SATANISMO

SATANISM. – The state of that which is satanic, i.e., subjected to the action of Satan, or consecrated to the antagonist of God, or pervaded by his spirit. The term assumes one of three meanings: the empire of Satan over the world, the cult rendered to Satan, or the following-imitation of his rebellion against God; each of these must be illustrated, since they have often been denied, ignored, or misunderstood.

I. THE EMPIRE OF SATAN OVER THE WORLD

Through sin (opposed to the will of God), the flesh (opposed to the spirit of God), and the purely external law (opposed to interior faith, to which the grace of God is attached), this empire is frequently affirmed by Jesus and St. Paul. Satan, the prince (ἀρχαίων) of this world (Jn 12:31; 14:30; 16:11), manifests himself even when he tempts Jesus (Mt 4:8–10; Lk 4:6–13) in his vain attempt to subject even Him, the only one in whom he has nothing (Jn 14:30; 17:16). He is indeed the god of this world (2 Cor 4:4), a world withdrawn from the true God its creator and become prey to corruption and death. He hovers in the air, from which he rules all powers (Eph 2:1; 6:12). This will last until the final restoration, when Christ, victorious, will return the kingdom to God the Father, after having destroyed every principality and every authority and power... all His enemies (1 Cor 15:24). While respecting the Roman order (Jn 19:11), Jesus and His followers are in conflict with the world of power and wealth, which hates and persecutes them (Jn 15:18–23); despite the infinite love of God, who sent His Only-Begotten, the world remains a son of Satan (Jn 3:16–18; 8:44–48), who is darkness and death, while God is light and life (Is 9:2; Lk 1:79; Jn 1:4–10; Eph 5:8, 14). Satan extends his dominion not only over his angels (Mt 25:41; Rev 12:7) but over all men, indeed from evil, “sons of rebellion” (Eph 2:2; 5:6), “all confined in unbelief, under sin” (Rom 11:32; Gal 3:22); “all are under sin” and “the whole world is liable to God’s judgment” (Rom 3:9). In this his kingdom (Lk 11:15), from the first sin—the original one—Satan has unleashed sin, and the death that follows, upon all (Rom 5:12–14; 1 Tim 2:1); humanity is subject to his baleful influence. There is horror and heights rising against the knowledge of God (1 Cor 10:4–5); the whole world lies in the evil one (ἐν τῷ πονηρῷ: 1 Jn 5:19); because he is an irreconcilable enemy of the light, his sin is unforgivable (Jn 1:5–9; 15:25–24; 17:9; Mt 12:32). It is more than an empire; it is almost a mystical body, as, echoing St. Augustine, Gregory the Great says (Hom. 16 in Ev., cf. Moral., IV, 14): “Certainly the devil is the head of all the wicked; and the members of this head are all the wicked.”

Christ founds the Kingdom of God in opposition to the kingdom of Satan. The two kingdoms are opposed as yes and no, as life and death, good and evil, light and darkness; their end and function is to annihilate one another. God has freed His elect “from the power of darkness and transferred them to the kingdom of His beloved Son” (Col 1:13). The two kingdoms are not static but are realized, at every moment, in mutual combat. The two opposing “cities” (“One is of God, the other of the devil”) are founded on two opposed loves: that of God (St. Augustine, De civ. Dei, XIV, 18 and XXI, 1). This Christian “Weltanschauung” was brilliantly reaffirmed in the 19th century by Cardinals Pie and Newman (L. Bouyer, Newman, Paris 1952, p. 236). Only hatred has led to the identification of Satan with this or that person; no man is Satan, who is essentially invisible, universal, enduring; yet Satan must be recognized in occult powers, for he operates in the “mystery” (2 Thess 2:7) without revealing his aims, plans, or successes. He is the stable master of all the resources of the world; he is an invincible human mind; with superhuman cunning he makes all applaud his commands, seducing and lulling the masses with promises of peace and enjoyment (Mt 24:38 sq.; 1 Thess 5:3). More than in spectacular deeds, the presence and action of Satan are embedded, with silent dynamism, in ordinary life (Mt 6:13; 13:25–28), so that the Christian’s spiritual combat must be unceasing (Eph 6:11–18). The deeper and more pervasive the apotheosis of man, with the reduction of religion and morality to mere utility, the more the society is “reduced to pure automatism” under the irresistible deception and oppression, spread by massive propaganda that destroys the vaunted freedom (Christmas Radio Message of Pius XII, Dec. 24, 1951, nn. 40–46), and, after having overthrown Catholicism, inexorably applies the “two false paths” of collectivism and individualism that lead humanity to annihilation, first moral then physical (Christmas Radio Message of Pius XII, Dec. 24, 1952, nn. 12–30).

