Whether Witches may
work some Prestidigatory Illusion so that the Male Organ
appears to be entirely removed and separate from the
Body.
Here
is declared the truth about diabolic operations with
regard to the male organ. And to make plain the facts in
this matter, it is asked whether witches can with the
help of devils really and actually remove the member, or
whether they only do so apparently by some glamour or
illusion. And that they can actually do so is argued a
fortiori; for since devils can do greater things
than this, as killing them or carrying them from place
to place - as was shown above in the cases of Job and
Tobias - therefore they can also truly and actually
remove men's members.
Again, an
argument is taken from the gloss on the visitations of
bad Angels, in the Psalms: God punishes by means of bad
Angels, as He often punished the People of Israel with
various diseases, truly and actually visited upon their
bodies. Therefore the member is equally subject to such
visitations.
It may be
said that this is done with the Divine permission. And
in that case, it has already been said that God allows
more power of witchcraft over the genital functions, on
account of the first corruption of sin which came to us
from the act of generation, so also He allows greater
power over the actual genital organ, even to its
removal.
And again, it
was a greater thing to turn Lot's wife into a pillar of
salt than it is to take away the male organ; and that (Genesis
xix) was a real and actual, not an apparent,
metamorphosis (for it is said that that pillar is still
to be seen), And this was done by a bad Angel; just as
the good Angels struck the men of Sodom with blindness,
so that they could not find the door of the house. And
so it was with the other punishments of the men of
Gomorrah. The gloss, indeed, affirms that Lot's wife was
herself tainted with that vice, and therefore she was
punished.
And again,
whoever can create a natural shape can also take it
away. But devils have created many natural shapes, as is
clear from Pharao's magicians, who with the help of
devils made frogs and serpents. Also S. Augustine, in
Book LXXXIII, says that those things which are visibly
done by the lower powers of the air cannot be considered
to be mere illusions; but even men are able, by some
skilful incision, to remove the male organ; therefore
devils can do invisibly what others do visibly.
But on the
contrary side, S. Augustine (de Ciuitate Dei,
XVIII) says: It is not to be believed that, through the
art or power of devils, man's body can be changed into
the likeness of a beast; therefore it is equally
impossible that that should be removed which is
essential to the truth of the human body, Also he says (de
Trinitate, III): It must not be thought that this
substance of visible matter is subject to the will of
those fallen angels; for it is subject only to God.
Answer.
There is no doubt that certain witches can do marvellous
things with regard to male organs, for this agrees with
what has been seen and heard by many, and with the
general account of what has been known concerning that
member through the senses of sight and touch. And as to
how this thing is possible, it is to be said that it can
be done in two ways, either actually and in fact, as the
first arguments have said, or through some prestige or
glamour. But when it is performed by witches, it is only
a matter of glamour; although it is no illusion in the
opinion of the sufferer. For his imagination can really
and actually believe that something is not present,
since by none of his exterior sense, such as sight or
touch, can he perceive that it is present.
From this it
may be said that there is a true abstraction of the
member in imagination, although not in fact; and several
things are to be noted as to how this happens. And first
as to two methods by which it can be done. It is no
wonder that the devil can deceive the outer human
senses, since, as has been treated of above, he can
illude the inner senses, by bringing to actual
perception ideas that are stored in the imagination.
Moreover, he deceives men in their natural functions,
causing that which is visible to be invisible to them,
and that which is tangible to be intangible, and the
audible inaudible, and so with the other senses. But
such things are not true in actual fact, since they are
caused through some defect introduced in the sense, such
as the eyes or the ears, or the touch, by reason of
which defect a man's judgement is deceived.
And we can
illustrate this from certain natural phenomena. For
sweet wine appears bitter on the tongue of the fevered,
his taste being deceived not by the actual fact, but
through his disease. So also in the case under
consideration, the deception is not due to fact, since
the member is still actually in its place; but it is an
illusion of the sense with regard to it.
