cited by St. Jerome and the Church Fathers as ‘The
Lord’s Teaching through the Twelve Apostles’, in Greek: ∆ιδαχy Κυρίου διà τ±ν
δώδεκα aποστόλων.
125
Didache, 2.2: «And the second commandment of the Teaching You will not murder,
commit adultery, practice paedophilia, fornicate, steal, practice magic, engage in
witchcraft, kill a child by abortion» etc.
126
Didache, 5.1 «And the way of death is this: First of all it is evil and full of curse:
murders, adulteries, lusts, fornications, thefts, idolatries, magic arts, witchcrafts, rapines,
false witnessing, hypocrisies, double-heartedness, deceit, haughtiness, depravity, self-
will, greediness, filthy talking, jealousy, over-confidence, loftiness, boastfulness;
persecutors of the good, hating truth, loving a lie» etc.

146
Those who have «triumphed» will gain eternal life, and their reward is to
become sons of God; «But as for the cowards, unbelievers, abominable,
murderers, whore-mongers, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion
will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulphur, which is the second
death» (Rv 21:7-8). Sorcerers are also explicitly grouped with murderers
and the gravest of sinners who refused to repent and thus will be cast out of
paradise: «Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and whoremongers and
murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood»
(Rv 22:15)127. For anyone who takes seriously these texts, it is difficult to
imagine a condemnation of occult practice that could be more severe.
In the light of the Christian condemnations of magic considered thus
far in Galatians, Revelation, and the Didache, sources which the Church
Fathers knew well, it seems very odd that Dickie would state: «The Church
Fathers may have found condemnations of magic hard to come by. They
are even less well-placed when it comes to adducing scriptural authority for
their contention that magicians and sorcerers are impostors and charlatans.
They are firmly convinced that men cannot alter the course of nature but
cannot find chapter and verse to support that view» 128. The New Testament,
which the Fathers esteemed, both condemns magic, and it holds firmly to
the conviction that men can indeed alter the course of nature. And they do
so by participating in the work and miracles of God for human salvation 129.
The Bible testifies that humans also could choose «alter the course of
nature» in another way; by participating in works such as magic and
127
«Dogs» is a negative term that Scripture often applies to misguided shepherds, i.e.
false prophets and corrupt religious leaders, who have received graces from God to
govern and instruct but instead they squandered those graces, seeking neither God’s
glory, nor the peoples good, but only the satisfaction of their own base desires. See Is
56:10-11, «The dogs have a mighty appetite, they never have enough. But they are
shepherds who have no understanding; they have all turned to their own way, each to
his own gain, one and all». Thus Paul condemns those walking as enemies of the Cross
of Christ, Phil 3:2.19, «Beware of those dogs… evildoers, mutilators of the flesh…
Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with
minds set on earthly things». And perhaps Jesus warns of these when he says, Mt 7.
6.15, «Do not give dogs what is holy» and «Beware of false prophets, who come to you
in sheep’s clothing but inwardly they are ravenous wolves». The warning «do not to
give dogs what is holy» is also found in Didache 9.5. Like thieves these «wolves»
«came only to steal and kill and destroy» the flock of God’s lovely sheep for whom
Jesus came to protect and lead into eternal life (Jn 10:10.27-28).
128
M.W. DICKIE, «The Fathers of the Church and the Evil Eye», 11.
129
The Church Fathers were convinced in the literal truth of Scripture, including the
power of miracles. Cf. e.g. Gal 3:5: «Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works
miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith?»; also for
signs, miracles, and wonders worked by early Christians including raising people from
the dead, see Acts 2:43; 3:6-7; 5:12; 8:13; 9:40; 14:8-10; 19:11-12.

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sorcery men perform amazing wonders through the help of the «spirits of
demons performing signs» and «by the activity of Satan with all power and
false signs and wonders» (Rv 16:14; 2 Th 2:9). The author of Acts of the
Apostles for example, does not deny that Simon the Magician performed
impressive feats of magic: «From the least to the greatest... they paid
attention to him because for a long time he had amazed them with his
magic» (Acts 8:10-11). Magicians’ intentions may be golden, but the end
result is never benign: «All the nations were deceived by your sorcery, and
in her was found the blood of the prophets and saints and all that were slain
upon the earth» (Rv 18:23-24). Revelation depicts that by magic and
sorcery the course of nature is indeed altered; in fact the whole world which
was created for God’s praise is led into confusion, deception and ultimately
mutual destruction130. Magic in the New Testament constitutes the
deformation and manipulation of nature in a way that the Creator did not
intend.
If these early Christian texts are to be taken in the light how the
Church Fathers interpreted them, then the occult arts such as sorcery, magic,
and the evil eye constitute a grave danger to human freedom; they prevent a
healthy understanding of God’s love for man expressed in his
commandments; and they do indeed change the course of nature inflicting a
serious wound against the cosmic order. Essentially they seem to offend
God’s desire for humanity to discover kindness, simplicity and loving
providence – and stifle man’s natural desire to praise the Creator, to
«rejoice in the Lord» (Phil 3:1) and to sing joyfully, for example, with the
angels at Christ’s birth: «Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace,
good will toward men!» (Lk 2:14). Instead of rejoicing in God, by occult
practice man becomes his own god, autonomous, cut off from the Source of
all life. Thus sorcery and idolatry, in Galatians and Revelation, are
dangerous snares of the devil on par with adultery, idolatry, murder, and
«those who do such things» are in grave jeopardy of eternal punishment,
unless they repent131.

130
For satanic power and demons active in deceptive signs or magic which leads to the
destruction of the earth, cf. Rv 16:13-14: «And I saw, coming out of the mouth of the
dragon [i.e. Satan, cf. 12:9]... spirits of demons doing signs [or wonders], which go
forth to the kings of the earth, even of the whole habitable world to assemble them to
the war of that day». For more deceptive wonders worked by evil power or magic, cf.
Rv 13:13-14; 17:17, 19:20. To Babylon it is said: «all nations were deceived by your
sorcery» Rv 18:23b. The Antichrist himself, according to Paul, will be a magician who
operates «by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders» and
«with all wicked deception... so that they believe what is false», 2 Th 2:9-11.
131
Gal 5:21, for repentance from them see Rv 9:20-21; 2:20-21; Acts 18:18-20. The
sense in these warnings is that among the outcasts who will be shut out of eternal life

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 Secondly the question should be asked why do the Church Fathers
condemn magicians as frauds and charlatans, and yet speak of them as
though they posed a real threat?
First of all these Fathers were pastors and teachers who, if they were
faithful to the teaching of Christ, would have loved their fellow human
beings, including the magicians and people who would cast the evil eye.
Because the Fathers cared about people and did not want to see them perish
under the wrath of God in hell; they took seriously the warnings of
scripture about sorcery (Rv 21:8; 22:15) and so they called magicians to
repentance just as in Acts 19:18-20. Secondly they did not want them to
lead others astray by the power of their illusions. In the case of Simon
Magus (Acts 8:9-24) for all his power and reputation the magician Simon
was deceiving himself most of all. But if he continued he would deceive
many others as well. All the Samaritans agreed, «This man is the power of
God that is called Great!» (Acts 8:10). Compare this to Peter who when he
performed miracles in Jesus name, he denied, for example, that it was in
any way by his own glory, «power or piety» that he made the paralytic
walk (Acts 3:12). Unlike Simon Peter gave all credit for the healing to God
and Jesus Christ. Simon Magus is depicted as someone suffering from
severe psychologically illness (Acts 8:21-23), and in the end Simon begs
Peter to pray for him that he might not perish under God’s wrath, v. 24.
With these attitudes in mind, early Christians and the Fathers as teachers of
Scripture naturally wanted to distance themselves from magicians. Early
Christian literature such as the Epistle to Diognetus, Shepherd of Hermes,
and the New Testament all testify to the fact that Christ alone was sufficient
to fill their lives with joy and peace – no special philosophy or occult
practice was needed.
For the Church Fathers the threat magicians posed was in the power
of their illusions, magic may indeed cause some kind of change in nature,
but always with the illusion that it is a change for good, when actually the
source of power and the final result are ambiguous. Magic is dangerous
precisely because it ignores or tries to get around the fact that Judeo-
Christian Scripture clearly forbids it and warns that those who practice it

are those who practiced sorcery or murder or some grave sin and they did not repent.
However those who repented have «washed their robes» and they receive the free gift of
life: «Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree
of life and that they may enter the city», Rv 22:14. God is infinitely merciful and
generous to all who repent, but his justice is perfect (i.e. he will punish the sins) those
who do wrong but refuse to confess their guilt, Rv 2:5; 2:16; 3:3; 3:19; Rom 2:4-5.
Jesus says in Luke 13:3 «No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise
perish».

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place themselves under a curse132. The whole practice of magic seems
profoundly contrary to the heart of the Christ’s message in the New
Testament: loving God above all through obedience to his commands: «For
this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his
commandments are not burdensome» (1 Jn 5:3; cf. Mt 22:37-40). God’s
commandments are life-giving (cf. Mt 19:17; Ps 119:93). And Jesus said
«If you love me, you will keep my commandments» (Jn 14:15), and to his
apostles he said, «The one who hears you hears me, and the one who
rejects you rejects me» (Lk 10:16). So in the New Testament it is not
possible to love Jesus and disobey the teachers that he chose. Jesus called
Paul to proclaim «the obedience of faith among all the nations» (Rom 1:4).
Faith is a child-like trust to God as father, a total surrender of the intellect
to God in obedience to apostolic teaching. Such faith is incompatible with
manipulation of the created order in disregard for God’s will.
In the case of the evil eye, it is not the action that is important, but
the intention behind the action that counts, in this case, envy. «A tranquil
heart gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rot» (Prv 14:30).
Envy is like poison or acid in the soul. Furthermore in the New Testament,
final judgment is according to works (Mt 16:27; Rom 2:6-9, Rv 20:12), but
a work is judged according to the attitude that motivated it. Envy is not a
legitimate motivation for any action, magical or mundane. Thus we see that
the casting of the evil eye in so far as it is motivated by envy, makes sense
to be prohibited in the context of Galatians 5:19-21 where Paul condemns
sorcery and idolatry, along with envy, hatred, strife, murder, etc. It is
precisely these dispositions against which Jesus speaks vehemently in his
Sermon on the Mount:
«You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder;
and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that
everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment;
whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever
says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire» (Mt 5:21-22).
Jesus is challenging his audience to consider that actual murder is just
the physical playing out of what has already taken place in the heart.
According to this Gospel teaching, any act of hatred or envy such as the
evil eye is equivalent to murder in the heart. People are inevitably going to
offend each other, but Jesus calls his followers to the higher standard of
forgiving, praying for and loving their enemies (Mt 5:44; Lk 6:27). Old and
New Testaments depict a God that does not so much judge actions by their

132
Cf. curses due to human injustice and violation of God’s covenant: Dt 11:28; 30:19;
Jer 23:10-20; 44:8; Dn 9:11; a curse in which the whole earth is implicated: Is 24:5-6.

150
success or failure, but he looks at the personal intention behind the action
in his judgment of human behaviour133.
According to Dickie the attitude of the Fathers of the Church to the
evil eye is ambiguous: they are not prepared to accept that the eyes of
envious men can on their own inflict harm, but they are willing to concede
either that the virtuous and the fortunate do have something to fear from
envious forces or that a supernatural force may exploit them, employing the
eyes of the envious to cause harm. This is their considered position when
their mind is fully focused on the issue and its implications. When their
mind is on something else, they speak of the eyes of the envious doing
harm.
St. John Chrysostom makes reference to various apotropaic practices
evident in the community. For instance, the preacher speaks about people in
Antioch «who use charms and amulets, and encircle their heads and feet
with copper coins of Alexander of Macedon»134. As expected, Chrysostom
does not praise this action, instead criticizes the people for placing hope in
an image of a former Greek king. This was not to be the only instance in
which he would observe and condemn the use of amulets. However he
finds himself having to address people’s arguments that their amulets did
not constitute idolatry as they were simply charms. What is striking about
Chrysostom’s retort, however, is his disbelief that amulet-users are
unashamed to fear such things now that they had heard the Christian
message. At first there may be an inclination to think that he is dismissing

133
To see where God looks at the heart and judges the secrets therein, 1Sm 16:7; 1 Ch
28:9; Ps 7:9; 44:21; Jer 11:20, Jesus also manifests this divine gift, Mt 9:4; 12:25; Lk.
11:17; Jn 2:24-25; 21:17; Heb 4:13, and the Father has given Jesus the duty to judge
humanity, because he is «the Son of Man», i.e. the God who became man, Jn 5:22-27.
For example Jesus words are revealing when he warns the false «prophetess» Jezebel
who led members of the church in Thyatira into idolatry and adultery: Rv 2:21.23 «I
gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality… I will strike
her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and
heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works». Elsewhere Jesus is more
lenient towards sinners, Mt 9:13; to the chief priests he says «Truly, I say to you, the tax
collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you», Mt 21:31. The
point is that the sinner who repents is closer to God that the righteous person who is
prideful−because «all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God», Rom 3:23.
Therefore God judges according to the heart: the intention to come to the light of truth
vs. the intention to hide in darkness, Jn 3:19-21.
134
J. CHRYSOSTOM, Ad illuminandos catechesis 2.5, PG XLIX, 240. Translations of
Chrysostom here and throughout the thesis are based on the Nicene and Post Nicene
Fathers (see: http://www.ccel.org/fathers2), unless otherwise cited. Many Alexander
amulets have been found; see B. WYSS, «Johannes Chrysostomos», 266.

151
the fear of the harmful spirits repelled by these practices 135. Yet, it becomes
clear that his concern lies not with people’s fear of daimones, but with the
persistence of that fear despite the protection of the Christian God.
Chrysostom’s concern is with the spiritual well-being of the flock under his
charge. He encourages them to lay fear aside, to take responsibility for
themselves and to choose between good and evil. Thus he urges them to
say: «I leave your ranks, Satan, and your pomp, and your service, and I join
the ranks of Christ. And never go forth without this word» 136 . For
Chrysostom to say these words with conviction constitutes a renewal of the
baptismal promises when Satan was first rejected by the catechumen; thus
accompanied by the sign of the cross on the forehead, they shall provide a
spiritual armour, that neither a person nor the devil shall be able to
penetrate upon seeing137. Chrysostom encourages the same action to be
used for children to protect them from the evil eye and other dangers 138. In a
world in which people surrendered to apotropaic methods and
superstitions, regardless of religious affiliation, Chrysostom is promoting a
stronger form of spiritual protection that involves faith, the conscious
rejection of evil and Satan its author along with firm allegiance to the
Christian God, the signing of the cross on the body, and the wearing of the
cross as a sign to demons of their defeated state139.
However, it was not just the Christian gesture, amulet, and
incantation that Chrysostom asserted as potent; the shield of baptism also
attracted his attention. In the protection of babies or children, in particular,
135
J. CHRYSOSTOM, Homily VIII on Colossians., PG XVII, 358; ID., Homily IV on 1
Corinthians., PG LXI, 38, 14-20; Homily X on 1 Timothy, PG XVII, 552; Ad
illuminandos Cat. 2; PG XLIX, 240 33-35. Note also that it appears from Canon 36 of
the council of Laodicea that the leaders of the wider church community, like St. John
Chrysostom, were also keen to reduce the use of amulets. This ruling prohibited the
clergy from themselves providing amulets.
136
It must be noted here that these amulets could have included a broader range of
powers such as protection against other daimonic threats or even healing qualities.
137
J. CHRYSOSTOM, Ad illuminandos cat. 2, PG XLIX, 240 57-61. On the apotropaic
features of the ritual language prescribed in baptismal instructions see D.S. K ALLERES,
Exorcising the Devil.
138
J. CHRYSOSTOM, Homily XII on 1 Corinthians., PG LXI, 106.
139
For other references to the use of the cross see: J. C HRYSOSTOM, Homily VIII on
Colossians, PG LXII, 357-8; Adv. Jud. Or. 8, PG XLVIII, 940. Wilken raises an
interesting point in relation to Chrysostom’s promotion of the cross in the context of his
homilies on the Judaisers. Wilken argues that for Chrysostom, Judaism posed a threat
because it may have seemed more powerful to his congregation than Christianity and
would thus have been able to swing people’s allegiance. St. John Chrysostom’s primary
goal, in his view, was therefore to win back Judaisers to the Christian rites and to
provide them with the power of the «sign of the cross» which could ward off daimones.
See R.L. WILKEN, John Chrysostom and the Jews, 87-88.

152
a number of traditional or local practices were used in Syria that concerned
the Church Father. Amulets and bells were hung around babies for luck,
inscriptions (grammateiva) were put on their head immediately after birth,
and children had a red ribbon tied around them140. In addition women and
nurses marked children’s faces with mud while bathing them in order to
avert the evil eye, fascination, and envy 141. Such action is condemned by
Chrysostom: «God has honoured you with spiritual anointing; and do you
defile your child with mud?... And when you should inscribe on its
forehead the Cross which affords invincible security; do you forego this,
and cast yourself into the madness of Satan?»142. St. John’s concern in this
action lay in abandoning faith in Christ for the sake of superstition and not
respecting the seal of the living God which was provided through the priest
to the child at baptism143.
Finally, St. John Chrysostom addresses the people’s practice of
utilizing the apotropaic power of ligatures (legaturae), texts, such as the
Gospel texts, written on paper and kept in a sack worn around the neck. He
comments on the tradition used by women and children of suspending the
Gospels from their necks for use as a powerful amulet, and urges them
conversely to carry instead the Gospel with them in their mind as their
guardian144. As with the sign of the cross, St. John Chrysostom promotes an
apotropaic power which differs itself from the traditional and popular
methods. In this case he assigns the power to the memory, learning and the
language of scriptural texts. By dismissing tangible forms of protection,
Chrysostom is asking people to shift their understanding and perception of
communicating with, controlling, and repelling the demonic, arming
Christians with an knowledge of spiritual concepts to protect them from the
craftiness of spiritual enemies who seek to infiltrate the will, provoking
envy, strife, hatred, etc145. Thus, all of the Fathers of the Church who attack
belief in the evil eye take it for granted that Christians have reason to fear a

140
J. CHRYSOSTOM, Homily XII on 1 Corinthians; PG LXI, 105; Commentary on
Galatians; PG LXI, 623. See also R. MACMULLEN, Christianity and Paganism, 143 and
R.W. STRICKLER, A dispute in dispute: forgery, heresy, and sainthood in seventh century
Byzantium.
141
J. CHRYSOSTOM, Homily XII on 1 Corinthians, PG LXI, 106 9-38. Salt, soot, and ash
were also used (J. CHRYSOSTOM, Homily VIII on Colossians,, PG LXII., 359.
142
J. CHRYSOSTOM, Homily XII on 1 Corinthians, PG LXI, 106 9-38.
143
H. MAGUIRE, Magic and Christian Image, 61. It should be noted here that the
baptism of infants was probably minimal compared to adult and death-bed baptism.
144
«De statuis», Homily XIX, PG XLIX, 196 37-46.
145
In D.S. KALLERES, Exorcising the Devil, provides a strong argument for the potency
of ritual language in emerging Christian baptismal discourse.

153
supernatural force and identify this force with the devil 146. St. Basil and St.
Jerome, go further and suggest that the devil or his demons use men’s
envious eyes to accomplish their own envious purposes. Others such as
Tertullian, St. John Chrysostom, and Eusebius exclude the action of human
intermediaries and propose that the bad fortune suffered is the direct action
of the devil. Only Eusebius puts forward the view that the devil deliberately
contrives to make his envious assaults on the fortunate when there are men
around whose envious gaze or praise is the source of the catastrophe147.
The tendency of Christians of this time to blame their misfortunes on
φθóνος (envy) of the devil or his demons makes perfectly good sense when
put within the framework of a theological system in which the primary
defining characteristic of the devil and his demons is their envious
resentment of all that is good. However a premature death for example, was
blamed on an envious force of an indeterminate nature, and not on the envy
of the devil. This from one point of view is not surprising since the devil’s
envy should not in theory be directed at the merely young and beautiful but
at those whose virtue throws his own moral failure into relief. On the other
hand, there is no obvious place in the Christian scheme of things for an
envious force of indeterminate identity. That men should still continue to
be attracted to it shows how powerful a hold a pagan way of looking at the
world had over even theologically formed men – and to this day the
Orthodox church recommends to priests a prayer against the evil eye148.
146
M.W. DICKIE, «The Fathers of the Church and the Evil Eye», 10.
147
Particularly Basil, Jerome, Chrysostom, Tertullian and Eusebius of Alexandria. See
M.W. DICKIE, «The Fathers of the Church and the Evil Eye», 9-34. E.M. YAMAUCHI, Magic
in the Biblical World, 169-200 and J.H. ELLIOTT, Paul, Galatians, and the Evil Eye, 262-
273.
148
M.W. DICKIE, «The Fathers of the Church and the Evil Eye», 34. Greek Orthodox
Christians regard Satan and his demons as a reality. These supernatural entities are
encountered in the form of the evil eye and on rare occasions also through demonic
possession. The evil eye is part of the faith, culture and traditions of Greek people, who
go out of their way to avoid having the evil eye put on them or their families. What is
regarded as superstition in the West is a reality that is much feared in Greece and in
much of the Mediterranean world. From a sociological perspective it can be said that the
Greeks have been socially conditioned to believe that Satan is a being with supernatural
powers. Collectivist societies, such as Greek societies tend to blame «bad luck» on
external factors such as the evil eye, rather than on coincidence. Greek people see Satan
as a very real threat to their well-being.
On that note, the Orthodox Church has a prayer against the evil eye which the priests
recite in favour of their faithful. It carries the following contents:
«Let us pray to the Lord…Lord have mercy. O Lord Our God, the King of the ages,
almighty and all powerful, who create and alter all things by your will alone; who
changed into dew the flames of the furnace in Babylon that had been heated seven times
more than usual, and preserved in safety your three holy youths; the physician and

154
3. The Middle Byzantine period: (843–1204).

