Devil Worship
The meaning of this compound term is sufficiently obvious, for all must be familiar
with the significance of its two component parts. But the thing denoted by the
name is by no means so easy to understand. For there is such a strange
startling incompatibility between the notion of devil and that of an object of
worship, that the combination in this case may well present a grave difficulty.
And the more we are able to understand about the character and history of the
Devil and about the true nature of worship, the more difficult is it to believe that
men can have been led, even in the utmost extremity of folly and wickedness, to
worship the Devil. Yet, incredible as it may seem, it is unfortunately true that
some worship of this kind has prevailed at many times and among widely
different races of mankind. The following considerations may help in some degree
to lighten the difficulty presented by this singular phenomenon.
In the first place it may be well to recall the analogy between the worship given to
a divine being and the tribute paid to a king. Both alike are sensible proofs of
service and subjection. In the case of kings, besides the willing service paid to a
just and legitimate sovereign, there may be tribute paid to some alien oppressors
or blackmail grudgingly given to some pirate Chief or marauder in order to
deprecate the evils that may be feared at his hands. And so in the case of
religious worship, we may find that in the rude polytheism of barbarous races,
where the gods were not only many in number but various in character, besides
the willing worship given to good and beneficent beings in the service of love and
gratitude, there is a sort of liturgical blackmail offered to the evil and malignant
gods or demons in order to placate them and avert their anger. In like manner,
when we pass from Polytheism to the philosophic Dualism--where the worlds of
light and darkness, good and evil, sharply defined, are constantly warring against
each other over against the good men, who offer worship to the good god, Ahura
Mazda, there are the wicked Daeva-worshippers who sacrifice to the Demons
and to Ahriman their chief, the principle of evil.
Another source of this strange worship may be found in the fact that in the early
days each nation had its own natural gods; hence racial rivalry and hatred
sometimes led one nation to regard the protecting divinities of its enemies as evil
demons. In this way many who merely worshipped gods whom they themselves
regarded as good beings would be called devil worshippers by men of other
nations. Such may be the case with the Daeva-worshippers in the Avesta. In the
same way the Greeks and Romans may have worshipped their divinities, fondly
believing them to be good. But the Christian Scriptures declare that all the gods
of the Gentiles are demons.
This declaration, it may be added, was not the utterance of a rival race but the
teaching of Holy Scripture. For as the Fathers and theologians explain the
matter, the fallen angels besides tempting and assailing men in other ways have,
by working on their fears or exciting their cupidity, brought them to give worship
to themselves under the guise of idols. If not in all cases, it would seem that
much of the heathen idolatrous worship, especially in its worst and most
degraded forms, was offered to the devils. This may explain some of the
manifestations in the old pagan oracles. And something of the same kind occurs
in the demonic manifestations among the modern demonolaters in India. Nor has
this been confined to heathen nations, for in connection with magical practices
and occultism some forms of devil worship appear in the heresy history of
medieval Europe. Görres, in his great work on Christian Mysticism, gives some
curious and repulsive details of their obscene ceremonial. Of late years there
seems to have been a recrudescence of this evil superstition in certain countries
of Europe. While there is some authentic evidence as to the existence of these
evil practices, the truth is overlaid with a mass of legend, many charges of this
kind are false or grossly exaggerated, and a number of innocent persons have
been cruelly put to death on charges of witchcraft or devil worship. It is well also
to remember St. Augustine's words: "Non uno modo sacrificatur traditoribus
angelis"; and possibly calumny and cruelty may be more dangerous forms of
devil worship than all the dark rites of African Medicine men or medieval
magicians.
W. H. Kent
Transcribed by Rick McCarty
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume IV
Copyright © 1908 by Robert Appleton Company
Online Edition Copyright © 1999 by Kevin Knight
Nihil Obstat. Remy Lafort, Censor
Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York
The Catholic Encyclopedia: NewAdvent.org