Thus this world, the seat of Satan, is in a sense hell. The expulsion of the sinner from the protecting paradise (Gen 3:22) corresponds to the intrinsic exigency of sin, which places one under the sovereignty of Satan; the return to paradise (Lk 24:43) will be the end of Redemption, often described as a resurrection to spiritual and heavenly life (1 Cor 15:20–54). For in reality there is no naturally good order of the world; without Christ, man is prey to Satan. To be reunited with God in His grace and glory (Rom 8:28–30) implies liberation from the “tyrannical law” that rightly belongs “not undeservedly” to the ancient enemy (St. Leo the Great, Sermo 22 in Nativ., 3), the exodus from the cosmos he dominates. For, according to the holy Doctors and the Platonists, all corporeal things are dominated by spiritual substances (St. Thomas, Sum. Theol., I, 110, 1 ad 3), the devil exercises an influence over men and even over material creatures that are in their use, so that these become occasions of sin. Redemption is therefore a cosmic drama (Rom 8:19–23; Rev 12–13), which will be resolved with the triumph of God’s absolute sovereignty over the shattered Satanic empire (1 Cor 15:22–57; Rev 20:1–21:4). The descent into hell (the realm of death), the resurrection from the dead, and the ascension into heaven were stages through which the Incarnate Word had to redeem man from sin and from the world of Satan.

Three truths belong to the faith (E. Hugon, *Tractatus Dogm.*, I, 5th ed., Paris 1926, p. 759): demons fight men, tempt them, and at times invade them. The great activity of Satan lies in his manifold and unceasing temptation; so much so that St. Paul defines him as “he who tempts” (ὁ πειράζων: 1 Thess. 3:5): he tempts, that is, subjects to trial (through seduction or violence, pleasure or pain, intoxication or dejection, empowerment or denial of the self), in order to compromise, hinder, or arrest the ascent of souls (cf. the vision of St. Anthony in the *Life*, 65–66, by St. Athanasius: *PG* 26, 935 and 938). Hence the world, in which the Evil One rages, is a cursed tangle of snares (Mt. 18:7; Lk. 17:1)—that is, of traps, obstacles, and pitfalls, causes of falling and ruin. The proper office of Satan is to tempt so as to harm, to precipitate into sin… if he is permitted to do so, he acts in this way as the minister of the diabolic; at least indirectly he is the cause of all our sins (St. Thomas, *Sum. Theol.*, 1a, 114, 2–3). St. Thomas (ibid., 1a, 114, 4) affirms that demons can whisper to men by performing miracles (in the broad sense) and that they exceed human capacities and understanding (St. Thomas, *Sum. Theol.*, 1a, 114, 4). Such prodigies will be multiplied by the work of the Antichrist (2 Thess. 2:9). These Satanic wonders consist chiefly in infection (of persons or things), in obsession or possession. Diabolic possession (v.) is like the indwelling of a demon within the human body, which moves “as if from within”; as the *Roman Ritual* observes, signs of this are the use and understanding of unknown languages, knowledge of hidden or distant things, and unusual muscular strength. The Gospel describes many exorcisms performed by Jesus with a single command (Mk. 1:34, 9:24; Lk. 8:30; 11:14–26). Jesus presents as a characteristic of the Kingdom of God, which He founded, the expulsion of Satan and his demons (Mt. 12:28; Lk. 10:17; 11:20) and transmits this exorcistic charism to His Apostles and to His Church (Mt. 10:1; Mk. 16:17). The Apostles in turn cast out “unclean spirits” (Acts 5:16; 19:12–16), and the Church gloried in this victorious power over Satan: “Quid isto opere manifestius? Quid hac profanatione fidelius?” (Tertullian, *Apol.*, 23).