After the series of government-driven persecution against the

Christians had ended in the 4th century, the Fathers of the Church were able
to teach openly about how to reach God and develop the means of
organized worship 149 . Gradually, a more mystical, purified perspective
evolved as if rediscovered and refreshed from the teachings of Christ and
the Apostles. While being strong in the central teachings of the Church, this
approach focused on the inner, personal relationship with God, as opposed
to the external requirements needed to be a good Christian (ascetic or
secular). Clearly, St. John Climacus (525 A.D.), St. Gregory of Nyssa (335
A.D.) and several others were at the forefront of this spiritual development.
Later, St. Maximos the Confessor (580 A.D.) continued this movement
more fully and laid the foundations of Christian mysticism in the mid-
Byzantine period. Ultimately, this mystical approach to salvation found its
fullest expression in St. Symeon the New Theologian (949 A.D.), whose
tremendous contribution fuelled the emergence of the Hesychast Movement
of the later Byzantine years150.

healer of our souls; the security of those who hope in you; we pray you and beseech you:
Remove, drive away and banish every diabolical activity, every satanic attack and every
plot, evil curiosity and injury, and the evil eye of mischievous and wicked men from
your servant (Name); and whether it was brought about by beauty, or bravery, or
happiness, or jealousy and envy, or evil eye, do you yourself, O Lord who love mankind,
stretch out your mighty hand and your powerful and lofty arm, look down on this your
creature and watch over him(her), and send him(her) an angel of peace, a mighty
guardian of soul and body, who will rebuke and banish from him (her) every wicked
intention, every spell and evil eye of destructive and envious men; so that, guarded by
you, your supplicant may sing to you with thanksgiving: The Lord is my helper, and I
shall not be afraid; what can man do to me? And again: I shall fear no evil because you
are with me. For you are God my strength, the powerful ruler, the Prince of Peace, the
Father of the age to come. Yes, Lord, our God, spare your creature and save your
servant (Name) from every injury brought about by the evil eye, and keep him (her) safe
above every ill. For you are our King and all things are possible to Thee, O Lord.
Therefore, we ascribe glory to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now
and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen» in N. ΠΑΠΑ∆ΟΠΟΥΛΟΣ, Ευχολóγιοντo Μέγα, 517.
149
G.A. MALONEY, Pseudo Macarius.
150
As Christian mysticism was developing, two distinct but somewhat overlapping
theological currents became apparent in early Byzantium – the period between 4th and
7th centuries. The first had Semitic (e.g. Syrian) origins and a more emotional, deep feel
that strove to help the faithful experience the «immanence» of God, i.e. his very real and
loving presence one can perceive nearby, and eventually inside, at every moment of
one’s lives. Along these lines, Fathers like St. Ignatius of Antioch, St Antony the Great

155
 The middle byzantine period saw the emergence of two heresies
which troubled Byzantium in this period: Paulikianism and the new heresy,
Bogomilism. Paulikianism was a dualistic heresy that emerged and was
active in Asia Minor in the 7th century. The Paulikians remained a threat
throughout the 7th, 8th and 9th centuries, despite the repeated persecutions
they suffered at hands of Byzantine Emperors. According to this heresy,
there were two separate gods: Satan, the creator of matter and god of the
earthly world, and the celestial divinity who would govern the cosmos in
the future. They condemned matter as the «work of the devil» and refused
to accept the birth of Christ by the Virgin Mary, his Incarnation, Death and
Resurrection, considering them all as fraudulent deceits. They were
uninterested in the Old Testament, the mysteries of Baptism and the Holy
Eucharist, the cross, icons and holy relics and the Orthodox wedding
ceremony (although weddings themselves were not condemned).
Closely related to the Paulikian heresy was that of the Bogomils, a
set of beliefs created in Bulgaria in the middle of the 10 th century.
According to the Patriarch Theophylaktos, it was a mixture of Manichaean
and Paulikian beliefs. The teaching of the Bogomils was perfectly
consistent with that of the Paulikians, the one difference being that the
former were totally opposed to weddings. The heresy, begun by

and St Macarios of Egypt focused on a spiritual centre, most often called the «heart»,
and showed that fervent ascetic training, spiritual vigilance «αγρυπνíα» and incessant
prayer lead to drastic lessening of thought chatter, to a peaceful state they called
«ησυχíα» where one experiences his relationship with God in a very calm, intimate and
tender way, as one can now listen better to his words. The guide on this path is pure love
for God, his special love for each person, a deeply spiritual feeling that helps us go past
our emotions and be open to his grace, in all humility. As emotional baggage is left
behind, one encounters God always present interiorly, in a spiritual «darkness»
(γνóφος), the understanding of which has deep biblical roots. Other Fathers, e.g. St.
Clement of Alexandria, Evagrios of Pontus and St. Maximos the Confessor, had a more
intellectual approach (of Greek origin) to this mystical process, focusing primarily on
the «transcendence» of God. This is the realization that as we think and understand what
we can about our Creator and then go through our thought process itself through prayer,
we become able to merge with the transcendental aspects of his energies (never with His
Essence.) For them, prayer develops as a state that is characterized by a persistent noetic
focus on God, but with no attachment to any particular thought. This prayer gradually
becomes purified and allows the increasingly still mind to transcend itself; while the
spiritual momentum from our intense seeking for God prepares us to accept His
presence and let Him pull us in union «sνωσις» with Him. At that point, we experience
God in «θεωρíα» a kind of vision, as a real Person, manifesting in a formless clear,
bright light within ourselves.

156
Paulikians who had settled in Bulgaria and developed unimpeded until the
reign of Alexios I Komnenos.
The age of military power and of the cultural renaissance of the
Byzantine Empire began with the reign of Basil I (867-886). For the next
150 years the smooth functioning of institutions, peace within the Church,
and competent emperors of the Macedonian dynasty contributed to an
effective defence of the Empire against the Bulgarian threat. After the death
of Basil II (1025 A.D.) the Empire enjoyed a period of peace, but also of
gradual disintegration. At the same time, Byzantine civilization of that
period was being shaped by a flowering of intellectual life, the conversion
of neighbouring peoples to Christianity, and monastic organization, as well
as by the development of internal economic structures.

Although scholars have little firm evidence of the organization or the

content of education at the beginning of the Middle Byzantine period, the
top schools of this period had already disappeared and even schools of
higher education were rare. It seems, thus, that educational activity was
downgraded. Young people seeking to overcome ignorance had to employ
the services of private tutors as did Leo the Philosopher (c.790-869 A.D.)
by finding a «wise man» (probably a monk) on the island of Andros who
taught him philosophy, rhetoric, and arithmetic. The situation started to
change in Constantinople in the 9th century this period: Caesar Bardas (d.
866 A.D.) who was a Byzantine noble and high-ranking minister, organized
a higher school (university) in Magnaura in the reign of Michael III,
possibly in 856 A.D. Leo the Philosopher was appointed director of the
school, where he taught philosophy, while other scholars taught
mathematics, astronomy and grammar. At roughly the same time in
Constantinople the Stoudios Monastery became a centre of cultural activity.
In other monasteries a similar pattern was repeated throughout the Empire.
In the Stoudios Monastery, which was the most important centre,
hymnography flourished and a great scriptorium was created which
eventually became one of the first and most well-known in Byzantium.
There the art of copying manuscripts was organized with great discipline.
This art spread to the Holy Mountain of Athos which today boasts over
11,000 manuscripts in its 20 monasteries, comprising one of the richest
collections in the world. Most of these manuscripts concern texts of an
ecclesiastical nature, with some texts that describe exorcism 151 , the
151
The presence of exorcisms in early medieval liturgical manuscripts is normally taken
to reflect the church’s ongoing response to lively, vibrant traditions of possession
behaviour in early medieval Europe. The textual transmission and manuscript context of
liturgical exorcisms paint a different picture, however. The vital, elaborate exorcisms of
the earliest tradition (the Old Gelasian Sacramentary, especially as preserved in the

157
remainder being texts of ancient Greek literature. The oldest, such as no. 61
at Pantokrator Monastery, date back to the years shortly after the
iconoclastic movement had ended (843 A.D.) and provide invaluable
evidence of the nature of Byzantine art.
Among the copyists Theodore of Stoudios and the calligrapher
Nicholas of Stoudios stand out. Some of the latter’s manuscripts still exist.
Indicative of the intensity of this cultural revival, was the invention of a
new, quicker way of writing, lower case script (upper case script had been
in use until then), and this met the increased demand for literary texts.
The School of Magnaura, founded in 425 A.D. as the Imperial
University of Constantinople, (sometimes known also as the University of
the Palace Hall of Magnaura) came to flourish in 10 th century when it
provided high-level education as well as a spiritual and educational activity
appropriate to a monastic establishment. This signalled also the initiation of
a new phase of development for education and letters, which characterizes,
the 10th-12th centuries. Among the most important and colourful literary
personalities of this period who left legacies from this period were
Maximos the Confessor, John Climacus, Theodore the Studite, as well as
three Patriarchs: Germanos, Tarasios and Nikephoros152.

3.1 The contribution of Mount Αthos.

The historical documents on the origins of ancient Mount Athos, a

Pan-Orthodox, self-governed Greek monastic community are very few.
According to Averil Cameron it is difficult for any researcher to try
to position the monasteries of Mount Athos and their influence in the
context of the Byzantine world. First of all this is because it is difficult to
define what the Byzantine world actually consisted of on account of the
geographical limits of Byzantium at any one period 153. It is almost certain
that monks have been living there since the fourth century, and possibly
earlier. However by then, Mount Athos was already international and when
monks travelled, as they often did, their strong attachments of master and

Paris Supplement of the Vatican Sacramentary) quickly give way to procedural

exorcisms in the Eighth Century Gelasian Sacramentary and the subsequent Gregorian
Sacramentaries. P. DENDLE, Liturgical Exorcisms in Early Medieval Europe: From
Demons to Desk Job.
152
H. WADDELL, The Desert Fathers; N.F. ROBINSON, Monasticism in the Orthodox
Churches; C. CAVARNOS, Anchored in God.
153
A. CAMERON, Athos and the Byzantine World. The Athos monasteries only got going
from the 10th century. The impact on surrounding areas was strongest in the Palaeologan
period and after the fall of Constantinople. One needs to look at monasteries founded on
Athos by non-Byzantines, e.g. Serbians, Russians, Georgians.

158
disciple carried their consciousness beyond geographical or political
boundaries. During Constantine’s reign (324-337 A.D.) both Christians and
pagans were living there. During the reign of Julian the Apostate (361-363
A.D.), the churches of Mount Athos were destroyed, and Christians hid in
the woods and in inaccessible places. Later, during Theodosius’ reign (383-
395 A.D.), the pagan temples were mostly destroyed, though the
lexicographer Hesychius of Alexandria states that in the fifth century there
was still a temple and a statue of «Zeus Athonite». After the Islamic
conquest of Egypt in the seventh century, many orthodox monks from the
Egyptian desert tried to find another calm place, and, as a result, some of
them went to the Athos peninsula. An ancient document states that monks
«built huts of wood with roofs of straw (...) and by collecting fruit from the
wild trees were providing themselves improvised meals»154.
Beginning with the tenth century Athos became the main centre of
Byzantine monasticism and the speculative tendency in Orthodox
theology 155 . The peninsula of Mount Athos surely profited from this
154
Biography of Saint Athanasius the Athonite. Also, St. Gerasimos the New Ascetic of
Kefallonia (+1579) is known as a renowned healer of the demon possessed. The demon-
possessed and the mentally ill flock to his holy shrine, which contain his incorrupt relics,
on a daily basis to receive healing. He became a grace-filled exorcist because of his
great discipline for fasting and prayer. The Saint lived as an ascetic on Mount Athos for
five years in the Cell of St. Vasilios in the desolate place known as Kapsala. Throughout
this time he survived only on boiled zucchini with no oil. It was here that he gained
many spiritual experiences and received the monastic tonsure. The demons had no
power over him, but rather he acquired the power to cast them out. His nickname
became «Kapsalis» (the burning one), after the desolate place of Kapsala. The demons
would cry out: «Kapsalis, you have burned us».
155
N. OIKONOMIDES, Mount Athos: Levels of Literacy, 167 states that «On the other hand,
all the sources (starting with the biographies of the main «stars» of the monastic
community, its saints) constantly mention the average rustic monks whose lack of
education was notorious and who constituted a very large part of the inhabitants of the
peninsula. Educated or not, all monks were engaged in the pursuit of the spiritual life
and prayed in several ways, none of which was directly related to or dependent on a
high level of culture. Mount Athos never pretended to be an elitist social or cultural
center. Consequently, the educational level of its inhabitants varied over time in
proportion to the general cultural level, in a society where basic schooling was mainly
the job of laymen or of the secular clergy. Also: J. M EYENDOR, Mount Athos in the
Fourteenth Century, 157-160. The latter writes: «It appears that ,since the time when
the first hermits settled on the Holy Mountain and, in spite of the creation of the first
great coenobitic monasteries in the tenth century, Athonite monks remained rather
uninvolved in literary activities. Together with the vast majority of their brothers and
sisters in other monastic centres of the Byzantine world, they accepted, as permanent
criterion of asceticism and spirituality, the legacy received from the early Christian
monastic traditions of Egypt, Palestine, Syria, and the Constantinopolitan Stoudios The
predominantly rural recruitment of the Athonite communities and their remoteness from

159
development described earlier. The autonomy of this international
«monastic republic» is not only famous in the Eastern Church, but it started
to become a locus of cross-border piety and diplomacy, manuscript
exchange and translation, and thus a microcosm of the pan-European
processes156.
Here, too, monasticism passed through all the phases of its
development: the life of the hermit; later the Laura, which combined
solitary asceticism with some community; and finally monasteries with a
strictly regulated life. The founder of this regulated monasticism on Athos
is considered to be St. Athanasius of Athos, in whose time was founded the
famous Laura that bears his name as well as new communities at Iviron,
Zographou, Xeropotamou, Xenophontos, Esphigmenou, Panteleimon,
Hilandar and Vatopedi. By the beginning of the next century the number of
Athonite houses was very large, and the peninsula welcomed new
foundations. It was in the twelfth century, under Emperor Alexius
Comnenus, that Athos was finally sanctioned as the recognized centre of
Byzantine monasticism. All the threads of speculative theology by which
Eastern monasticism had lived since the time of the desert Fathers
converged here.
In the late Byzantine period Athos was the centre of an intense
theological life. Nothing so reveals the dichotomy in theological thinking
of Byzantium between official theology and the theology of experience, as
the disputes over «hesychasm» that began on Mt. Athos in the fourteenth
century, associated with the name of St. Gregory Palamas. Outwardly the
dispute concerned almost technical aspects of ascetic practice, the so-called
hesychia (silence) through which the «gathering of the mind» is achieved
and the contemplation of the Divine Light is attained. Very soon, however,
the basic question was asked: What does the holy man contemplate, see,
and commune with? The opponents of Hesychasm felt that its theology of
«divinization», or mystic union with God − by which the human being is
transformed by grace to become what God is by nature − violated the

major urban centres were not conducive to intellectual creativity. Their isolation was, in
fact, deliberately sought and was protected by the imperially approved status of the
Holy Mountain».
156
Liturgical ritual was a major element of the Christian cultures of Late Antiquity and
the Middle Ages. This was especially true of Byzantium, where court and church ritual,
often intertwined, achieved a splendour unparalleled by any other aspect of civic or
religious life. Robert Taft has brought together a series of studies on the formation and
development of these rites and on the meaning they had for contemporaries. Particular
articles look at the role of Jerusalem, Constantinople, then Mt. Athos, in this process,
and at the liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. See R.F. T AFT, Mount Athos: A Late Chapter
in the History of the Byzantine Rite, 179-194.

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bounds between creation and God, that in its extremes the Hesychast
doctrine bordered on pantheism.
If God has made Christians truly «partakers of the divine nature» (2
Pt 1:4) as Scripture promises, what does this mean? For the Hesychasts the
answer was simple: to share in God’s nature is to shine with the same light
as God shines. «God is light» (1 Jn 1:5), and Jesus is both God and man,
and he shines with uncreated light157. The theological dispute thus came to
concern the nature of the light of the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor,
when Scripture says Jesus’ «face shone like the sun» (Mt 17:2). Here
theologians disputed: was this created light or uncreated light? Created
light fills the physical universe ever since God said «Let there be light» (Gn
1:3) but with the Incarnation comes the uncreated, Divine Light into the
world, «the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen
his glory» (Jn 1:14). The Fathers taught that Jesus is the promised «Sun of
Righteousness» (Mal 4:2) who illuminates all creation, «in him was life,
and the life was the light of men» (Jn 1:3). For Hesychasts Jesus saying to
his disciples, «You are the light of the world» (Mat 5:14); is not a
contradiction to him saying «I am the light of the world» because Jesus and
those who love him shine together; they are one: «Whoever follows me
will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life» (Jn 8:12; Mt 5:14).
Although the world, full of darkness and ignorance, cannot see the
«children of light» (1 Th 5:5), nor the light of the glory of God in the face
of Christ who lives in his children (2 Cor 4:4-7), the final judgement will
reveal them: «Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of
their Father» (Mt 13:43). Humans give glory to God just by being who they
were created to be. «Children of God without blemish in the midst of a
crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the
world» (Phil 2:15).
This is the quest of the Hesychast mystic, to be stripped of the
domination of human nature that was corrupted by sin and to unite with
God who is pure light: «God is light… If we walk in the light, as [God] is

157
Orthodox teaching has always affirmed the mystery that while Jesus is fully human
(Heb 2:17; 4:15) he is also fully divine; Jesus is «true God and eternal life» (1 Jn 5:20)
and «Christ who is God over all, blessed forever» (Rom 9:5).The divinity of Christ is
affirmed throughout the New Testament, not only in the Johannine literature (cf. e.g.
Phil 2:6-7; Col 1:15-20). The unknown author of Hebrews described Jesus as «the
radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the
universe by the Word of his power» (Heb 1:3). All authors of New Testament depict
Jesus sharing in exclusively divine qualities, the authority to forgive sins (Mat 9:2-6), to
raise the dead (Mk 5:41), to give life (Jn 5:21), to know the secrets in the minds and the
hearts of people (Lk 6:8; Jn 2:25; Rev 2:23), and to judge the world (Acts 10:42; Mt
25:31-32; 2 Cor 5:10).

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in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus
his Son cleanses us from all sin» (1 Jn 1:5, 7). Thus to be fully divinized is
to become one with God through the Spirit of Jesus in whom there is no
darkness, as St. Paul writes: «The one who is joined to the Lord becomes
One Spirit with him» (1 Cor 6:17). God’s desire is to unite with his humble
creatures and give them the free gift of Divine Life; therefore nothing «will
be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord» (cf. Is.
57:15; Rom 8:39). For those who share in God’s nature even suffering and
death are cause to celebrate (Acts 5:41; Jas 1:2) because all who share in
the sufferings of Christ will share in the joy of his eternal glory (Jn 16:20;
cf. Rom 8:17-18; 1 Pt 4:13; Heb 12:2). The Hesychast movement
maintained that the true calling of all Christians is to be transformed into
God, to be fully clothed in Divine Light, as St Paul says in a verse that has
been central in the Orthodox liturgy since the time of St. John Chrysostom:
«all you who are baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves in Christ»
(Gal 3:27).
St. Gregory Palamas, a monk of Athos and later, archbishop of
Thessalonica (1296-1359 A.D.), came to the defence of the Hesychasts.
Although he was undoubtedly among the greatest Byzantine theologians,
Catholic historians have frequently interpreted his doctrine as an
unprecedented innovation in the history of Orthodox theology, expressing
all the extremes and peculiarities of Eastern mysticism. As recent research
has well demonstrated, however, in fact his contribution only completes
traditional teaching and renews in a creative way the basic and most
authentic direction of the Orthodox view of Christianity. This is the idea
that God really is present in the world, that we perceive Him and unite with
Him, not by abstract deductions or philosophically, but ontologically. In
this defence of real union with God lies the meaning of the doctrine of
Palamas on divine energies that permeate the world, through which the
world, without merging with God (which is essentially impossible) is
united with Him and can commune with Him, having Him within itself,
and endlessly growing nearer to Him.
The whole tradition of the Fathers of the Church was revived in the
experience of Hesychasm and the theology of Palamas: through the image
of Christ the God-Man and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the fullness of God
is in the essence of man, and from this fullness and holiness man finds
«communion with God» in everything in the world. For St. Simeon the
New Theologian and for St. Gregory Palamas (speaking only of these two
pinnacles of Byzantine mysticism) the authority of the Fathers was just as
important as it was for the theologians of the patriarchal school in
Constantinople who sought to preserve the Fathers’ teachings but not freely

162
interpret them. However these two theologians had no reason to question
the tradition of the Holy Fathers. For them it was not an outward authority
requiring blind submission, but a living tradition built in Jesus Christ into
which they also were being built. They lived in the tradition and perceived
it from within as a unity of faith and experience. They tasted, as it were, the
fruit of the same Spirit that had inspired the Fathers as well. For them, as
for the earlier Fathers, theology was not abstract knowledge but the work of
life and the creative solution of vital problems. They were free, free to
interpret and celebrate the patristic tradition, precisely because they had in
themselves and their religious experience a living part in that tradition and
the criterion for their unity in faith with the Fathers.
According to A. Schmemann, this limitation imposed on official
Byzantine theology by the external authority of texts resulted in a renewed
outbreak of the «dechristianized», that is, Hellenism (classical Greek
philosophy) on the one hand and of conflict with the Hesychasts on the
other. This attempted to reduce all these controversies to a struggle
between two fundamental philosophical positions which, he alleges, define
the history of Byzantine thought: Aristotelianism and Platonism158. The
philosophers and mystics, he maintains, stem from Plato, while the official
doctrine of the Church, including that of St. John of Damascus, is
expressed in the language of Aristotle. The fallacy of such a dichotomy has
been demonstrated a number of times. For example, one of Palamas’ main
enemies, Nicephorus Gregoras, was by his philosophy a convinced
Platonist. Actually the question of whom to follow in the structure of
Christian moral dogma – Plato or Aristotle – could not have arisen for
Palamas or St. Simeon. For them the primary reality was God’s word in
Christian revelation and the theory of contemplation, which they attempted
to explain in words. Palamas could refer to both Plato and Aristotle and
criticize both, because neither had defined his religious experience, yet
both are evaluated on the basis of it. In other words Greek philosophy did
not dominate theology, rather theology used philosophy. The categories of
Plato and Aristotle were put to work to serve and express the ineffable
beauty of God’s divine wisdom. But the philosophers themselves, Plato and
Aristotle, would be the first to confess their weakness to grasp the whole
truth in the absence of a kind of divine revelation. Christian theologians
and even many philosophers understood that God is always transcendent,
God cannot be fully limited by any category of human thought, no, God in

A. SCHMEMANN, The Historical Road of Eastern Orthodoxy. [on line edition, access:
158

04.10.2014]http://www.holytrinitymission.org/books/english/historical_road_a_schme
mann.htm.

