English

Noun

diabolism ‎(plural diabolisms)

1. (uncountable) Worship of the devil; Satanism
   • In a small minority of Italian trials, one finds a mixture of charges that cannot be categorized as either sorcery or typical diabolism.

     The Witchcraft Reader By Darren Oldridge

   • Such incidents were, of course, interpreted by sympathizers as evidence of saintliness and by opponents as evidence of diabolism.

     "Demon Possession in Elizabethan England - Page 200"

2. (countable) Character, action, utterances, creative works, behavior or principles appropriate to the devil.
   • The atrocities constituting this "cold collation" of diabolisms are taken mainly from various Californian journals.

     "The Fiend's Delight" By Dod Grile

   • What are the teachings we would then derive from communities like that of Guam, simply similar to those found by many travellers with plain groups of men not yet contaminated with the diabolisms of human law

     The Railroad Trainman, Volume 17

   • These diabolisms some of the religious negroes had been provoked to retort upon their tempters, in a manner said to be disrespectful ; and for this insolence they have been repeatedly flogged and confined in the stocks

     An Authentic Copy of the Minutes of Evidence on the Trial of John Smith

3. (uncountable) Possession by Satan or other demonic forces.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Bishop Warburton to this entry?)

   • (incidents of supposed demonic possession) as mental imbalance rather than evidence of the devil's work, and the Mexican tribunal ceased serious 87 investigation of diabolism.

     "Religion and Society in Latin America"

4. (uncountable) The property of having attributes that are demonic or Satanic.
   • Bely's attribution of an "Ahrimanian" spirit to Petersburg resonates on many levels of the novel, confirming not only that the core of Petersburg is diabolism, but also indicating how that diabolism relates to the novel's sense of its authorship.

     By Authors Possessed: The Demonic Novel in Russia By Adam Weiner

   • Thus was the Watchman torn from the wall, and diabolism, darkness and desolation were enthroned.

     "Out of the Darkness, Or, Diabolism and Destiny By John Wesley Grant"