Liber Octo Quaestionum ad Maximilianum Caesarem

Book of Eight Questions to Emperor Maximilian, by Johannes Trithemius, abbot of St James at Würzburg, formerly of Sponheim: 1. On faith and understanding, 2. On the faith necessary for salvation, 3. On the miracles of unbelievers, 4. On sacred Scripture, 5. On the reprobate and evildoers, 6. On power

Frankfurt, 1550

P.lat. 1951

P. lat.
1951

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The book of eight questions of Johannes Trithemius, abbot of Saint James at Würzburg, formerly of Sponheim, addressed to Emperor Maximilian.

Royal Library of Munich.

On faith and understanding. On the faith necessary for salvation. On the miracles of unbelievers. On sacred Scripture. On the reprobate and evil deeds. On the power of witches. On divine permission. On the providence of God.

1550.

To the most serene and most unconquered lord of the world, Emperor Maximilian: the book of eight questions by Johannes Trithemius, abbot of [unclear], begins in the name of Christ.

I have obeyed your commands, most unconquered Emperor Maximilian, and the eight questions which you proposed to me some time ago, when I had been summoned to your highness at the castle of Boppard, I have answered as briefly as I could and set down in the form of this little book. You wished, as I rightly remember, that in solving them I should, as far as possible, follow the path of nature, on account of those who yield less to belief. Yet this did not seem possible to me in every case, because in many places the matter of the questions rested on theological rather than natural principles.

For although the Christian religion, among all the sects of mortals, is held to be nearer, more conformable, and closest to the laws of nature, nevertheless not all the chief articles of our faith are provable according to the common way of nature. We believe that this was necessarily so, in order that faith too might have its place, and firm belief might not lack its own merit. Therefore, undertaking by your command a middle course of disputation as best I could, I have used partly the testimony of nature and partly that of the divine Scriptures. For the things which it is fitting for us to believe must not be rashly examined by human arguments, since, as holy Gregory says, faith has no merit when human reason supplies proof. Therefore, with fear of God and reverence for our undefiled Christian religion, I have resolved to answer the questions proposed in such a way that I depart neither in jest nor in earnest from the definitions of the Roman Church. Therefore whatever I have ever written, or shall write, I wish to be wholly subject to its determination and judgment.

On Faith and Understanding: the first question.

The first question of your most serene majesty was this: Why did almighty God wish to be believed by mortals rather than to be known and understood, namely in that mode of knowledge and understanding by which he is known and understood by the holy angels?

I remember that I answered this question in the presence of your most sacred majesty as follows. Almighty God, who is without beginning, pure intellect, everlasting and unchangeable, existing above every position knowable to us, far more perfect than infinite perfections, by his most wise will created from nothing two intellects from the beginning, namely the angelic and the human. The angelic intellect, at the beginning of its creation, was made in act with respect to all knowable things, and knows all things. The human intellect, however, first exists in potency with respect to all things, but is ignorant of all things. Yet in the end, through very many and continuous actions directed upward, it will become like the angelic intellect, knowing both God and all things that pertain to the promised knowledge and understanding.

The two intellects, angelic and human, differ as any two opposites do: namely as act and potency, light and darkness, knowledge and ignorance, possession and privation, beginning and end, immobile and mobile, substance and accident, truth and likeness, nature and art, health and sickness, whole and part. For the angelic intellect is as act, light, knowledge, possession, beginning, the immobile, the immediate, simple substance, truth, nature, and whole. The human intellect, however, is as potency, darkness, ignorance, privation, end, the mobile, the mediate, the composite, accident, likeness, art, and part.

Hence whatever belongs to the angelic intellect from the beginning, these same things belong to the human intellect at the end, after it has laid aside the burden of the flesh; for just as beginning and nature perfect the angelic intellect, so the end and art, after many exercises at last, raise the human intellect upward. Therefore between these two intellects there is great inequality from the beginning, yet in the end they are at last made equal, when the human intellect will be as great through art as the angelic intellect was before through nature. Hence it is clear that the angelic intellect, as soon as it was cre-

It was created from the beginning, without any action or motion of its own, immovably and substantially, and by nature knew all things that it can understand; and it came forth created in an instant full and perfect in the knowledge of all things. But the human intellect, since it was created in ignorance and privation of all things, and was appointed in time to a body for its own exercise, must by continual action, motion, and art arrive at the knowledge of God and of all things. At last the end will make it equal to the angelic intellect, changing its potency into act, and bringing it forth from merely potential and possible being into essence; from empty it will make it full, from imperfect perfect, from deprived possessing, from dark luminous, from nocturnal diurnal, from lunar solar, and from earthly heavenly. This cannot happen while the mind is bound together with the body, as the holy lover of Christ Paul says: “As long as we are in the flesh, we are pilgrims away from the Lord.”

To know God belongs to a pure, simple, and perfect intellect. But the human intellect, as long as it dwells in the body, is impure, mixed, unstable, and imperfect, and for this reason, without faith, is ignorant of all knowledge of God and of heavenly things. Yet the object of both intellects, both human and angelic, is the same: namely that highest immutable good, God, the one principle of all things, to which they return by the natural desire of knowledge.

But if the angelic intellect is compared with the human, it is like nature compared with art, and like intellect simply speaking compared with reason. Intellect is close to the principles of the disciplines, while reason proceeds through principles to conclusions. Hence it is clear that the angelic intellect immovably apprehends its proper object, toward which the human intellect, through the angelic medium, after many exercises of itself, as has been said, at last at some time prepares an ascent for itself by reasoning. But human intellects are separated from the angelic intellect by the perfection of knowledge of their natural object, and therefore the human intellect necessarily becomes movable, returning through that medium to its own principle. For every motion goes from an extreme through a medium to an extreme; but where there is no medium, the extremes are already immediate and near, and for that reason immovable.

The human intellect, however, placed as it were in a dark prison as long as it is held in the body, is moved by sense and reason toward understanding, although very confusedly and imperfectly; and therefore it suffers a medium between itself and God, which we have called the angelic intellect, bearing the body as an impediment to its destined perfection, as a certain lover of wisdom said: “The body that is corrupted weighs down the soul, and the earthly dwelling depresses the sense that thinks many things.”

Therefore it was wholly necessary for us to believe God rather than to know or understand him, because it is utterly impossible for us, who understand nothing without the ministry of the senses and the discourse of reason, to comprehend that super-divine and uncircumscribable majesty. But God, existing far above every position, remains subject neither to the senses of mortals nor to reason, as he is read to have said to Moses: “Man shall not see me and live.” Hence also the divine evangelist John says: “No one has ever seen God.” Nor is this surprising. For since God is the first and eternal intellect, most pure, most simple, most perfect, immovable, creator, incomprehensible, highest, immense far above every position, and uncircumscribable, he could not be comprehended by the human intellect, which is impure, subject to composition, imperfect, movable, created, comprehensible, lowest, and established beneath the measure of position.

As for the question that, from the first line of argument, ought to have arisen: whether God, since he is omnipotent, could have made himself knowable to the human intellect as to the angelic intellect, I say that no one of sound mind has ever denied that God can do all things. But we say that God cannot do those things that imply contradiction, because they are contrary to the order of wisdom, which immutably disposes all things, just as destruction is not doubted to be contrary to the construction of the whole at the same time, and, if I may say so, utterly opposed to it.

For it was neither fitting, nor could it in any way have happened, that God should be comprehended by the human intellect, since if mortal man, by the guidance of nature, comprehended the immortal God, surely he would already seem to have to be called not man nor mortal, but angel; and either man would become comparable to God, or God to man. For as long as the angelic intellect stands between, the human intellect cannot understand God. And it stands between until the death of the flesh; when the mind, having obtained its natural freedom, will become altogether equal to the angel. You now see clearly, I believe, O emperor,

since it was neither fitting nor possible that the human intellect should comprehend the divine: the created, the creator; the temporal, the eternal; the changeable, the unchangeable; the weak, the omnipotent, since, as a certain philosopher says, there is no proportion of the finite to the infinite.

It is therefore necessary for mortals to believe in the immortal God, whom we cannot comprehend by any evident reasoning. Although the order of the whole universe declares the provident author of all things, and although we understand nothing besides him to have been brought into being without a beginning, nevertheless the human mind cannot grasp what God is or in what manner he is, because, since he is far above all things that we can understand concerning him, or that any mortal can understand, he is placed far outside and above every affirmation, as holy Dionysius says.

For he is neither soul, nor sense, nor does he have imagination, or opinion, or reason, or understanding; nor is he reason, nor understanding; nor is he spoken, nor understood. He is neither number, nor multitude, nor order, nor greatness, nor smallness, nor equality, nor likeness, nor unlikeness; nor is he something that exists, nor is he moved, nor does he cause rest; nor does he have power, nor is he power, nor is he light, nor does he live, nor is he life, nor substance, nor age, nor time; nor is there any spiritual touch of him; nor is he form, nor truth, nor kingdom, nor wisdom, nor one, nor unity, nor deity or goodness, nor spirit, so far as we ourselves can know.

Nor does the designation of Son or Father belong to him, nor anything else among those things known to us or to anyone else in the world. Nor is he anything of the things that are not, nor of the things that are. Nor do the things that are know him as he himself is. Nor is there speech of him, nor name, nor knowledge; nor is he darkness, nor light, nor error, nor truth; nor is there any affirmation at all of him, nor any removal. For the perfect and singular cause of all things is above every affirmation. And his excellence is above every removal: his, that is, who is simply absolved from all things and is above all things.

Therefore, as Dionysius says, we say that, since the cause of all things is above all things, he is neither without substance nor without life, nor does he lack reason or mind; nor is he a body, nor a figure, nor a form, nor does he have quality or quantity or bulk. Nor is he in a place, nor is he seen, nor does he have sensible touch, nor does he sense, nor is he sensible; nor is he subject to rashness or disturbance, stirred by fleshly passions. Nor is he weak, subject to sensible accidents; nor is he in need of light; nor does he admit alteration or corruption or division or flux; nor is he or has he anything else belonging to sensible things.

Therefore, since he is far above every affirmation in excellence, he could not be comprehended by the creature placed beneath him, which necessarily uses the senses in order to understand, just as the true Peripatetic said: there is nothing in our intellect unless it has first been in the sense. God, then, who is not subject to the senses of mortals, far exceeds the human intellect: he who, according to affirmative affirmation, truly is wholly in all things, and, according to negative removal, the nearer he is approached, is none of all the things subjected to the knowledge of mortals. For since he is above all things, he cannot be any of those things that are subject to him. Therefore Empedocles beautifully gave the likeness, saying: God is a sphere whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere. Let now

Now, insofar as the human intellect can, let it rightly understand and comprehend the center of this imagined sphere, and at the same time its circumference, bounded nowhere, since it strives to comprehend God. But if it is not sufficient to understand this by the proposed likeness proper to it, why does it contend to investigate the essence of God, which exists above every position?

May it not weary you, Caesar, to hear in turn another likeness concerning God from Nicholas of Cusa, sometime priest of the Roman Church, Cardinal, my fellow Mosellan, a man most learned in those times, who says: God is a straight line of infinite length, which makes a circle. Let us therefore now consider. If it is a straight line, how does it make a circle? But if it makes a circle, how is it straight? For a circle and a straight line are naturally opposed. Yet a line of infinite length, since it has neither beginning nor end, necessarily makes a circle, although it is proposed to be imagined not as curved, but as straight.

Since, therefore, God is infinite, greatest without quantity, best without quality, all things in all without circumscription, above all things without a position that excludes, it was not possible that he should be comprehended by the circumscribed human intellect, which uses the service of the senses for understanding, and that what is promised to it when purified at last in its homeland should be granted to it while confused and impure on the way.

But afterwards, when our mind, at last having left the flesh, has become bare, simple, pure, perfect, and consummated at its center, which is God, then, made equal to the angels, we shall know God perfectly, and all things, as also Saint [unclear] says to the Corinthians: Now we see through a mirror and in a riddle, but then face to face.

Therefore we said that the angelic intellect, by the guidance of its nature, adheres immovably to its principle, because it is pure act and habit; and since by its condition it is naturally simple, it cannot be impeded by any alteration of composition. But the human intellect, as it is now sufficiently clear has been declared, since it is potency and privation, impure because of its commerce with its body, is thereby held back from perfect act until at last, freed from the flesh, it passes into the fellowship of likeness with the angels, then first to be admitted to the true knowledge of God.

But if, meanwhile, the affection of love necessary for salvation is joined to present Christian faith and to future divine knowledge, the same everlasting blessedness prepared with the holy angels for the worshippers of God will be given as a gift. But if the depraved mind, through too great commerce with its flesh, has despised the love of God, the intellect indeed, released from its prison, will rise to the measure of knowledge belonging to it by nature, but it will be so much the more miserable as, by its evil will, it is found to be more like the demons.

Therefore, to conclude the solution of the proposed question as I may, I say that it is not possible for almighty God to be perfectly understood by us so long as we mortals live in the flesh.

On Faith Necessary for Salvation.

The Second Question.

The second question of your unconquered majesty was this: since today a small part of the world is subject to the laws of the Christian faith, whether that opinion of many people may seem to be admitted without injury to the truth, namely, that each person, in his own religion, which he believes to be true and saving, as a worshipper of the one God, outside the Christian faith and without baptism, can be saved, provided that nothing is known of the religion of Christ.

To this question, simply...

But because a cause of just consideration has moved your most serene Highness to ask these things, not because you do not know what must be held as Catholic in this position, but so that you may have something true to set against those who attack it, I shall answer the questions as briefly as I can.

If anyone could be saved outside the Christian faith, Christ, the Son of almighty God, would seem to have become man superfluously and without cause. For if there is salvation outside Christ, then Christ is not the Savior of all. But because it was necessary, according to the Scriptures, that the only-begotten Son of God should, for the salvation of the human race, be born as man in the world, suffer, die, and rise again on the third day, he did not come into this world in vain, nor superfluously, nor without cause. Since this is so, whoever asserts that anyone can be saved outside the faith of Christ shows himself not a Christian, but an adversary of the faith and a deserter of Christ. For whoever does not believe in Christ, the Son of God, promises himself eternal salvation in vain. For Jesus Christ himself, who is the Truth, says in the holy Gospel: “He who does not believe will be condemned.”

And again: “He who does not believe is already judged, because he does not believe in the name of the only-begotten Son of God.” And again, a little later, he adds, saying: “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who is unbelieving toward the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains upon him.” Saint Christophylus also says: “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” The solution of the proposed question is now clear to all who truly believe in Christ: through him, the Savior of the world, there is salvation, and whoever does not believe in him cannot be saved. Nor is it permitted for a Christian in any way to pass beyond the limits of his religion, so as to presume to explain this question otherwise than Christ taught. Whoever, by asserting the contrary, departs from this rule of faith is plainly shown not to think rightly concerning Christ, the Savior of the faithful. For whoever promises salvation to anyone outside Christ wishes to declare Christ a liar. But we, confirmed by the most sacred decrees of the Gospels, firmly believe and pronounce without doubt that no one can be saved outside the faith of Christ, however much he may trust in his own paternal or another religion.

