The Medieval Origins of Satan in Literature & Art: Part 3

Before the Barbarian invasions, there were no recorded visions of Hell such as those described by Pope Gregory the Great, Gregory of Tours, and Bede. These three writers were widely read at the time and worked to establish and develop the content and legitimacy of visions of Hell, demons, and Satan. All of the recorded visions were believed to be truthful and authentic, and most came from cultures that were once considered to be far away or inaccessible. To a degree, many of the creatures from other religious traditions such as ogres, trolls, goblins, fairies, pixies, giants, and so forth, were integrated into Christianity. In these visions, myths, and other narratives, they became Christian demons.

Another aspect of Medieval culture which helped shape perceptions of Hell and Satan was the construct of government. When one thinks of the Roman Empire, cities, trade routes, shipping, coinage, a centralized army, and international economy might come to mind. One also probably thinks of feudalism. Feudalism, while difficult to describe and even harder to define, was a sort of decentralized government that was administered by local lords of large areas of farmland and forest. Taxes, legal problems, religious appointments, and all the minutiae of daily life were governed by lords under an “artificial kingship structure.” At its center was the lord, the leader to which all under swore faithfulness, and where great noble families lived in huge castles fortified with knights or vassals. There were then larger numbers of serfs who performed agricultural and other manual labor duties in return for the right to earn a living on the land. Monasteries were also structured in a hierarchical fashion. The abbot played the part of the lord, friars were like vassals, and lay brothers like serfs. Just as the abbot of the monastery owed greater fealty to the pope, the lord might owe formal homage to a king.

Hell also operates in this feudalistic and hierarchical manner. In many artistic representations of the underworld, Satan is shown either above or below his army of demons. In some instances, he is the towering figure above all the lesser devils who are collecting souls for him. He waits, perched above all others, for the demons to bring him sinners. At other times, Satan is pictured as the “Hell Mouth” at the bottom of the flames or river. The demons capture the souls that then flow downstream into the mouth of the Devil who waits to devour the sinners. In Faustian bargain stories, which began long before Marlow and can be dated as early as the fifth century, it is a fealty that the Devil demands. Satan requires a pledge from Faust in return for honor, power, fortune, wealth, and all things that the Christian asks for from God or the saints.

The great sin of feudalism was betrayal -- just like the great sin of Satan was the betrayal of faith or fealty to God. Keeping faith not only to the lord, but to the tenets of religion, was imperative to an extremely conservative system rigorously preserved by the collusion of the Church and the local state. The lowest circle in Dante’s Inferno is reserved for the faithless, and, apart from Satan himself, the lowest of the faithless low is Judas, who betrayed his honor and his own Lord.

Stay Tuned for The Medieval Origins of Satan in Literature & Art: Part 4

The Medieval Origins of Satan in Literature & Art: Part 2

Gregory encouraged his missionaries to pay attention to local customs, partly because they intrigued him. He appreciated folklore, and he recorded several Christian visions. Written in Dialogues, the first was hearsay told to Gregory by a fellow monk. He was told of a man who died of an illness and saw places in Hell where there were people hanging in flames. The man, however, was brought back to life by an angel who warned him to mend his ways. Another story is of a nobleman who, in a dream, saw a huge bonfire being prepared for a sinful priest named Tiburtius. The nobleman sent a messenger to warn Tiburtius, but Tiburtius died before the messenger reached him. Another priest, Severus, told of a story where he was unable to reach a dying man’s bedside before absolving him. Purportedly, the man came back to life and told of “disgusting people” emitting flames from their mouths and noses and trying to drag him off to a “dark place.” Severus was then able to reach the dying man and absolve him. One week later, the man died and did not come back to life. Yet another vision was relayed directly to Gregory by a man named Stephen, a merchant who fell ill in Constantinople. The merchant died, saw things in Hell that he had heard of but never believed in, and escaped because of a case of mistaken identity; another man named Stephen was supposed to have died instead.


These stories were the first to report some of the topographical features that would become familiar in Western visions and artistic representations of Hell and Satan. In many of these visions, there was a bridge over a black smoky river that had a “filthy and intolerable smell.” Across the river were pleasant meadows and shining mansions, but only the sinless could cross over. There were also dark figures carrying people into flames. Gregory’s comment on these stories was that visions of the afterlife must occur sometimes for the benefit of those who experience them and sometimes as a “witness” for others who, hearing about them, would try harder to avoid sinning. Although Pope Gregory never set a specific date for the end of the world, he wrote in Dialogues, “I don’t know what is happening in other parts of the world, but in this country where we live the world no longer announces its end, but demonstrates it.” This is a clear comment on the social and political unrest of the time.

Contemporary with Pope Gregory the Great was Gregory of Tours (539-594). Gregory of Tours was one of the first writers to record miracle stories of the saints, but he is best known for his History of the Franks. Two visions are transcribed in it, those of Salvius and Sunniulf. Salvius was lucky enough to see visions of Heaven before returning to life, but Sunniulf was led to a fiery river at which people “gathered like bees at a beehive.” Over the river was a bridge so narrow that there was scarcely room to put one foot on it, and on the other side of the river was a white house. Clerics who had been careless with their flocks fell into the river where they were submerged, some to the waist, some to the armpits, and some to the chin. These clerics were carried off by winged devils and thrown into a “Hell Mouth” where souls were collected and devoured by the Devil. Conscientious clerics were allowed to pass over the bridge to the white house where there was a “comforting white light” and beautiful angels waiting to help them on their way.

The Venerable Bede (673-735) was an English monk who wrote the Ecclesiastical History of England. In it, he documented two visions of Hell in great length. Bede recorded every detail, and he had certainly read the works of both Pope Gregory the Great and Gregory of Tours so he would have been familiar with other works on the same subject. The stories were not told to him directly. The first was about the visions of Furseus, and Bede had read them in a previous book which has since been lost. Bede dated Furseus’s visions to 633. Furseus was an Irish preacher who had established a mission in East Anglia as a consequence of his first vision. His second vision was of angelic choirs. It was his third vision that frightened him. In it, Furseus was born aloft by angels over a dark valley. He then saw four fires in the air. The angels told him that these fires punished lairs, the covetous, creators of strife and discord, and the pitiless and fraudulent. The four fires then joined together into one great flame, and he saw devils flying within it. One demon threw a tortured sinner at him. When Furseus was restored to his body, he reportedly had a burn mark on his jaw and shoulder from where the sinner had touched him.

The second of Bede’s stories, which he dated to 696, is that of a Northumbrian named Drythelm. Drythelm died at nightfall and suddenly came to life again at dawn. That same day, he divided his goods into three parts – one for his wife, one for his children, and the other for charity. After this division of property, he left for the Melrose monastery. In Drythelm’s vision, an angel appeared and led him to “a valley of great breadth and depth, but of infinite length.” Flames spewed from one side, and on the other side was violent hail and snow flying in all directions. On both sides, deformed spirits were tormented, but Drythelm was told by his guide that this was not Hell. At the far end of the valley, it grew dark, and suddenly he saw great black flames rising out of a stinking pit. The flames were filled with human souls. Beside him he heard loud, course laughter. A gang of evil spirits was dragging souls toward the darkness. His guide explained to him that the valley was a purgatorial place. This is where punishment occurred for the souls of people who put off confession and repentance until their deathbeds. At the Day of Judgment, those souls would be saved, but those in the pit were doomed.

 Stay Tuned for The Medieval Origins of Satan in Literature & Art: Part 3

The Medieval Origins of Satan in Literature & Art: Part 1

There is debate over the first known artistic representation of the Christian Devil. In his book, The Devil: The Archfiend in Art from the Sixth to the Sixteenth Century, art historian Luther Link argues that the first illustration of Satan is depicted in an early representation of the fall of Lucifer. This image dates to the early fifth century. In Lucifer: The Devil in the Middle Ages, historian Jeffrey Burton Russell argues that a 6th century mosaic (circa 586) is the first known illustration of Satan.

In my belief, the richest period in the history of Satan is the millennium that followed the fall of Rome. This is the middle period between the classical world and the Renaissance, also known as the Middle Ages, the Medieval period, or the Dark Ages. All the foundations of Hell and Satan were already in place when Rome fell, but the development of the Devil was vastly elaborated during the Middle Ages. Augustine, who had much to do with the blossoming of Christianity into an imperial religion, lived to see the Roman Empire fall. The Visigoths sacked the city in 410; Barbarians swarmed over Roman territories, and the Vandals broke into Africa in 429. To say that the fall of the Roman Empire singled the end of the world is not to exaggerate by much – at least not for the people who were living during that time. Civilization, as it had been known for many years around the Mediterranean and up into Europe, collapsed as the tribes from the north and west (the Goths, Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Franks, Saxons, Alemanni, Suevi) and the Huns from the east swarmed over the old territories until final capitulation in 476. Rome was not physically destroyed until the next century, but the Barbarian invasions meant the destruction of civilization as it was known. Byzantium preserved itself, its currency, military defense, and trading systems for the next thousand years, and the West fell into the Dark Ages, at least until the reign of Charlemagne (742-814).

The collapse of unified civil power, together with the loss of state-supported  school systems and universities, gave the Church, the only large collective body that remained, an opportunity to take control. Largely because of the vision, administrative capability, and practical common sense of a remarkable pope, Gregory the Great (540-604), the Church moved into a leadership position.

Gregory was elected pope in 590. As the first monk to hold the office, he was in a unique position to appreciate the enormous administrative potential in his elite corps of Benedictine monks. He trained his Benedictines in law and business administration, encouraged their interests in art and literature, and sent them off as missionaries to the Barbarians, many of whom were already somewhat Christianized. In addition to founding monasteries as cultural and theological centers, the Benedictines helped illiterate local leaders develop written laws based on the Roman legal system, keep accounts, collect taxes, administer legacies, and formulate their own histories. In short, the Benedictines made themselves indispensable. 

Stay Tuned for The Medieval Origins of Satan in Literature & Art: Part 2