All language subtitles for Forbidden.History.S07E07.The.Devils.Bible.1080p.DSCP.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-BTN_track3_[eng]

[narrator] The Devil's Bible,

a giant manuscript,
which has evoked fear in those

who witness its power.

the Devil's Bible is
one of the most striking,

unusual and memorable
books in existence.

[narrator] Written in
the medieval Czech Republic,

in times of plague,
darkness and despair,

it features a huge
picture of evil incarnate.

But the truth behind
who wrote this book and why

has confounded experts
for centuries.

[Tori] "A hole to hell,"
they call it.

Winged creatures,
the smell of sulfur,
obnoxious gases.

Animals were going sick,
farmlands was dying.

[narrator] Terrible tragedy
has followed
this book

wherever it has been.

There is a view that
the Bible itself is cursed.

[Andy] There is always
gonna be this sense

that there are just something
which are too terrible

to contemplate having emerged
from a human soul.

[narrator] Is there any truth
behind the stories
of its malevolent power?

[narrator] Hidden
in Northern Europe

is one of the world's
most mysterious artefacts.

[narrator] Stockholm, Sweden.

The National Library
houses many chronicles
from this country's history,

but within its treasury room,
sits its most prized tome...

the Codex Gigas,

also known
as The Devil's Bible.

Elin Andersson is a specialist
in ancient manuscripts

and an expert
on this unique book.

[Elin] This is definitely
one of the strangest books

in our collection here.

Its origins are
covered in mystery.

For whom was it made?
Who paid for this?

Why would they make
such an enormous manuscript?

[Elin]
Already in the middle ages,
this book was known

as one of the seven
wonders of the world.

[narrator] Although it now
resides in Sweden,

this mammoth manuscript
originated in
the Czech Republic,

formerly known as Bohemia.

It was plundered from Prague
by the victorious Swedes

in the 1600s
during the Thirty Years' War.

[Scott] Technically,
the Devil's Bible,

also formerly known
as the Codex Gigas,

it is what we consider
to be the largest

illuminated manuscript
that we have on record.

[Scott] An illuminated
manuscript is something

that would've been
worked on for decades

by a series
of illustrators and monks.

[Dominic] In terms of
its size, it's 3-foot long

and it weighs 175 pounds.

It's got 310 sheets of vellum
which may not sound like

that much to contain
all those texts,

but, of course,
they're very large

so they can contain
a lot of writing.

And it's one of the more
expensive books

and you know that because
it's got pictures in it.

It actually has five pictures

and 77 beautifully illustrated
capital letters.

[narrator] In addition to
containing a complete Bible,

this book also holds
medical texts,
histories and encyclopedias.

But on page 290,
there appears the image
that gives this book

its terrible nickname.

This is an image
of the devil and hell
that is meant to terrify.

This devil is a monster.

He has two arms and legs,
but four fingers and
four toes on each.

He has red horns
and he has two red tongues

coming out of either
side of his mouth

indicating his duplicity and
that he is the father of lies.

[Janina] The image itself
is very unusual.

The devil is shown
rather humanoid.

Often when you see images

of the devil that
come from that period,

from about the 13th century,

he has a tail, he looks
often scaly or furry,

but in The Devil's Bible,
he has a very human torso.

Then you have these long
claws that come out

from the hands
and from the feet.

[Peter] You can almost
feel those talons

coming out of the screen
at you

to, kind of, pull you in.

In that same way,

the devil is always
waiting around the corner

to seize you.

They're there.

And then he's got
his extraordinary, nasty,
little beady eyes.

[Andy] There's no basis for
the depiction of the devil

as you see
in The Devil's Bible,

in the actual
biblical text itself.

These notions
of the devil as a demon

with horns, and a pitchfork,
and a forked tail

is really based on legend
and on medieval ideas

of ghouls and goblins.

[narrator] The library rarely
removes The Devil's Bible

from its protective
glass case.

But why?

[Tony] Many have
wondered whether or not
The Devil's Bible

has supernatural
magical powers,

particularly because
after that image of the devil,

that full page image,

there are a set of
spells and magical formula.

And what on earth are they
doing inside a bible,

if not to counteract
the influence
and the power of Satan?

The question is that,
given the history
of The Devil's Bible

and the things that
it's done to people,

is it actually
in that glass case
to protect us?

