It is Shown that,
on Account of the Sins of Witches, the Innocent are
often Bewitched, yea, Sometimes even for their Own Sins.
It
is a fact that, by Divine permission, many innocent
people suffer loss and are punished by the aforesaid
plagues, not for their own sins, but for those of
witches. And lest this should seem to any a paradox, S.
Thomas shows in the Second of the Second, quest.
8, that this is just in God. For he divides the
punishments of this life into three classes. First, one
man belongs to another; therefore, if a man be punished
in his possessions, it may be that another man suffers
for this punishment. For, bodily speaking, sons are a
property of the father, and slaves and animals are the
property of their masters; and so the sons are sometimes
punished for their parents. Thus the son born to David
from adultery quickly died; and the animals of the
Amalekites were bidden to be killed. Yet the reason for
these things remains a mystery.
Secondly, the
sin of one may be passed on to another; and this in two
ways. By imitation, as children imitate the sins of
their parents, and slaves and dependents the sins of
their masters, that they may sin more boldly. In this
way the sons inherit ill-gotten gain, and slaves share
in robberies and unjust feuds, in which they are often
killed. And they who are subject to Governors sin the
more boldly when they see them sin, even if they do not
commit the same sins; wherefore they are justly
punished.
Also the sin
of one is passed on to another in the way of desert, as
when the sins of wicked subjects are passed on to a bad
Governor, because the sins of the subjects deserve a bad
Governor. See Job: He makes Hypocrites to reign
on account of the sins of the people.
Sin, and
consequently punishment, can also be passed on through
some consent or dissimulation. For when those in
authority neglect to reprove sin, then very often the
good are punished with the wicked, as S. Augustine says
in the first book de Ciuitate Dei. An example was
brought to our notice as Inquisitors. A town was once
rendered almost destitute by the death of its citizens;
and there was a rumour that a certain buried woman was
gradually eating the shroud in which she had been
buried, and that the plague could not cease until she
had eaten the whole shroud and absorbed it into her
stomach. A council was held, and the Podesta with the
Governor of the city dug up the grave, and found half
the shroud absorbed through the mouth and throat into
the stomach, and consumed. In horror at this sight, the
Podesta drew his sword and cut off her head and threw it
out of the grave, and at once the plague ceased. Now the
sins of that old woman were, by Divine permission,
visited upon the innocent on account of the
dissimulation of what had happened before. For when an
Inquisition was held it was found that during a long
time of her life she had been a Sorceress and
Enchantress. Another example is the punishment of a
pestilence because David numbered the people.
Thirdly, sin
is passed on by Divine permission in commendation of the
unity of human society, that one man should take care
for another by refraining from sin; and also to make sin
appear the more detestable, in that the sin of one
redounds upon all, as though all were one body. An
example is the sin of Achan in Joshua vii.
We can add to
these two other methods: that the wicked are punished
sometimes by the good, and sometimes by other wicked
men. For as Gratianus says (XXIII, 5), sometimes God
punishes the wicked through those who are exercising
their legitimate power at His command; and this in two
ways: sometimes with merit on the part of the punishers,
as when He punished the sins of the Canaanites through
His people; sometimes with no merit on the part of the
punishers, but even to their own punishment, as when He
punished the tribe of Benjamin and destroyed it except
for a few men. And sometimes He punishes by His nations
being aroused, either by command or permission, but with
no intention of obeying God, but rather greedy for their
own gain, and therefore to their own damnation; as He
now punished His people by the Turks, and did so more
often by strange nations in the Old Law.
But it must
be noted that for whatever cause a man be punished, if
he does not bear his pains patiently, then it becomes a
scourge, not a correction, but only of vengeance, that
is, of punishment. See Deuteronomy xxxii: A fire
is kindled in min anger (that is, my punishment; for
there is no other anger in God), and shall burn unto the
lowest hell (that is, vengeance shall begin here and
burn unto the last damnation, as S. Augustine explains),
And there is further authority concerning punishment in
his Fourth Distinction. But if men patiently bear their
scourges, and are patient in the state of grace, they
take the place of a correction, as S. Thomas says in his
Fourth Book. And this is true even of one punished for
committing witchcraft, or of a witch, to a greater or
less degree according to the devotion of the sufferer
and the quality of his crime.
But the
natural death of the body, being the last terror, is not
a correction, since of its nature it partakes in the
punishment for original sin. Nevertheless, according to
Scotus, when it is awaited with resignation and
devotion, and offered in its bitterness to God, it can
in some way become a correction. But violent death,
whether a man deserves it or not, is always a
correction, if it is borne patiently and in grace. So
much for punishments inflicted on account of the sins of
others.