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his essence is a Mystery no mind can fathom. However humans can come
to know him by studying his attributes through reflecting on the created
order and revelation. Christian theology by its very essence was necessarily
eclectic in its relation to pre-Christian philosophy, however highly it might
honour it and boldly utilize its language to express its own «inexpressible
mysteries». Therefore the synthesis with Hellenism and the absorption of it
into the Church which had taken place in the writings of the Fathers was
quite naturally revived in Byzantine mysticism.
Athonite literary production at the outset of this period was
conditioned, first, by the victories of the Hesychasm of Gregory Palamas at
Constantinopolitan church councils (1341, 1347, 1351 A.D.) and among its
secular patrons in the Byzantine Civil War (1341-1347 A.D.); and second,
by the schism between Serbia and Byzantium following the crowning of
Stefan Dušan (1331-1355 A.D.) as emperor in 1346, the year after Serbian
authority was established over Athos. If the first events provided a unifying
framework for the great renewal of Greek and Slavic monastic letters, the
second may have encouraged a degree of literary and scholarly autonomy
on the part of the Serbs on Athos. The end of this period was marked by the
expansion of the Ottomans into Europe, emblematized by the battles of
Marica (1371 A.D.) and Kosovo (1389 A.D.): an eschatological mood,
encouraged by the proliferation of hesychasm, began to be felt in literature
written well beyond the Holy Mountain. Recovered by the Byzantines after
the Serbian defeat in 1371 A.D., Athos was occupied by the Turks in 1387
A.D. and again from 1393 to 1403 A.D., finally becoming an Ottoman
tributary in 1430.
The life of Mount Athos during Byzantium began with the arrival of
the first hermits after the 8th century, forming small monastic communities
until the mid-10th century when St. Athanasius the Athonite arrived there
and founded the Great Lavra 159 .This was the time when other large
monasteries, such as Vatopedi and Iviron were built. By the 11 th century
Athos had become one of the largest monastic centres attracting mainly
members of Byzantine aristocracy who dwelled there as monks. During the
159
In the Middle Ages exorcistic rituals were an inseparable part of a saint’s life. This
Christian ritual par excellence was propagated by the first hagiographers (St. Athanasius,
Sulpitius Severus, St. Gregory the Great, etc.); the 12th century saw a rise in the numbers
and versatility of the accounts about exorcistic rituals. For a saint the healing of the
demoniac primarily meant a fight with a demon. The victim was as if a battlefield to the
divine and infernal forces. Exorcism, however, served a much more practical purpose for
a saint: statements uttered by the demon during exorcism played an important role in his
«career». All the exertion and trouble he had to go through during the ritual was well
worth it: successful performance helped to increase his fame and credibility.

164
12th century, mainly due to the death of monastic centres in Asia Minor
from the gradual occupation by the Turks, Athos had already become the
most important monastic centre of the Byzantine world. On a theological
level Athonite monasticism played a key role for the development of the
Hesychast movement in Orthodox monasticism, and was at the centre of
the great controversy between saint Gregory Palamas and the anti-
Hesychast Barlaam the Calabrian. Athos was also one of the main centres
that supported and strengthened the anti-Latin sentiment especially during
the 14th and 15th centuries.
Our knowledge of the beginnings of monasticism on Mount Athos is
scant. We have a better picture only about the founding of the Great Lavra
in the year 963 A.D. by Athanasius who drastically changed the course of
events on Athos, opening the way for the foundation of other similar
monastic institutions. However, for the majority of monasteries founded
before or shortly after Athanasius’ Lavra, we rarely have enough archival
or other evidence to trace back the events related to their foundation, while
primitive Athonite eremitism remains almost totally obscure160.

3.2 Michael Psello sand Michael Italikos.

During the eleventh and twelfth centuries in Byzantine the study of

magic among intellectuals was a commonplace. However two prominent
figures which made the cut above the others in studying the aspects of
magic theory and practice were Michael Psellos (1018-1078 A.D.) and
Michael Italikos (1090-1157 A.D.). If Psellos receives a somewhat larger
share of attention herein, it is because he single-handedly was responsible
for reviving, almost from the dead, an entire group of occult authors and
books whose existence had long been neglected. His studies formed the
bridge between Neo-Platonic, Gnostic and Hermetic texts and the theology,
philosophy and daemonology of the late Byzantine era−a bridge between
the classical view of the daemon as a beneficial guiding spiritual presence,
and the later Christian view of demons as intrinsically evil fallen angels.
Byzantine magic was later destined to be the source of the principle
grimoires (magic text books) of Western European magic from the 14th
160
This article focuses on an anonymous ascetic text which is unpublished until now,
and offers the critical edition of this short work containing a series of recommendations
to Athonite monks, alphabetically organized and ending with the letter gamma; the text
is preserved in two manuscripts: Athous, Dionysiou 269, of the XV th century and
Athous-Lavra K.116, of the XVIth century.
See P. VANDEUN, Some Anonymous Recommendations to Athonite Monks in the online
journal[04.06.2014]:https://www.academia.edu/1172906/Some_anonymous_recommen
dations_to_Athonite_monks.

165
century onwards161. For Byzantine literature of the eleventh and twelfth
centuries, the world of Hellenic magic and mysticism was part of their
cultural heritage, and they felt obliged to take account of its existence in
one way or another. Acknowledgement did vary, ranging, for example,
from the nodding acquaintance of Anna Comnena to the intimate
familiarity of Michael Psellos. Between the time of Photios in the ninth
century and the arrival of Psellos in the eleventh century, one would be
hard pressed to find in extant Byzantine sources any references to Hermes
Trismegistus and the Hermetica, to Julius Africanus and the Kestoi, to
Proclus’ De arte hieratica, or to the Chaldaean Oracles (fragmentary texts
from the 2nd century A.D.), which are all the authors and works that are
considered the classics in the field of mysticism and magic. When Psellos
in his major historical work, the Chronographia, says that he was unable
eventually to find in or outside of Greece any trace of wisdom (sophia) or
teachers of it, we may take him to be including the works of the kind
mentioned here, because for him «mystic books», as he calls them, have
their place at a very high level on the path to wisdom. And we are not
dealing with mere name-dropping on his part. A glance at the introductions
to any modern published version of the four works mentioned above will
reveal that Psellos was one of its few readers in the Greek-speaking middle
ages and is even an important source for the texts themselves.
Michael Psellos, served for many years as a political advisor to a
succession of several Byzantine Emperors. He was the leading professor of
the then newly founded University of Constantinople, bearing the honorary
title ‘Consul of the Philosophers’; he was schooled in law, religion, and
philosophy, astronomy, medicine, grammar, physics, and magic. Psellos
was a driving force behind the formation of the University curriculum
which specialized in the Greek Classics, especially Homeric literature. His
contribution to the middle Byzantium period with regards to the
development of the understanding of exorcism and demonology lies in his
important work entitled On the Operation of Dæmons, a classic that was
hid in obscurity for many years until its recent re-discovery162. This work
was probably written around 1050 A.D. in Constantinople within the
161
J. DUFFY, «Reactions of Two Byzantine intellectuals», 35-61.
162
(PSEUDO-) M. PSELLOS, Dialogue on the Operation of Daemons, 1843. A complete list
of his works is given in Fabricius, Bibliotheca Graeca, x.41. A number of scholars, such
as Bidez and Gautier, are of the opinion that Michael Psellos was not the author of this
work but that it was the work of another writer of the late thirteenth or early fourteenth
century (specifically the Palaeologan period). Accordingly the author of this work is
sometimes referred to as Pseudo-Psellos. Until a definitive answer is known, I prefer to
reserve judgment on the issue. See also R. G REENFIELD, «Contribution to the Study of
Palaeologan Magic», 127.

166
Byzantine Empire.

On the Operation of Dæmons, was unknown in the West for many

years and appears for the first time in an English press in 1843. It was so
highly prized in the 17th century that it was named by the learned Barthius
(1587 - 1658) as The little Golden Book. Psellos’ work discusses the
classical view of the Dæmon as a helpful guiding spiritual being vis-à-vis
the later Christian view of all demons as evil creatures. The work of Psellos
is laid out as a dialogue or discourse between 2 people, Timothy and
Thracian who were apparently monks. It relates chiefly to the practices of
the Euchitae and Manes, a Persian who, in the third century, announced
himself as the promised Paraclete, or Comforter, who was to guide men to
all truth. The style is very much in the spirit of the classic Socratic
dialogues of Plato, whose dialogues had a strong influence on Psellos
himself. Throughout this discourse, both Timothy and Thracian and discuss
the various points and beliefs concerning the diverse types of spirits, angels,
and beings and how these beings can affect humans. There is an obvious
Christian bias in some aspects of the writing, considering the time the work
was originally written, but Psellos is also able to convey a great deal of
thinking in relation to how the people from the pre-Christian eras thought
about the relationships of these spiritual beings.
In this work he attempted to examine historical syncretism, the
combination of the Christian Faith with the Magian Philosophy while
promulgating some extraordinary doctrines. Psellos makes Thracian put
forward a dualist doctrine, namely, that there were two gods opposed to
each other: the Author of Evil and the Creator of every good. He also
recounts the history of the Euchitae, or Massalians (praying men), who
made their appearance as a distinct body about the end of the fourth century.
They may originally have had comparatively pure doctrines, but it would
appear that both the Manichea, or Maniacal sect, and that of the Euchitae
subsequently developed strange beliefs and rites. The Euchitae, for
example, divided the universe into three regions, the government of which
they alleged was in the hands of the father and his two sons; the father
having the supramundane region, the younger son the atmospheric region,
and the elder the government of affairs in the world, a system closely
related to the figures of Greek Mythology. A variety of opinions was
entertained as to the powers of these rulers, and a variety of worship was
paid to them. Those who were deepest sunk in ‘impiety’ worshipped Satan
(the earthly son) alone, and dignified him with the most august names, such
as First Begotten, Estranged from the Father, Creator of Plants and
Animals, and other compound beings. Timothy remarks that once men had

167
thus, by a strong delusion, believed a lie, there was no measure to their
wickedness (cf. 2 Th. 2:11-12; Rom 1:18-32). Timothy asks by what train
of reasoning they could bring themselves to believe Satan worthy to be
called a son of God? Thracian making reference to Isaiah 14:12-15 answers
that the Prince of Lies has darkened «the understanding of his witless
votaries by vainglorious fictions, boasting that he will place his throne
above the clouds, and averring that he will be equal to the Most High. For
this very reason he has been consigned into outer darkness. And when he
appears to them, he announces himself the first begotten son of God and
creator of all terrestrial things, who disposes of everything in the world,
and by this means… he mocks the fools [who believe him], and who ought
to have considered him an empty braggart and the arch-prince of falsehood,
and [ought to have] ridiculed his pompous pretensions, instead of believing
everything he says, and suffering themselves to be led about by the nose
like oxen»163.
Thracian then proceeds to explain the operations of the demons, who
are Satan’s instruments. What is interesting is the distinction the editor
makes which the ancients had made also between demons and the devil.
After remarking that there is scarcely any perceptible difference between
δαíµων and δαιµόνιον, he observes (Diss. vi. p. 1, § 8): δαιµόνιον, dæmon,
occurs frequently in the Gospels, and always in reference to possessions,
real or supposed; but the word διáβολος, devil, never refers to possession 164.
The use of the term δαιµόνιον, dæmon, is as constantly indefinite as the
term διáβολος, devil, is definite. Thus when introducing a case of
possession, the Gospel writers call it simply δαíµονιον, or πνεñµα
aκάθαρτον, a daemon, an unclean spirit; never τo δαíµονιον, or το πνεñµα
aκάθαρτον, the demon, the unclean spirit (but when, in the progress of the
story, the text refers to the same dæmon, it receives the article). Further, the
plural δαιµόνια occurs frequently, and is applied to the same order of
beings with the singular; but what sets the difference of signification in the
clearest light is that though both words, διáβολος and δαιµόνιον, occur
often in the Septuagint, they are invariably used for translating different
Hebrew words; διáβολος is always in Hebrew (uY) tsar, «enemy», or (rGu);
satan, «adversary»; these terms are never translated as δαιµόνιον. This
word, on the contrary, is made to express some Hebrew term signifying

163
(PSEUDO-) M. PSELLOS, Dialogue on the Operation of Daemons, 20.
164
With the possible exception of Lk 13:11-16, Jesus says, speaking of a woman with a
«spirit of infirmity» that she was bound by the devil: «And ought not this woman, a
daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond
on the Sabbath day?» v. 16. Satan is equivalent to διáβολος in the N.T.: compare Mt 4:5
διáβολος devil to Mt 4:10 Σατανã Satan speaking of the same individual.

168
idol, pagan deity, apparition, or what some render satyr. What the precise
idea of the dæmons to whom possessions were ascribed then was, it would,
perhaps, be impossible for us with any certainty to affirm; but as it is
evident that the two words διáβολος and δαιµόνιον are not once
confounded, though the first occurs in the New Testament upwards of
thirty times, and the second about sixty, they cannot be rendered by the
same term by any rule of interpretation. Furthermore the Gospels never
attribute cases of possession to the being termed ò διáβολος (the devil), nor
do they ever ascribe his authority and dominion to dæmons.
In this work, Psellos says that Demons are amongst the spiritual
creatures that are involved in works of magic, and possibly also in the
production of miracles. He introduces a classification system of demons
which according to him dates back to Plato and which later became an
inspiration for the system Francesco Maria Guazzo composed. According
to this division there are six different types of demons as we find described
in the following dialogue:

«Thracian – He said, there were in all six species of dæmons, I know not
whether subdividing the entire genus by their habit!, or by the degree of
their attachment to bodies – be it that as it may, he laid that the six types
[of dæmons] were corporeal and mundane, because in that number all
corporeal circumstances are comprised, and agreeably to it the mundane
system was constituted; afterwards he observed, that this first number
was represented by the scalene triangle, for beings of the divine and
celestial order were represented by the equilateral triangle, as being
consistent with itself, and with difficulty inclinable to evil, whilst human
beings were represented by the isosceles triangle, as being in some
measure liable to error in their choice, yet capable of reformation on
repentance. On the other hand, that the dæmonic tribe were represented
by the scalene triangle, as being at variance with itself, and not at all
approaching to excellence. Whether he were really of this opinion or not,
this is certain, he counted off six species of dæmons, and first he
mentioned Leliurium, speaking in his barbarous vernacular tongue, a
name which signifies Igneous. This order of dæmons haunts the air
above us, for the entire genus has been expelled from the regions
adjacent to the moon, as a profane thing with us would be expelled from
a temple, but the second occupies the air contiguous to us, and is called
by the proper name Aërial; the third is the Earthly, the fourth the
Aqueous and Marine, the fifth the Subterranean, and the last the
Lucifugus, which can scarcely be considered sentient beings. All these
species of dæmons are haters of God, and enemies of man, and they say,

169
 that the Aqueous and Subterranean are worse than the merely bad, but
that the Lucifugus are eminently malicious and mischievous, for these,
said he, not merely impair men’s intellects, by fantasies and illusions, but
destroy them with the same alacrity as we would the most savage wild
beast. The Aqueous suffocate in the water all that approach them; the
Subterranean and Lucifugus, if they can only insinuate themselves into
the lungs of those they meet, seize and choke them, rendering them
epileptic and insane; the Aërial and Earthly, with art and cunning
stealthily approach and deceive men’s minds, impelling them to unlawful
and unnatural lusts»165.
In this categorization one can see the four classical elements, Fire, Air,
Earth and Water, plus a further two categories of demons who «flee the
light». This is much simpler than the Hebraic Kabbalistic or grimoire
division of demons. The classical Greek view however is that the demons
occupy the space between the heavens and earth, and are therefore sub-
lunar or «under the Moon». The Platonic view, seen in the life of Socrates,
was that each person had a personal daemon, who acted to help and to
preserve that person. With the rise of Orthodox Christianity, the concept of
a personal demon transformed itself into the idea of the holy Guardian
Angel, a concept which re-appears in the practices of the 19th century
Golden Dawn.

3.3 Michael Italikos.

Michael Italikos a contemporary of Anna Comnena, was like Psellos,

a man of multiple interests who made a name for himself both as a teacher
and a literary stylist. Before he became metropolitan of Philippi around the
year 1145 A.D., he taught rhetoric, philosophy, medicine, and bible studies
in the capital. His name is included in a thirteenth-century list of authors
recommended as models of style for students of rhetoric. A. Kazhdan
characterizes him as «a paradigm of the Byzantine intellectual»166. Like
Psellos, Italikos pushes his intellectual curiosity to the limits and defends
himself by appealing to the same concept of philomatheia (i.e. love of
learning) a positive idea, as opposed to a somehow objectionable curiosity
that is called polymatheia in Italikos, and periergasia or polypragmosyne in

165
(PSEUDO-) M. PSELLOS, Dialogue on the Operation of Daemons, 31-32. [on line
access: 04.10.2014] http://www.esotericarchives.com/psellos/daemonibus.pdf)
166
Cod. Jerus. Taph. gr. 106, fol. 7r, where Italos is clearly a mistake for Italikos. Cfr.
The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, II, 1368.

170
Psellos167. The limits in this instance too are represented by the world of
mysticism and magic and, in particular, the Chaldaean variety. There are
frequent hints of Italikos’ interest in that subject matter, because the
language of his letters and speeches is fairly peppered with terms borrowed
from the vocabulary of magical practices. These range from the most
general words like «charm» and «spellbind» to the very specific technical
terms such as «iynges», «strophalos», and «theourgos» 168 . That his
acquaintance with magic is not just casual or superficial is proved by much
more substantial evidence in two of the extant letters, which we shall now
examine.
Letter 28, addressed to a correspondent whose name is not preserved,
is in effect a short exposition on the Chaldaean system, laying out in some
detail the main divisions of powers and the interrelationships between them.
The general Neoplatonic slant and one specific reference to the
«commentator of the Oracles make it nearly certain that Italikos’ source is
the commentary of Proclus, as it had been also for Psellos. The two
expositions are in fact quite close, but P. Gautier is probably right when he
argues, on the basis of differences in details, for the independent use of
Proclus by Italikos»169.There is also a noticeable difference in attitude.
Italikos consistently denigrates the subject matter and compares it to
stupidity and mythical nonsense, and this general negative tone is
reinforced by his frequent reference to the Chaldaeansas barbaroi,
suggesting that they are on a level below the Hellenes, the pagan Greeks. It
is worth noting that in another document, a monody on Pantechnes, we find
Italikos making a distinction within the works of Proclus, namely, between
his commentaries on Plato, for which admiration is expressed, and his
exegesis of the Oracles, which are dismissed as absurdities170.
In a second letter (no. 31, addressed to an otherwise unknown
Tziknoglos),we come upon Italikos as he is faced with a real problem: the
well-read intellectual and adept in Chaldaean lore has to confront, as a
medical expert, the case of an incurably ill woman who wants to make use

167
Philosophica minora. I, op. 32, 100 − Letter 30, 198, 6; Philosophica minora. I, op. 7,
117-122, where the term, though inclining to the positive, provokes a certain amount of
unease.
168
Letter of Italikos (no. 33) where, in the course of discussing a Constantinian coin
endowed with apotropaic powers, he refers directly to the Chaldaeans and their
connection with magic.
169
This was also the view of L.G. W ESTERINK, Proclus, Procopius, Psellos, 275-280, who,
however, stresses more the likelihood of Procopius being an intermediary and common
source.
170
P. GAUTIER, Le de Daemonibus du Pseudo-Psellos, 17-20, 105-194. Gautier suggests a
possible late thirteenth or early fourteenth century date.

