Michael Psellus on the Operation of Daemons

called Massalians (which, it must be admitted, is a desideratum original: "disideratum" (a thing needed or wanted).), and it seems to determine the true meaning of the expression "doctrines of demons" (1st Timothy 4:1).

We may further remark regarding the work, that it may be considered a fair specimen of the manner in which heathen philosophy was blended with Christian theology in the author's day, and of the plausible reasonings with which the most absurd theories were supported. It goes far to show that certain terms, which through ecclesiastical usage have obtained a harsh signification, had not acquired such a harsh meaning as early as the period in which Psellus' dialogue is set. It also relates an instance of demonic possession which cannot be accounted for on the supposition that such possessions were imaginary.

The necessity of informing the English reader of the distinction between a demon and the devil suggests itself here.1 Properly speaking, the Pagan mythology, though it taught a future state of punishment, had nothing analogous to the hell of revelation. Neither Charon, nor Pluto, nor Aeacus, nor Rhadamanthus bears the slightest resemblance to that apostate being who is variously designated Adversary, Tempter, and Slanderer. The local arrangement of the Pagan hell, and the administration of its punishments, essentially distinguished it from the hell of the Christian system. The Pagan hell was humorously divided into compartments, in which men were punished according to their respective misdeeds, and had, besides, a region attached called the Elysian Plains, to which heroes (first-rate characters, in the Pagan's estimate) were admitted immediately upon their death, and minor offenders after they had undergone a purgatorial process. It is true the Latin Christians adopted the term Inferni to express hell; yet that was rather because it was more convenient to adopt a term in general use—which, in its widest sense, included the idea of a future state of punishment—than because there was much natural fitness in the term to convey the idea intended. The Pagan world, for the most part, knew nothing whatever of the devil, though well acquainted with demons, and addicted to their worship. Nothing can be more clearly shown from Scripture than the fact that there is but one devil, whereas the demons are numerous. The distinction between them, though invariably observed in Scripture, has not been carried out in either our authorized