Again, as has
been said above concerning the generative powers, the
devil can obstruct that action by imposing some other
body of the same colour and appearance, in such a way
that some smoothly fashioned body in the colour of flesh
is interposed between the sight and touch, and between
the true body of the sufferer, so that it seems to him
that he can see and feel nothing but a smooth body with
its surface interrupted by no genital organ. See the
sayings of S. Thomas (2 dist. 8. artic. 5) concerning
glamours and illusions, and also in the second of the
second, 91, and in his questions concerning Sin; where
he frequently quotes that of S. Augustine in Book
LXXXIII: This evil of the devil creeps in through all
the sensual approaches; he gives himself to figures, he
adapts himself to colours, he abides in sounds, he lurks
in smells, he infuses himself into flavours.
Besides, it
is to be considered that such an illusion of the sight
and touch can be caused not only by the interposition of
some smooth unmembered body, but also by the summoning
to the fancy or imagination of certain forms and ideas
latent in the mind, in such a way that a thing is
imagined as being perceived then for the first time.
For, as was shown in the preceding question, devils can
by their own power change bodies locally; and just as
the disposition or humour can be affected in this way,
so can the natural functions. I speak of things which
appear natural to the imagination or senses. For
Aristotle in the de Somno et Uigila says,
assigning the cause of apparitions in dreams, that when
an animal sleeps much blood flows to the inner
consciousness, and thence come ideas or impressions
derived from actual previous experiences stored in the
mind. It has already been defined how thus certain
appearance convey the impressions of new experiences.
And since this can happen naturally, much more can the
devil call to the imagination the appearance of a smooth
body unprovided with the virile member, in such a way
that the sense believe it to be an actual fact.
Secondly,
some other methods are to be noted which are easier to
understand and to explain. For, according to S. Isidore
(Etym. VIII, 9), a glamour is nothing but a
certain delusion of the senses, and especially of the
eyes. And for this reason it is also called a prestige,
from prestringo, since the sight of the eyes is
so fettered that things seem to be other than they are.
And Alexander of Hales, Part 2, says that a prestige,
properly understood, is an illusion of the devil, which
is not caused by any change in matter, but only exists
in the mind of him who is deluded, either as to his
inner or outer perceptions.
Wherefore, in
a manner of speaking, we may say even of human
prestidigitatory art, that it can be effected in three
ways. For the first, it can be done without devils,
since it is artificially done by the agility of men who
show things and conceal them, as in the case of the
tricks of conjurers and ventriloquists. The second
method is also without the help of devils; as when men
can use some natural virtue in natural bodies or
minerals so as to impart to such objects some other
appearance quite different from their true appearance.
Wherefore, according to S. Thomas (I, 114, 4), and
several others, men, by the smoke of certain smouldering
or lighted herbs, can make rods appear to be serpents.
The third
method of delusion is effected with the help of devils,
the permission of God being granted. For it is clear
that devils have, of their nature, some power over
certain earthly matters, which they exercise upon them,
when God permits, so that things appear to be other than
they are.
And as to
this third method, it is to be noted that the devil has
fives ways in which he can delude anyone so that he
thinks a thing to be other than it is. First, by an
artificial tricks, as has been said; for that which a
man can do by art, the devil can do even better. Second,
by a natural method, by the application, as has been
said, and interposition of some substance so as to hide
the true body, or by confusing it in man's fancy. The
third way is when in an assumed body he presents himself
as being something which he is not; as witness the story
which S. Gregory tells in his First Dialogue of a
Nun, who ate a lettuce, which, however, as the devil
confessed, was not a lettuce, but the devil in the form
of a lettuce, or in the lettuce itself. Or as when he
appeared to S. Antony in a lump of gold which he found
in the desert. Or as when he touches a real man, and
makes him appear like a brute animal, as will shortly be
explained. The fourth method is when he confuses the
organ of sight, so that a clear thing seems hazy, or the
converse, or when an old woman appears to be a young
girl. For even after weeping the light appears different
from what it was before. His fifth method is by working
in the imaginative power, and, by a disturbance of the
humours, effecting a transmutation in the forms
perceived by the senses, as has been treated of before,
so that the senses then perceive as it were fresh and
new images. And accordingly, by the last three of these
methods, and even by the second, the devil can cast a
glamour over the senses of a man. Wherefore there is no
difficulty in his concealing the virile member by some
prestige or glamour. And a manifest proof or example of
this, which was revealed to us in our Inquisitorial
capacity, will be set forth later, where more is
recounted of these and other matters in the Second Part
of this Treatise. How a Bewitchment can be
Distinguished from a Natural Defect.
