008 CODEX GIGAS - Did a monk get drunk and make deal with the Devil?

This week, the Henchmen crack open the legend of the Codex Gigas—a massive medieval book said to be written in a single night… with help from the Devil himself.

From a monk facing a gruesome death to a deal that defies logic, they dig into demons, forbidden knowledge, possible missing pages, and the eerie truth behind the so-called Devil’s Bible.

Did one man really write it… or was something else guiding his hand?

Transcript

Bobby 0:19

Hey everybody, this is Bobby. Hey Bobby. Thank you so much to our listeners. We just love doing this podcast. I wanted to shout out a couple people, our listeners in El Paso, Texas. What's up? Lewiston, Maine. Yeah. What's up? Our UK listeners. We got a Morocco listener. Yeah, we just we love you guys. We love doing this podcast and just wanted to give you a little shout out and a thank you. And if you don't like the fact that we know where you're listening from, you should get a VPN. Okay. Have you been paying attention at all? You know? That's a very good point. Yeah. But again, we just we just love doing this and uh we appreciate all the support. If you love the podcast, give us a review and uh five stars on iTunes. If you hate the podcast, give us a five stars worth of hate. Whatever you whatever you do, either way. If you want to support us, there's a button on Spotify.

Michelle 1:08

Yeah, thank you so much.

Bobby 1:10

Thanks, guys. This is ASMR of us doing a podcast. Yeah, essentially. Yeah, yeah. Enjoy.

Michelle 1:15

Like and subscribe.

Bobby 1:16

Yeah, smash that button. This is an ASMR of me smashing the like button. What's that sound like?

Michelle 1:26

Oh, you like purring.

Bobby 1:28

Yeah, smash it really fast, really hard, like a little cat.

Greg 1:31

You know, I like why isn't someone like made that animation yet of just a cat smashing the like button? No, the fact that the fact that we're thinking of it is someone's already made it. Speaking of making things. Uh-huh. Oh, yeah, let's have it.

Michelle 1:46

Uh what did you make?

Greg 1:47

No.

Michelle 1:48

What are we making?

Greg 1:49

Today it's not who made what? It's not me making anything. It's it's something that happened way, way back, long, long time ago.

Bobby 1:56

In a land far, far away?

Greg 1:57

Kind of. Yeah. It was what it was what's now known as the Czech Republic. Back then it was Bohemia. Today, what we're talking about is the devil's Bible.

Michelle 2:06

Ooh.

Greg 2:08

A lot of people know of this legend already, and a lot of people have a little bit of an understanding as to what it is, because the book is real, it does exist. You can go see it on display in Sweden. In the early 13th century, in a quiet corner of what is now the Czech Republic, a book was created. A book. It is the largest medieval illuminated manuscript in the world. Illuminated meaning like it's uh like highly detailed and ornate, and there's I got it.

Michelle 2:38

It's not actually lit up.

Greg 2:39

No, no, no. It's just that it's like an elevated book. It's not just text, like there's photos, illustrations, not photos, but illustrations and like very highly ornate and illustrated.

Michelle 2:50

I'm envisioning a lot of that like gold and silver foil paint.

Greg 2:56

Sort of, yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah, if you like keep that in mind when like the type of book that's being made. The manuscripts measured about 36 inches by 20 and it weighed 165 pounds. It's a hold on. It's a heck.

Michelle 3:11

36. Wait, give it to me again.

Greg 3:14

36 by 20.

Michelle 3:16

Okay. All right. I mean, this is big for a book, but I can I can wrap my head around that.

Greg 3:21

There's some tash and there's some tash and books that are big coffee table books. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Bobby 3:28

That's the size of a coffee table, though. 36 by 20. That's that's that's the whole entire coffee table. It's a big ass book.

Greg 3:36

Yeah, you could just yeah, you if you put legs on this, you could you know, throw some coffee on there or something.

Michelle 3:40

A word word, word. Beautiful coffee. Okay, okay, okay. Hold on. A hundred and how many pounds?

Greg 3:44

165 pounds.

Michelle 3:47

Bro.

Greg 3:48

Yeah.

Michelle 3:48

That's a book.

Bobby 3:49

Yeah.

Michelle 3:50

That's a big boy.

Bobby 3:51

Yeah, that's the weight of a many adult people.

Michelle 3:54

I was just what adult weight. What? What?

Greg 3:58

Yeah.

Michelle 3:59

Okay.

Greg 4:00

You're probably, I don't know. You're you probably weigh less than the book.

Michelle 4:03

I do lay, I do. So if I was to contort myself into a book 30-inch into a book shape. Yeah. Yeah.

Greg 4:13

You'd be smaller and weigh less than the book.

Michelle 4:15

That's right.

Greg 4:16

Yeah.

Michelle 4:16

Got it. Okay.

Greg 4:17

It is a Romanesque Latin Bible with other texts. Some secular added in the second half of the book. Um, it's bound in leather, stretched over wooden boards. Its pages are made from the skins of animals, so not parchment strap, like parchment scraps and things like that, but uh entire hides were used to make this.

Bobby 4:39

The book cover is made of wood and the pages are made of animal hides. This book is fucking crazy.

Michelle 4:44

This is sick. Also, you know how like most things when we talk about animal hides, when we're at like the Metropolitan Museum, almost all of it is like ball sacks.

Bobby 4:55

Yeah, I yeah, I just gotta ask because everybody's thinking it. Is there any human skin involved in this book? Yeah, yeah.

Michelle 5:01

What are you sure?

Greg 5:03

It's possible, but it's not it's not on record that any of it's actually human. Fair enough. Sure, sure, sure.

Michelle 5:09

Okay, fine.

Greg 5:10

It's known, its name is Codex Gigas. It's composed of 310 leaves of vellum. Uh, it's claimed to be made from the skins of 160 donkeys, or perhaps calf skin. Um, and inside it it contains not fragments, like not excerpts, but the entire Latin Bible, alongside medical texts, historical chronicles, magical incantations, uh, penitential formulas, and a list of demons.

Michelle 5:41

What?

Bobby 5:42

This is a great time where you could like make a Bible, but like just add a bunch of your own stuff to it. Oh, yeah, like I like demons.

Michelle 5:50

So we're gonna have a demon section. Like, sure, we're gonna cover the Latin Bible word for word, and that's gonna be there, but also demons.

Bobby 5:58

I feel like now you're not allowed to add stuff to the Bible.

Michelle 6:00

For sure. For they won't read it. Yeah, they hate that. Yeah, yeah.

Greg 6:03

Yeah, when you start making up your own stuff, they're not a big fan. Right. Even though like that book is kind of made up.

Bobby 6:10

A bunch of people made up a bunch of stuff. Totally, totally. Yeah. What's one more gospel? Come on. Right? Yeah, gospel of demons.

Michelle 6:18

Hell yeah, dude.

Bobby 6:19

Can see why that's left out.