[narrator] But who
could have written such
an extraordinary book?

The answer is toward the end
of this huge manuscript.

The book was written
between 1204 and 1230,

and most people think that
one of the names in the book,

Herman Inclusus,
is the name of the author.

He was a monk and
"Inclusus" means shut-in,

so he was some
kind of recluse.

[narrator] Herman the Recluse
was a Benedictine monk

in the small
Bohemian monastery
of Podlazice.

As the story goes,
he betrayed his vows

and was condemned to death.

[Dominic] And he was
sentenced to be walled up,
immured for his sins.

And he begged
that if he could create

the most beautiful
book in 24 hours

that he be spared
this punishment.

[Scott] Around midnight
he realized that
there was no way

he was ever going
to finish this book

and that is where the cursed
aspect comes into it.

Apparently he called upon
the devil himself.

[Janina] And he
asks the devil,

"Complete
this manuscript for me.

In return you
shall have my soul."

Miraculously, the next day
the manuscript is complete.

We might even suspect that
that very arresting image

of the devil was
a kind of thank-you note

from Herman the Recluse
to his lord and master, Satan.

[narrator] This legend
is supported

by some startling facts.

[Scott] The book itself has
been examined by experts.

There is absolutely no error
in the writing
of the manuscript.

Very often in
the illuminated manuscripts
you will find blotted ink,

you will find
misspelled words.

The handwriting in
the Codex Gigas is uniform

and was done
by the same person,

which lends
a bit of credibility
to the cursed legend.

[narrator] Forensic
handwriting experts

have assessed all the pages
in this manuscript

and have found that it
would've taken one person
up to 30 years to complete.

But what's so extraordinary
is the handwriting
doesn't change.

If you or I tried to sit down
and write out all of the Bible

and we started when
we were in our 20s

and we finished when
we were in our 50s,
our handwriting would change.

Why does the handwriting
not change in this
across the piece?

[narrator] The Czech Republic,
formerly known as Bohemia,

is the reported birthplace
of The Devil's Bible.

This is a country
where stories of the devil
hide around every corner.

Thirty miles north
of the capital Prague

lies Houska Castle.

This remote fortress

dates from the same century
as The Devil's Bible.

Local historian, Tori Burton,
has come to investigate
the secrets

this castle may hold.

The story here
at Houska actually begins
way back in about 870

when there was originally
a wooden structure built
in the forest here.

[Tori] Cracks started
to appear underneath

the wooden structure
in the rock

and so they built a
second castle made of stone

in order to control
what was coming out
of the crack below it.

[narrator]
The modern stone castle
was built here around 1270,

not long after
The Devil's Bible was written.

Could whatever is
contained in these walls

be a clue to the origin
of The Devil's Bible?

[narrator]
The Devil's Bible was written
in 13th century Bohemia,

now part
of the Czech Republic.

At the same time,
in the same kingdom,

Houska Castle was constructed
over a mysterious fracture

that appeared in the bedrock.

The castle's chapel
was built directly
over this crack.

[Janina] Houska Castle is
a bit of an anomaly

because it doesn't have many
of the features you'd expect

of a castle.

It's not fortified

and where you would expect
all of the decoration,
the protection

on the outside of a castle,

in this case,
it seems to be on the inside.

So instead of
keeping people out

is it actually
trying to keep something in?

When the stone cracked,
unfortunately,

evil started to spill out.

Winged creatures,
leathery winged chimera.

Sulfur gases were
spewing out of here

and terrorizing
the surrounding area.

Farmland was failing,
animals were sick,
animals were going missing,

and it all seemed
to be because of this
huge fracture

which seemed to be leading
directly to the gates of hell.

So, the second structure
that was built here
to serve as a plug

to what, we believe,
could be the actual gateway
to hell itself right here.

[narrator]
The builders of this chapel

left clues on the walls about
what they had witnessed.

[Tori] So, the chapel
here was built

with, obviously,
very clear intensions

and frescos on the walls here
illustrate what might happen

if, say this hole
was to open up again.

We have here a centaur,
a female centaur
that's left-handed

pointing a arrow
at a human being.

Left-handedness was
associated with evil,
as was female centaurs.

And here we have
Archangel Michael
weighing souls.

And you can see
the devil here trying to
influence his decisions

by sneakily
pulling down the left side
of his scale here.