Christ is salvation, and outside the Christian faith no one will be saved. For why did Christ, the Son of God, will to die for the sins of the world, if each person could have been saved outside his faith in his own paternal tradition? From the beginning of the world, after the fall of the human race, it has been impossible for anyone to be saved unto eternal life otherwise than in the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. What of the fact that the greater part of mankind today remains outside the faith of Jesus? Did not the Savior of the world himself long ago foretell in the holy Gospel that many are called, but few are chosen? And again he says: “Enter through the narrow gate, because wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.” What we may say can contribute nothing to God, our salvation, who has no need of our goods. For whether many are saved or many are damned, God himself is the immutable Lord of all. Nothing is added to him if all are saved; nothing is lacking if the whole world perishes. There is an infallible order of divine providence and majesty, which embraces those who are to be damned no less than those who are to be saved, each and all alike.

Certainly no one of those who are to be damned suffers injustice, because just as in the first man we all fell, so no one is saved except in the blood of Jesus Christ through mercy, and no one is damned except in his own unbelief and according to his deserts through justice.

From what has been said there arises another question of no small difficulty, which human curiosity is accustomed to raise against those who think rightly concerning the faith of Christ. Why does almighty God, since he is just and merciful, not cease to create so many thousands of human beings whom he most certainly foreknew would be damned? Why does he not spare the wretched, and why does he bring forth in such a multitude to destruction those whom he foreknew would turn aside to evil? For it would seem better not to exist than to exist badly.

Let that man answer this question, if anyone thinks himself God’s counselor. Who am I, that I should explain the cause of the divine will? For whatever the Lord willed he has done in heaven and on earth, and there is no one who can resist his will. Hence a certain wise man says to God: “Who will charge you with blame if the nations you made perish?” The Almighty established an order of change in things, which no one ever [unclear].

in the fullness of change he will call back. For in a certain way, just as he permits his sun to rise over the good and the evil, so also until the end of the world he permits men, both pious and impious, to be conceived, born, and grow.

The thoughts of men are not in God, nor does he change his counsel according to time; but, since he is unchangeable and eternal, willing all things together and at once and always, he has from eternity unchangeably foreordained them. God speaks once, as sacred Scripture bears witness, and does not add, because whatever he wills he wills immovably, and he admits no change. Therefore God permits, by most just reason, that men be born good and evil, pious and impious, faithful and faithless, sinners and saints, those to be saved and those to be damned, for he has assigned this order to all things. Nothing perishes to God, who is Lord of all, and who everywhere holds firm dominion no less over evil men and spirits than over good ones.

Christ Jesus, God without time from God the Father, and man in time from the Virgin, appointed mediator between God and men, is himself the one through whom we have access to God. He is the savior of all the faithful; whoever rashly grants that anyone can be saved without Christian faith thinks wrongly of him. The omnipotence of God has regard to the order of things which he established; according to the inviolable sequence of its rectitude, no one will be saved without faith in Christ, no one who does not believe in the Son of God is justified.

Therefore those are moved by vain and most foolish pity who think that anyone in the whole world and in any sect is to be saved outside the faith of Christ, since his judgment is manifestly the contrary. Let them hear the Savior himself again saying in the Gospel: “No one comes to the Father except through me. For I am the way, the truth, and the life.” If no one comes to the Father except through the Son, certainly no one will be saved except through him. Who will save a Jew or a pagan, when no one can be saved except through Christ? But Christ will undoubtedly save only those who believe in him with heart, speech, and deed. He will not save a Jew, not a Saracen, not a pagan, not any other unbeliever, because they do not believe in him, but despise his doctrine, scorn the faith, and, blaspheming his holy name, hold it in contempt all day long. For he himself said in the Gospel: “Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him I also will be ashamed before my Father and his holy angels.”

Tell me now, you who worship Christ and contend that someone can be saved in his own sect, which he thinks true, outside the Christian faith: do you believe the Gospel of Christ is true or false? If true, why do you hold an opinion contrary to it? For Christ says that whoever has not believed in the Son of God, the wrath of God remains upon him, and he is already judged and will be condemned, and that “no one comes to the Father except through me.” But you, seduced by I know not what rashness, thrust in the contrary, saying that a man outside the faith of Christ, trusting in the religion of his fathers which he believes to be true and to please God, or living innocently according to the law of nature, especially when perhaps he has never heard anything of the faith of Christ, is to be saved in that confidence. Christ did not say this, but: “He who has believed in the only-begotten Son of God will be saved; but he who has not believed will be condemned.” He excepted no one, admitted no condition, because he who had come to suffer for all had provided for the salvation of all through faith alone. If faith in the Savior is lacking, no confidence will now save the unbeliever.

For the holy bishop Augustine said in On Faith to Peter: “Hold most firmly and by no means doubt that not only all pagans, but also all Jews, heretics, and schismatics who end this present life outside the Catholic Church will go into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” You now see where foolish compassion drags you, you who measure God by human laws and, so that in all things you may make his only-begotten Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, merciful, do not fear to judge him a liar. But Christ is truthful, who says that those who do not believe in him are damned; but you are rash and lying, who trust that anyone can be saved outside his faith. Whoever truly believes in Christ cannot at all allow anyone outside the unity of the Church of Catholic Christians to be said to be saved. Whoever says the contrary shows that he is not a true and good Christian. For this is the inviolable judgment of Catholic tradition, which the Lord Jesus himself, the Son of God, defined in the holy Gospel: namely, that no one is to be saved outside his faith, which he himself established and taught.

and confirmed it with his own blood. Therefore whoever asserts that a man is to be saved in any sect whatever outside the faith of Jesus Christ, or believes this in his heart, is not a good Christian, but rather an apostate and a disciple of Antichrist; and unless he comes to his senses, let him know that he is to be tormented forever in hell. For he is an Antichrist, not a Christian, who says that one who does not believe in the Lord Jesus is to be saved without the Savior.

Therefore, most wise Caesar, let no one appear in the sight of your Majesty, let no one feel that you cleave to him, who thinks that men are to be saved outside the faith of Jesus Christ. For everyone who believes that anyone is to be saved outside the Christian faith has denied both Christ and his Gospel.

But when we say that all who are not Christians are to be damned, this is not a sign of cruelty but of true piety. For it is better to believe firmly in the truth than to agree falsely with a man. For that all Jews, pagans, gentiles, Saracens, schismatics, heretics, and unbelievers are without doubt to be damned forever with the demons, Holy Church testifies; and she has taken and confirmed this judgment from no other source than from the words of Christ.

For thus he said: “He who believes in the Son has eternal life,” by which good Christians in faith and work are designated. “But he who is unbelieving toward the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains upon him.” Here are denoted all Jews, pagans, Saracens, gentiles, and all who do not believe in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Concerning schismatics and heretics, Christ’s judgment is plain in the Gospel, when he says: “If he will not hear the Church, let him be to you as a heathen and a publican.” Heathens are gentiles, and publicans are manifest and public sinners; and Holy Church does not doubt their most certain damnation. For what Christian would doubt that gentiles and gross, manifest sinners are to be damned? Since, therefore, all schismatics and heretics despise Holy Church, they are most rightly said to be like the gentiles and publicans who are to be damned for their offenses and demerits, and they will justly undergo equal punishments of everlasting damnation with them.

Behold: those whom the just sentence of Christ the Savior has condemned, the foolish compassion of men, not to say impious cruelty, presumes are to be saved. They desire to be merciful toward lost men, and they do not fear to show themselves cruel toward God. Those whom he has assigned by justice to death, these men, with the worst presumption, assert are to be recalled to life. It is not good or useful for a Christian, whether in earnest or in jest, to contradict Christ.

He is impious, not Christian, whoever says that unbelievers are to be saved. When Adam, the first man, perished, we all sinned, and the wrath of God remained upon the whole human race from the beginning of the world until Christ. Christ came, born of a virgin; being God and man, innocent of sin, he voluntarily underwent the death of the cross, and, becoming mediator between God and man, removed the wrath due to original guilt from those who believe in him. For thus he says: “He who believes in the only-begotten Son of God has eternal life. But he who is unbelieving toward the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains upon him.”

Indeed, without faith in Jesus Christ no one will be saved, however justly and holily he may seem to live in his own religion. For almighty God can save a believer without material baptism, but he cannot make one who denies the faith safe without faith. No one is saved unwillingly, because no one believes except willingly. For the Lord

those who are his, since he saves those who believe in the Son through repentance, but condemns unbelievers through the equity of justice.

From this a new question, shut off before, struck my mind: what should be thought concerning the infants and simple-minded persons of unbelieving pagans and Jews? To this a brief answer must be given. Just as the infants of Christians, baptized in the faith of their parents, are saved, so the children of all unbelievers, not baptized, will be damned in the unbelief of their parents. The judgment is similar concerning the simple-minded of either religion: just as we believe without doubt that baptized simple-minded Christians are saved, so we say without doubt that an unbelieving simple-minded person is to be damned.

Again, here it is asked what is to be thought in a Catholic manner about those people who inhabit islands newly discovered in the great sea, of which no mention is made among the ancient cosmographers, and who, as we are informed, have never heard anything at all about the Christian religion. A brief answer is given, conforming in all respects to what has been set forth: since Truth has utterly excepted no unbeliever from damnation, neither islander, nor one contiguous to our world, nor anyone else, whether dwelling nearby or far away, but has included them without distinction and without defining persons, saying: “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; but whoever does not believe will be condemned,” and the wrath of God remains upon him. Who removes the wrath of God from man except our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the mediator between God and men? By what means, except through faith formed in him who, though innocent, tasted death?

Since, therefore, no one is saved without faith, we cannot promise salvation to those ignorant of Christ, whom it is evident do not have the piety of faith in him. Necessarily, then, we shall say that all who do not believe in the Son of God are to be damned, whether they have heard of him or are utterly ignorant of him.

But this one thing we grant: if any among those who are ignorant of Christ have lived well according to the law of nature, invoking one God, even if they have sometimes sinned, provided they had done penance before death, they have been, or are to be, damned less gravely than those who either, having heard of Christ, despise him, or among both groups have lived wickedly and foully. For God is just, doing injury to no one, but rendering to each according to his works. Yet the wrath of God remains upon everyone who does not believe in his only-begotten Son, because of the original sin of the first man, from which no one is justified except through faith and the baptism of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Original sin, however, if it is in a human being alone, as in little children, unless it is removed through Christ, damns the one who has it to the punishment of loss only, by which, namely, he is barred from the vision of God and from the enjoyment of the happiness of the saints forever. But an adult who sins mortally will be punished after death with a double punishment, namely that of loss and that of sensible pain, so that he does not see God and, feeling the punishments of the fire of Gehenna without end, never escapes. Jews, moreover, and Saracens, and all the rest who, having heard the faith of Christ, despise it, are without doubt damned to both punishments, that of loss and that of sensible pain, whether they otherwise live innocently according to the law of nature or the contrary. But among those who have never had any hearing of Christ, if any were to live innocently according to the law of nature until death, I do not think they have supplied a cause by which they may be said or believed to be damned to the punishment of sensible pain, although they are deprived forever of the vision of God, which theologians call the punishment of loss.

For no one will behold the face of God the Father almighty unless he has been reborn through faith in Christ. Now let us conclude the judgment against those to whom foolish reflection objects, when we assert these things in Catholic fashion according to Christ’s teaching: “Why did almighty God, since he is supremely good, will to create so many thousands of human beings whom from eternity he foreknew would be damned? For if a comparison of Christians is made with unbelievers, scarcely a twentieth part of the people of the whole world today believes in our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The boundless curiosity of this question has often struck many; if their faith in Christ were firm and devotion fervent in them with love, they would not ask things so unusual and difficult. For who is found among mortals to be a man of such learning or holiness that, apart from God himself, he can disclose to us the cause of the divine will? For the cause of God’s will is incomprehensible, since his own most upright will is itself the cause. It is the everlasting, inviolable order; and, as I said above, God does injury to no one. When God brought the universal flood upon the earth, were not only eight human beings saved in the ark?

There are [unclear]; all the rest perished in the inundation of the waters. The cause of their perishing was sin; but that they were created had no other cause than the uncircumscribed goodness of God. For few are saved while many perish. The figure preceded the mystery: Noah’s ark was the sacrament of the Christian faith. For just as all who were outside Noah’s ark perished in the flood, so now all who are outside the unity of the Catholic Church of Christians will without doubt perish eternally in their sins, Jews as well as pagans, heretics together with schismatics. The justice of God condemns those whom his goodness created. But mercy saves those whom grace has strengthened, because, as the holy Apostle says, it is not of him who wills nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy, since he has mercy on whom he wills, and whom he wills he hardens. Let us rightly weigh the freedom of human choice, and we shall know the just will of God.

On the Miracles of Unbelievers. The Third Question.

Your Most Serene Majesty’s third question was this: if no one is saved outside the faith, whence come miracles among unbelievers, since we know from the report of many that astonishing things are also done among unbelievers? As it seems to me, there will be no difficult solution to this question if we apply the necessary consideration to the faith of the Scriptures and to the natural powers of the soul.

A miracle is a new and unusual occurrence, which happens beyond custom and draws men into wonder. Hence good Christians, wicked Christians, and unbelievers perform miracles in different ways. Good Christians perform miracles through public righteousness; the wicked, through the signs of public righteousness; but unbelievers through private contracts with demons, whether implicit or explicit. Of the good the Lord said in the holy Gospel: “These signs shall follow those who have believed. In my name they shall cast out demons; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not harm them. They shall lay their hands upon the sick, and they shall be well.” But concerning wicked Christians who perform miracles in the name of Jesus Christ, we read thus written in the Gospel: “Many will say to me on that day: Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name cast out demons, and in your name do many mighty works? And then I will declare to them: I never knew you; depart from me, you who work iniquity.”

But outside the Church of God, where the name of our Lord Jesus Christ is not invoked, if any wonders are done beyond the custom of nature or of human art, no good Christian doubts that they are done by the cooperation of demons. And Your Most Serene Caesarean Majesty, by discerning their power, judges that works of this sort should be called wonders rather than miracles. Nor does this judgment of truth depart from reason, so that a necessary distinction may be maintained between the prodigies of light and of darkness.

I find four effectors of wonders; but I acknowledge one alone, God, who truly performs miracles principally as the cause of all honors. Therefore the first and greatest effector of all wonderful things is God, who filled and illumined the whole world with signs, miracles, and powers. None of the others is to be compared with him, who created heaven and earth, the sea, and all things that are in them; who alone is almighty, just, holy and upright, good, incomprehensible, greatest, glorious, immeasurable, and everlasting. All other things are beneath him, since whatever can happen wonderfully in this world is certainly less than the whole world itself, which he was able to create out of nothing.

Every miracle that can be done through man is less than man himself, whom God, the creator of all things, formed from the beginning in his image and likeness. And although the miracles of God in visible natures have now, through the frequency with which mortals see them, almost become cheapened, nevertheless, if we look upon them wisely, they will appear greater and rarer than all things that are unusual.

