The Encyclopedia Of Demons And Demonology

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since the early days of the religion. He believed firmly in
predestination, that a human being has no free will but
can follow only the will of God for good or the will of
SATAN for evil. God embraces both good and evil. God is
good but allows, even wills, evil. God uses the Devil to
weed out the unworthy; therefore, the Devil is actually
the servant of God. Even though God allows evil, God
fights evil at every opportunity.
From childhood, Luther felt attacked by DEMONs
and evil spirits; attacks increased as he grew older and
reached great intensity while he was exiled at Wartburg
and was at work on translating the Bible into German.
He attributed his mood swings and depressions to the
operations of demons, as well as his ongoing health
problems. He said he combated them with prayer and
“happy song.” Reportedly, he was pestered one night by
the Devil and drove him away by throwing his inkwell
at him. An ink stain remained in his room at the castle
for a long time. He also said that he drove the Devil
away with ink, which may have been a reference to his
writings.
He was completely believing of the evil nature and
powers of witches and their allegiance to the Devil, stating,
“I should have no compassion on these witches; I
would burn all of them. We read in the old law that the
priests threw the first stones at these malefactors. . . .
Does not witchcraft, then, merit death, which is a revolt
of the creature against the Creator, a denial to God of the
authority which it accords to the demon?”
Luther said his mother had been harassed by a witch,
who had cursed him and his siblings to cry themselves to
death. The CURSE was broken by a preacher who collected
the witch’s footprints and threw them into a river.
Luther believed that witches shape shifted into animal
forms and flew through the air to SABBATs. The Devil
caused diseases, he said, by making them appear to have
natural causes. Many physicians do not realize this, he
said, and should add faith and prayer to their medical
treatments. All mentally ill people are under POSSESSION
by the Devil, Luther said, and are possessed with God’s
permission. They are capable of blasting crops, brewing
tempests and storms, and causing pestilence, fires, fevers,
and severe diseases.
He said people do engage in pacts with the Devil to further
their selfish gains, but there is always a heavy price
to pay. He related a case of a sorcerer in Erfurt who tried
to escape his poverty by making such a pact. The Devil
gave him a crystal for divination, which the sorcerer used
to become rich. But he accused innocent people of theft
and was arrested. He confessed to his pact and repented
but was burned at the stake anyway.
Luther also said the Devil raped maidens bathing in
water and impregnated them, then took their infants and
exchanged them for others, much as in lore of the FAIRIES
and their changelings. The changelings never lived beyond
18 or 19 years of age.
According to one story, the Devil himself visited
Luther while he was studying at the University of Wittenberg.
He arrived disguised as a monk and asked for
Luther’s advice on “papal errors.” The “monk” continued
interrogating Luther, who grew impatient. Then Luther
saw that his visitor had hands like bird talons, and he
ordered him to depart. The Devil gave out a great stinking
fart and left. The stench lasted for days.
Luther performed at least one EXORCISM, on a pastor
from Torgau who went to him for advice. The Devil
had been tormenting him for a year, the pastor said, by
throwing around pots and dishes, breaking them, and
laughing at him while remaining invisible. The pastor’s
wife and children wanted to move. Luther told him to
have patience and to pray. He ordered the demon to
depart.
Luther also believed that as one advances in faith, the
Devil increases attacks upon him. He felt this in his own
life, enduring physical distress, poltergeist disturbances,
and mental interferences that he attributed to the Devil.
He considered the pope to be the ANTICHRIST.
After the start of the Reformation, tales circulated that
Luther had been born of the Devil, a common accusation
levied against religious and political enemies of all
kinds. According to one, the Devil disguised himself as
a merchant of jewelry and went to Wittenberg, where he
encountered Margarita, his mother, and seduced her. After
Luther’s birth, the Devil counseled him in how to advance
himself in the world. He did well at school, became
a monk, ravished a nun, and then rejected his monastic
life. He went to Rome, where he was treated poorly by
the pope and his cardinals. He asked his father how to
exact revenge and was told to write a commentary upon
the Lord’s Prayer. The commentary vaulted him into the
spotlight, and he became the chief purveyor of the heresy
that became Protestantism.
FURTHER READING:
Bainton, Ronald. Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther. New
York, Penguin, 1995.
Lea, Henry Charles. Materials toward a History of Witchcraft.
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1939.
Russell, Jeffrey Burton. Mephistopheles: The Devil in the Modern
World. Ithaca, N.Y., and London: Cornell University
Press, 1986.
Weyer, Johann. On Witchcraft (De praestigiis daemonum).
Abridged. Edited by Benjamin G. Kohl and H. C. Erik
Midelfort. Asheville, N.C.: Pegasus Press, 1998.
lutin French name for a hobgoblin common in French
folklore and fairy tales. The lutin is either male or female;
a female is called a lutine. The lutin is comparable to
house spirits such as brownies, and to elves, fairies,
gnomes, imps, leprechauns, pixies, and sprites.
The lutin has a trickster nature. It can choose to be
invisible. In some tales, it becomes invisible by donning a
red cap with two feathers.