Liber Octo Quaestionum ad Maximilianum Caesarem

A Book of Eight Questions to Emperor Maximilian

Trithemius, Johannes

The book of eight questions of Johannes Trittenhemius, Abbot of Sponheim, which Emperor Maximilian proposed to him for resolution. 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 the power of sorceresses. 7. On divine permission. 8. On the providence of God; a little work ...

[unclear] 8 Cal. 1950 [unclear] 15th century 1482 [unclear] THE BOOK OF EIGHT QUESTIONS OF JOHANNES TRITTENHEMIUS, ABBOT of Sponheim, which Emperor Maximilian proposed to him for resolution.

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 the power of sorceresses. 7. On divine permission. 8. On the providence of God.

A little work exceedingly useful and pleasant, now printed for the first time.

TO THE MOST SERENE AND MOST UNCONQUERED lord of the world, Emperor Maximilian: the preface of Johannes Trittenhemius, Abbot of Peapolis, to the book of eight questions.

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 resolved with what brevity I could and set down in this form of a little book. You wished, moreover, if I remember rightly, that, so far as could be done, I should follow the way of nature in their solution, for the sake of those who grant less to belief. Yet this did not seem possible to me in all cases, because the subject matter of the questions in most places rested on theological rather than natural principles. For even if the Christian religion, among the sects of all mortals, is held to be nearer to the laws of nature, more conformable to them, and closer to them, nevertheless the principal articles of our faith are not all provable according to the common way of nature.

This, we must necessarily believe, was done so that faith too might have its place, and firm belief not lack its own merit. And so, having entered as far as my strength allowed upon a middle path of disputation at your command, I have used the testimony partly of nature and partly also of the divine Scriptures. For truly, the things which it befits us to believe are not to be rashly examined by human arguments, since, as holy Gregory says, faith has no merit where human reason supplies the proof. Therefore, with fear of God and reverence for our undefiled Christian religion, I have determined to answer the proposed questions in such a way that I depart from the definitions of the Roman Church neither in jest nor in earnest. Hence whatever I have ever written, or shall write, I wish to be wholly subject to its determination and judgment.

On faith and understanding

Question First

The first question of your most serene Majesty was this: Why did almighty God wish rather to be believed by mortals 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, put before me in person by your most sacred Majesty, as follows: Almighty God, who is intellect without beginning, pure, everlasting, and unchangeable, existing above every position knowable to us, far more perfect than infinite perfections, by his most wise will created from nothing, at the beginning, two intellects, 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 knew all things; but the human intellect at first consists in potency to all things, yet is ignorant of all things. At the end, however, through many and continuous upward movements, it will become like the angelic intellect, knowing both God and all things that pertain to the cognition of the promised knowledge and understanding. The angelic and human intellects differ as any two opposites do: as act and potency, light and darkness, knowledge and ignorance, possession and privation, beginning and end, the immovable and the movable, substance and accident, truth and likeness, nature and art, health and sickness, whole and part. For the angelic intellect is like act, light, knowledge, possession, beginning, the immovable, the immediate, simple substance, truth, nature, and the whole. But the human intellect is like potency, darkness, ignorance, privation, end, the movable, the mediated, the composite, accident, likeness, art, and part. Hence whatever belongs to the angelic intellect from the beginning, these same things are present in 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 at the beginning, though at the end they are finally made equal, when the human intellect will be as great by art as the angelic intellect was before it by nature. Hence it is clear that the angelic intellect, as soon as it was created, knew all things from the beginning, without any action or motion of its own, by immovable substantiality and by nature.

Question One

that it could understand, and that, created in an instant, it came forth full and perfect in all knowledge. But the human intellect, since it was created in all ignorance and privation, and was destined for the body for its own exercise and by degrees, must by continual action, motion, and art come to the knowledge of God and of all things. The end will at last make it equal to the angelic intellect, changing its potency into act and bringing it forth from mere potency and possibility into essence; from empty it will make it full, from imperfect perfect, from deprived possessed, from dark luminous, from nocturnal diurnal, from lunar solar, and from earthly heavenly. This cannot happen while the mind is bound in the body, as the Christ-loving Saint Paul says: As long as we are in the flesh, we are away from the Lord.

To know God belongs to a pure, simple, and perfect intellect; but the human intellect, so long as it dwells in the body, is impure, mixed, unstable, and imperfect, and for this reason, without faith, wholly ignorant of the knowledge of God and of heavenly things. The object of each intellect, both human and angelic, is the same: that highest and immutable good, God, the one principle of all things, to which they return by a natural desire for knowledge. But the angelic intellect, if compared with the human, is as nature is to art, and as simple intellect is to reason, which touches the principles of learning; but reason, through the principles, proceeds to conclusions. Hence it is manifest that the angelic intellect immovably apprehends its proper object, to which the human intellect, through the angelic medium, after many exercises of its own, as has been said, at last, by reasoning, prepares an ascent for itself. The human intellect, however, is separated, by the medium of angelic knowledge, from the perfection of its natural object, and therefore is necessarily mobile, returning through that medium to its own principle. For every motion proceeds from an extreme through a medium to an extreme; but where there is no medium, the extremes are already immediate and near, and for this reason immovable.

But the human intellect, 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, though confusedly and all too imperfectly, and therefore it has a medium between itself and God, which we have called angelic. Wisdom 9. The body appointed to it is a very great impediment to perfection, as a certain lover of wisdom said: The body that is corrupted weighs down the soul, and the earthly habitation 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 that superdivine and uncircumscribable majesty to be comprehended by us, who understand nothing without the ministry of the senses and the discourse of reason. But God, existing far above every position, remains subject neither to mortal senses nor to reason, just 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 it any wonder. For since God is the first and eternal intellect, most pure, most simple, most perfect, immovable, incomprehensible creator, highest, and far above every position immense and uncircumscribable, he could not be comprehended by the human intellect, which is impure, subject to composition, imperfect, mobile, created, comprehensible, lowest, and constituted under the measure of position.

As for the question that seemed to arise from the first, whether God, since he is almighty, could have made himself knowable to the human intellect in the same way as to the angelic, I say that no one of sound mind has ever denied that God can do all things. Those things that imply a contradiction, we say God cannot do, because they are contrary to the order of wisdom, immutable as it disposes all things, just as the destruction of construction of the whole is not doubted to be contrary at the same time; and if I shall say For it was neither fitting, nor could it in any way have come to pass, that God should be comprehended by the human intellect. For if mortal man, by the guidance of human nature, comprehended the immortal God, then certainly he would have to be called no longer man, nor mortal, but an angel; and either man would become comparable to God, or God to man. For so long as the angelic intellect stands between, the human intellect cannot understand God. But it stands between until the death of the flesh, when the mind, having obtained its natural freedom, will become wholly equal to an angel.

You now see, I believe, most manifestly, Emperor, that 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. And therefore it is necessary for mortals to believe in the immortal God, whom we cannot comprehend by any manifest reasoning.

Although the order of the whole universe providently declares the author of all things, and although we understand that nothing apart from him was produced without a beginning, nevertheless what God is and in what manner he is the human mind cannot grasp, since he is far above all things that we can understand concerning him, or anything mortal whatsoever, and is far outside and above every affirmation, as holy Dionysius says. Indeed, he is neither soul nor sense, nor imagination or opinion, nor reason, nor intelligence; nor does he have reason or intelligence.

Nor is he spoken of, nor understood. He is neither number nor multitude, nor order, nor magnitude, nor smallness, nor equality; neither likeness nor unlikeness. He neither stands nor is moved; neither does he produce rest, nor does he have power, nor is he power. He is neither light, nor does he live, nor is he life. He is neither substance, nor age, nor time; nor is there spiritual contact of him. He is neither form, nor truth, nor kingdom, nor wisdom; neither one nor unity, nor deity or goodness; nor is he spirit, so far as we can know. Nor is there for him the denomination of son or father, nor anything else among those things that are known to us or to anyone else in the world. Nor is he anything of those things that are not, nor of those things that are; nor do the things that are know him as he is. There is no speech of him, nor name, nor knowledge. He is neither darkness nor light, neither error nor truth; nor is there of him any affirmation at all, nor negation. For he is above every affirmation, the perfect and singular cause of all things. And his excellence is above every negation, namely the excellence of him who is simply absolved from all things and is above all things.

Therefore we say, as Dionysius says, that since as the cause of all things he 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 figure, nor species, nor does he have quality or quantity or mass; 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, agitated by fleshly passions; nor is he weakened by being subject to sensible accidents. Nor does he need light; nor does he admit change or corruption or division or increase; nor is he, or does he have, anything else belonging to sensible things.

Hence, since he is far above every affirmation and excels it, he could not be comprehended by a creature placed beneath him, which necessarily uses the senses for understanding, as the Peripatetic truly said: “There is nothing in our intellect unless it has first been in sense.” Therefore God, who is not subject to the senses of mortals, far exceeds the human intellect. According to affirmative affirmation, he truly is altogether in all things; and according to negative removal, by which one approaches more closely, he is none of all the things that are subject to the cognition of mortals. Indeed, since he is above all things, he cannot be any of those things that are subject to him. For this reason Empedocles beautifully gave the similitude, saying: God is a sphere whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere. Let the human intellect now raise itself as much as it can.

Let the human intellect now raise itself as much as it can; and if it strives to comprehend God, let it rightly understand and comprehend the center of this imagined sphere, together with its circumference ending nowhere. But if it is not sufficient to understand this proposition of its own likeness, why does it contend to investigate the essence of God, which exists above every positive assertion?

May it not weary you, most unconquered Caesar, to hear another likeness concerning God from Cusanus, once a cardinal priest of the Roman Church, my fellow Mosellan, a man most learned in those times. He says: God is a straight line of infinite length, which makes a circle. Let us see, then. If the line is straight, 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. Nevertheless, 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 things without circumscription, above all things without excluding positive assertions, it was not possible for him to be comprehended by the circumscribable human intellect, which uses the service of the senses for understanding; and what is promised to it, when at last purified, in the fatherland could not be granted to it, confused and impure, on the way. But after our mind, at last released from the flesh, has come to its own center, which is God, clean, simple, pure, perfect, and consummated, then, made equal to the angels, we shall know God perfectly and all things, just as Saint Paul says to the Corinthians, 1 Cor. 13: We see now through a mirror and in an enigma; but then face to face.

For this reason we said that the angelic intellect, by the guidance of its nature, cleaves immovably to its own principle, because it is pure act and habit; and since it is simple by natural condition, it cannot be impeded by any commerce with composition. But the human intellect, as has now been sufficiently declared, since it is potency and privation, is impure because of its commerce with its body, and is indeed delayed from perfect act until at last, released from the flesh, it passes into the fellowship of likeness with the angels; then for the first time it is to be admitted to the true knowledge of God. But if in the meantime 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 will be given to the worshippers of God. But if, however, the depraved mind, through too much commerce with its flesh, has despised the love of God, ## Question Two

then the intellect, released from its prison, will indeed go forth, exalted in knowledge to the measure naturally belonging to it; but it is so much the more wretched, the more it is found through evil will to be like the demons. Therefore, to conclude the solution of the proposed question as far as I have been able, I say that it is not possible for almighty God to be understood perfectly by us as long as we, being mortal, dwell in the flesh.

On the faith necessary for salvation.

Question Second

The second question of your unconquered Majesty was this: Since today only a small part of the world is subject to the laws of the Christian faith, whether that opinion of very many people seems admissible without injury to truth, who think that each person, in his own religion, which he believes to be true and salutary, as a worshipper of the one God, outside the Christian faith and without baptism, can be saved, provided that nothing is known concerning the religion of Christ. To answer this question simply, according to your intention, I have judged more than enough for the common understanding, since I know that today there are many among Christians who [unclear] impiety for the salvation of man of lost men, makes God out to be cruel. But because a cause of just consideration moved Your Most Serene Highness to ask these things, not because you do not know what must be held in this matter according to the Catholic faith, but so that you might have something true to set against those who attack the truth, I shall answer the questions briefly, as best 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 that the only-begotten Son of God, for the salvation of the human race, be born as man in the world, suffer, die, and rise again on the third day according to the Scriptures, 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 he who is the truth, Jesus Christ, 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 will not see life, but the wrath of God remains upon him. The holy Apostle also says: Without faith it is impossible to please God. Hebrews 11.

The solution of the proposed question is now clear to all who truly believe in Christ: salvation is through him, the Savior of the world, and whoever does not believe in him cannot be saved. Nor is it lawful for a Christian in any way to go beyond the boundaries of his religion, so as to presume to explain this question otherwise than Christ has taught. Whoever goes outside this rule of faith by asserting the contrary is plainly shown not to think rightly about 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 ordinances of the Gospel, firmly believe and without doubt pronounce that no one can be saved outside the faith of Christ, however much he worships one God, however holy or just his life, however much he trusts in his paternal religion or in another. Christ is salvation, and outside the Christian faith no one will be saved. For why would Christ the Son of God have willed 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 was 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 humanity today remains outside the faith of Jesus? Did not the Savior of the world himself long ago foretell in the holy Gospel: Many are called, but few are chosen? And again he says: Enter through the narrow gate, because wide is the gate and spacious is the way that leads to perdition, and there are many who enter through it.

