It is a fact that, by Divine
permission, many innocent people suffer loss and are punished by the
aforesaid plagues, not for their own sins, but for those of witches.
And lest this should seem to any a paradox, S. Thomas shows in the
Second of the Second, quest. 8, that this is just in God. For
he divides the punishments of this life into three classes. First,
one man belongs to another; therefore, if a man be punished in his
possessions, it may be that another man suffers for this punishment.
For, bodily speaking, sons are a property of the father, and slaves
and animals are the property of their masters; and so the sons are
sometimes punished for their parents. Thus the son born to David from
adultery quickly died; and the animals of the Amalekites were bidden
to be killed. Yet the reason for these things remains a mystery.
Secondly, the sin of one may be passed on to
another; and this in two ways. By imitation, as children imitate the
sins of their parents, and slaves and dependents the sins of their
masters, that they may sin more boldly. In this way the sons inherit
ill-gotten gain, and slaves share in robberies and unjust feuds, in
which they are often killed. And they who are subject to Governors
sin the more boldly when they see them sin, even if they do not
commit the same sins; wherefore they are justly punished.
Also the sin of one is passed on to another in the way
of desert, as when the sins of wicked subjects are passed on to a bad
Governor, because the sins of the subjects deserve a bad Governor.
See Job: He makes Hypocrites to reign on account of the sins
of the people.
Sin, and consequently
punishment, can also be passed on through some consent or
dissimulation. For when those in authority neglect to reprove sin,
then very often the good are punished with the wicked, as S.
Augustine says in the first book de Ciuitate Dei. An example
was brought to our notice as Inquisitors. A town was once rendered
almost destitute by the death of its citizens; and there was a rumour
that a certain buried woman was gradually eating the shroud in which
she had been buried, and that the plague could not cease until she
had eaten the whole shroud and absorbed it into her stomach. A
council was held, and the Podesta with the Governor of the city dug
up the grave, and found half the shroud absorbed through the mouth
and throat into the stomach, and consumed. In horror at this sight,
the Podesta drew his sword and cut off her head and threw it out of
the grave, and at once the plague ceased. Now the sins of that old
woman were, by Divine permission, visited upon the innocent on
account of the dissimulation of what had happened before. For when an
Inquisition was held it was found that during a long time of her life
she had been a Sorceress and Enchantress. Another example is the
punishment of a pestilence because David numbered the people.
Thirdly, sin is passed on by Divine permission
in commendation of the unity of human society, that one man should
take care for another by refraining from sin; and also to make sin
appear the more detestable, in that the sin of one redounds upon all,
as though all were one body. An example is the sin of Achan in Joshua
vii.
We can add to these two other
methods: that the wicked are punished sometimes by the good, and
sometimes by other wicked men. For as Gratianus says (XXIII, 5),
sometimes God punishes the wicked through those who are exercising
their legitimate power at His command; and this in two ways:
sometimes with merit on the part of the punishers, as when He
punished the sins of the Canaanites through His people; sometimes
with no merit on the part of the punishers, but even to their own
punishment, as when He punished the tribe of Benjamin and destroyed
it except for a few men. And sometimes He punishes by His nations
being aroused, either by command or permission, but with no intention
of obeying God, but rather greedy for their own gain, and therefore
to their own damnation; as He now punished His people by the Turks,
and did so more often by strange nations in the Old Law.
But it must be noted that for whatever cause a man be
punished, if he does not bear his pains patiently, then it becomes a
scourge, not a correction, but only of vengeance, that is, of
punishment. See Deuteronomy xxxii: A fire is kindled in min
anger (that is, my punishment; for there is no other anger in God),
and shall burn unto the lowest hell (that is, vengeance shall begin
here and burn unto the last damnation, as S. Augustine explains), And
there is further authority concerning punishment in his Fourth
Distinction. But if men patiently bear their scourges, and are
patient in the state of grace, they take the place of a correction,
as S. Thomas says in his Fourth Book. And this is true even of one
punished for committing witchcraft, or of a witch, to a greater or
less degree according to the devotion of the sufferer and the quality
of his crime.
But the natural death of
the body, being the last terror, is not a correction, since of its
nature it partakes in the punishment for original sin. Nevertheless,
according to Scotus, when it is awaited with resignation and
devotion, and offered in its bitterness to God, it can in some way
become a correction. But violent death, whether a man deserves it or
not, is always a correction, if it is borne patiently and in grace.
