The History of the Devil, As Well Ancient as Modern: In Two Parts

Since then the Certainty of the Thing is so well establish’d, and there are so many good and substantial Witnesses ready to testify that he has a Cloven-Foot, and that they have seen it too; nay, and that we have Antiquity on our Side, for we have this Truth confirm’d by the Testimony of many Ages; why should we doubt it any longer? we can prove that many of our Ancestors have been of this Opinion, and divers learn’d Authors have left it upon Record, as particularly that learned Familiarist Mother Hazel, whose Writings are to be found in MS. in the famous Library at Pye-Corner; also the admir’d Joan of Amesbury, the History of the Lancashire Witches, and the Reverend Exorcist of the Devil’s of London, whose History is extant among us to this Day; all these and many more may be quoted, and their Writings referr’d to for the Confirmation of the Antiquity of this Truth; but there seems to be no Occasion for farther Evidence, ’tis enough, Satan himself, if he did not raise the Report, yet tacitly owns the Fact, at least he appears willing to have it believ’d, and be receiv’d as a general Truth for the Reasons above.

But besides all this, and as much a Jest as some unbelieving People would have this Story pass for, who knows but that if Satan is empower’d to assume any Shape or Body, and to appear to us visibly, as if really so shap’d; I say, who knows but he may, by the same Authority, be allow’d to assume the Addition of the Cloven-Foot, or two or four Cloven-Feet, if he pleased? and why not a Cloven-Foot as well as any other Foot, if he thinks fit? For if the Devil can assume a Shape, and can appear to Mankind in a visible Form, it may, I doubt not, with as good Authority be advanc’d that he is left at Liberty to assume what Shape he pleases, and to choose what Case of Flesh and Blood he’ll please to wear, whether real or imaginary; and if this Liberty be allow’d him, it is an admirable Disguise for him to come generally with his Cloven-Foot, that when he finds it for his Purpose, on special Occasions to come without it, as I said above, he may not be suspected; but take this with you as you go, that all this is upon a Supposition that the Devil can assume a visible Shape, and make a real Appearance, which however I do not yet think fit to grant or deny.

Certain it is, the first People who bestow’d a Cloven-Foot upon the Devil, were not so despicable as you may imagine, but were real Favourites of Heaven; for did not Aaron set up the Devil of a Calf in the Congregation, and set the People a dancing about it for a God? Upon which Occasion, Expositors tell us, that particular Command was given, Levit. xvii. 7. They shall no more offer their Sacrifices unto Devils, after whom they have gone a Whoring; likewise King Jeroboam set up the two Calves, one at Dan and the other at Bethel, and we find them charg’d afterwards with setting up the Worship of Devils instead of the Worship of God.

After this we find some Nations actually sacrificed to the Devil in the Form of a Ram, and others of a Goat; from which, and that above of the Calves at Horeb, I doubt not the Story of the Cloven-Foot first derived; and it is plain that the Worship of that Calf at Horeb is meant in the Scripture quoted above, Levit. xvii. 7. Thou shalt no more offer Sacrifices unto Devils: The Original is Seghnirim; that is, rough and hairy Goats or Calves; and some think also in this Shape the Devil most ordinarily appeared to the Egyptians and Arabians, from whence it was derived.

Also in the old Writings of the Egyptians, I mean their hieroglyphick Writing, before the Use of Letters was known, we are told this was the Mark that he was known by; and the Figure of a Goat was the Hieroglyphick of the Devil; some will affirm that the Devil was particularly pleased to be so represented; how they came by their Information, and whether they had it from his own Mouth or not, Authors have not yet determined.

But be this as it will, I do not see that Satan could have been at a Loss for some extraordinary Figure to have banter’d Mankind with, tho’ this had not been thought of; but thinking of the Cloven-Foot first, and the Matter being indifferent, this took place, and easily rooted it self in the bewildred Fancy of the People, and now ’tis riveted too fast for the Devil himself to remove it if he was disposed to try; but as I said above, ’tis none of his Business to solve Doubts or remove Difficulties out of our Heads, but to perplex us with more, as much as he can.

