Chapter Five of the Third Decade
On the attacks upon human beings by demons, concerning which four little questions will be resolved
Question One of Chapter Five of the Third Decade
Whether demons attack human beings
It is asked whether it is true that demons attack human beings.
To this it first appears that one must respond negatively. For demons do nothing unless permitted by God. But since God is the author of justice, he ought not to permit a battle between those whose condition is unequal; otherwise he would be unjust or would give occasion for harm to the human being. But the human being and the demon are of unequal condition, since human beings are weak and ignorant, whereas demons are powerful and crafty. Therefore demons do not attack human beings.
To this question they respond that human beings are attacked by demons in four ways.
First, from without, through the presentation or persuasion of an external object.
Second, from within, through the excitation of the passions of the sensitive part.
Third, through an alteration of the phantasy or imaginative power.
Fourth, through an indirect excitation of the cognitive power.
First, demons attack human beings from without through the presentation of an external object. For Lucifer, with his satellites—the most crafty at deceiving, the most powerful at harming, and the crooked enemy of the human race—knows that he cannot directly and intrinsically alter or move the human will, nor insert thoughts into it, since God alone is its cause.
He also knows that human souls are inclined according to the dispositions of their bodies, and that the actualization of the interior spiritual powers of the soul—namely, intelligence, memory, and will—takes place according to the alteration of the exterior senses. And since he knows that nothing good or evil can come from without into the spirit dwelling within the human being except through the five exterior senses, which are like the five windows of the soul’s tabernacle, he therefore secretly arranges, insofar as God permits him, to set before the five senses of the human beings whom he waylays some sensible thing as an external object, either one formed by nature or one newly formed, as he does when he assumes a body. Or he does it by using a presented object persuasively, as he did with Lady Eve concerning the apple.
He also arranges for certain outward configurations of things—ugly, horrible, flattering, prosperous, or adverse—to occur, so that by a precipitate apprehension and alteration a human being may be moved or affected in this way or that.
Sometimes too, with God permitting it, he bends human eyes toward objects of this sort, fixes human ears upon vain and shameful speech, and makes human beings attend to these things more tenaciously and retain them more firmly in memory, so that afterward they may thereby be distracted from the memory of divine things.
The devil also creeps in, as Augustine says in the book Eighty-Three Questions: “This evil creeps through all the sensory entrances; for it gives itself to shapes, accommodates itself to colors, subjects itself to odors, and infuses itself into flavors.” For sometimes the devil causes human beings to take greater delight in the objects of the senses than their natural delight warrants.
At other times he causes human beings to take disordered pleasure in them—that is, more than is fitting, or not toward a good and due end.
The devil also operates in those objects by intensifying and amplifying their natural power to impress upon and inflame the beholder more effectively. For just as an evil spirit can make a rod appear to be a serpent in magical illusions, so he can make a tasteless liquid appear most flavorful; and he can make the ugliest face of a woman appear most pleasing to a foolish lover. Thus it can truly be said: “The devil lies hidden beneath the appearance of this thing.”
Sometimes too the devil brings it about that human beings become attached to and take delight in certain birds, dogs, or cats, either in the manner just described or through the demons’ entry and incursion into those animals, so that the demons may thereby join themselves more intimately to human beings and finally destroy them. Thus it is said that in Austria a man had a raven full of a demon, which performed and spoke marvelous things. Perhaps something similar occurs in the marvelous horses of those illusionists who wander through the world.
Second, human beings are attacked by demons from within through the excitation of the passions of the sensitive part—that is, of the concupiscible and irascible powers—and especially by means of those passions which are more vehement and more easily excited, such as love, anger, lust, and gluttony.
For these four sins are the most powerful and suitable means for inducing blindness of mind, heaviness of body, the idle sluggishness of every power, insipidity, spiritual drowsiness, weariness, negligence, acedia, and sloth in divine things. For these reasons demons attack human beings especially through them.
How they excite the passions, and especially the four aforesaid sins, is explained thus. Since it was said above that corporeal nature is obedient to good and evil angels with respect to local motion, it follows that those things which can be caused through the local motion of certain bodies are subject to the natural power of good and evil angels. They can therefore move all corporeal things and alter them unless divinely prohibited.