Now the manner in which God performs miracles is the immutable will of God, which, since it is omnipotent, does all things whatsoever it has willed in heaven and on earth. For he spoke, and they were made; he commanded, and they were created. The will of God is ordered and eternal; therefore his miracles are incomparably greater than all others. For greater than the miracles of this whole world is what we perceive: the entire universe, and whatever is contained in it, created by the will of God. The immutable divine will works all things, abiding forever, since it lacks beginning and end; but whatever God wills, he always wills, because, since in him to will and to be able are the same, there is no labor for the immutable one. Hence all the universal miracles which [unclear].

which the Creator of all things has made and has displayed for both good and evil men to behold; and, after the general wonders that have now grown cheap by use among mortals, he has also shown, in almost every single creature, infinite things specially worthy of wonder.

The second worker of miracles is a good angel, who very often works wonders for mortals both by natural power and by divine authority. For those most blessed spirits are sent, by divine ordination, into ministry for the faithful; and they bestow upon both good and evil men those things that are benefits of nature, but only to those who believe in God and in our Lord Jesus Christ do they administer the gifts of saving grace. Hence there is no doubt that those miracles which are done in the Church of the saints by invocation of the divine name are displayed through their ministry and cooperation. But the wonders of unbelievers, if any are done today or are read to have been done in former times, are either fabricated or falsely invented, or are performed by the mockery of demons. For it cannot be that any unbelievers work miracles through the ministry of good angels, since where Christ Jesus, the Son of God, is not believed in, no signs of grace are displayed by good spirits to impious and reprobate men. Indeed, since they are obstinate in the error of false religion, if they have attained anything miraculous in their own estimation, it must in no way be doubted that it is done through the ministry of demons. For since they are altogether unlike the good angels, they attain no familiarity with them.

No despiser of the Christian faith can please God; but whoever is proved to displease almighty God is without doubt deprived of the fellowship of the holy angels. Yet by this we do not retract the point that every man is committed to some good spirit, by whose ministry, even if he is an unbeliever in the Son of God, he may receive the benefits of nature, although he does not attain to the gifts of grace. But to those who believe in our Lord Jesus Christ they not only confer the benefits of nature, but also minister the gifts of grace. It is therefore clear that if any miracles are done among unbelievers, they cannot be done by the gift of God or by the ministry of the holy angels, since all such people are placed outside the unity of the Church, and signs cannot be worked by the impious through public righteousness. For God, as has been said, does not remove his original wrath from man except through faith in Jesus Christ; but everyone who is unbelieving toward the Son of God will not see eternal life, but the wrath of God remains upon him. Therefore everyone upon whom the wrath of God remains cannot please God; and for that reason, if any wonders are done at his prayers, they should be believed to have been accomplished not by the power of God nor by the ministry of angels, but rather by the substitution of demons.

The third worker of wonders is the devil, who, like an ape, longs to imitate whatever he has seen, and deceives the minds of men, especially unbelievers, with various illusions, and seduces those who believe him by a certain likeness of miracles. For I do not judge it difficult for demons to be able to mock the senses of men, since it is agreed that by nature they were created more subtle than all mortals. But they cannot know the thoughts of mortals except by a certain conjecture, namely when we make our inner thoughts manifest by certain signs. Demons foretell future things, and sometimes they speak truth, while sometimes they are deceived in their conjectures and deceive others. From the beginning of the world they have known certain signs that precede events; by experience and practice with these, they sometimes foretell the truth about what is going to happen, because when they have seen signs known to them that precede an event, they at once conjecture what is in a man’s thought.

Yet more often they deceive, because they themselves are deceived. For when they are asked about some matter that they do not know, for example whether a messenger sent far away will return soon, or on what day, they immediately arrive in the blink of an eye at the place where they know him to be; and when they see that he has already begun his journey back, they carefully count the days’ stages, and, returning at once to the one who asked, confidently affirm the day on which the absent man will come. But if he has either delayed on the road or turned aside to other places, then certainly the demons, deceived in their judgment, must now be mistaken. They gladly involve themselves in prophecies, and are quite ready to predict future things to men for the sake of honor and esteem, because they especially desire to be regarded as worthy of admiration, they seek divine honors, and they greatly desire to be feared by mortals. Just as boys hiding in secret places, or running about masked, suddenly burst out from their hiding places and shake their companions, who suspect nothing of the sort, with unexpected terror, and then hide themselves again so that they may not be recognized; when they see the ignorant ones terrified, they seem to themselves to have gained from this some great honor.

Some demons of these, more fastened to the earthly elements and, because they go about among men, exceedingly restless, whom the ancients called bacucci, terrify men by night, and seek nothing more from mortals than to be thought divine. Hence, in the presence of those with whom they are permitted to be by reason of likeness, they sometimes perform various mockeries, and present themselves in men’s minds as terrifying, as occasion allows.

Whenever they can, they gladly put on the likeness of a human body, but they do not always find a suitable material of air with which to clothe themselves. Therefore they more often appear monstrous and horrible, because they have not had suitable fluids or vapors for the perfection of the desired appearance. And the more they are fastened to earthly dwellings, the duller they have become through their fall in regard to matter. Hence, because of the ignorance which they contracted through disobedience, the predictions of demons are frequently false, although by divine permission they are sometimes also verified. For, as that most holy John Chrysostom says, the devil is sometimes allowed to speak the truth, so that he may commend his lie by a rare truth; for if he never spoke truth, he could deceive no one, and his seduction would by no means suffice for temptation.

It is therefore no wonder if demons sometimes seem to foretell true things to unbelieving men, since they were once able to furnish prophecies among the idols of the Gentiles. Nor is it any wonder if they sometimes show care for the sick, since they know the natures of all herbs, can most easily apply themselves to the diseased, and can either remove illnesses which they had previously inflicted, or for a time withdraw from the senses those which accident has brought on. For almighty God, by the right of imperial majesty over all things, uses even the ministry of demons, both for the testing of the faithful and for the punishment of the impious.

Since they are perverse in affection, obstinate in their rebellion, and proud, they very greatly desire to be regarded and honored as divine; and therefore, when unbelievers pour out invocations to their gods, as they are accustomed to do, the demons gladly come to them as though they themselves were gods. Among unbelievers they sometimes seem to restore the dead to life, and they show marvelous things to curious men, so that, as though confirmed by miracles in their former error, they may become utterly obstinate. Yet they do not truly restore the dead, but deceive men’s senses in various ways: either they themselves enter the corpses of the dead and carry them about for a time as though alive, or, after the bodies have been removed to a more distant place, they present to the beholders some image in the likeness of the deceased person’s life, as the experience of certain men has taught us.

We believe it manifest that demons can show, in a certain false likeness, all the things that the saints perform as miracles in truth. All demonic miracles are either phantasms or works produced by a certain natural skill. For if men experienced in the more hidden mysteries of nature, by applying matter to form in ways obscure to others, produce unusual and marvelous effects, such as forming natural eels from the dew of heaven, bees from calves’ flesh, serpents from certain roots of herbs, and many things like these, not to mention greater ones, as trial has made us experienced in very many cases, who will deny that demons, being of subtler nature and greater experience, can naturally perform many marvelous things which are manifest to no men?

The fourth worker of miracles is man, who works marvels in four ways, which to those who know neither their cause nor their manner do not seem human. First, by invocation of the divine name, when, in the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the merit of accepted holiness concurs. In this way the holy apostles and their imitators performed miracles by the power of God, together with the merit of holiness, in the unity of faith. But unbelievers cannot perform miracles in this way, since they do not walk the necessary path of faith toward salvation. For although many believe in one God, yet because they refuse to believe in the mediator between God and men, they have gone far away from God’s mercy. But, by the promise of the holy Gospel, all things are possible to those who believe in God, our Lord Jesus Christ, namely to those who adorn right faith with holy works. For just as without faith it is impossible to please God, so also faith without works is dead. For almighty God would grant us all things that we ask in the faith of Christ, if we did all things according to the faith as we ought. Believe firmly and work faithfully, and you will always obtain all things.

Secondly, man performs miracles by likeness of angelic [unclear].

For when our mind, confirmed in the faith of Jesus Christ, has become purer through love, then, having been made more like the holy angels, it obtains greater intimacy with them. And whoever has obtained complete intimacy with the holy angels will, whenever he wishes, shine forth in miracles, God granting it. For the holy angels reveal to pure men, fervent in the love of God, secrets hidden from others, and by command of the Creator they make many things manifest to them. For the Lord is near to those who call upon him in truth. The Lord will do the will of those who fear him, and he will hear their prayers and save them. For whoever by grace is one with Christ is refreshed by frequent visitation of the angels, and often, when necessity demands it, is made illustrious by signs and powers through their ministry. Hence it is that even those weighed down by various illnesses betake themselves to the intercessions of the saints, and, turning over in their mind the promises of the Lord, obtain through the merits of others what they cannot obtain by their own. Their holy devotion in the faith of Christ receives the Lord’s salvation, because, aided by the purity of their own conscience and supported by the merit of another’s holiness, it rises, not rashly, into certain hope.

Miracles are done in the Church of God by divine power with a threefold respect or means. Sometimes almighty God works a miracle through the ministry of angels, solely by the merits of the one who performs it, as Saint Martin healed the blind man and the lame man against their will. Sometimes miracles are done solely by the merit of the sufferer, as we read that many were cured through bad Christians whom the sick believed to be very good in the faith. Third, there is no doubt that healings of this kind are done by the merit of both, that is, of the sufferer and the one performing it together, as Christ says to a certain person in the holy Gospel: If you can believe, all things are possible to one who believes. For faith is required for a miracle to such a degree that our Lord Jesus Christ, coming into his own country, marveled that he could do no mighty work there because of their unbelief. But none of these things is done among unbelievers, where neither holiness in the working nor orthodox faith in the sufferer is found.

Third, then, a man performs miracles through the mediation of the cooperation of diabolical wickedness, and this can happen in three ways: namely by manifest invocation of demons, by involvement, and by supposition.

By manifest invocation, necromancers and the little women whom we commonly call witches do wondrous things, who, corrupted by a likeness of will, have passed into fellowship with demons. For just as in the Church of God the sacraments are signs of the invisible grace of the Holy Spirit, so in the school of demons certain characters and modes of invocation are marks of the pact between man and the malignant spirit. Hence, when witches display the signs of demons, the malignant spirits invoked are accustomed gladly to appear, and to produce both horrible acts of witchcraft and certain wondrous things.

But witches and necromancers produce wondrous effects by the invocation of demons in different ways. Witches subject themselves to demons by a certain kind of profession; by their ministry they disturb the air, raise storms, lay waste crops, make men and beasts sick, carry on foul commerce of most filthy lust with demons, and by destructive spells call back from the underworld into sight whomever they wish. Their deeds are not to be called miracles, but rather acts of witchcraft, and they deservedly are to be punished with the utmost penalty.

Necromancers, however, subject themselves to demons not by manifest profession but by an implicit condition, when they claim that they can compel them visibly to the circle not only by conjurations and the display of characters, but also by sacrifices, fumigations, and vows. Their crimes are countless, since it is plain that all of them conspire in fellowship with demons, either implicitly or explicitly. Although necromancers are not all equal either in art or in practice, nevertheless all are agreed, to their own destruction, in damnable curiosity, by which they desire to obtain by demonic aid what they cannot discover naturally. All their works and books are full of superstitions and impiety, and for that reason they must be driven far from the borders of believers.

There is a great multitude of enchanters and necromancers in the East, who by their illusions miserably deceive the human race, and have turned almost all Greater and Lesser Asia away from the faith of Christ. Illusions can be produced in three ways: by the ministry of demons, by the operation of nature, and by the deception of human art. No true Christian will doubt that the miracles of unbelievers are done in one of these ways, where the root of the operator is determined. There are today [unclear].

There are many among Christians, devoted to the works of demons: enchanters, sorcerers, and those reprobate concerning the faith, who deceive many by excessive curiosity and by their arts promise impossible things.

By the involvement of demons, however, marvels sometimes occur, namely whenever a person not sufficiently and rightly established in the faith does or desires something otherwise than befits a Christian, even if he does not believe it to be any sin; and although it ought not to happen, nevertheless the devil, inserting himself, often supplies the desired effect. Such, indeed, is what sufferers from spasms commonly use. On the holy day of Good Friday they fashion a ring of whatever metal during the office, which afterward they always wear on the ring finger. These things are utterly vain and have no root of truth at all. Yet I cannot deny that I have seen certain people cured by this same vanity and freed from spasm.

Likewise, I know that certain people have opened very strong locks with words and herbs, which I do not think was done either by the power of God or by the force of the things applied. I could introduce countless similar things that I have seen and heard; what are their manifest effects other than certain miracles of demons?

Finally, there are some excessively curious people who stubbornly put faith and confidence in characters, slips of paper, rings, figures, necklaces, and unknown words, and often obtain marvelous effects; we in no way doubt that the devil has supplied these, not by merit of holiness nor by God’s merciful concession, but rather through faithless credulity. For demons, having the greatest envy of the human race, in order to destroy the souls of mortals, gladly come to meet the vain operations of the impious. What else are characters and interpretations of hidden names but certain foods and drinks of demons? Whoever puts faith in characters promising marvelous effects has implicitly denied the faith of Christ and the Church of the saints. Alas, how many Christians today, how many clerics, how many priests, to say nothing of greater persons, use many and various superstitions in their daily actions, by which they follow pacts with demons entangled in them, to the disgrace of the Christian faith and their own condemnation. And because these evils have now multiplied far too much among Christians, the Almighty has withdrawn his hand and delivered them into the dominion of the faithless, so that they may feel as exactors of punishments those whose example they followed when they stubbornly served not the living and true God, but vain superstitions.

Moreover, if we inquire more diligently into the truth, we plainly recognize that marvels are done by the substitution of demons. For if Jews, Saracens, pagans, or gentiles, who do not believe in our God, Jesus Christ, perform any miracles, we believe they are done not by the power of God, not by the ministry of angels, not by the merit of holiness, but through the substitution of demons. For as often as they invoke almighty God, in whose only-begotten Son they do not believe, for the mercy of some marvelous effect, the devil, knowing that there is no salvation for sinners and that the Most High does not hear unbelieving sinners, secretly applies himself in place of the God invoked, in order to preserve them stubborn in their errors; and if he can, with the Lord permitting it, he grants to those praying what is requested. The devil uses this substitution all the more freely, the less he is hindered by faith in Christ and the sacraments of the Church. For the wrath of God remains upon all unbelievers who do not believe in his only-begotten Son, and they are in the power of the devil; and therefore he thrusts himself upon those who invoke him, in place of God.

Thus, blinded in their errors, they invoke God, in whose Son they do not believe; and since he despises hearing them while they remain under wrath, the devil, the false worker of miracles, approaches. Therefore those who scorn believing the true miracles of God believe the mockeries of the devil. Those who refused by believing to follow the truth, that is, Christ, receive from demons false miracles suited to their errors.