171
of the services of a magos. Reconstructing the events from the letter, the
following approximate story emerges. The sister of Tziknoglos developed
some type of malignant ulcer which conventional medicine could not cure;
she and her brother hear about a magos who promises to help, but they
decide to consult Italikos first; he knows a lot about magic and even has a
large collection of spells and incantations, including some for the relief of
swellings and tumours; however, he flatly refuses to become involved in
any of these practices, which are outlawed by the Church, and tries to
dissuade the pair from going to the magos. This is what has taken place
before the present letter. Italikos is now writing to Tziknoglos to find out
whether his sister has submitted herself to the care of the magos, and if so,
whether the process has produced any results. In the meantime, Italikos
finds an ancient remedy which he writes down, but will deliver to
Tziknoglos orally when they next meet. Several details are worth noting.
The opening of the letter would support a general observation that, just as
in the case of recourse to healing saints, sick people were likely to look for
the help of magic only after the failure of more standard and traditional
medical care. One cannot exclude that Italikos is hinting that he will
provide for the patient with an appropriate charm. It is impossible to decide,
but this assumption is not out of the question. It would not have to imply
belief, on his part, in the efficacy of the method, but just a willingness to
accommodate the hopes of others. In this connection it might be useful to
cite a remark of Psellos concerning his expertise in astrology and interest in
horoscopes. In the course of that autobiographical digression in the
Chronographia, he makes the following statement: «The truth is, my role
as a teacher and the great differences in the interests of those who consult
me have led me to study every science, and I can prevent none from
questioning and pressing me on the subject and meaning of horoscopes» 171.
It would not be outlandish to conclude from these words that Psellos might
have been willing on occasion to accommodate the needs of others, in this
matter, possibly by interpreting or even by casting a horoscope. Thus one
can conclude that both Psellos and Italikos, as intellectuals, set no limits to
their reading and study, and even sound proud to announce their intimate
familiarity with the literature of forbidden arts. As a justification they appeal
to the concept of Philomatheia, which is understood as a positive zeal for
learning, as opposed to an idle or unhealthy curiosity. However both are
aware of the dangers of other people suspecting them of being involved in
outlawed practices, such as magic. It is not surprising, then, that they
repeatedly proclaim their innocence. In the matter of the Chaldaean Oracles
we can detect some real differences in their reactions.
171
(PSEUDO-) M. PSELLOS, Dialogue on the Operation of Daemons, II, 77.

172
Italikos keeps the system very much at arm’s length; he piles on the
traditional derogatory epithets and attempts to dissociate the material from
Hellenic learning. Not that the reaction is a great surprise, but the contrast
with Psellos is evident. The difference is rooted in their approach to
philosophy. Italikos did study and teach the subject, but compared to
Psellos he was not a serious philosopher and lacked the philosophical
instinct. Psellos, for one thing, had a probing mind and was an engaged
thinker. He also respected the thinkers of the past and professed a special
admiration for Proclus. That is one reason why he maintained a relaxed and
open mind when dealing with Chaldaean material. As something of a
creative thinker, he was also willing to explore the possibility of finding in
it some theological ideas that might be in harmony with Christian thinking.

4. Late Byzantine period: 1204-1453 A.D.

The late Byzantine period which extends to the last two hundred
years of the empire during the dynasty of the Palaeologi, produced a
relatively well-ordered, internally coherent and refined set of ideas about
the devil and the demons which were legitimized and confirmed by the seal
of Orthodox Christian doctrine172.
During a span of one thousand years, from the beginning of the
period of history which may be termed «Byzantine» to its end, many

172
In the early Middle Ages, the image of the devil absorbed features of certain pagan
gods (the satyrs and Pan): the cloven feet, the horns, the claws and the goatee. However,
other features, such as wings, came from the Christian tradition and emphasized the
primordial angelic nature of demons. In Orthodox tradition, too, the iconography of the
devil and his servants was among the main sources of transmission of the Christian
perception of evil to the masses of the Orthodox population. Many scholars have drawn
attention to the so-called «demonic invasion» of Western Europe that began in the
fifteenth century and continued well into the sixteenth. The terror of the devil was
transmitted through many sources. By contrast one cannot find any signs of extreme
‘demonization’ in Orthodox iconography. The devil and his servants almost never
constituted a separate subject either of icons or of woodcuts. As a rule they were shown
in hagiographic depictions as a fearsome but at the same time miserable addition. The
devil appears as a character in only a very few iconographic subjects, for example the
Fight of the Archangel Michael with the devil and the Harrowing of Hell. On most of
the former icons, the devil is portrayed as a man with wings whose appearance does not
differ much from that of the Archangel. In the rare cases when the devil appears on an
icon picturing Christ descending into Hell, he is portrayed as a horrible dark beast with
horns whose contours are only roughly outlined in the darkness of the threshold beneath
Christ’s feet (which, as a rule, is dark and empty). D. N ICHOLLS, «The Devil in
Renaissance France», 234.

173
changes in the beliefs, ideas and practices of Byzantine people occurred. It
is true also that the deep respect which the Byzantines had for tradition, and
in particular the Orthodox church, meant that change in the area of religious
belief was very slow to take place; any innovation was typically regarded
as evil. However it is clearly a mistake to suppose that change never took
place at all. On a number of important doctrinal issues the beliefs of the
church in the fourth century differed, or were at least far less carefully
defined, than those of the church in the fourteenth. If this is true of major
points of dogma it is certainly true of the margins of Orthodox belief such
as demonology which forms the subject matter of our study. Richard
Greenfield points out that this late period, through the diversity of literature
it offers, gives us an enormous corpus of works containing the inherited,
standard Orthodox tradition concerning the supernatural powers current to
Byzantine belief of the time173. However given the obscurity of the subject
matter one finds − not an orderly system of demonology − but many
variations, ambiguities, and paradoxes. The description of these beliefs
taken on their own cannot pretend to be complete but one finds an inherent
fluidity and changeableness. Thus it is a subject which can easily become
complicated. One thing is for certain: Byzantine demonology was not
conceptualized into a unified system, and there is no official Orthodox
ecclesial teaching on the subject. Instead one finds in the literature of this
period, that loose ends and contradictions abound174.

4.1 The origins and nature of the Demons .

In the thought and religious practice of late antiquity magic and

demons formed part of the same subject matter, although in some ways
both more subtle and more surprising than we have always been led to
believe. It is clear from the material examined that the Church Fathers in
their tradition «demonized» magic to its discredit, and the likely relation of

173
Greenfield states that the catalogues he consulted were many. The list includes the
Greek manuscripts in the libraries of the Meteora (Greece), Milan, Oxford, Paris, the
Vatican, Venice and Vienna besides some two hundred and fifteen works from the pens
of forty-five authors who lived between early Christian and middle Byzantine time and
more than five hundred and thirty works of some one hundred and ten authors ranging
from the years 1260-1453. The evidence culled from this considerable mass of source
material help us to create a picture of standard orthodox demonology as it existed in the
period in question See R. GREENFIELD, Traditions of belief, 5, 307.
174
It is interesting to note that R. Greenfield used the device of dividing these beliefs
into what have been called «standard orthodox» and «alternative» traditions of
demonology in the attempt to bring some much needed clarity and order to this subject.
However this study follows the standard orthodox belief.

174
magic with demons became a means towards the condemnation of occult
practices. The topic of demonization and the reasoning of the Church
Fathers will be taken up in the conclusion. In any case, the process of
demonization opened up a whole range of other opportunities175. It could
support compromises and active concern of quite extensive kinds.
Magicians could be demonized for the purposes of persecution, but also for
those of rescue and conversion; and these, in turn, allowed many of the less
objectionable exercises to survive and be adopted by the late antique
Christian church. It must be remembered that many of the demons and
practices of which we have spoken here were, in one sense, popular ones.
The treatises, sermons, saints’ lives and letters found during this period,
were meant to excite responses from within a theatre larger than that
provided by scholarly readers and perhaps from an audience at an early
stage in it spiritual progress. One looks largely in vain for demons and
magic in the learned commentaries on the Bible of the Western Fathers
(Ambrose on Luke 8:27-33; Jerome or Augustine on Matthew 10:8) and
some of the Christian Fathers such as St. Basil, seem to have been wholly
uninterested in demons. The Church Fathers used the concept of the
demons, hovering over, around and even inside the Christian of late
antiquity, in a psychological way to sway the emotions of the mass of the
people away from the old pagan religions and towards the new one which
offered them the protection and assurance of Jesus definitive victory over
evil spirits on the cross.
The demons of this early period in the history of witchcraft and
magic are, however, serious players in world affairs. They are certainly far
from the knockabout demons of the late medieval mystery plays; but they
are, many of them, also far from those monsters which will be invoked in
the later prosecutions for witchcraft. The emotions these demons were
allowed to provoke was specific, and they mark a clear contrast with those
which the demons of early modern Europe often came to arouse. Demons
and their magic are conscripted here to drive out terror and hatred, and to
condemn profit and every form of persecution. Both are expected, in their
redefined states, to encourage the very opposite, or so, at least, it was hoped
by many of the Christian Fathers. Magic and the demons did come together
in the world of late antiquity, yet that world too produced some of the most
energetic efforts at redefinition we can trace – redefinitions and
descriptions of Christian counter-magic which left a permanent mark upon
the medieval Christian Church.
The late Byzantine beliefs and practices concerning magic are
divided up in three general categories for purposes of examination namely
175
B. ANKARLOO – S. CLARK, Witchcraft and Magic in Europe, 46-47.

175
those of protection, manipulation, and the attainment of normally
hidden knowledge176. In each case there is evidence of a wide range of
approaches, from sophisticated and complex ideas, to simple, almost naive
concepts.
The first category involves magical practices and devices designed to
render a person, his family, or his possessions safe from harm caused by
evil spirits, other men, diseases, or the forces of nature. Perhaps the
simplest magic-oriented mindset, or the most obvious form of what we
would call superstition, seems to have involved the wearing of amulets and
the deliberate location of related objects in specific places.
The second category has to do with the manipulation of natural
forces, of the physical well-being of people, animals and crops, of human
relationships, and the manipulation of supernatural beings themselves
which lay at the heart of a large proportion of these magical processes.
Again there is a great range of levels of conceptualization apparent here in
both the techniques employed and the theories on which these depended.
The third category involved common belief that magic could be
employed to discover knowledge that was otherwise inaccessible − to delve
into the secrets of time and the mysteries of God but without his permission.
Divination was thus practised in a vast variety of ways ranging, once again,
from the crude to the sophisticated in technique and in theory.

In his Traditions of Belief in late Byzantine Demonology as well as in

his article Contribution to the Study of Paleologan Magic, Richard
Greenfield employs a distinction between what he terms as «the beliefs of
the Standard Orthodox Tradition» and «Alternative Traditions» 177. In the
conclusions to his works, Greenfield emphasizes that this division is a
device he employed in order to bring some much needed clarity to a very
complicated subject178. However this brings forth a dichotomy between the

176
One problem with such a categorization is that in each case there is obviously
significant overlap, particularly when the manipulation of spiritual powers is concerned.
On some occasions it is almost entirely pointless to try to distinguish between rituals or
devices designed to secure protection from such powers and those designed to enforce
their cooperation, while the same sort of manipulation is necessarily seen to be involved
in many of the more elaborate techniques and theories of divination. See. R.
GREENFIELD, Contribution to Palaeologan Magic, 131.
177
R. GREENFIELD, Traditions of belief, 309; ID., «Contribution to the Study of Paleologan
magic», 117-153. Alternative traditions (not being the standard orthodox) regarded
angels and demons as being essentially equal in power and which believed that both
might be commanded by men .
178
R. GREENFIELD, Traditions of belief, 307.

176
ecclesiastical establishment and the occult scientist, as well as the rejection
of the occult sciences by the church179. Greenfield states that:
«It is clear that the relationship between the central Christian
orthodoxy and the peripheral semi-Christian (or actually non-Christian)
elements of belief and practice in the Palaeologan religious mentality is
one that is complex and far-reaching. At the popular level, belief and
practice embraced a range that simply did not recognize distinctions
between religion and magic and was not only uninterested in separating
areas of orthodoxy and unorthodoxy, but was almost entirely incapable
of doing so. What is being described here is thus merely one end of a
largely continuous spectrum which shades, as it were, quite smoothly
from white to black. Any divisions in it are imposed either by subsequent
historical misconceptions or by the views of the small minority of trained
Christian theologians who believed in and were both capable of and
interested in establishing such divisions. It is vital not to let the minority
speak in place of the vast majority»180.
So Greenfield poses a broad spectrum of belief concerning the demonic.
However, the late Byzantine demonology occupied a fairly consistent
«monarchian» dualist position when questions concerning the origin of evil
and its animate powers and forces were raised explicitly. That is, demons
were seen as actually being fallen angels, or else being closely related to
angelic powers in origin. Demons were created for a good end by a
supremely good God, and possessed no naturally inherent trace of evil at all
but, through actions determined by their own free will, they rebelled
against God’s purpose for them and became evil. They fell from heaven
and, turning from God’s light, cast themselves into darkness and death.
According to R. Greenfield, it is evident that the ideas about the
nature of the demons were less consistent in the overall tradition than were
those concerning their origin. Overall it may be said that their nature was
seen as being closely related to the angelic nature they possessed before the
fall, for in some aspects this was retained unchanged, while in others it was
perverted to its exact opposite181. There was uncertainty as to whether the
179
R. GREENFIELD, «Contribution to the Study of Palaeologan Magic», 150. See also P.
MAGDALINO, The Byzantine reception of Classical Astrology, 33-37. Here the author adds
a component which he describes as the orthodox establishment as having not only the
religious facet outlined but also the national one, identified with the Greek texts of
Ptolemaic astronomy inherited by the Byzantines from antiquity and contrasted with the
Islamic science imported in Byzantium in what Magdalino chronicles as four distinct
phases between the ninth and the 14th century. See also P. MAGDALINO − M.V. MAVROUDI,
Occult Sciences in Byzantium, 64-66.
180
P. MAGDALINO – M.V. MAVROUDI, Occult sciences in Byzantium, 65.
181
R. GREENFIELD, Traditions of belief, 310.

177
demons were at all material or corporeal. However the overall tradition
held unanimously that the demons were, like angels, immortal, and almost
the same unanimity may be found in its attitude to their natural
characteristics which were seen as being a perversion of those possessed by
the angels. Besides, the standard tradition tended to hold that the demons
really were immaterial and incorporeal, although there were strong
alternative currents in late Byzantine thought which attributed to the
demons varying degrees of materiality. Some effects of demonic
possession might thus, for instance, be explained by reference to this
materiality in their nature. A degree of inherent materiality might provide a
reason for the way demons were sometimes believed to be frightened and
compelled by mortal exorcists or magicians simply by the use of physical
objects, while the varying degrees of intelligence were ascribed to different
groups of demons might also be regarded as correlative to their
involvement with matter.
Another striking feature of the overall tradition of later Byzantine
demonology which also derived, to some extent, from the angelic origin
they were believed to have had, is the arrangement of the demons into
hierarchies and their distribution among detailed categories. The standard
tradition, in which a hierarchy was assumed, usually ranked the demons
beneath a single, all important leader, Satan or the devil. The demons were
believed to have occupied the equivalent positions to those they held in
heaven when their leader was an archangel and they were angels. Further
details in this hierarchy were supplied from the military metaphors that
were frequently employed. Alternative traditions give carefully ordered,
elaborated and detailed classifications of the demons where demons and
angels were allotted to every hour of each of the seven planetary days of
the week. This was a late Byzantine tendency which saw every aspect of
time and space as having its own proper demon and/or angel. Such are
those which divided the demons in terms of their relative materiality or by
way of their «geographical» place of habitation 182 . There was also a
tendency in the standard tradition of demons to individualise, if not
systematically categorise, the demons. This tendency is apparent in the
identification by the standard tradition of demons with individual sins and
passions, misfortune and disease of which vast and complex lists were
produced.

4.2 Francesco Maria Guazzo.

Francesco Maria Guazzo, (1570-1630 A.D.) is most well known

182
See Thesis’ appendix.

178
for the writing of the Compendium Maleficarum (Book of Witches) 183 .
Guazzo had firsthand experience of the practice and profession of
witchcraft and bewitchment and was widely travelled and highly regarded
in the field of possessions and demonology and the cures thereof. During
his life he is credited with performing several exorcisms including to
members of several ducal and princely families, notably the bewitched
Cardinal Charles of Lorraine and his relative, Eric, Bishop of Verdun.
On another occasion Guazzo was called to Düsseldorf in order to
exorcise the mad Duke Johann Wilhelm of Julich, Kleve and Berg (1562-
1609 A.D.). Guazzo first diagnosed possession, but after five months of
unsuccessful attempts at spiritual healing and in the summer of 1604 A.D.
the diagnosis was changed to bewitchment as the cause of the poor Duke’s
mental illness. Guazzo had been sent to Düsseldorf by Duke Charles III of
Lorraine (a family with which he had a long running association, having
exorcised the Cardinal, Charles of Lorraine) on behalf of his daughter
Antoinette (1569-1610 A.D.), Duke Johann Wilhelm’s wife. It was these
direct experiences that inspired Guazzo to write his Compendium
Maleficarum which was published in 1608 and was widely regarded among
his contemporaries as the authoritative manuscript on the theme of
Witchcraft. Within his text, Guazzo discusses the witches’ pacts with the
devil, detailed descriptions of witches’ powers and poisons. He also
formulated a classification of the demons based on a previous work by
Michael Psellos.
Guazzo is not the most distinguished of demonologists by any
means, although his work was compiled out of a vast array of sources. He
is however interesting because he introduces the idea whereby the devil
induces diseases. Guazzo mentions also the appeal to medical authorities
and adopts the usual line on the Sabbat (the satanic liturgy of a monstrous
sect that goes against tradition), namely that in their liturgy everything was
absurdly performed in an inversion of normal practice. He claimed to be
moderate rather than credulous, and denied that werewolves were actually
transformed. Like many other demonologists, he neglected the issue of the
gender of witches.

Guazzo’s book is divided in 3 books, here are some selected parts.

183
F.M. GUAZZO, Cornell University Library Witchcraft Collection (online collection).
The Compendium Maleficarum was the ultimate field guide for the beginning
demonologist in the 17th century. Guazzo’s Compendium was accepted by his
contemporaries as the authoritative manuscript on witchcraft. Later demonologists
continued to hail the conciseness and clarity with which Guazzo analyses the practice.
The Compendium not only gives an organized account of the subject matter but also
provides a glimpse at the Christian view of witchcraft during the early 17th century.

179
 Book One:
 Here the author describes The witches’ pact with the devil. First,
The witches deny their Christian faith and insult the Virgin Mary.
A literal trampling on the Cross is not mentioned in the text,
although it is implied later. Second, they are re-baptized. Third,
they are renamed. Fourth, they deny their godparents and are
given new ones. Fifth, they give the devil a piece of their clothing,
as a sign of their acquired goods being as much devoted to the
devil as their spiritual goods. Sixth, they swear allegiance within a
circle. Seventh, they pray to be struck out of the book of life, and
written in the black book of death. Eighth, they promise to
sacrifice to the devil. Ninth, they make an annual gift of something
black to their demonic masters to avoid being beaten. Tenth, the
devil places various marks on them. Eleventh, they make various
vows, such as promising never to adore the Eucharist, to revile the
Virgin Mary, to abstain from making the sign of the Cross, and so
forth. In return for their loyalty, the devil promises that their
prayers in this world will be fulfilled and he will bring them
happiness in the world hereafter.
 Witches produce rain and hail by their deeds and words. Witches
can even produce lightning, when God permits. According to
Andrea Cesalpino, in his work Daemonum Investigatio
Peripatetica they could raise storms but could only injure those
whom God had forsaken 184 . Examples are also provided from
Guazzo’s Malleus Maleficarum and from Nicolas Rémy for
example, but Guazzo also provides cases from Trier and Swabia,
which are not attributed to published sources 185 . The former
involves a man discovering that his daughter could make rain by
urinating in a trench. She told him that her mother had taught her
how to do it, so he handed them both over to the judge in a
neighbouring town, to which he had lured them by pretending he
184
A. CESALPINO, De Daemonum Investigatione, chap 17. In this chapter the author speaks
of the different diseases brought by demons. He is also quoted by F.M. G UAZZO,
Compendium Maleficarum, 106.
185
N. RÉMY, Daemonolatreia libri tres. Remy wrote his Demonolatry after relocating to
the French countryside in 1592 to escape the plague. Like the Malleus Maleficarum and
other demonological works, Demonolatry lays out the basic beliefs and practices of
witches with the goal of convincing the reader of the imminent danger of the devil and
the need for all pious citizens to work to rid the world of the influence of demons and
witches. Demonolatry also draws from Remy’s experience as a lawyer in its discussion
of the correct methods of prosecuting witches.

180
 had been invited to a wedding feast. The Swabian example, taken
from the Malleus, also involved a young daughter, this time
helping her peasant father whose fields were drought-stricken186.
 Witches have power over external objects. If witches show that
they have done evil since the previous Sabbat, the devil instructs
them in how to create crop infestations, how to bewitch cattle,
how to use poisons. They can conjure up feasts, either illusory
ones which leave the eaters hungry or real ones composed of bad
food, since God will not permit the conjuring of good food.
Various examples are provided, of witches stealing milk with the
aid of a demon, of a garden wrecked with slugs after a Sabbat, and
other tales.
 The author questions whether witches are really transported to
their nocturnal assemblies. Followers of Luther and Melanchthon
have claimed that witches are only transported to the Sabbat in
their imagination, by diabolical illusion. However, the devil can
clearly place a likeness of a man’s wife in bed to deceive her
husband. The devil in the shape of a goat or some other animal
really does transport witches, as many citations prove. The witches
anoint themselves with filthy unguents before going, and
sometimes walk to the Sabbat. The devil presides, sitting on a
throne in the shape of a goat or a dog. They bend the knee or kick
their legs high, pointing their chins skyward. They offer black
candles or infants’ navel strings to the devil, and kiss his buttocks.
Great numbers meet at Sabbats and there are far more women than
men present. There are tables laid, but the food is foul, badly
cooked and bitter in taste. The wine is black. There is plenty of
everything except bread and salt (these are ingredients used for the
bread of the Eucharist). All is confused to the eyes, and sometimes
the devil deludes witches into believing they are at the Sabbat
when actually they are fast asleep at home. There is dancing in
circles, but always to the left, and they are not for pleasure but are
tiring work. When they approach the demons to venerate them,
they approach backwards. When they speak, they face the ground.
All things that they do are contrary to other people’s usage. The
desire for wanton dancing always leads by evil example to lust
and sin. Sometimes they dance before eating and sometimes
afterwards. Three or four tables are set aside for the richest or
most honoured witches. They each sit with their familiar demons,
sometimes side by side and sometimes face to face. Afterwards,
186
F.M. GUAZZO, Compendium Maleficarum, 48.

