It is asked whether devils, through
the medium of witches, can change or incite the minds of men to
inordinate love or hatred; and it is argued that, following the
previous conclusions, they cannot do so. For there are three things
in man: will, understanding, and body. The first is ruled by God
(for, The heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord); the second
is enlightened by an Angel; and the body is governed by the motions
of the stars. And as the devils cannot effect changes in the body,
even less have they power to incite love or hatred in the soul. The
consequence is clear; that though they have more power over things
corporeal than over things spiritual, they cannot change even the
body, as has been often proved. For they cannot induce any
substantial or accidental form, except is as it were their artificer.
In this connexion is quoted what has been said before; that whoever
believes that any creature can be changed for the better or worse or
transformed into another kind or likeness, except by the Creator of
all things, is worse than a pagan and a heretic.
Besides, everything that acts with design knows its own
effect. If, therefore, the devil could change the minds of men to
hatred or love, he would also be able to see the inner thoughts of
the heart; but this is contrary to what is said in the Book of
Ecclesiastic Dogma: The devil cannot see our inner thoughts. And
again in the same place: Not all our evil thoughts are from the
devil, but sometimes they arise from our own choice.
Besides, love and hatred are a matter of the will,
which is rooted in the soul; therefore they cannot by any cunning be
caused by the devil. The conclusion holds that He alone (as S.
Augustine says) is able to enter into the soul, Who created it.
Besides, it is not valid to argue that because
he can influence the inner emotions, therefore he can govern the
will. For the emotions are stronger than physical strength; and the
devil can effect nothing in a physical way, such as the formation of
flesh and blood; therefore he can effect nothing through the
emotions.
But against this. The
devil is said to tempt men not only visibly but also invisibly; but
this would not be true unless he were able to exert some influence
over the inner mind. Besides, S. John Damascene says: All evil and
all filthiness is devised by the devil. And Dionysius, de Divin.
Nom. IV: The multitude of devils is the cause of all evil, etc.
Answer. First, one sort of cause is to be
distinguished from another: secondly, we shall show how the devil can
affect the inner powers of the mind, that is the emotions; and
thirdly, we shall draw the fit conclusion. And as to the first, it is
to be considered that the cause of anything can be understood in two
ways; either as direct, or as indirect. For when something cause a
disposition to some effect, it is said to be an occasional and
indirect cause of that effect. In this way it may be said that he who
chops wood is the cause of the actual fire. And similarly we may say
that the devil is the cause of all our sins; for he incited the first
man to sin, from whose sin it has been handed down to the whole human
race to have an inclination towards sin. And in this way are to be
understood the words of S. John Damascene and Dionysius.
But a direct cause is one that directly causes an
effect; and in this sense the devil is not the cause of all sin. For
all sins are not committed at the instigation of the devil, but some
are of our own choosing. For Origen says: Even if the devil were not,
men would still lust after food and venery and such things. And from
these inordinate lusts much may result, unless such appetites be
reasonably restrained. But to restrain such ungoverned desire is the
part of man's free-will, over which even the devil has no power.
And because this distinction is not sufficient
to explain how the devil at times produces a frantic infatuation of
love, it is further to be noted that though he cannot cause that
inordinate love by directly compelling a man's will, yet he can do so
by means of persuasion. And this again in two ways, either visibly or
invisibly. Visibly, when he appears to witches in the form of a man,
and speaks to them materially, persuading them to sin. So he tempted
our first parents in Paradise in the form of a serpent; and so he
tempted Christ in the wilderness, appearing to Him in visible form.
But it is not to be thought that this is the
only way he influences a man; for in that case no sin would proceed
from the devil's instruction, except such as were suggested by him in
visible form. Therefore it must be said that even invisibly he
instigates man to sin. And this he does in two ways, either by
persuasion or by disposition. By persuasion, he presents something to
the understanding as being a good thing. And this he can do in three
ways; for he presents it either to the intellect, or to the inner
perceptions, or to the outer. And as for the intellect; the human
intellect can be helped by a good Angel to understand a thing by
means of enlightenment, as Dionysius says; and to understand a thing,
according to Aristotle, is to suffer something: therefore the devil
can impress some form upon the intellect, by which the act of
understanding is called forth.
And it
may be argued that the devil can do this by his natural power, which
is not, as had been shown, diminished. It is to be said,
however, that he cannot do this by means of enlightenment, but by
persuasion. For the intellect of man is of that condition that, the
more it is enlightened, the more it knows the truth, and the more it
can defend itself from deception. And because the devil intends his
deception to be permanent, therefore no persuasion that he uses can
be called enlightenment: although it may be called revelation, in
that when he invisibly uses persuasion, by means of some impression
he plants something on the inner or outer sense. And by this the
reasoning intellect is persuaded to perform some action.
But as to how he is enabled to create an impression on
the inner sense, it is to be noted that the bodily nature is
naturally born to be moved locally by the spiritual; which is clear
from the case of our own bodies, which are moved by souls; and the
same is the case with the stars. But it is not by nature adapted to
be directly subject to influences, by which we mean outside
influences, not those with which it is informed. Wherefore the
concurrence of some bodily agent is necessary, as is proved in the
7th book of the Metaphysics. Corporeal matter naturally obeys
a good or bad angel as to the local motion; and it is due to this
that devils can through motion collect semen, and employ it for the
production of wonderful results. This was how it happened that
Pharao's magicians produced serpents and actual animals, when
corresponding active and passive agents were brought together.
