Perhaps Mark Hofmann's inspiration for the Salamander Letter.

olderelder Wrote:
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> Perhaps Mark Hofmann's inspiration for the
> Salamander Letter.

A salamander is an amphibian, so yes.

However you have to ask whether this is a true witness statement or slander. People made up stuff about Joe too.

There's an old myth that touching a toad causes warts. Perhaps that helps explain all the warts in early church history.

Shinehah Wrote:
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> There's an old myth that touching a toad causes
> warts. Perhaps that helps explain all the warts in
> early church history.

Demons were also said to assume toad form. The entity Jahbulon of the Freemasons had the head of a toad.

send me a kiss by wire, baby my heart's on fire..."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkjsN-J27aU



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/25/2019 09:44AM by anybody.

Loud whisper voice in the theater: "We thought you was a toad!!!"

(O Brother Where Art Thou reference) :)

The music in that film is wonderful.

https://www.all-creatures.org/articles/rf-toads.html

It is a common guise of the Devil which occurs already in the Revelation: "And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty." (Rev. 16:13-14.)

In the Middle Ages the toad was a witch's animal, i.e. a demonic helper of a witch. In 1580 a witch was burned in Steiermark, Germany and the watchful executioner noticed an extraordinarily large toad rushing straight towards the water. Needless to say, it was the escaping demon. (Petzoldt 1990: 116.) G. L. Kittredge describes the beliefs about toads in medieval England: "The Devil, who squat like a toad at the ear of Mother Eve in Eden, is always at hand in the churchyard after service, waiting in that guise for some evil-minded communicant to feed him with a bit of the consecrated wafer: whoever thus sacrifices to Satan will straightway become a witch or wizard. The relation of witches to toads (or frogs) is notorious; and, like everything else in this department of superstition, it is founded on fact. Toads are not uncommon in earth-floored huts, and doubtless they were sometimes petted by solitary old women who, esteemed as witches, regarded themselves as such and thought the creatures were really imps or demons. Anyhow, toad-familiars are as commonplace as cats." (Kittredge 1929:181-182.)

The toad as well as the snake (serpent) occur among the manifestations of the Devil in the exempla of medieval sermons (IE 1557, 1562, 1563, 2738, 4882). Both creatures have a somewhat devilish status also in Estonian folk religion, which is reflected in the widespread belief that killing those animals is a pious act for which a certain number of sins will be forgiven: