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DEVILS IN VISUAL PROXIMITY Helmut Hundsbichler Considering cultural phenomena of the past we must take into account possible differences between nowadays’ views and the views which were relevant in the past. This topical ethnological postulate might meanwhile be taken as dispensable, but I want to affirm it here because the need for that differentiation becomes evident particularly with regard to medieval discourses related to the supernatural. For instance, it would be inadequate to assign medieval discourses on the supernatural straightforwardly to superstition or to magic, because we have to consider as supernatural both the demonical sphere and the divine sphere. For Christianity they are interdependent: Christian theodicy indispensably rests upon the devil.1 If we compare the medieval myth of the devil with the emergence of many other medieval myths, especially with the myths of Christian saints, the involvement of the devil is pre- and superordinate, and the belief in the devil led to highly real enterprises like palpable persecutions of heresy and sorcery.2 Thus, we should rather keep in mind that medieval discourses on the supernatural were integrated into broader medieval religious ideas and discourses, and that they subsequently influenced medieval secular thinking and secular life, too. In a way which became fundamental for the Middle Ages, the characteristic interference of the religious, demonical, and secular spheres was codified by Saint Augustine (354-430). He concedes the devil manifold influence on the secular world and normal life (civitas terrena and civitas diaboli), whereas all those who act on Christian instruction are assigned to the civitas Dei 1 Peter Dinzelbacher, “Die Realität des Teufels im Mittelalter,” in Der Hexenhammer. Entstehung und Umfeld des Malleus maleficarum von 1487, ed. Peter Segl (Cologne and Vienna: Böhlau Verlag, 1988), 151-75 (here: 170). 2 Günther Mahal, “Der Teufel. Anmerkungen zu einem nicht allein mittelalterlichen Komplex,” in Dämonen , Monster, Fabelwesen, ed. Ulrich Müller and Werner Wunderlich (St. Gall: UVK Fachverlag für Wissenschaft und Studium, 1999), 495-529 (here: 495). HELMUT HUNDSBICHLER 52 (and civitas caelestis).3 In line with this paradigm, medieval towns, for instance, demonstrated their “political correctness”: The spirit of Saint Augustine’s civitas Dei (as typified by the idea of the Heavenly Jerusalem) recurs in self-conceptions and self-performances of municipal governments4 as well as in the spirit of their legislative language; civic normative texts regulating public order all used the same vocabulary that was current in the catalogue of the deadly sins/vices.5 All these contexts grant the devil a close pragmatic presence in the discourses which determined medieval everyday life; as a historical phenomenon, the devil in no way occurs as a constant.6 With regard to the Middle Ages, and also with regard to the devil’s proximity, three basic periods and inputs can be discerned:7 The Old Testament rarely resorts to the devil and lets Satan actually be the Lord’s ally, whereas in the New Testament the devil occurs “nearly on every page”8 and explicitly as the Lord’s antagonist who by all means aspires to sabotage salvation and even dares to tempt Jesus. The New Testament even grants the devil an inescapable influence on the world, for instance : “We know we emanate from the Lord, but all the world lies within the devil’s sphere of control.”9 From here specifically resulted the horrible characterization of the devil which Christian patristics in late antiquity outlined and passed on to the Middle Ages. Thirdly, innumerous shapes of devils and demons emerged from former pagan gods and spirits which had been adopted by Christian missionary acculturation during the early medieval period. By this process alone an amazing plurality of demonical embodiments and representations was introduced after definite determinations of the devil’s appearance and physiognomy had been missing before. In sum, “the primary components of Christian diabology in the medieval period are patristic, scholastic, and mystical theory; art, literature, and drama; popular religion, homiletics and saints’ lives; 3 Aurelius Augustinus, De civitate dei (413/426), lib. XIV, cap. XXVIII (De qualitate duorum civitatum, terrenae atque caelestis); English edition: The City of God against the pagans, ed. Robert W. Dyson (Cambridge et al.: Cambridge University Press, 1998). 4 Wilfried Ehbrecht, “Überall ist Jerusalem,” in Die Stadt als Kommunikationsraum. Beiträge zur Stadtgeschichte vom Mittelalter bis ins 20. Jahrhundert, ed. Helmut Bräuer and Elke Schlenkrich (Leipzig: Leipziger Universit ätsverlag, 2001), 139-85. 5 Cf. Alan Hunt, Governance of the Consuming Passions. A History of Sumptuary Law (Basingstoke...

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