Michelle 6:20

Yeah, yeah. They don't want you to know. Give me the name of this book again.

Bobby 6:24

The Codex Gigas. Is Gigas Latin for big as fuck? It's just big book. Big book.

Michelle 6:30

Oh, I was just gonna say this is the nerdiest title for like the sickest heavy metal book.

Bobby 6:36

The codex gigas.

Michelle 6:38

Yeah.

Bobby 6:39

Nerd. Nerd. Bring me the codex giggas. It'd be cool if this was nerdy, but it it's it's a pretty dark story.

Greg 6:48

Yeah, hell yeah. Demon nerds. Yeah. Just do it. Um and uh what what's notable about it is like one full page is dedicated to an illustration of the devil himself.

Michelle 7:00

Fuck yeah, dude.

Greg 7:02

And that's why the book is known as the Devil's Bible. It's a book that tries to hold the totality of all knowledge. That that was the purpose for it to be made. And the legend is kind of crazy, and it starts with the like the monk who actually made it himself. Well, it starts in 1229 CE at Podalatsa. Is it Podalatsa? Podlazitsa. That's what it is.

Michelle 7:30

Are we Polish?

Greg 7:31

Uh Czech.

Michelle 7:33

Oh yeah, right. You said that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's Bohemian. You know, this is where my people are from, and I can't say it either.

Greg 7:40

So it's po I think it's Pod or Pod. It's I I'm pretty sure it's Podl Podlazitsa uh monastery. I think menastery uh monastery in the medieval kingdom of Bohemia. Podolitza was not a powerful abbey, it was uh it was poor, it was isolated, uh politically insignificant. There was nothing magnificent about this. Um the monks there were essentially just tasked with copying texts and Bibles, um praying as monks do. Uh, but then tending the land and just normal everyday things. They didn't really have again, it wasn't like a big uh like centerpiece for the church by any means. It was not the sort of place where great works were expected to emerge.

Michelle 8:27

Gotcha, gotcha. The sleepy little town.

Greg 8:30

And potolitch. Oh, that was the name of the monastery. Um the monk, his name was Herman the Recluse. Sounds legit.

Michelle 8:40

Fuck it.

Bobby 8:41

I mean, you know, you know that name's legit because you're already in like the deep cut monastery. You're already way out there. And then if you're way out there and within that monastery, you're known as a recluse? Yeah. You're fucking out there. For sure. Yeah. Don't talk to Herman.

Michelle 8:55

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh can I just ask, is the Hermit card in the tarot deck based off this man?

Greg 9:01

Probably not. Okay.

Michelle 9:03

It could be. It is in my heart.

Greg 9:04

Sure.

Michelle 9:05

Okay.

Greg 9:06

Yeah. Yeah. The manuscript itself is the only thing that names him. I don't think there's actual record of him outside of this book itself.

Michelle 9:14

Uh, it names him. He so wait. Like he signed it or like he wrote about it in okay, okay.

Bobby 9:21

The Devil's Bible by Herman.

Michelle 9:22

By me. By Herman. Herman. Your boy.

Greg 9:26

Yeah. Yeah. Um, yeah, so like very little is known about him outside of the book. There's no independent chronicles describing his life. There's no letters. His name appears only within the codex itself, written humbly in Latin. Uh, according to the story passed down through centuries of monastic rumor and folklore, Herman committed a grave sin. The exact crime is never clearly stated. Some versions say he broke sacred vows, others claim he practiced forbidden knowledge, cool witchcraft and shit. I don't know. As monks do. Some even said it was murder, others heresy. In medieval storytelling, unnamed sins were always the worst kind. Uh, crimes so severe that repeating them even risked condemnation. So it's it's hard to say what it was that he was actually uh charged with.

Bobby 10:19

That sounds like some real witchcraft accusation shit. Yeah. Where they're like, he did, he he shall be stoned to death. And they're like, What did he do? And they're like, We cannot say.

Michelle 10:28

Yeah.

Bobby 10:28

We mustn't say. Yeah. And they're like, Well, we have to kill him. And they're like, Really? It was bad. And they're like, so bad we cannot say it. Yeah.

Michelle 10:35

Dude.

Greg 10:36

Yeah.

Bobby 10:36

That's so bad. That's some bullshit. When everybody's like, what did he do? And they're like, Well, we can't, it's too bad to say.

Greg 10:44

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, it's like when uh people are just like, you go to a job interview and like I have 10 things I could do to help this business out. And they're just like, okay, what? And they're like, well, I can't say. Yeah. Like you have to hire me, so then I tell you what I can do. Uh-huh. Um, so all of that aside, uh, what matters is not the act, but the punishment. Herman was sentenced to the most severe penalty short of death. He was to be walled alive inside the monasteries.

Michelle 11:12

Stop it. No.

Greg 11:14

The cask of Amateado. Herman. Yeah.

Michelle 11:18

No. In the walls.

Greg 11:19

Yeah, they were just gonna brick him up.

Michelle 11:22

Till he starves to death and dies. No. Yeah.

Greg 11:25

Buddy. And that's usually like when that happened too. It wasn't that they like, yeah, you're obviously walled inside. You're bricked up in a wall. But then like there was always in medieval time, like there was always rats would get in. Of course. Like you would be like chewed at, and like it was it was terrible.

Michelle 11:41

It was so cold and smelly.

Greg 11:43

Yeah. And you were just sitting essentially in your filth for until you're dead.

Michelle 11:47

How long do you think it takes to die?

Greg 11:48

Probably a few days.

Michelle 11:50

Not weeks.

Bobby 11:54

It's probably, yeah, with the rats getting at you would probably make the process so much more painful and faster.

Michelle 12:01

Yeah.

Bobby 12:01

Yeah.

Michelle 12:02

Yeah. It's so kind of thank God for the rats, kind of. But also, no, because it hurts real bad.

Bobby 12:07

Oh, I hate this stuff. Also, just the sheer terror of being eaten alive by rats while you're trapped inside of a wall.

Michelle 12:12

Also, it's pitch black. You can't even see.

Greg 12:15

Being walled up alone isn't bad enough. It's just like, oh yeah, now you're gonna get eaten alive. I like that you threw that on there. Like, and it's dark in here.

Michelle 12:22

It's so dark. I can't even see.

Greg 12:24

Like, you know how even like to this day, like solitary confinement is the worst. Yeah, that's the worst thing you can do to somebody.

Michelle 12:30

Yeah, they keep trying to like outlaw it, you know, in prisons, and they never do.

Greg 12:35

These like tombs essentially weren't like, oh, you have some space to move around. Like it was literally like it fit you, and then you were walled up inside.

Michelle 12:43

I hate this so much. This is the worst punishment ever. Wait, what did he do? He wrote the Bible. He wrote the satanic Bible, the codex.

Greg 12:51

The uh codex, yeah. Not the satanic story we're talking about.