Some People carry this Matter a great deal higher still, and will have the Cloven-Foot be like the great Stone which the Brasilian Conjurers used to solve all difficult Questions upon, after having used a great many monstrous and barbarous Gestures and Distortions of their Bodies, and cut certain Marks or magical Figures upon the Stone; so, I say, they will have this Cloven-Foot be a kind of a Conjuring-Stone, and tell us, that in former Times, when Satan drove a greater Trade with Mankind in publick, than he has done of late, he gave this Cloven-Foot as a Token to his particular Favourites to work Wonders with, and to conjure by, and that Witches, Fairies, Hobgoblins, and such Things, of which the Antients had several Kinds, at least in their Imagination, had all a Goat’s Leg with a Cloven-Foot to put on upon extraordinary Occasions; it seems this Method is of late grown out of Practice, and so like the melting of Marble and the painting of Glass, ’tis laid aside among the various useful Arts which History tells us are lost to the World; what may be practised in the Fairy World, if such a Place there be, we can give no particular Account at present.

But neither is this all, for other wou’d-be-wise People take upon them to make farther and more considerable Improvements upon this Doctrine of the Cloven-Foot, and treat it as a most significant Instrument of Satan’s private Operation, and that as Joseph is said to Divine, that is to say, to conjure by his Golden Cup which was put into Benjamin’s Sack, so the Devil has managed several of his secret Operations, and Possessions, and other hellish Mechanisms upon the Spirits as well as Bodies of Men, by the Medium or Instrumentality of the Cloven-Foot; accordingly it had a Kind of an hellish Inspiration in it, and a separate and magical Power by which he wrought his infernal Miracles; that the Cloven-Foot had a superior Signification, and was not only emblematic and significative of the Conduct of Men, but really guided their Conduct in the most important Affairs of Life; and that the Agents the Devil employ’d to influence Mankind, and to delude them and draw them into all the Snares and Traps that he lays continually for their Destruction, were equipp’d with this Foot in Aid of their other Powers for Mischief.

Here they read us learn’d Lectures upon the sovereign Operations which the Devil is at present Master of, in the Government of human Affairs; and how the Cloven-Foot is an Emblem of the true double Entendre or divided Aspect, which the great Men of the World generally act with, and by which all their Affairs are directed; from whence it comes to pass that there is no such Thing as a single hearted Integrity, or an upright Meaning to be found in the World; that Mankind, worse than the ravenous Brutes, preys upon his own Kind, and devours them by all the laudable Methods of Flattery, Whyne, Cheat and Treachery; Crocodile like, weeping over those it will devour, destroying those it smiles upon, and, in a Word, devours its own Kind, which the very Beasts refuse, and that by all the Ways of Fraud and Allurement that Hell can invent; holding out a cloven divided Hoof, or Hand, pretending to save, when the very Pretence is made use of to ensnare and destroy.

Thus the divided Hoof is the Representative of a divided double Tongue, and Heart, an Emblem of the most exquisite Hypocrisy, the most fawning and fatally deceiving Flattery; and here they give us very diverting Histories, tho’ tragical in themselves, of the manner which some of the Devil’s inspired Agents have manag’d themselves under the especial Influence of the Cloven-Foot; how they have made War under the Pretence of Peace, murther’d Garrisons under the most sacred Capitulations, massacred innocent Multitudes after Surrenders to Mercy.

Again, they tell us the Cloven-Foot has been made use of in all Treasons, Plots, Assassinations, and secret as well as open Murthers and Rebellions. Thus Joab under the Treason of an Embrace, shew’d how dexterously he could manage the Cloven-Foot, and struck Abner under the fifth Rib: Thus David play’d the Cloven-Foot upon poor Uriah, when he had a Mind to lie with his Wife: Thus Brutus play’d it upon Cæsar; and to come nearer home, we have had a great many retrograde Motions in this Country by this magical Implement the Foot; Such as that of the Earl of Essex’s Fate, beheading the Queen of Scots, and diverse others in Queen Elizabeth’s Time: That of the Earl of Shrewsbury and Sir Thomas Overbury, Gondamor and Sir Walter Raleigh, and many others in King James the I.’s Time; in all which, if the Cloven-Foot had not been dexterously manag’d, those Murthers had not been so dexterously manag’d, or the Murtherers have so well been skreen’d from Justice; for which and the imprecated Justice of Heaven unappeased, some have thought the innocent Branches of the Royal House of Stuart did not fare the better in the Ages which follow’d.