[narrator] The gate to hell
is now covered,

but what did the builders
of this castle see down there?

[Tony]
Prisoners in Houska Castle

were given
a rather unattractive offer.

On the one hand,
they could be tortured

or spend
a long time in a cell,

or they could
commute their sentence

by agreeing to be lowered
into this pit.

One man who was lowered down
was heard screaming
and wailing,

brought back up within seconds

and his hair had turned white,
his eyes were full of terror,

and he'd gone
completely insane.

[Tori] Whether or not
they witnessed
hell itself down there,

I'm not sure.

There's a lot of suggestion
that all of this is just...

stories and there are
perfectly reasonable
scientific explanations

for all of these smells and
destruction that happened

around the time
of the hole being opened.

Either way, I would
not want to open it up.

I don't think there's any
need to look down there.

I wouldn't take any risks.

[narrator] The hell gate
at Houska Castle
may or may not be real,

but with all these reports
of hellish things going on,

could the devil have
stalked these lands
in the 13th century?

[Dominic] It's interesting
that we have
these two devil stories

from 13th century Bohemia.

The Devil's Bible
and Houska Castle,

but one needs to remember
that the devil was
one of the church's

best illustrative stories of
how not to live your life.

[Andy] The devil actually
would've been quite important

to people
in 13th century Europe,

largely because this was
an era when people

still believed
that misfortune,

any kind of bad luck,
illness, disease

may still have had some
kind of demonic origin.

So it might've been a curse

or some kind of punishment
for something that you'd done.

So in many ways,
fear of the devil

was no different
from the fear of God.

[Janina] There does
seem to be some quite

esoteric and
distinctive things

in the architecture,
the manuscript art

in Bohemia in the 13th
and 14th century.

It does seem
to have elements of...

black magic, perhaps,
necromancy...

but I think it is because of
the geography of this region.

It's a very wooded,
forested area.

[narrator] The legend of
Houska being a doorway to hell

did not end
in the middle ages.

In 1938,
with World War II
looming on the horizon,

this area of what
was then Czechoslovakia
was annexed by the Nazis.

The leader of the SS,
Heinrich Himmler,

was drawn to Houska Castle
and its dark tales
of unnatural power.

[Tori] Himmler had a very
big interest in the occult.

He was fascinated by
the power that could be
harnessed from evil

and, of course, maybe that
would help with
the Nazi movement.

So this castle was chosen
because of its connection
to the gateway to hell.

They used these
underground spaces
for torture, human experiments

which, they believed,
would help somehow
harness this power further.

[narrator] Another rumor
is that the Nazi's
used this place

as an incubator facility
for the Lebensborn Program.

This program sought
to encourage
the birth of children

who the Nazi's considered
racially pure,

often at the expense of
the local Slavic population.

Whatever the truth,

all records were destroyed
in the Nazi's flight

from the Soviet Red Army
in 1945.

But just 10 miles
up the road from Houska,

there lies another
depiction of hell.

[Dominic] The Devil's Heads
are a little unlike anything
else you've seen,

but in some ways
they look like large,

frightening, malevolent,
melting faces.

[Karen] You've got
these gigantic limestone
carvings of heads

and they're 27-feet tall.

And just to put that into
scale perspective,

it rivals the carvings
of the American presidents

on Mount Rushmore.

[narrator]
What is the true story behind
these strange monuments?

[narrator] Bohemia, now
the Czech Republic,

gave the world
The Devil's Bible.

Here too lie the grotesque
Devil's Heads,

carvings that have long
towered over
the local population.

[Tony] They remind me
of the description

of the devil
in Dante's Inferno.

This hairy, goat-like
beast of a giant

that's encased in ice,
with this three-faced head,

eating sinners
out of his multiple mouths.

[Lynn] The Devil's Heads
were carved in
the 19th Century

so there's no mystery about
where they came from.

Perhaps the mystery
is what they represent.

[Tori] These nearly 30 foot
heads behind me are called
the Certovy Hlavy

and that means Devil's heads.

And as you can see,
they are demonic looking,

they are humongous,

and they've been
looking over the people

in the villages
ahead of them since 1846.

[narrator] The man who carved
these grotesque faces

was the sculptor Vaclav Levy

who worked as a chef
in a nearby town.

[Tori] What we're seeing here

is actually the artist's
impression of his own
tortured, trapped-in soul

that he was waiting to get out
all of those years
working as a chef.

