The Foregoing
Truths are Set out in Particular, this by a Comparison
of the Works of Witches with Other Baleful
Superstitions.
Now
the foregoing truth concerning the enormity of witches'
crimes is proved by comparing them with the other
practices of Magicians and Diviners. For there are
fourteen species of magic, springing from the three
kinds of Divination. The first of these three is open
invocation of devils. The second is no more than a
silent consideration of the disposition and movement of
some thing, as of the stars, or the days, or the hours,
and such things. The third is the consideration of some
human act for the purpose of finding out something that
is hidden, and is called by the name of Sortilege.
And the
species of the first form of Divination, that is, an
open invocation of devils, are the following: Sorcery,
Oneiromancy, Necromancy, Oracles, Geomancy, Hydromancy,
Aeromancy, Pyromancy, and Soothsaying (see S. Thomas, Second
of the Second, quest. 95, 26, and 5). The species of
the second kind are Horoscopy, Haruspicy, Augury,
Observation of Omens, Cheiromancy and Spatulamancy.
The species
of the third kind vary according to all those things
which are classed as Sortilege for the finding out of
something hidden, such as the consideration of pricks
and straws, and figures in molten lead. And S. Thomas
speaks also of these in the above-quoted reference.
Now the sins
of witches exceed all these crimes, as will be proved in
respect of the foregoing species. There can then be no
question concerning smaller crimes.
For let us
consider the first species, in which those who are
skilled in sorcery and glamour deceive the human senses
with certain apparitions, so that corporeal matter seems
to become different to the sight and the touch, as was
treated of above in the matter of the methods of
creating illusions. Witches are not content with such
practices in respect of the genital member, causing some
prestidigitatory illusion of its disappearance (although
this disappearance is not an actual fact); but they even
frequently take away the generative power itself, so
that a woman cannot conceive, and a man cannot perform
the act even when he still retains his member. And
without any illusion, they also cause abortion after
conception, often accompanied with many other ills. And
they even appear in various forms of beasts, as has been
shown above.
Necromancy is
the summoning of and speech with the dead, as is shown
by its etymology; for it is derived from the Greek word Nekros,
meaning a corpse, and Manteia, meaning
divination. And they accomplish this by working some
spell over the blood of a man or some animal, knowing
that the devil delights in such sin, and loves blood and
the pouring out of blood. Wherefore, when they think
that they call the dead from hell to answer their
questions, it is the devils in the likeness of the dead
who appear and give such answers. And of this sort was
the art of that great Pythoness spoken of in I. Kings
xxviii, who raised up Samuel at the instance of Saul.
But let no
one think that such practices are lawful because the
Scripture records that the soul of the just Prophet,
summoned from Hades to predict the event of Saul's
coming war, appeared through the means of a woman who
was a witch. For, as S. Augustine says to Simplicianus:
It is not absurd to believe that it was permitted by
some dispensation, nto by the potency of any magic art,
but by some hidden dispensation unknown to the Pythoness
or to Saul, that the spirit of that just man should
appear before the sight of the king, to deliver the
Divine sentence against him. Or else it was not really
the spirit of Samuel aroused from its rest, but some
phantasm and imaginary illusion of devils caused by the
machinations of the devil; and the Scripture calls that
phantasm by the name of Samuel, just as the images of
things are called by the names of the things they
represent. This he says in his answer to the question
whether divination by the invocation of devils is
lawful. In the same Summa the reader will find
the answer to the question whether there are degrees of
prophecy among the Blessed; and he may refer to S.
Augustine, XXVI, 5. But this has little to do with the
deeds of witches, which retain in themselves no vestige
of piety, as is apparent from a consideration of their
works; for they do not cease to shed innocent blood, to
bring hidden things to light under the guidance of
devils, and by destroying the soul with the body spare
neither the living nor the dead.
Oneiromancy
may be practised in two ways. The first is when a person
uses dreams so that he may dip into the occult with the
help of the revelation of devils invoked by him, with
whom he has entered into an open pact. The second is
when a man uses dreams for knowing the future, in so far
as there is such virtue in dreams proceeding from Divine
revelation, from a natural and instinsic or extrinsic
cause; and such divination would not be unlawful. So
says S. Thomas.