Often practiced was the “pact with the devil,” sealed with one’s own blood, in which the soul is given over in exchange for longevity, wealth, or power, as in the legend of Theophilus, an administrator (5th century) of the Church of Adana in Cilicia (F. Nau, *Revue de l’Orient Chrétien*, 1910, pp. 125–32), vulgarized by the *Golden Legend* of James of Varazze, by Roswitha and Rutebeuf; akin is the legend of Cyprian (Calderón, *El mago de los prodigios*). The myth of Faust is the best-known version of the Satanic pact. Given the sovereignty of Satan over unredeemed humanity (“an article of faith”: A. Stolz), the ancient apologists tended to regard all non-Christian religions and mysticisms, even the most elevated, as artifices and machinations of the devil (Tertullian, *De Corona*, 15: “Agnoscamus ingenia diaboli, idcirco quaedam de divinis affectantis, ut nos de suorum fide confundat et iudicet”). Today, “through purely natural goodness, the prince of this world seeks to ensnare men so as to hold them more securely under his dominion, that is, far from the true Church of Christ” (Stolz, op. cit. in bibliography, p. 66).

II. CULT OF SATAN

Who does not believe in Satan naturally does not admit the cult of Satan. The most dangerous victory of Satan is to have shaken or abolished in men the faith in his power. “Very few among the Christians of our time truly believe in the devil” (H.-I. Marrou, in *Satan* [*Études Carmélitaines*, Paris 1948], p. 28; cf. p. 96). And Satan has never reigned as undisputed master as since he no longer appears corporally, with horns. “The most cunning trick of Satan is to persuade us that he does not exist,” said Baudelaire, an expert in such matters. But no less dangerous is the superstition that overlays faith. Unbridled credulity, giving free rein to the imagination in the doubly mysterious realm of superhuman forces and of evil, adulterates the concept of Satan as enemy of God and the just, turning him into a wicked deity to be served or placated for personal gain. Hence, in the pagan world, offerings to appease him and the thousand apotropaic practices still persisting.

The cult of the serpent (MacCulloch, Crooke, Welsford, *Serpent-worship*, in *Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics*, XI [1920], pp. 399–423), widely practiced in the ancient world: Egypt, the Semitic East (cf. Dan. 14:22–27), Delphi—interpreted by the Fathers as Satanic (Chrysostom, *Hom. 29 in Ep. I ad Cor.*, 1)—spread from east to west, from south to north; in 1387 the King of Poland had many serpents worshipped in his kingdom put to death. Sometimes Christian optimism mocked the “stupid” devil (A. M. Weiss, op. cit. in bibliography, pp. 413–15). But generally superstition exacerbates the fear of Satan; at times it strives to deceive him, to bind him or compel him to serve; in various cases it drives the sinner to substitute Satan for God by committing without restraint works that are blasphemous parodies of divine worship, lust, and subversion. This full-blown Satanic cult is characterized by the will to evil for evil’s sake, by the total inversion of good into evil and vice versa, by active hatred—on behalf of absolute freedom—against every religious and moral law, a hatred inexplicable by human psychology.

Among the ancient Gnostics, the Naassenes or Ophites (Irenaeus, *Adv. Haer.*, I, 24 and 30, 7–8; Tertullian, *Praescr.* 47) exalted Satan, identified with the serpent of Paradise, for having vindicated man’s rights by revealing to Adam the “gnosis” of good and evil and teaching rebellion against the tyrannical command of the Creator. Marcion (Irenaeus, I, 27, 2) came close to this doctrine. The Cainites (Irenaeus, I, 31) exalted as liberators the great rebels against God: Cain, Esau, Sodom, Korah, above all Judas, who merited divine cult for having freed humanity from Jesus. These and other Gnostics were organized into strictly secret groups (Tertullian, *Adv. Valentin.*, 1); such “synagogues of Satan” (Apoc. 2:9; 3:9), perpetuated, explain the rapid spread in the Middle Ages of the disciplined and most secret Cathar-Albigensian movement (v.).