What do we think our salvation can contribute to God, who has no need of good things? For whether many are saved or many are damned, God himself is the unchangeable Lord of all. Nothing is added to him if all are saved; nothing is lacking to him if the whole world perishes. The order of the providence of the divine majesty is infallible; it embraces those who are to be damned no less than those who are to be saved, each and every one. Certainly no one among those to be damned suffers injustice, since, 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 desert through justice. From the foregoing another question arises.

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

Let him answer this question, if anyone thinks himself God’s counselor. Who am I, that I should explain the cause of the divine will? For the Lord has done all things whatsoever he willed 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 hold it against you, if the nations you made perish?” The Almighty established for things an order of succession, which he will never revoke by any regretful change. For just as he permits his sun to rise upon the good and the evil, so until the end of the age he allows human beings, pious and impious, to be conceived, born, and grow.

The thoughts of human beings are not in God, nor does he change his counsel because of time; but since he is unchangeable and everlasting, willing all things together and once for all, he has from eternity preordained all things invariably. Once does God speak, as Sacred Scripture bears witness, and he does not add to it, because whatever he wills he wills immovably and admits no change. Therefore God permits, by a most just reason, that human beings should be born good and evil, pious and impious, faithful and faithless, sinners and saints, those to be saved and those to be damned: he who assigned this order to all things. Nothing perishes to God, who is Lord of all; and Christ Jesus, no less over evil than over good human beings and spirits, everywhere holds his empire strengthened: God from God the Father without time, and man from the Virgin in time, appointed mediator of God and human beings. He is the one through whom we have access to God; he is the savior of all the faithful. A man thinks wrongly of him if he rashly concedes that anyone can be saved without the Christian faith.

The omnipotence of God has regard to the order of things that he established, according to whose inviolable sequence of rectitude no one will be saved without faith in Christ; no one who does not believe in the Son of God is justified. Therefore they are moved by a vain and utterly foolish piety who think that anyone outside the faith of Christ, in the whole world and in any sect whatever, is to be saved, since his judgment is manifestly to the contrary. Let them hear the Savior himself again saying in the Gospel: “No one comes 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, surely no one will be saved except through him. Who will save the Jew or the pagan, when no one can be saved except through Christ?

But Christ will undoubtedly save only those who believe in him in heart, speech, and deed. He will not save the Jew, not the Saracen, not the pagan, not any other unbeliever, because they do not believe in him, but despise his teaching; they contemn the same man, and, blaspheming his holy name, scorn him all day long. For he himself said in the Gospel: “Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him I too will be ashamed before my Father and his holy angels.”

Tell me now, you who worship Christ and contend that someone can be saved outside the Christian faith in his own sect, which he thinks true: do you believe the Gospel of Christ to be true or false? If true, why do you hold the contrary to it? For Christ says: “Whoever has not believed in the Son of God, the wrath of God remains upon him.” And also: “He has already been judged.” And: “He will be condemned.” And: “No one comes to the Father except through me.” Yet you, seduced by I do not know what rashness, press the contrary, saying that a human being outside the faith of Christ, in his paternal religion, which he believes he believes to be true and pleasing to 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 his own confidence. Christ did not say this, but that whoever believes in the only-begotten Son of God will be saved, while whoever does not believe will be condemned. He excepted no one; he admitted no condition, for he had come to suffer for all, and by faith alone had provided for the salvation of all. If faith in the Savior is lacking, then no confidence will save the unbeliever. For the holy bishop Augustine said in On Faith to Peter: Hold most firmly, and do not doubt at all, 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.

Now you see where foolish compassion drags you: measuring divine things by human laws, so that you may make God merciful in all things, you do not fear to judge his only-begotten Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, a liar. But Christ is truthful, who says that those who do not believe in him are to be damned; you, however, are rash and false, who hold that anyone can be saved outside his faith. Whoever truly believes in Christ does not permit anyone at all outside the unity of the Catholic Church of Christians to be called 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: that no one is to be saved outside his faith, which he himself established, taught, and confirmed with his own blood. Therefore whoever affirms, or believes in his heart, that a man is to be saved in any sect whatever outside the faith of Jesus Christ, is not a good Christian, but rather an apostate and a disciple of Antichrist; with whom, unless he repents, he should know that he will be tormented forever in hell. For he is 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 adhere to him, who thinks that men are to be saved outside the faith of Jesus Christ. For everyone who believes that someone is to be saved outside the faith of Christ has denied both Christ and his Gospel. But when we say that all who are not Christians are damned, this is not a mark of cruelty but of true piety. For it is better to believe the truth firmly than to agree falsely with a man. That all Jews, pagans, gentiles, Saracens, schismatics, heretics, and unbelievers are without doubt to be damned with the demons, the Church of the saints testifies; and it has taken up and confirmed this judgment from no other source than Christ's words. For thus he said: He who believes in the Son has eternal life; by this, good Christians are designated in faith and deed. But he who is unbelieving toward the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains upon him. Here all Jews, pagans, Saracens, gentiles, and whoever do not believe in our Lord Jesus Christ are denoted.

Concerning schismatics and heretics, moreover, Christ's judgment is manifest in the Gospel when he says: Whoever refuses to hear the Church, let him be to you as a gentile and a publican. Gentiles are pagans, and publicans are manifest and public sinners; of their damnation the most certain Church of the saints has no doubt. For who among Christians would doubt that gentiles and notorious sinners, manifest as such, are to be damned? Since, therefore, all schismatics and heretics despise the holy Church, they are most rightly said to be like gentiles and publicans, who are to be damned for their offenses and demerits; and with them they will justly undergo equal punishments of everlasting damnation. Behold how just a sentence of damnation Christ the Savior ...the sentence which 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, by justice, has assigned to death, these men assert, with the worst presumption, are to be recalled to life. It is neither good nor useful for a Christian, whether seriously or in jest, to contradict Christ. He is impious, not Christian, who says that any unbelievers are to be saved.

In Adam, the first man, when he fell, 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, God and man, innocent of sin; he voluntarily underwent the death of the cross, and, having been made mediator between God and man, removed the wrath of original guilt from those who believe in him. For thus he says, John 4: “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 save one who denies without faith. No one is saved unwillingly, because no one believes except willingly. For the Lord knows those who are his, since he saves those who believe in the Son through repentance, but condemns unbelievers by the equity of justice.

Hence, with the way closed off, a new question has knocked at the mind: what should be thought concerning the infants and simple-minded persons of unbelieving pagans and Jews? To this one must answer briefly: just as the infants of Christians, baptized in the faith of their parents, are saved, so the unbaptized children of all unbelievers will be damned in the unbelief of their parents. The judgment concerning the simple-minded of each religion is similar: just as we believe without doubt that baptized simple-minded Christians are to be saved, so we say without doubt that those belonging to unbelievers are to be damned.

Again, it is asked here what is to be thought in a catholic manner about those men who inhabit the newly discovered islands in the great sea, of which there is no mention among the ancient cosmographers, and who, as we have been informed, have never heard anything at all about the Christian religion. A brief answer, conformable in all respects to the things written above, is given: because the truth has made absolutely no exception from damnation for anyone who does not believe, neither an islander, nor one not adjoining our world, nor anyone else, whether dwelling near or far away, but without distinction and without definition of persons, he concluded in a general saying: “He who believes and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has not believed shall be condemned,” Mark 16, “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 of God and men? 1 Timothy 2. By what means, except through faith formed in him who tasted death while innocent?

Since, therefore, no one is saved without faith, we cannot promise salvation to those ignorant of Christ, who, it is agreed, do not have faithful piety toward him. Accordingly, we must necessarily say that all are to be damned who do not believe in the Son of God, whether they have heard about him or are wholly ignorant of him. Yet we grant one thing: 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 performed repentance before death, they have been damned, or are to be damned, less severely than those who either hear of Christ and despise him, or have lived wickedly and basely among both groups. For God is just; he does injury to no one, but renders to each according to his works.

But 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 the Lord and Savior. of our Savior Jesus Christ. Original sin, if it is present in a human being alone, as in little children, unless it is removed through Christ, condemns the one who has it only to the punishment of loss, by which he is forever barred from the vision of God and from the enjoyment of the blessedness of the saints. But an adult who sins mortally will be punished after death with a twofold punishment, namely of loss and of sense, so that he both does not see God and, feeling without end the pains of the fire of Gehenna, never escapes.

Moreover, Jews and Saracens, and all the rest who hear of the faith of Christ and despise it, are without doubt damned to both the punishment of loss and the punishment of sense, whether otherwise they live innocently according to the law of nature, or the contrary. But among those who have never had any hearing of Christ, if any lived innocently according to the law of nature up to death, I do not think that they have supplied a cause by which they should be said or believed to be damned to the punishment of sense, although they are forever deprived of the vision of God, which theologians have called the punishment of loss. For no one will behold the face of God the almighty Father unless he has been reborn through faith in Christ.

Now let us bring our judgment to a conclusion against those who, when we assert these things catholicly according to the doctrine of Christ, object with foolish reflection: 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 human beings of the whole world today believes in our Lord Jesus Christ. The immeasurable curiosity of this question has often struck many; if their faith in Christ were firm, and their devotion fervent in love of him, they would not seek such unusual and difficult things.

For what man of such great learning or holiness is found among mortals that, apart from God himself, he could disclose to us the cause of the divine will? For the cause of God’s will is incomprehensible, since he himself is the cause of his own most righteous will, the eternal, 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, while all the rest perished in the inundation of waters? The cause of their perishing was sin; but that they were created had no other cause than the uncircumscribable goodness of God. That few were saved while many perished was a preceding figure, a mystery, and Noah’s ark was a sacrament of the Christian faith. For just as outside Noah’s ark all 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 much as pagans, heretics, and schismatics alike. The justice of God damns those whom his goodness created. But his mercy saves those whom grace has confirmed, because, as the holy Apostle says, “It is not of the one who wills, nor of the one 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 the human will, and we shall know that the will of God is just.

¶ On the miracles of unbelievers. Question Three.

Question Third

Good Christians work miracles through public righteousness; evil Christians, through signs of public righteousness; but unbelievers through private contracts with demons, namely implicit or explicit ones. Concerning the good the Lord said in the holy Gospel: “These signs shall follow those who believe: 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 hurt them. They shall lay hands upon the sick, and they shall be well.”

But concerning evil Christians who work miracles in the name of Jesus Christ, we read thus in the Gospel: “Many will say to me on that day: Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, and in your name cast out demons, and in your name done many mighty works? And then I will declare to them: I never knew you; depart from me, all you who work iniquity.”

Outside the Church of God, however, where the name of our Lord Jesus Christ is not invoked, if any marvels occur beyond the custom of nature or of human art, no good Christian doubts that they are done by the cooperation of demons. Your Caesar’s Serenity should therefore judge works of this kind to be called wonders rather than miracles, by a discernment of power. Nor does this judgment depart from the principle of truth, so that a necessary distinction may be maintained between prodigies of light and of darkness.

I find four producers of wonders, but I acknowledge one alone who truly works miracles in the principal sense: God, as the cause of all good things. Therefore the first and greatest producer of all wonders is God, who has 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, immense, and everlasting. All other things are beneath him, since whatever can happen wondrously in this world is certainly less than the whole world itself, which he was able to create out of nothing. Likewise every miracle that can be done through a human being is less than the human being 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, among mortals, almost become commonplace through the constancy of seeing them, nevertheless, if we look upon them wisely, they will appear greater and rarer than all unusual things. Now the manner in which God works miracles is the unchangeable will of God, which, since it is almighty, does all things whatsoever it has willed in heaven and 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 everlasting; therefore his miracles are incomparably greater than the rest. For greater than all the miracles of this world is the whole universe that we behold, and whatever is contained in it, created by the will of God. The unchangeable divine will, enduring, works all things, since it lacks both beginning and end. But whatever God wills, he always wills; because, since willing and being able are the same in him, it does not belong to the unchangeable one to labor.

Hence the creator of all things has displayed for both good and evil people all the universal miracles that he makes, so that they may be seen; and after the general ones, which have now become commonplace through use among mortals, he has also shown, in almost individual creatures, innumerable things especially worthy of wonder.

The second producer of miracles is the good angel, who very often works wonders among mortals both by natural power and by divine power. For those most blessed spirits are sent by divine ordinance into service for the faithful, Heb. 1, and they provide to both good and evil people the benefits that belong to nature; but to those alone who believe in God and in our Lord Jesus Christ they administer the gifts of saving grace. Hence there is no doubt that those miracles which are done by invocation of the divine name in the Church of the saints are displayed through their ministry and cooperation.

