DEAL WITH THE DEVIL
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(Redirected from Pact with the Devil)
A 'deal with the Devil', 'pact with the Devil', or 'Faustian bargain' is a cultural motif widespread wherever the Devil is vividly present, most familiar in the legend of Faust and the figure of Mephistopheles, but elemental to many Christian folktales. In the Aarne-Thompson typological catalogue, it lies in category AT 756B – "The devil's contract."
According to traditional Christian belief in witchcraft, the pact is between a person and Satan or any other demon (or demons); the person offers his or her soul in exchange for diabolical favours. Those favours vary by the tale, but tend to include youth, knowledge, wealth, or power. It was also believed that some persons made this type of pact just as a sign of recognising the Devil as their master, in exchange for nothing. Regardless, the bargain is a dangerous one, for the price of the Fiend's service is the wagerer's soul. The tale may have a moralizing end, with eternal damnation for the foolhardy venturer. Conversely it may have a comic twist, in which a wily peasant outwits the Devil, characteristically on a technical point.
Among the credulous, any apparently superhuman achievement might be credited to a pact with the Devil, from the numerous European Devil's Bridges to the superb violin technique (now attributed in part to Marfan syndrome or Ehlers-Danlos syndrome) of Niccolò Paganini.
It was usually thought that the person who had made a pact also promised the demon to kill children or consecrate them to the Devil at the moment of birth (many midwives were accused of this, due to the number of children that died at birth in the Middle Age and Renaissance), take part in Sabbaths, have sexual relations with demons, and sometimes engender children from an incubus, or succubus in the case of men.
The pact can be oral or written. An oral pact is made by means of invocations, conjurations, or rituals to attract the demon; once the conjurer thinks the demon is present, he/she asks for the wanted favour and offers his/her soul in exchange, and no evidence is left of the pact; but according to some witch trials and inquisitions that were performed, even the oral pact left evidence, namely the diabolical mark, an indelible mark that could be used as a proof to determine that the pact was made. A written pact consists in the same forms of attracting the demon, but includes a written act, usually signed with the conjurer's blood (although sometimes was also alleged that the whole act had to be written with blood, meanwhile some demonologists defended the idea of using red ink instead of blood and others suggested the use of animal blood instead of human blood).
These acts were presented often as a proof of diabolical pacts, though critics claim there is no proof of whether they were authentic, written by insane persons believing they were actually dealing with a demon or just were fake acts presented by the tribunals of the Inquisition. Usually the acts included strange characters that were said to be the signature of a demon, and each one had his own signature or seal. Books like ''The Lesser Key of Solomon'' (also known as ''Lemegeton Clavicula Salomonis'') give a detailed list of these signs, known as seal of the demons.
According to demonology, there is a specific month, day of the week, and hour to call each demon, so the invocation for a pact has to be done at the right time. Also, as each demon has a specific function, a certain demon is invoked depending on what the conjurer is going to ask.
The predecessor of Faustus in Christian mythology is Theophilus ("Friend of God" or "Beloved of god") the unhappy and despairing cleric, disappointed in his worldly career by his bishop, who sells his soul to the Devil but is redeemed by the Virgin Mary.[1] His story appears in a Greek version of the sixth century written by a "Eutychianus" who claims to have been a member of the household in question. A ninth-century ''Miraculum Sancte Marie de Theophilo penitente'' inserts a Jew as intermediary with ''diabolus'', his "patron", providing the prototype of a closely-linked series in the Latin literature of the West.[2] In the tenth century, the poet nun Hroswitha of Gandersheim adapted the text of Paulus Diaconis for a narrative poem that elaborates Theophilus' essential goodness and internalizes the forces of Good and Evil, in which the Jew is ''magus'', a necromancer. As in her model, Theophilus receives back his contract from the Virgin, displays it to the congregation, and soon dies. A long poem on the subject by Gautier de Coincy (1177/8 – 1236), entitled ''Comment Theophilus vint a pénitence'' provided material for a thirteenth-century play by Rutebeuf, where Theophilus is the central pivot in a frieze of five characters, the Virgin and the Bishop flanking him on the side of Good, the Jew and the Devil on the side of Evil.
★ Niccolò Paganini, Italian violinist, who may not have started the rumour but played along with it.
★ Tommy Johnson, blues musician, who claimed to have met with Satan at the crossroads and signed over his soul to play the blues.
★ Robert Johnson, blues musician, who likely cribbed the same story from Tommy Johnson.
