Bloody tortures of the Middle Age Part 2

German theologian Georg Widman told how one night the devil was watching one salt the pot of boiling water. The devil sticks his nose into the crack in the wall of the house, Salter throws it in boiling water, and then the devil throwing the wizard across the river, and the boiler is over the hill. Here is an allegory: the nose is a penis and the devil is a salt to compete in who is more powerful ejaculation. First, it seems he manages to ward off the lustful demon, but he gets violent and takes revenge on the master for his scalded dignity.

Comic stories of this kind are rooted in folklore, they were told before the invention of printing. In the play of 1587 the English playwright Christopher Marlowe, tells the story of doctor Faustus who sold his soul to the devil (not to be confused with the tragedy “Faust” by Goethe, based on the same legend), also has something similar. For example, Faust meets a farmer who came into town with a wagon load of forage, and asks how much the man will pay him for what he will eat his load. Intrigued, the farmer gives money to his great surprise, Faust eats half forage.

Or Faust sells a few great horses to profiteer, but warns that the new owner will never be able to cross them over the river. Speculator is unable to resist the temptation at the first opportunity tries to do this, this is revealing what is underneath not a horse, and a pile of straw. In anger, he is looking for Faust, finds him sleeping and missing leg. Leg separated from the body of the doctor and is in the hands of a profiteer. “Murderer!” — shouts to Faust, and speculator in fear and runs.

These jokes do not exclude tragedy. In Faust the devil is the doctor in the image of the sorcerer with a good sense of humor, and then reveals itself as a terrifying force, destroying the main character, leaving only his blood and brains scattered around the room. Sam Faust appears a drunken brawler, an intellectual and a fraud. But at the same time, he, in fear of the coming end, asks his favorite disciples to dine with him one last time, and then sends them to sleep, knowing what must come before devil one.

Demonology actively exploited topics related to sex and body. Especially a lot of motifs in German literature of the seventeenth century. The spread of literacy and, consequently, expanding readership has opened rich possibilities for printers, and hence to authors. No wonder since almost all the literature dedicated to the devil and witches, wore including entertainment, especially when you consider that a witch hunt was on the decline.

In 1668, a German writer Johannes praetorius published a book Blockes-Berges Verrichtung dedicated to witches and the occult. Here and African witch-lesbian seduces respectable women, and Jewish spirits, eating menstrual blood, enjoying sexual liaisons with young men and making his way to the room mothers. Is complete of Pretorius and without coven — it is on the basis of his stories Goethe wrote his Faust.

In this collection, the reader meets up with old friends from treatises on demonology. Here the traveler watches as the widow — landlady of the house where he had stopped, went into the stable, takes the fork and disappears. The guest repeats her actions and falls on the Sabbath. This story is known by the engraving of Hans Baldung Greene 1544. Only now the history of the Sabbat have no warns and tells solely for the amusement of the audience.

In the book of Eberhard Happel “Wonders of the world”, published in 1683, also refers to the devil and the occult. In the Chapter devoted to Geology, the author argues that “the witches hold their meeting on may 1 of each year on mount St. Walburga”.

There is the story of “infernal mail”. In the Livonian hotel merchant meets a stranger who says he has an hour to fly to his house, to Holland and back. Merchant, of course, does not believe it, but the stranger disappears and returns after an hour with a silver spoon and a ring taken from the finger of the wife of a merchant. The stranger is of course, the devil, and the roots of the story go to the treatises of demonology, describing the witches, under cover of night, flying on the Sabbath, while their husbands sleep.

To 1690 years of demonology finally turned from the “science” of literary genre. Old demonic treatises were republished and had great success with the public who perceived them as entertaining reading.