And that
preachers may have at least the nucleus of an
understanding of this matter, we must first speak about
the Angels. An Angel is of limited power, and can more
effectively reveal the future when the mind is adapted
to such revelations than when it is not. Now the mind is
chiefly so adapted after the relaxation of exterior and
interior movement, as when nights are silent and the
fumes of motion are quieted; and these conditions are
fulfilled round about the dawn, when digestion is
completed. And I say this of us who are sinners, to whom
the Angels in their Divine piety, and in the execution
of their offices, reveal certain things, so that when we
study at the time of the dawn we are given an
understanding of certain occult matters in the
Scriptures. For a good Angel presides over our
understanding, just as God does over our will, and the
stars over our bodies. But to certain more perfect men
the Angel can at any hour reveal things, whether they
are awake or asleep. However, according to Aristotle, de
Somno et Uigilia, such men are more apt to receive
revelations at one time than at another; and this is the
casein all matters of magic.
Secondly, it
is to be noted that is happens through Nature's care for
and regulation of the body, that certain future events
have their natural cause in a man's dreams. And then
those dreams or visions are not cause, as was said in
the case of Angels, but only signs of that which is
coming to a man in the future, such as health or
sickness or danger. And this is the opinion of
Aristotle. For in the dreams of the spirit Nature images
the disposition of the heart, by which sickness or some
other thing naturally comes to a man in the future. For
is a man dreams of fires, it is a sign of a choleric
disposition; if of flying or some such thing, it is a
sign of a sanguine disposition; if he dreams of water or
some other liquid, it is a sign of a phlegmatic, and if
he dreams of terrene matters, it is a sign of a
melancholy disposition. And therefore doctors are very
often helped by dreams in their diagnosis (as Aristotle
says in the same book).
But these are
slight matters in comparison with the unholy dreams of
witches. For when they do not wish, as has been
mentioned above, to be bodily transferred to a place,
but desire to see what their fellow-witches are doing,
it is their practice to lie down on their left side in
the name of their own and of all devils; and these
things are revealed to their vision in images. And if
they seek to know some secret, either for themselves of
for others, they learn it in dreams from the devil, by
reason of an open, not a tacit, pact entered into with
him. And this pact, again, is not a symbolical one,
accomplished by the sacrifice of some animal, or some
act of sacrilege, or by embracing the worship of some
strange cult; but it is an actual offering of
themselves, body and soul, to the devil, by a
sacrilegiously uttered and inwardly purposed abnegation
of the Faith. And not content with this, they even kill,
or offer to devils, their own and others' children.
Another
species of divination is practised by Pythons, so called
from Pythian Apollo, who is said to have been the
originator of this kind of divination, according to S.
Isidore. This is not effected by dreams or by converse
with the dead, but by means of living men, as in the
case of those who are lashed into a frenzy by the devil,
either willingly or unwillingly, only for the purpose of
foretelling the future, and not for the perpetration of
any other monstrosities. Of this sort was the girl
mentioned in Acts xvi, who cried after the
Apostles that they were the servants of the true God;
and S. Paul, being angered by this, commanded the spirit
to come out of her. But it is clear that there is no
comparison between such things and the deeds of witches,
who, according to S. Isidore, are so called for the
magnitude of their sins and the enormity of their
crimes.
Wherefore,
for the sake of brevity, there is no need to continue
this argument in respect of the minor forms of
divination, since it has been proved in respect of the
major forms. For the preacher may, if he wishes, apply
these arguments to the other forms of divination: to
Geomancy, which is concerned with terrene matters, such
as iron or polished stone; Hydromancy, which deals with
water and crystals; Aeromancy, which is concerned with
the air; Pyromancy, which is concerned with fire;
Soothsaying, which has to do with the entrails of
animals sacrificed on the devil's altars. For although
all these are done by means of open invocation of
devils, they cannot be compared with the crimes of
witches, since they are not directly purposed for the
harming of men or animals or the fruits of the earth,
but only for the foreknowledge of the future. The other
species of divination, which are performed with a tacit,
but not an open, invocation of devils, are Horoscopy, or
Astrology, so called from the consideration of the stars
at birth; Haruspicy, which observes the days and hours;
Augury, which observes the behaviour and cries of birds;
Omens, which observe the words of men; and Cheiromancy,
which observes the lines of the hand, or of the paws of
animals. Andone who wishes may refer to the teaching of
Nider, and he will find mush as to when such things are
lawful and when they are not. But the works of witches
are never lawful.
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