But the wonders of unbelievers, if any are done today or are read to have been done formerly, are either fabricated or falsely claimed, or are accomplished by the deception of demons. For it cannot happen that any unbelievers work miracles by the ministry of good angels, since where Christ Jesus, the Son of God, is not believed in, no signs of grace are displayed through good spirits to impious and reprobate human beings. Indeed, since they are obstinate in the error of false religion, if they have attained anything miraculous in their own estimation, there is no doubt at all that it is done through the ministry of demons. For since they are wholly unlike the good angels, they obtain no familiarity with them.

No despiser of the Christian faith can please God; rather, whoever is proved to displease almighty God is without doubt deprived of the familiarity of the holy angels. Yet by this we do not deny that every human being is entrusted to some good spirit, by whose ministry, even if he is an unbeliever in the Son of God, he receives the benefits of nature, although he does not reach the gifts of grace. But to those who believe in our Lord Jesus Christ, they confer not only the benefits of nature, but also administer the gifts of grace.

...they minister. It is therefore clear that if any miracles occur among unbelievers, they could not occur by God’s gift 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 a person 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. John 3.

Therefore everyone upon whom the wrath of God remains cannot please God; and so, if any wonders are done at his prayers, they should be believed to have been performed not by God’s power nor by the ministry of angels, but rather by the agency of demons. The third worker of wonders is the devil, who, like an ape, longs to imitate whatever he sees; and he 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 delude the senses of men, since it is agreed that by nature they were created subtler than all mortals. But they cannot know the thoughts of mortals except by a kind of conjecture, namely when we make our inward things manifest by certain signs. Demons foretell future things, and sometimes speak truths, sometimes they are deceived in their conjectures, and they deceive others. From the beginning of the world they have known certain signs that precede events, and by experience and practice with these they sometimes foretell truly what is going to happen; for when they have seen the signs known to them that precede an event, they at once conjecture what is in a person’s thought. Yet they very often deceive, because they themselves are deceived.

For when they are questioned about some matter that they do not know, for example whether or on what day a messenger sent far away will soon return, in the blink of an eye they immediately reach the place where they know him to be. When they see that he has already begun the journey back, they carefully count the day’s stages; and, returning at once to the questioner, they affirm that the absent man will certainly come on a fixed day. But if he either delays on the road or turns aside for other reasons, then the demons, deceived in their own judgment, must necessarily be wrong.

They gladly involve themselves in predictions, and they are quite ready to foretell future things to human beings for the sake of honor and esteem, because they especially desire to be regarded as worthy of admiration. They seek divine honors and greatly desire to be feared by mortals. Just as boys hiding in a secret place or running about in masks suddenly burst out from their hiding places and shake with unexpected terror their companions who suspect nothing of the sort, and then hide themselves again so as not to be recognized, and when they see the unknowing ones terrified they boast, as though they seemed to have gained great honor from this; after their example certain demons, more closely bound to the earth and very restless in their dealings around human beings, whom the ancients called bacucei, frighten people at night and seek nothing more from mortals than the esteem of divinity.

Hence also, in the presence of those before whom they are permitted to appear in some likeness, they sometimes perform various delusions; and they show themselves as terrifying in people’s minds, as occasion allows, whenever they can. They gladly take on the likeness of a human body, but they do not always find suitable airy matter with which to clothe themselves. Therefore they quite often appear monstrous and horrible, because they have not had suitable humors or vapors for the perfection of the appearance they wanted.

Moreover, the more they are bound to earthly substances, the duller they have become through the accident of matter. Hence, because of the ignorance 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... he says: It is granted to the devil sometimes to speak the truth, so that he may commend his lie by a rare truth; for if he never spoke the truth, he could deceive no one, and his deception would by no means suffice for tempting. It is therefore no wonder if demons sometimes seem to foretell true things to unbelieving people, since they were once able to offer prophecies among the Gentiles in idols. Nor is it any wonder if they sometimes provide treatment for the sick, since they know the natures of all herbs and can very easily apply them to the sick, either removing diseases which they had previously inflicted, or withdrawing for a time from the senses those which they inflict by their causes.

For almighty God, by the right of the imperial majesty of the universe, uses even the ministry of demons, both for the testing of the faithful and for the punishment of the impious. Since they are perverted in affection, obstinate and proud in their rebellion, they greatly desire divine esteem and honors; and therefore they gladly answer the invocations of unbelievers, which they are accustomed to pour out to their gods, as though they themselves were gods. They also seem among unbelievers to raise the dead to life, and they show wonders to curious people, so that, confirmed by miracles, they may render them altogether obstinate in their former error. But they do not truly raise the dead, ## Question Three

but deceive human senses in various ways. For either they themselves enter the corpses of the dead and carry them about for a time as though alive, or, after these have been taken away to a more remote place, they present to the onlookers for viewing some likeness in the appearance of the life of the deceased, as the experience of certain people has informed us.

We believe it is clear that demons can show, in a certain false likeness, everything whatever that the saints do as miracles in truth. All the miracles of demons are either phantasms or things done by a certain natural skill. For if human beings experienced in the more hidden mysteries of nature, by a certain application of matter to form that is concealed from others, produce unusual and wondrous 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 things, as experiment has made us tested in many cases, who will deny that demons, of subtler nature and greater experience, can perform more wonders of natural things which are evident to no human being?

But the fourth worker of miracles is the human being, who works wonders in four ways, which to those who know neither the cause nor the manner do not seem human. And first, indeed, by invocation of the divine name, when the merit of accepted holiness joins with faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. In this way the holy apostles and their imitators, by the power of God together with the merit of holiness in the unity of faith, performed miracles. But unbelievers cannot perform miracles in this way, since they do not walk the necessary path of faith toward salvation. For even though very many of them believe in God, nevertheless, because they refuse to believe in the mediator of God and human beings, they have gone very far away from God’s mercy.

But all things, as the holy Gospel promises, are possible for those who believe in God and our Lord Jesus Christ, that is, for those who adorn right faith also with holy works. Indeed, just as without faith it is impossible to please God, so also faith without works is dead. For almighty God would grant us everything that we ask in the faith of Christ, if we did everything according to the faith that we owe. Believe firmly, and act faithfully, and you will always obtain everything.

Second, a human being performs miracles through likeness to angelic purity. For the more our mind, confirmed in the faith of Jesus Christ, becomes purer through love, the more, having been made like the holy angels, it will attain greater familiarity with them. Whoever, however, has obtained complete familiarity with the holy angels ...familiarity, he will, whenever he wishes, shine forth in miracles, by God’s gift. For the holy angels reveal to pure men who are 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 is united with Christ through grace is refreshed by the frequent visitation of angels; and often, when necessity demands, he is made illustrious by signs and powers through their ministry.

This is why those oppressed by various illnesses also betake themselves to the aid of the saints; and, turning over in their minds the promises of the Lord, they obtain by the merits of others what they cannot obtain by their own. Their holy devotion in the faith of Christ receives salvation from the Lord, because, aided by the purity of their own conscience and supported by the merit of another’s holiness, it rises, not rashly, in sure hope.

Miracles are done in the Church of God by divine power in a threefold respect or means. For sometimes Almighty God works a miracle through the ministry of angels solely by the merits of the worker himself, just as Saint Martin healed a blind man and a lame man against their will. Sometimes miracles are done solely by the merit of the sufferer, as we read that many were cured by 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, namely of the sufferer and of the worker together, as Christ says to someone in the holy Gospel: “If you can believe, all things are possible to the 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 because he could not do any mighty work there because of their unbelief. But none of these things takes place among unbelievers, where neither holiness is found in the worker nor orthodox faith in the sufferer.

Third, therefore, man works miracles through the cooperation of diabolical wickedness as an intermediary. And this can happen in three ways: namely by manifest invocation of demons, by implication, and by supposition. By manifest invocation, necromancers and little women whom we commonly call witches do wondrous things; through likeness of depraved will they have passed into fellowship with demons. For just as in the Church of God the sacraments are signs of the invisible grace of the spirit of holiness, so in the school of demons certain characters and modes of invocation are marks of a pact between a man and a malignant spirit.

Hence, when signs of demons are presented through works of witchcraft, malignant spirits, once invoked, are accustomed to appear willingly and to display both horrible works of witchcraft and certain wonders. But witches and necromancers produce wondrous effects by invocation of demons in different ways. Witches are subject to demons by a certain kind of profession; by their ministry they disturb the air, raise storms, devastate crops, and make men and beasts ill. They carry on foul commerce of the filthiest pleasure with demons, and by pernicious spells they call back from the lower world into sight whomever they wish. Their deeds should not be called miracles, but rather works of witchcraft, and they deservedly ought to be punished by the ultimate penalty.

Necromancers, however, subject themselves to demons not by manifest profession, but by an implicit condition, when they claim that they compel them to appear visibly in a circle not only by conjurations and the display of characters, but also by sacrifices, fumigations, and vows. Their crimes are infinite, since they all manifestly conspire into fellowship with demons, whether implicitly or explicitly. Although necromancers are not all equal either in art or in deed, nevertheless to their own destruction and damnation... they are all agreed in damnable curiosity, by which they desire, through the support of demons, to obtain what they cannot discover naturally. All their works and volumes are full of superstitions and impiety, and for this reason they must be banished 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 long ago turned almost all Asia, both Greater and Lesser, 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 occur in one of these ways, when the definite root of the worker is established.

Today, moreover, there are many among Christians who are devoted to the works of demons: enchanters, witches, and men reprobate concerning the faith, who deceive many by excessive curiosity and promise impossibilities by their arts. But by the involvement of demons wondrous things sometimes occur, whenever, that is, a man not sufficiently and rightly grounded in the faith does or desires something other than befits a Christian, even if he does not believe it to be any sin; and although this ought not to happen, nevertheless the devil, intruding himself, often supplies the desired effect.

Such is that which those suffering from spasms commonly use. On the sacred day of Parasceve they make a ring of any metal during the office, and afterward always wear it on the heart-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 of spasm by this same vanity. Likewise, I know that certain very strong locks have been opened by 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 innumerable similar things that I have seen and heard; what else are their manifest effects but certain miracles of demons? Finally, there are some excessively curious people who stubbornly place faith and confidence in characters, slips of paper, rings, figures, necklaces, and unknown words, and often obtain wondrous effects. We do not doubt in the least that the devil has supplied these, not by the merit of holiness nor by the mercy granted by God, but rather by faithless credulity. For demons, having the greatest envy of the human race, readily come to the vain operations of the impious in order to destroy the souls of mortals. For what else are characters and interpretations of hidden names but certain foods and drinks of demons? Whoever places faith in characters promising wondrous 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 spare their betters, use many and various superstitions in their daily actions; and in these implicit pacts with demons are equated, to the dishonor of the Christian faith and to their own condemnation. And because these evils have now multiplied excessively among Christians, the Almighty has withdrawn his hand and handed them over into the power of a faithless people, so that they may feel them as exactors of punishments, since by imitation they served persistently not the living and true God, but vain superstitions.

Moreover, we shall clearly recognize that wondrous things are done by the substitution of demons, if we inquire into the truth more carefully. Jews, Saracens, pagans, or gentiles, who do not believe in our God Jesus Christ, if they perform any miracles, we believe these are done not by the power of God, not by the ministry of angels, not by the merit of holiness, but by the substitution of demons. For whenever they invoke almighty God, in whose only-begotten Son they do not believe, for the mercy of some wondrous effect, the devil, knowing that because there is no salvation for sinners, and because the Most High does not hear unbelieving sinners, secretly presents himself in place of the God who has been invoked; and, if he can, with the Lord permitting it, he grants to their prayers what is requested. The devil uses this substitution all the more freely insofar as he is less hindered by the faith of 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. Hence, blinded in their errors, they invoke God, in whose Son they do not believe; and when he disdains to hear them while they remain under wrath, the devil, the false worker of miracles, comes near. Thus they believe the devil’s mockeries, who scorn to believe the true miracles of God. From demons they receive false miracles suited to their errors, because they have refused to believe the truth, that is, Christ. For there are many among those unbelievers who worship one God, the creator of all things, do not adore idols, and firmly believe that they will be saved in their own faith. But because they scorn to believe the mysteries of the Lord’s incarnation, the wrath of God remains upon them; and they vanish away in their follies, thinking God near to them, while in those things in which they do not believe rightly, they are subjected to demons. Therefore, putting faith in false miracles, they are confirmed in their errors by a lie. It may not be irksome to introduce, O Caesar, a likeness of this matter. There was a certain man, a keeper of swine, who had enclosed in a staff a little written sheet containing the name of the blessed martyr Blasius. He placed so much faith in it that, when the staff was fixed in the ground in the middle of the herd, he believed every wolf was prevented from approaching. When this foolish confidence had at length been strengthened by long experience, the man went securely wherever he wished, leaving the swine in the wood without danger, since no wolf now had access to them. It happened that a passerby saw this in the shepherd’s absence; and, perceiving that a demon had charge of guarding the herd, he said to him: “What are you doing here, wretched one?” He answered: “I am guarding these swine.” The other said: “Who entrusted the care of the swine to you?” Again he answered: “The foolish confidence of the shepherd. For he thinks that a certain little sheet enclosed in the staff is of great power, by which, through the merits of some Blasius, wolves are kept away from the swine. But he has sinned against his own law and follows our vanities. Therefore, since the one invoked does not appear, I, lest the man lose his confidence, guard his swine and willingly substitute myself for Blasius.” Thus, he said, mortals trouble us with vain conjurations, so that unless we wish to lose our reputation and honor among them, it is altogether necessary that we very often come to the aid of their foolish invocations. By a likeness of this fact demons deceive miserable unbelievers, and the miracles that they ask of God in prayer are often obtained by the substitution of the more malign spirits. For in those things that concern the worship or honor of God, demons gladly thrust themselves in; and those who cannot obtain manifest honors are, of course, delighted by hidden ones. At the same time it should be noted that from the beginning of the world miracles of outstanding excellence have never been lacking to any religion or sect, although they have not all been done from one principle. For whatever miracles were done in the true religion were done from no other source than God. The law of nature had its miracles; the written law had them; and now grace also has them. Almighty God, who gave religion, himself also works 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 since God is truth, he did not establish false religions; and therefore he has 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 also gave the miracle, when permission was secretly received from [unclear]. he could display a false one to the deceived. Hence, if miracles had been wholly lacking to Muhammad as he was persuading an uncultivated people to a new religion, perhaps no one would have put faith in him. For he too, both by the subtlety of his intellect and by the cooperation of the devil, showed certain wonders to the peoples, so that he might seem to have confirmed a new doctrine also by new miracles.