For there are many among unbelievers who worship one God, creator of all things, do not adore idols, and firmly believe that they will be saved in their own faith. But because they scorn believing the mystery of the Lord’s incarnation, the wrath of God remains upon them, and they vanish away in their foolishness. Thinking God to be near to them, though they do not believe rightly in him, they are subjected to demons; and by putting faith in their false miracles, they are confirmed in their errors by a lie. It is not irksome, O Caesar, to introduce a likeness of this matter.

There was a certain man, a keeper of pigs, who had enclosed in the swineherd’s staff a little slip containing the name of the holy martyr Blaise, to which he gave so much faith that, when the staff was fixed in the ground in the middle of the herd,

...he would believe every wolf barred from approach. With this foolish confidence at last strengthened by long experience, the man went safely wherever he wished, leaving his pigs in the wood without danger, since no wolf any longer had access to them.

It happened that someone passing by saw, while the swineherd was absent, that a demon had charge of the herd, and said to him, “What are you doing here, wretch?” He answered, “I am guarding those pigs.” The other said, “Who entrusted the care of the pigs to you?” Again he answered, “The foolish confidence of the swineherd. For he has sinned against his own law and follows our vanities, believing that a certain slip of paper enclosed in a staff is of great holy power, by which, through the merits of a certain Blasius, wolves are kept away from the pigs. But because Blasius, though invoked, does not appear, I guard the man’s pigs so that he may not lose his confidence, and I willingly put myself in place of Blasius. In this way,” he said, “mortals trouble us with vain conjurations, so that, unless we are willing to lose all esteem and honor among them, we must very often answer their foolish invocations.”

By the likeness of this deed, demons in seeming mercy deceive unbelievers, and the miracles which those who pray ask from God very often follow through the substitution of malignant spirits. For in matters that concern either the worship or the honor of God, demons gladly thrust themselves in; and those who cannot obtain open honors are, of course, delighted by hidden ones.

At the same time it must be noted that, from the beginning of the world, no religion or sect of outstanding principal rank has ever lacked miracles, although they have not all been done from one source. For whatever miracles have been done in the true religion have been done from no other source than God. The law of nature had its miracles; the written law had them; and now grace too has them. The almighty God who gave religion also performs miracles. But in false religions, where truth is not worshiped, if any miracles are done, it is not God but the devil who works them.

For God, since he is truth, did not establish false religions, and therefore he never adorned a lie with his miracles. Muhammad, who, filled with an evil demon, established a false religion, adorned it with false miracles not from God but by the cooperation of demons. For the demon who gave the cause of error could also, once an occasion had been taken, display a false miracle to those deceived. Hence, if miracles had been entirely lacking to Muhammad when he was persuading an untaught people to accept a new religion, perhaps no one would have believed him. For he too, both by subtlety of intellect and by the cooperation of the devil, showed certain marvels to the peoples, so that he might seem to have confirmed a new doctrine also with new miracles. Pagan idolaters too did not lack miracles, if we do not deny credit to the histories.

The Jews, however, before the incarnation of the Son of God, receiving his law through Moses, were frequently illumined by divine miracles. But after the Lord’s resurrection, when the Mosaic law had been made void, whoever do not believe in the only-begotten Son of God remain under the wrath of his indignation, and all miracles of truth have ceased among them. Hence, if they do any marvels today, they are works of demons and manifest judgments of error. For demons keep watch with the greatest zeal so that those men whom they have once made wander from the way of truth, which is Christ, they may, by the continuance of fraud, make obstinate in error until death. Indeed, when God for a just reason withdraws his grace from unbelievers, their deceiver, the malignant spirit, approaches unknown; and since he sees that salvation is far away, by false miracles he leads ignorant minds astray as if the Lord were near.

Therefore whatever miracles occur among unbelievers are works of demons, since just as there is no salvation for mortals outside the unity of the Christian faith, so without Christ the most holy power of wonders is not granted. For now demons, lurking in their snares, long ago conquered and confounded by the trophy of Christ, fear to appear openly as they did before the incarnation of the Lord; and therefore among unbelievers they falsely present themselves as good spirits.

There are also those who add a fourth mode to the three already described, saying that the mind or spirit of the human being himself can naturally do marvelous things, provided it knows how to recall itself, away from everything adventitious, above sense, into unity within itself. For those who maintain such things promise that they can do marvels of nature, predict the future, disclose people’s secrets, remove diseases, and suddenly impress counsels upon human beings. But this mode of miracles cannot be simply natural, certain, common, and infallible; for if it is true, which I have not experienced, some external power must already be involved, and either a good angel or an evil spirit must occupy part of the one who is thinking. But if no power from outside mixes itself in, then it is necessary that the one prophesying form the beginning of his speech either from conjectures or from a bold presumption, and pronounce a judgment sometimes true and sometimes false.

For as long as the spirit dwells in the body, it naturally understands nothing without the service of sense. Hence I would not wholly resist if they grant that our confused and crude understanding is aided by a like service. For we see in those who, often in the desire of inward love for Jesus, through contemplation exceed the measure of the flesh, that they are lifted up from the earth into the air; and we think that they overcome bodily weight not only by their own keenness of mind, but also by divine power. Therefore the three principles of the opinion just mentioned, unknown to many, are enough, in my view, for a few to hold that the mind, placed in the body, works marvelous things outside itself by its own power.

What then? Let anyone ignorant of nature tell me whether bodily weight can be lightened by the operation of the mind. With two men bearing witness with me, I speak of a thing I experienced. When, as a young man, I was pursuing the study of letters, four of us were sleeping one night in a single bed. A companion of the same age rose from my side and, sleeping as he was accustomed to do, went about the house with his eyes closed, while the moon was shining in, on about the fifteenth day, as if awake. He climbed walls, and overcame the window by his agility. Still asleep, he crossed the bed a second and third time; he trod on us all with his feet, and we felt no greater weight than if a little mouse had touched us. Wherever his sleeping body moved, all the fastenings of the doors opened of their own accord. He entered the higher parts of the house very swiftly, and clung to the roofs like a sparrow. I speak of things I saw, not things heard by vague report.

These seem to be acts of the soul, not of the body; and the soul, so to speak, uses its own natural power almost freely when, the senses of the flesh being bound, it wanders outside the dwelling of the body. But since this material does not in every respect fit the question proposed, let us postpone the treatment of the causes of these marvels to another time. For we do not believe these things marvelous to the wise, who have understood very well the power and nobility of the human mind, since it is held back only by the interposition of the body, and in the rest is considered equal to the angels.

Finally, we pass over the various modes and kinds of fascinations, by which a greatly frenzied man produces effects outwardly very marvelous. A most strongly confident imagination can also do much to produce marvelous effects, whether it is borne toward a true object or toward one merely supposed. Hence, since there are so many kinds and modes of working marvels, it is not to be wondered at if Jews, Saracens, pagans, gentiles, and all the rest placed outside the faith of Christ, unbelievers who cannot work miracles through public righteousness, accomplish marvels either by the aid of demons or by artful industry. Nor does it escape me that by the same reasoning the miracles of the saints are attacked by the impious, as though they were not by the power of the Creator but rather by the involvement or substitution of the devil. Whoever truly believes that the Christian faith alone is true does not doubt that all the miracles of unbelievers are performed by the cooperation of demons. But if anyone rashly and stubbornly thinks the contrary, he shows himself to be an unbeliever, not a Christian.

On Sacred Scripture, the Fourth Question.

The fourth question of your most serene majesty was this: Why did almighty God make holy Scripture so new…

Why Scripture, containing the mysteries of the Old Testament and of our faith, was not given open, manifest, everywhere uniform, and plainly sufficient for all things, but rather wrapped up and in many places full of enigmas. For many things necessary for the perfection of faith are not found sufficiently expressed in the divine Scriptures. To this most sacred question of your Majesty it seems one must reply.

All Scripture, inspired by God, is the perfect work of the Godhead, foreordained before all time, written in time, not otherwise than God willed, who inspired men that it should be written. But all God’s works are perfect; and therefore, since the Scripture of which we speak is God’s work, it is necessary to confess that it is perfect in all things. For God, the supreme judge, all whose works are perfect, gave to his Scriptures the order that he willed and as he willed, and without doubt infused into those who received them the manner in which they should write. For almighty God bestowed such authority and majesty upon the sacred Scriptures that, in comparison with them, all the words of this world fail, since divine things cannot properly be comprehended in human speech.

Therefore divine Scripture, although on the surface of its words it may appear confused to the ignorant, seems manifest to those who know it, since unless it is read in that Spirit by which it is believed to have been infused into men, one by no means arrives at an understanding of it. The learned man who burns with vain desires under the shelter of the flesh reads it in one way, and the understanding man whom the love of God truly inflames, stripped of pleasures, reads it in another. Hence it is no wonder if men who are wise according to the flesh do not understand the divine Scriptures, since, blinded by the pleasures of the flesh, they have never perceived the sweetness of God’s Spirit.

Just as, if you present to a boy learning the first elements of letters any written volume whose character is unlike that in his little book, when he cannot read the writing he will at once cry out that it is bad and not properly formed; in the same way, men who approach the reading of the divine Scriptures with only fleshly wisdom, who do not grasp the things that are of the divine Spirit, weighed down by vices and rashness, when they ought to have blamed their own ignorance and unworthiness, reproach the holy Scriptures which they do not understand. For it is not permissible for all indiscriminately to interpret the divine Scriptures, lest even a beast touching the mountain be overwhelmed with stones.

Now, in a perverse order, many arise who have spent the whole time of their life in humane letters and, having become old men, wrongly interpreting the divine Scriptures which they never learned, do not explain them but confuse them, and examine them according to their own sense. Hence whoever does not understand the sacred Scriptures by that Spirit by which they were infused into those who wrote them has a veil of ignorance and rashness spread over his heart in the manner of the Jews; and from the very place from which the humble, approaching in the Spirit of God, have received the cup of salvation, they very often drink the poison of pernicious error.

For heavenly doctrine is not contained in the words of the Scriptures but in the sense, not on the surface of the sayings but in the understanding, not in the leaves of ornate speech but in the hidden depth of mystical inspiration. Hence the holy Pope Gregory says: Sacred Scripture far surpasses all the sciences of this world in the manner of its speech, because in one and the same discourse, while it narrates the text, it discloses the hidden mystery; and just as it refreshes the simple on the surface, so it exercises the wise with mystery. For it has openly that from which it may nourish little ones.

…nourishes, and keeps hidden that by which it may hold the minds of the lofty suspended in wonder at its sweetness, like some marvelous river in which both the simple little lamb may walk and the great elephant may swim. And Saint Augustine says on Genesis: Divine Scripture speaks in such a way that by its height it mocks the proud, by its depth terrifies the attentive, by its power feeds the great, and by its affability nourishes the little ones. For the authority of sacred Scripture is greater than all the keenness of human intellect.

Therefore, in order to arrive at its true understanding, the soul must first be cleansed of every carnal affection, and the help of divine goodness must be diligently implored with humility, so that by his Spirit he may enlighten the understanding of the learner. For the necks of all authorities must be bowed to the authority of the divine Scriptures; and, as Saint Jerome says, no one must ever be flattered in such a way that the truth of the holy Scriptures is neglected, which in both Testaments is wholly true in its narration of deeds, right in its admonitions, certain in its promises, and terribly to be feared in its threats. Therefore it is not given to all to be able to penetrate the mysteries of the divine Scriptures, but only to those, in whatever measure it is permitted, in whom love sustains continual study, and to whose purified minds the Spirit of God grants true understanding.

But whoever is filthy with the darkness of vices, whoever walks proudly with a swollen mind, whoever doubts the truth of the Scriptures of God, whether in part or in whole, let him never trust that he can attain to their understanding. For the authority of Scripture itself says: Unless you believe, you will not understand. It is our slowness of intellect, and also our impurity of desire, whenever we do not understand the divine Scriptures rightly, namely when the veil of harmful occupation remains spread over our hearts, which does not allow us to come to true understanding. Hence it happens that we do not understand the meaning which the Holy Spirit has poured into the divine Scriptures, but, grasping the bare words of the writers, twist them to another meaning.

Indeed, if our minds were purified from carnal vices, if the intellect were exercised in the Scriptures through continual zeal for sobriety, if that belief and reverence were applied to the holy Scriptures which their dignity requires, every studious person would understand more clearly than light that there is nothing confused in the sacred readings, nothing discordant, nothing unsuitable, nothing absurd, or inserted without the most just reason. All passages of divine Scripture are indeed full of mysteries, and whenever anything in them seems to be set down obscurely, it has been done by divine providence, so that the studious mind may have the necessary exercise of piety, and the faith of the simple may not lose the place of due reverence.

Therefore it was not by chance, but by eternal providence, that he willed the holy Scriptures to be obscure in many places, so that they might abound in so many mysteries, which, by the inspiration of the Spirit of God, are expounded in a catholic sense by teachers. For, as holy Augustine says, the obscurity of divine Scripture is useful and very profitable, because it gives birth to many meanings of truth and brings them forth into the light for human beings; since, when one person draws out this meaning and another a different one by expounding it in catholic fashion, it becomes known how high and deep it is. Therefore let no one swollen with secular learning think that he understands sacred Scripture unless he first lays aside the veil of pride and of every disordered desire. For secular

Secular learning has more power to exercise the intellect than to enlighten it for true wisdom. Therefore, without doubt, divine Scripture is clear and bright to purified minds through continual practice of the fear of God and frequent devotion to reading, though to filthy minds, swollen with worldly wisdom, it seems confused and obscure. Hence he understands the holy Scriptures well and rightly who, with purified affection and constant in their study, explains them in the same sense as the one who wrote them. For if they are read in any spirit other than that by which he is believed to have inspired them to be written, the mind must be wholly shut out from true understanding.

But when we meet with any discordance in them, let us understand that it belongs only to the words, not to the meanings; and this arises in ordered fashion not by chance but by the providence of God, so that the mind, exercised longer in the Scriptures, may be strengthened and not grow altogether sluggish. For God’s counsel cannot be deceived; but the divine Scriptures are Scriptures by the counsel of his will. It follows necessarily that they are true and in no way false. They were men by whom the divine Scriptures were handed down to us, and certainly words customary in human usage. They wrote with words by which they might signify to posterity what that supreme excellence of divinity wished to be known to mortals.

Therefore you now, who are devoted to worldly wisdom and attack the divine Scriptures, say: the Scripture of the New and Old Testament, which the Church has received and venerates as the true, authentic, and holy Scripture of Christians, from where do you believe it was received? From God, or from men? If from God, why do you not believe it? For everyone who attacks Scripture which he believes to be inspired by God most plainly resists the divine ordinance. But if it is from men, why do you hope in it for the eternal salvation promised there, which man cannot give? Unless perhaps, madmen, you go on to say that all things are fabricated, and that nothing remains after death except ashes, and that the mind perishes together with the body; by such a profession you would show yourselves no less insane than foolish.

