| <<Excerpt and
explanation taken from The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft & Demonology (see
below).>>
One of the most complete lists of devils
and their functions was reported by the celebrated exorcist Father Sebastien
Michaelis, in his Admirable History (1612). Balberith, a demon
possessing Sister Madeleine, at Aix-en-Provence, obligingly told the priest
not only the other devils possessing the nun, but added the special saints
whose function was to oppose them. Since the devils were angels who
had rebelled and fallen, they maintained their rank as ex-angels. The
angelic court had been invented in the fourth century, out of the writings
of Paul (Col. i. 16; Eph. i. 21), by the Pseudo-Dionysius, and consisted of
nine orders of angels (three hierarchies each of three orders):
First Hierarchy:
Seraphim
Cherubim
Thrones
Second Hierarchy:
Dominions
Principalities
Powers
Third Hierarchy:
Virtues
Archangels
Angels
Balberith gave many lesser devils
occupying Sister Madeleine, but the most important listed by Michaelis were
as follows:
First Hierarchy
1. Beelzebub was Prince of the
Seraphim, and next unto Lucifer. For all the princes, that is to say
all the chief of the nine choirs of angels, are fallen; and of the choir of
Seraphim there fell the three first, to wit, Lucifer, Beelzebub, and
Leviathan, who did all revolt. But the fourth, who was Michael, was
the first that resisted Lucifer, and all the rest of the good angels
followed him, so that now he is the chiefest amongst them all.
Lucifer, when Christ descended into hell, was there chained up, where he
commands all . . . . Beelzebub tempts men with pride. And as John the
Baptist holds Lucifer's place in Paradise . . . by his singular humility, so
Beelzebub has Francis for his adversary in heaven.
2. Leviathan is the Prince of the
same order, and is the ringleader of the heretics, tempting men with sins
that are directly repugnant unto faith. [Adversary: Peter the Apostle]
3. Asmodeus is of the same order.
He continues a Seraphin to this day, that is, he burns with the desire to
tempt men with his swine of luxuriousness, and is the prince of wantons.
[Adversary: John the Baptist]
4. Balberith is Prince of Cherubim.
He tempts men to commit homicides, and to be quarrelsome, contentious, and
blasphemous. [Adversary: Barnabas]
5. Astaroth, Prince of the Thrones,
is always desirous to sit idle and be at ease. He tempts men with
idleness and sloth. [Adversary: Bartholomew]
6. Verrine is also of the Thrones,
and next in place unto Astaroth, and tempts men with impatience. [Adversary:
Dominic]
7. Gressil is the third in the
order of Thrones, and tempts men with impurity and uncleanness. [Adversary:
Bernard]
8. Sonneillon is the fourth in the
order of Thrones, and tempts men with hatred against their enemies.
[Adversary: Stephen]
Second Hierarchy
9. Carreau, Prince of Powers,
tempts men with hardness of heart. [Adversaries: Vincent and Vincent
Ferrer]
10. Carnivean is also a Prince of
Powers, and does tempt men to obscenity and shamelessness. [Adversary: John
the Evangelist]
11. Oeillet is a Prince of
Dominions. He tempts men to break the vow of poverty. [Adversary:
Martin]
12. Rosier is the second in the
order of Dominions, and by his sweet and sugared words, he tempts men to
fall in love. His adversary in Heaven is Basil, who would not listen
to amorous and enchanting language.
13. Verrier is Prince of
Principalities, and tempts men against the vow of obedience, and makes the
neck stiff and hard as iron, and incapable to stoop under the yoke of
obedience. [Adversary: Bernard]
Third Hierarchy
14. Belias, Prince of the order of
Virtues, tempts men with arrogance. His adversary is Francis de Paul
for his great and dove-like humility. He also tempts gentlewomen to
prank up themselves with new-fangled attires, to make wantons of their
children, and to prattle unto them while mass is saying, and so to divert
them from the service of God.
15. Olivier, Prince of the
Archangels, tempts men with cruelty and mercilessness toward the poor.
[Adversary: Lawrence]
16. Iuvart is Prince of Angels, but
he is in another body [of another nun at Louviers] and hath not his abode
here [in Sister Madeleine].
Resource List:
(x) "The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft
and Demonology." Rossell Hope Robbins (1912). Bonanza Books.
New York. ©1959. 1981 Edition.
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