Miracles were not lacking even to pagan idolaters, if we do not deny 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, those who 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 perform any wonders today, they are the works of demons and manifest signs of error.

For demons keep watch with the greatest zeal so that those men whom they have once made to wander from the way of truth, which is Christ, they may, by continuing their fraud, make obstinate in error even unto death. Indeed, when God for just reason withdraws his grace from unbelievers, their deceiver, the malignant spirit, approaches unrecognized; and, when he sees that salvation is far away, by false miracles he seduces the minds of the ignorant as though he were the Lord present, that is, as though he were the Lord, and seduces the minds of the ignorant. Therefore whatever miracles belong to unbelievers are the works of demons, because, 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, lying hidden in ambush, long since defeated 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 some who add a fourth to the three modes set forth above, saying that the mind, or the spirit of the human being itself, can naturally perform wonders, provided that it knows how to recall itself from every adventitious thing back into itself, above sense, into unity. For those who assert such things promise to do wonders of nature, to predict the future, to disclose people’s secrets, to remove diseases, and suddenly to change people’s plans. But this mode of miracles cannot be simply natural, certain, common, and infallible; for if it is true, which I have not experienced, it is necessary that something of an external power should now intervene, and that either a good angel or a malignant spirit should occupy the one thinking in some part. But if none of the external powers mingles itself in, the one prophesying must form the principle of his speaking either from conjectures or from bold presumption, and must pronounce a judgment sometimes true and sometimes false. Indeed, as long as the spirit is engaged in the body, it naturally understands nothing without the ministry of sense. Hence I would not wholly oppose them if they grant that our confused and unformed intellect is aided by an equal ministry.

For we see among those who, contemplating the measure of the flesh, often pass beyond themselves because of an inner love and desire for Jesus, that they are lifted upward from the earth into the air; and we think that they exceed bodily weight not merely by their own keenness of mind, but also by divine power. Therefore the three principles of the aforementioned opinion, unknown to many, in my judgment satisfy few, namely, that the mind, while placed in the body, should by its own power produce wonderful effects outside itself.

For 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 together with me, I report a thing experienced. When I was pursuing the studies of letters as a youth, one night four of us were sleeping in one bed. A contemporary of mine rose from my side while asleep, as he was accustomed to do, and, with his eyes closed and the fifteenth-day moon shining in, walked about through the whole house as though awake. He climbed walls and surpassed the agility of cats. He also ascended the roof easily and [unclear] Still asleep, he crossed over; he stepped on all of us with his feet, and we felt his weight no more than if a tiny mouse had touched us. Wherever his sleeping body moved, all the fastenings of the doors immediately opened of their own accord. He passed through the higher parts of the house with the greatest speed, and, like a sparrow, clung to the roofs.

I speak of things seen, not heard by vague report. These seem to be offices of the soul, not of the body; by its natural power, so to speak, it uses them almost freely when, the senses of the flesh being bound, it wanders outside the dwelling-place of the body. But since this matter is not in every respect suited to the question proposed, let us defer the treatment of the causes of these marvels to another time. For we do not think such things marvelous to the wise, who have very well understood the power and nobility of the human mind, since, hindered only by the interposition of the body, it is in some respect judged equal to the angels.

Finally, we pass over the various modes and kinds of fascinations, by which a frenzied person works very threatening effects upon external things. The imagination of one who is most strongly confident can also do much toward producing marvelous effects, whether it is directed toward a true object or toward an object merely supposed. Hence, since there are so many kinds and modes of working wonders, it is not surprising if Jews, Jews, Saracens, pagans, gentiles, and the rest who are placed outside the faith of Christ, whatever unbelievers they may be, since they cannot perform miracles by public righteousness, carry out marvels either by the assistance 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 done not by the power of the Creator, but rather by the involvement or supposition of the devil. Whoever truly believes that the Christian faith alone is true does not doubt that all the miracles of unbelievers are accomplished through the cooperation of demons. But if anyone rashly and obstinately thinks the contrary, he shows himself to be an unbeliever, not a Christian.

On Sacred Scripture.

Question Four

Question Fourth

The fourth question of your most serene Majesty was this: Why did almighty God not give sacred Scripture, containing the mysteries of our faith, of the New Testament as well as the Old, open, manifest, uniform in all things, and plainly sufficient for all things, but rather wrapped up, and in many places full of enigmas? For many things are necessary for the more perfect understanding of the faith which are not found sufficiently expressed in the divine Scriptures.

To this most sacred question of your Majesty it seems one must reply: Every Scripture divinely inspired is a perfect work of divinity, foreordained before all time, written in time, in no other way than God willed, who inspired men that it should be written. All the works of God are perfect; and therefore, since the Scripture of which we are speaking is a work of God, it is necessary to confess it perfect in all things.

For God, the supreme judge, whose works are all perfect, bestowed upon his Scriptures, in order, what he willed and as he willed; and he undoubtedly infused them into those receiving them, so that they might be written in due measure. Almighty God bestowed such authority and majesty upon sacred Scripture that, in comparison with it, all the words of this world fail, since divine things cannot properly be comprehended by human speech.

Therefore divine Scripture, which on the surface of its verses may appear confused to the unlearned, seems manifest to those who understand it; and unless one reads it by that Spirit by which it is believed to have been infused into men, one by no means arrives at its very understanding. Otherwise The learned man who burns under the cover of the flesh and with vain desires reads it in one way; the man whom the love of God truly inflames, stripped of pleasures, understands it in another. Hence it is no wonder if men who think carnally do not understand the divine Scriptures, since, blinded by the pleasures of the flesh, they have never perceived the sweetness of the Spirit of God.

It is just as if you were to show to a boy learning the first elements of letters some written volume whose script was unlike that of his own little book: when he could not read it, he would at once cry out that the writing was bad and not properly formed. In the same way, men who approach the reading of the divine Scriptures while thinking only carnally, and who do not grasp the things that belong to the divine Spirit, weighed down by vices and rashness, although they ought to have blamed their own ignorance and unworthiness, reproach the holy Scriptures because they do not understand them.

For it is not lawful for everyone indiscriminately to interpret the divine Scriptures, lest the beast that touches the mountain be overwhelmed with stones. Now many arise, in a perverse order, who have spent the whole time of their life on humane letters, and when they have become old men, by wrongly interpreting the divine Scriptures which they have never learned, they do not explain them but confound them, and discuss them according to their own sense. From this comes the fact that whoever do not understand the sacred Scriptures in the Spirit by which they were infused into those who wrote them have the veil of ignorance and rashness spread over their hearts, in the manner of the Jews, and very often draw from them the poison of pernicious error, from which the humble, approaching in the Spirit of God, have received the cup of salvation.

For heavenly doctrine is not found in the words of Scripture, but in its meaning; not on the surface of its expressions, but in the understanding; not in the leaves of ornate speech, but in the hidden place of mystical inspiration. Hence the divine pope Gregory says: “Sacred Scripture far surpasses all the sciences of this world in its manner of speaking, since in one and the same discourse, while it narrates the text, it discloses a hidden mystery; and just as it refreshes the simple on the surface, so it exercises the wise with mystery. For it has in public what may nourish little ones, and it preserves in secret what may suspend the minds of the exalted in admiration of its sweetness, like a certain wonderful 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 laughs at the proud, by its depth it terrifies the attentive, by its virtue it feeds the great, and by its affability it nourishes little ones.” Greater indeed is the authority of sacred Scripture than all the perspicacity of human intellect. Therefore, in order that one may come to their true understanding, the mind must first be cleansed of every carnal affection, and the aid of divine goodness must be earnestly implored with humility, so that by his Spirit he may illumine the understanding of the learner. For to the authority of the divine Scriptures the necks of all powers must be submitted.

And as the divine Jerome says: “One must never flatter a man in such a way that the truth of the holy Scriptures is neglected; for in both Testaments it is wholly true in the narration of deeds, right in its admonitions, certain in its promises, and terribly to be feared in its threats.”

For this reason it has not been granted to all to be able to penetrate the mysteries of the divine Scriptures, but it is permitted only to those to whom both love gives continuity of study and the Spirit of God grants true understanding in purified minds. But whoever is befouled by the darkness of vices, whoever walks proudly with a swollen mind, whoever doubts the truth of the Scriptures of God either in part or in whole, should never trust that he can attain to understanding them. For the authority of Scripture itself says: “Unless you believe, you will not understand.” Ours is the slowness It is the slowness of our intelligence and the impurity of our desire whenever we do not understand the divine Scriptures rightly, since the veil of pernicious occupation remains spread over our hearts and does not allow us to arrive at true understanding. Hence it happens that we do not understand the meaning which the Holy Spirit infused into the divine Scriptures, but, grasping the bare words of the writers, twist them into another meaning.

Indeed, if our minds were cleansed of carnal vices; if, through the continual practice of sobriety, our intelligence were exercised in the Scriptures; if faith and reverence were shown to the holy Scriptures as their dignity requires, every diligent student would understand more clearly than light that there is nothing confused in the sacred readings, nothing discordant, nothing unfitting, nothing absurd, or inserted without the most just reason.

For all the passages of divine Scripture are full of mysteries; and whenever anything in them seems to be set down obscurely, it was done by divine providence, so that the studious mind might have the necessary exercise of devotion, and the faith of the simple might not lose its place of due reverence. Therefore it was not by chance, but by everlasting providence, that God wished the holy Scriptures to be obscure in many places, so that they might abound in as many mysteries as there are meanings to be explained in a Catholic manner by teachers under the inspiration of the Spirit of God. For, as Saint Augustine says, the obscurity of divine Scripture is useful and very profitable, because it brings forth many statements of truth and produces them into the light for human beings; for when one person draws out this meaning, and another draws out another, in expounding it in a Catholic manner, it becomes known how high and profound Scripture is.

Therefore let no man swollen with secular learning suppose that he understands sacred Scripture unless he first lays aside the veil of pride and of every disordered desire. For secular learning is of more value for exercising the intelligence than for enlightening the understanding toward true wisdom.

Thus without doubt divine Scripture is clear and manifest to minds purified through continual exercise of the fear of God and frequent study of reading; yet to the filthy and to those puffed up with secular wisdom it seems confused and obscure. Therefore the man who understands the holy Scriptures well and rightly is the one who, with purified affection and frequent in the study of them, expounds them as did the one who wrote them. For if they read in a spirit other than that by which the Scriptures are believed to have been inspired so that they might be written, the mind must necessarily be wholly shut away from true understanding.

But when we encounter some dissonance in them, let us understand that it belongs only to the words, not to the meanings; and that these things arise not by chance, but by the providence of God and in orderly fashion, so that the mind, exercised in the Scriptures, may be strengthened for a longer time and not grow wholly sluggish.

For God’s counsel cannot be deceived; but since the divine Scriptures were written according to the counsel of his will, it necessarily follows that they are true and in no way false. They were human beings by whom the divine Scriptures were handed down to us; certainly they wrote words used according to human custom, 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 secular wisdom and attack the divine Scriptures, say this: from where do you believe the Church received the Scripture of the New and Old Testament, which it has accepted and venerates as true, authoritative, and holy Christian Scripture? From God, or from human beings? If from God, why do you not believe it? For everyone who attacks Scripture which he believes to have been inspired by God very plainly resists divine ordinance. But if it is from human beings, why do you hope for the eternal salvation promised in it, which a human being cannot give?

Unless perhaps, in your madness, you go on to say that all things are inventions, and that nothing remains after death except ashes, and that the mind undergoes destruction together with the body; such a profession would show you to be no less insane than foolish. For if you truly believe in our Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, If you believe, you will necessarily say that the divine Scriptures were inspired by the Holy Spirit. But if, having fallen with apostates into a reprobate mind, you say that they were composed by human beings, you impiously show how far you are from true wisdom, wandering in darkness.