An incidental question, with certain other difficulties,
follows. Peter's member has been taken off, and he does
not know whether it is by witchcraft or in some other
way by the devil's power, with the permission of God.
Are there any ways of determining or distinguishing
between these? It can be answered as follows. First,
that those to whom such things most commonly happen are
adulterers or fornicators. For when they fail to respond
to the demand of their mistress, or if they wish to
desert them and attach themselves to other women, then
their mistress, out of vengeance, through some other
power causes their members to be taken off. Secondly, it
can be distinguished by the fact that it is not
permanent. For if it is not due to witchcraft, then the
loss is not permanent, but it will be restored some
time.
But here
there arises another doubt, whether it is due to the
nature of the witchcraft that it is not permanent. It is
answered that it can be permanent, and last until death,
just as the Canonists and Theologians judge concerning
the impediment of witchcraft in matrimony, that the
temporary can become permanent. For Godfrey says in his Summa:
A bewitchment cannot always be removed by him who caused
it, either because he is dead, or because he does not
know how to remove it, or because the charm has been
lost. Wherefore we may say in the same way that the
charm which has been worked on Peter will be permanent
if the witch who did it cannot heal him.
For there are
three degrees of witches. For some both heal and harm;
some harm, but cannot heal; and some seem able only to
heal, that is, to take away injuries, as will be shown
later. For thus it happened to us: Two witches were
quarreling, and while they were taunting each other one
said: I am not so wicked as you, for I know how to heal
those whom I injure. The charm will also be permanent
if, before it has been healed, the witch departs, either
by changing her dwelling or by dying. For S. Thomas also
says: Any charm may be permanent when it is such as can
have no human remedy; or if it has a remedy, it is not
known to men, or unlawful; although God can find a
remedy through a holy Angel who can coerce the devil, if
not the witch.
However, the
chief remedy against witchcraft is the sacrament of
Penitence. For bodily infirmity often proceeds from sin.
And how the charms or witches can be removed will be
shown in the Second Part of this Treatise, and in the
Second QUestion, chapter VI, where other different
matters are treated of and explained. Solutions
of the Arguments.
For the first, it is clear that there is no doubt but
that, just as, with God's permission, they can kill men,
so also can devils taken off that member, as well as
others, truly and actually. But then the devils do not
work through the medium of witches, concerning which
mention has already been made. And from this the answer
to the second argument is also made clear. But this is
to be said: that God allows more power of witchcraft
over the genital forces because, etc.; and therefore
even allows that that member should be truly and
actually taken off. But it is not valid to say that this
always happens. For it would not be after the manner of
witchcraft for it to happen so; and even the witches,
when they do such works, do not pretend that they have
not the power to restore the member when they wish to
and know how to do so. From which it is clear that it is
not actually taken off, but only by a glamour. As for
the third, concerning the metamorphosis of Lot's wife,
we say that this was actual, and not a glamour. And as
to the fourth, that devils can create certain
substantial shapes, and therefore can also remove them:
it is to be said with regard to Pharaoh's magicians that
they made true serpents; and that devils can, with the
help of another agent, produce certain effects on
imperfect creatures which they cannot on men, who are
God's chief care. For it is said: Does God care for
oxen? They can, nevertheless, with the permission of
God, do to men true and actual harm, as also they can
create a glamour of harm, and by this the answer to the
last argument is made clear.
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