How Devils may
enter the Human Body and the Head without doing any
Hurt, when they cause such Metamorphosis by Means of
Prestidigitation.
Concerning the method of causing these illusory
transmutations it may further be asked: whether the
devils are then inside the bodies and heads of those who
are deceived, and whether the latter are to be
considered as possessed by devils; how it can happen
without injury to the inner perceptions and faculties
that a mental image is transferred from one inner
faculty to another; and whether or not such work ought
to be considered miraculous.
First we must
again refer to a distinction between such illusory
glamours; for sometimes the outer perceptions only are
affected, and sometimes the inner perceptions are
deluded and so affect the outer perceptions.
In the former
case the glamour can be caused without the devils'
entering into the outer perceptions, and merely by an
exterior illusion; as when the interposition of some
other body, or in some other way; or when he himself
assumes a body and imposes himself on the vision.
But in the
latter case it is necessary that he must first occupy
the head and the faculties. And this is proved by
authority and by reason.
And it is not
a valid objection to say that two created spirits cannot
be in one and the same place, and that the soul pervades
the whole of the body. For on this question there is the
authority of S. John Damascene, when he says: Where the
Angel is, there he operates. And S. Thomas, in the Second
Book of Sentences, dist. 7, art. 5, says: All
Angels, good and bad, by their natural power, which is
superior to all bodily power, are able to transmute our
bodies.
And this is
clearly true, not only by reason of the superior
nobility of their nature, but because the whole
mechanism of the world and all corporeal creatures are
administered by Angels; as S. Gregory says in the 4th
Dialogue: In this visible world nothing can be disposed
except by an invisible creature. Therefore all corporeal
matters are governed by the Angels, who are also called,
not only by the Holy Doctors but also by all the
Philosophers, the Powers which move the stars. It is
clear also from the fact that all human bodies are moved
by their souls, just as all other matter is moved by the
stars and the Powers which move them. Any who wish may
refer to S. Thomas in the First Part, Quest. 90, art. 1.
From this it
is concluded that, since devils operates there where
they are, therefore when they confuse the fancy and the
inner perceptions they are existing in them.
Again,
although to enter the soul is possible only to God Who
created it, yet devils can, with God's permission, enter
our bodies; and they an then make impressions on the
inner faculties corresponding to the bodily organs. And
by those impressions the organs are affected in
proportion as the inner perceptions are affected in the
way which has been shown: that the devil can draw out
some image retained in a faculty corresponding to one of
the senses; as he draws from the memory, which is in the
back part of the head, an image of a horse, and locally
moves that phantasm to the middle part of the head,
where are the cells of imaginative power; and finally to
the sense of reason, which is in the front of the head.
And he causes such a sudden change and confusion, that
such objects are necessarily thought to be actual things
seen with the eyes. This can be clearly exemplified by
the natural defect in frantic men and other maniacs.
But if it is
asked how he can do this without causing pain in the
head, the answer is easy. For in the first place he does
not cause any actual physical change in the organs, but
only moves the mental images. And secondly, he does not
effect these changes by injecting any active quality
which would necessarily cause pain, since the devil is
himself without any corporeal quality, and can therefore
operate without the use of any such quality. Thirdly, as
has been said, he effects these transmutations only by a
local movement from one organ to another, and not by
other movements through which painful transformations
are sometimes caused.
And as for
the objection that two spirits cannot separately exist
in the same place, and that, since the soul exists in
the head, how can a devil be there also? It is to be
said that the soul is thought to reside in the centre of
the heart, in which it communicates with all the members
by an outpouring of life. An example can be taken from a
spider, which feels in the middle of its web when any
part of the web is touched.
However, S.
Augustine says in his book On the Spirit and Soul,
that it is all in all, and all in every part of the
body. Granting that the soul is in the head, still the
devil can work there; for his work is different from the
work of the soul. The work of the soul is in the body,
to inform it and fill it with life; so that it exists
not merely locally, but in the whole matter. But the
devil works in such a part and such a place of the body,
effecting his changes in respect of the mental images.
Therefore, since there is no confusion between their
respective operations, they can both exist together in
the same part of the body.
There is also
the question whether such men are to be considered
obsessed or frenzied, that is, possessed of devils. But
this is considered separately; namely, whether it is
possible through the work of witches for a man to be
obsessed with a devil, that is, that the devil should
actually and bodily possess him. And this question is
specially discussed in the following chapter, since it
has this special difficulty, namely, whether this can be
caused through the operations of witches.
But as to the
question whether the temporal works of witches and
devils are to be considered as miracles or of a
miraculous nature; it is to be said that they are so, in
so far as they are beyond the order of created nature as
known to us, and are done by creatures unknown to us.
But they are not properly speaking miracles as are those
which are outside the whole of created nature; as are
the miracles of God and the Saints. (See what was
written in the First Part of this work, in the Fifth
Question, in the refutation of the third error.)
But there are
those who object that this sort of work must not be
considered miracles, but simply works of the devil;
since the purpose of miracles is the strengthening of
the Faith, and they must not be conceded to the
adversary of the Faith. And also because the signs of
Antichrist are called lying signs by the Apostle.
First it is
to be said that to work miracles is the gift of freely
given grace. And they can be done by bad men and bad
spirits, up to the limits of the power which is in them.
Wherefore the
miracles wrought by the good can be distinguished from
those wrought by the wicked in at least three ways.
First, the signs which are given by the good are done by
Divine power in such matters as are beyond the capacity
of their own natural power, such as raising the dead,
and things of that sort, which the devils are not able
to accomplish in truth, but only by an illusion: so
Simon Magus moved the head of a dead man; but such
manifestations cannot last long. Secondly, they can be
distinguished by their utility; for the miracles of the
good are of a useful nature, as the healing of sickness,
and such things. But the miracles done by witches are
concerned with harmful and idle things; as when they fly
in the air, or benumb the limbs of men, or such things.
And S. Peter assigns this difference in the Itinerarium
of Clement.
The third
difference relates to the Faith. For the miracles of the
good are ordained for the edification of the Faith and
of good living; whereas the miracles of the wicked are
manifestly detrimental to the Faith and to
righteousness.
They are
distinguished also by the way in which they are done.
For the good do miracles in a pious and reverent
invocation of the Divine Name. But witches and wicked
men work them by certain ravings and invocations of
devils.
And there is
no difficulty in the fact that the Apostle called the
works of the devil and Antichrist lying wonders; for the
marvels so done by Divine permission are true in some
respects and false in others. They are true in so far as
they are within the limits of the devil's power. But
they are false when he appears to do things which are
beyond his power, such as raising the dead, or making
the blind to see. For when he appears to do the former,
he either enters into the dead body or else removes it,
and himself takes its place in an assumed aerial body;
and in the latter case he takes away the sight by a
glamour, and then suddenly restores it by taking away
the disability he has caused, not by bringing light to
the inner perceptions, as is told in the legend of
Bartholomew. Indeed all the marvellous works of
Antichrist and of witches can be said to be lying signs,
insasmuch as their only purpose is to deceive. See S.
Thomas, dist. 8, de Uirtute Daemonum.
We may also
quote here the distinction which is drawn in the
Compendium of Theological Truth between a wonder and a
miracle. For in a miracle four conditions are required:
that it should be done by God; that it should be beyond
the existing order of nature; thirdly, that it should be
manifest; and fourthly, that it should be for the
corroboration of the Faith. But since the works of
witches fail to fulfil at least the first and last
conditions, therefore they may be called wonderful
works, but nor miracles.
It can also
be argued in this way. Although witches' works can in a
sense be said to be miraculous, yet some miracles are
supernatural, some unnatural, and some preternatural.
And they are supernatural when they can be compared with
nothing in nature, or in natural power, as when a virgin
gives birth. They are unnatural when they are against
the normal course of nature but do not overstep the
limits of nature, such as causing the blind to see. And
they are preternatural when they are done in a manner
parallel to that of nature, as when rods are changed
into serpents; for this can be done naturally also,
through long putrefaction on account of seminal reasons;
and thus the works of magicians may be said to be
marvellous.
It is
expedient to recount an actual example, and then to
explain it step by step. There is a town in the diocese
of Strasburg, the name of which it is charitable and
honourable to withhold, in which a workman was one day
chopping some wood to burn in his house. A large cat
suddenly appeared and began to attack him, and when he
was driving it off, another even larger one came and
attacked him with the first more fiercely. And when he
again tried to drive them away, behold, three of them
together attacked him, jumping up at his face, and
biting and scratching his legs. In great fright and, as
he said, more panic-stricken than he had ever been, he
crossed himself and, leaving his work, fell upon the
cats, which were swarming over the wood and again
leaping at his face and throat, and with difficulty
drove them away by beating one on the head, another on
the legs, and another on the back. After the space of an
hour, while he was again engaged upon his task, two
servants of the town magistrates came and took him as a
malefactor and led him into the presence of the bailiff
or judge. And the judge, looking at him from a distance,
and refusing to hear him, ordered him to be thrown into
the deepest dungeon of a certain tower or prison, where
those who were under sentence of death were placed. The
man cried out, and for three days bitterly complained to
the prison guards that he should suffer in that way,
when he was conscious of no crime; but the more the
guards tried to procure him a hearing, the more furious
the judge became, expressing in the strongest terms his
indignation that so great a malefactor had not yet
acknowledged his crime, but dared to proclaim his
innocence when the evidence of the facts proved his
horrible crime. But although these could not prevail
upon him, yet the judge was induced by the advice of the
other magistrates to grant the man a hearing. So when he
was brought out of prison into the presence of the
judge, and the judge refused to look at him, the poor
man threw himself before the knees of the other
magistrates, pleading that he might know the reason for
his misfortune; and the judge broke into these words:
You most wicked of men, how can you not acknowledge your
crime? At such a time on such a day you beat three
respected matrons of this town, so that they lie in
their beds unable to rise or to move. The poor man cast
his mind back to the events of that day and that hour,
and said: Never in all my life have I struck or beaten a
woman, and I can prove by credible witnesses that at
that time on that day I was busy chopping wood; and an
hour afterwards your servants found me still engaged on
that task. Then the judge again exclaimed in a fury: See
how he tries to conceal his crime! The women are
bewailing their blows, they exhibit the marks, and
publicly testify that he struck them. Then the poor man
considered more closely on that even, and said: I
remember that I struck some creatures at that time, but
they were not women. The magistrates in astonishment
asked him to relate what sort of creatures he had
struck; and he told, to their great amazement, all that
had happened, as we have related it. So, understanding
that it was the work of the devil, they released the
poor man and let him go away unharmed, telling him not
to speak of this matter to anyone. But it could not be
hidden from those devout persons present who were
zealous for the Faith.
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