You openly show yourselves to be ignorant and rash judges, since you condemn a Scripture that you do not understand. Truly, 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 unskilled. This one thing I want 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, you therefore do not have the true understanding of wisdom.

Almighty and eternal God deigns, as enlightener, to be present by 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 has found rooted in the love of truth; and, once they have been purified from every foreign thing, he leads them into the knowledge of all things.

For truly, to those who love God, all things are open, all things bare, all things manifest; for whoever, through love, beholds in the faith of Jesus Christ the one who creates and governs all things, knows all things that are necessary for his salvation.

But on the contrary, the enlightenment of God dwells very far from the slothful, the wicked, gluttons, the envious, the greedy, those given to concubinage, the filthy, the lustful, murderers, the impious, the proud, and those alien to piety, leaving them to the judgment of the avenging demon, who, driving in the sharp point of savage fire, afflicts the senses and the mind, and arms and drives the impious still more toward committing crimes, so that, guilty of a more shameful fault, they may also be liable to a harsher punishment.

Hence those entangled in vices, desires, and worldly things not only cannot penetrate the divine Scriptures by understanding, but, neglecting even themselves, they do not know themselves. Since, therefore, sacred Scripture is the perfect work of God, Caesar, we must so strengthen the mind that we believe it to be true, right, whole, solid, divinely inspired, and most abundantly sufficient for all who understand it for the confirmation of the Christian faith.

Indeed, unless divine Scripture is believed to be true, holy, perfect in all things, and whole, 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 overstep the boundaries of piety, because the author of Scripture is not a human being, but the Holy Spirit; and whoever struggles against the integrity of the Scriptures of God is convicted of resisting his ordinance.

Now Scripture, by the ordinance of God, is usefully woven together with parables, riddles, likenesses, and comparisons of figures, so that readers may be exercised toward understanding, and, once its inner sweetness has been tasted, the mind may be strengthened toward piety. And so, if with purified minds we attend to the sense of the Scriptures and not merely to the words, we shall understand that all things have been ordered rightly and properly.

For it was not fitting that the sacred Scriptures, in which the knowledge of the divine majesty is handed down, should be so common and manifest as to be understood everywhere by all, since it is set forth to be understood only by the good and holy, not by evil, filthy, and polluted minds. For hence it is written: “The beast that touches the mountain shall be overwhelmed with stones.” What is designated here by the beast, unless human beings who live in the manner of brute animals, without the love of God, in the pleasures of the flesh? And what is expressed by the mountain, unless the height of the divine Scriptures? When a beast approaches this holy mountain, it is overwhelmed with stones, because a human being impure in mind, or weak in faith, who strives to search out the height of the divine Scriptures without a teacher handing it down, [unclear] with various and pernicious [unclear].

He is wounded by errors of this kind as though by blows of stones. For just as all things are clean to the clean, so all things seem profane to the profane. Timothy 6. God therefore placed his hiding place in the height of the Scriptures, Psalm 17, which is so inaccessible and closed to the reprobate that it nevertheless always lies plainly open to the saints.

But why did almighty God not give holy Scripture as sufficient and manifest for everything that concerns 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 what is not expressed clearly enough in the one may be declared more fully by the other. Hence, if we find anything in the holy Scriptures expressed less sufficiently concerning the rules of faith, 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 the Church have authority without Scripture, nor Scripture faith without the Church, so that from the two one judgment may be made.

For Augustine says: “I would not believe the Gospel unless the authority of the Church compelled me.” But John Gerson says: “I would not believe the Church unless the Gospel compelled me.” Moreover, the holy Scripture confirms the Church, and it in like manner is confirmed by Scripture. The Church abounds whenever Scripture is lacking; and if the Church has any doubt, it returns to the counsel of Scripture. For there is one Holy Spirit of God, who founded the Church in the faith of Jesus Christ, the very same almighty one who alone inspired Scripture. And this is the threefold cord which is not easily broken, where divine Scripture through the Holy Spirit is joined to the authority of the Church, to such an extent that the Church commends Scripture, and Scripture in turn commends the Church.

And so, O Caesar, it seems to me that we have assigned a sufficient reason, for your unconquered Majesty, for the question proposed: because if all things that concern the piety of faith were clearly expressed in the holy Scriptures, then our chosen mother Church would not possess so great an authority, and the merit of saving obedience would be emptied out in large part. At the same time, I think that enough has been answered for the principal question, where certain people judge sacred Scripture to be confused and tangled in very many places. Yet if they read it with due purity of mind, they would certainly find it perfect and solid.

Great is the authority of the catholic Church, which alone, in doubtful matters concerning those things that regard the faith, has the right to interpret the Scriptures, and to which the necks of all powers must be subjected. If anyone departs from its definition with rash daring, he has denied the Gospel of Christ. The congregation of the faithful, the holy Church, mother of Christians, is one; outside its unity no one will be saved. And although it may at times seem weak in morals, nevertheless, with the piety of Christ preserved, it has always remained constant in faith and has never erred.

On the Reprobate and Maleficent

Question Five

Your fifth question, most serene Highness, was this: why impious, evil, and reprobate people with respect to the faith, such as those women whom we commonly call witches, are able to command malignant spirits, while good men and most zealous observers of the Christian faith cannot command even good spirits, nor always malignant ones? I remember having answered this question some time ago in this way.

In all the works of the divine Majesty there is a sequence and order of beauty, of immovable equity, by which individual things, suitably disposed, remain in the rank they have received. For without its proper order nothing subsists in the world. In this order, the freedom of the will, which the Creator of all gave to human beings, cannot, by any violence of a power compelling it, be prevented from remaining remain in the order that the first human being received from the beginning of his creation. Hence no one among mortals is good except by the counsel of his own will, aided by the grace of the merciful God; and no one is evil except by his own accord, deprived of grace because of the obstacle of sin. By uprightness of will we are made like the good spirits, if by holy and necessary works we prove the piety of the faith that we have in Christ. And just as the consummation of a good will makes good people equal to angelic spirits, so the perversity of the impious makes them like demons. Hence evil and perverse people, the more they have been depraved by the malice of their own will, become so much the more like demons in affection.

Through likeness, moreover, the familiarity of friendship is introduced, from which mutual confidence is gradually generated. From the confidence of the lesser in the greater arises command, whether it is true or simulated by cunning. Therefore, if wicked people seem to have any command over demons, it arises from the greatness of their depravity: namely, when their affection is so far depraved, and by a reprobate will they either surpass or equal the malice of the demons that join with them. For demons are not all equal in malice or in intelligence; rather, one is much craftier than another in quickness of understanding, and far worse in depraved affection. For those who, falling from their high seats, are more closely joined to the earth and inhabit caves and caverns are certainly duller than the others, to such a degree that they fear swords and rods, and seem to be moved by the threats of men who terrify them, as may be observed in those whom we call the possessed. But the demons who dwell farther away from the earth are subtler by nature and meet with human beings more rarely.

People full of malice, however, the more they advance in perversity of will, become so much the more like demons. Once admitted by them into familiarity, they then become bold, and receive over the demons whose familiarity they enjoy a command not of violent power, but of feigned simulation. For demons, in order to keep those people whom they have once received into surrender voluntary in their depravity, gladly subject themselves to them, as though moved by a simulated domination, and what they do willingly they pretend to do as though compelled to obedience. Indeed, no one obtains true command over demons unless faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, through the merit of holiness, has made him acceptable and dear to God. Thus, concerning those who truly believe in the Lord Jesus, Scripture says: “And he gave them power over all demons.” Therefore evil people command demons: people whom malevolence has made like them, likeness has made familiar to them, and familiarity has made their own and subject to them. It is as if, with a great prince, as often happens, some servant born in a humble station, joined to him by long familiarity, is said to command him, because he obtains from him, without contradiction, everything he has asked for, so that he seems more to rule his lord than to be ruled by him.

In accordance with this likeness, evil and reprobate people, who are admitted by demons into heartfelt familiarity and become very bold through prolonged confidence, receive over them a simulated, not to say familiar, command, which they have merited by likeness of a most depraved will. Hence whatever they request from demons who join with them by an agreement, whether implicit or explicit, they receive, unless at times, by divine ordinance, the demons are forbidden and cannot provide what is asked. Yet they do not everywhere join in this way with all reprobate and evil people, but only with those with whom, through the intervention of some compact, they have entered into covenants: such as witches, who have rendered homage to the devil, and those invokers of demons whom in common usage we call necromancers.

... whom the common people call necromancers.

There are two kinds of men who can lawfully command demons. The first is that of those men who, beloved by God through the merit of holiness, have received from him the power to trample 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 is that of those men to whom, by reason of their order in the Church of God, it is granted to drive demons from human bodies by the power of the ministry they have received. And this ministry is entrusted to exorcists in the Church of God when, that is, they are ordained by the bishop.

Again, there are two kinds of men who desire to command demons; and the utterly wicked conditions they accept show how unlawfully they presume to do so. The first and most pernicious kind is that of witches, who enter into pacts with demons and, after making a solemn profession, hand themselves over to some demon as his property and for perpetual service. What great evils this most pernicious kind of human beings commits in your empire, most wise Caesar, no one can express.

For first of all, denying God, the faith of Christ, and sacred baptism, they offer themselves in mind and body to demons; by their witchcraft they sicken, harm, and kill men and livestock. There is no disease which, God permitting, they cannot bring on, because, when in observance of the covenanted pact they present themselves as servants to demons, by alliance with them they dare whatever they wish.

Therefore they are not to be tolerated anywhere, 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 summon demons by spells; others entice them by prayers and sacrifices; the rest, provoking them by unspeakable acts and ceremonies, draw them into the service of their impiety.

It is therefore no wonder that witches seem to command demons, to whom they have become like through the impiety of a perverse will, and with whom they are in harmony through mutual association for the harm of the human race.

The second kind of depraved men who desire to command demons is that of those whom we commonly call necromancers. They profess arts full of execrations, by which they promise that they can summon demons into a circle, or show them openly visible, enclosed in a crystal or some other vessel. These most pernicious men, full of lying and superstition, commit such great evils that no good person could imagine them. For, in order to entice demons into obedience to themselves, they generally use the most shameful sacrifices and enter into an explicit pact with them.

They carry about many varied little books full of filth, impiety, and falsehood, falsely inscribed with the names of ancient philosophers and wise men; by displaying these they deceive many unwary and curious people and drag them with themselves into the pit of demons. They promise great and almost incredible things, and by hearing these things men are deceitfully held suspended in wonder.

They say that by rings, pentacles, images, exorcisms, and conjurations they can compel malignant demons to appear visibly in a circle, or in a crystal, or in some other receptacle, and to answer distinctly all questions put to them. Indeed all of them promise this, but in our times very few are found to whom malignant spirits, even evil ones, are obedient in this way, since God, by a most just reason, does not permit it, lest the curiosity of men, prone to novelties, after despising the religion of Christ...

...would seek aid from demons in time of need. But all those whom malignant spirits obey when summoned by the conjurations of necromancers have without doubt passed into their fellowship through an explicit or implicit pact. The number of the rest, however, is greater: those whom malignant spirits disdain to obey, although they are not afraid to occupy themselves at all times with the profane arts of necromancers.

And because, especially in our times, iniquity has begun to abound and the charity of many has grown cold, these accursed and most deceitful men have become very powerful. Although they are despised by demons, nevertheless, persisting in their pernicious doctrines, they deceive many. Believe me, Caesar, this most deceitful class of men is very harmful to your holy empire, and therefore, no less than the brood of witches, must be utterly exterminated.

They promise great things, and they lie in everything. Indeed, all the things promised in their books are empty and false, and they provide those who believe them nothing except tricks, frauds, and the most subtle deceptions. But if at times they seem to produce what they have promised, it should be clear to everyone that this happens only through the cooperation of demons, from whose fellowship one must flee no less than from the most savage torments of hell. For demons very often attend these necromantic operations, and, in order to keep their invokers obstinate in the treachery they have begun, they grant them what they ask, if they can. Yet sometimes, when summoned by conjurations, they disdain to appear, and nevertheless they have led away the minds of those who invoke them.

There is also another kind of men, no less foolish than superstitious: those, namely, who do not wish to have any commerce with demons, and nevertheless use in their vain operations things assigned to demons and, for that reason, wholly illicit. For they think that there is great and hidden power in characters, and therefore they commit various errors against the faith of Christ. But since this is not the time to recount their madness, let us pursue our subject.

Why good and just men do not obtain command over demons must now be stated briefly. Just as likeness of wills makes evil and impious men peers of demons, so unlikeness of wills renders good and just men wholly opposed to them. Between opposites and those unlike one another there can be no familiar association; rather, continual opposition and hatred prevail. But where no familiarity contracted through likeness of wills is found, there can be neither confidence of one toward another nor a mutual marvelous concurrence in operation. Nor do you, glorious Caesar, a man who 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.

