Of Demonology, and Other Relics of the Religion of the Gentiles explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Religion and Civil Authority

  Hobbes argues that the sovereign has the ultimate authority to regulate religious worship, and that ceremonies lacking such authority are idolatrous.

• Sovereignty and Absolute Power

  The chapter illustrates how the sovereign's power extends to defining what constitutes lawful worship, and how the emperor's role as Pontifex Maximus exemplifies supreme authority over both state and religion.

• Human Nature and Passions

  Hobbes notes that fear of punishment can compel external worship without internal honor, highlighting the role of passion in religious observance.

Characters to notice

• Moses

  Cited as the one who set up the brazen serpent by God's command, and who removed his shoes before the burning bush on holy ground.

• Aaron

  Mentioned as making the golden calf without divine authority, which constituted idolatry.

• Augustus Caesar

  Noted for taking the office of Pontifex Maximus and the tribunician power, uniting supreme civil and religious authority.

• Constantine the Great

  First emperor to profess and authorize Christian religion, and under whom the Bishop of Rome began to regulate religion.

• Julius Caesar

  Given divine honors by the senate, including a sacred chariot and shrine in processions.

• Peter

  Mentioned in the context that the Pope's authority is not a privilege of St. Peter but of the city of Rome.

Key passages

• “To pray to a king for such things as he is able to do for us, though we prostrate ourselves before him, is but civil worship; because we acknowledge no other power in him but human: but voluntarily to pray unto him for fair weather, or for anything which God only can do for us, is divine worship and idolatry.”

  Asking a king for things within his human power, even with prostration, is merely civil respect; but asking him for things only God can grant, like fair weather, is treating him as a god and thus idolatry.

  Hobbes distinguishes civil from divine worship based on the nature of the request, not the gesture.

• “The Gentiles worshipped for gods, Jupiter and others; that living, were men perhaps that had done great and glorious acts: and for the children of God, divers men and women, supposing them gotten between an immortal deity and a mortal man. This was idolatry, because they made them so to themselves, having no authority from God, neither in His eternal law of reason, nor in His positive and revealed will.”

  The pagans worshipped as gods men who had performed great deeds, and imagined demigods born from unions of gods and mortals. This was idolatry because they invented these gods on their own, without any divine authorization from reason or revelation.

  Hobbes emphasizes that idolatry arises from human invention without divine warrant.

• “The carrying about of images in 'procession,' is another relic of the religion of the Greeks and Romans. For they also carried their idols from place to place, in a kind of chariot, which was peculiarly dedicated to that use, which the Latins called thensa , and vehiculum Deorum ; and the image was placed in a frame or shrine, which they called ferculum : and that which they called pompa , is the same that now is named 'procession.'”

  The practice of carrying images in procession is a leftover from Greek and Roman religion, where idols were transported in special chariots (thensa) and shrines (ferculum), and the parade was called pompa, which is now called procession.

  Hobbes traces the Christian practice of processions directly to pagan antecedents.