Now the foregoing truth concerning the
enormity of witches' crimes is proved by comparing them with the
other practices of Magicians and Diviners. For there are fourteen
species of magic, springing from the three kinds of Divination. The
first of these three is open invocation of devils. The second is no
more than a silent consideration of the disposition and movement of
some thing, as of the stars, or the days, or the hours, and such
things. The third is the consideration of some human act for the
purpose of finding out something that is hidden, and is called by the
name of Sortilege.
And the species of
the first form of Divination, that is, an open invocation of devils,
are the following: Sorcery, Oneiromancy, Necromancy, Oracles,
Geomancy, Hydromancy, Aeromancy, Pyromancy, and Soothsaying (see S.
Thomas, Second of the Second, quest. 95, 26, and 5). The
species of the second kind are Horoscopy, Haruspicy, Augury,
Observation of Omens, Cheiromancy and Spatulamancy.
The species of the third kind vary according to all
those things which are classed as Sortilege for the finding out of
something hidden, such as the consideration of pricks and straws, and
figures in molten lead. And S. Thomas speaks also of these in the
above-quoted reference.
Now the sins
of witches exceed all these crimes, as will be proved in respect of
the foregoing species. There can then be no question concerning
smaller crimes.
For let us consider
the first species, in which those who are skilled in sorcery and
glamour deceive the human senses with certain apparitions, so that
corporeal matter seems to become different to the sight and the
touch, as was treated of above in the matter of the methods of
creating illusions. Witches are not content with such practices in
respect of the genital member, causing some prestidigitatory illusion
of its disappearance (although this disappearance is not an actual
fact); but they even frequently take away the generative power
itself, so that a woman cannot conceive, and a man cannot perform the
act even when he still retains his member. And without any illusion,
they also cause abortion after conception, often accompanied with
many other ills. And they even appear in various forms of beasts, as
has been shown above.
Necromancy is
the summoning of and speech with the dead, as is shown by its
etymology; for it is derived from the Greek word Nekros,
meaning a corpse, and Manteia, meaning divination. And they
accomplish this by working some spell over the blood of a man or some
animal, knowing that the devil delights in such sin, and loves blood
and the pouring out of blood. Wherefore, when they think that they
call the dead from hell to answer their questions, it is the devils
in the likeness of the dead who appear and give such answers. And of
this sort was the art of that great Pythoness spoken of in I. Kings
xxviii, who raised up Samuel at the instance of Saul.
But let no one think that such practices are lawful
because the Scripture records that the soul of the just Prophet,
summoned from Hades to predict the event of Saul's coming war,
appeared through the means of a woman who was a witch. For, as S.
Augustine says to Simplicianus: It is not absurd to believe that it
was permitted by some dispensation, nto by the potency of any magic
art, but by some hidden dispensation unknown to the Pythoness or to
Saul, that the spirit of that just man should appear before the sight
of the king, to deliver the Divine sentence against him. Or else it
was not really the spirit of Samuel aroused from its rest, but some
phantasm and imaginary illusion of devils caused by the machinations
of the devil; and the Scripture calls that phantasm by the name of
Samuel, just as the images of things are called by the names of the
things they represent. This he says in his answer to the question
whether divination by the invocation of devils is lawful. In the same
Summa the reader will find the answer to the question whether
there are degrees of prophecy among the Blessed; and he may refer to
S. Augustine, XXVI, 5. But this has little to do with the deeds of
witches, which retain in themselves no vestige of piety, as is
apparent from a consideration of their works; for they do not cease
to shed innocent blood, to bring hidden things to light under the
guidance of devils, and by destroying the soul with the body spare
neither the living nor the dead.
Oneiromancy may be practised in two ways. The first is when a person
uses dreams so that he may dip into the occult with the help of the
revelation of devils invoked by him, with whom he has entered into an
open pact. The second is when a man uses dreams for knowing the
future, in so far as there is such virtue in dreams proceeding from
Divine revelation, from a natural and instinsic or extrinsic cause;
and such divination would not be unlawful. So says S. Thomas.
