Time passes and he prospers, until one day he is called upon to attend the king on a public function during which, accidentally, the monarch enters a church. The knight refuses to accompany him, saying it is forbidden him to do so. With that the image of the Virgin beckons to him, and upon being thus reassured he enters and confesses all. This act has such an effect on the king that he adds a fortune to the visible protection of Santa María (No. 281). Another illustration is that of the man who barters his wife to the Devil, but the Blessed Mother does not allow the bargain to be carried out.[70]
Aside from the above-mentioned traits, that are to be found almost wherever the Devil himself is present, we notice a few others that are rare.
There is the threat of bottling the imps later mentioned on page 116.
The Primera Crónica General contains a legend in which the devils appear almost like human beings holding a general conference. Antidio, archbishop of Vesentine, on crossing the bridge of the river of Duero, sees a group of devils in the field. Apparently without fear, the archbishop approaches to see what it is all about. As he draws near his attention is attracted by the report of one of the imps to the effect that after seven years he has been successful in making the Pope sin. The clergyman immediately demands as proof that the devil take him to the Vatican on his back that he may verify the statement. This is done and the report found to be correct. After making the Pope do penance, the archbishop, by conjuring in the name of God and Santa Cruz, now requires the diminutive devil, whom he has kept waiting all this time, to carry him back to his diocese.[71]
Very often the Devil appears as a servant of God—as a sort of scavenger whose business it is to do the disagreeable work. The Vandal king, Gunderico, after sacking Seville, attempts to enter the church by force to plunder it also. As he approaches the door he is met by the Devil and is killed for his sacrilege.[72] In Las Cantigas No. 34 the Devil kills a Jew for robbing an image of the Virgin, while in No. 192 he so torments an imprisoned Moor for two nights in succession that the Moor is glad to become a Christian.[73]
Hell, the abode of the Devil, is miserably slighted by the pen of Alfonso el Sabio. Numerous references are made to “el fuego dell inferno”; a little more graphic is
“D’ esto direy un miragre
que fezo a Uírgen santa,
Madre de Deus grorïosa,
que nos faz mercée tanta,
que nos dá saud’ e siso
et äo demo quebranta
que nos quer äo inferno
leuar, en que nos afume.” (No. 338.)
But no attempts are made to describe the familiar place.[74]
Altho there can be no doubt that enchantment was known and practiced, as evidenced by the laws against it,[75] it is strange that there is but one instance of it in the Primera Crónica General, and that, the story of Simon Magus, the enchanter, is in the narration of the history of events in the time of Christ. In Las Cantigas, where we would naturally look to find records of this nature, there are only such cases as the threat of the clerk to bottle the devils (No. 125), occasional accusations of the practice of enchantment (No. 8), or a reference to the fact that medicine, enchantment, and prayers were all of no avail in the attempt to cure a case of rabies until at last Santa María de Terena was approached (No. 319). The motif furnished by this practice was not developed, nor did it become popular in literature, until the Books of Chivalry.[76]