History & Fiction: Identifying the Devil in Scotland

I recently discovered that the Devil was more of a sociable fellow in Scottish history than in England. Whereas in England it was believed he preyed on those who did bad things or you had to do a ritual to conjure him up, in Scotland’s past it was thought he was constantly among the crowds of ordinary people, engaging in a “game of souls” with those who might not realise they were playing. 

This was something I learnt a course I’m doing on early Gothic literature, run by Dr Sam Hirst via Liverpool University. One of teh books we studied was James Hogg’s The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner. It’s a novel in which the Devil corrupts an uptight puritan preacher of the kind who would cancel all fun at Christmas. You’d think a strict puritan would be able to spot the Devil easily, wouldn’t you? But no. This is a tale in which the preacher is enticed from just being an annoying twat to believing he’s justified to commit murderer. 

The setting is 17th century Scotland during political and social unrest. King Charles II wanted Scottish people to follow England’s forms of worship, against resistance from the kirks, which preferred stricter Presbyterianism or Calvinism. Of course not everyone felt the same way. Discussions about what was true doctrine and what was heresy led to clashes. That’s a gross simplification, but you get the idea. 

However, it’s one of the reasons the Devil appeared differently in Scotland and England. The English view came largely from literature, including Christopher Marlowe’s play Dr Faustus, whereas fundamentalist Scots looked to Biblical descriptions and were really wary of heresy. One Bible passage is Matthew 7.15 warning people to beware the false teacher who “comes to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly [is a] ravening wolf”. 

Literary descriptions often depicted the Devil looking, well, demonic – or at least strange in some way. However, in Scotland he could look like an ordinary person. You had to beware his words rather than his appearance. In both traditions the Devil was able to change shape too. The only way to be sure, was to take off and nuke the Devil from orbit. Sorry, wrong genre. No, the only way to be sure was to stick to scripture and to switch the game of souls to one of spot the heresy.

This is the downfall of the Justified Sinner. Convinced he’s one of those predestined to be saved by God, he gets tricked into doing evil in the name of good. 

I should add that witchcraft beliefs of the time were a bit different from this, and the idea of witches being in league with the old horny one existed alongside beliefs about how the Devil led ordinary people astray. (Yes, I know those tried for witchcraft were often ordinary people who were unfairly accused, but it was considered to be different by those who feared witchcraft.)

If you want to read The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner you can find it on Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2276

You can watch a video of Dr Sam Hirst talking about “Devil or Double: Decoding the Demonic in the Scottish Gothic” on YouTube as part of the Romancing the Gothic series. Hopefully the link below will work.

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