But God also
punishes men in this life for their own sins, especially
in the matter of bewitchment. For see Tobias vii:
The devil has power over those who follow their lusts.
And this is clear from what we have already said
concerning the member and the genital powers, which God
chiefly allows to be bewitched.
However, for
the purpose of preaching to the public it is to be noted
that, notwithstanding the aforesaid punishments which
God inflicts on men for their own and others' sins, the
preacher should keep as his basic principle and to the
people this ruling of the law; which says, No one must
be punished without guilt, unless there is some cause
for doing so. And this ruling holds good in the Court of
Heaven, that is, of God, just as it does in the human
Courts of Justice, whether secular or ecclesiastic.
The preacher
may predicate this of the Court of Heaven. For the
punishment of God is of two kinds, spiritual and
temporal. In the former, punishment is never found
without guilt. In the latter it is sometimes found quite
without guilt, but not without cause. The first, or
spiritual punishment, is of three kinds; the first being
forfeiture of grace and a consequent hardening in sin,
which is never inflicted except for the sufferer's own
guilt. The second is the punishment of loss, that is,
deprivation of glory, which is never inflicted without
personal guilt in adults, or contracted guilt in
children born from their parents' sin. The third is the
punishment of pain, that is, the torture of hell fire,
and is plainly due to guilt. Wherefore when it is said
in Exodus xx: I am a jealous God, visiting the
sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third and
fourth generation: it is understood as speaking of the
imitators of their fathers' crimes, as Gratian has
explained, Book I, quest. 4; where he also gives other
expositions.
Now with
regard to God's second, or temporal punishment: first,
it may be, as has been said before, for the sin of
another (but not without cause), or for personal guilt
only, without any other's sin. But if you wish to know
the causes for which God punishes, and even without any
guilt of the sufferer or of another man, you may refer
to the five methods which the Master expounds in Book
IV, dist. 15, cap. 2. And you must take the three first
causes, for the other two refer to personal guilt.
For he says
that for five causes God scourges man in this life, or
inflicts punishment. First, that God may be glorified;
and this is when some punishment or affliction is
miraculously removed, as in the case of the man born
blind (S. John ix), or of the raising of Lazarus
(S. John xi).
Secondly, if
the first cause is absent, it is sent that merit may be
acquired through the exercise of patience, and also that
inner hidden virtue may be made manifest to others.
Examples are Job i and Tobias ii.
Thirdly that
virtue may be preserved through the humiliation of
castigation. S. Paul is an example, who says of himself
in II. Corinthians xii: There was given unto me a
thorn in my flesh, the messenger of Satan. And according
to Remigius this thorn was the infirmity of carnal
desire. These are the cause that are without guilt in
the sufferer.
Fourthly,
that eternal damnation should begin in this life, that
it might be in some way shown what will be suffered in
hell. Examples are Herod (Acts xii) and Antiochus
(II. Maccabees ix).
Fifthly, that
man may be purified, by the expulsion and obliteration
of his guilt through scourges. Examples may be taken
from Miriam, Aaron's sister, who was stricken with
leprosy, and from the Israelites wandering in the
wilderness, according to S. Jerome, XXIII, 4. Or it may
be for the correction of sin, as is exemplified by the
case of David, who, after being pardoned for his
adultery, was driven from his kingdom, as is shown in
II. Kings, and is commented on by S. Gregory in
his discourse on sin. It may, in fact, be said that
every punishment that we suffer proceeds from our own
sin, or at least from the original sin in which we were
born, which is itself the cause of all causes.
But as to the
punishment of loss, meaning by that eternal damnation
which they will suffer in the future, no one doubts that
all the damned will be tortured with grevious pains. For
just as grace is followed by the blessed vision of the
Kingdom of Heaven, so is mortal sin followed by
punishment in hell. And just as the degrees of
blessedness in Heaven are measured in accordance with
the degrees of charity and grace in life, so the degrees
of punishment in hell are measured according to the
degree of crime in this life. See Deuteronomy xxv:
The measure of punishment will be according to the
measure of sin. And this is so with all other sins, but
applies especially to witches. See Hebrews x: Of
how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be
thought worthy, who hath trodden underfoot the Son of
God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant,
wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing?
And such are
the sins of witches, who deny the Faith, and work many
evil bewitchments through the most Holy Sacrament, as
will be shown in the Second Part.
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