From the Middle Ages we know especially the devout devotion to God and the fear of the devil. Precisely this devil is interesting from the Middle Ages. He was in fact in many different possible methods depicted; experiential knowledge rich man, as a sample, or a klutz. How did the devil really well in the life of the Middle Ages?


Medieval World

The world of the Middle Ages, a highly structured whole. Everywhere was a system of fixed and hung all had multiple layers. This is in contrast to the chaos that we are often dished out films. The world of the Middle Ages was not only highly structured, but also especially around god and the devil spun. Wherever the church or god no explanation for it, was automatically attributed to the devil.


Presence of the Devil

One must imagine the Middle Ages believed that the devil could be everywhere. The earth itself was even totally corrupted by the devil, all one saw was affected. Indeed, their own senses could even be taken over by the devil. This extreme "power" of the devil led to a fear that people will fall in the arms of the church drove. One must also imagine that at that time hardly anyone did not believe, the heretics of that time were more people who do not believe in Jesus or too much than they actually do not believe in a god and a devil believed. The one who could get together that someone would deny God, the devil, so he would also deny his own existence, something not so smart.


The shapes of the Devil

The reason we have the devil in many different forms return in the middle is due to the structure that faith. To Christianity were the Germanic believe that an awful lot of demons were after, both good and bad. Christianity was precisely because the existing success and believe in Christianity took as much as possible, by entering a Christian spin on it. The result is that the Catholic Church at that time had a complete hierarchy of devils, devils disciple of Lucifer to themselves.

The devil was also because they take any form he wanted, he could even fly. The only thing the devil could not was the form of a perfect human Adopt a perfect human being is something only God could create. So we see, the devil is portrayed as a man, always a little flaw: little horns, hoofs, or send a squinting eye (like Mariken van Nimwegen). Additionally featured the devil a filthy air, he had constantly winds and smelled like shit.

From these manifestations of the devil, we still do not understand why sometimes the devil is portrayed as a klutz and an idiot. That is precisely due to the fear they had for the devil. All these caricatures of devils are meant to laugh with each other, the fear that the devil would disappear. Precisely because the devil stupid to propose and to laugh about, they got some confidence that they could do something against the devil.


Types of devils

One must see the medieval hierarchy of devils as they were intended, because they were fallen angels. A complete ranking was the result. Underneath we see the devils disciple, who had to visit monasteries for monks to catch on sins like to sing beautifully (pride) or prayers rush. Then it moved up the ranking demon, to market the merchants to catch the fraud and the like. The really good devils were graduated at the hermits, who were the most difficult to execute because of sin. At the top was, of course, Lucifer himself. There are also many devils with special gifts, Incubus example was in the body of a man crawling to steal his seed. This seed then he brought in a sleeping, unsuspecting woman, who would bear a child Satan. Of course the women do recognize this, because then she woke up with a cold sensation between her legs. The sperm of the devil was in fact ice and cold.

It is remarkable that in the Middle Ages was a handsome devil. This devil has subsequently disappeared from the Catholic faith, but there are many sources. This is precisely the specter helped people with his powers. There are stories that he helps a woman through a drug for her to get out of Arabia. The devil, however, was recognized because he performed within half hour, so how nice he was, but he was banished. This devil must be seen as one of those relics of the ancient Germanic cultures, which were a lot of demons, both good and bad.

Also remarkable is that the devil, like God at the time, was often presented as a very human figure: he was angry, scared, etc. This could have known tales which the devil a specific student refuses access to the hell, he is concerned that this student would seduce his wife. Another remarkable fact is that the devil, if it is disguised as humans, often made use of the beauty of the woman or just a guy who played very much aware of. Both suspects were already in the Middle Ages, both on beautiful women as people with too much knowledge. There were all those with suspected defects in advance, because the devil always wore a defect with him when he became a wanted man show.