Michelle 12:57

He got busted for writing the Bible and got walled.

Greg 13:01

Well, no, not necessarily. That's not that's not how all of this plays out. So execution was common in the Middle Ages. It was like usually public, um, but being walled alive was obviously different. It meant removal from the world without closure. There was no burial in a common sense, like uh you were buried alive, obviously. But uh there was no confession, there's no witnesses, no absolution whatsoever. It was a slow erasure inside the walls, and that's essentially it, accompanied by only your breath, darkness, and time. Like you just hate us. You had to live through it until you didn't anyway.

Michelle 13:41

Until you died. You have to live through this until you died.

Greg 13:44

You're there and then you're not. So being walled alive uh back then was essentially to be like unwritten, like it was just you are removed, and that's it. No one says a word about it, you're just removed from life. And that's kind of where this whole legend starts to like sharpen and like uh become crazier. It wasn't necessarily the punishment itself, um, but it was the silencing of him that like caused all of what's now known as the legend itself. His response to this was essentially pleading for mercy, and he begged and pleaded and did everything he could, but he eventually, instead of asking for forgiveness, he was asking for time. And what he did was make an impossible offer. He knew it was impossible, everyone else knew it was impossible, and that's kind of why they were just like, okay, let's see what you can do. He promised that if his life was spared, he would create a single book that would contain all of human knowledge up until that point. Uh so not just scripture, but history, medicine, theology, and wisdom itself. A book so valuable that it would bring eternal honor to the monastery. The abbot obviously agreed, um, except on one condition. It had to be done in one night. So he was sentenced to essentially be walled up the next day. So it was he had until morning to write this book. And if he couldn't do it, yeah, he was dead.

Michelle 15:20

My jaw is on the floor. I can't even handle this.

Bobby 15:22

Bring me the hides of 150 donkeys.

Michelle 15:26

Both and a lot of candles and a lot of ink. And probably some human skin. Oh, definitely. He probably used his own. He probably ran out of skin, used his own.

Greg 15:36

I'm just thinking of all the worst, like gross things. He's just like using bodily fluids and drying it out and then making paper.

Michelle 15:43

Yeah.

Greg 15:44

Well, you figure too, this was uh the monastery was kind of known for copying Bibles and text. Oh, yeah.

Michelle 15:50

So he had supplies.

Greg 15:51

They the supplies were there.

Michelle 15:52

Um fair, fair.

Greg 15:53

But yeah, after agreeing to this, um, yeah, if Herman failed, uh, the sentence would be carried out at dawn. This is where the legend kind of turns dark, um, because no human being could complete such a work, even in one lifetime, let alone one night. Um so he started writing. He was given a little space, he was given the same sort of uh like work table general area of like where he could be doing all this. He was given all the supplies he could possibly use. Some snacks, probably had snacks, probably had some uh like almond pretzels, like it's almond butter pretzels, those things are so good. They probably had those back then, yeah, for sure. And tomatoes, yeah. That's it, that's all you get. Yeah, maybe some wine or something. I don't know what they it was probably not clean water back then. Yeah, I think that's why they drank wine all the time. The water was shit.

Michelle 16:45

So literally, yeah.

Greg 16:46

They just had to ferment fruit, and that's what they every back then. So smart. Drunk and dehydrated.

Michelle 16:53

Yeah, yeah, red faced.

Greg 16:54

Yeah, yeah.

Bobby 16:55

That's probably why he made this bet. He's so drunk. Yeah, he's drunk, they're drunk, I'm fine. Do it. You think you're gonna write a book? Watch me.

Michelle 17:05

Do it by dawn, motherfucker.

Greg 17:08

Yeah. Do it by dawn. That's his second book. Yeah. The second book was just did it by dawn. Yeah, right on. It's the story of him writing this. Um yeah, okay, so he was he's was writing for hours on end. Um, and he was just obviously he knew this was going to be impossible. The task was hopeless, his hand was cramping, his mind was failing. Um, the weight of what he had promised was like pressing down on him, and he didn't really he knew what was to come if he didn't actually complete this. And at some point before midnight, Herman broke. He didn't pray to God, he prayed to the opposite, as one does back in those days, and to this day. Horns up everybody.

Michelle 17:58

Horns up, yeah.

Bobby 17:59

When fucking death is barreling down at you, you know, and you're drunk.

Michelle 18:03

Yeah, you call Lucifer. Yeah.

Greg 18:06

In desperation, he called upon Lucifer. Fuck yes, uh, offering his soul in exchange for helping complete the book before dawn. And according to the legend, devil shows up, devil answered, and not in smoke and fire as like movies and everyone else would expect, but just in his presence, and the pact was struck. Uh before the sun rose, the book was finished.

Michelle 18:31

Fuck yeah, Lucifer. Good man.

Greg 18:33

Herman allegedly lost consciousness or entered like a trance-like state almost immediately after invoking Lucifer. Some versions say he collapsed at the desk, others claim he remained seated, eyes open, unmoving, just flow state. Major flow state flow state. That Lucy flow state. Which is interesting. Like, I like the idea of like calling Lucifer and like Lucifer being part of the legend since he is known as the light bringer and the bringer of knowledge. It makes sense that you would call on that to help with something like this.

Bobby 19:09

We hear a lot of these stories about you know, selling your soul to the devil for for whatever, you know, Rob Robert Johnson at the crossroads. Yeah. Uh do you think that the devil ever like shows up and is like, ah, it's not really a good deal for me? Yeah, and then like takes off.

Greg 19:23

He's like, you know, once they see what is requested, and the devil's like, ah he's just like, you want to learn banjo instead? I know it doesn't exist yet, but there's gonna be an instrument called the banjo. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Michelle 19:35

He's like you're gonna be fire at that.

Bobby 19:38

Yeah, he's like got a lot going on right now. Do you got anything else you want?

Michelle 19:42

I feel like uh I feel like the devil is so good at striking up deals and stuff that there's definitely been times where he was like, fucking no. Yeah, and left, you know?

Bobby 19:52

For sure. Yeah, that tracks. Yeah, you gotta come with something sweet. Yeah, yeah. But that's a soul. Like you I guess the soul is the sweet thing. But but yeah, the the what you ask for in return has to be has to be attainable, you know. Just classic goal setting stuff. It's gotta be specific, measurable, for sure.

Michelle 20:10

Careful what you wish for, everybody.

Bobby 20:11

Realistic and timely, smart goals. That's what the devil is all about. Yeah, yeah.

Greg 20:14

We can get into like a future episode. I'm gonna want to talk about like people that do sell their souls and like what that looks like in reality. And a lot of it has to do with the entertainment business, but we can nice.

Michelle 20:25

Oh my god, I convinced myself that Adam Driver sold his soul. Oh, so that he could be in Star Wars.

Greg 20:32

Maybe.