Manichaeism exalted Satan to the highest degree permitted by dualism; as is evident from the *Kephalaia* (opp. 27 and 6) of Mani, discovered in 1931 at Medinet Maadi (Egypt) in a subalchemical Coptic translation, the “King” or “Prince of Darkness” is the precosmic principle, inherent and omnipotent, from which the universe resulted; he is equal to God but is not divinized; there is no true cult of Satan, since offering him sacrifices or divine honors is a grave sin in the *Kuntanasturij* (Manichaean formulary of confession).

The cult of Satan (sometimes under the name of Satanail, Sammael) was practiced by a portion of the Messalians; later, among the medieval Gnostic-dualist sects (Cathars-Albigensians, Bogomils, Paulicians), the "Luciferians" emerged, a sect spread in small groups throughout the West. On the cult of Satanail, the fallen god, father of Cain, whose wrath is terrible, among the Bogomils of Bulgaria (11th century), cf. Euthymius Zigabenus, Panoplia dogm., 27, 6-20: PG 130, 1293-1316. In 1022, the canons of Sainte-Croix (Orléans) were condemned to the stake for "adoring the devil," and similar horrors are often denounced (PL 141, 71-72; 142, 659-60; 155, 2011). Joachim of Fiore (Exposit. in Apoc., Venice 1527, p. 130 b) attributes to the Patarines nocturnal obscene gatherings, and Alan of Lille to the Cathars (PL 210, 366). Matthew Paris (Chron., ad a. 1236) states that Milan was the refuge of all heresies, including the Luciferians (MGH, Script., XXVIII, p. 134). In the first half of the 13th century, Germany was invaded by this sect, and against the Luciferians Conrad of Marburg acted rigorously from 1214 to 1233 (in Hildesheim, 1224, the Premonstratensian provost Henry Minneke was condemned); Gregory IX’s bull *Vox in Rama* (13 June 1233), addressed to Siegfried, Archbishop of Mainz, Conrad, Bishop of Hildesheim, and Master Conrad of Marburg, describes the horrific initiation rites in assemblies where Satan appears; but the Rhenish bishops accused Conrad of Marburg of having extorted confessions of nonexistent crimes from the accused (MGH, Script., XXIII, pp. 931-32, where Alberic of Trois-Fontaines says this "infidelity of the cult of Lucifer" was brought to the Rhineland by a master from Toulouse); later Gregory IX softened the procedure. In the 14th century, this sect is noted as frequent in Austria, Bohemia, and surroundings, with orgies and blasphemous rites. For the most part, participants in this cult intended to protect themselves from Satan, the powerful demiurge who, defeated by Jesus, harmed humans. The Templars (v.) were also accused of this cult in the trial that condemned them.

Even today, the Kurdish Yazidis (ca. 60,000) of Mount Sinjar (Upper Mesopotamia), Sunni Shafi’i Muslims, worship Iblīs ("the devil"), who, according to Islam, did so out of jealous, exclusive love for the pure idea of God. Their sacred books, *Kitāb al-ghawā* ("Book of Revelation") and *Mašāfē-rāš* ("Black Book"), teach that Iblīs (like the martyr al-Ḥallāj, executed in 922 in Baghdad by the Shi’ites) did so out of pure love, refusing any reward; as a fallen archangel, he was pardoned, and God left him governance of the world and the transmigration of souls; he is called Melek Tā’ūs ("the Peacock Angel," because he recovered spiritual colors).

