Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Lucifer’s Contract

A tale of cunning and conceit. Of one Doctor Faustus whose waxen wings did mount above his reach. A tale above all of trickery. Of crafty equivocation of contract laws that caused fair Lucifer to weep.

Faustus hath entered into a deed with Lucifer granting unto him Faustus’s soul at the expiry of four and twenty years certain conditions being met. Poor Lucifer unaware was he of the intricacies of contract laws! Not so easy it is to contract and get what you want for ignorance of law is no excuse.

God the owner of innumerable souls bestows them upon humans to be utilized during their lifetime and to be retuned upon expiry of the said lifetime. In consequence making Faustus a mere trustee of the movable property soul. And as is well known, though not by Lucifer, that a contract made by trustee in excess of his powers cannot be specifically enforced, so could poor Lucifer not obtain specific enforcement of his deed with Faustus.

Moreover, the soul promised by Faustus to Lucifer was one of the innumerable souls owned by God. This soul wasn’t specific movable property. For God makes all souls equal. It is the use to which each soul is put that characterizes one human from the other. Nevertheless souls remain indistinguishable. A soul may easily be replaced with any other other soul all being one and the same. An again as is well known, though not by Lucifer, that a contract for movable property cannot be specifically enforced unless the property were specific movable property of irreplaceable nature, so could poor Lucifer not obtain specific enforcement of his deed with Faustus.

On expiry of four and twenty years as Faustus lay upon this death bed God’s claim to movable property soul was upheld. And thus was the treacherous of all, most astute conniving and devious Lucifer tricked by simple contract laws!