The Devil Wins: A History of Lying from the Garden of Eden to the Enlightenment (42 page)

102
. Acontius,
Satans Strategems
, unpaginated prefatory material. Spelling and punctuation have been silently updated.

103
. Acontius,
Satans Strategems
, 3. Random capitalizations and italicization found in the original.

104
. On Acontius’s life see W. K. Jordan,
The Development of Religious Toleration in England: From the Beginning of the English Reformation to the Death of Queen Elizabeth
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1932), 303–17, Gary Remer,
Humanism and the Rhetoric of Toleration
(University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1996), 112–15, and Aart de Groot, “Acontius’s Plea for Tolerance,” in
From Strangers to Citizens: The Integration of Immigrant Communities in Britain, Ireland and Colonial America, 1550–1750
, ed. Randolph Vigne and Charles Littleton (Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 2001), 48–54.

105
. Acontius,
Satans Strategems
, 8.

106
. Acontius,
Satans Strategems
, 15.

107
. Acontius,
Satans Strategems
, 16.

108
. Acontius,
Satans Strategems
, 83–84. The literature on this debate is immense. For an introduction, see Jaroslav Pelikan,
The Reformation of Church and Dogma (1300–1700)
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984), 189–203.

109
. Acontius,
Satans Strategems
, 85. Put differently, Acontius believes that most religious controversies arise over adiaphora (inessential interpretive details). In this he has something in common with other Northern Humanists interested in healing divisions within Christendom. See Gary Remer, “Hobbes, the Rhetorical Tradition, and Toleration,”
Review of Politics
54:1 (Winter 1992): 5–33, here, 25.

110
. Acontius,
Satans Strategems
, 60.

111
. Cited in Remer,
Humanism and the Rhetoric of Toleration
, 122 and, more generally, 118–22, for a good discussion of these topics in Acontius. See Jordan,
Development of Religious Toleration
, 351–56, on the value of inquiry and skepticism in Acontius.

112
. I suspect this facet of Acontius’s writings accounts for the debate concerning whether or not he even accepts the Devil’s existence. For opposed positions in this admittedly very minor controversy, see De Groot, “Acontius’ Plea for Tolerance,” 50, who takes issue with Jeffrey Burton Russell’s
Mephistopheles: The Devil in the Modern World
(Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1986).

113
. Milton,
Paradise Lost
, bk. VIII, ln. 560–70. The classic discussion of this thesis is Millicent Bell, “The Fallacy of the Fall in Paradise Lost,”
PMLA
68:4 (September 1953): 863–83, and her contributions to Wayne Shumaker and Millicent Bell, “The Fallacy of the Fall in Paradise Lost,”
PMLA
70:5 (December 1955): 1185–203, especially 1187–95. Compare with Forsyth,
Satanic Epic
, 265–68, who connects Eve’s misreading of scripture directly with her conversation with the serpent.

114
. Milton,
Paradise Lost
, bk., IX, ln. 253.

115
. Milton,
Paradise Lost
, bk. IX, ln. 364–65.

116
. Milton,
Paradise Lost
, bk. IV, ln. 635–38.

117
. Milton,
Paradise Lost
, bk. IX, ln. 322–36.

118
. Milton,
Paradise Lost
, bk. IX, ln. 372.

119
. Augustine,
City of God
, bk. XIV, ch. 13, 610.

C
HAPTER
T
WO
. G
OD

1
.     Augustine,
De symbolo ad catechumenos
, ed. R. Vander Plaetse, in
Corpus Christianorum Series Latina
46 (Turnholt: Brepols, 1969), 185–86.

2
.     René Descartes,
Meditations on First Philosophy
, “First Meditation,” in
The Philosophical Writings of Descartes
, 2 vols., vol. 2, trans. John Cottingham, Robert Stoothoff, and Dugald Murdoch (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 14.

3
.     Descartes,
Meditations
, “Third Meditation,” 35.

4
.     Augustine,
De symbolo
, 186. Descartes,
Principles of Philosophy
, in
Philosophical Writings
, vol. 1, 1.40, 206.

5
.     Nicholas of Lyra,
Postilla
, Genesis 3, 87.

6
.     Augustine,
Literal Meaning of Genesis
, vol. 2, bk. 11, ch. 13, 145. Neil Forsyth,
The Old Enemy
, 421–34, discusses Augustine’s Genesis commentaries in connection with his struggles against Manichaeism. On Augustine’s actual experience with and rejection of Manichaeism, see Jason David BeDuhn,
Augustine’s Manichaean Dilemma, I: Conversion and Apostasy, 373–388 C.E.
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009).