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 demons and witches join in frenzied dancing and obscene songs.
Finally, the witches copulate with their demon lovers.
Many pages of examples are provided, mainly from recent
demonologists. Whether witches can transmute bodies, Guazzo is certain
that this cannot be done, and that it is dangerously close to heresy to
believe in actual transformation. A human soul cannot inhabit the body of a
beast. Rather, this is an illusion created by the devil. «Sometimes, in
accordance with the pact of the magus, he surrounds a witch with an aerial
effigy of a beast, each part of which fits on to the correspondent part of the
witch’s body, head to head, mouth to mouth, belly to belly, foot to foot, and
arm to arm; but this only happens when they use certain ointments and
words...and then they leave the footprints of a wolf upon the ground». This
is why the witch can be found wounded after the wolf has been attacked. If,
however, the witch is not bodily present at all, it is the devil who wounds
the body in the part where the beast was wounded.
Book Two:
This book deals with the soporific malefices. Sorcerers and witches
put people to sleep in order to poison them, steal their children, rob them,
or pollute them with filth and adultery. This can be done with a wide
variety of natural drugs, but demons have perfect knowledge of the effects
of such potions and can also, with the permission of God, perform such
things without external aids. Demons also give witches the power to turn
into mice, cats or locusts, as the witches believe, to enable them more
easily to insinuate themselves into houses for this purpose. Witches also
use strange lights, parts of corpses, and human fat to induce sleep. All those
who go to sleep should therefore recite a psalm and prayer, such as Qui
habitat in adiutorio Altissimi or Inte Domini speravi. They should cross
themselves, recite the Salve Regina Mater misericordiae, the Paternoster,
and the Ave Maria. They should also have a wax Agnus Dei blessed by the
Pope or some holy relics by their bed to be safe. Witches use human
corpses to kill men. Witches dig up corpses to use them for murderous
purposes, especially the bodies of those condemned to death. They also use
the executioner’s implements. Others cook the whole body to ashes and
mix it into a lump. Various examples of this are provided, with witches
using human remains for murder and for rendering vines and fruit trees
barren.
 Of witches’ poisons. According to the author, the poisons are
mixed from many substances, from leaves and stalks and roots of
plants, from animals, fishes, venemous reptiles, stones and metals.
Sometimes they are administered to be swallowed and sometimes
as an ointment to be applied externally. In the first instance, they

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 mix a powder into food or drink; in the second, they bewitch their
victim while asleep by anointing various parts of the body, so that
the poison is absorbed by the heat of the body, causing great pain.
A third method is by inhalation, which is the worst kind because it
is quickly drawn through the mouth and so to the heart. Various
examples provided, including one from Girolamo Cardano’s De
Rerum Varietate xv. 80, concerning a hermaphrodite who crept
about the houses of Saluzzo at night in 1536, as part of a
poisoning conspiracy involving some forty men, including a
hangman.
 Of the malefice of binding [ligaminis]. Guazzo says that learned
men give seven causes of impotence. The first is if a couple is
made hateful to one another, by slander or disease. The second is
when a couple are kept apart, in separate places or by a phantasm
coming between them. The third is when the vital spirit is
prevented from flowing to the male genitals. The fourth is when
the semen is dried up. The fifth is when the male member becomes
flabby [flacida]. The sixth is through the application of natural
drugs which deprive a woman of the power to conceive. The
seventh is rarer, when the female genitals are closed up or
narrowed, or when the male genitals are retracted, hidden or
removed. None of these seven examples are ligatures (magical
working by tying in a string). Perhaps that form of witchcraft was
not widely feared in the regions known to Guazzo.
 Of incendiary witchcraft. Witches not only inflame souls but also
set fire to bodies, houses, and whole towns. They are evidently
fuel for the eternal fire. The reason behind this is because the devil
wishes to perpetuate the race of witches. The infection of
witchcraft [sortilegiilues] is spread to children by a sort of
contagion [veluticontagione]. One of the sure proofs of witchcraft
is that the parents of the accused were guilty of the crime. The
devil urges and compels his servants to corrupt their children.
 Of the witchcraft of love and hatred. Guazzo produces a standard
treatment, drawing especially on classical authors, such as Virgil,
Lucan and Ovid rather than from the demonologists of the
thirteenth century who were predominant during the Roman and
Venetian Inquisitions. He explains the various forms of the
witches’ vindictiveness against the human race who are feared
everywhere although they do not have an infinite capacity to
harm.
 Of the different diseases brought by demons. The author argues

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 against the naturalistic position of many Galenists and
Aristotelians who claimed that natural diseases cannot be induced
by demons. Among others, he cites Codronchi, Jean Fernel and
Cesalpino who argue against this position. He asks why God
permits the devil to act through witchcraft. The answer is that God
permits this so that his glory may be increased in us. God permits
man to sin, as a proof of divine benevolence even in allowing free
will to the devil. He shows mercy to the human race by
restraining the harm done by the devil while not allowing him to
accomplish various things to show justice in punishing sin even in
this life.
 Of vain practices and superstitions. This chapter deals with
various forms of idolatry and divination taken mainly from
classical sources.
 Of oracles [de sortibus]. In this chapter Guazzo deals with various
forms of divination and necromancy. The best remedy for the ills
they inflict is by striking fear into the witches by word and deed.
The fear of prison can cause witches to remove their spells. The
external cures used by witches have no efficacy but merely act as a
cover for witchcraft. The demons do not remove a disease from
one person without transferring it to another. He uses a lot of
citations taken mainly from classical and biblical sources but also
brings plenty of modern examples of the activities of the devil,
finishing with the tale of a wretched English heretic girl, Elizabeth
Croft. The devil is quick to harm but witches find many obstacles
in their path when they try to heal. The harsh bondage in which the
devil keeps his servants induces despair. When they try to kill
themselves, they are instantly beyond help. The devil thus drives
them to their eternal death but, if they will confess with penitential
joy, voluntarily and without torture, God will grant them the
chance to save their souls.
Book 3 speaks of whether it is lawful to remove a spell in order to cure the
bewitched. Guazzo argues that it is indeed permitted to burn, untie, dig up
or otherwise destroy the physical instruments of the curse in order to break
the devil’s hold. The rest of Book 3 deals with the diagnosis of possession
and bewitchment including the lawful Catholic sacraments and
sacramentals that can be used to cure such afflictions. It is worthy of note
that Guazzo does not distinguish between direct possession and obsession
caused by a witch. He acknowledges only two categories of possession:
that caused by a witch and the other caused by bewitchment. Thus, any
strange afflictions noticed are to be attributed presumably to the agency of

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a witch and not to the sins of the afflicted or the independent activity of the
devil

4.3 Power attributed to the Demons.

There is a great difference of opinion in the late Byzantine

demonology as regards the question of the power that demons were
believed to possess. That demons had any real power was not the belief of
many Christians, however, neither was it in accordance with orthodox
belief. The standard tradition, in order to safeguard belief in the
omnipotence and complete goodness of God maintained that evil was not
from him. However no act, good or evil, was ever performed without his
permission. In consequence of this doctrinal position, the demons were
regarded by the orthodox tradition as having no real power of their own,
and being able to work freely was only an illusion of the specific activity
God allowed them. The demons are empowered by human sin to do what is
evil, infiltrating the world through the corrupt and weak human will that is
seduced into handing over to evil forces its God given responsibility to do
good (Rv 13:3-4; 17:12). God’s permitting evil was attributed always to a
need either to chastise sinners bringing them to reject evil or to test, train,
and prove the faithful so that, in both cases, as many as possible could be
saved from going to perdition in the final judgement 187. The demons on this
view were God’s instruments and, although they had become entirely evil
and unredeemable, they were still used by divine providence for the
ultimate good of those they aimed to lead astray. However, there were
alternative views about this since many people at this time did not agree
that all demonic misfortunes were allowed by God. Perhaps, in the
catastrophic social, political, and economic climate of the late Byzantine
period, people had difficulty in believing, as they were required to by strict
Orthodox principles, that God gave his permission for all the demonic
activity that was affecting them personally or was disturbing their world in
general. Rather than believe the terror of God’s wrath was upon them, it
was in some ways simpler to believe that the demons caused such evils and
misfortunes of their own free will and by their own power, and were thus
directly responsible for them. Here again, demons were invested with real
power of their own188, but also, as a result, man himself was believed to be

187
For the danger of damnation without repentance and good works, cf. Mt 10:28;
25:31-46; Lk 13:3. For God’s desire to save all mankind, cf. 1 Tm 2:4; Jn 3:16; Ti 2:11.
188
It is interesting to note that Russian peasants as well as other neighbouring
populations living in rural areas traditionally believed that they were surrounded with
unclean forces (nechistaiasila). There are spirits in the forest (leshii), spirits in the water

185
capable of controlling them, harnessing their power simply on the basis of
the right knowledge. However this went against the fundamental tenets of
Christianity, especially God’s omnipotence, as it was for this reason of
course that orthodoxy was opposed to magic and sorcery and other notions
which attributed independent power to the demons.

4.4 The activities and uses of the Demons.

The range of activities and uses ascribed to the demons by the

majority of the people who accepted the overall tradition of late Byzantine
demonology always contained a mixture of standard and alternative beliefs.
Only a few people, for instance those who followed orthodox doctrine most
assiduously, would have been concerned to make a distinction between
various areas of demonic operation. It is clear from the beliefs about
demonic activity and its use that most Byzantines were generally not
interested in a logical division between the alternative and standard beliefs.
The standard tradition view of demonic activity was necessarily
conditioned by its belief that the forces of evil had no independent power of
their own, and thus they believed that the demons were only used by God
and never by men. After the creation and elevation of Adam, the devil was
permitted to tempt him and so ensure that Adam’s response to God’s
goodness was a choice of free and genuine obedience, being made in the
face of an evil alternative. When however man succumbed to seduction and
(rusalka, vodianoi and bolotnik), spirits in homes (domovoi), spirits in banya (bannik),
and even spirits in barns (ovinnik) and stables (koniushik). As F. WIGZELL writes in
«The Russian Folk Devil», 63: «Peasants’ attitude to the unclean forces was one of
profound fear coupled with the recognition that respect offered protection». Wigzell
explained to me in a personal communication, that this means that peasants were
terrified of the unclean forces. Reactions to this might have simply been to try and avoid
contact (e.g. the hostile water spirit ‘vodianoi’ might pull you under the water but you
could avoid this by not going into deep water). However avoidance was generally
impossible as in its various manifestations the unclean force could be anywhere. You
could ward it/them off with various rituals (hopefully), but perhaps the most effective
way was to address the spirit (say the ‘leshii’ or forest spirit) with respect and he might
then even be helpful – e.g. by seeing that you made your way out of the forest safely
instead of leading you astray. Disrespect your house spirit and he could cause chaos in
the house. Give him the things to eat that he liked and he could protect your house. The
figure of the sorcerer – there was usually one in each village – was believed to be able
to draw on the unclean spirit and this power that the sorcerer used could be for good.
You always invited the local sorcerer to a wedding to protect the bride and the wedding.
In the case of the unclean force that most closely approximates to the devil (and
increasingly over time came to be equated with the devil), it was essential not to anger
it. The more frightening the manifestation of the unclean force and the more it was
equated with the devil, the less likely it was to protect you.

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chose the evil option, the demons were allowed more widespread power
over him and on the earth which was originally man’s exclusive domain
(Gn 1:28). This was for a twofold purpose: first so that they might act as
agents in man’s re-education by letting him see how dreadful was the
consequence of sin, and second in order that they might be able to punish
human wickedness by making life hard and by making man subject to
death (Gn 3:15; 6:3). However God, in accordance with his inherent
righteousness, allowed the demons to engineer the loss of the increased
power they had been granted. The demons could tempt man, they could
bully him psychologically, but they had no authority at all to back up the
threats and inducements they employed − man was always free to choose
between good and evil. And yet by God’s decree the devil had the power of
death, which vowed to consume the entire human race and thus loomed
over every person’s psyche like a dark cloud. Thus the devil and the
demons retained a shadowy hold over the kingdom of death.
In the orthodox tradition of this time more stress was laid on the
sufferings of evil souls in hell and less stress on the demons as their
torturers. However, they were thought to be involved in a whole range of
activities against man. Among their most common manifestations were
appearances in waking life, dreams and visions. Such manifestations might
be designed to frighten the victims into believing in their power or to
achieve this end in some other way, such as the pretence of being able to
tell the future. In other cases these appearances had the purpose of leading
the victim into sin or despair. For example, the sight of a seductive woman
might incite lust in a man, while the vision of angels might make a good
Christian woman prideful in her holiness. In short, the demons were
thought to use every possible deception and delusion, to employ every
conceivable subtly to lead Christians aside from the truth into lies, away
from virtue into sin, and to shake their belief in the goodness, mercy and
omnipotence of God, and to cast doubt in the victory and love of Christ.
However, if the Christian held true to the faith in humble trust of God’s
goodness, such testing would actually make him or her stronger (like Job).
In addition, the standard tradition also accepted that the demons, as spirits,
were able to enter people and tamper with their minds more directly by
manipulating the passions that lay within them or by actually possessing
them. The standard tradition, through the concept of demonic possession,
also provided an explanation for all manner of socially unacceptable
behaviour, as well as for mental illness most commonly associated with
possession, and even for some physical illnesses and disabilities. Obviously
these forms of demonic attack were explained by the orthodox tradition

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along the accepted lines which maintained that the demons were acting
under God’s permission for the punishment of sin and the testing of virtue.
Thus to explain the belief in demonic sorcery and divination,
standard tradition resorted to the usual arguments of illusion or divine
permission. In addition, the standard tradition argued so vehemently against
these beliefs and practices that by taking these beliefs so seriously it lent to
them a credibility it would have logically sought to undermine.

4.5 The control of the Demons and their resistance.

There is a considerable amount of material present in the overall

tradition of demonology in the late Byzantine period, related to the control
and use of the supernatural forces of evil but this material stemmed mainly
from alternative traditions, i.e. from unorthodox beliefs. As it has been
already mentioned, the standard tradition believed that only God could
really control the demons and use them directly. Men were entirely
dependent on God’s will, on his grace, if they wished to avert or counter
something they believed had been worked by the demons. All men could
do, strictly speaking, was to make use of prayer and penance in the hope,
but never in the certainty, of moving God to feel compassion and save the
victim(s). Even when problems of demonic possession or illness believed
to have been caused by demons were involved, such an approach was
thought to be the only correct one and, indeed, the only one possible.
According to the standard tradition the priest or layman performing an
exorcism acted solely in exercise of his function to pray in Jesus’ name and
thus to open a victim up to God’s healing power; but there was never any
suggestion that he could make God do what he wanted. The actual words
and objects that such a person used in the course of rituals which were
formally established by the Church (e.g. the rite of Baptism), were symbols,
that through the power of Christ given to the Church had divine power to
actualize what they signify, make clear to the victim, the audience, and to
the demons that evil is powerlessness in the face of God’s name invoked by
sincere believers, and that, thanks to Christ’s victory, death and the demons
have a defeated status. However we find instances where the demons could
likewise be described as having power, apparently of their own, to resist
the exorcist or as being able to injure, against God’s will, either the exorcist
himself or the victim from whom the demons were being cast out.
Since the orthodox tradition saw the demons as creatures able to do
only what they were allowed to by God while depriving them of much of
their power by Christ, it is possible to understand how it was thought that
they could be resisted and controlled by ordinary men. All that was needed

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to combat the demons was a firm commitment to God and his power. Such
commitment starts with Christian baptism which was the most obvious and
vital point of contact with the demonic in the standard orthodox tradition
for ordinary people. Such commitment needed to be lived out by a virtuous
way of life and frequent prayer. The use of particular forms of prayer and
the practice of specific virtues against various forms of demonic assault are
thus widely attested 189 . The sign of the cross was thought to be the
Christian’s most powerful weapon in front of which the demons were
believed to turn tail and flee at its sight 190. Most of the elements mentioned
here, along with some other elaborations, appeared in the actual rites of
exorcism. Here in exorcism the confrontation between the forces of good
and evil was vividly and sharply revealed. It is here also that the beliefs
about man’s ability to control the demonic powers reached their greatest
development in the standard orthodox tradition. The stories which appear
with relative frequency in the New Testament about the exorcisms
performed by Jesus and his followers provided ample evidence and the
basic support for the practice of exorcism in the later tradition, but the idea
of exorcism was very deeply rooted owing to its presence in the
catechumen service before baptism and in the liturgy of baptism itself, as
well as in rituals employed for curing the possessed.
As the Gospels show191, sometimes demons did not always obey the
orders by the exorcist to leave and never return, especially if the exorcist
lacked authority. Mention may also be made of what is thought to be
resistance by the demons and violence or attempted violence on their part.
On other occasions it was thought necessary to take precautions to prevent
the spirit from returning or hiding in a victim until the practitioner was
deluded into believing that he had succeeded in his aim. Here a sign of
genuine departure might thus be demanded192.
From the simple to the most complicated, the rituals that were meant
to rebuff demonic forces seem to have followed a relatively common
pattern containing various combinations of frequently repeated formulaic

189
The use of the passages from the Bible as prayers invoking divine protection against
spiritual enemies include Psalms 27:3; 35; 40:15-16; 18:37-38; 68; 91; 144:1.
190
Bogomilism was a dualist heresy and maintained that the effect of the cross was due
to pretence by the demons who really loved it as the instrument of Christ’s death.
191
For the idea of the spirit returning in the New Testament see Mt 12:45; Mk 9:25; Lk
11:26; cf. Acts 19:13-16 .R. GREENFIELD, Traditions of belief, 144.
192
See Mk 5, the Gerasene demoniac and the swine, and other stories where the demons
tear, hurl down the victims or cause them to cry out on departure in the N.T.

189
statements, biblical citations, commands and ritual actions193. In essence, the
Byzantine exorcist or priest established and made clear to the patient and
audience by these formulae, firstly the identity of the God involved and the
nature of his power, as well as the fact that he was working through him,
and secondly, the nature and comparative weakness of the opposing power.
Thus the person conducting the exorcism could command the opponent by
his God and remove him from the scene, whether this focused upon an
actual person or simply a substance, because of the demonstrated
imbalance in their power. The verbal elements of these rituals drew on a
relatively limited range of sources, almost exclusively Biblical. The
identity of God was generally established first by the use of various
Biblical titles, like for example Lord God, Son of God, God of gods, Lord
of Lords, YHWH Sabaoth, God of Israel, and so on194. His nature and
power were then made clear, usually by mention of his role as creator of
the universe and everything in it, of his complete dominance over the
angels and all natural phenomena, of his ability to inspire all with fear and
of his incarnation and victory over death, as well as of his role at the end of
time. These latter elements fulfilled a dual function because they also
reminded the demons of their principal defeat by God’s hand and of the
punishment he was going to inflict on them. The inferiority of demons was
further stressed and their fallen nature established by mention of the devil’s
original fall, of Jesus’ exorcisms of various types of spirit, and of the power
given to his followers. Once he had defined the situation, the exorcist was
in a position to command the demons to leave or to beg God for protection
from it, depending on the nature of the case in hand or the particular stage
the ritual had reached. Such commands and demands again drew heavily on
Biblical language particularly that of the New Testament exorcisms and
Old Testament military victories. However the repetition of the «Holy
Name» of God or Christ and the mention of the «Cross of Christ» was
common in cases of possession, a reminder that the cross had definitively
liberated man from demonic power, and that God created man in his image
and still loved him even if this image was wounded by sin195.
Most of these elements of standard orthodox exorcism are well
illustrated in the following formula which is one of several pronounced

193
L. DELATTE, Un office byzantin d’exorcisme, 36-37; R. GREENFIELD, Traditions of belief,
142. An example from the tradition of late Byzantine monasticism of such prayers and
rituals warding off evil spirits is the manuscript of Xiropotamou 98.
194
L. DELATTE, Un office byzantin d’exorcisme., 52.
195
For commanding language in the New Testament see for example Mt 8:32;17:18; Mk
1;25; 5:8:9,25; Lk 4:35; 8:29:9; 13; 7;21-23; Mk 9:38-40; 16:17-18; Lk 9:49; 10:17-
20: Acts 16:16-18; 19:11-19.

