Question Four of Chapter Seven of the Third Decade
Whether women said to ride at night with Diana are a demonic illusion
It is asked whether what is said concerning women who ride at night with Diana or with Herodias, the wife of Philip, exists thus in reality or is an illusion of demons.
To this it first appears that one must respond affirmatively. For it is related concerning the archbishop of Besançon that the devil carried him as far as Rome.
Something similar is said concerning Albert the Great, who was brought by a demon from Cologne to Rome in order to engage in a disputation.
And concerning a good angel it is written in Daniel 14 that he carried Habakkuk from Judea to Babylon by the crown of his head, so that he might carry a meal to Daniel.
It is answered that the things said concerning Diana and Herodias are false.
First, because Diana, a goddess of the pagans, is found neither in this world nor in another; nor is Herodias in the world with whom they say they ride. For God does not permit such a woman, who caused John the Baptist to be killed, to depart from hell in order to ride.
Likewise, it is false that they say they ride upon certain beasts. For in so brief a time those beasts could not really and corporeally traverse such great expanses of lands, walk so silently, and not be seen to eat.
This is therefore an illusion of demons. When they have subjugated the mind of any woman through false credulity, they immediately transform themselves into diverse appearances and likenesses of persons and, holding her mind captive, delude her in many ways in dreams, now showing sad things, now joyful things, now known persons, and now unknown persons.
And although the unbelieving woman suffers this in spirit alone, it is also permitted that this occur not only in the mind but in the body.
To the arguments on the opposite side it is said that a demon can carry bodies and human beings, as is evident in Christ the Lord, who was carried by the devil onto a high mountain and above the pinnacle of the temple, as is related in Matthew 4. It is likewise evident sometimes concerning women carried by the art of demons to their lovers or adulterers.
But the demon cannot bring about those things concerning Diana and Herodias, nor is the case similar; therefore the consequence must be denied.
These things are from Johannes the Cardinal, cause 25, question 3, in the chapter cited above.
Add, unless perhaps you should wish to say that a demon acts under the name of those women in order to deceive the human race more greatly.