2 Keeping demons at bay
Doors were on the front line of an eternal battle between good and evil
Front doors may have offered protection against enemy soldiers from the physical world. But could they do the same for malign forces from beyond the grave? That was a question that weighed heavily on people’s minds across the medieval and early modern periods.
Evil spirits were, it was believed, constantly seeking to breach a house’s defences, often gaining access via weak points such as draughty thresholds. As James VI of Scotland wrote in his 1597 treatise, Daemonologie: “And if they enter as a spirit onelie, anie place where the aire may come in at, is large inough an entrie for them…”
So how could you protect your premises from such malevolent incursions? One option was to fight hellfire with holy fire. Candles – especially those blessed by priests following celebrations such as candlemass – could act as powerful deterrents to evil spirits planning to wreak havoc in the home. (According to the research of building archaeologist James Wright, the candles were used to make teardrop-shaped burn marks around doors and other entrance points.)
One artefact that’s long been kept besides Jewish householders’ front doors is the Mezuzah, a scroll containing an Old Testament verse thought to ensure
God’s protection.
Yet perhaps the best known of all protective devices is the horseshoe. This harks back to an old belief that the devil asked a blacksmith to shoe his hooves. Recognising his customer, the canny blacksmith shod him with red-hot shoes. The devil, so the story goes, cast them off in pain – and still recoils at the sight of a horseshoe hanging from a front door.