Good and upright men, because they always oppose the most depraved will of demons, can in no way pass into their fellowship, since they neither wish nor consent to be familiar with them, but with all their strength flee from and detest encounter with them. Therefore they do not obtain over them that fictitious command of which we have spoken. For no familiarity is secure unless likeness of wills has preceded it; nor can there be harmony between opposites, nor friendship between those of unlike will.

Nor do demons everywhere obey all evil and reprobate people, but only those whom they have bound to themselves by pacts and services; and when invoked by those whom they cannot otherwise have as faithful servants, they freely come, although they falsely say that they are compelled. It is therefore not to be wondered at, excellent Caesar, that malignant spirits sometimes seem to submit to depraved and perverse men. to obey men whom, as we say, malice has made like themselves, and destructiveness toward the human race has made to be in agreement with them. But far be it from every Christian to wish to command demons through a depraved likeness of will; for if anyone begins in this life to have fellowship with malignant spirits, in the future he will burn with them without end.

But why can good and just men not command the holy angels of God, into whose likeness of good will they have passed? I think that from what has already been said the solution of this question would easily be given, if the difference of understandings is recalled to mind. For although many men are established in the Church of God whose righteousness benefits many unto salvation, nevertheless very few in our times advance so far that, by the merit of holiness, they are either feared by demons or received by angels into the fellowship of familiarity. Hence it happens that men of our age neither command malignant spirits by merit of holiness, nor deserve to be familiar with the holy angels. But if any have advanced to that degree of holiness by which, performing miracles in the Church, the saints once advanced, then they are already able powerfully both to command demons and to 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 by the cooperation of good spirits than the impiety of depraved men could ever have inflicted harms by the ministry of demons. For whoever, as a true worshiper of God, has become like the holy angels can do many wondrous things by prayers.

On the Power of Witches.

Question Six

Question Sixth

The sixth question of your unconquered Majesty was: Whence comes this power so great in witches, by which they can accomplish so many various and wondrous things, even in one hour, such and so great things as none of the good could do in his whole life? To this question, if we wish to answer briefly, we must necessarily say that all power is from the Lord God, without whom no creature can do anything.

For he says in the holy Gospel of Christ: 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 nowhere else, whether human beings do good or do evil. Hence the most holy Father Augustine says: The will of God is the first and highest cause of all bodily forms and motions, and nothing happens visibly in this whole, most ample and immense commonwealth of creation that is not either commanded or permitted from the inner, invisible, and intelligible court of the supreme Emperor, according to the ineffable justice of rewards and punishments.

Therefore there is no doubt, Caesar, that that power of witches, by which, with the cooperation of demons, they produce wondrous and horrifying effects, is granted by the Lord God, whose will no one can resist, and without whose influence a human being cannot even move his hand. For the holy doctors conclude that neither demons nor witches can do anything, whether to harm a human being or a beast, unless almighty God wills it, consents to it, and grants the power, so that he may do what he has determined beforehand by his will. Unless God consents and wills, no creature has any power at all.

Otherwise, if anything could be done when he did not will and consent to it, it would necessarily follow that God was weak, since he could not prevent what he would be forced to permit against his will. But since every human being, insofar as he is a creature, depends on God, he can do nothing without the will of him from whom he has both the will and the power.

Whatever witches do, therefore, is done by God permitting it; without his will they can do nothing. For unless God had 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 exist and are moved, as in the first cause of all things; for from him from whom we have received freedom of choice, from him also we have the power 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. Nature has made these demons subtle, and long experience has made them swift in producing wonders. For the wondrous effects of witches are not caused by such means as they use for witchcraft, such as heads of the dead, toads, serpents, characters, images, and the like, but by the devil who instituted these signs; since he is most proud, he desires in all things to be seen as comparable to God.

Indeed, just as almighty God instituted certain sacraments in his Church, which, when worthily administered, signify and produce a saving effect with his own assistance, he who instituted them working salvation, so also the devil, who desires nothing more than to be thought equal to God, instituted certain signs as sacraments. When invoked by those with whom he has been joined by pacts, the malignant worker assists them, and as often as God permits, he brings about the evil that is requested; if God does not permit it, he does absolutely nothing.

For the devil is the worker of all the effects of necromancers and witches. By applying the means which he himself first instituted to the subject matter, he produces the desired work, sometimes in reality, sometimes only in appearance. But witch-women, who have now passed by depraved will and consent into the fellowship of demons through pacts, receive from them certain marks and symbolic signs, by which the demons, once summoned, immediately appear. In these destructive 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 have placed either in demons or in their signs, the more swiftly they obtain the operation, as the demons cooperate with them. For the too-savage depravity of the witches’ will turns them in a certain way into frenzy; and when this has seized their mind, the demons immediately attach themselves to them in their madness and, invited by pacts and signs, with God permitting it, furnish the effect of destruction to them in their insanity.

Plato recounts something similar in the book On Poetic Frenzy, saying: “Just as Bacchant women, when not of sound mind, draw honey and milk from rivers, but when of sound mind cannot draw them. Their spirit, carried outside itself into fellowship with an evil demon, brings this about.” We have ascertained that witches, at certain times, have drawn butter from stirred-up rivers; this cannot in any way be done otherwise than by the ministry of a demon.

In the same way, when they have been led into hatred of some person or animal, and sigh for its destruction, they are driven by a most grievous frenzy, thinking of nothing in their mind except vengeance. They take up things known and familiar to them for witchcraft, invoke demons, display the signs instituted by them, and at the same time the characters; and what they cannot accomplish by their own power, they accomplish by their agency

...they obtain by that ministry. But another person, who is not subject to the demons by pact and dedication, even if he knows the things suited to witchcraft and also the manner of working, and although he displays the signs, nevertheless rarely obtains the effect, because he is not counted among the demons’ familiars. For the devil, swollen with pride, imitates the Church of Christ to such a degree that, just as an unordained man cannot consecrate the body of Christ, however much he may utter the words of consecration, so also a demon either never or rarely comes to the aid of one who invokes him and shows his signs or characters, if he does not know that person 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 dedicated to him by right of ownership. Hence many who are given over to profane arts, striving by dreadful conjurations to call demons to a circle, a mirror, or any other receptacles, obtain no effect, because either God’s command stands in the way, or the devil despises the curious man who has not been dedicated to him by homage. For three things are required for witchcraft, without which it is agreed that none is perpetrated:

fury in the mind and a depraved will in the witch, the cooperation also of a familiar demon, and before all else divine permission. If one of these does not concur, witchcraft cannot be perpetrated. For if God did not permit it, neither the devil nor the witch could do anything. And if the devil did not meet the will of the wicked woman, she would perpetrate no witchcraft. Again, if the witch were lacking, the devil would by no means bring the witchcraft to completion.

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 sharpness of subtlety, so the power of a witch is not one and the same in all, but differs in each, according as demons of a subtler or grosser nature concur with them. For there are many kinds of demons, and they stand apart from one another by fixed degrees, according to the places into which they were cast down when they fell in the beginning.

The first kind of demons is called fiery; it ranges about the upper air and will never be plunged down to the lower regions before the day of judgment, but, remaining continually beneath the lunar regions,

has no commerce with human beings on earth. That they remain beneath the moon is attested by Saint Augustine in the 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.

Moved by this, as I think, Apuleius said that demons are fiery animals, and for this reason Aristotle confirmed that in burning furnaces certain small animals, fitted with little wings, have often been seen flying about; they 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 fellowship with witches, since, because of their subtlety, they dwell in fire and cannot assume a gross or airy body.

The second kind is called airy; wandering in the air, it dwells near us. Indeed they can descend to the lower regions and, by assuming bodies from the denser air, sometimes appear visibly to human beings. By God’s permission they often disturb the air, stir up thunder and storms, and all conspire together for the destruction of the human race. They are moved by the passions of human affections, especially pride and envy, and are touched... and are touched by continual disturbances; they are neither clothed with a solid body nor do they remain in one place. Nor do they all have one form, but many, and they change these quite often according to the variety of their affections, either when they come, summoned by the spells of witches, or when, driven by disturbance, they are impelled to do harm. For they have an altogether violent and furious disposition, full of disturbances. Hence, being exceedingly wicked and disordered, they very often contrive sudden ambushes; and while they make their assaults, some wish to lie hidden, others inflict violence. Witches, supported by the cooperation of these demons, are the more powerful for working witchcraft, the higher in their order the demon they have obtained as an accomplice.

In the life of Saint ANTONY, the divine Athanasius said that the air is full of demons; Hermes Trismegistus had also said this before, namely that no part of the world is bereft of the presence of demons. The holy bishop AMBROSE also says: “The world is full of holy powers, because it is full of wickednesses.” Hence the Platonists have handed down that demons flying in the air, like very dense fiery snow, become visible to those who desire it, if for some time, while the sun is shining, they keep their gaze fixed toward heaven with unblinking eyes. But I do not know whether the object in the air is caused by a real substance, or whether the checked motion of the eyes represents false images; nevertheless, though not without some injury to the sense, yet a slight one, I have made trial of the things just mentioned.

The third kind is called that of terrestrial demons, whom we do not in the least doubt to have fallen from heaven to earth for their own deserts. Concerning these, that most holy bishop and martyr of CHRIST, Theophorus, once Ignatius, wrote thus in a certain letter to the Ephesians: “Nothing is better than to have peace, in which every weapon of the aerial and terrestrial spirits alike is made void.” Of these demons, some dwell in woods and groves, laying snares for hunters; others live in open fields, making travelers wander off course at night; some dwell in hidden places and caverns; the rest, less furious and disturbed than the others, delight in dwelling obscurely with human beings. 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. Some of these rejoice in frightening human beings with mere illusions; others desire to draw their hearers into admiration of themselves by predictions of future events. Some, however, strive with the greatest effort to terrify, injure, or kill human beings troubled by irrational frenzy or raging with melancholy; and we have learned by experience that this has often happened. Hence Saint JOHN CHRYSOSTOM, in the third book On Providence to the monk Stagirius, says: “The greatness of grief is more powerful than every action of the devil in preventing harm; for whomever a demon overcomes, he overcomes through grief. If you take that away, no one will be able to be harmed by a demon.” This kind of demon, however, is rarely familiar to witches, because of the inconstancy of their affections and the lightness by which they delight more in terrifying many people than in being subject to the command of one little woman. Yet sometimes, to flatter the insane, they dwell in glass or in crystal or in a mirror, and, stirred up by spells, they give answers to women, and announce beforehand if someone coming to them has cursed them on the road. And this kind of witch sometimes differs greatly from the rest, because what those others make infirm by witchcraft, these promise to cure. But because they very often 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, troubled, restless, and deceitful. It raises storms at sea, sinks ships into the deep, and takes life from many in the waters. And whenever these demons assume a visible body, it more often appears in the female sex, and is more rarely seen in the male, because they dwell in watery places and follow a softer manner of life, nor can they easily assume the vile form of the others by customary practice. Hence antiquity long ago named Naiads, Nereids, and nymphs of the waters not in the masculine sex but in the feminine. Among our people they are called, in the common vocabulary, aquatic women, that is, wasser frauwen. But those who dwell in drier and somewhat arid places, whenever they appear bodily to human beings ...appear bodily and visibly, they transform themselves into men. They also assume different forms of beasts, according as they are affected by various passions. But saints or angels, because they are not varied by passions, 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, but always in a male form. Demons, however, have often been seen around rivers and springs in the form of women, sometimes dancing, sometimes spreading out their hair in the manner of women, and sometimes speaking with human beings and practicing various deceptions. And this kind of demon is not accustomed to have dealings with witches.

The fifth kind is called subterranean, because it dwells in caves and caverns and in the remote hollows of mountains. These demons are the worst 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-breathing winds, and shake the foundations of buildings. Sometimes, coming out from the mountains by night in troops, they lead marvelous and astonishing dances in the fields; and, as though fearing the command of one leader, they suddenly vanish at a signal and return to their hiding places. At times the sound of bells is heard among them, and sometimes they falsely claim that they are the spirits of human beings who have departed this life. They seek nothing more than the fear and amazement of human beings. Hence we have found that they have sometimes led certain simpler people into their hiding places in the mountains, showing astonishing sights to those who marveled; and, as though the dwellings of the blessed were there, they falsely claim to be friends of the living.

Among these demons, too, some brood over the treasures that the greed of mortals has hidden in the earth; and lest they come again into human use, they carry them off, steal them, guard them, and sometimes transfer them from place to place. And this kind of demon is not accustomed to have any dealings with women’s witchcraft.

The sixth kind of demons is called light-fleeing, because they especially dread and detest the light: for they never appear by day, nor can they assume a body in any way except by night. This is the business that walks about in darkness: an inscrutable and utterly dark kind of demons, driven by cold passions,

The sixth kind of demons: light-fleeing. malicious, restless, and disturbed. It violently oppresses people whom it meets in the hours of night, and more often, when God permits, kills some either by its breath or by its touch. This kind of demon does not consort with witches, nor can it be constrained by incantations, because it flees both light and the voices of human beings, and likewise every disturbance of the air.

