The Banished Devil
(Oral tale from Langenberg.)
Once, an old man and his wife lived on an estate near Langenberg. He owned a loom for weaving linen cloth, and made his grandchildren work on it — a young man in particular. Every time the old one returned home, he berated and cursed the children for not working diligently enough for his liking. Once he even wished that Satan would fetch them all.
A few days later, the old one raged once again against the children — worse than ever before. When the boy wanted to start working, the weights of the loom fell down to the ground with a loud, booming sound, and the nails of his fingers became completely black. Now there was no longer any doubt: The Evil One was in the house. Soon, he made himself noticeable in all sorts of ways. Every day, his presence became worse. When nothing else helped, they turned to Hardenberg Monastery for assistance, and asked for the great devil banisher Pater Crementines who lived there. He was willing to come, and stepped into the chamber accompanied by prayer. When he carefully walked deeper into the chamber while praying loudly, a loud roar came from the adjacent workroom as if a lion was there. But the pater refused to be startled by this, and courageously stepped towards that room. Then a voice shouted from there: “Begone from here, for you are a thief!” But the man of the cloth did not let himself get distracted by this either, and continued his work. The Godbewithus was banished from the house, and was bound into a small ravine downhill from the building. He often made himself noticeable there afterwards. But each year, he gets closer to the place of his former activities by the length of a rooster’s step.
Source: Schell - Bergische Sagen, p. 57