Michelle 20:32

All right, my future self is gonna tell you that on that future podcast.

Bobby 20:38

He got girls on his own, but then sold his soul to be in Star Wars.

Michelle 20:41

That's why he was like, I can't do this. I can't do this anymore.

Greg 20:48

All right, so is this it? When uh when later asked how he wrote the book, Herman reportedly said he didn't remember writing it at all. He remembered the prayer, is if you can call it that.

Michelle 21:00

Like uh summoning the devil.

Greg 21:01

Yeah. Okay, he remembered fear and he remembered the sunrise. Wow. And that was it. But the act of writing itself was just gone from his memory. The monks claimed the writing tools uh were found still warm in the morning, as if they've been used continuously through the night without pause. Or by the devil. Yeah. Devil got hot hands.

Michelle 21:22

That's right.

Greg 21:23

Fire. Herman allegedly believed his hand was guided, not controlled in the sense of a possession, but moved with a certainty and speed that did not feel like his own. Although it's weird that that's part of the legend, too, if he had no memory of it.

Michelle 21:39

Yeah, I call bullshit on that, but whatever.

Greg 21:41

Um, the legend says he experienced no fatigue, no cramps, no exhaustion. The physical toll of writing thousands of lines simply did not register in his body at all. So it didn't look like he did anything. Um when the book was opened, there were no corrections, no scratched out lines, no. Hesitations as if, like, oh, why missed messed up here? I have to correct, and like there's no whiteout back then, but you get the idea. Every page appeared intentional, as if it was just being copied from some other existing source. Right. So even like the layout, the design, everything just looked like, oh, this existed. Here's a copy of it. Herman reportedly expressed confusion and fear when he first saw the finished manuscript, recognizing the handwriting as own as his own, but he was unable to recall the labor that produced it. Some tellings say he wept when he reached the full page image of the devil, claiming he did not remember drawing it, only understanding why it was there once he saw it.

Bobby 22:41

Have you seen have you seen this image? Yeah. Is it is it like a pretty classic depiction of the devil? Like what we would think of, or or what's it I mean, yeah.

Greg 22:50

Like in in terms of like medieval paintings, it makes sense, but like I'll I'll get to like what it actually looks like. Okay. And you can look it up online if you just Google uh Codex Gigas or the Devil's Bible, you'll find it. Um it's noted that the devil's illustration was executed with unusual care and detail, as if it had been given special attention beyond the rest of the manuscript. So obviously it was important that this image looked the way it did. And it was if you find the image, like there are better images in some cases than others, it just depends on who took the photo or the scan and stuff. And there are like reconstructed the book is so old now that like they had to reconstruct it into digitally just to kind of get a better understanding of what's there, but it's 100% the double. It's not like it's a self-portrait by any means. Like you know, you know what you're looking at. Uh, when questioned about the contents, Herman could only explain the meaning of the text, but not the process by which they were assembled in such perfect order. After that night, the legend claims Herman was never again the same. He was quieter, more withdrawn, as if part of him remained behind the desk when dawn arrived. Like, I can imagine going through anything. Imagine like blackout drunk, and then you're just like, oh, I'm now in the 7-Eleven, and you're like that. Like that fear that has to be there when you're like waking up places or something that has to be crazy. Um, inside the Codex Gigas is something no other medieval Bible contains. It is that exact full-page illustration of the devil occupying an entire uh leaf essentially by himself. So it's just one page of this awesome picture of the devil. Yeah. He is shown front-facing, he has greenish skin, clawed hands, a forked tongue, his arms raised as if like presenting himself. He's just like, what up? I'm the devil. He wears a strange white garment patterned with red marks that resemble uh Ermine pelts, uh, a symbol normally associated with royalty. And he is the king of the fucking Yeah, I mean he's pretty royal. He's king of hell.

Bobby 25:06

It sounds, I mean, yeah, green is a an awesome choice. Yeah. Not the normal depiction that you see, but yeah, it's usually like the red person.

Greg 25:14

Yeah, it does look more demonic or something. He looks, it looks more dragon-like in terms of the books when you see the illustration. And it looks similar to like old um, how to put it, like old like Chinese drawings of demons and stuff like that. Yeah, cool, cool, cool. Kind of has that vibe to it. Yeah. Or Japanese, I guess it would be.

Bobby 25:34

Yeah. It's always interesting to see apart from different eras and particularly areas of Europe, in areas of Europe that border uh you know, Eastern Europe, the once you get closer to China, you start to see those influences and you see them start to merge. And that's always interesting to me. Of iconography that we we would here in America, we generally seem to think of as Eastern, but you see those overlap with a lot of European styles. That's always very interesting, and and often in uh religious images in particular.

Greg 26:03

Yeah, even like during the Renaissance, like there would be well, I I guess everyone kind of learned off of each other, but you would have that there's a very specific look to like religious iconography of like how things were painted, and especially like in faces. Like everyone had this like weird flat look that yeah, everyone got used to.

Bobby 26:22

That takes a lot of a lot of belts to make some stuff out of an ermine.

Greg 26:26

That's no 170 donkeys, though. No, no, yeah. So, but also opposite the the image of the devil um on the facing page. So the devil was like, if you opened the book, the devil was on the right. The left side on the facing page was a depiction of some heavenly city. So it was like good and evil facing one another. Um, according to the legend, Herman painted the devil as tribute, fulfilling his end of the bargain. It was part of the deal. Um, it was made in honor of the tome's author.

Bobby 27:01

Yeah, paint me like one of your demons.

Greg 27:07

What's funny is that image, like he is kind of spread equal. Yeah, yeah.

Bobby 27:12

Herman, look at me. Look at me, Herman.

Greg 27:16

It was like part of the deal. It was like if I'm helping you with this, the devil, for whatever reason, was like, you gotta draw me a picture, buddy. Yeah.

Michelle 27:24

I'm crying. It's so hard.

Bobby 27:29

It seems, I mean, like, I I I just am curious about his his initial crime that led to the the punishment and this bargain. And that like, I wonder, you know, I wonder if that crime perhaps related to to witchcraft or something of of the like, you know. So maybe this wasn't necessarily his first dabble in this arena, you know. Maybe he knew how to call up. You know, there's the idea of that, you know, or that he was maybe a little bit familiar with this arena. So it was like kind of a a natural runway.

Greg 28:03

I think that was something too that was uh originally taught to like priest class. Because even like uh King Solomon, like he was known for essentially naming all of the demons, and like he knew the exact like incantations for all of them. He spent like years did doing that and like built books essentially instructions on how to call all of these demons.

Bobby 28:24

Yeah, and there's the classic, I mean, like the incantations used in exorcisms and all that, you know, are essentially spells. Yeah, so there's there's a heavy overlap there. And and yeah, you're right, there would be a heaver heavy overlap in in their teaching.

Greg 28:36

Yeah, and you would think back then you would like uh probably have to learn how to call them to know how to banish them. Absolutely.