In the Middle Ages, demonological literature abounded, in which magic or witchcraft, deemed commerce with Satan, was considered not merely a superstition but the gravest of heresies. While St. Albert the Great, St. Thomas Aquinas, and Scotus mostly rejected witchcraft prodigies, John Nider in his *Formicarius* (1437) popularized fantasies about the witches’ Sabbath. Against Gerson, Gabriel Biel denied Satan’s action on earth. Beyond the spiritual struggle against Satan described in the multifarious *Ars Moriendi* (v.), beyond the *Manual of the Inquisitor* GIULIO (v.) and others (ed. G. Mollat, Paris 1926), and beyond the various terrifying tales in circulation (Gilles de Rais, or Bluebeard, in the 15th century), the printing press immediately disseminated theological works as well: translations of Michael Psellos, *On the Energy or Operation of Demons* (PG 122, 819-82); Ulrich Molitor of Constance, *De Lamiis et mythonicis mulieribus* (Leipzig 1495; French trans. *Des sorcières et des devineresses*, Paris 1926, Nourry), widely circulated even in manuscript; Giacomo di Teramo (v. BELLAI); Jacob Sprenger, *Malleus maleficarum* (Strasbourg 1486), expanded by Heinrich Institoris (Cologne 1489) and developed into the 4-volume edition of Lyon 1669 (in German; 3 vols., Berlin 1906; English: Clay, Bungay 1928); Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, *Strix sive de ludificatione daemonum dialogi III*, first published in Germany (Strasbourg 1612; Italian trans. by Furino Furini, *La strega ovvero degli inganni dei demoni*, Milan 1864). The *Malleus maleficarum* by the Dominican inquisitors J. Sprenger (inquisitor in the Rhineland) and H. Institoris (inquisitor in Upper Germany) became the manual of European anti-witchcraft; it had 28 editions between 1486 and 1600. The popes, following the decretals of John XXII, intervened with numerous bulls to encourage inquisitors to suppress this sect, from Innocent VIII (*Summis desiderantes*, 6 Dec. 1484) and Alexander VI (*Cum acceperimus*, 1494) to Paul V (*Omnipotentis Dei*, 1623); but Urban VIII (1623-44) recommended moderation to judges of those accused of this sect, and his example was followed by local prelates and councils.

In the 16th century, the obsession with this sect spread among Catholics and Protestants, in the common people as in the educated classes; an inverted religion or anti-religion that pervaded Christendom, Satan became a theme in art and literature. Satan appeared with multitudes of followers; his cult had its initiates, ministers, and pontiffs; many women (witches) were its victims at the stake. The series of demonological treatises grew: Samuele Casini (1505); Vincenzo Dodo (1506); Bernardo of Como (1508); Johann Trithemius (1508); Jacob van Hoogstraeten (1510). Between 1511 and 1520, Pedro de Ciruelo, Silvestro Mazzolini, and especially Bartolomeo Spina (*Quaestio de strigibus et lamii*, *Apologia tres de lamii*) wrote on the subject; around 1550, Arnaldo Albertini, Alfonso de Castro (*De impietate sortilegum*), and others. In 1579, BODIN, JEAN (v.) published *De la démonomanie des sorciers*, widely circulated in Europe (Italian, Venice 1591; Latin, Frankfurt 1603); rapid success also attended Peter Binsfeld’s *De confessionibus maleficarum et sagarum* (1589), coadjutor of Trier. The last decade of the 16th century saw similar works by Jean Bogue (1591), Franz Agricola (1596), Nicolas Rémy (1595), and the Jesuits Gregorio de Valencia (1595) and Martin Del Rio (1599). The immense literature on this anguishing theme, encompassing several thousand works (listed by J. Graesse, *Bibliotheca magica et pneumatica*, Leipzig 1843; R. Yve-Plessis, Paris 1900, lists ca. 2000 works in French alone), fueled the psychosis of this sect, attested also in painting (Hieronymus Bosch, the Brueghels, Bouts, Cranach, Albrecht Dürer, Hans Baldung Grien, Cambiaso, Hier. Cock, Fries, Huys, Lucas van Leyden, Civetta, etc., and the ever-renewed motif of the *Ars moriendi*, the *Danse Macabre*, and the *Judgment*). Some protested against the fanaticism that accused so many innocents of this sect: the Benedictine Guillaume Edelin (1454), the Carmelite Johann von Beetz (1486), Johann Weyer (1564), and others, who helped mitigate the legislation. Decisive was the influence of the Jesuits Adam Tanner (1626) and Friedrich Spee, his disciple, in tempering the anti-Satanic criminology of the time, based on prejudice and supported even by physicians, alchemists, and astrologers (Agrippa, Cardano, Paracelsus, Pae, etc.). Usually, not magicians or diviners were prosecuted, but only witches and sorcerers who cast lots, and those who confessed a pact or relationship with Satan. Out of 400 tried (mostly women) in the county of Namur (Belgium) between 1500 and 1650, 149 were burned, 49 acquitted, 96 sentenced to exile or lesser penalties, and the sentence is unknown for 106 (E. Brouette). In 1682, Louis XIV put an end in France to witch trials; in other Catholic nations, too, the era of this sect had ended. The death knell to popular prejudices on this matter was sounded by Scipione Maffei in lengthy polemics sustained in the second half of the 18th century.

