A Norse belief found in Iceland is that the fylgia, a genius in animal form, attends human beings; and these animal guardians may sometimes be seen fighting; in the same way the Siberian shamans send their animal familiars to do battle instead of deciding their quarrels in person.
The reaction against scholasticism was still in full tide; it was the transition time between the old and the new, when the eager and forwardlooking spirits had first of all to do battle with scholastic Aristotelianism.
At one time it is a summons to do battle for the faith; at another, a series of reflections on recently experienced success or misfortune, or a rebuke for their weak faith; or an exhortation to virtue, and so on.
He was also called upon to do battle for his principle against men like Caspar Schwenkfeld (1490-1561) and Sebastian Franck (1500-1545), the latter of whom developed a system of pantheistic mysticism, and went so far in his opposition to the letter as to declare the whole of the historical element in Scripture to be but a mythical representation of eternal truth.
Who is to do battle with the selfish memes?
