Demons, Legend of
Revelation 12:7Demons lose a soul's claim when the angel adds a golden pot to the judgment scales.
"One night, a certain hermit sat meditating in his solitary hut, and he heard a sound as of a host of wild men rushing and trampling by; and he opened his window, and called out, and demanded who it was that thus disturbed the quiet of his solitude: and a voice answered, 'We are demons. Henry the Emperor is about to die in this moment; and we go to seize his soul.' Then the hermit called out again, 'I conjure thee, that, on thy return, thou appear before me, and tell me the result.' The demon promised, and went on his way. And in the same night he came ghastly sounds were again heard, and one knocked at the window; and the hermit hastened to open it, and, behold! it was the same demon whom he had spoken to before. 'Now,' said the hermit, 'how has it fared with thee?'—'Ill! to desperation!' answered the fiend in a fury. 'We came at the right moment: the emperor had just expired; and we hastened to prefer our claim, when, lo! his good angel came to save him. We disputed long; and at last the Angel of Judgment (St. Michael) laid his good and evil deeds in the scales, and, behold! our scale descended, and touched the earth. The victory was ours! when, all at once, yonder roasted fellow' (for so he blasphemously styled the blessed St. Laurence) 'appeared on his side, and flung a great golden pot' (so the reprobate styled the holy cup) 'into the other scale; and ours flew up; and we were forced to make off in a hurry. But at least I was avenged on the golden pot, for I broke off the handle; and here it is.' And, having said these words, the whole company of demons vanished. Then the hermit rose up in the morning, hastened to the city, and found the emperor dead; and the golden cup which he had piously presented to the Church of St. Laurence was found with only one handle, the other having disappeared that same night."