Part 31 (1/2)

Whether this spirited description was written by Caedmon, and whether it is of his century, are questions unimportant to the present inquiry. The poem represents a mediaeval notion which long prevailed, and which characterised the Mysteries, that Satan and his comrades were humiliated from the highest angelic rank to a h.e.l.l already prepared and peopled with devils, and were there, and by those devils, severely punished. One of the illuminations of the Caedmon ma.n.u.script, preserved in the Bodleian Library, shows Satan undergoing his torment (Fig. 3). He is bound over something like a gridiron, and four devils are torturing him, the largest using a scourge with six p.r.o.ngs. His face manifests great suffering. His form is mainly human, but his bushy tail and animal feet indicate that he has been transformed to a devil similar to those who chastise him.

On Caedmon's foundation Milton built his gorgeous edifice. His Satan is an ambitious and very English lord, in whom are reflected the whole aristocracy of England in their hatred and contempt of the holy Puritan Commonwealth, the Church of Christ as he deemed it. The ages had brought round a similar situation to that which confronted the Jews at Babylon, the early Christians of Rome, and their missionaries among the proud pagan princes of the north. The Church had long allied itself with the earlier Lucifers of the north, and now represented the proud empire of a satanic aristocracy, and the persecuted Nonconformists represented the authority of the King of kings. In the English palace, and in the throne of Canterbury, Milton saw his Beelzebub and his Satan.

Th' infernal serpent; he it was, whose guile, Stirred up with envy and revenge, deceived The mother of mankind, what time his pride Had cast him out from heav'n, with all his host Of rebel angels, by whose aid aspiring To set himself in glory above his peers He trusted to have equall'd the Most High, If he opposed; and with ambitious aim Against the throne and monarchy of G.o.d Raised impious war in heav'n, and battle proud, With vain attempt. Him the almighty Power Hurl'd headlong flaming from th' ethereal sky, With hideous ruin and combustion, down To bottomless perdition, there to dwell In adamantine chains and penal fire, Who durst defy th' Omnipotent to arms. [61]

This adaptation of the imagery of Isaiah concerning Lucifer has in it all the thunder hurled by Cromwell against Charles. Even a Puritan poet might not altogether repress admiration for the dash and daring of a Prince Rupert, to which indeed even his prosaic co-religionists paid the compliment of ascribing to it a diabolical source. [62] Not amid conflicts that raged in ancient Syria broke forth such lines as--

Better to reign in h.e.l.l, than serve in heav'n.

With rallied arms to try what may be yet Regain'd in heav'n, or what more lost in h.e.l.l.

The Bel whom Milton saw was Cromwell, and the Dragon that serpent of English oppression which the Dictator is trampling on in a well-known engraving of his time. In the history of the Reformation the old legend did manifold duty again, as in the picture (Fig. 13) by Luther's friend Lucas Cranach.

It would seem that in the course of time Bel and the Dragon became sufficiently close allies for their wors.h.i.+ppers to feed and defend them both with equal devotion, and for Daniel to explode them both in carrying on the fight of his deity against the G.o.ds of Babylon. This story of Bel is apocryphal as to the canon, but highly significant as to the history we are now considering. Although the Jews maintained their struggle against 'princ.i.p.alities and powers' long after it had been a forlorn hope, and never surrendered, nor made alliance with the Dragon, the same cannot be said of those who appropriated their t.i.tle of 'the chosen of G.o.d,' counterfeited their covenant, and travestied their traditions. The alliance of Christianity and the Dragon has not been nominal, but fearfully real. In fulfilling their mission of 'inheriting the earth,' the 'meek' called around them and pressed into their service agents and weapons more diabolical than any with which the Oriental imagination had peopled the abode of devils in the north.