The cult of St. Satan concentrates in the “black masses,” nefarious orgies mixed with Eucharistic profanations, possibly presided over by depraved priests, a derivation of the ancient “sabbath,” with grotesque practices recalling Masonic formulas and rhythms. D. A. F. de Sade (1740–1814), an atheist who deified nature, describes Satanic orgies with consecrated hosts; in France, missals of the Satanic cult were printed (F. Boutet, op. cit. in bibl., pp. 159–207). J. K. Huysmans (Là-Bas, Paris 1891, ch. 19) describes them, as do J. Bois (Le satanisme et la magie, 1876, pp. 200–43) and Ramón del Valle-Inclán (1870–1935). Huysmans had frequented promoters of Satanism and possessed the writings of Jean-Antoine Boullan (d. 1893), an apostate priest, “sword of God” to free the Roman Church; these papers were given by Huysmans’s friend Léon Leclaire to the noted Islamist Louis Massignon, who on 14 July 1930 deposited them in the Vatican Library.

There is a secret of Satanism, and it is certainly Freemasonry, which inherits the faith and customs of Canaanite Gnosticism (A. M. Weiss, op. cit. in bibl., pp. 452–54), especially in its “Egyptian rite” (Misrâjim), as evidenced by many documents from as early as 1797 (v. BARRUEL) and by numerous ecclesiastical condemnations, notably the encyclical Humanum genus (1885). TAXIL, LÉO (v.) from 1885 to 1895 made sensational revelations about Satanism practiced in Masonic lodges, but in 1897 he cynically declared that everything had been his invention. Masonic propaganda made great capital of this: all the Satanism attributed to it rested on a fabrication! E. S. Hartland and H. Grüber maintain that modern Satanism is a pure deception of L. Taxil and Huysmans. Yet even if the comedy staged by L. Taxil was arranged by Masonic lodges, the hoaxer invented only the sensational and picturesque details, the novel of Miss Diana Vaughan, etc., while the substance of Masonic Satanism remained what was already well known before Taxil and is acknowledged as real by expert Masons, such as the physicist Pasquale Barreca (I rituali massonici scozzeri di L. Taxil. Loro veridicità, Reggio Calabria 1932).

Freemasonry, unique in spirit and fundamental laws, is the international anti-Church (E. Jouin); from the “Masonic pope” (P. Barreca, op. cit., p. 138), invisible and unknown even to ordinary initiates, depend the destinies of peoples; no one in the “masses” knows what happens or will happen from day to day, nor is anyone conscious of influencing anything; yet for 160 years there has been a constant directive, tending toward “uncontrolled progress,” toward the religion of nature, excluding every positive religion or morality. The struggle is waged solely against Catholicism, after whose fall Christianity will be no more than a symbol or a memory. Spiritism-occultism and Theosophy (De Libero, op. cit. in bibl., pp. 254–90) are the religion and philosophy of naturalism promoted by Freemasonry. Masonic Satanism is manifested chiefly in the ritual profanation of consecrated hosts. In Fribourg, Switzerland (Rue Grand’ Fontaine, 41), anyone may visit, in a large cave now a chapel of reparation, the instruments used in Satanic rites.

