eyes like a bison, fangs like a dog,
a skin like a _niger_, a voice roaring like a lion, whereby we
start and are afraid when we hear one cry Boh!' Chaucer has
expressed the belief of his age on the subject. It seems to have
been a proper duty of a parish priest to bring to the notice of
his ecclesiastical superior, with other crimes, those of sorcery.
The Friar describes his 'Erchedeken' as one--

That boldely didde execucioun
In punyschying of fornicacioun,
Of wicchecraft....

This ecclesiastic employed in his service a subordinate
'sompnour,' who, in the course of his official duty, one day
meets a devil, whose 'dwellynge is in Helle,' who condescends to
enlighten the officer on the dark subject of demon-apparitions:--

When us liketh we can take us on
Or ellis make you seme that we ben schape
Som tyme like a man or like an ape;
Or like an aungel can I ryde or go:
It is no wonder thing though it be so,
A lowsy jogelour can deceyve the;
And, parfay, yet can I more craft than he.

To the question why they are not satisfied with _one_ shape for
all occasions, the devil answers at length:--

Som tyme we ben Goddis instrumentes
And menes to don his commandementes,
Whan that him liste, upon his creatures
In divers act and in divers figures.
Withouten him we have no might certayne
If that him liste to stonden ther agayne.
And som tyme at our prayer, have we leve
Only the body and not the soule greve;
Witnesse on Job, whom we didde ful wo.
And som tyme have we might on bothe two,
That is to say of body and soule eeke
And som tyme be we suffred for to seeke
Upon a man and don his soule unrest
And not his body, and al is for the best.
Whan he withstandeth our temptacioun
It is a cause of his savacioun.
Al be it so it was naught our entente
He schuld be sauf, but that we wolde him hente.
And som tyme we ben servaunt unto man
As to the Erchebisschop Saynt Dunstan;
And to the Apostolis servaunt was I.

* * * * *

Som tyme we fegn, and som tyme we ryse
With dede bodies, in ful wonder wyse,
And speke renably, and as fayre and wel
As to the Phitonissa dede Samuel:
And yit wil som men say, it was not he.
I do no fors of your divinitie.[77]

[77] _Canterbury Tales._ T. Wright's Text. Chaucer, the
English Boccaccio in verse, attacks ali