7
.     Augustine,
Literal Meaning of Genesis
, vol. 2, bk. 11, ch. 11, 143–44.

8
.     Lombard,
Sentences
, lib. I, dist. XLVI, cap. 3.11, 316.

9
.     Calvin,
Commentary on Genesis
, 94.

10
.   Calvin,
Institutes of the Christian Religion
, vol. 1, trans. Ford Lewis Battles (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1960), bk. 1, ch. 18, 228–35.

11
.   
The Aberdeen Bestiary
, Aberdeen University Library MS 24, 7r–7v. The
entire bestiary is reproduced with transcription, translation, and commentary at
http://www.abdn.ac.uk/bestiary/intro.hti
.

12
.   Isidore of Seville,
The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville
, trans. Stephen A. Barney, W. J. Lewis, J. A. Beach, and Oliver Berghof (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), bk. XII, ch. ii.5, 251.

13
.   
Physiologus
, Robert Curley, trans. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1979), 3–4.

14
.   
The Aberdeen Bestiary
, 7v. On later medieval bestiaries, see Debra Higgs Strickland,
Medieval Bestiaries: Text, Image, Ideology
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995).

15
.   Augustine,
On the Trinity
, ed. Gareth B. Matthews and trans. Stephen McKenna (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), bk. 13, ch. 14 (18), 124–25. For a now standard account of the Devil throughout history, see the three volumes by Jeffrey Burton Russell,
The Devil: Perceptions of Evil from Antiquity to Primitive Christianity
(Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1987),
Lucifer: The Devil in the Middle Ages
(Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1984), and
Mephistopheles: The Devil in the Modern World
.

16
.   Augustine, “Sermon 263,” in
The Fathers of the Church: Saint Augustine, Sermons on the Liturgical Seasons
, trans. Mary Sarah Muldowney (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1959), 392.

17
.   Augustine, “Sermon 261,” in
The Later Christian Fathers: A Selection from the Writings of the Fathers from St. Cyril of Jerusalem to St. Leo the Great
, ed. and trans. Henry Bettenson (London: Oxford University Press, 1970), 222. The metaphor of the mousetrap has a double history. While Augustine used it to describe the cross as a trap for the Devil, a slightly earlier tradition uses it to describe how the Devil traps mankind through various, often sexual, temptations. On this prior tradition, see Paul G. Remly, “
Muscipula Diaboli
and Medieval English Antifeminism,” in
English Studies
(1989): 1–14.

18
.   Gregory of Nyssa, in
The Later Christian Fathers
, 141. Nicholas P. Constas, “The Last Temptation of Satan: Divine Deception in Greek Patristic Interpretations of the Passion Narrative,”
Harvard Theological Review
97:2 (April 2004): 139–63, here, 139–49, situates Gregory’s theory within the context of Arian and Stoic thought and traces the imagery of the fishhook to several biblical passages.

19
.   Gregory of Nyssa, in
The Later Christian Fathers
, 142. On Gregory’s theory of redemption via deception, see David Satran, “Deceiving the Deceiver: Variations on an Early Christian Theme,” in
Things Revealed: Studies in Early Jewish and Christian Literature in Honor of Michael E. Stone
, ed. E. G. Chazon, D. Satran, and R. A. Clements (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2004), 357–64.

20
.   Eugene Teselle, “The Cross as Ransom,”
Journal of Early Christian Studies
4:2 (1996): 147–70, analyzes the differences and similarities among the various “ransom” theories of redemption in the early Church.

21
.   C. W. Marx,
The Devil’s Rights and Redemption in the Literature of Medieval England
(Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1995), 7–15, offers a lucid explanation for God’s just dealing with the Devil in early Christian writings.

22
.   Cyril of Alexandria,
A Commentary on the Gospel According to S. Luke
, trans. R. Payne Smith (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1859), homily 12, 54.

23
.   Ambrose,
Expositio evangelii secundum Lucam
, in
Corpus Christianorum Series Latina
, vol. XIV, ed. M. Adriaen (Turnholt: Brepols, 1957), 113.

24
.   See, for example, Tyrannius Rufinus,
Expositio symboli
, in
Corpus Christianorum Series Latina
, vol. XX, ed. M. Simonetti (Turnholt: Brepols, 1961) 20, 14, 151–52, which dates to the first decade of the fourth century, and Leo the Great,
Letters and Sermons of Leo the Great
, in
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers
, 2nd series, vol. 12 (New York: Christian Literature Co., 1895), 130–21.