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during the catechumen service for initiation in the Orthodox Church 196. This
prayer is called the First Exorcism, and it precedes the candidate
renouncing the devil, pledging allegiance to Christ, baptism and anointing
with chrism:
«The Lord rebukes you, O devil, for he came into the world and dwelt
among men in order to shatter your tyranny and free mankind; hanging
on the Cross, he triumphed over all the hostile powers, when the sun was
darkened and the earth was shaken, when the graves were opened and the
bodies of the Saints rose; he destroyed death by death and conquered you,
O devil, who had the power of death. I adjure you in the name of God
who revealed the tree of life and appointed the Cherubim and the fiery
sword that turns each way to guard it. Be rebuked and depart; for I adjure
you in the name of him who walked on the water as if it were dry land,
and calmed the tempest whose look dries up the abyss and whose
threatening makes the mountains melt away. It is this same Lord who
now commands you, through us... Fear, come out and depart from this
human being, and never return... Come out and depart from this soldier
of Christ our God, for he (she) has been marked with the sign of the
Cross and newly enlisted...Come out and depart from this human being,
with all your power and your angels. For the name of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit is glorified, now and ever, and to the ages
of ages. Amen

God the holy, the fearful, the glorious, incomprehensible and

inscrutable in all his works and all his might, who ordained for you, O
devil, the punishment of eternal torment, through us his unworthy
servants, orders you, and all the powers that work with you, to depart
from him (her) who has been newly sealed in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ, our true God. Therefore, I adjure you, most wicked, impure,
abominable, loathsome and alien spirit: Come out of this human and
never again enter into him (her). Depart, admit the vanity of your power
which could not even control the swine... Come out and depart from him
(her) who is now preparing for holy illumination. I adjure you by the
saving Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ and his sacred Body and Blood
and his awesome return; for he shall come without delay to judge all the
earth, and shall assign you, and all the powers working with you, to the

196
The rite of baptism in the Orthodox church include many euchologies which differ
greatly in their contents. Such euchologies include the 1647 edition of Goar’s prayer
book (Euchologion sive rituale greocorum, Venice) and the Barberini Gr. 336 among
others. See Appendix VIII. Various baptismal homilies from the fourth century suggest
that the rite was already much as it is today. E. YARNOLD, The Awe Inspiring rites.

191
 fire of hell, having deliver you to the outer darkness, where the worm
constantly devours, and the fire is never extinguished. For the power
belongs to Christ our God, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
now and ever unto the ages of ages Amen.

O Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, who heals every illness and every
infirmity, look upon your servant (N); seek out, examine and expel from
him (her) all the workings of the devil. Rebuke the impure spirits and
banish them, and cleanse the work(s) of your hands; by your swift action
crush Satan under his (her) feet, and grant to him (her) victory over the
devil and his impure spirits; so that, having received your mercy, he (she)
may become worthy of your immortal and heavenly mysteries and may
give glory to you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, now and ever, and to ages
of ages. Amen».

Accompanying these pre-baptismal prayers of exorcism were a

number of ritual actions which could be performed by the practitioner or
his catechumen. A frequent element here was the employment of fasting and
vigil for the purpose of exorcism, following the accepted version of Jesus’
statement in Mark 9:29. This practice could also be elaborated by various
dietary prohibitions and other conditions of behaviour following cure from
possession197. Most commonly however the physical actions in an exorcism
took several forms: the form of the imposition of a sign or holy object
upon the patient, the symbolic blowing of the priest upon the catechumen to
symbolize the action of the Holy Spirit, and the baptism itself involved a
descent into waters that had been previously exorcised. In both baptism and
exorcism one finds similar rituals: anointing with holy oil, reading from the
Bible, and imposition of relics of saints or similar «power objects» whose
efficacy was well known198. Above all, the sign of the cross was employed,
often being drawn many times upon the patient with holy oil or water, or
being physically imposed in the form of a crucifix. It was in exorcism and
the other apotropiac (intended to ward off evil) practices mentioned here
that man, in the standard orthodox tradition, came closest

197
R. GREENFIELD, Traditions of belief, 146.
198
For the efficacy of contact with relics note in the New Testament in particular the
stories of Peter’s shadow (Acts 5:15), Paul’s handkerchiefs (Acts 19:12), and the cases
where Jesus touched the people he healed. Also in the Old Testament we have the relics
of Elisha’s bones causing a dead man to come alive: (2 Kgs 13:21) «One time during a
funeral, one of those bands was seen, and the people threw the corpse into Elisha's tomb
and ran off. As soon as the body came into contact with Elisha's bones, the man came
back to life and stood up».

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to being invested with individual power over the demonic forces199. For this
reason there was a constant danger of transgressing the limits of what could
be accepted as orthodox doctrine. It was all too easy for exorcists/baptizers
to see the names, the rituals, and the objects they used as possessing power
of their own, as having an automatic effect on the demons if they were
properly employed. It was easy for practitioners to slip from language of
invocation of God in prayer, of his angels and saints, into language of
command. Thus a phrase such as «Christ, drive out this demon» could be
quite easily interpreted in both ways − a prayer or a command − but to say
it as a command would result in a complete transformation of the structure
of power believed to be involved. Instead of God being invoked as a deity
who is omnipotent and free, God is being commanded and thus his name
reduced to the level of the demons being opposed. It is as if the exorcist
makes himself lord and God his serf, a kind of cosmic errand boy who must
do his bidding. Thus in order to guard against such subtle but extremely
important changes in outlook, the standard orthodox tradition laid a
common stress on the supreme, free power of God and the Holy Spirit in
these practices, denying man any power of his own200.
However the standard orthodox tradition here never succeeded to
eradicate and counter ideas about demons and exorcism that were
fundamentally in opposition to it. Many of these ideas, stemming from
Byzantium’s pagan heritage, were rooted too firmly in the minds of the
masses and provided alternatives that were too attractive to be swept away
completely by the dominant doctrines of orthodox Christianity201.

4.6 Demonization of «gods» and occult practice

«Were not all men worshipping demons? Were not all used to make
gods of the elements?» – St John Chrysostom202

The demonization and canonization of occult practices by the Fathers

left a lasting impression in Byzantine culture and religious life, and caused
199
R. KOTANSKY, Incantations and Prayers, 111. Kotansky mentions a lead tablet
inscribed with the Éφέσια Γράµµατα, (Ephesian Words)which dates back to the 4 th B.C.
and they were said to be used spoken as an apotropiac charm while walking in a circle
around newlyweds.
200
See Mt 7:22 and Lk 10:20 which play down the importance of the ability to exorcise,
and also the Belzeboul controversy at Mt 12:28 and Lk 11:20 where it is stressed that
Jesus exorcism was performed by the power of the «Holy Spirit» or the «finger of God»
respectively.
201
R. GREENFIELD, Traditions of belief, 148.
202
J. CHRYSOSTOM, Homily IV on 1 Corinthians, PG LXI, 57-58.

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the charge of dabbling in the occult arts to be one of the most serious and
dangerous accusations one could wield, not only in the early but well
through the late Byzantine period. Many modern scholars accuse early
Church writers and canon lawyers of the Byzantine Church of unfair
demonization of magic and idolatry, their argument is that the Christian
leaders wanted to scare people away from alternative belief systems, so
they exaggerated the story of demonic forces with the intention of
monopolizing religious life. Before making a judgment, let us examine the
issue from the perspective of Judeo-Christian Scripture and its depiction of
idolatrous practices, because these depictions are the sources which the
Fathers took most seriously in their own learning.
The process of demonization in the Old Testament, Septuagint and
Jewish apocalyptic literature is an issue we have discussed at some length
in chapter 1 (section 1.3, 3.3). In short, demonization of occult practices,
worship, and even illness had already happened in Hellenistic culture and
in Judaism itself before the time of Christ and well before the time of the
Church Fathers. In the Septuagint of Dt 32:17; Ps 91:6; 96:5;
106:37; Is 65:3, 11; we see the word δαιµόνιον being used to refer
to idolatry, specifically, that demons had become the object of sacrificial
worship by the rebellious children of Israel. Demonization in the
Hebrew Bible is attested by the A›ru (shedim) who were destructive
spirits that lie behind the «gods» of pagan worship. These demons
were accorded a hideous nature, not because Jews were particularly
hateful of daemons, but because these «gods» of pagan rituals demanded
blood sacrifice of innocent human beings: «Yea, they sacrificed their sons
and their daughters to the demons» (shedim, Ps 116:37; cf. Dt 32:17). The
Gospels are saturated with the idea that demonic forces are the root
cause of spiritual and physical illness, though the idea was not alien to
Jewish scripture203. Jesus identifies himself as one casting out demons
beyond count in the Gospels: «Behold, I cast out demons» (Lk 13:32).
Idolatry and heresy are the result of demonic influence in the
epistles and Revelation. Paul refers to idolaters who
«sacrificed to demons» as partaking in «the table of demons» (1 Cor 10:20-
21; cf. Is 65:11 LXX). Heresy he calls «cleaving to deceiving spirits and
teachings of demons» (1 Tm 4:1). James says that to believe in one God is
insufficient if «even the demons believe – and shudder!» (Jas 2:19). Also
Revelation equates idolatry essentially with «worshiping demons» relating
it to sorcery, and blames «the spirits of demons performing signs», i.e

203
For a discussion of how the demonization of illness, plague, and insanity had already
taken place in Jewish sacred writings before the N.T. see section 1.3 and 3.3 of chapter
1, particularly in the Septuagint, i.e. Ps 91:6 LXX, but also in the case of king Saul’s
affliction by an «evil spirit», 1 Sa 16:14, 23; 18:10; 19:9-10.

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sorcery which leads the kings of the earth into a powerful delusion that will
provoke the final, apocalyptic war in Armageddon, killing off most of
humanity (Rv 9:20-21; 16:14; 18:23-24).
In light of these texts, it is not hard to find in the New Testament a
sense of horror and almost impending danger for the world with regard to
sorcery and the occult practice. These practices manifest themselves in
Scripture as opposing the kingdom of God through demonic influence and
work against the safety of humans. This negative idea of the occult was
taken seriously by the Church Fathers in their writings, canons and
admonitions, but it was not invented by them; it has roots in Judeo-
Christian Scripture which is part of a larger Hellenistic, Near Eastern
cultural milieu.
Thus Paul can say to the Galatians in a matter-of-fact way:
«Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that
by nature are not gods» (Gal 4:8, emphasis mine).What does he mean? Paul
is likely making an allusion to the song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32, one
of Paul’s favourite sources 204 . The LXX of Dt 32:17a reads:
űθυσαν δαιµονíοις καì οnθε½, θεοiς, οiς οnκ {δεισαν, «They sacrificed to
demons and not to God, to gods whom they did not know/see».
These gods are demons because they are unknown to true worshipers of
God, they have no resemblance to the true God. Although they appear like
gods, beautiful on the exterior, in reality they are destructive shedim
who have lost all resemblance to the divine nature. Paul and the
Septuagint refer to these false gods as idols, εíδωλον which means
«image», that is, the outward form or appearance that does not
express the true nature or substance. Paul’s understanding seems to be
that these mysterious objects of pagan worship have a hidden forces
at work underneath their external veneer; although these forces are
not gods by nature µη φυσει, nevertheless they are powerful enough to
bind humans. In fact, Paul says, all those who do not «know God» are
«enslaved» to these «gods», who are actually demons by nature, the A›ru
shedim (Dt 32:17) or δαιµονíα in the LXX. That non- Jewish gods are the
spiritual forces of evil is an opinion Paul confirms in 1 Cor 10:21, where
the «cup of demons... table of demons» are taken from the Septuagint of
Is 56:11. The Hebrew of Isaiah reads: «You who forsake the LORD…
who set a table for Fortune and fill cups of mixed wine for Destiny» but
the LXX is τ½ δαíµονιω τρáπεζαν, preparing the «table to the demon».
The Jewish translators replaced the Babylonian goddess of Fortune
with demon, δαιµόνιον. In any case when Paul equates the pagan gods
with demons he is referring to a Jewish belief that had become current

Cf. e.g. quotations: Dt 32:21 / Rom 10:19; Dt 32:35 / Rom 12:19; Dt 32:43 / Rom
204

15:10. For allusions cf. Dt 32:4 / Rom 9:14; Dt 32:5 / Phil 2:15; Dt 32:17 / 1 Cor 10:22.

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by the Second Temple period 205 , this he makes explicit in the first
Corinthian correspondence:
«What pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not
want you to be participants [κοινωνοnς] with demons. You cannot
drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake
of the table of the Lord and the table of demons». (1 Cor 10:20 -21)
Paul’s conviction that idolatry was worship given demons is clearly
expressed in Revelation 9:20-21:
«The rest of mankind… did not repent of the works of their hands
nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver… nor
did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual
immorality or their thefts».
This is the interpretation of St. John Chrysostom who thus takes it for
granted that before Christ basically all mankind was worshiping demons
(unknowingly)206. So we can see the demonization of occult practices by
Church Fathers has direct parallels with the Judeo-Christian scripture.
When we read Paul and the Church Fathers they describe idolatry in
a way that can cause confusion so it is imperative to clarify our terms.
They describe idolatry as being at the same time both false and in some
sense real. Idolatry is false in the sense that it is not what people believed it
to be. The Fathers took the stories of the «gods» to be the invention of
poets, and not the inspired revelation of divine truth. The stories of the gods’
physical beauty, exploits, and powers were often self-contradictory. For the
Fathers, as for Paul, the gods and goddesses of the Greek Pantheon or
Mayan religion were idols, εíδωλον, «images» without true spiritual
substance. Thus Paul says «we know that an idol has no real existence…
although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth... for us there is
one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist» and
Jesus Christ his Son «through whom are all things» (1 Cor 8:4-6). However
205
The Bible depicts that the gods of the pagans were essentially demons (Dt 32:17;
Psalm. 106:37). This is also clear in the Septuagint which is the fruit of Jewish
scholarship that translated the Hebrew Bible into Greek from the 3rd to the 2nd century
B.C. Thus Psalm 106:37 reads «They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the
demons» (LXX Greek daimoniois, here demons is clearly referring to pagan gods, as
elsewhere but referring to the same event the pagan gods, e.g. Moloch, are mentioned,
see Lv 18:21; 20:2-5; 2 Kgs 17:17; Jer 32:35, etc.). Also the famous passage of Dt
32:17a LXX «They sacrificed to demons, and not to God −to gods in whom they did not
know» where the word daimoniois «demons» is paralleled and equated to the word
theois «the gods». Paul was of course familiar with the entire LXX and from it he
constantly derives his quotations. Ps 106:37 and Dt 32:17 thus can at least give us a
suitable background to Paul’s statements about the equivalence of idols, demons, and
the gods in Gal 4:8 and 1 Cor 10:20-21.
206
J. CHRYSOSTOM, Homily IV on 1 Corinthians, PG LXI, 57-58.

196
when men make anything other than God the focus of all their attention, be
it a desire for something, a goal, a fantasy, an addiction; then God allows
them to become delusional and to believe their fantasy is true and good.
And when anything replaces the true God and natural desire to worship him;
when the false is worshiped as if it were true, then there are spiritual forces
at work: «God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what
is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth
but had pleasure in unrighteousness» (2 Th 2:11-12). This power of delusion
is in essence demonic.
To the Church Fathers idolatry and magic are real in the sense that
unseen spiritual forces exploit human desires in order to receive sacrificial
worship and cause mass human suffering:

Firstly, Satan is happy for people to worship or desire anything other

than God (Rom 1:21f). As soon as people worship something in place of
the Creator who is Goodness and living Truth, and in their heart they
replace God with something else, it begins the inevitable process of the
decline of civilization that has happened all through history 207.When the
love and worship of God is forgotten, all things begin to slide into suffering,
confusion, war and chaos until «a curse devours the earth» and the evil one
becomes true to his name as «the ruler of this world» as Jesus calls him (Is
24:6; Jn12:31; 14:30; 16:11). Once the goal of chaos has been established,
it is the essential work of the son of lawlessness, who comes with Satan’s
help, to use magic, that is, «false signs and wonders», in order to deflect
worship away from the true God and deceive man to worship his own ideas
and passions, and to adore himself by having «pleasure in unrighteousness»
(2 Th 2:4, 9-12).
Secondly, the devil is «the prince of the power of air, the spirit at
work in the sons of disobedience» (Eph 2:2). What does disobedience have
to do with suffering? Satan is immaterial and has no visible effect on the
world, but he is «at work» deforming human minds and warping their
desires, pushing people – without their being aware of it – towards
disobedience, physical addictions, hatred, envy, strife and bestial behaviour
like a master of puppets. All people think they are freely following their
desires, but they are so addicted to those desires (which are often shameful
or self-destructive in some way) they become blind to both the fact they are
hardly free and to the fact that devil has injected these desires like poison
into their hearts208. Why? Satan will do anything he can to bind individuals

Cf. Rom 1:18-32.

207

Cf. Jn 8:44, to those who believe in Jesus but do not truly follow his word, he says:
208

«You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a

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in this way because he is eager to augment God’s curses due to human
forgetfulness of God, injustice and disobedience to the covenant. Satan
does this by inciting humans to act like selfish beasts, without true
compassion and in ignorance of or defiance to the laws of nature set up by
God, thus triggering curses209. The end result of human disobedience to
God’s law is greater demonic infiltration, death and destruction of the
earth210. In the language of the Gospels a person who is afflicted by demons
is a person whom «Satan has bound» (Lk 13:11, 16). Thus we see clearly
that human suffering caused by demons is done under the authority of «the
prince of demons» as Satan is called in the synoptic Gospels (Mt 9:34;
12:24-26; Mk 3:22; Lk 11:15).
Jesus came «to destroy the works of the devil» that is, the inroads
that evil has made in the human heart (1 Jn 3:8). Christ liberates man so he
may enjoy «what is good» the peace and freedom «to do justice, and to
love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God» (Mi 6:8). But to those
who taste Christ’s freedom but reject his love by preferring to serve
themselves, Jesus states that they are doomed to «the eternal fire prepared
for the devil and his angels» (Mt 25:41). Satan himself «knows that his
time is short» (Rv 12:12; cf. 20:10), and that is why he is so full of rage. He
is jealous that many humans are saved from his grip by Christ’s redemption
(Heb 2:14-15), that the repentant sinners who «wash their robes in the
blood of the Lamb» are given the eternal rewards of heaven while Satan is
doomed to suffer forever in the lake of fire (Rv 22:14-15). Since there is no
truth in him, on earth Satan has no real power except the power of illusion,
seduction, deception (Rv 13:12-14).
Thirdly: What is really going on in idolatry, as Scripture reveals, is
that Satan wants to be worshiped (Rv 13:4), even though in reality he is
ugly and repulsive, he loves to pretend he were God, he also loves to play
many roles. That is precisely why Satan is depicted as having «seven heads
and ten horns» (Rv 12:3), the heads symbolize the multiplicity of his
personalities, that he is always faking, always changing his shape, while the
horns symbolize the power of his delusions. If Paul is right that idolatry is
sacrifice given to demons (1 Cor 10:20), then all the roles that Satan plays
as chief of the demons would naturally find expression in every idolatry

murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no
truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the
father of lies». The devil has manipulated and deformed human desires, pushing them
towards the «works of the flesh», cf. Gal 5:19-21.
209
Cf. Dt 28:15-29:28; Is 24:1-11; Rv 16:1-21; for human nature becoming bestial and
triggering catastrophe, see Rom 1:21f; esp. Rv 13:3: «the whole earth marvelled as they
followed the beast» who is summoned by the operation of Satan, v. 1.
210
Cf. Rv 9:1-21; 11:6; 16:13-14; 18:2-3.

198
system in the world, from Greek gods, to Norse, to Hindu deities. Humans
have invented, perhaps through spiritual inspiration, these beautiful myths
that typically do not feature the Creator as the centre of worship, and thus,
Satan can capitalize on them. But how does the devil capitalize on magic
and idolatry?
In his book F. Graf underlines that from the sixth century B.C.
through late antiquity, Ancient Greeks and Romans often turned to magic
to achieve personal goals. «Magical rites were seen as a route for direct
access to the gods, for material gains as well as spiritual satisfaction» 211.
But who are these «gods»? According to the Hebrew Bible, Dt 32:17, and
Paul and Revelation in the Christian scriptures, worship of such gods is the
«worshiping demons» along with «the rest of mankind» (Rv 9:20), it gives
a person the feeling of sexual pleasure or power in an idolatrous system that
is under the control of the false deity, who is Satan, worshiped not in his
essence but in his deceptive image. The «seven heads» of Satan connotes
the plenitude of power to fit into any given idolatrous system, make himself
the object of worship because his devotees see him in the appearance of
majesty and beauty in their imagination. But, as we shall see from two
examples in history, in reality and act Satan the idol is filthy, and leads
people into darkness by his power is to deceive, seduce, and change his
shape before humans. Thus Paul writes «even Satan disguises himself as an
angel of light» because in reality he is an imposter, on the outside he
appears to offer something beautiful, but like a rotten apple he is full of
worms, and nevertheless he is worshipped by those who let themselves be
fooled.
How does Satan disguise himself under idolatry? Let us take, for
example, the Greek religion, which was essentially adopted by the Romans,
and become perhaps the most influential in European history. Let us try to
view this system not from human eyes, but hypothetically in the eyes of the
evil one as he is presented as «the god of this world» (2 Cor 4:4), that is,
our hypothesis is that Satan is the object of worship in any given pagan
religion. In playing the devil’s advocate we must of course set aside the
more positive cultural elements of Greek religion. Here the devil and his
demons get the great privilege of covering themselves and hiding their true
ugliness behind a pantheon of countless deities under the mastery of Zeus
Olympios who shine with an ornate genealogy of their sexual generation
that created the cosmos, and who by their beauty and power, are worthy of
worship and sacrifice. In this pantheon Satan would conceivably play the
role of Zeus, the king of the gods, God of justice, thunder and ruler of
mighty Olympus. This system proved seductive not only to man but to
211
F. GRAF, Magic in the Ancient World, 2.

