Devil and scaly brood

Use in the book

At p. 7 the Devil and his scales appear beside God’s honour and the welfare of the practitioner and neighbour. The supplied translation takes the Devil's spite as something the good practitioner can value as confirmation that truth has enemies. The phrase is grammatically difficult and the modern note records its revised construal. Whatever the exact attachment, the antagonistic relation continues throughout the book.

The Beelzebubian swarm on p. 24 grows into slander-hornets, blow-flies and Devil's heads on pp. 31–322. Page 144 adds poisonous adders' tongues stabbing behind the author's back. These figures portray an abusive collective rather than specify the number or identities of actual critics. The p. 74 marginal apostrophe to “Cain” similarly charges an opponent with a murderous biblical role while declaring that he lies about philosophical obscurity; it does not establish that the man's name was Cain.

The scale vocabulary has a second, distinguishable use at pp. 41–422. There Saul's scales of blindness fall, and the figure is transferred to critics who may yet recognize the truth. That narrative gives evidence for the literal sense “scales,” but its use concerns removable blindness rather than simply a devilish retinue. On p. 153 Khunrath's straightforward phrase for the Devil's following provides further internal support for the collective application elsewhere.

The final defence at p. 182 refuses silence even if the Devil with his scales should rage and burst; the subscription ends with Phy Diabolo, “Fie upon the Devil,” before Amen. The opponent thus remains present even in the act of thanksgiving. The lexicon must preserve the historical author's demonizing rhetoric while refusing to turn it into an independent diagnosis of his opponents or of persons who reject his claims.

Places to read

1. 1599 p. 7The Devil and his scales enter the opening account of the gift and its opponents
2. 1599 p. 31Beelzebubian abuse organizes the swarm of hostile followers, continuing onto p. 32
3. 1599 p. 74 · marginAn unnamed opponent is apostrophized as Cain
4. 1599 p. 153The plain term for the Devil’s following clarifies the collective imagery
5. 1599 p. 182Public confession is defended despite the raging Devil and his scales
6. 1599 p. 187Phy Diabolo closes the antagonistic register before Amen

Translation in this edition

Preserve “scales” where that is the printed image, while explaining the contextual extension to followers. “Scaly brood” is the edition's interpretive English, not a separate zoological claim. The modern apparatus settles earlier uncertainty by comparing the occurrences; the lexicon should not conceal the interpretive history or confuse these scales with the falling scales in Acts.