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Study Guide

Doctor Faustus Religion

By Christopher Marlowe

MDR Enterprise
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Introduction Cybersecurity is hard. We

make it easy so you can
Summary
Religion focus on business.
Themes Act 1, Scene 1
Characters Faustus READ MORE

Analysis
“ FAUSTUS
If we say that we have no sin,
Quotes
We deceive ourselves, and there is no truth in us.
Philosophical Viewpoints:
Why, then, belike we must sin
Predestination
And so consequently die.
Wisdom and Knowledge Ay, we must die an everlasting death.
Cunning and Cleverness What doctrine call you this? Che serà, serà?
What will be, shall be? Divinity, adieu! (1.1.41-47)
The Supernatural

Wealth

Power

Religion

Sin

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Teaching

Shmoop calls this the Doris Day doctrine. But here's

the thing. Faustus doesn't just think that mankind is
predestined to sin, and is therefore headed to hell. He
also thinks that, because of this, studying religion has
no point. This tells us that Faustus is not interested in
knowledge for its own sake—only for how it can bene t
him. But the joke's on Faustus, because if he had
studied religion, he probably wouldn't be in this
predicament.

Act 1, Scene 3
Mephistopheles

“ MEPHISTOPHELES
For, when we hear one rack the name of God,
Abjure the Scriptures and his Savior Christ,
We fly in hope to get his glorious soul;
Nor will we come unless he use such means
Whereby he is in danger to be damned. (1.3.45-49)
”
The idea that swearing—taking God's name in vain, or
cursing God—draws devils around you who will to try to
win your soul for the Dark Side, is not a new one. In
fact, it dates back to medieval times (no, not the
restaurant). Back then, folks thought that a person
always opens a space in his heart for the devil when he
sins, but by swearing, he announces it to the world,
basically advertising to evil spirits that his soul is theirs
for the taking.

Act 2, Scene 1
Mephistopheles

“ MEPHISTOPHELES
Hell hath no limits, nor is circumscribed
In one self place, but where we are is hell,
And where hell is, there must we ever be. (2.1.118-
120)
”
Ever read Paradise Lost? In that piece, Satan declares,
"Myself am hell." Like that declaration,
Mephistopheles's description moves close to de ning
hell not as a place, but as a state of the soul. Those
souls that are separated from God by their sins are in
hell no matter what physical place they are in. It's
everywhere.

Faustus

“ FAUSTUS
Stay, Mephistopheles, and tell me
What good will my soul do thy lord?
MEPHISTOPHELES
Enlarge his kingdom.
FAUSTUS
Is that the reason why he tempts us thus?
MEPHISTOPHELES
Solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris. (2.1.38-41)

Mephistopheles's Latin response to Faustus's question

translates into "to the unhappy it is a comfort to have
had company in misery." (In other words, "misery loves
company.") This is basically a warning from
Mephistopheles to Faustus to turn back from his
intended course of action, since it implies that hell is
miserable. But Faustus ignores it. He's really good at
ignoring people.

Act 2, Scene 3
Mephistopheles

“ MEPHISTOPHELES
But think'st thou heaven is such a glorious thing?
I tell thee, Faustus, it is not half so fair
As thou, or any man that breathe on earth.
FAUSTUS
How prov'st thou that?
MEPHISTOPHELES
'Twas made for man; then he's more excellent.
(2.3.5-9)
”
Maybe we're missing something here, but why does it
necessarily follow that heaven must be less beautiful
than man just because it was made for him? This is
probably an example of the twisted logic the devils
often use to get a hold on Faustus's soul. Of course it
totally works. See, Faustus? You should've stayed in
school.