Bobby 28:42

That was something that was and how to spot other people calling them, yeah, and call them a witch so that they die. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Michelle 28:49

But but we can't we can't speak about it's so bad we can't say we can't say what what they did. Yeah.

Greg 28:56

The uh the book itself, um, the the codex itself contains what uh myth and myth would like collide with facts here. Um the codex Gigas is real, it survives today. Um it contains the entire Latin Bible, start to finish, nothing left out, no mistakes. At the time, like that Bible was what everyone would have known. I'm sure him being a monk would have known it by heart anyway. I think that was part of their deal. Then there was the Chronica Bohemorium, which was a complete history of Bohemia up until that point, the complete history, uh, chronicles the mythical origins of the Czech people, including early rulers and legendary founders, uh, documents the Christianization of Bohemia, uh, record or records political conflicts, successions, wars, church affairs up into the early 12th century. Um, this text also anchors the codex geographically tying uh universal scripture to a specific land and people. So it was like it was very heavily detailed in terms of the uh of what was written in there.

Bobby 30:07

That's such an interesting part of the the legend, as well, is that you know he struck the deal to he's like, I'll make this incredible Bible, and they're like, No, you won't.

Greg 30:16

Okay, and then and then the finished product has like all this extra shit. Well, no, that was that was what he was saying. He's like, I will write you a uh a book that contains like all of human knowledge. Okay, he agreed to this upfront. Yeah, okay, I got you. And that's why it was so impossible. Even like writing the Bible itself would have been no task he would have been able to do. But in a single night, single night. By dawn, yeah, did by dawn. There was also medical texts attributed to Hippocrates and Galen. Uh, so that they were like explanations of the four humors the blood, phlegm, yellow bile, black bile, uh, treatments for fevers, wounds, infections, digestive disorders. Yo, you gotta poop. People gotta poop.

Bobby 30:58

We're sharing a lot of grass looks here. Yeah, uh different color bile is real.

Michelle 31:03

I am leaving.

Greg 31:04

Uh prescriptions involving herbs, diet, bloodletting, and rest.

Michelle 31:08

And wait, what's that? Blood wetting.

Bobby 31:11

Bloodletting. Sometimes when you're you're sick, you got a disease, you just gotta let a lot of your blood out. Yeah. That's got the disease in it, and then you and then you're all right.

Greg 31:19

It's like back in the day, like uh barbers would put like leeches on you. Yeah. And that was essentially bloodletting. Yeah.

Michelle 31:26

So uh I don't go to a barber to get a haircut. I go to a barber to get my blood lead out of my body.

Bobby 31:31

Yeah, yeah, yeah. They do. I mean, this is uh we spoke about this recently, the origin of the barber pole. Yeah, the red color is from barbers used to perform minor surgeries and they would put the blood-soaked rags out in the wind, wrap them around the pole, and that's where the barber pole can be.

Michelle 31:47

It's all coming back. It's all coming back to me now.

Greg 31:55

Uh also, also within the medical text uh section was instructions for diagnosing illness based on pulse, urine, and physical symptoms. So there's that as well. Okay. So he he was putting a lot down in this. Um there was a penetra, what how do you how would I phrase this? Um penicata. Yeah, it's like a penicata recipe. Penitential, the penitential guide for confessors. So how to properly dole out like your penance for a sin. Like if you went to confession, you would have to, you would get like, oh, you gotta read the wizard.

Michelle 32:32

You gotta write the codex gigas. Yeah. By dawn. Yeah.

Bobby 32:36

If you don't do strictly, we're gonna kill you worse than we were gonna kill you before.

Greg 32:40

And then there are two was uh lists of sins such as theft, adultery, violence, false oaths, and sacrilege. Uh corresponding punishments ranging from days of fasting to years of prescribed prayer, instructions on how to con how confessors would or should question penitence, emphasis on proportional punishment rather than forgiveness alone. So you like there was like a whole list of like what would be the proper way to um punish someone for fucking someone's wife, things like that.

Bobby 33:13

The proper way.

Greg 33:16

Uh a lot of people think you can. I don't think. I think it has to come from your soul or something.

Michelle 33:22

I I'll pay for it with my soul.

Bobby 33:23

Yeah, can I give my soul to the devil for forgiveness?

Michelle 33:26

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Um fucking hacked it right there, dude. We figured it out.

Greg 33:31

There's also a list of demons and exorcism formulas. Again, going back to like what King Solomon would do. Um, it was his list of demons that kind of brought all of this about.

Bobby 33:42

That's something that a lot of like the present-day demon talk, the like crazy ass people are possessed by demons. We miss the demons by name. I I miss that like old school, like it's this demon that's got armor, that demon, you know, like the the real who's who of demons.

Michelle 33:58

I feel like there's still some like moms and grandmas running around who could tell you the saints, you know, you know, you lose something, they're like, oh fucking call King Saint Christopher or whatever.

Bobby 34:07

Um Patron Saint of Travelers.

Greg 34:08

I like that, like if you grew up a Catholic or in the Christian faith and you bel like I'm not sure all Christians believe in saints, but it was like that idea when Christianity was wiping out other religions and like kind of adopting all of their things to get people, more people on board. It was like, oh, we only have one God, but you can pray to all of these other lesser gods.

Michelle 34:28

Yeah, and we just called like specific things.

Greg 34:31

Yeah, it's like, oh man, I lost my keys, like St. Anthony Baything. That's right, that's right. But it's like you can still pray to these other deities other than God, which is essentially what all of these ancient cultures were doing, anyway. It's like you like like you had Zeus, but like you've had like a ton of other gods for very specific things, and like I like how Christians don't acknowledge that at all. And like, no, it's only the one, but it's like, no, you have all of your other ones that you pray to as well. How dare you! How dare you!

Michelle 35:01

I mean, they're saints, they're not gods. Okay, so that's why it's different.

Greg 35:05

Right, yeah. I mean, you you know, semantics, I guess. Also, in the book was magical spells and incantations, their charms for watering, warding off illness or sudden death, incantations to protect against lightning, fire, or plague, protective formulas for travelers, uh, language invoking divine names, angels, and sacred symbols rather than overtly demonic forces. The presence of these spells is one reason why the codex was later considered dangerous. Also, there were calendars and necrologies, alphabetical indexes unprecedented for the time.

Michelle 35:41

What's a necrology?

Greg 35:43

Essentially uh deaths of famous people and things like that. It was just like a an account and then like a a history of uh kings and uh other important people that were dying.

Michelle 35:54

I know the word necronomicon, but I don't know what it means.

Greg 35:57

The book of the dead. Okay. This book sounds fucking sick.

Michelle 36:00

But it's only uh dead famous people?

Greg 36:04

Yeah, so it was just like a an account of people throughout history who have died that were of importance essentially.

