Deal with the Devil

Saint Wolfgang and the Devil, by Michael Pacher.

A deal with the Devil, pact with the Devil, or Faustian bargain is a cultural motif widespread wherever the Devil is vividly present, most familiar in the legend of Faust and the figure of Mephistopheles, but elemental to many Christian folktales. In the Aarne-Thompson typological catalogue, it lies in category AT 756B – "The devil's contract."

According to traditional Christian belief in witchcraft, the pact is between a person and Satan or any other demon (or demons); the person offers his or her soul in exchange for diabolical favours. Those favours vary by the tale, but tend to include youth, knowledge, wealth, or power. It was also believed that some persons made this type of pact just as a sign of recognizing the Devil as their master, in exchange for nothing. Regardless, the bargain is a dangerous one, for the price of the Fiend's service is the wagerer's soul. The tale may have a moralizing end, with eternal damnation for the foolhardy venturer. Conversely it may have a comic twist, in which a wily peasant outwits the Devil, characteristically on a technical point.
Among the credulous, any apparently superhuman achievement might be credited to a pact with the Devil, from the numerous European Devil's Bridges to the superb violin technique of Niccolò Paganini.

Overview

It was usually thought that the person who had made a pact also promised the demon to kill children or consecrate them to the Devil at the moment of birth (many midwives were accused of this, due to the number of children that died at birth in the Middle Ages and Renaissance), take part in Sabbaths, have sexual relations with demons, and sometimes engender children from a succubus, or incubus in the case of women.

The pact can be oral or written. An oral pact is made by means of invocations, conjurations, or rituals to attract the demon; once the conjurer thinks the demon is present, he/she asks for the wanted favour and offers his/her soul in exchange, and no evidence is left of the pact; but according to some witch trials and inquisitions that were performed, even the oral pact left evidence, namely the diabolical mark, an indelible mark where the marked person had been touched by the devil to seal the pact. The mark could be used as a proof to determine that the pact was made. It was also believed that on the spot where the mark was left, the marked person could feel no pain. A written pact consists in the same forms of attracting the demon, but includes a written act, usually signed with the conjurer's blood (although sometimes was also alleged that the whole act had to be written with blood, meanwhile some demonologists defended the idea of using red ink instead of blood and others suggested the use of animal blood instead of human blood). Forms of these include contracts or simply signing your name into Satan's Red Book.

These acts were presented often as a proof of diabolical pacts, though critics claim there is no proof of whether they were authentic, written by insane persons believing they were actually dealing with a demon or just were fake acts presented by the tribunals of the Inquisition. Usually the acts included strange characters that were said to be the signature of a demon, and each one had his own signature or seal. Books like The Lesser Key of Solomon (also known as Lemegeton Clavicula Salomonis) give a detailed list of these signs, known as seal of the demons.

The Malleus Maleficarum discusses several alleged instances of pacts with the Devil, especially concerning women. It was considered that all witches and warlocks had made a pact with some demon, especially with Satan.

According to demonology, there is a specific month, day of the week, and hour to call each demon, so the invocation for a pact has to be done at the right time. Also, as each demon has a specific function, a certain demon is invoked depending on what the conjurer is going to ask.

Although some examples have surfaced, they are usually found to be null and void, since they usually flout several principles of contract law including; Meeting of the minds, Undue influence and Impossibility.

The meaning of the term deal with the devil has expanded its meaning to include exchanges which do not involve the devil, but involve pursuing a goal (e.g. revenge) by taking actions that are evil (e.g. murder).

Theophilus of Adana, servant of two masters

The predecessor of Faustus in Christian mythology is Theophilus ("Friend of God" or "Beloved of god") the unhappy and despairing cleric, disappointed in his worldly career by his bishop, who sells his soul to the Devil but is redeemed by the Virgin Mary. His story appears in a Greek version of the sixth century written by a "Eutychianus" who claims to have been a member of the household in question. A ninth-century Miraculum Sancte Marie de Theophilo penitente inserts a Jew as intermediary with diabolus, his "patron", providing the prototype of a closely-linked series in the Latin literature of the West. In the tenth century, the poet nun Hroswitha of Gandersheim adapted the text of Paulus Diaconus for a narrative poem that elaborates Theophilus' essential goodness and internalizes the forces of Good and Evil, in which the Jew is magus, a necromancer. As in her model, Theophilus receives back his contract from the Virgin, displays it to the congregation, and soon dies. A long poem on the subject by Gautier de Coincy (1177/8–1236), entitled Comment Theophilus vint a pénitence provided material for a thirteenth-century play by Rutebeuf, Le Miracle de Théophile, where Theophilus is the central pivot in a frieze of five characters, the Virgin and the Bishop flanking him on the side of Good, the Jew and the Devil on the side of Evil.

Alleged diabolical pacts in history

Musicians

The idea of "selling your soul for instrumental mastery/fame" has occurred several times within music usually in guitar dominated genres and more specifically in pre-World War II rural Blues. Bluesmans' crossroads, located in Tchula Junction, Mississippi, is said to be the universal meeting grounds for such exchange. It was said that in your twenty-seventh year the devil would come to collect his property .

• Niccolò Paganini, Italian violinist, who may not have started the rumour but played along with it.
• Giuseppe Tartini, Venetian violinist and composer, who believed that his Devil's Trill Sonata was inspired by the Devil's appearance before him in a dream.
• Tommy Johnson, blues musician
• Robert Johnson, blues musician, who some people claimed he met with Satan at the crossroads and signed over his soul to play the blues and gain mastery of the guitar.
• Infernus - a practitioner of Theistic Satanism - made a 'pact with the Devil' upon founding the black metal band Gorgoroth.
• Led Zeppelin - British rock band, who, according to various rumors, "sold their souls to the Devil" to become the greatest band of all time. This can be evidenced by the message found in the band's legendary single "Stairway to Heaven" when the song is played backwards during the "If there's a bustle in your hedge row" section.

Non-Musicians

• Urbain Grandier A notorious case of a diabolical pact was the one that cost Urbain Grandier his life. One of the pacts was redacted in Latin; the other is written in abbreviated, backwards Latin (which is readable when reversed), and signed by several "demons", one of them Satan, whose name was clearly written "Satanas" (see the article on Urbain Grandier for the original pact). It is strongly suspected that the "pact" in question was counterfeited for (human) political ends.
• Gilles de Rais (executed)
• Johann Georg Faust Likely source for the Faust legend.
• Jonathan Moulton 18th century Brigadier General of the New Hampshire Militia, alleged to have sold his soul to the devil to have his boots, hung by the fireplace, filled with gold coins every month.

See also

• Deals with the Devil in popular culture
• Osculum infame
• Devil's Bridge
• Fall of man
• Pact ink
• Works based on Faust

External links

• The Smith outwits the Devil: a Norwegian folktale