In the past, during the process of canonization by the Catholic Church , there was a Promoter of the Faith ( Latin Promotor Fidei ), appointed by the Church itself , whose function was to look skeptically at the candidate for canonization, looking for gaps and flaws in the process (for example, inconsistencies in the process). evidence of alleged miracles , etc.). For exercising this function, Promotor Fidei was popularly known as “Lawyer of the Devil” (Latin advocatus diaboli ). [ 1 ]
The office of the Devil’s Advocate was established in 1587 [ 2 ] and was abolished by Pope John Paul II in 1983 . This caused a dramatic rise in the number of canonized individuals: [ 3 ] about 500 canonized and more than 1300 beatified as of that date, while there were only 98 canonizations in the period from 1900 to 1983 . [ citation needed ]This suggests that the Devil’s Lawyers, in fact, reduced the number of canonizations. Some think that it would have been a useful post to ensure that such procedures did not take place without a deserved cause, and that sanctity was not easily recognized. [ citation needed ]
Nowadays the term has come to designate a person who argues in favor of a point of view in which he does not believe, but who does so simply to present an argument. This process can be used to test the quality of the argument and identify errors in its structure. [ 4 ] It also designates one who defends points of view that are apparently indefensible
