216 devil
against his will as Victor III on May 24, 1086, and held a
reforming council at Benevento in August shortly before
his death on September 16, 1087 at Monte Cassino.
See alsoGREGORIAN REFORM.
Further reading:Herbert Bloch, Monte Cassino in the
Middle Ages,3 vols. (Rome: Edizioni di Storia e Letter-
atura, 1986); H. E. J. Cowdrey, The Age of Abbot
Desiderius: Montecassino, the Papacy, and the Normans in
the Eleventh and Early Twelfth Centuries(Oxford: Claren-
don Press, 1983).
devil (Satan, Beelzebub, Lucifer, Iblis)The devil as
the embodiment of evil appeared seldom in the Hebrew
BIBLEbut frequently in the New Testament in the Chris-
tian Bible. There was more than one fallen angel; the
chief angel was the devil or Satan. He was a spiritual
being whose object after his own fall from grace was to
tempt and induce people to sin. According to some,
demons were his helpers and the offspring of the fallen
angels or of devils and human females. His chief sin was
envy of GODor excessive pride; he was expelled from
heaven to HELLbecause of his overweening ambition to
seize divine power and be like God.
In the Middle Ages the devil and the concept of evil
was omnipresent and preoccupied Scholastic speculation,
with his qualities and powers intensely debated in the
schools. ALBERTUS MAGNUS and Thomas AQUINAS
believed that the devil as an angel was created in a state
of grace but chose to sin. This belief removed the respon-
sibility of creating evil from God. The devil was portrayed
in popular thought, dramatic presentations, and art as an
ugly, terrifying, and disgusting creature with horns and a
tail. He was always menacing and a treacherous creature
bent on leading humankind to HELL. The church claimed
to be able to control the devil and strengthen human
resolve against his temptations in particular by means of
the SEVEN SACRAMENTS.
In JUDAISM, his rare appearances in the Hebrew Bible
were essentially the same as that of the Christian devil
and with the same intentions. In Islam, the devil, or Iblis,
or Shaytan, was made of fire and was expelled from
Paradise for refusing to acknowledge Adam, or the first
person made by God, who was made only of clay. He later
tempted Eve and Adam in the Garden. He was either a
fallen angel or a jinn who represented or personified the
principle of evil.
See also ANGELS AND ANGELOGY; CHARMS; DRAMA;
DUALISM; EXORCISM;MANICHAEISM; SIN.
Further reading:Arturo Graf, The Story of the Devil,
trans. E. N. Stone (New York: Macmillan, 1931);
Richard P. H. Greenfield, Traditions of Belief in Late
Byzantine Demonology(Amsterdam: Adolf M. Hakkers,
1988); Henry Ansgar Kelly, The Devil at Baptism: Ritual,
Theology, and Drama(Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University
Press, 1985); Jeffrey Burton Russell, Lucifer: The Devil in
the Middle Ages(Ithaca, N.Y. Cornell University Press,
1984).Devotio Moderna (Modern devotion) The Devotio
Moderna was a late medieval reform movement in north-
ern Europe that promoted a new spirituality aimed at fos-
tering an evangelical and apostolic way of life for the
LAITYas well as the CLERGY. It had its roots around 1375
as a reaction to ecclesiastical abuses such as SIMONY,
declines in the standards of monastic life and the practice
of CELIBACY, and crushing ecclesiastical TAXATION. The
Devotio Moderna movement was initially closely related
to the movements of the BEGUINES AND BEGHARDS. It
really grew greatly after the scandals of the Great SCHISM
between 1378 and 1419 and was popular in the towns of
the modern-day NETHERLANDSand GERMANY.Satan and the lost souls of hell, from a book of hours, France,
probably Tours, ca. 1495–1500, Ms. M.356, fol. 64, The Pier-
pont Morgan Library, New York(The Pierpont Morgan Library /
Art Resource)