At a Fair in Tours (August 1878) I saw two exhibitions which were impressive enough in the light they cast through history. One was a shrunken and sufficiently grotesque production by puppets of the Mediaeval 'Mystery' of h.e.l.l. Nearly every old scheme and vision of the underworld was represented in the scene. The three Judges sat to hear each case. A devil rang a bell whenever any culprit appeared at the gate. The accused was ushered in by a winged devil--Satan, the Accuser--who, by the show-woman's lips, stated the charges against each with an eager desire to make him or her out as wicked as possible. A devil with pitchfork received the sentenced, and shoved them down into a furnace. There was an array of brilliant dragons around, but they appeared to have nothing to do beyond enjoying the spectacle. But this exhibition which was styled 'Twenty minutes in h.e.l.l,' was poor and faint beside the neighbouring exhibition of the real h.e.l.l, in which Europe had been tortured for fifteen centuries. Some industrious Germans had got together in one large room several hundreds of the instruments of torture by which the nations of the West were persuaded to embrace Christianity. Every limb, sinew, feature, bone, and nerve of the human frame had suggested to christian inventiveness some ingenious device by which it might be tortured. Wheels on which to break bones, chairs of anguish, thumbscrews, the iron Virgin whose embrace pierced through every vital part; the hunger-mask which renewed for Christ's sake the exact torment of Tantalus; even the machine which bore the very name of the enemy that was cast down--the Dragon's Head! By such instrumentalities came those quasi-miraculous 'Triumphs of the Cross,'

of which so much has been said and sung! The most salient phenomenon of christian history is the steady triumph of the Dragon. Misleader and Deceiver to the last, he is quite willing to sprinkle his fork and rack with holy water, to cross himself, to label his caldrons 'divine justice,' to write CHRIST upon his forehead; by so doing he was able to spring his infernal engine on the best nations, and cow the strongest hearts, till from their pallid lips were wrung the 'confessions of faith,' or the last cry of martyred truth. So was he able to a.s.sault the pure heavens once more, to quench the stars of human faith and hope, and generate a race of polite, learned, and civilised hypocrites. But the ancient sunbeams are after him: the mandate has again gone forth, 'Let there be light,' and the Light that now breaks forth is not of that kind which respects the limit of Darkness.

CHAPTER XII.

STRIFE.

Hebrew G.o.d of War--Samael--The father's blessing and curse--Esau --Edom--Jacob and the Phantom--The planet Mars--Tradesman and Huntsman--'The Devil's Dream.'

Who is this that cometh from Edom, In dyed garments from Bozrah?

This that is glorious in his apparel, Travelling in the greatness of his strength?

I who promise deliverance, mighty to save.

Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, And thy garments like him that treadeth the wine-vat?

I have trodden the wine-press alone; And of the peoples there was none with me: And I will tread them in mine anger, And trample them in my fury; And their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, And I will stain all my raiment.

For the day of vengeance is in my heart, And the year of mine avenged is come.

And I looked, and there was none to help; And I wondered that there was none to uphold; Therefore mine own arm gained me the victory, And mine own fury, it upheld me.

And I will tread down the peoples in mine anger, And make them drunk in my wrath, And will bring down their strength to the earth. [63]

This is the picture of the G.o.d of War. Upon it the comment in Emek Hammelech is: 'The colour of the G.o.dless Samael and of all his princes and lords has the aspect of red fire; and all their emanations are red. Samael is red, also his horse, his sword, his raiment, and the ground beneath him, are red. In the future the Holy G.o.d shall wear his raiment.' [64] Samael is leader of the Opposition. He is the Soul of the fiery planet Mars. He is the Creator and inspirer of all Serpents. Azazel, demon of the Desert, is his First Lord. He was the terrestrial Chief around whom the fallen angels gathered, and his great power was acknowledged. All these characters the ancient Rabbins found blended in his name. Simme (dazzling), Some (blinding), Semol (the left side), and Samhammaveth (deadly poison), were combined in the terrible name of Samael. He ruled over the sinister Left. When Moses, in war with the Amalekites, raised his ten fingers, it was a special invocation to the Ten Sephiroth, Divine Emanations, because he knew the power which the Amalekites got from Samael might turn his own left hand against Israel. [65] The scapegoat was a sacrifice to him through Azazel.

Samael is the mythologic expression and embodiment of the history of Esau, afterward Edom. Jacob and Esau represented the sheep and the goat, divided in the past and to be sundered for ever. As Jacob by covering his flesh with goat-skins obtained his father's blessing due to Esau, the Israelites wandering through the wilderness (near Edom's forbidden domain) seemed to have faith that the offering of a goat would convince his Viceroy Azazel that they were orthodox Edomites. The redness of Samael begins with the red pottage from which Esau was called Edom. The English version does not give the emphasis with which Esau is said to have called for the pottage--”the red! the red!” The characteristics ascribed to Esau in the legend are merely a saga built on the local names with which he was a.s.sociated. 'Edom' means red, and 'Seir' means hairy. It probably meant the 's.h.a.ggy Mountains.' [66]