In The History of Henry IV Part I written by William Shakespeare, there is no more interesting  scene than that between the rebel leader Owen Glendower and the young warrior Hotspur. This scene is crucial in Hotspur’s development as a character and a man because it shows him taking no gruff from anyone, not even the man that he chose to side with in the fight between the Welsh and the English. This part also has some of the most clever writing in the book and some of the most fun back and forth dialogue in any play. However, for the paranormal and divine minded, this is interesting because during this scene Glendower threatens Hotspur with a summons of demons to attack him. Nowadays, this  threat would seem crazy, but in the Medieval times, how strange was it? And more importantly,  did people really believe in all of this? The answer may be surprising.

In short, the answers to the questions, respectively, are quite normal, and yes, they did believe in demon summoning. In the early medieval times, the line between paganism and Christianity were quite slim. Most Christians were brand new to this religion and, as such, still continued to seek out people that they believed could help them answer spiritual questions. This led to a huge boost in any profession dealing with the slightest divine twinge. Alchemy and astrology became huge fields of study for the common man. Everyone was devil crazy. People at one point used to take pride in being able to summon demons, and mass possessions used to take place quite frequently all the way up until the 17^th century. Demons were nothing to be feared, but to be commanded, and ordered to do work, which is quite reminiscent of Glendower’s line “Why, I can teach you, cousin, to command/The devil.” (III, I, 55-56).

However, not everyone was a believer. People, especially nobles and priests in the Catholic Church, refused to believe that the Lord of Darkness himself could simply appear out of nowhere. The scoffed at the idea of a demon worshipper and believed that Christ would conquer all. Shakespeare hits on these ideas with Hotspur, saying “And I can teach thee, coz, to shame the devil/By telling the truth. Tell Truth and shame the devil.” (III,I,57-58). What Hotspur is saying here is what about 75% of people believed: The demonologists were scammers and trying to make money. Simply get rid of the “devil” by refusing to believe any of it is real, just tell the truth. As exciting as it would be to believe that medieval people wasted away the days of summer figuring out how to summon the devil, this was only true for a minority of the population. This wasn’t much of a problem until the minority became so loud that priests couldn’t ignore it any longer. The devil was real, and he was calling them out. This is when witch mania hit, and everyone started to be accused of witchcraft or other dealings with the devil. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people were sentenced to death over various witch related offenses, even hitting the new world in the 17^th century. And demon worshipping died out except for an extremely small part of the population.

Some of Shakespeare’s accounts of things are exaggerated. From Henry V’s early escapades to the numbers at the battle of Agincourt, some things are just boring unless hyperbole is involved. However, demon worshipping is never a boring subject, and Shakespeare could not have been more correct. People believed in demon worshipping and summoning, and others believed it was totally fake. Although the scene is meant to be interesting for other reasons, it is a nice touch that Shakespeare got his facts right. And for the greatest English speaking writer ever, one would expect nothing less.