and
sixteenth centuries. They are all, or almost all, agreed that antique
paganism was the work of the devil, and that idolatry was, at any rate in
part, a worship of demons. From the Middle Ages I can adduce a pregnant
expression of the same view from Thomas Aquinas; in his treatment of
idolatry and also of false prophecy he definitely accepts the demonology
of the early Church. On this point he appeals to Augustine, and with
perfect right; from this it may presumably be assumed that the Schoolmen
in general had the same view, Augustine being, as we know, an authority
for Catholic theologians.

In mediaeval poets also we occasionally find the same view expressed. As
far as I have been able to ascertain, Dante has no ancient gods among his
devils, and the degree to which he had dissociated himself from ancient
paganism may be gauged by the fact that in one of the most impassioned
passages of his poem he addresses the Christian God as "Great Jupiter."
But he allows figures of ancient mythology such as Charon, Minos and
Geryon to appear in his infernal world, and when he designates the pagan
gods as "false and _untruthful_," demonology is evidently at the back of
his mind. The mediaeval epic poets who dealt with antique subjects took
over the pagan gods more or less. Sometimes, as in the Romance of Troy,
the Christian veneer is so thick that the pagan groundwork is but slightly
apparent; in other poems, such as the adaptation of the _Aeneid_, it is
more in evidence. In so far as the gods are not eliminated they seem as a
rule to be taken over quite naively from the source without further
comment; but occasionally the poet expresses his view of their nature.
Thus the French adapter of Statius's _Thebais_, in whose work the
Christian element is otherwise not prominent, cautiously remarks that
Jupiter and Tisiphone, by whom his heroes swear, are in reality only
devils. Generally speaking, the gods of antiquity are often designated as
devils in mediaeval poetry, but at times the opinion that they are
departed human beings crops up. Thus, as we might expect, the theories of
ancient times still survive and retain their sway.

There is a domain in which we might expect to find distinct traces of the
survival of the ancient gods in the mediaeval popular consciousness,
namely, that of magic. There does not, however, seem to be much in it; the
forms of mediaeval magic often go back to antiquity, but the beings it
operates with are