Someone judges either about his own apparition or about another’s; and there is more danger in the former case. In either case the person must be spiritual and devout, for the animal man does not perceive the things that are of the Spirit.
Therefore, first, the one who is to judge rightly must ask God for the gift of discernment, so that he may be able to distinguish the sincere manna of divine revelation from the honeyed and lethal morsel of the demon. This discernment is sometimes granted immediately by God together with the prophetic light itself, as has been said; sometimes separately, and that either for the private instruction of the one receiving it, or also for the teaching and remedy of others and of the whole Church. By this gift a human being obtains the ability to test spirits in himself and concerning himself, and also to know how to discern them concerning others and in others.
Here, however, one may consider a kind of twofold mode. One is experimental, which is infused with the person’s own revelation into the one to whom the revelation has been made. This mode, as Gerson says, occurs “through intimate inspiration, or internal savor, or through a certain experimental sweetness, or through illumination from eternal motions, driving away all darkness of doubt.” This mode is rare and granted to few. Those to whom it has not been granted cannot stand on their own judgment in their own revelations. Those to whom it has been granted by God still cannot use it to discern the revelations of others, because just as no one knows the things that are of the spirit except the spirit itself, so no one knows with infallible certainty, through this experimental sense, the things that are in another’s mind.
Another mode, which is given chiefly in relation to others, also rests upon, or is confirmed by, various experiments, both one’s own and others’. It is usually granted by God especially to those upon whom the care of souls falls by reason of office and dignity. But one ought not easily persuade himself that he has received this gift from God. Therefore to continual prayers he must also add the means of human prudence and doctrine.
[margin: 1 Corinthians 2:14; Gerson on discernment by intimate inspiration, internal savor, experimental sweetness, and illumination]
For there is a third mode of discerning spirits, which they call doctrinal: through diligent and pious treatment of sacred Scripture, which supplies rules for distinguishing false prophets from true ones. The reading of the holy Fathers and of ecclesiastical history also contributes much, so that illusions and revelations may be judged beforehand by their signs and peculiar marks. If to these is added the observation and experience of spiritual men, and if, in ambiguous and obscure matters, learned, pious men, men far advanced in the way of the spirit and veterans trained in the warfare against the stratagems of demons, are consulted, there is hope that deceptions can thus be perceived and avoided.
Plainly, for this last mode of rendering judgment, doctrine alone does not suffice; experience of one’s own must be added to it, so that a person may be both learned and contemplative, and so that he may have not merely tasted Scripture and the rest of theology lightly, but also have experienced within himself “the varied combat of spiritual affections,” says Gerson, “as though he had now ascended into the heavens, now descended into the abysses, and had seen the wonders of God in the deep. For those who sail this mystical sea of diverse affections, as of colliding waves, tell of his wonders. But what does one inexperienced in such things know of them?”
For these things no disposition is found more necessary than solid humility. For as Moses teaches in Cassian, this knowledge is given by God only to the humble. Finally, judgment must not be rushed. The matter must first be diligently commended to God, and a manifold scrutiny of the mind must be made, in accordance with what will be said shortly.
[margin: Gerson on experiential discernment of spiritual affections and the dangers of unskilled judgment; Cassian’s teaching from Moses that this knowledge is given by God to the humble]
Sacred letters teach this. Joseph narrates his dreams to his father Jacob; the father rebukes him, but silently considers the matter. An angel appears to Joshua son of Nun in the form of an armed man; Joshua inquires by questioning who he is, and does not adore one unknown. Samuel hears God calling, but does not answer the Lord; instead, he runs to Eli until he has been instructed by Eli the priest how he ought to conduct himself. Elijah distinguishes among the whirlwind, the commotion, the fire, and the gentle breeze, and prudently weighs in which of them the Lord would manifest himself. The archangel Gabriel greets the most sacred Virgin; before she answered, she considered what kind of salutation this was. And not lightly, but, as the Greek word says, she was reasoning it through; she was turning it over maturely and for a long time in mind and thought, whether that salutation was illusory and from God, or from the demon, as Euthymius most excellently says.
St. Ambrose imitated this when the bodies of the holy martyrs Protase and Gervase were revealed to him. So did the bishop of Cyprus, when St. Barnabas manifested himself to him; so did the other saints, as we saw in book 2, question 6. If that Carthaginian woman, who was the cause of a very great schism, had done this, she would not have been so disgracefully deceived, nor would she have supplied the occasion for so many evils in Africa. Certainly, so long as the matter is doubtful, it is judged far safer to repudiate it with pious humility than eagerly and confidently to receive or assent to it.