Bobby 36:10

Okay. I do wonder, like, there's a lot of there's a lot of wild, great stuff in there, a lot of the list, but I wonder, I do wonder a little bit about like the quality of it, the quality of the list of demons, the quality of the list of spells. You know, it's just is this like a restaurant that's like we do Greek, Chinese, and pizza. It's like do we do any of it well?

Michelle 36:27

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I see what you're saying. I see what you're saying.

Bobby 36:29

There's like a lot of good stuff in here.

Michelle 36:30

But the chef Lucifer.

Bobby 36:32

Okay, okay, all right, you know what I mean?

Michelle 36:34

You know, fair fair fair. Also, so I mean, okay, you threw a lot of things at me here that are in the book. Sure.

Greg 36:39

Oh, we're not even done. I'm getting through like we're almost we're almost through it. It's yeah.

Michelle 36:43

One of the things that I really uh keyed in on is that there was like some sort of spell or something to help you if you were getting struck by lightning.

Greg 36:51

And so it's awarded off.

Michelle 36:53

Yeah, I just wonder why, like what was going on in the weather back then that like that made it on the list. You know, because like I'm not hiding from lightning today.

Bobby 37:01

Yeah, nothing. But I mean, like back, I mean, back then and present day to day, still, I think like lightning. Lightning is like that's like a direct line to God, dude. You know, like a bad a lot of bad shit happens, but like struck by lightning, that's personal. That's like God fucking hit you with a lightning bolt with his hand, you know? Yeah, with a lightning bolt. It's usually just a tickle, though. Yeah, but it but it does feel like very personal and very specific. You know, there's a lot of like a big unnatural disaster that affects many people, you know, as an act of God, but like when when you get struck by lightning, the ballot real personal.

Greg 37:35

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Michelle 37:36

Good point. Good point.

Greg 37:37

I can imagine back then too, it was just a matter of like, oh, what did this person do that God struck them down? Like literally, like in the most literal sense of the word of just striking someone down.

Bobby 37:48

I mean, like we're all victims of our times, you know, in and it's easy now to be like, oh man, they were just throwing out these wild accusations of witchcraft. But I feel like if back then you were like around and somebody got struck by lightning, you'd be like, whoa, dude, you must have done some shit. Yeah, dude. Like everything they said about you is probably true.

Greg 38:05

And also, which kind of this is something that like no book ever really did before this. Like they did, but like not to this extent. But it uh it alphabetized lists of biblical names and subjects, it cross-rep it cross-referenced between different sections of the manuscript, uh, organizational tools that imply frequent consultation and not like ceremonial storage. So it was like it was set up like uh like an encyclopedia.

Michelle 38:33

Yeah, I was just gonna say the same thing. Oh yeah. So it was the words right out of my mouth.

Greg 38:37

It was something that books back then just didn't do. So it was meant to be studied and referenced. It wasn't just like, oh, here's a book and it was nice and you can read it. It was meant to constantly be go back to.

Michelle 38:49

This is fascinating. Do you know how long it takes me to alphabetize my books or like my like I don't even have to do it anymore because we have phones and computers and shit. But like remember back in the day when you used to have to file things in alphabetical order? It takes a really long time. This is I can't believe he did it by dawn.

Greg 39:06

Yeah. I say, okay, so all this was written in a single and uniform handwriting. Um, from first page to last, there was no variation, no aging or signs of tiring, no visible change in style whatsoever.

Michelle 39:20

I cannot write one sentence straight if it's not an aligned piece of paper.

Greg 39:25

Imagine, like after five minutes of writing, you're just like scribbling by the time. Like you're just we want to be done with it. Like I just fucking get done with this. Um modern paleographers, which essentially like are studying these things, uh, estimate that copying this text would have taken 20 to 30 years of uninterrupted labor.

Michelle 39:44

Oh my god.

Greg 39:45

And yet this script never wavers, it was perfect from start to finish. Um, that's now bringing us to like kind of modern day with the book where it's at. Modern analysis shows that the ink composition remains consistent throughout. The handwriting does not show signs of aging or fatigue. The parchment alone required the skins of 160 animals. The book weighs roughly 165 pounds. There were no corrections, no dress, no marginal notes. It didn't look like it was evolving over time. So a lot of books back then, too, um, you could tell were written by several different people just from like handwriting styles and like just little inconsistencies throughout the book that you would just be, oh yeah, this was like 10 monks work 10 years to make this book. Um, but it would there was none of that. It doesn't necessarily prove a supernatural origin, but it does raise a like a weird, disturbing question like of how did one monk in a poor monastery produce a manuscript of this scale with such consistency? Um even skeptics admit something about the codex is somewhat anomalous. Like it is just all the study into this, they're just like, Yeah, this is bizarre that we don't know what this is. And to this day, from after leaving the monastery, the monastery declined. The codex changed hands repeatedly, it passed through the Brumov Monastery.

Bobby 41:08

So they so they sorry, they they were like, Okay, you did it. Yeah, so then he survived you later.

Greg 41:14

You didn't they didn't kill him? Yeah, okay.

Bobby 41:16

So I just kind of I was pretty wrapped up in the book that I forgot like what happened to Herman.

Greg 41:20

Yeah, yeah, okay. Um yeah, Herman just like lived out the rest of his life as like a a hermit.

Bobby 41:27

But did so sorry, did you did he stay there or did he go he went elsewhere? Do we know? Um we're not sure because we don't know.

Greg 41:34

It's essentially the uh like the whole story and legend just says he remained there.

Bobby 41:38

Okay, okay.

Greg 41:39

Um, and then yeah, the monastery fell into like disrepair.

Bobby 41:42

Can you imagine how afraid the other monks of him were after that? Because leave him alone. Do not do not cross her. Don't look at him in the eye, don't look at him in the eye. He will strike us with lightning.

Greg 41:51

Yeah. So it went from uh Brumov Monastery, the court of Rudolph II, an emperor obsessed with alchemy and the occult, which makes sense for this book.

Michelle 42:00

Also the reindeer for Santa Claus.

Greg 42:02

Yeah. Uh went through Prague, and then later, during the Thirty Years' War, the book was seized by Swedish forces and taken to Stockholm as war loot. They looted that shit.

Michelle 42:12

Oh, as war loot. War loot. Got it, got it. I was like, who now? Oh, warloot? Warloot? Yeah.

Greg 42:20

Okay, he no, uh today it resides in the National Library of Sweden. It has survived fires, wars, plagues, regime changes. Almost as if like it wasn't meant to be destroyed. Like it was, it has a wild boar behind it.

Michelle 42:37

Dude, I'm getting on a plane and going over there and checking this thing out. I can't wait. I can't believe it. How have I never heard of this? Why isn't everybody talking about this? This is crazy. This is better than the actual Bible.

Bobby 42:49

Uh-oh. Can't say that. It's like it's like the regular Bible plus like a Swiss army knife of fucking everything else you can fucking imagine. Spells and fucking when to rotate your crops and fucking all kinds of fucking casserole recipes and everything. Yeah, it's all there.

