[1] It can be classified in the subgenre of dark romanticism, and was said by scholars of his era to fall within the tradition of Jacques Callot's grotesques.

After being sent from his cloister to Rome, he finds a Count, disguised as a friar as a means of seeing his lover, and pushes him (whether intentionally or not is ambiguous) from a "Teufelssitz" ("devil's perch").

The Count becomes his lunatic doppelgänger and crosses his path multiple times after Medardus abandons his ecclesiastical position, drifting throughout the world.

Returned to his original identity Medardus undergoes an intense process of repentance and discovers his family history by reading the diary of a painter.

After meeting with the Pope and becoming involved in potentially fatal Vatican political intrigue (which suggest he may still have devilish ambitions to power) Medardus returns to the German cloister.

A final note from the librarian of the cloister reveals circumstances of his death – namely a hysterical laughing which casts doubt on his implied redemption from satanic possession.