And this is the beginning
of his works, right here.

So, really, these big heads
are nothing more

than very posh,
very old graffiti.

[narrator] There is no doubt
that the devil has maintained

a firm grip on the minds
of the people of this land

just as it did
in the 13th century.

Written on the very first page

of The Devil's Bible is a list

indicating the manuscript
was created 100 miles

from the Devil's Heads

in a monastery
known as Podlazice.

Yet the very birthplace
of this bible

was destroyed not long after
the book was completed,

furthering the legend
of its curse.

By the early 1400s,

this region was in the midst
of religious turmoil.

Bohemia was one of those
parts of Europe

where the Catholic Church
struggled to retain control.

It was a fulcrum of heresy.

You have this extraordinary
figure in Bohemia, Jan Hus,

who was a great
reformer of the church
in lots of ways.

He felt it was corrupt.

He felt it had lost sight
of what was being
written in the scriptures.

[Tony] The Hussites
agitated among the people

to reject the Catholic Church
and its teachings,
and its priests, and its pope.

[narrator] The monastery
of Podlazice,

that gave the world
The Devil's Bible,

was burned during
these early religious wars.

But, fortunately,
the popularity of this book

would save it
from a fiery demise.

[Peter] The way monasteries
made their money

was people going
on pilgrimage,
walking to them.

So, if you had the choice
between going to

"X" monastery down the road,
which had a pretty small bible

with all familiar
illustrations in it,

or going to the monastery
where The Devil's Bible
was drawn,

which has this extraordinary
picture of the devil in there
and it's really, really big.

You know, you might be more
tempted to
go there.

[narrator] The grand
Sedlec Monastery,

seeing the value
of The Devil's Bible,

acquired it from Podlazice
before its destruction.

The bible's new home
was fantastically wealthy,

but Sedlec
had a macabre secret.

[Dominic] Medieval monasteries
could grow very wealthy.

And one of the main ways
they did this
was through burying people.

If a monastery could attract
local wealthy people

to come and be buried
in their graveyard,

they would require
that on that person's death,

they gave their goods
to the monastery.

Sedlec found a particularly
good way of doing this
in 1270,

when their abbot,
Abbott Henry,

went to Jerusalem
and brought back

some sacred, holy earth
from Golgotha,

from where
Christ was crucified,

and he spread this
in the monastery graveyard.

After that,
everybody in the region
wanted to be buried at Sedlec.

[narrator]
Death and destruction

continued to follow
The Devil's Bible.

This time,
on an unprecedented scale.

In the middle
of the 14th century,

the Bubonic Plague
struck the kingdom

and wiped out
half of Europe's population.

On that event,
Sedlec simply didn't have
enough space for the bodies,

so a decision was made

to remove bodies
from the existing
burial ground

and combine them
with current ones

and create an ossuary,
which is where the bones
will be stored.

[Karen] The remains
of 30,000 individuals

were actually thought
to have been deposited here

and you can imagine,
over the centuries

this might have gotten
a little untidy.

[narrator] The monks of Sedlec
decided to reorganize
the bones

and created
one of the most spectacular,

yet gruesome chapels
in the world.

The monks, obviously,
had a lot of time
on their hands

and they rearranged
human bones from the cemetery

into chandeliers,
and one half-blind monk

used a lot of bones to create
these kind of
pyramid-like structures.

And, as a result of this
rather morbid labor,

apparently,
his sight was restored.

[Dominic] Sedlec Ossuary
is quite unlike almost
anywhere else on the planet.

It's a cathedral of death
that's been curated
for 700 years.

It's quite unlike
anything you'll ever see.

[Janina] Ossuaries are
a curiosity for us today,
I think.

We've become very disconnected
in the modern age

with the dead.

So go back
to earlier centuries,

earlier millennia,

it would not be
uncommon to have

the remains of your ancestor,
for example, a skull perhaps,

displayed in your home.

When you see them
displayed in an ossuary,

they are acting
as memento moris.

The concept is
central to Christianity.

The idea that
"while you are alive,
be aware you will be dead

and look to your soul."

If you want forgiveness,
if you wanna be
resurrected in heaven

in a wonderful state
or you want to go to hell,

you make that final decision
during your life.

