Leviathan: Chapter 45 Summary & Analysis

Demons are the immaterial spirits or ghosts of the dead, and Demonology is the study of such spirits by priests, poets, and philosophers. The word “Dæmon” has been around for ages and was used by Hesiod and the ancient poets. Early on, the word demon included the ghosts of both good and evil spirits, but now the word generally denotes an evil spirit that is possessed by the Devil. From Holy Scripture, it can be gathered that the Jews believed demons to be real, and not simply “Idols of the braine.”   

If demons and ghosts do not exist, it is reasonable to ask why Christ didn’t just say so, but Hobbes has an answer for this, too. When Christ says, “A Spirit hath not flesh and bone,” he shows there are spirits, but he doesn’t necessarily deny they have bodies—only that those bodies are not made of flesh and bone. Furthermore, when St. Paul says: “We shall rise Spirituall Bodies,” he, too, implies a ghost has an actual body.  

If Christ speaks to the Devil and commands him to exit the body of a person, and by “the Devil,” Christ means some infirmary or disease such as lunacy, this speech is not improper. But it is improper to speak of “the Devil” as some sort of ghost or spirit without a body. Holy Scripture, in fact, does not even teach that spirits are incorporeal in the first place. For instance, in Matthew 4:1, when God descends upon Christ as a Dove, Christ is “led up by the Spirit into the Wilderness.” The “Spirit” here is the Holy Ghost, and since Christ and the Holy Ghost are one and the same (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit), the “Spirit” here is not incorporeal.

Hobbes’s next example is St. Luke, who says of Judas Iscariot that “Satan entered into him, and thereupon that he went and communed with the Chief Priests, and Captaines, how he might betray Christ unto them.” But the word “Satan” here is meant as merely the “Enemy,” who metaphorically enters Judas and makes him hostile and disloyal to Christ. 

God did not expressly state “Immateriall Spirits” and possession of one’s body by another spiritual body do not exist because he left human beings to exercise their own “Industry, and Reason” to come to the same conclusions. Still, a belief in incorporeal sprits persists in the Church. However, if one looks back to the “Primitive Church,” they will find that that the “Casting out of Devills” was much different. In the “Primitive Church,” the “Casting out of Devills” was done onto the insane. Thus, demons come not from a “change of Nature; but of Names.” 

Hobbes also considers the worshiping of images not instituted by Moses in the Old Testament or by Christ in the New Testament as another relic of the Gentiles. St. Paul says, “Wee know that an Idol is Nothing,” but Gentiles are fond of such images. Such images that pass for idols include the Cherubs often superimposed over the Ark of God. There are no Cherubs in the Old or New Testaments, yet people worship such images as religious. Hobbes has already defined “Honor” as outward acts of admiration and obedience, and he now defines “Worship” as the inward acts that achieve the same ends. For example, to fear or desire someone is a form of worship.  

Next, Hobbes defines idolatry, which is to worship and honor an image as if that image is a body with a soul. If one bows to a king in civil worship and recognizes the power said king has over his subjects, this is not idolatry. However, if that same person bows to the king and asks him for good weather, this is idolatry, as only God has the power to affect the weather. If a king forces a subject to worship an image under pain of death, this is not idolatry either, since a king cannot force a subject to genuinely honor anything.

When Aaron made the Golden Calf for religious use and presented it to the people without God or Moses’s authority, this, too, was idolatry. Gentiles throughout history have worshiped Jupiter and others as gods, which is also idolatry since such gods were made by humans, not God. The same can also be said of the Eucharist, or Holy Communion. If by the words “This is my Body,” Christ meant all bread everywhere blessed by a Priest is his body, it is not idolatry. But since no mention of turning Christ’s body into bread can be found anywhere else in Holy Scripture, the Eucharist is created by humans and is therefore idolatry.

Next, Hobbes discusses the worship of Saints and relics, which can be found in the Church of Rome to this day. Hobbes maintains that Saints and relics are not included in God’s Word; thus, they are also a “humane institution.” Again, God never mentioned Cherubs or a “Brazen Serpent,” but he did say: “Thou shalt not make thy selfe any graven Image.” This brings the painting of angels and even God himself into question, since there is no way of knowing what God or his angels look like. Painted images of God and angels are not idols, but imagination, and they can only be used to worship God.

Hobbes argues that idolatry is all over the Roman Church in the form of statues and images of Saints, Apostles, and the Virgin Mary. Pastors have allowed this practice to continue because they hope that they, too, will be made into an image and worshipped as a Saint after their death. The Canonizing of Saints, which is another relic of Gentiles, has been practiced since Rome was an ancient common-wealth. Another practice of the “Roman Heathen” is the “PONTIFEX MAXIMUS,” which bestows the Pope with supreme authority and robs the sovereign of power.

The Greeks and Romans also carried “Images in Procession,” which means they carried their Idols around on a chariot, just as is done today with Popes who are carried on a platform under a canopy. Involved in these processions is the burning of candles and torches before godly images. Caligula, for example, was carried from Misenum to Rome, along with burning torches and animals offered up for sacrifice. Other religious practices of “Heathens” include “Holy Water,” “Saturnalia,” and dancing around “May-poles,” none of which can be rightly termed as God’s Word.