★ Urbain Grandier A notorious case of a diabolical pact was the one that cost Urbain Grandier his life. One of the pacts was redacted in Latin; the other is written in abbreviated, backwards Latin (which is readable when reversed), and signed by several "demons", one of them Satan, whose name was clearly written "Satanas" (see the article on Urbain Grandier for the original pact).
★ Gilles de Rais (executed)
★ The ''Malleus Maleficarum'' has plenty of allusions to these pacts, especially concerning women. It was considered that all witches and warlocks had made a pact with some demon, especially with Satan.
★ In many variants of the Aarne-Thompson type 361, of which ''Bearskin'' is an instance, the hero escapes, but the devil still comes off the better: the heroine's sisters have killed themselves, and he has gained two souls instead of one.
★ The story of Theophilus of Adana, a saint who made a deal with the devil, predates the Faust legend and is a likely partial inspiration.
★ The compact between human ''hubris'' and diabolical intelligence raises the old tale to its cultural peak in Goethe's ''Faust''.
Other works depicting deals with the Devil include:
★ ''The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus'', by Christopher Marlowe.
★ ''Faust'', by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
★ ''Faust'', opera by Charles Gounod.
★ ''Mefistofele'', opera by Arrigo Boito.
★ ''Mephisto'', novel by Klaus Mann
★ ''The Master and Margarita'', novel by Mikhail Bulgakov
★ "The Devil and Tom Walker", a short story by Washington Irving
★ "The Devil and Daniel Webster", short story based off of the Washington Irving story; by Steven Vincent Benét.
★ "Pan Twardowski", poem by Adam Mickiewicz
★ "Gimmicks Three", by Isaac Asimov
★ "That Hell-Bound Train", by Robert Bloch
★ ''Rosemary's Baby'', by Ira Levin
★ ''Damn Yankees'', musical theatre production and film by George Abbott and Stanley Donen
★ "The Bet", by Anton Chekhov
★ ''The Devil and Daniel Webster'' (1941)
★ ''Bedazzled'' (1967)
★ ''Rosemary's Baby'' (1968)
★ ''Crossroads'' (1986)
★ ''Angel Heart'' (1987)
★ '' The Little Mermaid'' (1989)
★ ''Spawn'' (1997)
★ ''Bedazzled'' (2000)
★ ''Ghost Rider'' (2007)
★ "Devil Went Down to Georgia" by The Charlie Daniels Band, a song about a fiddle contest between the Devil and boy named Johnny from Georgia.
★ "Friend of the Devil" by The Grateful Dead
★ "Deal with the Devil" by Mötley Crüe
★ "In the Presence of Enemies" by Dream Theater
★ "Cross Road Blues" by Robert Johnson
★ ''The Collector (TV series)'', about a former monk who sold his soul to the Devil in the 1300s.
★ Multiple episodes of The Twilight Zone involved sales of character's souls to the devil or to demons.
★ In ''The Simpsons'' episode "Treehouse of Horror IV", Homer makes a pact with the devil for a donut.
★ The TV series ''G vs E'' featured several people who made deals with the forces of evil. These people were known collectively as "Faustians".
★ In ''Supernatural (TV series)'' episode "All Hell Breaks Loose, Part 2", Dean makes a pact with the red-eyed Demon to resuscitate his brother.
★ In ''Metalocalypse'' episode "Bluesklok", the band is told to make a deal with the devil to get blues-playing skill.
★ In the ''Futurama'' episode "The Devil's Hands are Idle Playthings", Fry makes a deal with the Robot Devil and they trade hands so Fry can play the holophonor.
★ Osculum infame
★ Devil's Bridge
★ Fall of man
1. P.M. Palmer and R.P. More, ''The sources of the Faust tradition from Simon Magus to Lessing'', (New York) 1936.
2. Representative examples of the Latin tradition were analysed by Moshe Lazar, "Theophilus: Servant of Two Masters. The Pre-Faustian Theme of Despair and Revolt" in ''Modern Language Notes'' '87'.6, (Nathan Edelman Memorial Issue November 1972) pp 31-50.
★ The Smith outwits the Devil: a Norwegian folktale
★ Black Button: a short film with a modern setting
''St. Wolfgang and the Devil'', by Michael Pacher.
A 'deal with the Devil', 'pact with the Devil', or 'Faustian bargain' is a cultural motif widespread wherever the Devil is vividly present, most familiar in the legend of Faust and the figure of Mephistopheles, but elemental to many Christian folktales. In the Aarne-Thompson typological catalogue, it lies in category AT 756B – "The devil's contract."