It must be confess’d, the Cloven-Foot was in its full Exercise in the next Reign, and the Generation that rose up immediately after them, arrived to the most exquisite Skill for Management of it; here they fasted and pray’d, there they plunder’d and murther’d; here they rais’d War for the King, and there they fought against him, cutting Throats for God’s Sake, and deposing both King and kingly Government according to Law.

Nor was the Cloven-Foot unemployed on all Sides, for ’tis the main Excellency of this Instrument of Hell, that it acts on every Side, it is its denominating Quality, and is for that Reason call’d a cloven or divided Hoof.

This mutilated Apparition has been so publick in other Countries too, that it seems to convince us the Devil is not confin’d to England only, but that as his Empire extended to all the sublunary World, so he gives them all Room to see he is qualified to manage them his own Way.

What abundant Use did that Prince of Dissemblers, Charles V. make of this Foot? ’twas by the Help of this Apparition of the Foot that he baited his Hook with the City of Milan, and tickled Francis I. of France so well with it, that when he pass’d thro’ France, and was in that King’s Power, he let him go, and never get the Bait off of the Hook neither; it Seems the Foot was not on King Francis’s Side at that Time.

How cruelly did Philip II. of Spain manage this Foot in the Murther of the Nobility of the Spanish Netherlands, the Assassination of the Prince of Orange, and at last: in that of his own Son Don Carlos Infant of Spain? and yet such was the Devil’s Craft, and so nicely did he bestir his Cloven-Hoof, that this Monarch died consolated (tho’ impenitent) in the Arms of the Church, and with the Benediction of the Clergy too, those second best Managers of the said Hoof in the World.

I must acknowledge, I agree with this Opinion thus far; namely, that the Devil acting by this Cloven-Foot, as a Machine, has done great Things in the World for the propagating his dark Empire among us; and History is full of Examples, besides the little low priz’d Things done among us; for we are come to such a Kind of Degeneracy in Folly, that we have even dishonour’d the Devil, and put this glorious Engine the Cloven-Foot to such mean Uses, that the Devil himself seems to be asham’d of us.

But to return a little to foreign History, besides what has been mention’d above, we find flaming Examples of most glorious Mischief done by this Weapon, when put into the Hands of Kings and Men of Fame in the World: How many Games have the Kings of France play’d with this Cloven-Foot, and that within a few Years of one another? First, Charles IX. play’d the Cloven-Foot upon Gaspar Coligni Admiral of France, when he caress’d him, complimented him, invited him to Paris, to the Wedding of the King of Navarre, call’d him Father, kiss’d him, and when he was wounded sent his own Surgeons to take Care of him, and yet three Days after order’d him to be assassinated and murther’d, used with a thousand Indignities, and at last thrown out of the Window into the Street to be insulted by the Rabble?

Did not Henry III. in the same Country, play the Cloven-Foot upon the Duke of Guise, when he call’d him to his Council, and caus’d him to be murther’d as he went in at the Door? The Guises again plaid the same Game back upon the King, when they sent out a Jacobin Friar to assassinate him in his Tent as he lay at the Siege of Paris.

In a Word, this Opera of the Cloven-Foot has been acted all over the Christian World, ever since Judas betray’d the Son of God with a Kiss; nay, our Saviour says expresly of him, One of you is a Devil; and the sacred Text says in another Place, The Devil enter’d into Judas.

It would take up a great deal of Time and Paper too, to give you a full Account of the Travels of this Cloven-Foot; its Progress into all the Courts of Europe, and with what most accurate Hypocrisy Satan has made use of it upon many Occasions, and with what Success; but as in the elaborate Work of which I just now gave you a Specimen I design one whole Volume upon this Subject, and which I shall call, The compleat History of the Cloven-Foot; I say, for that Reason, and diverse others, I shall say but very little more to it in this Place.

It remains to tell you, that this merry Story of the Cloven-Foot is very essential to the History which I am now writing, as it has been all along the great Emblem of the Devil’s Government in the World, and by which all his most considerable Engagements have been answer’d and executed; for as he is said not to be able to conceal this Foot, but that he carries it always with him, it imports most plainly, that the Devil would be no Devil if he was not a Dissembler, a Deceiver, and carried a double Entendre in all he does or says; that he cannot but say one Thing and mean another, promise one Thing and do another, engage and not perform, declare and not intend, and act like a true Devil as he is, with a Countenance that is no Index of his Heart.