The aerial kind is especially accustomed to come to women’s witchcraft, because it is subtler than all the others and of the boldest rashness. Some of the terrestrial demons also, as has been said, serve acts of witchcraft; yet, being held to be of a lower rank, they cannot bring about those greater acts of witchcraft. It is therefore plainly established that the whole power of witches, by which they do such astonishing things, is granted to demons within limits set by the Lord God; and when he does not permit it, they accomplish nothing.

On Divine Permission. Question Seven.

Question Seven

to be done for the destruction of the human race, by which not only sinners but also many innocents perish, grievously tortured?

I remember that, when I was long ago placed before your Majesty, I answered this question in this way: Almighty God, just and upright, kind and merciful, permits justly whatever he permits, because he is just, and there is no injustice with him; but 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.

Let the answer I have given not seem absurd to your Majesty, O Caesar, 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 world. For indeed, if he did not permit evils to be done, then man could not sin, and would certainly be impeccable; but that does not belong to his nature, to whom the Creator of all things gave free will from the beginning. For since man is a creature and not the Creator, he is necessarily capable of turning 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, however, necessarily falls away, yet 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 should have happened that man, by the condition of his nature, should be created impeccable, for this is enjoyed naturally only by God, the Maker of all things, who is unchangeable and everlasting.

But whenever it is granted to a man that he seems unable to sin, the freedom of the will is not taken away, nor is possibility simply removed, but the will is confirmed in the good. And whenever this gift is granted to 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 will 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 more 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 men to sin and to do evil, so that, while freedom of will remains, both the virtue of a good work may receive its reward, and voluntary wickedness may receive the evil it has done. For no one either does good or sins unwillingly.

Therefore almighty God justly permits men to sin and to do evil, to whom he granted freedom of will from the beginning. Now 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; of these we shall necessarily make brief mention in order.

The first is that the excellence of the divine power may be manifested, for he alone is unchangeable and far above every position. Every mutable creature 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, O 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 according to his work, and according to the ways of each he will restore to them. Therefore every man who rightly understands his own ignorance and weakness openly recognizes that he is nothing in comparison with his Creator. For God justly permits man to sin, both so that freedom of will may be preserved and so that the excellence of the great God may become known to men.

The second reason is that the inscrutable wisdom of God may become known to mortals, by which he knows how to draw good out of our evils, when he makes the sin of one person become a merit for another, for the increase of virtue. For if he did not permit evil to be done, who would understand our good? For God makes and ordains the good; but evils he does not make, but, once they have been done by the impious, he himself disposes them so that they do not come about in disorder. Neither does the wickedness of men hinder the will of God, nor can man do anything that God does not permit.

The third cause, moreover, why the Almighty permits acts of sorcery to be done is that he may manifest his most merciful goodness toward those who have sinned and done penance, which he could in no way show if he did not permit the creature to sin. For if there were no sinner, neither could God be merciful. But since we all offend in many things, everywhere God finds something to forgive; everywhere a guilty person presents himself.

...the guilty person presents himself, in whom the gracious Creator may show his mercy. Hence the holy prelate Augustine says: If the disease were slight, the physician would be despised, not 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. Thus 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; for if everyone acted well and no one sinned, God’s justice would have nothing to punish. Therefore, so that justice may have its place, the creature sins by divine permission. For the Lord is just, and he will repay each person 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, he would seem worse off than brute animals, which, with no violence compelling them, freely use the motions of nature. For although brute animals lack reason, nevertheless they freely possess the motion of nature which they follow; in comparison with them man would seem to be of an inferior condition if he did not freely have the choice of his will. But God permitted man a free will, which neither kings nor princes command. The sixth reason is the praise due to the merit of steadfast human virtue, when we praise a just man because, although he could have transgressed, he did not transgress, but, with God’s grace assisting him, remained steadfast in a good will.

The seventh reason why almighty God permits demons to do such great evil deeds through the intervention of witches is that those who, having despised the truth, delight in falsehood may be seduced and utterly deceived by the devil, the inventor of falsehood. For it is fitting that enchanters and witches, who scorn to follow the saving teachings of Christ, should be deceived by demons and all 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 worshiped. For it is just that one who, of his own will, abandons the truth and adheres to falsehood should be hurled by the devil into destruction.

The eighth cause is the manifestation of divine power, whose might and virtue are above every creature. Indeed, when almighty God sometimes permits the devil great things and denies him certain small things, he shows how weak the enemy of the human race is, and that he is subject in all things to the divine majesty. For the devil can do nothing by himself, but everything 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 it he preserves, in inviolable order, the freedom that he granted to the creature once at the beginning. But because the power of every creature, dependent on its Creator, is restricted and limited, it is manifest that neither the devil can do everything he wishes, nor can a human being, 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 wished, nothing among human affairs would remain safe, but they would make all things totter. Job 18.

The story of holy Job plainly demonstrates by example the bound power of demons: Satan did not dare to tempt him more than 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 they were always able to use freely, according to their own judgment, the power to harm.

Before the Lord’s passion they enjoyed greater freedom of power than afterward; but when Christ tasted death for us on the altar of the cross, their power was thereafter greatly 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 rightly be called instigators of evils, but by no means compellers. Nor would the devil prevail against us unless he received strength from our sins. Hence Scripture warns us, saying: “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” And again: “Do not give place to the devil.”

Therefore, in concluding this discourse for the understanding of the proposed question, why God permits so many acts of maleficium to occur, I believe I have made the reasons sufficiently clear. For even if the will of demons is always wicked, their power can never be unjust, since what they wickedly will they have from their own choice, but what they are able wickedly to do they have from God alone. And these things have been said insofar as they concern those who do evil. But why does almighty God permit demons to harm, through the agency of witches, people who have been baptized in the name of the Holy Trinity and 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 kept away from approach to and injury of the good and faithful, the judgment of this permission would rightly seem to be just. But now more often the good and innocent are weakened by the demons’ acts of maleficium and sometimes are even deprived of life, to pass over in silence the loss of temporal goods which those bewitched often suffer. It troubles many people why the Almighty permits these things, he who permits nothing unjustly.

For this question now proposed, I shall briefly set out in order, as far as I can, the necessary reasons, no others than those I have received from the ancient and Catholic teachers. The first reason, then, is the testing of Christians’ faith and the proving of their integrity, so that, when scourged by the demons’ maleficia, they may learn in the sufferings of the flesh what faith and love for God they possess in the hidden part of the mind. In prosperity it is not difficult to be long-suffering, but in adversity to await the Savior’s help with humble patience is not the mark of the soft, but of the strong and of truly faithful Christians. In his own tribulation most holy Job learned how great a confidence of faith he had in God, he who previously, in tranquillity, had preserved piety without the dart of temptation.

At the same time it should be noted from this that those whom the maleficia of demons or human beings have in any way made ill, and who, in order to recover health, either approach or consult malefici and enchanters, or do this either through themselves or through others against the precepts of God and the Church, have neither true faith in God nor love. For they put the health of mortal flesh before God, and seek salvation not from Christ, but from the devil and his minister. They prefer to live healthy, but unhappily, in the name of the devil, rather than to suffer a little here for love of Christ and afterward rejoice with him forever.

But someone who does not approach malefici because God has forbidden it, preferring to live in poverty and sickness while observing God’s commandments rather than against God in wealth and bodily health, truly loves God and rightly preserves the integrity of the Christian faith. Among Christians, most sacred Caesar, people corrupt in mind and reprobate concerning the faith are not to be tolerated: those who cure the bewitched by maleficia, who reveal thefts and adulteries through the ministry of demons, and who foretell future things by inspecting stones or mirrors. I beg you, do not listen to those who, ignorant of the divine laws, [unclear] ministers The second reason why almighty God permits the innocent to be harmed by sorcery is the increase of merits: namely, so that, when their patience has been tested in tribulation, it may more worthily deserve the crown of glory in heaven. For, as holy Augustine says, a person is unknown to himself as to what he can bear and what he cannot. Sometimes he fears that he cannot bear what he nevertheless can; when temptation arrives, as if some examiner were questioning him, he is discovered by himself, who before, hidden, did not know himself.

The blessed chief apostle Peter, before temptation came upon him, was hidden both from himself and from others as being thoughtless and weak; that temptation came, and the weakness that lay hidden appeared. Therefore temptation is the greatest testing of a person, as sacred Scripture attests: “The furnace tests the potter’s vessels, and the trial of tribulation tests just people.” Patience is easy in prosperity, when no adversities strike the mind. “But the tribulations of the just are many; from all these our Lord Jesus Christ will deliver them.”

The third reason for divine permission is the preservation of humility, so that a faithful and just person may always fear God and never presume upon his own strength or justice. Hence Scripture says of the reprobate: “They are not in the labor of men, and they will not be scourged with men. Therefore pride has held them; they are covered with iniquity; from their impiety, as if from fat, their iniquity has come forth.” It belongs to the mercy of God that he sometimes permits good and just people to be shaken by adversities, whom he knows cannot be humbled in prosperity. For tribulation has made many humble whom favorable fortune would have made proud.

Finally, the fearful imagining of sorceries makes a good person fear his God and diligently call upon his help, so that, fortified by it against the assaults of demons, he may be able to trust that he is safe. But let no one who is proud and presumptuous of his own strength think himself safe from the sorceries of demons, because the person whom, swollen with pride, God’s protection abandons undoubtedly lies open to the sorceries of demons.

The fourth reason is so that there may be a distinction between the good and the evil. For Scripture says in the Acts of the Apostles concerning good people beloved by God: “Through many tribulations we must enter 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: “Whom the Lord loves, he corrects, and as a father he is pleased with his son.” It is a Christian thing, and not without glory, to endure adversities patiently for God’s love, whether they are brought on by evil people or by demons. For power is given to the devil and his ministers to harm good and just people not for their ruin, as the perverse suppose, but rather for the very great and certain consolation of the soul.

Indeed, when a just person lives well, harms no one, offends no one, does wrong to no one, loves, fears, and venerates his God with his whole heart, keeping his commandments with all care, and is nevertheless afflicted by sorceries, whether in body, in possessions, or in both, that person is truly blessed; for when he has been tested, he will receive the crown of life that 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 who, receiving evils in this world, patiently endures them for God’s love, has a sure sign that he will persevere in God’s grace and be saved. On the contrary...

On the contrary, concerning the wicked and the reprobate we read it written thus: “Why do the impious live, raised up and strengthened with riches? Their houses are secure and at peace, 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 you live wickedly here in sins and vices, opposed to God, and yet prosper in the goods of fortune and in bodily health.

The fifth reason why the Almighty permits good and righteous people to be troubled by the wicked and reprobate is for 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, by mercy he ordains temporal punishments for righteous people for their offenses, but by justice eternal punishments for the impious and reprobate. Therefore by mercy he changes eternal punishment for the penitent into temporal punishment, which they must suffer either in this world or after death in purgatory. But because the torments of purgatory are dreadful and very grave, the merciful God, loving the penitent, has been accustomed to purify them in this life in various ways, through diverse hardships of tribulations in body and in possessions. For the sorceries of the impious benefit good and righteous people as a remedy, but bring damnation upon those who inflict them.

The sixth reason is so that a man bewitched through assaults of demons may be recalled 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 neglect to do penance, the avenger of evils comes to us when we do not expect him; and we who, while sinners, scorned to acknowledge ourselves by repenting in tranquility will at last, though late, acknowledge ourselves in tribulation. Hence the holy prophet speaks in the person of God, saying: “If his sons 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 sorceries of demons to prevail against the good and innocent is so that he may cut away from them an excessively unrestrained occasion for sinning. For there are many poor and sick people, pleasing to God, good, devout, and humble, whom poverty and bodily illness preserve in the love of God; if they were rich and raised up with honors, they would quickly flow down from the purpose of holiness into the depth of vices. It is not expedient for everyone’s salvation to have honors and riches together with health, nor does a longer life always make a man better. Therefore Almighty God, wishing to show his mercy toward those whom he has chosen, permits the good, the righteous, and the innocent to be subject to various calamities. And sometimes through demons, sometimes through wicked people, and sometimes in diverse other ways and by other means, he turns riches and honors away from people of this sort, knowing beforehand that they would make bad use of them, so that they may keep humility in poverty and abasement, which they certainly would not have preserved if placed in opulence and high rank. He also quite often permits them to fall into many and great illnesses, when joyous bodily health would have brought very great sickness upon the mind. Finally, he permits certain people to be driven to death by sorcery, so that the license for sinning may be cut away from them, a license they would have abused if allowed to remain longer in life. Hence Scripture says of the righteous man: “He was taken away lest malice change his understanding, and lest deceit beguile his soul.”

The eighth reason for divine permission is so that people may venerate the sacraments of the Church, which possess great They have great power against all sorceries of malignant spirits. For one who venerates the sacraments and rites of the Catholic Church with due honor is rarely harmed by the sorceries of demons. And from the witches’ own confession we have quite often heard that attendance at Masses and the use of things blessed by the Church greatly weaken the powers of demons. Nor do they bless these things in the Church of God in vain, but so that they may be feared tokens, showing demons the defenses of divine protection. Concerning boys and infants, however, who, having been reborn in Christ, are sometimes killed by the sorceries 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 better for mortals. Yet it often happens that infants perish by sorceries because of the sins of their parents.