Michelle 43:04

Oh man, I need one.

Bobby 43:06

Can I can I buy yeah, is there a pocket-sized gigas?

Greg 43:13

I'm sure there's probably like a version of it that's translated and everything that you can get. Yeah.

Michelle 43:18

I need it.

Greg 43:19

So one big question that a lot of people were always asking, so like, why the devil? If the codex was meant as a holy work, why include the devil at all? And uh some scholars argue it was a warning meant to show the consequences of sin. And others believe it reflects medieval cosmology where evil had to be acknowledged to be understood. So if you were going to write something, uh essentially like you you can't know good without the bad. Of course. And like that that sort of m mindset. Um the legend offers a simpler explanation. The devil is there because he helped write it. And duh. And Herman kept his promise.

Michelle 43:56

Yeah, duh. Yo, I hope Herman is like high level. Dude in hell right now, you know?

Greg 44:03

Herman's fate. The Herman is spared. The book is accepted. His life is saved. But he's never celebrated. So no sainthood, no praise, nothing.

Michelle 44:15

Dude, he does. He's got me.

Greg 44:17

Some versions say he lived the rest of his life in isolation, broken by what he had done by calling on Lucifer. Others say he vanished entirely. The book endured. He did not. Damn. Like all of us, I guess. Well, we know where his soul went, apparently. So the Codex Gigas unsettles people. Mainly because it sits at the intersection of faith and fear, obedience and rebellion. Like knowledge and punishment.

Bobby 44:46

It's kind of wild, like how just how obviously like God and the devil are intertwined and everything in the lore. But people still get so uncomfortable when like the devil is mentioned in the same breath or these things. It's so it's so wild that like you can't really can't have one without the other or separate these stories, but people get so they get fucking spooked and weird.

Michelle 45:08

Yeah, I've always found that that type of thinking to be so outrageous, you know, because if let's say we just delete everything we know, you know, if we take like the Bible as like the holy text, you know, and we think about you know God as the bearded man in the sky and heaven also in the sky, um, and we just have good and that's it. And there's no bad. There's like no way, like that's it becomes not good anymore. It just becomes regular because there's nothing to compare it to, there's no opposite to the bigger.

Greg 45:43

Yeah, like you can't say, oh, well, that's good.

Michelle 45:45

And it's like, well, what whereas the reference, we have to reference bad in order for something to be good. Yeah, yeah. So it's like uh we need to know what the bad is in order for us to know that this is so good, you know, like you want us to think.

Greg 46:02

And I think a lot of people try to do that too. Like, like when you hear of like Satan worshippers and they're like, oh, well, that's bad. Like, well, it's the opposite of the thing that you're saying, right? And that's why I'm interested in it, and like that's why people go one way or the other.

Michelle 46:15

Yeah, but it's just also it's so crazy to me that people would want to be like, okay, but like just don't talk about it.

Bobby 46:22

And it's like what we acknowledge its existence, please do not mention it.

Greg 46:27

What?

Michelle 46:28

But then how am I supposed to know what like not to do?

Bobby 46:31

It's like the weird uncle at Thanksgiving. It's just like, just don't bring it up. Don't bring it up.

Greg 46:35

When we're in like grade school and you we had like dare, and it was just for some people, you mentioned what the drugs were, but for some of those people, sort of myself included, I was always just like, Oh, what's that do?

Michelle 46:47

Yeah, like now I'm just questions.

Greg 46:48

Now I'm interested. Yeah, and like I wouldn't have known about otherwise, but you told me about it.

Michelle 46:54

So yeah, yeah. Oh god.

Greg 46:57

So yeah, whether or not um you believe the devil had a hand in it, question that medieval people still like understood very well was like, what price would you pay to escape annihilation? Like, what is it would what would you do in this in this situation?

Bobby 47:13

I mean, I know that back then they put a lot more stock in like what happened to you after, I think. But it's like, man, if they're about to wall you up, dude, you got none to lose.

Michelle 47:21

I dude, I'm gonna give anyone my soul so that I don't have to be eaten alive by rats in the cold, dark, smelly wall.

Bobby 47:29

So dark in there?

Michelle 47:30

I can't see.

Greg 47:33

Um, I can get into like kind of what happened to the monastery after the book left, too, if you want to hear that. Of course.

Bobby 47:41

Yeah. Yeah.

Greg 47:42

Was it haunted?

Bobby 47:43

Fucking burned down violently.

Greg 47:44

Essentially, yeah. Yeah, yeah, it did.

Michelle 47:46

Yeah, it did. You know why? Because you guys weren't fucking friendly with our homeboy, so the devil fucking burned you down. Struck by lightning.

Greg 47:54

It was almost like the book was protecting the place.

Michelle 47:56

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. How about that?

Greg 47:58

Yeah. So the the monastery faced financial ruin. Um, shortly after the manuscript was finished, the monastery fell into severe financial distress. So it was pawned in 1245. Uh the Benedictine. How much are you gonna give me for this? We got this book.

Michelle 48:15

I can't believe we pawned the book. What a bunch of dickheads.

Bobby 48:18

I got some candle holders, I got this book. He's like, the best I can do for you is two pieces of gold. Oh, come on, man.

Michelle 48:23

Come on.

Bobby 48:24

A little bit more. It's like it was 160 donkeys.

Michelle 48:29

He did it by dong. Good.

Bobby 48:31

The devil wrote it. Great story.

Michelle 48:33

The actual devil wrote it, dude. Come on. Three pieces, three pieces of gold.

Greg 48:39

Do you have uh any evidence backing this up though? I don't know if I believe this story.

Michelle 48:44

Look at the picture. Look at the picture of the devil. Yeah, yeah.

Greg 48:49

So yeah, the monks were uh forced upon the codex uh to uh sisterian monastery in Sedlich to pay off debts. I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing that correctly, but probably not. How do you will you spell that real quick? Um S-E-D-L-E-C.

Bobby 49:04

Oh, dude, I actually uh knew a Catholic priest named uh Father Sedlachek. It must be from that area.

Michelle 49:12

Yeah, totally.

Bobby 49:13

Yeah, yeah.

Greg 49:14

And then uh the book never returned to its original home for an extended period, uh circulating among various other Bohemian monasteries. Everyone wanted to have like a cool little look at this. Uh the monastery was physically destroyed in the 15th century during the Hussite Revolution, um burned to the ground. Um yeah, and stayed that way for over 250 years. So only the ruins of the original buildings remain there. Uh the broke reconstruction, while the Benedictine monastery was never fully restored, a new religious structure was eventually built on the site. In 1696, Bishop Jan Fratchek Christoph of Talmberk commissioned the construction of a new church. And then in 1721, the Church of St. Margaret of Antioch uh Baroque III, uh a Baroque Baroque Basilica was consecrated there as well. So then current day uh the same Baroque church still stands, uh, a model of the original medieval monastery, and the Codex Gigas can be viewed at the nearby town museum of Trast. Yeah, so but now today the Devil's Bible is housed in the National Library of Sweden in Stockholm.