[margin: Genesis 37:12; Joshua 5:13; 1 Samuel 3; 1 Kings/3 Kings 19; Luke 1:29; Euthymius on Luke; Optatus of Milevis against Parmenian; earlier discussion in book 2, question 6]
Someone may perhaps object: in Caesarius we read that many people both sought and obtained revelations and visions from God by prayers. If it is lawful to ask, why is it not also lawful immediately to embrace and receive those offered?
I answer: many things are done by many people that should not be imitated, indeed not even approved, especially when done by persons of unproved sanctity. For if someone about whom it was established that he was holy should ask this in some particular and necessary case, as Blessed Ephrem once did holily, as Amphilochius teaches in the life of St. Basil; and as St. Maurus did, as Faustus teaches in his life, in Surius for January; and as St. Herebert did, as Rupert teaches in his life, chapter 13, in Surius for the month of March, I would not dare to condemn it. Yet I would not fear to advise others not to think that the same thing should be imitated by them.
For I find learned and very spiritual men always to have disapproved desires and petitions of this sort, because they are usually born from hidden pride, self-esteem, and self-love, by which people desire their sanctity to be manifest to others; or at least from vain curiosity, as St. Vincent, praised above, very well handed down. Therefore God is accustomed to permit such people to be deceived and to stumble, as that woman of singular prudence and holiness, Blessed Catherine of Bologna, testifies about herself.
Then too, sanctity does not consist in such things, nor Christian perfection, nor do they make us more pleasing to God or truly more useful to our neighbor. Finally, to turn away from such things is not to close the door to God, but through custody of oneself, humility, and chaste fear to attract the Holy Spirit, who loves to rest upon the humble and fearful. All these things were diligently and seriously handed down by a man of our order, Francisco Arias, and before us St. Augustine taught that the demon had tried to persuade him to ask some sign from God, but that he himself refused it, knowing how many people this curiosity had ruined. Elsewhere he warns us to abstain from these things and not to seek in visible things the kingdom of God which is within us.
[margin: Caesarius; Amphilochius, life of Basil; Faustus in Surius on St. Maurus; Rupert in Surius on St. Herebert; Vincent Ferrer; Catherine of Bologna, On Her Life and Errors; Francisco Arias; Augustine, Confessions, book 10; Augustine, On True Religion; Ciruelo on superstition]
After Augustine we are admonished of the same thing by Gerson, whose authority in such matters is certainly great, in these words:
Examples are narrated of the holy Fathers who fled from curiosity for visions or miracles of this kind as most pernicious and most deceitful. Augustine glories in the Lord that he was freed from it in his Confessions. Therefore St. Bonaventure determines that it must be greatly abhorred and repelled with every effort, now by prayers, now by rebukes or beatings of one’s own mind and body; by the example of that man who, so that he might lack the temptation of pride, asked and obtained from the Lord that he be harassed for three months by demonic possession. Another of the holy Fathers, when the demon, transformed into Christ, said to him, “I am Christ, visiting you personally, because you are worthy,” immediately closed his eyes and his face with his hand, crying out, “I do not wish to see Christ here; it is enough if I shall see him in glory.” Immediately he disappeared. Another, under other words, preserved similar humility in an illusion of this kind: “See,” he said, “to whom you have been sent. I certainly am not such as to be worthy to see Christ here.” Another, because he did not wish to enter the temple, saying that it was enough for him that he had looked upon Christ with bodily eyes, they bound with a chain, made him break his fast, and compelled him to eat meat and drink wine. Thus, when the swelling was compressed, he was healed.
For caution Gerson afterwards adds that judgment should not only be held in suspense, but that one should also reverently say with the prince of the apostles:
Depart from me, Lord, because I am a sinner; because I am vile; because I am unworthy of your visions, which I neither seek here nor accept, but repel. Let the whole reward of your vision be for me in another world, not in this one, Lord God, and it is enough. What have I to do with your visions in this life? What with the admonitions of my superiors? Rather send another, whom you are going to send; and let my spirit cover me in a humble and obscure place.