[narrator] Could it be
that the image
of the Prince of Darkness

was included
in The Devil's Bible
for a similar reason?

To remind people of the need
to live a good life?

Whatever its purpose,

as the manuscript
continued its cursed
journey across Europe,

it would capture the attention
of the rich and powerful.

[narrator] The Devil's Bible
has passed through many hands
across the centuries,

with rumors of its curse
following it across Europe.

It was sent from Sedlec

to the famous
Brevnov Monastery

in the Bohemian capital
of Prague.

It stayed in the hands
of the monks
for three centuries,

until it came to the attention
of an important collector

of the world's
most significant
religious artifacts,

the Holy Roman Emperor,
Rudolph II.

[Scott] Some say
that Rudolph II

was a combination

of a absolutely
brilliant ruler

and a bit of a mad man.

He suffered from,
what was referred to then
as melancholia,

or what we would refer to as
clinical depression.

Rudolph was an avid collector.

He would isolate himself
among his collection.

He would stare
at a piece of work for hours,

lost in thought
and his melancholy.

[narrator] Rudolph was
one of the most
colorful rulers in Europe

and, controversially,
moved the capital
of the Holy Roman Empire

from Vienna to Prague.

But in his desire
to make this city

the cultural and scientific
center of Europe,

he strayed
into dangerous territory.

[Scott] His collection
consisted of

telescopes, machinery,

what would be considered
very early computers.

But he was also
incredibly fascinated
by the occult sciences.

[Lynn] He welcomed all manner
of free thinkers to his court,

including, which was
very unusual then, rabbis.

He loved Jewish mysticism.

He was a magnet
for alchemists,

and alchemy was
a very interesting discipline.

It was not just about,
you know, changing
base metal into gold.

It was about...
It was a spiritual exercise.

It was about
transforming the soul.

[Dominic] Rudolph II,
Holy Roman Emperor

is actually a really
important person
in European history

because at the time
he was living

his collection
and the sorts of studies

that were undertaken on it,

formed the basis
for what became

the scientific revolution.

[narrator] Always looking
for a new piece
to add to his collection,

Rudolph soon
turned his attention

to the treasures of the nearby
Brevnov Monastery.

[Janina] Incredibly
important people
wanted The Devil's Bible.

Why would they want it?

Well, because
it is extraordinary.

There is no other
manuscript like it.

Its size, its wealth,
its beauty,

it's so beautifully
illuminated.

And then
you've got the little aspect

that maybe owning this thing,
having it in your collection,

could act as a protection
against the devil.

[Tony] Rudolph was determined
to get his hands
on The Devil's Bible

and, given the fact
that that monastery in Bohemia

was conveniently within
the Holy Roman Empire,

he basically bullied the monks
into handing it over.

[narrator] Brevnov Monastery
loaned The Devil's Bible
to the Emperor.

But soon, his empire
would begin to crumble.

The latter part
of Rudolph's reign

was racked with revolt and war
with the Ottoman Empire.

He became a paranoid recluse

and his titles were slowly
stripped away
by his brother, Matthias.

Rudolph blamed his
downfall on many, many people.

But one thing he did
was to blame
the people of Prague.

He said to the people
of Prague,

"I brought you this glory
and this is how you treat me."

And many, many people say
that the curse
against Prague

upon Rudolph's death bed
is what led
to the 300 years of conflict

following his death,
including
the Thirty Years' War.

[narrator]
The Thirty Years' War
saw bloody warfare

between most of the great
powers of Europe,

with up to eight
million casualties.

In 1648,
troops of the Swedish Empire,
led by Queen Christina,

besieged Prague.

And they went straight
for Rudolph's
treasured collection.

[Elin] The Swedes
looted Prague
where this bible was kept.

And they sought out libraries

and colleges,
private collections

to find books
to bring back to Sweden.

It was a very planned attack.
They knew exactly
what they were looking for.

Rudolph II and Queen Christina
were, essentially,
very modern monarchs.

They were openly bisexual,
they were open
to all kinds of ideas,

they were extremely
tolerant and learned.

And they both wanted
to get their hands
on The Devil's Bible.

Why? Maybe because
it challenged the consensus.

Maybe because it was
a bit dangerous.

[Scott] The Devil's Bible
was one of the many objects

sacked by
Queen Christina's army
during the Thirty Years' War.