Michelle 50:34

Okay, so if we go on tour, we gotta go to Sweden and see the book, but then we gotta go to the Czech Republic to like stand on the ground and see the model.

Greg 50:43

That's right. Okay, got it. You can probably listen to some like uh Black Sabbath and draw a pentagram, and that's all you need to do.

Michelle 50:49

That's what I want to do. That's what I've always wanted to do.

Greg 50:52

I'm always curious if like places like that have to deal with people that show up fucking trying to conjure the mentality.

Michelle 50:58

100% every day.

Bobby 51:01

Just like think about all of like ourselves as knuckle-headed teenagers. I don't know if y'all grew up around like an abandoned uh mental institution. That was always a place to go fuck around. So if there's like some real, like uh the monastery that burned down to the ground after they wrote the devil's Bible, it's like we're definitely going there. Yeah, 100%. Let's get light some candles and drink some boons farm.

Michelle 51:20

Absolutely. I grew up in New Jersey and we had a magazine called Weird New Jersey, which was epic because a lot of the time these types of places, the insane asylums, the prisons, the what the abandoned this and that were like legend, you know, but we didn't have the internet yet. So we had to get our.

Bobby 51:41

That's true, that's true.

Michelle 51:42

Nobody's NES cam was getting me arrested. But we had to go to like the gas station and buy an atlas, you know, and like look up and try to figure out where it was. And then we'd like find somebody's drunk brother who would let us borrow their car, and we'd go out into the woods and try to find this house or whatever. It was like a thing. And then Weird New Jersey came out and told you exactly where it was, gave you pictures, gave you tips, told you where to park, told you what to do. And it was it was everything.

Bobby 52:10

And if you're looking for something like that for the whole world or universe, maybe check out the conspiracy journal.

Michelle 52:16

That's right.

Bobby 52:16

It's like the weird New Jersey for your life.

Michelle 52:18

For the world.

Bobby 52:19

Yeah.

Michelle 52:19

Yeah.

Greg 52:20

Yeah, it's got everything there. Yeah. We should let everyone know too. Conspiracyjournal.com is gonna have uh some articles coming soon.

Michelle 52:27

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Greg 52:28

I guess it depends when all of this is getting released and when anyone's listening. The people that are listening to this time anyway, may may have already dipped back into our catalog of episodes and like they're already on the site watching, or that that's where they got this podcast from. Because it's gonna live there too.

Bobby 52:43

Yeah, if you're listening to this, may God and the devil bless you.

Michelle 52:46

That's right.

Greg 52:47

That's right. That reminds me of uh the Beastie Boys, they won like a Grammy or something, and like they just thank the devil.

Michelle 52:56

Fuck yeah, dude.

Greg 52:57

Because everyone would go up and thank God for everything.

Michelle 53:00

I would love to see. I've recently started watching football for the first time, and I've got a lot of questions a lot of the time, but I have noticed that all the players thank God, they give it to God, give it to God.

Bobby 53:10

All glory to God.

Michelle 53:11

That all that's what they you're absolutely right. That's what they say.

Bobby 53:14

All glory to the devil. I will love that.

Michelle 53:17

I will die. I will die if one of these guys is like all the glory to the devil. It would be my favorite day.

Greg 53:23

They should give themselves some credit.

Michelle 53:25

Why?

Greg 53:25

They're the ones doing it.

Michelle 53:26

I would like to thank me for going to the gym, for getting up buttass early and going to the gym.

Greg 53:32

Yeah, it's true. I tried and worked my entire life to get to this point and I succeeded and did it.

Michelle 53:37

Yeah, I'm also really young.

Greg 53:38

I'd like to thank my parents for this incredible DNA.

Michelle 53:40

Yeah.

Greg 53:41

Yeah.

Michelle 53:41

Yep. Yep, yep.

Greg 53:42

And all glory to God.

Michelle 53:44

And the devil.

Greg 53:45

And the devil. Yeah. Well, I guess like God can be ambiguous.

Michelle 53:48

Like that's my God is the devil.

Greg 53:50

Yeah, it depends who what God is your God, I guess. What? Oh, one other random thing about the book, too, is uh it was 620 pages.

Michelle 53:59

No, it wasn't. It was 666 pages, and someone stole 40 or whatever the math said.

Bobby 54:05

They redacted the. Yo, they talk about the fucking Gnostic Gospels, like the lost gospels of the story Bible. What about the lost gospels of this book, dude? Imagine how fucking crazy that shit is. The other 46 pages.

Michelle 54:16

Dude, if all the crazy shit that you just told me was that in this book, what could possibly be on those 40 pages that was so bad that it couldn't make it in the final edit?

Bobby 54:25

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Some people just tell me. We gotta go find it. Yeah. The codex gigas Deus do extended edition.

Greg 54:33

Yeah. Yeah.

Michelle 54:35

The missing 40. Also, that math is probably wrong. So we're saying 40 and it's not even 40. It'd be 4046. There you go. Thanks, guys. And math, guys.

Greg 54:45

Pull out the calculator. I think we're all right.

Michelle 54:47

Uh I'm not pulling out the calculator. I'm trying to find the phone number for the strange exchange. Do you know it?

Greg 54:54

We all know it.

Michelle 54:56

I don't know it in my mind because I stopped recording phone numbers mentally when I was, I don't know, 11. Now it's in my phone.

Greg 55:05

Yeah, the strange exchange is just uh if you have a story, um, if you've seen a UFO, if you've experienced a touch of the paranormal, um, you can call and leave a message at the Strange Exchange, which is at 929-445-3705.

Michelle 55:27

Got it. I'm gonna call and tell them that there's a book that can't be explained. Yeah. But they probably already know.

Bobby 55:36

They'll be like, is this Michelle?

Greg 55:38

You can also go over to uh conspiracyjournal.com to find some books on everything that we talk about on the podcast. Not everything. There's gonna be some stuff that I'm sure is more recent than some of the things that we've posted. Although a couple of our authors, uh JM Harrow and Kyle Larson. Yeah, he's a current events guy. Yeah, they have more current events stuff. Um, I'm sure we're gonna be talking about some of their books in upcoming episodes too.

Bobby 56:04

And if you're looking for a book on the Codex Gigas, it's called the Codex Gigas.

Michelle 56:07

Check it out. It's in Sweden. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The actual one. Yeah, it's very good. I figure that's like the definitive book about the Codex Gigas, is the Codex Gigas. Yeah, I agree. I agree. They did a pretty good job.

Greg 56:18

Yeah. Cool, guys. Well, until next time.

Michelle 56:21

Yeah.