The Necromancers, by Robert Hugh Benson
Feb 9th, 2006 by Debra Murphy
Reviewed by Christine J. Murray
Few people, even among Catholics, have heard of Robert Hugh Benson. That was not the case 100 years ago. As an author and novelist, the Catholic priest from Britain was incredibly popular. The reading public and the Catholic Church suffered greatly when he died in 1914. Benson was skilled in attacking evil practices without appearing to preach about them. He also had the knack for crossing genres. He is more well-known for his historical novel Come Rack! Come Rope! about Catholics persecuted and martyred in Elizabethan England.
The Necromancers, first published in 1909, is set in contemporary Britain, and the main character is the young barrister Laurie Baxter. Baxter falls in love with a local girl, Amy, who dies of natural causes before they wed. One could say he was obsessed with Amy Nugent. In his distress after her death, he can’t bear her absence. He needs to contact her, to touch her again, if at all possible.
Baxter had recently converted intellectually to the Catholic Faith, but not with his heart. Amy’s death provides a test that he appears to fail. He connects with a spiritualist circle hoping that the medium will help him bring back his love. He will do anything to get back to Amy, except wait for eternity. As goes the ironic inscription on Amy’s tombstone, “I shall see her but not now.”
One conversation early in Baxter’s immersion into spiritualism – necromancy – gives clues to its potential for disaster and provides lessons for readers in the 21st century. He has a dream in which he encounters an overwhelmingly evil presence. He is able to awaken only when he starts praying to God. Shaken, he rushes to the house of Mr. Vincent, the medium. Vincent tells him the following
When comparing the objective self – the one who functions in daily tasks in the world with the subjective self – that which deals with the supernatural or preternatural, the subjective self is deemed the “real” self. This is a dualism that material things are bad and the subjective or spiritual self is the only real self. St. Augustine was in a movement that was dualistic in nature before converting and spending his time fighting that error. In truth, the person is both body and soul. But the lie persists to this day, largely in the New Age Movement.
Evil is relative. Baxter balks at the overwhelming darkness and nothingness. Evil is nothing more – or less – than the absence of God. Yet when Laurie asks whether the power he encountered in the dream was evil, Vincent says, “Not necessarily.” If there is no objective reality, there is no such thing as good or evil. It’s just an opinion.
There’s no need of prayer. Instead, Vincent counsels, “Just exercise your own individuality; assert yourself; don’t lean on another … What is called Prayer is really an imaginative concession to weakness.” This claim is as old as Adam and Eve. They fell for it and were banished from Eden. Laurie falls for it and …
Baxter’s mother is a shallow woman, but there is hope for her adopted daughter, Margaret Deronnais, who lives with her after being educated in the convent. The young woman becomes worried about Baxter as she learns of the hold that necromancy is gaining over him. They were raised practically as siblings, but somewhere, there is a deeper feeling for each other. Margaret decides to fight the necromancers. Her only weapons are her strong will, fondness for him and prayer.
Baxter will not be deterred, bolstered by Vincent, who is willing to carry out any experiment regardless of the cost to one’s soul or sanity. During a séance one night, a vision appears, apparently Amy come back from the dead. Baxter bolts from his chair and attempts to seize it in his arms. Afterward, Baxter is changed. It’s obvious to those who care to notice that he is obsessed by an evil spirit attempting to completely possess him. Margaret does notice, and so ensues the climatic battle for Baxter’s soul.
The Necromancers serves as a cautionary tale not only about spiritualism, but also about many of the practices that plague people in a post-Christian society, such as relativism and New Age practices. These have one thing in common: they center on self and what it wants. They all lead away from God and closer to evil, the void that is not God.
Christine J. Murray writes from Sterling Heights, Michigan