Faustus

“ FAUSTUS
Now tell me who made the world?
MEPHISTOPHELES
I will not.
FAUSTUS
Sweet Mephistopheles, tell me.
MEPHISTOPHELES
Move me not, Faustus.
FAUSTUS
Villain, have I not bound thee to tell me anything?
MEPHISTOPHELES
Ay, that is not against our kingdom;
This is. Thou art damned; think thou of hell.
FAUSTUS
Think, Faustus, upon God that made the world.
(2.3.66-74)
”
Why is the answer to Faustus's question so threatening
to Mephistopheles? Maybe because the answer—that
God made the world—is just too good. After all, if God
made the world, then God must be awesome, and
Mephistopheles only wants to talk about the bad stuff.
Acknowledging the goodness of god would threaten
Mephistopheles and Lucifer's hold upon Faustus's soul.

Act 3, Scene 1
Pope Adrian and Bruno

“ POPE ADRIAN
Pope Julius did abuse the Church's rights,
And therefore none of his decrees can stand.
Is not all power on earth bestowed on us?
And therefore, though we would, we cannot err.
(3.1.149-151)
”
Bruno has claimed that one of Pope Adrian's
predecessors, Julius, recognized the Holy Roman
Emperor as his lord, which is so not cool in Adrian's
book. But in his response, Adrian contradicts himself,
which doesn't make his argument look so sound. First,
he says that Julius's decrees were invalid because he
gave the Church too much power. Then he's all, "the
papal o ce is infallible" (unable to make a mistake).
But wait—if the papal o ce is infallible, how could
Pope Julius's decrees have been invalid? This guy, like
Faustus, could have used a logic class or two.

“ POPE ADRIAN
Behold this silver belt whereto is fixed
Seven golden seals, fast sealed with seven seals,
In token of our seven-fold power from heaven,
To bind or loose, lock fast, condemn or judge.
Resign or seal, or what so pleaseth us.
Then he and thou and all the world shall stoop,
Or be assured of our dreadful curse
To light as heavy as the pains of hell. (3.1.153-160)

Pope Adrian's Catholic Church believed that Jesus gave

the Pope the power to save and condemn souls. That
means that, when it comes down to it, the decision to
either forgive a sinner or kick him out of the Church
altogether (a practice called excommunication) was
with the Pope. To gain the Pope's forgiveness, folks
would buy indulgences, or forgiveness for sins. Many
folks felt that this practice amounted to nothing more
than people buying their tickets to heaven, to put it
bluntly, and this practice was one of the main things
that members of the Protestant Reformation objected
to when it came to the Catholic Church. This passage
shows the Pope using the power to save or condemn
souls in just the way the Reformation claimed it did—to
gain power, and make all the world "stoop."

“ POPE ADRIAN
Lord Cardinals of France and Padua,
Go forthwith to our holy consistory
And read amongst the statutes decretal
What, by the holy council held at Trent,
The sacred synod hath decreed for him
That doth assume the papal government
Without election and a true consent. (3.1.102-108)

Here, Pope Adrian charges his cardinals with

determining a punishment for Bruno, a Saxon man who
has been declared pope by the German emperor. The
Council of Trent was a meeting of bishops and
cardinals that occurred every once in a while between
1545 and 1563 as a response to the challenges of the
Reformation. Throughout the medieval period, the
Catholic Church had all kinds of problems, the most
common of which were divisions within the Church that
occurred when people couldn't agree upon a Pope. The
character of Bruno is supposed to be the product of
one such a division.

Act 3, Scene 2
Faustus

“ ARCHBISHOP
Please it, your Holiness, I think it be some ghost
crept out of purgatory and now is come unto your
Holiness for his pardon.
POPE
It may be so.
Go then; command our priests to sing a dirge
To lay the fury of this same troublesome ghost.
[Exit an Attendant. The Pope crosses himself.]
FAUSTUS
How now! Must every bit be spiced with a cross?
(3.2.80-86)

The Pope and his cronies just keep getting more and
more ridiculous. In this passage, they believe that the
invisible Faustus is a soul that's come out of Purgatory
to haunt them all. And this mention of Purgatory is yet
another reminder of the rather negative view
Protestants held of the Catholic Church. Many
Protestants believed that Purgatory didn't exist. It was
just as absurd to them as the other rituals the Pope and
Archbishop participate in here—exorcism and crossing
oneself. Faustus can't resist mocking the Pope for
these habits and beliefs.

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