Active in the city of Carthage in Roman North Africa, the theologian Tertullian (ca. 155–ca. 220 CE) was the first Latin author to examine the infiltration of demons into all aspects of Roman culture. In his treatise On the Spectacles, he warned his Christian readers that participation in popular Roman pastimes, like chariot races, gladiatorial battles, athletic competitions, and the theater, made them vulnerable to demonic attacks because of the pagan rites associated with these games. Only the rite of baptism and the cultivation of Christian practices separate from Roman spectacles could ensure the safety of their souls. For, as Tertullian explained, the subtle and insubstantial nature of demons allowed them to infiltrate human bodies undetected to attack the soul directly, causing sickness and death.
May God avert from His people any such passionate eagerness for murderous pleasure! For how monstrous it is to go from God’s church to the devil’s—from the sky to the stye, as they say; to raise your hands to God, and then to weary them in the applause of an actor; out of the mouth, from which you have uttered “Amen” over the sacrament, to cheer for a gladiator; to cry “for ever and ever” to anyone else but to God and Christ!
What is to save such people from possession by evil spirits? We have the case of a woman—the Lord himself is witness—who went to the theater and returned possessed. During the exorcism, when the unclean spirit was scolded for having dared to attack a believer, it answered firmly: “And in truth I did it most righteously, for I found her in my own domain.”
And we affirm indeed the existence of certain spiritual entities, nor is their name unfamiliar. The philosophers acknowledge that there are demons; Socrates himself waiting on a demon’s will. Why not? Since it is said an evil spirit attached itself specially to him even from his childhood, turning his mind no doubt from what was good. The poets are all acquainted with demons, too; even the ignorant common people make frequent use of them in cursing. In fact, they call upon Satan, the demon-chief, in their curses, as though with some instinctive knowledge from their soul…We are instructed, moreover, by our sacred books how from certain angels, who fell of their own free will, there sprang a more wicked demon-brood, condemned by God along with the leaders of their race and that chief we have mentioned. It will, for the time being, suffice to give an account of their activities. Their work is the ruin of humankind. From the beginning, spiritual wickedness sought our destruction. They inflict upon our bodies diseases and other grievous calamities, while by violent assaults they inflict on the soul sudden and extraordinary excesses. Their marvelous subtlety and slenderness give them access to both parts of our nature. As spirits, they can do no harm; for, invisible and intangible, we are not cognizant of their action except by its effects, as when some inexplicable, unseen poison in the breeze blights the apples and the grain while in the flower or kills them in the bud or destroys them when they have reached maturity; as though by the tainted atmosphere in some unknown way spreading abroad its pestilential exhalations. So, too, by an influence equally obscure, demons and angels breathe into the soul, and rouse up its corruptions with furious passions and vile excesses or with cruel lusts accompanied by every kind of delusion. And of all delusions attributed to them, the greatest involves recommending themselves as gods to the deceived and deluded minds of men. What is daintier food to the spirit of evil than turning men’s minds away from the true God by the illusions of a false deception? And here I will explain these deceptions and how the demons manage them.
Every spirit has wings. This is a common property of both angels and demons. So they are everywhere in a single moment; the world is as one place to them; all that is done over the whole extent of it, it is as easy for them to know as to report. Their swiftness of motion passes for divinity, because their nature is unknown. Thus they wish to appear as the authors of the things which they announce; and sometimes, no doubt, the bad things are their doing, never the good…From dwelling in the air, and their nearness to the stars, and their commerce with the clouds, they have means of knowing the preparatory processes going on in these upper regions, and thus can give promise of the rains which they already feel. Likewise, they are deceptive with regard to the treatment of diseases. For, first of all, they make you ill; then, to get a miracle out of it, they command the application of remedies either altogether new or contrary to those in use, and immediately withdrawing their hurtful influence, they appear to be healers…They do it all so that men will believe that stones are gods and not seek after the one true God.