For if you truly believe in our Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, you will necessarily say that the divine Scriptures were inspired by the Holy Spirit. But if, made one with apostates in a reprobate mind, you say they were fabricated by men, you impiously show how far you are from true wisdom, wandering in darkness. You openly reveal yourselves to be ignorant and rash judges, since you condemn a Scripture which you do not understand.

But because it is more familiar to you to despise wisdom than to learn it, it is not the purpose of this work to weary the mind any longer against the rashness of the ignorant. This one thing I wish you to know: no one understands unless he receives; but because you place the filth of your affections in the way, so that you may not receive, therefore you do not have the understanding of true wisdom.

For almighty God deigns to be present as illuminator through grace to those who, stripped of carnal desires, burn with the fire of inward love, who desire nothing in this world except God. To them the Spirit of God brings help by his presence; those whom he finds rooted in the love of truth and purified from every foreign thing, he brings into the knowledge of all things. For to those who truly love God all things are open, all things naked, all things manifest, since whoever through love beholds in faith Jesus Christ, creating and governing all things, knows all things that are necessary for his salvation. But, on the contrary, from the slothful, wicked feasters, the envious and greedy, [unclear], the filthy...

God’s illumination dwells very far from the filthy, the wanton, murderers, the impious, the proud, and those alien to piety, leaving them to the judgment of the avenging demon, who, striking in the sharp point of fierce fire, fastens upon their senses and mind, and arms and drives the impious all the more to commit crimes, so that, guilty of a more shameful fault, they may also become liable to a harsher punishment. Hence those entangled in vices and worldly desires not only cannot penetrate the divine Scriptures with understanding, but, neglecting themselves, do not even know themselves.

Since, therefore, sacred Scripture is the perfect work of God, we ought, O Caesar, so to strengthen our mind that we believe it to be true, right, whole, solid, divinely inspired, and most abundantly sufficient for all who understand it unto the confirmation of the Christian faith. For indeed, unless divine Scripture is believed to be true, holy, perfect, and whole in all things, the Christian faith would be deprived of its foundation. Therefore every Christian must take the greatest care that, by examining the divine Scriptures more than is fitting, he not pass beyond the bounds of piety, because man is not the author of the Scriptures, but the Holy Spirit; and whoever resists the integrity of God’s Scriptures is proved to resist his ordering.

Scripture, however, by God’s ordaining, is usefully woven with parables, riddles, likenesses, comparisons, and figures, so that readers may be exercised toward understanding, and, once its inward sweetness has been tasted, the mind may be strengthened unto piety. Therefore, if with purified minds we attend to the sense of the Scriptures, not the words, we shall understand how rightly and properly all things have been ordered. For it was not fitting that the sacred Scriptures, in which knowledge of the divine majesty is handed down, should be so plain and manifest as to be understood everywhere by all, since it is set forth to be understood only by the good and holy, not also by evil, filthy, and polluted minds.

Hence also it is written: “The beast that touches the mountain shall be overwhelmed with stones.” What is signified here by the beast, if not men who, in imitation of brute animals, live without the love of God in the pleasures of the flesh? And what is expressed by the mountain, if not the height of the divine Scriptures? When the beast approaches this holy mountain, it is overwhelmed with stones, because a man impure in mind and weak in faith, who attempts to search out the height of the divine Scriptures without a teacher handing it down, is wounded by various and destructive errors as though by blows of stones. For just as all things are clean to the clean, so all things seem profane to the profane. God therefore placed his hiding place in the height of the Scriptures, which is so inaccessible and closed to the reprobate that nevertheless it always lies open and manifest to the saints.

But why almighty God did not give holy Scripture as sufficient and manifest for all things that concern the Christian faith, we answer briefly. There are two things which the Most High provided for believers for the confirmation of the Christian faith: namely, the Church and Scripture, so that whatever is not expressed clearly enough in the one may be declared more fully by the other. Hence, if in the holy Scriptures we find anything concerning the rules of faith expressed less sufficiently, we at once have recourse to the Church; and where the Church has need of saving instruction for piety, it immediately turns to Scripture. From this it follows that neither would have it without Scripture, so that the judgment of the two may become one. For Augustine says: “I would not believe the Gospel unless the authority of the Church compelled me.” John Gerson says: “I would not believe the Church unless the Gospel compelled me.”

The Church confirms holy Scripture, and in like manner she herself is confirmed by Scripture. The Church abounds whenever Scripture is lacking, and if at any time the Church is in doubt, she has recourse to the counsel of Scripture. For there is one Holy Spirit of God who founded the Church in the faith of Jesus Christ, the same almighty Spirit who alone inspired Scripture. And this is the threefold cord which is not easily broken, where divine Scripture is joined by the Holy Spirit to the authority of the Church, to such a degree that the Church commends Scripture, and Scripture in turn commends the Church.

Therefore, as it seems to me, O Caesar of unconquered majesty, we have assigned a sufficient cause for the proposed question: because if all things that concern the piety of faith were manifestly expressed in the holy Scriptures, holy mother Church would not seem to have such great authority, and the merit of saving obedience would in large part be emptied out. At the same time, I think enough has been answered to the principal question, where some suppose that sacred Scripture is confused and imperfect in very many places, which nevertheless, if they read it with due purity of mind,

they would indeed find it perfect and solid.

Great is the authority of the Catholic Church, which alone, in those matters that concern the faith, has the right in doubtful cases to interpret the Scriptures; to it the necks of all powers must be subjected, and if anyone departs from its definition with rash daring, he has denied the Gospel of Christ. There is one congregation of the faithful, the mother of Christians, the holy Church; outside its unity no one will be saved. Though in morals it may sometimes seem weak, nevertheless in faith it has always remained constant and has never erred, by Christ’s saving mercy.

On the reprobate and maleficent. The Fifth Question.

The fifth question of your most serene Highness was this: Why are impious, evil, and reprobate people in matters of faith, such as those women whom we commonly call witches, able to command malignant spirits, when good men and the most zealous observers of the Christian faith can command neither good spirits nor always malignant ones?

I remember that I once answered this question as follows. In all the works of the divine majesty there is a sequence and order of beauty, of inviolable equity, by which individual things, fittingly disposed, persevere in the degrees they have received. For the freedom of will which the Creator of all things gave to human beings is not driven by any violence of power outside its proper order, so as to fail always to remain in the order which the first man received at the beginning of his creation. Hence no mortal is good except by the counsel of his own will, aided by the grace of the merciful God; and no one is evil except of his own accord, deprived of grace because of the obstacle of sin.

By rectitude of will we are made like the good spirits, if we prove by holy and necessary works the piety of the faith which we have in Christ. And just as the consummation of a good will makes good men equal to the angelic spirits, so the perversity of the impious renders them like demons. Hence evil and perverse men, the more they have been depraved by the malice of their own will, become that much more like demons in disposition. By likeness, friendship and familiarity are introduced, and from this mutual confidence is gradually generated. From the confidence of the lesser toward the greater there arises command, whether it is true or simulated by cunning. Therefore, if wicked men seem to have any command over demons, it arises from the greatness of their depravity, namely when their disposition is depraved to such a degree that by their reprobate will they either surpass or equal the malice of the demons who consort with them.

For demons are not all equal in malice or intelligence, but one is much more cunning than another in quickness of understanding and far worse in depraved affection. For those who, having fallen from the high seats, are more closely joined to the earth and inhabit caves and caverns are certainly duller than the rest, to such a degree that they even seem to fear swords, rods, and threats from terrifying men, as may be observed in those whom we call possessed. But the demons who dwell farther removed from the earth are of a subtler nature and more rarely associate with human beings. Men full of malice, however, the more they have advanced in perversity of will, become that much more like demons; and once admitted into familiarity with them, they thereafter become bold and receive command over the demons whose familiarity they enjoy, not by the violence of power but by feigned simulation.

For demons, in order to keep as willing participants in their wickedness those men whom they have once received into surrender, gladly subject themselves to them under a simulated dominion, and what they do of their own accord they pretend to do as though compelled to obedience. For no one obtains true command over demons except one whom faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, through the merit of holiness, has made acceptable and a friend to God. For thus Scripture says of those who truly believe in the Lord Jesus: “And he gave them power over all demons.”

Therefore evil men command demons because malice has made them like them, likeness familiar with them, and familiarity their own and subject to them. It is as if some servant of low birth, joined by long familiarity to a great prince, as often happens, were said to command him, since he obtains from him without contradiction everything he has asked, so that he seems rather to rule his lord than to be ruled by him. According to this likeness...

By likeness, evil and reprobate men who are admitted by demons into familiarity with them, and through lengthened confidence become very bold, take on a counterfeit, not to say familiar, command over them, which they have deserved through the likeness of a most depraved will. Hence whatever they have demanded from demons, with the demons cooperating with them by an implicit or explicit pact, they receive, except when, being forbidden by divine ordinance, the demons cannot provide what is sought. Yet they do not thus come to the aid of all the reprobate and wicked indiscriminately, but only of those with whom they have entered into some covenant through the intervention of a pact, such as sorcerous women, who have rendered homage to the devil, and those invokers of demons whom the common people call by the customary name necromancers. There are two kinds of men who can lawfully command demons.

The first is of those men who, beloved by God for the merit of holiness, have received from him the power of trampling the head of the ancient serpent, such as in the primitive Church were the apostles and their followers and disciples, of whom the Lord speaks in the holy Gospel: “In my name they shall cast out demons,” and “they shall take up serpents.”

The second kind, however, is of those men to whom, by reason of their order in the Church of God, it is granted that, with the power of the ministry they have received, they drive demons out of men’s bodies. And this ministry is entrusted to exorcists in the Church of God, namely when they are ordained by the bishop.

Again, there are two kinds of men who desire to command demons; how unlawfully they presume to do this is shown by their most wicked conditions.

The first and most pernicious kind is that of witches, who enter into pacts with demons and, after first making a solemn profession, hand themselves over to some demon as his property and for perpetual service. How many evils this most destructive kind of people does in your empire, wisest Caesar, no one can express. For first they deny God, the faith of Christ, and holy baptism; they offer themselves, mind and body, to demons; they afflict, harm, and kill men and beasts by their sorceries. There is no disease which, God permitting, they cannot bring on, because, when they show themselves servants to demons in keeping the covenant they have made, through their cooperation they dare whatever they wish. Therefore they are nowhere to be tolerated, but rather are to be utterly exterminated in every place, as God the creator of all commands: “You shall not suffer witches to live.” Some witches call demons with charms; others entice them with prayers and sacrifices; the rest, provoking them with unspeakable things and ceremonies, draw them into the service of their impiety. It is therefore no wonder that witches seem to command demons, since through the impiety of their perverse will they have become like them, and by mutual association are in agreement for evil against the human race.

The second kind of wicked men who wish to command demons is that of those whom people commonly call necromancers, who profess arts full of execrations, by which they promise that they can summon demons into a circle, or show them openly visible, enclosed in crystal or in some other vessel. These most pernicious men, full of lies and superstitions, commit such great evils as no good man could devise. For, to entice demons into their service, they very often use foul sacrifices and enter into an explicit pact with them. They carry around many different little books, full of the filthiest impiety and lies, falsely ascribed to the names of old philosophers and sages; by displaying these they deceive many of the unwary and curious, and draw them with themselves into the demons’ pit. They promise great and utterly incredible things, at the hearing of which they falsely hold men in wonder. By rings, pentacles, images, exorcisms, and conjurations, they say that they can compel malignant demons to appear visibly in a circle, or in crystal, or in another receptacle, and to answer distinctly all questions put to them. All of them indeed promise this, but in our times very few are found whom the malignant spirits obey even in this way, since God, for a most just reason, does not permit it, lest the curiosity of men, prone to novelties, after despising the religion of Christ, should in necessity seek help from demons. But all those whom the malignant spirits obey when summoned by the conjurations of necromancers have without doubt passed into fellowship with them by an explicit or implicit pact. As for the rest, their number is greater: the malignant spirits disdain to obey them, although they do not at all times truly [unclear] in the profane arts of necromancers.

Men of this sort have grown far too strong, and although they are despised by demons, they nevertheless persevere in their pernicious doctrines and deceive many. Believe me, Caesar: this kind of men is very harmful to your sacred empire, and therefore must be utterly exterminated no less than a harmful source [unclear]. They promise great things, but they lie in everything. Indeed, all the things promised in their books are empty and false, and they provide those who believe them with nothing other than tricks, frauds, and most subtle deceptions. But if at any time they seem to produce what they have promised, it is known to all that this happens only through a demon’s cooperation, whose company must be fled no less than the most savage torments of hell. For demons generally come to these necromantic operations, and, to keep their invokers stubborn in the treachery they have begun, they grant them what is asked, if they can. Sometimes, however, when invoked by conjurations, they disdain to appear; and nevertheless they have led astray the minds of those who invoke them.

There is another error, no less foolish than superstitious: that of those who wish to have no dealings at all with demons, and nevertheless in their operations use things vainly assigned to demons, and for that reason wholly unlawful. For they think that a great and hidden power resides in characters, and therefore they commit various errors against the faith of Christ. But since it is not for the present occasion to recount their madness, let us pursue our purpose.

Why good and just men do not obtain dominion over demons must be stated briefly. Just as likeness of will makes evil and impious men like demons, so unlikeness of will renders good and just men altogether opposed to them. Between those who are opposed and unlike there can be no familiarity; rather, continual repugnance and hatred prevail. But where no familiarity contracted through likeness of will is found, there can be neither confidence of one toward the other, nor mutual cooperation in the working of marvels. Nor do you, glorious Caesar, since you are a great ruler and prince of men, admit as familiar to yourself anyone wholly contrary and unlike you in morals, and continually resisting your will.

But good and upright men, because they always resist the utterly depraved will of demons, can by no means pass into fellowship with those with whom they neither wish nor consent to be familiar; rather, with all their strength they flee and detest their approach. And therefore they do not obtain that feigned dominion over them of which I have spoken. For there is no safe familiarity where no likeness of wills has preceded it; nor can there be concord between opposites, nor established friendship between those unlike in will. Yet demons do not obey all evil and reprobate men indiscriminately, but only those with whom they are allied by pacts and services; and when invoked, they willingly come to those whom they cannot otherwise keep faithful, although they lie that they are compelled.

It is therefore no wonder, excellent Caesar, that malignant spirits sometimes seem to obey wicked and perverse men, whom, as we have said, both malevolence like their own and destructive hostility toward the human race have made concordant. But let it be far from every Christian to wish to rule demons by a wicked likeness of will, because if anyone in this life wishes to have [unclear] over malignant spirits.

when he has begun to enter their fellowship, he will burn with them endlessly in the future. But why can good and righteous men obtain nothing from God’s holy angels, into whose likeness they have passed by goodness of will? I think that, from what has been said above, the solution of this question would easily be given if the difference among intellects were recalled to mind. For although there are many men established in the Church of God whose righteousness profits many unto salvation, nevertheless in our times very few advance so far that, by the merit of holiness, they are either feared by demons or received by angels into familiar fellowship. Hence it comes about that the men of our age neither command malignant spirits by merit of holiness nor deserve to be familiar with the holy angels. But if any advance to that degree of holiness in which, by working miracles in the Church, certain saints once advanced, then they can both powerfully command demons and have familiar fellowship with the blessed spirits. For it is certain that holy men, beloved by God, in the primitive Church of Christians once bestowed greater benefits upon mortals through the working of good spirits than the impiety of wicked men could ever have inflicted as harms through the ministry of demons. For any true worshiper of God who has become like the holy angels can accomplish many miracles by prayers.

