Question Two of Chapter Ten of the Third Decade
Whether greater power to afflict the good is given to a natural agent or to a free human being
It is asked to whom greater power to afflict the good has been granted: to a natural agent or to a free human being.
It is answered: to a freely acting human being subject to the state of the way.
For just human beings are frequently read to have been exposed by the impious to natural agents, such as fire, water, poison, and beasts, and nevertheless not to have been harmed, as is evident in many ways from the histories of the saints. For, with God permitting it and impeding the action of free agents, many human beings and martyrs could not be killed by various kinds of torments; and nevertheless all perished through the action of the sword by a free agent.
These things are from the author cited above.