I might indeed go back to Originals, and derive this Cloven-Foot from Satan’s primitive State as a Cherubim or a celestial Being, which Cherubims, as Moses is said to have seen them about the Throne of God in Mount Sinai, and as the same Moses, from the Original represented them afterwards covering the Ark, had the Head and Face of a Man, Wings of an Eagle, Body of a Lion, and Legs and Feet of a Calf; but this is not so much to our present Purpose, for as we are to allow that whatever Satan had of heavenly Beauty before the Fall, he lost it all when he commenc’d Devil, so to fetch his Original so far up would be only to say, that he retain’d nothing but the Cloven-Foot, and that all the rest of him was alter’d and deform’d, become frightful and horrible as the Devil; but his Cloven-Foot, as we now understand it, is rather mystical and emblematick, and describes him only as the Fountain of Mischief and Treason, and the Prince of Hypocrites, and as such we are now to speak of him.

’Tis from this Original all the hypocritic World copy, he wears the Foot on their Account, and from this Model they act: This made our blessed Lord tell them, the Works of your Father ye will do, meaning the Devil, as he had express’d it just before.

Nor does he deny the Use of the Foot to the meaner Class of his Disciples in the World, but decently equips them all upon every Occasion with a needful Proportion of Hypocrisy and Deceit; that they may hand on the Power of promiscuous Fraud thro’ all his temporal Dominions, and wear the Foot always about them as a Badge of their profess’d Share in whatever is done by that Means.

Thus every Dissembler, every false Friend, every secret Cheat, every Bearskin-Jobber has a Cloven-Foot, and so far hands on the Devil’s Interest by the same powerful Agency of Art, as the Devil himself uses to act when he appears in Person, or would act if he was just now upon the Spot; for this Foot is a Machine which is to be wound up and wound down, as the Cause it appears for requires; and there are Agents and Engineers to act in it by Directions of Satan (the grand Engineer) who lies still in his Retirement, only issuing out his Orders as he sees convenient.

Again, every Class, every Trade, every Shopkeeper, every Pedlar, nay, that meanest of Tradesmen, that Church Pedlar the Pope, has a Cloven-Foot, with which he Paw wa’s upon the World, wishes them all well, and at the same time cheats them; wishes them all fed, and at the same time starves them; wishes them all in Heaven, and at the same time marches before them directly to the Devil, alamode de Cloven-Foot.

Nay, the very Bench, the everliving Foundation of Justice in the World; how often has it been made the Tool of Violence, the Refuge of Oppression, the Seat of Bribery and Corruption, by this Monster in Masquerade, and that every where (our own Country always excepted)? They had much better wipe out the Picture of justice blinded, and having the Sword and Scales in her Hand, which in foreign Countries is generally painted over the Seat of those who sit to do Justice, and place instead thereof a naked unarm’d Cloven-Hoof, a proper Emblem of that Spirit that Influences the World, and of the Justice we often see administred among them; human Imagination cannot form an Idea more suitable, nor the Devil propose an Engine more or better qualified for an Operation of Justice, by the Influence of Bribery and Corruption; it is this magnipotent Instrument in the Hands of the Devil, which under the closest Disguise agitates every Passion, bribes every Affection, blackens every Virtue, gives a double Face to Words and Actions, and to all Persons who have any Concern in them, and in a Word, makes us all Devils to one another.

Indeed the Devil has taken but a dark Emblem to be distinguish’d by, for this of a Goat was said to be a Creature hated by Mankind from the beginning, and that there is a natural Antipathy in Mankind against them: Hence the Scape Goat was to bear the Sins of the People, and to go into the Wilderness with all that Burthen upon him.