On the Power of Witches. The Sixth Question.

The sixth question of your unconquered Majesty was this: whence comes this great power to witches, by which they can perpetrate so many, so various, and so astonishing things, even in a single hour, such and so great as no good man could do in his whole life?

If we wish to answer this question briefly, we must necessarily say that all power is from the Lord God, without whom no creature can do anything. For Christ says in the holy Gospel: “Without me you can do nothing.” Hence it is manifest that every power of doing anything is granted to human beings by the Lord God and from no other source, whether men do good or evil. Thus the most holy bishop Augustine says: “The will of God is the first and highest cause of all bodily forms and motions, and nothing happens visibly in this most vast and immeasurable commonwealth of all creation unless it is ordered or permitted from the inner, invisible, and intelligible court of the supreme Emperor, according to the ineffable justice of rewards and punishments.” Therefore, Caesar, it must not be doubted that that power of witches, by which they produce astonishing and horrible effects with the cooperation of demons, is granted by the Lord God, whose will no one can resist and without whose influence not even a man can move his hand.

For the holy doctors conclude that neither demons nor witches can do anything, whether to harm a man or a beast, unless almighty God wills, consents, and grants them the power to do what they have already resolved in their perverse will. Unless God consents and wills, no creature can do anything; otherwise, if something could be done without his willing and consenting, it would necessarily follow that God is weak, since he could not prevent what he would be forced, unwilling, to permit to happen. But since every man, insofar as he is a creature, depends on God, he can do nothing without the will of him from whom he has both willing and power. Therefore whatever witches do is done by God’s permission, without whose will they can do nothing; for unless God granted that they could do what they wish, they would obtain it neither from themselves nor from demons.

Thus all power is from the Lord God, in whom all things both exist and are moved, as in the first cause of all things, since from him from whom we have received freedom of will, from him also we have the ability to do what we will. But since the understanding of witches is very confused, they do not perpetrate the evils they do by human art, but by the cooperation of demons, whom both subtle nature and long experience have made swift in producing marvels. For the astonishing effects of witches are not caused by the sorts of means they use for witchcraft, such as heads of the dead, toads, serpents, characters, images, and things like these, but by the devil who instituted these signs; for since he is most proud, he desires in all things to seem comparable to God. For indeed, just as almighty God instituted certain sacraments in his Church, which, when worthily administered and with himself assisting, signify and produce a salutary effect, with him who instituted them working salvation, so also the devil, who desires nothing more than to be esteemed equal to God,

has instituted certain signs as sacraments. By these, when invoked by those with whom he is bound by covenanted pacts, the malignant worker assists; and whenever God permits, he effects the evil that is requested. If God does not permit it, he does absolutely nothing.

For the devil is the worker of all necromantic effects and of the effects of witches; through the application to the subject matter of the means that he himself first instituted, he produces the desired work, sometimes really, sometimes only apparently. Witches, however, who, with their will now depraved and by consent, have passed through pacts into fellowship with the demon, receive from them certain marks and symbolic signs, by which, when summoned, the demons immediately come.

In these pernicious operations of demons, nothing is stronger than the foolish credulity of witches, which is increased by pacts and vows; for the firmer the faith they place either in demons or in their signs, the more swiftly, with the demons cooperating, they obtain the operation. For the exceedingly savage depravity of the witches’ will in a certain way turns them into frenzy; when this has seized their mind, the demons at once attach themselves to the frenzied women and, God permitting, furnish to those raging women the effect of their petition, strengthened by pacts and signs.

For Plato recounted something similar in his book on poetic frenzy, saying: “Just as Bacchic women, when their mind is unsound, draw honey and milk from rivers, but when their mind is sound they cannot draw them.” Their mind, carried outside itself into fellowship with an evil demon, brings this about. We have verified that witches have at times drawn butter from rushing rivers, which can in no way happen except by the ministry of a demon.

In like manner, when they have been brought into hatred of some man or beast and long for his destruction, they are driven by a most violent frenzy, thinking of nothing in their soul except vengeance. They take up things known and familiar to them for witchcraft, invoke demons, display the signs and characters instituted by them, and what they cannot accomplish by their own power they obtain through the ministry of those demons.

But another person, who is not subject to demons by pact and surrender, even if he knows both the things suitable for witchcraft and the method of working, and although he displays the signs, nevertheless rarely obtains the effect, because he is not counted among the familiars of demons. For the devil, puffed up with pride, imitates the Church of Christ to such a degree that, just as one who is not ordained cannot consecrate the body of Christ, however much he utters the words of consecration, so also the demon, however much a man invokes him and displays his signs and characters, either never or only rarely joins himself to one whom he does not know to be subject to him by pact.

For if he came indiscriminately to all who invoked him without pacts having been made, he would not possess so many witches called his own by right of ownership. Hence it is that many people devoted to profane arts, laboring with dreadful conjurations to summon demons to a circle, to a mirror, or to any other receptacles, obtain no effect, because either God’s command stands in the way, or the devil despises the curious man not dedicated to him by homage.

For three things are required for witchcraft, without which it is agreed that none is perpetrated: a witch frenzied in mind and depraved in will, the cooperation of a familiar devil, and before all else divine permission. For if one of these does not concur, witchcraft cannot be perpetrated. If God did not permit it, neither the devil nor the witch could do anything. And if the devil did not come to meet the will of the depraved woman, she could perpetrate no witchcraft [unclear].

Again, if the witch is lacking, the devil will in no way accomplish the witchcraft. For the devil uses the will of the raging witch as an artisan uses an instrument for working; without it he could not inflict witchcraft.

And just as demons differ from one another in power and in keenness of subtlety, so the power of witches is not the same in all, but differs in individuals according as demons of a subtler or grosser nature join with them. For there are many kinds of demons, and they stand apart from one another by definite degrees, according to the places into which, when they fell, they were cast down at the beginning.

The first kind of demons is called fiery. It roams about the upper air and is never plunged down to the lower regions before the day of judgment; rather, remaining continually beneath the lunar regions, they have no commerce with men on earth. That they remain beneath the moon Saint Augustine bears witness in his work On the Christian Combat, saying thus: demons do not dwell in the heaven where the sun and stars are, but all move about beneath the lunar region. Hence, as I think, Apuleius called demons fiery animals, because Aristotle affirmed that in burning furnaces certain small animals have often been seen fluttering, furnished with little wings, which spend their whole life in fire, since they arise with the fire and are extinguished with it, and, vanishing, return to their own place from which they had come. They have no partnership in acts of witchcraft, because, since they dwell in fire, because of their subtlety they cannot put on a gross or aerial body.

The second kind is called aerial, which wanders in the air near us. These can descend to lower places and, taking bodies from the thicker air, sometimes appear visibly to men. When God permits, they often disturb the air, stir up thunder and storms, and all together conspire for the destruction of the human race. In the manner of men they are moved by the affections of the passions, especially by pride and envy, and they are touched by continual disturbances; they are neither enclosed in a solid body nor fixed in one place. Nor do they all have one form, but many, and they often change these according to the variety of the affections by which they either come forth when summoned by the spells of little witches, or are driven by disturbance to do harm. For they have an altogether violent and furious nature, full of disturbances; hence, when violently disturbed by evil deeds, they very suddenly devise many snares, and while they carry out their assaults, partly they wish to lie hidden, partly they inflict violence.

Witches, sustained by the cooperation of these demons, are more powerful for working witchcraft in proportion as they have obtained the cooperation of a demon higher in their order. In the Life of Saint Anthony, Saint Athanasius said that the air is full of demons, which Mercury Trismegistus had said before him: namely, that no part of the world is without the presence of demons. The holy bishop Ambrose also says: the world is full of holy powers because it is full of wickedness. Hence the Platonists have handed down that demons flying in the air like very dense snow become visible to those who desire to see them, if for some time, while the sun is shining, they keep their gaze fixed toward heaven with steady, unblinking eyes. But I do not know whether the object is caused in the air from real consistency, or whether the restrained motion of the eyes presents false images; nevertheless, not without some slight harm to the sense, I have tested what was promised.

But the third kind we call terrestrial demons, whom we do not at all doubt to have fallen from heaven to earth according to their deserts. Concerning these, the most holy bishop and martyr of Christ, the God-bearer Ignatius, once wrote in a certain letter to the Ephesians as follows: nothing is better than to have peace, in which every weapon of the spirits of the air and of the earth alike is made void. Of these demons, some dwell in forests and groves and lay snares for hunters; others live in open fields and make travelers wander by night; some dwell in hidden places and caves; the rest, less furious and disturbed than the others, delight in dwelling obscurely with men. They are not led by one affection but by various ones, since some are less depraved than others, although all are full of evil disturbances. Of these, some rejoice in frightening men by illusions alone; others desire to draw those who hear them into admiration of themselves by predictions of future things. Some, however, strive with the greatest effort to terrify, injure, or kill men disturbed by irrational frenzy or raging with melancholy, which we have learned by experience has often happened. Hence Saint John

John Chrysostom, in the third book On Providence, addressed to the monk Stagirius, says: “Stronger for doing harm than every diabolical action is the greatness of grief, because whomever a demon overcomes, he overcomes through grief. If you take this away, no one will be able to be harmed by a demon.”

This kind of demons, however, is rarely familiar to witches, because of the inconstancy of its emotions and the fickleness by which they delight in terrifying many rather than being subject to the command of one little woman. Yet sometimes, as they promise to madwomen, they remain in glass, or in crystal, or in a mirror, and, stirred up by charms, give answers to women; and if anyone coming to them has spoken ill of them on the way, they announce it beforehand. And this kind of witches sometimes differs greatly from the rest, because what the others make sick by witchcraft, these promise to cure. But because they for the most part repel witchcraft by witchcraft, access to them is forbidden by the Church to every Christian.

The fourth kind of demons is called aquatic, because, immersing itself in waters, it dwells around lakes and rivers: full of anger, disturbed, restless, and deceitful. It stirs up storms at sea, and by sinking ships into the deep takes away the lives of many in the waters. And whenever these demons assume a visible body, they appear more often in the female sex, and are more rarely seen in the male, because they live in moist places and follow a softer manner of life, nor can they easily assume a male shape according to the custom of the others. Hence antiquity long ago named the Naiads and Nereids, nymphs of the waters, not in the male sex but in the female. Among our people, however, they are commonly called aquatic women, that is, Wasserfrauen. But those who dwell in drier and somewhat arid places, whenever they appear visibly and bodily to human beings, transform themselves into men. They also assume the forms of various beasts, according as they are touched by various emotions. But the holy angels, because they are never varied by emotion, always appear uniformly in male form. For nowhere do we read it written that a good spirit was seen in the form of a woman or of any beast whatever, but always in the appearance of a man. Demons, however, have quite often been seen around rivers and springs in the appearance of women, sometimes dancing in choruses, sometimes letting down their hair in the manner of women, and sometimes speaking with humans and practicing various mockeries. And this kind of demons is not accustomed to have commerce with witches.

The fifth kind is called subterranean, because it dwells in caves and caverns and in the remote hollows of mountains. And these demons are very wicked in disposition, and they especially attack those who dig wells and mines, and those who seek treasures hidden in the earth, being most ready for the destruction of the human race. They make openings in the earth, stir up flame-vomiting winds, and shake the foundations of buildings. Sometimes at night they go out from the mountains in troops and lead marvelous and astonishing dances in the fields; and, as though fearing the command of a single leader, they suddenly vanish at a signal and return to their hiding places. Sometimes the sound of bells is heard among them, and they sometimes lie that they are the spirits of people who have died. They seek nothing more than the fear and amazement of human beings. Hence we have found that they have sometimes led some of the simpler sort of people into their hiding places in the mountains, showing astonishing spectacles to those who marveled, and they lie that they are friends of the living, as though the dwellings of the blessed were there. Among these demons also some are guardians of treasures, which the greed of mortals has hidden in the earth; and, lest they again come into human use, they carry them off, steal them, guard them, and sometimes move them from place to place. And this kind of demons is joined in no commerce with witches.

The sixth kind of demons is called light-fleeing, because they especially dread and detest light: for they never appear by day, nor can they assume a body in any other way than by night. This is the business that walks about in darkness, a kind of demons unsearchable and utterly dark, driven by cold passions, malicious, restless, and disturbed. It violently assaults people it meets in the hours of night, and often, God permitting, kills some either by its breath or by its touch. This kind of demons does not associate with witches, nor can it be summoned by charms, because it flees light, human voices, and likewise every disturbance. The aerial kind especially comes together for witchcraft and for intercourse with women, because it is subtler than all the rest and of the most reckless boldness. Of the terrestrial [unclear].

Some of the terrestrial spirits also, as has been said, serve sorceresses; yet, being ranked in a lower degree, they can by no means bring about those greater acts of sorcery. It is therefore manifestly clear that the whole power of sorceresses, by which they do such astonishing things, is granted to demons in limited measure by the Lord God, and when he does not permit it, they accomplish nothing.

On divine permission. The seventh question.

This was the seventh question of your most serene majesty: Why does God, since he is just and the avenger of evils, permit such great acts of sorcery to be done for the destruction of the human race, by which not only sinners but also many innocent people perish, grievously tormented?

I remember that, when I stood before your majesty, I answered this question in this way. The best God, just and upright, kind and merciful, whatever he permits, permits justly, because he is just, and there is no iniquity with him; rather, all things that happen he either does or permits in true judgment. Therefore, when it is asked why God permits evils to be done, we answer: he permits them because he is just. Nor, Caesar, should the answer we have given seem absurd to your majesty, since it in no way prejudices the divine goodness that he permits evils to be done for a most just reason; rather, it would prejudice it if he did not permit evils to be done in the present state.

For truly, if he did not permit evils to be done, man could no longer sin; he would certainly be impeccable, which does not befit his nature, since from the beginning the Creator of all things gave him free choice. For man, since he is a creature and not the Creator, is necessarily able to be turned both to good and to evil, since his being depends on the supreme maker of all creatures, just as every caused thing depends on the cause of its being. But to create has been left to God alone, who is incorruptible and everlasting; every corruptible thing necessarily fails, yet it is preserved by the goodness of the Creator so long as it does not lose the influence of its cause. Hence it neither could nor ought to have happened that man, by the condition of his nature, should be created impeccable, since God alone, the maker of all things, who is unchangeable and everlasting, naturally possesses this. But whenever it is granted to man that he seems unable to sin, the freedom of choice is not removed, nor is possibility simply taken away, but the will is confirmed in good. And whenever this gift is conferred on a creature, it is a gift of grace, not of nature.

