Hierarchy of demons

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In early Christian theology, Satan or the Devil was seen as chief of all other demons. But soon this changed and Hell was divided in several hierarchies of demons. This was presumably due to the division of angels in hierarchies or choirs taken from Judaism (see angelology), and as demons were angels before, their organisation had to be similar.

During the Middle Ages, many other schema were proposed, some drawing on and expanding on Pseudo-Dionysius, others suggesting completely different classifications. One of these divisions is offered by Sebastian Michaelis, who divided demons in three hierarchies (first, second and third), not making allusion to their rulers (see Michaelis' classification of demons).

Soon this division took another sense, and nobility titles were granted to demons as if they were part of an earthly monarchy. Demons were Great Marshals, Knights, Presidents, Great Presidents, Earls, Great Earls, Dukes, Great Dukes, Marquises, Great Marquises, Princes, Great Princes, Kings, Great Kings, and the ruler of all them the Emperor. As in the earth, some of them had more than one title. Curiously the titles of Baronet, Baron, Viscount and Viceroy were not used. It is unclear if Earl was used as a synonym of Count, or with the ancient meaning of Eorl (Old English for 'nobleman, Prince, Warlord, chief of soldiers'), because the Latin term 'comes' has both meanings. Other hierarchies mention physicians, superintendents, demons in charge of keeping the fire of Hell lit, etc. The rest of the demons were divided in legions.