And that preachers may have at least the nucleus
of an understanding of this matter, we must first speak about the
Angels. An Angel is of limited power, and can more effectively reveal
the future when the mind is adapted to such revelations than when it
is not. Now the mind is chiefly so adapted after the relaxation of
exterior and interior movement, as when nights are silent and the
fumes of motion are quieted; and these conditions are fulfilled round
about the dawn, when digestion is completed. And I say this of us who
are sinners, to whom the Angels in their Divine piety, and in the
execution of their offices, reveal certain things, so that when we
study at the time of the dawn we are given an understanding of
certain occult matters in the Scriptures. For a good Angel presides
over our understanding, just as God does over our will, and the stars
over our bodies. But to certain more perfect men the Angel can at any
hour reveal things, whether they are awake or asleep. However,
according to Aristotle, de Somno et Uigilia, such men are more
apt to receive revelations at one time than at another; and this is
the casein all matters of magic.
Secondly, it is to be noted that is happens through Nature's care for
and regulation of the body, that certain future events have their
natural cause in a man's dreams. And then those dreams or visions are
not cause, as was said in the case of Angels, but only signs of that
which is coming to a man in the future, such as health or sickness or
danger. And this is the opinion of Aristotle. For in the dreams of
the spirit Nature images the disposition of the heart, by which
sickness or some other thing naturally comes to a man in the future.
For is a man dreams of fires, it is a sign of a choleric disposition;
if of flying or some such thing, it is a sign of a sanguine
disposition; if he dreams of water or some other liquid, it is a sign
of a phlegmatic, and if he dreams of terrene matters, it is a sign of
a melancholy disposition. And therefore doctors are very often helped
by dreams in their diagnosis (as Aristotle says in the same book).
But these are slight matters in comparison with
the unholy dreams of witches. For when they do not wish, as has been
mentioned above, to be bodily transferred to a place, but desire to
see what their fellow-witches are doing, it is their practice to lie
down on their left side in the name of their own and of all devils;
and these things are revealed to their vision in images. And if they
seek to know some secret, either for themselves of for others, they
learn it in dreams from the devil, by reason of an open, not a tacit,
pact entered into with him. And this pact, again, is not a symbolical
one, accomplished by the sacrifice of some animal, or some act of
sacrilege, or by embracing the worship of some strange cult; but it
is an actual offering of themselves, body and soul, to the devil, by
a sacrilegiously uttered and inwardly purposed abnegation of the
Faith. And not content with this, they even kill, or offer to devils,
their own and others' children.
Another species of divination is practised by Pythons, so called from
Pythian Apollo, who is said to have been the originator of this kind
of divination, according to S. Isidore. This is not effected by
dreams or by converse with the dead, but by means of living men, as
in the case of those who are lashed into a frenzy by the devil,
either willingly or unwillingly, only for the purpose of foretelling
the future, and not for the perpetration of any other monstrosities.
Of this sort was the girl mentioned in Acts xvi, who cried
after the Apostles that they were the servants of the true God; and
S. Paul, being angered by this, commanded the spirit to come out of
her. But it is clear that there is no comparison between such things
and the deeds of witches, who, according to S. Isidore, are so called
for the magnitude of their sins and the enormity of their crimes.
Wherefore, for the sake of brevity, there is no
need to continue this argument in respect of the minor forms of
divination, since it has been proved in respect of the major forms.
For the preacher may, if he wishes, apply these arguments to the
other forms of divination: to Geomancy, which is concerned with
terrene matters, such as iron or polished stone; Hydromancy, which
deals with water and crystals; Aeromancy, which is concerned with the
air; Pyromancy, which is concerned with fire; Soothsaying, which has
to do with the entrails of animals sacrificed on the devil's altars.
For although all these are done by means of open invocation of
devils, they cannot be compared with the crimes of witches, since
they are not directly purposed for the harming of men or animals or
the fruits of the earth, but only for the foreknowledge of the
future. The other species of divination, which are performed with a
tacit, but not an open, invocation of devils, are Horoscopy, or
Astrology, so called from the consideration of the stars at birth;
Haruspicy, which observes the days and hours; Augury, which observes
the behaviour and cries of birds; Omens, which observe the words of
men; and Cheiromancy, which observes the lines of the hand, or of the
paws of animals. Andone who wishes may refer to the teaching of
Nider, and he will find mush as to when such things are lawful and
when they are not. But the works of witches are never lawful.