On the Providence of God.

Question Eight

This was the eighth question of your Serenity: whether it can be proved by natural reason, as it can by the holy Scriptures, that God has care for human affairs and actions, and has a certain and infallible providence over all and each of the things that are done in the world.

I remember replying to this question as follows. The whole world, heaven and earth and all things that are in them, are subject to divine providence; by its will and command they were brought into being from the beginning. For there is nothing in the whole universe that is not governed by the providence of the Creator. Let us briefly establish this opinion, first from the Scriptures and then by arguments, as far as is permitted.

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 most wise king Solomon speaks thus: “Do not give your mouth so as 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 an as, and not one of them falls upon the earth before God?” This is a great commendation of divine providence, which has care not only for human beings, but also for the smallest birds. Indeed, if the Almighty cares for such small things, who would not believe that he has care for greater things? “Look,” he says, “at the birds of heaven, which neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and your heavenly Father feeds them.” And a little afterward 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?”

Almighty God, because he created all things and brought them into being when they did not exist, rules and governs the whole universe lest they slip and fall away. This could in no way happen if he did not have providence and care for all things. For if providence is removed, the ordered continuity of the whole universe must necessarily be thrown into confusion. The Creator’s providence cares for all things, since he who feeds the birds, gives beasts their food, fills every living creature with blessing, and clothes the grass of the field, adorning violets and lilies with beautiful splendor, cannot forget the human being whom he created from the beginning in his own image. He who governs all things cares for all things, and he has providence not only over human beings, but also over all beasts; all things are placed under his rule, and there is nothing that can resist his will in anything. Therefore let us now consider this immense structure of the whole universe: how, in its original disposition and motion, it has always continued most orderly, and divine

that unchangeable divine providence preserves, directs, and governs them, unless we disgracefully lose our senses, we shall understand by the clearest reasoning. Then let us contemplate all earthly things, how each and every one of them is born and proceeds in its own 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. Next, let us consider the earth, placed in the middle of the world like a point or center, which unfolds the circle of the whole universe at an equal distance. Nothing more beautiful, nothing more adorned, nothing, finally, more delightful could present itself to the sense for contemplation. In this point of an immense mass, wonderfully enclosed by that very mass, we see all things ordered, and we see that nothing can be left unordered, so that whatever sometimes seems to us somehow to drift, we may know with certainty that, within the order of the universe, it does not lack its own particular order. For by God’s simple and wholly unchangeable nod, the whole structure of the entire universe, assembled from so many diverse and movable things, works together in the most orderly way and is governed. We certainly see in those things that present themselves to our senses that, the greater the intelligence and power that arises over time in any governor, the less can anything disordered occur there by random chance.

Therefore, since that supreme 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, no place is ever left for rash chance, which might obstruct the will of so great a majesty. Thus 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 events happen to us because we are changeable and are changed almost every day, 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 at once and together. His providence is not deceived; his will is never varied; his power is not broken; his ordering is not violated; his counsel is never interrupted, even if at times his judgment seems to be changed. Hence, if we attend carefully, we shall plainly understand, as the ends and order of motions will declare, that all these lower things are made, preserved, disposed, and moved by divine providence, from whose command absolutely nothing is alien.

For God himself, the creator of the universe, both understands all things and is not divided in a particular way, as we are, into many things, but remains in himself an indivisible one. By beholding himself as the exemplar of the whole universe and the cause of causes, he contemplates the cause of all things through their causes; and by contemplating all things he cares for them and provides for them, directing each thing to a good end by an everlasting order. Come now, most wise Celsus: in order that we may understand divine providence governing all things, let us use arguments, as far as we can, more briefly for our purpose.

Thus, if God’s action is his own proper understanding, which no wise person will deny, as the most eminent and at the same time the most inward thing, then as much as he acts, so much in any case he understands, and conversely. But he acts in individual things, not only in great things but also in the very smallest. Therefore he understands individual things. For the first being, through individual things that are in any way beings, following upon fixed orders, is the most ample cause; and the things that act after him are everywhere moved by his power and act by it. Either, then, God understands or acts nothing outside himself, which is false, or, by acting all things and each thing, he also understands those same things, which is true. For they would never come into being unless they were first, to speak in our manner, understood by God himself, who makes them, just as things are not brought into being by the sun and not first seen by it. But because all things And all individual things that the Almighty makes, he understands.

There is no doubt that he disposes, rules, and orders all things that he has made, from whom 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 proper office of a cause, that is, to preserve as far as their powers allow 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, with good reason that first cause has this natural goodness and providence, so that it cares for all things and every individual thing that it has made, inasmuch as it is most truly the cause of all of them and of each one.

Indeed, unless the things that preserve common realities in individuals are guarded individually by him who makes them, those common realities are never guarded. For one will not preserve the whole, which consists of parts, if the parts themselves are neglected. Therefore, from the intention of the first, greatest, and most common intelligence proceeds the universal distinction of things; but that intelligence itself distinguishes all other things from others in themselves, and distinguishes the rest among themselves by the rule of its own conception. Hence, just as God knows all things and each individual thing most distinctly, so too he most distinctly rules, moderates, and cares for them.

I think it is therefore manifest, most merciful Emperor Maximilian, and sufficiently shown, that the providence of God, the highest ruler, embraces, disposes, rules, and moderates all lower things and each individual thing; for otherwise, without the provident disposition of one who watches over them, they could in no way maintain this most beautiful order that we discern. Nor does it escape me how variously the wise men of this world once held opinions concerning providence. Some of them thought 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, since the world could perish by the same chance by which it was made.

Against their false opinion, others taught that the world could neither have been made without reason nor certainly continue to exist 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, creator of earth and heaven, who command time to proceed from eternity, and, remaining steadfast, give all things motion.” And again he said: “The generation of all things, the whole progression of changeable natures, and whatever is moved, in some way draws its 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 bodies and separate substances, together with the species, and that he truly did not know all the rest at all and utterly neglected them. But these men erred shamefully, because the Almighty has providence and care not only for all incorruptible things, but also for particular and corruptible things. Hence Saint Boethius again says: “The high creator sits upon the summit, and, ruling all things, turns the reins: king and lord, fountain and origin, law and wise judge of equity. This is the common bond of things, the continuous love by which they seek to be held by the end of the good; for otherwise they cannot endure unless, with love turned back again, the causes flow back to him who gave them.”

Some, not tolerating the thought that they themselves should be neglected, removed man from the number of corruptible things because of the excellence of his intellect, saying that God has care and providence for man, but despises all the remaining earthly things. Against their false opinion, I think enough has already been said, and to produce many more arguments would be altogether superfluous. For Scripture says: “You will save men and beasts, Lord.” And in another place a certain wise man said: “The Lord made the small and the great, and he has care alike for all.”

Therefore divine majesty’s providence orders, rules, disposes, and cares for all lower things and each individual thing, great and small, corruptible and incorruptible; its most powerful will made all things from nothing.

He produced all things, as sacred Scripture again bears witness: “But your providence, Father, governs all things from the beginning.” Therefore let those men blush who are corrupt in mind, impious, and reprobate concerning the Christian faith, who, puffed up with vain talkativeness, take away the providence of him who knows all things 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 foresees nothing, if he neglects lower things, if he does not care for mortal things, he has already lost all dignity. Yet, as Saint Anselm attests, it is impossible for God to lose his honor; for, 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 is he saying 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 no longer any reason why we should pursue him with worship or venerate him with religion, since from him we obtain no benefit; rather, being neglected and despised, let us neglect him ourselves. But if, not knowing us, he despises and neglects us, then there is plainly no reason why we should worship one who does not know us and, for that reason, cannot bestow 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 of salvation. What consideration of 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 taken away, whom do we worship? whom do we adore? If there is no providence for mortals with God, surely he neither bestows benefits on human beings, nor imposes punishments on deserters; he neither 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, and why prayers? Or why do we so greatly dread or fear a God who does not know us, who, once we have been neglected and despised by him, can do us neither good nor harm? For once providence has been removed, neither holiness nor religion will endure; and when these have been extinguished, the greatest disturbance of life and a dreadful confusion will follow. Once piety toward God has been removed, what will the commonwealth be but everlasting confusion? Public trust among human beings, the fellowship of the human race, and justice will necessarily perish; all these will vanish and perish together.

What must be thought of the Christian faith, if God does not care for human affairs? What, then, of the savior of all, our Lord Jesus Christ? Unless there is a providence of God caring for mortal things, one will regard him as nothing but an empty tale and a wholly fictitious thing. Therefore whatever good we do in this life, whatever evil we endure for the love of God, is all 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 be horrified, when they behold the sane outcome of their own opinion: the worst despair of all. Therefore let no one, clothed in the vain speech of secular philosophers, train himself to 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 things individually, whether they are in heaven or on earth or in the sea, are ruled and governed by divine providence, and that absolutely nothing in the whole universe is alien to his care. For crops, too, and all the other things that the earth brings forth, as well as storms and the variations of the weather and of the sky, [unclear]. and the changes by which all things that the earth brings forth, once brought into being, grow to maturity: divine providence provides and procures all and each of these for the human race, not only the great things but also the smallest, so far that not even the thinnest leaf of a tree falls to the ground without the will of almighty God the Father, who created it, rules it, and cares for it. But if anyone thinks that this whole vast magnitude of the universe cannot be ruled and governed by one God, who alone exists, he is greatly mistaken, and is shown not to know how great the power of divine might is. For indeed, he who could bring the whole world from nothing into being can also govern forever, most wisely, what he made. For he knows all things, understands all things, and can do all things, who alone, almighty, created all things. Therefore we, believing the holy Gospel, should above all venerate divine providence; and let us raise our minds upward from these passing things with what strength we can, and, brought back into ourselves, 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. Yet it does not sustain from one side and surpass from another, nor fill from one side and encompass from another; rather, by encompassing it fills, and by filling it encompasses; by sustaining it surpasses, and by surpassing it sustains all things. Through bodily bulk he is nowhere, and through his uncircumscribable substance he is nowhere absent; he is not seen by the eyes of flesh, but is seen through faith in purity of heart. O inexplicable power, O incomprehensible goodness, O ineffable wisdom, O uncircumscribable divinity: you do not consist of parts like a body, nor are you set apart by passions like a soul, nor do you underlie forms like all the other things that were made by you. You are in all things and above all things, ruling and governing the universe most wisely.

By these testimonies, then, most sacred Caesar Maximilian, it has, as I think, been sufficiently proved that this whole universe is governed by the providence of God. Since he is pure intellect, simple, uncreated, and eternal, he knows all things, understands all things, recognizes all things; and since by nature he is almighty, he can do all things, to whom nothing is difficult, nothing impossible. He created such wondrous things by his power, established them in truth, perfected them by reason, sustains them by strength, and illumines them by goodness. To him be praise, to him honor, to him glory, who lives and reigns, glorious and exalted God, forever and ever. Amen.

The author's declaration to Caesar.

These, unconquered Caesar Maximilian, are the things that it seemed to me should be said in response to the eight questions proposed by your Majesty. For you wished to have from me a judgment on them in writing also, judging me, beyond the truth, more highly than is fitting; for I am not to be compared in ability with those whose opinions you heard before me. Let this make me worthy of pardon if I have said something less fitting: that, being on the road by command of Your Highness, I dictated, as I could, in haste, what occurred to me as needing response.

But I say from my heart and openly declare that I am a sincere confessor of the Christian faith, and that I wish to remain until death in union with the most holy Roman Church. Therefore, if in this little work of mine or in others I should have said or written anything otherwise than she holds, thinks, believes, and teaches, as a son of true obedience, by the attestation of the present writing I deny it, and I wish it simply and forever to be held as revoked. Therefore, wisest Caesar, I both humbly ask and earnestly warn your Majesty that, before you bring my responses to the knowledge of those for whom they are destined, you have them rejected by the judgment of many. For it must be taken care of with the greatest effort that nothing be set before those for whose salvation Your Serenity keeps watch, unless it is sound, approved, clear, and lawfully confirmed in the Catholic faith by the judgment of very many wise men. May almighty God by his providence direct and guard you always, to the praise of his name, Maximilian, greatest of emperors. From the city of Neumagen, on the tenth day of the month of July, in the Christian year 1508. of those for whom they are destined, you have them rejected by the judgment of many. For it must be taken care of with the greatest effort that nothing be set before those for whose salvation Your Serenity keeps watch, unless it is sound, approved, clear, and lawfully confirmed in the Catholic faith by the judgment of very many wise men. May almighty God by his providence direct and guard you of those for whom they are destined, you have them rejected by the judgment of many. For it must be taken care of with the greatest effort that nothing be set before those for whose salvation Your Serenity keeps watch, unless it is sound, approved, clear, and lawfully confirmed in the Catholic faith by the judgment of very many wise men. May almighty God by his providence direct and guard you