The Anatomy of Melancholy

Another Turk, about to drink a cup of wine in his cellar, first made a tremendous noise and grotesque faces to warn his soul, he said, not to share the guilt of the foul deed he was about to commit. Such trifles keep people in fear and so cowed that they dare not resist or infringe the smallest detail of their law, because their conscience is misled by superstition. No human decree or force of arms could otherwise have imposed such obedience.

Last come false Christians. In describing their superstitious symptoms, a mixture of all the others, I may repeat what St Benedict once saw in a vision: one devil in the marketplace, but ten in a monastery, because there was more work there. In populous cities, people would swear, perjure themselves, lie, falsify and deceive readily enough on their own: one devil could ensnare a thousand. But in their religious houses a thousand devils could scarcely tempt one simple monk.

I think all the chief devils busy themselves undermining Christians. Jews, Gentiles and Muslims are “outside the fold,” out of the fold, and need no such attention: they offer no resistance, “for he neglects to assail those whom he feels he possesses by undisputed right”; they are his own already. But Christians have the shield of faith and sword of the Spirit with which to resist, and must endure a heavy bombardment before they can be overcome.

That the Devil is busiest among us who belong to the true Church is evident from the various forms of opposition, heresies and schisms he has raised in every age to overthrow it, especially in the Church of Rome, where Antichrist himself now sits and displays his skill. This mystery of iniquity began to work even in the apostles’ time. Many antichrists and heretics were abroad; many have arisen since, many are present now, and there will be more until the world’s end, to derange people’s minds and seduce and enslave their souls.

I know no better way to describe their symptoms than by dividing them into those who lead and those who are led. The leaders are heretics, schismatics, false prophets, impostors and their ministers. They have some symptoms in common and others peculiar to themselves. The common ones are madness, folly, pride, insolence, arrogance, affected singularity, perversity, obstinacy, shamelessness, and scorn and contempt for every other sect:

Bound to swear allegiance to no master’s words;

They approve nothing unless they first invent it themselves; no interpretation is good unless their infallible spirit dictates it. No one else may rank “second,” no, not even “third.” They alone are wise and learned in the truth; everyone is damned except themselves and their followers. “They massacre the Scriptures to fit their own subject,” says Tertullian: they slaughter Scripture and twist it like a wax nose to serve their own ends.