For Scripture says: “God created man from the beginning and left him in the hand of his own counsel.” For, properly speaking, it cannot be that mortal man, conceived in original displeasure, should both have free choice and be unable to commit sin. For the most holy bishop Augustine says: “The first freedom of the will was to be able to sin; the last, in glory, will be much greater: to be unable to sin.” And so, if man could not sin, he would not have mastery over his own will. Therefore, although almighty God does not will sin, he nevertheless justly permits human beings to sin and to do evil, so that, while freedom of choice remains, both the virtue of a good work may receive its reward and voluntary wickedness may receive what evil it has done. For no one either does good or sins unwillingly. Therefore almighty God justly permits human beings to sin and to do evil, since from the beginning he granted them freedom of choice.

Many reasons have long since been assigned by the holy doctors why the Almighty permits such great acts of sorcery to be done through the cooperation of demons; we shall necessarily mention them briefly in order.

The first is so that the excellence of divine power may be made manifest, for he alone is unchangeable and far above every position [unclear]. Every creature, however, is changeable and has no comparison with the unchangeable Creator. Hence it is read in Numbers: God is not like a man, that he should lie, nor like a son of man, that he should change. In Isaiah also it is said: God is faithful, without iniquity, just and upright. In the book of Tobit too it is written: You are just, Lord, and all your judgments are true, and all your ways are mercy, truth, and judgment. And in the book of holy Job we read: Far be impiety from God, and iniquity from the Almighty. For he will repay a man’s work to him, and according to the ways of each he will restore to them. Therefore every man who rightly understands his own ignorance and weakness plainly recognizes what a nothing he is compared with his Creator. For God justly permits man to sin, both so that freedom of choice may continue and so that the excellence of the great God may become known to human beings.

The second reason is that the inscrutable wisdom of God may become known to mortals, which knows how to draw good from our evils, when it makes the sin of one person become the merit of another for the increase of virtue. For if he did not permit evil to be done, which of us would understand the good? For God makes and orders good things; he does not make evils, but when they have been done by the impious, he himself disposes them so that they may not come about in a disorderly way. Nor does the malice of men hinder the will of God, nor can man do anything that God does not permit.

The third cause is that the Almighty permits evil deeds to be done so that he may manifest his most merciful goodness toward those who have sinned and have done penance, which he could in no way show if he did not permit the creature to sin. For if there were no sinner, God could not be one who shows mercy. But since we all offend in many things, everywhere God finds something to forgive; everywhere a guilty person presents himself, in whom the kind Creator may show his mercy. Hence the holy bishop Augustine says: If the disease were slight, the physician would be despised; he would not be sought; if the physician were not sought, the disease would not be ended. Therefore, where sin abounded, grace also abounded, which alone distinguishes the redeemed from the lost, whom the mass of perdition, drawn from the origin of creation, heaps together into one. Therefore the mercy of the Lord is over all his works.

The fourth reason for divine permission is that the justice of the Creator may be declared against those who have sinned and have not done penance, because if all did good and no one sinned, the justice of God would have nothing to punish. Therefore, so that justice may have a place, the creature sins by divine permission. For the Lord is just, and he will render to each according to the works of his will.

The fifth reason is the dignity of the human condition, because if God did not permit man to sin, man would seem worse than the beasts, which, with no violence driving them, freely use the motions of nature. For although brute beasts lack reason, nevertheless they have a free motion of nature which they follow; in comparison with them man would seem to be of a lower condition if he did not have the will of free choice. But God permitted man a free will, over which neither kings nor princes command.

The sixth reason is the praise of the merit of constancy in human virtue, when we praise a just man because, although he could have transgressed, he did not transgress, but, with the grace of God helping him, remained steadfast in a good will.

The seventh reason why almighty God permits demons to do such great evil deeds through the agency of witches is that those who, having despised the truth, delight in falsehood may, seduced by the devil, the inventor of falsehood, be utterly deceived. For it is fitting that enchanters and evildoers who scorn to follow the saving teachings of Christ should all, deceived by demons, be plunged down to hell to be punished forever. They seek help from demons, the enemies of the whole human race, and they despise the Savior of the world, whom alone they ought to have adored. For it is just that one who, deserting the truth by his own voluntary will, clings to falsehood should be hurled by the devil into destruction.

The eighth cause is the manifestation of divine power, whose might and strength are over every creature. Indeed, when almighty God sometimes permits great things to the devil and denies him certain small things, he shows how weak the enemy of the human race is, and how subject in all things to the divine majesty. For the devil can do nothing of himself, but all that he does, he does with God permitting it. Therefore the first cause of all, on account of which almighty God permits evil deeds to be done, is justice, by which he preserves in an inviolable order the freedom which he once bestowed on the creature from the beginning. But because every power of the creature, dependent on its Creator, is restricted and limited, it is clear that the devil cannot do everything he wishes, nor can man, however depraved in will. The will is indeed free, but power is limited by fixed and necessary degrees. For if demons could do everything they wish, nothing among human affairs would remain safe, but they would shake all things to ruin. The history of holy Job shows by a clear example the bound power of demons, for Satan did not dare to tempt him beyond what had been permitted to him by divine dispensation. For no one in the present world, however just or strong, could resist the fury of demons if, at their own discretion, they could always use a free power of harming. Before the Lord’s Passion, however, they enjoyed greater freedom of power than afterward; but when Christ tasted death for us on the altar of the cross, it was already greatly [unclear].

Thereafter their power was diminished, as the Savior says in the Gospel: “Now the prince of this world will be cast out.” For the humility of Christ and the perseverance of the saints have greatly restrained the boldness of demons, so that they can now rightly be called inciters of evils, but by no means compellers. Nor would the devil grow strong against us unless he received strength from our sins. Hence Scripture admonishes us, saying: “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” And again: “Do not give place to the devil.”

Therefore, in concluding the discussion for understanding the proposed question, why God permits so many acts of witchcraft to be done, I believe the reasons have been made sufficiently clear. For although the will of demons is always wicked, their power can never be unlimited, because what a demon wills wickedly he has from his own free choice, but what he is able to do wickedly he has only from God. And these things have been said as far as concerns those who do evil.

But why does almighty God permit demons, through the agency of works of witchcraft, to harm people who have been baptized in the name of the Holy Trinity and who faithfully believe in his only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ? For if they could harm only the wicked, the perverse, and unbelievers in body and possessions, but were restrained from access to and injury of the good and faithful, the judgment of the permission would rightly seem just. But now, since more often the good and innocent are weakened by demonic works of witchcraft, and sometimes are even deprived of life, to pass over in silence the loss of temporal goods which those bewitched often suffer, it comes as a scruple to many why the Almighty permits these things, he who permits nothing unjustly.

I shall set out in order, as briefly as I can, the necessary reasons for this proposed question, which I have received from none other than the ancient and Catholic doctors. The first reason is the testing of Christians’ faith and the proving of their integrity, so that, when scourged by the works of demons, they may learn in the sufferings of the flesh what faith and love toward God they possess in the hidden place of the mind. To be patient in prosperity is not difficult; but in adversity to await with humble patience help from the Savior of the faithful is not the mark of the soft, but of the strong and truly faithful Christians. In his tribulation most holy Job learned how great a constancy of faith toward God he had, he who previously in tranquillity had preserved piety without the dart of temptation.

Hence it must also be noted that those whom works of witchcraft by demons or by men have in any way made ill, and who, in order to recover health, either approach or consult witches and any enchanters, whether by themselves or through others, act against the commandments of God and of the Church, and have neither true faith in God nor love. For they prefer the health of their mortal flesh to God, and seek salvation not from Christ but from the devil and his minister. For they prefer to be healthy in the name of the devil and live unhappily, rather than to suffer a little here for the love of Christ and afterward rejoice with him forever. But whoever does not approach witches because God has forbidden it, preferring to live in poverty and sickness while observing the commandments of God rather than against God in riches and bodily health, truly loves God and rightly preserves the integrity of the Christian faith.

Among Christians, most sacred Caesar, men corrupted in mind and reprobate concerning the faith must not be tolerated: those who cure the bewitched by works of witchcraft, who reveal thefts and adulteries by the ministry of demons, who by inspection of stones or mirrors [unclear].

who foretell future things. Do not listen, I beg you, to those men who, ignorant of the divine laws, think ministers of demons of this kind useful to your rule because they know how to undo sorceries by sorcery; for that pernicious healing of bodies brings death upon souls, and makes men withdraw from God, the creator of all, and cling to impious apostate demons, with whom after death they will be damned forever.

The second reason why Almighty God permits the innocent to be harmed by sorcery is the increase of merits, so that their patience, proved in tribulation, may deserve a worthier crown of glory in heaven. For, as holy Augustine says, a man is unknown to himself, what he can bear and what he cannot bear; sometimes he fears that he cannot do what nevertheless he can. When temptation comes, as a kind of questioner, a man is discovered by himself, who before, being hidden, did not know himself. The blessed arch-apostle Peter, before temptation came upon him, was hidden both from himself and from others as to how rash and weak he was; when it came, the weakness that had lain hidden appeared. Therefore temptation is the greatest testing of a man, as sacred Scripture bears witness: the furnace tests the potter’s vessels, and the temptation of tribulation tests righteous men. Patience is easy in prosperity, because no adversity strikes the mind. But many are the tribulations of the righteous, and from them all our Lord Jesus Christ will deliver them.

The third reason for divine permission is the preservation of humility, so that the faithful and righteous man may always fear God and never presume upon his own strength or righteousness. Hence Scripture says of the reprobate: They are not in the toil of men, and they will not be scourged with men. Therefore pride has held them; they are covered with their own iniquity and impiety; their iniquity has come forth as if from fatness. It belongs to the mercy of God that he sometimes permits good and righteous men to be shaken by adversities, whom he knows cannot be humbled in prosperity. For tribulation has made many humble whom favorable circumstances would have rendered proud. Finally, the fearful thought of sorceries makes a good man fear his God and diligently invoke his help, fortified by which he can trust that he is safe against the assaults of demons. But let no proud man, presuming upon his own strength, think himself safe from the sorceries of the demon, because he whom, puffed up by pride, the protection of God abandons, without doubt lies open to the sorceries of demons.

The fourth reason is so that there may be a distinction between good and bad people. For Scripture says of good men beloved by God, in the Acts of the Apostles, that through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God. And Saint Paul, lover of Christ, says in a certain epistle: All who wish to live piously in Christ will suffer persecution. The most wise King Solomon also says in Proverbs: The Lord corrects whom he loves, and, like a father, he takes pleasure in his son. It is a very glorious thing for a Christian to endure adversities patiently for the love of God, whether they are inflicted by evil men or by demons. For power is given to the devil and his ministers to harm good and righteous men, not for their destruction, as [unclear] think, but rather for the greatest and sure consolation of the soul. For indeed, when a righteous man lives well, harms no one, offends no one, does injury to no one, loves, fears, and venerates his God with his whole heart, keeping his commandments with all solicitude, and nevertheless is troubled by sorcerers, whether in body, or in possessions, or in both, that man is truly blessed, because when he has been proved he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. Everyone who lives rightly in the unity of the faith of the Catholic Church of Christians, and patiently endures the evils he receives in this world for the love of God, has a certain sign that he perseveres in the grace of God and will be saved. Therefore we read that it is written thus of the evil and reprobate: Why do the impious live, have they been raised up and strengthened with riches? Their houses are secure and peaceful, and the rod of God is not upon them; they spend their days in good things, and in a moment they go down to hell. For it is a manifest sign of damnation if here you live wickedly in sins and vices, opposed to God, and prosper in the goods of fortune and in bodily health.

The fifth reason why the Almighty permits good and righteous men to be troubled by the evil and reprobate is because of the complete purification of the mind. For, as Scripture says, there is no righteous man on earth who does good and does not sin. But since God lets no sin pass unpunished, he ordains for righteous men, through mercy

...mercy, temporal punishments for their offenses, but to the impious and reprobate, by justice, eternal punishments. Therefore, out of mercy, he changes eternal punishment for the penitent into temporal punishment, which they must necessarily suffer either in this world or after death in purgatory. But because the torments of purgatory are dreadful and very grievous, merciful God is accustomed to purge in this life, in various ways, the penitents whom he loves, through the discomfort of diverse tribulations in body and in possessions. For the harmful works of the impious profit good and righteous people as a remedy, but for those who inflict them they lead to damnation.

The sixth reason is so that a person harmed by the assaults of demons may be called back to repentance and may resolve in his heart upon the necessary amendment of life. For almighty God does not immediately send vengeance when we sin, but waits for our amendment until the appointed time. But if we have neglected to do penance, the avenger of evils comes to us when we do not expect it; we sinners, who in tranquility scorned to recognize ourselves by repenting, will at last, though late, recognize ourselves in tribulation. Hence the holy prophet speaks in the person of God, saying: “If his children forsake my law, and do not walk in my judgments, and do not keep my commandments, I will visit their iniquities with the rod, and their sins with stripes; but my mercy I will not scatter from them, nor will I harm them in my truth.”

The seventh reason why almighty God permits the harmful works of demons to prevail against the good and innocent is so that an excessively unchecked opportunity for sinning may be cut away from them. For there are many poor and sick people who are pleasing to God, good, devout, and humble, whom poverty and bodily illness preserve in the love of God; if they were rich and raised to honors, they would quickly flow away from their purpose of holiness into the depth of vices. It is not expedient for the salvation of all to have honors and riches together with health, nor does a longer life always make a person better. Therefore almighty God, wishing to show his mercy toward those whom he has chosen, permits the good, righteous, and innocent to be subject to various calamities. And sometimes through demons, sometimes through evil people, sometimes through various other ways and means, he takes away from such people riches and honors, which he foresees they would use badly, so that they may preserve in poverty and abasement the humility which, if placed in wealth and exaltation, they would by no means have preserved. He also very often permits many great illnesses to befall them, when cheerful bodily health would have brought the greatest sickness upon the mind. Finally, he permits certain people to be driven to death by harmful magic, so that there may be cut away from them the freedom to sin which they would have abused if they had been allowed to live longer. Hence Scripture says of the righteous man: “He was taken away lest malice should change his understanding, and lest deceit should deceive his soul.”

The eighth reason for divine permission is so that human beings may venerate the sacraments of the Church, which have great power against all the harmful works of malign spirits. For one who venerates with due honor the sacraments and rites of the Catholic Church is rarely harmed by the harmful works of demons. And by the confession of witches themselves we have often heard that hearing Masses and using things blessed by the Church greatly weaken the powers of demons. For they are not blessed in the Church of God in vain, but so that they may be, as it were, little signs of divine protection, showing demons defenses to be feared. Concerning children and infants, however, who, reborn in Christ, are sometimes killed by the harmful works of demons or of human beings, we do not doubt that divine providence permits this to happen for their salvation, since it knows how to order all things for the better for mortals. Yet it often happens that infants perish by harmful magic because of the sins of their parents.

On the Providence of God, Question Eight.

Your Serenity’s eighth question was this: whether it can be proved by natural reason, as well as by the holy Scriptures, that God has care for human affairs and actions, and a certain and infallible providence over all things, both collectively and individually, that are done in the world.

