taroth, and Belial bear witness;
Beelzebub, "the prince of the devils" of later time, being one of the
gods of the hostile Philistines.

[Footnote 1: Psalm xcvi. 5 (xcv. Sept.).]

[Footnote 2: Psalm xcv. 3 (xciv. Sept.). Maury, p. 98.]

23. The introduction of Christianity made no difference in this respect.
Paul says to the believers at Corinth, "that the things which the
Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils ([Greek: daimonia]), and
not to God; and I would not that ye should have fellowship with
devils;"[1] and the Septuagint renders the word _Elohim_ in the
ninety-fifth Psalm by this [Greek: daimonia], which as the Christians
had already a distinct term for good spirits, came to be applied to evil
ones only.

[Footnote 1: I Cor. x. 20.]

Under the influence therefore, of the new religion, the gods of Greece
and Rome, who in the days of their supremacy had degraded so many
foreign deities to the position of daemons, were in their turn deposed
from their high estate, and became the nucleus around which the
Christian belief in demonology formed itself. The gods who under the old
theologies reigned paramount in the lower regions became pre-eminently
diabolic in character in the new system, and it was Hecate who to the
last retained her position of active patroness and encourager of
witchcraft; a practice which became almost indissolubly connected with
her name. Numerous instances of the completeness with which this process
of diabolization was effected, and the firmness with which it retained
its hold upon the popular belief, even to late times, might be given;
but the following must suffice. In one of the miracle plays, "The
Conversion of Saul," a council of devils is held, at which Mercury
appears as the messenger of Belial.[1]

[Footnote 1: Digby Mysteries, New Shakspere Society, 1880, p. 44.]

24. But this absolute rejection of every pagan belief and ceremony was
characteristic of the Christian Church in its infancy only. So long as
the band of believers was a small and persecuted one, no temptation to
violate the rule could exist. But as the Church grew, and acquired
influence and position, it discovered that good policy demanded that the
sternness and inflexibility of its youthful theories should undergo some
modification. It found that it was not the most successful method of
enticing stragglers into its fold to stigmatize the gods they ignorantly
worshipped as devils, and to persecute them as magic