Editing Satanism (section)

===18th- to 20th-century Christendom===

[[File:Seal of Baphomet.svg|thumb|Stanislas de Guaita drew the original goat pentagram, which first appeared in the book ''La Clef de la Magie Noire'' in 1897. Adaptations of this inverted pentagram would later become synonymous with [[Baphomet]].]]

The [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] and [[Scientific Revolution]] changed humanity's understanding of the world. The mathematics of [[Isaac Newton]] and psychology of [[John Locke]] "left little space for the intervention of supernatural beings".<ref name=devil-oldridge-2012-41>{{cite book|title=The Devil, a Very Short Introduction| last1=Oldridge| first1=Darren| publisher=Oxford University Press |page=41 |year=2012}}</ref> [[Charles Darwin]]'s theory of [[evolution]] undermined the doctrine of the Fall in the Garden of Eden and the role of the diabolical serpent, while also providing an "alternative account of human evil" in the form of "a residual effect of our animal nature".<ref name="devil-oldridge-2012-67">{{cite book|title=The Devil, a Very Short Introduction| last1=Oldridge| first1=Darren| publisher=Oxford University Press |page=43 |year=2012}}</ref> The [[Industrial Revolution]] and urbanization disturbed traditional social relations and folk ideas to undermine belief in witchcraft and the devil.<ref name=devil-oldridge-2012-67/> Understanding of disorders of the mind undercut demonic possession.<ref name="devil-oldridge-2012-67"/>   But while the hunting and killing of alleged witches waned, belief in Satan did not disappear.

During the 18th century, gentleman's social clubs became increasingly prominent in Britain and Ireland, among the most secretive of which were the [[Hellfire Club]]s, which were first reported in the 1720s.{{sfnm|1a1=Introvigne|1y=2016|1pp=58–59 |2a1=van Luijk|2y=2016|2p=66}} The most famous of these groups was the Order of the Knights of Saint Francis, which was founded circa 1750 by the aristocrat [[Sir Francis Dashwood]] and which assembled first at his estate at [[West Wycombe]] and later in [[Medmenham Abbey]].{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|pp=66–67}} A number of contemporary press sources portrayed these as gatherings of [[atheist]] [[Rake (character)|rakes]] where Christianity was mocked, and toasts were made to the Devil.{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=66}} Beyond these sensationalist accounts, which may not be accurate portrayals of actual events, little is known about the activities of the Hellfire Clubs.{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=66}} Introvigne suggested that they may have engaged in a form of "playful Satanism" in which Satan was invoked "to show a daring contempt for conventional morality" rather than to pay homage  to him.{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|pp=60–61}}

The [[French Revolution]] of 1789 dealt a blow to the hegemony of the [[Roman Catholic Church]] in parts of Europe, and soon a number of Catholic authors began making claims that it had been masterminded by a conspiratorial group of Satanists.{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|p=71}} Among the first to do so was French Catholic priest Jean-Baptiste Fiard, who publicly claimed that a wide range of individuals, from the [[Jacobins]] to [[tarot|tarot card readers]], were part of a Satanic conspiracy.{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|pp=71–73}} Fiard's ideas were furthered by [[Alexis-Vincent-Charles Berbiguier de Terre-Neuve du Thym]] (1765–1851), who devoted a lengthy book to this [[conspiracy theory]]; he claimed that Satanists had supernatural powers allowing them to curse people and to shapeshift into both cats and fleas.{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|pp=74–78}} Although most of his contemporaries regarded Berbiguier as suffering from mental illness,{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|pp=84–85}} his ideas gained credence among many occultists, including [[Stanislas de Guaita]], a [[Christian Kabbalah|Cabalist]] who used them for the basis of his book, ''The Temple of Satan''.{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|pp=85–86}}

A reaction to this was the [[Taxil hoax]] in 1890s France, where an anti-clerical writer [[Léo Taxil]] (aka Marie Joseph Gabriel Antoine Jogand-Pagès), publicly converted to Catholicism and then published several works alleging to expose the  Satanic doings of [[Anti-Masonry|Freemasons]]. In 1897, Taxil called a press conference promising to introduce a key character of his stories but instead announced that his revelations about the Freemasons were made up, and thanked the Catholic clergy for helping to publicize his stories.<ref name=Confession>{{cite web
|url= https://www.learnreligions.com/alternative-religion-4684831
|accessdate= 25 October 2007
|title= The Confession of Leo Taxil
|date= 25 April 1897
|archive-date= 2008-05-13
|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080513164148/http://altreligion.about.com/library/texts/bl_confessiontaxil.htm
|url-status= dead
}}</ref> Nine years later he told an American magazine that at first he thought readers would recognize his tales as obvious nonsense, "amusement pure and simple", but when he realized they believed his stories and that there was "lots of money" to be made in publishing them, he continued to perpetrate the hoax.<ref name="National Magazine, 1906">''National Magazine, an Illustrated American Monthly'', Volume XXIV: April – September 1906, pages 228 and 229</ref> Around the same time, another convert to Catholicism [[Joris-Karl Huysmans]], also helped promote the concept of active Satanist groups in his 1891 work ''Là-bas'' (Down There). Huysmans "helped to cement" the idea  the black mass as Satanic rite and inversion of the Roman Catholic mass, with a naked woman for an altar.<ref name="Britannica-White"/> (Unlike Taxil, his conversion was apparently genuine and his book was published as fiction.)

In the early 20th century, the British novelist [[Dennis Wheatley]] produced a range of influential novels in which his protagonists battled Satanic groups.{{sfn|Medway|2001|pp=266–267}} At the same time, non-fiction authors such as [[Montague Summers]] and Rollo Ahmed published books claiming that Satanic groups practicing black magic were still active across the world, although they provided no evidence that this was the case.{{sfn|Medway|2001|pp=141–142}} During the 1950s, various British tabloid newspapers repeated such claims, largely basing their accounts on the allegations of one woman, Sarah Jackson, who claimed to have been a member of such a group.{{sfn|Medway|2001|pp=143–149}} In 1973, the British Christian Doreen Irvine published ''From Witchcraft to Christ'', in which she claimed to have been a member of a Satanic group that gave her supernatural powers, such as the ability to [[levitation (paranormal)|levitate]], before she escaped and embraced Christianity.{{sfn|Medway|2001|pp=159–161}}

In the United States during the 1960s and 1970s, various Christian preachers—the most famous being [[Mike Warnke]] in his 1972 book ''The Satan-Seller''—claimed that they had been members of Satanic groups who carried out sex rituals and animal sacrifices before discovering Christianity.{{sfn|Medway|2001|pp=164–170}} According to Gareth Medway in his historical examination of Satanism, these stories were "a series of inventions by insecure people and hack writers, each one based on a previous story, exaggerated a little more each time".{{sfn|Medway|2001|p=161}}

Other publications made allegations of Satanism against historical figures. The 1970s saw the publication of the Romanian Protestant preacher [[Richard Wurmbrand]]'s book in which he argued—without corroborating evidence—that the socio-political theorist [[Karl Marx]] had been a Satanist.{{sfnm|1a1=Medway|1y=2001|1pp=262–263 |2a1=Introvigne|2y=2016|2p=66}}