Professor Lucifer
Professor Lucifer is the inventor of a “flying ship” upon which he engages Father Michael in a debate over the nature and form of good and evil. The opening sets the stage for the ongoing, heavily symbolic and complex arguments over that topic which follow as the Professor deposits onto the Dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral. Lucifer is not out of the picture entirely, however. He shows up later donning a different persona.
Father Michael
Once Lucifer boots Father Michael out of his ship and onto the cathedral, he saves his own life by clinging to the cross which tops the dome. Father Michael will also show up later in the book, imprisoned in an insane asylum and leading them through the hellish inferno toward freedom.
Evan MacIan
The bulk of the novel is dedicated to a lengthy confrontational debate between two Scots. One, is Evan MacIan, a Roman Catholic from the Highlands. Eventually he will be confined to the insane asylum in which Father Michael rots away and will be freed by following him through the inferno.
James Turnbull
The other Scotsman is the editor of an atheist newspaper. The confrontation between Turnbull and MacIan turns on what the latter deems to be a blasphemous opinion by the former over the issue of the Virgin Mary. Initially, the disagreement moves the men toward an actual duel, but that is narrowly averted. Ultimately, the two Scots settle their differences and becoming companions in the asylum which is notable for the fact that most of the inmates they meet took their difference of opinion to a much more elevated sphere of seriousness than either MacIan or Turnbull.