25
.   Douglas Gray,
Themes and Images in the Medieval English Lyric
(London/Boston: Routledge and Keegan Paul, 1972), 123, for example, quotes a sermon tag, a rubric around which a priest could compose an entire sermon, that reads, “Crux est / A barge to beren fro depe groundes / A targe to weren fro detly woundes / A falle to taken in the fend / And an halle to glathen in a frend.” Thanks to Mary Agnes Edsall for this reference. On Anselm’s theory of atonement, see Eileen C. Sweeney,
Anselm of Canterbury and the Desire for the Word
(Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2012), 277–302.

26
.   On Corpus Christi plays, see Alan H. Nelson, “The Temptation of Christ; or, The Temptation of Satan,” in
Medieval English Drama: Essays Critical and Contextual
, ed. Jerome Taylor and Alan H. Nelson (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1972), 218–29.

27
.   Aquinas,
Summa of Theology
III, quest. 41, art. 2, resp. 2241–42.

28
.   Aquinas,
Summa of Theology
I, quest. 64, art. 1, resp. 4, 321.

29
.   Aquinas,
Summa of Theology
III, quest. 29, art. 1, reply 3, 2177. See George Duriez,
La théologie dans le drame religieux en Allemagne au moyen âge
(Lille: René Girard, 1914), 72–81, for a survey of theological opinion concerning this deception and how it filtered into German religious plays.

30
.   Jean Gerson,
Considérations sur Saint Joseph
, in
Oeuvres Complètes, VII: L’oeuvre Française
, ed. Palemon Glorieux (Paris: Desclée & Cii, 1966), 76. During his discussion of the Annunciation, Jacobus de Voragine,
The Golden Legend
, vol. 1, trans. William Granger Ryan (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993), 197, cites Bernard of Clairvaux as he relates the story of Joseph’s deceptive role.

31
.   Meyer Schapiro, “Muscipula Diaboli: The Symbolism of the Mérode Altarpiece,”
Art Bulletin
27:3 (1945): 182–87.

32
.   Bonaventure,
Sententiarum
III, dist. 20, art. 1, quaest. 5, conclusio, 427–28.

33
.   Bonaventure,
Collations on the Six Days
, in
The Works of Bonaventure
, vol. 5, trans. José de Vinck (Patterson: St. Anthony Guild Press, 1970), 6th collation, 12, 13, 16. For a more detailed discussion, see Christopher M. Cullen,
Bonaventure
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 96–104.

34
.   Bonaventure,
Sententiarum
II, dist. 7, pars 2, art. 1, quaest. 3.

35
.   Aquinas,
Summa of Theology
II-II, quest. 55, art. 3, resp. and reply 2, 1423.

36
.   William Langland,
Piers Plowman: A New Annotated Edition of the C–Text
,
ed. Derek Pearsall (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2008), Passus XX, ln. 163–65, 329.

37
.   Alan of Lille,
Liber poenitentialis
I.12, ed. Jean Longère, vol. 2 (Louvain: Editions Nauwelaerts, 1965), 29. For a brief survey of the circumstances and sin, see Dallas G. Denery II,
Seeing and Being Seen in the Later Middle Ages: Optics, Theology and Religious Life
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 57–63.

38
.   Thomas Chobham,
Summa Confessorum
, ed. F. Broomfield, art. 3, dist. 2, quest. 2a (Louvain: Editions Nauwelaerts, 1968), 56–57.

39
.   Guido de Monte Rocherii,
Manipulus curatorum
, pars 2, trac. 2, cap. 9 (Strassburg, 1490).

40
.   Jacobus de Voraigne,
The Golden Legend
, vol. 1, 210.

41
.   Bonaventure,
Tractatus de praeparatione ad missam
, in
Opera Omnia
VIII, cap. I:1:3 (Rome: Quaracchi, 1898), 100.

42
.   Miri Rubin,
Corpus Christi: The Eucharist in Late Medieval Culture
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), 12–82, discusses the design and development of the mass.

43
.   William of Auxerre,
Summa Aurea
IV, ed. J. Ribaillier (Rome: Collegii S. Bonaventurae ad Claras Aquas, 1980) d. VII, cap. vii, quaest. 4, 173. William invokes this idea while arguing that priests should never deceive their parishioners about whether or not the host is consecrated. More typical is Bonaventure,
Sententiarum
IV, in
Opera Omnia
IV, dist. X, pars. II, art. II, quaest. II, ad. iii, 137, who considers the problem entirely within the context of sensory discrepancy, “Ad illud obicitur de deceptione, dicendum, quod in hoc Sacramento nullus sensus decipitur nec aliquid, quia est Sacramentum veritatis.”