The Encyclopedia Of Demons And Demonology

210 Revelation
service, first with cajoling and promises of wealth, power,
love, or comfort, then with threats of disaster or death,
such as the following:
At Guermingen, 19th Dec., 1589, Antoine Welch no
longer dared oppose the Demon in anything after he
threatened to twist his neck unless he obeyed his commands,
for he seemed on the very point of fulfilling his
threat. . . . Certainly there are many examples in pagan
histories of houses being cast down, the destruction of
the crops, chasms in the earth, fiery blasts and other
such disastrous tempests stirred up by Demons for the
destruction of men for no other purpose than to bind
their minds to the observance of some new cult and to
establish their mastery more and more firmly over them.
Therefore we may first conclude that it is no mere
fable that witches meet and converse with Demons in
very person. Secondly, it is clear that Demons use the
two most powerful weapons of persuasion against the
feeble wills of mortals, namely, hope and fear, desire and
terror; for they well know how to induce and inspire
such emotions.
Remy believed that ghosts of the dead could not remain
on Earth and could not be summoned from the
grave through necromancy. Such entities, he said, were
demons masquerading as souls of the dead, and he cited
similar statements by St. Justin Martyr, one of the early
fathers of the church. Remy said the body is completely
dissolved by death and cannot be reconstituted in any
way. Ghosts were in reality “foul and unclean spirits” inhabiting
“stinking corpses.”
Remy’s claim of sending 900 witches to their deaths
cannot be corroborated by existing records; he cites only
128 cases himself in his book. Nevertheless, his arguments
impressed others as reasoned and beyond refute.
Demonolatry was an immediate success and was reprinted
eight times, including two German translations. It became
a leading handbook of witch hunters, replacing the
MALLEUS MALEFICARUM in some parts of Europe.
Remy continued in the service of the duke until his
death in Charmes in April 1612, secure in the righteousness
of his work.
FURTHER READING:
Finlay, Anthony. Demons! The Devil, Possession and Exorcism.
London: Blandford, 1999.
Remy, Nicholas. Demonolatry. Secaucus, N.J.: University
Books, 1974.
Revelation The last book of the New Testament,
which portrays a final conflict between the forces of
good and evil. Also called the book of the Apocalypse
and the Apocalypse of John, Revelation portrays the Second
Coming of Christ, the final triumph of the kingdom
of God, and the destruction of all evil. The opening
verse presents the book’s title as meaning either “the
Revelation (© RICHARD COOK)
revelation that Christ possesses and imparts” or “the
unveiling of the person of Christ.” It is a message sent
by God through the celestial Jesus to an angel and then
to the author, John.
Revelation is the only book of the New Testament
whose character is exclusively prophetic. The text has
been the subject of criticisms and commentaries for centuries
and was even controversial in the early times of
Christianity.
The book officially became part of the Christian
canon by the fourth century C.E. The identity of the author,
John, an exile on the island of Patmos, remains in
doubt. Even some of the church fathers assumed he was
John the Evangelist, the author of the Gospel of John. It is
more likely that the text was written by various authors
who blended Christian and Jewish symbolism.
There are four main schools of interpretation of the
book. The preterists (from the Latin term praeter, meaning
beyond or past) hold that the book tells the story of
the contemporary condition of the state of Rome and the
church, told in a mystical code that hides the meaning
from hostile pagans. Those of the historical school hold
that the symbolic form tells the story of the entire historical
life of the church, not just its contemporary condition.