[margin: Gerson; Augustine; Bonaventure, On the Progress of Religious, chapter 19]
The passage of St. Bonaventure that he cites is in On the Progress of Religious, chapter 19, where he also adds that many have fallen into the gravest errors through desire for revelations. Therefore the Blessed Virgin Colette prudently answered even God himself, when he wished to reveal many secrets to her: “Lord God, it is enough for me to know you alone, and my sins, and to obtain pardon for them from you.” Thus Stephanus Julius, in her life, chapter 5.
These things are indeed said very well about one’s own visions. In approving or believing another’s visions, Gerson prescribes this rule for confessors themselves and for other judges:
Beware, therefore, whoever you are, listener or counselor, that you do not applaud such a person, and do not praise her, do not marvel at her as holy and worthy of revelations and miracles. Rather resist her, rebuke her harshly, spurn her, whose heart is thus exalted and whose eyes are lifted up, so that she walks in great and marvelous things above herself; so that she seems worthy to herself, one who does not work out her salvation in the human manner, namely through the doctrine of Scriptures and the saints, with the dictation of natural reason, unless she presumes to have counsel, and thinks it to come not merely from angels, but from God; not merely once in necessities, but almost continually, as in daily conversations. Warn such a person not to think lofty things, but to think unto sobriety, because he most truly says who said, “Pride deserves to be mocked.” And all the more worthily, the more, like a Pharisee, the proud person does not attend to hidden pride clinging to the bones, just as the consumptive person does not attend to feverish heat. For what is easier than to call oneself a very vile sinner? But truly and simply to feel so from the inmost parts, this is a divine gift, not the exercise of a human being alone.
[margin: Blessed Colette in Stephanus Julius; Gerson’s rule for confessors and judges; Bonaventure on desire for revelations]
Gerson added this last point because persons whom the demon mocks through revelations are accustomed indeed to confess that they are sinners and unworthy, but either they openly bear such rebukes badly, and thus internal pride is uncovered and the illusion is recognized; or at least they set forward one of two pretexts. For either they say that for this reason they do not believe another’s judgment: because they are certain of their own through intimate and secret revelation. Or else they say that they do not dare to reject the vision, because if perhaps the vision were from God, this would be resisting the Holy Spirit and extinguishing the seed of his grace at its very beginning.
The same Chancellor of Paris very excellently meets each statement. First, God is never the God of division; therefore, if that certainty is from him, he will never fight against it through another contrary judgment. Rather, he will inspire and send into the mind the same thing to the one whom they have humbly consulted either as a superior or at least as a counselor. For God does not permit those who hope in him, who fear him, and who do what is in them, to be deceived in a matter of such great importance.
But to the one who saw the revelation, this very certainty that he alleges ought to be suspect for pride and obstinacy, and the safer part must be chosen. For by believing and relying on himself, he can sin; by believing his superior, he cannot sin, but, with certainty more certain than certain, he can merit through submission of soul and obedience.
As to the other point Gerson says:
But surely the Holy Spirit, who rests upon the humble, will by no means withdraw himself because of the humiliation we have described. Rather he will enter, exalt, and in his good pleasure lead this soul, victorious over the heights, vile in her own eyes, and humble and simple without any wrinkle of pretense.
Thus far he. Certainly this humility is as pleasing to God as anything can be most pleasing, and as hateful to the demon, who cannot bear it but for the most part immediately flees. Perhaps you do not dare to reject the vision? Consider that you can be deceived, and meanwhile postpone it, and consult people more prudent than yourself. St. Cyprian and other saints valued revelations greatly, but only those which they knew to be from God.
[margin: Gerson, Chancellor of Paris, on self-certainty, humility, obedience, and consultation of superiors; Cyprian and the saints on revelations known to be from God]
In former times, too, divine visions were more frequent because they were more necessary. Today, the less necessary they are, the less frequent they are, and they must be held more suspect. Therefore, not undeservedly, they ought both to be examined by the ecclesiastical magistrate and avoided by private persons, who, under the pretext either of feigned revelations, which is proper to hypocrisy, or of revelations actually had, which is usually illusory, concerning other persons, especially persons not committed to their care by God, thrust themselves into familiarity and concern with them, most often little women. Thus the Begards and Lollards did in Belgium in the memory of our ancestors, and the Illuminati did in Spain in our time, and certain others do even today, to their own danger and by fraud toward others.
[margin: Final caution against private use of alleged revelations; Begards and Lollards in Belgium; Illuminati in Spain]