And the weight
of the bible was so great,

that legend states
that it took two
of Queen Christina's soldiers

to carry it back to Stockholm.

[narrator] But as it
traveled north,

many people who encountered
The Devil's Bible

would experience
a similar fate

to those who had
suffered before.

[narrator]
Why The Devil's Bible
was written

has confounded experts
for centuries.

But we do know
where it has been in its life

thanks to the list of records
kept in its pages.

After the victorious
Queen Christina took the bible
from Prague in 1648,

it was kept
in the Royal Library

at the Tre Kronor Castle
in Stockholm.

[Tony] Queen Christina
was an incredibly

well educated woman
who had a habit of looting

other people's libraries
during military campaigns.

And she was so clever,

and so wise
that she was known
as the Minerva of the North

after the Roman
goddess of wisdom.

[Lynn] She was
what you might call
a woman of power.

She was almost certainly gay.

She dressed in drag,

she dressed as a man
from an early age.

She was educated
and she had a mania
for collecting books.

[narrator] But in 1654,
after 22 years on the throne,

Christina made
a momentous decision.

[Elin] She was for a long time
a controversial figure
in Sweden

because she converted
to Catholicism,

and Sweden was a strictly
Protestant country

for hundreds of years.

[Eric] Renouncing the throne
of the staunchly
Protestant nation,

Christina left Sweden
to live the rest of her days
in Rome

as the guest of the Pope.

Before she left,
she took many
of her beloved books,

but not The Devil's Bible.

[Tony] You might wonder
why Queen Christina

decided not to take
The Devil's Bible with her

to the very center
of Christianity.

But maybe that's the point,
that the Pope,
that the Catholic church

didn't want,
what was essentially
a satanic-authored bible

in the Vatican.

[narrator] The Devil's Bible
remained in Stockholm,

but the violent
history of this book

had followed it
from Bohemia
to Sweden.

[Elin] The Devil's Bible
was kept at the Royal Library

in the Royal Council
of Stockholm.

And in 1697,
there was a huge fire
breaking out,

destroying the whole building.

And this affected
the Royal Library and
the Royal Archives as well.

And in that library,
there were around 24,500 books

and 14,000 manuscripts,

and only a quarter
of them survived.

[narrator]
The Tre Kronor Castle
was destroyed

and then replaced
with the baroque
Stockholm Palace.

The Devil's Bible itself
was saved,

but not without cost.

The story goes that
staff threw it
out of the window.

[Tony] And, unfortunately,
maybe because the book
is cursed

it lands on
somebody's head outside,
seriously injuring them.

[narrator]
After its incredible
escape from the flames,

the bible traveled
between various places
in Stockholm,

until it came to rest
where it is today,
in the National Library.

But stories
of demonic possession
continued into the modern era.

In the 1850s,
there was a story published

about a caretaker
at the library
who fell asleep at work.

And when he woke up
at midnight,

he saw The Devil's Bible
whirling around in the air,

leading a crazy dance
of books around it.

He lost his mind
and never came back
to his senses.

[narrator]
Since The Devil's Bible

was encased in glass
in the treasury room,

there have been
no other reported incidents.

What became
of this book's author
is unknown.

However, legend of his
making a deal with the devil
is not without precedent.

Over the centuries,

many have felt it necessary
to call to the bowels of hell
for assistance.

[Janina] The idea
of making a pact,
a deal with the devil,

is ancient.

The concept
that there is good and evil,

demons and angels,

and that aligning yourself
with one or other

will empower you
during your life,

is a tantalizing prospect
for anyone.

[Dominic] It's fascinating
that there have
always been stories

of people selling
their souls to the devil.

And this goes back
right to the very
earliest days of the church.

We see it throughout
the medieval period.

Even a Pope,
like Pope Sylvester II,

was said to have
entered a deal with the devil

in order to be able
to take the papal throne.

Through the medieval period,
the witch trials, of course,

they were all claimed to be
in league with the devil,

right the way through
to modern times.

[narrator] All the legends
of pacts with the devil
raise a pertinent question.

Are these merely stories
or could they be real?

[Andy] I think what
these stories do is they act
almost like social parables.

They're ways of suggesting

that the pursuit
of something good in life

can sometimes become
so all-consuming

that it ends up
becoming destructive.

[narrator] We may never know
the truth of what happened

between Herman the Recluse
and the devil
in the 13th century.