In our own day, notorious Satanists are not lacking, all more or less open promoters of Freemasonry. On 2 December 1947, Aleister Crowley died in Brighton, England, aged over seventy, an unclean master of black magic who had founded the journals Gnosis and Lucifer; in his Satanic temple in London a special ritual prevails, and there are sung “the Hymn to Pan” and the “Collects for the Gnostic Mass,” composed by Crowley; over his tomb his disciples sing these together with diabolical formulas and Giosuè Carducci’s “Hymn to Satan.” On 29 March 1948, Harry Price died, a psychical researcher, demonologist, and perpetual secretary of the Council for Psychical Investigation at the University of London, who in a report declared: “In all parts of London, hundreds of men and women of high culture and distinguished families worship Satan and render him continual cult; black magic, witchcraft, and diabolic evocation—these three forms of medieval superstition—are practiced today in London on a scale and with a license unknown to the Middle Ages.”

III. SATANIC REBELLION

A sacrilegious challenge to God, “a heroic affirmation of the self that defends its absolute integrity” (U. Détter), it is a pose of religious-moral rebellion and of “risky” mortal peril, a taste for perverse sentiments in the struggle against limits and constraint, fashionable among many “libertines” and decadent writers; it has many points of contact with modern “Titanism.” J. K. Huysmans defined Satanism as “the forbidden joy of transferring to Satan the homage and prayers due to God…”; to outrage Christ more grievously, to commit the sins he has most expressly cursed: the contamination of worship and carnal orgy. Even Catholic theologians, to flatter human will or freedom no longer reflecting the single divine will, dare to entertain “the risk of sin,” asserting that “the only total assurance against evil would be inaction” (G. Didier, in Nouvelle Revue, 1953, p. 11).

Dante described with theological precision the agitated throng of the “emperor of the dolor-filled realm,” the defeat of the “immense worm” imprisoned in the earth: a vile traitor, a monster whose suffering does not move, Dante’s Lucifer is a unique type. After T. Tasso and G. B. Marino, Milton, followed by many up to V. Hugo and P. Valéry, will make of him a “beautiful Promethean,” in whom survives tragically ancient beauty, grand in his ruin (Chateaubriand, Le génie du christianisme, IV, 9 and 12, ed. 1854, I, pp. 208–301 and 308–10, praises him); but for Dante, such a “hero” is Capaneus.

While Gnosticism assumed the name of “Enlightenment,” French and European libertinism, backed by English anti-religion (H. Cherbury, J. Toland, M. Tindal, etc.), then by the “philosophers” such as Voltaire, is Satanism that by 1700 was already preparing the Revolution (P. Hazard, La crise de la conscience européenne: 1680–1715, 3 vols., Paris 1935); the last noisy libertines were the Masons Cagliostro (d. 1795) and Casanova (d. 1798).

The irreducible “no” is represented by humanitarian positivism, which undermines every faith and every morality. After the Enlightenment of the “philosophers” and the protean Freemasonry (Saint-Martin), it is promoted by the socialism of Saint-Simon, Enfantin, Marx, Blanqui, Proudhon (“God is evil”), whose periodicals in various languages bore titles such as Satan, Lucifer, The Antichrist, The Atheist, The Thief, The Ass, etc.; akin in aim are anarchism (M. Stirner) and nihilism (v.), the militant atheism of secularism (Guyau, Fouillée, Berthelot, Binet-Sangle, Buisson, Couchoud).