But we have a Saying among us, in Defence of which we must enquire into the proper Sphere of Action which may be assigned to this Cloven-Foot, as hitherto described: The Proverb is this; Every Devil has not a Cloven-Foot. This Proverb, instead of giving us some more favourable Thoughts of the Devil, confirms what I have said already, that the Devil rais’d this Scandal upon himself; I mean, the Report that he cannot conceal or disguise his Devil’s Foot, or Hoof, but that it must appear, under whatever Habit he shews himself; and the Reason I gave holds good still, namely, that he may be more effectually conceal’d when he goes abroad without it: For if the People were fully persuaded that the Devil could not appear without this Badge of his Honour, or Mark of his Infamy, take it as you will; and that he was bound also to shew it upon all Occasions, it would be natural to conclude, that whatever frightful Appearances might be seen in the World, if the Cloven-Foot did not also appear, we had no Occasion to look for the Devil, or so much as to think of him, much less to apprehend he was near us; and as this might be a Mistake, and that the Devil might be there while we thought our selves so secure, it might on many Occasions be a Mistake of very ill Consequence, and in particular, as it would give the Devil room to act in the Dark, and not be discover’d, where it might be most needful to know him.

From this short Hint, thus repeated, I draw a new Thesis, namely, That Devil is most dangerous that has no Cloven-Foot; or, if you will have it in Words more to the common Understanding, the Devil seems to be most dangerous when he goes without his Cloven-Foot.

And here a learned Speculation offers it self to our Debate, and which indeed I ought to call a Council of Casuists, and Men learned in the Devil’s Politicks, to determine:

Whether is most hurtful to the World, the Devil walking about without his Cloven-Foot, or the Cloven-Foot walking about without the Devil?

It is indeed a nice and difficult Question, and merits to be well enquir’d into; for which Reason, and diverse others, I have referr’d it to be treated with some Decency, and as a Dispute of Dignity sufficient to take up a Chapter by itself.

Chap. VII

Whether is most hurtful to the World, the Devil walking about without his Cloven-Foot, or the Cloven-Foot walking about without the Devil?

In discussing this most critical Distinction of Satan’s private Motions, I must, as the Pulpit Gentlemen direct us, explain the Text, and let you know what I mean by several dark Expressions in it, that I may not be understood to talk (as the Devil walks) in the dark.

1. As to the Devil’s walking about.

2. His walking without his Cloven-Foot.

3. The Cloven-Foot walking about without the Devil.

Now as I study Brevity, and yet would be understood too, you may please to understand me as I understand my self, thus.

1. That I must be allow’d to suppose the Devil really has a full Intercourse in, and through, and about this Globe, with Egress and Regress, for the carrying on his special Affairs, when, how, and where, to his Majesty, in his great Wisdom, it shall seem meet; that sometimes he appears and becomes visible, and that, like a Mastiff without his Clog, he does not always carry his Cloven-Foot with him. This will necessarily bring me to some Debate upon the most important Question of Apparitions, Hauntings, Walkings, &c. whether of Satan in human Shape, or of human Creatures in the Devil’s Shape, or in any other manner whatsoever.

2. I must also be allow’d to tell you that Satan has a great deal of Wrong done him by the general embracing vulgar Errors, and that there is a Cloven-Foot oftentimes without a Devil; or, in short, that Satan is not guilty of all the simple Things, no, or of all the wicked Things we charge him with.

These two Heads well settled will fully explain the Title of this Chapter, answer the Query mentioned in it, and at the same time correspond very well with, and give us a farther Prospect into the main and original Design of this Work, namely, The History of the Devil. We are so fond of, and pleased with the general Notion of seeing the Devil, that I am loth to disoblige my Readers so much as calling in question his Visibility would do. Nor is it my Business, any more than it is his, to undeceive them, where the Belief is so agreeable to them; especially since upon the whole ’tis not one Farthing matter, either on one Side or on the other, whether it be so or no, or whether the Truth of Fact be ever discovered or not.

Certain it is, whether we see him or no, here he is, and I make no doubt but he is looking on while I am writing this Part of his Story, whether behind me, or at my Elbow, or over my Shoulder, is not material to me, nor have I once turned my Head about to see whether he is there or no; for if he be not in the Inside, I have so mean an Opinion of all his extravasated Powers, that it seems of very little Consequence to me what Shape he takes up, or in what Posture he appears; nor indeed can I find in all my Enquiry that ever the Devil appear’d (Qua Devil) in any of the most dangerous or important of his Designs in the World; the most of his Projects, especially of the significant Part of them, having been carried on another way.