If it be in
Accordance with the Catholic Faith to maintain that in
Order to bring about some Effect of Magic, the Devil
must intimately co-operate with the Witch, or whether
one without the other, that is to say, the Devil without
the Witch, or conversely, could produce such an Effect.
If
it be in accordance with the Catholic Faith to maintain
that in order to bring about some effect of magic, the
devil must intimately co-operate with the witch, or
whether one without the other, that is to say, the devil
without the witch, or conversely, could produce such an
effect.
And the first
argument is this: That the devil can bring about an
effect of magic without the co-operation of any witch.
So S. Augustine holds. All things which visibly happen
so that they can be seen, may (it is believed) be the
work of the inferior powers of the air. But bodily ills
and ailments are certainly not invisible, nay rather,
they are evident to the senses, therefore they can be
brought about by devils. Moreover, we learn from the
Holy Scriptures of the disasters which fell upon Job,
how fire fell from heaven and striking the sheep and the
servants consumed them, and how a violent wind threw
down the four corners of a house so that it fell upon
his children and slew them all. The devil by himself
without the co-operation of any witches, but merely by
God's permission alone, was able to bring about all
these disasters. Therefore he can certainly do many
things which are often ascribed to the work of witches.
And this is
obvious from the account of the seven husbands of the
maiden Sara, whom a devil killed. Moreover, whatever a
superior power is able to do, it is able to do without
reference to a power superior to it, and a superior
power can all the more work without reference to an
inferior power. But an inferior power can cause
hailstorms and bring about diseases without the help of
a power greater than itself. For Blessed Albertus Magnus
in his work De passionibus aeris says that rotten
sage, if used as he explains, and thrown into running
water, will arouse most fearful tempests and storms.
Moreover, it
may be said that the devil makes use of a witch, not
because he has need of any such agent, but because he is
seeking the perdition of the witch. We may refer to what
Aristotle says in the 3rd book of his Ethics.
Evil is a voluntary act which is proved by the fact that
nobody performs an unjust action, and a man who commits
a rape does this for the sake of pleasure, not merely
doing evil for evil's sake. Yet the law punishes those
who have done evil as if they had acted merely for the
sake of doing evil. Therefore if the devil works by
means of a witch he is merely employing an instrument;
and since an instrument depends upon the will of the
person who employs it and does not act of its own free
will, therefore the guilt of the action ought not to be
laid to the charge of the witch, and in consequence she
should not be punished.
But an
opposite opinion holds that the devil cannot so easily
and readily do harm by himself to mankind, as he can
harm them through the instrumentality of witches,
although they are his servants. In the first place we
may consider the act of generation. But for every act
which has an effect upon another some kind of contact
must be established, and because the devil, who is a
spirit, can have no such actual contact with a human
body, since there is nothing common of this kind between
them, therefore he uses some human instruments, and upon
these he bestows the power of hurting by bodily touch.
And many hold this to be proven by the text, and the
gloss upon the text, in the 3rd chapter of S. Paul's
Epistle to the Galatians: O senseless Galatians,
who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the
truth? And the gloss upon this passage refers to those
who have singularly fiery and baleful eyes, who by a
mere look can harm others, especially young children.
And Avicenna also bears this out, Naturalism,
Book 3, c. the last, when he says; “Very often the
soul may have as much influence upon the body of another
to the same extent as it has upon its own body, for such
is the influence of the eyes of anyone who by his glance
attracts and fascinates another.” And the same opinion
is maintained by Al-Gazali in the 5th book and 10th c.
of his Physics. Avicenna also suggests, although
he does not put this opinion forward as irrefutable,
that the power of the imagination can actually change or
seem to change extraneous bodies, in cases where the
power of the imagination is too unrestrained; and hence
we father that the power of the imagination is not to be
considered as distinct from a man's other sensible
powers, since it is common to them all, but to some
extent it includes all those other powers. And this is
true, because such a power of the imagination can change
adjacent bodies, as, for example, when a man is able to
walk along some narrow beam which is stretched down the
middle of a street. But yet if this beam were suspended
over deep water he would not dare to walk along it,
because his imagination would most strongly impress upon
his mind the idea of falling, and therefore his body and
the power of his limbs would not obey his imagination,
and they would not obey the contrary thereto, that is to
say, walking directly and without hesitation. This
change may be compared to the influence exercised by the
eyes of a person who has such influence, and so a mental
change is brought about although there is not any actual
and bodily change.
Moreover, if
it be argued that such a change is cause by a living
body owing to the influence of the mind upon some other
living body, this answer may be given. In the presence
of a murderer blood flows from the wounds in the corpse
of the person he has slain. Therefore without any mental
powers bodies can produce wonderful effects, and so a
living man if he pass by near the corpse of a murdered
man, although he may not be aware of the dead body, is
often seized with fear.
Again, there
are some things in nature which have certain hidden
powers, the reason for which man does not know; such,
for example, is the lodestone, which attracts steel and
many other such things, which S. Augustine mentions in
the 20th book Of the City of God.