The contrast between God and Satan, resolved through biblical faith by Milton and Klopstock, already appears as a victory of Satan’s will to power in C. Marlowe’s *Faustus* (1604), and becomes a symbolic “mysticism” in Goethe’s masterful *Faust*: Satan is “the spirit that always denies, the force that always does evil, yet is compelled to serve the good” (Prologue). Humanitarian rationalism characterizes the Satanic evocations of Lessing, *Eloa* (1824) by A. de Vigny, *The Loves of the Angels* (1823) by T. Moore, and *La chute d’un ange* (1838) by Lamartine. Like Guevara, followed by Lesage and Cazotte, various writers use the theme for satire of manners (Béranger, Scribe) or for skeptical fantasies (G. Sand, Balzac, Flaubert, Longfellow). With William Blake (*Marriage of Heaven and Hell*, 1790) a metaphysical Satan appears, who extols the “sacred” rebellion of man against God. But the true initiator of Satan’s full exaltation is G. Byron in *Manfred* (1817), and more so in *Cain* (1821), where the dark superman is glorified even in defeat for having pitied man. Shelley sings of *Prometheus Unbound*, the revenge of the one chained by Jupiter’s wrath; more openly blasphemous is Lena’s *Faust* (1836); subversive and libidinous is Lermontov’s *The Demon* (1839). Baudelaire (1857) invokes Satan “the fairest and greatest of the angels,” victim of divine jealousy. Symbol of anti-divine defiance and human redemption, the erstwhile loser is acclaimed victor by J. Michelet (*La sorcière*, 1862), who, with Quinet, foretells “the return of Satan’s kingdom” (*Histoire universelle*, Introduction). In 1843 Sainte-Beuve called de Sade and Byron “the two greatest inspirers of the moderns.” V. Hugo in *La fin de Satan* (1886) expresses his democratic faith: God and Satan shall be equal through the angel Liberty, born of both. G. Carducci, *Inno a Satana* (Oct. 1863), glorifies Satan as the vital force and modern progress (“Satan has won!”). M. Rapisardi’s *Lucifero* (1887) tells Prometheus: “Rise, the great Tyrant is dead.” A similar idea is found in A. France, *La révolte des anges* (1914). In Isidore Ducasse (*Chants de Maldoror*, 1868; revised 1927), Satan is furious. Today, after—and more than—A. Gide (d. 1951), J.-P. Sartre and A. Camus (*Les justes*, Paris 1950; *L’homme révolté*, 1951) are his exponents.

Isolated voices protest against the Satan who gains ascendancy in the world through the apotheosis of man and his limitless possibilities, while revolutions destroy tradition, philosophies undermine every positive faith, and economic materialism fosters unbridled individualism. Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881), in *Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdörckh* (1833–34), clearly identifies Satan with self-worship (*Selfworth*), with “the eternal No” (*Everlasting No*); he reacts against modern Satanism by narrating the conversion of the imaginary German professor Diogenes Teufelsdörckh, “philosopher of clothes”—that is, of impeccable form—who yet regards institutions and customs as mere garments of the human spirit, of contingent value. Disillusioned by manifold experiences, studies, and travels, he regains happiness by returning to the naive faith of childhood. The divine principle and active love toward all were also championed by the German Romantics (Körner, F. Schlegel, Hauff, T. A. Hoffmann, A. Chamisso). Already Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister (1795–96), after many wanderings, had found joy in daily work for others; and Jean Paul Richter (*Quintus Fixlein*, 1796; *Titan*, 1803) reacted against the apotheosis of man by condemning Hellenizing classicism and the aesthetic of pure form typical of the Enlightenment. As in Wagner’s *Tannhäuser* (1845), Venus is identified with Satan in the Romantic legend of G. Prati, *Satana e le Grazie* (1855), which depicts the degeneration of three men (a priest, a magistrate, a warrior), redeemed by repentance and snatched from Satan by God. Nineteenth-century Russian writers denounced the advance of modern Satanism, above all N. Gogol (*Dead Souls*) and more especially F. Dostoevsky in various works, notably *The Possessed* (1872), where in Stavrogin—who fights God—there appears the mystery of evil loved and fostered for its own sake, with absolute disinterestedness, and Shigalyov prophesies: “The old conception of the world will disappear, and above all the old morality. Men will unite to extract from life all possible enjoyments, but only in this world. The human spirit will rise to a Satanic pride, and humanity will be deified. Constantly triumphing over nature through science and will, man will experience a joy that will replace [the divine].”