The best and most famous example of a deal with the devil is the story of Dr. Johann Georg Faust, an alchemist, astrologer and magician of the German Renaissance. The popular tale of his deal with the devil and subsequent adventures has been circulating since the 1580s, but is most famously told in Christopher Marlowe’s play The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus (1604) and Goethe’s rather more concisely named tragedy, Faust.
The legend runs that the good doctor sold his soul to the devil in return for magical powers or, in Marlowe’s version, the presence of a demon named Mephistopheles who would do his bidding. Notably, Faustus is supposed to have signed a legally binding document bequeathing all rights to his soul to Satan.
The actual historical figure of Dr. Faustus is a matter of some controversy and not a little mystery. From 1506, there are records of him appearing as a performer of magic tricks in Gelnhausen, and many similar stories abound of his exploits across Germany for the next thirty years.
In Marlowe’s play, he dies when Mephistopheles the demon drags him to Hell, and scholars at the time jumped instantly to this conclusion when his mutilated body was found in the remnants of an alchemical explosion in the Hotel zum Löwen in Staufen im Breisgau.
This is not the only time in history that someone has been thought to have sold their soul to the Devil. A seventeenth-century priest named Urbain Grandier was burned at the stake for witchcraft. At his trial, a document in which he signs away his soul was produced, complete with the apparent signatures of several demons, including that of Satan himself.
The trope of selling one’s soul to the Devil is one that often seems inextricably linked with cultural and intellectual pursuits. Faustus was depicted as the over-reaching scholar, desperate for more knowledge than was his due. Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray does not explicitly involve Satan, but the religious evil apparently invested in the painting of Dorian Gray has cultural implications which are impossible to ignore – Gray’s sins even begin with a trip to the theatre.
Furthermore, there is a long list of musicians throughout Christian history who are supposed to have sold their souls. Niccolò Paganini encouraged rumours that he had traded away his soul for talent with the violin; Robert Johnson, the blues musician from the 30s was supposed to have met Satan at a crossroads and signed over his soul in exchange for mastery of the guitar; even the comedic musical duo Tenacious D have involvements with the Devil.
Historically, the Church has always been suspicious of what it could not control, and condemning talented individuals as the followers of Satan was the perfect way of holding onto its power. Although in the case of Dr. Faust I can’t really blame them. He was once arrested for convincing someone to use arsenic to get rid of his beard. It worked, but a fair amount of skin came away too. But then, fools that will laugh on earth must weep in Hell.