So much for punishments inflicted on account of the sins of others.
But God also punishes men in this life for their
own sins, especially in the matter of bewitchment. For see Tobias
vii: The devil has power over those who follow their lusts. And this
is clear from what we have already said concerning the member and the
genital powers, which God chiefly allows to be bewitched.
However, for the purpose of preaching to the public it
is to be noted that, notwithstanding the aforesaid punishments which
God inflicts on men for their own and others' sins, the preacher
should keep as his basic principle and to the people this ruling of
the law; which says, No one must be punished without guilt, unless
there is some cause for doing so. And this ruling holds good in the
Court of Heaven, that is, of God, just as it does in the human Courts
of Justice, whether secular or ecclesiastic.
The preacher may predicate this of the Court of Heaven. For
the punishment of God is of two kinds, spiritual and temporal. In the
former, punishment is never found without guilt. In the latter it is
sometimes found quite without guilt, but not without cause. The
first, or spiritual punishment, is of three kinds; the first being
forfeiture of grace and a consequent hardening in sin, which is never
inflicted except for the sufferer's own guilt. The second is the
punishment of loss, that is, deprivation of glory, which is never
inflicted without personal guilt in adults, or contracted guilt in
children born from their parents' sin. The third is the punishment of
pain, that is, the torture of hell fire, and is plainly due to guilt.
Wherefore when it is said in Exodus xx: I am a jealous God,
visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third and
fourth generation: it is understood as speaking of the imitators of
their fathers' crimes, as Gratian has explained, Book I, quest. 4;
where he also gives other expositions.
Now with regard to God's second, or temporal punishment: first, it
may be, as has been said before, for the sin of another (but not
without cause), or for personal guilt only, without any other's sin.
But if you wish to know the causes for which God punishes, and even
without any guilt of the sufferer or of another man, you may refer to
the five methods which the Master expounds in Book IV, dist. 15, cap.
2. And you must take the three first causes, for the other two refer
to personal guilt.
For he says that
for five causes God scourges man in this life, or inflicts
punishment. First, that God may be glorified; and this is when some
punishment or affliction is miraculously removed, as in the case of
the man born blind (S. John ix), or of the raising of Lazarus
(S. John xi).
Secondly, if the
first cause is absent, it is sent that merit may be acquired through
the exercise of patience, and also that inner hidden virtue may be
made manifest to others. Examples are Job i and Tobias
ii.
Thirdly that virtue may be
preserved through the humiliation of castigation. S. Paul is an
example, who says of himself in II. Corinthians xii: There was
given unto me a thorn in my flesh, the messenger of Satan. And
according to Remigius this thorn was the infirmity of carnal desire.
These are the cause that are without guilt in the sufferer.
Fourthly, that eternal damnation should begin in
this life, that it might be in some way shown what will be suffered
in hell. Examples are Herod (Acts xii) and Antiochus (II.
Maccabees ix).
Fifthly, that
man may be purified, by the expulsion and obliteration of his guilt
through scourges. Examples may be taken from Miriam, Aaron's sister,
who was stricken with leprosy, and from the Israelites wandering in
the wilderness, according to S. Jerome, XXIII, 4. Or it may be for
the correction of sin, as is exemplified by the case of David, who,
after being pardoned for his adultery, was driven from his kingdom,
as is shown in II. Kings, and is commented on by S. Gregory in
his discourse on sin. It may, in fact, be said that every punishment
that we suffer proceeds from our own sin, or at least from the
original sin in which we were born, which is itself the cause of all
causes.
But as to the punishment of
loss, meaning by that eternal damnation which they will suffer in the
future, no one doubts that all the damned will be tortured with
grevious pains. For just as grace is followed by the blessed vision
of the Kingdom of Heaven, so is mortal sin followed by punishment in
hell. And just as the degrees of blessedness in Heaven are measured
in accordance with the degrees of charity and grace in life, so the
degrees of punishment in hell are measured according to the degree of
crime in this life. See Deuteronomy xxv: The measure of
punishment will be according to the measure of sin. And this is so
with all other sins, but applies especially to witches. See Hebrews
x: Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought
worthy, who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted
the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy
thing?
And such are the sins of
witches, who deny the Faith, and work many evil bewitchments through
the most Holy Sacrament, as will be shown in the Second Part.