Consequently, by moving, altering, and inflaming at will those humors from which wanton love, anger, gluttony, and lust are materially caused—such as bile, blood, the itching of the flesh, and so forth—they will thus excite those passions and sins. Likewise, by inwardly altering certain humors—melancholy and the like—they will alter the act of the nutritive and appetitive power, so that a human being may thus hunger or not be hungry.
Examples of all these things are evident in the Lives of the Fathers.
Third, human beings are attacked from within by demons through an alteration of the phantasy or imaginative power arising from the local motion of corporeal spirits and humors. This is proved in two ways: by reason and by an explanation.
First, by reason. According to the Philosopher in the book On Sleep and Waking, just as, when a great quantity of blood descends to the sensitive principle—that is, to the brain or heart of a sleeping animal—motions, that is, impressions, phantasms, and species left behind by the motions of sensible things and preserved in the sensory spirits, also descend; and just as, when these move the sensitive principle—that is, the heart or brain—dreams, visions, and imaginary apparitions are then caused in those who sleep, while, when the motion of such spirits is strong, they also cause certain apparitions in those who are awake, as is evident in the frenzied; so too, by the power of good and evil angels—to whom, as has been said, the humors of the blood and all corporeal things are obedient with respect to local motion—the impressions, phantasms, and species left behind in the phantasy by the motions of sensible things can be moved in the phantasy or imaginative power so that they touch the sensitive principle, that is, the heart or brain. Imaginary or phantastic apparitions will then occur, sometimes with alienation from the corporeal senses in dreams and sometimes without such alienation.
Second, the same thing is proved by an explanation. Our intellect is related to the phantasy or phantasms as the eye of the body is related to the letters of a book. In a book, according as letters are combined together, diverse meanings are represented to the eye. So too, in the book of the phantasy there are letters and likenesses of whatever things in the world have been apprehended through sense. For from the moment someone sees a thing, he already has its species or likeness in the phantasy; and according as those likenesses are combined together in the phantasy, so they are received by the intellect.
This is evident in a book in which all the letters of the alphabet are found: if these letters, D-E-U-S, are combined together, the eye will read Deus.
When, therefore, the cunning enemy, the devil, wishes to induce us to diverse thoughts—for example, he wishes to tempt you concerning lust—what will he do? He will excite in your phantasy the likeness of a woman whom you once saw; he will excite the likeness of some immodest member, or of a naked woman and the like, and of persons shamefully coupling. The intellect, however, cannot avoid seeing likenesses of this sort, because it is like a bright mirror in which it cannot happen that the things present there do not shine forth. This often happens while a human being prays or occupies himself with divine things.
Yet however much these images are presented to us by the art of demons, they are not imputed to us as sin unless we consent. For just as doubt concerning the faith which possesses a pertinacious deliberation and complacency of mind makes a heretic, whereas doubt concerning the faith which proceeds from a scruple of conscience—which is punishment rather than fault, since it frequently occurs against the will—does not cause an unbeliever or make a heretic, as Johannes Andreae says in the Novella upon the words “One doubtful in the faith is an unbeliever,” in the Extra, On Heretics, chapter 1; so in the three aforesaid extrinsic modes of diabolical attack, sin is not committed unless the will consents.
Fourth, the devil tempts human beings through an indirect excitation of the cognitive power. For demons cannot insert evil thoughts into the will by inwardly causing them, because the use of the cognitive power is subject not to the demon but to God and the will.
Nevertheless, a demon is called an inciter of evil cognitions in On Penance, distinction 2, chapter Si enim, insofar as he incites someone to think evil things or to desire things thought of. He does this in two ways: either after the manner of one persuading or after the manner of one agitating the passions. In accordance with these two modes Damascene is to be understood when he says in Book II that “all malice and unclean passions have been devised and invented by demons.”
These things are from Henry of Assia upon Genesis; from the Decrees, cause 26, question 5, chapters Episcopi and Nec mirum; and from Thomas, First Part, questions 51 and 3.
To the argument made at the beginning of the little question, however, it is said that, although the condition of the human being and of the demon in the arena and the battle is unequal, recompense is nevertheless supplied on the human side.
First, through the aid of divine grace. For “God is faithful,” as the Apostle says, and “does not permit us to be tempted beyond what we are able” to bear.
Second, through the aid of good angels, concerning which it is said in the Psalm, from “With a shield he will surround you” as far as “He has commanded his angels concerning you.”
These things are from the theologians and Henry of Assia upon Genesis.