And so
women in order to bring about changes in the bodies of
others sometimes make use of certain things, which
exceed our knowledge, but this is without any aid from
the devil. And because these remedies are mysterious we
must not therefore ascribe them to the power of the
devil as we should ascribe evil spells wrought by
witches.
Moreover,
witches use certain images and other strange periapts,
which they are wont to place under the lintels of the
doors of houses, or in those meadows where flocks are
herding, or even where men congregate, and thus they
cast spells over their victims, who have oft-times been
known to die. But because such extraordinary effects can
proceed from these images it would appear that the
influence of these images is in proportion to the
influence of the stars over human bodies, for as natural
bodies are influenced by heavenly bodies, so may
artificial bodies likewise be thus influenced. But
natural bodies may find the benefit of certain secret
but good influences. Therefore artificial bodies may
receive such influence. Hence it is plain that those who
perform works of healing may well perform them by means
of such good influences, and this has no connexion at
all with any evil power.
Moreover,
it would seem that most extraordinary and miraculous
events come to pass by the working of the power of
nature. For wonderful and terrible and amazing things
happen owing to natural forces. And this S. Gregory
points out in his Second Dialogue. The Saints
perform miracles, sometimes by a prayer, sometimes by
their power alone. There are examples of each; S. Peter
by praying raised to life Tabitha, who was dead. By
rebuking Ananias and Sapphira, who were telling a lie,
he slew the without any prayer. Therefore a man by his
mental influence can change a material body into
another, or he can change such a body from health to
sickness and conversely.
Moreover, the
human body is nobler than any other body, but because of
the passions of the mind the human body changes and
becomes hot or cold, as is the case with angry men or
men who are afraid: and so even greater change takes
place with regard to the effects of sickness and death,
which by their power can greatly change a material body.
But certain
objections must be allowed. The influence of the mind
cannot make an impression upon any form except by the
intervention of some agent, as we have said above. And
these are the words of S. Augustine in the book which we
have already quoted: It is incredible that the angels
who fell from Heaven should be obedient to any material
things, for the obey God only. And much less can a man
of his natural power bring about extraordinary and evil
effects. The answer must be made, there are even to-day
many who err greatly on this point, making excuses for
witches and laying the whole blame upon the craft of the
devil, or ascribing the changes that they work to some
natural alteration. These errors may be easily made
clear. First, by the description of witches which S.
Isidore gives in his Etymologiae, c. 9: Witches
are so called on account of the blackness of their
guilt, that is to say, their deeds are more evil than
those of any other malefactors. He continues: They stir
up and confound the elements by the aid of the devil,
and arouse terrible hailstorms and tempests. Moreover,
he says they distract the minds of men, driving them to
madness, insane hatred, and inordinate lusts. Again, he
continues, by the terrible influence of their spells
alone, as it were by a draught of poison, they can
destroy life.
And the words
of S. Augustine in his book on The City of God
are very much to the point, for he tells us who
magicians and witches really are. Magicians, who are
commonly called witches, are thus termed on account of
the magnitude of their evil deeds. These are they who by
the permission of God disturb the elements, who drive to
distraction the minds of men, such as have lost their
trust in God, and by the terrible power of their evil
spells, without any actual draught or poison, kill human
beings. As Lucan says: A mind which has not been
corrupted by any noxious drink perishes forspoken by
some evil charm. For having summoned devils to their aid
they actually dare to heap harms upon mankind, and even
to destroy their enemies by their evil spells. And it is
certain that in operations of this kind the witch works
in close conjunction with the devil. Secondly,
punishments are of four kinds: beneficial, hurtful,
wrought by witchcraft, and natural. Beneficial
punishments are meted out by the ministry of good
Angels, just as hurtful punishments proceed from evil
spirits. Moses smote Egypt with ten plagues by the
ministry of good Angels, and the magicians were only
able to perform three of these miracles by the aid of
the devil. And the pestilence which fell upon the people
for three days because of the sin of David who numbered
the people, and the 72,000 men who were slain in one
night in the army of Sennacherib, were miracles wrought
by the Angels of God, that is, by good Angels who feared
God and knew that they were carrying out His commands.
Destructive
harm, however, is wrought by the medium of bad angels,
at whose hands the children of Israel in the desert were
often afflicted. And those harms which are simply evil
and nothing more are brought about by the devil, who
works through the medium of sorcerers and witches. There
are also natural harms which in some manner depend upon
the conjunction of heavenly bodies, such as dearth,
drought, tempests, and similar effects of nature.
It is
obvious that there is a vast difference between all
these causes, circumstances, and happenings. For Job was
afflicted by the devil with a harmful disease, but this
is nothing to the purpose. And if anybody who is too
clever and over-curious asks how it was that Job was
afflicted with this disease by the devil without the aid
of some sorcerer or witch, let him know that he is
merely beating the air and not informing himself as to
the real truth. For in the time of Job there were no
sorcerers and witches, and such abominations were not
yet practised. But the providence of God wished that by
the example of Job the power of the devil even over good
men might be manifested, so that we might learn to be on
our guard against Satan, and, moreover, by the example
of this holy patriarch the glory of God shines abroad,
since nothing happens save what is permitted by God. |