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Satan himself, who could gain the honour of the masses and pretend like he
was a real winner. But what is interesting is when we remember what is
often forgotten beneath all the glamour, there is the intrinsic acts of evil
and injustice that Zeus, Kronos and the gods committed, for example: the
killing and eating of their children, Cronos’ cutting off his father’s genitals
to usurp his throne, Zeus’ war against his parents’ generation and
imprisoning them, his infidelity, jealousy, philandering, etc. The depiction
of Zeus as a bull, the form he took when raping Europa, is found today on
the Greek euro coin, despite the apparent celebration of rape. All this is
brushed aside and forgotten. But in truth it would be a disastrous model for
human families to imitate (as Plato recognized). But injustice for almighty
Zeus and the gods must be accepted by humanity a fortiori or even praised
as a ‘sublime’ injustice212. To play the role of Zeus perhaps could give
Satan a feeling that although he is not the Creator he was above God’s
justice and thus omnipotent. There are some startling similarities: just as
Zeus had attacked his father Cronos who had attacked his father Uranus the
god of heaven, the devil had attacked the Father of Heaven his Creator (Rv
12:7). Even though the devil was cast down to earth (12:9), through
paganism he had tricked mankind to worship him as a god. Thus Satan,
through the cult of idolatry, could boast to God’s face that he had
successfully taken revenge on the God who had created man to worship
him alone (Rv 4:10; 14:7). Through Zeus Satan deluded humans into
imagining a god who had usurped control of Heaven from his Father and
declared himself «the Father of men and gods» πατyρ aνδρ±ν τε θε±ν τε,
Zeus epithet in the Greek poet Hesiod and elsewhere 213. Through Zeus
Satan redefined fatherhood, not so much as responsibility and charity, but
as philandering and rebellion. Whereas Satan the «Son of Dawn» failed to
«exalt his throne» and usurp God’s rule of heaven at the beginning of
time214, Zeus Olympios and his fellow Olympians had triumphed: the rebel
son had established his rule in heaven over all things, crushing his Father.
And just as Zeus’ injustice was exonerated by humans who feared him,
Satan could thereby delude the natural human intellect and their critical
faculty to the lie that «might makes right» which became almost creed of
212
In any case the injustice of Zeus was necessarily forgotten because his strength was
unconquerable, and so the human mind justified him out of fear. In another sense,
Greeks could look to the good characteristics of Zeus that made him worthy of human
confidence: insuring laws of cosmic justice, defending the stranger, promoting
friendship, giving asylum, helping Greeks in war, etc.
213
Hesiod, Theogeny 542. Jupiter is from the Indo-European root equivalent to «Zeus,
father».
214
Is 14:13; cf. ch. 1, sec. 1.3 for a discussion of Satan as the fallen angel in Job 1, 2,
37:8, Ezekiel 28, and Isaiah 14:13-15.

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corrupt Athens during the Peloponnesian war. Under the same rule Satan
could conceivably tyrannize God’s beautiful human beings with impunity,
because the humans themselves had freely chosen Satan’s path by
embracing what he offered them through idolatry: the pleasure of illusion,
the escape from reality, the freedom from moral responsibility and total
‘freedom’ to abandon oneself to vice. The Seleucid ruler Antiochus IV
Epiphanes erected a statue of Zeus Olympios in the Second Temple in
Jerusalem; he «shed innocent blood... defiled the holy place» (1 Mc 1:39),
and transformed the altar into a place of cult prostitution, an unspeakable
«abomination» to pious Jews215. Part of the irresistible lure of paganism was
the adoration of the erotic: this amounts to the worship of drunkenness,
gluttony, and leisure under Dionysus, or the worship of sexual pleasure in
the cult of Aphrodite216.
Let us take another famous religious system to see how the devil
could have hypothetically exploited it. The Aztecs had deluded themselves
into thinking that in order to prevent the world’s destruction they had to
feed their gods with human blood, in obedience to this lie they chained
hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of innocent people and murdered
them in the Templo Mayor and the temple of the sun god in Tenochtitlan.
Aztec sacrifices were simply part of the long cultural tradition of human
sacrifice in Mesoamerica. How could it happen? From a rationalist
perspective the slaughter served no purpose, and so we modern
«enlightened» people tend to assume it was done out of a kind of ignorance.
But it had deep meaning for the Aztecs themselves, and from a spiritual
and social perspective there is a deeper reality at work that needs to be
exposed: satanic power. If the Bible is right that demonic forces are behind
idol worship, then Aztec human sacrifice would seem to be no exception.
The prophet describes the Lord’s sadness over Israel’s descent into idolatry
as human sacrifice:
215
Cf. 2 Maccabees 6:2-5; 1 Mc 1:54; Antiochus attempted to stamp out the
Jewish religion. The apex of his evil acts was to install the image of Zeus Olympios in
the Holy place, which the Hellenizing Jews named with the Syrian Baal Shamim,
«Lord of the heavens» which became a contemptuous pun «Horrible abomination»,
in the original Hebrew of Mc 1:54 is likely «Shiqquts shomem» AGtUG yt»u;
βδsλυγµα cρηµúσεως in the Greek is taken from Dn 9:27 LXX; cf Dn 11:31. The
Hellenizing Jews convinced many to abandon their Jewish traditions and make a
«covenant», with the goyim 1 Mc 1:11. Antiochus «burnt with fire the books of the law
of God... and whosoever observed the law of the Lord, they put to death, according to
the edict of the king», 1 Mc 1:56-57. For the first glorious historical description of holy
martyrdom of Jews who refused to abandon God’s law cf. 2 Mc 6:18-7:42.
216
At the many temples of Aphrodite throughout the Greek world, Aphrodite, which in
Greek also means the pleasure of sex, was worshipped by clientele who came to offer
money and have sex with temple prostitutes.

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 «And you took your sons and your daughters, whom you had borne
to me, and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your
whorings so small a matter that you slaughtered my children and
delivered them up as an offering by fire to them?» (Ez 16:20-21).
The word akal, «devoured», «eating», indicates that some «being» has
eaten these children. To answer the question «who is being fed?» in human
sacrifice would bring Israel to confront evil forces:
«They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons
[shedim]; they poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and
daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land
was polluted with blood» (Ps 106:37-38).
These texts reflect the tragedy of what Jewish people had lived through,
and it reveals the painful, horrifying spiritual reality behind human sacrifice.
The Hebrew Bible217 reveals that demons are the spiritual reality behind
idols and that they feed on human sacrifice. The Aztec system shows itself
to fit the mould quite well, as they also conceived of human souls as the
much needed alimentation for their gods. The Aztec would be perhaps the
most effective system known in human history for feeding the demons with
rivers of innocent blood. Throughout history murder is almost always
justified for religious or ideological reasons. The Aztecs were no exception,
they were not ignorant, but had a rich cultural religious system and verified
everything they were doing by astronomical observation and calculation.
How could they being such an intelligent, culturally rich and advanced
civilization sink so low? The model given by Jewish and Christian scripture
is that they, like all humanity, had been fooled. They were deceived by the
demons they worshiped as gods. The temptation offered them by the evil
one was too strong, too embedded in the collective psyche of the people.
The Aztecs were fooled into feeling a tremendous sense of indebtedness to
the gods and even guilt if they did not feed the gods with blood. This is
because they believed that all human life had sprung from a sacrifice that
the gods had accomplished so that humans could live: «Life is because of
the gods; with their sacrifice they gave us life... They produce our
sustenance... which nourishes life»218.
The greatest tragedy of all about Aztec religion was that they thought
they were free, and that their sacrifices set the world free, yet they were
217
By Hebrew Bible, it is meant specifically this psalm 106:37, Dt 32:17, and Ez 16:20-
21 taken together in the larger context of Jewish suffering before the Babylonian exile.
218
Aztec scientists had determined that the world cycle would end unless sufficient
blood was given to their gods that held the natural order in balance. For example,
Huitzilopochtli the sun god was said to be in a constant struggle with the darkness and
required nourishment in the form of sacrifices to ensure the sun would survive the cycle
of 52 years, which was the cyclic basis of many Mesoamerican myths.

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totally enslaved, more enslaved, in fact, than their sacrificial victims. The
devil always leads humans to some «little» injustice by offering them the
sweetness of the idea that the sin can be justified, that some advantage in
power or pleasure can be gained. But the devil does not hesitate to «bind»
humans, addicting them to evil as soon as they slip. Indeed human sacrifice
likely gave the Aztecs the feeling of power, prestige, and responsibility, it
was they who were responsible for keeping the cosmos in existence, they
fulfilled man’s sacred duty to feed the gods 219 − and thus they were the
masters of the universe. Satan had blinded them from seeing the truth of the
terrible acts of cruelty and injustice they were inflicting on the tribes they
dominated and their own people (who were filled with shame if they did
not sacrifice). Aztec oppression was justified by Aztec religion which, by
means of human sacrifice, gave worship to the devil and his angels.
Demons playing the role of Tlaloc and the gods of the Aztec pantheon got
the luxury of drinking rivers of human blood.
These examples have helped us see that Satan could capitalize on all
forms of idolatry – be it Greek, Aztec, Indian, or whatever – because they is
based on the worship of images, εíδωλον, which like masks for Satan
without the worshiper knowing the reality. Idolatry therefore reveals the
essence of sin: the selling of freedom to do evil, the external mask of the
act must be praised as beautiful and innocent, but the interior reality of the
act is evil to the core. All evil is intimately connected to a horror that is so
insane it is beyond the human capacity to comprehend. The devil’s malice
is insane, because he is fixated on the perverse delight of inflicting
suffering on the innocent even to his own destruction, and thereby exacting
revenge upon the innocent God who is forever faithful in his deeds, sincere
in his word, and who infinitely loves his creatures.
The essence of Judaism is that the Creator alone «you shall love with
all your heart» and God’s worship is to be held «above» one’s «highest
joy»; anything less a violation of the first commandment against idolatry
(Dt 6:5; Ps 137:6). Satanic worship is not just by idolaters but by anyone
who unknowingly follows the beast, that is, they will satisfy their carnal
desires, no matter what the cost (2 Cor 11:14; Rv 13:4-12). Now we see
why Paul refers to Satan as «the god of this world» (2 Cor 4:4), not that he
is god but he has fooled the world into worshiping him as such by
enslaving them to sinful desires. His goal is simple: he wants to be
worshiped, for men to love injustice and turn from God (Rv 13:4), so he
promises to give the delight of the thought of sin, but when the sin is
performed the pleasure is fleeting as soon leaves a person empty. He uses
powerful forms of deception and magic «the activity of Satan with all
219
H.B. NICHOLSON, Handbook of Middle American Indians. 402.

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power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those
who are perishing» (2 Th 2:9-10). Magic, media manipulation, and
injustice are keys by which Satan infiltrates into human desires and injects
psychological poison to fool people because if people saw how ugly and
cruel Satan was, they could never worship him. No mind can fathom the
intensity of glee he takes in doing what is evil.
Satan must deceive because if people saw how beautiful and good
God was they would all worship God – that is why Jesus says that
Christians are the light of the world, in a time of universal ignorance of
God they bring the light of truth. This is prophesied in Isaiah: «For behold,
darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the
LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. And
nations shall come to your light» (Is 60:2-3). But Paul says: «the god of this
world has blinded the mind of unbelievers». Why? So that they will never
be able to see the true God and worship him. All people desire to know the
truth, but Satan blinds them in order «to keep them from seeing the light of
the gospel», that is the truth of God’s glory that «shines in the face of Jesus
Christ» (2 Cor 4:4-6). Ignorant of the joy of loving Christ and God, they
instead settle for the meaningless desires which they will do anything to
achieve.
Fourthly: Idolatry is «real» in the sense that those who practice it are
really destroyed by it, thus the danger is real. Idolaters might in their own
mind feel exalted, empowered, or seeming to possess special wisdom. Old
and New Testaments agree that reality idolaters become as unable to
perceive truth as the statue they worship, «professing to be wise they
became fools» and their minds were darkened (Rom 1:22). Psalm 115
explains how those who worship fake gods «will become like them», that is,
they become like demons who know God exists, but they are hopelessly
blind to God’s goodness and thus are incapable of enjoying, touching, or
tasting any goodness in general – their only delight is in evil (Ps 115:4-8).
But God pities the insanity of these demons and has found a temporary use
for them, ultimately for the glory of his Son, «that all may honor the Son»
(Jn 5:23). By sending his Son into the world God has revealed his mercy,
mastered the demons and destroyed Satan’s rule through his Son’s role as
exorcist par excellence in the Gospels220. But God’s mysterious will is that
his Son and all creation with him must pass through the curse of death in

220
Cf. Ch. 1; 1.1, as the cosmic Exorcist on the cross in John’s Gospel cf. Jn 12:31-33
here Jesus will bring judgment upon this world, draw all men to himself, and exorcise
the devil by the power of his death on the cross.

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order to enter into the blessing of eternal life 221. Jesus came to encourage
man to suffer death nobly without fear and in loving surrender to the Divine
Will – Jesus came to accompany man in all his sufferings, even to die with
man, so that all who believe in him may live forever with him 222. Satan has
the power of death and leads the world to death, but when Christians
understand that this is by the will of God, and that «the evil one does not
touch» those who believe in Jesus (1 Jn 5:18), then there is no fear but only
surrender into God’s will and the joyful expectation of the eternal rewards:
«Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has
stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to
those who love him» (Jas 1:12). But in the mean time satanic power and
demons are active in deceptive signs or magic which leads to the
destruction of the earth, for biblical evidence of this note Rv 16:13-14:
«And I saw, coming out of the mouth of the dragon» (who is Satan, cf. 12:9)
«spirits of demons performing signs which go forth to the kings of the earth,
even of the whole habitable world to assemble them to the war of that day».
Elsewhere these signs are related to magic of the beast under Satan’s power,
such as «great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in
front of people» (Rv 13:13), as in Job Satan commanded that «the fire of
God fell from heaven» with God’s leave (Jb 1:16). The son of perdition,
(the beast or the Antichrist) will be a magician who operates «by the
activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders» and «with all
wicked deception... so that they believe what is false», 2 Th 2:9-11.
But why would the devil want to fool people and create mass death?
In the New Testament of «the one who has the power of death, that is the
devil» Jesus says that «he was a murderer from the beginning» (Heb 2; Jn
8:44). The devil does not just profit from murder, he invented it. What does
it mean to have the power of death—it means that death empowers the
devil, it is his greatest weapon. The Old Testament suggests that the devil

221
Cf. Dt 23:5, «The LORD your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because
the LORD your God loved you». For the destruction of the whole earth and its rebirth
into eternal life cf. The Apocalypse of Isaiah, Is 24-26. Isaiah says that the whole earth
will be utterly destroyed Is 24:5-6 «The earth lies defiled under its inhabitants; for they
have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant.
Therefore a curse devours the earth». But the apocalypse is only a purification, for
which God will be glorified, Is 25:1-3. Finally, Is 25:8, God «will swallow up death
forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces» at the resurrection of
the dead 26:19: «Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust,
awake and sing for joy!... the earth will give birth to the dead».
222
Cf. Jn 3:16; 1 Th 5:10 «who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we
might live with him»; cf. 2 Ti 2:11-12.

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actually feeds on death223. Speaking of the devil’s hunger for human souls
Peter writes (1 Pt 5:8-9), «Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary
the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are
being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world». Satan kept
like booty the beautiful, immortal souls of all humans who had died, until
Christ came to rescue the elect from the underworld 224. When Christ-God
freely experienced death instead of empowering the devil, it robbed him of
all his riches and freed the just souls − because God is Life itself he cannot
truly die – by God’s humbly submitting to Satan in death, God destroyed
Satan in his pride. In Christ’s death God had taken away all Satan’s legal
condemnation and malice of humans «nailing it to the cross. He disarmed
the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over
them in him» (Col 2:14-15). That means, the cross exposed the devil as he
really is: a liar and a murderer. And at the same time the cross justified God,
who had loved human so much he suffered from them «He himself bore our
sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to
righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed» (1 Pt 2:24; Is 53:5-6).
Jesus had taken into his own flesh all their wounds and all the weapons of
the devil: hate, lies, envy, greed, etc; and he put an end to them.
But given that Satan feeds on death, how could he convince human
culture to celebrate death? Through the system of idolatry and magic.
Humans were deluded in these myths to thinking that they had to kill
innocent babies in order to sustain the natural order or bring about some
natural effect: rain for the crops, fertility, sunshine, etc. Thus in war and
destruction, and Satan is the real recipient of worship not only in, for
example, the Aztec or Canaanite rituals of human sacrifice, but also in
death frenzied World War I and II. Here supposedly faithful «Christian»
and «Muslim» nations devoured each other, even putting their own citizens
to death in concentration camps. This is because they filled their minds
with fantasy of what could be gained in war, and replaced God’s law thou
shalt not kill with the satanic motto the ends justify the means. So we see
that human sacrifice is not a relic of the ancient world, it is very modern
phenomenon. That is why after Christ the worship of images no longer
made sense, it was clearly a sham – and yet modern man’s bestial nature
223
After the fall of Adam, God says to him, «you are dust, and to dust you shall return»
(Gn 3:19). God also curses the serpent saying «dust you shall eat all the days of your
life» (Gn 3:14). When Adam dies he returns to dust, and is conceivably eaten by the
serpent. See also Isaiah, where in the Messianic times all creation will be restored and
violence will cease, yet the serpent will still eat dust and death himself will be destroyed.
224
Cf. 1 Pt 3:18-20, Before his resurrection Jesus «preached to the souls in prison» who
had died during the cataclysmic Great Flood. A somewhat obscure but fascinating text.

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has once again emerged because man has slipped back into the worship of
fake ideologies and man’s own image.
Pagan religions are incompatible with each other, they cannot all be
true, but they are all perfectly compatible with Satan. Revelation reveals
him as a dragon with seven heads, each head like a different god seeking
worship, a mask forged by the master of deception, «Satan, the deceiver of
the whole world − he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were
thrown down with him» (Rv 12:9). Although he is on earth he is busy
making war on mankind; his war is spiritual but the consequences are
universal. The goal of the war is to scare humanity away from God and into
mythology and pagan religions. By causing «those who would not worship
the image of the beast to be slain» (Rv 13:4, 15), the devil augments his
power on earth but inevitably leads God’s chosen to eternal life.
So if what has been said so far is reasonable, the reality is not that
pagan religions were demonized by the Church fathers or Jews before them,
it was that the demons had cleverly paganized themselves, cloaked
themselves within the systems of idol worship and human sacrifice around
the world. The demons seem to love «playing god» and getting blood
sacrifice from humans who let their good reason fall into the snare of
idolatry. So from the perspective of demons as postulated in the Bible, a
perspective that early Christians always took seriously, the teaching of the
Fathers about idolatry was not a demonization meant to frighten people but
a clarification meant to liberate them. The Father’s gave the faithful the
chance to free themselves from fear through self-knowledge and spiritual
insight. In the case of the tribes that were being sacrificed by the Aztecs for
example, such self-knowledge in Jesus Christ was indeed liberating and, in
the long run, life-saving – not to excuse the bloodshed of the conquistadors.
What the New Testament calls idolatry225 and which it and the Old
Testament essentially equates to magic, sorcery and «worshiping demons»
(Rv 9:20) 226 , is a practice that the Fathers of the Church considered
intrinsically demonic. The reasoning of the Church Fathers may have been
the following: if Christian and Jewish scripture, which clearly reveals the
225
In the New Testament idolatry is not just the pagan religion (1 Cor 10:20-22), but any
kind of «covetousness» (Col 3:5), that is, the desire for anything that replaces the desire
for God. Idolatry can be simply following what «the world» follows: money, pleasure,
and power, in indifference to God’s law (Mt 6:25-31; Rom 1:18-32; 1 Pt 4:3). Jesus
teaching is that although humans have physical needs, they should not be overly worried
about acquiring them, «But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all
these things will be added to you» (Mt 6:33).
226
To see instances where magic/sorcery are paired with idolatry: in the New Testament
(Gal 5:20; Rv 9:20-21; 21:8; 22:15) in the Old Testament (Dt 18:10; 1 Sm 15:23; 2 Kg.
17:17; 21:6; Ch 33:6); in the Didache 5:1.

