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Copyright by Jason Edward Roberts 2017 The Dissertation Committee for Jason Edward Roberts Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: TRANSFORMATIONS OF "PURITY" IN CHRISTIAN DISCOURSES OF DEMON COMPULSION THROUGH THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY Committee: Katherine Arens, Supervisor Sandra Straubhaar, Co-Supervisor Ernest Kaulbach Brian Levack Azfar Moin Peter Hess TRANSFORMATIONS OF "PURITY" IN CHRISTIAN DISCOURSES OF DEMON COMPULSION THROUGH THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY by Jason Edward Roberts Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin August 2017 Dedication For my husband, Andy, who now knows more about this subject matter than any oboist should ever be expected to. Acknowledgements Not only the completion of the present dissertation, but also the years of education and preparation that led up to it, were possible only with the help and support of many special people. Neither my interest in the combination of theory and theology nor the intellectual tools necessary to research it developed ex nihilo. Rather, they were shaped through myriad experiences - some more professional, some more personal, some more pleasant, some less so. As such, a proper acknowledgement of everyone who has either directly or indirectly influenced this dissertation would rival the project itself in page length. Thus, the litany of names here, while certainly "efficacious," is far from complete: my advisor, Katherine Arens; my professors, Ernest Kaulbach, Sandra Straubhaar, and Peter Hess; as well as Azfar Moin and Brian Levack. I could not have wished for a more amazing committee. v TRANSFORMATIONS OF "PURITY" IN CHRISTIAN DISCOURSES OF DEMON COMPULSION THROUGH THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY Jason Edward Roberts, PhD The University of Texas at Austin, 2017 Supervisors: Katherine Arens, Sandra Straubhaar An ongoing discourse about "purity" shared by "Solomonic" magic and theology links Christian antiquity with Martin Luther. An apocryphal narrative about Solomon's demon compulsion recurs to answer questions about purity, the believer, and the practice of religion. Using Malinowski's tripartite definition of magic as rite, formula, and condition of the performer, supplemented with work by Mary Douglas, Jacob Neusner, and Dorothea Salzer, we trace how historical negotiations about theological definitions of "purity" emerge as tools for religious hegemonies differentiating themselves by separating licit acts of demon compulsion (exorcism) from illicit ones ("magic"). The result argues for considering Western magic in tandem with official theologies, acknowledging longitudinal continuities in theological argumentation, and situating even theological texts in the context of historical Christianities. Chapter 1 addresses demon compulsion in Christian antiquity with reference to apologetic and polemical works by Justin Martyr, Origen, and the anonymous fourth vi century Dialogue of Timothy and Aquila and the Testament of Solomon. Here the initial condition of the performer is purity as absence-of-idolatry. Chapter 2 examines broader Christian theological developments defining "purity" as religious authorization, the rise of "Solomonic" magic as illicit, Aquinas' theological innovations in his De Potentia Dei (a more stable anti-magic theology). Chapter 3 takes up early modern humanist authors, including Ficino, Pico della Mirandola, and Reuchlin, who obscured their allusion to Solomon in their published works. Their works have striking parallels with texts of "Solomonic" magic as exemplified in comparing Reuchlin's Christian Cabala, De Verbo Mirifico (1494), and the twelfth century grimoire, the Liber Razielis. Chapter 4 compares Aquinas' and Luther' theologies with respect to "purity" as presence-of-faith showing a turn to result from Luther's doctrine of justification by faith alone. Luther's Vom Schemhamphoras, arguably Luther's "missing" demonology, instrumentalizes the Jews as demons in an effort to solve the problem of demonstrating the guilt of the magician (corpus delicti). The project thus sets into dialogue a number of neglected texts, thereby situating misconstrued theological arguments within history. Tracking the persistence of altered forms of "purity" within Christianity in this way illuminates how scholars might investigate religious beliefs and practices - even modern Protestantism. vii Table of Contents Introduction: Purity, Grace, and Faith in "Solomonic" Demon Compulsion ........1 Defining Purity: Prelude to Reading Solomonic Demon Compulsion ..........8 Defining Evidence for "Solomonic" Demon Compulsion: Not a Corpus but a Narrative Tradtion ......................................................................17 The Solomon Narratives as Paradigm: A Mode of "Magical Thinking" ......22 Defining Magic: A Tradition as Corpus .......................................................30 Chapter 1: Purity as Absence-of-Defilment: The Figure of Solomon in Late Antique Christian Contra-Iudaeos Polemics ....................................42 The Cultic Value of Demon Compulsion: The Many Narratives of Solomon ........................................................47 Roots and Traces of the Apocryphal Solomon Narrative .............................52 The Rhetoric of Ex Post Facto Proofs ..........................................................55 Josephus: Earliest Jewish Witness to the Phenomenon ................................66 The Testament of Solomon ............................................................................75 Conclusion ....................................................................................................80 Chapter 2: Purity as Presence-of-Grace: The Scholastic Turn .............................84 Medieval Anti-Magic Theology before Aquinas ..........................................88 The Christian Discovery of the Jewish Toledot Yeshu (Life of Jesus) .......101 Dominican Scrutiny of Jewish Texts ..........................................................102 The Turning Point: Purity as Presence-of-Grace in Quaestiones Disputatae de Potentia Dei .......................................107 "Disputed Questions" as Practice and Genre: New Text Forms for Old (Solomonic) Narrative Materials .......................................................110 De Potentia Q 6 (Miracles) A 10 ................................................................114 Conclusion .................................................................................................120 Chapter 3: Overt versus Implied Allusion: The Solomon Narrative in the Sixteenth-Century .....................................125 The Apocryphal Solomon Narrative in the Late Medieval and Early Modern Eras ....................................128 viii The Figure of Solomon Recedes from Published Sixteenth-Century Discourse on Magic ...........................................................................137 Marsilio Ficino Prisca Theologia and Magia Naturalis .............................143 Giovanni Pico della Mirandola and the "Practical Science" of Kabbalah ..154 Pico's Influence on Reuchlin .......................................................................161 Reuchlin's De Verbo Mirifico and the Liber Razielis .................................168 Conclusion ..................................................................................................184 Chapter 4: Purity as Presence-of-Faith: Luther's Doctrine of Sola Fide and the Protestant Turn ............................191 "Magic" as Luther Knew it: Anti-Magic Theology in the Small Cathechism and Licit Demon Compulsion ............................................................198 Luther's Initial Prohibition of the "Magical" Invocation of the Name of God as a Sin of Blashphemy in the Small Catechism ................................203 Digression: Comparative Discussion of "Grace" and "Faith" in Aquinas and Luther ........................................................................225 Works and Merit - A Theological Impass in Luther's Anti-Magic Argument: From Aquinas' De Potentia to Luther's Vom Schemhamphoras ........241 Vom Schemhamphoras: Where Theology Converges with History ...........249 Conclusion ..................................................................................................260 Concluding Remarks: ...........................................................................................265 Bibliography ........................................................................................................282 ix INTRODUCTION The Favor of God: Purity, Grace, and Faith, in Solomonic Demon Compulsion And from hence you enter into Golgotha. There is here a large hall, on the place where our Lord was crucified. Round about it, on the hill itself, are railings of silver, and on the hill itself a kind of flint-stone is deserving of notice. It has a silver door at which the Cross of our Lord is displayed, all covered with ornaments of gold and jewels, with the open sky above it; there are railings much adorned with gold and silver, and here also is the charger wherein the head of St. John was carried; and here is the horn with which David and Solomon were anointed; and in this place, too, is the ring with which Solomon sealed demons, which ring is of electrum.1 1 Stewart's translation cited here is from: Eucherius, Aubrey Stewart, Charles W. Wilson, and Eucherius, The Epitome of S. Eucherius