According to traditional Christian belief in witchcraft, the pact is between a person and Satan or any other demon (or demons); the person offers his or her soul in exchange for diabolical favours. Those favours vary by the tale, but tend to include youth, knowledge, wealth, or power. It was also believed that some persons made this type of pact just as a sign of recognising the Devil as their master, in exchange for nothing. Regardless, the bargain is a dangerous one, for the price of the Fiend's service is the wagerer's soul. The tale may have a moralizing end, with eternal damnation for the foolhardy venturer. Conversely it may have a comic twist, in which a wily peasant outwits the Devil, characteristically on a technical point.
Among the credulous, any apparently superhuman achievement might be credited to a pact with the Devil, from the numerous European Devil's Bridges to the superb violin technique (now attributed in part to Marfan syndrome or Ehlers-Danlos syndrome) of Niccolò Paganini.
| Contents |
| Overview |
| Theophilus, servant of two masters |
| Alleged diabolical pacts in history |
| Musicians |
| Non-Musicians |
| Diabolical pacts in fiction |
| In print |
| In film |
| In music |
| In television |
| See also |
| Notes |
| External links |
Overview
It was usually thought that the person who had made a pact also promised the demon to kill children or consecrate them to the Devil at the moment of birth (many midwives were accused of this, due to the number of children that died at birth in the Middle Age and Renaissance), take part in Sabbaths, have sexual relations with demons, and sometimes engender children from an incubus, or succubus in the case of men.
The pact can be oral or written. An oral pact is made by means of invocations, conjurations, or rituals to attract the demon; once the conjurer thinks the demon is present, he/she asks for the wanted favour and offers his/her soul in exchange, and no evidence is left of the pact; but according to some witch trials and inquisitions that were performed, even the oral pact left evidence, namely the diabolical mark, an indelible mark that could be used as a proof to determine that the pact was made. A written pact consists in the same forms of attracting the demon, but includes a written act, usually signed with the conjurer's blood (although sometimes was also alleged that the whole act had to be written with blood, meanwhile some demonologists defended the idea of using red ink instead of blood and others suggested the use of animal blood instead of human blood).
These acts were presented often as a proof of diabolical pacts, though critics claim there is no proof of whether they were authentic, written by insane persons believing they were actually dealing with a demon or just were fake acts presented by the tribunals of the Inquisition. Usually the acts included strange characters that were said to be the signature of a demon, and each one had his own signature or seal. Books like ''The Lesser Key of Solomon'' (also known as ''Lemegeton Clavicula Salomonis'') give a detailed list of these signs, known as seal of the demons.
According to demonology, there is a specific month, day of the week, and hour to call each demon, so the invocation for a pact has to be done at the right time. Also, as each demon has a specific function, a certain demon is invoked depending on what the conjurer is going to ask.
Theophilus, servant of two masters
The predecessor of Faustus in Christian mythology is Theophilus ("Friend of God" or "Beloved of god") the unhappy and despairing cleric, disappointed in his worldly career by his bishop, who sells his soul to the Devil but is redeemed by the Virgin Mary.[1] His story appears in a Greek version of the sixth century written by a "Eutychianus" who claims to have been a member of the household in question. A ninth-century ''Miraculum Sancte Marie de Theophilo penitente'' inserts a Jew as intermediary with ''diabolus'', his "patron", providing the prototype of a closely-linked series in the Latin literature of the West.[2] In the tenth century, the poet nun Hroswitha of Gandersheim adapted the text of Paulus Diaconis for a narrative poem that elaborates Theophilus' essential goodness and internalizes the forces of Good and Evil, in which the Jew is ''magus'', a necromancer. As in her model, Theophilus receives back his contract from the Virgin, displays it to the congregation, and soon dies. A long poem on the subject by Gautier de Coincy (1177/8 – 1236), entitled ''Comment Theophilus vint a pénitence'' provided material for a thirteenth-century play by Rutebeuf, where Theophilus is the central pivot in a frieze of five characters, the Virgin and the Bishop flanking him on the side of Good, the Jew and the Devil on the side of Evil.
Alleged diabolical pacts in history
Musicians
★ Niccolò Paganini, Italian violinist, who may not have started the rumour but played along with it.
★ Tommy Johnson, blues musician, who claimed to have met with Satan at the crossroads and signed over his soul to play the blues.
