A Cunning Little Devil I figured I’d just do a short typology blurb this week. So, let’s talk about another medieval typology figure: the fox. (To see a good example of this, read Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.) The fox is a type of the Devil because both are sly, crafty, sneaky, and so on. Foxes are, of course, well known for their cunning. Foxes notoriously rob henhouses, and hens are sometimes used as a symbol for the Church or for individual Christians (a typology that we can return to in a later article). There is another method sometimes used by the fox to catch food: he will lie perfectly still for a long time in a ditch or someplace, pretending to be dead. Then, when carrion birds land on him, snap! quick as a flash, he jumps up and catches one. This reminds us of the great patience that Satan and the demons use in trying to make sin look appealing to us. Then, just when we think all is safe and we take the bait— the jaws of sin snap shut around us, and the Devil has captured another soul. So remember, when it comes to the Devil, don’t be outfoxed!