Therefore there is nothing to prevent the devils from effecting
anything that appertains to the local motion of corporeal matter,
unless God prevent it.
And now let us
examine how the devil can through local motion excite the fancy and
inner sensory perceptions of a man by apparitions and impulsive
actions. It is to be noted that Aristotle (De Somno et Uigilia)
assigns the cause of apparitions in dreams through local motion to
the fact that, when an animal sleeps the blood flows to the inmost
seat of the senses, from which descend motions or impressions which
remain from past impressions preserved in the mind or inner
perception; and these are Fancy or Imagination, which are the same
thing according to S. Thomas, as will be shown.
For fancy or imagination is as it were the treasury of ideas
received through the senses. And through this it happens that devils
stir up the inner perceptions, that is the power of conserving
images, that they appear to be a new impression at that moment
received from exterior things.
It is
true that all do not agree to this; but if anyone wishes to occupy
himself with this question, he must consider the number and the
office of the inner perceptions. According to Avicenna, in his book
On the Mind, these are five: namely, Common Sense, Fancy,
Imagination, Thought, and Memory. But S. Thomas, in the First Part of
Question 79, says that they are only four, since Fancy and
Imagination are the same thing. For fear of prolixity I omit much
more that has variously been said on this subject.
Only this must be said; that fancy is the treasury of ideas,
but memory appears to be something different. For fancy is the
treasury or repository of ideas received through the senses; but
memory is the treasury of instincts, which are not received through
the senses. For when a man sees a wolf, he runs away, not because of
its ugly colour or appearance, which are ideas received through the
outer senses and conserved in his fancy; but he runs away because the
wolf is his natural enemy. And this he knows through some instinct or
fear, which is apart from thought, which recognized the wolf as
hostile, but a dog as friendly. But the repository of those instincts
is memory. And reception and retention are two different things in
animal nature; for those who are of a humid disposition receive
readily, but retain badly; and the contrary is the case of those with
a dry humour.
To return to the
question. The apparitions that come in dreams to sleepers proceed
from the ideas retained in the repository of their mind, through a
natural local motion caused by the flow of blood to the first and
inmost seat of their faculties of perception; and we speak of an
instrinsic local motion in the head and the cells of the brain.
And this can also happen through a similar local
motion created by devils. Also such things happen not only to the
sleeping, but even to those who are awake. For in these also the
devils can stir up and excite the inner perceptions and humours, so
that ideas retained in the repositories of their minds are drawn out
and made apparent to the faculties of fancy and imagination, so that
such men imagine these things to be true. And this is called interior
temptation.
And it is no wonder that
the devil can do this by his own natural power; since any man by
himself, being awake and having the use of his reason, can
voluntarily draw from his repositories the images he has retained in
them; in such a way that he can summon to himself the images of
whatsoever things he pleases. And this being granted, it is easy to
understand the matter of excessive infatuation in love.
Now there are two ways in which devils can, as has been
said, raise up this kind of images. Sometimes they work without
enchaining the human reason, as has been said in the matter of
temptation, and the example of voluntary imagination. But sometimes
the use of reason is entirely chained up; and this may be exemplified
by certain naturally defective persons, and by madmen and drunkards.
Therefore it is no wonder that devils can, with God's permission,
chain up the reason; and such men are called delirious, because their
senses have been snatched away by the devil. And this they do in two
ways, either with or without the help of witches. For Aristotle, in
the work we have quoted, says that anyone who lives in passion is
moved by only a little thing, as a lover by the remotest likeness of
his love, and similarly with one who feels hatred. Therefore devils,
who have learned from men's acts to which passions they are chiefly
subject, incite them to this sort of inordinate love or hatred,
impressing their purpose on men's imagination the more strongly and
effectively, as they can do so the more easily. And this is the more
easy for a lover to summon up the image of his love from his memory,
and retain it pleasurably in his thoughts.
But they work by witchcraft when they do these things through and at
the instance of witches, by reason of a pact entered into with them.
But it is not possible to treat of such matters in detail, on account
of the great number of instances both among the clergy and among the
laity. For how many adulterers have put away the most beautiful wives
to lust after the vilest of women!
We
know of an old woman who, according to the common account of the
brothers in that monastery even up to this day, in this manner not
only bewitched three successive Abbots, but even killed them, and in
the same way drove the fourth out of his mind. For she herself
publicly confessed it, and does not fear to say: I did so and I do
so, and they are not able to keep from loving me because they have
eaten so much of my dung - measuring off a certain length on her arm.
I confess, moreover, that since we had no case to prosecute her or
bring her to trial, she survives to this day.
It will be remembered that it was said that the devil
invisibly lures a man to sin, not only by means of persuasion, as has
been said, but also by the means of disposition. Although this is not
very pertinent, yet be it said that by a similar admonition of the
disposition and humours of men, he renders some more disposed to
anger, or concupiscence, or other passions. For it is manifest that a
man who has a body so disposed is more prone to concupiscence and
anger and such passions; and when they are aroused, he is more apt to
surrender to them. But because it is difficult to quote precedents,
therefore an easier method must be found of declaring them for the
admonition of the people. And in the Second Part of this book we
treat of the remedies by which men so bewitched can be set free.