But in the 21st century,
the product
of this diabolical pact

would return to its homeland.

[narrator]
From the Czech countryside,

The Devil's Bible
has passed through the hands
of different holy orders,

emperors, kings, and queens
across Europe.

But in 2007,

the journey
of The Devil's Bible
would come full circle,

when it was loaned
to the Czech government

and displayed
in the National Library
in Prague.

The exhibition attracted
thousands of people.

[Tony] Czech history lovers
have been waiting

and anticipating the return
of The Devil's Bible
literally for centuries.

But visitors were
only allowed to look at it

for a maximum of ten minutes.

[Andy] I think we're still
so interested in this book

because somewhere deep down
in the human condition,

there is always
gonna be this sense

that there are just
some things

which are too terrible
to contemplate,

having emerged
from a human soul,
from a human mind.

It's a way of personifying
our worst fears.

[narrator] But over 800 years
after it was written
in mysterious circumstances,

what is the truth
behind the stories
of this book's demonic curse?

[Dominic] The human mind
is incredibly fertile

and loves imagining stories
around unusual things.

The Devil's Bible is,
genuinely, very unusual.

So, it should come
as no surprise

that there are whole raft
of stories and legends

that surround it.

And that may even be
why it was created
in the first place.

One can well imagine
that the illustrator
who sat there

with the bible,
with a blank page
on his scriptorium desk,

thought, "A full-sized devil
will really get
people talking."

And it has.

[Janina] The idea that
The Devil's Bible is cursed

connects to certain events
that have taken place
around it.

But really,
that it survives at all

is quite a miracle.

Most manuscripts
from the medieval period

have been lost,
reused, turned into scrap.

That it has survived
is extraordinary,

that things will have happened
around it is inevitable.

[Elin] Some people
throughout history
have claimed that

this book is cursed.

It's not strange
when you think about

this image of the devil

that sets
the imagination running.

But I think this book
has been extremely blessed

because we still have it
after 800 years.

Today, we keep
The Devil's Bible
in a secure case

not because it's cursed,
but because we have
to monitor the environment

and keep it safe.

[narrator] Could the purpose
of The Devil's Bible

be similar to the ossuary
at its previous home
in Sedlec?

Might this image of the devil
be some sort
of memento mori

to serve as a warning
to 13th century Bohemia?

Bohemia would have had
traditions, folk lores,
legends,

that go back
into pre-Christian times,

connected with
the natural world.

Things like the ossuary,
the gates to hell,
The Devil's Bible.

We're actually seeing
a Christianity

that is adapting earlier,
older pagan ideas

and formulating them
in their own specific way.

[Peter] If you live
in a society
that's wrapped by war,

armies charging
through your land,

plagues racking things,
your children all dying early,
you have a much more

apocalyptic view
of life, really.

And I think
in the medieval mind,

the world's split very easily
between good and bad.

[Tony] You got to imagine
that poor people
in the middle ages

led such desperate,
appalling lives,

that many of them
actually worshipped
both God and the devil.

You know,
they were hedging their bets,

in the hope that
one or the other
would help them out.

And this was
condemned by the church
as blasphemy

and punishable by death,
but it didn't stop
people doing it.

[Lynn] You see, people point
to the picture of the devil

and say, "That just shows you,
it is a demonic book."

But on the very opposite page,

is a depiction
of the city of God, of heaven.

[Dominic] Heaven on the left
and the devil hell
on the right.

It's the core duality
at the heart of Christianity.

It's salvation
and it's perdition.

[Karen] It's just served
right up for the reader.
"What's it gonna be?"

You can either
lead the good life

and go to heaven,

or look what waits for you
in hell.

[narrator] So,
is that all this book is?

A grandiose attempt
to scare medieval Christians
into doing the right thing?

[Janina] I think
The Devil's Bible
is extraordinary.

I don't go in necessarily
for this idea

of a legend associated
with the devil.

I think there's a very
obvious reason

why that image occurs
where it does.

But I do think there is
something extraordinary

about the fact
this thing got made at all.

It would have taken
so much scholarship,

so much dedication,

so much patience to create it.

It is an extraordinary
achievement.

[narrator]
Debate will continue

over the origins
of The Devil's Bible.

Written eight centuries ago
in Bohemia,

it seems this mighty book

will fascinate us
for many more
centuries to come.