I remember that I replied to this question as follows: The whole world, heaven and earth and all things that are in them, are subject to divine providence, by whose will and command they were brought into being from the beginning. For there is nothing in the whole...

For there is nothing in the whole universe that is not governed by the providence of the Creator. Let us prove this opinion first by the Scriptures, and afterward confirm it by reasons, as briefly as we may.

In the Book of Judith we read: “All your ways are peaceful, and you have placed all judgments in your providence.” And in Ecclesiastes the wisest king, Solomon, speaks thus: “Do not give your mouth occasion to make your soul sin, nor say before the angel, ‘There is no providence,’ lest perhaps the Lord, angered by your words, destroy all the works of your hands.” The clearest testimonies of providence are confirmed in the holy Gospel, when our Savior says to his disciples: “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them falls upon the earth before God?” Great is this commendation of divine providence, which has care not only for men but also for tiny birds. Indeed, if the Almighty cares for such small things, who would not believe that he has care for great ones? “Look,” he says, “at the birds of the sky, which neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and your heavenly Father feeds them.” And a little later he adds, saying: “If God so clothes the grass of the field, which is today and tomorrow is cast into the oven, how much more you, O you of little faith?”

Because almighty God created all things and brought them into being when they did not exist, he rules and governs the universe, lest it slip and fall away; and this could by no means happen if he did not have providence and care for all things. For if providence is removed, it must necessarily follow that the ordered continuity of the whole universe is thrown into confusion. But the providence of the Creator cares for all things, since he who feeds the birds, gives beasts their food, fills every animal with blessing, and clothes the grass of the field, adorning violets and lilies with beautiful grace, cannot forget man, whom he created from the beginning in his own image. He who governs all things cares for all things, and he exercises providence not only over man but also over all beasts; for all things are placed under his rule, and there is no one who can resist his will in anything.

Let us now therefore consider this vast machine of the whole universe: how it always persists in its original disposition and motion in the most orderly fashion. Unless we shamefully depart from reason, we shall understand by the clearest reasoning that that divine and unchangeable providence preserves, directs, and governs these things. Next let us contemplate all earthly things, how each and every one is born and proceeds in its natural disposition in the most orderly way. This cannot happen by chance; rather, they must be moved by the will of him by whose power they were made and created. Consequently, let us also contemplate the earth, placed in the middle of the world like a point or center, around which the whole universe unfolds at an equal distance; nothing more beautiful, nothing more adorned, nothing finally more delightful could offer itself to the senses for contemplation. In this point, enclosed by the immense mass itself, we see all things wonderfully ordered; and we see that nothing can be left unordered, so that all things which at times seem to us somehow to drift about we may know for certain not to lack, within the order of the universe, their own particular order. For by the simple and wholly unchangeable command of God, the whole machine of the entire universe, assembled out of so many different and movable things, works together and is ruled in the most orderly fashion.

We certainly see, in those things that often present themselves to our senses, that the greater the intelligence and power that arises over time in any governor, the less there [unclear] can anything disordered occur by random chance. Therefore, since that highest intellect, the creator, preserver, and ruler of all things, almighty God, rules and governs the world by his unchangeable providence, holding all things under his command, surely no place anywhere is left for rash chance, which would obstruct the will of so great a majesty.

Therefore the whole universe, whatever exists anywhere or can exist, is contained under the command of the one divine mind, whose infallible judgment nothing can escape. Unexpected accidents happen to us because we are changeable and are changed almost daily, having no determinate knowledge of future things. But that best maker of all things, God, since he is altogether unchangeable, knows all things, beholds all things, and understands all things together and at once. His providence is not deceived; his will is never changed; his power is not broken; his ordering is not violated; his counsel is never intercepted, even if his sentence sometimes seems to be changed. Hence, if we pay careful attention, we shall plainly understand that the ends of things and of motions...

The lower things will declare that all these things are done, preserved, disposed, and moved by divine providence, to whose command absolutely nothing is alien. For God himself, the ruler of all things, understands both all things and each thing, not stretched out, after our manner, among many things, but abiding in himself as an indivisible one; and by beholding himself as the exemplar of the whole universe and the cause of causes, and through causes as the cause of all things, he contemplates all things, and in contemplating all things he cares and provides for them, directing each thing to its end and good in everlasting order.

Come now, most wise Caesar: in order that we may understand divine providence governing all things, let us use arguments as brief as we can for our purpose. And so, if God’s action is his own intelligence, which no wise man fails to admit, as being at once most eminent and most inward, then as much as he acts, so much surely he understands, and conversely. But he acts in each thing, not only in great things but also in the smallest; therefore he understands each thing. For the most abundant influx of the first being passes through each thing that in any way exists, following in fixed orders; and the things that act after him are everywhere moved by his power and act.

Therefore either God understands or acts nothing outside himself, which is false, or, by acting upon all things and each thing, he also understands those same things, which is true. For they would nowhere come to be unless first, to speak in our manner, they were understood by God himself, who makes them, just as those things are not made by the sun which are not looked upon by it. But since the Almighty understands all things and each thing that he makes, there is no doubt that he disposes, rules, and orders all things that he has made; from him things have not only that they exist, but also that they are certain causes of other things. And so, if things have from God that they are causes, from him too they have received the office proper to a cause, that is, to preserve according to their powers and to care for what they have made. Therefore, if all causes have this property from the first cause, insofar as they are certain causes, deservedly that cause itself naturally has this goodness and providence, so that it cares for all things and each thing that it has made, insofar as it is in the highest degree the cause of all those things, both collectively and singly. And unless these are guarded individually by him who makes them, the common things that are preserved in individuals will never be guarded. For neither will the whole that consists of parts be preserved if the parts themselves are neglected.

From the intention of the first and greatest intelligence, therefore, comes the common universal distinction of things. It itself is distinguished from others through itself; the rest it distinguishes among themselves by the standard of its own conception. Hence, just as God knows all things and each thing most distinctly, so too he most distinctly rules, moderates, and cares for them. I think it is therefore clear, most clement Caesar Maximilian, and sufficiently shown, that the providence of God, the supreme ruler, embraces, disposes, rules, and governs all lower things and each thing; otherwise, without the provident disposition of one who observes them, they would in no way continue this most beautiful order that we discern.

Nor am I unaware how variously the wise men of this world once thought about providence. Some of them judged that this world was made not by providence but by chance; if their opinion were true, no place would be left for providence, but all things would necessarily drift, and the world, since it was made by chance, could perish by chance. Against their false opinion others taught that the world could not have been made without reason, nor certainly could it stand unless it were ruled by the highest providence of its maker. Hence Boethius, a most Christian man, said: “O you who govern the world by everlasting reason, maker of earth and heaven, who command time to go forth from eternity, and, remaining stable, grant that all things be moved.” And again he said: “The generation of all things, and all the developments of changeable natures, and whatever is moved in any way, receive their causes, order, and forms from the stability of the divine mind.”

Others, however, thought that God cared only for incorruptible things, such as the heavenly things and separate substances, and likewise the species of things, but that he was wholly ignorant of all the rest and utterly neglected them. But these men erred shamefully, because the Almighty has providence and care not only for universal and incorruptible things, but also for particular and corruptible things. Hence Saint Boethius again says: “The lofty founder of things sits upon the earth and, ruling, bends the reins, king and lord, fountain and origin, law, and wise judge of what is just. He is the continuous love for all things, and they seek to be held by the end of the good, because they cannot endure otherwise, unless, turned back again by love, they flow back to the causes that he himself gave.”

Others, however, unable to bear that they should be neglected, [claimed] that man, because of the preeminence of his intellect, [unclear].

They exempted [man] from corruptible things, saying that God has care and providence for man, but despises all other earthly things. Against their false opinion I think enough has been said, and to bring forward many arguments would be wholly superfluous. For Scripture says: “You will save men and beasts, O Lord.” And in another place a certain wise man said: “The Lord made the small and the great, and he has equal care for all.”

Therefore the providence of the divine majesty orders, rules, disposes, and cares for all and each of the lower things, great and small, corruptible and incorruptible; his most powerful will produced all things from nothing, as sacred Scripture again bears witness: “But your providence, Father, governs all things from the beginning.”

Let men corrupt in mind, impious and reprobate concerning the Christian faith, therefore be ashamed: those who, puffed up with mere talk, have dared to deny the providence of the all-knowing one, and do not consider how great an injury they do to God. For what, to use the judgment of Firmianus, is so worthy and so proper to almighty God as providence? But if he provides for nothing, if he neglects lower things, if he does not care for mortal things, he has now lost all dignity. But it is impossible, as holy Anselm bears witness, for God to lose his honor, since, as the Peripatetic says, in eternal things there is no evil, no corruption, and no sin. Therefore whoever removes providence removes the whole substance of God; and what does he say, except that God does not exist?

But let those who deny that God’s providence cares for lower things now tell me this. If God neglects lower things, let them consider what necessarily follows. If God knowingly neglects and despises us, there is henceforth no reason why we should honor him with worship or venerate him with religion, since we obtain no benefit from him; rather, being neglected and despised, let us ourselves neglect him too.

But if he unknowingly despises and neglects us, there is now utterly no reason why we should worship one who does not know us, and for that reason cannot confer any good, or invoke him with prayers. For if God does not care for human affairs, whether knowingly or unknowingly, every reason for piety ceases, since there is no hope [unclear] of salvation.

What regard for piety can there be among mortals, what hope for the salvation of souls, if God does not care for human affairs? Indeed, if providence is removed, whom do we worship, whom do we adore? If there is no providence for mortals with God, certainly he neither bestows benefits on men, nor imposes punishments on apostates, nor can help mortals, nor wishes to, nor cares at all, nor notices what we do, and he hears neither the prayers nor the petitions of anyone. Why then do we offer him any worship, why honor, why prayers, or why do we so greatly fear or dread a God who does not know us, who, having neglected and despised us, can do us neither good nor harm?

For when providence has been removed, neither holiness nor religion will remain; and when these have been extinguished, the greatest disturbance of life and dreadful confusion will follow. With piety toward God removed, what will the commonwealth now be except everlasting confusion? Public trust among men will necessarily perish, and the society of the human race and all justice together with it will vanish and perish. What is to be thought of the Christian faith if God does not care for human affairs? Finally, what is to be thought of the Savior of all the living, our Lord Jesus Christ, unless the whole thing will be regarded as an empty tale and a fiction, if there is no providence of God caring for mortal things? Therefore whatever good we do in this life, whatever evil we endure for the love of God, is wholly vain and useless to us if he has no care for us at all.

Let those who deny the providence of God now see and tremble, when they behold the end of their opinion: the worst despair of all. Therefore let no one, led on by the empty talk of worldly philosophers, instruct himself in contempt of God; let no one remove the providence of the highest and unchangeable good; let no one corrupt the dignity of the creator of all things. For all who deny divine providence show themselves both unworthy of and ungrateful for the benefits of the most merciful Savior.

For it must be firmly believed, and in no way doubted, that this whole universe, both visible and invisible, and all and each of the things that are either in heaven...

Whether on earth or in the sea, they are ruled and governed by divine providence, and nothing at all in the whole universe is outside his care. For divine providence provides for the human race the crops and all the other things the earth brings forth, and also storms, the varieties of the seasons, and the changes of the sky, by which all things that the earth produces ripen and mature. It takes care of all things and each thing, not only the great but also the very smallest, to such a degree that not even the thinnest leaf of a tree falls to the earth without the will of almighty God the Father, who created it and rules and cares for it. But if anyone thinks that this whole vastness of the universe cannot be ruled and governed by one God, who alone is God, he is greatly mistaken, and is shown not to know how great the power of divine might is. Indeed, he who was able to bring the whole world from nothing into being can also most wisely govern forever what he made. For he knows all things, understands all things, can do all things, who alone, being omnipotent, created all things.

Therefore we, believing the holy Gospel, let us above all venerate divine providence, and let us also raise our minds upward, with what strength we can, away from these things that are perishable; and, brought back to ourselves, let us be united, so that we may faithfully understand the majesty of God present everywhere. Since it is wholly uncircumscribable, it holds all things, fills all things, embraces all things, surpasses all things, and sustains all things. It does not sustain from one part and surpass from another, nor fill from one part and encompass from another; but by encompassing it fills, and by filling it encompasses; by sustaining it surpasses, and by surpassing it sustains all things. By bodily mass he is nowhere, and by his uncircumscribable substance he is nowhere absent; he is not perceived by the eyes of flesh, but is seen through faith in purity of heart.

O inexplicable power. O incomprehensible loving-kindness. O ineffable wisdom. O uncircumscribable divinity, which is not composed of parts, as a body is; is not enriched by affections, as a soul is; does not underlie forms, as do all the other things that have been made through you; which is in all things and above all things, most wisely ruling and governing the universe.

By these most sacred testimonies, therefore, most sacred Caesar Maximilian, I think it has been sufficiently proved that this whole world is governed by God’s providence. Since he is pure understanding, simple, uncreated, and eternal, he knows all things, understands all things, and fully comprehends all things; and since he is omnipotent by nature, being able to do all things, he can do all things. For him nothing is difficult, nothing impossible. He created such wondrous things by his power, established them in truth, perfected them by reason, sustains them by might, and illuminates them by goodness. To him be praise, to him honor, to him glory, who lives and reigns, God glorious and exalted, forever and ever. Amen.

The author’s protestation to Caesar.

These, most invincible Caesar Maximilian, are the things that seemed to me should be said in reply to the eight questions proposed by your majesty. For you wished to have my judgment also on the same matters in writing, making an estimate of me beyond the truth. I am not to be compared in talent with those whose opinion I heard before my own. Let pardon make me worthy if I have said anything less suitable, since at the command of your highness, being a traveler set upon the road, I dictated as I could, at intervals, whatever occurred to me as needing answer.

I say, however, from my heart and openly protest that I am a sincere confessor of the Christian faith, and that I wish to remain until death in the union of the most holy Roman Church. Therefore if anything, either in this little work of mine or in others, should be found said or written otherwise than that Church holds, thinks, believes, and teaches, I, as a true son of obedience, by the attestation of these presents declare and wish it simply to be, and to be held forever, revoked.

For this reason, most wise Caesar, I humbly beg and earnestly admonish your majesty that, before you cause my responses to come to the knowledge of those for whom they are being kept, you have them approved by the judgment of many. For the greatest care must be taken that nothing be proposed to those over whose salvation your serenity keeps watch unless it is solid, approved, manifest, and lawfully confirmed in the Catholic faith by the opinion of very many wise men.

May almighty God direct and preserve you always by his providence, to the praise of his name, Maximilian, greatest of emperors. From the city of Neometum, on the tenth day of the month of July, in the year of Christians one thousand five hundred and eight.

Johannes Trithemius, abbot.

Printed at Frankfurt by Cyriacus Jacobus, in the year 1550.

Printed in the hand of the Lord who corrects.

[Pages 143–145 are illegible in the source: the OCR yielded only damage, and no text can be faithfully transcribed. The source page images are the authoritative witness.]