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violence of demonic forces, is right to posit that the demons were the
reality behind the worship of pagan «gods», would it not make sense to
assume that the magic that invoked those «gods» was inherently demonic
as well? As we have shown, the scriptural data in support of this view is
not lacking. All sorcery, black magic, astrology and the like that appeal to
spiritual forces outside the protection of Jesus’ name and the blessing of his
Church are deemed fruitless, according to the Fathers, because although
these spiritual intermediaries promise to give man a special power, they
actually strip him of his power and dignity; for as Paul says: «in Jesus
Christ you are all sons of God through faith» (Gal 3:26).
Occult arts and sorcery are pinpointed in Revelation as the source of
mass deception on earth and the spilling of all innocent blood. This topic
also has eschatological implications for the destruction of the planet. The
end of the world cannot happen says Paul until «the man of lawlessness is
revealed, the son of destruction» (sometimes called the Antichrist, 2 Th
2:3); who will be a potent magician that comes «by the activity of Satan
with all power and false signs and wonders» in order to deceive the whole
world «with all wicked deception» (2 Th 2:9-10). When this impostor
finally «exalts himself… proclaiming himself to be God» (2:4) his magic
will have deceived those who «did not believe the truth but had pleasure in
unrighteousness» (2:12) so that they abandon the worship of the true God
and worship him. When finally much of the world has been destroyed
having fallen under this spell, like a «strong delusion, so that they may
believe what is false» (2:11), the lawless one will fully reveal himself but
Lord Jesus will in fact destroy him by the power of his second coming (2:8).
Thus it is not surprising that Paul indicates that «idolatry, sorcery» are
opposed to «the kingdom of God» (Gal 5:20-21). Magicians are grouped
with the worst criminals who refuse to repent and are excluded from
paradise: «Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and
murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood»
(Rv 22:15).
For the good of magicians they should repent, but their stubbornness
not to is not the main reason why is sorcery condemned so severely in the
book of Revelation. Magic is not only damaging to the individual but to the
whole cosmic order, in which man finds his greatest joy in having peace
with God through friendship with the Creator and worship of his supreme
goodness. The cosmos operates smoothly when God’s will is respected,
«Great peace have those who love your law» (Ps 119:165). But magic,
since it is done in contempt God’s law, is a rape of the cosmic order, and
thus it brings curses upon the whole planet, mass confusion and destruction.
Speaking of Babylon, the symbol of the prevailing world system that will

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rule over all world leaders by the end of time (Rv 17:18), and that will fall
at the end of time, John writes: «All nations were deceived by your sorcery,
and in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all who
have been slain on earth» (Rv 18:23). This implies that specifically by
means of sorcery «all nations» have been fooled or even «drugged»
(φαρµακεíα) into killing masses of innocent people. When one considers all
the useless wars and genocides of history, who did they benefit in the end if
not Satan? And yet Scripture reveals that the world leaders led humanity
like lemmings falling into the abyss were themselves deceived by a
powerful delusion. Humanity was fooled throughout history. Who or what
fooled them? Revelation 16:13-14, could give us a clue: «And I saw,
coming out of the mouth of the dragon», that is, «Satan» cf. 12:9, «spirits
of demons doing signs, which go forth to the kings of the earth, even of the
whole habitable world to assemble them to the war of that day». The Bible
reveals the source of this mass death to be demons under their chief, «Satan,
the deceiver the whole world» (Rv 12:9) − and his power to deceive is
through magic, the wonders/signs performed by «spirits of demons» which
lead man to apocalyptic war. Satan runs an empire of death, destruction,
and war on the innocent people of earth through his puppet «the son of
destruction», or «the beast» 227 . The beast’s power seems to be the
deformation of human desires, that is, mankind’s forgetfulness of God and
fixation of self, especially on the inordinate desire for money, pleasure, and
power. By the beast Satan «deceives those who dwell on earth» (Rv 13:14);
into false worship, that is, idolatry.

Final comments and conclusions.

In recent years scholarship has given considerable attention to magic

in the societies of ancient Greece and Rome, late antiquity, and the
medieval West. Much less attention, however, has been given to the
phenomenon of magic in Eastern Christendom during the medieval period.
Anyone who has looked at Byzantine texts will have been struck by the
periodic mention of magical or semi-magical practices. There is, for
example, the story in the 11th century Chronography of Michael Psellos,

227
To «worship the beast», to worship one’s own desires, man becomes a beast when he
lives to gratify his fear and hatred, all that is lowest in him. Satan’s work in «giving
authority to the beast» (Rv 13:2-4) is to get humans so caught up in the fast-moving
world with its pleasures and distractions as to make man forget his royal dignity as
children of the King, to forget about justice, truth, kindness, peace, and the simple joys
that flow from loving God and being a simple human being they were created to be.

209
which describes how Empress Zoe had made for herself a private image of
Christ that forecast the future by changing its colour. Or there is the tale in
the Life of Irene of Chrysobalanton, about the lead idols of a nun and her
suitor with which love magic had been worked 228. The story recounts how
these effigies were miraculously retrieved from a magician in Cappadocia
through the agency of St. Anastasia and St. Basil and given to Irene as she
was at prayer in the chapel of her convent in Constantinople. Are such
stories to be dismissed merely as quaint footnotes to the history of
Byzantium, or do they represent something more important and more
fundamental, which historians should better examine in order to understand
Byzantine civilization as a whole?
From the most fundamental problem, that of definition of terms, one
clear conclusion emerges, namely the need to make a distinction between
what we might wish to call magic viewed at from an external definition and
an internal definition, that is, what the Byzantines, at any place or time in
their history, might call magic. From our external viewpoint magic and
miracles may look similar, as might pagan amulets and Christian tokens,
but from an internal viewpoint they were very different. The modern
anthropologist attempts an external definition of magic that will hold good
for all societies, and it will have to be consistent, but as Alexander Kazhdan
writes, we should not expect consistency of the Byzantines when they
made their internal definitions229.The distinctions between good and bad
miracles, what was phoney and what was real, were for them areas of
ambiguity and conflict, which might have important social implications.
We should keep in mind also that the psychological benefits of the
Byzantines’ belief in miracles were mixed. With the hope for holy miracles
and cures came the dread of sorcery and its effects.
There can be no doubt, in the light of the evidence presented here,
that the Byzantines themselves felt that magic was a significant factor in
their society. Richard Greenfield demonstrates that magic was still
flourishing, at least according to contemporary sources, during the last
phase of the Byzantine Empire. Magic, then, was a part of the Palaeologan
Renaissance, but was it an unchanging legacy from late antiquity? 230 The
answer to this question, as in other aspects of Byzantine culture, is mixed.
As we have seen, the Church Fathers, by keeping distinct the powers of
human and of supernatural agencies, were able to combine and to pass onto
the Byzantines a continued belief in the evil eye with orthodox Christianity,

228
See J.O. ROSENQVIST, The Life and Conduct of Our Holy Mother Irene, Abbess of the
Convent of Chrysobalanton, 3-113.
229
A. KAZHDAN, «Holy and unholy miracle workers», 73-82.
230
R. GREENFIELD, «A Contribution to the Study of Palaeologan Magic», 117-153.

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as attested in the prayers against the evil eye accepted in Byzantine and
orthodox liturgical life231. In patristic theory, it was the devil who caused
the harm and not jealous humans, although some maintained that the devil
might still try to use envious people for his purposes. The belief in the
powers of envy and the evil eye certainly survived through the Byzantine
period and beyond even in mainstream orthodox circles. On the other hand,
while there was a measure of continuity, it can also be said that in many
important respects the Byzantines succeeded in changing the status of
magic in their society. The changed position of magic can be seen in both
material culture and written documents. In the discussion of material
culture, it is useful to make a distinction between artefacts that were
marked with non-Christian devices, such as ring-signs and the names of
pagan deities, and those marked with Christian signs or images, such as
crosses and portraits of the saints. In the case of the first class of objects,
those with non-Christian devices, the issues of church discipline were more
clear-cut. Yet amulets of various kinds marked with essentially non-
Christian signs were relatively widespread in the early Byzantine period232.
Though many churchmen certainly disapproved of these objects, the
authorities were unable to prevent their use. St. John Chrysostom, for
example, inveighed against those who used charms and amulets and who
made chains around their heads and feet with coins of Alexander of
Macedon. However two centuries later people were still wearing tunics
decorated with strips of medallions depicting Alexander as a potent rider.
Alexander of Tralles (525 - 605 A.D.) was prepared to prescribe amulets
for his wealthier patients who objected to the indignities of physical cures.
We may infer that in his day such amulets were employed quite openly,
and not only by the poor or uneducated233.
These types of devices that the Church Fathers of the fourth century
had found most offensive, the amulets with «satanic» characters such as
ring-signs, were purged from the overt material culture in the later
medieval period, to be replaced by more acceptable objects, such as crosses,
relics, and intercessory icons of the saints. At early Byzantine Anemurium
the number of excavated pendant crosses was smaller than that of the non-
Christian apotropaic objects. But after the iconoclasm, many of the
functions that had previously been performed by profane amulets were

231
M. DICKIE, «Magic and Magicians in the Greco-Roman World», 32.
232
J. DUFFY, «Byzantine Intellectuals to the Theory and Practice of Magic», 35-51.
233
An inference supported by the archaeological record from the city of Anemurium
located on the south coast of Cilicia (Turkey), just 65 km across the sea from Cyprus
and where three sixth century churches attest its active Christian population. Tralles was
near Ephesus in modern Turkey.

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performed by objects of explicitly Christian character. This change was
encouraged by the church authorities themselves. In the fourth century St.
John Chrysostom recommended that infants be protected from envy by the
sign of the cross rather than by magical signs, while at the end of the
Byzantine period Joseph Bryennios, proposes the wearing of the cross or
the Virgin’s image instead of profane amulets234. The church, therefore, was
successful in marginalizing the non-Christian magical remedies, but it
could not eliminate them altogether; the apparatus of magic responded to
opposition by becoming more occult. People in the medieval centuries of
Byzantium were less likely to wear amulets of metal or stone inscribed
with heathen signs and symbols, but in the Palaeologan period we still hear
of amulets written on pieces of paper or parchment. We hear mention of
these paper amulets, for example, in the proceedings of trials before the
patriarchal court. It may be surmised that these scraps were a safer medium
for the inscribing of forbidden texts and signs, since they could be more
easily manufactured and destroyed than amulets in more durable materials.
The question of the magical use of Christian images is much more
complicated than it seems. In the early period many ecclesiastical
authorities had strong reservations about the private, unofficial use of
Christian signs and images, and about their roles in practices and belief
systems that were not accepted by the church.
Suspicions about the misuse of Christian images by private
individuals certainly added fuel to the arguments made by the opponents of
Christian icons. In this case, also, the church after the iconoclasm was able
to exert a much stronger control. In the later centuries of Byzantium, both
the theory and the conditions of use of Christian images were much more
closely regulated, with results that were visible in the forms of the images
themselves. Christian icons became less ambiguous and thus less suspect.
Nevertheless, we still encounter instances of the magical use of Christian
images and symbols in the post-iconoclastic period, one of the most
interesting being letter 33 of Michael Italikos235. This letter was written to
accompany the gift of a gold coin, which according to Italikos, was from
the reign of Constantine. Italikos described the coin as «an imperial
nomisma invested with an ineffable power», which was effective against
«all evils» but particularly against disease. It is clear that Italikos himself
believed in its supernatural powers. He said explicitly that the powers came
not simply from the cross but from the coin itself. The letter of Michael
Italikos, therefore, brings us once again to that unstable border where

R. GREENFIELD, «A Contribution to the Study of Palaeologan Magic»,123, 138.

234

J. DUFFY, «Reactions of Two Byzantine Intellectuals to the Theory and Practice of

235

Magic», 83-97.

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Christian content begins to fade into magic, even while it shows us the
continuity that underlies change.
Important changes occurred also in the treatment of magic by
Byzantine legislators 236 . The attacks on magic by secular authorities
became less harsh and less crude than they had been in the imperial
legislation of the fourth century. By the twelfth century the problem of
illicit contacts with the supernatural became a matter of religious discipline.
This was because Byzantine canon law, as exemplified by the Council in
Trullo of 691/92 A. D. and Balsamon’s twelfth-century commentary,
provided greater precision in defining the practitioners of magic than had
the late antique imperial legislation, while the scale of punishments became
less draconian. Thus magic, while not permitted, was in a way
«domesticated» in the medieval centuries of Byzantium. In part this change
came about because magic had been brought into a single unified system of
relationships between human beings and the supernatural. In this system
there was ultimate divine justice, despite whatever the demons might be
allowed to get away with in the interim. Any attempts to control demons
through magic could bring only short-term advantages; in the end they
would fail, man would himself become ensnared. So magic found a place
in later Byzantine culture, but it was a defined place within the larger
paradigm of the prevailing worldview. In the late antique period there was
more open-ended competition between the different supernatural forces
that vied for people’s attention, and hence more conflict.
I am aware that we have entered a relatively uncharted territory of
magic in the Byzantine middle ages. Now that they have provided
signposts, indicating the scope of magic, its forms, and its functioning in
Byzantine society, other areas of research have come into view. The most
intriguing of these unexplored areas is that of comparative studies: how did
magic in Byzantium differ from magic in western Europe during the same
period, and why? Why were there virtually no witches to speak of in the
East, but only «foolish old women»? How does magic in the Islamic world
relate to early Byzantine practices? What were the connections between the
magical learning of the Italian Renaissance and the Byzantine tradition?
Such questions await further investigation by the practitioners of magical
scholarship and provide grounds for further scholarly worker.
The exorcistic prayer contained in the 17th/early18th century
manuscript of Xiropotamou 98 shows that the Orthodox view of the devil
does not differ from the Roman Catholic position, which was also
formulated in the Patristic period, that is, before the Great Schism. In effect
both Churches agree that the devil is the personification of evil; yet a more
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M.T. FÖGEN, «Balsamon on Magic», 99-115.

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detailed exposition of Orthodox assumptions involves more difficulties, in
as much as the Orthodox Church is not headed by a leader whose official
pronouncements on doctrinal issues are held to be universally binding. For
this and other reasons, it may be misleading to speak of Orthodox dogma
regarding the devil, since its thinking on this matter is continually
interpreted and re-presented rather than fixed and formalized in a code of
unalterable pronouncements. In regard to the devil, the Orthodox Church
has remained flexible and has constantly assimilated new representations so
long as they did not contradict basic principles. This attitude makes it all
the more difficult to draw rigid distinctions between local beliefs and
official Orthodoxy, and must be borne in mind when examining the devil in
Orthodox tradition.
Generally speaking the demons of Byzantine tradition continue to
share many characteristics with the fallen angels. Satan is their leader, thus
Jesus refers to the fire of hell being prepared for «the devil and his angels»
(Mt 25:41; cf. Rv 12:7-8). They are immaterial, sexless, formless, do not
need food, and generally have no carnal desires. They do not die and they
may reside in the air, on the earth, or beneath the earth. In order to carry out
their machinations the demons are able to transform themselves and
assume any gender or shape they please. Satan is likened to a serpent or a
lion or even a dragon, all taken from Biblical imagery. As is the case with
the order of God’s blessed spirits «Michael and his angels», Satan also has
«his angels», the demons, who do battle with God’s angels and thus may be
ranked on the model of an army (Rv 12:7; cf. 16:14; 19:19).
The Orthodox Church has always unambiguously considered the
devil a created intelligence, inferior and subordinate to God. God created,
through his only Son, all the ranks of angels, the «principalities and
powers», in perfect splendour and beauty, including Satan (Co1 1:16; 2:15;
Ez 28:12-15) who of their own free will disregarded God and fell from
heaven onto the earth (Ez 28:15-19). They continue, under this same
autonomy, in a relentless rebellion from God’s justice. Although they
themselves operate under God’s just rules, because they are neither able to
disobey God’s justice nor able to please God through recognition of his
goodness, but their focus is to incite rebellion in humans. Thus in contempt
for God’s beloved human creatures Satan and his demons «make war
on...those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony
of Jesus» (Rv 12:16-17). Their hatred for man was ordained by God
because of the fall (Gn 3:15). The power of God is absolute, but Satan is
allowed to operate under divine constraints. The Old and New Testaments
testify that God is purely good, «God is light, in him there is no darkness at
all» (1 Jn 1:5) and «the LORD is righteous in all his ways and kind in all

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his works» (Ps 145:17; cf. Dt 32:4). Evil, that is, the malice of intentionally
doing harm, comes from another source altogether: the devil. Evil and
suffering would never be allowed to exist unless God−in his great power
and wisdom−could bring a greater good out of them, «where sin abounded,
grace did abound all the more» (Rom 5:20b). The Orthodox moral world
emerges as an arena in which good struggles against evil, the kingdom of
Heaven against the kingdom of darkness, and this battle is waged through
human actions. In this passing life, human beings are called to eternal life,
enjoined to embrace their Creator, Christ-God, who by becoming human
helps them achieve virtues that flow from God himself: modesty, humility,
patience, self-sacrifice and love. At the same time, lack of discernment,
incontinence, and ignorance can impede the realization of these virtues and
thereby conduce to sin; and sin in turn brings one closer to the devil (1 Jn
3:8).
The Church, as Christ’s mission on earth (Mt 16:18-19), maintains,
with the help of St Michael the archangel and the outpouring of God’s
Spirit, the protection of the body of Christ through a large, overarching
framework of sacraments and rites. Through the rite of exorcism a priest
seeks to aid the deliverance of a victim of demonic infiltration. Deliverance
is accomplished through prayer and on-going ministry that can bring
healing. This spiritual wholeness is sought by to those who, after baptism,
are struggling with bondage to sin and unable to conquer themselves; or
they struggle with what is perceived to be the influence of demons, sinful
desires, or the effects of overwhelming psychological and/or spiritual
trauma. Participation in such rituals can bring about life changing
experiences, through them the individual is invited to live in closer
communion to Divinity. And exorcism endows him or her with confidence
in God’s goodness, with a purity and grace that weaken the hold of despair
and sadness that the devil seeks to bring about.
Even if the nature and breadth of Orthodox tradition make it difficult
to establish where Orthodoxy ends and alternative tradition begins,
Orthodox tradition concerning the devil does observe certain doctrinal
essentials. One who has accepted Christ should properly disdain demons as
vain and ineffectual, because God has «placed enmity between» the
offspring of Eve and the offspring of the devil, so demons will ever seek to
gain intimacy with human beings so as to destroy them (Gn 3:15). The
faithful are to reject Satan, despise the evil spirits and to cling to faith and
to love God, which is the greatest commandment (Mt 22:36). The main
doctrinal point in Orthodoxy is thus very simple: there is no room for

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dualism237. Satan is not regarded as divine, nor is he a part of God, nor a
power equal to God. Though Satan constantly says «I am God» (Ez 28:2),
his is in reality «the father of lies» (Jn 8:44). He is God’s creation,
dependant on God for existence, and is in a sense the first servant of the
divine will. So he may tempt but his success is strictly dependent on
humans willingly handing over their sovereignty to him through lapses of
human will and human error, cases that God allows for infiltration.
We have seen why sacrificial idolatry was repugnant to God, according
to Paul, because it established «communion with demons» that was
incompatible and a mockery of the communion with God through Jesus’
sacrifice in the Eucharist: «The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a
participation [κοινωνία] in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is
it not a participation in the body of Christ?» (1 Cor 10:16).Christianity
holds that the reason human beings were created was «to enter into the joy
of your Master» (Mt 25:21), to live intimacy with Christ.
In the face of all this bloodshed offered to the demons there is Christ’s
blood that is offered to his Father. This alone has the power given by God
to put an end of all bloodshed on earth − because the crucified Jesus
absorbs all evil, redirects it, and offers it to God. Jesus’ sacrifice transforms
the devil’s hate into the perfect act of love, because he is totally innocent.
His act is the total abandonment to his Father’s will for him to carry the
guilt of the world. Thus God’s own blood establishes peace with God who
is innocent and eternally loving, and who proves his love by offering his
most beloved Son whom he loved in eternity to mankind for their healing
and forgiveness. Mirroring his Father’s love, Jesus offers his own blood
saying «Drink this all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is
poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins» (Mat 26:27-28; par Mk
14:24; Lk 22:20). Luke it is specifically «the new covenant in my blood»
(22:20), emphasizing that the promised «new covenant» (Jer 31:31-34) has
been inaugurated by the offering of Christ’s blood (Heb 8:6-12; 9:15).

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Practically speaking, dualism could be expressed in a person who, for example, split
loyalty between good and evil, between serving God and serving a created thing, which
is impossible according to Jesus’ teaching, «No one can serve two masters, for either he
will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the
other. You cannot serve God and money» (Mt 6:24; par Lk 16:13). John’s first epistle
also makes it clear that loving «the world» is a kind of idolatry incompatible with loving
God (1 Jn 2:15-17). James writes that «love of the world» is «hatred of God» (Jas 4:4).
Their point is that either God will take first place in a person’s heart or God will end up
being rejected all together (Mt 6:21; 2 Cor 6:14f). This is illustrated in John’s gospel by
the «authorities» who secretly believed in Jesus but would not dare suffer the
humiliation of making their belief in him known, «for they loved the glory that comes
from man more than the glory that comes from God» (Jn 12:43; cf. Gal 1:10).

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Although human sacrificial systems like the Aztecs were stopped when the
mass of Mexicans embraced the Christian faith, mankind has yet to fully
tapped into the power that Christ has to bring peace on earth. Jewish
scripture shockingly says in its vision of Messiah «His name shall be
called... Mighty God... the Prince of Peace, of the increase of his
government and peace there shall be no end, on the throne of David and
over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with
righteousness from this time forth and forevermore» (Is 9:6-7). For
Christians Jesus is indeed God, mighty to save, he is «our peace» (Eph
2:14), but the hope is that he will bring peace for the suffering people of the
whole world. God has already done his part, he has reconciled all things to
himself «whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his
cross» (Col 1:20). It is now up to humanity to turn to Christ and use that
power for doing good, for healing and exorcising people in the name of
Jesus as he commanded. All this glorifies God by establishing and restoring
humanity to God’s joyful friendship and the peace of his kingdom.
That is why as we have seen idolatry, magic and sorcery are so
repugnant to God in the Old and New Testament, especially the book of
Revelation which is a book rich in symbolism and, in a sense, a
recapitulation of all salvation history. It has been shown how the bible
shows that through occult arts people unknowingly open themselves to
demonic infiltration, become tools of the enemy of salvation. Magicians
may think they are masters of their destiny, but if Christian scripture is true,
they are most likely setting themselves up for disaster. Because unlike God,
the master of puppets uses and abuses his victims, and he will «devour»
anyone he can get his hands on (1 Pt 5:8). Thankfully the devil’s sphere of
control in humanity is narrowed to what people give him by sinning; he
may not harm the souls who trust in God (Lk 21:18; 1 Jn 5:18).
The conflict between God and the demons is not one that is resolved as
soon as one embraces Christianity, or one lives in a Christian community,
and consecrates one’s house and belongings. It is a continuous struggle:
«For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities,
against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against
spiritual wickedness in high places» (Eph 6:12.) Exorcism, if employed
with humility and prudent discretion for the glory of God, can be an
effective tool in this battle with the spiritual enemies of mankind.

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