The Anatomy of Melancholy

This is what Plato strives to establish in his Phaedo and book 9 of the Republic.

The Turks do the same in their Quran when they assign rewards and distinct punishments to every particular virtue and vice; when they persuade people that those who die in battle will go straight to heaven, but those who live wickedly to eternal torment, and that everyone of every kind will be tortured in the grave for a fixed time, much like our papist purgatory. So it appears from the tract written in refutation of the Quran by John Baptista Alfaqui, that Moorish priest now converted to Christianity.

After a man’s death, two black angels, Nunquir and Nequir, as they call them, come to his grave and punish him for his former sins. If he lived well, they torture him less; if badly, with unceasing torments until judgement day: they punish him continually until the day of judgement. No living person hears them mentioned without shuddering and trembling all over. The thought of this torments them throughout their lives and makes them spend their days in fasting and prayer, so that these evils may not befall them, and so on.

A Tartar prince called the Old Man of the Mountains, says Marco Polo in book 1, chapter 28, wished to strengthen his rule over his subjects and keep them in awe. He found a suitable spot in a pleasant valley surrounded by hills, where he made a delightful park full of fragrant flowers and fruits, and a palace containing every worldly pleasure that could possibly be devised: music, pictures, varied foods, and so on. He selected a certain young man and stupefied him with a sleeping draught until he perceived nothing; then had him carried, fast asleep, into this beautiful garden.

After the young man had lived there for a while amid every pleasure a sensual man could desire, he put him to sleep again and brought him out, so that when he awoke he might tell others he had been in Paradise. He did the same for hell, and by this means brought his people into subjection.

Because heaven and hell are mentioned in Scripture and Christians must necessarily believe in them, the Devil and his ministers can cunningly imitate true religion, counterfeiting and inventing the like to ensnare and deceive his superstitious followers. Political schemers practise many such tricks and frauds, especially in China; I will discuss their effects under the symptoms.

Next to political schemers, if I may distinguish the two, come some of our priests, who turn religion into policy. Indeed they go far beyond them, for they lord it over princes and statesmen themselves. They practise butchery, one says; they tyrannize over people’s consciences more than any other tormentors whatsoever, partly for their own advantage and gain. For the abuse of all religions, as Postel holds, is caused by the profit made by the priests. They do it for supremacy and prestige, to maintain their position and reputation, out of ambition and avarice, their chief supports.