To show that ridicule is the best means of dealing with the devil, Dr. Luther related the following story, which took place in Magdeburg:
When I was beginning my ministry in Magdeburg, a citizen’s child died, and he did not have a Roman Catholic vigil performed, nor a death-mass sung, for these were expensive.
The devil intervened, for he gladly would have preserved Purgatorium and discursum animarum in Magdeburg. Every night at eight o’clock the devil came into the citizen’s bedroom and cried like a young child. The man was distraught and did not know what to do.
The priests exclaimed: “Now you see what happens when you do not hold a vigil. The poor little soul is suffering.”
The man wrote to me and asked what he should do, for he had read my sermon on the saying “You have Moses and the prophets.”
I wrote to him that he should not believe the priests. He should let the entire household know that the sound of a child crying was the devil’s doing.
Then the members of the household ridiculed the devil, saying “Devil, why are you here? Have you nothing better to do? Go back where you belong, into the depths of hell, you cursed spirit!”
Then the devil ceased immitating a child and instead stormed about, ranting and raving. He often appeared in the form of a howling wolf, but the children and other members of the household simply ridiculed him.
Whenever a maid went upstairs with a child, he would follow after them, clapping his hands, but they responded, “Hey, are you crazy?”
Finally Herr Jacob [Präpositus], an official in Bremen, came and resided with them. He wanted to hear the spirit.
The host said, “Just wait until eight o’clock, and you shall hear him. He will come for sure.”
And that is what happened. The devil threw everything down from the stop of the stove.
Herr Jacob said, “I have heard enough. Let’s go to bed now!”
There were two bedrooms next to each other. The lady of the house, the children, and the servants were sleeping in the one room. The host and Herr Jacob were in the other room.
Herr Jacob had just gone to bed when the devil appeared and teased him, pulling off the bed-cover. Herr Jacob was terrified and prayed fervently, while the devil stormed about on the floor.
Finally the devil went over to the poor woman in the next room. He teased her as well, running across her bed like a pack of rats.
He would not stop, so the woman raised up, stuck her a— out of the bed, and let a f— (politely stated).
Then she said, “Look, devil, here is a staff for you. Take it in your hand and go on a pilgrimage to your idol, the pope in Rome. Get an indulgence from him!”
And thus the devil was ridiculed. Thereafter the devil stayed away with his spooking, quia est superbus spiritus et non potest ferre contemptum sui [for the proud spirit cannot bear contempt].
Source (books.google.com): D. Martin Luther’s Tischreden oder Colloquia, edited by Karl Eduard Förstemann, section 3 (Leipzig: Gebauer’sche Buchhandlung, 1846), pp. 38-39.
Source (Internet Archive): D. Martin Luther’s Tischreden oder Colloquia, edited by Karl Eduard Förstemann, section 3 (Leipzig: Gebauer’sche Buchhandlung, 1846), pp. 38-39.
Martin Luther’s Tischreden (Table Talk) is a collection of the protestant reformer’s sayings collected by his students between 1531 and 1544, and first published in 1566