★ Robert Johnson, blues musician, who likely cribbed the same story from Tommy Johnson.
Non-Musicians
★ Urbain Grandier A notorious case of a diabolical pact was the one that cost Urbain Grandier his life. One of the pacts was redacted in Latin; the other is written in abbreviated, backwards Latin (which is readable when reversed), and signed by several "demons", one of them Satan, whose name was clearly written "Satanas" (see the article on Urbain Grandier for the original pact).
★ Gilles de Rais (executed)
Diabolical pacts in fiction
In print
★ The ''Malleus Maleficarum'' has plenty of allusions to these pacts, especially concerning women. It was considered that all witches and warlocks had made a pact with some demon, especially with Satan.
★ In many variants of the Aarne-Thompson type 361, of which ''Bearskin'' is an instance, the hero escapes, but the devil still comes off the better: the heroine's sisters have killed themselves, and he has gained two souls instead of one.
★ The story of Theophilus of Adana, a saint who made a deal with the devil, predates the Faust legend and is a likely partial inspiration.
★ The compact between human ''hubris'' and diabolical intelligence raises the old tale to its cultural peak in Goethe's ''Faust''.
Other works depicting deals with the Devil include:
★ ''The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus'', by Christopher Marlowe.
★ ''Faust'', by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
★ ''Faust'', opera by Charles Gounod.
★ ''Mefistofele'', opera by Arrigo Boito.
★ ''Mephisto'', novel by Klaus Mann
★ ''The Master and Margarita'', novel by Mikhail Bulgakov
★ "The Devil and Tom Walker", a short story by Washington Irving
★ "The Devil and Daniel Webster", short story based off of the Washington Irving story; by Steven Vincent Benét.
★ "Pan Twardowski", poem by Adam Mickiewicz
★ "Gimmicks Three", by Isaac Asimov
★ "That Hell-Bound Train", by Robert Bloch
★ ''Rosemary's Baby'', by Ira Levin
★ ''Damn Yankees'', musical theatre production and film by George Abbott and Stanley Donen
★ "The Bet", by Anton Chekhov
In film
★ ''The Devil and Daniel Webster'' (1941)
★ ''Bedazzled'' (1967)
★ ''Rosemary's Baby'' (1968)
★ ''Crossroads'' (1986)
★ ''Angel Heart'' (1987)
★ '' The Little Mermaid'' (1989)
★ ''Spawn'' (1997)
★ ''Bedazzled'' (2000)
★ ''Ghost Rider'' (2007)
In music
★ "Devil Went Down to Georgia" by The Charlie Daniels Band, a song about a fiddle contest between the Devil and boy named Johnny from Georgia.
★ "Friend of the Devil" by The Grateful Dead
★ "Deal with the Devil" by Mötley Crüe
★ "In the Presence of Enemies" by Dream Theater
★ "Cross Road Blues" by Robert Johnson
In television
★ ''The Collector (TV series)'', about a former monk who sold his soul to the Devil in the 1300s.
★ Multiple episodes of The Twilight Zone involved sales of character's souls to the devil or to demons.
★ In ''The Simpsons'' episode "Treehouse of Horror IV", Homer makes a pact with the devil for a donut.
★ The TV series ''G vs E'' featured several people who made deals with the forces of evil. These people were known collectively as "Faustians".
★ In ''Supernatural (TV series)'' episode "All Hell Breaks Loose, Part 2", Dean makes a pact with the red-eyed Demon to resuscitate his brother.
★ In ''Metalocalypse'' episode "Bluesklok", the band is told to make a deal with the devil to get blues-playing skill.
★ In the ''Futurama'' episode "The Devil's Hands are Idle Playthings", Fry makes a deal with the Robot Devil and they trade hands so Fry can play the holophonor.
See also
★ Osculum infame
★ Devil's Bridge
★ Fall of man
Notes
1. P.M. Palmer and R.P. More, ''The sources of the Faust tradition from Simon Magus to Lessing'', (New York) 1936.
2. Representative examples of the Latin tradition were analysed by Moshe Lazar, "Theophilus: Servant of Two Masters. The Pre-Faustian Theme of Despair and Revolt" in ''Modern Language Notes'' '87'.6, (Nathan Edelman Memorial Issue November 1972) pp 31-50.
External links
★ The Smith outwits the Devil: a Norwegian folktale
★ Black Button: a short film with a modern setting
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